LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
"If you're going to live in paradise, you're going to have to deal." Randall Holloman, a bar and restaurant owner in Southern California, on the wildfires.
Article, 1AChertoff raps FEMA over phony briefing
WASHINGTON - The homeland security chief Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Michael Chertoff said.
"I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment," he added.
Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules.
The agency arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of reporters at the event Tuesday and question Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy director.
FEMA gave reporters only 15 minutes' notice about Tuesday's news conference. But because of the short notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. Many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.
District attorney's
office to be seized
NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin says the state could take over the New Orleans district attorney's office as early as Monday as the agency faces a multimillion-dollar civil judgment.
A federal judge ruled this past week that district attorney office assets could be seized to pay off a $3.65 million judgment pending from a 2005 case in which dozens of white office workers successfully sued District Attorney Eddie Jordan for replacing them with black workers.
Jordan is not personally responsible for the payment.
And in an opinion released Friday, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields concluded after reviewing state and federal laws that "the city of New Orleans has never been required to fund any judgments rendered against the Orleans Parish District attorney or any other state official."
Kris Wartelle, a spokesman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said Saturday that she did not know whether the office is defined as a state or city agency.
Nagin told the City Council on Friday that Foti is ready to step in and do "whatever it takes" to ensure the office doesn't shut down.
Golden Gate Bridge refuses sponsorship
SAN FRANCISCO - The board controlling the Golden Gate Bridge unanimously rejected proposals Friday to help finance the span with money from corporate sponsors.
"The board members felt it would generate a lot of controversy compared to a limited amount of money," said Kellee Hopper, marketing director for the district.
Directors of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District killed three proposals, including one that would have allowed corporations to display their logos on property adjacent to the sweeping orange bridge. But none of the plans would have permitted corporate marquees or mascots on the span or towers.
"We understood they weren't proposing a billboard across the bridge," said Marcie Keever, the program director for San Francisco Beautiful, a nonprofit group. "But we felt corporate advertisements or logos anywhere around the Golden Gate would degrade the public space."
Supporters argued corporate partnerships would eventually generate $3 million to $4 million annually, making at least some contribution toward the bridge's operating budget of $150 million and chipping away at its projected deficit of $81 million over the next five years.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 10/28/2007