INSURANCE REGULATION LACKING IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, January 29^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

INSURANCE REGULATION LACKING IN LOUISIANA!

 

     When I first took over as insurance commissioner in 1991, things were really in a mess. Regulation by the Louisiana Insurance Department was nonexistent. Companies were rarely if ever examined as required by state law. I shut down forty  insurance companies that were broke and never should have been licensed in the first place by the previous commissioner. I couldn’t imagine things being any worse. Well I was wrong. Fast forward to what the brand-new insurance commissioner faces today.

 

      The cost of insurance for Louisiana policyholders, both for automobile and property protection, continues to be at the top of the heap, with Louisiana having the highest rates in the nation.  Smaller insurance companies, that often had limited capital and  surplus and that never should have been approved to sell insurance in Louisiana in the first place, we’re approved by the department of insurance. Then, one after another these financially shaky companies went broke and quit paying claims. 

 

      These smaller companies were allowed by the insurance department to send hundreds of millions of dollars to so-called “affiliates.” The Louisiana Insurance Department says that they were “misled, manipulated and deceived.”  That would seem to be a cop out by policyholders who could not get their legitimate claims paid. It’s kind of like the old New Orleans Saints famous quote of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

 

     The insurance department claims that this passing of policyholder dollars to affiliates is legal. Hogwash. In my 12 years as insurance commissioner, my office never hesitated to hold any insurance company liable and responsible for illegally passing premium dollars to some affiliate.  Not holding insurance companies accountable when they siphon off dollars to some affiliated company is tantamount to no regulation at all. Might as well just abolish the insurance department all together.

 

     Let me give you an example of how unregulated some of these insurance companies were.  One insurance company allowed to do business in Louisiana by the Department of Insurance was Southern Fidelity. Here’s how they spend taxpayers’ dollars. According to the Wall Street journal, insurance company funds were spent on a large hunting lodge, quail courses, bird dogs, horses, a guesthouse, duckponds, and fishing lakes.  The lawyers for the company’s president said this property was a “personal residence.” Yet Louisiana policyholders footed the bill. It took almost $500,000 a year just to maintain this lavish residence.

 

     Blue Cross is the largest health insurance company in Louisiana. Back in 1994, when I found out the company’s board of directors was misspending Louisiana policyholder‘s premiums on travel, an airplane for numerous personal trips of company officers, and other outlandish spending, I immediately fired the board, took over the company, and appointed and entirely new board of directors as well as other company officials.  No lag time and no delays, no dillydallying.  Immediate action was necessary  and required by Louisiana law. Today, Blue Cross is one of the healthiest companies in the nation.

 

     When an insurance company goes bust and is taken over by the insurance department, all the claims that are owed to policyholders are administered by a state created group called the Louisiana Insurance Guarantee Association (LIGA).  It is supposed to provide a safety net to get policyholders claims paid. The group is overseen by the insurance commissioner. But LIGA is being accused of lengthy and unjustified delays. And it is immune from paying attorney’s fees and penalties, even though it acts irresponsibly. Mark Montiel, a Louisiana attorney who represents policyholders says this: “ LIGA does not give a s*** about resolving any of the cases it has.  I’m baffled by LIGA’s propensity to fight instead of settling claims that are owed. I’d be shocked to ever see anyone get paid fairly again.”

 

     Newly elected insurance commissioner Tim Temple has just taken over his new office. It would be an understatement to say that he has his hands full. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of Louisiana policyholders, we sure wish him well.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also listen to his weekly podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com. 

 

 

 

LOUISIANA VOTERS DISTURBED BY LEGISLATIVE ANTICS!

Monday, January 22ed, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

LOUISIANA VOTERS DISTURBED BY LEGISLATIVE ANTICS!

 

     Remember, back in the days when members of the Louisiana congressional delegation were easily accessible, and regularly in touch throughout their districts? When you saw your representative at local fairs and festivals,  riding parades, shaking hands, and having their picture taken with constituents? Remember when each one of Louisiana’s six congressional districts was concise, and you could travel from one end to the other less than an hour?  Remember when your congressman would hold a $25 a person picnic fundraiser in their district with hundreds of people showing up? Those days are long gone.

