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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Former N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin Will Be Facing Federal Time Out!

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George W. Bush shakes hands with Ray Nagin. They faced heavy criticism over their handling of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Breaking today, former New Orleans mayor Clearance Ray Nagin is found guilty in a federal corruption probe.

This guilty verdict may put the politico in federal time out for 30 years. Nagin was the focal focus during the horrible events that lead to New Orleans being flooded during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Nagin, an often colorful language politico once called the city of New Orleans a "Chocolate City".

He bashed the federal government after they lacked the preparedness for a catastrophe.

On January 18, 2013, Nagin was indicted on 21 corruption charges, including wire fraud, bribery, and money laundering related to his alleged dealings with two troubled city vendors following Hurricane Katrina disaster.

On February 20, 2013, Nagin pleaded not guilty in federal court to all charges.
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Four politically tarnished figures. Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco, George W. Bush and David Vitter. 
He was convicted on 20 of 21 of these charges on February 12, 2014.

CNN reports that prosecutors had accused Nagin of being at the center of a kickback scheme in which he allegedly received checks, cash, wire transfers, personal services and free travel from businessmen seeking contracts and favorable treatment from the city.

Nagin left office in 2010, after two terms in office. There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from the former mayor, who had insisted on his innocence, or his lawyers.

The charges detailed more than $200,000 in bribes, his family members allegedly received a vacation in Hawaii; first-class airfare to Jamaica; private jet travel and a limousine for New York City; and cellular phone service.

In exchange, businesses that coughed up cash for Nagin and his family won more than $5 million in city contracts, according to a January 2013 indictment.

The onetime cable-television executive was elected mayor in 2002 and was in office when the massive Katrina slammed ashore just east of New Orleans on August 29, 2005. The storm flooded more than three-fourths of the low-lying city and left more than 1,800 dead, most of them in across Louisiana.
The racist right was gleeful that a majority of Black residents were killed during Hurricane Katrina.
Supporters credited Nagin's sometimes-profane demands for aid from Washington with helping reveal the botched federal response to the storm -- a fiasco that embarrassed the George W. Bush administration and led to billions of federal dollars being poured into Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts.

But Nagin also had his critics: A congressional committee criticized him for delaying evacuation orders, and his frantic description of post-storm New Orleans as a violent wasteland with up to 10,000 dead turned out to be greatly exaggerated.

As he sought re-election in 2006, with much of the city's African-American population displaced by storm damage, Nagin was blasted for insisting that New Orleans would remain a "chocolate" city.

Former president George W. Bush won reelection in 2004. His first term was disastrous from the start. September 11, 2001 attacks were the first of many reckless hings to happen under his watch. His second term was going to be a rebound from his first term. People were war weary and divided. August 28, 2005 will be the day that Bush will always remember as his "worst day ever!"



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