Free Republic

Former Rep. William Jefferson unaffected by measure to block pensions for felonsBy Times-Picayune Staff Published: Saturday, February 04, 2012, 11:59 PM **SNIP** Former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, who was convicted of 11 of 16 corruption charges in a 2009 trial, was unaffected by the 2007 law and will remain so if the new Senate language becomes law. Attorneys have told Congress that it doesn't have the authority to retroactively take back benefits from people, including members of Congress. The bribery-related charges against Jefferson occurred before the 2007 law. Jefferson is receiving a pension of between $40,000 and $50,000 a...

The 2012 race to the presidency suddenly has one candidate involved who is picking up where the great sucking sound of Ross Perot left off. Buddy Roemer, former governor of Louisiana and member of Congress from 1981 to 1988, is the new darling of the "fair" trade community, having announced his Republican candidacy for president on July 27. Roemer, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, got into the race because he believes the U.S. economy will fall off a cliff if the federal government doesn't address the most important economic issue of the time: unfair trade that is destroying...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Within weeks, the top lawyers in a dozen states may file a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s controversial requirement that all insurance plans include access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization, the attorney general of Nebraska told LifeSiteNews. Jon Bruning told LifeSiteNews.com that 12 states had signed onto a scathing critique of the mandate and were preparing to take more serious action. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning On Friday, ten state attorneys general addressed a scathing letter to President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis....

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the colorful and controversial spokesman for the city after the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is under investigation by federal authorities, a source with direct knowledge of the probe said. The source told Reuters on Friday that several people linked to Nagin or the New Orleans city administration during his two terms as mayor ending in 2010 were cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI ... Nagin, who is black, was criticized for racial divisiveness after Katrina for urging residents to rebuild a "chocolate New Orleans,"

A federal grand jury is investigating whether city vendors gave former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gratuities ranging from plane tickets to materials and equipment for his family's granite-countertop business and also helped the firm land an exclusive installation deal with a retailing giant while Nagin was in office, according to several sources close to the probe. The federal probe is zeroing in on Nagin along three parallel tracks: luxury travel and home maintenance provided by city technology vendors; a granite countertop installation contract that Nagin's family company got from The Home Depot; and the possibility that at least two...

LSU AD Alleva Deposed in Duke Lacrosse Suit Posted by: Walter Abbott on Saturday, February 4, 2012, 18:20 Louisiana State University (LSU) Athletic Director Joe Alleva was deposed last month in a lawsuit filed nearly five years ago regarding the notorious Duke Lacrosse Case, where a prostitute falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape. Alleva was Duke’s athletic director at the time and was famously quoted as telling lacrosse coach Mike Pressler as he was cancelling the team’s season that “It’s not about the truth anymore,” because of the intense media coverage of the controversy. Mike Nifong, the...

Energy: Small- and medium-size businesses serving Louisiana's energy industry are shedding employees, dipping into personal savings or moving elsewhere to stay afloat. The administration's war on fossil fuels is taking its toll. The federal six-month moratorium on drilling that was issued in May 2010, after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, has been officially lifted, but it might as well still be in effect. The glacial permitting process put in place in the aftermath in the name of public safety is killing an industry pledged to wean us from the "energy of the past" will not mourn. A...

What a great time for the Wall Street Journal to bring up this topic. After all, the Republican candidates in the nomination battle have focused their arguments on actual competition-based reform and results, right? Oh, wait … we’ve been too busy discussing 1997, 2003, and the finer points of class-warfare attacks on private enterprise and consulting. That may be the reason for the WSJ’s attention: Louisiana is already one of 12 states (including Washington, D.C.) that offer school vouchers, but its program benefits fewer than 2,000 students in New Orleans. Governor Jindal would extend eligibility to any low-income student whose...

’Bama fan in video accused of sexual battery now in NOPD custody The Crimson Tide fan accused of committing sexual battery on a passed out LSU fan is now in the custody of the New Orleans Police Department...

Complete title: New Records Obtained by Judicial Watch Show Obama White House Coordination with Department of Justice on Voting Rights Enforcement ACORN Partner Project Vote Working with Officials from White House and DOJ to Use National Voting Rights Act to Increase Registration of Voters on Public Assistance Interest Group Urges Justice Official to “make some headway” with Attorney General Holder (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has received additional documents about meetings held between Estelle Rogers, Director of Advocacy for the ACORN-affiliated organization Project Vote, and officials from the...

