Free Republic

The Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home in New Orleans has fielded dozens of calls lately in response to a growing desire for funerals in which the deceased are displayed in poses reflective of their lives, The New York Times reported Saturday in a feature story. In recent months, memorial services for New Orleans socialite Mickey Easterling and local resident Miriam Burbank have drawn attention to the practice, the Times noted.

Soldiers in a Louisiana National Guard unit that deployed last year for a construction mission in Kuwait returned home from Texas on Wednesday, after a 15-hour bus ride that was arranged because no airline would provide a charter flight. Some of the soldiers in the 1021st Engineer Company arrived at Jackson Barracks, greeted by family and friends. The 1021st is based in Covington and has detachments in Independence and Gonzales. The company sent 160 soldiers to Kuwait. They returned to the United States earlier this month for post-deployment training at Fort Bliss, near El Paso

Chris Ziifle, the Gretna woman who secured her gun shop during Hurricane Katrina, is to be honored by the City Council on Wednesday for 66 years in business and philanthropy. Ziifle, 84, retired in May after selling Gretna Gun Works on Lafayette Street. She and her husband, the late Ralph Ziifle, founded the shop. It gained a statewide reputation not only for firearms sales but its gunsmith work and self-defense instruction. Besides her business, Ziifle is involved in the Gretna Food Bank, the Gretna German-American Cultural Center and the Gretna Historical Society.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the seizure of 19 marijuana plants, growing equipment and prescription pills at their Mandeville home, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said. Members of the St. Tammany Parish Narcotics Task Force executed a search warrant May 21 on the home at 543 Cedarwood Drive after receiving information about a man named "Scooby'' selling marijuana at a Mandeville area car wash, the sheriff's office said.Scooby was later identified as Deshun Jones, 25. Detectives observed him at the car wash, then followed him home and arrested him. Jones initially provided authorities with a fake...

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that enhanced penalties for the possession of a legal firearm while in possession of illegal drugs do not violate the States new protections of the right to keep and bear arms. In 2012, the voters of Louisiana approved a constitutional amendment to the state Constitution that removed the constitutional provision that gave the State the power to regulate concealed weapons.   It added the requirement that the court use the strongest level of judicial review, strict scrutiny, for Amendment 2 cases.   There is a a good discussion of the history behind this amendment...

A driver whose pickup truck went over the railing of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was rescued by several other drivers who stopped on the bridge to come to his aid Saturday afternoon. Another driver who happened upon the scene said he witnessed several people on the bridge and one person jump into the lake to save the driver whose vehicle had gone over the side. According to the Louisiana Department of Transportation, the southbound lanes were closed Saturday (May 31) shortly after 3 p.m. due to the accident. David Grunfeld, a photographer for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune was driving by...

Two out-of-state teens accused of robbing an 80-year-old Slidell woman are behind bars after being chased down by two good Samaritans who witnessed the theft. According to a statement from the Slidell Police department, Jacob Little and Jacob Pilkington - both from North Carolina - were arrested Friday (May 30) after police say they robbed the elderly woman in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart on Northshore Boulevard.The duo, whose ages were not provided by authorities, were traveling to Texas to visit family members, but noticed they were low on gas so they decided to stop by the big box...

COVINGTON, La. —Covington police arrested two people Thursday in connection with the beating of a teen with autismOn Friday, a 17-year-old with autism was walking home from the library when two boys approached him from behind. One of the boys struck him, breaking his jaw, police said. The teen needed surgery and is recovering from his injuries. Due in large part to the overwhelming assistance from the public, two 14-year-old boys were identified and arrested in connection with the case.

[SNIP]...With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation.

The bodies of 28 veterans at the L.A. County Morgue were finally moved Friday for burial to the Riverside National Cemetery. CBS2/KCAL9 pressed the L.A. County CoronerÂ’s Office Thursday to find out why the bodies had not yet received a proper burial after a source indicated there may have been as many as 60 veterans at the morgue for the past year and a half. The morgue says the bodies were unclaimed and they donÂ’t know how long the veterans were there. The law states veterans are supposed to receive a proper burial. The Veterans Administration says they were never...

