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RAPIDES FOLKS CONCERNED ABOUT FOREIGN LANGUAGE
AUG 25 Some residents of a Rapides Parish town apparently were concerned last week by a sign written in (inelegant, apparently) Hebrew, this story in the Times of Israel reports. They called the local TV station and the sheriff, worried it was the Islamic State. Because that's what IS does: put up signs in podunk towns in Louisiana. Oy vey.
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DEETS ON BOBBY'S ANCHOR BABY HERITAGE
AUG 25 This post on Crooks and Liars purports to tell the story of Bobby Jindal's babyhood, weaving a story of a young couple, the wife three months pregnant, immigrating here from India. The birth of their baby, named Piyush until he got a gander at the Brady Bunch, made up their minds to stay here. But this can't be right -- there's nothing in this yarn about the Confederate flag!
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POLITICAL OPERATIVE PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING FROM VITTER
AUG 25 Here's a story in the Louisville, Kentucky paper about the guilty plea of a man who ran a company that processed campaign donations. He admitted to stealing more than $1 million from various campaigns, with the largest theft ($480K) being from David Vitter's campaign. What's kind of weird is, this story is from August 10. It's in a Gannett paper. And the first time it has appeared in a Louisiana paper was this week - in the Picayune. WTH?
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QUIT SAYING THAT NOLA IS BETTER SINCE KATRINA
AUG 25 Owen Courreges wants people to stop saying that New Orleans is all recovered, nay, even "better" since Katrina. In this post in Uptown Messenger, he's taking issue with that story line. Sure, some neighborhoods have recovered, and nobody - but nobody - misses the Desire projects. But is the city as good as it was? And is the "new" New Orleans intentionally less welcoming to some? All excellent questions.
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THE MYTH OF THE NOLA SCHOOL MAKEOVER
AUG 25 The New York Times debunks the fantasy (Well, that implies belief. Let's say public relations story) that the New Orleans school system has been made over in a massive success story. Mouthpieces of the "reform" movement like to say education is better now, but the evidence doesn't bear that out, the story reports.
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GILL ON LOWERING THE GPA FOR SPORTS
AUG 25 Columnist James Gill comments upon the debate occurring now in Baton Rouge about the minimum GPA required for students to play sports. It was 1.5 until about 10 years ago, when it was raised to 2.0. The debate centered upon whether or not it should be lowered again.
Tuesday's Blogs from the Bog!
Some Rapides Parish folks have a little freak out over a foreign language sign. Also today, the deets on our favorite Anchor Baby story, and more Katrina look-backs.