GET THE DRUNKS OFF THE ROAD!

Monday, August 24^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

GET THE DRUNKS OFF THE ROAD!

 

Louisiana has always been a “free and easy” state when it comes to drinking and driving.  Visitors are dumbfounded when they see drive-through Daiquiri shops across the state.  Just as prevalent are the drive through liquor stores that punctuate the Bayou State.  And the results should not be surprising.  Fifty-three per cent of all serious injuries and highway deaths involve a drunk driver.  So why hasn’t there been more outrage across the state?  And why are there not tougher laws on the books?

 

Actually, Louisiana has some of the toughest DWI laws of any state in the country.  For a third offence DWI there is no discretion for judges.  An offender with three convictions faces a mandatory sentence of two years in jail. And get this – the party convicted is supposed to have their car seized and sold out from under them.  Have a mortgage?  Tough luck. Should have thought about that before you drove impaired. 

 

As former state insurance commissioner, I wrote the current law and lobbied the Louisiana Legislature to pass this legislation back in 1996. But have you ever read where a third offender DWI had the car taken off the road and sold?  Not once. Two-year jail time with no suspended sentence?  Rarely if ever done unless someone else is killed in a collision with the drunk driver.

 

The problem is one of enforcement.  Many judges and district attorneys just ignore the law.  Often a prosecutor will reduce a DWI charge to careless and reckless driving.  Or the admitted drunk will be allowed to enter a diversion program to get the charge off of his or her record.  And often, computer information systems in one parish are not able to communicate with similar information in another parish, so a prosecutor is not aware of previous convictions.  Hard to believe in this day and age of computer technology.

 

Cracking down on repeating drunk drivers is about to change.  At least in St. Charles Parish.  The good news is that Sheriff Greg Champagne and District Attorney Joel Chaisson will begin using this rarely enforced seizure law to confiscate vehicles driven by habitual drunk drivers.  Hopefully, other Louisiana sheriffs and district attorneys will follow suit. 

 

Many other states have both enacted and strongly enforced a number of new laws that cut little slack for drunk drivers. In Virginia, accused drunk drivers who fail breath tests when stopped by police will have their licenses suspended immediately even before they are tried in court.  New Mexico, that has a major DWI problem, requires an “ignition interlock” for every convicted drunk driver, even on the first offense.  No exceptions. 

 

In New York, tough new steps have been taken to curb a major drunk driving problem.  Drivers there who have been convicted of being drunk while carrying passengers 15 years or younger face up to four years in prison, even when there is no wreck involved.  And how about this tough sanction: a Long Island, N.Y. jury recently convicted a drunk driver of murder for killing two people in a head-on collision. The district attorney who brought the charges had been elected on a “take no prisoners” approach to drunk drivers.

 

Was this too tough a penalty? Not according to the mother of one of the female victims.  She used no euphemisms in describing the damage done.  “As I crawled out of the car, the only thing that was left of Kate was her head. This was murder and no different from carrying a loaded gun around, pointing it at people and having a few shots go off killing them.”  And the prosecutor made no bones about how she will act in dealing with drunken driving deaths.   “We hope that his verdict sends a message that if you drink and drive and kill somebody, you will be prosecuted for murder.”

 

Being tolerant of drunk driving is a key factor of high insurance rates in Louisiana.  Hopefully, sheriffs and district attorneys will use the tools at their disposal to get these habitual DWIs off the road.

 

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.jimbrownla.com.

 

 

 

 

INSURANCE AND MORE THAN DUMB TV ADS!

Monday, August17th, 2026

Baton Rouge  Louisiana

 

INSURANCE AND MORE THAN DUMB TV ADS!

                  

Like most of you, I’ve had my fill of political ads and trial lawyer solicitations that seem to be constantly appearing on TV.  But you know what bothers me even more? I’m sick of seeing that goofy commercial of some dumb and disheveled looking guy talking to an ostrich.  “You only pay for what you need,” so it goes.  So just how much automobile insurance do you really need?

 

Let’s say you’re driving down the road with your family in the car and are broadsided by an illegal immigrant with no insurance. There are many such unlicensed drivers in Louisiana today. The other driver is at fault. Your car is totaled, and both you and the other passengers in your vehicle are seriously injured. The medical bills alone could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what about pain and suffering as well as loss of income. We’re now talking into the millions. Let’s ask the stupid guy with the mustache and his ostrich friend. How much do you need?

 

Year in and year out, Louisiana drivers pay more for auto insurance than any other state in the nation.  So the real question is not how much you need, but just how much you can afford. The cost to many policyholders is staggering.  The Louisiana Legislature recently completed a wide-ranging special session.  Yet there was not one proposal or even a discussion about the outrageous cost of car insurance.  Like the ostrich in the TV commercial, legislators stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the problem that is costing Louisiana drivers more than three billion dollars (not million but billion) in additional costs.  And most of that additional premium is sent to insurance companies located outside the state.  So local disposable  income and spending in the state is reduced by this three billion dollars.

 

Drivers in Louisiana need major financial coverage for all the numerous dangers of driving a vehicle in the Bayou State.  But the failure of the legislature to see that current laws are enforced, and that penalties for dangerous driving are increased, makes affordable insurance way out of reach for the average policyholder.