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The federal government will spend $2 billion to extend a subway line under Los Angeles' storied Wilshire Boulevard, an effort to ease congestion in one of the country's most transited corridors and to eventually link downtown to the beach with a "Subway to the Sea." The project is meant to improve traffic in a part of the city where it can take hours to go just a few miles, with train stations to be built at major cultural attractions, including museums and the glitzy shopping areas of Beverly Hills. Backers hope at some point to expand...

It appears that Louisiana will be the last state to allow people with gun permits to eat in the same restaurants as less law abiding members of society.  New York, California, and Massachusetts, those staunch promoters of restrictive firearms law, have never barred the practice, nor have they had any of the problems imaginatively projected for southern states that have recently reformed their law, such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The states show considerable variation in those laws.  Laws in highly restrictive states, such as New York and New Jersey, do not have any restriction on permit...

NORTHEAST and SOUTH There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Maine: BRUCE POLIQUIN, MAINE-2, JUNE 10th .... Open Seat Endorsed by: Maine Right to Life, Freedom Works Bruce Poliquin -- FACEBOOK -- TWITTER -- DONATEFreedomWorks: "As a...

For almost a year and a half workers had been constructing a bridge to cross the main Interstate that runs between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but it took just minutes to bring the entire structure crashing to the ground. The blaze began after a construction workers' blowtorch was fanned by strong winds and ignited the wooden scaffolding that was being used to build the new flyover, across Interstate 15 in Herperia, California. Driven by high winds, the fire took hold extremely quickly and began burning the supports surrounding the bridge. Debris began to fell onto the I-15 minutes after...

The Talk Shows May 4th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas; Kevin Johnson, mayor of Sacramento, California; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Richard Williams, father of tennis players Serena and Venus Williams.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.; former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabber; former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

While several states, including Indiana, Kansas, and Arizona have passed reforms to prevent the waste of valuable assets in gun "buy backs", Louisiana is looking to expand its program.    In these programs, the organizers offer incentives for people to turn in unwanted firearms, often inherited antiques whose owners are unaware of their value.  Scholars have concluded that the programs have little, if any effect on crime, while wasting police resources. Although the term "buy back" has been popularized,  the firearms were never owned by the people purchasing them.  Critics say that the programs are thinly disguised political propaganda...

How? Are the two reconcilable? Secondly, should (not can) an owner of a team be forced to sell his team, and/or be banned from attending any NBA game as a non-owner - attending a NBA game like any other person? Example: Is the situation of an owner saying that blacks cannot eat in his restaurant different from someone saying that now the restaurant is under new management, and the racists will no longer be allowed to eat in that same restaurant? When hunting monsters should society be careful that it doesn't become a monster when doing so? I think so....

The breeder whose dog sired Niko, the 130-pound dog who killed a 4-year-old Houma girl in March, says his animal is being wrongly blamed. "I know everyone is blaming Kimbo, and I don't think it's right," said Gustavo Castro, a California man, in a conversation via Facebook messenger. Kimbo, famous in the world of XL American bully breeding, was Niko's father. After Niko's attack, several other owners of Kimbo's progeny said in online forums that their dogs were also unstable. One man, Zach Dank, said his Kimbo son attacked him, breaking his forearm and tearing through the muscle. He said...

In 2012, the voters of Louisiana approved a constitutional amendment to the state Constitution that removed the constitutional provision that gave the State the power to regulate concealed weapons.   It added the requirement that the court use the strongest level of judicial review, strict scrutiny, for Amendment 2 cases.   There is a a good discussion of the history behind this amendment at the Volokh Conspiracy, by David Kopel.  The amendment passed with over 73 percent of the vote. The court has already upheld bans on the possession of handguns by minors without parental approval and on felons on...

The Louisiana House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill 85-6 Monday afternoon that would restrict access to abortion services in the state. The legislation, which generated no discussion or questions on the House floor, now heads to the Louisiana Senate. Similar laws passed in other states have been used to shut down several abortion providers around the country. Abortion rights advocates have said the proposal, if approved, would immediately close three of Louisiana's five abortion clinics. Only two facilities in the Shreveport area would be able to meet the new requirements laid out in the bill. Gov. Bobby Jindal, Department...