Archive for September, 2009

The Louisiana Department of Education announced today that Sherwood Middle School in Baton Rouge is one of the six schools in Louisiana to earn Blue Ribbon status. The US Department of Education bestows this honor based on academic improvement based on test scores for schools. The schools represented almost 2% of the 314 schools recognized across the nation.

You can read the full press release here →

Earlier this year, Dana Morrison of Sherwood Middle was one of the finalist for the LA Department of Education Teacher of the Year Award.

The Advocate is reporting that the parent firm to insurance company USAgencies has announced that it will move 56 jobs from Chicago and invest $1.2 million in an expansion of the Bon Carré Business Center, where it will relocate about 200 employees from the United Plaza on Essen Lane. These new employees will support about 200 retail locations in nine states, presumably in the Southwest.

We applaud the work of the City Government under the leadership of Mayor-President Kip Holden for their work in proving to the company that Baton Rouge is the ideal economic client for corporate expansion.

The Downtown Development District, a blueprint for the revitalization of downtown funded by the city government, received recognition by the International Downtown Association. The 2009 Award of Distinction in Downtown Leadership and Management was given to the DDD for their work on the formation and creation of measures for the Arts and Entertainment district, which was one of 77 projects considered for the award.

The Downtown Baton Rouge Arts & Entertainment District (the District) is the latest example of the Downtown Development District’s (DDD) successful and innovative approach to downtown leadership and management. Officially established in 2008, this 15 block, mixed-use residential area is anchored by historic neighborhoods and buildings, North Boulevard Town Square, Capitol Park and the majestic banks of the Mississippi Riverfront. With a growing number of restaurants, galleries, shops and live entertainment venues, the District brings together downtown visitors, workers, and residents for a variety of culturally inspired activities. You can view the proposal submitted at this link.

Since its inception in 1987, the DDD has worked tirelessly to transform downtown Baton Rouge, driving extensive community planning processes and providing services to support $2.36 billion of public and private projects. In the coming years it will continue building on these successes by further activating development, enhancing the pedestrian experience and implementing a comprehensive greening program. As the primary agency responsible for executing the Plan Baton Rouge II master plan, the DDD will continue playing a central role in shaping and energizing downtown.

The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student-run newspaper, is my primary source for news about the state’s flagship university. It’s an extremely well-written, thoroughly investigated newspaper that employs budding journalists who know how to present a story with well-vetted sources. Sure, it’s not New York Times quality, but it definitely deserves to be in the top 10 college newspapers in the country—which it has been for several years now. They get exclusives that no one else can and are constantly updating their site with the latest news, sometimes even beating out all other Baton Rouge media outlets (except us, of course). It’s so good, in fact, that the Baton Rougean often links to articles they’ve published in our own reports.

It’s a fixture on campus, almost as much a part of our community as Mike or the campanile and almost as illustrious as our top-ranked Tigers. It accompanies me everyday as I walk campus, distracting me from the otherwise inane gossip of the other pedestrians and the intense walk that all engineers must endure to get to Patrick F. Taylor Hall.

But as awesome The Reveille is, it has one glaring flaw. Its one caveat—the Achilles’ Heal that just ruins the paper—is the opinion section. Filled with utterly vapid articles, the opinion section is routinely awful. When I read an opinion article, I want to be enlightened, challenged, debated, or just totally pissed off, but the only thing that The Reveille’s opinion section seems to do is make me angry. And not the good kind of angry that you want to be after an opinion article either; it’s more of a frustrated anger. The writing just isn’t becoming of an otherwise stellar paper.

I keep hoping, though, that I’ll be surprised. With the beginning of each new year, I hope that the new writers will be awesome and worthy of The Reveille’s name. But each year I’m disappointed. And what’s the worst is that sometimes the articles start off very well. Sometimes I get interested in what’s being said and read the whole thing. But every time the writer somehow seems to demolish any sort of intellectual thesis, in most of the times only within a paragraph or two!

To illustrate this, let me rehash the gist of some of my favorite columns. Last year, a black LSU student took a trip to another SEC school and was outraged by the racism that still persists in the South. OK, there’s not that much racism, more than other parts of America, sure, but I’ll stay with you because you can make a good social commentary about this, because it is an issue. Half way into the column, the student degenerates into a ranting and angry racist. He literally saves no face.

