There's a new organization for Francophiles in Acadiana. Alliance Français de Lafayette ' the newest member of a 100-year-old national federation promoting French language and culture ' just kicked off its membership drive. Faustine Hillard, an administrative assistant at CODOFIL and executive director of the new alliance, says the time is right. She regularly receives phone calls from locals needing travel information, as well as from visitors from France in search of French-speaking Louisianans. "There was a desire for a meeting place," she says. The alliance will provide a cultural meeting center for travelers, as well as an ambitious schedule of French classes and programming.
Building on local French conversation groups that Hillard describes as "islands of French," the alliance will offer classes in standard, Cajun and Creole French. "The lost generation, those from 30 to 60 years in age, their parents learned, their children are learning, they want to be able to talk to both," says Hillard. Beginner, intermediate and conversational French classes will be offered.
Wednesday nights the public is invited to activities ranging from lectures on the culture of Francophone counties to cinema français. French cooking classes, wine tastings, Francophone dinners, theatrical productions and storytelling for children are also in the works. Hillard particularly emphasizes the theatre, which is aimed at high school students who have completed French immersion programs. "Those who have come back from the four-week immersion in Nova Scotia, they have nowhere to continue," she says.
Classes and plays will be held at Cité Des Arts, building on an established tradition of conversational French meetings. The Acadiana Center for the Arts will host cultural activities as well. Other partners in the alliance include Louisiana Folk Roots, Le Centre International de Lafayette, UL Lafayette and Philippe's Wine Cellar. Classes and activities begin in October, and more information and membership rates are available by calling 262-5810. ' MT
DIRE DOME
During a Lafayette Consolidated Government budget session last week, Cajundome Director Greg Davis asked the city-parish council to step up its support of the aging arena, which will be 20 years old in November.
Davis wants local government to help him lobby the state for $10.5 million to renovate the dome. For the past three years, the state legislature has turned down the Cajundome's requests for the capital improvement funds. This has come in spite of the state's plans to spend more than $15 million for new civic centers in New Iberia and Shreveport, according to this year's capital outlay budget.
Davis argues that the increased competition the dome now faces from other regional arenas makes the need for renovations even more pressing. He warned the council that if the dome is not properly maintained, it could end up suffering the same fate as the Seattle Kingdome, which was imploded in 2000.Â
The Cajundome's struggle to get state funding prompted Councilman Rob Stevenson to say, "It's time for our Lafayette delegation to get together and do something for us besides just holding office." ' NS
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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