C'est Bon
Another feather in Lafayette’s “Cool Town” cap was bestowed last week when Festival International de Louisiane was named Best World Music Festival in the 2012 About.com Readers’ Choice Awards.
Pas Bon
In an exchange at last week’s council meeting about a projected $5 million shortfall in LCG’s operating budget to man two proposed fire stations, Bellard trotted out his usual bogeymen: the horse farm and non-governmental organizations.
Couillion
State Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, is cawing for Louisiana Family Forum during this year’s legislative session.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
C'est Bon
Whether your opinion on electronic enforcement of speed limits and traffic signals in Lafayette is “Oh, brother!” or “Big Brother,” the data show consolidated government’s SafeLight/SafeSpeed programs are achieving their desired goal: raising reve ... woops ... changing driver behavior.
Pas Bon
A recent tour by National Wildlife Federation researchers of Louisiana marshes affected by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill found abundant evidence that the state’s coastal marshes and the wildlife that depend on them are still facing adverse effects nearly two years after the spill.
Couillon
We’re struggling to determine who is more cringe worthy: the Louisiana residents lodging “many inquiries” over President Barack Obama’s citizenship and asking Secretary of State Tom Schedler to block the president from appearing on the Nov. 6 presidential ballot, or Schedler himself for deigning to acknowledge these crackpots’ widely and officially debunked conspiracy.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
C'est Bon
With little surprise but with much fanfare Lafayette proudly accepted the sobriquet “South’s Tastiest Town” last week during a reception at the Acadiana Center of the Arts.
Pas Bon
Political payback has a long, bipartisan history in state politics, so it came as little surprise last week when Rep. Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa, was canned from his post as vice chairman of the House Committee on Insurance by Speaker Chuck Kleckley.
Couillon
Amazingly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone is still getting his federal prosecutor paycheck — he’s on annual paid leave as of this writing — even though his boss in New Orleans, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, revealed last week that Perricone had confessed to being the anonymous reader who posted hundreds of comments on The Times-Picayune’s website...
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
C'est Bon
Freshman state Rep. Stephen Ortego is teaming up with Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Pat Cooper in an innovative attempt to bring Cooper’s proven model of school-based health and wellness to Lafayette Parish.
Pas Bon
Gov. Bobby Jindal sent “a chilling message,” as gubernatorial gadfly/blogger C.B. Forgotston aptly put it, when he fired the executive director of the state Office of Elderly Affairs last week after she spoke candidly — and contrary to the administration party line — about a plan in the governor’s proposed budget to consolidate her office within the much larger bureaucracy of the Department of Health and Hospitals.
Couillon
last week’s crudely rendered — editorially as well as artistically — cartoon pantomiming the most threadbare cliché about black America’s insatiable fondness for fried chicken was just, well, stupid.
Wednesday, March 3, 2012
C'est Bon
After decades of logging and oil/gas production, the Atchafalaya Basin is now, finally, in good hands.
Pas Bon
The paranoia and enmity between LUS Fiber and its telecom competitors in Lafayette just won’t go away.
Couillon
An investigation by the National Football League concludes that dozens of members of the New Orleans Saints’ defense — players and some coaches — during the tenure of Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams participated in an illegal pay-for-performance program that included a “bounty” rewarded to players for inflicting injuries on opposing players.
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
Most Read
in case you missed it