Category: Louisiana News

EVANS, La. (AP) — Authorities in Louisiana say a woman who worked at a medical clinic has been arrested for selling fake doctor’s notes to high school students so they can get out of class.

News outlets report 52-year-old Belinda Gail Fondren was charged with filing or maintaining false public records.

Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft says Fondren was selling medical excuses for $20 each. He says two students at Evans High School in Evans, Louisiana received excuses on 14 occasions.

Deputies said a physician received a call from Vernon Parish School Board about the absence notes. He told deputies that he didn’t treat the students nor did he authorize the excuses.

Craft says Fondren worked in a clerical position at the clinic.

It’s unclear whether Fondren has an attorney.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The partisan frontline of Louisiana’s legislative runoff elections centers on the state House of Representatives, where Republicans are within striking distance of gaining a veto-proof, two-thirds supermajority.

The GOP already has reached that benchmark in the Senate for the new term that begins in January, after capturing two Senate seats in the October primary election that had been held by Democrats. With those gains, Republicans are assured 26 of the Senate’s 39 seats.

Seven contested House seats in the Nov. 16 runoff will determine whether Republicans in the lower chamber also will reach a supermajority, 70 of 105 seats.

Securing two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate means if the GOP votes as a bloc, its members could override a gubernatorial veto and could make certain budget and tax decisions without working with Democrats.

The Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority — led by Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy — helped flip the two state Senate seats to the GOP and is now working toward that veto-proof majority in the House.

Landry said the Senate elections will lead to “one of the most conservative legislatures in the country.” He had criticized the current GOP-led Senate as packed with too many moderates willing to work with Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is running for a second term on the November ballot.

“This election gave us the first opportunity to go in and put in place true Republicans, conservatives,” Landry said.

The PAC won most of the seats it targeted in the primary, including four House seats held by white Democrats who were term-limited.

In the runoff, the organization is backing eight GOP contenders for the House, including four in competitions that will help decide whether Republicans reach the two-thirds benchmark. For example, the PAC is supporting Republican incumbent Chris Leopold of Plaquemines Parish against a Democratic challenger and trying to replace independent Roy Daryl Adams of East Feliciana Parish with a Republican.

Landry said the PAC’s initial focus was to build a new Senate configuration that’s less moderate. After winning many of those races without a runoff, “that gave us the ability to reposition ourselves and look at other (House) races that were equally important to us and we just didn’t have the bandwidth to address in the first go-round,” he said.

The Louisiana Democratic Party is working to keep Republicans from reaching their goal, offering Democratic legislative candidates assistance with voter data, fundraising emails and texting platforms, said Stephen Handwerk, party executive director.

Though the party already has lost two Senate seats and four House seats, Handwerk said Democrats see possible opportunities to flip a New Orleans-based House seat held by Republican Stephanie Hilferty and a vacant Baton Rouge-based House seat, among others.

“I’m of course incredibly disappointed that we lost the seats. I’m disappointed with candidate recruitment. We all should have done better,” Handwerk said. “But we still have some strong candidates, and we have some very good opportunities to pick up seats.”

Twenty-four House seats are on the November ballot. But 16 of those competitions are between candidates of the same party. Of the remaining eight seats, Republicans are competing in seven — and need to win each one to reach the 70-member supermajority.

The partisan makeup of the Senate was largely settled in the primary.

While five Senate seats are on the runoff ballot, all but one of the competitions is between members of the same party. The tossup Senate contest is the Baton Rouge-based race between Beverly Brooks Thompson, a Democrat, and Franklin Foil, a Republican.

The Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority also is working to oust GOP incumbent Sen. Ryan Gatti of Bossier Parish, arguing he isn’t conservative enough.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Someone in Louisiana is now $2 million richer!

A Powerball ticket worth that much was sold at the Superior Discount on Metairie Road in Metairie.

WVUE-TV reports it’s not clear what day the ticket was sold, but the winner matched all five white balls, but not the red Powerball.

Usually that would result in a $1 million prize, but this ticket had the added powerplay.

The winner has 180 days to claim the prize and must do so at the Louisiana Lottery Office in Baton Rouge.

The store that sold the ticket will receive a $20,000 bonus.

