By JIM BUTLER

Former GAEDA chairwoman Tracye Snow and former District 3 councilman and council president Jules Green qualified Wednesday to run against Alexandria at-large City Councilman Lee Rubin in November.

At-large seats are filled by city-wide voting.

Qualifying opened Wednesday and closes Friday.

The ballot, of course, will be headed by the presidential election. Also on it in parts of Rapides are congressional and state Suoreme Court contests as well as local races.

Snow left the Greater Alexandria Economic Development Agency in February when District 4 councilwoman Lizzie Felter exercised her removal right.

The agency has been on life support since.

In the same late-winter time frame Felter convinced the council to reapportion her reapportioned election district.

Snow was among vocal opponents of such. In fact, she is one of three plaintiffs in a civil rights/voter rights suit filed in federal court in June over that change.

Green represented District 3 until unseated by Cynthia Perry in 2020.

Perry qualified Wednesday to seek a second term. She drew opposition from Willie Chark. She defeated him in the 2020 runoff for the seat.

Longtime District 5 councilman Chuck Fowler also qualified.

City elected terms are staggered under provisions of the home rule charter.

In other contests, Chris Caffery, Randy Harris and Ernest Nelson qualified to fill the unexpired term of District D Police Juror Theodore Fontaine III.

He was elected last Fall but died before taking office. Nelson was appointed by the Jury to serve until an election could be held.

In Glenmora Johnny Fitt and Tebo Onishea qualified to run for police chief.

By LEE BRECHEEN, Louisiana Football Magazine

High school football practice for some schools is starting later this month and there’s plenty of excitement – and talented players for college recruiters to watch.

Nowhere in Central Louisiana is that more true than at Alexandria Senior High.

The 2024 Trojans will be very talented both sides of the football. Coming off a run to the state semifinals last season, there’s abundant talent returning and some emerging prospects getting their chance to shine this fall.

Let me spotlight some of the great kids in this program that will get a chance to play college football one day.

The headliner is, of course, RB J.T Lindsey (6-0, 190) who will be a three-year starter and is committed to LSU. I will give my three cents opinion about this kid because I had a chance to see him play two years ago in a scrimmage against some good teams at Hahnville High. I went from my home in Baton Rouge to see some older ASH players, but the Trojan who caught my eye the most was J.T the RB.

This kid showed a incredible burst that you see in the SEC.  At the time, he was maybe 170 pounds but ran like he was 210.  I saw a high-level burst, high level toughness, and the ability run past the defense many times against some of the best Class 5A teams in the state that day. This was a full pad scrimmage, not 7-on-7. 

I think J.T is the best all-around RB in Louisiana among several FBS Division I backs in the Class of 2025. He is also an unselfish “team” guy who is a leader and a glue guy for his team, and for the ASH track team as well.

He would tell me, “Mr. Lee, it is NOT all about me!” And he’s right, there are other Trojans to watch this season if you’re a fan of football and especially if you are a college recruiter.

I also have to mention some players in the program that block for J.T and are diamonds in the rough.

Here’s some hidden gems, starting with Jacobi Morris (6-2, 313) a three-year starter, a mauler up front, a tough, strong kid.  Another Class of 2025 riser is OG Conner Reed (6-3, 290), a second-year starter with FBS or FCS ability. If he has a great year, Reed could climb into the FBS recruiting pool.

A couple more players I want to mention deserve recognition and eyes on them because of their toughness and hard work. They’re blockers in the explosive ASH offense — OT Caleb Purl (5-10, 235) a leader on the line who could play center or guard at a small college (a really good Louisiana Christian program is right across the Red River, for example); and FB Tanner Townsend (6-1, 210) who is also a great blocker.

Lindsey is a real talent but he has really good players around him creating space for him to exploit.

There are also some more potential college talents in the Trojans’ Class 2025. Keep eyes on playmaker RB/WR Darius Washington, WR Kirkland Banks Jr., WR Marquis Butler, DE Elijah Nelson, DT Jordan Mason, and RB/WR Jimmy Duncan. Each of them could end up playing college ball at some level.

