Category Archives: Ascension

Throughout his football career, from high school to the pros, Terry McLaurin has been an underdog. It's part of the reason why the 26-year-old was so emotional on Wednesday when he took the podium after signing a three-year, $71 million extension with the Commanders.

"I cried some real tears. For a lot of my life, I've really had to grind and work for what I have now. I've had a lot of adversity and some people didn't really believe in my abilities," McLaurin said.

McLaurin had to earn his scholarship offer to Ohio State by grinding at summer camps. With the Buckeyes, it took four years for him to earn a prominent role in the offense. But with the Commanders, it took just one half for the 2019 third-round pick to become Washington's best receiver.

As a rookie, McLaurin totaled 919 receiving yards in just 14 games, coming just a handful of yards short of breaking the franchise's rookie record. Yet, McLaurin didn't lose his underdog mindset just because he found instant NFL success.

In his two years since, McLaurin has topped the 1,000-yard in each season despite playing with eight different quarterbacks. He's turned into one of the best young wideouts in the entire sport, evident by his lucrative new deal.

It took a while in McLaurin's football journey to find the success he's had now. The wideout believes that change started when he altered his mindset, focusing more on the things he struggled with on the field than what he excelled in.

"I think what really changed for me, what took my game to the next level was -- I think for a lot of people in general -- I think it's easy to hear the good things about yourself. I think it's easy to hear what you do well, your strengths," McLaurin said. "And I take pride in the strengths in my game, but when my career kind of [took] an upward trajectory is when I started focusing on my weaknesses and trying to make them strengths."

The wideout admitted that he needed to have those "honest and transparent" conversations with coaches as to where they felt he needed to improve the most. But those difficult talks led to him channeling his energy to improve in those certain areas, which led to even more success on the field.

"I started creating drills and attacking those weaknesses to make them strengths. It's nice to see," McLaurin said.

McLaurin might feel that this change in attitude is something new, but his former wide receiver coach at Ohio State, Brian Hartline, has seen it in his for years.

"My first impression [of McLaurin] was there's a lot of things [he] could do," Hartline told NBC Sports Washington in April. "We were going to focus on what he wasn't being optimal in. Once we kind of got that fixed, there were very few things, if any, that Terry couldn't do. I think that that was kind of our mindset. You know, you do a lot of things, but what's holding me back, coach? Let's clean those things up so that no one really has everything that they can point out that Terry doesnt do. That was a lot of the mindset.

Speed and strength have always been two of McLaurin's strengths. But dating back to his college days, route running and consistently catching the football were two areas McLaurin had plenty of room for improvement in.

Over the past two seasons, McLaurin's route running has improved dramatically. His breaks have become a lot crisper.

But the one area McLaurin has grown the most as a receiver has been when it comes to hauling in contested catches. McLaurin admitted that area was a "glaring weakness" in his game when he entered the NFL. In 2021, McLaurinledthe entire NFL in contested catches.

Talk about turning a weakness into a strength.

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Now that McLaurin has earned a multi-year, lucrative extension, it would be easy for him to become complacent. As he made clear during his Wednesday press conference, very few people believed he would ever become the standout NFL receiver he currently is.

But becoming complacent would go against the mentality McLaurin has channeled throughout his football career. Don't expect his work ethic to change now just because his pockets have become a little heavier.

"A lot of people don't see how far I came from college and to where I am now doing it at the highest level," McLaurin said. "And that's just even more motivation to me to keep going and find ways to continue to improve my game and stay on the cutting edge because I feel like as soon as you get complacent, that's kind of when things start to go downhill for yourself."

A two-time team captain, McLaurin is viewed as one of the Commanders' leaders by all of his teammates. Yet when training camp starts later this month, McLaurin plans on arriving in Ashburn with the same underdog mindset that has gotten him to this point.

"I'm just really excited for what's to come and to continue to get back out there and really go back out there with my day one approach of earning my spot on this team like I was my rookie year," McLaurin said. "I'm trying to earn it all over again. That's genuinely my perspective and how I operate each and every day.

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One specific thing Washington's Terry McLaurin credits for his career ascension - NBC Sports

The postseason honors keep coming in for Ascension Catholic baseball players.

Recently, three Bulldog standouts were named to the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Associations All-Region 9 baseball team.

Region 9 is made up of players from the parishes of Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary and Terrebonne. The region is also for non-Class 5A athletes.

Making the squad for Ascension Catholic were Brooks Leonard, Lex Melancon and Jackson Landry.

Leonard made the team as a pitcher. The junior was the Bulldogs best hurler statistically this past season, only losing one regular-season game he started from the mound.

He was also named the District 7-1A MVP.

Leonard is a Northwestern State commit.

Melancon made the All-Region 9 squad as a utility player. The senior has been the Bulldogs starting catcher for the past two seasons. In both years, hes made first-team all-district.

Melancon is a Nicholls signee.

Landry is just a sophomore. He made the All-Region team as an outfielder. Landry served as Ascension Catholics best power hitter this past season.

Ascension Catholic had another strong year. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 23-8 record, which included an undefeated run in District 7-1A. That earned them their second straight district championship.

All but one of the Bulldogs regular-season defeats came against upper-classification teams, and 15 of their 23 victories came against bigger schools.

Ascension Catholic pulled off some great wins over quality opponents.

The Bulldogs beat: Class 5A state runner-up St. Amant, 3A state champion Lutcher, 3A runner-up Berwick, Division-II state runner-up University and Division-II state semifinalist Parkview Baptist.

Ascension Catholic also dropped a close game against eventual Class 4A state champion South Terrebonne.

The Bulldogs earned the No. 2 seeding for the Division-IV playoffs and swept Riverside Academy by a combined score of 15-4 in the first round.

That pushed Ascension Catholic through to the state quarterfinals for the eighth straight postseason.

Facing seventh-seeded St. Frederick, the Bulldogs rolled to a 13-3 win in game one. However, standing just one victory away from the state semifinals, Ascension Catholic dropped back-to-back games, ending its season.

The All-Region 9 squads Hitter of the Year was Lutchers Marshall Louque. Louque was actually on the Eastbank All-Stars team that won the 2019 Little League World Series.

Now at Lutcher, he hit .475 this past season with six home runs and 52 RBIs. Louque also helped lead the Bulldogs to a state title victory.

The All-Region 9 Pitcher of the Year was Vandebilt Catholics Owen Schexnaydre.

Schexnaydre was 11-3 this season with a 1.17 ERA. He helped lead Vandebilt to its first state championship victory since 1971.

He is an LSU-Eunice commit.

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All-Region 9 Baseball - Weekly Citizen

At the 1990 Academy Awards, the nominations for documentary featured a surprising number of actors. Dustin Hoffman lent his voice to a film about the Aids memorial quilt, Joe Mantegna told the tale of one US countys crack epidemic, while Gregory Peck narrated a biography of chief justice Earl Warren. Fast forward to this years ceremony and the actors had gone quiet. With the exception of Riz Ahmeds dubbing on the English-language version of Flee, the shortlisted films had no booming star narrator. In fact, they had no traditional narrators at all.

This could, of course, be a quirk of the Academys ever-changing preferences, or an anomalous year. But, says Dr Catalin Brylla, a lecturer in film and television at Bournemouth University, the traditional, authoritative voice-of-God documentary narrator has indeed become an endangered species, as audiences have turned against their pretentious objectivity in favour of more personal accounts. As Roko Belic, director of the 1999 documentary Genghis Blues, put it: Youd hear some guys perfect English voice, [talking about] zebras in Africa, and you didnt really feel like you were there. I wanted to know the whole story, and not just this one guys point of view.

From the 1990s onwards, this led to a rise in personality-led documentaries by such directors as Werner Herzog, who usually narrates his own films, and Michael Moore, who tends to direct, write, star in and voice his work. Activist documentaries, such as Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth, had clear messages, driven home via voiceover. But in recent years, even this form of narration seems to be declining.

