Wednesday, May 18, 2011
C’EST BON
State Rep. Rickey Hardy’s bill to make affiliates of housing authorities subject to the state’s public records law won overwhelming support in the House, which voted 97-0 to strip their exemption from the sunshine law.
PAS BON
That sinking feeling again.
COUILLON
It’s a testament to what a raw topic public education in Louisiana has become:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
C’EST BON
Kudos to Baton Rouge-area newspaper editor and former state Rep. Woody Jenkins for waging a righteous fight for the public’s right to know. Jenkins spent 28 years representing his Baton Rouge district in the Legislature, but his most important work for democracy is unfolding now in the suburb of Central.
PAS BON
Lafayette Parish Democratic Executive Committee secretary Mike Stagg caused a stir last week when his YouTube video, “Lafayette Sucker Tax,” started making the rounds.
COUILLON
The jury is still out on whether waterboarding gleans critical intel from enemy combatants.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
C’EST BON
A communal effort to plant a fruit orchard in an underprivileged neighborhood in west Lafayette Parish is something we can all sink our teeth into.
PAS BON
As hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors alike enjoyed what may very well go down as the best Festival International to date-
COUILLON
Aspiring City-Parish Councilman Craig Spikes appears eager to join Dumb and Dumber in opposing NGO funding.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
C’EST BON
Getting deadbeat parents to catch up with their child support payments will be less of a craps shoot beginning May 20. That’s when the state’s riverboats, racetrack slots and land-based casinos will begin running gambling winners through a state database to see who owes what.
PAS BON
While we were initially willing to accept that it got lost in the mail or misplaced, we’re beginning to feel like we got played.
COUILLON
Metairie Republican state Rep. John LaBruzzo’s wingnut bona fides are well established.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
C’EST BON
The Louisiana Science Education Act, signed into law in 2008 by biology major Gov. Bobby Jindal and derided by supporters of mainstream biology education as a Trojan Horse for creationists, is being targeted by a bill that would repeal the controversial act.
PAS BON
Amid the steady stream of positive economic news for Lafayette specifically and Louisiana in general comes a sobering reminder that we’re not immune to the nation’s economic torpor:
COUILLON
Open letter to Downtown Lafayette Unlimited: Don’t just look out the window, y’all; call a meteorologist. And be patient.
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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