LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA- A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ON OIL!

Monday, September 21^st, 2026

Baton  Rouge, Louisiana

 

LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA-

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ON OIL!

 

 The price of a gallon of gas is off the charts across America.  Even here in Louisiana, the price of gasoline is approaching four dollars a gallon. As you can imagine, there justifiably is lots of complaining. So what to  do? An obvious place to begin in order to lower the price? More domestic production.  More drilling off our coast. Heads began shaking, or I received blank stares. “Drill off our coast? Have all that pollution and major oil spills?  No way!”  I’ve heard these sentiments repeatedly.

 

Marine researcher Humberto Fontova did a major study of oil production and its environmental effects on Louisiana coastal waters and here is what he found.  For fear of oil spills, the U.S. Federal government and various states ban drilling in thousands of square miles off the U.S. Coast. These areas, primarily on the Outer Continental Shelf, hold an estimated 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This leaves America‘s energy needs increasingly at the mercy of foreign autocrats, despots and maniacs.

 

Of the roughly 3,700 offshore oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, some 3,200 lie off the Louisiana coast. Yet Louisiana produces one-third of America‘s commercial fisheries and no major oil spill has ever soiled its coast.

On the other hand, Florida, which zealously prohibits offshore oil drilling, had its gorgeous “Emerald Coast” panhandle beaches soiled by an ugly oil spill in 1976. This spill, as almost all oil spills, resulted from the transportation of oil,  not from the extraction of oil. But forget cheaper oil and less pollution for a second. All fishermen and scuba divers out there should plead with their states to open up offshore oil drilling posthaste because of the t fabulous fishing and the explosion of marine life that accompanies the erection of offshore oil platforms.

 

The original plan, mandated by federal environmental “experts” back in the late ’40s, was to remove the big, ugly, polluting, environmentally hazardous contraptions as soon as they stopped producing. Fine, said the oil companies.

About 15 years ago some wells played out off Louisiana and the oil companies tried to comply. Their ears are still ringing from the clamor fishermen put up. Turns out those platforms are going nowhere, and by popular demand of those with a bigger stake in the marine environment than any “environmentalist.”

Every “environmental” superstition against these structures was turned on its head. Marine life had exploded around these huge artificial reefs: A study by LSU’s Sea Grant college showed that 85 percent of Louisiana fishing trips involve fishing around these platforms. The same study showed that there’s 50 times more marine life around  rigs and pipelines in any given year.

The Flower Garden coral reefs lie off the Louisiana-Texas border. Unlike any of the Florida Keys reefs, they’re surrounded by dozens of offshore oil platforms.

These wells have been pumping away for the past 50 years. Yet according to G.P. Schmahl, a Federal biologist who worked for decades in both places, “The Flower Gardens are much healthier, more pristine off the Louisiana coast than anything in the Florida Keys. It was a surprise to me,” he admits. “And I think it’s a surprise to most people.”

“A key measure of the health of a reef is the amount of area taken up by coral,” according to a report by Steve Gittings, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s science coordinator for marine sanctuaries. “Louisiana‘s Flower Garden boasts nearly 50 percent coral cover. In the Florida Keys it can run as little as 5 percent.”

Most of the red snapper you eat in Florida restaurants are caught around Louisiana‘s oil platforms. We see the Florida-registered boats tied up to them constantly. Sometimes us locals can barely squeeze in.

 

So here is the bottom line. We can see the price of gasoline continue to rise, and realistically reach five dollars a gallon or more  And we can stand by as the amount of fishing along the Gulf continues to diminish.  Or the nation can follow Louisiana‘s lead, reduce the price of gasoline, continue an abundance of quality fishing, and dramatically reduce our oil dependence from countries of questionable allegiance. Congress needs o step in.

 

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.

 

 

 

A LACK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, September 14^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

A  LACK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN LOUISIANA!

A good part of the nation was mesmerized recently over the six-week long Lindsey Clancy murder trial. You will recall that Clancy faced charges for the 2023 deaths of her three children. Her defense argued she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis. The prosecution argued she acted with criminal intent. 

