Louisiana News

Call it political irony: As Republicans embark on their long-shot attempt to recapture control of the U.S. Senate, their hopes depend in no small part on a Southerner named John Kennedy.

The Louisiana state treasurer, elected twice as a Democrat before switching parties to run for his third term, is trying to block a third term for Democrat Mary Landrieu, considered the most vulnerable incumbent among the 12 Senate Democrats seeking re-election.

The race tops a slate of federal elections this fall that will determine the lineup of a delegation that will look different -- and have considerably less seniority -- than the one voters sent to Washington, D.C., two years ago.

Another high-profile race comes in the 2nd Congressional District, where Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, seeks a 10th term under the cloud of a pending public corruption trial slated to begin Dec. 2 in Virginia.

Jefferson belied prognosticators two years ago, winning re-election in a near landslide despite the federal investigation and rumors of a pending indictment. But the charges have since become a reality, and prosecutors also are taking aim at his siblings and associates.

"It's quite a different political environment than in 2006," Xavier University political scientist Silas Lee said.

Qualifying opens Wednesday and runs through Friday. Party primaries are Sept. 6, followed by party runoffs Oct. 4 and the general election Nov. 4. Only registered Republicans can cast GOP ballots. Democratic primaries are open to registered Democrats and registered independents.

State Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans; Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee; and former WDSU-TV news anchor Helena Moreno all have filed paperwork in preparation to run against Jefferson.

Others who have been mentioned as possible candidates include state Sen. Cheryl Gray, D-New Orleans; Kenya Smith, a former top aide to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin; former New Orleans City Councilman Troy Carter; and New Orleans City Councilman James Carter.

Louisiana may be losing seniority in Congress, but two state Democratic delegation members are gaining strength through what has become the swing caucus in the House: The Blue Dog Coalition.

The muscle of the 47 fiscally and socially conservative Democrats is best explained in the sheer numbers. With the Democrats now holding a 37-vote lead in the House, the Blue Dogs have become the powerful voting bloc that can push legislation forward or stop it in its tracks.

U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon, D-Napoleonville, has been a member of the coalition since his election in 2004. But a newly elected Louisiana delegation member, U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads, is expected to join the group shortly.

Former LSU pitcher Ben McDonald, the 1989 Golden Spikes Award winner, was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame during Fourth of July weekend festivities in Lubbock, Texas. McDonald is one of 12 players and coaches comprising the 2008 induction class.

“The College Baseball Foundation is proud to recognize the members of this year’s Hall of Fame class,” said Mike Gustafson, Hall of Fame co-chair and College Baseball Foundation board member. “This is an exceptional class dominated by some of the best pitchers in the history of college baseball.”

McDonald, who pitched at LSU from 1987 to 1989, set an LSU career mark for strikeouts with 373 and set several Southeastern Conference records, including single-season strikeouts (202) and consecutive scoreless innings (44.2). He was a two-time All-American and a 1988 Olympic gold medalist. He also lettered as an LSU basketball player.

McDonald became the second LSU representative in the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Former LSU coach Skip Bertman was inducted in 2006.

Over the objections of five powerful trade associations, Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed into law a bill that gives employees more freedom to take guns to work.

The bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, gives an employee the right to keep a legally owned firearm locked in a car in a parking lot at the workplace, with some exceptions.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, said the legislation backs employees who are fired for unwittingly carrying a firearm in their personal vehicle because they went hunting before or after work.

The bill posed a dilemma for Jindal and many conservative lawmakers. During the recent legislative session, the NRA backed the bill but the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry opposed it.

"Sometimes you have to pick among friends. It's not a pleasant thing to do," said Dan Borne, president of two of the associations opposing the bill.

The bill was signed Wednesday and takes effect Aug. 15, according to the Legislature's Web site. A message was left with Jindal's press secretary Friday seeking comment.

A recent rash of resignations from executive posts in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration has raised questions about how turnover, or extended vacancies, will affect a giant recovery effort just beginning to gain momentum.

