Section Walter Pierce

Number crunch: Urban versus rural reflected in tax votes

Had the millage renewals for the courthouse and correctional operations been voted on only in the city of Lafayette they would have passed handily, and the school system sales tax proposition would have been a lot closer than the blowout reflected in the parishwide vote.

Jim Crow just moved to St. Martinville

In a majority-black town, the white police chief boasts that he is using a newly created hate crime law to upgrade to a felony the charge of resisting arrest, which could potentially add additional prison time to a suspect's sentence.

RE: Under Water

Drainage issues in Lafayette Parish underscore why “our parish government” is failing everyone.

On second thought: Capt. Clay could win this thing

The former lawman is polling ahead of Scott Angelle as payback-minded Sen. David Vitter works behind the scenes against Angelle. The question remains: Will the Trump voters who got Higgins into the runoff be there for him on Dec. 10?

Kenneth Boudreaux’s unfortunate gambit

The councilman, on whom this newspaper has heaped effusive, well-earned praise during his three terms in elected government, went off the rail with his attack on the Civil Service Board.

Seeing is Believing

Long the victim of a supply-side scam by big business and oil/gas, Louisiana is beginning to right decades of wrong.

Boustany’s treacherous straits

The mild-mannered, moderate Republican has been loath to utter Donald Trump’s name even while offering a milquetoast’s endorsement of “the Republican nominee.” That’s not cutting it with the Trump crowd.

Fayard releases climate/coast plan

The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, who in September fudged a question about whether climate change is human-caused, sciences up with a plan to fight climate change and save the coast. But does her “plan” warrant quotation marks?

Touché, Mr. Kennedy, touché

Charles Boustany’s campaign should have just moved on from the “Jeff Davis 8” hooker story. They couldn’t resist. John Kennedy pounced.

RE: Bedroom Blues

Much of the flooded areas across South Louisiana share something in common — sprawl. But climate change connects it all.

The semantics of property taxes

The council is poised to “raise” property taxes — or to keep them the same, depending on your perspective and your pocket book.

RE: Our New Normal

Lafayette spent 20 years drunk on high oil prices and emerging industries. Is it time for the hangover?

Legislative Resolve

The Louisiana Legislature has been ideologically partisan, no doubt, but never more so than in a little-known resolution that was quietly passed in May.

RE: Chief Importance

Reginald Thomas probably would have made a terrific top cop, but we’ll never know.

Knezek: Stand for Pledge

Half-term school board politician is dusting, polishing AND protecting an important plank in his campaign platform for higher office: whip up the base with a misleading canard about them damn lib’ruls.

Dear ‘Mr. Romero’

You shame the memory of dead soldiers when you harass a 16 year old for exercising his constitutional rights.

RE: Holding Accountable

In a reversal of fortune, the city marshal charged with hauling people to jail awaits possibly the same fate.

White privilege — set in stone

Tuesday night’s public discussion about Lafayette’s monument to Gen. Alfred Mouton was civil, cordial even at times, yet reminds us that much of white Lafayette still can’t see the Nathan Bedford Forrest for the trees.

A Will and A Way

Lafayette’s economy will get worse in 2016, even as we hope to fund critical needs in public education and infrastructure.

In the waning light

The Tea Party phenomenon in Lafayette is winding down — Saturday’s runoff proved it.

RE: Déjà Vu All Over Again

The results of the Oct. 24 election and the deepening oil woes of Lafayette have me feeling youthful, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Really Jay Dardenne?

The governor wannabe reaches lazily for the low-hanging fruit, promising to drug test welfare recipients — a policy that stigmatizes the poor, wastes taxpayer money and produces negligible results.

RE: The Homecoming Program

An unexpected surprise landed on my desk recently, reminding me of a father whose humility matched his talent.

Context, Because it Matters

Lower the Confederate battle flag — from the official places of reverence across the Deep South, from your front porch and the back window of your pickup, from your bumpers and dorm rooms and belt buckles and ball caps.

The Reckoning

Contemporary Lafayette will either pay for its 20th century growth or pass the cost to our kids and grandkids.

A Tale of Two Trials

Eric Abshire and Seth Fontenot have at least two things in common: They’re both killers and object lessons in American exceptionalism.

TA-DA!

We’ve been working on the new site for months in concert with Wehaa, a Wisconsin web-hosting company that is bringing innovation, accessibility and reader engagement to alternative media like us.

TA-DA!

Our new website debuts today. [Editor's Note (10:29 a.m., Monday, Dec. 1): As with all things complicated and digital, the switch-over to our new site is requiring some tinkering on the web-hosting...

Re: Disconnected

Lafayette is ready to embark on a master plan for growth, but will old habits impede our progress? When Lafayette outgrew Downtown and the surrounding established neighborhoods a half century ago, we...

RE: Uncle Slam

A Louisiana congressional candidate gets loose with the rhetoric. Words matter. I wish Zach Dasher chose his more carefully. Unfortunately there was nothing novel about the rhetoric that spilled from...

www.RIP.com

Social media sites are steadily becoming virtual cemeteries. That's a good thing for the living. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES ARE STEADILY BECOMING VIRTUAL CEMETERIES. THAT'S A GOOD THING FOR THE LIVING. BY...

RE: ‘Entry Points'

When a fashion expression becomes a fine-able offense, we're all in trouble. When a fashion expression becomes a fine-able offense, we're all in trouble. By Walter Pierce Friday, May 2, 2014 Well, it...

Mayday Loans

Can state lawmakers find the nerve - and the votes - to neuter payday lenders? I've been a brick layer's helper during the summer in Louisiana, washed dishes in greasy restaurant kitchens and even...

The Name Game

The fracas over what we and outsiders call our local university is entirely of our own making. Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2015 Written by Walter Pierce Remember back around 2000, after our University of...

Travel trailer takeaways

Who does Joey Durel think he is? A popular, term-limited pol with little to lose and a legacy to secure, that's who. But what does this mini fracas say about us? Photo Illustration Has City-Parish...

RE: Haves and Have Nots

Lafayette has so much going for it, and so much yet to do. Like a turtle on a log, Lafayette has been basking in the warm glow of national approbation for some time now - or at least in the fawning...

RE 5th District runoff: a victory for pragmatism?

The Duck Dynasty guys helped for sure, but Vance McAllister was practical and consensus-minded, too. Much has been made of the endorsement by the cast of the inexplicably popular A&E reality show...

Foster Park = the folly of consolidation

OK, what's wrong with this picture? For years the city of Lafayette has been paying for maintenance and upkeep of a public park located in the city limits of Youngsville. Foster Park (center)...

Uncommon Allies

Opposition - and support, for that matter - to Common Core is forging some unlikely partnerships. RE: By Walter Pierce Nov. 1, 2013 Uncommon Allies Opposition - and support, for that matter - to...

RE: Gay Writes

When does LGBT-friendly become overly gay'? We do reader surveys every so often to get a snapshot of who our readers are, what content they prefer, what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong. The...

No charter commish: where do we go from here?

The ordinance will be back before the council, no doubt, but if it fails again, there's always the "nuclear option." Supporters of a failed ordinance that would have reconvened the 2011...

RE: Planning for Our Future

Density and infill are about to be the new buzzwords in Lafayette. It's been a hot, humid, frustrating summer for many who give a fig about Lafayette due to the mind-numbing rancor coming from the...

RE: It's the Revenue, Stupid

As cities in the parish struggle to meet costs, parish government treads water. It took me a full hour to shake the palpitations occasioned by agreeing with the tea party folks who stood before the...

Young receivers compete for slot with Saints

Head coach Sean Payton and wide receiver coach Henry Ellard, a former standout NFL receiver himself, will spend the next few months determining whether one of two recent draft choices or a host of...

RE: For the Greater Good

If David Primeaux was still molesting children, they need help now - not in 30 years. If David Primeaux was still molesting children, they need help now - not in 30 years. bY wALTER pIERCE The...

RE: A Noble Obligation?

Lafayette has long done the heavy lifting for the parish's overall prosperity, but something has to give. Lafayette has long done the heavy lifting for the parish's overall prosperity, but something...

Swap Meet

A vague proposal to eliminate income taxes and hike the state sales tax has elected officials of all political persuasions nervous. A vague proposal to eliminate income taxes and hike the state sales...

RE: IND Times are Here

We may have gone to a monthly format for print, but our digital approach is all about the here and now. We may have gone to a monthly format for print, but our digital approach is all about the here...

RE: Rouxing History

Florence Hunt's rice and gravy was always better. Richer and thicker. Stick-to-the-ribs good. I didn't know why at the time. Am I allowed to feel a little bit Cajun? Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 Written by...

RE: Parks & Recriminations

In spite of a few parsimonious partisans, Lafayette residents recognize that government revenue - yes, taxes - is necessary for the greater good. In spite of a few parsimonious partisans, Lafayette...

RE: That tax-and-spend council

We can clearly see where the stress fracture on the CPC is located, and it's not between the donkeys and the elephants, it's between common sense and pandering. Congratulations, Lafayette, your home...

RE: The Burning Question

Should smoking be banned at bars in Lafayette? This smoker says yes. I smoke cigarettes. Roll-your-own cigarettes. I am accustomed to huddling near dumpsters and dodging rain to satisfy my nicotine...

RE: A No Winn Situation

Smaller, poorer, rural parishes will likely suffer the most from state cuts to Decentralized Arts Funding. Five million dollars is chump change in a $20 billion-plus state budget. It'll buy a few...

RE: I'll Vouch for That

JindalCo's "scholarship" program is looking more like the boondoggle many feared it would be. The tally of private schools approved by the state Department of Education to accept voucher...

RE: The Digitally Divided

The transition to web-based news continues to divorce journalists from their paychecks. The Times-Picayune is just the latest example. "Saddle up the dinosaurs, we're riding to...

RE: Throwing My Weight(ed Vote Idea) Around. Again

Politics making strange bedfellows is an abused cliche, but truth can often be divined in its bruises. The 5-4 vote hanging over the fate of the traffic camera program in Lafayette is proof. This is a...

RE: A Crowe on My Gay-dar

Slight is the distance between anti-gay crusader and gay Caribbean cruise. Much, but not enough, has been written about the Louisiana Family Forum's latest push back against the radical gay agenda. By...

RE: Hair-Raising Data

Proof that LCG's SafeLight/SafeSpeed program works is hard to dismiss. I'm not a fan of the SafeLight/SafeSpeed program in Lafayette. Nor am I an opponent. I don't have strong feelings about cameras...