 

     In days past, a voter could find Northwest Louisiana congressman Joe Waggoner on a Saturday morning at Murrell’s Café in Shreveport holding court with  constituents. New Orleans Congressman Hale Boggs would spend the day at Mike Roccafort’s Seafood eating crawfish and listening to the local concerns.  Seventh District Congressman Jimmy Hayes would often be seen at the Rice Palace in Crowley visiting with the Saturday morning crowd of local politicians.  Lots of handshaking, coffee drinking, local politicking, and listening. That’s what constituent’ service was all about just a few years ago.

 

     In the special session of the Louisiana legislature that ended last week, a new congressional map was adopted and signed into law by the Governor.  The new law is a mishmash of districts that overlap, and are spread from one end of the state to the other. For Louisiana voters, it looks like a redistricting disaster.

 

     Congressman and US House Speaker Mike Johnson now has a district that runs from Shreveport all the way south of Lake Charles. The northeast Louisiana Fifth District runs from the Arkansas border down to Baton Rouge, then all the way to the Mississippi line. It will take more than  five hours to drive from one end of this district to the other. A new district favorable to an African-American candidate will run from Shreveport south of Baton Rouge; another five hour drive.

 

     Baton Rouge congressman Garrett Graves crossed paths with both the new governor as well as New Orleans congressman Steve Scalise, the majority leader in Congress. So instead of organizing districts that were in the best interest of voters, legislators undercut Graves and put him in the newly created district that favors an African-American candidate.  Graves’ new district is only 54% black, so it's not out of the question that he still could be reelected. But he will certainly have an uphill fight.

 

     Congressmen today rarely travel throughout their district. They spent a good part of their week in Washington raising money. The majority of the money raised  comes from outside the state from lobbyists and other vested interests.  Having your congressman speak to your local civic club? Good luck with that. Such visits and talks about what’s happening in Washington are a thing of the past.  It’s now all about raising as many  campaign dollars as possible, all to be used to flood the airwaves with campaign advertising to beat down one’s opponent.  No wonder that the average Louisiana voter is tuned off by what’s going on in Washington, and why so few constituents actually vote.

 

     This weekend, some 3000 Louisianians will converge on Washington DC to whoop it up at the annual Mardi Gras ball. Yes, as a former statewide elected official I have been there on several occasions. And yes, it’s a good place to network and discuss issues important to the state. But again, the big expenditures are picked up by national special interest groups at the request of Louisiana’s congressional delegation. Fundraisers will take place all over Washington. Not Louisiana dollars, but out of state dollars.

 

     There’s nothing wrong with a little socializing. But the drive for campaign dollars and the spreading out of campaign districts that takes five hours to drive from one end to the other, are important factors as to why constituents just don’t seem to care anymore. And that’s just not good for Louisiana.

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

 

COACH NICK SABAN AND LSU!

Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

COACH NICK SABAN AND LSU!

     I don’t normally write a sports column, but a few words would seem appropriate after Alabama’s football coach Nick Saban announced his retirement last week.  Simply put, love him or hate him, Nick Saban was the nation’s best college coach in recent years, and maybe the best college coach ever.

     Now, many LSU football fans don’t want to hear this and seem to be consumed by an abhorrence of the former Tiger coach who took LSU to a national championship back in 2003. Sabin left the Bayou State for what he considered greener pastures in the NFL, then returned to the Southeast Conference to take the head coaching job at Alabama.  Many LSU fans consider Saban a traitor for taking on the post coaching the Tiger’s archrival. 

     But the proof is in the pudding, and Saban has now won six national titles, tying former Alabama coach Bear Bryant’s all-time record.  So what’s the reason for Saban’s success?  Simply put, he is unquenchable in his approach and commitment to coaching.  And losing, in Saban’s mind, is never an option. In fact, one can argue that he hates losing more than he loves winning.

     His entire focus is preparation for the next game or next season. I know one of his assistant coaches here in Baton Rouge who told me he felt embarrassed taking off Christmas Day or any other holiday, knowing full well that Coach Saban would be in football office that day at LSU. His only hobby is coaching football.

