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LAFAYETTE — A free COVID-19 mobile testing site at Cajun Field will remain in place through Sunday, Aug. 2.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Louisiana Department of Health have been operating the site since July 10. This is the second time that testing has been extended.
Free, drive-thru tests will continue to be available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, except on Friday, July 31. A food distribution effort will be held at the site that day.
No ID is needed for testing, but registration is required.
Pre-registration can be completed at www.DoINeedaCOVID19test.com. Under test locations, click “Louisiana” then Cajun Field (Mobile #3).
People will be allowed to register at the site, but can expect longer waits.
Testing will be available for any Louisiana resident who is at least 5 years old. Guardians must accompany anyone under 16.
People must provide a phone number and email address to be tested.
People who visit the site should wear masks. Those being tested will perform nasal swabs on themselves as they wait in their vehicles. The process will be observed to ensure it is done correctly. Sealed samples will be dropped in a container.
Results will be emailed, and posted online at www.DoINeedaCOVID19test.com.
It is expected to take three to five days to get test results.
People who test positive will also be contacted by phone. There is no phone number for people to call to get their results.
Motorists should enter the Cajun Field parking lot via West Congress Street through Gate 3. Only right turns into the lot by motorists approaching from the west will be allowed for traffic safety considerations. Once testing is complete, they will exit on Reinhardt Drive onto Bertrand Drive through Gate 1.
For more information about COVID-19 testing, contact the LDH Region 4 Office of Public Health at (337) 262-5311.

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has acted on every bill passed during June’s special session, including approving a long list of tax breaks and subsidies and measures meant to promote access to high-speed internet.
House Bill 69 by Rep. Daryl Deshotel provides a tax rebate on fiber-optic cable for companies that win bids in the federal government’s $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction, meant to promote internet access in currently unserved areas. Senate Bill 10 by Sen. Beth Mizell calls for electricity cooperatives to partner with broadband providers using the co-op’s existing infrastructure.
Taken together, the two measures are meant to help Louisiana compete for a healthy share of the federal funding, hopefully leading to high-speed internet access in areas of the state that don’t currently have it.
Edwards also signed House Bill 64 to impose an 8 percent tax on the revenue produced by online fantasy sports contests. Setting the tax rate is the last step toward finally legalizing the practice in parishes where voters approved it back in 2018.
And the Democratic governor approved numerous Republican-backed tax breaks sought by business lobbyists, despite voicing concerns during the session about the impact on state finances. Proponents said the measures would help to boost businesses harmed by restrictions meant to control the spread of COVID-19, while critics said they would chip away at the state’s bottom line without actually providing any real economic benefit.
Legislative fiscal office notes indicate the various tax breaks could cost the state well over $200 million in lost revenue over the next five years, though the bills’ sponsors often argued the fiscal notes didn’t take into account the increased business activity (and therefore increased tax collections) they claimed the bills would stimulate.
Tax breaks, benefits and subsidies the governor signed this week include:
Senate Bill 4: Extends the sunset of the state’s research and development tax break, which would have expired next year, to 2025.
Senate Bill 5: Eliminates state taxes on up to $5 million of a casino’s “promotional play wagers,” which essentially are vouchers sent to potential customers to drum up business. Supporters said the promotions aren’t taxed in other states and could lead to more revenue for the state by bringing more patrons into the state’s heavily taxed casinos.
Senate Bill 6: Suspends corporate franchise taxes on the first $300,000 of taxable capital for businesses with $1 million or less in taxable assets.
Senate Bill 17: Extends the “angel investor” tax credit program, which was set to expire next year, into 2023. Edwards also signed Senate Bill 24, which boosts the credit’s value for investments in federally designated low-income “opportunity zones.”
House Bill 4: Extends the state’s tax credit program for rehabilitating historic structures and sets a $125 million annual cap on the amount of credits taxpayers can claim.
House Bill 11: Boosts the amount of sales tax collected a business is allowed to keep from 0.935 percent to 1.05 percent, while reducing the total amount a business can keep each month from $1,500 to $1,200.
House Bill 13: Allows retailers, hotels and restaurants with up to 50 employees to participate in the state’s Enterprise Zone tax credit program. The stated goal is to help companies impacted by COVID-19, though previous studies have shown that granting tax credits to those business categories provides a poor return on investment for taxpayers. House Bill 19 allows those same types of businesses participate in the state’s Quality Jobs program.
House Bill 37: Waives penalties and interest for late filing by taxpayers affected by COVID-19.