Contact Lee at lbrecheen@aol.com

 Lee Brecheen has been covering high school football and recruiting in Louisiana since the early ‘90s. He is owner of Louisiana Football Magazine and can be followed on Twitter @LeeBrecheen. He hosts a YouTube show, The Sports Scouting Report with Lee Brecheen. Previews of all state high schools are available on lafootballmagazine.com.

By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

DALLAS – Retired college head football coaches might be envious of their successors and the successors of their successors.

Twenty years ago, just 23 head coaches were making $1 million or more annually topped by Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops $2.2 million yearly.

As of last season, 84 head coaches made $1 million or more annually, including 36 coaches banking $5 million annually led by now-retired Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s $11.1 million.

The head coaches of the newly expanded 16-team Southeastern Conference will deposit a collective $126.7 million in salaries this season.

But listen to each of them for a few minutes this week here at the league’s annual media touch on navigating the constantly changing climate of college athletics. And you realize they earn every bit of their mega-salaries facing new, unexpected off-the-field challenges.

Conference expansion has re-arranged traditional leagues. New rules such as coaching staffs now with no hiring limits on the number of assistants and support staff have added layers to each school’s organizational setups.

The NCAA transfer portal celebrates its sixth birthday in October, allowing athletes to be paid through name, like and image turns four years old in June.

The transfer portal rules have been changed at least twice and no coach knows if there are any sustainable, standard rules governing NIL.

It’s no coincidence the number of Division 1 football players in the portal jumped since NIL began in June 2021 from 2,914 in 2021-22 to 3,284 in 2022-23 to 3,843 in 2023-24.

Even LSU’s Brian Kelly, who’s starting his 33rd year as a college head coach, is still learning the ins and outs of the transfer portal and NIL.

“You need to use the transfer portal to top off the tank so to speak,” Kelly said here on Monday when he led off the four-day media circus. “You can add to a particular position and almost one that’s not needed but becomes a luxury.”

Yet for the most part, Kelly has spent three recruiting classes filling a huge roster deficit left by previous coach Ed Orgeron. The gaps have mostly been in the defensive backfield where Kelly signed mostly Power 5 conference castaways to fill LSU’s needs.

It showed up big for the Tigers last season, especially when transfer cornerbacks Duce Staley (Syracuse) and Denver Harris (Texas A&M) were a waste of scholarships and JK Johnson (Ohio State) was hurt in the preseason.

“If you’re in the transfer portal for need-based, you haven’t done something right in the natural recruiting season,” Kelly said. “Last year, it was need-based and that’s never a good situation when it comes to the development of your football program. If it’s strictly need-based, you’re probably in for some rough seas.”

LSU’s ship would have completely sunk in 2023 (instead of finishing 10-4) if wasn’t for Arizona State transfer quarterback Jayden Daniels’ unfathomable leap of improvement to winning the Heisman Trophy in his second and final Tigers’ season.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, supposedly college football’s “King of the Transfer Portal,” understands to proceed with caution when he’s mixing high school and transfer portal signees.

“It’s critical to have a really good balance,” Kiffin said. “With the evolving college football landscape of recruiting and portal changes and windows and now multiple transfers, you can’t be stuck and say we’re not going to take many transfers or this many percent of high school.

“We’re going to try to sign the best players, but we’re also going to really look at who they are. Especially in the portal, you’ve got to be really careful and do a good job of evaluating who they are, why they left where they left, and what do they want to do so that when you do hit some tough times they’re the right type of players that are there to help themselves but to help the team also.”

Georgia’s two-time national championship head coach Kirby Smart said he hopes recruits don’t make their scholarship signing decision solely based on how much NIL money he’ll earn.

“I’m happy that these kids get an opportunity to improve their situation or make money and give back to their families or in some cases their communities,” Smart said. “If it’s better for that young man because of a financial difference between us and another school, I respect that decision and opinion they have to make.

