Harvey, Hanisee in runoff

Where have we heard that one before? Last time it came down to two votes.
Looks like (for a change) my prediction was correct.
Tommy Harvey ran first, Larry Hanisee second and Mischa Angel is out.
Runoff part two is coming up.
In District 1, Scott Irwin has an unsurmountable lead and will retain his seat on the council.

Larry Hanisee (Incumbent)

Tommy Harvey

Dumbing down our schools

For years all we have heard in Louisiana is that education is the key to any future economic improvement and success. Our Governor travels the country touting his success in reforming education. It's being re-formed all right, but not in a good way.
This letter went out to some parents in Caddo Parish yesterday. Give it some thought.

Saturday Elections: One Prediction

Saturday is election day for municipal offices in Bossier Parish. There are only two contested council races in Bossier City, and I have a prediction for one of them.
First, the one I won't predict is District 1, where Michael Beam is challenging Incumbent Scott Irwin. I really have no feel for that one.
Now my predictions don't carry much weight, but everyone loves to predict, so here is my prediction for District 5, which has Incumbent Larry Hanisee being challenged by Tommy Harvey and Mischa Angel.
I believe that Angel will take away more from Hanisee's vote than from Harvey's, so my prediction is this:
Tommy Harvey in first place.
Larry Hanisee in second place.
Mischa Angel in third place.
Resulting, of course, in a runoff between Harvey and Hanisee. Deja Vu.
Beyond that, I won't predict!
Happy voting.

Activists Re-Launch Campaign to Repeal Louisiana's Creationism Law

Senator Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) recently filed SB 26 to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act, Louisiana’s misnamed and misguided creationism law. 
Since its passage in 2008, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) has been the subject of national and international criticism and ridicule, and its repeal has been endorsed an overwhelming consensus of scientists and educators and a broad coalition of religious leaders and clergy. This is the Senator Peterson’s third attempt at repealing the act.  
Previous hearings about the Louisiana Science Education Act were the focus of intense national interest.  Videos of the meetings have collectively received more than 680,000 views on YouTube and were covered by national publications including io9 and Slate.  The campaign has been covered both nationally and internationally, including in The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Italian Vogue, MSNBC, and Bill Moyers’s “Moyers and Company.”  
Originally conceived as the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act, the LSEA is based on a model statute developed by the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that lobbies for legislation promoting creationism in the classroom.
State Senator Ben Nevers, the bill's original sponsor, explained that he filed the bill at the behest of the Louisiana Family Forum. "They (the Louisiana Family Forum) believe that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory," Senator Nevers said.
Nobel laureate chemist Sir Harry Kroto said, “The present situation (the LSEA) should be likened to requiring Louisiana school texts to include the claim that the sun goes round the Earth.”
Three years ago, Sir Harry Kroto was the first Nobel laureate to publicly endorse the act’s repeal. Today, the repeal campaign is endorsed by 78 Nobel laureate scientists, nearly 40% of living Nobel laureate scientists, and numerous other prominent scientists.  It has also been endorsed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and other major science and educator organizations in Louisiana and the United States.  
In addition, thousands of clergy members, who are part of the Clergy Letter Project, have joined the repeal campaign. Reverend Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance, said, "(The repeal effort) represents the best thinking in American science, the best thinking in American religion, and it also reflects the United States Constitution."
Over 70,000 people from Louisiana and around the country have signed a Change.org petition and other petitions in support of this repeal.
The conservative Thomas Fordham Institute stated the Louisiana Science Education Act creates “anti-evolution pressures (that) continue to threaten state science standards.” In its evaluation of Louisiana’s education system, the Thomas Fordham Institute called the LSEA a “devastating flaw.”
Zack Kopplin, the student who began the campaign against the law said: 
“America needs a scientific revolution; a Second Giant Leap for Humankind.  Fighting for a repeal of Louisiana’s creationism law is ground zero of this revolution.
“We need a grassroots movement of students who stand up and demand their public officials to support evidence-based science.”  
Supporters of the repeal believe they will see a breakthrough this year because Louisiana’s public officials are becoming increasingly pro-science.  This spring, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology lifted a boycott of New Orleans (a boycott still remains on the rest of Louisiana), which had begun after the passage of the Louisiana Science Education Act.  The boycott was lifted after the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to support the repeal of Louisiana’s creationism law, and the Orleans Parish School Board banned creationism from their classrooms in reaction to the passage of this law..
The bill to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act in 2012 was defeated in committee, by a vote of 2-1. 
“We believe that this spring we can muster the votes we need to pass,” Kopplin said.

