Wednesday, April 3, was the regular meeting of the Police Jury. President Tray Murray recognized the visitors in the audience after the committee meeting was called to order. In attendance was Laura Seabaugh, the North Louisiana Outreach manager under the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. Mrs. Seabaugh thanked the Police Jury for recognizing her and offered her assistance along with the entire Outreach staff. She discussed her role as a liaison for the Department of Justice and a community liaison.

Next on the agenda was a discussion of the oil and gas activity in the parish. Several sites are in various stages of drilling, fracing, or production. All of this activity means truck traffic for area roads. Permits for this activity have generated several thousands of dollars.

Murray reminded each police jury member to get their list of roads that need attention into the office. Road repairs and new roads will be completed in the spring and summer.

In the finance discussion, attention was directed to the cost of Juvenile offenders housed at Ware Youth Center. Jessie Davis, Parish Administrator, informed the board that each juvenile costs $310 per day. The number of youth incarcerated at Ware is unknown until the invoice is sent to the parish office. Murray asked that the finance committee look into this and meet with authorities to see if prior notice could be given.

Larry Hughes informed the board that a new excavator is needed. The cost would be $85,000. Davis affirmed the need.

Other police jurors discussed the possibility of summer help or an opportunity for inmates to help with road clean-up. Murray said they would look into it.

Murray also discussed the reality that the severence for oil and gas in Red River Parish only benefits other parishes. He reminded the jurors that the amount of money collected for Red River was $59,001,566.00 in 2023; however, the money received in the parish is capped. “We get only a portion,” said Murray. The rest of the money goes elsewhere. We need this to change.”

The rest of the meeting focused on the repairs and upgrades for the courthouse and parish offices. A breakdown of the repairs and upgrades will be highlighted in Monday’s edition of the Journal.

The Red River Parish School Board will hold their monthly board meeting Monday, April 8, at 4:30pm at the School Board Administrative Building,100 Bulldog Drive in Coushatta. 

The Finance Committee will also meet.

Items listed on the agenda include Superintendent’s highlights, approve updated out-of-town travel form and to receive monthly report from David Jones, Business Manager. 

The meeting is open to the public.

Public comment is asked for on each agenda item. If you wish to address the Board, please fill out a speaker’s form prior to the meeting indicating the agenda item to be addressed and give form to Board President.

The Red River baseball team was certainly tested during its most difficult stretch of the season this past week, but the Bulldogs are still in play for a top-five seed in the Division III Non-Select playoffs.

Red River has lost three of its last four games, dropping a 7-0 decision to Natchitoches Central (No. 1 team in Division I Non-Select), topping Cedar Creek 8-4, falling to Many 9-6 and coming up short against Haughton, 12-8.

The good news is that the Bulldogs’ bats came alive on an offense that can sometimes go silent.

But opponents scored an unusually high number of runs against a pitching staff that’s held 14 teams to two runs or fewer.

Red River (16-7) has three more scheduled games remaining – at Bell City on April 12 and a doubleheader at Hackberry on April 13.

The Bulldogs postponed a District 3-2A contest against Mansfield that could be made up if desired.

Winnfield secured the district championship with a wins against Many and Red River.

The Bulldogs are No. 5 in Division III Non-Select, but Red River could easily fall a couple spots to No. 8 or even possibly out of the top 10 if they struggle in the final week.

Red River’s power ranking of 25.8 is just 0.4 points higher than No. 8 Caldwell Parish. To put in perspective, No. 4 Jewel Sumner has a 0.8-point lead on Red River.

RIVERDALE BASEBALL

The Riverdale baseball team is scheduled to play at Briarfield Academy on Friday and Parkers Chapel on Monday in the coming days.

The Rebels (2-12) are looking for their first win since March 4 with PCA.

Riverdale has six more scheduled games remaining in the regular season.

RED RIVER SOFTBALL

The Red River softball team improved to 4-1 in District 3-2A play with a 26-6 win against Lakeview on Tuesday.

The Lady Bulldogs (8-15, 4-1) won’t be able to catch Many in the district race, and time is running out to claw their way into the Division III Non-Select playoff picture.

Red River is sitting at No. 28 in the power rankings needing to crack the top 24, but they are more than 3.5 power points behind No. 24 Ville Platte.

The Lady Bulldogs need wins against Loyola, Byrd and Ringgold along with help from the opponents of teams above them.

Ringgold on Tuesday is the home finale as well as the regular season finale.

By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services

Dr. Steven Bell didn’t need much convincing when asked to support the proposed Shreveport-Bossier City Ronald McDonald House.

The Senior Pastor at First Methodist Church Shreveport learned first-hand the facilities’ importance while living in Corsicana, Texas.

“Easter 2018, my oldest daughter (Ann, then 13 years old) ate a raw oyster and got salmonella,” Dr. Bell told the Shreveport-Bossier Journal. “She became septic. Basically, her spleen exploded. She ended up in an ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. She spent the better part of two months there. During that time, we were processed into a Ronald McDonald House. We ate there, stayed there, hung out there.”