Complete title: Judicial Watch Files Amicus Curiae Brief with Supreme Court Challenging U.S. Census Policy of Counting Illegal Aliens When Apportioning Seats in Congress Judicial Watch Brief Supports Lawsuit Filed by State of Louisiana which Lost a Seat in the House of Representatives due to Census Bureau’s Unlawful Policy (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Louisiana challenging a current federal policy in which “unlawfully present aliens” were counted in the 2010 Census (...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says an investigation by the Medicare Strike Force involving the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI and the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office, resulted in two Baton Rouge residents pleading guilty for their role in a $21 million Medicare fraud plot. Henry Jones, the owner of four durable medical equipment (DME) companies, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady in the Middle District of Louisiana ...

Northeastern states are slated to lose half of their regional capacity for fuel production by midyear as financial woes push refineries there to idle, a trend likely to increase the region’s dependency on Gulf Coast supply. A Houston-to-New York pipeline is making major expansions to accommodate growing demand to transport gasoline and other fuels up north from the Gulf Coast to fill the potential supply void. The Gulf already supplies about half of the Northeast’s demand for petroleum products, said Mindi Farber-Deanda, head of the liquid fuels market team for the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the shutdown of production...

Two public fueling stations for natural gas-powered vehicles are set to open next year as part of initiatives that include new buses and converting at least 40 city-parish vehicles to run on the fuel. The efforts come in a wider push by government and industry to develop natural gas as an alternative vehicle fuel that is touted as a cleaner burning and cheaper than gasoline. The city-parish is planning to open one fueling station at the public works facility on East University Avenue by next fall. The Advocate reports a second station is under construction by Apache Corporation, a Houston-based...

Leaders of three troops of Girl Scouts quit their posts and disbanded the troops after the organization’s Colorado chapter said it would allow a transgendered 7-year-old to join. The troop leaders, all affiliated with a Christian school in Louisiana, resigned in protest of the Colorado chapter’s decision to allow participation from any child who identifies as a girl, The Christian Post reported. Controversy erupted when Felisha Archuleta tried to enroll her son, Bobby Montoya, who identifies as a girl, in a Girl Scouts troop in Denver. When a local troop leader refused, saying Bobby wasn’t allowed to join because he...

An early morning game of drunken bumper cars--using Walmart handicap scooters--was broken up Saturday morning by Louisiana cops who arrested a 22-year-old man who copped to driving to the store while intoxicated. Officers with the West Monroe Police Department arrived at the Walmart around 2:30 AM in response to a call about a disturbance. Store management told cops that a group of intoxicated suspects were “playing ‘bumper cars’ with the handicap scooters in the store,” according to a probable cause affidavit. A police sergeant contacted Christopher Butler, who appeared “very intoxicated.” Butler, pictured at right, admitted driving his 2004 Ford...

Houston-based Pelican Refining Co. has been fined $12 million for felony violations of the Clean Air Act at its Louisiana refinery. A federal judge in Lafayette, La., imposed the fine - the largest ever in Louisiana for violations of the act - after the company pleaded guilty in October. The violations were ...

(CNN) -- A Louisiana lawmaker wants the National Guard to patrol the streets of New Orleans after a toddler who was four days shy of her second birthday was shot and killed in a drive-by. "She was out here as a innocent bystander. She's dead now," said Rufus Ruck, the child's cousin. Keira Holmes Gordon was gunned down in a double shooting at the B. W. Cooper Housing development on Sunday. She was one of two people hit when gunmen from two separate cars opened fire on a man who was standing nearby. According to police, the man ran into...

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

These days if you don't like the polls, wait a few minutes. Another will be along shortly. Speaking of which, here's a new one this morning that could presage the start of a significant move by one candidate (or not), as well as some fresh insights into the thinking of those New Hampshire voters who'll hold the nation's first Republican primary early next month. Suffolk University is out with a new survey showing Newt Gingrich gaining and Mitt Romney slipping there, which we already knew. What it also shows though is Jon Huntsman making a push into third place with...