Candidates for April 6th primary

A complete list of candidates for the April 6th primary election.

Town of Benton Alderman
District 1 

• Richard Arness Jackson

District 2 

• Linda Ann Gates

District 3 

• Kenneth Earl Shiflett
• Ronald Louis Jones

District 4

• James Edward Friday
• Donna Moore Wyatt

District 5 

• Richard Darrel Bushnell II
• Thomas H Hill

Bossier City Council
District 1 

• Scott Patrick Irwin
• Michael Thomas Beam

District 2 

• Jeffery Dewayne Darby

District 3 

• Don Wayne "Bubba" Williams

District 4 

• Jeffrey Alan Free

District 5 

• Thomas Siewert Harvey
• Mischa Mills Angel
• William Laurence Hanisee

At Large 

• Timothy Anthony Larkin
• David Arnold Montgomery Jr

Bossier City Mayor

• Lorenz James Walker

Town of Haughton Alderman 

• Monica Smith Wells
• Douglas Wilson Adams
• Melba Walker Baker

Justice of the Peace, JP District 3 

• Robert D Hamiter

The X Factor

X Factor Definition: a hard-to-describe influence or quality; an important element with unknown consequences.

Everyone was set for a re-match in the District 5 council race, when at the last hour of the last day of qualifying, the X factor entered the equation, in the person of Mischa Angel.
There wasn't much doubt that Tommy Harvey would give it another go; losing by 2 votes in the special election was just too much to bear, and Larry Hanisee would probably have been surprised if he hadn't. One thing that people in politics don't like is a surprise, and Angel's entrance into the race was a surprise.
I hear that she has some support lined up and this race is now truly up in the air. It will be interesting when the first contribution reports are filed a month before the April 6th election to see who is supporting who. That might give some insight into Angel's decision to enter the race.
Everyone was impressed last time by the clean race that Hanisee and Harvey ran, but with the x factor at work here anything can happen. 
Michael Beam is challenging Scott Irwin, and promising openness and availability in District 1. I look for a very clean and straightforward race in this one. 
Jeff Free only had to announce for David Jones' seat and is in like flint, as he has no opposition.
The Mayor and the other councilmen all are automatically re-elected without opposition.
Race to watch: District 5, I think everyone was prepared for another nail biter, but a third candidate will definitely make waves. The only bet I will make at this point is that it will go into a runoff that will be decided on May 4th.

Harvey vs Hanisee: Part Two

Larry Hanisee

Call it the battle of the good guys.
In the closest local election in anyone’s memory, Larry Hanisee won the Special Election for City Council District 5 in October of 2011. The seat had been vacated by ‘Chubby’ Knight, who has since passed away.
Of 2,320 votes cast, Hanisee won by 2 votes.

Tommy Harvey

Now it is time for the regular municipal elections, and Tommy Harvey can’t resist. He qualified yesterday at the Clerk of Court’s office in order to give it one more shot.
I will note that in addition to being one of the closest races we have seen, it was also one of the cleanest. I expect no difference this time. 
The advantage to an incumbent is that, well, he is an incumbent. The disadvantage of being an incumbent is that he also has votes on record for the last two years. We’ll see if there is anything in that record with which Mr. Harvey will take issue.
That, and of course turnout, will be the theme of this election.

