Say It Ain't So Jefferson

Jefferson evidently had no idea how much legal danger he was about to get himself into. How could he have known that when he invited the FBI in for a chat a team of agents was positioned down the block, hidden from sight and ready to swarm his home to conduct a floor-to-ceiling search?

Did he think they were there for tea and crumpets?

"I said, 'Do you have time to speak to a couple of my agents? They want to talk to you,'¤" Bernazzani said. "He said fine .¤.¤. He was very gracious, very accommodating."

Bernazzani had nothing but kind words for the congressman.

"He was a gentleman. He's always a gentleman," the agent said.

With Jefferson's acquiescence, Bernazzani waved two other agents up from the street, introduced them to the congressman and left the Marengo Street house. Jefferson ushered agents Thibault and Daniel Evans into his living room and they all sat down.

We all have the FBI over, early in the morning, just for a chat. How did they ambush Jefferson with these tactics? It is time for William Jefferson to face the inevitable: A PRISON TERM

Could Sen. David Vitter Go To Jail?

Jail time is a possibility, for Senator David Vitter, if the D.C. Madam has her way:

The attorney for the "D.C. Madam" wants Sen. David Vitter, R-La., held in contempt of court for failing to adequately respond to a subpoena in her prostitution case. Lawyer Montgomery Sibley asked U.S. District Judge James Robertson to lock up the senator until he complies.

Vitter was subpoenaed to testify in mid-December at a hearing about telephone calls he placed to an escort service between 1999 and 2001, but the hearing was canceled. According to court papers, his attorney, Hank Asbill, said that the senator had no records requested by the defendant, Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Nonetheless, her attorney told the court that Asbill "refuses to indicate what efforts were made by Sen. Vitter to comply with the subpoena of his documents" and that he wants the senator held in contempt. The judge has not ruled.

Should Vitter be held in contempt?

Tired of Corruption In "The Big Easy"?????

Then the Metropolitan Crime Commission may be the answer:

The commission gets about 100 tips a month on its local hot line, and another 20 or so on a new statewide corruption line. About 15-20 percent provide enough information to warrant consideration.

Tips that show particular promise are passed on to law enforcement and prosecutors, often on the federal level where virtually all successful public corruption cases in New Orleans are handled.

What Is Going On With Gusman

It seems that Marlin Gusman incompetence will never end. First he was over charging the state for housing prisoners, now he is allowing prisoners to go free.

Elton Phillips, the accused armed robber mistakenly released from the Orleans Parish jail last week, was arrested Thursday by the Hammond police, according to the Hammond Police Department.

Lt. Vincent Giannobile, spokesman for the Hammond Police Department, said Phillips was arrested about 12:30 p.m., after the department received an anonymous call that he was in the area. Police officers stopped a rented Toyota Corolla, in which Phillips was a passenger, driving on Old Baton Rouge Highway west of Hammond, Giannobile said. Phillips was arrested without incident, he said.

By Thursday afternoon Phillips was back at the jail run by Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman.

Maybe Marlin Gusman should be under investigation. Should we wait until his actions cost someone their life? Inaction may be the better word. Either way, New Orleans will surely suffer.

Santa Was Upset At 'Ollie' This Year

Santa was upset with Ollie this year.

The corruption probe at the North Pole wasn't going well. Comet had agreed to tell Santa everything he knew about the rampant bribery schemes stemming from parking contracts for the sleigh. But now he was refusing to talk.

"I'm a reindeer, not a rat," he said.

Santa was furious. "I wish I could get Jim Letten up here," he grumbled as he made a note on his Hollyberry to move the U.S. attorney's name up a few notches on the nice list.

But North Pole corruption was only part of what was eating Santa. The naughty side of his ledger was so long that he feared an imminent environmental crisis from the coal-mining.

Santa sadly shook his head as he moved Oliver Thomas out of the nice column for taking bribes. The former New Orleans city councilman acknowledged that the city needs to be cleaned up, but then he refused to help out prosecutors.



Don't worry Santa. January 3rd. is soon approaching. Ollie will soon realize what happens to naughty LITTLE BOYS.

New Orleans' Old Houses In The Spotlight

Rashida Ferdinand sits in front of her house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Monday. The television program, "This Old House" will cover in great detail the rebuilding of her 1892 Creole shotgun-style home. The show's 10-episode series featuring New Orleans area homes is scheduled to begin airing nationally next month on PBS.
Alex Brandon: AP
------
Audiences will follow homeowner Rashida Ferdinand, 32, a fourth-generation resident of the neighborhood, as she rebuilds the home she purchased in 2004, about a year before Katrina smashed levees and inundated her home with floodwater.

As cameras rolled, her home was buzzing with construction workers hanging drywall and installing French doors.

A ceramic artist by trade, Ferdinand called finding the home "a blessing" because of its lot size, art studio out back and location near the Mississippi River. But it was the history of the neighborhood she cherished most.

"The 9th Ward was a place of pioneers, a place where people found land, built on the land and started communities, especially right here along the river," she said.

Though it's taken more than two years to rebuild her dream, Ferdinand expects to be in the house by February. She's "on the forefront of the rebuild" in the Lower 9th Ward, said This Old House host Kevin O'Connor.

New Orleans' Population Increases

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Despite slow progress in rebuilding some neighborhoods, New Orleans' population is nearing 300,000, or about 65 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina size, according to a new report.

The report, compiled by urban planning consultancy GCR & Associates and based on utility hookups, estimates the population at 295,450 and predicts it will surpass the 300,000 mark soon. That will put it on par with cities like Tampa, Fla., and Pittsburgh and provide a "significant indication of New Orleans' sustained viability as a major city and as an anchor for a large metropolitan area," the report says.

Feds Give Out Christmas Presents To 4 Convicted Felons

Christmas is a time to spend with family and friends and to celebrate the season by giving out gifts. The federal government has decided to hone in on the holiday spirit by issuing out Christmas gifts of their own; delaying prison sentences to four New Orleans' criminals who are guilty of corruption:

Former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, restaurateur Stan "Pampy" Barré, businessman Reginald Walker and former Johnson Controls project manager Terry Songy all were scheduled to be sentenced the second week of January.

All of their sentencing dates have been delayed until April. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas..you felons.

Last Minute Shopping

Looking for an Xbox this year? Well don't worry. You won't have to be concerned with Stan "Pampy" Barre, III stealing your Xbox. He is still serving his sentence. One of the items stolen in the home burglary...An Xbox. Now after his sentence is served, you may have something to worry about.


New Orleans: You are safe now from the former New Orleans' resident who is serving his home detention sentence in Federal Way, Washington. Gear up for next year though and try to protect your home from this residential burglar. Have a great Sunday!!!

Duncan Plaza Being Vacated

While agencies are moving the homeless out of Duncan Plaza, they are calling on landlords to make more housing available:

Agencies are counting on permanent case management services for those with physical and mental disabilities, which is part of a hurricane recovery permanent supportive housing plan under the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Nonprofits are counting on Congress to finance some 3,000 permanent supportive rental vouchers designated for low-income people with severe mental and physical disabilities.

UNITY and other agencies hope to get the homeless out of hotels and into apartments by January. The agencies can't continue to pay for low-cost hotel rooms for much longer and need landlords to work with them to lower rents. So far, 157 landlords are part of the effort.

Open leter to Barbie (Barb): Come on Barbie; lend a hand. Your hubby, The Pamp, stole enough from the City of New Orleans. Give back by renting to these people.

New Orleans City Council Unanimously Support Public Housing Demolition

Everyone has heard by now that the New Orleans city council has approved demolition of four public housing complexes in New Orleans. Sure, some protesters were physically beaten but they have vowed to keep on fighting.

Endesha Juakali, a protest leader arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace, said Thursday's confrontation with the council was not the last breath from protesters.

"For everything they do, we have to make them pay a political consequence," Juakali said. He vowed that when the bulldozers try to demolish the St. Bernard complex, "it's going to be an all out effort."

For weeks, protesters have been gearing up to battle with bulldozers and have discussed a variety of tactics, including lying in front of the machinery.

Let's see what the 'political consequence' will be. Do politicians, in New Orleans, ever have to face political consequences for their actions?

Penalties Increase for Disaster Related Fraud

The House on Wednesday unanimously passed legislation making it a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison to fraudulently seek disaster assistance. The bill also increases fines to $1 million for mail and wire fraud when those methods are used to get bogus disaster aid, placing the offense on par with bank fraud.

The Senate passed the bill earlier this month, and President Bush is expected to sign it.

