The Best and the Worst of the Week
American Airlineslast 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.
