LA Ten Commandments law set up for victory

What may end up frustrating the anti-religious Louisiana left is that, as any First Amendment scholar or practitioner will tell you, it’s not so much the law but its application that matters, a viewpoint the U.S. Supreme Coury likely will ratify.

Last week, Republican Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill issued guidance for Act 676 of 2024, what the mainstream media has nicknamed the “Ten Commandments” law. It expands to educational facilities a 2006 law that allows for posting a version of the Decalogue in courthouses and other public buildings as a means of informing about the origins of Louisiana’s laws.

The new law itself specifies text and formatting, and that each classroom must have a document of the Commandments meeting the criteria posted as of the start of this year. However, it doesn’t obligate any educational institution to purchase copies meeting the criteria, nor is there any punishment associated with not following the law.

"Uneducated" W. Monroe voters might give lesson

On a tax measure, West Monroe elected officials hope that the second time is the charm through an effort that this time doesn’t feature too many “uneducated” voters.

In November, the Board of Aldermen cued up a 4.50 mill new property tax accepted for the ballot by the State Bond Commission in its December meeting. As that was previous to the Jan. 2 deadline for such items to reach the Secretary of State, it’s officially on the Mar. 29 ballot. The roughly $800,000 raised annually for the next ten years would go towards capital purchases for public safety.

It doesn’t look too much different from the 4.75 mill effort that narrowly failed last spring. That one would have funded the same kinds of things plus public works. A 1.63 mill tax to support public works the city didn’t try to renew before it expired in 2022.

NO must get serious about vehicle terror attacks

It’s worse than was thought: New Orleans officials didn’t even plan to have a serious security system in place to prevent a terrorist attack such as the one inflicted upon the Vieux Carré early last Wednesday, providing yet another indictment of the unserious Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell and of incuriousness of city councilors who seemed to have other priorities.

This space recently criticized Cantrell and city councilors for poor planning concerning the security bollard functioning on Bourbon Street that had a presumed upgrade not in place for, at the very least, college football bowl season and New Year’s Eve. It assumed that the replacement system would have been one designed to thwart a heavy vehicle at middling speed from crashing through and careening down Bourbon during a heavy of heavy pedestrian use, such as during New Year’s Eve and into the wee hours after in this particular instance.

Instead, it seemed the contemplated system the installment of which began in the middle of football season is not designed with security in mind, but rather with slow-speed typical vehicle encounters more like from inattentive or drunk driving, rather than intentional attempts to kill as many people as possible. Perhaps this is why elected officials after the incident played down the fact that the system had yet to be installed (with its target completion date early February to stand up before the Super Bowl and Carnival) in saying it couldn’t have prevented such an attack.

BC debt binge foists higher rates onto residents

The reckless spending by Bossier City over the past quarter-century has come back to haunt citizens in another way, this time through increased sanitation rates.

This week, the City Council voted to jack up rates on users, inside and outside of the city. Beginning in February, the flat resident charge for water will go from $8.54 to $10.16 and the pre thousand gallon charge of $3.03 will rise to $3.61; for nonresidents, the flat rate will go from $15.80 to $18.80 and the per thousand gallon charge of $4.55 will rise to $5.41. While nonresidential users without water service won’t see increased rates for waste pickup, residents will see theirs go from $24 (curbside or disabled side yard) or $28 (side yard) to $36 monthly; commercial customers will have theirs rise from $28 to $40; churches will see theirs go up from $24 to $36; and containers for use will cost $8.50 rather than $4 (after the free first one, except for side yard pickup). The typical household would see about an $18 a month increase, with the bulk of that coming not from water but sanitation.

There wasn’t much the city could do to avoid the water rate hike. Having accepted money from the state’s Water Sector program in the forms of loans and grants, the state conditions this on sufficient revenue generation potential as determined through a rate study. The results argued that the rate structure for water since 2007 hadn’t kept pace and an increase immediately plus one built in for the next fiscal year would satisfy the program’s conditions. The FY 2026 gap would be resolved with a two percent increase on rates.

NO officials' misjudgments likely increased risk

Sadly, the tragic terrorist incident in New Orleans’ Vieux Carre, contrary to what city officials have tried strenuously to produce as a narrative, was likely preventable because of decisions made by them and their predecessors.

A very few hours into 2025 an American citizen but with potential links to the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Daesh) swung a vehicle onto Bourbon Street around Canal Street and barreled three blocks to the east, killing at least 15 revelers and injuring dozens more before wrecking and engaging in a gun battle with police that led to his being shot and killed. It could have been worse, as later improvised explosive devices were found further east around the street and an explosion some blocks away out of the French Quarter tentatively have been tied to the action.

For many years, in contrast to a couple of decades prior, Bourbon has been open to through traffic. In 2016, city officials recognized that the relatively open nature of a byway with considerable pedestrian traffic could lead to a situation as this, so they reinstituted placing bollards on Bourbon along with removable barriers, but this system proved cumbersome and prone to malfunction because of detritus – much of it Carnival-related – interfering.