Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS - Alligator hunters, raccoon wranglers, and crawfish catchers in Louisiana's critter-filled swamps and bayous are increasingly common on television. Since the introduction of the History Channel's wildly popular Swamp People in 2010, roughly a dozen other Louisiana-based reality shows have made their television debuts, among them the Travel Channel's Girls, Guns and Gators , CMT's Crawfish Cowboys , and the Discovery Channel's Ragin' Cajuns . The reason for the boom in Louisiana-based reality TV is twofold, said the state's lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, said today that it will construct a 180-mile pipeline connecting its existing Louisiana and Texas hydrogen pipeline systems. The company said the link will join a network of 20 plants and more than 600 miles of pipelines that would be the world's largest hydrogen plant and pipeline supply network. The joined system - to be operational in mid-2012 - would supply the Louisiana and Texas refinery and petrochemical industries from New Orleans to the Houston Ship Channel with more than one billion cubic feet of hydrogen a day. The company did not disclose the cost of the pipeline.

Pundits, frustrated seers and abortion rights foes, lend me your ears. We have come to divine the judicial predilections of David Hackett Souter as the newest kid on the Supreme Court block, not to assess his qualifications. So, let us look no further than his New Hampshire godfather and the Louisiana agenda he will pursue. If you think Souter is objective, note the right-wing footprints of the president's cretinous chief of staff, New Hampshire's John Sununu, that cover Souter like an early morning fog in a swamp.

When Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer vetoed what the press reminds us was "the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation," rather than putting the emphasis on whom it was designed to protect, he said he could not sign any bill that did not include exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. The governor has now been sent a bill that provides those exceptions. Instead of signing it immediately, he is waffling and expressing fears that it might not be constitutional, an issue that is not his to decide.

At the age of 66, Robert Mulligan is a man for whom the passions of first love must be a remote memory. But he can still make movies that positively seethe with its obsessive intensity. Combine that power of recollection with Mulligan's trademark gift for evoking time and place and you have The Man in the Moon, a lyrically moving coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana in the '50s. A lot of jaded moviegoers may reflexively cringe, rightly feeling that they have grown old in the presence of endless Hollywood coming-of-age dramas.

LAKE CHARLES, La. - What do you call a pairing of boudin and Dr Pepper? Cajun breakfast. Lane Sonnier, who owns Sonnier's Sausage & Boudin in Lake Charles, laughs when I share that story, relayed to me two days earlier in Lafayette. "It's true," Sonnier says, "except on Saturdays, when breakfast is boudin and Budweiser. " Sonnier speaks from experience, given that he was hand-cranking boudin - pronounced boo-dan - at age 12. "My right arm got so big from the cranking that people called me 'Half-a-Popeye,' " quips Sonnier, now 43. Traditional Cajun boudin mixes rice with finely ground pork, liver, green onion, and whatever other herbs, spices, and peppers evolve from the imagination or family tree.

The historic downtown strip of Medford, a quaint Victorian village on the fringes of the Pinelands, is about the last place I expected to encounter a "hey y'all!" bowl of Louisiana gumbo. But there it was the other night, steaming "ya-ya" style around a scoop of rice, with tender morsels of chicken bumping up against smoky moons of andouille sausage in a spice-tingled broth turned chestnut brown by patiently darkened roux. That it was served in a trendy square bowl is a small soul concession to the striving elegance of Ted's on Main, the year-and-a-half-old bistro where I was eating.

Back in 1991, also facing bad economic news (falling prices for oil and gas), Louisiana did what the Rendell administration now wants Pennsylvania to do: It waved in gambling - to wit, video poker and riverboat casinos - the better for the Big Easy and its waterfront brethren to the north to rake in easy money. The rest is history - and fairly depressing history, to boot. Maybe, the Pennsylvania House's Republican leadership read about it earlier this week. In their legislative action plan, they didn't even bother to mention Gov. Ridge's vertebra-impaired idea of holding a state referendum on whether to authorize riverboats.

Roy Aubert had a growing sense of security Tuesday night despite the rain pelting the windows of his three-bedroom house 20 miles west of New Orleans. The weather report indicated that Hurricane Andrew was bypassing LaPlace by a wide margin to the southwest. The winds outside Aubert's house on Cedar Drive were gusting to only 60 miles an hour, "but that's something we're kind of accustomed to here in south Louisiana," he said. Heck, the electricity was still on. The cable television was working.

In the end Louisiana voters did the American thing: They turned their backs on a man who has devoted his life to sowing the seeds of bigotry and hatred. Whatever thoughts they may be harboring about what's wrong with their state or the nation, they sanely concluded that David Duke isn't the answer. And their choice is all the more satisfying - at least to outsiders - in that it required so many people to hold their noses and vote for oft- investigated, twice-indicted former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards.

