From a Sept. 10 TruthOut account by Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo:

Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.

Survivors of Hurricane Katrina who refuse to follow the mandatory evacuation order have been handcuffed as soldiers and police force them to abandon their homes. Up to 10,000 "hold-outs" are still thought to be in New Orleans, and many are armed. (ITN, Sept. 9) The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes Sept. 9 that it feels like an "occupied" city:

From the Arizona Daily Star, Aug. 31, online at Chiapas95:

The North American Free Trade Agreement may have boosted big business, but it has had a disastrous effect on Mexicans, a Chiapas economist said.

A heat wave with high temperatures peaking at 120 degrees Fahrenheit has led to a record number of deaths of migrants crossing into the US through Arizona. The US Border Patrol reports that at least 229 immigrants have died in Arizona so far in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, a 57% increase over the previous year's total. The large number of deaths has forced the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office to use a refrigerated trailer as a temporary morgue to handle the overflow of bodies. The morgue has a capacity of 120 bodies. The trailer can hold 60 to 70 bodies, depending on whether remains are intact or skeletal. (Arizona Daily Star, Tucson; Reuters, Sept. 1)

The Denmark IMC reports that Danish police have raided part of Christiania, a longtime squatter community in an abandoned military base in Copenhagen, Denmark. About 200 riot police stormed the "freestate" compound and quickly sealed off "Fredens Eng" (Meadow of peace), where people live in trailers. In one of the biggest mass sweeps in Denmark ever, the police made over 100 arrests. Most were charged with not following police orders, although some face charges of physically resisting. The trailers have to leave under a new zoning ordinance, to clear the area for development. Writes the IMC: "The people from Christiania have resisted this new legislation for years. They wish to keep their autonomy and self managed decision making structures that have kept the place running for over 20 years..."

The New York Times Sept. 5 made it official: the oil shock has arrived. Online at the International Herald Tribune:

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the oil rigs and refineries along the Gulf Coast last week, it set off the first oil shock of the 21st century.

"This is a lot like 1973," said Daniel Yergin, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of oil, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power," and is the chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Since Monday, we've had a supply shock on top of a demand shock."

A Sept. 8 Wall Street Journal story, run in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, finds that New Orleans' "old-line" elite is already charting a racially-purged future for the city:

[I]n an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.

Another chilling story of the authorities breaking up an inspiring citizens' self-help effort in New Orleans. EMSNetwork News Sept. 6 runs a first-hand account by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, paramedics from California and both shop stewards with SEIU Local 790, who were attending an EMS conference in New Orleans and led a procession of some 200 refugees from the city. At the advice of a local police commander they marched along the Pontchartrain Expressway towards the Greater New Orleans Bridge over the Mississippi, where they were told evacuation buses were waiting. Instead they were met with gunfire over their heads and ordered back. Online at TruthOut: