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M o n d ay, M ay 5, 2025
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Foster children numbers hit record highs in La. Some parishes have zero homes to place them
BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Mail carrier Aleke Kanonu Jr. picks up and drops off mail in the community of Branch. Kanonu covers 100 miles a day, a third of them dirt or gravel, delivering to more than 655 mailboxes, doorsteps and people’s hands.
A LIFELINE TO A SMALL TOWN
Debate over privatizing USPS could affect La.’s most rural routes BY JENNA ROSS | Staff writer BRANCH — The white Jeep Wrangler sprinting down the gravel road, stirring up dust in the early morning light, bore no markings of the U.S. Postal Service. No lights, no logos. But everyone in this corner of Acadiana knew who was inside: Aleke Kanonu Jr., the only mail carrier in town. Kanonu covers 100 miles a day, a third of them dirt or gravel, delivering to more than 655 mailboxes, doorsteps and, pretty often, people’s hands. On a recent morning, as he turned into Marla Taylor’s long, curved driveway, Taylor approached him with a wide smile, her arms extended. As Washington types talk about remaking the postal service — moving it under the Commerce Department or privatizing it — people here worry about losing their little post office and the daily delivery of the things they need. Not only bills, checks and “crap my wife orders,” as one man put it, but medications, contact lenses and a “Hey, how’s it going?” on an otherwise quiet morning. “Amazon sends people from all over the country into our home, onto our property,” Taylor said, as her 2-year-old grandson scooted by on a pink toy tractor. “I just don’t know where they’re from and what they’re
On a Tuesday afternoon in Watson, Rebecca Braun was working her shift at a donation center when she received a call from the state Department of Children and Family Services: A 14-year-old girl needed a place to stay for the night. Braun, who currently fosters seven children at her Livingston Parish home, can’t bring herself to say no. The Louisiana woman has fostered nearly 100 children — from teenagers to a newborn baby she picked up from a Walmart. The parish consistently has some of the highest numbers of children entering foster care in the state. At one point this year, it had more than 220 foster children but only 21 certified foster homes. Braun’s is one of them. The shortage is widespread across the state. West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee parishes, where children are entering foster care in growing numbers, currently have zero foster homes available.
ä See NUMBERS, page 3A
Landry pushes for car insurance bill Legislation would give commissioner right to reject rate increases
BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer
Aleke Kanonu Jr. chats with Marla Taylor as he delivers a package in the community of Branch on April 17. up to. Because we have children and grandchildren, right?” She turned to Kanonu, smiling again. “But we get to know our local people.” Earlier that morning, Kanonu
joked with a delivery driver tossing the day’s mail into a bin outside the post office in this town of 400 people, some of whom had pinned
ä See LIFELINE, page 5A
Louisiana has 1,305 rural routes, according to Louisiana Rural Letter Carriers’ Association. Nationally, Republicans and Democrats have signed onto a resolution that Congress should take “all appropriate measures” to ensure that the USPS remains an independent government agency and “is not subject to privatization.”
The biggest vote of the 3-week-old legislative session came Wednesday when the House had to decide whether to side with Gov. Jeff Landry or Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and powerful business interests on a bill Landry that would affect car insurance rates. Political insiders beforehand said the vote on House Bill 148 could go either way. The bill sought by Landry would give Temple the right to reject excessive rate increases without backing up his deci- Temple sion with hard data — an authority he doesn’t now have and doesn’t want. Landry said the insurance commissioner needs more tools to hold down rates, adding
ä See BILL, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 65 PAGE 10C
Classified .....................6C Deaths .........................7A Nation-World ................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3C-5C Living............................1C Opinion ........................8A Commentary ................9A Metro ...........................6A Sports ..........................1B
100TH yEAR, NO. 309