Thursday, April 21st, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana THE KINGFISH, LOUISIANA, AND PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS!  Huey Long would have been right in the middle of the current presidential election if he were still alive. He began a legacy of a long list of Louisiana politicians who had national aspirations. Later governors John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, Buddy Roemer...Read More

Thursday, April 14th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN MOTORCYCLE HELMET DEBATE! One of the hot issues in the current session of the Louisiana Legislature, meeting at the state capitol in Baton Rouge, is the repeal of a law that currently mandates the wearing of a safety helmet when riding a motorcycle.  Proponents...Read More

Thursday, April 6th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana CHILD ABUSE IN LOUISIANA! Since the time of Charles Dickens, the plight of children in state custody has been the source of great public anxiety. In the almost 200 years since Oliver Twist was published, many of us think of starving children immortalized by young Oliver who received...Read More

Thursday, March 31st, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana TRUMP AND LOUISIANA’S “CROOKED ELECTIONS”!  Donald Trump said he was stunned, shocked and livid about how elections are run way down in the Bayou State. He minced no words in giving his assessment of what happened in the recent Louisiana presidential primary. ” It tells you what a...Read More

Thursday, March 24th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana FROM CESSPOOL TO HOT TUB IN LOUISIANA POLITICS! Who cares about any budget crisis in Louisiana? After all, it’s important that the Bayou State’s new governor and legislature set priorities. And they apparently have. They were not able to balance the state budget in a recent special session....Read More

March 17th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LSU SHOULD NOT BE A QUITTER! Is LSU a quitter? When the pressures mount, and things just don’t go as planned, are there too many instances where the state’s flagship university seems to walk away and pull the plug, with the hopes that the problem will just go away?...Read More

March 10th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana SHOULD FEDS HAVE RIGHT TO BREAK INTO YOUR IPHONE? It sounds like a pretty straightforward request. The FBI wants to open up a criminal’s iPhone to see if a future crime can be stopped. This is the scenario of the San Bernardino shooter, who certainly forfeited his privacy rights...Read More

Thursday, March 3rd, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LOUISIANA NEEDS MORE HEROES! Psychologist Carl Jung wrote that we are born to need heroes. Having a hero in our lives nurtures us, gives us hope, lifts us up, gives us reasons to dream and be inspired. Every kid has a special champion they admire and look up...Read More

Friday, February 26th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  PUBLIC APATHY AND LOUISIANA POLITICS! When it comes to exceptional creative talent in America, Louisiana seems to always come out on top. I thought of the state’s remarkable musical virtuosos this week on the third anniversary of the death of concert pianist Van Cliburn, arguably one of the...Read More

Thursday, February 18th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana NEW LOUISIANA GOVERNOR FACING REALITY! New Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has jumped head first into the abyss of state government’s seemingly endless financial problems, and his popularity is already taking hits. A recent Southern Media and Opinion Research poll has his popularity rating at a low 42%....Read More

February 11th, 2016 New Orleans, Louisiana BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT IN LOUISIANA! Political correctness continues to be on the march in the Bayou State from Shreveport to New Orleans. Just about everywhere a Civil War commemoration or monument is located, there seems to be some local group calling for a re-writing of history by eliminating such...Read More

February 4th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LOUISIANA BIG LOSER IN IOWA CAUCUS! The biggest loser in the recent Iowa presidential caucuses was not Donald Trump or any of the other candidates who did not meet expectations in garnering voters. No, the title for the real loser was, hands down, the state of Louisiana. Because of...Read More

Thursday, January 28th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana ARE NEW LOUISIANA TAXES REALLY NECESSARY? Paraphrasing but updating former Louisiana Senator Russell Long’s famous saying about how to raise revenue, “We’re going tax you, we’re going tax me, we’ll even tax that guy behind the tree.” With only a few days in office, Louisiana’s new Governor John...Read More

January 21st, 2016 New Orleans, Louisiana WAS THE COURSE OF HISTORY CHANGED IN LOUISIANA? Two hundred years ago this month, Louisiana was the center of a major turning point in both American and world history. The War of 1812 was the first time in the short time of the nation’s history that the U.S. had...Read More

