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Title: Gambit | News & Views
Link: http://bestofneworleans.com
Description: <meta name="verify-v1" content="F4ui5qH2N/F8F4+vzSlIGjV4rDiYgbE2WSzkzRxCaZI=" />The best source for New Orleans news, politics, entertainment, music, dining and shopping provided by the Gambit newspaper..

Who painted the 150-foot-tall clarinet painted on the side of a Holiday Inn hotel on Loyola Avenue? | Blake Pontchartrain
Hey Blake, Your recent column on the Harahan industrial area got me thinking about an old building in the area with a huge mural painted on one side. It looks like a depiction of an early New Orleans street scene. It is now all but impossible to see it due to surrounding newer buildings. The plant...

Make Him Happy | Special gifts for the men on your list
[image-10] [image-11] [image-12] [image-13] [image-14]... By Kyla Boutte.

Bouquets & Brickbats | They get what they deserve
Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson of the Louisiana Supreme Court will be honored with a Spirit of Excellence award by the American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. As an African American in the city's then-segregated school system, Johnson face...

A new federal grant will provide better accessibility to evidence in the New Orleans justice system, and has the promise of securing justice for the wrongly convicted | Body of Evidence
For obvious reasons, defense lawyers and prosecuting attorneys don't collaborate very often. The former want to prove their clients' innocence while the latter's primary interest is in convicting criminals. The spirit of cooperation, however, is at the heart of a new $1.4 million federal... By David Winkler-Schmit.

The banh mi is New Orleans' po-boy for the 21st century | portable, delectable and incredibly inexpensive
About 28 years ago, Truc Tran's family began selling sandwiches from a van not unlike those that now sell Hispanic delicacies. Just like the taco trucks, their main clientele were recent immigrants who were eager for the food of their homeland. The Tran family brought the recipe, which th... By Robert Peyton.

Letters to the Editor
Imperfect Compass Jeremy Alford's recent article ("Tao of Cao," News & Views, Nov. 3) praising U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-La., for allegedly having and following "an inner moral compass" was unfortunately one-sided and missing some important points. What his article fails to mention is that...

The 3rd Annual Po-Boy Preservation Festival
The first Po-Boy Preservation Festival was held in 2007 and was an immediate success. After huge crowds almost overwhelmed the location the first year, the organizers have taken pains to spread things out a bit more. The festival began with 15 vendors and will have 40 this year. In addition to the p...

Banh Mi Around Town
Banh Mi Sao Mai 14321 Chef Menteur Hwy., 254-3977 Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily Cafe Minh 4139 Canal St., New Orleans, 482-6266. Open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Tue-Thu.; 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Dong Phuong Bakery 14207 Chef Menteur Hwy., 254-1568 Open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed.-Mon. Frosty's Caffe 3400 Cl...

Cameron Parish and Louisiana Geothermal
  About $5 million in federal stimulus money will soon make its way to Louisiana Geothermal, an up-and-coming company that boasts it will be able to produce enough energy within the next two years to power all of Cameron Parish. In fact, research suggests there's enough alternative energy...

Tariffs Aid Alt-Energy Use
  Renewable energy expert Craig Morris told the Louisiana Public Service Commission last week that the state should continue to encourage alternative energy sources via feed-in tariffs. A feed-in tariff creates financial incentives for renewable energy production, regardless of scale. It a...

Fighting the Oyster Ban
  The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted earlier this month to officially "disagree" with proposed federal regulations that call for a ban on harvesting untreated oysters from the Gulf of Mexico beginning in the summer of 2011. A commission resolution requests that the U.S....

Arthur Morrell Seeks Rehearing
  Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell says he has evidence that should clear him of a conflict-of-interest charge stemming from his 23 years as a state representative. In 2007, the state Ethics Board ruled that Morrell, who is an attorney, violated conflict-of-interest rules by...

Anybody But Jay Batt?
  At the beginning of 2009, outgoing Mayor Ray Nagin reported $153,042.08 in campaign funds on hand for a "major office TBD," according to a Jan. 12 campaign finance report — the mayor's most recent filing as of late last week. Businessman David A. White, the mayor's close friend and...

New Sentence date for Ellenese Brooks-Simms
  U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has ordered a new sentencing date for former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, the key prosecution witness in the Mose Jefferson bribery trial last summer. Brooks-Simms, who pleaded guilty in June 2007 to corrupting the school...

Lee Zurik to WVUE-TV
  Lee Zurik, the investigative reporter who departed WWL-TV Nov. 5, was introduced to his new coworkers in the WVUE-TV newsroom Nov. 10, concluding what was perhaps the worst-kept secret in local media: Zurik was leaving the city's top-rated news station for the local Fox affiliate, where...