Arizona has set off a wave of controversy by passing a new law that random stops can be made for proof of citizenship.  Some 500,000 illegal immigrants have flooded across the Arizona-Mexican border.  Louisiana too has seen a wave of new, undocumented immigrants.  Should Louisiana follow Arizona’s lead?  Or are these undocumented worker’s too...Read More

  Thursday, April 29, 2010 Baton Rouge, Louisiana IMMIGRATION CONTROVERSY DIRECTLY AFFECTS LOUISIANA! What if by some magical occurrence, every illegal immigrant was removed from Louisiana?  Well, there would be few roofs replaced on houses, and most of the state’s golf courses would grow up in weeds. Take a good look around your local community,...Read More

 JIM’S WEBSITE BACK UP AND RUNNING (Sorry about the down time.  A computer virus that is now fixed.)     A terrible story of how out of whack the Louisiana justice is in this week’s column.  A killer of a Catholic priest down in Thibodaux, Louisiana will walk free after serving NO time because of...Read More

  In the fall of 2001, a nation reeling from the horror of 9/11 was rocked by a series of deadly anthrax attacks. As the pressure to find a culprit mounted, the FBI, abetted by the media, found one. The wrong one. Here is a chilling and troubling story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror...Read More

  Thursday, March 31, 2010 Baton Rouge, Louisiana KILLER OF A LOUISIANA PRIEST SERVES NO TIME FOR THE MURDER? Father Hunter Horgan was a popular Episcopal priest in the small South Louisiana town of Thibodaux, Louisiana.  He was severely beaten and then stabbed to death in the office of St. John’s Episcopal Church where he...Read More

  The Louisiana Legislature just complete  a not so memorable legislative session that is being panned by newspapers all over Louisiana for the missed opportunities to reform, the failure to address any long range planning ,and the lack of leadership coming from Governor Bobby Jindal.  Some feel the legislative session was exemplified by a rap...Read More

I’m in the North Carolina mountains, my second home, for the week.  I hate to tell my friends back in Louisiana, where the temperature often is cracking 100, how cool it is here.  70s during the day.  And can you believe?  I build fires at night.  I’m with my granddaughter and grandniece, so we tour...Read More

And we think Louisiana politics are bizarre.  What’s going on in South Carolina?  Another presidential wannabe has bitten the dust.  But in what a strange way.  How could the governor, Mark Sanford, think he could slip off to Argentina completely incognito, with his staff and family knowing nothing, to see a woman he was having...Read More

  The strange case of former Sen. Ted Stevens has raised some real issues of how much the Justice Department prosecution team specifically broke the law by failing to give Stevens FBI notes that would have significantly helped his case.  And how widespread is this prosecutorial misconduct.  Should these Wild West prosecutors be given immunity...Read More

Thursday, April 16, 2009 New York City, New York IT’S TIME TO END LEGAL IMMUNITY FOR PROSECUTORS If you have followed the criminal case of former US Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, a title of a future book or video could well be titled “prosecutors gone wild.” Stevens was convicted of accepting gifts from campaign...Read More

You just will not believe the dream I had last night.  It was the strangest thing you can imagine.  Now those of you who have followed my years of public service know full well that I’m a quiet, non— controversial kind of guy.  But in my dream last night, I was right in the center...Read More

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JIM’S NEW COLUMN (JINDAL AND PAY RAISES) NOW UP JINDAL NEEDS TO PICK A FIGHT! TO READ, CLICK HERE. The “Anti-Pay Raise Rally” WILL BE HELD JULY 7 at the STATE CAPITOL from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, contact steve@bayoubuzz.com to help or to attend. Rally is being sponsored by Citizen Can and...Read More

Sammy Kershaw Lt. Governor candidate and country singer Sammy Kershaw was my Friday guest on Jim Brown in the Morning. Besides politics, we talked a good bit about country music. I let Sammy know that country music is a way of life if you come from my old home town of Ferriday, Louisiana. Hey, and...Read More

