http://forgotston.com It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. -Voltaire Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:04:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My friend Tyler Bridges (Award-winning investigative journalist currently working on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard.) has, after months of counseling, succeeded in dragging me kicking and yelling into the 21st Century. As of this morning, I now have a Twitter account. I can be "followed" on Twitter ... http://forgotston.com/2012/02/05/im-a-twit/ Former Rep. Noble Ellington has been charged with violating the state Campaign Disclosure Law. See story here. While recognizing that ignorance of the law is no defense for the law's violation, Ellington nevertheless attempts to use it. Despite being a lawmaker, apparently, Ellington failed to read the laws on which he voted. Ignorance ... http://forgotston.com/2012/02/02/failure-to-read-is-offensive/ Not the job of state employees In his Sunday column, The Advocate’s Mark Ballard discusses the recent effort by Team Jindal to “set the record straight.” See article here. “Setting the record” straight is correcting factual errors, not issuing opinions and making personal attacks by public employees. What Team ... http://forgotston.com/2012/02/01/spinning-is-not-setting-the-record-straight/ A good ol' boy Yesterday the "Roads Scholar" announced that he had appointed a couple of former leges, Rickey Hardy and Mert Smiley, to the State Board of Pardons. Membership on the Board is, by law, a full-time job with full-time salary. Additionally, the members cannot hold any ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/31/more-of-the-same/ Our tax dollars Below is a statement sent out last week by Aaron Baer, Deputy Communications Director for the governor's office. In other words, your tax dollars paid for this commentary about a Louisiana citizen. Regardless of how one feels about the "Road Scholar's" education reform package ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/30/our-tax-dollars-abused/ "Watchcat" (a complimentary term) Jeremy Alford has written an excellent report on the fiscal "ticking time bomb" known as the Unfunded Accrued Liability ("UAL") in our state retirement systems. See Report here. While others have mentioned the UAL problem Jeremy explains how this massive debt will directly ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/27/tick-tick-tick/ Thinking out of the box or in a box For those looking for creative ways of reducing your business expenses I submit the latest effort by the board members of the New Orleans Regional Business Park. The taxpayer-funded organization, in order to reduce costs because they have failed ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/26/how-to-reduce-your-budget/ Child on outside looking in It's impossible not to note the irony of two reports in the recent Baton Rouge Business Report's Daily Report. According to the two different reports Louisiana takes better care of animals than children. We rank 48th (up from 49th) in the well-being of children, but ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/25/kids-and-animals-in-louisiana/ Only in Louisiana would the chairman and vice chairman of the board that oversees our Heh,Heh, Heh, Ethics Laws look for ways around the laws they are supposed to enforce. There was a story in Saturday's Monroe newspaper where vendors of the city of Tallulah were asking ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/24/enforcers-looking-for-loopholes-to-law/ The budget solution According to a story in the Advocate ( here) the state is facing an $895 Million budget shortfall for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Ho-hum, here we go again; the colleges will close and the poor, elderly and young will no longer get healthcare. Of course, this ... http://forgotston.com/2012/01/23/state-needs-a-better-punter/