Since Nagin reached the midpoint of his second term in May, five officials in key positions, from the chief operating officer of the city's recovery office to the head of homeland security, have quit their jobs.

Such an exodus, political observers say, is not unexpected. With the election of a new mayor glinting on the horizon, political appointees and top bureaucrats know their influence might wane under a lame-duck boss. And, of course, the installation of a new mayor typically sets off a house-cleaning among mayoral staffers.

"If you look at any administration -- the Bush administration, the Clinton administration -- people have to watch out for their own interests," said Ron Nabonne, a political consultant who served as legal counsel through the final days of former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy's administration.

But the recent spate of departures strikes many as a bit early, as political cycles go. It also raises questions about the work environment inside a downsized City Hall and, perhaps more important, about how the vacancies might affect pending infrastructure repairs and other recovery efforts marked by fits and starts since Hurricane Katrina.

Officials who left in recent weeks acknowledged that working in city government since the flood has been exhausting, but each cited personal reasons for leaving. Ezra Rapport, for instance, said he resigned as Recovery Director Ed Blakely's right-hand man to join his wife and children in Germany, while Kenya Smith, Nagin's former top political aide, is considering a run for Congress.

Peter Burns, an associate professor of political science at Loyola University, said he doesn't dismiss the justifications offered by exiting staffers. But he said the departure of five top people a full 20 months before the next mayoral election is curious.

"What's the timing? Some of these things wouldn't require people to leave right now," he said. "I'm skeptical of this particular group leaving at the same time. I don't believe in coincidences."

READ MORE: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/exodus_of_top_nagin_directors.html

Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed a $30,000 annual pay raise for members of the Public Service Commission on Thursday.

“Though I appreciate the dedication and important work of the commissioners, I find this raise to be excessive,” Jindal wrote in his veto letter on House Bill 939.

The veto comes less than a week after the governor overturned a raise that would have more than doubled legislators’ base pay.

Three workers were burned at the Conoco Phillips Alliance Refinery in Jesuit Bend, according to police and company officials. A company spokesman said the three contractors were burned by steam at the facility around 2 p.m Thursday. They were working for a company called T2S, according to the spokesman. They were doing routine maintenance at the refinery when they hit a valve that broke off and released steam from the boiler, according to the spokesman. Police said one of the injured was in critical condition and airlifted to a Baton Rouge hospital. The other two were taken to hospitals in Plaquemines Parish.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html

The people in sparsely populated Tensas parish have opened their hearts to the Lundy family, showering them with love.

The love can be seen in Newellton, where the family lives, and St. Joseph, where the Rev. Adrian Lundy pastored both St. John Baptist Church and Mount Olive Baptist Church.

The signage Wednesday at the United Pentecostal Church in Newellton states: "Please Remember to Pray for the Lundy Family."

Lundy works for the school system and has a lawn care business. He was mowing a campsite on Lake Bruin last Friday and had four of his sons with him. Seven-year-old Connor slipped into the water when he stepped onto a ramp.

Courtland, 8, tried to rescue his brother. Two older brothers who were trimming grass, Dorian, 13, and Dylan, 12, jumped in to help. All but Courtland drowned.

Courtland ran up the hill to get his father who was on a lawnmower, but by the time he got there it was too late, Sheriff Rickey Jones said.

Sheriff's Maj. Ernest Spillman said the wooden ramp had a lot of green slime on it, causing it to be extremely slick.

"Everybody around here knows the family and they're well thought of," Spillman said. "It's just a real tragedy."

The boys' mother, Savannah Lundy, said in a telephone interview that the family is grateful for everyone's concern, prayers and help.

"The way I feel right now is just unexplainable," she said. "It's a pain that's unbearable."

Bingo Smith, 39, Savannah Lundy's brother and the boys' uncle, said the outpouring of love and charity from people throughout the parish of less than 7,000 people has been unbelievable.

"It's just been a melting pot of people, black and white, that have come forward to help and express their feelings for this family.

"I can't even imagine how my sister is dealing with this. She doesn't have just one son to cry for, but three. She has to cry for all three," Smith said.

