News

Just think about it. How often has anyone out there found themselves attempting to swim in Shreveport's dating pool and ran across a familiar fish? So much for there being plenty in the sea, right? The number would be surprising to most when finding out just how many people in Shreveport think the town is one big bubble. Meet a fine lady, she's dated a cousin of yours already, a woman meets a man she's interested in only to find out her sister was involved with him a few moons back. The saga never ends, finding a new somebody in Shreveport can be like finding a four-leaf clover!

Good news for those who want more options for groceries in Shreveport. One of the biggest grocery chains is moving into Louisiana and Shreveport is on the list.

Bossier Schools received its 2021-22 report card today from the Louisiana Department of Education, the first official performance scores that reflect school letter grades since the pandemic, and it shows students throughout the district are making great strides and tremendous growth. As a result, the state ranked Bossier Schools as the seventh leading district in the state for earning an ‘A’ for student growth and 12th overall among all 65 reporting districts.

The Louisiana Ethics Commission website lists additional contributions to candidates within 48 hours of an election.

One of the first projects I worked on at Shreve Memorial Library was the development of a five-year strategic plan. Way back in January of 2017, the library began a strategic planning process to define the library’s vision, identify community needs and develop a plan to focus on five key service areas. After gathering input from community stakeholders, staff, library patrons and the general public, the library decided to focus on creating and maintaining young readers, providing lifelong learning and information fluency, stimulating imaginations, providing ready references and informing citizens. The five focus areas have guided the library’s efforts leading to the creation of the Shreve Memorial Library Children’s Book Festival, an increase in innovative programs and learning opportunities for all ages, the diversification of the library’s collection both online and in branches, and more. That five-year strategic plan has served the library well, but it is coming to an end this December.

Dr. Joslin Mar-Dai Pickens named 2022 ATHENA Recipient!

LSU Health Shreveport’s Louisiana Addiction Research Center (LARC) hosted a meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to discuss methamphetamine as an emerging drug threat in our region. Local law enforcement and community leaders were invited to have an open conversation and share information on drug problems in the region and determine how to raise awareness on how these issues are impacting northwest Louisiana. Nicholas Goeders, PhD, executive director of the Louisiana Addiction Research Center at LSUHS, led the meeting and provided an overview of the Methamphetamine Response Act signed into law earlier this year followed by a discussion on the current methamphetamine problem in our community. On March 14, 2022, President Biden signed the “Methamphetamine Response Act of 2021” into law. This bill received bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and House Representatives Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (RUtah). The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that overdose deaths involving methamphetamine nearly tripled from 2015 to 2019 among people ages 18-64 in the United States, and researchers have observed increases in substance use and drug overdoses in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

Bullseye!