Thursday, January 14th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana UPHILL BATTLES FOR LOUISIANA’S NEW GOVERNOR! Louisiana’s newly elected governor began his inaugural day on a high note with religious services at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Baton Rouge. But before he could even begin his inaugural address, things got dicey. The Louisiana House of Representatives rejected his...Read More

January 7th, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana ELECTIONS NEVER STOP IN LOUISIANA!  Less than two months ago, Louisiana voters were beaten to exhaustion with a barrage of mostly negative campaign commercials. Try as one might, it was impossible to dodge the onslaught of attack ads delivered by TV, radio, mailers, newspaper, and internet saturation. What a...Read More

January 1st, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana FOOTBALL AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN LOUISIANA! It’s that time of year for college bowl games and NFL playoffs. And when you look at the winners, it’s all about the coach. Top college teams like Alabama and LSU don’t build winning programs by setting up boards and committees. The job...Read More

December 24th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana NEW YEAR THOUGHTS FROM THE BAYOU STATE!  Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I always do.  A New Year always brings with it promise and uncertainty, but the coming year brings with it a greater foreboding than we have experienced in the past.  I would rather be absorbed with...Read More

  Thursday, December 17, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR LOUISIANA UNIVERSITIES! With a new governor about to take over the reins of state, LSU and other Louisiana colleges are making a full court press for more funding. They have a good argument to make. But what do taxpayers get in return? Have universities...Read More

Thursday, December 10th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF LSU! Huey Long was the best friend and supporter LSU ever had.  He was called the father of the modern LSU by the Virginia Quarterly Review in commenting: “Huey stroked LSU as if he had been coddling a newborn pet elephant.  During fiscal stringency...Read More

Thursday, December 3, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana ALL THAT MATTERS IS THE FOOTBALL COACH! With a new governor soon to take office in a state that is facing a massive government financial crisis, a litany of problems continues to mount. Higher education is on the ropes both financially and academically. Healthcare costs continue to spiral,...Read More

Friday, November 27th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOSERS IN LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S RACE!  Four months ago in the Louisiana governor’s race, Senator David Vitter was a slam-dunk. He seemed to have it all. Gobs of PAC money flowing in from all over the U.S., strong support from most of the Republican establishment including his GOP colleagues...Read More

Columnist and freedom fighter John Whitehead has been a guest on my syndicated radio program, and is one of the nations leading voices on government intrusion into our basic freedoms and right to privacy. Check out his engaging and cncerning vido below.Read More

Thursday, November 19th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana THE DEMISE OF BOBBY JINDAL! Former Louisiana state senator Sixty Rayburn was well know for his folksy sayings during legislative sessions. He often urged his colleagues to never forget the folks back home when deciding issues at the state capitol. Sixty put it this way. “Always dance with...Read More

Thursday, November 12th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana BETRAYING YOUR POLITICAL PARTY IN LOUISIANA  You may not have heard, but there is apparently a strict code of loyalty among Republican candidates in Louisiana. They follow the rule of never speaking ill about a fellow republican, and they always rally behind the parties’ choice against any democratic...Read More

November 5th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  TURN PRISIONERS LOOSE IN LOUISIANA?  We have been hearing for years that Louisiana has the world’s highest incarceration rate. There are currently some 40,000 Bayou State residents behind bars, at a cost of $350 million a year. The conventional wisdom from numerous officials in Louisiana is that our prisons...Read More

October 29th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LOUISIANA ELECTIONS? WHO CARES! Do a majority of folks in Louisiana even care about who governs them in the coming years? You wouldn’t think so based on election turnout in last week’s gubernatorial election. Election officials had projected just under 50% turnout. As a former head of elections during...Read More

October 22nd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana WHAT TO DO ABOUT LOUISIANA’S FISCAL MESS!  In the numerous gubernatorial debates that have taken place over the past year, candidates have been asked time and time again what they will do about the massive state debt that continues to grow. How will they fill the financial hole that...Read More

Thursday, October 15th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana IS ANYONE INTERESTED IN VOTING IN LOUISIANA? Remember the 1970 song by Chicago; “Does anybody know what time it is, does anybody really care?” Well it’s close to Election Day in Louisiana, and it would seem by early voting and general lack of interest that Louisianans are not...Read More

