Columns

Open government under assault

Does the average Louisiana citizen have a legal right to follow the internal workings of government in Louisiana? Not just in Baton Rouge at the state capitol, but in deliberations that take place by school boards, city councils, police juries and any other sanctioned public body?

Future state budgets must set priorities

Louisiana’s next budget for the 2025-2026 year will be under much stress as it will lose significant federal funding as well as the temporary 0.45% sales tax that will also expire.

Convoy crowded south Louisiana roads

It took more than three hours for 8,000 soldiers and a thousand-plus trucks to move through Opelousas on Saturday, May 11, 1940, and they were moving as quickly as they could. It was quite a show and people turned out to watch.

Two lawmakers take a stand

John F. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for his book “Profiles In Courage,” a series of essays that focused on eight senators throughout U.S. history who — despite serious pressures from their colleagues and constituents — did what they believed to be the right and moral thing.

Surely need to get better at praying

The National Day of Prayer is on May 2nd this year. I surely need to get better at praying. Like a lot of people, I don’t pray until things go sour or I have some daunting challenge heading my way. I pray Monday mornings when I’m behind on projects that are due.

Advice for 2024 promgoers

Editor’s note: A version of this column was published in 2017. Social media is driving up the cost of proms, as promgoers are under intense pressure to post glamourous prom photos on their feeds, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some girls are spending $2,000 or more on their custom prom dresses.

Does your town need renaming?

The venerable comic strip “Gasoline Alley” is wrapping up a storyline in which the dastardly assistant mayor schemed to change the town’s name from Gasoline Alley to the ostensibly more modern Electric Acres (without even offering a compromise such as Hybrid Hollow).

Who were the Hoo-Hoos, anyhoo?

In a recent column about early baseball rivalries, I noted that the Orange Hoo-Hoos were one of the teams in the short-lived Gulf Coast League in the early 1900s. That prompted a reader to ask, “Why would a team have such a silly name?” It turns out that it isn’t quite a silly as it appears.

NPR leader shows her true colors

John Paul II once stated that “there can be no rule of law … unless citizens and especially leaders are convinced that there is no freedom without truth.”

Trump has fat chance in New York court

Let’s just call it like it is. Former President Donald Trump doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being found not guilty in his current New York Court case. Now I know the case has just barely started. But you can take that to the bank, and I’ll tell you why.