The Miami Dolphins had to correct Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday for wrongly claiming his 12-0 New Orleans Saints could be the first team in league history to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl.
Commission member and former LSU Chancellor James Wharton pushed three other recommendations approved Tuesday.
“There may be graduate programs that don’t have anything to do with that region of the state,” Wharton said. “Should the state support graduate programs that don’t have anything to do with the region?”
Commission member Belle Wheelan, who is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools president, said some of the bachelor’s degree-focused universities “grew too far.”
Commission member Mark Musick, the Southern Regional Education Board president emeritus, said regional universities should focus more on teaching undergraduates, while LSU must do a better job of attracting and educating graduate students.
Wharton has complained, for example, that too many public schools have specialized engineering programs. LSU, Southern University, the University of Louisiana at University, Louisiana Tech University and the University of New Orleans all have multiple engineering degree programs. McNeese State University has a general engineering technology program.
Wharton on Monday and Tuesday has mentioned the University of Louisiana at Lafayette when discussing the outgrowth of regional universities and degree programs.
A US judge has ruled that negligence by the US Army Corps of Engineers led to massive floods in parts of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
The court upheld complaints by six residents and a business against the Corps over its maintenance of a navigational channel.
ouisiana’s ethics system has been “crippled” as a result of legal changes made during Gov. Bobby Jindal’s 2008 special session on ethics, the chairman of the Louisiana Board of Ethics said Monday.
“This is a convoluted and crippled ethics system we have today,” Ethics Board chairman Frank Simoneaux said. “It does not make sense. It does not work well.”
Simoneaux said the main culprit is a law that moved judicial power from the Ethics Board to administrative law judges, called ALJs. The ALJs are hired by an appointee of the governor.
Instead of worrying about whether it has too many state universities, Louisiana needs to concentrate on making the ones it has the best they can be, says an out-of-state expert who is serving on a state review panel.
Critics of the higher education system have said having too many campuses — especially those close together — splits limited resources and leads to mediocrity.
David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education and a member of the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission, says every state has
similar situations, but the key is to define what each institution should do and then fund it appropriately.
"The real question isn't whether there are too many, but whether you have the critical mass to be viable," he said in an interview.
By "critical mass," Longa-necker said he means enough enrollment to economically warrant running a four-year university and "faculty adequate to do the task."
At a town hall meeting this past weekend, meanwhile, the Senator was confronted by a constituent who, after recounting her tale of being raped, demanded to know why he opposed Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn) amendment.
The exchange was contentious, heart wrenching, and potentially damaging.
Path Set to Change Colleges
On its surface, a policy recommendation from the higher education advisory commission to increase graduation rates seems like a nice idea with little real future impact. But if implemented the way the Jindal administration seems to want, it could dramatically decrease enrollments of four-year schools over the next few years by increasing admission standards.
The real action, however, must be taken by the Board of Regents, which can direct the college governing boards to set higher admission standards and to reduce exemptions. The Regents can do that on their own, without legislative approval. Higher education sources believe that is no accident but a strategy to down-size some schools without legislators having to take hard votes.
Because of financial problems caused primarily by short-sighted fiscal decisions last year, state government is faced with budget shortfalls. This answer leads to penalizing our people when capable students are denied access to four year degrees. Draconian cuts to higher education simply result in a meltdown into mediocrity, something that will take generations to overcome.
Do not accept this flawed logic that says dumbing down Louisiana is the answer. Education is a cause worth fighting for. Let your voices be heard on this issue or Louisiana’s gains will perish, I guarantee. It behooves all faculty members, students, families and the business community to seize this moment and insist the madness be stopped.
Gov. Bobby Jindal fired a state worker, Melody Teague, one day after she publicly condemned his plans to privatize state services. The worker's attorney claimed Teague was told that she was terminated for poor performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, years ago.
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal is at odds with a fellow Louisiana Republican over the governor's decision not to seek $300 million in federal stimulus money for a high-speed rail line between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Like other governors, Jindal had a midnight Friday deadline to submit an application for the money. But Jindal aides have said the administration is not applying because of concerns about the project's ongoing costs. They said the state would incur an annual $18 million bill to run the rail system once it became operational.
But U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, on Friday called on Jindal to apply for the money. Since all U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill for the stimulus spending, Cao said, the state's elected officials should see that Louisiana gets its fair share.
"It's our duty to obtain as much as we can to rebuild this region," Cao said at a news conference at his city's train station.
She took aim at state officials with the Economic Development and Labor departments who have said the state has a surfeit of four-year college graduates and not enough workers with two-year degrees, considering the demands of Louisiana's job market. "I don't think there's a soul in this country who has ever accused Louisiana of being overeducated," Blanco said. "This is a huge mistake, and we'll pay for it for generations." She said LSU System President John Lombardi has not been afraid to speak out against the cuts and "dumbing down" of the state's education system, but that "the political class will probably try to silence him" and "run him off." She finished by saying, "Add your voice to this fight. . . . March over to the state Capitol and demand proper funding for all levels of education"
Curt Eysink, appointed by Gov. Bobby Jindal as executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, has found an easy way to fix Louisiana's brain drain, and his logic is impeccable: If there were no brains, there would be no drain.
