Ivor van Heerden to Begin Preparation for Trial

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Credit: Fred Mulhearn, Baton Rouge Advocate

Ivor van Heerden, former deputy director of LSU Hurricane Center, recently wrote to Levees.org from Urbanna, Virginia that he will return home in early December to begin preparing for trial.

Van Heerden is suing LSU for wrongful termination. The outspoken professor claimed LSU retaliated against him for making statements critical of the Army Corps of Engineers after the agency’s levee system failed in New Orleans during Katrina.

Van Heerden alleged that he was fired because his criticism of the Army Corps put LSU’s chances of getting federal funding in jeopardy. LSU receives large federal grants from the Corps. Federal Judge James Brady determined that Dr. van Heerden’s claim has merit.

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Our hero, Scott Fujita exonerated

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Sandy Rosenthal and Scott Fujita on April 9, 2010. Photo/Jeffrey Dubinski

This past Tuesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that former Saint linebacker Scott Fujita had not contributed to a pay-to-injure program that the Saints allegedly ran from 2009-2011. This announcement nearly fully exonerates Fujita.

(In addition to being a splendid football player, Fujita is also spokesperson and benefactor to Gulf Restoration Network, one of Levees.org’s strongest allies.)

For this concession, Goodell announced that Fujita’s three-game suspension would be reduced to one. The one-game suspension was meted out because Goodell was “surprised and disappointed” that Fujita did not confront and challenge his superior.

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Joe Bruno on Appeals Panel Flip-Flip: This is Politics Not Law

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Joe Bruno

Joe Bruno, agreed to an interview request today with Levees.org after getting out of federal court in New Orleans where he was representing flood survivors in a suit against the Army Corps of Engineers and Washington Group International.

We wanted to know Mr. Bruno’s take on a recent appeals panel’s reversal of its own ruling in March of this year. The panel now says the Army Corps of Engineers, though already found guilty of negligent operation and maintenance of the MR-GO shipping channel, cannot be held financially liable.

“This ruling is obscenely obnoxious,” said Mr. Bruno. “It’s as though the panel said in March that a red light is red, and supplied an abundance of reasons and precedents that the red light is red. But now, the panel says the red light is green, and says it in just one and a half pages. This is politics, not law.”

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