Local

Louisiana experienced a record-breaking number of visitors in 2015 and that tourism success rippled into St. Landry Parish, Celeste Gomez, St. Landry Parish Tourism executive director, said Tuesday to about 40 people attending the St. Landry Parish Tourism Industry Luncheon in Opelousas.

Several days of rain delayed crop fertilizing, soybean planting and hay cutting in St. Landry Parish.

Louisiana’s public high school graduation rate reached 77.5 percent in 2015, an all-time high, according to the state Department of Education.
The four-year high school gradation rate increased for the fifth consecutive year in 2015.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser stopped at the St. Landry Parish Visitors Center off Interstate 49 to talk about the benefits of tourism.
State budget cuts show the value of tourism, he said to about 40 people Wednesday morning in the five-year-old center.

Selling aborted fetal body parts and organs may become a felony in Louisiana pending passage of the proposed law in the House and the governor’s signature.