 BY MATTHEW ALBRIGHT | Staff writer If you wanted to win an election in Tangipahoa Parish, Louis Ruffino was one of the guys you could talk to. But it turns out it wasn't just connections and political savvy that helped him get people in office; he was illegally setting up schemes to buy votes. Here's how his operation worked, and what it says about how old-school Louisiana politics is sometimes played.
Louisiana's insurance market is in meltdown. We told you yesterday about a ninth company that does business here going into insolvency. Here's a zoomed-out look at all the companies going belly-up, and what that all portends for our insurance. Louisiana's troubled insurance market is one of the things Gov. John Bel Edwards is going to be talking about when he goes to the U.K. this week. And, while he's there, he's going to swing by the Saints game being played in London this weekend.
Drive-thru daiquiri stores aren't illegal in Louisiana. But going to one when you're supposed to be on house arrest is. Here's how a teacher accused of molestation in a high-profile St. James Parish case ended up back in jail because of trips to a daiquiri store and a sno-ball stand, among other places. | 
