La. La. Land - An island of blue in a sea of orange

Monday's Blogs from the Bog!

Monday's Blogs from the Bog!

• AN ISLAND OF BLUE IN A SEA OF ORANGE

  JUN 30 The New York Times published this map of the US, using color to show the results of a study of the "easiest" places to live in the country. Lafayette Parish is an "easy" in a sea of "hard" in Louisiana. But before we get to big for our britches - so is Bossier. Huh.

• ASWELL: BROUHAHA BREWING IN BATON ROUGE

  JUN 30 There's rumbling in Baton Rouge that signals a coming fight, blogger Tom Aswell tells us in this post. Chas Roemer and the BESE board do not seem inclined to take the orders of Gov. Bobby Jindal on the Common Core issue. The board is scheduled to discuss legal action this week, Tom says.

• CB: MAYBE WE NEED ONE OF THEM PAYDAY LOANS

  JUN 30 Blogger CB Forgotston says Louisiana may want to apply for a payday loan - since the budget for the fiscal year ending tonight is still about $134 million short. Bobby's people say it's no biggie -- they will just wait to close the books until August. That'll work. Yeah! That'll work just fine.

• BOB MANN: MODERN DAY SLAVERY

  JUN 30 Blogger Bob Mann is writing about the release of another black man convicted in New Orleans of a terrible crime he didn't commit. He looks at the parallels between these cases and that of Solomon Northup, the free man enslaved in 12 Years a Slave.

• CRAWFISH: WHITE'S DOE BEARS INVESTIGATING

  JUN 30 Crazy Crawfish blogs about John White again in this post. He's telling us of alleged wrong-doing in the state Department of Education ranging from people not showing up for work (but still getting paid) to misuse of earmarked federal funds.

• JINDAL MAKES CRAZY DEMAND TO LSU

  JUN 30 This post on WWL features comments from Tiger Rag Editor Luke Johnson about the nutty letter Bobby Jindal recently sent to LSU, ordering that a statue of Pete Maravich be erected. (Outside the huge building on LSU's campus that is named for Pete Maravich.) Jindal, who has overseen crippling cuts to the state's higher ed institutions, including LSU, is ordering a statue to be erected? What on earth for?

• GRACE: WE'RE AT A TURNING POINT IN GAY MARRIAGE

  JUN 30 Columnist Stephanie Grace examines last week's developments in Louisiana's gay marriage debate. A federal judge asked to rule on whether the state must recognize marriages performed legally elsewhere, said he needs to rule on Louisiana's ban on gay marriage as well. Could this be it?

• GILL: DON'T DOZE OFF AT ONE OF THESE FUNERALS

  JUN 30 Columnist James Gill writes about an (alarming?) trend developing in New Orleans funerals. He's talking about two recent events that featured the deceased sitting up, holding a cocktail and (kinda) holding court. Not exactly good taste, he says, and one hopes the staff can figure out who needs to be buried and who just fell asleep.