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Even as America elects a new President, LSTA ignores spirit of democracy; leadership votes to expel 4 dissident members

November 8, 2016 by tomaswell

On Tuesday, millions of Americans marched to the polls to cast ballots for President in what is a clear demonstration to the rest of the world that we live in a free society where citizens can say what they want about their leaders without fear of reprisals.

Someone should remind the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association (LSTA) of that.

If additional evidence that the LSTA does little else than attend parties and conventions while brooking no dissention from its membership, there is the ongoing purge of retiree members who dared question activities of its board which LouisianaVoice just learned about.

At the same time LouisianaVoice learned of the reprisals against dissent, we also examined LSTA TAX RETURNS which show that the organization devotes only a small portion of its revenue to charitable causes despite its claims to the contrary. Instead, LSTA has placed about $1 million in trusts, equities and options, mutual funds and money market funds while doing little for the welfare of its members.

LSTA operates Louisiana State Troopers Charities as a 501(c) (3) charitable organization

It also invested more than $200,000 in fundraising activities during 2013, the latest year for which records are available. At the same time, it spent about $28,000 in “grants and other assistance to governments and organizations.”

Among its other expenses were $184,000 for salaries and benefits; $112,400 for conventions, conferences and meetings and nearly $82,000 for travel.

The LSTA is a fraternal organization representing the men and women of the Louisiana State Police. The LSTA represents approximately 97 percent of the commissioned officers as well as a “substantial portion of the state police retirees.”

But those who dare think for themselves need not apply.

The number of retired members has just been reduced by at least four.

LouisianaVoice has learned that four retirees who questioned the authority of LSTA to make political contributions through its executive director in 2015 have been sent letters informing them they are no longer welcome as members of the fraternal organizations they devoted their working lives for.

State civil service rules, which extend to state troopers, prohibit political activity (including campaign contributions) on the part of classified employees.

This precision surgical procedure being carried out on its membership—to remove an inconvenient wart—is evidence of the influence that State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson has over LSTA despite Edmonson’s repeated contention that he has no direct involvement in the association’s activities.

As further illustration of the influence of Edmonson—and LSTA’s propensity to ignore the wishes of its membership—affiliated troops throughout the state voted against expulsion, LouisianaVoice has learned. The only vote to expel the retired members came from headquarters in Baton Rouge.

So much for the democratic process.

One of those retirees, Bucky Millet of Lake Arthur, has been a particular source of irritation to the association, attending monthly meetings of the Louisiana State Police Commission since last December to challenge actions by both the commission and association.

“I was a member of LSTA for 40 years,” Millet says. “Now they tell me I’m not welcome.”

Millet was instrumental in prodding the commission to at least go through the motions of a pseudo-investigation of the association’s funneling campaign contributions to political candidates through its executive director David Young.

That investigation was turned over to Natchitoches attorney Taylor Townsend, a confidant of Gov. John Bel Edwards, who essentially punted. Townsend declined to even issue a written report, which would have become a public record. He also neglected to include a digital recording—a recording that he possessed then and possesses now—of an admission by LSTA officers that they had violated state ethics regulations in contributing to several political candidates through Young.

So, when Millet and other retirees who were members of LSTA questioned the propriety—and the legality—of the contributions, the lines were effectively drawn. Those trouble-making retirees had targets on their backs from that moment on.

And now, even as 100 million Americans cast their votes in the greatest democracy the world has ever known, we learn there is no room for dissention in what should be a beacon of democracy and freedom of expression—the Louisiana State Troopers Association, the fraternal organization that represents those who are supposed to be the very guardians of our freedoms, our protectors.

Perhaps the leadership of LSTA should take a high school civics refresher course.

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Civil Service, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, State Police | 4 Comments »

Bar served alcohol at LSP facility during Edmonson’s second year as Supt.; continued without legal permit in 2013, 2015

November 3, 2016 by tomaswell

In the year following Mike Edmonson’s initial appointment as State Police Superintendent, the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association (LSTA) was allowed to sell more than $9,000 in alcoholic beverages at the Joint Emergency Services Training Center (JESTC) in Zachary, LouisianaVoice has learned.

There is an entire Louisiana State Police (LSP) Web page dedicated to an extensive campaign against drinking and driving.

