By: Jeremy Alford
The actual dying part isn’t the only way to get screwed in death. That’s why Sen. Eric LaFleur, a Ville Platte Democrat, is pushing legislation that would require an itemized list of all merchandise and services for which consumers pay funeral directors. Senate Bill 806 calls for funeral contracts to include detailed casket descriptions to prevent unscrupulous “bait and switch” tactics. (more…)
By: Jeremy Alford
Senate President Joel Chaisson, a Destrehan Democrat, wants to make sure Louisiana’s “Good Samaritan” law protects certain hurricane recovery workers. So far, lawmakers agree; Senate Bill 330 is moving swiftly toward final passage. Chaisson told the Senate last week that the state should protect medical personnel who, in good faith, stay behind after a storm to help out, whether they’re getting paid or not. That means protections from civil damages and any other penalties if an unintended misstep occurs. (more…)
By: Allen Johnson
Almost three years after Katrina, New Orleans may have a lot of traumatized cops trying to control a lot of traumatized juveniles, according to Tulane University historian Lance Hill, who has been surveying mental health literature on the long-term effects of the storm. Most NOPD officers were affected by “direct trauma,” losing their homes and witnessing widespread death and destruction. (more…)
By: Allen Johnson
The 100-member Holy Cross Neighborhood Association in the Lower Ninth Ward has picked up a major ally in its petition drive asking Gov. Bobby Jindal to extend deployment of 300 National Guard troops in New Orleans. Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, an influential post-Katrina grassroots organization, has joined the drive to get 100,000 signatures to Jindal before the Guard phase-out begins next month, says Ariane Wiltse, an organizer for the Holy Cross neighborhood group and an occasional contributor to Gambit Weekly. Citizens for 1 has posted the petition on its Web sitehttp://cgno.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=National_Guard.
By: Allen Johnson
Mayor Ray Nagin, Police Chief Warren Riley, and tourism industry officials last week kicked off a $1 million police recruiting drive to offset the phased withdrawal of 300 National Guard troops from New Orleans beginning next month. “We want to get to 1,600 officers as quickly as possible,” Riley says, optimally by mid-2009. (more…)
By: Clancy DuBos
The field of potential candidates posturing to run for Leon Cannizzaro’s just-vacated seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal is growing almost by the day. So far, those eyeing the race include several sitting judges — Ron Sholes and Paul Bonin of Traffic Court, and David Bell of Juvenile Court — and former Civil Court Clerk Dan Foley. Sholes, a partner at the Adams and Reese law firm, already has a billboard at the corner of Poydras and South Rampart streets asking voters to “promote” him to the appellate court. (more…)
By: Jeremy Alford
Despite campaign hoopla to the contrary, pet local projects and “slush” still make their way into the state budget — to the tune of more than $77 million as of last week. These days, they’re called NGOs, or nongovernmental organizations, and lawmakers can direct state funds to them via the state’s operating budget. The ostensible purposes range from economic development to drug treatment, and recipient groups vary from religious organizations to social services outfits. (more…)
By: Clancy Dubos
The New Orleans City Council, in a rebuff of the Nagin Administration and its city attorney’s office, has hired the local law firm of Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar to be the council’s legal advisor. The firm is well known in plaintiff law circles, having played a major role in class action suits, including the recent $4.85 billion settlement of Vioxx cases. (more…)
By: Allen Johnson
New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast apparently have a common problem — unruly “Katrina kids.” A new study by the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg examined the records of 17,000 Mississippi students and found that hurricane-displaced youths were more apt to get in trouble than nondisplaced students, especially those who were already struggling academically and who came from underprivileged backgrounds. “The increased incidence of disciplinary problems suggests that psychological issues for some students have not diminished in the time following the storm, and in fact may have intensified,” says USM researcher Dr. Mike Ward, a former North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction. “We have always had a few that were daring enough at a very young age, but it seems to be more now than in the past,” Police Chief Warren Riley said recently, after a rash of armed robberies by children as young as 12. (more…)
By: Jeremy Alford
A Terrebonne lawmaker contends prosthetic products are being sold by unsavory characters across Louisiana, sometimes from the back of a truck, which is why he wants the state to buy only from accredited facilities. Hundreds of companies and health-care providers sell prosthetics or offer orthotic services in Louisiana, and some are acting fraudulently, says Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma. Four dozen unaccredited Florida medical equipment suppliers were busted several years ago for allegedly billing Medicare for 21,000 artificial limbs that were neither medically necessary nor provided to Medicare beneficiaries. The cost to taxpayers was estimated at about $122 million. Now it’s happening in Louisiana, Baldone says, often at the hands of out-of-state, fly-by-night companies. He says his House Bill 799 would end the abuse by imposing $2,500 penalties and forcing unaccredited companies to reimburse the state for illicit sales. The House passed Baldone’s measure unanimously. Health-care issues involving prosthetics have become a hot issue this year. The House recently passed House Bill 318 by Rep. Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, calling for insurance companies to cover the costs of purchasing and servicing artificial limbs. Kleckley’s measure sets a maximum cost of $50,000 per limb. It is opposed by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, which contends the measure is a government mandate for health insurance companies.
