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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - A ship with three sick crewmen is scheduled to dock in New Orleans, the Center for Disease Control confirms. CDC officials said they received word earlier today that a ship which had traveled near where the Ebola outbreak is will dock at the New Orleans port. A CDC staff member, emergency workers and members of the U.S. Coast Guard will board the boat and transport one ill crewman to a local hospital for evaluation. No word on which hospital the crewman will be transported to. The CDC said they are taking extra precaution because of the...

I canÂ’t help it: I sorta like Mary Landrieu. In that admission lies a clue as to why LouisianaÂ’s fairly liberal Democratic senator has been so hard for Republicans to defeat, and why she still has a chance to survive a Republican challenge in one of the most important races of this political year. Landrieu possesses a high degree of a particularly Louisianan style of political pugnacity that makes even many Republicans in the state pay her a grudging respect bordering on a form of fondness. Political prognosticators can list manifold reasons why Landrieu should lose her reelection bid to...

Sen. Mary Landrieu's best hope for re-election? Change the letter behind her name from a "D" to an "R," says a Louisiana newspaper. Landrieu is one of the senators in one of the tightest rates this year — and if she loses, her loss could potentially flip the Senate to Republican control. An article in the Baton Rouge Advocate says Landrieu essentially acts like a Republican anyway but that the party label is a scarlet letter. “She has a letter behind her name, D, and it’s toxic,” Joshua Stockley, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe,...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) found that over $33,700 in campaign flights were inappropriately charged to her official account in an internal review of her finances released Friday. The report is sure to draw added scrutiny to her use of charter planes just as her main opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), is set to introduce a resolution meant to highlight such spending, which he calls a "waste of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars." The review, which was released four days after her self-imposed deadline of Sept. 8, found that the senator took 43 trips, which amounted to 136 campaign functions, that were...

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) found that over $33,700 in campaign flights were inappropriately charged to her official account in an internal review of her finances released Friday. The report is sure to draw added scrutiny to her use of charter planes just as her main opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), is set to introduce a resolution meant to highlight such spending, which he calls a "waste of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars." The review , which was released four days after her self-imposed deadline of Sept. 8, found that the senator took 43 trips, which amounted to 136 campaign functions, that...

Mary Landrieu, one of the Senate’s most endangered Democrats, thinks it’s very important for voters in her ostensible home state to know that her top Republican opponent is soft on border security. She’s running an attack ad in which the narrator scoffs at a short clip of Rep. Bill Cassidy expressing doubts about the efficacy of a border fence back in 2010. The spot goes on to tout Landrieu’s votes in favor of “triple layer fencing” along the Mexican border, and her “nine votes” against amnesty. Because if there’s one thing Mary Landrieu is against, it’s amnesty. And if...

Gov. Bobby Jindal's lawsuit against the Obama administration over the Common Core academic standards will be considered in a Baton Rouge federal court Nov. 20. Judge Shelly D. Dick will preside over the preliminary hearing to determine whether Jindal has enough evidence to bring a legal case against U.S. Department of Education. According to Jindal, the Obama administration forced Louisiana and other states to adopt a national Common Core curriculum when they tailored the requirements for federal education grant money and waivers to the Common Core academic standards. Education policy is typically the domain of states -- not the federal...

Video at link: The former mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, shuffled off Monday to serve a 10-year federal prison term on corruption convictions stemming from the city’s years-long recovery of Hurricane Katrina devastations. Mr. Nagin is serving out his sentence in Texarkana, Texas, Reuters reported.

The business group that has been pushing for amnesty but that has often backed Republican candidates is throwing its support behind Democrats in several key House races this cycle... the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will have endorsed four Democratic candidates in the House races by the end of the week. Wednesday the Chamber endorsed California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, a vulnerable freshman facing reelection against Republican challenger Carl DeMaio. ... Georgia Democratic Rep. John Barrow is also slated to receive the Chamber’s official endorsement at an event on Friday... Other Democratic House members receiving the Chamber’s endorsement this year to...

