Orleans board caves to anti-Christian bigotry

It’s official: white progressivism and its anti-Christian bias has infected the Orleans Parish School Board, creating an ugly incident of bigotry.

Last week, the body held elections for this year’s officers. In an unusual move, it suspended its own rules to allow holding over last year’s officers. This brought about the unanimous reelection of Democrat John Brown, and a 4-3 vote returning Democrat Leslie Ellison as vice president.

Plenty of controversy preceded the move. Originally, Ellison had wished to move up the ladder one place, following tradition, as Brown could not succeed himself after two yearly terms. Then, publicized past remarks Ellison made concerning students who identify themselves as something other than their biological sex stirred up opposition to her.

Insurance ban needed in proposed coop rules

The spirit of the law backs efforts by the Louisiana Public Service Commission to place significant limits on directors of electric cooperatives, including the prohibition of coop-paid insurance.

Last year, controversy erupted over reports that many directors received large emoluments from coops. The entities provide electricity under a membership model as Internal Revenue Service 501(c)12 organizations, meaning they must operate as nonprofits in order to secure tax-free status and directors serve part-time.

Originally, the federal government launched the coop concept in 1935 through presidential executive order. At the time, while most urban households had electricity, few did in rural areas due to expense. The U.S. government hoped that states would pass legislation establishing a framework for organizations with low overhead that could make power affordable to member/owners.

Barras puts LA needs ahead of Edwards'

Nothing has changed, so nothing should change, despite the histrionics of the Gov. John Bel Edwards Administration.

Last week, Louisiana’s Revenue Estimating Conference met again with an attempt to update forecasting numbers on revenue. The figures produced get fed into the budget process, with Democrat Edwards’ executive plan for state spending in fiscal year 2020 due in about ten days.

Currently, recognized revenues reflect estimates of nearly seven months ago. Two months ago, with the group mandated to meet no later than the end of the year, it gathered to consider an increase because of higher-than-expected oil prices. It had predicted throughout this fiscal year a price of $59.42 per barrel, but the two sources used by the political appointees – the Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras, GOP Senate President John Alario, and university economist James Richardson – representing the Administration and Legislature thought that should increase to the $61-64 range.

Report reminds of group's leftist ideology

In case you’ve forgotten, a recent announcement by the Louisiana League of Women Voters reminds that the organization that claims nonpartisanship nonetheless marches in lockstep with Democrats of the progressive stripe.

Last week, the group at its annual convention released a report noting that charter schools potentially sap education dollars from traditional public schools, calling for changes in charter school board composition and transparency, and wanting greater state stringency in regulating such schools. In effect, the increased, unneeded regulatory details that would follow would hamper the ability of these schools to operate as intended. This adheres to a liberal agenda of protecting the one-size-fits-all model of education that empowers special interests over children.

Not that the study’s quality commends policy-makers to pursue such recommendations. Both the organization that represents the state’s charter schools and the state Department of Education panned the effort, each observing it to relay numerous corrections to the drafters of an early version and subsequently received no feedback. The report’s lead author herself has spoken often and publicly against the concept.

The Advocate column, Jan. 20, 2019

A low-rent king of deadhead jobs at Tax Commission 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_c03e4718-19e3-11e9-a42b-ffa3779265f9.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_8e984096-15b6-11e9-950e-5f48353a7e8b.html
https://www.livingstonparishnews.com/former-assessor-faces-more-dwi-charges/article_a34e5872-6441-5e97-b8bf-31c2ad776c49.html
https://www.livingstonparishnews.com/former-assessor-takes-job-with-state/article_ae8cf20a-033a-5461-9951-b236feb77b28.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/communities/west_feliciana/article_96ef5c0e-b68b-54d8-a8fa-89c8579e1688.html
https://wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov/boardsAndCommissions/viewEmployees.cfm?board=536
https://wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov/boardsAndCommissions/viewMembers.cfm?board=536
https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_c34b41a6-f633-11e7-9b4d-33fec3a1f8a8.html
http://oig.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/searchable/Zinna%20Lawyer%20Pleads%20Guilty%20-%20Bloomberg.pdf

Perkins flubs new approach on garbage

Despite calling himself a modernizing, different kind of chief executive, Shreveport rookie politician Democrat Adrian Perkins flubbed his first big chance to demonstrate that.

