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With heated opposition, St. Tammany library board keeps challenged books on shelves
By: Drew Hawkins - March 28, 2023
MANDEVILLE – The St. Tammany Library Control Board voted to keep five challenged books on library shelves Monday night in a long meeting marred by heckling and interruption. Four of the five books were children’s picture books, and several were previously challenged in December when the board voted to keep the materials on the public […]
Researchers clash over whether freshwater diversion is helpful or harmful to coast
By: Drew Hawkins - January 9, 2023
Standing on a crude wooden boardwalk and wielding a 5-foot-long shiny metal instrument called a Russian peat corer, Theryn Henkel drives its spear-like end deep into the marsh of the Davis Pond freshwater diversion on the west bank of St. Charles Parish. Henkel, a coastal resources scientist at the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), […]
St. Tammany sees showdown over library books
By: Piper Hutchinson and Drew Hawkins - December 14, 2022
COVINGTON – More than 100 people packed into a meeting room at the Covington library Tuesday night, eager to weigh in on how the St. Tammany Library Board of Control handles books a local conservative activist group has said are inappropriate for children. St. Tammany is the latest venue for the fight over library content […]
Anti-censorship group in St. Tammany seeks to join frontlines in library battles
By: Piper Hutchinson and Drew Hawkins - December 8, 2022
To uproarious applause from a crowded auditorium full of St. Tammany Parish Republicans, local activist and attorney David Cougle decried pedophilic material in libraries, likening children’s books to the experience of walking down Bourbon Street at night. Cougle spoke to the local Republican Executive Committee meeting as a representative of the St. Tammany Library Accountability […]