“In my 21 years as executive editor of a group of 48 papers, Jim’s column had the quickest acceptance and highest satisfaction of any I shared with editors. Jim provides down-to-earth, common sense, back-to-the-basics thinking, that inspires and makes people feel good”
Max Heath, Vice President, Landmark Community Newspapers, Shelbyville, Kentucky
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It is my honor to share these words with you from one of the most respected men in the newspaper industry. His letter came several months after I began this column back in 1995. Since that time a lot of wonderful things have happened, as my column’s list of subscribers grew to more than 365 papers in 35 states. Back in the late 1990s, at the pinnacle of the newspaper industry, they tell me my column had more than a million readers each week.
Over the past 25 years I have continued to write, and the number of columns written has now grown to almost 1,300 since I began. During this time I have been blessed to have several thousand readers to call, e-mail or write me to share their love and encouragement. Now in my eighth decade I know that I have fewer days left on this earth than when I started, so in order to leave something behind I decided to publish a book of my best columns. As a sequel to my book of radio shows, I have titled it “Better Than the Best” and it is that and more.
When I was reviewing all the columns I had written, one I came across was titled “America’s First Self-Made Man” and was about Benjamin Franklin, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was the 15th of 17 children, from a very meager family, who made a tremendous contribution in the early days of our nation. As a fellow author, one thing that really caught my attention was when it said his book “Poor Richard’s Almanack” was in every American home. Well, I was so intrigued with this statement that I ordered a copy from Amazon and have read it. His book was very good, but I just had one observation: if his book was in every American home, mine certainly deserves to be in every American home, too.
You be the judge: just order a copy and read it, and you will agree. It is that good. Here are some of the titles my new book includes: “The Happy Loser, A Test for First-Time Parents, A Man After My Own Heart, Welfare and Unwed Mothers, The Greatest Profession of Them All, The History of American Legion Baseball, A Television Program With Class, JoVoni Johnson: A True Success Story, A Member of the Family, Ever Been in Cahoots, The Shoji Tabuchi Story, Who Held Your Ladder” and over 50 more. Just logic and common sense would tell you that my columns would be better, after 15 years of writing my daily radio show.
While the various messages the book contains are very important, and I hope you will purchase a copy, here are some other thoughts that I would like to share with you. First, I would like to say that I am grateful for the great opportunities I have had to succeed in this wonderful country. And to also place things in context by saying, “I am a sinner who has been saved by God’s amazing grace.” As a positive person, my personal philosophy has always been, “It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.” And with all the problems we have in our world and nation today, to not just talk about problems, but to offer some possible solutions.
As an eternal optimist, I believe that our best days are still before us. However, we must learn from past experiences. As a place to begin, read II Chronicles 7:14 as it shines light on a path that will take us all home. God bless, Jim.

By Warren A. Perrin

In January, 1990, I prepared a petition and had it delivered to the British Crown.  The petition sought a formal apology for their role 265 years ago in the 1755 Deportation of 18,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia. Feigning concern over the Acadians’ neutrality, the British developed a devious plan to eradicate the Acadian culture so as to take over their lush farmland: ethnic cleansing. Today, because half of the Acadians died, some now refer to it as a genocide. 
Happily, the effort for a royal acknowledgment was successfully concluded on December 9, 2003, when Queen Elizabeth II’s representative signed the Royal Proclamation. The implications were three-fold: an acknowledgment of the horrific wrongs committed against the Acadian people in the name of the British Crown; a symbolic reconciliation for the death and suffering resulting from the diaspora; and the establishment of July 28 of each year as a Day of Commemoration of the Acadian Deportation. 
On July 28 of this year, it is suggested that Cajuns in Louisiana be inspired to reflect upon their own recent historical experience: that French was the predominant language in south Louisiana until it was forbidden by law to be spoken in public schools in 1916. That Les Américains (non-Cajuns) often insultingly referred to Cajuns collectively with the pejorative "coona--." And that in 1968, inspired by the Civil Rights Act, the French Renaissance led by CODOFIL helped Cajuns to regain their cultural pride.
The annual Day of Commemoration of the Acadian Deportation is held as an attempt to understand how this tragic event has shaped the character of all of the Acadians—and how they have impacted Louisiana. 
Some of my Acadian ancestors were slave owners in every generation from the 1770s to the Emancipation Proclamation. And who knows whether or not they participated in lynchings. This truth is a heavy burden to carry. What’s clear is that the racism we see today is rooted in the past. We are steeped in the blood and brutality of our forefathers, which was and is an insult to our common humanity. See: Dr. Shane Bernard’s historically veracious book, The Cajuns—Americanization of a People (Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2003), pp. 52-57.
Now, as we look at the shameful inequality and tragic treatment of the African American community, I suggest that if any ethnic group should be outraged by the continuing racism against African Americans, it should be the Acadians. Sadly, the lessons learned from surviving an appalling ethnic persecution were not handed down to some Acadians, and they inflicted a similar persecution on others—enslavement, followed by 100 years of intense racial oppression, and now today continuing marginalization. While the Acadians have since received official acknowledgement from the British Crown in the Royal Proclamation for the atrocities they suffered, the people of African descent have yet to receive any official acknowledgment or apology from any level of government in Louisiana for the atrocities they have suffered. Thus, Louisiana Acadians should use July 28 to reflect on what they can do to address their part in this ongoing systemic oppression in Acadiana. 
While African Americans were enslaved and have struggled over four centuries for justice, I assert we can find in our own history a resonance and a cause for solidarity with them in their struggle. As I have learned, reconciliation first requires recognition of the truth.

—Warren A. Perrin, co-author of Acadia Then and Now, winner of the 2014 international literary award Prix France-Acadie in Paris, France, and Gov. Edwards’ appointee to the CODOFIL board.