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(Editor’s note: The charges listed here and the narratives that go with them are provided by the police agencies that made the arrests. Guilt or innocence has not been determined in court.)

Two people were arrested Wednesday by the Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Section on drug charges, including a man accused of possessing five illegal drugs in distribution quantities. Those drugs include crack and heroin.

St. Mary

Sheriff Blaise Smith reported that over the last 24-hour reporting period, the Sheriff’s Office responded to 34 complaints and made these arrests:

--Michael Ray Morris, 23, Franklin, was arrested at 9:48 p.m. Wednesday by the Narcotics Section on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute MDMA, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of a minor.

Bail was set at $180,000.

--Wanya Malik Francis, 27, Patterson, was arrested at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday by the Narcotics Section on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, window tint violation, attempted criminal damage to property, attempted simple escape and resisting an officer.

Bail has not been set.

--Dominick Dewaine Sheldon Sr., 32, Franklin, was arrested at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday by the Narcotics Section on charges of general speed law, reckless operation of a vehicle, disturbing the peace, and resisting an officer with force or violence.

Bail has not been set.

--Chanedra Kanee Jones, 35, Patterson, was arrested at 2:43 p.m. Wednesday on three warrants alleging failure to appear on the charges of simple battery, possession of marijuana and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Bail has not been set.

--Brian Joseph Delaune Jr., 37, New Iberia, was arrested at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant alleging failure to appear on the charge of criminal neglect of family. Bail was set at $5,832.42.

--Dustin Paul Fitch, 34, Bayou Vista, was arrested at 1:57 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant alleging failure to appear on the charges of operating a vehicle while license is suspended, revoked or canceled and improper lane usage. Bail has not been set.

FRANKLIN — In a busy meeting Wednesday, the St. Mary Parish Council called for two elections, including one that could open the two council leadership positions to any member of the 11-member council.

The council took the first steps toward turning over the operation of Fairview Treatment Center and Claire House in Bayou Vista and the St. Mary Drug Court to Odyssey House of Louisiana Inc.

Members voted to focus for now on a proposed council district map that keeps part of Berwick in District 8, which now includes Amelia, portions of Morgan Center as well as part of Berwick.

The council also invited postmasters serving west St. Mary and Registrar of Voters Byron Stelly to find out why voter registration cards have been delivered to polling sites and not to the voters they belong to.

Voters
Councilman Craig Mathews of Jeanerette held up what he said was about a dozen voter registration cards mailed to the West St. Mary Civic Center polling site rather than the voters to whom they were issued. Other cards have been mailed to other West St. Mary polling sites, he said.

“This is terribly concerning to me and should be concerning to all of us,” Mathews said.

Mathews said Stelly told him that the matter is out of the registrar staff’s hands. And Mathews said he didn’t receive a satisfactory reply from the Franklin postmaster.

New voters won’t know their precinct assignments, and voters whose assignments have changed won’t know it, Mathews said.

If voters don’t know where to vote, “you’re talking about a catastrophe that’s going to happen in St. Mary Parish,” Mathews said.

Elections

The council passed Councilman J Ina’s ordinance 9-1, calling for a Dec. 10 election on a proposed charter amendment that would allow any council member to be elected to the chairman and vice chairman posts each year.

Eight of the 11 council members are elected from geographic districts. Three more are elected at large. The council meets at the beginning of each year to elect a chair and vice chair.

The current charter limits the leadership posts to members elected from at-large districts.

Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink of Centerville is the current chair. Gwendolyn Hidalgo of Bayou Vista is the vice chair. The third at-large member is Dean Adams.

During the leadership election in January, Ina of Franklin renewed his objection, saying the leadership should be open to any council member.

Proposed charter amendments require a two-thirds majority, or eight votes, to win approval from the council. Two previous attempts to remove the limitation had failed by close margins.

But on Wednesday, the proposed amendment passed with only Hidalgo’s dissenting vote. Councilman Patrick Hebert of Berwick was absent.

