Bonfires lit along the Mississippi

Every year, Corey Zeringue, 25, builds a bonfire on the Mississippi River levee with family and friends to light on Christmas Eve.Most years, Zeringue and his crew build a traditional, teepee-shaped structure.

There are more than 100 of them, standing like sentinels along 10 miles of the levee between Gramercy and Convent, ready to be lit Tuesday night.

This year, Zeringue decided to bring back a design he’s done only once before — the letters “LSU” created in the medium of logs and measuring 12 feet high, 24 feet long and 8 feet deep.

Zeringue first built the LSU bonfire in 2008.

“It was one of the last bonfires my grandpa saw,” he said of Clarence “Ken” Zeringue, who died in October 2009.

Corey Zeringue decided to build the LSU design this year in memory of his grandfather, and on a sunny afternoon Monday, in a biting cold breeze, he and others were putting the final touches on the structure.

Dustin Jenkins was the artist for the huge purple-and-gold tiger eye painted on the grass of the sloping levee in front of the structure.

Many of the bonfire builders like to add cane reeds to their bonfire structures — the joints in the cane reeds pop like firecrackers, and the burning green leaves emit sparks to add to the show.

“I started building bonfires on the levee when I was 9 years old,” said Albert Laiche, 71, of Paulina, who was out with family members on Monday, adding a layer of cane reed, secured by wiring, around their bonfire teepee.

The structure is 11 feet high, and the long, graceful, green cane reeds are about 16 feet long, completely covering the solid teepee of logs beneath.

“When I was a little boy, we couldn’t afford firecrackers” and the popping reeds sounded like them, he said.

Bonfire builders add real firecrackers as well.

The weather is expected to be clear and cold in St. James Parish on Christmas Eve, down in the low 30s. Before the start of the bonfires at 7 p.m., officials will check to make sure there’s not a wind blowing from the south, toward the towns across River Road from the levee.

If that happens, the bonfire will be delayed until New Year’s Eve, but those who live in the area said they can’t remember that ever happening.

The people who build the bonfires, as well as folks watching the show from their yards across the road from the levee, share their hospitality and food — gumbo is a traditional favorite — with thousands of visitors on Christmas Eve.

Pat Dupuy, tourism officer with the St. James Welcome Center, said two restaurants in the area, Café Perique on Main Street in Gramercy and Creole House Café on La. 3125 in Paulina, will be open Tuesday until 6 p.m.

Visitors who care to travel River Road from Gramercy down to Convent — at some point, there will be a stretch of road without many bonfire structures — will find a fine bonfire structure with the appearance of an old plantation home, the Welham Plantation near Convent.

The bonfire structure is located across from the St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Convent. Visitors need to see the “plantation” before 7 p.m. Tuesday. After that it’s a … bonfire.

MORE FROM THE ADVOCATE

Environmentalists urge nature is best at repairing marshlands

Volunteers planting grasses and mangroves for coastal restoration.

Use the Mississippi River to rebuild Louisiana's coast

By Contributing Op-Ed columnist Davi Muth 

Coastal experts have been telling us since Katrina that our marshes are getting perilously close to a tipping point. If we don't act very quickly, we may be too late. We lacked a plan, and we lacked money. Now we have both.

As sources of funding from the BP oil disaster become available, the likelihood that big river sediment diversions -- which are proven strategies to build land -- will actually be done has some folks up in arms. Opponents of the plan, Louisiana's2012 Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, are organizing to stop it. At this critical time, when restoration plans can finally become reality, it is important to revisit the clear science and community need that drove the master plan's creation. It succeeded with both broad public support and unanimous passage in the Legislature.

The scientists who worked on the master plan concluded that only the sediment carried by the river can build sufficient land to begin to offset our frightening rate of land loss. Some opponents respond that "it will take too long" and "the river doesn't carry as much sediment as it used to." Those arguments truly leave me scratching my head. They seem the best possible arguments for getting started on big diversions immediately.

Whether or not the Mississippi River can build land is not a scientific question. The evidence is what is beneath our feet. The evidence continues to accumulate every day in the few places like the Wax Lake outlet and West Bay where we allow the river to empty into shallow water. To be able to go on living here, we just have to let it do so now in a way we can control and in places where it can do the most good. This is exactly what the master plan proposes.

