December 2021

LAFAYETTE (AP) — A Louisiana girl often called “The Little Cajun Saint” has been moved a second step toward actual sainthood, along with a teacher who evangelized door to door in Cajun country and a man who worked for decades at a Hansen’s disease colony in Hawaii.

During its November meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. Conference of Bishops held voice votes to advance the cause of beatification and canonization of Charlene Richard of Richard, August “Nonco” Pelafigue of Arnaudville, and Ira Barnes Dutton, who took the name Joseph Dutton when he converted to Catholicism.

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Slow responses to damage claims. Constant switchups of insurance adjusters assessing the destruction. Low payment offers forcing people unnecessarily into litigation to get a fair deal.

Louisiana lawmakers and others said Wednesday that those are the problems they’re seeing and hearing with the insurance industry as homeowners struggle to rebuild and recover from Hurricane Ida, which struck southeastern parishes Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Supporters and opponents of abortion rights rallied, blared music and shouted taunts Wednesday during protests in Mississippi’s capital as the state took center stage in a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case that could end a nationwide right to abortion.

Outside Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, men took turns on a loudspeaker urging women to repent of their sins and keep their pregnancies. Some protesters carried graphic posters depicting aborted fetuses.

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Newly hired LSU coach Brian Kelly’s can accept if his legacy at storied Notre Dame is tarnished by the sudden and unceremonious way in which he walked away from the Fighting Irish.

“Legacies are not what I spend time thinking about,” Kelly said during his formal introduction at LSU on Wednesday. “I came down here because I wanted to be with the best.