Moreover, sources say that as late as September 2015, alcohol was served during events at the facility which the JESTC Web page says is “maintained and operated by the Louisiana State Police,” though LSP sources have denied any alcohol was “sold” at the facility since 2010.

LSTA ran a bar at the LSP training facility through an entity called LSTA Enterprises, LLC, and while LSTA Enterprises did have a permit to sell alcohol during the last half of 2009 and all of 2010, its permit was “closed” on Jan. 31, 2011.

Name and Address

Name Mail Address Public Address
LSTA ENTERPRISES LLC 8120 JEFFERSON HWY BATON ROUGE, LA 70809 1400 W IRENE RD ZACHARY, LA 70791

Permit Information

Information provided is current.

Credential License Type Issue Date Expiration Date Status Reason Owner Information
AG.17.0000012833-BL CLASS A GENERAL BEER AND LIQUOR CLOSED CLOSED DUE TO REISSUE LSTA ENTERPRISES LLC
E.17.0000012833-BL CLASS E BEER AND LIQUOR 02/01/2010 01/31/2011 CLOSED OUT OF BUSINESS LSTA ENTERPRISES LLC
TMP.17.0000012833 TEMPORARY PERMIT 05/22/2009 06/25/2009 CLOSED LSTA ENTERPRISES LLC

LSP spokesman Doug Cain told LouisianaVoice on Thursday, “No alcohol has been sold at the facility since 2010,” though he stopped short of saying no alcohol had been served there since that date.

At events in 2013 and 2015, LouisianaVoice has learned, alcohol was served at a “free bar,” meaning alcoholic beverages were served at a bar at no charge. Regardless of whether alcohol is sold or provided on a complimentary basis, Louisiana state law requires that any entity or person who serves alcohol to obtain a liquor permit.

http://www.atc.rev.state.la.us/AlcoholFAQs.php

And regardless of whether alcohol is sold or provided free of charge, there are strict prohibitions against the presence of alcohol in corrections facilities. http://doc.louisiana.gov/frequently-asked-questions/

State prison trustys are housed at the same training complex as JETSC, which would appear to violate that prohibition.

The Louisiana Secretary of State’s corporate records page lists the corporate address for LSTA Enterprises, LLC as 8120 Jefferson Highway, which is the same address of the LSTA. Also, the Secretary of State also lists David Young as agent and manager of LSTA Enterprises. Young also is Executive Director of LSTA
Business: LSTA ENTERPRISES, L.L.C.
Charter Number: 37011447K
Registration Date: 4/2/2009

 

Domicile Address
8120 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY
BATON ROUGE, LA 708091626

 

Mailing Address
C/O DAVID YOUNG
8120 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY
BATON ROUGE, LA 708091626

 

Status
Status: Active
Annual Report Status: In Good Standing
File Date: 4/2/2009
Last Report Filed: 6/11/2016
Type: Limited Liability Company

 

Registered Agent(s)

 

Agent: DAVID YOUNG
Address 1: 8120 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809-1626
Appointment Date: 4/2/2009

 

Officer(s) Additional Officers: No 

 

Officer: DAVID YOUNG
Title: Manager
Address 1: 8120 JEFFERSON HIGHWAY
City, State, Zip: BATON ROUGE, LA 70809-1626

 

Cain said that the bar originally was set up to serve trainees during a time that an outfit called Triple Canopies leased the JESTC facility. Triple Canopy, founded in May 2003 by veteran U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers, is a private security company that provides risk management, security, and mission support services for corporate, government and non-profit clients. “It wasn’t set up for folks to come in, have a drink, and then drive home,” Cain said. “It was for temporary residents undergoing training to have a drink before going to bed in the dormitory.”

The last event at which alcohol was sold at the facility, he said, “was in 2010.”

But sources told LouisianaVoice that at least two events were held after that date at which alcohol was served at a free bar. Both were memorials held in June of 2013 and September 2015, with the invitation to the latter specifically promoting “prayer, fellowship, food and beverages.”

LSTA describes itself on its Web page as a benevolent organization committed to improved pay and benefits, a better working environment, to providing support when needed, and to increasing the quality of life for members. “We also strive to improve the public services provided by our members to our community,” it says.

