Central City News

 Scott Sherwin had his first conflict with Life Tabernacle Church in 2006 shortly after the church opened across from his house on Hooper Road. Sherwin started harassing 78-year-old Dorothy Spell, the wife of then-pastor Rev. B. A. Spell. Mrs. Spell was in poor health and recovering from major surgery.  According to Mrs. Spell who is […]

Friday the 13th of March 2020 was the day Gov. John Bel Edwards declared an emergency and began to rule by decree. One of his first acts was ordering churches to close.  At the same time, he kept the big box stores, liquor stores, and abortion clinics open. Gov. Edwards ran into immediate opposition from Pastor Tony Spell of […]

BATON ROUGE – Sen. Bodi White (R-Central) has been rising through the ranks of the Louisiana Legislature, first as a member of the House, then the Senate, and now as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has considerable control over the state budget and the capital outlay program. Now in the last two years […]

CENTRAL — For three months in 2020, a deeply disturbed individual named Trey Bennett stationed himself in front of Life Tabernacle and aggressively cursed the ladies of the church and used vulgar hand gestures. Police in Central were more concerned with protecting his First Amendment right to curse the congregation than to protect the congregation’s […]

FAIRNESS IN SPORTS  SB44 by Sen. Mizell FOR Fairness in Womens Sports Act – Prohibits males from competing in female sports.   RIGHT TO LIFE  SB342 by Sen. Jackson FOR  Protect Babies if Supreme Court Returns Authority to States to Regulate or Prohibit Abortion   SB104 by Sen. Mizell FOR  Telephone access in outpatient abortion […]

In the 2022 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature, thanks to the leading efforts of Senator Bodi White, the legislature approved over $75 million worth of projects for Central and with other parish projects in our area, the total goes up to over $111 million.  The projects are as follows: Roadwork. Hooper Road extension Planning […]

 In a letter to his supporters, Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church reacted to last week’s Louisiana Supreme Court decision, which found unconstitutional Gov. John Bel Edwards’ mandates against churches and threw out the criminal case against the pastor.  Here is what he said: “I am relieved and happy to let you know the […]

In an historic 5-2 decision, the Louisiana Supreme Court last week ruled that Gov. John Bel Edwards’ edicts closing churches and the subsequent arrest of Rev. Tony Spell for holding church services were illegal and unconstitutional.  This means the pastor’s arrest, imprisonment, house arrest, being fitted with an ankle bracelet, order not to hold church, […]

The Louisiana Supreme Court was the scene last week of a major victory for religious liberty in a case out of Central.  In State of Louisiana v. Pastor Tony Spell, the court struck down Gov. John Bel Edwards’ emergency orders closing churches and ended criminal charges against Rev. Spell, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church […]

 After more than two years of arrests, handcuffs, fingerprinting, imprisonment, home incarceration, ankle bracelets, surveillance, hearings, meetings with judges, and travel restrictions for a crime that doesn’t exist, Rev. Tony Spell is a free man. Last Friday, the Louisiana Supreme Court threw out the criminal charges against the Central pastor as illegal and unconstitutional.  His […]