RUSTON — As early voting continues ahead of the June 27 election, Lincoln Parish School Board officials are responding to concerns raised by some current and retired educators regarding a proposal that would consolidate the district’s five existing half-cent sales taxes into a single 2.5% parishwide sales tax.
The proposal would not increase the total sales tax paid by consumers. Instead, school officials say it would streamline accounting and provide greater flexibility in managing district finances.
Among those raising questions is Barbara Kirkland, a retired Lincoln Parish educator and president of the Lincoln Parish Retired Teachers Association. Kirkland said one of the primary concerns she has heard centers on the language of the proposition, which states that tax revenues could be used for “any lawful purpose of the school board,” including teacher salaries, employee benefits, facility improvements and operational expenses.
“The part that’s questionable is ‘any lawful purpose of the school board,'” Kirkland said, noting that the current sales taxes are tied to more specific voter-approved purposes. She questioned whether consolidating the funds could make it more difficult for taxpayers to track how money is being spent.
Addressing concerns about the proposition’s wording, LPSB Superintendent-Elect John Young noted that similar language already exists within one of the district’s longstanding sales tax authorizations.
“This language is very similar to the 1967 sales tax fund, which states that it could be used for salaries and benefits and ‘operating expenses,'” Young said.
Kirkland said teachers understandably want reassurance that future salary supplements and other compensation will remain secure.
“When you’re a teacher, you don’t want your salaries, your projected money to be messed with,” she said. “We need good teachers in this parish.”
Young said the school board remains committed to protecting employee compensation and benefits as a means to both attract and retain top teaching talent for the parish.
“During our March 2026 board meeting, the school board passed a resolution prioritizing teacher salaries and also competitive pay,” Young said. “Thirteenth and 14th checks are a major recruitment tool and our board realizes that competitive pay helps us retain teachers as well.”
Young noted that the district has distributed supplemental payments beyond the traditional 13th and 14th checks in recent years.
“We have also given out ’15th’ checks in the past (2024) and will have another distribution next week on June 25, 2026,” he said.
Questions have also been raised about whether consolidating the taxes could affect retirement or insurance-related benefits for current and retired employees.
Young said the proposal would have no impact on those obligations.
“No, the district will still be responsible for paying employer contributions to various retirement systems of district employees (TRSL, LSERS),” Young said.
Some educators have also questioned whether future school boards could redirect funds away from teacher compensation if leadership priorities change. A large swath of current Lincoln Parish school board members will not be able to run again in the November 2026 election due to term limits.
Young said annual recommendations regarding salaries and sales tax distributions will continue to come before the board in public meetings.
“Each year, the superintendent makes recommendations to the board regarding the amounts of salaries and also sales tax distributions,” Young said. “As superintendent, I plan to make recommendations that are financially responsible but also meaningful to employees. The board does have the ultimate decision on what those distributions should be.”
Another concern raised by some voters involves whether the consolidation would circumvent public oversight of future building projects.
Young said the proposal would not alter Louisiana laws governing bond issues or voter approval requirements for major construction projects.
“This proposal merely consolidates existing sales taxes into a single sales tax,” Young said. “It would not change Louisiana laws that govern bond issues. If the district pursued a voter-approved project for any major capital projects, those plans would still require approval from the voters.”
The Lincoln Parish School Board approved the consolidation proposal earlier this year. If approved by voters on June 27, the district’s five existing half-cent sales taxes would be combined into a single 2.5% tax while maintaining the same overall sales tax rate currently collected.
RUSTON, La. — A weekend of faith, music, community and celebration is planned as the Ruston Juneteenth Celebration returns June 19-20. The annual event is sponsored by
the City of Ruston, the Real Change in Ruston, Zion Traveler Community Development Corporation, and organizers say this year’s celebration promises two days of outstanding gospel music, family fun and community fellowship.
The festivities will begin on Friday, June 19, at 6 p.m. with the finals of the Juneteenth Gospel Indie Artist Showcase at Zion Traveler Baptist Church, 1201 Martin Luther King Drive in Ruston.
Competing for the championship will be:
Inza English
Startavious “Star the Musician” Williams
E’Jeanae Hibbert
Special guest Taushey Sias, a national recording artist, will also make an appearance during the showcase.
The winner of the competition will receive $1,000 in prize money and earn the opportunity to perform on the main stage during Saturday’s Juneteenth concert.
The celebration continues on Saturday, June 20, with the Ruston Juneteenth Concert at the Thomas Assembly Center on the campus of Louisiana Tech University. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m., with the concert beginning at 3 p.m.
Headlining the event will be Marvin Sapp, one of gospel music’s most celebrated artists and a 24-time Stellar Award winner known for hits such as Never Would Have Made It. Joining him will be acclaimed worship leader VaShawn Mitchell, a multiple Stellar Award and Dove Award recipient whose songs include Nobody Greater and Turning Around for Me.
The concert will also feature performances by the Unity Choir, along with the winner of the Juneteenth Gospel Indie Artist Showcase.
Organizers say attendees are encouraged to arrive early to enjoy the Vendors Village, featuring local businesses, food vendors and a variety of surprises throughout the afternoon.
“Juneteenth is a time to celebrate freedom, faith and community,” organizers said. “This weekend is designed to bring people together through music, fellowship and support for local businesses.”
Tickets are $10, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free. Tickets are available online at www.rustonjuneteenth.com and at Zion Traveler Baptist Church.
Community members from across North Louisiana are invited to come out, support local vendors, enjoy great food and experience an unforgettable weekend of gospel music and celebration.
As its main order of business during its June 2026 meeting, the Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control passed a motion to request the Lincoln Parish Police Jury (LPPJ) declare some unused items inside the LPL as surplus property in order for them to be potentially sold.
“Some of the stuff (on the list of surplus property) is not completely kaput or nasty,” said LPL Director Jeremy Bolom. “When I say surplus, that’s what I mean. We don’t need the NG-L (L-shaped desk made by the Newland Group) desks or filing cabinets that are in that back room because we don’t have stuff in that room and I don’t see a time in the future that we’ll have staff that will need that stuff.
“There’s one office in the back that has a desk and filing cabinet in it that nobody uses, so I say get rid of that, too. That’s the Sauder furniture — put-together furniture — not as nice as the NG-L desk.”
Sauder desks come in many shapes (rectangular, L-shaped, corner, pedestal, credenza and more) and styles (wood, glass, metal, bamboo and more) and often include features like storage drawers and cabinets for files, supplies and electronics, keyboard trays and cable management systems, and adjustable shelves for flexibility.
Bolom said most of the furniture is older.
“Some of it is from the old library that has been used for work stations or whatever, so I’m going to get rid of those and then replace it with furniture that’s elsewhere (in the current library),” Bolom said. “So, I’m saying get rid of some of it and then move other furniture that’s just kind of stored to the side to where (the surplus property) is right now. I want to streamline a little bit.”
Bolom added that the surplus property in the worst shape is a six-piece blue and two-piece red vinyl-covered Cartwright bench/sectional “couch” with two fabric-covered backs.
“The furniture used to be in the Children’s Department and are in really bad shape (with extreme wear to upholstery and frames and some splits in the vinyl covering),” Bolom said. “And there are two vegan rolling chairs (with extreme wear to upholstery and frames and some splits in the vinyl). Those didn’t last six months.”