The Justice Department asked Congress to develop a new category of fraud after the number of cases following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Government Accountability Office has estimated that $1 out of every $6 FEMA initially paid out in the two storms was claimed improperly in a wave of fraud amounting to billions of dollars. |Read on|

Tulane University gets more

How nice for Tulane:

Tulane University has been given a 15-story building in downtown New Orleans. The Murphy Oil Corporation donated the structure, which includes a 204,500-square-foot building and adjoining parking garage.

A former chair of Tulane’s governing board, Cathy Pierson, helped secure the donation. Ms. Pierson is the sister of the chief executive of Murphy Oil. Tulane officials plan to use the building to continue the expansion of the university’s medical school.

Too bad SUNO never reaps any benefits.

New Orleans Should Wake Up

It will be interesting to see how the council will vote.

The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether to sign off on the demolitions of three projects. HUD already has its bulldozers in place, engines warm and ready to roll the next morning.

Arguing that the housing was barely livable before the flooding unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, federal officials have cast their decision as good social policy. They have sought to lump the projects together with the much-vilified inner-city projects of the 1960s.

But such thinking reflects a ruthless indifference to local realities. The projects in New Orleans have little to do with the sterile brick towers and alienating plazas that usually come to mind when we think of inner-city housing . Some rank among the best early examples of public housing built in the United States, both in design and in quality of construction.

On the contrary, it is the government’s tabula rasa approach that evokes the most brutal postwar urban-renewal strategies. Neighborhood history is deemed irrelevant; the vague notion of a “fresh start” is invoked to justify erasing entire communities.

We all know the notion of fresh start is not the real reason.

My Sentiments Exactly

I had to quote this article from jaunted.com because these are my same sentiments. People need to ask themselves why UNO is so critical of New Orleans and chooses to report erroneous information.

The latest University of New Orleans poll that shows more than half of respondents think the city is one of the nation's most dangerous. The same survey says a third of people think the French Quarter was one of the hardest hit areas during Katrina, and about one in four people think parts of the city are still underwater.

Wrong, wrong and wrong. The Quarter was largely spared major damage and flood waters are long gone. While New Orleans does have some crime, you probably won't get caught in it unless you go looking for trouble. (We suggest you don't.) But USA Today, which ran the AP story about the poll early this morning, isn't helping correct misconceptions with the headline "New Orleans crime may be keeping visitors away."

We beg to differ: 3.8 million folks stopped by in 2006, and New Orleans will host 6 million by the end of 2007. That's not bad, given the fact that airlines slashed service to Louis Armstrong International after the storm and entire tracts of the city remained evacuated for months.

We hate to sound boostery, but the last thing New Orleans needs after so much progress is more "scary" headlines.

UNO pollsters need to discuss the real reason why they are so mean spirited as if we do not already know why this institution is such a New Orleans' basher. We all know the motivation behind their tactics.

Is Crime Really Keeping Visitors Away?

According to a UNO poll, crime is keeping visitors away from New Orleans.

Just over half of respondents to a University of New Orleans poll released Dec. 10 rated the city a 1, 2 or 3 in crime on a scale of 10, with 1 being "the worst city in the U.S." The poll of 775 people was taken Nov. 29-Dec. 4 and gauged the impressions of Americans outside Louisiana. Its margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Can we really trust anything UNO does? After all they have never had anything positive to say about New Orleans. Wonder why...as if we don't know.

Council Appoints Interim

Now you see it now you don't:

The New Orleans City Council appointed Carol Carter as the city's interim Recorder of Mortgages and set a special election for Oct. 4 to fill the post permanently. A runoff is scheduled for Nov. 4 if necessary.

Keep in mind the words permanently:

The election will precede by just three months the dissolution of the recorder's job, which along with the registrar of conveyances and the appointed job of custodian of notarial archives are scheduled to be folded into the operations of the Clerk of Civil Court starting in 2009.

To be dissolved:



"Even though this office is being merged and eventually will be dissolved, we still need to have an election called to fill the vacancy," Council President Arnie Fielkow said.

You gotta love it. This is their brain; this is their brain on #####.

Who Killed Two LSU Students?

Leads eluded a four-agency task force even as it stepped up its hunt for the killers of two Indian students at a US university with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

But the task force has not definitively determined a motive in the murder of two Ph.D. students, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, 31, of Hyderabad, and Kiran Kumar Allam, 33, of Kurnool, Kelly said. There was "not enough information available right now to rule anything in or out".

Authorities are in the process of inventorying the apartment - where they could not find any sign of forced entry - to see if anything was missing, Kelly said. Police have determined that there are some items in the apartment that could be unaccounted for, but he would not elaborate.

They are still looking for three men who were seen hurriedly leaving Allam's apartment on Thursday night and entering a car driven by another man, who drove into a nearby neighbourhood, Kelly said. Police planned to hand out fliers seeking information about the shootings and hoped to talk to people who live along the streets the car drove down.

Stepping up outside patrols and seeking evidence, task force officers knocked on all doors to interview residents at the Edward Gay Apartments where the two students were fatally shot in the head.

Former Councilman's Middleman Sentenced To Probation

Yesterday, Judge Vance sentenced Joseph Jourdain to probation for his role in acting as a middleman in the bribery scheme between convicted Councilman Oliver Thomas and convicted ex-restaurateur and ex-political operative Stan "Pampy" Barre. While sentencing Jourdain, she noted the major role he played in obtaining a conviction against Thomas.

"Without your assistance, it would have been Mr. Thomas' word against Mr. Barre's," she said, noting that corruption cases are difficult to detect unless those involved turn against each other.

We all know this was crucial to the case because Stan "Pampy" Barre's word can never be trusted.

Jefferson's defense team uses stall tactics

First Congressman William Jefferson's defense team wanted his trial moved out of Virginia because they felt that the jury pool would not consists of blacks, thereby hindering Jefferson's chances of a fair trial. Now they are trying to block one of the government's witnesses from testifying.

The defense team filed papers in federal court Tuesday seeking to keep Abner Mikva off the witness stand, saying his service as an appellate court judge would unduly influence the jury.

"The government refers to him as " 'Judge Mikva' no less than six times," attorney Robert Trout protested in legal papers referring to the Department of Justice's witness list. "This unnecessary emphasis reveals the government's true intentions in proffering the witness and his testimony should be excluded."

Wow, the government refers to the witness as "Judge". Oh, oh , oh, he should be disqualified. Right. A bribe is a bribe. We all know what a business deal consist of. Come on Jefferson. Play another card.

Housing Threat - New Orleans

With the demolition of public housing slated for demolition, this weekend, who could have sent such a threat? Could it be former tenants or someone who possibly want you to believe it is the former tenants?

If former tenants are involved, in making such a threat, they would garner less support for their plight. People who previously agreed that the public housing units should not be completely demolished may feel somehow that their safety is at issue. After all, we don't want another Rodney King catastrophe.

Canadaville - New Way of Life

Canadaville, the brainchild of Magna founder Frank Stronach, goes well beyond corporate largesse and into the realm of social engineering. Stronach envisioned an experiment arguably more Canadian than American that would transform low-income city dwellers into enterprising organic farmers. Along the way, he aimed to raise them out of poverty, offering five years of free rent and other services, such as transportation to work, as an economic springboard.

As happens with many planned communities, Canadaville -- officially dubbed Magnaville by the company -- ran into predictable difficulties early on. Only a handful of residents took to the idea of farming; they tend a row of garden plots and care for a small flock of chickens and a herd of goats. Many residents, particularly the younger ones, feel constrained by the rural surroundings and hope to return to New Orleans.

The residents estimate only about 30 of the original 110 evacuees who first settled in Canadaville remain there, although a company official puts the number at around 50. After it first opened in December 2005, the village took in evacuees who ended up in central Louisiana after the storm and new residents continually replaced those who left; the enclave now includes about 170 people.

Considering the regional tensions that historically defined New Orleans' relationship with the rest of Louisiana, Canadaville has coexisted remarkably well with the surrounding small towns. Most residents said they feel welcome in Simmesport, population 2,200, although the teenagers say they often feel singled out at school, where they say teachers and students eye them with suspicion.

Only one local politician has made the newcomers an issue, but he's an important man in Simmesport: Mayor James "Boo" Fontenot. At one point this summer, Fontenot blamed the New Orleans emigres for local business robberies, a claim the mayor made with no supporting evidence, according to the parish district attorney. That provoked a distinctly New Orleanian response from community leader Harold Brooks, who organized 40 residents to march on Simmesport's town hall wearing shirts that read, "I'm from Canadaville and I'm NOT a criminal!"

