Jefferson
Parish correctly gave official legalization to ride share services (or, if
you prefer, “transportation network companies”), but the debate over it has
spawned a new one, over the issue of at which level government should the
regulation occur.
After a couple of years of batting around the
issue, the Parish Council approved a set of regulations that include nationwide
criminal background checks and the possibility of random drug tests every three
months and applied these to taxi services as well, and also standards for
vehicle registration, and guidelines for drivers to identify publicly their
cars as ride sharing providers. These largely mirror actions taken by other Louisiana
local governments in which national ride share companies have started
operations, all in the southern part of the state, except for St. Tammany
Parish where its governments just wink and nod at provision of the service.
State law presently
mandates entirely regulation of endpoint-to-endpoint for-hire transportation
within a parish and ten miles surrounding it by local governments, hence the
necessity of enabling ordinances for such services to operate legally. However,
a number of states – 20 according to Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta and 34 according to
the leading ride share outfit Uber – have statewide regulation of services like
Uber. The only Louisiana statewide standards come in the area of insurance for
these drivers and their vehicles, passed last year.
While a new poll on Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race
shows the contest more in flux than previously and provides some insight into
strategic decision-making by the candidates, it also raises questions about the
dynamics being captured by this and other polling.
Southern Media Opinion and Research is reported
to have results for public dissemination today that show Republican Treas. John Kennedy still leading the filed,
but down about 10 points from the last
independent poll by The Hayride/Remington Research released a couple of
weeks ago, falling from 27 to 16.9 percent in that roughly two-week span. Republican
Rep. Charles Boustany inched
forward a couple of points to 15.2 percent, supplanting Democrat Public Service
Commissioner Foster Campbell
as runner-up who tumbled by almost half down to 9.2 percent. Democrat lawyer
and former lieutenant governor candidate Caroline Fayard also passed up
Campbell by essentially maintaining her share of the intended vote at 11.2
percent. Republican Rep. John
Fleming got a boost of a couple of points to pull 8.3 percent while
Republican 2014 Senate candidate military retiree Rob Maness lost a few to fall to 3.3
percent.
Taking both polls as valid, some interesting
dynamics emerge. Fleming may show signs of life, which should worry the others.
As the only consistently principled conservative in the contest who has
credibility in conservative governance, only he could defeat the likes of
Kennedy or Boustany in a runoff by draining their conservative support, leaving
them mostly supported by the left of the electorate. That still might not do
it, particularly as Kennedy can command such crossover support that no one else
could take him down.
Like Pokemon Go, sitting during the National Anthem
at the beginning of sports and other events has become trendy lately. It even
seems to have invaded north Louisiana, where at a Haughton
High School football game some witnessed this.
Jurisprudence establishing not having to show respect
to the concept of America goes back decades, when in West
Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette the U.S. Supreme Court
declared that the state could not compel students to show reverence to the
symbols of the country. Even though the objection in this case rested on
religious grounds, the Court’s majority decision framed its argument on the
free speech aspects of the First Amendment.
On that basis, of late the busybodies at the
Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent
out a notice to the state’s school districts reminding that these could not
make standing during the Anthem compulsory, asserting that they had received
complaints that some districts had issued a dictate that students do so. As the
state cannot do this regarding this most restrictive population, students, it
certainly cannot compel this from the general population.
Perhaps Treas. John
Kennedy thought his U.S. Senate opponent Rep. Charles Boustany was having too much
fun making unforced campaign errors, and so decided
to join him out of perhaps the same motivation.
Last
time this space noted the Boustany campaign’s odd handling of allegations
that the candidate had frequented prostitutes. Despite the lack of verifiable,
credible evidence to back up the claim made by a freelance writer in a
recently-published book, after the candidate denied it the campaign kept
revisiting the issue and then charged Kennedy in particular with the equivalent
of spreading gossip about the issue.
