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OAKLAND — Police internal affairs detectives investigating the handling of journalist Chauncey Bailey's slaying will have state investigators present when they interview members of their department's command staff. Investigators from the attorney general's office will be there to monitor the interviews, according to a letter the Department of Justice sent to Mayor Ron Dellums in November. But the Justice Department won't take over the whole investigation — which is apparently what Oakland internal affairs investigators wanted, the letter stated. "We do not believe, as has been suggested by the Police Department's Internal Affairs investigator, that the Police Department investigation be...

Armed robbers terrorized Oakland restaurants and small businesses in three separate crime sprees over the past year. The first wave targeted Asian eateries and struck during the 2007 holiday season. The second arrived last spring and was more indiscriminate. The third struck in July and August. All three made newspaper headlines and led television newscasts, shining a spotlight on the city's out-of-control crime problem and the Oakland Police Department's apparent inability to cope with it. In fact, the department's public response to the takeover robberies was both odd and illuminating. The department's mantra for dealing with the city's crime spike...

OAKLAND — Former employees and supporters of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery have scheduled a rally for Aug. 2 — the one-year anniversary of journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing — to call for an investigation into the business's demise. "This is the anniversary of the closing of the bakery and the event is about getting to the truth, getting to justice and making sure that whoever is guilty of any crime be brought before the bar of justice, because right now the truth is not being told," said rally organizer Henry Clark. The date was chosen to commemorate "police attacking...

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La., Sept. 7 -- The day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Sal and Mabel Mangano waffled, then decided against evacuating the mom-and-pop nursing home they owned. By morning, 35 of their frailest patients would be dead, drowned in their wheelchairs and beds by the storm surge. On Friday night, after four hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted the Manganos of negligent homicide, charges that could have put them in prison for life. The case raised broader questions about who, if anyone, deserves to be punished for the deaths in Katrina's deadly flooding............."

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A 19-year-old handyman at a Black Muslim organization was charged with murder Tuesday in the shooting death of a journalist who was investigating the group's troubled finances. DeVaughndre Broussard, who worked at Your Black Muslim Bakery, appeared in Alameda County Superior Court on charges that he gunned down Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey last week. His arraignment was postponed until Monday so he could hire his own attorney. He was being held without bail.

After a police raid Friday at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, bakery employee Devaughndre Broussard admitted to murdering Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post. Bailey was writing a series of investigative articles about the Bakery – and that’s why, according to police, Broussard killed him. Your Black Muslim Bakery is an outpost of the Nation of Islam, not of any orthodox Islamic sect, but in this murder Devaughndre Broussard has followed a pattern that some orthodox Muslims have also followed. Violent reprisal has long been an occupational hazard of those who dare to question or investigate Islamic...

Oakland police will seek formal charges as early as today against several people associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery, including the alleged killer of a newspaper editor who had been working on a story about the controversial group that operates the bakery, the city's assistant police chief said Sunday. Howard Jordan said Devaughndre Broussard, a 19-year-old handyman at the bakery, had confessed to fatally shooting Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, near his offices Thursday morning. Broussard was one of seven people arrested in raids the following day. Jordan said Broussard and others, under investigation for their part in an...

In his confession to police, 19-year-old Devaughdre Broussard told detectives he considered himself "a good soldier" when he shot and killed journalist Chauncey Bailey for writing negative stories about Your Black Muslim Bakery, where Broussard was a member and worked as a handyman, authorities said. Broussard, who also uses the spelling Brossard, was formally booked Saturday on suspicion of murder. He was already on probation for a robbery conviction in San Francisco, and also had a pending case on charges of assault with a firearm from a 2006 San Francisco incident. In addition, there was a failure-to-appear warrant out for...

Aaron F. Broussard, the president of a Louisiana parish where hundreds of Marylanders helped in the days after Katrina, got a warm welcome from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday and the unusual honor of a speaking slot in the middle of his State of the State address. (snip) He got a rousing ovation from the Maryland legislators and dignitaries gathered for the speech. But when he returns home, Broussard will face signs stuck in lawns across the parish that say, "Lyin', Cryin', time to be resignin'" and a petition drive aimed at getting him out of office. His critics...

