The Advocate 06-29-2025 by The Advocate

COMMUNITY CONCERNS

Property buyout plan in theworks forModeste, butmanyresidents don’twanttoleave

BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT

Staff writer

Roughly 10 minutes northofDonaldsonville lies the community of Modeste acollection of ancient plantations and unassuming roads branching offLa. 405

One of those roads is WilmaLane, a street enclosed by thick vegetation. Most cars pass through the community without asecond glance, or skipLa. 405 entirelyfor the more direct La.1

Farther down Wilma Lane —around abend —standsa two-storyhouse,its

yard framedbycane ﬁelds and the St. Philip Baptist Church cemetery.Under ahaintblueporch ceiling,seven rockingchairs stand as sentinels before blueframed double doors.

The house is chock-full of statues, lamps, paintings, record players, pottery,dinnerware, dolls, clocksand framed black-and-white photographs

It is the productofBelinda andElvin Poche’sthreedecades of antique huntingatestate sales across theregion, and it has been thecouple’s “forever home” for 22 years.

They aresome of the newerresidents in thecommunity, though.Manyfamilies in thehistoric, majority Black communitytrace their propertylineage back to theCivil War.

All of that may soon change. CF Industries and Clean Hydrogen Works hope to build large, multibillion-dollar ammonia plants on nearby land tracts; closer to Donaldsonville,Hyundaiplans anearly $6 billion steel mill touted by President Donald Trumpand Gov.Jeff Landry

ä See CONCERNS, page 8A

Lawyer suingBig Oilisnotreehugger

John Carmouchejust wona$745M verdict againstChevron

BY ALEX LUBBEN |Staffwriter

Louisiana residents awaitrelief on home insurance

BY SAM KARLIN |Staff writer

While Louisiana lawmakers debated auto insurance this spring during their legislative session, sky-high home insurancepremiumscontinuedtocrush residents along the state’scoast.

Homeowners insurance rates keep rising, forcing someresidents out of their homes, while the state waits for the free market to look morefavorably on Louisiana. So far,the approach has not led to lowerrates formosthomeownersinthe state. Many sawtheir insurancepremiums climbtounaffordable levels after aseries of hurricanes in 2020 and 2021 upended the market.

Homeinsurance rates rose by 16% in 2022 and by 14% in 2023, on average, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Adozen insurers went belly up.

Last year,homeowners insurance rates rose by 6.6%, on average. And so farthis year,rates are up 1.2%.Ifthe trend holds through the end of the year,itwould be the smallest jump since 2018, according to state data.

Not everyone is seeing relief.In May,aninsurance group for teachersraised ratesbyanaverage of 14%, according to rate ﬁling data. Amonth earlier,two insurers from anothergroup raised rates by 12.5%. Ahandful of insurers cut rates by varying levels, from 2% to 11%.

State lawmakers made afew attempts to scale back those increases by passing legislation this spring that strengthens incentives and grants for homeowners who put fortiﬁed roofs on their homes. The changestothe lawcome as

yearsintocrisis, little progress evidentin reducing rates ä See INSURANCE, page 7A

“I have aDemocrat’s heart but I’m aRepublican, because Iunderstand business,”Carmouche

ä See CARMOUCHE, page 9A

John Carmouche isn’twho you think he is. The Baton Rouge lawyer,who just won a$745 million verdict against Chevron for damaging wetlands,istakingonBig Oil in Louisiana and winning. But he’sno tree hugger.Nor,hesays, aheadline-chasing trial lawyer Through three governors’ administrations, he and his ﬁrm have navigated political headwinds to keep theirlawsuits against oil companies alive. Carmouche has helped quash bills and candidacies that would have threatened his efforts. While his work seeks to makeoil companies pay billions for damage they’ve done to theenvironment,heinsistshewants the oil industry to thrive in Louisiana, as long as it doesn’tleavebehind amess.

John Carmouche, right, speakson recent litigation alongside hisfather and colleague, DonaldCarmouche, on May22at their firm,Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, in Baton Rouge.

HILARy SCHEINUK

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Belinda Poche jokes about howher husband,Elvin, sometimes forgets what thingstheyown and is constantly surprised by antiques in their Modestehome on June 10. TheAscension Parish Council unanimously passed aresolution last month allowing theparishgovernment to look into creating aproperty buyout plan for Modeste residents. Many don’t want to leave

STAFF FILE PHOTO By

Russia kills 2inOdesa; Ukraine hits helicopters

KYIV,Ukraine Russian drones struck the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, killing twopeopleand injuring at least 17, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday.Meanwhile, three attack helicopters and an anti-aircraftmissile system were destroyed in the Russianoccupied Crimean Peninsula Ukraine’sSecurity Service agency deployed special drones to attack the Kirovske military airﬁeld, aUkrainian security ofﬁcial said on Saturday

“Available data indicate the destruction of multipurpose and attack helicopters Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28, as well as the selfpropelled anti-aircraft missile andgun complex Pantsir-S1,” according to the ofﬁcial,who spoke about the operation on condition of anonymity In Odesa, adrone slammed into aresidential tower block in the city,causing damagetothree floors and trapping residents, emergency services said. The two killed in the attack were a married couple, according to regional Gov.Oleh Kiper,who added that three childrenwere among the injured.

There was no immediate commentfrom Moscow.According to Russia’sDefense Ministry,over 40 Ukrainian drones wereshot down overnight and on Saturday morning over western Russia and Kremlin-occupied Crimea.

100K defy ban,march in Budapest Pride event

BUDAPEST,Hungary— About 100,000 people deﬁed agovernment ban and police orders Saturday to march in what organizerscalled thelargest LGBTQ+ Pride event in Hungary’shistoryinanopenrebuke of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’sgovernment.

Marchers gambled with potential police intervention and heavy ﬁnes to participate in the 30th annual Budapest Pride, which was outlawed in March by Orbán’sright-wing populist governing party

The march began at Budapest City Hall and wound through the city center before crossing the capital’sErzsébet Bridge over the Danube River.Police diverted the crowd from its planned route to keep it separatedfrom asmall group of far-rightcounterprotesters, whilemembersof Hungary’sLGBTQ+ community and massesofsupporters danced to music and waved rainbow and anti-government ﬂags.

The massive size of the march, which the government for months had insisted would no longer be permitted in Hungary, wasseen as amajor blow to Orbán’sprestige,asthe European Union’slongest-serving leader’s popularity slumps in thepolls where anew oppositionforce has taken the lead.

U.K. seizes cocaine worth over $130M

LONDON British authorities seized 2.4 metric tons of cocaineina ship arriving in Englandfrom Panama, authorities said Saturday,calling it one of the U.K.’sbiggest drug bustsin years. The drugs, valued at$132 million, were found under containersonavessel at London Gateway port, east of theBritish capital. The shipment was discovered after what ofﬁcials said was an intelligence-led operation.

Britain’sinteriorministry, the Home Ofﬁce, said it was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure on record.

U.K. Border Force Maritime director Charlie Eastaugh said the seizurewas “justone example of how dedicated Border Force maritime officers remain one step ahead of the criminal gangs who threaten our security.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

Israelistrikes kill at least72inGaza

Ceasefire prospects move closer

BY WAFAA SHURAFAand SAM MEDNICK Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip Israeli strikes killed at least 72 people across Gaza overnight and into Saturday,healthworkers said, as ceaseﬁre prospects were saidto be improving after 21 months of war

Three children and their parents were killed in an Israeli strike on atent camp in Muwasi near the southern city of Khan Younis. They were struck while sleeping, relatives said.

“What did these children do to them?

What is their fault?” said thechildren’s grandmother, SuadAbu Teima, as others knelt to kiss their bloodied faces and wept. Someplaced red ﬂowers into the body bags

Also among the dead were 12 people nearthe Palestine Stadium in GazaCity which was sheltering displaced people, andeight more in apartments, according to staff at Shifa Hospital. Morethan20 bodies weretakentoNasser Hospital, accordingtohealth ofﬁcials.

Amidday strike killed 11 peopleon astreet in eastern Gaza City,and their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital.

Another strike on agatheringineastern Gaza City killed eight including ﬁve children, the hospital said. Astrike on a gathering at theentrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed two, accordingtoAl-Awda Hospital.

President Donald Trump saysthere could be aceaseﬁre agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters on Friday,hesaid, “We’reworking on Gaza and tryingtoget it taken care of.”

An ofﬁcial with knowledge of thesituation told The Associated Press that Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will arriveinWashingtonnext week for talks on aGaza ceaseﬁre, Iran and other subjects. Theofficial spoke on condition of anonymity because they werenot authorized to speak to the media.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas havebeen on again, off again since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its militarycampaign in Gaza andfurthering the territory’sdire humanitarian crisis. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than halfbelieved to still be alive. They were

among251 hostagestaken whenHamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,sparking thewar

“Whatmoreisleft to do in Gaza that has not already been done?Who else is left to eliminate?” Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, said Saturday evening as weekly ralliesbyfamilies and supporters resumed following Israel’s ceaseﬁre with Iran.

Thewar haskilled over 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry whichdoes notdistinguish between civilians and combatants. It saysmorethan half of the dead were women and children. It said thedead include 6,089 killed since theend of the latest ceaseﬁre.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas,accusingthe militants of hiding amongcivilians because they operate in populated areas.

There is hope amongfamiliesofhostages that Trump’sinvolvement in securingthe recent ceaseﬁre between Israel andIran might lead to more pressure for adeal in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding awave of public support for the Iranwar andits achievements, andhecould feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas hasrepeatedly saiditisprepared tofree all the hostages in exchange for an end to thewar in Gaza. Netanyahu sayshewill end thewar only once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Meanwhile, hungry Palestinians are enduring acatastrophic situation in Gaza. Afterblocking all food for 21/2 months, Israel hasallowed only atrickle of supplies into theterritory since mid-May

More than500 Palestinians have been killed andhundreds more wounded while seekingfood since the newlyformed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid in the territory about a month ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry Palestinian witnesses say Israelitroops have openedfire at crowds on roads heading towardthe sites. The Israeli military says it has only ﬁred warning shots and that it was investigating incidentsin which civilians had been harmedwhile approaching the sites.

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the sites, moving through Israeli military zones.

Dozens of anti-government protesters detained in Serbia

BYJOVANA GEC Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia Dozensofanti-government protesters were detained during clashes with riotpolice in Serbia’s capital on Saturday during amassive rallyagainst populist President AleksandarVucic demanding an early parliamentary election. Theprotest by tens of thousandsof demonstrators washeld after nearly eight months of persistentdissent ledbySerbia’s university students that have rattled Vucic’sﬁrm grip on power in the Balkan country

The huge crowdchanted: “Wewant elections!” as they ﬁlled the capital’scentral Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.

Police handcuffed detained protesters, andanofﬁcer was seen injured on the groundduring streetbattles in central Belgrade that lasted several hours.Six police ofﬁcersand an unknown number of citizens were injured, police said.

“Serbia always winsinthe end,”President Vucic said in an Instagram post Vucic, aformer extreme nationalist,has become increasinglyauthoritarian since comingtopower more than adecade ago.

Though he formally says he wants Serbia to jointhe European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russiaand China.

As the protestformally ended, the demonstrators threweggs, plastic bottles andother objects at riotpolicewho were preventing the crowd from approaching adowntown park. At the park, hundreds of Vucic’s loyalistshavebeen camping for months to form ahuman shield in front of his headquarters in thecapital.

Serbia’s Interior MinisterIvicaDacic said participantsinthe protest attacked the police. He said police used theirpowerstorestorepublic order and “arrest all those who attacked the police.”

Police later said dozens of “hooligans” weredetained but did not provide the exact number

Some demonstratorsworescarfs and masks over their faces as they clashed withlaw enforcement, using garbage cans as protection againstbaton wielding police. Police usedpepperspraybefore pushing protesters withtheir shields.

Tensions were high before andduring the gathering as riot policedeployed around government buildings

Crowds mourn slaincommanders, nuclearscientists

Iranian figures killed in Israeli strikes

BY DAVID RISING Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the streets of downtown Tehran on Saturday for the funeral of the head of the Revolutionary Guard andothertop commanders and nuclear scientists killed during a12-day war with Israel. The caskets of Guard chief Gen. Hossein Salami, theheadofthe Guard’s ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh and others were driven on trucks along the capital’s Azadi Street as people in the crowds chanted: “Death to America” and“Death to Israel.” Salami and Hajizadeh were both killedonthe ﬁrst day of the war,June 13, as Israel launched awar it said was meant to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, specifically targeting military commanders, scientistsand nuclear facilities.

State media reported more than 1million people turned out for the funeral procession,whichwas impossible to independently confirm,but thedense crowdpacked the main Tehranthoroughfare alongthe nearly 3mile route.

Therewas no immediate sign of Iran’sSupreme Leader,Ayatollah AliKhamenei,inthe state broadcast of the funeral. Khamenei, whohas not made apublic appearance sincebeforethe outbreak of the war,has in past funerals held prayers forfallencommanders over their caskets before theopenceremo-

nies, later aired on state television.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wason hand,and state television reported that Gen. Esmail Qaani, whoheads theforeign wing of the Revolutionary Guard, theQuds Force, andGen.Ali Shamkhani were also among the mourners.

Shamkhani, an adviser to Khamenei whowas woundedinthe ﬁrst round of Israel’sattack and hospitalized, was shownina civilian suit leaning on acane in an image distributed on state television’sTelegram channel.

LateronSaturdaynight, state TV showed Shamkhani saying he and other generals knew they would be targets before Israel initiated the warearlier this month. Themorning of the strike on his residence, he said he woke up fordawn prayer when suddenly everything around himhad become ruins. He initially thought thatanearthquake had taken place, and it took search and rescue teamsat least three hourstoﬁnd him in the rubble.

Shamkhanisaidmost of his injuries wereinternal, including achest fracture.

Iran’sRevolutionary Guard was created after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since it was established, it has evolved from aparamilitary,domestic security force to atransnational force that hascome to the aidofTehran’s allies in the Middle East, from Syria andLebanon to Iraq It operates in parallel to the country’sexisting armed forces and controls Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, which it has used to attack Israel twice during the Israel-Hamas war in theGaza Strip.

Peoplemourn

Saturday in Tehran, Iran, over the flag-draped

coffins of Iranian nuclear scientists whowere killed in Israelistrikes.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByVAHID SALEMI

PHOTO

Palestinians dig through sandSaturday looking for belongingsafter an Israeli strike hit adisplacement tentcampinGaza City

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Aparticipant in aPride march cheers SaturdayinBudapest, Hungary.

Senators launch weekend of work on tax, spending bill

BY LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING and JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Senate was taking a prolonged procedural vote that dragged into a third hour during a rare Saturday evening session as Republicans struggled to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline.

The proceedings came to a standstill and Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol to break a potential tie. Tense scenes were playing out in the chamber as senators huddled in negotiations, and then broke off for private meetings. Several Republican senators were registering their opposition to proceeding to open debate on the bill.

Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks.

“It’s time to get this legislation across the ﬁnish line,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., as the session was underway

Ahead of the expected roll call, the White House released a statement of administrative policy saying it “strongly supports passage” of the bill that “implements critical aspects” of the president’s agenda. Trump him-

FLORIDA

Groups protest building of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

BY MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press

A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center

Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airﬁeld Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species.

Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks entering the site while he protested for hours Environmental degradation was a big reason why he came out Saturday But as a South Florida city commissioner, he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition.

“People I know are in tears, and I wasn’t far from it,” he said. Florida officials have forged ahead over the past week in constructing the compound dubbed as “Alligator Alcatraz” within the Everglades’ humid swamplands. The government fasttracked the project under emergency powers from an executive order issued by Gov Ron DeSantis that addresses what he views as a crisis of illegal immigration. That order lets the state sidestep certain purchasing laws and is why construction has continued despite objections from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and local activists.

The Senate worked during a rare Saturday evening session as Republicans sought to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline.

self was at his golf course in Virginia on Saturday with GOP senators posting about it on social media.

But by nightfall, Trump was lashing out against holdouts, threatening to campaign against one Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, who had announced he could not support the bill because of grave Medicaid cuts that he worried would leave many without health care in his state.

The 940-page bill was released shortly before midnight Friday, and senators are expected to grind through the days ahead with all-night debate and amendments. If the Senate is able to pass the bill, it would need to return to the House for a ﬁnal round of votes before it could reach the White House. With the narrow Republi-

can majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board in the face of essentially uniﬁed opposition from Democrats.

Pressure was mounting from all sides billionaire Elon Musk criticized the package as “utterly insane and destructive.”

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” the former top Trump aide said in a post Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said Republicans dropped the bill “in the dead of night” and are rushing to ﬁnish the bill before the public fully knows what’s in it. He is expected to call for a full reading of the text in the Senate, which would

take hours.

The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump’s party, which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic policy plan. Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up, even as he sometimes gives mixed signals, allowing for more time.

At recent events at the White House, including Friday, Trump has admonished the “grandstanders” among GOP holdouts to fall in line.

The legislation is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities. At its core, it would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Trump’s ﬁrst term that would otherwise expire by year’s end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks,

including no taxes on tips, and commit $350 billion to national security, including for Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

But the cutbacks to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments, which a top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, said would be a “death sentence” for America’s wind and solar industries, are also causing dissent within GOP ranks.

The Republicans are relying on the reductions to offset the lost tax revenues but some lawmakers say the cuts go too far particularly for people receiving health care through Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives, worried about the nation’s debt, are pushing for steeper cuts.

Tillis who said he spoke with Trump late Friday explaining his concerns, announced Saturday he cannot support the package as is, largely because of the changes to health care that he said would force his state to “make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands.”

Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, has been opposed to the bill’s provision to raise the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion And GOP Sen. Tim Sheehy, of Montana, said he would agree to proceeding only after being assured a provision for public lands sales he opposes would be taken out with an amendment.

The release of that draft had been delayed as the Senate parliamentarian re-

viewed the bill to ensure it complied with the chamber’s strict “Byrd Rule,” named for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. It largely bars policy matters from inclusion in budget bills unless a provision can get 60 votes to overcome objections. That would be a tall order in a Senate with a 53-47 GOP edge and Democrats uniﬁed against Trump’s bill. Republicans suffered a series of setbacks after several proposals, including shifting food stamp costs from the federal government to the states or gutting the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were deemed out of compliance with the rules. But over the past days, Republicans have quickly revised those proposals and reinstated them.

The final text includes a proposal for cuts to the Medicaid provider tax that had run into parliamentary hurdles and objections from several senators worried about the fate of rural hospitals. The new version extends the start date for those cuts and establishes a $25 billion fund to aid rural hospitals and providers.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Ofﬁce has said that under the House-passed version of the bill, some 10.9 million more people would go without health care and at least 3 million fewer would qualify for food aid The CBO has not yet publicly assessed the Senate draft, which proposes steeper reductions.

WhyLouisiana NeedsSocial Safety NetPrograms

Imagineyou’reamominLafayette.You’vejust hadyoursecondchild.Whileyouwereonunpaid maternityleave,yourhusbandlosthisoilﬁeldjob andhealthinsurance.You’venever missed abill before.Butnow,thefridgeisnearlyempty,andyour infanthasalingeringcoughyoucan’taffordtoget checkedout.Youfeelscared,ashamed,andalone. You’rejustonecrisisawayfromfallingthrough thecracks.

Then,youcallyourlocalfoodbankforhelp Acalmvoice walksyou throughapplyingfor SNAP andMedicaidand tellsyou wheretogotoimmediately pick up free food provided by your localfoodbank. Within weeks, groceriesare on thetable againand your baby sees adoctorwithout paying out-of-pocket.

ThisiswhatSNAPandMedicaiddoevery dayinLouisiana

ButifCongresspassesharmfulchanges to theseprograms–likethose proposed in the“OneBig BeautifulBillAct”–stories likethiscouldhaveaverydifferentending.

temporarysupportthatallowed hertocompleteherdegree.SNAP servedherwhensheneededit so that shecould serveothers throughher career Socialsafetynetprograms aren’t handouts.They’re bridgestoopportunity.

PatR.VanBurkleo,Executive DirectorofFeedingLouisiana states:“SNAP andMedicaid make it possible for people to work,stayhealthy,carefortheir families,andbuildsuccessful andproductivelives.That’snot aluxury. That’s thefoundationthatweall deservetostand on.” Nearly 18%ofour state’sresidents rely on SNAP.Morethan1.4millionLouisianansreceive healthcare throughMedicaid. Theseprograms arelifelines,particularlyduringtoughtimes.Yet they arenow on thechoppingblock

Foronenursingstudent,SNAPwastemporary.The impact waspermanent

Acollege studentinthe middle of herclinicals calledFeedingLouisianaforhelp.Shewasstudying tobecomeanurse,butherclinicalschedulemade it impossible to hold afull-time job.Withrecent changestostudentSNAPeligibility,she wasnot sure if shequaliﬁed.

Ourteamhelpedherunderstandtheguidelines andwalkedher throughthe SNAP application process. Thegrocery assistance shereceived enabledher to focusonfinishingher education. Withoutit, shewould have hadtoconsiderabandoningherdreamsoffindingsteadyandfulfilling employment.

Forthisbrightyoung woman, SNAP provided

If Louisianaisforcedtopickupa larger share of theseprogram costsasproposedinthe “One BigBeautiful Bill Act,”the ripple effectcould be devastating. Fewerpeoplemay qualify. Redtape couldincrease. Beneﬁtsmight be delayed. Other essentialstate services maybescaledback. Foodbanks–whicharealreadystretchedthin –would be left to ﬁllthe gaps

Ourfoodbanks can’tfillthe gaps that changesand cuts wouldcreate.

Food banksacrossLouisiana areworking tirelessly everyday to help families face hunger andchallengeourstatusasthestatewiththe4th highestfoodinsecurity in thenation. Louisiana’sfoodbanksconnectpeopletosocial safety netresources anddistributefoodfor more

than 60 millionmeals annually throughmore than 1,000community partners,faith-based organizations, andfoodpantries.

However,ourfoodbankshavelimits.Louisiana’s food banksare pillarsofhope, buttheycannot replacethevitalsafetynettheseprogramsprovide Patexplains:“IfSNAPandMedicaidarecutor harder to access, more families willbeturning to us forhelp. That meanslongerlines,fewer resources,and an overwhelmedemergency food systemstrugglingtoﬁllgapsitwasnotdesignedto handle.IfwelosegroundonSNAPandMedicaid, theburdenwilllikelyfallonourfoodbanks,which arealready workingatcapacity.”

What YouCan Do:Protect Louisiana Families

ManyLouisianafamiliesarejustonecrisisaway fromneedinghelp.Socialsafetynetprogramslike SNAP andMedicaidoffer thesupport that keeps them steady in uncertaintimes

We know that Senators John Kennedyand Bill Cassidyare proudLouisianians. Rightnow, they have apowerfulopportunity to standupfor Louisianafamiliesand protectthese essential programs

“Pleaseconsidercalling or emailing to your lawmakersandurgingthemtoopposetheproposed cuts andchanges to SNAP andMedicaid,”Pat continues.“Tellthemthattheseprogramsarenot extras –they’re part of thefoundationthathelps families stay healthy, stable,and strong.”

Learnmoreatfeedinglouisiana.org

FeedingLouisiana:64parishes, 5foodbanks,1 mission.FeedingLouisiana’snetworkincludesthe FoodBankofCentralLouisiana,theFoodBankof NortheastLouisiana,theFoodBankofNorthwest Louisiana, theGreater BatonRouge Food Bank, andSecond Harvest Food Bank of GreaterNew Orleansand Acadiana

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Bezos wedding stirs controversy in Venice

‘Kisses yes, Bezos no,’ protesters say

BY ANTONIO CALANNI and GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press

VENICE, Italy

Hundreds of protesters marched through Venice’s central streets on Saturday to say “No” to billionaire Jeff Bezos, his bride and their much-awaited wedding extravaganza, which reached its third and final day amid celebritycrowded parties and the outcries of tired residents.

On Friday, the world’s fourth-richest man and his bride Lauren Sanchez Bezos tied the knot during a private ceremony with around 200 celebrity guests on the secluded island of San Giorgio.

The wedding, however, angered many Venetians, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos, while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climateinduced ﬂooding.

As the two newlyweds

prepared for the ﬁnal party

Saturday evening, hundreds of Venetians and protesters from across Italy ﬁlled Venice’s tiny streets with colorful banners reading “Kisses Yes, Bezos No” and “No Bezos, no War.”

The demonstration contrasted with the expensive wedding bonanza, seen by critics as an affront to the lagoon city’s fragile environment and its citizens, overwhelmed by throngs of tourists.

“We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people while the conditions of this city remain precarious,” said Martina Vergnano, one of the demonstrators.

The protest organizers claimed a victory after Saturday’s wedding party, which was initially to be held in central Venice but which they said was later moved to a former medieval shipyard, the Arsenale.

Bezos donated 1 million euros ($1.17 million) each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.

But many protesters blasted the move as a clear attempt to appease angry residents.

“We want a free Venice, which is finally dedicated to its citizens. Those donations are just a misery and only aimed at clearing Bezos’ conscience,” said

Flavio Cogo, a Venetian activist who joined Saturday’s protest.

Details of the exclusive wedding ceremony Friday night were a closely guarded secret, until Sánchez Bezos posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos.

Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple’s love as to their extraordinary wealth.

The star-studded guest list included Oprah Winfrey and NFL great Tom Brady, along with Hollywood stars Leon-

ardo Di Caprio and Orlando Bloom, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates and top socialites, including the Kardashian-Jenner clan Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and their three children also joined the celebrations.

The bride and groom stayed at the Aman Venice hotel on the Grand Canal, where Bezos posed for photos and Sanchez Bezos blew kisses to the press.

“The planet is burning but don’t worry, here’s the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sánchez,” read one protest slogan, a reference to the bride’s reported wedding weekend wardrobe. It featured a mermaid-lined wedding gown by Dolce & Gabbana and other Dolce Vitainspired looks by Italian designers, including Schiaparelli and Bottega Veneta. The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as in keeping with Venice’s tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.

Zampano reported from Rome. Associated Press journalist Niccolò Lupone in Venice contributed to this report.

Japan launches climate monitoring satellite on H-2A rocket’s last flight

BY MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

TOKYO Japan on Sunday successfully launched a climate change monitoring sat

The satellite was released into a planned orbit about 16 minutes later The launch follows several days of delays because of malfunctioning of the rock

“Even though our launches seemed stable, we have run into difficulties and overcome them one by one to come this far,” said Iwao Igarashi, senior general

carbon, methane and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere Within one year it will start distributing data

such as sea surface temperature and precipitation with much higher resolution to users around the world, in-

cluding the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, officials said.

By Amanda McElfresh|amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

This articleisbrought to youbythe LouisianaCommunity andTechnical CollegeSystem.

IneveryregionofLouisiana,theLouisiana Communityand TechnicalCollege System (LCTCS)isworkingtogetherwithemployers to builda stronger,job-ready workforce, one skilledtrade at atime.

As demandfor electricians,welders, commercialdrivers,healthprofessionals,and line workersjust to name afew growsacross thestate,LCTCScollegesarerespondingwith targeted,career-focusedtraining programs that give students fast,affordableaccessto high-wage, high-demandjobs.

“Ourmissionistoconnectpeopletopurpose througheducation that leadsdirectlyto meaningful work,” said Dr.Jimmy Sawtelle Chancellor of CentralLouisiana Technical CommunityCollege (CLTCC). “Wetrain students notjustfor jobs, butfor careerswith roomtogrow—careersthatpowerLouisiana’s economy.

CLTCC, with ﬁvecampusesacrosscentral Louisiana,isakeyplayerindeliveringhands-on traininginﬁelds like healthcare, advanced manufacturing,forestry,businesstechnology, andHVAC. In just over ayear, CLTCChas graduatedmorethan400alliedhealthprofessionals,includingpracticalnurses,pharmacy technicians, andother front-line caregivers into aregionhungryfor talent

Short-term credentialsare also helping students quicklyreenter theworkforce Forexample,CLTCC’s commercial driver’s license(CDL) programtakes just sixweeks to complete,and graduatesoften startwith salaries in the$35,000 to $40,000range Welding, machining, andconstructioncraft programs providesimilar rapidpathwaysto skilledtradesinhigh-demand sectors.

“Our students areoften adults lookingfor afresh start,”Sawtellesaid. “Theymay have families,ortheymay be changing careers. We’reheretohelpthemmatchtheirinterests withrealjobopportunitiesandtoremovethe barriersintheir way.

That same commitment to career connection drives theworkofFletcherTechnical

Community College(Fletcher)inSchriever whereprogramsarebuiltinclosepartnership with localmaritime, energy,and agriculture industries

“Ourstudentsarenotjustenrolling,they’re enrollingwithpurpose,”saidFletcherChancellor Dr.KristineStrickland. “Wetakethe time to understandeachperson’slifecircumstances, goals,andchallenges,whetherthat’stransportation,childcare,orneeding ajob rightaway. We meet them wheretheyare andhelpthem getwhere they want to go.”

Fletcher’sweldingandelectricalprograms arethrivingthankstolocaljobgrowth,andits 16-weekutilitylineworkertrainingprogram, enhancedwithaCDLcomponentforoperating buckettrucks,boasts100%jobplacementacross 23graduatingcohorts.Plansareunderwayfor anaviationmaintenanceprogramtoaddress regionalshortagesinhelicopterandﬁxed-wing aircraft technicians.

“The Houma airportisamong thebusiest

helicopter airports in theworld,” Strickland said.“Companiesare hiring from outofstate becausewedon’tyethaveenoughlocaltalent. That’sexactlythekindofgapweexisttoclose. AllLCTCScollegesofferstackablecredentials that allowstudentstostart with short-term trainingandbuildtowardtechnicaldiplomas andassociate degrees, or even transfer to four-yearuniversities. This ﬂexibility makes it easier for Louisiananstoupskill over time andriseintoleadershiproles in theirﬁelds With12collegesstatewideandmanylocations servingallcommunities,LCTCSisLouisiana’s enginefortrainingtheskilledworkforcethat industries need andcommunities dependon.

“Weencourage everyLouisianantoinvest in themselves,” Sawtelle said.“Come visit acampus. Explore your options. There’s a high-demandcareerwaitingforyouandwe’ll help youget there.”

LCTCSincludesBaton RougeCommunity College, Bossier Parish CommunityCollege, CentralLouisiana TechnicalCommunity College, DelgadoCommunity College, LouisianaDelta CommunityCollege,Fletcher TechnicalCommunity College, Northshore TechnicalCommunity College, Northwest LouisianaTechnicalCommunityCollege,Nunez CommunityCollege,RiverParishesCommunity College,SouthLouisianaCommunityCollege, andSOWELATechnicalCommunityCollege Visitwww.lctcs.edu to learnmoreabout an institutionnearyou

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANTONIO CALANNI

Activists stage a protest Saturday in Venice, Italy denouncing the three-day celebrations for the wedding between Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos, which took place Friday in the city as a symbol of rising inequality and disregard for the city’s residents.

Democratswrestle with howtoconduct oversight

BY MATT BROWN Associated Press

WASHINGTON Justhoursafter she pleaded not guilty to federal charges brought by the Trump administration, New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver was surrounded by dozens of supportive Democratic colleagues in the halls of the Capitol. The case, they argued,strikes at the heart of congressional power

“If they can break LaMonica, they can break the House of Representatives,” said New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Federal prosecutors allege that McIver interfered with law enforcement duringa visit with two other House Democrats to an Immigration and CustomsEnforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey.She calls the charges “baseless.”

It’sfar from the onlyclash between congressional Democrats and the Republican administration as officials ramp up deportations of immigrants around the country

Sen. Alex Padilla, of California, was forcibly removed by federal agents while attempting to speak at anews conference for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. At least six groups of House Democrats have recently been denied entry to ICE detention centers. In early June, federal agents entered the district officeof Rep. Jerry Nadler,D-N.Y., and briefly detained astaffer Congressional Republicans have largely dismissed Democrats’ behavior as inflammatory and inappropriate, and some have publicly supported the prosecution of McIver Often in the dark about the Trump administration’s moves,congressional Democrats are wrestling with how to perform their oversight duties at atime of roiling tensions with the White House and new restrictions on lawmakersvisiting federal facilities.

U.S.

“Wehave the authority to conduct oversight business, and clearly,House Republicans arenot doingthat oversighthere,” saidNew Jersey Rep.Rob Menendez, one of the HouseDemocrats whowentwith McIvertothe Newark ICEfacility

“It’sour obligation to continue to do it on site at these detention facilities.And even if theydon’twant us to, we are goingtocontinuetoexert our right.”

The prospectof facing charges for once routine oversight activity has alarmed many congressional Democrats who never expectedtoface criminal prosecution as electedofﬁcials. Lawmakers in both parties were also unnerved by the recent targeted shootings of twoMinnesotalawmakers and thenation’stensepolitical atmosphere.

“It’samoment that calls for personal courage of members of Congress,” said Rep. Summer Lee, of Pennsylvania. “I wish that we had more physical protection. Ithink that’s one of those harshrealities that members of Congress who are not in leadership recognize: that oftentimes, we do this job at our ownperil, and we do it anyway.”

The arrests and detentions of lawmakers have ledsomeDemocratstotake

precautionary measures.

Severalhaveconsulted with the House general counsel abouttheir righttoconduct oversight. Multiple lawmakersalsosoughtpersonallegal counsel, while othershave called for areview of congressionalrules to provide greater protections.

“The Capitol Police are the securityforce for members of Congress. We need them to travel with us, to go to facilitiesand events that the president mayhaveusarrestedfor,” said Rep. JonathanJackson of Illinois

As the minority party in the House, Democrats lack the subpoena power to force the White House to provide information. That’s aproblem, theysay,because the Trump administration is unusually secretive about itsactions.

“There’s not alot of transparency. From day to day, oftentimes, we’re learning aboutwhat’shappeningat thesame time as the rest of thenation,” said Rep.Lucy McBath, D-Ga., who led a prayer forMcIveratthe Capitol rally Democrats, to amplify theirconcerns, have turned to public letters, confronted officials at congressional hearings and digital and media outreach to try to create public pressure.

“We’ve been verysuc-

cessful when they come in before committees,”said Rep. Lauren Underwoodof Illinois, whoaddedthatshe believed thepublic inquiries have “one hundredpercent” resonatedwithvoters.

Congressional Democrats say they often rely on local lawmakers, business leadersand advocates tobetheir eyes and earsonthe ground.

Ahandful of Democrats saytheir best sources of informationare acrossthe political aisle,sinceRepublicans typically have clearer lines of communication with the White House.

“I know who to call in Houston with the chamber.I think all of us do that,” said Texas Rep.Sylvia Garcia of how business leaders are keeping her updated.

GarciasaidDemocrats “need to put morepressure” on leading ﬁgures in the agriculture, restaurant and hospitalitysectors to taketheir concernsabout the immigrant crackdown to Trump’s White House.

“They’re the ones he’ll listen to. They’re the ones who can addthe pressure.He’s not going to listen to me, a Democrat who wasanimpeachment manager,who is on thebottom of his list,if I’m on it at all,” Garcia said.

Rep. Jason Crow,ofColorado, for instance, hadawork-

ing relationship with aforproﬁt ICE facility in his districtuntil DHS in February ended reports as part of an agencywide policychange.A memberofCrow’sstaff now regularly goes to the facility and waits, at times for hours, until staff at the Aurora facility respond to detailed questions posed by the ofﬁce.

Still, many HouseDemocratsconcedethattheycan conductlittleoftheirdesired oversight until they are back in the majority

Rep. Marc Veasey,D-Texas, said that “real oversight power andmuscle”only comes “when you have a gavel.”

“Nothing else matters. No rousing oratory, no tours, no speeches, no socialmedia or entertainment, none of that stuff,” Veasey said. “Because the thing thatkeeps Trump up at night more than anything else is the idea he’s going to lose this House and there’ll be real oversight pressure applied to him.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ANGELINAKATSANIS

Rep. LaMonicaMcIver, D-N.J.,exitsthe grounds on May9 at DelaneyHall, an ICE detentionfacilityinNewark, N.J

Biden, Harris, Walz attend funeral for slain lawmaker

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS Democratic

former Minnesota House

Speaker Melissa Hortman was honored for her legislative accomplishments and her humanity during a funeral Saturday where former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined over 1,000 mourners.

Hortman was fatally shot two weeks earlier by a man posing as a police ofﬁcer in an attack that Minnesota’s chief federal prosecutor has called an assassination. It and another shooting also left her husband, Mark, dead and a state senator and his wife seriously wounded.

“Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I get to remember her as a close friend, a mentor, and the most talented legislator I have ever known,” Gov Tim Walz said in his eulogy ”For seven years I have had the privilege of signing her agenda into law. I know millions of Minnesotans get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service and politics.” Neither Biden nor Harris spoke, but they sat in the front row with the governor, who was Harris’ running mate in 2024. Biden was also one of more than 7,500 people who paid their respects Friday as Hortman, her hus-

band, Mark, and their golden retriever, Gilbert, lay in state in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul. Gilbert was seriously wounded in the attack and had to be euthanized. Biden also visited the wounded senator in a hospital.

Dozens of current and former state legislators from both parties and other elected ofﬁcials who worked with Hortman also attended.

Hortman, who was first elected in 2004, helped pass an expansive agenda of liberal initiatives like free lunches for public school students during the momentous 2023 session as the chamber’s

speaker, along with expanded protections for abortion and trans rights. With the House split 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans this year, she yielded the gavel to a Republican under a power-sharing deal, took the title speaker emerita, and helped break a budget impasse that threatened to shut down state government.

Walz said Hortman saw her mission as “to get as much good done for as many people as possible.” And he said her focus on people was what made her so effective.

“She certainly knew how to get her way No doubt about that,” Walz said. “But she

Roberts warns against heated political words about judges

BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

never made anyone feel that they’d gotten rolled at a negotiating table. That wasn’t part of it for her, or a part of who she was. She didn’t need somebody else to lose to win for her.”

The governor said the best way to honor the Hortmans would be by following their example.

“Maybe it is this moment where each of us can examine the way we work together the way we talk about each other, the way we ﬁght for things we care about,” Walz said. “A moment when each of us can recommit to engaging in politics and life the way Mark and Melissa

did — ﬁercely, enthusiastically, heartily, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.”

The Rev Daniel Grifﬁth, pastor and rector of the Basilica, who led the service, said the country is in need of deep healing. He said it seems as if the U.S. is living in the “dystopian reality” described at the beginning of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming.”

“Here in Minnesota, we have been the ground zero place, sadly, for racial injustice,” Grifﬁth said. “The killing of George Floyd just miles from our church today And now we are the ground zero place for political violence and extremism. Both of these must be decried in the strongest possible terms, as they are, respectively, a threat to human dignity and indeed, our democracy.”

But the priest also said Minnesota could also be “a ground zero place for restoration and justice and healing.” He added that the presence of so many people was a sign that that work can succeed.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese offered his condolences to the Hortman family

A private burial will be held at a later date.

The Hortmans were proud of their adult children, Sophie and Colin Hortman, and the lawmaker often spoke of

them. In a voice choked with emotion, Colin said his parents embodied the Golden Rule, and he read the Prayer of St. Francis, which his mother always kept in her wallet. He said it captures her essence. It starts, “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.”

After the service, Walz presented the children with U.S. and Minnesota flags that ﬂew over the Capitol on the day their parents were killed.

The man accused of killing the Hortmans at their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park on June 14, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home in nearby Champlin, made a brief court appearance Friday He’s due back in court Thursday Vance Boelter 57, of Green Isle, surrendered near his home the night of June 15 after what authorities called the largest search in Minnesota history Boelter remains jailed and has not entered a plea. Prosecutors need to secure a grand jury indictment ﬁrst. His lawyers have declined to comment on the charges, which could carry the federal death penalty Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views. But prosecutors have declined so far to speculate on a motive.

WASHINGTON Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking at a moment when threats against judges are on the rise, warned on Saturday that elected ofﬁcials’ heated words about judges can lead to threats or acts of violence by others. Without identifying anyone by name, Roberts clearly referenced Republican President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York when he said he has felt compelled to issue public rebukes of ﬁgures in both parties in recent years. “It becomes wrapped up in the political dispute that a judge who’s doing his or her job is part of the problem,” Roberts said at a gathering of lawyers and judges in Charlotte, North Carolina. “And the danger, of course, is somebody might pick up on that. And we have had, of course, serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work. So I think the political people on both sides of the aisle need to keep that in mind.”

Roberts appeared at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judicial conference on the day after the Supreme Court issued the ﬁnal decisions of its term, including a major victory for Trump that limits judges’ ability to use court orders with nationwide reach to block his agenda. C-Span

SUNDAY NEWS SHOWS

ABC’s “This Week”: Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C.; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y

NBC’s“Meet the Press”: Sens. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York mayor CNN’s “State of the Union”: Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Mark Warner, D-Va.; Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va

carried Roberts’ conversation with Judge Albert Diaz, the 4th Circuit’s chief judge. Roberts first took issue with Trump’s comments in 2018, when Roberts responded to Trump’s description of a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.” In March, Roberts rejected calls for impeaching judges, shortly after Trump demanded the removal of one who ruled against his deportation plans In 2020, Roberts called out Schumer for remarks that Roberts termed inappropriate and threatening after the senator said Trump-nominated Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch “will pay the price” for votes in a thenpending Louisiana abortion case. Schumer later said he should not have used those words.

CBS’ “Face the Nation”: Warner; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi; former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb “Fox News Sunday”: Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Jim Banks, R-Ind.

The Associated Press

By Amanda McElfresh, amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

AtGreatHeartsHarveston,academicinterventionisapproachedinadifferentway than at many otherschools.The school’s program represents adaily commitment builtintothe fabric of everygrade leveland ensuresthat everystudentreceives instructiontailoredto theircurrent needsand skills –whether they need extrasupport in math or reading, or are readytobechallenged.

InterventionsessionsatGreatHeartsHarveston take placeduringtwo designated blocks each school day, andare guided by adedicated curriculum.Thisensures that students are notpulled away from other learningtimeand thatacademicgrowthisviewedasacontinual, school-widegoal.

“Whetherachildisbelow,onorabovegrade level,theyreceivetargetedsupportthatmeets themwheretheyare,”saidBrookeHernandez, oneofthe school’s interventionists

During intervention,students areplacedin smallgroupswithpeers at similaracademic levelsinmathorreading.Eachgroupofstudents whoare belowgrade levelreceives focused instructiondesignedtostrengthenfoundational skills.Studentswhoareonorabovegradelevel receivelessonsthatalignwiththeirneedsand push them to grow

“It’snotatimetodohomework,”Hernandez said.“It’saboutbuildingthespeciﬁcskillsthey need to succeed in theclassroom.It’sreally hearteningtowatch them go from miscountingtosolving full addition andsubtraction problems.Thatlightbulb moment givesthem so much conﬁdence.”

Theschool’sdata-driven approach playsa criticalroleintrackingstudentprogress.Each childtakes an assessment at thebeginning of theyear, with follow-upevaluations mid-year andatthe end. This allows interventionists to adjustgroupplacementsandlessonplansbased on real-timeperformance.

Atthestartoflastschoolyear,33ﬁrst-grade studentsatGreatHeartsHarvestonwereclassiﬁedasbelow gradelevel.Bythe endofApril, only onestudent remained in that category ElisaHommel,ESLCoordinatorandLower School Math Interventionist, said that type of successisduetoconsistencyandcarefully-designed instruction.

“Weuseadedicatedinterventioncurriculum andplaninfour-to-six-weekcycles,”she said “Webeginbymodelingconceptsusingmanipulatives—likeblocksorchocolatebars—sostudents cangraspabstractconceptsinaconcreteway Thenwemoveintovisualmodelslikenumber linesorchartsbeforeprogressing to ﬂuency andindependent problem-solving.”

Theinterventionmodel also helpsaddress

skillgapsthatmayhaveformedbeforestudents enrolled at GreatHeartsHarveston.Hommel said some students arrive in latergradeswith lingeringgapsinbasicmathconceptslikeplace valueornumbersense.Interventioniststarget thesegapsdirectly, giving students thetools they need to succeed.

“We’reveryintentionalinhowweworkwith students,” Hommel said.“We don’ttalkabout grades or scores.Wesay they’reworking on certainskills, andwhentheymasterthose skills,theywillmoveontoadifferent group andlearn newskills.”

Thesuccessoftheinterventionprogramcan be seen notonlyinassessmentscores, butin studentbehaviorandconﬁdence.BothHernandezand Hommel said teachers have told them aboutstudentswho aremoreengaged during classand more active participants afterjust a fewweeks of intervention –whether they are

advancedstudentswhoarepushingthemselves academicallyorstudentswhowerepreviously belowgradelevelwhoexhibitnewenthusiasm andconﬁdence aftermastering concepts

“Ithinkthatshowsthesuccessthathappens when everystudenthas aplace to go each day to grow theirabilities,nomatterwhere they start,” Hernandezsaid.

Theteachersand leadership team at Great Hearts Harvestonare also heavilyinvolvedin theinterventionprogram.There areregular meetingsamongstufftodiscussstudentprogress, addressconcernsandshareupdates.Teachers oftenspeaktointerventionistsone-on-onetotalk aboutspeciﬁcstudents,especiallyiftheynotice improvedskillsorcontinuingknowledgegaps.

Parentsarealsokeptinformed,withconferencesatthebeginningandendoftheyear,and regularupdatesthroughouttheyearonstudent development. Hommel said some parentsalso reach outtorequest at-homeresources to reinforce theskillstheir children arelearning during intervention

“Sometimes,parents arehesitantinthe beginningbecause they thinkofintervention as beingoutside of aclassroom setting. Once we explainthatthisisn’t taking away from theirregularschoolworkandthateverychildis receivingsometypeofintervention,thateasesa lotoftheworry,”Hernandezsaid.“Theyrealize thatallkidsherearegettingwhattheyneed,and then they getexcited aboutit.”

GreatHeartsHarvestonisatuition-freeK-9 charterschoolinBaton Rouge. It will add one gradeleveleachyearuntilitisafullK-12academy. Visitgreatheartsharveston.orgtolearnmore.

Roberts

STAR TRIBUNE PHOTO By JEFF WHEELER

Attendees take their seats Saturday before funeral services for Mark and Melissa Hortman at the Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis, Minn.

Louisiana has reentered hurricane season, and storms have grown more extreme from climate change.

Insurance Commissioner TimTemple touted several bills he supportedthatbecame law,including measuresonfortifiedroofs, giving customers more notice when their policy is canceled and requiring parishes to permit and inspect new roofs. Temple also supported several bills that didn’tpass, including proposals to setupdeductible savings accounts and requiring coastal areas to mandate fortiﬁed roofs.

program, though only afraction of homeowners who apply will be able to beneﬁt from it. The program gives homeowners $10,000 to put stronger roofsontheir homes, and many have reported significant savings on insurance afterinstalling them.

Temple saidit’s too soon to know whether the new laws will affect rates, but said many of the proposalswill“bring competition, reduce risk,increase insurability and support consumers.”

“I am encouraged by the earlypositive trends we are seeing, like insurersfiling fewer,less costly rate increases, and even beginning to ﬁlemoreratedecreases than in recent years,” Temple said in astatement.

Political fight

The Republican-controlled Legislaturesidelinedbills that would have takena more direct approach to the crisis, including proposals to give homeowners tax breaks to offset weighty premiums and requiring insurers to deliver certain discountsto residents who put stronger roofs on their homes. Instead, they largely continued to embraceTemple’s favored free-marketapproach. He has embraced policies that loosen rules on insurers, making it easier for them to drop policyholders and charge customers as they see ﬁt.

The Legislature did pass bills that set up adedicated sourceoffunding forthe state’sfortified roof grant

AndGov.Jeff Landry recently signed abill by state Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge,togivepeople a $10,000 tax credit if they put fortified roofs on outside the grant program.The credit must be used against taxliability —it’snot acheck anditiscappedat about 1,000 people peryear on afirstcome, first-served basis. That means people who file their taxes earlier will be first in line.

Talbotsaidhe’s telling constituents to shop their insurance quote to try to find abetterrate, andto put astrongerroof on if they can afford it.

“We’re trying to deal with thingswecan control,”Talbotsaid. “Weobviously can’t control storms and all that, but wecan controlthese other things.”

Landry wasfront and center on thecar insurance debate that took up most of the oxygen in the Capitol this spring, and sparred publicly with Temple over highauto insurance rates. Buthehas notchampioneda package of bills so far focused on the risingcostof homeowners insurance.

Onebillhesupported, HouseBill 148byRep. Jeff Wiley,R-Maurepas, gives Temple more power toreject rates for homeand car insurance that he deems “excessive.” But Temple has all but vowed not to usethe authority,saying itwould upend the market by arbitrarily setting rates. It’sunlikely to have any immediateimpact on lowering rates.

In astatement Friday, Temple railed against thebill as a“red ﬂag,” saying it destabilizes the market by “givingone politicianthe power to reject ratechanges with-

ance broker Guy Carpenter published an obscure but crucial statistic: The cost of reinsurance was expected to drop by 6.6% this year

Insurers take premium dollars fromhomeowners andpromisetopay if they have acovered loss. But they don’tkeep allthatrisk. Instead, they spend billions of dollars buying their own form of protection —reinsurance —froma more loosely regulated network of companiesaround theworld, many based in Bermuda.

After 2017 wildfires in California caused billions in damages, reinsurance costs soared forseven straight years. Those effects reached insurance companies in Louisiana, who faced huge cost hikes and passed them along to homeowners in the form of higher premiums.Many rely heavilyonreinsurance because theyare smaller, and have less money than giants like State Farm

outclearrules or reasons.”

He said he’s meeting with a“major national insurer” next week to talk about how it will impact thecompany’s operations in Louisiana.

Landry’sspokesperson, Kate Kelly,touted thegovernor’ssigning of bills to strengthen the fortiﬁed roof program and saidthe state can reduce homeowners insurance coststhrough “other structural improvement programs thathave already proveneffectiveincoastal states.”She didn’trespond to further queries aboutthose programs.

“The governor continues to engage directly with insurance companies to discuss other avenues that can bring relief to Louisianans,”Kelly said in astatement.

State Rep. Matthew Willard,D-New Orleans, was less optimistic. He said the Legislature did nothing to reduce home insurance costs this session, saying members were sidetracked by theyearslong ﬁghtbetween trial attorneysand insurers over “tort reform,” or changing the legal system to help

insurers avoid big payouts when sued.

“The best you should expect is for the rate to stabilize and not go up,”Willard said. “That’sjust me being honest. Ihavenoindication to tellpeople otherwise. I’m not going to sell themfalse hope. The statehas done that for long enough.”

Global business

In January,the reinsur-

Rising reinsurance is a big reason Louisianans have seen rates rise. And the projected drop this year could be good news. Thedrop is likely the result of investors flooding the reinsurancemarkettotake advantage of massive profits tied to the years of cost increases by reinsurers. Arecent report by Howden Re, areinsurance adviser,said insurers were finally able to take advantage of competition in the market this year

“Rate levels remain historically high but are now outpacing loss trends in many areas,” wrote Kyle Menendez, managing director of Howden Re, North America, in arecent report. The dynamic with reinsurancealso underscores ahard truth for Louisiana: Evenifstate lawmakers make ahost of changes, the global insurance industry could be upended by astorm in Miami or wildﬁre in California, like happened earlier this year Late in Louisiana’slegislative session, more than 30 lawmakers of both parties signed onto aresolution by Willard, the New Orleans Democrat, urging Congress to step in and provide solutions. Some insurance advocates andmembers of Congress have pushedfor a federal intervention into the reinsurance market, which they say could stabilize costsfor homeowners amid increasingly devastating natural disasters.

Willard’sresolution doesn’thavethe forceof law,but he said he hopes it will encourage federal lawmakers to “stepinand provide somerelief.”

“We’re in aprecarious situation where our rates are affected by any natural disaster that happens across the globe,” he said. “Given that, Ithink it’sworth Congress at least exploring sometype of national program.”

To assist the development, the Ascension Parish Council unanimously passed a resolution last month allowing the parish government to look into creating a property buyout plan for residents in the upper west bank A parish government compensating residents to relocate would be rare for Louisiana.

However the people who live there say they have no intention of selling.

“Most people down here in Modeste are retired people or disabled people older people, so to just pack up it’s kind of scary,” Belinda Poche said. “It’s kind of scary.”

‘Something brand-new’

The plan is in the preliminary stages, and Parish President Clint Cointment declined an interview request. He provided some information at the May 15 council meeting, saying developing the plan will take time.

“This is something brandnew,” he said. “I don’t know of a single parish in the state of Louisiana that has ever, ever planned, funded and relocated anyone.”

He mentioned legal considerations and said legislators might ﬁle a bill in 2026 to allow the parish to buy property at rates above appraised value.

“We’ve been working through those hurdles with a lot of people from the west bank, including Councilman (Oliver) Joseph, to kind of discuss the options of what that may look like,” he added. “We’ve had conversations with the companies, and we’ve had just a whole slew of just what this is going to take to do.”

At that meeting, Joseph thanked the council and parish president, mentioning that Cointment was working with legislative leaders to possibly get state funding for the buyout plan.

“I appreciate that the council voted for this here.

