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GUESTS: Pratap Chatterjee, Director of Corpwatch, Damon Hewitt, Assistant Counsel at the New York office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a native of New Orleans

As tropical storm Ernesto hits Cuba this morning, we focus on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which took 1500 lives in Louisana and Mississippi last August. President Bush is making a two day visit to both states, promising that the government would learn from mistakes made last year. The White House was harshly criticised for what was seen as a slow response to the country’s worst natural disaster. Meanwhile, acclaimed film maker Spike Lee’s new documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” will air on HBO this week. Corp Watch has released a new report on Katrina entitled, “Big, Easy Money” which details how cronyism and no-bid contracts are among the biggest causes of waste and abuse in the reconstruction process. Today we begin a week long series on Katrina.

Download the Corpwatch report here: [PDF] [text]

For more information, visit www.corpwatch.org.