Columns

Old-school dad imparted great lessons

My father made me wear hand-me-downs — even though I was our family’s only boy, with five sisters. It wasn’t too bad most of the year, but Easter Sunday was a bear. You know how hard it is to outrun the neighborhood bully with your panty hose bunching up and your bonnet flopping in the wind?

Are we all federal criminals?

Congress is going “new law” crazy. In the nation’s capitol, hundreds of proposed new laws are being introduced every month, creating numerous different regulations and crimes.

Support criminal justice reform compromise

Having spent over 20 years in public policy, I understand that compromise is often necessary to achieving reform. This is proving to be true with the criminal justice reform package working its way through the Louisiana State Legislature.

Making sense of the Middle East?

President Trump has just returned from a whirlwind trip to the Middle East. And he has vowed to keep a continuing and aggressive U.S. presence where American soldiers are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey and other states ringing America’s Middle Eastern battlefields.

The forgotten slaughters of the innocents

For now, everyone knows the sonorous name and cherubic face of 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos. She’s the littlest known victim of Monday night’s jihad attack in Manchester, England.

The lion who never roared

The old political lions are leaving us, one by one. Each one’s passing leaves a void that cannot be filled — and reminds us that we won’t see their kind again. We lost another lion on May 22 when attorney, consultant, political strategist and lobbyist Bill Broadhurst died at his home in Crowley.

Newton’s First Law of Bad Government

Sir Isaac Newton reduced much of what we know about the universe to handful of precise mathematical formulas. Good thing Sir Isaac isn’t around today to try to make sense of the Louisiana Legislature. He’d surely go mad.

Louisiana catching up to the 21st century?

With tax dollars scarce in Louisiana, this should be the time to discuss streamlining on the state and local levels. Just how many boards, commissions, water districts, sewer districts, parish auditors, law enforcement offices, and other special districts are spread throughout Louisiana?

Trump might not be the failure you thought

Ask the New York Times and they’ll tell you President Trump has been an abject failure in his first 100 days or so. Ask Trump and he’ll tell you he’s a “yuge” success. So, which is it? It depends on how you’re keeping score.

Lawmakers crack down on free-speech crackdown

Back in the 1930s, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously referred to states as “laboratories of democracy.” But these days, those labs are looking less Albert Einstein and more Dr. Frankenstein.