New Orleans

I enjoyed Farah Stockman's May 8 op-ed " The Hub vs. the Big Easy: Unlike Boston, New Orleans prides itself on unabashed displays of friendliness . " I lived in other places for a long time before I finally had the revelation that strangers in other cities are not as comfortable talking to strangers as I am. However, it is important to New Orleanians that the rest of the world understand that what "brought this economy to its knees"...

Forced to fight for his name in a "public trial" against the NFL, Browns linebacker Scott Fujita vowed he did not participate in the New Orleans Saints' bounty program. Fujita, suspended for three games by the league for allegedly contributing "a significant amount" of money to a pay-for-hits pool while he played for the Saints, maintained his innocence on Tuesday in his first public comments since the disturbing scandal broke. "That is not true," he said. The 10-year veteran has appealed the penalty handed down by commissioner Roger Goodell.

NEW ORLEANS -- The Army Corps of Engineers yesterday disputed a state-commissioned report that said the agency was solely responsible for the decades of mistakes that led to the devastating floods after Hurricane Katrina. The corps worked with local and state groups "throughout the planning, design, and operation of hurricane protection in New Orleans," the agency said in a news release. "The point is that all levels of government are part of the team that is responsible for the flood protection of the New Orleans area," said Vic Harris, corps spokesman.

NEW ORLEANS — After reveling in the bacchanalia of the famed Bourbon Street the night before, we were looking for a different cultural side of the city, if you will. Outside the French Quarter, in the slightly hipper neighborhood of Marigny, we stumbled across just what we were after. For those in the know and wandering tourists alike, there's d.b.a., which hosts live music seven nights a week. Most of the musicians are local, and supporting them is the venue's primary goal.

NEW ORLEANS - Shelia Phillips doesn’t see the New Orleans that Mayor Ray Nagin talks about, the one on its way to having just as many people and a more diverse economy than it did before Hurricane Katrina. How could she? From the front porch of her house in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, it’s hard to see past the vegetation slowly swallowing the property across the way. Nearby homes are boarded up or still bear the fading tattoos left by search and rescue teams nearly four years ago. The fence around a playground a few blocks down is padlocked.

NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of people who fled Hurricane Gustav forced the city to reluctantly open its doors yesterday, but nearly 1.2 million homes and businesses across Louisiana were still without electricity, and officials said it could take as long as a month to fully restore power. As residents came home to New Orleans, President Bush returned to the site of one of the biggest failures of his presidency to show that the government had turned a corner since its bungled response to Katrina.

Driving into the parking lot at the Sun Tavern, I felt as if I were approaching a private home. And indeed, this building, which dates from 1741, was a private home for much of its existence. That history makes for a charming restaurant, with low, beamed ceilings, polished pine floors, a welcoming fireplace in the lounge, and several intimate dining rooms. The atmosphere is rustic yet elegant, with crisp white linens and sparkling stemware at each table. Running the restaurant is a labor of love for owners Larry and Carol Friedman, who bought...

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans’s heritage as the cradle of jazz helps it draw millions of visitors each year. Yet numerous homes and music halls that incubated the art form have disappeared, with the city allowing the most recent of them to be razed late last year. In the push to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina and eliminate eyesores, officials unwittingly approved the demolition of the childhood home of jazz saxophone great Sidney Bechet. While many landmarks still stand, the city lacks markers at many places where pioneers lived and learned how to play.

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin told a Senate committee yesterday that the rebuilding of New Orleans is getting shortchanged in light of the billions poured into the war in Iraq, and he suggested racism is part of the explanation. Seventeen months after Hurricane Katrina struck, Nagin said he doesn't see evidence of "the will to really fix New Orleans. " "I think it's more class than anything, but there's racial issues associated with it also," said the black mayor of this mostly black city.

NEW ORLEANS -- Karen Conway looks up from the cup of coffee she is nursing at the French Quarter landmark Cafe du Monde and raises both eyebrows, her green eyes going wide. This, she says, is the look she got from friends back home in Florissant, Mo., when she told them she planned to visit New Orleans with her husband -- her small contribution to the epic rebuilding of the city. "They said, Why would you ever want to go back to that place?" she says. "They just think it's a wasteland.

