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70,000 kids still out of school after hurricane

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:27am

WILLIAM PATRICK, The Center Square

State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told lawmakers Tuesday more than 70,000 Louisiana students remain out of school because of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29.
That figure, he said, is down from 300,000 students whose school districts were affected by the category 4 hurricane.
When asked by Senate Education Committee members about the delay in getting children back to school, Brumley said he was “impressed” with how fast the process was going.
“Some people believe it’s just a matter of restoring power and having water running and you can send everyone back to school, but that’s not the case,” Brumley said. “It’s much more complicated than that.”
Brumley said damaged school buildings must meet environmental and physical safety standards, including remediating water and tearing out damaged walls, floors, ceilings and carpets. Cafeterias must have food, school buses need to function to transport students and teachers and staff need to return, all before schools can reopen, he said.
One of the biggest obstacles is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Brumley said.
Brumley estimated Hurricane Ida caused hundreds of millions of dollars in school damages and said school districts in southwest Louisiana still are waiting for FEMA assistance dating back to Hurricane Laura last year.
Sen. Mark Abraham, R-Lake Charles, asked how state lawmakers could learn from Hurricane Laura and help school districts in Ida-affected southeast Louisiana.
“How can we speed up the process so we can get our schools ready for our children?” Abraham asked.
“Senator, I really don’t think that the issue lies with Calcasieu Parish School Board or Cameron Parish or the state of Louisiana,” Brumley said. “I think that’s a FEMA issue. We need to work with our congressional delegation and other federal leaders to make sure that FEMA is also acting with urgency.”
Calcasieu Parish School Board Superintendent Karl Bruchhaus testified that only a small portion of FEMA funding has arrived in his long suffering school district that was hard hit by Hurricane Laura and several ensuing natural disasters.
“Every time it rains, roofs leak,” he said.
Bruchhaus said the district submitted $12 million in eligible claims to FEMA in March for school roof repairs, but months later only $6 million arrived. Another $120 million for other repairs is still pending, he said, adding that the district has borrowed $100 million from the Louisiana Bond Commission and is in the process of borrowing another $50 million.
“It’s very expensive to reopen,” Bruchhaus said. “We estimate our current cost will be $260 million.”
Bruchhaus said the process starts with submitting eligible claims to FEMA. When the claims are approved, FEMA sends them to the Office of Management and Budget in Washington. OMB then sends them back to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) in Louisiana, which then remits payment to the original parish school district.
In the eight months since Calcasieu Parish submitted its initial FEMA claims, it still hasn’t received funding to fix damaged school buses, much less larger items that continue to affect the school system, Bruchhaus said.
Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, said the delays were outrageous.
“It takes eight months to get him an answer or a check?” Fields said. “That’s unacceptable, unreasonable and unconscionable.”
Superintendents from St. Bernard, Lafourche and St. Charles parishes also testified.
“First and foremost, Hurricane Ida was by far the most tragic and impactful event St. Charles Parish has ever experienced,” said Dr. Ken Oertling, superintendent St. Charles Parish Public School System. “We were 35 miles west of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and we opened schools within 11 days. We’re still fighting FEMA and GOHSEP for reimbursement from that event.”
Sen. Mack White, R-Baton Rouge, who chaired the Select Committee on Homeland Security after Hurricane Katrina and sits on the board of the Louisiana Emergency Response Network, said, “It’s going to take patience.”
“FEMA is going to be very, very slow, but I don’t know what we would do without them,” White said. “If we’re able to get federal dollars and cobble together state dollars and do everything we can to rebuild these school districts, I would just hope that we would hold the education standards and still produce a quality product.”

