As part of our coverage of Team New Orleans, I contacted the "on the ground" coordinator, Candice Quates to learn more about her involvement in the project.

What is your background, Candice?

I push bits for a living, and take ballet classes for fun when I can.  College round one was not in Louisiana, and I moved back home after a few years of hating lake effect snow.

How did you get involved with this project? 

I offered to buy drinks for a night of the project.

How were you personally affected by Katrina?

The long answer to that question will take all night. I don't really like to focus on what happened to me, as it's so small compared to what happened to other people. I'm still here and I'm doing alright, I didn't lose everything I owned and I didn't get stuck in Texas.

I know your role as "ground support" is still evolving, but do you have ideas about what the team is going to see? 

I'm sure they are going to do the standard disaster tour, (9th Ward, Gentilly, Lakeview, Broadmoor, N.O. East, etc.) and probably hit some areas out towards the Mississippi gulf coast, too.

What are your personal experiences, knowledge of the problems withFEMA/Police, etc, that the team is coming to investigate?

 I've got lots of friends and relatives with FEMA trailer problems and other FEMA crap. They mislaid some of my paperwork too, but I'm past caring about that at this point.

 What are your thoughts about this type of citizen journalism vs. mainstream media?Do you feel C.J. has an advantage or disadvantage?

I don't think it is as much of a war as some people make it out to be.  For us, we need as much as we can get.

Thank you, Candice!

Today, Know More Media, lends its support to Chartreuse and his efforts to get the straight scoop about potential human right violations and governmental abuses in New Orleans.  Besides having several authors within the Know More Media business blog network lend their written support to Chartreuse, we also offer the following:

• $500 to help with the video crew
• Post the completed  video on Know More Media and a number of the sites with in the network
• An offer to pay one of the video crew at our author pay scale to write daily posts about their trip, their interviews, their pictures, their observations, and publish it on NewOrleansTruth.com, a site we offer to put up and host to help tell the story.

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Easton Ellsworth started this craze last month and with help of the likes of incomparable Liz Strauss, it has begun to catch a life of its own. BlogTipping is where you give three complements to a blog you read and... Continue Reading