White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (Can You Im…
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (Can You Imagine Ari Fleischer or Scott McClellan In This Get Up?)
Archive for June, 2006
Jun 30
2 Comments
Jun 30
Widespread Cellular Phone Outage Reported in Centr…
Widespread Cellular Phone Outage Reported in Central Louisiana
Jun 30
Breaking Headline News: Fast Food Restaurants Don’…
Breaking Headline News: Fast Food Restaurants Don’t Give Us Enough Ketchup
Congratulations to my friend Matt Lee for making the news by demonstrating proper condiment usage.
Jun 29
CenLamar Feature: Ten Under Thirty Part One of a …
CenLamar Feature: Ten Under Thirty
Part One of a series profiling of the work and service of ten Central Louisianans under the age of thirty.
Michael D. Smith
Religious Studies scholar, world traveler, humanitarian, Alexandria native.
After graduating college in 2005, Michael Smith moved from Houston to New Orleans to help with disaster relief.
Next month, Michael, a recent recepient of the Fulbright Scholarship, will travel across the Pacific once again (he spent over a year in Nepal as a college student) in order to conduct research on Newar and Tibetan Buddhism.
1. For those of us who don’t know, what exactly is the Fulbright Scholarship?
The scholarship is a prestigious award given by the Department of State’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs to students and scholars to conduct research in a foreign country, in order to “forward mutual cooperation and understanding between different cultures.” It covers tuitions, living, shipping, travel and research expenses, allowing me to completely devote myself to my course of studies.
Jun 28
Amanda Gutweiler Hypes Released From Jail Today …
KALB: Hypes Judgment Page One, Page Two, Page Three, Page Four
Points of Interest:
Mike Small (who seemed all smiles when I passed by him on Jackson Street a few hours ago) relied on the testimony of three expert witnesses to explain how the investigation was botched from the beginning. The evidence was destroyed the next day when the house was razed. The State’s “theory” about how the fire spread did not account for how the children died. One witness called this the worst fire investigation he’d ever seen. Another explained that the State’s theory about what caused the fire was based on an old wives tale.
Jun 28
LC Lawsuit Can Go To Trial "In her brief ruling, …
“In her brief ruling, Swent dismissed some claims for no cause of action and referred others, specifically violation of academic freedom, by-laws and faculty handbook, to the merits.”
Jun 28
Jun 27
Lawlessness in Louisiana From today’s New York Ti…
Lawlessness in Louisiana
From today’s New York Times:
“One Louisiana Department of Labor clerk, Wayne P. Lawless, has been charged with issuing about 80 fraudulent disaster unemployment benefit cards in exchange for bribes of up to $300 per application. Mr. Lawless, a state contract worker, announced to one man he helped apply for hurricane benefits that he wanted to “get something out of it,” the affidavit said.”
Wonkette first reported on this “gem.” From the Wall Street Journal’s law blog:
aptronym (n): A name that inadvertently describes its bearer’s occupation. Widely attributed to Franklin P. Adams, aka “F.P.A.,” whose newspaper column, “The Conning Tower,” was popular during the 1920s and 1930s.
Jun 27
Video: Michele Godard Interviews Charles Frederick…
Video: Michele Godard Interviews Charles Frederick Smith
Among other things, Ms. Godard asks Councilman Smith about ethics violations and collusion, the Holiday Inn and his role in facilitating the long-term lease, the Corner Office bar and what is discussed behind those doors, and the concept of a mayoral chief of staff.
Jun 27
Pineville Councilman Martin Responds I’ve been ou…
Pineville Councilman Martin Responds
I’ve been out of town leading worship at a youth conference in Arkansas for over a week so I have a lot of catching up to do both in real life and in reading Lamar’s blog. Let me see if I can address some of the points made here.
