Editorial

As a legislator proudly representing Louisiana’s working coast in Terrebonne Parish, the impacts of lawsuit abuse continue to reverberate across not only my district, but the entire state.

The Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture just released the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, resetting the federal nutrition advice that shapes how Americans eat.

The Jeff Davis Animal Shelter is completed, according to a recent news report from the parish administrator. And in the Jan. 22 JD Parish Police Jury meeting, the discussion centered around moving the tax rededication proposal to a November 2026 agenda for a re-vote. This rededication, which failed on Nov. 15, 2025, by the voters of Jeff Davis Parish, would have moved monies from a half-cent consolidated jail sales tax, originally passed in 2014, and last renewed in 2024, to fund maintaining this newly constructed $2.1 million shelter. The reason for moving the tax proposal later this year was to “educate the voters about taking money from the jail tax and moving it to fund the animal center”, and hopefully get the measure passed then.

There are two very important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, one that will affect the nation and one our beloved Louisiana, especially.

For many Louisiana families, the holidays are not just a season of celebrations, they are a season of spending. Christmas dinner costs more than it used to. Parents stretch their budgets to make Christmas morning special for kids who don't yet understand inflation, and with the new year comes new costs.

“No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.” ~ Justice Hugo Black There has been a steadily growing, and quite concerning, trend in the nation and certainly in Jeff Davis Parish — voter apathy.

It is always helpful to look back over the previous year, both as a sense of accomplishment and as an indication of how the new year may go.