Free Republic

[Louisiana] Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office and the state inspector general are investigating a Louisiana police pension fund. Caldwell's office on Monday confirmed the joint investigation of the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System, but wouldn't provide any further details. "The investigation is in the early stages, and that is all we can say at this point," Caldwell spokeswoman Jennifer Roche said in an e-mail. The retirement system, called MPERS, had been criticized in recent years for investing in golf courses that never turned a profit. The system owns two northwest Louisiana golf courses and had invested in a Texas luxury...

Just as criminal justice officials in New Orleans started to take note of a remarkable stretch -- two weeks and counting without a murder -- a homicide call crackled over police radios. New Orleans' murder total ticked up by one Monday afternoon when a 22-year-old man was killed after a triple shooting in the Desire neighborhood. The violent death brings the number of homicides in the city to at least 150 this year, closing out the longest murder-free stretch -- 15 days. The last time [New Orleans Police Department] detectives were called to a murder scene was Sept. 27, when...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward and then hold a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans Lakefront Campus on Thursday, the White House announced Sunday evening. With the announcement, the contours of the president's first visit to New Orleans since taking office appear complete. Local officials, including Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., had protested Obama's original plan for only one stop, the town hall, on his New Orleans trip. Obama will fly in on Air Force One on Thursday morning, visit the...

AVONDALE, La. (AP/1010 WINS) -- The USS New York, built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center site, is heading to its namesake city. The warship built in south Louisiana, is to leave Tuesday. The Navy will officially commissioned it in New York in early November. Organizers of a "line the levees'' event in the New Orleans area hope several thousand people turn out Tuesday morning for the send-off. One organizer, Lola Lass, says she expects a festive, patriotic scene. Flags were to be handed out to people gathering at a riverfront park. Thousands of workers helped...

Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of Lousiana ACORN, was terminated by the organization's national leadership today, just two days after local ACORN leaders ripped President Barack Obama's planned itinerary for a trip to New Orleans this week. The criticism of the Obama itinerary was actually voiced by Vanessa Gueringer, an unpaid volunteer who heads ACORN's Lower 9th Ward chapter. "I'm thrilled that he's coming," Gueringer said Saturday. "But," she added, in remarks aimed at the president, "we want to see that change that you ran your platform on. We want to see the hope that symbolized your campaign in...

The satirical spirit of New Orleans humor is on full display in "The Ray Nagin Coloring Book," the creation of local artist Karen Ocker (New Basin Press, $9.95). A new coloring book features New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Some of Nagin's more colorful quotable remarks are accompanied by Ocker's witty line drawings. It's adult entertainment, for sure -- remember "I stand before you, a vagina friendly mayor. I am in?" Or laugh at Nagin as a staggering mouse, laboring under a huge burden of cheese, , saying "I have change a lot and moved a lot of people's cheese. See...

BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled to a Houston suburb Thursday night to raise money for his 2011 re-election campaign, according to his staff. The event in Katy, Texas, continued a string of out-of-state fundraisers for Jindal, who has traveled from coast to coast collecting money despite having no announced opponents. Jindal also has raised money for Republican political candidates.

WASHINGTON - The White House set the date Thursday, announcing that President Obama's long-awaited visit to New Orleans to assess the progress of the city's recovery four years after Hurricane Katrina, will be Oct. 15. But a brief White House memo to members of the Louisiana congressional delegation, alerting them "that the President will be traveling to New Orleans on Thursday, October 15 for a town hall," irked both Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., who suggested that if that is the extent of the president's visit, it is not enough. "The president's administration has achieved some truly...

The state's [Louisiana's] Department of Vital Statistics cannot be forced to provide a birth certificate listing two men as the parents of of a Louisiana-born boy adopted by a gay couple in New York, a lawyer with the state's attorney general argued Wednesday morning to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kyle Duncan, head of the attorney general's appellate division, argued before a three-judge panel that because Louisiana law does not allow an unmarried couple to jointly adopt a child, the state registrar cannot be forced to recognize an out-of-state adoption of that sort in a new birth certificate....

A conservative Texas preacher who defied the Internal Revenue Service by endorsing Sen. John McCain from his pulpit last year sketched a vision of Washington in the hands of socialist ideologues determined to wreck the Constitution and undermine "our Judeo-Christian heritage," because "what's best for America is socialism." In 52 minutes of razor wire rhetoric, the Rev. Stephen Broden, a black pastor from Dallas, drew at least six standing ovations from a mixed but predominantly white audience gathered by the Greater New Orleans Tea Party. Quoting from the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and conservative authors like Francis Schaeffer, Broden...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- An internal review by ACORN's board of directors found that $5 million was embezzled from the community organization, far more than the previously reported amount of $1 million, according to documents released Monday. The new amount was reported in a subpoena from the investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. It is unclear if the money was taken from state, federal or private funds, according to the subpoena. ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new embezzlement allegation is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and...