The council also passed a resolution calling for a Dec. 10 election to fill the unexpired portion of Constable David Compton’s term. Compton, who serves the Charenton area, resigned effective June 6.

The council appointed Anna Perry to be interim constable.

The resolutions will be submitted to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office for inclusion on the ballot.

Odyssey

The council passed an ordinance leasing its Fairview and Claire House facilities to Odyssey House and authorized Parish President David Hanagriff to enter a cooperative endeavor agreement with the New Orleans-based organization to operate the local centers and drug court.

Odyssey House gets its name from the ancient Greek hero who endured years of trial and torment on his way home from the Trojan war. Odyssey House CEO Edward C. Carlson told the council that his organization can help overcome the trials faced by people undergoing the trials of addiction.

“It’s Odyssey House’s philosophy to treat the person, not just the addiction,” Carlson said.

Odyssey’s services include prevention, treatment, physical and mental health care, life skills and vocational training, counseling, case management, and transitional housing.

Remapping

The council approved a motion by Adams to focus deliberations on a district remapping proposal that leaves portions of Berwick in the same District 8 that also covers Amelia and parts of Morgan City.

Wednesday’s action does not mean the council has settled on a final map. It centers future discussion on portions of two of the three alternative maps submitted by the South Central Regional Planning and Development Commission, hired by the council to handle redistricting based on the 2020 Census.

The three alternative maps divide the area west of the Wax Lake Outlet into three districts and the area east of the outlet into five districts

West of the cut, members Mathews, Ina of Franklin and Rodney Olander of Franklin have settled on alternative 1. That map stretches District 1, now represented by Mathews, around Franklin and down to Verdunville.

Under that proposal, District 1 and Ina’s District 2 would have African American majorities of at least 54.5%.

In the east, alternative 1 keeps District 8, represented by Mark Duhon, east of the Atchafalaya, and in alternative 3, District 8 picks up Lakeside subdivision voters with more of Berwick going into District 6, represented by Hebert.

Alternative 2 increases District 8’s portion of the Berwick-Bayou Vista area.

Duhon has said he wants the district to continue to include Berwick. Hebert is hoping for a more compact District 6 focusing on Berwick.

Adams’ motion adopts alternative 1 as the working plan to the west and alternative 2 in the east.

Olander noted that Hebert was absent and suggested putting off the vote until Hebert could attend.

But the council moved ahead with the vote on Adams’ motion, which passed 6-4.

Adams, Duhon, Rink, Ina, Leslie “Les” Rulf and James Bennett voted yes. Hidalgo, Mathews, Olander and Scott Ramsey voted no.
Mathews proposed an amendment substituting the alternative 3 plan favored by Hebert. The amendment failed 6-4.

Submitted Photo
After 11 years of service to our community, Ryan Yager has left Twin City Funeral Home to continue his career with his family’s funeral homes in Missouri. Amber Colbert, a licensed funeral director of Twin City Funeral Home for five years, has taken the position as manager. Colbert said she is humbled at this opportunity and looks forward to serving our community. Colbert would like to welcome Glenn J. Bergeron II, a licensed director with 17 years of experience. "We look forward to continuing Twin City Funeral Home’s legacy of dedicated service and commitment," she said. Pictured from left are Lisa Gregoire (visitation hostess), James Davis (funeral director intern), Colbert (manager, funeral director), Bergeron (funeral director) and Alaina Beaugh (administrative assistant).

One of the most popular definitions of recession was coined by economist Julius Shiskin in 1974. In his view, two consecutive economic quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth meant the country was in a recession.

Sadly, based on this description, America is on the verge of entering a recession. In the first quarter of 2022, our nation’s economy contracted by 1.5%. As we approach the end of the second quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just estimated that there will be a 0% growth. If we fall just one tenth of a percent, it is officially a recession.

It certainly feels like the country is entering a recession. Inflation is at a forty-year high at 8.6%, as gasoline prices exceeded $5.00 per gallon this week, reaching historic records.