Following is the list of items approved by the Library Board of Control to recommend to the Lincoln Parish Police Jury (which oversees the LPL) be declared as surplus property and advertised for bid and put up for sale:
• Five pieces of red vinyl-upholstered August seating squares (various conditions to upholstery and frames)
• Low rolling table with middle storage compartment, 36-by-36 inches (surface staining)
• Lot of two particle-board laminate office “mailbox” shelves (contains rough wear and label residue)
• Sauder dark laminate printer cabinet, 20-by-30-by-72 inches (missing top doors; bottom file drawer will not close)
• Sauder dark laminate desk with attached filing cabinet (79-by-28 inches) (general wear; no keyboard tray)
• Locking metal rolling laptop charging/storage cart
• Lot of two wood double-sided book bins with middle corkboard stand display (various condition, damage to cork, various surface scratches)
• Black literature display spinner (metal and plastic)
• Curved-end dark laminate top desk (71-by-29 inches) with surface scratches and staining
• Lot of two heavy blond laminate desks (60-by-30 inches) with surface scratches and staining
• Laminate and metal desk (60-by-30 inches) with surface scratches and staining
• Lot of two solid wood two-drawer desk file cabinets (17-by-24-by-18 inches), cherry finish (surface scratches)
• Metal and blond laminate typing table (36-by-30 inches) with surface scratches and staining
• Merlin MR (Serial Number C06-2415746) with Enhance Vision monitor (Serial Number 104400M20Y00354), works as expected
• Six-piece blue and two-piece red vinyl-covered Cartwright bench/sectional “couch” with two fabric-covered backs (extreme wear to upholstery and frames; some splits in vinyl)
• Rolling typing/printer stand desk with fold-out extension, gray metal and laminate (25-by-39-by-28 inches; extension 14-by-20 inches), general wear
• Lot of two green vegan leather rolling armchairs (extreme wear to upholstery and frames; some splits in vinyl)
The LPPJ will discuss and vote on the request during its July meeting.
Assistant Parish Administrator Kevin Klepzig attended Thursday’s LPL Board meeting and explained how the process will continue after the LPPJ makes that vote.
“We can leave it here and tell people who are interested that they can come and look at it here (at the LPL),” Klepzig said. “They can then submit silent bids and then we’ll open the bids at some point. Then those bids will be approved by the Police Jury the next month and then the (bid winners) will have 30 days to come pick it up.”
Bolom also told the LPL Board that patron visits and the physical and e-circulation and reference numbers were back to normal after dipping some the previous month and that Events Center rentals were down, attributing that to it being summertime.
He also told the board that a Friends of the Library meeting will be held next at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Byrnside Conference Room.
A Dubach man was arrested Monday following a reported domestic violence incident, according to an arrest affidavit.
Terrion Trinese McCollister, 49, was arrested June 15 for domestic abuse battery and false imprisonment after an investigation by Dubach Police.
Police were dispatched to a residence on Highway 167 shortly before midnight May 15. A woman and a man told officers they were attacked by McCollister. The woman said McCollister struck her in the face with a closed fist, beat her with a belt, and prevented her from leaving the residence, according to the affidavit.
Officers observed red marks, scratches, and bruises on the woman’s legs and arms during that investigation.
Police obtained arrest warrants for McCollister on charges for domestic abuse battery and false imprisonment. He was located at a residence on Highway 167 on June 15 and taken into custody.
McCollister was transported to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center on the warrants. He is also being held for a Louisiana Department of Corrections parole officer.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:45 right to your inbox.Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
All I guess that the Louisiana Sports Writers Association can say tonight is, “we’re sorry.”
Almost always, we have been proud to start the run of big Hall of Fame inductions here in Natchitoches for stars of their games. But this time, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Hall of Fame beat us to the punch last year.
Our rules for induction after retirement got a bit in the way, so we had to wait the requisite period of time before we could make the move. But Sylvia Fowles was on the Hall’s radar from the moment she announced her retirement and last August it was a lightning-quick decision that she would be the next women’s basketball standout to join our Hall.
Fowles is part of a 12-member Class of 2026 going into the LSHOF to culminate three days of festivities Thursday, June 25-Saturday, June 27, with seven events (six in Natchitoches, bowling in Alexandria). For participation information, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
Hall of Famers come in all shapes and sizes. When it comes to basketball Hall of Fame types, LSU’s longtime associate basketball coach Bob Starkey knows one when he sees one.
“Well, I think when you talk about being a Hall of Famer, you’re talking about a complete body of work long term,” he said. “And when you look at what Sylvia’s done first on the collegiate level here at LSU, then you take it to the WNBA. You take it to her overseas basketball career and then her Olympic career.
“She’s been absolutely one of the best of the best at every single level for an extended period of time. To me, that’s what a Hall of Famer is. It’s not about having a good year or a good run. It’s about your entire career being elite.”
Hard to argue with that.
At LSU, she’s remembered for a lot of numbers like four straight NCAA Final Four appearances, averaging a double double, winning and winning big, a three-time All-American and more.
But what everyone at LSU will remind you about is “the dunk.” The night she became, at that time in 2007, just the sixth women’s player in college basketball to dunk the basketball in a game.
It was a simple play, so it seemed. And with due respect to my friends in Lafayette where the Ragin’ Cajun player may still have nightmares, Fowles came out to steal the ball near midcourt, gathered it up, dribbled down the court and right hand dunked it to the delight and maybe some amazement of the Maravich Center crowd.
“We had been begging her. I know I had been begging her (to dunk in a game),” said Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame teammate Seimone Augustus, who is now an LSU assistant coach. “Coach Starkey is the post coach so we were seeing it every day in practice she would have like a little dunk. It wasn’t too crazy, but it was a dunk. We were like why don’t you do it a game? She’s just like, if you know her demeanor, it’s like ‘do I need to?’ And we were like, ‘Yes, you need to.’
“It just so happened that I was in town from overseas, on our Christmas break or whenever it was, like during a break and (Sylvia) got a breakaway. She got a steal at half court and it was just her and the basket. We were like, she’s going to do it. I saw her start to gather her steps and I’m like she’s got to do it and she did it. That was like the most amazing thing ever because there’s very few women in the college game that have done it. I mean, you are talking Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles, Brittney Griner. There’s a handful of women that have ever done that. She’s one of those women.”
Patrick Wright, the radio voice of LSU women’s basketball for over 35 years, remembers it well.
“We all knew she was capable of dunking,” he said. “It happened because of a smart defensive play by Sylvia. Not many girls Syl’s size were remotely coordinated to dribble the ball 70 feet, but she had the grace of the point guard she just stole the ball from. As she got to the free throw line, the thought everyone in the arena had was the same – she might dunk this. She threw it down with one hand. It was a legitimate dunk that any men’s player would be proud of. I will always remember the reaction of her teammates and the crowd, and everyone knew they just witnessed something historic.”
But it was more than dunking. It was scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and being a good teammate that LSU folks remember.
“The thing about Sylvia and again, this is what makes her not just a Hall of Fame player, but a Hall of Fame person is she is, legitimately, seriously happy for other people’s success,” said Coach Starkey. “So when she came here, we went to four straight Final Fours, and then, three out of four years, we won the SEC championship.
“It’s never been done before or after at this school. And those where when those three out of four SEC championships, that’s the days of Pat Summitt (Tennessee) and Andy Landers (Georgia) and Joe Ciampi (Auburn) and Gary Blair (Texas A&M) and all these Hall of Fame coaches. So it was a remarkable, remarkable period. But it meant a lot to her because, she was able to help her teammates garner some success.”
