scuttlebutt Quote of the week
“i don’t have his [Jindal’s] cellphone. The governor said they would get me his cell number. i never got it. i never asked again. … i would say he has virtually no professional relationship with me and the other statewide elected officials. it’s just become a given that no one has a lot of communication with him.” — Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, talking to The Lens’ Tyler Bridges about Gov. Bobby Jindal’s “macro-management” style. Dardenne said he and Jindal have had only two “substantive” conversations in three years, and have yet to speak on the phone.
newspaper war: On
shooting match STATE GUN BILLS ON THE MOVE Months before the 2013 legislative session, GOP lawmakers pre-filed a rash of bills in response to “gun control threats” from the Obama administration in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.,
last December. Four of those bills got closer to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s desk as they passed the senate Judiciary Committee May 7. House Bill 5 from state Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, met little opposition in committee. The bill seeks to block any federal legislation that restricts gun owners from owning semi-automatic weapons. state Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, saw passage of his House Bill 6, which allows off-duty law enforcement to carry weapons on school campuses. state Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Bossier City, was able to pass his House Bill 8, which seeks to fine anyone who publishes conceal-carry permit holder information. (That bill has met considerable criticism from state media organizations, including the Louisiana Press Association.) The committee also passed House Bill 265 from state Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central. The bill would create lifetime conceal-carry permits. Meanwhile, in a separate senate committee, sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, killed House Bill 48 by state Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, who sought to allow concealed-carry permit holders to bring their weapons into restaurants that serve alcohol. Also last week, the senate education committee passed House Bill 718 from state Rep. Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville, who wants to require school officials to coordinate live-shooter drills, training and violent emergency response plans with local law enforcement. These bills now head to the senate floor for debate. — ALeX wOODwARD
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super impact BUCKING THE TREND (AGAIN) Nearly three months after New Orleans hosted super Bowl XLvii, the University of New Orleans (UNO) reports the game had a $480 million net economic impact. UNO surveyed visitors from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3. The results, according to the UNO Division of Business and economic Research, found that the game’s impact “comprised of $262.8 million in direct spending and $217.2 million in secondary spending.” The report indicates New Orleans bucked a recent trend by super Bowl host cities, which have not seen the actual economic impact to match projections. Recently, the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte reported the economic impact of the 2009 super Bowl in Miami was just $90 million, not the $400 million touted by the National Football League. John Williams, director of the Lester E. Kabacoff school of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration, said the super Bowl’s economic impact in New Orleans exceeded page 11
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > MAY 14 > 2013
ADVOCATE POACHES TOP TALENT One week after New Orleans businessman John Georges purchased The Advocate and installed former Times-Picayune Managing editors Peter Kovacs as editor and Dan Shea as general manager, the war between the papers escalated. Former T-P City editor Gordon Russell and City Desk editor Martha Carr — considered by staffers the leading lights in the newsroom during the paper’s recent troubled times — defected to The Advocate, along with reporters Claire Galofaro and Andrew Vanacore. A newsroom source told Gambit several days before the announcement, “if Gordon and Martha are leaving, we’re all leaving” — and indeed two more prominent T-P veterans will join The Advocate in the next few days. The four staffers who quit last week offered two weeks’ notice to T-P vice President of Content Jim Amoss, and then left for a meeting at The Advocate’s Baton Rouge headquarters while still officially on T-P office time. The paper let them go immediately. Kovacs told Gambit he didn’t have a precise date for when their bylines might start appearing in The Advocate. “i think our goal is in the very near future,” Kovacs said. “Things are moving very quickly and i would hope we would start seeing them in the next week or so. it’s a ramp-up process.” Beyond that, Kovacs had little to say when asked about a redesign of the paper (rumored to be scheduled for late summer) and a possible web redesign. “we have lots of plans to improve the paper,” Kovacs said. “i’m not going into which they are and when they’re coming.” — KeviN ALLMAN
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