The other clash of the Titans this weekend: the NOLA mayor's race
With all the mounting frenzy over the Super Bowl, it's easy to forget that there is another contest going on that affects New Orleans. The day before the big game, Crescent City residents will go to...
This Valentine's Day, romantic restaurant bars are the right venue for you if you want to pitch some woo with your baby Sunday night. Over at Marcello's Wine Market Café, bartenders Tanner Ducoté and...
Bailey's to aid UL students from Haiti
Ema Haq, owner of Bailey’s Seafood and Grill, uses his restaurant yearly to offer Thanksgiving dinner to those who might not have the opportunity to break bread in a family setting. An immigrant from...
Promenade your partner at Café Des Amis
Tired of the two-step? Well, maybe not, maybe never, but Café des Amis is hosting the other kind of traditional dance party tonight. For most of the country, square dancing is the default old-timey...
The other clash of the Titans this weekend: the NOLA mayor's race
With all the mounting frenzy over the Super Bowl, it’s easy to forget that there is another contest going on that affects New Orleans. The day before the big game, Crescent City residents will go to...
First of all, who knew members of the Saints had personal chefs? I figured they did what I do after work, went home and made rice and gravy, or on a late night, picked up Popeyes. Turns out Reggie...
Chewing the fat at the Super Bowl
Watching football is all about being a couch potato, so why not up the ante and become a couch cochon? Here in Louisiana we know all about that, but today, the New York Times is recommending cracklins...
Southern Open call for artists
Chilly February, hunkered down inside, it’s a good time to take inventory and think about the future. For artists, that means evaluating recent work, winnowing through the explosions of creative...
Dig a sustainable gardening class
Kurt Unkel is known in locovore circles for his organically raised brown rice and hormone-free pork, fattened on that good grain he grows. Just in time for spring planting, he’s agreed to share all...
League of Women Voters holds environmental forum
The League of Women Voters of Lafayette is hosting its second environmental forum, “Clean, Green and Healthy,” on Monday, Feb. 1. Representatives of the Boy Scouts of America, Louisiana Crawfish...
Lafayette artist George Rodrigue’s biggest Blue Dog, the 28 foot tall jumbo dog sculpture at Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Severn Avenue, is sporting his Saints colors today. Built here in Lafayette...
Who Dat cocktail scores at Pamplona
There’s a lot of crazy Saints stuff out there, but here’s one welcome newbie to the Who Dat Nation: Pamplona Tapas Bar bartender Luke Tullos mixed up an homage to the Super Bowl-bound Saints this week...
Museum directors trash talk Superbowl match up
It’s not only politicians and sports fans talking trash and laying bets on the Super Bowl. You might think museum directors are too high minded to watch football, but you’d be wrong to count out art...
Fatima Warrior 'saints' raise money for Haiti
The Our Lady of Fatima Warriors went to bat for victims of the earthquake in Haiti this week. Beginning 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, volunteers manned a paint-for-the-Saints booth in the parking lot of...
The spirit of giving is good for the heart
Fundraising is a tough job, even in a community as generous as Lafayette. So when Philippe Simon, celebrating 10 years in business in Lafayette, decided to sponsor Hearts of Hope (formerly Stuller...
All the Saints news fit to print
It may burn Saints fans, or perhaps make betting on our boys all the sweeter. The spread for Superbowl XLIV opened with the Indy Colts a four-point favorite over the New Orleans Saints. The small...
Ramp up to game with Saints play list
Can’t wait for the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, when our Saints take on Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings? One way to ramp up to the game is by listening to an ever-increasing play list of...
A new year, new coastal projects
One legacy of Crowley native and former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux is the federal funding he directed toward the restoration of the state’s eroding coastline. Now in its 20th year, $115 million is...
Opportunity for French speakers to help in Haiti
Two organizations, Infiné, a translation company here in Lafayette, and the Red Cross are looking for Creole and French speakers who can spend time in Haiti translating: Looking for Créolophones and...
Al Sharpton speaks in Houma for MLK celebration
In a flying swing through the nation that brought him to Atlanta on Friday, Chicago on Sunday, and Harlem for his annual Martin Luther King celebration today, the Reverend Al Sharpton made a pass...
Cool, overcast, fixin’ to rain. The weather couldn’t be better for planting trees, which is why Louisiana celebrates Arbor Day in January. Over at UL, arborist and horticulture professor Jim Foret is...
Cold weather, crop health, and reason to down some salty oysters
What’s bad for orange groves is good for Louisiana’s peach crop. Strawberries may be nipped by the frost, but the deep freeze kills pests that attack the state’s blueberry farms. The cold that drives...
Tonight’s the night to strut your nutria fur coat, if you have one. Funky on down to the “Righteous Fur Fashion Show: A Nutria-palooza!” at the Marigny Theatre and Allways Lounge in New Orleans for an...
Salvation Army in need of aid during cold snap
Let the patter of icy rain drops on your roof while you sit inside sipping hot coffee remind you that there are folks out in the cold, without access to the most basic needs: food, shelter and...
Drilling for oil on Rainey wildlife refuge in Vermilion Parish?
Not since director Robert Flaherty, in his 1948 film Louisiana Story, depicted the coming of the oil and gas industry to the Louisiana swamp as an event of elemental beauty and Cajun prosperity has...
Cajun history reaches an international francophone audience
In an interview in the Daily World, Cajun ambassador and French language advocate Warren Perrin presents a wide ranging discussion of the complexity of maintaining a living second language in...
Louisiana is number one where it counts - happiness
Louisianians always knew we were happy. It’s just that nobody would believe us. “You’re riddled with crime, poverty, obesity, corruption, hurricanes and mosquitoes,” scolded those know-it-all New...
I don’t get it. I wandered into the show in the Side Gallery at the Acadiana Center for the Arts yesterday while I was looking for a copy of D’Jalma Garnier’s new book Louisiana Creole Fiddle Method...
Cooking Up A Good Life airs on KADN
Chef Pat Mould is always cooking up something new. The latest from the red-headed chef from Crowley is a new TV show on KADN, Fox 15 or channel 6 on Cox Cable affiliate called Cooking Up A Good Life....
Saints fever preempts NOLA mayor's race
A hotly contested mayor’s race usually has all eyes on it in most parts of the country. But south Louisiana isn’t like most parts of anywhere, and New Orleans takes the kingcake for parallel...
Christmasing downtown Lafayette
The holidays come into full swing this weekend with an all day and into the night event downtown on Saturday, Dec. 12, dubbed “Twas the Light Before Christmas.” Venues...
John Georges buys Galatoire's Restaurant
He wholesales groceries and home products to drug and convenience stores. He builds tugboats. He regularly buys out the Superdome so home games can be shown on local TV. He sells video poker machines....
Landrieu announces for New Orleans mayor's race
12:06 p.m. - Breaking News At about 11:45 this morning, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu announced that he will be a candidate for mayor of New Orleans. Should he be elected, he will be the first white mayor...
Don’t let the snow keep you bottled up next to the home fire. Arnaudville’s big mid-winter celebration, Fire and Water flames up tonight at 4 p.m., with a Fire Starter Art Walk featuring Lori...
January can’t come quick enough for a handful of Cajun and Zydeco musicians. Five albums: Alligator Purse, Beausoleil Avec Michael Doucet Lay Your Burden Down, Buckwheat Zydeco Stripped Down, The...
Rain on tile rooftops. The taste of cafe au lait. The jingle of the street car as it rattles down St. Charles Avenue. The blanket of humidity that envelopes you when you walk out the door. Which of...
Catfish farmers holding on by a whisker
From Louisiana’s bayous to the Mississippi Delta region, the latest boatload of seafood producers to sing the blues are catfish farmers. Like shrimpers before them, the song goes: high fuel and feed...
Nidal Balbeisi is attempting to conquer the world the way all great tacticians do, through its belly. First he seduces you at Zeus, his Mid-Eastern flagship restaurant, with delectable baba ghanoush....
DOTD proposes to return 5,000 miles of state roads to local governments
With the state looking at a $2 billion shortfall over the next two years, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is attempting to streamline its budged by proposing to hand over...
When author and New Orleans native Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker, The New New Thing) heard about the story of a highly scouted black high school football player from the wrong side of the tracks on the...
Beaujolais nouveau pops its cork tonight
The first wine of the year, French beaujolais nouveau, just bottled after the harvest this fall, makes its official debut today. Every third Thursday of November, the new wine is rushed to market,...
Edwin Edwards winding down prison term
Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, 82, is heading into the home stretch in his 10-year prison term on racketeering charges. Imprisoned in 2002, he is due to be released from the Oakdale Correctional...
Up on the roof. That’s where you should be after midnight when this year’s Leonid meteor shower streaks across the skies. The prosaic explanation for a meteor shower is that space dust from a passing...
cause it’s gonna be a drinkin’ weekend. Over at Pamplona Tapas Bar, the 1920s are roaring back into cocktail glasses. Bartenders have been honing their skills on beautifully balanced cocktails like...
Cajun Spice Gallery opens this weekend
We were sorry to see City News go, but hey, life is all about change, right? The new manifestation of the narrow little shop with the wedding cake ceiling on Jefferson Street is Cajun Spice Gallery,...
Bayou Teche trash bash this weekend
The effort to clean up Bayou Teche embarks on Sunday, Nov. 15, when a flotilla of motor boats, canoes and kayaks takes on a log jam of refrigerators, hot water heaters and Styrofoam cups that litter...
Art opening at Gallery 912 tonight
Dialogue between artists manifests itself in all sorts of methods of expression. Take the show opening at The Frame Shop & Gallery 912 in the Oil Center tonight. Photographer John Fuselier, M.D....
De Madera Artisans Bazaar grand opening tonight
The newest art gallery in Lafayette is opening under a familiar artsy roof. De Madera, the Indonesian imports shop on Pinhook, is transforming into De Madera Artisans Bazaar. De Madera Interiors, on...
Ed Blakely: New Orleans racist, lazy
Ed Blakely, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s former hurricane recovery czar, has some inflammatory words to say about the Crescent City. In an Oct. 16 interview with CalTV, the University of...
On collard greens, boudin and the Saints
It’s greens time in the garden. The farmer’s markets are going green with mustard, turnip and collard greens — good for the pot likker, good for the blood. I’ve made my traditional fall pot of greens,...
Philippe's wine shop opens downtown today
One more key to the rebirth of downtown is turning today as Philippe Simon opens the doors to his wine shop at noon. Lafayette’s French wine expert was sorting bottles yesterday, readying the new shop...
What Twitter is good for and other thoughts on social networking
The future of journalism and the exchange of information via social networking are a topic journalists talk about every day. In this age of a barrage of instant news overwhelming Internet users, it’s...
All dressed up and nowhere to go? That is if you can’t resist putting on your Halloween costume for a test run on Friday night. Don’t despair, keep those glad rags on and waltz right over to Angelle...
Bayou Teche fundraiser at Cafe des Amis this Thursday
Beautiful as Bayou Teche is, under its serene surface lies a monster, the mother of prop killers and fly line snarlers. What could be so powerful it could stop a cigarette boat in full throttle?...
