Sound Off Louisiana

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (photo courtesy of The Advocate).

Today (Tuesday, October 14, 2025) was the monthly gathering of the Ronald Regan Newsmaker Luncheon, and we opted to attend because the scheduled speakers included attorney Paul Hurd, who will argue before the U. S. Supreme Court tomorrow entailing Louisiana’s redrawn Congressional District.

Plaintiffs, led by Phillip Callais, contend the map that Gov. Landry strong-armed through the Louisiana Legislature which placed Congressman Cleo Fields in office, is racially gerrymandered.  Most pollical pundits (and that certainly includes us) contend that Landry agreed to cram that map through in exchange for Fields’ agreement to help ensure black voter turnout in the 2023 gubernatorial election was muted and that, behind the scenes, Fields even quietly backed Landry’s election as Governor.

Beyond Hurd, another speaker was former Grant Parish DA Ed Tarpley, whom host and coordinator (and former Louisiana State Rep.) Woody Jenkins informed the audience of 30 or so attendees represented “media interests” in Washington.  Tarpley didn’t mince his words one iota concerning his thoughts about Gov. Landry and AG Liz Murrill and their “disgraceful” acts (and seeming flip flop) on the whole Fields map issue:

Tarpley references the “disgraceful” acts of Gov. Landry and AG Liz Murrill entailing the enactment and subsequent failure to challenge the map which culminated in the election of U. S. Congressman Cleo Fields.

Now, we have a strong suspicion that Gov. Landry, who is, like the two above-referenced attorneys, in Washington gearing up for the Supreme Court oral arguments scheduled for tomorrow, had one of his on-staff attorneys, Brett Robinson, lingering around just in case things got a tad too much to the displeasure of his boss (Landry).  Bear in mind that the sponsor of the luncheons, Jenkins, live streams all luncheons.  Thus, both Gov. Landry and Robinson would be able to easily monitor events with Robinson perhaps being in close proximity to jump into action if needed.

Whatever the case, Robinson entered the room at 12:37 p.m. (36 minutes after the event kicked off) and alerted Jenkins that Gov. Landry wanted to be heard.  Let us present the entirety of Gov. Landry and the bantering that took place between him, Jenkins, and the attorneys:

Gov. Landry defends the attacks against him and states that the people of Louisiana need to respect, “the hard work Liz Murrill and I have been doing while I was the Attorney General.”

Undeterred by Landry’s defense of his actions, Tarpley followed up after Landry stated that he had to go, and he characterized Landry as “disingenuous” for trying to now line up with the Plaintiffs in the litigation after all of Landry’s past actions, which Tarpley described as “ridiculous.”:

Tarpley rebuffs Landry’s efforts to try to “claim credit” if the Plaintiffs prevail in the case pending before the U. S. Supreme Court

Notice on the video above that Tarpley indicates that Legislators were under “enormous pressure” to vote in favor of Landry’s map.  Obviously, one such Legislator would be State Sen. Blake Miguez, whom we have already endorsed for U. S. Senate in 2026.

Perhaps as a result of our public endorsement of Miguez, on August 29 at 4:29 p.m. Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns received a text paid for by Shane Tubre with listed address of 21828 Turkey Creek Drive, Baton Rouge LA  70817.  The text lambasted Miguez on several fronts, but most notably for purposes of this feature was his support of Gov. Landry’s efforts entailing Fields:

We may be wrong, but it sure looks like Congressman Fields and Gov. Landry will be the subject of a bunch of campaigns in the near future and, among Republicans, it sure looks to us like Landry’s antics have rapidly caught up with him.

That concludes the “core” portion of our feature; however, here are other clips from today’s luncheon:

Lead Plaintiff Phillip Callais thanks attorney Paul Hurd for filing the litigation after he indicates that State Rep. C. Denise Marcell told Callais, ‘We want to elect people who look like us.”

St. George Councilman Richie Edmonds asks what happens if the Plaintiffs prevail in the litigation.

Susie Labry asks how many seats across the US this case may impact.

Near the outset of the meeting, host Woody Jenkins does a superb job of succinctly outlining the briefs filed in the case.

Hurd provides his initial presentation and fields a question from Jenkins entailing the case.

CLICK HERE for the presentation in its entirety.

We’ll see how all this plays out, but there is obviously enormous interest in tomorrow’s U. S. Supreme Court hearing on this case.

Cosmetologist and salon owner Tammie Fontayne voices her concerns about operations of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) during an administrative hearing entailing her on August 4, 2025.  Note:  We apologize for the poor camera angle, but it was the best we were able to get, which is a huge reason we strongly support LSBC Member Rene Bosworth’s push to get these meetings moved to a more accommodating venue.

