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WHAT: Louisiana Senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy are signed onto the American Choice and Innovation Online Act, a bi-partisan bill which would create a new level of bureaucracy at the Federal Trade Commission to regulate big tech.
WHY THIS MATTERS: This would be catastrophic for small businesses which have increasingly come to enjoy access to online marketplaces and platforms that go well-beyond their normal geographic clientele. The Act creates barriers to these services being offered by these tech giants. Half-a-million small businesses sell their products on Amazon’s marketplace, for example. Congress would now erect barriers for Amazon to continue to dominate this service. This bill would impact these services: · Google Search and Google Maps · Locate your phone tracking · Online food ordering and reservations · Personal data security services · Prime shipping · Offering small and/or minority entrepreneur programs on Facebook or eBay marketplaces HOW DID THESE BILLS START: They are an overreaction to attempts under the previous Administration to deal with first amendment complaints about the big-tech social media services but have gone too far in creating a new economic bureaucracy to control big tech; business organizations that oppose include U.S Chamber of Commerce, CATO, American Enterprise Institute and others. SOUND CLIP (download available here):
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A long-forgotten but culturally significant action by the New Orleans Public School Board in 1922 outlawed jazz music and jazz dance from all school campuses. The current School Board overseeing public education in the city famous as the Birthplace of Jazz has now repealed that prohibition. Exactly 100 years from the day of its original abolition of jazz, the Orleans Parish School Board passed Resolution 04-22 on March 24, 2022, rescinding the prior action and encouraging jazz in the local schools. “The fact that jazz, the quintessential American art form, had been outlawed in the public schools of its birthplace is both ironic and amusing,” said Dr. Ken Ducote, Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools (GNOCCS). “The 1922 prohibition was not on the School Board’s agenda nor based on any principle of pedagogy, but rather it resulted from one Board member’s ethnocentric personal preferences.” Dr. Al Kennedy, a retired School District Communications Coordinator and author of several books on local cultural history, discovered the archaic ban in the 1990s when he was documenting his book Chord Changes on the Chalkboard: How Public School Teachers Shaped Jazz and the Music of New Orleans. He explained that “Public school students benefited not only from the study of music and theory, but from direct exposure to musicians. The School District helped support the local music industry by providing full-time employment for musicians as teachers and band leaders.” The current School Board, led by President Olin Parker, noted this week that jazz originated in New Orleans and is a truly American art form to be celebrated by history and modern-day self-expression. President Parker said, “Jazz music in education has been shown to enhance student learning experiences by inspiring creativity, developing focus and creating teamwork.” Modern-day Grammy-award-winning former public school students and jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis, Trombone Shorty and Harry Connick Jr. and the late Pete Fountain, Dr. John and Louis Prima –just to name a few--would certainly agree. And so would legendary jazz pioneers like local public school attendees Louis Armstrong and Buddy Bolden. “New Orleans is the home of Jazz and it was about time to take down this 100-year-old, antiquated action taken by the school board in the 1920s,” said New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School “Sci High” Head Dr. Monique Cola. “Jazz is a way of life in New Orleans and our jazz band represents the joy and creativity that this music brings. Jazz brings our whole community together, and we are happy to celebrate the demise of this ruling.” For more information about the Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools (GNOCCS), go to: www.gnocollaborative.com Media Contacts: Dr. Ken Ducote, Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools (GNOCCS) kenducote@msn.com or (504) 650-2338 Heather Harper hharper@h2nola.net or (504) 289-0499 Cheron Brylski cbrylski@aol.com, or (504) 460-1468 Entergy’s efforts to move to federal court a class-action lawsuit filed by Louisiana customers due to massive blackouts as a result of the failure of their 8-line power transmission system into the metro area of New Orleans have failed, according to a decision issued by the U.S. Eastern District Court.
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon ruled in his decision that Entergy failed to prove a local court was not the proper jurisdiction to resolve the claims filed by Louisiana customers against Entergy Corporation, Entergy New Orleans LLC and Entergy Louisiana LLC after the main 70-year-old utility tower located in Avondale holding the eight transmission lines fell into the Mississippi River following the 2021 Hurricane Ida. "The reality this is a state case under state law involving a catastrophic failure in Louisiana’s power system with Louisiana domiciliaries and Louisiana injuries," said Interim Class Counsel Celeste Brustowicz. Orleans District Court Judge Rachel D. Johnson will now consider the class action for which she appointed Attorney Juan LaFonta and Stuart H. Smith, Barry Cooper, Ms. Brustowicz, and Andrew Jacoby of Cooper Law Firm of New Orleans as well as Interim Class Counsel in 2021. Entergy customers paid rate increases to maintain and build stronger and redundant transmission systems as protective measures in New Orleans, according to the original filed class action suit. The class action lawsuit states that Entergy created a system that could not and would not sustain even a minor hurricane with wind gusts at or below 100 MPH. Entergy made the decision to not invest in the underground transmission of electricity or other measures required for withstanding hurricanes and predicted climate change, which in an environment like Southeast Louisiana, would have assured regular, consistent, and sustained protected service to all their customers. “This decision upholds the steps our group of experts and attorneys have taken to stand up for people and businesses injured as a result of Entergy’s negligence and failure to transmit energy to its customers. We seek to hold Entergy responsible to their ratepayers, rather than passing on their deficiencies in their infrastructure and actions as an act of God,” said Mr. LaFonta. “We will prosecute to achieve maximum relief for our residents.” Link to remand: doc_42_plt_remand_motion_granted.pdf |
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