An internal review by ACORN's board of directors found that $5 million was embezzled from the community organization, far more than a previously reported sum of $1 million, according to documents from the Louisiana attorney general's office.

An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Caldwell. The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds." ACORN Chief Executive Officer Lewis said the new accusation about the embezzlement is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have...

What's good enough for Rep. William Jefferson is good enough for Rep. Charles Rangel, some sayBy Times-Picayune Staff October 04, 2009, 4:15AM Some House Republicans are calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to follow the same logic dealing with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., that she did in 2006 when she persuaded the House Democratic caucus to remove then Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, from the panel. Rep. John Carter, R-Tx., has been alluding to the Jefferson action as he sought to force Rangel's ouster over alleged ethical and financial lapses. Pelosi successfully sought Jefferson's removal after...

A long list or organizations were HQ'd at ACORN headquarters in NO. Here is a partial list from the very first page of Google search results. ACORN Community Land Association Tamara Jacobson Law Office Affiliated Media Foundation Service Workers Action Team (SEIU) Klotz & Early Law Firm http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2009/prg092409i.pdf A 13-page Senate Finance Committee document of the groups listed for the address, apparently. A real eye opener.

Photo taken today by Big Government contributor Kevin Kane at ACORN Headquarters in the Big Easy

Several months ago, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was the hot ticket in the Republican Party. Unfortunately, he bombed when giving the GOP response to President Obama's address to Congress in February. Now, he is registering at the bottom of the pack among potential GOP presidential hopefuls. At the recent Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council in Washington D.C., Jindal finished seventh with only 5% of the vote. With such lackluster results, Jindal is revamping his strategy. In an interview with Politico, Jindal recommended that Republicans work with President Obama to find compromise on the issue of health...

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal urged his party Tuesday to shift to offering health care solutions instead of just rejecting what [Alleged] President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress are proposing. “I think now is the perfect time to pivot and to say, not only here’s what we’re against, and not only here’s how we’re going to contrast ourselves, but here’s what we’re for,” Jindal said in an interview with POLITICO. Jindal acknowledged that the Republican Party for years had been too slow to stake out positions on the health care debate “to our peril and the nation’s...

WASHINGTON -- An ethics watchdog group is asking the office that oversees Louisiana's lawyers to investigate whether Sen. David Vitter, R-La., should be disciplined for his 2007 admission of a "very serious sin" after his phone number appeared on a list compiled by a Washington prostitution ring. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said its filing is related to Vitter's recent request for a Justice Department investigation into ACORN, the community activist group with headquarters in New Orleans. Staffers in four ACORN offices around the country have been caught in a video sting giving advice to a couple pretending...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will visit New Orleans in mid-October to see firsthand the progress made since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The news of the presidential visit came as Obama signed an executive order Tuesday extending the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Recovery and Rebuilding for six months, through April 1. The White House also said that to improve disaster recovery efforts nationally, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will lead a six-month effort to examine lessons learned during previous disaster recovery efforts and determine areas for improved collaboration...

A Folsom-area man who cracked a man's skull open with a hammer and left a trailer full of blood in his wake was sentenced to life in prison today for second-degree murder. Edward "Eddie" McCray, 42, was found guilty on Aug. 14 of killing Mallery "Mal" McGee, striking him four times in the head with a metal hammer. Edward McCray McGee, naked and bleeding, stumbled out of a Folsom-area trailer the night of Aug. 7, 2005. McCray, who was on crack cocaine at the time, was holding a hammer in his hand and told several witnesses that he and McGee,...

Just a few weeks ago, on September 4th, FEMA handed over $1 million to the ACORN Institute, an ACORN affiliate in New Orleans. The grant is for “fire prevention.” You can find the grant here. Virtually every other organization receiving “fire prevention” grants is a fire deparment or medical facility. Here’s some background on ACORN Institute: An affiliate of ACORN, the ACORN Institute, has been a participant in the IRS tax assistance program. The institute prides itself as a one-stop shopping service for low-income households seeking free benefits. In addition to tax preparation, it also provides information on how to...

While everyone in Washington is suddenly pretending they’ve hardly ever heard of ACORN, they might want to pretend they’ve never heard of the SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Service Employees International Union are tight as Heidi Klum and a new pair of jeans. You also don’t talk about either organization without mention of Wade Rathke, co-founder of ACORN and founder of SEIU Local 100 in New Orleans. Rathke, who resigned from ACORN last year as “chief organizer” after it became known that his brother embezzled almost $1 million...

Ochsner Medical Center has indefinitely suspended operations at its in-vitro fertilization center in Elmwood due to a possible mix-up in the labeling of frozen embryos.

