Columns

Louisiana’s tidelands fight took 50 years

The fight between Louisiana and the federal government had been going on for 16 years when Congress passed “historic” legislation in May 1953 to “restore to the state land that was taken away from it by decisions of the Supreme Court.” The land in question was beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

‘The View’ is TV trash talk

When you grow up with an Italian mother, you are familiar with the phrase, “let’s go in the kitchen and have coffee.” Most people, regardless of their ethnicity or heritage, are used to the idea of sitting down and having coffee.

Handicapping this year’s governor’s race

I just know all your readers are anxious to find out my thoughts on the coming gubernatorial election. We are five and a half months away from the first primary election date (October 14th), with seven major candidates for governor having been announced so far.

Primer on taxing working folks

“Junior, this year to prepare for ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ I want to teach you about all the taxes that you’ll have to pay as a working adult.” “What are taxes, Dad?”

Are you singing the seasonal allergies blues?

“An allergy season so bad you don’t need allergies to feel miserable,” blared the headline in the Wall Street Journal. My own symptoms are relatively mild, but they do exist. I feel your pain.

Ville Platte vault heist netted $20,000

Police were baffled after someone used a cutting torch to open the vault in a store in the LaHaye building in Ville Platte early in the morning of June 21, 1962. The culprits got away with $20,000 — which may still be the biggest robbery ever in Evangeline Parish.

1953 rains brought more than cats and dogs

There were some pretty good thunderstorms across south Louisiana on April 24, 1953 — the kind we see regularly when fronts slide through the area. Nobody suspected they were the beginning of a series of downpours that eventually sent every stream in south Louisiana way out of its banks.

Do you have a babysitting horror story?

At approximately the time this column is uploaded to the syndicate website, I will be attending the funeral of my Aunt Jean. I’m sure the eulogist will wax eloquent about heaven, but I want to nominate Aunt Jean to the Babysitter Hall of Fame.

Monetary crisis: Is the Fed to blame?

Our political leaders told us that inflation is transitory, the Banking System is fine, and that deficits don’t matter as Modern Monetary Theory allows us to print as much money as we need to fund deficit spending on welfare (for the 51% of voters who do not pay taxes).

Remembering growing up female

I just saw the trailer for a movie that made me actually tear up. The preview of “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” propelled me backward in time, over 50 years, to a moment when I was in the sixth grade and sitting in a corner, falling in love with a book of the same title that changed my life.