Louisiana Voice

By Paul Spillman

There was college football last weekend. It kicked off last Thursday night with games involving schools most aren’t familiar with but there was one notable upset. NAIA Louisiana Christian in Pineville was trailing NCAA Division I Northwestern State by two touchdowns at halftime but rallied to upset the Demons in Natchitoches. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer began his coaching career at a NAIA school knocking off NCAA opponents. Maybe good things are in store for Louisiana Christian’s Ben McLaughlin.

There will be more college football this week as the season begins in full across the nation. Games are scheduled from Thursday through Monday, with LSU hosting Clemson in a ABC prime time game from Tiger Stadium Saturday night. Hardly anyone is talking about the game. But everyone is talking about Lane Kiffin, LSU, the “signing of NFL players,” kicking the Tigers out of the conference, and the end of college football as we know it.

None of those things have happened as of this writing but all of them may happen by the time this is read. It’s impossible to say what may come next.

If you asked ten people two weeks ago, or ask them two weeks from now, what’s the problem in college athletics you would probably get ten different answers, but today it would all be LSU’s and Lane Kiffin’s fault. Literally. There isn’t a sports forum of any kind that has not spent hours demonizing Kiffin and LSU because a) Kiffin has signed a couple of athletes who were ruled to have a year of eligibility left but had signed free agent contracts with an NFL team before getting released in preseason camp and b) Kiffin and LSU are defying the SEC who just voted 15-0 (with LSU abstaining) to rule ineligible anyone who has signed a professional contract.

Remember Brendan Sorsby, the QB at Texas Tech ruled ineligible for gambling who earlier this summer was granted a temporary restraining order making him eligible? Remember Texas Tech saying they would play him? Remember the outrage against Texas Tech that followed? Well multiply it by ten and that’s what is happening to LSU right now and Kiffin is the reason for the multiplier. And our governor, who chimed in his support for Kiffin and defiance of the SEC. It’s his team, after all. At the time of the Sorsby scandal one talking head speculated on the circus it would be if such things were happening at LSU and he wasn’t wrong.

The thing is LSU doesn’t even need the players Kiffin signed, tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris. Harris will shore up an important position and provide experience where LSU lacks experienced depth but the Tigers have plenty of talented players to fill the position already on the roster. The same applies for tight end, except the need at tight end is less critical than the need at defensive tackle. Kiffin could drop the entire thing and not change his team by much. There are no guarantees either way. But Kiffin isn’t concerned with anything other than winning and he believes this gives him an edge so he’s riding it out. To what end for him, the school, or the conference isn’t yet known.

Both players are part of the class of 2022 which the NCAA neglected to include when it granted five years of eligibility to every class since 2018, and then failed to address any further following its long established and resolute policy of inaction. Consequently the courts stepped in and there are now more than 60 cases in multiple states involving hundreds of athletes in multiple sports. Wright and Harris are just two. But they – and LSU – are the only two anyone is talking about. Neither was drafted into the NFL. Wright signed as a free agent first with the Philadelphia Eagles, then with the Cleveland Browns before being cut by both but he did suit up for a preseason game with the Browns. Harris signed a free agent contract with the Saints but was injured and never even practiced with the team before being cut. Harris, at least, has a legitimate argument to make.

Pursuing a free agent contract was the only way either could stay in football as far as they knew when their athletic eligibility expired in the spring. Neither gave up eligibility. As far as they knew they didn’t have any more to use. Until August when a federal judge granted a TRO returning that year of eligibility to certain athletes. That federal order was overturned on appeal but all the cases now are in state courts where the NCAA and the conferences are fighting an uphill battle.

But the SEC doesn’t care about that. It doesn’t care Harris never even practiced with the Saints. He signed a contract with a professional team. That makes him a “pro.” Therefore he can’t play. Never mind the distinction between pro and amateur no longer exists. “Amateur” has always been a construct to deny athletes the right to earn money, at least that’s the way the US Supreme Court sees it. And players earn money now in college and the NFL. Never mind, also, the hypocrisy of “pro” football players returning to college when both the NCAA and the SEC have looked the other way for years as schools have brought in international club pros in basketball. None were star international players but they all were paid to play before becoming college students. No, none of that matters because this is Greg Sankey vs. Lane Kiffin, the SEC vs. LSU, right vs. wrong with the fate of the world hanging on the brink. At least that’s the way the issue is being framed.

College football teams are allowed a roster of 105 players with either full, partial, or no scholarships given as the coaching staff deems. According to reports no LSU players were “cut” nor did anyone lose a scholarship for LSU to add fifth year players returning to college. The Tigers have also signed Junior Tuihalamaka who played four years at Notre Dame but was not drafted and did not sign with a NFL team. LSU has to submit its season roster to the SEC on Friday. The court case continues Thursday but regardless of what happens on either day it will not be the end of the issue.

