HOUSTON (AP) - Nineteen months after Hurricane Katrina sent evacuees from New Orleans streaming into Houston, more than 5,000 heads of households among them are still unemployed despite the city’s booming economy, officials say.

The number of jobless is contributing to the sense among some Houston-area residents that the storm’s victims are a drain on the city and have worn out their welcome.

After the storm, a quarter-million evacuees were brought to Houston, welcomed by Mayor Bill White, who threw open the Astrodome. Even before the storm, many were desperately poor, unemployed and on welfare or food stamps.

Many had been holding out hope that they would be home in New Orleans by now, but the city’s rebuilding has been painfully slow, and about 100,000 are still here. They have settled in more or less permanently, some still on food stamps.

About 12,000 families are still getting federal aid for housing, the city said. Of that group, about 5,500 heads of households are unemployed, not counting those who are elderly and disabled, city officials said.

Full Story Here:
Many Katrina Evacuees Are Still Jobless

I am going to say this, in a way that’s NOT nearly as nice as the MSM did, what the folks of Houston are seeing, as are we here in the Dallas area is this, the laziest bunch of trash to be washed out of New Orleans, the very dregs of New Orleans society…

Any SOB in Texas that WANTS to work has a job, there is NO EXCUSE other than the fact that these people are purely too damned lazy trash and are best described as welfare leeches, and maybe the state of Texas needs to send em right back TO New Orleans, because you can bet that they were likely on food stamps and welfare while there too, and they can go help ‘Chocolate Ray’ rebuild his ‘Chocolate City’…

People like this are nothing more than slugs, professional victims that make a living by bleeding those of us that DO WORK, that’s all they know and they were allowed to ply their trade, such as it is, pretty much unhindered in Louisiana, simply because the traditionally Dem government in Louisiana found it much easier to just GIVE them an existence than it was to encourage them to build a LIFE, a real, productive and valuable life…

Immediately after Katrina I was all for giving folks any kind of ‘HAND UP’ that they could possibly need, but over a year and a half into this thing and anyone still drawing welfare because of Katrina needs to be cut off, completely CUT OFF, hunger is one hell of a motivator…

And when your options are work or starve, you’ll work…

Maybe the crooks that RUN Louisiana need to try this too, and they could start with themselves, because for damn sure, the pols in Louisiana have themselves on every ‘dole’ they can find, it’s what happens in Louisiana, it’s an ingrained trait there now, it’s gone on since at least the days of Huey P. Long, it’s called Louisiana politics, and it’s more crooked than a dogs hind leg…

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and “Law & Order” actor, will take a step toward a formal presidential candidacy next week, several officials with knowledge of the plans said Wednesday.

Thompson will form a “testing the waters” committee, which will allow him to begin raising money and hiring staff without officially committing to a White House bid. The creation of the committee, to be called “Friends of Fred Thompson,” will be paired with the start of his first major fundraising push.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were not public, said Thompson is discussing plans for a campaign swing through various early primary states in late June, and is considering several options for a formal announcement should he ultimately decide to enter the race. They said that one scenario under discussion, among others, would have him officially announce his candidacy over the July 4 holiday.

But these officials also cautioned that he’s made no final decision about whether to run or where and when to get in the race should he decide to go forward.

Full Story Here:
Thompson to Take Step Toward Candidacy

Fred Thompson needs to get this announcement OUT THERE and make it official, all he has to do is say, “I want to be your president” and it’s pretty much a done deal, the Repubs are running the weakest batch of idiots I have ever seen, not a true Conservative in the bunch, multiple divorces , abortion and homo supporters, gun grabbers, a Mormon, for crying out loud, a so-called Republican that claims to be Conservative and he’s not even a Christian?? And more ‘flip-flops’ than a Jimmy Buffet concert, not a damn one of em has a stance that’s been in place longer than this election cycle…

Fred Thompson needs to get this thing going, NOW!! America needs him, Conservatives can and will support him, and by God, if we don’t, then we deserve whatever bullshit that DOES fall out of the mouths of the Repubs or Dems, because if we don’t get Thompson in the White House, it really doesn’t matter WHO you put in, there’s not a dimes worth of difference in the lot of em…

We have 3 choices folks, vote Democrat, vote Democrat Lite (Republican) or vote for Fred Thompson, and for me the choice is crystal clear!!

PARKER CO., Texas — Three girls and their 23-year-old mother were found dead Tuesday morning at a mobile home in what police called a suspected triple murder-suicide in unincorporated Parker County just north of Hudson Oaks.

The mother’s sister, who lives across the street, checked on the family at about 6:30 a.m. in the 100 block of Oak Hill Drive after the mother didn’t show up for work. The sister contacted police after she heard noises coming from a closet in the locked trailer, apparently the sounds of the infant struggling in her noose, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said.

The sister rescued the baby and found the bodies of Gilberta Estrada, 23, and three other children, Maria Teresa, 6, Janet, 3, and Magday, 2, hanging from nooses made of sashes and strips of clothing, Fowler said.

“It’s horrendous; that’s all I can say,” he said. “It’s just something you don’t want to see.”

An 8-month-old girl, Evelyn, was found hanged but alive and was transported to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, about 25 miles east of the scene. She is listed in good condition.

Authorities believe it was a murder-suicide because the trailer’s doors were locked from the inside and a relative said Estrada had been depressed.

Full Story Here:
Three Girls, Mother Found Dead In Parker Co. Home

I have nothing else to add here, I am beyond words, except to say, the national news services haven’t released names yet, not at the time of this posting, this story does, it’s from the NBC affiliate here in Dallas…