Newellton resident Carroll Fuller said the First Baptist Church, of which he is a deacon, took up a love offering Sunday for the family and delivered it with food from the church's God's Mission Center. He said the Lundy's have 10 other children.

"The people here are real giving people," Fuller said.

Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price's now-infamous run-in with Causeway police in April was not the first time he received special treatment from local law enforcement after having too much to drink.

Sometime in late 2006, Price swerved his city-owned Ford Expedition into the path of a police car on a narrow street just off Monroe Street in old Mandeville, said Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell and one of the officers involved in the incident.

The mayor was driving erratically and seemed intoxicated, according to the officer, who asked not to be identified. But instead of administering a field sobriety test, the officer who pulled him over called his supervisor, he said.

The two officers offered to give Price a ride home, then obliged his request to be taken to City Hall, Buell and the officer said. One officer got behind the wheel of Price's SUV while the mayor, who smelled of alcohol, rode shotgun, the unidentified officer said.

A few hours later, a worker at the Shell station on North Causeway Boulevard dialed the police: Price was there pumping gas, and appeared to be in no condition to drive, said the police chief and the unidentified officer. By the time the same pair of officers arrived at the scene, determined not to let the mayor off easy this time, he was already gone, said Buell and the officer.

Buell's disclosure comes a day after Causeway Police Chief Felix Loicano resigned and two Causeway police officers were fired for their lenient handling of Price, who crashed through a tollbooth barrier just before midnight on April 22 and admitted to officers he had been drinking. A third Causeway officer, Chad Dorsett, resigned.

Buell said his officers did not call him that night and that he did not find out about the 2006 incident until after the Causeway tollbooth run-in made news almost two months ago.

Deputies arrested a public elementary schoolteacher suspected of “cyberstalking” a 14-year-old boy and entering his house illegally last month in a confrontation about the alleged stalking, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office reported Wednesday.

Jennifer R. Davis, 39, a teacher at the kindergarten to fifth-grade Lewis Vincent Elementary School in Denham Springs, reportedly posed as juvenile girl and engaged in MySpace.com communications with the 14-year-old boy during the past several months, deputies said.

The crime of cyberstalking may occur when someone uses the Internet to commit acts of harassment and stalking against another person.

Jason Ard, Sheriff’s Office chief of operations, said Davis’ alleged stalking involved a prior relationship between the boy and a 14-year-old girl.

Ard said detectives have not found evidence of any improper relationship between any adult and a child in the case.

Interim parish school Superintendent Bill Spear said deputies notified school officials Wednesday of the charges “that have been filed against one of our employees.”

“Livingston Parish School Board policies and procedures will be strictly followed in addressing this matter,” Spear said. He declined further comment Wednesday.

Davis’ electronic communications with the boy detailed his movements and actions, and the boy eventually told his parents about them, Ard said.

The parents suspected that the verbiage in the communications was “a little more intelligent” than what would be expected for a juvenile, Ard said.

Davis’ identity as the stalker was only recently discovered, however, leading to the confrontation at the boy’s house June 12, when Davis allegedly forced her way inside, deputies said in a statement.

On Friday, detectives arrested and booked Davis, 12410 Lakeland Drive, Walker, on single counts of cyberstalking and unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, deputies said. She was released on bond the same day, deputies said.

They say they are going to pull up desecrated ground.

Members of various churches representing several faiths plan to spend part of their Fourth of July holiday at a Metairie residence. They plan to pull up racist symbols that somebody chemically etched into the grass. Then they will put down new grass.

Roman Catholic and Episcopal priests, Protestant ministers, two rabbis and a Muslim leader are scheduled to take part in Friday's service.

The vandalism happened in May soon after a black family moved to a predominantly white suburban New Orleans neighborhood. The father, Travis Smith, says he was shocked at the vandalism. But he was also pleasantly surprised at the support and friendship his new neighbors showed him after it happened.

