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SECTION
B
DEATHS ● B-5
EDITORIALS ● B-6
WEATHER ● B-8
Saturday,
November 24, 2007
Courts
adapt to
absence
of key
prosecutor
N.O.
to hold
its first
online
tax sale
FIRED UP
Colleagues take lead
in murder cases
2,500 properties
go on block Monday
By Paul Purpura
West Bank bureau
Roger Jordan, the veteran assistant district attorney who has
handled many of Jefferson Parish’s high-profile murder cases,
including those of Corey “CMurder” Miller and Vince Marinello, is on a leave of absence,
a top prosecutor said Friday,
breaking weeks of silence.
The reason for Jordan’s absence, which is the subject of
wide speculation, is not being
released.
“He’s on leave,” First Assistant District Attorney Steve
Wimberly said. “I can’t comment otherwise.”
Jordan, 45, a former Orleans
Parish prosecutor, has not returned calls for comment since
late October. He has missed
three pretrial hearings in the
Marinello case, which is set for
trial Feb. 25.
Marinello is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of his estranged wife, Liz
Marinello, 45, in a Metairie
Road parking lot in summer
2006.
Marinello’s attorneys, Paul
Fleming Jr. and Sam Scillitani,
have not been told why Jordan
has missed hearings, Fleming
said Friday.
It was unclear when Jordan’s
leave began, but he was last
seen in court during the week of
Oct. 29, handling cases in 24th
Judicial District Judge Joan
Benge’s courtroom, where he
has been assigned for more than
four years.
Assistant District Attorney
Ken Bordelon, who recently returned to Jefferson Parish after
a stint in the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office, has been
assigned to Benge’s Division A
court in recent weeks.
Jordan has been a prosecutor
on the Miller case for years, and
was preparing to retry the rapper on Feb. 11.
Miller is accused of killing
Steve Thomas, a 16-year-old
fan, at a Harvey nightclub in
2002. The rapper won a retrial
last year when the state Supreme Court sided with a judge
who found that prosecutors
withheld their witnesses’ criminal background from defense attorneys.
By Gordon Russell
Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS BY TED JACKSON
As members of the Bonfire Crew unload trees from a trailer, one of the guys leaps to avoid being tripped by a log. The group
was laying out the pieces of their log pyramid on the top of the Lutcher levee. Their pyramid, and others, will be lit on
Christmas Eve to light the way for Peré Noel.
St. James residents waste no
time getting started on bonfires
Structures will light
up levees on Dec. 24
By Matt Scallan
River Parishes bureau
For many in the New Orleans area, the day after
Thanksgiving means lining up
outside a store, in the dark,
armed with coupons. But for
Dustin Poché and his friends,
it is the day to break out their
chainsaws to light the way for
Peré Noel.
On Friday, residents of St.
James Parish began building
bonfires on Mississippi River
levees to be set alight on
Christmas Eve.
New Orleans officials announced they will hold the city’s
first online tax sale Monday at 8
a.m. The sale is scheduled to
wrap up Wednesday at 8 p.m.
unless the roughly 2,500 properties on the list are sold before
that.
Tax sales are used as a means
for public entities in Louisiana
to collect property taxes that
are deemed delinquent. To purchase a property at a tax sale, a
buyer must pay all delinquent
taxes, plus penalties and interest.
Officials in Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration said the city
is only selling properties that
have tax delinquencies dating to
2005 or earlier. In other words,
properties that did not have outstanding taxes at the time of
Hurricane Katrina will not be
sold.
Those who wish to participate
in the online auction must register first at www.neworleanstaxsale.com. Visitors to that Web
site may search the database for
tax-delinquent properties immediately.
A tax sale resembles an auction, but there is no bidding as
such. The first person who indi-
See SALE, B-2
Saving
cuts
into
N O
P
Christmas
Downtown dilemma taxes City Council presents
Meggan Canale watches from her seat on the railroad tracks as the men muscle a timber
from the woods to a waiting trailer. The Bonfire Crew began building its bonfire Friday but
scouts throughout the year for the perfect trees to erect its 18-foot-tall pyre.
