Betty & Mose Jefferson Indicted

Another Jefferson indicted come as no surprise. Eventually a federal correctional facility will have to be built in order to house the Jefferson clan.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten announced this afternoon that 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson, an elder sister of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, has been indicted on a host of fraud-related charges by a federal grand jury. Also indicted were Jefferson's daughter, Angela Coleman, and her brother, the previously indicted Mose Jefferson.

New Business Can Be Good Business For Ailing City

Panorama Public Relations plans to open a New Orleans office located in Kenner, between Metairie and Baton Rouge.

The Birmingham-based company said the location will allow Panorama to service the New Orleans metropolitan area and be more accessible to clients there.

Client service associate and New Orleans native Genevieve Douglass will partner with Vice President of Business Development Pam Thompson to serve clients out of the New Orleans branch.

Panorama has clients in the architecture, engineering, construction, health care, human resources, energy, real estate, legal, manufacturing, retail and leisure industries.

Indicted lawyer Makes Serious Allegations Against Adams & Reese

The detailed allegations that an indicted lawyer has made against the law firm Adams & Reese should not be ignored.

In a sensational legal filing, a former partner at Adams and Reese who is awaiting trial on charges that he stole $30 million from the firm claims that the firm has had a hand in scandals ranging from the WorldCom stock fraud to the abuse of Louisiana film tax credits.

The lawsuit also claims the New Orleans firm has made a practice of hiring former public officials, including former Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, and improperly using them to land clients with whom they had dealt as public officials. Coulon and Morial deny the claim.

It would be criminal if a thorough investigation of these allegations were not undertaken. The people of New Orleans would lose faith in the justice system if every effort was not made to uncover the truth.

Shared Blame

Admit mistakes:

A series of mechanical breakdowns and a critical error by the bridge operator led to New Orleans police officer Tommie Felix's fatal plunge off an improperly opened Claiborne Avenue drawbridge, according to a preliminary investigation by the state transportation department.

But this is scary:

Two other bridges in Louisiana, both in the New Orleans area, also were found in the past week to have broken secondary barriers, state officials acknowledged at a Tuesday briefing detailing the state's findings. The state plans to repair those barricades at the Chef Pass bridge on U.S. 90 and the Judge Perez Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Belle Chasse.

Poor, Poor, Dollar Bill Jefferson

Another blow to Dollar Bill Jefferson defense stall tactics--what will he do next?

A federal judge has rejected arguments by attorneys for Rep. William Jefferson seeking dismissal of charges that the New Orleans Democrat solicited and received bribes to promote business projects in Western Africa.

Jefferson's lawyers had argued that the government did not allege that Jefferson had performed any "official acts" related to the alleged bribes -- making the accusations null and void.

But U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bribery charges can be brought even if the acts don't fit into the "responsibilities explicitly assigned by law."

It's time for him to take his punishment like a man and stop trying to weasel out of things.

Two Officers Suspended In Causeway Incident

Only two take the fall. I know it is hard to believe who had the nerve not to face responsibility. Read on:

One of the officers who stopped Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price last month on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway has been demoted and faces a three-day suspension for failing to test Price for alcohol after he crashed through a toll booth barrier and continued to drive with no headlights.

Sgt. Chris Dupont, a 10-year veteran with the Causeway Police Department, will drop one rank to corporal and his pay will be reduced accordingly, Loicano announced Friday afternoon. His suspension includes the temporay loss of his take-home vehicle and the ability to work overtime or paid details during that pay period.

Raymond Burkart, Dupont's attorney, said he does not feel the punishment fits the crime, calling Loicano's decision "an egregious abuse of disciplinary discretion." He said he plans to ask Loicano to reconsider his decision and would like another law enforcement agency to conduct a separate investigation into the matter.

"If, in fact, the powers that be choose to call in the State Police to assist in truly investigating independently the matter, we can only hope that any wrongdoing by any party is dealt with swiftly and appropriately," Burkart said.

Officer Chad Dorsett, who worked the stop with Dupont, will be suspended for one day and lose his take-home car privilege as well as the ability to work overtime or paid details during that pay period. Loicano also chose to extend Dorsett's probationary period by an additional six months, as Dorsett has been with the department for only a few months.

