Louisiana Voice

“Jimmy Rogers is a symptom; Mike Edmonson is the disease.”

—Anthony “Tony” Radosti, Vice President of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission, commenting on Monday’s arrest of former State Trooper Jimmy Rogers, two current troopers another former state trooper. Mike Edmonson, former State Police Superintendent, was their boss.

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Only three more days of my nagging you for contributions to keep LouisianaVoice afloat. Our April fundraiser ends on Monday so you don’t have much time left to contribute to no-holds-barred investigative journalism on the home front.

While I occasionally venture out of my comfort zone and into the national political arena, I generally limit my writing to issues in Louisiana that are overlooked by a mainstream media that has been gutted by newsroom cutbacks.

It was LouisianaVoice that broke the very first Mike Edmonson story—the one about the attempt by State Sen. Neil Riser to hand him an additional $100,000 annually in retirement. Then, as events unfolded, LouisianaVoice gave scores of stories about Edmonson’s lax management style that led to low morale and corruption at State Police. We were first to announce that Edmonson was stepping down from his post.

LouisianaVoice also broke the story about Bobby Jindal’s attempt to torpedo Murphy Painter, former head of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control with trumped up federal criminal charges, charges on which Painter was acquitted with the state being forced to pay some $700,000 in Painter’s attorney fees.

From there, LouisianaVoice began following Painter’s successor, hand-picked legislator Troy Hebert. Story after story described abuses of authority by Hebert.

LouisianaVoice broke the story of the Office of Group Benefits which saw its healthy surplus slashed to peanuts by Jindal’s underhanded maneuvers designed to help him bridge his disastrous yearly budget deficits.

LouisianaVoice also broke the story of how Jindal and a handful of north Louisiana legislators swung a sweetheart deal for Vantage Health in its purchase of a state building in downtown Monroe for pennies on the dollar. Of course, several Jindal cohorts now work for Vantage.

LouisianaVoice broke stories about Superintendent of Education John White and his policies to undermine public education in Louisiana—including licensing a private school in Ruston that had no physical facilities or teachers.

Not every story is a blockbuster, of course. Some are more mundane than others. But the fact is, LouisianaVoice has worked diligently for eight years now to expose waste, corruption, and unethical practices in Louisiana government. We are currently looking at operations in the Louisiana Department of Health and have already found several areas of questionable and unethical activity.

We can’t do all this without your help—moral and financial. We have to keep the lights on and that includes chasing down countless leads (I get about 200 emails per day), paying for auto fuel and upkeep, paying for public records and even fighting off the occasional lawsuit designed to shut down LouisianaVoice.

Please help by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the right-hand column just above my blurb on my Bobby Jindal book. That will allow you to give by credit card. If you’d rather not do it that way, you may mail your contribution to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

And please know your contribution, no matter how large or small, is deeply appreciated.

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I feel like a televangelist hitting viewers up for love offerings in exchange for a parchment paper prayer rug or a vial of sand from the mountain where I’m planning to go to pray for you (honest, I heard a televangelist offer to send sand from a mountain he had yet to travel to).

But at least I’ve not sunk to the depths of one, a Rev. Silas Strut, who offered for sale on his radio show his “Christian weight loss plan,” a cassette tape (remember those?) called “Help Me, Jesus, the Devil wants Me Fat.” He also offered a tape called “Those Satanic Smurfs,” but nothing topped the special diet plan, though I’ve often wondered about what constitutes a satanic smurf.

Anyway, I hope I don’t come off like any of those guys when I hit you up for contributions to LouisianaVoice. But the truth is, we do need some semblance of cash flow to keep the lights on.

And since I don’t accept advertising or charge a subscription fee, that leaves the old honor system as our only option. It’s Sorta like when I coached that sandlot baseball team, the Ruston Ramblers. We never charged admission (none of the teams in our old North Central League did), but we did pass the hat at games to try and raise enough money to pay the umpires and to replace lost baseballs that opposing batters routinely knocked out of sight and the wooden Louisville Sluggers that some batters were certain to break because they never learned to hold the bat correctly.

So, if you haven’t contributed yet, please consider doing so by either clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this paragraph to pay by credit card or by sending a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

I promise not to send you any parchment paper prayer cloths or cassette tapes about special diet plans or about smurfs—satanic or otherwise. And as much as I’d like to be able to do so, I won’t promise you your contribution will bring you a financial miracle—just a continuation of coverage of stories the mainstream media doesn’t cover.

And as they said in the old Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler commercials: Thank you for your support.

Tom Aswell

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Please don’t forget our April fundraiser, now headed into the home stretch.

I don’t accept advertising because I don’t want to be beholden to anyone who might happen to be an advertiser and fall under my radar. The exception is Cavalier House Books of Denham Springs. Cavalier House has a free ad because the owner, John Cavalier, built this web page for me. Of course, there are those pesky pop-up ads over which I have no control and from which I derive no benefits.

I don’t charge a subscription fee because I want LouisianaVoice to be available to everyone. That alone has cost me considerable revenue. But I’d rather give up a little income than deprive someone who cannot afford a subscription fee the right to read my posts.

The only other revenue source is the generosity of those who (a) believe in and support what LouisianaVoice is attempting to accomplish and (b) can afford to provide some financial support toward those efforts.

I have no axe to grind with any public official—Republican or Democrat—unless that official is abusing his position by profiting, showing favoritism, or otherwise bending the rules so to effect an uneven playing field for the rest of us.

I believe in public service being just that: a service to benefit the public, not some bureaucrat or political fat cat who has grown a little too comfortable in his position.

If you believe in the same standards of government, please do what you can on behalf of our efforts. Click on the yellow DONATE button to the immediate right or mail your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

Thank you,

Tom Aswell

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LouisianaVoice makes an effort to give a voice to the people who go about their lives every day trying to pay bills, educate their kids, make their lives a little better and plan for retirement honestly and without taking advantage of others.

It is you who have made this a great country, not the politicians, the bankers, the oil and pharmaceutical companies. My job at LouisianaVoice is to keep that message in front of those who think their money and power gives them the right to decide our lives.

My heroes are not the ones who make movies, throw touchdown passes, or scream political slogans—from either side of the aisle. My heroes are teachers, honest cops who have compassion, Doctors Without Borders, those who fight for the rights of women, minorities and anyone else who is discriminated against or taken advantage of by those in position to do so just because they can. No one has the right to attack another’s dignity or self-worth.

None of you will agree with everything I write. We’re human and we’re not going to agree all the time. But one donor said he nevertheless supported what I am doing. That is the spirit with which I hope my readers will always approach LouisianaVoice just as I defend every reader’s right to disagree with me.

If you agree with what I try to accomplish—informing readers about our elected and appointed officials who try to use their offices to further their own interests—please do what you can to help us during our April fundraiser.

I come to you, hat in hand, twice a year—April and October. Your assistance helps me pursue public records, ward off the occasional lawsuit filed to shut me up (I’ve won two of those and lost none, but it costs money to do so), pay for gasoline and vehicle maintenance for those road trips that have become more regular as I have expanded my coverage throughout the state.

Anything you can afford is appreciated more than you know—no matter how large or small. Please help by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right or send your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

Thank you.

Tom Aswell

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