Local doctor says Tensas Parish is testing for COVID-19. Where are the numbers?

Local doctor says Tensas Parish is testing for COVID-19. Where are the numbers?

Tensas Parish is the only parish in Louisiana without a confirmed test of COVID-19, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Health on Wednesday.

But according to one local physician, the data doesn't mean they aren't testing or haven't had one suspected positive that never appeared in the state's reporting.

Tensas, a parish with an estimated population of 4,334 in 2019, is also the only parish in Louisi

Graphic Packaging announces $274 million investment

A $154 million capital investment in a new Graphic Packaging International folding carton plant and distribution center on Millhaven Road in Ouachita Parish will fuel the largest single construction project in the parish's history.

Upgrades to the existing Graphic Packaging paperboard manufacturing location in West Monroe will also take place over the next several years and bring the combined capital investment in northeastern Louisiana to $274 million. Clyde White, the president of the Ouachit...

Forestry group tours Drax Biomass

Drax Biomass played host to a diverse group of international scientists and forestry experts at Morehouse BioEnergy on Monday, following an international conference in Little Rock.

Jim Guldin, a supervisory research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service and program chair for the International Union of Forest Research Organizations workshop, said the tour was comprised of an international group of scientists who study forest management with a focus on sustainability.

The IUFRO workshop, which...

Fact check: Southern states used convict leasing to force Black people into unpaid labor

Fact check: Southern states used convict leasing to force Black people into unpaid labor

Editor’s note: In two former legal statutes referenced below, a racist term was replaced with the word Black in brackets.

The claim: Convict leasing, an example of systemic racism, was used to force Black people into unpaid labor for private and state industry.

Prior to the Juneteenth holiday commemorating the end of slavery, a now-unavailable Facebook post asserted that the convict leasing system used in

Salmonella outbreak: 'I've never seen anything like it'

Salmonella outbreak: 'I've never seen anything like it'

Louisiana's Department of Health officials believe a mass outbreak of salmonella poisoning in Caldwell Parish that sickened hundreds and is suspected in one death can be traced to a jambalaya fundraiser for a softball team.

As of Thursday, 49 cases of a gastrointestinal illness were confirmed with 31 people hospitalized, the Department of Health reported. The ages of those with a confirmed illness range from 15 to 70.

State officials also reported Thursday samples taken from five people have tested positive for salmonella.

Meet the Monroe native on Project Runway's reboot season

The realization that fashion could be a form of self-expression led Lela Orr to a career in the fashion industry and launching her own brand, Ferrah, in Dallas.

It has also led her to reality television.

Orr, a former Monroe resident, will appear as a contestant in the new season of "Project Runway" when it returns to Bravo on March 14.

Orr was a fan of the fashion-design competition in high school and dreamed of appearing on the show. When the reboot was announced, a friend sent in an applic

Paperwork clogs flood recovery in south Monroe

The 91-year-old sits in one with a rotary bakelite phone in reach on the other. For the past several months, Splond has spent many of her days on the patio, using the phone to take care of her business. She can't spend time in her home of 30 years until damage caused by the March flooding is repaired.

"I'm here most every day when I feel up to walking from the neighbor's house over to this house, but it's not every day that I feel like I can do it," Splond said.