January 2021

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Calendar Guidelines

Trump impeachment to go to Senate Monday, launching trial

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to send the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, launching the start of the former president’s trial on a charge of incitement of insurrection over the deadly Capitol riot.

“There will be a trial,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in making the announcement Friday. “It will be a full trial, it will be a fair trial.”

Trump is the first president to be twice impeached and the first to face a trial after leaving office.

Ever sing the college brochure blues?

Article Image Alt Text

It has been a bittersweet experience seeing the mailbox flooded with college recruiting brochures addressed to my son Gideon.

The story behind the seashells

Article Image Alt Text

Anyone who has visited the Jennings Carnegie Library might have noticed a large display filled with seashells, stones and other curiosities. The glass-front cabinet goes from floor to eye level, and every square inch is filled with souvenirs from around the world.

The collection originally belonged to Lucius Lyman Morse, a Jennings man who traveled everywhere from Rome to islands in the Indian Ocean.

“He was quite the character,” said Harriet Shultz, the library’s directot

Latest La. COVID-19 emergency elections plan approved

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana will continue to use an expanded version of absentee-by-mail voting for the upcoming spring elections that will fill two U.S. House seats, under a coronavirus emergency plan that won bipartisan approval from lawmakers Thursday.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, already had announced his support of the plan submitted by Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, a Republican. Ballots submitted by lawmakers and released by each chamber showed 80 of 105 House members agreed to the proposal, along with 35 of 39 senators.

Widow of late congressman-elect qualifies for election

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Julia Letlow, the widow of Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, described herself as “both full of griefwhile also having hope for the future” as she registered Thursday to compete for the congressional seat her husband was unable to fill because of his death from COVID-19 complications. After filing her paperwork for the March 20 election, Julia Letlow faced reporters at the same podium where she stood with her husband six months earlier when he signed up for his bid to represent northeast and central Louisiana. This time, she stood alone.

Russia welcomes US proposal to extend nuclear treaty

MOSCOW (AP) —The Kremlin on Friday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, which is set to expire in less than two weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia stands for extending the pact and is waiting to see the details of the U.S. proposal.

The White House said Thursday that Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty.

POLICE REPORT

Editor’s Note: An arrest does not indicate whether a person is guilty of the crime with which they have been charged. A person is not considered guilty until they are convicted of a crime in a court of law

Seven people were booked into the parish jail by the Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office over the past week

Friday, January 15

Ramon G. Medrano, 36, of F1 Paso, Texas, was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and arrested on an outside agency warrant.

Keep your garden and tradition alive by saving seeds

Article Image Alt Text

National Seed Swap Day has been celebrated every year on the last Saturday of January since its inception in Washington, D.C., in 2006. On this day — this year, it falls on Jan. 30 — gardeners come together and swap seeds from their best plants.

The art of seed-saving has all but disappeared from our culture. However, some passionate gardeners continue to carry on the time-honored and costeffective tradition of collecting the seeds from each year’s harvest to grow next year’s crop.

Strawberry crop coming early, looking good

BATON ROUGE Despite the recent cold snap, Louisiana strawberries are coming in at a steady clip. LSU AgCenter agent Mary Helen Ferguson said the producers are off to a good start this season, with no extreme temperatures so far.

“You should be able to find berries at a few locations now and that will increase over the coming weeks,” she said. “The growers I’ve talked to seem pretty satisfied with how things are going.”