Special interests overwhelm Graves' good sense

Seeing as the law makes little sense, why does Louisiana’s Republican Rep. Garret Graves want to die on the Jones Act hill?

Better known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, among other things the federal statute prohibits transshipment among U.S. ports by foreign-flagged vessels. It has provisions for specific and general waivers, and GOP Pres. Donald Trump enacted the latter for ten days regarding Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the recent hurricane disasters inflicted upon the islands.

This launched Graves into criticism mode, who called it a solution looking for a problem. He argued that relief efforts suffered more from internal distribution on the main island than in getting stuff there. He noted a majority of Puerto Rico’s commerce already came from foreign vessels and said it would cost Gulf Coast shippers jobs.

Clarity needed on LA child care center cameras

If Louisiana wishes to use cameras as an enforcement tool in child care centers, it needs to clarify potential use of these.

In August, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which regulates these businesses, promulgated a rule that would allow inspectors to review video recordings. Nothing requires a licensed facility to have this equipment or that it include audio. Operators argue that their voluntary installation of such devices occurs primarily for their own employee oversight and as a selling point for client families, as parents can hook into video feeds to monitor their children. Perhaps only a quarter of all sites have cameras running.

According to the rule, inspectors have access to recordings whenever they visit during operating hours or the facility has children present, although no legal instrument defines how long centers archive these. Inspectors may show up without provocation.

Bench protesting students to teach life lesson

If high school football players take to protesting whatever through disrespectful conduct towards symbols representing ideas behind the Constitution, the most important lesson they should learn isn’t utilizing free expression, but that actions have consequences.

After two Sundays ago, when National Football League players in significant number began not acknowledging the U.S. flag or standing at attention facing it during playing of the National Anthem, school officials rightly suspected copycat action would appear on the horizon as well. If nothing else, children obey faddishness and let themselves get swept up in trends, in this instance a reaction by professional players against remarks made by Pres. Donald Trump denigrating those who acted as such.

To cut this trendiness off at the pass, on instructions from the Bossier Parish School Board Superintendent Scott Smith in no uncertain terms mandated that students choosing to participate in extracurricular activities such as football have to observe decorum regarding the flag and Anthem. The district’s high school principals, such as Parkway High School’s Principal Waylon Bates, drove the point home further by issuing a letter to athletes and parents demanding standing in a respectful manner during the Anthem. Violators refusing to do that could be punished by coaches and school officials.

Candidates hope outsider campaigns bag wins

Does the outsider approach to winning campaigns still have legs, after its greatest victory last year? Louisiana candidates in elections later this month hope so.

Since political newcomer Republican Pres. Donald Trump knocked off the most establishmentarian of establishment candidates (who still doesn’t understand why she lost), more people than ever running for office seem eager to embrace the outsider approach – running against a government’s elected class as a whole. As proof, high profile contests at both the state and local level in Louisiana illustrate this.

Republican treasurer candidate Angéle Davis from the gun has run a campaign stressing her congruence with Trump. A number of her communications demonstrate the linkage, where she expressly brings up Trump’s agenda and allies herself to that, despite the fact little of it directly addresses the role of treasurer. Within five seconds of her recorded voice calls, she informs listeners that she aligns herself with his ideas.

The Advocate column, Oct. 1, 2017

NFL players disrespect the anthem at their own financial peril
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_e3c41fc2-a3cf-11e7-b133-af46d98bfc55.html

Links:

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_31bf63f2-a151-11e7-803c-9f6502f3c456.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/communities/livingston_tangipahoa/article_1927fde2-a249-11e7-ac72-e32f93061c9c.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_8fb2a780-a2c8-11e7-8167-9b1a93791b45.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/saints/article_8a295af8-a17d-11e7-83bb-4b699754ee38.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/saints/article_897cca5e-a16e-11e7-9101-af776628e39a.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/opinion/our_views/article_5cbcea10-a229-11e7-9448-4381ac98b072.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/saints/article_b12a4242-a179-11e7-b668-83afed041dab.html
http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2016/08/saints_vs_taxpayers_who_wins_w.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2013/07/31/billionaire-saints-owner-tom-benson-to-score-400-million-revenue-boost-from-agreement-with-state/#50fbe90c5a7b
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/sports/september_2017/34_are_less_likely_to_follow_nfl_because_of_protests

End govt preferences bias in electioneering

It’s time for Louisiana to make campaigns concerning ballot propositions more impartial, taking away a bias that favors government preferences.