     A story I was told by a close friend of Saban’s is an example of his insatiable commitment to coaching. Both Sabin and his friend were out to dinner on a Saturday evening with their wives. About 10:30 pm, Saban’s cell phone rang. The coach excused himself from the table and stepped outside the restaurant, staying on the phone for almost 30 minutes.

     Later, as they were leaving the restaurant, Saban’s friend asked him was there any problem because of a long phone call. No, Saban responded. It was just one of his recruits who was calling to talk about a personal problem. Sabin said he gave all his recruits his private cell number and told them he was always available to talk about football or any personal matter. Now how many coaches at major college programs will give out their personal cell phone number to a high school recruit?  Simple.  A coach like Nick Saban who wants to be number one.

     In 2012, Alabama played LSU for the College National Championship at the Superdome in New Orleans.  Our family had booked early rooms at the Hilton hotel, which was also the team hotel for LSU. Many of the players were on our same floor, and the night before the game, they were hanging out with girlfriends and cruising throughout the hotel. Nothing rambunctious, but just “hanging out” before the game.  One of the players told me they had no team meetings scheduled the night before kickoff.

     Coach Saban had bused the Alabama team to a movie theater outside of town that was owned by my father-in-law. Sabin’s office had called to arrange for a private showing of the World War II movie, “Red Tails,” about a black flying squadron who faced long odds fighting German air attacks. After the movie, Coach Saban went up on the stage and repeated word for word the movie’s rallying cry.

     "From the last plane to the last bullet, to the last minute, to the last man, we fight!"

“We fight.”

“We fight.”

     The  next night, Coach Saban’s Alabama team was behind the entire game until the last second of the overtime. They fought and fought as Saban’s intense energy and coaching momentum urged his players on. In Nick Saban’s words, “to the last minute, to the last man, we fight!"

     His team did just that, and Alabama continued its reign as, year after year, America’s premier college football program. These are the reasons why Coach Saban retires at the top of his game.  All  of us, even LSU fans, wish him well in the years to come.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BAD IDEA TO KEEP TRUMP OFF THE BALLOT!

Monday, January 8^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

BAD IDEA TO KEEP TRUMP OFF THE BALLOT!

 

     Here is the election question dominating the national news.  Can a minor state official decide the outcome of the presidential election?  The Maine Secretary Of State apparently thinks so.  She recently ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot in the coming Maine presidential primary. Wow! I was the elected Secretary of State for eight years in Louisiana, and I never knew I had such power.

 

     The lady Secretary in Maine said she has determined that Trump incited a riot on January 6, 2021, and this made it necessary for her to take him off the ballot.  She went on to say that “the United States Constitution does not tolerate assault on the foundations of our government.” What we have is a state official determining what the constitution says or does not say. I thought this was the job of congress and our federal courts. But now it is open season for officials on the state level to enforce and even make federal law.

 

     The Maine Secretary Of State, Sheena Bellows, says that it is not uncommon for Secretaries Of States to “bar candidates on the ballot if they do not meet eligibility requirements.” Having been the overseer of numerous elections in Louisiana, I have to agree she’s right. But only in dealing with basic requirements where candidates fail to pay required qualification fees, be of the required age, and do not meet residency requirements. I served as President of the National Secretary Of States Association, and I’ve never heard of a state official barring a presidential candidate for dereliction of duty when the candidate held the same office in the past.

 

     Trump is also banned from being on the ballot in Colorado. But in this case, the decision was made by the state Supreme Court. For good reason, Trump is appealing this decision to the United States Supreme Court.  I’m no prognosticator of the Supremes, but I would bet good money that the nation’s highest court will throw out the Colorado decision. Otherwise, the U.S. will start a new procedure of “patchwork” democracy.  Katie bar the door because we may be looking at a whole new system of how we run our federal elections.