 

Louisiana’s insurance mess is the result of numerous factors that include poor drivers.  

lax DUI enforcement, inferior highways, and speeding that all play a role in the state’s high rates. And the Governor needs to be involved, working closely with the insurance commissioner.

 

Under the regulatory system in Louisiana, the governor and the insurance commissioner are both independently elected. So unless the insurance commissioner aggressively pushes the governor to become involved, the chief executive keeps a distance. He figures he has enough on his plate.  In a majority of states, insurance commissioners are appointed by the governor. So there has to be a close working relationship.

 

       Let me give you a few examples of the insurance commissioner and the governor working together. Some years back, I went to the North Carolina Mountains over Mardi Gras. On many cold mountain mornings on my way to fish, I would stop at Faye’s General Store in Linville, North Carolina to catch up on the local gossip and pick up a neatly tied Stonefly or G-Nell fly. Then it would be off to a local stream with my Orvis two-piece, two weight, six-foot long graphite rod that I borrowed years ago from an old New Orleans friend, David Voelker.

 

     I was at Faye’s drinking coffee around 7:30 a.m. when the phone rang. One of the locals picked it up and told me that Louisiana Governor Mike Foster was calling.  Now, remember, it’s 6:30 a.m. in Louisiana, and it’s Mardi Gras. I thought it was my wife Gladys playing a joke on me.  But, no, it was the governor on the line. “Jim, Mike Foster. Got a minute?”

 

     “Morning Governor. You sure know how to run a fellow down, don’t you?”

 

     “I called Gladys, she told me you’d gotten out early. I don’t want to disturb your fishing, but I just want to talk a little insurance with you.”

 

     My coffee drinking companions at Faye’s had a hard time believing that the Louisiana governor would call me up in the North Carolina Mountains at the crack of dawn on a state holiday to discuss insurance business.  Simply put, it was the governor and the insurance commissioner working together. 

 

     So when you see the TV ads with the ostrich and the weird insurance salesman, remember that what you need in Louisiana is a heck of a lot more than most of us can afford.

 

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.jimbrownla.com.

 

 

  

DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, August 3^rd, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY IN LOUISIANA!

 

Bayou State residents are well aware that Louisiana is a pleasant place to live. Some would sarcastically say that we are fat, dumb, and happy down here in the deepest of the deep southern states. The state motto is, after all, Laissez les bons temps rouler. For you out of staters, that’s pronounced Lay say lay bohn tohn roo lay, and means “let the good times roll.” So it should be no surprise to the locals that in a survey of 100 cities listed as the happiest, and published by the U. S. National Bureau of Economic Research, Louisiana walked away with top rankings.

 

Listed as some of the  happiest cities in the U. S. include Lafayette, Houma, Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Alexandria and Lake Charles . The unhappiest? New York City. What? The Big Apple? How can that be? Simple. The cost of living in New York causes two thirds of the city’s population to just get by.

With a number of family members now living in New York City, including several of my grandchildren, I’m up there for a week at a time, sometimes even more often. The differences are vast to say the least between the two states. Let’s start with my five “Fs.” Food, family, faith, fixin’ flats, and football.

Food? Sure there are great a number of good bistros and cafes in New York. But the cost of a decent meal is twice what you would pay for the best dining in New Orleans or in a number of first-rate south Louisiana restaurants. And these “fine dining” establishments seem to think flavoring their food consists of sprinkling on some salt and pepper. It’s rare to find the Cajun holy trinity of seasonings (bell pepper, onion and celery) in New York cuisine.

 

Family seems to play a more significant role for residents of Louisiana, where you find the highest percentage of those still living in the state of their birth. Your friends want to know about how “your mama and them” are doing. An active family life is very much the Louisiana way, and this creates a happy environment. In New York City, you find waves of newcomers who have heeded Frank Sinatra’s call that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But hundreds of thousands make a long commute each day from outside the city because of the high cost of just about everything. Most New Yorkers I have come to know are transplants and have immediate family members that live a great distance away.

Faith matters more in the Bayou State. A recent Gallop poll found that 54% of Louisianans consider themselves quite religious. In New York, the number is 32%. Local pastors tell me that church attendance is up, particularly in Catholic and Pentecostal ministries. African American church attendance has always been high down our way. Faith brings contentment, and this leads to more happiness.

And how about fixin’ flats? No, this is not just another Jeff Foxworthy humorous put down. Folks down our way seem more self-sufficient. Many have gardens, and neighbors pitch in more to lend a hand or volunteer for a good cause. In New York, everyone seems too busy, too self-absorbed; oblivious to those beyond their own immediate circle.

The final “F” consumes most Louisianans this time of year. September means football — tailgating outside Tiger Stadium, heading to the Superdome to cheer on the Saints, and packing into Cajun Field at UL-Lafayette. But it’s also a symbol for intense athletic participation at all ages, from high school sports to packed golf courses and barbeques on the weekends. Music has a life of its own all over the state. Locals in Louisiana are a lot more active outdoors than are New Yorkers, and this leads to more pleasure.

Sure, many folks in Louisiana have a multitude of problems. And the state has a good way to go in dealing with education and healthcare troubles. But within their limitations, Louisianans just do a better job of making the best of it. If New Yorkers would spend some time down here, they would learn pretty quickly why a good many of the happiest cities in America are mostly located in 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.jimbrownla.com.