So Louisiana, let's quit growing those pesky things. It might take a while to reduce the "surplus" of college graduates without some help. To that end, I propose we start by asking two to leave -- Curt Eysink and his boss, Gov. Jindal.
4-year college graduates a surplus in Louisiana - NOLA.com
BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana has a "surplus" of college graduates getting traditional four-year degrees and needs to steer more people into community and technical college programs to meet future job demand, the state's top labor official said Monday.
Curt Eysink, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, cited occupational forecasts that show the state will produce 10,312 more four-year graduates than there are jobs to fill between 2008 and 2016, while at the same time there are 3,892 more jobs available requiring associates' or technical degrees than there are people to fill them.
"We're producing a workforce that we cannot employ in Louisiana," Eysink told the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission, which is looking for ways to overhaul the state's higher education system.
The panel was created by the Legislature this year and is expected to deliver a plan to the Board of Regents by Feb. 12 outlining proposed changes to the state's colleges and universities. Gov. Bobby Jindal has directed the group to identify $146 million in possible budget cuts as the state prepares for years of likely budget shortfalls resulting from stagnant revenues and rising costs.
Eysink cited forecasting models that show the state's top-growing occupations to be low-skilled, service-industry jobs such as ticket-takers, cashiers and customer service representatives, as well as more skilled occupations such as nurses, teachers and trades such as welders and carpenters.
Several commission members were unhappy with the perspective, as Louisiana already trails the rest of the South and the nation as a whole in nearly every educational indicator, including the percentage of the population with college degrees. Only 21 percent of Louisiana residents ages 25 to 64 have a four-year degree or higher, compared to 26.4 percent for the South and 29 percent of the nation as a whole.
Saying a state has too many four-year graduates "is like telling a rich guy he has too much money," said Artis Terrell of Shreveport, a principal in the Williams Capital Group. "Can you ever have too many four-year degrees?"
Is this the best Jindal can do? We chould cut higher ed to make sure that the number of burger-flippers and dial-readers is sufficient for our low level industries. A guarantee of mediocrity for the next hundred years!
In this article, the BoR Chariman fired back.Commission members said while community and technical college enrollment needed to grow, they didn't think that needed to come at the expense of four-year university degrees."It's like telling a rich man he has too much money. Can you ever have too many four-year degrees?" said Artis Terrell, chairman of the Louisiana Board of Regents.
For example, Terrell said Shaw Group Inc. founder and CEO Jim Bernhard recently told state officials that he chose to locate an engineering office in Charlotte, N.C., because of a shortage of engineers in Louisiana.
Only 5 percent of students graduate from two-year colleges compared with 16 percent in the region, said Joan Lord, a vice president of education policies for the Southern Regional Education Board in Atlanta.
Lord said 37 percent of students in Louisiana graduate from four-year colleges and universities compared with a 52 percent average in the region.
The state doesn't have too many educated people. Instead, it has a shortage of jobs that will attract and keep college graduates. Fortunately, that's how members of the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission seem to view the issue.
Recent Census statistics back up that position. Louisiana lost more than 2,500 college graduates between 2007 and 2008, one of only eight states that recorded a net loss of college-educated residents age 25 and older. The brain drain has long been a pattern of economic life in Louisiana, and it's discouraging to see it continuing.
Louisiana does need to meet current labor demands, but the state should focus on those residents who don't have any post-secondary training or education to beef up enrollment at community and technical colleges. Moving people from low-skilled, service-industry jobs into more skilled occupations such as welders and carpenters will help those residents and the economy.
BATON ROUGE — Treasurer John Kennedy believes the state's public four-year universities should be governed by one board to help cut costs, but he said Monday he opposes any suggestion to limit spending under the TOPS free college tuition program.
Those ideas, along with the treasurer's opposition to college tuition increases for students, put Kennedy at odds with the leader of the higher education system that includes the state's flagship university.
8 out of Jindal’s 10 are already in the President’s plan and the variations wending their way toward a merge process. [...]
Jindal’s article makes it clear that conservatives agree with how we’re proceeding on health care reform. It looks like Democrats made a serious effort to bring conservative principles into play where they could as a proxy for the demagogues in Congress who decided stonewalling is the way to reform our health care system.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon announced Thursday that he will challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter next year in what is expected to shape up to be a political donnybrook.
The Napoleonville Democrat’s entry into the race is expected to immediately attract national attention with ammunition in the form of campaign dollars from the national parties.
“Both of these foundations will tell you the most important thing that Louisiana can do is graduate 10,000 additional students,” Jones said.
The ex-governor told the advisory group that putting all public colleges under the Board of Regents would force the institutions to work together without closing a single university.
