Foreclosures drop in Mississippi, rise in Louisiana

Foreclosures drop a bit in Miss.


Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures nationwide, said that in April, foreclosure-related actions were taken against 361 properties in Mississippi. Those actions ranged from an initial notice of default to outright repossession by a lender.

Last month, 149 properties were scheduled for a foreclosure sale. Lenders took back 212.

The rate of foreclosure actions - affecting one in every 3,551 housing units - was down 2.7 percent from March and 2.2 percent from April 2010. That ranked Mississippi 45th in the nation.

RealtyTrac said that national foreclosure actions dropped 9 percent from March and 34 percent from April 2010 - mostly because of legal questions about paperwork.


Number of home foreclosures on the rise in La.


NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The number of Louisiana homeowners facing foreclosure is on the rise.

Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures nationwide, said that in April, foreclosure-related actions were taken against 2,289 properties. Those actions ranged from an initial notice of default to outright repossession by a lender.

Last month, 1,349 housing units were scheduled for a foreclosure sale. Lenders took back 635.

The rate of foreclosure actions - affecting one in every 858 housing units - was up 11.8 percent from March and 23.8 percent from April 2010. That ranked Louisiana 22nd in the nation.

RealtyTrac said that national foreclosure actions dropped 9 percent from March and 34 percent from April 2010 - mostly because of legal questions about paperwork. April was the seventh straight month of national declines and brought foreclosure activity in the depressed U.S. housing market to a 40-month low.

"The slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure," said RealtyTrac chief executive James Saccacio.

Nationally, 219,258 properties received a foreclosure-related notice last month. Lenders took back 69,532 U.S. properties in April.

Oil Rig Explodes Off Coast of Louisiana

Here we go again? I hope not.

Sun Herald: Blast rocks rig in Gulf


GRAND ISLE, La. -- The Coast Guard is responding to an explosion involving an offshore petroleum structure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. today. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

Ranel says it hasn’t been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.

SH

Then there is this from the New York Times:

NYT: Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard Says

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy (NYSE:ME) is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's (NYSE:BP) Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

NYT

Jindal Staffer and boyfriend severely beaten following dinner attended by Governor Barbour and Texas Governor Rick Perry

Couple reportedly targeted for wearing Sarah Palin pins. Media silent for three days over Friday night incident.

Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger F. Villere, Jr. hosted an event Friday night which brought together Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at Brennans Restaurant in New Orleans. The event, in New Orleans, was seen as a highlight of a successful weekend in which Villere and Louisiana Republicans brought in national and regional Republican colleagues to discuss a wide range of Party and political issues at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

The weekends festivities were targeted by protesters all over the city, and at least one left-leaning blog publicized the fundraising dinner writing:

These **sholes are the ones who will drop $10K for a dinner with Piyush Jindal, the worm of a Guv’nor for the Gret Stet of Looziana, but never think of what $10K might mean to to a food bank here.

The Times Picayune reported the incident:

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief campaign fund-raiser is recovering from injuries she suffered in a Friday night altercation with a group of people in the French Quarter, the governor’s office said Monday.


Allee Bautsch suffered a broken leg and her boyfriend suffered a concussion and a fractured nose and jaw in the incident, which happened after a fundraising event at Brennan’s Restaurant on behalf of the Louisiana Republican Party on Friday evening.

According to Right Pundits:

There were protesters in the area at the time of the altercation, however, Jindal’s office refuses to speculate as to whether or not the attack was perpetrated by the democratic protesters. There is also no information being put out there as to what the protesters were protesting. Some are speculating that the assault happened after a heated argument about Sarah Palin.

Sadly, the extent of injuries suffered by both Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend, Joe Brown, make it obvious that it was more than an exchange of cross words that lead to some shoving. Bobby Jindal’s campaign finance director attacked in the French Quarter following a campaign fund-raising event and being left with such severe injuries has the appearance of an assault by people who might have some familiarity with inflicting bodily harm on others.

According to Louisiana political blog The Hayride:

Two people at the Brennan’s event have now confirmed that the protest had largely broken up by the time it ended, but we also understand from someone who visited Allee Bautsch in the hospital Saturday morning that she and Brown were followed and attacked expressly because they had Palin pins on (she heard one of the attackers say “Let’s get them, they have Palin pins on”) – so the attack WAS politically motivated as its victims understood it. It was not a mugging, it was not an argument gone wrong and it was not a bar fight.

AP: Another Louisiana oyster-harvesting area closed

by Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — For the third time in a week, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has closed an oyster harvesting area because of an outbreak of illness.

This time, it’s “Area 13,” west of the Mississippi River in southern Jefferson and Lafourche parishes.

Last Wednesday, the department closed an area in Plaquemines Parish because of a norovirus outbreak in Mississippi. On Thursday, part of St. Bernard Parish waters were closed to mollusc harvest because of another outbreak.

Both of those areas are east of the Mississippi River and more than 60 miles from the latest area closed.

MBJ