we saw that...

mayor roy: cleco litigation cost the city around one million dollars so far

"i'd say its on a million side, consulting fees and lawyers who are not in a contingent arrangement. some of the lawyers only get paid by what is collected so their arent fees in that sense; at this point."

video is 18:30 in length. click here or link to view at kalb.com

EXTERNAL LINK

it's mccain vs obama

via curt maynard's blog

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rod noles: alexandria real estate market down 13.62%

local realtor/developer rod noles told the alexandria city council, economic development committee today, that the first five months of 2008 compared to the first five months of 2007 shows that "the market is down in central louisiana by about 13.62%; thats a pretty big decline," mr. noles said that this shows that central louisiana is not immune to what is taking place nationwide.

although, mr. noles tried to appear upbeat, some of the numbers he gave to the economic development committee were grim:
housing starts down drastically -- according to mr. noles, the month of may typically sees around 12 - 20 new housing starts but there were only seven in may 2008. meaning that 2008 is on track to see less than 100 new housing starts while typically in a year alexandria sees close to 500.

video later...

city of alexandria and cleco agree in principal to settle fraud lawsuit - wheres the beef?

according to this mornings ganett/town talk, cleco and the city of alexandria released the following joint statement:

"The city of Alexandria and Cleco Corporation hereby jointly issue the following statement in connection with their agreement in principle to resolve the litigation pending between them before U.S. District Judge Dee Drell.

"The parties have agreed in principle to resolve all disputes relating to Cleco's past supply of power to Alexandria. Accounting for past transactions between the two entities is complex and based on numerous variables and assumptions. In light of this complexity, the mediation process was chosen over a trial to preserve a basis for a future business arrangement between the city and Cleco.

Because of that choice, no findings were contemplated or made by the mediation process with regard to fraud, and the KPMG report made no findings of fraud. The city of Alexandria and Cleco have arrived at a business judgment resolution that is forward looking. In that new agreement, Alexandria would continue to receive electricity and power services from Cleco under a new long-term contract that promises substantial savings to the city's electric customers and Cleco would continue to contribute to the city's growth and prosperity."

it looks like that if the city of alexandria, la. and cleco have agreed 'in principal' (which the insertion of the words 'in principal' seems to give either and/or both party's some wiggle room to back out) to settle their differences, so then why isnt all the court records including the audit being released to the citizenry in order for them to review the documents and audit in order to give an informed opinion to their respective council members as to how they would like for them to proceed?

according to the accompanying gannett/town talk article (see link) alexandria, la. mayor jacques roy "[S]aid late Monday that eventually the public would have access to information on which city officials have based decisions, including parts of the Beck report not covered by Judge Drell's gag order, issued in early 2006 as Cleco and Alexandria prepared for the audit. Drell's order that seals the audit and prohibits those in the know from talking still stands."

why wont judge drell dissolve his gag order and let the citizenry see the court papers before any final and binding agreement is signed? it seems that what is going to happen is that a deal will be signed and then 'eventually' meaning after the fact, the court records and audit will be released at some unknown time in the future.

judge drell should dissolve his gag order and release all the court records including the audit before any final agreement between the city and cleco is signed so that the citizenry can review and have their say. anything less than that gives the appearance that the judge is covering up for corporate and governmental interests to the detriment of the citizenry to whom he is supposed to serve.

EXTERNAL LINK

the worst places to be a woman

hint: louisiana is not on the list

EXTERNAL LINK

push to replace alexandria, la. city councilman charles frederick smith continues

calling it the "2008 men of substance," local newspaper 'the light' announces from its blog (see link) that on 16 june 2008 they will honor 10 central louisiana men for their contributions to their communities. the ceremony is set to be held within a special awards dinner at the main street community center in pineville, la.

those scheduled to be honored are: levator boyd, gregory clark, rev. clarence dupar jr., leon smith, rev. nathaniel smith, myron k. lawson, rev. james roland jr., henry marsland, kevin dorn and dr. vincent mallory.

most interestingly is the announced guest speaker - local attorney and announced candidate for alexandria city council, jonathan goins. mr. goins is rumored to have been hand picked by councilman myron lawson as opposition to current councilman charles frederick smith due to councilman smith's opposition to rep. herbert dixon's failed tax increment financing district.

local political junkies are left wondering if this ceremony signals the black communities growing unity in opposition to councilman smith.

right now its unknown by this blog whether or not councilman smith supports or opposes the alexandria, la. mayor, jacques roys' alternative to rep. dixon's tif called s.p.a.r.c. which is in reality the mayors attempt to foist onto central louisianaians plank nine of the communist manifesto which is having to do with regionalization or as the mayor deceptively calls it regionalism - more on that later.