The suspensions begin June 1, Loicano said.

Loicano's decision in the matter comes one day after the men participated in an administrative hearing to determine whether the officers had neglected their duty as police officers when they stopped Price just after midnight in April 23.

The officers stopped Price at the first crossover, about three miles from Mandeville, and the mayor admitted he had been drinking. Price also said he couldn't remember hitting the toll booth barrier, but the officers declined to ticket him or administer a field sobriety test, as required by the department's policy manual. The officers then allowed Price to call someone to drive him home.

Two weeks later, the agency cited Price with careless driving, and Price said afterward that he would pay the ticket and for the damage to the gate.

Based upon the totality of the facts, Loicano said the officers should have subjected Price to a field sobriety test. By failing to do so, the officers violated departmental procedure with regard to investigating suspected intoxicated drivers.

Dupont, the supervisor on duty that night, neglected his duty by failing to supervise a thorough and complete investigation into the incident, while Dorsett did so by failing to conduct a complete and thorough investigation.

Loicano initiated an internal investigation into the matter after receiving a call May 1 from Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. Goyeneche has said he called Loicano because he had heard about the accident and wondered whether the investigation had been as thorough as possible.

Destination: New Orleans

Good news for the Big Easy:

Bob Sharak, marketing and membership coordinator for the Cruise Lines International Association, said he's confident in New Orleans' future as cruise destination given the number of new ships scheduled to come online in the next four years and despite competition with other U.S. ports for Western Caribbean cruises and with European ports for the newly popular Mediterranean cruises.

Jindal Gets National Attention

Bobby Jindal is gaining national attention these days surrounding his upcoming meeting with a presidential candidate:

Gov. Bobby Jindal and his wife, Supriya, are scheduled to fly to Arizona Friday for a meeting with presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, fueling speculation that Jindal is among a small group being considered as running mate for McCain.

Jindal, 36, has downplayed suggestions that he is getting serious consideration as McCain's running mate, and, while saying he loved his job as governor, has refused to say he would turn down the chance to run for the nation's No. 2 job.

New Orleans' Saints Defensive Indicted

AP:

New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant has been indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a February altercation at a nightclub.

Grant, who was stabbed in the neck during the fracas, was charged by an Early County grand jury that also charged Laquient Macklin with felony murder and feticide in the shooting death of Korynda Reed, 23. Reed died after being taken to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, after the fight early Feb. 3.

Some Type Of Headline

Does Gwendolyn thinks she will earn brownie points for that little disclosure?

Federal investigators asked a convicted bond broker to wear a surveillance wire last year as they built their case against state Sen. Derrick Shepherd, who knew he was a target of the probe as early as September, according to statements made during a preliminary court hearing Friday.

Gwendolyn Moyo, who is accused of money laundering and other federal charges, said while representing herself in the hearing that an FBI agent tried to get her to "wire up" in July. She disclosed the detail of the investigation while trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to reverse a detention order that has kept her locked up since October.

Are we suppose to be be shocked and disgusted because she was asked to wear a wire? I guess her answer was no. What does she think she gained by that disclosure?

Hiring Illegals

Illegals were able to get construction jobs in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, however, they have a problem with being targets for customs' enforcement:

Workers still cluster outside Home Depot and Lowe's hoping a contractor will hire them. But they say their gathering spots have become targets for undercover U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who hold up the prospect of day's pay as bait.

ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez wouldn't confirm sting operations, but said "ICE conducts targeted enforcement actions based on intelligence and investigative leads in both criminal and administrative cases."

Did legal workers cost the major contractors too much? Legal workers go unemployed while illegal workers get the jobs. Nice going.

Any Activity In New Orleans Helps

Any type of activity in New Orleans can possibly help the economy:

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is reinstating the company's leadership conference with a gathering Oct. 26-30 in New Orleans. About 10,000 store managers and other field leaders from the U.S. and Canada will meet for career development and "to reinvigorate the passion within the company," Schultz wrote in an e-mail to employees Tuesday

Nagin Endorses Obama

Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement:

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, and a new superdelegate, endorsed Barack Obama for president Tuesday, saying Mr. Obama had the best vision for rebuilding the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast.

