News & Current Events

Walking through the sturdy, gleaming white front doors adorned with larger-than-life Christmas wreaths, I was greeted by a warm smile and a "Hey, how are ya? Thank you for coming!" from Louisiana's First Lady Donna Edwards. I wanted to reach out to Mrs. Edwards, who is a former music teacher and mom of three-Samantha (24), Sarah Ellen (21), John Miller (14)- to find out more about her first year and first Christmas in the Louisiana Governor's Mansion. And also, her first year in being a mom in the Red Stick! Mrs. Edwards' husband, Governor John Bel Edwards, was inaugurated on January 11, 2016. This year Louisiana experienced two major floods (one of which flooded the ground floor of the Governor's mansion and...

About four years ago a friend and I were discussing our childhood Christmas gifts, and I she challenged me to name 20 gifts I had received as a child. No problem! Or so I thought ... would you believe that I had a hard time getting past naming 10??!! As we discussed childhood and family memories, it became apparent to me that I could not remember many of the toys I had been given, but what I could remember were things we did together. I remember things like vacations, the family reunions, trips to the zoo, spending summers at the pool, or piling in a car to see all the Christmas lights in town ... MEMORIES became what I treasured. This change...

This spring and for the first semester ever, TOPS will not be paying full tuition for Louisiana students who have earned the funding by scoring a 20 on the ACT and earning a 2.5 GPA in high school. Instead funding will be cut, and Louisiana students and their families will be forced to pay about 60% of their spring semester bill. But guess what? This mom of four, who has to pay college tuition four times over should her children choose that path, doesn't want to hear you whine about it. Nope, I don't want to hear one moan. Instead, I want to see you DO something about it. Because you, Louisiana college students, are in the unique position to make a statement about...

I'm sitting down to type this - and the fact that as I do so my keyboard is getting shinier from my Sour Cream and Onion Lays chip-coated fingers doesn't faze me. Nope, those chips are not baked. They're greasy and they taste just like Procrastination. I'm feeling procrastinate-ey. I'm going to open up another bag right now (they're individually sized). AND IF THEY WEREN'T? You'd nod your head in solidarity, Sister. Over the last several weeks, I've been joking about how I'm handling the most public of my issues, our post-flood life. That's sort-of how I tend to handle things - jokes. Inappropriate jokes, mostly. Uncomfortable and inappropriate. Sometimes it doesn't require much imagination because the maybe-I-shouldn't-say-that stuff is really...

We are the ones responsible for our children not showing respect for police or authority figures. I know it sounds harsh, but it's true. All of us have created this environment, where as a society, we don't respect the authority of the police. Here is how I believe we (quietly, unknowingly) got here ... We don't teach our children to respect authority.  When I was growing up, I was taught to respect the police, to comply with their requests, to shut my mouth, make slow moves, and find them when I need help or get into trouble. I don't know if we still expect the schools to teach our children these things, but WE have to take personal responsibility to teach them...