2-Years Post BP Disaster: Warning signs are accumulating
(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The Gulf of Mexico may be open for business and eager to attract tourists, but it’s still unclear whether or not marine and coastal ecosystems there are healthy two years after BP’s offshore drilling rig exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, eventually releasing 205.8 million gallons of oil into the water column.
Five months after the April 2010 disaster the Obama administration released a detailed recovery plan, calling for spending up to $21 billion—most which would come from BP’s civil penalties—on clean-up (more…)
Add comment May 19, 2012 4:21 pm
Fiscal Hawks are Skilled Hunters
by CB Forgotston
House Fiscal Hawks
It is no secret that the House Fiscal Hawks don’t have 53 votes to pass or kill legislation in the House of Representatives. Thus, like all underdogs they must make up for their lack of numbers by skill and cunning.The Hawks have a solid 36 votes in the House. That is enough to stop any legislation that requires a 2/3’s vote.
Today, the Hawks skillfully attack another larger prey – the State’s Capital Outlay Budget.
House Bill 2 is the State Capital Outlay Bill. It only required a majority vote to pass the House. Lacking numbers to attack that “elephant” (billions of dollars) the Hawks held back and waited their chance.
House Bill 3 is the funding mechanism for 90% of the Capital Outlay Budget. HB 3 authorizes the issuance of state bonds to fund the “bond portion” of the Capital Outlay Budget. A very small portion of the budget is funded with cash.
Issuing state debt (bonds) requires a 2/3’s vote of both houses of the lege. That is mandated by the state constitution. Without HB 3 passing, only the cash portion of HB 2 will be funded.
In order to release HB 3, the Hawks want concessions from the Senate. They want the Capital Outlay Budget stripped of all (more…)
Add comment May 17, 2012 5:07 pm
LARKIN TO APPEAL M.P.C. DECISION
by Elliott StonecipherCAN 3132 EXTENSION LOSE TWO WAYS?
CITY COUNCIL NEXT TUESDAY
Developer Tim Larkin returns to Government Plaza next week, this time for a City Council meeting at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, May 22nd. Larkin, no doubt with help again from Mayor Cedric Glover, will be asking for a City Council override of the recent Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) decision against his attempt to develop his Esplanade in the possible 3132 Extension corridor route.
What goes on in the meeting, though, may be kabuki theater: with all the staging and masks and costumes, what really matters could be lost in the show.
The “Glover Effect” for Tim Larkin
As we have documented for months, Tim Larkin’s number one friend and supporter in All-Things-Esplanade-At-The-Expense-of-3132 is also the mayor of (supposedly) all the people of Shreveport. That Mayor Glover rules the roost in City Hall chambers is (more…)
Add comment May 17, 2012 12:38 pm
Caddo Parish “SKool” Board Could Learn Something from Jefferson Parish
Caddo citizens and particularly the “SKool” Board need to listen! Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations and Jefferson Parish school officials and the Jefferson Community School may have finally agreed on a contract amendment that would expand the mission of the charter school for at-risk students. The problem may be the group running the program!!
The School Board will vote on the amendment when it meets today at Bonnabel Magnet Academy High School in Kenner.
Jefferson Community now serves middle school students with severe behavior problems. Under the new agreement, Jefferson Community also would serve other types of at-risk students, including those who are “overaged or who speak English as second language.”
The school, which relies on referrals from principals, has been embroiled (more…)
Add comment May 16, 2012 9:28 am
Taxpayers watchdog snuffed by Jindal
by CB Forgotson
Bobby Jindal has stood by quietly while his henchmen in the lege have terminated the office of State Inspector General (IG).
The IG was created in 1988 and made permanent by Jindal in 2008. The purpose of the office is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in the Executive Branch of government.
It is the only such office in state government where we mere citizens have to go to report waste, fraud and corruption.
When the IGs funding ends at Midnight on June 30, we will have nowhere to go.
What to do
Ring the Bell - RAISE HELL!
Numerous people have asked what they can do to restore the funding to the IGs office. Technically, it merely requires an amendment to the State Budget (HB 1) adopted in the Senate Finance (more…)
Add comment May 15, 2012 12:14 pm
It’s Not LIP (Legacy In Progress) for Jindal
When Huey Long was campaigning for governor of Louisiana, he wrote some clever slogans and songs. He was a more radical populist at the time than FDR (Franklin D Roosevelt). Nationally, Huey captured the public’s imagination and controlled every facet of Louisiana life in the 1930s. He fostered and expanded public education and public demonstrations of Louisiana success such as the LSU Golden Band from Tiger Land. Huey knew the value of public demonstrations.
