For the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, _Governing_ sent Christopher Swope to the Mississippi coast to evaluate how far the region had come in the intervening year. “His assessment”:http://governing.com/articles/9miss.htm (not very far, largely due to continuing federal incompetence) is the fairest I’ve seen, and the fairest to CNU’s role. In an “interview”:http://www.governing.com/articles/9missqa.htm he says that he was initially skeptical that the charettes (sic) were more publicity stunt (although even if they were that, taking such substantive action early on did establish the appearance of momentum) than an actual commitment, but was glad to find otherwise.

For the most thorough coverage, of course, the Biloxi “Sun-Herald”:http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/special_packages/renewal/ and New Orleans “Times-Picayune”:http://www.nola.com/recovery/ continue their well-deserved Pulitzer-winning coverage of how plans are proceeding.