[Editor’s Note: 10 Things is a daily Associated Press feature highlighting the big news events of the day. IND Media, the parent company of IND Monthly, ABiz, theind.com and satellite publications, has contracted with the AP to provide AP-generated content to our readers on a daily basis. If there's a water cooler at your office, read 10 Things before heading there.]
1. SUPERSTORM NEARS EAST COAST
Sandy is expected to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey bringing high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall.
2. AIR TRAFFIC COMES TO A NEAR HALT AS NORTHEAST GEARS FOR SANDY
Thousands of flight cancellations mean passengers are stranded from Hong Kong to Europe.
3. MEET THE GIANTS’ UNLIKELY WORLD SERIES HEROES
Series MVP Pablo Sandoval kicked off the sweep with three home runs in Game 1. Marco Scutaro clinched the victory with his hit in the tenth inning in Game 4.
4. CAMPAIGN’S LAST WEEK TURNS INTO SCHEDULING NIGHTMARE
Obama and Romney are grappling with how to continue campaigning while a massive storm is hitting the nation’s eastern third.
5. WHERE NEWSPAPER ENDORSEMENTS REALLY MATTER
Swing voters pay attention to newspapers’ picks in local and state elections whose candidates and issues don’t get so much coverage.
6. U.S. HEALTH INSURERS’ BIG DILEMMA ON OBAMACARE
Sure, the industry hates much of the new law. But UnitedHealth Group, BlueCross Blue Shield and others stand to rake in billions from new customers.
7. WHAT THE ELECTIONS HOLD FOR ISRAEL’S DEFENSE MINISTER
Despite his illustrious political career, Ehud Barak is looking at what many think is a possible end for his ambitions.
8. LOOK WHO SEEMS TO BE BEST AT KNOWING HOW TO UNPLUG
It just might be tech-industry folks, who take long, unwired vacations and aren’t shy about setting “away” messages.
9. HOW SOME INDONESIAN GIRLS BECOME SEX SLAVES
Older men are using Facebook to meet teenagers whom they kidnap, abuse and then traffick within the country and abroad.
10. FOR CATALANS, SOCCER CLUB IS A SYMBOL OF NATIONALISM
“Barca” carries the dreams of the wealthy northeastern region of Spain as the country’s financial crisis fuels separatist sentiment.
JUNE 16 This story in the Advocate tells us that the state Department of Education is taking a look at the Course Choice program. They're doing that because the legislature (probably responding to reporting by Tom Aswell, who does not work for the Advocate) ordered them to make sure that these private companies aren't signing six-year-olds up for high school Latin classes without their parents' knowledge or consent.
JUNE 17 Columnist James Gill writes about the recent complaint of death row inmates at Angola: it's hot as you-know-what in their cells, with the heat index topping 120 for months. Since we're not executing people anymore (Gill opines) then we should probably officially end the practice of putting people on death row. The prisoners, by the way, are not asking for cool breezes: they only ask for clean water and a temp that doesn't top 88.
JUNE 17 Here's blogger Ian McGibboney's take on the Baton Rouge plan to give bus tickets to homeless people who have a home with family who live far away. Taken from one point of view, it could be a good solution for some people. But McGibboney raises some good points here, including this one: Why not improve opportunities for everybody in Baton Rouge so these people can find the jobs they came to BR for?
JUNE 17 Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry talks here about the Zimmerman trial, but the real topic is the concept of a black man being more dangerous, somehow, than a white man in a fight. It is an interesting discussion, and one that may enlighten people who think that racism doesn't exist because nobody's keeping black folks from eating at the Woolworth lunch counter.
JUNE 17 Here's an interesting column from Baton Rouge Business Report's publisher, Rolfe McCollister, about anger against the government. It's brewing because of recent revelations about the IRS and the GSA, he says. It's readable, not just for the subject, but because of McCollister's collection of sources: Huffington Post, National Review and Wikipedia. That's a combo you don't see every day.
JUNE 17 In this American Press post, Jim Beam talks about the high school diploma track that lets kids who aren't interested in university get what they want and need out of high school. The diplomas get kids ready for technical school, Beam explains, and then he goes on to give some of the numbers. Some of these numbers might really surprise people who think technical school is second best. And, Beam adds, a college diploma does not guarantee anybody a job.
JUNE 17 The Washington Post reports here that OSHA is going to investigate the explosion that occurred last week in Donaldsonville, shortly after the other fatal accident in Geismar. As soon as the site is safe, State Police will be pulling out of the Donaldsonville plant to make way for OSHA investigators, the story reports. (Hey, here's an idea: why don't they go a couple miles down the road and figure out what happened when that massive sinkhole started sucking up land.)
JUNE 17 Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board of Supervisors in this post, taking a look at the many ways board members have served Gov. Jindal and not their university or their students. The board members are esteemed members of their fields, but can't seem to do anything but say "yes" to Jindal, regardless of the cost to LSU, Mann opines.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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