New Orleans - Mardi Gras webcams
Today is Fat Tuesday in New Orleans and there are several websites with webcams throughout the city. Don’t worry if you couldn’t get out to the Big Easy this year, join them in spirit without leaving your desk.
Earthcam.com has two great webcams. One is right on the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Peter Street, and the other is on the balcony of the famous Cat’s Meow. You can watch them throwing beads to revelers on Bourbon Street below.
Nola.com has four working webcams that look onto the parade, the French Quarter, the Crescent City Connection bridge and the Mississippi River. The webcams update every 20 seconds and you can even adjust the time clock to look at the cams at a particular time. The paradecam is the most interesting of the four.
Tropical Isle & the Funky Pirate has a live webcam that takes a look at Bourbon Street right outside its bar.
Not all are celebrating......................
New Orleans 02/04/08
Businessman Run Over by Parade Float
Hancock County is mourning the loss of a well-known businessman after a Mardi Gras accident. Jody Compretta, 39, died during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans Saturday night. Compretta was riding on a float in the Endymion parade. He was run over by the tail end of the float as he tried to get off of it, once the parade ended near the Superdome. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Compretta was the son of State Representative J. P. Compretta and owned a medical supply company in Bay St. Louis. He was a former president of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Bay Area Recovery Team. Sociology professor Scott Myers-Lipton and a group of his students are spearheading a nationwide campaign for HR 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. To drum up support for the campaign, students danced to a local brass band, passed out Mardi Gras beads and dished out red beans, rice and cornbread. Drafted on the San Jose campus, the legislation calls on the federal government to create 100,000 jobs in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in communities destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It's modeled on the vast public works programs created during the 1930s, when millions of Americans were put to work building highways, parks and public libraries. Myers-Lipton's passion for activism has made San Jose State the leader for the bill, which Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, introduced in Congress. The challenge now is getting at least 100 members to sign on as co-sponsors. Junior Roberto Garcia-Ceballos, 21, went to New Orleans for the first time last month. He spent three days helping to gut houses and clear lots in the city's Lower Ninth Ward, a low-income neighborhood devastated by Katrina that has become the focus of intense debate about how New Orleans rebuilds. "The trip was very eye-opening about all of the social problems this country has," said Garcia-Ceballos. "They've torn down public housing, and there are huge homeless encampments under the freeways." Two and half years after Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans, many of Myers-Lipton's students are stunned that so much of the city remains destroyed. "I talked to people who have to travel four to 12 miles just to get groceries," said Kristin Rasmussen, 27. "Parts of the city feel like a ghost town."
Still others are using the celebration to bring action to the Gulf Coast, still devastated after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita..........
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