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George W. Studdard, 83, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and a resident of Patterson, Louisiana, for 49 years, passed away on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, at home surrounded by his wife and family.

George was retired from Halliburton after 20 years. Proud owner of Studdard Scrap Metal, Inc. for 35+ years, George was a family man and lived for making his family happy and laugh. George’s hobby was working and taking his family out to eat!! He was also proud of the service that he gave by serving in the United States Army during the Korean Conflict.

George is survived by his wife of 57 years, Beverlyne Broussard Studdard; children, Sandie Picou and husband David, Marlene Hebert and husband Doug, and Vanessa Willoughby and husband Harlon; grandchildren, Jeremie Harrison and fiancé Joei, Tylor Willoughby, Victoria Corzine and husband Mitch, David Picou Jr., Brooke Picou and Samantha Willoughby; great-grandchildren, Carson, Cooper and Ellie Kate Corzine, and one on the way; his three beloved dogs, Ole Yella, Donovan and Ringo; sisters, Floy Mae Crossett and husband Harry of Monticello,

Arkansas and Shirley Kiszenia and husband Roman of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and numerous other family, friends and work family.

He was preceded in death by his father, Albert Lee Studdard; mother, Virginia Winston Studdard; and siblings, Juanita Moore, Albert Lee Studdard Jr., Doris Harris, Frances West and Robert Donald Studdard.

Visitation will be held Friday, July 21, 2017, at Hargrave Funeral Home from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. and Saturday, July 22, 2017, at Hargrave Funeral Home from 8 a.m. until noon. Mass will be at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Patterson at 1 p.m. Graveside services will be in the St. Joseph Cemetery.

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Seeking to ramp up pressure on Republican House leaders who have stymied his tax plans, Gov. John Bel Edwards called Thursday on Louisiana’s House speaker to outline his plan for closing a looming $1 billion budget gap.

Gov. John Bel Edwards called Thursday on Louisiana’s House speaker to outline his plan for closing a looming $1 billion budget gap, as Edwards tries to ramp up pressure on Republican House leaders who have stymied the governor’s tax plans.

“It is time for constructive dialogue,” Edwards wrote to House Speaker Taylor Barras, a Republican from New Iberia.

More than $1 billion in temporary taxes are set to expire in mid-2018, at the start of the next budget year, a problem that is called Louisiana’s “fiscal cliff.”

Earlier this year, the Democratic governor pushed a tax package to raise money to eliminate the shortfall. It included many ideas offered by a nonpartisan study group created by lawmakers to reform Louisiana’s tax structure.

House Republican leaders opposed the effort, and the bills were bottled up and killed. Barras and other GOP leaders sought to lessen spending in this year’s budget to shrink the size of the financial gap next year, but that proposal didn’t win final passage in the Legislature.

Edwards said he’ll travel Louisiana in the coming months to rally support for ideas from lawmakers, community leaders and others. He urged Barras to convene a bipartisan group of House lawmakers to come up with proposals and negotiate them with the governor’s office.

Without “bold changes,” Edwards warned that $1 billion in cuts in the state’s $28 billion budget “would be catastrophic.”

Barras didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a call for comment about the letter.

Lawmakers can’t address taxes in next year’s legislative session. Edwards had said he intended to call a special session for lawmakers to consider tax proposals to offset the fiscal cliff. But more recently, he’s said he won’t call such a session unless he’s certain House Republican leaders can rally enough support for some sort of proposal. He repeated that stance in the letter.

“I am hesitant to convene another special session without meaningful input from, and a concerted effort by, House leadership to help identify a viable path forward,” Edwards wrote. “Specifically, I need a good faith commitment to remove the partisan barriers and solve this problem.”

Alexandria Rep. Lance Harris, chairman of the House GOP delegation, has said it’s Edwards’ job as Louisiana’s top leader to devise ideas for addressing the shortfall and to try to persuade lawmakers.

“I’m a part-time legislator. I’ll be working on some things, but I can’t devote 100 percent of my time,” Harris said recently. “He’s the governor. He’s the CEO. He certainly should come up with a plan.”

