Charles Boustany is still running against Obama in 2016

This week Governor Edwards reinstated a waiver of federal work requirements for food stamp recipients. Bobby Jindal had recently allowed the waiver to expire but with economic conditions worsening in Louisiana this would have been an especially bad moment to penalize people for being poor when work is scarce.

But since penalizing the poors for being poors is a favorite Republican passtime, a lot of them are upset. The Advocate went and talked to some of them about it. One such Republican venting his frustration that we aren't doing enough to humiliate the less fortunate was U.S. Senate candidate Charles Boustany.

U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, also issued a statement on the waiver, though he criticized the Obama administration for granting the waiver that Edwards requested.

“We simply must require work for welfare. President Obama may not like work requirements, but they honor our values and work ethic, and they send a clear message that welfare should be transitional and temporary, not a way of life,” he said.

Is that really how he wants to do this? We just went through a statewide election last year where the Republican failed to gain traction with voters simply by saying "Obama Obama Obama" every five minutes. The President will only become less relevant this year as his term in office draws to an end. But okay. Let's see if Boustany is still on that theme in November.

QOTD

Judge Barbier to plaintiffs suing to stop the monument removal.

“I went back and read your legal memorandum at least five times, and I don’t even understand your argument,” Barbier said. “Usually I understand an argument even if I don’t agree with it.”

Wage insurance

This slight hint of something was the most intriguing moment of the State of The Union speech this week. Barely anyone noticed. It's good to see somebody followed up.

In February 2015, longtime wage insurance advocate Robert Litan, then a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, suggested that the policy could be more efficient than straightforward job training programs when it comes to helping workers acquire key jobs skills.

“Indeed, economic research has established that, in the absence of a major career change, the best way to get new training is on the job rather than through some government training program, where job prospects are highly uncertain after one finishes,” wrote Litan. “In effect, wage insurance acts as a subsidy for employers to help pay the cost of training new hires, while cushioning the economic pain suffered when unemployed workers take new jobs paying less than what they were earning before layoffs."

But Eisenbrey says he opposed one wage insurance scheme that was proposed during the Bush years because he saw it as a way of shoving needy people into jobs that “would otherwise be inappropriate."

“Basically the idea was to force you to do this, to dangle it out there and say, ‘Make a decision quickly when you are first taking unemployment insurance, or you’ll lose the ability to get wage insurance.’ And obviously the idea was to get people to take lower paying jobs,” said Eisenbrey.

Since Obama isn't putting forth any details, and since he really barely even mentioned this Tuesday night, it's hard to know what, exactly, he had in mind. But if I had to guess, I'd say he's thinking of something much closer to the Bush era proposal than a truly radical innovation like, say, a universal basic income would be.

Later in the speech Obama talked about teachers who have to buy their own supplies and manufacturing workers who have to put in longer hours as signs of "optimism" rather than signs that something is very wrong. In Obama's concept of political economy everything is always working out for the best.

Learn, dammit

Maybe the media people will learn something from their experience with the difficulties of organizing in "the new economy" that they can extrapolate out beyond their own profession when writing about labor issues in the future. Because, lord knows, most of them haven't the faintest clue at present.

Recent entrants to the journalism profession tend to be more educated and come from comfortable backgrounds, says Freddy Kunkle, the co-chair of The Washington Post’s Guild unit. All Washington Post reporters are covered by the Guild contract, but Kunkle has been frustrated by the low number of new recruits from the paper’s year-long hiring spree who have joined the union as dues-paying members. He thinks part of the reason has to do with a weakened connection to the middle class.

“They tend to think that because of their education and their talent, they don’t need [a union],” Kunkle says. “What they’re doing is not coal mining: It’s not dangerous; it’s not dirty. What are they going to get out of it?” One data point: When The Washington Post Co. acquired Slate, which was founded and largely staffed by techno-savvy Ivy Leaguers, there was no discussion of its employees joining the Guild.

Slate, of course, is also one of the Internet’s first major Web magazines. And the class transition is perhaps especially true of Internet-only media, says Choire Sicha, who was an editor at Gawker and co-founded The Awl.

“If you look at the big ones, like BuzzFeed or Vox, the young workers are in general SO homogenous, and SO unprepared for anything like union organizing,” Sicha says in an e-mail. “They all went to good schools, and very few of them seem to have any experience with labor in the real workforce. And they’re all young and haven’t started worrying about their future yet. (Surprise: they don’t really have one!)”

Of maybe the boss won't let them learn anything because.. you know.. it's hard to organize.

Meanwhile back in real life

America in 2016



i... i don't know

Lost cause

According to the live coverage, the monument fetishists are getting whipped pretty badly in court right now. So I guess it shouldn't surprise us now that the defenders of "Confederate heritage" would quickly move on to extra-legal means of advancing their cause.

The company New Orleans hired to remove four monuments related to the Confederacy is backing out of that project, after its associates and their relatives received death threats and threatening calls, according to a recently filed court document.

An attorney for the company, the Baton Rouge-based H&O Investments, said in a Tuesday letter to city officials that after H&O made preparations to remove the controversial monuments, its offices received multiple telephone complaints, “including death threats personally directed to [company owner] David Mahler, and his staff, in addition to threatening calls received by his wife at their residence.”

Good lord, they're playing their little part well, aren't they?  How boring. 

Busted

These are not going to be fun years in Louisiana.

The seemingly never-ending free fall for oil prices could eventually bankrupt a third of energy producers, and at least one analyst says the current “bust” is worse than the mid-1980s downturn.

“The current oil price downturn is now deeper and longer than any other downturn over the last 45 years,” Morgan Stanley analyst Martijn Rats said in a report released Monday.

A year ago, Rats pointed to a number of similarities between the current oil price drop and the one in 1986. “Still, we expected that ultimately such a bearish scenario would not materialise. This has turned out to be too optimistic,” Rats said.

Oil sagged briefly to a 12-year low of less than $30 Tuesday before recovering to $30.44 per barrel. Prices have fallen from more than $100 since mid-2014. Some analysts have said the bottom lies near $10 a barrel.

LSU Center for Energy Studies Executive Director David Dismukes said it’s hard to say whether the current bust could be worse than 1986 for Louisiana.

$30 is down close to what you might pay for one of the higher-end king cake vodkas available. (Although a recent visit to Rouses suggests that market might be cratering as well.) Anyway the next few years are going to be ugly in state politics as lawmakers fight over pieces of an ever-dwindling budgetary pie. 

Louisiana’s budget outlook isn’t rosy.

That point has been made repeatedly in recent months, as the state stares down a $1.9 billion revenue shortfall.

On Tuesday, members of the state House were given in-depth, blow-by-blow briefings with some of the state’s top budget analysts to prepare them for just how grim things are.

“This is one of the worst times that I have witnessed, myself,” Legislative Fiscal Officer John Carpenter told the chamber.

