Landry frustrating Edwards' jackpot justice tactic

What has become a bad legal week for Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards doesn’t look to get any brighter in the future, thanks to Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry.

At the week’s beginning, the U.S. Supreme Court served notice of its refusal to hear the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s suit against nearly 100 companies that explored and extracted oil for decades, leaving intact numerous lower court rulings against it. Thus ended with a whimper the attempt by a rogue government to squeeze money out of the private sector to finance its activities through a nuisance jackpot justice gambit.

(It also became a major financial setback for the Jones, Swanson, Huddell and Garrison firm, which had signed a huge contingency contract that could have swiped nearly a third of any award. Instead, they get nothing; how many millions of dollars they lost remains private.)

Antics in 19th JDC should affect decision on 32nd

A Louisiana 19^th Judicial District judge’s behavior provides the perfect illustration why federal courts should not disdain alterative electoral systems in other districts.

Seven months have passed, and East Baton Rouge Parish’s Judge Janice Clark has yet to act upon a tutorship request for the estate of Helen Plummer. The will for Plummer, who died in March, left a portion of her estate to a minor great-granddaughter, and the mother of the child in order to settle the estate must become legally empowered to act in her child’s name.

As originally written, this would not have caused a problem as the will had specified a trustee would have such power over a trust created for the child upon Plummer’s death. But that trustee turned out to be Tasha Clark-Amar, Clark’s daughter, who the will specified who get extremely generous remuneration for a very modest estate. Clark-Amar heads the East Baton Rouge Council for Aging, where Plummer was a client.

Medicaid contract renewal leads some to posture

Short memories and posturing politicians make for spreading blame aplenty as Louisiana considers how to extend management of Medicaid services to the end of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ term.

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget last week considered renewing contracts with the five providers for Louisiana’s Healthy Louisiana program. These allow operators to manage the state’s Medicaid care, although for services not dealing with mental health not for the elderly nor disabled, nor including those who live in nursing homes. Amid calls for further study by committee members, the panel postponed consideration until this week.

Republican state Sen. Jack Donahue helpfully pointed out more and better metrics would help evaluating whether the deals best benefit taxpayers. Less productively, Democrat state Sen. Eric LaFleur said the time to take this approach had long passed, claiming that he and other lawmakers didn't dissect the deals enough when first put in place, criticizing the Republican then-Gov. Bobby Jindal Administration for a hurried contracting process with too little quality assurance.

LA must discard big govt to help children

You see the problem. You can have great data by which to understand it. But if you don’t think critically about it, you’ll never solve it but make it worse, musings from a special interest group about the issue of varying financial success by race in America shows.

Beginning three years ago, the Annie E. Casey Foundation compiled a report on the future prospects for children. The leftist organization advocates for government policies to benefit children, principally through expanding government and redistributing wealth.

The 2017 edition highlights disparity in financial resources enjoyed by the typical child among regions, races, and the intersection of both. It creates the index by combining a dozen indicators, some measuring context like whether parents have a high school diploma and others measuring achievement like proficiency in school, to come up with a score.

The Advocate column, Oct. 29, 2017

Democratic hypocrisy sinks no deeper than abandoning Derrick Edwards in treasurer race
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_585b47b4-b9c6-11e7-acfb-03303525fc95.html

Links:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/10/louisiana_democrats_may_give_l.html
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-65494.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LateFeesCandidates.aspx
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/13/war-on-poverty-has-been-a-failure/