In the latest Forbes magazine ranking of the Best States for Business, Louisiana jumped five spots from 49th in 2008 to 44th in 2009. Forbes ranked Louisiana 50th in 2006, and 49th in 2007 and 2008. The ranking evaluates the 50 states on six different categories, including business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. Louisiana's improved standing was the result of significant jumps in three categories. Louisiana's growth prospects ranking moved up from 17th to eighth in the nation. This category reflects expectations for the state's future performance in job growth, income growth...

<p>A federal jury on Thursday rejected a New Orleans family's assertions that the government-issued trailer they lived in after Hurricane Katrina exposed them to dangerous fumes, in the first of several trials that could lead to hundreds of similar claims being resolved.</p>

St. John the Baptist Parish President Bill Hubbard resigned his post today after a bill of information was made public showing he has been charged by federal authorities with conspiracy to solicit and give bribes.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Acting U.S. Marshal Steven M. Hartman will discuss developments in a "major enforcement operation" during a 3 p.m. press conference today, according to a news release from Letten's office. The release didn’t provide details about the operation and said officials would not disclose them before the press conference. Letten and Hartman are both federal officials with the Eastern District of Louisiana. [END]

Westchester homeowners are shelling out more in property taxes than residents of any other county in the nation, according to a study of new census data released yesterday. The median tax bill in the suburban county hit $8,890 last year -- more than four times the national figure, according to a study by Tax Foundation senior economist Gerald Prante, based on the federal data. The average homeowner in Westchester makes $110,520 per year, and gives a full 8 percent of that to the government for property taxes. But Westchester residents aren't the only New York-area homeowners forking over huge amounts...

Leroy Adams Sr., whose skeletal remains were found last year in his son’s Metairie home, suffered 29 fractured ribs and four fractured bones in his neck, most of which had not healed at the time he died, a prosecutor said today in opening statements of the son’s trial.

Two contracts are fully executed and a third is in the approval and signing stage between the city of New Orleans and ACORN. While Congress voted and Governor Jindal issued an executive order cutting ACORN off from future funding, Anthony Faciane says the city had "discussions" about ACORN contracts, but will honor them. Faciane, Deputy for Neighborhood Stabilization for the city says, "I would like to assure everyone that the Affordable Housing staff, the In-take staff and the Construction staff of the Office of Community Development will monitor all aspects of these programs before any payments are made to the...

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters. The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October. Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for...

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has denied the request for a new trial by a former Louisiana congressman convicted on corruption charges. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled against a motion by former Rep. William Jefferson on Friday in Alexandria, Va. Jefferson was convicted Aug. 5 on 11 of 16 federal counts for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa after federal agents found cash in his freezer. A jury ruled Jefferson must forfeit roughly $470,000. He later filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

BATON ROUGE - Governor Bobby Jindal has issued an executive order cutting off current and future state funding to ACORN following a series of incidents captured on videotape and the subpoena of documents from the group’s national headquarters in New Orleans by the state attorney general's office. The executive order states that, “ACORN’s actions make clear that financial involvement with ACORN is contrary to the public policy of the State of Louisiana and the best interests of its citizens.” The order prohibits all state agencies from entering into future contracts with ACORN or its subsidiaries and directs the agencies to...

BATON ROUGE - Governor Bobby Jindal has issued an executive order cutting off current and future state funding to ACORN following a series of incidents captured on videotape and the subpoena of documents from the group’s national headquarters in New Orleans by the state attorney general's office. The executive order states that, “ACORN’s actions make clear that financial involvement with ACORN is contrary to the public policy of the State of Louisiana and the best interests of its citizens.”

Gannett's The Town Talk in Alexandria, La., will lay off about 40 employees when it shifts its printing next month to Lafayette, La., according to a Wednesday memo. Leslie Hurst, Gannett's vice president of the South group and publisher of The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette announced the move in a memo obtained by Gannettoid.com. In the memo, Hurst said, "this decision was not made lightly, but is the result of a great deal of thought and research to ensure that we are making the best decision for both operations." According to a story published Wednesday on The Town Talk's Web...

President Obama is right: This nation shouldn't allow tens of millions of its citizens to be left without health care. Those Americans suffer physically and financially, and the country is diminished because of it. He is also right that it is time for our leaders to act. As the economic downturn leaves more and more people without health insurance, the well-being of thousands of families is eroding week to week. The president made that case persuasively in his address to Congress and the nation Wednesday. It was high time that he stepped in. After a fractious August, during which both...

WASHINGTON -- The day after President Barack Obama urged Congress to quit bickering and enact health-care reform, Republicans on Capitol Hill said his trillion-dollar plan would be enacted on the back of Medicare recipients and sound the death knell of Medicare Advantage. "That program will be killed off," Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, one of three doctors in the Louisiana delegation, said on the House floor Thursday. Medicare Advantage is an option utilized by one in five Medicare beneficiaries. More than 145,000 Louisianians are enrolled in the program, which provides additional benefits, from glasses and hearing aids to preventive care services,...