Unfortunately, with the passage of time those NCAA Final Four appearances in the mid-2000s have drifted a slight bit to the back of LSU fans’ minds because of LSU’s most recent success in women’s basketball. But those banners hang high in the Maravich Center and they are just as important as any others that hang there.
More important, in the rafters with the greatest LSU players like Abdul-Rauf, Macklin, Maravich, Pettit, O’Neal and Augustus, flies the banner for Fowles. All of those as of tonight are well-deserved Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers.
The numbers back up all of those being in this Hall and others. But what struck Coach Starkey most was a personality that made her a player he wanted to bring to LSU.
“There’s no question that having a good, athletic, fast, quick post player is enticing,” he said. “But it wasn’t until Sylvia came to our elite camp, and we got to sit down to have a conversation that she became somebody that I just had to recruit, and that was because of her mindset. Her personality. She was obviously gifted physically, but it was the other things that I got to learn about during that week, that made me know that she had a chance to be just not really good, but to be absolutely one of the game’s best. It was her ability to be a great teammate, to be unselfish. I was able to gauge her desire, her commitment to wanting to be at a different level … I just knew I really, really want to coach her.”
But there was some learning that had to be done.
“A funny story is very early on,” Coach Starkey remembered. “I think it was an exhibition game. There was a battle for a rebound. She went up and grabbed it and, knocked the other team’s rebounder down. Instead of running the floor, she leaned over and helped her up. It speaks to the type of character she has.
“But it’s not really what I want from a post player when we’re between the lines. So we had to make her a little bit tougher. We had to make her, to be honest with you, a little bit more selfish. She was such an unselfish kid. You throw the ball in the post and she’s looking to pass it out. We want her to score down there.”
And then the most important praise this veteran could assess.
“She was a great teammate. Unless you’ve coached on this level, (you don’t realize) when your best players are your best people, that’s when you have a chance as a team.”
She would continue to prove that in the WNBA and in the Olympics and for overseas professional teams. She won four Olympic gold medals, two WNBA titles, honors galore professionally in the league and beyond. She even teamed with her two-year college teammate Augustus in the W for the Minnesota Lynx after Fowles looked to move after several years with the Chicago Sky.
“We never really thought we would play together,” Augustus said. “An opportunity came in 2015. It was between two teams that she was deciding between. Obviously, we had won a number of championships so we looked a little bit more appealing to her. I just remember our coach telling us, ‘Sylvia might want to come here and would I give her a phone call and see where she is in the process?’
“I picked up the phone and the phone call was like, literally, five seconds. I was just ‘we would love to have you here.’ She was like ‘on my way.’ Click. And within a matter of a few hours, maybe a few days, she was in Minnesota and the rest is history.”
The team won championships in 2015 and 2017 and Fowles was Finals MVP both times.
Now, not long after retirement, comes coaching for this dominant star post player. A new role began this season in Portland.
Great player. Great person. Great Hall of Famer.
“I know it has been said before, but since we are honoring her again, she is just the nicest person possible off the court,” said Lindsay Whalen, teammate of Fowles on two WNBA title teams who won two Olympic Gold Medals with Fowles. “Anytime we had somebody who had like a baby shower or something, she would come with a wagon filled with clothes and diapers and all the things that would be needed for that expecting family. Just a great human being first.”
The LSWA is happy it didn’t have to wait any longer to make this official. Welcome to our Hall,Syl!
A Ruston man was arrested June 16 after deputies executed search and arrest warrants at a residence on Highway 146, according to an affidavit filed by the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office.
According to the affidavit, deputies executed search and arrest warrants at a residence in the 8800 block of Highway 146. During the search, deputies located numerous stolen items valued at approximately $2,000.
One of the residents, identified as Seth Walsworth, 30, was found to have active warrants through Franklin Parish and Ouachita Parish for failure to appear in court on drug charges.
The affidavit states deputies also found a eyeglass case containing a clear plastic baggie with a small amount of suspected methamphetamine and a glass smoking pipe containing residue. The items were located near a wallet containing Walsworth’s identification.
Investigators noted in the affidavit that Walsworth resides at the Highway 146 address and receives mail there.
Walsworth was advised of his rights and told deputies he had not consumed methamphetamine since the day before. He was booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center on the warrants from Franklin and Ouachita Parishes, and local charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and illegal possession of stolen things.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:45 right to your inbox.Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
Info compiled by Kay Lueg, North Central Louisiana Master Gardeners
Plants need oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. They are essential for plants. Plants get these elements from the air and water. Other than that, there are three main macronutrients and three secondary macronutrients.
Most fertilizers have nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Next in line are the secondary macronutrients – calcium, magnesium and sulfur.
(N) Nitrogen promotes green leafy growth.
(P) Phosphorus promotes root development, flowering, and fruit development.
(K) Potassium promotes stronger stems and over resilience and water regulation.
Secondary nutrients, in smaller amounts, are calcium, magnesium and sulfur.
And finally, there are micronutrients. They are needed in very small amounts.
Fertilizers provide food that boosts plant performance.
Not all plants need fertilizer. Some common plants in this category are bee balm (Monarda), butterfly weed, black-eyed Susan, ornamental grasses, hairy vetch and nasturtium.
With these plants, one can make teas, do chop and drop mulching, or plant as cover crops. Cover crops have to grow for 2 to 4 months and then be worked into the soil.
Back to the common commercial fertilizers, they can be the typical granules that are labeled with ratios of N-P-K. 10-10-10 is a good all-around fertilizer. 5-5-5 would be the same except that it wouldn’t be as strong.
Slow-release fertilizers like Osmocote are more expensive but easier to distribute. Also an application lasts longer. Best used in long term maintenance of established gardens.
Organic fertilizer is more expensive and doesn’t work any better. Actually, it works a lot slower than standard fertilizer. Nitrogen is nitrogen, no matter how it is presented. Ditto for phosphorus and potassium.
To wrap this up, there are a lot of ways to feed plants. Don’t be intimidated. Find what works best for you. Happy gardening!
Herman Jerome “Jerry” Alter and Sara Rita Sinofsky married in 1956 in New York City. Jerry and Rita both worked for high schools in New York and New Jersey; Jerry was a music teacher, and Rita was a speech therapist. In 1974, Jerry retired at the young age of 47 and he and Rita bought a 20-acre mesa overlooking a mountain valley near Cliff, New Mexico, about 30 miles northwest of Silver City. In 1979, they built a ranch-style home on the property overlooking the valley. Jerry and Rita coauthored three independently published books, all of which were published in 2011. The first was a blend of fictional and non-fiction adventure travel. The second was a twist on Aesop’s Fables set in verse. The third was a book of poetry based on their travel experiences. The books sold poorly. In the “about the author” section of the books, Jerry claimed that he had “visited over 140 countries on all continents, including both polar regions.”
On April 9, 2012, 81-year-old Jerry died of natural causes, followed by 81-year-old Rita on June 5, 2017. Rita’s nephew Ron Roseman, a resident of Houston, Texas, was the executor of her estate. Ron contacted real estate agent Ruth Seawolf the following month to sell the property. In an email discussing the property Ron said, “Ruthie, I’ve gone through the home, and I don’t think there is anything of value, but help yourself.” Ruthie visited the home in preparation for putting it on the market and noted that it was “a little dated, older home,” but one she thought would “be fairly easy to sell.” Ruthie contacted the owners of Manzanita Ridge Furniture & Antiques in Silver City, to visit the house to see how best to dispose of its contents. Everything in the home was old and covered in dust. When they removed the pictures and paintings from the walls, it was evident by the dust patterns that they had been hanging in the same positions for decades. The antique store owners saw nothing they considered especially valuable and bought the entire contents for around $2,000.
