Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin made Big Easy history Friday by becoming the first mayor in the city’s record to be indicted by a grand jury on corruption charges. At least 21 charges, in fact, that include taking cash bribes and gifts from city contractors and abusing his power to talk Home Depot into a shady granite-installation contract. One contractor, Mark St. Pierre, for example, allegedly sent the then-mayor and his family on vacations to Hawaii and Jamaica and paid for his cellphone service in exchange for signing exclusive technology contracts with St. Pierre that reportedly allowed his software company to yield at least $7 million from City Hall.
