This and that: The return of the downtown birds … and then some

Plus, Sen. Braun walks back comments on the high court and interracial marriage. Purdue arrest investigation lingers. Get ready for Teal Road work. And Sweet 16 signs everywhere

Thanks to sponsor Food Finders Food Bank for the help to make this edition possible. For more about the nonprofit organization’s work to feed families in and around Greater Lafayette, along with plans for its annual Blue Jean Ball, scroll through today’s edition.

A midweek this-and-that …

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

THE RETURN OF THE CARVED BIRDS DOWNTOWN: Thanks to Dustin Washington, with a keen eye for carved birds in the trees of downtown for spotting this: They’re back.

Who carves the tiny, wooden bird ornaments – these days accompanied by to-scale birdhouses – remains one of the great, better-left-unsolved mysteries in downtown Lafayette, where they appear randomly and often in bunches through the warmer seasons since 2019. It’s probably no coincidence that the latest batch – flock, maybe? – started turning up perched along Main Street sidewalks as the calendar turned to spring. (Last year, tiny carved rabbits were spotted on window ledges and stoops, too.)

I spotted a half-dozen Monday afternoon, between Eighth and Second streets, including a couple in front of the courthouse. Washington said he saw more than that. It’s worth a walk downtown. Thanks, whoever you are.

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SEN. BRAUN BACKTRACKS ON THE COURT AND A FEDERAL RULING ON INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE: Sen. Mike Braun, after a moment of trying to talk down judicial activism and legislating from the bench, found himself walking things back after telling reporters that the U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t have legalized interracial marriage, instead leaving it up the states to decide.