1. WHAT THE NEW YORK SHOOTER’S NOTE SAID William Spengler wanted to burn down the neighborhood and “do what I like doing best, killing people” before shooting at firefighters.
2. SAME WEAPON USED IN NEW YORK AND NEWTOWN Police in Webster, N.Y., recovered a .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle — the same caliber and make used to kill 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school.
3. TORNADOES FOR CHRISTMAS The twisters spun across Texas and Alabama, blew the roofs off homes and killed three people.
4. SCARED TO SHOP Retail spending grew at the slowest pace since the 2008 recession in a holiday season dampened by economic uncertainty.
5. REPUBLICANS LOOKING FOR COMPROMISE After President Obama’s re-election, many are willing to bend on immigration, taxes and gun issues.
6. BACK TO THE OLD IN JAPAN Shinzo Abe was voted back into office, restoring power to the conservatives that ran Japan for most of the post-World War II era.
7. CRASH LANDING FOR CHRISTMAS TOURISTS A flight headed for a popular spot in Myanmar slammed into a road, killing at least two people and injuring 11.
8. A DIRECTOR AND ACTOR, BUT NOT A POLITICIAN Ben Affleck took himself out of the running for U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s Massachusetts seat.
9. EASY TO GET A ROOM FOR INAUGURATION Obama’s Jan. 21 second-term festivities are expected to draw up to 800,000 visitors, down from 1.8 million in 2008.
10. HERO DOG FROM PHILIPPINES BEATS CANCER Kabang, who lost her snout when she jumped in front of a motorcycle to save two young girls, is in remission after six weeks of chemotherapy.
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.