Advocacy group: Louisiana's debt amounts to $18,700 per taxpayer

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:25am

WILLIAM PATRICK, The Center Square

Louisiana did not have enough money to pay all of its bills in fiscal year 2020 despite ample federal funding, according to a Chicago-based fiscal watchdog.
The result is $18,700 owed per Louisiana taxpayer, the group said.
The finding comes from Truth in Accounting (TIA), a nonpartisan financial transparency firm that analyzes government reports and puts data into terms the general public can understand.
The organization’s newly released Financial State of the States assessment uses each state’s required annual comprehensive financial report and retirement plan report to determine its overall fiscal condition.
Louisiana ranked 40th out of 50 states, earning a grade of D in the report.
“Louisiana’s elected officials have repeatedly made financial decisions that left the state with a debt burden of $22.3 billion,” the report said. “Louisiana did not have enough money set aside to weather the pandemic and the state has been in poor fiscal shape for years.”
Most of Louisiana’s financial problems stem from unfunded retirement obligations that have been accumulating year-over-year, the report said.
TIA CEO Sheila Weinberg, a certified public accountant, said Louisiana has an unfunded pension liability of $11.3 billion and an unfunded retiree health care liability of $9 billion.
“Most of the money they need has been put in essence on the taxpayers’ credit card,” Weinberg said. “Instead of including those costs in current budgets, they’re pushed into the future.”
The Louisiana Employee Retirement System (LASERS) is the state’s largest pension plan with about 100,000 current and former public employees. According to its actuarial valuation for fiscal year 2020, the defined benefit pension system had an unfunded liability of $7 billion, with interest payments costing $532 million and an investment loss of $430 million.
However, LASERS recently claimed a 35.6% investment return, its highest in 75 years. The upswing was attributed to changes made after fiscal year 2020, which included many COVID-19-related uncertainties.
“While pleased with this year’s historic return, I must emphasize that LASERS is a long-term investor, investing through multiple economic cycles,” said Bobby Beale, the plan’s chief investment officer.
While Louisiana and nearly every other state is required to balance its annual budget, Weinberg explained retirement debts are allowed to remain off-the-books.
TIA’s report lists 39 state governments that did not have enough money to meet their liability obligations last fiscal year, despite receiving federal assistance from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and other federal COVID-19 related grants. Overall, the majority of states’ finances worsened, the report said.
The report assigned each state a taxpayer burden figure, determined by dividing the amount of unpaid liabilities by the number of taxpayers in a given state. While Louisiana ranked immediately ahead of New York and California, it was way ahead of the last three states – Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut – whose taxpayer burdens were $57,000; $58,300; and $62,000, respectively.
Eleven states had positive taxpayer burdens, meaning lawmakers had paid all obligations and had money to spare, mostly due to multibillion-dollar federal pandemic infusions. Alaska ($55,100), North Dakota ($39,200) and Wyoming ($19,500) were the top three.
Weinberg said keeping large public debts outside of balanced budget requirements allows lawmakers to claim fiscal responsibility, which can be misleading. She also said it allows them to skirt accountability.
“If lawmakers were to fund all liabilities and actually live within their means, that would require raising taxes and people might not vote for them; or cutting spending or benefits and people might not vote for them,” she said. “The problem is most people don’t know that and so they don’t really have a choice.”

Around Town for Oct. 1

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:22am

Happy birthday Herbert Jones Jr. from family, friends and Ira.

MIA-POW Day proclaimed

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:20am

Submitted Photo
MIA-POW Day was Sept. 17, and the day was the subject of a proclamation signed by Mayor Lee Dragna. In attendance were Cadet Kade Dugas, Auxiliary President Stacy Williams, Coach Chris Stroud, Laurie Elliott, Cadet Lane Gaudet, Fay Rutledge, Mata Tellman, Frank Elliott, Dragna, Commander Cory Williams, James Hadaway, Alton Austin, Sherman Whiting and Morgan City High Principal Tim Hymel. The VFW urges you to remember those who gave their lives for our country and those who are still held as prisoners of war.

Three battery cases among local arrests

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:16am

Staff Report

(Editor’s note: The charges listed here and the narratives that go with them are provided by the police agencies that made the arrests. Guilt or innocence has not been determined in court.)

Charges of battery kept local law enforcement agencies occupied this week, according to arrest reports.

Morgan City
Police Chief James F. Blair reported that the Morgan City Police Department responded to 37 calls for service within the last 24-hour reporting period and made these arrests beginning Wednesday:
—Kerwing Benitez-Deleon, 21, Morgan City, was arrested at 4:55 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of simple battery.
—A’Dontay Rayshaun Owens, 23, Railroad Avenue, Morgan City, was arrested at 4:55 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of second-degree battery.
—Joseph Burton, 46, Railroad Avenue, Morgan City, was arrested at 2:43 p.m. Wednesday on charges of entry or remaining in places after being forbidden, criminal damage to property (less than $1,000) and disturbing the peace (intoxication).
—Michael Dean Crawford, 42, St. Francis Street, Houma, was arrested at 1:35 a.m. Thursday on a charge of driving under suspension and warrants alleging attempted theft (under $1,000) and theft (under $1,000).

