Sorry, folks, everybody's got to cut and paste the following link addresses into their browsers. See the note at the bottom of this post.

Ooooh, first Daylight Savings turns me and the little guy into zombies, and then I find I cannot quit this frickin' magazine: http://www.neworleansmagazine.com/, especially when they publish articles like the following

NOPD SWAT: http://www.neworleansmagazine.com/in-this-issue/articles/news/nopd-swat-3484//browse/1.html

In the days leading up the council vote, the SWAT team had been dealing with harassment from radical activists at the B.W. Cooper and St. Bernard projects. The tension was building and Scheuermann suspected it was about to boil over.

The protesters themselves were the subject of much of the controversy. Several prominent New Orleanians, including a couple of council members, charged that many of the protesters were out-of-town, Birkenstock-clad agitators who had never set foot inside a New Orleans housing development until news cameras showed up.
Recent developments seemed to bolster that claim.

After a three-hour standoff at B.W. Cooper – the old Calliope project – SWAT officers arrested two 50-something-year-old protesters from Brooklyn. Other public housing activists turned out to be Ivy League college students on Christmas break.

“We’ve seen a lot of Volvos,” one city official said.

The charters will die by their semi-autonomy, apparently:
http://www.neworleansmagazine.com/in-this-issue/articles/news/schoolyard-brawl-3478//browse/1.html

The infighting that marked education decisions for Orleans Parish schools before Katrina hasn’t disappeared; it has shifted.

The new power struggle is between the Orleans Parish School Board and its charters and, to a lesser extent, the Recovery School District and its charters. The conflict is about money and accountability, issues that are likely to make their way to the Legislature in April.

Charter schools are semi-autonomous and their leaders are able to spend their budget resources as they wish. Nevertheless, they are still very much dependent on their local or state chartering agency to forward money due them from the state Minimum Foundation Formula or federal grants. If money is withheld, the financial difference creates budgeting headaches for the schools. They must pay their own employees and other expenses.

Schroeder details what the state is doing to make things worse. Whoopee!!!!

Oh, and this one's for Jeffrey. There is a better solution to the condoization of this city, folks:
http://www.neworleansmagazine.com/in-this-issue/articles/news/condo-mania-is-there-room-for-more-3485//browse/1.html

While condos are moving, Sterbcow says the growth of rental apartments in the local area may be forming a new stumbling block for condo sales down the line.
“A lot of apartments went off the market because of Katrina, which put pressure on people in need of homes to buy condos,” he says. “But now a lot of rentals are coming back on the market and new ones are opening, and some people are thinking that they can rent more cheaply than buying.”

Sterbcow said more than 2,000 rental units were vacant in the metropolitan area in mid-February, suggesting that downward pressure on rents is likely to continue.

Rent, everybody, rent!!!!! No maintenance fees!! Just pay by the month and handle your own utilities, phone, and cable costs. Now don't you feel better?

Actually, now I feel worse. I'm gonna keel for a while and check on how many people have guessed correctly on this quiz o' mine. Enjoy!

Update, 3-11: Obamoyster reads the teensy print on the New Orleans magazine website. Thanks, dude. If E and I get hauled into court for the links, I expect to get representation and support from all the blogosphere on this. But please, no Volvos - we don't want 'em to use that "outside agitator" gris-gris on us.