“But I don’t get to the finish line of official visits where that’s the primary objective. If it is, we’re probably not getting to that point. We’re probably not going to be in the conversation.

“As you go recruit a kid, staying power is important now. I don’t think there is a huge difference in the players we recruit. It’s a difference when they stay in your program. Retention is really critical.”

Ole Miss starting quarterback Jaxson Dart, who transferred from Southern Cal in 2022, feels like transfer portal recruiting is easier than high school recruiting.

“They (transfer portal recruits) want to understand the more business side of things and also understand what their role going to be and how they will be used,” Dart said. “There’s not as many things that come along with high school recruits.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

I saw the name William Kinnison Haddox in an obituary and it didn’t ring a bell until I realized this was the real name for one of my best friends in the outdoors media. His nickname was one I could grasp as could thousands of others who have read and appreciated his work down through the years. Everybody knew him as Kinny Haddox, including readers of sports pages across north Louisiana.

The month of July marked the beginning and the end for this remarkable man, who was born on July 30, 1952 and passed away on July 1, 2024.

Kinny graduated from what was then NLU and began work as an outdoor writer, first for the News Star in Monroe. His work also appeared in Shreveport in The Times. After several years, he began working for International Paper in Bastrop handling that company’s communications. When he left the News Star, I was hired as his replacement, writing weekly outdoors columns for that publication for 13 years.

Once he retired from International Paper, he dove head first into freelance writing for magazines and ultimately was named editor of the most popular outdoors magazine based in Louisiana, the Louisiana Sportsman, a position he held until his death. The July 2024 issue of that magazine carried two stories written by Haddox.

My relationship with Kinny Haddox has continued through the years chatting via phone about outdoor story possibilities. I picked his brain; he picked mine as in addition to his commanding duties as magazine editor, he continued to churn out excellent free-lance work.

Kinny and I were members of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association (LOWA). Most of the members of LOWA lived in south Louisiana. On more than one occasion at annual conference he and I and the other north Louisiana member, Terry Jones, would be honored with writing awards. The three of us became jokingly the Piney Woods Mafia, a title we were honored to claim. 

I could go on and on about what this guy has meant to me down through the years but nothing is more outstanding in my mind than when I decided to write a book last year. I was asked by the editor to have people I knew who would be willing to write endorsements for my book, Bamboozled By A Bobcat. The first name I thought of was my friend, Kinny, and he was completely willing to do this for me.

In his own whimsical way, as only Kinny Haddox could do, he wrote “When he picks one out to write about it and you read it, you feel like you’ve been there with him the whole way. I swear one time after reading one of his tales about catching and cleaning some big old bluegill bream, I thought I could smell fish on my own hands.”

Kinny Haddox never backed away from writing about controversial matters and he dove into the topics headfirst. Whether it had to do with the proliferation of black bears and the hesitance of state officials to declare a hunting season for bears, or what to do about the rapid spread of feral hogs around the state, Kinny called ‘em as he saw ‘em and was not afraid to call officials out when they needed calling out.

On the flip side, he wrote about introducing kids to fishing and hunting and his upbringing and being tutored by his elders. He loved to write about his favorite fishing hole, Bussey Brake and his stories about how this fantastic fishery evolved make fascinating reading.

The outdoors world has lost a true disciple of all things outdoors and the thoughts in his mind that were transferred to his fingers as the millions of words he wrote over the years will remain in the hearts of Kinny Haddox’s fans for ages to come.

I, for one, will never forget my special friend.

Contact Glynn at glynnharris37@gmail.com

Arrests are accusations not convictions. 

July 16

Weapons

Tereon Hood, 25, Alexandria — felon with firearm, no driver’s license, improper use left lane, resisting, $1,700 bail;

Other

Kevin Craig Sr., 55, Pineville — domestic abuse battery strangulation, aggravated criminal damage, battery, $60,500 bail;

Andrew Denham, 31, Ball — domestic abuse battery strangulation, resisting, $100,500 bail;

Delores Osborne, 36, Boyce — domestic abuse battery 2nd degree, $1,500 bail. 