Senator's honesty called into question

Senator Derrick Shepherd's honesty has once again been put under the microscope. In an earlier Times Picayune report:

An FBI agent testified in open court that state Sen. Derrick Shepherd helped a twice-convicted felon launder nearly $141,000 in fraudulently generated bond fees last year, keeping close to half the money as part of the arrangement.

Shepherd was easily re-elected to the state Senate winning 61 percent of the vote. Last year, he finished a strong third in a 2006 run for Congress and then endorsed the embattled incumbent, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, helping him secure a ninth term.

Special Agent Peter Smith testified that Shepherd, a lawyer who often handles personal-injury cases, attempted to make his dealings with bond broker Gwendolyn Joseph Moyo appear legitimate by writing the words "settlement proceeds" on the memo lines of the checks.

However, investigators have found no evidence that Shepherd did any legal work for Moyo, Smith said, although he said that Shepherd had delivered a "vague invoice" to a federal grand jury to explain the payments. The document was basically illegible, Smith said.

Now questions have been raised regarding the Senator's residency:

When Derrick Shepherd qualified to run for re-election to the 3rd Senate District, he signed an affidavit declaring his address as a modest brick house on Garden Road in Marrero.

Twice this year, however, he signed public documents, including mortgage papers and an affidavit attached to a building permit, promising to keep a two-story house bordering a golf course in the upscale Stonebridge subdivision as his primary residence. The posh neighborhood sits in unincorporated Gretna, about six miles outside his Senate district.

Shepherd signed his name to documents submitted to his mortgage company, Jefferson Parish code enforcement and the clerk of court that he would keep the $450,000 home at 3701 Lake Michel Court as his primary residence.

Will this just be another news story or will the Senator be held responsible for his actions?

Developer Faces Fraud Charges

A Marengo developer pleaded not guilty Friday to all charges in a 23-count federal indictment that alleges that he defrauded customers and investors of more than $1 million.

The indictment claims that builder John M. Volpentesta, 50, defrauded at least four families using his company, Volpentesta Construction Inc., by charging the families for supplies that he then would use on a strip mall he owned. He also is alleged to have charged them for work that his company did not do.

The indictment charges Volpentesta with mail, wire and tax fraud. It alleges that between mid-2003 and the end of 2005, Volpentesta withheld $164,999 in federal income tax, Medicare and Social Security taxes from his employees’ paychecks, but never turned that money over to the Internal Revenue Service.

He faces three charges of failing to file Federal Unemployment Tax returns for his company from 2003 to 2005 and three more for failing to file personal income-tax returns for himself and his wife. |Read more|

December 9th. Is Anti-Corruption Day

A resolution was signed on October 31, 2003, by the General Assembly, that declared December 9 as International Anti-Corruption Day. This decision was taken in order to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in combating and preventing it.

The Assembly urged all States and competent regional economic integration organizations to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption as soon as possible in order to ensure its rapid entry into force.

Lets stand united, on this day, and hold corrupt individuals responsible for their actions.

New Levee Inspection Documentation

According to the Times-Picayune, special levee inspection training courses for district employees will begin this year. From animal burrows in the levees to sinking scour protection along the floodwalls, regulations now require that all deviations be put in writing, photographed, signed by levee district leaders and distributed to state and federal authorities.

First Question: What were the previous requirements for inspecting the levees?

Today the districts are using standardized forms and the inspections are being done, at least within the hurricane protection system, by personnel who have successfully completed the state training course, which included passing four written tests.

Second Question: How is the hurricane protection system determined?

"It won't make the system fail in and of itself," Ardoin said of the deficiencies, "but we want everything documented.

"You may have 20 to 30 to 40 pages in every report, depending on the number of miles," he said. And all those reports, along with any "remedial action" reports documenting repairs, must be signed by the district's chief executive and board president before being submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Transportation and Development, or DOTD.

The DOTD was reorganized after Katrina to invest its Water Resources Division with a much greater role in levee safety and hurricane flood protection.

Ardiron said his department is working toward developing an online interactive map that will allow the public to see recent inspection reports for every mile of levees and floodwalls.

Third Question: Will this online interactive map be developed prior to the hurricane system?

Former Fruit of the Loom Exec Receives His Fate

It seems that Stan "Pampy" Barre's act of money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice has been taken on the road like a well known script from a bad play. Fruit of the Loom has its own bandit in treachery. According to a news report, a former Fruit of the Loom executive and two other south-central Kentucky residents have been sentenced in a scheme to defraud Kentucky-based Fruit of the Loom, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Kalen Wade Watkins, 45, of Alvaton, a former executive with the company, was sentenced to 10 years and one month for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber's office said in a statement.

Laura Leigh Wells, 33, of Bowling Green, was sentenced to one year and one day, and Tyrone Nathaniel Tackett, 36, of Bowling Green, was sentenced to one year and three months for conspiring to defraud the underwear manufacturer.

Watkins previously pleaded guilty to a scheme in which, as Fruit of the Loom's environmental director, he hired companies owned by several co-conspirators to perform services for the company and approved inflated invoices from the companies, according to Huber's office.

Wells, of Environmental Technology Associates, and Tackett, of Cyclone Inc., paid Watkins hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell also ordered the three to pay restitution totaling nearly $1.7 million and were given three years of supervised released when their sentences end.

Let's hope Mr. Barre gets a similar sentence as Mr. Watkins.

Jena 6 Teen Accepts Plea Deal

Mychal Bell, the teen at the center of the "Jena Six" case, pleaded guilty Monday to hitting a white classmate in an agreement that will allow him to go free by June.

In the agreement, Walters dropped conspiracy charges against Bell and reduced an aggravated battery charge to second-degree battery. Bell was sentenced to serve 18 months, which includes the year he already spent in jail.

He had been scheduled to go to trial Thursday. If convicted, he could have been sent to a juvenile facility until he was 21.

The deal allows Bell to be released to a group home and return to public school as early as Monday. He agreed to testify against the other five if their cases go to trial. Bell was also ordered to pay $935 toward court costs and Justin Barker's medical bills.

Bell had been held in an adult jail since last December. He was released in September after his conviction was overturned by an appeals court. He was sent to a juvenile facility in October for violating his probation on unrelated previous convictions for simple battery and criminal destruction of property.

The 'Who You Know' Doctrine

After I read this article, I could not help be reminded of the political scale in New Orleans.

Corruption in Hungary - It's WHO you know - paper
Budapest, December 3 (MTI) - A Hungarian wanting to manage an administrative matter had best know someone in the office handling it, reported Monday's national daily Nepszabadsag, analyzing corruption reports from private citizens and businesses.

While comparatively few people reported having to pay bribe money, nearly half the survey said their business was handled faster if they had friends in the administrative offices.

Fully 46.9 percent of the sample said their personal contacts speeded things up, although only 8.1 percent supplied a gift to support the contact. Even fewer, 3.2 percent said they had been asked for money to speed up their business, while only 1.8 percent said officials had asked them for money to approve a request.

The sample also found family services to operate best among the various offices of public administration, while they qualified employment centres as the worst. The least popular bureau - and apparently the one where one-third of people have had to contend with corruption - is the land title office, Nepszabadsag wrote.

New Orleans own brand is the 'Who You Know' Doctrine. 'What You Know' gets you nowhere in The Big Easy where political corruption continues to run rampant.

Incompetence In Criminal Sheriff's Office

There was an editorial in the Times Picayune yesterday that I found very interesting. The title of the editorial was Bookkeeping Blunders. I myself would have labeled it more harshly. Well, here goes:

The Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office has made a muddle of its books, overcharging the city and state for prisoner housing, and that doesn't inspire confidence in an agency that operates with little independent oversight.

One of the errors resulted in overcharges to the city of almost $2 million. And while the Sheriff's Office has paid the money back, the problem didn't come to light for nearly two years and only because a state audit prompted Sheriff Marlin Gusman to take a harder look at billing.

The state audit found that the Sheriff's Office had been charging both the city and the state for inmates who were the state's financial responsibility. That double billing amounted to a $142,288 overcharge to the city in 2006. A private accounting firm is determining how much the city was erroneously charged in 2007.

But the state also paid too much for prisoners because the Sheriff's Office didn't notify the state when it released inmates. That resulted in a $244,371 overpayment from January 2006 through February 2007.

After those revelations, Sheriff Gusman said that he directed his staff to look into possible problems with billing for federal prisoners. That was the right move, and it uncovered yet another problem: the Sheriff's Office had billed the city for prisoners who were already being paid for by the U.S. Marshal's Service or Immigration and Custom Enforcement. As a result, the city was charged nearly $2 million that it did not owe.

