Kibbles and Bits
Just a whole bunch of small, interesting tidbits that I think are worth mentioning.
In the smartest criminals department we have two different stories. One national and one local.
On the national scene, Sharon Luck, of Dallas, Texas, was able to successfully rob a bank. Unfortunately, she decided to press her luck and tried to deposit the illegally obtained cash at another bank.
While pulling the cash out of her purse, she set off the dye pack that was attached to the cash obtained in the robbery. Recognizing the tell-tale pink color, police gave chase and arrested her in the parking lot of a nearby store.
Police officers claim she was easy to spot on the street since she was the only one covered in pink dye.
On the local
scene, 21 year-old Charles Barrow, of Tupelo Street, New Orleans, was arrested in front of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Substation in Arabi. Seems Charles thought it would be a good idea to wear a miniskirt, pink boots and fishnet stockings while pacing in front of the substation soliciting johns.
After being spotted by a plainclothes police detective around 2:00 PM, Barrow entered the detectives truck and offered to perform a sex act for $20.
According to the latest issue of Forbes Magazine, a certain Jihad Razzaq of New Orleans has been sentenced to 15 months in jail. Jihad was sentenced for trying to swindle $100,000 from an insurer for his "dead wife". What makes this so interesting is that Jihad is claiming his "wife" died in the September 11th attacks.
Archbishop Hannan Principal John Serio is
sparring with St. Bernard Parish Public Schools Superintendent Frank Auderer over the St. Bernard Educational Access Channel.
After being rebuffed by Auderer, Serio approached Councilman Joey DiFatta who agree with Serio's position. Parish attorneys David Paysee and Alan Abadie have both reviewed the contract with Cox Cable and agree that the channel is under the ultimate control of the parish council.
"I don't feel like we need to segregate the opportunities for any child regardless of the educational institutions they choose," said DiFatta in an interview with the Times-Picayune.
Louisiana Congressional District 3 Race
The race for the Congressional Seat to be vacated by retiring Representative Billy Tauzin will soon be heating up.
Currently there are three committed candidates,
Charles Melancon-D,
Craig Romero-R, and
Charmaine Caccioppi-D.
Melancon is president of the American Sugar Farmers League, Caccioppi is an ex-congressional aide, and Romero is a
current State Senator for Senate District 22.
I had the opportunity to meet Senator Romero the other night and have to say he has some good ideas and plans for the state. As a native of New Iberia parish, he fully understands the problems of coastal erosion and will fight to close the MRGO. He has lead the project to fight erosion with Christmas trees, being one of the first parishes to do so back when he was Parish President. He also introduced the bill two years ago to exempt oil rigs that were in Louisiana for repairs from property taxes. Although the measure was defeated in the statewide vote, he was able to introduce a similar bill last year that was passed that allows each individual parish to determine if they will collect property taxes on the rigs. In one year it has created over 300 jobs that would have gone to Mississippi or Texas.
I will be supporting Senator Craig Romero in his bid for the Conressional seat and urge you to do the same.
Others that have expressed an interest in running for the seat but haven't fully declared themselves as candidates include State Rep. Jack Smith-D, State Rep. Damon Baldone-D, activist James Berreca-d, ex-State Sen. Marty Chabert-D, Plaguemines Parish Pres. Benny Rouselle-D, State Rep. Gary Smith-D, State Rep. Loulan Pitre, Jr.-R, and lobbyist Billy Tauzin, Jr.-R (Tauzin is suppose to commit within the next few weeks after his wedding).
The key facet of this race will be politics and experience. There is no doubt that all of these people have their politics down pat. But, for a federal seat, party affiliation does matter, unlike a local seat. For that reason, I am not going to look at the Democratic candidates much since there will always be a difference in philosphy which manifests itself at the federal level.
Presently, I don't know much about State Rep. Loulan Pitre at all. Without even a web site up yet, he will face an uphill battle for name recognition.
Billy Tauzin, Jr. has all the name recognition any candidate could ever ask for, but he will be missing the experience. Running off of his father's coat tails could win the seat for him, but I don't think it would do much good for the people of Louisiana.
Unfortunately, it is a bad habit the American voters have, of electing the relatives of outgoing politicians just because they recognize the same name they've been seeing for years on the ballot and in the media.
Not to be disparaging, but what experience did Lindy Boggs bring to the table when she succeeded her husband for Congress?
More on this as the race begins to heat up.
Be good to yourself,
Westley Annis
westley@da-parish.com
=============================================================
Got Tech Questions? We wrote the book!
AnswerSquadFeel free to forward this to anyone you think is interested.
Want to get your own copy? Visit our web site at
http://www.da-parish.com to sign up or send an email to
daparish-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
posted by Westley at 5/01/2004 02:04:36 PM
