For the dozens of Lafayette residents still waiting for their prepaid furniture and décor to arrive from the now defunct W. Home Furnishings in River Ranch, a group of Baton Rouge shoppers is looking to join your victims’ club.
In The Independent’s Aug. 31 cover story “Warding Off,” numerous angry W. Home Furnishings customers shared their stories on pre-paying for thousands of dollars worth of furniture they never received from W. owners Rene and Nina Ward. As patrons like Cherie Hebert and Ryan Burley pressed on to find out the status of their merchandise, First Bank and Trust stepped in to seize the store’s assets, officially closing the business on Aug. 18.
The Wards, who lived in River Ranch and opened a second fine furniture store in Baton Rouge late last year, skipped town in the middle of the night, and now the bank has filed a lawsuit seeking payment and interest on a $150,000 business loan that hasn’t been paid in months, according to court documents filed by First Bank and Trust. The bank is also trying to secure the assets that Rene Ward stashed in a storage unit on Feu Follet Road.
Perkins Rowe General Manager Rick Balow of Baton Rouge was out of the country when the W. Home Furnishings fiasco culminated. He returned to find that the Wards fled the state without paying their last month’s rent in Baton Rouge, but Balow says he could have dealt with that blow better had he not personally been stiffed on $12,000 worth of prepaid furniture and décor from W. Home Furnishings.
When the Wards approached Balow about renting a space in Perkins Rowe, he visited their Lafayette location and thought it would be an ideal furniture fit for the retail center. Balow says he hired Nina Ward to redecorate an apartment complex building he owns. The entire project was going to cost more than $50,000, he says, the first $12,000 of which had already been paid.
“From what I’m hearing, they did the same thing here that they did in Lafayette,” Balow says. “There are a number of people who ordered furniture, paid deposits or paid in full and never received their merchandise.”
The Lafayette Police Department is investigating at least six complaints against the Wards that date back to November 2010, says Lafayette Police spokesman Cpl. Paul Mouton. Detectives have subpoenaed computer records to determine where the money was spent, but it could be months before the investigation is complete.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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