Defective decision highlights sentencing irony

Although a decision on the matter will apply to many fewer defendants across Louisiana now, a needed challenge to a badly flawed decision on jury sentencing points out in passing an unintended consequence of recent change to this policy.

Last year, voters amended the Constitution to sweet away the state’s requirement – shared now only by Oregon – that juries decide cases with only 10 of 12 votes (except, according to the criminal code, cases that could carry a capital sentence). However, the change to unanimity didn’t affect cases already in the pipeline.

Unless you agreed with rogue 41^st District Judge Stephen Beasley. In a magnificent display of judicial activism, last fall Beasley declared the 10/12 standard unconstitutional as it disproportionately affected black defendants because – he alone determined despite far more persuasive explanations at hand – it was inherently racist from its origin, thus violating the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection clause

High-stakes testing doesn't create more crime

So, ditching the practice of social promotion has allowed serious crime to run rampant on the streets? Only if you believe an oversimplified interpretation of an incomplete study performed using Louisiana data.

Recently, researchers released a paper investigating whether preventing social promotion, or the practice of advancing children academically unprepared a grade level regardless, causes more adult crime. They hypothesized that holding back children between grade levels past research had identified as most crucial to lead to high school graduation, eighth and ninth, discouraged desire for schooling got those repeating eighth grade so that later in life they more likely turned to violent crime than did their peers.

Two decades ago, Louisiana halted its practice of social promotion and instituted the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program tests in English and mathematics, where students had to pass both to enter ninth grade. To come as close as possible to having experimental and control groups, these analysts reviewed years of data for students who passed the eighth grade standardized tests needed for advancement by one point to those who failed these by one point.

Zulu schools Landrieu on cultural symbolism

Former Democrat New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and those who think like him about cultural symbolism could take a lesson from his former fellow members of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club.

As Democrat activists ponder who to put up against Republican Pres. Donald Trump next year, some stump for Landrieu. For example, one recent booster from outside the party argued that Landrieu’s dismantling of historic monuments in New Orleans while mayor, all connected to the Confederacy, commends him for the nation’s top job.

Only in a world where his party increasingly tears itself away from reality and the real concerns of Americans would Landrieu’s actions in that regard be considered anything but an exercise in intolerance and an avenue to promote social engineering. Unwilling to conceive of the monuments in any terms but his own, he decided to follow the Islamic State model of scarring the city’s landscape and erasing its history.

The Advocate column, Feb. 24, 2019

Before giving statewide raises to teachers, Louisiana schools need to progress
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_3f7b9454-3546-11e9-9815-eb3b4a37f084.htm

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_a204dfa8-308d-11e9-92ae-d33c214eedb3.html
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/la/POP060210
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/04/teacher_pay_2017.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/5199-per-pupil-educational-expenditures-adjusted-for-regional-cost-differences?loc=1&loct=2#ranking/2/any/true/573/any/11678 
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&sfj=NP&st=MN&year=2017R3
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_204.10.asp
http://www.fldoe.org/teaching/certification/certificate-subjects/certification-subject-examinations.stml

Perkins sacrificing one openness for another

Keeping one campaign promise shouldn’t mean sacrificing another, new Democrat Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins should understand. Especially when the whole thing smells a bit fishy.

During his campaign, which he alluded to in his inauguration speech, Perkins spoke of more openness in city government. Then, a month later, with no consultation he served notice to the city’s two longtime insurance providers that he canned them.

That subsequently brought a flurry of public comments from representatives of the jilted companies, who will lose this business in the hundreds of millions of dollars in a few days, at the last City Council meeting. They pointed out that they had no chance to make offers, contrary to procedures that require a request for proposal when the city contracts in this fashion.

Luddites lose finally on N.O. gas peaker

The New Orleans City Council turned back the Luddites and ensured reliable electric power in the Crescent City.

