Columns

On a wall in our nearly-finished home hangs a painting a great friend of mine did of Queen Elizabeth. She is sternly looking through side eyes, saying “Mind your manners.” She hangs for all the Queen Elizabeths in our lives. For our grandmothers, especially.

Summer get-togethers call for delicious snacks that are cool and refreshing. This black-eyed pea salsa is a great fit for your next outdoor party, or a healthy snack to keep on hand for little ones to snack on during hot summer days. The base is a traditional salsa mixture, but the blackeyed peas we added provide a good serving of fiber that your regular salsa doesn’t. We’ve also kept it super low in sodium. Pair this with toasted whole grain tortillas or whole wheat crackers for a filling summer snack!

The Rotary Club of Lake Providence was treated to two local guest speakers in the past two weeks. Mayor Bobby Amacker discussed the problems faced by the town with an outdated water system and no money to make vital repairs. The town recently received an “F” rating on the water system. Afterwards, Mayor Amacker fielded questions from Rotarians. Last week, Patten Brown, a self-proclaimed “Civil War nut” gave the Rotary Club an interesting and informative presentation about the use of horses in the Civil War. Brown said that the Union Army had approximately 100,000 horses compared to 75,000 for the Confederacy. He said that it took 30,000 horses just to move the supplies and artillery that each of the armies needed. Hygiene wasn’t very good at the time, and many of the horses would often die of neglect. “Horses paid a great price in the war,” Brown concluded. “Twice as many died as there was human loss.”

A new social media policy approved at the last regular meeting of the East Carroll Parish School Board is tightening down on the use of electronic devices in the school system. The policy stated that no student can have any personal electronic devices in their possession unless they are authorized by the school principal and his/ her designee.

I was lying in bed last night annoyed with my wife, Shelby. It wasn’t anything serious, just differences about how we tidy up before bed.

TheLouisianaDepartment of Health is announcing a new partnership with Feeding Louisiana to administer the Louisiana Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CFSP). Effective July 1, Feeding Louisiana will assume these responsibilities from Catholic Charities, the CFSP provider since 1986.

Observations By Laura Arvin I am in need of some hope this week. I witnessed Louisiana legislators pass bills, some of which make life harder for the most vulnerable.

Last week my sweet parents treated me to a guided fishing trip. It’s not something I normally do, but the change of pace was great.

Several bills were headed to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk for signature after adjournment Monday of the Louisiana Legislature’s 2024 regular session.

DEAR EDITORS: I was raised as a newspaper reader. My dad would daily scour the Times-Picayune, cover to cover, devouring each detail.