Wednesday, June 5, 2007 New Orleans, Louisiana (TAX) SHELTER FROM THE STORM Louisiana needs a much longer Fourth of July holiday break. It’s a tax break I’m talking about, and it should let residents stock up on the storm supplies without having to pay any state sales tax. It’s officially hurricane season, so what better...Read More

Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle was my guest today during the 190:00, and we discussed crime issues in general, and the overall recovery of Plaquemines Parish.? The sheriff was, as always a good and? lively guest, but I may be a bit prejudiced since he is my brother-in-law.    ...Read More

Tom Laird was a guest during the 9:00 hour on Tuesday of this week, and talked at length about his combined experiences of New Orleans and his lengthy trips to Tibet. Tom’s new book on Tibet is in book stores all over New Orleans. Increasing crime rates and what to do about it was the...Read More

Thursday, April 5th, 2007 New Orleans, Louisiana   SO I GET THIS CALL FROM RAY NAGIN The mayor of the city of New Orleans called me last night. I was just about to doze off when the phone rang. And can you believe it? He wanted my advice on how to deal with the degenerating...Read More

Tuesday, March 28th, 2007 New Orleans, Louisiana   COULD LOUISIANA HAVE THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY? Could Louisiana be a major player in presidential primary politics? Not according to the present election day schedule. But what with a little fine tuning, the Pelican State could emerge as a major factor in deciding what candidate in both...Read More

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November 2, 2006 New Orleans, Louisiana  Britain’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was full of insight with his poignant anecdotes. He once summed up the political courage of one of his opponents by observing: “Our citizens are moving in the streets. And I must find out which way they are going, and get in front...Read More

Political prognosticators all over the state are jumping on the bandwagon writing obituaries for the state Democratic Party in Louisiana. A wipeout they say in the most recent statewide election. Two major offices were captured by the state GOP. Is this a sign of things to come in next year’s gubernatorial election? Hardly. Let’s take...Read More

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Remember GE’s Jack Welch who wrote a book last year about the four stages of crisis management? Republican leaders in Congress need to do some real soul-searching and move beyond the quagmire outlined by Welch. First comes “denial” followed by “containment.” We have seen plenty of that from the GOP over the past 12 days....Read More

Had your fill of mud slinging over the airwaves leading up to last Saturday’s election? Well don’t expect any changes in the near future. There are two major statewide elections on the horizon and both to take place in the next 60 days. And before you know it, the Louisiana Legislature will be back on...Read More

We love our elections in Louisiana. Or, at least our public officials sure do. We have already had four election dates this year, and guess what? We still have three more elections to go. And what little interest there was seems to be waning. The forty percent turnout being ballyhooed by elections officials a few...Read More

For years, New Jersey has regularly led the nation in having the highest auto insurance rates anywhere in the country. All of a sudden, their rates are plummeting, while Louisiana stays at the top of the list for what drivers have to pay. What happened to New Jersey, and why can’t the same thing take...Read More

Candidates for Louisiana Insurance Commissioner met in a debate this week before the Baton Rouge Press Club. Libertarian candidate S.B.A. Zaitoon made a well received observation. “The way these two guys are throwing mud at each other, they are making my case that the office should be appointed.” There was little discussion of meaningful insurance...Read More

An election to fill two statewide vacancies is a little over three weeks away, but it would be an understatement to say that the general public is not, as yet, paying much attention. Most voters have no idea a major election is just around the corner. Look for a big advertising blitz to begin for...Read More

We have heard the message over and over again for months. The whole Katrina recovery effort will take time. There are checks and balances we must build in, but with a great deal of effort, we hopefully will soon get back to our pre-Katrina life. Just hang in there with us, say our public officials,...Read More