Only weeks after taking office, Perkins announced his support for a garbage collection tax. Currently, the city provides the service free for payers of sewerage and water fees, amounts which have seen a large increase over the past several years to fund federal government-ordered updating and improvement. Almost all cities charge separately for basic trash pickup.

That operation has seen a decline in the last few years, first with a significant portion of it sidelined with Bossier City’s decision to decouple from Shreveport in this effort in favor of private provision. More recently, the city has had greater difficulty in keeping the scaled-down enterprise fully staffed because of relatively low wages, with the embarrassment that the departing workers fled to Bossier City’s provider. Worse, with Bossier City changing its providers to one that doesn’t use Shreveport’s landfill, that means a hit of over $1 million annually to city revenues.

Gaines' confused letter insults veterans

I suspect he’s trying to address my remarks, but it’s so hopelessly muddled it’s hard to tell.

A letter to the editor last week in the Baton Rouge Advocate by Democrat state Rep. Randal Gaines stumbled about in trying to defend the recent legal change allowing many felons to vote. I think he filed it as a response to recent my column about how Democrats had bamboozled Republicans into supporting that bad bill, which does nothing to encourage reform of or overall political participation by the felon population, but does give Democrats disproportionately the chance to harvest more votes in elections.

That Gaines, willfully or otherwise, remains ignorant of the literature that shows no link between greater civic involvement and having the right to vote among felons showed clearly in the letter, which falsely alleged that to oppose the law wouldn’t help to prevent recidivism. But he also introduced a new creative reason to make the law acceptable.

Edwards' new pal repeating his strategy

It’s a post-modernist’s delight when a politician can deliver not just one but two levels of hypocrisy.

“Post-modernism” is an academic fad that rejects generally the concept of universalism and more specifically those of objective reality, truth, and reason. The leftist craze to supplant the certainty of one’s biological sex with a self-defined “gender” exemplifies its application to current public policy.

However, it also applies to discourse, when a communicator makes certain charges while at the same time endorsing, if not emulating, the very behavior criticized in that discourse. A recent letter-to-the-editor by Louisiana’s head Democrat, party Chairwoman state Sen. Karen Peterson, illustrates this.

Seabaugh deferral sets speakership course

The withdrawal of state Rep. Alan Seabaugh from consideration for a federal judgeship has both local and statewide ramifications for Louisiana.

Last year, Republican Pres. Donald Trump nominated the GOP’s Seabaugh for a spot on Louisiana’s Western District Court. Perhaps more than any other job in government, lawyers covet such spots as they last for life (during good behavior, which rarely isn’t the case) and place a minimal amount of constraints on their behavior.

But Senate Democrats have tried to slow walk these appointments, infuriated that Trump winning in 2016 gave him the right to make nominations stopping the trend of his predecessor towards placing judges more likely to try to write the law than to adjudicate it. Seabaugh has held on for about a year, but with 2019 elections looming and supposedly months before his name would come up for approval, he had to make a choice. Last year he had cut back in stumping for more ideological legislation that he pursued in the past, in order not to really rock the boat as far as an anticipated confirmation process went. 

The Advocate column, Jan. 13, 2019

Nuisance records request can cost taxpayers a bundle 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_d4232b90-1466-11e9-92e6-fbfb04d5bfe2.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_80e9cb02-1504-11e9-b97d-67b52d177a5f.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_9b27e9f0-0f86-11e9-abc6-5bb9226c50cd.html
https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2017/04/politicized-request-suit-witch-hunt.html
https://www.rcfp.org/supreme-court-states-can-prohibit-non-residents-using-public-records/
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-17_d1o2.pdf
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/supreme-court-cracks-down-public-records-access/
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/abuses_revealed_of_watchdog_public_records_laws/P1
http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=99703
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7491367991132896881
https://www.doa.la.gov/osr/LAC/04V01/04v01-09.doc