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American Airlines
last Friday flew a Make-a-Wish of Louisiana "wish kid" and her family first-class to Disney World, and threw a party for the 4-year-old Houma girl at Louis Armstrong International Airport. The "wish flight" featured cake for the passengers plus a water-cannon salute by firefighters as the plane pulled onto the runway. The child, Kameron, has a life-threatening illness and asked the local nonprofit for a trip to Disney World as her special wish.

Rebuilding Together volunteers
spent two recent Saturdays repairing 76 houses belonging to elderly and disabled homeowners. More than 4,000 volunteers and 30 corporate sponsors worked to revitaliaze the homes in a 16th annual effort. Since 1988 the nonprofit program, organized by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, has repaired more than 800 houses around the city.

Kenner Police Chief Nick Congemi
advised local hotels to refuse requests to rent their facilities out to a "fetish" convention whose planners wished to hold the lucrative event in Kenner. Congemi said the event would spoil Kenner's "family atmosphere" and he doubted its legality. His reaction was based more on prejudice than actual knowledge of the event: Congemi learned about it when organizers tried to hire police security details, one sign that conventioneers had nothing to hide.

Louisiana legislators
who have underfunded the state's public hospital system for years have created serious problems due to neglect and deterioration, so much so that an independent analyst says more than $300 million is needed just to keep some state hospitals open. The Lewin Group, hired by The Baton Rouge Area Foundation to analyze the Louisiana State University hospital system, says that "deferred maintenance" created many problems in state hospitals.

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