BC power elite grasping at anti-limits straws

Just how low could certain members of the Bossier City Council go – and just how hypocritically they may act – now that there’s a very real chance city voters will have a term limits proposal before them in December not to the liking of a majority of councilors with no way to counter it?

This week, a citizen petition for one of three items to appear on the Dec. 7 ballot was certified, that would establish a retroactive three-term limit for mayor and city councilors. By city charter, as certified now it must be presented to the City Council, where at that point the Council must approve it within 90 days or the next scheduled election, which would be Oct. 23 but no scheduled election is before then and the deadline for the next, Nov. 5 has passed, so that would be Dec. 7. If it does not, it is required within 30 days, or Aug. 24, to add the item as an ordinance automatically amending the charter, meaning that if for whatever reason the Council fails to forward it at any regular meeting or any special meeting before Aug. 24 it must by then vote to amend the charter with the item. Failure to do either puts it in violation of the charter and sets up a slam dunk declaratory judicial judgment that essentially goes over its head.

Expect there to be resistance by the five councilors who have voted against efforts to put a previous similar term limits amendment on the ballot which was ruled out judicially by a technicality – Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio; Democrat Bubba Williams; and no party Jeff Darby, of whom all but Maggio would be disqualified from running for office this spring or ever again – that will take two forms. The first will be to refuse to follow the charter in passing any enabling ordinance, instruments which any of GOP Mayor Tommy Chandler or Republican Councilors Chris Smith and Brian Hammons who have advocated for term limits since their elections, can introduce.

Edwards cheerleaders silenced by report

The warnings went unheeded, and the silence from those who claim to speak for Louisianans with disabilities speaks volumes about their enabling.

Recently, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor issued a scathing report about care of the disabled in congregate settings. At least 3,500 incidents of abuse or neglect occurred in the state’s care facilities over the past five years. Further, in that span the Louisiana Department of Health discovered nearly 5,000 deficiencies, of which a few hundred escalated into noncompliance issues.

Most disturbingly, the numbers grew from 2020 through 2023 (reporting requirements being implemented in 2019 made those numbers less reliable for analysis). And, LDH didn’t have the investigatory resources to compel a better reporting rate by facilities of critical incidents within 48 hours of occurrence (about a quarter missed the deadline) and it only conducted an independent full-scale investigation in fewer than one percent of instances.

Democrat ticket switch won't impact LA contests

What does the revolt against the electorate by Democrat powerbrokers that chased Democrat Pres. Joe Biden from another term in the White House, almost certain to be replaced by Democrat Vice Pres. Kamala Harris, mean to Louisiana electoral politics? Absolutely nothing.

Much of the party’s leadership and activist cadres turned against Biden not because they were concerned he couldn’t lead the country, not because they feared for his health, but because they saw an electoral landslide for Republican former Pres. Donald Trump and the GOP in the offing should he have remained at the top of the ticket. The move came from purely political calculations as an exercise in attempting to hold the maximal power possible starting in 2025.

For them, ideally that would include reversing the existing campaign momentum and promoting Harris. Yet realistically they and the political left know this to be a long shot with Harris as perhaps the weakest possible replacement. It’s telling that all her presumed competitors quickly assented to her elevation, because they see this election likely as doomed for their party’s nominee and they don’t want to have that around their neck. Such is their aversion to potential damage to their political careers that some even are summarily turning down the job as vice presidential running mate.

BPSB accountability void expanding

As if on cue, a reinforcement of insularity led to a consequence of that insularity, which for the Bossier Parish School District breeds contempt for families seeking the best education for their children.

Last week, qualifying for a special election for District 5 of the School Board came and went with no one challenging Republican Logan McConathy, who had been appointed earlier this year to replace Republican Adam Bass, who had been elected to the state Senate. Logan McConathy is the son of Mike McConathy, who at one time taught in the school system but gained fame mainly after he moved on from coaching basketball at Bossier Parish Community College to Northwestern State University (where Logan was one of his players), and who last year ran unsuccessfully against the other state senator representing the parish, the GOP’s Alan Seabaugh. Logan is the grandson of and Mike the son of John McConathy, who after a professional basketball career eventually became superintendent of Bossier schools.

If all of this legacy made Logan McConathy’s layup into completing a term inevitable, it also fit the pattern. In 2022 elections, nine of the returning incumbents running faced no opposition, and neither did newcomer independent Craton Cochran (although his father sits on the Police Jury) for an open seat. The other two incumbents, both of whom had gained seats through special elections, easily defeated challengers.

New maps provide only Democrat electoral hopes

Although there might be a couple of interesting intraparty matchups ahead in Louisiana’s last round of blanket primary elections for Congress before 2026, the Public Service Commission, and the Supreme Court, partisan outcomes are almost certainly already secured after qualifying for these offices ended last week for the 2024 cycle.

With a new and almost certainly one-off congressional map for this cycle, all GOP incumbents will defeat, and handily, the political unknowns and lightweight retreads of all parties up against them. As testimony to the disarray state Democrats find their party, they couldn’t find someone of their label to run against Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who drew only another of his party as an opponent. Typically, the party out of power in a chamber of Congress makes it a priority to run someone to run against the body’s leader of the other party just to create national talking points, but that didn’t work against Johnson (who at least this time will have competition, having run unopposed in 2022 before he became speaker).

