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While former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is making the most of her time out of office delivering speeches and writing a book, there's more trouble brewing for her back in the capital. From today's New Orleans Times-Picayune: In the final weeks of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, state officials quietly increased the size of the Road Home management contract from $756 million to $912 million, rewarding a contractor the Legislature wanted to fire, auditors questioned and thousands of homeowner applicants cursed. The Blanco administration never told the public about the 25 percent compensation increase for ICF International that was added to...

Blanco asked to battle Vitter By PATRICK COURREGES Advocate Acadiana bureau Published: Feb 2, 2008 LAFAYETTE — Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco said this week, among the many things on her post-governorship schedule, she’s been fielding phone calls from people asking her about a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate seat held by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La. Blanco, a Democrat, chose not to run for a second term for governor in 2007 and turned over the reins of state government to Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in January. She said that she’s been enjoying herself in the weeks since Jindal took...

BATON ROUGE -- If Bobby Jindal is searching for a way to define his inauguration today as Louisiana governor, he might choose "Great Expectations." He's said as much himself. On the campaign trail and since, he's promised to make Louisiana, a state known nationally for its colorful and corrupt political icons, "the gold standard for ethics." Embracing victory in the Oct. 20 primary, he declared a "fresh start" for a state often derided -- sometimes by candidate Jindal -- as an underachiever and even an embarrassment in many national comparisons. Although he concentrated his campaign efforts in northern Louisiana, he...

Departing Louisiana Governor Defends Her Record By ED ANDERSON   Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco listens to President Bush during a post-Katrina news conference on Sept. 12, 2005. (Photo by David Grunfeld)     BATON ROUGE, La. — Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who saw Louisiana through two monster hurricanes in 2005 only to see her own political career take a hit in their aftermath, turns the Governor's Mansion over to Republican successor Bobby Jindal on Jan. 14, but she says she will not fade away nor go very far.The Democratic governor, whose four-year tenure will always be bound to the state's darkest...

BATON ROUGE - As the California wildfires continued to rage Thursday, so too did the political feud between President Bush and Gov. Kathleen Blanco that has smoldered since the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina. The latest flare-up came when Bush, while touring the California disaster area, took an apparent swipe at Blanco's post-Katrina leadership as he complimented California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead," Bush said, according to the Associated Press. The president's statement, coming from a White House that seems determined to avoid...

Bobby Jindal, who was elected governor of Louisiana last Saturday, may not be a freak of unnatural Louisiana politics, but he's an unsoiled anomaly. The temptations of office, which flower in abundance along the bayous, lie still ahead. That's the cynical view, but one widely held in Louisiana, a state battered by nature (most recently Hurricane Katrina), and human nature (the examples never end). "Corruption in Louisiana," a one-time agent in charge of the FBI office in New Orleans once said, is "epidemic, endemic and entrenched." Graft three ways, as it might appear on the menu at a Chinese takeout....

Unable to withstand the fallout from two Katrina-related prosecutions, Attorney General Charles Foti narrowly missed a runoff that will leave the former Orleans criminal sheriff out of public life for the first time in three decades. Foti fell short of second place in a three-man field, with Republican Royal Alexander, a Shreveport lawyer, emerging to face primary leader James "Buddy" Caldwell, a Democrat and longtime district attorney from Tallulah. The two will meet in a battle sure to be vitriolic, judging from the increasingly caustic tone of the campaign leading up to Saturday's vote. Another longtime statewide official, Agriculture Commissioner...

The national media completely obsessed over Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, conducting an amazing propaganda campaign which suggested a la Kanye West that George Bush hated black people, demonstrated it by the government's "neglect." They paid little attention to the incompetence of state and local officials, like Gov. Kathleen Blanco. She was so tarred by her response that she didn't even run for re-election. Yesterday, Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal, who lost to Blanco by four points in 2003, easily won the governor's race. Bobby who? That's right, the national media that obsessed over this area (and we mean...

Tonight, the man who may well be the Republican Party's brightest hope could take the reins of America's most ungovernable state. If you haven't heard of Bobby Jindal, almost certain to be the next Governor of Louisiana, it's partly because his sense of action and purpose about Louisiana post-Katrina is so strong that it's scared off any credible challengers, making this a boring race. The question is whether Jindal can do the next-to-impossible, clearing 50% plus one and winning Louisiana's "jungle primary" outright. No gubernatorial candidate in an open seat race has ever done that before in Louisiana history. Normally,...

