Louisiana Voice

At least the tariffs imposed by IMPOTUS will have no adverse effects on the continued work of LouisianaVoice.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it takes a finite amount of money to do what we do. While some of our stories do come to us unsolicited, most do not. They require a little digging on our part to ferret out news that affects you in your daily life

That’s the only reason I come to you, hat in hand, twice a year – in April and October. Our April fund drive will continue through the end of the month and I humbly ask for your support. Your dollars will go to keeping politicians honest – even if it’s only by revealing their dishonesty.

You may contribute via credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post or by mailing a check to Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726.

The person making the largest single contribution will be awarded a first-edition copy of Huey Long’s autobiography, Every Man a King and everyone contributing $50 or more will get a signed copy of my latest book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana.

As always, I appreciate your help and your loyalty to this blog for more than 13 years.

Who made our libraries the scapegoats? And why?

In multiple parishes throughout the state, some would have you believe there’s a sudden plague of pornography and child molesters laying waste to the minds and safe being of young people.

Those same crusading zealots would do better to examine the innerworkings of some of our churches than to invoke their Westboro Baptist Church-like self-righteousness onto vulnerable libraries. Let’s be honest, there are plenty of child predator stories in the CATHOLIC, BAPTIST and MORMON  churches, not to mention the SCOUTS. (Sorry if I stepped on some toes, but does anyone actually know of a child being molested in a library? I thought not.)

There’s Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards. The ink wasn’t even dry on his oath of office before he was attempting to claim dedicated library funds to underwrite raises for police and firemen.

Police and firemen need raises, no question about it. But so do teachers. So do bus drivers, road repair crewmen and social security recipients who are subsisting on a fixed income. So do a lot of other people. Runaway inflation has made that abundantly clear and it’s likely to get worse. That doesn’t change the word “dedicated,” nor does it justify going after those dedicated funds.

When voters pass a tax “dedicated” to any specific proposition, be it mosquito abatement, street repair, water and sewer line construction or ball parks for kids, that’s what they want to see the money go for. Same with library taxes.

Now the Baton Rouge scenario is being repeated in Grant Parish, only this time the local police jury, in its eagerness to skirt the law has in fact used the law to have the parish library director arrested.

Funny thing is, she’s arrested but no charges have been announced. That’s correct. We don’t know why Deidra Fuqua, who holds a master’s degree in library science and who has been on the job about a decade, has been arrested but the fact is, she has. Did I mention that she’s the second-lowest paid library director in the state? She’s a member of the Grant Parish community, yet the local police jury, in its greed and haste, turned on her as if she were a pariah.

“The arrest of the director of the library in Grant Parish is the third step in the pattern of the Grant Parish Police Jury to steal the dedicated funds of the Grant Parish Library System to which the citizens of Grant Parish voted and dedicated the funding,” said her attorney, Eugene P. Cicardo, Jr., of Alexandria.

What part of the word “dedicated” don’t these people understand?

“They are trying to take away the free delivery and reading of the senior citizens of Grant Parish; to do away with the internet and access to free books and reading for the rural citizens of Grant Parish; and to further, decimate the entire library system in Grant Parish,” which Cicardo said is a “self-funded system which provides summer reading and other programs for the youth of Grant Parish.”

What’s more, the police jury recently went into executive session and emerged to say the entire library board was fired and the police jury members will sit as library board members.

The hitch there is the library budget of something a little north of $850,000 is administered by…wait for it…the library board – and the police jury just happens to be  ..uh, broke. Sound familiar?

So, the police jury fired the board, named itself the board (kinda like Donald Trump firing the board of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and naming himself chairman, except on a somewhat smaller scale) and seized the financial records.

Then, on Monday, a search warrant was executed on Fuqua and the library. Among the records sought were the financial records – except they were unavailable because they are now with the police jury, but somebody should’ve known that.

No matter. It seems a 2023 audit of the library was, shall we say, “botched” and it no longer exists, or so we’re told. But wait. Lo and behold, the audit for the year ended Dec. 31, 2023 (which would be the 2023 audit, unless someone knows something I don’t), is available after all (see the full audit HERE) and on page 23, it says quite clearly that there were no findings to be reported on internal control and compliance material to the financial statements nor to the internal control and compliance material to federal awards. Moreover, it says, “No management letter was issued with [the] report.” Management letters are traditionally issued when there is any non-compliance.