The antique store owners carted a few select items including furniture, small art pieces, and paintings back to their store and donated most of the contents to a local thrift store. David Van Auker, one of the antique store owners, liked one of the paintings which had hung behind the Alter’s bedroom door for decades and intended to display it in his guest house. Back at the store, customers were drawn to the painting in the cheap gold frame and said they recognized it. After several customers independently expressed their belief that the painting looked familiar, David did some internet research. He was stunned to learn that over three decades earlier, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1985, a man and woman who resembled Jerry and Rita stole a Willem de Kooning painting called Woman-Ochre from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson. The painting was valued at over $160 million, but David returned the painting to the museum of art and refused a reward. This was just the first of many valuable paintings that the FBI learned that Jerry and Rita Alter had stolen. Everyone, especially their friends and family, were stunned to learn that Jerry and Rita Alter were professional art thieves.
5. The Santa Fe New Mexican, September 10, 2017, p.A2.
6. Carlsbad Current-Argus, December 28, 2024, p.3.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:45 right to your inbox.Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
Each Monday through Friday, the Lincoln Parish Journal will post a list of non-for-profit upcoming events happening in the parish. If you would like to add your event to this list or advertise your for-profit events, please email us at lpjnewsla@gmail.com.
Friday, June 19 Juneteenth 8 a.m.: Juneteenth car show (Downtown Grambling) 5 p.m.: Juneteenth parade (Downtown Grambling) 6 p.m.: Juneteenth fish fry (Grambling) Dusk: Fireworks (Grambling Park)
Friday, June 19 Juneteenth 8 a.m.: Juneteenth car show (Downtown Grambling) 5 p.m.: Juneteenth parade (Downtown Grambling) 6 p.m.: Juneteenth fish fry (Grambling) Dusk: Fireworks (Grambling Park)
Saturday, June 20 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Ruston Farmers Market 3-5:30 p.m.: Ruston Juneteenth Celebration (Thomas Assembly Center) 7-11 p.m.: Juneteenth Gala (Black and Gold Room, 403 Main Street, Grambling)
Monday, June 22 11:30 a.m.: Lunch on Us (Presbyterian Church, 212 North Bonner Street., Ruston) — everyone welcome 4 p.m.: Storytime : Pigs (Lincoln Parish Library Events Center) 6 p.m.: Toastmasters International meeting (Louisiana Center for the Blind, 101 South Trenton Street) 6-9 p.m.: Creative Meetups (Creatives at Work, 301 N. Trenton)
Tuesday, June 23 6:30 a.m.: Veterans free breakfast (VFW Post 3615, 206 Memorial Dr.) 10 a.m.: Storytime : Pigs (Lincoln Parish Library Events Center) 10 a.m.: Summer Movie Series “Zootopia 2” (Dixie Theatre) 2 p.m.: Crafternoon : Toilet Paper Sheep Painting (Lincoln Parish Library) 4 p.m.: Teen Time : Balloon Animals and more! (Lincoln Parish Library) 6 p.m.: Video-Led Exercise class (Lincoln Parish Library Events Center)
Wednesday, June 24 7-8 a.m.: Veterans Coffee Club (PJ’s Coffee) 11:30 a.m.: Lunch on Us (Presbyterian Church, 212 North Bonner Street., Ruston) — everyone welcome 11:30 a.m.: Groundbreaking for Russ Town Crossing (1211 Gaines Ave.) 12-1 p.m.: Rotary Club meeting (Historic Fire Station)
Thursday, June 25 10 a.m.: Ribbon cutting celebrating Power Water District Power Building apartments (300 E. Mississippi Ave.) 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Ruston Kiwanis Club lunch and program (Trinity Methodist Church fellowship hall; Anyone is welcome to come to our meeting,please notify Richartd Hamilton of your attendance. 318-518-2121) 2 p.m.: Tween Time : Bristle Bots (Lincoln Parish Library) 4 p.m.: Teen Time : Retro Video Games (Lincoln Parish Library) 4:30-5:30 p.m.: Free meal provided by 5 Loaves 2 Fish Ministry to be served at St . Benedict Church, Main Street in Grambling. All are welcome 6 p.m.: Video-Led Tai Chi class (Lincoln Parish Library Events Center) 6 p.m.: Southern A’Chord Chorus rehearsal (Presbyterian Church fellowship hall, 212 N. Bonner St.; open to all women singers) 7 p.m.: Ruston Community Theatre presents “Willy Wonka, Jr.” (Dixie Theatre)
Friday, June 26 10 a.m.: Open house for Fox Nesbit (500 Dan Reneau Dr.) 2 p.m.: Briarhill Farms at Lincoln Parish Library Events Center 3:30-5:30 p.m.: Summer DND Campaign for Teens & Tweens (Lincoln Parish Library) Please call 318-513-5518 for important information about participation. 7 p.m.: Ruston Community Theatre presents “Willy Wonka, Jr.” (Dixie Theatre)
Saturday, June 27 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Ruston Farmers Market 7 p.m.: Ruston Community Theatre presents “Willy Wonka, Jr.” (Dixie Theatre)
Sunday, June 28 2 p.m.: Ruston Community Theatre presents “Willy Wonka, Jr.” (Dixie Theatre)
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John Henry Gass, age 84 of Ruston, LA passed away peacefully on Monday, June 15, 2026. A funeral mass will be held Monday, June 22, 2026 at 10 AM at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Ruston, LA. Interment will follow at 1:30 PM at the Northeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Rayville.
John Henry Gass was born in Brooklyn, NY, and spent most of his childhood in Newark, NJ, and Pine Bush, NY, where he graduated from high school. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for 20 years, retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant at Fort Polk, LA. His Army service included several years as an instructor at the U.S. Army Signal School, overseas assignments in Korea and the Netherlands, and a tour of duty in Vietnam. After retiring from military life, he worked for Pitney Bowes and ConAgra.
John was an active parishioner and volunteer at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Ruston for 35 years. He and his wife Sandra enjoyed sightseeing and travel, making the most of the places where life and the Army sent them. He liked spending his time at home working on puzzles, reading, and doing household projects. He loved spending time with family and friends and his weekly coffee group. He was also a member of the VFW and American Legion. He had an optimistic, friendly attitude and was quick to smile.
John was preceded in death by Sandra, his beloved wife of 54 years, and his sisters, Kay and Joan. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Joan Gass; his brother, Lloyd Gass; and his son and daughter-in-law, John and Kathleen.
Funeral services for Geraldine “Gerry” Colvin Long, 83, of Bastrop, Louisiana, will be held Sunday, June 21, at 1:30 p.m. at Kilpatrick Funeral Home Chapel in Ruston, Louisiana. Visitation will begin at 1:00 PM until service time at Kilpatrick Funeral Home Chapel, 209 N. Bonner, Ruston, LA.
A graveside service will immediately follow at the Colvin Memorial Cemetery in Unionville, Louisiana, under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home of Ruston. Officiating the services will be her son, Jeff Long.
Gerry passed away on June 17 at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe following a lengthy illness.
Born on April 28, 1943, in Holly Ridge, Louisiana, Gerry was the daughter of Benjamin Hughes (B.H.) Colvin and Irene Larance Colvin. She was raised in the Bearskin Community of West Carroll Parish and attended school in Pioneer.
Gerry later attended Louisiana Tech University, where she met her future husband, Gary Long, while working in the university library. The couple married on August 25, 1962, and built a wonderful life together in Bastrop, Louisiana.