Having gotten little out of attacking Bobby Jindal for being a Christian, the Democrats in Louisiana and Walter Boasso in particular, have found a new avenue -- attacking Jindal for cleaning up Louisiana's objectively corrupt hospital system. Along the way, some things happened that should not have happened. as Vladimir notes, Boasso is highlighting one of those tragic cases now. Keep in mind that Jindal was sued in his official capacity, not personally. Jindal, having learned his lessons from going against Kathleen Blanco, has been quick to fire back. Keep in mind that Jindal was sued in his official capacity,...

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La., Aug. 28 — Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was summoned to a courtroom on Tuesday to testify in a homicide case over Hurricane Katrina’s single biggest loss of life, and she refused to take blame for the deaths of 35 patients who drowned at a nursing home.

Having missed a deadline to challenge a subpoena requiring Gov. Kathleen Blanco to testify in the St. Rita's nursing home trial, the state attorney general's office asked for an emergency extension and, barring that, requested that Blanco give a closed-door deposition rather than be cross-examined on her response to Hurricane Katrina in open court. Defense attorneys subpoenaed Blanco on July 10 in connection with the upcoming negligent homicide trial for Sal and Mabel Mangano, who owned the St. Bernard Parish nursing home where 35 residents drowned during Katrina. snip Judge Jerome Winsberg is expected to issue a ruling on the...

Excerpt - Ex-FEMA chief profiteering on Katrina? Witt’s firm charges Louisiana double its costs for subcontracted services In the traumatic days after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco turned to one of the most respected names in emergency management: James Lee Witt, the so-called Master of Disaster. But an eight-month investigation by NBC News into the performance and billing practices of Witt’s firm, James Lee Witt Associates, raises questions about profiteering, cronyism and possible falsification of records by one of Witt Associates’ subcontractors. ~ snip ~ Witt Associates reaps its biggest windfall, however, from billing the state double what...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana became the first American state to outlaw a late-term abortion procedure on Friday, when the governor approved legislation allowing doctors to be prosecuted for performing the surgery. The new law allows so-called "partial birth" abortions in only one situation: when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life. The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, even if the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law criminal penalties for doctors who perform the surgery: fines of between $1,000 and $10,000, and jail...

State becomes first to ban controversial procedureBATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Louisiana became the first American state Friday to outlaw a controversial abortion procedure that involves partially removing the fetus intact from a woman's uterus, then crushing or cutting its skull to complete the abortion. The new law allows the procedure in only one situation at any time during pregnancy: when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life. The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, even if the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother. Anti-abortion activists call the procedure "partial-birth abortion;" surgeons...

Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) -- The Louisiana state House put the final touches on a bill that would ban partial-birth abortions and sent it to Governor Kathleen Blanco after approving it unanimously. If Blanco signs the bill, it would prohibit more than 300 such abortions that are done in the state on an annual basis. Lawmakers there hope to put a new ban on the books after an April Supreme Court decision saying such bans are constitutional and that a federal ban on the gruesome abortion procedure is valid. The ban prohibits all such abortions unless necessary to save the...

Blanco: up to $700 M found in state money for Road HomeAssociated Press - June 2, 2007 8:54 PM ET BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Governor Blanco says her administration has found up to $700 million in state money to put into the state's hurricane rebuilding program for homeowners. The program faces a possible deficit of as much as five billion dollars. This evening's (Saturday's) announcement is the first time the governor has backed off from a stand that the federal government should cover the entire Road Home program, which provides rebuilding grants to people whose homes were damaged or...

Leadership: Democrats are starting to blame the federal government every time their governors get caught unprepared for natural disasters. Nowhere is that more blatant than in the Greensburg tornado aftermath. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco blamed the feds after the 2005 hurricane that devastated New Orleans. Now Kansas' Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is doing the same. It's become a pattern: Democrats blaming President Bush for their own lack of disaster preparedness.