Some, perhaps most, LSU fans have embraced the “Evil Empire” tag and revel in playing the villain. But others could do without all the drama. What the issue has done, though, is make LSU vs. Clemson Saturday night into “must watch TV.” ESPN’s College Gameday will be live from campus and you can bet they’ll be talking about it. Pat McAfee will probably make jokes about no pros allowed in the kick-a-field-goal shtick he orchestrates every week. There will be signs in the background, for and against. And all of college football will be pulling for Clemson to put LSU in its place, prove who has the real “Death Valley” and deliver a humiliating defeat to Kiffin. LSU fans are among the best in college football. And very astute. They know the college football world will be watching. Expect them to be loud and proud. Lane Kiffin had better deliver. Or all hell will break loose.

A Russian cybercrime forum called Exploit is selling digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses of residents of the U.S. and Canada by siphoning images collected by a Louisiana-based identity verification company, according to former Washington Post reporter-turned security news and investigation reporter BRIAN KREBS.

Krebs said the New Orleans FBI field office has launched an official inquiry into the source of the images being offered on the dark web. He identified the New Orleans company, idscan.net, which purportedly performs more than 21 million ID verifications monthly at more than 20,000 locations worldwide.

Jillian Kossman, marketing and operations leader at idscan.net, said, “At this point, I’m not able to share any additional information.”

The service, Nexus, claims to have more than 152 million driver’s licenses and another 10 million identification cards, three million travel documents and more than half-a-million medical cards of residents of the U.S. and Canada. Other records carry a source notation of CAC, which could refer to Common Access Cards, which are government-issued identity cards that grant physical access to government buildings and secure rooms.

Krebs said those behind Nexus claim the license images are coming from an active breach at “a major identity verification company” whose customers include multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Over the past 24 hours alone, Krebs wrote, “the number of driver’s license records listed as available in Nexus has increased by nearly 400,000, suggesting that freshly stolen license data is being harvested and uploaded to this service on a semi-regular basis.”

Livingston Parish President Randy DeLatte, in refuting our INITIAL STORY on Monday, insists he has signed no nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in connection with the data center reportedly coming to the Walker area.

DeLatte TOOK TO FACEBOOK on Monday to say, “Let me be clear. I have not signed a nondisclosure agreement regarding any business coming to Livingston Parish.” He went even further to say, “To my knowledge, no local elected official in Livingston Parish has signed one regarding a business coming here.”

But a video of the Livingston Parish Planning Commission of May 2, 2024, seems to indicate otherwise.

In that meeting, DeLatte says quite plainly and inequivalently at the 1:22:30 point of THIS VIDEO, “There are some nondisclosure agreements that’s (sic) been signed that I can’t speak about…”

And while it’s true that he did not specifically say that it was he who signed the NDAs, he is the parish president.,,

And as for his disclaimer that he had no knowledge of any parish elected official having signed an NDA, we have parish council member Ricky Goff ADMITTING AS MUCH at the 21:00-minute mark of another video while speaking in support of rezoning 691 acres in his district to heavy industrial classification during the Nov. 3, 2025 meeting of the Livingston Parish Zoning Commission.

As parish president, you would think that DeLatte should have been aware of that.

As a followup to the story about the prospects of a data center coming to the Walker area and the manner in which it was approved by the Livingston Parish Council, some additional information is in order.

At least one member of the council is now claiming he never signed a nondisclosure agreement in connection with the rezoning of 691 acres south of Walker ostensibly to the location of a data center controlled by Microsoft.

Significantly, this member, at the same time, never conceded to either being unaware of what the rezoning was for or being told what it was for and not informing constituents. We sent him two messages on Monday, one saying it was urgent that he contact LouisianaVoice but he never called back.

Likewise, Parish President Randy DeLatte posted a Facebook denial/confirmation of the data center while also denying he’d signed an NDA. In fact, he said, “To my knowledge, no elected official in Livingston Parish has signed one regarding a business coming here.”

Council member Ricky Goff said at a november 2025 meeting of the parish zoning commission that he had signed an NDA.

While not admitting that a data center was in the parish’s future, he did nevertheless eerily parrot Donald Trump’s pitch for data centers. Both called them matters of national security and both invoked China in citing the need for them. “President Trump has made AI a national priority,” he echoed. “This is about our economic security. I Believe Livingston Parish should have a seat at that table.”

What he did not say was on average, RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY COSTS nationwide have risen by 42 percent over the past five years and while data centers aren’t the only reason for that, they’ve been a major driver in some places where costs have risen the most.