Sure, Dr. Bell and his wife could have stayed in a hotel, or made the three-hour round-trip drive each day. But by staying at a Ronald McDonald House, they saved money and, perhaps most important, time.

“We got to be there with our daughter. She was very sick. In the first month, she had four surgeries. We didn’t know if she was going to survive. We were able to not have to worry about where we were going to be, where we were going to stay, what we were going to eat. This was all taken care of. We got to focus on our daughter and her healing, focus on conversations we needed to have with her care team — her doctors and the medical staff — and just be together.”

Come May 2025, families of seriously-ill hospitalized children from the area will have the same opportunity. That is when north Louisiana’s first Ronald McDonald House is expected to open. Wednesday morning, shovels moved dirt at 9100 Susan Drive in Shreveport, on Willis Knighton Health’s South campus. (Children will not have to be hospitalized at WK for their family to stay at the House). $7.5 million of a $10 million goal has been raised in approximately 18 months, which will allow the facility to be built. If and when the total goal is reached, the $10 million will cover the build and three years of operating expenses.

Ronald McDonald House provides “all the comforts of home”, including home-cooked meals and internet access, as well as emotional support.

“Truly it was incredible,” Lori Moore, Mission Director for Ronald McDonald House Shreveport-Bossier, said of the amount of money donated in a relatively short amount of time. “This community showed up so big. As we’ve said from the beginning, every gift matters, every gift counts. But the generosity of this community of Shreveport-Bossier has been remarkable. People have wanted to see this happen. I never get questioned about the need or the why. Everyone knows this is something we need and they want to be a part of it.”

Moore, who lives in Bossier, has been in fundraising most of her career. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas and north Louisiana is based in Little Rock, and needed someone local to sell its vision to potential donors. But Moore said there wasn’t much selling needed.

“We’re about relationships. We want partnerships that are going to last the sustainability of the house. I don’t want to cold call somebody. I don’t want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. I want to have a relationship with you. I want this initial gift to be a gift for you to say you want to see this house be here, but I also want you bought into the mission. I want your team, your family, your employees at the house volunteering for a long time.”

Early on, Carter Credit Union bought into the mission, becoming the House’s technology sponsor with a $100,000 donation. But, Chief Executive Officer Joe Arnold continued to learn how meaningful the House will be to parents of sick children. Arnold was moved, he is now a member of the Board of Directors.

“If you ever had a sick child, but even if you haven’t, you can easily put yourself in (a parent’s) shoes and imagine how hard that is,” Arnold said. “The last thing you want to deal with is having a place to stay. To hear the stories and realize when a child is sick and in the hospital for days and weeks at a time, parents want to be there every moment. This really serves people who live a little bit of a distance away from the hospital. You might have a 45 minute or hour commute. Imagine how hard that would be, while trying to work. Maybe you have other kids you are taking care of. To be able to basically hole up right next to the hospital, its an amazing resource and need.”

Dr. Bell said First Methodist Church Shreveport was the first church to donate to the proposed House, sponsoring a Family Suite. He views First Methodist’s commitment as an extension of his and the congregation’s faith.

“For me as a pastor, we’re doing what Jesus said. We’re loving one another. We’re creating opportunities for people in a very difficult, challenging time, where they can absolutely crater. Where resources are going to be running low. It’s more than a safety net. It’s the arms of God that are going to hold them in that difficult time.”

Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com.

From 1948 until 1953, David was the president of Columbia University in New York City.  During his tenure as president of the university, David hired an artist, Thomas Stephens, to paint a portrait of his wife.  As the painter worked, David, who had no previous interest in painting, became spellbound.  He was fascinated that the artist could transform a blank canvas into something so beautiful.  Perhaps he was biased because the subject of the painting was his wife, but David was amazed at how each brush stroke transformed the canvas from nothingness into something beautiful.  David had never been interested in painting, but now he wondered if he could capture someone’s likeness on canvas as Thomas Stephens had. 

David stretched a white dust cloth on the bottom of a box for a canvas and attempted to copy his wife’s portrait.  When finished, David showed his painting to his wife and Thomas.  David described the painting as “weird and wonderful to behold,” and added, “we all laughed heartily.”  Thomas asked if he could keep David’s painting as a keepsake.  In exchange, Thomas sent David a painting kit which David thought was a “sheer waste of money.”  David’s true passion was playing golf, but when he was unable to play golf due to rain or other circumstances, he painted.   

In a 1950 letter to Winston Churchill, David wrote, “I have a lot of fun since I took it up, in my somewhat miserable way, your hobby of painting. I have had no instruction, have no talent, and certainly no justification for covering nice, white canvas with the kind of daubs that seem constantly to spring from my brushes. Nevertheless, I like it tremendously, and in fact, have produced two or three things that I like enough to keep.”  He described his portrait paintings as “magnificent audacity,” and burned most of them.  Unlike Churchill who enjoyed spending hours outside painting landscapes, if the weather was good enough for David to sit outside and paint, it was good enough for golf.