October 8th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana WHY HAVE AN ELECTED LT. GOVERNOR IN LOUISIANA? Leave it to a preacher to ask a serious and relevant question about ways to save money in a state that faces a huge financial crisis. At a recent forum of candidates running for Lt. Governor in Louisiana, Pastor Lewis Richerson...Read More

Thursday, October1st, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana TIME FOR BOBBY JINDAL TO COME BACK HOME!  Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith spent 20 years in the broadcast booth with Howard Cosell on Monday night football. When the game became out of reach in the waning minutes for the team behind, Meredith was famous for singing: “Turn...Read More

Thursday, September 24th, 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana THE POPE AND LOUISIANA! The Pope is taking the country by storm having made visits to three American cities in the past week. His schedulers made one oversight in planning Pope Francis’ first trip to the U.S. He should have come to Louisiana. More than half the population...Read More

  September 17th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LITTLE INTEREST IN COMING LOUISIANA ELECTION! According to national political pundits, there is a revolution going on all over America. Voters are in a rebellion mode with little confidence in the political leadership at both the national and state levels. Being an incumbent politician is no longer a...Read More

September 10th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana DON’T GIVE JUST ANY KID A SPORTS TROPHY? As far back as I can remember, Saturday mornings were spent at a playing field, or a basketball court, or at swimming pool, cheering on kids — and now grandkids — to participate and be a part of the team. Of...Read More

Thursday, September 3rd 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana Louisiana Has The Highest Insurance Rates And The Worst Drivers!  The results are in for 2015, and it comes as no surprise that Louisiana continues to lead the nation in having the highest automobile insurance rates. A new study, just released by the Bankrate Group “ranked all 50...Read More

August 27th, 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana  Ten Years Ago Katrina Tried To Wash Us Away! Just as most Americans remember where they were on 9/11, those of us living on the Gulf Coast remember the fear and concern that enveloped our region ten years ago this week. A lady named Katrina changed many of our...Read More

Thursday, August 20th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana GET HEALTHY-DRINK MORE COKE? There’s always been a disconnect between the accolades LSU gives itself for academic achievement and the bottom line results that come from national rankings. Louisiana’s flagship rarely cracks the top 100 universities in the U.S., with a majority of SEC schools outperforming LSU year...Read More

Thursday, August 13th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LEGISLATURE STICKS IT TO INSURANCE POLICYHOLDERS!  If there was one area of financial help that could have and should have been addressed by the Louisiana legislature in its recent session, it was insurance reform. After all, a Dallas-based research firm completed a new study last month that concluded...Read More

Thursday, August 6th, 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana SANCTUARY CITIES FLOUT IMMIGRATION LAWS! Can the City of New Orleans pick and choose which federal laws it will acknowledge and enforce? Most of us understand that if you violate a federal law, then there are consequences. You most likely will be prosecuted and punished. Federal laws on...Read More

Thursday, July 28th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana DOMESTIC TERRORISM IN LAFAYETTE! My home phone rang around 9:00 pm. It was my wife Gladys who was in New York with grandkids. “Turn on CNN. They are reporting a mass shooting at the Grand movie theater in Lafayette. Apparently, several people were killed.” The Lafayette theater is...Read More

Friday, July 23rd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana TRUMP DISPARAGES LOUISIANA HEROES! There is no politically correct way to explain it. Donald Trump blew his chance in a big way. He seemed to be on a roll, rising in the presidential preference polls and talking about issues other Republican candidates were ducking. Here in Louisiana, he...Read More

Thursday, July 16th, 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana GARTH BROOKS AND ME IN LOUISIANA! If you come from Louisiana, it’s almost a congenital requirement that you are born with a love for music. Particularly string music, from country, zydeco, blues, rock and even an abundance of classical aficionados. I’m certainly in that number. Two of my...Read More

Thursday, July 9th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana MISS USA TRUMPED BY IMMIGRANT DEBATE!  Donald Trump sure has things stirred up right now down here in the Bayou State. International television attention was supposed to highlight Baton Rouge and the whole state of Louisiana. But coverage of the Miss USA pageant has turned more on “The...Read More