Aaron Broussard faced what should have been the greatest trial of his political career in 1982, when a jetliner slammed into Kenner eight days after he was sworn in as mayor and killed every person on board and eight on the ground. The new mayor earned his chops spearheading the grisly rescue and excoriating airline executives for not moving quickly to clean up the crash site, at one point screaming, with the mangled fuselage of the plane at his back, “Get your damned airplane out of my city!” Two decades later, the hurricane that dwarfed all other disasters has left...

Another Katrina Myth: Aaron Broussard’s “Emotional” Appearance on MTP (Updated: MSNBC/NBC Correction(?)) January 1, 2006 on 10:06 am In yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times , Richard Roeper called Jefferson Parish, LA president Aaron Broussard’s tearful outburst, shown September 4th on Meet the Press, “One of the defining media moments of all the hurricane [Katrina] coverage”. … Aaron Broussard’s crocodile tears came at the tail-end of a tirade against FEMA, in response to a question from Tim Russert asking whether the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana could have been “more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in...

The fight for stronger levees has impacted people across Louisiana, and soon, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard will travel to Washington to make a personal appeal. But on Wednesday, Broussard told the Jefferson Chamber that pushing Congress for better levees throughout the region will only help his parish. In one breath, Broussard took some shots at members of Congress. “I promise you, the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, in the eyes of the majority of Congress, is another inconvenience,” Broussard said. “It's another cost that they're asked to vote for that interrupts their domestic agenda.” However, in his next...

Only 2 members of council support it Wednesday, October 26, 2005 By Michelle Krupa West Bank bureau After paying $38,000 for newspaper ads detailing Jefferson Parish's response to Hurricane Katrina, the Parish Council is set to consider spending another $100,000 today for television commercials addressing residents' concerns and the council's "message of hope" for the future. In a proposed deal with WWL-TV, the parish would spend public dollars earmarked for economic development to finance a "public awareness campaign" with "the positive message that Jefferson Parish will remain vigilant in its efforts to create opportunities in the region," according to the...

Does the name “Aaron Broussard” ring a bell? Well, he is the president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who was immortalized on NBC’s “Meet the Press” right after Hurricane Katrina hit when he suggested – with tears in his eyes – that the slow response by the federal government resulted in the unnecessary death of the mother of one of his colleagues. When it turned out that his claims were disputed by the son of the deceased woman, Tim Russert invited Broussard back on “Meet the Press,” and as was reported by NewsBusters, Russert let him off the hook again. Last...

After nearly two months of public vitriol against his decision to evacuate pump operators before Hurricane Katrina, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has admitted to "flaws" in the parish disaster plan, conceding that workers were sent "too far away" to be able to restart pumps before flooding ruined thousands of homes. In an advertisement financed with parish money and scheduled to be published in Sunday's Times-Picayune, Broussard again says dispatching 1,100 essential employees, including pump workers, to shelters in Washington Parish was the right call as a "potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm" aimed at Jefferson.

But he still defends worker evacuation: After nearly two months of public vitriol against his decision to evacuate pump operators before Hurricane Katrina, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has admitted to "flaws" in the parish disaster plan, conceding that workers were sent "too far away" to be able to restart pumps before flooding ruined thousands of homes. In an advertisement financed with parish money and scheduled to be published in Sunday's Times-Picayune, Broussard again says dispatching 1,100 essential employees, including pump workers, to shelters in Washington Parish was the right call as a "potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm" aimed at...

Providing an exception to Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard’s unyielding stance that he evacuated all rank-and-file government workers before Hurricane Katrina to protect their lives, another top parish administrator has said he authorized 15 water department employees to man their posts during the storm. Walter Maestri, Broussard’s emergency management chief, said this week that he personally authorized the workers — nine on the West Bank and six in East Jefferson — to ride out Katrina inside water treatment plants so they could maintain potable water for thousands of patients who could not leave local hospitals because of fragile health. His...

Facing a steady barrage of criticism and now a lawsuit from owners of flooded property, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has launched his most overt -- and possibly most expensive -- public relations venture since Hurricane Katrina, an attempt to explain his decisions during the storm and to lay out plans for the parish's future protection. In four full-page ads in The Times-Picayune costing $38,000 total, Broussard's administration discusses, in its own words, the steps it took before the Aug. 29 landfall and its plans for how to staff pump stations and fortify Jefferson's drainage system for future hurricanes, said...