Keep your weather eye open. I hear there’s going to be a drive-by today. No need for a bullet proof vest though, the barrage will be a hail of words. Performance artist Andrew Hunter may be at your...
If you can't beat' em, eat' em
The last time the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries asked state residents to help eradicate an invasive species by putting nutria rats on the barbie, locals turned up their noses. This...
UL museum hosts wine and food festival
October is the month for eating, and I’m not talking about Halloween candy. This weekend, the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum will host the inaugural Acadiana Food and Wine Festival on...
Stuffed: judging the Boudin Cook-off
I was looking forward to Saturday morning, but underlying that emotion was an undercurrent of dread. Like everybody I know, I love boudin. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to head out on the road...
Lafayette director wins Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year
Three Lafayette filmmakers took top honors in the New Orleans Film Festival , which wrapped up last night. The festival’s biggest honor, Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year, went to Zach Godshall for his...
Obama in New Orleans: time for town hall and gumbo
Few Louisiana citizens were able to get a ticket to see President Obama conduct his town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans today at 1:15 p.m. That doesn’t mean residents of the state can’t...
Boudin Cook-Off this weekend in Parc Sans Souci
There’s an urban myth that needs dispelling. There are no cats, dogs, armadillos, nutria, roadkill, coydog, no loupgarou, no feu follet in boudin. I don’t think. But frankly, no contestant in the 2nd...
Team BeauSoleil wins Market Viability competition in D.C.
Breaking news from the Beausoleil Home in Washinton, D.C.: Team Beausoleil has just won the Market Viability contest, part of the Solar Decathlon. Of the 12 possible competitions, UL faculty advisor...
BeauSoleil Home opens tomorrow on D.C. Mall
The BeauSoleil Home, UL Lafayette’s entry in the 2009 Solar Decathlon, opens to the public tomorrow on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The Department of Energy, which sponsored the contest, has posted a...
Louisiana Crossroads kicks off tonight
Louisiana Crossroads premiers tonight with a one-night-only event, “Gateway to the Grammys,” at the Vermilionville Performance Center. The season opener hosts an amazing lineup of entrants in the 52nd...
Federal study links coastal erosion to OCS energy exploration
Environmentalists have been saying it for years. Oil companies have staunchly denied it. Now a new study from the federal Minerals Management Service says yes, oil and gas pipelines that cut through...
Tim Gautreaux named 2009 Louisiana Writer Award winner
All I can say is it’s about time. I’ve been reading Tim Gautreaux’s work for years, cheering every time he publishes another book of short stories or a new novel. One year, I gave everybody in my...
End of an era, Dwight Stroud laid to rest
“Back in the day.” That’s the way most people begin stories about Dwight Stroud and his restaurant, Stroud’s Shady Oaks, in Abbeville. Opened in 1963, Stroud’s was the gathering place for the oil...
O, oysters, come and walk with us!
Feel that first breath of cool air. It speaks of fall, it calls for sweaters, but for me the first thing that comes to mind is oysters. Yes, September has an “r,” our traditional way of acknowledging...
The first time we heard of this Christine Balfa album, we didn't know it was a joke. Then we dug a little deeper. Here's an exerpt from Reese Fuller's article in our April 1, 2009 issue of The...
David Egan rocks Downtown Alive! tonight
Tonight David Egan plays at Parc Sans Souci during this week’s Downtown Alive! The Shreveport native with musical chops in every genre from jazz to blues to R&B, has been serenading Cajun country...
Inherit the Atchafalaya, pick up your trash
There’s canoes you can use, bodacious barbecue and a kicking concert, all Saturday, Sept. 26, at the inaugural Inherit the Atchafalaya Basin clean-up. Musician and community activist Drew Landry is...
Righteous Fur makes coastal restoration fashionable
Maybe second time’s the charm. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries launched a campaign in the 1990s to make nutria rat fashionable, both on the table and as haute couture. Neither nutria fur coats nor...
Anything can happen while the governor's gone to the races
I haven’t read the book yet, but Times-Picayune reporter Jonathan Tilove cherry-picked this story from U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s posthumously published memoir, True Compass. It’s so Louisiana, you...
Hummingbirds and butterfly plants
Saturday, here in Lafayette, is a day to get down with nature. Get started early, in the backyard of Rose and Jack Must, owners of Wild Birds Unlimited, for a morning of hummingbird banding and...
Last month, the Breaux Bridge City Council banned horses from the streets of the small Bayou Teche town, leaving approximately 200 horses confined to small back yards, and owners, mostly adolescent...
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, September 19, in the Delhomme Chapel of the Flowers for Dr. Patricia Kennedy Rickels, 82, UL Lafayette Professor Emeritus of English, former...
Raconteur, folklore professor, founder and director of the UL Honors program and teacher for 50 years, civil rights activist, and friend of everyone who came to her, Pat Rickels died last night at the...
Think you’re a big dog when it comes to wieners? It’s time to strut your stuff. The IceGators hockey team is back, and to kick off the season opener, or rather night two of the season opening weekend...
Louisiana dancer leads off PASA season
When the Evidence Dance company takes the stage at the Heymann Performing Arts Center, pull out your opera glasses and make sure you get a good look at the star performer. Dancer Clarice Young, from...
Looking for local exotics like pine cone ginger or hummingbird magnets such as fire spike? These aren’t your run-of-the-mill nursery plants. Fortunately, Lafayette’s master gardeners love to share the...
The first bridge to span the Teche in Breaux Bridge was a suspension bridge made of ropes and planks, strung together by local landowner Firmin Breaux. Because there was a way to cross the bayou, the...
Here’s the full text of the “highly controversial” speech President Barack Obama will deliver to the schoolchildren of this country this morning, via C-Span. Obama follows in the tradition of former...
Race is a tough issue to tackle. No matter how delicately a writer walks the line, there is always the possibility of a misstep, and that one false step always calls down thunder. Music writer Herman...
Whale of an oil and gas find in Gulf of Mexico
Deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. That’s the deepest oil well in the world, and the find, by BP, is right here in the Gulf of Mexico. The Times-Picayune reports today that the Tiber Prospect, BP’s new...
Yesterday, I reported on The INDsider that The Shed is coming to Scott in November. Turns out it’s not just Mississippi barbecue and blues that will be key ingredients to The Shed’s menu. The Orrison...
Barbecue and blues. What’s not to love? An Ocean Springs, Miss., stalwart dubbed The Shed, home of Oh Baby, Baby Backs, Serious Sausage, Pulled Pork and Walter “Wolfman” Washington (playing on Sept....
Talking heads: Hurricane Katrina
Four years ago and a day, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Today there are multiple stories in news outlets from all over the country. Many of the stories contrast FEMA’s response to the disaster...
Striking shrimpers under stress
The shrimp strike (see this week's Independent Weekly article, "Salty Politics"), now a week old, is taking its toll, mostly on the shrimpers themselves who have turned to infighting rather...
Watching the river flow, and generate power
Forget wind farms. Louisiana’s energy potential may be below the surface, and I’m not talking about oil and gas. The Teche News reports that four companies are working on a new hydrokinetic technology...
A graphic depiction of Hurricane Katrina
I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I could read yet another book about Hurricane Katrina. There’s only so much pain a tender heart can take, and dipping back and back into the well of...
Lock 'N Load: Firearm tax holiday coming in September
If you’ve only got a baseball bat under your bed to protect yourself from midnight break-ins, here’s your opportunity to upgrade the home armory. A new law, passed by the legislature this year, allows...
Jindal fishing for federal investigation into shrimp pricing
Louisiana shrimpers, who voted to go on strike Tuesday to protest the low prices they are being paid dockside for their hauls, are getting some help from Gov. Bobby Jindal. Yesterday afternoon, the...
Chip shot: Zapp's bags team spirit
The little chippery in Grammercy is about to hear a roar from LSU Tiger fans. Over the past several years, Zapp’s potato chips have been available in purple and gold Tigers bags, a perfect food foil...
The Plaquemine Parish shrimp fleet will be dry docked today as shrimpers march on Baton Rouge to protest low prices. The Times-Picayune reports that shrimpers are complaining of “being offered between...
What to do while you're home with the flu
Three days in and you’re probably feeling better, but can’t go back to work with that nasty cough. Already finished the new Elmore Leonard book, Saints game is history, sick of chicken soup. Here’s...
Doerle denied permit for landfill expansion
The battle has been waged for 16 years. The fight — initially over locating a construction and demolition debris landfill on the border of St. Martin and Iberia parishes, lately opposing the expansion...
Ewe can cut the grass, save the environment, and enjoy an occasional lamb chop, if you play your cards right. The Bayou Teche town of Parks has been using sheep to keep the grass down around the water...
Don't worry, be happy, live to 182
Last week, New Iberia celebrated the birthday of a centenarian. Georgiana Marks celebrated her 100th birthday on Wednesday. This week, Max Derouen, also of New Iberia, turns 182. That is, in dog...
Louisiana loses Congrès Mondial Acadien 2014 bid
Malheureusement, Louisiana has lost the bid for the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien to the Acadian communities of northern Maine and Canada. The bid by Acadia Land and Forests was unanimously chosen by...
2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien announcement this weekend
Lafayette’s Francophone community will be gathering at Vermilionville at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 9 to find out whether Acadiana will be the site of the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien. The...
Today’s list is a compilation of small farmers, gardeners and orchards where you can visit, pick your own fruit, or plant your own garden. Thanks so much to Keith Delhomme of EarthShare Gardens who...
A shopping list for local flavors
It’s easy to be a locavore here in Acadiana. With our 12-month growing season producing fruit, vegetables and nuts, locally raised meat, fish, eggs, cheeses, great bakeries, cane syrups and sugar,...
Buy fresh, buy local. That was the sticker on a pint of purple muscadine grapes I bought at the farmer’s market on Saturday. I asked the seller if he grew the grapes himself. “No, but I got them this...
With the peak of hurricane season approaching, all eyes are focusing on Louisiana’s industrial Achilles heel, Port Fourchon. Coastal erosion at the tip of Lafourche Parish has exposed the energy hub...
Wanna play like the Pine Leaf Boys? Lafayette’s outsider Cajun/zydeco band has been tearing things up since, as students, they got busted on UL’s campus for making too much noise. Does worldwide...
Louisiana’s rock star political guru, James Carville, can’t turn down a challenge, even when it means gearing up a presidential campaign in a place known for corruption, back room deals in...
That explains it. Just about every small town newspaper I looked at yesterday had the equivalent of a “man bites dog” story in it. Finding one is a highlight of my day. Make it three or four and it’s...
Gulf Brew 2009 Beer Menu Preview
Thirsty, that’s what we are. Wanting to imbibe. But the Acadiana Center for the Arts beerfest has got me stuck like a mule between two haystacks. I’m a tippler paralyzed between 90 beer taps. Ninety....
Stopping coastal erosion: reef or madness?
A dozen Chenier au Tigres on the half-shell, please. I like the ring of that. Vermilion Parish is eyeing installing man-made oyster reefs at Chenier au Tigre, a barrier island below Intracoastal City...