A devoted wife and mother, Gerry dedicated many years to raising her three sons and creating a loving home for her family. She was a talented artist and crafter who enjoyed painting, pottery, and a variety of creative pursuits. Later, she served as Office Manager for Dreher Contracting in Bastrop for 17 years.
Following retirement, Gerry and Gary shared a love of travel and adventure. Together they explored many favorite destinations, including New Orleans, New York City, Hawaii, Barcelona, and Venice, Italy. They especially enjoyed cruising and were always planning their next journey.
Gerry was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Prentiss Clayton Colvin.
She is survived by her loving husband of 63 years, Gary Clark Long of Bastrop; her sons, Jeffrey Long and wife Dana of Acworth, Georgia, Dr. David Long and wife Fara of Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Daniel Long of Marietta, Georgia; her sister, Beverly Cambre and husband Chuck of West Monroe, Louisiana; and her grandsons, Dillon Long of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Carson Long and wife Melissa of Birchwood, Wisconsin.
The family would like to express their gratitude for the care and compassion shown to Gerry throughout her illness.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to a favorite charity in Gerry’s memory.
Melba Jean Arie McDowell September 25, 1937 – June 15, 2026 Visitation: Saturday, June 20, 2026, 12:30PM – 1:30PM, Kilpatrick Funeral Home Graveside Services: Saturday, June 20, 2026, 2:00PM, Pleasant Grove Cemetery, 1366 Pleasant Grove Road, Choudrant
Loretta Shadow Owens (left) visits with an old friend
by Wesley Harris
Loretta Shadow Owens was sitting in a comfortable armchair when I found a few minutes to visit with her, her art studio buzzing with the warmth of old friends and family.
I had waited my turn, astonished at what had to be 1,000 paintings, most in a style I’ve labeled “abstract folk art.”
The crowd had thinned some, though people were still drifting in and out, stopping to hug her, to talk a while, to laugh over old memories, and in many cases, to carry home a piece of her art.
Around us, paintings covered nearly every inch of wall space, display panel, and tabletop— years and years of Loretta’s imagination, memory, and unmistakable style gathered in one place.
She called the gathering her “living wake.”
A traditional wake, of course, comes after someone has died. Friends and family gather, stories are told, memories are shared, and the person being remembered is present only in those hearts and voices.
Loretta decided she would rather be there for the stories.
Getting older, as we all do, she knew the time had come to begin parting with the extensive collection of artwork she had created over many years. Around three to four thousand pieces, according to her daughter Megan. Rather than leave that burden to her children as they settled her estate someday, she chose to do something both practical and deeply personal. With help from her friends and family, she organized her studio, displayed her paintings, and invited people to come by while she could still greet them herself.
On the first evening of the wake planned for three days, scores of people came through — old friends, family members, some from out of state — to spend time with Loretta and, if they wished, take home a piece of her art.
But it was more than an art sale.
It was a reunion, a remembrance. It was Loretta’s life painted in color and conversation.
For me, visiting with Loretta was not a proper interview. It was talking with an old friend.
When my wife and I first married, we lived next to Loretta’s parents, Hale and Margaret Shadow, on Bonner Street. You could not have asked for better neighbors. Loretta’s children visited their grandparents often, and we watched them grow up in that casual, front-yard way neighbors once enjoyed. Sometimes they wandered over, becoming part of those early married years when the neighborhood felt like an extended family.
My connection to the Shadows went back even further. My father had worked for Hale Shadow and his brother Glen for a time at the Ruston Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Each brother had a beautiful farm where I spent many Saturdays exploring while my dad picked up extra income mowing and repairing things. Before we moved next door to Hale and Margaret, I already felt connected to the family.
That kind of connection is hard to explain unless you grew up in a place like Ruston, where families, businesses, churches, schools, and neighborhoods overlap through the years until local history begins to feel like family history.
Loretta understands that feeling well.
As we talked, we reminisced about her parents, her family, and the Ruston we both remembered. Then the conversation turned to my work preserving local history, and Loretta’s eyes began to sparkle.
She told me about places from Ruston’s past she had long wanted to paint but had never been able to find photographs of places like Hood’s Drive-In, the Post Office Café, and Greasy Bill’s Barbecue.
Hopefully her family will forgive me for what happened next, since they are trying to reduce her massive inventory of artwork. But I told Loretta I had photographs of all the places she mentioned.
Images I pulled up on my cell phone animated her. There we sat, surrounded by decades of her completed paintings, talking about the ones still waiting to be born.
“Please send them to me,” she said, urging me to text photos of the Ruston she grew up in.
So, in the middle of a living wake meant partly to help dispose of a lifetime of art, I may have planted the seeds for a whole new collection.
For Loretta, Ruston has always had that kind of pull. She grew up with that sense of place, and though life offered her chances to leave, Ruston kept calling her back.
“There was a college in Georgia I fell in love with,” she recalled during our conversation. “But Ruston kept pulling me back.”
After graduating from Louisiana Tech, she had opportunities for jobs out of state.
“I just couldn’t leave Ruston,” she said.
That attachment shows in her work and in her life.
Loretta’s art ranges widely. Some pieces are pure abstract. Others capture Ruston personalities, local landmarks, animals, people, memories, and scenes that feel familiar even when they are filtered through her own distinctive imagination.
She does not claim to paint things exactly as they are.
“I don’t do anything real,” she said. “If the assignment is to do it real, mine is semi-real.”
“I tell people I’m a wild life artist,” she said, “and of course they immediately think of feathers and fur. And then I go, ‘I don’t paint animals, I paint life wild.’”
Loretta’s style fails to fit neatly into one category — part semi-abstract, part folk art, part expressionist memory painting. Her work is less concerned with strict realism than with relationships — between shapes, colors, people, places, and memories.
“Abstract art is one of the hardest things to do,” she said. “You draw the shape and then you draw the shape next to it and you draw shape relationships.”
Then, as Loretta often does, she turned the thought into something larger.
“I realize that’s a very spiritual thing,” she said, “relationships and making relationships, because that’s the only thing we can take with us to heaven are the relationships we build.”
That idea seemed especially fitting in a room full of her paintings and people who had come not just to buy art, but mostly to be with her.
The art has taken her beyond canvas and drawing paper. Over the years, she has written a children’s book, compiled a cookbook, and used her artwork on T-shirts, kitchen magnets, and other items.
And she has ideas for new projects.
That may be the most remarkable thing about Loretta’s living wake. It would have been easy to view the gathering as an ending — a graceful sorting through the past, a way to help her family find new homes for her work.
But Loretta did not talk like someone finished.
She’s not through by a long shot.
She talked about paintings left to paint. She talked about places she still wants to remember in color. She talked about ideas, projects, books, and images not yet created.
All around us, her children and grandchildren helped people sort through years of work, and the make difficult decisions. The collection was so vast that many who came to buy a painting found themselves struggling to narrow down their choices. There were simply too many stories on the walls.
Some visitors purchased paintings. Most came just for Loretta — to sit for a moment, to squeeze her hand, to remind her of some shared memory, to make sure she knew what she meant to them.
That is the beauty of a living wake. The stories do not have to be saved for later. The guest of honor gets to hear them.
And Loretta, in turn, gave stories back.
She spoke of Ruston, family, and friends with affection, not as a place frozen in the past, but as a place still alive in her mind and in her art. She remembered businesses that are gone now, names that still mean something to those who were there, and buildings that live mostly in memory and old photographs.