LouisianaVoice obtained a copy of LSTA’s 2009 federal tax return in which it itemized more than $875,000 in expenses, of which only $86,156 was for “miscellaneous member benefits” and “contributions and gifts.” Employee salaries and benefits accounted for $179,000 and another $142,000 was spent on “conferences, conventions and meetings,” lending credence to claims by some that LSTA is more of a source of parties than benevolent works.

Among the itemized LSTA salaries, were those of then-President Frank Besson ($16,000) and Treasurer Stephen Lafargue ($4,800). The report said Besson devoted eight hours per week to his LSTA duties and Lafargue two hours per week.

The tax return also showed that LSTA received $9,816 for “operation of a bar for members of the association.” http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/720/720841049/720841049_200912_990O.pdf

LouisianaVoice attempted to contact Young for a comment but we were told he was out of the office. We then emailed Cain, explaining that ATC records showed that LSTA held a liquor license under the name of LSTA Enterprises, LLC in 2009 and 2010.

Secretary of state records for LSTA Enterprises, LLC, we said in an email to Cain, listed David Young as the agent, officer and manager and records further show the entity to still be viable as a filing of June 2016. Corporate records show the address as 8120 Jefferson Highway, which is the address of LSTA.

LSTA Enterprises LLC, however, gave 1400 West Irene Road, Zachary, as the address for its liquor permit. That, of course, is the address of JESTC, we wrote.

We then asked: Does LSP take the position, given its public stance against drinking and driving, that allowing a private entity to sell alcoholic beverages on property “maintained and operated” by LSP is appropriate?

Rather than address the propriety of operating a bar on LSP property, however, Cain went to great lengths to deny that such an operation still exists and that its only purpose in 2010 was to serve on-site patrons who were being temporarily housed at the JESTC facility.

Posted in ATC, Ethics, State Police | 5 Comments »

Louisiana Tech Alum Nico Van Thyn authors book about parents’ experience as survivors of Nazi Holocaust camps

November 1, 2016 by tomaswell

Recently I wrote about friend and former co-worker O.K. “Buddy” Davis who suffered a disabling stroke a few years back but who continues to cover sports for The Ruston Daily Leader.

Today’s post is about another friend of both Buddy’s and mine. And while we never worked together at the same time, we did work for the same newspapers at different times in our career.

Nico Van Thyn, like Buddy and me, is a graduate of the Louisiana Tech University School of Journalism and like yours truly, he has an Internet blog. While my writing efforts are generally dedicated to the misdeeds of various politicos, he concentrates on writing in Once a Knight primarily about graduates of Woodlawn High School in Shreveport. People like Terry Bradshaw, Trey Prather, Joe Ferguson and Tommy Spinks.

But again, like yours truly, he often writes about other topics and that is the reason for this post.

Nico’s story is quite unique and we’re the better for his having written about it. It’s a story we should never allow ourselves to forget. Ever.

You see, Nico’s parents were Jewish victims of Hitler’s concentration camps. Unlike six million others, however, they were fortunate to have survived the Holocaust. And they carried the numbers the Nazis tattooed on their left forearms for the remainder of their respective lives to prove it.

(How anyone can deny the Holocaust simply defies all logic.)

Encouraged and goaded by friends to combine the individual posts about his parents into a single volume, he at first resisted but finally relented and the result is his wonderful—and poignant—book, A tribute to Survivors: 62511, 70726.

Of his book, Van Thyn says it is available through the self-publishing company, CreateSpace, and it is listed on Amazon. “The title is the story of my parents and their lives before and after they were Holocaust survivors,” he says. “The numbers in the title are the numbers the Nazis tattooed on their left forearms.”

As much as it is Rose and Louis Van Thyn’s stories, it is also the story of Nico and sister Elsa and their journey from Amsterdam to the United States.

Anyone who has followed Nico’s blog for the past five years probably has already seen much of the material in the book. But it has been a while since the early chapters, and you might not have seen many of the photos in the book.

“Doing this has been a labor of love,” Nico says, “and several people encouraged me to do it. And it also has been a labor.

