Newsrack points out that not only are the press being blocked from watching the gathering of the dead from Katrina, the job has been outsourced by FEMA (although after they awarded the job Governor Bianco ended up having to pay for it, because FEMA doesn't do the contract thing so good) to Kenyon International Emergency Services, a subsidiary of SCI.

This SCI

AUSTIN – A former state funeral home regulator who said she was wrongfully fired for investigating a large funeral home chain operated by a longtime family friend ofGeorge W. Bush has settled her 2-year-old whistleblower lawsuit for $210,000.

The state will pay Eliza May and her lawyers $155,000 and Houston-based Service Corp. International will pay $55,000, said sources familiar with the agreement.

Ms. May contended in her lawsuit that she was fired in 1999 as executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission after SCI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Waltrip met with Joe Allbaugh, a top aide to Mr. Bush while he was governor, to complain about the agency's investigation of the company's homes.

After the investigation, fines totaling about $450,000 were assessed against more than 20 of SCI's affiliated funeral homes for using unlicensed embalmers. SCI has appealed, and a state hearings officer is expected to rule soon on the case.

Neither SCI, Mr. Bush nor any of the other defendants admit wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement. Attorney General John Cornyn, who was also named as a defendant as a result of a legal opinion he wrote that was favorable to SCI, represented the state in the case.

SCI spokesman Greg Bolton said only that the case has been settled to everyone's satisfaction.

"I'm told all of the parties to this litigation and their attorneys have agreed to a compromise settlement agreement, which has resulted in the dismissal of all claims," he said.

Harry Whittington of Austin, who was named presiding officer of the Funeral Service Commission after a major shakeup of agency in 1999, said his board reluctantly agreed to pay $50,000 as part of the settlement to end the 2-year-old case.

It was unclear which state agency or agencies put up the other $105,000.

Derek Howard, one of Ms. May's Austin lawyers, said he couldn't discuss terms of the agreement. "We're glad the matter has been resolved by way of settlement," he said.

Mr. Bush, Mr. Allbaugh, and the other defendants had previously denied wrongdoing.

Ms. May's lawyers had accused Mr. Bush of improperly intervening in the funeral commission investigation as a favor to his friend, Mr. Waltrip.

Mr. Waltrip served as a trustee for the George Bush Presidential Library, and SCI donated more than $100,000 toward its construction. Mr. Waltrip also contributed $45,000 to the younger Mr. Bush's gubernatorial campaigns.

While governor, Mr. Bush had dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous" and filed a statement saying he "had no conversations with SCI officials, agents or representatives concerning the investigation or any dispute arising from it."

But Newsweek reported that Mr. Bush had briefly appeared in a meeting that Mr. Allbaugh was holding in his state office with Mr. Waltrip and SCI lawyer Johnnie B. Rogers of Austin.

Mr. Rogers was quoted by the magazine as saying that Mr. Bush addressed Mr. Waltrip, saying, "Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with you?"

According to the magazine, when Mr. Waltrip responded "Yes," the governor turned his attention to Mr. Rogers. The magazine quoted Mr. Rogers as saying that Mr. Bush said, "Hey, Johnnie B., are you taking care of him?"

Asked about the report, Mr. Bush said he didn't remember what he said during the exchange. Mr. Rogers said he was misquoted.

Mr. Allbaugh went on to manage Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and is director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Of course, he's not any more - he's "helping to coordinate the private-sector response to the storm" - but we know he left FEMA in good hands.

The delay in signing the contracts has led to additional delay in the recovery of corpses as Kenyon threatened to drop shovels.

Which is to say that the bodies of american citizens are still lying rotting on the streets of New Orleans two weeks after Katrina.

FEMA says that picking up rotting dead bodies off the street is not their brief, which begs the question "How did Kenyon get into New Orleans when the Red Cross couldn't?"

FEMA first contacted Kenyon on Aug. 30 after Katrina hit. The next day, Kenyon was told where to deliver a mobile morgue in Louisiana as bodies began to surface.

Oh.

FEMA previously turned down offers of free immediate assistance from the National Funeral Directors Association. NFDA volunteers have been offered temp jobs (and presumably confidentiality agreements) from Kenyon.

I'm sure when they're done investigating themselves, Republican Congressional leadership/FEMA/Our Fearless Leader will be looking into this.