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana RE-WRITING LOUISIANA’S HISTORY FLAGS, MONUMENTS AND ALL! It looks like it’s time to get out the soap powder in Louisiana. Some elected officials and the state’s largest newspaper are jumping all over themselves to call for the banishment of whatever tattered remnants are left from the aftermath of...Read More

June 25rd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LOUISIANA TO THE TREASUREY DEPARTMENT- LEAVE OLD HICKORY ALONE!  There is a major push by the bureaucrats in Washington to put the first woman on the face of paper currency. There are a number of choices, and you will get no argument form me that there certainly is a...Read More

Thursday, June 18th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana MEDICAL MARIJUANA OPENS UP CAN OF WORMS IN LOUISIANA! Who would have thought that the most notable legislation in the recently completed session of the Louisiana legislature was increasing taxes by over one billion dollars, and legalizing marijuana use for certain purposes. Some observers around the state capitol...Read More

June 12th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana ALL LIVES SHOULD MATTER!  The rallying cry by protesters that has gained momentum after Ferguson and Baltimore is that “Black Lives Matter.” Within the context of all society, that’s a truism. But like so many other older citizens, I volunteered to join the military (something few protesters or politicians...Read More

June 4th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana WALKER PERCY’S IMPACT ON LOUISIANA!  Many readers who love Louisiana literature will gather this weekend in St. Francisville to celebrate the live and works of novelist Walker Percy. He was, to me, a literary icon who spent most of his life in Louisiana. Many consider him to be America’s...Read More

May 28th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  SAME OLD, SAME OLD IN LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S RACE!  Fifty years ago this month, rock band The Who released their megahit rock opera called “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The song ended with the lyrics: “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss.” From the early debates in the approaching...Read More

Thursday, May 21st, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana CAN AN INDEPENDENT SHAKE UP LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S RACE? This fall’s Louisiana governor’s race has settled down into a four-man contest. U.S. Senator David Vitter is far out front, and conventional wisdom points to a republican-democratic runoff between Vitter and Rep. John Bell Edwards from Amite. But is the...Read More

Thursday, May 14th, 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana  WHAT LOUISIANA’S NEXT GOVERNOR SHOULD DO FIRST! Louisiana’s next governor will take office in less than eight months, and will jump into the abyss of a state with massive fiscal problems, an educational system that is dysfunctional, a healthcare system that needs a major overhauling, a highway system...Read More

Thursday, May 7th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  GETTING OLDER AIN’T ALL THAT BAD! There is a disturbing article in this month’s Atlantic Magazine by a prominent physician at the University of Pennsylvania. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is an oncologist, a bioethicist, and a vice provost of the University, and is the author or editor of 10...Read More

April 30th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  HAS LSU DUG ITS OWN HOLE? Chicken Little has got nothing on King Alexander. The LSU president is shouting from the rooftops that the state financial commitment is crumbling to the ground, the LSU fiscal sky is falling, and he is about to declare “academic bankruptcy.” Academic bankruptcy? I’ve...Read More

April 23rd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  JINDAL TIRED OF US HYPHENATED-LOUISIANANS! Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is mad. Really mad! He’s had his fill of all these hyphenated-Americans ballyhooing and expressing pride in their ethnic heritage. Jindal joined a group of 18 presidential wannabes in New Hampshire over the weekend trying to impress Republican diehards. And...Read More

Thursday, April 16th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana OFTEN, LITTLE CONCERN FOR JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA!  Remember the scene in the movie, The Fugitive, where Harrison Ford is about to jump off a cliff into a raging river?  He turns to his pursuer, a federal agent played by Tommy Lee Jones, and says: “I’m innocent!”Â  Jones shakes...Read More

Thursday, April 9thy, 205 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA PLAYS MAJOR ROLE IN THE CIVIL WAR FROM START TO FINISH! The Civil War came to an end 150 years ago this week when an exhausted confederate army, led by General Robert E. Lee, formally surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at a farmhouse in Appomattox,...Read More

April 2nd, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA IS HOLLYWOOD EAST BUT PAYING ONE HECK OF A PRICE! How much is it worth for Louisiana taxpayers to have movies made throughout the state?  Apparently, quite a lot.  Recent studies have shown that for every new dollar created in jobs, equipment, catering and all the spin off income,...Read More