When David’s tenure with Columbia University was over, David continued to paint.  He had a small studio on the second floor of the house he lived in where he would paint for 10 minutes before lunch.  Rather than using his paintings as a way to express his inner self, David preferred to reproduce what he saw before him.  Normally, he would attach a photograph to one side of his canvas and attempt to paint what he saw. 

David had no false pride in his artistic abilities, but he enjoyed painting and never gave it up.  In the last 20 years of his life, he painted about 260 paintings.  In 1967, when some of David’s paintings were displayed at a show in a New York art museum, David told reporter Richard Cohen, “Let’s get something straight here, Cohen.  They would have burned this [expletive] a long time ago if I weren’t the President of the United States.”  The house where David had the small painting studio on the second floor was the White House.  In addition to being a painter, golfer, and the President of the United States, David was five-star Army general and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower. 

Sources:

1.      Jonathan Alter, “Bush Nostalgia Is Overrated, but His Book of Paintings Is Not,” New York Times, April 17, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/books/review/george-w-bush-portraits-of-courage.html.

2.     “Eisenhower Paintings,” The White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/galleries/eisenhower-paintings.

3.     “President Eisenhower: The Painter,” The White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/president-eisenhower-the-painter.

SHREVEPORT – Top LSUS students took a break from studying and end-of-semester projects to be recognized at the Academic Awards Convocation in the LSUS Theatre.

Each LSUS degree program chose a Student of the Year in addition to the recognition of students who qualified for the Chancellor’s List.

A total of 109 undergraduates made the Chancellor’s List for obtaining at least a 3.8 GPA in both the 2023 Spring and Fall semesters.

“It’s truly a pleasure to recognize our very best students for their academic excellence,” said LSUS Chancellor Dr. Robert Smith. “The families and friends of these students we’re honoring have an awfully lot to be proud of.

“Speaking on behalf of an outstanding faculty and staff, I want to congratulate each student on their outstanding achievements and tell you how incredibly proud we are.”

STUDENTS OF THE YEAR

College of Arts and Sciences

BA English (Literary Studies)                         Ethan Whitehead

BA English (Writing in Multiple Media)       Annelise Dixon

BA History (Generalist)                                  Mikal Barnes

BA History (Political Science)                        Logan Cruey

BA Sociology                                                 Angela Basto Parra

BCJ Forensic Sciences                                    Harvey Cole

BCJ Generalist                                                Oliver Jimenez Sanchez

