with Matthew Albright | Assistant metro editorGood morning! Let's get you up to speed on some of our most interesting reads. Where COVID lurksLouisiana is far better off than it was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic: Vaccines are now widely available, and hospitals are no longer overwhelmed. But people are still dying, and the toll has not eased as much in some parts of the state has it has in others. This story (and its accompanying graphic) explores which parishes have seen COVID deaths decline the most and the least, and what might be causing those trends. And this story zooms in on Calcasieu Parish, where the death rate is still more than half what it was last year. Watching black holes from Livingston ParishFor those who "watch" black holes, there's few better places to do it than Livingston Parish. A huge, enormously complicated mechanism at the LIGO research center there is built to sense "gravity waves," the ripples in space-time that black holes occasionally emit. Recently, LIGO detected what researchers believe is a black hole consuming a super-dense, dying star. This fascinating story explains what they found, and the role Louisiana-based researchers played in finding it. The future of Capitol High School?Once a prominent, historic African-American school, Capitol High has been in turmoil for years. After the state took it over from the school board, it has bounced between principals and management organizations. Now a prominent charter school organization, which local leaders have been courting for years, is getting closer to taking over the school. This story explains what could be changing, and what still needs to happen before the changing of the guard can take place. These stories go beyond the press releases and explain what's happening behind the scenes in the Baton Rouge region. If you think this work is valuable, you can directly support it by becoming a subscriber. Here's our latest offers. Thanks for reading, and have a great day! | 