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Lafayette – Funeral services for Lucien Gerard Bila, 68, will be held Friday, November 30, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. in Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Broussard, with Father Manny Fernandez, Pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Henry, officiating, and Father Angelo Cremaldi concelebrating.
Visitation will be held Thursday, November 29, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. with a Rosary recited at 7:00 p.m. and will continue Friday from 8:00 a.m. until time of services. Burial will follow in the St. Anne Catholic Cemetery in Youngsville.
Gerard, a lifelong resident of Patterson, passed away Sunday, November 25, 2018. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, who will be remembered most for his devotion to his family and his Catholic faith.
Gerard is survived by his wife of 46 years, Patricia Hebert Bila of Patterson, Louisiana; his daughter, Christine Bila of Broussard; and three sons, Damon Bila and his fiancé Telesia Sobol of Youngsville, Ryan Bila and his wife Ashley Bila of Broussard, and Matthew Bila and his fiancé Nicole Pousson of Evangeline, Louisiana. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Gabriel, Aeris and Thomas Bila, and Brennan Sobol; his brother, Vincent “V.J.” and his wife Cathy Bila of San Antonio, Texas; sister, Antoinette B. LeBlanc of Patterson, Louisiana; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Gerard was preceded in death by his parents, Anthony and Josephine Cutrera Bila.
In lieu of flowers, the Bila family requests donations be made to Father Manny in RE: Philippines Collection, C/O St. John Catholic Church 18534 LA Hwy. 689 Erath LA, 70533; or Padre Pio Foundation of America 463 Main St. Cromwell, CT 06416.
The family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the staff of Lamm Family Care Hospice, especially his nurse, Kristy Putman, for her compassionate and exceptional care.
Condolences may be sent to the Bila family at www.davidfuneralhome.org.
David Funeral Home 316 Youngsville Hwy. 337-837-9887 is in charge of arrangements.

Gwendolyn A. Barrow, 43, a native and resident of Berwick, died Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, at Teche Regional Medical Center in Morgan City.
Visitation will be Saturday from 10 a.m. until services at 1 p.m. at Little Zion Baptist Church in Berwick. Burial will follow in Berwick Cemetery.
She is survived by her husband, Ronald Barrow Sr. of Berwick; her mother and stepfather, Bertha M. and Richard Turner Jr. of Berwick; her father, Roosevelt Grant Jr. of Patterson; a son, Ronald Barrow Jr. of Bayou Vista; two stepsons, Brandon Powell of Marianna, Florida and Asher Mallet of Morgan City; two daughters, RonKresha Barrow of Berwick and RonLaisha Barrow of Patterson; two brothers, Brandon Grant of Berwick and Johnathan Perry of Patterson; two sisters, Felicia Darby of Patterson and Fallon Thomas of Berwick; six grandchildren; and four paternal grandparents.
Otis Mortuary of Franklin i

By the spring of 2019, voters residing in 44 percent of Louisiana’s parishes will have participated in a special legislative election, and the statistic could swell before the ongoing term of the Legislature concludes in early January 2020.
Special elections have either been held or called in 28 out of Louisiana’s 64 parishes — to replace 24 legislators. All but two of those elections originated in the House, which now has a 21 percent turnover rate, the highest in recent memory.
Ten legislative sessions over the past three years; more consecutive days spent in the Capitol than any other body since 1812; and intense budget and tax votes have forced many legislators to look for exits.
“It feels like I’m agin' in dog years,” said former Rep. Rob Shadoin, a Ruston Republican, before he resigned this summer. “For every year I’m down here, it feels like seven."
If the unprecedented turnover, in recent history, wasn’t enough, there are another 47 legislators slated to move on after this term due to term limits.
In the Senate, term limits will force a 41 percent turnover next term, or 16 out of 39 senators. In the House, the number is closer to 29 percent, or 31 out of 105 reps.

