Former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member, Jared Caruso-Riecke.
Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature focuses on those items referenced in the title to this feature:
6/5/25: Burns discusses the formal departure from the LSPC of Commissioner Jared Caruso-Riecke, resignation letters submitted by LSPC Commissioner Stephen L. Guidry, Jr., for the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission (LMVC) and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission (LHSC), and the revelations from sources we know to be highly reliable that Gov. Landry’s son, JT, is employed by prominent trial lawyer Gordon McKernan.
Here are references made in the above video:
Screen shot from the LSPC webpage of Members officially listing the First Congressional District of Louisiana, previously held by Jared Caruso-Riecke as “VACANT.”
Now, we reached out to Gov. Landry’s Office inviting him to confirm, comment upon, appear on camera, or refute the sources we’ve relied upon for stating that his son, JT, is employed by arguably the most prominent trial lawyer in the state of Louisiana, Gordon McKernan.
Robert—I (sic) not believe for (sic) this to be true .
There can be no question that Kelly has Gov. Landry’s contact information. We therefore waited 24 hours prior to publishing this feature for there to be an emphatic denial from Gov. Landry of what our sources have told us. Furthermore, our sources were gracious enough to provide even more corroboration during that 24-hour period.
We received no such denial from Gov. Landry; therefore, we deem our sources, who are the exact same sources who first tipped us off entailing the Riecke resignation, to be spot-on accurate.
Gov. Landry remains invited to refute the statements made by our sources regarding his son’s alleged employment by McKernan if he may be so inclined.
Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., sounds off after the meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) of June 2, 2025, after which he sought the standing of his public records request of building repair cost estimates ($1,050,000) and technology upgrade estimates ($700,000), only to find out that the entire LSBC Membership told him to his face that they had, “no idea what you’re even talking about.”
After the late-Governor Edwin Washington Edwards completed his second term in office in 1979, he was required by law to sit out for a term.
Louisiana voters elected Republican Dave Treen, who narrowly defeated Democrat Louis Lambert.
During that four-year period, former Gov. Edwin Edwards ran a “shadow government” that often thwarted Treen’s initiatives. Edwards was clearly gearing up to challenge Treen in 1983, and Edwards annihilated Dave Treen in that election.
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana video, we demonstrate the fact that the current Members of the LSBC represent Dave Treen and the fact that the true power brokers in the industry, just as was the case with Edwards and his “shadow government,” remain Edwin Neill III, the Neill Corporation, Aveda and, most importantly, the entities’ lobbyist Ryan Haynie of Haynie and Associates.
So, the reality of today’s regulatory framework entailing the LSBC is that Edwin Neill III, who has a past history of severe financial problems entailing his companies, remains firmly in control of the LSBC, and he represents the equivalent of Edwin Washington Edwards.
It’s possible that one LSBC Member, Michael Anderson, may have come to this realization that he was nothing more than a placeholder with little or no real power. We say that because Anderson recently resigned from the LSBC.
So, with that in mind, it is obvious that the Executive Management at the LSBC has the Board Members on a “needs to know” basis, and clearly they have deemed the Members to need to know very little. The following video drives home that point authoritatively:
6/2/25: Phillips provides his take immediately after the LSBC meeting.
As stated near the end of the video, the big showdown at the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee over hair braiding is presently scheduled for Wednesday, June 4, 2025. We’ll report on how that goes.
CLICK HERE for the June 2, 2025 LSBC meeting in its entirety.
Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., (right) continues to vent his frustrations that the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) has completely ignored his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request which he submitted (by asking Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns to do so in order that he could continue his school bus route yet get the request in as soon as possible) on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Rev. Phillips vented his continued frustrations at the June 1, 2025 meeting of the Louisiana Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee.
The following video constitutes highlights of the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting of Sunday, June 1, 2025 pertaining to HB-326 by Rep. Butler and her quest for a license fee increase of $400,000/year (down from its original $1 million a year increase):
June 1, 2025 Louisiana Senate and Fiscal Committee testimony on HB-326 by Rep. Butler.
Rev. Freddie Phillips (225-229-3341) has asked me to send this email to you to evidence the fact that (as demonstrated by email below), just as you guided him to do at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing of May 21, 2025, he made public records request of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) in order to be able to review the same documents which the panel of Senators was able to review at that hearing.
