How Marc Henry’s work in the hospitality industry inspired him to decrease the carbon footprint of his diesel truck
By Heather Miller
With the flip of a switch, Lafayette’s Marc Henry can transform an older model pickup truck designed to run on conventional diesel fuel into a cleaner burning, gas-saving vehicle that emits carbon dioxide levels akin to a cornfield.
The Lafayette Parish School System is scurrying to accommodate the exploding population of students in Youngsville. By Heather Miller
A new elementary school for an ever-growing and overcrowded population of students in Youngsville could be in the works as early as the start of next school year, pending board approval of Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Pat Cooper’s fix for a problem that at its height left south Lafayette Parish’s two most affluent communities publicly discussing a possible break from the school system.
A familiar face is introducing the country’s top rated fast-food burger to Lafayette this fall.
The Independent’s sister publication ABiz first reported in late 2010 that Billy Jacob, whose family owned and operated Jacob’s Restaurant at Four Corners from 1935-1985, had returned to Louisiana that year from Atlanta to develop the successful Virginia-based chain Five Guys Burgers and Fries and was planning a Lafayette store. Seventeen years before coming home, Jacob worked for Popeyes’ corporate entity as executive chef.
Lafayette’s schools chief is eyeing an intervention model that is thriving in Iberia Parish.
By Heather Miller
As Lafayette Parish Schools Superintendent Pat Cooper continues to hammer home the centerpieces of his district turnaround plan, one doesn’t have to look farther than neighboring parishes in Acadiana to see a rare prototype of Cooper’s vision that’s been flourishing in Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parish schools for more than a decade.
Two aspiring journalists have joined The Independent and ABiz staffs as summer interns. Elizabeth Rose, a Lake Charles native and journalism senior at UL Lafayette, is editor-in-chief of the university’s student newspaper The Vermilion and has won Society of Professional Journalists awards in feature and news writing, as well as two Best of the South awards in news writing. Lafayette native Katie Macdonald is a junior in mass communication at LSU and is managing editor of Legacy, LSU’s student magazine.
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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