Submitted Photo
A waterspout moving across Lake Palourde is seen Wednesday with Morgan City's Holy Cross Elementary in the foreground. The waterspout formed about 5 p.m. near Stephensville and moved into the lake. The photo was taken by St. Mary Deputy Ricky Acosta and submitted by Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security Director Duval Arthur.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AP) — Hey veterans, you can soon shop tax free.
Starting later this year, all honorably discharged veterans, no matter their branch of service, will be eligible to shop tax-free online at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service with the same discounts they enjoyed on base while in the military. It’s the latest way in which the organization is trying to keep its customers as the armed forces shrink and airmen and soldiers buy more for delivery.
Adding 13 million potential new customers will give extra ammunition to the group that runs the stores on U.S. Army and Air Force bases worldwide as it fights Amazon and other retailers for veterans’ online shopping dollars.
Since hiring its first civilian CEO five years ago, the Exchange has upgraded the brands at base stores to include items like Disney toys, Michael Kors fashions and other top names. Like private stores, it’s also imposed tighter cost controls, reduced the number of employees and improved people’s experience on the website.
“The intent is to really beat Amazon at their game because we have locations literally on the installations,” said CEO Tom Shull. “We’re leaning toward not just ship-from-store but pick-up-from-store and eventually deliver-from-store.”
The Exchange is adding shipping centers within its stores to allow it to send products directly from those locations more cheaply and quickly. Twenty-six stores now ship orders, and that will expand to 55 by the end of the year.
Within the next three years, Shull said the goal is to deliver something on base within two hours of when it is ordered. That’s possible partly because the Exchanges are already on base, cleared by security.
The Exchange delivers most orders on the second day now. Shull said shipping from stores will make a big difference in regions around bases, which are often in more rural areas.
Expanding online shopping to all honorably discharged veterans is expected to add about $200 million annually within three years to the $8.3 billion in sales the Exchanges generated last year.
Adding those shoppers, what Shull called “the foundation of our growth,” is critical to help offset the 13 percent decline in the number of active-duty Army and Air Force soldiers since 2011 when the Exchange generated $10.3 billion revenue.
“It’s a modest benefit, but it can save you thousands of dollars a year,” said Shull, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who served in the Army for a decade before starting a retail career at chains including Macy’s.
Former Marine Forrest Cornelius was among the first to sign up at the verification website when it launched in June, and got a chance to start shopping early to test it out. The 51-year-old was impressed by the site and a deal he found on Ray-Ban sunglasses.
“The biggest thing is price. They’re always going to be a little bit cheaper,” said Cornelius, who lives in Dallas.
But competing on price in today’s retail environment is increasingly difficult, said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough. Just look at how much trouble Walmart has competing with Amazon, he said, because Walmart has the fixed costs associated with its stores.
“To think you’re going to compete on price, you’re going to have a hard time there,” he said.
Under Shull’s leadership, the Exchange stores have traded their industrial feel and reliance on off-brand merchandise for a more modern look featuring well-known labels.
Two-thirds of the main Exchange store at Offutt Air Force Base resembles any department store, with prominent displays of name-brand makeup, Nike fitness gear and Carter’s clothes for kids. The rest is filled with the kind of electronics, appliances, housewares and toys found at Walmart or Sears, with major brands in every section.
The Exchanges don’t pay rent for their military base locations, and the government transports some of their supplies and goods to far-flung locations, but otherwise they operate mostly like an independent retailer. Roughly two-thirds of the employees are family members of soldiers or airmen.
The Exchange, which is part of the Defense Department, reported earnings of $384 million last year. That’s a sharp contrast from five years ago when Shull arrived to projections of $180 million in losses.
Of last year’s profit, $225 million was returned to the defense department to help pay for quality-of-life programs on bases like child development and fitness centers. Besides the main stores, the Exchanges also operate more than 70 movie theaters and bring in franchise restaurants and other vendors for the shopping malls it operates on bases.
Shull feels those are good reasons for the new online shopping privileges to draw veterans to do their shopping there.
“Veterans value the cost savings and what they can do to support the military,” he said.
—Online:
Army & Air Force Exchange Service: www.shopmyexchange.com
Veterans verification site: www.vetverify.com