The nonprofit government watchdog Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has just released its fourth
annual list of “The 20 most corrupt members of Congress” and Louisiana is well represented. Not
surprisingly, indicted New Orleans Congressman William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson returns to the roster. Perhaps more
controversially, second term Sen. Mary Landrieu has found herself on the list
for the first time. CREW cites Landrieu’s support for a $2 million earmark that
went to one of her campaign contributors to implement the Voyager literacy
program in D.C. schools. The earmark was the subject of a scathing Washington
Post investigation earlier this year, which noted how the reading program was largely
untested and how one of the heads of Voyager threw a major fundraiser for
Landrieu around the time the funds were appropriated by Congreess. Landrieu has since
defended herself with documentation showing that the earmark for Voyager was
supported by D.C. school officials and had been in the works several months
prior to the fundraiser.
With CREW’s dubious distinction, Landrieu’s campaign has prepared a fact sheet disputing the charge of corruption. The campaign says Voyager is a worthwhile children’s
literacy program supported by many officials including La.’s other Senator,
David Vitter. Landrieu’s camp also cites a Jan. 2008 article by the Capitol
Hill newspaper Roll Call alleging that CREW’s ethics targets are at times
at political odds with the organization's donors, which it does not disclose. Landrieu is up for re-election this year, facing off against Republican John Kennedy in the Nov. 4 election. Kennedy's campaign has pounced on Landrieu's inclusion in CREW's "most corrput" list. Kennedy spokesman Lenny Alcivar says the list shows that "Washington is broken - and Mary Landrieu helped break it."
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
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.
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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