A little history to make you hungry
Remember when you could get a ribeye for $6.50? Medium rare. Or a stuffed flounder filet for $3.95? Flashback to 1972 and pull up a chair at Don’s Seafood and Steakhouse in Morgan City, at the time a...
Nutria, the coast, and the numbers
Yesterday, a story about nutria in Louisiana hit the AP wire, and has been reprinted all over the country, from KATC TV-3 to the Chicago Tribune. The story says that the state’s latest survey of...
I’ve been kicking myself around the block since I missed the deadline to get a press pass to Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans’ four day mixologist blowout that took place last week. So I stayed home...
Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé ! Today is the 220th anniversary of the storming the Bastille, a Parisian prison, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution. You can...
Surgeon general nominee has Louisiana ties
President Obama’s pick for Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, a general practitioner who has devoted her career to providing health care to the rural poor in Alabama, brings more than just her...
Prescription for an unholy alliance
It takes all kinds of odd ingredients to make a good pot of jambalaya. Take a taste of this strange melange. There’s a behind-the-scenes battle going on in Congress right now over allowing U.S....
"Dollar" Bill Jefferson's diet his downfall
I finally understand what’s wrong with “Dollar” Bill Jefferson. Graft, shmaft, that’s par for the course for Louisiana politicians. It’s not nepotism, not shakedowns, kickbacks or influence peddling....
Cote Blanche salt dome eyed for natural gas storage
Another attempt at storing compressed natural gas in yet another salt dome in south Louisiana is again drawing criticism. Henry Gas Storage, a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Ranger Gas...
State barraged by concealed handgun permit applications
WWL First News, in New Orleans, is reporting this morning that the state is receiving a fusillade of applications from residents wanting to carry concealed handguns. State Police Public Information...
Rebecca Wells has been writing all night, every night. A devotee of the moon goddess, the Louisiana-bred author who lives in Seattle, Wash., thrives on darkness, which is when she gets her...
Lafayette isn’t the only place where the sight of a Redflex van makes drivers see red. The firm, which contracts with local governments to issue automated speeding tickets, has been dropped by...
Acadiana has one less dining destination. Catahoula’s in Grand Coteau has closed its doors. A victim of the economy and the drive to the historic town in St. Landry Parish, chef and owner Jude Tauzin...
New report drowns coastal Louisiana
It’s gonna be the meanest flood anybody’s ever seen. In other words, a century from now, folks in Lafayette and Baton Rouge may be coastal residents and New Orleans will go the way of Atlantis. That’s...
Eat smoked meat this weekend in Ville Platte
With the soaring temperatures and drought conditions, the state has imposed a burn ban, so call 911 if you see a plume of smoke, unless of course you are in Ville Platte, where the Smoked Meat...
Much maligned Vitter: junior 'sin-ator' back in spotlight
Poor David Vitter. He doesn’t even have to do anything salacious these days to have his name dragged through the mud over and over again. Yesterday, fellow Republican Mark Sanford, the governor of...
Johnston Street plan inching along
The on again-off again attempt to revamp Lafayette’s most malignant roadway, Johnston Street, is rolling again. Mired in various committees for the past five years, the plan now heads to the city’s...
High court upholds Voting Rights Act
The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped a constitutional ruling Monday when the panel chose to uphold a core section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In an 8-1 decision, with only African-American justice...
Brad Pitt for mayor: the plot heard round the world
Ah, the Web, the great weaver of rumors. Last week, this headline popped up: “Brad Pitt reportedly mulling over run to become New Orleans Mayor.” It’s from a Web pub called examiner.com, which...
Maginnis: Melancon to challenge Vitter
According to political columnist John Maginnis, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, will challenge Republican Sen. David Vitter. Maginnis, in his LaPolitics Weekly column, published late last...
Lafayette loves Lebanese food. Grape leaves and hummus are so ubiquitous around here they pop up on otherwise all-American menus and nobody even comments. Sultan Café & Grill is the latest...
Jefferson Orleans opens downtown
The newest addition to the downtown restaurant scene has opened its doors. The Jefferson Orleans, on the corner of Jefferson and Johnston, is serving some classics from the Louisiana seafood canon....
Barry Ancelet to receive key to the city
It doesn’t take much to get Barry Ancelet keyed up. Just start denigrating Acadian history and culture and you’ll get a blast from the keeper of the Cajun flame. That smoldering temper combined with a...
Orange brew preview at ArtWalk
Abita orange. No, it’s not pop, it’s a grown-up summer cooler based on a home-grown Louisiana crop, our sumptuous satsumas. The little brewery in Abita Springs is launching a new flavored beer, Abita...
Times-Pic springs Edwin Edwards!
God bless the Times-Picayune. I was doing my morning quick scan of the state’s papers. Nola.com, the TP’s Web site, came up on my computer screen. First I did a double take, then I looked at the date...
High school dropout rate rises to 50 percent in new report
State dropout rates for public school students has risen to 50 percent. That’s the take on a new state report requested by two lawmakers who are sponsoring bills which would offer alternative...
What was supposed to be an economic development trip for the city of New Orleans has developed a case of the swine flu. A passenger on a flight to China, who was sitting near New Orleans mayor Ray...
Jindal may use rainy-day fund for higher education
This just in from the Times-Picayune: Gov. Bobby Jindal said this morning that he might be willing to use some money from the state's rainy-day fund to offset budget cuts planned for public colleges...
Jumbo dog on fire at Begneaud Manufacturing
(see a video documentary) George Rodrigue was in town last week, checking on the progress of his giant Blue Dog under construction at Begneaud Manufacturing. The aluminum jumbo dog, the largest ever...
Brian Guidry named new curator at AcA
Acadiana artist Brian Guidry has been named the new curator at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Guidry, a graduate of the USL art department, with a masters from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New...
"Radical Vision" opens at University Art Museum
Diane Arbus is coming to Lafayette. Well, not exactly. The queen of the strange died in 1971, but her riveting photographs of people on the fringe of society, those who have dropped the mask and faced...
There’s lots going on in the drinking world this week. For starters, the New Orleans Food and Wine Experience kicks off today. Five days of glorious food and drink in venues all over town feature wine...
Sweet memories. The shady oaks of campus. The roar of Mike the Tiger. The thrill of keg stands. Last night. Time in a bottle, if perfumer Katie Masich got it right. LSU for Women perfume goes on sale...
The blue dog is about to get bigger. Sixteen feet to be exact. Artist George Rodrigue is building a giant dog sculpture that will find a home in the Memorial Park area of Veterans Memorial Boulevard...
The Blue Dog is about to get bigger. Sixteen feet tall to be exact. Artist George Rodrigue is building a giant Blue Dog sculpture that will find a home in the Memorial Park area of Veterans Memorial...
L'enfant terrible shares scent sense Thursday
The nose knows. While we have nine thousand taste buds in our mouths, we have billions of smell receptors in our noses. It’s a pity that the human animal has marginalized the sense of smell over more...
Hebert versus Doerle, round two
Another year, another showdown between Iberia Parish state Sen. Troy Hebert and garbage magnate Gordon Doerle. For the second year in a row, Hebert has filed a bill in the Legislature, SB 317,...
While the state House Appropriations Committee restored $3.3 million to Decentralized Arts Funding after a public outcry, state parks, state historic sites, the Main Street revitalization program and...
This story gives one pause. Or paws for that matter, webbed paws. Abbeville attorney Anthony Fontana has taken up the cause of a woman who is suing Wal-Mart — not unusual; there have been lots of...
Five swine flu cases confirmed in Lafayette
Cathedral-Carmel School, in downtown Lafayette, is the epicenter of swine flu cases in Louisiana. Five cases, all students at Cathedral-Carmel, are now confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and...
Just when you think James Lee Burke can’t get any more famous (29 books, two Edgar Awards, three movies made from his novels — two of them starring Alec Baldwin and Tommy Lee Jones — international fan...
The scoop: Borden's gets new flavor
Health club magnate Red Lerille and his daughter Kackie Lerille today purchased the historic Borden’s ice cream shop in downtown Lafayette. The last remaining retail ice cream store in the Borden’s...
Is Jim Crow indisputably dead?
After hearing arguments yesterday, Supreme Court justices are debating changes to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Enacted to counter Jim Crow laws in predominately southern states, and extended in 2006...
Artist George Marks appointed to state board
Artist, entrepreneur, community activist, political instigator and court jester George Marks can add another title to his list of epithets. The Arnaudville native has been appointed by Gov. Bobby...
Crawfish legislation on the table
Two bills filed by Acadiana legislators aim to support Louisiana crawfish farmers. Rep. Fred Mills Jr. of Parks proposes to create a public safety campaign to warn the public about the risks of eating...
Add art to Festival International fun
Arts and crafts vendors join the fun today at Festival International de Louisiane. On day three of the downtown Lafayette fest, jewelry makers, potters, glass artists, weavers, painters, sculptors and...
FIL also a festival for foodies
Who doesn’t love to be taken around the world, and it’s not only by the music at Festival International de Louisiane. Grub from across the globe is on the menu. Greek fare like spanakopita (spinach...
Culinary Classic raises more than $30K for Stuller Place
Fine food and a chance to raise money for a local non-profit were both on the menu at last night’s Culinary Classic. Stuller Place has been the beneficiary of the high-profile cooking competition for...
Just in time for Jazz Fest, the Times-Picayune’s Spring Dining Guide hit the street yesterday. In years past, restaurant reviewer Brett Anderson has frequented New Orleans’ most recherche...
Edmunds photography show opens in New Iberia
No one knows exactly what James Edmunds does. A former journalist, co-founder of the Times of Acadiana, sometimes Web designer, consulting manager (what’s that?) for PASA, the elusive Edmunds is...
While we’re waiting for X-Men Origins: Wolverine (due out May 1), another fanged and clawed creature of the night is about to make his debut on the big screen. Wolvesbayne screens at 7 p.m. today at...
Spoil that puppy. Actually these doggie treats look so good, Bowser might have to vie with his mistress to get a bite. Doghouse Treats is a new line of healthy homemade snacks for dogs. Following the...
Louisiana online encyclopedia calls for submissions
An online encyclopedia focused on Louisiana is calling for articles for submission. KnowLA will be a Louisiana version of Wikipedia, emphasizing history, culture and community. “We’re not as loosely...
Arts administrators plan to appeal to Legislature today
Directors of every arts council and sizable arts organization statewide are gathering today as the House Appropriations Committee of the Louisiana Legislature convenes at 9 a.m. Deep cuts to arts...
Birding boardwalk opens at Lake Martin
A much anticipated boardwalk that zig-zags deep into the wading bird rookery at Lake Martin has opened for visitors. Built by the Nature Conservancy, it is the first leg of a larger project to...
Festival of the Arts kicks off
The only fine arts festival in the state, UL Lafayette’s Festival of the Arts, begins today. The week long celebration highlights programs from the university’s fine art departments: film,...
