According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Louisiana still has the highest incarceration rate in the nation. For every 100,000 Louisiana residents, there are 814 prisoners serving more than a year behind bars. Across the country, state incarceration rates rose by 1.6 percent, while federal inmates increased by 5.1 percent. As of June last year, there were 36,745 people in Louisiana incarcerated by the state, an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous year. Nationally, 1 in every 138 ' some 2.1 million people ' are behind bars. ' RRF
CAILLIER TO RETIRE?
"I, Larry J. Caillier, am retiring and am requesting my annual leave payment."
That was the surprising one-sentence note delivered to the Opelousas City Budget Committee last week by embattled Opelousas Police Chief Larry Caillier. The usually defiant Caillier was indicted on five counts of malfeasance in office by a state grand jury last month ' and those indictments only relate to Caillier's alleged orders to his officers not to respond to fights at a battle-of-the-bands competition last September. The grand jury is scheduled to meet twice more concerning allegations that Caillier misused more than $200,000 in federal funds.
Caillier has declined comment on both matters and has yet to file an official resignation letter. ' SJ
COMPUTERS FOR THE FUTURE
The Multicultural Arts Association held its seventh computer workshop and give-away this past weekend at the J. Carlton James Activity Center. The workshops aim to help bridge the digital divide by teaching low-income, disadvantaged youth about assembling and operating used computers donated by local companies and organizations. In its fourth year, MAA has recycled approximately 175 used computers and aims to hold another workshop in the fall. "It gives an opportunity to a kid who would normally not have any opportunity to work on a computer," says organizer Je'Nelle Chargois. "And then they get to take them home." Anyone interested in donating old computer parts or volunteering to help the students reconstruct and use the machines can call Chargois at 232-4262 or Don Thibodeaux at 984-4445. ' NS
UL HONORS ITS OWN
The University of Louisiana Foundation has announced its Distinguished Professor of the Year and Excellence in Teaching awards. This year's Distinguished Professor is Dr. Jack Damico, the Doris B. Hawthorne Eminent Scholar in Communicative Disorders, who established UL's doctoral program in applied language and speech sciences. Three educators earned the Excellence in Teaching Award: Anne Broussard, professor of nursing, Tom Sammons, professor of architecture, and Dr. Jeff Sandoz, assistant professor of educational foundations and leadership. The awards recognize commitment and effectiveness in teaching and instructional innovation. ' MT
THE ADVOCATE/ADVERTISER SHUFFLE
The Acadiana Bureau of The Advocate recently added reporter Richard Burgess to its Lafayette office. Burgess, a native of Pineville, La., is a veteran of both The Daily Iberian and The Daily Advertiser, where he spent the last five years. "It's an absolute blue chip [hire] for the paper," says Acadiana Bureau Chief Patrick Courreges. "We're lucky a guy like this is sticking around in the state, much less coming over to our paper." Burgess replaces longtime Advocate reporter Angela Simoneaux, who joined the Lafayette Parish School System earlier this year as a coordinator for its Schools of Choice program. Burgess is covering courts, college and environmental issues for the Advocate's Acadiana Bureau. ' NS
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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