NOLA bloggers and WWL led the way on this story but now the Times Picayune is finally reporting on it. Theirlatest article reports on what blogger Matt McBride found when he cross referenced NOAH (remediation program) records with those of a demolition program.

Contractors working for New Orleans Affordable Homeownership billed
taxpayers at least $123,000 to gut 30 homes that records show were torn
down shortly thereafter — also at public expense — raising further
questions about a troubled city agency charged with a leading role in
flood recovery.

Interviews with neighbors suggest that some of that gutting work was in fact never performed.

Whether or not taxpayers were defrauded — a question that has drawn
the attention of federal investigators — the fact that city-financed
gutting crews were followed in short order by city-financed backhoe
operators suggests, at best, a City Hall management debacle.

SNIP

Matt McBride, a blogger and activist who has maintained a database of
all properties granted demolition permits since Hurricane Katrina,
cross-referenced that list with a remediation list provided by NOAH. He
found substantial crossover.

Read the rest for details