Roemer unsuccessfully pushed a similar idea in 1988 when he was governor. Former Gov. Mike Foster — who as a state senator opposed the idea when Roemer pushed it — also tried to put all colleges under a single board.
The ex-governor told the advisory group that putting all public colleges under the Board of Regents would force the institutions to work together without closing a single university.
Roemer unsuccessfully pushed a similar idea in 1988 when he was governor. Former Gov. Mike Foster — who as a state senator opposed the idea when Roemer pushed it — also tried to put all colleges under a single board.
“Both of these foundations will tell you the most important thing that Louisiana can do is graduate 10,000 additional students,” Jones said.
In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really "foreign" to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we're Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we're Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we're Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we're Burundi or Burma: In the world's poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can't pay stay sick or die.
WASHINGTON — Huge flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don't protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million in replacement costs by buying proven equipment, a federal investigation finds.
The investigation by the federal Office of Special Counsel finds there was "little logical justification" for the corps' decision to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the "untested" hydraulic pumps, which are meant to empty millions of gallons of water from the below-sea-level city during storm-related floods.
Citing the corps' $430 million plan to replace the hydraulic pumps by 2012, just five years after they were installed, the special counsel concludes that a "proven" direct-drive pump design would have been less prone to corrosion and breakdowns. Based on an independent engineering review, the counsel says direct-drive pumps could have been purchased "more quickly, more reliably and without planning for pump … replacement."
The commission passed a plan to abolish all state higher education boards, including those at Southern and LSU. Instead, their power would transfer to one joint board, the Board of Regents. Kennedy says that way each institution would have a purpose and focus. They could coordinate with each other, instead of overlap interests. The Commission also wants to eliminate thousands of state jobs. Kennedy suggests each get rid of at least 5,000 jobs each year for the next three years. "No one's going to be fired. No one will be laid off. We'll do this gradually over time," he said.
"I do not believe we have too many schools," Kennedy said after his Advisory Group on Efficiency and Benchmarking adopted his series of suggestions. "We have too many boards that promote too many schools that try to do the same thing."
. . . . . .
Kennedy's proposal for a single board was suggested by former Gov. Buddy Roemer, who told the panel Monday that having one board actually strengthens each university because it would be given a singular purpose.
"Do we have too many universities? No, we don't," Roemer said. "We don't use them well. We don't coordinate them.
No university would be closed, Roemer said, and they would work together.
"There can be only one flagship," Kennedy said, and other universities should not try to duplicate it. He said every school does not need nursing and engineering programs.
Eliminating the management boards created in the 1974 constitution would not be easy. Roemer and former Gov. Mike Foster tried to pass amendments to do it and failed.
Experiment officially over. To be clear, I'm not upset I wasn't treated like a celebrity or given ego-satisfying access. Frankly, the inside game creeps me out, the flattery that you're "connected" can bring out the late Bob Novak in anyone. I'm just angry that New Orleans, which did not bring about its own disaster, is watching a second consecutive president trash his glib promises to "rebuild it better".
Obama supporters chided me, back in January and February, to "give him some time, he's only been in office for a month/two months/three months." I guess they knew what I didn't, that the presidency gets easier as you go along, that progressively fewer surprises get dumped on your desk as time passes. Obama's remarks about New Orleans during the campaign were anodyne boilerplate, and what he's giving us now is more of the same. He won't even do the obligatory photo-op in the city on 8/29; he told the Times-Picayune he'll come down "before the end of the year". He didn't say which year.
"I think that Katrina was really a wake-up call for the country -- about our need to fulfill our commitments to our fellow citizens, a recognition that there but for the grace of God go I, that all of us can fall prey to these kinds of natural disasters, " Obama said.
"I think to fail to follow through on that commitment would be a betrayal of who we are as a country. I also think that the Gulf region generally, but New Orleans specifically, has a unique place in America's imagination and American life and that's why it is so important now.
The state has dropped a plan to seek about $300 million of federal aid to launch passenger railroad service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.You may recall that Jindal came out against rail subsidies in his famous speech.
. . .
Ankner later said he was not pressured by Gov. Bobby Jindal's office to drop the proposal because of any political considerations.
By his statements and his actions, Gov. Jindal has done nothing but provide another platform to those who want to shut down Southern University, Baton Rouge, Southern University at New Orleans and Grambling, by hook or by crook. Going by his higher-education policy, Jindal’s health-care policy will be just another version of eugenics.
Too many students attend four-year universities and fail to finish. More students should be encouraged to attend community colleges where tuition is less expensive and they wouldn’t have to go into deep debt to get an education.
One report said if 10,000 students went to community colleges instead of universities, $26 million would be saved.
Gov. Bobby Jindal said the state’s education programs should be geared to producing students that can foster in-state economic development. Otherwise, Louisiana graduates go elsewhere.