“Trying to do it on my own two years ago, I failed miserably because I am not that technical savvy. It was driving me more nuts than I already am—and it also was driving someone who lives with me a little battier than she already is. So I dropped the idea. But as I kept writing about my parents’ stories on this blog, people kept telling me I should put it together in a book.

“There are a couple of heroes responsible for it finally happening. Tom Johanningmeier, deputy sports editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (my journalism home for a final decade of work), formatted the whole thing, really put it together. Janet Glaspie, who lived down the street from my parents in Shreveport for years and helped care for them, proofread the pages and made many good suggestions and necessary fixes.

“Without them, I am not a published author,” he said.

“I never had great desire to write a book, but as I state  in the introduction to the book, I wanted my parents’ stories in one place for their many friends and mostly for our family, for the generations.

“And here’s what else; it can’t be said enough: The Holocaust was real, and the threat of oppression and genocide remains ever-present. There are people out there who deny the Holocaust, who excuse what happened, who say it is fictional history.

“They are so wrong, wrong, wrong. Often loud wrong. I knew two people who lived through it, and who told their stories.

“And I’ve retold those stories.”

To order the book (the list price is $15, plus shipping charges):

https://www.createspace.com/6486186 (this is the preferable option, although you might have to create a free CreateSpace account to place an order)

https://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Holocaust-stories-Amsterdam-Auschwitz/dp/153698308X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476637062&sr=1-1

Kindle: (price $2.99, no photos) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MF8CYKV

(Personal note to Nico: Thanks so much. While we love our sports, your parents are the real heroes. We agree completely with all those who commented on your Facebook page: this is a story that begged to be told because it’s so important that we never forget.)

rose-van-thyn-memorial

Posted in Book Review | 1 Comment »

‘Do you know who I am?’ can be effective get-out-of-jail card–if you have connections to the Golden Meadow police chief

October 30, 2016 by tomaswell

Ever heard someone (usually immediately after being caught doing something illegal or irresponsible) ask “Do you know who I am?”

Jamie Louviere of Galliano in Lafourche Parish has used the phrase—or more specifically, “Do you who my daddy is?”—as a get out of jail free card.

Literally.

Several times.

Over the past decade, Louviere has been arrested on numerous charges, including simple-battery-resisting-arrest, disturbing the peace, possession of a controlled substance (Hydrocodone, marijuana), drunk and disorderly, theft, criminal damage to property, simple battery, simple-assault-on-a-school-teacher, battery on a police officer (on more than one occasion), domestic abuse and even one charge of aggravated sexual battery by committing sodomy on a sleeping male with salt, a beer bottle and the handle of a hair brush.

With each encounter, she quickly invoked the name of her father, Chet Louviere who, depending on the date of her daughter’s arrest, was the current or former Golden Meadow chief of police and who is currently a candidate for the Golden Meadow town council.

And with each encounter, she has managed to get off with little or no punishment.

Confusing matters even more is the fact that one of her arrests was for domestic violence against her boyfriend, a resident of Galliano in Lafourche Parish but somehow a member of the Grand Isle town council in Jefferson Parish.

Her first arrest was for possession of Hydrocodone in November 2006. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment (suspended) and three years’ supervised probation (Nov. 3, 2006 to Nov. 3, 2009). While on supervised probation, she served 28 days for violation of her probation after pleading guilty to second degree sexual battery. Again, she received a suspended sentence and was (again) placed on supervised probation from April 18, 2008, to April 18, 2011.

She was placed on unsupervised probation on June 10, 2014, and on Aug. 26, 2016, she pleaded guilty to simple assault on a school teacher.

And while the state’s jails and prisons are overflowing with prisoners guilty of nothing more than being caught with a few joints, when Jamie Louviere, after all her arrests for physical violence, was busted for possession of marijuana, she managed to get off with simple community service.

Normally, such programs are offered to first-time offenders as an opportunity to avoid jail time, not to those who habitually physically attack or threaten boyfriends, cops and school teachers. Such pre-trial intervention programs are offered to discourage future criminal activity or disorderly behavior.

To be eligible for participation in the program, a defendant must be a first-time, non-violent offender. Participants are selected following a review of pending charges by the district attorney’s staff.

It also is considered as an educational and rehabilitative program though Louviere doesn’t seem to have learned very much or to have been rehabilitated.