This means a whole lot to the citizens in that area,” Joseph said.

‘My ancestors fought hard’

Although it has a small population, Modeste is tight-knit. Several residents said they didn’t know any neighbors who supported the industrial development.

One opponent is Twila Collins, who said her family has owned land there since 1865.

“I’m not looking for a buyout because, guess what? The money they’re going to owe me cannot give me all the stuff I’ve had in memories here, all the years I’ve been here,” she said. “My an-

cestors fought hard for what they had to leave it to us so we could be able to enjoy it.”

Growing up with three siblings roughly 55 years ago, Collins remembered exploring the levees, picking blackberries and hunting crawﬁsh in the ditches.

“It was a whole lot of good memories especially growing up with your siblings in the same household,” she said “Basically, going when you want, come home before the streetlights get on. You know?”

Not all the memories are

good. Her son, Denzel, died from an asthma attack at the age of 9 in her home. He is buried in the St. Philip cemetery alongside her mother Katie, and brother, Loren Collins Sr

“That’s not good memories, but they are memories,” she said.

Belinda Poche said she is concerned about finding a new home for the antiques, each of which is associated with a different story

“I don’t go to all the meetings, but the few that we attended are basically the residents saying we don’t want

it and then the executives saying, you know, the beneﬁts of it, the pros of it,” she said. “And I do understand the economic part, but at the same time you’re uprooting people’s lives.”

Collins and Poche both said no ofﬁcials have come to speak with them. Cointment declined to comment on the claim via a spokesperson, while Oliver Joseph said he wanted to wait to speak to residents until there is a clear buyout plan.

Significant history

Ascension Parish has seen

massive population growth in the past few decades, and sprawling rural land like that surrounding Modeste on the parish’s west bank is becoming more rare. The proposed industrial development would bring drastic change to the area.

The area also boasts signiﬁcant history despite its unincorporated status St Philip Baptist Church celebrated its 155th anniversary last fall. The Mulberry Grove Plantation house and cabins for enslaved people still stand near the Iberville Parish boundary Two additional cabins, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, exist near Donaldsonville at the former Evan Hall Plantation. The Parish Council will soon vote on rezoning nearby land to heavy industrial, following a recent recommendation by the Zoning Commission.

Near Collins’ home, an African American benevolent society raised crops and donated land for a Rosenwald school during the Jim Crow era. On that same land, Leonard Julien Sr and brother Harold invented the first mechanical sugar cane planting machine in the 1960s. Julien contended with others making bootleg copies of his machine and received only a $1,000 royalty for each of the $6,000 planters sold, according to

Withfiveawardsinthisyear’sBestofBaton Rouge

competition, it’s clearthatShannon andJason Lopez andtheir team at Nino’s Restaurant aredoing things theright way. TheItalian eateryearnedthe 2025 Gold awards forBestFineDining, Best All-AroundRestaurant,BestDateNight Spot andBestWineSelection plus theSilveraward forBestItalian Restaurant,all basedonfeedbackfromlocals

“Seeinghow ourteam’sloveand passionfor food andcreatingpositiveexperienceshastranslatedtothe communityisa‘wow’ moment.It’squite incredible,” Shannonsaid. “Ithumbles youand solidiﬁesour belief that BatonRouge wascraving adifferentlevel of care andattention in theirdiningexperiences.Weare ﬁne dining,butwe’renotstuffy.We’veworkedhardtocreate aplace wherepeoplecan enjoythemselves andrelax.”

Jasonsaidthatsince he andhis wife took over ownershipofthe restaurant,they’ve triedtostrike abalance betweenmaintaining themenuitems and cookingstylesthatpeoplehavealwaysloved while adding theirown ﬂair

“Wedon’t make alot of stuff for theweek. We cut fresh vegetables everyday.Wedopastasand bread everyday,” Jasonsaid. “Wealwaysloved that about Nino’s.Ourgoalwastowrapourarmsaroundthatand infuse some of ourideas andpassion.”

WhileItalianclassicslikecarbonaraandBolognese remain customer favorites, Jasonsaidnew itemslike seasonalgnocchishavequicklybecomecrowd-pleasers. Forexample,anewsummergnocchihasjusthitthemenu that’sbrighter,fresherandlighterthanthefallversion

“We’ve always triedtostaytruetowhatNino’swas andwhywefellinlovewithit,becauseittrulywasagreat culinaryfoundation,”Jasonsaid.“Atthesametime,we liketorollwiththeseasons.Igotofarmers’marketsas much as Ican,see what looksgreat andﬁgure outhow we canuse it in adish. We runspecialsevery day. We don’thave astandardsouponthe menu,but we’llput onetogetherifwehaveingredients that we thinkwill work well.Wejustdid acucumbergazpachothatthe guests loved. We’realwayschangingand evolving and listeningtothe feedback.”

Shannonsaidonepriorityhasbeentoleteachshift’s crowdand vibe dictatethe environment. Theoverall goal is to create aplace whereeveryonefeels welcome, whethertheyare acoupleonadatenight,a groupcelebratingabirthdayorother life milestone,friends out for agirls’night or just afew folkswho want to relax with anicemealand aglass of wine “It’simportant to us to letthings be organicand not

forceanykindofexperienceontoourguests,”Shannon said.“Theonethingwewanteveryonetoexperienceis genuinecarefromthe moment they walk in thedoor. Sometimespeoplewanttobeleftaloneandsometimes they want to interact with alot of people.I thinkour serversdoagreat job of readingthe room andunderstanding what guests want.It’simportant to us that we don’t have anypreconceivednotions aboutwhat a shiftwillbelike.Wewantthegueststodrivetheoverall vibe andambiance. Jasonsaidthere arenoplans to make anymajor changestoNino’s, sinceit’sclear things areworking well.There maybesomeadjustmentstothe kitchen andbar to improvefunctionality for thestaff,but the food andcommitmenttoaquality experience will neverchange. As forthe Lopezes, they arekeeping alloptions on thetable,including thepossibility of asecondNino’s location or arestaurantwithanentirelydifferentculinary concept, possibly barbecueorTex-Mex “Nomatterwhatwedo, we’regoing to stay true to ourcoreofusing fresh localingredients andmaking food in-house.Thatisingrained in ourculture and whoweare as professionals,” Shannonsaid. “Wealso wanttomakesurethatwe’reenhancingthecommunity by

has embraced us in an incredible way, so we always want thecommunity to be topofmind. Nino’s Restaurantislocated at 7512 Bluebonnet BoulevardinBatonRouge.Formoreinformation,visit www.ninos-italian.com

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

A lamp statue is surrounded by dozens of other antiques at the Poche home in Modeste on June 10.

Resident Twila Collins shows old family photos of her relatives taken decades ago at the same property she’s living in currently at her Modeste home on June 10. Ascension Parish has opened discussions of offering buyouts to residents like Collins near proposed west bank chemical plants.

Shirley Temple antiques are displayed at the Poche home in Modeste on June 10.

Taylor Oliver @tayrex.creative

said, seated at aconference table in his Baton Rouge ofﬁce, amosaic of photos of the Louisianamarsh on the wall behind him. “Wewant the state to thrive. We’re tired of our kidsleaving. To bring this state back, we have to take away the oil companies’ liability.”

That means suing them, and getting them to pay forthe damage they’ve done to the coast, he says Not quite Republican nor Democrat. Neither fullyproindustry nor environmentalist. In Louisiana,taking on oil companies doesn’tjust take legal know-how.Carmouche is walking apolitical tightrope. He’s about as farfroma Birkenstock-wearingenvironmentalist as anyone could be.

He’sbuilt like asmall tank with aﬁttedsuit anda Panerai wristwatch. During the recent trial in Plaquemines,he carried aplastic can of Zyn, the trendy nicotine pouches popularized by conservative social media inﬂuencers.

“They’re very skilled politically.And they’re very skilled in the courtroom,” John Barry,the Tulane historian and author who led an unsuccessful effort to sue oil companies over coastal damage, saidof Carmouche and his law partners. “They’ve gone through hell to get where they are.” Carmouche, 57,and his ﬁrm have been suing oil companies for decades. But the April verdict in Plaquemines Parish,a historic winagainst theoil and gas industry, marks the beginning of anew phase of hisﬁght.

“This is one of the largest verdicts ever wonbyalocal government for environmental damage —not onlyinthe United States,but globally,” Michael Gerrard, the founder of ColumbiaUniversity’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law,said after the verdict. “I’m sure the oil companieswill vigorously pursue all possible appeals, unless some kind of master settlement is reachedﬁrst.”

Indeed, Carmouche andhis teamexpected oilcompanies to come to the table to open settlement negotiations after the trial in Plaquemines. That didn’thappen.

Last week, it became clear why.They were waiting to hear from the Supreme Court, which announcedit would hear an argument from the oil companies about whetherCarmouche’s lawsuits, and perhaps others like them around the U.S., belong in state or federal court. The companiesargue that some of the oil production in question took placeunder directives from the federal government during WorldWar II, which wouldjustify moving the cases to federal court.

Thatalso meansthe $745 million verdict —and any paydayfor Carmouche —is up in the air Delays, attorneys argued are part of Chevron’sstrategy “They don’t payuntil they have to pay,” said Billy Goodell, aprivate attorney who was previously aLouisiana assistant attorney gener-

al for environmental enforcement. “Carmouche is making them pay.”

The oil companies see it differently.Theyfeel that they re being blamed for land loss that should be attributed to the levees along the Mississippi, which have starved coastal wetlands of sediment. Climate change-driven sea level rise has also played a role,they admit.

Beyond that, theysay such lawsuits threaten to put a chokeholdonthe industry in Louisiana, hurting employment and energy production in theprocess. The companies point out, too, that some of theoperations in question occurred before alaw they are accused of violatingtook effect in 1980.

“It’stimetostop incentivizing trial lawyers to pick industry’spocketsand start protecting the future of both our state and the 306,750 people working in and alongside the oil and natural gas industry here every day —because in Louisiana, they’reone and thesame,”Tommy Faucheux, president of theLouisiana Mid-Continent Oil &Gas Association, said in astatement this month.

‘Friends alongthe coast’

Thestory of the Carmouche practice starts with his father, Don, who has been practicing since 1966. Does he plan to retire? “No way,” he said.

Johnargues the cases now —it’sayoung man’sgame, Donsaid—butthe84-year-old looks sharpenoughto have prosecuted the Plaquemines case himself.

The elder Carmouche served as districtattorney in the23rd Judicial District, which covers Ascension, Assumptionand St.James parishes, between 1985 and 1990, when he lost his bidfor reelection.

“ThankGod helost,” his law partner, VicMarcello, recalls. “Wehad to make money.”

Theydid justthat. Their focus shifted to personal injury work. But Don’spolitical connections would prove crucial as they turned to environmental litigation.

The firm’scoastallawsuits, the ﬁrst of which was ﬁled in 2013, evolvedout of what are often called “legacy lawsuits,” cases brought by privatelandowners against oil companies for pollution done decades ago. But Carmouche’sapproach is distinct.

The strategy involvesgoing after major oilcompanies for failingtoabide by state coastal use laws that went into effect in 1980. Theywent about identifying sites across the coastal zone where major oilcompanies —Shell,Exxon, Chevron, and the like —once produced oil. Since then, many of the large companies have sold their Louisiana wells to smaller ﬁrms.

Hiscoastal litigation focuses on holding the companies that drilled the wells and proﬁtedoff of them themost accountable. Thatalsoallows Carmouche to go after the companies with the deepest pockets.

Rather than representing private landowners, as the Carmouches do in thelegacy suits, they represent parishes. To convince coastal parishes to signon, they leaned

Timelineofoil and gas lawsuits

Sincelawsuits

July 2013: NewOrleans leveeauthority fileslawsuit seekingtorecoupdamages from oil firmsfor thedamagetheydid to coastalwetlands. Thelandmarklawsuit is the firstofits kind to seek restitutionfromoil companiesfor coastallandloss.

Nov. 2013: Plaquemines fileslawsuit,represented by Talbot,Carmouche and Marcello,against oilcompanies.They're immediately 'removed'tofederal court.

Dec. 2014: Federaljudge sendsPlaquemines lawsuitbacktostate court.

Feb. 2015: Afederal judgedismisses New Orleans' leveeauthority lawsuit.

Oct. 2017: TheSupreme Courtdeclines to hear appeal on NewOrleans'levee authoritylawsuit,dealing it a finalblow.

May2018: Oilcompanies appeal parish casestofederal courtfor asecondtime, alleging that oiland gasactivitywas conductedunder federaloversight during WWII

May2019: Federaljudge sendsparishlawsuitsbacktostate courtfor asecond time.Oil companies will appeal

Sept.2019: Talbot,Carmouche,and Marcello settle with oilcompany Freeport McMoRanfor $100 million

Aug. 2020: U.S. FifthCircuit Courtagain sendsthe parish lawsuits back to state court.

Aug. 2021: Oilcompanies appeal thecases to federal courtfor athird time

Dec. 2022: Afederal courtofappeals againdeterminesthe casesbelonginstate court.

Jan. 2023: Oilcompanies appeal ruling to theU.S.Supreme Court, whichdeclines to take thecase, settingthe stagefor thetrial in PlaqueminesParish.

Dec. 2023: Oil firmssettlewithCameron Parish,the firstofthe 42 lawsuits to settle.Details of thesettlementare notmadepublic.

Mar.2025: Trialbeginsinone of thelawsuitsbrought by PlaqueminesParish, the firsttrial in the42cases filedsince 2013

on the politicalconnections

Don forged as districtattorney

“I had alot of friends along the coast that I’ve known in my 60 yearsofbeing alawyer,”the elderCarmouche said. “It really wasn’tdifﬁcult forany elected ofﬁcialalong the coasttoclearly see that something shouldbedone, and the state and the parishes just don’thavethe funds to do it.”

“And why shouldn’tthose companiesthatdestroyed it payfor it? It really wasn’t a difﬁcult sell.Theyembraced it,”hesaid.

Johnstepped in to correct the record: “Not all of them,” he said.

Indeed, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, twoofthe largestcoastal parishes that historicallyproduced ahuge amount of oil, have not joined thelawsuits,even though they would be entitled to funds that result from litigation in the other coastal parishes.The Lafourche Parish Council even passed aresolutionthis month opposing the litigation. In Plaquemines, which did jointhe litigation, there was local pushback, fueled by acampaignfundedby oil companies.

“The pressure placed on parish officials to sue the largest industries in their parishes is unrelenting and daily,” said Marc Ehrhardt, the executive director for GROWLouisiana, an oil andgas industry advocacy group.

Carmouche does make a strong case to politicians. He hasself-fundedpolls, he said, which indicatethat 88% of Louisianavoters thinkthe industry should pay to repair damage to the coast —up from 70% adecade ago. The pitch to elected ofﬁcials isn’tsubtle: Carmouchebelieves thatifthey support his cause, they’ll get reelected.

Same game

In 2013, when thelawsuits were ﬁrst ﬁled, Gov. Bobby Jindal was running Louisiana. Carmouchedodgedhis ire.

“Wewere getting ready to file thesecoastal lawsuits when thelevee district filed their lawsuit,”Carmouche said, referring to thelawsuit that the SoutheastLouisiana Flood Protection AuthorityEast filed in 2013. Carmouche would file 42 separate lawsuits related to locations that he alleged weredamaged by oil and gas production by specificcompanies.The flood protection authoritywould filea single suit,againstabout 100 companies, allegingbroad damage to the Louisiana coast That caught Jindal’sattention —and drewitaway from Carmouche. “It took his eyes off of the true coastal claim andallowed ourlawsuits to move forward,” Carmouche said. “Theytook the bullet.” Theflood protection authority’slitigation would be struck down by afederal appealscourt. Carmouche’s cases continued on. In 2015, at theend of

Jindal’s term, they didn’t wait for the next governor to be elected before moving to ensure thathis successor would support theirlawsuits. They spent $2 milliontoﬁght David Vitter,aRepublican U.S. senator at the time.

“When Vitter announced he wasgoing to run, the ﬁrst thing he said was— ‘I’m going to get rid of legacy lawsuits,’”Marcello said.

“They gave us no choice,” Carmouche said.“They kind of put agun to our head.”

John Bel Edwards, aDemocrat,won the election. The lawsuits continued.

During Edwards’ term,Republican Attorney General and current governor —Jeff Landry threatened to take over the lawsuits. He would have boxed out Carmouche, installing state lawyers in the cases. Had that happened, Carmouche would nothave earned legal fees.

It didn’t happen, andthe stateultimately intervened

on Carmouche’sside.

Carmouche also worked to winoverthe future governor He cut Landry’scampaign large checksin2023; last year,Landryappointed Carmouche to the LSU board of supervisors, aplum gig that comes with free season tickets to sit in the board suite at all LSU football games. Landry has spoken of wanting to reduce the number of such lawsuits through negotiatedsettlements, “where everyone works together to protect ourcoastalcommunities.”

In many ways, theoil and gasindustry has pursued similar political strategies. It has hadtoworkwith vastly different presidents over the last decade, said Faucheux of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil &Gas Association. And the industry has also made substantial political donations in Louisiana over the same time period. Landry tappedFaucheux’s predecessor,Tyler Gray,to run theDepartment of Energy and NaturalResources.

“By going to small communities in Louisiana and promising thembillions, they’ve been able to keep communities motivated,”Faucheux said of Carmouche’slawsuits. “That, in turn, keeps policymakers, even at the statewide level, motivated.” But what, ultimately,motivates Carmouche? He’ll say he’snot in it just for the money,though the money doesn’t hurt. He says he’sasportsman and loves the outdoors, but that doesn’t seem like the main thing. Perhaps the most convincing theory of what makes Carmouche tick is that he is legitimately ﬁred up by a ﬁght, and the oil industry is giving him one.

“Ittook us 15 years fighting in court, filing motions to compel, finally getting theresearch they had going back to the 1940s,” he said. He describes himself as motivatedbyrighteous anger,fueled by “knowing what they knew,and how they went aboutdestroying thecoast, andhow they got away with it.”

Staffgraphic

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

RFKJr.’s movesonvaccinescause problems forCassidy

WASHINGTON —Actions by avaccine advisory panel hand-picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.are putting Louisiana U.S. Sen.Bill Cassidy’sreputation on Capitol Hill in aprecarious position.

Mark Ballard

For 30 years, Republican Cassidy,once aphysician at Baton Rouge’scharity hospital, advocated the safety and efﬁcacy of vaccines to treat disease and save lives. During that same time, Kennedy raised doubts about these inoculations.

It was Cassidy,more than any other senator,who is responsible forconﬁrming such awell-known anti-vaxxer to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which holds the reins to the nation’svaccination program. Cassidy said he did so based upon Kennedy’sassurances that, as the nation’shealth chief, he would not undermine federal vaccination programs —promises some say have been breached

On Tuesday,Kennedy said he’d withdraw the $1.2 billion the U.S. uses for global immunization programs. Critics contend themove would endanger the lives of children aroundthat world.

On Wednesday,Kennedy’snewly reconstituted Advisory CommitteeonImmunization Practices met for the ﬁrst time. Earlier in June, Kennedy had ﬁred all 17 sitting members and named eight new ones, some of whom have vaccine-skepticism histories.

Cassidy noted that few of Kennedy’spicks had the proper scientiﬁc backgrounds for their important ACIP roles and suggested postponing the meeting.

In opening Wednesday’smeeting, ACIP’snew chair Martin Kulldorff said, “Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-

Landryvetoes bill on

portcommission

CAPITOL BUZZ staff reports

Gov.Jeff Landry has vetoed abillthat would have required theBoard of Commissioners for the PortofNew Orleans to be approved by the Louisiana Senate. Senate Bill 9, by Sen. Joseph Bouie Jr., D-New Orleans, passed both the House and the Senate unanimously But, in his veto message, Landry said it would “add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to an already rigorous appointment system.”

The seven-member board includes four members from Orleans Parish, two from Jefferson Parish and one from St. Bernard Parish. Members are nominated by acouncil of business,industry,higher education and labor organizations.

“This process ensures ap-

based medicine whenmaking vaccination recommendations.”

Thenew group also released astatement: “Wecame to this meeting with no predetermined ideas andwillmake judgments as ifweare treating forour own families.”

Among otherdecisions Thursday,ACIP set anew schedule for seasonal ﬂu shots —provided they don’tcontain the mercurybased preservativethimerosal —rollingback long-standing government policies. Vaccination skeptics suspect thatthimerosal, which isincluded in only 4% of

ﬂu vaccines, causesautism despite dozens of studiessaying it does not.

The committee also plans to review the childhood vaccine schedule.

The ACIP provides guidance to the Centers forDiseaseControl andPrevention,whose decisions require the federalgovernment to provide vaccinesfor lowincomefamiliesand informs statesonvaccination schedules forstudents.

Cassidy hadnothing to say Fridayabout the panel’sactions

But in avideotaped message

pointmentsare locally driven, carefully vetted, and rooted in industry expertise and community representation,” Landry wrote.

“Adding aSenate conﬁrmation requirement would complicate asystem that alreadyincludes substantial input,oversight,and

welcoming Kennedy to avisit in Louisiana Friday, Cassidy said: “I thank youfor coming, Bobby And thank youparticularlyfor going to the Pennington BiomedicalResearch Center,anLSU institutionstudying nutrition. And Iknow howpassionate you are —and Iam—about having good nutrition to Make America Healthy Again.

But many in thehealth care community feared ACIP’s decisions are aharbingerofthe federal government’s embrace of Kennedy’sskepticism.

The American Academy of Pe-

structure.”

The port, amajor economic engine for Louisiana, is under particular scrutiny because of asigniﬁcant but controversial expansion.

The port is adding amultibillion-dollarcontainerterminal in St.Bernard Parish, downriver from theCrescentCity Connection

The new terminal is necessary, portofﬁcials say, to compete for businesswith international shipping ﬁrms using larger vessels that can’t go up to the main port.

Butthe newterminal hasgenerated backlash from many St. Bernard residents andofﬁcials who fear it could clog their roads with trucks, disrupt the local way of life and damage the environment.

Sen.Kennedy mocks

Putin over Iran

U.S. Sen. JohnKennedy,RMadisonville, gave aspeech on theSenate ﬂoor on Wednesday, mocking RussianPresident Vladimir Putin, saying he has abandoned ally Iraninthe face of bombings by Israel andthe U.S.

diatrics on Thursday criticized Kennedy’sAFIPand announced it would publishits own recommendations andschedules.

“Whatweheard in this meeting wasreally afalse narrative that thecurrentvaccine policiesare ﬂawed andthattheyneed ﬁxing,” Sean O’Leary,aphysicianwho chairs thegroup’sCommittee on InfectiousDiseases, said in a statement.

On Capitol Hill, somelawmakers sayKennedy took advantage of Cassidy

In an April18party primary, Cassidy faces GOPchallengers who contendheisnot supportive enough of President Donald Trump.

OneofCassidy’sbig plusesfor election to athirdterm is that, as chairofthe powerful Senate Health Education Labor and Pensionscommittee, he helped Trump’spickwin conﬁrmation Whenasked Tuesday if he felt dupedbyKennedy,Cassidy said: “The agreementwithSecretary Kennedy on theACIP wasabout process, notabout membership. So,I’lljustleaveitatthat.”

Acouple hourslater,during a Housebudgethearing, Rep.Kim Schrier, aDemocraticpediatrician from Washington state, accused Kennedy of lying to Cassidy She noted that Cassidy hadsaid Feb.4onthe Senate ﬂoor that Kennedy would maintainthe AFIP“without changes.”

“Did youlie to Sen. Cassidy whenyou toldhim youwould not change this panelofexperts?” Schrierasked

“I nevermadethatagreement,” Kennedy replied. “If he said that Iagreed to it,itwould be inaccurate. I’mcomplying withall the agreements that ImadewithSen Cassidy.”

Email Mark Ballardat mballard@theadvocate.com.

“Where’s Russia?Where’sPresident Putin? Youcouldn’tfind eitherone of themwith asearch party,” Kennedy said. “Dogthe Bounty Hunter, all of asudden, couldn’tfind President Putin. All of asuddeneven Google can’t find Russia.” Kennedy noted that, when Russia invadedUkraine, Iran helpedby sending ammunition, artillery shells anddrones.

“On Mondayofthis week, Iran’stop diplomat metwith President Putin andasked for help,” Kennedy said. “Do you knowwhatPresident Putin said he would provide?Nothing. Zero.Zilch. Nada.Somekind of friend.”

Russia hasabandoned other alliesaswell, Kennedy said. For example,whenSyrians revolved against Basharal-Assad, the dictator“went to Mr.Putin andsaid ‘help me,helpme’ and Mr.Putin said no.”

“I saythis to everycountry in the world thatmight be thinking aboutpartnering with Russia With friends like Russia, who

Kennedy

STAFF PHOTO By JILLPICKETT

Gov. Jeff Landryspeaks during abill signing event at Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City on Wednesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILEPHOTO

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, left, greets SecretaryofHealth and Human Services RobertF.Kennedy Jr before he testifies before aSenate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the U.S. Capitol on May14.

foundbeneath WTC

BY MICHAEL HILL Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. Workers digging at Manhattan’sWorld Trade Center site

15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from aboat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier Now, over 600piecesfromthe 50foot vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuriesunderground, the boat is becoming amuseum exhibit.

Arrayed like giant puzzle pieceson the museum ﬂoor,research assistants andvolunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers withpicks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin.

Though researchers believe theship was agunboatbuilt in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don’t know all theplaces it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore beforeending up in alandﬁll around the 1790s.

“The public can come and contemplate the mysteries aroundthisship,” said Michael Lucas,the museum’scurator of historical archaeology.“Because like anything from thepast, we have pieces of information. We don’t have the whole story.”

From landfill to museum piece

The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 whena section of the boat was found 22 feet below street level.

Curved timbers from thehullwere discovered by acrew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Centersite, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks.

The wood was muddy,but well-preserved after centuries in the oxygenpoor earth. Apreviously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet of its rear and middle sections were carefullyrecovered

Part of the bow was recoveredthe next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles to Texas A&M’sCenter for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation

Each of the 600 piecesunderwent athree-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in agiant freeze-dryer to remove moisture.

Then they were wrapped in more than amile of foam and shipped to the

state museum in Albany

While the museum is 130 miles up the Hudson Riverfrom lower Manhattan,itboasts enough space to display the ship.The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibitionspace, sovisitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly takethe form of apartially reconstructed boat.

Work is expected to ﬁnish soon, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientistatthe Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation whois overseeingthe rebuilding.

On arecent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found.

Explaining the worktaking place behind him, he told one group: “Who would havethought in amillion years, ‘someday,this is going to be in amuseum?’

Anauticalmystery remains

Researchersknewtheyfound aboat underthe streets of Manhattan. But what kind?

Analysis of the timbers showed they camefrom trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in theearly 1770s, pointingtothe ship being built in a yard nearthe city

It was probably built hastily.The wood is knotty,and timbers were fastened with iron spikes.

That allowed for faster construction, though the metal corrodes over time in seawater Researchersnow hypothesize the boat was built in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, months after the ﬁrst shotsofthe RevolutionaryWar

wereﬁredatLexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thirteen gunboats were built that summer to protect Philadelphia from potential hostile forces coming up the DelawareRiver

The gunboatsfeatured cannons pointing from theirbows and could carry 30 or more men.

“Theywerereally pushing,pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any Britishthat might start coming up the Delaware,” Fix said.

Historical records indicate at least one of those 13 gunboatswas later taken by the British. And there is some evidence that theboat now being restoredwas usedbythe British, includinga pewter buttonwith“52” inscribed on it. That likely camefrom theuniformofsoldierwith theBritish Army’s 52nd RegimentofFoot, which was active in the war

It’s also possiblethatthe vessel headed southtothe Caribbean, where the British redirected thousands of troops during the war.Its timbers show signs of damage from mollusks known as shipworms, which arenativetowarmer waters.

Still, it’s unclear how theboat ended up in Manhattan and why it apparently spent yearspartially in thewater along shore. By the1790s, it was out of commission and then covered over as partofaproject to expand Manhattan farther out into theHudson River By that time, the mast and other parts of the Revolutionary Warship had apparently been stripped.

“It’sanimportant piece of history,” Lucas said.“It’salsoanice artifact that you can really build alot of stories around.”

PROVIDED PHOTOByJONATHAN O’NEIL

Aknife forscale sits near an outcropping of about 4.16 billion-year-old rocks at the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in northeasternCanada.

Canadian rocksmay be oldest on Earth

BY ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AP ScienceWriter

NEWYORK Scientists have identiﬁed what could be the oldest rocksonEarth from arock formation in Canada.

TheNuvvuagittuqGreen-

stone Belt has long been knownfor its ancient rocks —plains of streaked gray stoneonthe eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec.

But researchers disagree on exactly how old they are.

Work from two decades ago suggested the rocks could be 4.3 billion years old, placing them in the earliest period of Earth’shistory

But other scientists using a different dating method contested the ﬁnding, arguing that long-ago contaminants were skewing the rocks’ age and that they wereactually slightly youngerat3.8 billion years old.

In the newstudy,researchers sampled adifferent section of rock from the belt and estimated its age usingthe previoustwo dating techniques —measuring how one radioactive element decays into another over time.The result:The rocks were about 4.16 billion years old.

The different methods “gave exactly the sameage,” said studyauthorJonathan O’Neil with theUniversity of Ottawa.

The newresearch was published in the journal Science.

Earth formed about 4.5 billionyearsago froma collapsing cloud of dust and gas soon after the solar system existed. Primordial rocks often get melted and

recycled by Earth’smoving tectonic plates, making them extremelyrareonthe surface today.Scientists have uncovered 4billionyear-old rocks from another formationinCanadacalled the Acasta Gneiss Complex, but the Nuvvuagittuq rocks could be even older Studying rocks from Earth’searliest history could give aglimpse into howthe planetmay have looked— howits roiling magma oceansgave way to tectonic plates —and even how life got started.

“Tohave asample of what wasgoing on on Earth way back then is really valuable,” said Mark Reagan with the University of Iowa, who studies volcanic rocks and lava and wasnot involved with the new study The rock formationison tribal Inukjuak lands and the local Inuit community hastemporarily restricted scientistsfromtaking samples from the site due to damage from previous visits.

After somegeologists visited the site, large chunks of rock were missing andthe community noticed pieces for sale online, said Tommy Palliser,who manages the land with thePituvik Landholding Corp. The Inuit community wants to work with scientists to set up aprovincial park that would protect the land while allowing researchers to study it.

“There’salot of interest forthese rocks, whichwe understand,” saidPalliser amember of thecommunity.“We just don’twant any moredamage.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL HILL Research assistant Alyssa Carpenter inspects timbers from awooden RevolutionaryWar-era gunboat to prepare forthe craft’spartial reconstruction at the NewyorkState Museum in Albany, N.y.

BY ISABELLA O’MALLEY and AMELIA THOMSONDEVEAUX

Associated Press

Americans’support for greenenergy tax credits and renewableenergies like wind and solar power has decreased in recent years, according to anew poll, driven by asoftening in support from Democrats and independents

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

ﬁnds that U.S.adults’ support for tax credits for electric vehiclesand solar panelshas weakened,as well as their enthusiasm for offshore wind farm expansion. While Democrats remainthe strongest supporters of these initiatives, the poll reveals signs of growing cynicism within their ranks.

The poll results coincide with sweeping changes

President Donald Trump’s Republicanadministration is making to regulations relatedtoenergy and climate change, including slashing the federalworkforce in these departments. And although Democrats and independents have weakened theirsupport for some greenenergy initiatives, there has not been an increase in supportfor Trump’senergy policies.

The poll found only about 4in10U.S. adults —including only 1in10Democrats and about 2in10independents, along with threequarters of Republicans— approve of the way Trump is handling climate change, which largelytracks with his overall approval rating.

About 6in10Democrats, 58%, favor taxcreditsfor purchasing an electric vehicle, down from about7 in 10 in 2022.Among independents, support declined from 49% in 2022 to 28%.

Only one-quarter of Republicans supported this policy in 2022, and that hasn’t changed measurably

“As far as the pollution goes the vehicles nowadays put out very little emissionstothe air,”said JD Johnson, a62-year-old Democrat from Meadowview,Virginia, who somewhat opposes tax credits to purchase an electric vehicle.

That’spartlybecausehe sees the electric vehicle manufacturing process as energy intensive and believes gasoline-powered vehicles have made improvements with the pollutants they emit.

The decline in favoring solar panel tax credits was across the board rather than being concentrated among Democrats.

“For solar panels,in all honesty,I don’tthink they’re that efﬁcient yet,” said Glenn Savage, 78,a

auctioning off more public space for oil drilling. Only aboutone-quarterofU.S. adultsfavor this,while 4in 10 are opposed.

Republicans are much morelikelythanindependentsorDemocrats to be in support.

The Energy Star program that certifies appliances, such as dishwashers and refrigerators, as energy efﬁcient recently appeared in headlineswhenthe EPA made planstoscrap theprogram.

The blue and white logo is wellrecognized, andexpertssay theprogramhas long had bipartisan support until recently.

Chicago, describes himself as aliberalRepublican and is afan of the consumer rebates for energy-efficient appliances.

“It seems to work in terms of transformingwhatpeople have in their houses, because alot of people have alot of old appliancesand just can’t afford new ones,” he said.

The poll found only about 2in10U.S. adultsare “extremely” or “very” confident in the federalgovernment’sability to ensure the safety of their drinking water, the airtheybreathe and the meat, poultry,fruits and vegetablestheybuy in grocerystores.

left-leaningindependent from Rock Hill, SouthCarolina

“I’d rather see them pour money into research and try to getthe solar panels more efﬁcient before they start giving tax breaks to thepublic. Imay be wrong on that, but that’sjust my thought.”

Scientists say transitioningtorenewableenergies andditchingfossil fuels that release planet-warmingemissions are essential to protect the planet.

Billions of dollars inproject grants for clean technologiesawardedduring

President Joe Biden’sDemocratic administration have been canceled by the Trump administration, and the offshore wind sector has been stunted by Trump’s executive order that paused approvals, permits and loans for wind energy projects.

Fewer than half of U.S. adults, 44%, now say that offshore wind farms should be expandedinthe U.S., down from 59% in2022. About half favorexpanding solar panel farms, while abouttwo-thirdswerein support in 2022. When people arecon-

cerned about the economy and their personal ﬁnances, environmental issues are sometimes prioritized less, saidTalbot Andrews,anassistantprofessor in thedepartment of government at Cornell University who was not involved in the poll.

“I thinkitmakes people anxious to think about increased taxes or increased spending on environmental issueswhenthe costofeggs are going through theroof,” Andrews said.

Trump has championed theexpansion of offshore oil drilling, as well as domestic coal production.

Despitea decline in support for expanded renewable energies, thenew poll shows that only aboutonethird of U.S. adultsthink offshore drilling for oil and natural gasshould be expanded in theU.S., and only about one-quarter say this about coal mining.

In bothcases, Republicansare much more likely than Democrats to support expanding these energy sources.

Trump has soughttoopen up national monuments for oil drilling, but moreU.S. adults opposethan support

The poll found threequarters of Democrats support providing consumer rebates for efﬁcienthome appliances, compared with 6in10Republicans.

Patrick Buck, 54, from

About 4in10U.S. adults are“somewhat”confident in the federal government’s ability to ensure thesafety of each of these, andabout 4 in 10 are “not very” or “not at all” conﬁdent.

TheTrumpadministrationhas announced plans to rollback rules and policies relatedtolimiting pollution andgreenhousegas emissions, such as rules that limit pollution from power plants and blocking California’sefforts to phase out carsthatrun on gas. The federal government has also cut staff at the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency tasked with protecting public health and ensuring food supply safety The AP-NORC pollof 1,158 adults was conducted June 5-9, using asample drawn from NORC’sprobability-basedAmeriSpeak Panel, whichisdesigned to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error foradults overallis plus or minus 4percentage points.

LSUinterim presidentwants to keep winning

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

For Matt Lee, LSU’sinterim president,summer break is nota thing.

He started in the roleJune 1 after former President William Tate IV’ssurprise announcement that he was leaving to lead Rutgers University.Lee, who most recently was LSU’svice president foragriculture, traveled to Omaha last weekendto watch LSU’sbaseball team win its eighth national championship, then returned to Baton Rougethis week for his ﬁrst board meeting as system leader

As Louisiana’sﬂagship universitypreparestosearch for apermanent leader,Lee is tasked with continuing the system’sgainsin enrollment and research while navigatingheadwinds,including federal funding cuts and restrictions on international students. Just this week, federal immigration agents detained two Iranianborn LSU students; it’sunclear why they were targeted.

We spoke with Lee earlier this month, just days into his new role, about the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The interview has been condensedand editedfor clarity

Can you startbytalking about what the past few days have been likefor you?

The list of issues and projects that are in play (across the LSU system) at any given time are in the dozens, maybe over 100. There’sjust awhole rangeof issues that this position deals with and it’slike achess game— they’re all at different points on the trajectory.Soittakes time

Q&A WITH MATT LEE LSU INTERIM PRESIDENT

left and right, and that’sbecause we have abrand that frankly is unbeatable.

However,while we actually do quitewell with student retention and graduation, we can always do better.That’s going to be front and center in pretty much every conversation Ihave.

Andthen, we just passed amilestone withour collective research expenditures well over half abillion dollars. We are not gonna let up on the gas pedal there.

Is LSU bracing for cuts to its federal research funding?

Ithink we’ll expect,over the coming six months, to continue to see somepossible changes in the way the federal granting agencies are operating. Butthat doesn’t mean we’rejust gonna walk away from our mission.

federal level to makesure that they are fully educated on the importance of federal funding. Another is being really thoughtful about making sure that we are appropriately aligning our expertise with thepriorities of the funding agencies. Those tend to shift alittle bit from administration to administration. That just meansthat if they’re interested in topic Xand that’sreally apriority forthem,that we’re not wasting our time submitting proposals on topic B, which they’ve already declared is kind of anonstarter for them.

Irecently spoke with some LSUfaculty members who are concernedthat the Trump administration’sattacks on diversity,equity and inclusion programs in highereducation are threatening academicfreedom. How wouldyou respond?

that an arts professor or aphysics professor would notbeprotected if they discuss the political climate?

It depends on the circumstances. Everybody has First Amendmentrights forsure. But of course, you know,this is America, everybody also has First Amendmentresponsibilities.

As international students come under newscrutiny, can youtalk about what they contribute to LSU?

International students add a layer of additional vibrancy to our organization.

Students whoare from small hometowns in Louisiana and come to the ﬂagship —for them to get to sit in classrooms and live in dormitories with students from other parts of the world is atransformational experience. It opens their eyes, it gives them exposure to and development of cultural capital that is really,really valuable.

to get up to speed on each one of those.

In addition to getting an informationdownload,I’m connecting with theappropriate portfolio of external stakeholders. This includes ourlegislative colleagues, industrypartners,key alumni, donors.

This is avery,very signiﬁcant responsibility.Nobody in their right mind would take it lightly andthere’salot at stake.

What areafew of the top priorities that you’re goingtofocusoninthis period? Well, there are two things that we are always, unrelentingly focused on: studentsuccess and growing ourresearch impact. We have eight institutions within the LSUsystem,six of which havestudents, so we are going to continueaggressively discussingstudentsuccess. We’ve been settingenrollment records

What it meansiswe’re gonna huddle up, talk about our strategy, and ﬁgure out how it is that we remain in the top in terms of being competitive for federal funding.

The federal funding landscape is aviolently competitive place and we’ve been succeeding. We’re gonna continue that. Sometimes you gotta roll withthe punches but that’swhat thebig dogs do.

What are somepossible strategies for dealing with funding cuts?

Partofitisassessing our collaborative relationships. Is LSUjust trying to submit proposals in isolation, or are we trying to stitch together anetwork of regional institutions?

The value in astrategy like that is it telegraphs to the funding agency that they could have a stronger impact for their funding investment.

Another part of it is working with our elected ofﬁcials at the

First and foremost, we’re apublic organization, so we are always ensuring that we are following all federal, state and local lawsand regulations. As apublic higher education institution whose founding principles include academic freedom, we are always going to continue to ensure that our faculty that are tenured have the appropriate tenure protectionsand enjoy their ability to work under the umbrella of academic freedom, which gives you the protection to speak freely in your area of expertise.

Of course, we’re going to balance that with ensuring that our studentsare embedded in classroom learning environments that are appropriate and that their own civil rights are being appropriately protected.

When yousay that tenured faculty are protected when they talk about their area of expertise, does that mean, forexample,

WE’RE ASKING EXPERTS ACROSS THESTATEHOW TO TACKLE THEBIGGEST CHALLENGES FACINGLOUISIANA SCHOOLS. HAVE AN IDEA? EMAIL

So we are always keeping an eye on what current federal policy is that governs the international student experience and we makesure we’re in compliance with that.

And we welcomethe top talent from around the globe because they beneﬁt from us and we beneﬁt from them being here.

Last question: As youdealwith all these big issuesasinterim president, do youthink you’ll apply forthe permanent job? I’mﬂattered that you would ask that. And frankly,everybody is asking that samequestion. Honestly,I’m just not speaking to it right now What Iknow is, I’manLSU guy through and through. This institution has been good to me, and it’sbeen aprivilege to try to give back to this institution.

I’ll continue to do that until we get to the next step. We’re gonna continue to push forward. We’re not taking our foot off the accelerator

Trafficstops forwhales on ‘humpbackhighway’

Migrating mammalsdelay boats, ferries

BY CHARLOTTE GRAHAMMCLAYand MARK BAKER Associated Press

PORT STEPHENS,Australia—

The ferry was late, but not because of the usual trafﬁc.

Sydney co mmuters watched fromanidling boat this month as humpback whales the size of buses surfaced nearby, halting the vessel’spassage across the harbor.The curious mammals seemed to be watchingthem back. In June and July,it’snot uncommon for whales to stop water trafﬁc in Sydney.Winter heralds the opening of the so-called humpback highway,a migratory corridor along Australia’seastcoast used by about 40,000 of the massive creaturesas they travel from feedinggrounds in freezing Antarctica to tropicalbreeding areas off Queensland state.

“It’sblubber to blubber,” said Dr.Vanessa Pirotta,a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Sydney and author of the book “HumpbackHighway.”

During peak traffic periodsthe bustling coastal cityof5.5 millionpeople becomes one of the world’s few urban centers where you might see abreaching whale on your morning walk, while buying acoffee, or waiting at abus stop —anyplace youcan seethe ocean.

Closetoshore

The reason humpbacks on the highway are so visible is duetotheir size —adults can be 52-56 feet in length, and weigh40tons —and their proximity to people On their 6,000 mile journey fromicy to balmy waters, one of the world’slongest mammal migrations, the creatures stay close to shore.

“They are incredibly curious,”saidPirotta.“There’s been times where there’s been whales in the harbor this year where they’veliterally halted trafﬁc.” Australians get so close

PRESS FILE PHOTO

swim past at Boat Harbour north of Sydney.

to the creatures that some have attracted fans. Among them areMigaloo, an allwhite humpback whose sightings spanned 1991 to 2020, and Blade Runner, namedfor her tussle witha boat propellerthatcreated her long, distinctive scars.

People-watching

Some keen whalewatchers seek acloser look. On a recent morning, Ben Armstrong, aveteranskipper of awhale-watching boatin Port Stephens, ascenic harbor north of Sydney,slowed theengine astwo humpbacks breached nearby.

He encouraged passengers to put down their phones and enjoy the spectacle. Armstrongkeeps his tourist boat at distances mandated by Australia’s state laws,but inquisitive whales often go off-script.

Once, the skipper let his boat driftfor an hour while four or five humpbackstreated the vessel “likea bath toy,” playfully preventing it from moving forwardorback.Inanother episode, awhale peeled away from its pod and rushed to theboat, “likea doggreeting itsmasterat the gate,” he said. It lounged for 40 minutes in the water,rubbing its massivefinsagainst the vessel. “It was like, ‘Oh, there’sthatboat Ireally like,’” saidArmstrong Vincent Kelly,who travelledfrom Geelong,Victoria, to witness the migration wasa recentpassenger Over two hours,hewatched half adozen humpbacks perform breathtaking aerial maneuvers.

“It was unbelievable to me,” Kelly said.“Ididn’t expect to actually see a whale. Butthey were everywhere.”

Conservation comeback

Thehumpbackgridlock marks asharp reversal of fortunefor thewhales They were once hunted for meat andoil, and numbers dwindled to afew hundred before humpbacks became aprotected species in the Southern Hemisphere in 1963.

Thehumpback boom to about 40,000 since has broughtthe creatures into morefrequent contact with people than before.That means more entanglements with ﬁshing nets or run-ins with watercraft.

Where and when they appear has become less predictable too, withwhales in recentyears giving birth to calvesthe size of small cars in unexpected places. Harvesting of krill, which humpbacks eat in bulk, and heating seas due to climate change could be altering theirmigratory patterns, Pirotta said.

The population is still growing steadily,amplifying concerns about how humansand giantsofthe sea can safely share the coastline. ButitalsoputsmillionsofAustraliansashort walk and alittle luck away from encountering oneof the largest mammals on theplanet.

“It grounds you, Ithink,” said Armstrong, the boat skipper. “It makesyou realize there’sa lot more out therethan whatwethink there is in nature.”

BY MARIO RODRIGUEZ CANUTO Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA Fans and players weren’t the onlyones coping with extreme heat lastweek at theClubWorld Cup.

Snifferdogs— acommon addition to the security detailsatmanylarge sporting events— had ajob to do at the international soccer tournament despite thesweltering temperatures Andbecausethatjob includeswalking on hotasphalt, it can be tough on an animal’sfeet.

Thesolution? In Philadelphia, thesniffer dogs at Lincoln Financial Field were outfittedwith brightly colored protective booties as temperatures soared

“Every dogteam is differentand there aredifferent requirements; their precursors aredifferent.However, we go by the seven-second rule. If us humans can’t put our human backside or our hand on the concrete for longer than seven seconds without pulling it off, then we requiredog booties to go on,” saidCody Schwartz, manager of 3DK9 Detection Services,the privatecompa-

ny providing the K9 teams at the stadium. The company also contracts with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.

Besides wearing booties, the dogs are kept hydrated and limited to 20-minute patrolsatatime in the heat. They also enjoy cooling baths in kiddie pools filled with ice.

“Obviously,whenwe’re hot, they’re 10 times hotter They’re obviouslycarrying abig coat of fur, so it’s abig thingfor us.Our dogs are No 1. We can’tdoour jobs without them,”Schwartz said. Heat hasbeen an issue throughout theClubWorld Cup, atournament featuring 32 teamsfrom around the world playing in severalU.S. cities. Teamshave had to cut back on practice, substitutes have watched from the locker room rather than the bench, and hydration breaks have becomenecessary While thebooted canines drew alot of bemused attention, footwear for

ASSOCIATED

Spectators watchawhale

THE GULF COAST

Food trucks getsamescrutinyasrestaurants

BY MARYPEREZ

The Sun Herald

Food trucks are everywhere in South Mississippi —inparking lots, at festivals, food truck events and outside the shipyardsand factories during meal breaks.

Customers who appreciate the variety of food the trucks offer also want to know that buying a meal or snack from atruck is as safe as eating at abrick-and-mortar restaurant.

Abig “A” is posted in thewindow of Hand MHibachi and Burger,a food truck set up in the parking lot of Burnham Drugs along Mississippi Highway 57 in Vancleave.

The Ameans the inspector found no violations and every restaurant and food truck is required to display the latest grade.

Just like restaurants, food trucks get inspected onceortwice ayear, according to the Mississippi Department of Health,dependingon therisk level determined when the license is issued.

“Every single thing inhere is new,” said Michael Nguyen as he stood beside his shiny food truck.

The inspectors still went through the entire truck, he said, tomake sure the operation was clean and up to the health code. He also had to enroll in acertiﬁed foodsafety management course, which is required of the owner or manager at all Mississippi restaurants.

Surprise!

The same inspectors who drop in at all the restaurants and commercial kitchens in South Mississippi also visit food truckslooking for proper hot and cold holding temperatures, safe food handling and clean food preparation areas.

“They can show up unannounced anytime,”said Sara Pasquale, of

pole where he parks the truck, so it’s quieter and powers allhis appliances. This lets him put in longer hours—H and Misopen 10:30 a.m. to 8p.m. six days a week —close to theirhome in Vancleave. Sundays, the family goes to church, shops forfood forthe next week anddeep cleansthe hood,fan and entire food truck.

“It pays the bills,” he said.

“It’s agreat way to start without the huge overhead,” Pasquale said. Food trucks are “a little morehip” andcultural, she said, and in her case, healthierthan typical fast food. Customers build theirown bowl withabase like acai or coconut, addpeanut or almond butter for protein, choosethree toppings and adrizzleofhoney or Nutella.

few hours at atime,” he said, “so access to water and approved wastewater disposal is absolutely something that we address. Some mobile units have interchangeable water tanks that can be carried or rolled in and out. Others must return to their servicing area to be replenished. There are also some situations where water hookups areavailable, butwastewatermust still be disposed of in an approved manner.”

These trendy eateries are the new version of momand pop restaurants —onwheels.

Gulfport.

She sets up herPure Acai Bowls food truck —complete with tables, chairs andaccessories— along Ocean SpringsRoad in the Rouses Market parking lot. On other days,she movesoutside Memorial Hospital in Gulfport or is invited to festivals, such as theupcoming Fourth of July celebration in Ocean Springs. She just gotapproved to sell on Keesler Air ForceBase, andas thorough as the state health inspection is, she said the military baseregulations areeven more stringent.

She carriesaportable generator to power thefood truck that has aseparate water andwastewater

supply and holding tanks.

Keeping the interior clean isn’t aproblem, she said, because she wipes thecountersafter every order. Screensonthe windows keep flies out and bring cooler airin.

“Itcreates abreezeand makesit nice,” she said.

Sincemanyrestaurants have take-out windows and outdoor dining, it’s notthatdifferent keeping bugs away in afood truck.

“Open windows arenot unique to mobile units as brick-and-mortar restaurants can have drive-thru windows,” the health department said.

Less expensive, more specialized It’s his dream to have his own restaurant, Nguyen said, but that wouldrequire $150,000to$200,000 in startup fees.

He spent about $60,000 to buy andequip his foodtruck, andhis theme of “East meets West”combines Asian and American cuisine. Burgers with achoiceoftoppings andhibachifried rice with chicken, shrimporsteak are the bestsellers on themenuthatalso features chicken tenders, hibachi vegetables and egg rolls. He has aplug-in on thepower

She communicates withher followers on Facebook andInstagram to let them know where she’ll be set up each day,Pasquale said. Nguyen has embraced technology,inviting regulars to scan acode he haspostedonhis trucksothey can order ahead.Heaccepts credit cards and Apple Pay Inspectors work thelist

Food trucks in Mississippi are requiredtoget amobile foodfacility permit and apublic health permit/license fromthe health department and some cities also require apermit. Fees are the same formobile and brick-andmortar restaurants, from $40 to $264.50.

Food trucks can be inspected at the pointofdaily operation, at the servicing area where they are cleaned and loaded with food, or at temporary events, according to Adam Follett, retailfood protection director for Mississippi Health Department.

Permits aren’t needed foronedayevents. Allother temporary events are inspected.

Food trucks typically must meet the same requirements as restaurants. The major differencesinvolve mobile water and wastewater supply andstorage.

“Most mobile units are not equipped to operate morethan a

warm

BY SETH BORENSTEIN, BRITTANY PETERSON and CAROLYN KASTER Associated Press

LEVELLAND, Texas

Dozens of researchers are chasing, driving and running into storms to collect fresh hail, getting their car bodies and their own bodies dented in the name of science They hope these hailstones will reveal secrets about storms, damage and maybe the air itself.

But what do you do with nearly 4,000 melting iceballs?

A lot.

Researchers in the ﬁrst-ofits-kind Project ICECHIP to study hail are measuring the hailstones, weighing them, slicing them, crushing them, chilling them, driving them across several states, seeing what’s inside of them and in some cases — which frankly is more about fun and curiosity eating them.

The whole idea is to be “learning information about what the hailstone was doing when it was in the storm,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, one of the team’s lead scientists.

Calipers and crushers

It’s pushing midnight on a Friday in a Texas Walmart parking lot, and at least 10 vans full of students and full-time scientists are gathering after several hours of rigorous storm chasing.

Hailstones are in coolers in most of these vehicles, and now it’s time to put them to the test.

Researchers use calipers to measure the width, in millimeters, of the hailstones, which are then weighed

So far after more than 13 storms, the biggest they found is 5.5 inches, the size of a DVD. But on this night they are smaller than golf balls.

Once the measurements are recorded in a laptop, the fun starts in the back of a van with a shark-festooned beach blanket protecting the ﬂoor

The hail is put on a vertical device’s white holder Jake Sorber, a meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for

Business and Home Safety squeezes a hand grip about a foot above it and another white block comes crashing down, crushing the ice to smithereens. In the front of the van, Ian Giammanco, another IBHS meteorologist, records how much force it took to cause the destruction.

“That tells us about its strength,” Giammanco said. Different teams do this over and over, with the debris littering vans. It’s all

about trying to get good statistics on how strong the typical hailstone is. On this night, Gaimmanco and colleagues are finding the day’s hail is unusually soft It’s surprising but there’s a good theory on what’s happening.

