Jefferson Parish teachers union takes complaints with School Board to the public

As tensions mount between the Jefferson Parish School Board and the teachers union, union officials have launched a public relations campaign that includes advertising, television appearances and a petition drive.

The drive by the Jefferson Federation of Teachers comes as contract negotiations approach in the spring and represents its latest move to gain a voice in the reforms being advanced by the School Board and interim Superintendent James Meza.

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City Chosen for Competitive Code for America Technology Fellowship Program

Today, Code for America announced that the City of New Orleans has been selected as one of eight cities for its 2012 national fellowship program. Fellows will work on a project that includes developing a “Batch 311 Reporting System” where neighborhoods can submit lists of complaints and get back results that show the status of each, sending those that are not already being worked to the appropriate department to fix the problem.

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BESE race for 2nd District seat is getting ugly

The contest for the 2nd District seat on the state board of education has shifted in two important ways since the first round of voting last month: It has gotten a lot more personal, and the focus of the campaigning has shifted to the River Parishes.Even before the Oct. 22 primary, incumbent Louella Givens, a New Orleans lawyer, found herself the subject of embarrassing personal attacks over a drunken driving arrest and an unpaid IRS bill.
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NC School Board Race Had National Implications

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Intense national political forces were focused on a local school board runoff this week in North Carolina's capital as voters replaced tea party conservatives in a race that capped an acrimonious dispute over student busing and diversity in one of the country's largest school districts.

The campaign featured elements more commonly seen in races for higher offices: Big money from outside interest groups, opposition research and the close attention of the U.S. education secretary.

The contest in Wake County illustrated how the money and ideological battles that have riven Washington are filtering down to local elections, said David McLennan, a political science professor at William Peace University in Raleigh.

"It's sort of a trend that we're starting to see a lot more of in general," McLennan said. "You're seeing a lot more concerted efforts by both liberal and conservative groups to target their money on issues that they find important."

The battle in Raleigh was tied to busing.

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Stage set for parish to sue BP

The St. Tammany Parish Council has agreed to sue BP and any other parties responsible for damages related to last April's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The council voted unanimously, with Chris Canulette and Ken Burkhalter absent, to file the lawsuit late Thursday night following an executive session with Kelly Rabalais, legal counsel to President Kevin Davis, council administrator Mike Sevante said.

Rabalais told the council that the parish primarily wants to preserve its right to sue for damages related to the spill that it could incur in the future, Sevante said. Should the parish fail to file suit before the one-year anniversary of the spill -- April 20 -- it could forfeit its right to do so later, Sevante said.

Rabalais deferred comment Friday afternoon to Suzanne Parsons Stymiest, the parish's spokeswoman. Stymiest said the parish has directed its outside counsel -- Walter Leger Jr. and Tom Thornhill -- to litigate the matter as necessary to protect St. Tammany Parish and its people.

She noted that the suit likely would be consolidated with hundreds of other lawsuits filed in the wake of the spill as part of the multidistrict litigation to be heard in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

The suit will attempt to assess the economic issues related to the spill, such as the cleanup costs and the damage to the parish, as well as any health issues, particularly those involving mental health, Stymiest said.

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Jindal, congressmen call for delay of remap

With just days remaining in the Legislature's post-census redistricting session, five Republican members of Louisiana's congressional delegation and Gov. Bobby Jindal are calling for state lawmakers to postpone drawing new U.S. House districts until 2012.

The request for postponement first became public Saturday in a letter from the congressmen to the governor. Jindal's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, said the governor also supports waiting until next year.

The development increases the likelihood that the Legislature will conclude the session, which by law must end by Wednesday, without reaching a resolution on how to realign the state's current seven congressional districts into six.

The letter also ratchets up the tensions in a process already fraught with competing regional, party, racial and incumbent interests, and featuring rare public spats among the state's GOP congressmen, who often walk lockstep on questions of policy.

The five congressmen -- Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman; Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge; John Fleming, R-Minden; Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia; and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson -- did not mention in their letter the increasingly acrimonious debate over how to redraw the district boundaries.

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Will redistricting be postponed?

BATON ROUGE — With less than 72 hours remaining in the Legislature’s special redistricting session, five of the state’s seven congressmen have asked the governor and state lawmakers to give up on attempts to redraw Louisiana’s congressional boundaries for at least a year.

Now is not the time to rush through a congressional plan with so many fiscal issues waiting to be addressed,” the congressmen wrote in the letter dated Friday and obtained by The Courier and Daily Comet. “We also feel that the people of Louisiana should have more time to think about their future and their needs and how those needs could be affected by congressional redistricting.”

Terrebonne and Lafourche’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, signed the letter, along with U.S. Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, and John Fleming, R-Minden. State lawmakers will weigh the request when they reconvene Monday, the Associated Press reported.


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