La. Senate President Starts Investigation Of Sexual E-Mail

theneworleanschannel.com ^

[chance33_98]

La. Senate President Starts Investigation Of Sexual E-Mail

Allegedly Accidental Message From Secretary Prompts Complaints

POSTED: 10:41 AM CST January 22, 2004 UPDATED: 3:43 PM CST January 22, 2004

NEW ORLEANS -- The president of the Louisiana Senate has asked for an investigation into whether the Senate's top administrator intentionally sent an e-mail containing sexual jokes to people who work in state government.

The message, sent out by Senate Secretary Mike Baer, provoked several complaints that the content was offensive and inappropriate for the workplace.

Baer said he hit a wrong button on his computer and forwarded the jokes by mistake to legislators, their staff and members of the governor's office, instead of deleting them.

Senate President Don Hines said he wants to determine whether Baer intended to send the e-mail to certain individuals and instead mistakenly sent the vulgar jokes and video files to several hundred people around the state Capitol and other legislative employees.

Baer sometimes sends out jokes by e-mail to a list of more than five dozen people, including lobbyists, legislators and reporters. Several state Capitol reporters are on the list.

Sen. Jay Dardenne, of Baton Rouge, said it was possible that Baer accidentally forwarded the jokes to the wrong list of people, just as it was possible that he meant to delete the e-mail instead of sending it.

Hines said the Senate's human resources office is heading the investigation and will look into whether one key stroke could indeed collapse several e-mails of jokes into one e-mail and forward it.

Baer called the mistaken e-mail carelessness and said he hadn't even seen the jokes himself.

[blackdog]

I worked with a guy who worked a shift opposite his wife. They used to chat about needed family info using company e-mail. She sent him an e-mail indicating that she was in her cycle of fertility and he should plan on acting accordingly. He responded with a description of how he was going to meet the task face-on (if ya know), and he replied to "All". His ex-sister in-law was one of the recipients and filed a formal complaint seeking his dismissal. He barely survived.

[GummyIII]

Best thing to do is to make "reply to sender" the default. Almost all email programs allow that. Then one doesn't have to worry about the email getting where it shouldn't go unless one wants to. I put up with it with my work email, too...and get things I should never see. I never use my work email for anything other than work related and have my default reply set as mentioned previously.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Darwin award pending?

[Adder]

Well, what were the jokes? Were they any good? I mean, if you are going to crucify a guy because he actually used a computer for something other than state's business, we should at least see the evidence.

[Dog Gone]

Given that Louisiana tolerates and even embraces what goes on in public during Mardis Gras in New Orleans, this is no big deal.

[dmz]

Nahhh, he's still living. If he loses his job as a result of this and his wife kills him, then it's a whole new ballgame.

[jrushing]

Given that Louisiana tolerates and even embraces what goes on in public during Mardis Gras in New Orleans, this is no big deal.

Yes, it's a big deal in most of La. What goes on in NOLA is a world away from the rest of La.
I tried to "accidently" forward email instead of hitting the delete button. My outlook express asks for a "TO" email address.
If you don't select an address, you cannot send the email. I think he's lying. He seleced the wrong "send to" (group) instead of an individual, & there you go!! Another pol that doesn't have to be accountable!

[jrushing]

Given that Louisiana tolerates and even embraces what goes on in public during Mardis Gras in New Orleans, this is no big deal.
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Don't speak the truth!