Summer of Soul, the 2022 Oscar-winner, was a medley of footage from the 1969 Harlem cultural festival, overlaid with a long list of interviewees. Ascension, Jessica Kingdons eerie documentary about rampant capitalism in China, not only had no voiceover, but no interviews, either. Stanley Nelson, one of the directors of Attica, also on the 2022 shortlist, told the Hollywood Reporter that the film-makers knew from the beginning that we didnt want to have narration. Instead, the plan was to tell the story of the biggest prison riot in history through interviews with those who were there. Even an interview with a historian didnt make the final cut because he was talking about what he had read [while other interviewees] were talking about what they saw and heard and felt.

Brylla connects the death of the narrator to the age of post-truth politics, in which information is presented through emotions, rather than factual accuracy. Another factor may be film-makers changing relationship with their interviewees and audiences. Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, Rowan Deacons two-part Netflix film, used no narration to frame its archival footage and new interviews, because her many interviewees had very different experiences of Savile and I felt that their recollections needed to be presented unmediated and without the potentially judgmental role of a narrator.

In addition, Deacon wanted to focus on telling the story in a way which was compelling but which also asked the audience to do a bit of the work themselves, to draw their own conclusions from the glut of evidence being presented to them as so many failed to do during Saviles lifetime.

Frida and Lasse Barkfors trilogy of documentaries tackles uniquely taboo subjects: profiling, respectively, a community of sex offenders (Pervert Park), parents responsible for their own childrens deaths (Death of a Child), and the parents of school shooters (Raising a School Shooter). All went without narrators because, Frida says, our goal is for the audience to make up their minds for themselves about the complex, difficult stories they are hearing. Lasse adds that narration would give the audience something to hold on to while navigating the moral questions raised by the trilogy, an effect the film-makers wanted to avoid.

Mike Cooper, a BBC newsreader turned voiceover artist, points out that the trend may well be cyclical. For a while, it felt like there were voiceovers on everything, but if you go back further to films like Grey Gardens part of the naturalistic cinema verit movement in the 1960s and 70s they were made completely without voiceovers. Either way, Cooper is sanguine about the fortunes of his profession, given voiceovers on other formats such as adverts and TV programmes arent about to disappear. We can assume Morgan Freeman, perhaps the most sought-after voice, is also getting by.

Lasse Barkfors believes what were seeing in documentaries may be a reaction to the intense individualism brought on by social media. Over the past two decades, he says, theres been a lot of me. If the decline of narrators means anything, it seems to suggest that documentary-makers are handing some of the power back to their audiences presenting them with the evidence and the voices of those involved, then letting them find their own messages.

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Struck dumb: why the voice of God got booted out of documentaries - The Guardian

Jeff Cavins, left, and Father Mike Schmitz of Ascension Press, seen in this 2022 photo, are the winners of the 2022 Cardinal John P. Foley Award from the Catholic Media Association. The award, one of the highest honors given by the CMA, was announced July 6, 2022, at the Catholic Media Conference in Portland, Ore. (CNS photo/courtesy Ascension Press)

By Chaz Muth Catholic News Service Posted July 6, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) Father Mike Schmitz and Jeff Cavins of Ascension Press are the recipients of the 2022 Cardinal John P. Foley Award from the Catholic Media Association.

The Foley award recognizes demonstrated excellence and innovation in Catholic storytelling in the preceding year, with work presented on various media platforms, including but not limited to video, podcasts, photo spreads, blogs, or a multimedia melding of platforms. Its one of the highest honors given by the CMA.

The announcement was made July 6 during the 2022 Catholic Media Conference in Portland.

Father Schmitz and Cavin won the award for their joint project, The Bible in a Year podcast, which boasted an audience of about 450,000 daily listeners in 2021.

Father Schmitz and Cavin were not in attendance to accept the award in person.

If you ask Father Mike and Jeff, they will say that the Holy Spirit deserves all of the credit; it is Gods story, after all, said Lauren Joyce, Ascensions communications and public relations specialist, in her nomination letter. But we humbly submit that Gods story is most powerful when spirit-filled storytellers bring it to life and tell it anew in their own time and place.

The late Cardinal Foley, who died in 2011, was admired for his media expertise, serving as an editor of Philadelphias archdiocesan newspaper, a host and producer of the Philadelphia Catholic Hour on WFIL radio, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Also, for many he was known as the Vaticans Voice of Christmas in his role as English-language commentator for the popes midnight Mass for 25 years.

