Late Friday evening, after an exhilarating day in which he participated in a nautical search-and-rescue mission, Gambit Communications co-owner Clancy DuBos spoke with AAN Executive Director Richard Karpel and learned that the AAN relief effort had been announced earlier that day. He then sent the following message via e-mail: "Since Katrina struck, we have been overwhelmed by the enormity of the destruction left in its wake. We are even more overwhelmed by the outpouring of assistance and generosity from our fellow AAN members. This is the highest calling of our organization -- making a real difference in the lives of others -- and proof of what a great group of professionals belong to AAN. We will never forget you. God bless you all."
Since the scope of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina first became apparent, Association of Alternative Newsweeklies members have been steadily contacting the association's home office with offers of assistance -- financial and otherwise -- for their colleagues at Gambit Weekly. To facilitate the process of getting the paper's displaced employees the help they need, we must first track them down. To that end, AAN has set up a message board where Gambit staffers (and those who have been in contact with Gambit staffers) can post contact information as well as discuss the storm's tragic aftermath.
AAN announced today that it had established a multi-pronged effort to provide immediate relief to employees of its New Orleans-based member paper who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The centerpiece of the effort is a special fund that the association has established in its Alternative Newsweekly Foundation to accept charitable contributions from members who want to provide immediate assistance to Gambit Weekly employees. Several AAN-member companies have already announced significant contributions to the fund.
As FEMA stumbles in response to Hurricane Katrina, it's instructive to re-read a couple of articles published in AAN papers eleven months ago. In the first -- a story sponsored by AAN and published in over 20 of its members' papers -- Jon Elliston and the Independent Weekly reported the Bush Administration was shifting FEMA resources from protection from hurricanes and other natural hazards to homeland security. Disaster in the Making was published as FEMA was preparing for Hurricane Frances, only three weeks after their bang-up performance on Hurricane Charley. "They're doing a good job," one former FEMA executive told Elliston. "And the reason ... is because it's so close to the election, and they can't fuck it up, otherwise they lose Florida -- and if they lose Florida, they might lose the election."
In Homeland Insecurity (which was reported and published in conjunction with Disaster in the Making), Eileen Loh Harrist and Gambit Weekly reported that FEMA snubbed Louisiana and violated its own funding standards when it failed to provide the state with badly-needed Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) funds to protect it from flooding. According to Loh Harrist, "the nearly $60 million pot of federal PDM money went to 31 other states and Puerto Rico. Texas received the biggest share, more than $8.8 million, followed by California ($6.1 million) and Florida ($5.3 million)."
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 913
- 914
- 915
- 916
- 917
- 918
- 919
- …
- 1,273
- Go to the next page
