Street eats: A free festival celebrating street food is coming to Baton Rouge in January. My House Social, a customized catering company based in New Orleans, is partnering with the Louisiana Marathon to bring the Louisiana Street Food Festival, which will take place at the River Plaza downtown immediately following the Louisiana Marathon on Jan. 13. More than 20 street food chefs from across the state will line up their food trucks along River Road near the marathon finish line to serve up their specialties. Get more details.
Moving out: Nearly half of the Louisiana flood victims who received mobile homes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following last year’s floods have moved back into their homes or found another place to live, the agency says. More than 2,000 have left the units and 2,347 remain in mobile homes, the agency announced today. Last month, an average of eight flood victims moved out of manufactured housing units, or MHUs, every day. FEMA anticipates more than 60% of those currently in MHUs will return home by Feb. 14, when the agency is scheduled to stop providing units.
Making history: Danica Roem beat a staunchly conservative incumbent delegate in Virginia to become the first openly transgender elected official in the state. Roem, a Democrat and former journalist, also makes history as the first openly transgender person to be elected in a state legislature in the U.S. She beat Republican Del. Bob Marshall, who introduced a “bathroom bill” earlier this year and once referred to himself as the state’s “chief homophobe,” USA Today reports. In yesterday’s election, Democrats also swept the statewide races on the ballot, including the governorship. USA Today has the full story.
