Faced with a fusillade of incriminations, presumably from supporters of state Rep. Rickey Hardy, Vincent Pierre has addressed, point-by-point, accusations leveled against him in the comment section at theind.com and elsewhere regarding his character.
Within an hour after our June 28 blog, “Pierre announces bid for state House 44,” was posted, the attacks on Pierre began. He was accused of welshing on his child support payments, of bearing a child out of wedlock and resigning from a previous job at the Louisiana Lottery amid sexual-harassment allegations.
Pierre denies them all. He acknowledges that he is separated from his wife, but maintains they enjoy a healthy relationship centered around the rearing of their sons. While documents from the 15th Judicial Court in Lafayette from last December show that Pierre did in fact fall behind on his $1,400-per-month child support obligation, he says he has caught up and that he and his wife, who are separated but not divorced, “have an amicable financial agreement concerning the welfare of our children and we’re both acting in accordance with that agreement,” adding that “we’re great friends and she’s in full support of my running for office.”
Pierre also denies the allegations about out-of-wedlock paternity — a personal issue this newspaper is loath to broach. “I have three beautiful boys — Joshua, Kyle and Luke — and they’re all for my current wife; that’s the extent of my fatherhood,” Pierre insists.
When the sexual harassment charge was leveled against Pierre at theind.com, we contacted Lottery officials concerning the circumstances of his departure. In an email, Robin Schooling, vice president of human resources, replied only that “Vincent Pierre was employed by the Louisiana Lottery Corporation and ... he voluntarily resigned.”
Pierre vehemently denies allegations concerning his resignation from Louisiana Lottery: “I was never accused of sexual harassment charges at the Louisiana Lottery and I have never been accused at any job of sexual harassment.”
Pierre and Hardy will face off on Oct. 22 in the primary election for state House of Representatives District 44, the seat Hardy has held for four years and a seat long held by Pierre’s uncle, Wilfred Pierre.
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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