FEMA says it will gladly hand over documents requested by The Advocate, but only after the Baton Rouge newspaper coughs up a $209,990 photocopying fee. The federal agency says it will charge 10 cents a page - after generously waiving the fee for the first 100 pages, but charging for the next 2,099,900 pages. FEMA says none of the requested documents are stored on computers or are available electronically. The Advocate first requested the documents from FEMA in September 2006, asking for "copies of contracts, billing invoices and payments along with documents regarding inspection and maintenance contracts FEMA awarded after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck Louisiana." FEMA responded to the request in May 2007 with the astronomical fee, adding that the paper had 10 days to turn over a check for the documents or the FOIA request would be considered withdrawn.
The Advocate responded to FEMA in a June 14, 2007, letter asking the agency to explain its decision, including why the newspaper had a 10-day deadline to respond when FEMA had taken nine months to answer the newspaper’s request. ...
Nearly nine months later, FEMA responded in a March 4 letter saying it would waive the 10-day deadline. ...
The Advocate also contends that FEMA has never charged a cent to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel for information it provided to that paper, including 27 CDs and 9,000 pages of documents.
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.
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