Lafayette district court Judge Thomas Duplantier today deferred until Aug. 17 ruling on a Special Motion to Strike a defamation lawsuit filed against The Independent Weekly by former Stanford Group. Co. Vice President Tiffany Angelle. In the meantime, attorneys for both sides will be filing additional briefs and affidavits; Angelle’s counsel was advised by Duplantier to demonstrate how The Independent’s reporting on the collapse of Stanford Group Co. and Angelle’s role with the financial company has caused professional damages, and to demonstrate why Angelle is a private individual and not a public person.
The Independent is seeking to have the lawsuit thrown out and filed the Special Motion to Strike based on anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) legislation adopted by Louisiana lawmakers in 1999. The legislation is designed to protect the media and citizens against lawsuits aimed at chilling free speech and inquiry in matters of public interest.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to offer shares of its stock to the public for the first time.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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