At least now we can say that the new Governor, unlike his predecessor, appears to be taking the problem seriously. Not sure how much good that will do ultimately but it can't hurt.  Would be nice if everyone were on board. 

Much of the budget talk was met with mild interest from House members who mingled about and talked throughout the more than two hours of presentations

Making a federal case out of the rent being too damn high

What's driving up real estate prices in so-called destination cities? The US Justice Department wants to find out. 

Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.

The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.

It is the first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind cash transactions, and it is likely to send shudders through the real estate industry, which has benefited enormously in recent years from a building boom increasingly dependent on wealthy, secretive buyers.

The Mayor should invite them to New Orleans as well. Sort of like the NOPD consent decree but for real estate.

Final act

Beginning of the end for the monuments today.

The fate of the Lee Circle statue and three other monuments related to the Confederacy will hang in the balance Thursday (Jan. 14), as U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier considers whether to block the city's effort to remove them.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.

As though Bobby Jindal were just some bad dream

Looks like a big reason Obama is visiting is he wants to talk about making the hurt go away. 

But one of the specific items that was likely discussed as the president made his first official visit to Baton Rouge: Obama plans to propose a new Medicaid expansion measure that would give states like Louisiana credit for the federal money they have missed out on because they have waited to expand Medicaid.

Starting to think Team Rita is going to win this thing

At least they're looking pretty good on the trust fund part of it.

Despite his objections, Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson will have to submit himself to questioning from his daughter’s lawyers in the Texas court battle over control of a family trust fund, a judge decided Tuesday.

Attorneys for Benson had argued that a deposition was unnecessary, citing a wealth of testimony from witnesses who have taken part in a broader legal feud between Benson and his daughter, Renee Benson, as well as her children. But his daughter’s lawyers argued that her 88-year-old father should at least sit for questions with them, having avoided taking the witness stand at preliminary proceedings for the Texas case as well as a mental competency trial that he prevailed in last year.

How are we preparing for the toppling party?

Looks like these contractors are setting the stage.

New Orleans city officials are moving forward with preparations to relocate four monuments related to the Confederacy, despite a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking the removals.

James Karst, an editor and columnist for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, photographed a work crew Monday (Jan. 11) as they inspected the statue of Jefferson Davis in Mid-City. A spokesman for the city said the crew was measuring the statue in preparation for its removal, should the city prevail in the litigation.

Social media users have posted similar photos of work crews around other monuments in recent days.

The city is expected to win a quick ruling in the lawsuit and could be ready to proceed with the removal by the end of the week. So let's make a plan. How should we celebrate? Is it better to have four separate parties happen simultaneously at each monument? Or should we all just go down to Lee Circle and watch from there?

Also, who is paying for our drinks?  Anonymous?

The anonymous donor who is paying to remove four New Orleans monuments related to the Confederacy will apparently manage to remain out of the spotlight, because a private foundation is writing the check to the city on that person’s behalf.

The donor will pay the nonprofit Foundation for Louisiana, which will then send that donation to the city, officials said Tuesday. Because the foundation is not subject to public-records laws, that will allow the donor to keep his or her name secret.

It will cost an estimated $170,000 to remove the statues.

Neither the city nor the foundation is naming the donor, though foundation Chief Executive Officer and President Flozell Daniels, Jr. said Tuesday that it could be more than one person. The nonprofit has yet to receive the donation.

Seriously, though, I'm glad the monuments are coming down but this farcical non-transparent donation toward a public expenditure is bullshit.  We ought to know who is behind it. 

Neil Riser doesn't want to give working poor even a one dollar raise

Edwards is only asking for $8.25.  Obviously nowhere near enough but, as LaToya Cantrell might say, "something is better than nothing." The chair of the Senate labor committee, though, thinks nothing is better than something.

Any bill that would raise Louisiana's minimum wage above the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour would likely have to come through Riser's Labor Committee. Although the committee chairman can't kill a bill on his or her own, the chairman's support of a bill is often considered critical.

But much will be determined by the makeup of other members of the committee. If Labor is stacked with those who would support an increase to minimum wage, Riser likely couldn't foil it.

Riser said he believes raising the state's minimum wage above federal law could harm a fragile economy and job creation.

"The Louisiana economy is struggling," Riser said. "I've not talked to any business owner who believes raising the minimum wage wouldn't harm their business. Right now the federal law is in place. It should stand."

Edwards, who has targeted an increase to $8.25 an hour, also supports legislation that would require equal pay for women, which would also likely come through Labor. Riser said he isn't sure whether or not he could support such a bill. "It depends on how it's presented," Riser said.

How would he like it "presented?"  Powerpoint? A wax-sealed envelope?  Maybe Jay Dardenne can bring it over in some sort of singing telegram format.

Jarvis DeBerry's column today is about the Governor's acknowledgement in his innaugural address that the state needs to do something about poverty. 

When John Bel Edwards gave his first speech as governor of Louisiana Monday morning (Jan. 11), he rightly focused on the poor people of this state. "We talk a lot about our abundant natural resources, but we need to talk more about the most precious natural resource God has entrusted to us — our children. In Louisiana, one in four school-aged children live in poverty," he said. "That's unacceptable, and it MUST change."

Edwards linked that poverty to the struggle women in this state have getting a decent pay check. And he linked that poverty to the struggle that young people have paying the cost of skyrocketing tuition at our public universities. And, indirectly, he linked poverty in the state to his predecessor's refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion made possible by the passage of the Affordable Care Act. He vowed to accept the expansion immediately so our residents won't be going without while our taxes help pay for Medicaid expansion in 30 other states.

Republican legislators, meanwhile, are starting things off bucking the Governor's priorities and thumbing their noses at the poor. 

Because that's how democracy works

Governor Edwards was elected with 56% of a direct statewide vote of the population. But obviously  backroom dealing and threats among legislators, PACs and party insiders provides a more accurate referendum on his agenda. Is that what we're saying here?

Starting early

It's an early Mardi Gras this year.  Now that I am an old and have seen enough Carnival seasons come and go, it's reasonable that by now I would have developed a preference for either the early or late schedule. I haven't.  And that's kind of strange because the two are such different sorts of affair you'd think the choice would be easy.

Do you want some time to recuperate from the Holidays before easing in to a new season of celebrating? Or would you rather just let the momentum carry you on through without having to find your sea legs a second time?  Would you like to spend more time outdoors just as the weather starts to turn nice? Or do you relish the opportunity to get some actual use out of that winter coat and gloves that often feel superfluous here in the sub-tropics? There's something to appreciate in either experience. It's best to just take it as it comes.

Regardless of where it falls in the calendar the whole thing does seem to pass more quickly the older one gets. I suppose there are good and bad points to that as well. But, as long as we're having an early season anyway, we may as well jump right in and make the most of the time we do have.