The rub is all that river water introduced into our salty estuaries. Opponents argue that the change in salinities will destroy our fisheries. What they really mean is that it will move our fisheries. Estuaries are where freshwater and saltwater meet -- and there will always be a place where that mixing can take place on our coast. Right now fresh and saltwater meet at the bases of our levees. It's the salt, subsidence and sea level rise that are eating our marsh and bringing the sea to our doors. That is good for shrimp and oysters and speckled trout -- while it lasts.

The problem is, it can't last. The very forces that make estuarine fishing so good so close to home are the forces destroying our marsh. Once the marsh is gone the fisheries will collapse. The antidote is the river and its sediment -- what built the marshes in the first place. It ain't rocket science.

Some of us want to cling to the comforting illusion that we can dredge our way out of this crisis. If you read the master plan, you'll discover that it proposes to spend $20 billion on dredging for marsh creation over the next 50 years. For that it projects we'll end up with 200 square miles of new or maintained marsh. In the meantime, spending a fourth of that total on sediment diversions will net us 300 square miles.

So, for about $25 billion we get about 500 square miles under that scenario. But that is measured against the 1,900 square miles we've already lost. And it has to be measured against the additional 770 square miles that we are going to lose over the next 50 years if we do nothing. So we are still going to be down an additional 270 square miles even if we manage to raise and spend the $25 billion. What if by some miracle we could raise and spend even more on dredging?

Dredging takes the sand and heavy sediments off the bottom of the river. But there is a reason we call her the "Big Muddy." Most of the sediment the river carries doesn't lie on the bottom -- 80 percent of it is suspended, unavailable to the dredges. That clay and fine silt is what built most of coastal Louisiana. That is what is being wasted. We would be insane to let 80 percent of the land-building sediment slip past us, unavailable to rebuild our coast.

So when we talk about not having enough time or river water destroying fisheries, what we really mean is not enough time for us here today. What we really mean is moving the fish and shrimp and oysters from where they are now easy to harvest, to somewhere else, making it more difficult for us.

Those are legitimate concerns. But for us the writing is already on the wall -- our home is disappearing before our eyes, and the fisheries will go with it.

Shouldn't we really be concerning ourselves with them? Shouldn't we make the necessary adjustments now so that there is something for our children and our grandchildren? Will it take too long for them if we start now to build a new coast? Isn't a fishery a little farther away better for them than no fishery at all?

David P. Muth is director of the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Program for the National Wildlife Federation.

©  NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

Bayou Bienvenue field trip

As the East Coast is learning today, hurricanes are not for sissies. And a good levee system is not a luxury. When that wind comes pounding at your own door, you see the situation quite differently.

Anyhow, Sandy is banging on other folks' doors tonight, although it is a bit chilly here.

Saturday morning, I met a bunch of other people at the Greater Little Zion Baptist Church for a field trip with the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development and the National Wildlife Federation, which has a local chapter. Happy Johnson and Amanda Moore from NWF led us on a tour of the Lower 9th Ward levee and Bayou Bienvenue.

One of Amanda's primary responsibilities is educating people about wetland loss and leading the MRGO Must Go coalition. "Mr. Go" (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet), as it is known here, is an Army Corp of Engineers' $88 million boondoggle that destroyed thousands of acres of wetlands and storm protection around Southeast Louisiana.

Its intent, back in the 1950s, was to create a shorter route to New Orleans than the Mississippi, which winds about 100 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. MRGO was completed in 1968.

As it has turned out, it costs $20,000 per ship to pass through Mr. Go and also compromises the surrounding communities during storms. Flooding has become a much bigger problem. The influx of salt water killed the cypress forest that protected the region.

Now the federal government has decided to "de-authorize" Mr. Go. But how do you fill in a ditch that size? Well, you can't. The coalition wants BP's fines through the Restore Act to fix much of the damage, since the channel was dug primarily to help the oil industry.

Restoring the ecosystem would take decades. They'd have to replant cypress trees by creating new land and literally planting seeds! Twenty-five acres are currently being cultivated as a trial.

