• EDITORIAL: Ignoring the evidence
The New Orleans Police Department needs to track down $19,000 in cash that disappeared from its evidence room, but beyond that, the department needs to tighten lax procedures that allowed the money to go missing in the first place.

• EDITORIAL: Be up front with taxpayers
The new Veterans Affairs hospital expected to anchor a medical district near downtown New Orleans is among the centerpieces of our long-term recovery. Yet Mayor Ray Nagin's administration is maintaining its secretiveness about some of the project's most important details -- and that's unfair to the public.

• EDITORIAL: Your orders: Be prepared
When Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré retired from his Army command in January, he said that Katrina left him with a passion to "be a champion of something." One of his big concerns, he said, was how unprepared the nation still was for catastrophe.

• EDITORIAL: Another kind of obstruction
Debris from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has clogged Louisiana bayous and lakes for more than three years -- so long that it's been joined by junk from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

• EDITORIAL: Union contract is a bad move
Orleans Parish School Board President Torin Sanders certainly is eager to help out the teachers' union.

• EDITORIAL: City Park's example
The rebuilding of New Orleans' City Park remains one of the brightest spots in our post-Katrina recovery -- a point reinforced by its latest addition.

• EDITORIAL: Keep the meals coming
The Louisiana Public Service Commission rejected a chance to redeem its image, which has been battered by audits that criticized the panel for eating and drinking on companies it regulates.

• EDITORIAL: A tale of two contracts
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin wants to raise taxes to balance next year's budget. Instead, he should trim expenses by renegotiating the city's huge garbage collection contracts and saving millions a year.

• EDITORIAL: Recovery going forward
The Obama campaign's policy statement on the Gulf Coast's recovery promises to provide Category 5 hurricane protection, help restore Louisiana's wetlands and shake loose billions in recovery dollars that are stuck in the federal bureaucracy.

• Jazz and Razz
JAZZ

• EDITORIAL: Cameras useless? Cut them
New Orleanians have patiently waited for the Nagin administration and its contractors to deliver on promises to install up to 1,000 working crime cameras that would help convict violent offenders and reduce crime.

• EDITORIAL: The Coast Guard's move
The Coast Guard has deservedly gotten a public relations beating since a July 23 Mississippi River oil spill exposed serious violations and lax oversight in the towing industry.

• EDITORIAL: Hate among us
Cynthia Lynch's family describes a timid woman who had never ventured outside of her home state of Oklahoma before traveling Friday to St. Tammany Parish for a Klan initiation.

• EDITORIAL: An eye on our money
Louisianians will be able to keep a much closer eye on how the state spends public money now that the budget office has put a wide range of information on line.

• Signs of recovery
-- City Park Amusement Park has a new, bigger Ferris wheel to replace one that was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. The new ride, built with Dow Chemical Foundation donations, seats 48 people.

• EDITORIAL: Say no to the union
Before Katrina and the levee breaks, the Orleans Parish school system seemed hopelessly mired in failure.

• EDITORIAL: Not so young at heart
The childhood obesity epidemic has been linked to a wide range of health ills, but new research showing clogged arteries in children is especially worrisome.

• Jazz and Razz
JAZZ

• EDITORIAL: Sign up for assistance
If you've suffered through back-to-back storms that left you with a mess to clean up, the last thing you may want to do is fill out a bunch of paperwork.

• EDITORIAL: Milestone for Federal City
After years of planning and hard work, the proposed Federal City in Algiers reached another turning point recently as the state sold the first $25 million in bonds for the project.

• EDITORIAL: Teenage wasteland
Nebraska's state Legislature will go into special session Friday to fix a poorly written safe haven law that was intended to protect newborns but has instead resulted in families abandoning older children and teenagers.

• EDITORIAL: Living high on Citizens
Terry Lisotta racked up more than $285,000 in expenses during three years at the helm of Louisiana's state-run property insurance program -- a lavish amount considering that the insurer of last resort is not supposed to compete with the private sector.

• EDITORIAL: NORA's purchase
The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority is venturing into uncharted waters by purchasing an abandoned Gentilly shopping mall -- and the agency will have to work diligently to redevelop the site while protecting taxpayers.

• EDITORIAL: An unacceptable delay
Six months is a long time to wait if you're fighting a disease like HIV/AIDS or if you are an agency that works to help those patients.

• EDITORIAL: Paved with good intentions
State officials announced last month a plan to spend at least $1 million on a barrier designed to keep cars from plunging into a canal along Airline Drive in St. Charles Parish.

• EDITORIAL: Mayor Nagin's tax proposal
As New Orleanians continue to rebuild their city, signs are emerging that the national economic crisis will impact state expenditures and may inevitably reach us.

• Jazz and Razz
JAZZ

• EDITORIAL: Eroding our future
The Breaux Act Task Force decision to close down the West Bay diversion on the Mississippi River unless more dredging money can be found is a frightening development for coastal restoration in Louisiana.

• EDITORIAL: Don't delay accountability
The state Department of Education is right to review complaints about Jefferson Parish schools' practice of routing standardized test scores from alternative and magnet schools to students' neighborhood schools, even if that means delaying release of the district's performance scores.

• EDITORIAL: A proven public servant
In a state fighting to change its reputation for political corruption, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has won the respect and gratitude of the public.

• EDITORIAL: Sloppy with the public's dime
Causeway Commission members patted themselves on the back this week when the state inspector general's office cleared the agency of complaints related to contracting. But before lighting celebratory cigars, commissioners should fix other problems uncovered by state investigators.

• Signs of recovery
-- Music legend Fats Domino received replacements of the Grammy awards that he lost when his Lower 9th Ward home flooded in Katrina. The Recording Academy presented the replacements as part of the world premiere of a documentary on the musician's post-Katrina experience.

• EDITORIAL: Don't erode levee standards
Louisiana officials are understandably concerned about levee costs, but weakening new design standards to make construction more affordable would be a bad bargain for the state.

• EDITORIAL: More room for early voters
No one knows when Louisianians might break the record of more than 266,800 residents who voted early this election. But if history is any guide, it won't take long. The state's previous high mark had been set during last year's gubernatorial race.

• Jazz and Razz
JAZZ