Are You Thinking About Taking A Trip To The Big Easy?

If you have never been to New Orleans, you do not know what you are missing. One of the highlights of visiting the 'Big Easy' is the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. You will be able to sample some of the best food in the world. Along with the food, there will be great musical entertainment lined up for this year's festival:

Stevie Wonder will perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival after an absence of 35 years. On May 2 Mr. Wonder is scheduled to headline the second weekend of this year’s event, along with Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow and Tim McGraw. The festival will be held from April 25 to April 27, and from May 1 to May 4.

Headlining the festival’s opening day are Ms. Crow, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Also scheduled to perform are Dr. John, Al Green, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint. Performers on the second weekend include Randy Newman, Widespread Panic, Aaron Neville and Santana. The event, with more than 1,000 musicians, is held at a racetrack where 11 stages and tents are set up.

This year features a particularly strong lineup of female jazz singers, including Patti Austin, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall and Ruby Wilson.

So come on down and enjoy that great New Orleans' hospitality.

Sen. Mary Landrieu Lands Herself In Hot Water

What is Senator Mary Landrieu up to?

Of all the companies that claim to sell terrific products, of all the groups that claim to do good works, how do certain ones get access to members of Congress? How do they convince those members of Congress to give them special tax dollars in the form of "earmarks"? The answer often lies in lobbyists and political connections. And, as it turns out, the company or group seeking favor often ends up making campaign contributions to the members of Congress who "help" them by giving them your tax dollars.

Critics say it's nothing more than members of Congress using your tax dollars to attract and reward campaign donors. If a direct quid pro quo can be proven, it can be a violation of federal law. But often, that direct connection is difficult to make. It's just the circumstances that are so suggestive and can look so ... bad.

Some think that's the case with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and the founder of a company that sells a reading program called "Voyager," Randy Best. There are hundreds of reading programs out there, but Sen. Landrieu favored Best's program, giving it a $2 million earmark of tax dollars to put it in Washington, D.C. public schools (which had not asked for the program in its budget). Best had gotten access to Landrieu while lobbying for Voyager on Capitol Hill. Landrieu doesn't claim to have done any comparative research to see how Randy Best's product stood up against others. She simply said she met him, he impressed her and his program impressed her. She made sure they got the money.

Wouldn't many people or companies like the chance to present their idea one-on-one to a member of Congress, without having it measured against the competition, and walk away with millions of tax dollars just because they impressed that one member?

Back to the case of Landrieu and the Voyager earmark. As the earmark was working its way through the Congressional process, Randy Best arranged a lucrative fundraiser for Landrieu. And his employees, friends and family suddenly became new donors to the Landrieu re-election campaign. They quickly raised more than $30,000 for the Landrieu campaign chest. In the campaign world where individual donations are subject to federal limits, that's a huge chunk of change. And to many people, it looks like there was a deal: Landrieu gave Best the money he wanted, and he gave her lots of campaign donations in return. However, both Landrieu and Best strongly insist the earmark and campaign donations are not connected whatsoever.

That was in 2001. Landrieu and Best have continued their mutually beneficial relationship. And it's now hounding Landrieu on the campaign trail as she faces re-election this year. Sen. Landrieu wouldn't agree to an interview with the Washington Post's investigative reporter James Grimaldi when he delved into the story.

When we picked up on the issue, Landrieu agreed to talk to us to try to clear things up. She spent much of the time talking about her commitment to public education, and her strong desire to help children read better.

Basically there are two views:
1. Landrieu used the lure of your tax dollars to get herself campaign donations.
2. Landrieu helped Best and his Voyager program because she thought it was a terrific way to help kids read. She would've earmarked to Voyager even if Best hadn't given her a dime.

Even under the second scenario, there's a question of the fairness of the earmarking process. There are many reading programs out there ... but one company's executive and his lobbyists found the ear of Landrieu back in 2001. And only that company got the earmark money. It seems to come down to this: If you can get direct access to a member of Congress with control over the taxpayer purse through earmarks – if you are important enough or know the right people or have powerful lobbyists or have enough money – you can arrange a personal meeting with a member of Congress, and you might just get an earmark of tax dollars for your project or company … just for the asking! Even if your company isn't the best or the most cost-efficient. Even if your company has been turned down in the regular competitive budget process that chooses projects based on the need for them and their ability to perform well. Even if your company doesn't have much of a track record.

That's how earmarks work. It just takes one member of Congress and the willingness of the others not to rock the boat. Since most members of Congress likewise earmark, they tend to leave each other's earmarks alone.

With earmarks, to get a slice of the taxpayer pie, sometimes all you need is to get your foot in the door. But that kind of access usually takes lobbyists and money – and that's something most Americans can't afford.
R

Oh what a tangle web we weave when we practice to deceive.

Please Bobby..Tell Us It's Not So

What have you done, Bobby?

Gov. Bobby Jindal has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine to settle charges by the state Board of Ethics that his campaign violated laws when it failed to make a timely disclosure of more than $100,000 spent on his behalf by the state Republican Party.