BCJ Political Science                                      Yuvia Vazquez

BCJ Security Studies                                      Sofia Ahlstedt

BFA Digital Arts                                              Haleigh Johnson

BGS Applied Science                                     Diego Aragon

BGS Humanities                                             Savannah Foster

BGS Natural Sciences                                    Graceann Grafton

BGS Social Sciences                                       Jalen Gould

BS Mass Comm (Digital/Broadcast Media) Marc Blackwood

BS Mass Comm (Journalism/PR)                  Noah Moser

MA Liberal Arts                                              Allison Shaver

MS Nonprofit Administration                       Jeffrey Brasher

BS Biological Sciences (Cellular/Molecular) Cole Goodman

BS Biological Sciences (Environmental Sci)  Cole Maxwell

BS Biological Sciences (Field/Organismal)  Autumn Moran

BS Biological Sciences (Forensic Science)    Josh Foster

BS Chemistry (Biochemistry)                         Carly Parrish

BS Computer Science (Cyber Security)        Jeremiah Sneed

BS Computer Science (Digital Design)         Eliana Gafford

BS Computer Science (Info. Systems)          Garrison Bell

BS Computer Science (Software Dev)          Joshua Francis

MS Biological Sciences (Cell/Molecular)     Dylan Roberts

MS Biological Sciences (Environmental)      Jeremy Gill

MS Biological Sciences (Health Sciences)    Michael Patin

MS Computer Systems Tech (Informatics)  Ustab Subedi

MS Computer Systems Tech (Bus. Admin)  Kevin Sithole

MS Computer Systems Tech (Comp. Sci.)    Aleksandra Ristic

MS Computer Systems Tech (Cyber Sec.)    Louis Echefu

College of Business

BS Accounting                                               Kayla Long

BS Accounting (Public Accounting)             Railey Berney

BS Finance (Financial Analysis)                     Zachary Brewster

BS Finance (Real Estate)                                Tara Cady

BS General Business Administration            Caden Parr

BS General Bus. Admin. (Entrepreneurship) Matthew Moreno

BS Gen. Bus. Admin. (Intl. Business)             Carmen Perez Gonzalez-Babe

BS Man. & Admin. (Bus. Intelligence)          Billy Stevenson

BS Man. & Admin. (HR Management)         Tiffany Robinson

BS Man. & Admin. (Intl. Business)                Adam Gonzalez

BS Man. & Admin. (Business Law)                Emily Carroll

BS Man. & Admin. (Mgmt. Info. Systems)   Daylie Lear

BS Management & Administration              Alicia Landrum

BS Marketing                                                 Kileigh Mears

BS Marketing (Advertising Design)              Sigourney Perez

BS Marketing (Data Analytics)                      Ashlyn Weinreber

BS Marketing (Sales)                                     Karlee Osbon

MBA Accounting                                           Hillary Maness

MBA Data Analytics                                       Mariya Susnerwala

MBA Entrepreneurship & Family Ent.           Logan Zawacki

MBA General Business                                  Michael McDougal

MBA Hospitality & Casino Management     Francine Gehring

MBA Human Resource Management          Jaime Shields

MBA International Business                          Nathan Day

MBA Marketing                                             Claire Harter

MBA Project Management                           August Burke

MHA                                                               Patti Taylor

College of Education and Human Development

BS Early Childhood Education                      Jessica West

BS Elementary Education                              Vina Perez

BS Secondary Education                               Jensen Spillum

MEdCI                                                             Charlie O’Brien

MEdL                                                              Shannon Nugent

BS Public Health                                            Abbie Rutledge

BS Psychology                                               Savannah Mills

BS Psychology (Applied Behavioral An.)      Ryan Lafitte

EdD (Disaster Preparedness & Emer. Man.) Keith Gunuskey

EdD (Health Communication and Lead.)     Margel Edmondson

EdD (Leadership Studies)                              Xiaoliang Zhang

MPH                                                                Anthony Kamalu

MSC                                                                Annie Sinclair

MSC (Rehabilitation Counseling)                 Oneisha Thompson

(SHREVEPORT, Louisiana) – CHRISTUS Health is hosting a community event in partnership with nonprofit organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace for CHRISTUS Serve Day on April 6 from 8-11am at the CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center, Cancer Center parking lot, 1453 E. Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in Shreveport.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building, assembling and delivering bunk beds to children and families in need. During the event, volunteers will build 20 beds for children in the community. The group was founded on the belief that no child should ever have to sleep on the floor.

“Childhood well-being is one of our core focuses and it requires everyone to take an active role to support children in our community,” said Paige Cox, manager of Cara Center, Child Life and Volunteer Services with CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System. “We are here to care for and serve our community and are excited to partner with Sleep in Heavenly Peace as we seek to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.”

Today’s bass boats are nothing short of incredible — and expensive! The accessories you can add to a bass boat are really cool and can make a huge difference in your ability to fish effectively. But which of these inventions has truly had the greatest impact on the sport of bass fishing?  We’ll do a walk-thru from the front to the back of the boat and go over each of these features and their importance.

When you buy a bass boat, it’s very similar to buying a new truck or car. There are all kinds of accessories that you can select to make your boat even better. There are some you might consider a luxury item while others are a necessity if you want to compete.

Let’s first look at the very front of the boat and talk about the trolling motor. Nothing, in my opinion, has had a greater impact on the sport of bass fishing than the trolling motor. In 1934, O.G Schmidt invented the first electric trolling motor in Fargo, North Dakota. This invention revolutionized bass fishing by allowing an angler to navigate a body of water with ease without having to run the big engine.  This device is used not as the primary means to propel the boat but makes navigation much easier especially in shallow water.  From its inception, the trolling motor has served one purpose — to move the boat around quietly without spooking fish and is a standard feature on today’s bass boats.

These high-tech trolling motors can lock a boat down on one spot in open water. It will literally hold the boat in one position automatically with the push of a button, allowing the angler to fish an area or a spot more effectively. The days of using an anchor to hold a boat in place are gone with today’s new trolling motor technology.

Also located on the front deck of the boat are high-tech electronic fish locators. These units have made bass fishing so much easier, not just for professional anglers, but the novice angler as well. They allow anglers to see fish as far away as 100 feet on a screen the size of a small TV. They give great detail about the structure and contours of the lake bottom. They show water temperature, depth, GPS coordinates, timber, and grass and will tell you the composition of the bottom as to whether it’s hard or soft.

Why is this important? Hard spots are where bass like to set up, especially during the spawn. Today’s sonars show debris from lay down logs and rocks to brush piles along with clouds of baitfish. The detail is so good that an experienced angler can tell if the fish he’s looking at are bass, white perch, or catfish.

Moving further to the back of the boat, let’s look at the dashboard. Today’s top of the line bass boats are mostly digital. Your gauges, including the speedometer, RPM, and temperature gauges, are all digital. Some have gauges that monitor the gas, oil, and battery levels, while some boats have a water temperature gauge for the livewells, ensuring that you can maintain a good temperature level for your fish in order to keep them  alive for weigh-in.

Another advancement, one that might be the best safety feature ever invented for a bass boat, is the hot foot. The hot foot is a gas pedal that allows the angler to drive the boat just like a car or truck, with both hands on the steering wheel. It also allows for better boat control when navigating rough water conditions.

There’s also another feature that has become one of the best accessories you can put on a boat: a shallow water anchor system called Power Poles or Talons. The first product is made by a company called Power Pole while the Talons are made by Minn Kota. Power Poles fold out from the back of the boat while Talons are mounted on the back of the boat and descend straight down. Both are really good: it’s like comparing Ford or Chevrolet; which one do you like the best?

