CenLamar | Est. 2006

On Sept. 21, 1993, at a town hall meeting in Metairie, Louisiana, then-State Rep. David Vitter  physically assaulted Mercedes Hernandez, one of his former political opponents, after she questioned his vote against killing a bill that would have protected gay and lesbian Louisianians against employment discrimination. According to recently resurfaced court documents, after a trial in 1997, Vitter was ultimately found liable and forced to pay the woman “$50 plus all costs and interest.” Vitter satisfied the judgment on March 4, 1998, and the bizarre story, which also involves accusations of a political conspiracy concocted by two prominent Louisiana Republicans, largely disappeared,…

This morning, the tiny Winn Parish Enterprise published a big story. Last weekend, James West, a reporter for the publication Mother Jones and a producer of The Climate Desk, was arrested for trespassing on the grounds of a private prison in Gum Springs, Louisiana. West allegedly possessed a camera-carrying drone and was spotted by prison guards after they noticed the light of his cell phone camera. Charles Crain, the editor of the Winn Parish Enterprise, reports: Thirty-three year-old James West, originally from Australia, but who had been staying in an apartment on Sibley Lake in Natchitoches, spent the night in the Winn Parish Jail…

An Open Letter to Kevin Boyd Dear Mr. Boyd, I am requesting a retraction of this article, which I consider libelous and entirely motivated by a desire to publicly disparage my name and my reputation under the pretense of “reporting.”  First, you and your readers should know that your headline and your entire thesis were publicly debunked by The Advocate’s Elizabeth Crisp, the author of the article you cited. See: https://twitter.com/elizabethcrisp/status/576232592384487425 Second, it is worth pointing out that LSU’s internal audit of Senator Cassidy did not address- at all- the fact that he submitted timesheets indicating that- on nearly two dozen…