As an athlete growing up, I always heard that practice makes perfect. Now we all know that statement might not always hold true. I’ve had a lot of practice over the years at such things as golf and bass fishing, but I’m still searching to get better at both. Today, we’ll look how practicing for a bass tournament has changed in the last five years. 

As former NBA great Alan Iverson stated one time in a press conference when asked about his practice habits or lack thereof, “Are we talking about practice? I mean we’re talking about practice! We’re talking about practice, man!” 

While he was obviously frustrated when the media questioned his practice habits, the point he made was that on the NBA level, it’s not about practice but rather what you bring to the floor on game day. 

Tournament bass fishing is pretty much the same way. You can go out and catch all the fish you want during practice, but the only thing that matters is what you bring to the scales on tournament day. 

Some anglers are great in practice and will tell the world how well they are catching them. But for some reason, when tournament day rolls around, they never seem to have the fish they need to win. 

There’s one thing I learned early in my career from a couple of mentors who took a liking to me and were willing to pass along a little of their knowledge that would help me become a better angler. They both told me that it makes no sense to sore mouth the bass two days before the tournament. 

They taught me how to cover my hooks with clear IV tubing on my spinnerbaits and jigs in order to make sure I didn’t hook fish while practicing. Because once bass are hooked, in some cases, it may take up to five days before they will bite again. 

They educated me about shaking fish off in order to ensure they are not hooked. They taught me how to use a screw lock which allows an angler to fish soft plastic worms without a hook, therefore guaranteeing they would not be hooked before the tournament. 

But fast forward to 2025 and you’ll see young anglers today scouting without a single fishing rod on the deck of their boat. They are totally tuned into and observing the electronics on their boats. 

Today’s younger generation of anglers simply idle around doing what they call “steering wheel time” while sitting behind the console of their boat looking at two or three computer screens scanning and marking schools of bass and baitfish that they will return to on tournament day. 

These anglers are so good with their electronics that they can tell if the fish they are looking at are quality or not. They will never wet a hook or even pull out a rod during practice, which for an old school angler like me, is insane!

But there are still a few old school anglers who will hook and catch every bass that bites during practice. They want to look and see the size of the fish that might be in a certain area they will be fishing on tournament day.

No matter how an angler practices for an event, he or she still must find and figure out how to make those fish bite. But this is what makes practice so important and is how anglers win tournaments. Practice, practice and more practice!

By Royal Alexander

While I have worked in and observed the U.S. Congress for many years, I have never seen a perfect bill—a perfect piece of legislation.  This one is not either, but it’s a great start!

Let’s review relevant portions of the bill that passed the U.S. House last week and is headed for the U.S. Senate, which will likely amend it to some extent but not, I hope, in a way that fundamentally alters the positive policy in it.

Broadly, the bill makes the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent and institutes no-taxes-on-tips and overtime, includes a large tax deduction on Social Security, and also includes provisions related to U.S. immigration—such as curbing illegal entries and finishing Pres. Trump’s wall along the southern border.  It further includes the single largest welfare reform in American history, including requiring that able-bodied males, who were never intended to be on the Medicaid program, get a job to remain on the program; and removes hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Medicaid rolls.  It also advances the most aggressive energy exploration in American history which will benefit our beloved Louisiana. All while reducing the deficit.

Specifically, this includes permanently extending for individuals the tax rates and brackets of the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), providing greater certainty for households.  The bill also permanently extends the larger standard deduction and the alternative minimum tax threshold.  These two provisions alone greatly simplify the tax code. (Tax Foundation, May 23, 2025, D. Bunn, A. Muresianu, W. McBride).

There is also now a permanent basis for expensing certain equipment for smaller businesses.  Regarding the estate and gift tax, the bill also institutes a permanent (and inflation-adjusted) exemption level of $15 million that begins in 2026.

The bill also makes improvements to cost recovery for U.S. businesses relative to current law. The bill reintroduces expensing for investment in equipment and domestic research and development (R&D).  The TCJA’s less restrictive limitation on interest deductions is also brought back. These are important policies that will greatly increase business investment and the economic benefits of the bill if they are made permanent.  The bill also reduces some of the tax code’s many tax credits, deductions, and other preferences.