Both are great tools and will do exactly what they are designed to do, anchor you down in one spot. The only drawback to these units is that they are only designed for shallow water of 12 feet or less. When they first came out, I was a skeptic and thought it was a waste of money until I added one to my boat and realized how useful it was to have these on your boat. They come in handy when you’re having to sit down and retie or cull fish. They also come in handy when you are launching your boat or docking up for a weigh-in.

As you can see, bass boats have come a long way since the days of stick-steering banana-style boats. The features you can add are nothing short of incredible, but they do come with a cost. Major boat brands like Ranger, Skeeter, Caymas and Triton all have boats that fall into the $90,000 plus range.

To compare how far the price has jumped in the last 23 years, a fully loaded bass boat back then cost around $30,000. But today, some boats are hitting the crazy $100,000 mark! Why? The cost of building materials and the high level of accessories it takes to build a bass boat today have increased.

So, if you’re in the market for a new bass boat, prepare yourself for sticker shock as companies continue to improve and upgrade these high-tech water rockets that can reach speeds of 80 mph.  

‘Til next time, good luck, good fishing and make sure to check out Tackle Talk Live podcast, as well as the Hook’N Up & Track’N Down Show on YouTube. 

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

C. Rodney Harrington and the Harrington Law Firm have previously been awarded an “AV Preeminent” rating by Martindale-Hubbell Rating Service which is the service’s highest possible designation of professionalism and ethics.  This rating was generated by a survey of Harrington’s peers and only 10% of attorneys across the United States receive this coveted designation.  

Martindale-Hubbell is widely recognized as the world’s most respected service for rating attorneys.  They have been conducting and publishing attorney ratings for over 130 years and are regarded the “Gold Standard” of attorney ratings. 

Now, the Harrington Law Firm is proud to announce that attorney C. Rodney Harrington and the firm have also been awarded by the same rating service the highest possible distinction by the judiciary.

C. Rodney Harrington and the Harrington Law Firm have added to their previous award the Special Edition Judicial Award which is especially noteworthy because it is based upon the confidential opinions and recommendation of members of the judiciary familiar with Mr. Harrington and the Harrington Law Firm.  The Judicial Edition Award indicates perfect ratings from the judiciary on the attorney’s legal ability and ethical standards.

According to Harrington, he is particularly proud of this recognition because it is based upon reviews from other attorneys and area judges who are familiar with his and the firm’s legal standards and professional ability, and not some “Buy an Award” marketing ploy.

“We’re a small, family law firm in a small town and we strive every single day to be ethical and professional in the representation of our clients,” said Harrington.  “That’s why it’s so gratifying to learn that we have received the highest possible rating by our fellow attorneys and now by judges as well.  We must be doing something right.”

C. Rodney Harrington has been practicing law in this area for over 45 years and his son and partner, C. Edward “Eddie” Harrington for over 14 years.

The Harrington Law Firm handles a wide range of cases, but primarily all types of personal injury, including Automobile, Motorcycles, and Big Truck Wrecks and Medical Malpractice, along with Bankruptcy, Social Security Disability Appeals, and Wills and Estates.

The firm’s website is http://www.theharringtonlawfirm.com

By Amy Hays/Contributor to the Journal

An exhibit of Kim Mulkey’s 2023 National Championship season at LSU hangs in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Rightfully so, considering Natchitoches is the small town where the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed.

Kim Mulkey is a steel magnolia personified.

If you have never seen the movie or play, then you may not know what that means. In Natchitoches, the term is understood as part of the local vernacular. A metaphor for the contrasting imagery associated with a tough metal and a delicate flower.

A steel magnolia is thought of as an independent woman who faces adversity with strength and dignity. Just like the sturdy steel frame of a fragile magnolia tree.

When you watch Mulkey on the sidelines of a game or listen to her speak in a post-game presser or radio interview, you know that she embodies a combination of toughness yet kindness.

She loves basketball, she loves winning, but most of all she loves her players and her family. Her players are her family, and she states that often. She is a doting mother and grandmother, but also a devoted coach to young, impressionable athletes.

Society wants us to believe that women can’t be both strong and gentle at the same time. But in the South that is the way women are raised. We are taught to fight like hell for what we believe in. We are taught to be compassionate and tender-hearted. And we can be both of those things at the same time.
In a world where women should be equal to men in all areas. That is most certainly not true when it comes to sports. Women have been marginalized spectators watching as men have made millions of dollars and achieved celebrity status as professional athletes.

Mulkey is still the same person she’s always been but since taking the head coaching job at LSU, opportunities have started to change. She gives her players the freedom to be themselves and they have excelled at becoming entrepreneurs in the new world of NIL. Together they have helped to elevate the game of women’s basketball to a level that could never have been dreamed of even a few years ago.
According to ESPN, 12.3 million people watched the Elite 8 game on Monday night between LSU and Iowa. It was the most watched college basketball game ever on ESPN platforms.