While awaiting a recent court appearance, her Facebook messages seemed to indicate she was more interested in a “ Jägerbomb” party than with the trial itself.

party

Nice to have the priorities in order. Especially so long as we know who her daddy is.

Posted in Ethics, Politicians | 6 Comments »

The list of sports celebrities who have visited Buddy Davis’s Jack Lambert Room reads like a true athletic Hall of Fame

October 24, 2016 by tomaswell

(Editor’s note: Occasionally, I take a point of personal privilege and depart from politics to cover a story that has deeper meaning to me. The following is one of those):

Several decades ago, his father took him to see the Harlem Globetrotters at Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport (where the phrase “Elvis has left the building” was born). As they sat in the stands, his dad turned to him and pointed to a tall, thin, elderly black man dressed in a dark suit and sitting courtside. “You should go down there and get that man’s autograph.”

The boy looked at the man and asked, “Why should I get his autograph?”

“That’s Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers of all time,” his dad said.

O.K. “Buddy” Davis followed the advice of his father Howard Davis and obtained Paige’s autograph. “If it hadn’t been for my dad telling me, I never would’ve gotten that autograph,” Davis said last Saturday (Oct. 22).

Perhaps encouraged by that exposure to the Globetrotters, by the Paige autograph—or both—Davis would go on to one of the most rewarding careers as a sportswriter that a young boy sitting in the stands in Hirsch back in the 1960s could ever have imagined.

And while others in his journalism classes at Louisiana Tech would move on to large metropolitan newspapers, he chose to eschew a bigger paycheck to stay home. He would spend his entire career as Sports Editor (he would later promote himself to Executive Sports Editor) of his small hometown newspaper, the Ruston Daily Leader, the same paper that launched the careers of numerous other writers, including yours truly. Along the way he would accumulate a roomful of reporting awards that would make any big-time writer envious.

And while covering north Louisiana sports that was—and is—a hotbed of football talent, he would never stop adding to that autograph list initiated by Paige’s signature.

A partial list of autographs owned by Davis: Bobby Thompson (of the 1951 shot heard around the world off Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca), Willie Mays, Joe Adcock, Jimmy Connors, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Unitas (which was the only autograph that I had—until it was lost in last August’s floods), Bart Starr, Dizzy Dean, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Red Grange, former Saints kicker Morten Andersen, Jim Mora, Archie Manning, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Knight, Brett Favre, Jim Brown, Gayle Sayers, former LSU football greats Billy Cannon, Jim Taylor and Y.A. Tittle, former Grambling greats Willie Davis, Alan Ladd and Buck Buchanan, Bob Cousy, Yogi Berra, the “ol’ perfesser,” Casey Stengel, Nolan Ryan, Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Joe Torre and Ron Guidry, to name only a few.

Once, after the New York Yankees played an exhibition game at Grambling, Davis was interviewing a Yankee player in the dressing room when Reggie Jackson came in. Davis was apparently in the space reserved for Jackson who looked at Davis and said, “Move your ass.” Despite that less than auspicious meeting, Buddy got Jackson’s autograph.

Davis has penned some wonderful stories. One of those was about a Ruston kid named Kendall Flournoy who had lost a leg to cancer but still played Little League baseball. It was a story, poignant-laden with Buddy’s personal touch, that would bring a lump to the most jaded reader’s throat. Conversely, Buddy’s personal worst, according to consensus opinion, was his coverage of the day Bert Jones was drafted by the then-Baltimore Colts. Buddy staked out the Jones household in the early morning hours and provided a minute-by-minute account of the Jones family’s activities–starting when Bert first woke up. He took a lot of ribbing from friend Gene Smith and me for that work of less than journalistic excellence.

That story, though, was the exception. Buddy was a one-man sports department, churning out more stories in a single day than most writers do in a busy week, covering everything from T-ball to Tech-ball. And just for the record, be assured every writer has a full collection of stories that should never have been written (one of my personal Hall of Shame entries, among many,  is the one in which a cousin conned me into doing a story for The Shreveport Times about her writing a number-one hit song when in fact, she never wrote it—or any other song, for that matter. Ruston radio station KRUS also got caught up in the hype, thanks to my Times story, and did a lengthy interview with her, further perpetuating the hoax).

