Homeland Security Secretary orders review of Katrina recovery
Janet Napolitano, President Obama’s newly appointed secretary of Homeland Security, issued an “active directive”, ordering “an immediate review of what additional steps are needed to fully implement the 2006 post-Katrina emergency Management Reform Act,” the Times Picayune reports today. Napolitano isn’t wasting time, she wants an oral report by Feb. 9 and a final report on Feb. 23. The TP story also cites a short list for FEMA administrators, including retired Army Lt. General Russel Honore, who made a lasting impression on residents of the state for his effectiveness during the immediate recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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.