Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips (right) expresses his concerns that the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) is seeking for the Senate Commerce Committee to provide a “blank check” to them and expresses his frustration that the LSBC provided no hard numbers whatsoever at the House Commerce Committee when he testified stating that those numbers should be provided.
What happens when you show up at a Senate Commerce Committee seeking a $1 million a year fee increase, yet you can’t even respond to very basic financial questions by two State Senators, Sen. Joseph Bowie, Jr. (D-NO) and Sen. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero)? The following video demonstrates what happens perfectly:
May 14, 2025 Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee meeting during which the LSBC sought a $1 million a year fee increase but could not answer even the most basic of questions posed by Senators Bowie and Connick.
As he has so consistently done at Board meetings, LSBC Executive Director Steve Young has painted a totally false picture of the LSBC’s finances in which he has consistently said, “Without this fee increase, we’ll be out of business in two years.”
Obviously, Young knows almost nothing about financial statements, nor does he demonstrate even the remotest ability to properly analyze them. Burns, as an inactive CPA (for 35 years), a former FDIC bank examiner, and former credit analyst at several Baton Rouge area banks, has literally analyzed thousands upon thousands of company or nonprofit audit reports over his 61-year life.
Since the Committee will give the LSBC another shot next Wednesday (May 21, 2025), we’ll see if they want to take Burns up on his challenge and provide a CPA willing to refute the testimony Burns provided in the above video.
I am joining a huge number of St. Tammany Parish Residents who are making their sentiments known to Sen. Patrick McMath their staunch opposition to the appointment of Jared Riecke to the Louisiana State Police Commission.
I share those sentiments and are (sic) expressing them to you, my State Senator, but I also extend the same sentiments entailing Stephen L. Guidry.
Mr. Guidry, upon information and belief, at the direct instruction of the Louisiana State Trooper’s Association, changed his voter registration to be in East Baton Rouge Parish from St. Tammany Parish on or around January 5, 2025.
Mr. Guidry changed that voter registration but nevertheless continued to use St. Tammany Parish voter registration for purposes of the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission.
Mr. Guidry did so in order to overcome Gov. Landry’s selection of him to represent the citizens of the FIRST U. S. Congressional District. By Louisiana’s Constitution, Gov. Landry would have been limited to choosing Guidry (who he actually wanted) to represent that District.
Instead, by Guidry’s act of changing his voter registration to be allegedly now representing citizens of the SIXTH Congressional District, Gov. Landry obtained the ability to nominate Riecke to the Police Commission for the First District (which is what the LSTA wanted).
In so doing, Gov. Landry made a completely false statement on his nomination letter in stating that, “Dillard University failed to nominate,” when, in reality, not only did Dillard nominate, but
it nominated the very person Landry wanted to represent the District, Stephen L. Guidry.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this matter, and I urge you to reject the nominations of both of these two gentlemen to the Louisiana State Police Commission.
Apparently, the pressure on Sen. McMath coming from his own constituency together with the fact that the Louisiana Senate should have difficulty confirming either of these two gentlemen simply became too much. Thus, according to multiple reports we’ve gotten from sources we deem to be highly reliable, Riecke resigned from the LSPC earlier this week.
While Burns had a doctor’s appointment this past Thursday (May 8, 2025) and was therefore unable to attend the LSPC meeting, he did note Riecke’s conspicuous absence from the meeting.
Here is our video covering this matter, and the latest twist it has taken:
May 10, 2025: Burns recaps the whole sordid scandal of the reappointment of Jared Caruso-Riecke to the LSPC.
On the above video, Burns credits “We the People” on Facebook and states that, for people on Facebook (Burns is not) to search for “We the People.” A dedicated follower of our blog was kind enough to provide two videos pertaining to the Riecke sad saga. Let’s present them:
We the People’s video of April 24, 2025 entailing Riecke’s prospective confirmation by the Louisiana Senate.
We the People’s Facebook video celebrating Riecke’s resignation from the LSPC.
As stated in the Sound Off video above, LSP continues to be a reckless operation with seemingly near weekly reports of arrests for shoplifting, driving drunk (too many for us to even try to itemize), domestic abuse, to include this latest such arrest. The Trooper, Sgt. Joshua Duhon, according to our sources, “Beat the living hell out of his wife and is the same one they covered up the accident in his unit when he was all pilled up. She had a broken eye orbital, broken arm, and some ribs. She was found half naked in their driveway.”
