ArklatexPolitics.com

Posted 4 hours 26 minutes 48 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Lawmakers are pushing the state veterans
department to step up its delivery of veterans medals and to stop
waiting for Gov. Bobby Jindal to deliver them personally.
Members of a joint House and Senate committee said Tuesday that
thousands of medal requests have been made with the Department of
Veterans Affairs and that they've received calls from veterans who
have waited months for their medals.
Jindal has traveled the state to give the medals to veterans,
and Veterans Affairs Secretary Lane Carson says having the governor
deliver the medals gives a dignity to the veterans.
Sen. Robert Adley, a Republican whose bill created the state
medal program, says some veterans are too elderly to wait for
Jindal. Asked if he would be willing to mail medals to veterans,
Carson would only say that he'd look into it.

Posted 10 hours 11 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- State lawmakers are pressing higher
education leaders for details of the strategies they're using now
to cope with budget cuts expected in 16 months.
Louisiana's college campuses aren't proposed to take cuts in the
budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But that plan relies
on $290 million in federal stimulus money.
Those dollars disappear a year later, in the 2011-12 fiscal
year, and members of the Senate Finance Committee said Monday they
want to see plans for how campuses will cope with that loss.
Republican Sen. Mike Walsworth says he's heard Commissioner of
Higher Education Sally Clausen talk for a year about planning for
that "cliff." But Walsworth says he hasn't seen a plan.
Clausen says schools are shrinking costs now, by eliminating
programs, cutting staff and changing degree requirements.

Posted 10 hours 3 minutes 5 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The Democratic leader of the state House
says a Republican senator's bill that would nullify any federal
health care overhaul passed by Congress is ridiculous and
premature.
Rep. Karen St. Germain, head of the House Democratic Caucus,
says it's too soon for state lawmakers to issue a "blanket no" to
federal legislation that hasn't even been completed.
St. Germain's comments were in response to a bill filed by
Republican Sen. A.G. Crowe that asserts states' rights to refuse
the federal mandates proposed in the congressional Democrats'
health care legislation.
Crowe's bill mirrors similar legislation proposed in more than
30 other states.
State lawmakers will consider the proposal in the regular
session that begins March 29.

Posted 10 hours 4 minutes 14 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

NEW IBERIA, La. (AP) -- An attorney from New Iberia has formally
launched his campaign to return a south Louisiana congressional
district to Republican hands.
Jeff Landry announced his candidacy in a news release Tuesday.
The seat is currently held by Charlie Melancon, a Democrat who is
leaving the post to challenge David Vitter for the Senate this
year.
In his campaign announcement, Landry blasts the president and
the Democratic-led Congress for inflating the national deficit. He
touts himself as a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, and an
outdoorsman who will work to protect Louisiana's coast.

Posted 10 hours 5 minutes 40 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The campaign of Democratic Senate
candidate Charlie Melancon has filed an ethics complaint against
Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter.
Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Melancon's campaign, says the
complaint was filed Tuesday with the Senate Select Committee on
Ethics. The complaint alleges Vitter violated federal law and
Senate ethics rules by sending out a fundraising letter on his
official Senate letterhead.
Melancon, a congressman from Napoleonville, is the only
announced Democrat challenging Vitter in the Senate race. The
primary election is Aug. 28, and the general election is set for
Nov. 2.
Melancon's campaign provided a copy of Vitter's fundraising
letter, which was sent in February.

Posted 10 hours 7 minutes 8 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The mayor of New Orleans doesn't have direct
control over city schools, but that's not stopping Mayor-elect
Mitch Landrieu from getting involved in the issue of how to improve
education in the city.
Landrieu named a transition team Tuesday that will help guide
him on a wide variety of education issues. One such issue he
expects to deal with is the future governance of New Orleans
schools. Most of the city's schools were taken over by the state
after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
Landrieu said the 21-member task force of community leaders,
school officials and education experts will, among other things,
help him develop a position on when and how schools might someday
be returned to local control in New Orleans.

Posted 1 day 10 hours 27 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. David Vitter has picked up a
Republican challenger for his re-election bid, a first-time
office-seeker who manages a garden center in Alexandria.
Milton Gordon says Vitter, a Republican running for a second
term, hasn't been conservative enough, is out of touch with people
and should have resigned after he was embroiled in a prostitution
scandal.
Gordon says he will face Vitter in the Republican primary,
according to The Town Talk of Alexandria.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon is the only announced Democrat in the
race. Another little-known candidate, Bob Lang of Natchitoches, has
said he will run as an independent.
The primary election is Aug. 28, and the general election is set
for Nov. 2.
This is Gordon's first run for office.

Posted 1 day 10 hours 28 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The cost of a Louisiana driver's license
went up $15 Monday, and lawmakers are questioning the jump in
price.
A basic license now costs $36.50, up from $21.50.
The Louisiana State Police announced the price hike less than
two weeks ago.
Col. Mike Edmonson -- the head of the Department of Public Safety
that oversees the state motor vehicles office -- says the cost
increase covers a federal mandate that requires a more extensive
state identification program to protect against identity theft and
fraud.
The federal government imposed the requirement in 1993, and
Edmonson says his department has been absorbing the cost of the
mandate ever since.
State Sen. Lydia Jackson called the license price hike a tax.
Sen. Joe McPherson announced he will call a special transportation
committee meeting to discuss the increase.

Posted 4 days 9 hours 35 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- A state senator is hoping to toughen
Louisiana's ban on text messaging while driving.
Currently, a driver can only be cited for texting while driving
if a police officer stops the driver for another alleged violation.
Democratic Sen. Butch Gautreaux of Morgan City wants to make
texting while driving a primary offense -- meaning that police
officers could stop a driver for that traffic violation without
needing another reason.
Penalties for sending text messages while behind the wheel --
with an exception for emergencies -- can reach up to $175 for the
first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses.

Posted 4 days 9 hours 39 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Louisiana's economic development head is
shifting resources from the recruitment of out-of-state businesses
to the retention of existing companies and helping them to expand.
Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret told legislators
Thursday that he plans to add three employees to the existing force
of three who focus on business retention and expansion.
The workers will be taken from a group of 18 state employees who
work mainly on attracting companies from other states.
The move comes as the state is running out of money in the
various incentive funds created by the Legislature in recent years
to help lure businesses and keep existing companies from going
elsewhere.