This date: 25 arrests, 9 including one or more contempt counts. 

Arrests are accusations not convictions.

July 16

Kiriaki Allen, 36, Alexandria — possession, contempt 5 counts, $7,500 bail;

Ta’marion Burks, 19, Alexandria — possession with intent, probation violation, $10,000 bail;

Colby Deville, 28, Alexandria — possession, motor vehicle theft, possession stolen vehicle, $8,000 bail;

Leslie Vanek, 64, Ball — possession, paraphernalia, $1,000 bail;

Erinaido Vasquez, 42, Ball — possession, $2,500 bail.

A winner will be selected by RRJ Management.  All decision are final, and contest rules can change without notice.

The Rapides Parish Journal and Hahn Roofing are giving you a chance to win pairs of tickets to the Mud Racing Nationals, Friday July 26, at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.

Registration begins Monday July 8.  The Rapides Parish Journal will select a winner after the registration closes Tuesday July 23.  The winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 24.

Register to win the tickets and receive a free lifetime subscription of the Rapides Parish Journal.

NATCHITOCHES — Louisiana Supreme Court Justice James “Jimmy” Genovese of Opelousas is poised to be named the new president of Northwestern State University.

Genovese, 74, a 1971 Northwestern graduate who is in the university’s Long Purple Line, the Alumni Hall of Distinction, was the unanimous choice Tuesday after a daylong interview process of two finalists by the NSU Presidential Search Committee.

Faculty Senate president Dr. Frank Serio made the motion, and University of Louisiana System board member Joe Salter of Florien seconded, to advance Genovese to a special ULS Board meeting to conclude the search Thursday morning at 11 in Baton Rouge.

The other finalist, Dr. Jose Cantu, also went through a series of open forums with groups of alumni and community leaders, faculty and staff, and students Tuesday morning on NSU’s Natchitoches campus. Overflow crowds were present at each meeting.

In afternoon sessions, Cantu and Genovese were interviewed in public sessions by the search committee, which included eight ULS Board members, Serio and six non-voting NSU alumni along with current student body president Terrell “TJ” Woodard.

The candidates also met with the search committee in executive sessions, with Genovese following Cantu, who most recently was a vice chancellor at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, but otherwise has spent his career in higher education in small Texas colleges.

The committee emerged to convene in its final open session more than four hours after Cantu’s public interview began at 1 o’clock, and Genovese followed at 2:30. Serio’s motion advancing Genovese was passed unanimously by him and the eight ULS Board members.

The board will gather Thursday morning to review the results of the search, with Genovese the only remaining candidate from a field of eight semifinalists. The judge was endorsed last month by Gov. Jeff Landry.

He is one of seven Supreme Court justices headquartered in New Orleans. Genovese, an Opelousas native and resident, was accompanied by his wife Martha throughout the day.

Genovese has been a judge since 1975, beginning with Opelousas City Court and being elected to seats on the district and Third Circuit Court of Appeals level before winning a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016. He said he will give up his final two years on that bench to take the helm of his alma mater.

The university has seen its enrollment decline from nearly 12,000 in Fall 2020, dropping by about 3,000 students this decade. The search process was rapid, said ULS System president Dr. Rick Gallot, to get a new president in place before students return to campus in mid-August.

Northwestern has operated a nursing school on its Line Avenue campus in Shreveport for many decades. The nursing school consistently ranks atop state rankings and is one of the largest in the country, with approximately 1,400 students, along with consistently earning top marks in national reviews.

Along with the main campus in Natchitoches, NSU has smaller campuses in Alexandria at England Air Park and in Leesville at Fort Johnson, and has been a leader in online instruction.

Outgoing president Dr. Marcus Jones will be returning to the UL System office as chief financial officer and vice president, a role he held previously before taking over at Northwestern State after his selection in November 2021. He was interim president for four months before being elevated.

By JIM BUTLER

A Pollock woman is accused of stealing more than $25,000 from a recreation organization board she is, or was, a member of.

Tracy Borland Smith, 35, was arrested following an investigation that began last week, according to authorities.

