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.