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Help us examine the youth mental health crisis
Getting help often entails sending a young person in crisis to facilities out of the area, hours away from home, their friends, their family. Meanwhile, young Americans are reporting mental anguish at higher rates and are showing up in emergency departments seeking treatment in larger numbers. We want to hear...
Tip to investigators spurred report of free Fiber services for Guillory team
Investigators with the Louisiana legislative auditor relayed a tip to local auditors about suspicious billing on LUS Fiber accounts owned by top officials in the Guillory administration, sparking a report this week suggesting the former mayor-president and others in his inner circle received some services free of charge. State auditors,...
Column: LUS Fiber is in trouble
If you just skimmed LUS Fiber’s Comprehensive Annual Report, you might come away with the impression that things are going great over there. LUS Fiber’s physical infrastructure is in good shape, its financial health is strong, and it’s embarking on grant-funded expansions in all directions. But read...
Shipped Away: For Louisiana children and teens in crisis, help is often far from home
Editor’s note: The names of the mother and daughter featured in this story have been changed to protect their identity. Seeing her daughter Vivienne strapped to a hospital gurney, Linda felt angry, powerless. After hours spent in a room with a concrete slab for a bed, more akin to a prison cell than a hospital room in its protective austerity, her daughter was to be transported from Ochsner Lafayette General Hospital to a 200-bed mental health hospital in Shreveport, 213 miles away.
Southwest Louisiana lacks mental health professionals — a new program hopes to change that
When Wasilat Adeoluwa, a 30-year-old international student in the graduate counseling program at McNeese State University, arrived in Lake Charles, the city was still in shambles after five federally declared disasters damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes, businesses and large parts of the university’s campus. “My folks...
Take Action: Defend Louisiana’s Workers’ Compensation Balance
As the legislative session progresses in Louisiana, our workers’ compensation system—the very bedrock of worker protection—is confronted with serious challenges. A number of bills that propose to strip away critical protections for our state’s injured workers could have dire consequences for those dependent on these vital benefits.
Council Preview: Spoil banks settlement and $1M for road work
Here is a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the City and Parish councils. To see the full agendas, check out the links below:. Parish Agenda (Public Comment Time!) Lafayette 101. Separate and Together. By charter, both the City of Lafayette and Lafayette Parish...
Girl Scout brings nonverbal Communication Board to Moncus Park
Moncus Park’s vibrant playground echoes the Atchafalaya Basin. Its huge live-oak treehouse overlooks a splash pad where children climb over an alligator statue that “breathes” water arches from its abdomen, and the remaining play area consists of a custom ground cover design reminiscent of Louisiana swamps. The...
LCG legal fees spike 40% under Guillory, among problems dogging Boulet’s start
Four months into her tenure, Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet is still dealing with the lingering effects of her predecessor Josh Guillory, and past government spending, including a major spike in legal fees, is taking a lead role. Since taking office, Boulet has rolled back a handful of plans and proposals...
CC Adcock, Keith Frank and more punch up an unexpected Road House
In cinematic history, the juke-joint showdown has its iconic moments. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers absorbed shattered beer-bottle shards behind chicken wire at a country bar by daring to do the Spencer Davis Group’s R&B rave up “Gimme Some Lovin.”. A decade later, teenaged Charlie...
What is (and isn’t) in LCG’s latest audit
Auditors painted an ugly picture of mismanagement at LUS Fiber and dug deeper into problems found under former M-P Josh Guillory’s administration in Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 2023 financial report released Tuesday. The anticipated follow up to last year’s disastrous audit of LCG includes a trio of new findings...
BRIEF: Bill would let small papers be official journals
In a move to offer a helping hand to struggling local newspapers, the Louisiana House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon unanimously approved a bill that changes the rules by which a newspaper can qualify as an official journal for legal notices and proclamations. The bill, HB977 by Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette,...
Controversial library director bill passes House
After taking some heated challenges on the floor, a controversial Lafayette bill that would change the qualifications to become a library director passed the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon. The House approved HB974 by freshman Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, 65-38 after about 40 minutes of debate. Five members challenged Carlson...
Food as medicine? Acadiana doctors to start prescribing fruit and veggies
Eating your greens can be a chore, but for many families, it’s also a financial burden. A program that treats “food as medicine” hopes to change that by helping families buy more fruits and vegetables to combat malnutrition, obesity and associated health issues along the way. Led...
Indigenous farmer seeds a traditional food system for Acadiana
On a mild March afternoon, Raccoon Oak Farm steward Ida Aronson sat at a table filled with slender tree saplings at the Fightinville Fresh Market. In partnership with Lobelia Commons’ Front Yard Orchards, Aronson’s inventory included pawpaw, American persimmon, American chestnut and pecan trees — all free to the public.
‘It’s what made us’: Paul Breaux has long been the center of Lafayette’s integration struggle
The first time Patricia Cravins stepped onto Paul Breaux’s campus was in 1955, for her brother’s high school graduation. Over the next 43 years, its halls would become a fixture in her life. As a student, she would watch the high school close. As a teacher, she was there when it reopened as a middle school.
Boulet aims to finish costly flood project to recoup state money
The Boulet administration still can’t say the Guillory administration’s signature drainage project will protect a single home from flooding, but with millions in unreimbursed expenses on the line, it is moving ahead to complete it. The state is continuing to withhold nearly $28 million from Lafayette Consolidated Government...
Lafayette PD suspends mental health initiative
The Lafayette Police Department has suspended its recently launched initiative to send specially trained officers to mental health-related calls. Police officials cited a lack of staff to man regular patrol while several officers are out on administrative leave following officer-involved shootings. “We, like many other agencies, are always trying to...
Lafayette label embraces cassette tape’s unexpected comeback
For modern audiophiles, vinyl records are the pinnacle of the listening experience. In 2023, vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time since 1987. But making vinyl records can be incredibly time consuming, with production times ranging anywhere from six weeks to six months. Now, Citronel Sounds, a new Lafayette...
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