State law does not address how local governments may involve themselves in elections such as on taxation matters. Nor does it require local governments to regulate electioneering; some, like Bossier Parish, put matters like legal placement of campaign signs in a Unified Development Code or elsewhere in their code of ordinances.

Livingston Parish does not, making no mention of the issue at all. That’s why a sign has appeared on Walker High School property visible to traffic concerning an “OPERATIONS FUNDING RENEWAL” for “Livingston Parish Public Schools” asking viewers to “VOTE October 14,” and, for those not swift on the uptake, reiterates that “This is NOT a new tax!”

LA one step closer to legalized hooting up

Louisiana has gotten one step closer to hooting up in mass by securing both cannabis distribution channels relative to a permissive medical marijuana law that legalization proponents don’t like.

Last week, Southern University chose the Lafayette shell company Advanced Biomedics to operate the school’s medical marijuana business. Until 2020, statute allows Southern and Louisiana State University to do so, each by itself or through proxy, producing all but inhalable cannabis products while emphasizing reduced THC levels, for “recommendation” by physicians to address a variety of ailments.

LSU previously chose GB Sciences, based in Nevada, as its operator. Given federal laws’ prohibition on growing the cannabis sativa plant, although state law said only the two Baton Rouge-based universities could grow the crop, each has farmed out the task over concerns that doing it themselves might threaten receipt of federal research grants.

Caddo rebel monument on the move ... maybe

Except for a Hail Mary that would shake up more than just the current dispute, it looks as if the Confederate monument by the Caddo Parish Courthouse will head to the dustbin of history.

Last week, the full Caddo Parish Commission voted to advance an ordinance to move the object. On Oct. 19 the vote on the actual measure will come, but the balloting that pushed the matter forward and on another signals high certainty that this will succeed.

During its Monday work session prior to the Thursday regular meeting, Commissioner Lyndon Johnson proposed the movement. With little debate, commissioners voted 8-4 to put the item on the future agenda, with Commissioners John Atkins, Mario Chavez, Doug Dominick, and Jim Smith opposing. This disregarded the recommendation of a task force set up by the Commission that called for adding monuments or other material to the area next to the existing object that would expand the historical overview about the object and, more generally, address race relations.

Battle to come over last year's surprise surplus?

Just because Louisiana finds itself with a surplus in closing out fiscal year 2017 doesn’t mean it can’t apply this money to next fiscal year.

Realized revenues for last fiscal year went $143.2 million above the budgeted baseline. It might hit $143 million. But, as it becomes in a sense “bonus” money, those kinds of dollars the state only may spent on a set of nonrecurring items, classified in the Constitution as paying off bonds early, reducing the unfunded accrued liability in retirement accounts, spending on capital outlay (especially for roads with federal matching funds available), filling the Budget Stabilization Fund, or engaging in coastal restoration efforts. The law also gives priority to the BSF and UAL, designating a minimum of 25 percent (or, if greater, $25 million) and 10 percent, respectively, of any declared surplus goes to these.

House Speaker Taylor Barras already has voiced a preference to put at least $99 million into the BSF. That would repay draining it that amount in the year’s first special session, although the BSF statutory ceiling would allow depositing a much larger amount. By the numbers, with the recently found money at least $35.8 million must go to the BSF and $14.3 million to chip away at the UAL.

The Advocate column, Sep. 24, 2017

These Louisiana elected offices should disappear
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_cb111e2e-9e5e-11e7-b3f4-f306a259e9fc.html

Links:
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/politics/article_59618bf8-98c6-11e7-95e3-73f73b103020.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/politics/article_b7b4701e-88f2-11e7-a2a0-67b784af4cbb.html
http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2013/12/minyard_announces_his_retireme.html
http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/politics/article_6f5b1332-9977-11e7-8c03-7b3f98611b32.html
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Laws_Toc.aspx?folder=72&level=Parent