Does anyone still take serious vacations? In the “good old days,” schools did not start again until the Monday after Labor Day. The last two weeks in August used to be a popular time for families to get away to the beach for a final summer fling. But not anymore. The American family vacation seems...Read More

Special statewide elections in Louisiana are only six weeks away. At the top of the ballot on September 30th will be an office second in line to the governorship. All the candidates are harping on the same theme. Each wants to be the business development voice of the state. Will the Governor let that happen?...Read More

Could the entire federal, state and local justice system operating in New Orleans be more dysfunctional? It’s hard to imagine how things can get much worse. From federal and state judges to a police department that seems to have lost any set of priorities, there seems to be almost unanimous consensus that the present system...Read More

The threat of Allstate Insurance Company leaving Louisiana put insurance issues on the front burner and on the front pages of the state’s daily newspapers all this week. Would the state’s second largest insurance company actually pick up and pull out? Yes says the current insurance commissioner (Jim Donelon). Nothing but a hoax says major...Read More

Allstate Insurance Company stirred up a fire storm this week by announcing that they planned to drop hurricane coverage for some 30,000 of its Louisiana policy holders in 18 coastal parishes. But this could just be the tip of the iceberg as other companies selling property insurance along the gulf Coast consider the same option....Read More

I have penned several recent columns about how appointed judges on both the state and federal level often seem to be exempt from basic rules of accountability. That is why in a number of state legislatures throughout the country, as well as in Congress itself, proposals are being offered for more accountability and limiting the...Read More

Whatever final result is reached in the current high profile investigation of New Orleans Congressman Bill Jefferson, there are plenty of losers all around. Whether or not the six-term Congressman is indicted and convicted, his days of serving as a major Louisiana elected official seem to be on a track to come to an early...Read More

Legislators at the state level and members of Congress in Washington are becoming more and more concerned about how appointed judges throughout the country are exempt from basic rules of accountability. In Washington, Congress is seriously considering legislation to establish an Inspector General, who will have the power to investigate federal judges. Simply put, a...Read More

Everyone knows a man’s home is his castle – Agreed? The basic right of privacy in one’s place of residence has been a fundamental founding principle in any Democratic system, going back to England in the 1600s. William Pitt expressed this concept well in the English Parliament in 1763, “The poorest man may, in his...Read More

Remember the 1978 movie “Heaven Can Wait?” Julie Christie looks up at Warren Beatty and says, “You’re the quarterback. You’re the one.” I guess there’s nothing like hanging out with the quarterback. And that’s exactly what I got to do last week in Shreveport at the Doug Williams Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic. Doug was quite...Read More

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Louisiana’s Governor says it’s time to play “hardball” with Washington, so she plans to file a lawsuit stopping the federal government’s planned August 17th offshore oil lease sale. She is drawing the line in the dirt unless Louisiana starts receiving 50 percent of the offshore oil revenues now going exclusively to the federal government. Now...Read More

Would you believe it? The nation focused on the recent Mayor’s Race in New Orleans and you would assume there would be a break. Not so. A major election, involving the selection of two statewide officials as well as congressmen, and many other local officials, is only four months away. A hotly contested race is...Read More

Business executives and academics are joining forces all this week on the North Carolina coast to debate and pinpoint America�s future in the 21st century. How does our country fit into the global flow of ideas, commodities, and rapid development of technology? Will the U.S. continue to lead, or be swept up in the cross...Read More

The polls in New Orleans open up in less than 48 hours. And by Saturday night, we will know the results of one of the most watched and scrutinized mayor’s races in the country. When the smoke settles and all of the votes are cast, whoever wins will not just be “the Man” in New...Read More

Less than three weeks. June 1st. It’s almost here. Hurricane season again. Is Louisiana ready? You be the judge. First of all, we’ve been told by reliable sources that New Orleans’ levees are prepared for no more than a Category 2 storm, and that the repairs being done to the levee system throughout this area...Read More

