Corps report ignores call for specifics

The Army Corps of Engineers, which was directed by Congress to prepare a report on how to protect Louisiana from a Category 5 hurricane, is poised to issue a vaguely-worded document that will not list the specific projects that would be needed to secure the state's fragile coastline. The report was to be issued Friday, but the corps postponed action until July 10 after several heated exchanges with representatives of Gov. Kathleen Blanco who say the Bush administration has inappropriately removed a list of specific projects that corps engineers had included in the document's initial draft.

Instead of listing the projects, a draft of the report shown to state officials merely outlined a "decision matrix" the administration would use to decide how to pick projects in the future to protect Louisiana.

from the Times Picayune