As Rev. Phillips pointed out, he has been requesting numbers regarding the amount and justification thereof of the fee increases being sought by the LSBC going all the way back to his testimony asking for it at the House Commerce Committee meeting, yet he remains frustrated that he has no such documentation to review the amounts disclosed during the Senate Commerce Committee testimony of HB-326 on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
Rev. Phillips informed me that, at approximately 10:30 a.m. this morning, he contacted via phone Ms. Tisha Butler, the recipient of the email below, to inquire why he has not received any documentation in fulfillment of the request below.
Rev. Phillips indicated that Ms. Buter told him, “I had nothing to do with the preparation of any material sent to the Senators and am unaware of what documentation was provided to them.”
When Rev. Phillips asked to speak with Steve Young so that he could obtain more information on why he had not received the material, Ms. Butler, according to Rev. Phillips, indicated that Mr. Young, “is not in the office today.”
When Rev. Phillips asked how the below public records request was handled, he states that Ms. Buter said that, “I reached out to attorney Morris regarding your request, and she has not responded back to me.”
I have made my own sentiments known that I do not believe ANY license fee increase is appropriate under these circumstances and that the LSBC should simply proceed as is for the next two years and do EXACTLY what you instructed them to do and seek a performance audit. Contrary to Senate testimony presented by Mr. Young, there is no question whatsoever of the LSBC’s ability to continue to operate for those three years, and it most certainly will not, “go out of business without a license fee increase.”
Rev. Phillips asked me to relay in this email that, in his opinion, given all of the flaws made public in the LSBC’s quest for what was originally over $1 million a year in increased license fees, that a $400,000 a year increase is unjustified and he therefore respectfully requests that, at a minimum, and Amendment be offered on the Senate Floor to sunset the $10 increase after two years, which would still generate $800,000 and readily permit the LSBC do demonstrate good faith in seeking the performance audit you have recommended during that two-year period.
All of the people Rev. Phillips requested to be copied on this email have been so copied, and I’ve taken the liberty to copy my own Senator, Franklin Foil, along with Sen. Miguez as well.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this matter, and any assistance you may be able to provide in assisting Rev. Phillips (and me) in being able to view the documents reviewed by the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee on May 21, 2025 would be greatly appreciated.
By way of this email, I respectfully request all of the documentation submitted to the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee for its meeting of a few hours ago, May 21, 2025. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Obviously, no Senator wanted to touch the issue of how the Board could somehow waive a statutory requirement for having such a permit. Why? Because either they were charging for a permit without the statutory authority to do so, or (much more likely) they simply utilized a “Board Resolution” to no longer require the permit which cannot simply be done via a Board Resolution!
Ruel added:
Debbie Villio, the representative, who presented this bill, of the additional 250 hrs., contacted us the girls, via text and asked, are you telling me, Edwin Neill owns, Aveda and the Neill corporation and is the Chairman of the Board of Cosmetology. Well, yes, we replied. Debbie, had no idea of Edwin Neill’s position.
This is when she withdrew, the bill.
Edwin, contacted me via cell phone asking me to stop from fighting this and I said, I can not.
Once this bill was stopped. The Board punished me.
Edwin, announced at the next meeting, that microdermabrasion permits were no longer needed in the State of Louisiana. This permit was an additional $25.00 per person income for the board, to do microdermabrasion in the State of Louisiana. You needed to be certified from a manufacture for this certificate and that was me. Once students took my microderm class, they signed up for all my classes stating that they learned more from me in 6 hours, then they did in 6 months of school.
That was my punishment for standing up for what I believed in.
When Burns testified at the Senate Commerce Committee meetings of May 14, 2025 and May 21, 2025 that he gets an absolute plethora of complaints against this Board from the licensees it oversees, that is precisely what Burns meant!
We’ll see if the Full Senate goes along with this $400,000/year license fee increase (or, as per Rev. Phillips, “blank check without any documentation whatsoever,”), but one thing we can state with certainty: if they do, those voting in favor of it will anger some cosmetologists across the State of Louisiana! That much we know for certain!