Sheriff Marlin Gusman blames the blunders on a switch in billing systems required by the state, which went into effect in November 2005. That change meant that the Sheriff's Office was no longer printing separate invoices for the city and state, which had prevented double-billing.

But when the state required the change, it provided Department of Corrections trainers to local agencies, and those trainers stressed the need for departments to reconcile their books, a state official said.

The Sheriff's Office should have managed the transition better and should have made sure that it was billing accurately for prisoners and catching any errors. Going forward, Sheriff Gusman needs to make sure that all the problems have been spotted and corrected.

But the sheriff also needs to run a more open operation, something he's resisting even in the face of these embarrassing bookkeeping blunders. He submitted a one-page budget proposal to the City Council, seeking $27 million in city funds without providing any details on how his office plans to spend the money.

When City Councilwoman Shelley Midura said she thought his proposal wasn't as transparent as it should be, Sheriff Gusman bristled. He said that he's only required to submit a single budget figure to the city.

But Ms. Midura isn't the first to make that complaint. When Sheriff Gusman was Mayor Marc Morial's chief administrative office, he had the same issue with Sheriff Charles Foti's budget requests.

He was right then. Public agencies that spend public money should operate as openly as possible. Even if the Sheriff's Office were infallible -- and it clearly isn't -- that wouldn't be an argument for being so cagey.

Congressman Jefferson's Motion Denied

It appears that indicted Louisiana Congressman William (Cold Cash) Jefferson is trying to avoid the inevitable: Standing Trial For Bribery & Corruption Schemes


Yesterday a federal judge rejected his attempt to have his trial moved out of northern Virginia. It appears that the Congressman believes that he stands a better chance of being exonerated if his trial was moved to the District of Columbia in order to draw a largely black jury pool.

As I have said before, Congressman Jefferson erroneously believe that somehow blacks will not listen to the evidence and find him not guilty based on race alone.

Let's get on with the trial, Congressman Jefferson, and stop trying to play a badly dealt race card.

The State of Louisiana has spoken: Just Say No To Corruption

Sister of Mannie Fresh found murdered in New Orleans' Home

Mannie Fresh's sister, Angela Bryant, was shot and killed Wednesday night in her New Orleans home, according to local TV affiliate WWLTV. Police reportedly said the 42-year-old mother's two young children were present but not physically harmed.

Authorities said Bryant, whose body was discovered early Thursday morning, was murdered between 10 p.m. and midnight, according to WWLTV. Her black 1998 Lexus LS 400 reportedly went missing after the murder.

Bryant's husband, who had been out of town when his wife was killed, arrived at the house before noon and was distraught, according to the WWLTV report. The couple got married last month, and Bryant celebrated her birthday with family on Wednesday night, WWLTV said. Police reportedly did not elaborate on the conditions of the children, ages 2 and 7, but said they were safe and healthy.

Mannie Fresh (real name: Byron O. Thomas) — a legendary producer who claims T.I.'s "Big Things Poppin' " as his latest hit — was reportedly on his way back to his native New Orleans from Texas.

What Is the Army Corps of Engineers trying to hide?

I read a troubling editorial, in the Times Picayune, today regarding allegations against the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the article:

Raymond Seed, a civil engineering professor at University of California-Berkeley, has filed an ethics complaint with the engineering society saying that its leaders and the corps tried to prevent independent teams such as his from gathering critical evidence at the levee failure sites and from speaking out about their findings.

Mr. Seed went on to say that:

1. The corps used its leverage with the group to try to silence differing views.

2. At the corps' request, the engineering trade group appointed an external review panel to provide expert advice to corps investigators who served on the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, known as IPET. The corps paid the group $2 million for that work, a payment Mr. Seed contends is a conflict of interest.

3. The corps reneged on a promise to give his team access to soil samples at the 17th Street Canal and then tried to prevent his team from collecting its own samples. The corps only gave in after another independent research group, Team Louisiana, got the help of Louisiana's attorney general.

4. ASCE officials tried to keep their own review team members, as well as Mr. Seed's group and Team Louisiana, from testifying about their initial findings before Congress.

What is the Army Corp of engineers trying to hide? What role did they play in the levees' failure? We should all take Mr. Seed's complaints seriously and not remain quiet on this issue.

New Orleans' Inspector General Gets Needed Funds

This is the best news to come out of New Orleans:

Calling it a historic moment for New Orleans, City Council members on Tuesday offered effusive and unanimous support for Inspector General Robert Cerasoli $3.2 million budget request to launch his office next year.

The sum, which is up for council approval when it votes Friday on the entire budget, amounts to more than double what Mayor Ray Nagin had recommended in his 2008 spending plan for the newly established anti-corruption agency. It includes $300,000 to finance the city's Ethics Review Board, which the mayor's budget excluded.

New Orleans' citizens are tired of the corruption and graft in the Big Easy and we welcome this change. This is a positive step toward making New Orleans a great place to live.

Mayor Ray Nagin Doesn't Practice What He Preaches

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has not cast a vote in three citywide elections. Mayor Nagin has also made the following statements concerning those who don't vote:


"It was kind of offensive to me, because here I am bustin' my butt every day and all I'm asking citizens to do is to plug into the democratic process."

"Take 20 minutes of your time and decide."

"Don't just let this thing happen without you voicing your opinion."

While noting that the apathy appeared to cut across all social, racial and economic lines, Nagin reminded African-Americans in particular of the struggles their forebears endured for the franchise.

"People were bit by dogs and, you know, fire hoses and all that," he said. "So everybody, please go out and vote."


This is very interesting. Please do not follow the Mayor's example.

Top Leaders To Attend Levee Summit

Dozens of local, state and congressional decision-makers will gather with regional levee district leaders today to strategize on how to tackle major obstacles to planned hurricane protection system improvements.

Levee officials have said a key challenge to a higher level of hurricane protection by the 2011 deadline is the match -- an estimated $1 billion or more -- that Congress and the Bush administration are requiring of the state and levee districts.

Other issues involve private property rights and public safety, including how to get all the land needed to build expanded levees and flood walls and where to find the 145 million cubic yards of clay that the Army Corps of Engineers estimates are needed to do the work.

Corruption Cases In The New Orleans' Area

From the Associated Press Via KatC-News


Defendants and details of recent high-profile corruption cases in the New Orleans area:

STAN BARRE, a businessman, and KERRY DeCAY, former director of property management for the city of New Orleans.

_ Each pleaded guilty in January 2007 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud against the city and Johnson Controls Inc., a company dealing in energy efficiency and climate control. Barre has been cooperating with federal investigators.

_ Federal prosecutors called this a kickback and fraudulent billing scheme tied to a contract meant to reduce city expenses. The pleas were among several in a years-long investigation of corruption under former Mayor Marc Morial's administration. Morial hasn't been accused of wrongdoing. Update: Kerry Decay received a 9 year prison term. Barre is awaiting sentence.

ELLENESE BROOKS-SIMMS, former New Orleans school board member.

_ Pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit federal program fraud.

_ Accused of conspiring with a local businessman from 2001-2004 to buy a software program for the public school system and accepting about $140,000 in bribes for promoting the software. The federal charge did not identify the businessman. At least 29 people have been charged, and 23 guilty pleas entered, in this years-long federal probe of the Orleans Parish school system, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

JOSEPH IMPASTATO, former St. Tammany Parish councilman.

_ Pleaded not guilty in May to charges including making false statements on federal tax returns and extortion and money laundering in a hurricane debris-removal contract. His trial has not yet taken place.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON, U.S. congressman, New Orleans.

_ Pleaded not guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Virginia to a 16-count indictment alleging he solicited bribes from companies while using his influence to broker business deals in Africa. Jefferson's attorneys have sought to have bribery charges dismissed.

MARK SMITH, former director of the state film commission

_ Pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy and bribery.

_ Accused of taking $65,000 in bribes for approving inflated movie budgets that allowed a film company to get state tax credits from 2003-2005.

OLIVER THOMAS, former New Orleans City Council president.

_ Pleaded guilty in August to bribery of a public official

_ Accused of taking $15,000 in bribes in 2002 from Barre, who wanted to keep a parking lot contract he held under the Morial administration. Once seen as a potential mayoral candidate, Thomas resigned his council seat in August.
Update: Thomas sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.

___

Louisiana's Film Industry Has Flourished After Hurricane Katrina

In addition to sharing the same abbreviation as the film industry's capital, the state of Louisiana is capturing more of the dollars going into movie and television production -- roughly half a billion dollars for about 50 projects this year.