Jindal's spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, said the campaign agreed to pay after being notified by the ethics board that the governor faced a public hearing on charges of violating Louisiana campaign finance law. By paying the fine, Jindal would admit wrongdoing and avoid a hearing.

Don't you think it is a little too early in the game for this? What about ethics reform..let's not forget that.

Burnell Moliere Pleads Guilty

Jim Letten is on the ball and it is suspected that more filthy corrupt scum balls will soon follow:

Norco businessman Burnell Moliere, president of janitorial services firm AME Services Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court today for his role in a scheme to funnel bribes to former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms while she was in office.

Who will be next? Well, it really does not matter as long as we clean up the City of New Orleans.

Lock Up the "Quality of Life" Offender

New Orleans offender policy: Lock them up for public intoxication because that is a quality of life offense. -- Other offender; granted a possible release...

The order requiring Gusman to automatically release most people arrested on municipal or traffic offenses was issued in May 2006 by former Judge Calvin Johnson, then the chief judge at Criminal District Court. Johnson later amended the order to exclude people arrested in the French Quarter and parts of the Central Business District, Faubourg Marigny and Treme in response to a plan by the New Orleans Police Department to crack down on "quality of life" offenses in those areas.

Good old New Orleans' brand..

Audit Reveals Loophole That Allowed Stan "Pampy" Barre & Oliver Thomas To Carry Out Their Scheme

Do you want to know why it was so easy for imprisoned ex-council president, Oliver Thomas and convicted felon, Stan "Pampy" Barre to carry out their bribery scheme? The answer:

"The city does not have systems of internal controls in place to deter and detect improper influences related to awarding contracts for public works and purchases of material and supplies."

The City's response:

"We created the Inspector General's Office, last year, as a means to stave off fraud and corruption."

Well that sounds like a couple of bribes too late before the Inspector General's office was created.

Ellenese Brooks-Simms connected to another bribe scheme

It seems that Ellenese Brooks-Sims name has once again come up in a federal probe:

Norco businessman Burnell Moliere, president of the politically active janitorial services firm AME Services Inc., was charged in federal court Tuesday morning with helping former School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms gain access to at least $40,000 in bribes she took while on the board.

Moliere was charged in a bill of information, which typically means he has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators. The crime Moliere is accused of is called structuring, which means that investigators believe he accepted a check whose proceeds were intended for Brooks-Simms, and then paid her in smaller cash installments. The method is designed to avoid triggering reporting requirements that surround any transaction involving $10,000 in cash or more.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office said that some of the money meant for Brooks-Simms was given to "nominee payees" known to Brooks-Simms and Moliere. Moliere agreed to cash those checks, and then paid Brooks-Simms in "an elaborate series of subsequent financial transactions."

Moliere's janitorial-services firm has long been active in local politics and has held various public contracts. Among other things, the firm has held contracts to clean Louis Armstrong International Airport, the Downtown Development District and Orleans Parish public schools.

One thing I am very curious about is when a person is charged with a federal crime, are they still allowed to hold public contracts? Their contracts should be immediately canceled. Why should they pay legal expenses from proceeds derived from their ill gotten contracts? I know cronyism is not illegal but why should they continue to benefit?

Agency to build on lots

Kicking off what amounts to a scrimmage before a long, tough season, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority has drafted four developers to build single- and two-family homes on 27 of the thousands of abandoned and flood-damaged lots that blanket the city's post-Katrina landscape.

NORA officials say the chief goal of their modest pilot program is to give hope to a frustrated, recovery-weary citizenry by demonstrating that the agency is up to the task of moving blighted homes and vacant lots back into commerce. |Read on|

Harris Corp. Donates to NO Habitat for Humanity

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has donated $10,000 to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to assist with the rebuilding of homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The check was presented during a reception sponsored by Harris during the annual American Meteorological Society (AMS) conference being held January 20 through 24 in New Orleans.

Guests at the Harris reception also made voluntary donations to the effort. Harris is a leading supplier of weather systems to the Federal Aviation Administration and other customers. The company provided communications equipment and personnel to recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast Region in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's destruction.

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

A number of events are planned today to mark the life and work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Here's a sampling:

-- A march and Mass is scheduled for this morning in Marrero. The march began at 9 a.m. at the Marrero Regusa Fire Station and was to end at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, 455 Ames Blvd., where a Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m.

-- In St. Bernard Parish, an interfaith service is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Verret.

-- In New Orleans, the Rev. John C. Raphael will headline a memorial church service at 3 p.m. at the Second Free Mission Baptist Church, 1228 Burdette St.

-- And in Slidell tonight, the Rev. Anderson Henry will speak during a banquet at Living the Word International Ministries, 100 Caruso St. The banquet begins at 7 p.m. and costs $15 per person.

Meanwhile, a full slate of events are scheduled across the metro area on Monday, which is the formal holiday commemorating King's life and legacy.