Louisiana Voice

It’s that time again.

After forgoing the October fundraiser, I am again doing the most unpleasant chore of maintaining LouisianaVoice: asking for your financial support.

In October, when I felt my diminished eyesight would not allow me to continue at the same pace as before, I opted not to ask for contributions. But since additional consultation indicated the rate of eyesight loss is not as great as originally feared, I’ve returned to the fray and I again am humbly asking for your support.

In fact, I am in the process of obtaining a nonprofit status for LouisianaVoice, which would mean that your future contributions would be tax deductible. In the meantime, however, I have incurred significant legal fees in efforts to set up the 501(3)(C) nonprofit, so in addition to my normal operating expenses of travel, purchasing records for researching stories, normal legal fees, and paying for the internet domain to support LouisianaVoice, I now have that major one-time added expense.

I know some of you don’t agree with some of the things I’ve written. That’s to be expected. No two persons are going to always agree on every subject. But on balance, I believe I have appealed to a lot of readers by exposing official wrongdoing on many levels of government—from the misappropriation of funds, to the misuse of official positions, to outright illegal activity. That, after all, is the underlying basis for the existence of LouisianaVoice.

Investigative journalism has taken a major hit among newspapers both nationally and locally and that’s a significant loss. I have attempted to fill that void when and where I can. I have not always made everyone happy, but I have always attempted to be even-handed and fair.

I’ve written critical stories about our former governor and several of his appointees, as well as other state and local officials. I’ve shown how boards and commissions misuse their powers at the expense of those they regulate through questionable methods of control. I strongly support law enforcement but when I find wrongdoing, whether by state police, a local sheriff, or a municipal officer, I try to expose it. I’ve shown on many occasions how campaign contributions influence the votes of our legislators. It doesn’t matter if the subject is Republican or Democrat—if I find them to be abusing their positions of trust, I do my very best to inform the public.

I’m not perfect nor will I ever be. But I try to give a voice to the average citizen who has become a rather insignificant bit player in a drama dominated by armies of lobbyists, buckets of cash and indifferent elected officials.

If you share my sense of frustration at the manner in which the powerful interests have shoved the rest of us aside, I ask that you contribute what you feel you can afford. You may do so in one of two ways: You can click on the yellow DONATE button at the upper right and pay by credit card or you may send checks to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70627