The largest area of reform involves green energy tax credits: the bill cuts about $500 billion over a decade, reducing the cost of these credits by roughly half—like those for electric vehicles (EVs) and residential energy products—while most of the others are restricted or phased out more quickly.

The bill also permanently extends TCJA’s limits on some itemized deductions, such as for mortgage interest, and limits each dollar of itemized deductions for top earners. The bill also increases the TCJA’s $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), raising it to $40,000 for taxpayers earning less than $500,000. (Id. Tax Foundation).

Please allow me to address something else.

Elon Musk, to whom the country should be eternally grateful for the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team’s discovery of enormous amounts of waste, fraud, abuse and corruption, commented on the House passage of the bill stating “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Fair enough, Elon.  My only response to his concern would be this.

House and Senate Democrats will offer no votes to help pass the bill, so Republicans are left with only one option.  To get a typical bill through the U.S. Senate, 60 votes are required to end debate (i.e. break a filibuster) and vote on legislation.  Well, there are only 53 Republicans, so Republicans are forced to use a process called “reconciliation”—which only requires a simple majority—to advance the Trump agenda through the U.S. Senate.

That’s what is happening here.  Based upon Senate rules a reconciliation bill may only deal with mandatory spending, such as Medicaid, while the cuts that Elon and DOGE have recommended are to discretionary funds. Those cuts are coming next.  Speaker Mike Johnson has made clear the House will codify the DOGE-recommended cuts when the White House sends a package of spending that should be rescinded.

Legislating is never easy, but we are on the cusp of very positive economic and tax change for the American people.  I think Pres. Trump deserves our support as he grinds through the legislative process. 

“Run.”

What does the word mean?

We must consider the connotation and the denotation of the word. When speaking we encode the message, and the hearer decodes the message. The encoding and decoding of the verbal message is run through several filters including gender, culture, educational and regional morphology. Do you want a pop? Or would you rather have a Coke?

When I moved to New Orleans I heard frequently, “I am running to Schwegmann’s to make groceries.”

The opportunities for miscommunication are astronomical.

One Sunday I was waxing eloquently in a sermon and said, “The children of Israel followed Jezebel into idolatry.”

One of my dearest church members told me later that she heard me say, “The children of Israel followed Jezebel into Dollar Tree.” With my southern drawl, I’m sure I made idolatry and dollar tree sound very close. She was wondering for the rest of my sermon, why the children of Israel went to Dollar Tree. Everyone knows they are Jewish and are looking for the best deal on Dial Soap. The remainder of the sermon was lost because of a misheard or poorly pronounced word.

How many marital fights have been caused by a misunderstanding of a word? How many wars, by poor translation of words across languages?

So, I have stalled, do you know the meaning of the word, “run?”

Run is what you did as a child as the teacher opened the door for you to go outside on the playground for recess. I understand recess has been permanently recessed.

A person runs for a political office.

On a muggy summer day, like this one, you want your air conditioning running.

I find myself running to the store for ingredients for a cake.

In preparing for retirement, my financial adviser wanted to run some numbers before our conference.

In High School we were warned about the run on sentence. I am quite sure I have violated that edict several times.

“Honey, there is a run in your stockings.”

The Bible warns us, “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.”

One last thought from the book of Proverbs:

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

Are we running from the truth?

Before daylight on the morning of September 14, 2019, five masked thieves in two stolen cars drove through a wooden barrier fence and onto Blenheim Palace grounds. They sped up to the palace where three of the thieves exited the cars. The two getaway drivers remained in their stolen cars and kept the engines running. The three thieves quickly broke into the mansion and ran directly to Maurizio’s creation. It took the strength of all three men to rip Maurizio’s 215-pound creation from the wooden floor on which it had been mounted and to carry it to one of the waiting cars. They loaded it into the hatchback of one of the cars and the thieves sped away. Blenheim Palace’s security cameras captured the heist on video and their security system alerted police, but the thieves were gone by the time police arrived. Of all of the art on display in the antique-filled mansion, Maurizio’s creation was the only item stolen.

