Secrets of the Katrina aid package

Fresh news over at Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch: award-winning reporter Sean Reilly has a good piece looking at the $29 billion Katrina relief package passed by Congress, and signed by Bush, to much fanfare last December.

Most media uncritically passed along news of the package, telling a story of how, after some foot-dragging, Washington had answered the prayers of Gulf Coast leaders. But what was really in the Katrina aid package? How much money does it authorize, and where does the money go? Few stopped to ask those questions, and the answers might surprise you.

Here's one teaser: $2 billion of the aid is slated to go towards "shipbuilding and conversion" -- which, as Reilly notes, is "good news mainly for Northrop Grumman, the giant defense contractor whose three shipyards in Mississippi and Louisiana suffered heavy damage."

Read the whole report here.