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Cotton Street Farms
A farm? Yes. A farm. An indoor farm. Cotton Street Farms – a top-five finalist last year and an entry in this year’s Louisiana Start Up Prize competition – is the brainchild of Michael Billings, a 35-year-old graduate of Caddo Magnet High School. Billings has bought a vacant building at 406 Cotton St.

The Missing Link
Cade Horn and Brady Crenshaw, friends since middle school, became business partners in 2013 when they established The Missing Link food truck. Last year they decided to embark on a new journey by opening up a brickand-mortar restaurant in downtown Shreveport.

High Style for On Time Fashion
Sam Fashho has been in the clothing and fashion industry – the rag trade – for most of his life. Clothes have given him a life, helped him raise his family, enabled him to own multiple businesses. Prior to the oil collapse of the 1980s that turned everything around, he owned five clothing stores on Texas Street.

Uneeda Biscuit
Prior to becoming the Uneeda Biscuit building, 711 Milam was known as the Vordenbauman-Eastham Company building, and later as the Marcus building for the furniture store that did business there.

GIVE IT SOME THOUGHT
Would you rather sit and think, or give yourself a mild electric shock? As ridiculous of a question as that may seem, research from the University of Virginia suggests some people are so uncomfortable being alone with their thoughts that they would choose to give themselves mild electric shocks, rather than just sit and think.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ON LOCAL ECONOMY
Many economic indicators can be reviewed to determine the strength of a local economy. And of course, the numbers can be interpreted in different ways. The unemployment rate is the best-known, the easiest to understand, and generally the most-reported..

DINING WITH DIABETES
In Louisiana, 13.9 percent of adults have diabetes and 37.5 percent have prediabetes. In fact, the rate is so high that all Louisianans with prediabetes could fill the Superdome 16.6 times and all Louisianans with diabetes could fill the Tiger Stadium 4.4 times! What’s even more alarming is the fact that this percentage is on the rise.

BARIATRIC SURGERY
An overwhelming 67 percent of American adults are overweight, defined by a BMI greater than 25 percent. Sixty-seven percent! Even more alarming, over 6 percent of American adults are morbidly obese, which translates to roughly 20 million people. This is a 400 percent increase since 1986.

SUMMER SAFETY
It’s that time of year again! While the sun’s warmth does feel wonderful and gives us that glorious summer suntan, it does more harm than good! The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays cause damage to our DNA, the genetic material of your cells, which can cause the skin cells to grow out of control, and, thus, lead to cancer.

Allergy and Asthma Control
allergies, many are misdiagnosed due to testing that isn’t called for. That can lead to unnecessarily cutting foods out of a child’s diet, which can negatively affect their nutritional health and lead to unnecessary food anxiety.

The benefits of child’s play extend beyond exercise
“children’s early experiences and the settings they inhabit play a powerful role in shaping the adults they will become.” The meta-study also finds that unstructured play provides children the opportunity to practice key social, cognitive and physical skills.

TALK OF THE TOWN
THROUGH JULY 31: “A DIP OF MY FINGER, THE ESSENCE OF MY SOUL.”.

Bringing a Story to Life
You know the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” For Camille Schmoutz, it took a village to make her passion project come to life. Now, this licensed cosmetologist is also the writer, producer and director of a completed short film titled “Gloria.

Wired & Sassy
Tracy McComic of Wired & Sassy Artisan Jewelry introduced her latest designs featuring a Shreveport icon, the Spring Street Museum, during downtown’s monthly Artwalk event in June. Tracy exhibited her artwork on location at the museum, where firsttime visitors and long-time supporters enjoyed viewing and purchasing her latest pieces.

ON THE SCENE
The 8th annual LSU Health Sciences Foundation event, An Evening of Healers,.