By an overwhelming margin, the state House of Representatives rejected a bill by a retired lawman that would have allowed persons 21 and older with a concealed carry permit to pack heat on college campuses in Louisiana. The 86-18 vote was a resounding defeat for House Bill 27, authored by Rep. Ernest Wooten, R-Belle Chasse, a former sheriff. This was the second consecutive year Wooten floated the idea of arming college campuses, and, according to a report in The Advocate, he will give it a shot again next year.
The bill met with widespread opposition from university administrators and especially from campus police departments. All of the representatives from Acadiana voted against the measure. Three Democrats joined 15 Republicans in supporting the legislation.
The parliamentary process surrounding the bill reached a ridiculous crescendo when Shreveport Democrat Roy Burrell unsuccessfully offered two so-called “anti-hypocrite” amendments to the bill. The first would have allowed guns in the Capitol; the second would allow concealed weapons virtually everywhere they are currently prohibited, including churches and elementary schools. Read the full Advocate report here.
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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