What prevents double voting?
We’re taking questions from readers to help navigate a historically complicated election.
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Christiaan Mader
Christiaan Mader founded The Current in 2018, reviving the brand from a short-lived culture magazine he created for Lafayette publisher INDMedia. An award-winning investigative and culture journalist, Christiaan’s work as a writer and reporter has appeared in The New York Times, Vice, Offbeat, Gambit, and The Advocate.
Who counts your vote in Lafayette Parish?
COVID-19 didn’t just disrupt our lives, it disrupted our democracy. And the Nov. 3 election is speeding toward us. We’re taking questions from readers to help navigate a historically complicated election.
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Lafayette and Louisiana brace for Delta with resources stretched thin
Although downgraded to a Category 2 as it approached the coast late Friday afternoon, Hurricane Delta poses a real threat to a weakened disaster response system.
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UPDATE: Higgins ‘did not apologize’ on conciliatory call with Black militia leader he threatened to ‘eliminate’
In a 20-minute YouTube clip shared Tuesday, the two men, both vets, talk in high-minded and spiritual terms about finding common ground and agree to meet this weekend.
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Lafayette Police adopts parts of 8 Can’t Wait police reform campaign
A limited ban on using chokeholds and requiring de-escalation strategies are among the revisions adopted.
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Feds grant another $1.4 million to Lafayette for emergency housing assistance
The gist: Identified as a place at “higher risk” for evictions, Lafayette will receive a second and larger round of federal stimulus dollars intended for housing aid during the pandemic. At just under $1.4 million, the block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development nearly doubles the last allocation Lafayette received, one […]
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Trayford Pellerin’s family secures commitment from Guillory to see body cam footage in first steps toward reconciliation
Allowing the family to see the video would help bring clarity and closure to a publicly volatile situation. Through their attorney, the family commended Guillory’s efforts at reconciliation.
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Lafayette will put up more to help renters, shifting $100,000 from business relief
LCG committed Tuesday to shift $100,000 out of emergency funds currently dedicated to its business relief program and repurpose another $300,000 in regular housing program money to rent relief.
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Guillory’s hole grows deeper with fallout over Hurricane Laura shelters
Many read it as a callous denial of help for those most in need, reinforcing a growing view that the mayor-president is heartless.
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First the pandemic, then protests and now Laura
The gist: An impending Gulf storm reminiscent of Hurricane Rita in 2005 and scattered demonstrations are splitting public attention since Lafayette police killed a 31-year-old Black man last week. Protestors are working to keep attention on their outrage, while residents reeling from the pandemic and fatigued by years of flooding turn to face another storm.
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Marco and Laura won’t deter Lafayette protestors
The gist: Activists with the local NAACP staged a sit-in at City hall Monday, two days ahead of Tropical Storm Laura’s expected landfall as a hurricane. Jamal Taylor, 33, one of the NAACP organizers, has promised more action in days to come both on the ground and over Zoom, as part of an ongoing effort […]
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Touted as help for hundreds, Lafayette’s business relief program has approved help for only a handful so far
Moving slowly means the program could fall well short of its ambitions, while housing needs, another use of the source funding, continue to worsen.
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