Louisiana Voice

Plaintiffs are gearing up, after five years and millions of dollars spent on attorneys and other professionals, to file for dismissal of the bankruptcy suit of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond placed the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and the case has been going nowhere fast as legal costs continue to mount.

Near the end of a status conference with Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill on April 17, attorney Soren Gileson, representing the alleged abuse survivors, can be heard on a RECORDING of the proceedings as saying that he would file for dismissal “hopefully, by the end of the month.”

In addressing Judge Grabill, he noted that the legal battle has been going on for “five years, (unintelligible) millions of dollars,” lots of “song and dance” and that he’s been receiving “angry phone calls,” presumably from clients.

More than $40 million has been spent on attorney and professional fees to date with no resolution to the litigation yet in sight despite rumors of impending settlement discussions.

Those discussions have rendered little progress, however, as the church and some 550 plaintiffs remain far apart in their numbers. The plaintiffs are demanding $1 billion and the church has countered with an offer of $62.5 MILLION. Throw in three of the church’s insurance companies, and you got a real legal tango – and tangle.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is only one of several Roman Catholic archdioceses that have been sued over sexual abuse of children, mostly altar boys, by priests. The first such case in Louisiana was in the Lafayette area but the scandal that rocked the Archdiocese of Boston claimed international attention and set the stage for dozens more such cases.

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Col. Bonespurs lost no time in dismissing the idea that the super-rich might be called upon to bear a bit more of the tax burden so as to lift some of the load off the working middle class.

Donald Trump, aka IMPOTUS, responded to hints by some Republicans in the White House had suggested allowing tax cuts to expire for individuals making more than $609,351 or couples making more than $731,201 (those number could only have come from a committee).

But Agent Orange SHOT DOWN that ludicrous suggestion by saying “a lot of the millionaires would leave the country.” He was probably look around to fire the one who suggested it.

Oh, my, that’s almost like the suggestions that Exxon and other oil and chemical plants would leave Louisiana if their taxes were raised (but of course, they didn’t, did they?)

Let’s just admit it, the man’s an economic genius.

But let’s hear the rest of Trump’s logic. “You lose a lot of money if you do that,” he said. “That would – and other countries (it’s always “others say,” “others do” with Trump) that have done it have lost a lot of people.” Of course, he didn’t – couldn’t – name one example. “They lose their wealthy people. That would be bad because the wealthy people pay the tax, ok?”

You mean like the taxes you pay, Mr. Trump? Of like Warren Buffett who once admitted that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does.

On another matter, Ol’ Bonespurs is sucking up to the evangelical right mightily by ramping up efforts to root out what he sees as “ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.”

In fact, the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) has actually appointed its very own task force whose job it is to report colleagues who exhibit anti-Christian bias.

This looks like something that is somewhat antisemitic on its face, not to mention a flagrant violation of the First Amendment. Un-American it is – sorta like the Nazis of 1939 Germany.

Here’s what Bruce Gerencser, who calls northwest Ohio home, and who calls Trump a “Baby Christian,” wrote about all that: “Baby Christian Donald Trump — who spent Easter Sunday honoring the resurrected Jesus by golfing all day (emphasis added) — and his feckless band of Evangelical and Roman Catholic gatekeepers, made it known that his administration will actively go after anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Question: is there anti-Christian bias in the government to start with? No evidence is provided for bias. Christians are absolutely FREE to worship God as they wish. Christian pastors are free to preach whatever they want from the pulpit. Outside of occasional skirmishes over building codes and the Johnson Amendment, Christian churches are left alone, free to preach…”

Speaking of Trump and golf, here’s the TRUMP GOLF-O-METER for you to ponder:

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With all the top administrators bailing out at LSU, LouisianaVoice has received an anonymous tip that a bombshell might well be coming out of Friday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

It involves another top – as in the very top – mover and shaker at the university packing his bags and rolling on between the ditches (apologies to Emmylou Harris). Boys and girls, can you say William Tate?