Berwick
Police Chief David Leonard reported that the Berwick Police Department made these arrests:
—Shawn Scully, 46, Cedar Street, Franklin, was arrested at 9:16 p.m. Wednesday on a Franklin Police Department warrant alleging felony domestic abuse battery.
About 8:58 p.m. Wednesday, officers of the Berwick Police Department were made aware of a possible vehicle that was reported stolen being located at a residence in Berwick.
Officers responded to the residence, located the vehicle and made contact with Scully. During this time, it was learned that Scully had active warrants through the Franklin Police Department for a domestic dispute he was involved in earlier in the night.
Scully was placed under arrest and transported to the Berwick Police Department where he was booked on Franklin Police Department’s warrant.
—Drake Geisler, 27, Elaine Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 11:33 a.m. Wednesday on warrants alleging driving while intoxicated and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Wednesday, Geisler turned himself into the Berwick Police Department for active warrants held for his arrest. The warrants stem from a crash investigation Aug. 4 involving Geisler.
On Aug. 4, the Berwick Police Department responded to a vehicle in the ditch on La. 182. Officers made contact with Geisler, who showed obvious signs of impairment. During this time, items of drug paraphernalia were also located on Geisler’s person.
Geisler was transported to a medical facility due to injuries sustained from the crash. While at the hospital, blood samples were collected from Geisler and sent to the crime lab. Lab results came back, and it was learned that Geisler had amounts of illegal substances in his blood at the time of the crash.
Warrants were the prepared for Geisler’s arrest.. Geisler was booked on the warrants and released on a $4,000 bond.

Franklin
Police Chief Morris Beverly reported that the Franklin Police Department responded to seven complaints over the past 24 hours and made these arrests:
—Joel Loustalot, 34, Cayce Street, Franklin, was arrested at 12:31 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant dated Sept. 23 alleging felony theft. Loustalot was booked, processed and transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center.
—Gregory Williams, 62, Franklin, was arrested at 6:42 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. Williams was booked, processed and transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center.

St. Martin
Sheriff Becket Breaux reported these arrests:
—Francheska Melancon, 30, A Devillier Street, Henderson, was arrested Wednesday by the Henderson Police Department on charges of manufacture, distribution or possession with intent to distribute Schedule II drugs and criminal conspiracy.
—Cody Romero, 21, Briar Marsh Road, Ragley, was arrested Wednesday and held for the U.S. Marshals Service.

Morgan City police radio logs for Sept. 29

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:14am

The following are the radio dispatch logs from the Morgan City Police Department. To report unlawful or suspicious activity, call the Police Department at 985-380-4605.
Wednesday, Sept. 29
7:53 a.m. Sixth Street and Brashear Avenue; Accident.
9 a.m. 1100 block of McDermott Drive; Complaint.
9:10 a.m. Terrytown, La (New Orleans); Lost ID.
9:41 a.m. 1000 block of Ninth Street; Complaint.
9:55 a.m. 600 block of Willow Street; Juvenile problem.
10:08 a.m. Amelia Street and Ditch Avenue; Suspicious subject.
10:26 a.m. 300 block of Arkansas Street; Juvenile problems.
11:43 a.m. Roderick Street area; Complaint.
1:36 p.m. 800 block of Brashear Avenue; Complaint.
1:50 p.m. 1600 block of Glenmont Street; Complaint.
1:55 p.m. 300 block of Glenwood Street; Juvenile runaway.
2:28 p.m. 1200 block of Railroad Avenue; Criminal damage to property.
3:57 p.m. 1100 block of Marguerite Street; Remove subject.
4:31 p.m. 7400 block of La. 182; Suspicious subject.
4:53 p.m. 1000 block of Greenwood Street; Accident.
6:19 p.m. 500 block of Egle Street; Animal.
7:31 p.m. 1200 block of David Drive; Alarm.
7:50 p.m. La. 182 and David Drive; Traffic incident.
8:16 p.m. North Third Street; Traffic incident.
10:32 p.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Welfare check.
11:28 p.m. 2000 block of Keith Street; Disturbance.
11:51 p.m. 600 block of Kentucky Street; Frequent patrols.

