1. ATTACKED BY AN UNEXPECTED ENEMY The AP’s Robert Burns reports that Afghan soldiers, not the Taliban, were responsible for an attack that killed two U.S. soldiers inside an Afghan army base in 2011.
2. WHY EGYPT’S MEDIA SHUT DOWN Several newspapers suspended publication to protest decrees that would give President Mohammed Morsi nearly unrestricted powers. 3. RYAN MOVES FROM CAMPAIGN TO ‘FISCAL CLIFF’ The former vice presidential contender has joined GOP strategy meetings for dodging a budget meltdown.
4. WHO IS HAPPIEST ABOUT THE ROYAL PREGNANCY Americans just might rival their British cousins in their excitement over a new heir to the throne.
5. AH-CHOO! Flu season came earlier than it has in a decade, and with a strain that tends to make people sicker. 6. REBUILD, DON’T MOVE OUT A New York City program aims to repair storm-battered homes rather than finding new digs for thousands. 7. WHY PHOENIX POLICE WANT TO FIND AN 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL Authorities say the girl has leukemia and could die within days if her parents don’t bring her back to the hospital.
8. NEW JUDGE NEEDED IN FORT HOOD TRIAL A military court tosses the judge from the case, saying he didn’t appear impartial after ordering the suspect in the 2009 rampage to shave his beard. 9. TAKING A TEST TO BECOME A TEACHER The national teachers’ union calls for a written test much like a lawyer’s bar exam and a minimum grade point average.
10. ROOKIE’S 1-POINT WIN TIGHTENS THE RACE FOR THE NFC EAST Robert Griffin III’s touchdown gave the Washington Redskins a 17-16 win over the New York Giants and put the Redskins a game out of first place.
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.