Council Preview: New councils to weigh spoil banks lawsuits
Lafayette’s City and Parish councils have three executive sessions planned for Tuesday to discuss a trio of lawsuits related to LCG’s controversial 2022 removal of spoil banks in St. Martin Parish.
The precipitous loss of residents that Louisiana has seen over the last three years has been spread across nearly every parish, with urban and rural areas alike seeing large decreases.
Source: The Advocate
Lafayette’s Celtic Bayou Festival pipes in the wider Celtic world
Since 2016, the annual Irish gathering has grown to import the rest of the Celtic Diaspora: Bretons, Scots, Welsh and more.
How AcA teaches the nation’s teaching artists
Acadiana Center for the Arts staff traveled to Washington, D.C. to present a workshop on how AcA trains teaching artists.
Want to improve Louisianan’s health? Raise the minimum wage, group argues
Louisiana’s perennially poor health rankings can be blamed on poverty, childhood trauma and a lack of investment in women’s health, according to a report for the LA40by30 initiative.
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The board voted 5 to 4 to move the gifted program from Paul Breaux at 1400 S. Orange St. to Edgar Martin Middle School at 410 Broadmoor Blvd. and 5 to 4 to move the French and Spanish immersion programs to Scott Middle School at 116 Marie St. in Scott.
Source: The Advocate
Legg, 56, reportedly died Friday. He has been described as a Southern-swamp-psych-rock musician turned neo-blues man. He caught the break of a lifetime in 2011 when Quentin Tarantino heard his song, “Too Old to Die Young,” and used it on the soundtrack of his film “Django Unchained.”
Source: The Advocate
The governor wants to pare down the state’s foundational governing document, which was adopted through a public vote in 1974 but has been amended more than 200 times in the past 50 years.
Source: LA Illuminator
A pair of bills filed for the Legislature’s regular session would apply the state’s obscenity laws to public libraries, which are currently exempt. Rep. Josh Carlson, a freshman representative from Lafayette, is carrying the legislation in the house. Carlson, a former Lafayette Parish councilman, has also filed a bill removing the requirement that library directors carry a master of library science.
Source: The Advocate
Closing Paul Breaux is off the agenda, but not off the table
Wednesday’s school board meeting won’t include plans to close Paul Breaux Middle, but the school’s defenders say it could be the first step toward shutting it down.
Sold as major savings, LCG retirement swap may be a disaster
A shift in retirement plans, billed as a way to save millions on personnel costs, has ensnared LCG in a lawsuit that may instead cost it tens of millions.
Budget, lack of attendance cited in Paul Breaux’s possible closure
Moving gifted instruction and the French immersion program to other schools in the district are among the options expected to come before the Lafayette Parish School Board.
COLUMN: Lafayette’s economic performance went from best to worst. Why?
Lafayette used to be a high flier on the Milken Institute’s Best Performing Cities report. Now we’re the fourth worst performing city in America.
The drought in 2023 was one of the most severe droughts in the history of Louisiana and caused significant damage to the sustainability of the crawfish industry. Lack of water and, in some cases, saltwater intrusion decimated the seed stock and has limited the ability to catch crawfish.
Source: The Advertiser
Plans will be presented to demolish, remove and replace the Louis “Doc” Bonin Generating Station with a more modern, energy-efficient plant and operations center.
Source: KATC
Source: Festival International
Firefighters entered the NICU and discovered the smoke coming from the ceiling space. It was quickly determined a small section on the roof was burning. Emergency crews extinguished the fire within minutes. First responders set up ventilation fans to exhaust the light smoke and smell.
Source: The Advertiser
Short Fiction: The Scouring
A haunting tale of searching and possession, winner of the 2023 Southern Screen Writing Challenge.
Acadiana has a hunger problem — here’s the data
Food assistance data shows that at least a fifth of Acadiana residents can’t afford to feed themselves and their families.
Council Preview: Library land, Brown Park funds and LUS’s $400M gas power plant
Lafayette’s councils will cast big votes on land for a new library, funding for Brown Park and LUS’s $400 million gas plant in a pair of busy meetings Tuesday.
Settle in with a plate lunch at Broussard’s Shade Tree Cafe
The popular word-of-mouth joint, home to hearty burgers, plate lunches and crab cakes, reopens for the 2024 spring season.
On Tuesday, the Parish Council introduced an ordinance authorizing Mayor-President Monique Boulet to buy 6 acres of land for construction of the library. The ordinance is up for final adoption at the council’s March 5 meeting.
Source: The Advocate
Gov. Jeff Landry has declared a state of emergency that allows sheriffs to immediately hire more deputies and staff and dole out pay raises, in a bid to highlight what the Sheriffs Association calls a deputy shortage across the state.
Source: The Advocate
It’s the second time in less than a year that the Baton Rouge-based nonprofit has tabled its plan to sell itself to the for-profit Elevance, one of the nation’s largest insurers, amid steep opposition from doctors, hospitals, some policyholders and state lawmakers.
Source: The Advocate
The items include expanding methods for administering the death penalty and harsher penalties for carjacking. The governor is also seeking stricter treatment of juvenile offenders and tighter provisions for granting parole.
He is also proposing placement of the state’s indigent defender system under the governor’s office.
Source: LA Illuminator