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Information from: WVUE-TV, http://fox8live.com

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former building inspector for the city of New Orleans has pleaded guilty in a scheme to collect $65,000 in bribes.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans says 56-year-old Kevin Richardson pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges involving the use of an interstate facility to commit a crime.

Court documents say Richardson took payments from homeowners and contractors. In return he either failed to report violations or falsely claimed to have inspected a building.

He also bribed an unidentified city employee to issue permits.

Richardson faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan on Feb. 4.

The federal charges arose from Richardson’s use of an internet-based city system to help in the issuance of fraudulent permits and certificates of completion.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards accused Republican opponent Eddie Rispone of refusing to tell Louisiana’s voters what he’d do as governor, while Rispone repeatedly invoked his support for Donald Trump, as the two contenders tangled Wednesday in a head-to-head debate ahead of the runoff election.

Rispone continued his strategy of sidestepping specifics of how he’d fulfill promises to boost job creation, cut taxes and increase spending on roadwork or what he wants to accomplish in detail in the constitutional convention he supports, speaking only in broad sweeps about the ideas.

Edwards, a Democrat seeking a second term in office, struck at that lack of detail, suggesting Rispone was trying to bamboozle voters with a Washington-style partisan campaign. Rispone has limited public events since reaching the runoff and eschewed most forums where he’d face Edwards directly, refusing all but Wednesday’s debate.

“You don’t have time for the people of Louisiana. You don’t really want to share your vision because you don’t have one,” Edwards told Rispone.

Rispone countered that he hasn’t evaded voters: “We’ve crossed the state. I’m listening to them, what they’re talking about, what they’re concerned about.”

The two men talked over each other in heated exchanges as they were allowed to ask each other questions, repeatedly accusing each other of dishonesty in their campaign talking points.

“I’ll let you lie and then I’ll respond,” Edwards told his GOP challenger after Rispone accused him of threatening public safety in the criminal sentencing law rewrite he championed.

When Edwards said Rispone’s company benefited from hundreds of millions in state tax breaks and hired foreign workers rather than Louisiana residents, Rispone replied: “That’s a lie. That’s what career politicians do.”

The Deep South’s only Democratic governor is locked in a tight competition with Rispone, a wealthy Baton Rouge businessman who has largely self-financed his campaign. Early voting for the Nov. 16 election begins Saturday.

Republican leaders have targeted Edwards for ouster in a ruby red state that Trump won by 20 percentage points, while Democrats are desperate to hold onto the governorship to demonstrate their viability in Southern states ahead of the 2020 election.

Rispone, with the backing of Trump, has sought to nationalize the race, trying to make national politics a wedge issue that damages backing for Edwards in state where he’s the only Democrat to hold statewide office and where Trump remains popular. Rispone has focused in advertising and social media on his support for a border wall and his backing of the president’s policies on immigration while only lightly referencing state issues.

“You’re always looking to Washington, D.C. There’s not inspiration to be had there,” Edwards told Rispone in one combative exchange when Rispone asked Edwards why he supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.

Rispone said Edwards would back “the next wacko” that Democrats nominate, describing Edwards as a liberal out of step with his state.

“You’re not talking about me. You’re talking about some generic Democrat that’s in your mind,” Edwards shot back.

Rispone panned Edwards’ performance, saying he’s chased away businesses and people with tax hikes. He constantly referred to Edwards as an ally of trial lawyers, while describing himself as a conservative and outsider.

Edwards has tried to skip talk of national politics and criticism of the president. Instead, he focuses on state-specific topics, touting the work he and the Republican-led Legislature did to stabilize state finances and end a decade of budget crises left behind by former Gov. Bobby Jindal. Louisiana has had three years of budget surpluses.

Edwards reminded debate watchers of Rispone’s years of campaign donations and support for Jindal. He said Rispone’s tax and spending proposals would return Louisiana to the budget deficits of years past.

The Democratic incumbent also said Rispone’s plan to “freeze” enrollment in the Edwards-created Medicaid expansion program would eventually boot hundreds of thousands of people from their health insurance coverage. Rispone said the program is rife with waste and abuse.

Wednesday’s debate was held by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for A Better Louisiana, broadcast on public broadcasting stations around the state and online.