Skrmetta entrance increases Cassidy headache

As another likely competitive candidate enters the Republican Party Senate primary, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy’s chances become dimmer.

This week, Republican Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta joined the fray in challenging Cassidy. The incumbent already faces Republicans Treas. John Fleming and state Sen. Blake Miguez among candidates with the resources to knock him off.

Given Cassidy’s intraparty vulnerability, a third competitive challenger wouldn’t spell out good news for him. Because he placed a wrong bet – he thought GOP Pres. Donald Trump was history after the 2020 loss and, for whatever half-baked reason, decided to hitch his fortunes to Trump’s opponents and to play footsie with Democrats – he essentially divided Louisiana Republicans into three camps: those against him, the modal category; those for him; and those that in the absence of someone they perceive as a quality challenger will stick with him (who likely comprise a big portion of the undecided vote, and some of the Cassidy intended vote).

Disingenuous lies spread on Medicaid reforms

Ignore the panic that the political left tries to foment in Louisiana about changes to Medicaid. Instead, consider how their lies crumble against the reality that the new law will improve program delivery for those who truly need it.

The biggest falsehood to emerge from the left’s talking points is the myth of Medicaid “cuts” (excoriated on the floor of the Senate recently by Republican Sen. John Kennedy). There are absolutely no cuts in Medicaid spending in the reconciliation bill now known as the One Big Beautiful Law. In fact, Medicaid spending is set to increase by an average of three percent annually over the next decade.

Nor will any eligible person lose Medicaid coverage who is a disabled adult or one who has dependents younger than 14. The only change here is that able-bodied adults without all but older dependents will have to meet a community engagement requirement of employment, enrollment in an educational program, or volunteering only 80 hours a month. In fact, most ABAWDs already meet these criteria.

Switch to new accreditor should start now

You don’t need a task force: Republican Gov. Jeff Landry should have simply ordered each university system in Louisiana to prepare for exiting the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges instead of studying the idea of transferring accreditation to the new, depoliticized incipient higher education accreditor the Commission on Public Higher Education, if CPHE is approved.

Last month, six southern states created the CPHE as an alternative to SACSCOC, concerned over the increasingly ideological meddling SACSCOC was enabling as part of the accreditation process. Federal law allows forming such agencies for self-policing of institutions to ensure they provide a legitimate education and have the means to do it, where an institution must be accredited to enjoy federal government largesse such as grants and the ability for students to receive federal government aid.

The effort started in Florida, kicked off when SACSCOC pressured a university system in Georgia and a university in Florida from accepting as candidates for leadership individuals who ideologically appeared at odds with the near-monolithic leftism infused throughout academia. It accelerated when states began to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion schemes as foundational parts of admission, instruction, and employment regimes at institutions. And it came into fruition when Republican Pres. Donald Trump earlier this year issued an executive order to make it easier to transfer among accreditors and to start new ones.

BC debt surge impeded crime reduction spending

The Bossier City Council graybeards may be gone, but the negative impact of their misrule will reverberate for years, even decades, a recent story about public safety demonstrates.

It seems a home security firm called Reolink published data from the first part of 2025 that not only establishes Bossier City as more violent crime-ridden than Shreveport, but also concludes by these metrics that the city is the tenth-most dangerous municipality in Louisiana. It reviewed Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting data for violent and property crimes. (It must be noted that the majority, but not all, of the state’s 304 municipalities complete the UCR, and that crime figures can vary dramatically in different parts of the same city.)

The numbers show that almost five percent of residents will endure a property crime, such as larceny, burglary, and automobile theft, while almost one percent will suffer a violent offense. Shreveport didn’t appear on the list. This outcome turns the argument on its head, often floated by city boosters in and out of office, that a reason to move across the river to Bossier City is it is presumably safer.

Official journal law two-edged sword for papers

There’s another argument increasingly relevant in the longtime practice of state and local governments paying for public notices in an official journal: the economic leverage governments can use against newspapers, as exemplified by recent choices in Caddo Parish.

Last month, all of the major government in the parish – the parish, school district, sheriff’s office, and Shreveport – threw their public notice business to the Shreveport Times. That had to be a lifeline to the Times, which has been in steep decline in readership since the turn of the century, prints just a few pages per edition now (and misses a day a week in print), and has hardly any local staff and hard news coverage.

That turn for the worse accelerated when the privately-owned Georges Media Group planted an affiliate in the area, eating more into the Times’ revenues. The incoming largesse from government will boost its bottom line, although it has backup by being part of the USA Today Gannett Network, owned by a private equity firm.