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The Schaefer family has been in business 41 years in New Orleans Louisiana and have endured a whirlwind of experiences.

From the boom, to the tough years, Hurricane Katrina and now a man made oil disaster which is sending the Schaefer’s into crisis mode once again.

“It feels like another hurdle: Get over this, and hopefully after that, we’ll have a little straightaway,” said Merlin Schaefer, who is in charge of the family business, “Everything else taught you how to survive.”

Schaefer and his family have been working over time the last few weeks to prepare crawfish and shrimp for the Memorial Day coming up.

This last weekend the failed attempt to shut down the underwater oil gusher in the Gulf has caused havoc on the entire 17th Street Canal where the Schaefer’s business is based.

“It’s almost like it’s another attempt that they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Schaefer. “I don’t know how many more days we’re gonna have to be able to get the good seafood that we’ve been getting.”

To attempt to keep business running, Schaefer drives five hours to Texas to pick up seafood. He is trying to keep in the game and make as much profit as possible whilst he still can.

“Right now, we’re getting a little bit in. Come a month from now, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the shrimp. We’re taking every day that we can get,” Schaefer told CNN.

BP workers have attempted to shut down the leak and there is still hope alive for businesses in New Orleans but anger is also present.

”Look, we got the [New Orleans] Saints to win, so we’re into divine intervention. We were hoping that anything would help those engineers close that oil leak,” says retired Army General Honore, who lives in the city.

The residents of Louisiana are strong and have a lot of hope and determination. The city remains hopeful.

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On Saturday a Bloomberg news report claims from anonymous sources that Amazon is planning to release a thinner, slimmer, sleeker kindle. The report states that the Kindle will have a sharper picture than the original Kindle and will be available on Amazon in August.

Other rumours from sources close the online retailer Amazon told Bloomberg that the eBook would not have a touch screen or a colour display. The display will however be much sharper than the previous model and have a lot better user ease. The model will also be much more responsive than the last Kindle.

In an annual Amazon shareholder meeting this week it was announced that the colour screen is still in progress. CEO Jeff Bezos says they are in the progress of developing it but it would not be a feature of the new slimmer version set to be released in August.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Bezos as saying he had “seen several things in the laboratory, but they are not quite ready for production.”

In February the New York Times also stated that Amazon had brought Touchco. Touchco is a New York company developing multi touch panels. There was speculation at this point that they were planning to release a similar item to the iPad by apple.

On Tuesday Bezos made it clear to the public that Amazon intends to keep the Kindle focused of being a reading device and doesn’t plan to expand it or create a device similar to the iPad tablet.

The release in August is currently not confirmed by any sources as the email sent by CNET to Amazon was never responded to and not confirmed.

Sony also revealed that it is releasing its own Reader. It launched in the US in 2006 and this year will be released in Japan, Europe, China, and Australia.

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About a thousand people turned out for the festivities of the Plaquemines Parish Seafood Festival despite the occurrence of the nearby oil spill. Part of the proceeds from the festival will be used to aid needy fishermen.

Although the timing for a seafood festival was bad amid the 39^th day of the worst oil spill the U. S. has ever seen it went on as scheduled. Louisiana is a place dedicated to seafood and used the festival as an opportunity to take their mind off the disaster at hand.

The festival which has been held annually for the last six years was originally organized to celebrate and support the local fishing industry. This year however even though that industry is close to a standstill the festival was still held and part of the earnings will go to help fishermen in need. Keith Hinkley, a Plaquemines Parish councilman stated “We cannot turn our backs on the local fishermen”.

Gail Wardlow a resident of the area stated that the parish was like her family and “Everybody tries to support each other,” she said. “People are tough here.” Nicol Breaux, 41 sported a yellow shirt with the words “Dredge Baby Dredge” on the front and an oil soaked pelican with broken eggs on the back. She belongs to a group of concerned citizens under the same name. For the remainder of the afternoon however her only goal was to enjoy the food and festivities saying simply this: “It could be the last time we eat it”.

Breaux may have been a repeat attendee of the festival but for Theresa Holland this was her first time and she stated that even if the food had been limited she still would have attended. “They could have had hot dogs and I would have still come in support of this parish,” said Holland, 53, a software support representative from St. Tammany Parish. “It’s because of the gulf spill that I’m here.”

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Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will get a taste of Hollywood next month with his appearance in the movie remake of the hit television show from the 80’s “The A-Team”. His performance Saturday night however did not warrant silver screen status as he lost to rival Rashad Evans.

Jackson plays the role of B.A. Baracus originally played by Mr. T in the series. He spent the last fourteen months off from competing while making the movie and the negative effects which occurred were definitely evident during the match. Evan’s skills proved superior, and Jackson was not even able to hold his own when the two were in striking position.

“I guess ring rust is a factor,” Jackson said. “I looked good, felt good, was strong, but I had a lot of rust.”

Jackson’s best moments were early in the fight and in the final round in which he knocked Evans to the canvas and continued delivering blows until Evans was able to counter. “I went down for a little bit, but that’s what happens,” Evans said.

Evan’s later took Jackson down not once but twice and Jackson’s frustration was evident in his face as the bell sounded.

Jackson was greeted by Evans in the first round by a clean right that backed him right up to the cage. Rampage recovered and referee Herb Dean separated the two. Seconds later Evans scored a takedown.

Jackson was prepared for Evans to attempt to turn the fight into a wrestling match however was unable to escape his grasp against the cage.

Jackson’s sluggish moves were indicative of training time which was missed to make his mark in Hollywood. Evan’s won a title shot and $410,000 in the fight while Jackson earned $250,000 and a possible chance at a rematch in the future.

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Just moments after the closing of the ninth season of American Idol the new winner Lee DeWyze searched for the show’s top judge Simon Cowell. “Where is he?” After they hugged, Mr. DeWyze said, “Can we get another round of applause for Simon?” This ninth season marked the end of Cowell’s run on the highly rated musical reality show.

This finale event was watched by over 24 million viewers which make it lowest in the ratings since the finale of the show’s first season. The competition this year did not generate nearly as much viewer interest as previous seasons have attracted.

The show’s overall drop of 9 per cent in ratings must certainly create some anxiety for the producers of the show. Especially considering that they are now preparing for a new season without Simon Cowell to begin airing in the winter.

Even with the decrease in ratings for this year’s finale American Idol still remains dominant in the viewing world. Idol attracts more viewers than any nonsports show currently on television.

Paula Abdul who is a former judge on the hit show returned for the farewell of Cowell to remind and reassure viewers that even with his departure the show will continue. Mr. Cowell said of the show, “It’s been a blast.”

Asked whether he thought “Idol” was getting tired in its ninth season, Mr. DeWyze said, “Anything that’s been around for a long time has its bumps, but like anything else, it rejuvenates itself.” In a separate interview, Mr. DeWyze called Mr. Cowell a “good dude” who “knows what he’s talking about.”

The reason DeWyze was looking for Simon Cowell in his own words was simply this: “This is his last year. I wanted to say thank you for everything, and that I appreciated it all.”