Jim Bradshaw: Veteran of Napoleon's army helped found a Louisiana town

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 11:06am

JIM BRADSHAW

After Napoleon Bonaparte was forced from power in 1815, many of his soldiers had to leave France for political and economic reasons.
A good number of them found their way to French Louisiana, including an officer who is called the founder of Ville Platte.
Napoleon fell out of favor with the French people after his defeat at Waterloo and, facing an army of allies outside of France and citizen unrest inside, was forced to abdicate. King Louis XVIII, back on the French throne, at first refused to pardon any of the men who fought under Napoleon, even common soldiers.
He finally pardoned the soldiers, but not the high-ranking officers or any of Napoleon’s relatives, most of whom decided it would be a prudent thing to leave France.
Their problem was finding a place to go. They’d fought against practically every country in Europe, and weren’t welcome in any of them.
Many of them came to the United States simply because they had no other choice.
One of those veterans was Marcellin Garand, a native of Savoy, France, who had been an adjutant major during Napoleon’s reign, and who’d lost most of his eyesight to snow blindness during the army’s disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812.
Garand reached New Orleans in 1817, and was in the Ville Platte area at least by 1821, when he married Brigette Soileau, daughter of Noel Soileau and Angelique Fontenot.
She died in 1825, and Garand married Hyacinthe Vidrine, daughter of Pierre Vidrine and Marie Josephe Brignac.
In April 1824, he and two others negotiated with an earlier settler, Samuel Laughlin, for the right to gather wood on his property. Laughlin died shortly after that deal was made, and Garand bought half of Laughlin’s land from the estate.
Some histories credit Garand with founding the town and naming it Ville Platte (Flat Town), but the name was probably used well before he got there.
The first settlers stopped there in the 1780s because it was on the main trail between Natchitoches and Los Adaes in central Louisiana and San Antonio, and it was where the Louisiana hill country began to flatten into prairie land good for raising cattle or cultivation.
As for his founding the town, one historian explains, “he was the first to think in terms of incorporating the area into a legal village. Prior to this time, it had just been a stopover on the road.
Under his leadership, with other gentlemen of the period serving as a committee, Ville Platte was established as a town, and he became known as its founder.”
He is also credited in some histories with originating the Tournoi, the jousting tournament that remains a regular part of the annual Cotton Festival in Ville Platte.
Despite his poor eyesight, Garand became a man of substance and influence.
He owned a hotel, store and tavern and was the town’s first postmaster.
When he died on June 14, 1852, at the age of 71, his estate included “a Plantation House and its dependences, containing one hundred and eighty-five arpents of land, a part in culti
vation, a part in wood, and a part in prairie,” another tract of “wood and prairie land, situated in Flat Town, containing about one hundred arpents,” another smaller piece of land, “one buggy, one wagon, a lot of gentle horned cattle, one lot of wild vacherie cattle, one flock of sheep, two yolk of oxen, work and carriage horses, farming implements, household furniture, kitchen utensils, &c,. &c., &c.”
The inventory for his store included shoes and clothing and other expected items, as well as seven 30-gallon barrels of whiskey, 306 bottles of red wine, and eight bottles of champagne.
In all. his estate was valued at a little more than $30,000, the equivalent of roughly a million dollars today.
The old soldier is buried in the Old Ville Platte Cemetery.
His refurbished grave was listed near the west end of Chatagnier Street when the graveyard was cleaned up in 1938 as a WPA project.
There are no descendants in the area who bear the Garand name. He had one son, but there’s some question about what happened to him.
Some people think he moved to Texas in the 1860s. Others say he died during the Civil War. There are no reliable records.
Garand daughters married into the Dardeau, Tate, Reed, and other families with deep roots in the area.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Jeremy Alford: Louisiana waits on Washington for hurricane aid

Fri, 10/01/2021 - 10:51am

JEREMY ALFORD

(Editor's Note: In the days between the time this column was written and Friday, Congress passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, and the Senate approved a supplemental funding measure approving $28.6 million in disaster aid, some of which will be headed to Louisiana for hurricane recovery.)