Ironically, this broke the previous ratings record for women’s basketball of 11.84 million in 1983 when USC beat Mulkey’s Louisiana Tech team in the NCAA Championship.

Despite such success and progress, the media have critiqued her every move. Talked about her clothing choices, dug up her family history, nitpicked her coaching, made assumptions about her political and personal beliefs, criticized her personality, and now, even questioned her allegiance to the American flag.

Mulkey can withstand the millions of daggers that are thrown at her because her armor is made of steel. She had to overcome obstacles at a young age in the male-dominated world of sports and continues to have to defend herself and her female players nearly 60 years later.

Our only hope should be that she can pass the strength and resolve that she embodies onto her young players.

The relentless media seems to have taken a Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) line out of the movie to heart, “If you can’t say anything nice about anybody, come sit by me.”

But as any true Steel Magnolia would say, “Bless their hearts.”

Contact Amy at AmyHaysJSLLC@gmail.com.

Treat math is pretty simple. Buy one Blizzard and get another one FREE until April 14. Limit one per person. This deal can only be redeemed in the DQ App.

Clara Springs Camp will host Fourth Friday Fish Fry April 26 from 5-7pm. Hosted by Grand Cane Baptist. It is Foster Ministry Awareness Month. Everyone is asked to bring socks/underware donations for boys and girls sizes 2T-14 to give to Foster Care Closets. Foster families will eat FREE. Dinner is $15 and includes all you can eat fried fish, coleslaw, french fries, hushpuppies, pinto beans, lemon bread pudding, homemade ice cream and drinks. Kids 9 and under eat FREE. Only $10 for kids ages 10-17. 

The Southern Plainsmen Quartet will be in concert at the Ashland Baptist Church Sunday, May 5 at 6pm.

Vendor registration is now open for Sale on the Trail located on Hwy 6 from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches at http://www.natchitoches.com/event/16th-annual-sale-trail. The 16th Annual El Camino Real Sale is coming up on the first Friday & Saturday in May.  

Mary Moore
October 21, 1937 – April 1, 2024
Service: Saturday, April 6 at 11am at Deliverance Temple – Coushatta

Travis Drew Haynes
February 17, 1948 – April 4, 2024
Service: Sunday, April 7 at 2pm at Faith Baptist Church – Ringgold

Red River Cafe opened its doors Apr 2, 2024, to a bustling crowd. The seventh restaurant venture for the Vargas family of Red River is the work of Lucas Vargas. He envisioned a cafe of breakfast and lunch offerings that call back to the history of our town.

Nostalgic pictures and memorabilia of old Coushatta greet customers as they step inside. Vargas says he wants everyone to learn about the rich history of our parish, enjoy good food, and interact with our neighbors.

The generous menu will also include plate lunches on Sunday.

COUSHATTA – One of Red River basketball’s motto’s has always been that the strength of its team is, well, the team.

Junior Jomello McDonald was honorably mentioned on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 2A All-State basketball team, which is awarded based on the old LHSAA class system (1A-5A) and doesn’t split between Select and Non-Select.

McDonald averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds for a Red River squad that advanced to the Division III Non-Select championship game as a No. 13 seed.

The Bulldogs relied on an eight-to-nine-man rotation with a large handful of those guys capable of being the star on any given day.

So that may have been a reason why McDonald, the leader of Red River’s historic playoff push as a double-digit seed, didn’t land one of the 10 total spots on the First or Second Team.

Which could lend more credence to Red River coach Dadrian Harris getting Coach of the Year consideration, taking a team that didn’t theoretically have a no-doubt All-State player to a state championship game.

But Franklin High, a Class 2A member but the Division IV Non-Select champion, took home Player of the Year (Jay’Shaun Johnson) and Coach of the Year (Tremayne Johnson) honors.

Franklin beat Lakeview, the champion of Red River’s District 3-2A, in the Division IV title game.

District MVP Alonzo Driver of Lakeview did get second-team honors after averaging 15 points per game.

Winnfield and Mansfield also represented the district on the honorable mention list.

UPDATE: DOTD advises motorists that this road closure for a pipe replacement will remain in place until Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announces a project to repair and improve a two mile section of LA 509 in Red River Parish.

The $1.9 million project stretches from the DeSoto Parish line to LA 1, just north of the Village of Grand Bayou, and includes asphalt patching repairs and a mill and overlay to provide a new driving surface.

As part of this project, LA 509 at this location closed to through traffic on March 4, 2024 to allow for the replacement of a cross drain pipe that runs under the roadway. Detour signage will be in place.

This road closure originally anticipated to last approximately 30 days, weather permitting. However, that has now been pushed to May 1. Once that pipe replacement is complete, the contractor will begin working on the mill and overlay portion of the project.

The entire project is expected to wrap up in early Fall 2024, with progress dependent on weather conditions and other factors that can impact construction timelines.

Safety reminder:

DOTD appreciates your patience and reminds you to please drive with caution through the construction site and be on the lookout for work crews and their equipment.

