Secretary of State Tom Schedler is encouraging all Louisianians eligible to vote in the April 6 primary election to consider voting early starting this Saturday. Early voting begins Saturday, March 23rd and continues through Saturday, March 30. The polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, excluding Good Friday (March 29) and Easter Sunday (March 31).

Kisatchie National Forest closed the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness Area of the Kisatchie Ranger District on Thursday until further notice for a controlled burn or “prescribed burn.” The Wilderness area is made up of 8,700 acres of forest with some of the most unusually steep and rugged terrain to be found in Louisiana.

Rachel Pair of Fort Smith, Ark., earned Northwestern State University’s Student Research Award during the school’s 26th annual Research Day on Thursday, Feb. 21. 

Pair was among dozens of students who participated in a day of 15-minute oral presentations, demonstrations and musical performances with question and answer sessions.  Pair’s topic, entitled “Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do!:  The Fashion of the World War II Era,” examined the influence the war and societal changes played in American women’s fashion from the 1930s through the 1950s.