Like characters in a Samuel Beckett play, folks in Louisiana are waiting on Congress to show up and help with hurricane recovery efforts.
Each passing day brings with it new promises of federal funding, yet the sun rises and sets with little hope of immediate arrival.
The House, along party lines, endorsed a multi-part legislative package last week that tied hurricane recovery dollars to other spending priorities from the Biden administration and a proposal to hike the nation’s debt ceiling.
The politics were sticky at best, with Republicans accusing Democrats of a wild money grab that essentially held hurricane money hostage.
The approach created an uncomfortable political environment for the Republican members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation.
Our GOP House members voted against the legislative package and have since become targets for criticism, mostly by Democrats.
Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, for example, wrote a letter to the editor this week accusing the GOP House members of turning their backs on Louisiana.
The state Democratic Party is also using the House vote to raise money.
In a recent email appeal, the party said it needed help holding lawmakers accountable for voting against $28.6 billion in disaster relief.
U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy followed suit Monday evening when the upper chamber failed to advance the spending package.
Both men were critical of the Democrats who linked hurricane aide to the debt ceiling proposal and other spending.
So where does that leave us? What’s the next move or backup plan?
Republican staffers on the Hill say their bosses want a clean disaster bill that stands alone and isn’t connected to the debt ceiling and other White House priorities.
More than likely, that’s where this is all headed.
“It’s a process, but we’re going to get there,” said Paul Rainwater, a senior consultant with Cornerstone Government Affairs who previously served as the director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and as commissioner of administration. “Eventually there will be a clean bill with disaster supplemental funding for hurricanes Laura and Ida. We’ve met with the leadership on both sides of the aisle and I feel like everyone is trying to work towards a resolution.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards spent part of last week in Washington as well lobbying policymakers.
e told them that the relief money in the legislative package would help Louisiana significantly, but would only be a down payment, especially with mounting housing challenges left in Hurricane Ida’s wake.
(The $28 billion is for all hurricane-affected states, not just Louisiana.)
Temporary housing has emerged as a top priority in certain corners of southeast Louisiana, particularly the Terrebonne-Lafourche region.
Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee of Houma has become a leading voice on this front, using media interviews and his own Twitter account to bring attention to the issue.
Urgency, however, is growing across all of the parishes touched by hurricanes this year and last.
In Lake Charles, our neighbors have been waiting for a year for a substantive response out of Washington.
In places like LaPlace, where entire neighborhoods have been decimated, this week marks a month since Hurricane Ida made landfall.
Louisiana is once again waiting on Congress as politics guide the process.
Fortunately, lawmakers are approaching some important deadlines, so we may see legislative action again sooner rather than later.
If Congress doesn’t pass legislation to address the debt limit and fund government operations, there could be a government shutdown on Oct. 1, which is just a few days away.
For more Louisiana political news, visit www. LaPolitics.com or follow Alford on Twitter LaPoliticsNow.