This test was conducted in order to facilitate the identification of possible biological agents present on interior surfaces at Jefferson Lakes Apartments 12400 Jefferson Hwy. Baton Rouge, LA. 70816. These pages from the report contain the type of testing that was done in 6 apartments in the Phase 3 buildings along with the results and recommendations. The results show HIGH levels (in 3 of the 6 and low to medium in 1) of apparent microbial growth which is not consistent with naturally occurring conditions. Again as in the 49 units of the 76 inspected in Phase 1 & 2 that have mold in the HVAC system these do too. Also included are the recommendations of the visual inspection of apartments in phase 1 & 2 buildings that were posted earlier. Yet Riverstone Residential after knowing of my 2005 report documenting MOLD denies that they know of mold. And they continue to LIE saying no one reports mold!

More about that here - http://this-is-not-okay.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-politics-affect-my-right-to-fair.html.

The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency was notified of a report done in 2005. People are living there now. They still allow people to move in even with documented evidence of the TOXIC ENVIRONMENT. This includes INFANTS and CHILDREN. This is a Public Health Issue.

Photos of extensive mold in apt. 2907 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/23021578@N03/sets/72157605542240095/Photos of the 2007 Mold Inspection Report - http://www.flickr.com/photos/23021578@N03/sets/72157605890888165/

Eunice Chamber of Commerce president Darren D'Aubin found himself rigging water hoses together Tuesday to connect a local seed store to the Eunice Chamber of Commerce office so that it can have access to water.

Eunice Mayor Robert "Bob" Morris had the office's water turned off early Tuesday morning.

The chamber building's utilities has been connected to the city of Eunice for the past 25 years. The city has picked up the tab for the chamber's utilities during those years, but for months Morris has been adamant that the chamber, a private entity, pay its own utility bill.

The matter came to a head on Tuesday when the mayor sent city workers to turn off the water.

"As part of your verbal agreement that you gave the city council at the May 13, 2008 Eunice City Council meeting, the electricity and water that you have been using that is connected to our public building will be turned off the morning of July 1, 2008," Morris wrote in a letter dated June 30.

He could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, the chamber agreed to install meters so that it could pay for its own utilities. D'Aubin even appeared before the council to give updates about their delays.

Monday, Morris delivered a letter to D'Aubin, the chamber's president, notifying him that the water and electricity would be disconnected.

"All of our conversations were about the electricity," D'Aubin said. Water was never mentioned, he said.

G&H Seed Co., Inc. agreed to donate its water to the office.

"I don't think it would be fair to an employee to ask them to sit in the office all day and not be able to go to the bathroom or ask them to walk across the street," D'Aubin said.

Mayor Ray Nagin says reports of his and his staff's use of city credit cards for lavish meals have led to new procedures for reporting and documenting charges to the public's plastic.

"After the stories about the credit cards, we updated all our policies," he said. "We needed an efficient way to do city government business, so we went in and tightened it up."

Nagin said he reimbursed the city after The Times-Picayune reported recently that he used his city credit card to take his wife, Seletha, out for a $91.57 anniversary lunch at a posh Uptown restaurant. He told WVUE-TV in an interview that he paid the city back for that meal, but not for two others with his wife totaling more than $80 each.

"One of the things that happens when my wife and I go out, if we're not talking city business, somebody will invariably come up to us, take a seat and join us for lunch, and we'll talk city business. So, to me those are legit." He added, "She's the first lady and she's one of my key advisers and we talk a lot about city business."

Nagin didn't name who else participated in those lunches, as required on the new city form. That was also true for the vast majority of 67 other meals he charged to taxpayers between September 2007 and January 2008, at a cost of more than $6,300, records show.

When asked to provide documentation of the new policies, Nagin's staff provided a single document called a Charge Card Documentation Request. The Chief Administration Office sends it each month, along with the monthly charge card statement, to every employee who has used his or her card, Nagin aides said.

The card user has 15 days to return the form with appropriate documentation to Comptroller Kim DeLarge or have the card "immediately suspended."

The form says the employee must attach a receipt or other documentation for each charge.