RE: Taxed Enough Already?

Hardly, but if Assessor Conrad Comeaux ever catches up, parish coffers could be rolling in dough. Hardly, but if Assessor Conrad Comeaux ever catches up, parish coffers could be rolling in dough. By...

Loaded and Coded

Loaded and Coded Beware those who would bestow fiscal responsibility' on local government. At first blush it sounds like the simplest of concepts. Ensure expenses don't exceed income. Loaded and...

RE: Let's Face It

Let's Face It It's time to elevate the discourse at theind.com. By: Walter Pierce Let's Face It It's time to elevate the discourse at theind.com. By: Walter Pierce The end is nigh. On Friday, Dec. 16...

RE: Happy Again

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Outgoing District 6 Councilman Sam Doré lost badly on Oct. 22. He couldn't be more thrilled.  By Walter Pierce It seemed last Tuesday on the patio at Legends on Bertrand...

The City Limits

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 But in unincorporated Lafayette Parish, almost anything goes. I saw the plans last week for the garbage transfer station being built on Sunbeam Lane in north Lafayette. As...

Money Talks

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 But it doesn't always speak clearly; sometimes it insinuates. The numbers demanded a double take. An incumbent lugging nearly two years' of bad headlines is rolling in the...

The Real Story

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 **Exposing a cyber scum bag made for a compelling read, but the arithmetic of readin' and writin' really had readers abuzz. ** Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Exposing a...

RedFlexible?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Lafayette's camera-enforcement program is a major money-maker. The council needs to be party to extending it. Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Lafayette's camera-enforcement...

Up Against It

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 Written by Walter Pierce State rep takes on the establishment,' again, in his re-election bid. State Rep. Rickey Hardy upset the apple cart when he ran for the House...

RE: Underplayed by Outreach?

The problems at Acadiana Outreach Center were more pervasive than we first reported, which, it turns out, was news to us and the AOC board. **The problems at Acadiana Outreach Center were more...

Gay and OK

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 It should be a point of pride that Lafayette's LGBT community is relatively robust. Wednesday, August 24, 2011 It should be a point of pride that Lafayette's LGBT community...

Welcome to Hooterville

Wednesday, August 3, 2011 By Walter Pierce Memo to Acadia Parish: The 1960s called, they want their politics back. Wednesday, August 3, 2011 By Walter Pierce Memo to Acadia Parish: The 1960s called,...

Selling Self-Determination

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 By Walter Pierce Supporters of charter repeal are gearing up for the October vote. Wednesday, July 13, 2011 By Walter Pierce Supporters of charter repeal are gearing up for...

RE: Are You Ready to Rumble?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011 Months away from the fall contest, a campaign in north Lafayette is already getting ugly. By Walter Pierce If politics really is a contact sport, it's boxing. And three and a...

Realpolitik 101

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 Written by Walter Pierce Rep. Page Cortez's House Bill 400 celebrates a basic economic principle - competition - which is exactly why an obscure trade group unleashed a...

The Long Shot

Wednesday, June 15, 2011 A middle school special-ed teacher from Haynesville has her eye on the most unlikely prize - the governor's mansion. By Walter Pierce Tara Hollis is running for governor. Of...

RE: Unnatural Selection

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 A state Senate committee erred in choosing to let stand the Louisiana Science Education Act. By Walter Pierce It was a dogged by phonies show in the Hainkel Room at the state...

RE: Knocked Out, Technically

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 ** The only thing Louisiana's next schools superintendent needs to build is momentum for reform. By Walter Pierce** Paul Pastorek looked like a broken man in the photograph on...

An Offer They Can Refuse

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 A Lafayette civic group makes a strong case for holding off on new taxes for our public schools. Will the board listen? The name may be polarizing, but 100 Black Men of...

One Year Later

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 How do we measure the impact of the BP spill, which began one year ago today, April 20, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig - a blast that killed 11 men and...

The Whistling Kettle

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Could anti-tax sentiment in Lafayette deal a blow to our already dilapidated school facilities? You betcha! By Walter Pierce Get ready for the tea to come to a boil, and it...

RE: Making Hay

Wednesday, Apirl 6, 2011 Like tax havens in the Caribbean, property classifications allow often wealthy landowners to dodge their fair share. In the recent annals of irony, few stand out more than the...

LaBruzzo's Bad Bill

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Readers slammed us for slamming Rep. Rickey Hardy's embrace of what we're officially dubbing the piss poor proposal.' We gave state Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, a drubbing...

Baby Bear's Porridge

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 We may not be quite there yet, but Lafayette is nearing a sustainable, self-perpetuating state of just right. When I moved back from New Orleans in 1987, Lafayette was a...

The Imaginary Budget

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 The governor is leaning on one-time dollars, contingencies and state employees to balance the budget. At first blush, Gov. Bobby Jindal's $24.9 billion budget is giving even...

Choice, or Lack Thereof

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 The Lafayette Charter Commission's one-80 last week is leaving city residents in the lurch. Don Bacque talked me down from the ledge last week. I was incensed - incensed I...

The Sins of Our Fathers

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 A comprehensive plan can't undo much of the poor planning of the past, but it can provide a blueprint for the future. By Walter Pierce City-Parish President Joey Durel is...

Tea Time

Wednesday, February 23, 2011** The GOP in Lafayette is being challenged from the far right. By Walter Pierce** A tempest is brewing in Republican politics in this very Republican parish, and this...

RE: Getting Our House in Order

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 ** According to the census Lafayette and neighboring parishes have grown.  This should be reflected in our future political clout.** "We know what we need to do; it's...

RE: Tweet Revenge

Wednesday, February, 2011 Written by Walter Pierce We gnashed our teeth and furrowed our brow, but The Ind has finally joined the social media revolution. It took a running start, but The Independent...

In Lieu of Wooden Stakes

Wednesday, February 2, 2010 A bill exposing housing authority affiliates to sunlight is good legislation. By Walter Pierce It's not astonishing to me that some are dragging state Rep. Rickey Hardy...

Chamber Maimed

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce probably did more harm to itself than to Sen. Mike Michot with its legislative scorecard. By Walter Pierce A first-quarter...

The Man with a Plan

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 A demographer and former school board member believes he can satisfy the concerns of the city without blowing up the charter. By Walter Pierce Mike Hefner thinks he may...

(Un)Civics 101

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 Bad blood on the City-Parish Council is beginning to flow. By Walter Pierce Journalists who cover the Lafayette City-Parish Council hope for it, but political intrigue is a...

Reshuffling the Deck

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Redistricting might become a legislative brawl, but coastal Louisiana could benefit. By Walter Pierce In less than three months state lawmakers will gather for a special...

Heaven in Eleven

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 Next year is shaping up to be a divine one for politiphiles. By Walter Pierce Now that we've dispensed with 2010 - a decent political year in Lafayette punctuated by...

The Gainsayers

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Think a modest pay raise for LCG employees is good? Think again. There is a sub-species of newspaper reader that thrives on finding the negative in otherwise positive...

Unintelligible Designs

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Will it be a hearty cry of "Yabba Dabba Doo!" at this week's BESE meeting? By Walter Pierce Science once again goes on trial tomorrow in Baton Rouge when the...

Driving Us Crazy

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 Red light cameras and speed vans are a nuisance, but the stats say they work. I've been resisting the urge to write a column about the SafeSpeed/SafeLight program in...

(Chump) Change is Coming

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 Shifting demographics are on track to put a serious squeeze on city revenue and threaten our future. When City-Parish President Joey Durel last week pulled an ordinance...

LCG, LPD unveil new crime mapping site

How safe is your neighborhood? Where are the most crimes in Lafayette occurring and with what frequency? Government and law enforcement officials in Lafayette have unveiled a new Crimeview system to...

Sign Language

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 **LUS needs to reach customers, and learn how to fight in the marketplace. ** Wednesday, November 17, 2010 LUS needs to reach customers, and learn how to fight in the...

Poor Execution

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 ** We're straight shooters at The Ind. That's what got us into trouble.** The Independent's cover story two weeks ago about the late, larger-than-life bon vivant Wally...

Why the Go Cup Matters

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 The push to pass an ordinance banning open alcohol containers in Lafayette's nightlife districts is more than a public safety- or anti-litter campaign. It's an...

A Council All Our Own

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 **Why shouldn't Lafayette enjoy the same self-determination as its neighbors? By Walter Pierce ** Now we're getting somewhere. That somewhere is an independent city of...

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Greg Davis came within a hair of winning the District 2 school board seat. Lafayette came within a hair of reform. By Walter Pierce Greg Davis is nothing if not resilient....

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Politics gives, and it serves crow. By Walter Pierce We hitch our buggy to initiatives we believe will advance the quality of life in our community. We advocate for them...

Caveat Emptor

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Lafayette bought into consolidation and downtown nightlife. Now we're having second thoughts.  By Walter Pierce It's fair to say our hamlet is suffering from buyer's...

Slam Dunks and Air Balls

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 Endorsements may put us in foul trouble, but the school board election is too important not to take a shot. By Walter Pierce In the seven years since this weekly...

Gay Fire Fighters and Go Cups

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 Facebook users capture Lafayette's zeitgeist. By Walter Pierce I'm perilously close to eclipsing the 300 "friend" plateau on Facebook, and perilously close to...

RE: Bad Karma

**Wednesday, September 8, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Is the downtown club a menace, or is there something sinister going on here?** Something's not sitting right with downtown nightclub Karma...

RE: Paint Drying

**Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce With neither gridlock nor gridiron, the charter commission is off to a dull start.** The Lafayette Charter Commission got back to work Monday...

Cleaning House

**Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Rep. Rickey Hardy should be applauded for helping blow the lid on the LHA.** Our ongoing coverage, including in today's issue, of the mess at the...

Worst Case Scenarios

**Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce UL Lafayette is planning for the future by preparing for the worst.** Charitably, let's think of tomorrow's public policy forum in Baton Rouge...

RE: One more year!

**Wednesday, August 11, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Lafayette voters could be asked to extend the current terms of some of our elected officials.** If you like your representative on the City-Parish...

Our New, Old Chief Exec

**Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Lafayette's top elected official is earning a hardy pat on the back.** Praising politicians generally causes me to twitch. Praising Republicans -...

The Cajun MC

**Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Louisiana's interim lieutenant governor could talk me into anything**. **Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Louisiana's interim...

Getting It

**Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce ** A public commitment to funding arts and culture is an investment in us. I wish I could communicate in print the word "fantastic" with...