The jury had reached an 11–1 consensus, but could not convince the holdout juror.  Her defense attorneys and numerous supporters called for the holdout juror to be kicked off the jury. The judge, for good reasoning, refused, saying it would be judicially improper and even unconstitutional not to call for a 12-person jury to convict. That’s how the law is determined and enforced in states all over America. WELL, EXCEPT ONE!  And I’m sure you can guess the one outlier state that often operates in the dark ages. That’s us folks, right here in Louisiana.

One of the most outrageous examples of judicial misconduct here in the Bayou State took place in the casino trial of former Governor Edwin Edwards.  The now notorious member of the Edwards jury, juror number 68, was removed for apparently, according to the Times Picayune, being particularly attentive throughout the trial and taking copious notes. From his questions, it seemed that juror 68 was leaning towards acquittal of the governor.

The judge in the case, one Frank Polozola, seemed harshly against Edwards and the other defendants throughout the trial. But no one thought the judge would go as far as removing a juror in the case. The reaction of the Edwards attorney was outlined in detail in Leo Honeycutt’s award-winning biography of Edwin Edwards.

“Red with anger himself, Edwards Attorney Jim Cole jumped from his chair, yelling at Judge Polozola. With the extraordinary actions of a federal judge who had unethically taken the case out of rotation, showing bias that everyone in the community saw, for that Judge to then chop a juror favorable to the defense and reduce the jury below the mandated by the United States Constitution, Cole had lost all respect for this federal judge. Edwards knew Polozola was engineering the verdict.”

Criticism of Polozola’s decision rang out across the legal community. LSU law professor Stewart Green said, "This is a bombshell. It is highly unusual. The jury is really supposed to be his own independent body.”  Former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenthal said Polozola was on thin ice. “The danger is that the message sent to the other members of the jury is not subtle.” Lawbook Professor Lawrence Smith called Polozola’s actions “unprecedented. I’ve never heard of this before.”

Judges are supposed to be neutral. Like referees, they are supposed to interpret the law and do it fairly. After Edwards was convicted, the federal guidelines recommended a sentence of five years in prison. Polozola gave Edwards 10 years. Former Louisiana Governor Dave Treen, a Republican who was defeated in his re-election efforts by Edwards, had this to say about Polozola’s sentence. “Judge Polozola doubled Edwards sentence purely out of vindictiveness. He didn’t like him. That’s not a good reason to double someone’s sentence and I believe, a misuse of power. The trial was certainly dubious.”

So the judge in the Massachusetts trial of Lindsey Clancy got it right. The jury could not reach a consensus. It should take 12 jurors to convict unless there are some extremely detrimental reasons, like health problems of one of the jurors or a juror who seems completely out of control. None of this existed in the Edwards trial. Like Governor Treen said, the judge just didn’t like him. And that’s a poor commentary on unjust verdicts that are found too often in Louisiana,

William Faulkner summed it up well. “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Louisiana’s terrible history of criminal injustice is still with us today.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

VOTING IN PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Monday, September 7^th, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Will elections ever be the same? From coast to coast, there is a great deal of controversy over mail-in ballots as well as absentee voting.  According to some projections, as many as 50% of voters will cast mail-in ballots.  And these ballots take a long time to count. A number of states don’t even begin ballot counting until election day. The ballots have to be verified, including signature comparisons. It could be weeks before final results are known in a number of states.

And the ballot counting process gets worse. Tardy ballots can be counted up to eight days after the election in North Carolina and five other states. And get this!  A state judge in Michigan has recently ruled that mail in ballots there must be counted if they arrive by mail as much as fourteen days after election day.  Even ballots without postmarks have to be counted.  Early voting in Louisiana begins on November 2nd and runs for two weeks. But the ballots are not tabulated until election day.

 

There is a disturbing trend in a number of states to rewriting the election rules, causing havoc for elections officials to conduct orderly and fair ballot counting. Whatever happened to just going to the polls on election day and casting your ballot?  The President is calling for major changes that limit absentee voting by mail.  He still declares that mail voting fraud cost him the 2020 Presidential election.

Remember in earlier times how we gathered up our families and drove to our local school or public building to vote? There were blown up copies of the ballot on an outside wall to look over all the choices.  Many of us would take our kids or grandkids into the polling location, legal in most states, to show them just how democracy works.

