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Contact information: Washington, D.C. Office: 2113 Rayburn House Office Building, District of Columbia 20515-1802 Phone: (202) 225-6636 Fax: (202) 225-1988 New Orleans Office: (more district offices) 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325 Fax: (504) 483-7944 New Orleans Office: 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325Fax: (504) 483-7944 web contact formIt would be appropriate to let him know how much we appreciate his vote. Not for the value of the vote, but because he gave the Dhims cover to say that it was "bipartisan."

NEW ORLEANS – State investigators raided ACORN offices on Friday, taking away computer hard drives and documents as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement and tax fraud when the organization's national headquarters was based in New Orleans."This is an investigation of everything — ACORN, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities, specifically as it relates to any potential violations of Louisiana law," Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.ACORN staff on the scene declined to comment, but an attorney for the group said in a statement the raid was prompted by allegations that former ACORN...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. Check back her for more details, as well as a statement...

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts. The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. "They have been extremely cooperative," she said. Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from...

A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday. Keith Bardwell acknowledged he routinely recused himself from marrying interracial couples. Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

Note: The following text is a quote: Three Louisiana individuals sentenced for transporting illegal aliens Defendants Part of Large Scale Operation to Transport Illegal Aliens LAKE CHARLES, La. - Members of a large scale illegal alien transportation operation based in Sulphur, La., were sentenced in federal court yesterday following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. U. S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi sentenced Carolyn Joyce Metcalf, 62, to 30 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release; Terri Lynn Fields, 41, to 27 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release; and Jean Morgan Vincent,...

Just months after leaving New Orleans, former recovery czar Ed Blakely gave a television interview lambasting the city, saying its people are racists, its city workers are unsophisticated and its residents lazy.

North Dakota sits on one of the largest pools of oil in North America. The Bakken Shale Formation is estimated to hold nearly four billion barrels of oil that can be extracted. And now, a new batch of oil just under the Bakken is adding even more interest to oil exploration in the state. The Bakken Shale Formation has created excitement in western North Dakota - the kind of excitement that leads to things like bumper stickers. But even as oil companies scramble to tap into the Bakken, there's a new oil play brewing - it's called the Three Forks-Sanish...

CNN's on-air meteorologist reporting a tornado on the ground in Shreveport, Louisiana- local fire department calling it in.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former Louisiana Gov. Dave Treen, who became the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction when he was elected in 1979 but lost a re-election bid to the flamboyant Democrat Edwin Edwards four years later, has died at age 81. Treen's son, David C. Treen Jr., said Treen died early Thursday of complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General Hospital in a New Orleans suburb. Funeral arrangements were not complete.

A Food and Drug Administration decision to impose draconian new rules on oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico could wreck Louisiana's $300 million-a-year industry and restrict the diets of raw oyster lovers here and elsewhere for most of the year -- all in a misguided effort to prevent a serious but rare health threat. The FDA announced guidelines, to go into effect in 2011, that would require all Gulf oysters harvested from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before they can be sold. That could double or even triple the cost of Louisiana oysters for consumers and...

New Orleans not only faces a $68 million budget shortfall for 2010. City government is running more than $30 million in the red this year, due in large part to a sharp drop in sales tax revenue, officials said Wednesday. Earlier optimistic assessments that huge post-Katrina investments in New Orleans would insulate the city from the worst effects of a national recession have proved wrong, city economist Jerome Lomba told the city's Revenue Estimating Conference. City sales tax revenue for 2009, projected last fall to total $157 million, is now expected to fall $23 million short of that amount, in...

Washington, DC – virtually the entire Louisiana delegation is putting pressure on Louisiana US Senator Mary Landrieu in connection with the Census-Illegal Alien amendment that has brought Louisiana Senator David Vitter back into the national news. Today, Congressman John Fleming joined Senator David Vitter, Congressmen Rodney Alexander, Charles Boustany, Bill Cassidy, Charlie Melancon and Steve Scalise in sending a letter to Senators Mary Landrieu and Harry Reid asking them to allow the Vitter-Bennett Amendment to be voted on. The amendment, number 2644, is to the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill and would require next year’s census to ask a single question on...

A New Orleans man who was caught slipping DVDs into his son's diaper bag at a Kenner Wal-Mart abandoned the toddler in the parking lot when police tried to arrest him, authorities said. A Kenner Police Department report said an employee of the Wal-Mart at 300 W. Esplanade Ave. alerted an officer working as a private security guard that Joshua Gibson, 20, hid several digital video discs in a blue diaper bag he was carrying Saturday. The officer approached Gibson as he and his 2-year-old son exited the business. Gibson admitted that he removed several DVDs from their cases and...

