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Vermilion Parish will have a handful of athletes competing at the state track and field meet in Baton Rouge, starting on Thursday and ending on Saturday.
The Class 3A state meet will be on Friday in Baton Rouge. The top three finishers at last week’s regional meets at McNeese State in Lake Charles qualified for state.
Kevin Small, a Kaplan senior, will be heading back to the state meet for the third straight year.
Small won the discus with a toss of 162-8.
.Cameron Samuels of Abbeville triple jumped 43-10 to finish third and qualify for the state meet.
Kaplan’s Kodi Clement will be running in two events at state. He finished third in the 200-meter dash (22.65). The winner was Derrick White of Lake Charles Prep, who ran a 22.12.
Clement finished second in the 400-meter run with an impressive time of 48.63. White also won the 400 (48.31).
Sean Herrington from Erath qualified for state after winning the 110-meter hurdles (14.33) and the 300-meter hurdles (39.77).
Erath will have two pole vaulters at state. Brylon Toups finished second (13-0) and teammate Connor Toups (12-6) was third.
The Kaplan Lady Pirates’ 4x800-meter relay team continues to get better and better at each meet.
The 4x800 relay team of Lexi Greene, Isabel Mendez, Isabella Hargrave, and Liberty Greene ran a winning time of 9:52.90. That personal best time puts them as the fastest girls’ 4x800 meter relay team to ever run in VermilionParish.
The Lady Pirates’ 4x400 meter relay finished third (4:09.57). Parkview Baptist won by two seconds.
Erath freshman Cheyenne Earnest qualified for state in the 1600 and 3200 meter races. She finished third in the 1600 (5:51.63) and the 3200 (12:27.09).
Erath’s Kailei Broussard won the high jump by a half of an inch (5-1 1/2) over Montet Temple of University (5-1). Finishing third was Kaplan’s Reace Richard (5-0).
Broussard also finished second in the triple jump (38-2). She lost by eight inches.
Aija Comeaux of Kaplan finished second in the discus (104-10) to qualify for state.

GUEYDAN — Gueydan High School students in Savannah Trahan’s Environmental Science class participated in a Cardboard Boat Regatta.
This was a STEM-based project in which students designed, built, and raced boats made solely of recycled materials (and duct tape) as part of a series of lessons on recycling and sustainability. The teams aimed to create a vessel capable of carrying one or more people across a body of water, applying principles of buoyancy, structural integrity, and fluid dynamics.
Students will submit a report after the race that includes an introduction, design rationale, materials and methods, results, and a conclusion. Students competed for a chance to win one of three categories (best design, fastest boat, and best sinking). The Vermilion Parish students traveled to Lake Arthur Park for the competition.

Governor Landry stated in 2024 that Universal School Choice programs would be a top priority, as Louisiana’s public school system ranked 46th in the nation and demographic experts were saying “better public schools” are the major reason young families leave Louisiana for Texas, Florida and Georgia. The Legislature quickly passed the LA GATOR program that allows parents to use public funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, or other approved education expenses. Louisiana parents (like parents in every other state who adopted school choice programs) know that every child learns differently and were elated that they would finally be in-charge of their child’s education spending rather than the government. Over 39,000 families have applied for the LA GATOR program.
However, Senate President Cameron Henry has stated for the second consecutive year he is not going to increase the amount allowed for the LA GATOR program (presently $44 million for 5,600 students) because of budgetary and “does it really work” concerns. Governor Landry wants $88 million for 12,000 students. TIME OUT!!—let’s talk about state priorities based on what “We The People Want” when it comes to education spending and what works!
It is common knowledge that declining student enrollment in public schools is squeezing school district’s finances. The Senate should tell us if spending on the public schools is declining in line with declining student enrollment (state per-pupil spending 2019 - 2025): if not, why not?
It is now common knowledge that 97% of 2,700 Parents participating in LA GATOR are satisfied with their children’s academic progress and recommend the program (La. Dept. of Education survey). Sounds like it really works!
It is also common knowledge that waste, fraud and abuse on Medicaid spending is huge. In 2021 our State Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera, CPA, CFE, retired and gave us these parting words of concern: “Medicaid was my greatest challenge as it was growing so fast; a huge issue was the level of Medicaid error and fraud which the GAO had estimated to run about 10%--Medicaid is now $16 billion of the state budget--meaning fraud could be running $1.6 billion every year. I made major changes that had resulted in savings, but these positive changes were later reversed—this was not good government.”
The Senate needs to prioritize LA GATOR, and Medicaid Fraud savings can pay for it. Assume Louisiana’s share of the $1.6 billion fraud savings would have been 20%, or $320 million—more than enough for the $88 million that Governor Landry wants for LA GATOR. The Trump Administration just announced that all 50 states will need to “own” their Medicaid fraud problems and increase their antifraud efforts in 2026. Sounds like good government!
Steve Gardes is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.

