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First Lady of Louisiana Donna Edwards spoke at the Church of the Assumption Friday in Franklin.
Edwards was invited by the Catholic Daughters to address the Franklin community concerning human trafficking, an issue that Edwards said she and her husband have been socially and legislatively scrutinizing throughout his administration’s tenure.
Edwards discussed being previously unaware of the degree to which Louisiana’s human trafficking issue pervaded, until she was visited at the governor’s mansion by the Sisters of Mercy, who educated her, much to her reported horror.
“The average age (of human trafficking victimization in Louisiana),” Edwards said, “is 13.
“People from the ages of two to 65 are being trafficked.
“Even as a teacher, after having listened to these stories for over two years now, I still can’t believe it.”
Edwards shared some of the stories of trafficking victims which she had heard, after which she said, “Louisiana has two of the biggest human trafficking corridors in the country. We have I-10 and we have the I-20. Those are the two worst in the country.”
She further stated that while the number of human trafficking cases across the state has increased, so has the number of cases of discovery by law enforcement, and she attributed that to the education of the public and the education of law enforcement.
“It’s estimated that human trafficking generates many billions of dollars of profit every year,’ she said. “Just a thought for you—illegal drugs can only be used once, a person can be used over and over.”
Returning to her experience with Sisters of Mercy, Edwards said they built, just outside of Baton Rouge, a refuge for adolescent victims of human trafficking, called Metanoia Manor.
She said Metanoia is a place built on donated land through donated funds and that the staff of the home “rescues girls from everywhere: Shreveport, Monroe, Lake Charles, and they pull them in and get them the counseling they need.”
She said she feels that Louisiana needs more homes like Metanoia and that she is meeting with hospitals across the state in order to discuss possibilities for possible refuges to be made available at their facilities, as well.
According to Edwards, there are churches in Shreveport that make arrangements to have families agree to foster trafficking victims.
“I came here today,” Edwards said in closing, “because I want you to know that we can make a difference in our communities. We need to be aware of that child at McDonalds that doesn’t look like she belongs with the person she is with.
“We used to say, ‘That’s not my business.’ Well, no longer! It is our business to step up.”
To donate to Metanoia Manor, go to http://metanoia-inc.org/donate/ or call 225-615-7085.

A 22-year-old woman was arrested Monday in connection with a Feb. 21 incident in Morgan City where she entered a home armed with a knife and damaged property, Police Chief James Blair said in a news release.

—Dontreka Marshrieka Tillman, 22, of Grizzaffi Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 4:50 p.m. Monday on warrants charging her with home invasion and two counts of criminal damage to property less than $1,000.

Officers came into contact with Tillman on Marguerite Street. A warrant check revealed police held active warrants for her arrest. The warrants stem from a Feb. 21 incident during which complainant alleged that Tillman entered a Cardinal Street home armed with a knife and damaged several items on the property. A warrant for her arrest was obtained from the February incident. She was jailed.

Blair reported that officers responded to 40 calls and reported the following arrests:

—Garland Joseph Romero, 31, of Bernice Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 8:37 a.m. Monday on a warrant charging him with failure to appear in court. Officers located Romero on Bernice Street on an active warrant for city court. He was jailed.

—Laqwajhia Bourgeois, 21, of Federal Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 3:18 p.m. Monday on charges of stop sign violation, tail light violation, seat belt violation and two counts of resisting an officer.

An officer observed a vehicle commit several traffic violations and conducted a traffic stop on La. 70. The driver was identified as Bourgeois. During the traffic stop, Bourgeois refused to comply with officers and caused a disturbance by using loud profanities, Blair said. She was jailed.

—Kane Alexander Wiggins, 26, of La. 182 in Morgan City, was arrested at 8:15 p.m. Monday on a charge of disturbing the peace intoxicated.

Officers were dispatched to a Ninth Street business in reference to an intoxicated person causing a disturbance. Upon officers arriving, they came into contact with Wiggins who was passed out inside the business. Officers could smell a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and suspected impairment, Blair said. He was jailed.

St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith reported that deputies responded to 36 complaints in the parish and reported the following arrests relating to east St. Mary Parish:

—Michael Anthony Leonard, 40, of Watson Street in Patterson, was arrested at 8:19 a.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear for an imposition hearing on a charge of criminal neglect of family.

A deputy was assisting the Franklin Police Department with a traffic stop when he came into contact with Leonard. It was learned that there was an active warrant for Leonard’s arrest. Leonard was transported to parish jail with bail set at $61.13.