Branded Pariah

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce BP's public-relations disaster deepens as its own industry turns on the oil giant. It was inevitable that BP would be made the pariah, not by the...

Qualifying, Qualified

**Wednesday,  July 7, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Seeking no-good SOBs for a thankless job** Using the term "qualifying" for registering to run for political office is kind of like using...

Stimulating the Budget

**Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Uncle Sam helps the Legislature polish its fiscal mettle.** Let me throw a number at you: One billion, eight hundred sixty-six million, five hundred...

A Teachable Moment

**Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce In the waning days of the session, what goes around comes around. ** Politics is good when it achieves solutions, better when it rights a wrong and...

RE: Waiting in the Lobby

**Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Public school bus drivers prove the power of privilege at the state Capitol.** Of a kind with chickens and eggs, it is unclear to me if my...

RE: Common Usage

**Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce In every way, the spill is a disaster because of people.** It's rare that this publication devotes consecutive issues to the same topic. We did it...

Testing the Limits

**Wednesday, June 4, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Louisiana got BP'd by oil. Can the relationship withstand the stress?** This is far from over - economically, environmentally and culturally. There...

RE: A City and Its Satellites

**Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce COG sheds light on Lafayette Parish's political dynamic.** I attended a meeting of the Lafayette Council of Governments last week in Duson, the...

RE: Legislative Parasols

**Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Senate Bill 583 could shield government in Louisiana from sunshine.** I was a little miffed with the Louisiana Press Association a few weeks ago upon...

RE: Commissioners Wanted

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce ** A critical step toward addressing Lafayette's political issues is about to commence.** We'll have a pretty good idea before the next issue of The...

RE: Jostling for Position

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 Written by Walter Pierce Ambassador Caffery opened new opportunities and old wounds. Few are watching it closely and no doubt even fewer care, yet some of the best and, more...

RE: Civics and the CPC

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 28 April 2010 Two hours of the April 20 City-Parish Council meeting should be required viewing for every 10th grader in the parish. Councilman William Theriot was...

RE: What in tar nation?

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 21 April 2010 A smoke-free Festival International is a good idea whose time has come. When a blog ignites five times as many words in reader commentary as the blog...

RE: A Date with Destiny

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 14 April 2010 April 20, 2010, could turn out to be one of the most important dates in the city of Lafayette's history. I wish I could take back the observation in...

RE: Taking Decon's Temperature

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 7 April 2010 It's falling right now, but a meeting of mayors could have it on the rise. Lafayette Parish is not going to deconsolidate any time soon - voters will...

RE: Kent Hutslar, 1951-2010

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 31 March 2010 I knew Kent Hutslar only well enough to envy his talent, and to marvel at the remarkable ease with which he moved through the world. He could bend...

RE: A Good Vibe

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 24 March 2010 Lafayette has it, but will the chamber of commerce buy it? If this journalism thing doesn't work out, I may seek employment in the federal Office of...

RE: Voting with Gravity

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 17 March 2010 A weighted vote could be the salve that soothes our consolidated sores. The breathless deconsolidation talk that swept Lafayette began Feb. 1 when a...

RE: The Council Matters

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 10 March 2010 For elected officials, the intersection of public and private is wide. This week's column pains me to write. I prefer lighter, more cumulus fare to...

RE: A Bare Market

Written by Walter Pierce Wednesday, 03 March 2010 Jefferson Street Market's closure doesn't bode well for our historic downtown. Businesses go out of business all the time. It is as prosaic to the...

RE: A Nonplussing Non Story

The needs of our public school system far exceed the public's interest. As deconsolidating Lafayette Parish and the funding mechanism for downtown security grab our attention and our headlines, an...

RE: Brave New URL

The ind.com is new and, we believe, improved I've learned two things over the last few months about launching a new Web site: Don't do it unless you're committed. The process promotes gray hair. Last...

RE: Scrap Consolidation?

Ain't gonna happen - not yet anyway - and here's why Ultimately it will be the voters of Lafayette Parish - city, unincorporated, smaller municipalities - who will decide whether to chuck the...

LCG dept. head Melanie Lewis Edwards resigns

The INDsider has just learned that Melanie Lewis Edwards, director of Lafayette Consolidated Government's Community Development Department, announced her resignation, in French and English, to a group...

What they're saying: Saints talk of football world

It still feels strange saying it — the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. What more can we say? Absolutely nothing. But here’s what some others are saying about the Saints’ victory in Super Bowl...

Sheaux nuf! Saint Jackson elected to HOF

A day before the New Orleans Saints play in their first Super Bowl, former Saints linebacker Rickey Jackson was elected Saturday as a member of Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 51-year-old Jackson’s...

Appeals court backs downtown bar

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal this week sided with Marley's Sports Bar on Jefferson Street downtown, backing a lower court's summary judgement in a suit accusing the night spot of  failing to...

Appeals court backs downtown bar

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal this week sided with Marley’s Sports Bar on Jefferson Street downtown, backing a lower court’s summary judgment in favor of the bar in a suit accusing the night spot...

LPSB loses Moss appeal

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal today released a judgment upholding a lower court ruling finding that the Lafayette Parish School Board cannot sue an architectural firm for water intrusion problems at...

Durel, Savoie ‘imagine' Lafayette's future

City-Parish President Joey Durel was joined Tuesday by UL President Dr. Joe Savoie for the annual state of the parish address at the Cajundome Convention Center. The two laid out a vision of...

LUS rate increase approved

Who dat say dey gonna raise dem rates? Sporting New Orleans Saints T-shirts, the City-Parish Council approved a rate increase sought by Lafayette Utilities System Tuesday night. The rate hike passed...

RE: Who Dat

It’s Saints Nation versus a corporation as the ‘Big Game’ approaches Enough already! Players call it the No Fun League because of the $5,000 fines levied for such egregious infractions as droopy socks...

LUS rate increase up for final adoption

The Lafayette City-Parish Council Tuesday evening will vote on whether to grant Lafayette Utilities System a rate hike. Two weeks ago the council approved the rate increase as an introductory...

Bayou State flashes snaggletooth smile

Once again, all together now, a hale hooray for Mississippi. Our neighbor state continues to make Louisiana look good in national rankings, this time in The Daily Beast’s “Best Looking States.”...

Charter commission to take up reapportionment

The recently appointed charter commission will consider an amendment to the Lafayette City-Parish Charter today that would give the council, working in concert with the Lafayette Parish School Board,...

Buckwheat wins Grammy

In what may be characterized as partly a lifetime achievement award, Buckwheat Zydeco just moments ago was announced as the winner in the Cajun-Zydeco category at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards,...

LHSAA adopts "C" requirement for athletes

The governing body for athletic programs in the state’s public schools today voted to require student athletes to maintain a C average in order to participate in sports. The Louisiana High School...

C'est what? Saints loss to Dallas a good omen

It was a bitter, deflating defeat that sent the New Orleans Saints into a three-game, end-of-the-season swoon (actually a two-game swoon — the Saints played mostly their second team in the finale...

C'est what? Dallas loss was good omen for Saints

t was a bitter, deflating defeat that sent the New Orleans Saints into a three-game, end-of-the-season swoon (actually a two-game swoon — the Saints played mostly their second team in the finale...

FBI: Agents thwart Marygate

A filmmaker whose undercover videos in Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now offices last year helped turn political will against ACORN has been arrested with three others for...

RE: New Urbanism

Smart growth is a green blueprint for Lafayette’s future There is an undercurrent of class envy in some quarters toward developments like River Ranch. And, indeed, most of the real estate in the...

The Saints: Congress' team

It’s debatable whether the New Orleans Saints can now be called America’s Team, a moniker on which the Dallas Cowboys’ PR department long ago staked a claim. Likely the Black and Gold will be the...

Appeals on tap for council

A light agenda Tuesday for the Lafayette City-Parish Council will have council members considering three appeals of Planning Commission votes. The first involves an appeal of a Dec. 14, 2009 vote by...

Indy columnist: Saints are America's team

Among the many great storylines surrounding Super Bowl XLIV — New Orleans native Peyton Manning against his dad's former team, the top seeds from each conference squaring off for the first time since...

Charter commish meets today

A recently appointed seven-member commission tasked with tweaking the Lafayette City-Parish Charter will hold its first meeting at 1:30 p.m. today. Newly elected council chair Jay Castille (District...

Gaines Award winner to read at UL

The Ernest J. Gaines Center at UL Lafayette will host a reading Monday by Jeffery Renard Allen, winner of the 2010 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. The annual $10,000 prize sponsored by...

RE: Looking Up Downtown

Don’t let the bad press fool you; our CBD is moving forward. For most of us in Lafayette, downtown is a clearly defined area bounded by Johnston Street, University Avenue, Congress/Second streets and...

LUS back at bat for rate hike

The Lafayette Public Utitlies Authority — the five council members whose districts are majority city and who comprise the governing authority of Lafayette Utility Systems — will vote again Tuesday...

HOF accordion player Don Thibodeaux dies

Donald Ray Thibodeaux, a Eunice accordion player who was inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame in Mamou in 1999 has died. According to The Eunice News, Thibodeaux died Sunday at Acadian Medical...

Parent sues LPSB over GPA requirements

Curtis Hollinger, a Lafayette attorney and father of a Lafayette High basketball player, filed suit in state district court late Friday against the Lafayette Parish School Board over what he says is...

C'est what? The Deuce is loose again!

Citing league sources,The Times-Picayune is reporting that the New Orleans Saints have signed Deuce McAllister, the team's all-time leading rusher and one of the most popular players in team history....

Independent, AAN seek Haiti donations

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, of which The Independent is a member, is teaming up with the International Rescue Committee to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti, where 50,000 are...

LPSS facilities meeting tonight

The Lafayette Parish School System will host a meeting at 6 p.m. today at Plantation Elementary School to share more details on the facilities master plan being coordinated by a planning firm. Baton...

LDR implements streamlining recommendations

The Louisiana Department of Revenue says it will save taxpayers more than $2 million this year after adopting recommendations from the Commission on Streamlining Government. The commission was...

RE: Hell to the chief

2010 will be a roll-up-your-sleeves year District 2 City-Parish Councilman Jay Castille is staring down a tough year. A week ago Castille was elected council chairman for 2010, the same year college...

A+PEL endorses R2T

The Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana issued an endorsement Monday of efforts by the Louisiana Department of Education and nearly two dozen parish school systems to seek federal Race to...