Book offers another
look at David Duke
Three decades or so ago, many thought David Duke was forever banished to obscurity, and that his political career was a closed chapter. Duke, however, re-emerged on the political stage for his second act in the late 1990s and another in the 2000s.
Duke’s unlikely — and some might argued unwelcome — comeback attempt has been chronicled in Tyler Bridges’ revised book, "The Rise and Fall of David Duke." Bridges, who covered Duke’s heyday in Louisiana, has added new chapters to his previously released 1994 biography.
The first part of the book is the same as the original edition, spanning Duke’s early life, radical activities as an LSU student, his leadership role in the Ku Klux Klan, tenure in the Louisiana Legislature and his unsuccessful but highly visible runs for the U.S. Senate and governor in the early 1990s.
The book provides a fascinating insight into Duke’s political brand and the slick tactics that took a white supremacist mainstream — and temporarily made him a formidable force in the state.
Part two of Bridges’ updated effort — the new material — opens with the 1995 race for governor. It was Duke’s second try for the office and the last statewide campaign in which he would have a significant impact. He eventually got out of that contest before qualifying, cutting a backroom deal with former Gov. Mike Foster, an event Bridges aptly describes in great detail with sharp analysis.
In another chapter titled, “Two More Races, Two More Defeats,” we learn about Duke’s exit from political relevancy in Louisiana, as embarrassing finishes in the races for the U.S. Senate in 1996 and the U.S. House in 1999 all but end his unforgettable stretch as a major candidate.
Duke’s legal troubles predictably take up another chapter. The author dives deep into the fraud case that surrounded his nefarious fundraising activities, but also circles back around to the politics behind the real-life protagonist. This chapter includes a fascinating breakdown of the period of Duke’s later life where he abandoned his mainstream message of the 1990s and returned to articulating his more hardened anti-semitic and racial views.
The reader then confronts Duke, a shriveled shell of the man he once was, bumbling around Europe, getting banned from various countries while trying to make a living off of selling books and photographs. It is in these passages that Bridges takes a moment to reveal a glimpse into what could be Duke’s humanity, or something akin.
MAGA diehards will want to flip right to the concluding pages, which recounts how Duke became a hot issue during the 2016 campaign between Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump. Duke’s own bid for the U.S. Senate that year, fueled by Trump mania, gets explored as well. But it becomes clear in the text that Duke’s late-in-life campaign was operating more on nostalgia than anything else.
Bridges’ "Rise and Fall of David Duke" is a sobering and poignant account of one of Louisiana’s darkest political actors. It’s a must-read for history buffs as well as political junkies who are interested in understanding who David Duke really was, and is, not to mention what his lasting impact on Louisiana has been.

They said it
“We don’t want to run against our constituents.”
—Congressman Cedric Richmond, on the new process for selecting delegates to the Democratic National Convention, in Politico
“All I’m saying is that we need a little bit more of what we generate. And I don’t believe it’s pie in the sky.”
—New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, on getting more state dollars, in The Advocate
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.

GENEVA (AP) — A top U.N. scientist on Thursday shrugged off an online quip from U.S. President Donald Trump that questioned global warming, saying a U.S. government report will show the “fundamental impacts of climate change on the U.S. continent.”
Officials at the World Meteorological Organization also said environmentally minded efforts by the state of California, in parts of the financial sector, among grassroots activists and others will have more of an impact to help the fight against climate change than “political disturbance” and “discourse” will impede it.
The science, they said, will have the last word.
Some of that science comes Friday in a new U.S. federal climate change assessment report, from agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Energy.
“It’s very interesting what you will see tomorrow,” said Pavel Kabat, WMO’s chief scientist. “That is a major report coming supported by all agencies ... under the administration of President Trump ranging from NOAA to NASA, from NASA to DOE, showing the fundamental impacts of climate change on the U.S. continent.”
Kabat was speaking at a news conference to present WMO’s latest greenhouse gas bulletin, which said levels in the atmosphere climbed to a record last year.
In a statement, WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas warned “the window of opportunity” to act against climate change has nearly closed.
WMO says globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 405.5 parts per million in 2017, up slightly from the previous year and from 400.1 in 2015. Concentrations of other heat-trapping gases, like methane and nitrous oxide, also rose.
The findings come ahead of next month’s meeting of world leaders in Katowice, Poland, for the annual global climate summit where they hope to find ways to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord that aims to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, which lies about 2,000 kilometers northeast of Australia, is one of those countries already suffering severe effects of climate change.
Its foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, said his government is exploring the possibility of suing fossil fuel companies responsible for most man-made greenhouse gas emissions over the damage they have caused.
“By hiding what they knew and misrepresenting the dangers of unabated fossil fuel use, the fossil fuel industry and supportive governments protected their high-emissions profits and obstructed the changes needed to prevent or at least minimize the impacts of climate change,” he told a ‘virtual’ summit of nations that are vulnerable to climate change.
WMO’s Taalas said the last time Earth had such high levels of carbon dioxide concentration was 3-5 million years ago.
Without cuts in greenhouse gases, Taalas said, “climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth.”
That came just hours after Trump, who once called global warming a “hoax” and has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, floated a new question about climate change on Twitter: “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?”
Despite that, Kabat cited a “global transformation” underway in thinking about global warming, saying “the point of no return has been passed.” He said efforts by some industries, in civil society and by local officials could “overtake” governmental agreements or statements on the issue.
“I think on the longer timescale we are not that much worried about the current political disturbance,” he said.
“Despite the statements of President Trump, there is still a very concrete and specific movement by the agencies under the administration to actually make the case of action against climate change,” Kabat said.