Greg Erlandson, director and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Service, has called Foley an indefatigable supporter of the Catholic press who always remained a journalist at heart, and he believed strongly in the importance of this professional vocation for the life of the church.

Father Schmitz and Cavin were two of 10 finalists for the 2020 Foley award.

The other eight finalists were Tony Ganzer of the Faith Full Podcast; Gabrielle Gleason, communications specialist for the Diocese of Syracuse, New York; Jonah McKeown, staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency; Bridget OBoyle, social media marketing consultant for Aleteia; Kate OHare, editor for Family Theater Productions; Joseph Pelletier, video producer for the Archdiocese of Detroit; Matt Riedl, director of media production for the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia; and Carol Zimmermann, Washington correspondent for Catholic News Service.

The Second Vatican Council invited all Catholics to read the Bible, and yet many still struggle with understanding this ancient text and connecting it to their daily lives. In 2021, Father Mike Schmitz and Jeff Cavins vaulted this hurdle with excellence, captivating hundreds of thousands of listeners with their innovative The Bible in a Year podcast, said Ed Langlois, managing editor of the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, when he announced the Foley award winners.

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Creators of 'Bible in a Year' podcast win national media award - CatholicPhilly.com

One local teen has found a unique way to bring some magic to the pediatric floor of an Evansville hospital.

The Newburgh teen and Signature School student is spending her summer spreading joy on the pediatric floor at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Evansville.

I wanted to come up with something creative and unique to help the kids and give back to my community, says princess volunteer Sophie Rodionova.

Shes a student volunteer with a unique talent.

I thought of all the things that I can do and I kind of put them in my tool box. So, I came up with the idea of dressing up as a princess and then going to the kids just to make their day a little bit better, Sophie says.

She dances, reads, sings, and does crafts with the kids, all while getting to know each child and sharing tales of her own.

I ask them questions about themselves and I tell them my story , so they just have a way of connecting with somebody while theyre at the hospital, Sophie tells 44News.

Sophie aspires to be a doctor when she grows up, and continue her journey of bringing joy to children, and impacting kids the way shes been impacted herself.

My mom, shes my biggest role model. Shes been my dance teacher since I was 3 years old. Through dance and theater, all of that has made a really big difference in my life. So, going forward, I would want to be that impact on the kids I see, Sophie says.

She even aims to inspire kids her own age to step out of their comfort zone and do something to make someone else smile.

Just to do something different. You can help in any way. Just to bring water to the patients, really anything like that. Just a smile will brighten up the kids day, she tells 44News.

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Princess visits with children at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital - WEVV

The NBA always seemed like a fantasy, a far-off dream. Then came Ron Harper Jr.s sophomore year at Rutgers, and everything changed for him.

The 6-foot-6 Harper was putting up strong numbers in the Big Ten, helping the Scarlet Knights play their way into the NCAA Tournament picture before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the postseason.

We were having a really good season and I was at the front line of that, the former Rutgers star told The Post. We were doing things that everybody told us we couldnt do. I just really started to believe in that dream coming true. It looked more and more realistic every day.

It was only the start of his ascension from an unheralded recruit out of Don Bosco Prep with a famous last name his father Ron Harper won five NBA titles who wasnt even ranked in the top 150 of his class into a potential NBA player.

Thursday night, the next stage of Harpers career will begin, potentially with him hearing his name called in the NBA draft and following in his fathers footsteps. If selected, the Franklin Lakes, N.J., native would become the first Scarlet Knight selected since Hamady NDiaye went 56th overall to the Timberwolves in 2010. Harper has reportedly worked out for the Knicks, Nets, Kings, Hornets, Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, took part in the draft combine and a number of mock drafts have him getting taken at some point in the second round.

Similar to Julian [Champagnie of St. Johns], real good shooter, an NBA scout said. Has to show other parts to his game as a creator, as a defender. Right now, hes proven hes a shooter with size.

Harpers final year at Rutgers was his best. He produced career-highs in points (15.8), assists (1.9), 3-point shooting (39.8) and free-throw percentage (79.5). He led the Scarlet Knights to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 1974-75, and won the Haggerty Award, given to the areas top local player.

