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Louisiana Voice introduces Jindal Bingo

February 17, 2011 by tomaswell

Okay, readers, LouisianaVoice is introducing a new game for everyone to play. It’s called JINDAL BINGO.

You play it just like you play regular bingo except instead of letters and numbers, Jindal catch-phrases will be called out and when you have a square that is labeled with the catch-phrase that is called, you cover it with a kernel of pure corn. The first person to complete a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line with five straight kernels is the winner. The prize, we’re sorry to say, is another four years of Jindalisms.

Okay, get your cards ready and let’s play:

We’re in the state 90% of the time

Transparency

Stop whining

I have the job I want

Do more with less

Will be forthcoming

Veterans’ medals

A great idea!

Privatize

Three things:

Leadership and Crisis

Absolutely

BP

Merge UNO and SUNO (No one in New Orleans voted for me anyway)

Berms

No pay raise for classified employees

More berms

Gustav

Merge Tech and Grambling? No way. North Louisiana loves me.

Screw up State Employee Health Insurance Contract

Blame the moratorium for everything

Will not take stimulus money

Took stimulus money but didn’t tell anyone

FREE SPACE: DID NOT ENDORSE VITTER

Most ethical administration

Student-based budgeting

Building a better Louisiana

Race to the Top. No, wait. TOPS. I meant TOPS.

Chicken plant

Vitter who?

North Louisiana Protestant church testimony

Veterans Honor Medals

Deep Water Horizon

Photo-op

Hands-on leadership

Accountability

Tax breaks

No tax increase

P.S. Please feel free to log on and add any other Jindalisms you can recall. We need as many as possible to make the game competitive.

Posted in Civil Service, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Taxes, Transparency, Vitter | 1 Comment »

Barry Seal murder in Baton Rouge 25 years ago helped expose Iran-Contra debacle

February 14, 2011 by tomaswell

By Tom Aswell

Saturday, February 19, will mark the 25th anniversary of one of the most sensational high-profile killings to rock Baton Rouge since the 1935 assassination of U.S. Sen. Huey Long.

The brutal murder of Barry Seal, 46, at a Baton Rouge halfway house in 1986 would send shock waves up and down the political spectrum. It would focus the glare of the media spotlight on not only the Colombian Medellin Cartel, but also on the FBI and CIA as well as such political icons as then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and Oliver North.

Most of all, Seal’s murder would lay bare for all the world to see the seamy underbelly of America’s duplicitous war on drugs, and how drug smuggling was in fact sanctioned by powerful men in order to advance a hidden agenda. That agenda would turn up in the sordid details of the Iran-Contra scandal.

Seal’s life—and death—would seem a perfect fit for Hollywood. In fact, there was a made-for-cable movie, Double Crossed, that starred Dennis Hopper as Seal.

Seal, who began flying at age of 15, flew weapons to Fidel Castro in 1958 when Castro was fighting to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. It was only after Castro succeeded in overthrowing Batista in 1959 and declared himself a Marxist that other forces then began their efforts to overthrow Castro.

In 1964, Seal went to work for TWA and became their youngest 707 captain and later their youngest 747 captain. He was fired by TWA after his 1972 arrest in New Orleans on charges of flying explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. The buyer, it turned out, was a federal agent. Soon after that, Seal turned to drug smuggling and subsequently was arrested in Honduras with 40 kilos of cocaine worth a reported $25 million.

He spent nine months in a Honduran prison and while there, met William Roger Reeves, a fellow prisoner who worked for the Ochoa family of Medellin, Colombia. Reeves, Ochoa’s New Orleans business manager, brought Seal into what in 1982 officially became the Medellin Cartel after Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar joined forces to form a 2,000-man army to destroy M-19, the Marxist revolutionary group that was causing problems for the Colombian drug barons.

By 1982, Seal was making regular runs on behalf of the Medellin Cartel, bringing tons of cocaine into the U.S. It was at this time that he moved his operations from Baton Rouge to Mena, Arkansas. Whether known or not at the time by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, the use of the Mena airport by Seal and others would be used by detractors in efforts to tie Clinton to drug smuggling conspiracies, especially during his first four years as President.