A 21-year-old Louisiana soldier was killed in Iraq last week. He is the 54th service man from Louisiana who has died since the combat began in March 2003. And you would have a hard time reading about this young man’s death. It was buried in the back pages of his hometown newspaper. Have we become...Read More

In the New Orleans mayor’s race, the two run-off candidates began posturing late election night when it became obvious that the incumbent and the Lieutenant-Governor would face each other for the top prize. Their messages were pretty much the same. Stick to the issues and keep race out of the run-off. And you know what?...Read More

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My dog, Shorty, a five-and-a-half pound Yorkie, travels a lot with me. I have written about her before. We included wife Gladys this time around, and headed out a month ago on an extended trip to the west. A family wedding, visits with numerous relatives along the way, spiced up with stops for skiing, hiking,...Read More

Taking a break from a family vacation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, I went to the Internet and checked on all the local news back home in Louisiana. The insurance news for homeowners, particularly in Louisiana, was bleak. Headlines blaring 49 percent rate increases, companies refusing to pay claims, little known causes that completely wipe...Read More

My wife, Gladys and I were in Shreveport last week attending a funeral. Because of a houseful of guests at my mother’s house, we decided to stay at the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino, a bustling enterprise on the Red River in Bossier right across from downtown Shreveport. Gladys wondered off to the gift shops as...Read More

For weeks, the LSU Board of Supervisors has been embroiled in a controversy over the selection of a new president for the LSU system. Rumors have been flying for months that incumbent head William Jenkins was being pushed aside by a handful of the present Board with his successor already handpicked. In a recent special...Read More

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco says it’s time to play hardball. Many would say it’s about time. But is attempting to block the sale of federal mineral leases off the coast of Louisiana the way to begin? Even Chris Mathews might raise his eyebrows on this one. Here’s the background. The U.S. Department of the Interior,...Read More

If there is going to be a defining issue in the fall race for Insurance Commissioner, it’s going to be property insurance in Louisiana. Both pre-Katrina and post-Katrina, finding affordable property insurance for homes and businesses has become more and more difficult. The cost has skyrocketed, and many homeowners are dramatically underinsured. And unfortunately, under...Read More

Availability and affordability. The buzzwords when it comes to insurance for small consumers and big businesses alike. The insurance climate wasn’t much before Katrina. But the overall insurance climate took quite a dip in the last five months. Get ready for a knock down drag out on what’s important to the insurance buying public. We...Read More

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Now let me get this straight. As part of levee board reform, the Louisiana Legislature, with the Governor’s blessing, will split the oversight of flood protection in New Orleans between two levee boards with a third board over these two boards. And this is supposed to be progress? Up until now, our state has taken...Read More

Do you want to know how disjointed and out of focus the Louisiana Democratic Party is right now? Just look at what happened in last week’s election for a state party chairman. Baton Rouge lawyer and long-time party loyalist, Chris Whittington was the early favorite, and ended up winning a big victory. But look who...Read More

In Louisiana, politicos are always looking to the next political race, or a new vacancy that needs to be filled. And with speculation that present Lieutenant-Governor Mitch Landrieu is about to announce his candidacy for Mayor of New Orleans, the rumor mill has already begun as to who will take his place if his campaign...Read More

In a normal election cycle, 2006 would be a somewhat dull election year with a contested congressional election or two. Not a lot to spark the average voter’s interest. But no more. Get ready for a whole litany of contests, from possible three statewide elections, to a series of hot congressional matches as well as...Read More

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A major effort is being made to recall Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. A website set up to give information about the recall effort received, according to those organizing the effort, some 200,000 hits in the first day alone. Petitions are being circulated, and there is supposedly a major effort underway to obtain the required signatures...Read More

Here in the Crescent City, the lines would seem to have been drawn in the dirt. Many residents want a quick election to pass judgment on those who want to govern the city in the future. Others want to delay the election. And political motives are attributed to both sides. Who benefits by the changing...Read More

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