Louisiana residents, beginning at the stroke of midnight Sunday, became subject to 660 new laws ranging from a prohibition on texting (and “sexting”) while driving, smoking “incense” products that mimic the effects of marijuana, keeping our dogs on short chains and attending cockfights.
On Tuesday the stretch of de Gaulle Square that runs between the City Club at River Ranch and the Town Square will officially close.
A civil suit targeting Louisiana’s new abortion laws led a federal judge in Baton Rouge to issue a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement until an Aug. 24 hearing.
Reeling from consecutive years of budget cuts and with more severe contractions on the horizon, higher education institutions statewide including UL Lafayette have begun preparing worst case scenarios for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
David Vitter and Charlie Melancon may still have primary elections ahead of them before their anticipated showdown in the November general election for U.S. Senate, but that isn't stopping them from squaring off against each other early.
More oil washes up on the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama.
This one will probably go straight into that stack of invitations that President Obama has no intention of responding to, right alongside the invites from crazy old classmates and fringe advocacy groups, but Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle has extended the offer nonetheless.
There are signs of new life in Louisiana’s oiled marshes.
Lafayette residents hoping significant changes to consolidated government stemming from the charter commission can come sooner than later got a dose of reality Wednesday night.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell announced late Tuesday that a panel of federal judges has ruled that lawsuits related to the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill should be consolidated and transferred to federal court in New Orleans.
Controversial oil man Matt Simmons last theory raises more than a few eyebrows.
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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