That Meta Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, for example, will pull some 2 gigawatts of power—and it’s ONLY THE 29^th-LARGEST datacenter in the nation. There are a couple in Utah and Ohio that will have a capacity of 10 GW each. To put that in perspective, one megawatt is sufficient to meet the power demands of about 1,000 homes. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts.

We don’t yet know the size of the one coming to Livingston Parish nor do we know the gigawatt demand for power.

But here’s the thing: There was a wall of silence that shielded this project from the public. Did any of the council members or DeLatte, know in advance what the proposed purpose of the tract was before agreeing (unanimously) to the zoning change for the property? For that matter, did any of the members of the parish zoning commission know what was in store for the property?

If so, there had to be some sort of agreement (formal or informal—it doesn’t matter) between parties to keep a tight lid on all details. That would mean some sort of arrangement was made in secret in advance of decisions to rezone the property from residential to heavy industrial use.

Under Louisiana’s OPEN MEETING LAW (LA. R.S. 42:14(A), every meeting of a public body “shall be open to the public” and public bodies cannot use proxy voting or secret ballots to avoid transparency.

There are exceptions for executive sessions, BUT there must be a two-thirds vote of members president during an open meeting before a public body may enter into closed session. Once in executive session, no action may be taken by the body; it must re-enter open session before taking any action.

Any discussion about a project such as this data center should never have been held by council members or zoning commission members without convening public sessions. To do so behind a veil of secrecy, whether an NDA is signed or not, is a violation of the law.

Oh, there were “public hearings” in both instances—on votes by the zoning commission and the parish council. But there was scant information available to the public for there to be any “public hearing” of real substance. It’s difficult to hold a public hearing when the public is kept in the dark. No disclosure meant no questions from pesky citizens wanting information.

Moreover, a request was made by LouisianaVoice of the Livingston Parish Council on Monday for a copy of any NDA signed by members or by DeLatte. We were told, incredulously, that any such document would not be in possession of the parish council but instead, would be held by the party with whom such NDA was agreed. Whether that was intentional or not, it appeared to be some type of admission that NDAs do exist somewhere.

This is incomprehensible and strains credulity, to say the least. An NDA is a contract and in the case of signing any contract, it would be unthinkable for all parties not to have a copy of the document.

Last March doesn’t seem like such a long time—unless you’re a Boston Red Sox fan or Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In those cases, it seems like an eternity ago.

In early March, Red Sox fans were looking forward to a possible division championship and possibly a World Series appearance. After a dismal start and after dropping 3 of 4 to the hated Yankees this past weekend, that division title appears an impossible dream, though Boston is still in position for a wild card playoff spot. But World Series? That’s about a remote as Donald Trump going a single day without requiring a diaper change.

Also, it was in early March when House Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently speaking through some other part of his anatomy proclaimed at a Repugnantcan retreat that the war with Iran was “nearly completed” and that “gas prices will readjust after that.”

We were reminded of those fateful words of Louisiana’s 4^th District Congressman by Daily Kos on Monday. But Johnson wasn’t through.

He added, confidently or not (you’re never sure with him), “The Strait of Hormuz has been closed by the regime down there, but it will be reopened, and it will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down.”

That “couple of weeks” has turned into six-plus months with no end in sight, striking a familiar refrain for the U.S. habit of engaging in never-ending wars with no victories to show for the efforts. (Remember, it was TACO Don who pledged “no more wars” during the 2024 campaign.)

And gas prices damned sure haven’t “come back down.”

The funny thing about the Repugnantcan mindset—John N. Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Johnson, Clay Higgins, Julia Letlow, et al included—if POTUS (Pedophile of the U.S.) says it, the GOP (Gelatin Offensive Predators) sheep have no choice but to parrot whatever sewage spews from his mouth as if the message was delivered from Mount Sinai.

Case(s) in point, also according to Daily Kos:

“I liken it to a street repair. It’s always a pain when the street has to get repaired, especially your home street, there’s traffic congestion and whatnot,” Republican Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida told CNBC, also in March. “But there comes that day when they release the cones and whatnot, and it’s smooth and easy and widened and safer, and that’s what’s happening.”

What??!! But wait. There’s more:

“I am hopeful that we can bring this to a close in the next few weeks,” Rep. Tom Barrett, a Michigan Republican, told The New York Times in April. “Once there is stability in the region, oil prices and subsequently gas prices will come down, while Americans will be safer because we’ve neutralized one of our most determined enemies.”

Stability? Really? They’ve only been fighting “stability in the region” for a few thousand years and Cadet Bonespurs’ war is going to change things in “a few weeks”? Good to know.

Boy, these guys really are living in some alternate reality.

And these are our elected leaders? What must that say of the followers, the MagHats?

Perhaps The Wall Street Journal said it best when it recently asked the difference between Iran and Vietnam.

“Trump had a plan for getting out of Vietnam.”