Bill aims to establish Louisiana's official Christmas children's book
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A bill aims to make a cherished Cajun holiday story Louisiana's official Christmas children's book.
House Bill 273, introduced by Rep. Annie Spell (R-Lafayette), seeks to make 'Cajun Night Before Christmas' the official state children's Christmas book during the 2025 regular legislative session.
The book, written by J.B. Kling Jr. and illustrated by James Rice, offers a Cajun take on the classic ''Twas the Night Before Christmas.' The book, first released in 1973, swaps snow and sleigh bells for moss-covered trees, skiffs powered by alligators and a Cajun Santa bringing joy to Louisiana.
Spell said the holiday story is still a bestseller with more than one million copies sold. She said the story has made an impact across the U.S. and internationally as it's read in classrooms and sent as a gift to out-of-town clients by businesses.
'Many adults remember it as one of their first tales of the Cajun dialect, and their children have read it, and their grandchildren have read it. This is true for my family,' Spell said.
The House Committee on Judiciary approved the bill with an amendment to clarify that the book would be the state's children's Christmas book.
NORAD's Santa tracker was a Cold War morale boost. Now it attracts millions of kids
Proposed Louisiana bill would require citizenship check for public benefit applicants
US, Ukraine sign mineral deal
Bill aims to establish Louisiana's official Christmas children's book
House votes to overturn California clean truck rules – defying internal watchdog
Toby Keith's dreams to come true at Kentucky Derby
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pentagon fueled UFO rumors for decades, WSJ reports
The US Pentagon and some military officers misled their own personnel and the public about the existence of UFOs for decades, The Wall Street Journal reported. Waves of hype over extraterrestrial phenomena — and alleged government coverups — have rippled through recent history, especially during the Cold War. Now, the Journal reports how US military officials used UFOs as cover for real secret military programs — and even as a 'bizarre hazing ritual.' These efforts were uncovered by a Pentagon office established in 2022 to investigate reports of UFOs, but weren't publicly disclosed. The sprawling disinformation campaigns have 'unleashed within the halls of the Pentagon itself a dangerous force,' giving rise to a 'paranoid mythology' that some senior officials believe to be true.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
This Week in Louisiana Poltics: Approaching the end of the legislative session
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — We're approaching the end of the regular legislative session this week. We've seen many bills debated in the legislature. So far, Governor Jeff Landry has signed into law six bills from his tort and insurance reform effort, which he says will lower insurance rates. We've seen election security bills make it out of committee—they are headed to the House for final passage. And then there's the state's budget, which is House Bill 1 by Representative Jack McFarland. That bill easily passed out of the Committee on Appropriations and then sailed through the full House with bipartisan support. Louisiana House committee rejects bill on homeless camps It's awaiting final passage in the Senate, then will head back to the House, where it'll likely reflect priorities from both the legislature and the governor, including education, fully funding services, and teacher pay raises. This and more on Your Local Election Headquarters. Several injured after Tennessee plane crash Southern University Law Center offering help to clear criminal records with event in Gonzales The best midsize SUVs for 2025 Invasive tick that can be deadly for cattle causing concerns among researchers Tropical Storm Barbara strengthens off Mexico, expected to become hurricane Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Post
16 hours ago
- New York Post
The Pentagon secretly planted Area 51 UFO conspiracy theory to hide secret weapons program
Some of the most prevalent UFO conspiracy theories — including about aliens being housed a Area 51 in Nevada — were fueled by the Pentagon in an attempt to provide cover for secret weapons programs, according to a bombshell report. A review by the Department of Defense found that in the 1980s, an Air Force colonel visited a Nevada bar near Area 51 and gave the owner fabricated photos of flying saucers near the secret government base, according to a review of the 2024 report by the Wall Street Journal. The incident renewed local fervor over UFOs, with the now-retired colonel confessing to Pentagon investigators that he was on an official mission to spread disinformation and hide the true purpose of the site, where the government was testing the first-ever stealth warplane, the F-117 Nighthawk. 5 The Pentagon found that at the origin of some of the UFO conspiracy theories came from the Department of Defense itself, the details of which were kept out of last year's transparency report. AP 5 Several of the theories stemmed from the agency's need to keep its newly developed aircraft and weapons programs concealed near Area 51. AP The military reasoned that the best way to keep its new technology hidden from the Soviet Union's prying eye during the Cold War was to bury it amid the trove of conspiracy theories surrounding Area 51, investigators found. The incident is just one of several where government agencies allegedly played up America's UFO mythology for the purpose of protecting its military assets, according to the 2024 report. Other military attempts to obscure secret projects with conspiracy theories were not made public. Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), was the man tasked by the government to dissect countless UFO theories in 2022. As his office probed decades of documents, memos and messages across the Defense Department, he found several conspiracy theories that circled back to the Pentagon itself. 5 The report raises questions about new reports of UFOs released by the Pentagon, including this 2020 footage from Navy pilots. DoD/AFP via Getty Images 5 The Area 51 conspiracy theory was planted to hide the development of the F-117, the world's first stealth fighter jet. REUTERS In one instance, Kirkpatrick's team found that the Air Force hazed members with briefings introducing them to a fake 'Yankee Blue' unit that purported investigated alien aircraft. The briefings came with a direct order never to mention the details to anyone, with many of the targets of the prank never learning it was all a ruse, according to interviews with Kirkpatrick's team. The bizarre practice was still taking place during the investigation, with the Pentagon eventually sending an order across the DOD in 2023 to finally put an end to it. It remains unclear why officials presented subordinates with the fake briefings, with rumors speculating it could have been used as a loyalty test or to spread misinformation. Kirkpatrick also found that the government deliberately left people in the dark when they witnessed secret military projects, according to the WSJ. Robert Salas, a former Air Force captain, was one of those people. Salas claims he witnessed a UFO descend over a nuclear missile testing site in Montana in 1967. During the event, a flashing light was able to disable all 10 nuclear missiles at the bunker, along with all electrical systems. 5 One the rumors stemmed from years of officers hazing subordinates about the existence of a supposed UFO program, a well-known practice the Pentagon put a stop to in 2023. AP He was ordered to never discuss what he saw, with Salas maintaining that he witnessed alien visitors chiming in on the Cold War. Kirkpatrick's team, however, discovered that Salas was never told that what he actually saw was a test of a fledging electromagnetic pulse test to see if American silos could withstand the radiation of atomic weapons and retaliate if the Soviet Union ever attacked first. With the test failing, officials decided that it was best no one knew the secret of the vulnerability, so Salas and the other witnesses were intentionally left in the dark to make their own conclusions. The DOD has acknowledged that not everything has been made public about the AARO's discoveries, but the military claims it will be more transparent in its follow up report scheduled for later this year. 'The department is committed to releasing a second volume of its Historical Record Report, to include AARO's findings on reports of potential pranks and inauthentic materials,' the DOD said in a statement.
