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Wona Faye (Vincent) Breaux, 79, Marion, passed away Thursday morning, August 6, 2020, at her home.
She was born Friday, March 7, 1941, in Lyons Point, Louisiana, the daughter of Ulysse and Edna (Simon) Vincent. Wona loved spending time with her family and retired from the Bell South Company after years of dedication. She enjoyed watching game shows on TV, working crossword puzzles, and gambling. Wona was an avid New Orleans Saints fan, loved Elvis and her favorite color was pink!
Survivors include her daughter, Stephanie (husband, Monte) Miller; two sisters, Mary Granger, and Verna Hargrave; two grandchildren, Dean (girlfriend, Lindsey Hyde) Miller, and Meghan (boyfriend, Mason Pattison) Miller; one step-granddaughter, Courtney (husband, Travis) Bruce; three great-grandchildren, Bentley Miller, Aubrey Miller, and Maverick Pattison; two step great-grandchildren, Karsten, and Kohen.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Ulysse and Edna Vincent; her husband, Allen Breaux; a daughter, Bridgett Breaux; four brothers, and seven sisters.
A time of visitation and remembrance will be observed on August 15, 2020 from 8am until time of dismissal at 12:30pm at Hargrave Funeral Home. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place following visitation at 1:00pm at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with graveside services being held in the Morgan City Cemetery after.
In keeping with government mandate, Hargrave Funeral Home can allow for only 150 guests in its facility and Sacred Heart Catholic Church can accommodate 100 guests. All guests are asked to wear face masks as well as adhere to social distancing protocols upon entry of the funeral home or church.

NEW ORLEANS — Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, and Ludmila Belayev, MD, LSU Health New Orleans Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Neurosurgery, has unlocked a key fundamental mechanism in the communication between brain cells when confronted with stroke, according to a LSU Health New Orleans news release.
They report that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) not only protected neuronal cells and promoted their survival, but also helped maintain their integrity and stability. The discovery provides potential new clinical targets and specific molecules for the treatment of ischemic stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
Their research findings are published online in CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cns.13444.
Brain cells talk to one another, according to the research. This synchronized cell-to-cell crosstalk regulates neuroinflammation and the immune system, which are activated in the brain at the onset of stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases.
The researchers found that in the model of stroke, docosahexaenoic acid affects the levels of two proteins crucial to communication between brain cells — mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2). They discovered that treatment with DHA reduced the size of the damaged brain area, initiated repair mechanisms and greatly improved neurological and behavioral recovery.
These findings provide a major conceptual advance of broad relevance for neuronal cell survival, brain function and, particularly, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.
DHA is made from omega-3 very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs,n-3). It is found in fatty, cold-water fish like salmon. Among other benefits, DHA is essential for normal brain function in adults and for the growth and development of the brain in babies.
“Our findings contribute greatly to our understanding of cellular interactions engaging neurons, astrocytes, and microglia to sustain synaptic circuitry, set neurogenesis in motion, and initiate restoration to pathological derangements,” noted Bazan, who also holds the Ernest C. and Ivette C. Villere chair at LSU Health New Orleans.
These findings advance the understanding of how the complexity and resiliency of the human brain is sustained, mainly when confronted with adversities as in stroke. A key factor is how neurons communicate among themselves. These novel molecules participate in delivering messages to the overall synaptic organization to ensure the accurate flow of information through neuronal circuits.
“We know how neurons make synaptic connections with other neurons; however, these connections have to be malleable in order to change to the appropriate strength through experience,” explained Belayev.
“It’s like an orchestra,” said Bazan. “You need a conductor, and this is the role that DHA plays. Such a large-scale complexity first requires violinists, or in this case, synapses, which are highly sensitive sites of stroke injury that become messengers to target vulnerable cells.”
Co-authors include Sung-Ha Hong, Raul S. Freitas, Hemant Menghani, Shawn J. Marcell, Larissa Khoutorova, Pranab K. Mukherjee, and Reinaldo B. Oria. Dr. Menghani was supported by the Department of Pediatrics Hematology-Oncology Section at LSU Health New Orleans and Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. Raul S. Freitas is a graduate student from the Laboratory of the Biology of Tissue Healing, Ontogeny and Nutrition, Department of Morphology and Institute of Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil. Shawn J. Marcell is an LSU Health New Orleans medical student.
The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 1R01NS109221 and 1R01NS104117.

You've heard about cancel culture. On Tuesday, the president of Louisiana's top business lobby warned against shutdown culture.

"if we stay in this shutdown culture until the end of this year, and every couple of weeks we go back to the people and say, 'Sorry, too many cases. We need to shut down.' -- we're worried that when PPP runs out, we're going to lose a lot of service-based companies ...," said Stephen Waguespack, president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, at Wednesday's St. Mary Chamber luncheon in Morgan City.