At the small warehouse tucked away in the back side of the French Quarter, the shuckers at P&J Oyster Co. have arrived before daybreak for 133 years. Their in-shell and shucked oysters have been on the menus of generations of restaurateurs, from oysters on the halfshell at Acme Oyster House and Casemento’s to the seafood gumbo at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse. In less than two years, the tradition could become obsolete for seven months out of the year, based on newly announced oyster guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration. In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially...

In a new filing, the Justice Department says today that the federal government is entitled to $478,153 in forfeitures from former Rep. William Jefferson despite his August bankruptcy filing three weeks after a jury found him guilty of 11 corruption charges.

We need to start blasting all his phones, emails , twitter account, facebooks, and writing to the newspapers. Even if you don't live in his state you need to still be active on them and tell them no business in Louisiana if Landrieu votes in favor of Obama's reckless Obamacare and cap n trade. Offices New Orleans Hale Boggs Federal Building 500 Poydras Street Room 1005 New Orleans, LA 70130 Voice: (504) 589-2427 Fax:(504) 589-4023 Shreveport U.S. Courthouse 300 Fannin Street Room 2240 Shreveport, LA 71101 To read the rest follow the link http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977870900#

Several Louisiana ACORN leaders, including the recently ousted state leader, are expected to announce today that they have started a new organization under the same name after national authorities of the community action network voted to take over the chapter. A notice of a news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. in Light City Church, 6117 St. Claude Ave., says the event will include "Louisiana ACORN Executive Director Beth Butler, " who was fired from that post Oct. 12 by national ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. The document states that Butler will be joined by several Louisiana ACORN officers, board members and...

<p>With America’s first ever black president, there’s hope for ethnic minorities in the US to step forward. Bobby Jindal is one such man – the present governor of Louisiana is the youngest in the country and won with 88% votes. Bobby Jindal was touted to be John McCain’s running mate, before the position was taken by Sarah Palin (was it his dark skin? or did he turn down Mccain’s propsal?). Anyway, that has changed.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Louisiana Republicans are joining their GOP congressional colleagues in urging President Barack Obama to act quickly on his top commander's request for up to 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan. But the two Democrats in the delegation -- Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Charlie Melancon -- said it's most important the president make the right decision on the conflicting assessments offered by military experts, including differing views by members of his administration. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander, says a substantial troop increase is needed to combat a growing Taliban insurgency. But others, including Vice President Joe Biden,...

For more than a decade, Stephen Bradberry has served in various roles for ACORN's New Orleans operations, but none of them -- perhaps with the notable exception of picking up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina -- involved the obvious challenges of his new role as a temporary administrator of the state community action network. That's the assignment ACORN National President Maude Hurd handed to him after the national board voted over the weekend to take over the Louisiana operation as part of an ongoing rift between the parent organization and the leaders of its one-time home base. Bradberry, who came...

As he returns to New Orleans today after a six-day junket in Cuba, Mayor Ray Nagin almost certainly will face questions about the latest addition to his collection of controversial comments. Nagin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he thinks Cuba's repressive regime does "a much better job" than U.S. officials of identifying citizen needs and deploying resources in the face of hurricanes, which routinely batter the Caribbean nation. Though Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma all struck the island last year, only seven Cubans were killed, in part because authorities use soldiers to close highways and enforce evacuations. Harking...

A Kenner restaurant owner was caught on video setting fire to a competitor's restaurant one block away, police said Tuesday. Mae Fong, 74, of 2225 Florida Ave. in Kenner, will be booked with arson of Young's Garden Chinese Restaurant at 2039 Williams Blvd. Fong's Chinese & Cantonese Restaurant is at 2101 Williams Blvd., just across 21st Street from Young's.Fong was caught on video surveillance approaching Young's on Oct. 2 after 3 a.m., about the time a liquid accelerant was used to start the fire, Police Chief Steve Caraway said. The video was "extremely valuable" in solving the crime, Caraway said....

SLIDELL, LOUISIANA - St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Deputies have arrested Terreal Michael Bierria, 29, on one count of first degree murder. Deputies say Monday afternoon at about 1:30, there was a 911 call requesting assistance at 221-A S. Military Road in the Slidell area. When they arrived on the scene deputies found the front door partially opened with blood smeared on it and 29-year-old Soron Salter on the floor behind the door. Investigators say Salter had wounds that indicated a violent struggle. Deputies learned from witnesses that a gray Cadillac had been parked at the scene until just a few...

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana's top health care official blasted the leading Democratic health care proposal in Congress on Tuesday, saying it carves out special favors for states represented by powerful legislators while ignoring the financial calamity facing less fortunate states. Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said the Senate bill authored by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., includes language that would exempt select states from having to share in the cost of adding new people to their Medicaid rolls. But the bill includes nothing to help Louisiana avoid a Medicaid shortfall caused in part by the overheated post-Katrina economy....

