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James Zadroga spent 16 hours a day toiling in the World Trade Center ruins for a month, breathing in debris-choked air. Timothy Keller said he coughed up bits of gravel from his lungs after the towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Felix Hernandez spent days at the site helping to search for victims.

All three men died in the last seven months of what their families and colleagues say are persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at ground zero.
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The New York Daily News has learned that an additional 22 men, mostly in their 30s and 40s, have died from causes their families say were accelerated by the toxic mix of chemicals that lodged in their bodies as they searched for survivors or participated in the cleanup after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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Zadroga was far from alone, of course, at Ground Zero. Thousands of others, from across the city and across the country, had arrived at the smouldering crevice in Lower Manhattan to do the same, in what was a long, long clean-up and debris-trucking process. How many of them are ailing now? How many of them might die because of illnesses attributable to the contaminants they inhaled, or the particles absorbed into their skin, at a time when many frantic responders weren't even wearing proper protective gear or respiratory apparatus?

[....]

One survey, of 1,138 responders, from the period of July to December 2002, showed 60 per cent reported lower airway breathing problems and 74 per cent reported upper airway breathing problems.

Federal employees were told not to participate in the Mount Sinai program, that a separate monitoring agency would be established for them. But such an agency appeared and disappeared with fewer than 600 people seen, according to one of the 9/11 civilian watchdog groups.

In the 10 days immediately after 9/11, the Environmental Protection Agency put out five press releases reassuring the public that air and soil samples indicated no heightened levels of cancer-causing agents in the air or soil anywhere beyond the immediate Ground Zero area. Some EPA officials have since admitted those assurances were unfounded and may have been influenced by political pressure. Certainly the Sierra Club has alleged a cover-up of what was clearly an acute environmental disaster, even though the environment was hardly foremost in people's minds at the time, as relatives searched for loved ones and the White House planned a military response. What became quickly known as the "WTC cough" was prevalent among emergency responders. A later study undertaken by a private environmental firm — at the behest of a company contracted to perform some of the cleanup — found more alarming developments, with positive tests for significant asbestos levels. That firm suggested the sheer force of the tower explosions shattered asbestos into fibres so small they evaded the EPA's ordinary testing methods.

Ground Zero inhalation tests of ambient air showed WTC dust consisted predominantly (95 per cent) of coarse particles and pulverized cement, with glass fibres, asbestos, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated furans and dioxins.

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fleur de lis

"Freedom For The Stallion" (Allen Toussaint) Allen Toussaint, live, 4/9/1976
(LISTEN) "As I mentioned earlier, Allen Toussaint turns 68 this Saturday, the 14th; and I hope he has a great day and fine new year. After having lost his home when the levee broke, he needs them. I’ve picked this live performance of one of his songs for the weekend, since it ties in with the spirit of Martin Luther King Day, as well."
-from home of the groove
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more from home of the groove : "Don't Bring Me Down" (Allen Toussaint) Labelle, from Nightbirds, Epic, 1974 - and - A Toussaint Two-fer

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Every now and then I like to point you to other posts of New Olreans music I find. Hey, I can't post everything, as you may have noticed. Our hard bloggin' friend, AK, over at Soul Shower has two nice posts up now with tracks by Huey Smith and the Clowns, featuring Gerri Hall, and and by the Barons, about as obscure a New Orleans vocal group as you could want. Check 'em while they're hot. By the way, I enourage all mp3 bloggers to post more New Orleans music. The city needs the attention. The tunes need to be heard. And I need less pressure! Peace.
-from home of the groove

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A conservative Republican congressman has proposed the federal government create a non-profit, federally-owned corporation, dubbed the Louisiana Recovery Corporation that would be authorized to buy out homeowners in the affected areas and to negotiate with lenders to pay off the balance of those mortgages.

If passed, this House bill, proposed by Rep. Richard H. Baker, would make the federal government the largest landowner in New Orleans for at least a few years. This government corporation would be modeled after the Resolution Trust Corporation that was created by Congress in 1989 to bail out the savings and loans industry in wake of the S & L scandal. Baker's plan has even drawn support from liberal Democrat, Rep. William J. Jefferson who stated explicitly that he believes the bill's passage is important.

Some members of Congress are concerned with the potential cost to taxpayers from Baker's plan. The proposed non-profit corporation would offer to buy out houses from homeowners, at no less than 60 percent of their equity before Hurricane Katrina, while lenders would be offered up to 60 percent of what they are owed, according to the New York Times. The properties would then be sold to developers. The government corporation could end up spending up to $80 billion, according to current estimates. Baker admitted he could not promise that the corporation would break even financially. He added, "We'll pay back as much as possible."

A group of representatives were unsuccessful in mandating that the corporation break even financially by incurring revenues from developers. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R - Texas), stated, "We need to ensure that taxpayers are not asked again two or three years from now to pay for the same disaster."

The passage of the bill is still uncertain. The Senate is expected to begin debate on the bill once Congress reconvenes. The White House has show some signs of support for the bill, with the president's Gulf Coast recovery czar, Donald E. Powell, stating, he "was more comfortable" with the proposal.
from LP Blog The official blog of the Libertarian Party
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President Bush sounded out of touch as usual this week when he called the still-ravaged city "a heck of a place to bring your family." Rather than conjuring up memories of Michael Brown, the erstwhile head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Bush could better spend his time increasing the pressure on Congress to act on some version of Representative Richard Baker's federal buyout legislation. Lawmakers in Washington should take up the bill.
nyt editorial
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