He will have to start all over again as a professional, this time against the best players in the world. But Harper has only wanted an opportunity and now he will be getting his shot.

I feel like Ive proven I can play on the highest level from a college standpoint, and obviously the NBA is different, he said. But I feel like I will be able to prove myself there, too.

Its really exciting, I was an under-recruited guy, I didnt expect myself to make it here growing up. But the journey I went through, I wouldnt change it for the world and it shaped who I am as a person, as a player.

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Ron Harper Jr. hopes to go from unheralded prospect to NBA Draft pick - New York Post

Every year, nearly 15,000 female green sea turtles start the long journey from the eastern shores of Brazil to the small island of Ascension a remote South Atlantic island located almost 2,300 kilometers (about 1,400 miles) away.

These turtles are returning to where they were born, migrating to lay their eggs on the beaches of this 88 square-kilometer island. Their young, once hatched, will make that very same journey every three to four years between the shores of Rio de Janeiro and Ascension.

Ascension Island is the second most populated green turtle breeding ground in the Atlantic Ocean, but overfishing, climate change, and ocean pollution are just some of the factors threatening the endangered green sea turtle along its journey to this remote sanctuary.

Each year the nesting beach sites of Ascension Island witness the laying of millions of eggs as green sea turtles descend across its shores. The island sits atop a 10,000-foot underwater volcano located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, one of the worlds longest mountain ranges, home to unique seabird species critical to the island's ecosystem.

Classified as a United Kingdom overseas territory, the small volcanic island is part of an area that boasts an exclusive economic zone covering almost 445,000 square kilometers nearly the size of France. Also home to the largest Atlantic blue marlin ever recorded, large bird colonies, and a dozen fish species found nowhere else on Earth, Ascension Island has largely avoided intensive commercial fishing due to its remote location.

But nowhere in the ocean, or the world, is safe from the impacts of climate change, and the crisis paired with overfishing has put the survival of green sea turtles at risk. That's the very reason why tens of thousands of Global Citizens took action to support a move to protect the oceans surrounding Ascension Island.

Ahead of the 2016 Global Citizen Festival, 30,000 Global Citizens took action to support the Blue Marine Foundation an organization dedicated to restoring ocean health by addressing overfishing and promoting conservation. Blue Marine, as part of the Great British Oceans Coalition, called on then-UK Prime Minister David Cameron to push the government to increase measures that protect the oceans surrounding overseas territories, including Ascension Island.

Mainly Taiwanese and Japanese boats had historically been fishing Ascension's offshore waters, catching huge tunas and lots of by-catch including sharks for little financial gain at the expense of endangered sea life.

In February, the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned that we're running out of time to take urgent action on climate change and protect our oceans, citing overfishing as a key driver of climate change.

Overfishing leads to biodiversity loss through the destruction of the ocean basin, as well as the aimless killing of fish biomass and endangered species. This fish biomass stores and protects the world's atmosphere from up to 38,000 gigatons of carbon emissions more than the earths rainforests. A large number of offshore species, such as bigeye and yellowfin tuna tuna and oceanic sharks, were overfished in Ascension.

Climate change and overfishing, even far away from the small island, have harmed its fragile ecosystems, reducing the nutritional quality of fish eaten by local bird colonies. Today, the local seabird colonies have declined by 80%.

But by protecting large tracts of ocean and demonstrating that it is possible to have a thriving community at the center of a vast marine protected area, Ascension is helping to turn the tide on climate change.

In 2016, half of Ascensions waters were closed to fishing. Then in 2019, Ascension Island declared 100% of its waters as a marine protected area, with a complete ban on commercial offshore fishing.

To end extreme poverty and meet the United Nations Global Goals, such as Goal 14 to protect life below water, Global Citizen campaigns to protect the oceans and the communities that rely on them to survive.

The Blue Marine Foundations mission is to see at least 30% of the worlds oceans under protection by 2030 and the other 70% managed in a responsible way that promotes a healthy ocean forever, for everyone.

Global Citizens took action in 2016 to support the Great British Oceans Coalitions campaign to help preserve Ascension Island's waters, knowing that key strategic interventions could help communities at the forefront of ocean conservation. With 6.8 million square kilometers of territorial waters, Britain is the custodian of the fifth largest marine estate on the planet.