The land estimated to be impacted is 618,000 acres of marshland.

Here are the facts thanks to WNF, Environmental Defense Fund, Audubon Society and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation:

• Every hour, Louisiana loses a football field of wetlands
• These wetlands act as a "horizontal levee" between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. As wetlands disappear, so do the natural defenses they provide, like storm surge protection, wind buffering and water filtration.
• This drastic loss of wetlands leaves coastal communities increasingly vulnerable to hurricanes, floods and other disasters, like the 2010 BP oil spill
• Coastal restoration projects will create jobs and rebuild our wetlands, safeguarding our cities and supporting our seafood industry.

'Swamp People' promotes Louisiana

Popular 'Swamp People' show to promote tourism

Published: Sunday, February 05, 2012, 7:15 AM

 By Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune 

The Big Apple has been invaded by the Louisiana swamplands. Latching on to the popularity of the History Channel's "Swamp People" in an effort to turn interest in the television show into travel to Louisiana, the state Office of Tourism has joined with the cable network to create a miniature swamp habitat in New York this month.

Diane Bondareff, The Associated PressLouisiana Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne, right, and Bruce Mitchell of 'Swamp People' watch second-graders in New York get up close with an adolescent American alligator, part of an authentic south Louisiana swamp exhibit in New York's Chelsea Market.

The exhibit, inside the Chelsea Market in New York, opened Thursday and will run through Feb. 12. It features Louisiana wildlife, artisans and tourism experts.

"We want to take advantage of the interest in this show to promote ecotourism to Louisiana," said Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whose office oversees the state's tourism efforts. "We immediately knew this was something we should participate in."

The tourism office was asked to join the promotion by the "Swamp People" cast less than two weeks before the exhibit was set to launch, Dardenne said.

"Swamp People" follows a group of hunters in the Atchafalaya River Basin during the 30-day alligator hunting season. The show features a cast of competitive characters that includes a man who captures alligators with his bare hands. The television show premiered in March and went on to become the History Channel's most popular series.

The network had already planned to re-create a swamp in New York City to promote the second season, but reached out to the state for its expertise on local culture. The exhibit features a 12,100-square-foot swamp ecosystem with live alligators, turtles and vegetation native to Louisiana. Chef John Folse will be on hand to prepare Cajun and Creole food, and Henderson band Sac au Lait will provide music. The cast of "Swamp People" also will visit the exhibit.

In addition, the state suggested adding woodcarvers and a naturalist to discuss life in the swamp, Dardenne said.

He sees the exhibit as an opportunity to promote Louisiana tourism. Representatives from about 10 visitor bureaus around the state will also be on hand throughout the 10-day exhibit, answering questions about travel to Louisiana and administering a prize giveaway for a free swamp tour.

The extravagant display is a coup for the state tourism office, Dardenne said, because expense usually prohibits Louisiana from advertising itself in large cities like New York. In addition to attending the grand opening of the exhibit, Dardenne will travel to New York on Wednesday to appear on a series of nationally televised morning shows, where he will promote Thursday's premiere of "Swamp People" as well as the Louisiana bicentennial celebration and tourism.

"It would be exorbitant," Dardenne said of what it would cost to reach people nationwide to talk about those topics. "The coverage we're getting and the exposure we're getting for a relatively small amount of money, I don't know if it's calculable. We'll be getting a considerable amount of free media from this event."

The state is contributing up to $50,000 to the effort, with the History Channel providing the remainder. Dardenne did not know the full cost of the exhibit. The state portion is being drawn from the BP Event Fund, money given to the state by the oil giant following the 2010 oil spill and dedicated to promoting events in Louisiana.

"We think it's extremely well spent. It's a very wise investment for us," Dardenne said. "This is a place where a lot of New Yorkers work, but it's also a very popular tourist district."

Jaquetta White can be reached at jwhite@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3494.

© 2012 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

Remove CO2, reduce global warming and rebuild wetlands

Louisiana scientists working on plan to save coastline, fight global warming

Published: Saturday, January 28, 2012, 5:00 PM

 By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 

A team of Louisiana scientists is laying the groundwork for creating a new carbon storage industry that could both reduce the effects of global warming and rebuild wetlands along the state’s coastline. Sarah Mack, founder of New Orleans-based Tierra Resources, and Louisiana State University wetlands scientists John W. Day and Robert Lane have come up with a method for measuring the molecules of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the soils and plants that are created with coastal restoration projects.

