JT ran across a quote from Sir Winston Churchill the other day that may need a little updating in today’s political climate. Churchill said “Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.” It may be more accurate to add…Some even change their party to get elected. Those are primarily what we call a RINO (Republican In Name Only). JT knows a few of those! JT doesn’t know what you call a Democrat who turns to Republican, like the late Gov. Buddy Roemer did while in office. He quizzed some of his Democratic friends and “traitor” or “?%@#&&” seemed to be the common names.
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Kudos to Gov. John Bel Edwards for setting a July date to terminate the extra $300 in federal pandemic unemployment benefits to state recipients. It’s especially significant in that Louisiana is now the first state led by a Democratic Governor to say no thanks to the Biden administration. There are 25 GOP-led states that have already said no.
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Pete Abington, who writes a weekly column in the Sabine Index, came up with some interesting stats relative to benefits. He said there are a number of states where the pre-tax equivalent “salary” that welfare recipients receive is higher than having a job: Hawaii-$60,590, District of Columbia-$50,821 and Massachusetts-$50,590.
However; when you get down South, the numbers change drastically: Kansas-$26,490, Alabama-$23,310 and Louisiana-$22,250. In Louisiana, for example, that annual pay equates to $5.35 an hour to stay home. With minimum wage at $7.25 it’s better to stay home and not have to pay for gas, clothing or lunch each day. Raising minimum wage is not going to entice someone to re-enter the workforce. It’s just going to see the number of full time jobs reduced to part-time jobs.
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JT sees where Demon Stadium is in line for $500,000 in new turf. He remembers when they got their first replacement turf courtesy of the New Orleans Saints. JT read somewhere football turf should last between eight and 10 years. Of course that depends upon its use. He sure thought we might of got more out of it based on last season’s Covid issues that halted a lot of games. Then we only played three Demon games this spring.
Based on those three games, the Demons averaged around 15 points a game. That’s getting into the end zone twice a game. So, maybe we only need to replace the center of the field since there wasn’t that much goal line or end zone action last year. ——- JT noticed the other day trees have been planted in the new buffer zone between the Sports Hall of Fame building and the condos at the corner of Lafayette and Front Street. He guesses the official tree of Natchitoches is now the Crepe Myrtle since they already line Front Street and seem to be expanding.
It seems to reason since there are Cypress trees already by the museum, it would be logical they would also be in the new area created by the museum?
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Speaking of Crepe Myrtles, JT was visiting with NSU’s Alumni Executive Director Drake Owens. Drake was blindsided earlier this year when landscapers went a little….make that a lot…overboard when trimming the Crepe Myrtles in front of the Alumni Center on University Parkway.
Drake said his phone began ringing almost immediately about the trimming and continued ringing for several days. He was able to stop the damage, but not until several of the trees had been “trimmed”. Drake joked to JT that he now probably knows as much about Crepe Myrtles as anyone…and how they should be cared for AND he now checks them every day to see how they are doing.
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Kudos to Mayor Williams and Rebecca Blakenbaker, director of the Cane River National Heritage Area. They partnered to get the Church Street Bridge painted and oh my, it seems to have given Front Street and Williams Avenue a huge aesthetically pleasing lift. Every time JT would cross the bridge he would think about how much it needed to be painted. Mayor Ronnie says the project will also include painting the Keyser Avenue Bridge and Amulet Street Bridge.
JT is happy to see that the weeds and overgrowth at Amulet Bayou are also coming down. There must be a plethora of places that need attention in this weed season but JT compliments the Mayor in seeing that these highly visible spots are getting attention.