Quinoa: new uses for an ancient grain
It’s always a delight to discover a new food, even when it’s actually an ancient Inca dish. Locals can discover quinoa at an event Saturday in Lafayette. Quinoa, (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a seed of the...
Jindal proposes deep cuts to arts funding
Louisiana’s arts councils are not immune to the state’s sweeping budget cuts. Arts officials gathering in Baton Rouge yesterday for a meeting of the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts got the grim...
Anybody who’s ever sipped a Ramos Gin Fizz before brunch has had truck with the Brennan family of New Orleans. Creamy, sweet, perfumed with orange flower water, and packing a punch, the Ramos Gin Fizz...
Even with daylight savings, there’s not enough daylight for folks busy planting this spring. TreesAcadiana meets at 6:30 p.m. today at South Louisiana Community College, 320 Devalcourt St., with a...
Migratory birds chime a death knell for pests
Some see blooming azaleas as an indicator that spring has arrived. Some equate spring with a sneezing attack from live oak pollen. Birders, however, wait for the arrival of the neotropical migratory...
Organic gardens popping up everywhere
You know organic gardening has finally become mainstream when, within one week, 60 Minutes broadcasts a segment on both the Slow Food movement and farmer’s market guru and chef Alice Waters, Michelle...
Bayou Warehouse bridge repairs under way
There’s good news and bad news about the Bayou Warehouse bridge. The good news is that the Department of Transportation and Development is finally getting around to replacing the Lydia-area bridge,...
New Orleans population approaches pre-Katrina levels
For the first time since Hurricane Katrina caused a mass exodus, U.S. Census data released today show that metro New Orleans’ population has returned to just below pre-Katrina levels. According to the...
Sometimes sunshine comes at a cost. The Daily Advertiser was looking into the arrest of former Ice Gator and current nightclub owner Eric Cloutier for allegedly laundering about $1.4 million through...
Acadiana’s architectural heritage is an endangered species. Old houses, barns, businesses and farms are regularly torn down, either for the cypress they contain or at the direction of city and parish...
Dessert first. That’s my motto. And tomorrow is a great opportunity to indulge in your chocolate envie by attending a tasting and presentation by French chocolatier Benjamin Desmartins. Desmartins...
This weekend is the kick-off of Louisiana’s spring festival season. Eight weekend fairs and festivals take place across the state, with another 250 festivals planned for the year. Here in Acadiana,...
Library book sale begins today
The best deal in town today is not only good for your pocketbook, it is a book. Today begins the Friends of the Lafayette Public Library’s book sale. For three days, March 12-14, the main branch of...
George Rodrigue returns to Acadiana
It’s been over 40 years since Acadiana native son George Rodrigue began painting. First landscapes, then Cajuns, Blue Dogs, hurricanes and now back to landscapes, the prolific artist has enjoyed a...
Louisiana black bear critical habitat protected
A controversial rule preserving critical habitat for the Louisiana Black Bear has been promulgated today. U.S. Fish and Wildlife has designated approximately 1.2 million acres of land in 15 parishes...
200-year-old shipwreck discovered in Gulf
There may be pirates, arrrrrggghhh. That’s the word on a shipwreck discovered about 35 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The two-masted, 60-foot-long schooner went down in 4,000 feet of water, some...
Bird feeder swap at Wild Birds Unlimited
Acadiana woke up to bluebird skies this morning and the songs of mockingbirds, (all 31 of them), reverberating through the neighborhood. Time to clean out the bird feeders and lure the warblers into...
Despite the fact that March 3 was the DVD release date for In the Electric Mist, the film, starring Tommy Lee Jones, is being held over one more week. Based on the James Lee Burke novel In the...
Acadiana Outreach's Recovery Action Center opens
With the closure of The Well, Lafayette’s homeless population lost a day shelter. However, next week, Acadiana Outreach opens its Recovery Action Center, which will offer far more services to those in...
Art goes green at the wetlands center
Every demographic gets its month in the sun, and women celebrate themselves in March. The National Women’s History Project this year honors women who have taken the lead in the environmental movement....
Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans
Dan Baum dazzled us with his coverage of post-Katrina New Orleans. The former writer for the New Yorker moved to the Big Easy four months after the storm, and chronicled his trips, by bicycle, to...
Antiques consignment arrives at Jefferson Street Market
If great Aunt Clotile’s treasured prie dieu somehow doesn’t fit into your Ikea decor, there’s a new way in town to offer it for sale to discerning antiques lovers. Revival Fine Consignments, a...
Broussard latest town to eye zoning
Zoning seems to be the regulation du jour in Acadiana. Carencro sailed through the vote to adopt a land use ordinance at the beginning of the year, while Breaux Bridge is still in the throes of...
A century old oak, slated for the ax by the Department of Transportation and Development, has been spared. Dubbed Mr. Al, this member of the Live Oak Society stood in the way of a proposed service...
Electric Mist premieres in New Iberia
Who needs the cordoned off red carpet in Hollywood, when at a movie premier in New Iberia, you can get up close and personal with the stars. John Goodman, who plays mafioso Julie “Baby Feet” Balboni...
Zoning controversy brings out creative energy in Breaux Bridge
Nobody lost their temper last night at a meeting of the Breaux Bridge Planning and Zoning Commission. A packed house gathered to comment on the proposed zoning ordinance, which in its original state...
Plan your Mardi Gras run with boudin in mind
If you’re thinking about a boudin run before your Mardi Gras run, (and who isn’t?) our boys in the Element have added a few new links to their boudin website. Dr. C and Coach T, aka The Linksters,...
With a new green initiative as part of the Obama administration’s plan for sustainable energy, wind power looks like a breath of fresh air. However, a new study, released last week by regional...
Well, dreaming of fish tacos anyway. The best place to eat them is with your feet in the sand of the beach at Santa Monica. The second best place may well be the bright mango-yellow taco stand on the...
Zeus and Subway under one roof opens in River Ranch
Alexander the Great may have attempted to conquer the world by force, but Nidal Balbeisi is busy doing it with food. The Lafayette restaurateur started his trademark restaurant, Zeus, on Pinhook, in...
With all the sunshine in Acadiana, it seems downright wasteful not to capture some free rays and put them to work powering your home. Architect and community activist Andy Hebert will be teaching a...
Wintering bird populations hatch evidence of climate change
The National Audubon Society is reporting a northward shift of wintering birds, and pointing at global warming as the cause. Nearly 60% of the 305 species found in North America in winter are on the...
Jindal tapped to "change the world"
Gov. Bobby Jindal better get busy. With the highlights of the state’s budget featuring layoffs, reductions in services, and deficits, it’s hard to see how he will have time to live up to the latest...
Electric Mist premiers next week in New Iberia
When James Lee Burke was building his new house in New Iberia, over a decade ago, he called me to ask if there happened to be a liberal catholic church in town. I didn’t know, but I knew who would — a...
A national holiday for Mardi Gras?
Do Louisianians want to share the collective debauchery that is Mardi Gras with the rest of the nation? According to the Times Picayune, Zatarain’s, the New Orleans company famous for fish-fry, creole...
Breaux Bridge residents stalk out of zoning meeting
A contingent of furious residents of Breaux Bridge walked out of a zoning hearing last night, claiming that they had been insulted by a consultant hired to rewrite the town’s antiquated zoning...
Zoning fight looming in Breaux Bridge
Residents of Breaux Bridge’s historic downtown are gathering for a showdown tonight at the first public hearing of the city’s proposed zoning ordinance. With the exponential growth to the small Bayou...
Louisiana congres mondial acadien launches virtual bid
Tune in at 11 a.m. tomorrow, Feb. 4, to join in a global launch of Louisiana’s Congres mondial acadien’s bid to bring the 2014 Acadian reunion to Cajun country. The congres mondial acadien takes place...
Louisiana Katrina Cottages break ground, finally
It’s been three years since “Katrina Cottages,” the architecturally appropriate alternative to FEMA trailers, were proposed by urban designer Andres Duany following the hurricanes of 2005. Today, the...
Love your festival? Check it out
It’s sunny, it’s warm, robins are flocking on the lawn, who cares if it’s January, it’s spring in Acadiana. And spring says one thing (aside from crawfish): Festival International. The festival’s line...
Marinello stable after heart attack
Revenge is a dish best served cold. Bertha Norman knows that. The former mother-in-law of convicted murderer Vince Marinello, who was sentenced to life in prison last week for killing his wife,...
Homeland Security Secretary orders review of Katrina recovery
Janet Napolitano, President Obama’s newly appointed secretary of Homeland Security, issued an “active directive”, ordering “an immediate review of what additional steps are needed to fully implement...
Ducks Unlimted teams up with state in coastal restoration
The state and Ducks Unlimited are partnering in a 2,500 acre coastal marsh restoration project in Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced yesterday. The project, to build terraces...
Another good reason to eat Louisiana oysters
If there weren’t enough reasons to eat Louisiana oysters — on the half shell, fried, charbroiled, pan sauteed, Rockefeller, Bienville, Mosca, shooters, spaghetti, and artichoke soup, chowder, gumbo,...
A murderous account: New Orleans
The _New York Pos_t magazine, Page Six, ran a gushy travel story about New Orleans, this weekend, titled The Big Easy Is Back. The inch-deep story oozed praise for the luxury hotels, Emeril Lagasse’s...
The Big Dig: searching for treasure at Cypremort Point
The Boston Tunnel it ain’t. Louisiana’s own version of a quixotic excavation has more to do with otherworldly voices, pirate treasure and blind faith than it does with mass transportation. But as far...
Vince Marinello, who was convicted of murdering his wife by a Lafayette jury last month, will be sentenced today to life in prison. The trial of the well known New Orleans sportscaster was moved to...
Someone finally got it right. New York Times reporter Mimi Read has a story this morning about New Orleans chef Donald Link who opened a Cajun meat market, Cochon Butcher, yesterday, in the Big Easy....
Brad Pitt makes it right on the cover of Architectural Digest
It doesn’t hurt that he’s one of the best looking guys on the planet. Brad Pitt and his Make It Right project to help rebuild New Orleans’ lower Ninth Ward is the cover story of the January issue of...
Lemoine Co. apparent low bidder for ACA theatre
When the Acadiana Center for the Arts opened the second round of bidding last week for phase two of the complex, a theatre, the new low bidder was the old low bidder, The Lemoine Company. A low base...
It’s always a thrill when a renowned artist comes to town, but for collectors of the art of Edna Hibel, her visit is a special treat. The 90 year old artist received the prestigious Leonardo da Vinci...
Coconuts: Zulu goes to Washington
Among the thousands of gifts Barack Obama will receive as he becomes America’s new president will be a coveted throw from Mardi Gras. The Times Picayune reports that Charles Hamilton Jr., the...
Hemingway lecture at Dupre Library
Professor H.R. Stoneback, a distinguished Hemingway scholar will present a lecture titled “Hemingway’s Pilgrimages--Catholic, French, and American: or, on the Road to France through New Orleans,” on...
Wining and dining and whining to members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission by lobbyists and officials from the utility companies the PSC oversees has come to an end. It’s been the Louisiana...
