Members
Subscribe Today!
Get members only content access. Save your favorite articles, leave comments plus many more special features only available as a member.
The best thing is it's free to join! Sign up for members access free today!
Members
Over the angry protests of a few civil-rights activists, the New Orleans Ethics Review Board voted 4-0 Monday to reappoint Ed Quatrevaux as the city's inspector general for a second four-year term. Quatrevaux was first hired in 2009; his new term will begin in October.
The board acted after hearing comments from 10 public speakers and then holding an almost 50-minute executive session. The ethics board is supposed to have seven members, but only four members were present. Three seats are vacant.
Six of the 10 speakers urged the board not to reappoint Quatrevaux. Their objections centered on the claim that he has not done enough to support the work of the independent police monitor, who is to a large degree independent from Quatrevaux's office but who depends on the same pool of money.
Under the City Charter, Quatrevaux's office receives three-quarters of 1 percent of the city's total general
...
Don't everybody jump up at one time." Louis Gruntz, advisory board chairman.
Maybe the Jefferson Parish Charter Advisory Board will stir up more public interest on Thursday, when it holds the second of two hearings this week on proposed charter changes prompted by the Aaron Broussard's corrupt administration. Six minutes after opening its West Bank public hearing Monday night, the board closed it because of a missing key element: The public.
"Don't everybody jump up at one time," Advisory Board Chairman Louis Gruntz said after opening the meeting up for public comments in the Jefferson Parish General Government Center in Gretna.
Except for a smattering of parish employees, the seating in the parish council chamber was empty.
The only business the 11 board members completed was approving the board's previous meeting minutes and, under the agenda's "Old Business" section, clarifying wording of a proposal barring the parish president and council
...
The numbers don't make sense." -- Sen. J.P. Morrell
A New Orleans lawmaker is calling for state officials to dig into NOPD crime statistics that suggest the city's high murder rate is out of step with a relatively low number of other violent crimes. Sen. J.P. Morrell said those numbers "don't make sense," and called into question whether the numbers promoted by the city are accurate.
Morrell, a Democrat, filed Senate Resolution 121 on Monday, which calls on the state legislative auditor's office to analyze those figures in light of what he described as an unbelievable gap between the two rates.
"People are adults. They want to know what the real data says," Morrell said.
Morrell's resolution, which must still be approved by the Senate, came a day after The Times-Picayune published an analysis of what criminologists call an improbable discrepancy between New Orleans' high murder rate and the low rate of aggravated assaults reported to the FBI, particularly
...
The explosive expansion of drilling of natural gas and oil wells in shale deposits in the United States and Canada using a directional drilling method dubbed “fracking” may have spawned a $30 billion per year expansion of the waste disposal business, waste and investment industry executives were told Monday.
...
Cajun-Zydeco Festival
BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Mary Burns and Gus Tujague cut a rug to the live music of Mary Broussard & Creole Royalty during the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival at the Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans Saturday, June 9, 2012. Legislation allowing Louisiana residents to declare their Cajun lineage on their driver's licenses was approved by the House Monday.
Louisiana Cajuns are one step closer to proudly declaring their lineage after the House cleared a bill Monday allowing residents to put "I'm a Cajun" on their driver's license for a $5 fee.
Senate Bill 201 , sponsored by Sen. Fred Mills, R-Breaux Bridge, would put the declaration below a person's driver's license photograph if they are of Cajun ancestry.
Rep. Mike Huval, who carried the bill in the House, said there would be no background check on a person's ancestry if they wanted the stamp.
"If you are one
...
veterans.parade.JPG
Veterans and soldiers marched on Decatur Street in New Orleans. Three pieces of legislation given final approval Monday, May 20, 2013 aim to protect Louisiana's military heroes. (Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Three bills aimed at protecting Louisiana's military heroes will now head to Gov. Bobby Jindal 's desk for his signature or veto, after passing easily on the House floor Monday afternoon. The three pieces of legislation passed included:
The new and improved traffic signals on Boston Avenue in downtown Covington have been installed and are fully operational, but some motorists are a bit uneasy by what they see. The new signals feature detective cameras on top of the light structure that are mistaken by some for the dreaded New Orleans traffic cameras that snap pictures of motorists running red lights.
But Covington city engineer Daniel Hill said the devices on the new light standards do not take pictures of traffic violators and are used only to count vehicles as they pass through intersections. "We've had a lot of questions about that," Hill said.
The new lights were installed at four intersections on Covington's main street, replacing outdated traffic signals that were suspended above the street on power cables. The new poles and signals were installed under a contract awarded to
...
WASHINGTON - So far, so good for Louisiana sugar producers. Farm bills enacted last week by House and Senate agricultural committees would keep the federal sugar program pretty much in place, continuing a minimum price of 22.9 cents per pound and limiting sugar imports.
When the bill hits the Senate floor this week, and later goes to the full House, there's likely to be another effort, led by candy manufacturers, to eliminate the sugar program, as well as battles over cuts in the food stamp program written into the House bill. The Senate bill has food stamp cuts, but not nearly as much.
Another battle is expected over the refusal of both committees to include a provision backed by the Obama administration to switch U.S. food aid from one that relies mostly on shipments from U.S. farmers to more of a voucher system in which food commodities would be purchased
...
The Louisiana-based America’s WETLAND Foundation and Vietnam National University are holding the Deltas 2013 Vietnam conference this week in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The conference, expected to host about 300 wetlands experts from around the world, will allow Louisiana and Vietnam representatives to share best practices and ideas to help save the Mississippi and Mekong deltas , two river systems that suffer from similar problems, including dramatic land loss.
“We come to the Mekong Delta to search for answers and to leverage all that we have learned to restore one of the most productive U.S. assets, the Mississippi River Delta,” said R. King Milling, chairman of the America’s WETLAND Foundation.
The America’s WETLAND Foundation hosted the first World Delta Dialogues in New Orleans in October 2010 to draw attention to coastal land loss issues and to create solutions.
“After
...Do you support the banning of assault weapons?
Would you want Prince Charles or Prince William to be the next King?
Visit LouisianaLawBuzz.com for your Legal News & Info |