Facing a steady barrage of criticism and now a lawsuit from owners of flooded property, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has launched his most overt -- and possibly most expensive -- public relations venture since Hurricane Katrina, an attempt to explain his decisions during the storm and to lay out plans for the parish's future protection. In four full-page ads in The Times-Picayune costing $38,000 total, Broussard's administration discusses, in its own words, the steps it took before the Aug. 29 landfall and its plans for how to staff pump stations and fortify Jefferson's drainage system for future hurricanes, said...

Plaintiffs say parish violated pump policy Tuesday, October 18, 2005 By Paul Purpura West Bank bureau Jefferson Parish residents are suing Parish President Aaron Broussard and the parish, claiming their east bank homes flooded after drainage pump operators were sent out of town before Hurricane Katrina hit. Broussard and the parish "owed a duty to operate the drainage pumps" and "breached that duty by failing to man and operate" them, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in the 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna. The plaintiffs, who are seeking class-action status, want unspecified damages and want the case to be...

Broussard trying to fire chief of levees He had blasted parish for storm decisions Saturday, October 15, 2005 By Kate Moran East Jefferson bureau Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said Friday he is moving to sack the head of the East Jefferson Levee District, who publicly questioned the Broussard administration's decision to evacuate drainage pump workers as Hurricane Katrina hurtled toward the Gulf Coast. Broussard sent a letter asking Gov. Kathleen Blanco to remove Patrick Bossetta as levee board president and to install Bobby Bourgeois, one of Broussard's deputy chief administrative assistants, as an interim board member. The request was...

He had blasted parish for storm decisions: Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said Friday he is moving to sack the head of the East Jefferson Levee District, who publicly questioned the Broussard administration's decision to evacuate drainage pump workers as Hurricane Katrina hurtled toward the Gulf Coast. Broussard sent a letter asking Gov. Kathleen Blanco to remove Patrick Bossetta as levee board president and to install Bobby Bourgeois, one of Broussard's deputy chief administrative assistants, as an interim board member. The request was the latest sign that the Aug. 28 evacuation of the pump operators has become a political powder...

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard said Friday he is moving to sack the head of the East Jefferson Levee District, who publicly questioned the Broussard administration's decision to evacuate drainage pump workers as Hurricane Katrina hurtled towards the Gulf Coast. Broussard sent a letter asking Gov. Kathleen Blanco to remove Patrick Bossetta as Levee Board president and to install Bobby Bourgeois, one of Broussard's executive assistants, as an interim board member. The request was the latest sign that the Aug. 28 evacuation of the pump operators has become a political powder keg for Broussard. While Bossetta was among the first...

A sense of outrage and disbelief is growing among Jefferson Parish residents at the decision by Parish President Aaron Broussard’s administration to evacuate drainage pump operators the day before Hurricane Katrina flooded southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, according to extensive interviews with residents this week. They are frustrated that they didn’t know of the plan beforehand, stunned that the pump operators weren’t returned to their posts for more than 24 hours and anxious that parish officials have been slow, in their view, to justify the decision in light of the ensuing destruction. But mostly they are mad. “This wasn’t an...

Saying that he believes some of the flooding in East Jefferson from Hurricane Katrina was due to pump stations that were not running, East Jefferson Levee District President Pat Bossetta said Tuesday he’s ready to explore the feasibility of assuming operation of parish drainage pumps. Jefferson Parish, which is responsible for operating the pump stations, enacted its “doomsday’’ plan shortly before Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Under that two-year-old plan, designed to protect the lives of parish employees when a major hurricane is forecast to make a direct hit on the New Orleans region, Parish President Aaron Broussard’s administration...

Twice now, the President of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard (an ambitious Democrat) has thrown teary tantrums on Meet the Press. Among his choice blubberings, "We've been abandoned by our own Government! Bureaucracy has committed murder! Some people need to be strung up. They need to be burned at the stake!" On national TV Broussard told a tragic story of a parish employee whose elderly mother drowned in a nursing home in a neighboring parish because Federal help arrived too late. "Is someone coming to get me, son?"Broussard quoted the frantic telephone calls. "Yes, somebody's coming to get you, momma,...