Area residents should exercise caution when driving, walking, or biking near an active construction zone.

Additional information:

Call 511, visit www.511la.org, or download the Louisiana 511 mobile app for additional information. Out-of-state travelers may call 1-888-ROAD-511 (1-888-762-3511). Motorists may also monitor the LA DOTD website at www.dotd.la.gov, by selecting MyDOTD, or by visiting the DOTD Facebook and Twitter pages.

Red River Parish Helping Hands will host a painting party Thursday, April 4 at 9am. Senior ladies come join in at the Jack and Laura Center on Front Street.

Red River Parish Helping Hands is a group of service-minded volunteers who desire to make a difference in the lives of our citizens. In conjunction with the Red River Parish 4-H, Red River Council on Aging, and the LSU Ag Center, they promote healthy living, recreation, crafts, and service support to the town’s residents. 

By Doug De Graffenried

According to the official Employee Handbook of Trinity Methodist Church, I can grant discretionary office holidays. That rubric gives me permission to close the church office on a Monday following either Christmas or Easter. The Trinity Church offices are closed today.

I’m wondering if I should send a group text to the staff and say, “April Fools.”

On this discretionary holiday, I’m sitting in the silence of the church office. There are a couple of other staff who came to work on this discretionary holiday to catch up on things. Currently, they are as quiet as a church mice.

Easter Sunday is always a great Sunday in church. The pews were full. The music was majestic and inspirational. Today, the office is empty and silent. I am in the office enjoying both the silence and the solitude.

I was reading this morning.

“Solitude is that time when we pull away from our life in the company of others to give our full and undivided attention to God. Silence deepens the experience of solitude. In silence we withdraw not only from outer noise but also from the “inner noise” of our thoughts, human strivings, intellectual hard work, and inner compulsions so that we can listen to God.”

The extraverts reading that just cringed.

Dallas Willard called silence and solitude the two most radical disciplines of the Christian life. Henri Nouwen said that “without solitude it is almost impossible to have a spiritual life.”

These are the most challenging and least practiced disciplines among Christians today. We live in a world in which our phones or digital devices rule our lives. The average silence that a group can stand is fifteen seconds. Most of our church services confirm this. My phone has joined a couple of text groups. It is a great way to share information. It is also an interruption of silence and solitude. While writing this article the texting circle lit up! Proving my point!

I’m going to wrap this up, so I can get back to the silence and the solitude of the church office on the Monday after Easter. Can you put your device down, turn away from the computer screen and try sitting alone in silence for one minute? If that makes you uncomfortable, I think we have discovered a spiritual problem.

If you hunt or fish, you’ll find there are some activities that are more highly revered than others, at least they are by zealots of the sport. Take quail hunting, for example. While quail in our part of the country have basically gone the way of the Studebaker, there are those who still keep a brace of pointers and seek out those widely scattered pockets of cover that may hold a covey or two. Why? Because quail hunting is so special to them; they just can’t entertain thoughts that quail numbers continue to shrink.

Then there are the fly fishermen. The average angler heads for the lake or the creek bank armed with rods and reels, or a cane pole and bucket of worms. While some rod and reelers and cane polers have perfected their craft to a fine edge, the average fisherman just wants to catch supper, and the gear he selects is what he feels will allow him to do that most effectively.

Ah, but the fly fisherman is a far different creature. He’s probably more of a purist; a perfectionist, than any other sportsman. He talks in almost reverential tones of tippets and Royal Coachmen and such. He ties his own flies; builds his own rods. It’s as if the process of preparing to fly fish is an end in itself.

I once tried fly fishing, but I soon learned that I lack something in the “purist” category. I purchased my outfit years ago at the local discount store for $29.95. No, that was not the price of the fly line; that was the package price for rod, reel, line, leader and a box of flies. I took my purchase to a local pond where I’d located a bed of bluegills in the shallows. I managed to catch a few fish but I spent an inordinate amount of time getting my popping bug untangled from the myrtle bush behind me. I also noticed a lack of dexterity when it came to making “the cast”. I almost threw out my shoulder trying to emulate the fly fishers I’d watched on TV. While they made it look so easy, I spent most of my fishing time tripping over line wrapped around my ankles and getting a half-hitch from around my ear.

While on a turkey hunting trip to South Dakota several years ago, I spent some time with Dick Leir, owner of Dakota Angler and Outfitter and as he drove me alongside the sparkling-clear streams in the Black Hills, he talked about his favorite sport, fly fishing.

“Fly fishing can be frustrating, but once you get over the initial aggravation, it is a calming sport,” Leir explained. “There is an evolution that takes place in the life of a fly fisher. At first, his goal is to catch ‘a’ fish. Once he accomplishes this, he wants to catch a ‘lot’ of fish. Then he progresses to wanting to catch a ‘big’ fish; then a ‘lot of big’ fish. He arrives as a genuine fly fisher when his consuming desire is to catch ‘that’ fish.

