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Earlier this year, Lake Charles resident Terrell Deshotel submitted a public records request to the city of Lake Charles...
09/08/2026

Earlier this year, Lake Charles resident Terrell Deshotel submitted a public records request to the city of Lake Charles, seeking an aggregate count of distracted driving citations issued over the last five years for a research project.

The city’s response caught him by surprise. Lake Charles City Attorney Russell Stutes refused to release records unless Deshotel provided government-issued photo identification, something Deshotel suspected to be a violation of state public records law. So, in May, he filed suit against the city.

Deshotel’s lawsuit is only the latest chapter in the City of Lake Charles’ years-long history of creating barriers to accessing public records, which has included legally questionable justifications for withholding records and at least one callback of records already released.

The ID requirement, Deshotel says, is an undue burden that could keep records hidden from people who have a right to see them.

“Not everybody has a photo ID,” Deshotel tells The Current. “Some indigent people don’t have ID. Some elderly people don’t have ID, but they’re still citizens. They still have the right to those records.”

Making records difficult to access is not new for the city, with complaints and legal action carrying from the past administration of Mayor Nic Hunter over to the current mayor, Marshall Simien.

Hunter’s administration faced multiple lawsuits alleging delayed production of records, overly broad interpretations of attorney-client privilege and high copying fees.

On Sept. 3, 2021, contracting and engineering firm InPwr requested records from the city related to disaster recovery work following hurricanes Laura and Delta.

Then-City Attorney David Morgan acknowledged the request, but demanded a $500 pre-payment and estimated a 21-day turnaround, according to court records.

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/inside-the-growing-fight-for-public-records-access-in-lake-charles/

Robin Norwood and her family have been swimming at Riverside Swim Club, a neighborhood swim club, since their son, Nash,...
09/07/2026

Robin Norwood and her family have been swimming at Riverside Swim Club, a neighborhood swim club, since their son, Nash, was three years old. Twenty years later they still wouldn’t swim anywhere else. Even with her membership at Red’s, she still chooses Riverside first.

“He’s comfortable here, you know, he knows where he can stand,” says Norwood of her son, who has Down syndrome.
Besides Red’s, there would be few options for the Norwoods to find a place to swim. There are four public pools owned by the City of Lafayette. Only two opened this summer, and one of them didn’t open until July.

Pool culture in Lafayette, like in a lot of American cities, has broadly gone private. In Lafayette, that means, despite infamously long and hot summers, locals don’t have affordable and accessible places to take a dip. And that brings with it an elevated risk. Drowning was the third leading cause of death among kids under 14, according to a 2024 report by the Louisiana Department of Health.

Local officials made a big show of opening the Girard Park pool last year. The pool, near the university campus, hadn’t been open since before the COVID pandemic in 2020. It was a rushed job to get the pool back up and running, and Lafayette Consolidated Government never addressed the major repairs needed, so the pool was closed again this year.

The MLK pool opened this summer on July 10 – later than expected due to delays in needed repairs. The season was recently extended until early October but only on the weekends.

Getting pools back up and running is a priority in Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet’s proposed budget. The city’s only public Olympic-sized pool, O.J. Mouton, would receive $1.1 million for needed repairs. Additionally, the MLK Recreation Center pool is getting $750,000 on top of the $300,000 the city previously allocated to fund an enclosure to turn the outdoor pool into a year-round indoor pool.

“I do think people want to take pride in our parks and so we’re making significant capital investment right now,” Boulet says.

thecurrentla.com/2026/lafayette-pool-culture-has-dried-up/

Will the I-49 Connector ever be built? Should it be built?If you ask some of the residents who attended this week’s meet...
09/04/2026

Will the I-49 Connector ever be built? Should it be built?
If you ask some of the residents who attended this week’s meeting hosted by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the 40-year-old project could use some more reviewing. Others say it’s high time to move ahead.
Most agree the status quo along the Evangeline Thruway corridor isn’t working. Still, as the project advances toward federal approval, more than 20 years since it was last obtained, critics say the urban interstate plan should slow down.

“We got to slow it down; pump the brakes,” said Gabe Giffin, a Freetown resident and chair of that neighborhood’s coterie. For one, Giffin said, he’s concerned about the noise from the elevated highway concept. “I’m not promised sound barriers with this elevated highway,” he said. “I’m not promised anything.”

Meanwhile, proponents positioned the now decades old project as critical infrastructure.