“In hailstones we have

layers. So we start off with an embryo, and then you’ve got different growth layers,” said Central Michigan University scientist John Allen. “That white growth is what’s called dry growth. So basically it’s so cold that it’s like super cold liquid water freezing on surface. All the gas gets trapped inside. So there’s lots of air bubbles. They tend to make a weak stone.”

But don’t get used to it. Less cold air from climate change could conceivably mean harder hail in the future, but more research is needed to see if that’s the case, Giammanco said.

“Damage from a hailstone is not just dependent on how fast and the exact amount of energy it has. It’s how strong are these hailstones, Giammanco said. ”So a really soft one is not actually going to damage your roof very much, especially an asphalt shingle roof. But a really strong one may crack and tear that asphalt shingle pretty easily.”

Collect a pristine

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By CAROLyN KASTER

Tony Illenden crouches outside Northern Illinois University’s Husky Hail Hunter to scoop hail into a bag while in a hailstorm during a Project ICECHIP operation in Levelland, Texas.

Jake Sorber crushes hail in a Walmart parking lot after a storm.

Hospital leaders warn of Medicaid cuts

Proposals would have dire consequences, open letter states

BY CHAD CALDER Staff writer

The heads of seven major hospital systems and health care organizations in Louisiana penned an open letter to the U.S. Senate on Saturday warning that proposed Medicaid cuts would be devastating for patients, the industry and state and local economies.

The letter says the cuts proposed in the current Senate ver-

WBR tackles school absence problem

‘Our teachers are excited,’ superintendent says

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

Across Louisiana, schools continue to struggle with getting students into classrooms.

But it’s a different story in West Baton Rouge Parish.

During the 2024-2025 school year, at least 3% fewer kids each month were chronically absent. The best improvement was in December, when the number dropped from 18.7% to 9 8%

The numbers are notable for a parish in a state where nearly 1 in 4 students was chronically absent in 2024. Children are chronically absent when they have missed 10% or more of the school year, including excused and unexcused absences.

“Our teachers are excited, our principals are excited,” Superintendent Chandler Smith said.

“We attribute a lot of our growth and academics to the decrease in chronic absences.”

Smith credits the gains to communication with parents and greater resources for Families In Need of Services, a program operated by the 18th Judicial District Court that works with families to address truancy and other issues

The district also implemented an attendance recovery option in which kids can make up instructional time after school or on Saturdays.

“Our main goal is to increase student achievement, so all those things are in place to make that happen,” Smith said.As West Baton Rouge combats absenteeism on the local level, state leaders have looked for ways to improve attendance across the board. House Bill 185, by Rep. Barbara Reich Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, would have used daily attendance data to determine school funding. The bill did not make it out of committee.

The Louisiana Department of Education also released “The Power of Presence” attendance strategy in June. The initiative provides guidelines for schools on how to effectively intervene in chronic absenteeism cases, rather than a punitive approach Meanwhile, West Baton Rouge school leaders plan to stick with the tactics that have shown the greatest success this past school year to keep their own chronic absenteeism numbers going down.

“We’re going to continue doing what we’re doing,” Smith said.

“I know that the state has really made a push, which is helpful for us.”

sion of the massive reconciliation package working its way through Congress — known as the One Big Beautiful Bill would be historic in their devastation and warrant our shared advocacy to protect our patients and the care we provide them at our hospitals and clinics.”

The letter says the cuts threaten rural communities in particular because their hospitals are already in a precarious ﬁnancial

state The Senate bill was dealt a blow this week when the body’s parliamentarian ruled it doesn’t adhere to the rules Republicans want to use to approve it without Democrats. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy says he disagrees with those calling to fire the parliamentarian; while the state’s other senator, Bill Cassidy, has said he feels the House bill is superior The cuts proposed in the Sen-

ate bill — several billion per year in Medicaid funding to Louisiana healthcare providers — would likely force hospitals to consolidate services, reduce staff and close facilities This would “adversely impact our collective ability to provide care, train the next generation of physicians, employ tens-of-thousands of people, and it would stiﬂe the billions in economic impact we generate each year,” the letter says.

Signing the letter were Rock Bordelon, president and CEO of Allegiance Health Management; Greg Feirn, CEO of LCMC Health; E. J. Kuiper, president and CEO of FMOL Health; Randy Morris, chair of the Louisiana Rural Hospital Coalition board; Pete November, CEO of Ochsner Health; Rene

ABOVE: Indy artist Kelsi Creek, a Baton Rouge native now living in Austin, performs during Pride Fest RIGHT: Members of the Flamingeauxs ﬁll the aisles to perform during a showing of all the Baton Rouge dance krewes.

Marilyn Roberts dances through the audience during Pride Fest 2025 on Saturday at the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge.

BR PRIDE

Baton Rouge judge back from suspension

DA criticizes ruling vacating death sentence

Johnson Rose taken off criminal cases

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

Baton Rouge Judge Eboni

Johnson Rose returned to the bench this week after a nearly yearlong hiatus imposed by the Louisiana Supreme Court On Thursday her colleagues at the 19th Judicial District Courthouse decided to take her off criminal cases Ten of the 14 active judges in the Baton Rouge-based 19th Judicial District Court signed the order to shift Johnson Rose. She will begin presiding over a docket composed entirely of civil cases beginning Aug. 11, according to the order. She will

be swapping judicial assignments with her uncle, Donald Johnson, currently the 19th JDC’s chief judge. According to the order, Johnson Rose will handle her uncle’s civil docket, and he will take the reins of her criminal docket. Johnson Rose, who was elected in 2020, handled a full slate of criminal cases and a small civil docket before the Louisiana Supreme Court justices took the unusual step of sidelining her last August, pending the outcome of a Judiciary Commission of Louisi-

Man convicted of killing two BR restaurant workers

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore criticized a federal judge’s recent decision to vacate the death sentence of a man convicted of killing two Baton Rouge restaurant workers during a 1995 armed robbery An East Baton Rouge jury in 1997 condemned Todd Kelvin Wessinger to be executed after ﬁnding

and

Restaurant. Wessinger, now 57, has fought to stave off his execution in state and federal courts for the past 28 years. In a June 20 order, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles granted Wessinger’s petition challenging his death sentence under the federal court system’s habeas corpus provisions. In doing so, deGravelles doubled down on a prior judgment he made in 2022 after determining Wessinger’s court-appointed attorneys provided ineffective counsel during the penalty phase of his 1997 trial. The matter now heads back to the 19th Judicial District,

court where Wessinger was originally tried, for a new panel of

Performer

STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Ragas, president and CEO of Woman’s Hospital; and Paul A. Salles, president and CEO of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

Johnson Rose

Flowers through the cracks in New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina led to a new era of art

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

It was just 30 days after Hurricane Katrina marauded across New Orleans when artist Jeffrey Holmes and his then-wife Andrea Garland hauled the waterlogged furniture out of their art gallery on lower St Claude Avenue. They piled the moldy debris on the neutral ground, webbed it with yellow caution tape and sprayed it with grafﬁti, including the inscription

“RIP Lower Ninth Ward.”

Here and there, the couple placed mirrors in the debris so onlookers would see themselves in the devastation Though there was little audience in the evacuated city to appreciate the exhibit, the media discovered the display and it appeared everywhere from The New York Times to CNN to Al Jazeera.

Holmes said he had the urge to create something in reaction to the cataclysm, because “that’s what artists do when they’re suffering.” Today, he looks back on the installation, which he dubbed “Toxic Art,” as an early sign of the golden era of creativity that was to come.

“The flowers were already coming through the cracks,” he said.

Art capital

Nobody could have guessed that the destruction wrought by the 2005 hurricane would lead to one of the most signiﬁcant periods of artistic expression in New Orleans’ history, one that still reverberates 20 years later

But that’s what happened.

The nation was acutely conscious of its southernmost city on the Mississippi after the disaster And for a time, New Orleans became an art capital.

Truth is, if you add up the ever-evolving music scene, the long-entrenched community of bohemian painters, poets, writers and actors, plus the artistry of Carnival, New Orleans had always been an art capital.

But starting in 2007, a wave of Katrina-related works surged forth, capturing the city’s anguish and fueling its drive to rebuild.

“New Orleans is the most important city in America this poor place,” said local visual artist Willie Birch. “There ain’t no place like this.”

Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee would create a 4-hour HBO documentary about the storm’s aftermath, titled “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” and enlist frequent collaborator and composer Terence Blanchard to create a deeply personal score. The

MEDICAID

Continued from page 1B

“Together, we employ more than 100,000 people and generate billions in annual economic impact,” they wrote. “Hospitals account for 5.7 percent of

JUDGE

Continued from page 1B

ana investigation into misconduct allegations. The interim suspension stemmed from a series of miscues Johnson Rose made in criminal cases that led to ﬁve judicial misconduct complaints being lodged against her in little more than a month last year In March 2024, the judge convicted a former Baton Rouge police officer, accused of sexual misconduct against a Southern University student, of “misdemeanor grade” mal-

New Orleans-born trumpet player would go on to create a Grammy-winning jazz album based on that work.

Another famous local Wendell Pierce, would star in a haunting outdoor production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” staged in the ﬂooded wasteland near the collapse of the Industrial Canal ﬂoodwall.

Even Hollywood leading man Brad Pitt got in the act. Pitt set out to do nothing less than rebuild an entire neighborhood by enticing some of the world’s best architects, including Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Shigeru Ban, to design earth-friendly, affordable houses for residents of the obliterated Lower 9th Ward. Eventually Pitt’s nonprofit organization, known as Make It Right, built 109 strikingly modernistic dwellings, though not without some controversy

Visual arts blossom

All artistic endeavors seemed to take on a new energy and importance. But nowhere was the creative explosion more powerful than in the visual arts, where sculpture, painting and performance particularly signaled the city’s struggle.

“Artists were pushing themselves to make radical, bold work,” largely because the very survival of the city was at stake, said Miranda Lash, who at 24 was serving as the New Orleans Museum of Art’s curator of contemporary art. It was “a moment to make a case for self-preservation,” she said. “There was a lot of momentum for artists to play a role in the community,” and “there was a deep sense of purpose.”

In the ﬁrst two years after the storm and flood, New Orleans artists addressed the tragedy head-on NOMA lined the walls of a gallery with hundreds of photos of the destruction by local photographers.

Artist Eden Gass created a black American ﬂag, embroidered with black stars and bars, which she ceremonially burned in protest of the federal government’s slow response to the crisis.

Other artists produced installations inside of formerly ﬂooded homes, built sculpture from debris, recorded scenes of the ruin in paintings, and likewise used their creativity as catharsis.

And that was just the beginning.

‘New frontier’

On the third anniversary of Katrina, as another monster storm named Gustav barreled toward south Louisiana, one of the most famous artists in the world stalked the streets of New Orleans.

The British graffiti art-

total employment in Louisiana. Louisiana hospitals generate $38.4 billion in business transactions, $14.2 billion in annual payroll, and $1.7 billion in net state and local tax collections.”

And the economic consequences, they write, “pale in comparison to the

feasance in office. When attorneys pointed out there is no such offense in Louisiana law Johnson Rose acquitted the defendant, drawing intense objections from prosecutors.

Less than a month later, the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Baton Rouge teacher accused of bashing a car on a ﬂooded street with a baseball bat and threatening its occupants with a gun. Johnson Rose originally read out a verdict of “not guilty,” but then returned everyone to the courtroom and issued a guilty verdict, saying the jury had misunderstood the instructions. The Supreme Court, in

ist known as Banksy had made the walls of the city his canvas, secretly creating a suite of small murals devoted to the population’s seemingly endless recovery struggle. His wistful artworks captured the mood of the moment.

The best of Banksy’s works depicted a young girl holding an umbrella over her head in an unsuccessful attempt to stay dry As a coy reference to the failed levee system, Banksy had equipped her with an umbrella that not only leaked, but it seemed to be the source of the deluge

Ogden Museum of Art curator Bradley Sumrall said “the larger art world” may have been more interested in the superstar’s visit than the resident population, which was otherwise engaged. There also was some resistance to the intrusion.

“Locals were a little tender to another outsider coming into their city and interpreting their stories,” he said.

Still, the out-of-town artists kept coming, said New Orleans artist Terrence Sanders-Smith, who founded Artvoices magazine to document the post-catastrophe art scene.

“Artists saw this place as the new frontier,” he said.

Prospect is born

By 2008, the city was aboil with art

California-born curator Kirsha Kaechele transformed a handful of unoccupied houses in the St. Roch neighborhood into an experimental art laboratory

Energetic sculptors Michael Manjarris and Peter Lundberg installed scores of modern sculptures along the roadways.

New galleries popped up on St. Claude Avenue, and established galleries and

harm that will be caused to residents across the state, regardless of insurance status, who will no longer be able to get the care that they need. The House version, while it presented challenges, is a more workable solution which would help to avoid many of these effects.”

overturning the verdict, ruled that Johnson Rose improperly met with jurors alone after the trial. One of the justices from the state Supreme Court went so far as to question Johnson Rose’s “professional competency.”

Then, in May 2024, Johnson Rose had to vacate the guilty plea of Texas lawyer who admitted to setting his ex-girlfriend’s Baton Rouge home on fire. The judge realized she had suspended too much of his prison time.

Lastly, Johnson Rose, who is Black, accused East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore’s ofﬁce of “systematically targeting

museums seemed more precious and popular than ever.

Then there was the dawning of a new art festival, which promised to become the visual art equivalent of the Jazz Fest.

Dan Cameron, the former curator of the New Museum in New York and a longtime Jazz Fest fan, founded an ambitious, multimillion-dollar art festival called Prospect.1, which featured works by a cast of 80 international stars in 24 scattered locations across the city The contemporary art triennial continues to be held in New Orleans

The centerpiece was a three-story Noah’s Ark, fashioned by Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford in the Lower 9th Ward. The landlocked boat, which was built from recycled plywood and coated in tattered movie posters, was an ironic symbol of the uncertainty of survival.

As the L.A Times art critic sardonically wrote at the time: “If only FEMA had been this prepared.”

Birch was also featured in the festival at the New Orleans Museum of Art. His huge, black-and-white cityscape drawings depicted churches, homes and street corners in various stages of rebuilding, as well as the realities of everyday life after the storm.

The artist contends that the greatest form of creativity is culture, which is why the city, in particular, ignited with so many inspired works. All forms of New Orleans expression were part of the mix, he said, from papier mâché Mardi Gras masks, to yard art sculpture, to secondline parades and blues, jazz and rap music

“The culture, that’s our enrichment, that’s our food,” Birch said. “That’s what nurtures us.”

The signatories say they are grateful that Gov Jeff Landry and the state Legislature passed a budget that fully supports the Medicaid program, but more work is needed

“Louisiana and our healthcare delivery system are at a crossroads,” they wrote. “We face the

Black men” and striving to “stick every n***** in jail” during an April 29, 2024, sidebar with prosecutors and public defenders in her courtroom.

The investigation ended with Supreme Court justices suspending Johnson Rose without pay for two months in an April 23 order

The state’s high court also placed her on two years of probation and ﬁned her more than $11,000.

Johnson Rose was one of the 10 district judges who signed off on the reassignments Thursday, 19th JDC records indicate. District judges Tiffany FoxworthRoberts, Collette Greggs, Beau Higginbotham and

jurors to determine if he should be put to death. Moore, the parish’s top prosecutor, said he respects the federal judge’s ruling, but disagreed with the decision. The district attorney has joined Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill in an appeal challenging the latest ruling. That sends the matter to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for the federal appellate court to consider Moore responded to the ruling in a statement Friday He explained that relitigating Wessinger’s capital sentence after such a long time will take a toll on the courts and burden the victims’ families.

Last traces

Today, evidence of postKatrina artworks are almost as scarce as the aerosol X’s left behind on houses by ﬁrst responders. Erica Larkin, a metal sculptor and meticulous welder began conceiving of her minimalist response to Katrina shortly after the storm.

It would simply be a series of uniform, 10-foot-tall poles, with glass rings — made by Larkin’s husband Mitchel Gaudet — to mark the height of the 2005 ﬂood. Elysian Fields Avenue, which bisects the city from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River seemed the ideal place to install a series of the telltale markers.

Larkin feared that even in the wild west atmosphere of 2008, no one was going to permit her to erect an art project on a public neutral ground. So, she and her husband decided “it was guerrilla art time.”

As they made plans to produce and install the poles on the sly, a generous art funder, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, offered to sponsor and manage the project.

In the end, 12 “Watermarks” rose on Elysian Fields as one of the most effective documentary artworks inspired by the disaster It stood for 17 years, becoming one of the very last public artworks devoted to storm.

But this spring, the poles were gone. They’d been removed for renovation by Arts New Orleans, a nonprofit that supports arts and culture in the city

The “Watermarks” are expected to be back in place by Aug. 25 to mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

“I’m proud we did them,” Larkin said.

largest cut to healthcare in our state’s history Will our leaders in Washington choose to protect the health of our people, hospitals and economy? We are counting on them to do so.”

Email Chad Calder at ccalder@theadvocate.com.

Richard “Chip” Moore did not sign the order

The district court is one elected judge shy of its normal roster of 15. Former chief judge Wilson Fields won a seat on the First Circuit Court of Appeal unopposed in January Ad hoc judges have handled his docket since he assumed his new position in the appellate court in March Fields’ successor is set to be determined in the Oct 11 election. That could happen sooner if a candidate for the seat is unopposed when the qualifying period ends July 11.

Email Matt Bruce at matt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

“The ramifications of this order cannot be overstated The state of Louisiana will be forced to carry the egregious burden of presenting the entirety of this horriﬁc case to another jury,” Moore said. “These twelve individuals will not be able to make a knowing and informed decision about whether to impose the death penalty without a full understanding of this defendant’s heinous conduct The moral force of the evidence was overwhelming at the trial in this matter This simply cannot be recreated 30 years after the commission of these crimes. Witnesses have died and their testimony will have to be read into the record from a transcript. The jurors will be deprived of the opportunity to hear the voices and observe the demeanor of people who saw the trail of death and bloodshed Todd Wessinger left behind. The families of the victims will be forced to relive this tragedy in a courtroom again. How many times will the criminal justice system force the Guzzardos to hear their daughter beg for her life in her 911 call?”

Stephanie Guzzardo was a manager at Calendar’s, a restaurant and bar on Perkins Road that closed in 2010. Wessinger shot her as she was making a call to 911 and begged him to spare her life. He shot a third employee in the back, but that worker survived Wessinger’s gun jammed when he tried to shoot a fourth employee in the head.

Wessinger’s appeals reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and justices rejected his claims of ineffective counsel after reviewing the case in 2018.

“We respect that federal courts may grant habeas corpus, but it is our opinion they should do so only as law and justice require,” Moore said Friday. “Unwarranted intervention is inconsistent with finality, comity, and the orderly administration of justice. It constitutes an affront to the State and its citizens who returned a verdict of guilt after considering the evidence before them, imposes signiﬁcant costs on state criminal justice systems, and causes continued unwarranted suffering of victims who have long awaited justice.

“These families have been through enough,” Moore said. “We are committed in our duty to them, our community and the citizens of this state We will continue our ﬁght to maintain the death penalty for Todd Wessinger.”

Email Matt Bruce at matt.bruce@ theadvocate.com.

Unof

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER

Jeffrey Holmes is reflected in his impromptu installation, called ‘Toxic Art,’ assembled just days after Hurricane Katrina flooded his gallery on St. Claude Avenue. It is thought to be the first public artwork that was created in reaction to the devastation.

Historic Tujague’s sign comes down, likely museum bound

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

The historic Tujague’s restaurant sign that hung for decades over one of the city’s oldest French Quarter restaurants has been removed by the building’s owners and appears headed to a new home at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. The sign’s removal earlier this month came after the Vieux Carré Commission in May approved a request by the building’s owner, real estate developer Mike Motwani and members of his family, to take it down.

The Motwanis said through an attorney that they intend to give the sign to the museum, whose executive director said she welcomes the addition to the collection of historic restaurant memorabilia But it’s not clear who will pay for repairs to the 75-year-old sign, which is currently sitting in the yard of a neon repair shop in Central City “We told them we would love it, but we need to discuss a donation,” said the museum’s executive director Connie Jackson.

The removal is the latest development in a yearslong saga over the fate of the neon blade sign and, more broadly, the building at 823 Decatur St., which was home to Tujague’s for more than

150 years before the restaurant closed during the pandemic and later reopened in a new location.

The Motwani family is currently renovating the building and is in talks with a new restaurant tenant, according to an attorney for the family, Rob Mouton, who declined to identify the restaurant. As for the sign, Mouton said late Thursday that the family will “reach out to the restaurant to discuss the scope of the repairs.”

The former Tujague’s building and its sign — long an iconic part of the Decatur streetscape — has become a focus for preservationists and neighborhood activists. They say it symbolizes the ongoing struggle to balance the character of the city’s most historic neighborhood with the need for new development.

“We have been working on this sign issue for years,” said Erin Holmes, executive director of the Vieux Carré Property Owners and Residents Association. “People do not like to remove classic signs. They’re a nod to the past.”

In 2020, Tujague’s closed during the pandemic and moved out of its longtime home. Mark Latter, the restaurant’s owner said at the time that his lease was expiring and he and the Motwanis, who had purchased the property in 2013,

couldn’t come to terms on an extension.

Latter later reopened his restaurant up the street in the 400 block of Decatur

The Motwanis kept the original Tujague’s sign and also its famed mahogany bar, which was later removed when the Motwanis began renovations of the building. The family has since said the bar is in storage.

In the meantime, the Motwanis asked the Vieux Carré Commission for permission to alter the neon Tujague’s sign ﬁrst, for a potential Cajun restaurant and, later, for the Portland, Oregonbased Voodoo Doughnut chain.

Preservationists fought both efforts, citing the city’s historic sign ordinance, which aims to protect nearly three dozen classic neon signs around the city

The law prevents property owners from changing historic signs in any way, though it does not prohibit a building owner from removing a historic sign altogether

Citing that provision in the ordinance, the Motwanis, through an architect, sought approval from the VCC earlier this spring to allow them to remove the sign.

VCC staff experts said in a report that the owners had the right to remove the

sign. The report noted that VCC guidelines “encourage the retention of historic signage,” in the neighborhood and said the group would “encourage the applicant to seek new life for the sign in some kind of museum or private collection as opposed to the sign being simply disposed of.”

In May, Jackson said an architect for the Motwanis asked her if she would write a letter to the VCC telling them the museum would accept the sign as a donation. It wasn’t the ﬁrst she had heard about the offer — the idea had been ﬂoated months earlier to her predecessor, Liz Williams — so she will-

ingly complied.

“We actually had a picture of the Tujague’s sign in our historic sign gallery, so we wanted the sign,” she said. “I was under the impression that they were going to pay to clean it up. Last time I looked at it, it needs some work.”

It’s too soon to say what that work might entail and what it will cost, according to Mike Ricks, the owner of Signworx, which removed the sign over several days in mid-June and brought it to one of his subcontractors last week.

That ﬁrm, Big Sexy Neon, specializes in historic neon signs and is evaluating the sign to determine what it would take to clean it up and get it functional, Jackson said.

Ricks estimated that restoring the sign to its pristine, 1950s condition could cost several thousand dollars, though simply cleaning it and getting it functional would likely cost much less.

Jackson said she is optimistic the repairs will not be too costly and that the museum and Motwanis can come up with a solution to get the sign to its new home.

“We don’t think we need a lot of money,” she said. “We don’t want to restore it to look like new We just want it cleaned up and safe.”

Nungesser again floats idea of hotel in Fontainebleau

He argues it would drive tourism, but area residents argue about impact

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

Lt. Gov Billy Nungesser is again ﬂoating the idea of a hotel-conference center for the busy Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, a proposal that some St. Tammany Parish residents shouted down during a boisterous town hall meeting in 2020.

Nungesser, whose office oversees Louisiana state parks, said a hotel-conference center would be built and operated under a publicprivate partnership and would not only drive tourism but also generate money that can help the state pay for maintenance work at its network of public parks.

“We’ve got millions (of dollars) in backlogged work,” he said. “We can’t raise (entrance) fees high enough to cover it.”

Nungesser has been working to

gain support for the proposal. He recently discussed it during a presentation to the Northshore Business Council.

“Billy’s looking for partners,” said Ross Lagarde, a St. Tammany lawyer and member of the Business Council. “The (Northshore) Business Council is always in favor of anything that increases tax revenues in St. Tammany Parish.”

Nungesser said the proposal is in the early stages, without a speciﬁc site or design in mind. But he knows it will draw intense scrutiny and, likely, some vocal opposition.

In late 2019 and early 2020, Nungesser, then in his first term as lieutenant governor, pushed the hotel-conference center idea and got the St. Tammany Parish’s tourism agency to commission a feasibility study That study showed the parish’s hotel supply generally outstripped demand, but concluded that a hotel-conference center for Fontainebleau would be successful

But the proposal also stoked intense debate and often loud opposition. At a public meeting in Mandeville in January 2020, for instance, the proposal and Nungesser — were battered by many in

the standing-room-only crowd.

Some in the crowd that night demanded environmental impact studies. Others noted that the area in and around Fontainebleau is considered sacred ground by Native American tribes and also contains the graves of people who were slaves on what once was a large plantation. Others said a hotel and conference center would ruin the peaceful ambience of the park.

Still others claimed the hotel-conference center was a Trojan horse to bring a casino to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, which Nungesser denied. The Mandeville City Council followed a month later with a resolution opposing a hotel and conference center in Fontainebleau.

Nungesser said this week that he understands there will be opposition.

“There’s some people in Mandeville that are against anything. I get it,” he said.

“You’re never going to make everybody happy,” he added.

The 2,800-acre Fontainebleau

State Park stretches from U.S. 190 to Lake Pontchartrain, just east of the city of Mandeville, on the for-

mer sugar plantation of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville. It features a beach, camping sites, rental cabins, access to the Tammany Trace and a network of trails through the woodlands and marshes.

One of the state’s busiest parks, it has drawn more than 251,000 visitors for ﬁscal year 2025 which ends this month. It drew nearly 237,000 visitors in fiscal year 2024, and nearly 249,000 the year before that.

Nungesser said the tourist commission, Visit the Northshore, has commissioned a new study that should be done in the coming weeks. Katie Guasco, chief marketing ofﬁcer for Visit The Northshore, said that study is part of an overall tourism master plan the agency is undertaking.

Nungesser promised to open the process to public input as it gets further along. He said he’s looking at something in the neighborhood of 150 rooms, with meeting space. He said the state owns land adjacent to the east side of the park, but which he said is not actually inside the park, that could accommodate the development. He said the hotel-conference center can be built in a way that

is friendly to the environment.

“We’re not building a high-rise on the lake,” he said. “No, it’s not going to be a casino.”

Margie Vicknair-Pray, a Lacombe resident and conservation projects coordinator with the Sierra Club, said she recently spoke with Nungesser about an unrelated issue and the hotel-conference center, which she had been hearing rumors about, came up. She said she plans to meet with Nungesser in August to discuss his idea.

“I don’t know how big his plans are,” she said. “Or how much land.” Vicknair-Pray said she told Nungesser, “If you do it right, maybe it’s something I could support.

“If he could build an eco-lodge that is sustainable, doesn’t destroy the area around it, it could be a positive But if it’s done the Louisiana way, I’ll ﬁght it.”

Even if Nungesser can convince some that the development would be built in a way that is environmentally friendly and won’t trample any sensitive areas, Vicknair-Pray thinks it will be a hard sell.

“There are a lot of people out there who say ‘Hell no!’” she said.

STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE

The historic Tujague’s sign lies in a lot off Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in New Orleans on Tuesday

The former Tujague’s Restaurant property at 823 Decatur St.

Obituaries

Clayton, Elmer Ray

Elmer Ray Clayton was born July 8, 1931 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and taken to meet his Savior, Jesus Christ, on June 25, 2025. He considered it the highest honor to be apart of the family of God and to have contributed to the advancement of His kingdom. After serving in Zoar Baptist and First Baptist Denham Springs, he helped found New Covenant Church, now Grace Covenant, using his skills as an accountant in service. He cherished the deep friendships developed in the Legacy Bible class taught by Dr. Ed Walker and others. He graduated from Central High School in 1950 and Southeastern University in 1959, after his discharge from the U.S. Navy and retired from the Baton Rouge Water Co as Accounting Manager in 1996. Retirement gave him time for gardening, domestic and international travel, and following LSU sports, especially men's basketball. He visited allthe contiguous states in his Airstream trailer.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Dolores Mitchell Clayton, daughter, Cynthia Branton (David), grandson Andrew Branton (Bekah), granddaughter Rebecca Blanchard (Chris), gr. grandchildren Ryleigh, Klay, Adysen, and Korbin Branton, stepdaughter Kathryn Phillips McKenney (Dan), and step grandchildren Kate Aquino (Rafael) and Dylan McKenney.

Preceded in death by parents John Randolph and Georgianna McCulloch Clayton, sisters Bernice Audrey Mae, Pansey and Joyce and brothers Ed, Frank, Emmerson and Velford(Nook).

Visitation will be at First Baptist Church Denham Springs on Monday, June 30, 2025from 9with funeral service at 11. Military burial will follow at Evergreen Memorial Park, Denham Springs. The family is grateful for all expressions of love and kindness. They have requested that any memorial gifts be designated to Grace Covenant restoration fund

Billie

Billie Kay Dimattia, beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, mother-in-law,and friend, went into the house of the Lord, Monday, June 16, 2025, at the age of 80. Billie Kay was born in San Diego, California on November5 1944, daughter of the late Buford Wayne Benham and Billie O'Neal Benham, and was the oldest of 5children. She was raised in both Oklahoma and California. Her high school years were spent in Lompoc, California.After graduating from Lompoc High School in 1962, she met US Air Force Airman, Phillip Dimattia, and at the age of 18, she and Phillip were married in 1963 and moved to his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana,where they were married for 20 years. Once in Louisiana, Billie Kay started working in the mortgage business where she quickly became avery respected mortgage underwriter. During her 40 years in the mortgage business, she opened many branch offices for large companies and wasa beloved manager to many who say they "learned from the best!". Shortly after retiring, Billie Kay started the most rewarding job of her life -Maw Maw! Her grandchildren were blessed to be cared for by her until they started preschool. She alwayssaid those were the best days

days of her life! Above all, Billie Kay cherished the time spent with family. Billie Kay lovedunconditionally. Her kindness andgentlenesswill be remembered foreverbyher beloved family. She is survived by her four children, Duane Dimattia (Michelle),Krista Dimattia Haefner (John), Dean Dimattia, and David Valenzuela (Agnes); grandchildren, Noah Haefner, Abbey Haefner,GavinDimattia, Natalie Valenzuela, and Jaclyn Barreras (Nathan); great-grandchildren, Jalyn Hernandez, Ezra Hernandez, Ezekial Barreras, and Melody Barreras. She is also survived by herfour siblings, Teresa Burkert, Carol Benham, Wayne Benham, andDavid Benham (Ann). In honoring Billie Kay'smemory, we invite all who knew and lovedher to join the family for avisitation at St Patrick Catholic Church located at 12424 Brogdon Lane,Baton Rouge,LA 70816, with visitation Wednesday, July 2nd at 10:00am followed by mass at 11:00am. In honor of her memory, please consider making adonation to the GreaterBaton Rouge Food Bank, which Billie Kayheld dear to her heart.

Falkenheiner,Doris

Doris Falkenheiner, a longtimeresident of Baton Rouge,a retired attorney, an avidgenealogist,and conservationist,passed away on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at TheCarpenter House at theage of 83. She wasbornonJune 6, 1941, in Ferridayand grew up in Vidalia.Doris wasa 1959 graduateofVidalia High School.Doris received a Bachelor of Science degree from LSU and aJuris Doctordegree fromLSU in 1966. Shewas among the first 100 womenlicensed attorneysinLouisiana. Doris wasprecededin death by herparents,Raymond and Doris Fenton Falkenheiner of Vidalia Doris enjoyed reading, traveling, birdwatching, countingcounties, andgenealogy. Hercollectionof genealogy research recordsofthe Falkenheiner family and herextensive collectionofgenealogical research books were donatedtothe Concordia parish library and are housed in theDorisFalkenheiner Room. Doriswas an active member of many genealogy associations as well as conservationgroups, amongthem:the Sierra Club, theAudubon Society, andLeComitedes Archives delaLouisiana, Inc. She will be inurned at Greenlawn MemorialCenterinNatchez, on Saturday, June 28, 2025, at 11 a.m The family wouldliketo offerspecial thanks to her sitters, JynellHurst and DorethaWright,for their loving careofDoris while shewas aresident of JeffersonManor Nursing Home.They were her angelsonearth. In lieuof flowers, please make a contributioninher name to Le Comite des Archives de la Louisiana, Inc.,PO Box1547, BatonRouge, LA 70821-1547 or theLouisiana Society forthe Prevention of CrueltytoAnimals,1700 MardiGrasBlvd, New Orleans, LA,70114.

Grace, Marilyn

MarilynDupont Grace, age 85 of BatonRouge, LA passed away Monday, June 9, 2025, at North Oaks MedicalCenterinPonchatoula, LA. She wasbornAugust 9, 1939, in Hallowell, ME to thelateLouisand ClaraDupont.Marilynwas adevoted wife of 60 years to her husband Robert and mother of her threechildren Stephen, Thomas,and Bryan. Sheproudlyadopted Louisiana as her home, first in NewOrleansand laterinBaton Rouge where sheand Robertjoyfully and tirelesslyraised a wonderfulfamily.She guided herfamily through good timesand bad, and instilledinher childrenand grandchildren thetimeless values of love, trust,and

ve, ,a mutual respect Marilynloved cooking her glorious hybrid dishes of New England and Cajun influence. She wasa great mixed doubles partner on thetennis court and possessed awicked flatforehand that wasa consistent winner. She took quickly to golfatmid-life and carded 2holes-in-one. She was especially proud of the success of her investment club,which yielded astonishingreturns through thoughtfulresearch and a savvy approach to risk. Marilynispreceded in deathbyher husband, Robert Grace, her brothers, Walter, Williamand GordonDupont, and her beloved granddaughter, Autumn MirGrace. She is survived by her sons, Stephen and hischildren Ira and Sienna, Thomas and hiswife Lisa andson Seth,and Bryan and his wife Elizabeth and daughters Avery and Piper. A celebrationofMarilyn's life will be conducted on Tuesday, July 1, at Greenoaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park in BatonRouge,LA. Avisitation forfamily and friendswill begin at 10:30 am followed agraveside service at 11:30 a.m.

Laurence William Graffeo passed away on Thursday, June 26, 2025, at the age of 49. Laurence was born on December 20, 1975, in Nutley, New Jersey, to Warren and Mary Louise Graffeo. He briefly attended Southeastern Louisiana University before beginning his career as amechanic, where he became known as a"fixer of all things". Laurence proudly served in the Louisiana National Guard,excelling in marksmanship and dedicating himself to his state and country. With agreat heart,helived life on his own terms, forging lifelong friendships wherever he went—once you befriended Laurence, he was your friend for life. His greatest joy was his family, who he cherished deeply, always making timetocreate lasting memories with them. He immersed himself in his love for cars, his dogs, and rock music, often strumming his guitar with passion. Laurence leaves behind alegacy of loyalty, laughter, and love. Laurence is survived by his sister, Mary Michelle Lofton (Bart); brothers, Gregory Graffeo (Valli), Douglas Graffeo (Jennifer); nieces and nephews, Gregory Graffeo Jr., Eleni Baker, Via Lofton, Zach Lofton, and Rylee Graffeo. He is proceeded in death by his parents, Warren and Mary Louise Graffeo. The family will have aprivate service for friendsand relatives at alater date. In lieu of flowers, thefamily requests a donation be madeinLaurence's memory to the Baton Rouge Food Bank. Family and friends may sign the online guest book at www.resthavenbatonroug e.com.

Bruce J. Gueho passed away on Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the age of 87. He was born on July 10, 1937, in Plaquemine, Louisiana, to JosephA.and MildaBabin Gueho AgraduateofSt. John High School, Bruce laid the foundation for acareer with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), where he committed himself to public service and the community. Outside of his career, Bruce enjoyed fishing, gardening, and golfing.However, his greatest joy came from spending qualitytime with his family. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, La Juana PhillipsGueho; children, Judy Gueho Rome, Julie

Judy Rome, Gueho Laurent, and William Logan Gueho; grandchildren, Jordon Leblanc, Jevon Leblanc, Justin Rome, Mallory Gueho, Morgan Gueho, Austin Gueho, Logan Laurent, and Elise Laurent;along with great-grandchildren, Makenzie Leblanc, Colt Leblanc, Jensen Burkhalter, Jasper Burkhalter, and Beck Burkhalter. He is also survived by William Gueho (Sara), Judy (Joey), and Julie (Raoul). Bruce was preceded in death by his father, Joseph A. Gueho; his mother, Milda Babin Gueho; and siblings, Julia May Bourgoyne, Mary Edna Hernandez, Joseph A. Gueho Jr., Gilbert J. Gueho, Charles E. Gueho, Richard L. Gueho, and Logan L. Gueho.

Visitation will be held on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM, followed by amemorial service beginning at 11:00 AM at Resthaven Gardens of Memory &Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy in Baton Rouge. Inurnment will follow in our cemetery. Relatives and friends may sign the online guestbook at www.resthavenbatonro uge.com.

"To

(2 Corinthians 5:8)

Dennis transitioned to his heavenly home very peacefully on June 10, 2025, surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 10, 1940, to Robert G. Harris and Romaine Rebert Harris. Dennis graduated from the UniversityofMaryland with aPhD in Chemical Engineering and liked to joke about bringing his brains to the south. He worked for several different chemical companies early in his career and found his niche in the late70's as apersonnel recruiter. He started his own recruiting company in the80's and loved every minuteoftirelessly working at making placements locally, nationally and internationally. He was amember of several local and national professional organizations. He was also along-time member of Cortana Kiwanis Club of Baton Rougeand Graceworks Church in Prairieville. Dennis is survived by his loving wife, Leslie Gauthreaux Harris; sons, Greg Harris (Tiffany), Ryan Harris (Melissa); daughters, Kelly Lachney (Jason), Stacy Hannon (Michael); granddaughters Danielle Carnall (Jake), Mychelle Harris, Ella Simmons, CosbyHarris, and Avery Hannon; great grandsons Landon Carnall, Jordan Carnall; brother-in law Lynn Gauthreaux; sister-in-law Myra Medine (Buster); and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Diane Dubner; brother-in-law Norman Dubner; sister-inlaw Vivan Gauthreaux. The family would like to send a heartfelt thank youtothe loving caregivers and staff at The Pearl at Jamestown as well as Audubon Hospice. Dennis donated his body to LSU Health Science Center. Amemorial service will be held at Graceworks Church (16131 Hwy 44, Prairieville, LA) Saturday July12at11:00 am with visitation beginning at 10:30 am. When asked "How are you doing?" Dennis' answer was always "Better than Ideserve."

Sandra Owen McBride

Sandy Hebert, aloving mother, talented artist, and devoted animal lover, passed away peacefully on June 22, 2025, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was born on July 11, 1940, and grew up in St.Joseph, Louisiana,before making her home in Baton Rouge. Aproud alumna of

Ap Louisiana State University, she dedicated 30 years of her career to theState of Louisiana, where she served as head of purchasing. Beyond herprofessional life, Sandy was agifted artist, creatingmany beautiful paintings that will be cherished by those who knew her. Shehad akeen eye for decoratingand enjoyed the camaraderie of supper clubs. An active and spirited individual, Sandy was also aproud member of the LSU Golden Girls. Her deep and enduring love for animals was truly unsurpassed.

Sandy was married for 37 years to LA Hebert, who proceeded her in death. She was also preceded in death by herbeloved son, Ross Grand, andher sister, Ellie Zernott. She is survived by her stepchildren,Dawn Beasley, Tab Hebert and Shane Hebert; and her brother, Pat McBride.

Relatives andfriends are invited to attend aservice to celebrate Sandy's life at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy in Baton Rouge on Monday, June 30, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. Avisitation will be held at the funeral home beginning at 10:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Ascension Animal Hospital in Sandy's memory. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook or leave apersonal note to the family at www.resthav enbatonrouge.com.

Shirley "Bootsie" Duke Hundemer passed Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at the age of 93 in San Antonio, TX while holdinghands with her daughter and grandson.Born in Baton Rouge on February 20,1932, Bootsie was the only child of Benjamin Shirley Duke and Christine Mitchell. Bootsie went to Baton Rouge High,then attended Gulf Park College for Women in Gulfport, MS. Upon graduation she went to LSU whereshe was active in Pi Beta Phi. On June 28, 1958, she married James Hundemer. She andher husband were active members of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. She served on numerous community boards and school committees including Volunteers of America andthe Inner Wheel Club of Baton Rouge. She was passionate about theInner Wheel's annual Attic Trash &Treasure Sale. She especially enjoyed her Morning Callers and Lunch Bunch groups.

She moved to San Antonio, TX soon after the death of her husbandtobe close to family. She was gracious and beautiful, both inside and out. She is survived by her daughter Holly Hundemer Perry (Brian) of San Antonio and her son Christian Hundemer (Kelly) of Brighton,TN, and four grandchildren Katherine Martinez-Perry (Eric)of San Antonio, Patrick Perry, A.J. Perry both of whom reside in Lubbock, TX and Samantha Hundemer Johnson (Cam) of Crestview,FL. She also has twogreat grandchildren,Audrey and Grayson Johnson Special thanks to Heartto-Heart Hospice for all their support and care. She was preceded in death by herparents, a loving stepfather Joseph A Benda, and her beloved husband of 55 years who died in 2013.

ACelebration of Life will be held for friends and family in thefall.

Sr., Douglass Wayne

Springs, passed away 21, 2025, after acourageous battle with cancer. A U.S. Air Forceveteran,he was adevoted husband, father, and grandfather known for his strength, faith, andlove for family. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Monica, his children, grandchildren, and many loved ones. Visitation will be held Monday, June 30, from 9 a.m. until serviceat11a.m. at Seale Funeral Home, Denham Springs. Burial to follow at LouisianaNational Cemetery, Zachary, with Air Force Honors.

passed away peacefully on June 23, 2025, at the age of 84. She was born in Union Missouri to afamily of humble means, in the "little house on thehill." She graduated from Brentwood HighSchool in St. Louis, MO and had acouple of jobs, including flight attendant, until meeting her future husband, Gary W. Mockler. Gary was in the Marine Corps when they met andwas soon after stationed in Quantico, Virginia. Rita and Gary were married in the Chapel on the Marine base in 1962. After Gary's time in the Marines, they moved back to St. Louis andGary was hired by Anheuser-Busch. They would move six times with his various promotions andthen purchased what would become Mockler Beverage Company in Baton Rouge, LA in 1987. All told they were together for 57 years, until Gary's passing in 2020, and they lived in Quantico, St. Louis, Kansas City, Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, backtoSt. Louis, andthen back to Baton Rouge in 1987. Rita grew up as a tomboy in rural Missouri andloved to fish, apastime shelearned from her grandmother. In fact, in Baton Rouge shehad a trailer hitch installed on her Cadillac so she could tow her boat all over Louisiana with her dear friend, Joan Kimbrough.In the late 2000's, Rita survived cancer and was featured in aMary Bird Perkins Cancer Center TV commercial as "Rita Mockler, thehappy, fishing grandmother." (https://w ww.youtube.com/watch?v =4t3AUWZbF_w)

Along with fishing, Rita enjoyed the simple things in life: spending time with grandkids, cooking special meals, workingonher extensive array of plants, and she loved herdogs. In later years, Gary and Rita enjoyed watching old movies together, especially "The Classics". They would laugh andcry together no matter how many times they had seen aparticular movie. Rita, also knownas "Maca" by her grandchildren andloved ones, will be forever missed by those who knew her. She was kind and caring, loving, thoughtful, and spiritual ...simply alovely person. Rita Mockler is survived by her twosons, Timothy and wife Kimberly, Patrick and wife Shelley; grandchildren Taylor Scelfo and husband Dominick (their son Sam, and oneonthe way), Ryan, Shelby (her daughter Juliet and son Roman), Erin, Riley, Sean, Brynn, Patrick andCooper; Altogether 9grandchildren and 3great-grandchildren She is also survived by her brother, Kevin Gardner; nephew DanaWehrle and wife Susan;niece Laura Schultz and husband Steve. She is preceded in death by her husbandof57 years, Gary Mockler; her parents Ray and Jackie Gardner; sister Dixie and husband Don Wehrle; mother-in-law and fatherin-law Peggy andEdward Mockler; sister-in-law and brother-in-law Yvonne and Edward Mockler; niece Beth Poe; and nephew Michael Mockler. The Mockler family extends special thanks to Gary and Rita's wonderful caregivers for 9years Fay Hunt, Kay Duvall, andLaurie Quebedeaux, we call them "Mockler's Angels". We know with certainty that they lived longer and better lives andwere able to stay in their ownhome because of you. We can't thank you enough and we love you! We also want to thank Eucharistic Minister, Stacy Briggs Dille, for her8 years

Mockler, Rita G.

Rita

Mockler

Graffeo, Laurence William

Harris, Dennis Keith

be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."

Hundemer, Shirley Duke 'Bootsie'

Dimattia,

Kay

Gueho, Bruce J.

Hebert,

'Sandy'

McCasland

'Doug'

Douglass "Doug" McCasland Sr., 69, of Denham Springs, passed away June

of steadfast service and friendship. Rita and Gary treasured your visits.

The Mockler familytruly appreciates theoutpouring of love, prayers, and support we have received during this most difficult time with special thanks to Father Paul Yi and Father Jeffery Bayhi.

Visitation will be at St. George Catholic Church (7808 St. GeorgeDr., Baton Rouge,LA70809) on Monday, June 30, 2025, beginningat9:00am with Mass at 11:00 a.m. Immediately followed by aprivate family burial at the St. George Cemetery.

Both Rita and Gary were treated successfully at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center,and both were helped by Audubon Hospice of Baton Rouge. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Mary Bird Perkins (https://marybird.org) or Audubon Hospice (225-9246830) in the name of Rita Mockler.

"I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength."

Isaiah 49:5

Known for her vibrant personality and compassionate heart, Deborah "Debbie" Guerin Moran passed away Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Gonzales, Louisiana. Debbie was born on October 1, 1951,in New Roads, Louisiana,and was the firstchild of James Douglas Guerin,Sr. and Virgie Hebert Guerin.

Raised in Morgan City, she attended Central Catholic High School. After graduationin1969,Debbie moved to Baton Rouge where she worked for the State of Louisiana.In1973, she married, her rock and warrior, Reynolds James "Jim" Moran, Jr.ofGonzales.While they had three children, Sydney Lynn, Reynolds "Reyn" James III, and Garrett Douglas, Debbie's big heartedness made her amother figure to many, especially to her most treasured niece, Brandy Horn.

An avid LSU fan, she was amember of The Bengal Belles and dedicated her time to many causes. Debbie was on the royal court of The Governor's Ball (now Krewe de Louisiane) which supports cancerresearch,education and indigent patient care in the BatonRougearea.

Shechairedthe St. Aloysius Fair, was aconsummate room mother and volunteer for her children's various activities and could always be counted on to run carpool or cook for ateam of kids.

Debbie owned and operated VEC Solutions with Reyn, Garrett and Brandy. She did everything from bookkeeping to raising money for those in need. It wasn't just that she was capable of doing anything she put her mind to, it was that she was willing to do whatever it took to make things better or easierfor others.

She was amaster at cooking andthrowing parties, but her greatestjoy came from being amom Her friends and family knew that when Debbie arrived, so did the entertainment. She just had away of bringinglife intoaroom that willbetruly missed.

Debbie is survived by her husband, Jim, their two sons, Reyn and Garrett; sister,Denise Mendoza (Cary) of Berwick; and niece,Brandy Horn of Gonzales.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Sydney Lynn; mother and father, James Douglas Guerin Sr. andVirgie HebertGuerin;two sisters, Charmaine Hedrick and Leslie Guerin;and one brother, James Douglas Guerin,Jr.

Visitation will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 1, 2025,atResthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. Funeral Services will be at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory.

Family and friends may signthe online guestbook or leave apersonal note to the family at www.resthav enbatonrouge.com

Nolan, JuanitaSeal'Nina

JuanitaSeal“Nina Nolan passedawaypeace‐fully on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at herhomewith her family by herside. She was 96 yearsold.Ninawas a native of Sicily Island Louisiana anda longtime residentofBaton Rouge. She is preceded in death byher parents; herbeloved husband,JosephC.Nolan Jr.;two sistersand two sons-in-law.Ninaissur‐vived by herlovingchil‐dren, includingher three daughters,Kathy N. Primm, BrendaN.Antie (Charles), and Mary Beth N. Coxe;her son,JosephC.Nolan,III (Debbie). Sheisalsosur‐vived by sevengrandchil‐dren, ﬁve great-grandchil‐drenand hersister, Car‐olynS.Barbay. Relatives and friendsare invitedto attendthe GravesideSer‐viceat10:30 a.m. on Mon‐day,June30, 2025, at Resthaven Gardensof Memory, 11817 Jefferson Highway in BatonRouge.A Visitationwillbeheldat Resthaven FuneralHome beginning at 9:00 a.m. Fam‐ily andfriends maysign the online guestbook or leave apersonalnoteto the family at www.resthav enbatonrouge.com.

Spurlock, Rosetta

Rosetta Spurlockwas bornOctober 13, 1938,and departed life on June 23rd, 2025,atOur Lady of the Lake hospital. Ms. Spurlock was 86 years old. Shewas retiredwiththe Juvenile Reception and Diagnostic Centerof Louisiana Department of Corrections. She recently workedasa Foster Grandparent with J.K. HaynesElementary school

Shewas aresident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Shewillbevisiting at the LittleZion Baptist church; 1955 74th Avenue, Baton Rouge,LA. 70807on Wednesday July2nd, 2025, 4pm to 6pm with service to begin at 6pm conductedby PastorMarcus Jackson. DismissalThursdayJune 3rd at 10amatSouthern Memorial Gardens. Ms. Spurlock is survived by adevoted daughter; Debra Thomas Gray (Atlanta, Georgia); Grandchildren, Brionne A. Gray (Houston, Tx); Brandon M. Gray (Atlanta, Georgia);Camille A. Gray (Austin,Texas).Four

great-grandchildren. Ms. Spurlock was adutiful seven-decadelong member of Little ZionBaptist Church, PastorMarcus Jackson.

Stanly, HughDavid Hugh David Stanly peacefully left hisearthly home surrounded by his family on June 21, 2025, at theage of 78. David was a proud graduateofLSU and was retired fromthe State of Louisiana and theCity Parish of BatonRouge with acombinedserviceof50 years. He was also aretired E-8 Master Sergeant from theU.S.Army Reserve.Heissurvived by his wife of 48 years Gaye Strickland Stanly; his sons Jason B. Stanly(Ainsley) and LandonH.Stanly; grandchildren Lanny Stanly and partner Jake Stockstill, Gage H. Stanly and James B. (Shaw) Stanly; sisters in lawMarsha S. Brown (DonaldT.), Wanda S. Braswell (Jerry), Joan Stanlyand EvelynStanly as well as numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents HughT.Stanly and DorisStracenerStanly as well as his brothers WalterDouglasStanlyand Michael J. Stanly. David was ahumble man who, in his ownwords "liked living life sub-rosa, flying unseen under the radar."Heshied away from thanksand praise, finding them embarrassing.Hedid thethingshe didbecause he wanted to and becausehefeltthey were theright things to do His favorite pastimewas listening to thebluesand themusic of James Taylor, and he hopes that you'll remember him withtheir musical performances. Visitation willbeheld from9:30- 11:00 on Wednesday, July2,atSt. Alphonsus Catholic Church in GreenwellSpringswitha memorial mass to follow at 11:00. In lieu of flowersplease considerdonations to St. JudeChildren's Hospitalor acharity of your choice. The family wouldliketo offer special thanks to the staff of The Crossing/Clarity Hospice,especially nurse Terri who traveled and guidedusthroughthe entire21month journey.

