The president of Kaplan’s Chic-A-La-Pie Krewe says the group plans to formalize rules about Mardi Gras float themes to ensure that floats like the one Dr. Glenn Stewart entered in Lafayette’s Independent Parade last Tuesday don’t roll.
Lafayette Superintendent Pat Cooper continues to challenge the old way of doing things in our public school system, demanding greater accountability from those around him.
C'est Bon
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana says it welcomes Gov. Bobby Jindal’s announcement that a legislative package is being produced to clarify the sweeping ethics reforms laws passed shortly after the governor began his first term — reforms that have since been widely criticized for making ethics enforcement toothless and creating confusion as to which agencies are responsible for investigating and enforcing ethics laws and penalizing scofflaws.
Pas Bon
The majority of state workers will not be impacted by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plans to reform the state’s indebted pension system, which leaves the 33 percent of state employees who would have to cut their benefits and wait longer to retire wondering why they’re the ones being targeted over others.
Couillon
Nothing exhorts a team to victory like fans in the stands, so it’s a wonder the Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team is within sniffing distance of first place in the Sun Belt Conference’s Western Division.
C'est Bon
Now we’re getting somewhere. After more than a decade of dust collecting on the Lafayette In a Century master plan for Lafayette Parish, the Comprehensive Plan Citizens Advisory Committee took its first steps last week, holding an inaugural luncheon-meeting and setting the general agenda for what will be 18 months of public hearings, meetings with planning consultants and ultimately legislative initiatives before the City-Parish Council.
Pas Bon
Susan G. Komen affiliates nationwide are no doubt thankful the dust up with Planned Parenthood ended as abruptly as it began last week and has already begun fading into the din of the 24-hour news cycle.
Couillon
The Hat is a little crumpled these days. A musky aroma de couillon continues to emanate from LSU head football coach Les Miles, now one day shy of a month since The Disaster in the Dome.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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