Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for A Better Louisiana hosted the first televised U.S. Senate debate last night. Throughout the hour-long event, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and her opponent, state treasurer John Kennedy, fielded questions on the economy, and the current crisis facing the financial industry, as well as health care, federal earmarks and Iraq. Video of the debate can be viewed here on LPB’s Web site. Throughout the debate, Kennedy often painted Landrieu as too liberal, criticizing her proposals for injecting capital into banks and mandating expanded health coverage as bordering on socialism. Landrieu often responded by citing reports that rate her as a centrist Senator, and by noting Kennedy ran for the Senate just four years ago as a Democrat.
Toward the end of the session, the candidates were given the opportunity to quiz each other. Landrieu asked Kennedy why he opposed a recent bill she co-sponsored along with her Republican colleague, Sen. David Vitter - and supported by Gov. Jindal - providing $1.12 billion in aid to farmers affected by recent Gulf storms and flooding in the midwest. The bill was stalled by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who is a supporter of Kennedy’s. Kennedy’s campaign proclaimed in an email newsletter to supporters that Coburn “caught Mary Landrieu red handed playing politics with our farmers.” In the debate, Kennedy crawfished, saying it wasn’t the bill he opposed but the process. Kennedy used his question to press Landrieu on her support for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, noting that he has been rated as the most liberal member of the Senate. “Why is he going to be better for Louisiana than Sen. McCain?” asked Kennedy. Landrieu drew some cheers and laughs when she responded; “John, I know you’re trying real hard but Sen. McCain’s coattails aren’t long enough for you.”
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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