Stewart Sr., James

James Stewart Sr., anative of Port Hudson, La., passed away on Saturday June 21, 2025. Serviceswill be at Hall Davis& Sons Funeral Home,9348 Scenic Hwy. Viewing willbeheld on Tuesday July1st,4-6. ServicesJuly 2nd,9am with aviewing 8-9. Reverend Daniel Smith officiating Thibodeaux, Joseph Ronald Gene

bodeaux is resting in the arms of Jesus now. He passed away on June 25, 2025 at theage of 81 at his home duetocomplications of Alzheimer'sdisease. He was born September 26, 1943 in Plaisance, Louisiana to Alexander and Dorothy Vidrine Thibodeaux. Ronisa 1961 graduateofRedemptorist HighSchool, and he also attended LSU. He enlisted in theU.S.ArmyReserve in 1964 and served at Fort Polk.Asa labtechnician, Ronworked at Uniroyal color lab and laterworked at ExxonMobil research laboratory. From1985 to 2005, he worked in his own business THE NUTMAN,in which he went to business offices in BatonRouge and sold Nuts,Dried Fruit,Fine Chocolates, and Candies. Ron married Joel d'Aquin Thibodeaux on November 27, 1982. He was previously married to Cometa Green Wages with whom he had twodaughters Denise and Julie. Ron was "always happy"and had a wonderful and special smile.Henever met a stranger and he keptpeoplelaughingwithhis "oneliner" sense of humor. He willbemissedtremendously by family and friends. Ronissurvivedby his wife Joel, daughter Denise Thibodeaux Rodgers (James), sister GlendaThibodeaux Cheek, sisters-in-law Betty Nettles Thibodeaux and Suzy BroussardThibodeaux.He is also survivedbygrandchildrenBrittany(Daniel), Colin(Heather), and Taylor (Mkayla), and six greatgrandchildren Emilia, Ethan, Elisha, Lyla, Cyrus, and Quinn.Heispreceded in death by his daughter Julie, brothers Jimmy Thibodeaux and John Thibodeaux, as wellashis parents Alex and Dorothy Vidrine Thibodeaux. The memorial servicewillbe on Saturday, July12, at

RabenhorstFuneral Home, 11000 Florida Blvd,Baton Rouge,LA70815, with visitation at 11:00 a.m. until servicesat12:00 Noon, with areception following at Rabenhorst.

Tilley, Patricia A. Patricia A. Tilleywas born on April 2, 1976, and passedaway on June 22, 2025, in Baton Rouge Memorial visitation will be on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at RabenhorstFuneral Home East, 11000 Florida Blvd,from9am until11am. Visitation will resume later that day at St.Patrick Catholic Church,12424 Brogdon Ln,from1pm until Memorial Mass at 2pm. For more information andto view theonline guestbook, please visit www.rabenhorst.com

MargarettAnn Starns Villars.August17, 1931 –June 21, 2025. Margarett Ann Starns Villars,passed quietly from this life on June 21, 2025 at herhome inSt. Francisville Louisiana surrounded by family. Shewas there‐markableage of 93 years and tenmonths. Margarett isprecededindeath by her husband,VernonPatrick Villars,her son, Mark StevenVillars,and herson Peter Matthew Villars. Sur‐vivingMargarett areher remaining ﬁve (5)children, Patrick LouisVillars (Krista),Margarett Ann

“Peggy”Villars Abadie (Don),MaryKelly Hyatt (Mark), DeborahLynn Canale(John),and Eliza‐bethMorgan, DVM(Bill). Additionally,Margarett leavesa rich legacy of 20 grandchildren,29greatgrandchildren,and 2greatgreat-grandchildren!Fam‐ily andfriends areinvited tojoinusasMargarett is laidtoher ﬁnalreston Monday, June 30, 2025. Visi‐tationwilltakeplace at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church,11485 Fer‐dinandStreet,St. Fran‐cisville, LA at 9amfollowed byfuneral Mass at 10 am Intermentwilltakeplace at11:45 am at Roselawn MemorialPark, 4045 North Street,Baton Rouge, LA.In lieuof ﬂowers, please send any donationstoWoman’s New Life Clinic (www.wom ansnewlife.com)

Villars, Margarett AnnStarns

Walker, Edward Marlon

Moran, Deborah 'Debbie'Guerin

OPINION

OUR VIEWS Committee should cast a wide netfor next LSU president

The committee that the LSU Boardof Supervisors has chosentoselect theLSU system’snext presidenthas abig jobaheadofit.

The outgoing president,William Tate IV,accomplished much during his fouryearsinBaton Rouge. LSUhit record enrollmentsand spentan eye-popping $543 million in research funding last year

Outside of the classroom, Tate’stenure saw majorathleticsuccesses,including national championships in baseball, gymnasticsand women’sbasketball, amongothers

But it hasn’tbeen all smooth sailing.Tateinheritedthe effects of the COVID-19pandemic when he tookthe job in 2021. LSU wasalso dealingwiththe fallout of nationwide racial justice protests and accusations that some university ofﬁcials had downplayed allegationsofsexual assault.

More recently,several of his toplieutenants have left for other jobs, and he’sbeenforced to institute ahiring freezeamid questions about the stability of federal research funding.

That’swhy it’simportant that the19members of the new committee, whocome fromavarietyofmostly business butalsosome academic backgrounds, put the wealthoftheir collective experience together in pickinga newleader

They will face some serious questions: Should the candidate come from inside the system, like Matt Lee, currently the interim president who has been at LSU for twodecades?Orwould it be better to go outside thesystem butstay with an in-state academic administratorlike with McNeese State University PresidentWade Rousse, as some have suggested?Orshouldthe new leader come from the politicalrealm, like U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow —who also hasuniversity administration experience —asothers have proposed?

Scott Ballard, the Board of Supervisors chair who is also on the committee, has said that members plan to conductanational search. That sounds like agood idea. Apropersearch will include arigorous look at candidates local andnationalwho have therequisiteacademic andadministrative experience,aswellasthe vision to move the system forward. It’s far too early to anoint anyone contender at this point, but we can say this:The committee’sactionswill reverberate acrossthe system’seight campusesand thousands of employees and students. The new leaderwill have to navigate the state’sthorny politics, guide the impending absorption of theUniversity of New Orleans into the LSU system and maintain the level of excellencethat theLSU communitydeservesand hascometoexpect Given the weight of that burden,weurgethe committeetoworkhardtoidentify the best candidatepossibleand rejectovertlypolitical considerations. After all, the choice isn’t important just to those who bleed purple and gold. LSU is the state’sﬂagship university,and its success or failure affects all Louisianans.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

In Iran,let’s hit’em hard andagain

AfterIsrael took out at least twoof Iran’stop scientistsbehind the development of nuclear weapons (and promised to kill more), my high school ﬁght song came to mind. At football games after atouchdown we sang, “Hit ’em hard and hit ‘emagain. Show ’em now thatwe’re gonna win...”

That is precisely what Israel has done in several strikes againstits mortal enemythat has threatened to exterminate the Jewishstate, renegedon past agreementstocurtail its enrichment of uranium and made statements about itsreligious motivationfor attacks on Israel and support of various terrorist proxies. Why shouldn’tIsrael be expected to defend itself against thestated aims of theIslamic fanatics in Tehran?

all, of Iran’smissile launchers. Some missilesgot through and hit parts of Tel Aviv,wounding scoresand killing some civilians

The diplomatic “rope-a-dope” strategy used by Iran to string out negotiations in ordertocontinue pursuing uranium enrichment with anuclear weapon —its likely outcome—has worked over severalU.S. administrations Mossad managed to penetratedeep into Iran withadrone base and other weapons which took out many,but not

Donald Trump recently wrote on Truth Social: “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisurebusiness have been stating that our very aggressive policyonimmigration is taking very good, longtime workersaway from them,with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Let’s get theobvious out of the way.Trumpisheavily invested in two of thosethree businesses. He’sprovenhimself very good at looking out for No. 1.

President Donald Trump has declared thatifIran doesn’treturn to negotiations, it will suffer far worse attacks. That should not be the goal, because there is no evidence thatIran would behave any differently if previously failed negotiations resume. The goal should be regime change. The current Iranian regimecame to power in 1979, thanks to Jimmy Carterundermining the shah, who kept the fanatics now running and ruining the country at bay.The shah had his problems, but was pro-West. Since then, the Islamic regimehas sustained itself with guns, crooked elections,bysuppressing protests and jailing or killing those opposed to the ayatollahs. The Middle East —indeed the world —would be better off and asaferplace if the regime were to fall. The important questioniswho would take their place? It can’tbearepeat of 1979 with different faces but thesame objectives.

There is political opposition in Iran and we occasionally hear voices that claim support for human rights, free elections and other things appealing to Western ears. There have been street protests, which the Revolutionary Guard quickly extinguished. In atelevised address after the bombing began, Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to effectively overthrow their government: “Israel’sfight is not against the Iranian people. Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you. The time has come for the Iranian people to unite around its flag and its historic legacy,bystanding up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime. .”

That would be the ideal outcome, but fear keeps many people from acting on their beliefs and goals. Overcoming fear takes courage and awillingness to sacriﬁce even your own life. Are there enough Iranians prepared to stand against the power and weapons of the ayatollahs?

Email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@ tribpub.com

That’smuch easier than formulating an immigration policy to meet the needsofemployers while ensuring decentwages forall workers. Many of these “very good” workers would have been admitted to this countrylegally,if we had carefully written immigration policy.The lack of said policyisa major driver of illegal immigration. Consider also theweirdnessof singling out two industries for lax immigration enforcement. Suppose an undocumented worker tending almond trees in California’sCentral Valley chooses to start awindow-washing business in Bakersﬁeld. Is he now slatedfor deportation?

BorderczarStephen Miller is putting on ashow of force that is both nasty and ineffectual. The wannabe warlord says he wantstoarrest 3,000 migrants aday,apparently any migrants. His enforcershave been pulling people withpending asylum cases and valid work permits off worksites. Few will argue against booting out undocumented aliens who have committedcrimes, other thanbeing here illegally.Barack Obama did abetter job of that thanTrumphas. MAGA’s obsessionwith the Southern border already calmed by Joe Biden before leaving ofﬁce, ignores nearly half the dilemma. An estimated 42% of undocumented immigrants now in the U.S. arrivedlegally but overstayed their visas. Meanwhile, organizers of the “No King” rallies did amasterful job. They broadly named the event to take much of the focus away from the sometimesabusive activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That combined with Trump’stoxic personality and chaotic politics resulted in small crowds honoring the U.S. Army’s250-year anniversary.That was toobad. Trump set the scene by holding that

unseemly political rally featuring himself at Fort Bragg. The Trump brand of vulgarity further diminished the Army’sparade by including an ofﬁcial broadcast shouting out “Special thanks to our sponsor —Coinbase.” Coinbase operates ahuge exchange for cryptocurrency,one of Trump’sshadowy avenues for amassing more wealth. The “No Kings” planners, who put together big gatherings in every state, wisely kept the protests outside Washington. That avoided conﬂict with the Army/Trump birthday parade. Afew hours after calling to exempt farm and hospitality workers from harsh immigration enforcement, Trump blamed Biden for the problem Biden went farinsolving. Trump himself has employed an illegal workforce most famously the construction workers who built Trump Tower. Americans don’twant open borders. They also recognize that many of the people who camethrough these open borders without the proper documentation are, indeed, otherwise very good people. Don’texpect sane immigration reform in the Trump era.

Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop.

Froma Harrop

Cal Thomas

COMMENTARY

In CVSsuit, Murrill is wrongonfreespeech

At least one of the three lawsuits that Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has ﬁled against the CVS drugstore chain is not just wrongheaded but constitutionally dangerous. She should withdrawit, forthwith.

Murrill is particularly angry with CVS for successfully convincing the state Legislature to reject abill that would have prohibited companies from owning drugstoreswhile also owning outfits called “pharmacy benefit managers.” PBMs serve essentially as middlemen to negotiate drug prices from manufacturers. Itake no position on whether PBMs are more beneficial than harmful —except to note that plenty of conservative-freemarket advocates are supporters of PBMs, so it’sodd to see Murrill and some other Republicansoppose them. Ialso take no position on whether PBMs and drugstores should be owned by the same corporation, and no position on themeritsofMurrill’ssecondand third lawsuits against CVS,which accuse the drugstore giantof “unfair competition” and(essentially) monopolistic practices. Murrill’sfirst lawsuit, though, is outrageous. It seeks to punish

CVS for contacting customers to express its political opposition to thelegislation she favored. It says CVS “illegitimately” used customers’ “contact information obtained under the guise of prescriptionand health notiﬁcations” to send text messages that were“inaccurate, misleading, and deceptive” in order to “incite fear among vulnerable peopleregarding their medicalneeds.”

Murrill should read the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution In case she forgot, that amendment guaranteesthe right to free speech.That right, as the Supreme Court repeatedly and emphatically has reminded us, is particularly strong in protecting speech of apolitical nature. Amongthe casesthat recognizedthat corporate speech is included under these protections was thefamous Citizens United v. FEC, which conservatives such as Murrill tendnot just to support but celebrate.(Iknow whereof I speak: Iliterally was one of the three other peopleinthe room whenCitizens United President David Bossie gavethe go-ahead to hislawyer to ﬁle that lawsuit.) In her public explanation of this suit andinthe suit itself, Murrill

explicitly notes that CVS’ messages wereintended to“serve its own political agenda.” Well, of course: That’sthe whole point of political speech protections. Wondering if Iwere missing something,Icalled one of the nation’stop free-market think tanks, theCompetitive Enterprise Institute, to get itsexpertiseon business-related law.Its attorney David McFadden —who, by the way,isa Tulane Law grad who practiced his profession in New Orleansfor manyyears —expressed surprise at the suit McFadden said CVS“will have astrong defense on the First Amendment.”

The key question, McFadden said, is this:“Is the[nature of Murrill’s] complaint contentbased? Would theauthorities have to examine the content of the messages?”

Of course it is content-based, he said. And, he added, it usually is aclear violation of First Amendment law if government authorities seek to penalize speech (unless it is defamatory or physically threatening) based on thespeech’scontent.

Case law says thegovernment can limit First Amendment political speech only if the limitation is “narrowly tailored” to meet a “compelling” stateinterest.

PHOTO By PATRICK WALL La. AttorneyGeneral LizMurrill

“This is not commercial speech [which enjoys slightly less constitutional protection]; it’score political speech,” McFadden said. “What would the state’sinterest be? That theopposing side of a bill can’tbepresented? That is not even alegitimate state interest, much less a‘compelling’ one.”

And: “There’snoexception for arguments that [the state believes] are invalid or mistaken. That’sfor each citizen and the Legislature to decide.”

In other words, Murrill has no proper authority to decide if she thinksCVS’ message was“deceptive.”

Even apart from the constitu-

tional protection, Murrill would be hard-pressed to prove anything CVS said was deceptive, anyway

The messages sent by CVS all said aversion of the following: “Legislation in Louisiana threatens to close your CVS pharmacy —your medication cost may go up and your pharmacist may lose their [sic] job.”

As it happens, that is the standard argument, nationwide, against the sorts of legislation

Murrill is pushing —not just from the PBMs, but from free-market analysts aplenty who do not get major funding from drugstore or pharmaceutical giants. Indeed, some of those analysts say the practice of PBMs and drugstore chains being concurrently owned is a“market-based response” to the Obamacare law passed in 2010. And Vince Ginn, aformer chief economist in the ﬁrst Trump White House, agrees that the law Murrill backed likely would have forced closures of up to 100 CVS stores with “2,700 jobs at stake.”

Let Murrill ﬁght her other two lawsuits. But forher to push this suit against CVS’ text messages is, on multiple grounds, way, way out of line.

Quin Hillyer canbereached at quin.hillyer@theadvocate.com.

Dropping thef-bombwon’t avoida war

When Donald Trump was apresidential candidate visiting Louisiana afew years ago, he made a promise. His promise came after he caught alot of ﬂak for calling Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz a“p” noun, another word for cat, but when used as profanity means someone is acoward or a weakling.

andTotalCEASEFIRE,” he said on socialmedia.

tango foxtrot.”

“I won’tuse foul language. I’m just not going to do it,” he told acrowd in Baton Rouge at the Raising Cane’sRiver Center in February 2016.“I’ll neverdoit again, actually ” Never,hesaid. That was alie.

I’m sure many of you heard whatIheard when Trump was being interviewed by journalists as he was about to start histrip from the White House to the NATO summit.

If you missed it, this wasa moment when the president rightly so —expressed anger, exasperation and frustration with Iran and Israel after he hadannounced aceaseﬁre. “Complete

Small problem: BothIranand Israel ﬁred after the announcement “I’mnot happy with them,” Trump toldagroup of reporters. “I’mnot happy with Iraneither.” That wasn’tenough for Trump. Whetheritwas anger, off-the-cuff or intentional, the president of these United States, in apositionrespected across theglobe no matter who occupies it, letloose an f-bomb.

“Webasically have two countriesthat have beenﬁghting for so longand so hard that they don’t knowwhat the f*** they’redoing, youunderstandthat?”

The president and Imake different choiceswhen it comes to emphasizing something. He, some Republicans, some Democrats andsomeothersprefer using that four-letter—and some ﬁve- and six-letter— cusswords. Instead of sayingwhathechosetosay earlierthis month, Imight’ve said “what the heck,”or“whiskey

If Iwerepresident and Ihad been relying on Iran and Israel to commit to aceaseﬁreand they both disappointed me,it’slikely I might’ve said “I’m deeply disappointed thatthe agreement,our agreement,was violated. There is toomuch at risk. The world deserves apeaceful resolution without additional strikes—and certainly not nuclear warfare.”

If Iwerereally feeling salty, I might add, “If they don’tknow how serious this is, theycan go to the nearest pay phone and call me.” “Oops. Forgive me. I’m chronologically gifted. Iguess theycan pick up the hotline.”

On June 13, Israel attacked key facilities in Iran and killed top generals and scientists to deter Iran from developing anuclear bomb. Iran retaliated, striking centralIsrael, killing civilians Trump abruptly left theG7summit June 16 to focus on the Iran-Israel conﬂict.Then, on June 21, the U.S. strucknuclear sites in Iran Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan —with bunker-buster bombs delivered by

ExplodingU.S.indebtednessmakes

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase,was more tantalizing than illuminating when herecently said, regarding thenation’s ﬁscaltrajectory,“Youare going to see acrack in the bond market.” Details, even if hypotheticals, would be helpful concerning the market where U.S. debt is sold.

powerfully prod foreign investors to diversify away fromTreasury, which would raise the cost of U.S. borrowinganunpredictable amount.

sevenB-2 stealth bombers. During his January inauguration speech, Trump asked that he be judgedbased, in part, on his military moves. “Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world hasever seen,” he said. “Wewill measure our success not only by thebattles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps mostimportantly,the wars we never getinto.”

Is/was what happened in IranIsrael abattle,aconﬂict or awar?

Unfortunately,world leaders, prominent politicians, people withhuge television and social media platforms and news media have confused the public about what this action should be called.

The U.S. Constitution divides the authorityand responsibility for militaryinvolvement and entering war.The WarPowers Resolution of 1973 further deﬁneswho can do what. Only Congress can declare war.The president can direct military operations.

Democratic representatives said the president had violated the War PowersResolution. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton,

said the WPR is unconstitutional. Democratic and Republican presidents have used the act to justify military actions, so that debate will continue.

Meanwhile, however our nation handles the Biblical land of Persia, it’sgood to remember that the Bible and the West continued to call the area Persia while the people living there have called it Iran for centuries. Most of the world acknowledged their preference in 1935. The revolution in 1979 solidiﬁed the cultural preference when the nation became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

When candidate Trump was in Baton Rouge, the crowd egged him on, encouraging him not to demur and showered him how with colorful language as he spoke. Perhaps Louisiana helped rubberstamp him cussing at world leaders as many worry about starting World WarIII. We don’tneed four-letter words as apart of “diplomacy.” Just use Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

aﬁscal crisis almost inevitable

Twenty-ﬁve percent of Treasury bonds, about $9 trillion worth, are held by foreigners, who surelyhave noticed aprovision in the One Big Beautiful Bill (1,018 pages).Unlessand until it is eliminated,the provision empowerspresidents to impose a20% taxoninterest payments to foreigners. The potential applicability of this to particular countries and kinds of income is unclear.Itcould be merely America First ﬂag-waving.

Concerning which, Kenneth Rogoff is alarmingly plausible. Beforehebecameanintergalactically famousHarvard economics professor, and a peripatetic participant in global ﬁnancial affairs, he was aprofessional chess player. Hence, hispenchant for thinking many moves ahead.

“I have observed that, although theﬁnancial system evolves glacially,” hewrites in his new book, “Our Dollar,YourProblem,” “the occasional dramatic turn is to be expected ” What is expectedisconsidered probable.The nation’s exploding indebtednesscouldpresage a “dramatic turn.”

But foreign bond purchasers, watching the U.S. government scrounge for money as it cuts taxes and swells the national debt in trillion-dollar tranches, surely think: What theprovision makes possible is possible. Such a signiﬁcant devaluation of foreignpurchased Treasury bondswould

“The amount of marketable U.S. government debt,” Rogoff says, roughly equals “that of all other advanced countries combined; a similar comparison would hold for corporate debt.”Furthermore, when in 2023 Silicon Valley Bank and some other small and medi-

um-size banks becameactuarially bankrupt because of rising interest rates, theFederal Reserve created afacility that implicitly backstopped potential capital losses of all banks, estimated to be morethan $2 trillion. The facility has gone away, but thementality that created it remains. Therefore, so does another potential large increase in government debt.

“The U.S. government has continually increased the size and scope of its implicit bailout guarantees,” Rogoff writes, “creating what might be termed ‘theﬁnancial welfare state.’”

Those of the“lower forever” school of thought regarding interest rates are serene about thechallenge of servicing the national debt.Rogoff, however notes that when Ben Bernanke left as Federal Reserve chair in 2014, Bernanke, then 60, “reportedly began tellingprivate audiences that he did not expect to see 4% short-term interest rates again in his lifetime.” Eight years later,such rates reached 5.5%, and long-term rates have risen signiﬁcantly Rogoff thinks today’shigher

rates are likely the new normal, resembling the old normal, for manyreasons, including “the massive rise in global debt (public and private).” And “if the worldwide rise in populism leads to greater incomeredistribution, that too will increase aggregate demand, since low-incomeindividuals spend ahigher share of their earnings.” This would be an inflation risk. Rogoff warns that manybelievers in “lower forever” interest rates express the human propensitytobelieve in a“supercheap” way to expand “the footprint of government.” The nation is, however,“running deficits at such a prolific rate that it is likely headed for trouble.” He rejects “lazy language” about U.S. government debt obligations being “safe.” Debt is atemptation forinflation, which is slow-motion repudiation of debt compiled in dollars that are losing their value. (Ninetypercent of U.S. debt is not indexed forinflation.) When President Franklin D. Roosevelt abrogated the gold standard backing the currency,the Supreme Court ruled it adefault.

Also, holders of U.S. bonds were not safefrom significant losses during this decade’spost-pandemic inflation, or from huge losses during the 1970 inflation.

Investors watching U.S. fiscal fecklessness might increasingly demand debt indexed to inflation. “How sure are we,” Rogoffwonders, “that no future president would seek away to effectively abrogate the inflation link out of frustration” that it impeded “partial default through inflation.” A president could call this putting America first.

Projecting the exact arrival of an economic crisis is, Rogoff writes, “extremely difficult,” an uncertainty shared with medicine. Physicians can identifyfactors that increase risks of heart attack in patients whonevertheless escape them. And low-risk patients can sufferattacks after being deemed fit as fiddles. Still, today reasonable fiscal physicians discern not just arisk but ahigh probability of adebt and/or inflation crisis.

Email George Will at georgewill@ washpost.com

Quin Hillyer

George Will

Will Sutton

Roomies Nussmeier, Manning sharealot

Arch Manning and Garrett Nussmeier made apit stop at agrocery store Thursday night to pick up supplies for their weekend at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux.

SPORTS

As you can imagine, it didn’ttake long before thestar quarterbackswere discovered. It’snot every day thatthe local Walmart sees two Heisman Trophycandidates and future NFLquarterbacks walking down the bedding aisle together. Soon, cameras emerged and selﬁes were taken —mainly of Manning, which proved to be arare and humbling turn of events for LSU’sstarting quarterback.

“This is the ﬁrst time in Louisiana where this has happened to me,” Nussmeier joked, raising his hand for effect. “I’m like, ‘Hey,guys, rememberme?’ ” In away,Nussmeier asked for this. When Archie Manning reached out to him earlier this year to see whether he wasinterested in returning to theManning Passing Academy for athird consecutive summer, Nussmeiernot only conﬁrmed his commitment but also added aspecial request.

“Mr.Manning, I’m goingtocometothe camp,” Nussmeier said, “butonlyif Ican room with Arch.”

So goes the story of how two of college football’smost heralded quarterbacks found themselves sharinga dorm room on the Nicholls State campuswithBlake Shapen of Mississippi Stateand Drew Pyne of Bowling Green. If any roommates at the prestigious passing camp can rival the quartet of Archie, Cooper, Eli and Peyton for fame,it’sthatofManning and Nussmeier.They are early frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy and the leaders of projectedtop-10 powerhouse programs.

Manning is entering his ﬁrst season as a starter at Texas but already isprojected as atop-5 pick in the 2026 NFLDraft. Despite his inexperience, Manning hasbeen installed by Vegas oddsmakers as the +550 favoritetowin the Heisman Trophy. Nussmeier’searly Heisman odds trail only Manning. He is poised for amonster senior yearafter leading LSU to a9-4 record and producing the most proliﬁcdebut starting campaign of any quarterback in

ä See DUNCAN, page 5C

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning gives instructions to campersduring the Manning Passing AcademyonFriday at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux

Here’s how

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

The night of June 6, LSU athletic ofﬁcials and staff membersexpected tohave acasual Friday evening.

Someofthem relaxed at their homes. Another was on vacation,celebrating his dad’sbirthday. TaylorJacobs, who oversees name, image and likeness within the department, hadgonetodinnerwith herfamily at Modesto. Luckily forJacobs, they were already paying the bill when the House settlement was approved alittle after 8p.m. She headed home to take calls. NIL deals did not havetobeapprovedbyanew clearinghouse if they were ﬁnalized by midnight,sothe rest of the night was spent checking on contracts with LSU’s collective.

“Wedid work up until midnight that night to just make sure everything was completelybuttonedup,” LSU executive deputy athletic director Keli Zinnsaid. “It wasa late night for our folks, but really pleased where everythingended up for us.”

That nightmarkeda monumental shift in college sports. Under the settlement, Division Ischools now can pay players forthe ﬁrst timestarting July 1. Similar to other major programs, LSU plans to pay its athletes themaximum $20.5 million during the upcoming school year,$2.5 millionofwhich will comefrom the creation of 65 new scholarships.

As aresult, LSU officials projected ausually profitable athletic department to have an $8 million deficit during the upcoming fiscal year.Zinn said LSU “willwork aggressively to mitigate that” andcouldbalance itsbudget by the 2027 fiscal year.According to the most recently available figures, LSU reported a$1.73 millionsurplus during the 2024 fiscal year

“We’ve really had to identify —and we’re continuing to identify—new revenue streams that could potentially cometothe athletic department to makeupfor that,” deputy athletic director forrevenue generation Clay Harrissaid.

Rookie classaimstoplotnew course forPelicans

BY RODWALKER Staff writer

While New Orleans Pelicans rookiesJeremiah Fears and Micah Peavy dressedalittle more casual for their introductorynews conference, fellow rookie Derik Queen sportedasuit.

Queen also wore achip on hisshoulder, one that he’ll likelywear this entire season

He has heard all of the talk. He knows the criticism and skepticism about Joe Dumars’ decision to trade up 10 spots in the draft to select him while giving up a2026 ﬁrst-round pick

So will those doubters motivate the 6-foot9forward from the University of Maryland?

“Definitely,”Queen said.“Idon’t think anybody in thatclass ever is goingtobebet-

ter than me. Iblock all the noise out.Joe has got alot of faithinme. Most of these guys (in thedraft), Ibeat in high school.

“It doesn’treally matter.Iknow theNBA is awholedifferent level. Don’t gettoo big headed.Don’tget toolow.And just beat on them next year when they come in, and make Joe look like agenius.”

Years from now, Dumars’ ﬁrst draft class as Pelicans executive vicepresident of basketball operationsinevitablywill be graded on what type of player the20-year-old Queen becomes.Does he become aperennial AllStar? Or does he ﬂame out,leaving thepeople criticizingthe tradesaying “I toldyou so”? Dumars isn’tlistening to what others are saying. Queen is whom he wanted, Queen is

ä See PELICANS, page 4C

Jeff Duncan

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Fromleft, Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears, guard Micah Peavyand forward Derik Queen answer questions during theirintroductory news conference on Saturday at the team’s training facility

7:55

3p.m.CONCACAF:Canada vs.Guatemala FS1

6p.m.CONCACAF:U.S.vs. CostaRica FOX

WOMEN’S SOCCER

11 a.m. Friendly: England vs.Jamaica CBSSN

2p.m.Friendly: U.S. vs. Ireland TNT WNBA

3p.m.Chicago at Los Angeles ESPN

5p.m.Las VegasatPhoenix NBATV XGAMES noon XGames 2025 ABC

Opportunityknocksfor Djokovic

Wimbledon mightbehis best chance at winningrecord25thGrand Slam

BY HOWARD FENDRICH

AP tennis writer

LONDON It’sbecome partof Novak Djokovic’sroutine now, particularly at Grand Slam tournaments: He shows up and gets asked —atthe start of the event, during the event, after the event or sometimes all three —whether this will be his ﬁnal appearance there.

Happened again Saturday at Wimbledon, andhis response was the same it tends to be, which essentially amounts to: Who can tell?

“Whether it could be my ‘last dance,’ ”the 24-time major champion began, repeating the phrase used by the reporter who posed the question, “I’m not sure —as I’m not sure about Roland Garros or any otherSlamthat Iplay next.”

And then Djokovic continued, offering something of amix of seemingly trying to quiet any talk aboutwhether he truly is ponderingretirement at age 38 while also being realisticabout where things stand.

“My wish is to play forseveral more years. Iwould love to be healthy physically and alsomentally motivated to keep on playing at the highest level,”hesaid. “That’sthe goal. But you never know at this stage.”

What Djokovicdid concede is that the All England Club might offer the likeliest spot for him to gather one more Grand Slam singles title, which would allow him to raise his career haul to25 —a number that no tennis player ever has reached.

“I would probably agree that Wimbledon could be the best chance, because of the resultsI had, because of how Ifeel, howI play in Wimbledon,” said Djokovic, who faces Alexandre Muller in the ﬁrstround Tuesday.“Just getting that extra push mentally and motivation to perform the best tennis at the highest level.” Djokovic has won seven championships at the grass-court majorand comeoh-so-closetomaking his total eight —the number Roger Federer won, and one behind Martina Navratilova’srecord nine women’strophies —but lost in the 2023 and 2024 ﬁnals to Carlos Alcaraz

All told, Djokovic has appeared in the title match the past six times the tournament was held (it

NovakDjokovic has wonseven

2024 finals.

was canceled in 2020 amidthe COVID-19 pandemic), winning it in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Hislast Wimbledon lossbeforethe ﬁnal came in 2017, when he lost in the quarterﬁnalstoTomas Berdych.

As for the persistent questions about Djokovic’sfuture,it’sthe sametype of topic that was presented to Federer,Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams as those greats neared theirfarewells. Now it’sjust Djokovic’sturn. But justbecause he hasn’twon

aGrand Slam trophy in morethan 11/2 years— he collected three in 2023, capped by the U.S. Open that September —don’tthink that Djokovic isn’tcapable of grabbing another

As he reminded anyone listening Saturday,hemade it to the semiﬁnals at the Australian Open this January before stopping after one set because of ahamstring injury,and gottothe ﬁnal four at theFrenchOpen this month before losing to No. 1Jannik Sinner

Afterthat one, Djokovic took time as he left the court to kiss his hand and lean down to touchthe clay then saiditcould have been his

last match at Roland-Garros. Therealso wasthe not-so-small achievement of claiming agold medal for Serbia at the Paris Olympicsless than ayear ago by beating Alcaraz, no less.

“These tournaments give me the biggest drive, still,” Djokovic said.

“I like the way Ifeel right now, physically.Tennis-wise, I’ve been playing good on thepractice sessions. Obviously completely different when you startatournament. I’ll try to haveavery good tournament andgoasfar as I can.”

And maybeeven return in 2026.

Baseball America names3 LSU playersAll-Americans

Three LSUplayershavereceived 2025 All-America recognition from Baseball America magazine.

Sophomore left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson andjuniorrighthanded pitcher AnthonyEyanson were first-team All-Americans, and junior first baseman Jared Jones was asecond-team AllAmerican. Anderson was namedthe Most Outstanding Playerofthe 2025 College World Series. He ﬁnished 12-1 with a3.18 ERA and180 strikeouts in 119.0 innings.

Eyanson(12-2) ﬁnished this season with a3.00ERA and152 strikeouts in 108 innings.

Jones batted.323this season with15doubles, 22 homers, 76 RBIsand 66 runs.

LSU football lands pledge from CB for 2026 class LSUfootballlandedacommitment Saturday night from atop athlete in Louisiana in the 2026 recruiting class.

DezyrianEllis, anative of Franklin Parish, announced his decision in asocial media post. His video ended with aFaceTimecall to cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond. “Webouttoget adog at LSU,” Raymond said. ThoughEllis wasvoted firstteam Class 4A All-State last season by theLouisiana Sports Writers Association as aquarterback, he was recruited to LSU as acornerback. West Virginia offered him the chance to play quarterback, according to On3.

Ellis, who’s6-foot-2 and 175 pounds, is the No. 547 overall player in the country going into his senior year,according to the 247Sports composite. He’sthe No. 12 recruit in Louisiana for the 2026 class.

Former Pirates slugger Parker dies at age74

PITTSBURGH Dave Parker,ahardhitting outfielder whowas setto be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Famenext month, has died. He was74.

ThePittsburgh Pirates announced Parker’sdeath on Saturday,and no further details were immediately available.

Nicknamed“the Cobra,” the 6-foot-5 Parker played 19 major league seasons, 11 for the Pirates. He was the National League MVP in 1978, won aWorld Serieswith Pittsburgh ayear later and then won another championship in 1989 with the Oakland Athletics. Parker won back-to-back batting titlesin1977 and’78. He ﬁnished his career as a.290 hitter with 339 homers and 1,493 RBIs. Parker was elected to the Hall of Fame by aspecial committee in December

The induction ceremony in Cooperstown, NewYork,isset for July 27.

Source: Bulls trade Ball to Cavs for forward Okoro

CLEVELAND The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire guard Lonzo Ball from the Chicago Bulls for forward Isaac Okoro, according to aperson with knowledge of the agreement.

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

LONDON To be clear,Coco

Gauff didn’tbring up the word “star” during arecent interview with The Associated Press; the reporter did. So as Gauff beganto answer aquestion about balancingher life as aprofessional athlete with her off-court interests, she caught herself repeating that term.

“I deﬁnitelydidn’t knowhow it would look like,” she began with a smile,“before Igot to be, Iguess, astar —feels weird to call myself that —but Ideﬁnitely didwant to expandoutside of tennis.Always. Since Iwas young.” She still is young, by just about any measure, and she is areally good tennis player —Gauff owns the two Grand Slam titles and No 2ranking to prove it as sheheads into Wimbledon, whichbegins Monday —but the 21-year-old American is also more than that. Someone unafraidtoexpress her opinions about societal issues. Someone who connects with fans via social media. Someone who is the highest-paid female athlete in anysport,topping $30 millionlast year,according to Sportico.com, with less than athird of thatfrom prize money and most via deals

withcompaniessuchasUPS, New Balance, Rolex and Barilla

Someone whorecently launched her own management ﬁrm. And someone whowants to succeed in the business world long after she no longer swings a racket on tour

“It’sdeﬁnitely something that I want to start to step up for postcareer.Kind of start building that process, which is why Iwanted to do it early.Because Ididn’twant to feel likeIwas playingcatch-

up at theend of my career,” said Gauff, who will face Dayana Yastremskainthe ﬁrst round at the AllEngland Club on Tuesday

“On thebusinessside of things, it doesn’tcome as natural as tennis feels. I’m still learning, andI have alot to learn about,” Gauff said. “I’ve debateddifferent things and what paths Iwanted to take when it came to just stimulating my brain outside of the court, because IalwaysknewthatonceI

ﬁnished high school that Ineeded to put my brain into something else.”

In acampaign announced this week by UPS, which first partnered with Gauff in 2023 before she won that year’sU.S. Open, she connects with business coach Emma Grede —known for working with Kim Kardashian on Skims, and with Khloe KardashianonGoodAmerican— to offer mentoring to three smallbusinessowners.

“Coco plays akey role in helping us connect with those younger Gen-Z business owners —emergingoryoungerentrepreneurs,” Betsy Wilson, VP of digitalmarketing andbrand activation at UPS, saidina phone interview.

“Obviously, she’svery relevant in social media and in culture, andworking with Coco helps us really connect with that younger group.”

While Grede helped the entrepreneurs, Gauff also gotthe opportunitytopickuptips.

“It’sreally cool to learn from someone like her,” Gauff said.

“Whenever Ifeel like I’mready to makethatleap,Ican deﬁnitely reach out to her for advice and things like that. This will help me right now and deﬁnitely in the long term.”

The person spoke to The AssociatedPress on condition of anonymity Saturday because the trade cannotbeﬁnalizeduntil the start of the new league year on July 6. Ball averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 35 games this past season after missing the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns because of aleft knee injury Okoro averaged 6.1 points and2.4 rebounds this past season and is astrong defender,who can also shoot well from the perimeter

After battling knee pain, Stroman will pitch Sunday NEWYORK— Marcus Stroman feels readytoreturntothe moundfor the NewYork Yankees, able to manage pain in his left knee stemming from atorn ACL adecade ago.

The34-year-old right-handeris set to start Sunday against the Athletics.

Stroman hasnot pitched for the Yankees since allowing ﬁve runs in two-thirds of an inning against San Francisco on April 11. In three rehab appearances with Double-A Somersetthat began June 11, Stroman was 0-1witha 6.97 ERA.

Stromanstarted theseason0-1 with an 11.57ERA in three starts.

ä Wimbledon, first round, 6A.M. MONDAy,ESPN

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIN CHEUNG

Coco Gauff goes intoWimbledon withthe No.2 ranking in theworld.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByJOHNWALTON

Wimbledonsingles championshipsbut lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the 2023 and

OUTDOORS

Friends, fireworks, fishing: It’s rodeotime

Fourchon saltwaterevent

setfor Fourth of July weekend

BY JOE MACALUSO Contributing writer

For decades, the Fourth of July celebration has meant family,friends, fireworks, fishing —and, the Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeo. Sure, years ago, it was the Golden MeadowTarpon Rodeo, but that was before the folks in Lafourche Parish decided to move the holiday gathering to farther south to The Fourchon, where more and more anglers were gathering to spend days on the water pursuing shallow-and deepwater ﬁsh.

This year’srodeo,believed to be the75th,begins at sunrise Thursday with the big hoop-de-do coming Friday with the annual King of the Catch cooking contest at the weigh station at Fourchon Marina. It runs from 1-7 p.m. Friday, then, 1-4 p.m. Saturday for the children’sdivision and 1-5 p.m.for allother anglers

The celebrationends witha 4-7 p.m. shrimp boil Rodeo tickets are $35 and moneyraised supports college scholarships for Lafourche Parish students. Ticketsare availableupand down Bayou Lafourche. The rodeo raised $21,000 in scholarships from the 2024 event. For the bluewater fishermen, there’sabig game tag & release division for blueand whitemarlin and sailﬁsh, and atarpon tag &release category to share the leaderboard with inshore, shoreline, kayak spearﬁshing and children’s divisions

Need more? TheGMFTR websiteatfourchontarpon.

com

The bonus here is an angler can win anew pickup truck if they bring in astate record jack crevalle, black drum,gafftopsail catfish, cobia, tarpon or broadbill swordﬁsh.

Inshoreshrimp

With increasingnumbers of small white shrimpshowing up in our state’sinside waters, Wildlife andFisheries announced astatewide closure of the springinshore shrimp season at sunset Monday. The exceptionisthe open watersofBretonand Chandeleur sounds remaining open alongwith all state outsidewaters.

Snappercount

Thelatest recreational red snappercounthit 337,649 pounds through Wildlife and Fisheries estimates on June 8. That’snearly 38% of Louisiana’s894,955-pound annual allotment.

Newreef

CCA Louisiana and state Wildlifeand Fisheriesin partnershipwith Danos, and Reefmaker-WalterMarine set anew reef in the West Delta 79 block CCA’s announcement indicated the reef material consisted of1215-foot tall and 24 8-foot tall all-natural, pyramid-shaped Reefmakerdesigned “super reefs” set down in six separate clusters. Danos, CCA’s Reef Louisiana Program and Wildlife and Fisheries’ Artificial

Reef TrustFund provided funding.

All artiﬁcial reefs in CCA’s program are listed on website: ccalouisiana.com/conservation/artificial-reefs. Coordinates listed therefollowthe Google Earth WGS84 map format.

Forhunters

TheNational RiﬂeAssociation has partnered with state Wildlifeand Fisheriestooffer NRA’sfee-freeHunterEducation onlinecourse. “The NRAdeveloped this

free online course with one main goal in mind: to make it easier for new huntersto get intothe ﬁeld,” NRA’s Josh Savani said. Louisiana is the 15th state to have theNRA course.

Others are Alabama,Connecticut,Florida, Kansas, Kentucky,New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. These states will accept NRA huntereducation as a prerequisite for ahunting

license.

“This partnership expands access to this required course, giving morepeople the opportunitytoget certiﬁedconveniently and at no cost,” Wildlifeand Fisheries secretary Tyler Bosworth said.

The course follows a 15-chapter,sequential format featuring videos,graphics, diagrams, interactive modules, audio recordings andactionphotos to give young hunters afirst step into safe, responsible and ethical hunting.

The course is offered on theagency’swebsite:wlf louisiana.gov/page/hunterand-trapper-education.

Wildlife and Fisheries also announced anew online bowhuntereducation course.There’s a$35 fee. Louisiana does not require abowhuntereducation certiﬁcate, butmanystatesrequire this certiﬁcate to hunt with bows.

The course is offered on theagency’swebsite:wlf louisiana.gov under the education and events tab.

TUESDAY

LA. OUTDOORS FOREVER TECHNICAL ADVISORYBOARD MEETING: 9a.m., state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, 2000Quail Drive Baton Rouge.

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY

NRA NATIONAL HIGH POWERLONG-RANGE

CHAMPIONSHIP: Alliance Riﬂe Club,Malvern, Ohio. Website: allianceriﬂeclub.org

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

75TH GOLDEN MEADOW-FOURCHON TARPON

RODEO: Fourchon Marina& Pavilion, Port Fourchon. Beneﬁts SouthLouisianahigh school students. Fishingbeginsatdaylight Thursday. Weigh-in open Friday/Saturday. King of the Catch cookingcontest. Inshore, Big Game, Shoreline, Kayak, Spearﬁshing &Children’s divisions. Website: fourchontarpon com

ONGOING

CCASTATEWIDE TOURNAMENT& ANGLERS’

RODEO/S.T.A.R.: Summer-long ﬁshing contest through Sept. 1. Multiple speciescategories. CCAmembership required. Website:ccalouisiana.com

HUNTING LOTTERYHOUSEBOAT MOORING DEADLINE: July 12for Atchafalaya DeltaWMA for 20252026 seasons.Application website: louisianaoutdoors.com

LOTTERYDOVEHUNT DEADLINE: July 27 for ElbowSloughWMA. $8.50 application fee. Applications website:louisianaoutdoors.com/ lottery-applications. Call David Hayden(318) 487-5353.Email: dhayden@wlf.la.gov

LOTTERYTEAL HUNT DEADLINE: July27for White LakeWetlands Conservation Area. $8.50 application fee.Applicationswebsite: louisianaoutdoors.com/lottery-applications. Call Lance Ardoin (337) 536-6061. Email: lardoin@wlf.la.gov

AROUND THECORNER

JULY6-10—NRA NATIONAL PRECISIONPISTOL CHAMPIONSHIP: Cardinal Shooting Center, Marengo, Ohio. Also: NRA National Smallbore Championship Website:thecardinalcenter.com

JULY8—LA. WILDLIFE&FISHERIES COMMISSION MEETING: 9:30a.m., JoeHerring Room, state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive,Baton Rouge.

JULY9—BUGS &BEERS: 6:30 p.m.,Skeeta Hawk Brewing, 455 N. Dorgenois Street, New Orleans. Fly tying. Open to the public. Email A.J. Rosenbohm:ajrosenbohm@gmail.com. Website: neworleansﬂyﬁshers.com

JULY10—JUNIOR SOUTHWESTBASSMASTERS

MEETING: 7p.m., Seminar Room, BassPro Shops, Denham Springs. Boys &girls agegroup bass tournaments for ages 7-10, 11-14 & 15-18 anglers.Call Jim Breaux (225) 772-3026.

JULY10-12—BASSMASTER COLLEGE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP; CHEROKEE LAKE, JEFFERSON CITY,TENNESSEE. Website: bassmaster.com

JULY12—FLYFISHING 101/THE SURF: 9-11 a. m., Orvis Shop, Bluebonnet Boulevard, Baton Rouge.Fee free. Basics of casting, rigging, ﬂy selection. Equipment furnished. All ages, adults to accompany15-and-younger. Preregistration required. Call Shop(225) 757-7286. Website: orvis.com/batonrouge FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Spring inshoreseason to close at sunset Monday(June 30). Breton/Chandeleur sounds&all outside waters remainopen OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Redsnapper,ﬂounder; lane, blackﬁn, queen and silk snappers& wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath &Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

CLOSED SEASONS: Gray triggerﬁsh,greater amberjack, blueﬁn tuna and gag,goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

LDWF UPDATES

DRAWDOWNS: underwayonSaline &Kepler lakes. Email: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com CALENDAR

CLOSED: Pearl River WMA (Old U.S. 11 gate & shooting range; flooding); Hope Canal Road/ boat launch(Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction); roads/trails, RichardYancey WMA (except Sunk, Shell, Yakey, Wycoff &SilverLakes roads, flooding); GrassyLakeWMA all roads &trails (flooding), except South BayouNatchitoches Road is open

STAFF PHOTO By JOHN BALLANCE

This painting by Stephanie Donaldson, left, of atarpon leaping fromthe waters offthe Louisiana coast wasselected to represent the 2025 Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeoset for Thursday through Saturdayatthe Port Fourchon Marina. Donaldson was joined by the rodeo’sadmiralChett Chaisson in the dinner kicking off the 75th annual rodeo in lowerLafourche Parish.

Harrington, Cink, Hensby tied at U.S. Senior Open

By The Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. After leaving one chip in the rough and losing a bit of trust on the greens, Padraig Harrington was looking for something to give him hope heading into what ﬁgures to be a tumultuous ﬁnal day at the topsy, turvy Broadmoor

A chip-in from 20 yards for birdie on No. 18 did the trick It gave Harrington a share of the lead, a spot in the ﬁnal group and left him one more good round away from winning the U.S. Senior Open for the second time in four years.

Harrington’s chip-in Saturday pulled him into a tie with Stewart Cink and Mark Hensby, same as he was heading into the day Playing in the same threesome, all three shot 2-under 68 to ﬁnish at 8-under 202. Only one walked away with that extra pep in his step that comes from making a shot like that.

“It was special to hole out on the 18th, with everybody watching, the anticipation,” Harrington said. “It was very exciting and very nice that I didn’t have to hit another shot.”

One shot behind was Thomas Bjorn, whose 66 matched the best round of the day and set up what appears to be a four-man ﬁght for the title.

Steve Flesch (67) was another three shots back at 4 under and Steven Alker’s 66 left him at 3 under, tied with Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) and Paul Stankowski (67).

One more shot back was Billy Andrade (70), he of the ailing back who collapsed in agony after his approach on No. 17, yet somehow still made par there It was ﬁtting

picture given all the pain and confusion the heavily tilted Broadmoor causes, especially when it’s set up for major-championship conditions.

“It’s what you do on those last four or five holes that are fairly tough and ask some big questions,” Bjorn said “I’m quite sure the pin position tomorrow is going to have more questions for us. That’s where you win the golf tournament.”

PGA Tour

LONG-HITTING POTGIETER HAS TWO-SHOT

LEAD: In Detroit, Aldrich Potgieter, standing on the practice green at Detroit Golf Club, said the most challenging part of his life was moving to Australia when he was

8 and returning to South Africa at age 17 because the COVID-19 pandemic limited his opportunities to compete.

Potgieter is about to face another test.

The PGA Tour’s youngest player and biggest hitter is going into the ﬁnal round of the Rocket Classic with a two-shot lead, hoping to hold off a pack of players, including Collin Morikawa, for his ﬁrst victory on the circuit.

“The leaderboard’s so stacked,” Potgieter said after he had ﬁve straight birdies in a 7-under 65 to surge into the lead

Saturday

The 20-year-old tour rookie started the week averaging

326.6 yards off the tee — several yards longer than Rory McIlroy and credits his multi-sport childhood.

“I played a lot of sports, rugby, wrestling,” the 5-foot-11, 211-pound Potgieter said. “Kind of did everything as a kid. Didn’t just focus on golf, so that kind of helped me build that strong foundation.”

Max Greyserman (66), Jake Knapp (66), Mark Hubbard (67), Andrew Putnam (67) and Chris Kirk (69) were two shots back.

Three more players were another stroke behind.

“As long as you’re kind of hanging around on Sunday, that’s what counts,” Greyserman said.

Collin Morikawa, the highestranked player in the ﬁeld at No. 5 in the world, shot a 68 to start the ﬁnal round four shots back. Two years ago in Detroit, he was outlasted by Rickie Fowler in a playoff. Morikawa, a two-time major champion, has not won on the tour since October 2023 at the Zozo Championship in Japan.

“Look, I know what’s at stake,” Morikawa said. “I want to ﬁnd a way to get it done.”

In a nod to his native country, Potgieter’s white golf shoes have the South African ﬂag on the outside of his heels.

He won the British Amateur at the age of 17 and became the youngest Korn Ferry Tour winner last year, paving the way for him to become the second-youngest player to earn a PGA Tour card through the minor league just after his 20th birthday The youngest was Jason Day, who was 19 in 2007.

LPGA

SCHMELZEL-VALENZUELA TEAM LEADS AT DOW CHAMPIONSHIP: In Midland,

SCOREBOARD

A.Corpuz/D.Weber 70-66-70—206 4

J.Bae/R.Choi 70-62-74—206 -4

L.Morris/J.Porvasnik 72-64-70—206 4

P.Reto/A.Lewis 72-64-70—206 4

C.Ciganda/G.Lopez 70-66-71—207 -3

P.Tavatanakit/J.Chang 73-63-71—207 3

R.Liu/Y.Liu 68-66-73—207 3

F.Xu/M.Galdiano 68-66-74—208 -2

M.Young/D.Iacobelli 73-61-74—208 2

Piot

Sargent 71-66-73—210 6 David Skinns 69-64-77—210 -6 Camilo Villegas 68-68-74—210 6 Austin Eckroat 71-67-73—211 5 Harrison Endycott 67-66-78—211 -5

-14

-13

-12

-11

-10

Si Woo Kim 68-68-75—211 5 Byeong Hun An 68-69-75—212 4 Davis Riley 75-63-74—212 -4 Erik Van Rooyen 69-69-74—212 4 Quade Cummins 70-68-75—213 -3 Cristobal Del Solar 69-68-76—213 -3 Dow Championship Saturday At Midland Country Club Midland, Mich. Purse: $3.3 million Yardage: 6,287; Par: 70 Third Round

S.Schmelzel/A.Valenzuela 68-61-68—197 13

J.Im/S.Lee 67-63-68—198 -12

M.De Roey/P.Roussin 68-61-69—198 12

B.Matthews/L.Hartlage 70-63-66—199 11

J.Kupcho/L.Maguire 67-60-72—199 -11

S.Park/I.Yoon 72-60-67—199 11

M.Khang/L.Thompson 67-65-68—200 10

R.Takeda/M.Yamashita 70-63-67—200 -10

C.Knight/E.Szokol 69-67-65—201 9

G.Dryburgh/C.Porter 66-62-73—201 -9

J.Thitikul/R.Yin 68-66-67—201 9

L.Li/A.Lee 69-64-68—201 9

C.Wannasaen/J.Boonchant68-63-71—202 -8

M.Lee/J.Jeon 72-64-66—202 8

S.Kim/A.Kim 74-62-66—202 8

A.Pano/D.Holmqvist 70-66-67—203 -7

A.Yubol/P.Phatlum 69-62-72—203 7

J.Ewart Shadoff/H.Lin 67-65-71—203 -7

K.Davidson/D.Darquea 68-66-69—203 -7

L.Coughlin/N.Hataoka 70-64-69—203 7

L.Duncan/M.Wang 71-63-69—203 -7

S.Baba/Y.Yoshida 67-69-67—203 7

S.Popov/P.Lindberg 71-64-68—203 7

A.Furue/N.An 70-62-72—204 -6

J.Yan/K.Park 69-66-69—204 6

K.Gillman/K.Smith-Stroh 69-65-70—204 6

Y.Liu/Y.Zhang 67-62-75—204 -6

C.Inglis/A.Doherty 71-64-70—205 5

U.S. Senior Open Championship Saturday At East Course Colorado Springs, Colo. Purse: $4 million Yardage: 7,247; Par: 70 Third Round Stewart Cink 68-66-68—202 -8 Padraig Harrington 67-67-68—202 8 Mark Hensby 67-67-68—202 8 Thomas Bjorn 68-69-66—203 -7

Steve Flesch 69-70-67—206 4

Steven Alker 69-72-66—207 3

Miguel Angel Jimenez 69-70-68—207 -3

Paul Stankowski 73-67-67—207 3

Billy Andrade 69-69-70—208 -2

Ernie Els 72-69-68—209 -1

Katsumasa Miyamoto 72-70-67—209 1

Rod Pampling 70-71-69—210 E

Y.E. Yang 70-68-72—210 E

Steve Allan 71-71-69—211 +1

Matt Gogel 68-73-70—211 +1

Scott Hend 71-69-71—211 +1

Fredrik Jacobson 68-72-71—211 +1

Justin Leonard 72-71-68—211 +1

Darren Clarke 71-68-73—212 +2

Dicky Pride 70-72-70—212 +2

Andrew Sapp 70-71-71—212 +2

Kevin Sutherland 70-71-71—212 +2

Peter Baker 69-73-71—213 +3

Greg Chalmers 70-72-71—213 +3

Robert Karlsson 69-73-71—213 +3

Soren Kjeldsen 71-72-70—213 +3

Cameron Percy 72-71-70—213 +3

Tim Petrovic 71-73-69—213 +3

Stuart Appleby 71-70-73—214 +4

Craig Barlow 74-69-71—214 +4

Doug Barron 73-69-72—214 +4

Jason Caron 71-70-73—214 +4

Stephen Gallacher 68-74-72—214 +4

Brian Gay 71-73-70—214 +4

Simon Grifﬁths 71-71-72—214 +4

Brandt Jobe 73-72-69—214 +4

Jerry Kelly 73-71-70—214 +4

Shane Bertsch 69-74-72—215 +5

Richard Green 71-71-73—215 +5

J.J. Henry 72-70-73—215 +5 Ted Purdy 70-71-74—215 +5

Michigan, Sarah Schmelzel and Albane Valenzuela took the thirdround lead Saturday in the Dow Championship, shooting a 2-under 68 in alternate-shot play to move into position for their ﬁrst LPGA Tour victories. Schmelzel and Valenzuela had a 13-under 197 total at Midland Country Cup heading into the better-ball ﬁnal round. They opened with an alternate-shot 68 on Thursday and had a best-ball 61 on Friday

“You’re kind of on pins and needles most of the day, just hoping you don’t get your partner in trouble,” Schmelzel said. “Just super solid. I feel like we had really good attitudes throughout the entire day I think both of us took every single shot as it came.”