 

     From a  practical point, Maine and Colorado might be giving Donald Trump a marvelous political gift. He lost to incumbent Joe Biden in these two states by large margins in 2020, and there is nothing in the cards to assume that Biden will not win them again.  So the former president can holler more election fraud and fire up his supporters in more Trump friendly states. Fundraising efforts well no doubt show major increases in campaign giving.

 

     The only requirements to run for President of the United States is for a candidate to be a natural born citizen, be at least 35 years old, and have resided in the inn our country for at least 14 years. That’s it. Other requirements would take an amendment to the U.S. Constitution or a decision by the United States Supreme Court.  In fact, the states have no authority to disqualify a candidate under the 14^th amendment unless Congress authorizes them †o do so.

 

     The whole idea of disqualifying a candidate who had previously held public is based on an act of Congress following the Civil War. The purpose was to stop confederates who had “engaged in insurrection” from retaking government posts. Such authority is referred to as Section 3 of the 14^th amendment which is known as the disqualification clause. But the law has not been enforced in over 150 years ago.

 

     In my time serving and Secretary Of State, I never once removed someone from being a candidate. It always took a court order to do so. I checked this week with outgoing  Secretary Of State Kyle Ardoin and he too insisted on a court order before removing anyone from the ballot.

 

     If voters want to politically get rid of Trump, there are two legitimate ways to do it. First is impeachment and then conviction, which congress failed to do twice  involving Trump.  The second way is to beat him at the polls.  Desperate efforts by state officials to keep any presidential candidate off the ballot without a court order will be looked on by many as an “end round” effort to subvert the constitution.  Such acts are bad for the future of democracy.

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

 

 

 

 

NEW YEAR THOUGHTS FROM THE BAYOU STATE!

December 26th, 2023

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NEW YEAR THOUGHTS FROM THE BAYOU STATE!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I always do.  A New Year always brings with it promise and uncertainty, but this coming year brings with it a greater foreboding than we have experienced in the past.  The Chinese have a saying: “May you live in interesting times.” But their definition means dangerous or turbulent. We in Louisiana and throughout America certainly live in “interesting” times today.

One resolution I make each year is to maintain my curiosity.  It doesn’t matter how limited your perspective or how narrow the scope of your surroundings, there is (or should be) something to whet your interest and strike your fancy.  I discovered early on that there are two kinds of people — those who are curious about the world around them, and those whose shallow attentions are generally limited to those things that pertain to their own personal well-being.  I just hope all those I care about fall into the former category.

Another resolution is to continue to hope.  I hope for successful and fulfilling endeavors for my children, happiness and contentment for family and friends, and for the fortitude to handle both the highs and lows of daily living with dignity.

  I also ask friends and family to re-read Night, the unforgettable holocaust novel by Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace laureate who survived the Nazi death camps. I met him shortly before his death.  I have a Wiesel quote framed on my office desk:

 “To defeat injustice and misfortune, if only for one instant, for a single victim, is to invent a new reason to hope.”

Like many of you, our family welcomes in the New Year with “Auld Lang Syne.”  It’s an old Scotch tune, with words passed down orally, and recorded by my favorite historical poet, Robert Burns, back in the 1700s.  (I’m Scottish, so there’s a bond here.) “Auld Lang Syne,” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.”  Did you know this song is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year?

I can look back over many years of memorable New Year’s Eve celebrations.  In recent years, my wife and I have joined a gathering of family and friends in New Orleans at a French Quarter restaurant.  After dinner, we make a stop at St. Louis Cathedral for a blessing of the New Year. Then it’s off to join the masses for the New Year’s countdown to midnight in Jackson Square.

When my daughters were quite young, we spent a number of New Year holidays at a family camp on Davis Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River some 30 miles below Vicksburg.  On several occasions, the only people there were my family and Bishop Charles P. Greco, who was the Catholic Bishop for central and north Louisiana. Bishop Greco had baptized all three of my daughters, and had been a family friend for years.

On many a cold and rainy morning, the handful of us at the camp would rise before dawn for the Bishop to conduct a New Year’s Mass.  After the service, most of the family went back to bed.  I would crank up my old jeep and take the Bishop out in the worst weather with hopes of putting him on a stand where a large buck would pass.  No matter what the weather, he would stay all morning with his shotgun and thermos of coffee.  He rarely got a deer, but oh how he loved to be there in the woods.  Now, I’m not a Catholic, but he treated me as one of his own.