TRASHED: GARBAGE AND BRIBERY PROBLEMS ALLEGED IN JEFFERSON PARISH September 30, 2005 **Exclusive** In Jefferson Parish, residents allege that garbage is piling up on peoples' curbs for weeks at a time, sources tell Rogers. All the while garbage trucks from Waste Management (who has the garbage pickup franchise in JP) roll right on by twice a day and ignore it. Rogers is told that when some irate residents confront the people on the trucks about why they're not picking up anything, the residents are either ignored or, in certain instances, solicited for bribes. "How much is it worth to ya?"...

Like children who bawl anew as they recount and embellish a scrape, pols will often weep at their own false stories. Bill Clinton was often emotionally moved by his own lies. Howard Dean, needing a good lie to punctuate a speech on the dangers of requiring parental consent for abortion, made up a story about counseling an "incest" victim looking for an abortion. This generated in him the appropriate level of indignation to wow a NARAL audience during his presidential campaign. Two-bit huckster Aaron Broussard joins this procession of pols. The Jefferson Parish President's crying jag on Meet the Press...

From John Casey of Chicago: "I don't blame you for being taken in by Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish. Even Tim Russert was taken in. ... I took the "Meet the Press" piece as pure political theater. ... I had planned on writing you to suggest including this Broussard nonsense in your next book of urban legends." Dozens of readers have chastised me for writing that Broussard's weepy story about his colleague's mother -- who kept calling for help, but was left to die -- was "one of the defining moments" of the hurricane coverage. Broussard was talking...

Sob Stories: Read 'Em Too Close And Weep It seemed for a moment over the weekend that the blogosphere had claimed one more victory over the mainstream media, but reaction to Aaron Broussard’s return to NBC’s “Meet the Press” shows a deep split of opinion over his comments – and the role bloggers have played. You remember Broussard, the president of New Orleans’ Jefferson Parish, from his September 4th appearance on the same show. His weeping tale of the death of a colleague’s mother was among the more emotional punctuations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and seemed to encapsulate...

Guests: Governor Rick Perry, (R-Texas); Dr. Ivor van Heerden, Director, LSU Hurricane Center; Aaron Broussard, President, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; Tom Friedman, The New York Times; Maureen Dowd, The New York Times; David Brooks, The New York Times Moderator/Panelist: Tim Russert - NBC News

La. pol slams Russert for tragedy 'nitpicking' BY HELEN KENNEDY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER HOUSTON - The Louisiana official who broke America's heart when he wept on TV about the failure to rescue a colleague's mother in a New Orleans nursing home went back on "Meet the Press" yesterday to face questions about discrepancies in his story. "Man, get out of my face," Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard told NBC host Tim Russert, who had pointed out that Broussard got dates and details of the death wrong. "Somebody wants to nitpick a man's tragic loss of a mother because she...

It seemed for a moment over the weekend that the blogosphere had claimed one more victory over the mainstream media, but reaction to Aaron Broussard’s return to NBC’s “Meet the Press” shows a deep split of opinion over his comments – and the role bloggers have played. You remember Broussard, the president of New Orleans’ Jefferson Parish, from his September 4th appearance on the same show. His weeping tale of the death of a colleague’s mother was among the more emotional punctuations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and seemed to encapsulate the growing frustration with the government’s response. But...

Tim Russert had a chance to fess up to his viewers on Sunday and let them know that his "Meet the Press" show was used for political propaganda by Jefferson (La.) Parish President Aaron Broussard on September 4 when Broussard embellished a story about a mother of an employee that perished in the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina. Russert failed. Instead, he tried to lay a trap for the Louisiana politician. The story of the first mess is here, but let's review Broussard's unfounded claims about an elderly woman's death in the floodwaters of Katrina: Broussard's accusation was that a...

Jefferson Parish President, Aaron Broussard, meet Tim Russert, Meet the Press and the American public once again. On Sunday's popular news-information program, Broussard engaged in hand to hand combat with the King of Surprise and Interrogation, Tim Russert. To be nice, it was brutal and bloody. Somebody should have told Broussard that his stock around the state and even in his own parish has made a nosedive since Hurricane Katrina and Meet The Press. To think that he would once again allow himself to be abused, make wild allegations, become emotional fodder, be the joke of the town is strong...