The Occupy Nola movement left their camp at Duncan Plaza Sunday, but only for a brief moment. Protesters brought their fight to the home of the city's top man, Mayor Mitch Landrieu. This comes after the New Orleans Police Department cleared out their camp earlier in the week. Today, they stood outside of Mayor Landrieu's home with a list of demands. They want charges of a Delgado College student who was arrested at the camp dropped immediately. Plus, protesters want their rights to be respected by Chief Ronal Serpas. But the demands don't end there. The movement is fighting to...

Mayor Mitch Landrieu and other city leaders deemed the sweep of Duncan Plaza and eviction of protestors a success Tuesday morning, just hours after New Orleans police disbanded the high-profile encampment. In a move that had been forecast for days, dozens of officers fanned out across the public square in an early morning operation, forcing out more than a hundred people, some of whom were homeless, and others who identified with the "Occupy NOLA" movement.Landrieu, speaking at a City Hall news conference, said he thought the police sweep was "well-timed and well-organized." One person was arrested, while dozens of others...

Late last week we were preoccupied with LSU and other things, so we didn’t get an opportunity to be more timely in showing our appreciation for disgraced former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, whose trail of tears likely leads to the federal pen after getting indicted on 33 counts of payroll fraud Thursday. It’s satisfying to see, as Broussard’s time in office made him almost surely the single most disgustingly corrupt public official in the state. He first showed up as a bright green blob on our radar after Katrina, when he concocted a flamingly dishonest story about dead old...

BP on Monday accused Halliburton of destroying potentially damaging internal test results that showed that the cement it used to secure the Macondo well that blew out in the Gulf of Mexico last year was unstable.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Friday afternoon said Occupy NOLA protestors who have camped out in Duncan Plaza across from City Hall for the last two months must immediately begin to clear the park. "I am asking them to leave right now," Landrieu said. "Any time after this may see enforcement."While acknowledging the protestors' rights to freedom of speech, Landrieu said it is against the law to be in the park between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. and to have tents, kitchen equipment and electrical utilities in the park. "I am giving notice on behalf of the city of...

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is looking to sell its Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, according to Bloomberg, which cited two unnamed sources. The plant may be sold for $700 million-$1 billion excluding inventory, Sam Margolin, a refining analyst for Global Hunter Securities LLC, said. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has potential upside of 9.9% based on a current price of $70.81 and an average consensus analyst price target of $77.8. ConocoPhillips is currently below its 200-day moving average (MA) of $72.03 and should find support at its 50-day MA of $68.05. In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has remained constant while...

BATON ROUGE, La.—A Baton Rouge rapper known as "Lil Boosie" has been sentenced to eight years in prison following his guilty plea to drug charges. The 29-year-old rapper's real name is Torrence Hatch. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to smuggle codeine, marijuana and ecstasy into two state prisons. They were the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La. Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings says Hatch was serving a prison term for a separate conviction for marijuana possession when he smuggled the drugs with help from a prison guard.

SPRINGFIELD, La (NBC33) — A Springfield man says he pulled a gun on an alleged burglar to protect his property, and his life, Tuesday morning. Tom Casey says the house he’s been fixing up for his son has been broken into five times. This past weekend, he set up a deer alarm inside to stop the robberies. He never believed he’d actually catch someone in the act. When the little alarm went off in his house down the street, Casey decided to go investigate. “I didn’t think it was anything. I had just drove past there, and I didn’t see...

There are lots of reasons. But here’s one. Ron Paul isn’t serious about the most basic requisite of a national government, which is defense. Paul’s position just isn’t one reflective of serious leadership. The idea that the federal government doesn’t have an obligation to PREVENT a Timothy McVeigh or a Mohammed Atta or a Major Hasan from doing evil to innocent Americans is one which can’t be found in the head of anybody who understands what it means to be president.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., joined last week with three other conservative GOP senators to propose caps on means-tested federal social welfare programs. It would require that funding for food stamps and 76 other federal welfare programs be capped at pre-2007 levels by 2015 or when unemployment falls below 7.5 percent, whichever comes sooner. It would require that food stamps be limited to essential foods such as milk and bread, as the senators said the program was originally envisioned, not, as it is in four states -- California, Florida, Arizona and Michigan -- for purchases at fast-food restaurants. "One of the...