This is why we were looking forward to seeing the brand new Krewe of Loup Garou on Saturday.  Usually the few weeks between Epiphany and Krewe du Vieux are reserved for the more behind-the-scenes.. or at least club-centered activities; organization sponsored parties, balls and such. Loup Garou (a creature of the Irish Channel Neighborhood association) saw an opportunity to add a little street theater to that part of the schedule.



The organizers say they're modeling the new parade on what Krewe du Vieux or Chewbacchus presents. The idea is to gather a procession of individually managed "sub-krewes" of marchers each with its own theme. Anyone can join, although the pricing scheme is confusing. In practice, the inaugural Krewe of Loup Garou looked more like a second line than anything else. We caught up with it in front of the Balcony Bar.



It was a fairly small group of marchers, maybe 80-100 in all. The "sub-krewes," such as they were, weren't easily distinguishable from one another as the whole group pretty much moved together down the street making stops at a few sponsoring bars along the route.  I remember seeing a few of the early Chewbacchus parades before they got all super-cool and moved to Bywater. Those parades looked an awful lot like this.



There were a few rudimentary floats. The "Shady Characters" here were pushing a cart adorned with parasols.



These guys had a grocery cart.



The most cleverly themed group of marchers, I guess, were these guys.



They're dressed as the red bagged Advocate advertiser editions most of us find dumped all over the city sidewalks several times a week.  A lot of people consider them litter. It's an especially hot issue among a certain class of white people these days. And Krewe of Loup Garou is squarely in the sweet spot of that red bagger demo. Here's the "satirical" handout the red baggers gave us as they passed.



However interesting (or not) that might be to you, it was nice to see something new. We've already mentioned at least once this year (and are certain we will do so again) that what our increasingly tourist-centric Carnival desperately needs more of now are small-scale events presented for and by locals along individual, neighborhood-specific routes. For that reason alone, Krewe of Loup Garou is a welcome addition to the calendar.  But it was also a fun opportunity to get out of the house and get an early jump on the parade season before the early parade season had a chance to sneak up on us.

Trolled by Stacy

In a not very entertaining  dry and somber segment we had to cut from last week's Hunkerdowncast, we noted the strange irony present in the city's approval of these controversial Anti-abortion ads along the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line at the same time it was in the process of removing Confederate monuments from  the streets on the grounds that they constituted a "public nuisance."

We were completely sincere in this observation and argued that the banners are every bit as inappropriate as the monuments are and that they should all come down. So we were surprised to find the next day that councilwoman Stacy Head had drawn a similar read on the situation as we had.  Although, as Jarvis DeBerry says here, I think Stacy's argument is somewhat more tongue-in-cheek that ours was.

It seems more likely that Head's primary goal is to call out Mitch Landrieu, the mayor who leaped at every opportunity to embarrass and talk down to her at a Dec. 17 City Council meeting. The mayor successfully urged the council to take down monuments celebrating Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Jefferson Davis and the White League. Head asked Landrieu where this action would lead us. How will the city determine what else is so offensive that it warrants removal? "Is there only one group whose feelings matter?"

It's good thing we cut that out of the show. Otherwise I wouldn't know for certain whether she was trolling Mitch or us.

Phony political pose is phony political pose

Turns out the District Attorney isn't too excited to work with The Innocence Project after all. 

Maw said Cannizzaro never came through with the staff or commitment he had pledged for a team in which lawyers and investigators from both sides would share case files and work together to turn up the kind of nefarious deeds, misidentifications, false confessions and other lapses that lead to bad convictions.

“When the project started off, they did not demonstrate any significant shift in the way they approached these cases,” Maw said. “Because it wasn’t a priority, it was not worth the investment anymore.”

Maw said she doesn’t think Cannizzaro championed the initiative as a political stunt, even though its announcement came during a 2014 re-election bid in which the DA cast himself as a bold progressive.

 Imagine that.

The parking is too damn high

Welcome to the new world.

Higher parking meter rates and extended meter collection hours take effect Monday — moves that Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration says will result in more turnover of available spaces and more efficient use of limited on-street parking.

It now will cost $3 per hour to park in a metered space in the French Quarter and Central Business District. That rate also applies in the Warehouse District, the areas around the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and City Hall, and in the Marigny Triangle, bounded by Esplanade, St. Claude and Elysian Fields avenues.

Elsewhere, the new rate is $2 per hour.

It used to cost $1.50 an hour to park at a meter anywhere in the city.

Hours of enforcement for metered parking, formerly 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, are being extended by one hour, to 7 p.m.

So if you fill up a meter to park downtown, it will cost you six bucks now. For the purposes of comparative outrage, note that the ATM fee at Harrah's casino right now is $5.99. So Mitch is one cent more of a jerk than they are.

But, hey, the good news is we're... starting... to discuss.. maybe... how to augment our pathetic public transit system in order to make up for the harsh parking situation. 

But this concession was dismissed by some critics, who said the city should have expanded public transit service, especially at night, and more closely examined traffic conditions in and near the French Quarter and CBD before raising rates. They said the higher rates will especially hurt people who work in restaurants and bars at night and have relied on low-cost or, after 6 p.m., free on-street parking.

City officials said the Regional Transit Authority is planning to expand bus service in and near the CBD and French Quarter this spring and a traffic study is due to be completed by year’s end.

That's good because, as Owen Courreges notes this week, lately they've been going in the wrong direction.  

House mischief

Congratulations on your little win, there 

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards lost his first trick in a Republican-dominated Louisiana Legislature when his personal choice for Speaker of the Louisiana House was defeated in an unusually contested election.

A last minute candidate, New Iberia Rep. Taylor Barras, a former Democrat who turned Republican in 2011, sneaked through the two partisan candidates who had battled for the top legislative job since the election.

Will it matter? It might. Typically, in Louisiana, the Governor is king so it's worth noting when the Legislature defies him, especially so when the Governor is fresh off a landslide election.  On the other hand, it looks like they tried real hard to make this happen so let's hope, for their sakes, they haven't exhausted themselves. 

Some Republicans want to work with the incoming Edwards administration, particularly as the new Legislature will almost immediately be plunged into trying to fix a state budget that chronically is too short. Others in the GOP are more adamant about Republicans taking the top spots.

It was a divisive race in which Republican-leaning groups, such as the Louisiana Family Forum, emailed its members, and various PACS bought advertising and organized recalls to press Republicans who may have been wavering towards Leger to back a GOP candidate.

I've got a feeling, also, this is far from the last and hardly the ugliest fight we'll see during the course of this administration.  Remember the boom times are over and Bobby Jindal broke the budget so the coming years will see lots of bitter tugs-of-war over the remnants.  Still, I'm cautiously optimistic about this governor's ability to handle it.. as much as anyone can be expected to, anyway. 

Let the children boogie

Planet Earth is sad today



Adrastos: 

Bowie threw a series of personas and musical styles at the public over his nearly 50 year career. All of them seemed to work. He had fans among prog rock people, dance music people, punk rockers; you name it they liked Bowie. He may have been one of the last universally loved and respected pop stars, which is quite a feat in the internet snark era.