New Year’s Day means lots of football, but I also put on my chef’s apron.  I’m well regarded in the kitchen around my household, if I say so myself, for cooking up black-eyed peas as well as cabbage and corn bread. And don’t bet I won’t find the dime in the peas.  After all, I’m going to put it there.

I’ll be back next week with my customary views that are cantankerous, opinionated, inflammatory, slanted, and always full of vim and vigor.  Sometimes, to a few, even a bit fun to read.  In the meantime, Happy New Year to you, your friends and all of your family.  See you next year.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

 

 

WHY NOTHING IS GETTING DONE IN WASHINGTON!

Monday, January 1^st, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

WHY NOTHING IS GETTING DONE IN WASHINGTON!

 

     Poor ole’ Joe Biden. The current president really has his hands full. Some think the world is going to hell in a hand  basket, and the Biden team is  enmeshed in pouring billions to other countries. The President has just approved a $105 billion military aid package to Israel, as the Israel-Hamas war is on the verge of spiraling into a wider regional conflict.  Russia’s war with Ukraine seems more and more like a Russian war with America as the US has poured $80 billion in this struggle. Our Southern border is overflowing with a surge of immigrants with no plan to stop the flow. The president is up for election in just 10 months. And his favorable popularity has dipped to below 35%.

 

     So how does he handle the crisis? You would think he would be staying up late at night seven days a week dealing with a whole host of difficult issues, especially since he has such a short time left in the White House. Here’s his solution. Take a weeklong vacation. Fly to the tropical island of St. Croix. He has the rest of his life to take long vacations, and his whole future is on the line. So he flies to Caribbean.

 

     Work product of the U.S. Congress is not any better. Back in 1948, President Harry, Truman coined the term “Do nothing Congress,” because the legislative body only passed 511 bills that were signed into law. In the 2023 congressional term, a grand total of 27 bills were actually signed in the law. Two of the laws renamed medical centers, and another one created a commemorative coin. 

 

     “The House hasn’t done its job. It’s been playing games. It’s what people don’t like about this town,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “All year the House didn’t choose its speakers, they’ve been fighting with each other. Their egos are out of control. They’re acting like kids and they’re not doing their job.”

 

     The U.S. Supreme Court could be the worst of the three branches in getting any work done or even showing up for work. If you look at poll numbers, it’s becoming obvious that the American public are losing confidence in the Supremes.  In a Gallop poll released recently, only 40% of citizens approve of the job that has been done by the High Court. And it’s not just one party or the other. “At this point, less than a majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents approve of the job the court is doing,” said Gallup, which has been tracking the trend since 2000.

 

     Justices on the nation’s highest court complain about their low salary. But the plain truth is that the court as a whole just does not work very hard.  Some 10,000 petitions are filed in the Supreme Court each year, and almost all of them are turned aside. This year, the court might consider some 60 cases.  They never worked too hard in the past, but at least up until some 15 years ago, the normal load was 125 cases or more.  But no longer.  The Supremes need more time for other pursuits.

     Come summertime, there are no thoughts of carrying out the constitutional responsibility of considering cases of those who feel they are aggrieved.  No, it’s time to head off for speaking junkets and lucrative teaching posts far and beyond.   Justice Samuel Alito prefers the beaches and teachers in Malibu California at Pepperdine University at its Oceanside campus. And Chief Justice John Roberts was paid to teach a one week course in Vienna in recent years.  

 

     Justices also benefit from the ethically troubling practice of regularly taking all expense paid junkets, often financed by private interests with business before this very court.  Many are labeled as “educational seminars” with large honorariums being received for a lecture.  The Court has soiled its reputation by accepting such freebies, and it is obvious the members are incapable of effective self-policing. 

 

     Every four years, we hear campaign promises from candidates who say they will go to the nation’s capital and get to work. But things never seem to change. What’s the song by the musical group The Who?  “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.