When you bite into them you taste all the juices that have been sealed in. But the juice just ain't there. It would take hours to relate the city and state commissioners and councillors, not forgetting their various relatives, who tried their hands at shakedowns. None was more successful than the state's governor, the oft-indicted Edwin Edwards, fond throughout his career of boasting that the feds would never be able to pin anything on him. Edwards' boasting stopped last year at age 72 when he was convicted on 17 charges of extortion, money laundering and racketeering.
Bridges knows the story.
His coverage for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans won him a Pulitzer. He knows the players, their connections, their backgounds. It's a story that requires a reporter to be not just a crime reporter but a political reporter, and a business reporter as well. After negotiations, bids, wooing and dealmaking of all sorts, Harrah's opened a temporary casino in New Orleans in May 1995, while it began work on a lavish permanent casino. Clearly the problem isn't talent but temperament.