“The Evangeline Thruway Corridor as it exists today divides neighborhoods, constrains reinvestment and presents safety concerns for motorists and pedestrians alike,” said Andre Breaux, One Acadiana’s vice president of policy and strategic initiatives. “Our region needs this project.”

Critics brought longstanding concerns to the hearing and open house hosted Wednesday at the Downtown Convention Center, a stone’s throw away from the project’s planned footprint. The evening meeting was a mandatory step in the project’s draft environmental study, its second study since it was first proposed nearly 40 years ago.

Several argued that the project would continue to divide neighborhoods that were severed during the Evangeline Thruway’s construction in the 1950s. Others raised concerns about pedestrian safety, adding that the preferred roundabout design for the intersection could be more dangerous for walkers and cyclists than a signalized intersection.

Several raised concerns about the impact construction could have on the Chicot Aquifer, which runs below Lafayette, suggesting it could leach toxic chemicals into the well.

Read more thecurrentla.com/2026/i-49-connector-crawls-toward-federal-approval-amid-familiar-debate/

Everyone’s heard of Flock cameras. But they’re not the only ones watching Lafayette.
09/04/2026

Everyone’s heard of Flock cameras. But they’re not the only ones watching Lafayette.

In a buoyant state of the district address on Wednesday, Superintendent Francis Touchet highlighted a slate of continuin...
09/04/2026

In a buoyant state of the district address on Wednesday, Superintendent Francis Touchet highlighted a slate of continuing projects across the parish, focusing on existing construction, security and community partnerships as a means to compete with other districts and school systems in the region.

Touchet emphasized the $360 million in ongoing construction and renovation projects across the district, describing them as an investment into the future.

“When we go to budget, I always ask this question: what is the return for investment?” he said. “And the return for investment is the kids getting those outcomes they need.”

At Duson, which was once recommended for closure by the CSG consulting group in 2024, the district is considering new development projects as the student population has grown.

“Our buildings mean something to us, they mean something to our community, and they mean something to our kids and our educators,” said Associate Superintendent Dr. Mark Rabalais, in reference to the expansion of the existing 100-year-old building at Judice Middle School.

Pointing to work done at Acadiana High and L.J. Alleman Middle School, Rabalais said there would be “discussions to carry that momentum” to Paul Breaux Elementary and Middle schools “and to the Northside,” without specifying details.

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/lpss-plans-to-build-its-way-out-of-declining-enrollment/

09/03/2026

How strong is SpaceX’s legal shield in Louisiana? Here’s what you need to know.

In recent years, automated license plate readers have popped up all over Lafayette. The specialized surveillance cameras...
09/03/2026

In recent years, automated license plate readers have popped up all over Lafayette. The specialized surveillance cameras are propped high on utility poles near schools, throughout residential neighborhoods and on main roads, or mounted on the top of law enforcement vehicles. Where there’s one, there is likely another nearby.

​When most people hear the term ALPR, they think of Flock Safety, the biggest brand in the sector and the one that has garnered the most attention recently for its rapid — and sometimes unlawful — expansion. But Flock isn’t the only surveillance company watching you in Acadiana; there is a patchwork of cameras, both publicly and privately owned, around the area.

Law enforcement agencies in Lafayette, Broussard, Youngsville, Duson and Carencro have all deployed ALPRs. They say the technology, along with a sheriff-operated surveillance center for collecting and analyzing the data it collects, has become a vital tool for deterring and solving crimes.

“This is stuff that was in the movies at one point. Now, it’s here alive today, and it’s helped out,” says Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office Staff Sgt. Chris Cormier. “I can tell you from my own experience being a patrolman that these cameras and the people that work in that center have made catching criminal activity quicker and easier.”

But some citizens and privacy advocates have warned that the rapidly spreading technology is too easy to abuse.

Most recently in Jefferson Parish, a sheriff’s deputy was terminated after a third-party watchdog website noticed that he had used the department’s Flock system to search his ex-fiancée’s license plate more than 3,200 times over several years.

Cases like that, and broader civil liberties concerns, have spurred a lot of debate, with Flock typically at the center of it. In Lafayette, they apply to a much broader surveillance network than just Flock Safety’s devices — but let’s start with them.​

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/flock-is-in-lafayette-who-else-is-watching-you/

Louisiana officials offered SpaceX what might be one of the largest single-project tax breaks in U.S. history to cinch a...
09/02/2026

Louisiana officials offered SpaceX what might be one of the largest single-project tax breaks in U.S. history to cinch a $100 billion deal to build its largest launch facility yet in coastal Vermilion Parish.