She was booked Friday and released on $5,000 bond.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to stipulate which complex organization or what Smith’s board role was, nor is the period of time over which the alleged theft occurred mentioned.

Smith has been most visible in softball activity centered around the Ward 10 recreational complex.

That complex is a publicly funded multi-activity enterprise. It serves as the activity center for several youth sports groups that are independent of the complex governing board.

Their revenue comes through registration and participation fees as well as fundraising activities. 

I am a sinner!

You knew that about us preachers, didn’t you?

Sin is like this. One day recently I was throwing on my dress shirt. I was not paying attention to what I was doing. The top button I lined up with the wrong buttonhole. The rest of the way down my shirt was off. You can’t button your shirt correctly if you get the top button wrong. That is what sin does in our relationships and to our lives; it throws us one bubble off of plumb.

Now before you go “holier than thou” on me consider this:

Once, D.L. Moody went to meet Charles Spurgeon at Spurgeon’s house in London. Spurgeon had been Moody’s hero and, from a distance, his teacher. When Spurgeon answered the door with a cigar in his mouth, Moody practically fell down the stairs in shock. Looking up at Spurgeon, he gasped, “How could you, a man of God, smoke that?”

Spurgeon took the stogie out of his mouth and walked down the steps to where Moody was still standing in confusion. Putting his index finger on Moody’s rather rotund stomach, he smiled, “The same way you, a man of God, could be that fat.”

Ouch!

There is no upside to sin. It is destructive. Our world is crazy, evil and mean because we live in a fallen world. We are all sinners and when sinners act out of their nature, bad stuff happens. The problems of culture can’t be fixed with more money, marching behind the slogans on a banner, another program, coming together or more education. Our world is going to hell in a handbasket because there are seven billion sinners alive and active right now.

Sin is not the only story, there is an antidote.

A father caught his son smoking. “You know my displeasure in you right now,” he admonished the boy. “I’ve always told you I would punish you severely if I ever caught you smoking. You deserve three smacks across your bottom with my belt.”

Thereupon, the father got his belt, but he hit the boy only once. Then he sent his son up to his room. (Before you get your liver in a quiver, this used to be the way it was. My mother had a stick she used to stir paint. It was colorful and effective for discipline.)

A short time later, the father climbed the stairs to his son’s room and asked, “Would you like to go out and get some ice cream?” Sitting in the ice cream parlor, the father said, “You do know that when I caught you smoking you deserved three smacks with my belt?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You noticed that you got only one, didn’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Son, that is mercy, and I want you to remember the lesson. Are you enjoying your ice cream?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Son, the ice cream is grace. Remember that too.”

Doug de Graffenried is the Senior Pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Ruston, Louisiana. You can reach Doug at his email:  DougDeGraffenried

ARLINGTON, Texas — There was little doubt that Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game was in Texas.

There was a cowboy who rode on horseback from the outfield before the game began. He also performed lasso tricks while riding, which was immensely impressive.

The starters then handed out brown cowboy hats to young fans during the starting lineups. 

The Texas-themed pregame festivities were capped by country singer, and proud Texas native, Cody Johnson handling the National Anthem. Yes, he too wore a cowboy hat — do you notice a theme? — but Cody’s mama must have raised him right because not only did he take off his Stetson but he then respectfully sang the heck out of it.

Yes, it was a Texas-themed extravaganza but that didn’t mean the Midsummer Classic didn’t have a large dash of Louisiana flavor.

The recognition began as three players with Bayou State ties had their faces plastered onto the giant scoreboard — or Texas-sized if you like — for the announcement of the rosters for the American and National League squads.

Former Northwestern State star and current Cleveland Guardians designated hitter David Fry, and former Parkway High and Centenary College star pitcher Seth Lugo of the Kansas City Royals were shown first.

A short time later Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom and LSU national champion Paul Skenes was put on the board as the starters were announced.

Olivia Dunne was also in attendance. You may have heard of her.

