U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry appears so eager to challenge Lafayette Congressman Charles Boustany this fall he might have broken federal law to build name recognition in Lafayette.
By Walter Pierce
Jeff Landry, the freshman GOP congressman from New Iberia, spent last Wednesday wowing supporters with his fiscal fortitude at the back door of the man he hopes to replace next year in the Congress. The Cade Community Center where the town hall meeting was held is at the very western edge of Landry’s 3rd Congressional District, practically in spitting distance of the 7th Congressional District represented by U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette.
Opponents of an anti-bullying bill say it promotes a ‘gay agenda.’ But families of victims demand a change in how Louisiana schools handle bullies. By Alex Woodward
Tieler Garsaud, a sixth-grader at Abita Springs Middle School, testified before Louisiana’s House of Representatives last year. Up for a vote: an anti-bullying bill dubbed the Safe Schools Act, authored by state Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans. Garsaud, 12, who came out as gay to his parents at age 10, told lawmakers that all students, not just gay students, deserve to feel safe in school. Badon’s bill failed to pass.
Lafayette remains on a cool trajectory, but will our progress be retarded by agents of regression? Photos by Robin May
OK, OK, we’re drama queens at 551 Jefferson St. The sky isn’t falling. The angry horde of middle-aged, creaky-backed buzzkills who glower and wave the Constitution hasn’t taken over our fair city. Lafayette remains a progressive community — a “Cool Town” that attracts creative people and traffics in their technological innovation and their cultural products. A vibrant, bustling parish awash in festivals, art galleries, music venues and some of the best restaurants anywhere. A hopeful city.
What a few local experts in the area of wine, liquor and beer have to say about having spirits.
by Anna Purdy
Photos by Robin May
Booze. Hooch. Vino, hard liquor, spirits, beer and malted liquor — call it what you want but chances are you might drink it occasionally, and if you do it means you probably graduated from Mad Dog 20/20 to a nice Powers whiskey.
Acadian Ambulance is again under fire for its billing practices, and this time tens of thousands of Louisiana residents could be lining up for reimbursement through a class action lawsuit.
By Walter Pierce and Leslie Turk • Photos by Robin May
For Acadian Ambulance, a several-million-dollar judgment against it in a civil suit would be little more than an irritant; it’s the largest privately held ambulance company in the United States, part of a medical, safety, transportation and education enterprise with annual revenues in excess of $380 million. But moving forward, if a class-action lawsuit against the company is successful, it would likely mean the loss of many millions more in the future by putting an end to a very questionable billing practice at the heart of the lawsuit.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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