State and local governments are giving SpaceX a tax incentive package valued at an estimated $27.5 billion, according to documents obtained in a public records request from Louisiana Economic Development. They outline the state’s negotiations for what’s referred to as “Project Osprey” without using the company’s name or the proposed facility unveiled last week as Starbase Louisiana.

SpaceX, which had a market value as of Friday in excess of $1.8 trillion, is owned by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth of $865 billion, according to Forbes.

The majority of the tax break, nearly $23.8 billion, results from exempting the company from having to pay property taxes to Vermilion Parish authorities for 25 years. In exchange for granting the exemption, the Vermilion sheriff, school district and police jury will share a $25 million flat fee that SpaceX must pay each year, records show. The payment-in-leu-of-taxes deal includes a provision that could increase SpaceX’s yearly payments based on inflation.

SpaceX will also get state sales tax rebates valued at an estimated $3.6 billion over its initial 20-year term, according to state documents. The remainder will come from the state’s High Impact Jobs grant program, which pays for 22% of each employees’ compensation, and Louisiana Economic Development’s recruiting and workforce training services.

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/who-pays-for-spacex-louisianas-27b-tax-deal/

Lafayette Consolidated Government will host an open house meeting Wednesday to gather public comment and concerns around...
09/01/2026

Lafayette Consolidated Government will host an open house meeting Wednesday to gather public comment and concerns around Interstate 49’s draft environmental study, which will include discussion of the location and general design, purpose, right-of-way acquisition process and relocation assistance related to the project.

The meeting is a mandatory step toward a final record of decision, the last step of a project’s required environmental review, which could move the project closer to construction. In July, Lafayette officials signed off on the draft environmental study, the second in the project’s nearly 40-year history.

Residents will also have a chance to review the previous environmental study and multiple redesigns created in response to the original elevated highway concept presented in 2003, which elicited community concerns and two lawsuit challenges in federal court.

One design would feature roundabouts prominently, while another would use signalized intersections.

The roundabout alternative, known as C-6, is currently being recommended as the preferred connection, according to the draft study. The project comes in at roughly $800 million less than the 2003 design, due in part to the roundabout design eliminating two interchanges and avoiding relocation of the Lafayette Regional Airport runway and taxiway.

Compared with the 2003 design, a roundabout design is expected to reduce crash severity by lowering speed and collision angles. It would also require fewer displacements and property acquisitions.

If the roundabout design moves forward, the project’s 5.5-mile footprint is expected to displace 153 properties, 77% of which are single-family homes and apartment complexes. Remaining properties include 58 commercial or industrial properties, two non-profits and a public property.

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/i-49-connector-returns-for-public-comment/

Highway 82 cuts through Vermilion Parish marshland so flat and empty that a person dropped 400 yards off the road could ...
08/31/2026

Highway 82 cuts through Vermilion Parish marshland so flat and empty that a person dropped 400 yards off the road could be forgiven for thinking they’d landed in no man’s land. It’s the kind of quiet that made the parish attractive to SpaceX — and the kind of quiet Louisiana law now says courts can no longer protect.

Act 874, signed into law this year, bars Louisiana residents from suing an aerospace company over noise, vibration, smoke, light or nearly any other disturbance connected to rocket launches, if that company owns and occupies at least 20,000 contiguous acres. A companion bill, Act 343, blocks courts from issuing injunctions against aerospace activity, and enables companies to get nuisance lawsuits thrown out early, with legal fees shifting onto whoever loses.

The bills are part of a broader legislative package that paved the way for SpaceX’s Starbase Louisiana to be built on 125,000 acres of coastal land in Vermilion Parish, a project that Gov. Jeff Landry and SpaceX leadership announced last week.
Bill Goodell, a Lafayette environmental attorney who has litigated oilfield contamination cases in Vermilion Parish, argues the laws strip residents of their property rights. “People in Louisiana have a property right to be free from nuisance, trespass and all those things, and it’s inherent in their ownership,” he says.

He argues the companion bills are exposed to legal challenges. “I think [Acts] 343 and 874 are both unconstitutional,” Goodell says.

The law covers any “aerospace flight entity,” that includes “contractors, employees and any owner or lessor of the land used for aerospace activity.” As of Aug. 25, the Industrial Development Board of the Parish of Vermilion, an entity created by the parish, holds the land under a long-term lease. “It’s like a double shield,” Goodell says.

Read more at thecurrentla.com/2026/what-does-spacexs-legal-shield-mean-for-vermilion-parish-residents/

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