Leadership Louisiana taps seven from Lafayette
Seven leaders from Lafayette have been chosen by the Council for A Better Louisiana as members of its 2009 Leadership Louisiana program. Kimberly Florsheim, Vice President of Operations for Ivy...
"In the Electric Mist" straight to DVD
If your film doesn’t make the short list for the Cannes Film Festival, why not roll out the red carpet in New Iberia? That’s the current word on the long overdue screening of In The Electric Mist, the...
Eugene Martin show opens at ArtWalk
Artist Eugene Martin called himself a satirical abstractist. With a body of work that defies classification, that may be the closest anyone will get to categorizing his drawings and paintings....
Iberia sheriff attempting to break policing contract with New Iberia
Iberia sheriff attempting to break policing contract with New Iberia Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal is looking at his options concerning three contracts he inherited from former Sheriff Sid Hebert....
A new environmental campaign has caught fire in England. And where there’s fire, there’s stew. Squirrel stew to be exact. The gray squirrel, introduced in England from North America over a century...
You might remember the name Herbert Gettridge. He is the determined 82-year-old man who was rebuilding his house in the Lower Ninth Ward. Every news team in the country made the pilgrimage down to the...
Here come the carpetbaggers again, only this time they’re from Texas. The Times-Picayune reports that Louisiana oystermen are complaining that Texas oyster boats are capitalizing on Louisiana’s public...
“Picture yourself in a boat on a river.” No, I’m not talking about a fishing trip. “With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.” And no, not that kind of trip either. Take a trip down memory lane, with...
Nearly 45,000 purged from state's voter rolls
Jay Dardenne, Louisiana Secretary of State, has purged over 40,000 voters from the state’s rolls. The 44,739 voters removed from the rolls were those whose address cannot be verified and who have not...
Iberia Parish Councilman George Gros dies at 61
Stubborn, incorruptible, pointed. George Gros was a man who lived on the strength of his convictions. The longtime Iberia Parish councilman died this weekend after a battle with lymphoma. He was...
Some people bleed purple and gold. Others just want to smell like it. (Think magnolia, jasmine and cypress, not hot tar, summer sweat and stale beer.) Perfumer Katie Masich is trying to catch that LSU...
Playing chicken: Otter's opens Saturday
Otter’s, Lafayette’s brand new fried chicken finger restaurant, is taking it to Raising Cane’s. While owner Talbott Ottinger swears the location of his restaurant, directly across the street from...
For the person who has everything, the gift of giving is a heartfelt alternative. The Community Foundation of Acadiana makes it easy to find a local non-profit or charity organization that is the...
Street vendors banned in St. Martinville?
The Grinch lives in St. Martinville. The green party-pooper notorious for trying to shut down Christmas joy pointed his knobby chartreuse finger at a group of street vendors selling their wares during...
It’s that time of year. Time to taste some bubbly in preparation for popping corks at Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Phillippe Simon, owner of Phillippe’s Wine Cellars is holding a champagne tasting...
ACA forced to reject theater bids
The Acadiana Center for the Arts announced on Monday that the bid process for its Phase 2 theater violates state law, due to a technicality, and the entire process will have to be rebid. Newspaper...
Marinello guilty, awaiting sentencing
After two years awaiting trial, and two weeks of testimony, it only took two hours on Saturday for a jury to declare Vince Marinello guilty of killing his estranged wife, Liz Marinello. The New...
Paul Hilliard: Up by his bootstraps
It’s no wonder Lafayette oilman Paul Hilliard is one of this year’s recipients of the Horatio Alger Award. His life story sounds like it could have been written by Charles Dickens or Saul Bellow, much...
The popular little eatery on Brook street, Bonnie Bell’s Bistro, has made the leap to downtown, opening its doors Wednesday at lunchtime. Located in the old T’Coon’s on Jefferson St., owners Bonnie...
Photographer Robin May was up early this morning in Grand Coteau, shooting scenes of today's snowfall. Her neighbors were walking their dogs in the three inch deep snow. For more images, go to...
This mini-snowman showed up atop a car on Jefferson Street. He has Cheerio eyes and oh-nooooo, he's lost his baby-carrot nose....
Driving into work this morning, I spotted my first snowman on Mall Street. Jonah and Katie Weeks built it. "This is the first time I ever saw snow in my whole life," says Jonah, 24....
St. Martinville cookbook maven Marcelle Bienvenu has been busy this year. In addition to editing the Abita Brewery’s first ever cookbook, Abita Beer, Cooking Louisiana True, which just hit bookstores...
Mon Cher Camarade airs tonight on LPB
Tonight is the initial broadcast on LPB of Lafayette filmaker Pat Mire’s WWII documentary, Mon Cher Camarade. The hour long documentary tells the story of the role of French-speaking Cajun soldiers in...
You know you're from Louisiana...
We love the long lists that arrive via email beginning with “You know you’re from Louisiana when...” This one is from the Houma Courier, compiler anonymous: “Your sunglasses fog up when you step...
Lifting the oil drilling ban on Lake Pontchartrain?
Lake Pontchartrain has been closed to new oil and gas drilling for 17 years, since the State Mineral Board voted to protect the ecosystem of Louisiana’s largest water body. Now, the Louisiana Oil and...
Louisiana ranks last in health ratings
Once again, Louisiana has waddled to the bottom of the heap, surpassing even Mississippi as the unhealthiest state in the union. That’s according to the American Public Health Association and the...
Following the completion of jury selection, the murder trial of New Orleans sportscaster Vince Marinello, accused of killing his wife, Liz Marinello, commenced yesterday afternoon, with opening...
Ville Platte High School deseg hearing slated for Dec. 15
The Justice Department says that the Evangeline Parish school board has taken long enough to resolve desegregation issues at Ville Platte High School, explains a story in The Advocate. The school...
Vince Marinello had a habit of making check lists as part of his note gathering for his radio talk show. That’s what his mother-in-law told the Times-Picayune yesterday. “It was one of his habits to...
The strange tale of Vince Marinello
Diehard Saints fans are as attached to their opinionated sportscasters as they are to their running backs, and have been since the inception of the Saints in 1967. There was nothing quite so local as...
Mitch Reed and Al Berard fiddle around
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to play the fiddle, Tom’s Fiddle and Bow in Arnaudville is offering a rare opportunity to study with two masters of Cajun fiddle. Mitch Reed and Al Berard will teach...
Breaux Bridge ArtWalk this weekend
Post turkey blowout, once you lever yourself off the sofa, there are alternatives to the mall. Breaux Bridge is hosting an ArtWalk and Merchant’s Open House featuring over 30 artists working in every...
Dominick Cross to lead Delta Democrat Times
Acadiana journalist and political poet Dominick Cross has been named editor of the Pulitzer Prize winning Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Mississippi. Familiar to local readers for his music and...
100 wines, four hours, you do the math
So many wines, so little time. Marcello’s Wine Market Cafe is hosting a tasting of 100 wines at their Kaliste Saloom restaurant on Sunday. Wine specialist Nicole Jordan, formerly of Republic...
Mon Cher Camarade screens tonight at LITE
“Mon Cher Camarade,” a new film by Lafayette cinematographer Pat Mire, will screen tonight at LITE. Six years in the making, the documentary highlights the role of French-speaking Cajuns during World...
Artificial oyster reefs build coast in Texas
The state of Louisiana allowed its primary storm surge barriers, the coastal oyster shell reefs, to be dredged from about 1900 until 1987, when the last permits expired. Coastal erosion and heightened...
Marinello pre-trial jury selection begins today
If you can’t find a parking spot in the downtown garage this morning, it’s because a pool of 500 potential jurors from Lafayette Parish are reporting to the courthouse for jury pre-qualifications for...
We’ve put a man on the moon, and now Russia is talking about a manned mission to Mars. Is it possible to moonwalk on the Red Planet? Cosmonaut Dr. Alexander Martynov of the city of Korolev, Russian...
“I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.” Actually that would be Susan Hester Edmunds, who as a president of the New Iberia Optimist Club led the board to pass a resolution requesting the Louisiana...
Feds will pick up underwater debris from Rita but not Ike
Underwater debris from 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita still hunkers, three years later, beneath the bayous of southwest Louisiana, snagging nets and threatening navigation. In September, Hurricane...
Art center theater to become a reality
A long awaited theatre which will be part of the Acadiana Center for the Arts complex is back on track after a hiatus of a year, after bids came back under budget on Wednesday. “We’re exuberant,” says...
The governor’s office has a new Web site documenting details of the state’s budget for anyone who wants to take a look at how taxpayer monies are being spent. Called Louisiana Transparency and...
Cajun and Acadian film screenings tomorrow in Arnaudville
Three films documenting Cajun and Acadian experiences will be shown at the Moncton Rock + Acadiana Cri art exhibit. Moncton Rock + Acadiana Cri is a multidisciplinary group exhibit of over 30 artists...
The South sinks in political importance
Once the stronghold of presidential politics, the Deep South, by largely supporting Sen. John McCain, may have marginalized itself for the near future. By voting against president-elect Barak Obama,...
LSU-Alabama rivalry leaves two dead
A football rivalry erupted into violence in Alabama, leaving two LSU fans dead. After the Crimson Tide victory over the LSU Tigers Saturday night, Louisiana fans Dennis and Donna Smith of Conecuh...
Everybody's looking for a good deal these days, and there are two fine auctions coming up to benefit performing art and architecture in Acadiana. PASA’s Golden Gala wine auction takes place on Friday,...
Whole lotta arts events Thursday evening
Digital art, historic preservation, adaptive reuse and organic community gardens are all on the calendar Thursday, Nov. 6. Over at the Schoeffler family’s garden on Simco, the Harvest Moon Dinner, a...
I went to New Orleans over the weekend to the opening of the city-wide arts biennial, Prospect.1. The gorgeous bluebird skies and perfect 75 degree days were conducive to driving around the city,...
FEMA responds to state's allegations
Last week, Paul Rainwater, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority fired off a letter to FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison after attempting for weeks to get the federal agency to...
Prospect.1 opens Saturday in New Orleans
Tomorrow at noon is the opening of the largest arts event the city of New Orleans has ever undertaken, Prospect.1. In terms of size, imagine that it’s the Mardi Gras of Art, with venues, like parades,...
Artists create what FEMA can't even imagine
Post Hurricane Rita, people are living in tents in Cameron Parish. That’s according to Paul Rainwater, Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Director, who has fired off a letter to FEMA Administrator...
Early voting more than doubles state records
A long line snaked out of the Iberia Parish Registrar of Voters office yesterday afternoon, curled around the rotunda and stretched as far as the art deco doors of the Iberia Parish Courthouse....
It’s late. You get a phone call from home. “Where are you?” You roll your eyes at the ceiling and fib, “I’m at the office.” Well, fib no more. The latest bar to open downtown on Jefferson Street will...
Acadiana dining guide due out Wednesday
As the season swings into fall, lots of new items show up on restaurant menus. Oysters are back after beds were closed following Hurricane Ike, Sweet potatoes, pecans, persimmons and satsumas are on...
