Free Republic

The Kentucky Senate race is going to be close, but Democrat Alsion Lundergan Grimes might have to explain an in-kind campaign contribution that could be illegal. Ms. Grimes has been traveling across the state in a 45-foot long bus, which was acquired by her father, Jerry. He’s renting it to her campaign for a fraction of the market price, which violates campaign finance laws (via Politico): Federal campaign finance law bars a campaign from receiving goods and services below the fair market value from a corporation, regardless of whether it is owned by a family member. A review of Federal Election...

Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is under renewed scrutiny for potentially violating campaign finance laws by tapping official Senate funds to cover the cost of fundraising trips. A review of Landrieu’s office expenditures and campaign records reveals two trips from 2012 that may have been improperly billed to her Senate office rather than her reelection campaign. On Aug. 23, 2012, Butler Aviation charged $6,787 for an in-state flight for Landrieu that included multiple stops. The flight was from New Orleans to Vidalia to Shreveport to Alexandria and back to New Orleans, according to official disbursement records Landrieu filed with the...

Forty-five years ago this very day, it took my Aunt Penny nearly ten hours to weave her way around downed trees, flooded roads, ruined bridges, snapped telephone poles, and live wires between New Orleans and Pass Christian, Miss. It’s usually just a one-hour drive. But this was in the immediate, same-day wake of Hurricane Camille, still the strongest named storm in U.S. history. Her parents (my grandparents) had been traveling, and they had returned to their Pass Christian home just the evening before. When Penny spoke to them from her New Orleans apartment as the storm bore in, they were...

Sen. Mary Landrieu, R-La., walks to the Senate floor for a vote, May 13, 2014. Republican Louisiana Senate hopeful Rep. Bill Cassidy is calling on Sen. Mary Landrieu to apologize and return all taxpayer money she has spent on charter flights after a CNN report revealed the Democratic incumbent violated federal law by using taxpayer dollars to charter a private flight to a campaign event. "Senator Landrieu's disregard and abuse of taxpayer money is unacceptable and, reportedly, illegal," Rep. Cassidy said in a statement. "She should return all the taxpayer money she has spent on charter flights, open up her...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) mistakenly used more than $3,200 in taxpayer dollars to fly to a campaign fundraiser last year, according to a report published Wednesday by CNN. Her Senate office paid for the 400-mile round-trip charter flight on Nov. 8 from New Orleans to Lake Charles, La. Using taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes is illegal. Landrieu’s campaign spokesman, Fabien Levy, told CNN that it was a mistake that has since been corrected.

The U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding crisis is demonstrating far-reaching effects on the nation’s economy and foreign policy goals. Take, for example, Ingalls’ recently closed composite-construction yard in Gulfport. First, the Coast Guard passed on composite deckhouses for its new class of fast-response cutters, going to a different design. When the Navy decided to transition from a composite deckhouse like on the first two Zumwalt-class destroyers to a steel one constructed at Bath Iron Works, that proved the knockout blow. The yard closed in July, putting 400 shipbuilders out of work, according to local TV station WLOX. The decision was announced last...

Sempra Energy, GDF Suez and other investors in the Cameron LNG project have made their final investment decision on the project and intend to move forward with it, the companies announced this week. The facility will be located at Sempra Energy’s existing Cameron LNG import terminal in Hackberry, La. It is expected to cost around $10 billion. “Today’s commitments from our project sponsors and international banks put us one step closer to delivering domestic natural gas to America’s trading partners in Europe and Japan,” Sempra LNG president Octavio M.C. Simoes said in a statement. The facility will have three liquefaction...

The political fight over Common Core academic standards reached an absurd level last week when Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a lawsuit arguing that an agreement he signed four years ago "threatens Louisiana's sovereignty as a state." In a way, he is suing himself. The governor signed the memorandum of understanding in 2010 for Louisiana to take part in Common Core and the development of a multi-state test to measure student achievement. His administration even pushed in 2012 for legislation to strengthen the state's commitment to the new standards. The effort, which originated with the National Governors Association, wasn't controversial then....

Twelve states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Friday seeking to block an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to regulate coal-fired power plants in an effort to stem climate change. The plaintiffs are led by West Virginia and include states that are home to some of the largest producers of coal and consumers of coal-fired electricity. The suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The E.P.A. rule, announced by President Obama on June...

