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Dear Civil Law and Procedure Committee, Re: SB543 On Legislative Continuances Please reject SB543 by Quinn.* This proposed legislation will undermine the Jindal ethics reforms and it will cause serious public embarrassment to the legislature in the near term future. 1) Legislative continuances have a financial value to all legislative-attorneys. Please make sure that all attorneys are in compliance with the ethics rules of this state. 2) The expansion of the legislative continuances perk is hidden because they chose to erase all existing legislation and rewrite it. It takes close scrutiny to see the key changes that expand this policy....

A House committee postponed action Monday on a 10-year phaseout of the state income tax. The House Ways and Means Committee had been scheduled to vote on Senate Bill 87, which would eliminate the state income tax by 2017 at an eventual cost to the treasury of about $4 billion a year. But some legislators want to bring the bill by Sen. D.L. "Buddy" Shaw, R-Shreveport, back to its original posture when it would have rolled back the 2002 "Stelly Plan" tax increases. "There is no rush necessarily to have this bill heard today," Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, the...

No, not the lesson the national press is pushing, that Mr. Jenkins's loss is a sign of GOP disaster this fall, or that it demonstrates how difficult it will be for Republicans to link local competitors to the liberal Mr. Obama. Republicans face tough odds, yes. But that's because they've yet to prove they've learned a lesson, as they demonstrated again with Mr. Jenkins. By the lazy standards of the GOP, Mr. Jenkins should've been a cinch to win a Baton Rouge district in Republican hands for 34 years, and that President Bush won with 59% in 2004. Their candidate...

BATON ROUGE, La. - A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped to buy his wife a gallon of milk. When he turned in the winning ticket, Carl Hunter became the largest Powerball winner in Louisiana's history. He won the jackpot in January, but the 73-year-old small businessman waited nearly four months to claim the prize. An avid lottery player, Hunter said he already had bought a Powerball ticket on Jan. 16 at the gas station...

In a statement released early this morning, presumptive Democratic Party nominee Senator Barack Obama, (D-Ill) speculated Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans would be a "Spectacular" choice for FEMA director. Said a spokesperson, "In light of the hurricane disasters caused by global warming and the Bush administrations inability to cope with the devastating effects, we feel in a Democratic Party regime Mayor Ray Nagin would be a spectacular choice to head the federal emergency team. His prolific actions during the evacuation of New Orleans during the Katrina catastrophe saved thousands of lives and serves as a model for the rest...

NEW ORLEANS -- Ten members of Tulane's Eta chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity were in jail Wednesday, charged with aggravated battery from hazing incidents. At least 10 pledges to the fraternity were burned during hazing incidents according to an attorney for one of the pledges. Attorney Frank D'Amico Jr., who represents one of the pledges, said more than 10 men were burned. He said at least two pledges were severely burned and reported the attack to police. D'Amico said his client suffered second- and third-degree burns. New Orleans police said the incidents took place April 25 and 26....

Nationally-known rare coin dealer Paul Hollis, 36, of Mandeville, Louisiana will formally announce his candidacy for the Republican Party’s nomination for the United States Senate on May 12. A number of prominent numismatists are on his campaign committee, such as John Albanese, Jeff Garrett, Paul Montgomery and Douglas Winter. Hollis began collecting coins at the age of six after receiving a Peace dollar from his grandmother. In recent years, millions of viewers watched him on air when he hosted “The Coin Vault” television program on the Shop at Home network, and he also is known by many collectors and dealers...

<p>The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana has asked a federal judge to award the organization more than $65,000 in attorneys fees and court costs, stemming from a ruling earlier this month that said Slidell officials broke the law by hanging a portrait of Jesus on the wall at Slidell City Court.</p>

When Lake Charles Rep. Mike Geymann pulled some ill-conceived bills on immigration enforcement last month, he promised to address critics' concerns before refiling them. The changes he made failed to correct the flaws -- yet the bills sailed out of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice last week. Lawmakers should recognize the widespread problems these proposals would cause, even for citizens and legal residents. The Legislature should reject the proposals. If not, Gov. Bobby Jindal should veto the bills.

