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GOP senators attack whistleblower's credibility GOP senators attack whistleblower's credibility BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 09/30/19 06:00 AM EDT 13,753 Republican senators scrambling to protect President Trump from a formal impeachment inquiry are attacking the credibility of the whistleblower who filed a complaint. GOP lawmakers are asserting the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of the actions detailed in the complaint and question whether the person had a political agenda. “It doesn’t come from a person with personal knowledge. It’s like I heard these people say this, and now I’m reporting it. I think that is pretty bizarre,” said Sen. John...

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today an expansive health care fraud enforcement operation across the Gulf Coast, involving charges against a total of 11 individuals across four federal districts for their alleged involvement in various schemes to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and to obtain oxycodone and other controlled substances by fraud. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $515 million in fraudulent billings. Those charged included physicians, licensed social workers, as well as other medical and business professionals. In addition, in the state of Louisiana, 22 defendants, including 19 certified mental...

Video at link. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hammered Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she announced House Democrats would launch an official impeachment inquiry into President Trump, suggesting she is seeking to reverse the results of the 2016 election. “Speaker Pelosi happens to be the Speaker of this House, but she does not speak for America when it comes to this issue. She cannot decide unilaterally what happens here,” he told reporters. “The election is over. I realize 2016 did not turn out the way Speaker Pelosi wanted it to happen, but she cannot change the laws of this...

GROSSE TETE, La. - A woman bit a camel in defense after she reportedly went into its truck stop zoo enclosure to get her dog. The Advocate reported Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office officials said the woman's husband threw dog treats under Caspar the camel's fence Wednesday night at a Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. The dog went under the fence to get the treats inside Caspar's enclosure, where he is kept as an attraction, The Associated Press reported. According to police documents obtained by The Advocate, Gloria Lancaster, 68, and Edmond Lancaster, 73, from Milton, Florida, let their...

Congress is moving toward passing a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, but some lawmakers are warning it could be the first in a series of stopgap funding measures over the next year to avoid a fight over President Trump’s border wall. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top appropriator in the Senate, said it’s possible Congress will spend the next fiscal year passing several stopgap bills, known as continuing resolutions (CRs). "I don't know if we'll end up in a shutdown, but we could end up with continuous CRs," he said. "That could be the endgame." Lawmakers are...

On Thursday evening, a couple at the I-10 truck stop in Grosse Tete was chasing after their deaf dog ran away from them, Sheriff Brett Stassi said. The dog, according to Stassi, ran under the double barbed wire fencing that fenced off the enclosure of the camel. The couple chased after the dog into the enclosure, meeting an agitated camel, who is named Caspar. Sheriff Stassi said, somehow, the camel sat on the woman. The woman, possibly out of self-defense, bit the camel’s testicles.

In the summer of 2017, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) nearly lost his life. He was gunned down by a Bernie Sanders-supporting Left-wing lunatic on a ball field early one morning near Washington, D.C. and left for dead. But he survived, thank God, while the Lefty paid with his life. Good trade. We’re all better off for that because Scalise is a tireless champion of the Constitution, of our founding principles, and of liberty and freedom. And he doesn’t like what he sees across the aisle.

One person has died and another injured after they were shot in New Orleans on Saturday night in the Desire area, pushing the total of gunshot victims this weekend in the city to 13. According to New Orleans police, this latest shooting happened in the 3400 block of Louisa Street, when an individual in a black Cadillac drove by and began shooting. A 17-year-old was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting Friday night on City Park Avenue. Four people were shot in the St. Claude neighborhood late Saturday morning, according to police. A number of shots were...

A 30-year-old Baton Rouge man was accused by a grand jury Wednesday of raping a 4-year-old girl and molesting a 6-year-old girl. An East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted Joel Rodriguez, of 3579 Victoria Drive, on first-degree rape and molestation of a juvenile under the age of 13. The rape occurred on May 26, and the molestation took place between Aug. 1, 2018, and May 30, the indictment states. A first-degree rape conviction would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The case has been assigned to state District Judge Bonnie Jackson.

State attorneys general will launch one of the largest bipartisan, multi-state antitrust investigations into Facebook and Google on Monday. State attorneys general spanning across dozens of states will announce an antitrust investigation into Google and Facebook, and other technology companies at the Supreme Court at 2:00 p.m. ET Monday. The investigation will investigate whether America’s largest technology companies have stifled competition, restricted access, and harmed consumers. A Wall Street Journal report suggested that New York Attorney General Letitia James will lead the investigation into Facebook, while Texas Attorney General Attorneys Ken Paxton will lead the investigation into Google. James said...