Benefits of CNG detailed at LITE today

Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise will be the site today of an informational meeting hosted by the Greater Lafayete Chamber of Commerce detailing the benefit of converting public and private...

Tide turning for LUS?

As the INDsider reported earlier, LUS Thursday announced that its proposed 7 percent rate increase, which was shot down by council members in December, will go back before the City-Parish Council as...

LPSB signs on to R2T

Despite misgivings by the state association of school boards, the Lafayette Parish School Board Wednesday tentatively agreed to pursue federal Race to the Top funds being distributed on a nationwide...

Hardy lauded by EBR prosecutor

State Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, was honored this week by East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore for Hardy’s legislative efforts on behalf of the statewide Witness Protection...

Castille, Patin named CPC leaders

District 2 Councilman Jay Castille was elected Tuesday by fellow council members to lead the Lafayette City-Parish Council as chairman for 2010; District 8 Councilman Keith Patin was elected vice...

Watson featured on new site

Grammy nominee Cedric Watson, a rising star in south Louisiana’s indigenous music scene and band leader of Bijou Creole, is featured in a short ‘webisode’ on the Web site for the television series...

Grant a wish for the post season

The Times-Picayune, ESPN and other sources are reporting today that the New Orleans Saints have placed starting defensive end Charles Grant on injured reserve, eliminating his services for the post...

RE: The Next 359

Six days into the new year and the vexing issues that will face Lafayette in 2010 are slow to materialize. We won’t be climbing out of a fiscal hole like many communities — thankfully the Great...

Council, school board to choose new leaders

The Lafayette City-Parish Council and Lafayette Parish School Board will select new leadership for 2010 during each body’s first meeting of the new year this week. The CPC will nominate a chairman and...

Appeals court to weigh in on LPSB lawsuit

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal will consider Wednesday whether the Lafayette Parish School Board can seek damages against a Lafayette architecture firm involved in the construction of N.P. Moss...

Second issue of 'Transform Louisiana' is up

After seven months of imaginably arduous work, New Orleans retiree and state government watchdog Tony Gagliano has compiled the second issue of his webzine, Transform Louisiana, an encyclopedic review...

Brees leads five Saints to Pro Bowl

Quarterback Drew Brees was among five New Orleans Saints selected for the NFL’s annual Pro Bowl game — the most Saints chosen for the all-star team since six Saints were selected following the 2000...

Donate to LFF for a great rate of return

The Louisiana Film Foundation is reminding the culturally minded that three days remain in 2009 to make a tax-deductible donation. The rate of the return on the investment is tangible — films about...

‘Ignatius Rising' film adaptation in the works

A biopic about the life of late New Orleans author John Kennedy Toole, still years away from the screen, is getting a head of steam, according to Maxim Entertainment president Blaine McManus. After...

MPO briefed on road projects

The Lafayette City-Parish Council, in its dual role as the Metropolitan Planning Organization, was briefed on long-range traffic infrastructure plans for the parish, including the widening of Verot...

Water district clears the air for CPC

The executive director and other representatives of the Teche-Vermilion Fresh Water District answered questions from the Lafayette City-Parish Council Tuesday night regarding the agency’s operations...

Local flick garners nods at Maverick Movie Awards

Lunopolis, the independently produced sci-fi adventure movie filmed in and around Lafayette starring local actors, has been awarded the Best Screenplay prize from the Maverick Movie Awards. It was one...

RE: Oh, nine

2009 was more a year of what didn’t happen The idea for this week’s year-end cover story came from a staff writer whom I hadn’t realized was given in any way to kooky ideas. What’s more striking to me...

Water district tax renewal could face questions

A special election scheduled for March to renew a property tax funding a little-known Acadiana agency could face questions from the Lafayette City-Parish Council when it meets Tuesday. A discussion...

UL mitigation plan draft on display

The public is invited to view and to offer input on the final draft of UL Lafayette’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, currently on display at Dupré Library. The plan was developed by an advisory committee of...

Saints tilt against Panthers could go prime time

ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas, who covers the NFL’s NFC South division, cites unnamed sources in reporting that the Saints’ Jan. 3 inter-division season finale against the Carolina Panthers could be “flexed”...

Civic group opposes Moss plan

In a letter to Lafayette school Superintendent Burnell Lemoine, 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette, a group comprising area business and civic leaders, takes a strong position against converting N.P....

RE: Feast and Famine

The Saints go from blues maker to news maker during 2009’s carpet ride My relationship with the New Orleans Saints is uncomplicated. I’m a fan. Lifelong, or at least since I realized somewhere around...

Lalonde elected to lead parish GOP

Former state Rep. Raymond "Lala" Lalonde has been elected to serve as chairman of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee for a two-year term beginning Jan. 1. Elected to serve...

UL teacher training lauded by national media

UL Lafayette’s rigorous degree program for teachers, hailed recently by federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan as “real change, based upon the real outcomes of children,” is getting some national...

LSBA to school systems: Be wary of R2T

The Louisiana School Boards Association is advising public school systems across the state to pass on federal Race to the Top grants, warning that securing such funding could have long-term fiscal...

CPC to hear booze license appeal

The Lafayette Ctiy-Parish Council Tuesday evening will hear an appeal from a Lafayette business owner whose liquor permit is set to be suspended for a three-day period beginning Thursday. F. Earl...

Change of plans; Reid cancels, ACORN in sights

Tea party groups across south Louisiana are making some adjustments to their itinerary after U.S. Sen. Harry Reid apparently bailed on a fundraiser planned for Saturday in New Orleans. It’s unclear...

Tea parties target Landrieu, Reid

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu will be in her home town this weekend, no doubt to do some glad handing for her newly minted mayoral candidate brother, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. But also on Sen. Landrieu’s...

Crime falls downtown; PD defends higher levy

An INDsider analysis based on data provided by the Lafayette Police Department finds that crime in downtown Lafayette has fallen from 2008 to 2009 and, perhaps more significantly, from the first half...

Write your own headline for this Saints story

Inevitably, rednecks and winning streaks collide. Welcome to the muddy backwaters of Who Dat Nation. We’re not sure where these people are from — the accents are definitely not Acadiana; we’re...

Bustle, Fisher lead Cajuns on All-Sun Belt squad

Accolades were handed out Wednesday by the Sun Belt Conference, and several Ragin’ Cajun football players were among the honorees. Guard Brad Bustle and center Chris Fisher (right; photo by Robin May)...

re: The Bar Code

Downtown’s vibrant nightlife is straining more than police resources So, it’s come to this. Just nine months after city-parish government and downtown bar owners worked out a deal to control the press...

Hardy tears into LPSS then approves funding

State Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, approved roughly $750,000 in grant funding for the Lafayette Parish School System — funding he had denied the parish’s public school system last month in a snit...

Staring a jinx in the face

It’s now inescapable — we’re all eating the cheese, save for Saints head coach Sean Payton, who maintains the team has to “earn it on the field.” But even quarterback Drew Brees, he of the calculated...

LPSS headed to Capitol for cash

Representatives of the central office from the Lafayette Parish School System are expected to be at the Capitol Tuesday morning during a joint House-Senate Education Committee meeting as the LPSS...

Shelvin seeks compromise in bar levy issue

District 3 City-Parish Councilman Brandon Shelvin, whose district includes downtown Lafayette, will mediate a meeting today between downtown bar owners on one side and Lafayette Police and...

Charter group vows to forge ahead

Despite a unanimous vote by the Lafayette Parish School Board this week rejecting its application to form a public charter school, a Lafayette non-profit group says it will move on to plan B, as in...

Durel defends stand on downtown bars

On his weekly radio program this morning on KPEL, City-Parish President Joey Durel, joined by Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, defended his position on bars in downtown Lafayette and the crowds and...

re: Strange Bedfellows

A council vote last week demonstrated it can be an unpredictable body. I had to double check my tally twice: 5-4. It’s not an uncommon vote by the Lafayette City-Parish Council. In fact, it’s...

LPUA shoots down LUS rate increase

By a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the Lafayette Public Utilities Authority voted down a proposed rate increase for Lafayette Utilities System. LUS Director Terry Huval had sought the rate increase to cover...

Seventeen LCTCS schools land in mag's rankings

Two Lafayette campuses that are part of the Louisiana Community & Technical College System were among 17 statewide to grow enrollment, according to the latest rankings of the fasted growing...

DLU responds to security concerns

Downtown Lafayette Unlimited, the agency that oversees development in the downtown district, has released a response following numerous media reports of crime in the area over the last week. An...

CPC denies appeal, paves way for subdivision

The Lafayette City-Parish Council Tuesday night denied an appeal by residents in west Lafayette Parish, clearing the way for a subdivision development. Residents living near the unincorporated...

re: A Hard Sell

Many in the Bayou State see red when they hear green. Jack Harris has the toughest job in Louisiana. He’s a Jersey kid who moved to New Orleans in the middle of the summer. He dropped by The...

Neighborhood plan divides Scott residents

The Lafayette City-Parish Council will likely get an earful Tuesday evening before it votes on an appeal of an October approval by Planning, Zoning and Codes for a residential development in Scott....

Belichick heaps praise on Black and Gold

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is making sure his team’s upcoming opponent has nothing to post on the cork board, at least not from the coach. In an interview Monday with The Boston...

Jindals to dine with Obamas

Before the turkey and trimmings, Gov. Bobby and First Lady Supriya Jindal will break bread this week with President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. According to The Advocate,...

Historic church moving to Louisiana

An almost 200-year-old Anglican church in Nova Scotia is about to be disassembled, packed into freight containers and shipped to Abita Springs where it will be reassembled and serve a Baptist...

State rep releases comedy DVD

A Vermilion Parish lawmaker is aiming for the funny bone in a new DVD highlighting his comedic side. State Rep. Jonathan Perry, an Abbeville Republican, is a former winner of the International Cajun...

Louisiana fares well in food survey

The latest national survey on food insecurity by the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds Louisiana faring relatively well, even besting the national average. Louisiana tied with Connecticut for 14th...

Brees joins fellow NFL stars, Obama in ad

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees will soon star in an ad campaign along with fellow NFL Pro Bowlers DeMarcus  Ware of the Dallas Cowboys and Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers as well as...

NOLA judge: Corps responsible for Katrina flooding

The feds could be on the hook for billions of dollars in claims after a ruling by a federal judge finding that negligence by the Army Corps of Engineers led to massive flooding in the hours after...

