Louisiana
Appellate court removes one Louisiana Supreme Court candidate from District 2 race • Louisiana Illuminator
A state appellate court decided Thursday to remove one of three candidates for a new majority-Black Louisiana Supreme Court seat from the election for failing to file her 2022 tax return. The candidate Leslie Chambers will ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider the ruling.
“Mrs. Chambers will most certainly be making an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court via the filing of an application for writ within the time prescribed,” Chambers campaign manager Jason Redmond said in a written statement.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided on a 9-3 vote to kick Chambers off the Nov. 5 ballot for Supreme Court District 2, an open seat that represents an area from Baton Rouge to Monroe.
In the same opinion, the court affirmed another candidate, Judge Marcus Hunter, could stay in the race, even though Chambers and Hunter have had similar tax problems.
If the ruling stands, Hunter and a third candidate, Judge John Michael Guidry, would go head to head in the fall election for the second ever majority-Black district on Louisiana’s highest state court. All the candidates running for the office, including Chambers, are Black Democrats.
Chambers is chief of staff for the Louisiana Housing Corp. Hunter serves on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Guidry is the chief judge for the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Fourth Circuit’s decision to disqualify Chambers from the election came in response to a lawsuit Baton Rouge voter Elisa Knowles Collins filed. It sought to remove Chambers and Hunter from the race, but not Guidry.
Collins testified last week that she has a personal connection to Guidry. Her daughter works for him as an attorney.
In her lawsuit, Collins alleged that Chambers and Hunter did not meet the qualifications to run for the Louisiana Supreme Court because they had not filed their annual income tax returns for the past five years as is required of candidates.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleged Chambers had not filed her state tax return in 2022, and Hunter did not file his state tax returns for 2021, 2022 and 2023 and his federal taxes in 2022.
Chambers and Hunter have insisted they made a good faith effort to file their late tax returns before they signed up to run for office July 17.
Chambers testified that she tried to submit her 2022 return online in June through TurboTax and was told she was owed a refund of over $4,500 for that cycle. Hunter’s certified public accountant, Rosie Harper, testified that all his overdue tax filings had been submitted July 16, the day before he registered to run in the Supreme Court race, though Harper said she later found out some of Hunter’s filings had bounced back.
The court ultimately allowed Hunter to remain a candidate because his tax preparer sent Hunter a letter before he entered the race indicating his taxes were settled. Chambers had no such letter from TurboTax.
“During trial, multiple text messages and letters between Judge Hunter and Ms. Harper were introduced that showed that Judge Hunter relied on Ms. Harper to file his federal and state tax returns,” 4th Circuit Judge Rachael Johnson wrote in the majority opinion.
“Ms. Chambers did not provide any other documents showing that she transmitted her 2022 Louisiana state tax return,” Johnson said.
The three judges who dissented from the majority opinion all took issue with Chambers and Hunter’s tax situations being treated differently.
Judges Sandra Cabrina Jenkins and Joy Cossich Lobrano believe Hunter should have been ejected from the race along with Chambers. They concluded the law requires some proof that tax filings were accepted.
“Judge Hunter cannot prove that transmission was successful because he presented no evidence that (the Louisiana Department of Revenue) received the filing,” Jenkins wrote in the dissent.
Judge Roland Belsome went in the other direction, saying that Chambers should be kept in the race if Hunter was allowed to stay a candidate.
“It is worth mentioning that TurboTax calculated that Ms. Chambers was due a refund of nearly $4,600 from [the state] based on the information she supplied,” he wrote in his dissent. “Her demonstrated consistency in filing procedure coupled with the natural human instinct to recover money owed make Ms. Chambers testimony more than mere self-serving testimony.”
“The principles and rationale by which the majority found Mr. Hunter’s certification of tax filing to be acceptable must lead to the same conclusion regarding Ms. Chambers,” Belsome wrote.
Belsome also indicated he was uncomfortable with disqualifying candidates for failing to file taxes in general.
“If that candidate has failed to file tax returns or owes money to the Board of Ethics, that should be fodder for the campaign trail in a democratic process,” he added.
The Collins lawsuit also sought to disqualify Chambers as a candidate because she doesn’t live within the state Supreme Court district where she is running. Candidates for state offices are typically required to live inside the district for at least a year before they can sign up for an election.
But attorneys for Chambers argued her residency wasn’t at issue because the new state Supreme Court district map had only been in place for less than three months before candidates signed up for the race. Before May, District 2 covered northwest Louisiana and none of the candidates lived in it under the old map. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The majority opinion of the court did not address the arguments over whether Chambers’ residency was relevant to her candidacy.
Massive alligator causes chaos, attempts to avoid capture
Officers wrangled and released an alligator after it was spotted near a home in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Louisiana may expand its wild alligator harvesting opportunities to recreational hunters if the Legislature passes a bill that secured unanimous approval in a committee hearing March 11.
Franklin state Sen. Robert Allain’s Senate Bill 244 would authorize the Louisiana Wildlife Commission to create a recreational season that would be open to 5,000 hunters annually, each with a two-gator limit.
The state already has a commercial hunting season for alligators, which is chronicled in the popular “Swamp People” TV reality series.
“We think the time is right,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Tyler Bosworth testified during the Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing. “We want to provide a recreational opportunity for the common folk of Louisiana.”
