I’ll be traveling by plane within the U.S., leaving June 2 of this year. Will I be able to still use my Louisiana driver’s license as ID? I know there was an extension, but I don’t know for how long.

The deferment, announced in December, took effect in mid-January and is supposed to run at least six months, meaning the earliest it would end is mid-July.

The deferment is meant to give states more time to comply with the federal REAL ID Act, which lists standards for government-issued identification.

“Under this deferment, Federal agencies may continue to accept for official purposes — including boarding aircraft — driver’s licenses and identity cards issued by all states,” reads a U.S. Department of Homeland Security letter sent to state officials at the end of last year.

“DHS will undertake, in consultation with States and stakeholders, to develop a schedule for the phased enforcement of the Act’s statutory prohibitions to ensure that states are treated in a fair and proportional manner. DHS expects to publish a schedule by early fall 2013 and begin implementation at a suitable date thereafter.”

The Louisiana Legislature in 2008 passed a law that prohibits the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections from implementing the act’s provisions. Still, state officials have said that Louisiana will be in compliance with all but one of the federal law’s 39 requirements by October.

Online: www.expresslane.org; www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/real-id-act-text.pdf.

Tupperware available in Lake Area

Do they still make Tupperware? Does anyone in the Lake Area sell it?

Tupperware is still made, and it’s still popular.

To find a sales consultant, visit www.tupperware.com or call 800-366-3800 between 7:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. weekdays, except on the month’s second and last Friday, when the hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

The site lists consultants in Lake Charles, Sulphur, Jennings, Lake Arthur, DeRidder and Oberlin.

Tupperware Brands Corp. reported earning $58.2 million in net income in the first quarter of this year, with $662.9 million in sales. The company says it has close to 3 million independent sellers worldwide.

According to a Wall Street Journal story published April 24, the products made by Tupperware, based in Orlando, Fla., are most popular in the archipelago nation of Indonesia, which last year surpassed Germany as the top Tupperware country.

“Tupperware’s sales force has exploded to an army of more than 170,000 people here from only 2,000 a decade ago, riding a consumer boom in Southeast Asia’s largest economy and selling record numbers of water bottles, plastic lunchboxes and neon-green plastic dining sets,” the story reads.

“The company’s business model — using a sales force mostly of homemakers to store and deliver products — means Tupperware hasn’t been frustrated by the poor roads and scarce shelf space that plagues many retailers here.”

Online: http://ir.tupperware brands.com.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

(Special to the American Press)