See BONFIRES, B-3
EW RLEANS OLITICS
... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... ...
ALSO: Just the facts, ma’am;
Not a mere delay
By Bruce Eggler
See LEAVE, B-2
Staff writer
When Downtown Development District officials appeared
before the New Orleans City
Council recently to present the
agency’s 2008 spending plans,
council members faced a dilemma that left them clearly un-
comfortable.
The council has declared
many times that it opposes any
property tax “roll forwards”
that would increase the tax bills
that property owners must pay
because of the recent citywide
reassessment.
Instead, the council and almost all local government agencies have pledged to “roll back”
their 2008 millage rates to a
See POLITICS, B-2
Doll and Toy Fund
will help out mom
By Valerie Faciane
Staff writer
H IGHER
E DUCATION N OTES
... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... ...
FANTASY LAND
Trees felled by Katrina weighed
as factor in global warming
ALSO: Middle Passage remembered;
Pioneering students advance; From
Botswana to N.O.; Backing development
efforts; Good time set for good cause;
Easing troubled minds
By John Pope
Staff writer
As if Hurricane Katrina’s wind and
water hadn’t inflicted enough damage, a
group of researchers led by a Tulane
University biologist has found that the
monster storm may well have accelerated global warming.
When Katrina roared through coastal
forests in August 2005, it destroyed thousands of trees. As those trees decompose,
the carbon they release will be enough to
offset a year’s worth of new tree growth
...
in other parts of the United States, said
Jeffrey Chambers, an assistant professor
of ecology and evolutionary biology. The
team’s report has been published in the
peer-reviewed journal Science.
Forests are important adversaries of
global warming because they remove
carbon from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, thereby lowering the production of carbon dioxide. However, an
increase in this compound warms the climate, resulting in more intense storms
and, eventually, more trees that will decompose, the scientists found.
The Tulanians collaborated with researchers from the University of New
Hampshire.
●●●●●●●
ROOTS AND CULTURE: As part of its annual
Kwanzaa celebration, Southern Univer-
See NOTES, B-2
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The historic carousel in New Orleans City Park is all aglow for the annual Celebration in the Oaks. Hundreds of people on Friday evening visited the carousel, which recently reopened since Hurricane Katrina. Many locals could
be heard describing to their children and grandchildren how they once rode
the ride when they were youngsters.
Ashley and her 5-year-old
daughter are living comfortably
in transitional housing, but the
23-year-old single mother
knows that it will only last for a
year.
She said it feels good to have
a roof over the their heads while
she works and saves to prepare
to get a place of her own. The
one-bedroom
house is comfortable, she
said, but
there’s not
much furniture.
THE
The housTIMESing agency rePICAYUNE
quires that
DOLL &
Ashley save
TOY FUND
30 percent of
her salary in
order to have enough to eventually move on her own.
But she’s only been working
for about two months and said
saving that much isn’t easy on
her salary as a gas station cash-
See FUND, B-3
B-2
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2007
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
METRO
Fallen trees fuel Whose side will Clarkson be on?
ecological worries
POLITICS, from B-1
. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... ...
NOTES, from B-1
. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... ...
sity at New Orleans is offering
three days of free lectures and
discussions on topics such as
genealogy and life in post-Katrina New Orleans.
The event, which starts Monday, is SUNO’s first Ma’afa
Awareness Week. Ma’afa, a Kiswahili term for “terrible occurrence,” is used to refer to the
horrors of the Middle Passage,
in which shackled African hostages were transported to the
United States to become slave
laborers.
Antoinette Harrell, a genealogist, will discuss family heritage Monday at 9 a.m. at Sophie
B. Wright Charter School, 1426
Napoleon Ave., and Deborah
Cotton will talk about her new
book, “Notes from New Orleans,” Wednesday at 11 a.m. in
Building 43 on SUNO’s North
Campus at 6801 Press Drive. A
panel discussion, “To Be Black:
Reflections From African and
African-American Perspectives,”
will start Tuesday at 11 a.m. in
Building 43 of SUNO’s North
Campus.