In case you were wondering if the stadium crew took time to pan in the crowd to show Skenes’ widely popular girlfriend — the answer is yes, the cameraman understood the assignment to showcase the LSU gymnast who moonlights as a social media superstar and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model.

Skenes eventually took the mound to start for the National League and he was gracious enough to give every baseball fan what they had wanted. After recording back-to-back outs,  Skenes walked Juan Soto which meant the 39,000-plus in attendance saw Skenes take on Aaron Judge.

The Pirates rookie got the New York Yankees superstar and former AL MVP to ground out to end the inning.

A little while after Skenes was being interviewed in the dugout in the third inning, Fry came into the game to pinch hit for Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.

The former Demon seized his moment as he laced a single off of San Francisco Giants Logan Webb into left field, bringing Soto home to tie the game 3-3.

Fry, playing a 10-minute ride from his hometown of Colleyville, got another at-bat in the fifth but popped up to shortstop. A guy who was hoping to have an MLB at-bat at the start of 2023 got a pair of trips to the plate in the 2024 All-Star Game. Is this a great country, or what?

Then there was another bit of Louisiana flavor as former LSU national championship-winning football coach Nick Saban was seen in the crowd. Saban was taking a breather from all that talking he has been forced to do this week as an ESPN analyst over at Southeastern Conference Media Days in neighboring Dallas.

That left only Lugo to have his moment on Tuesday night, which came in the seventh inning.

Lugo started by giving up a single to center field to Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, got Jackson Merrill to ground out but then gave up a single to Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds.

Lugo got out of the jam by striking out Ryan McMahon and getting Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna to ground out.

The AL held off the NL for a 5-3 victory and it was a banner night for the state of Texas, but it had a healthy dash of Louisiana flavor.

Contact Raymond at sportswithrp3@gmail.com

Arrests are accusations not convictions.

July 15

Weapons

Jerome Hobbs, 40, Alexandria — felon possessing firearm, criminal trespass, contempt 2 counts, $25,500;

Arryion Jacobs, 26, Pineville — illegally carrying weapon, illegal possession stolen things, resisting, motor vehicle theft, criminal damage, robbery, battery of dating partner, $109,500 bail;

Gregory McVaugh, 43, Deville — felony possessing firearm, contempt 4 counts, $10,500 bail;

Other

Ary Anders, 31, Boyce — battery 2nd degree, aggravated cruelty to animals 3 counts, robbery, fugitive, $4,000 bail;

Patrick Brown, 41, Woodworth — criminal conspiracy, accessory after fact, $40,000 bail;

Austin Desoto, 23, Alexandria — burglary inhabited dwelling, theft motor vehicle, probation violation, $40,000 bail;

Nolan Favaroth, 31, Kenner — felony fugitive, no bail set;

Chelsea Lachney, 25, Pineville — domestic abuse battery child present, $5,000 bail;

Michael Necklen, 54, Cape Coral, FL — terrorizing, manufacture/possession incendiary device, $20,000 bail;

Damien Tackett, 29, Boyce — aggravated cruelty to animals 3 counts, theft, criminal damage, $5,000 bail.

This date: 28 arrests, 14 including one or more contempt counts.

Arrests are accusations not convictions. 

July 15

William Bynog Jr., 39, Boyce — possession, criminal trespass, $3,000 bail. 

Following a family line of musical genius ranging from Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter to grandmother and gospel recording artist, Sister Alberta Gullage, and bassist father, Tony Gullage, who has performed with many well-known musical greats, such as Henry Butler, emerges Sonny Gullage. Sonny is taking the industry by storm, reviving the passion and excitement of the Blues with his smooth voice and charismatic performances. Natchitoches welcomes Sonny to the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival stage on July 20^th in the air-conditioned Prather Coliseum.

Many may remember Gullage from American Idol season 20 where he made quite the impression upon viewing audiences and the Idol judges. While his departure was shocking, the silence surrounding it was confusing. Gullage states that he remembers very well what they said to him that day. “They said Kevin, you’re a head scratcher. You’re one of the few people who did everything right, nothing wrong, but we just don’t have a spot for you on this show,” he relays with no anger or animosity. Instead, he looks upon his time on the hit show as a growing experience. Gullage is an artist who already knows who he is, where he is from, and who he wants to be.

