[Update: City-Parish Councilman Don Bertrand was fined $400 by the Ethics Board for failing to file a finance report indicating that he loaned his campaign money during the run-up to the October 2007 election. Bertrand says he was unaware that such a form was required. He tells The Independent he mailed a cashier’s check covering the fine to the board this week, faxed a copy of the check to the board and expects his case to be removed from Friday’s agenda.]
Four Acadiana men including incumbents on the Lafayette City-Parish Council and Lafayette Parish School Board are facing fines from the state Ethics Board for failing to file financial disclosure forms by deadline.
C-P Councilman Don Bertrand and the LPSB’s Mark Cockerham, both of whom represent District 7 in Lafayette Parish, each face fines for failure to file supplemental reports that were due Feb. 17. The Ethics Board attorney handling both cases is recommending that orders be issued against Bertrand and Cockerham when the board meets on Friday in Baton Rouge. Cockerham was also subpoenaed to attend Friday’s hearing.
The board is recommending that cases be continued against two other former candidates for political office: Stephen Ortego, who ran unsuccessfully in October 2007 for District 39 state representative and Kelly Scott, an also-ran in the April 2009 election for District 24 state senator. Ortego faces a $780 fine while Scott’s fine has yet to be determined but could also run as high at $10,000. In both cases the board cites a failure to notify Ortego and Kelly of the fines in a timely fashion in recommending the continuances.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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"According to Ethics Board documents, Bertrand is on the hook for $400 for failing to file a campaign finance disclosure report on time last year. He had until Nov. 5, 2009 to pay the late fee. Last July, Bertrand requested a “good cause” waiver of the fee, which the board in September 2009 declined to grant." -- The Independent