The teams of Jin Hee Im-Somi Lee (68) and Manon De Roey-Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (69) were a stroke back.

Jennifer Kupcho and Leona Maguire, the second-round leaders after a 60, birdied the final two holes for a 72 that left them tied for fourth at 11 under with Lauren Hartlage-Brooke Matthews (66) and Sung Hyun Park-Ina Yoon (67). LIV Golf

REED BUILDS THREE-SHOT LEAD: In Carrollton, Texas, Patrick Reed shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday to take a three-stroke lead at LIV Golf Dallas in a bid for his ﬁrst victory on the Saudi-funded tour Tied for the ﬁrst-round lead with 4Aces teammate Harold Varner III after an opening 67, Reed had six birdies and two bogeys to reach 9-under 135 at Maridoe Golf Club. The 34-year-old Reed won the 2018 Masters and has nine PGA Tour victories.

whom he went and got.

“I’ve been doing this way too long to give credence to naysayers,” Dumars said. “We’re going to chart our own paths here. We’re not going to go by anyone else’s playbook. These are the guys that we really wanted as Pelicans.”

Those three guys are relishing their first few days as NBA players. You could see the joy on their faces Saturday in the team’s practice facility when they got a chance to don their NBA jerseys for the ﬁrst time.

Fears recalls wearing a Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade jersey when he was kid, but he said it felt surreal to put on one with his name on the back. Truth be told, Fears sort of still is a kid. He’s only 18 and is the ﬁrst athlete in team history to be born after Hurricane Katrina. But he’s also talented and conﬁdent, which is why the Pelicans selected him with the No. 7 pick “We are going to bring a lot to

smart, tough and possess a high basketball IQ. All three hope they can do what it takes to

ﬂip the script for a team coming off a season when it had the secondworst record in franchise history “I know they struggled a little bit,” Fears said. “When I talked to the (front-office people), sounds like they had big plans on turning things around. They want to build a culture that’s remembered for winning. So they brought in us three guys to come help and shape the new culture.” Email Rod Walker at rwalker@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

left,

Fears, guard Micah Peavy

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANDy CROSS

Padraig Harrington hits from the first tee during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor on Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo.

LSU history He had more passing yards (4,052), completions (337), attempts (525), passing touchdowns (29) and total offense (308.8 yards a game) than any ﬁrst-year starter in program history His 4,052 yards passing ranked ﬁfth nationally and second in LSU history

Manning and Nussmeier, though, share more in common than just sleep quarters and Heisman hopes. Both are products of football families with rich quarterback legacies.

Nussmeier’s father Doug, was a standout quarterback at Idaho who spent ﬁve years in the NFL before going into coaching. He’s in his ﬁrst season as the Saints offensive coordinator Manning is the son of football royalty

His father, Cooper, is a former Newman and Ole Miss wide receiver. His grandfather is Archie, a Saints legend and Hall of Famer And his uncles are Eli and Peyton, one a current and one a future NFL Hall of Famer

As the sons of pedigreed fathers, Manning and Nussmeier are natural leaders who have embraced and mastered the requirements of playing the quarterback position.

Both traveled similar roads in college, albeit in opposite directions. Manning, a Louisiana kid, crossed the border to play for the state school in Texas. Nussmeier attended high school in suburban Dallas, then defected to Louisiana’s ﬂagship university. Likewise, both patiently waited their turns to start, eschewing the temptation to transfer to another school with more readily available playing time.

“I love Garrett,” Manning said. “He’s the man. He’s a coach’s kid, so he knows ball. He’s kind of had the same situation as

LSU

Continued from page 1C

In addition to schools directly paying players, the settlement led to several signiﬁcant changes. The College Sports Commission was created to oversee the system, and new rules are designed to limit spending by boosters Different roster sizes also replaced scholarship limits.

Zinn and several others involved in LSU’s operations spoke to The Advocate about the school’s plans. They discussed paying players, the murky future of LSU’s collective, how third-party NIL could let them exceed the cap, their search for more money and why they feel conﬁdent in the future.

“I think what you’ll ﬁnd,” Zinn said, “is the House settlement being really, really favorable to LSU.”

How LSU will pay players

Over the first half of the year, booster collectives nationwide front-loaded lucrative NIL deals. They understood their agreements could be denied by the clearinghouse, so they pushed out millions of dollars before the House settlement took effect. LSU’s collective, Bayou Traditions, planned to spend at least $10 million on the football roster

Those deals rolled into revenue sharing, and once the settlement was approved, LSU began issuing contracts to players. The deals, which vary in length and compensation, pay athletes for the non-exclusive right to use their NIL instead of making them employees. Players have to participate in social media posts, autograph signings and other promotional materials in exchange.

“You’ve got a combination of agreements out there now,” Zinn said. “Some that have come from Bayou Traditions, some that have come from us.”

The cap was calculated by taking 22% of the annual ticket sales, media rights and sponsorship revenue among the power conference schools and Notre Dame The cap will increase annually by 4% and be reevaluated every three years. LSU plans to meet the cap as it rises throughout the 10-year settlement.

When determining how to distribute the money, LSU followed the formula the NCAA used to pay $2.8 billion in back damages, which gave the majority of the money to football and men’s basketball players because they generated the most revenue. LSU will allocate 75% to football, which equals $13.5 million in the first year; 15% to men’s basketball ($2.7 million); 5% to women’s basketball ($900,000); and 5% to the rest of its sports ($900,000). Zinn said schools could be hit with fines, coaching suspensions and a reduction in transfers for violating the cap. Every LSU team will receive some money, Zinn said. She believes the ones that aren’t getting as much still will have what they need financially to compete. LSU is not cutting any sports.

“There is enough,” Zinn said. “Our ability to do this and also to support that decision, in big part, is our fan base and how much they have embraced and celebrated sports beyond basketball and football And as long as they continue to do that, they’re going to see us work aggressively to make sure those sports are well-positioned for the highest of success.” Schools can lower their cap by spending up to $2.5 million per year on Alston payments, which previously allowed them to give individual athletes up to $5,980 per year But LSU has not taken that route. The one exception, Zinn said, could be for international players if they are not able to earn revenue-sharing dollars, which is a lingering question.

me, just sitting for a few years, then going to play, and he played well. I’ve watched a lot of his ﬁlm. He’s a good player, so it’s fun to look up to him. I’m glad I’ve built a good relationship with him.”

Nussmeier said he wanted to room with Arch, in part, because of their shared backgrounds and upbringings.

“I love spending time with Arch,” Nussmeier said. “I love watching him play. He has a swagger and is a great dude off the ﬁeld, as well, somebody that I can hang out and just chop it up with.”

Because of their family connections and relative logistical proximity, Manning and Nussmeier have known each other for years. They frequently traded text mes-

The settlement also replaced team-speciﬁc scholarship limits with roster limits.

LSU plans to create 65 new scholarships, a number that Zinn said could increase. Most of them (42) will go to women’s sports.

Zinn said LSU baseball has a “signiﬁcant increase” now that it can offer 34 scholarships instead of 11.7, but she declined to specify how many saying “herein lies the competitiveness of things.”

As LSU prepares for revenue sharing to begin, it is in the process of ﬁnalizing deals with athletes. Agents have been reviewing the contracts and negotiating certain terms. However, with college athletes still not considered employees, there are questions about how a buyout could be enforced if someone transfers to another school.

“Instead, what you’ll see us do is work through it in a way where student-athletes are expected to meet their obligations of those agreements,” Zinn said. “And in the event that they don’t, there’s some opportunity there to react while they’re here at LSU versus trying to seek money after the fact if they transfer or leave the institution.”

What now for Bayou Traditions?

During a speech at the Baton Rouge Rotary Club last week, Zinn mentioned Bryce Underwood. Not by name, but she described a quarterback who decommitted from LSU last fall “to get a very high dollar from another institution.”

Later when an attendee referenced “the guy who went to Michigan for $6 (million) or $8 million” during their question, Zinn interjected.

“10,” Zinn said.

Zinn used the example to illustrate what the settlement is trying to stop. After booster collectives paid for rosters in recent years under the guise of endorsements, especially in football and basketball, every NIL deal over $600 must be reviewed by a Deloitte-run clearinghouse called NIL Go.

The commission said it will judge deals on whether or not they serve “a valid business purpose and do not exceed a reasonable range of compensation.” If the deals are rejected, athletes can revise the contract, cancel it or appeal to neutral arbitration. They face potential penalties if they continue anyway

“These bidding wars that schools have found themselves in will no longer be the case,” Zinn told the crowd, later adding her belief that the biggest question mark in college sports over the next year will be how to deﬁne a reasonable range of compensation.

LSU officials think this system could be an advantage for the school instead of relying on donors to support Bayou Traditions. The collective fell behind other major programs ﬁnancially until a fundraising push took place over the past year, which gave the football and men’s basketball teams money to be aggressive in the transfer portal

What happens next with the collective is unclear The Tiger Athletic Foundation, LSU’s third-party fundraising arm, is not expected to extend its partnership with Bayou Traditions, which began last summer However, Zinn said Bayou Traditions would serve a purpose if collectives can strike deals with high school players.

“I believe what you’ll see now,” Zinn said, “is an opportunity for us to work with those donors in the future, with Bayou Traditions speciﬁcally, to come up with an opportunity for high school funding in a way that we can be really competitive out the gate, not ﬁnd ourselves in a place where we’re playing catch up.”

Way to exceed the cap

Five days after the settlement was approved, the NIL clearinghouse launched. Jacobs and her staff met with the football, men’s basketball, volleyball and part of the women’s basketball teams that day for

sages last season, Manning’s sophomore campaign at Texas and Nussmeier’s redshirt junior year at LSU. They also crossed paths in 2023, when Nussmeier was an underclassman at LSU and Manning was being recruited by the Tigers as a heralded prep prospect at Newman. But this is the ﬁrst time they’ve roomed together at the MPA or spent extended time in each other’s company

“Our families have been close for a while, and I’ve always been rooting for him since he was little,” said Nussmeier, who is two years older than Manning. Despite the close ties, Manning and Nussmeier never have competed against each other on the ﬁeld — until Friday

a previously planned educational talk. Because of the timing, they also took players through the new NIL process.

Athletes or a designated representative must submit their deal for review Once that happens, Jacobs has to answer questions about the payer or the deal. As of June 18, LSU athletes had one deal cleared and several in review The one that was approved happened within minutes.

Though athletes can still ﬁnd sponsorships on their own, LSU has shifted its focus toward ﬁnding third-party NIL for them. LSU believes its brand value will make a difference. Not only for football and basketball players but also for Olympic sports athletes who won’t make as much from revenue sharing. Outside NIL deals don’t count against the cap.

“When you look at the amount of resources that’ll go directly to our student-athletes starting in the upcoming year and thereafter, we expect that to be pretty well beyond $20.5 million,” Zinn said.

Earlier this year LSU launched a program through Playfly Sports, its longtime multimedia rights partner, designed to find endorsement deals for athletes. Two Playfly employees now work within NILSU Max. Along with Jacobs, they have spent the past few months lining up deals, which will be submitted to the clearinghouse July 1.

“There is an ever increasing need for thirdparty NIL,” said Mary Claire Logue, the executive director of NILSU Max. “That’s our main prerogative. We do already have several businesses that we’ve contracted with to work on their behalf to contract studentathletes to fulﬁll those obligations.”

LSU’s search for money

This fall, there will be advertisements on the 25-yard lines in Tiger Stadium.

Schools were allowed to sell space on playing surfaces for the first time last year, and Cox had a logo on the floor at LSU basketball games Now, sponsorships are coming to the football field.

LSU ofﬁcials declined to identify the company that will appear in Tiger Stadium Harris said the ads produce “multiple millions of dollars a year.” There will not be any advertisements at midﬁeld or on the back line of the end zone, which are both permissible under NCAA rules. Harris added the design

night, when they indirectly squared off in the annual Air It Out and Friday Night Lights quarterback skills competition at the camp. (Manning elected to not compete in previous years while serving as a camp counselor because of his backup status at Texas.)

All eyes were on Manning and Nussmeier during the two-hour event but neither stood out in the competition, which was waged among the 40 college quarterbacks at the camp and attended by thousands of fans at John L. Guidry Stadium. Nussmeier did close the competition with an exclamation point by sinking a midﬁeld pass through a basketball hoop in the end zone.

“Anytime you get a bunch of quarterbacks together you’re always going to compete,” Nussmeier said at the MPA media session earlier on Friday “But it’s really about just having fun and going out to have a great time.”

While LSU and Texas are not scheduled to play this season, it would shock no one if Manning and Nussmeier found themselves competing for much higher stakes later this season, perhaps in the SEC championship game or even a College Football Playoff game.

Expectations are that high for both quarterbacks and their respective teams Manning’s Longhorns are being projected as the No. 1 team in the nation in many preseason polls. LSU is a consensus top-10 team.

“I hope that that’s the case,” Nussmeier said. “If it’s not us (LSU), I want it to be them (Texas). And I’m always rooting for him, so I’m very excited for him and the season he’s about to have. I hope he does well.”

Exactly what you’d expect one roommate to say about another Manning and Nussmeier might be rivals on the ﬁeld, but off of it, they are clearly brothers in arms.

Email Jeff Duncan at jduncan@theadvocate.com.

will incorporate LSU’s colors. At the same time, LSU hopes the NCAA will allow schools to sell patches on their jerseys, something Harris said also generates “multiple millions of dollars a year.”

LSU has identiﬁed a partner, which ofﬁcials declined to name, if the rule changes.

LSU has mapped out where the patches would go on every jersey, from cross country to football. Most of them would appear on the chest in purple and gold.

“We don’t want to have this as some crazy, NASCAR-like situation,” Harris said. The advertisements have come at a time when major schools like LSU are trying to come up with more money LSU cut $3 million in expenses, Zinn said, but ofﬁcials emphasized the need to bring in additional revenue instead of slashing spending.

“We are very careful not to put ourselves in a competitive or recruiting disadvantage compared to our peer institutions and those that we compete against,” Zinn said. “And so you have to be really careful about trying to cut your way out of an issue because if you get behind in that, then you’ve got some real signiﬁcant challenges that then ultimately do impact your revenue.”

Other than the sponsor logos there are other ways to make up the deﬁcit A billion-dollar rights deal between ESPN and the College Football Playoff will generate more money, and LSU can renegotiate its Nike contract. Former head football coach Ed Orgeron’s buyout also comes off the books at the end of the year, and TAF can continue to assist. Zinn said LSU is not considering private equity

Still, there will be some adjustments. Zinn said LSU is going to make more regional schedules to reduce the cost of travel, especially for Olympic sports. It may not reﬁll certain positions when people leave the department.

Entering this new era, LSU ofﬁcials projected conﬁdence about what the school can accomplish as it begins to pay players The Tigers will meet the revenue-sharing cap, and they think they can arrange lucrative NIL deals that will pass through the clearinghouse, helping their athletes earn even more.

“I don’t just like where we’re at,” Zinn said. “I love where we’re at.”

quarterback Garrett Nussmeier gives instructions to campers during the Manning Passing Academy on Friday in Thibodaux.

ALL-METROTRACK AND FIELD

West Feliciana’sTristen Harris, right, battles Broadmoor’sTaylor Hankton in the 100-meter dash final at the Class 4A championships on May10atLSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium Harris, aSouth Carolina signee, posted the area’s top times in the 100 and 200 meters.

Tristen Harris was onceagain anelite long jumpspecialist, recordingthe second-bestmarkatthe LHSAA’s outdoormeet.yes, she had the Baton Rougearea’stop outdoor long jumpof20feet, 21/4 inches and ranked high amongall Louisiana competitors.

But the South Carolina signee with a national pedigree as ajumperalso made hermark as asprinter in abig waywhile helping lead West Felicianatothe Class 4A

outdoor title. It was the school’s first title on the 4A leveland first sincewinning a3A crown more than adecade ago.

Harris posted the area’stop times of 11.55 seconds in the 100metersand 23.87 in the 200. Shealso helped power awinning 4x100-meter relay team for the Saintsatthe LHSAA meet

Both of Harris’sprint marks ranked in the topthree among Louisiana competitors in all classes this spring RobinFambrough

East Ascension’sKiristen McGirt, aTennessee signee, set astate compositerecord in the shot put with athrowof50feet, 4inches. Shealso had the state’stop mark in the discus.

KIRISTEN

Though she was hamperedbyaninjury for much of the spring,Kiristen McGirt made arecord-setting impression for East Ascension.

The Tennessee signee set astate record for all classes in the shot put with athrowof50feet,4 inches in the first outdoor meet of the spring season at Zachary.

McGirt, also the Division Iindoor shot put record-holder,was anythingbut aone-event

TRACKEVENTS

100 meters: 1,Tristen Harris,West Feliciana, 11.55 seconds. 2, DestinyHarrison, Liberty, 11.86. 3,Talar Johnson, Zachary, 11.87

200: 1,Tristen Harris,West Feliciana, 23.87 2, DestinyHarrison, Liberty,24.30.3, Malajia Hubbard, East Iberville, 24.56. 400: 1,Alexandria Stewart, St. Joseph’s, 55.33. 2, Jaleyia Woods,Woodlawn,55.41.3, MalajiaHubbard, East Iberville, 55.62. 100 hurdles: 1,Taylor Hankton, Broadmoor, 14.23. 2, Katie Truett, East Ascension, 14.28. 3, Serenity Early,Zachary, 14.43. 300 hurdles: 1, DynastyWilfred,Madison Prep,42.39. 2,Taylor Hankton, Broadmoor, 42.64. 3, CourteneySmith, Denham Springs, 43.52.

800: 1, Keira Melan, Dutchtown, 2:11.80. 2, Molly Cramer,ParkviewBaptist, 2:16.16. 3, Lucy Cramer,ParkviewBaptist, 2:16.82

1,600 meters: 1, Michelle Daigle, St. Joseph’s4:58.36. 2, Molly Cramer,Parkview Baptist,5:00.17. 3, Lucy Cramer, Parkview Baptist,5:02.19.

3,200: 1, Lucy Thomas, Baton RougeHigh, 10:54.71. 2, Lucy Cramer,ParkviewBaptist, 10:56.08. 3, Molly Cramer,ParkviewBaptist, 10:58.12.

4x100 relay: 1, Scotlandville 47.56. 2, Zachary47.58. 3, Dutchtown 47.93.

specialist.Inaddition to having the state’s best mark in the shot put, she had Louisiana’s top mark in the discus with atoss of 148-11 at the Class 5A meet.

Thereismore to McGirt’s storyin2025 than astate recordoratop mark. Her top shot put toss wasnearly 11 feet better than the second-bestlocal competitor McGirt’sdiscus throwwas more than 14 feet fartherthan that of the No. 2local thrower.

RobinFambrough

4x200 relay: 1, Liberty 1:39.80. 2, Scotlandville 1:41.16. 3, Brusly 1:41.54. 4x400 relay: 1, Zachary3:55.53. 2, St. Joseph’s3:55.83. 3, Liberty 3:57.26. 4x800-meter relay: 1, ParkviewBaptist 9:18 11. 2, St.Joseph’s9:36.11. 3, Dutchtown9:46.91.

FIELDEVENTS

Highjump: 1, Kariah Dunn, East Feliciana, 5 feet, 4inches. 2, Cierra Cammon, Lutcher,5-4. 3, Miya Battley, Catholic-PC, 5-3. Long jump: 1,Tristen Harris,West Feliciana, 20-21/4.2,Cierra Cammon, Lutcher, 19-21/2.3, Jana Thymes, ParkviewBaptist, 18-91/2 Triple jump: 1, Diamond Peck,West Feliciana, 39-61/2.2,Cierra Camman, Lutcher, 37-3. 3, Cali Cain, University,37-21/2

Discus: 1, KiristenMcGirt, East Ascension, 148-11. 2, Emily Paynem Dutchtown, 134-8. 3, Kai Richard, Zachary, 131-2. Shot put: 1, KiristenMcGirt, East Ascension, 50-4. 2, Kai Richard, Zachary, 38-7. 3, Kay’lee Shepherd, Istrouma, 37-1. Javelin: 1, Kay’lee Shepherd, Istrouma, 1194. 2,Addyson Sides, Central Private,117-0. 3, SaylorWoosley, Central, 116-3. Pole vault: 1,Annabelle Griffin, Live Oak 12-0. 2, GraceRoss,Walker,11-0. 3, Lauren Joshua, St.Amant, 10-6.

Nomatter what distance race he ran,AidenMonistere foundwaysto win and often recordedvictoriesin record-setting fashion.

The two-time Metro MVPin cross country was alreadya two-time LHSAAindividual cross country champion. Monistere’s success translated to outdoor trackinanelite wayin2025.

The Iowa State signee extended his dominance to the track in such away that one final honor spokevolumes —hewas

FERZELLSHEPARD

Makinga quantum leap as a competitor is not unprecedented for ahighschool athlete.

Fewcan saytheydid it the wayFerzell Shepard did in the triple jump and long jump in his final prep season.

The Texas-San Antonio football and tracksigneenot only met his goal of leapingmore than 50 feet in the triple jump,hesurpassed it in abig way.

Shepard becamethe first Louisiana jumper to crack the 50-foot barrier since reigning NCAA champion BJ GreenofOklahoma did it forRuston High School three years ago.

Entering the LHSAA Class5Aoutdoor meet, Shepard ranked first in the nation in the triple jump.His 5A-winning mark of 51 feet 61/2 inches was just inches offthe statemeet record.

Though hislong jump marks gotless attention, Shepard had the state’stop mark in allclasses at 24-71/2.Hewas the 5A champion in both jumpsspecialties.

RobinFambrough

TRACKEVENTS

100-meter dash: 1, Caleb Hilton, Zachary, 10.50 seconds. 2, Patrick Gales, Brusly, 10.56. 3, Brodie Roberts, Denham Springs, 10.63.

200: 1, Caleb Hilton, Zachary, 21.01. 2, Patrick Gales, Brusly,21.44.3,TrentonChaney, Lutcher,21.69. Brennan Gibson, Port Allen, 21.69.

400: 1, Chandler Sears, Baton RougeHigh, 47.66. 2, HenryMensman, Catholic, 48.00. 3, Catron Hargrove,Glen Oaks, 48.14.

110 hurdles: 1, Fayden Brown,Scotlandville 14.62. 2,Wynn Turner,Episcopal, 14.80. 3, Reece Thompson, Central, 14.83.

300 hurdles: 1, DylanEvans, Scotlandville, 38.55. 2, Fayden Brown, Scotlandville,38.84. 3, Jaivyn Washington, Prairieville,39.04.

800: 1,WilliamDecuir,Catholic, 1:53.47. 2, Aiden Monistere, ParkviewBaptist, 1:54.38. 3, Max Tsolakis, University,1:55.72. 1,600 meters: 1,Aiden Monistere, Parkview Baptist, 4:04.14. 2,WilliamDecuir,Catholic, 4:12.62. 3, Max Tsolakis, University, 4:19.

3,200: 1,Aiden Monistere, ParkviewBaptist, 8:49.84. 2,AugustinJuneau, Catholic, 9:37.24. 3, PeytonLevy,Walker,9:38.16.

4x100 relay: 1, Scotlandville 41.16. 2, Dutchtown 41.42. 3, Brusly41.64. 4x200 relay: 1, Scotlandville 1:25.10. 2, Catholic 1:26.81. 3, Brusly1:27.35. 4x400 relay: 1, Scotlandville 3:17.61. 2, Catholic 3:17.82. 3, Glen Oaks 3:22.36.

4x800-meter relay: 1, Catholic 7:59.31. 2, Dutchtown 8:06.31. 3, BR High 8:06.50.

selected as the GatoradeLouisiana Track and FieldAthlete of the year earlierthismonth. Monistere useda strong indoor season as a springboard to outdoor success and led the Eaglestoarunner-upoutdoor finish in Class 3A. He completed the distance triplecrown by winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the LHSAA outdoor meet. Monistere also anchoredthe winning 4x800 relay Monistere also set Class3Arecords in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters. RobinFambrough

FIELDEVENTS

Discus: 1, Jack Torrance,Catholic, 170 feet, 7inches. 2, Darreyus Scott, Denham Springs, 168-11. 3, RomanJenkins, Liberty, 157-11. Javelin: 1, RobertConley, Catholic, 209-53/4 2, Josh Hogan Denham Springs, 185-3. 3, Connor Conachen, Zachary, 181-9. Shotput: 1, Darreyus Scott, Denham Springs, 60-6. 2, Jack Torrance,Catholic, 56-2. 3, Keidrick Bailey, Zachary, 54-33/4 Highjump: 1, Bra’jon Melancon, North Iberville,6-9. 2, Cayden Jones,Walker 6-8. Keithon Womack, Central, 6-8.Warren Gougisha, Southern Lab,6-8. Long jump: 1, Ferzell Shepard, Scotlandville 24-73/4.2,Kyree Paul, Istrouma, 23-3. 3, Deandre Dunn, Glen Oaks, 23-2. Triple jump: 1, Ferzell Shepard, Scotlandville 51-61/2.2,MaurjayWhite,Woodlawn,46-71/4 3, Genard Green Scotlandville,46-23/4 Pole vault: 1, Eli Hegwood,Walker,14-0. Ryan Klester, Catholic, 14-0. John Henry Overton, Catholic, 14-0.

Note: Bothboysandgirlsresultsbasedon marksrecordedduringthehighschooloutdoor seasonthatendedwiththeLHSAAstatemeets.

STAFF FILE PHOTOByMICHAEL JOHNSON Scotlandville’s Ferzell Shepard soars through the airafter launching in the long jump at the District4-5Ameet on April24 at A.W.Mumford Stadium. Shepard had the state’stop mark in the long jump with aleap of 24 feet, 71/2 inches.

STAFFFILE PHOTOByMICHAEL JOHNSON

ParkviewBaptist’sAiden Monistere powers out of the turninthe 800 meters at the Class 3A track and field championships on May9atLSU’sBernie Moore Stadium. Monistere wonthe 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the meet.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFF FILEPHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Dear LSU Nation:

As I watched our baseball team’s incredible run to the program’s eighth national championship in Omaha, I couldn’t help but reflect and be grateful for all of you.

All of our student-athletes, coaches and staff. All of our passionate and generous LSU fans and and of our LSU and donors. Our incredible partners who believe in what we’re doing. Our state government leaders who encourage our institutional and athletics success And all Louisianans who take pride in the state’s flagship university.

Sunday’s national title is the 53rd in LSU’s history, including the sixth since 2019. That athletic achievement has coincided with record-setting success in the classroom and the community.

It’s all occurred through a challenging and transformative time in college sports

But as Louisianans always do, we’ve answered the call and met the moment.

Each and every one of you are what makes this state and university great. You are what makes the LSU brand a powerful symbol of excellence and forward-thinking.

The 2025 baseball team’s motto perfectly embodies the LSU spirit: “Tough & Together.”

Together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.

Thank you, for all that you do Geaux Tigers! Geaux

Scott Woodward

Retiring afaded OldGlory showslove of country, too

After Imounted an American ﬂag on our frontporch severalyears ago to mark the Fourth of July,the Stars and Stripes looked so grand that my family andIdecided to keep them up for good. Seeing Old Glory as we come and go each day has been ablessing, though full-time service is hard on aﬂag.

Within ayear,the stripesand stars had faded, their colors dimmed by the bright sun and damp air of my Louisiana neighborhood. We’ve worn out two ﬂags since our household tradition began, replacing them each time with bright new versions from the corner hardware store

Icarefullyfolded the old ﬂags and tucked them intoa dining room drawer,not quite sure how I’d bid them goodbye

We’re approaching another Fourth of July,aspecial occasion to celebrate the U.S flag and revisit the rituals for respecting the red, white and blue. There are some customary rules for honoring theflag, and one of them is thatold flags shouldn’tsimply be thrown away One preferred method is burying worn flags, but at the rate our family wears them out, Icouldn’tsee turning our lawn into agraveyard. Another popular alternative is ceremonial burning, in which old flags are reverently retired in asmall gathering. Starting a fire seemed impractical in my yard, and Iwondered if folks nextdoormight get the wrong idea if they peekedover the fence and spotted asolitary man setting the star-spangled banner alight.

Itabled the matter by stowing our old flags out of sight. Some of my neighborsapparently faced the same quandary.OrsoIdiscovered when Jacob Smith, alocal Boy Scout, issued acallfor old American flags so that he and fellow members of Troop 136, chartered through St. George Catholic Church, couldinclude them in aflag retirement ceremony.Hecollected several bags of faded flags, including two of mine.

Iwas out of town duringthe ceremony that Smithhelped organize, but Ireachedhim later to ask him about his project

“The reason Iheld this ceremony was because the ﬂag is a powerful symbol of our country and the values it stands for, so when it’snolonger in good condition, it deserves to be retired with honor insteadofjust thrown away,” Smith told me “This ceremony shows respect

Fate of theweather gods?How adooratthe University of Delaware ledJay Grymes to thelandof‘gox’ Tigers

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

Lookingback now,Jay Grymes realizes his fate was subject to forces beyond his control.

Maybe it was theweather gods, who obviously didn’tcarethat weather wasn’t hisparticularinterest —a strange fact aboutsomeone whowould eventuallybenamed the Louisianastate climatologist.

Butit’strue. Grymes’ major at the University of Delaware was environmental biology.He’d taken his required courses but needed a fewelectives to earn his bachelor’s degree. So, he took aclass in meteorology.This is where theweather gods stepped in.

If he hadn’ttaken theclass, Grymeswouldn’thave run into his professorafter theﬁnalexam, no extensive conversation would have followed,and Grymesprobably would havebeen working as aranger for Delaware’sstate park systeminstead of preparing forthe 2025 hurricane season in theLouisiana StateOfﬁce of Climatology Grymes has since madehis home in this strange land where he spent the first month tryingtofigure out themeaningof“Gox Tigers.”

That’show he pronounced “geaux”

BYPOET WOLFE Staff writer

upon his 1986 arrival in Louisiana, wherehis palette hadtoadjust to Cajun andCreole spices,and where theopenness of Louisiana’s residentsknocked him off balance at ﬁrst.

People in Delaware were customarily reserved, rarely makingeye contact, he said.

“I remember goingtoLafayette when Iﬁrst came here,”Grymes said. “People were still doing the side cheek kisses back then, and I wasn’tused to that.”

But he hasnocomplaints. He feels lucky Walkingthrough GOHSEP

“This room,” Grymes said, pointingthrough adoor, “is thepress room where the governor gives hisupdates for thepress during emergencies.”

He peers at the podium at the front of the room.It’sprobably the mostrecognizable setting forLouisiana televisionaudiences in the wakeand aftermath of hurricanes,

With abreathy voice, platinum curls and sheath attire, she became aHollywood sex symbol. Butbehind the image was afar more complex life —one cut short by acar crash near Slidell. The documentary,“My Mom Jayne,” unearths thelife of the 1950s actressand pinup Jayne Mansﬁeld nearly 60 years after her death. Airing on HBO, it wasﬁlmed by her daughter producer and “Law and Order: SVU” actress Mariska Hargitay —who, along with her twobrothers, survived the car crash. Shewas 3years old. “Reclaiming our family story,”

STAFFPHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

State Climatologist JayGrymes points to the nameplates marking all of the differentagencies that operate out of the Emergency Operations Center during majorstorms at the Governor’sOffice of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness office on Tuesday.

PHOTO PROVIDED FROM WAFB JayGrymes spentalmost 30 years at the station, retiring last summer as the station’schief meteorologist.

TRAVEL

Nonstopflights addedfor 2favoritevacationspots

MSyhas Charleston now andMyrtle Beachcoming soon

BY LESLIECARDÉ

Contributing writer

If you’re looking for two funfilled, culturally rich destinations —one that’shad adirect flight from New Orleans for ayear,and the other with nonstop flightsbeginning in September —consider Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The nonstop flights, courtesy of low-cost carrier Breeze Airways, let you avoid delays or cancellations at any connecting airport And, both direct flights are under two hours.

Our ﬁrst stop is Charleston, a city reminiscent of New Orleans. Hollywood has long loved the city’sbeauty and style, and dozens of ﬁlms have been set here, including the Nicholas Sparks tearjerker,“The Notebook,” utilizing its lush marshes and quaint cobblestone streets.

The city has its own French Quarter,with the largest concentration of art galleries. Charleston has something for everyone, whether it’shistorical, cultural, or artistic in nature, or deﬁned by its own unique Lowcountry cuisine.

If you really want to soak up Charleston’sunusual architecture, from towering churches to stately and well-preserved private homes, take one of the many walking tours offered.

For important history,visit the Old Slave Mart Museum, once the site of commerce forthe slave trade. Charleston was the main point of entry into America for enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries. The museum provides visitors with adetailed telling of the experiences of those who crossed its ominous threshold.

Brought here by those kidnappedfrom West Africa are sweet-smelling baskets, woven by handfrom plants that line the Lowcountry marshes and one of the mostpopulartourist purchases. The intricate carryalls aresold by sidewalk vendors throughout the city

Regional cuisine

Charleston’sfood is deﬁned by the ocean and creeks which surround the city,soshrimp, oysters and fresh ﬁsh are always on the menu, along with the city’sfamous she-crab soup, Charleston’s answer to New England’sclam chowder

Be adventurous and try some of the regional cuisine. We enjoyed Hoppin’ John, consisting of

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

By ChristopherElliott

abowl of black-eyedpeas, rice, pork and ahealthy helping of mouthwatering cornbread. This comfort food can be traced back tothe Gullah Geechee people of West African descent and comes with aside of superstition. Similar to theNew Orleanstradition, it’sbelieved thatif you eat this dishonNew Year’sDay,you will have luck and prosperityfor the rest of the year

There is plenty of ﬁne dining in the city as well.Notable among

thecityfavorites, Fig, which has produced two James Beard Best Chef of theSouth winners, is known for itsfresh-off-the-farm ingredients. If you love Italian food that pushes theboundaries, Frannie and the Fox serves decadent pizzas, including one withtaleggio and burned honey.Or, try their delicious blue crab fritters.

And, don’tleave Charleston without trying the much soughtafter coconut cakedessert. The Peninsula Grill is known for hav-

The streets of Charleston are lined with unusual architecture and cobblestone.

ing thebest in town.

Harbor views, sunset vistas

The city’slandmarks include thePineapple Fountain in Joe Riley Waterfront Park, where you can relax in the gardens overlooking Charleston Harbor Or,for an even better view of the waterfront, hop on the Ravenel Bridge whichconnects Charleston to neighboring Mount Pleasant.

Thereyou’llﬁnd awaterfall fountain anda 1,250-foot-long

pierthatstretchesinto the water Grab amilkshake at the River WatchCaféand enjoy the best sunsets from your high perch. Forshopping, King Street has everything fromhigh-end Rodeo Drive-style shops to hip local boutiques intermingled with sidewalk cafes.Stroll alongthe mileslong street as horse-drawn carriagespassby.

If you’re looking forawardwinning golf courses, Charleston is less thantwo hours away from eitherHiltonHead or Kiawah Island.

Breezeﬂiesnonstop between New Orleansand Charleston on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays andFridays.

Beachfrontsbeckon

Up the coastisMyrtle Beach, notonly home to hundreds of golf courses, but amusement parks, an aquarium, awater park, andthe Grand Strand, a60mile stretchofpristine beaches. Myrtle Beach is atwo-hour drive from Charleston, but Breeze will kick off direct ﬂights from NewOrleans on Thursdays and Sundays beginning in September

Along the Myrtle Beach boardwalk, if you’re notafraid of heights, enjoythe amazing views from the Sky Wheel, one of the largest Ferris wheels in the United States at 187 feet tall. Each spoke of the wheel is over six football ﬁelds long.

We went on awindy day(probably notrecommended) which meant ourgondola wasdoing quite abit of rocking and rolling —a real thrill ride!

Myrtle Beach is also home to Brookgreen Gardens, where more than500 works from American artists areset among 250-year-old oaks, palms, and flowers in America’soldest sculpture garden. Beaches areeverywhere, but if you’re looking for something a bit less crowded, try the more remote fine-sand beaches of North Myrtle,like Windy Hill Beach. Flankedbyhigh-rises, beach cottagesand oodles of cute restaurants andboutiques just blocksaway,some are sitting right alongside the Intracoastal Waterway, where paddlewheelersare aconstant presence. Every Mondayinthe summer, giant fireworks displays light up the night sky over the Atlantic Ocean Whether it’sfamily-friendly Myrtle Beach, or historic Charleston, there’ssomething foreveryone along the eastern shores of South Carolina. And, it’snow easier than ever to get there.

Email Leslie Cardé at lesliecardejournalist@gmail.com

Christopher Elliott

Ibooked an 11-daycoastal cruise on the Majestic Princess from Seattle to San Diego.I made the reservation online and gave Princess my credit card information for the fare andtravel insurance. Princess confirmed my booking,charging my card for the fare but not the insurance.The next day, Ireceiveda “shortfall notice” that the travel insurancecharge must be paid by the end of the day. Since it was10p.m., Icalled the provided number,but only reachedvoicemail with no option to leave amessage. At 12:24 a.m. the next morning, Ireceived a“cancellation notification.”When IcalledPrincess, arepresentative said the

reservationwas canceled and couldn’tbe reinstated. Princess also charged me a $3,718 cancellation fee. Idisputed the fare chargewith my credit card company, butPrincess contested the chargeback. Can you help me getthis fee removed? —DouglasBerry,Sumner,Washington

PrincessCruise Lines shouldn’t have canceledyour reservation andcharged youacancellation fee.Ithink youdid everything right by providing your credit card information for both thefare and the insurance.Itseems their system failed to process theinsurance payment.That’snot your fault. Youfollowedthe instructions in

the shortfall noticebut were unable to reach anyone becausethe cruiseline’sofﬁce was closed. It’s unacceptable for thecruise line to cancel your reservation just afew hours later,without giving you the chance to rectify the situation. When you disputed the charge withyour credit cardcompany, Princessunfairly contested thereversal, claiming you had canceled the reservation.How absurd. What went wrong? It looks like Princesswas trying to process your card but couldn’t.Credit cards usesophisticated but fallible fraud detection algorithms to pick up any problematic charges. It’s possible thatyour credit cardallowed the ﬁrst Princess charge but

blocked the second one, believing it was fraudulent.

Youcan ensure that doesn’thappen by calling your bank to let themknow that you’re about to make abig purchase that could potentiallyget ﬂagged. Youcould have appealed to a manager at Princess. Ihave alist of contacts for Princess Cruise Lines executives on my website, Elliott.org. Icontacted Princess Cruises on your behalf, and it agreed to waive thecancellation fees and refund your money. So what happened? Although the cruiseline wouldn’ttell me, you heard from arepresentative who offered youafew details.

“When they ﬁnally looked at what happened with our reservation, it was obvious the problem wastheir automated reservation system,” you told me

It’sashame that it took my intervention to get Princess Cruises to do the right thing. If this ever happens to you, don’taccept acancellation fee. Escalate your case to asupervisor or executive and stay with it until they return your money

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy,anonproﬁt organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.

Enroll in theGreater Baton Rouge Children’sChoir

FYIBR staff reports

Open enrollment is here for thefall semester of the Greater Baton Rouge Children’sChoir, avibrant and inclusiveyouth choirdedicated to artistic excellence and community engagement. The choir is committed to equipping children from diverse backgrounds with strong character,self-conﬁdence and leadershipskills through outstanding musicianship. GBRCC welcomes all students in grades ﬁrstthrough twelve, regardless of prior musical experience. Music ranges from traditional anthems

to multicultural selections. Performances include aChristmas Concert, public community concerts and nursing home visits. As part of their mission to serve every child,GBRCC offers tuition-free enrollment to all foster children in theBaton Rouge area. Key details for fall 2025:

n Rehearsals: 4:30-5:45 p.m. on Tuesdays at First Baptist Church Baton Rouge

n Season Dates:Sept. 9through Dec. 20

n Tuition: $225 per chorister (multi-child discounts available)

n Special offer:Registration fee is waived for those who preregister and pay the $25 music fee by Aug. 26

n Foster families receive tuition-free participation. Asmall fee for uniformsand

choir T-shirtsisrequired. Families can enroll by visiting www gbrccmusic.org. For questions, call (225) 412-3021 or email gbrccmusic@gmail.com. Call for artists to exhibitworkin mayor-president’s office

The Ofﬁce of Mayor-President Sid Edwards, in partnership with the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, invites local visual artiststosubmit their work fora special rotatingexhibition in the Mayor’s Ofﬁce at City Hall. This initiative honors thecreative spirit of Baton Rouge and brings local art intothe heart of civic leadership.

Artists living or working in the Baton Rouge area —whether emerging or established —are encouraged to apply.Accepted media include painting, photography, drawing, printmaking, mixed media and digital art (2D, wall-mountable only). Selected pieces will remain on display forsix to seven months. Artists may submit up to three works, along with ashort bio or resume, artist statement and artwork details. The deadline to submit is 11:59 p.m.July 25. For moredetails or questions, contact the Arts Council at (225) 344-8558 or info@ artsbr.org.

Email Joy Holdenatjoy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

PHOTOSByLESLIE CARDÉ

NorthMyrtle Beach’sIntracoastal Waterway offers placid viewsofsparkling water

COMMUNITY

Charity

The Charity Ball Association of Baton Rougeheld its annual French Picnic for its 2025 debutantes May15atthe Baton RougeCountryClub. Shownare, from left, front row, Savannah Saia, AveryBruce, MaryClayton Jumonville and Ella Fife; back row, Elizabeth Gordon, Rae Boudreaux,Lila Weston, Molly Ritter,Isabella Lalonde, Emily Veillon and Avery yeargain. Not pictured is Margaret Harrell.

Charity Ball names 2025 debs

The Charity Ball Association of Baton Rouge announcesits 2025 debutantes at its annual French PicniconMay 15 at theBaton Rouge Country Club.

Those honored are: SavannahSaia, AveryBruce, Mary Clayton Jumonville, Ella Fife, Elizabeth Gordon, Rae Boudreaux, Lila Weston, Molly Ritter,Isabella Lalonde, Emily Veillon, Avery Yeargain and Margaret Harrell.

The debutanteswill be presented at the association’sannual Le Bal de Noel on Dec. 28 at Crowne Plaza Executive Center

Since 1956, theCharity Ball Association of Baton Rouge hassupported local nonproﬁt organizations through an annualdonation For 2025, the association’s membership selected First Tuesday as this year’schari-

table beneﬁciary First Tuesdayisadynamic community initiative that inspires businesses to give back in adifferent, heartfelt way.Onthe ﬁrst Tuesday of everymonth,teams from various businesses volunteer withlocal nonprofits to support their missions of making Greater Baton Rouge ahealthy,vibrant community School gets Physical Activity Award

South Live Oak Elementary has been awardedthe Louisiana SchoolPhysical ActivityAward by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and SecondaryEducation (BESE) for championing health and wellness through an innovative, inclusive physical education program. Ashley Bond,the Watson school’sphysical education teacher,was recognizedby BESE for her leadership in

theschool’sefforts at aMay ceremony at Louisiana’sOld StateCapitol.

Bonddeveloped aphysical education programthat focuses on physical activity, healthy choices and wellness. Her program encourages family engagement through at-home fitness challenges for students andafter-schoolfamilyactivities that allow parents to participateinphysical activities withtheir students. In thestate’spresentation, SouthLiveOak’s program was described as “innovative” in itsapproach to promoting lifelong fitness, noting that students areintroduced to healthy food choices through aPick aBetter Snack program, while programslike MileageMondays,the EZScan Running Club and Wellness Wednesdays teach healthy habits and track progress with fun incentives.

Special events at theschool

Louisiana School Physical Activity Award

AshleyBond,South LiveOak Elementaryschool’s physical education teacher,was recognized by BESE for her leadership in the school’s efforts.

Shownare, from left, South Live Oak Elementary Principal Amy Savage,Bondand Livingston Parish School SuperintendentJodyPurvis.

FaithBridges, an incoming senior at DoyleHigh School, was awarded the Tulane Book Award forthe 2024-25 school year.The school is located in Livingston.

Good Ole Boys

The NorthBaton RougeGood OleBoysattended aluncheon on June 19 at Rudy’sSeafood &Steakhouse in Watson. Shownare, fromleft, seated, Raymond Fisher,Larry Boyette, Harold Fisher,Jimmy Austin, Wayne Rice, Lester Maker,TonyMagee, Winston Vass, Gary Rispone, Darrell Walton, EddieSchafer and Spike James; standing, JohnnyBraud,Larry Nichols, Kelly Edwards, GeneHernandez,Davis Rayborn, Doug Gable, RonnieMcKinney, MikeKing,Donnie Dickerson, MitchSmith, GeraldHumphreyand Mike McHorter.Attendees not in picture are Haskell Douglas,EarlPhillips, Denson Evans, Tony Dier,Paul Fisher,Dickie Rembert, MikeLanglois, BuddyWicker and AlbertLanglois.

includeJumpRopefor Heart, the March of Dimes 1-mile walk, and aColor Run. Communityand family involvement shine through kickball tournaments, ﬁtness

challenges, family nights and after-school clubs. The program supports all students with adaptive strategies and guidance from APEteachers.

Staff wellness is also a focus on activities such as after-school workouts and AnythingGoes, aﬁeld-day type activity in which teachersand studentsparticipate.

LASM board of trustees and officers

The Louisiana Art&Science Museum (LASM)membership elected new officers and members to the board of trustees forthe 2025-26 termat itsannual meeting of members on March31. Shown are, fromleft, Karen M. Soniat, Ph.D.;Keith Biedenharn; EricDexter;Tiffany Dickerson; Melissa Dotson; Mendi Robinson; DrewTessier; Scott Gaudin; HaleyJones; Seth Schilling; Harry J. ‘Skip’Philips; and Dr LouisJeansonne IV

PROVIDED PHOTO

PROVIDED PHOTO By KLEINPETER PHOTOGRAPHy

Ball AssociationofBaton Rouge

PROVIDED PHOTO

PROVIDED PHOTO Tulane Book Award

and it’swhere Grymes will take his place behind the governor during the next storm.

The press roomislocated inside the Governor’sOffice of HomelandSecurity and EmergencyPreparedness, or GOHSEP,which stands next door to the Louisiana State Police Headquarters in Baton Rouge on IndependenceBoulevard.

The building is hometoone of Grymes’ two state climatologist ofﬁces. He also maintains the LSU Louisiana Ofﬁce of State Climatologyinthe university’s Energy,Coast &Environmental Building.

But the emergency action happens at GHOSEP, where Grymes now leadsthe wayto a conference room that looks out at ahigh-tech stagingarea.

The governor,Grymes points out, meets with hishigher-ups in the conferenceroomwhile various agencies gather for theirmarching orders during emergencies in thenext room.

The building is equipped with afull kitchen and meeting rooms that can be converted to sleeping quartersand showers for overnight stays.

The halls are silent for now, butthat’sbecauseit’sa Monday

“The office was under the NationalGuard before, then Gov.(Bobby) Jindalmoved this office into the executive branch during his administration,”Grymessaid.“Gov.(Jeff) Landry,from an administrative standpoint,put it back under theDepartment of Military the National Guard.”

And the Guard changed the workingweek here to four 10hour days aweek

“So tomorrow,you’ll see some people ﬂoating around,” Grymes said. “Normally,Iactually would probably be at LSU on aMonday,but I’m trying to getthe position in aplace where it is almost seamless in terms of what Ido, that Ican domyjob at either place.”

Still, GOHSEP is Grymes primary station, wherehe has worked since last summer after retirement as chief meteorologist at Baton Rouge’sWAFB, Channel 9.

Grymes spent almost 30 years at the station, the first seven working part-time on weekends. He’sthe first tosay he wasn’tpreparedfor thejob

Well, that is, he hadnobroadcasting experience.

Grymes originallymoved to BatonRouge to work on his doctoral degree in meteorology at LSU. He eventually wasoffered the state climatology position, andthough thejob was only part-time, he developedit into afull-time position.

Then WAFB came calling. The station needed aweekend meteorologist. Grymes had never stood in front of acamera, so the station sent him to Dallas for broadcast coaching

“They flew me over there

CURIOUS

Continued from page1D

honeymoon,” Mansﬁeld once told reporters in New Orleans, where she frequently visited.

But the tumultuous chapters of Mansﬁeld’slife —divorces, cheating scandals, custody battles —and her glamour were at the center of tabloids.

Becoming aHollywood star

The entertainment industry’s fixation on Mansfield’scurvaceous figure and platinum hair often overshadowed her theatrical talents, typecasting her as a“dumb blonde.”

On the contrary,Mansﬁeld studied at the University of Texasand Southern Methodist University while frequently appearingin plays at the Austin CivicCenter She eventually enrolled in the drama program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

After walking into apublicist’s ofﬁce and becoming his clientthe same day,multiple movie studios sought out Mansﬁeld. Of the four that made offers, she decided on Warner Brothers.

“I want to be known as an actress —not as agirl with abig bust.How can Iget producers and columnists to realize this?” she said in a1955 interview with The Times-Picayune, after being cast in her first filmasaseductive nightclub singer Needless to say,Mansfield

I’ve been very lucky. None of thesejobs Ihave pursued, but the venues and the people I’ve worked with have all been great.Iam lucky.”

JAYGRYMES

billed by news outlets as themost photographedwoman since MarilynMonroe —was well aware of thepublic’sperception of her Andeventually sheplayed into that bombshell image, posing in risqué photos for Playboy magazine andboastingabout her male appealtomagazines.

“Oh, Idoabreathlesssort of thing, abit like Eartha Kitt,” Mansﬁeldoncesaid of her feathery voice. “I invested ayear on Broadway exploiting myself with Hollywood in mind.”

Thecostoffame

The public eye was as focused on Mansﬁeld’s personal struggles as it was on her allure.

In November 1966, ayear and a halfafter her divorce from Hargitay,Mansﬁeld was posing for paparazzi ataCalifornia zoo when herson was mauledbyalion and nearlydied.

In June1967, days before her death,Mansfield’s16-year-old daughter, covered in bruises and welts, reported to Los Angeles police that hermother’smale companion had beaten her Her final months revealed that the lifelongdream of becoming a famed actress came with onerous costs —sexualization, scrutiny and ahigh-profile death.

Mansfield’s‘date with God’

On June28, 1967, hours before thefatal car crash claimed her life, Mansﬁeld performed two

thatmorning.I trained for four hours, they ﬂew me back, and Iwas on televisiondoing theweatherat6 thatevening,” Grymes said. “I was bad —I was really bad. In fact,those first few weeks, Iwas so bad that Iwas afraid Iwas destroying my reputation in town,because at that point, Ihad been consulting forState Police and theDepartment of Environmental Quality and the Department of Energy andNatural Resources. Ihad probably half adozen attorneys that had me doing work for them, and Ijustfelt like Iwas abuffoon on TV,because it was just otherworldly.”

But late WAFB anchor Paul Gates encouraged Grymes to stay,and when then-chief meteorologistMikeGrahamtook an extensive vacation, Grymes ﬁlled in and found his groove.

“I found Jay theweatherman rather than Jay trying to be Mike theweatherman,” he said.