Cajun invasion at Disney World
It’s a small world after all. No longer will international visitors have to travel to Louisiana to eat crawfish or experience the rootsy Cajun funk of the Pine Leaf Boys. They can find the best of the...
Lafayette’s newest downtown sushi restaurant, Bonsai, will be hosting its Grand Opening this Saturday. The event actually kicks off this week, as the restaurant opens its doors for lunch...
It won’t just be the Saints marchin’ in to London this week. In conjunction with the Saints-Chargers game in London’s Wembley Stadium this Sunday, Louisiana’s musicians will be showcased in a...
The Lafayette Registrar of Voter’s office was “extremely busy” this morning, with the onslaught of people eager to cast their votes early. Tuesday’s count was 1,040 voters, with waits of up to 30...
New Iberia native and the state’s Artist Laureate, George Rodrigue, will be signing Blue Dog Speaks in Lafayette tomorrow. Rodrigue says his latest book, which emphasizes the titles of his paintings,...
Early voting for the Nov. 4 elections begins tomorrow morning, and will continue from at 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Oct. 28, except for Sunday, Oct. 26, at the Lafayette Parish Registrar of...
Creole and Cajun cooking demonstration Saturday
There’s a power center in St. Martinville, and like all sources of things really really good, it comes from the town’s women. Two to be exact. There’s a power center in St. Martinville, and like all...
New Orleans streetcar shelters art
What does New Orleans have in common with Paris? Aside from language, food, and genealogy, the New World French city is now joining the Old World culture capital in transforming utilitarian public...
Moncton Rock + Acadiana Cri opens tomorrow
Our connections to Canada keep twining tighter as more of Acadiana’s young artists and musicians intersect with their counterparts in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Our connections to Canada keep...
Rabbit fricassee returns to downtown
I have bad news and good news for all of you who have looked forward to rabbit fricassee every Monday at T-Coon’s downtown. I have bad news and good news for all of you who have looked forward to...
A contentious battle over the location of a landfill and pickup station between Iberia Parish Government and operator Gordon Doerle has been settled. A contentious battle over the location of a...
It takes the fresh eye of an outsider to find beauty in what we look at as eyesores. That’s the impact of Puits d’Huile, the new show opening at Galerie Lafayette in Jefferson Street Market, tomorrow...
La. voters illegally purged from rolls?
Newly registered voters in nine states, including Louisiana, may have been illegally purged from rolls. According to The New York Times, the states have been violating federal laws by removing voters...
Dennis Paul Williams show opens at ACA
Dennis Paul Williams has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. Highly sensitive to beauty, fueled by his spirituality, and drawing from the Creole heritage of his St. Martinville family,...
Elisa Monte dance troupe in town
Zydeco Zaré choreographer Elisa Monte is in town this week with a busy schedule leading up to her company’s world premier performance on Saturday night. Monte created the piece based on Creole...
Fiddleheads take heed. A once in a blue moon convocation of some of the best fiddlers in Louisiana takes place Thursday night in Arnaudville. David Greely, Louis Michot, Anya Burgess, Al Berard,...
Francophone events hightlight Acadian Heritage Week
Acadian Heritage Week, which kicked off over the weekend, continues all this week with a series of Francophone events. In conjunction with Festivals Acadiens et Créoles , Acadian Heritage Week...
Louisiana’s association with the word “gumbo” dates back to the arrival of African slaves early in the 18th century. Torn from their homes in west Africa, few of their possessions survived the Middle...
Fish and chips, mate, is what's for dinner
Yearning for fish and chips but can’t pop over the Pond? Try a drive down by the riverside in Broussard. Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn is putting on “A Bit of a Do” on October 15. Fried fish, chips, mushy...
Three years, four storms, no Katrina cottages
Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the house named for the killer storm has yet to be built in Louisiana. Katrina Cottages, small modular homes designed in the vernacular of Gulf Coast architecture...
The New York Times is discovering a cooking technique Cajuns have known for years — slow cooking an entire meal in a rice cooker. In today’s Food section, an article titled The Steamy Way to Dinner,...
French architecture talk at LEDA
Historic buildings stand all around us. Next time you’re driving down Pinhook, take a good look at Cafe Vermilionville. The two story building is a rare early 19th century example of French Louisiana...
Step out of the local music box for a little contemporary French jazz. Moutin Réunion Quartet, an ensemble of twin brothers, drummer Louis and bassist François Moutin, along with pianist Pierre de...
Gustav and Ike victims will not have to face Road Home
Governor Bobby Jindal nixed implementing the state’s Road Home program for victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. “We absolutely will not recreate the kind of bureaucracy that was created after...
Crawfish claw their way into LA restaurant scene
The next new thing in LA is old hat for La. Boiled crawfish restaurants are popping up in Los Angeles’ Little Saigon, a Vietnamese enclave, teaching a whole new group of eaters how to suck the heads...
Chef Alex Patout returns to Acadiana
If you’ve eaten at Cafe Vermilionville recently, you might have noticed a subtle shift in the menu. Dishes that speak of grandma’s kitchen and black pot cooking have been appearing on the historic...
Maintaining the urban forest, post hurricane
After every hurricane there is a run on chain saws at local hardware stores, and neighborhood trees that have withstood the winds begin to topple. As many trees fall from fearful homeowners taking...
A glass of wine always makes our foreign language skills better. Think how French trips from the tongue, or Spanish rolls out with a flourish with a little dutch courage. Add a microphone to that...
Eunice native Dale Siting, a member of the Public Service Commission has been named executive director of the Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority. He will be overseeing the Louisiana Offshore Oil...
Donate to hurricane recovery funds
Two philanthropic non-profits have launched fund drives to help victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The Community Foundation of Acadiana has created the South Louisiana Recovery Fund to direct...
If you’ve got boudin in your blood, (and who doesn’t have a little pork fat in their arteries around here), it’s not too late to sign up to compete in the first ever Boudin Cook-Off. Conceived by the...
Gator seeks shelter in Sulphur home
While most people open their homes to evacuees and their pets, sheltering a 10 foot alligator is pushing the envelope. At least that’s how Robert Saucier of Sulphur felt about the gator he found in...
Floodwaters recede, Landrieu demands federal funding
As Hurricane Ike’s flood waters recede and Acadiana residents prepare to go home and assess the damage, larger questions loom about the future of life in coastal Louisiana. “I think around 60...
Water rising in Cameron Parish
At 7 p.m. last night, all was quiet on the western coast of Louisiana. Houses are shuttered from Holly Beach to Johnson Bayou. The Cameron ferry is shut down, so the only road in and out is the...
Hurricane Ike, currently a Category 2 storm, is predicted to make landfall Saturday around Galveston, Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center. Because of the potential for storm surges of...
Andoli's Sandwich Press opens downtown
There’s no getting around it. We’re caffeine junkies. When Café Bonjour, the downtown coffee shop, closed in June, folks downtown started getting squirrely, needing a java fix. Well, jones no more....
Baton Rouge, hot and sticky, in New York Times
While most of the national media has moved on from its coverage of Hurricane Gustav, the New York Times today has a story about the continued power outages in Baton Rouge. Reported by NYT New Orleans...
Talking trash in Iberia Parish
Hurricane recovery efforts usually bring folks together. But the downed tree limb-lined streets of New Iberia served as the battle ground for the struggle between State Senator Troy Hebert and...
Gustav blows out of national press coverage
Five days after Hurricane Gustav came ashore over Grand Isle and affected every parish in Louisiana, coverage of the storm has disappeared from major newspapers from New York City to Los Angeles., and...
The Louisiana governor’s office has posted a Web site, www.Emergency.Louisiana.gov, that includes statewide updates on gas station openings, grocery store openings, application for federal aid,...
I’m in New Iberia to ride out the storm in a 100-year-old house in the city's historic district. So far, (it’s 11:30 a.m.) there have just been gusts of rain and wind. Last night at about 9 p.m., my...
Memorial to Katrina's dead may be dedicated today
The third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is an occasion to take a moment to remember those lost in the storm. The city of New Orleans has been building a monument to those unclaimed souls, 85 of...
Jindal declares state of emergency
In preparation for a head-on strike by Hurricane Gustav, Governor Bobby Jindal has issued a State Declaration of Emergency . Yesterday, he sent a letter to the White House, notifying the federal...
Cravins bests Boustany in July fundraising
State Sen. Don Cravins, Jr., the Democratic challenger to Republican Congressman Charles Boustany, raised some $41,000 more than his incumbent opponent over the most recent fundraising period, from...
Popeye's frys up "slow" fast food
Sounds too good to be true. Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits is launching three new $1.49 items on its menu including this one - a cheddar cheese-flavored tortilla wrap filled with fried chicken tenders...
If Louisiana’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention looked a little weary on Monday, it’s because they blew it out Sunday night. At the opening shindig at the Filmore Auditorium in Denver,...
Big Easy woes, as Katrina anniversary arrives
As we approach August 29, the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the recovery of New Orleans is a mixed bag at best. Yes, the restaurants are better than they have ever been and you can...
Kente cloth exhibit at Natural History Museum
Intricate design, brilliant color, sacred symbols. The Kente cloth exhibit —Wrapped in Pride: Ghanian Kente and African American Identity — which just opened at the Lafayette Natural History Museum,...
Good sculptures make good neighbors. That’s Joseph Jilbert’s attitude. The artist and Katrina nomad found his way back to Louisiana last month, nearly three years after the storm, and rented a house...
Bush to speak in New Orleans today
President Bush is marking the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina a little early, with a 2:30 p.m. speech today at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans. The stop is part of a packed schedule that...
For the Cajun members of our trip who could trace their ancestry back to Acadia, the trip to New Brunswick was a revelation. “I grew up speaking French with my parents and grandparents,” says Passe...
We are staying at the 1891 Hotel Paulin, where the Acadian flag flies from the third story dormer. Third generation owner Gerard Paulin and his partner Karen Mersereau are melding the historic...
I can understand why the Cajuns still long for the lost paradise of Acadie. The Acadian Peninsula is a beautiful place - forests of spruce and larch, meadows filled with wildflowers, and the wide...
Moncton's all-French radio station is CKOI, 99.9 FM. So far this morning I've heard some French rock and folk, but mostly French country-western. Evidentially Georges Belliveau is a big...
Gerald Breaux, executive director of the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission, has just returned from a nine-day jaunt in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to visit the towns that will host the...
Catahoula's Steakhouse under new management
When Guy Pellitteri was offered the opportunity to move to Lafayette and help launch Pamplona Tapas Bar, he jumped at it. Now the owners of Catahoula’s Steakhouse - John Slaughter Jr. and Brach Myers...
White shrimp season opens at noon today
Fall shrimp season opens today all across Louisiana. That’s the good news. Whether the haul of white shrimp will help struggling shrimpers overcome the high price of diesel coupled with the setbacks...
Acadian delegation visits New Brunswick
A group of Acadiana tourism and cultural officials have traversed the reverse of the Grand Derangement, making a pilgrimage to Lafayette’s twin city, Moncton, New Brunswick, on Canada’s Acadian...
