Glenn Stokes' mosquito spraying company, Mosquito Control Contractors Inc., will be out of a job in Iberia Parish in April 2006 after nearly a quarter century of doing business with the parish. Following a contentious lawsuit between parish government and Stokes over money squabbles and billing irregularities, MCCI relinquished the source reduction portion of the million-dollar-plus contract. Last week, the parish council voted to change the other half of the MCCI mosquito-spraying contract into an in-house program, ending a 23-year relationship with Stokes. MCCI retains two mosquito-spraying contracts with Lafayette and St. Martin Parishes. ' Mary Tutwiler
GRANT STREET OPTIONS
Grant Street Dancehall's possible move out of downtown ("Grant Street Dancehall to change address?" Nov. 23) has sparked a flurry of public interest that has owner Don Kight exploring more options for the live music venue's future.
"It has been remarkable to hear that Grant Street has meant so much to so many people," he says. "This transition period has been sort of sad for me so it's been nice to hear Grant Street is still so celebrated."
Kight says that he will still likely move the club, but that a couple of parties have approached him about buying the business. He says Downtown Development Authority also has contacted him and plans to show him other possible downtown venues for the club. Kight is looking for a larger building so he can book more big-name acts and also wants to have guaranteed parking for customers, a rarity for downtown venues.
He's also exploring having a kitchen in the club and considering locations outside the parish that would allow him to stay open past 2 a.m. Along with the new amenities, Kight recognizes the importance of maintaining the club's vintage feel and quality acoustics. "Part of what people love about Grant Street is that it's in an old building," he says. "And being old myself, I'm glad that people appreciate that." ' Nathan Stubbs
OFFENSIVE HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Last week's Times of Acadiana cover story, on trash pickup in post-Katrina New Orleans, featured the incredibly insensitive headline "Let Them Eat Garbage." TOA added insult to injury with its subhead, "Life in New Orleans gets even dirtier." ' Scott Jordan
SPEAKING OF TONE-DEAF â?¦
An open-letter advertisement from City-Parish President Joey Durel imploring Lafayette residents to write BellSouth and tell the telecom company to stop filing lawsuits challenging LUS' fiber-to-the-home initiative ran in last Sunday's Daily Advertiser. While the gist of the ad ' which was paid for by pro-fiber political action group Lafayette Yes ' is certainly warranted, Durel (or the ad's copywriter) crossed a line by injecting hurricane politics into the discussion. "In light of the recent hurricanes that ravaged our state, Lafayette is attempting to be part of the solution for rebuilding and reinvesting in our own future with our own money, not federal bailouts," the letter said.
If it's referring to BellSouth getting federal assistance, that's unclear. And with New Orleans struggling, coastal restoration funding essential to Louisiana's survival and Washington dragging its feet on relief monies, referring to "federal bailouts" in the context of hurricane damage is unfathomable. ' Scott Jordan
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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