Jindal: 'I'm exactly where I need to be' By Jon Ward May 5, 2008 BATON ROUGE, La. — He is the future of the Republican Party, some say, and has risen so high for the age of 36 that his name is tossed about as a vice-presidential pick. But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he wants to keep his job, although he expects to lose popularity as he pushes his ambitious two-term plan to remake his state in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "I told the voters of Louisiana this is a historic, one-time opportunity to change our...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Even as Democrats rejoiced Sunday at having snatched a Louisiana congressional seat long held by Republicans, an observer warned it doesn't mean voters are spurning the GOP and said the victor's hold on the seat is shaky. State Rep. Don Cazayoux polled 49 percent Saturday to beat Republican publisher Woody Jenkins, who received 46 percent, for the 6th District seat in the U.S. House. Cazayoux and Jenkins share conservative positions on gun rights and abortion, but interest groups' ads attacked the Democrat as a tax-happy liberal and accused the Republican of tax evasion. Some ads...

State Representative Don Cazayoux defeated a former state legislator in Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last night, marking the second time in two months that Democrats have won a special election seat previously held by Republicans. Cazayoux took 49% of the vote to newspaper publisher and longtime political hand Woody Jenkins' 46%. Cazayoux won Baton Rouge, the southern and western suburbs and most of West Feliciana and St. Helena Parishes, as well as the precincts surrounding Lake Pontchartrain. Jenkins took more traditionally Republican territory south and east of the city, as well as most of Livingston Parish. The two candidates split...

Nagin Picked As Superdelegate Hasn't said if he will support Obama or Clinton Saturday, May 3, 2008 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been elected a superdelegate to the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention. The state party's central committee picked Nagin over four other candidates, including Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, who unsuccessfully challenged Nagin for mayor in 2006. Nagin won 83 votes in voting Saturday, Jerry McKernan of Baton Rouge had 50 and Landrieu had 28. Nagin is one of 11 Louisiana superdelegates who will go to the convention and do not need to pledge their support to a candidate...

Democrat Don Cazayoux has won a special congressional election, bolstering his party's majority status on Capitol Hill and taking a seat held by Republicans since 1974. Cazayoux, a state lawmaker, beat Republican Woody Jenkins to cap a campaign that drew attention and cash from the national parties and from interest groups in Washington. The seat opened when Republican Richard Baker, a 20-year incumbent, resigned to take a lobbying job. With all precincts reporting, Cazayoux had 49 percent to 46 percent for Jenkins, a community newspaper publisher.

U. S. Representative, 6th Congressional District 508 of 512 precincts reporting Click here for Results by Parish 49,312 49.24% "Don" Cazayoux, D - 46,282 46.22% Louis "Woody" Jenkins, R - 443 .44% Peter J. Aranyosi, N - 3,705 3.70% Ashley Casey, N - 397 .40% Randall T. Hayes, O -

Polls have closed in Louisiana. The big interest is in the sixth congressional district, where Democrats think they can snatch an open seat.

BATON ROUGE -- All college students 21 or older who have qualified for concealed handgun permits would be able to carry firearms to class and other parts of campus under a bill approved 11-3 by a House committee Thursday. The Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice sent to the House floor House Bill 199 by Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, its chairman. Wooton said he expects lengthy debate on the bill's merits when it hits the floor. The bill drew support from college students who say they feel unsafe and inadequately protected when leaving campus late at night. Student...

The controversial Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling will be overturned if John McCain is elected president, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told a Baton Rouge audience Friday. “It’s gone,” Toobin, also a legal affairs staff writer at The New Yorker, said after giving a speech about the U.S. Supreme Court at LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. “Maybe not during his first year or second year, but it will be overturned,” Toobin said of the possible election of McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and a U.S. senator for Arizona. Toobin said overturning the case won’t mean all 50 states...

New Orleans (AP) -- The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled Friday. The Corps of Engineers had argued that it was immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system. The law says the federal government cannot be sued if something goes wrong with a flood control project such as a levee, reservoir or dam. Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed that argument, saying the Mississippi River-Gulf...

Despite opposition from student government leaders and top state education officials, a House committee Thursday took the first step toward allowing authorized concealed weapons on college campuses. Members of the Committee on the Administration of Criminal heard emotional arguments on both sides for three hours before voting 11-3 for House Bill 199 by Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, a former sheriff and the panel's chairman. The panel rejected an amendment to exempt private colleges from the bill. The measure heads to the House floor for debate. State law now bans guns from being carried onto college campuses as well as...

