Throughout our history, free speech has been cherished in the United States of America. Thankfully, we have the First Amendment which mandates that “Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech.” It not only protects this right, but also the free press and other precious freedoms such as the right to exercise religious beliefs, assemble, and “petition the Government for the redress of grievances.”

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy has stirred up a hornet’s nest back in the Bayou State over his Facebook comments of eating a Louisiana delicacy. The Senator had this to say: “Found this raccoon in my backyard. We ate him for breakfast.” He even included a photo of the raccoon. And his Facebook friends went nuts with comments. Who on earth would even consider eating a raccoon?

Louisiana business shorts: New Orleans is hosting two programs focusing upon business and entrepreneur leadership. On Today and tomorrow, the economic development organization for the region, GNO Inc.  Next month, Facebook is coming to the region to help digitize the small business community, the Facebook way. Here are the particulars:

by Stephen Waguespack, President, CEO of Louisiana Association of Business and Industry

Many of us watched with interest this week as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured hours in the Congressional hot seat, stoically defending his company’s consumer privacy protocols in the face of mounting allegations of data mismanagement. While his testimony was fairly vanilla, the real action was with the barrage of pointed questions thrown his way from various members of Congress. In fact, it was somewhat ironic this week to see Facebook feeds dominated with scrutiny of Facebook itself.  For instance, a picture of Zuckerberg sitting on a bumper seat to prop himself up while testifying became even more popular on the social media platform than vacation photos and food pictures for a day or two.

On Sunday, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, now, a regular face on national talk shows, did some Face the Nation face-time, discussing matters of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and the EPA's Scott Pruitt.

Kennedy who has garnered a tremendous amount of national media coverage considering he is now entering into his second year as a US Senator, responded to questions on both issues. Part of the "Kennedy attraction" might be his penchant for folksy phrases and plain-talking-- such as the kind he used Sunday. on the CBS morning talk show. For instance, in describing the attorney for Facebook who appeared in front of the Senate in the past, Kennedy said the attorney, "Could talk a dog off a meat wagon".