Free Republic

Willie Robertson BATON ROUGE, LA, August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The star of the top-rated reality show on television, Duck Dynasty, may make Louisiana's pro-life voters happy, happy, happy. Willie Robertson is considering running for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, according to political insiders. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Republican who has ties to the multimillionaire duck call entrepreneurs, so he can take a post in Governor Bobby Jindal's administration. The bandana-clad Willie is known for his role as the down-to-earth one on the highest rated program in A&E's network history. Willie...

You remember Elbert Guillory . Now, however, he will be serving as the honorary chairman of the Free At Last Political Action Committee, which will work to help black conservatives win high national office, among other things: VIDEO 4:17 minute: Elbert Guillory Announces the Free at Last PAC Some journalists have urged caution when using “plantation” rhetoric when reaching out to potential voters. But generally speaking Guillory’s points are well-taken. It’s simply unacceptable for an entire community to vote almost exclusively for one political party when there are in fact two in this country. Have African-Americans really benefitted so...

Gannett article.

NEW ORLEANS -- The NOPD, along with the FBI, are investigating a hate crime caught on tape. Security cameras caught a man vandalizing a gay couple's home on Julia Street just after 1 a.m. Saturday. The video showed a man getting out of a vehicle, using a ladder to remove a gay pride flag and then returning to spray paint words on their wall. It was same flag John Hill and his fiance John Weimer Jr. held high just last month during a rally of support for the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. "John and I were waving...

In Easton, Md., an untold story of free African-Americans is being discovered through bits of glass, shards of pottery and oyster shells. Piece by piece, archaeologists and historians from two universities and the community are uncovering the history of The Hill, which they believe is the earliest settlement of free African-Americans in the United States, dating to 1790. Treme, in New Orleans, is recognized as the oldest free black community in the nation, dating to 1812. But researchers say that could change based on findings from the Easton dig. "It's not just a black story. It's an American story," said...

Senators, representatives, and their top aides will be able to stay under the current subsidized health care system. That means they will continue to get a taxpayer-funded contribution to help pay for their health care premiums. A last-minute deal worked out before Congress went on their five-week summer vacation gets lawmakers out of the original language of Obamacare, which said members and their aides had to use its health care plans. Republicans like Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana slammed the move, calling it a "behind-closed-doors deal, announced right after Congress is safely away from the crime scene." "This is exactly...

A train carrying highly flammable and corrosive materials derailed in north Louisiana on Sunday. Over 100 homes have been evacuated as a precaution, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, adding there were no fatalities or injuries and air monitors have not picked up anything to cause concern. According to a press release from Jindal's office, three cars were leaking as of late Sunday. One is leaking lubricant oil while a second is leaking Dodecanol, a tasteless, colorless alcohol that can cause mild skin irritation. The third, however, is carrying a highly corrosive substance called caustic soda, or lye. Two other cars containing...

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise and Senate hopeful Rob Maness bookended the last day of this year's RedState gathering. The annual meeting, held this year in Louisiana's bluest city, New Orleans, brings together conservative bloggers, activists and candidates to discuss political strategy and key policy initiatives. Conspicuously absent from the gathering this weekend was U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, whose conservative credentials failed to pass muster with the event's host, RedState blog founder and editor Erick Erickson. "I'm just not a big fan of Bill Cassidy," Erickson said in an interview Saturday, confirming that an invitation was not extended...

NAACP and community members gather to call for an investigation into the bond given to Merritt Landry Wednesday, July 31, 2013 in New Orleans.

An FBI special agent conducting a drug-related surveillance operation shot and killed a man at an eastern New Orleans motel on Tuesday. The FBI said the agent shot the 30-year-old suspect while working as part of the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force. On Tuesday about 2:30 p.m., the NOPD responded to a call that an officer needed help at a Studio 6, operated by Motel 6, in the 12300 block of I-10 Service Road near Bullard Avenue. The FBI has not said specifically when the shooting occurred. Witnesses said an ambulance accompanied by an NOPD cruiser left the scene shortly...

A Louisiana sheriff has apologized for the arrests of as many as a dozen or more men in recent years on charges that they violated an anti-sodomy statute that has been ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. On Saturday, The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge reported that a community policing unit of the East Baton Rouge sheriff’s office had been arresting men who discussed or agreed to meet privately to have consensual sex with undercover officers. Some of the arrests went as far back as 2011 and some were as recent as this month.