Poll: Democrat Ahead In Louisiana Special Election A new SurveyUSA poll in Louisiana shows Democrats on track to win this Saturday's special election to fill the vacancy of former Rep. Richard Baker (R), who resigned in February to become a lobbyist. The poll shows conservative Democrat Don Cazayoux with 50% support, with 41% for GOP candidate Woody Jenkins, a longtime controversial fixture in Louisiana politics. This seat has not been held by a Democrat since the 1970s, and the district voted 59% for President Bush in 2004, so a Dem win here would be big news indeed.

Gov. Bobby Jindal touted Louisiana's hurricane recovery efforts and tossed aside rumors he could be a possible running mate for Republican presidential contender John McCain, when he appeared Monday on NBC's "Tonight Show."

Former state senator John Ford was assigned to maintenance duty today at the federal prison in Louisiana where he is serving a 5-year prison sentence for bribery. “He will be temporarily assigned to assist the dorm orderlies with sanitation in the dorms,” said Karen Million, spokesman for the Federal Prison Camp at Pollock, La. “After we have a chance to assess his skills, we may assign him to a different job assignment.” Ford, 65, who reported to the camp Monday afternoon, was convicted last year of taking $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents in the Tennessee Waltz investigation into...

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, blamed labor unions and partisan politics for a U.S. House vote this week rejecting an amendment that could have kept the Delta Queen riverboat from having to phase out its overnight cruise packages. The historic riverboat has been operating with a special Congressional exemption from the federal Safety at Sea Act since 1968, an exemption that has been renewed eight times. The safety act bans the use of wooden vessels for overnight cruises. Backers of the exemption claim the Delta Queen deserves special treatment because of its historical significance and recently upgraded fire-safety systems. With...

As of today, State Treasurer John Kennedy is the only announced Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate race this fall. The incumbent, Democrat U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, has been viewed by Republicans as vulnerable. In her Senate victories of 1996 and 2002, Landrieu won by slim margins. Since that time, the demographics of Louisiana have changed due to Hurricane Katrina, making the state more Republican friendly. Can Kennedy beat Landrieu? If the election were held today, Landrieu would win, at least according to a new poll conducted by Bernie Pinsonat of Southern Media and Opinion Research. The poll finds Landrieu...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - John McCain toured still hurricane-damaged areas of New Orleans and declared that if the disaster had happened on his watch, he would have immediately landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base. The Republican presidential candidate is campaigning this week in what he calls forgotten areas of the country. He offered a pledge Thursday to New Orleans residents that their situation will not be forgotten and that such a botched disaster response will never happen again. McCain was unsparing in his criticism of the Bush administration. He said Congress must share some of the blame,...

Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared the handling of the disaster “terrible and disgraceful” and pledged that it would never happen again. “I am for doing what is necessary — $4.2 billion, $10.5 billion, $50.5 billion,” Mr. McCain said at the time. “The $4.2 billion is not the end of the requirement.”

4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper? 11:54 PM CDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008 Lee Zurik / WWL-TV News Anchor "It blows my mind." Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish. "That should be criminal," Taffaro continues. What he's talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident whodidn't want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "It's like putting a Band-Aid on the hole...

NEW ORLEANS — Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared that “never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled.”

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Senate's tax committee on Monday approved a big income-tax break, despite objections from Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration that the state can't afford the $302 million loss of revenue. The bill by Sen. Buddy Shaw would restore tax brackets that were changed as part of the so-called "Stelly plan" approved by voters in 2002. Under the bill, people who make between $12,500 and $50,000 would move from the 6 percent tax bracket down to the 4 percent bracket. Shaw said he filed the measure because he received so many complaints from voters about paying bigger tax...

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- State Treasurer John Kennedy is the only announced Republican candidate in the Senate race this fall. The GOP views incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu of New Orleans as vulnerable. In her re-election victories of 1996 and 2002, Landrieu won by slim margins. Since that time, the Louisiana's demographics have changed because of Hurricane Katrina, making the state more Republican-friendly. Can Kennedy beat Landrieu? If the election took place today, Landrieu would win, at least according to a new poll conducted by Bernie Pinsonat of Southern Media and Opinion Research. The poll finds Landrieu with a 70-...

The ruling by U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. applied to the federal lawsuit filed by Thomas and Pamela McIntosh... The case was a key lawsuit filed by embattled tort attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who sued on behalf of dozens of storm victims claiming that State Farm routinely denied claims based on bad faith and fraud. Scruggs has since pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in an unrelated case and no longer represents storm victims. Scruggs and his partners in the Scruggs Katrina Group claimed fraud after E.A. Renfroe & Co., an Alabama firm that provided damage assessments for State...