State economic development and workforce officials said 30,000 students get bachelor’s degrees or advanced degrees every year in the state, but there are only 13,000 jobs out there for them. So they leave Louisiana.
On the other end, there are thousands of jobs not requiring a four-year degree that go unfilled.
It is true that we as a nation must educate for the skills/abilities that fuel our economy, and at reasonable cost. But we educate for the habits of mind and action that fuel a democracy as well. Educating for democracy as opposed to mere academic coursework is a global differentiator of American higher education.That differentiator seems ever more necessary these days, and it's not cheap.
A state budget official said the state faces a $939 million shortfall in its fiscal year 2010-11 budget and another $1.93 billion shortfall in the year after that.
Across-the-board cuts under that scenario would translate to a 54 percent higher education cut, according to a former legislative budget official now working at LSU.
“It is neither true nor is it anything you could extrapolate from anything we’ve ever recommended to the NHS,” Dillon said.
Several experts told The Guardian the distortions of Britain’s experience verge on lunacy. “An e-mail widely circulated among U.S. voters, of uncertain origin, claims that anyone over 59 in Britain is ineligible for treatment for heart disease,” The Guardian noted.
Many of those attending Vitter’s town halls have been shepherded to the events by local chapters of TeaPartyPatriots.org, a supposedly grassroots network of national activists that happens to “partner” with the health-care and insurance industry-funded lobbying firm Freedom Works, which has directed angry mobs to Democratic events. At a town-hall meeting on August 10 in Jefferson Parish, many local constituents were reportedly turned away while Tea Party activists were allowed to enter. When the event concluded, Vitter rushed out of the back door and away from the press and his constituents, guarded by a phalanx of police officers.
Tucker: “We need you to take a 2-by-4, if that’s necessary, and smack us across the head.”
Jones presented data showing Louisiana well below the national average in enrollment in two-and four-year institutions, percentage of graduates and percentage of workers with degrees, both from four-year and two-year schools.
"There is no community college in the center of part of the state and as a result, low participation."(What happened to LSUA?)
Commission member James Wharton, former chancellor of LSU's Baton Rouge campus, agreed with presenters who said students would be better served if they attended community colleges prior to enrolling in universities.
Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland System, recommended that college and university systems work with high schools to assure that what's taught in high school to college-bound students aligns with what is taught in college.
Gov. Bobby Jindal agreed "It's not fair to students to start out a career with a huge debt."
Jindal laid out four goals: align degree programs to meet workforce needs; fund universities based on performance (something the Board of Regents has started doing); build on each university's high-performing programs and eliminate low-performing and duplicative programs.
Tucker said there's "widespread belief" that the state's colleges operate inefficiently, that Louisiana has too many universities and too many college boards and that the state has put too much emphasis on four-year colleges and not enough on the two-year schools. He urged panel members to be bold in their recommendations.I hope that tucker is not recommending that we change higher ed based on "widespread beliefs" instead of facts. What some might describe as "bold" others might see as "unfounded" and "mmendacious."
Tucker says another possible solution would be to consolidate some of the state's public four-year schools. "This commission in particular needs to look at issues that we have too many universities, too many boards, racial divides, underperforming universities, duplicate programs, and just general inefficiencies," Tucker added.
Louisiana's current graduation rate is 37%. Governor Jindal says that's the lowest in the region. He and Tucker agree the commission should start by re-evaluating the lowest performing schools in the state. The state school with the lowest graduation rate is Southern University in New Orleans, with about 10%. Nicholls State and UNO are tied for the second lowest rates among the state's four-year public universities at 28%. LSU in Baton Rouge had the best graduation rate at 65%.
While the voting machines were older and had been discontinued by North Carolina, where they were originally used, the voting apparatus are still in use in Louisiana and New Jersey.
Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”Well at least he's a New Ager.
Porn star Stormy Daniels' potential senatorial campaign was rocked yesterday by an explosion that blew up her political advisor's car in New Orleans, according to local news reports.
Among those arrested in the public corruption portion of the investigation are Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, New Jersey Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt and Leona Beldini, a Jersey City deputy mayor.
Several rabbis in New York and New Jersey also were arrested in connection with the money-laundering portion of the investigation.
Tucker, R-Terrytown, said he did not want any of the college systems to have voting members because they would have “vested interests.”
“I think it would violate the independence of the commission,” Tucker said.
The most feasible and efficient result, considering the totality of the circumstances, may require a complete overhaul of our academic system.
I understand the need for cuts given the current budget forecasts, but it was Speaker Tucker’s angry tirade against the state’s colleges and universities that revealed how little respect our purported leaders hold for higher education in Louisiana, and how little understanding they have for the critical need to properly invest in higher education. In his fury, he made all sorts of negative accusations, but basically declared higher education to be dysfunctional.
Lawmakers put an additional $100 million toward higher education, reducing the $219 million in cuts that Jindal proposed amid state budget problems.
They also found money for projects in their districts, firefighter training at LSU, the state agricultural department and judgments in lawsuits against the state.