While it isn't exactly pirating away thousands of jobs and making Southern California economists nervous, the boom in Louisiana's film industry is raising hopes it can be a catalyst for recovery from economic devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

According to state officials, Louisiana now ranks behind only California and New York in U.S. film production. It's adding film-related jobs at a rate of 23% a year, the strongest growth rate in the industry throughout the U.S, officials say.

Levee Board Names Counsel

The levee board has named Robert LaCour, veteran attorney to the East Jefferson Levee District, as temporary counsel to the authority and all three levee districts. The three now under the authority's umbrella also include Orleans Levee District and the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District in St. Bernard Parish.

In his new role as gatekeeper, LaCour will decide whether to handle specific issues or to pass them to the Louisiana attorney general's office, which state law designates as the authority's general counsel. LaCour also will assign work to a short list of outside lawyers whom the authority approved this month after being vetted by its legal committee. Additionally, he will review those legal bills for appropriateness.

Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff, Marlin Gusman, Engaged In Double Billing

The Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office overcharged the city of New Orleans almost $2 million for inmates who actually were in the custody of the federal government and were already being paid for by the U.S. Marshal's Service or Immigration and Custom Enforcement, Sheriff Marlin Gusman acknowledged Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Office said it refunded the money Wednesday.

The double billing began after Hurricane Katrina, in November 2005, when Gusman began booking federal inmates brought into Orleans Parish Prison at Central Lockup, the same place as anyone else arrested in New Orleans, said Renee Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Gusman. The disclosure marks the second major double-billing problem Gusman has acknowledged this month. He blamed both on problems with the computerized inventory of the inmates housed at the city's jail facilities.
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After two major double billing problems, maybe he should stop shifting blame. He should look at his own incompetence.

Federal Government Wants Harsher Sentence for Former Councilman Oliver Thomas

After signing a plea agreement in which he promised to cooperate with authorities, former New Orleans' City Councilman Oliver Thomas told FBI agents and federal prosecutors during his second debriefing session that he "did not wish to be a 'rat,' " according to the sentencing memorandum filed by U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office. Thomas then refused to discuss his possible knowledge of other crimes, according to the memo.

Ironically, Thomas' own crime came to the attention of authorities as a result of another convict's cooperation.

Restaurateur and political operative Stan "Pampy" Barre, who is awaiting sentencing for his role in skimming money from a City Hall energy contract, told authorities that Thomas had extorted roughly $15,000 in bribes from him in exchange for a pledge that he would help Barre retain a portion of a French Quarter parking contract.

Thomas also directed Barre to take on a partner, Joseph Jourdain, the brother of one of his aides.

Barre initially provided little useful information to prosecutors after he pleaded guilty to three felony charges in January. But that changed after one of his co-conspirators, former city Property Management Director Kerry DeCay, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges.

The harsh sentence -- which owed in part to DeCay's lack of cooperation -- seemed to serve as a wake-up call to Barre. Less than two months later, prosecutors had persuaded Thomas to plead guilty to bribery charges based on information provided by Barre.

Army Corps of Engineer tried to stop inquiry

What's Going On With The Army Corps of Engineers?

The leader of an independent team of researchers investigating the New Orleans levee failures has filed an ethics complaint with the American Society of Civil Engineers, claiming executives of that trade organization and the Army Corps of Engineers have systematically attempted to undermine his group's investigation.

University of California-Berkeley civil engineering Professor Raymond Seed led a group whose conclusions at times contrasted sharply with those of corps-sponsored investigations. In his 42-page letter, sent Oct. 30 to the former president of the ASCE, Seed charged that the corps-sponsored probe produced flawed results that absolved the corps of its full measure of blame -- and, more important, led to mistakes in the rebuilding of levees and walls in the area.

Is this surprising to anyone? What does the ASCE have to hide?

Former New Orleans' Councilman to be Sentenced Wednesday

Former Councilman Oliver Thomas is scheduled to be sentence Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Though he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, Thomas is likely to receive far less for various reasons, including his previously clean record, his admission of guilt and the relatively small amount of money, about $20,000, that he confessed to taking.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence in the range of 30 to 37 months based on the offenses Thomas admitted, according to Tulane law professor and former federal prosecutor Tania Tetlow. Federal judges are no longer required to follow sentencing guidelines.

However, it appears unlikely he will receive extra leniency in exchange for providing what federal law calls "substantial assistance" in the investigation or prosecution of another person, according to courthouse observers. Were that the case, prosecutors would have almost certainly asked Vance to delay Thomas' sentencing.

"When someone is cooperating, you usually see one or two motions to continue," said Loyola Law School professor Dane Ciolino. "The purpose is to make sure he cooperates as expected, and that he testifies as expected."

"The government has a policy of waiting (to sentence a convict) until after he has testified," agreed lawyer Julian Murray, a former federal prosecutor. "It doesn't mean he hasn't given them some information that was helpful, but it's unlikely he'll testify in another case."

Not only does a delay ensure prosecutors the testimony they seek, it gives them time to complete the paperwork to request a downward departure, often known as a cooperation letter, or a 5K1 after the section of the federal sentencing code that describes it.

That Thomas' sentencing appears to be on schedule is a "pretty good suggestion that he is not cooperating -- or at least has not been able to deliver any additional wrongdoers to the government," Ciolino said.

In contrast, Ciolino noted, convicted restaurateur and political operative Stan "Pampy" Barre, -- who helped provide the government with the evidence it needed to prosecute Thomas -- still awaits sentencing.

Barre pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to skim more than $1 million from a large City Hall energy contract awarded by former Mayor Marc Morial. His sentencing, now set for January, has been delayed numerous times.

Thomas' lawyer, Clarence Roby, said he couldn't discuss the details of Thomas' conversations with investigators. But he hinted that his client hadn't provided the government much information, and he said he doesn't expect any delay in the sentencing.

"He's cooperated the best he could," Roby said of Thomas. "But unlike Stan Barre and others, he didn't necessarily walk in saying, 'Let me tell you about every corrupt act I've ever witnessed.' He's in an unenviable position. But he's taken responsibility for his misdeeds."

Jackie Clarkson Wins the Council At Large Seat

Jackie Clarkson, a former council member and state legislator, defeated Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, the District E representative who ran with the backing of Mayor Ray Nagin and three of her council colleagues. Willard-Lewis did not have to give up her district seat to run.

The election was called to fill the position vacated in August by Oliver Thomas, who resigned after pleading guilty to federal felony charges of accepting bribes from ex-political operative, ex-restaurateur and convicted felon, Stan "Pampy" Barre.

Congressman William Jefferson Accused of Additional Bribery Schemes

The Justice Department said Friday that it intends to present evidence of two additional bribery schemes, including one involving efforts to win a contract with NASA, as part of its corruption case against Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans.

In both cases, prosecutors said, Jefferson sought a payoff for relatives in exchange for his help in setting up business deals.

The government listed 11 schemes in its June 4 indictment, which accused the nine-term congressman of bribery, racketeering and violation of the corrupt foreign practices act. The Justice Department is not looking to add any charges to the indictment, but said it plans to use the two new alleged schemes as evidence at the trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 16.

Well, well well: Jefferson used his position to advance the interest of his family members. This is just another example of Family Corruption In The Big Easy. Too bad the feds haven't fully addressed the family corruption that centered around the City Hall energy savings contract with Johnson Control. -- Just follow the family trail:

Ex-Drug Court contractors plead innocent in fraud case

Two former subcontractors of a St. Tammany Parish Drug Court contractor that drew state and court auditors’ scrutiny entered innocent pleas to felony criminal charges Thursday.

Guice Giambrone, 61, of Baton Rouge, and Slidell Police Officer William Massimini, 31, pleaded innocent to the charge of second-degree injuring of a public record.

Massimini also pleaded innocent before Judge Patricia Hedges of the 22nd Judicial District Court to the charge of public payroll fraud.

A June 2007 Louisiana Legislative Auditor compliance audit found Massimini and Giambrone may have broken state law in their handling of payment records state auditors believe were falsified.

The reports were purported to support Massimini’s pay for work as a compliance officer for the Slidell Juvenile Drug Court between January 2005 and January 2006.

A St. Tammany Parish grand jury indicted the men in late August. On Thursday, Hedges also set a Jan. 7 trial date for Giambrone and Massimini, who are co-defendants.

They formerly worked as subcontractors for Human Services Foundation of Baton Rouge. Under contract with the court, the nonprofit helped administer the entire 22nd Judicial District Drug Court program, of which the Slidell program is part, for eight years until July 2006.