Louisiana businesses and consumers could face one of the most expensive federal regulations in history, according to a new study released Thursday (July 31) by the National Association of Manufacturers, an industry advocacy group. The study, conducted for the association by NERA Economic Consulting, estimates it will cost Louisiana companies $189 billion over two decades to comply with new limits on ozone emissions the Environmental Protection Agency is slated to propose later this year. The report says the Louisiana economy stands to lose as much as $53 billion in gross state product and nearly 117,000 jobs per year if the...

A Republican congressional candidate fled her interview with a major election-forecasting group after being asked why she believed global warming was a hoax and whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States, according to a new report in The Washington Post. In the Post, David Wasserman, the House editor at the Cook Political Report, detailed his strange encounter with the "frightening" and "fact-averse" Louisiana State Rep. Lenar Whitney.

William Murphy set out Sunday night to pick up a few groceries at the New Orleans Food Co-op in the St. Roch neighborhood. The roughly three-block walk is one the 54-year-old home renovator said he's made countless times since moving to the neighborhood in 2006. But what should have been a routine errand quickly turned into a harrowing encounter with a group of teenagers who left him bloody and battered.

Home> Health Warm Water Sparks Flesh-Eating Disease Warning in Florida Jul 29, 2014, 12:12 PM ET By KATIE MOISSE Katie Moisse More from Katie » Katie Moisse Health Editor via Good Morning America PHOTO: Crescent Beach in Sarasota, Fla. is pictured in this file photo. Florida Officials Warn About Deadly Bacteria in Water Next Video Flesh-Eating Bacteria Survivor Gets Service Dog Auto Start: On | Off Florida health officials are warning beachgoers about a seawater bacterium that can invade cuts and scrapes to cause flesh-eating disease. Vibrio vulnificus –- a cousin of the bacterium that causes Cholera –- thrives in...

SHREVEPORT, La. -- "Goin' Home." It keeps going around and around in my head as we drive around my old home town -- the slow, sweet musical theme Dvorak used for the largo in his New World symphony. By writing lyrics for it, a gifted pupil of his turned it into a kind of modern Negro spiritual, putting into words the plaintive, elegiac spirit of the music -- and the longing felt by anyone homesick for an irretrievable past: Goin' home, goin' home, I'm a-goin' home; Quiet-like, some still day, I'm jes' goin' home. It's not far, jes' close...

.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 113th Congress - 2nd Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate Vote Summary Question: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S.2578 ) Vote Number: 228 Vote Date: July 16, 2014, 02:09 PM Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Rejected Measure Number: S. 2578 (Protect Women's Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014 ) Measure Title: A bill to ensure that employers cannot interfere in their...

LUBBOCK, Texas—An illegal immigrant who was released by U.S. authorities with a Notice to Appear has been arrested for the alleged murder of a woman and kidnapping of children on U.S. soil. The alleged crimes occurred after the man was released. The man, Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas, entered the U.S. illegally with children and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. He was processed and released, as are all illegal immigrants who come as unaccompanied minors or incomplete family units from Central America. The alien is from Honduras. The arrest was first reported by the Associated Press (AP), but Breitbart...

When in 2008 Father Jeff Bayhi, a priest then at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, La., heard the troubling confession of a twelve-year-old parishioner, he likely did not imagine that his sacramental duty would land him in prison. But given a recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, Father Bayhi is in the position of choosing between prison and excommunication. Per the Supreme Court’s ruling, Bayhi must appear before the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, which will determine whether what he heard – a civil action by the girl’s parents contends that it involved...

Louisiana state Rep. Paul Hollis (R) dropped out of the Louisiana Senate race Monday. "After prayer and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana," Hollis said in a statement. "I am thankful for the outpouring of support from voters throughout the state and truly appreciate the tireless efforts of our campaign's staff and volunteers." The businessman had framed himself as a conservative alternative to Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the GOP establishment pick to take on Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) in the race. But that title was already largely secured by retired Air Force...

The peach orchards at Mitcham Farms, near the north Louisiana city of Ruston, have survived winter freezes, droughts and dangerous hail storms, but they evidently will not survive the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulations. The family-owned business, established in 1946 and featured in tourism magazines, is Louisiana’s largest peach orchard, according to its website, but owner Joe Mitcham expects he’ll close up shop in only a few years. The federal government’s banning of a chemical in 2005 known as methyl bromide, used to treat diseased peach trees, has really given him no choice, as most of his trees won’t survive...

Incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu now has a narrow edge over Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy in Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race. Landrieu picks up 46% of the vote to Cassidy’s 43%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Louisiana Voters. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate in the race, while six percent (6%) are undecided.