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When LA’s economic savior, Mike Olivier was doing economic development for the Mississippi Gulf Coast, he is credited with convincing the LA-based Oreck Corporation to open a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, MS. In the story in Tuesday’s Daily Monopoly we learn that, now that Olivier is working for LA, another Oreck Plant will be located in Tennessee.

Reasoning for the new plant by Oreck is easy to understand after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. However, a hurricane is a very rare occurrence in North LA. Probably one is no more likely there than in TN. North LA also has Interstate 20 running through it. Skilled labor is available from the paper mills and other facilities that are laying off people in North LA. There are colleges in Monroe, Ruston, Gambling and Shreveport.

This latest event makes one wonder if there are other issues that caused Oreck to open another plant in TN. Could it be that in LA our taxes are too high, or regulations too restrictive or simply that fact that too much corruption exists in LA?

Not only is LA not attracting such plants, but we are losing more and more existing businesses to Texas.

There is either no interest or no ability to curb corruption in LA. Thus our only alternatives are to reduce business taxes and regulation. Of course, that might mean that government cannot continue to grow exponentially, but that’s a small price to pay for a healthy economy that would benefit over 4 million people.

Time to wake-up and smell the coffee LA!

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Seldom is there ever a situation where everyone loses as a result of a decision by a politician, even in LA. Unfortunately, Attorney General Charlie Foti seems to have figured out a way to this rare position. Lolis Elie’s column in Monday’s Daily Monopoly caused me to start thinking about this. See column here.

Foti’s unusual sense of priorities (I’m being kind here as the Houston Chronicle calls it a “witch hunt” see story here.) and his public accusations of a doctor and two nurses at Memorial Medical Center appears to have set up a no-win for anyone situation.

Even if Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who has original jurisdiction in the matter, declines to pursue the matter or if a grand jury decides not to indict, civil litigation will likely follow.

Even if the doctor and nurses escape prosecution and avoid being held civilly liable, in the future, as a result under similar conditions even more people are likely to suffer and die because of the fear of medical professionals of a public persecution.

Will medical professionals in another catastrophic event on duty at a hospital or other medical facility, stay to care for the ill? Will those about to go on duty have similar concerns? Is it better to be thought of as one who abandoned their post or a murderer? None of the first responders or pump operators who abandoned their posts in the aftermath of Katrina have been arrested on charges of murder.

There has been and is a steady exodus of medical professionals from the New Orleans area. Will this very public incident be another reason to leave?

Again, I don’t know the facts about the deaths of four souls. However, I do know that guilty or innocent, the lives of three medical professionals are likely ruined. We can only hope that the priorities in his war on crime, Foti has not set up a scenario where even more lives will be lost.

It is ironic that obviously smarter lawyers than me have concluded that the U.S. Army Corps cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for the hundreds of deaths that it caused in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but apparently three medical professionals can.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Despite having played a part in the destruction of New Orleans through, at least, benign neglect if not an overt failure to perform its primary responsibility of protecting the citizens, it appears that the Orleans Levee Board has learned nothing. Thursday, we read in the Daily Monopoly that the Board is again spending its time trying to lure a riverboat casino to its property. See story here.

Too bad our Attorney General is too busy to investigate the failures of the Levee Board. The board likely shares at least some of the responsibility for the deaths of more people than a doctor and two nurses at Memorial Hospital.

Perhaps, its just me, but it seems that the Levee Board should have bigger things about which to concern itself. Whatever resources the board has left is as ill-spent on this latest folly as that spent on its “drive-by inspections” and lavish lunches.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am