Buddy was one of the few writers who would give Eddie Robinson and the Grambling Tigers their due. Grambling, after all, at one time had more former players in the NFL than any other university in America—including Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame or Texas. Buddy was completely color blind and he was there for every game—from Los Angeles to New York to Hawaii to Tokyo. He even covered the Munich Olympic Games but, never forsaking his roots, was still an unabashed promoter of Ruston High, Louisiana Tech, Grambling and later, Cedar Creek High School. He was there when Terry Bradshaw threw a touchdown pass in the Grantland Rice Bowl with defensive players hanging all over him. He was there when Denny Duron threw a touchdown pass to Roger Carr to clinch the national championship in the 1973 playoffs. He was there for each of Ruston High School’s state football championships in the ’80s and ’90s. He was there when Tommy Durrett hit the winning basket to win a state championship for Simsboro High School and Coach Barry Canterbury.

Yes, he was a “homer,” perhaps having learned that from his mentor, the late Maj. L.J. Fox, a fellow Daily Leader sports columnist who never saw a Ruston High School Bearcat team or a Ruston Contractor American Legion baseball team that he didn’t think would take State.

He was also slightly mischievous. Once, while talking to Buddy in the Ruston Walmart, I detected an especially offensive—and unmistakable—odor. A passing shopper also picked up on the smell from nearly 30 feet away and, looking around for the source, promptly walked right into a column that nearly knocked the poor man unconscious. I turned to Buddy and he was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat—a guilty Cheshire Cat, to be sure.

Buddy never married. Or perhaps he did, choosing a desk in the back section of the Daily Leader as his bride. It was a marriage that lasted more than 40 years. To say that desk was piled high with stories and photos and stats and records and back issues of the Daily Leader would be like saying Donald Trump is a rich egoist. How he could ever find anything on that desk remains one of the great mysteries of our time.

Today, Buddy resides in the Jack Lambert room of a Ruston nursing home (that’s Room 58 for the non-student of sports trivia; Jack Lambert played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and wore jersey number 58).

You see, a couple of years back Buddy failed to show up for work. When Daily Leader Publisher Rick Holt sent someone to check on him, he was found face down on his kitchen floor, having suffered a disabling stroke some 18 hours earlier. That’s right, he lay helpless and alone, unable to summon help, for 18 hours. And still he somehow survived.

And while he is unable to walk today, the stroke has had the effect of merely slowing him down but not stopping him. His mind is still razor-sharp (don’t ever try to beat him at sports trivia) and he still gets out from time to time to cover an occasional sporting event from his motorized chair. He accepted an Outstanding Alumnus award from Louisiana Tech from that chair during halftime of a Tech football game.

During his confinement in his Room 58 bed (a room adorned with signed sports posters and photos), he has received visitors representative of a veritable sports hall of fame. They include Terry Bradshaw, Bert Jones, former Tech and New Orleans Saints great Willie Roaf, former Grambling and Atlanta Braves baseball star Ralph Garr, former outstanding Ruston High, Tech, and Braves pitcher George Stone, former Tech and Canadian Football League great Tommy Hinton, former Houston Astros pitcher J.R. Richard, Tech and Chicago Bear fullback Roland Harper, former Ruston High, Tech and San Francisco 49er player Fred Dean, Baylor women’s basketball coach and former Tech All-American Kim Mulkey, former Grambling and New York Knicks basketball star Willis Reed, former Tech All-American and Utah Jazz NBA All-Star Karl Malone, and former Tech player and Tech women’s basketball coach Leon Barmore.

And that’s just a partial list.

Despite his having covered all those athletes and despite his having formulated close friendships with each of them, he still relishes visits from his everyday friends like Nico Van Thyn, Jack Thigpen, John Sachs, Gene Smith and others.

As Gene Smith and I left his room on Saturday, he said, “Thanks so much for coming by. I appreciate it.” And he meant it.

No, Buddy, thank you for all those years you gave to your hometown and your schools.

And thanks for being a friend and promoter to athletes—the wannabes and the real deals, the little kids and the not-so-little kids.

You are truly an MVP.

 

Posted in Politics | 11 Comments »

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