At a press conference earlier this week detailing allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly try to auction off his appointment of President-Elect Barack Obama’s successor in the U.S. Senate, Chicago FBI Chief Robert Gates said, “If [Illinois] is not the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor.” That comment has prompted several news organizations to pose the question: What is the most corrupt state in the nation? Not surprisingly, La., with its rich legacy of corrupt officials from Huey Long to William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, finds itself right at the top of every list.
A 2007 report from Corporate Crime Reporter , which has recently been picked up in stories by NPR, CNN, and politico.com lists the Bayou state as No. 1, followed by Mississippi and Kentucky (Ill. is ranked No. 6). Meanwhile, The Washington Post lists Louisiana, Illinois and New Jersey as the obvious top 3 and is asking readers to vote in an online poll which state is most corrupt? This morning, with just under 1,000 votes in, Illinois was leading the pack with 50 percent of the vote. La. was second with 30 percent, followed by New Jersey’s 11 percent and 6 percent who voted for other states.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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