New beginnings require an ending

In what has been almost a decade of writing this column, I have needed to write it far more than anyone has needed to read it. I have been grateful, even if surprised, at your poor taste in weekly opinion literature for having read it. Thank you for your kind indulgence.

What will happen now?

With the closing of the News Booster what will happen now?Well, the first decision will be made by the Police Jury. The jury will now choose which paper will be the legal publication for the parish. The two obvious newspapers to choose from are the Concordia Sentinel and The Jena Times.

When duty calls

The Catahoula Parish Police Jury changed its president on January 12th, 2026, and the new president, Police Juror Donald Wayne Meyers, changed the agenda. That was bad for my reputation as a fortune teller, but good, I think, for the parish’s reputation as a reliable business partner.

Should we be doing this?

By the time you read this, the damage, so to speak, will have been done. The Police Jury will have rejected the bids that it received by the published deadline of 10:00 A.M., December 30th, 2025, and will have issued a call for new bids.

Parish roads littered with 40,000 pounds of trash in 2025

Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office Achieves Significant Milestone in 2025 Trash Abatement Initiative The Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office (CPSO) is highlighting the ongoing work of Deputy Milton Cooper and the trustee trash abatement team, whose efforts continue to combat the parish’s growing...

Opening bids

Someone in a position to know once told me that a primary job of the Police Jury Secretary- Treasurer was to keep the Police Jurors out of trouble. At the time I neither fully appreciated nor understood exactly what that person meant.

The climate change ‘House of Cards’ continues to fall

We may recall Al Gore, in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, focused on climate change. The film included a moving clip of a 'sad, animated polar bear floating away to its death' suggesting that global warming would cause the extinction of the polar bear population.

Government shutdown

For the first time in decades the Police Jury of Catahoula Parish failed to hold a scheduled meeting. There were not the five members present that are required for a quorum. The president, Rodney Sones, and vice-president, Micah Hughes, were both unavailable due to medical issues.

U.S. Military on orders to destroy drug boats aimed at the U.S.

America has been engaged in fighting a War on Drugs since at least the 1980's. We finally have a president who fights the tyranny of the 'War on Drugs' as the war that it is.First Lady Nancy Reagan's 'Just Say No' to drugs campaign was a part of that effort.

Peace, kittens, apple pie, traffic hazard

{With apologies to actual clowns) The circus came to town in Jonesville on Thursday, December 4, 2025, courtesy of the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Called “The Walk for Peace”, the demonstration began on October 26th, 2025, near Fort Worth.