In 1984, Seal was indicted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on charges of smuggling Quaaludes and money laundering. Facing a 10-year prison sentence, he decided to flip but federal prosecutors were not interested in a deal so he simply went over their heads. He flew to Washington and met with two members of Vice President George Bush’s Task Force on Drugs.

In secret testimony before the task force, Seal said the Medellin Cartel had cut a deal with the Marxist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The agreement, Seal said, called for the cartel to give a cut of drug profits to the Sandinistas in exchange for use of an airfield in Managua as a trans-shipment point for narcotics.

That news proved too enticing for President Reagan who was eager to wage an all-out war on the Sandinistas. Because Reagan feared another communist regime in the Western Hemisphere, Seal was enlisted as an undercover informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

By this time, Seal had purchased a C-123. The larger transport plane, which he affectionately referred to as The Fat Lady, was needed to haul tons of cocaine for the cartel. As part of his agreement with DEA, he rigged the C-123 with a hidden camera and was able to photograph Pablo Escobar helping Nicaraguan soldiers load 1,200 kilos of cocaine at the Managua airport. Reagan was ecstatic and went on national television shortly afterwards, waving the photograph given to him by Col. Oliver North and denouncing the Sandinistas as “drug smugglers corrupting American youth.”

As a result of Seal’s cooperation, the judge in his Florida case praised Seal and reduced his sentence to six months probation.

North, meanwhile, was busy orchestrating a complicated arms deal with Iran in negotiations to obtain Iran’s help in freeing seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. The U.S. would conceal the transactions by selling the weapons first to Israel and then re-selling them at significant “off the books” markups to Iran’s Islamist government for use in its war with Iraq. Despite several such transactions, it would take years to obtain freedom for all the prisoners.

Part of the $48 million paid by Iran to the U.S. for the Hawk and TOW missiles was in turn used to fund the Contras in their fight against the Marxist Sandinistas. This was in direct violation of a 1984 law banning such aid.

In December of 1984, Seal was arrested in Louisiana for flying a cargo of marijuana into the state. U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola was bound by the Florida plea agreement and was furious at being powerless to put Seal away.

Polozola on December 20, 1985, invoked the sentence handed down by the Florida judge and sentenced Seal to six months supervised probation, taking the occasion to say that people like Seal were “the lowest, most despicable people I can think of.” A condition of the sentence was that he had to spend every night, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at the Salvation Army halfway house on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. Polozola further stipulated that Seal could not carry a gun or hire armed bodyguards.

Seal’s attorney, Lewis Unglesby, told Polozola his ruling amounted to a death sentence for his client. Seal told friends that the judge “made me a clay pigeon.”

At 6 p.m. on February 19, 1986, Seal promptly drove up to the Salvation Army in his white Cadillac. As he parked his car, he was approached by a man carrying an assault weapon. Two quick bursts riddled Seal’s head and chest, killing him instantly.

On March 27, a state grand jury in Baton Rouge indicted Miguel Velez, Bemardo Antonio Vasquez, Luis Quintero, and Jose Renteria-Campo for the murder. In May of 1987, a jury found Vasquez, Velez, and Quintero guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced all three to life in prison without parole. Renteria-Campo was extradited to Miami to be tried on federal weapons charges.

Unglesby said the Medellin Cartel killed Seal to prevent the extradition of Medellin Cartel co-leader Jorge Ochoa from Spain, where he was hiding. U.S. authorities wanted to put him on trial for drug smuggling. “It worked,” Unglesby said. “Ochoa wasn’t extradited.”

But even in death, Seal would not go away easily.

On March 3, 1986, only two weeks after Seal was murdered, Louisiana Attorney General William Guste hand-delivered a five-page letter to U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese. In his letter, Guste made a formal request for a complete investigation with respect to the government’s relationship with and handling of Seal.

“In October, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Narcotics and Drug Interdiction of the President’s Commission on Organized Crime, I had presided over a seminar at which Barry Seal had testified,” Guste continued.

“His purpose there was to inform the commission and top United States officials of the methods and equipment used by drug smugglers….and (he) was scheduled to be a key witness in the government’s case against Jorge Ochoa-Vasques, the head of one of the largest drug cartels in the world. WHY WAS SUCH AN IMPORTANT WITNESS NOT GIVEN PROTECTIOIN WHETHER HE WANTED IT OR NOT?” Guste asked, using all capital letters.

