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The Abbeville Police are investigating the death of a local woman.
On Monday, March 30, the Abbeville Police Department received a phone call around 10:30 a.m. reporting a death.
Officers responded to a local apartment complex and located the body of Nicoletta Menard, 44, of Abbeville. Abbeville Police Detectives processed the scene. Menard was pronounced dead by the Vermilion Parish Coroner’s Office and transported for an autopsy to be performed.
This case is still actively under investigation, and Chief of Police Mike Hardy urges the public to provide any further information regarding this crime or any other crime by calling the Abbeville Police Department at (337) 893-2511. You may also contact our “Tips” line at (337) 892-6777. All callers may remain anonymous. Citizens may also send anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Vermilion by calling (337) 740-TIPS or the P3 app, which can be downloaded through the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

High school bathrooms remain the most common location for teens to vape, continuing a trend from previous generations when bathrooms were the primary place to smoke.
It is common to encounter cherry-scented, chemical vapors from e-cigarettes in high school bathrooms.
At the start of the next school year, students should be aware that the Vermilion Parish School District is taking significant steps to prevent vaping in high school bathrooms.
With a $100,000 grant, the district is purchasing Halo Smart Sensors for installation in all parish high school bathrooms. The company bid $65,000 for the installation.
After high schools receive sensors, the district will begin installing them in middle schools.
Superintendent Tommy Byler explained that the sensors will not trigger an audible alarm when they detect vape or e-cigarette smoke. Instead, they will send an alert to the school administrator’s cell phone.
A red light will be installed above each bathroom door. When the sensor detects nicotine, THC, or smoke, the light will activate to alert the teacher on duty.
“This is just the next step in our process to curb vaping in our schools,” said Byler. “Vaping is not healthy for our youth.”
Statistics show that more than 2.55 million youth in the U.S. vape, including at least 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students.
That’s according to the most recent statistics (2022) from the National Youth Tobacco Survey from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also found that, of those youth who vape, 85% use flavored e-cigarettes (as opposed to unflavored options) and more than a quarter of users (27.5%) reported having a daily habit.
Byler stated that students caught vaping will be assigned to an alternative school for 30 days. If THC is found in the vape, the student may face expulsion from the school system.

What is vaping, and
why is it unhealthy?

According to the CDC, e-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid containing nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals, sometimes including marijuana or other drugs, to produce an aerosol. Users inhale this aerosol, and bystanders are also exposed when it is exhaled.
First-hand aerosol exposure is harmful to many. The aerosol from e-cigarettes is harmful for several reasons. Most e-cigarettes (99%) contain nicotine, often undisclosed, which can damage the developing adolescent brain, including areas responsible for attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. Because vapes are powerful, accessible, and discreet, “kids can pretty much use these almost 24/7, which means unbelievably high amounts of nicotine in very short periods of time,” says Koval. “So, they become addicted in very short periods of time.”

Historic Abbeville has received an exciting opportunity to strengthen its identity and future growth. Abbeville Main Street has been awarded a Louisiana Main Street Technical Support Grant to develop a comprehensive branding strategy for the community which aligns with Abbeville’s Strategic Plan.
Branding is more than just a logo or slogan. It tells a story of who we are as a community-our history, culture, tradition and the qualities that make Abbeville memorable. A strong brand helps visitors understand what makes our city unique while also strengthening local pride and encouraging economic development.
Abbeville is rich in culture, heritage, and hospitality. From our historic downtown and local businesses to our festivals, cuisine, and traditions, our community has a story worth sharing. This branding initiative will help capture that story and present it in a way that supports tourism, local business growth and community pride.
A key part of this process will be community input. Residents and business owners, and community leaders will all have opportunities to share their ideas about what makes Abbeville unique. What words describe our town best? What experiences should visitors remember? What traditions should be highlighted? These perspectives will help shape a brand that truly reflects the heart of our community.
Over the coming weeks, Abbeville Main Street will share ways for the public to participate. including surveys and in person interviews. Everyone is encouraged to take part and help shape how Abbeville presents itself to the region and beyond. Watch for upcoming announcements on how you can participate. For more information you can email the Main Street office, abbevillemainstreet@cityofabbeville.net or call 337-652-2239.

Almost 40 days into another partial government shutdown and Congress is no closer fully funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and so instead appear poised to fund all parts of the department except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which would be further funded in another budget reconciliation bill similar to the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave about three years of funding to ICE and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
That might be best to be hoped for, even after there have been four Islamist terror attacks on U.S. soil in Austin, Texas, New York City, Norfolk, Va. and a synagogue in Dearborn, Mich. since the war in Iran began amid the government shutdown. And after two pilots died at a congested LaGuardia Airport in New York City as Transportation Security Administration are short-handed as they continue working without pay, with long security lines increasingly delaying flights everywhere.
Also unfunded is DHS’ explicit counterterrorism mission, and also the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. None of it has moved Democrats, who refuse to provide cloture on a DHS appropriations bill.
Even with the domestic death toll mounting during the war and shutdown, none of it has impacted Congressional Democrats politically at all. They remain ahead in the generic Congressional ballot polls, leading 156 out of 175 such polls taken this cycle, or 89 percent. Republicans have led just 10, or 5.7 percent. The rest were tied.
In fact, during the last shutdown and this one, Democrats’ lead in the generic ballot has widened. They simply are not paying a political price, even as airports were ground to halts twice in less than a year.
And so they simply see no downside to continuing their demands that ICE funding be separated from the rest of DHS after the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota at the hands of the ICE and Border Patrol officers they were obstructing — and so Senate Republicans are going to give Senate Democrats what they want — which is a way to get everything funded without them having to vote for all of it.
This was the inevitable outcome of separating DHS funding from the rest of the government. There were still three consolidated minibuses: 1) H.R. 6938 that funded the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service and the Indian Health Service; 2) H.R. 7148 that funded the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, the judiciary, the District of Columbia, the Department of State and related programs, the administration and oversight of foreign assistance programs, bilateral economic assistance, international security assistance, multilateral assistance and export and investment assistance; and 3) H.R. 5371 that funded the Department of Agriculture, the legislative Branch, military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Only DHS was excluded, and so the current procedure being agreed to, without passage of an additional reconciliation bill — which is up in the air — for the moment, effectively allows Democrats to drain the additional funds that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that were going to ICE and Border Patrol, about $140 billion. Now, about $28 billion of the extra funds they had added to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: $10 billion for ICE and $18 billion for Border Patrol will be drained.
Democrats apparently never intend to fund ICE again, especially if they win the House and/or Senate in 2026, which for them is just a waste of money anyway, they don’t want to really deport any illegal aliens. For Congressional Republicans, then, with the midterms bearing down and there but one more budget reconciliation bill to pass, the move now must become to get the rest of the President’s agenda fully funded, likely for the remainder of his term.
Whatever else the President needed to complete his mission in Washington, D.C. to make America great again — Republicans had better stick it in that bill, including fully funding ICE through 2028.

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.