This is severely impacting the financial well-being of the American people. Since wage growth is not keeping up with the soaring inflation rates, real average weekly earnings are falling. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the year ending May 2022, real average weekly earnings dropped 3.9%. This was also caused by a 0.9% decline in the average work week

This troubling economic situation is leading to a 0.3% decline in consumer spending in May and a plunging level of consumer sentiment to an all-time low. This report has been conducted by the University of Michigan since 1952. The latest rating of 50.2 was significantly less than the previous record low of 51.7 recorded in May of 1980 during a deep recession. Of the consumers surveyed for the report, an astounding 46% blamed inflation for their negative economic outlook.

To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by .75%, the largest increase since 1994. While this move will hopefully quell inflation, it will result in higher mortgage rates, which will negatively impact the real estate industry.

It will also lead to higher interest rates on credit card debt, at a time when these unpaid balances are increasing. Since Americans are falling further behind economically and cannot pay their bills due to inflation and soaring prices for gasoline, more charges are being placed on credit cards.

There are even more economic problems such as supply chain issues that are still resulting from the aftermath of the pandemic. Shoppers are noticing that grocery store shelves are not full, as there have been shortages of important merchandise such as baby formula and feminine care products.

With a string of fires and accidents at food processing plants this year and reports of enormous numbers of deaths of cattle in Kansas due to the heat wave, the prospect of food shortages in the future cannot be disregarded.

The answer from President Joe Biden and members of his administration has been to focus on other issues such as the war in Ukraine, gun control, or the January 6th hearings. When the administration finally decided to discuss inflation and our economic woes, the answer was to double down on the “Green New Deal” rhetoric and encourage Americans to purchase electric vehicles. Of course, the problem is that electric vehicles are awfully expensive and there are not enough charging stations in the country.

Instead of allowing more drilling in the United States and restarting the Keystone XL pipeline, Biden has been releasing a disturbing amount of crude oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). He plans to release one million barrels of oil per day for six months. In May, the SPR reported the lowest level since 1987 with 538 million barrels remaining.

Biden will be traveling to Saudi Arabia next month to supposedly discuss a range of issues, but, of course, the main reason is to plead with the authoritarian regime to increase their oil production. The irony of the visit is that Biden would prefer a country with limited environmental standards to drill for more oil, while rejecting increased drilling in the United States, the country with the best environmental standards in the world.

This week, Biden continued his self-defeating energy policies by blasting oil companies for not producing enough at their refineries. He threatened to take emergency action to force their output to increase.

In response, oil company executives encouraged Biden to stop hampering their ability to do business. Chevron lambasted the administration for imposing “obstacles to our industry delivering energy resources the world needs.”

These obstacles were implemented by the Biden administration to satisfy the demands of a radical left-wing group pushing a set of policies to combat climate change. Even though Americans rate problems such as inflation as much more important, to the top officials in the Biden administration, combating climate change is their number one goal.

The result is the economic catastrophe that the country is facing. When President Biden took office, the inflation rate was a very manageable 1.4%. Today, it is more than 600% higher, while wages have shown only modest growth.

On inauguration day 2021, the average price of gasoline in the country was only $2.39 per gallon. It has more than doubled in the seventeen months of the Biden administration. This skyrocketing price negatively impacts truckers, commuters and travelers looking to enjoy a summer vacation this year.

On the final day of the Trump administration, the country’s economy was coming back from the depths of the pandemic. Inflation and gasoline prices were low, interest rates were very manageable and steady job growth was occurring.

Unfortunately, Biden’s far-left economic policies included an “American Rescue Plan” that cost $1.9 trillion and was funded by printing money that added to our already staggering federal debt. This ill-advised legislation, along with the President’s “green” energy policies, combined to create the economic nightmare our country is facing. This agenda and not Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is responsible for today’s horrible economic conditions.

The administration inherited a strong economic recovery but produced a recession. It was an avoidable economic catastrophe manufactured by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs weekdays nationally on Real America's Voice TV Network, AmericasVoice.News from 6-7 a.m. CTand from 7-11 a.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM& Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com