—Krystal Nicole Tolento, 31, of Roderick Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 11:02 a.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear for arraignment on charges of forgery and theft less than $1,000. Tolento was located at parish jail and booked on the charge. No bail was set.

—Leonard Allen Yarborough, 57, of Cane Road in Bayou Vista, was arrested at 3:50 p.m. Monday on a charge of theft.

A deputy was dispatched to a business in Bayou Vista in reference to a shoplifting. Upon arrival, the deputy learned that Yarborough had taken several items and hid them behind the business, Smith said. All items were recovered. Yarborough was issued a summons to appear in court July 29.

Yarborough was also arrested at 11:09 p.m. Monday on a charge of disturbing the peace intoxicated.

A deputy was dispatched to Cane Road in Bayou Vista for a disturbance. Upon arrival, the deputy made contact with Yarborough, who was under the influence of alcohol, the sheriff said.

Deputies had contact with Yarborough earlier in the night and advised him not to make contact with the occupants of the home, Smith said. Yarborough was jailed with bail set at $1,000.

Berwick Police Chief David Leonard Sr. reported no arrests.

Patterson Police Chief Garrett Grogan reported no arrests.

Most retirement calculators are optimistic to a fault. They assume our incomes will rise throughout our working lives, or at least stay roughly the same.
In reality, our incomes are likely to peak years — and sometimes decades — before we retire. Consider this:
—People’s biggest wage increases tend to happen in their 20s and 30s, with more modest increases in midlife followed by declines, according to a 2016 analysis of Social Security earnings records underwritten by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
—Most people’s incomes peak by age 45, the researchers found, although the top 20% of earners peaked in their 50s.
—More than half of those who enter their 50s with a stable job are laid off or otherwise forced out the door, and the vast majority don’t recover financially, according to analysis by ProPublica and the Urban Institute.
These may be grim statistics, but if you’re tempted to put off saving for retirement, take heed.
“When you’re 40 and things are going well, you think, ‘OK, I can see when things are going to get better and that’s when I can save for retirement,’” said Gary Burtless, an economist with the Brookings Institution who studies earnings patterns. “And those days just don’t come.”
THE BIGGEST GAINS COME EARLY
What’s true on average for a group of people may not be true for an individual, of course. Understanding these general patterns, though, could help people make better decisions about spending, saving and when to retire.
Generally, the more education people have, the more money they make over their lifetime and the later their earnings peak, Burtless says.
“For somebody with a position like professor at a university, it might be when they’re in the second half of their 50s, as opposed to the second half of their 30s, which it might be for your brother-in-law who failed to complete high school,” Burtless said.
But the 50s tends to be a dangerous decade for workers, according to ProPublica, an independent nonprofit newsroom, and the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank that researches social and economic issues.
Researchers found 56% of full-time, full-year workers ages 51 to 54 suffered an involuntary job loss after age 50 that had a substantial economic impact, either by reducing their earnings at least 50% or resulting in six months or more of unemployment.
The median household income of these workers dropped 42%, and only one in 10 ever earned as much after they left their jobs as before. An additional 9% left their jobs involuntarily for personal reasons such as health. The analysis was based on data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, which tracks 20,000 people in the U.S.
SAVE EARLY AND AVOID LIFESTYLE CREEP
Job disruptions and declining earnings help explain why so many people in their 60s have so little saved, Burtless says.
“Instead of having those last years when you no longer have children in the house to bulk up your savings, you are using up your savings even before you reach retirement age,” he said.
People entering their 50s without having saved enough for retirement may need to plan to work longer, or cut their expenses, rather than assume rising incomes will help them make up the deficit, says certified financial planner Michael Kitces, who blogs at Nerd’s Eye View.
Kitces advises people in their 20s and 30s to commit to putting half of their raises into retirement funds. Since those raises are likely to be largest in the early years, saving half can jump-start retirement funds while limiting “lifestyle inflation,” or the tendency to spend more as income increases.
It can be tempting to take on a big mortgage, for instance, thinking that future salary boosts will make the payments more manageable, or to celebrate a raise by buying a fancier car. If your income doesn’t rise — or starts to drop — it can be painful to downsize or go back to plainer vehicles. (Also, the more expensive your lifestyle, the more money you’ll need to retire.)
“Recognize that it’s a lot harder to remove something from our lives than it is to just not add it to our lives in the first place,” Kitces said.