In short, the audit was squeaky clean but apparently the police jury wants a mulligan.

So, the police jury was told there is a new audit that reflects poorly on the library. Thus, the library director was arrested and bond set at $7500. Only, the 2024 audit is not available either, because it’s in draft form.

In short, the audit was squeaky clean but apparently the police jury wants a mulligan.

So, bottom line: clean audit, but she’s arrested nonetheless. But there are no charges filed with the arrest.

Sounds like one helluva lawsuit to me.

Folks, please don’t forget that April is one of our two months per year that we hold fund raisers. With the double shot of the Trump and Landry nonsense, we stand to be quite busy. And with public records becoming ever more difficult to obtain, our legal costs are going to rise like tariffs on Canadian lumber.

I humbly ask for your support (as you always have) so that we can continue to make good trouble and to fight the good fight (apologies to John Lewis and the Apostle Paul).

Remember, the largest single contribution from an individual will receive a first-edition copy of Huey Long’s autobiography, Every Man a King. There also will be other giveaways. For example, all contributions of $50 or more will receive a free copy of my latest book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana.

The resistance is more critical now than ever before. Not to be too much of an alarmist, but our courts, our schools, our freedom of speech and the very rule of law are under siege. I’m old enough that I won’t be hurt that badly, but our children and grandchildren are going to be the ones who will bear the brunt of what’s being done to undermine our way of life.

You may contribute by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post, or by sending a check to Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, LA. 70726.

Your contribution, large or small, is greatly appreciated.

The state adopted a new constitution in 1974 which said, in part, that the Louisiana Attorney General’s office was limited in its ability to intervene in a local matter. One provision that allowed AG participation in a matter was upon specific request by a local governing authority, i.e. police jury, school board, city council, etc. It was a provision fought bitterly by then-Attorney General William Guste but the local district attorney lobby was too strong to overcome.

 The other condition for intervention, according to State Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Pineville), is on the direction of the governor.

Anyway, that’s what Johnson’s HB-64 says.

The bill, pre-filed with a couple dozen other bills as the April 14 opening day of the 2025 session approaches, appears to be an attempted power grab by Gov. Jeff Landry via Liz Murrill and the AG’s office.

The bill proposes that nothing in present law shall limit the authority of the attorney general as she (no gender-neutral there) deems appropriate, “to render such special services or assume full charge and control of all legal proceedings…”

The bill harkens memories for us old-timers of the 1950s and -60s legislative efforts in combatting desegregation by saying, “Proposed law provides that it is a declared interest of the state that the attorney general preserve and defend the state’s autonomy, independence and sovereignty in all legal matters and disputes including but not limited to the federal government.”

It also says that the proposed law “provides that the state’s sovereign interests refer to any matter, concern or situation that directly or indirectly affects the states or rights of the state and its citizens.” Oh, joy, bring out the separate water fountains and rest rooms.

It also brings back memories of when Earl Long, the realist, called out staunch segregationist Leander Perez, who insisted on preserving the KKK white heritage by shouting, “Whatcha gonna do now, Leander? The feds have the A-bomb!

But we’re not finished yet. The bill also says that the proposed law would allow the attorney, “in her name,” or through special counsel (read: favored private law firm), represent the state and all departments and agencies of state government, state boards and commissions, state officials and employees…as we as any local political subdivisions… in order to preserve, protect, and defend the interests of the state.”

It further stipulates that no entity, state or local, “may enter into any judgment by consent in federal court without the approval of the attorney general and the governor when the proposed judgment creates or establishes continuing jurisdiction or creates binding obligations.”

That language would prohibit a local entity like say, the Orleans Parish prison or a local school board from negotiating a consent decree over prisoner treatment, or method of desegregation without the attorney general and governor’s say-so.

Get this: it also says the proposed law would apply to any pending consent decree or “any judgment that imposes continuing jurisdiction of any court over the state or any state department,” including local school boards.

Talk about adding to the layers of bureaucracy.