$5,031 Per patient cost at interim Charity Hospital in New Orleans in 2009, versus $2,794 at similarly sized teaching hospitals. Source: State Treasurer John Kennedy/Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group. Kennedy has been arguing for greater efficiencies in the way the state runs its charity hospitals.
90 Days the Obama administration is proposing for BOEM to review environmental and impact plans for offshore drilling permits. The current review time is 30 days. U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter are objecting to the extension, arguing it will further delay a process that needs to be accelerated. The Commission staff can comfortably conclude that the decision to green-light the underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expensive Louisiana berms project was flawed.
— Dec. 16 National Oil Spill Commission report calling Gov. Bobby Jindal’s controversial berm project a waste of money; the berms captured about 1,000 barrels of oil out of the almost 5 million believed to have spilled. BP spent $220 million to build 10 miles of sand berm and has committed an additional $140 million to complete the project.
1.4 % La.’s population increase since 2000, the third lowest growth in the U.S. and reason the state will lose one congressional seat (and one of its electoral votes) Source: U.S. Census Bureau
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.