Kennedy’s campaign staff had sent out links to
media coverage of the book’s assertion, and when Boustany’s wife and staff pointed
that out and elevated that action to negative rumormongering, Kennedy responded
by denying circulating anything other than pertinent news, managing one by one
to name the accusations. This inflamed Boustany even more, who openly
complained, apparently trying to create the impression that these actions demonstrated
Kennedy’s flawed character that made him unworthy of entering the Senate, and perhaps
even unworthy enough for him to lick Boustany’s boots.
Rep. Charles
Boustany’s campaign for the U.S. Senate slid closer to desperation mode in
its reaction to reaction over sketchy claims about the candidate’s personal
comportment.
It all began a week ago when advance copies of a
book came out about past murders of prostitutes in Jefferson Davis Parish. The story
has hung around for nearly three years but the author for the book added
new material alleging that Boustany had received services from prostitutes. No
credible sources have come forward to substantiate this claim.
Also it seems an aide for Boustany worked at a
motel frequented by the prostitutes. The campaign denied prior knowledge of
that about the aide and he left his post after the allegations surfaced.
Never forget that politicians seldom win their elections
because of intelligence. New Orleans provides us a perfect recent example of
enacting do-nothing policy based upon ignorance and lack of logic.
This week Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed
into law an ordinance that requires reporting of stolen firearms, bans handguns
and other dangerous weapons these from city recreational facilities, and
creates a crime of “negligent carrying” of a concealed firearm, triggered when
somebody is placed in “reasonable apprehension” of its discharge or is carried
in a way that also causes this discomfort by someone else. State law already
covers the last and the ban in parks extends current limitations, although
questionably given state
law regarding preemption. In other words, these provisions do next to nothing
relative to what already exists, and would have no impact on crime as criminals
will not have legal handguns in the first place and will brandish them anyway
in commission of crime.
But it’s the reporting requirement, within 48
hours of discovery of theft, that causes the real head-scratching. The thinking
behind it appears to be this prevents unscrupulous owners from selling weapons
to criminals and then by asserting past theft of these disclaiming any responsibility
for aiding in commission of a crime if the weapons turn up at the scene.
Just as natural as Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
wanting to raise taxes, so are complaints
about the federal government’s role and response to natural disasters such
as the flooding inundating the Baton Rouge region last month. It helps to
understand just what obligations it should have in order to gauge what should happen.
As immediate rescue gives way to recovery, some
state elected officials have begun lamenting what they see as slow federal
government action. Even Democrat Edwards, knowing that any criticism reflects
upon a Democrat Pres. Barack Obama
administration, has begun cautious chiding of the pace of the Federal Emergency
Management Administration and the American
Red Cross, contracted with the federal government to provide relief
activities. A few others, mostly mayors of affected municipalities, have joined
him and voiced trepidation that Congress
will not move fast enough nor sufficiently far enough to repair matters.
Herein lies the confusion. Up until the hurricane
disasters of 2005, the ethos of government responsibility for acts of nature
never included the notion that government should make people whole. Instead, it
would provide transitory assistance for individuals and long-term aid to
rebuild public infrastructure, but people would have to rely upon their own
good sense to live lifestyles that anticipated the odd tragedy here or there
and thusly to husband resources to compensate if and when that time came.
Maybe I should rename this blog from “Between the
Lines” to a phrase out of the James Bond ouevre
“Tomorrow’s
News Today.” Because that’s what it suggested around two-and-a-half years
ago concerning shenanigans going on within the justice of the peace system in
Louisiana.
That piece
focused mainly on the activities of Tony Thomassie, former constable for the
Jefferson Parish Second Justice Court, who for nearly 30 years racked up
enormous fees for apparently doing not a lot of work. But the way the system
works, where a constable serves a justice of the peace – Louisiana’s small
claims court – a JP has to sign orders and make judgments to generate
revenue-raising opportunities for constables, although some parishes like
Jefferson additionally pay their JPs and constables a set salary.
In the last years of Thomassie’s reign, who in
2014 was voted out of office after reports of his high take-home pay and
frequent sighting in bars in and around Marrero surfaced, Patrick DeJean held
the JP office in that district. The two tangoed to produce regularly
six-figure-plus annual revenues, even as other districts in urban areas, some
with much larger populations, came in with revenues only a fraction of that
size.
