Plenty of post-Katrina updates for your holiday reading pleasure

Up until three weeks ago, the contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was hauling off all post-Katrina debris. Now, suddenly, out of nowhere, the Corps has announced that debris from vacant lots cannot be hauled away, leaving the town of Mandeville, Louisiana with 2,500 tons of debris in one of its subdivisions. The cost for hauling it away is about $100,000.

New Orleans' City Park has decided not to allow first-responder trailers on its property because it doesn't want to give the impression that the park is a housing site. Makes sense--the hundreds of thousands of tourists in beautiful New Orelans certainly don't want to see trailers.

And various citizens whose neighborhoods are more or less intact do not want any trailers in their neighborhoods, either. You may recall that Mayor Nagin got in trouble for putting trailer parks in playgrounds, an act for which he apologized. However, he has since decided he does not have to consult with the City Council about trailer locations, after all.

Two lawsuits have been filed against Louisiana's secretary of state and governor because of their decision to delay elections in the New Orleans area. It took the state weeks to convince FEMA to provide the names and addresses of residents living outside the state so that they could cast absentee ballots, and now proponents of a timely election want all New Orleans area citizens to vote by mail.

The Charity Hospital system has laid off 2,000 employees. Charity is Louisiana's flagship teaching facility.

The Baker Bill, which would have created the Louisiana Recovery Corporation, failed in Congress.

And over the weekend, Louisiana citizens turned out in droves to buy washing machines, refrigerators, stereo equipment, and televisions during the three-day state sales tax holiday.