It was one of the most iconic, most agonizing, most rebroadcast moments of TV coverage after Hurricane Katrina. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Sept. 4, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard sobbed as he told of a colleague's mother begging her son, day after maddening day, to be rescued: "The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything," said Broussard, justifiably upset by the slow federal response. "His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a Louisiana official, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, who appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert. My comments were that he was unhinged and I opined that he lacked the guts and fortitude it takes to deliver as a leader. I took quite a bit of heat from those on the left as they consider him a hero. Turns out I was too easy on him; he's a liar as well. Broussard delivered one of the most offensive and ridiculous unchallenged tirades I've seen. Tim Russert looked like a fool for not...

WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy. The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.) New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday...

On Sunday, September 4, Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, La., appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He broke down as he told the story of a woman stranded in a nursing home who kept calling her son for help, day after day, until she finally died on September 2, ostensibly because the federal reaction to Hurricane Katrina was too slow. Broussard's heart-wrenching story was a major moment in the anti-Bush media frenzy that followed the hurricane. Only it turns out Broussard's story was untrue. NBC has now issued a correction: New details and interviews with the son whose mother...

WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy. The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.) New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday...

Authorities said the toll would be lower if Salvador and Mable Mangano, owners of the St. Rita's nursing home in town of Chalmette, had heeded warnings to evacuate their patients as Katrina came ashore Aug. 29. "The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not," said Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti. "They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people." The Manganos were released on $50,000 bond each; each of the 34 counts against them carries up...

Thursday, September 15, 2005 IN KATRINA'S WAKEPolitician caught in tearful lieParish prez fabricates claim about feds leaving coworker's mom to die Posted: September 15, 20052:06 p.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The president of a Louisiana parish tearfully told a national TV audience the heartbreaking story of a coworker whose mother was left to die in a flooded nursing home days after Hurricane Katrina immobilized New Orleans – but, as it turns out, the story isn't true. The blog WuzzaDem.com uncovered the truth-stretching rhetoric of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's account he shared on "Meet the Press" Sept. 4 as he emotionally...

http://wuzzadem.com

The owners, Mable and Salvador Mangano, turned down an offer from local officials to take the patients out by bus, and did not bother to call in an ambulance service with which they had a contract, he said. ....... The nursing home tragedy had been described more than a week ago by Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, who told a national television audience how an emergency official busy fighting the flood had lost his mother. "She called him and said 'are you coming, son, is somebody coming?' And he said 'yeah mama, somebody's coming to get ya, somebody's coming...

<p>St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago.</p>

Security chief visits Jefferson Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard handed a tattered American flag to the nation's security czar Wednesday and asked him to devote every possible resource to reestablishing a "sustainable living condition" in the suburban community within a month of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. In recounting the private session of about 25 parish and federal officials, Broussard said he eschewed Chertoff's request to tour wind- and flood-ravaged Jefferson neighborhoods Wednesday. By the time he arrived for a 5 p.m. meeting at the parish's Emergency Operations Center in Marrero, Chertoff would have witnessed the worst of Katrina's massacre during earlier...

The nursing home that Aaron Broussard has been on TV crying about his friend's mother who drowned, was ask to leave by bus and the owner of the nursing home refused to leave. The county came by to pick them up in a bus and the owner refused the offer.

Arron Brousard, President of Jefferson Parish, claimed that the Emergency Management Director for his area mother was trapped in a building for 5 days, calling her son every day until she drowned on last Friday.

I just caught an interview on CNN of Aaron Broussard, a Democrat who is the President of Jefferson Parish, Lousiana. The essence of his rant was that the federal government in general and FEMA in particular are "covering their butts" by concealing the number of dead. At one point Broussard said, verbatim, that FEMA was trying to hide the fact that they had "murdered" thousands of people through their bureaucratic incompetence. This is how the Democrats will try to exploit this tragedy. A couple sidenotes: given his claim that there was an astronomical number of dead, the CNN interviewer asked...

On NBC's ``Meet the Press'' Sunday morning, Broussard complained bitterly about the slow federal response to the New Orleans flood, demanding investigations and resignations. "We have been abandoned by our own country," Broussard said. "Whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership." Asked by host Tim Russert whether state and local officials deserved more of the blame, he replied, "They were told like me, every single day, `The cavalry's coming,' on a federal level, `The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's...