Panel adopts four streamlining recommendations

Members of the Postsecondary Education Review Commission adopted four recommendations this week aimed at streamlining higher education in Louisiana following a two-day meeting. According to a PERC...

Warner Bros. celebrates Brees

Warner Bros. has teamed up with Saints quarterback Drew Brees to help raise funds for charity and at the same time celebrate the prolific passer eclipsing the 5,000-yard mark in the 2008...

re: A Hale Hardy Hello

Rickey veered off course, but he remains the most quotable politician out there. I’m not convinced that state Rep. Rickey Hardy’s bid to block three quarters of a million dollars in grant funding from...

Charter pitch set for Wednesday

A week after submitting a more than 250-page charter application to the Lafayette Parish School Board, a Lafayette non-profit will make its pitch to the board Wednesday evening for opening a public...

Update: CPC green lights traffic improvements

The Lafayette City-Parish Council approved two ordinances Tuesday that authorize Consolidated Government to acquire private land for traffic-improvement projects. Ordinance 233 authorizes LCG to...

IberiaBank footprint grows through Fla. acquisitions

Lafayette-based IberiaBank has announced the acquisition of two faltering Florida bank chains, enlarging its footprint in the Sunshine State to more than three dozen banking centers. The company...

Tramel likely to get green light from ethics board

Tony Tramel, Lafayette Consolidated Government’s director of traffic and transportation, is set to get clearance from the state Board of Ethics to serve as a compensated expert in an expropriation...

Cloutier saga ends with ‘no contest' plea

Former IceGator Eric Cloutier is out of the bar business but will not be behind bars after entering a no contest plea in state court in Lafayette Thursday to tax evasion and obstruction of justice...

Hardy: LPSS grant ‘not a done deal'

State Rep. Rickey Hardy, who on Tuesday single-handedly knotted up Lafayette’s public-education community by blocking $746,000 in grant funding, says although he and school system officials mended...

RE: The Shape of Things to Come

The 2010 census could finally settle it: Consolidation was a bad idea for Lafayette Questions about the questionnaire for the 2010 census are settled; the Senate last week blocked Sen. David Vitter’s...

LPSS facilities dialogue set for today, Thursday

The Lafayette Parish School System will host two community dialogue meetings devoted to aspects of the comprehensive facilities master plan at 6:00 p.m. today at J.W. Faulk Elementary and at the same...

Ethics board nixes Scott two-fer

The Louisiana Board of Ethics has put the kibosh on the tourist coordinator for the city of Scott earning side income by giving tours of the city using her own touring company. In a recent advisory...

King: Saints ‘best in NFL'

The New Orleans Saints, fresh off a nerve-racking 30-20 defeat of NFC South nemesis Carolina Panthers — their second come-from-behind win in three weeks — continue generating accolades to go along...

Residential real estate rebounds in Sept./Oct.

New figures show a strong rebound in home sales in Lafayette Parish in September and October of this year compared to the same time period in 2008. According to data submitted by Realtors in...

Barbecue joint back in the fryer

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court ruling and reinstated a Lafayette barbecue vendor into a civil lawsuit. The case, Louis Robinson Jr. versus Tylan Meaux et al, stems from...

Couillon justice resigns

Keith Bardwell, the Tangipahoa Parish justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples, has resigned. In a terse letter to Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, Bardwell writes: “I do hereby...

re: Dropping the dead weight

As a budget crisis again looms, the work of the Commission on Streamlining Government couldn’t be more timely State Treasurer John Kennedy is sitting in the conference room at The Independent office,...

CPC to vote on Teche-Vermilion tax election

On the agenda Tuesday evening for the Lafayette City-Parish Council will be a vote on whether to authorize a March 27, 2010 election to renew a property tax millage funding the Teche-Vermilion Fresh...

La. ranks 25th in biz climate

Louisiana comes in at a respectable 25th in Site Selection Magazine’s 2009 business climate ranking. Billing itself “The magazine of corporate real estate strategy and area economic development,” Site...

TND for west Lafayette on fast track

A group of developers from Texas and Louisiana are seeking a rezoning of roughly 56 acres on either side of Ambassador Caffery Parkway between Dulles Drive and Guilbeau Road to build a traditional...

LUS gets $11.6 million DOE grant

Lafayette Utilities System was one of a select 100 to be awarded a U.S. Department of Energy Smart Grid Investment Grant. Nationwide, 400 entries applied for the grant, which will help LUS further...

Charter school in the works for north Lafayette

An informational meeting is set for next week to give parents of at-risk students at four north Lafayette public schools details on a planned charter school, Harvest Preparatory Academy. The school...

re: The Thrill of Victory

How Joey Durel walked away a winner after getting more than half of his vetoes overridden by the council “I was thrilled!” That was the start of City-Parish President Joey Durel’s terse response via...

CPC approves annexation, rezoning requests

It was four and the door for the Lafayette City-Parish Council Tuesday evening as members enjoyed a light agenda — only four ordinances, all from Planning, Zoning and Codes, were up for final...

Local sci-fi flick gets rave reviews

Patrons at a recent Grand Theater premiere of the locally produced science-fiction movie Lunopolis gave the film high marks for its creativity. “The movie was great,” said one viewer following the...

Board of Regents to higher ed: Woe is thee

Budget discussions this week at the Louisiana Board of Regents meeting foretold more dire straits for higher education in Louisiana next year and beyond. "Although considerable uncertainty exists...

Ethics board reduces fine against former candidate

The state Board of Ethics has agreed to reduce the fine against a former candidate for state representative. George Bourgeois, an Opelousas attorney, was fined $480 dollars by the board for filing a...

A Stunning Lack of Incompetence

Lafayette Consolidated Government makes life hard for local media We envy newspapers like The Times-Picayune and Gambit Weekly. New Orleans has corruption in its government institutions — widespread,...

Council flexes muscle, overrides most Durel vetoes

The Lafayette City-Parish Council, mostly along party and north-south boundary lines, overrode seven of City-Parish President Joey Durel's 12 line-item vetoes of the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget,...

Change to SafeLight proposed

The Lafayette City-Parish Council will consider on Tuesday an ordinance that would amend the SafeLight violation for turning right at a red light. Currently, the ordinance specifies a civil penalty of...

Two La. banks fail to pay TARP dividends

Two Louisiana banks — Citizens Bank & Trust Company in Covington and Patterson State Bank — are among nearly three dozen nationwide that have opted not to pay dividends to the U.S. Treasury...

Vitter amends census amendment

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, acquiescing to concerns from Shreveport pollster and demographer Elliott Stonecipher, modified language in an amendment he co-sponsored with fellow Republican Sen. Robert...

Return of the Anti-Governor

After switching parties and losing a bid for the U.S. Senate last year, state Treasurer John Kennedy and his team are back in classic form. It takes a special kind of Republican to second guess Gov....

RE:Rethinking Uncle Dudley

What role does our permissive attitude toward alcohol play in the case of a drunk-driving school bus driver? We are aghast that a Lafayette Parish school bus driver has been arrested multiple times...

UL art prof's work gets new life through Nobel

Last Thurday’s announcement in Stockholm, Sweden, that Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature was a pleasant surprise to UL photography professor...

Officials to host G/T open meeting

Amid widespread concern that the Gifted & Talented program statewide could be in jeopardy, a Lafayette state representative and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member for southwest...

Third Circuit: ‘Be polite!'

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal, in a ruling this week, admonished a pair of Lafayette attorneys for using “intemperate and insulting language” in briefs filed before the court. While the appeals...

Connick gives goose egg to blackface group

New Orleans band leader Harry Connick Jr. was taken aback during a recent appearance on a celebrity judges panel for an Australian version of The Gong Show when a Jackson Five tribute group called the...

RE: The Nine, Redux

We’re grading the Lafayette Consolidated Council this week, for better and for worse I know from the one year I worked as a teacher in a small parochial school — a period I fondly recall as a more or...

Council holds first meeting since vetoes

The Lafayette City-Parish Council meets at 5:30 p.m. today, just more than 24 hours after learning that City-Parish President Joey Durel vetoed almost $750,000 in line items from the budget the CPC...

Also sprach Rickey: Lafayette rep quoted by Leno

In last night’s “Headlines” segment — a review of funny newspaper headlines and ads — on The Jay Leno Show on NBC, state Rep. Rickey Hardy of Lafayette got 15 seconds of fame. “Our politicians are...

Durel vetoes anticipated

City-Parish President Joey Durel and members of his administration are finalizing a veto statement document this morning, expected to be released early this afternoon. Durel submitted a proposed...

Stonecipher: Fight looms over redistricting

Shreveport demographer Elliott Stonecipher is predicting an ugly battle among state legislative delegations when the process of redrawing Louisiana’s House and Senate district lines begins following...

Twisted Loop rededicated (with video)

The more than 40-year-old cement sculpture known as Twisted Loop — saved from the wrecking ball when its former location in the old LBA Savings Bank drive-thru on Vermilion Street was demolished last...

RE: Engineering a Sale

The council should invest in one of Lafayette’s best assets: LUS Terry Huval is an engineer by training, but the Lafayette Utilities System director is a pretty good salesman. He sold me on the wisdom...

Council finalizes budget; NGOs, Cajundome safe

The Lafayette Consolidated Council Tuesday finalized a budget that, after a final number crunch by the administration to account for amendments, will likely be several hundred thousand dollars in the...

LCG budget vote looms

It promises to be a grueling evening at City Hall as the Lafayette Consolidated Council gets down to brass tacks and finalizes City-Parish President Joey Durel’s proposed $587 million budget for the...

BESE member: G/T safe, board support is strong

After receiving a barrage of calls and e-mails from worried and outraged parents and students in the Gifted and Talented Program across southwest Louisiana — “to the tune of probably 300 or more” —...

Jake, Panthers seek first win versus 'Boys tonight

Breaux Bridge native and USL great Jake Delhomme and his Carolina Panthers go after their first win of the 2009 season tonight when they face the Dallas Cowboys in the ’Boys new billion-dollar...

LPSB, LCG discuss eCampus, H1N1, et cetera

In a lopsided quarterly joint meeting of the Lafayette Parish School Board and Lafayette Parish Consolidated Council — six school board members attended but only two council members (Don Bertrand and...

LABI grades solons

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry has released a report card for Louisiana lawmakers, determined by their votes on bills and amendments related mainly to business. LABI prefaces its...

RE: The Nine

We’ll soon find out if the LCC has what it takes to move Lafayette forward. Will Sept. 15, 2009, following the obligatory settling of dust, be remembered as “the day”? The day an indelible line formed...