Louisiana’s alligator population has exploded in the past 50 years from fewer than 100,000 to more than 3 million today. Of those, about 2 million are wild with another 1 million farmed.
That’s at least twice the population in Florida, the state with the second most number of alligators.
And their Louisiana numbers have grown throughout the state where they can be commonly spotted from Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge to Caddo and Cross lakes in Shreveport to Caldwell Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
“This is a conservation success story on the highest level,” LDWF general counsel Garrett Cole said during the hearing. “This would create a true recreational opportunity outside our commercial season.”
Garrett said hunters would compete for hunting tags through a lottery will statewide opportunities. Recreational hunters would be limited to hook and line harvesting from land. No gators could be taken by boat as commercial hunters are allowed to do.
If approved, the first season could take place beginning Oct. 1.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
Responsible Anglers United, LDWF release bass into Lake Bouef
Responsible Anglers United team up with Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to release more than 3,000 Florida bass into Lake Bouef on Oct. 17.
While Louisiana’s largest lake, the Toledo Bend Reservoir, spans 1,200 miles of shoreline, the state’s deepest lake only spans 1,125 acres.
Lake Peigneur is the deepest lake in Louisiana, with a depth measuring approximately 200 feet.
Lake Peigneur is a brackish lake, meaning it contains saltwater but has less salinity than seawater, located in New Iberia Parish in South Louisiana.
How did Lake Peigneur become the deepest lake in Louisiana?
Lake Peigneur was not always considered the deepest lake in Louisiana, as it was only a 10-foot-deep freshwater lake 40 years ago.
On Nov. 20, 1980, an oil rig crew was attempting to free a 14-inch drill bit when they heard popping noises and the rig began to tilt. Shortly after the crew abandoned the rig and headed for shore, the crew watched the 150-foot oil rig disappear into the 10-foot-deep lake.
Soon, a whirlpool formed in place of the oil rig. The whirlpool grew rapidly until it was able to suck up nearby boats, barges, trees, a house and half an island.
At the same location of the oil drilling site, there was also a salt mine, and when the whirlpool formed after the oil rig collapsed, the mine began to fill with water. As the whirlpool grew, water was able to enter the mine at such a force that it caused a geyser to spew out of the mine’s opening for hours until the lake was drained.
After the lake was emptied, the Delcambre Canal began to flow backward, marking the only time in history that the Gulf of Mexico flowed into the continental U.S. This backflow continued until the entire mine and lake were filled with water, except now the lake was filled with saltwater, according to an article published on Louisiana Tech Digital Commons.
Can you swim in Lake Peigneur?
Before the oil rig and salt mine accident, Lake Peigneur was a popular spot for fishing and recreational activities. However, since the lake is almost entirely surrounded by private property, visitors will have to enter the nearby Rip Van Winkle Gardens in order to get a closer look, according to Atlas Obscura.
While there are no reports indicating the lake is unsafe, the lake is not exactly developed for public access. However, there are things to do around Lake Peigneur, like visiting Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island, or visiting Avery Island to tour the Tabasco Factory.
Presley Bo Tyler is a reporter for the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team for USA Today. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at PTyler@Gannett.com
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — A local fisherman raised concerns about the substance now coating Opal Beach, citing a recent oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.
WEAR News went to officials with the Gulf Islands National Seashore and Escambia County to find out the cause.
They say it’s not related to an oil spill, but is in fact algae.
The Marine Resources Division says they can understand beachgoers’ concerns, and hope to raise awareness.
“You don’t even want to get near it because it’s so gooey and sticky,” local fisherman Larry Grossman said. “It was accumulating on my beach cart wheels yesterday, and it felt like an oil product.”
Grossman messaged WEAR News on Monday after noticing something brown and oozy in the sand. He says it started showing up by Fort Pickens and stretched down to Opal Beach.
Grossman said a park service employee told him it could be oil from a recent spill in Louisiana. So he took a message to social media, sparking some reactions and raising questions.
“it certainly didn’t seem like an algae bloom because I was in the water, I caught a fish and I put some water in the cooler to keep my fish cool and it almost looked like oil in it,” Grossman said. “I know some people think it’s an algae bloom, but it certainly smelled and felt and looked like oil.”
A Gulf Islands National Seashore spokesperson confirmed to WEAR News on Tuesday that the substance is algae.
WEAR News crews were at the beach as officials with the Escambia County Marines Resources Division came out take samples.
“What I found here washed up on the beach is some algae — filamentous algae, single celled algae — that washed ashore in some onshore winds,” said Robert Turpin, Escambia County Marines Resources Division manager. “This is the spring season, so with additional sunlight, our plants, they grow in warmer waters, with plenty of sunlight.”
Turpin says this algae is not harmful.
He also addressed the concerns that this could be oil, saying he’s familiar with what oil spills look like.
He says he appreciates when people like Grossman raise the concerns.
“The last thing in the world we want is something to gain traction on social media that is faults in nature that could harm our tourism,” Turpin said. “Our tourism is very important to our economy, and we want to give the right information out to the public so we all enjoy the beaches and enjoy them safely.”
Turpin says if you see something or suspect something may be harmful on the beach, avoid it and contact Escambia County Marine Resources.
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