Escambia County Sheriff's OfficeEarly Saturday morning, Roy Middleton was rummaging through his mother's car in the driveway of his Warrington, Florida, home, looking for a cigarette, when he heard someone bark, "Get your hands where I can see them!" Middleton initially thought it was a neighbor playing a joke on him, but when he turned his head he saw Escambia County sheriff's deputies standing in his driveway. The next thing he knew, he says, they were shooting at him. "It was like a firing squad," Middleton told the Pensacola News Journal. "Bullets were flying everywhere." Middleton was lucky the deputies...

FRANKLIN, La. (AP) - St. Mary Parish could be the site of the state's first commercial wind farm of energy-producing turbines under a plan by a Metairie company. The Advocate reports Southern States Renewable Energy is proposing a $40 million project that, under the current plan, would bring eight 498-foot-tall wind turbines to an isolated patch of coastal land near the Port of West St. Mary.

NEW ORLEANS, July 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the wake of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast's (PPGC) $1.4 million Medicaid fraud settlement with the state of Texas, two state pro-life organizations have called for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to end all state funding to PPGC. The abortion provider operates two facilities in the state, which received $575,000 in taxpayer funds from the Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) during the 2012 fiscal year. The Planned Parenthood affiliate agreed last Wednesday to refund Texas Medicaid $1.4 million in fraud for overbilling, billing for services it never rendered, and falsifying medical records...

...he thought was breaking into home In a story some are already saying bears resemblance to the Trayvon Martin case, a homeowner in New Orleans has been arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder after he shot an unarmed teen after he says he thought the boy was trying to break into his home. 14-year-old Marshall Coulter is in critical condition after being shot in the head by 33-year-old Merritt Landry at around 2 am Friday morning. Police, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, said that the teen was shot near Landry’s car. Friends told the outlet that Landry’s car was...

Merritt Landry, a 33-year-old “white caucasian” shot the victim, a 14-year-old black boy, in the head. A single spent cartridge case was recovered at the scene, indicating that a semi-automatic weapon was used and suggesting that a single shot was fired. The hour of the shooting was approximately 2:00AM, on Friday, July 26, 2013. As of this writing the victim is reported to remain alive, in critical condition at a local hospital.

House members voted Tuesday to bar the use of federal funds to hire “atheist chaplains” at the Department of Defense after Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) reminded his colleagues that the concept didn’t make any sense. “It’s just total nonsense, the idea of having a chaplain who is an atheist,” Fleming told fellow House members. “When it comes to the idea of an atheist chaplain, which is an oxymoron—it’s self-contradictory—what you’re really doing is now saying that we’re going to replace the true chaplains with non-chaplain chaplains.” Speaking about the current DOD rules for chaplains on the House floor, Fleming said:...

A 14-year-old boy remained in critical condition Friday after being shot in the head by a homeowner who said he thought the teen was trying to break into his house. But police said the teen was unarmed and did not pose an "imminent threat" when he was shot and have charged the owner with attempted second-degree murder. The family of Marshall Coulter said the teenager could move only the right side of his body a little, but not the left. Doctors told the family that if Coulter survives, he would likely be severely brain damaged. Coulter's family acknowledged the teen's...

Former Rep. Lindy Boggs, a plantation-born Louisianan who used her soft-spoken grace to fight for civil rights during nearly 18 years in Congress after succeeding her late husband in the House, died Saturday. She was 97. Boggs, who later served three years as ambassador to the Vatican during the Clinton administration, died of natural causes at her home in Chevy Chase, Md., according to her daughter, ABC News journalist Cokie Roberts. Boggs' years in Congress started with a special election in 1973 to finish the term of her husband, Thomas Hale Boggs Sr., whose plane disappeared over Alaska six months...

What’s the outlook for the 2014 Senate elections? As in 2010 and 2012, the Republicans once again have a chance to overturn the Democrats’ majority. Much attention has been focused on whether Republicans this time will nominate candidates capable of winning key races, which they failed to do in the two previous election cycles. But another interesting question is how Democrats will try to hold onto seats in Republican-leaning states even as Barack Obama maintains his strong tilt to the political left. The lineup is certainly favorable to Republicans. Assuming the New Jersey seat now held by Republican appointee Jeff...

