Sound Off Louisiana

Vietnamese attorney Connie Trieu and family.

At the November 6, 2017 meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC), Vietnamese attorney Connie Trieu sounded off regarding the LSBC’s often-inflexible position on California reciprocity and the adverse impact that position has on the Louisiana job market as she indicates many manicurists simply relocate to California where they find the regulatory environment less burdensome:

Trieu laments job losses to California resulting from Louisiana’s tough stand entailing California reciprocity.

Trieu amplifies a major concern expressed to Sound Off Louisiana from the time we first began covering the Cosmetology Board in early 2015.  In fact, at that time, many members of the Vietnamese community expressed concerns about the April, 2015 meeting wherein a line item was on the agenda for “California reciprocity.”  The following segment of the April 13, 2015 LSBC meeting demonstrates the resolve of LSBC’s Executive Director, Steve Young, to suspend Louisiana’s reciprocity with California:

LSBC Executive Director Young openly ponders suspending reciprocity with California due to their authorities indicating they would be “removing their seals from their certifications.”

As evidenced by the preceding clip, several members and Young indicate, regarding California licensing authorities, that, “you cannot get a live person on the phone.”  That statement, especially when combined with the statement that California licensing authorities were taking the utterly bizarre measure of “removing their seals from their certification documents,” prompted Sound Off Louisiana to contact the California authorities.  We had no difficulty whatsoever getting them on the phone.  Furthermore, we were told that Young’s statement was flatly false and that they’d experienced a temporary machine failure but that a new color-printed seal was being incorporated into their documents.

In light of what we were told by California licensing authorities, we made a public records request of the LSBC for whatever documentation Young referenced in the previous video clip indicating California was removing its seal. What we got was  this email which actually confirmed what California licensing authorities said to us over the phone.  One thing is abundantly clear from this sequence of events:  Trieu’s concerns regarding Louisiana’s steadfast opposition (for whatever reason) to California reciprocity are well founded; furthermore, it is abundantly apparent that Young sought to exploit the “temporary machine failure” to attempt to suspend Louisiana’s California licensing reciprocity!

Trieu also expressed concerns entailing the “obvious language barrier.”  According to former Congressman Joseph Cao, approximately 90% of Louisiana’s 2,200 nail salons are Vietnamese-owned.  Nevertheless, even as WBRZ’s (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge) news director, Lee Polowczuk, continued to press LSBC Executive Director Steve Young entailing hiring a Vietnamese translator to facilitate these licensees’ interactions with the LSBC, as evidenced by the following video clip, Young flatly indicated to Polowczuk that he is concerned with a Vietnamese translator for hearings only:

 LSBC Executive Director Young clearly indicates his only concern is having a Vietnamese translator for hearings and not everyday interaction with the Vietnamese community.

The LSBC resolved the California reciprocity application applicable for Trieu’s client by agreeing to permit her to take the licensing test and, upon passage, indicating a willingness to issue her a cosmetology license.

In coming days, we’ll be updating everyone on the LSBC’s latest actions entailing hair braiding.  We believe you’ll find that segment of keen interest entailing job opportunities in Louisiana vs. Mississippi.

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U. S. Sen. John Kennedy

U. S. Sen. John Kennedy certainly didn’t mince his words in describing his total lack of confidence entailing Louisiana’s Department of Corrections’ ability to implement Gov. Edwards’ criminal justice reform initiative:

Sen. Kennedy lambasts Gov. Edwards’ criminal justice reform legislative initiative.
Support links for Kennedy’s itemizations:
1.  No bid on $6.3 million prison project benefiting LeBlanc’s niece’s husband.
2. Violent criminals released to play music at nursing homes.
3.  Nepotism, theft, fraud entailing prison wardens, associates.
4.  “Edmonson Amendment” for $55K pension boost.
5.  LSP infamous San Diego trip via Las Vegas.
6.   $247K compensation for one LSP Trooper alleged to engage in massive payroll fraud.

One can only imagine Kennedy’s predecessor, David Vitter, must be licking his chops and saying, “I told you so.”

Days before the runoff election, then-Republican U. S. Sen. David Vitter, whom Kennedy would succeed,
engages in a dialogue with controversial activist Gary Chambers wherein neither bites his tongue.
Note:  Then-candidate John Bel Edwards opted to skip the Southern University forum (for which Chambers
expressed frustration before the above exchange) instead opting for a trial-lawyer fundraiser for him conveniently scheduled for the same time.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future Sound Off posts, simply scroll to the very bottom of this page (mobile devices) or to the end of the right-hand column (desktops) and supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above. 

