It’s a far cry from the group of glorified auditors that started the office under former Gov. Buddy Roemer. Most notably, the story revealed how the office has even taken on some authorities that lawmakers never intended.
Even though Act 831 of the 2008 regular session clearly states that the office's new duties "shall not include arrest powers," seven IG employees, including Inspector General Stephen Street, were granted special officer commissions last year from the Louisiana State Police, which gives them full arrest powers.
In response, Street said at the time that lawmakers may want to take another look at the law and he has no intentions of allowing arrests to be made.
While no related bill has been filed yet for the ongoing regular session, there is Senate Bill 423 by Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, which “provides for reserve investigators in the Louisiana Inspector General's Office.” Basically, the proposed law would allow Street to hire and fire “former investigators and law enforcement persons as reserve investigators.”
The gig wouldn’t be a paid position, but the state would have to reimburse “expenses incurred during the course and scope of performing their official duties.” Appointments would be for one year and could be renewed annually.
Finally, the legislation would allow each reserve investigator to “apply to the superintendent of state police for a special officer's commission” – the same commission that grants arresting powers and runs contradictory to the office’s legislative intent.
Walsworth’s bill has been referred to the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
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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AS EVERYONE KNOWS NO FOREIGN POWER WILL EVER MAKE THE STUPID MISTAKE OF COMING HERE AND TRY TO TAKE YOUR GUN/GUNS, FROM YOU !
BUT, YOUR FRIENDLY "reserve investigators, just may !