Louisiana Voice

• A legislator attempting to influence former Louisiana Education Superintendent John White on behalf of two teachers in his district;
• The head of Louisiana State Police allowing troopers under his command to get away with behavior that would have been automatic grounds for firing anywhere else (and that State Police Superintendent even trying to game the system to qualify himself for around $100,000 in additional – and illegal – retirement benefits;
• Several Louisiana sheriffs running their departments like their very own fiefdoms (and one of those being sentenced to federal prison and another managing to obtain an acquittal after several prisoners had died in his custody);
• The head of a girls’ church-affiliated home in north Louisiana being accused of abuse of teenage girls in his care;
• The rape of a female prisoner in a north Louisiana parish jail – by male inmates of the same jail;
• Power-hungry state regulatory boards (including the Board of Dentistry and the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners) bankrupting dentists and doctors with draconian fines for minor offenses – and in some cases, no real offenses);
• Attempts by Bobby Jindal to strip the Office of Group Benefits of its multi-million-dollar surplus in order to plug the hole in the state budget that he had caused by gross mismanagement;
• Attempts by a state board to sell water rights to private profiteers in Texas;
• Attempts by a State Department of Education official to collaborate with Florida officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, to corner the market on potable water in that state.

These are just a few of the stories that LouisianaVoice has broken over its 10 years of existence. And we’re constantly working on others, including two that will be found only at this site over the coming weeks.

To continue to break these investigative stories requires investments of time and money. From time to time, I have to take reluctant officials to court in order to obtain public records. Those legal actions are not cheap. And when I do get the records, there’s a cost there, as well.

That’s why I come to you twice a year to ask that you assist in these endeavors. It usually takes about $5,000 every six months to pay for gasoline, records and legal fees.

If you have no suffered financial hardships from the coronavirus shutdown, I humbly ask that you give what you can afford. You can contribute by credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post. It looks like this: . If this doesn’t work for you, you can give by mailing a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922,

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so any contribution is completely tax-deductible.

Remember: Anyone giving $100 or more will receive a signed copy of my book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption. If you already have a copy, just let me know who to sign it to and you can give it as a gift.

As always, my sincere appreciation for your continued support.

Tom Aswell