By DOUGLAS HAMILTON RMJM, the Edinburgh-based architecture firm, has won a contract to supply advice on how best to restore a New Orleans hospital known by locals as the Big Charity that was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

By Steve Sternberg NEW ORLEANS -- The sun's ablaze on this August morning, and the air-conditioned waiting room at St. Thomas Community Health Center, with its busy reception desk, potted plants and people waiting in cushioned chairs, is a welcome refuge from the heat.

By OLGA PIERCE Many Louisiana residents are concerned that a planned money-follows-the-patient overhaul of the healthcare system will dismantle the state's safety net -- and leave them with nothing.

The head of Louisiana's charity hospital system says both of New Orleans' public hospitals were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and need to be replaced, but a key official says it's too early to assume the federal government will pay for a new institution.

By Ofelia Casillas, Chicago Tribune Sep. 30--NEW ORLEANS--During Hurricane Katrina's floods, Charity Hospital's doctors battled to keep patients alive, making rounds by flashlight and pumping out water that rose through the basement's morgue.