Louisiana officials are trying to put a positive spin on the state Mineral Board’s most recent oil and gas lease sale, which came in at $1.4 million — $1 million shy of last December’s take — and is the lowest year-end sale since 2004. Sliding crude prices and a dismal national economy have been pegged as culprits for the December slump. Read the rest of this entry »

Until recently, the idea of the federal government bailing out financial markets and buying bank stocks was unthinkable. Times have changed. Stop at almost any bank in Orleans Parish, especially those with regional or national names, and the upper brass will attest to that. Read the rest of this entry »

The year 2009 was supposed to be slow in terms of elections, but already there are signs it will be busier than expected. No “big” elections (i.e., mayor, governor, Congress or U.S. Senate) are scheduled for next year, but several special elections for lesser but still very important offices are set for April 4 — and some of them are shaping up to be hotly contested.  Read the rest of this entry »

The April 4 special election for Traffic Court judge could see a war between two prominent Lakeview political families — and the fighting could divide the normally solid bloc of Lakeview votes in that contest. Read the rest of this entry »

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s new initiative to reform the way health care is delivered to the state’s citizenry, entitled “Louisiana Health First,” is focusing first on the regions with the greatest needs. That means places like Acadiana, Houma-Thibodaux and large portions of north Louisiana aren’t part of the picture. Read the rest of this entry »

President-elect Barack Obama met with most of the nation’s governors last week in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where he discussed how the national recession is impacting individual states. Obama also wanted to get feedback on what could be his first official act as president in January — signing into law a stimulus package, estimated to be as much as $700 billion, to help cash-strapped states. Louisiana faces a $1.3 billion budget “shortfall” when the new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2009. We’re not alone. Another 20 states already have cut $7.6 billion from their current budgets and 30 others have identified additional shortfalls totaling more than $30 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

A group of lawmakers and experts that advises Gov. Bobby Jindal on coastal matters hasn’t met since last year, and many members fear the panel has either lost its influence with the GOP administration or been stripped of its usefulness altogether. What’s certain is that state officials are redesigning the scope of the advisory panel to fit Louisiana’s ever-evolving coastal master plan. Jindal’s top coastal aide is heading up the overhaul, and there is talk of an informational meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation before year’s end.

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  In nine weeks, President George Bush must vacate the Oval Office to make room for President-elect Barack Obama, and those nine weeks promise to be loaded with one surprise after another. Already, Obama says he plans to make an immediate impact by nixing some of the executive orders issued by the GOP administration. He told reporters last week that he is reviewing the possibilities of lifting a ban on stem-cell research and closing the Guantánamo Bay Detention Center, where suspected and convicted terrorists are held. 

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Here’s an interesting twist to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plans to jet up to the cornfields of Iowa this month to speak to the Family Policy Center, a conservative Christian group: Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses fit Jindal’s 2007 gubernatorial campaign strategy like a glove. Recall that Jindal eschewed debates as long as possible and focused instead on a media campaign and face-to-face gatherings — particularly folksy meetings in many of Louisiana’s small, rural towns. That’s exactly the kind of campaign that presidential hopefuls are required to wage to succeed in Iowa. Was Jindal honing his skills in 2007, or was that just a coincidence? BobbyWatch has officially begun. — Clancy DuBos

To answer the question directly, GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal might as well be Louisiana’s official high school quarterback.  Read the rest of this entry »