The contract ended after court officials uncovered financial questions later brought to light in the 2005 audit released in August 2006 and the subsequent compliance audit this year.

Human Services Foundation officials have denied wrongdoing or knowledge of it.

The Drug Court program helps nonviolent juvenile and adult drug offenders get off drugs and employed. The 22nd Judicial District’s jurisdiction encompasses Washington and St. Tammany parishes.

The questioned documents were produced after court officials began asking questions nearly two years ago about Massimini’s work, the June compliance audit says.

Massimini was charged with checking up on juvenile clients for the Slidell court, a job outside his duty as a city police officer. Some of the questioned documents claimed that he visited clients the day Hurricane Katrina struck Slidell, Aug. 29, 2005, auditors said.

Giambrone is accused of turning in some of the questioned documents.

Jim Moorman, Giambrone’s attorney, said his client simply delivered records and did not falsify them. Giambrone told the auditors the same thing.

Massimini’s attorney, Vince Lobello, didn’t return a call seeking comment Thursday.

The Slidell Police Department continues to employ Massimini. He was moved from a detective’s post to desk duty in the Patrol Division before his indictment Aug. 29, said Capt. Kevin Foltz, police spokesman.

Massimini has been instructed not to engage in police enforcement action while his case and an internal police investigation continue, Foltz said.

The change in job assignments is not a demotion, he said.

Director Demme brings a teen's face out of New Orleans' crowd

Jonathan Demme traveled to New Orleans to document the lives of residents still abandoned after Hurricane Katrina.

And he may have found a star.

While shooting this summer's PBS documentary Right to Return: New Home Movies From the Lower 9th Ward, about residents of the hardest-hit region of the city trying to rebuild on their own, he came upon Kyrah Julian, a particularly eloquent — and angry — teenager.

"She was talking about more than the power being off," Demme says. "She spoke about the ecological dangers, the personal losses. She was such a compelling image on camera."

So Demme cast Julian in next year's Dancing With Shiva, a family comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger.

Special Election Scheduled for Louisiana House District

The U.S. House seat in Louisiana’s 1st District, soon to be vacated by Republican Governor-elect Bobby Jindal , will be filled in a special election process that will begin with party primaries on March 8 and end with a general election that almost certainly will be held on May 3. The election is unlikely to produce any shift in the partisan balance of power in the House, as the heavily Republican district is strongly favored to stay in that party’s hands.

Retiring Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco — whom two-term House incumbent Jindal will succeed after winning Louisiana’s off-year election for governor on Oct. 20 — issued a proclamation Tuesday that set the election schedule, which also includes an April 5 primary runoff date if no one wins a majority vote in one or both parties in the March 8 first-round vote.

The proclamation includes a proviso that the general election would be held April 5 instead of May 3 if no runoffs are necessary. But a runoff is almost sure to be needed on the Republican side, given the long list of candidates who are expected to pursue that party’s nomination.

The candidate qualifying period for the contest runs from January 29 to 31.

Jindal previously stated that he will resign his House seat Jan. 14, the same day he will be inaugurated as governor. His easy victory this year over a field that included 11 other candidates of all party affiliations entitles him to assume the office that he narrowly lost to Blanco in the 2003 state election.

Louisiana Representative Uses Racial Slur

I wonder how many people will be infuriated by this latest development. Will people vote for a white state lawmaker, who calls a black civil rights veteran 'Buckwheat'? According to the news story, Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, "Talk to you later, Buckwheat." Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls.

Buckwheat, a black child character in the "Little Rascals" comedies of the 1930s and '40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype.

Boykin, 75, helped desegregate restaurants and the parish school system in the 1960s. Her son, Jerome, is president of the Terrebonne Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I've never had no one talk to me that way, and I considered it a racial slur," Hazel Boykin said. "I know the meaning of it; it's just like the N-word."

On Monday, Jerome Boykin held a news conference asking voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday's runoff.

Lessens Learned from Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina devastated the City of New Orleans, however, other cities will now learn from that devastation:

When members of the National League of Cities convene in New Orleans this week to discuss the most effective ways to run local governments, they will use the city as a living laboratory for an issue of paramount concern: how to prepare for and recover from disaster.

A delegation of 3,500 mayors, police chiefs and city council members from around the county will brainstorm Tuesday through Saturday on ways to reduce crime, promote public transit and strengthen municipal finances, which are strained in many parts of the country by the growing costs of health care and pensions.

While the gathering is not the largest to take place since Hurricane Katrina, it is an important milepost in the recovery of the tourism industry. The National League of Cities booked its convention in New Orleans before the storm, and it was one of the first to affirm its commitment to the city when few could predict how quickly hotels, taxis and restaurants would return.

Executive Director Donald Borut said cities around the country provided for New Orleans after the storm by sending emergency response teams, equipment and money. He said visiting city leaders will continue to participate in the recovery with a series of public service projects, including the construction of a playground at Joe Brown Park.


The host city generally underwrites the annual National League of Cities conference by donating space in a convention center or providing free bus rides and other amenities, but Borut said his group decided to pick up those expenses because New Orleans is still weak-kneed from the storm.

Flynn helps No. 2 LSU down La. Tech

Matt Flynn completed 14-of-26 passes for 237 yards with three touchdowns, as second-ranked LSU overwhelmed Louisiana Tech, 58-10, at Tiger Stadium.

Jacob Hester ran for a career-high 117 yards and one touchdown for the Tigers (9-1), who have reeled three straight wins since losing 43-37 in triple overtime to Kentucky on October 13. Flynn also ran for a touchdown and had two interceptions, while Terrance Toliver caught three passes for 119 yards. Brandon LaFell racked up 80 yards on five receptions.

With the victory, coupled with losses by Alabama and Auburn, LSU clenched the SEC Western Division Championship.

Highlighting Big Easy Chef 'John Besh'

Now that psychopath, Stan Barre is out of the restaurant business and heading to the federal pen, it is refreshing to highlight an award winning chef:

John Besh is the winner of a 2006 James Beard regional award. His Restaurant August in New Orleans has appeared on Food & Wine magazine's best-restaurant list. He also is chef and co-owner of Besh Steakhouse and Luke, both in New Orleans; and La Provence, an hour north in Lacombe, La. He's currently competing on "The Next Iron Chef" on the Food Network.

With the final episode set to air this Sunday at 9 p.m.,the best of the two finalists will join the pantheon of Iron Chefs, which currently includes Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Masaharu Morimoto and Bobby Flay.

The final show will be a battle between the two finalists in Kitchen Stadium, much like the battles they will compete in if they are chosen as the next Iron Chef. Throughout the show, the contestants have had to conquer challenges such as preparing an airline meal, cooking outside with only a grill and a cooler packed by another contestant, and preparing a dish with "underutilized" foods such as sweet breads or catfish. The final battle will be swordfish, and judging by the dishes presented by Chefs Besh and Symon in the previous episodes, it promises to be a battle of epic "portions."

Motion on 'Jena 6' Charges Is Dismissed

A judge rejected a motion to dismiss juvenile charges against a teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy. Lawyers for the teenager, Mychal Bell, left, one of six black teenagers accused of beating a white schoolmate, said that trying him again amounted to double jeopardy. “We contend that he can’t be tried for the same case twice, and he’s already been tried in adult court,” said one of the lawyers, Carol Powell Lexing. The judge, J. P. Mauffrey Jr. of District Court, rejected that motion. Ms. Lexing said they would appeal. Mr. Bell, 17, is the only one of the so-called Jena Six to stand trial. In June, he was convicted in adult court of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. The convictions were later overturned, and the case was sent to juvenile court. Mr. Bell was ordered to jail last month for a probation violation in an unrelated juvenile-court case.

Charges against Jena 6 Defendant Reduced

Charges against Bryant Purvis, one of the six black students accused of being involved in beating a white student, were reduced to second degree aggravated battery during his arraignment Wednesday morning.

Purvis, who was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, entered a not guilty plea to the reduced charges in the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena.

Charges have now been reduced against at least five of the students in the racially charged "Jena 6" case. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile.

Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and five other teens accused of the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker.

Repair Scams In The Big Easy

Five men have been arrested on charges they bilked New Orleans residents out of thousands of dollars by contracting to renovate houses and failing to do so.

The five suspects were identified by the attorney general's office, which provided this information:

-- Anthony Thomas was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with one count of felony theft, one count of acting as a contractor without a license and one count of theft from an elderly or disabled person. Thomas, owner of Thomas Dry Wall, is alleged to have accepted a down payment of $52,000 as part of a contract with a resident to renovate her home, and to have abandoned the job without fulfilling the contract.