The Kwanzaa Festival, featuring performances, a blood drive
and food, will start Thursday at
9 a.m. on SUNO’s North Campus. Millie Charles, founder of
SUNO’s School of Social Work,
will be the keynote speaker.
●●●●●●●
PROGRESS REFLECTED: Fourteen
students working toward doctoral degrees in audiology at
Louisiana State University
Health Sciences Center in New
Orleans have received their
white coats, signifying the start
of the clinical stage of their education.
The program, which is in the
School of Allied Health Professions, was established in May
2004 to replace the master’s degree of communication disorders
in audiology, spokeswoman Leslie Capo said.
It is designed to give students
better training in the diagnosis,
treatment and management of
hearing and balance disorders so
these men and women will be
able to practice independently
when they graduate, she said.
Despite the new program, students can still get a master of
arts degree in communications
disorders in speech language pathology, Capo said.
●●●●●●●
FOCUSING ON PHONETICS: Kemmonye “Kems” Manaka of the University of Botswana is to speak
Wednesday at 11 a.m. at SUNO
on languages in southern Africa.
She will deliver her free lecture in Building 16 on the North
Campus.
Manaka, who earned a doctorate in phonetics at University
College, London, specializes in
studying the linguistic aspects of
languages such as Bantu, Khoesan and English.
Her speech is part of the university’s program to broaden
students’ horizons, spokesman
Eddie Francis said.
●●●●●●●
SHARING POST-K IDEAS: Students
and local leaders will discuss
community-development policies
for post-Katrina New Orleans in
a two-day conference that will
start Friday at Tulane.
The meeting is sponsored by
the Tulane chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, a network of
student think tanks, said Eric
Couper, the conference coordinator.
A panel discussion of education, affordable housing and sustainable development will start
next Saturday at 1:15 p.m. in the
Kendall Cram Room of Tulane’s
Lavin-Bernick Center. It will be
free and open to the public.
The meeting is designed to
provide education, contacts and
motivation for students interested in crafting public policy,
Couper said, adding that the
Roosevelt Institution exists not
only to help those students but
also to provide their papers to
people who can act on them.
The conference schedule is
a v a i l a b l e
a t
tulane.rooseveltinstitution.org/
collaborativeconference.
●●●●●●●
A PITCH FOR SCHOLARSHIPS: To
raise money to match a $150,000
gift from the Tom Joyner Foundation, SUNO will hold an allmale fashion show Dec. 9 at 6
p.m. at The Theatre at Harrah’s
casino.
Tickets are $50 apiece. Proceeds from the evening, along
with the Joyner foundation
grant, will provide scholarships,
spokesman Eddie Francis said.
Joyner is the host of a nationally syndicated daily radio program.
●●●●●●●
CARING COUPLE WINS KUDOS: In
recognition of their mentalhealth work after Hurricane Katrina, Drs. Howard and Joy
Osofsky of LSU Health Sciences
Center have received honors
from two organizations.
They were given the Sarah
Haley Award for Clinical Excellence by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the St. Bernard Parish
School Board praised their “outstanding and continuing service
in our greatest hours of need.”
Howard Osofsky is chairman
of the psychiatry department,
and Joy Osofsky is a professor of
pediatrics, psychiatry and public
health.
●●●●●●●
HONORS:
I Rosanne Adderley, a Tulane
history professor, has received
the Wesley-Logan Book Prize in
African Diaspora History from
the American Historical Association for her book “New Negroes
from Africa: Slave Trade Abolition and Free African Settlement in the Nineteenth-Century Caribbean.”
I Xavier University’s Office of
University & Media Relations
has won seven awards in the annual competition sponsored by
the Public Relations Society of
America’s New Orleans chapter.
The office received seven awards
last year as well.
●●●●●●●
LEAVE, from B-1
Jordan was not prosecuting
Miller and Marinello alone. David Wolff and Tommy Block,
both seasoned prosecutors, also
have been assigned to those
cases, respectively, and now are
taking the lead positions.
