1. WHY THE WHITE HOUSE IS STICKING WITH MORSI The Egyptian leader — despite questions about his commitment to democracy — remains a key American partner in brokering peace between Israel and its neighbors.
2. DEMOCRATS’ LATEST STANCE: NO CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY OR MEDICARE As the clock ticks on the “fiscal cliff,” many in the party — emboldened by the election — no longer want to consider cuts that once were on the bargaining table.
3. WHERE WEDNESDAY’S POWERBALL JACKPOT RANKS The $500 million pot is the second-highest in lottery history, behind only the $656 million Mega Millions prize in March.
4. SUSAN RICE’S PROSPECTS GROW CLOUDY The would-be secretary of state will meet with two more GOP senators Wednesday amid fresh concern about comments she made after the Benghazi attack.
5. BANKERS SMUGGLED MILLIONS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN An international report shows how Kabul Bank officers and their friends and relatives got rich off $861 million in fraudulent loans.
6. WHAT WAS FOUND INSIDE THE FACTORY WHERE 112 WERE KILLED An AP reporter searching the factory finds piles of shorts from Wal-Mart’s Faded Glory brand and rap star Sean Combs ENYCE label.
7. TWIN CAR BOMBS IN DAMASCUS KILL 34 PEOPLE The explosions were in a district that is mostly loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. 8. WHO MADE WINNING THE MIRROR-BALL TROPHY A REALITY Melissa Rycroft didn’t win on “The Bachelor” or her first stint on “Dancing With the Stars” but she won the dance show’s ‘All Stars’ competition.
9. U.N. ON VERGE OF RECOGNIZING PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD The U.S. and Israel strongly oppose the resolution, which would add weight to Palestinian claims for a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
10. HOW STEROID ALLEGATIONS WILL PLAY IN HALL OF FAME VOTING Baseball greats Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa will appear on Wednesday’s ballot for the first time.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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