From the Editor: The best time you'll ever have at a City Council meeting

Thu, 09/30/2021 - 1:46pm

BILL DECKER

bdecker@daily-review.com

As much as we all admire civic participation, the basic city council meeting isn’t something you could call riveting, let alone entertaining.
Tuesday’s Morgan City Council meeting was different, in a good way, starting with the key to the city awarded to gold- and bronze-medalist Vernon Norwood, fresh from the Tokyo Olympics. Our story on that part of the meeting was published Wednesday and is at StMaryNow.com.
Gerald Thibodeaux presented the 2020 audit and described the city’s finances as “steady.” Courtney Long and Danika Foley Long gave the Recreation Department $1,000 raised through a police officer-firefighter basketball game.
Grace Eisenman received a Positive Image award for creating The Market in an old supermarket building to give arts and crafts people a place to show and sell their work.
But the happiest part of the evening was feeling once more the sense of relief that we were spared a direct hit by a Category 4 hurricane, and the sense of pride in what our neighbors have been doing for those who weren’t.
On Tuesday, Mayor Lee Dragna dished out praise for department heads and city employees for their efforts after the storm.
Hurricane Ida came ashore 73 miles away at Port Fourchon on Aug. 29 as one of the strongest storms ever to hit Louisiana. But power was restored in most of Morgan City by the following day.
The mayor praised utility crews for their quick work.
When the power came on, east St. Mary saw increased traffic as evacuees returned from the west and people from hard-hit areas to the east came here looking for groceries and fuel. Long lines at gas stations were common in the first week.
All that traffic led to extra work for police officers, who still managed to find a way to bring water and other supplies to colleagues in some of the areas with the most severe damage.
Other local police departments faced the same challenges. Patterson Police Chief Garrett Grogan assigned officers to make sure tempers didn’t get out of control at the gasoline lines.
One day during the week after Ida struck, I was making the rounds and found Berwick Assistant Chief JP Henry making sandwiches in a break room. The sandwiches were for officers who were on traffic duty around town.
Back in Morgan City on Tuesday, the council gave one of its Positive Image awards to the Clarion Inn, 520 Roderick St. Dragna praised the hotel for making the extra effort to make sure people the hotel took in were fed and had clean clothing.
General Manager Kristy Gant, who accepted the award, said 200 utility linemen stayed at the hotel.
Port of Morgan City Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade was at the meeting to report on port operations. But he also said the port’s facilities housed Coast Guard members who were displaced by damage in the severely damaged areas to the east.
The Emergency Operations Center housed some of them. Another 70 stayed at the port on Youngs Road, where the Coast Guard set up mobile kitchens, showers and other facilities.
Disconnected
Of course, not everything worked as it should after Ida. Cellphone service was spotty at best in the week or so after the storm.
The biggest carrier, AT&T, became the target of criticism from state lawmakers representing the hurricane zone as well as from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Kennedy wrote to CEO John Stankey “condemning AT&T’s failure to maintain its network in Louisiana when Hurricane Ida hit,” according to a press release from the senator’s office.
From the letter:
“I write to you today regarding AT&T’s failure to maintain network operations during Hurricane Ida, including the emergency first responder call systems that so many parishes and cities rely on that AT&T exclusively serves. As you know, on Sunday, August 29th, Hurricane Ida made landfall in southeast Louisiana as a Category 4 storm. When Hurricane Ida hit, AT&T’s network —including the First Responder Network (FirstNet) — failed. Countless Louisianans were left without the ability to complete calls or send texts.
“The failure of AT&T’s network impacted people from all across the state, with at least four parishes reporting 911 systems being down. When Louisianans tried to make calls to 911 the calls couldn’t be completed. When loved ones tried to contact family and friends they couldn’t. Residents even lacked the ability to send and receive life-saving updates. This is unacceptable, especially when contrasted with widespread reports of competitor networks faring better.
“It is my understanding that AT&T is the service provider for all 911 call centers in Louisiana. Further, it is my understanding that AT&T was awarded a 25-year, $6.5 billion contract to build and maintain a nationwide network for public safety — FirstNet. … FirstNet promised to absolutely ensure communications services for first responders during the most serious and unprecedented disasters. Unfortunately, emergency calls didn’t make it to first responders and there is widespread acknowledgment from government officials and emergency responders that much of the call routing technology they rely on is antiquated and in need of replacement or upgrade.”
Kennedy asked AT&T why its network suffered greater outages than its competitors, how much money AT&T invested in deploying and expanding FirstNet coverage in Louisiana over the past five years and what AT&T is doing to improve its network resiliency, among other questions.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

Review will move to twice-weekly publication

Thu, 09/30/2021 - 1:44pm

Beginning the week of Oct. 4, The Daily Review print edition will be published two times a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, under the name Morgan City Review.
The move is due to rising production and distribution costs, and follows a national trend toward reduced print publication days and reliance on websites and social media for breaking news.
We’ll continue to post up-to-date news on our website, StMaryNow.com, and on our Facebook page each day.
“We have been tracking customer habits for the past few years and have determined that many of our readers access our website daily for breaking news,” said Publisher Mary Terry.
In March 2021, StMaryNow.com recorded 354,351 sessions, 460,395 page views and 275,615 visitors.
Subscribers will receive their newspapers by mail at reduced rates.
We offer a three-month subscription for $37; six months for $57; and $79 for a year.
Out-of-state subscribers will pay $98.50 per year.
Print subscriptions come with full digital access which includes the e-edition, archive search and more.
The rates for digital-only subscriptions for email delivery of our e-edition will be $23 for three months, $45 for six months and $68 for a year.
Single copy print editions of The Morgan City Review can be purchased for $1 at newsstands and retail locations.
“Your continued support of your hometown newspaper will ensure that you will continue to receive news from the meetings of public bodies, school events, clubs, organizations, etc., that are important to the Morgan City area,” Terry said.