No Blackout This Year

For the fourth year in a row, the New Orleans Saints have sold out their 70,000 seat Superdome with Season Ticket sales. In fact, they've done such a great job of selling tickets, that there is a waiting list of over 50,000. That's according to a story on New Orleans.com. This now ensures that all of Louisiana and South Mississippi will be able to enjoy all the games on TV.

Smoking Bill Defeated

There was a bill before the House today to expand the current no smoking ban in restaurants to also include bars and casinos, but that failed by a vote a 71-29. A similar bill did pass the Senate last week. WWL in New Orleans has the full story.

The 4-1-1 on __-1-1's

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announced that they have upgraded the 5-1-1 telephone service in time for the start of hurricane season, according to a story on KATC. (5-1-1 is a traveler phone number to call for real time traffic and road closure updates). So that got us thinking....wow....there's a lot of _11 numbers so we compiled this handy list.

• 2-1-1: The United Way's / 232-HELP answers 2-1-1 calls and is a referral service for people needing assistance with food, housing, employment or health care.
• 4-1-1: Directory Assistance
• 5-1-1: DOTD's Traveler Hotline
• 6-1-1: In some areas to report problems with telephone service.
• 7-1-1: Hearing impaired hotline
• 8-1-1: Louisiana One Call - Call Before you Dig hotline
• 9-1-1: Emergency

That Is Ugly

The Times Of Acadiana ran an item in their The Good, The Bad and The Ugly column on the La. House shooting down a measure to make it harder for businesses to pay women less than men for doing the same job. Right now, women in Louisiana get paid 65 cents for every dollar a man makes for performing the same job. That's less than the national average of 77 cents. See the article here.

Go 'Head Javier

ULL's tennis ace Javier Pulgar was voted first team All-Louisiana and Freshman of the Year. In fact, the Cajun men had three netters garnering All-Louisiana honors. Angela Dangond was named to the All-Louisiana team for the ULL women's tennis squad. Now, with those names, Pulgar and Dangond, that's Vermilion Parish right? St. Martin? Full story here.

photo courtesy: www.RaginCajuns.com

New On The Northside

Louis David ran a story about the transformation taking place on the site of the old Northgate Cinema, on his blog On The Geaux. The site will now be a shopping center, and one potential business may be Affordable Home Furniture. At least, it's their number on the sign and their logo on the mock up of the shopping center.

photo by Louis David

Most Wanted

The Advocate wrote a nice piece about 78 year old Earl "Nickey" Picard's 25th anniversary as being the Lafayette City Marshal. And, just for kicks, we thought you'd enjoy checking out Mr. Picard's website and the mugshots of Lafayette's current most wanted.

Business Briefs - Cookies, Ice Cream and Tractors

There's a new Great American Cookie Company in Broussard. Owner Tye Hebert is the current owner of Hersey's Ice Cream on the Blvd, and now he's pairing the two concepts into one store. The new shop is across from the Wal-mart and Home Depot.

Also coming soon - TSC Tractor Supply Company (www.tractorsupply.com) is building a new location in Breaux Bridge. The new company will be located on Rees Street and will employ about 20 people. They are hoping to open in July.

The Kick

It was Sunday Nov. 8, 1970, I was 8 years old, watching the game on my parent's black and white TV. The holder awaited the snap on our side of the 50 yard line. Tom Dempsey remembers it too. He kicked it. Here's his wonderful first person account from The Oklahoman. While we're at it, here's a plug for the best Saints forum on the web, Saintsreport.com

Les Is More

LSU Coach Les Miles was quoted in Ben Maller's blog for Fox Sports from an article in the Atlanta Journal- Constitution as saying the federal government should not be involved in the BCS Championship. Miles believes the Fed has more pressing concerns at the moment than a college sports tournament. He might actually have a point there. Full quote here.

photo by LSUsports.net

Climate Change And Hurricane Season

Two national news outlets did stories concerning New Orleans and the beginning of hurricane season today. The New York Times did a piece on the Louisiana delegation meeting with the the Delta Commission in the Netherlands studying effects of climate change on cities built below sea level.
And CNN ran an excellent blog by Tom Foreman, a contributor to AC360 pointing out value of cities, like New Orleans, that have been built in areas vulnerable to natural disasters.

Say It With Pictures

We're new to "media" here at The Daily Meaux, but even we can see that babes in bikinis make for a eye catching story. Both KLFY, and KATC ran story updates of an arrest in the "Bikini Bandits" case. Channel 10 noted Inside Edition, tru TV and other national media outlets have also called the Lafayette Police Department inquiring about the sensational video. Channel 3 focused more on the actual bikinis worn in the crime with this video report filed by Jim Hummel.

[Update: Lafayette Police report that they now have both bikini suspects in custody]