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Jones to compete in long jump for LSU Wednesday in NCAA outdoor national championships

LSU freshman long jumper Kenan Jones will conclude his stellar outdoor season Wednesday evening when he competes in the long jump finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Mike Myers Stadium in Austin Texas.
Jones is the lone freshman of the 24 competitors in the field. He has the 11th-best mark entering the finals after jumping a personal best of 25 feet, 2.75 inches. The event will start at 6 p.m. and will feature two flights.
Jones and teammates, sophomore JuVaughn Harrison and junior Rayvon Grey, will complete in the second flight. Harrison has the top leap entering the finals, while junior Rayvon Grey has the fifth-best mark.
However, Grey won the indoor national title in the long jump this season, while Harrison was runner-up. Harrison is the NCAA national leader in the long jump this outdoor season.
Jones enters the finals after finishing sixth at the NCAA East Regional where he jumped a personal best of 25 feet, 2.75 inches.
Jones, who has been in Austin since Sunday, said Tuesday that preparations had gone well, noting the team trained at the facility and that Tuesday was a “laid-back” day.
This season, Jones said he thought he has done well.
“Got to see a lot of good competition all around,” Jones said.
Earlier this spring, he split time between football with spring training and track and field.
He said it wasn’t hard balancing the two sports simultaneously.
However, he said, “It was just a lot to juggle.”
While he said competing in both “took a toll on my body,” he said that now he is just focused on track and field with spring training complete, he is doing much better.
With fellow elite long jumpers on the Tigers’ squad, Jones said he has gotten plenty of advice from them, mostly just telling him to learn the technique.
“Other than that, go out and compete with an open mind (and) have fun,” Jones said of other advice he has received from his teammates.
On Wednesday, Jones will represent both LSU and his high school alma mater, Berwick.
“Representing LSU, that’s a wonderful thing, a great thing,” he said. “A lot of people can’t say they can do (that). Representing my home town is one thing that will never get old.”

Radio logs for June 7

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, June 6

9:06 a.m. Parish jail; Prisoner transport.

9:20 a.m. 2100 block of Federal Avenue; Alarm.

9:29 a.m. U.S. 90 West; Accident.

9:57 a.m. 1000 block of Chestnut Drive; Complaint.

10:07 a.m. 1600 block of Willow Bend Drive; Fire.

10:14 a.m. 500 block of Garber Street; Complaint.

10:29 a.m. 2400 block of Apple Street; Welfare check.

10:44 a.m. 700 block of Brashear Avenue; Suspicious people.

10:56 a.m. Cefalu Trailer Park; Animal complaint.

12:48 p.m. 900 block of Florence Street; Animal complaint.

1:08 p.m. 1600 block of Front Street; Juvenile problem.

Friday, June 7

2:24 a.m. 1200 block of David Drive; Open door.

2:42 a.m. 1100 block of Marguerite Street; Alarm.

2:48 a.m. Arenz Street; Suspicious subject.

4:12 a.m. 5000 block of Railroad Avenue; Alarm.

