Having been a critic of the Police Jury system, though not necessarily a critic of any particular Police Jury member, it still may seem strange that I have something positive to say about its staff. Nonetheless, the quality and explanatory usefulness of the budgeting documents produced by the current Secretary / Treasurer, Stacey Lefebvre, are outstanding for organization, detail, and completeness.

The people of Catahoula Parish voted for change in a big way. Two thirds of the wards were contested. Even though Johnie Carol Estes and Johnnie Adams kept their jobs with solid majorities, four seats on the nine-member Police Jury changed hands.

As we enter Thanksgiving week it may benefit us to take a deep breath and realize that although this past year was at times difficult, we have made it. We have persevered through another year and that is commendable, in and of itself.

The population of Catahoula Parish has been a preoccupation of mine for some time. While the purpose of this column is to provide commentary on issues of local interest, it is increasingly difficult to separate our own situation from national, even international, trends.

Harvard and Yale are often held up as two of America’s most “elite,” “prestigious” and “diverse” institutions of higher education. Not so much.

It seems as if it were only last month that we were asked to amend the founding document of the State of Louisiana four times. Now, here it is November and all that is so last October. This is a brand-new month, and we have four brand new amendments to make. Why not? We should do this every year. Oh, wait. We do.

They just never stop. May we be as committed to protecting and preserving our American ideals and beliefs as the national Left is to erasing them.

A couple of weeks ago in a meeting of the Town of Jonesville, Police Chief Richard Madison raised the issue of ambulance service. He struck a note that should set off sympathetic vibrations resonating throughout every community in the parish. At the end of this year, we, and by “we” I mean not just the elected representatives in the parish from Larto to Enterprise, but the people themselves, will need to be prepared to have an answer to the question of “What do we do about whether we will have ambulances in Catahoula Parish?” It will be a voter’s decision to make because this is going to cost us one way or another.

All the way back to the administration of Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana has viewed private-school choice statewide as very positive public policy that needed to be enshrined in state law to improve the quality of education of poor and minority children, and to provide the same educational choice enjoyed by children from more affluent families. However, Gov. John Bel Edwards has obstructed school choice during his two terms as governor.

U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson as U.S. House Speaker Would Also Be Historic and Impactful for Louisiana I have written previously that it would be difficult to overstate the significance of a Louisiana member of the U.S. Congress becoming Speaker of the U.S House of Representatives. That applies whether that individual hails from north or south Louisiana.