Higher education and health care still will endure cuts in the $28 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts Wednesday.
State Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen said the reductions are very close to what she asked for when she requested that the $219 million in proposed cuts be halved.
“We’re very appreciative,” Clausen said. “We now focus not on obstacles, but on opportunities.”
The reductions in cuts allow colleges to avoid drastic layoffs and program eliminations in the immediate future so they can better prepare for a downsized future, she said.
Officials from the state’s top college oversight board, the state Board of Regents, are predicting 15 percent budget cuts of state funding for colleges could be reduced by at least $70 million to $80 million if the House and Senate can resolve some of their differences. But many questions remain.
“We thought we’d have a better idea of where we stand,” said Donnie Vandal, Regents deputy commissioner for finance. “There’s lots of ways things can get muddied and unclear.”
. . . . . . . .
Gov. Bobby Jindal and the House managed to blockade Senate plans to delay state income tax breaks to generate $118 million in extra dollars for colleges.
"For the past five years, I have been honored to serve the people of Louisiana's 3rd District as their Congressman. The challenges we have faced in the wake of four hurricanes and a national recession are deeply personal. I have worked to be a bipartisan leader that does not let party politics get in the way of Louisiana's progress. I want to continue to serve. Many Louisianians have encouraged me to run for U.S. Senate next year. I am discussing this opportunity with my wife and kids and will be making an announcement in the coming weeks.''
Melancon Set to Run
While he is not ready to make a public announcement, Congressman Charlie Melancon is said to have decided to run for the U.S. Senate next year, according to multiple political sources. The congressman has made no comment about challenging Republican Sen. David Vitter in 2010, but sources say he has told national Democratic campaign officials he will run.
The bills are the Senate’s biggest negotiation tools in a dispute with the House over funding for higher education and other services.
The session ends June 25.
PAR said there still is time to agree on a plan to buy higher education time to make changes.
The group said the state’s public colleges and universities need to decide:
* Which degree programs are essential.
* Which programs are duplicated.
* Which services can be privatized.
* How students and faculty can be eased through the changes.
The session ends June 25.
PAR said there still is time to agree on a plan to buy higher education time to make changes.
The group said the state’s public colleges and universities need to decide:
* Which degree programs are essential.
* Which programs are duplicated.
* Which services can be privatized.
* How students and faculty can be eased through the changes.
"The business council is not in any way supportive of the draconian cuts that are proposed," Brown said.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has proposed making a 15 percent, or $219 million, cut to colleges and universities for the next budget year, a blow that the Senate tried this week to soften by proposing to delay an income tax break and dip into the state's rainy day fund.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that it would allow hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast still living in government-supplied trailers to buy their temporary homes for as little as $1.
The government will also provide $50 million to help other trailer residents, whose homes were destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, move into rental or public housing.
Four former Louisiana governors held a private meeting Thursday with Gov. Bobby Jindal, urging him to find a way to lessen planned budget cuts for the state's public colleges in a rare display of advice-giving from the people who once held Jindal's job.
The unusual meeting involved Dave Treen, Buddy Roemer, Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco - all Louisiana's living ex-governors except the jailed Edwin Edwards.
"I hope we can convince the governor to take some steps to lower the disastrous impact of the higher education cuts," said Treen, a Republican who served as governor more than 20 years ago.
Roemer said he was responsible for organizing the meeting. Foster said the former governors were concerned the level of higher education cuts under discussion at the Capitol could be damaging to campuses.
A Republican state senator Wednesday accused the Jindal administration of advocating the governor’s agenda on a political Internet blog paid for taxpayers.
“It is a Web site for the purpose of pushing and implementing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s policies. That’s not legal,” said state Sen. Robert Adley, of Benton. “It’s against the law to use taxpayer money to further a proposal or proposition.”
Adley said the administration is using the blog, called “The Ledger,” to defend Jindal’s proposed budget cuts.
Adley said the blog, which is part of Jindal’s Division of Administration Web site, presents false information and editorially attacks higher education advocates and the Council for A Better Louisiana, which have been vocal against college cuts.
. . . . . .
“My question to the division is who are you going to send to jail?” Adley asked. “You broke the law.”
It’s true, of course, that the previous post employed a rhetorical device – analogy, or, more precisely, allusion – but did so simply as a way to draw attention, in a more easily accessible and understandable manner, to a set of facts that seems to have been lost in the discussion over higher education funding, in a way that a dizzying set of facts often is..
Mayor-President Kip Holden warned that steep cuts to state funding for higher education being considered by the Legislature would have a devastating economic impact on Louisiana’s capital city.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday in the Metro Council chambers, Holden said the university system plays a significant role in the area’s economy.
“When I read the details of what the budget cuts will mean to these institutions, it is obvious we are moving down a dangerous road that can lead to long-term consequences,” Holden said.
The mayor was flanked by the chancellors of LSU, Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College and a representative from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.