By: Allen Johnson
The Louisiana Board of Ethics let stand fines against 10 elected officials for late filings of campaign reports — despite waiver requests in nine of those cases. Among area officials, the state board refused to waive a $600 fine against Jefferson Parish School Board member Karen Barnes for a 2002 campaign report filed 12 days late. The board also declined to waive a $40 fine against Harahan City Council member Cindy Murray, whose 2006 campaign filed a report one day late. Tangipahoa Parish Council District 6 member Ronald Bankston, whose 2007 campaign filed a report 78 days late, saw his fine drop from $400 to $160 after the board acknowledged notification “issues.” But the panel declined to waive a $400 fine against Plaquemines Parish Councilmember Brent Chauvin. Of the 10 cases, only Hammond Mayor Mason Foster did not seek a waiver. He owes $400 for a 1998 campaign report filed 10 days late.
By: Jeremy Alford
The Louisiana Entertainment Industries Association, a trade group representing everyone from studio heads and producers to actors and grips, wants the state to put reasonable limits on the industry’s much-ballyhooed tax incentives — but not solely at the expense of producers. Louisiana Economic Development scheduled a public hearing on the production and infrastructure tax incentives to get input on proposed changes to the program. LEIA leaders say they oppose any effort to force producers to make all related expenditures prior to the end of 2008 to qualify for the infrastructure credits. The group also wants to make sure that hotel rooms do not qualify for the infrastructure tax credit. (Former state Rep. Gary Beard, R-Baton Rouge, was criticized last year for seeking millions in tax credits for a production studio project that included a $115 million hotel and a $128 million condo development.) LEIA also opposes any move to make applicants pay for the cost of additional audits once the tax incentives are granted. More than anything else, the group says it’s time for clear guidelines so that the state as well as producers know what to expect.
By: Jeremy Alford
“How many kids will we be able to put to work with this bill, and will it finally make us competitive with Indonesia?” That was the politically incorrect query from Rep. Walt Leger, III, D-New Orleans, who satirically asked about legislation that would allow parents to employ their 12-year-old children in the family business. Under current Louisiana law, the minimum age at which a minor can be gainfully employed is 14. Federal laws, which the proposed bill mirrors, permit a 12-year-old to work in his or her parents’ business under certain circumstances.
By: Jeremy Alford
As painful as it might be for some, filing your state income tax return could soon take on a sense of purpose — if lawmakers approve a special check-off box for coastal restoration donations. You already have the option, when filling out your individual income tax return, to donate all or part of your refund to military families, scholarship funds, animal-related programs, cancer trusts, housing initiatives and community-based health-care funds. Senate Bill 697 would create another check-off box for contributions to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund, which is used to bankroll a variety of projects ranging from freshwater diversions to barrier island maintenance. While it’s difficult to estimate how much support taxpayers might put into the fund, it would be required by law to bring in at least $10,000 annually over a two-year period to remain on tax forms. Otherwise, it would be taken off. As for costs to the Louisiana Department of Revenue, it’s allowed by the legislation to take as much as 20 percent of all donations to put toward data processing, accounting and other functions. If passed, the law would take effect Jan. 1, 2009 — just in time for your 2008 tax returns.
By: Allen Johnson
Addressing the first New Orleans Police Academy class to graduate since the murder of Officer Nicola Cotton three months ago, NOPD Deputy Chief Anthony Cannatella told 30 new officers they would face a “new type of criminal” on the city’s streets. Cannatella, a 41-year veteran of the NOPD, said the freshly minted cops would encounter offenders who were “more violent and more dangerous” than those ever encountered by most of NOPD’s senior commanders during their own patrols. Police Chief Warren Riley later said Recruit Class No. 160 received “much more” training in self-defense than previous classes as well as “take-down tactics” and instruction in the use of Mace, Tasers and police batons. “They have always fought in the academy, it’s just more intense, and they fight on a more regular basis,” Riley says. New Officer Stephanie Horak, 24, a native of Nebraska, joined NOPD after four post-Katrina trips here as a Christian relief organizer. “I learned a lot from the defensive tactics,” says Horak, the top academic graduate who also holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Missouri State University. Horak’s first assignment is the tough Sixth Police District — where Cotton worked when she was shot to death with her own gun by a mental patient on Jan. 28.
By: Allen Johnson
Crime-weary New Orleans residents and business owners who want Gov. Bobby Jindal to delay withdrawing 300 Louisiana National Guard troops — scheduled to begin in June — are circulating an online petition (www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/680554178), according to petition organizer Ariane Wiltse, a member of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association (www.helpholycross.org) and an occasional contributor to Gambit Weekly. “We also have copies that I have been giving to residents and churches,” says Wiltse. The group wants Jindal to keep Guard troops in the city until violent crime rates fall, NOPD restaffs and rebuilds police substations in storm-affected areas, and NOPD’s strength returns to pre-storm levels. NOPD had a high of 1,741 cops in 2005, compared to 1,472 last week. Police Chief Warren Riley, who in 2006 asked then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco to deploy the Guard (and 55 State Police) to help NOPD, said recently that the “phase-out” of Guard troops would begin with the departure of a “small contingent” at the end of June. “At this point, by the end of September, the Guard will probably be gone,” Riley told an April 18 news conference. State Police withdrew earlier this year. Local crime usually increases during the hot summer months.