“We saw that”, you commented about the additional 1.3 million in tax revenues and suggested it be put up for a rainy day (my paraphrase.) This additional money is from the 1/2-cent tax that is designated: 70% to employee pay and benefits and 30% to capital improvements. We gave a raise to the employees after the tax was passed, about a month or two before we started collecting it. Our amended 2005-2006 fiscal budget reflects that. So the 70% is going exactly as we promised the citizens. The 30% that goes to capital improvements is currently not being spent as we continue planning for a bond issue to do significant infrastructure improvements. (Elevated water tank, new water wells, new fire station, etc.) I hope we can turn that 30% (roughly 400,000/year) into some big projects that will help meet Pineville’s needs well into the future. Hopefully that answers that point. (But I’ll be glad to provide further info or clarification if needed.)
You also spoke of “the city councilmen who make $700.00 a month want to give the mayor what amounts to an extra $1,000.00 a month.” Let me address this. The article and references to it are the first time I’ve heard of any discussion of pay raises for the council and mayor. It has not been discussed among the council members or with the mayor, as far as I know. This was a surprise to me. Remember, the article does not reflect action taken by the council, simply comment made at the finance committee meeting by a councilman and a committee member. So it’s far from a done deal.
I was not on the council when the last pay raise was voted on (November, 2002) and I appreciate geoff’s comment that one pay raise in 4 years is “pretty conservative”. But as I expressed to the mayor this morning, I am not in favor of a pay raise for the council at this time. My personal opinion is that salary matters should be handled later in the 4 year term, closer to reelection time, preferably timed to take effect with the new term.
Jun 26
A Response: Why Do We Need a Multiplex "Marina?" …
A Response: Why Do We Need a Multiplex “Marina?” Why do we need a $45 million multiplex center? We have Rapides Coliseum that doesn’t generate any revenue. I agree that the Rapides Coliseum is in bad shape, but the Coliseum offers a different kind of venue than the proposed multiplex center would. It also makes good use of a prime piece of riverfront property, drawing people into our Downtown and showcasing our unique location.
We don’t have much going on in Alexandria. No sporting events or anything. Maybe one or two concerts, circus and monster truck shows. The revenue generated by these must have been used to only pay utilities when the building was in use.
“Not much going on” is a matter of perspective. Nowadays, you can hear live music every weekend in Downtown Alexandria, and most of these bands are being drawn in from all over the country. The Aces are back in business, and from what I gather, attendance is encouragingly high. Not to mention that our zoo continues to attract thousands of visitors every month. These are promising signs that our economy could support such a venture.
Also, for the hurricane season in 2005, they complained about the electricity and use of utilities when the evacuees were there. I don’t think that it will make things any better with the new multiplex. It will still have utilities that need to be paid.
Hopefully, though, the project will be income-producing.
With $45 million we could fix roads, put dorms on LSU-A’s campus, train people who are unemployed so that they can be more productive in the workforce, help those who may be struggling to pay bills or who has to decide whether or not they want to use their money to buy groceries; or to pay for their medication.
The $45 million is being drawn from federal and state sources, not local taxes. LSUA is in the process of building dorms. We shouldn’t confuse priorties, because it is possible for us to multi-task. I hope though that, like you said, we’ll begin to focus on workforce training.
Some may think that bringing this to Central Louisiana will help generate jobs, but what’s going to happen once this building is finished? Most will be back in the same predicament that they were in before.
Self-defeating thinking.
Cowboy Town is another example of why we don’t need this $45 million multiplex. Cowboy Town was a failed project for a number of different reasons, including the fact that it’s located practically out of town with little surrounding business infrastructure to support it.
Why not use the money to make Cowboy Town into a bigger Funzone?
Oh man, not another Funzone.
You could have more for the kids and something for the grown-ups. Last but not least, this money could be used to help those who want to open their own small business.
Again, it’s not that simple. Some federal and state programs earmark money for very specific projects. That said, we should seek financing in order to create more programs that encourage and support small businesses, particularly in their infancy.
Alexandria is trying to be like our surrounding (bigger) cities but there is just not enough that goes on here for the things that they are planning to build in the future. What do you think, Cenla? Mickey Doe
Do we need a multiplex center?
Pineville
Jun 25
Jun 24
Pineville Considers Pay Raises for Mayor and City …
Pineville Considers Pay Raises for Mayor and City Council
Quote of the Day: “He’s (Mayor Fields) working for WPA (a Depression-era federal agency) wages,” Joe Wolf said.
