Free Republic

The Newhouse family sold the 182-year-old daily The Times-Picayune and its website, nola.com, to a scrappy New Orleans competitor, and the entire staff is being laid off. That has stirred worries across the other papers in the family’s Advance Publications empire. A total of 161 staff members are being laid off, according to a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice filed with the Louisiana Workforce Commission, which listed 65 reporter and editor jobs in the bloodbath. John and Dathel Georges, the husband-and-wife team that owns the rival New Orleans Advocate, are buying The Times-Picayune from Newhouse’s Advance Local,...

This newspaper makes the following recommendations for Tuesday's ballot. CONGRESS U.S. Senate David Vitter Much of Sen. Vitter's first term in the Senate came in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaches that left 80 percent of New Orleans under water. The senator fought hard to hold the Army Corps of Engineers accountable and to get recovery resources for South Louisiana, including vital funding for coastal restoration. He was a leader in the push to finally close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, the corps-built waterway that contributed to the devastation during Katrina. He also played an important role in...

The path to the sweeping health care act signed by President Barack Obama Tuesday was long, convoluted and fractious. The product is massive and complicated. But the premise behind the Affordable Health Care for America Act is simple. As the president noted during the signing ceremony in the East Room at the White House: "Everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health." They should, and a nation as bountiful as ours should make sure that everybody does. The act signed Tuesday is imperfect, but it provides vital benefits to tens of millions of Americans. The bill...

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...

It’s almost historic. The New Orleans Times Picayune, the state’s largest newspaper, has endorsed Barack Obama, a democrat and the first part African American, part White person, for President. Interestingly, it also supported Bobby Jindal for Governor one year ago who is backing John McCain. “Over the past century, there have been moments when the world held its breath and looked to America for the next move: Our rescue of a broken Europe after World War II; the Cuban missile crisis; the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We are again at a critical juncture in history. Global markets are...

Chris Rose, a columnist for The Times-Picayune, was arrested Friday night and booked in an alleged domestic violence incident. Rose, 48, caused a disturbance and refused to leave the home of an former girlfriend, according to a New Orleans Police Department report filed in Municipal Court.

The people of Louisiana made it clear last week that they are adamantly opposed to a massive pay raise for lawmakers. But the Legislature didn't listen. Lawmakers did give up on the absurd idea of tripling their salary, but they voted instead to double it. Perhaps in their insular world that is what passes for sacrifice. In the real world, they still look greedy.

RACE TO THE FINISH These clowns just aren't funny anymore Friday, April 21, 2006 By Chris Rose In the mayoral debate on Tuesday night (as to differentiate from the one Monday night, or the one Tuesday morning, or the one Thursday night), [New Orleans Mayor] Ray Nagin finally said something that made me stand up and cheer. He said: "I'm tired of listening to this crap!" Finally, Ray. Something all of your constituents can relate to. That's a start, a first step toward fulfilling the campaign promise you have plastered all over the city, to "reunite" New Orleans -- although...

Yep, the "newspaper" which gave us so many drama queen stories about Katrina that turned out to be woefully inaccurate wins the top prize in US journalism. Kind of tells you something, doesn't it?From Saudi-owned Reuters [excerpted]: Jim Amoss (L), Editor of the Times-Picayune newspaper, congratulates publisher Ashton Phelps, Jr. after learning the paper won two Pulitzer Prizes in New Orleans April 17, 2006. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi, shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting...

Mikel Brooks is part of a two-man team putting a new roof on Yolly Seedtibood’s old Chopsticks restaurant in Jacksonville, but three months ago, the Searcy resident, an Arkansas National Guardsman, was falsely quoted as saying 30 or 40 people were killed at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A now discredited and fired reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a sizzling first-person account that included great drama, but apparently not much fact — a story that was picked up and repeated around the world by organizations including CNN. But...

Normally, I don’t comment on the columns of Cynthia Tucker, Editorial Page Editor of the Atlanta Constitution. It isn’t worth it. But she has finally jumped the shark. To prove that the “poor are on [their] own,” she cites this article: “In fact, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune used just those words to describe the hurricane evacuation plan authorities put in place for residents who didn't own cars. Reporter Bruce Nolan wrote in July, ‘City, state and federal authorities are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're...

Before residents had ever heard the words "Hurricane Katrina," the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you'll be on your own! Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame." But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message:...

New Orleans' local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, is blasting President Bush for his handling of response to Hurricane Katrina, and is calling for heads to roll within his administration. "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially," the paper states today in an open letter to Bush in its print edition.

Audiotapes recorded by Kennedy in-law Raymond Reggie while cooperating with an FBI probe into an August 2000 gala fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton could be devastating for the Democratic Party, according to Louisiana's Times Picayune, which has obtained transcripts of the Reggie tapes. The paper reports that a Sept. 4, 2002 tape of Reggie talking to Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate race finance chairman David Rosen "captures a conversation rife with gossip about the seamy side of political life, including the sex, drugs and prostitutes enjoyed by big-name Democratic stalwarts." Rosen is set to go on trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court...

No one to champion Sunday, October 24, 2004 The United States is facing profound challenges as it chooses a president for the next four years. Insurgents continue to plague the rebuilding of Iraq, this nation's deficit is exploding, and terrorism has become a worldwide reality. These and other pressing issues will require singular leadership from the Oval Office. Unfortunately, we cannot recommend either George W. Bush or John Kerry with confidence.

<p>With all the buzz about book clubs, including Oprah Winfrey's famous TV version, you'd think that reading was the hippest pastime around.</p> <p>Not exactly. A survey from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that the percentage of Americans who read is shrinking rapidly.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - The national debate over gay marriage is headed for the Louisiana Legislature this spring.</p> <p>The religious right is gearing up for a state ban on gay marriage and an outlaw of any state or local taxpayer dollars spent on domestic partner benefits, whether they are extended to straight or gay couples.</p>

<p>Bobby Jindal said Wednesday that Democrat Kathleen Blanco is engaging in "the worst type of racial pandering" with a new radio commercial that accuses the Republican Party of not wanting black voters to participate in the Nov. 15 gubernatorial runoff. The ad, which began running on urban radio stations this week, said a Jindal administration would usher in cuts to the Charity Hospital system and other services for the poor. "It means more closed doors, more denied opportunities," the ad said. "We all know the Republican Party has no interest in seeing the African-American community get out to vote." Blanco spokesman Bob Mann said the ad is accurate, and that the issue is fair game because the GOP has a history of trying to suppress black voter turnout in previous elections. "He has embraced an organization that has a sordid history in this regard," Mann said. Jindal called the commercial a lie and said his campaign has worked hard to attract support in the black community. "She's free to run any kind of campaign she wants," Jindal said. But "her campaign does have an obligation to stick to the facts."</p>

The Truth Matters No more making things up Tuesday provided yet another of at least three egregious examples in the past weeks of Kathleen Blanco simply making up allegations out of thin air, and then offering no proof or substantiation to back up her allegations. The latest example came in today’s Times Picayune, when Kathleen Blanco “was unable to produce evidence” and “offered conflicting explanations” about her allegations that “Republican truth squad" television ad was airing and attacking her. The three known egregious examples are: 1) On Sunday’s statewide television debate, Blanco attacked Jindal by asserting that he had aired...