La. budget passes in final hours

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana House on Thursday unanimously approved the $30 billion state operating budget for next year, which aligned with Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ agenda for $1,000 teacher and $500 support staff pay raises and a contested $39 million block grant for public school districts.
The Legislature’s budget deal also included boosts to higher education spending and early childhood education after years of standstill funding and cuts to these agencies and programs. It was the first significant statewide pay raise for teachers in a decade.
The budget will take effect on July 1, 2019.
This legislative session, which ended on Thursday, marked a sharp contrast with previous sessions that ignited partisan disagreements over deep cuts across state agencies as lawmakers were trying to address recurring budget crises.
The partisan dispute ended last year when the governor and Republican House leaders settled on a compromise to extend the state sales tax by .45 of a cent until 2025 to stabilize the budget.
This year, legislators used part of the revenue brought by the sales tax extension to increase funding across state agencies, including the teacher pay raises.
The 2019-2020 budget includes full funding for the popular TOPS scholarships and an extra $20 million for early childhood education, as well as boosts for higher education and the Department of Corrections.
The biggest budget contention was between the governor and House Republican leaders, spurred by House Appropriations Comm-ittee chairman Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, around the teacher pay raises and across-the-board funding for school districts.
House Republican leaders had sent a budget proposal to the Senate which included $1,200 pay raises for teachers and $600 raises for support workers, but not the $39 million block grant to school districts that the governor and the state’s education board sought.
But GOP lawmakers in the House Education Committee last week concurred with the governor’s pay raise rates and the inclusion of the block grant in next year’s budget.
In the Senate budget debate last week, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, objected to the budget.
She said the budget was immoral because it did not include funding to support women and children, who would be affected by the state’s ‘fetal heartbeat’ six-week abortion ban passed earlier that week.
Peterson, who chairs the Louisiana Democratic Party, offered amendments to the budget that proposed additional funding to foster care, sex education and prenatal care services to women, but they were all rejected on the Senate floor.
Earlier in the session, the Senate rejected a proposal by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, that would have phased out the extra portion of the state sales tax compromise the Legislature passed in the previous legislative session.
The Legislature passed the budget minutes before the session officially ended at 6 p.m.
Immediately after the House finally approved the budget for next year, Rep. Terry Landry, a Democrat from New Iberia who has experienced the partisan wrangling of the previous years, commented “this is the first year in decades that our budget has been stabilized.”

EVELYN SOLAR DUVAL

Evelyn Solar Duval, 77, a native of Morgan City and resident of Bayou Vista, died Saturday, June 1, 2019, at Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma.
She is survived by two sons, Melvin Duval Jr. and James Duval, both of Morgan City; two daughters, Pauline Matherene and Cathy Duval, both of Morgan City; one brother, Calvin Solar of Texas; two sisters, Vina Glynn of Plaquemine and Leona Davis of Franklin; four grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a host of other relatives.
She was preceded in death by her husband, a son, a daughter, her parents, three sisters and two brothers.
Visitation will be Sunday from 10 a.m. until services at 2 p.m. at Twin City Funeral Home.
Twin City Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

MARTHA ANN JONES ANGELLOZ

Martha Ann Jones Angelloz, 72, formerly of Morgan City, died Wednesday, June 5, 2019.
She is survived by two children, Derrick and Thad; and four grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband and parents.
No services will be held.

ALICE MAE GANT HARRIS

Alice Mae Gant Harris, 77, a native of Patterson and resident of Morgan City, died Monday, May 27, 2019, at her residence.
Visitation will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at New Zorah Baptist Church in Morgan City. Burial will follow in Morgan City Cemetery.
She is survived by three sons, Alvin Irvin Sr. of Patterson, Harry Irvin Jr. of Morgan City and Patrick Harris Sr. of Broussard; three daughters, Catheryn Washington of Franklin, Ruby Bartley of Morgan City and Cheryl Howard of Houma; three brothers, Leroy Favors and Samuel Gant, both of Patterson, and Dan Gant of Morgan City; two sisters, Bertha Jefferson and Marsha Max-George, both of Houston; 15 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren; and a host of other relatives.
She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents and a brother.
Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

STANLEY DAIGLE SR.

Stanley Daigle Sr., 86, a native of Morgan City and resident of Belle River, died Friday, June 7, 2019.
Arrangements are pending.