Each warned of layoffs and other dire consequences if $219 million in proposed cuts to higher education — about 15 percent of state funding for colleges — are made by the state.
“All three institutions in Baton Rouge are facing layoffs, which weakens consumer confidence and consumer spending and ultimately impacts our sales taxes,” Holden said. “It begins to take on a life of its own in negatively impacting a local economy, even one as strong as Baton Rouge.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal is unwilling to risk his political capital to help repair Louisiana’s public schools, a member of the state’s top school board charged Tuesday.
The Senate advanced a controversial measure Wednesday that would generate more money for higher education by delaying a tax break.
The Senate voted 29-9 in favor of sending the legislation to the House, where many lawmakers warn it will be defeated.
Senate Bill 335 by state Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, would freeze the amount of federal excess itemized deductions that state income tax filers can deduct at current levels through 2011. Instead of being able to claim 100 percent, tax filers would only be able to claim 65 percent.
The savings to state government would be $118 million.
Gov. Bobby Jindal is vowing to veto the legislation. Many in the House have said the bill is dead on arrival.
A state senator’s attempt to free up at least $150 million for higher education and health care from tax amnesty revenue failed in committee Monday.
A plan to do a sweeping study of higher education in Louisiana won House approval Monday.
“I think this is one of the most important bills of the year,” said House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown and sponsor of the proposal.
George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.
Higher education could be left at just one-quarter of its current state funding levels in three years, according to a worst-case scenario released Friday by the LSU System.
The end result could be reducing state funding for colleges from $1.48 billion in 2008 to only $388 million in 2012.
Even closing several colleges would only put a dent in the onslaught of budget cuts by 2012, said Bob Keaton, LSU System special assistant and a former state Senate budget official.
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the business-funded Blueprint Louisiana group asked the Legislature on Thursday to eliminate all proposed budget cuts for higher education.
The request to the Senate Finance Committee was to allow colleges to evolve and adapt to the recession economy before instituting any of the proposed “draconian” cuts of 15 percent of their state funds.
The arguments from the business community were even stronger than from higher education officials, who have asked that their proposed $219 million in cuts be halved.
One House member said voters' reactions to the proposal will be key: a flood of e-mails and phone calls -- for or against the idea -- could determine its fate.
"This will depend on the public outcry," said Rep. Michael Danahay, D-Sulphur.
Sen. Lydia Jackson's bill would affect roughly a quarter of Louisiana taxpayers, most of them wealthy, who take federal itemized deductions on their state taxes. Those taxpayers can now take 65 percent of the deductions, but a 2007 law says they can take 100 percent of them starting with 2009 tax forms.
Though various military bases had been mobilized into a state of alert well before the advance team’s tour, Rumsfeld’s aversion to using active-duty troops was evident: “There’s no doubt in my mind,” says one of Bush’s close advisers today, “that Rumsfeld didn’t like the concept.”
The next day, three days after landfall, word of disorder in New Orleans had reached a fever pitch. According to sources familiar with the conversation, DHS secretary Michael Chertoff called Rumsfeld that morning and said, “You’re going to need several thousand troops.”
“Well, I disagree,” said the SecDef. “And I’m going to tell the president we don’t need any more than the National Guard.”
The problem was that the Guard deployment (which would eventually reach 15,000 troops) had not arrived—at least not in sufficient numbers, and not where it needed to be. And though much of the chaos was being overstated by the media, the very suggestion of a state of anarchy was enough to dissuade other relief workers from entering the city. Having only recently come to grips with the roiling disaster, Bush convened a meeting in the Situation Room on Friday morning. According to several who were present, the president was agitated. Turning to the man seated at his immediate left, Bush barked, “Rumsfeld, what the hell is going on there? Are you watching what’s on television? Is that the United States of America or some Third World nation I’m watching? What the hell are you doing?”
“The mayor is not a hands-on administrator,” Dr. Renwick said. “He’s more a big-picture guy. And fixing streetlights is small picture. There’s a bit of a disconnect there.”
Even as Gov. Bobby Jindal and Saints owner Tom Benson announced from New Orleans their proposed new deal Thursday, some legislators in Baton Rouge questioned whether the state could afford to support the professional football team.
“This is a great day for Saints fans and the whole state of Louisiana,” Jindal said at a news conference inside the Louisiana Superdome where he and Benson announced a complex deal to keep the team in New Orleans through 2025.
Members of the Legislature are being asked to make deep cuts in higher education and health-care programs. The state faces a $1.3 billion drop in revenue for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and must cut state services to balance Jindal’s $26.7 billion budget.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, echoed the comments of some House colleagues when he said Benson is wealthy enough to operate his business without help from the state.
Jones called the deal: “A welfare check for one of the richest men in Louisiana and we’re emptying our schools out.”
"I have a hold on the FEMA nomination because I sent a list of hurricane recovery questions and projects to FEMA, many of which have not been adequately addressed," Vitter said in a statement. "I'm eager to get full responses and meet with the nominee immediately."