SLIDELL, LA – A former Seattle Seahawks player has been arrested and charged with the murder of a man during a struggle inside the victim's home in a New Orleans suburb. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said 29-year-old Terreal Michael Bierria, who was a strong safety with the Seattle Seahawks in 2002 and 2004, was booked on one count of first degree murder. Twenty-two-year-old Soron Salter, was found dead on the floor of the home, just behind the front door. Deputies had to force their way into the residence due to Salter's position behind the door. Salter had wounds...

Under Cuba's communist system, the government calls all the shots all the time — but during monster hurricanes that may not be such a bad thing, New Orleans' mayor says. In an interview during his six-day trip to Cuba's capital to study the island's disaster-response system, Ray Nagin told The Associated Press that "one of the biggest weaknesses we had during Hurricane Katrina is it wasn't clear who was the top authority." "The president and the governor were going back and forth. ... in Cuba you don't have that problem," Nagin said Tuesday evening. "The government says, 'This is what...

As the health care debate raged on across the country, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise continued to attack proposals supported by President Barack Obama at a town hall event held Monday in Slidell, pushing instead an alternative bill to end frivolous medical lawsuits and create health care competition across state lines. "I oppose this bill," he said to applause from the more than 200 who attended the event at Slidell Junior High School. "I strongly think we need to make reforms to health care in this country but I think we need to be very careful to fix the things that...

Ratcheting up the hostilities between ACORN's national leadership and the Louisiana chapter of the community action network, the parent organization voted this weekend to take over the local division and install a national employee to succeed the longtime local boss who was fired last week. Yet local ACORN leaders, including the recently deposed Beth Butler, say they are nearing completion of a long-planned separation from the national organization, setting up shop in new offices but under the same name. The competing moves are the latest developments in an ongoing power struggle between the national entity and its original chapter, and...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ― Gov. Bobby Jindal was scheduled to spend a night in New Jersey and attend a fundraiser for Chris Christie, a fellow Republican who's running for governor there, Jindal's press office said Monday. Jindal was scheduled to travel to Warren, N.J., near New York, on Monday, spokesman Kyle Plotkin said. Jindal would return to Baton Rouge on Tuesday, he said. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, is running against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

A small but important group of workers at the Audubon Zoo has voted to join the Teamsters union. Audubon's zookeepers voted 17-14 to join Teamsters Local 270. Despite the close vote, the zoo's management has decided not to challenge the election results, and the union will now be certified as the workers' official bargaining agent. Zookeepers work directly with the animals in exhibits such as the Asian domain and primate center, but their ranks do not include animal curators, who are considered part of management. Audubon has a total staff of about 600, including 450 full-time workers. The Teamsters represent...

Thomas Lee White spent a year in prison for another man's mistake. But White's own error has left him with little legal recourse. A federal appellate court ruled late last month that White -- who was jailed in New Orleans for public drunkenness, mistakenly identified and then lost in the state penal system for a full year after Hurricane Katrina -- has no right to a federal civil lawsuit because he didn't file the suit fast enough. He is one of countless former jail inmates who appear to have been deprived of their constitutional right to due process in the...

A Louisiana judge, Keith Bardwell, from the Tangipahoa parish is yet another symptom that racism is still a problem in America in 2009, despite the election of the first African-American President. Justice of the peace Bardwell is now in the middle of a growing controversy, likely to end his career, after refusing to give a marriage license to an interracial couple. Barwell said he denied the license “out of concern for the couple’s future children.” Bardwell insists that he is not a racist, and that he has a lot of Black friends that he “welcome to his house, and even...

New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin arrived in Cuba late Friday on a mission to learn about how to deal with storms, a spokeswoman said. "We understand we may have a lot to learn from the Cubans in terms of disaster preparedness and how they have dealt with hurricanes," spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said. Cuba is internationally applauded for exceptional disaster management, according to a news release from Nagin's office. In the Cuban capital, Havana, Nagin plans to meet with several officials, including some from the Latin American Medical Centers for Disaster. He will also learn about preparations the Cuba Defense...

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana's governor and a U.S. senator joined Friday in calling for the ouster of a local official who refused to marry an interracial couple, saying his actions clearly broke the law. Keith Bardwell, a white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish in the southeastern part of the state, refused to issue a marriage license earlier this month to Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black. His refusal has prompted calls for an investigation or resignation from civil and constitutional rights groups and the state's Legislative Black Caucus. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal said...

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Caddo Parish Deputies say they've made an arrest related to an early Thursday morning home invasion. Investigators say the break-in happened just after 3 am at a home in the 1100 block of Oak Grove Lane. According to deputies, the homeowner was awakened when he heard someone kicking in the front door of his house. The homeowner said he grabbed a handgun, and when the suspect came into the bedroom, the homeowner shot at the suspect several times. The suspect then ran from the house.