Will The State Get The Airport?

Does this mean that airport contracts will have to be renegotiated?

A bid for the state to take over the New Orleans airport has taken its first step forward in the Louisiana Legislature.

House Bill 1272 by House Speaker Jim Tucker was approved today by the House Transportation Committee. The details of how much the state would pay and how the transaction would work still are sketchy.

Tucker said putting the state in charge of the airport would give the city millions of dollars for hurricane recovery initiatives and let the state improve the airport to a higher-quality facility with international flights, more in line with Charlotte or Orlando.

The bill heads next to the House for debate. Gov. Bobby Jindal hasn't taken a position on the measure.

Or does someone owe someone else a debt they want to see paid?

Bernazzani Leaves FBI

James Bernazzani has decided to retire from the FBI rather than being ousted to Washington after the fallout behind him flapping off at the mouth of possibly running for Mayor.

Interesting quotes from Bernazzani:

"I will not run for political office," he said in an interview Friday afternoon. "Absolutely not."

"That's because of the reputation I've built," he said. "I don't have that reputation in Houston."

The Fate Of Louis Armstrong International Airport

If the state owned the airport, I guess contracts would become state contracts.

Business leaders from across the metropolitan New Orleans area and Baton Rouge have crafted an audacious proposal that calls for City Hall to hand over ownership and governance of Louis Armstrong International Airport to the state, in return for heavy state financial support for city redevelopment projects.

Does that mean CA One would have to sign a new contract with the state? I guess that would be good for them since they would then be able to rid itself from their corrupt business partner.

Morial Clan Upset Over Convention Center Change

Important News Break---the Morial Clan is upset and after remaining mum concerning corruption probes and guilty pleas following his administration, Marc Morial speaks out:

In a stinging letter addressed to the president of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, former Mayor Marc Morial calls on the center's board to reverse its decision to change the facility's name in promotional and marketing materials.

The Convention Center is named for Morial's father, Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, the city's first black mayor and an instrumental force behind the facility's launch.

Last month, Convention Center officials announced that they had changed the facility's name to the New Orleans Morial Convention Center on brochures, pamphlets and other marketing paraphernalia to ensure that potential clients would instantly recognize its location. The exhibit hall's legal name is unchanged.

The name MORIAL was not a nationally recognized name until the feds begin their investigations following Marc MORIAL's administration. Perhaps a google search can refresh Marc's memory. Some words come to mind: corruption, probe, cronies, plead guilty, contracts, etc.

Silence Can Be Golden

Last week the T-P reported that FBI chief, James Bernazzani would be reassigned due to remarks he made about possibly being the next Mayor of New Orleans. I wish he would have remained silent, on the issue, because he has helped New Orleans tremendously.

As for him one day running for Mayor---well, that sounds like a great idea.

CAOne Fails To Rid Itself From The Stench Of Stan "Pampy" Barre

Judge Kern Reese sided with convicted felon, Stan "Pampy" Barre when he refused to grant CAOne's request to have Barre ousted due to a "change in control" clause in the company's contract.

Barbara Barre, the convicted felon's partner of 42 years, is now in charge. As a result, the judge sees her as simply a "mantle of Caesar" and not a "change in control". Since the judge sees her as a "mantle of Caesar", he concluded that there was no "change in control" since Barbara will act on behalf of her convicted hubby.
Of course the judge wants to protect the convicted felon's interest.

Let's hope CAOne win their appeal. The citizens of New Orleans are counting on that.

Judge Sets Antoinette Frank's Execution Date

Although there is speculation that his ruling won't stand, let's hope it is just speculation.

Orleans Parish Judge Frank Marullo today signed a death warrant for convicted killer Antoinette Frank, the former police officer sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 1995 triple murder at a local Vietnamese restaurant.

Marullo, acting on his own, ordered the state of Louisiana to execute Frank on July 15, after 6 p.m., on the lethal injection table located at the state penitentiary at Angola.