19th JDC Judge Trudy White

During the 2015 campaign for Louisiana Governor, Republican David Vitter often referenced the fact that then-candidate John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, had one of the absolute worst voting scorecards for business of the entire Louisiana Legislature.  His score, which was always consistently in the low 20s, was even lower than that of  Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport.

Many would argue that, during his first two years in office, Edwards has certainly governed down his already-anemic business scorecard well down into the teens.  He has consistently supported litigation against Louisiana’s top job producers in the oil industry in order to financially benefit his trial lawyer cabal supporters.  Meanwhile, as evidenced by the following 8-minute video of highlights of the October 30, 2017 and November 6, 2017 meetings of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC), Edwards’ appointees, who first got the state sued for its suppression of Indian eyebrow threaders, made clear their determined resolve to oppress hair braiders in categorically rejecting arguments made by the Institute for Justice’s Lee McGrath (integrated into the video below) that licensure of such hair braiders is “unnecessary.”:

LSBC v. Institute of Justice’s Lee McGrath (who emphasized 23 states exempting hair braiding licensure):
At the 1:42 mark, LSBC Chairman Edwin Neill, III stresses the need for sanitation; however, one of his own students, Chris Guidry (pictured in video), laments the fact that “20 year-olds are paying $20,000 in tuition and we’re losing them to waiting tables.”  Guidry is a very outspoken critic of the LSBC, having previously noted that it is a “straight money grab,” that it is “disgusting,” and that it does not even check for cleanliness, which, if ture, totally negates Neill’s argument for “sanitation”!!! Guidry further stated that the LSBC “has no regard for the guest or craft.”

So, given the adamant stand of Gov. Edwards’ LSBC appointees, we should not be surprised that, should they succeed in blocking any effort to free hair braiders from their grasp in 2018 as Gov. Edwards got John Alario to do for them in 2017, more litigation by the Institute for Justice against the State of Louisiana is beyond likely and, in fact, probable.  That, in turn, will most certainly be used as a campaign attack by whomever Gov. John Bel Edwards faces in his next election.  That will be the case irrespective of whether he does as many are now speculating and takes the politically-safer route of foregoing re-election as Governor in order to announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States early in 2019, or if he decides to take the far bigger political gamble of actually seeking re-election as Louisiana Governor in 2019.

Meanwhile, while Gov. Edwards and his LSBC appointees are busy keeping their Jack-booted heels firmly on hair braiders’ necks to stifle their economic liberties and opportunities, they are all set to hear from disgraced District Judge Trudy White at its upcoming meeting of December 4, 2017.  White, as illustrated in the previous link, is referenced as an integral part of a “pretrial supervision scheme” wherein reference is also made to alleged RICO statute violations thereof (here’s a direct link to that litigation).  Cleve Dunn, Sr., father of her 2014 campaign manager, is identified in that litigation, which was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as the primary beneficiary of that “scheme.”  White has also been profiled for overruling jury verdicts and, in the process, angering many black residents who were victims of violent acts, the perpetrators of which were tried in White’s courtroom.  White also had to apologize to her colleagues for running the following convict-friendly campaign ad:

Judge Trudy White’s 2014 television campaign ad.

Sound Off Louisiana contacted the LSBC, and we were told White’s presentation, which is highlighted on the first page of the agenda above, will focus on permitting limited cosmetology services to be performed on prison inmates.  We would assume that her request is for such services to be performed by unlicensed practitioners.  If so, that would mean she wants prisoners to have more rights than Louisiana citizens, particularly those who would seek to practice hair braiding without burdensome licensing requirements which 23 other states have deemed unnecessary.

Meanwhile, also on December 4, 2017, as evidenced by page two of its agenda highlighted above, the LSBC apparently intends to sink its fangs into one hair braider whom they are presumed to have caught operating with no license.

Gov. Edwards, get ready for campaign attack ads showing how your already-abysmal score by small businesses plummeted during your tenure as Governor of Louisiana, assisted by the actions of your appointees to the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future Sound Off posts, simply scroll to the very bottom of this page (mobile devices) or to the end of the right-hand column (desktops) and supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.