Steven ForsterSarah Mack

Removing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is a key strategy for mitigating global warming, and thus reducing the effects of climate change. Scientists say rising levels of human-made carbon dioxide help the atmosphere hold in heat, leading to warmer worldwide temperatures. Those temperatures, scientists say, will result in a variety of harmful effects, from rising sea levels to longer periods of drought and more intense storms.

Assuring that restoration projects can store carbon for years could turn the projects into major investment targets for carbon-producing industries nationwide, including electric power generating companies and petrochemical plants that are facing potential federal and state rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

During a Thursday news conference, Mack compared carbon reduction to losing weight.

“You either eat less or you exercise,” she said.

But scientists don’t have it easy, she said. Restoration projects don’t create big chunks of coal that are easy to count. Instead, they have to measure the amount of carbon absorbed as plants grow, and then how much remains in wetland soils after the plants die and decompose.

The process must also take into account whether the effects of global warming, including sea level rise, might in the future upset the process, with the wetlands sinking below the water and freeing the carbon to again enter the atmosphere.

The American Carbon Registry, created to certify carbon credits, is now reviewing the Tierra Resources method to assure it meets such standards.

Industries such as New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. have been investing in carbon-reduction projects for almost a decade, “banking” the credits in anticipation of federal regulations aimed at reducing industrial carbon emissions to 1990 levels.

View full sizeEllis Lucia, The Times-Picayune archiveBarry Blumenthal, left, of Mandeville uses a dibble and Mary Glackmeyer of New Orleans plants marsh grass in Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in May 2010.

Entergy, which operates electric utilities in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi and owns electrical plants in several other states, is paying for development of the Tierra Resources wetlands carbon offset methodology, in part because of the threat to the company’s future by climate change, a company official said. A 2010 study co-sponsored by Entergy and America’s Energy Coast found that the effects of climate change could result in an annual economic loss to the Gulf coast of $350 billion.

“Our service territory is in the unique position of being at risk of the effects of climate change, including the loss of parts of our service territory, our customers and our assets,” said Entergy executive Steve Tullos.

Development of privately financed carbon sequestration projects also is being promoted by the state as part of its $50 billion, 50-year coastal restoration and protection master plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency agreed in 2010 to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants and petroleum refineries, which together make up about 40 percent of the nation’s emissions. It’s unclear when those regulations will be completed or enforced, but the voluntary market continues to expand.

And California, which would rank on its own as the 12th-largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, is about to launch its own carbon reduction program by the end of next year that’s aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, or about 25 percent below today’s levels.

Assuring that the carbon credits are valid has remained a concern, though, both for the industries paying for projects to establish the carbon reductions, and for the voluntary associations and governments enforcing the reductions.

The Chicago Climate Exchange, established in 2003 to create a financial market for carbon trading, updated its rules last year to require the carbon offset credits be certified under approved science-based protocols.

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327.

© 2012 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

New Orleans escapes hurricanes one more year

2011 hurricane season leaves central Gulf Coast largely undisturbed

 By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune 

The 2011 hurricane season ends Wednesday, closing the book on another yet another summer that, in the long view, was ominously busier than usual -- but left the central Gulf Coast largely undisturbed. The season's total of 19 tropical storms tied for the third-most-active since record-keeping began in 1851, and continues the trend of bustling hurricane seasons that began in 1995, the National Hurricane Center said.

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Yet this year's storms mostly lashed open water.

The local exception was Tropical Storm Lee, a storm that never developed to hurricane strength but dumped heavy rains over southeast Louisiana on Labor Day weekend.

Lee flooded scores of homes in low-lying parts of St. Tammany, Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes outside the federal government's multibillion-dollar hurricane defense system.

Otherwise, none of the year's seven hurricanes even entered the Gulf of Mexico, except perhaps little-known Hurricane Rina, which dawdled briefly at the doorstep in the Yucatan Channel before falling apart in late October.