EXTERNAL LINK

"Douchebag" Blog Post Costs Senior her Student Council Seat

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled against a high school student who used some interesting language to describe her school officials on her personal blog, saying that the school did not violate her First Amendment rights by punishing her for calling school officials "douchebags."

read more | digg story

general william eldridge odom usa ret former head of the national security agency passes

calling him "one of those conservatives with a conscience," washington, d.c. pro-blogger, steve clemons remembers his friend general william odom, former director of the national security agency who died on 30 may 2008 aged 75.

mr. clemons writes that he"will greatly miss both him, his fiery twang, and the volumes of national security information and perspective he would frequently share with me by phone."

"when i was writing a great deal about scooter libby, his legal defense fund, and doing research into who was helping him behind the scenes, general odom was a key source of material and smart thinking."
click here or link to read more.

we here at wst... occasionally entertain visitors from the nsa and other spook outfits and we are very sorry for the loss to your community.
"Terrorism is not an enemy. It cannot be defeated. It's a tactic. It's about as sensible to say we declare war on night attacks and expect we're going to win that war. We're not going to win the war on terrorism. And it does whip up fear. Acts of terror have never brought down liberal democracies. Acts of parliament have closed a few." ~ William Odom

EXTERNAL LINK

louisiana mayors who are members of mickey bloomberg's gun control coalition

baton rouge, la. mayor "kip" holden, benton, la. mayor albert doughty, mayor of orleans ray nagin and shreveport, la. mayor cedric glover are all members of new york city mayor mickey bloomberg's mayors against illegal guns 'coalition.'

the national rifle association calls mayors against illegal guns "nothing more than a PR opportunity for Mayor Bloomberg and his cronies to promote their anti-gun rhetoric and propaganda." link

anchorage, alaska mayor mark begich quit the coalition. writing last year to the anchorage daily news, mayor begich said that:

"[U]pon further review of the coalition, it appears they may have a different agenda than I anticipated.

I am concerned the coalition is working on issues that conflict with the beliefs we share in Alaska about legal gun ownership, and I'm also concerned gun ownership advocates are not part of the full discussion within the coalition. We cannot afford to risk protecting our Bill of Rights and the rights of legal gun owners.

Because of these conflicts, I have written to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chair of the coalition, and have asked him to remove me as a supporter of the coalition." ~ link

see also the alaska pride blog for more.

gun owners of america says that mickey bloomberg belongs in jail not in gracie mansion.

the new york times says that bloomberg cast enemy no.1 of gun rights

of coz, since mickey bloomberg is a zionist jew, judicial inc shows how gun control is all a zionist plot like here and here

fire sweeps universal studios back lot

huffington post excerpt:

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — A massive fire raged on a back lot at Universal Studios on Sunday, devouring several movie sets, including mock New York and New England streets. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Daryl Jacobs said at least one building had burned and as many as three blocks of movie facades were destroyed. Though the fire was contained, it was still raging, Jacobs said.

"The facades are constructed of heavy timber and they tend to burn quite freely," he said.

The blaze broke out just before dawn on a sound stage, fire Capt. Frank Reynoso said. There was at least one explosion. A thick column of smoke rose thousands of feet into the air. For a time, firefighting helicopters swept in to drop water. ~ read more

EXTERNAL LINK

dr john fleming for congress?

UPDATE: la-04 rethug fleming wants to bus laborers from and to mexico

this morning we noticed that we had received an email from someone with the john fleming for congress campaign:

Dear We Saw,

I am contacting you on behalf of John Fleming for Congress. I am writing because this campaign respects your impressive website which showcases your immense talent.
(awww we bet they tell that to all the bloggers lol. seriously though the email is time-stamped 3:00 am on a saturday night-sunday morning so maybe they were half asleep or buzzed or something when they stumbled across wst...)
Blogs are underutilized in politics. This campaign is interested in developing a strong relationship with blogs across Louisiana and the nation, yours included. Please contact upon receiving this e-mail, as I would like future communication.

Sincerely,

to which we replied:

we are in receipt of your email and thank you very much for it. we have to be honest in that we do not believe that this is a good year to run for office as a republican. the republican party with help from the democrats, have done much harm to this country, to our constitution and to the world. however, according to dr. fleming's bio he is a veteran of the united states naval service as are we (boatswainmate's), so he cant be all bad LOL. therefore, we will at least listen to what he has to say with an open mind.

dr. fleming is running for united states congressman from louisiana's fourth congressional district. this is the district currently represented by the rethuglican homosexual jim mccrery who is retiring.

the blog my bossier has a roundup of all the fourth congressional district candidates. see their post "roundup of 4th district congressional candidates."