Rough sailing: French America Line, a cruise line that advertises a Mississippi River cruise on a boat called the Louisiane, canceled trips for more than 600 passengers from October 2016 to May 2018, and is now embroiled in multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits, as The Daily Advertiser details in an investigative report on the company. Passengers say they’ve filed grievances with the Louisiana and California attorneys general (where the company is based), the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Maritime Commission, but have not seen action taken against the company. Read the full story.
Twitter wars: Iran’s representative to OPEC says President Donald Trump should stop tweeting about wanting lower oil prices, saying that doing so has the opposite effect. Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted by the oil ministry’s website today as telling Trump to “please stop,” adding that “with your frequent and indecent tweets oil prices have gone up 10 dollars.” Read the full story.
Court costs: Louisiana spent nearly $108,000 to respond to claims that a former top aide to Gov. John Bel Edwards sexually harassed a woman when they worked together in the governor’s office. Settlement documents released in March showed Louisiana agreed to pay $85,000 to end the legal allegations against Johnny Anderson by a former state employee. On top of that, the state also paid nearly $23,000 to Baton Rouge attorney Vickie Crochet, who was hired to investigate and respond to the allegations against Anderson. Read the full story.