-- Garlon D. Batiste, aka Lance Howard, doing business as Premier Global Renovations, was arrested Oct. 24 and booked with two counts of theft by fraud, two counts of injuring public records, exploitation of the infirmed, and providing false information during the booking process. He is alleged to have accepted a check from a New Orleans resident for $38,054.74, to be used for labor and materials for the victim's house renovations, and never returned to perform any work on the house. In a separate incident, he is accused of taking an $8,500 check from a disabled senior to renovate the victim's hurricane-damaged home, and never returning to perform any repairs.

-- Michael Noah, doing business as JDSM Enterprises, was arrested in LaPlace and was returned to Orleans Parish Prison on Oct. 24, where he was booked with one count of felony theft and one count of doing contracting work without a license. Noah is charged with accepting a $42,250 partial payment on a contract to restore a hurricane-damaged New Orleans home before abandoning the project without performing the required work.

-- Dennis M. Alexander was arrested Oct. 25 and booked with four counts each of felony theft of property valued over $500, operating as a construction contractor without a license, and theft from an elderly or disabled person. Alexander allegedly was paid down payments of between $5,000 and $46,500 by four New Orleans residents to renovate houses, and did not fulfill the contracts, the attorney general's office said.

-- Billy Myers of Cresson, Texas, doing business as Customers Choice Construction, was arrested Oct. 18 and booked with theft by fraud in contracting, misapplication of payments, engaging in a business without a license and exploitation of the infirmed. Myers allegedly contracted with an elderly New Orleans resident to make renovations to the victim's two hurricane-damaged homes and accepted a check in advance for $10,000. After allegedly performing only $1,000 worth of work, he failed to complete the job and reneged on a promise to refund the other $9,000 by leaving for Texas, Foti's office said.

This is a sad situation when other people's misery brings out the worst in people.
There is always some corrupt individual, lurking in the background, waiting to prey on others. We need to severely punish these indivduals in order to discourage this type of disgusting behavior.

Texans Support Bobby Jindal

Jindal, 36, won his bid, a historic victory that will make him the country's first Indian-American chief executive when he is sworn in next year.

He got there with the help of many Texans, who contributed nearly $400,000 to his campaign in the past year and more than $800,000 since 2003, Louisiana Board of Ethics records show.

Additionally, Jindal is putting people with Texas connections into his administration: His deputy chief of staff for policy will be Stephen Waguespack, a Washington lobbyist and former legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington.

No matter what his donors' motivations are, Jindal's leadership could have an impact on Texas -- perhaps luring back Louisianans who moved to Texas after Katrina, or perhaps just creating an easier working relationship on the local and national levels.

Attorney General Hopeful Under Attack

What is going on with Royal Alexander? Scandal, scandal, scandal: What else is new in The Big Easy?

While he was in Washington, Alexander's name surfaced in the scandal over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., making inappropriate contact with underage pages. One of the pages worked in Rodney Alexander's office. Royal Alexander said his office notified Foley's office and then-Speaker Dennis Hastert's office as soon as he became aware of the situation. "I'm proud of how we handled it," he said.

Still, according to the page's parents, Royal Alexander also talked with them after finding out about e-mails, warning them that the media would call and that Democrats "would like to use something like this." A House ethics investigation found no wrongdoing by Royal Alexander, but the panel's final report said "some witnesses did far too little" to address Foley's behavior and protect pages.

Alexander also finds himself asked repeatedly about a federal lawsuit filed against Rodney Alexander's office by a former staff member. Among her allegations, Elizabeth Scott said that during her 2005-06 tenure in the Washington office, Royal Alexander harassed her with unsolicited leering, comments and physical contact.

Can Reform Occur In Louisiana?

Electing a governor possessing both integrity and competence is only the first step. The Governor-elect has said he alone cannot change the political culture. His 31 points on ethics reform must still be shaped into legislation.

Anyone familiar with the current ethics laws in Louisiana realizes they were designed to fail. They serve as a "fig leaf." The ethics system is capable only of catching jay walkers, not thieves. Changing the existing, badly drafted legislation into an effective legal regime poses quite a challenge. If the reforms prove not to be effective, however, Louisiana's citizens will eventually conclude that good state government is unattainable.

Even a good governor and good ethics laws will not reduce corruption much. Those who study third-world countries have noted that corruption is directly proportional to the percentage of the economy controlled by government. That observation more than anything else explains the level of corruption in Louisiana. Ever since Huey Long's governorship, Louisiana government has been the state's largest employer.

Will Vitter Have to Testify?

The attorney for the "D.C. Madam" asked Friday for a subpoena to force the Louisiana Republican to testify about his involvement in what prosecutors say was a high-priced prostitution ring.

Montgomery Sibley said he had asked the clerk of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to issue a subpoena to Vitter to testify at a Nov. 28 hearing that could spill salacious details of the scandal that has captivated the nation's capital for more than a year.

Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the hearing to determine whether Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, can proceed with her breach-of-contract lawsuit against a woman she once employed as an escort. Palfrey said she signed contracts with all her escorts promising they wouldn't do anything illegal and that Paula Neble broke it by engaging in prostitution.

Is New Orleans' Recovery Money Arriving?

Once about $453 million in state and federal aid, mostly tied to the city's effort to rebuild its shattered infrastructure, is taken out, the 2008 budget for the day-to-day operation of city government is $459.6 million.

That total represents the general fund, the portion of the budget under the city's direct control, which comes from self-generated revenue such as sales and property taxes, service charges, license and permit fees, fines and interest.

Pointing to multiple pools of recovery dollars that are finally within the city's reach, Nagin said he expects to launch between $250 million and $500 million in public works projects in 2008.

"This is the evidence that we are really at the tipping point," he said. "The checks are no longer in the mail."

As examples, Nagin cited a $300 million revolving loan fund approved recently by the state, $117 million in infrastructure money released by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, $75 million in city bonds and $54 million in Federal Highway Administration dollars for improvements to major streets.

After more than a year of planning that includes blueprints for 17 target "recovery zones," Nagin told council members to prepare "for some serious implementation" now that the city can access an unprecedented amount of cash.

"This recovery is poised and ready to move to the next level," he said.

Among the roads scheduled for resurfacing are portions of Tchoupitoulas, Toulouse and Frenchmen streets, Robert E. Lee and MacArthur boulevards, and Harrison Avenue.

Maintaining that "city government is not built for speed," Nagin said he will seek to expedite things with the appointment of a public infrastructure program manager to recruit and oversee an army of architects, engineers and contractors.

To monitor the ambitious brick-and-mortar program, Nagin plans to establish a "project delivery unit" inside City Hall. The unit will serve a dual purpose: to help project managers navigate the city's bureaucratic maze and to guard against waste.

Convicted Felon, Stan "Pampy" Barre Accused of telling lies to lessen his prison sentence

Federal investigators are probing an allegation that Orleans Parish School Board member and state House candidate Una Anderson accepted a cash bribe, delivered to her husband six years ago in exchange for her help steering a School Board trash-collection contract to two local garbage haulers, sources close to the investigation said.

Anderson said she does not believe she is the target of any federal inquiry. If she is, she said, that's because restaurateur and convicted felon Stan "Pampy" Barre is telling investigators anything he can in hopes of reducing his prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges related to a crooked City Hall energy deal. Barre faces sentencing in January.

"If Stan Barre is saying that I took a bribe, he is telling a lie," Anderson said. "I've done nothing unethical or illegal."

Jimmie Woods and Alvin Richard, the respective owners of Metro Disposal Inc. and Richard's Disposal Inc., the two trash-hauling companies that got the work, said through their attorneys that no bribes were paid to anyone.

"I'm aware that allegations may have been made," said Richard's attorney, Robert Glass. He added that Richard is "not a suspect" but that he is "answering questions from the authorities."

"All I can say is my client absolutely denies" paying a bribe, said Herbert Larson, Woods' attorney.

Larson also said: "If you want the real explanation, it is that Stan Barre will do anything, including roll over on Mother Teresa, to get out of 9 1/2 years in jail. He will say anything and do anything."

Larson's comment refers to the prison term Barre potentially faces. In June, one of Barre's co-conspirators, former city property management director Kerry DeCay, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges as Barre.

The harsh sentence might have served as a wake-up call to Barre, a gregarious restaurateur, political operative and close ally of former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial. Barre, absent a kind word from the feds, seemed destined for a similar stretch in the penitentiary. |Read more|

No Charges Filed In Standoff On Bridge

This revelation come as no surprise. Where is the public outrage?