Now the big question is: What happens with Stephen L. Guidry? In order to clear up allegations of “voter fraud,” he could always “move back” to the First Congressional District; however, doing so would further demonstrate the entire scam perpetrated upon the people of Louisiana (and actually expose the voter fraud). Those citizens are way beyond sick and tried of the corruption and underhanded dealings that seem to constantly abound from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry!
On the other hand, if Guidry “sits tight” in the Sixth Congressional District, we will see if the Louisiana Senate is willing to give a wink and a nod to this alleged voter fraud of if they’ll ask very probing questions of newly-elected State Sen. Larry Selders.
After all, Selders is replacing former State Sen. (now U. S. Congressman) Cleo Fields, who is the very State Senator who authored the bill requiring Senate Confirmation of these LSPC appointees to avoid the prospect, as Burns states on the above video, “of a loose-cannon Governor appointing these types of characters.”
Terry King, who heads the Investigative Committee of Concernd Citizens of St. Tammany Parish.
Editor’s Note: This feature was modified from its original publication both for brevity sake as well as to reflect one added material fact which prompted the edit and actually made the feature flow more smoothly entailing the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Louisiana Inspector General Stephen B. Street, Jr. We apologize for the fact that material fact was not reflected in the content of that original feature and express appreciation for the fact that it was pointed out to us.
Broussard’s defense of Gov. Landry notwithstanding, we now have corroborating accounts from multiple sources who have stated to us in no uncertain terms that: #1) Gov. Landry knew of Riecke’s extensive past history, and #2) that he directly ordered Riecke’s placement on the LSPC to represent the citizens of Louisiana’s First Congressional District notwithstanding his knowledge of Riecke’s highly controversial past.
We look forward to having King back again soon for follow ups, but today we want to focus on our invitation to him and his commentary about Louisiana Inspector General Stephen Street’s office and just how “political” he asserts that it is.
Most followers of this blog will know that Burns has no use whatsoever for convicted felon Larry S. Bankston as a result of, at the urging of former Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell (whom Burns has referenced as, “the most corrupt person I have ever met in my life,”) steering Bankston to the Louisiana Auctioneer’s Licensing Board to pursue a potential revocation of Burns’ auction license for reporting his contention that payroll fraud was transpiring and being committed by its Executive Director, Sandy Edmonds.
Well, Stephen Street, being the cracker jack defense attorney that he was (yes, folks, that is total and complete sarcasm on our part) served as the Defense attorney for another Defendant among the long list of Defendants in the Goodson/Bankston corruption trial.
From there, former Gov. Bobby Jindal spotted an ideal candidate (because of his total dependence upon the job having no financial independence whatsoever) to head the Louisiana Office of Inspector General in Stephen Street, Jr.! What has transpired since is a barrage of lawsuits against the Inspector General’s Office (Murphy Painter, Corey delaHoussaye, David Lacerte just to name a few) as a result of Street’s ineptitude and, in our opinion, outright incompetence (together with his complete and total puppet status to any sitting Governor)! The Painter and Lacerte litigation remain outstanding, but Street’s office ultimately settled the delaHoussaye litigation without a trial.
With our little prelude introduction of Street out of the way, let’s take a look at our interview with Mr. King regarding the illustrious Stephen B. Street, Jr.:
Terry King and Robert Burns visit on the subject matter of Louisiana Inspector General Stephen B. Street, Jr., along with some other matters such as King providing some insight on just who pushed so hard for Jared Riecke’s reappointment to be made by Gov. Landry!
Speaking of that massive waste of taxpayer funds, the huge cost to us didn’t end with Street and the U. S. Attorney’s Office absolutely disastrous performance in Court (which cost taxpayers in the neighborhood of $1.6 million in prosecution costs and costs to reimburse Painter for his defense costs). Painter filed a civil defamation lawsuit against the Office of Inspector General which is still going on to this day.
We’ll let anyone who wishes to read the First Circuit’s ruling do so but, at a minimum, the staggering costs of Street taking on his role of “sic ‘em” at the behest of then-Gov. Bobby Jindal over Painter’s steadfast stand entailing a $300,000 exclusivity payment by Budweiser to be the exclusive provider of alcohol at Saints games (which Painter asserted was illegal, thus provoking the ire of then-Gov. Bobby Jindal) continue to pile up some fourteen (14) years later!
We want to express our sincere appreciation to Mr. King, especially for his incredible insight off camera to us entailing St. Tammany Parish governmental corruption, and we look forward to having him on additional future Sound Off Louisiana features.
