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Honoring veterans

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 1:32pm

Patterson Garden Club and the city of Patterson hosted the Blue Star Marker Veterans Service Friday at Patterson Junior High School. Attendants were welcomed by Mayor Rodney Grogan. Lt. Col. Cory M. Williams of the Morgan City High JROTC program was the guest speaker. A rifle team demonstration was performed during the event by three of Morgan City High School’s JROTC cadets. A tribute of flowers was presented by members of American Legion Posts 242, American Legion Post 589, Veterans of Foreign Wars Oil Center Post 4222, and the Marine Corps League.

Radio Logs for November 8

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 1:25pm

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.
Thursday, Nov. 7
11:09 a.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Medical emergency.
11:19 a.m. 800 block of Victor II Boulevard; Alarm.
11:40 a.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Medical emergency.
12:40 p.m. East up-ramp near Hampton Inn; Assist.
1:23 p.m. 1100 block of Brashear Avenue; Complaint.
2:07 p.m. 1400 block of Second Street; Remove subject.
2:56 p.m. 300 block of Egle Street; Assist.
3:01 p.m. 600 block of Egle Street; Medical emergency.
3:10 p.m. 600 block of Egle Street; Medical emergency.
3:14 p.m. 7700 block of La. 182; Suspicious subject.
4:08 p.m. 1700 block of Filmore Street; Com-plaint.
4:41 p.m. 400 block of Belanger Street; Suspicious subject.
5:44 p.m. U.S. 90 West; Accident.
6:12 p.m. 400 block of Belanger Street; Complaint.
6:16 p.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Complaint.
7:09 p.m. 6300 block of La. 182; Complaint.
7:22 p.m. Brownell Homes; Search warrant execution.
11:19 p.m. Chatsworth Drive; Animal complaint.
Friday, Nov. 8
12:09 a.m. Berwick Police Department; Inmate transport.
12:15 a.m. Chatsworth Drive; Animal complaint.
2:06 a.m. 200 block of Patton Street; Animal complaint.
2:10 a.m. 1000 block of Eighth Street; Arrest/search warrant.
2:18 a.m. 1000 block of Seventh Street; Noise complaint.

Andrews is new assistant principal at Patterson Junior High

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 12:08pm

Courtney Andrews will serve as assistant principal at Patterson Junior High School, according to a press release from Superintendent Teresa Bagwell.
Andrews has been an educator for 12 years at Patterson High School, where she has taught English and history courses. During her tenure, Andrews was selected by the Louisiana Department of Education to serve as a social studies teacher leader adviser charged with reviewing scope and sequence documents and creating primary sources for world geography.
In addition, Andrews has served as a teacher leader at Patterson High School for the last two years, working closely with administrators to provide teachers with instructional support through observations and feedback.
“The wealth of knowledge and curriculum expertise that Ms. Andrews brings to Patterson Junior High will benefit students in their transition from a junior high to high school setting,” the press release said.
Andrews will begin her new role Monday.

Critical need for O-negative blood donors

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 11:59am

Staff Report

MORGAN CITY— O-negative blood supplies are critically low and there is an urgent need for blood donations. In response, Vitalant has issued a critical need for blood donations from O-negative donors. In emergency situations, doctors reach for type O-negative blood first. Only nine percent of the population has O-negative blood, making it imperative that all eligible donors donate on a regular basis.

Blood donation takes about an hour from check-in to refreshments. Donors can save about 20 minutes by completing their Fast Track Health History the day they donate at vitalant.org.

Volunteer blood donors must be at least 16-years-old, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Additional height/weight requirements apply to donors 22 and younger, and donors who are 16 and 17 must have signed permission from a parent or guardian.

“With the holiday season upon us, it is imperative that all eligible blood donors donate,” says James Dugger, Division President for Vitalant’s Southeast and Southcentral divisions. “We typically see over a 20% decline in donations during the holiday season, however with increased travel and activity, the need for blood increases. I strongly encourage all blood donors, especially those with type O-negative blood, to give blood as soon as possible.”

Find a Vitalant donation location near you and make an appointment to give at vitalant.org or call 877-25VITAL. Walk-ins are welcome.

Early voting ends Saturday

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 11:56am

The early voting period for the Nov. 16 primary ends Saturday.
Regardless of address, St. Mary people can vote early at either the Parish Courthouse in Franklin or the Registrar of Voters Office, 301 Third St. in Morgan City.
The hours are 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. You’ll need a photo ID.
He ballot includes runoffs for governor, secretary of state, state House District 50, and Parish Council Districts 3 and 10.