An Orleans Parish grand jury refused to indict a Gretna police officer Wednesday for firing a shotgun into the air as evacuees fleeing the post-Katrina chaos tried to cross the Crescent City Connection. The decision essentially closes the criminal case in New Orleans.

Officer Lawrence Vaughn, who could have faced a charge of illegal use of a firearm, was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sept. 1, 2005, incident spawned when authorities from Gretna, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Crescent City Connection decided to shut down the bridge to pedestrians.

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson said the decision also exonerates his department, which has been lambasted as racist for its part in the decision to shut down the bridge and keep desperate New Orleanians, most of them black, from leaving the city. Lawson and others have said police were forced to block the bridge to evacuees because no help was available on the West Bank. In addition, authorities were battling a fire at Oakwood Center mall in Terrytown, set by looters earlier on the day Vaughn fired the shotgun.

New Orleans D.A. Eddie Jordan Resigns

Reading the Times Picayune article on D.A. Eddie Jordan's resignation, made me reflect upon the terms discrimination and cronyism as how it relates to city and state government in Louisiana.

Racial discrimination is based on unfairness, bias and bigotry. Cronyism is partiality to friends that result in appointing them to positions in one's administration. Since I have lived in New Orleans for a very long time, cronyism has always existed in State and Local government. Although I believe that Congressman Jefferson is guilty of the charges he is facing, I do agree with the following statement he made as a result of D.A. Eddie Jordan's resignation:

As the first African American District Attorney, Mr. Jordan was overwhelmingly supported by the African American community. The staff of the out-going D.A. was overwhelmingly white. Mr. Jordan's effort to hire qualified people whom he knew or who were supportive of his campaign naturally meant that the pool of such applicants would overwhelmingly be African Americans. Every D.A. has been accorded the right to let go the prior D.A.'s personnel and hire his own. It is unfortunate that in this case Mr. Jordan's effort to follow this well-established practice ended with the appearance that he was discriminating against a segment of the population. I did not believe then, and I do not believe now that this was ever his intention."

The lawsuit against Eddie Jordan leaves me to conclude that: When a black newly elected official brings in his/her new administration, race matters. When a white elected official brings in his/her new administration, do what you want. The only thing you may be accused of is cronyism. Being accused of cronyism will result in less publicized scrutiny and no civil penalty.
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VIDEO OF EDDIE JORDAN'S RESIGNATION

New Orleans Recovery Director, Ed Blakely speaks out about Recovery Plans

Um...Slimy Mac-P smells money in Louisiana. Watch out recovery plan; Slimy Mac-P is figuring out how his family can dip into the cookie jar. Can a pending federal prison sentence stop him?

Beginning early next year, New Orleans police officers should begin to move out of the cramped trailers they've been using since Hurricane Katrina and into more comfortable surroundings, recovery director Ed Blakely said Monday.


Buoyed by $200 million in state-issued bonds earmarked for repairs to the city's storm-damaged infrastructure, Blakely said he hopes to reopen police headquarters on Broad Street around Jan. 1 and get the rank-and-file into permanent buildings by next spring.

Is Your Husband Cheating?

If you know he just bought a mercedes for a female, shouldn't that tell you something?

Wake up Barbie: Although you are 62 years old, you can still find someone else. Have a little faith in yourself.

California Wildfires cannot be compared to Hurricane Katrina

The response to the California wildfires -- the country's biggest disaster since Katrina -- has earned praise from officials nationwide.

President Bush, on a visit to the charred region on Thursday, lauded the efforts of local responders and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican.

"It makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead," Bush said, in an apparent dig at Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat.

Bush was way off base with that statement. There is a very distinct difference between the two disasters.

Perhaps the one universal connection, however, is emotion: Traumatized residents forced to leave their homes while wondering what, if anything, they might find upon their return. And, certainly, an out-of-control fire steadily devouring a large area is as frightening as rising floodwaters inundating a major city.

By Friday, the fires had burned about a half-million acres, an area twice the size of New York City. Much of the burned area was forest, but the Californians who lost homes -- at least 1,700 and counting -- are as devastated as the Katrina victims left homeless by the flood.

Katrina's scale of devastation and its impact on humanity, however, was far greater. The number of homes destroyed or still threatened in California is about 10 percent of the roughly 200,000 left uninhabitable by Katrina and the often overlooked Hurricane Rita, which struck three weeks later.

In New Orleans alone, 140 of 180 square miles flooded, -- rendering uninhabitable a residential zone seven times the size of Manhattan. Across the region, its winds and rains wreaked havoc to a 90,000-square-mile swath of the Gulf Coast, an area twice the size of the entire state of New York.

And while the federal government response has been swift in California, it was unorganized and late in Louisiana, problems that cannot be blamed on state government. Indeed, a commander with the Arkansas National Guard who helped secure Convention Center Boulevard told reporters he did not even receive an order to go to New Orleans until two days after the hurricane.

Financial losses from the fires based on initial estimates are about 2 percent of the damage caused by Katrina and Rita, which so far stands at $91 billion. While damage estimates are still climbing in California, initial estimates are about $2 billion.

Katrina forced the evacuation of 1.2 million people -- 500,000 remained displaced after four months. Almost 2,000 people died in Katrina.

The death toll from the fires stood at seven as of Saturday.

"These fires are not the same disaster that we had in Katrina," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said this week. "There's so many differences."

Infrastructure still in place

Another major difference: The fires did not wipe out every remnant of infrastructure. Many California evacuees drove to shelters on roads unaffected by the disaster. Katrina and the subsequent flood obliterated power, water systems and nearly all traditional forms of communication -- cell phone towers, phone company switching centers and 911 call centers. The almost complete loss of communication for several days resulted in deadly consequences for many storm victims and first responders.

While the wildfires destroyed dozens of cell phone towers and land lines in California, causing service outages in isolated areas, companies have compensated with the use of mobile transmission equipment. Cell service and land-line use in San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles remain largely unaffected.

Once the levees failed in New Orleans, floodwaters swamped nearly every major road in and out of the city. Louis Armstrong International Airport shut down. Ground access into the city was largely limited to U.S. 90 from the West Bank and River Road on the east bank. Many supplies and support personnel had to be airlifted into the city by military aircraft, many of which did not arrive until well after the disaster.

The situation is more manageable in California. Most of the blazes are burning in sparsely populated areas. While the fires continue to pose some challenges to getting around in greater San Diego, the infrastructure of the city remained largely unfazed. Some highways have been closed, but the city's main interstate arteries and airport have remained open. The main San Diego airport is operating normally. Amtrak and regional commuter train service was restored on Thursday.

"There's a big difference - we have a functioning city," said Kevin McCoy, a crisis counselor from the Harbison Canyon Community Resource Center, who was among the hundreds of volunteers at Qualcomm Stadium this week. "When you walk out of this stadium you aren't stepping into 4 feet of water."

California evacuation

Both events forced massive evacuations. About 1.2 million people fled the New Orleans metro area ahead of Katrina, according to a Louisiana State University study.

Probably fewer than half that many southern California residents were displaced from their homes by the wildfires. According to a Los Angeles Times report Thursday, the number of evacuees at any one time in the region was significantly less than the 800,000 widely reported by officials earlier this week. Many residents began returning to their homes on Wednesday.

More reliable estimates of the number of people instructed to leave their homes put the number at between 350,000 and 500,000, which is still the largest evacuation in California history. A statement earlier in the week by the San Diego Sheriff's Office that more people had been evacuated in southern California than left in advance of Katrina has been dismissed as greatly exaggerated.

"It's unfair for a comparison to be drawn between the two," said Ken Higginbotham, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency operation at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego's largest shelter for wildfire evacuees. "Both were catastrophic events that affected a large number of people. That's where the similarities end. This is a different time, a different period, a different scenario."

Katrina's lessons learned

What's more, officials and first responders in California have applied lessons learned from Katrina relief efforts. For example, Menshek said the San Miguel Fire Department rewrote and updated its strategic disaster plan in the wake of Katrina. He said the city also re-evaluated its evacuation shelters and designated new ones.

In addition, Katrina spurred an overhaul at FEMA. In stark contrast to Katrina, when only a handful of agency representatives were on the ground in the first hours after the storm, blue-shirted FEMA officials descended on relief shelters in droves almost immediately after the fires broke out last weekend.

At the Qualcomm Stadium shelter, more than two dozen workers buzzed around tents and offered aid to anyone in need for much of the week. There were so many FEMA representatives that many appeared to have little to do, passing time by watching TV or monitoring the Internet.