‘Occupy’ movement pops up in Lafayette On a crisp, clear afternoon in downtown Lafayette Thursday, fewer than a dozen residents gathered at the edge of Parc Putnam on Lafayette Street across from the federal courthouse to show their solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement — a protest movement targeting corporate excess that erupted in New York City early this fall and has spread to dozens of cities across the country and the world. Thursday’s action was organized via social media by Lafayette resident Molly Baumgartner, a local representative of the liberal activist group MoveOn. Group members ranged in age...

A strong storm system that produced several suspected tornadoes hit the Southeast on Wednesday, damaging dozens of homes and buildings. At least 15 people were injured in Mississippi. Suspected tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Four homes were damaged in western Alabama, about 60 miles southwest of Tuscaloosa. It was the worst bout of weather for that state since about 250 people were killed during a tornado outbreak in April. < SNIP >

BHP Billiton plans to invest roughly US $4.5 billion developing the shale oil and gas assets it bought in the U.S. this financial year as it ramps up production, the head of the mining company's petroleum division said Monday. BHP expects capital spending to jump to almost US $6 billion in the 2015 fiscal year and roughly US $6.5 billion by 2020 as the company ramps up the number of rigs on its four project areas, Michael Yeager said in a conference call from Melbourne. BHP spent almost US $17 billion this year buying Petrohawk Energy Corp. along with its...

The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office says a man found dead in a tent at the Occupy New Orleans camp in Duncan Plaza across from City Hall was homeless and died of complications from prolonged alcohol use. While others in the campground knew him only by nicknames like "Old School" and "Curley," coroner's investigator John Gagliano identified the man as Ronald Howell, a 53-year-old homeless man from Kansas. A town in Kansas had not yet been determined. Detectives suspect Howell's body may have been in the tent for two days before it was discovered Tuesday.

As his path to the Republican nomination for president looks increasingly impossible, former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer’s campaign is starting to mull a third-party run. Last week, Roemer campaign manager Carlos Sierra told The Daily Caller that while he had been exploring other possible options for his candidate, Roemer himself was still focused on the Republican primary. But on Wednesday Sierra suggested that Roemer is aware of his actions and was beginning to consider the idea. “The whole South Carolina and Florida thing — it’s definitely getting him thinking a little more about other options,” Sierra said.

It's election day in NJ, MS, LA, the Northern Marianas Islands and.... VIRGINIA!!!!! In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Senate is currently controlled by the democrats by two seats. It'll be an interesting night.

is a contributing editor at National Review, who frequently appears on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC One gubernatorial election ended early this fall, when Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal won the state's blanket primary Oct. 22. Under Louisiana's system, all candidates of all parties are listed on the ballot, and if no one gets 50 percent, the top two finishers go to a runoff. Jindal blew past the threshold with 66 percent. Jindal's reelection was unusual in several respects. The only previous time the state has not had a runoff was his election in 2007. He is only the fourth...

A shooting on Bourbon, at St. Louis Street, in the French Quarter about 12:30 a.m. injured seven people and killed a 25-year-old man. All of the victims were caught in the crossfire when two people began to shoot at each other in a crowd of costumed revelers celebrating Halloween, police said.

Even though Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just won re-election in a landslide victory, there is a growing rumbling of discontent statewide among conservatives. While Jindal is being touted nationwide as the next great hope for the Republican Party, there are folks in Louisiana who would beg to differ. How can that be with such an overwhelming mandate? In last week's election, Jindal carried all 64 of Louisiana's parishes. What could be wrong? Conservative discontent with Jindal centers around several issues including his bungled handling of a legislative pay raise in 2008; his sham ethics reform; and now his alignment with...

When Rick Perry announced he was running for president back on August 13, to tell you the truth I got a little excited. Now I know what you're thinking -- James you are a big Democrat, why on earth would you be excited about Perry running for president? This was my thinking: Perry would get in and he would be a major force. He was the bona fide conservative complete with a pedigree to take on Romney. With the way things are shaping up now, the convention planners might be more inclined to take a motivational speaker. Hey Rick --...

