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Higgins Pledges Support for I-49 South
his first trip home from the fight at the federal front, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins brought with him some red meat for an Acadiana business community starved for good news — a commitment to the completion of I-49 South.

Legal Ethics Expert: Anseman Not Eligible for Judgeship
top legal ethicist this week tells The Independent that Vanessa Anseman is not eligible to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeal because she does not have the minimum 10 years of legal practice that the Louisiana Constitution requires for appellate court judges.

Forecasting 25 More Years of Sprawl in Acadiana
regional transportation plan for Acadiana, set for an adoption vote in March, could tie $303 million in funds to sprawlinducing roadway projects over the next several decades.

CROSS WISE
Trump’s assumption of power has been characterized by miscues and mistakes, it has succeeded admirably in one area: energizing and mobilizing those who oppose him.

DIVIDED WE FALL
STANDING UP TO DONALD TRUMP AND THE RIGHT-WING AGENDA HE ENABLES HAS UNITED AND EMBOLDENED LIBERALS, EVEN HERE IN DEEP-RED LAFAYETTE..

Of Time and Place
Back in 2005, after realizing that the Acadiana region lacked significant recognition of the talented work of local architects, home designers and interior designers and decorators, The Independent launched The INDesign Awards.

2017 INDESIGN AWARD WINNERS
Cheryl Scurlock, Decorating Den Interiors: Eve Quirk Kitchen Renovation.

Introducing the Current
That eventual Millennial Mayor — as a 32-year-old at the time of this writing, I submit that “Millennial” is more demonization than demonym — will have grown up in a vastly different Lafayette than that which produced Mayors Durel and Robideaux, and thus will be a remarkably different sort of mayor facing a different set of challenges.

Decamping to Digital
I have a quintessentially 21st century distinction: a newspaper’s last editor. By newspaper I mean the physical thing — ink on paper printed on folios by a press. We’re in the 18th year of the “new” century, which I guess makes me a Wally come lately. But I won’t be the final last editor; news consumers’ embrace of digital will grow.

ABiz: In Print and Online
Throughout the pages of this issue you’ll read about how the changing habits of readers and advertisers have led IND Media to rethink its business model.

Ind LIVING
Marks’ partner in the venture, Cherie Hebert, Tee Tiny Each structure is hand built to code and leaves ample deficit of George Marks, founder of the home models, each designed by a different architect Hebert, who daylights as a partner/founder at BBR NuNu Arts & Culture Collective, has and bearing that visonary’s name.

#PARTY GIRL
The IND stopped by the Hilliard Museum to view works by Chinese- American painter Yun-Fei Ji, artists Sandra Eula Lee and Shawne Major, and a spectacular survey of vernacular Southern art from the New Iberia home of Becky and Wyatt Collins, who have amassed more than 2,000 objects.

ON THE RECORD
Although pivotal in the new — or nu — school of zydeco, here Ardoin retains middle-of-the-road sounds that make him a draw. True, there are plenty of R&B influences to be heard, but the unmistakable and powerful sounds of Creole Southwest Louisiana fill the record.

Bach Lunch returns March 10
Back Lunch is back for its kazillionth annual spring series. The free concerts are held at noon at Parc Sans Souci in Downtown Lafayette. Lunches sold for $6 apiece from local eateries — plus a buck for a soft drink or water — help support the Lafayette Science Museum.