The only serious competition will come in the new and transient Sixth District, whose boundaries were declared unconstitutionally gerrymandered to elect a black candidate by the federal judiciary, that to prevent election administration difficulties will be allowed to stand for this election. It spanning from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, Democrat state Sen. Cleo Fields hopes for the third time to win in an unconstitutional district – his previous two successful elections to Congress in 1992 and 1994 came under maps also declared unconstitutional – whose main challenger should prove to be GOP former state Sen. Elbert Guillory. Both are black.

Alter legal presumption to reduce clergy scandal

Running afoul of legalities, Louisiana’s attempt to bring serial sexual predators to justice may be revived in a different way, as an unfortunate instance of this crime reminds.

This week, Florida authorities on a Texas warrant arrested Anthony Odiong, charging him with illegally possessing child abuse imagery depicting unclothed children. Until last year, for a several years Odiong had been pastor of St. Anthony’s in Luling, in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Although his home diocese technically is in Africa, Odiong had spent many years in the Diocese of Austin during the time of then-Bishop Gregory Aymond who when assuming the archbishopric of New Orleans eventually transferred Odiong there.

Odiong in 2023 was removed from his position by the Archdiocese apparently on complaints from women about sexual improprieties as well as for financial irregularities attached to his ministry. Since then, he ignored his Nigerian bishop’s call to return and instead holed up in an expensive home in Florida. He complained his removal, which included revoking his ministerial authority, was in response to his complaining that Church policy under Pope Francis was too lenient that validated homosexual liaisons.

Caddo commissioner non-apology shows unfitness

The sickness that has pervaded the political left in recent years that, displaying an authoritarian ethos, declares its opponents as twisted if not evil, a Democrat Caddo Parish Commissioner put on full display in reacting to the unsuccessful assassination of Republican former Pres. Donald Trump this past weekend.

At a rally on Saturday, while making a speech Trump suddenly halted after popping noises rang out and blood appeared running down the right side of his face as Secret Service personnel took him to the ground and huddled over him momentarily, then hauled him off stage. A bullet from nearly 150 yards away had pierced the top of his ear, and others wounded and killed spectators before the would-be assassin was located and shot dead by snipers.

Anybody viewing the incident, whether afterwards from recordings, could tell immediately what had happened. Agents don’t dogpile on their charge and rush him away if they aren’t highly suspicious that bullets are headed his way, and it’s not firecrackers or children’s popguns or a Bidenesque stumble if blood is so visible on the intended target. Two plus two always should equal four, even to student journalists much less to so-called professionals.

LA buffer zone law in some form should prevail

An upcoming Louisiana law will draw a law suit. Whether that will succeed may depend upon the U.S. Supreme Court and the state’s persistence.

This past regular legislative session, lawmakers passed and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed HB 173 by GOP state Rep. Bryan Fontenot. The bill creates a new crime, approaching a peace officer lawfully engaged in law enforcement duties, by prohibiting approaching peace officers – most notably, police – within 25 feet of them so long as they legitimately are performing their assigned duties, they warn those encroaching, and the warning is delivered in a manner understood by those encroaching.

The law takes effect at the start of next month. Special interests have declared the law is unconstitutional, which means as soon as they can find – or perhaps engineer – a situation where a person receives such a warning, they will sue on the basis of infringement of First Amendment rights. They argue that such a law prevents public oversight of police actions, stopping observation of potentially illegal behavior by law enforcement.

Authoritarian Monroe Council set for conflict

If the first Monroe City Council meeting of the new term for it and independent Mayor Friday Ellis conveys any indication of the next four years, that would flash plenty of conflict ahead as well as a more authoritarian tack taken by the new Council majority.

In his first term, Ellis didn’t encounter an inordinate amount of resistance to his agenda, despite being only the second white non-Democrat ever elected in the city’s history by an electorate that these days is majority black and Democrat. The two white Republicans on the Council, Doug Harvey and Gretchen Ezernack, almost always supported his initiatives and budgets, and usually on important items he could count on a vote from black Democrats Carday Marshall and/or Kema Dawson. Only black Democrat Juanita Woods consistently opposed him on these.

But in this spring’s elections Marshall and Dawson fell to black Democrats Rodney McFarland and Verbon Muhammad, both of whom essentially ran against the direction Ellis was taking. Their first meeting extended that theme.

New laws too late to fix left's fatal errors

If only some parts of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s and his legislative allies’ crime package had been in place prior to this year, likely at least one more person would be alive today, along potentially with reductions in many other crimes committed.

At the end of June, a woman who worked as tour guide was found shot dead early in the morning in the Vieux Carré. The next day, New Orleans police arrested Joshua Bonifacio-Avila, 19, Jerben Albarec, 17, and Kevin Nuñez, 15 for the robbery/murder with Nuñez as the alleged triggerboy.

That unhappy circumstance reflects poorly on Democrat Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Candice Bates-Anderson’s decision-making, as Nuñez – despite his not being old enough to operate legally a vehicle – already had a record of seven counts of aggravated assault, illegal possession of a handgun, and domestic battery at his latest appearance earlier this spring. Bates-Anderson nevertheless sentenced him to home arrest and monitoring. Yet in another system failure, for some reason his ankle monitor was deactivated in May, allowing him to roam the streets that led to his alleged role in the robbery that escalated to murder.