  AVONDALE, La. - Jason Dufner beat Ernie Els with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff in the Zurich Classic on Sunday to win for the first time in 164 starts on the PGA Tour. After entering the fourth round with a 2-shot lead, Dufner shot a 2-under 70 at TPC Louisiana. Els had a 67 to match Dufner at 19-under 269. After both players missed birdie putts within 8 feet on the par-5 18th, they went back to the 18th tee for the second extra hole, which Dufner won by hitting the green in 2 strokes and tapping home a short birdie putt after Els' birdie attempt from the fringe narrowly missed.

NEW ORLEANS - Hero of Order, the longest shot in the field at 111-1, won the $1 million Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on Sunday at the Fair Grounds. Hero of Order had the lead near the rail entering the stretch and held off favored Mark Valeski by about a half-length, winning in a time of 1 minute, 50.13 seconds. Hero of Order paid $220.80, $79.20, and $25.40. The horse, ridden by Eddie Martin Jr. and trained by Gennadi Dorochenko, had finished a distant fourth in the Risen Star Stakes, the major prep race for the Louisiana Derby.

WASHINGTON - Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary Saturday, beating front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state. Although the victory gives Santorum bragging rights, it does not change the overall dynamics of the race; the former Pennsylvania senator still dramatically lags behind Romney in the hunt for delegates to the GOP's summertime nominating convention. Even so, Santorum's win underscores a pattern in the drawn-out race.

NEW ORLEANS - Alligator hunters, raccoon wranglers, and crawfish catchers in Louisiana's critter-filled swamps and bayous are increasingly common on television. Since the introduction of the History Channel's wildly popular Swamp People in 2010, roughly a dozen other Louisiana-based reality shows have made their television debuts, among them the Travel Channel's Girls, Guns and Gators , CMT's Crawfish Cowboys , and the Discovery Channel's Ragin' Cajuns . The reason for the boom in Louisiana-based reality TV is twofold, said the state's lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne.

Round 2 for Louisiana State and Alabama looks to be just a few victories away. An upset-filled weekend left the Southeastern Conference rivals as the top two in the BCS standings released Sunday. And Arkansas is third, further increasing the possibility of an all-SEC BCS championship game Jan. 9 in New Orleans that would be a rematch of a regular-season game. It's the first time in the 14-year history of the BCS that the same conference had the top three teams in the standings.

NEW ORLEANS - A large storm system churning in the Gulf of Mexico grew Friday into Tropical Storm Lee, beginning a Labor Day weekend assault that could bring up to 20 inches of rain in some spots from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008. Residents who have survived killer hurricanes such as Betsy, Camille, and Katrina did not expect Lee to live up to that legacy.

Michael Ford ran for two touchdowns and Jarrett Lee admirably directed Louisiana State's offense in place of suspended quarterback Jordan Jefferson in the fourth-ranked Tigers' season-opening 40-27 victory over No. 3 Oregon on Saturday in Arlington, Texas. Missing cornerback-punt returner Cliff Harris was too much for Oregon to overcome in a rare season-opening matchup of top-five teams on a neutral field. Boise State 35, Georgia 21 - Kellen Moore threw for three touchdowns - giving him 102 in his career - and the No. 5 Broncos (1-0)

NEW ORLEANS - A large storm system churning in the Gulf of Mexico grew Friday into Tropical Storm Lee, beginning a Labor Day weekend assault that could bring up to 20 inches of rain in some spots from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008. Residents who have survived killer hurricanes such as Betsy, Camille, and Katrina did not expect Lee to live up to that legacy.

The slow-motion horror unfolding along the Mississippi River - and it appears that it will take significant turns for the worse by the end of the week - will end up being a truly national disaster. Along with its disruptive and potentially tragic consequences, it is likely to generate yet another tide of red ink for the nation's struggling National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The consequences will ripple to taxpayers along the Delaware River, the Schuylkill, and everywhere else in the country.

Pants On Fire came from just off the pace to win the $1 million Louisiana Derby on Saturday at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. Mucho Macho Man, the 3-2 favorite, finished third. Sent off at odds of 6-1 and trained by Kelly Breen, Pants On Fire covered the 11/8 miles in 1 minute, 49.92 seconds under jockey Rosie Napravnik. Pants On Fire returned $14.60, $7.80, and $4.80. Nehro, trained by Steve Asmussen, brought $31.60 and $11.40 to place. Mucho Macho Man, trained by Kathy Ritvo, brought $2.80 to show.