Sonny feels that being born and raised in Luling, Louisiana has prepared him for his career. He states, “It’s a place that I can’t describe better than it’s the perfect center. Forty-five minutes to the east you have all the New Orleans stuff – Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, certain types of Blues. While on the other hand, forty-five minutes to the west you have Swamp Pop, the Cajun guys, and the Zydeco. It demands you to know both.” This merging of musical genres and fandoms has helped Gullage to cultivate his performances to grab the attention of all audiences and helps him to bring listeners back to the heart of the Blues.

Gullage states, “Being young and in Blues is not an easy path to choose. You can choose the Pop route, the R&B route, because people already naturally want to listen to something that sounds new. But, trying to convince people that something they don’t listen to anymore is still just as relevant, that’s not an easy job to do.” He is certainly up for the challenge and his new album, “Go Be Free!” will be available August 23^rd, and his single by the same name is out now. Gullage states this original song, “really is my story.” With the album promising many originals, Gullage is giving listeners an up-close and intimate look at his own life, his story, his hopes, and even his worries for the future. He states, “It’s a new step for me, to allow that much of myself into anything, to be vulnerable in that way. When you write songs, you write from a very raw place a lot of the time, so, with this new album, I’m giving that part of me that I don’t normally just give out. I’m putting a lot of myself out there.” This album is being produced under Blind Pig Records and marks a monumental step in Gullage’s musical career. The label has produced records for Muddy Waters, Otis Clay, and many other talented musicians.

With Gullage’s desire to remind listeners of the relevancy of the Blues, his musical styling is the perfect fit for the Festival’s theme, “The Old Songs Live Forever.” The festival is held in the air-conditioned Prather Coliseum, located at 220 South Jefferson St on the beautiful campus of Northwestern State University. In addition to three stages of live entertainment, the festival will include a jambalaya cook-off, the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship, over 75 crafts people, Louisiana cuisine food vendors, dance lessons, informances, narrative sessions, on-site demonstrations, and much more. Admission to this family friendly event is $10 for an all-day all event pass, after 5pm passes are only $6, and children 12 and under are admitted free at any time. The Festival celebrates and presents the unique and traditional folk culture of Louisiana.

Support for the Festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the City of Natchitoches, the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the Natchitoches Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, and the State of Louisiana. The festival is sponsored by C&H Precision Machining, City Bank, Cleco, Evans Family, LLC, the Harrington Law Firm, International Paper, Natchitoches Wood Preserving Company, and Young Estate, LLC.

A winner will be selected by RRJ Management.  All decision are final, and contest rules can change without notice.

The Rapides Parish Journal and Hahn Roofing are giving you a chance to win pairs of tickets to the Mud Racing Nationals, Friday July 26, at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.

Registration begins Monday July 8.  The Rapides Parish Journal will select a winner after the registration closes Tuesday July 23.  The winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 24.

Register to win the tickets and receive a free lifetime subscription of the Rapides Parish Journal.

By JIM BUTLER

The last time most people heard of Brandon Whipple he had allegedly shot a customer at a MacArthur Drive eatery where he worked.

This time, he allegedly participated in a homicide in June.

Three men have been arrested in the investigation. The first was nabbed after a car chase that ended on Louisiana Avenue.

Arrested July 11, Whipple is held under $1 million bail and charged with murder 2 as well as probation violation. The killing occurred June 18 on Overton Street.

Whipple, 21, was out on bond at the time, accused in March of possession with intent to distribute.

Back in January 2023 he was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm in the fast-food outlet shooting, as well as illegally carrying a firearm.

He was released from Department of Corrections custody in November 2023.

The day after Whipple was booked police arrested Robert Swafford, 19, and charged him with murder 2 in the same Overton Street incident. He is also held under $1 million bond.

The two accused listed the same Martha Lane address at booking.