The Louisiana Legislature has been “irresponsible” in allowing Baton Rouge city court election sections to remain poor reflections of the capital city’s racial make-up for more than a decade, a federal judge said during a hearing Friday morning. While Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson said he could not act to immediately remedy the issue after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last month, he made clear he would allow the case to go to trial so the plaintiffs could be provided relief under other laws. The plaintiffs in the case, Baton...

Authorities say a 2-year-old boy was shot in the face in Harvey Thursday afternoon. The boy was taken to a local hospital but is expected to survive the injury, according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of Apache Drive. The boy's father told investigators he put his son into his vehicle and was headed for the driver's side door when he noticed an unidentified man standing nearby, Fortunato said. The man was talking with two women. All three were standing close to a black Nissan...

Natural gas stopped flowing from a runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico after sediment in the well blocked the uncontrolled flow, federal authorities reported Thursday. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said the well “bridged over,” meaning small pieces of sediment and sand flowed into the well path, restricting the flow and countering the pressure. A fire that had engulfed a portion of the Hercules 265 jack-up rig was put out early Thursday morning, according to a Coast Guard report to Congress. “They are lucky,” said Bud Danenberger, a consultant and former chief of offshore regulatory programs at...

A well blew out, a rig is abandoned, and a fire raged uncontrollably in the Gulf of Mexico for an entire day this week. For many, it was a stark reminder of the dangers involved in offshore drilling and in particular, the Deepwater Horizon disaster, an epic tragedy that unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Since then, the oil and gas industry has encountered enormous public scrutiny, and government oversight by an organization called the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). According to a statement on their website, “BSEE works to promote safety, protect the environment, and...

A blowout preventer may have ignited the fire that caused a Gulf of Mexico rig to partially collapse Wednesday, after a natural gas well blew out, federal authorities reported. A leak in the natural gas well, owned by Walter Oil & Gas, ignited a fire on a jack-up rig operated by Hercules Offshore late Tuesday night, hours after its 44 workers had been evacuated, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The blowout preventer has since collapsed and isolated the fire,reducing the danger of a fire on the remainder of the jack-up rig but making a top kill...

NEW ORLEANS — Latinos gathered here this week for a major annual convention said they would use their new political influence to press the House of Representatives for a vote this year on a broad immigration bill and mobilize support for House Republicans who take the risk of backing it. More than 5,000 Latinos from community groups came to the conference of NCLR, the nation’s largest Hispanic organization, which is also known as the National Council of La Raza. Facing fading momentum in Washington on immigration, the leaders said they were heading to the fight this fall with their rank...

Authorities say Internet escort Amy Shoemaker and her friend, Thomas Hudgins, were hoping to repeat a previously successful armed robbery scheme: Shoemaker sets up a prostitution date and Hudgins robs the John. But their plans went to pot when they discovered their intended target was actually an undercover Gretna Police officer working a prostitution sting. "They didn't realize there was a police officer in the room and officers were outside conducting surveillance," said Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson. The date-turned-robbery-turned-bust occurred on July 11.Lawson said investigators were working an ongoing investigation into prostitution conducted via the Internet. They set up...

The Talk Shows July 21st, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Kevyn Orr, Detroit's emergency manager; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.; Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon and Washington Times columnist.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich.; Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio; Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.FACE THE NATION (CBS): House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Reps. Cedric Richmond, D-La., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and...

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., announced Tuesday that she raised $1.7 million for her re-election campaign during the second quarter. Her haul is half a million more than the likely GOP nominee, Rep. Bill Cassidy, who brought in nearly $1.1 million in the same time period. Landrieu has $4.9 million in cash on hand as she heads into what is expected to be one of the most competitive Senate contests of the cycle. Cassidy will report having $3.2 million in the bank at the end of June. Cassidy announced his candidacy for Senate on April 3. Both candidates outpaced their...

Matthew Flugence admitted killing 6-year-old Ahlittia North sometime Saturday morning, according to authorities. Flugence, 20, was arrested Tuesday night in Westwego after a flood of callers reported spotting him walking in the area, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said. Flugence was arrested just hours after investigators identified him as the main suspect in the child'€™s murder. Westwego police helped deputies capture Flugence in the 800 block of Victory Drive in Westwego. He was carrying a knife he later admitted was the murder weapon, Normand said.Authorities, relatives and friends spent three days searching for Ahlittia after she was reported missing from...