There was no word as to whether or not Meese ever responded to Guste’s letter.

Seven months after Guste delivered his letter to Meese, on October 5, 1986, a Sandinista patrol shot down a C-123 cargo plane that was supplying the Contras. Eugene Hasenfus, who was on board the plane, survived the crash and told his captors that he thought the CIA was behind the operation to supply the Contras.

It proved to be the singular event that blew the Iran-Contra scandal wide open. The C-123 that had been shot down was The Fat Lady, Seal’s beloved cargo plane. Somehow, the plane had fallen into the hands of Oliver North and his covert operation.

Hasenfus said that was by sheer coincidence.

That’s not likely. Seal’s offshore bank accounts disappeared and the IRS filed a multi-million dollar lien against his assets. His property, including his home and all his airplanes, were seized. Seal’s wife was said to have found George Bush’s private phone number in Seal’s wallet. The C-123 was ultimately sold to a company with connections to the CIA and was shot down soon afterwards.

In 1993, Colombian and U.S. authorities cornered Pablo Escobar at a house in Medellin and killed the drug kingpin in a shootout.

The CIA, DEA, and State Department have each been implicated in various drug trafficking enterprises that were used to fund illegal covert operations in nations all over the globe.

A quarter-century later, America’s war on drugs continues at a cost of $52 billion per year, or $1600 for every second of every day. That investment includes not only the cost of preventative measures, but also the cost of housing fully 20 percent of all federal and state prison inmates (more than 400,000) for drug-related offenses.

Posted in Politics | 27 Comments »

Jindal prison recidivism rates flawed

February 9, 2011 by tomaswell

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BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Our Rhodes Scholar governor may have employed some rather unique mathematical machinations to arrive at what the Baton Rouge Advocate called a “stunning statistic.” Jindal, amending an earlier figure, now says the state’s first- and second-year prisoner recidivism rate has dropped by 33 percent.

Jindal used the figure to bolster his program to ease the release of some nonviolent prisoners as a cost-savings measure and to reduce recidivism (repeat offenders who are returned to prison).

The only problem is he used what he referred to as “first- and second-year recidivism” to arrive at his figure. Truth be told, there is no such thing as first- and second-year recidivism. Recidivism rate, by definition, means the ratio of the number of recidivists to the number of felons who return to incarceration “during the specified period,” usually five years, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Even Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said Louisiana normally uses a five-year comparison because it offers a more accurate picture. At a Jan. 20 new conference, for example, Jindal cited a five-year recidivism rate for the state of 48 percent, a figure he now considers too high.

LeBlanc did say that some states measure recidivism rates on a three-year basis. He said, however that five years “is a better reflection” of the true recidivism rate.

Corrections Department spokesperson Pam LaBorde said using a fewer number of years, as was done by Jindal, generally produces a lower recidivism rate.

For example, if 100 prisoners were released and 20 were back in prison the next year, that would be a recidivism rate of 20 percent. But if another 20 of the original 100 recidivated in year three, the recidivism rate of the original 100 would be 40 percent. Likewise if another 20 were recidivated the fourth year, the rate would be 60 percent.

Jindal press secretary Kyle Plotkin said Jindal used the first- and second-year rates because he has only been in office for three years. He said the 33 percent rate proves that some of the “reentry programs” begun by Jindal are working.

But, LeBlanc, appearing to refute his boss, said, “Some who do not come back after the first year may come back after the fourth year.” That being said, the “stunning statistic” to which the Advocate alluded may turn out to be “stunning” only in the clever use of smoke and mirrors employed to arrive at the figure.

As Mark Twain once observed, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Like Louisiana Music? Be sure to check out Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll! This book is the only complete history of all genres of Louisiana rock and roll. Re-live all those great old songs that used to play late nights on WTIX, WNOE, KAAY. Learn about all the great artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, D.J. Fontana, Floyd Cramer, and Hank Williams who got their start on the Louisiana Hayride. Check your local bookstore or log onto http://www.louisianarockstomaswell.com.

Posted in Governor's Office, Prison, Transparency | 2 Comments »

Time for Hebert and Sibille to resign from the University of Louisiana Board of Trustees–in open session

February 7, 2011 by tomaswell

The late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, speaking of open meetings and above-board actions of elected and appointed officials, once said that sunshine is still the best disinfectant.