The hold — which comes a month before the start of hurricane season — was reported in CQ Today, a Capitol Hill newspaper, which noted that Vitter's home state "bore the brunt of the botched agency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005."
At that time, FEMA was led by Michael Brown, who had little emergency management experience. Fugate, however, garnered widespread praise for deft handling of back-to-back hurricanes in Florida and won bipartisan support at his confirmation hearing and was expected to be confirmed swiftly.
Today is May Day, and while International Workers’ Day (Labour Day in the UK), means little in the USA, its a big holiday in Europe. Banks and markets are closed on the continent, (England celebrates on Monday).
Speaking with Mike Panzner this morning (his clients are mostly Europeans) made me think about this: Which region is the true Socialist state?
-Europe has cradle to grave health care plans, generous unemployment benefits, and free or subsidized college costs.
-The US gives away public assets (oil, gas, mineral rights) for pennies on the dollar, has huge subsidies and tax breaks, and bails out reckless speculators.
It turns out that both regions are welfare states — only in Europe, the natural population (i.e., people) is the recipient, while in the US, the corporate population is the beneficiary.
Dr. Ivor van Heerden, the coastal scientist who saved lives in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, and led the state's independent Team Louisiana investigation into Hurricane Katrina levee failures, has been fired by Louisiana State University - without explanation.
The New York Times quotes Dr. Charles Delzell, an LSU professor and president of the LSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors as saying, “It’s a clear case of retaliation for his (van Heerden's) criticism of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
State Rep. Page Cortez voiced his budget concerns in Baton Rouge following the Governor's budget presentation, saying "we're destroying higher [education].”
Cortez says while the plan would use $3.6 billion in federal stimulus money to ease the financial pain, those funds dry up two years which would leave educators with a bigger hole down the road.
"I think from an economic development stand point we start sending our best and brightest to other states to get an education than we've lost that industry," said Cortez.
State Rep. Page Cortez voiced his budget concerns in Baton Rouge following the Governor's budget presentation, saying "we're destroying higher [education].”
Cortez says while the plan would use $3.6 billion in federal stimulus money to ease the financial pain, those funds dry up two years which would leave educators with a bigger hole down the road.
"I think from an economic development stand point we start sending our best and brightest to other states to get an education than we've lost that industry," said Cortez.
For his latest renege there can be no excuse. He is supposed to represent the repudiation of old-time Louisiana politics, but governors never came more mealy-mouthed than this.
When Jindal took office last year, he promised never, ever to endorse candidates in legislative races, such was the purity of his devotion to the sound governance.
But that was before Lee Domingue, who had donated $116,000 to Jindal's campaign and associated causes, decided he wanted to be a state senator from Baton Rouge. It is, to say the least, unusual for a governor to intervene in a local primary, but Jindal up and endorsed Domingue over two other Republicans.
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana recently noted Jindal’s inconsistency.
In a report released in time for “Sunshine Week,” a national initiative promoting open government, PAR said: “Few will forget the 2008 ethics session, where the new administration fought for increased disclosure and transparency from legislators but defended an overly-broad public records exception for the governor’s office.”
It has been Jindal who has pointed to dismal national rankings by groups that look at ethics and disclosure laws. He said those rankings would soar with the changes he proposed.
Jindal doesn’t mention the poor rating that the Louisiana Governor’s Office gets in a nationally recognized analysis done by the University of Florida’s Citizen Access Project.
The project analyzes the constitutions and laws of the states when it come to public records access.
Unfortunately for Vitter, however, the story lives on. Not only were there scads of stories in today's papers about the incident but the Transportation Security Administration is also looking into the fact that Vitter allegedly opened a security door and set off an alarm in the process.
So many stories have been written about Hurricane Katrina. Those who were victims of the flood were hurt afterward as well. Some of that victimization came innocently, from writers without all the facts.
According to an HOH tipster who witnessed the scene, the Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed. Undeterred, Vitter opened the door, setting off a security alarm and prompting an airline worker to warn him that entering the gate was forbidden.
Vitter, our spy said, gave the airline worker an earful, employing the timeworn “do-you-know-who-I-am” tirade that apparently grew quite heated.
That led to some back and forth, and the worker announced to the irritable Vitter that he was going to summon security.
Vitter, according to the witness, remained defiant, yelling that the employee could call the police if he wanted to and their supervisors, who, presumably, might be more impressed with his Senator’s pin.
According to an HOH tipster who witnessed the scene, the Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed. Undeterred, Vitter opened the door, setting off a security alarm and prompting an airline worker to warn him that entering the gate was forbidden.
Vitter, our spy said, gave the airline worker an earful, employing the timeworn “do-you-know-who-I-am” tirade that apparently grew quite heated.
That led to some back and forth, and the worker announced to the irritable Vitter that he was going to summon security.
