Low Popahirum, June 4, 2015

LOUISIANA

“The Catholic Church is, however, the player of immediate concern, as so much of Together Baton Rouge’s work – not to mention the work of the IAF in general – is not merely political in nature but takes a direction that violates fundamental Catholic principles. So it’s important to look closely at these local grantees and their activities.” – Spero News

“In a pivotal moment in the 2015 legislative session, the House Ways and Means Committee narrowly rejected today a tax credit scheme for universities that was a key piece of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget plan. Lawmakers say without the legislation it may be close to impossible to send Jindal a revenue-neutral budget, which in turn would lead to a potential veto of the session’s centerpiece spending plan.” – Baton Rouge Business Report

“Hours after a House committee killed a higher education tax credit deemed essential to making Jindal’s “no tax” commitment work, a Senate committee retaliated by inserting the same tax credit into multiple House-backed bills lawmakers are hoping to pass. Senate President John Alario said his Senate colleagues will continue to drop the higher education tax credit into House legislation, until the lower chamber acquiesces and agrees to adopt the provision.” – NOLA.com

“In a surprise move, the Senate Education Committee on Thursday morning shelved a plan to boost state aid to public schools by nearly $85 million. The measure, House Concurrent Resolution 18, would boost per pupil spending by $36 million, which was not included in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed operating budget.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“The report, relying on data from the Urban Institute, says expanding Medicaid coverage would increase health coverage for 193,000 low-income Louisiana residents in 2016. It estimates that 4.3 million in the 22 states that didn’t expand Medicaid – including Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and Florida — would lose out on health coverage next year — barring a reversal of policy. The projection for Louisiana is lower than earlier estimates that 242,000 residents would gain coverage by expanding Medicaid.” – NOLA.com

“The U.S. District Court of the Western District of Louisiana approved a consent order Tuesday that calls for four elementary schools in Lincoln Parish to be desegregated.” – Monroe News Star

“Already unpopular with much of the rank and file of his own agency, CATS CEO Bob Mirabito’s relationship with union leaders plummeted to a new low this week after a dispute erupted during a meeting to negotiate the employee union contract.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“New Orleans newly enacted smoking ban has easily survived the latest legal challenge against it launched by dozens of French Quarter bars chafing under its restrictions.” – NOLA.com

“In his final competition as a member of the LSU golf team, Ben Taylor couldn’t have written a better script than the one he came up with on back-to-back days at the NCAA championships.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“U.S. Reps. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge and Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, are placing friendly wagers on this weekend’s Super Regional baseball playoffs between LSU and Louisiana-Lafayette.” – NOLA.com

NATIONAL

This is not the Democratic Party of Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton. It is the progressive left wing, which won party control by defeating the Clinton machine in 2008. As a matter of ideology, it is ‘impatient’ with the pace of change possible under the pre-2009 system of checks and balances. Former law professor Elizabeth Warren could teach seminars on the progressive Re-Founding of America.” – Daniel Henninger/WSJ

“Our jihadist foes use every weapon at their disposal, deploy them indiscriminately, and have no regard at all for innocent life. They will do whatever it takes to win. Our nation, by contrast, sacrifices American lives to protect the innocent, deploys the smallest possible fraction of its military force, and will withdraw well before victory is secured.” – David French/National Review

“A horrific child sex ring was busted in Florida and one of those arrested is a CAIR official in Orlando who ran a Muslim Youth organization.” – The Right Scoop

“What is Islam? The obvious dictionary definition answer is that it’s a religion, but legally speaking it actually enjoys all of the advantages of race, religion and culture with none of the disadvantages.” – Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Mag

“Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry launched his presidential campaign four years ago as an instant front-runner — a proven job-creator with solid conservative credentials, formidable fundraising prowess and perhaps enough cowboy swagger to take Republicans by storm. Then came ‘Oops’ and Perry’s tumble from powerhouse to punchline. Now he’s back, hitting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina hard and early, and studying up on policy to become better prepared.” – AP

“A deeply longshot presidential candidate has announced his campaign with a deeply longshot proposal: Let’s adopt the metric system. Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican, independent, senator and governor of Rhode Island, joined the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday with a plea to change the way Americans measure stuff.” – National Journal

“Sen. Ted Cruz rapidly apologized Wednesday after making a joke at the expense of Vice President Joe Biden, whose son died during the weekend.” – POLITICO

“If there were once genuine investigative reporters in the mainstream media, there sure aren’t any now. Most remember Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward as those intrepid newshounds portrayed by Dustin Hofmann and Robert Redford in All the President’s Men and since I did not appreciate Richard Nixon then, I admired these two. In retrospect, I regard their diligence as a result of their antipathy towards a Republican president that rarely reared it’s head towards Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.” – Alicia Colon/Jewish World Review

“In recent months, Christopher Scalia in the Wall Street Journal and Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post have defended studying the liberal arts in college, primarily to confront advocates of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Zakaria’s article previewed his new book, ‘In Defense of a Liberal Education.’ From my perspective as a former engineer, two caveats arise regarding their pleas: first, ‘liberal’ education that involves ‘critical thinking’ disappeared decades ago, to be replaced by hyper-sensitive grievance mongering; second, the quantitative reasoning STEM occupations develops also facilitates the understanding of trade-offs people need to make rational decisions among myriad conflicting policy options.” – The Federalist

“Thirty days after her husband, entrepreneur and venture capitalist David Goldberg, died suddenly while on vacation, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg posted an emotional essay on what she has learned in coping with his loss.” – Entrepreneur

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