I enjoyed Farah Stockman's May 8 op-ed " The Hub vs. the Big Easy: Unlike Boston, New Orleans prides itself on unabashed displays of friendliness . " I lived in other places for a long time before I finally had the revelation that strangers in other cities are not as comfortable talking to strangers as I am. However, it is important to New Orleanians that the rest of the world understand that what "brought this economy to its knees"...

I just got back from New Orleans and I've been going through withdrawal. It's been three days since a bartender called me "Sugar" or a stranger chatted me up in the street. Don't get me wrong. I love Boston. I have come to accept the arms-length way we show affection for each other. I understand that when the lady-with-the-dog-in-my-condo raises her eyebrow at me, it means: "Are you my new neighbor? Welcome to the building!" I know that the hair-trigger honk a millisecond after a light turns green is just the guy-behind-me's way of saying hello.

Thousands turned out Friday to see New Orleans rapper Mystikal perform one last time before returning to jail on a probation violation. The rapper, whose real name is Michael Tyler, was released from a Louisiana prison in 2010 after serving six years for sexual battery and extortion. He returns to jail May 14 following a February arrest on a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse battery. In April, the rapper's attorney, Roy Maughan Jr., said Tyler and the victim in the domestic battery case were longtime domestic partners.

The World War II Museum, which opened June 6, 2000, in New Orleans, expects its three millionth visitor to arrive sometime Tuesday. The museum has been experiencing record-setting attendance. Last month, it had a total of 44,807 visitors — the most ever in a one-month period — and over 1,000 more than its previous record month in March 2010. Based on current visitor total and visitation trends, the museum will expect the three millionth visitor around midmorning. A presentation ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. CDT.

As the morning sun spilled over the New Orleans' skyline Monday, jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Ellis Marsalis and others kicked off International Jazz Day with a sunrise concert that included ritual drumming and a string of performances, a day that culminated in the evening with a grand all-star concert at the United Nations. In the morning, trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Kermit Ruffins, singer Stephanie Jordan and others performed "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "Afro Blue" as the sun rose on Congo Square, an area near the French Quarter neighborhood where slaves once gathered...

A first-time PGA Tour winner one weekend, a married man the next. The spring of 2012 will go down as a memorable time in Jason Dufner's life. Although it took pair of playoff holes, Dufner finally proved he could hold it together and make a mid-tournament lead stand up, making a birdie on his second extra trip down the par-5 18th hole at the TPC Louisiana to win the Zurich Classic in a playoff with Ernie Els. "It's always really tough playing on Sundays whether you're in the lead or middle of the pack, and today I was fighting, trying to win...

NEW ORLEANS -- The man marched down the street in daylight, armed with a paintball rifle that had been converted to shoot with lethal force. He then blasted a newly installed camera in hopes of ridding the drug-ridden neighborhood of police surveillance. But the shooter's image was saved on the camera's hard drive. "All it did was get him arrested," said New Orleans' chief technology officer, Greg Meffert, with a chuckle. "The camera immediately notified the police and tracked him until he was caught.

The Hornets' homecoming turned into another Kobe show. Kobe Bryant scored 18 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter as the Los Angeles Lakers beat New Orleans, 113-107, last night, disappointing the standing-room crowd that put aside its Hurricane Katrina problems for a night of cheering on its team. It was the first professional sporting event in New Orleans since the Aug. 29 storm destroyed much of the city, scattered residents across the United States, and sent the Hornets to Oklahoma City for the season.

A new book captures the quirks and talent of one of New Orleans' most celebrated and eccentric entertainers, as well as his ups and downs and the era that shaped him. The title of the book, published by the Historic New Orleans Collection, is "Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans. " Later in life, K-Doe proclaimed himself the "Emperor of the World," and few fans would disagree with him. K-Doe emerged in the early 1960s rock and R&B scene, and until his death at age 65 in 2001 was one of the most unforgettable figures in New Orleans music.