At the August 4, 2025 meeting of the LSBC, an administrative hearing entailing Tammie Fontayne became so loose that, after the hearing was over but before the LSBC rendered its ruling, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns felt compelled to inform the Board that he’d observed a ton of administrative hearings, and he’d, “never observed anything like this.”  The bottom line is that there was a ton of finger pointing of blame going back and forth and, because there simply weren’t adequate steps taken to keep what is supposed to be a formal proceeding from going severely off the rails, the display became very unprofessional before it was over.

In an unusual move, the LSBC, back on August 4, 2025, opted to take the entire matter “under advisement” (largely because of all the back-and-forth finger pointing of blame just mentioned).  The goal was to get the matter resolved today (Monday, October 6, 2025) at the Board’s meeting.

Unfortunately, due to absences of several Board Members, together with one Board Member replacing a previous Board Member (Jean Pitre replacing Brittani Pitre), and the fact the former would need to recuse himself for today’s meeting (because he didn’t hear the matter on August 4, 2025), the matter again had to be deferred to the November meeting.  The reason for that deferral was because the combination of absent Board Members and Pitre’s need to recuse himself for today meant that the Board lacked a quorum of five (5) Members to consider that matter.  In fact, because two other Members needed to depart prior to the scheduled adjournment of today’s meeting, a number of agenda items for today had to be postponed as well to November.

We felt sincere empathy for the court reporter who is now tasked with producing a transcript of that August 4, 2025 hearing for Pitre to review, and, since she said it would take “at least two weeks” for her to produce such a transcript, Burns decided to volunteer to upload a video of that August 4, 2025 administrative hearing, and here it is:

August 4, 2025:  Administrative hearing (such that it was) on Tammie Fontayne.

Since we provide the video above, let us also provide today’s (Monday, October 6, 2025)’s video pertaining to Fontayne:

October 6, 2025:  Continuation of hearing entailing Tammie Fontayne.

Finally, just as a courtesy for those who may wish to view recent LSBC meetings in their entireties, here are links for the most recent three meetings of the Board:

August 4, 2025 Meeting

September 8, 2025 Meeting

October 6, 2025 Meeting

Finally, we have committed to publishing the LSBC’s financial statements on a regular basis.  We’re doing so because, being blunt, it’s our firm contention that testimony provided by LSBC officials entailing the financial position of the LSBC before the Senate Commerce Committee during this past Legislative Session was materially and most definitely factually inaccurate.

That fact (because it is a fact) constituted the rationale for why Burns called upon those same LSBC officials to have a CPA appear before the Senate Commerce Committee and refute the testimony of Burns (an inactive CPA) regarding his testimony on the LSBC’s financial condition, which directly contradicted the testimony of LSBC officials.  Those LSBC officials never did so notwithstanding one LSBC individual in particular whose head went sideways during much of Burns’ testimony on the financial condition of the LSBC!

The LSBC’s Executive Assistant, Tisha Butler, was kind enough to email us financial statements, and we are providing this link for anyone to review those financial statements.

In short, the Board has recognized a profit of $21,000 in July of 2025 and a profit of $40,000 in August of 2025.  Furthermore, the balance sheet as of September 25, 2025 reflects an unrestricted cash balance (and we want to emphasize that word “unrestricted”) of $1,275,000.  So long as Burns has breath to continue living on this Earth, he is bound and determined to ensure that the kind of false, irresponsible testimonial statements made to elected officials regarding the LSBC’s financial condition are never allowed to transpire again!

We express appreciation to Ms. Butler for the convenience and courtesy she extended to us in offering to merely email us the financial statements rather than us having to go to the LSBC office and scan those same statements.

Baton Rouge Firefighter Union (Local 557) President Jacob Morgan.

Our site visitors will recall our August 7, 2025 feature entailing EMS Reform’s Walter Beach and his opposition to EBRP Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ proposal to merge EBRP EMS with the BR Fire Department.  Beach also appeared on September 20, 2025 for a follow-up feature.

Near the end of both of the above-linked features, we invited anyone else who may desire to express sentiments on the proposal to reach out to us to be featured on Sound Off Louisiana.  Earlier this week, we were contacted by Baton Rouge Firefighter Union (Local 557) President Jacob Morgan who expressed a desire to be featured with a goal of providing factual information about the proposed merger while maintaining a neutral stand on the issue.  He let us know beforehand that many of the facts that he would provide would directly contradict statements made by Beach on the above two linked features.

Earlier today (Friday, October 3, 2025) we were pleased to host Mr. Morgan, and here’s video coverage of his presentation:

October 3, 2025:  Morgan provides facts entailing Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ proposal to merge the BR Fire Department with the EBRP EMS Department and counters many of the points made previously by EMS Reform’s Walter Beach.

We hope everyone found Mr. Morgan’s insights very useful and informative.

Finally, just as we’ve done for the three (3) features we’ve published for this proposed merger, if there is anyone else who would like to be a Sound Off Louisiana guest and speak on the matter, simply reach out to us as Mr. Beach and Mr. Morgan have done, and we’ll be happy to set it up.