Invest in a community garden this weekend
Undaunted by yesterday's major blaze next door, Acadiana Outreach is prepping for a garden overhaul this weekend and asking volunteers for a little sweat equity. The old Anderson Furniture Warehouse,...
Top paddling town in the south: Lafayette
Live and play. That’s what we know Lafayette is good at, and now, so does National Geographic Adventure . The September issue has an article titled “Where to Live and Play: the fifty next great...
Thought you’d tasted everything? It seems, an undiscovered Louisiana delicacy has been floating right under our noses. Or perhaps right under the bows of our pirogues. Graine à voler in Cajun French,...
Jolie's Bistro joining restaurant row on Pinhook
Pinhook road is heating up into Lafayette’s fine dining ground zero. Jolie’s Louisiana Bistro will join restaurant meccas Cafe Vermilionville, Blue Dog, Zeus, Ruth’s Chris and Catahoula’s Steakhouse...
An ambassador in the movement to preserve French language and culture in Louisiana has died. Richard Guidry was only 58, but he had already filled a long lifespan of activism, scholarship and teaching...
Night at the movies, en français
Francophone film buffs have a new venue to watch everything from au courant documentaries to animation to classics of French cinema. The Acadiana Center for Film and Media , a new non-profit dedicated...
Remembering Avery Island cook Eula Mae Dore
Rare is the cook who turns out feather light biscuits. Transforming flour, fat and buttermilk into an airy breakfast treat takes what the old folks dubbed “biscuit hands.” Eula Mae Doré had them. The...
Midnight litterer dumps on ex-official
Johnny Romero must have been dreaming. A few weeks ago the New Iberia motel and trailer park magnate dumped about five dump truck loads of debris onto Jefferson Terrace, a boulevard that runs from...
Buddy Palmer to be arts alliance director in Alabama
Buddy Palmer, former director of the Acadiana Arts Council has been selected as the new president and CEO of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. The independent non-profit is a four year old...
Restaurant reviews back on Times-Picayune menu
It’s a sure sign of hurricane recovery when Times-Picayune restaurant writer Brett Anderson starts handing out beans again. While most reviewers paste on stars to indicate excellence in the...
Paul Gary spent three years scouring Lafayette for a taste of what he calls “real barbecue,” the kind of smoked meat he grew up on in Oklahoma. Finally, he gave up looking and started cooking--the...
Miss Jane Pittman’s tree will stand another day to shade travelers and inspire poets. That’s the word from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, which laid down the ax after a...
Downtown plate lunch icon closes
It’s not been a good summer for downtown restaurants. Victor’s, a new Greek-inspired bistro shut down after only a few months in business, Café Bonjour turned off the java taps in June, and now a...
The Three Amigos. The Magnificent Seven. Those action heros shot back their whiskey neat. So what do Hollywood Westerns have to do with cocktail mixology? An international panel of mixologists will be...
Who wants to be Justice of the Peace?
Lack of interest in running for office has caused the St. Martin Parish clerk of court to reopen qualifying this week. According to the Teche News, no one registered to run for Justice of the Peace to...
Bobby Jindal: cookie connoisseur
What’s the first thing governor Bobby Jindal says when he arrives home at the mansion after a hard day vetoing bills? “Me want cookie” might not be too far off, although it seems our governor is more...
Developer enters New Iberia mayor's race
A colorful businessman, Chris Jordan, is challenging New Iberia mayor Hilda Curry in this year’s fall election. Jordan, a developer, told the Daily Iberian that he can bring rapid economic growth to...
Literary landmark under the ax
A centuries-old live oak that is the inspiration for one of Louisiana’s greatest novelists is slated to be cut down this week. Known as “Miss Jane’s Tree,” the Pointe Coupee parish oak offers...
Today’s online version of The Independent features a new project. We partnered with UL’s Cinematic Arts Workshop to produce a short clip, “The Flower Ladies.” Award-winning cinematographer Allison...
Joe's Dreyfus Store Restaurant reopens
Long distance road trips may be out of the question this summer, but a destination restaurant that’s a mere 70 miles from Lafayette is just the thing for a weekend jaunt. Especially when that...
Holly Beach and Grand Isle rebuilding
Louisianians love their coastal communities. The draw of the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico is so strong residents are willing to build houses 20 feet up in the air, gamble on homes surviving storms...
Bourque removed from position as state Poet Laureate
Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque will no longer be reading verse and teaching literary arts. At least not in his official capacity. Last week, as the Legislative session wrapped up, Bourque...
Levee funding demand undermines coastal restoration
Louisiana’s share of levee construction out of a $14.8 billion federal budget is $1.8 billion. Even more stunning than the sum is the time frame: the state needs to come up with the funds within three...
After more than a decade of permit applications, lawsuits, legislative bills and news stories, Gordon Doerle’s disposal company will need a new landfill just to handle the amount of paper generated by...
School officials attempt to supress bilingual speech, again
Louisiana is proud of our multilingual heritage. Except when we aren’t. Despite touting French-speaking Cajun country, Isleno Spanish-speaking descendents in St. Bernard Parish, German beer and...
Who knows what lurks on Jefferson Street in the dark of night. Could it be werewolves? Could it be vampires? You’ll have to show up on Monday, June 30 to find out, when Bullet Films takes over...
Slacker heaven beckons. That is if you can get off the couch. GAMECAMP!, an intensive summer camp in how to make video games is once again offered in Lafayette from July 28 to August 1st at Cyberlan...
Funds to raise flood prone homes in pipeline
Over $1.5 million in federal funding is headed to Lafayette to alleviate flooding in homes located in floodways. According to Dee Stanley, CAO for Lafayette Consolidated Government, a list of homes...
Downtown coffee shop closes doors
When Cafe Bonjour owner Sharon Falgout posted a small handwritten sign on the glass door of her Jefferson Street coffeeshop announcing June 17 as her final day serving trademark cappucinos and lattes,...
The doors of downtown’s second sushi restaurant, Bonsai, opened quietly last Monday, but by Saturday night techno rhythms were pulsing and the sleek new bar was jammed with curious customers. Owner...
Seven software savvy new hires will take on an army of thousands. That’s the buzz from LITE public affairs manager Erin Fitzgerald, who says Lafayette’s cutting edge Louisiana Immersive Technologies...
Jefferson sister pleads guilty in money skimming scam
A guilty plea by Brenda Jefferson to concealing knowledge of her relative’s phony charity scam comes on the heels of an announcement by her brother, indicted U.S. Representative William Jefferson,...
Voice of the wetlands sings the blues in DC
A mixed bag of Louisiana representatives including Gov. Bobby Jindal, blues musician Tab Benoit, wetlands photographer C.C. Lockwood and LRA chief Paul Rainwater are joining the Bayou State...
Frustrated by feds, Terrebonne Parish raises levees
Levees proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the Houma area may cost approximately $11 billion, and the work won’t start before 2009 or 2010. Terrebonne parish officials are so fed up...
Louisiana black bears expanding habitat into Texas
It’s been 16 years since the Lousiana black bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In the early 1990s, the federal government attempted to designate critical habitat for the...
June mineral lease sale a gusher
Shale oil and gas finds in north Louisiana have pumped up state mineral leases to the highest levels in twenty-five years. The state Mineral Board collected $35.8 million in cash payments yesterday at...
Lake Peigneur bill headed to governor
A bill to aid environmental group Save Lake Peigneur in their fight to stop Atlanta based AGL Resources from building two compressed natural gas storage chambers in the salt dome beneath the lake has...
Lake Peigneur bill final vote in House tonight
The final showdown between environmental group Save Lake Peigneur and AGL Resources takes place on the floor of the Legislature today. AGL has applied to the state Department of Natural Resources for...
Maori dancers in New Iberia tonight
It’s not often that a troupe of dancers from half way round the world find their way to the Queen City of the Teche. But tonight, New Zealand’s Maori Dance Theatre will perform in New Iberia....
Weeks Island salt dome under review for hazardous waste storage
Yet another out-of-state company is attempting to use one of south Louisiana’s salt domes for industrial purposes. CCS Midstream Services, a Canadian oilfield waste company with facilities in...
The Advocate hires former Advertiser reporter
Award-winning reporter Jason Brown, formerly a writer for The Daily Advertiser, has joined the team at the Acadiana desk of the The Advocate. Brown was hired to replace long time reporter Kevin...
Multiple members of Jefferson family indicted
Multiple members of the family of U.S. Representative William Jefferson have been named in a federal indictment for allegedly skimming over $600,000 intended for three charities supposedly created to...
Ice Cream Freeze Off looking for volunteers
Fear of brain freeze. That’s the only excuse I can think of why the Children’s Museum of Acadiana isn’t overrun with volunteers for this weekend’s Ice Cream Freeze Off fund raiser. The third annual...
Kathy Ball, arts promoter, dies at 53
Lafayette has lost a passionate champion of the arts with the death of Kathy Marie Ball, who died this week. Ball served for 20 years as the registrar of the Lafayette Natural History Museum, where...
Louisiana birders are a twitter this morning, reading about James Van Remsen’s sighting of a Red-footed Booby at Holly Beach. Yesterday, Elias Landry spotted 47 Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, 25...
Murder rate rises in New Iberia
Sleepy little New Iberia, known for its oak-shaded Main Street, historic downtown, and as the home of Tabasco sauce, is developing a reputation no city wants. A rising crime wave that has resulted in...
Biofuels plant opens in Jennings
An ethanol plant in Jennings, which hopes to turn sugarcane waste into biofuel, opens today. Cambridge-based Verenium Corp . will begin demonstrating an alternative to corn-based ethanol, potentially...
In memory of Elemore Morgan, Jr.
The dean of Acadiana artists has left the rice fields. When 76-year-old Elemore Morgan Jr. passed away in Baltimore on Sunday, May 18, after complications from heart surgery, it wasn’t just south...
African-American Trail featured in NYT
Louisiana’s Department of Tourism launched the state’s African-American Heritage Trail in March of this year. This week, the New York Times travel section is featuring the trail as a summer road trip....
Hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday this weekend
Baby back ribs and charcoal aren’t the only items Louisianians will be purchasing this Memorial Day Weekend. The state has declared May 24 and 25 a sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness....
Bill to protect Chicot Aquifer/Lake Peigneur advances
A bill to restrict the amount of water withdrawn on a daily basis from the Chicot Aquifer in Iberia Parish has passed the House committee on Natural Resources. Senate bill 754 authored by Senator Troy...
Bringing Congrès Mondial back home to Louisiana
The first gathering of the Acadian families, expelled from their homes in Canada in 1755 by the British army, was held in 1994 in New Brunswick. Called the Congrès Mondial Acadien , this grand reunion...
Durel touts Lafayette at Cannes Film Festival
It’s not all movie stars and glamour at the Cannes Film Festival . City-parish President Joey Durel made the pilgrimage to the heart of the cinematic world to pitch Lafayette as the mecca for the...