Thetelevisionstation asked Grymes to be chief meteorologist upon Graham’s retirement. Former LSUChancellor Mark Emmertencouraged Grymes to takethe job

“He saidthe university couldn’tpay me nearly what the TV stationwas offering,” Grymes said.

And he hasnoregrets, but that doesn’tmean he misses television life. The schedule of evening hours could be taxing, andthough he gradually developed athick skin, it was never athick enough armor against critics in his audience.

But Grymes did enjoy the people he worked with, agroup of fellow broadcast meteorologists that he considers the best in Baton Rouge. He’salso proud of joining up with WAFB’s current chiefmeteorologist, Steve

“Weended up in his office, and about an hour andahalf into the conversation, he told me to waitthere,” Grymes said.

shows at Gus Steven’sSupper Club in Biloxi, Mississippi. Employees told Times-Picayune reporters it was her best show yet After theconcert, Mansﬁeld, three of her children, four dogs and her attorney,Samuel Brody, got in a1966 Buick Electra driven by Ronnie Harrison. They were en route to New Orleans, where she planned to stay at The Roosevelt Hotel and be interviewed by thelocal news station WDSU.

The Buick was traveling on a narrow U.S. 90, west of the Rigolets Bridge, when it rammed into and plunged underneath atractortrailer that had slowed down for amosquito-spraying truck. Mansﬁeld, Brody,Harrison and two of thedogs were instantly killed.

The children, asleep in thebackseat, survivedwith minor injuries.

Hargitay arrived at Ochsner Foundation Hospital, where his children were receiving treatment, on theday of the crash. With his tie loosened, staring blankly ahead, he addressed reporters in the hospital’slibrary

“Little Mickeyaskedmewhat happened to Mother,” said Hargitay, holding back tears. “I toldhim she hadadate withGod. That she will be withGod from hereon.”

Theaftermath

The fatal crash prompted authorities to recommend the installation of “underride guards” on the rear of tractor-trailers toprevent vehicles from sliding underneaththem

Caparotta, in using the jobtoeducatethe public about weather ButGrymes knew he couldn’t pass up asecond opportunity as state climatologist. Now here he is.

Stranger things

“Think about it,” Grymes said. “If Ihad chosen to walk outa different door of thebuilding, I would probably be working as a statepark ranger in Delaware.”

That door was an entrance andexit to the buildingwhere Grymes had just taken the ﬁnal exam for ameteorology elective. He wasworking as a night janitoratthe University of Delaware at the time to earn themoney needed to take his ﬁnal classes.

Then he ran into his meteorology professor.They struck up a conversation. What was he majoring in? Well,nothing to do withmeteorology or climatology,but it didn’tmatter.Theywereboth headed in the same direction, so they walked and talked.

“He returned withtwo of my professors and said they had lettersofrecommendationfor grad school.” Grymes’ grad school adviser hada professorconnectionin the land of “Geaux Tigers.” He drove from Delaware to the universityinhis trucktoworkwith the LSU professor While in Baton Rouge, he met hiswife,Debi, whomanaged the LSU Student Union’sPlantation Room,and eventually became stepfather to her daughter,Carrie, then agrandfather to her son, who is about to graduate from Tulane University As he approaches his 70th birthday,Grymes doesn’tplan to spend manyyears in his secondstint as state climatologist. He’d like to one day retire and spend alittle bit of timeriding his Kawasaki Vulcan cruiser motorcycle on rural roads.

It’sthe secondbikehe’s owned, the first being a2001 model.

“This is a2003 model,” he said. “I would like to get outdoorsy.” But fornow,his days are spentmonitoringLouisiana’s summer droughts, weather systems throughout the state and prepping GOHSEP in cases of tropical disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean.

It is hurricaneseason,after all, in astate where Grymes feels lucky to live.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “None of these jobs Ihave pursued, but the venues and the people I’ve worked with have all been great. Iamlucky.”

Email RobinMillerat romiller@theadvocate.com.

in collisions. Years later,these guards, commonly known as “Mansﬁeld bars,” became mandatory Mansﬁeld’sdeath also sparked rumors, with manyspeculating that she was decapitated after seeing aphoto of her blonde wig resting on thedashboard.

“She was fully intact,” said James Roberts, of Bultman Funeral Home in the Lower Garden District, where Mansﬁeld’sbody was taken after her death. “I know.Iembalmed her.”

Twodays after the crash, Mansﬁeld’sbodywas ﬂownfrom New Orleanstothe small town of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, where she lived during early childhood.

Despite her family’sefforts to avoid apublicized funeral, nearly 1,000 people cluttered thecemetery,creating what The Times-Picayune described as a “circus atmosphere.” Somebroke through the police lines to snap photos of Mansﬁeld’sbronze casket blanketed in pink roses.

“I wish the whole world would remember her as Ido,” Hargitay told reporters. “She was a remarkablewoman and agreat mother.Iamreally sorry nobody knows thereal Jayne.”

Do you have aquestionabout something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phonenumber andthe city where you live.

AT RANDOM

Continued from page1D

for what the ﬂag represents and for those who served under it.”

In pictures of the ceremony on social media, about half adozen Scouts are solemnly gathered around asmallfire in an iron pit, slowly commending each flag to the flames. Seeing the pictures, Iwas moved to think that true patriotism,sooften embraced as loud, bold and even boisterous, can sometimes be aquiet and tender thing, too. Those are the virtues that will endure, one hopes, long after any flag turns to ashes.

Email DannyHeitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

STAFFPHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

State Climatologist JayGrymes poses for apicture outsideofthe Governor’sOffice of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness office.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Grand Marshal JayGrymes tosses beads into the crowd as the 47thannual Kenilworth Independence DayParade rolls in 2019 in Baton Rouge.

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

Hosting asummer barbecue?

Having family over for the Fourth of July? While hosting a large event may seem daunting, it is very accomplishable.

In Louisiana, the ﬁrstthing to consider is always the weather Rainorshine, folks still know how to have agood time,but it’s important to keep the weather in mind. This year,the National Weather Service is predicting record highs. So, keep agatheringwellstocked with cold drinks, ice, frozen treats, cold towels and open access indoors.

For the food, the meat is oneof the most important things to get right whenhosting abarbecue.

Dr.Daryl Marx, aBatonRouge roboticssurgeon, has recently become abarbecue enthusiast He regularly cooks for friends, family and neighborsand caters to small events around town.

“My latest obsession is smoking meat,” Marx said. “Not just simple stuff but really complicated cooks and small cateringevents.”

His250-gallon offset smoker sits in the back of his driveway and brings him back to his Boy Scout days —areal sortofTexas style

“It’sfun to sit out by thepit and watch the fire,” Marx said. “It’s a very nurturing experience with the fire, getting it to perform the way you want and control temperatures perfectly as you tenderize and flavor meat at agrand scale.”

Whether using abackyard grill, acharcoal grill, an open ﬁre or an advanced smoker,choosing the right meattocook and serveis paramount to barbecue success.

Here are some tips toget started:

n Choose the right meat:For rich flavors, go with rib-eye, porterhouse or T-bone steaks. For leaner meats, put on aflanksteak, top sirloin, chicken or turkey. For maximum tenderness, atenderloinorflat iron steak is thebest

AT THE TABLE

bet.

n Understandthe heat zones of thegrill or smoker: Use direct heatfor quick-cooking foods like burgers or vegetables and indirectheat (to theside of the heatsource or ﬂames)for slowercookingfoodslike roasts.

n Preheat the grill: While often forgotten when aslew of party guests are arriving, preheating thegrill is an essential step to getagood sear on the food (and it preventssticking). Allow 10 to 15 minutes of preheating for gas grills and 20 to 30 minutes for charcoal grills.

n Monitor thetemperature: Althoughitsounds like just another implement to buy forgrilling, a meat thermometercan go along way to ensure food reaches the properinternal temperature— for both safety anddeliciousness. Groundmeats should be cooked to 160 degrees, while chicken and turkey need to reach 165 degrees.

n Restthe meat: Let themeat rest for at least 10 minutes (maybe even more, depending on how big thecut is) to allow juices to redistribute, resulting in amore tender and juicier ﬁnal product “Cooking is alot like surgery When you prepare ameal for somebody, you’re showing apart of yourself,” Marx said. “In that respect,it’svery fulﬁlling, and it’s challenging.”

Safetyisalways something to consider when grilling. Be mindful of children near open ﬂames.

Another component to consider is when temperatures rise, being next to asmoking hot grill for up to four hours can make someone overheat quick. Remember to keep hydrated, using cold towels and fans to keep thegrillmaster cool.

“It’s great to eat!” Marx said. “I may put four racks of ribs and abrisket on, so Ineed acrew to come have it.”

Barbecued Prime Rib

Serves 10 to 20 depending on size of prime rib

RecipeisfromDavid G. Fourrier,ofBaton Rouge

7-to 15-pound beef prime rib

1(4.5-ounce)jar TexJoy steak seasoning

2Tommy Bryson (14-inch) hand-cut pecan logs

1. Sprinkle the rib roast with a healthy coating of TexJoy.Place in aself-sealing bagorotherwise wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight for the seasoning to disseminate. Early the next morning, take the meat out of the refrigerator andallow it to come to room temperature while getting theﬁre ready.

2. Proper fire is the secret.Soak thepecan logs in water overnight and place themonone side of the grill’sfire tray. The charcoal is lit in achimney. Whenthe coalsare ready, they arepouredoverthe wet logs leaving one half of the tray firefree.

3. While the coalsare still flaming, the meat is slowly turned on the grill so thatall sides arebrowned. The roastisthen placed on ameat rack in alarge aluminum panonthe side away from the fire.Close the lid of the pit. The wetlogsgive the meat areal smoky flavor.Bythe time the coalsgoout, the pecan wood logs areburning. This allows the meat to cook at about 350 Fto 400 Ffor 31/2 to 4hours without having to open the lid or add more charcoal

Note: The prime rib usually comes outwelldoneonthe ends, medium next to the ends and rare in the center. There is usually apiece of meatfor every taste

ShallotSageButter

Makes ahalf cup

Recipe is excerpted from “The Brisket Chronicles” by Steven Raichlen Shallot Sage Butter brings a Mediterranean note to asmoked meatwith deep American roots. Allium loverscan substitute garlic for the shallots.

8tablespoons(1stick) unsaltedbutter

2to3largeshallots, peeled and minced (1/2 cup)

2tablespoonschoppedfresh sageleaves (plus an optional handful of whole leaves)

1. Melt the butter in asauce pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and sage and cook until just beginning to brown, 3minutes.

2. Remove from the heat and keep at room temperature until ready to use. Reheat the butter gently if it solidiﬁes.

Note: For an extra hit of ﬂavor and an irresistible crackly crunch, add ahandful of fried whole sage leaves to the steaks along with this butter.Tomake them,fry the fresh leaves in olive oil over medium-high heat fora fewseconds until crisp. Drain on paper towels until ready to use. Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

can come as a shock, leading people to put offoreven go without care

Simply put—without dental insurance, theremay be an importantgap in your healthcare coverage.

Texas barbecue pitmaster behind Buc-ee’s brisket

Recipes, methods crucial to pit-stop’s success

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

To Houstonian pitmaster Randy Pauly, Texas barbecue is more than food it’s a sacred craft

His team of novice smokers proved it recently on the opening day of the convenience chain Buc-ee’s in Pass Christian, Mississippi. A dozen employees in cowboy hats, trained by Pauly, moved in rhythm. They slid fresh breakfast tacos under a glowing lamp, chopped brisket into messy cubes and occasionally belted, “Fresh brisket on the board!”

Wearing a feathered cowboy hat and a belt buckle featuring the Buc-ee’s mascot outlined in sparkling rhinestones, Pauly often glanced at the employees with the admiration of a proud parent.

“Like any artist you create a product and hope everyone likes it,” he said as customers cleared the shelves of brisket sandwiches and tacos.

The spread of Texas barbecue, particularly smoked brisket, reﬂects a larger shift in American culinary culture, where regional specialties are no longer bound by their origins Using Pauly’s recipes and methods, the Buc-ee’s chain has played a crucial role in expanding Texas barbecue beyond the state, offering it in 52 stores across the Gulf Coast.

“It’s a blessing to be able to bring Texas barbecue across the U.S.,” Pauly said.

Despite smoked brisket reaching a corporate scale at Buc-ee’s, where employees sell thousands of pounds per day, Pauly remains centered on quality and attention to detail while teaching methods that took him decades to master

The pitmaster’s persistence

His methods caught the eye of Don Wasek — the quiet business partner of Buc-ee’s founder and

CEO Arch “Beaver” Aplin in 2018. At the time, Pauly was a Houston ﬁreﬁghter and leading his team, Holy Cow Cookers, in barbecue cook-offs.

When Pauly accepted Wasek’s offer to be the director of barbecue operations for the chain, he had a resume that began taking form in his teen years.

At age 15, after his father died in a car accident, Pauly was introduced to barbecue by his neighbor and cousin. What started as a distraction from grief was transformed into a passion treated with persistence. At cook-offs and county fairs in Houston, a teenage Pauly would approach competitive teams and offer to be their bottle washer, aiming to break into the world of Texas barbecue. And by 1993, he was doing just that scrubbing dirty bottles for a team named Regroup Cookers.

The next year, while the team was competing in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the chief cook overslept one night, prompting Pauly to take the initiative and make ribs for the contest. His recipe carried the team to the ﬁnals.

By 1995, Pauly — a then-college student with a dry bank account —

founded Holy Cow Cookers. Using discounted ribs from the grocery store, his team competed in the rodeo and won ﬁrst place.

“We were living off a dream,” he said. “We weren’t living off of money.”

Holy Cow Cookers spent years taking home awards for their ribs and chicken, but when Wasek sounded his offer, he wanted Bucee’s to sell its own brisket a category that Pauly had yet to compete in.

After their meeting, Pauly spent hundreds of dollars on wagyu brisket, a far more arduous cut of meat to cook due to its high fat content, and competed in the category for the ﬁrst time.

The next time he met with Wasek, Pauly rolled out a banner that showcased his brisket winning eighth place in the world.

Not a year has gone by in the last three decades without Pauly and his team competing in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Today, they are eight-time world barbecue champions.

‘It’s the details’

After working opening day at Buc-ee’s in Pass Christian, Pauly boarded a plane that night and ﬂew to Georgia to teach another set of employees, who had 21 days of training ahead of them. Though he was running on less than ﬁve hours of sleep, it was hardly noticeable.

“Today is the day you get to rebrand yourself as being the person you wanted to always be,” Pauly recalled saying to some of the employees at the store location in Georgia.

He spoke of Texas barbecue the same way a painter might speak about putting brush to canvas, describing the ideal ratio between bark, fat and meat on a slice of brisket.

“It’s the details where Buc-ee’s wins ..” Pauly said. “It’s those details. Once you lock those details in, you’re gonna have anything and everything you need in life.”

Email Poet Wolfe at poet.wolfe@ theadvocate.com.

Appalachian Trail hikers take on one additional challenge

After hiking 1,110 miles, they eat a half-gallon of ice cream

BY MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press

GARDNERS, Pa Sam Cooper had just trekked 7 miles through a rain-sodden stretch of the Appalachian Trail when he sat down outside a little country store in Pennsylvania to take on its ice cream challenge.

Nearly 40 minutes and 2,500 calories later, the dairy farmer from Chapel Hill, Tennessee, was polishing off the final titanium sporkful of chocolate chip cookie dough on Tuesday and adding his name to the list of “thru-hikers” who have celebrated the trail’s halfway point by downing a halfgallon of ice cream.

By the end, Cooper, 32, whose trail name is Pie Top, was calling the experience “pure misery.”

“I don’t think anybody should be doing this,” Cooper said cheerfully “This is not healthy at all.”

The ice cream challenge is thought to have begun more than four decades ago at the Pine Grove Furnace General Store in Gardners, a few miles north of the current true halfway point on the 2,197-mile trail.

Thru-hikers, as they’re known, are the fraction of the trail’s 3 million annual visitors who attempt to walk its entire length in a single, continuous trip.

As they slog their way north through Virginia and Maryland, the ice cream challenge is a regular topic of conversation among thru-hikers at shelters and campﬁres, said Stephan Berens, 49, a psychiatric nurse from Nuremberg, Germany Berens, whose trail name is Speedy, polished off his black cherry and vanilla in about 25 minutes after completing 17 miles on the trail that day — and with seven more to go that afternoon.

‘The most free I’ve ever felt’ Trail experts say hikers can need up to 6,000 calories a day, a practical challenge when food needs to be carried up and down rocky terrain The slender Berens ﬁgures he’s lost about 20 pounds since starting April 8.

“I thought it would be worse, but it’s OK,” said Berens, smiling and patting his stomach after ﬁnishing the half-gallon. “Such a crazy idea.” Zeke Meddock, trail name Petroglyph, didn’t bother timing himself but finished his choice of a quart and a half carton of chocolate chip cookie dough and a pint of strawberry The diesel mechanic from North Amarillo, Texas, began his hike on

mark to beat was about 9 minutes. Thru-hikers who want to attempt the record may only allow the $12 worth of ice cream to start to melt in the sun for a few minutes. They must be timed by a store employee.

“It’s called the half-gallon challenge,” Cooper said. “Very appropriately named.”

Bragging rights and a spoon Bruce Thomas, a 41-year-old disability support worker from Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, passed on the ice cream challenge, opting instead for a breakfast sandwich and another one for the road.

“It’s early morning and I’m pretty sure I cannot do it,” said Thomas, trail name Not Lazy

Those who do ﬁnish in a single sitting are awarded a commemorative wooden spoon — and bragging rights for the rest of their hike. Some people get sick. Others wash down the ice cream with a hamburger.

The ice cream challenge is one of several quirky traditions and places along the trail. There’s a shelter in Virginia where hikers confess their sins in a logbook, a two-hole outhouse in Maine with a cribbage board between the seats and a free canoe ferry across the Kennebec River that’s considered an ofﬁcial part of the trail. And at Harriman State Park in Tuxedo, New York, hikers encounter the renowned “Lemon Squeezer,” a narrow rock formation.

About 1 in 3 people who launch a thru-hike take the roughly 5 million steps required to go the distance. They most often walk from south to north, starting in Springer Mountain, Georgia, and wrapping up 13 states later at Maine’s Mount Katahdin.

The trek typically takes six months but the current speed record is about 40 days, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Meddock said there’s talk that a man on the trail behind him may be on pace to break it.

with, “I feel bad,” and Hyena issued a cry for help: “It was very fun for the ﬁrst 15 minutes. Now, I (and my family) want to die.” The ice cream challenge record, less than 4 minutes, was set two years ago by a man with the trail name Squirt Two decades ago, the

There’s also been a lot of discussion among hikers about the extensive damage along the trail in southern states from September’s Hurricane Helene. But mostly they think and talk about walking.

“It’s always hard,” Thomas said. “It’s going to be hard. I never think about quitting. I only think about how I can do it.”

PHOTOS By JUSTIN MITCHELL

Randy Pauly, creator of the brisket recipe for Buc-ee’s, speaks with employees in Pass Christian, Miss., at the store’s grand opening earlier this month.

The brisket recipe used for Buc-ee’s sliced brisket sandwich came from Houston pitmaster Randy Pauly

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By MINGSON LAU

Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Sam Cooper, trail name Pie Top, attempts the half-gallon ice cream challenge at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.

Hershey’s Ice Cream delivery driver Sam Sattazahn delivers ice cream to the Pine Grove Furnace General Store, home of the half-gallon ice cream challenge.

Appalachian Trail Noritaka Mizumoto, from Osaka, Japan, walks near an Appalachian Trail market at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

Today is Sunday,June 29, the180thday of 2025.There are185 days leftinthe year

Today’shighlight in history:

On June 29, 2007, the ﬁrst version of the iPhone went on sale to the public; over2.3 billion iPhones have been sold todate

Also on this date:

In 1520, Montezuma II, theninthand last emperor of the Aztecs, died in Tenochtitlanunder unclearcircumstances (some say he waskilled by hisown subjects;others, by theSpanish)

In 1613, London’soriginal Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’splays were performed, was destroyedbya ﬁre sparkedbya cannon shot during aperformance of “Henry VIII.”

In 1767, Britain approved the TownshendRevenue Act, which imposed import dutiesonglass, paint, oil, lead, paper and teashipped to the Americancolonies. (Colonists bitterly protested, prompting Parliamenttorepeal theduties on each of the products —except fortea.)

In 1776, theVirginiastate constitutionwas adopted, and PatrickHenry wasmade thestate’s governor In 1967, Jerusalemwas reuniﬁedasIsrael removed barricades separatingthe Old City from theIsraeli sector In 1970, the UnitedStates ended atwo-month military offensive into Cambodia.

In 1995, the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia’s Mir space station as theyorbited Earth. In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3,that President George W. Bush’splan totry Guantánamo Bay detaineesinmilitary tribunals violated U.S. and international law

In 2009, disgraced ﬁnancier Bernard Madoff received a150-year sentence for his multibillion-dollar fraud. (Madoff died in prisoninApril 2021.)

In 2022, R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 yearsin prison for using his R&B superstardomtosubject young fans to sexual abuse. The singerand songwriter was convictedofracketeering and sex trafﬁcking the previousyear

Today’sbirthdays: Songwriter L. Russell Brown is 85. Singer-songwriter GarlandJeffreysis 82. Actor Gary Busey is 81. Former actor and politician Fred Grandyis77. Rock musicianIan Paice (Deep Purple) is 77. Singer DonDokken is 72.RocksingerColin Hay (Men At Work) is 72.Actor Maria ConchitaAlonso is 70. Actor SharonLawrence (“NYPDBlue”) is 64. Actor Amanda Donohoe is 63. Actor Judith Hoag is 62. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is 62.Producerwriter Matthew Weiner is 60. Actor Melora Hardin is 58. ActorBrian D’Arcy Jamesis57. Rap DJ andrecord producer DJ Shadow is 53. Actor ZuleikhaRobinsonis48. Rock musician Sam Farrar (Maroon 5) is 47. Actor Luke Kirbyis47. Singer and TV personalityNicole Scherzingeris 47. Comedian-writer Colin Jost is 43. ActorLily Rabe is 43. NBA forward Kawhi Leonard is 34. Actor Camila Mendes (TV: “Riverdale”) is 31. Soccerplayer JudeBellingham is 22.

Let’slosethe cancer ‘battle’ lingo

Dear Miss Manners: Three years ago, Iwas diagnosed with cancer.Iwas extremely fortunate: My tumor was removed and Idid not require radiation or chemo. I havemyscreenings yearly and all has been well.

Am Ia“cancer survivor”? Inever want to take anything away from someone who had a much moredifﬁcult battle than I did. Idon’twant to use theterm incorrectly

now,thankfully,you are doing well. That is as much of adescription as is necessary

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Gentle reader: First of all, Miss Manners would like to say how fortunate it is that you are now well. Even themildest forms of cancer are frightening. Now for theadmonishment: Are you (andthe rest of the world) under the impression that cancer is acompetition?Orworse, awar to be fought?

Metaphors like “losing,”“ﬁghting,” “succumbing” or even “surviving” the “battle” add astigma to asituation that was never afair contest.

Miss Manners would prefer that any such label be dispensed withaltogether If it comes up in conversation, you simplysay that you had cancer,and that

Dear Miss Manners: We have a1-year-old grandchild who lives 90 miles from us. Ourfrustration comes from their parents advising us to purchase gifts onlyfrom their curated wish list. They strongly defend the list as their “knowing what’sbest” for their child. Ihave twice been rebuked for varying from said items, once by brand and once by color.It’snearly impossible to get theexact item requested, given theendless choices of children’sproductsout there. When receiving athankyou, theitems that weren’tfrom the list are not mentioned.

LastChristmas,wewere forced to keep an item that cost $100 when we were toldthat they had bought their own version for their child, and it wastoo late for us to return ours. Youcan imagine our surprise when we visited them and saw our grandchild playing with someplastic toys, which we had been told wereunacceptable.

We feel the joy of shopping forour young grandchild has been completely usurped, and we don’trelish having to do so formany years to come. Should we accept this disheartened feeling and follow the list to keep the peace?

Gentle reader: No, please resist. Miss Manners does not wish to live in aworld in which the registry bullies win. Youmight tell the parents, “Weenjoy getting things forGraham,and while you know what’sbest forhim,welike to have alittle funwith it, too. Perhaps while he is young, we will just stick to experiences —like taking him to the park when we are in town—instead of giving him presents.”

As he gets older,Graham will surely start to have his own opinions about what he likes to play with. And you can start to form your ideas moredirectly from the toddler’smouth.

Send questions to Miss Manners at herwebsite,www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@ gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO64106.

Safe airinthe house

Dear Heloise: Iread your hint about how to unclog spray paint nozzles. Yearsago, I found an easy solutiontoprevent clogging. When you have ﬁnished using the spraypaint, turn the can upside down so thatthe nozzle is on the bottom and the can is above. Then press the spray nozzle until the paint in theinside tube and nozzle is expelled. Youwill know when to stopbecause the paint will stop coming out and just pressurizedair will come outofthe nozzle. Since the paint is now expelled, there is little, if any, paint to dry out in the nozzle. I hope this helps other readers. Ilove “HintsFromHeloise” andlook forwardtoreading it every day. —GlenC., in Cleveland

Dear Heloise: Air qualityin thehome is very important. Black mold growing anywhere in thehouse should be treated like ahazmat situation

Daily,you should place the plastic bathmat upside down on the side of the tub. Once aweek, take aminute to rub themat with apaper towel soaked in bleach. As themat ages, tiny cracks will appear in theplastic. When the bleach no longer works, it’s time to throw it out. Never put anything with mold in the washing machine. Appliance engineers admit that the best-case scenario is about 70% of dirt and debris gettingremoved during the average washing load.

Furnace ﬁlters should never be used to transmit any kind of scent material, such as essential oils. The ductwork of

an HVAC system will soon becomecontaminated with whatever you add to the ﬁlter

It’sbetter to turn the kitchen vent fanonhigh while cooking and open one or two windows.

Remember to wash your kitchen metal vent ﬁlter whenever you see it is dirty

Thank you foryour informative and often new waysto solve aproblem —TonyElia, in Mission Viejo, California

Graphite forlocks

Dear Heloise: Youshould be aware that mostbig-box or hardware stores have little tubes of graphite lock lubricant forsale. This is perhaps slightly moreexpensive than grinding up apencil, but for many people with morethan oneold lock, the packaged product will be easier to use andstore. —David Jackson, via email

SOAKING IN THE SUMMER PAGES

Top recs for the best books to beat the heat

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Between beach reads and road trips, summer is prime reading time.

See what these booksellers recommend for their favorite page-turners for the sunny season Cavalier House Books co-owner Michelle Cavalier

114 N. RANGE AVE., DENHAM SPRINGS

n ”When the Tides Held the Moon,” by Venessa Vida Kelley: This queer cozy fantasy is a perfect summer read. Two characters fall in love, but how long can they stay together when one is a merman in captivity and the other is trying to break him out? Read this for a dose of forbidden romance and self-love.

n ”The Knight and the Moth,” by Rachel Gillig: Cavailier says this novel is “Nothing short of enchanting. Rachel Gillig’s writing has a way of transporting me alongside her characters and holding me in a trance in a world with a dreamlike, mythical atmosphere that promises something sinister just beneath its surface. This story is one that’s going to linger inside of me for a long while.”

n ”Sunburn,” by Chloe Michelle Howarth: Howarth’s book is a sun-drenched coming-of-age story that uses lush prose and vibes to explore the growing pains of discovering one’s sexuality.

n ”The Black Girl Survives in This One,” by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell: Cavalier says reading this book made her want to circle up around a campﬁre with her friends and share each story with them. “Prepare to be terriﬁed and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology,” Cavalier said. “Desiree S. Evans has curated a truly spine-chilling collection full of great writing, spooky stories and the power for Black girls.”

The Conundrum owner Missy Couhig 11917 FERDINAND ST., ST. FRANCISVILLE

n ”The River Knows Your Name,” by Kelly Mustian: Set in two timelines, the 1930s and 1970s, this novel tells the story of two sisters, Nell and Evie, and the memories they hold of their mysterious childhood. When the two girls ﬁnd a birth certiﬁcate belonging to their mother, they are very confused. It lists a stranger as Evie’s mother The girls decide to keep it a secret. Decades later, when clues start piling up and memories fall together, the whole story is revealed.

n ”Gus and Glory,” by Sarah Guillory: From the awardwinning Louisiana author that brought us “Nowhere Better than Here,” this new story tells the tale of a young girl who ﬁnds herself sent to small-town Louisiana to live with her grandparents. Feeling lonely and confused, she goes for a walk and meets a slobbery sweet bloodhound. She ﬁnds friends, purpose, happiness and more family It’s perfect for the 8- to 12-year-old set.

n ”The Knights of Wade,” by Michael Strecker: Couhig says the moment she saw the cover of this Louisiana book, it reminded her of “A Confederacy of Dunces.” In this debut novel by two-time Tennessee Williams Festival ﬁnalist and standup comedian Michael Strecker, an unforgettable cast of characters are at times funny, and at times ridiculous set in a story simultaneously outland-

ish, relatable and even poignant.

Red Stick Reads owner Tere Hyfield

3829 GOVERNMENT ST., BATON ROUGE

n ”The Wedding People,” by Alison Espach: Fans of Liane Moriarty or Emily Henry will enjoy Alison Espach. This book is ideal for readers who enjoy characters undergoing emotional introspection at a crossroads in their lives. Phoebe arrives at a luxury hotel with the intention of ending her life. However, her plans are disrupted when she is mistaken for a guest at a lavish wedding taking place at the hotel, and she becomes entangled with the wedding party, particularly the bride, Lila.

La. governor, song are eternally bound

Tale of ‘you Are My Sunshine’ intertwined in life of Jimmie Davis

BY DOUG GRAHAM Staff writer

“You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song,” by Robert Mann, Louisiana State University Press, 216 pages

“You Are My Sunshine” is one of the most popular songs in the world. It has been recorded by more than 300 artists, and it twice carried one man to two terms as Louisiana’s governor But much of the song’s lineage is not so sunny

n ”Atmosphere,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Taylor Jenkins Reid has written about a variety of very different worlds, and each time she manages to fully immerse her readers in the intricacies of these worlds. This time, the focus is on NASA’s space program set in 1980s culture. Two astronauts form an unlikely friendship and challenge each other’s notion of what they thought they knew about love and space exploration.

n ”We Were Liars,” by E Lockhart: The TV series for this book just premiered on Amazon Prime, so it’s a perfect time to read the book and then binge the series. The young adult novel “We Were Liars” tells the story of a beautiful and powerful family during a summer on a private island. A group of friends, the Liars, have an incredibly close friendship that turns destructive. There’s an accident, there are secrets, lies and more lies.

TBR Books & Tea owner Jamie Freeman

7276 HIGHLAND ROAD, BATON ROUGE

n ”Today Tonight and Tomorrow,” by Rachel Lynn Solomon: This young adult romance takes place at the brink of summer It’s the last day of senior year for Rowan and Neil, who have been rivals throughout their entire high school careers The two characters keep bumping into each other, and even sometimes teaming up, for their high school’s senior tradition: a scavenger-hunt type game called Howl that takes them on missions all around Seattle.

n ”My Friends,” by Fredrik Backman: Freeman says Fredrik Backman is “one of my all-time favorite authors.

His latest novel, “My Friends,” is no exception to Backman’s greatness. He somehow knows how to write what’s at the core of all of our souls, using words that are stark and spare, yet beautifully prosaic.” This is a novel in translation, as Backman resides in Sweden. He draws upon the strong bonds of friendship among characters past and present. He explores found family and tragic loss.

n ”Battle of the Bookstores,” by Ali Brady: This recent release was just pure fun, especially for me as a new bookstore owner,” Freeman said. Josie is the manager at Tabula Inscripta, a bookstore ﬁlled with serious, literary tomes. Next door, Ryan manages a bookstore that sells romance only appropriately named Happy Endings.” Their clientele doesn’t mix until the landlord decides to combine their spaces into one. The two bookstore managers must compete for a single position, while also battling their feelings for each other

Email Joy Holden at joy.holden@theadvocate. com.

The tune’s chorus is often sung in a happy and hopeful tone, presenting a picture of bright days ahead. At its heart, though, the song carries a much deeper emotional weight as a tale of lost love and regret. In some ways, that contradiction ﬁts the story of the man who claimed to have created “Sunshine.”

Mann

In “You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song,” Robert Mann examines the song’s history and how it shaped the life of Davis, who owned the rights to the song and used it as a focal point in his campaigns to win two terms as Louisiana governor Mann, author of 10 books and a longtime faculty member of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, opens the dual biography by following the origins of the song.

Although Davis told several versions over the years about how he wrote the song, Mann shines a light on the tune’s roots among “hillbilly” artists. Mann explains how Davis and bandmate Charles Mitchell purchased the rights to the music in late 1939 for $35 from a musician who was growing through some hard times. That contract stated that Davis and Mitchell would be credited as writers of the song, and the pair copyrighted it the next month. It was not unusual for people to purchase the rights to songs written by other artists, and “Sunshine” was not the only time Davis bought a song and claimed to the original composer, Mann writes.

But it certainly became the biggest song he owned the rights to and opened a spigot of royalties over the years.

Getting his start

Davis was born near Beech Springs and got his musical break on Shreveport radio station KWKH in the late 1920s. From that start, he rose to become one of the biggest stars in what would become known as country music.

Mann details how Davis built his career, recording dozens of songs and eventually appearing in movies, all the while serving in the Shreveport city government.

During that time, “Sunshine” was becoming a hit for other artists, too, ranging from Bing Crosby to Ernest Tubbs, and the song received a boost when Davis sang it in several movies. Having been elected to the state’s Public Service Commission, the singer began dreaming of bigger things for his political career, Mann writes.

Davis entered a crowded ﬁeld for the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1944 and put his music front and center at his campaign stops. Mann describes how Davis

TRADE PAPERBACK

spoke only in short bursts during breaks between songs and rarely addressed the issues. The candidate also avoided mudslinging, despite the fact his opponents were trying to smear him over bawdy songs he had recorded in the early 1930s.

In the end, Davis won in a runoff.

Serving as governor didn’t slow Davis’ entertainment career very much, Mann writes. The governor was out of the state for more than 200 days during his term. As Davis and his band performed, he recorded songs and found time to make a movie based on his life, titled “Louisiana.” The state managed to keep running in his absences, and his time in ofﬁce did manage to quell the state’s political turmoil, if only for a while. Meanwhile, “Sunshine” continued to grow in popularity with the public, getting a boost when Nat King Cole became the ﬁrst Black artist to record it. Mann notes how the arrangements of the song were evolving, with Lawrence Welk turning it into swing music and R&B artists giving it a more upbeat presentation. Ray Charles reinvented the song with his 1962 recording, Mann writes, which some saw as an attack against segregation but Charles said was just a new approach to an old song.

Davis continued his singing career after leaving ofﬁce, eventually turning to gospel music, but the lure of politics pulled him into the 1960 race for governor

This time, Davis found it harder to distract voters with music at his rallies, so he had to address the issues. Once in the scrum, the former “Peace and Harmony” candidate embraced the fight against school segregation, saying he supported it “one thousand percent” and that there would be “no retreat and no comprise” in fighting it, Mann writes. He won the Democratic nomination and the general election, and then he presided over a term that not only saw the fight against segregation reach full boil but also saw its share of corruption.

Davis continued his singing career after his term ended and eventually was named to the Country Music Hall of Fame. After much debate, the Legislature named “Sunshine” one of two “state songs” in 1977, and later it was named the sole state song.

The singer/governor continued to assert over the years that he wrote “Sunshine,” and it remained his greatest claim to fame. But after reading Mann’s enjoyable review of the life and times of both the song and its greatest benefactor, you might ask which beneﬁted the most from their connection: Jimmie Davis or “Sunshine”?

Email Doug Graham at doug. graham@theadvocate.com.

“Till Summer Do Us Part” by Meghan Quinn

“Lights Out” by Navessa Allen

“House of Flame and Shadow” by Sarah J. Maas

“Sandwich” by Catherine Newman

by Rebecca Yarros

style Lasting

Edwin Neill II’sdecision in 1991 to launch Parker Paris salons, named for daughter Paris Parker Neill, has been among the

80-year-old distributor of high-end salon products has also built areputation for being abusiness coachand consultant, and it has more than 600 customers in sevenSouthernstates.

Generationshavegrown northshore-based NeillCorp. into asalon empire

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

When the pandemicshut down Vivian Yeh’sHouston hairsalonsinMarch 2020, she turned to the Neill Corp.for help. Within weeks, theHammond-based company had devised astep-by-step plan to help Yehweather theCOVID-19 crisis and keep her family-owned business, Josephine’sSalons and Spas, aﬂoat

“They went through pandemic plans with us every week,” Yehsaid. “They recommended alternative revenue streams, like sellingtake-home hair colorkitsfor clients,

La.’s

BY BLAKE PATERSON

Staff writer

Louisiana’sforestry industryis in disarray afterthe sudden closure of one of the state’sremaining papermills.

Before shuttering in April, International Paper’sRed River mill in Natchitoches Parishpurchased 1.6 million tons of pulpwood per year, equivalent to about 250 truckloads aday Now,according to loggers, foresters and industry leaders, there’s nowherefor that type of

and helped us navigate paperwork.”

nualconference in New Orleans —tocreate networking and education opportunities. Neill Corp. also is asalon owner itself.Its eight Paris Parkerlocations area familiar site across Louisiana, andtheyserve as labs for ﬁnding out what works so that Neill’s distribution reps can make recommendations to its salon customers.

forestry product to go,and the result is an industry that’sscrambling to adjust.

“It’sput thewhole logging industry in chaos,” said Bradley McDowell, whose company,Pineland Contracting, based in Jena, sold pulpwood to the mill andisdown about$38,000 amonth in sales. To stayafloat,McDowell said he’ll likely havetocut hislogging crew in half.

“Wehave to do something,” he said. “Wecan’tjust keep doing business asusual.” International Paper’sannounce-

Yehwasn’tthe only salonownergetting advice from the south Louisiana company NeillCorp. —a nearly80-year-olddistributorofhigh-end salonproducts— has built adecades-old reputation for being a businesscoach and consultant, a“salon whisperer” of sorts, to its morethan 600 customers in seven Southernstates. It helps owners do everything from negotiate leases to design ﬂoor plans and train stylists.

To meet the ongoing demand for salon employees, thecompanyalsoownsanationwide networkofbeauty schools. And it hosts industry events —including an an-

This holistic business model hasenabledthe oncesmallbeauty storetogrow, topping $100 million in annual revenue last year,asit continues to carve aniche in the nation’s$60 billion beauty industry

NeillIII

“The way we make money is by selling products to salons,” Edwin Neill III,Neill Corp.’s CEOsince 2016, saidduring an interviewatthe company’s ä See NEILL, page 2E

among the largest producersof corrugated-cardboard packaging in the world, said the move was necessary to make its operations moreefﬁcient.

“International Paper is undergoing atransformational journey to become astronger sustainable packaging solutions company,”the companysaidina news release. “A critical step in this journey is to streamline IP’sfootprint to focus investments on facilitiesthatwill best serve customers and accelerate strategic initiatives to improve

STAFFPHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

keys to NeillCorp.’s growth. The

NewOrleans

Carol Markowitz was named CEO of SBP,the New Orleans-based national disaster recovery nonprofit She previously worked for Loyola University New Orleans as chief operating officer andsenior vice presidentoffinance. She also served as the founding executive director of

the New OrleansCulinary and Hospitality Institute. Deidre Boulware was hired as chief human resources ofﬁcer She was managing director and head of corporate functionstalent and inclusion for Citi. She also held senior HR roles at American Century Investments, Capital One, Ally Financial and Wachovia Securities.

Boulware Markowitz

McConell, left, amaster colorist,

its salon customers.

NEILL

Continued from page1E

downtown Hammond headquarters. “But the way we grow our business is by growingthe salons.”

NorthLouisianaroots

Neill Corp. datesbackto1947, when Abner and Harriett Neill founded Magnolia BeautySupply in Shreveport to sell products and equipment to local salons at atime when the industry was takingoff in postwar America.

The Neills moved their company’sheadquarterstoBaton Rouge in the 1950s and opened storefronts statewide throughout the 1960s.

But the company began expanding dramatically in the 1970s, after the Neills’ son Edwin Neill II (father of the current CEOand named for his grandfather)took the reins. Under his leadership, it became aregional distributor of several high-end beauty brands: ﬁrst Redken, then Paul Mitchell and Aveda, the latter of which was one of theﬁrst“all-natural brands to hit the market in the late ’70s.

He moved the company’sheadquarters to Hammond in 1977 to benefit from proximity toNew Orleans and easy access to interstates 55 and 12.

He also enhanced the services the company offered to its customers, providing training and support designed to make the salons, like Yeh’sinHouston, more successful,which, in turn, would boost their demand for shampoos, hair dyes and styling products.

“My dad pioneered business education for salon owners,” Neill III said. “Despite skepticism from old-school distributors, he believed salon owners werefantasticentrepreneurs, and you could bring valuetothembyhelping them hone their skills.”

Neill II made other strategic moves, too. Hisfamily credits himwith launching an ahead-ofits-time software division in the 1980s and licensing the Aveda name to open an Aveda Arts &Sciences Institute in 1994.

Avedausedtohave dozens of distributors globally,but now theMinnesota-based business which was purchased for $300 million in 1997 by the conglomerate Estée LauderCos. —handles more of that work internally,and Neill Corp. is the largest of its three remaining indiedistributors in the U.S. Today,Neill Corp. owns and operates 18 Aveda co-branded schoolsnationwide, including a flagship location near Aveda’s headquarters.

Those facilities employ more than 500 of Neill Corp.’snearly 800 employees.

When Neill II died in 2004, his widow,Debra Neill Baker, began a12-year tenure as CEO and still serves as chair of the board of Neill Corp. Today, sixofNeill II’s seven children are activeinthe thirdgeneration family business.

MILL

Continuedfrom page1E

rity,atwhich point, it can be harvested for lumberorplywood. To makeroom forthose trees to grow and to prevent forest ﬁres and disease, smaller,crooked trees need to periodically be thinned. Those trimmings are sold to paper mills as pulpwood.

The International Paper mill opened in 1974.Itwas thelargest taxpayer in Natchitoches Parish andemployedmore than 400 workers, many of whomhad spent their entire careers there. Itsabsence is alreadybeingfelt. In March, the Natchitoches Parish School Board voted to close anearby elementary and junior high school in anticipation of asteep drop in tax revenue.

‘Whentheygrow, we grow’

Neill Corp. operates a 40,000-square-foot distribution center in Hammondthat employs dozens of peopleand ships tensof millionsofpackaged and bottled shampoos, hair sprays, curl enhancers andother products annually tocustomers in the U.S. and Canada.

The company has additional distribution repsinthe ﬁeld, as well as the hundreds more employees at itsbeautyschools andsalons.

It also has consultants on staff, including an in-house real estate adviser,who helps salon owners negotiate leases, and an interior designer to offerguidanceonoptimal salon layouts.

“A lot of people think that we’re afranchise model, but it’snot,”

Garrison Neill, thecompany’s vicepresident, said. “There are no purchase requirements. We justknow that if we can help salons have agood business model, then they will grow.”

In May alone, thecompany produced almost 40 in-salon educational events, he said.

Revenues are split amongthe schools, the distribution business andthe Paris Parker salons.

Garrison Neill said his father’s decision in 1991 to launch those salons, namedafter Garrison Neill’ssister,Paris Parker Neill, has been another keytothe company’sgrowth.

“We’ve always seen ourselves as atesting ground and someone who can provide best business practices,” he said Despite the success, Neill Corp.’sindustryfaces aconstant challengeinﬁnding enough people to cut hair.That’s wherethe schoolscomein. The faculty not onlyteaches students about hair but aboutthe business of running asalon

“Hairdressers are likeabusiness within abusiness,”Garrison Neill said. “We’re teaching them how to recruit clients and how to educate them about products versus selling them.”

Thecompany also trains salon owners how to hire andkeep stylists.

“Havinga good recruiting strategy is really important for salons because when you lose someone, youlose $100,000 in annual revenue,” Garrison Neill said.

Jared Landry, center,a master stylist, works on the hair of Lauren Donofrio at the Paris Parker Salon on Prytania Street in New Orleans. ‘People don’t realize how great acareer in beauty can be, said Edwin Neill III, Neill Corp.’s CEO.

NewOrleans a‘huge draw’

Each January,Neill Corp. hosts an annual industry gathering called Serious Businessatthe Saenger Theatre and the RooseveltHotel.Roughly 2,000 salon owners andmanagers gather for speakers and performances. Past presenters include authorsMalcolm Gladwell, Deepak Chopra and Brené Brown. The eventpromotes the industry and generates revenue. Attendee tickets for the 2026 events are in the $600 range, and exhibitorspay to promote their wares.

“NewOrleansisahuge draw,” Edwin Neill III said. “It’sreally a strategic advantage.”

AnotherNeill marketing initiative is ElevateHair,acommunity led by Tatum Neill —brother of EdwinIII and Garrison and the company’ssocial media director.

Elevate Hairhas 259,000followers on Instagram and hosts live hair events nationwide. The project is designed to boost thefamily business by promoting the art of hair styling in general.

Whileitcontinues to create opportunities,Neill Corp. sees challengesahead,including further consolidation in the distribution business. Tariff uncertainty also hasmadeitharder for it to get supplies like themannequinheads usedfor trainingatthe beauty schools.

But the industry’sbiggest challenge, by far,isﬁnding and retainingemployees who can provide theincreasingly sophisticated salon services customers are seeking. Neill III said it’spartly because of aperception problem.

“People don’trealize how great acareer in beauty can be,” he said.

“Remember the song ‘Beauty School Dropout’ from the movie ‘Grease’? There’sstill that image, but the realityiswework with lots of hairdressers that make six ﬁgures.”

The Neill siblings say they plan to continue providing solutions while promoting avocation they believe in.

“Wemake people look good, whichmakes them feel better,” Neill III said. “Whatotherindustryhas that kind of impact?”

Email Rich Collinsatrich. collins@theadvocate.com.

Economic development ofﬁcials are optimistic that mostofthe laid off workers will eventually find new work. Less certain is how the forestry sector will adjust.

“As an industry,everybody’s scrambling trying to figure out what to do with theirloggers,” said David Cupp, aforester with Walsh Timber Co., which manages timberland in Texas and Louisiana.

“Wehaven’tseen the whole impact yet,” Cupp added. “We’re in themiddle of it.”

‘Noway to fill that void’

ForestryisLouisiana’slargest agricultural sector,contributing around $3.8billiona year to the state’s gross domesticproduct and directly supporting around25,500 jobs, according to a2023 study from theLSU AgCenter

It’salsoanimportant economic driverfor large swaths of rural Louisiana.

“When you lose an employer like that,and aplace that took so many logs,ithas atrickle-down effect,” said Walter “Donny” Moon, an agent with the LSU AgCenter based in Winn Parish,where 90% of the land is forested.

“Timber is critical to my parish’s livelihood,” he said.

Pulpwood production peaked in the U.S. South in the late 1990s, according to Richard Vlosky,anLSU Agricultural Center professor.In 1998,there were 11 pulpmillsin Louisiana, accordingtothe U.S. Forest Service. But demand for pulpwood plungedthanks in part to the digital revolution, Vlosky said. Some papermills have also stoppedbuying pulpwood and instead areturning to recycled materials

Today,there are around ahalfdozenpapermillsinoperation in Louisianathat still purchase pulpwood from loggers.

The Red River mill in Campti purchased around $100 million worth of pulpwood per year,according to Buck Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana ForestryAssociation.

“Unfortunately,you have some loggers outthere saying, ‘I can’t make it in business anymore,’ ” Vandersteen said. “That’ssmall businesses going out of business.”

The ripple effects extend beyond centralLouisiana.Tosell their wood, loggers whoonce reliedonthe Red Rivermill are having to drive farther.Thatincrease in supply to other mills has pushed down the price suppliers can get fortheir wood

“There’snoway to ﬁll thatvoid,” said state Rep.Jack McFarland, a Jonesboro Republican whoowns alogging company based in Winn Parish.“Theeffectsare farand wide.”

“I’mdown$20,000 amonth, and Ididn’tdeliver everything there. It’sthe pressure that’sbeing put on the othermills that’saffecting me,” he said.

McDowell used to be able to give his employees production bonuses,amountingtoabout $12,000per year.But withthe drop in revenue, thosebonuseshaveall butevaporated.

“Twelve thousand dollars in Jena, Louisiana,isquite abit of money,” McDowell said. ‘Timber’sready to sell’

The closure of the Red River mill is also creating challenges

Before shuttering in April, International Paper’sRed River mill in Natchitoches Parish purchased 1.6 million tons of pulpwood per year,equivalent to about 250 truckloads aday

forthe nearly148,000 landowners in Louisiana withtimber investments. With theindustrychanging, ﬁnding loggers that will perform that workisbecoming more difﬁcult

“Weget calls regularly,‘My timber’sreadytosell. Ican’t ﬁnd anyloggertocut it,’” Vandersteen said.

McDowell’scompany focuses on clear-cutting timberstands once they reach maturity. Around12% of the timber it harvests is pulpwood. But with the next closest papermill around 100 miles away, McDowell said it doesn’tmake ﬁnancialsense forhim to transport it

So,McDowellsaid, they’re leaving thepulpwood behind.

“That’smoney that’ssitting in thewoods,” he said.

Oneofthe more urgent questionsafter theRed Rivermill shut down waswhere to send thewood chips, sawdust and bark that it purchased from nearby sawmills

Those byproducts from turning logs intolumberaren’tallowedto accumulate at sawmills because of theﬁre hazard In June, the state Legislature appropriated $1.5 million to the Natchitoches ParishPortCommission, which plans to use some of themoney to expand itsinfrastructure so it can export more of those chips

Vandersteen saidhehopes that the Red River mill canberepurposed into asite for turning pulpwood intobiofuels

That’swhat’sinstore forthe long-dormant, 1,300-acreInternational Paper mill in Pineville. Houston-based SunGas Renewables in 2023 announced a$2billion plan to turn the site into a “green”methanol plant

The project reliesoncarboncapture and sequestration,a technology that has faced local opposition in parts of rural Louisiana andhas yet to be permitted for industrial use. As of last month, theSunGas project,known as Beaver Creek Renewable Energy,was still in the design phase At facilities located in LaSalle and Morehouse parishes, the UK-based Drax Groupisturning pulpwood into wood pellets that it ships to England and burns for electricity

As forthe Red River mill, a small contingent of workers are still on hand to help decommission the site. According to Amy Simpson, an International Paper spokesperson, “no decisions have been made” regarding itsfuture. Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said in astatement that the state remains in close coordination with International Paper “to locate a buyerthatwill bring thesiteback intoproduction.”

Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTOSByJILL PICKETT

anticipation

loss

revenue after the closure of the International Paper Mill,the Natchitoches Parish School Board voted to close Goldonna Elementary/Junior High School in Goldonna.

STAFF PHOTOSByCHRIS GRANGER

Amanda

worksonthe hair of Allison Stouse at the Paris Parker Salon on Prytania Street in NewOrleans. Parent companyNeill Corp. uses the familiar salon with locations across Louisiana as labs for finding out what works so that Neill’sdistribution reps can makerecommendations to

G. Neill

T. Neill

HRI investment chief: ‘It’s really interesting times for hotels’

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

HRI Hospitality, the hotel acquisition and management wing of the sprawling New Orleans-based real estate empire founded by Pres Kabakoff and Edward Boettner in the early 1980s, has become a major hotel operator in its own right in recent years.

With its latest deal — taking a 20% stake in the Hilton New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue, along with 80% owner Certares, a New York private equity investor — HRI Hospitality owns and or manages 32 hotels across 13 states. With a portfolio of nearly 6,000 rooms, it now ranks as one of the largest midbracket operators in the country

That gives Michael Coolidge, HRI Hospitality’s chief investment and development ofﬁcer, a good perch from which to keep tabs on a hotel sector that has been rapidly evolving, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.

Coolidge, 52, has been in his HRI role for over a decade, a period that has seen signiﬁcant expansion for HRI’s hotel interests. He’s been in hospitality investment since graduating from Cornell University in the late 1990s and now splits his time between Denver and the Crescent City Here he discusses plans for the Hilton and its historic, gothic-style building in the Central Business District, as well as the broader trends he sees in the hotel sector.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity Sunstone Hotel Investors,the former owner of your latest acquisition, the Hilton New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue, said they had decided to take a loss on the property rather than make the needed investment to upgrade the hotel.What made you want to buy into the 252-room property and take on management?

We’ve actually spent some time on that property Being local and being invested in the market, we’re staying attuned to the the opportunities when people maybe are motivated to get out. We had brief

conversations with the seller postCOVID, but they decided to hold at that time. We took another look in the fall. I spent a bunch of time on what the capital needs of the property were. Then they decided to do a public process and market it fully with a broker. So, we went through that and we had done a lot of due diligence on the building.

What’s the plan for capital spending? What kind of “refresh,” as you say in the business, does it need and what new features, if any?