However, since it was revealed last week that the program is probably a few billion shy of the funding it needs to meet the obligations of homeowners, it has been open season. “Their incompetence is breathtaking,” said State Treasurer John Kennedy(D) on the Eyewitness Morning News last week. “Remember Otis of Mayberry, the town drunk, I think Otis is secretly running the Road Home program.”

In New Orleans, they aren?t shedding a tear over Louisiana Gov. Blanco?s decision not to seek a second term. A letter from the Garden District. WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY New Orleans, 18 months after Katrina, is still a city of considerable ups and downs. Tuesday was no different; as usual, the bad news came first. The first e-mail I received informed me that a block and a half from our new house, at 1:30 in the afternoon, two hold-ups occurred in less than 10 minutes?and I live in Garden District, still perceived as a ?nice? neighborhood, despite the alarming frequency of similar...

Decision comes amid low polls, party pressure Governor makes announcement at evening broadcast

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, whose popularity plummeted after two hurricanes devastated Louisiana during her term, announced Tuesday that she will not seek re-election. ADVERTISEMENT The decision will let her get what she called important initiatives through an upcoming legislative session without having to worry about political considerations, she said. "I am doing this so we can work without interference from election year politics," Blanco said. She had already broken the news in phone calls to legislative leaders, a meeting with her Cabinet secretaries and in a letter to her staff.

Blanco out!!!!!!!! Breaking....will not run for reelection

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco will formally announce this evening that she will NOT seek re-election, numerous political sources tell WAFB 9NEWS. Blanco was elected Governor of Louisiana in November 2003, becoming the first woman to ever hold the office. As recently as last week, Blanco said she would be a candidate. "My plan is to continue running," Blanco told reporters last Wednesday

Rules-link only http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070310/ELECTION/703100369/1002/NEWS

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that she wants to temporarily reopen the New Orleans public housing projects that have been closed since Hurricane Katrina, despite federal plans to demolish them and make way for new housing developments. Blanco said the projects that can be repaired should be reopened to families who were driven out by Katrina floodwaters _ at least until the federal government gets closer to its goal of replacing them with new structures. Blanco said she got encouragement for the idea last week, when she met on Capitol Hill with the chairman of the...

...There were 161 homicides in this city last year, and there have been 18 so far this year, making New Orleans by most measures the nation’s per capita murder capital, given its sharply reduced population. Many of the victims and the suspects are teenagers. About two-thirds of the deaths have gone unsolved: the killers, in many cases, continue to walk the streets and are likely to kill again, the police say. Other cities have plenty of murders. But only in New Orleans has there been the uniquely poisoned set of circumstances that has led to this city’s position at the...

Updated: Jan. 25, 2007, 1:11 PM ET Athlete who fled Katrina jailed for making bomb threat Associated Press DENTON, Texas -- A high school basketball star is accused of calling in a bomb threat to the school the night of a game he was missing because of a suspension for fighting. Howard Stirgus, an 18-year-old who came to Denton in 2005 after fleeing New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, was jailed on suspicion of making a false alarm and abusing the 911 system. Authorities said he called Denton High School on Tuesday night, claiming there was a bomb in the building...

Michael Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is shooting off his mouth again. Last week in New York City, he claimed that Mississippi and Louisiana were treated differently after Hurricane Katrina because of their politics. Unfortunately, Louisiana's Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, jumped on the suggestion, claiming that Brown had "broken the code of silence about the political conspiracy to hurt the people of Louisiana." Fortunately, Mississippi's Republican governor, Haley Barbour, took the time to consider the source of this conspiracy theory and said Brown's "credibility has been worn pretty thin over the last couple of years...

President Bush miffed some people in Louisiana, not necessarily by what he said in Tuesday night's State of the Union Address, but by what he didn't say. He did not mention Hurricane Katrina recovery. Governor Kathleen Blanco was visibly angry on Wednesday. In last year's State of the Union, you heard the president speak of Katrina, but people who remain in FEMA trailers say the lack of mention this year leaves them angry. One person we spoke with says, "It doesn't make no sense what he is doing. And now he's asking for more money for troops to go to...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco angrily criticized President Bush on Wednesday for not mentioning 2005's destructive hurricanes in his State of the Union speech, and said Louisiana is being shortchanged in federal recovery funding for political reasons. "I guess the pain of the hurricane is yesterday's news in Washington," Blanco said at a news conference.