Thursday, March 16th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA COULD HAVE THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY! Louisiana is scheduled to have its presidential primary on March 5th of next year, but there is one little problem. The state is broke and the Jindal administration has allocated no money for the legally required election. So what happens next?...Read More

Thursday, March 19th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA GOVERNORS TRAVELING LOUISIANA. We all know that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is a traveler. He seems to be constantly crisscrossing the country in his unlikely and quixotic quest to obtain national office. But now he says he is also the unrivaled champion of governors who travel all...Read More

Thursday, March 12th, l2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  E-MAIL SCANDALS-CLINTON AND JINDAL? It’s going to take a lot more than old emails to derail Hillary Clinton’s grasp of the Democratic presidential nomination next year. Few voters really care how she communicated with her staff while serving as Secretary of State. Republicans think they are circling the...Read More

Thursday, March 5th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  IN LOUISIANA THEY’RE ASKING “” WHO’S IN CHARGE?  In his quixotic quest to run for president, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been out of the state 50% of the time in recent months. He’s rarely been visible in his home state, but voters are getting to know him...Read More

Thursday, February 26th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LIKE OIL AND WATER RELIGION AND POLITICIANS DON’T MIX! I guess the good Lord has to put up with politicians. Nary a week goes by when some governor or other political type is holding a prayer rally and declaring that the ills of the nation can be cured...Read More

Thursday, February 19th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana DON’T TELL ME TO EITHER SPEAK ENGLISH OR LEAVE AMERICA! My Louisiana governor has me puzzled again in his quixotic quest to be a player on the national stage. I thought Bobby Jindal was part of a Republican Party that tells government to get off our backs and...Read More

  February 12th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana AMERICA’S COACH-DEAN SMITH LOVED LOUISIANA! One of the all time great coaches in college basketball passed away this week. North Carolina’s Dean Smith had retired with more wins than any coach in history, along with capturing two national championships. But to those who knew him, and I consider...Read More

Thursday, February 5th, 2014 New Orleans, Louisiana  LOUISIANA TAXPAYERS AT RISK OVER BENSON FAMILY SQUABBLE! If you haven’t been following the Benson family soap opera that has dominated news across the state, you are missing a billion dollar power play that’s much better than fiction. New Orleans automobile tycoon and sports icon Tom Benson is...Read More

Thursday, January 29th, 2015 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LOUISIANA JOINS IN GIVING BAILOUTS TO WALL STREET! Well, here we go again. Big banks and major insurance companies are “high-fiving” each other after they won big in Washington last month. We thought lawmakers had learned an expensive lesson after the financial crash in 2008 that led to...Read More

Thursday, January 22nd, l2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  FOR BOBBY JINDAL- FIRST THE MUSLIMS, THEN THE WORLD!  Louisiana’s feisty absentee Governor Bobby Jindal sure knows how some things that are not politically correct, so brace yourselves.” So naturally, I held onto my desk, took a deep breath, assumed the worst, and braced myself.  The Republican presidential...Read More

Thursday, January 15th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  CAN REPUBLICANS SHAKE THE CURSE OF DAVID DUKE? Poor Congressman Steve Scalise. He should be on cloud nine having reached the pinnacle of political success by being elected majority whip in the Republican controlled congress. But out of the blue, he is blindsided by a 28-year-old democratic blogger...Read More

Thursday, January 7th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  HAS COLLEGE FOOTBALL BECOME A PRO SPORT? It’s the end of the college football season, and the year has produced a financial bonanza for top tier schools all over the country. ESPN will pay over 7 billion dollars for the rights to telecast just seven games a year...Read More

Friday, December 2nd, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  DUTCH MORIAL-A SPECIAL LOUISIANA POLITICIAN! I drove down to New Orleans for a funeral service last week. I find myself attending a growing number of funerals each year as I get older and as and long time friends pass away. I’ll turn 75 in May of this New...Read More

Friday, December 26th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  RHETORIC AND DEATH GO HAND IN HAND IN POLICE OFFICER MURDERS! Don’t let them tell you otherwise. Words matter. The old saying that “Sticks and stones can hurt my bones, but words can never hurt me?” Wrong! Dead wrong! Words can inflame, and the rhetoric can reach such...Read More