From the Editor: Lies, darned lies and polls

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 11:54am

If you go by the polls, we’re in for a governor election that’s tighter than a fat man’s trousers after lunch.
Someone has to say stuff like that now that Dan Rather isn’t around on election night anymore.
At any rate, the race appears to be close, according to a couple of recent polls. A My People poll released on Halloween gives incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards 50% support and 47% to Republican challenger Eddie Rispone with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6%.
Another poll, taken a few days earlier by JMC Analytics, had the race at 48% for Edwards and 46% for Rispone. The reporting I’ve seen doesn’t list a margin of error for the JMC poll. It’s one of the things to watch for in poll reporting.
If the lead by one candidate is smaller than the margin of error, it’s not really a lead. It’s a dead heat.
That’s what margin of error means. It’s a measure of the limit of statistical accuracy.
If we read or report polls incorrectly, they may become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Polls are like weather forecasts. The meteorologist can nail the forecast 47 days in a row, but we remember the times when we got caught in the rain on what was supposed to be a sunny day.
The most famous example of wildly inaccurate polling is the 1948 presidential race, in which the polls had President Harry Truman losing badly to Republican Thomas Dewey. Truman won, giving us the famous photo showing a big Truman grin as he holds up a “Dewey defeats Truman” newspaper headline.
A history teacher once told my American history class that the polls were wrong because the pollsters relied on phone interviews. But not everyone had phones in 1948.
Who didn’t have phones? Farmers, minorities, lots of people in the South, people in other rural areas across the country, and low-income people generally. That was the Democratic base.
The pollsters violated a principle: Accurate polls require everyone in the population you claim to sample to have an equal chance of being polled, and respondents have to be chosen at random.
Pollsters faced the same challenge early in the cellphone era, when there was no easy way for phone banks to include cellphone numbers. Results would tend to under-represent people who relied on mobiles instead of landlines.
Now I get a robo-call once a week trying to sell me a service contract on a car I got rid of five years ago. We can assume the cellphone hurdle has been cleared.
The other example of bad polling that many people would point to is the 2016 election, when Republican Donald Trump was reputed to be a certain loser to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Lots of TV talking heads were talking that way, but they didn’t understand the polls.
The Real Clear Politics collection of major presidential polls from the last few days before the 2016 election showed Clinton with leads within or a shade higher than the margin of error. The exception was a Los Angeles Times/USC tracking poll that had Trump ahead by three points.
Sure enough, Clinton won the popular vote. But the commonly cited polls were national polls, and we don’t elect presidents according to the national popular vote. Trump picked up enough votes to win some key swing states and gather enough electoral votes to become president.
So it’s important to view the interpretation of polls with a skeptical eye. And you should know the margin of error.
The margin is the square root of the sample size — the number of people in the area the poll is supposed to represent — divided into 1. So a margin of error of 3.5%, which is common in good polls, requires responses from something like 820 people.
The weird thing is it doesn’t matter whether you’re polling St. Mary Parish with 50,000 people or the United States with a population of 320 million. You still need about 820 responses to get a 3.5% margin of error.
Sometimes major polls will include many more responses in order to get a good margin for subgroups such as women, Republicans or Democrat, or minorities.
To really understand a poll, see who paid for it and how the questions were asked.
“Do you favor handsome, energetic Jones or that drunken idiot Smith?” is not likely to yield an accurate result.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

Ochsner St. Mary gets A grade for patient safety

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 11:50am

Ochsner St. Mary, previously Teche Regional Medical Center, was awarded an A in the fall 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing Ochsner St. Mary’s achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care.
The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization driven by employers and other purchasers of health care committed to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. The Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, Do or F grade to all general hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.
“Our dedicated team at Ochsner St. Mary is committed to keeping patients safe while delivering exceptional and compassionate care to the community we serve,” said Tim Allen, CEO, Ochsner Bayou Region. “This recognition is an honor and a testament to the tireless efforts of our providers, nurses and staff, and we are very proud to have received this distinction.”
Developed under the guidance of a National Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent.
Ochsner’s partnership with St. Mary Parish Hospital Service District was approved this fall and the Morgan City-based facility was renamed Ochsner St. Mary on October 1. The hospital is a 164-bed, licensed, acute care facility accredited by the Joint Commission providing both primary and secondary levels of care.
Inpatient and outpatient services at Ochsner St. Mary include a 24-Hour Emergency Department, Ambulatory Care Services, Cardiac Services, Cardiopulmonary, full Service Lab, General Surgery, Inpatient Behavioral Health, Women’s Services, Medical / Surgical, ICU, Pharmacy, Rehabilitation Services include Inpatient and Outpatient Physical, Occupational & Speech Therapy and Radiology Services. The medical staff consists of general surgeons, obstetricians/gynecologists, cardiologists, pediatricians, internal medicine, family practitioners, ophthalmologists, orthopedics, radiologists, pathologists, podiatrists, psychiatrists, emergency medicine physicians and anesthesiologists.