A Statement by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco: "The White House indignation over Michael Brown's whistle-blowing is very revealing. He has broken the code of silence about the political conspiracy to hurt the people of Louisiana. Their target was me, but the real victims have been the people of our state. "For eighteen months, the Washington Republicans have consistently punished and discriminated against our people. All for partisan political purposes. A state with 80 percent of the storm damage from two hurricanes received barely 50 percent of federal relief funds. Mississippi, with far less damage, received far more money proportionately and...

WASHINGTON — Gov. Kathleen Blanco called on Congress on Monday to create a bipartisan commission to see if Republican Party politics factored in the federal response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco’s call comes just days after former FEMA Director Michael Brown said the White House considered politics while planning to deal with Hurricane Katrina. Brown said Friday that the White House was considering federalizing Louisiana because Blanco was a Democrat. Similar measures were not considered for Mississippi, which was headed by Gov. Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, he said. On Monday, Brown wouldn’t name...

From: The Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, who lost his bid for governor in 2003, announced to supporters Monday that he would seek the job again this fall. "Our state, our communities, and our families have been through some very tough times. There is clearly a hunger for a new approach to governing," Jindal said in an e-mail to his supporters announcing his intentions. Jindal, R-Kenner, will try to unseat Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who has said she is running for re-election. Blanco defeated Jindal in 2003, but she has faced criticism since hurricanes...

Though Bobby Jindal hasn't announced whether he will run enter the upcoming governor's race in Louisiana, I am encouraged that he will once again challenge Kathleen Blanco for the position. Earlier today I received the following email message from BobbyJindal.com: Diane, We are looking to recruit a few individuals to help us organize our Grassroots efforts for Bobby Jindal in your parish. We would love to have your help and input! Essentially, the Grassroots Leadership Team will be the organization of the campaign in your parish. The team will help organize and coordinate the grassroots efforts of the parish. It...

NEW YORK — Political storm clouds gathered again over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina as former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown said party politics influenced decisions on whether to take federal control of Louisiana and other areas affected by the hurricane. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the partisanship Brown described was "disgusting," while a White House spokeswoman said Brown was making "false statements." Brown told a group of graduate students Friday that some in the White House had suggested the federal government should take charge in Louisiana because Blanco was a Democrat, while leaving Mississippi Gov....

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A new poll shows only about one-third of Louisiana's voters would vote to re-elect Gov. Kathleen Blanco in a race against U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal. Jindal, who lost the governor's race to Blanco in 2003, had strong support in the poll conducted by Southern Media and Opinion Research and released Tuesday. Though he hasn't announced whether he will run for the position, Jindal garnered nearly 59 percent of the vote, compared to Blanco's 35 percent in the survey. "To say the least for an incumbent governor, this is obviously not good news for her," said pollster...

City's murder rate is 30 percent higher than any other U.S. city NEW ORLEANS - In the last week more Americans have died in New Orleans than in Iraq. Since Dec. 29, there have been eight military deaths. In the Big Easy, there have been 14 murders. Among the latest victims: Helen Hill, a 36-year-old mother shot in her home in front of her husband and 2-year-old. "She was just such a wonderful person," says friend Sheri Branch, "the brightest spot of New Orleans to me." The killers are growing more brazen, striking in broad daylight and using assault rifles,...

Just days before he was to take office, the body of Westlake Mayor-Elect Gerald Washington was found outside the old Mossville High School on Old Spanish Trail. According to authorities with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office, the 9-1-1 call came in at 9:49 p.m. from a motorist passing the school who said they saw a body on the ground of the parking lot. Calcasieu Sheriff's crime scene investigators arrived and found the body of a black male with a single gun shot wound. The body was later identified as Washington. The Calcasieu Coronor's Office is performing an autospy to determine...

NEW ORLEANS — For months, Mayor Ray Nagin has been saying displaced New Orleanians would return to the city. Today he faced the harsh reality. According to the U-S Census Bureau, Louisiana's population has dropped by two hundred thousand people or five percent over the last year. That's the largest one year migration from an American state since World War Two. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, broken levees and flooding have pushed people into neighboring states. Nagin says, "to be quite frank with you, I think our repopulation,or recovery is somewhat in a holding pattern right now." Nagin says the delay...

