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Friday, December 29, 2006
Who wants to be a councilman? If this job description piques your interest then you may want to attend one of Councilman Bruce Conque's upcoming presentations aimed at recruiting candidates to run for city-parish council. Conque says he is giving a power point presentation, on the importance and impact of the 2007 parish elections, to as many groups as will have him. "The focal point is that a minimum 2/3's of the Council will be newly elected officials in 2008," Conque says. "And that is a unique opportunity for us to define government for the future of our community." In 2007, Councilmen Randy Menard, Chris Williams, Louis Benjamin and Lenwood Broussard are prevented by term limits from seeking re-election. Councilmen Bobby Badeaux and Marc Mouton have stated they are not interested in running for re-election. In the coming months, Conque is scheduled to make his presentation before the Lafayette Beavers Club, Concerned Citizens for Good Government, Lafayette Rotary North and the Acadiana Home Builders Association. Any other groups interested can contact him at 278-2155 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Go to Sugar Bowl and help Acadiana Youth As a state legislator, Michot is given dibs on two face-value LSU bowl tickets each year. Michot has previously donated Sugar Bowl tickets to the Acadiana Boys and Girls Club. If I'm not mistaken, the ebay auction is also made possible by new legislation passed this year sanctioning the online scalping of tickets
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
FCC challenges cable franchises You may recognize this issue as being very familiar to a contentious state cable franchise bill pushed by BellSouth earlier this year, which Gov. Blanco vetoed. Along with municipal groups like the National League of Cities, the issue is also attracting the interest of public access channels, like Acadiana Open Channel, who are funded through portions of cable franchise fees. (AOC recieves $220,000 annually of the parish's cable franchise funds). The Alliance for Community Media, of which AOC is a member, has been circulating this petition and encouraging supporters to lobby their congressional representatives. Can it get any worse for Gov. Blanco? Cynics might say Marchand's exploiting the situation for her own political gain, but it's some of her Ninth Ward constituents who are bearing the brunt of the Road Home bureaucratic nightmare. And nothing else to date seems to have gotten this program on track, so you can't blame Marchand for taking drastic action. As a point of reference, here's my blog post from more than a month ago on the Road Home program. Since then, only 52 more people have received checks. Inadequate? Try inexcusable As Independent Weekly contributing writer Jeremy Alford noted last week in a story about the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the Road Home program is moving agonizingly slow. It's simply inexcusable that out of more than 70,000 people who've applied for desperately needed money to rebuild or repair their hurricane-damaged homes, less than 30 have received their check from the LRA. This morning's Advocate story notes that Gov. Blanco used part of her press conference yesterday (primarily scheduled to tout a plant expansion) to say that the pace of the Road Home program was inadequate. "We're going to talk about what's causing the roadblocks. I need to know because I will not tolerate any slow action," she said. Well, it's been tolerated so far. And there's no telling how many applicants simply decided to throw in the towel and move out of state because of the infuriating bureaucracy bogging down the Road Home program. Make no mistake: the Road Home program is Blanco's program. And she needs to fix it fast, because it's becoming a maddening embarrassment in the recovery efforts.
