According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, as crime rates rapidly rose in post-Katrina New Orleans, all levels of government infused money into an extensive surveillance camera system to monitor crime hotspots.

While the nation focuses on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, weather experts warn there’s a greater threat headed for the Gulf — a hurricane season that’s expected to be more active than normal.

The spill has also shined light on major environmental concerns about the impact of the spill on aquatic life.

Today, the Dew Drop Inn is listed among New Orleans’ most endangered sites by the Louisiana Landmark Society. Eight other sites are featured on the endangered list. The society created the list five years ago to draw attention to architecturally and historically significant places in the city that have deteriorated because of neglect, abandonment or vandalism.

The first alumnus to be named president of a prestigious Catholic school for boys in New Orleans, the Rev. John J. Raphael, understands the challenges the school faces.

The population of the Gulf Coast grew twice as fast as the nation’s population between 1960 and 2008, according to a recently released US Census report on coastline populations, but the BP oil spill may change that trend.

President Barack Obama on Friday took his second trip to the Gulf Coast since an underwater oil well began spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico. At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport the president was greeted by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the response efforts.

Though President Barack Obama was less than a mile away, most residents of Grand Isle, La., never got to see his face. Some barely got to see his car. Led by a convoy of more than 20 police motorbikes and flanked by armored cars, Obama was escorted Friday to a beach in Port Fourchon, La., before riding quickly through the streets of Grand Isle to give a press conference at a Coast Guard station.

After receiving approval in April, demolition of homes began this week to pave the way for new medical centers in downtown New Orleans, and although the biomedical corridor is expected to generate thousands of jobs, it will also displace hundreds of residents and many businesses in a historic district.

President Barack Obama took full responsibility for controlling the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico at a White House news conference Thursday, but said the government would continue to rely on BP for cleanup efforts because of their superior technology and expertise.