But few people seem to care, and the voter turnout will likely be below 20 percent. The reason is there is not a whole lot on the ballot and few local races to stir up interest and get voters to the polls. Well, there are a couple.

Same old problems over July 4th holiday The recent July 4th holiday provided more proof of why fireworks should be banned within the city limits of Shreve-port. It also demonstrated that some people cannot be trusted to obey the law when it comes to the times that fireworks can be discharged.

Shreveport City Councilman Willie Bradford certainly put crime on the front burner when he recently introduced a resolution, which passed the city council on a 6-1 vote.

Steve Scalise and others while practicing for the Congressional baseball game at a ballpark in Alexandria, Va., has caused me to reflect on the years I spent on Capitol Hill in Washington from 1966 to 1993. I guess you could say it was a bygone era because things were not so partisan or politically toxic back then.

When Dylan Roof murdered nine African-Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S. C., on June 17, 2015, it reignited deep-seated feelings of blacks and civil rights activists on two fronts.

When Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards addressed the Legislature at the beginning of the current session, he pleaded with legislators not to turn Louisiana into another Washington, D.C. He was referring, of course, to the partisan politics playing out on the national stage.

One can’t help but feel some empathy for Louisiana’s Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. It seems that if it were not for bad luck, there would be no luck at all. It is difficult enough to be the lone Democrat in a Red State facing a Legislature in which both houses are controlled by Republicans.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial “Citizens United” decision in 2010 changed the landscape of political spending on elections. It threw out restrictions on spending by independent groups and allowed the creation of Super PACs or so-called Outside Groups.