Bleak prospect for shrimp season
From the eastern shores of Barataria Bay to the western shoals at Southwest Pass, the inland shrimp season opened this week. Normally a rodeo of working boats seining up the abundance of Louisiana’s...
After Monsanto threatens, Kleinpeter's sales increase
Following the publication of an article in Vanity Fair titled "Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear," detailing how the agri-chemical giant attempted to prevent Baton Rouge dairy farm Kleinpeter Farms...
Treasure hunting in the Gulf of Mexico
A group of treasure hunters from New Iberia -- Avery Munson, Craig DeRouen, and Gary and Renée Hebert -- spent nearly 20 years searching for the New York, a steam ship that sank in 60 feet of water...
Remembering art icon Robert Rauschenberg
A giant in the world of modern art, Robert Rauschenberg , 82, died last night in Florida, surrounded by his family. American painter, sculptor, printmaker, photographer and performance artist,...
Milk wars: Baton Rouge Kleinpeter Farms vs goliath Monsanto
Kleinpeter Farms, the Baton Rouge dairy that expanded their milk, butter and ice cream into the Lafayette market this year, has been under fire from agri-chemical giant Monsanto. Kleinpeter touts the...
"Sinkhole de Mayo" may aid Lake Peigneur
The folks at Lake Peigneur have another horror story to tell in their fight to keep two more storage caverns from being scoured into the salt dome below the lake which straddles the Iberia and...
The Lafayette Paddle Club is launching a trip this weekend deep into the urban jungle: they’ll be paddling Bayou Vemilion right through the heart of Lafayette. The trip begins on Saturday morning with...
This week, Habitat for Humanity and Lowe’s are calling all hammer welding women to help finish up the dozen houses Habitat is building in Kaplan. Part of a national campaign dubbed National Women...
Hadrian's waltz out of New Iberia
New Iberia’s oldest resident may be moving. The 7-foot-tall, full length statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian, which has been housed in a special glass atrium in the IberiaBank building on St. Peter...
It's official: Wuestemann named new AAC executive director
Classical guitarist and entrepreneur Gerd Wuestemann will head the Acadiana Arts Council beginning May 19. After a four-month search, following the resignation of longtime director Buddy Palmer,...
Grassroots efforts help restore coastal marshes
Hunters and fishermen (and women) have long been at the forefront of conservation issues. The state organization that works to preserve habitat and protect wildlife, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation...
For folks who have been missing their fresh carrots and peas there’s veggies on the way. The farmer’s market in the Oil Center, just across the street from Champagne’s, is slated to reopen on...
Candide concludes at the end of Voltaire’s satiric novel that the best of all possible worlds is to stay home and cultivate one’s garden. This Saturday, the Sunset Garden Club offers just this...
Think you don’t know anything about opera? In a 2008 Superbowl commercial for Doritos , a man tries to trap a mouse to the tune of the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. Remember the Bad News Bears? Think...
Beaucoup summer activity for kids
It’s time to sign up for summer camp, and there are lots of options for combining learning and play this year. The Acadiana Arts Council and the Lafayette Natural History Museum & Planetarium have...
Tattoed Walls returns to Festival International
Gather an audience, put a group of artists and musicians on the spot and what do you get? A spontaneous happening of visual and musical creativity called Tatooed Walls. The Acadiana Center for the...
When others said no, he opened his town to hurricane evacuees
Unnoticed in the avalanche of news about formaldehyde in FEMA trailers and this summer’s final closing of the last of the trailer parks with some Katrina victims still scrambling to find housing, is...
Weekend of art and music in New Iberia
Festival International isn’t the only show in Acadiana this weekend. Down the Teche, New Iberia is celebrating spring with a Saturday ArtWalk and Sunday concert in the park. From the National Register...
UL's Ducornet honored by American Academy of Arts and Letters
Rikki Ducornet, UL Writer in Residence has just been chosen as a recipient of the Academy Awards in Literature, given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The American Academy of Arts and...
Eat your heart out in the Big Easy
This is news you can use. The Times Picayune’s spring dining guide is on the street, chock-a-block with listings of places to get boiled crawfish, places that have innovative crawfish dishes on their...
It’s time to fiddle around in the great outdoors at the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week. The music and culture camp at Chicot State Park, just outside of Ville Platte, commences this...
Forbes Traveler savors Cajun Country culinary vacation
Forbes Traveler is serving up a main course of Cajun cooking to its well-heeled readers this month by naming Lafayette chef Pat Mould’s Cajun Country tours as one of the world’s best culinary trips ....
Last week to take the Community Audit for Arts Education
Friday is the deadline to participate in the Community Audit for Arts Education sponsored by the Acadiana Center for the Arts and the John F. Kennedy Center . The survey is a tool for the Acadiana...
Habitat for Humanity calls for volunteers
Beginning April 21, hammers will be ringing in Kaplan as Habitat for Humanity tackles a four week building blitz. The first six of 12 houses for Hurricane Rita victims are slated to be completed...
Weather predictions are for cooler temperatures this weekend, perfect for the packed calendar of arts and outdoors events. Start off your weekend with an opening of new paintings and art glass at...
Alliance Française takes it outdoors this Sunday. Speaking french is not merely an academic exercise here in Acadiana, and the french language group is picnicking in the park to promote bilingual...
Remember the annoying boy in fifth grade who sat in the back row and played “Heart and Soul” by snapping his fingers on his Adam’s apple during math class? He’s now the star of the a capella group...
Fascinated by creation myths? Stories from the book of Kojiki, a 7th century A.D. volume depicting the origins of the Japanese deities will be enacted by storyteller Kuniko Yamamoto at the Acadiana...
How to get outdoors this month
With gorgeous spring weather tugging at our senses, Pack and Paddle is offering a boatload of seminars and outings to get people out of doors. Tomorrow is the first talk, a kayak fishing clinic...
The "Cajun Hank Williams" turns 76 on April 14. In honor of his birthday, Terry Huval of Jambalaya cooked up a party so that all D. L. Menard’s friends and admirers can celebrate with him....
When Eunice icon Johnson’s Grocery closed in 2005, it was the end of an era for the family-run market which has a legitimate claim to being the first shop to sell boudin commercially. Arneastor...
Cinematic Arts Workshop plates up rice and gravy film
The trailer for a new documentary about some of Acadiana’s most popular plate lunch places is up for sneak preview on YouTube. Raised On Rice and Gravy takes a look at how Cajun and Creole cooking...
Sign up for summer music camp for kids
Louisiana Folk Roots, the organization behind the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week, is reaching out to the next generation of musicians and ambassadors of local culture. A June day camp for...
Venture downtown for an unveiling of things to come
Downtown partners Acadiana Center for the Arts, the Downtown Development Authority and Acadiana Outreach are teaming up for a Wednesday night , April 2, show-and-tell social dubbed Venture Downtown....
A week long festival of the arts at UL
UL’s College of the Arts will hold a week long arts festival April 1-5. The 2nd annual Festival of the Arts covers a wide range of media, including fashion, film, music, architecture, dance, print...
As much anticipated as the release of the music listings, the food list for the 2008 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is now online . There’s not too many surprises, you’ll still be able to get...
Thought you didn’t know anything about classical music? Think again. The Acadiana Symphony Orchestra will present “Classical Knockouts,” a hit parade of tunes you probably whistle without knowing they...
Tree planting and waterfowl projects for students on spring break
During the depths of the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps. The New Deal program put unemployed young men to work on conservation projects all over the...
Langlinais seeking up to $20,000 in vacation pay
Former Iberia Parish President Will Langlinais, who resigned from office in July 2007 pleading guilty to malfeasance in office, is seeking accrued vacation pay accumulated over his 14 year tenure....
X-Treme Spring Break: Students Rebuilding Louisiana
Forget about that blow out trip to Panama, or Panama City for that matter. Louisiana’s college students are signing up to spend their spring break helping Habitat for Humanity in their post hurricane...
You can tip the scales, depending on whether you’re a hop head or a malt head. That’s the foam flecked tightrope 10 judges in this year’s Washington Post sponsored Beer Madness matchup walk in a...
New Iberia insurance executive appointed to White Lake Board
New Iberia insurance company vice-president Armond Schwing has been appointed to the White Lake Property Advisory Board by Governor Bobby Jindal. Schwing is currently the state chair for Ducks...
Acadiana artist chosen for international biennial in New Orleans
New Iberia native and Opelousas resident Shawne Major has been chosen as one of 81 local, national and international artists to participate in a groundbreaking art show in New Orleans. Prospect.1 New...
Acadian Memorial Festival this weekend
Calling all Cajuns. Put on your garde soleil and sabots, and head down to St. Martinville for the Acadian Memorial Festival. Friday, March 14, the festival kicks off with a promenade down Main Street...
One of the sure signs of spring in south Louisiana is an armada of alligators, rising from the muck of hibernation to bask in the sun. And one of the best places to see enormous gators in the wild is...
Who let the dog in? The marble halls of the New Orleans Museum of Art have been turned into a kennel for the most famous dog in America. George Rodrigue’s iconic Blue Dog is on display in all his many...
Spring arts season opens today
Downtown’s spring arts season kicks off at noon today with Les Freres Michot opening the Bach Lunch Series. Listen to traditional music from the talented Michot family and buy a box lunch; proceeds...
Free market, not price fixing, pinches crawfish prices
Complaints of price fixing has prompted a coalition of crawfish farmers to petition the Attorney General to investigate the practices of crawfish processors. Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association...
Through the lens of "Louisiana Story," on LPB tonight
Filmmaker Robert Flaherty’s award winning "Louisiana Story" will be revisited tonight, in an Louisiana Public Broadcasting documentary titled “Louisiana Story: The Reverse Angle.” Directed,...
Crawfish farmers clawing toward strike
Boiling mad crawfish farmers are meeting tonight in Rayne to decide if they will go on strike. According to Steve Minville, director of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmer’s Association, farmers have been...
French music program at UL tonight
The music of French composers Ravel, Debussy, Chaminade and Chopin will fill the air this evening at Angelle Hall on the UL campus. Renowned pianist Emily Yap Chua will perform Debussy’s “Estampes, ”...
It’s a jungle out there. Art walkers at New Iberia’s arts open house will encounter literary lions, primitive painters and a pair of pint-size giraffes. Add some snakes, a few parrots and some baby...
Louisiana cooking has been on the national hotplate this week. Following Esquire magazine’s ordering two New Orleans poboys in their top 40 sandwiches in the country, New York Times restaurant critic...
Guns and alcohol. Not a good mix, unless you’re Abbeville’s John Putnam, musing on how he’s going to cook his specklebelly. Or if you are Putnam’s hunting buddy, Bjorn Larson who owns two vineyards in...
Two Louisiana poboys slice into Esquires' top 40
We’ve known it for decades, Mother’s Ferdi Special, (home baked ham and debris, the crusty bits that fall off the roast beef when it’s being sliced, on French bread drenched in gravy) in the venerable...
Bounty hunters making inroads in nutria population
Since the bounty for nutria went up last year, more trappers have been at work in the marsh, and the nutria numbers seem to be down. Starting in 2002, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries began paying $4...