Payments have been too slow, Powell says : Federal Gulf Coast rebuilding coordinator Donald Powell on Wednesday urged the contractor running the Road Home program to speed up payments to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "As I expressed by phone, I have serious concerns about the effectiveness and expediency of the program," Powell said in a letter to Sudhakar Kesavan, chief executive of the Virginia-based ICF International. "As I write this letter, only 92 homeowners have received financial assistance out of over 80,000 applicants, or .1 percent of applicants," he wrote. "This rate must dramatically improve." In the one-page...

The survey, conducted by the polling service surveyusa.com, show Blanco with one of the lowest ratings among all of the Governors throughout the United States. The data further shows that the Governor has some significant hurdles to overcome with various constituencies to win re-election. The survey of 600 likely voters asked the question, "Do you approve or disapprove of the job Kathleen Blanco is doing as Governor?" Surprisingly, the results showed little of a gender gap. Usually, female governors enjoy a degree of sympathy by gender. In this case, only 39% of men approved of Blanco, and 40% of women...

A personal dinner with Gov. Kathleen Blanco could be within anyone’s grasp after a meal at the Governor’s Mansion sold for $1 in Monroe. In what amounts to a “bad joke gone awry,” the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’s annual holiday fundraiser featured a live auction with the last item up for bid being a dinner with the governor. The meal sold to the first bidder, Monroe banker Malcolm Maddox, said Sue Edmunds, chamber president. Edmunds said it is a big embarrassment after Blanco generously offered the donation. “We are deeply apologetic,” Edmunds said. “This is not a reflection of our...

House Republicans handed the governor what she called a Waterloo defeat Wednesday by spurning most of her spending plans. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, however, declared victory on three fronts — an insurance reimbursement for homeowners, a $75-per-child tax credit and a $300 million fund for a steel mill. But Blanco blamed Washington-style politics for her failure to secure road funding and pay raises for teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and others. “Party politics did raise its ugly head,” she said during a news conference. House and Senate leaders plan to approve the remaining legislation and adjourn by Friday — two days...

A chance to dine with embattled Gov. Kathleen Blanco fetched a winning bid of $1 at a recent fundraising auction hosted by a group of business leaders. The president of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, in northeastern Louisiana, said she called Blanco's office Tuesday to apologize for a "poor joke gone awry." "It's something we deeply regret," chamber president Sue Edmunds said Wednesday. "Our organization has worked very well with the governor. We have been pleased with her efforts on behalf of this community." Dinner with Blanco was the last item up for bid at the fundraising auction last week....

EW ORLEANS (AP) -- Call it a sign of the times for Louisiana's embattled governor: A chance to dine with Gov. Kathleen Blanco fetched a winning bid of $1 at a recent fundraising auction hosted by a group of business leaders. The president of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, in northeastern Louisiana, said she called Blanco's office Tuesday to apologize for a "poor joke gone awry."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco was ready to go shopping. Her treasury was flush with money. The Republican Legislators said her proposals were dead on arrival. Many Democrats weren’t fond of her session ideas and wanted to discuss Road Home and real insurance reform, instead. Blanco wanted to spend a profusion of one-time money on many one-time spending items. The House of Representatives has told her to do it on her own time, not theirs. On Monday, Blanco failed to get the House of Representatives to approve a revised, reduced version of her spending plan. She has been unable to get the...

A little more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is seeing a boom in its Latino population, with many coming to help reconstruct the city. Health officials had not anticipated the surge in the city's Latino population, The New York Times reported. In a demographic twist, hundreds of Latino babies are being born in New Orleans to immigrant Latino workers, both legal and illegal. In a city largely abandoned by its doctors after the storm, this new population adds a financial strain to the already struggling city. Many expectant mothers, lacking in financial assistance, cannot afford prenatal care...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco's push to spend $2 billion on tax breaks, pay raises and other budget proposals stalled in the state House on Sunday as the governor's allies ran into problems getting the votes to raise a constitutional spending cap. The Blanco administration tried to work out a compromise with lawmakers behind the scenes, to determine which proposals could gain passage in a 10-day pre-holiday special session called by the governor despite cries from critics for postponement. The House was expected to take up some of the Blanco spending proposals Sunday but adjourned when it was...