And then today, the editor of the opinion section published a piece calling on people in “real majors” to stop making fun of those in “inferior majors.” He starts off making good points about the uselessness of some basic humanities classes for people in engineering degrees and how each major operates within different domains, but then totally makes some ridiculous points all while totally missing some huge facts. For example, there really are some impractical degrees. You can’t ignore this fact. You also can’t even begin to assert that the importance of a foreign language degree is for worldwide communication. Seriously, that’s not even the issue. If you look at serious liberal arts schools, a majority of students double, even triple, major because, simply, those degrees are significantly less arduous. Engineers are so smug about their major precisely because it is so difficult and the work they’ve put into it is seemingly monumental compared to their classmates in the humanities and social sciences. Could you be more wrong?

It’s outrageous and I’ve had enough. I want to read a good article. From this day forward, I refuse to read any opinion article to avoid being frustrated anymore—they’ve finally pushed me over the edge.

The LSU Tigers traveled almost 2,600 miles, across nine states and two time zones, to meet up with the University of Washington Huskies for college football’s season opening weekend. Traveling with almost 10,000 fans, this game was one of firsts for both teams. LSU debuted true sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson coming off a stellar performance in last season’s bowl game and for the first time will be donning ‘LSU’ on the chest of their jersey. The Huskies are playing under the leadership of a new head coach as well as celebrating the return of legendary quarterback Jake Locker fresh from injury.

In the first half, the Huskies kept up with the Tigers. In the first score of the game, the Huskies quarterback Locker connected with receiver James Johnson after a 51-yard run by Johri Fogerson. Soon after, LSU put up three points on the board after a 62-yard drive, making the score 7-3. On the very next play, LSU linebacker Jacob Cutera tipped the ball in the air to make a beautiful interception and 29 yard run for LSU’s first touchdown, making the score 10-7. Opening the second quarter, Huskies kicker Erik Folk tied the game 10-10 with a 34-yard field goal after an unsuccessful drive. In the next possession, the Huskies had two consecutive personal fouls which gave LSU an additional 30 yards and a first down. However, during the next play LSU legendary player Charles Scott had his first ever forced fumble, returning the ball to the Huskies’ possession. LSU’s first drive touchdown came late in the half after Jefferson connected with Terrance Toliver for a career long touchdown pass of 45 yards. The Huskies next possession ended in a 37-yard field goal after a 46-yard pass to Devin Aguilar. This ended the half with LSU in the lead 17-13.

At the beginning of the second half, LSU entered with another touchdown play from Jefferson and Toliver. Leading at 24-13, LSU continued to put up points for the remainder of the quarter. The Huskies put up a 32-yard field goal, but LSU immediately answered with yet another touchdown reception by Toliver. This put the Tigers in the lead 31-16 with a minute left on the clock. The Huskies ended the game with a touchdown as time expired, ending the game 31-23.

LSU was a trending topic for most of the evening. College football's best fans in the world in action again.

The game didn’t end in a blow out that most fans had expected, but then again traveling a couple thousand miles and playing after midnight in your home time zone doesn’t really lend towards stellar athletic performance. Notwithstanding these factors, LSU’s opening game went fairly smoothly. Jefferson did well, connecting with his money man Chris Toliver for a few touchdowns. Of course, new defensive coordinator John Chavis leaves a lot to be desired. Coming from nearly two decades of coaching at the University of Tennessee, Chavis, who commands of a salary of nearly half a million dollars a year, was expected to turn the defense that gave up 50+ points to both Florida and Georgia last year completely around. Instead of doing a complete 180, the defense gave up three touchdowns to a team that hits a lot softer than one like Florida, who many expect will continue on to win the national championship.

The Tigers still put a hurting on the Huskies, though, and played with the fierce determination that we expect from our Bayou Bengals. It’s still unclear if this game portends a successful season or not. Really, any accurate prediction can’t be made until the Tigers get back into Death Valley, which they will when they face conference opponent Vanderbilt next week, where they perform much better. If anything, this game really only reaffirmed one thing: LSU really is a second-half ball club.

The LSU Tigers are on the road for their season opener against the University of Washington in Seattle. The game is to be broadcasted on ESPN at 9:30 PM local time. It’s the furthest away game LSU has ever played. An estimated 2,550 miles, the Tigers will pass through nine states, two time zones on a trip with an estimated drive time of 44 hours.

I don’t know about you, but that seems an awful long way to drive to win a football game.

…and then realizes that it will never win anything else.