"Documentation should include the purpose of the expense and a listing of participants, if applicable," the form reads.

It also says that if a charge not related to city business is made, the employee must reimburse the city with a personal check.

The City Council has asked the new inspector general, Robert Cerasoli, to look into the matter. Budget Chairwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell applauded Nagin for taking a step to tighten procedures, but wants to consult with Cerasoli to come up with a formal manual.

Fugitive hedge-fund swindler Samuel Israel turned himself to federal authorities in Massachusetts after nearly a month on the lam, the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday.

Israel, a New Orleans native, turned himself into Southwick, Mass., police between 9:15 and 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Suzanne Anderson, police Chief Mark Krynicki's assistant. She said he was being processed at Southwick Police headquarters and referred all further questions to federal authorities.

Southwick is 95 miles away from the federal prison in Ayer, Mass., where Israel was to report last month to serve his sentence.

Israel disappeared June 9 on the day he was supposed to report to prison. His car was found on a bridge over the Hudson River with the words "Suicide is Painless" -- the theme song for the "MASH" television show -- scrawled in dust on the hood.

Because no body was found beneath the 150-foot-high bridge where his car was abandoned, authorities believed from the start that he faked his disappearance.

The 48-year-old Israel, a co-founder and chief executive of the now-collapsed Bayou hedge funds, was sentenced in April to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy and fraud. He was also ordered to pay $300 million to his victims.

Prosecutors said he and two other men persuaded investors to put $450 million into the Stamford, Conn.-based company by announcing nonexistent profits and providing fake audits.

Meanwhile, they made millions in commissions on trades that lost money for investors. The fund's collapse prompted calls for stricter oversight.

Officials said that after Israel abandoned his car, he took off in a white recreational vehicle carrying a motor scooter and his belongings. He was believed to be staying at RV parks, campgrounds or highway rest areas.

Israel's girlfriend, Debra Ryan of Armonk, was arrested 10 days after his disappearance and charged with aiding and abetting his escape.

Authorities say Ryan confessed that on the day Israel was to surrender, she drove her car and he drove the RV to a rest area about 55 miles north of New York City. Israel parked the RV there, and the two drove back to their home.

Ryan could face as many as 10 years in prison if convicted in the scheme.

Forty-two percent of State Representatives and fifty percent of State Senators reported income from government or gambling interests in 2007 according to annual disclosure reports. The reports cover the 2007 income that legislators, their spouses and businesses received from government entities and the gambling industry.

Rep. Ernest Wooten, R-Belle Chasse, chairman of the Louisiana House committee with oversight over gambling laws, received $16,000 from video poker interests. Wooten said he was a consultant for Redman Gaming of La. LLC, a video poker business "looking to do some business in the area.” The work preceded his becoming chairman of the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee.

Others reporting income from gambling sources include:

Rep. Ricky Templet, R-Gretna, $9,197, Metro Gaming & Amusement Co.

Rep. Jerry Gisclair, D-Larose, $65,900 in radio station income from gambling interests.

Rep. Gordon Dove, R-Houma, $23,328 from B&L Amusements Co., video poker operations.

The husband of Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, made $43,500 from Churchill Downs Louisiana Horse Racing Co.

The husband of Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles, a lawyer, made $3,573 representing Redman Gaming.

Lottery ticket sales brought $5,148 in income to a supermarket of Sen. Reggie Dupré, D-Houma.

Much of the government income on the House side came from elected or appointed government jobs they held prior to becoming legislators.

Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, $95,511 as a legislative liaison for former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

Rep. Patrick Connick, R-Harvey, $8,100 as appointed magistrate of Grand Isle.

Sen. Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, $40,623 from Louisiana Technical College.

Rep. Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, $91,684 from Delgado Community College.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, $337,127 as a physician for the LSU Health Sciences Center.

Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, listed 14 school board contracts with his wife’s firm, a total income just over $100,000.

Rep. Fred Mills, D-St. Martinville, reported $14,700 in income.

Rep. Bernard LeBas, D-Ville Platte, a pharmacist, received Medicaid income through four pharmacies but did not disclose the amount.

