1. BRITISH BANK TO PAY RECORD FINE HSBC’s agreement to pay $1.9 billion is the biggest ever in a case involving a bank.
2. WHY AMERICANS ARE AFRAID OF THE ‘FISCAL CLIFF’ Voters tell the AP they have tough financial problems and have no confidence that Washington can reach a deal.
3. CLASHES EXPECTED IN CAIRO Supporters and opponents of Egypt’s Islamist leader planned to stage rival mass rallies ahead of a vote on a constitution that has polarized the nation.
4. MORSI LOOKS MORE AND MORE LIKE A DICTATOR Some say it should come as no surprise: heavy-handed rule has a history in Egypt and in the region. 5. MEXICO PRESIDENT NOT BACKING DOWN FROM WAR ON DRUGS Enrique Pena Nieto tells The AP’s Katherine Corcoran that legalization of marijuana in two U.S. states won’t keep him from prosecuting it in Mexico.
6. WHY INVESTIGATORS ARE LOOKING AT THE OWNER OF JENNI RIVERA’S PLANE The Las Vegas company was involved in a federal drug investigation before the plane crash that killed the singer in Mexico.
7. SCALIA REBUTS CRITICS WHO SAYS HE IS ANTI-GAY The Supreme Court justice says legislative bodies can ban what they believe to be immoral when asked about his rulings on sodomy laws.
8. ANOTHER JUSTICE SHARES PERSONAL SIDE Sonia Sotomayor says her fear of dying young from diabetes kept her from having children.
9. APPLE TAKES AUSTRALIANS THE WRONG WAY Police say the software giant’s mapping service is “potentially life-threatening” for sending drivers looking for the southern city of Mildura to a remote desert.
10. WHY ALAN ALDA WANTS TO KNOW WHAT TIME IS The “MASH” star posed the question from his childhood to scientists as a visiting professor at a New York college.
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.