Mexican Consulate New Orleans, Louisiana THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Sientese por favor. Mr. President, we are sure glad you're here. And thank you for inviting me to be here. Madam Foreign Minister; Consul Garcia Guerra; Ambassador, thanks. Governor; el Alcalde -- Mr. Mayor; Ambassador Garza: I am really glad to be with you on this special occasion. I am pleased that Mexico has chosen to reopen its consulate in New Orleans, and I'm honored to attend. New Orleans has had a long tradition of diplomatic ties with Mexico. In 1824, New Orleans, Louisiana became the first site of the Mexican...

NEW ORLEANS — The Mexican consulate is reopening in New Orleans, six years after the Mexican government, citing budget constraints, closed the consulate to focus on areas with higher concentrations of Mexican tourists and immigrants. The opening is planned for Monday, when President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are scheduled to be in the city for the North American Leaders' Summit. Carlos Gonzalez Magallon, Mexico's consul general in Houston, advocated reopening the consulate to protect the rights of Mexicans working in the area. Many immigrant workers moved to the region for the rebuilding effort...

Despite having about 100,000 job openings in the state, many residents do not have the proper training or education to fill those positions, Labor Secretary Tim Barfield said Monday. Legislators are considering bills to overhaul the state Labor Department, to coordinate worker training programs across the state, and to better align training with available jobs. Before starting the regular session last week, Gov. Bobby Jindal said about 40 percent of the state’s population over age 16 is unemployed or underemployed. “Educational attainment, or lack of attainment, keeps a significant amount of potential employees unemployed or underemployed,” Barfield told the Baton...

NEW ORLEANS — Less than a week after Guy McEwen was a reluctant witness in a murder trial, he was killed in a barrage of bullets as he ran down a New Orleans street. Assistant Police Superintendent Marlon Defillo declined to speculate Friday if the Thursday night murder was linked to McEwen's appearance as a witness for the prosecution in the murder trial of David Bonds. Bonds was acquitted last week in the death of Dinerral Shavers, a drummer for the Hot 8 Brass Band who also taught high school band.

NEW ORLEANS — Police expect protests but few problems when the two-day North American Leaders Summit gets under way Monday in New Orleans. It's VIP duty as President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get together to talk trade. But for the New Orleans Police Department, it's more of the same in a a string of high-profile, crowd-generating events early in 2008. The North American summit in Quebec last August drew several hundred protesters vocal on the war in Iraq and what they claimed was a gradual merging of the three countries. There also were...

ROME, APRIL 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Stem cell research using material taken from human embryos continues to be hotly debated. Advocates of using embryos maintain that at such early stages, the cells cannot be considered a human person. However, a recent book by two philosophers argues the contrary. Robert P. George, who is also a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, and Christopher Tollefsen, avoid religious-based arguments and lay out a series of scientific and philosophical principles in favor of the human status of the embryo. In "Embryo: A Defense of Human Life" (Doubleday), they maintain that the status of...

GULFPORT, Miss. — After the federal government announced in February that it would no longer use travel trailers to house the victims of future disasters, there was an initial sense of relief along the hurricane-scarred Gulf Coast. The flimsy little white boxes are unpleasant to live in and tainted with toxic formaldehyde fumes. And they cost the federal government billions of dollars. But that relief quickly turned to exasperation when it became clear that the government did not have an immediate backup plan. Without the trailers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no reliable way to rush immediate shelter to...

Ethics: Speaker Jim Tucker Pushing Legislation For His Own Benefit? by: ryan Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 12:14:52 PM CDT Today, in the Plaquemines Parish Courthouse, at 1:30 PM, the wife of House Speaker Jim Tucker, has her hearing on child support payments that she is seeking from her ex-husband. Ordinarily, this would not be front page news on any newspaper, or even a front page post on a blog like Daily Kingfish. But this hearing only came about because of a law that the Speaker himself pushed in Governor Blanco's last legislative session - House Bill 501 (now Act...

RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEState Sen. Derrick Shepherd, left, leaves the Hale Boggs Federal Courthouse in New Orleans accompanied by his attorney Clarence Roby on Thursday morning. A federal grand jury indicted state Sen. Derrick Shepherd today after months investigating allegations that the Marrero Democrat laundered $141,000 for an unlicensed bond broker. From his Poydras Street office, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten announced the 41-count indictment on charges of conspiracy to commit mail wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, participation in the business of insurance by a person previously convicted of a felony involving dishonesty, conspiracy to commit money laundering and...

While most political observers are focused on the protracted Democratic primary fight between the senator from the state of New York and the senator from the state of Hope, rumors have been swirling in conservative circles that two of the movement’s most prominent leaders are considering Senate bids in 2010. Former Louisiana state Rep. Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative Family Research Council, and former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, are both rumored to be considering leaving their positions to run for the U.S. Senate — an office both have unsuccessfully...

A conservative firebrand with a connection to a former Ku Klux Klan leader will run for a Louisiana seat in the House of Representatives, raising Democrats' hopes they can pick up what has been a reliably conservative district for more than three decades. After a weekend primary run-off, Democrats are hoping for victory in the Baton Rouge-based district of former Republican Rep. Richard Baker, who retired in February after holding the seat for 21 years. Conservative Woody Jenkins won Saturday's Republican run-off, 62% to 38%, against lobbyist Laurinda Calongne, while state Rep. Don Cazayoux won the Democratic run-off, 57% to...

WWL-TV political consultant Greg Rigamer projects that Steve Scalise will win the GOP Primary in the First Congressional District of Louisiana. With 95 percent of the vote in, Steve Scalise has 58% of the vote. Tim Burns has 42%.

On Saturday March 29, The Washington Post published a front page story by one of its foreign correspondents, Sudarsan Raghavan, entitled, “19 Tense Hours in Sadr City Alongside the Mahdi Army.” The Mahdi Army -- the Shiite militia supported by Iran and under command of Moqtada al Sadr -- is America’s enemy and an enemy of Iraq’s nascent democracy. The Mahdi Army has fired upon and killed or wounded hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of U.S. soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen. Muqtada al-Sadr came to his exalted position as militant leader of Shiite extremists by conspiring with the Iranian Revolutionary...

Hurricane season is just around the corner, so Americans should know where to turn to if disaster strikes. It's not the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A new study suggests Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe's would be a lot more helpful. **** The study, by Steven Horwitz, a professor of economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., **** "Profit-seeking firms beat most of the government to the scene and provided more effectively the supplies needed for the immediate survival of a population cut off from life's most basic necessities," Horwitz wrote in the study, which was published by the Mercatus...

Mose Jefferson walks into the federal building in New Orleans last June. Jefferson, brother to U.S. Congressman William Jefferson, is expected to by indicted today for bribing former school board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms. Mose Jefferson, the eldest brother and chief political strategist of embattled U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, is expected to be indicted by a federal grand jury today on charges that he repeatedly bribed Ellenese Brooks-Simms, the former president of the Orleans Parish School Board, to ensure her support for a computer-based algebra curriculum he was selling.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to step into a high-stakes legal fight between the Justice Department and indicted Rep. William Jefferson over the unprecedented raid on the lawmaker's Capitol Hill office. The Justice Department said the court's action would not impede the bribery case against the Louisiana Democrat. The justices declined to review an appeals court ruling that said that, while the office search itself was legal, the FBI reviewed legislative documents in violation of the Constitution. Other documents seized in the raid were provided to prosecutors and were used to support a 16-count indictment of Jefferson...

The contrast between Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal could not be more stark. On the campaign trail this year, Obama serves up messages of hope and change. Last year, running for Governor of Louisiana, Jindal did the same. But Obama’s hope and change consists of platitudes. Jindal’s hope and change was premised on detailed plans and policy roadmaps to move people forward, get Louisiana on the road to recovery, and end the boom-bust economic cycles. Entering his fourth month in office, Jindal’s change has already proved to be change we can believe in. Governor Jindal is a master of new...

After barely winning her initial Senate race in 1996 and surviving a serious challenge in 2002, Republican strategists targeted U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat in this fall’s election. Unfortunately for Republicans defeating Landrieu will not be an easy task. Just look at what she has done in recent weeks in lining up endorsements from a most unusual group, Northshore Republicans. While Landrieu is considered a staunch Democrat, her voting record is notably moderate. Several months ago, GOP St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis surprised many political observers by endorsing Landrieu. Davis cited his close working...