Katrina victims ask for extended hotel stays in FEMA lawsuit News
Katrina victims ask for extended hotel stays in FEMA lawsuit

[JURIST] Lawyers for victims of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] Monday asked for an extension of a program which houses displaced New Orleans residents in hotels at government expense, at an estimated $3 million per day, totaling $300 million since August 29. The request to keep the hotel program going is the latest filing in the class action lawsuit [JURIST report; PDF complaint] with 23 named plaintiffs accusing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [official website] of the wrongful denial of housing benefits to Katrina victims. FEMA had given the program a December 1 expiration date, but later extended it to December 15 after critics said this would lead to the eviction of thousands who are displaced and impoverished. In addition, 10 states – Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas – are able to apply for extensions that would last until January 7. Attorneys are seeking to extend this date even further. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.