A metaphoric observation, of course, but nonetheless applicable in the case of the recent first-ever joint meeting of Louisiana’s five higher education boards.

Apparently at least two members of the University of Louisiana System Board of Trustees don’t see the necessity of making board decisions in the open and in public view.

Strangely enough, it took a suggestion from an outsider to inadvertently elicit remarks by the two ULS trustees that perhaps Louisiana should have no open meetings laws on the books.

Their utterances, whether made out of arrogance or ignorance, should anger every voter in Louisiana. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s “transparency in government” long ago turned into a sick joke, so there’s no need to add insult to injury.

Terry MacTaggart of the national Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (yes, it turns out even university governing boards have their own national lobby), served as moderator for the event and suggested to board members that they hold a “pre-meeting” in order to formulate policy.

Such “pre-meeting” would be in direct violation of the state’s open meetings laws which expressly prohibit any public body meeting in secret to discuss business. Board of Regents Chairman Bob Levy of Ruston, who also serves as district attorney for the Third Judicial District of Louisiana that includes Lincoln and Union parishes, was quick to set MacTaggart straight. He told MacTaggart, who works out of Washington, D.C., that Louisiana law strictly prohibits such activity.

It was at this point that ULS board member Gerald “T-Boy” Hebert and board Chairman Winfred Sibille contributed their opinions that should demand their immediate resignations.

Hebert, a major financial contributor to the University of Louisiana Lafayette, responding to Levy’s reminder of the requirements of the state’s “vigorous open meetings law,” hinted that perhaps a “joint effort to lobby the Legislature will change the law.”

Wait. What?

Did he really suggest weakening or worse, abolishing the state’s open meetings law? Sounds that way to us.

But in a statement that dripped with irony, Sibille said, “The worst thing that can happen at a board meeting is a surprise.” That remark in itself was something of a surprise. Apparently all public meetings are supposed to go smoothly with no debate or open discussion. Sibille then underscored that sentiment when he added, “All problems should be resolved before the meeting.”

Perhaps not since the days of Huey Long has anyone been so brazen as to suggest that public input be shut out of the decision-making process by any public body in Louisiana.

Open political debate has been the hallmark of this country’s government since its founding nearly 235 years ago. In New England they still have town meetings which are nothing like the orchestrated, controlled town meetings held by presidents Bush and Clinton and our current governor. Those are sound bite opportunities. New England town meetings are the bedrock of democracy. At those events, local citizens actively participate in policy-making decisions. To suggest otherwise to the citizenry there would be an open invitation to a new American Revolution.

If Hebert and Sibille are so arrogant as to have even a scintilla of conviction in what they said in that joint meeting, they should resign immediately.

If they are so ignorant as to not realize the ramifications of their remarks, then they have no business serving on any public board—certainly not the self-parody of a board of higher education—and they should resign immediately.

In short, there is no logical reason for either man remaining on any board.

There is no room for public men to advocate private decision-making by a public, taxpayer-supported board out of the sight of the taxpaying public. Their comments should incite outrage among voters.

Conversely, Louisianans owe a debt of gratitude to both Regents Chairman Bob Levy and ULS board member Jimmy Faircloth.

Faircloth, former executive counsel to Gov. Jindal, fired his own volley when he said board members get agendas and background information prior to the meetings so they should be prepared to discuss issues going in. But the public doesn’t always get the full story, he said. “Some of the substance is not discussed in meetings,” he said. “News about higher education is distributed through carefully-tailored press releases.”

Faircloth said none of the board members are elected but instead are appointed, so they should be prepared to make tough decisions and not be afraid of speaking their minds. “It would be healthy for open discussions to be on the record,” he said.

Levy was even blunter. Many board members are afraid of open discussions at open meetings, he said.

That begs the obvious question: Why are they afraid?

We’d be interested in hearing their answers.

Like Louisiana Music? Be sure to check out Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll! This book is the only complete history of all genres of Louisiana rock and roll. Re-live all those great old songs that used to play late nights on WTIX, WNOE, KAAY. Learn about all the great artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, D.J. Fontana, Floyd Cramer, and Hank Williams who got their start on the Louisiana Hayride. Check your local bookstore or log onto http://www.louisianarockstomaswell.com.

