| BY BOB WARREN | Staff writer |
Neuty, the cause célèbre: This just had to happen, right? Doug MacCash wrote a feature about Neuty, a 22-pound nutria living with a Bucktown family, earlier this week. A day later state wildlife authorities ordered Neuty’s humans to turn the rodent over, citing laws the tightly regulate keeping wild quadrupeds. Lawyers are now involved. And, naturally, #freeneuty is playing big on Twitter. No what???!!! Lest you think you can’t get more New Orleans than a story about a pet nutria, food writer Ian McNulty reports there won’t be any crawfish bread at Jazz Fest this year. Vapors! For even more food and drink coverage (hopefully better news than no crawfish bread at Jazz Fest), please sign up for our Where NOLA Eats newsletter. ‘Man in the well’: Detectives in Jefferson Parish say they’ve made some headway in a cold case from 1984. They plan to book a woman with the murder of a man who for decades was known as “the man in the well” because it took so long to identify his skeletal remains, Michelle Hunter reports. Compromised? There are some new wrinkles in the investigation of a New Orleans police officer who once was a bodyguard for Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Ben Myers from our City Hall beat has the latest. Little Italy: One stretch of rural Tangipahoa Parish has very deep Italian roots. Lara Nicholson tells the story of how the town of Independence and the communities surrounding it came to be known as Louisiana’s “Little Italy.” Thanks for reading Lunch Line. If you're not a subscriber, check out this great deal. Bob | 