The Louisiana Board of Ethics has cleared former Director of Traffic and Transportation Tony Tramel to conduct private traffic-engineering consulting work, including with Lafayette Consolidated Government.
The longtime assistant U.S. attorney received the Child Protection Award at the annual National Missing Children’s Day commemoration held in Washington, D.C., this week.
Faced with a student population that threatens to outgrow existing facilities, a shrinking budget and no guarantee parish voters are ready to support new taxes following the last failed election in 2011, one option for relief for the Lafayette Parish School System could come in the form of two charter school organizations.
The case is tied to the 2008 payment of $1.9 million by present and past members of the team to Louisiana Film Studios LLC. But the studio's chief, Wayne Read, never applied for the credits and never gave the money back.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's latest financial disclosure report, released Thursday, shows his $127,592-a-year state salary provided the main source of income for him and his wife in 2012.
A ban on posting to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter while driving appears likely to hit Louisiana's law books.
Public schools, already required to have written crisis management plans, will now have to coordinate those plans with local law enforcement and emergency preparedness officials — and hold annual safety drills to rehearse them.
Two brothers with a history of drug arrests and suspected ties to a neighborhood gang each face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder in a shooting spree that brought a sudden bloody end to a neighborhood Mother's Day parade.
Senators are expressing skepticism about some assumptions House lawmakers used to balance next year's budget.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell asked a Baton Rouge judge to block access to records requested by a company whose $200 million Medicaid contract was canceled by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.
Louisiana driver's licenses would be used to comply with federal law requiring each state to create a national identification card for air travel, including domestic flights, under a proposal inserted Wednesday into a House bill by the Senate Transportation Committee.
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
Most Read
in case you missed it