Posted in Higher Education, Lobbyist, Public Records, Regents, Transparency | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

State contracts continue to proliferate

February 6, 2011 by tomaswell

The big news out of the nation’s capital last week was a Feb. 3 Washington Post story trumpeting the fact that the federal government spent $15 billion less on contracts for outside products and services during fiscal 2010, the first reduction since 1997.

The $15 billion cutback in contracted services will barely show up in the federal budget but the decrease from $550 billion to $535 billion is a start for those seeking ways to reduce the federal deficit.

The $550 billion spent on contracts during fiscal 2009 was more than double the amount awarded in federal contracts as recently as 2001. Federal contracts have gone unchecked for so long that the practice spawned its own organization. The Professional Services Council is a trade association (read: lobbyist group) formed specifically for the government professional and technical services industry.

Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Legislature might be wise to take their cue from Washington for a change instead of continuing to snipe at the Obama administration—at least on this one issue. Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget will propose an additional reduction of 10 percent in federal contracts. That’s another $50 billion or so in cuts, something that should make fiscal conservatives weep for joy.

For fiscal year 2008-09, the latest data available, Louisiana had 6,304 contracts for goods and services worth a whopping $5 billion, according to the state’s annual report for that year. That figure is somewhat misleading in that nearly $3.2 billion was in the form of 1,083 cooperative endeavor agreements ($2.9 billion), 468 interagency contracts ($213.4 million) and 495 intergovernmental contracts ($79.4 million). In other words, it was money simply shuffled between agencies.

But that still leaves 1,292 professional services contracts ($178 million), 160 personal contracts ($7.4 million), and 1,275 consulting contracts (an eye-popping $1.4 billion).

Like the federal contracts, state contracts have increased by 153 percent in dollar amount since fiscal 2005-06 when a paltry $2 billion in contract work was on the books. That amount made a quantum leap to $3.3 billion the very next year (a 64.6 percent increase), and jumped to $4.7 billion in 2007-08, an increase of another 44.5 percent.

Granted, much of that increase in 2006-07 was for contracts for recovery from two devastating 2005 hurricanes—Katrina and Rita—and granted, much of the money was from the influx of federal disaster relief dollars. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to put her back. In 2008-09 the dollar amount nudged up another $337 million, helping to set the stage for the budgetary disaster now being faced by the Legislature and the Jindal administration.

The state has a $37.2 million interagency contract with the office of the attorney general for legal representation to various state agencies, boards, commissions, and departments but still sees the need for scores of private legal firms across the state to “provide legal services to various state agencies.” Only the top 50 contracts were listed in the report, but 41 of those totaled an additional $33.4 million. Eight of those contracts were for legal services totaling $18.3 million on behalf of indigents statewide, the report said.

Contracts, particularly professional service and consulting contracts are handed out by the state like so much candy on Halloween night and there appears to be little oversight. Fully half of all state contracts awarded during 2008-09 were not approved by the Office of Contractual Review (OCR).

The $5 billion for the 6,304 contracts approved by OCR is only part of the problem. Hidden away among all the numbers spewed out so far is another $655.5 million for 6,341 contracts that were awarded in fiscal year 2008-09 which were approved not by Contractual Review, but by the individual agencies awarding the contracts.

These contracts, awarded under an obscure state law that allows the OCR director to delegate authority to state agencies for approval of professional, personal, consulting and social services contracts. Typically, such contracts are for $20,000 or less but the statute also grants leeway to the OCR director to delegate that authority to any state agency as deemed appropriate.

Accordingly, 5,334 of those contracts awarded under the delegation of authority were for amounts below the $20,000 threshold. Those 5,334 contracts totaled $51.7 million, an average of $9,700 per contract. Another 1,007 contracts totaling $603.7 million, however, were also awarded under the delegation of authority.

More than half of that amount, $330.9 million, was accounted for in 383 contracts awarded by the Office of Group Benefits.

Group Benefits had another 32 contracts totaling $898 million approved by OCR. Other contracts approved by OCR included 282 for the Office of Economic Development ($629.6 million), and 1,080 awarded by the governor’s office through the Division of Administration ($2.3 billion).

One contract, for $68.9 million was apparently a major windfall for Cypress Realty Partners of Baton Rouge. The contract was for an alternative housing pilot program for the Louisiana Recovery Authority. An internet company profile of Cypress Realty said the company employed six people and had annual revenues of $410,000.

