Posted in Politics | 5 Comments »
Granted, it was half-a-century ago when I attended Louisiana Tech, but still, to see the difference between the cost of a college education then and now is mind-boggling—and not a little depressing.
When I was at Tech, gasoline was 30 cents a gallon. Today, it hovers around $2 and has on occasion exceeded $3. My new 1969 Chevy Malibu was, if I recall correctly, in the neighborhood of $2,500-$3.000. (My first car, a ’64 VW Beetle, was a whopping $1,600, right off the showroom floor.) I don remember the prices of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread then but suffice it to say it was considerably less than what we pay today. My first house, a nice brick home on an acre lot in a nice neighborhood in Ruston was around $11,000-$12,000.
So, based on the price of those items, gasoline and automobiles have increased about tenfold. Homes a shade more than that and while I can’t say for certain, I would assume milk and bread have increased along those same lines.
Not a college education, though. Oh, no.
When I was at Tech, it cost me anywhere from $100 to $200 per quarter, excluding books. That’s because as a resident of Ruston, I lived off campus.
My grandson, who attends Tech and who also lives off-campus in my late mother-in-law’s home in nearby Simsboro, just forked over $3,529.20 to attend the fall quarter.
It would be about half that amount but for a laundry list of obscure fees tacked onto the tuition, which was a more modest $1.851.
And it might well be considerably less than that but for one Bobby Jindal who during his eight disastrous years as governor, managed to slash about 75 percent of state funding from Louisiana’s colleges and universities. Don’t for a moment think that I’ve forgotten that.
[Of course, Eddie Rispone, with his promise of a rollback of taxes, would likely continue down that same reckless path.]
But I digress. The fees. Oh, yes, the fees. I would love for someone to come forward and explain, item-by-item what those fees are for. Here’s the list:
The amounts given above were applicable to number of hours my grandson is taking. Some of the fees are even greater for students taking more hours.
And there are also parking permit fees for students bringing cars onto the campus, dorm fees for those living on campus, meal ticket fees for students eating in the campus cafeteria, and out-of-state fees for, well, out-of-state students.
And I thought reading all the charges on my cellphone bill was complicated.
Posted in Politics | 14 Comments »
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: here they go again.
The expenditure of public funds, under the law, is supposed to be just that: public.
But trying to pry an accounting of legal costs associated with the state’s defense of 4th Judicial District law clerk Allyson Campbell has proved to be somewhat problematic, to say the least, for a north Louisiana publication.
The Ouachita Citizen in West Monroe is the only newspaper willing to take on the powers that be and so far, it has encountered a huge stone wall.
[The unwillingness of the Monroe News-Star to involve itself in the fight for the public’s right to know may be attributed to two factors: (1) it’s a Gannett publication which in and of itself, lends itself to mediocrity, and (2) Campbell once worked part time as something of a gossip columnist for the paper. Of course, it didn’t hurt that her father was an executive with Regions Bank and is married to the daughter of influential attorney Billy Boles, or that Campbell is the sister of Catherine Creed of the prominent Monroe law firm of Creed and Creed. Got all that? If not, here’s a LINK to one of our earlier stories about Campbell.]
But back to the latest developments in this ongoing saga. The Citizen made a by-the-books public records REQUEST of the Division of Administration (DOA) in which it sought an accounting of legal costs in defending Campbell in a lawsuit brought against her by Stanley Palowsky, III, for damages incurred when she “spoliated, concealed, removed, destroyed, shredded, withheld, and/or improperly handled” his petition for damages against a former business partner.
It seems that some 52 writ applications went missing for more than a year only to be found in Campbell’s office where, incredibly and inexplicably, she was using them as an end table in her office.
So, how DOA respond to the Citizen’s request? Basically, it said attorney’s bills for legal services were exempt from production under an exception pertaining to pending claims.
That’s debatable. Yes, in ongoing litigation, communications between attorney and client are definitely privileged. But a simple accounting of expenditures for legal representation has nothing to legal strategy or negotiations. It’s an expenditure, pure and simple, and should be available as a public record.
The Citizen, in its story, pointed out that Christian Creed, Catherine Creed’s husband and law partner, contributed $5,000 to Attorney General Jeff Landry’s campaign in November 2015.
But more significantly, LouisianaVoice combed through campaign reports and found that Christian Creed, Catherine Creed, and the Creed Law Firm were quite active in their support of other candidates.
Gov. John Bel Edwards was the beneficiary of $25,000 in contributions from both Catherine and Christian Creed over the three-year period of 2015-2107, and Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne received $2,000 in contributions from Christian Creed in 2013 and 2014.
Attorney Scott Sternberg of New Orleans is representing the Citizen and by letter dated August 27, gave DOA until today (August 30) to comply with the request.
Posted in Attorney General, Campaign Contributions, Corruption, Courts, DOA, Ethics, Fraud, Judges, Lawsuits, Public Records | 4 Comments »
In Chapter 26 of my book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption,
I described how St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain circumvented state ethics laws by setting the son and daughter of two of his deputies up as straw owners of a private entity formed to run the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Department’s prisoner work release program under a no-bid contract.
Unfortunately, when I wrote the Strain chapter, I didn’t have all the sordid details that went along with the agreement, which included kickbacks to Strain and hundreds of thousands of dollars that went to his two deputies, David Hanson and Clifford “Skip” Keen.