Well this will be different

This is from Stephanie Grace's column on the new governor.

Asked why he’s a Democrat, Edwards had this to say:

“Well, because I still believe that government has a role to play in improving people’s lives. And that you can’t do everything for everybody, both because it’s inappropriate and because it costs too much, but within reason, we ought to be helping people have a better life. And I don’t believe in a laissez faire approach to that.”

If you're looking for reasons to be optimistic about the incoming governor, this interview is a good place to start.  Edwards also talks about how a Democrat can win statewide office in supposedly "red" Louisiana.

“We are an extremely populist state, but there are some bellwether issues,” he said. “If you’re not pro-life and if you’re not pro-Second Amendment, too many people in Louisiana will not hear the rest of your message. And so you can be 100 percent in sync with them, but they’re never going to support you. And it just so happens that I am pro-life; I am pro-Second Amendment. I’m very populist in some ways as well. And that message was successful.”

Lamar picked out the same two quotes in today too but I wonder if his readers will draw the right conclusion from them.  Throughout the campaign, Edwards told supporters that he would not allow his opponents to "Out-gun me or out-God me." Lamar's article recommends that Democrats seeking statewide office in the future incorporate this tack into their strategy.

If Democrats in Louisiana are wise, however, they’ll take a few pages from their new governor’s playbook. They will need to resign themselves to the fact that they cannot win on some of the same hot-button issues that animate the national party.

There are twice as many pro-life voters in Louisiana as there are pro-choice voters. While the majority of Louisiana citizens favor specific and sensible gun control policy, a candidate who is perceived to be against the Second Amendment couldn’t win dogcatcher. I am not suggesting that Louisiana Democrats abandon these important issues, but if they are to win, they must become more sophisticated about how they define themselves and how they are defined by others.

Lamar is making a subtle point about political messaging. But I'm a little worried that, even though Lamar explicitly writes, "I am not suggesting that Louisiana Democrats abandon these important issues,"  some might read this analysis and determine that, at this moment when reproductive rights are more tenuous than they've been in decades, the smart thing is for liberals to STFU about it. 

That would be a shame because it would be a cowardly and morally indefensible retreat on a crucial question of women's health, not to mention their very status as persons and citizens.  Even John Bel's own preferred image of his brand of "populism" doesn't square with that. 

Other ideas Edwards champions also fit the populist approach. He wants to raise the state minimum wage to $8.50, $1.25 over the federal level, and disputes claims that most people who make the base amount are teenagers. His poster child is a single mom who works at a gas station, has to maintain a household and has to feed a family. The next time you fill up the tank and buy snacks, he suggested, look at the person behind the counter and ask, “How long would she have had to work to do what you just did?”

More importantly for students of Louisiana politics, it doesn't even accurately reflect the new governor's approach to policy. John Bel Edwards's personal beliefs and his "brand" as a candidate might conform to the Pro-Life label, but that doesn't mean his administration will pretend we live in the Dark Ages. 

Take, for instance, his appointee to head the Department of Health and Hospitals. 

Benjamin Clapper, director of Louisiana Right to Life, and the Rev. Gene Mills, head of Louisiana Family Forum, say the discrepancies between two résumés of Dr. Rebekah E. Gee may not disqualify her from being secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals — and at this point, neither opposes her nomination — but it raises questions.

Gee was named Tuesday by Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards to spearhead his efforts to expand Medicaid. Her appointment must be confirmed by the state Senate.

“I haven’t spoken to her,” Clapper told The Advocate on Thursday, shortly after announcing issues with her résumé. “I’m saying this is what’s out there. This is what her past looks like.”
He discovered that Gee’s 2007 curriculum vitae, while a clinical scholar with the University of Pennsylvania, included a February 2003 speech at the National Abortion Rights Action League that was not included in her 2012 résumé with the LSU Health Sciences Center.

The lectures listed on Gee’s 11-page LSU résumé go back only to 2006.

“I hope it was a matter of a failure to disclose rather than an intentional effort to advance what may be viewed, and will likely be viewed, as a hostile DHH secretary,” said Mills, who will release past statements from Gee on Friday that he says indicate that the nominee has aggressively advocated for access to abortions.

“I find it ironic that the most pro-life state in the nation has received, somewhat in a clandestine fashion, a very aggressive advocate for the abortion position. I find that not coincidental,” Mills said.

Governor Edwards hasn't even spent a day in office yet and Gene Mills is already pissed. This is going to be different.

Something and nothing

This morning's Advocate presents us with a curious and rare occurrence. Turns out a neighborhood association actually opposed a development on the grounds that it won't include enough affordable housing.

Developers’ plans to set aside 11 units for affordable housing and to bring a long-blighted property back into use were enough to persuade the New Orleans City Council to override the City Planning Commission and approve an extra 100 apartments at a complex proposed for the former Sara Mayo Hospital site on Jackson Avenue.

The council’s approval on Thursday came over the objections of members of the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association, who argued that adding fewer than a dozen small apartments for low-income residents didn’t justify more than doubling the number of units that city planners said are allowed by the city’s zoning ordinance.

But Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, whose district includes the site, said the project would be a step in the right direction for affordable housing.

“Something is better than nothing,” she said.

If I had a nickel for every neo-liberal piece of trickle-down quackery that gets rationalized by "Something is better than nothing," I wouldn't have needed to buy a Powerball this week. As we've said before a few times here, so-called inclusionary zoning is bunk tokenism meant to make gentrification seem politically palatable.  It doesn't actually address the problem so much as exploits it. The net effect is still more nice things for rich people where there was once affordable housing.  Meanwhile, people like LaToya still get to make a prima facie claim that they're taking "a step in the right direction."

But LaToya Cantrell is far less interested in the substance of a policy than whether or not she can personally claim credit for it. We saw this last month during the height of the monuments controversy when LaToya tried to submarine the proposed removal on the grounds that it had been "thrust upon the City Council from the top down," which I guess is different somehow from how Kalias's proposal to develop luxury apartments on Jackson Avenue arrived there.  During her bizarre rambling talk before the monuments vote, Cantrell complaints about "process" basically boiled down to her annoyance that, politically, the issue wasn't all about her.

"I have to be honest with you, when this process stated, when it began with a man ... when it began with a man of privilege coming out saying, apologizing for slavery and seconds later making it public that he was going to come to this body for the removal of four monuments selected by him, I felt disrespected by that," she said.

Similarly, in the case of this proposed development, we see LaToya responding to objections based on policy with accusations based on race. 

But Howard Nobles, with the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association, said the developer would reap profits out of proportion to the benefits provided by the affordable units. The association has been opposed to the project because of its scale.

“We are not against affordable housing, but we think 11 units added to this so they can go 100 units above what they’ve already been approved for is ridiculous,” Nobles said.

