Month-Long Suspension Ordered In Obama E-Mail Flap

A Louisiana State Senate employee has been formally reprimanded and suspended for a month without pay because she sent an e-mail to hundreds of government workers showing President Barack Obama as white.

Senate President Joel Chaisson announced the punishment Tuesday for Senate researcher Tammy Crain-Waldrop.

Crain-Waldrop can return to work Jan. 3 and must send a written apology to Senate and House staff and lawmakers. She also will have to attend diversity training.

Chaisson called the e-mail, which Crain-Waldrop sent Nov. 30, "highly inappropriate."

Crain-Waldrop sent a message that included a doctored photo of Obama with light skin and says, "Do you like him any better now? No? Me neither ..... Then you're not a racist."

Crain-Waldrop said she sent the message to the Capitol e-mail post office box by mistake.