Parting shots: Embattled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu largely dumped her message of seniority and clout Monday evening in favor of direct attacks against Republican challenger Bill Cassidy, as she sought to use the last Senate race debate to overcome her long odds to winning a fourth term. As The Associated Press reports, Landrieu accused the GOP congressman of bilking taxpayers in his medical teaching work at the LSU hospital system, suggesting Cassidy collected a $20,000, taxpayer-funded annual salary for little or no work. Cassidy, a liver specialist, said he did nothing wrong and shot back with renewed criticism for Landrieu’s improper billing of charter flights to taxpayers when she was attending campaign events, $43,000 in charter costs that have been reimbursed by Landrieu’s campaign. Read the full story.
The next chapter: LSU Eunice Chancellor William Nunez III is retiring and will step down at the end of the fiscal year. Nunez made the announcement Monday about his career in higher education spanning 45 years. He’s been chancellor at the school since 1996 and is also a biology professor there. “It has been a sincere honor and privilege to serve LSU Eunice—its students, faculty and staff—and to work for LSU, my alma mater, over the past 19 years,” Nunez says in a statement released by LSU. “And, of all that has been achieved at LSUE during this time, the most important achievement has been the numbers of students who have personally grown, developed and succeeded as the end-result of their LSUE education and experience.” LSU says it will conduct a national search for his replacement.
Under the microscope: As part of the recently announced second round of BP-funded consortium research grants to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and as part of the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, LSU sociologists will lead the first GoMRI-funded study of the oil spill’s impact on human health and coastal communities. A total of $140 million was granted to 12 collaborative research projects as part of second-round funding. Since 2010, LSU researchers have collected data on the mental and physical health impacts of the oil spill on residents in coastal Louisiana. LSU will receive $1.2 million from GoMRI to continue this research as part of the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities project. LSU has complete details.
