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@thecurrentla

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Lafayette’s community voice
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There’s a new newsletter coming from @thecurrentla For a peek behind the scenes of SWLA reporting, sign up at the link in bio.

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Honored to help bring the UnderCurrent Awards to life alongside @davidbegnaud and @thecurrentla , celebrating the local heroes making an impact in our community.

A night filled with great people, meaningful stories, and plenty worth celebrating. Grateful to have been part of it.

#UnderCurrentAwards #JFGEvents #TheCurrentLA #DavidBegnaud #EventProduction

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I was asked to illustrate portraits of this year’s Undercurrent honorees. These four individuals were selected by the community for their contributions and efforts to help improve lives, strengthen bonds, and solving problems.

“Melissa Bowen’s answer is community theater. Joyce Gaymon’s is a volunteer daycare. Blake Miller’s is a fiddle club. Desiree Hebert’s is juvenile intervention.” - @thecurrentla

Thanks to The Current for having me be a part of this event every year. Love reading about locals helping out the community.

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I loved attending the Undercurrent Awards with my newsroom to celebrate the people who make a difference in our community.

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We are SO PROUD of you, @melissaspix !!! We loved cheering you on today at the @thecurrentla Undercurrent Wavemaker Awards! 💛 @memolano

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How do you get your news in Lake Charles and SWLA? Fill out our survey at the link in my bio.

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Louisiana is projected to receive over $621 million in settlement funds to be distributed over a 21-year period, with sheriffs receiving an estimated $124 million of that money.

Ahead of receiving the funds, parish governments and sheriffs signed onto a memorandum of understanding that said opioid settlement funds should be spent on “evidence-based forward-looking strategies, programming and services” that provide treatment and support to residents with substance use disorders.

To go beyond the raw numbers and get an outside assessment of whether that spending matched the intent of the settlements, we decided to bring a panel of experts to provide analysis and judgement on how sheriffs are spending their settlement dollars.

Once the expenditure data was collected, organized and formatted into a table, we stripped out identifying information and built a single, anonymized list that we shared with three people with different vantage points of the opioid crisis.

Working independently, each member of the panel read through every line item and answered a simple question: Was this an appropriate use of opioid settlement money? If the majority voted “yes,” the expenditure was deemed appropriate by the panel.

The panel’s assessment was not a legal determination of whether an expenditure complied with the state memorandum of understanding. Instead, it’s an independent assessment of whether the spending fits the intended purpose of opioid settlement funds.

💬 Comment 'spending’ and we'll DM you a link to the full article.

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Join us for a Reddit AMA with @thecurrentla and the @gulfstatesnewsroom!

Tomorrow at noon, we'll answer your questions about how Louisiana sheriffs are spending millions in opioid settlement funds.

🔗 Ask your question at the link in our bio.
💬 Don't have a Reddit account? Drop a question in the comments. Text: Sheriffs are getting 20% of Louisiana’s $621M in opioid settlement funds but aren’t required to report their spending.

Ask reporters Katie Jane Fernelius, Alena Maschke and Drew Hawkins anything about what they found when they followed the money.

Image: (from left to right) reporters Katie Jane Fernelius, Alena Maschke and Drew Hawkins

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Congratulations to our 2026 Wavemakers 🌊

Blake Miller @blake_superior86
Joyce Gaymon @joyce.gaymon
Desiree Hebert @desi.abear
Melissa Bowen @melissaspix

Join us October 4th at ACA for the Undercurrent Awards with host @davidbegnaud as we celebrate their outstanding contributions to our community and big, big hearts.

Tickets available at thecurrentla.com

@dogood

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Local heroes deserve to be celebrated!!! We have chosen the winners for the 2026 Undercurrent Awards. If you're in Acadiana, I hope you'll join me for the big reveal on October 4 in Lafayette, Louisiana. You can buy your tickets now through the link in my bio.

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Every state in the country is getting opioid settlement funds, and each is spending them differently. Learn how they're being spent in Mississippi and Louisiana by listening to episode six of Black Box.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or comment "Black Box" and we'll DM you the episode link.

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Submissions are now open for the 2026 Southern Screen Festival Writing Challenge!

2026 theme: “Hubris”
Literature is filled with classic tales of hubris— Icarus, Captain Ahab, Lucifer. Evidence of hubris abounds in contemporary everyday life too, on a large scale with The OceanGate Titan Submersible, or a small one like a person pushing limits past heeded warnings at their own peril, or that of someone else. What character or event in your story leads to downfall due to maybe an abundance of pride, confidence, or a disregard for warnings?

The prize recipient will receive:
- $150 cash prize
- Published in Louisiana Literature Magazine and The Current
- Southern Screen Festival Pass and VIP Wristband
- Story read aloud at the Festival

More info - www.southernscreen.org/writing-challenge

DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 8

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