July 2018

Kids can learn in the garden

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By midsummer, many adults are thinking of ways to provide something for children to do until school begins. Why not start a gardening project? You can introduce your youngsters to the joys of gardening and at the same time exercise their bodies and brains.

Free trade agreement generates funds for LSU AgCenter rice research

CROWLEY — Funds resulting from the Colombian Free Trade Agreement have paid for long-term improvements at the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station as well as funding a $1 million endowed chair for rice research in the LSU AgCenter, said Jackie Loewer, president of the Louisiana Rice Research Board.

Last year, the Colombian funds generated $1.8 million for Louisiana rice research, and the trade agreement allowed U.S. rice to be sold in Colombia duty-free, Loewer said at the annual AgCenter rice field day at the research station on June 20.

Students JUMPSTART their summer

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Local students participated in Jeff Davis Parish’s very first JUMPSTART SUMMERS program at SOWELA Technical Community College in Jennings. This program is a five-week summer session designed for rising 10th graders. The program is free of charge to participants and provides an opportunity for students to explore future career paths.

SOWELA announces Spring 2018 graduates

SOWELA has announced the names of students who graduated in the Spring 2018 semester. Those graduates include the following:

Spring 2018 graduates are:

Egan – Jeffery James Murrell, Jr., process technology.

Elton – Brittany Layne Babineaux, nursing, Warren James Pelican, Jr., welding.

Fenton – Chasity N. Alfred, drafting and design technology, Keivian D’Andre Gauthier, general studies.

Iota – Samuel Lee Fontenot, industrial electrician and industrial instrumentation; Hunter Charles Sensat, industrial electrician.

New state app could cause problems

Ever pull out of the driveway in the morning and get down the street only to realize you left your wallet, or even just your driver’s license at home? You think to yourself, there’s no way I’ll get pulled over in that amount of time. The police will never even know I’m out here driving without a license. Then you hear the sirens.

You’ll probably be issued a ticket, but luckily since you actually do own a driver’s license and only forgot it at home, you’ll likely be able to get the charges dropped by showing up in court and proving you had a license at the time of traffic stop.

Some of this and some of that

I sometimes like to write a lagniappe column, a piece that touches on a few current events. This typically happens when I do not have enough thoughts regarding one subject about which to write, so I guess it’s more of a lazy lagniappe column.

Anyway.

• Keep Louisiana (kinda) beautiful

Discussing a mainstream immigration policy

The Trump administration has now stopped the separation policy regarding illegal border crossers. But it plans to continue prosecuting illegal border crossers and, when those crossers bring children illegally into the United States, will “detain families together” according to an administration court filing in California.

That will not satisfy the critics. But if a new poll is correct, it appears the Trump administration has ended up squarely on the side of the majority of American voters.

Thais fight water and oxygen levels in cave as diver dies

MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — The rescuers trying to help a youth soccer team stranded in a Thai cave suffered a disheartening loss Friday with the death of a former SEAL diving in the flooded passageways to deliver supplies, as authorities raced against worsening weather and lessening oxygen where the 12 boys and their coach have been trapped for two weeks.

US-China trade battle kicks off; markets take it in stride

BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China launched what Beijing called the “biggest trade war in economic history” Friday, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods amid a spiraling dispute over technology.

The Trump administration is confronting China over development tactics it says include stealing technology or pressuring foreign companies to hand it over. American officials worry U.S. industrial leadership will be eroded by Chinese plans to create tech champions in fields including robotics, biotech and artificial intelligence.

Cult leader executed for Japan sarin attacks still a mystery

TOKYO (AP) — The execution of Japanese doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara leaves unanswered questions about Aum Shinrikyo, which carried out the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and sickened 6,000.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga confirmed that Asahara was executed Friday. The authorities said six other cult members were hanged.

Born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955, Asahara founded Aum Shinrikyo, or Supreme Truth, in the mid-1980s. It attracted young people disillusioned with the modern materialistic way of life.