LCC gets breather before heavy lifting

A relatively light meal is on the menu for the Tuesday meeting of the Lafayette Consolidated Council — a respite between grueling weeks of budget hearings and next week’s budget finalization meeting,...

JoDu pulls utility rate hike

The Durel administration decided today to pull an LUS rate increase from the agenda on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and to reintroduce the topic as a briefing item in a few weeks. Consequently, when the...

Hardy: Tie attendance to public assistance

State Rep. Rickey Hardy, D-Lafayette, is calling for what some may consider a draconian means of ensuring that public school children attend class. Hardy is urging U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany to file...

Lafayette lands on Forbes ‘best' list

More evidence that Lafayette will continue to ward off the bad economy still plaguing much of the nation: The Hub City comes in at No. 8 on Forbes Magazine’s list of the 10 best cities for new...

Gannett announces more consolidation, layoffs

Gannett Company, publisher of The Daily Advertiser, Times of Acadiana, Quik Quarter and four other daily newspapers in Louisiana, announced this week further consolidation as it struggles, like...

Is it one and done for La. GOP rep?

Ciao for Cao? U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao, the New Orleans congressman and first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress, is increasingly looking like a one-termer, according to an article published...

Vid: Dex Doucet and his '23 T

Lafayette resident Dex Doucet is one of a handful of antique-car enthusiasts in Lafayette. See today's LivingIND cover story for...

re: Tuned in and turned off

Comments reveal strong feelings about local radio Local radio for me has long been KRVS, KBON and the amplitude modulated KPEL sports-talk station — and those stations only. National Public Radio,...

Mary quite contrary: Is Landrieu on the take?

No clear signal yet from Sen. Mary Landrieu on whether she will support a health care reform bill, if any, that emerges from Congress. But she has been one of the most critical Democratic voices of...

LCG wraps up budget process; showdown looms

With a word of caution from Lafayette Consolidated Government’s finance director that councilmen should cleave closely to the mayor’s proposed 2009-2010 budget and a veto threat hovering, the...

RE: Forum for Change (We Can't Believe In)

Dems cry foul over KLFY’s one-sided broadcast Tonight on TV, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress in an effort to reclaim the health care reform debate from what most Democrats no...

It's a wrap; LCG budget process winding down

The Lafayette Consolidated Council is set to wrap-up the five-week process of finalizing the 2009-2010 budget with a wrap-up session set for 4 p.m. today at City Hall. The process began July 30 with...

LHSAA ignores academic-athletics forum

State Rep. Rickey Hardy’s twice-failed effort to raise the minimum grade point average for high-school athletes will be a main topic of discussion Saturday morning at the Hollinger JockSmart Breakfast...

Local Dems take umbrage at KLFY forum

The Lafayette Parish Democratic Executive Committee is calling on the KLFY to provide equal time this afternoon following an hour-long health care forum — a forum the DEC characterizes “more as...

RE: Comments Welcome

Scrubbing off the graffiti is a constant chore It’s been widely understood since long before teenagers discovered spray paint that anonymity promotes bile; it allows for the saying of things most of...

Dodd, Hatch: Vicki a good fit for Senate

Reportedly reluctant to replace her late husband in the U.S. Senate should the opportunity arise, Victoria Reggie Kennedy is being urged to do so by two of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s closest friends:...

9th Ward miles from recovery

Four years after the levees failed following Hurricane Katrina and much of New Orleans was inundated, the Lower 9th Ward remains a desolate, overgrown district that shows few signs of recovery....

As expected, Melancon challenging Vitter

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, announced Thursday he will challenge Sen. David Vitter in 2010. The announcement comes as little surprise to most political watchers; the congressman...

Council could get an ear full Thursday

After three weeks of budget briefings, numerous amendments attached to the proposed budget and quibbling over minutiae, the Lafayette Consolidated Council gets to hear from the public Thursday...

re: The Hoodie Dilemma

Bridging the divide between students & the school board isn’t as hard as you might think I was a little deflated last week when the Lafayette Parish School Board failed to consult me before...

Durel hospitalized after collapsing

Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel says he expects to be back in the office, sleeves rolled up, by early afternoon Tuesday after fainting Monday night during a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Steve...

Local bank widens foot print on Gulf Coast

Add 10 more bank branches to IberiaBank's ever-expanding presence in the southeast. The bank has taken over CapitalSouth Bank after the Birmingham, Ala., bank failed on Friday. Ten former CapitalSouth...

Beauty mag rags La. cities

Add bad teeth and bad hair to the list of Bayou state malaises. Baton Rouge and New Orleans have landed on two unenviable lists compiled by Total Beauty magazine, although the dishonor really belongs...

La. tourism feeling recession pinch

While Louisiana’s economy continues to outperform the nation, the effects of the recession are being felt in one of our biggest and most robust industries. The August issue of Louisiana Travel Pulse,...

NGOs not out of the woods yet

It’s out of the frying pan and into the fryer for nearly two dozen non-governmental organizations — culture providers and social service non-profits — as budget hearings continue for the Lafayette...

Mudbugs change name, ink Fourcade for 2010 season

The Acadiana Mudbugs are now the Lafayette Wildcatters. Fresh off the inaugural season of the Southern Indoor Football League, team ownership decided to tie the team’s identity to the oil industry in...

re: A warm nod and cold shoulder

It’s time for Jindal to stick his neck out a little  My expectations are high for Louisiana. When Gov. Bobby Jindal leaves office after four years or eight years, I expect us to be 48th to New...

LCG eyeing stimulus dollars

The Lafayette Consolidated Council will vote Tuesday evening on whether to authorize the Lafayette Public Utility Authority’s filing of grants seeking funds through the American Recovery and...

Familiar face returning to KATC

Meteorologist Chris Paulsen is returning to KATC TV3 Aug. 24 as weekend meteorologist. Paulsen should be a familiar face to longtime KATC viewers: He worked at the station from 1996 to 2000. Paulsen...

Vitter hosts forum in Lafayette Monday

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who is parlaying opposition to the Democrats’ plan for health care reform into grist for his 2010 re-election bid, hosts a health care forum in Lafayette Monday afternoon. We...

Hundreds of new laws going into effect

Thinking about mounting a stereo on the hood of your car, shooting off your Glock during the Christmas parade or selling novelty lighters? Fuhgidabowdit! Some 250 news laws go into effect at midnight,...

La. officials weigh in on Census Bureau plan

Gov. Bobby Jindal, along with several members of Congress from Louisiana, are generally united in their opposition to the U.S. Census Bureau’s plan to include non-registered immigrants — “illegals,”...

re: Shudder speed

Cringing in the trenches; overhead, a battle of wills Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009 Written by Walter Pierce I'm lodged between the proverbial rock and hard place or, literally, between Independent...

Jindal declines to intervene in Pastorek fracas

With two major players in Louisiana public education calling for state Superintendent Paul Pastorek’s head, Gov. Bobby Jindal is refusing to stick his neck out for the embattled school chief, offering...

re: Pervasive Madness

U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany is no birther, but the craziness won’t go away.   Say it ain’t so Chuck. No, don’t say it ain’t so. No need. You’ve been my congressman going on five years; you’ve been a...

LCG budget hearings gear up Wednesday

The Lafayette Consolidate Council will beging a series of hearings Wednesday for the 2009-10 budget — seven meetings in all that will comb through the budget line by line, followed on Aug. 27 by a...

Say what? La. leaning blue?

According to a new Gallup party-identification poll, 47 percent of Louisiana residents identify themselves as either Democrat or leaning Democrat versus 41 percent for Republicans. It's a finding that...

Vitter defends Dixie GOP

More intestinal groans from the national GOP as moderates and social conservatives compete for control of the Republican party, and there in the fray is David Vitter, Louisiana’s junior...

re: Our Stimulating Governor

Jindal doctors reality with the hypocritic oath  Gov. Bobby Jindal may have difficulty with oratory (see Pooyie for more on that) and has done nothing yet to erase that wind-up toy national speech...

Gadzooks! Is Boustany a birther?

It was a big happy birther day on Capitol Hill this week as a staffer from the Huffington Post caught up with — and jogged alongside in many cases — almost a dozen Republican members of Congress to...

Teacher union: Pastorek must go

It is apparently pay-back time for state Superintendent Paul Pastorek, who ruffled many a feather last spring with his bid to revamp public education in Louisiana, particularly with regard to the...

Out of the woodwork, into the comment section

Earlier this week the INDsider uncovered a fissure in the Tea Party movement, both at the state level and here in Lafayette. The schism manifests itself in Baton Rouge through the Louisiana Tea Party...

Obama gaining among white southern Dems?

President Barack Obama’ approval rating remains below 50 percent in Louisiana and other southern states won by John McCain in 2008. But new polling numbers from Public Policy Polling suggest he may be...

Video: Claiborne's ruins forever fascinate

In the falling light of a July afternoon at Camp Claiborne in Rapides Parish, a decades-old cement structure reveals itself in the dappled forest. Discovering Claiborne's creepy, bat-infested ruins is...

re: Our own little Culture War

Get ideology out of NGO funding already  A tricky deadline this week for the column: We went to press late Monday as usual, but last night the Lafayette Consolidated Council voted on an ordinance that...

NG-go! Council votes in favor of non-profit funding

As anticipated, the Lafayette Consolidated Council voted 6-3 against an ordinance that would shift funding of non-governmental organizations like 232-HELP and Festivals Acadiens to the Community...

Council to weigh in on NGOs

The Lafayette Consolidated Council will vote Tuesday evening on an ordinance that would shift control of roughly $452,000 in direct funding for non-governmental organizations such as 232-HELP, Big...

Reserve to get some TEA Monday

Four of President Barack Obama’s cabinet secretaries may get a less than cordial welcome in Reserve, La., Monday when they make a stop on the administration’s “Rural Tour.” The call for a road trip to...

Former Lafayette gym teacher pleads guilty

Duane Champagne, a former physical education teacher at Sts. Leo-Seton Catholic School, has two days to register as a sex offender with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office following his guilty plea...

Bankers buy KLFY parent co.

Young Broadcasting, parent company of Lafayette CBS affiliate KLFY TV-10, is being purchased after all — from within. According to the Web site mediapost.com, a group of YB bankers has agreed to...

NGO funding debate rages

With the vote on whether Lafayette Consolditated Government should fund non-governmental organizations fast approaching, debate over the merits of public support for social service and culture...

