Free Republic

BATON ROUGE -- The Washington lobbying firm of former U.S. Sen. John Breaux has won a $192,000 contract from the state's Department of Economic Development, drawing criticism from an Algiers lawmaker who called it political payback to Breaux from Gov. Kathleen Blanco. On a second round of a competitive bidding process, Patton Boggs LLP, a major lobbying firm in Washington, got a one-year contract beginning April 1 to press the state's case for military and federal installations. DED Secretary Mike Olivier said the bidding process was done "by the book" and that Patton Boggs overall was the best firm to...

HOUMA -- A 26-year-old urologist is credited with helping save hundreds of New Orleans hurricane victims who spent days stranded on a highway overpass. Packing a stethoscope in one hand and a loaded handgun in the other, Scott Delacroix Jr. provided medical care and helped evacuate people stranded on Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard in Metairie during the days following Hurricane Katrina. His adventures are chronicled on a Web site and in the scribbled notes he made on the leather seats of his SUV. Delacroix, a New Orleans doctor now working at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in east Houma,...

BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2005--The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) announced today that it has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to aid in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. Shaw will provide supervision, equipment, materials, labor, logistics, and all means necessary to provide the Corps of Engineers an immediate response for construction contract capability. The contract will provide construction and related services including program planning, scheduling, design, engineering, transportation, construction management, and quality control. Under this contract, Shaw has received its first task of pumping floodwater from the city of...

Taxpayers Put Millionaire Kennedy Wife Through College: Reggie Family Cost Americans Millions Through Years Of Fraud And Abuse Breaking News by Dan Riehl After reading this piece (http://vodkapundit.com/archives/007801.php) on Raymond Reggie at Vodkapundit, research into Raymond Reggie's past turned up more than just one previous family scandal which have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars - and also involve Victoria Reggie, current wife of Senator Ted Kennedy (D) MA. Reggie family patriarch, Judge Edmund M. Reggie, has a distinguished history which includes being a former Tulane Board Member, a "king-maker" in Louisiana Democrat circles, a convicted criminal whose misdeeds cost...

Kennedy’s brother-in-law charged with fraud in La. By PENNY BROWN ROBERTS proberts@theadvocate.com Advocate staff writer Federal authorities in Louisiana have charged the brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy of committing millions in bank fraud. A bill of information filed Wednesday in New Orleans federal court claims Raymond Reggie, 43, of New Orleans submitted fake documents to get a loan from Hibernia National Bank in December 2000. In the bill of information, federal authorities said Reggie “submitted fictitious documents purporting to be a contract” between his company, Media Direct, and the U.S. Census Bureau. A separate bill of information also filed...

Judge tosses impersonation charge against Reggie By The Associated Press GRETNA -- A judge has dismissed a police impersonation charge against media consultant and Democratic Party operative Raymond Reggie, ruling that prosecutors waited too long to bring him to trial. Reggie, the brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, had been accused of stopping three women in Metairie by using a blue police light. The charge carried up to two years in prison. State District Judge Robert Murphy ruled Monday that Reggie's trial on the charge, filed in 2002, should have taken place by July 14, 2004. Defense attorney Mike Ellis...

HILLARY CLINTON Hollywood event a flop in '00. One of Hillary Clinton's top aides threw a hissy fit over the high costs of an extravagant Hollywood fund-raiser .......... Ray Reggie, the brother-in-law of Sen. Ted Kennedy, testified..... that Clinton aide Kelly Craighead was upset days before the August 2000 soiree. Craighead and Rosen argued "pretty hard" about the lavish fund-raiser, said Reggie, who got involved in raising cash for the campaign at the behest of then-President Bill Clinton. "Kelly was concerned about how much money was going to be made at the event," Reggie testified....... Rosen, who is charged...

<p>St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago.</p>