Even though it’s been about a year since the last public meeting on the Interstate 49 Connector in Lafayette, the project isn’t dead, or even dormant. Louisiana Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson told The Acadiana Advocate on Monday things are happening to move the 5-mile section of interstate toward the federal Record of Decision needed to secure funding and start construction. The ideas and plans presented at public hearings over the past two years are being worked on, he said, and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is drawing up a contract extension for the consultants working on the project....

**SNIP** The Washington establishment seems convinced that as a generic long-term issue requiring politicians to do something, climate change makes Republicans look out of the mainstream, but as a demand for massive upheaval on a tight planetary timeline, the Green New Deal makes Democrats look just as far out of the mainstream. And it’s exposing real tensions inside the Democratic Party—between center and left, congressional leaders and insurgents, labor groups and green groups, and even among various factions inside the Green New Deal movement. **SNIP** “Denying the science is not a sustainable position, and more Republicans need to face reality...

State Sen. Wesley Bishop, a Democrat from New Orleans who recently announced he would not seek re-election after eight years in the Legislature, is under federal investigation for possible payroll abuse, records show. Bishop serves as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern University at New Orleans. In a series of stories last year, WVUE-TV Fox 8 reported that Bishop had been paid for 122 days of sick leave at SUNO while attending hearings in Baton Rouge in his capacity as a lawmaker. The station raised questions about whether the roughly $50,000 in sick leave payments were legal or...

An elderly retired doctor and his wife are suing an airline, some of its employees, a sheriff and his deputies, saying he was illegally arrested and subjected to excessive force after being removed from an airplane at New Orleans International Airport. Dr. Johannes Markus Sieber and his wife Mina Margareta Sieber Schneiter, both 74 and citizens of Switzerland, were removed from a Delta Airlines flight at the airport in November 2016 following what they say was a minor incident over the placing of luggage in an overhead compartment. According to the suit filed in the U.S District Court for the...

Jansing: To be a mainstream Republican means to offend MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing referred to a Louisiana Republican's belief that there are only two genders as "incendiary" on Friday. Jansing and her panel addressed the GOP's relationship with women and the LGBT community, in the aftermath of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national LGBT group, endorsing President Donald Trump for a second term. "We've got an important question now," Jansing told viewers. "What does it mean to be a mainstream Republican? It is the question that some Republicans have been asking in the age of Donald Trump, and increasingly, it...

Louisiana State University Reports Armed Intruder, Police on the Scene © Sputnik / 00:22 21.08.2019 No shots have been fired, and there are no injuries, as Louisiana State University advised to avoid the area or remain in a safe place. Louisiana State University has reported an armed intruder, saying that there is the police on the scene and advising people to "Run, Hide or Fight".

Former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has died following a long battle with cancer, sources say. She was 76. In a statement, the family said, “Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco peacefully passed away on August 18, 2019 at St. Joseph’s Hospice Carpenter House in Lafayette, Louisiana, surrounded by her beloved husband Raymond, her children and family." The 54th governor of Louisiana was the first woman elected governor of the state. Born in New Iberia, Blanco spent 20 years in public office before becoming governor in 2004, including five years in the

At least 10 Republican members of Congress are supporting Israel's decision to block Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country after Trump specifically requested it. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that it would be a sign of "great weakness" if Israel allowed the two congresswomen, who have been outspoken critics of Trump, to enter the country. Later that day, Israel officially blocked their entrance. "Israel’s denial of entry to Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar is a sign of weakness, and beneath the dignity of the great State of Israel," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Most...

In 2016, President Donald Trump carried Louisiana with 58 percent of the vote. Every Louisiana statewide elected official, except one, is a Republican. The Louisiana Legislature has a strong Republican majority and the state’s six-member congressional delegation has only one Democrat.Clearly, Louisiana is a conservative, Republican state but it is led by Governor John Bel Edwards, who is a Democrat. Edwards was elected in 2015 because of his opponent’s personal and political baggage, which is why his victory has been called a fluke by many political observers.As Governor Edwards runs for re-election this fall, he has amassed over $10 million...

FULL TITLE: Repeat Offender: Woman Nearly Bleeds Out After Botched Abortion Because Gosnell-Linked Clinic Lacked Emergency Supplies in Incident Previously Reported by Operation Rescue Baton Rouge, LA – The Louisiana Department of Health declared an Immediate Jeopardy situation at Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge in March 2019, due to multiple serious violations cited during an investigation into a medical emergency that took place on March 15, 2019. Immediate Jeopardy is a situation in which the provider’s noncompliance with patient care standards and/or regulations has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a patient. Due...