Thursday, December 18th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  SO DO WE AND SHOULD WE TORTURE? And we thought Jack Bauer on the Fox TV show “24” was heavy handed in his use of torture techniques. Jack was a piker compared to CIA operatives who utilized about every method of pain infliction imaginable. And then, Vice President...Read More

Thursday, December 11th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana LANDRIEU FORGOT THE LESSON THAT ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL! Former U.S. House speaker Tip O’Neill said it time and time again. All politics is local. I interviewed Tip on a New Orleans television show I hosted back in the 1990s. He went on for sometime that you have...Read More

Thursday, December 4th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF FERGUSON! Do you know anyone who does not have an opinion of just what happened in Ferguson, Missouri? The problem is that in trying to make some sense out of what has become a tragedy for everyone involved, misinformation has been spewed...Read More

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 New York City, N.Y.  YOU OUTSIDERS, QUIT TELLING US WHAT’S BEST FOR LOUISIANA! The political termites are swarming into Louisiana. They are coming from everywhere; north and south-east and west. All with one purpose in mind. The want to tell us who we should vote for as the state’s next U.S....Read More

Thursday, November 20th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  KEYSTONE PIPELINE-LOUISIANA’S ECONOMIC SAVIOR? Almost overnight, the approval of the Keystone pipeline has become a key issue in Louisiana’s cantankerous senatorial runoff campaign. Incumbent Mary Landrieu is leading the charge in the U.S. Senate, while challenger Dr. Bill Cassidy is trying to one up Landrieu by being the...Read More

Thursday, October 13th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  NO MORE RETAIL POLITICS IN LOUISIANA! Remember the days when candidates for U.S Senator or Governor would speak to thousands of supporters at weekend rallies all over Louisiana? Huey Long was the master, mainly because he promised he’d give voters just about anything they wanted. A long line...Read More

Thursday, November 6th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  REDUCE GRIDLOCK IN WASHINGTON? GOOD LUCK WITH THAT! Voters sent a strong message on election night that congress needs to work across party lines and begin to get things done. No more gridlock. After all, the popularity of members of congress is at an all time low. Less...Read More

Thursday, October 30th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA VOTERS — WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN! To many electoral observers across the country, Louisiana is the synergy of the political universe. Nowhere is there such a concentration of political interest ““ right? Wasn’t it a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who said if you want...Read More

Thursday, October 23rd, 2013 Baton Rouge, Louisiana WHAT VOTERS FACE AT THE POLLS! Election Day for the congressional and local elections is right around the corner. In fact, a Louisiana voter can absentee vote right now. The Secretary of State’s office predicts some 45 to 50 percent of registered voters will actually show up and...Read More

Thursday, October 16th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LOUISIANA — THEY’RE GOIN’ TO WASH US AWAY! During the last few days of our family vacation, we ended up in Boston. The newspaper headlines were startling. “Boston Could Become the Next Venice,“ warned the Boston Globe. “Boston Sinking into The Sea,“ blared the New York Times. A...Read More

Thursday, October 9th, 2014 Charlotte, North Carolina  MORE PRIDE NEEDED IN LOUISIANA? One of the biggest priorities facing Louisiana’s next governor is the challenge of re-instilling pride in the attitudes of many Louisianans. Government can only do so much. But a governor can be a catalyst in raising the public’s expectations. The whole focus of...Read More

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 Quebec, Canada LOUISIANA CATCHING UP TO THE 21st CENTURY? With tax dollars scarce in Louisiana, this might be an excellent time to streamline on the state and local levels. Just how many boards, commissions, water districts, sewer districts, parish auditors, law enforcement offices, and other special districts are spread throughout Louisiana?...Read More

Thursday, September 25th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  WORST ABUSERS — FOOTBALL PLAYERS OR FEDERAL JUDGES? New allegations of physical abuse seem to surface daily. The most recent downpour began with the media release of a hotel surveillance video showing Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his girlfriend in the face, leaving her knocked out...Read More

Thursday, September 18th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  ARE LOUISIANA CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS READY TO LEAD US INTO WAR? Here we go again. Another prolonged military campaign in the Middle East. Is the President justified in waging a new war that will emanate in Syria, but raises numerous questions as to where it all will end? Louisiana...Read More

