Congressional elections are right around the corner, and state Sen. Craig Romero, a Republican from New Iberia, continues his quest to claim a title that he lost about two years ago ' after being pushed out of the runoff by less than 1 percent. Since being defeated by current Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon, Romero has never ceased his fundraising operations. He has about $284,000 in cash on hand, according to the latest finance reports, which is meager compared to the incumbent's $700,000-plus total. But Romero seems to be positioning himself with major GOP players. Shortly after the storm, he was criticized for circulating a flyer in Washington, D.C., detailing how the storms forced out several Democratic bases in the 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses a large portion of south central and eastern Louisiana. And just last week, Romero made an aggressive media appeal for coverage of a hurricane wreckage tour he conducted with Congressman Bobby Jindal, the Metairie Republican who has become a power broker of sorts in D.C. ' Jeremy Alford
SUPREME FIBER?
Last week the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal handed down a ruling that ' again ' has sidetracked Lafayette Utilities System's plan to bring high-speed fiber optics into Lafayette homes. The new ruling favors BellSouth, but LUS can appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court to hear the case. If the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case, then Lafayette Consolidated Government would have to rewrite an ordinance for the bonds that were approved by residents to be brought into accordance with the Local Government Fair Competition Act. Gary McGoffin, local attorney and former chairman of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, says there's a good chance the Supreme Court will hear the case. "It's a public policy issue," he says, "and it's a significant issue." LUS has 30 days to appeal the ruling. ' R. Reese Fuller
BLANCO STEPS IT UP
Gov. Kathleen Blanco's been assaulted with non-stop criticism in the last four months for her lack of leadership, but maybe she's turned a corner. Blanco headed to New Orleans last week to try and stop the political idiocy in the Crescent City that's been holding up FEMA trailer deliveries. Crescent City Mayor Ray Nagin and New Orleans city council members have been squabbling for weeks over who has the final authority to approve trailer sites ' while thousands of residents who need trailers remain homeless. "This disagreement over housing cannot continue," Blanco told the council. "It must end, and it must end now." Blanco offered her services as a liaison to break the logjam and promised to listen to all parties, but also said she would take action, promising to "solve it myself" if the fighting continues. ' Scott Jordan
REMEMBERING A HERO
It only took the United States 30 years to acknowledge Hugh Thompson's heroism. In 1998, he received the Soldier's Medal from the U.S. Army for putting an end to the My Lai massacre in 1968, in which U.S. soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese civilians. Helicopter pilot Thompson and his gunner managed to save nine civilians.
The Georgia native called Lafayette home for the last 22 years. Funeral services will be held today for Thompson at the Delhomme Funeral Home Chapel. Over the holidays, Thompson was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly thereafter on Friday, Jan. 6, at the V.A. Medical Center in Pineville. He was 62 years old.
Trent Angers, the author of The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story, has published his thoughts on the lessons learned from Thompson's life at www.acadianhouse.com. ' RRF
PEEBLES LEAVING LOURDES
After only 2.5 years as president and chief executive officer at Our Lady of Lourdes, Bob Peebles is returning to Michigan. He previously worked for St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers in New York, where he commuted weekly from Michigan.
In a memo to the hospital staff and board, Peebles says he will leave the hospital by March 1. "This has been a difficult personal decision, but one that I need to make," he writes. "This involves family. I leave knowing that the foundation of the organization remains strong and the mission is clearly intact."
Within two months of joining Lourdes, Peebles began preparing the not-for-profit hospital for impending competition from Heart Hospital of Lafayette and Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital in part by eliminating 11 middle management positions; similar cuts followed. Since that time, he has continued to guide it through tough economic times.
Lourdes spokesman Berch Stelly says Peebles is declining media interviews. ' Leslie Turk
BEADS AND BARRICADES
This Mardi Gras season expect a couple weeks of barricades lining Lafayette streets along the parade route. With The Krewe of Carnivale en Rio scheduled to roll earlier than parades in previous years, Lafayette Consolidated Government Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley says residents will also see barriers along the parade route as early as Feb. 16. "The barricades will be pushed out of the way as they are in between Sunday and Tuesday," Stanley says, "so we're asking motorists to be very patient and very cautious for the extra days that the barricades will be out there." With the recent surge in traffic congestion and the added barricades in the right of way, Lafayette rush hour commutes should be more challenging than ever during Mardi Gras. ' RRF
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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