La. Governor takes responsibility for hurricane response

Louisiana's governor says she is taking "full responsibility" for the failures and missteps in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina.

And Kathleen Blanco says, as governor "the buck stops here."

She told lawmakers in a special meeting of the state legislature, that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. And she says leaders must take a careful look at what went wrong and "make sure it never happens again."

On Tuesday, President Bush for the first time took responsibility for federal government mistakes in dealing with the hurricane.

Blanco calls Bush "a friend and partner" in the recovery effort. And she described plans for a rebuilding effort that would span all levels of government but would be funded with federal money.