Cross Country
Good Times and Bad in the Big Easy
The barbecue grills were out on St. Charles Avenue as the marching bands paraded by for Fat Tuesday festivities, but many at Mardi Gras in the Big Easy this year remained badly in need of catharsis. The costumes said it all: Revelers dressed as house painters-wrapped in red tape. Others paraded as beneficiaries of Louisiana Recovery Authority funds with checks signed by "Goobernor K. Blanco"-a jab at the glacial pace of funds to reach most residents. New Orleans is also a city now struggling with shockingly high crime rates. Boosters pointed to Mardi Gras crowds estimated at some 700,000 as a sign of recovery. But no one is forgetting that countless residents continue to duke it out with insurance companies, and the city remains badly in need of funds. Proof: Mayor Ray Nagin's trotting down St. Charles on a horse, pleading with tourists to spend their money. "We need the tax revenue bad," he said.
The Governator's Prison Crisis
For months, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to bid hasta la vista, baby, to his state's intractable prison overcrowding problem by transferring prisoners to other states. But last week, a superior court judge in Sacramento ruled that Schwarzenegger's fix was illegal. The decision came after two guards and other prison employees labor unions sued Schwarzenegger and corrections officials to block the transfers, about 360 so far. The crisis was triggered last October when Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in 29 of the state's 33 prisons. Schwarzenegger responded angrily to the judge's decision, saying it could result in dangerous felons being terminated early from the prison system. Corrections officials want to transfer 5,000 prisoners to ease overcrowding. The state was given 10 days to appeal the ruling. Bottom line-Schwarzenegger to judge: I'll be back.
Rolling the Dice on Indian Gaming
A proposed Indian-run casino in the Catskill Mountains got a big endorsement last week from New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The $600 million gaming facility, which would be run by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, could generate $100 million yearly in revenue for the state, proponents say, but it will need approval from the Department of the Interior.
Gaining that approval, though, may prove difficult. The 29 acres where the casino would be built, next to the Monticello Raceway, is more than 400 miles from the Mohawk (or "Akwesasne") reservation in the northeast part of the state. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has vocally opposed such "off reservation" casinos, and the department is likely to announce new regulations on Indian gaming this spring. Lots of tribes will be watching. Gannett News service reports there are 43 pending applications nationwide for off-reservation casinos.
Less River Running Through It
Something's gotta give. That is the conclusion of a report released last week by the National Research Council, which finds that booming populations in the Southwest (30 million people in seven states use water from the Colorado River) combined with dwindling water supplies will mean a lot less water for westerners in the years to come. New tree-ring-based reconstructions looking back hundreds of years find that the flow of the river-which is used for everything from energy to drinking water to agricultural irrigation-may have been far more unpredictable in years past than experts thought. Which means it may be plenty unpredictable in the future as well. Extended droughts, like those that have recently plagued the region, have been common, and the combination of a regional warming trend, decreasing snowfall, and skyrocketing populations could be a volatile mix. Sunny Arizona, in other words, where the population keeps climbing, may be popular now. But its time-along with the water-may be running out.
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