Cantrell fired back, saying the neighborhood association lacks the racial and economic diversity to truly reflect the needs of the area.

This isn't to say that LaToya's assessment of the Irish Channel Neighborhood Assocaition's #standing is incorrect.  In fact, I'd say that statement applies well to every neighborhood association in the city as they are by and large comprised of relatively privileged property owners. But since LaToya Cantrell's start in local politics derived from her involvement in the Broadmoor Improvement Association, I hardly think she has much room to talk.

So no one here is perfect.. or really any good at all.  But at least one side pointed out that building 11 "affordable housing" units  for every 200 is probably doing more harm than good.  And that's better than nothing.

It lives

Sorry this week's show is late.  It took a little more post-production than it should have.

Let them throw their little fit

Leger is going to get the post.  These guys can complain all they want and it won't matter. Better to let them waste their time fighting a losing battle in the meantime.

The river is too damn high

This is getting kinda serious.

The National Weather Service has predicted that at its crest, 1.9 million cubic feet per second of water will flow past the Red River Landing if the floodway is not opened. That would result in a crest of 19.5 feet at the Carrollton Gauge in New Orleans, which is 2.5 feet above official flood stage and just 6 inches below the top of floodwalls

The new corps map assumes that such a high water level could result in multiple failures of earthen levees, floodwalls or other structures along the river, said Walter Baumy, chief of engineering for the corps' New Orleans office. The record high water levels also would cause a dramatic disruption to business in the Port of New Orleans and elsewhere along the river in the New Orleans area, said Bob Turner, executive director of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.

That's from 2011.  The last time we were talking about opening the spillways.  They're going to open Bonnet Carré on Sunday.

The Army Corps of Engineers will begin opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish at 10 a.m. Sunday morning to reduce the level of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, so its flow does not exceed 1.25 million cubic feet per second in New Orleans, corps officials confirmed late Thursday.

The river was at 15.5 feet on Thursday at the Carrollton Gage in New Orleans and is expected to reach 16.4 feet on Sunday morning. The official flood level for the city is 17 feet, which will be reached on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.

I sure hope they have a very specific plan for the money

Wouldn't want BGR to jump on their case or anything. We do know how they hate dedicated millages.

The New Orleans City Council will let voters decide whether to approve $26.6 million a year in new taxes to fund an expanded New Orleans Police Department and to pay off a legal settlement with firefighters.

The council voted 7-0 Thursday to put the tax hike on the April 9 ballot. If voters approve the measure, property taxes would increase by 7.5 mills for 12 years starting in 2017.

The increase, which would not be subject to the homestead exemption, would cost the owner of a house assessed at $150,000 an extra $112.50 a year. The owner of a house assessed at $450,000 would pay $337.50 more.

The ballot measure must still be approved by the State Bond Commission in February before it can go on the April 9 ballot.

We learned last year that BGR has some exacting standards when it comes to these matters. We also know that they're gearing up to put out a report on comprehensive municipal finance reform soon. It will be interesting to see if this significant increase in dedicated tax revenue gets a pass from them under these circumstances.

You put up nickels and I'll drop a dime..

Your friendly neighborhood FBI office wishes you a happy Mardi Gras.

The FBI, joined by city leaders, launched a public awareness campaign Thursday urging residents and business owners to report suspicious behavior ahead of Mardi Gras, a celebration that has prompted heightened awareness among law enforcement this year in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.

Jeffrey Sallet, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s New Orleans division, told reporters that investigators know of “absolutely no credible threats” targeting the Carnival season.

Well that's good to know. Have fun out there and.. oh wait there's more. 

But the FBI, Louisiana State Police and New Orleans Police Department appealed to the public to report furtive activity that seems out of place in their communities.

Beyond unattended packages, Sallet said, the FBI would like to know about people seen photographing critical infrastructure like bridges, outsiders “milling around” neighborhoods, and unusual or incendiary statements overheard concerning, for instance, “a hatred of Mardi Gras that seems excessive.”

Oh okay so if there's a parade coming and we end up with a lot of "outsiders milling around the neighborhood," FBI is saying they will come and get them.


Suspicious characters milling about

Finally, our tent and ladder ordinances will have some real enforcement teeth. This could be a bad year for #KreweOfChad. It does put a bit of a damper on tourism, though. Not to mention that whole "hang on the corner, do whatcha wanna" thing.

Meanwhile I guess the "hatred of Mardi Gras" clause will get this guy sent directly to GITMO.



And, of course, everybody knows that asymmetric approaches to parking are never to be tolerated during Carnival. 

Cars parked in places they shouldn’t be might also be a red flag, he said.

“We have really, really great citizens in the city that know their city, and if there’s just something that doesn’t make sense to them, it probably doesn’t,” Sallet said.

Now go on out there and make this the most sensible Carnival ever. 

Do over

Governor Edwards wants to shake up the Charity Hospital redevelopment. 

With a new governor set to take office next week, the state is likely to delay any decision on the fate of the former Charity Hospital building in New Orleans in favor of hiring a consultant to take a new look at how to move forward, officials said Thursday.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration sought ideas nearly a year ago for what to do with the 1 million-square-foot facility on Tulane Avenue, which was closed in 2005 after it was flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

The state received five responses to its request for “creative and innovative redevelopment ideas,” including one from developers who offered to buy the building and others from groups proposing to renovate it and lease the space.

The proposed uses ranged from a mental health facility to combinations of retail stores, apartments, a hotel and a biomedical facility.

Which only makes sense. It's a pretty big patronage plum in New Orleans and the new Governor has a lot of favors to pay out there.  Back in August, John Kennedy was urging Bobby Jindal to "slow down" the process in order to save some of these goodies for the next Governor, who he obviously assumed would be David Vitter, to hand out.  I wonder how he feels about it now.

Not sure why LaToya Cantrell thinks she's owed anything. 

City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, whose district includes the hospital, welcomed what she described as a “fresh start” to the process.

“It didn’t feel like an inclusive process,” Cantrell said of the earlier effort, which she said did not include much input from the city. “With the new leadership coming on, New Orleans will be included on a lot of different matters.”

You might remember, though, from LaToya's bizarre, "Why isn't this all about me?" rant when City Council voted to take down the Confederate monuments, that "inclusive process" is kind of her go-to soundbite.

Meanwhile, as you might expect, some of the folks who thought they'd already submitted the necessary bribes paperwork are a little put out about having to start over.  Others seem like they have a brighter attitude about it.

News of the delay drew mixed reactions from interested developers.

Michael Brandner of CHR Partners LLC, a team that includes local developers Joseph Jaeger and Joseph Stebbins, criticized the delay, saying his group was ready to buy Charity for $30 million and spend $245 million renovating it into apartments, a hotel, a biomedical facility and retail stores.

“I don’t think that anybody was expecting a group to come forward to say, ‘Look, we’ll just buy the whole thing,’ ” he said.

