{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/local-spotlight-cassidy-highlights-local-business-owners-journey-from-uncertainty-to-entrepreneurship/", "LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: Cassidy Highlights Local Business Owner\u2019s Journey from Uncertainty to Entrepreneurship", "2026-04-30", "2026", "2026-04", "Republican", "Senate", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", "cassidy", "https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), for his monthly Local Spotlight, recognized Amanda Ratcliff for her resilience and entrepreneurial spirit in turning life\u2019s challenges into opportunity. Her business, Buttery Spell, features uniquely crafted products that reflect her creativity and the unmistakable flavors and culture of New Orleans. Each month, Cassidy highlights a local story that truly reflects Louisiana values of humility, respect, and resiliency.\n\nRead his full April 2026 Local Spotlight below:\n\nFor this month\u2019s Local Spotlight, let\u2019s recognize somebody I met recently.\n\nI met her in Jefferson Parish, and her name is Amanda Ratcliff.\n\nNow, if you ever meet somebody and you instantly know that they are in the right place at the right time, that\u2019s Amanda.\n\nAnd her food business, Buttery Spell, is unique.\n\nNow, fast forward to 2020.\n\nShe, like a lot of people, found herself at home because COVID had shut the government down, shut the businesses down, shut our society down.\n\nSo she went to business school.\n\nShe figured out how to sell her product, and now she\u2019s a business owner.\n\nI met Amanda at a JEDCO Food Incubator celebration event a couple weeks ago.\n\nNow my weakness is sweets, and so I\u2019m tasting her peanut butter.\n\nI\u2019m thinking this peanut butter tastes exactly like the peanut butter in a Girl Scout cookie.\n\nSo I taste it.\n\nI come back, I say, \u2018Wow, Amanda.\n\nHow did you figure this out?\u2019\n\nSo to anyone listening, if you\u2019ve got an idea, a dream, a spark, follow it.\n\nYou don\u2019t quite know where it might take you.\n\nBut Buttery Spell is proof that you don\u2019t need a perfect plan.\n\nYou just need the courage to take that first step.\n\nAmanda, you may not be building cars like you once thought you would.\n\nBut I suspect your younger self would be extremely proud of who Amanda is today and of Amanda\u2019s business.\n\nAnd I\u2019m proud.\n\nLouisiana\u2019s proud.\n\nKeep up the great work.\n\nBackground\n\nIn March, Cassidy highlighted David Hoke of Lafayette, Louisiana. Hoke has dedicated himself to sharing the word of God by creating and distributing personalized leather-bound Bibles for elected leaders and their families across the country and around the world.\n\n###", 1, "2026-05-01T06:06:26Z", "2026-05-01T06:08:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/local-spotlight-cassidy-highlights-local-business-owners-journey-from-uncertainty-to-entrepreneurship/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8579990826547146, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}