It happened again, a deranged leftist, Cole Allen, fueled by hate, came too close to assassinating President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night.
Allen, who lives in Torrance, California, is a 31-year-old teacher and video game developer. He charged at the security checkpoint, right outside the ballroom. Before being tackled, Allen fired at least five shots, hitting one Secret Service agent, who will make a full recovery because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. When he was apprehended, Allen was carrying a pistol, a shotgun, and multiple knives.
Ten minutes before the shooting, Allen sent a manifesto to his family members. He said he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” According to the New York Post, Allen was affiliated with the progressive group “The Wide Awakes” and attended a leftist “No Kings” protest in California.
In his manifesto, Allen bragged about how easy it was to plan the attack. He asked, “what the hell is the Secret Service doing?” He blasted the agency for a “level of incompetence” that was “insane.” Allen said that he “expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got…is nothing. No damn security…Not in the hotel. Not in the event.”
Not only did a deranged lunatic and attempted assassin understand that the security for the dinner was inadequate, but also many of the people who attended. Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake posted, “I can’t believe how lax the security was…Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket, and they were fine with that.”
Conservative influencer Mads Campbell posted that to enter the event, there was “no bag check. no real screening. no line. just thousands of people packed together, being pushed through the doors as fast as possible, it felt wrong immediately. like, viscerally wrong.”
She attended with her best friend, who felt “something is going to happen.” Campbell said that “there needs to be accountability because this should never happen again.”
Yet, sadly, it keeps happening to President Trump. How did Allen, who called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” get so close?
How did Thomas Matthew Crooks get access to a roof closest to the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024? He used a drone to scout the location, while the Secret Service did not utilize drones and claimed the roof was too steep to position their agents prior to the event. Before a Secret Service sniper killed him, Crooks took eight shots at President Trump, wounding him in the ear, killing courageous firefighter Corey Comperatore, and injuring two others.
Several months later, how did Ryan Routh know that President Trump was playing golf in West Palm Beach, Florida and be allowed to wait for 12 hours in a sniper’s nest in the bushes next to the course? Routh had backpacks, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, a Go-Pro camera and ceramic tiles that may have been body armor.
Fortunately, a Secret Service agent noticed Routh’s gun protruding from the bushes and fired several shots at him. Although Routh escaped, he was apprehended by law enforcement officials after being noticed by a local resident.
On February 22, 2026, Austin Tucker Martin illegally entered the north gate of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. He was carrying a shotgun and a can of gasoline. How did he breach the residence’s security perimeter?
After law enforcement officials ordered Martin to drop the items, Martin “raised the shotgun to a shooting position.” Thereupon, he was shot dead by law enforcement officials. Luckily, the President and First Lady were in Washington D.C. at the time of the incident, and no law enforcement officials were injured.
Along with the assassination attempts, there have been other major security lapses around President Trump. Last August 31, a member of the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia brought a loaded semi-automatic handgun into the facility while the President was on the premises. The weapon, a Glock, was not detected by Secret Service personnel during security screening using handheld magnetometers.
On September 20, 2025, a man was arrested for pointing a red laser beam at Marine One, while the President was on board. Jacob Samuel Winkler was arrested and charged with a felony. His actions “posed a risk of flash blindness and pilot disorientation,” and “placed Marine One at risk of an airborne collision.” How was he allowed to get so close to President Trump?
While the investigation continues into the latest incident, the American people are becoming all too familiar with security lapses involving President Trump. Since he faces countless threats, his protection needs to be top-notch. Regrettably, the incidents over the past two years have exposed shocking security breakdowns that are continually placing President Trump in serious jeopardy.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and is the President and General Manager of WGSO Radio, a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com.