But Josh Collen, vice president of development with Historic Restoration Inc., which has proposed spending $194 million to revamp the hospital into an apartment complex, artist lofts, a day care center, retail stores and a medical research facility, said restarting the process makes sense.

“I’m not terribly surprised. It’s a very important building for the state and the city,” he said. “Obviously, they want to get it right and make sure they pick the right partner and find the right project.”

Roughly translated, those comments might indicate that the Lords of Jaegerton felt like they had an inside track whereas now that the process is restarting the Kabacoffians have renewed hope of annexing the territory.  If they can, then that's good news for us. A quick look at the NOligarchs map reminds us we had already drawn the boundaries in Kabacoffia's favor.



This is probably because our cartography department jumped the gun after reading HRI's proposal.  But now we're kind of rooting for them just so we don't have to backtrack.

People liked Payton's love letter

I was kind of surprised at how many people took Sean Payton's bizarre press conference yesterday at face value. Ted Lewis thought Payton "showed loyalty to the community" by staying with a job he's obviously trapped in for the time being.

Larry Holder gets it at least half right.

I asked Payton if teams reached out to him to gauge his interest of leaving New Orleans. He mentioned semantics about how teams can't reach out to him specifically. But added, "I know there was one report and I don't know the gist of it all, but no. The protocol would have been via the Saints, but no. Not at all."

Payton never acknowledged whether or not he pondered other opportunities despite being asked.

I found this hard to believe, considering Payton said this earlier in the press conference: "I know Mickey is too smart and I know no one's giving up the compensation that he was, I'm sure, looking and researching. That could only happen if I sign off on it and I think the cart kind of gets ahead of the horse a little bit and yet I understand how that could happen."

If Loomis is researching for possible compensation packages for a "trade" of a coach, you're going to tell me this scenario never actually existed with another team or teams?

Holder is correct to be suspicious. But that's sort of obvious. What he falls for in the meantime is Payton's weird "love letter to NOLA" spoken word essay. Holder says of Payton, "He sounded like a true New Orleanian."

As a lifelong New Orleanian, I have yet to discover an appropriate definition of what a "true" one of those is supposed to be.  To me, Payton sounded like the drug addled rejected job applicant he obviously was.  The Saints tried to move Payton this week. No one offered what he thought he was worth. So now he's stuck here for, "as long as they'll have me."   That's not "loyalty to the community," whatever that means. That's coming to realize you're only a big fish when you swim in the small pond.

Admittedly, this is how a lot of transplants come to be "true New Orleanians." But it's important to understand that this is not a story about coming to love a city so much as it is about learning to rationalize failed ambition.  Which is why most of the time a "Love Letter To NOLA" much like a "Break Up With NOLA" is really about a narcissistic author transferring a personal success or disappointment onto a romanticized idea of the city itself.  When it isn't those things, then it's probably just cynical marketing copy.

When it's coming from a hyper-competitive millionaire celebrity like Sean Payton, it's probably a little bit of both.

The river is too damn high

They're going to open Bonnet Carre this weekend and are talking about opening Morganza at some point. This should feel less routine that it does. Bonnet Carre has only been opened 10 times in its history, and even then, it isn't always opened all the way. Morganza is almost never opened. Also none of this every happens in January.

And yet..

The spillway structure, built after the deadly 1927 flood and most recently utilized in 2011, is made up of 350 bays that are closed off by 7,000 wooden pins. Ricky Boyett, public affairs chief at the Corps district, said about 20 bays a day can be removed, and it’s expected that all of the bays will need to be opened to accommodate the floodwaters.

The purpose of diverting water into the lake is to keep a relatively steady 1.25 million cfs of river flow through New Orleans, which roughly works out to keeping the water at 17 feet. The levees in downtown New Orleans protect up to 20 feet.

Although designed to be able to pass 250,000 cfs of water, the spillway and receiving area can handle more, said Boyett.

“In 2011, we put 300,000 cfs through to keep the water where we wanted,” he said.

The river is high, y'all. And it's disturbingly high for this time of year.  So much for "normal weather." 

Reverse Wounded Knee

The survivalist idiots camping out in Oregon have no freaking idea what they're railing against.

But again, why does the federal government own this land? In the great majority of cases, virtually all of it in acreage terms, the federal government owns it because it conquered it, either from various Indian tribes or from the Mexican government, which itself owned it by right of conquest (so same difference.) Some of the land was ceded by treaties too - but in most cases treaties under compulsion or treaties meant to tidy up the loose ends of conquest.

Don't they know this land is already their land?  The big bad gubmint they're up in arms against took it. By force. For them. 

Meet the Trumpites

A few months ago we learned the roster for the local members of Team Jeb! (Pat Brister, Suzie Terrell, Joe Cannizaro, Boysie Bollinger, among others.)  That's all well and good. Party insiders and donors pretty much just doing what's expected.

The more interesting question is who are the local right wingers wacky enough to back Trump?  Well somebody asked.. or at least was told. 

Former New Orleans City Councilman Jay Batt has been tapped to chair Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Louisiana campaign team.

Batt, who serves as chairman of the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee, was on the City Council from 2002 to 2006.

Ahh ha ha ha ha ha 

It's always 1994

So much of what's frustrating me about this story is laid out well by Josh Marshall here. For whatever reason, people like to pretend that we haven't been through this exact same thing before or that there's something somehow new or worse about right wing nuts that hasn't always existed.

Put simply, as they made clear in the lead up to the 1994 election and then in congressional hearings before and after, the more radical wing of the Gingrich GOP was quite solicitous of the militia movement, though certainly not supporting its actual violence - which in any case was mostly threatened rather than carried out. 

Most of those militia fellow travelers in elected office went to ground very quickly after the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995. But even after the bombing, the newly Republican controlled Congress held a series of hearings on the militia movement in which "militia" leaders were brought up to Capitol Hill to preach their claims about federal tyranny and the need for their militias to provide a counterweight to federal tyranny and overreach.

Remember, this is the era when the NRA's Wayne LaPierre - just a month before the Oklahoma bombing - sent out a fundraising email to 3.5 million NRA member, calling federal law enforcement against "jack-booted government thugs" who "in Clinton's administration [think] if you have a badge, you have the government's go-ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law-abiding citizens." Even after Oklahoma City, LaPierre defended this inciting rhetoric. This kind of incitement was generating increasing support on the right and indeed has become increasingly normalized over the years.

Worse than just people not remembering the 1990s, though, it's more like a deliberate attempt to unlearn past lessons in order to continue excusing the same mistakes.

This, in fact, pretty much describes all of the Obama Presidency to me. We've been treated to a long unbroken run of conservative Democrats forever pretending that if only they could be ever so slightly more conservative, then the hard-line right wingers will finally "work together and get things done" with them.

