Welcome to the Best of New Orleans! Bouquets & Brickbats 04 16 02

BOUQUETS & BRICKBATS

04 16 02

Respond to
this Story

The Best and the Worst of the Week

The Southeast Louisiana Veterinary Association
and 75 of its member veterinarians inoculated hundreds of local cats and dogs against rabies in its annual low-cost vaccination drive recently. Association officials say the four-hour event took six months to organize. They credit the public-service program with keeping rabies cases in the metro New Orleans area to a minimum.

Louisiana Governor's Arts Awards recipients
for 2002 include Houma wildfowl carver Don Gomez, who was named Folk Artist of the Year, and the Lupin Foundation of Metairie, named Arts Patron of the Year. Winners are chosen based on outstanding contributions to Louisiana arts. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Baton Rouge on May 1.

Wellington Beaulieu ,
a retired NOPD officer, admitted he used his position on the force to take part in a vehicle theft ring. The 29-year police veteran pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen vehicles across state lines. Prosecutors said Beaulieu falsified police reports and took vehicles off the National Crime Information Center database. Also charged was his brother Ronald Beaulieu, a 17-year NOPD veteran who resigned earlier this year.

Time magazine and ABC Radio Network
last week erroneously labeled Taliban suspect Yasser Esam Hamdi as "the Cajun Taliban" and a "ragin' Cajun" in national reports, in reference to Hamdi's birthplace in Baton Rouge. The media outlets dropped the stereotype after receiving complaints from Louisiana residents who pointed out that being born in the Bayou State doesn't necessarily make a person a Cajun.