Wheel House for Nov. 8

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 11:48am

SENIOR CITIZENS
Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by St. Mary Community Action Agency and St. Mary Parish Government at St. Mary Senior Citizens Center, home of St. Mary AARP, Chennault Street, Morgan City, on Nov. 12 with fellowship, bingo and door prizes. Bingo begins at 10 a.m. For info call 337-828-5703.

THANKSGIVING
Dinner hosted by New Mt. Esther Baptist Church, 1211 James St., Morgan City, Sunday, Nov. 10. Public invited.

St. Mary AARP holds Veterans Day tribute

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 10:28am

A special Veterans Day tribute was held during the St. Mary Parish AARP Chapter 4435 monthly meeting Nov. 4 at the St. Mary Senior Citizens Center, home of St. Mary AARP, in Morgan City. Prior to the meeting, members and guests were entertained with dance music from 4 to 5:30 p.m., followed by bingo until 6:15 p.m.
The meeting and meal sponsor for November was Hargrave Funeral Home. Attendees were served a meal of meatloaf, creamed potatoes, gravy, sweet peas and salad. The meal was prepared by Pat Fryer and Mary Lee Gaudet.
St. Mary AARP member Gordon Smith delivered a special Veterans Day tribute to the members of St. Mary AARP who are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Beverly Domengeaux, St. Mary Council on Aging executive director, was also a speaker. She provided details about the Thanksgiving Meals for Seniors to be held Nov. 20 at the Patterson Area Civic Center.
The meal will be furnished in coordination with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana and Peoples Health.
Domengeaux stated that this event is open to senior citizens in St. Mary and Iberia parishes, and that space for this event is limited. Those interested in attending must make reservations by calling St. Mary Council on Aging at 337-907-6310.
Candace Dinger, Hargrave Funeral Home location manager, spoke about how Hargrave has consistently had a commitment to “putting families first” by providing pre-planning of services, including locking in costs, as well as promising to match prices of other service providers. She also stated that the most important reason that Hargrave sponsors St. Mary AARP is to maintain a meaningful relationship with the community.
Birthday and anniversary celebrants for November were recognized at the meeting. The birthday cake was donated by M C Bank.
The next St. Mary AARP monthly meeting and meal will be held Dec. 2.

Matchbox Cars, coloring book, Magic make Toy Hall of Fame

Fri, 11/08/2019 - 10:25am

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Matchbox Cars, the coloring book and the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering were inducted Thursday into the National Toy Hall of Fame, recognized for an enduring appeal that keeps them on store shelves today.
A panel of experts selected the Class of 2019 from among nominated finalists that also included Care Bears, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper, Jenga, Masters of the Universe, My Little Pony, Nerf Blaster, Risk, the smartphone and the top.
The honorees were installed during a ceremony at the hall, located inside The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. They will be permanently showcased alongside 68 previous winners that include alphabet blocks, the Big Wheel, G.I. Joe and others recognized for their innovation, longevity and ability to foster creativity or discovery through play.
Matchbox Cars follow rival Hot Wheels, Class of 2011, into the hall. Lesney Products debuted Matchbox Cars in England in 1953 and in United States a year later, where they were selling at a rate of more 100 million a year by 1960, the hall said.
When the sporty Hot Wheels entered the market in 1968, Matchbox Cars responded with a “superfast” line of its own. Both brands are now owned by Mattel.
“Matchbox Cars revolutionized the toy car industry after their introduction, and the name Matchbox has become synonymous with miniature cars,” Chief Curator Christopher Bensch said in a news release. “It’s only fitting that they join the Toy Hall of Fame to sit in the winner’s circle alongside Hot Wheels, the other titan of the field.”
Wizards of the Coast introduced Magic: The Gathering in 1993 and quickly had trouble meeting demand, the hall said. A book series, electronic games and Netflix series have followed. The fantasy game employs chance and skill as players continuously collect new cards and refine their deck and strategies.
“The fact that it continues to maintain popularity is a testament to its revolutionary gameplay and constant evolution, making it engaging for beginners and experts alike,” curator Shannon Symonds said.
The New York printing company McLoughlin Brothers gets credit for producing the first coloring books in the 1880s. In recent years, the activity’s appeal has crossed over to adults as a way to reduce stress and boost creativity.
Anyone can nominate a toy using an online form, but to make it into the hall, toys must have lasted across generations, be innovative, and foster learning, creativity or discovery through play.
The winners are chosen on the advice of historians, educators and others whose lives or careers are focused on learning, creativity and discovery, according to the hall said.