MICHAEL JACKSON’S
‘PROFESSOR’
NET WORTH REVEALED
RETURNS TO N.O.
POETRY SCENE LIVING $236 million in 2007 MONEY, C-6
WASHINGTON, A-5
t
I
BREAKING NEWS AT NOLA.COM
School
budget
expects
drop in
revenue
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2009
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Financing in studio
has yet to pay off
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By Robert Travis Scott
Capital bureau
A veteran Saints
football player who was just released from the squad is trying to
get back money that he and other
team members invested in an Elm-
BATON ROUGE —
wood motion picture studio, representatives for the player and the
film company said Tuesday.
Kevin Houser, who for nine
years handled snaps for punts and
field goals, was let go Monday and
replaced with an older player in a
move that puzzled fans and observers.
Houser put a “very significant”
amount of money into Louisiana
Film Studios, and others with the
team followed that lead hoping to
reap a financial benefit that has not
materialized, his attorney Rob
River Parishes bureau
The St. Charles Parish public
school district’s budget for the
upcoming fiscal year calls for
spending of $112.8 million
against revenue of $117.2 million.
It projects a $3.4 million drop
in revenue compared with the
current year, caused mostly by
an anticipated decline in sales
tax collections.
Spending, meanwhile, will inc r ea se by a bo ut $8 9 5, 00 0,
mostly because of rising employee insurance and retirement
costs, officials said.
The St. Charles Parish School
Board will hold a public hearing
today on the proposed budget at
5:45 p.m., followed by a regular
board meeting during which the
board is scheduled to vote on
the budget.
The hearing and meeting will
be held at the board office building, 13855 River Road, Luling.
The board meeting will begin at
6:30 p.m.
The 2009-10 budget calls for
By Jan Moller
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby
Jindal used his line-item veto
authority Tuesday to eliminate
$14.2 million the Legislature
had earmarked for the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, a
move that means the Uptown
mental facility is likely to close
by Sept. 1.
The governor also reduced at
least $3 million legislators set
aside for their own pet projects
as he signed the last major
spending bill from the 2009 legislative session that wrapped up
last week.
A Department of Health and
Hospitals spokesman said the
hospital money will be redirected elsewhere in the mental
health budget, and that the 35
inpatient beds at NOAH will be
shifted to Southeast Louisiana
Weather,
C-8
Washington bureau
ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A former
aide to U.S. Rep. William Jefferson testified Tuesday that he
was confident his old boss had
the influence with Nigerian
leaders and the U.S. ExportImport Bank to seal a deal that
would make the aide and his
new boss, Lori Mody, hundreds
of millions of dollars.
“I thought the deal is going
through and I’m going to be
wealthy and Lori is going to be
even more wealthy,” said Brett
Pfeffer, recalling his elation
when the deal between iGate, a
small Kentucky communications firm, and Mody’s Win2 investment company, where Pfeffer was president, was inked in
July 2004.
But Pfeffer testified that on a
plane ride to New Orleans to
meet with Jefferson the next
month, he warned Mody “not to
be surprised if the congressman
asks for something” in return
for his help.
See HUEY LONG, A-8
A-8
See JEFFERSON, A-4
Day laborers call for
action on wage theft
Dozens gather
in front of a
New Orleans
City Council
committee
meeting Tuesday to shed
light on the
widespread
victimization of
immigrant day
laborers, hoping to bolster a
push for a city
ordinance
against denying
wages to workers.
PLEASANT, LESS HUMID
94 77
By Jonathan Tilove
and Bruce Alpert
C
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Backers fill meeting
to lobby N.O. council
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By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Staff writer
JENNIFER ZDON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
LOW
Former boss wanted
to be cut in, he says
an a hotel and a finely mixed drink
be the reason for one of Louisiana’s
biggest road projects of the 20th
century?
Elected governor in 1928, Huey P. Long
had several pet projects, and one was building
Airline Highway from Baton Rouge to New
Orleans. Touted as a sign of a progressive and
modern Louisiana, it also cut nearly 40 miles
off the journey.
It also meant that the governor could speed
his limo from the state Capitol to the Sazerac
Bar of the Roosevelt Hotel in an hour flat.
And have a Ramos Gin Fizz waiting for him.
In its storied history, the Roosevelt Hotel
— which reopens today — has played host to
presidents, royalty, movie stars, musicians and
athletes, but few have made an impact on the
hotel as deep as the Kingfish.
From Long’s first campaigns for the Governor’s Mansion in the 1920s until his assassination a decade later, the Roosevelt was his preferred residence in New Orleans.
Long biographer Richard D. White Jr.
notes that Long’s relationship with the hotel
was shaped primarily through the governor’s
longtime and unlikely friendship with owner
See HOSPITAL, A-4
HIGH
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As Roosevelt reopens, former employee looks back at hotel’s glory years
Capital bureau
Ex-aide
expected
wealth
through
Jefferson
Contributing writer
THE TIMESPICAYUNE
ARCHIVE
9-year Saints
veteran was
released
Monday
JEFFERSON ON TRIAL
By Theodore P. Mahne
Huey P.
Long
kept a
suite on
the 12th
floor
of the
historic
Roosevelt
Hotel that he
considered his
New Orleans
home until his
assassination
in 1935.
Kevin Houser
See HOUSER, A-6
The Legend of
Huey P. Long
See BUDGET, A-6
Uptown mental
facility likely to close
been paid in full, her attorney
Jimmy Castex Jr. said. The company and its subcontractors began
work in January and are owed
about $681,000 by the studio and
Read, Castex said.
Saints officials would not talk
about the impact that the investment controversy has had on the
team, player relations or Houser’s
position.
“We are not privy to any of our
player’s individual investments, and
Couhig said.
Studio Chief Executive Wayne
Read said the project has had trouble qualifying for state tax credits
to boost its finances but that in any
event, the investors will be repaid.
He said Houser was involved in
helping to raise investment dollars
for the project.
“Everyone’s going to be made
whole,” Read said.
Also, a construction company
owned partly by Houser’s wife,
Kristen Houser, did contracting
work for the studio and has not
The rich and famous were no strangers
to the Roosevelt Hotel, but one
Louisiana governor outshone them all
By Sandra Barbier
Jindal
vetoes
money for
hospital
RIVER
PARISHES EDITION • 75¢
XXXXXXXXXX
Ex-Saint seeks film investment back
But St. Charles will still
emerge with surplus
.. .
Al Franken has
last laugh in
Senate battle
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
DEATHS
D-7
C-5
B-3
EDITORIALS
LIVING
MONEY
B-4
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NATIONAL
PUZZLES
SPORTS
A-11
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D
Arturo Xo Cuz says he is the
victim of a street crime: A contractor promised to pay him
money to fix up a house and
didn’t hand him a single cent
when the job was finished.
TELEVISION
WASHINGTON
WORLD
C-2
A-5
A-10
That is no different from a
carjacking or a purse snatching,
he and other laborers told New
Orleans City Council President
Arnie Fielkow during a City Hall
committee meeting Tuesday.
Xo Cuz, about 30 other
mostly Hispanic day laborers
and their advocates appeared
before Fielkow to urge passage
of a city ordinance that would
classify shortchanging or denying wages to a hired day laborer
a crime akin to robbery. Fielkow
See WAGE THEFT, A-4
173RD
YEAR
NO. 162
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