Traditional music degree on tap at UL.
By Dominick Cross
In a 1965 editorial, titled “They Call That Music??!!” Burton Grindstaff wrote in the Opelousas Daily World: “Cajuns brought some mighty fine things down from Novia [sic] Scotia with them, including their jolly selves, but their so-called music is one thing I wish they hadn’t.”
Lafayette’s new superintendent wants the school system to get between students and illegal drug use.
By Heather Miller
This story is the second in a two-part series on Pat Cooper’s turnaround plan.
For every 300 students drug tested in the Central Community School System in East Baton Rouge Parish, five test positive for illegal substances, according to a September 2010 report from Baton Rouge’s WBRZ. Whether that number is lower in Lafayette Parish middle and high schools will likely be a calculable statistic by next year, as Superintendent Pat Cooper has included in his six-year district turnaround plan a pilot program for random drug testing in the district.
Assistant DA Keith Stutes is seeking answers in potentially flawed OWI prosecutions.
By Leslie Turk
Just days after District Attorney Mike Harson informed The Advocate that he had appointed an assistant district attorney to look into whether some people cited for OWI had actually performed their community service work, sources told The Independent that ADA had subpoenaed individuals to appear for questioning.
Gov. Bobby Jindal got his way on education reform, but the debate is far from over.
By Jeremy Alford
It was a simple matter to label Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform package this session as a Republican effort, especially since it’s the party of the governor and the lawmakers who handled his legislation. However, some Republicans voted against Jindal’s education plan, and some Democrats stood with him.
For hardcore politics, look no further than the Legislature’s ‘legacy’ lawsuit debate.
By Jeremy Alford
The last few years have seen state Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, introduce one measure after another to smother the flames created by so-called legacy lawsuits in Louisiana. Legacy lawsuits arise from old — sometimes decades-old — contamination of land by oil and gas drillers. The litigation gets its name because subsequent drillers on contaminated lands “inherit” the liability created by previous, often defunct companies.
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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