C'est bon: Cool donation aids needy

Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux, foreground at left, and Leroy Richard prepare to distribute box fans and bottled water to Lafayette residents. Dozens of Lafayette residents in need of a respite from...

re: Filling in the blanks

CG can — and should — help fund NGOs.  I’ve decided to stop funding adjectives and adverbs. They’re not the blank function of brain. I’ll use blanks instead. The blank sector can provide the...

Hubtown TEA group forms company

What began as a “grassroots” conservative movement is now a limited liability company. The Tea Party of Lafayette announced at a July 8 town hall meeting the group — an outcropping of the nationwide...

Jindal: Rising? Falling? Who knows?

The one thing Louisiana political watchers can agree on is the inability to agree on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s political fortunes. Is his star rising or being sucked into a black hole? Dueling commentary by...

Coast to coast support for FIL directed at council

Ahead of next week’s vote by the Lafayette Consolidated Council on whether to phase out funding for non-governmental organizations, support for the Hub City’s most visible and celebrated non-profit...

Performance space rising beside AcA

If your daily transit doesn’t take you along East Vermilion Street downtown and in front of the Acadiana Center for the Arts, you may have missed a startling transformation over the last few days as a...

GulfBrew precursor: Mudge wins Golden Six Pack

Chef Paul Mudge of Jolie’s Bistro took home the first-ever Golden Six Pack and Brew Cup awarded this week at Stan’s Downtown following the Brewmaster’s Dinner, an event honoring VIPs and sponsors who...

Bond sale paves way for improvements

Lafayette Consolidated Government is wrapping up the sale of $62 million in city sales tax bonds which will fund two dozen road, drainage and other improvement projects. The sale comes following a...

Appeals court upholds Gross plea, sentence

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal issued a ruling today upholding the conviction and sentence of Thornton Gross on felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and sexual battery charges for which he received...

Fourth Estate Planning

It’s grim and getting grimmer for traditional news media  This is my second column on the travails of news media which, based on the number of columns I’ve written in these pages, constitutes harping....

Council advances NGO funding phase-out

By a unanimous 8-0 vote (Dist. 6 Councilman Sam Dore was absent), the Lafayette Consolidated Council advanced an introductory ordinance that would eliminate city-parish funding for non-governmental...

Ethics panel OKs Crowley chief's second career

The Louisiana Board of Ethics has given Crowley Police Chief K.P. Gibson the green light to moonlight as a driving instructor, with some exceptions. Gibson sought an opinion from the board on whether...

re: Murphree's Law

When before the council, brevity is the soul of wit  I got a good dose of democracy last week. It was excruciating. All the redundant yammering from the blue card brigade addressing the Lafayette...

Lafayette council goes back to school

Tuesday's meeting of the Lafayette Consolidated Council will be all about education, as the board is expected to enter into an agreement with the Lafayette Parish School System to create a Joint...

Field of 10 set in Dist. 40 race

Two late qualifiers on Friday brings to ten the number of entrants in this fall’s election for the Dist. 40 state representative seat. Candidates include some familiar faces from past election cycles...

Eight is enough? Qualifying for Dist. 40 ends today

The deadline to qualify for the Dist. 40 state House of Representatives seat is 5 p.m. Friday, and so far eight candidates have thrown their hats into the ring. According to the St. Landry Parish...

Community rallies around injured prof

Friends, family and former students of Dr. John Tanner, severely injured earlier this month in College Station, Texas, have rallied around the popular UL Lafayette business professor. Tanner remains...

Tigers hooked on horns; CWS goes to three

Longhorn pitching went the distance and the Tiger bats went cold Tuesday night in Omaha, Neb., in game two of the College World Series. Texas pitcher Taylor Jungman pitched a complete game and LSU...

re: Will the real Bobby please stand up

Getting to know our governor is like cozying up to a porcupine Who the heck does Bobby Jindal think he is? I’d like to know, because I have no idea who he is. The intellectual policy wonk working hard...

Poboy purveyor prevails in rezone turf war

After hours of impassioned pleas against a rezoning ordinance and testimonials supporting the merchant requesting the rezoning, the Lafayette Consolidated Council voted 6-3 in favor of Olde Tyme...

Elmhurst fracas goes to council vote

The Lafayette City-Parish Council has a light agenda for Tuesday evening’s meeting — one presentation, five discussion items and a single ordinance up for final adoption. But that last item — Olde...

Not so fast: Fenroy decides to gamble on UFL

A UL Lafayette gridiron great has had a change of heart and now hopes what happens in Vegas gets him to the NFL. Tyrell Fenroy, all-time leading rusher in Louisiana collegiate history, told The Daily...

Senate committee nixes stimulus legislation

With fewer than five days to go in the legislative session, a Senate committee deferred a bill that would allow the state to accept $98 million in stimulus money in the form of federal unemployment...

UL's Picard Center receives $400K for research

UL Lafayette’s Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong learning has received the final $400,000 of a $1 million donation from the Special Children’s Foundation for research into...

Arts community mobilizing against Jindal

Word has been spreading rapidly through the state arts community: Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to veto the financial sources for Decentralized Arts Funding, tourism promotion and other cultural endeavors....

Kumbaya, Burnell, kumbaya

The Lafayette Parish School Board has again heaped praise on Superintendent Burnell Lemoine in its latest evaluation of the parish’s top educator. According to The Daily Advertiser, Lemoine scored a...

Lt. Gov. to arts community: back to square one

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, in a letter sent Wednesday to arts councils, arts presenters and other non-profit cultural agencies, is warning of tough times to come after Gov. Bobby Jindal signalled his...

re: Death by digits

There is no catharsis in the violent death of a companion. (with video) Friday morning I bid adieu to an old friend. It wasn’t a “so long“ or a “see ya later.” It was “goodbye.” Forever. We had been...

'Net continues to catch news consumers

More good news for the World Wide Web, and bad news for television and print: A new on-line poll conducted by Zogby International finds that the Internet continues to outpace rival media as the...

Update: UL prof on the mend

A UL Lafayette business professor injured Saturday when his bicycle was struck by a car in College Station, Texas, is showing further signs of improvement. According to an update posted on KATC TV3's...

Headstone mystery turns up behind The Ind

Lafayette Police are investigating the appearance of a grave marker in the small parking area behind The Independent Weekly and adjacent businesses on Jefferson Street downtown. Within the shadow of...

Appeals court vacates LeBlanc sentence

A Lafayette women who two years ago struck another car, killing a Port Barre mother on South Fieldspan road, has had her 30-year prison sentence vacated by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal. The...

re: Frankfurter follies

Praise God and pass the mustard, it’s war!  I’m considering approaching the Downtown Development Authority for a commission. I’ve unwittingly done some downtown development in the last few weeks. I...

Toll roads coming: Find out more Tuesday

If you attend the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo on the last weekend in July, it will be your last chance to get to the sandy vacation strip without paying a toll. The new LA 1 Expressway will be activated...

DWF: Lafayette boater over limit in fatal collision

The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries confirmed Thursday that a Lafayette man piloting one of two boats involved in a collision on False River last month that claimed the lives of three Baton...

Update: Rehearing in crawfish case denied

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal has denied rehearing petitions from three crawfish buyer/processors who in April were stripped by the appeals court of nearly $2 million awarded to them individually by...

Who is Tony Chu?

Check out this video documentary featuring Lafayette comic artist Rob Guillory, whose first monthly comic, "Chew," debuts in shops and bookstores...

re: Bo-Rail

Calvin Borel’s decision to switch dates mid-dance has this wall flower in a funk.  This is what I know about horse racing: It’s nicknamed the “sport of kings”; horses race counter-clockwise around a...

Council to vote on renewing Advertiser contract

The Lafayette City-Parish Council will vote Tuesday evening on a resolution for final adoption that again designates The Daily Advertiser as the official journal for Lafayette Consolidated Government...

Budget scythe fells 11 in state tourism department

Responding to budgetary dictates from on high, the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism distributed the memo no one wants to receive: layoff. Eleven full-time employees in the Baton...

More red light cams a-comin'

Three more days to haul asterisk on certain stretches of road in the Hub City. Lafayette Consolidated Government announced Friday that three more red-light cameras will go into operation just after...

Armed campus bill gunned down on House floor

By an overwhelming margin, the state House of Representatives rejected a bill by a retired lawman that would have allowed persons 21 and older with a concealed carry permit to pack heat on college...

Independent reporting taken to task in lawsuit

Former Stanford Group Co. financial advisor Tiffany Angelle has filed a civil suit against The Independent Weekly in state district court seeking unspecified damages. Angelle’s suit accuses the...

re: This brave new world

(with video documentary) A little shout-out to The Independent Weekly. We’re all up in the 21st century, y’all. I’m not talking journalism. Ours is top rate, if you ask me, and keeps us busier than a...

Update: Council approves Pastor's street appeal

The Lafayette Consolidated Council Tuesday unanimously assented to the appeal from a Lafayette pastor who says a pair of Planning Commission requirements — two among several attached to preliminary...

NOAA: Average hurricane season on tap; Be prepared

The National Oceanic and Atmopsheric Administration is predicting an average Atlantic hurricane season for 2009, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, but the federal agency is urging coastal residents...

Update: Bartlett gets Boucher gig

The INDsider’s sources nailed it: As we predicted Wednesday afternoon ("Battle-tested principal drafted for struggling Boucher"), Keith Bartlett was recommended for the job as principal at...

re: What'll we do about Mama?

What a state we’re in. Louisiana is our morbidly obese mother, ambling around the mobile home in her wrinkled house coat, chain smoking, nursing a 40, chewing through a greasy sack of cracklins. Her...

School board reform bill clears panel

On Tuesday afternoon at the state Capitol, the House Education Committee voted in favor of House Bill 851, a measure that, if passed into law, would yank school board members out of personnel...

Lawmakers smile on gun sales tax holiday

Bills that would waive the 4-percent sales tax on purchases of firearms won approval in House and Senate committees Monday, according to The Advocate . House Bill 128 by state Rep Cameron Henry,...

PFLAG to rally on Capitol steps against HB517

About 15 Acadiana members of the group Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays are joining fellow PFLAG members from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to lobby state lawmakers today at the...

Resident prods feds with in-your-face protest

Steve Russell is taking it to a federal government he believes is out of control. The one-man show of resistance packed up his constitutional rights, two homemade protest signs and a wide-brimmed hat...

Update: Verret resentencing set

May 27 has been designated the resentencing date for Brian Verret, convicted last June on four counts of negligent homicide in connection with a high-speed wreck on Ambassador Caffery Parkway in...

