The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Thursday voted in favor of purchasing several science textbooks, despite opposition from creationists who argue the books teach evolution too matter-of-factly. The board also voted to adopt a grading system for public schools that assign schools letter grades similar to student report cards.
Heading a beleaguered agency whose every move from the past few years is being investigated by state and federal officials has broad appeal, as more than 100 people have applied of the executive director’s position at the Lafayette Housing Authority.
By a 6-1 voice vote Tuesday, a committee of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved several science textbooks for Louisiana public high schools — books that had come under fire from creationists and advocates of intelligent design who argue the textbooks are dogmatic about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
There’s nothing like success to cause problems. That’s certainly the case for New Iberia’s Bayou Teche Museum, which finally opened its doors this year, after nearly two decades of planning.
Once again it’s thank God for Mississippi, which comes in 50th to Louisiana’s 49th on a ranking of the healthiest states.
The Lafayette City-Parish Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday night to vote on an introductory ordinance that would grant a 2 percent pay raise for Lafayette Consolidated Government employees.
BP oil spill tops Yahoo's list of most popular subjects at the website.
With the state facing down a budget shortfall that could potentially reach $2 billion, legislators and a new advocacy group brought a wide array of gripes and requests Thursday to the Board of Regents.
The Daily Advertiser’s plan to publish an exclusive special section, “In the event that STM wins Friday night,” came to a screeching halt Thursday when readers and other local team boosters called foul.
UL students concerned about the future of the German-language degree program are circulating a petition on campus and have established an on-line petition urging the administration not to discontinue the program.
After the Lafayette Parish School Board stunned many in attendance at its special meeting on Monday, Nov. 15, voting to shutter N.P. Moss Middle and turn it into the new Thibodaux Career and Technical High School, State Rep. Rickey Hardy complained to both the state attorney general and DA Mike Harson that he believed the board violated the state’s open meetings law.
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.
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