by Mary-Devon Dupuy

In case the giant mass of empty land off Canal St. and that really rythmic heavy machinery wasn't reminder enough, the state offered up-close evidence today that $1.1 billion project to build a replacement for the still-standing Charity Hospital is underway. Officials lead the media behind the tall, temporary fences to bare witness to the first pouring of a concrete slab at the Louisiana State University Medical Center.

The summer's alternatives offered by state Republicans and bad vibes from the feds didn't convince Gov. Bobby Jindal and the powers that be to change plans the size of the state's Charity Hospital replacement, but the snafus did apparently point them in the direction of a cheaper hospital. The state's consultants unfurled plans this week for a $1.008 billion hospital on the somewhat cleared Lower Mid-City plot, with construction costs down about $82 million from the originally-planned $1.2 billion megahospital.

MID-CITY - As state treasurer, John Kennedy usually deals with investments, cash flow and the state's finances. But he waded outside of his day-to-day arena Tuesday night, discussing health care and hospitals with a large group of locals at Canal Street's Grace Episcopal Church. Standing at a single mic in the center of the floor for all of the two hour session, Kennedy lamented the lack of a large, state-run hospital in New Orleans.

June 26, when the United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress (1775), when President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the U.S. National Security Council (1947), when Truman a year later desegregated the U.S. military (1948), Geroge Bernard Shaw (1856), Mick Jagger (1943), Kevin Spacey (1959), and Sandra Bullock’s (1964) birthdays, and Diane Arbus’ last day (1971). Here's what's happening in the now:

This week's Speakeasy password is "outside the comfort zone." Public talks this week see a burlesque queen getting literary, the state treasurer talking health care, and the Orleans Parish sheriff talking real estate. Click through to see what's goin' on.

Citing "several issues that have arisen," the state withdrew an initial application to the U.S. government that sought  funding for the proposed University Medical Center, according to a letter obtained by NoDef. When they filed an initial document to the federal Housing and Urban Development department last year, known as a pre-application, the state was seeking federal mortgage insurance. They needed the mortgage insurance to raise the final $400 million of the $1.2 billion project at a lower rate.

The author of the Lower Mid-City chronicle, Inside the Footprint, corrects a few falsehoods that have been circulating about the state's proposed replacement for Charity Hospital.

New Orleans' mayor responds to recent criticism from state Republican leaders about plans for the state's new teaching hospital in Lower Mid-City. 

Bobby Jindal was painted into a bit of a political corner earlier this week after David Vitter and two other state political Big Shots went public with an alternative to the state's plan for a giant hospital in Lower Mid-City. Since Vitter and friends have an R next to their name, Jindal was not free to roll up his sleeves and lash out at will. Instead, he "questioned" the proposal and gave the trio a meeting.