Records do not indicate whether Swafford is related to Jeremy Swafford, one of two men killed in a meth-related incident near Simmons Street earlier this summer.

One man was shot to death, the other fatally beaten.

Nor is it known whether Robert Swafford is related to Derrick Swafford, accused in 2022 of murder 2 in an Orchard Street shooting.

There’s an alluring rhythm about a drive through a roundabout.

There’s the look and see, approach and enter, and cruise and glide – a rhythm that is forced yet freeing. And even fun.

The way you approach a roundabout – slowly — is like the way many approach the gulf or the ocean. You look and see the water and the waves from the beach and slow down as we approach and enter. Once you proceed and get used to the temp and the waves, you bounce to the rhythm of the waves, maybe float for a while or even enjoy riding a big wave back to the shore.

Well, it’s not the same as driving through a roundabout but the point is the initial, slow, careful approach can yield relaxation and awareness of the world around you, not to mention greater safety for all.

We’ve got a few roundabouts around Alexandria, including one I encounter often at the end of Jackson Street Extension that used to be a crazy four-way stop with Horseshoe Drive to the left, Twin Bridges Road to the right and Lodi Road up ahead. Admittedly, I wasn’t so sure about the wisdom of putting a roundabout there when they started working on that $1.8 million project in June of 2019. I wasn’t alone. There were many who pushed back on the “crazy” idea in the months and years leading up to the construction.

But I’ve come around to appreciating roundabouts, and I’m not alone. If there are any complaints about that roundabout, which opened for use four years ago – in July of 2020 — I haven’t heard them. The same is true for the one in Pineville that opened at the former intersection of Susek Drive and Edgewood Drive in August of ’20.

That one is located beside Pineville Junior High School, and Mike Yoist, the school principal, said at the time that the school had more parent traffic than in the past but that the “roundabout and the new parking lot that we have has really been able to handle all that traffic.”

Before the roundabout, when parents dropped off or picked up PJH students, traffic had to be stopped for them to make a left turn. Now, the roundabout enables traffic to flow without disruptions.

The England Airport Authority gave Alexandria its first roundabout with a $1.7 million single-lane project at the intersection of England Drive and Vandenburg Drive in 2010.

Carmel, Indiana, internationally known for its roundabout network, has more than 150 that have replaced traffic light intersections since the late ’90s. There, and elsewhere around the world, roundabouts are popular because of reductions in crashes and the elimination of the need for traffic signals, thus reducing the cost of maintenance and enforcement. What’s more, roundabouts are usually landscaped with an eye for beauty, and they can handle more traffic than intersections, even big rigs.

Dale Craig, the District 08 traffic engineer for the Louisiana Office of Transportation that covers several central Louisiana parishes, is an advocate for roundabouts and says the state would like to build more roundabouts in this area, such as one in Alexandria at the intersection at Versailles and Jackson Street Extension, along with one in Pineville at Military Highway and Edgewood Drive.

More than just being on a wish list, though, is a roundabout that’s on the books for construction around 2026 at Military Drive and Pinecrest Drive in Pineville.

Natchitoches folks are enduring traffic disruptions because of ongoing construction for a $4.4 million turbo-roundabout project on the LA-6 corridor near the I-49 exit. The turbo-roundabout design is relatively new with two lanes of spiraling traffic, but it’s touted as a more efficient alternative to standard multi-lane roundabouts. The first turbo-roundabout was built in the Netherlands in 2000, and because of its popularity and that of some others that followed, there are now nearly 300 turbo-roundabouts there.

Back to Cenla, LSUA joined the roundabout ranks, having two built on the campus in 2022.

I’d like to see more roundabouts around here because they are safer, more efficient, less expensive to maintain and more attractive than intersections with traffic lights. It’s going to take lots of support from the public, said Craig, to get that done because the production costs in some cases override the benefits. When the projected benefits are greater than the costs, that’s when things can start to happen.

“There’s a lot of prospects we’d like to do,” said Craig, “but not the justification to get the funding.”