City budget allows for more police officers

We had an interesting discussion going on in the comment section of the post entitled City elections around the corner.
Among the comments were the following:

Anonymous January 24, 2013 at 11:33 PM
No I'm saying they don't have enough officers on the street. They (elected officials) are constantly talking about how safe Bossier is but the fact is there is more crime today and it's getting worse. They use this figure they call "crime rate" to say what they want it to say. Ask any of them how to figure the "crime rate" and I bet they can't answer that. But yet every year they crime has decreased. All I'm saying is hire enough officers. According go my sources BCPD works with only 7 or 8 officers per shift. They have had to eliminate several divisions within the department just to be able to do that.

Anonymous January 25, 2013 at 8:22 AM
The budget presented by the mayor and approved by the city council for the last two years has money for an additional 20 cops. Why does the department not hire them? That is not a City Council question. The money is approved and it is shown in publicly, monthly, in the finance report.

Anonymous January 27, 2013 at 11:15 AM
The money is there for the officers. Unfortunately, the pay is substantially lower than competing agencies, so the department usually loses out.

Anonymous January 25, 2013 at 9:49 AM
That is not true. I haven't seen anything in any budget that gives the chief of police money to hire 20 officers.

I did receive a copy of the manning report for the city. The budget is fully funded and there is money there to hire additional officers. Of course, there is a constant flux of employees, some hired, some retiring or moving somewhere else. 
But the money is there for more hires (12 at this point) and I’m sure the chief does everything in his power to keep the department up to force.

Career Ops

Bossier Sheriff Manhunt

The Inquisitor put this out for public view from their website, so I am taking the liberty of copying it in full. 
The first order of business is to help find this guy. He has a long history of multiple DWI's and there are going to be a lot of questions to be asked and hopefully answered in this case.

Bossier Parish Sheriff's deputies are desperately trying to locate a Minden area man mistakenly released from jail despite the fact that he is facing felony charges in Bossier and Webster parishes.

Wesley Allen Haynes, 35, of Minden was facing charges in Caddo, Bossier, and Webster Parish on multiple charges and was in the Caddo Correctional Center facing charges in Caddo Parish, when a Bossier Sheriff's deputy sent a fax to the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office that stated all warrants in Bossier had been recalled and that they no longer had a hold on him in Bossier Parish.  

Bossier Sheriff's Spokesperson Lt. Bill Davis said the fax sent to Caddo Parish was incorrect, which resulted in Haynes being released from custody.

Bossier-Webster Parish District Judge Jeff Cox, who is presiding over multiple offense DWI cases in both Bossier and Webster Parishes involving Haynes, issued warrants in both Bossier and Webster for Haynes arrest.  Cox stated that there would be no bail because he believes that Haynes is a danger to the public.

Davis said the Bossier Sheriff's Office is aggressively pursuing Haynes' arrest and is asking the public for any information on his whereabouts.  

If you have any information on where Haynes may be located, the Sheriff's Office is asking that you call (318) 965-2203 or that you dial 911 in the area where Haynes is spotted.

You can go to The Inquistor to subscribe to their online edition.

Bossier to add armed security to elementary schools

The Bossier Parish School Board voted to add four additional resource officers to serve the elementary schools in the district on a rotation basis. Middle schools and high schools in Bossier Parish already have resource officers assigned to them. 
I have heard discussion both pro and con. I come down on the pro side. One of the arguments that I have heard against the measure is that we have had no shootings in our schools. While that is true, and hopefully will remain true, I’m sure the people who have suffered school shootings could have said the same thing. While there is no guarantee that an armed guard could stop a shooter, he has a much better chance than unarmed school staff.
I have a granddaughter who is in first grade in a Bossier school. I asked myself whether I would feel better if the school had an armed person on campus or not. I believe that I would feel better about it.
While it is a shame that it is necessary, I believe that erring on the side of protecting our children is better than the alternative. 
Arming trained teachers is another question for another day. Right now, we’ll deal with the situation as it is.