State Sen. Rick Ward III of Port Allen has formally announced he is switching political parties, the third state lawmaker to defect to the Republican Party in as many months. With his move, the GOP now holds a supermajority in the state senate. "Overall, I feel like the Democratic Party has left where I'm at," Ward said Tuesday. "I'm conservative. My voting record shows that." Ward added that "based on the feedback" he's had in his two years in the state senate that his district would be better represented by a Republican. "Based on the direction that both the national...

Law enforcement officers spent three days searching for 6-year-old Ahlittia North, only to find her decomposing body wrapped in her brown and plaid comforter and stuffed into a green trash bin just feet from the Harvey apartment where she lived. The heart-wrenching discovery early Tuesday morning now fuels the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office's latest search, the hunt for Ahlittia's killer. Sheriff Newell Normand confirmed that investigators are working to obtain a first-degree murder arrest warrant for Matthew Flugence, 20, of Harvey, the nephew of Ahlittia's stepfather. Investigators have arrested Flugence's brother, Russell Flugence, 21, and booked him with obstruction of...

Grassroots Americans from across the political spectrum will march in Washington, D.C., from Freedom Plaza to Capitol Hill on Monday from 9:30 AM until the early afternoon. Breitbart News will be broadcasting the event live online at Breitbart.com, starting when speeches from members of Congress and leaders in the activist community begin on Capitol Hill at 11 AM EDT and continuing until 4 PM EDT. Confirmed speakers at the event include Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Mo Brooks (R-AL), former Florida Republican Congressman Col. Allen West, conservative activist Wayne Dupree, the Rev....

Amid the dense fog and hot air blowing around the Republican Party, a new voice of clarity has emerged. It’s the voice of Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory, who announced several weeks ago his departure from the Democratic Party, which he calls “the party of disappointment,” to become a Republican. I wrote about Guillory a few weeks ago after I met him at the @Large conference in Baton Rouge, where he announced his change of party. Subsequently, Guillory explained why he, a black Democrat, would become a Republican in a video that went viral, and he continues to deliver his...

A Covington Police officer narrowly averted a head-on collision with a vehicle driving against traffic on the Collins Boulevard overpass early Sunday morning, a near accident that led to the arrest of three occupants in the vehicle who were "highly intoxicated," authorities said. State Police arrested the three suspects in the vehicle shortly after the incident at 2:40 a.m., according to Covington Police.The Covington officer involved in the incident was about to cross the overpass at Claiborne Hill when he observed a white, 1999 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck traveling northbound on the southbound lane of the two-lane bridge. The officer...

A Louisiana prosecutor says he won't pursue hate crime charges against a black man accused of beating a white man and telling the victim he was in "the wrong neighborhood." The Advocate reports that Donald Ray Dickerson, 41, is charged with assaulting the man at a Baton Rouge gas station in May. East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Friday that he'll prosecute Dickerson as a habitual offender, instead of hate crime charges. Moore says Dickerson faces a much longer sentence under the habitual offender law and the victim supported his decision. Under the state's habitual offender...

The chairman of the powerful House budget-writing committee has become a Republican, a move that continues to widen the gap between the two parties in the Louisiana Legislature.

Both men involved in a high-speed car chase across the Interstate 10 twin spans with Slidell police are in custody, police said Thursday. One of the men had been taken into custody immediately following the chase Wednesday afternoon; the other was finally found in the marsh in eastern New Orleans late Wednesday night.The arrested men have been identified as Devin Williams, 27, of New Orleans, and Bernell Morgan, 23, of New Orleans, the Slidell Police Department said.The incident began Wednesday afternoon at a T-Mobile store in Slidell. Police received a call about a felony shoplifting of thousands of dollars worth...

Valero Energy Corp. plans to become a major player in the production of petrochemicals by building a $700 million methanol plant at its St. Charles refinery near New Orleans, a spokesman said Thursday. Valero will take advantage of low-cost natural gas from shale formations such as the Eagle Ford to produce methanol, used to make a range of products such as plastics, textiles, solvents and paint. Natural gas is used in the production of methanol. The time is ripe for expansion into petrochemicals because the market for them is growing faster than the fuels market, Valero spokesman Bill Day said....

Russian fertilizer giant EuroChem plans to build a $1.5 billion natural gas-based production plant in southeast Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday. The company is considering two locations, in Iberville and St. John the Baptist parishes. “This investment represents the company’s first major manufacturing investment in the Americas. I know they looked at other states, and they could have gone anywhere. They chose Louisiana,” Jindal said during the news conference at the governor’s mansion.The governor’s office confirmed that the Moscow-based EuroChem received “a competitive incentives package” from the state, including a $6 million performance-based grant for infrastructure improvements. EuroChem CEO...

