Hillary Clinton Robo-Call: Bill Clinton In Pass Christian

I got a Hillary Clinton robo-call about 20 minutes ago encouraging me to attend the Bill Clinton event in Pass Christian. It featured a female narrator.

Here are the Details:
8:30 a.m.
Pass Christain High School
Pass Christian, MS

His full schedule tommorow is posted in the comments:

Outrage: Haley Barbour To Divert Hurricane Money To North Mississippi Road Construction

Barbour: Use storm money for Toyota, rainy day By NATALIE CHANDLER

"We still have people down there in FEMA (trailers)," said Rep. Frances Fredericks, D-Gulfport. "Why can't we take the money and make conditions better, or at least livable, for those it was intended to help?"

Sen. Debbie Dawkins, D-Pass Christian, said, "There is a perception on the Coast that the governor controls the money, and he is spending it in other places. Until (recovery needs) and Medicaid get addressed, I'm not going along with any half-baked ideas about road paving."

Latest Haley Barbour Outrage - Pine Belt Progressive

...it’s not about “taking responsibility” for oneself, it’s about the fact that the governor has put our recovery money into everything but rebuilding the housing that is needed for these people to move out of those trailers...

Go to the links. You need to read this.

Accident At The Bay St. Louis Bridge

8 Taken To Hospitals, 1 Missing

The Sun Herald reports on an accident on the partially completed bridge over the Bay of St. Louis. The accident does not affect the portion of the bridge already open for traffic.

The Article:

MDOT District Engineer Ricky Lee said that a portion of the forming system used to pour supports collapsed and fell into the water. When it fell, it was away from the completed span, which was not compromised.

"It laid over in the water like a tree," said MDOT Engineer David Seyfarth, who said the column being worked on was near the span over the navigation channel near the highest portion of the bridge.

Update 5:08: 1 worker confirmed dead. (WLOX)

Hancock County's Stalled Recovery

Facing South brings attention to a Reuters article highlighting trouble in Pass Christian and Pearlington.

Pass Christian House Member Diane Peranich is quoted expressing concern with possible condo development. Some of the communities lost much of their tax base and are less likely to oppose development that doesn't go with the historical nature of their community due to the possible revenue that that development could generate.

"What we don't want is miles of high-rises on the Gulf of Mexico white sands and no access to our citizens," said Diane Peranich, a state representative who grew up in the area.

"Those of us who have been here as long as the mosquitoes are not going anyplace. You are welcome to come join us but you are not going to replace us," she said.

The slow progress of Pearlington is also highlighted in the article.

The local school and post office remain closed, few businesses have reopened and only a quarter of its 800 homes have been rebuilt, according to Glenn Locklin of the charity One House at a Time.

Volunteers are key to reconstruction but their numbers have dwindled as other natural disasters, such as a tornado in May that ravaged a town in Kansas, have drawn the focus of concern away from the aftermath of Katrina, he said.

"You don't hear about us anymore. They say we're not news," Locklin said. "The one thing people don't realize is that we are just as bad as we were."

All this is infuriating when I think about how much money has flowed into this state. Barbour farmed it out in sweetheart contracts to his friends and allies and Republican office holders (like Sen. Moffatt) and now South Mississippians are paying the price.

Bridge Opening Video

Here is the WLOX (ABC) story and a few video clips on their website.

Miss. Gulf Coast Marks Milestone In Katrina Recovery With Bridge Opening

In Sign of Progress Bay Bridge Opens Again

One factor slowing the recovery of the Mississippi Gulf Coast following the disaster of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005 has been problems with transportation. The biggest issue was the destruction of multiple bridges that fed traffic to the coast and along the coast. North bay bridges were quickly resurrected, but the Coastal bridges at Bay St. Louis and between Ocean Springs and Biloxi were almost completely destroyed and have had to be rebuilt almost from scratch. Today The first of the two, the Bay Bridge, is open and traffic is flowing over it again. This is a very big day for the Coast, for recovery and for the spirit of south Mississippi citizens.



The Sun Herald Link