The thieves had carefully planned the heist. They knew the palace had a good security system, but no other precautions had been put into place to protect the piece. After the artwork was installed in the palace, Edward Spencer-Churchill, chairman of Blenheim Strategic Partners and direct descendent of Winston Churchill, told the York News-Times that the artwork would not be easy to steal since it was physically connected to the palace, and added, “So, no. I don’t plan to be guarding it.”

Another representative of Blenheim Palace tweeted, “We knew there was huge interest in the Maurizio Cattelan contemporary art exhibition, with many set to come and enjoy the installations. It’s therefore a great shame an item so precious has been taken, but we still have so many fascinating treasures in the Palace and the remaining items of the exhibition to share.”

Several men have been convicted in the theft and disposal of Maurizio’s creation, but the artwork has never been recovered. Most recently, on May 19, 2025, a man was convicted for trying to help a burglar sell scrap gold believed to have been from Maurizio’s creation.

Maurizio intended the artwork to be a pointed satire about excessive wealth. Before the artwork was stolen, Maurizio explained, “Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same.” You see, Maurizio Cattelan’s stolen 215-pound artwork made from 18-karat solid gold was a fully functioning, fully plumbed toilet.

Sources:

1. York News-Times, September 17, 2019, p.A2.
2. The Guardian, April 3, 2024, p.13.
3. Brian Melley, “Man who tried to sell $6.4m gold toilet stolen from English
   country house is spared jail,” AP News, May 19, 2025, accessed May 27,
   2025, https://apnews.com/article/britain-gold-toilet-theft-court-trial-
   sentence-3a3955da078af343596606e07addc305.

On June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment, a landmark moment in the fight for gender equality in America. Though it would take more than a year to gain the necessary state ratifications, this date marks the official legislative breakthrough that would eventually grant women the right to vote. As we reflect today, we not only honor the courage of those who fought for suffrage but also recognize the work that remains to ensure equal participation in our democracy.

The 19th Amendment contains just 39 words:
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Despite its simplicity, this amendment represents decades of struggle, sacrifice, and tireless organizing. It laid the foundation for women’s full participation in American political life.

The fight for women’s suffrage spanned over 70 years. From the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, generations of women fought for a voice in the electoral process. Marching, protesting, lobbying, and often facing arrest or violence, suffragists refused to accept the notion that they were unworthy of full citizenship.

In Louisiana, as in many Southern states, support for the amendment was hard-won. Women worked at the grassroots level to educate, advocate, and pressure lawmakers to recognize their right to vote. Though Louisiana did not ratify the 19th Amendment until 1970—long after it became federal law—women across the state were active contributors to the national movement.

Still, the path to the ballot box was not equal for all women. Even after the amendment passed, many women—especially Black women and women of color—continued to face barriers through poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and discriminatory laws. The 19th Amendment was a critical step forward, but it was not the final step in achieving universal suffrage.

Today, the 19th Amendment serves as a reminder of the power of collective action and the importance of civic engagement. While the fight for voting rights continues in many forms—through advocacy for fair access to polls, the protection of voter rights, and the push for broader civic education—the achievements of the suffrage movement remain a foundational part of American democracy.

Voting is a right that many take for granted, but today offers a moment to pause and remember the price paid to secure it. The 19th Amendment didn’t just give women the vote—it affirmed their equality and their rightful place in shaping the direction of this country.

This anniversary is also an opportunity to recommit to the values of fairness and representation. From local elections to national races, participation matters. Every vote is a voice, and every voice counts.

Though more than a century has passed since Congress approved the 19th Amendment, its legacy remains deeply relevant. It reminds us that progress takes time—and that it requires the courage of ordinary people to speak out, show up, and push forward.

The right to vote is not just a privilege—it’s a responsibility. And it’s one worth fighting for.

For more information on how to register to vote in Louisiana, visit geauxvote.com.