But that never works out because hard-line right wingers are freaking crazy and being a conservative Democrat in Washington is worse than not even being there in the first place. And we learned all of this before.. several times over.

Also this.

And when we compare how white militants are handled compared to non-whites, we shouldn't assume that we should be killing more people camping out in a Wildlife visitors center but that we should have some more consistent policy and simply avoid killing a lot of people where possible.

Over and over again I read comments from so-called liberals whose idea of justice in this case is more not less killing. I'll never understand these people.

Come for the millions of dollars Stay for the potholes and amoeba

That's what I always say. Is that what you say?

Payton said his affinity for the city also factored in his decision to remain with the Saints.

"There is something unique and different; I can't put my finger on it," Payton said of New Orleans. "I drive through a pothole every day like you guys do and get upset. When the water's down in a certain parish, I have to come here to shower just like everyone else might have to go somewhere else.

"And yet it grows on you, and it is home."

The full text of Payton's Love Letter To NOLA will be published later in the week at NOLAVie. (He also drafted a break up letter which would have run at The Lens but will now have to be destroyed or at least delayed)

Anyway I hope someone preserves either the video or the transcript of that presser. It was..... very strange. Payton talked about how his mother used to hoard couches. He said if he had to leave New Orleans he would miss having five waiters bring out his entrees. He was all over the place and, on the radio, it even sounded like he was choking up a bit.  Fun stuff.  Weird stuff, but fun.

Meanwhile it's back to work figuring out who doesn't get paid this year so Junior Galette can get his check.  Other than that I wouldn't expect this off-season to be quite as nutso as the last one was.  Interesting part is out of the way already.

Bandit signs

Aren't we in the process of removing Confederate monuments from display on the grounds that they are "public nuisances"? So what gives with this?

St. Charles Avenue is festooned with a variety of banners flapping from the city-owned lampposts along the 70-block-long neutral ground.

But the colorful flags promoting Loyola University’s latest fund drive, the services at Touro Infirmary, the anniversaries of local businesses and numerous other events and commemorations have been joined recently by banners with a more pointed message: 5-foot-tall images of a fetus and anti-abortion statements.

The campaign, sponsored by the Louisiana Right to Life Federation and New Orleans Right to Life, has raised questions about the propriety of using city property for political messaging.

Carnival time

Ready or not here comes... a press conference and photo op.

NEW ORLEANS — Tomorrow, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and other city officials will join representatives from Carnival organizations to celebrate Kings Day, which marks the official start of the 2016 Carnival season. Carnival season begins on Jan. 6 each year and culminates on Mardi Gras day, which is on Feb. 9, 2016. The celebration will include presentations from Carnival organizations and a ceremonial cutting of the king cake.

WHO:              Mayor Mitch Landrieu

                        City Officials

                        Carnival Krewe Representatives

WHAT:            Kings Day Celebration

WHEN:            Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016                        10 a.m.

WHERE:         Mardi Gras World

                       1380 Port of New Orleans Place

                       New Orleans, LA 70160

Don't get too caught up in the magic.

Also, know this exists now.



Assuming the idea here is now you can mix it with Stoli and make your own damn King Cake vodka this year.  Although, I should say... it's been done.

"Poshtel"

I don't even have a joke for this.

A local developer is proposing to build an upscale hostel — a so-called “poshtel” — with 185 beds, a bar and restaurant on vacant land along the Bywater riverfront.

The 45,000-square-foot boutique hostel would have 43 rooms — a mix of shared, hostel-style rooms with shared bathrooms and private rooms with private bathrooms. Before it can be built, the project requires a conditional-use permit from the City Council because it would exceed 10,000 square feet.

The property, bordered by Royal, Mazant, Chartres and Bartholomew streets, is owned by New Orleans lawyer John Cummings.

Refer now to the map and recall that Cummingsville is the section shaded in green.

Anyway, there's more. 

Kelso told neighbors during a public meeting last month that the building’s shared rooms would accommodate from four to 10 guests, according to meeting minutes included with the project’s application.

The property is expected to cater to “millennial-type consumers, ages 20-34,” with a focus on international travelers, Kelso told the group.

“We’re not going after bachelor parties — this is not our target market — and it is not a frat house,” he said. “We’re targeting serious travelers who are looking to really experience New Orleans as a local and have a chance to interact with locals.”

The proposed hostel would include a 60-seat restaurant, a small hotel bar, a courtyard with room to seat 40 and 40 parking spots.

Again, not a joke, not The Onion, it's not April Fool's Day.  These are real things the people are actually saying.  Maybe let's just leave it at that. 

The charter racket

Spend more than a minute arguing with any charter school supporter and, inevitably, you'll run up against an argument that goes something like this. "Don't you want better schools?  Public education is in trouble. At least we're offering to do something."   But the mere existence of a need is no justification for any remedy someone makes available. This is the reason snake oil, glutten-free oatmeal, and subprime mortgages exist in the first place.

EduShyster: Your paper raises the spectre that a charter school *bubble* may be forming, particularly in urban areas where these schools are expanding the most rapidly, and often with the least oversight. Can you explain how a charter school bubble would form? And how can I bet against it?

Green: There is an intense push to increase the number of charter schools in Black, urban communities, where they’re very popular because of the dissatisfaction with traditional public schools. Because of this desire for more educational options, these communities are more likely to support policies that could lead to charter school bubbles forming. In fact, I would argue that we are at *Ground Zero* for the formation of such bubbles. Supporters of charter schools are using their popularity in Black, urban communities to push for states to remove their charter cap restrictions and to allow multiple authorizers. At the same time, private investors are lobbying states to change their rules to encourage charter school growth. The result is what we describe as a policy *bubble,* where the combination of multiple authorizers and a lack of oversight can end up creating an abundance of poor performing schools in particular communities.

EduShyster: What’s fascinating and frankly disturbing about your research is how well the subprime analogy fits, down to the edu-equivalent of predatory lending practices in particular communities. But it seems important to point out that these bubbles have their origin in worthy policy goals, like increasing home ownership, or sending more kids to college. Who would be against that?

Green: Who would be against that? That’s the power of the choice argument. Folks in poor communities and Black, urban communities obviously want better opportunities for their kids. And I don’t blame them for really pushing for better options. But I do feel that there are people taking advantage of their desire to get better opportunities by pushing forward more options for charters without ensuring that these schools are sufficiently screened. The argument that I hear all the time that drives me crazy is that *obviously this is a good choice. Look at all the parents who are standing in line.* That’s just evidence that people want a better education. That doesn’t mean that they’re actually getting it. What I’d love to see happen is that we have programs and oversight in place to ensure that their choices have meaning. I’m afraid that we’re going down a path right now where we may not be setting up those mechanisms to provide those assurances.

You see a similar argument being made right now in favor of tighter oversight in the financial sector. For example, this is from a speech delivered today by Bernie Sanders. 

