State officials say the Road Home program will not be allowed to go after homeowners for grant overpayments until a government panel reviews each case, and the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority promised that compassion will be used in any reclaiming of grant money. More on Road Home Efforts to Recover Overpayments Will Not Create Hardships

 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

A U.S. Census Bureau survey says the parish was home to 423,520 people in July, which parish officials call low.The latest attempt to size up Jefferson Parish has stripped it of two distinctions its politicians have spent more than a year heralding: its steady growth and its status as the most populous in the state.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the parish was home to 423,520 people in July, about 30,000 fewer than those tracked in the 2000 census. The figure also knocks Jefferson down to second place behind East Baton Rouge Parish in the population race that emerged from New Orleans’ flooding and displacement in 2005.

Jefferson leaders aren’t buying the count and plan to formally contest the federal estimate, just as they did earlier this year when the state notified Parish President Aaron Broussard that Jefferson’s size for state purposes was similarly low. More on Jefferson Parish Drops to Second Most Populous in Latest Estimates

By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau, The Times Picayune
WASHINGTON — HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, whose advocacy for a plan to demolish public housing units in New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments generated international controversy, announced Monday that he will leave the job April 18.

His resignation as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development comes after two influential senators said his ability to oversee a federal program to help homeowners facing foreclosure had been undermined by ongoing grand jury and housing inspector general investigations into alleged sweetheart deals.

One issue is Jackson’s role in granting contracts for friends at housing authorities in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands and accusations by Philadelphia housing officials that HUD moved to deny financing in retaliation for the city’s refusal to sell land to a friend of Jackson’s. More on Secretary of HUD Leaving