Greg Atoms is the live event coordinator for Townsquare Media and the guy responsible for pulling off these three days of comics, characters and costumes. “This is our biggest year ever. It’s our fifth anniversary, so we really want to do something big for number five.

Presented by Louisiana Feed Your Soul, the event features two days of entertainment wrapped around the U.S. Regional Hot Air Balloon Championship. About 30 balloon pilots are expected to compete in the skies over Shreveport and Bossier City.

Zanelotti used to be a member of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s personal protection detail. He is a U. S. Army veteran who saw combat action in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a sergeant on the Shreveport Police Department’s airport detail.

Two entrepreneurs are attempting to bring national and international attention to Shreveport-Bossier City with glass. They call their venture Sanctuary Glass Studio, and Eric Hess and Michelle Pennington have been plying their trade as glass artists at the Red River Brewing Co.

The structure was built in 1902 and was known as the Vordenbauman- Eastham Company building, according to Shreveport Common Executive Director Wendy Benscoter. In its later days, it housed Marcus Furniture Store for several years.

The plot reportedly originated in an 1835 English play. “A Day Well Spent” was adapted to a farce translated as “He Will Go on a Spree,” or “He’ll Have Himself a Good Time,” and then was adapted into another farce by Thornton Wilder, this one called “The Merchant of Yonkers.

Frank Leone started the business in 1952 and operated it for 26 years before selling to a friend of Whittington’s family, who operated it until 1980. When he took over, Whittington said, there were 17 shoe repair shops in Shreveport and Bossier City. Today, there are seven left.

After delays that had some merchants and customers unhappy, Barksdale Boulevard has been transformed, according to Bossier City CAO Pam Glorioso, to make the area more attractive to the people the city was hoping to attract. “It’s kind of hard to have a pedestrian-friendly downtown with a five-lane highway going through it,” she said.