It is said of Shannon Powell that he's part of New Orleans' musical DNA — that he knows things only local drummers know.
Powell, 49, is the A-list drummer in town. He's played with Dr. John, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton, R&B guitarist Earl King and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
"I don't know why the traffic is like this," he said. "It's Friday just before prayers; where are all these people going?"
My friend Emad and I had been driving around the perimeter of Bab al-Azizia, Gadhafi's notorious compound just outside downtown Tripoli. It was here that NATO concentrated many of its bombing runs, as did President Reagan in the 1980s. Now the outer walls are a crumbling mess, covered with anti-Gadhafi graffiti.
Mohamed El filali, of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, gathers with Muslim students and community leaders in Newark on Friday to address the monitoring of New Jersey Muslims by the NYPD.
Ever since Sept. 11, the New York Police Department has been aggressively gathering intelligence to help prevent another terrorist attack.
Now, those tactics are provoking new controversy in New Jersey after The Associated Press published a confidential, 60-page NYPD report from 2007 containing detailed information on dozens of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in nearby Newark.