Blue Marine and the Great British Oceans Coalition worked with the Ascension Island Government and the UK Government to secure the second largest no-take marine protected area (MPA) in the Atlantic. No-take MPAs are rare zones where the destruction of natural resources is completely prohibited, according to National Geographic.

Today, Ascension Island is being supported today by a 2 million ($2.4 million) endowment fund raised by Blue Marine Foundation, replacing the income the island previously received from the sale of licenses to longlining vessels that fished in Ascension's waters. While the British Governments blue belt program monitors and enforces the waters to ensure no illegal fishing takes place within the exclusive economic zone.

As a result, Ascension Island is becoming a safe haven for the green sea turtle. Out of every thousand turtle hatchlings, only one will make it to adulthood, but those that do can return safely to the island to start families of their own.

You can join the Global Citizen campaign to end extreme poverty and take climate action NOW by taking action here. Become part of a movement powered by citizens around the world who are taking action together with governments, corporations, and philanthropists to make a change.

Global Citizen is grateful to the Blue Marine Foundation for its continuous efforts to protect our planet and the most vulnerable communities impacted by climate change.

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How This Organization Helps Millions of Endangered Turtles Safely Reach a Small Atlantic Island - Global Citizen

Volunteer Ascension's School Tools drive kicks off

Donations are being accepted for Volunteer Ascension's annual School Tools Drive. The program provides needed school supplies for Ascension Parish students.

The nonprofit is hoping to raise $50,000.

To donate, visit http://www.mightycause.com/story/Schooltools.

Watch the ocean adventures of Marlin, Dory and Nemo in this interactive version of Finding Nemo, where kids get to participate in the action. When certain scenes or prompts happen in the movie, audience members will have to respond by eating a snack, telling jokes, and moving around in their chairs. Space and supplies are limited.

Designed for kids 6-8 years old. Showtime is at 5 p.m.

Dads Day Out at Camp Read Smore

Bring your dad or a father figure to Ascension Parish Library to build a tent and share stories by the campfire. Test your skills at ring toss, see who can bowl better and make marshmallow crafts.

The event is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, June 25, at Dutchtown; and Saturday, July 2, at Gonzales.

The program is for children up to age 8.

The crafts from this program will be available for pick up at the Donaldsonville library on Monday, June 27, while supplies last.

Elizabeth Vidos, known as Lady Chops, is bringing her one-woman drumming show to Ascension Parish Library. Elizabeth is a talented percussionist whose past work includes performing in the hit show "STOMP." Her show Drum Roll Please incorporates more than 15 instruments, including buckets, body percussion and the Cajun rub board.

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Catch the beat at 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 28, at the library in Dutchtown or at 2 p.m. at the Gonzales location, or later that day at 2 p.m. at the library in Gonzales; or catch the show at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 29, at the Wag Center in Donaldsonville or later that day at 2 p.m. at the Galvez library.

The Ascension Parish Health Unit is offering COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters for area residents. Call the Gonzales Health Unit at (225) 644-4582 to schedule an appointment.

The Highway 621 Outdoor Farmers Market, 39275 La. 621, has kicked off its new season. The market will be open from 7 a.m. to noon every Saturday until August.

The market includes fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, salsa, baked goods and other items.

For information on the market or to sign up as a vendor, call Jaise Templet (225) 715-9106 or visitfacebook.com/Hwy621OutdoorMarket.

The River Road African American Museum is seeking volunteers to assist with tours, special events and educational programs.

All volunteers receive free admission to all museum events, professional development seminars and an opportunity to meet people from around the world.

Volunteers should have a friendly personality, good verbal and written communication skills, and a love of local history.

If you have five to 10 hours a week and are interested in sharing history, call at (225) 474-5553 or email at melanie@aamuseum.org.

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Around Ascension for June 22, 2022 | Ascension | theadvocate.com - The Advocate

Mike Stucka USA TODAY NETWORK| Gonzales Weekly Citizen

Louisiana reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 6,649 new cases. That's down 16.1% from the previous week's tally of 7,921 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Louisiana ranked 38th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 0.7% from the week before, with 730,572 cases reported. With 1.4% of the country's population, Louisiana had 0.91% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 15 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Ascension Parish reported 178 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 181 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 34,089 cases and 293 deaths.

