Wednesday, February 2, 2010
A bill exposing housing authority affiliates to sunlight is good legislation. By Walter Pierce
It’s not astonishing to me that some are dragging state Rep. Rickey Hardy over the coals for his ongoing role exposing what is at the very least profound mismanagement at the Lafayette Housing Authority.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce probably did more harm to itself than to Sen. Mike Michot with its legislative scorecard. By Walter Pierce
A first-quarter political drought extending from City-Parish Council leadership elections to the commencement of redistricting was admirably filled by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, which, stomping around Muscle Beach, kicked sand in the face of not only a longtime member but one of its most ardent supporters both in Lafayette and at the Capitol in Baton Rouge.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
A demographer and former school board member believes he can satisfy the concerns of the city without blowing up the charter. By Walter Pierce
Mike Hefner thinks he may have the answer to the city of Lafayette’s creeping chagrin over its diminished autonomy.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Bad blood on the City-Parish Council is beginning to flow. By Walter Pierce
Journalists who cover the Lafayette City-Parish Council hope for it, but political intrigue is a capricious lady. We long for the bickering, graffiti-scribbling days of yore. Yet 2011 is already showing promise that the animus of the Chris Williams era could return with gusto. Such enmity may be counterproductive for political progress, but for a beat writer, baby, it’s gold.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Redistricting might become a legislative brawl, but coastal Louisiana could benefit. By Walter Pierce
In less than three months state lawmakers will gather for a special session to redraw Louisiana’s congressional and state House/Senate districts to conform with new census figures. This promises to be a contentious powwow for state districts as Republicans seek to solidify political gains, Democrats try to mitigate their declining clout and regional interests compete for influence.
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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