PPP is the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal loan program for businesses that promise to keep workers on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waguespack's talk pointed out the dilemma Louisiana faced in June, when Gov. John Bel Edwards canceled his stay at home order and eased economic restrictions, and faces now during the coronavirus resurgence: What's the proper balance between public safety and economic security?

Waguespack argued that the situation is different now than in February and March,when COVID-19 emerged in Louisiana. Hospitals are no longer short of ventilators, personal protective equipment for health care workers is in good supply, and protective masks are available at the local drugstore, he said.

Businesses such as grocery and hardware stores have learned ways to keep their employees safe, Waguespack said, and schools can learn from those measures.

Louisiana has been slower to recover from COVID-19 lock-downs than other nearby states because the economy here is oriented toward services. And the state has been hit again by reduced demand for energy because of COVID's economic impact, he said. Only nine wells are producing offshore and only 20 in Louisiana, Waguespack said.

Louisiana needs people to drive here, fly here, eat at restaurants and have a good time, Waguespack said.

During hurricanes, the state sometimes sets up shelters where people can receive medical care, he said. "When the virus spread happens, to deal with the noncritical cases -- if we have to do that in order to open our schools and open our businesses, it's time to have the dialog, in our opinion. ...

"We think it's very important that we find a way to fight the health emergency," he said, "but also fight to open our economy pretty soon, because we can't depend on congressional dollars much longer."

The governor has said decisions about economic and other restrictions, including the current closure of bars, the mask mandate and crowd size limits, have been hard. But they're necessary because of the rapid spread of COVID and the need to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, he said.

The pressure on hospital capacity, which led officials at Lafayette General and Our Lady of Lourdes to make a plea for compliance with mitigation measures recently, has eased in the last couple of weeks.

But beginning June 15, nearly two weeks after Edwards moved Louisiana into a Phase Two relaxation of some economic restrictions, the number of COVID-19 cases in Louisiana began a jump from more than 47,000 to the current 134,034, while the number of deaths rose from 2,906 to 4,238.

In St. Mary, the number of cases increased from 359 to 1,632 in the last two months, while the number of deaths rose from 33 to 55.

Edwards has blamed the resurgence of COVID cases not on economic reopening but on failure to comply with mitigation measures.

Also Tuesday, Waguespack praised the Legislature for improving Louisiana's business climate by making tough decisions during 2020 sessions complicated by the pandemic.

He pointed to legislation by state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, that offers franchise tax relief to businesses with less than $1 million in taxable assets.

The big win, Waguespack said, was the passage of a reform measure involving automobile crash lawsuits, a law that he said will help lower insurance premiums.

The deal worked out through months of wrangling and a veto lowers the damage threshold needed to be eligible for a jury trial; allows insurance status and seat belt use to be entered as evidence at trials; and puts a 40% cap on so-called phantom damages resulting from bills far in excess of the actual repairs required after a wreck.

The legislation will help prevent excessive damage awards that drive up insurance premiums, Waguespack said. And he said letters are going out to 800 out-of-state insurers, urging them to take another look at the litigation climate in Louisiana.

"If all of a sudden we start getting more competition in the market," Waguespack said, "that absolutely will lead to competition and lower rates for you, and it will absolutely lead to to more competition and lower rates for the commercial market."

Allain, who was present for the luncheon at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City, received more praise from Chip Kline, director of Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Kline said Allain was helpful after an amendment came out of the House that would have hurt CPRA's funding.

Allain kept his word, Kline said.

"He took some licks for us at CPRA, licks he didn't have to take," Kline said.

Among the projects being funded by the CPRA is the Bayou Chene Flood Control Project, an $80 million effort that will create a permanent flood gate that can stop back-water flooding the affects at least five parishes.

The spread of COVID-19 in St. Mary, St. Martin and Assumption continues to slow, according to numbers at midday Wednesday from the Louisiana Office of Public Health. But another death was reported
Wednesday in St. Mary.

Within the last few weeks, the three parishes sometimes had a total of more than 100 new cases a day.

But on Wednesday, St. Mary had 11 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 1,642 since the pandemic began. The death reported Wednesday was the parish's 56.

St. Martin has 23 new cases for a pandemic total of 1,757 cases and 46 deaths.

Seven new Assumption cases bring the total to 598 with 20 deaths.

Statewide:
--1,179 new cases were reported for a pandemic total of 134,304.

--43 new deaths raise the toll to 4,238.

--15 fewer people were in hospitals, lowering that total to 1,320.

--3 fewer people are on ventilators for a total of 211.