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana last weekend won re-election with a staggering 65.8% of the vote in a state that remains heavily Democratic. It is, the governor's office contends, the highest percentage achieved by a candidate since the state's open primary was created. Jindal won all of the state's 64 parishes, increasing by four the number of parishes he won in 2007. One might expect this to be big news beyond the state, but most newspapers and TV media outside Louisiana either buried Jindal's win on inside pages and deep into their newscasts, or ignored it. In a telephone...

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana last weekend won re-election with a staggering 65.8 percent of the vote in a state that remains heavily Democratic. It is, the governor's office contends, the highest percentage achieved by a candidate since the state's open primary was created. Jindal won all of the state's 64 parishes, increasing by four the number of parishes he won in 2007. One might expect this to be big news beyond the state, but most newspapers and TV media outside Louisiana either buried Jindal's win on inside pages and deep into their newscasts, or ignored it. In a...

Baton Rouge, La. — The Louisiana Democratic party has effectively conceded this year’s gubernatorial race. This does not mean merely that the party could not find a big-name challenger — though they couldn’t — or that they could not even find a token state legislator to be the sacrificial lamb, though they could not do that, either. Technically, four candidates ran as Democrats in the state’s nonpartisan “jungle primary”; the best-known among them was a Haynesville, La., middle-school teacher. No, what really stands out is that the Democratic State Central Committee declined to endorse any of them. Such is Louisiana...

Say, did you hear about the big election yesterday? Well, if you’re like the majority of the country, you probably weren’t even aware anyone was voting on Saturday. But for the politically addicted, you might have known that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was up for another term. So… how did that work out for him? Not too shabby. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who championed stronger ethics laws in his first term as Louisiana governor, won re-election against nine other candidates in an open primary, according to the Associated Press.Jindal earned 65.8 percent of the vote in yesterday’s ballot, negating the...

Gov. Bobby Jindal rolled to an easy re-election Saturday, defeating nine little-known and under-financed candidates in a record-setting landslide. Based on incomplete returns, Jindal had about 66 percent of the vote, eclipsing the 62.31 percent open-primary era victory margin Democrat Edwin Edwards tallied to oust then-Gov. David Treen in the 1983. It also came on a day when turnout was considerably lighter than the 46.6 percent who voted in the 2007 statewide race, then the smallest turnout in the open gubernatorial primary system that began in 1975.His margin was so overwhelming that Jindal was able to deliver his victory speech...

"You've chosen to give me another four years as your governor," he told supporters from a stage at his Baton Rouge campaign headquarters less than an hour after polls closed. "We've got a lot more work to do over these next four years."

SPRINGFIELD —— Reg Weaver receives a state pension of $242,657 a year, not because it's based on his last salary as a teacher, but because he gets to count the $300,000-plus check he made as president of the National Education Association.It's one of the highest pensions paid by the heavily indebted Illinois Teachers' Retirement System.Weaver, whose last salary as a south suburban teacher was $60,000, is one of 116 active and inactive members of the Teachers' Retirement System who can base their retirement income on their salaries and service in the National Education Association, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois...

The political geniuses in Louisiana have decided they hate poor people so much, they passed House Bill 195—near unanimously! (One nay in the senate.) It bans cash on all second-hand transactions. Now, when a good Louisianian holds a garage sale after a bout of spring cleaning, if they accept cash for their old vinyl collection, they’ve broken the law. Swap meets. Church bazaar sales. Antique stores. Buying used skis off Craigslist. You can’t use cash in the Pelican State. Their stated reasoning is to prevent the sale of stolen goods—their view is cash transactions make it easy for criminals to...

A federal judge once again has declared St. Bernard Parish in contempt and subject to monetary damages because it has "doggedly attempted to preserve the pre-Katrina demographics" of its parish by intentionally discriminating against African Americans. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan this week ruled the parish's continuing attempts to prevent the four Provident Realty Advisors apartments in Chalmette violates the federal Fair Housing Act. Berrigan has referred the decision on amount of damages, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to a magistrate judge. For six years, St. Bernard has remained in the spotlight over housing restrictions that violate federal civil rights...

Cold hard cash. It's good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything. But that's not the case here in Louisiana now. It's a law that was passed during this year's busy legislative session. House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it. "We're gonna lose a lot of business," says Danny Guidry, who owns the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette. He deals in buying and selling unique second hand...