There’s always just the normal refresh of buildings, especially in hotels: carpet and furniture fix-

tures, etc. But then there’s also the kind of larger-scale mechanical requirements that need to be continuously updated and redone, including elevator systems and so forth. So, we will be doing updates to the elevators, some of the major mechanical systems in the building, and then a full refresh of the guest rooms and the public space. We’re planning also to add a lobby bar We are happily maintaining the great relationship with Luke (a well-established Creole brasserie operated by BRG Hospitality, formerly chef John Besh’s group, which occupies a ground-ﬂoor corner of the hotel)

But we’d like to add a little bit more activity level within the lobby

We’ve seen some significant hotel sales in New Orleans: the Ritz-Carlton on Canal connected to the Courtyard by Marriott,for maybe around $200 million; the New Orleans Marriott Courtyard & SpringHill Suites last year, for $73 million; before that,the Bourbon Orleans for $81 million.What’s going on?

It’s really interesting times for hotels and the whole commercial real estate market. It feels like everything had been very frozen for a long time. Now, you’ve got owners, similar to the seller of the Hilton on

St. Charles, that have been in assets for a long time, it’s in need of capital investment and they’re asking, “Do I want to double down or do I want to sell?” We’ve seen a wave of properties that all of a sudden have hit the market. An unusually high number in New Orleans, though I think not really tied together other than just a lot of it in the same category, just needing a refresh or capital investment. So, you’ve seen about a half dozen major assets on the market around the same time.

Talk a bit about how HRI — originally Historic Restoration Inc. has evolved?

It started in the early ’80s with Pres Kabakoff and Ed Boettner and conversion of warehouses into apartments and multi-family We did our ﬁrst hotel deal in 1992, the Hyatt Centric in the French Quarter, a conversion of the old D.H Homes department store building. It grew from there throughout the Gulf, Southeast into the 2000s. Around 2014, we started really pushing more of a national footprint into top 40 metros. So, markets like Nashville, Tampa, Austin, Philly, Minneapolis, etc. The company now operates as indepen-

dent units? After COVID, we spun the company out into divisions. HRI Hospitality is primarily focused on hospitality but does also focus on larger-scale, mixed use of hotel and multi-family within buildings. HRI Communities is our sister company that focuses solely on (low income housing tax credit) and affordable housing. So, we operate separately but with some crossovers and some shared synergies. (HRI Communities projects include, for example, the Blue Plate Artists Lofts in New Orleans and The Industrialist Hotel, a conversion in Pittsburgh’s Central Business District).

What do you think are the main trends for hotel brands and independent operators in the post-COVID market?

There are a lot of moving pieces. It’s been an interesting time for the industry, coming out of COVID. Group travel as a whole — leisure and business — was slow to recover and is slowly coming back You’re starting to see in ’25 an uptick in larger convention and corporate travel. Markets such as Orlando, obviously New Orleans, Seattle, Nashville — those with larger convention centers are seeing recovery Also, seeing it in the transient leisure side. The industry is moving toward what is called “select service lifestyle” brands. The Marriott has the AC brand, Hilton has the Tempo brand, Hyatt has Select. Travelers are looking for aesthetically pleasing properties but ones which are really “full service light.” They are able to operate maybe at better margins because they’re not offering as much. We’re big on that segment. You’re also seeing more “soft brand” hotels, unafﬁliated, independent properties such as Autograph (Marriott), Curio (Hilton), Tapestry (Hilton), Tribute Portfolio (Marriott), catering to travelers seeking unique, localized and upscale or boutique-style experiences.

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.

Coalition LLC Premium pet food is abooming industry Whatmanydon’trealizeisthatone of its keyingredients—Gulf menhaden—starts its journeyinLouisiana,supporting jobs,local economies, and coastalcommunities The Local Catch Behind aGlobal Industry Menhaden oil and ﬁshmeal arevital to

output and supportsmorethan 2,000jobsacross32parishes

This makes it one of the largest and most importantcommercial fisheries in the U.S., yetfew consumersunderstand therole it plays in products theyuse every day. Investing in Local Communities Companies likeWestbank Fishingand Daybrook Fisheries and their counterparts from western Louisiana,OmegaProtein and Ocean Harvesters, areanchorsofLouisiana’s fishing economy. Theydon’tjust catchfish theyinvest in the people and places that makethe fishery run. In 2023alone, these twocompanies contributed roughly $60 million in employeecompensation.

“This isn’tjust about ﬁshing—it’s about building strong communities,”saidFrancois Kuttel, PresidentofWestbank Fishing. “Fromthe deckhands on our boatstothe

families relying on thesejobsinPlaquemines and beyond,the menhaden industry is a powerful forcefor economic stabilityand local opportunity. We’reproud thatwhatwe do hereinLouisiana helps feed the world’s petswhile supporting the peoplewho call this coast home.

Much of thatmoneygoestoworkers from multigenerational ﬁshing families, especially in Plaquemines and Vermilion Parishes and other underserved areas.These jobs paywell, offer stability, and help sustain rural communities thatoften face limited economic opportunities

Keeping the ValueLocal Unlikesomeindustries thatexport rawmaterialsand import ﬁnished goods, Louisiana’smenhaden ﬁshery adds value at

home. Fish areprocessedlocally into reﬁned oil and high-protein ﬁshmeal forpet and animal nutritionmarkets

Thatmeans moreofthe economic beneﬁt stays in Louisiana—from payrolland taxes to capital investmentand community development. This model supports both economic resilience and long-term industry health.

Global Demand, LocalRoots

As demand forfunctional pet food ingredients growsworldwide, the Gulf menhaden fishery is uniquelypositioned to meet it.The fishery is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council forsustainabilityand operatesunder tightregulations to ensureit remains viable forfuturegenerations

Thatgives international brands conﬁdence in sourcing from Louisiana,and it gives localworkerspride in knowing their labor contributes to global markets

AStory ThatDeserves More Recognition Behind the bagsofkibble and cans of wetfoodisa powerful story of localgrit and global impact.Gulf menhaden might not be well-known outsidethe ﬁshing industry,but its role in the economy is anything but small.

“Our crewsunderstand thatevery ﬁsh we harvest carries responsibility—with the environment, with the community, and with the global brands thatcountonus, said Ben Landry,a representativeofOcean Harvesters. “The Gulfmenhaden ﬁshery is proofthataworking waterfrontcan alsobea model of sustainabilityand globalrelevance.

It’salocal story with international

and it deserves to be told.” Petfoodbrands areproud to source

clean, well-managedﬁshery.Consumersare increasingly curious aboutwheretheir

food comes from. And Louisiana continues to lead the waywith amodel that’ssustainable, scalable, and rooted in community.

Warring Middle East’s effectson gaspriceswaning

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

In decades past, turmoil in the Middle East would send crude oil prices soaring, pushingupthe cost of gasoline for driversand incentivizing Louisiana producers to boost their output

Butwhile global oilpricesrose after Israel attacked Iran’snuclear facilities earlier this month and Iran retaliated, they didn’t stay high for long.

In fact, on Tuesday,the U.S. benchmark crude oil prices dipped to $64.37a barrel, lower than when the conﬂict began.

“What we’ve seen is that these geopolitical conﬂicts have actually had less and less of an impact on oil prices in recent decades,” said Greg Upton, executive director at LSU’sCenter for Energy Studies.

One reason for that, Upton said, is the United States is much less dependent on foreign oil than it used to be.

Over the last two decades, the United States has seen an enormousincrease in production, thanks to fracking technology that unlocked previously untapped oil and gas reserves.

That propelled the United States into becoming theworld’s top producer of crude oil in 2018, aposition it’sheld ever since. In 2020, for the ﬁrst time in 70 years, the U.S. also became anet exporter of petroleum.

“Twenty years ago, if we had the sort of things going on in the Middle East that are going on now,prices would be skyrocketing,” said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute.

“But people forget, 20 years ago, we didn’thave shale oil,” he said. “Wewere an oil importer, and now we export significant amounts of oil.

Also helping to keepprices low are countries like Saudi Ara-

Since2018, the United States is theworld’stop producer of crude oil. In 2020, for the first time in 70 years, the U.S. also became a net exporterofpetroleum.

bia and Russia, members of the OPEC Plus oilcartel, whichhave increased oil production in recent months, in part, analysts say,to appease President Donald Trump, who promised to lower energy costs,including gasprices, for consumers.

Still, the conflict is far from resolved, and prices could spike again.Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, akey shipping routefor oiland gas, though thatcould alienate trading partners like China,which purchases thebulk of Iranian oil exports.

Before Israel struck Iran, U.S. oilprices werehovering around $65 abarrel. They rose to around $76 abarrel after theU.S. targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend. But after aceasefire was announced on Tuesday,the priceofWest TexasIntermediate crude, theU.S.oil benchmark, retreated.

“You’ve seen alot of volatility.That’snot surprising,”Upton said. “Uncertainty leads to volatility.”

Withoutasustainedincrease in prices, oil producers in Louisiana areunlikely to boost production, Upton said EmailBlake Patersonat bpaterson@theadvocate.com.

Is it OK to hide moneyfrommyspouse?

Ifrequently talk about my grandmother,Big Mama. She was my go-tofor ﬁnancial wisdom.

increase by 8%.

Michelle Singletary THECOLOR OF MONEy

When I’m faced with amoney issue, Ithink about what she might say.Over theyears, I’ve tried to be like my grandmother andbecome theperson with the answers for alot of readers.

Each week, Ianswer readers’ personal ﬁnance questionsinthe Color of Money newsletter.Here’s afew Itackled recently,including questions about when to take Social Security, aspousewho hides money,and how to help an adult child build agood credit history

Whatisthe ideal agefor acouple to start Social Security?

My husband and Ihave been debating this issue for several years. He thought he would start collecting afew yearsago, when he turned 62. Isuggested that we bothwait until 70, when we’d get themaximum beneﬁt.

He argued: “Why wait all those years when we could usethe money to travel or do whatever we want during our healthier years?”

My husband created aspreadsheet showing that delaying until 70 would net us more money yearly.Our break-even point —where we would catch up to all thecash we missed by startingat62with lower monthly payments— was about 79.

“Tomorrow isn’tpromised,” he said. “There’snoway to tell about our vitality at that age.”

He retired and has changed his mind. He may now wait until his full retirementage of 67.

Why?

Turns out we don’tneed the money right now.I’m still working, and by paying off our mortgage early, we have eliminated our largest monthly expense. By improving our cash ﬂow,wecould afford to delay claiming our Social Security beneﬁts.

If you claim early,at62instead of waiting until your full retirementage (66 to 67 depending on your birthyear), your monthly beneﬁt may be reduced by as much as 30%. Butfor every year you delay beneﬁtsbeyond full retirement age, your monthly payment will

If you need the money now,claim it now.Ifnot, consider your health and other income sources before deciding whether to delay There is no one-size-ﬁts-all answer.The right time to take Social Securitydepends on your personal ﬁnancial situation.

Is it OK to hide money if my spouse is a spendthrift or doesn’tagree withmysavings plan?

For this question, it helps to have morebackground. Here’swhat the reader shared:

“I’m asaver,and Ilike to have designated accounts for designated purposes,” he wrote. “One for if Ilose my job. One for costs that exceed cash ﬂow,such as new tires, burst pipes, or other house/ car repairs. And anew car fund. My spouse thinks having money speciﬁcally in case we lose our jobs is dumb; she says it is unlikely and rolls her eyes whenshe talks about it.I’m not atotal miser. We eat out afew times amonth. We have nice things,and go on nice vacations (I even have an account just so we can spend freely on vacations!). When Ihave extra, Iput it in an individual account and keep my mouth shut.”

When Iread this, Iﬂinched.

In amarriage, even if you are going to keep separate bank accounts, Ithink it’simportant to have complete transparency.You have to be honest.

If you ﬁnd yourself in asimilar situation, counseling can help you come up with strategiestodeal with your different spending and saving styles. But hiding money doesn’tsolve your problem and could create new issues if your spousediscovers you’ve secretly been squirreling away money

At itscore, hiding money is lying.

To get on the same page, it’s importanttoopen the lines of communication. Have the difﬁcult conversation, ﬁgure out whether there is room for acompromise. Instead of several savings pots, maybe just one or two?

I’m amultiple pot person, too, and believe that having an emergency fundwith several months of living expenses is prudent. But maintaininghidden reserves won’t address the fundamental issue that you don’tagree about having money set aside in the case of ajob loss or alarge unexpected expense

Most importantly,building wealth and security as acouple is not just about the numbers; it’s about trust, transparency and a shared vision for your ﬁnancial future together

How do Ihelp my daughter buildcredit? She’sgoing through adivorce and has no credit history.

Here’sthe frustrating thing about building acredit history.You have to have credit to get agood credit score. But don’tget discouragedon behalf of your daughter.Building good credit doesn’trequire as muchtime as you maythink. Here are some strategies:

n Have her apply for asecured credit card backed by funds deposited in asavings account. The money in the account then becomes her credit limit. Shop around to avoid cards with high fees, and make sure the issuer is reporting to all three credit bureaus —Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Bankrate.com regularly proﬁles the best secured card offers. If your adult child has abank or credit union account, check out their offerings. n Once she has asecured card, she should just make small-dollar purchases and pay off the monthly balance before the due date. After about ayear,she can apply for a general-purpose credit card. This will test whether her credit history has improved enough to qualify for anon-securedcard.

n Youcould make her an authorized user on your credit card. This allowsthe authorized user to beneﬁt from the primary cardholder’s positive credit history.However, it’simportant to note that such access does not make her responsible for paying any charges she incurs on the card. Therefore, exercise caution when utilizing this approach. In fact, you can add your adult child and not even give her acard.

My husband andI followedall these stepstohelpbuild oureldest daughter’scredit.After using the secured card forthree months hercredit score increased to the mid-700s.She eventually wasable to getageneral credit card andhas maintainedascore in thehigh 700s. Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@washpost com.

BeyondtheHeadlines

As oneofthe largest lawﬁrmsinLouisiana,Jones Walker LLPishonored to partnerwith TheAdvocate |Baton Rougetosupport theexpandedbusinesssection.

This in-depth reportingwillexplore what businesses aredoing to achievetheir goals, avertthreats, addressopportunities,and advancetheir business objectives.Welook forwardtothe thought leadership andconversationthissection will inspire.

Since1937, ourﬁrm hasbeencommitted to workingwithcommunity leaders to developbusiness opportunitiesacrossthe state. We aresteadfast in continuing our dedicationtogobeyondinadvising clientsand supportinginitiatives andorganizations that make Louisiana abetterplace to live andwork

William H. Hines,ManagingPartner bhines@joneswalker.com 504.582.8000 201St. CharlesAvenue NewOrleans,LA70170-5100

Thomas E. Jorden and Erica Washington have been appointed to the Board of Tulane. Jorden is chair, presidentand CEO of Houston-based Coterra Energy.Before that, he served as CEO and president, as well as chair of the board for Cimarex Energy,which merged with Cabot Oil &Gas to form Coterra in 2021. Jorden is also the former chair of the boardoftrustees forthe Colorado School of Mines, where he earned abachelor’sand master’singeophysics. Washington is the regional and clinical operations director for the Louisiana Department of Health. She joined the health department in 2009 as aregional epidemiologist and the coordinator of the health care-as-

Fool’sTake:

Just do it?

sociated infections program. Washington is an emeritus member of the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine’sAlumni Association Board of Directors and apast presidentofthe TulaneAlumniAssociation Board of Directors. She earned abachelor’sinbiological sciencesfrom LSU and amaster’s in public health from Tulane University

Paul Arrigo,former CEOand president ofVisit Baton Rouge,has been honored with the2025Hallof Fame designation by Destinations International, the world’slargest membership association for destinationorganizations.

The hall of fame is Destination International’shighest honor and goes to people who demonstrate outstandingleadership, vision and contributionsto the travel and tourism industry

the company is forced todiscount merchandisetosellit.

Arrigo worked in the hospitalityindustry for nearly 50 years, before he retired from Visit Baton Rouge in 2022. Duringhis 20-year tenure with theorganization, he has made anumber of transformational moves, such as purchasing Visit Baton Rouge’s current ofﬁce, overseeing the name change of the organization and hosting events like theMissUSA pageant, Miss Teen USA, the United States Bowling Congressand Bayou Country Superfest.

Dr.Janifer Tropez hasbeennamed to theboard of directors of Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Louisiana.

Tropez, anative of New Orleans, is the assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Tulane University’sSchool of Medicine.This is hersecondstint at theTulanemedical school,she was an assistant clinical professor

from 2008 to 2016 and clerkships director for thedepartment of obstetrics and gynecology

Sheearnedher undergraduate degreefrom XavierUniversity and medical degree from LSU School of Medicine.Tropez completed her residency at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.

Encore CO2 and FarmSmarter.AI were thetwo big winners at the 2025 Nexus Technology Cup in Baton Rouge, heldearlier this month.

Baton Rouge-based Encore CO2, foundedbyJordan Losavio and William McGehee, earned first place in the Open Track and was honored with theMostInnovative Award, garnering $45,000 in prizes.

The company is leading efforts to build acircular carbon economybytransformingcaptured carbon dioxide into high-value consumer products— including pharmaceuticals, vitamins, clothing, shoes and eyewear—while supportingzero-emission polymermanufacturing throughthe

use of clean energy FarmSmarter.AI,astudent team from LSU, wasawarded ﬁrst place and a$15,000 prize in the college competition for developing an artiﬁcialintelligence-poweredassistant that helps farmers identify plants, diagnose issues and make data-driven decisions. The team Grant Muslow,Colin Raby,Julius Pallotta and Cole Lacombe —was mentored by FahimehAbbasi,of the Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship and Information SystemsatLSU Twohigh school teamswere also recognized with $2,500 in prizes. Hexlio,developed by Benjamin Namikas, of Baton Rouge Magnet High School,isa productivityapp that helps users focus by merging task management and distractionelimination tools.

POSEIDON is afully custom-built robotdesignedand engineered by Ren Hopkins,Aiden Bass and Brady Afeman, of West Monroe High School. The robot demonstrated advanced automation and robotics skills.

Nike (NYSE: NKE) is the leading brand of athletic apparel in the world, but the companyisgoing through arough time, with slumping sales sending the stock down to multiyear lows. The recent dip in sales is uncharacteristic —the athletic apparel industryhas been growingfor years, and Nike has beenaresilient brand. Nike can return to growth, butitwill take time to turn acompanyofthis size around. Revenue fell again in the ﬁscal third quarter (reported in March), down 9% year over year; revenue is likely to be down in the fourth quarter,too, in part due to tariff-related factors and other economic challenges.

Problem areas have included classic footwear franchises like Air Force 1and the Jordanbrand of sportswear.Demandhas fallen off for these lifestyle products, leaving Nike with too muchinventory. This can hurt earnings, as

Meanwhile,Nike is seeing growing demand for performance products.Management is aiming to bring downsales of classic franchisestoalower percentage of its footwearbusinessinﬁscal 2026. This should laythe foundation for areturn togrowth, though it could take afew years In themeantime, patient believers can collectits dividend, recently yielding 2.6%, while they wait. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nike.)

Fool’sSchool:

Get your children

investing

One of the best things you can do for your childrenisraisethem to be ﬁnancially savvy.You want them to grow up to be smartshoppers, touse ahousehold budget andtolive belowtheir means Turn them into long-term investors, too.

Youcan pique their interest about investing when they’re quite young, talking about companies they knowand like —such as The Walt Disney Co., Starbucks, Hasbro orSpotify Technology —and

letting themsee how you investin stocks yourself. They can startinvesting themselvesrather early on, via special accountsfor children. Here’sa quick introduction to some types

Custodial brokerageaccounts: With a custodial account, the money in it belongs to theminor (with some taxbeneﬁts), but theadult serves as the custodian until the child is old enough to fully own the account.(That happens between the ages of 18 and 25, depending on whereyou live and whether you extend the transfer.)These are often labeled as UGMA (Uniform GiftstoMinors Act) or UTMA (Uniform TransferstoMinors Act) accounts.

Youth brokerageaccounts: Some brokerages offer special investing accountsfor teens.The young personowns the account, but aparent or guardian is able to monitor activityinit.

RothIRAs: Anyone with earned income (suchasfrombabysitting or mowing lawns,but not from an allowance or holiday gift) can invest it in aRoth IRA; withdrawals in retirement can be tax-free.

CoverdellEducation Savings Accounts: These accounts let families save

and invest for future educational expenses

”Paper” accounts: Several brokerages,such as Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers, offer platforms where you can use pretend money to practice investing. These accounts are often free, and theycan help young people get used to placing orders and dealing withmarketvolatility

Read up on any or all of these accountstosee whichisbest for you and your young person.

Ask theFool:

How riskyare bonds?

Howrisky are bonds? —C.L.,Warren, Rhode Island Bonds are typically regarded as safer investments than stocks and areoften recommended to diversify aportfolio. Still, muchdepends on the particular bonds and stocks in question. Like stocks, bonds carry some risks.

For example,there’sthe risk of default. Bonds backed by the United States government are generally seen as least risky,while bonds with poor credit ratings areconsidered “junk bonds,” with much higher risk. (You can look up

credit ratings from agencies such as S&P Global, Moody’sand Fitch.)

There’salso interest rate risk: If rates rise, bond prices usually fall. And inﬂation risk: If you’re promised, say,a3%interest rate on abond but inﬂation is 5%, your purchasing power shrinks. Moreover,ifyou want to sell abond and there’slittle interest from buyers, you have “liquidity risk” and may have to sell at adiscount. There are some other risks to consider as well.

What’s Keynesian economics? —L.N Erie, Colorado

It’saneconomic theory named for John Maynard Keynes, who suggested that government intervention is needed, especially during recessions, to stimulate demand and try to stabilize the economy. Measures to spur the economyinclude tax cuts and government spending, which can boost consumer spending and reduce unemployment.

Noteveryone is on board with Keynesian economics, though. Some, for example, favor keeping the government out of the economy, letting businesses thrive or falter in accordance with the laws of supply and demand.

Motley Fool

BEECHAM

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-248-7428 •Nathaniel.Beecham@hancockwhitney.com

HancockWhitney.com/Nate-Beecham •NMLS 115300

JAREDGARY HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-603-2505 •Jared.Gary@hancockwhitney.com

HancockWhitney.com/jared-gary •NMLS 88626

TIM DUBNANSKY

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-252-6976 •Tim.dubnansky@hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/tim-dubnansky •NMLS 82027

JUDE BRIDWELL

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-603-1777 •Jude.Bridwell@hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/jude-bridwell •NMLS 92661

JEREMYWEIMER

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-978-2592 •Jeremy.Weimer@hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/jeremy-weimer •NMLS 175288

BILL HOLT

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-229-8783 •Bill.Holt@Hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/bill-holt •NMLS 148394

ANGEL LEWIS

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-413-6094 •Angel.Lewis@hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/angel-lewis•NMLS 700876

MICHAELHEBERT

HANCOCKWHITNEY

225-715-1133 •Michael.Hebert@hancockwhitney.com hancockwhitney.com/michael-hebert •NMLS 79769

ENGINEERING Automation Engineer (Electrical/Elec‐tronic)- Permanentpositionofferedby CORA TEXASMANUFACTURING COM‐PANY,L.L.C.inWhite Castle,LA. Respon‐siblefor designingand testingauto‐matedsugar cane machineryand processestoimprove lost time and processefficiency.Designing andtest‐ingofautomationsugarcane equip‐ment andprocesses usingengineering knowledge. Programming andimple‐mentingnew automatedcomponents forsugarcane processsystems.Use of engineeringsoftwaretoperform engi‐neeringdesigntasks.Identifysugar‐cane processqualityissues. Writepro‐fessionalengineerreports on processes, quality, andsuggested im‐provements.Recommend repair or de‐sign modificationsofelectronics com‐ponentsorsystems,based on factors such as environment, service, cost,or system capabilities. Inspectelectronic equipment, instruments, products,or systemstoensureconformance to specifications,safety standards, or ap‐plicable codesorregulations applica‐bletothe sugarindustry. Confer with superiorstodiscuss existing or poten‐tial electronicsengineering products or projects in theraw sugarmill. Two(2) yearsofverifiableexperienceinthe sugarindustryinthe jobofferedisre‐quired.Requiresa bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, electronicsen‐gineering, or itsforeign equivalent Thereisnorequirement that theem‐ployee must live on theemployer's premises,and this is notanoptionfor thepermanent role.40hrs/wk. Over‐time hourswillvaryand arenot guar‐anteed.Pleasesendresumes or con‐tact Mr.Charles Schudmak at CORA TEXASMANUFACTURING COMPANY, L.L.C.,32505 HIGHWAY1,White Castle LA 70788 Tel: (225) 545-3679; Email: charlie@coratexas.com

FARMING Farm EquipmentOperator(Multiple Openings)(NewRoads,LA).Needed yrround &inall weatherfor largesoy & sugarcanefarm. Operatetractors, planters,tillage eqpmt& harvesters Performpreventative& light mainte‐nanceoneqpmt. 2months' expinfarm eqpmtoperation,maintenance &re‐pair.Ability to operatetractors, com‐bines, scrapers,planters, &tillage eqpmt. MUSTfollowthese specific ap‐plicationinstructionsinorder to be considered:SendCV& coverletterto brooke.merrick10@gmail.comor BrookeMerrick,T&M Farms, LLC, PO BOX700, NewRoads,LA70760 w/in 30 days &ref Job#W2024-506. FARMING TreBayousFarms,LLC seekstohire a Farm Operations ManagerinRosedale, LA.Dutiesinclude,but arenot limited to:Willcoordinate andmanageagri‐cultural workersand sugarcanefarm‐ingoperations. Lead planting andhar‐vestingworkand overseeagricultural workersengaged in sugarcanecultiva‐tion,plantingand harvesting.Schedule workflowsand planting andharvesting work teams. Evaluate soil conditions anddevelop plansfor cultivation. Arrangeequipment on jobsiteand di‐rect work teamsinassemblingfarm equipmentand building structures like fences,sheds,shelters, barns. Operat‐ingfarmmachinery like harvesters.Co‐ordinating sugarcaneproduction schedules. Direct or assist with thead‐justment and/or repair of agricultural equipment. Communicate with farm management andwithworkteams to cultivateand harvestfields. Managing crop health andproductivityduring growingseasons.Thispositionre‐quires 24 months of experience as a generalfarmworker. Applyfor this job by submitting your resume andcontact informationtorivet2@cox.net. GENERALHELP Jessie's Plumbing is lookingfor a PlumberorPlumber's Helper.Trans‐portationrequired. Must Have 2yrs NewResidential Plumbing experience Health insuranceofferedafter 1yrof employment.WeeklyBonuses.To Apply, Call 225-324-5029 or emailre‐sumestocharles@jessiesplumbing com.

Apt#8, Zachary,LA70791

SCHOOL BOARDMINUTES

2025

HEARING

eld aPublic Hearing on the 20257:03 PM at the Zachary Community eet, Zachary,LA, 70791. .Lathon. dadopt the 2025-2026 Budget nthe Budget Hearing.Dr. Taylorclose: YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT1 at 7:05 PM.

EETING

dMeeting was held on June 17, mmunity School BoardOffice, 3755 .Lathon. -Jarrell

Mr.Mackie. ell, Mr.Hughes, Mrs. Freeman, Dr ackie.

public about news from around the

sretirees beforethe board. Mrs Mr.Jason Venable werehonored

nutes for May6,2025, Resources eeting, and June 5, 2025, Budget motion.

2025-2026 Budget.Dr. London public comment. Rollcall vote

.Taylor-Jarrell -Yes, Mr.Hughes -Yes,Mr. Dayton -Yes, Mr.Gaines

2025-2026 SalarySchedule. Mr as no public comment.

Administrative Contracts for Mrs seconded the motion.

OPOSALS

Property Insurance

There wasnopublic comment.

VOTE:YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT 1

2025-2026STUDENT RIGHTSand RESPONSIBILITIES HANDBOOK

Mr.Mackiemovedtoapprove the 2025-2026 Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.Mr. Hughessecondedthe motion. There wasnopublic comment.

VOTE:YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT 1

NOTICE OF CONSIDERATION

The NoticeofConsideration for aTax Proposition was read aloud by Mr John Musso to the boardand public. Therewas no public comment. FENNWOOD HILLS COUNTRYCLUB CONTRACT RENEWAL

Mrs. Freeman movedtoapprove the Fennwood Hills Country Club Contract Renewal.Mr. Gaines seconded the motion. There wasnopublic comment.

VOTE:YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT 1

NORTHWESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL ROOF BID

Mr.Dayton made amotion to table the approvalofa roof bid for NorthwesternMiddle School. Dr.London secondedthe motion. There wasnopublic comment.

VOTE:YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT 1

DISCUSSION OF EBBC -Emergency/Crisis Management Policy

Dr.London made amotion to approve the EBBC-Emergency/Crisis Management Policywith language corrections concerning response timeframes. Mr.Gainessecondedthe motion. The board discussed with Superintendent Necaise andAttorneyAlexander these changesand the need to table at this time.Mr. Hughesmade asubstitute motion to table the EBBC Policychangesuntil furtherreview andclarification could be made by our attorneys. Mr.Mackiesecondedthe motion. ARoll Call vote wastaken with the following result to table until the next boardmeeting on July 15, 2025. Yeas 4-Dr. Lathon, Mrs. Freeman,Mr. Hughes, Mr Mackie. Yeas- 3- with astipulation of aweek to hear from attorneys on the EBBC Policy- Mr.Dayton, Dr.London, Dr.Taylor-Jarrell. Nays-1- Mr.Gaines. 1absent -Mr. Talbot

DISCUSSION OF JD- Discipline Policy

Dr.London made amotion to approve the JD -Discipline Policy. No one seconded themotion.

SUPERINTENDENT EVALUATION

Dr.Lathon read the evaluation scores to the boardand public, she stated thatSuperintendentNecaise scored Highly Effective,and the board congratulatedhim. Mr.Necaise expressed his appreciation.

COMMITTEEREPORTS -None

COMMITTEEMEETINGS-Technology/Academic Meeting, Discipline Meeting, Community Engagement CommitteeMeeting.

AGENDA ITEMS FOR JULY15, 2025, BOARDMEETING EBBC andJDPoliciesthatweretabled during meeting. Renaming the Port Hudson Academytohonor Dr.GaynellYoung. ADJOURN Mr.Dayton movedtoadjourn. Mr.Gainessecondedthe motion. There wasnopublic comment. VOTE:YEAS 8NAYSO ABSENT 1

SHEPHEARD

SOIL SAFETY

BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer

Dig into your yard in New Orleans and you’re likely to ﬁnd more than dirt: bricks, oyster shells, rusted nails, chunks of concrete, even the occasional talismanic jar The same holds true in just about any Louisiana city old enough to carry layers of history, where the ground may hide remnants of old homes, debris from demolished buildings, or earth added to raise the land above ﬂood levels.

What’s less visible are the contaminants that may be lurking in that soil. That concern has grown as more Louisianans take up backyard gardening.

Home gardening exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The LSU AgCenter’s 2023 report estimates there are more than 625,000 home gardens in the state.

According to Joe Willis, a horticulture extension agent with the AgCenter, pandemic demand spurred the creation of a free 10-week online gardening course. Step one in the course: soil.

“If you take care of your soil, and your soil is in good condition, and of course, your garden is located in the right place, your plants are going to grow,” Willis said. But gardeners should also make sure their soil is safe for humans. Urban soil can carry invisible hazards, particularly in areas with a history of industrial or commercial use

“Especially in older neighborhoods, we recommend people do a soil test,” Willis said.

For about $11, the AgCenter’s test can measure pH, nutrients and levels of heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium. Lead is the most common contaminant in soil.

BY MARGARET DeLANEY

writer

coach Houston Franks, assistant coach of LSU’s track and field and cross-country teams. “For example, if you’re doing a half marathon, that’s usually about 12 weeks. Find a training program in that

start.”

At this point, it’s a good time to check in on the running gear needed to succeed. If the trainers in the closet look like they’ve seen better days, it’s time to upgrade

“Get a new pair of shoes because, in the long run, those will save your joints,” Franks said. “They’ll also help you become a more efﬁcient runner.”

Watch for the weather Franks has a constant eye on the weather

“In Louisiana summers, when our cross-country athletes train, we have to get up really early to get our long workouts in,” Franks said.

PROVIDED PHOTO By

HEALTH MAKER

Mapping the brain in search for answers

Tulane researchers take a close look at

Alzheimer’s

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Tulane University researchers

created a ﬁrst-of-its-kind subcellular map of an area of the brain commonly affected by Alzheimer’s disease, a key step toward unraveling the mysteries of how the degenerative brain disease develops.

The Center for Biomedical Informatics and Genomics at Tulane, a large research center established in 2011, were groundbreakers in national osteoporosis research with over 17,000 medical subjects involved Since then, the center has been sought out for growing technologies and studies across the country — its latest venture is the brain.

Led by Dr Yu Gong and Dr Hui Shen, the study applied nanotechnology to analyze speciﬁc tissues in the brain in order to map differences in the “normal” brain and the Alzheimer’s brain. In this study, the pair looked at six brains from Alzheimer’s patients between the ages of 70 and 90 years old — the late-onset classiﬁcation of the disease

The researchers used stereo sequencing to examine a small sec-

RUNNING

Continued from page 1X

Avoiding heat stress, a common illness in Southern states during the summer, is essential to staying healthy and preventing burnout Franks advises all runners, both novice and professional, to avoid running outdoors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Training before and during sunrise, and training right before and during sunset, are the best times to get an outdoor run in,” Franks said. “It also works for a lot of people’s schedules.”

tion of the prefrontal cortex — the region responsible for decisionmaking and emotional control at varying stages of Alzheimer’s.

The study, published in Nature Communications, looked at genetics that cause the loss of brain cells that allow the disease to progress. The study also identiﬁed a key protein as a potential target for treatment.

This technology allowed them to “map” the brain tissue at nearly 250 times the resolution of older tools, essentially zooming in to reveal genetic interactions within a single cell and how those shift as the disease progresses.

More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, with Alzheimer’s accounting for 60% to 70% of those cases.

Despite the prevalence, little is known about its cause and existing medications can only temporarily ease symptoms, not prevent the disease from progressing.

Gong, an instructor at the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Genomics at Tulane University in New Orleans, received both his master’s and doctorate degrees from Tulane and was the lead author of the groundbreaking study

What was significant about this study?

The most important thing is that we’ve identiﬁed several interesting interactions at the molecular level that work to protect neurons under stress, and these interactions disappeared in Alzheimer’s patients.

If we can ﬁnd a way to target a protein in the brain called ZNF460 that could be essential for treatment, in a way that keeps these modules functioning, then we might be able to inhibit the progression of Alzheimer’s.

In another surprising discov-

ery, the study found that layered structure of the brain disappears as the disease advances, a phenomenon had not been observed before.

Going forward, how do you hope to expand the study?

There’s another area that we’re working on right now for the hippocampus, a smaller part of the brain primarily responsible for forming memories, navigation and processing emotions.

We’re working to map this area of the brain next.

What makes this research important for all brain diseases?

After mapping of the brain, we can understand what is going on there. We can compare the normal brain to the Alzheimer’s disease brain and what the difference is between them.

Once we understand the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s

disease, in the future, we can develop targets. We can create drugs based on the mechanisms we identiﬁed so that we can maybe cure, or maybe just postpone, the progression of Alzheimer’s. What’s next for Alzheimer’s research?

The most important part of Alzheimer’s is the diagnosis, especially the early diagnosis. not only the Alzheimer’s disease, but there is a speciﬁc stage of the Alzheimer’s disease, the precursor stage, that only identiﬁes one particular Alzheimer’s genetic mark — but we cannot identify another one. When we identify this stage, we can start the therapeutic interventions that may help to postpone the progression of the disease. I think that is what we’re going to be looking at in the future.

Another study that is ongoing at the center is trying a “drug repur-

posing study.”

This study will look at brains after using currently available Food and Drug Administrationapproved drugs to see whether any of them have beneﬁcial effects on the Alzheimer’s disease on the molecular level.

This will be an alternative way to develop drugs, because we know developing a new drug is very expensive and time consuming. The “drug repurposing” is a cost efﬁcient way to identify alternative drugs and identify new treatments for the disease.

How did you come across this research, this technology?

The technology we used is called stereo sequencing — a cutting-edge technology

Spatial transcriptomics, a technology that maps gene patterns in speciﬁc locations within a tissue sample, is a very hot area in the medical world right now

We don’t have that technology here at Tulane yet, but we use data from the University of Kansas Medical Center When we attended the national conference for the American Society of Human Genetics, we met with the company that develops this technology and applied for a pioneer project.

We got selected and spent a half a year to ﬁgure out different pipelines and algorithms to analyze the data.

We applied this novel technology on the human brain to understand what is going on in our brains and what happens in the brain from the individuals with the Alzheimer’s disease.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

SOIL

Continued from page 1X

“The soil from those lead paints 50, 60 or more years ago, it’s still in that top 1- to 2-inch layer of soil,” Willis said. “It is persistent.”

Dr Julie Neumann, a foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon at Ochsner Health and triathlete, also emphasized the importance of beating the heat. Additionally, Neumann advises all Louisianans to hydrate — that includes electrolytes — before a run

“People should also consider that in the summer it gets too hot to train in the afternoon — the effectiveness of training is going to decrease with the heat,” Neumann said. “A morning run also sets the tone for the day.” Invest in a coach

Neumann, a former LSU soccer player turned Ironman racer, sought out help when it came to training.

“Coaches are a really good option that can help tailor your workouts and your training to something that’s reasonable,” Neumann said. “They can help tailor it based off what body parts are hurting, or what complaints you have.”

Neumann’s coach, Jessica Jones, specializes in training triathletes and Ironman runners Jones helps Neumann with pacing her runs, diversifying her workouts and sometimes what stretches work best for her body Franks is responsible for coaching over 100 athletes, tailoring workouts for their speciﬁc needs.

“The most important thing to work out is a good schedule that aligns with your distance goals,” Franks said. “Pushing yourself too hard and not listening to your body can be damaging to yourself, and your running.”

People can also have regular appointments with a physical therapist if something is bothering them while exercising.

“There’s a number of therapists in town that specialize in running and distance events,” Neumann said. “That’s helpful to keep chronic issues at bay.” Neumann recommends speaking

with a coach, or staying accountable, about recovery days as well.

“Whether that looks like Advil or just getting off your feet, or using ice, or stretching,” Neumann said.

“I think just listening to your body and scaling back activities when you need to is important.”

Consider cross-training

Cross-training is an essential part of any long-distance running program. It helps the body to make it across the ﬁnish line injury-free.

“Running is a high-impact exercise,” Franks said “Cross-training is for any ﬁtness level, and it’s essentially a day not running where you complete a non-high-impact exercise to either strengthen weaker muscles or stretch tight ones.”

Successful cross-training can be any low-impact exercise that helps sustain anaerobic capacity and strengthen the core — including biking, swimming, running, weightlifting, yoga and Pilates.

The activities should focus on increasing strength, improving ﬂexibility and core strength, and maintaining muscle mass. Franks emphasizes that cross-training should be used to correlate running.

“I think weight training is a great supplement to building a base of endurance,” Neumann said “It’s important in injury prevention. It’s important for diversifying training and building muscle mass. I think of it as like a supplement to cardiovascular training.”

Stretching is essential

According to Harvard Health, stretching keeps the muscles ﬂexible and healthy The human body

needs that ﬂexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight, according to Harvard Health. That puts runners at risk for joint pain, strains and muscle damage.

Stretching should happen before and after a race, according to both Neumann and Franks Most longdistance runners choose to do light jogs before the race to help the body warm up, and a light jog after the race to help the body cool down.

Stagnant stretches like the hamstring stretch (folding at the waist and touching the toes) and the standing quad stretch (holding the ankle to the backside) help to relieve tension in the legs, and dynamic stretches like leg swings and high knees help to prepare the body to use the full range of motion needed for long runs.

Using ice and even more stretching after a race is also good for all runners, new and experienced, to “help prevent or treat injuries that already exist,” according to Neumann.

Remember to enjoy it

Although the early mornings and putting pressure on the body can be intimidating, long-distance running can be fun too. Joining a run club, making it a social event or even listening to some good music can make long-distance runs more fun.

“At the end of the day the bottom line for all of these training events is to have fun,” Neumann said.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

Soil is likely to contain high levels of lead if it is near any structure built before 1978, when lead-based paint was taken off the market, or if an old building was demolished on the site. Pesticides containing lead were often used on fruit trees, so land close to old orchards is also of concern. Soils near heavily trafﬁcked roadways can also be laced with contaminants. Yards near old dry cleaners, which used harmful chemicals and any site with industrial ﬁll or construction debris may also pose a risk.

The primary concern with gardening in contaminated soil is exposure by stirring it up, said Willis. But food grown in the soil may also absorb it.

Vegetables vary in how much they absorb metals. Plants like sunﬂowers are known to draw lead from soil and are sometimes used to clean up contaminated areas. Fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers and squash tend to be safe in mildly contaminated soil.

But root vegetables and leafy greens carry a higher risk. Roots can absorb lead from the soil, and leafy greens are easily contaminated by soil splashing or contact during gardening.

Results from the AgCenter’s soil test can be used with guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency to decide what kind of plants are safe to grow there.

Container beds are typically safer, and can also offer the benefit of controlling the quality of soil and the amount of water your plants get, Willis said. But what kind of container you use also matters, said Melissa Gonzales, an exposure scientist and chair of

in mildly contaminated soil.

environmental health sciences at Tulane University

Gonzales once stopped to warn to a neighbor who was building raised beds out of old railroad ties, which are commonly treated with chemicals to prevent decay

“I just had to stop and tell him,” Gonzales said. “I told him, ‘Please, don’t eat those vegetables.’” When in doubt, both Gonzales and Willis recommend raised beds constructed from materials such as plastic wood, metal or lumber you know has not been treated with harmful chemicals. It should also be ﬁlled with soil you know is free from contaminants.

“You don’t want to have chronic, low-level lead exposure, even if it’s below detectable, for children, pregnant women, anybody really,” Gonzales said.

The AgCenter recommends a minimum of 8 inches of soil in raised beds to prevent roots from growing into the native soil below For most vegetables, 12 inches is more ideal, and 18 inches is what Willis recommends for root vegetables.

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com.

DO YOU HAVE A HEALTH STORY?

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and re-examining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana.

Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

PHOTO PROVIDED By TULANE UNIVERSITy

Tulane University researchers created a first-of-its-kind subcellular map of an area of the brain commonly affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

Neumann

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BILL FEIG Fruiting crops like peppers tend to be safe

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Members of Happy’s Running Club take the ‘scenic route’ through downtown Baton Rouge on a hot and humid 2024 run. Avoiding heat stress, a common illness in Southern states during the summer, is essential to staying healthy and preventing burnout, experts say.

Eat Fit LiveFit

Moreberries, lesssugar: Alow-carb cheesecakeworth celebrating

Cheesecakeisdecadent,nomatter howyousliceit.Butthereisaway tocutthecarbcountwayback withoutsacrificingflavorortexture.Keyto therevisedrecipearestrategicingredient substitutesinthecrust,fillingandtopping Usingaplant-basedsweetenerlike erythritolinsteadofsugarinallthreeis themostsignificantswap,asiteffectively haszerocalories(andzeroimpactonour glucoselevels),comparedtonearly800 caloriesand200gramsofsugarycarbsper cupofsugar.

Insteadofall-purposeorpastryflour madefromwheat(translation:whiteflour), ourArtisanBerryCheesecake’scrustis madewithalmondorpecanflour.Both arenaturallygluten-freewithafractionof thecarbscomparedtoregularwhiteflour. Addedbonus:almondflourhasabout24 gramsofproteinand14gramsoffiberper cup,andpecanflourhasapproximately9 gramsofproteinand10gramsoffiberper cup.AndIlovehowthenuttyflavoradds adeliciouscomplexitytothecheesecake’s flavorprofile.

Butremember:Evenwhenlowerinsugar andcarbs,cheesecakeisstillarichdessert. Thisoneclocksinat260caloriesperslice.

Topthat OurEatFitBerryReductionmakesa satisfyinglysweetandtartcheesecake toppingwithalmostzerocalories.Piling onfreshblueberriesandstrawberriesor raspberrieswillgiveyourcheesecakemore thanaFourthofJulycolorpop—the ﬁber-richberriesarealsopackedwith antioxidants,vitaminsandminerals. Whethertoppedwithaberry reduction,adrizzleofmeltedLily’snosugarchocolatechipsornotoppingat all,thischeesecakefreezesfabulously. Ifsliced,wrapeachpiecetightlywith plasticwrap.Tofreezetheentirecake, placeitonadishorcardboardroundand coversnuglywithplasticwrap.

ArtisanBerryCheesecake

CasterandChicoryCaféinWestMonroe Makes16servings

FortheCrust

11/2cupspecanﬂouroralmondﬂour

1/4cupSwerveGranular

4tablespoonsbutter,melted

FortheFilling

24ouncescreamcheese,roomtemperature

1cupSwerveConfectioners

3eggs

1/2cupsourcream

11/2teaspoonsvanillaextract

1/8teaspoonseasalt

FortheTopping(optional)

1batchofEatFitBerryReduction(recipe below)

Preheatovento325degrees.Inamedium mixingbowl,addpecanoralmondﬂour, SwerveGranular,andbutter.Mixuntil well-combined.Pressintothebottomofa greased10-inchspringformpan.Refrigerate for20minutes.

MixcreamcheeseandSwerveConfectioners withamixeruntillightandﬂuffy.Addeggs, oneatatime,beatingonlowspeed,scraping sidesasneeded.Mixwell.Addsourcream, vanilla,andseasalt.Mixuntilcombined.Pour overthepreparedcrust.

Itisimportanttobakethischeesecake slowlytoreducethechanceofcracking. (Butdon’tworryifitdoescrackabit;we sortofliketheimperfections.Plus,theBerry

Reductionhelpstohideanyﬂaws.)Bake for30minutes,placingabakingsheeton therackbelowtocatchanyrun-off.Reduce oventemperatureto275andcontinue bakingfor45minutes.After45minutes, turnoffoven,leavingcheesecakeinsidefor another30minutes.

Bepatient don’topenthatdoor!After 30minutes,cracktheovendoorjustabit toallowcheesecaketocoolslowlyfor anotherhour.

Removecheesecakefromtheovenandbring toroomtemperatureonthecounter,another 2-3hours,thencoverwithplasticwrapand refrigerate.Servechilled,toppedwithEatFit BerryReduction.

MollyKimball,RD,CSSD,isaregistereddietitian withOchsnerHealthandfounderofOchsnersEatFit nonproﬁtinitiative.Formorewellnesscontent,tuneinto Molly’spodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition,andfollow @MollykimballRDand@EatFitOchsneronsocialmedia. Emailnutrition@ochsner.orgtoconnectwithMollyor scheduleaconsultwithherteam.

BY THENUMBERS

Perserving:260calories,23gramsfat,11 gramssaturatedfat,180mgsodium,8grams carbohydrate(7gramsnetcarbs),1gram ﬁber,3gramssugar(0addedsugar),7grams protein

EatFitBerryReduction 1cupfrozenberries(blueberries,blackberries and/orraspberries)

1/4cupwater

1/4cupSwerveGranular 1tablespoonlemonjuice

Addberries,water,andSwervetoamedium saucepanovermediumheat.Bringtoarolling boil,thenreduceheatandsimmerfor15-20 minutes.Removefromheat.

Addlemonjuiceandwhisk.Allowtocoola bitbeforeserving.Canservechilledorslightly warmed.Refrigerateinanairtightcontainer foruptoaweek.

Perserving(2tablespoons):5calories, 0fat,0saturatedfat,0sodium,2grams carbohydrate(2gramsnetcarbs),0ﬁber,1 gramsugar(0addedsugar),0protein

LA.RANKS 25TH FORRATIO OF REGISTERED NURSES TO PATIENTS

Louisiana ranks 25th in the nation forits registered nurse-to-patient ratio with 9.3 RNs per 1,000 patients, just belowthe national averageof9.6 RNs per1,000.

In 2023, Louisiana had 66,594 registered nurses with activelicenses to practice.

Nurse.org,aneducational site for nurses, foundthe current RN-to-patient ratios per state by comparing data from the BureauofLabor and Statistics (2021) andstate populations from the U.S. CensusBureau (2022). Utah currently has the lowest ratio, with 7 RNs per 1,000people. Utah is followedinthe rankings by,in ascending order: n Georgia andTexas with 7.2 RNs per 1,000 people in each state, n Idaho with 7.4 RNsper 1,000 people, n Hawaii, Nevada and Virginia with 7.7

5books

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

We asked doctorsacross Louisianatogive us their top book recommendations —and they delivered:

“Delay,Don’t Deny” by GinStephens

In his second edition of his 2016 book, Gin Stephens further explores the importance of intermittent fasting. In this book, published in 2024, readers will learn the science behind intermittent fasting, the importance of the clean fast and how to develop an intermittent fastingplan that works for each lifestyle.

RNs per 1,000 people in eachstate South Dakota has more than double Utah’sratio, with 15.5 nurses per 1,000. South Dakota is followedinthe rankings by,indescendingorder: n North Dakota with 15.2 RNs per 1,000 people, n Massachusetts with 12.6 RNsper 1,000 people, n Minnesota with 12.1 RNs per 1,000 people, n Delaware and Pennsylvaniawith 11.5 RNs per 1,000 people. Registered nurses nationwide have gone through many changes—with theCOVID-19 pandemic,a slewof retirements and aplague of burnouts RNs areprojectedtohavesignificantly depleted numbers by 2030.

Nurse.org predicts that 42 of 50 states will be shortnurses in 2030, with agap of 206,553 nurses nationally

“The Artist’s Way” by JuliaCameron

This book, published in 1992, was written to help people with artistic creative recovery by teaching techniques andexercises toassist people in gaining selfconﬁdence in harnessing their creative talentsand skills

—Recommended by Caroline Helm, alicensed therapist and creative counselor in Lafayette

“The ServantLeader” by JamesAutry

Servant leadership —the idea thatmanaging withrespect, honesty, love,and spirituality empowers employees —helps

Source:nurse.org

individuals answer that calling. Bestselling author and former Fortune 500 executive James A. Autry reveals the servant leader’s tools, aset of skills and ideals that will transform the way business is done. It helps leadersnurture theneeds and goals of those who look to them for leadership.

—Recommended by Dr.Steve Nelson, the chancellor of LSU HealthSciences Center New Orleans

“Parenting with Love andLogic” by Foster W. Cline

This parenting book shows parents how to raise self-conﬁdent, motivated children who are

readyfor the real world. Learn how to parent effectively while teaching children responsibility andgrowing their character

Establish healthy control through easy-to-implement steps without anger, threats, nagging or power struggles.

—RecommendedbyKatie Fetzer,amental health counselor in Baton Rouge

“The Creative Habit” by TwylaTharp

Allittakes to make creativity apart of life is the willingness to make it ahabit. It is theproductofpreparation and effort, andiswithin reach

of everyone.The Creative Habit provides32practical exercises basedonthe lessons Twyla Tharp haslearnedinher remarkable 35-year career

—RecommendedbyCaroline Helm, alicensedtherapist and creativecounselorinLafayette

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

BRO UGH TT OY OU BY

Molly Kimball RD,CSSD

As cannabis users age, health risks appear to grow

BY PAULA SPAN KFF Health News

Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and addiction medicine specialist at the University of California-San Diego, tells his students a cautionary tale about a 76-year-old patient who, like many older people, struggled with insomnia.

“She had problems falling asleep, and she’d wake up in the middle of the night,” he said. “So her daughter brought her some sleep gummies” — edible cannabis candies.

“She tried a gummy after dinner and waited half an hour,” Han said. Feeling no effects, she took another gummy, then one more a total of four over several hours.

Han advises patients who are trying cannabis to “start low; go slow,” beginning with products that contain just 1 or 2.5 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that many cannabis products contain. Each of the four gummies this patient took, however, contained 10 milligrams.

The woman started experiencing intense anxiety and heart palpitations. A young person might have shrugged off such symptoms, but this patient had high blood pressure and atrial ﬁbrillation, a heart arrhythmia Frightened, she went to an emergency room.

Lab tests and a cardiac workup determined the woman wasn’t having a heart attack, and the staff sent her home. Her only lingering symptom was embarrassment, Han said. But what if she’d grown dizzy or lightheaded and was hurt in a fall? He said he has had patients injured in falls or while driving after using cannabis. What if the cannabis had interacted with the prescription drugs she took?

“As a geriatrician, it gives me pause,” Han said. “Our brains are more sensitive to psychoactive substances as we age.”

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia now allow cannabis use for medical reasons, and in 24 of those states, as well as the district, recreational use is also legal. As older adults’ use climbs, “the beneﬁts are still unclear,” Han said. “But we’re seeing more evidence of potential harms.”

A wave of recent research points to reasons for concern for older users, with cannabis-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations rising, and a Canadian study finding an association between such acute care and subsequent dementia. Older people are more apt than younger ones to try cannabis for therapeutic reasons: to relieve chronic pain, insomnia, or mental health issues, though evidence of its effectiveness in ad-

dressing those conditions remains thin, experts said.

