The IND Monthly was launched in August of 2003 to provide a forum for thinking, educated, involved readers who care deeply about Acadiana's future and help shape the community's vision for it.
Our readers are leaders. Whether they are business people or creatives, college students or grandparents, soccer moms and dads or singles, they don't sit on the sidelines. They are in the game - passionately - and make things happen.
They are influencers in their business and social circles. When it comes to news, they want to know the whole story. The IND's readers also care about the arts, culture and style. They are the essence of the joie de vivre that makes Acadiana so special.
Publishing partners Steve and Cherry Fisher May are veterans of the industry, having published The Times of Acadiana for eighteen years as well as ventures in Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Lake Charles, Louisiana, and San Antonio, Texas. (Under their leadership, The Times was named Newspaper of the Year by the National Newspaper Association.) Associate publisher Odie Terry, also a partner in The Ind, had oversight of special projects for The Times Publishing Group, which was sold in 1998.
The IND's offices at 551 Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana has also been home to Lafayette Music Store and the Artists Alliance.
Top management recruited some of the finest writers and photographers in the state for staff and contributing positions at The IND. This commitment to excellence resulted in 27 awards from The Louisiana Press Association after publishing only 16 issues in the timeframe eligible for the most recent statewide competition, including first place honors for best feature story, best investigative reporting, best editorial cartoon, best photo feature and most effective use of graphic design, among others.
In the months since that competition, The Ind has routinely scooped the other media and is credited by competitors and colleagues alike as having raised the bar for journalism in Acadiana.
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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