NEW ORLEANS ― Ray Nagin will become the first mayor in 50 years to make an official visit to Cuba when the leader of New Orleans travels there with a delegation of officials for a disaster preparedness exchange. New Orleans is serving as a living laboratory for techniques on emergency preparedness and response, including implementing plans that include assistance for residents who are unable to leave the city. During Gustav in 2008, the city helped more than 18,000 residents evacuate as the hurricane approached. The tour is scheduled to meet with the Latin American Medical Centers for Disasters and will...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, who accused former President George W. Bush of leading a government "that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns," is hearing directly from New Orleans residents who have struggled to rebuild their city since the 2005 hurricane season. Obama arrives in New Orleans Thursday on his first presidential trip to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. About 1,600 people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina, which caused $40 billion in damages and displaced 1 million people from their homes.

President Barack Obama warned his critics Thursday that on healthcare and other agenda items that he is "not tired" and he is "just getting started." In fiery remarks at at townhall meeting in New Orleans before a "feisty crowd," Obama repeated his belief that healthcare reform would pass this year, and he again said that change would not be easy. The president drew raucous applause after he joked that he was taking criticism from the media for not solving world hunger in his first nine months in office. Even as Obama said that change would take time, he did vow...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the...

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell...

Eddie Price, who stepped down as Mandeville mayor a week ago, pleaded guilty in federal court today to tax evasion and depriving citizens of honest services through mail fraud after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. He will be sentenced Jan. 28. According to the bill of information filed by prosecutors, the charges relate to annual Pebble Beach golf trips Price took from 2003 to 2007, which were paid for by the city's designated engineer and a developer who does business with the city

Making his first visit to Louisiana since becoming the nation's 44th chief executive, President Barack Obama told a spirited crowd at the University of New Orleans on Thursday that he will help build a stronger Gulf Coast than the one Hurricane Katrina and broken levees wrecked four years ago. "I promise you this -- whether it's me coming down here or my Cabinet or other members of my administration -- we will not forget about New Orleans," Obama said. "We are going to keep on working. . . . Together, we will rebuild this region, and we will build it...

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell said...

Hammond, Louisiana--A justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple last week because of concern for the children who might be born of that relationship. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward, also said it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. “I’m not a racist,” Bardwell said. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.” Beth Humphrey, 30, said she and her boyfriend, Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, intend to consult the...

Obama: 'We Will Not Forget' Troubled New Orleans ASSOCIATED PRESS October 15, 2009 NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- President Barack Obama is promising the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that his administration ''will not forget'' them as they work to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Obama says he makes no excuses for the fact that the federal government didn't work effectively with state and local officials in the aftermath of the storm four years ago. But he says his administration is ''working around the clock to clean up red tape and eliminate bureaucracy.''

A sturdy bike is a good way to get around the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The roads are still pretty rough, the distances between places tend to be too long to walk and too short to drive, and on a bike you can easily stop and chat with the residents who have returned. I moved to New Orleans about a year after Hurricane Katrina, and I’ve ridden my bike out here every month or two to see how the rebuilding has been faring. Also, I’ve heard that Brad Pitt likes to bike around when he’s in town. Folks...

Louisiana Republican Rep. Anh Cao (R) recently appeared with local Democrats at a press conference urging Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to reconsider his refusal to support a high-speed rail link between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. But it seems that Cao hasn't given up on prodding his fellow Republican. "I was thoroughly disappointed when my state failed to file a" final high-speed rail application by the Oct. 2 deadline, Cao said today at a hearing of the House transportation committee's railroads panel. Cao called the proposed rail link a potentially "huge economic boost to the region," adding: "We worked very...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will be in New Orleans today, making his first post-inauguration visit to a city and region desperate to impress upon him both the long strides made since Hurricane Katrina and the daunting challenges yet ahead in housing, education, health care, levee protection and coastal restoration. The stopover will clock in at three hours and 45 minutes, enough time to visit the only school to reopen in the Lower 9th Ward since Katrina, conduct a town hall at the University of New Orleans, and grab a to-go order from Dooky Chase. "I know he likes gumbo,...

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he would dedicate himself to helping New Orleans and the Gulf Coast recover from the horror of Hurricane Katrina, which took 1,800 lives, caused more than $40 billion in damage and displaced more than one million people. "This will be a priority of my presidency," he said in February of last year. "And I will make it clear to members of my administration that their responsibilities don't end in places like the Ninth Ward -- they begin there." On Thursday, roughly four years after Katrina hit, Mr. Obama makes his first trip...