“Fly fishing is unique in that it is one of the few do-it-yourself sports. Anglers get a lot of satisfaction from painstakingly building their own rods and becoming adept at tying their own flies. To catch ‘that’ fish on a rod you have built with a fly you have tied offers the utmost satisfaction,” said Leir.

According to Leir, trout fishermen don’t go to a stream with the purpose of catching fish to eat.

“The object is not to catch ‘supper’. Wild trout are much too valuable for that. A legendary fly fisherman, the late Lee Wulfe once said, ‘a trout is too valuable a commodity to catch only once.’

While wild trout are the number one quarry of most fly fishers, practically any species of fish can be caught on a flyrod. We don’t have trout in Louisiana, but there are other fish that can provide great sport for the flyrodder. Bedded bluegills, like I attempted to catch, bass and crappie are all amenable to being caught on fly tackle.

As advanced age has caught up with me, I have laid aside my fly rod and casting rod and settle for a seat in a comfortable chair on the bank of a pond with bedded bluegills swirling the water just off shore. Skewering on a cricket and lobbing it into the mass of bream, I’m as happy as a fly fisherman wading a clear mountain stream for trout.

Lily
Cardigan Welsh Corgi

Last Seen: Wednesday, March 23, 2024 Collins Road Natchitoches, LA
Color: Red Merle and White
Eyes: Different Color Eyes

And Has a Tail

PLEASE CALL WITH ANY INFORMATION

(318) 357-0377

Doesn’t’ seem that long ago but in 2018, one of best guys we know gave another one of the best guys we know a gift certificate to Superior’s Steakhouse, and he used the card to treat the Shreveport-Bossier Journal staff to lunch with local sports icons Bobby Aillet and Leo Sanford.

We are easily led. Especially when free food is involved. And lunch with heroes.

In a comfy “meeting” room, we sat there for nearly three hours and overate and listened to these two Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Famers and, at the time, besties for 70 of their nearly 90 years as bona fide dudes.

There are worse ways to spend time and money.  

When Mr. Bobby died three years ago this week, age 93, it was J.J. Marshall who recalled that day and said to me, “I could have sat there and listened to them talk all afternoon.” 

We just about did.

And now Mr. Leo has passed this early spring at 94, two of the final members of The National Association for the Advancement of Grandstand Quarterbacks (NAAGQ), an exclusive “club” for more than 70 years, formed by Tech football teens going off to war in 1943, a group whose families grew up together and, through the years, grew old together.

They weren’t stingy about sharing stories — if they were asked. No chest-beating in this bunch. Thankfully, they shared enough of themselves that we’ll always have stuff to carry around.

Leo was a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the Ark-La-Tex Museum of Champions, a star at Shreveport’s Fair Park High, a Pro Bowler in the NFL, a league champ in 1958 with Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts, a humble bear of a man with oven-mitt-sized paws who, after this playing days, sold class rings and letter jackets to students all over the area; he sold that stuff but the smiles and understated jokes, he did those for free.

He loved to tell about him and another Tech recruit being driven from Shreveport to Ruston by legendary Tech football assistant Jimmy Mize, and Coach Mize asking Leo’s friend what he wanted to major in, and the kid said, “Engineering,” so then Coach Mize asked Leo the same thing, and Leo said he was thinking that if his buddy could learn to drive a train, so could he, so Leo said, “Engineering.”

Another one’s about Coach Joe Aillet with Leo and some other linemen in a crescent moon around Aillet and the coach hollers “I need a dummy!” and nothing happens for like five second so Leo jumped out toward coach and Aillet said, “Not you, Sanford. I need a BLOCKING dummy.” (Leo would tell the story and shrug his shoulders: “He said he needed a dummy so …”)

When Sanford established the largest endowed scholarship in Tech Athletics history in honor of his wife Myrna after her passing in 2018, Leo told his buddies at their Friday morning unofficial club meeting at Shreveport’s Southfield Grill that “I’d be happy to have given the second-largest endowed scholarship if one of you other guys would step up.”

It was an almost ordained sort of special, the times Leo and Bobby and their football friends and families got to share. Disheartening to think it’s over, but then again, these were times built on love, and love never dies. No good thing ever does.

Speaking of love, this is from Myrna’s obit: “On their first real date he told her he was going to marry her, and she told him he was crazy. While she spent the next 68 years admitting he was right, she’d also tell you he was still crazy.”

Curt Joiner, one of Leo’s sons-in-law, will tell you it’s always been a “good” kind of crazy. “I don’t know if there’s any guy in the world I enjoy spending an evening with more than my father-in-law,” Joiner said.

A lot of guys share that feeling.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

Join in celebrating 50 years of creativity at the Melrose Arts and Crafts Festival taking place April 20 from 9am-5pm and April 21 from 10am-3pm at Melrose on the Cane. 

Northwestern State University’s School of Business will offer spring Continuing Legal Education courses Tuesday, April 23 in the Natchitoches Room in Russell Hall. Registration is available at: https://NSU-CLE-spring-2024.eventbrite.com.

The Southern Plainsmen Quartet will be in concert at the Ashland Baptist Church Sunday, May 5 at 6pm.