On Thursday (August 29) those details were made public in the form of a federal INDICTMENT of Strain—details that revealed how the scheme worked, how kickbacks were paid to Strain and how federal funds were used to pay American Express Gold Card charges for expensive family vacations to Hawaii, the Bahamas, Destin, Florida, a hunting trip to Illinois, a $2,000 down payment on a Dodge Durango truck, $2,770 for a jewelry purchase from Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers, other personal purchases and a $2.500 contribution to Strain’s re-election campaign.
The single-count indictment, in 22 pages, laid out the method by which Strain, Hanson and Keen set up two separate prisoner work release programs and awarded a no-bid contract to St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, LLC, to operate the programs.
The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, said that Hanson supervised the sheriff’s department’s Canine Division and Keen was over the Maintenance Department.
Strain, the indictment said, wanted to transfer operations of the work release programs to a private entity run by Hanson and Keen but for them to do so would have necessitated their resignations from the sheriff’s office, thus forfeiting medical and retirement benefits.
As a solution, Hanson’s daughter, Brandy Hanson, and Keen’s son, Jarret Cole Keen were set up as operators of St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, with each holding 45 percent ownership. To sidestep state ethics laws, which were already virtually meaningless, Allen Tingle was given 10 percent ownership and was paid $30,000 per year to run the work release program.
Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen received more than 100 payments each totaling nearly $1.2 million between them from 2013 and 2017. The kickbacks to Strain, David Hanson and Skip Keen, the charges claim, were accomplished by arranging for Brandy Hanson and Jarret Keen to serve as “straw owners” of St. Tammany Workforce Solutions.
David Hanson and Skip Keen entered guilty pleas last February to funneling kickbacks to Strains from profits they received through the work release program.
Tingle is never identified in the indictment and is referred to only as “Person 2.” But the indictment named Person 2 as the registered agent for St. Tammany Workforce Solutions and the Secretary of State’s corporate RECORDS show the registered agent as Allen Tingle.
Thursday’s indictment said that Tingle was required to make payments to Brandy Hanson and Jarrett Keen.
Among the expenditures paid on Hanson’s American Express Cold Card were payments of $4,041; $4,770; $2,205, and $4,660.
Payments were also made to American Express in the amounts of:
Last month, Strain, who was defeated for re-election in 2015, was indicted by a St. Tammany Parish grand jury on two counts each of aggravated rape and aggravated incest and single counts of sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile.
Two of his alleged victims were under the age of 12 and the alleged incidents date back as far as 1975, to when Strain himself was as young as 12, according to 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery. One of his victims claimed he was only six when Strain anally raped him.
At least four persons came forward to claim they were molested by Strain, one of whom said he was raped as late as June 2004. Strain, 56, was first elected sheriff in 1995, serving until his defeat by current Sheriff Randy Smith.
Strain was arrested at his home by state police and booked into his former jail where he was held in lieu of posting $400,000 bail. He faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Just another ho-hum day in Louisiana politics.
Posted in Corruption, Courts, Crime, Ethics, Politicians, Politics, Privatization | 8 Comments »
On Friday (Aug. 23),I received the attached “Trump Agenda Survey,” aka “A Project of the Republican National Committee,” cleverly disguised as a solicitation for a monetary contribution even though I was forced to walk away from the Republican Party several years ago because:
In short, the Republican Party, led by the likes of Trump and Mitch McConnell, more resembles a totalitarian party than one that represents the American citizens.
The Republican Party no longer is the stalwart opponent of the communist government of Russia and North Korea, as evidenced by its silence when Trump fawns over those countries’ leaders.
The Republican Party is no longer the staunch, proud opponent of slavery, as evidenced by its deafening silence over the caging of children who are forced to live in squalid conditions no animal should be forced to endure.
David Duke must be so proud of you.
I’m sorry, but I do not believe a truly patriotic political party would stand silently by while the president smugly refers to himself as “the chosen one.” A truly patriotic party would not stand idly by as he drives the country—and the world—into a recession with his chaotic trade policies. A party with an iota of dignity and self-respect might even ask Trump to “pick a position and stay with it; quit flip-flopping.” A truly responsible party would not condone the description of African countries as “shit-hole countries.” A truly patriotic party would never look the other way as innocent children are caged without toothpaste, blankets or clean clothing. A party that sincerely loves this country would address solutions to mass shootings in an adult, responsible way—instead of offering the by now cliché “thoughts and prayers,” and mumbling, “Now is not the time to make this (pick a shooting) tragedy a political issue.”
I have long lamented the fact that we were losing jobs to countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, China, India and Korea because of cheap labor. On that point, I can agree with Trump. Most people I know do, too. We would love nothing better than to see manufacturing jobs returned to this country. But no one, including POTUS, can “order” American companies to cease doing business with China. If such an order were to be implemented, Walmart would be out of business within a week. Such an “order” is the type action only a dictator would—or could—take.
Or, perhaps the “Chosen One.”
Here is the POTUS order-by-tweet:
Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.
In short, the Republican party is despicable, disgusting, uncaring, callous, and unresponsive to the concerns of this country.
So, no, I shall not be contributing one dime to any candidate, national or local, who indicates his unwavering, unquestioning, devotion and loyalty to such a monster as Donald J. Trump or Mitch McConnell—and that includes our two Republican candidates for governor of the state of Louisiana who proudly wear their lack of moral courage and convictions on their sleeves.
Not necessarily a proud Democrat, but for damned sure not a Republican,
Tom Aswell
(Disclaimer: I post this with the full knowledge that Trump’s core supporters will come out of the woodwork to nail me to the wall. So, having acknowledged that fact, enjoy yourselves. I would never deny anyone the right of free expression because that’s the American way. Just keep it clean and civil.)
Posted in Politics | 11 Comments »
Louisiana Voice 