Let me share with you how difficult it used to be for me to vote in Louisiana when I served as Secretary of State, a job that included being the state’s chief elections officer.  My hometown was Ferriday, Louisiana, which is about a 2-hour drive from the state capital in Baton Rouge.  The law at that time did not allow for absentee voting if the voter was in the state on Election Day.  But my job required that my office be open and that I be present to oversee the elections that were scheduled throughout the state. What was a conflicted public servant to do?

Each election day, I would rise at 3:30 am and head from my home in Baton Rouge to Ferriday.  My first stop was the local donut shop in Ferriday to pick up several boxes of hot donuts for the polling commissioners who were all old friends.  Then it was off to my polling location (ward 1, precinct 1) and I was waiting at the door at 6:00 am when the polls opened.  A quick visit, the casting of my vote, then hightailing it back to the state capitol to oversee the Election Day activities.  Now that, I think you will agree, is a major effort to cast a vote.

As a former election official, I certainly understand that some people, due to health concerns or having to travel out of the state, cannot vote in person on Election Day. But those who do venture out to the polls to cast a vote in this consequential election will be doing elections officials, the system and themselves a big favor by voting in person if it’s at all possible.  Such an effort would go a long way to reduce the potential chaos that could keep the outcome uncertain for weeks after Election Day.

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.

 

 

 

 

GOING TO VOTE OR ELSE!

Monday, August 31^st, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

GOING TO VOTE OR ELSE!

 

        Why don’t more people show up to vote on Election Day?  In elections all over America, fewer voters are turning out at the polls than ever before. The New York Times ran an op-ed piece decrying this national trend, and suggesting that voting be mandatory, just like jury duty. So how big is the problem, and how important is it to force citizens to vote?

 

My home state of Louisiana recently held what traditionally is the largest election in any four-year period to pick congressional candidates and many local public offices.  Turnout was a miserable 17%.  Of course we should encourage all Americans to vote.  Participatory democracy is a hall mark of our system of government.  

 

In a recent op-ed article, William Galston with the Brookings Institution argues what he feels to be a number of advantages to mandatory voting.  He points out that thirty-one countries have some form of mandatory voting, including two thirds of Latin American nations and a cross section of other democracies that include Australia.  

 

All well and good, and few would argue with the advantages of lessening the tension of governing and creating an atmosphere for more political compromise, and less of the present “in your face” way of governing.  But what price is paid for such results?  Does the government have to hold a stick over your head with financial sanctions to force you to vote?  Australia, for example, fines any eligible voter who fails to show up at the polls.  A small fine to begin with, about the amount of a traffic ticket, with escalating amounts for repeated failures.  Yes, turnout is around 95 %, and Australians tend to see voting as a personal obligation, something not nearly as ingrained in the U.S.

 

Another reason voting percentages are way down is the fact that in many states, way too many elections are held. School boards and local taxing districts often pick an “off election” date, with few other items on the ballot.  They look to get their particular constituency to the polls with the hopes that those who oppose their proposition will not take the time to vote. In my home state of Louisiana, voters are often asked to vote four times or more per year, frequently with only one or two local issues on the ballot.

 

In many European countries, where voting participation is always quite high, one annual Election Day is held on a Sunday.  Families go to church and then take the time to vote, knowing that they will only have to vote once a year.  Generally, U.S. voters face too many elections of little interest to them, resulting in extremely low voter turnout.

 

Is democracy served by telling citizens that they have to show up and vote, regardless of their interest and/or ignorance of the candidates and the local issues? Can a registered voter be told by the government: “Regardless of your interest in this election, we are requiring you to show up, and if you don’t, you will be fined.”

 

And finally, how about the argument that not voting is actually a vote?  If all votes are your opinions, then by not voting, are you not expressing your opposition to all those candidates and items on the ballot? I remember back in the 1970’s as a Louisiana State Senator I introduced a proposed law to include “none of the above,” on the ballot.  Isn’t that what you’re indicating when you fail to vote?  And if so, isn’t this your constitutional right?

 

But making voting mandatory takes away the right of a citizen to choose. Freedom means the right to express your views as you see fit. Voting is one of those options.  So is non-voting.  It’s all about your freedom of choice, isn’t it?  To vote, or not to vote — that is your decision. But living with the consequences is not.

 

And voters can also take the advice of comedian W.C .Fields. “I never vote for anyone.  I always vote against.”   

 

 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.

 

  

 

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.