Two other contracts, both intergovernmental, were with out-of-state universities and totaled more than $900,000. Jackson State University of Jackson, Mississippi, was awarded a contract in the amount of $536,435 to “recruit, select and train teachers for placement in high need local education agencies/school systems.”

Clemson University of Clemson, South Carolina, was awarded a $375,000 contract to develop “active, selective catalysts for the conversion of natural-gas derived syngas (synthetic gas) to ethanol.”

Several contractors were paid to represent the state in other countries. Pathfinder Team Consulting received a $690,000 contract to provide foreign representative services in Europe while Access Marketing got a $234,000 contract to serve as a foreign marketing representative in Ontario Province and western Canada for the Office of Tourism.

A contract for $148,500 was awarded to Louis Bowden, dba Asia Capital to provide foreign representative services in China. Steve Lee and Hernan Gonzalez each received $75,000 contracts to provide foreign representation in Taiwan and Mexico, respectively. Ofihotel S.A. had a $60,000 contract to provide foreign representation in Central America.

Following is a partial list of contracts for fiscal year 2008-09:

• V- Vehicle Company, Ouachita Parish ($87 million);

• Foster Poultry Farms, Union Parish ($50 million) as inducement to purchase and operate poultry production and processing plant and provide 1,100 jobs;

• Lafourche Parish Council ($24.8 million), repair, rebuild, replace hurricane-damaged infrastructure;

• Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District ($17.5 million) to clear debris from Bayou Lafourche;

• Lafourche Parish School Board ($480,000) to provide academic assistance in literacy and/or math, enrichment, recreation, technology, tutoring parental involvement and family literacy activities;

• Lafourche Parish Council, Office of Community Action ($319,964) to provide services and programs in accordance with the Community Service Block Grant Act of 1981;

• Terrebonne Port Commission ($10 million) for bulkhead, land improvements and other related infrastructure improvements, planning and construction;

• Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government ($2.2 million) to provide intensive residential treatment program, provide funding to assist with design of a ring levee to surround Chabert Medical Center;

• St. Mary Parish Government/Council ($3.55 million) to operate a 52-bed inpatient treatment programs to individuals with addictive disorders; to operate a 12-adult bed and 21-children’s bed for TANF-eligible women and their dependent children;

• Vermilion Parish School Board ($9.2 million), rebuild, repair, replace hurricane-damaged primary and secondary public school infrastructure;

• Vermilion Parish Police Jury ($5.5 million) to repair, rebuild, replace hurricane-damaged infrastructure;

• St. Martin Parish School Board ($302,784) to provide comprehensive/preventive services to registered students;

• Jefferson Davis Parish Police Jury ($310,821) to complete strategic prevention framework planning process for substance abuse;

• West Feliciana Acquisition, LLC ($6 million) for acquisition, improvement, and operation of a paper mill in St. Francisville, creating 200-375 jobs;

• City of Ville Platte ($675,000) to provide juvenile delinquency prevention/diversion services to youth;

• City of Hammond ($367,728) to provide juvenile delinquency/diversion services;

• Southeastern Louisiana University TIP Comptroller’s Office ($2.1 million) to provide a continuum of family preservation, community based family support services;

• Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center ($785,000) to provide Ryan White Care Act Aids Drug Assistance program;

• Grambling State University ($106,601) to provide educational opportunities for persons committed to entering or continuing in the field of child welfare;

• Louisiana Tech University ($1.2 million) to provide lessons to youth ages 11-14 to prevent/reduce addictive disorders;

• Southeastern Louisiana Area Health Education Center ($5 million) to provide system point of entry services for St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes;

• First Steps Referral and Consulting ($2.8 million) to provide system point of entry services and provide site development workshop training to school leadership and teachers in Acadia, Evangeline, St. Martin, and Vermilion parishes;

• Families Helping Families at the Crossroads of Louisiana ($2.7 million) to provide point of entry services in LaSalle, Avoyelles, and Winn parishes;

• Youth Empowerment Project ($1.3 million) to provide system point of entry services for reintegration services for youth and counseling for families in Acadia, Evangeline, St. Martin, Vermilion, Jefferson Davis, and Allen parishes.

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Public Records, Transparency | 2 Comments »

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