Realtors work up a sweat for community project

If you head to downtown Lafayette Friday for Downtown Alive!, you’ll probably notice a spiffy new Parc du Lafayette connecting Jefferson Street with the public parking tower. About 30 independent...

re: Boudouins and other exoticisms

Inventing new words, or neologisms, isn’t new. Words have to come from somewhere, right? And we Americans have enjoyed a facile famousity for it lo these many years, often to the chagrin of our...

Update: Nite Town trial derailed

The civil trial pitting downtown Lafayette bar Nite Town against two former customers was continued this morning by Judge Herman Clause. No new trial date has been set. Clause delayed the trial...

Ethics board: no double duty for hospital boss

The Louisiana Board of Ethics is telling an Acadiana hospital one of its top executives cannot serve as both an administrator and moonlight as a bill collector for the hospital. The case centers...

Downtown club facing civil suit, trial today

Following a preliminary hearing before Judge Herman Clause this morning, two sides in a civil trial over allegations of bouncer brutality will be back in a Lafayette courtroom for jury selection early...

Cops: Hammer hoodlum cuffed, stuffed

Lafayette Police (almost) always get their man. Detectives with the LPD have identified the suspect caught on a bank security camera trying to bust into an ATM with a hammer as 22-year-old Christopher...

Appeals court throws out Verret sentence

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles has vacated the four-year prison sentence of Brian Verret, who was convicted last year on four counts of negligent homicide in connection with a fatal...

Public art hoisted, heaved and hauled to safety

An eight-ton piece of public art and relic from Lafayette’s commercial past is safe in a city warehouse today after a crew used cranes to gently hoist the concrete sculpture onto a flatbed trailer and...

re: THE NEW JAVA ON CAMPUS

In order for me to pull an all-nighter, I’ll take Adderall,” says Daphne, a junior in early childhood education at UL Lafayette. She and a fellow student and friend, Velma, have come to The...

Security could tighten at City Hall

Visitors to Lafayette Consolidated Government offices on St. Landry Street will likely soon pass through a metal detector under the watchful eye of a deputy from the Lafayette City Marshal’s Office....

Longtime Jefferson Street biz giving up the ghost

City News Stand on Jefferson Street downtown will flip its sign to “closed” forever sometime in mid May. It is one of the oldest continuously operated businesses in Lafayette, and the last of the...

School board lobby helps beat back reform

A legislative package aimed at reforming how parish school boards operate has suffered a major setback less than one week into the spring legislative session. Louisiana political columnist John...

School board reform suffers a blow

A legislative package aimed at reforming how parish school boards operate has suffered a major setback less than one week into the spring legislative session. Louisiana political columnist John...

Lawmakers undo Jindal arts cuts

Arts councils, arts presenters and artists statewide are breathing a sigh of relief and keeping their collective fingers crossed after the state House Appropriations Committee this week restored $3.3...

Smoke Signals For Print

Bob Hamm disappeared into the Big Dark Secret last week, just two months after his longtime colleague at The Daily Advertiser, Vince Marino, also died. Hamm was 74 years old. He and Marino were lions...

Ind grabs dozens of LPA awards

The Independent Weekly walked away with 29 awards including 12 first-place awards at the Louisiana Press Association luncheon Saturday in Baton Rouge. The Independent was recognized both for editorial...

Animal cruelty probe creates crisis

Dozens of stray dogs and cats at the Kaplan pound have been saved from the gas chamber thanks to the quick action of a Vermilion Parish animal welfare group. The crisis started last week when...

Lafayette newsman dies

Bob Hamm, a longtime Hub City newspaper editor, has died. Hamm passed away Wednesday night at Lafayette General Medical Center after a lengthy illness. Hamm spent decades at The Daily Advertiser, most...

Regents call for UL philosophy program termination

The Louisiana Board of Regents has 87 university, community college and technical college degree programs in its crosshairs and is calling for the programs to be terminated due to low completion...

What side are you on?

School board reform, I mean. Next week in Baton Rouge, after the sundries and niceties of the legislative session opening ceremonies, after Gov. Bobby Jindal exhorts lawmakers to do good for...

Historic sign will be saved

A gem from Lafayette’s commercial past uncovered by a demolition project will be preserved. Read the updated story and post a comment here...

Chamber announces school reform proposals

The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce is the latest entity to come out in favor of school board reform. At a noon press conference today, chamber leadership unveiled a position paper dedicated to...

Update: historic sign will be saved

The removal of a brick wall that once supported the old LBA Savings Bank drive-thru on West Vermilion Street downtown on Monday revealed a relic from Lafayette’s commercial past: a sign for Lafayette...

The Public Squared

What a genial bunch you Independent Weekly readers are, polite and respectful for the most part of your ideological adversaries’ feelings. Nowhere is this borne out in more convivial fashion than in...

Jury award in crawfish case goes to seed

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal has reversed the awards handed down by a St. Landry Parish jury to three crawfish buyer/processors. The ruling strips Patrick E. Phillips Jr., James Bernard, and Lisa...

A poor return on my investment

I owe an apology to the directionless teens, to the 20-something men and women out there in Lafayette who have staked a claim to a street corner or commandeered some hard-won turf, to the shady...

Ethics board to chief: no reduced rent for you

The Louisiana Board of Ethics has responded to a request for an advisory opinion from Richard Arceneaux, the city attorney in Welsh, on whether the town’s chief of police and an officer can reside in...

Downtown club on hook in damages suit

A downtown Lafayette night club, and not its insurance company, will have to face any possible damages awarded through a civil suit filed by two former patrons, according to a ruling handed down this...

Sign of the Times: NYT leaving NOLA

Perhaps it is evidence that New Orleans is becoming the Big Easy once again, or a sign of post-Katrina fatigue among news consumers. The New York Times has announced it is pulling its New...

Coming soon: a theatre near you

The Acadiana Center for the Arts on Vermilion Street downtown is set to break ground Thursday on a state-of-the-art — pun intended — 300-seat theatre. The structure will go up in the lot currently...

'Net roots growing wild: Jazz funeral for arts set

Momentum is building in Internet chat rooms and elsewhere by supporters of the arts against a potentially fatal blow to funding proposed by the Jindal administration, which wants to cut state funding...

Automated service begins, but not for River Ranch

Lafayette residents began trundling the new 96-gallon “smart cart” trash containers to the roadside today for automated trash pick-up. But not every Lafayette resident is participating in the program....

Forum query causes uproar

The candidates for the state Senate District 24 seat gathered for a routine forum this week at the Clifton Chenier Center in Lafayette. All five candidates in the tilt — Quincy Richard, Link Savoie,...

La. higher ed: Deeper cuts to come?

Meeting in Baton Rouge Wednesday, members of the Board of Regents were briefed on impending cuts to higher education at Louisiana colleges and universities, and Commissioner of Higher Education Sally...

State crime rate second in the nation

Louisiana has once again earned a dubious position in a national ranking: second-highest crime rate in the nation in 2008, according to CQ Press’ annual ranking. Sportsman’s Paradise ranked behind...

Forces continue to gather around school boards

The move to neuter local school boards continues to gain momentum. Citing the state’s bottom-feeder status in public-education achievement, the Council for A Better Louisiana and the Louisiana...

Durel defends robo slop

City-Parish President Joey Durel is deflecting concerns over the automated trash pickup service that rolls into action in less than a week using new trucks with robotic arms. The centerpiece of the...

Arbiters of Art

So much fuss over a mutt, and a blue one at that. The response to our March 11 cover story, “Every Dog Has His Day,” continues to position readers on either side of a fault line: Can art still be art...

UL faculty senate unites against proposed cuts

Amid concerns among state lawmakers about plans to rework the formula for how to divvy higher-education funding among state colleges and universities, faculties are uniting in their opposition to the...

Durel questions 'cane-proof bus shelters

The Lafayette Consolidated Council decided to delay until April 7 any decisions on how to divvy up more than $9 million in federal stimulus dollars among a host of road- and public-transit projects....

PAR backs Pastorek plan for school boards

The non-partisan Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana is backing state school Superintendent Paul Pastorek’s bid to clamp down on local school boards, which many believe go overboard in...

Oil surges overnight

The price for a barrel of crude oil shot up more than $3.35 overnight to $51.49, a jump of almost 7 percent from Wednesday. By mid-morning Thursday, according to Bloomberg, the price had eased off...

OFI chief: La. banks sound

Louisiana’s chief financial regulator says the state’s banks aren’t experiencing the kind of problems plaguing the country’s largest financial institutions, noting that many are also out-performing...

Pastorek touts education reform

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek made a case for education reform during a presentation on the South Louisiana Community College campus Tuesday. Sponsored by the Greater Lafayette...

Stimulus priorities questioned

Members of the Lafayette Consolidated Council questioned traffic and transportation officials Monday about some $21 million dollars in highway projects and transit-system upgrades, roughly $9.5...

Stimulus priorities questioned

Members of the Lafayette Consolidated Council questioned traffic and transportation officials about some $21 million dollars in highway projects and transit-system upgrades, roughly $9.5 million of...

Wetlands Center goes 'green' in new exhibit

In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center is set to open an art exhibit featuring the work of roughly 70 women artists. The exhibit,...

Local oil services company announces furloughs

More evidence is bubbling up that contraction in the oil patch is having a negative impact on the local industry. Houston-based Tesco Corporation, an oil-services company with an office in Lafayette,...

Bus service wish list totals $5.2 million

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, provides funding for local infrastructure projects. On the agenda Monday for the Lafayette City-Parish Council is...

'Rough cut' of locally filmed horror flick premieres

Maxim Entertainment gave insiders a first look at its inaugural feature film Thursday night at the Carmike Cinema. Shot entirely in Acadiana, mostly in Opelousas, Macumba is studded less by stars and...

Are you ready for 'We Surround Them'?

Get ready for the “We Surround Them” movement. Viewing parties are planned across Louisiana for 4 p.m. Friday, although, curiously, none is planned in largely conservative Acadiana. The closest to us...

Landrieu, Vitter earn ire of watchdog group

Is it only pork when it’s in someone else’s district? Louisiana ranks eighth in the nation among states receiving earmark funding in the $410 billion 2009 Omnibus Spending Bill approved by Congress,...

Bomb-threat letter writer's conviction reversed

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has reversed the 2004 conviction of Stephen Michael Long, who is serving a 30-year federal prison sentence on 78 federal charges. In reversing the...


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