Those are the things Loretta paints best — memories of those relationships.
As I left the studio, I marveled at Loretta’s decision to choose a living wake. Artists spend their lives leaving pieces of themselves behind. In her case, those pieces had filled a studio to overflowing. But on that evening, the most important thing in the room was not the paintings.
It was Loretta herself.
Still painting. Still remembering. Still planning the next piece.
And still very much alive in the colors of Ruston.
RUSTON — Residents of Lincoln Parish will soon have access to real-time weather and environmental data from a new high-definition weather camera being installed atop the Lincoln Parish Courthouse as part of an expansion by Digital Weather Desk.
Digital Weather Desk Chief Meteorologist Jarod Floyd said the project is a partnership with Weather Logic and will provide around-the-clock weather monitoring for Ruston and the surrounding area.
“We’re really excited about partnering with Weather Logic,” Floyd said. “These weather cameras are high definition, constantly streaming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
The camera system will do more than provide live video feeds. Each installation includes a full weather station capable of collecting and displaying temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, wind gusts, rainfall totals and lightning detection data.
According to Floyd, the new site will help fill a gap in localized weather information.
“For a lot of areas, it’s very important to have lightning detection,” Floyd said. “Now we go from only having our local airports that provide information to having sites within our community that are providing information.”
The Ruston camera is expected to be installed during the week of June 22, weather permitting. Once connected, the system will begin transmitting data immediately.
“It’ll go live as soon as we hook it up,” Floyd said.
Digital Weather Desk evaluated several potential locations before settling on the courthouse. Floyd said he initially considered the Lincoln Parish Library because of its proximity to areas affected by the April 2019 tornado that struck Ruston. However, the location did not provide the best view of downtown.
After discussions with the Lincoln Parish Police Jury, the City of Ruston and other local agencies, the courthouse emerged as the preferred site because of its elevation and central location.
“It’s a very high point in the middle of town,” Floyd said. “It gets a phenomenal view, but also we can see weather events and how they’re impacting things like the Peach Festival. We can have lightning data for downtown events and heat stress information for summertime events.”
Floyd credited the Lincoln Parish Police Jury and Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker for helping guide the project and identify a suitable location.
He also praised Southern States Equipment, which is sponsoring the Ruston camera and has assisted Digital Weather Desk with equipment needs for other installations in the region.
“Southern States Equipment has been wonderful to us,” Floyd said. “They’ve just been so kind and so generous. We’re looking forward to working with them.”
The Ruston installation will be accompanied by a second camera at Lake D’Arbonne, expanding Digital Weather Desk’s regional network from two cameras to four.
All camera feeds and weather data will be available free of charge through Digital Weather Desk’s website and mobile app.
“The most important thing is this information, the camera, the weather information, all of it will be forward-facing and 100% free,” Floyd said. “Anybody can access it whenever they want.”
GRAMBLING, La. — Lincoln Preparatory School is proud to announce significant literacy gains across grades Kindergarten through Third Grade, demonstrating the impact of sustained instructional improvement, targeted interventions, and an unwavering commitment to student success.
Over the past two school years, Lincoln Prep students have shown measurable growth in reading proficiency as measured by DIBELS 8 Benchmark assessments. The results reflect the school’s continued focus on building strong foundational literacy skills and ensuring that every student develops the ability to read, comprehend, and succeed academically.
During the 2024–2025 school year, Lincoln Prep’s K–3 students increased the percentage of students reading on or above grade level from 32% at the beginning of the year to 51% by the end of the year, representing a 19-percentage-point increase and surpassing the statewide average growth of 17 percentage points.
The momentum continued during the 2025–2026 school year. Schoolwide, the percentage of students performing at or above benchmark increased from 32% to 51%, while the percentage of students below benchmark was reduced by more than half. More than half of all students finished the year reading at or above benchmark expectations.
Grade-level growth highlights include:
• Kindergarten increased from 19% to 49% reading at or above benchmark during 2025–2026, a gain of 30 percentage points.
• First Grade increased from 32% to 75% during 2024–2025, a gain of 43 percentage points.
• Second Grade increased from 33% to 53% during 2024–2025, a gain of 20 percentage points.
• Third Grade increased from 34% to 59% during 2025–2026, representing the strongest growth among all grade levels and a gain of 25 percentage points.
Executive Director Rashid Young commended students, parents, and the faculty for their hard work, “The students, parents, and faculty deserve this recognition for all of their hard work and dedication. Lincoln Prep continues to outpace the state average for literacy growth. This year alone, we surpassed the state average by 2.5 percentage points. That’s the Prep Way!”
The school attributes its success to high-quality instructional materials, dedicated intervention periods, data-driven decision-making, instructional coaching, and a relentless focus on foundational literacy skills. Through strategic investments in reading instruction and targeted support systems, Lincoln Prep has created conditions that allow students to accelerate their growth and close achievement gaps.
While celebrating these accomplishments, school leaders remain focused on continuous improvement. Priorities for the upcoming school year include strengthening Tier I literacy instruction, expanding intervention supports, increasing instructional rigor, and enhancing progress-monitoring systems to ensure every student continues moving toward proficiency.
About Lincoln Preparatory School
Lincoln Preparatory School is a public charter school serving students in grades Pre-K through 12 in Grambling, Louisiana. The school is dedicated to preparing students for success in college, career, and life through academic excellence, leadership development, and meaningful community partnerships. Rashid Young serves as Executive Director.
A Ruston man was arrested June 14 in connection with two separate burglary investigations, according to affidavits filed by Louisiana Tech University Police and the Ruston Police Department.
Steven Gerard Ferrand Jr., 44, was first arrested after a reported break-in at Adams Hall on the Louisiana Tech campus.
According to a university police affidavit, an officer responded to the residence hall at approximately 7:45 a.m. after a fire alarm was activated. The officer found a window pane near the northwest entry door had been broken and glass was lying on the floor.
The affidavit states surveillance video showed a man wearing a tan shirt and brown shorts approaching the door with a large brick. A short time later, the fire alarm was activated. Several minutes later, the same man was seen getting into an older Pontiac sedan and leaving the area.
Investigators used a license plate reader system to identify the vehicle as being registered to Ferrand. An officer later made contact with him at his Ruston residence and observed he was wearing the same shorts and shoes seen in the surveillance footage. Ferrand declined to give a statement after being advised of his rights.
Ferrand was booked on charges of simple burglary and criminal mischief.
Later the same day, Ruston Police arrested Ferrand in connection with a residential burglary reported on Merion Street in the Country Club Estates.
According to a police affidavit, officers responded to a residence in the 2100 block of Merion at about 2:15 p.m. June 14. The homeowner reported returning home and discovering a rear patio door damaged. The affidavit states the door’s glass had been shattered.
The homeowner told investigators he left the residence around 5:30 p.m. June 13 and returned around 11:45 a.m. June 14 to find the damage. A neighbor reported seeing a man later identified as Ferrand walking near the residence around 1:40 a.m. June 14. Another witness reported seeing a brown Pontiac parked on a nearby street around 1:10 a.m.
Police reviewed doorbell camera footage that reportedly showed a man walking from a Pontiac parked near the residence and approaching the front door at approximately 11:45 p.m. June 13. The affidavit states the individual then left and was later identified as Ferrand.
According to the affidavit, Ferrand was already in custody at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center on the Louisiana Tech charges when Ruston Police arrested him for the Merion Street burglary.. After being advised of his rights, Ferrand stated, “I am not talking without my lawyer.” He was booked for a second count of simple burglary.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:45 right to your inbox.Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
As a 2026 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and his induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Gil LeBreton takes his place in the state’s sports lore — not as an athlete or coach, and certainly not for a double life led as “the human Ouija board.”