Huey P Jindal – Leader of the Band!
One song Huey is credited with writing began: “Every man a king, for you can be a millionaire…” Back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the word “millionaire” meant that a person was rich beyond the dreams of mere mortals. Long used it to suggest that everyone could and (more…)
Add comment May 14, 2012 8:00 am
The Legacy of “Huey P.” Jindal
by C.B. Forgotston
"Huey P." Jindal
It’s not too early to begin writing the legacy of Bobby Jindal.
A lot of conservatives in the national media are touting Jindal for Vice President of the United States. Either these conservatives are not fiscal conservatives or they are ignorant of who Jindal is.
While I would like to rid Louisiana of Jindal as soon as possible, I don’t wish to inflict him on my fellow Americans. So, I will begin the process of introducing the facts into the Jindal myth.
Jindal vs. Long
Bobby Jindal is doing his best to live up to and exceed the worst traits of the late Huey P. Long. Long was a ruthless, tyrant who ran our state in the 1930s who punished his ‘enemies’ (anyone who didn’t do things his way) in every way but physical torture or at least we think he didn’t.
“Huey P” Jindal (his latest moniker) is following in Long’s footsteps. However, where Long merely used the poor people of our state to remain in power, he didn’t punish them.
Jindal, on the other hand, punishes the poor people of our state and merely ignores his “enemies” (more…)
Add comment May 14, 2012 7:00 am
LOUISIANA GAINS AND GOV. JINDAL LOSES
AS DEMOCRACY INVADES THE CAPITOL
by Elliott Stonecipher
In Louisiana’s world of politics and government, and particularly during our Jindal years, the citizenry is rarely offered a reason to admire and praise legislative goings-on. Today, though, we have such reason.
Good ol’ down-home democracy broke out in our state capitol yesterday. Our Louisiana House of Representatives lifted a page or two from America’s and Louisiana’s constitutions to demonstrate what a balance of powers between the executive and legislative branches looks like, and what such balance may yield and promise. It is marvelous and fascinating stuff to see again from our state government, missing as it has been since Bobby Jindal was elected governor, and so much of our money is routinely used to incentivize (legally, we hope) abject gutlessness from and by a solid majority in our legislature.
For any who care to read the details of the action by the House of (more…)
Add comment May 12, 2012 12:50 pm
THE SHANGHAI OF THE 3132 EXTENSION
by Elliott Stonecipher
An avid reader of these articles asked me a very important question this week about the 3132 Extension issue. Paraphrasing, the question was, “How could so many elected and appointed government officials so openly ignore the vote by Shreveporters to complete the project?”
The backdrop for this discussion is the bond issue vote by which Shreveporters put their own money in the pot for the completion of Hwy. 3132 to the Port of Caddo-Bossier. Selected from eleven possible routes, the “preferred corridor route” had been determined in a comprehensive study for that purpose in 1991 and 1992. Then, in April 1996, the ultimate test of the public will was applied, a citywide election. Kick-off funding of $3,500,000 for the project passed by a margin of 64% For and 36% Against. Not in the mood to say “yes” to everything put before them, the voters simultaneously rejected public funding of a new stadium by a margin of 47% For and 53% Against.
Importantly, many of today’s officials dealing with this issue were also involved (more…)
Add comment May 11, 2012 11:50 am
Caddo Commission Should Vote No On Clean Up
When a political observer hopes the nadir of bad legislation has been reached, he generally is surprised, -in a bad way. Such is the case with an ordinance introduced by Caddo Commissioner Michael Williams that will be the Commission’s agenda for a vote on Thursday, May 17th. Commissioner Williams is perhaps best known for his ridiculous attempt to regulate pajamas in public places, –a misguided effort that unfortunately made national news.
Now Williams wants the Caddo Commission to fund $50,000.00 to clean up property that is not only in the Shreveport City limits, but also partially in Bossier Parish. The proposed ordinance is to spend $50,000.00 to clean up the banks of an oxbow lake that abutts property in the Cherokee Park subdivision. Most of the “clean up” will be on private property.
The identified area is heavily littered, and is overgrown with weeds, (more…)
Add comment May 11, 2012 6:00 am
Recent Comments