Jordan and Block also are
prosecuting a case in St. Francisville, where five inmates at
the Louisiana State Penitentiary
at Angola are accused of killing
a corrections officer during an
uprising in 1999. The Jefferson
Parish district attorney’s office
was assigned to the case in 2004
after the West Feliciana district
attorney recused himself.
●●●●●●●
NO FOOLISH CONSISTENCY FOR HIM:
Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman
did quite an about-face when he
appeared before the council last
week to present his 2008 budget.
Gusman’s budget proposal, as
in previous years, was a single
page requesting $27 million in
city money, with no details on
how the money would be spent.
Pressed by Councilwoman
Shelley Midura for more information, Gusman said he is required to submit only a single
number to the city.
Back in the days when Gusman was the city’s chief administrative officer under Mayor
Marc Morial, he made exactly
the same complaint about the
bare-bones budget requests submitted by then-Sheriff Charles
Foti as Midura did this month
about Gusman’s request.
Gusman’s latest flip-flop resembles a similar reversal he
performed a few years ago.
In July 2002, after Gusman
was elected to the council, he
and other members were ac-
cused by a top aide to recently
inaugurated Mayor Ray Nagin
of trying to encroach on the administration’s prerogatives and
making demands that previous
mayors had not had to face to
get raises approved for top appointees.
Gusman said he was just following mandates laid out in the
City Charter. But asked by a reporter why he had not taken the
same position during his six
years as chief administrative officer, Gusman said he was concerned then with getting things
done, not with legal niceties.
●●●●●●●
MORE THAN JUST A DEFERRAL: On
the surface, it seemed like a routine deferral, something the City
Council does almost every meeting with half or more of the
measures on its agenda. But the
council’s decision at its Nov. 15
meeting to defer a decision on
one issue could have considerable significance.
The issue was a request to approve a change in nonconforming use for a small store at 1900
S. Carrollton Ave. owned by
Criminal District Judge Frank
Marullo Jr.
In an unprecedented move for
the council membership that
took office last year, the council
voted 4-2 on Oct. 18 to disregard
the recommendation of a district
member, in this case Midura, on
a land-use issue. She made a motion to reject the request by Marullo and his son, Frank III, to
allow a change in use from a pesticide company’s office to a coffee shop that the younger Marullo would operate.
But after defeating Midura’s
SALE, from B-1
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●●●●●●●
Paul Purpura can be reached at
ppurpura@timespicayune.com or
(504) 826-3791.
WE REMOVE CONCRETE SLABS
COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL
TEAR DOWN YOUR HOUSE
FREE
USING ICC FUNDS
504.309.6865
●●●●●●●
Bruce Eggler can be reached at
beggler@timespicayune.com or
(504) 826-3320.
cates they’ll pay the taxes, penalties and interest on a particular property is the winning bidder.
However, buyers do not actually own the properties they
purchase — not immediately,
anyway. In most cases, the taxdelinquent owner has three
years to “redeem” the property
by repaying the purchaser the
taxes, penalties and interest,
plus a 5 percent penalty and 1
percent interest for each month
that has passed since the tax
sale.
If the property has been legally determined to be blighted,
the three-year redemption period is shortened to 18 months.
If the property is not re-
Clocks, knives
deemed by the deadline, the
buyer must file legal paperwork
to claim title to the property.
Those who register for the
sale can “flag” properties
they’re interested in buying before the sale begins, according
to the Web site. The site has answers to many other questions
about tax sales, such as an explanation of the responsibilities
of those who purchase property
at tax sales.
A second tax sale will be held
Dec. 12, officials in the Nagin
administration said.
Properties that do not sell
during the two tax sales will be
adjudicated to the city.
●●●●●●●
Gordon Russell may be reached at
grussell@timespicayune.com or
(504) 826-3347.
logo
PUBLIC FORUM NOTICE
During a status conference
this week, prosecutors told the
judge presiding over the Angola
case that Jordan is on leave,
leading to hearings that were
set for next week to be pushed
back to April.