Vitter, according to the witness, remained defiant, yelling that the employee could call the police if he wanted to and their supervisors, who, presumably, might be more impressed with his Senator’s pin.
A day after Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s widely ripped Howdy Doody-meets-Mister Rogers response to President Obama’s address, Max Blumenthal piled it on with an interesting article on The Daily Beast reiterating some things not widely known about the “Bayou’s boy wonder.”
One of the most interesting facts in the piece, titled “Bobby Jindal’s Secret Past,” was that Jindal said he witnessed, and then haltingly participated in, the exorcism of his very close friend (a woman named Susan) when he was in college.
A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La., who asked not to be named, told ABCNews.com that she plans to cut back on her business to get her annual income under the quarter million mark should the Obama tax plan be passed by Congress and become law.
So far, Obama's tax plan is being looked at skeptically by both Democrats and Republicans and therefore may not pass at all.
"We are going to try to figure out how to make our income $249,999.00," she said.
Subject: On Bobby Jindal's lame response
Just caught this on MSNBC
Republican strategist Kevin Madden on Jindal's response:
"It was like following Led Zeppelin with nothing but a harmonica."
BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's transportation department plans to request federal dollars for a New Orleans to Baton Rouge passenger rail service from the same pot of railroad money in the president's economic stimulus package that Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized as unnecessary pork on national television Tuesday night.
The high-speed rail line, a topic of discussion for years, would require $110 million to upgrade existing freight lines and terminals to handle a passenger train operation, said Mark Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
To be sure, Jindal isn't the first politician to let his name be floated for an office he doesn't plan to seek. What's more curious is the apparent willingness of Republicans to help him raise his profile and solidify his image as a GOP savior, all the while knowing there's no chance he'll be their next nominee. Doing so diminishes other prospective luminaries and sets activists up for disappointment when Jindal doesn't run.
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said in a telephone conference call that Jindal needs to choose whether to represent the state of Louisiana or be the spokesman for the national Republican Party, which has been critical of the spending package pushed by President Barack Obama and passed largely on the votes of Democrats in the U.S. Congress.
In terms of presidential politics, the most notable name in the Times piece is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who campaigned with Obama for the stimulus package last week. Glaringly absent from the Times piece were governors like South Carolina's Mark Sanford, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, Mississippi's Haley Barbour and Alaska's Sarah Palin—all governors recently named in the Washington Post's excellent "The Fix" column as being among the five most influential and powerful voices in the Republican Party (the other person named was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney). Palin and Jindal are often named as contenders in 2012, and Barbour gave 2008 a long look before passing on it. Sanford is chairman of the Republican Governor's Association.
None of these sitting governors liked the stimulus package.
The state's $3.8 billion share of the federal stimulus -- while a far cry from the full-scale Gulf Civic Works program many advocated -- would still be a welcome boost to many. It includes:
* $1.7 billion for the state's troubled Medicaid program
* $587 million for public education -- especially important in places like New Orleans, where school enrollment is still down 23% since Katrina [pdf]
* $455 million for road and bridge repair
* $130 million in flexible dollars to help offset budget cuts
Well, the saints might go marching into New Orleans, but the scientists are marching right on out. A group of more than two thousand biologists have decided NOT to hold their 2011 annual meeting in the Big Easy," "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric noted at the open of her February 18 video blog entry.
Couric proceeded to turn a biologists convention's PR stunt into evidence that Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) is an enemy of the "scientific community.":
The reason? Louisiana has a law that allows teachers to use supplemental materials in science class - things other than the state approved curriculum. Republican-up-and-comer Bobby Jindal signed it last summer after it passed the state legislature with overwhelming support.
The scientific community says the law is nothing more than a free pass for the teaching of creationism, and that religion has no place in a biology class.
.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 House Democrat, said the governors _ some of whom are said to be eyeing White House bids in 2012 _ are putting their own interests first.
"No community or constituent should be denied recovery assistance due to their governor's political ideology or political aspirations," Clyburn said Wednesday.
In fact, governors who reject some of the stimulus aid may find themselves overridden by their own legislatures because of language Clyburn included in the bill that allows lawmakers to accept the federal money even if their governors object.
He inserted the provision based on the early and vocal opposition to the stimulus plan by South Carolina's Republican governor, Mark Sanford. But it also means governors like Sanford and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal _ a GOP up-and-comer often mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate _ can burnish their conservative credentials, knowing all the while that their legislatures can accept the money anyway.
Jindal said he, like Perry and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, is concerned about strings attached to the money even though his state faces a $1.7 billion budget shortfall next year.
Nearly 3½ years after those storms hit, new FEMA accounting reports show two-thirds of the money to pay for permanent rebuilding work still has not been spent, the latest bottleneck in a recovery long beset by criticism that it has been too slow and inefficient. And despite a handful of high-profile successes, officials who had vowed to speed up the pace of repairs concede it is still going far more slowly than it should.
Posts
All Comments