As the fearless forecaster of all things sports each Jan. 1, this “Nostradamus with the nostra-mostest” often made Mario Mendoza look like a contact hitter. But each year, without fail, the polished crystal ball was brought back out and eventually even “retro-fitted for the digital transition.”
Jerry Jones hosting the Mary Kay convention at AT&T Stadium — including offering discounted Party Zone tickets to attendees — was a miss in 2010. Gil did, however, accurately predict the Texas Rangers would win the AL West that season, as well as TCU’s Horned Frogs making a trip to the Granddaddy of Them All — the Rose Bowl — where they would face, ahem, Ohio State.
“If you’re scoring along at home, this is the 29th annual edition of the predictions column,” he wrote in 2011, patting himself on the back for a few hits the year before. “Sooner or later, in other words, I was bound to get something right.”
No, Gil LeBreton will live in Louisiana sports posterity because of a masterful ability to marry exceptional prose with a deep understanding of sport and the human condition, and a storyteller’s gift for connecting with readers, making them laugh, think, remember and care.
As part of a 12-member Class of 2026, the New Orleans native and LSU graduate is going into the state’s sports Hall to conclude three days of festivities Thursday, June 25-Saturday, June 27. For participation information, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
Over the course of a 50-year, award-winning sportswriting career, Gil has borne witness to some of the most significant moments in sports history in arena and stadium press boxes around the world.
“Gil writes with insight and humor, shoving flowery prose aside for columns that followed a natural rhythm, direct and unpretentious, human and authentic,” says T.R. Sullivan, a former colleague and longtime beat writer of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. “He used his needling wit and superb analytical mind to take on serious subjects in an entertaining and informative style.”
Gil was one of the most versatile sportswriters of his era, and, more than all that, he was a respected colleague and remains a steadfast friend and mentor to so many.
A New Orleans native, product of Jesuit High School, and LSU journalism graduate, Gil built one of the most accomplished careers in American sportswriting, covering everything from neighborhood heroes to the biggest stages in the world.
Along the way, he chronicled legends ranging from Muhammad Ali and Tom Landry to Nolan Ryan, Jack Nicklaus, and John Wooden.
Gil earned a reputation for marrying elegant prose with sharp reporting, using sports as a lens to explore character, ambition, triumph and disappointment. His work from multiple Olympic Games garnered state and national honors, and he remains the only journalist to be named Sportswriter of the Year in both Louisiana and Texas.
A Vietnam veteran, Gil returned home to earn his degree before embarking on a career that took him across the globe and into the press boxes of nearly every major sporting event imaginable. In 2024, he was inducted into the LSU Manship School Hall of Fame, and in 2026 he received the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism.
“All along he said it was no big deal,” Gil wrote of a Tony Dorsett contract dispute during his early days covering the Dallas Cowboys for the Star-Telegram. “From curtain up to final bow, Tony Dorsett claimed he couldn’t comprehend the tremors he stirred during his weeklong drama of dueling agents and Cowboy Bankroll Held Hostage Day Five.
Legend retires. Star demands money. Star threatens walkout. Star wants trade. Agent No. 1 puts pistol, later found unloaded, to team’s head and demands untold riches, plus a jet out of town.
“And yet the man said it was no big deal.
“‘This was something that could have been resolved without it being, like I said, a public issue,’ said Dorsett. ‘Unfortunately, it just happened to turn out that way.
“Perhaps next time he would prefer to negotiate in the confessional, or maybe just a Candygram or two.
“Whatever, this week’s siege on the Cowboys’ tranquil nerves reeked of bad timing and bad advice, not all of it on Dorsett’s side of the negotiating table.
“It is becoming more and more difficult to hold even the slightest sympathy with grown men who wail all the way to the bank. How can a man reared on Hamburger Helper and a 12-year-old Zenith even remotely empathize with a guy who has a five-figure house note and wears a full-carat diamond in his left ear?
“Yet, there is the feeling that Dorsett is right, that he certainly deserved to be making as much as the Cadillacs of his profession, especially considering his post-Staubach importance to the Cowboys. Renegotiation, after all, is no greater sin than marching into the boss’s office to ask for a raise. If rejected, at least we always have the freedom to tie down the chickens and move the farm to Waco.”
Gil reported from 26 Super Bowls, 13 World Series, 16 NCAA Final Fours, the World Cup, the Masters, the Tour de France, Wimbledon, and countless other major events.
His byline appeared in the Times-Picayune, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, Kansas City Star, Baltimore News American and, most notably, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where his columns – and, yes, his annual fearless prognosticating — became required reading for generations of sports fans.
His first Olympics was the 1976 Montreal Games.
Gil’s reporting from the Olympic Games won numerous state and national awards. His stories for the Picayune on Louisiana Olympic hopefuls, including the married Armstrongs – the “world’s fastest family” — were honored as the LSWA’s top series.
He had a front row seat to the Game’s biggest stories.
“Comaneci mania! It reached out and touched this Olympic city during the past week as it has not been moved since Maurice Richard was in training skates.”
He reported on the U.S. Olympic Basketball team’s redemption and recouping of its rightful place at the top of the mountain of basketball in the world. The Americans dropped Tito’s Yugoslavia under coach Dean Smith for gold.
“Ring down that iron curtain! Break out the vodka!
“There were no controversies, unlike that 1972 final in Munich. There were no three-second replays. There was no postgame confusion.
“Most of all, there were no Russians. The Yugoslavs had disposed of the ’72 pretenders to the Olympic throne in a semifinal victory Monday.”
And, of course, the then-Bruce Jenner found his way onto a Wheaties box as a record-breaking decathlete, “demoralizing one of the most talented long jump fields ever by soaring 27-feet, 4 ¾-inches on his very first attempt and then watched the 10 other competitors battle for second place.”
The experience proved transformational, igniting a lifelong passion for Olympic storytelling. Gil would go on to cover 15 more Olympic Games, chronicling some of the most memorable moments, athletes, and issues of the modern era.
Gil’s column from the opening day of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was less about the Games themselves than about an unwelcome guest in attendance: former President Jimmy Carter.
Writing with bite, Gil argued that Carter had no business basking in the glow of the Centennial Olympics because of his decision to lead the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
To make his case, Gil focused on Patty Dowdell, captain of the 1980 U.S. women’s Olympic volleyball team, recounting how Dowdell – in 1996 the head coach of Texas Woman’s University’s volleyball team in Denton — and her teammates learned on their way to a match that their Olympic dreams had been erased by a political decision beyond their control.
The boycott accomplished little against the Soviet Union while inflicting enormous damage on American athletes and nearly crippling the Olympic movement itself. He noted that only the commercial success of the 1984 Los Angeles Games rescued the Olympics from the damage caused by the reciprocal boycotts of 1980 and 1984.
“How dare you show your face tonight, Jimmy Carter.”
Huey P. would have been proud.
“Gil once wrote a hilarious column about what goes on at the [Texas] Girls Class A Texas State Golf Tournament, pointing out that one girl was not about to chase a ball into the rough because there could be snakes out there,” Sullivan recalls. “It was a classic column and reinforced his reputation that Gil could write on any subject anytime, anywhere — from Fort Worth’s boxing champions and high school sports to the Super Bowl and the Olympics.”