Jordan’s absence should have
no effect on the Marinello and
Miller cases, provided the prosecutors “are reasonably competent,” said Dane Ciolino, a
Loyola Law School professor
and defense attorney.
“These are not tremendously
complicated cases,” Ciolino said.
motion, the council did not then
vote to approve the Marullos’ request. Instead, it deferred a decision until the Nov. 15 meeting
in hopes that Fielkow and fellow
at-large member Michael Darnell could work out an agreement that would satisfy the owners and neighborhood critics.
Midura then incensed some of
her colleagues by suggesting
that they had caved in to pressure from a powerful political
figure — a comment that led to
an angry confrontation at a
council retreat a few days later.
Fielkow accused Midura of being “totally disrespectful of your
colleagues,” and after further
fireworks, Midura walked out of
the session.
With that as background, it
was somewhat surprising that
the council last week agreed to
Midura’s request to again defer
a decision on the land-use issue
— a deferral that pushed the
vote past the end of Darnell’s interim term and into the start of
what will be new at-large member Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson’s term in office.
Based on her record during
her previous two council terms
of supporting both neighborhood
organizations and City Planning
Commission recommendations,
Clarkson appears to be a good
bet to back Midura’s position,
should the issue again come to a
head. It seems likely, however,
that efforts will be made to avoid
another head-to-head parliamentary showdown.
Owners will have
3 years to redeem
John Pope can be reached at
jpope@timespicayune.com or at
(504) 826-3317.
Angola hearings pushed to April
. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... ...
level that will bring in only as
much revenue as the agencies
received this year, despite the
sharp increase in the total value
of assessed property from the
reassessment.
The only agency that has not
fallen into line is the DDD,
whose board voted to collect
enough extra millage to bring in
the $225,000 the agency says it
needs to support an approximately $4 million bond issue to
pay for repairing and rebuilding
sidewalks in the Central Business District and Warehouse
District.
DDD officials justify the
move on the grounds that the
increase is very slight (about 0.5
mills), that it applies only in a
small part of the city, that it
would be used for capital improvements and not operations,
that the agency still would be
collecting only about 70 percent
of the millage it is authorized by
law to levy, and that its constituents want improved sidewalks
and are willing to pay for them.
Indeed, when the DDD board
met last month to vote on its
2008 budget and tax plans, not a
single taxpayer showed up to
criticize the millage request.
All of which left council members in a quandary: wanting to
maintain their support for a total rollback of millages but reluctant to tell DDD property
owners they can’t tax themselves if they want to.
Councilwoman Stacy Head,
whose district includes most of
the DDD, and Council President
Arnie Fielkow said they had re-
ceived lots of e-mails and other
messages in support of the
DDD’s plans but no opposition.
DDD President Kurt Weigle
said he had heard from only a
handful of unhappy constituents.
Fielkow said the council
would approve the DDD’s millage increase only if there is no
opposition to it. If the plan has
any opponents, he said almost
pleadingly into the TV cameras,
“Let us hear from you” before
the council votes Friday on the
DDD’s budget.
The public is invited to attend an open forum on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at
6:30 PM with the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority
(NORA) and the Office of Recovery Management (ORM) at the New Orleans City
Council Chambers, 1300 Perdido Street to gain information and give input about
the Orleans Parish Redevelopment and Disposition Plan for Louisiana Land Trust
properties. Following this forum, this plan will be submitted to the Mayor and
the New Orleans City Council before it is forwarded to the Louisiana Recovery
Authority (LRA).
Beginning next spring and continuing over the next 12-18 months, as many as
seven thousand (7,000) properties will be transferred from the Louisiana Land
Trust (LLT) to NORA. These properties comprise those sold back to the state
as part of the Louisiana Road Home program. As the exclusive recipient and
administrator of these properties, NORA will seek input on the principles for
transfer and management of these properties in a manner consistent with the
long-term goals and objectives of the (Plan adopted by the City Council) and the
Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), which concentrates redevelopment around 17
designated areas.