Here are six excerpts from Judge Martin L. C. Feldman's landmark ruling against same-sex civil marriage in Robicheaux, et al. v. Caldwell. "The Court first takes up the most hefty constitutional issue: Equal Protection. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution commands that no state shall 'deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' ... 'The Equal Protection Clause...essentially directs that all persons similarly situated be treated alike.' [Stoneburner v. Sec'y of the Army] However, 'if a law neither burdens a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class,' the Supreme Court has held, 'the legislative classification...

A federal judge upheld Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriages on Wednesday, a rare loss for gay marriage supporters who had won more than 20 consecutive rulings overturning bans in other states. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman also upheld the state’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states. His ruling was the first to uphold a state ban since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year. Feldman himself acknowledged that his won’t be the final word. …

A public defender will handle a former New Orleans mayor’s appeal of his conviction on bribery and money laundering charges. […] According to a questionnaire filed with the court, (Ray) Nagin has just $23.65 in the bank. He said he, his wife and daughter live each month off of $360 in food stamps and about $500 in gifts and donations. …

... While Elite Mary Landrieu Gets A Pass Is Louisiana racist? A black woman judge lied about her address but a white woman U.S. senator can apparently continue lying about hers. The white woman senator’s brother, who is mayor, repeatedly tried to jail the black woman judge for doing the exact same thing as his sister. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu has come under fire for lying about living in Louisiana while her brother, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, targets black judge Yolanda King for lying about hers. On March 20, 2014, Nola.com ran the following: Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Yolanda King,...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has upheld Louisiana's ban on same-sex marriages, as well as the state's refusal to recognize gay marriages legally performed in other states. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman's ruling Wednesday ...said gay marriage supporters failed to prove that the ban violates equal protection or due process provisions of the Constitution. Feldman agreed ...that states have the right to define marriage.

There is a new chart-topper in Roll Call’s latest monthly ranking of the 10 most vulnerable senators. Montana’s appointed Sen. John Walsh was by far the most endangered incumbent in the chamber at the time of the previous installment in early August, but his decision last month to not seek a full term opened the top slot to a couple other worthy contenders. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is still in a perilous political position, but Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu has leapfrogged him on the list to become the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent. The Democrat is pushing hard to eclipse...

With the elections just two months away, Democratic incumbents overall have run strong-enough campaigns to ensure the fight for the Senate majority remains a tossup — despite a playing field tilted heavily in the GOP’s direction. Republicans, who need a net gain of six seats to take control of the chamber, are expected to get halfway there by picking up the open seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia. Its open-seat opportunities don’t stop there, but the GOP will likely need to defeat at least two sitting senators to win the majority.

The Louisiana Republican Party has filed a formal complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics asking it investigate Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., over campaign flights paid for with Senate funds. [....] "Considering that Sen. Landrieu admitted to breaking the law on two occasions, and there is strong evidence of other occurrences, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics should undertake a full review of the Sen. Landrieu's travel expenditures from her official account to ensure that Louisiana taxpayers have not been unwittingly and illegally subsidizing her re-election campaign by funding her campaign travel," Dore wrote.

A Louisiana Republican challenging Democrat Mary Landrieu for her Senate seat is expanding his efforts to prove the three-term lawmaker doesn’t live in her home state, instead using her parents’ address to qualify for the November ballot. GOP Senate candidate Rob Maness on Friday submitted a written compliant to district attorneys in four Louisiana parishes calling on them to object to Landrieu’s residency qualifications.

A judge has blocked a pro-life Louisiana law that protects women’s health and could have resulted in closing three of the state’s five abortion clinics because they are unable to properly protect the health and safety interests of women. The three abortion clinics that could be forced to close their doors filed suit earlier this month to block the legislation. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed HB 388, the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, that the Planned Parenthood abortion business and abortion advocates strenuously opposed. judgepic10“This bill will give women the health and safety protections they deserve,” Jindal said. The pro-life law,...