Across Louisiana, cases fell in 34 parishes, with the best declines in Bossier Parish, with 292 cases from 644 a week earlier; in Jefferson Parish, with 659 cases from 928; and in Orleans Parish, with 612 cases from 831.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Within Louisiana, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in St. James Parish with 280 cases per 100,000 per week; De Soto Parish with 240; and Bossier Parish with 230. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were East Baton Rouge Parish, with 727 cases; Jefferson Parish, with 659 cases; and Orleans Parish, with 612. Weekly case counts rose in 26 parishes from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Rapides, Lafayette and Ouachita parishes.

In Louisiana, 17 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 15 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,210,760 people in Louisiana have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 17,373 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 86,246,101 people have tested positive and 1,013,413 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, June 19.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Hospitals in 29 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 25 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 31 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

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Ascension Parish reported 178 additional COVID-19 cases this week - Weekly Citizen

TECUMSEH, Ontario (PRWEB) June 15, 2022

I have been exploring comparative religions for the last 20 years in search of the real story of Jesus Christ away from preconception influences. Finding pieces of information that were missing here and there and connecting them correctly on the jigsaw puzzle to complete part of the picture gives an incredible sense of satisfaction. This book is a way to present the hard work I went through to the reader on a silver platter, Ezzat Hegazi states.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus Christs ascension into heaven is never stressed on in church sermons, or why there is not enough information about it in the canonical literature? Hegazi asks. In The Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven: The Hidden Context (published by Partridge Singapore), he takes readers on a short journey to see how Jesus ascension was the exact antithesis of the belief about his rising from the dead and to hear about the story of Jesus Christ as it was most likely told by the earliest Judeo-Christians. This book also brings to light what Hegazi believes is the real reason behind the persecution of the early Judeo-Christians, culminating with the murder of James the Righteous: it has everything to do with the early Judeo-Christians steadfast belief in Jesuss ascension into heaven, against what was being publicized about Jesus.

The arguments of this book are unique in the sense that they attach the belief of the earlier Judeo-Christians to Jesuss ascension rather than to the prevailing passion narratives of the canonical Gospels. This is then used to show how the canonical Gospels could have been created out of two opposing traditions, and how the end of Jesus story could have been told by the earliest of those two traditions, Hegazi points out. He adds, The evidence, the arguments, and the conclusions of this work is quite different from those of the other books in the market.

When asked what he wants readers to take away from the book, Hegazi answers For them to read and learn something about Jesus that they do not usually hear about in sermons; the original significance of Jesus ascension into heaven and the drastic impact of this missing piece of information on our understanding of Christianity. With this book I aim only to open a window which has been kept shut and covered for all these centuries in the hope that the view from that window will now be seen clearly. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.amazon.com/Ascension-Jesus-Christ-into-Heaven/dp/1543757111/ref

This book will be featured at the 2022 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington D.C., on June 24 - June 27, 2022.

The Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven: The Hidden ContextBy Ezzat HegaziHardcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 112 pages | ISBN 9781543757125Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5in | 112 pages | ISBN 9781543757118E-Book | 112 pages | ISBN 9781543757132Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the AuthorEzzat Hegazi has a doctorate degree in science from the University of Windsor, Canada, and works as a research science consultant. In the last two decades, he has been self-exploring comparative religions to search for the real story of Jesus away from all preconception influences. He published his first book four years ago about the different beliefs among the three Abrahamic religions concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Partridge Publishing, an imprint of Author Solutions, LLC, aims to help writers in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Southern Africa become published authors. Partridge gives authors in these region direct access to a comprehensive range of expert publishing services that meet industry standards but are more accessible to the market. For more information or to publish a book, visit partridgepublishing.com or call +65 3165 7531 (Singapore), +60 3 3099 4412 (Malaysia), 800014971 (Africa) or 000 800 919 0634 (India).

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New book shows that Jesus' ascension into heaven was exactly the antithesis of the belief about his crucifixion and resurrection - PR Web