1. OBAMA’S CONTROVERSIAL DEFENSE PICKS The president is nominating former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel defense secretary and counterterrorism John Brennan to head the CIA.
2. A ‘MINI-TRIAL’ FOR COLORADO THEATER SHOOTING SUSPECT As experts predict a plea deal, James Holmes’ weeklong preliminary hearing may be the closest thing to his trial over the rampage that killed 12 people.
3. LESS INTEREST IN GUN BUYS IN STATES WITH MASS SHOOTINGS An AP analysis finds requests for background checks late last year were among the lowest in Colorado and Connecticut.
4. CLINTON GOES BACK TO WORK The secretary of state is meeting with deputies Monday, more than a week after she was hospitalized with a blood clot.
5. GOOGLE VENTURES INTO NORTH KOREA Google CEO Eric Schmidt arrived Monday for a look at social media in the country with notoriously restrictive Internet policies.
6. HOW EUROPE’S UNIVERSITIES PREPARE STUDENTS Graduates say they feel untrained to even make professional calls in the workplace after leaving school.
7. WHO WON SPAIN’S $1.1 BILLION LOTTERY The annual “El Nino” jackpot was split among ticket holders in five regions, including Madrid.
8. 27-INCH TABLET TO DEBUT AT GADGET SHOW The IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC is the size of a coffee table and allows four people to use it simultaneously.
9. WHERE YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT HOW YOU LOOK AT THE GYM A new Dallas fitness club only allows members who are at least 50 pounds overweight and has no mirrors inside.
10. COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S BIG TEST No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama will have to play nothing less than a classic to match the hype for Monday night’s national championship.
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.