The open forum on November 28th is part of NORA’s broader process for public
participation. NORA plans to schedule a series of public meetings as information
on specific parcels and sale closings become available.
The strategies for redevelopment are being managed through collaboration among
the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the Office of Recovery Management,
the Mayor’s Office and the Louisiana Office of Community Development. This
group has worked in consultation with the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the
Louisiana Land Trust.
Copies of the draft of NORA’s application to the LRA are available at:
The New Orleans Public Library, and on-line at www.cityofno.com and at
www.noraworks.org.
●
Many local residents have
been known to complete all
their holiday shopping with one
trip to Alpine Clocks & Jewelers at 1901 Veterans near Bonnabel in Metairie.
Longtime owner Albert Brignac says Friday’s sales were
brisk, thanks to loyal shoppers
who know that some of the best
bargains on the huge
inventory are always
available the Friday
and Saturday after
Thanksgiving.
Visit today for a
chance to browse “the
country’s largest selection of grandfather
clocks and specialty
knives under one roof.”
Currently, there are
hundreds of rare standup grandfather clocks
priced from $1,129 to
$9,875. The prices include free
local delivery, delivery available within 100 miles of the
store, free set-up and other
perks.
Brignac says the knives here
include a choice of everything
from pocket knives and a full
selection of kitchen knives to
collectible sabers and swords.
The shop is also filled with
mantel clocks, watches, jewelry, collectible figurines, decorative items and much more.
Hours: 9 to 7 Mondays through
Saturdays “and also the last
Sundays before Christmas,”
says Brignac.
More info: 833-8332.
●
Cameras
Buy, give
Bowen Jewelers at 2408 David Drive in Metairie is donating proceeds from
the sale of replicas
of the New Canal
Lighthouse (on the
point at Lake Pontchartrain’s West
End) to two organizations.
Beacon of Hope will receive a
donation from Bowen from the
sale of pewter ornaments of the
lighthouse (currently being
rebuilt) to Beacon of Hope. The
local nonprofit was formed
after Katrina to help residents
of Lakeview, Gentilly, the 9th
Ward and other hard-hit neighborhoods return to their
homes.
The collection of jewelry that
shows the new lighthouse design (from $39.99) is being sold
to benefit the Save the Lighthouse fund of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
Included: pins, necklaces,
bracelets, earrings, money
clips and other pieces.
Jewelers Mark and Donalyn Bowen say they sold
thousands of pieces of fleur
de lis jewelry in 2006, from
which proceeds were donated
to several local nonprofits.
“We do this every year,” says
Mark Bowen, and the pieces
are always a big hit with customers.”
Hours: 10 to 5:30 weekdays, 10 to 4 Saturdays. Specifics: 835-1665.
●
The two-day after-Thanksgiving sale at Lakeside
Camera Photoworks concludes today at both locations
— 3508 21st at Severn in
Metairie and 2121 N. Causeway Blvd. in Mandeville.
Several models
of the superpopular Nikon
Coolpix digital
camera are
available, with prices starting
at $99.95 during the sale.
Lakeside offers one of the
area’s most complete selections of Nikon cameras,
lenses and accessories, along
with a complete digital photo
print department, custom
print division and much
more.
Lakeside Camera is also
one of the best places to find
accessories for photography
and camera buffs — from
travel bags and tripods to
photo frames and photography software.
More: 885-8660, 620-4084.
Dance
The New Orleans Ballet
Association will present the
Complexions Contemporary
Ballet company led by former Alvin Ailey stars Dwight
Rhoden and Desmond Richardson as choreographers.
When and where: 8
p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 30 and
Dec. 1, at Tulane
University’s Dixon
Hall.
“Intense speed,
daredevil physicality” and diverse musical
choices are the hallmark of
Complexions’ repertory.
Tickets: $30 to $80 at
522-0996 or nobadance.com.
Ad Reporter: (504) 826-3128,
mcovert@timespicayune.com.