Four men charged in a quintuple shooting that left a toddler paralyzed at a Harvey apartment complex have pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges, according to court records. Jefferson Parish prosecutors charged Lashawn Davis, 20, of the Gretna area, Charlie Gumms, 18, and Davamte Robertson, 19, of Terrytown and Frankie Hookfin, 21, of Waggaman with five counts of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage in the April 22 shooting at the Lapalco Apartments. Sheriff's deputies think Hookfin and at least one of his co-defendants stood outside an apartment door in the 2300 block of Lapalco Boulevard...

After spending four days stranded on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, Amber Burkett is home. The 16-year-old Bridge City resident, whom Coast Guard rescuers found Wednesday 60 miles away from the Honduras island she and eight friends were trying to reach, cried and laughed, sometimes simultaneously, Saturday evening while exchanging hugs with more than a dozen friends and family members who had gathered to greet her.

For two consecutive Sunday somebody's carelessness with a gun left a minor in our metropolitan area dead. On June 23, a New Orleans mother Laderika Smith said she locked her 5-year-old daughter Brandajah inside a bedroom on North Galvez Street before leaving the house to go to the store. Apparently, the child found a .38 revolver in the closet and accidentally shot herself in the head.A week later in Marrero, 23-year-old Christian Cardon of Gretna was reportedly showing off his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to a group of friends. Cardon told Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies that he had left the magazine...

A Louisiana sheriff is standing firm on not accepting Department of Justice funds for the Young Marines program after he was told he couldn’t mention God if he wanted the funding. Bossier Parrish Sherriff Julian Whittington said the demand infringes on his religious freedoms. Whittington said he was appalled at the funding condition, spelled out in a letter from the Justice Department saying any mention of “God” or any “voluntary prayers” could not be included in the program if it was to receive the $30,000 in funding. “Last time I said the Pledge of Allegiance, it had God in it,”...

When a hurricane hits, it generates a host of problems for oil and gas companies and for the electric utilities that power them. The biggest worry for power companies is that a generation facility will be knocked offline, potentially cutting power to millions of customers, an Entergy executive said Wednesday during a Gulf Coast Power Association special briefing at CenterPoint Energy Tower downtown. “What scares me the most is losing generation close by,” said Greg Grillo, the system storm incident commander for Entergy–which lost 2,000 megawatts of generation capacity when its Sabine plant went offline due to flooding from Hurricane...

A Louisiana lawman is livid over the federal government’s decision to cut off funds for two programs to help troubled young people -- all, he says, because he refused to sign a pledge to bar prayer or any mention of God at their meetings. Julian Whittington, the sheriff of Bossier Parish, Louisiana, told Fox News that the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights de-funded $30,000 for their Young Marines chapter as well as a youth diversion program. Federal officials objected to a voluntary student-led prayer in the department’s youth diversion program and an oath recited by the Young Marines...

A landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act has set up a stand-off between Republican-led states and the Obama administration over controversial voting laws that until now had been stalled. The 5-4 ruling on Tuesday addressed a 1960s-era provision that largely singled out states and districts in the South -- those with a history of discrimination -- and required them to seek federal permission to change their voting laws. The court ruled that the formula determining which states are affected was unconstitutional. ********************** Attorney General Eric Holder warned states against going too...

A massive waterspout roared just offshore Grand Isle, Louisiana on Wednesday and the photos and video are incredible. Local news indicates nobody was injured and there was only minor damage once the storm came ashore.

Police in north Louisiana say a 36-year-old man is accused of killing the 18-year-old rapper known as Lil Snupe in an argument that broke out during a video game at a friend's apartment.

Congressman Elbert Guillory has eloquently told the America people why he is leaving the Democratic Party. As many now know, Elbert Guillory is a black politician from Louisiana, and I give kudos, cheers, and hurrahs to him. I am always heartened by a black person awakening to the reality that the Democratic Party stands for liberalism, and liberalism at its core, is racist. Progressivism, liberalism, socialism, communism have one thing in common, as I interpret them. They all require that some designated human or group of humans maintains power over other humans. To maintain power (and often wealth), the drivers...