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana's top health official said Thursday that the state will keep an open mind on whether to apply for the demonstration projects touted by President Barack Obama this week as a way to reduce medical malpractice suits. But state Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said the pilot programs Obama is proposing would likely be ineffective in reducing health-care costs unless they remove doctors' fears of getting sued. "The state of Louisiana would probably participate in anything that would help improve patient safety," Levine said. "But this is not real tort reform." Levine's comments came a day...

In 2007, Shreveport police officer Wiley Willis arrested 38-year-old Angela Garbarino on suspicion of drunken driving. While in custody, as captured on the video below, Garbarino began arguing with Willis about what she said was her right to make a phone call. About a minute later, Willis walked over and turned off the video camera. When the camera returns back on, Garbarino was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. She was later photographed with severe facial injuries that looked to have come from a beating. Willis’ attorney stated that she tripped and fell while the...

Fifteen years after having an affair, a St. Tammany Parish man finally decided to come clean. But the fact that her husband's infidelity occurred a decade and a half ago did little to reduce Connie Davis' ire. The woman pulled out a gun loaded with birdshot and fired five times at her husband, hitting him twice, as he ran across the yard of their home near Pearl River on Tuesday, authorities said. The man, whose name was not released by the Sheriff's Office, ended up at a hospital. His wife landed in jail, booked with attempted murder. The man admitted...

A St. Bernard Parish constable serving an eviction notice was puzzled by the boy who opened the mobile home door at a rural trailer park Wednesday afternoon. Daniel Ballard has been booked with cruelty to a juvenile. It was midday, but the 14-year-old boy wasn't at school. And the boy could barely stand up straight, propping himself up against the RV door because of a bruised, swollen foot. Constable Tony Guerra quickly called the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office. Now sheriff's detectives are unraveling the mystery of an injured, malnourished boy, weighing only 60 pounds, who had not attended school...

Below is the full text (as prepared) of tonights Republican address on health care, delivered by Dr. Charles Boustany (R-LA) following President Obamas speech to a Joint Session of Congress

BATON ROUGE -- More than a year before Louisiana voters head to the polls in what promises to be one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races in the country, the rhetoric already is heating up between incumbent Republican David Vitter and his Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville. The standard political playbook says incumbent politicians should ignore their opponents as long as possible, as mentioning them by name only gives them free publicity. But Vitter, who is seeking a second term after becoming Louisiana's first Republican senator since Reconstruction in 2004, turned that theory on its head during...

Superintendent Says He's Ordered Students To Watch Address NEW ORLEANS -- Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent Darryl Kilbert said Friday he's ordering teachers, staff and students to watch President Obama's address designated for schools on Sep. 8. The directive impacts students and staff at four Orleans parish schools. And the Superintendent said he's encouraging charter schools within the district to allow students to watch President's address. “Not only will the President’s speech address civic engagement and personal responsibility, both pillars of Louisiana education goals, it will also allow our students to participate in interdisciplinary lessons and discussions,” Kilbert said. The...

For the past several months, the federal building on Poydras Street has seen a steady stream of New Orleans police officers trudge in and out, all of them testifying before grand jurors gathering evidence of possible civil rights violations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- allegations that center on police misbehavior. Federal agents, meanwhile, have been studying police e-mails and documents obtained by subpoena -- as well as through a surprise search warrant executed on the New Orleans Police Department homicide office -- in an attempt to ferret out exactly what happened in the chaotic days after the storm....

onathan Bray, one of the organizers of Southern Decadence, a celebration that has become known as the gay Mardi Gras, spent his time this week getting ready for the big party and watching weather reports. "I looked out in the Gulf and didn't see a storm," Bray said. "No Katrina, no Gustav. I'm so happy." In the almost four decades since it started, Southern Decadence has become a traditional Labor Day weekend, end-of-summer, event. But for two of the last four years, hurricanes crashed the French Quarter-centered party. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Gustav last year both generated evacuation orders...

Minot Air Force Base is preparing to activate a new B-52 bomber squadron that will send 10 more B-52s to the North Dakota base. The new unit will be the fourth B-52 squadron in the Air Force. Minot base already has one squadron and Barksdale Air Force Base has the other two B-52 units. The Air Force has not said whether the planes will be transferred from Barksdale or taken from backup aircraft. Air Force officials say adding the new squadron at Minot is part of plans to put a stronger emphasis on nuclear mission training for B-52 units.

Louisiana will waive sales taxes on purchases of firearms, ammunition and hunting supplies Friday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 6. The so-called "Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday" was authorized by the state Legislature and will become an annual event.