Welcome to the Best of New Orleans! Bouquets & Brickbats 03 12 02

BOUQUETS & BRICKBATS

03 12 02

The Best and the Worst of the Week

The Friends of Michael J. Moran Foundation
raised more than $25,000 for underprivileged children recently at a fundraiser and silent auction at Rosy's Jazz Hall. The money will support St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and the Michael J. Moran Scholarship at Jesuit High School. Moran, a Jesuit graduate, died of leukemia in 1999.

James E. Blackwell ,
a retired sociologist, author and international consultant living in New Orleans, was selected for Washington State University's highest honor, the Regents' Distinguished Alumnus Award. Blackwell was one of the first black graduate students at WSU to earn a doctorate. He retired in 1989 and moved to New Orleans after serving as chairman of the sociology department for years at the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Jacqueline Cleggett-Lucas and Dr. A. James Whitmore III ,
both of New Orleans, were disciplined by emergency actions of the state Board of Medical Examiners last week. The board suspended the medical license of Cleggett-Lucas, accusing her of improperly dispensing prescription painkillers. Whitmore was put on probation after being accused of using improper sanitation techniques and other offenses in his work at the Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge.

Louell Spechts ,
a former travel agent from Covington, admitted she scammed at least 40 clients by taking money for Millennium New Year's Eve trips to Paris but failing to secure airline tickets, hotel rooms and other vacation essentials. Spechts is charged with keeping $65,000 from clients who wanted to ring in the year 2000 in France. She faces up to five years in prison.