Mr. Sanders also vowed on Tuesday that as president, he would order the Treasury Department to create a list of financial institutions that are dangerously large and break them up within his first year in office. He would overhaul the Federal Reserve by eliminating the central bank’s “internal conflicts of interest” and providing stricter oversight. He also called for changing the relationship between banks and credit rating agencies by preventing banks from choosing who rates them and by requiring the agencies to become nonprofit institutions.

Wall Street, Mr. Sanders said, would be held accountable under his administration. “Not only will big banks not be too big to fail, but big-time bankers will not be too big to jail.”

Meanwhile, however, charter operators are asking for fewer restrictions on the types of agencies issuing charters. They're moving in exactly the opposite direction and, in the process, asking for greater leverage to commit fraud against the most vulnerable slice of the population. 

If we’re going to have multiple authorizers, we have to impose standards to ensure that they do a good job, because without those standards there is really no incentive for them to ensure that these schools are operating in an acceptable manner. I should also mention putting sanctions in place to prevent the really squirrely practice of *authorizer hopping,* where schools are closed by one authorizer and then find another authorizer, which has happened quite a bit in places where oversight has been really weak, like Ohio

But, hey, at least they're trying something.

New Carnival Krewe is coming to eat your children

I'm looking forward to seeing what Krewe of Loup Garou is like.  I've been arguing for more varied types of parades traveling along different routes so we'll definitely check this out.

The marching parade will have a similar homemade feel to the well-known Krewe of Chewbacchus, organizers said. Marchers are encouraged to build floats they can push or band together with costumes. There is no official theme other than the Loup Garou itself — Rizzuto and a group of friends, for example, will parade as “Toup Garou,” a sly reference to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s notorious hairstyle.

“We left it up to people’s creativity,” Smith said. “We didn’t want to be too restrictive, especially as we’re trying to grow and gain members.”

A limited initial run of 100 printings of the Krewe of Loup Garou poster will also become part of the fundraiser, and they will be available at a membership meeting for the krewe at 7 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 5) at Tracey’s. The krewe is still seeking individual members and business sponsorships (which may result in additional stops on the route), as well, and anyone interested should contact Irish Channel president Jeremy Smith at president@irishchannel.org. (Anyone who can’t attend can contribute to the shade fund directly at a new GoFundMe site.) Tickets for the after party can also be bought at the door at NOLA Brewing on Saturday.

I also like the bold choice for the poster which... a large portion of this article is dedicated to assuring you.. is definitely not scary at all. 

In the image, a striking public debut for New Orleans-based artist Merrie Morrow, the bright red beast of swampland imagination looms on a high horizon, its expression somewhere between menacing and inviting. Surrounded by banana leaves and white birds, the three children face the loup garou stoically, their arms linked in camaraderie as parasols protect them on either side.

“They look like they have a connection with the loup garou, a little bit,” Morrow said. “They’re not scared of him. They’re not trying to run away.”

Right.. because why would they? 

As soon as the Loup Garou was suggested as a theme by organizer Adele Hunt, everyone else realized it was perfect, said Kristine Rizzuto, Morgan’s sister. Hunt then put Rizzuto and the other organizers in touch with Morrow, who quizzed them about the parade’s purpose before creating the image. One necessary element, Rizzuto said, was that it prominently feature children.

“The thing I like the most about it is the way that the parasols are protecting them from the Loup Garou, which ties back into the shade fund,” Rizzuto said.

See? It's fine! They have umbrellas. 

Franchise on auto-pilot

I get that the massive cash infusion from candidates to the networks diminishes the quality of campaign coverage we can expect. But seeing as how flush they are with cash, couldn't they at least see to it that we get better... or at least more.. you know, regular news? 

Some of these outfits are ostensibly dedicated to "24 hour news coverage."  This is a big country with a lot of varied and complicated things happening.  Maybe spend some of that time and money wasted on "Lockup" telling people about them.

Day One

Governor elect Edwards announced some appointments today. Among those was the new head of DHH.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - An LSU public health professor is Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards' choice to lead Louisiana's health department, the largest agency in state government.

Dr. Rebekah Gee was named Tuesday as Edwards' secretary for the Department of Health and Hospitals.

In that role, she'll oversee a $9.7 billion agency that accounts for more than one-third of the state's budget. She'll also be the figurehead for Edwards' plan to expand Louisiana's Medicaid program as allowed under the federal health care law.

This will draw attention not only because of how important it is in and of itself but also because of its political significance. Edwards' commitment to immediate Medicaid expansion was a major campaign promise which differentiated him from every other candidate. It’s is crucial that this promise be kept.

The good news is it looks like they're taking that seriously.

Dr Gee says La will expand Medicaid on first day of the Edwards administration

— Mark Ballard (@MarkBallardCnb) January 5, 2016

Update:  On the other hand, another major campaign promise of Edwards's involved "firing" John White.  His new BESE appointees appear to be crawfishing a bit.

In an interview Edwards' three BESE appointees all said they would be "open" to working with White, but didn't outright endorse him. Two of three appointees have an existing relationship with White, because they are already active in primary and secondary education.

Earliest spillway ever

Fun times

The official forecast holds the river at 17 feet through mid-January in New Orleans on the assumption that the Army Corps of Engineers will open the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish to divert part of the river's flow to Lake Pontchartrain. The corps will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to announce its plans for the spillway and also to announce when it will enter Phase 2 of its flood fight program.

This would be the earliest that the spillway has ever opened, officials say. The corps' decision will be based on when it expects the amount of water flowing in the river to reach 1.25 million cubic feet per second at the Carrollton Gage, and on studies they have been conducting of the potential environmental effects of opening the spillway.

Rent is too damn high

This Gambit commentary, notably, highlights three issues the paper expects will weigh most heavily on Mayor Landrieu’s agenda this year. They are 1) Crime, because everyone is always obligated to say that. 2) RTA because, frankly,  people are demanding better transit. And third.. probably the most serious existential dilemma facing New Orleans outside of flood control.

New Orleans renters are hurting. Last year, CNN and other outlets labeled us one of the nation's worst cities for renters. In October 2015, the real estate website Zillow calculated the average rent here to be just shy of $1,600 per month — well above Houston, Baton Rouge and the U.S. as a whole. The Data Center found 35 percent of New Orleanians now pay more than half their salaries in rent.   The City Planning Commission is scheduled to review its Short Term Rental Study this month and deliver it to the New Orleans City Council Feb. 1. Currently, short-term hotel-style rentals of private homes are illegal but widespread; more than 2,000 are advertised in nearly every neighborhood in town. It's the council's job to decide how to regulate public accommodations, but as mayor of a city where affordable housing is becoming scarcer, Landrieu should take the lead on this issue. New Orleans needs affordable housing for those who live here, not just those who vacation here.

We're closing the book on a "recovered" New Orleans.  We're worried about how to keep it safe. But we also have to ask who this city has been rebuilt for. I don't think we're going to like the answer.