Friday, December 15, 2006
best typo of the week Preliminary Corps report: Close MRGO with earthen damn At least it's changed in the lead paragraph: The controversial Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, blamed by many St. Bernard residents as providing a shortcut for the hurricane storm surge that inundated the parish, should be closed with an armored earthen dam at the Bayou la Loutre ridge, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended in a preliminary report submitted to Congress today. I think they should just add a comma and exclamation point to the headline, and then it sounds like a blast of medieval-flavored indignity: Close MRGO with earthen, damn!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
a Who Dat Christmas Hat tip to Rayne native and Dallas Morning News writer Joshua Benton, who posted the clip on his crabwalk.com blog.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Donna Landry Leaving LGMC Calling it the "toughest decision I ever made," Landry says she accepted the job because of the strong reputation and appeal of The Schumacher Group and the chance to apply her skills in a different area of health care. "I get to stay engaged in health care, still in the Lafayette community, with another highly reputable organization that's very mission-driven and focused, at a very high-energy pace," she says. LGMC has 1,600 employees, and Schumacher just under 600 — though it operates in 15 states. The former chairman of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, Landry has been with LGMC for almost two decades. She starts the new position Jan. 15. Landry will oversee key departments in the corporate office that support Schumacher's hospital contracts throughout its 15-state region. Owned by Dr. William Schumacher, an emergency medicine physician, the company is in its 13th year of business. Patrick Gandy, administrator of the Lafayette General Surgical Hospital, will replace Landry. He has been with the hospital for 13 years. Also at LGMC, Chief Nursing Officer Debbie Ford has accepted a similar post with Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge. Ford has worked at the local hospital for more than 20 years and will stay on through the end of the year. Federal judge: Katrina housing program a "legal disaster" "Let me make this clear," Leon told government attorney Michael Sitcov. "Tell FEMA that I'm expecting them to get going on this. Like immediately." Leon ruled that FEMA mishandled the transition from a short-term housing program to a longer-term program this spring and summer. Instead of explaining why funding was being cut, FEMA provided only computer-generated and sometimes conflicting program codes, Leon said. The judge ordered FEMA to explain those decisions so thousands of evacuees can understand the reasoning and decide whether to appeal. "I'm not looking for a doctoral dissertation," Leon said. "I'm looking for a couple of paragraphs in plain English." FEMA's response? Sitcov said that FEMA's computer system cannot do what the judge wants. The eight-year-old system is set up only to produce program codes, he said. The program also cannot say for certain how many evacuees in Texas were covered by Leon's order or how many people appealed the denial of their aid, Sitcov said. "It's not as adept at doing these kinds of machinations," Sitcov said. Is there anything that FEMA is adept at?
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
And the winner is ... Guyland Leday!  The rest of the world may soon get a taste of south Louisiana in a national television commercial, courtesy of Opelousas wunderkind accordionist Guyland Leday.Leday is one of five finalists in Oscar Mayer's Sing the Jingle contest. According to the contest's rules, he will travel on a 5-day trip for four to tape a television commercial for Oscar Mayer, with $5,000 spending cash. Leday's perforamance could then be aired in a national advertising campaign for the famed bologna and weiners. For more about Guyland Leday, read this post on Da Bog. (photo couresty of David Simpson, LSUE) Season of Renewal The entire 9-article series can be viewed here. Also be sure to check out the incredible photos from Times photographers Cheryl Gerber and Lee Celano. One more for the playoffs  If the New Orleans Saints beat the Washington Redskins this Sunday, they clinch first place in the NFC South and guarantee a playoff spot.And depending on the outcome and a variety of scenarios with their final two games against the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers, they could clinch the No. 2 seed in the NFC, earn a bye first week of the playoffs and a home playoff game the following week. To say that excitement over the Saints season is reaching fever pitch is the understatement of the year. More than 300 fans were waiting at the New Orleans airport - at 2:30 a.m. - to greet the team after they crushed Dallas on Sunday night. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was blown away by the reception. "That was crazy," he said. "You would think that by 3 a.m. everybody would be sound asleep, but fans were out, and they were excited and they were pumped up. That's a great way to come home."
Friday, December 08, 2006
Lafayette man impounds reindeer The film was shot in both Shreveport and Natchitoches. You can also look for Lafayette resident, Marcus Brown, who helped launch a digital film program locally at South Louisiana Community College. Brown plays the part of "Officer Jefferson," a bicycle cop who impounds one of Santa's reindeer. Savoy nominated for a Grammy  Local musician Ann Savoy has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her work with Linda Ronstadt on Adieu False Heart in the Best Traditional Folk Album category. Savoy and Ronstadt were featured in The Independent's July 26 cover story Songbird Sisters.New Orleans Soul Queen Irma Thomas is also up for a Grammy for her album After the Rain in the Best Contemporary Blues Album. (Dr. John is also nominated in the same category for his Sippiana Hericane.) Thomas recorded the album at Dockside Studio in Maurice, with the help of local musicians Sonny Landreth, Dirk Powell and David Egan. Thomas was also the subject of an April 26 cover story in The Independent, Queen in Exile. Other Louisiana nominees include Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello, Tab Benoit, Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Harry Connick Jr. Read the list of Louisiana's nominees at Greg Hardison's satchmo.com Web site or the entire list of Grammy nominees. |
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