Most New Orleanians have frolicked through a flash flood, but trudging through the streets may soon become a thing of the past. Mary and Mitch have joined forced with Rep. Cedric Richmond to get $27million in FEMA funds to replace sub par sewers. Mayor Landrieu and Senator Landrieu announced the repairs today, coming to Filmore, West End, St. Roch, Dillard, and Gentilly Woods neighborhoods in Orleans, as well as to St. Bernard Parish. 

For the second time in a week, the New Orleans Police Department and the City are facing a federal lawsuit over the killing of a citizen by a police officer. The family of Wendell Allen, who was killed by an officer while standing unarmed and shirtless in his mother's Gentilly home on March 7, 2012, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit this week against the NOPD, the City and the officer who shot the 20-year-old.

A local man went missing in Gentilly on Friday, March 1, at around 5:30pm. Police are seeking the public’s help finding Douglas Morris, last seen at The Pontchartrain Landing R.V. Park and Marina at (6000 France Road) walking to his docked sailboat. Morris was heading to his boat after leaving a party. 

It’s the first Friday of Lent, which means observers are giving up meat for the second time this week. Fortunately, Catholics and likeminded denominations have devised a clever loophole around what was originally intended as a seasonal sacrifice. In place of meat, practitioners gather together and grub out on aquatic delights, usually fried catfish. St. James Major Church (3736 Gentilly Blvd) and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church are kicking off the season today. 

The bang of fireworks turned to gunshots soon after the calendar turned to 2013 in the Crescent City. Factoring in an early morning Tuesday murder, a total of two people were killed and four were wounded in shootings in the first hours of the new year, according to police. An early-morning stabbing was also reported in the French Quarter area of Esplanade Ave. on Tuesday, NOPD said.

New Orleans police are asking for the public's help in locating a missing teenager. Mickell Brieana Montgomery, 16, was last seen Thursday, Dec. 27, at her father's residence in the 1600 block of Caton St. in Gentilly.

New Orleans’ Zephyrs might only be minor figures in our local sports scene, but the new field at Wesley Barrow Stadium is doing its part to get some pint-size pitchers to the major leagues. Da’ Mayor, reps from MLB, and even FEMA partnered to create the Urban Youth Academy at the freshly renovated Wesley Barrow Stadium in Pontchartrain Park.

by M.D. Dupuy

The people behind the largest single post-Katrina housing development are at it again, and their project has nothing to do with Brad Pitt or the Ninth Ward. Gentilly was one of the areas hit hardest by the Federal Flood, and Barnes and Noble Founder Leonard Riggio and his wife Louise came all the way from New York to create “Project Home Again.” The pair is at it again, with 100 new homes slated for completion in the next 12-18 months.   

In this week's file of foul play, a mugger with a metal pipe struck twice, a teen was connected to a Saturday night out filled with carjackings and shootings and a man was tied up in his own home by a pair of acquaintances. Each week, Crescent City Crime Bits provides a full look at the past seven days on the police beat:

In this week's canon of criminality, a green-thumbed thief thought better of his crime, the American Flag and the Bible were stolen on separate occassions and a cookie jar and machete were among the items wielded during fights. Every week, Crescent City Crime Bits runs down the lowdown.