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Nagin, Landrieu Face Run-Off in New Orleans Election, Tens
of Thousands of Displaced Residents Barred from Voting
FEMA's Dirty Little Secret: A Rare Look Inside the Renaissance
Village Trailer Park, Home to Over 2,000 Hurricane Katrina
Evacuees
NYC Union Chief Roger Toussaint Remains Defiant Hours Before
Heading to Jail for Leading Transit Strike
Nagin, Landrieu Face Run-Off in New Orleans Election,
Tens of Thousands of Displaced Residents Barred from Voting
New Orleans held its first election after the Hurricane
Katrina disaster on Saturday. Mayor Ray Nagin and Lieutenant
Governor Mitch Landrieu won the two top spots and will face
each other in a run-off in May. Tens of thousands of displaced
residents were no allowed to vote. We speak with Ted Shaw
of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. [includes rush
transcript]
On Saturday, New Orleans held its first election after the
Hurricane Katrina disaster. Mayor Ray Nagin and Lieutenant
Governor Mitch Landrieu won the two top spots and will face
each other in a run-off in May. The race pitted 22 candidates
against each other and brought national scrutiny on the shifting
racial dynamics of the city. Because many African-Americans
still have not been able to return to New Orleans, the city
faces the possibility of a white mayor for the first time
in almost 30 years. The last white mayor was Lieutenant Governor
Landrieu's father, Moon Landrieu who left office in 1978.
Thirty-six percent of the city's 297,000 eligible voters
participated in the election. Mayor Nagin received 38% of
the vote while Landrieu had 29% of the vote. According to
an analysis of demographic data by GCR & Associates, Nagin
received 65 % or more of the vote in predominately black neighborhoods.
This is almost a complete reversal from four years ago, when
he received most of his support from white voters. More than
20,000 voters cast ballots early by mail, fax or at satellite
voting stations around the state. Displaced citizens were
not allowed to vote by satellite if they were staying outside
of Louisiana.
FEMA's Dirty Little Secret: A Rare Look Inside the
Renaissance Village Trailer Park, Home to Over 2,000 Hurricane
Katrina Evacuees
During Democracy Now's recent trip to New Orleans, we managed
to get inside the largest FEMA trailer park set up after Hurricane
Katrina. Shortly after we interviewed hurricane evacuee Donna
Azeez, we were kicked out of the park by security guards working
for Corporate Security Solutions, the private company hired
by FEMA to police Renaissance Village. [includes rush
transcript]
Earlier this month, Democracy Now went down to Louisiana
and had a chance to take a rare look inside Renaissance Village
- a trailer park on the outskirts of Baton Rouge that houses
over 2,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The trailer park has
been described in the Louisiana press as "Fema's Dirty
Little Secret" in part because of FEMA's tight control
over who has access to the park. Prior to being kicked out
of the trailer park by private security guards, we managed
to speak to Donna Azeez who lives at the trailer park.
- Donna Azeez, resident of Renaissance Village.
NYC Union Chief Roger Toussaint Remains Defiant Hours
Before Heading to Jail for Leading Transit Strike
Roger Toussaint, president of the Transport Workers Union,
Local 100, heads to jail today to serve a 10-day sentence
for authorizing a strike in December that shut down New York
City's Transit system for a little more than two days. Hours
before heading jail, Toussaint joins us in our firehouse studio
to discuss the strike, the future of the union and what he
calls the "extortionist media." [includes rush
transcript]
By this evening, the President of the Transport Workers
Union, Local 100, Roger Toussaint, will be in jail, serving
a ten-day sentence in a lock-up in lower Manhattan known as
"The Tombs." Toussaint was sentenced to jail earlier
this month by Judge Theodore Jones of the Brooklyn Supreme
Court for authorizing a strike that shut down New York City's
Transit system for a little more than 2 days. The strike took
place in December and violated the state's Taylor Law, which
forbids public employees from striking. Toussaint and union
supporters maintained that the strike was a defensive strike
to stop the Metropolitan Transit Authority from, among other
things, creating a two-tiered pension system. Toussaint was
the only union member ordered to jail even though lawyers
for the MTA and the state Attorney General said they wanted
community service for union officials as opposed to jail time.
And in further punishment for the strike, last week, Judge
Jones fined the 33,000 member union $2.5 million and suspended
its ability to automatically collect member dues.
In addition, last week, transit workers overwhelmingly ratified
the contract offer that they had previously rejected. The
package entails a 10.9% increase in raises and a new paid
holiday. It also requires workers to put 1.5% of their earnings
towards health premiums. MTA head, Peter Kalikow has stated
that the agency is not legally bound by the second vote and
the matter will go into binding arbitration. Roger Toussaint
was elected head of the TWU Local 100 in 2000. He is originally
from Trinidad and Tobago, settling in Brooklyn when he was
18. He was hired by the MTA as a cleaner in 1984, and became
a track worker in 1985. In 1994, he became a formal union
member when he was elected leader of the 1800-member Track
Division. In 2000 he was elected President of the TWU.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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