The Current Media

This essay won first place in Ascension Episcopal School’s Blueprint Civic Writing Contest in which students wrote about one social, political or economic issue that matters to them. What is real anymore? What sources can be trusted? Considering the constantly evolving state of technology, these questions become vital. As the world becomes increasingly digital, distinguishing fact from fiction is becoming more difficult.

This essay won second place in Ascension Episcopal School’s Blueprint Civic Writing Contest in which students wrote about one social, political or economic issue that matters to them. Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty has recently made claims that the largest threat to children’s well being is economic instability.

The City Council approved a permit this week for a Downtown bar that has been operating for nearly eight months without one. The venue, connected to Ashes II Ashes cigar lounge on South Buchanan Street, had obtained a liquor license from Lafayette Consolidated Government but was missing the special permit required to open bars in the Downtown area. Downtown has a blanket moratorium on new bars.

For someone experiencing a mental health crisis, there are few options available in Lafayette that don’t involve a visit to the emergency room or the parish jail. After years of deliberation, that could finally change. Now, Lafayette may be mere months away from opening a long-awaited behavioral health crisis center, a walk-in facility that’s open 24/7, with staff trained to take in someone in crisis, assess them and connect them to the appropriate resources.

The district attorney’s office is investigating UL Lafayette, following an audit report detailing potentially prohibited spending in the athletics department. According to audit records, the allegations center on a former athletics department recruiter and the employee’s supervisor, who are accused of using false expense documentation to support charges made on university LaCarte purchasing cards.

A district judge upheld the Lafayette City Council’s decision not to grant a permit for a Downtown daiquiri shop, denying the operator’s appeal in court Monday. Operator Marlon Haynes filed the appeal after the council declined to issue a conditional use permit for a daiquiri shop at 522 Jefferson Street in March. All new bars Downtown require conditional permits to get around a longstanding moratorium on bars in the district.

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 Council City Council Northside library naming. The Parish Council is planning to name the new Northeast Regional Library the Dr. Norman C.

I have a silly obsession with a very serious and mysterious tradition in south Louisiana. And I’ve spent late nights, deep in Reddit threads, trying to figure out where the heck The Freeze came from. I’m still trying to understand how it came to be that a Nashville B-side became a line dance craze in Louisiana for generations. Thankfully, I’m not alone. It all started when I’d visited home (Lafayette) for my birthday and wanted to post a video doing The Freeze at a festival on Instagram.

The project to complete I-49 through Lafayette moved a step forward this week, as officials signed off on a draft of a new environmental study, the second in the project’s four-decade history. The supplemental environmental impact statement documents the potential impact of the project on the surrounding area.

Recent outcry over efforts to update University Avenue and Bertrand Drive have highlighted the gaps between what’s promised and what’s delivered when it comes to these kinds of public investments. Lafayette’s been trying to revitalize the stretch of University between Congress Street and I-10 for more than a decade. The promise: a new gateway and increased economic development in a disadvantaged area.