Jim Bradshaw: Darby guessed wrong on origin of La. hills

When the surveyor William Darby first explored south Louisiana in the early 1800s, he said seven “grand” prairies were “the most remarkable feature” of the region.
He listed them as Grand Chevreuil, which ran roughly west of Bayou Teche; the Attacapas [sic] Prairie between the Teche and Vermilion; the “large prairie of Opelousas” between the Vermilion and Mermentau; the Grand prairie, “which commences about eight miles north of Opelousas church, winds between the waters of the Teche and Courtableau … then gradually turns south between Bayou Cane and Bayou Mallet; the Prairie Mamou between Bayou Nezpique and Bayou Cane; Prairie Calcasiu [sic], east of Bayou Nezpique; and the Sabine prairie between the Calcasieu and the Sabine." (William Darby, "A Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana.” New York: James Olmstead, 1817)
He described each of the prairies in detail and marveled at their extent and fertility, but, although “remarkable,” they were not the only thing that caught his eye. The features that puzzled him most about south Louisiana were the hills that began to rise on the northern edge of the flat prairie land.
“It will no doubt excite the astonishment of many, why so much importance should be attached to elevations so very small above the general level as the hills in question,” he wrote.
The reason for their importance, in his view, was that he thought they might be as old as the earth itself.
“Mountains, rivers, hills, and other permanent features remain nearly the same … throughout the lapse of ages,” he said.
“The assumption may be risked … that the [hills were] at some remote period of time much more elevated than at the present.”
How much taller? He couldn’t say.
“It is above human power to point out the changes that have taken place, since this the time when this globe came fashioned from the hand of an Almighty Maker, who elevated the mountains, formed basins for the seas, and sunk channels for rivers, and who, by his omnipotence, gave the earth its then form,” he thought. “But I may, however, be indulged in the reasonable supposition, that the elevated parts of the glove are primitive. … Extravagant as the assertion may appear, it is a safe conclusion that those hills are an extension of the mountains … [that] pervade the continent in its whole length.”
Darby admitted that the hills were likely formed “in periods of time beyond human skill” to understand, and that his conclusions were largely a matter of conjecture."
But, he said, the hills and their origin were “a subject unnoticed by any previous writer as far as I am informed.”
He hoped that some later investigator would make an “inquiry [that] must lead to more rational ideas on the geological history” of south Louisiana
That wish was eventually fulfilled and today’s “more rational” geological theory is that in the long distant past the hills of south Louisiana were under a sea, not part of a mountain chain.
They and all of south Louisiana are among the youngest features on the globe, not the oldest.
But we can give Darby some small credit for his curiosity and for starting the conversation. And, we can also say that even if he was far wrong about the past of the hills, he was absolutely right about the future of the prairies when he wrote that one day they would be populated by people who would be “numerous, happy, and wealthy.”
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

LEON DECK

Leon Deck, a native of Cement City, Michigan and a longtime resident of Morgan City, passed away on Monday, June 3, 2019, at the Louisiana War Veterans’ Home in Jackson, Louisiana.
Leon was a Veteran of the United States Army where he proudly served his country as a Fuel Tanker Driver spending his first enlistment in the Korean War and his second in Germany. After his discharge Leon was an active member of the VFW Post 4222, The American Legion Post 96, and the Honor Guard where he executed 21-gun salutes for his fallen fellow veterans.
Leon spent his life doing what he loved doing most, working, he held many different positions including factory/line worker, refrigeration repair, and a truck driver in the produce industry, making him known for his diligent work ethic. Leon was the person you called when you needed help, as he was a selfless person who would lend a helping hand to anyone in need.
Throughout his hospital stays the nurses nicknamed him “Super Patient” as he never asked for much and was the epitome of what it meant to be a good patient. Recognized by everyone, Leon was known around town as “the little man on the red scooter” stopping to chat with anyone he knew.
Those left behind to cherish Leon’s beautiful memory are his sons, Phillip, Leon J. and Chris Deck; his beloved friend and caregiver, Sherman Whiting; and countless friends.
He joins in heaven his daughter, Dixie Lee Deck; his parents, one brother and one sister.
In lieu of flowers, Leon requested that donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In keeping with Leon’s wishes, there will be no services and interment will be held privately at a later date.

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P.O. Box 566, Franklin, LA 70538
Phone: 337-828-3706
Fax: 337-828-2874

Morgan City Review
1014 Front Street, Morgan City, LA 70380
Phone: 985-384-8370
Fax: 985-384-4255