sCuttleButt Quotes of the Week
“Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is in line to receive a share bonus worth an estimated £600,000 from his former employers, as a reward for the company’s performance between 2009 and 2011.” — The Telegraph of London Feb. 16. (£600,000 is approximately $950,000.)
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > february 21 > 2012
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“So grateful to so many who have wished me well & r praying for my family. Thank u. God is good & truth is stronger than any lie. Peace.” — Former mayor Ray Nagin Feb. 15 on his Twitter account (@RayNagin).
‘Major Health Crisis’ JINDAL ADMINISTRATION BLASTED AT COUNCIL New Orleans City Council members and other city officials blasted Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration and Louisiana State University (LSU) Interim Hospital management last Thursday (Feb. 15) for proposing $15 million in mid-year cuts to local mental health services. The criticisms came during a meeting of the council’s Criminal Justice Committee at City Hall. While noting that most mental health patients are not criminals, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, the city’s health commissioner, said the cuts will most affect those with the highest risk of harming themselves or others. “I honestly believe this is a major health crisis and a threat to this community,” DeSalvo said. The hospital announced this month it will have to cut as many as 110 fulltime positions, eliminate its chemical detox unit, close 19 mental health beds and four emergency beds, and eliminate $2 million in services for state prisoners. LSU officials, including Interim Hospital CEO Dr. Roxane Townsend, who attended the meeting, have blamed the state for the cuts, citing the administration’s decision late last year to shift $50 million in federal funds, traditionally allocated to the hospital system, to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). The Jindal administration says the problem is LSU’s, adding that the university overspent its budget. “The issue they find themselves in today is a spending issue, not a reduction in budget,” said Dr. Tony Speier, DHH assistant secretary in the Office of Behavioral Health. Municipal Court Judge Paul Sens told the committee the cuts will likely exacerbate the city’s crime problem, as dangerous patients will likely go untreated. Sens read off an analysis showing that, over a 16-month period, Municipal Court judges ordered 246 mental health evaluations of defen-
+ neWs VIEWS dants, 160 of whom were found to be incompetent to stand trial. Of those, 23 had cycled back into the court a total of 75 times. “If you don’t give these people help here, you’re going to be spending money sending them through (Orleans Parish jails) at $23 per day,” Sens said. — CHARLES MALDONADO
Face Booked MORENO, MORRELL PRE-FILE BILLS IN BATON ROUGE State Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, has pre-filed a bill that would create the crime of “online impersonation.” Moreno told Gambit she was motivated by a friend who found a fake Facebook account set up in her likeness. “All that could be done about it is take the page down,” Moreno said. “I thought, ‘That’s bizarre. There’s got to be some type of (penalty).’” The House Criminal Justice Committee didn’t have any such provision on file, nor do state laws cover that sort of specific “impersonation,” which is not quite identity theft, nor is it cyberbullying or cyberstalking, Moreno said. Moreno’s House Bill 96, which defines “online impersonation” as the “intent to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud” and intentionally use another person’s name without consent to create an email address or “a profile on a social networking website or other Internet website.” Similar cases of so-called online impersonation have prompted Alabama, California, Mississippi, New York and Texas to adopt provisions to criminalize the act. Moreno said satirists like the publishers of the monthly newspaper The Levee and “fake” Twitter accounts and anonymous bloggers aren’t her targets. Her aim is to prevent “damage to people’s reputations.” Penalties could include fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail. Moreno said the Louisiana State Police (through its Louisiana State Fusion Center) would act as the proposed law’s investigative arm. She added that she has also received support from the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This year’s legislative session begins March 12. Also filing this session: State Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, introduced Senate Bill 58, which “prohibits the use of public funds to disseminate the criminal history of a murder victim in Orleans Parish.” Earlier this month, New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas reversed the department’s controversial practice of releasing murder victims’ criminal records. At the time, Morrell spoke out against the practice. (Morrell didn’t return Gambit’s call by press time.) — ALEX WOODWARD