It would seem difficult for someone to give up such lucrative salary ($750,000), benefits and incentives in these uncertain times, but perhaps that might serve as a barometer of just how bad things really are on the beautiful campus south of downtown Baton Rouge.

Not since the upheaval in the days of Huey Long has LSU been such a political football, thanks in whole (and certainly not just in part) to the interference of Jeff Landry. And to be sure, it goes far beyond Landry’s demands that athletes line up for the National Anthem before games or his ridiculous, clumsy efforts to have Mike the Tiger brought into Tiger Stadium for games. This is a case of the administration’s undermining of the very foundation of higher education in Louisiana.

The atmosphere at the university right now, as the result of heavy-handed political maneuvers that gave the governor more say-so over higher education, is certain to send a top-tier university spiraling downward into the ranks of mediocre – or worse – institutions.

But there’s always football.

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We’re in the final week of our twice yearly fundraiser and we still need your help. As the country song goes, we “ain’t broke but we’re badly bent” here at LouisianaVoice. We have an active legislative session going on and that’s when the most harm seems to be done to taxpayers.

We attempt to monitor what goes on at the Capitol. Not the formal, stuffed-shirt meetings where politicians pontificate, but by sorting through records, audits, minutes, campaign reports and expenditures.

For instance, we revealed that the former head of the Department of Corrections, Richard Stalder, was simultaneously president of the American Correctional Association (ACA), which was responsible for the accreditation of Louisiana prison facilities his state agency ran.

We also revealed that ACA, while serving as accreditor of prisons also served a trade association, lobbying on behalf of prisons.

We also wrote about how Stalder, back in the day, canceled spending on psychiatric counseling for troubled teens in order that his staff could receive $2.7 million in raises.

Not to pick on the Department of Corrections, but this was just one area that we cover at LouisianaVoice and we do so on a daily basis. It costs money to do so.

So, in these waning days of our fundraiser, anything you could see fit to contribute, large or small, would be greatly appreciated. You may contribute by credit card by clicking on the YELLOW DONATE BUTTON to the right of this colum and following directions. Or you may simply mail a check to me, Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726.

Remember, the largest single contributor will receive a first-edition copy of Huey Long’s autobiography, Every Man a King and all contributions of $50 or more will received a signed copy of my latest book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana.

Thanks for 14 great years!

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more political at LSU, another high-ranking administrator has packed it in in the wake of new laws that have given more power over higher education to Gov. Jeff Landry.

Provost Roy Haggerty, the highest-ranking academic administrator on the Baton Rouge campus has become the third high-profile university official to call it quits this year – and that doesn’t count law professors who have found their freedom of speech stifled by the governor.

Earlier this year, the school’s top attorney, Winston DeCuir, resigned and his resignation was followed by that of attorney Kimberly Lewis, who worked with DeCuir at the university.

Lewis had served as Gov. John Bel Edwards’s revenue secretary prior to her appointment to the board of supervisors. She was often at odds with board member Lee Mallett, a Republican donor who contributed heavily to Landry’s campaign.

Landry, who has pushed through laws that give him far more power over higher education in general and LSU in particular than previous governors, called for the punishment of law professor NICK BRYNER who made comments to his law class that Landry interpreted as critical of Donald Trump.

Following that, he called for the university to punish another law professor, KEN LEVY, who was ultimately suspended for his use of profanity in criticizing Landy. Levy is fighting his suspension in court.

While he was still attorney general, the thin-skinned Landry insisted that LSU punish political communications professor BOB MANN who had been critical of one of Landry’s deputy attorneys general who had shared vaccine misinformation at an LSU Faculty Senate meeting.

Mann held on to his position until Landry’s election. Then, seeing that his fate was sealed with Landry becoming governor, he tendered his resignation, effective the day Landry was inaugurated.

It’s obvious from Landry’s efforts to step up executions, limit access to public records, enforce religious beliefs on public school children in a naked appeal to evangelicals, rewrite the State Constitution and grab total control of state government, that he (a) wants very much to be thought of as Louisiana’s Little Trump and (b) has every intention of one day seeking higher office.

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