Thursday, September 11th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY IN LOUISIANA! Bayou State residents are well aware that Louisiana is a pleasant place to live. Some would sarcastically say that we are fat, dumb, and happy down here in the deepest of the deep southern states. The state motto is, after all, Laissez...Read More

Thursday, August 28th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  COULD A FERGUSON HAPPEN IN LOUISIANA? Is the Ferguson, Missouri community unique in its inability to deal with a troubling death with still unanswered questions? Of course not. Ferguson is any-town when reason disintegrates into the chaos of aggressive confrontation. Ferguson is not a community in decay or...Read More

Friday, August 22ed, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  LANDRIEU CAUSES HER OWN PROBLEMS IN RE-ELECTION BID! Louisiana United States Senator Mary Landrieu has always been a survivor in Bayou State politics. She’s been successful in four races for the U.S. Senate, but the elections have always been close, and until now, her opponents have never had...Read More

Thursday, August 14th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  DID LOUISIANA MAKE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL OVER OIL? Do energy companies have a responsibility to mitigate the damage caused by their drilling for oil and gas in Louisiana? That’s the issue now being litigated in the controversial levee board lawsuits now in the courts. Louisiana was...Read More

Thursday, August 7th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  RICHARD NIXON AND LOUISIANA! Forty years ago this week, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office. Those of you too young to remember the events surrounding Watergate missed one of the most riveting episodes of American history. Nixon survived a number of bitter...Read More

Thursday, July 31st, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  VOTERS UNHAPPY WITH CHOICES IN U.S. SENATE RACE! If recent polls are any indication, Louisiana voters are not too keen on any of the choices for U.S. Senator in the coming fall election. A number of national surveys have found that every candidate running has a higher negative...Read More

Thursday, July 24th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  TOO MANY INNOCENTS GETTING THE DEATH PENALTY! There is a reason the death penalty is rarely enforced anymore, particularly in the federal judicial system. Too many innocent victims are being convicted, based on cover-ups and the withholding of exculpatory evidence by some federal and state prosecutors. A recent...Read More

Thursday, July 17th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  WHY ARE PROPERTY INSURANCE RATES GOING UP IN LOUISIANA? What on earth is happening out there?  Is a major hurricane churning in the Gulf and taking dead aim at Louisiana?  Is the Mighty Mississippi on the verge of overflowing its levees and about to flood thousands of acres, driving...Read More

Friday, July 11th, 2014 New Orleans, Louisiana  THE SEARING OF A GREAT CITY’S SOUL! The Queen City of the South is under siege.  No, not from hurricanes. This time, the siege is from within.  New Orleans is known as the city that care forgot.  But it’s been hard to let the good times roll in...Read More

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014  New Orleans, Louisiana HURRICANE SEASON — DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?  WELL DO YA?  It’s the kickoff for hurricane season and forecasters are predicting 8 to13 named storms with anywhere from 3 to 6 of these storms growing into major hurricanes. Here on the Gulf Coast, we certainly perk up when this...Read More

Thursday, June 26th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  A LOUISIANA KID AND THE BERLIN WALL! Twenty-Eight years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan traveled to West Berlin, and at the Brandenburg Gate admonished: “Mr.Gorbachev take down that wall.”Â  The Berlin Wall had been erected by the puppet soviet state of East Germany. Unless you are over sixty...Read More

June 19th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  A HOUSE DIVIDED-IN AMERICA AND IRAQ! Iraq is imploding as Republicans and Democrats alike are scratching their heads as to what went wrong.  Meanwhile, party gridlock in Washington has brought any sense of responsible governing to a standstill.  The President faces what may well turn out to be his...Read More

Thursday, June 12th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  TO GRADUATES — THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ME! Kids all over America graduated last week from kindergarten, grade school, high school, college and graduate schools.  And there was always a commencement speaker. Most of you will never give a commencement address. But as a public official, I was...Read More

Thursday, June 5th, 2014 Baton Rouge, Louisiana  JOHN McKEITHEN ““ LOUISIANA’S TRANSITION GOVERNOR A popular Louisiana Governor died 15 years ago this week. John McKeithen was the first Governor I ever met.  When he was elected as chief executive in 1963, Louisiana was still a 19th century state struggling to operate in the 20th century. ...Read More