For the sixth straight year -- a record -- the U.S. mainland was spared a strike by a major hurricane of Category 3 or higher. There were three such major storms this year.

Still, Hurricane Irene, the one hurricane to strike the United States, did $10 billion in damage and killed 55 people in late August, according to the National Hurricane Center.

EnlargeAndrew Boyd, The Times-PicayuneG. ANDREW BOYD / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Rhett Hebert of Covington plays in the splash along the Mandeville, La., lakefront as water from Tropical Storm Lee pushes in September 3, 2011. Rhett was out with his mom and brother to see what the storm was doing.Tropical Storm Lee pushes water onto the Northshore gallery (22 photos)

The Category 1 storm scraped northward past Cape Hatteras and made landfall near New York City. After its winds dissipated, its rains destroyed billions of dollars worth of property further north in Vermont.

Closer to home, the Army Corps of Engineers continued rebuilding a completely redesigned system of levees, floodwalls, floodgates and other barriers to replace the flawed system that failed catastrophically after the near miss of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

At the opening of the 2011 hurricane season, the corps' deadline, the federal agency pointed to a much-improved system constructed after six years of breakneck work.

Although not finished, the new hurricane "risk reduction" system was built to protect against a target storm even before its last components are fully finished. That target storm is one that has a one percent chance of hitting the area in any given year.

During the 2011 hurricane season, work continued on a massive set of pumps and floodgates below Harvey that would protect most of the West Bank. Even short of completion, however, it now provides the mandated protection, said corps spokesman Rene Poche.

Among other projects, Poche said, work continues on raising some Mississippi River levees below English Turn in Algiers and Belle Chasse; on the reconstruction of the southern terminus of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway where it ties into a protection levee; and on levee protection along the western edge of Kenner.

Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.

© 2011 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

Conservationists protect cypress-tupelo swamp

Conservation groups' purchase will preserve 675 acres of Maurepas Swamp

 Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 

A consortium of conservation groups has arranged the purchase of 675 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp bordering the town of Maurepas, assuring its protection as a refuge for migratory waterfowl, neotropical songbirds and several species of ducks. Saving the trees from logging also protects them as a hurricane storm surge and wind barrier for nearby communities.

Higher ground on the properties in rural Livingston Parish also protects part of a land bridge used by Louisiana black bears migrating between the Atchafalaya River delta and forested areas to the north.

The three properties were purchased by the Conservation Fund from the Fritchie family, Canal Land Co. and Bilten LLC, and then sold to the Land Trust of Southeast Louisiana for about $1 million. The Conservation Fund connects willing landowners with conservation organizations and federal agencies, purchasing wildlife habitat with its own money and then getting repaid by the buyers.

In the Maurepas Swamp, property owners wanting to clear-cut cypress have run into problems in recent years with the Army Corps of Engineers, which has prohibited building log roads through wetlands, and with environmentalists intent on saving cypress from being turned into garden mulch.

“Buying property through these types of measures means circumventing the head-to-head conflicts between landowner and regulatory agencies, particularly as related to cypress logging,” said Ray Herndon, Louisiana state director with the Conservation Fund.

The land trust used a $1 million bird conservation grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to acquire the property. The grant allows the area to become part of the National Audubon Society’s West Pontchartrain-Maurepas Swamp Important Bird Area Habitat Conservation project.

The original landowners retain mineral rights for at least 10 years, but there are no plans to explore for oil or gas, said Dr. Jay Addison, president of the land trust. No forestry will be allowed on the property, except to remove invasive species, he said.

The trust, created in 2004 and based in Hammond, owns or controls 2,500 acres in Louisiana, including the 9 Mile Island property at Lake St. Catherine in eastern New Orleans.

The Maurepas wetland properties abut the state’s 68,000-acre Lake Maurepas Wildlife Management Area, which was established in the late 1990s with assistance from the Conservation Fund. The fund added 1,700 acres to the management area in 2009.

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While this latest acquisition is small, compared with the 100,000 acres of cypress-tupelo forest already protected in Maurepas Swamp, keeping higher land along Chinquapin canal from being developed assures that protected wetlands to the east and south will not be fragmented, said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Gulf of Mexico for the National Audubon Society.

