New Orleans has elected its first white mayor since 1970 in a city where politics has long been racially divided.

While the Obama admistration's response to the Gulf spill has been plagued by federal failures, Obama has been given a free ride from the media, a stark contrast to its treatment of George W. Bush in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

If I weretwenty-four again, I would be packing my bags for New Orleans to be on the ground floor of a modern renaissance.

A national agreement among politicians to not lure the Saints away through subsidies might just be a first step toward eliminating this particular brand of unproductive corporate welfare.

Hurricane Katrina shattered the stability of intergenerational poverty, adults disconnected from work, and children without fathers. In its wake it left immense personal tragedy, but also opportunity.

New Orleans seems determined to preserve the reforms brought on by Katrina. The question is whether it can sustain the innovative momentum in the face of old habits--and new storms.