Sen. Dale Erdey, R-Livingston, who has an insurance business, reported 11 contracts with mainly Livingston governmental entities totaling about $20,000.

State Rep. John LaBruzzo of Metairie became the sixth legislator targeted for recall with organizers submitting papers to the secretary of state’s office Tuesday. All six legislators are Republicans who voted for the more than doubling legislative pay.

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday reversed himself and vetoed legislation that would have raised base pay from $16,800 to $37,5000.

Neither LaBruzzo nor recall petition organizers, Landon Greene and Tammy Famiglio of Metairie, could be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Other subjects of recalls are state Reps. Franklin Foil and Hunter Greene of Baton Rouge, Stephen Pugh of Ponchatoula and Joe Lopinto of Metairie.

Recall organizers must get the signatures of one-third of a legislative districts voters within 180 days to force a recall election.

A petition to recall House Speaker Jim Tucker of Terrytown was dropped Monday after Jindal’s veto, organizer John Roberts said.

Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed two bills Tuesday night that opponents said would have a chilling effect on people filing ethics complaints against public officials.

Jindal struck down House Bill 906, which would have required state ethics officials to disclose to someone accused of wrongdoing the identity of an accuser.

He also stopped Senate Bill 53, which would have forbidden ethics officials from investigating anonymous complaints.

“I am concerned that this requirement may discourage citizens from reporting misconduct for fear of reprisal,” Jindal wrote as his reasoning in both veto messages.

On SB53, Jindal added, “that rejecting anonymous complaints at face value will result in incidents of actual misconduct not being prosecuted.”

The same concerns have led the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and at least 20 states to use anonymous complaints, Jindal wrote in his veto of the bill sponsored by state Sen. Buddy Shaw, R-Shreveport.

Neither Hutter nor Shaw could be reached for comment.

It marked the second time Jindal vetoed the idea of allowing the accused to know who filed a complaint and who provided information. State Rep. Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, added the provision to legislation during the February ethics special session. It prompted Jindal’s first veto of his term.

Hutter tried again with a separate bill in the regular session just-ended.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics urged Jindal to veto Hutter’s HB906 as one of the board’s last actions prior to 10 of its 11 members resigning.

Jindal also vetoed House Bill 1175, which would have broadened an exception that allows family members of legislators to lobby. To avoid running afoul of the state’s conflict of interest laws, the family member had to have been registered as a lobbyist prior to a legislator’s initial election.

HB1175, sponsored by state Rep. Jack Montoucet, D-Scott, would have allowed that exception to apply if the immediate family member was a registered lobbyist for at least one year prior to Jan. 1, 2009.

“I do not see the need for this legislation,” Jindal wrote.

The only Republican on the state Lottery Corp. board of directors, Sam Caruso was elected chairman for the second straight time in early June. But Caruso was part of one-third of the board removed from office on June 23.

He and two other members — including the vice chairwoman — were not put forward for confirmation by the end of the legislative session by the Jindal administration.

“The bottom line is I don’t know why,” Caruso said. “I still wish the governor well, but damn if I can make any sense of this.”

Caruso, a longtime Slidell mayor, was among more than 60 members of boards and commissions statewide removed from office who were either appointed or re-appointed by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco between June 29, 2007, and Jan. 13.

Some state gaming and higher education boards were among the hardest hit by Gov. Bobby Jindal removing board members. All new appointments had to be confirmed by the state Senate during the legislative session, which ended June 23.

Blanco made 117 appointments after June. Jindal was able to indirectly remove many simply by not putting their names forward for Senate confirmation during the legislative session.

Jindal’s spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, said in an e-mail, “As the Governor said after the election, every position was to be treated as an open position and we would work to find the best, most qualified individuals to serve our state.”

She did not discuss a timeline for naming replacements.

This bevy of board voids is greatly affected by many others resigning because of new financial disclosure laws.

Impacted boards and commissions range from the Louisiana Community and Technical College Board of Supervisors to the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf, which both lost multiple members.