Edwards working for change

Edwards begins tour to highlight poverty

NEW ORLEANS - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards blamed President Bush and the federal government for this city's slow recovery from Hurricane Katrina as he launched an eight-state campaign tour focused on alleviating poverty.

"He made the people of New Orleans a very specific promise that has not been met," Edwards said, referring to Bush's promise soon after the August 2005 storm that the city would be rebuilt.

Edwards, who formally kicked off his race for the Democratic nomination in New Orleans in December, returned to the city Sunday for a tour of the Lower 9th Ward, a low-income area that was among the worst-hit by Katrina. On Monday, he took questions at a town hall meeting in the French Quarter then toured Kingsley House, a charitable agency that provides education programs and other services for children in need.

At each appearance he lamented the city's slow recovery — its population remains down by around 40 percent and vast areas have yet to recover from post-storm blight. He said one of the federal government's priorities should be finding out why billions allocated for storm relief have not reached local governments and storm victims. And he said Bush should exercise more leadership in getting the problems solved.

The Bush administration says it has allocated over $110 billion to Gulf Coast hurricane recovery but local officials and storm victims say they have yet to see much of the money for needed infrastructure repairs.

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