Editorial

This column has no one topic

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I’M JUST SAYIN’

When I have no one topic to discuss or complain about, I like to touch on a medley of topics. These are my lagniappe columns, containing a little bit of everything.

• The balls are back in town

Football and basketball season are getting underway, meaning I need to take out a small loan to afford admission fees. This week I paid $5 to get into a junior high game for an hour. A few friends said I was lucky since they have children to pay for as well at $5-$8 per head.

The bloody truth about US immigration policy

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Last week, I got an email from my friend Chris Casazza, a partner with the immigration firm Solow, Isbell and Palladino in Philadelphia. He reached out to tell me about something that had happened to a former client, and he hoped that I could tell the story.

Here is the part of Chris’ email that convinced me I needed to write this column:

Open doors, don’t shut them

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One of the most persistent and pernicious myths in American politics is that immigrants should be excluded because they “steal” jobs from native-born Americans. President Trump has often embraced that

Libraries are about more than books

This newspaper regularly features information on activities taking place in libraries located with Jeff Davis Parish. Those sites stay quite busy. While a library and its online services are the

TODAY IN HISTORY

1146 - European leaders outlaw crossbow, intending to end war for all time 1363 - Beginning of the Battle of Lake Poyang; two Chinese rebel leaders Chen Youliang and Zhu

A dumb idea to buy Greenland?

President Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest recently as he proposed that the U.S. try to buy Greenland. Many political observers rolled their eyes. Buy another country? Has the prize

Teamwork impacts community, lives

When people know there is a need, they often try to meet that need. We see incredible examples of this in Jeff Davis Parish regularly.

In our Aug. 25 edition, for example, Jennings resident Mark Courville’s story of waiting for a heart transplant was shared. A benefit is planned to help defer medical costs he is facing and the community has gone above and beyond to help. Six thousand raffle tickets have been sold, thousands of dollars worth of items and gift cards were given as auction items and people have volunteered to cook, bake and work at the event.

Litter to the Auditor

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Lawmakers in California have littered their desks with measures designed to eliminate plastic products, such as bags and even straws. But in failing to provide an adequate system for recycling these items - along with glass, metal and paper - they have created an environmental mess and a socio-economic dilemma.

Let’s not inflame racial tensions, they’re incendiary enough

I have this odd, puritanical quirk. I don’t think people should run for president by pitching racially inflammatory fables to voters. Republicans or Democrats.

And no, I’m not talking about Donald J. Trump, although these days, they’re pretty much his stock-in-trade, along with crackpot conspiracy theories. This week it’s Google, the Federal Reserve and Fox News. Before that, it was the rat-and vermin”infested” city of Baltimore and its African-American congressman, Elijah Cummings.

Call before you dig

Whether you are planning to do it yourself or hire a professional, smart digging means calling 811 before each job.

Louisiana 811 is a free service that allows excavators to notify many operators of underground utilities with a single toll-free call.

Calling before you dig saves money for everyone by reducing the possibility of damage, eliminating construction delays and contributing to public safety.