Gil’s reach indeed touched on just about every topic in his more than 40 years at the Star-Telegram, including Fort Worth’s greatest era of boxing.
“Mama, the belt fits fine. It’s got a picture of Joe Louis on one end, and an engraving of Muhammad Ali on the other. It’s got flags painted on the top of it, and flags painted on the bottom.
“And now here this, Fort Worth and brother Donald and Gorman’s Gym and all the ships at sea — this championship belt has Bruce Curry snugly in the middle, right where he knew, he just knew, it always belonged.”
Likewise, during his four decades in DFW, Gil was also on-site for the most significant pro sports events.
LeBreton chronicled the Cowboys’ dynasty years, including victories in Super Bowls XXVII, XXVIII and XXX. He also led readers through championship seasons of the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks. Gil witnessed some of the defining moments in Rangers history, from the franchise’s first World Series berth in 2010 to the devastating Game 6 collapse in St. Louis the following year, one of baseball’s most painful near-misses.
His were the words many Cowboys fans needed in February 1989, in the painful days following Tom Landry’s firing and Tex Schramm’s impending departure. To much of North Texas, Landry and Schramm were more than a coach and general manager; they were enduring fixtures in the lives of generations of fans.
“The sun did come up at Valley Ranch yesterday. But there was still an ugly stench in the air.
“It was the morning after the Cowboys’ rendition of The Saturday Night Massacre. No bullet holes. No body outlines chalked on the carpet.
“But if you looked hard enough, there in his office was Tom Landry, the fresh knife still stuck in his back. And there down the hallway was Tex Schramm, still trying to mend the pieces of his broken heart.”
Choudrant resident Sam Burns is among the golfers expected to contend beginning early this morning at the U.S. Open.
By Doug Ireland
He was right there last year, leading on the back nine of the U.S. Open.
After a rotten ruling from a U.S.G.A. rules official on the 15th fairway, fortune turned for Sam Burns.
He struggled home on a soggy Oakmont Country Club course, in rainy conditions, and wound up tied for 7th.
The top 10 was no fluke. In 2024, the Choudrant resident finished tied for ninth at the national championship.
Today he tees off in the 2026 edition, at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, N.Y., hoping to be in the mix again.
Burns, 29, is in the very early wave of starters today, going off the 10th tee at 6:41 a.m. with Englishman Tyrell Hatton and Si Woo Kim of Korea.
The native Shreveporter is among a group of players who most golf analysts expect to contend – not only based on his recent play at the Open, but his recent play this season.
He has two top 10 finishes in the past couple months, in strong fields: seventh at The Masters, his best showing at Augusta, and fourth two weeks ago at The Memorial, when he was tied for the lead on the 17th tee.
Burns has five top 20 finishes in his last 10 starts.
Today’s TV coverage is on USA Network beginning at 6:30 a.m.
Friday, coverage shifts to Peacock throughout the day beginning at 6:30, with NBCSN streaming from 6:30-1:30 and NBC picking up coverage at 1:30.
USA Network will have morning coverage on the weekend rounds with NBC and Peacock taking over at noon each day.
Golf Digest rated Burns as its seventh most-likely pick to win.
A Grambling man was arrested June 13 after deputies responded to a reported theft at a Stable Road address.
According to an arrest affidavit, Kamarion Clarkson, 23, was stopped while driving a dark blue pickup truck that matched the description of a vehicle involved in the reported theft. A passenger was also in the vehicle.
The affidavit states deputies were dispatched after receiving a report that tools and household items had been taken from a residence. The homeowner later told deputies he observed the driver of the truck take several items from his carport, including tools, cell phones, a floor jack and an air compressor, and said he had video footage of the incident.
According to the affidavit, deputies searched the truck and reported finding a set of new wrenches behind the driver’s seat. The affidavit states deputies also detected a strong smell of marijuana and found marijuana in a driver’s-side door pocket inside a cigar pack.
The affidavit states Clarkson told deputies he took two wrenches and said the marijuana belonged to him. The passenger had the property owner’s permission to retrieve her furniture but not his tools.
Clarkson was booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for theft, possession of marijuana, and illegal possession of a controlled substance in the presence of a person under 17 years old.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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MedCamps camper Ella Kate glides down the Camp Alabama zipline on a rainy day during Camp Hot Shots. (photo by Josh McDaniel)
by Caleb Seney, Executive Director
For many children, summer camp means swimming, games, laughter, new friendships and a chance to experience independence away from home.
For children living with Type 1 Diabetes, those same experiences can sometimes come with additional challenges. Managing blood sugar, insulin, meals and daily routines can create barriers that many children their age never have to consider.
That is why Camp Hot Shots was created.
A program of MedCamps of Louisiana in partnership with the Diabetes Care Center, Camp Hot Shots provides children with Type 1 Diabetes the opportunity to experience a traditional overnight summer camp while learning the skills needed to better manage their health and gain confidence in their independence.
Hosted at MedCamps’ Camp Alabama facility in Lincoln Parish, Camp Hot Shots combines everything children love about summer camp (outdoor activities, friendships, adventure and fun) all with specialized medical education and support.
“The idea behind the camp is that we want these kids to take ownership of their own diabetes,” said Ashlea Hill of Diabetes Care Center. “They’re not always going to be kids. While they are at camp, they are having these incredible experiences like zip lines, swimming, horseback riding, group games and all the things that make summer camp special, but they also have medical education built into the experience.”
Camp Hot Shots began in 2019 after Jennifer Holtz, wife of former Louisiana Tech head football coach Skip Holtz and a former MedCamps board member, helped create a camp specifically designed for children with juvenile diabetes. The Holtz family’s connection to Type 1 Diabetes made the mission especially meaningful, as Skip Holtz’s younger brother Kevin was diagnosed with the disease in the early 1980s.
Each summer, campers from across Louisiana and beyond come together at Camp Alabama for a week where they quickly discover something important: they are not alone.
Ashlea Hill, FNP-C, BC-ADM, CDE, owner and operator of the Diabetes Care Center in Ruston, has helped lead the medical efforts behind Camp Hot Shots. Hill and her team work alongside campers throughout the week, helping them understand their diabetes management while using modern technology to monitor blood sugar levels and make informed decisions.
The goal is not simply to care for campers — it is to teach them how to care for themselves.
Throughout the week, children learn how food, activity and daily choices affect their blood sugar. They gain confidence using their equipment, asking questions and making decisions about their own health.
For many campers, the progress made during the week is transformational.
Seeing a child arrive at camp relying heavily on parents or caregivers and leave with greater confidence and independence is one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.
Beyond the medical education, Camp Hot Shots provides something every child deserves and that is the chance to simply be a kid.
Campers ride horses, participate in games, enjoy waterfront activities, make new friends and create memories in an environment designed specifically for their needs. MedCamps’ mission has always centered around removing barriers so children with chronic illnesses and disabilities can experience the same joy and adventure found at any summer camp.
The specialized programming offered through MedCamps is made possible because of partnerships with medical professionals, volunteers, donors and community supporters who believe every child deserves the opportunity to experience camp.
At Camp Hot Shots, children leave with more than new skills for managing diabetes. They leave with friendships, confidence and the knowledge that their diagnosis does not define what they can accomplish.
That is the true mission of MedCamps. “We are creating opportunities where children can discover independence, build resilience and experience the unbridled joy of being a kid,” says Kacie Whipple, Camp Director.
MedCamps programs are provided free of charge to eligible campers. To learn more about MedCamps of Louisiana, volunteer opportunities or ways to support its mission, visit MedCamps.org.