After nearly a year of going round and round with drama, the Council passed on revisiting a vote to authorize Entergy New Orleans to build a 128 MW gas generator. The city has relied solely on outside power by transmission line for almost three years, and last year the Council approved of this unit and Entergy charging customers for it, but upon discovering the utility had employed unusual lobbying tactics to help win approval, some special interests agitated to redo the process.

The $210 million “peaker” unit Entergy intended for two purposes. First, on days where demand exceeded what outside transmission could bring in, this unit has a quick start capacity that can ameliorate almost instantly capacity issues. Second, in the event of a natural disaster with downed lines and other problems, the unit’s quick starting in short order could supply emergency power for an extended period of time.

Alter LA higher education policy before taxing

A recent plea for more Louisiana higher education funding reminds of the story of different individuals describing an elephant.

In that tale, individuals unable to see stood around an elephant. Asked to describe the beast just from touch various parts of it, obviously they came up with wildly different conjectures.

So it was when Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed addressed the media earlier this week. She noted that Louisiana families here pay 21.1 percent of their income when enrolled in the two-year schools compared to 17 percent in other southern states and 18.2 percent nationally, according to data compiled by the Southern Regional Education Board. She later added that the state should increase need-based aid to make sure more people have access, observing that it spends $161 on average for need-based aid compared to an average of $343 in the region and $376 nationally, and $1,601 for merit-based assistance compared to an average of $416 in the region and $168 in the U. S.

Another black eye for LSU under Alexander

The old college expression, “if you can’t go Greek, go Deke” has taken on a much more sinister connotation at Louisiana State University with horrific revelations potentially untimely for the academic career of the system’s leader.

The early part of 2019 has seen the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at the state’s flagship university in Baton Rouge first voluntarily disband, then have several of its members arrested for crimes related to treatment of pledges. What some on campus saw as a real-life “Animal House” instead seems likely, if the charges stick, to more accurately carry the label “Felony House.”

Accusations sensational and sickening accuse members of physical and mental of abuse of pledges, allegedly going on for years, until a few recent DKE pledges blew the whistle, emboldened by LSU’s well-publicized reforms concerning pledge treatment after the death by hazing of one at another fraternity. What law enforcement investigators have claimed happened makes the chapter look little more than a conveyor belt for sadism.

Milkovich tome to distract from record

You might think running a law practice and serving as a state senator would leave little time to write a book – unless it helps you navigate a difficult reelection task.

Last year, Democrat state Sen. John Milkovich self-published Robert Mueller-- Errand Boy for the New World Order. At the time, in Louisiana only the Talk Louisiana radio program took notice (disclosure: I’m sometimes a guest on this program), which led to a subsequent dyspeptic review by a far left website in state.

Since then, Milkovich has been busy with it. I haven’t read it, but from what I can glean from various interviews that he has given with a number of conspiratorial-minded outlets, it’s just that – a contrived look at the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director’s and now special prosecutor whose investigation is going nowhere, looking set to burn through tens of millions of dollars without coming close to delivering metaphorically to the far left a Z-list celebrity aspiration.

The Advocate column, Feb. 17, 2019

Louisiana's populist political culture real cause of small town financial issues 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_f9143d9e-2fce-11e9-8b4e-b738695f7432.html

Links:
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_9f45bd50-240d-11e9-bc9c-07f0f6ea2f6b.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_a2e2307e-271a-11e8-b092-bf81763df3c2.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_a413aaec-6034-11e8-b482-0f34594f1a7c.html
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/mark_ballard/article_579c4a30-2bcb-11e9-a3a2-d76b1ff39b83.html
https://www.nlc.org/number-of-municipal-governments-population-distribution
http://app.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/0/E79C2E44A4A9D635862580EB0057B474/$FILE/00012F5D.pdf
https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/CandidateInquiry
https://www.lla.la.gov/reports-data/audit/advanced-search/index.shtml
http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/_docs/_utilities/Water Bills and Fees Comparison - All.xls