“The 675 acres is a critical parcel within the larger conservation landscape for many of the birds we’re interested in,” Driscoll said. Many of the species, including several that are threatened or endangered, need large areas not affected by development for both feeding ranges and breeding areas, she said.

Migratory waterfowl using the area as a resting stop during their migration and as a wintering ground include northern pintail, lesser scaup, and mottled and mallard ducks.

For hunters, protecting the land both guarantees their catch and a continued economic benefit from their hunting, she said.

The new property and another 800 acres nearby will protect 3,800 breeding pairs of the prothonotary warbler, considered the “canary” of the swamp and a rapidly declining species, and 3,500 breeding pairs of the northern parula, also believed to be in decline. It also will protect 200 breeding pairs of the painted bunting.

Other species found in the cypress swamp include the yellow-throated warbler, yellow-billed cuckoo and wood thrush.

The area also is used by species more likely to be recognized by Louisianans, including white ibis, bald eagle, little blue and green herons; and those rarely seen, including king and yellow rails and least bitterns.

More acquisitions of Maurepas Swamp land are likely, Herndon said, making it a hot spot for both conservation and wetland restoration efforts.

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327.

© 2011 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

Disgraced governor, released from prison, engaged

Edwin Edwards, new fiancee have possible future as reality TV stars

Published: Monday, June 27, 2011, 6:33 PM     Updated: Monday, June 27, 2011, 8:25 PM

 By Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune 

BATON ROUGE -- He is a twice-divorced great-grandfather, weeks away from his 84th birthday, who served 16 years as governor of Louisiana and recently returned home from an unplanned eight-year sojourn in federal custody.

FacebookEdwin Edwards and his fiance, Trina Grimes Scott.

She is a buxom blonde from Alexandria, a Republican in her early 30s, whose likes include Willie Nelson, the Real Housewives of Atlanta, and traveling with her sweetheart.

And one day soon this happy couple - Edwin Washington Edwards and his new fiancee, Trina Grimes Scott - could be the latest semi-celebrities to take their act to reality TV.

Less than six months after his release from the Oakdale federal penitentiary, Edwards let it be known over the weekend that he has a new fiance and a potential new career in the works.

Edwards and Scott are working with Shaun Sanghani, an Alexandria native and Tulane graduate who, according to his website, also has produced a Travel Channel series called "Girls, Guns and Gators" and has several other projects in the works.

For someone who reportedly was surprised to learn on his release from prison in January that cell phones now came with cameras, Edwards made the announcement in a most modern fashion: on Facebook, where the silver fox had collected more than 4,600 "friends" as of Monday afternoon.

The former governor also used his Facebook page to announce that he and Scott are working on a "possible upcoming television project" with Sanghani.

Neither Edwards nor Scott could be reached for comment. But Edwards' biographer, Leo Honeycutt, said the two became friendly after Scott read his book, "Edwin Edwards: Governor of Louisiana," and started writing him letters in prison.

"Then she started to go see him and it just sprang from there," Honeycutt said.

On her own Facebook page, Scott writes that she and Edwards have been together for "about a year," and said she has been encouraged by the number of people who have contacted them since the news became public.

"He's such a pleasure to take care of! It's so great to see all the wonderful things people are posting about him," Scott wrote to one well-wisher.

It would be the third marriage for Edwards, who was married for 40 years to Elaine Edwards before divorcing in 1989 and marrying his girlfriend, Candy, in 1994. They divorced in 2004, while Edwards was serving his 10-year sentence on federal corruption charges in connection with the awarding of state casino licenses.

Sanghani, in an email message, said the show is in the very early stages of development and has not yet been pitched to any TV networks. Calling Edwards "one of the most animated political leaders of the last century," Sanghani said the show would focus on his post-incarceration personal life.

"At 84, he is as strong as ever and still in colorful form," Sanghani wrote. "We hope to capture that same charisma and charm in his personal life as he re-enters society after a lengthy prison sentence. While we cannot comment on any specifics, SSS Entertainment looks forward to developing this project alongside him and his new family as we work to unveil a side of him nobody has yet publicly seen."

•••••••

Jan Moller can be reached at jmoller@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5207.

© 2011 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.