In an analysis of national survey data published June 2 in the medical journal JAMA, Han and his colleagues reported that “current” cannabis use (deﬁned as use within the previous month) had jumped among adults age 65 or older to 7% of respondents in 2023, from 4.8% in 2021. In 2005, he pointed out, fewer than 1% of older adults reported using cannabis in the previous year

What’s driving the increase? Experts cite the steady march of state legalization — use by older people is highest in those states while surveys show that the perceived risk of cannabis use has declined.

One national survey found that a growing proportion of American adults 44% in 2021 erroneously thought it safer to smoke cannabis daily than cigarettes.

The authors of the study in JAMA Network Open, noted that “these views do not reﬂect the existing science on cannabis and tobacco smoke.”

The cannabis industry also markets its products to older adults.

The Trulieve chain gives a 10% discount, both in stores and online, to those it calls “wisdom” customers, 55 or older Rise Dispensaries ran a yearlong cannabis education and empowerment program for two senior centers in Paterson, New Jersey, including ﬁeld trips to its dispensary

The industry has many satisﬁed older customers. Liz Logan, 67, a freelance writer in Bronxville, New York, had grappled with sleep problems and anxiety for years, but the conditions grew particularly debilitating two years ago, as her husband was dying of Parkinson’s disease. “I’d frequently be awake until 5 or 6 in the morning,” she said “It makes you crazy.”

Looking online for edible cannabis products, Logan found that gummies containing cannabidiol, known as CBD, alone didn’t help, but those with 10 milligrams of THC did the trick without noticeable side effects. “I don’t worry about sleep anymore,” she said. “I’ve solved a lifelong problem.”

But studies in the United States and Canada, which legalized nonmedical cannabis use for adults nationally in 2018, show climbing rates of cannabis-related health care use among older people, both in outpatient settings and in hospitals.

In California, for instance, cannabis-related emergency room visits by those 65 or older rose, to 395 per 100,000 visits in 2019 from about 21 in 2005. In Ontario, acute care (meaning emergency visits or hospital admissions) resulting

More older people are using cannabis

edible gummies, regularly Research suggests their cannabis-related health problems are also on the

from cannabis use increased ﬁvefold in middle-aged adults from 2008 to 2021, and more than 26 times among those 65 and up.

“It’s not reﬂective of everyone who’s using cannabis,” cautioned Daniel Myran, an investigator at the Bruyère Health Research Institute in Ottawa and lead author of the Ontario study “It’s capturing people with more severe patterns.”

But since other studies have shown increased cardiac risk among some cannabis users with heart disease or diabetes, “there’s a number of warning signals,” he said. For example, a disturbing proportion of older veterans who currently use cannabis screen positive for cannabis use disorder, a recent JAMA Network Open study found.

As with other substance use disorders, such patients “can tolerate high amounts,” said the lead author Vira Pravosud, a cannabis researcher at the Northern California Institute for Research and Education. “They continue using even if it interferes with their social or work or family obligations” and may experience withdrawal if they stop.

Among 4,500 older veterans (with an average age of 73) seeking care at Department of Veterans Affairs health facilities, researchers found that more than 10% had reported cannabis use within the previous 30 days. Of those, 36% ﬁt

the criteria for mild, moderate, or severe cannabis use disorder as established in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

VA patients differ from the general population, Pravosud noted. They are much more likely to report substance misuse and have “higher rates of chronic diseases and disabilities, and mental health conditions like PTSD” that could lead to self-medication, she said.

Current VA policies don’t require clinicians to ask patients about cannabis use. Pravosud thinks that they should. Moreover, “there’s increasing evidence of a potential effect on memory and cognition,” said Myran, citing his team’s study of Ontario patients with cannabis-related conditions going to emergency departments or being admitted to hospitals.

Compared with others of the same age and sex who were seeking care for other reasons, research shows these patients (ages 45 to 105) had 1.5 times the risk of a dementia diagnosis within ﬁve years, and 3.9 times the risk of that for the general population.

Even after adjusting for chronic health conditions and sociodemographic factors, those seeking acute care resulting from cannabis use had a 23% higher dementia risk than patients with noncannabis-related ailments, and a 72% higher risk than the general population.

None of these studies were randomized clinical trials, the researchers pointed out; they were observational and could not ascertain causality Some cannabis research doesn’t specify whether users are smoking, vaping, ingesting or rubbing topical cannabis on aching joints; other studies lack relevant demographic information.

“It’s very frustrating that we’re not able to provide more individual guidance on safer modes of consumption, and on amounts of use that seem lower-risk,” Myran said. “It just highlights that the rapid expansion of regular cannabis use in North America is outpacing our knowledge.”

Still, given the health vulnerabilities of older people, and the far greater potency of current cannabis products compared with the weed of their youth, he and other researchers urge caution.

“If you view cannabis as a medicine, you should be open to the idea that there are groups who probably shouldn’t use it and that there are potential adverse effects from it,” he said. “Because that is true of all medicines.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces indepth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism

Older adults increasingly dying from unintentional falls

BY MIKE STOBBE Associated Press

NEW YORK Older U.S. adults are increasingly dying from unintentional falls, according to a new federal report published Wednesday, with White people accounting for the vast majority of the deaths.

From 2003 to 2023, death rates from falls rose more than 70% for adults ages 65 to 74, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate increased more than 75% for people 75 to 84, and more than doubled for seniors 85 and older

“Falls continue to be a public health problem worth paying attention to,” said Geoffrey Hoffman, a University of Michigan researcher who was not involved in the new report. “It’s curious that these rates keep rising.”

The CDC researchers did not try to answer why death rates from falls are increasing. But experts say there may be a few reasons, like gradually improving our understanding of the role falls play in deaths and more people living longer — to ages when falls are more likely to have deadly consequences. More than 41,000 retirement-age Americans died of falls in 2023, the most recent year for which ﬁnal statistics based on death certificates are available. That suggests that falls were blamed in about 1 of every 56 deaths in older Americans that year

More than half of those 41,000 deaths were people 85 and older, the CDC found, and White people accounted for 87% of deaths in the oldest category Falls can cause head injuries or broken bones that can lead to permanent disability and trigger a cascade of other health problems

A number of factors can contribute to falls, including changes in

From 2003 to 2023, death rates from falls rose more than 70% for adults ages 65 to 74, according to a report from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

hearing and vision and medications that can cause lightheadedness.

Death rates varied widely from state to state. In 2023, Wisconsin had the highest death rates from falls followed by Minnesota, Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont Wisconsin’s rate was more than ﬁve times higher than the rate of the lowest state, Alabama. Ice and wintry weather may partly explain why fatal falls were

more common in states in the upper Midwest and New England, but experts also pointed to other things at play, like differences in how well falls are reported and to what extent they are labeled a cause of death.

“We’ve yet to unravel why you see such differences in state rates,” said Hoffman, who studies falls among the elderly Researchers also can’t yet explain why White seniors die of

falls at higher rates than people in other racial and ethnic groups. In the 85-and-up age group, the death rate for White Americans is two or three times higher than any other group, while older Black people had the lowest fall-related death rate.

“Kind of a ﬂip of the traditional disparity lens,” Hoffman said, referring to the fact that for most other rates of illness and injury people of color are disproportionately affected. Staying active can help people avoid falls, experts say The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

PHOTO PROVIDED By KFF HEALTH NEWS

products, like

rise.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ERIC RISBERG

Ochsner

Health

celebrates 50,000+robot-assisted surgeries as pioneer in patientcare

By Amanda McElfresh amcelfresh@theadvocate.com

Thisstory is brought to you by OchsnerHealth.

Ochsner Health hasreached asignificant milestone: performing more than 50,000 minimally invasive robot-assistedsurgeries across itssystem. ThisachievementunderscoresOchsner’s longstanding commitmenttosurgical innovation,patient-centered care and excellence inadvanced medical technology.Ochsner patientsinBatonRouge, Lafayette,New Orleans and beyond arebeneﬁtingfromfasterrecoveries,fewer complications andan overall bettersurgicalexperience thanks to this cutting-edgeapproach.

Ochsner MedicalCenter- NewOrleans andOchsner MedicalCenter- BatonRouge were the ﬁrst hospitals in Louisiana to offer robotic-assisted surgeries.Today,thistechnologyisavailableacrossthe entire Ochsner system and in multiplespecialties, including gynecology, urology, transplant surgery colorectal surgery,orthopedics,thoracic surgery,ENT,surgicaloncology, bariatric surgery,and general surgery procedures Ochsner surgeons’ comprehensive adoption ofdiverse robot-assisted techniques is adistinctiveapproach that translatesto better care formorepatients.

“When we talk aboutminimallyinvasive surgery,wetalk aboutdoingthe surgeries through smaller incisions, whichtypically meanslesspain withthe surgery,lesspain postoperativelyand quicker recoveries wherethereislesstimeinthe hospitals,” saidKyleJakob,MD, general surgeon,Ochsner MedicalComplex-The Grove.“Butit’s stillusdoing thesurgery.When peoplehear ‘roboticsurgery,’ they thinkthismachineis going to do my surgery.We’re still in control of all of theinstrumentsand doingthe procedure with our ownhands; the robotissimply atool.”

OchsnerLafayetteGeneralOrthopedic Hospital has garnered national attention andisranked by U.S. News &World Report forexcellence in orthopedic care, particularlyinhip andknee replacement surgery.Itwas among theﬁrstlocations in the nationtooperatewiththree orthopedic roboticsystems,becoming aCenterofExcellenceknown forembracing innovation. Thiscontinued commitment hashelped transform even complexproceduresinto routineoperations

Paul Buzhardt,MD, orthopedic surgeon, Ochsner LafayetteGeneral OrthopedicHospital, said nearlyevery hipand knee replacement at thehospital involves robotics

“When we do these surgeries,weare recreating thepatient’s native anatomy,and whatwecan do robotically is inﬁnitelymore exact thanwhatany surgeon candomanually,” said Dr.Buzhardt “You canmakeadjustments within aquarter ofamillimeter or halfa degree. What we have found is that it means patientsbounce back quickerand return to theirnormal rangeof motion muchfaster.”

In fact,Dr. Buzhardt said most patients who undergo total hip and knee replacements using robotics aremoving around within afew hoursofthe operation, and many areable to go home thatsame day. That’safar cry from 15 yearsago,when such an operation usually meant ahospital stay of at least three to ﬁvedays.

PaulBuzhardt,MD

It’sverycommon formetoseea patienttwoweeks afteranoperation withoutacane,a crutchorawalker. Theyaregoingback toworkfasterand gettingback totheirsocial activitiesfaster.

PaulBuzhardt,MD OrthopedicSurgeon

“The robotic technologymeans we have lesssoft tissue exposureand disruption, less bloodlossand lesspain,”Dr. Buzhardt said. “It’svery common formetosee apatienttwo weeksafter an operation without acane, a crutch or awalker.Usually,I’m having to tell themtotakeiteasy. Theyare going back to work faster and getting back to their social activities faster.”

At Ochsner Medical Center -New Orleans,Michael Maddox, MD,urologic surgicaloncologist,has alsoseen the transformativepowerofrobot-assisted surgery ﬁrsthand. Since joining Ochsnerin2015, Dr. Maddoxhas beenpart of abusyrobotics practice to help treatand manage conditions such as prostate,kidneyand bladder cancer,aswell as applications to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) -anenlargedprostate -and urinary reconstructiveprocedures “Robot-assisted prostate andbladder surgeries aredelicate procedures thatcan be life-savingfor people with cancer. In addition, with the help of robot-assisted surgery,wecan perform apartial nephrectomy -removing the tumor while preserving the healthypart of the kidney-tomaintain as much kidneyfunctionaspossible even when removing the most complexrenal tumors,”Dr. Maddox said. “The technology provides 10 times magniﬁcation, wristed instruments and elimination of tremor The capabilities are vastly better. Ithink all of thattranslates intoabetterpatientexperience.

Ochsner surgeonsspendextensive time masteringthesetools. While beneﬁting from the high-tech natureofthese systems,surgeonsremain fully in controlduring eachprocedure. Thesurgeons use advanced preoperativeimaging and testing to create personalized surgical plans and sometimes three-dimensional modelstoprepare foreach operation well ahead of time.

“Wetaketime to template and plan the surgery so we knowthe sizeofthe implant thatwill best ﬁt the patientand anything thatweneedtowork around in the person’s anatomy,such as platesand rods from aprevious accidentorfracture,”Dr. Buzhardt said. “Fromasurgical standpoint, it means we just executethe plan we have devised once we gettothe operating room. Thereare no real surprises.”

Dr.Maddoxsaid interactive, patient-speciﬁc 3D models createdatOchsner using cross-sectionalimaging have proveninvaluable forintraoperativesurgical planning, particularly in complexcases with unique orabnormalanatomy.These3Dmodels have alsobeen helpful in the preoperative counseling of patients,who have uniformly enjoyedbeing able to seetheir anatomy and problem in amoredigestible visual model.

“Ochsner wasanearly adopter of robotic technology. We continue to seethe beneﬁts, and the system continues to believe and invest in it,” he said. “I think the newest generation of this technologyisgoing to continue to unlockdifferentand unique capabilities and have positiveimplications forphysi-

cians and patients.”

Dr.Jakob said he is proud to work fora health systemthatcontinues to be at the forefrontofmedical innovation. In his recentworkwith the da Vinci5,one of the newest robot-assisted models from industry leader IntuitiveSurgical, Dr.Jakob said he has noticed abettersenseoffeel, giving surgeons an increased senseofhow much pressuretheyare exerting.

“We’ve been at the beginning of it and still we’reatthe forefrontofit. We areleading Louisiana in robotic surgeries,and we areproud to have the latest technology,”he said. “This is the latest and greatest robot that’scome out.” The futureofrobot-assisted surgery at Ochsner looksevenmorepromising. With ongoing advancements on the horizon such as robot-assisted shoulder replacements and expanded useoftools forscrew placementand spinal procedures Ochsner surgeons arepoised to offer even safer, moretailored care.For patients across the Gulf South, this means the highest quality of care grounded in both technologyand human expertise.

Divinginto

pool safety

BeatingthesummerheatinsouthLouisianaofteninvolvesswimming.Spendingtimebeingactiveis especiallyimportanttogivechildrenabreakfromscreentime,butpracticingpoolsafetyisimperative.

Asweheadintothescorchingdaysofsummer,it’sagoodideatothinkaboutwaystokeepchildren andgrownupssafeinthewater.

Constant supervision is essential

Drowningisthesecondleadingcauseofunintentionaldeathforchildrenages1to14.Ababyor toddlercandrownwithin30secondsandinlessthananinchofwater.

Childrenshouldneverswimaloneorwithoutadultsupervision.Whenapoolorbodyofwateris nearby,alwaysknowwhereyourchildrenareandneverassumesomeoneelseiswatchingthem. Neverputababylessthan6monthsoldunderthewater.Althoughmostinfantsnaturallyhold theirbreathunderwater,theymaycontinuetoswallow.

Pool security tips

Installasecondlockonalldoorsleadingtothepoolandmakesurethelockiswelloutofatoddler’sreach.

Surroundthepoolareawithafence—aminimumof48inchesinheight—thatincludesaself-closing,self-lockinggate. Allentrancesshouldbeclosedandlockedwhennotinuse.

Keepanyobjectatoddlercouldclimbonawayfromthefence.Storetoysawayfromthepooltoavoidtemptation.

Useapoolsafetycoverthatcansupporttheweightofasmallchildorpet Keepthepoolfull.Ifachildfallsin,afullpoolmakesitmorelikelytheycanreachtheledge.

Installcompliantanti-entrapmentdevicesonpooldrainsasapreventionmeasure.Thesuctionfromapooldraincanbe strongenoughtoholdevenanadultunderwater,pullingonthehairoronthebodyandformingasealthatholdsthemdown.

Protectingeyesand ears

Takingadipinthepoolcanbeagreatwayfor kidstocooloffandhavefunatthesametime. Butwemustbevigilantaboutprotectingeyes andearswhenswimming.Bothcanbeirritated bychlorineorotherpoolchemicals,whichmay causeconditionsknownas“swimmer’seye” and“swimmer’sear.”

Swimmer’seyeisoftenacombinationof tearﬁlmdisruption(dryeyes)andchemical conjunctivitis(irritation).Symptomsinclude burning,redness,itchiness,blurredvision, dischargeandswolleneyelids.

Youcantreatswimmer’seyebyrinsingout theeyeswithsterilesalinesolution.Follow thiswithacoupledropsofanartiﬁcialtear everyhourafterswimmingforthefollowing fourtosixhours.(Lookforeyedropsthatsay

“lubricating”or“artiﬁcialtears.”)Avoidusing decongestanteyedropslikethosemarketedto “gettheredout,”becausetheycanmakethe problemworse.

Thebestwaytopreventeyeirritationisto wearwell-ﬁttinggoggleswhenswimmingin anytypeofwater.

Swimmer’sear,alsocalled“otitisexterna,’’is aninfectionoftheouterear.Whilecommon inchildren,swimmer’searcanaffectpeopleof allages.Andyoucangetitwithoutgettingin thewater.

Whileexcessivewetnessintheearcanalfrom swimmingisacommoncause,traumatothe earcanal,likeascratchfromaﬁngernailor irritationfromaQ-tip,canalsobeculprits.

Symptomsmayincludeearredness,pain, itching,drainage,swollenglandsinthe upperneck,muffledhearingandafeelingof fullnessintheear.Treatmenttypicallyinvolves antibiotic,antifungalorsteroideardrops.

Thebestwaytopreventswimmer’searisto keeptheearsdryandtowearearplugsfor swimmingorbathing.

Ifwaterisinyourearafterswimming,here’sa tip:Holdahairdryeratarm’slengthfromyour earandplaceitonthecoolsetting.Theextra airﬂowwillhelpdryyourearcanalandprevent moisturebuildupthatcancauseotitisexterna. Contactyourdoctorifyouoryourchildis experiencingsymptomsofswimmer’sear.

LOUISIANA

Camp Tiger Celebration

N.O. summer camp forkidswithdisabilities celebrates 40 years

BYMARIE FAZIO Staff writer

His eyes wide withwonder,Kenneth followed the path of the Gulf sturgeon, tracing his hand along its tank as his two counselors hovered nearby.Afew seconds later,his interestwas piqued by a glass enclosure of crawﬁsh,and Kenneth made his way to try to spot one before zipping into the blue-hued room with stingray tanks to catcha glimpseofthe sharks.

“He told me not to worry because the sharks are in the tanks,” said Carolanne VanZandt, aCovingtonnative and ﬁrstyear medical studentatLSU whowas one of Kenneth’scounselors.

Kennethwas one of about 75 participants in Camp Tiger,asummercamp for New Orleans-area children aged 6to15 with arange of mental and physical disabilities.

Founded 40 years ago by two LSU medical students,Camp Tiger is entirely run by incoming ﬁrst-year or rising secondyear medical students under the supervision of ahandful of facultyphysicians. For decades, Camp Tiger has offered children with disabilities in the greater New Orleans area aweek of classic summer camp experiences, from tripsto

the zoo and the arcade to making new friends.

“Allowing achild to be achild, to go out into the city and go to thezoo gives them asense of normalcy,abreak from their daily routine,” said Dr.Kyle Fulton, faculty adviser and medical director of the camp. “Our job is to makeitthe mostfun week for them.”

Asense of normalcy

This year’scamp, which took place the thirdweek of May,included atriptothe Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium. At least two counselorsaccompaniedeach camper around the aquarium, some mesmerized by thesharks,othersbraving the shallow pool to pet thestingrays.

Afew campers—exhausted from the day’searlierexcursion to thearcade— took breaks on benches throughout the aquarium, including Walker,acamper with Down syndrome, who sat on his counselor’slap and alternated between snatching his baseball cap off his head andhugging his counselor tightly

“This camp gives kids withdifferent abilitiesthe opportunity to attend aday camp when they otherwise mightnot be able to,” Fulton said.

Sometimes it canbedifﬁcult for families to ﬁnd camps willing to accommodate their child’sneeds, he said.

On the flip side, counselorsget firsthand experience with thefirstpatients of their medical careers. Fulton saidhe helps students understand the meaning of thecampers’ diagnoses, whichcan range from autism to cerebral palsy to

kidneyand heart disease.Fulton is on standby to take care of anymedical issues that might arise, from askinned knee or nausea from theTilt-a-Whirl.

“Just being able tosee the workwecan do in thecommunity,it’sreally inspiring,”saidPatrick Schwing, asecond-year medical student who was one of Walker’s counselors.

Overthe course of aweek, counselors form close bonds with theircampers and practice clinical skills, as wellaspatience.

Charlie McKenzie, arising secondyear medical student who servedasthis year’s camp director, saidpreparations for camp begin around Septemberwith planning for the auction,the main fundraiser for the camp. This year,the group raised $145,000, enough to cover thecosts of attendance for each camper

“It puts aface to thediagnosis,”McKenzie said,describing thesmile and laughterofone camper —who uses a wheelchair —asshe rode the Ferris wheel. “They’re still just kids being kids.”

Astoried history

Camp Tigerwas thebrainchild of Dr Kevin Conrad, who co-founded the camp hisﬁrstyearofmedical school with his now-wife Dr.Marianne Maumus. Conrad said the camphad humble beginnings itsﬁrst year,when about 20 medical studentsand 40 campers participated. Thecamp was born from conversations with fellow medicalstudentsabout how

The 100-Item Challenge is back. Andthe need is as great if not greater —than ever

The challenge is simple: We askreaders, whether as individuals or groups,todonate alistof 100 items(in total) to their local food banks,speciﬁcally: n 10 cans of tuna n 10 jars of peanut butter n 10 bags of drybeans n 10 cans of canned meat n 10 cans of vegetables n 10 cans of chili n 10 cans of soup n 10 bags or boxes of pasta n 10 cans of tomato sauce n 10 boxes of cornbread mix.

One of the beautiful things about this challenge is that if gatheringall 100 itemsfeels overwhelming, you’re encouraged to split thelist with afriend, your family,your neighbor or your book club. Youdon’thave to do it all alone —and the ripple effect can be powerful. One act of generosityoften leads to another

The challenge runs through Sept. 22 and is designed to help food banks acrossLouisiana through the summer, atime when donations typically decreaseand need increases Over the pasttwo yearsin particular,the hunger crisis in Louisiana has grown increasingly dire.

Last year,Iwrote that challenges like this work because most people aremorethan willingtohelp, but they need someone to say, “Let’sdothis —that’swhereyou comein. Consider this your challenge to be that person.

Last year,readersdelivered tons of canned and bagged nonperishables to food banks acrossLouisiana. Even people in other states took part. From Sunday school classestoexercisegroups,they took the initiative to donate food, driven by basic generosity,compassion or adesiretofeel more connected in world that sometimes feels overwhelming and lonely

The 100 itemsinthe challenge add up to about 82 pounds.I originally imagined tracking a speciﬁc number of tons donated, but with so many food banks involved —and no way to tag which donations were partofthe challenge —itjustisn’t possible. Butthat’snot really the point, is it?

Anditdoesn’ttake away from the power of what we’re doing together

PROVIDED PHOTO

The 10 a.m. AquaFit class at the PaulaManshipy in Baton Rouge committed to the 100 food item challenge—and succeeded. They call themselvesWomen of the Water

The point is to help feed the hungry. To whom much is given, much is required.

Iinvite readerswho participate to email me apictureof themselves with their 100 items. I’ll do my besttoshareasmany as possible in the coming weeks. There is alot of hurttohelp heal in this world. Rarely can we

STAFF PHOTOSByBRETT DUKE

Camp TigercounselorsCarolanne VanZandt and Cade Harkrider walk withKenneth,9,astheytour theAudubon Aquarium and Insectarium recently in NewOrleans. The visit waspartofaCampTiger field trip

Camp Tigercounselors Christopher Gillen,left, and Patrick Schwing,right, sit withWalker,10, after asnack.

Carolanne VanZandt, aCampTiger counselor,dances with Aiden, 8.

INSPIRED DISCUSSIONS

ASK THE EXPERTS

BR engineer teaches free tai chi classes

Practice can benefit whole body, mind

BY LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writer

Jie Gu is an engineer by day and passionate tai chi advocate. She believes the best way to promote something is not by talking but by offering.

In 2023, Gu founded the Tai Chi Club to provide free, in-person classes in the Baton Rouge area at least four times a month with community support. She also publishes tutorial videos to make learning accessible online.

Gu began practicing tai chi in 2018 to improve her well-being. The ongoing health beneﬁts inspired her to keep practicing and keep growing In 2024, she achieved her dream by winning a world champion title in the demonstration group’s 32-movement Tai Chi Sword event at the 4th World Taijiquan Championships in Singapore. Now her students are following in her footsteps — not only experiencing the healing power of tai chi but also winning competitions. Some will represent the United States at the Pan American Championships in Mexico this November For more information on how to get involved, visit taichiclub.net/ about/. What do you wish more people knew about tai chi?

Tai chi is still a niche sport, and people may think it’s a weird thing, but I’m so glad I got to meet so many nice people who really put their energy, time and trust in me. One lady told me she would monitor her blood sugar before and after the class, and it made a difference.

Q&A WITH JIE GU

TAI CHI TEACHER

I want to promote tai chi to a wider audience so that more people can benefit from it. Other sports are expensive, and they need equipment, or you need a partner For tai chi, you don’t need anything, just yourself I teach you a few movements, and then you can practice on your own at your home.

You don’t need to practice at a studio or with a teacher You just need to calm down, focus on yourself, and do the movement. Only you can connect your mind with the movements. The breath control increases your self control and self awareness.

How can people attend your tai chi classes?

The East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library at 7711 Goodwood Blvd. has class at 6 p.m. on the following days: n July 6 and 20

n Aug. 3 and 17

n Sept. 7 and 21

n Oct. 5 and 19

n Nov 2 and 16

n Dec. 7 and 21

Can you tell me more about the 17th Golden State International Wushu Championships?

That was in California. There are ﬁve ladies in the class who worked so hard. They didn’t know each other before the class We met together, and they also had self practice without me. I offered weekly training once a week, but they said that wasn’t enough, so they met on their own. They are all best friends now

We competed as a team and flew to California together at the end of May We impressed the whole audience. We are se-

nior ladies; maybe our group is the oldest group, but we are so graceful. Each lady won a medal in their individual events, and six of us together won the first place trophy in the group event.

How has the tai chi group helped to form a sense of community?

You can practice tai chi individually, but it is more fun to practice as a group. Our movements feel just like we are the wave in the ocean. When we move together, the energy ﬁeld is enhanced. And you want to work harder in a group since you see other people working hard. It really enhances the connection. We want to meet more often. What are some of the health benefits of tai chi?

Other sports focus are localized, focusing on one part of the body Tai chi movements involve the whole body I had anemia, and my blood cell count is lower than others. The movements improve my blood circulation We have self-healing capacity as a human, so we need circulation so the bad things can be removed faster Tai chi also helps to relieve

26 states remain in 2025 Postcard Project

BY JAN RISHER Staff writer

One month into the fourth annual Postcard Project, we have received 66 postcards representing 24 states and 11 countries.

Ten of those postcards came from within the borders of Louisiana, including one from Jane S., who suggests that we try to see how many towns in Louisiana we can receive postcards from it’s a good idea. I like it! At this point, we’re missing Arkansas, Colorado Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Alan Krouse, of Gonzales, sent a postcard from Iowa en route to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. He took a detour and visited the Field of Dreams in Iowa on his way to watch his beloved Tigers.

In a postcard from Matthew T. from Rossendale in the United Kingdom, he recommends the book, “Mrs. Palfrey at the Clare-

mont,” by Elizabeth Taylor (not that Elizabeth Taylor) I’m not sure why he recommended it, but with a bit of research, I think he may be on to something. It seems like a book I might enjoy It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971 and set in London in the 1960s. I think I may check it out.

Martha Panzeca, of New Orleans, sent a postcard from New York City She wrote, “The last time I was in NYC (1970), I visited the Guggenheim. I walked up the spiraling ramp, hufﬁng and pufﬁng.

I barely made it Five days ago, I visited the Guggenheim, took an elevator to the top and ﬂoated down the ramp, having a glorious time, letting gravity do its thing. Duh! It was amazing!”

The goal of the Postcard Project is to receive postcards from all 50 states and as many countries as possible — a goal achieved in previous years. To participate, send postcards to: Jan Risher, The Advocate, 10705 Rieger Road Baton Rouge, LA 70809.

The 2025 Postcard Project will end Labor Day weekend.

Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com

LEFT: Postcards from New york City and the United Kingdom

ABOVE: The tenth Louisiana postcard received for the 2025 Postcard Project

BELOW: Postcard from Alan Krouse, of Gonzales, who took a road trip to Nebraska for the College World Series.

mental stress. It’s a very good community sport, and we have a common goal that keeps people motivated. I hope anybody can beneﬁt from it, and it’s a no-harm solution to improve your health. This interview was edited for length and clarity

Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@theadvocate. com.

TIGER

Continued from page 1y

they would spend their time after ﬁnishing up their ﬁrst year. They wanted to put their medical knowledge to use in the community, and “it just grew from there.”

Since then, though the budget has grown, the format of the camp has remained the same with daily excursions to local attractions. The camp has been handed down year-to-year to first-year medical students who run the logistics for the week and put on a fundraiser to ensure the experience can stay free for kids and families.

“We thought it would go on for a year or so and had no idea it would go on many decades later,” Conrad said. Conrad added that for medical students, exposure to what the families and caregivers of children with disabilities go through on a daily basis can foster instrumental lessons for future doctors.

“You get a lesson in patience,” Conrad said, “and you learn about the simple pleasures of being a child.”

from page 1y

fix the big things. A hundred items won’t fix all the hunger in Louisiana, but taking the initiative to donate food for the hungry is a step in the right direction. Thirty years ago, when I first heard the Australian song, co-written by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, called “From Little Things, Big Things Grow” it made an impression even though it was about Vincent Lingiari, a man I had never heard of at the time. The song is about the power of people coming together to make a difference. It’s in that spirit that I challenge you to be a

Jie Gu and her Tai Chi Club team perform at the Lantern Festival in the LSU Ballroom on Feb 22.

PROVIDED PHOTOS

Jie Gu performs the 32-movement

Tai Chi Sword routine at the 4th World Taijiquan Championships in Singapore on Aug. 27.

Jie Gu instructs a hand form tai chi class at the East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library on Jan. 19.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAN RISHER

BY ANNETTE SISCO Staff writer

In alight and airy classroom at Early Partnerspreschool, in arenovated firehousein New Orleans’ LowerGarden District,three little boys are playing with blocks.

Towers and walls risefrom the carpet, and small vehicles are pushed between them. There’sanongoing, low conversation among the playmates.

where only 60% of students overall are prepared for that step.

And even as she watches her students beat theodds one at atime, theHarvard-educated preschool director’seye is on something much bigger

“Wewant to change the game.We want to raise the bar, be ademonstration site, for(other educators) to learn from us,and for us to learn fromthem,” Frusciante said Measuringmilestones

Research showsthatsmall children learn through play

Manker and other teachers watched the2-year-oldclass in theWild Space, awide, enclosed lawn that opens unexpectedly from theback doors of the preschool. Here, childrenplay whileteachers observe and quietly adjust activities to challenge the students’ skills.

“Weopen those gates, and it’sanacre of land that has natural materials. We’ll be bird watching, we’ll be running freely.There’sbamboo in the corner.They can choose several different areas and build with things, roll over logs,” Manker said. Such activities can be correlated with important benchmarks toward school readiness.

high school at the third and fourth grade reading levels.”

Lassai said. Now,she teaches 2-year-oldsatthe school.

their moment in the sun.

State Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, calledon Louisiana to rethink its priorities, usingprograms like the nonproﬁt, inclusive preschool as amodel.

“This year,we’re spending over $100 million on juvenile detentioncenters. Imagine the impact if even afraction of that went toward high-quality early childhood education instead,” Duplessis said.

Andthere were somebig announcements.

From across the room, Kim Frusciante, founder and executive director of Early Partners, sees morethan a game. She sees progress among three newer students who might not have played so calmly together a year ago. She sees cooperation, focus and imagination. She sees building blocks —ofsuccess in school and life.

Early Partners is an innovative, nonproﬁt early learning center for about 100 children from 1to5years old, focused on data-driven preparation for kindergarten. To make Early Partnersaccessible to families of all income levels, theschoolpartnerswith local employerswho sponsor their workers’ child care, leveraging public funding to help pay for community seats. Donors, grantsand tuition bringin other revenue. The result is astudent body that mirrors the diverse demographics of New Orleans by design and is helping solve the vexing problem of children arriving in kindergarten unprepared.

Fruscianteisproud to say that 100%leave the program kindergarten-ready, aremarkable achievement in astate

Sustained, imaginative play develops the attention span andcuriosityneededtoexcel later in school. Research also showsthat data-driven analysisofstudents’ skills can help teachers pinpoint potential problem areas.

At Early Partners, both play and data are crucial.

While 2-year-olds can’t check off answerstomultiplechoice word problems,they can be evaluated by atrained teacher for the important milestones of brain development, said Allison Manker, lead teacher of the2-year-old group at Early Partners.

“Weasteachers are teacher researchers,”said Manker, whostudied anthropology and environmental science at NorthwesternUniversity andcame to Early Partners threeyears ago fromLouise S. McGehee’sLittle Gate preschool.

“It’sincumbentupon us to take notes. How are they walking? How do they take stairs?” When the children scribble,“we takenotes on the marks theyare making. Are they sophisticated letters or full-handed swirls?” Attention spans and the abilityto continueaconversationare other important markers.

Collecting data“allowsus to keep track based on developmental milestones that are state-based or nationally based. We tailor our activities or play,and they can surpass what we think they are capable of,” Manker said. On arecent sunny morning,

In arecent video interview, Michael Hecht, president and CEOofGreater NewOrleans Inc., observed of Early Partners: “The data focus is somethingwe’ve seen in higher grades. The fact that it’sbeing applied in pre-K is revolutionary.”

Growingyoung brains

Ninety percent of thebrain is formed before kindergarten, according to theNational InstitutesofHealth.Those earlyyears are crucial to developing the neural connections forreasoning, as well as the social and emotional skills that allow students to thrive in elementary school and beyond.

AgraduateofTulane University,Frusciante taught high schoolinDallasbefore returning to NewOrleans to teach at Collegiate Academies, acharter school network. She helped lead the network’sﬁrst expansion school andlater aided with school startups, instructional design, data-driven improvement and talent development. Along the way, shehad herfirst child, Edith.

“I learneda lotabout brain development in young children afterI had my daughter andstarted to draw parallels with the high school students Iwas seeing,”Frusciantesaid. “Wehad studentsentering

Edith recently turned 10 Thecouple has ason as well, Andy,who is 6.

Becoming amother,and confronting the obstacles that frustrated success in her high schoolers, sparked Frusicante’s decisiontogoback to the roots of education: preschool. She returned to theclassroom as astudenttoearn a Master’sinEducational Leadership at HarvardGraduate School of Education, where she graduated with tophonors. While there, she dreamed of apreschoolwhere the science of early childhood development would meet equity and inclusion.

Today,the nonprofit Early Partners continues to collaborate closely with Harvard through research and leadership development.

‘Itdoesn’t seem likework’

Shada Lassaiwas working as an applied behavior therapist for students withautism at the Chartwell Center in NewOrleans threeyears ago and was looking for day care for her daughter,Gianna, then 1. She found Early Partners online and realized it would be agood ﬁt —for mother and child alike.

Lassai’sstrong background in evidence-based ABA therapy,coupled with the method’s positive, child-ledapproach, complemented theEarlyPartners philosophy

“Having it be child-led, it is easier todeliver material,”

“It doesn’t seem like work,” saidLassai. “They are learningthrough play.Likemy daughtersays, ‘Wehad so much fun.’”

Kindergarten will require the ability to work in groups and share.Being able to enter agroup, beingabletoplay with friends and payingattention for longerperiodsare all essential.

“Some kids are notable to enter agroup properly,” Lassai said. “Weteach those skills.”

This year Gianna, now4,isa student in Early Partner’s innovative Forest School, where classes andactivitiestake place outdoors, whatever the weather.Logsserve as chairs and the floor of the “classroom” is grass and earth.

“She’sdoing awhole different experience of preschool,” Lassei said.

Partnershipsand more

If “ittakes avillage to raise achild,” it might also be said thatittakes partnerships to educate amodern-day classroom full of children.

The ﬁrst partnersare those children’sfamilies. Early Partners also hasjoineda powerful array of others, including fellow nonproﬁts, philanthropists,educators and child advocates.

At arecent cocktail-hour eventcalledConvergence, manyofthose partners looked on as EarlyPartners’ progress was celebrated anddonors got

Theschoolunveiledplans for amajor expansion that will nearly doubleits size over the next three years, as well as a partnershipwith ThriveKids Student Wellness, aprogram of Manning Family Children’s Hospital, for programming thatwill support studentswith developmental delays anddisabilities.

Alocal donor,Tania Hahn, announced that she wouldforgive aloan to Early Partners for $100,000. Another donor pledgeda $25,000 matching gift Just afew days later,a $250,000 grant wasconﬁrmed, courtesy of the New OrleansRedevelopmentAuthoritythrough Agenda for Children.

Andwhile the ﬁnancialcontributions are vital, Frusciante might be just as excited about the preschool being the ﬁrst early childhood education centerinthe nationrepresented at All MeansAll, a15-month leadership development partnership that brings together school leaders, superintendents andcharter networks committed to inclusiveeducation All Means All is abig pond for the smallnonprofitpreschool. Frusciante described AllMeans Allas“generally folks whoare more in charge of multiple schools,” like the superintendent of adistrict serving 17,000 kids. “And thenIstand up and say,‘Iamthe founderofEarly Partners, and Iserve 100 kids. But we arejust getting started.”

Frusciante

FAITH & VALUES

Millennial saint inspires next generation

Carlo Acutis known as ‘God’s infl

CLAIRE GIANGRAVE

Contributing writer

In a low-deﬁnition video, sitting behind a desk in front of a blue, plain backdrop, the 15-year-old Carlo Acutis looks straight into the camera: “I am destined to die,” he says, followed by a smile, an enigmatic roll of his shoulders, and a clap. Two months later, on Oct. 12, 2006, he died of acute myeloid leukemia.

The curly haired Italian kid could not have known at the time that he would become the ﬁrst millennial saint who would inspire thousands of believers of all ages to venerate “God’s inﬂuencer.”

Initially scheduled for April 27, Acutis’ canonization at the Vatican was postponed when Pope Francis died on April 21 Pope Leo XIV announced June 13 that Acutis will be sainted Sept. 7, along with another young person, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Acutis’ “reputation of holiness,” part of any saint’s cause, has taken the church by storm. He is referred to by many names: the saint in sneakers, the patron of the Internet, God’s jester or — as Pope Francis described him the saint next door

The unique aspect of the first millennial saint is that his life is not buried in history books or hidden in dusty archives; people can grasp who he was by talking to those who knew him, watching pictures and videos of him and even tracing the few footprints he left on the internet. His family, friends and teachers describe him as a kid like many others, someone who was always up for a laugh, failing at math but sought after by girls and keen on video games and movies. They describe him as a good person who helped those in need and went out of his way to be kind. Some also describe his devotion to the Eucharist, his daily visits to church and his timid yet resolute defense of his Catholic faith.

Acutis is proof that anyone can become a saint in the Catholic Church, an aspiration that any believer is encouraged to achieve. But the church’s process of canonization, with its many steps and investigations, rules and rituals, pilgrims and relics, exists in a separate reality that few fully grasp. The machine of Acutis’ sainthood process, spread in every continent and across all media, has overshadowed the reality of Carlo’s life. In some respects, Acutis was not your average 15-year-old boy. Born in London on May 3, 1991, into a very wealthy family, he enjoyed a life of privilege. His father, Andrea Acutis, runs a prominent Italian insurance company, Vittoria Assicurazioni and his mother, Antonia Salzano, came from a near-aristocratic family with ties to the publishing industry

Acutis spent his short, sheltered life in Milan, carefully attended to by babysitters and attending private Catholic schools in the Ital-

uencer’

ian ﬁnancial capital Miraculously enough, Acutis’ friends say that he was down to earth and empathetic.

“Carlo lived his privilege in a very normal way One felt at home in his house. He was a boy who didn’t put up walls — some people we knew had a much more snobbish attitude, but he was able to befriend anyone,” said his best friend from middle school, Federico Oldani. “But he also saw wealth as a responsibility, a means to help others.”

Oldani said he knew about Acutis’ religious beliefs, but that it wasn’t something he openly shared.

Some who knew him said they weren’t struck by Acutis’ faith in fact many didn’t even know he was Catholic

“He was a very reserved person, very curious, always asking questions, but at the same time very private meaning that I only learned certain things about him later,” said Fabrizio Zappa, who taught Acutis religion at Milan’s Leo XIII Institute, a Catholic high school, from 2005 until Acutis’ death.

Zappa described Acutis as “always smiling” and willing to help others but had only a few hints of his spirituality Acutis was the only one in his class to voice an interest in spiritual discussion groups and defended Catholic teaching on abortion during a classroom debate.

But Zappa said he was surprised when he heard that his former student would become a saint “I didn’t want to believe it initially, in the sense that there could have been so many others just like him, the saints next door,” he said.

Others had the chance to see Acutis’ charity and faith up close. His parents, who described themselves as only culturally Catholic, claim that they were converted by their son’s zeal and love for Christ. His guardian and housekeeper Rajesh Mohur, a Hindu Brahmin from Mauritius, claims he was converted by Acutis, whom he referred to as his “little catechist.”

According to reports from those who knew him, Acutis volunteered to help the poor and marginalized, and he worked as a catechist in his parish.

Acutis is best known for his devotion to the Eucharist Monsignor Gianfranco Poma, the parish priest of his church, Santa Maria Segreta in Milan, wrote in an article on the diocesan paper about the “honest and smiling” teenager who would come almost every day to pray and adore the Eucharist.

Oldani, who today is an aerospace engineer, said Acutis taught himself how to code and used his knowledge to create a website detailing Eucharistic miracles, saying often, “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”

Some who knew him found the idea of Acutis’ sainthood confusing.

Oldani and some other friends were surprised when people flocked to Acutis’ funeral Mass, recounting stories of his holiness, and even more surprised when a growing number of followers be-

gan posting religious content on the Facebook group his friends had created after his death.

“I quickly realized that he would become a saint,” Oldani said, “because I immediately realized that there was an immediate interest and attention to him.”

But his friend said he was surprised by how quickly Acutis’ sainthood process went

“In my mind, I thought it would happen when I was 80 years old and an old man,” he said.

Centuries ago, it was not uncommon for saints to be proclaimed by popular acclamation, until, in the 1600s, the Vatican ruled that at least 50 years had to pass before a person could be proclaimed a saint, according to Kenneth L. Woodward, author of “Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why.”

Under Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the canonization process was sped up to avoid losing precious information about the candidate to time, Woodward explained, but what matters most “is creating a story to be told” — a model for faithful to aspire to.

Two miracles have been attributed to Acutis: the miraculous healing of a Brazilian child suffering from

a pancreatic disease in 2013 and the sudden recovery of a Costa Rican woman suffering a head injury in 2022.

“You can study a person’s life, but that is a human endeavor,” Woodward said. “You need a sign conﬁrming that the person is actually a saint.”

But canonization remains “a very human process,” Woodward added. There is a considerable sum of money involved, as much as 1 million euros to pay for lawyers, postulators, researchers and paperwork. As a result, criticism has been weighed against the Vatican’s increased saint-making zeal, which earned the department the title of “the workshop of saints.” Francis reformed the Vatican department charged with dispensing halos in 2022, simplifying procedures and imposing rigid controls on the management of funds.

Woodward believes that it’s unlikely for people to be able to inﬂuence canonization causes today, but he did admit that the creation of the “reputation for holiness,” through books, media and movies leaves ample space for well-connected and wealthy Catholics to further the sainthood of their preferred candidate.

Acutis’ fame quickly grew far

beyond the confines of the small neighborhood in Milan where he lived and studied. Ofﬁcial reports stated that hundreds of thousands come to see his resting place in the town of Assisi in central Italy, where they can see him wearing a sweatshirt and sneakers, with an uncannily realistic wax mask that resembles his face while sleeping.

The disarming simplicity of Acutis’ holiness has drawn young people to the Catholic Church, which has long struggled to connect with new generations.

His life has been explored in dozens of books, podcasts, articles and ﬁlms, many created with younger audiences in mind. In this, Acutis shares something with the medieval St. Francis of Assisi, whose first biography was written soon after his death in 1226 by a close companion, Thomas of Celano. “The Little Flowers of St. Francis,” a later collection of legends and stories, became one of the most beloved books of the Middle Ages and helped spread Francis’ fame across Europe. He was canonized just two years after his death.

Acutis’ body was moved to the Sanctuary of the Renunciation in 2017, the location where St. Francis renounced all his worldly possessions.

“Carlo is a translation of sainthood in modern and contemporary terms,” Sorrentino said. “Carlo puts us with our backs against the wall in our call to holiness and says: ‘listen, if you can’t do what Francis does, at least do what I do.’”

Today, Sorrentino said, more pilgrims come to Assisi to visit Acutis’ tomb than St. Francis’.

Many of Francis’ earliest followers were his wealthy friends, and after his death, thousands of young men joined the Franciscan order he founded. His emphasis on preaching and public conversion played a key role in this growth.

In a society overflowing with noise and competing voices — especially for the attention of the young — the “Roadmap to Reality” ﬁlm suggests Acutis offers something different: a faith that shines inward, inviting believers to look within.

Beekeepers, researchers team up to track bees’ diet

Washington experts strive to keep insects healthy

BY RISA SCHNEBLY Contributing writer

Editor’s note: This story, created by Risa Schnebly for Cascadia Daily News, is part of the AP Storyshare. Louisiana Inspired features solutions journalism stories that provide tangible evidence that positive change is happening in other places and in our own communities — solutions that can be adopted around the world

As honeybee colonies are collapsing at devastating rates, solutions for keeping bees healthy are in high demand. One Washington State University researcher has come up with a unique one: tracking what bees are eating.

“Just like humans, bees are what they eat,” said Priyadarshini Basu, a recently hired assistant professor at the university’s Honey Bees + Pollinator program.

Basu is building a national database that tracks what food sources bees have access to at different times of year

Having that knowledge, she believes, will help both commercial beekeepers and hobbyists keep their colonies healthy. And no, the goal isn’t making a calorie-counting app for bees. Rather, Basu hopes to help make sure colonies are getting a diverse set of nutrients.

“Keepers are spending anywhere between 44 to 47 million dollars annually providing supplemental feeding to their colonies, and protein supplements are a huge part of that,” Basu said. “So, if a beekeeper is able to know what is in bloom in their region… or if they have nothing blooming at a particular time in the year… they can be better prepared.”

Basu has been building the database by enlisting local beekeepers to collect the pollen their bees bring home. To do that, beekeepers use a device that narrows the hive entrance so bees have to wriggle through a small hole to get inside. In the process, all the pollen that stuck to a bee’s body as it zipped between ﬂowers gets knocked off.

The beekeeper can then collect that pollen and mail it to Basu’s lab, where she and a team of graduate students meticulously sort through it, categorizing the tiny

pollen particles by color

Each pollen color comes from a different plant. So, Basu’s lab can tell which plants bees are getting the most pollen from by seeing which color is the most common. By collecting that kind of data throughout the year, Basu and her team can start to tell when bees in a region will have access to plants with different kinds of essential nutrients.

Basu believes giving beekeepers

that information will help them anticipate how to best feed their colonies: “[A beekeeper] could look at the database and say ‘Alright, this is the time of year when I must feed my bees these protein supplements because there is no pollen in the landscape.’”

She hopes hobbyist beekeepers will help collect data from across the state. Additionally, she hopes to eventually publish the database online for anyone to access.

Basu has found one enthusiastic volunteer in Dawn Beck, who serves as the vice president of both Skagit and Whatcom counties Beekeepers Associations and as a board member of three more local beekeeping clubs.

“I wanted a hobby when I retired, and I tend to go pretty deep into my hobbies,” Beck laughed, “and so here we are.”

Beck spends her Saturdays driving her truckload of beekeeping tools across Skagit and Whatcom counties to check on more than 50 beehives that she helps manage, inviting curious locals to join her and learn about beekeeping while she’s at it.

In the 10 years since Beck retired, she’s mastered the beekeeping basics. Most of her colonies survive the cold winters, and some have survived for years. But she recognizes that these days, most other beekeepers aren’t so lucky

“It’s harder to keep bees alive now than it used to be,” she lamented.

That’s why Beck is excited to help Basu collect data, and to rally other beekeepers to do the same.

“Hopefully, in time, we’ll learn more about the bees so we can keep them healthier and stronger.”

PHOTO PROVIDED By ‘CARLO ACUTIS: ROADMAP TO REALITy’ young pilgrims view the body of Carlo Acutis at the Santa Maria Maggiore Church in Assisi, Italy

PROVIDED PHOTO By SANTIAGO OCHOA

Dawn Beck uses small wire cages to isolate honeycomb

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

An image of 15-year-old Carlo Acutis is unveiled during his beatification ceremony, celebrated by Cardinal Agostino Vallini in the St. Francis Basilica, in Assisi, Italy, on Oct. 10, 2020.

SUNDAY, JUNe 29, 2025

CURTIS / by Ray Billingsley

SLYLOCK FOX / by Bob Weber Jr

GET FUZZY / by Darby Conley

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE / by Chris Browne

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM / by Mike Peters

ZIGGY / by Tom Wilson

ZITS / by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

SALLY FORTH / by Francesco Marciuliano & Jim Keefe

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE /byStephan Pastis

directions: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

todAY's Word — cHAuVinist: SHO-vihnist: One who exhibits an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex. Average mark 41 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 58 or more words in CHAUVINIST?

ken ken

instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner

instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

Sudoku

goren Bridge

A fine duck

South’s two no-trump bid in this balancing position is a wideranging bid. South could have had much less for the bid. North had to raise with his hand, hoping South could find nine tricks.

South had 17 points, but he had his hands full with this one.

wuzzLes

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

Quiz

Many would cover the jack of hearts lead with dummy’s queen. South saw that he would need a trick or two from the diamond suit If he played the queen of hearts at trick one and East had the ace of diamonds, East would win the ace at some point and return his remaining heart and the contract would fail. Should West have the ace of diamonds, he could not also have the king of spades for his weak two bid, so the contract could not be made whatever South did. South decided to play low from dummy on the opening lead and he also played low from his hand. West continued with the ace and another heart South won with the king and led a spade to dummy’s jack. East took the king and shifted to a club. Declarer won in hand with the ace and led a spade to dummy’s ace. A low diamond to his

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Avoid letting outside influences distract you from finishing what you start. Change is difficult, but once you adopt a simpler lifestyle, you can engage in what makes you happy. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Focus more on learning, expanding your circle and challenging your mind and the creative process. Refuse to let outsiders force manipulative tactics on you, causing inconsistency and emotional setbacks that can be costly

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Emotional energy is building and requires an outlet to push you in a positive

king won the trick. South cashed the king of clubs, led a club to dummy’s queen, and cashed the jack of clubs while discarding a low spade. A diamond toward his queen got him his ninth trick Well played!

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2025 Tribune Content Agency

direction. Take the initiative, volunteer to help a cause and be the one to make a difference.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Stop and assess what’s happening from afar If you are too close to an emotional situation, you will get sucked into something you find taxing. Direct your energy toward home and professional enhancements

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) A change will influence your emotional outlook regarding partnerships and who you trust and value. Trying something new will show you the path to personal happiness and money management.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Activities that require mental and physical agility will keep you out of trouble. Avoid situations that allow others to back you into an emotional corner CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Avoid unsavory situations that disrupt relationships with friends or relatives. A physical change that updates your image will boost your morale and give you the confidence to share your thoughts

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) You want to strive to stabilize your life, not disrupt it. Set a budget, and refine and design how you see your space

changing to suit your lifestyle and the modifications you want to pursue.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) You have more clout than you realize. The impression you make will be gratifying and fetch support from friends and lovers alike. A change of scenery will spark your imagination and invite interesting encounters

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Too much, too far, too many; avoid excessive behavior in all aspects of life. Your best path forward is the one that engages in discussions that broaden your perspective.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) When you feel your anger mounting, remove yourself from the situation quickly A change of heart will lead to new beginnings.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Aim to please and to help bring about positive change. Protect yourself from situations that threaten your physical and emotional well-being. Trust your instincts.

1. ABBA. 2. Glen Campbell. 3. The Carpenters 4. Doris Day.5.Neil Diamond.6.John Denver

7. Celine Dion. 8.TonyBennett.9.Louis Armstrong. 10. Whitney Houston. 11. Patsy Cline. 12. CountBasie. 13. BobHope. 14.FatsDomino. 15. Kenny Rogers

SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?

Saturday's Cryptoquote: I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.—The Temptations

jeFF mACnelly’sshoe/ by Gary Brookins &Susie MacNelly

The Advocate 06-29-2025

COMMUNITY CONCERNS

Property buyout plan in theworks forModeste, butmanyresidents don’twanttoleave

Lawyer suingBig Oilisnotreehugger

Louisiana residents awaitrelief on home insurance

Israelistrikes kill at least72inGaza

Ceasefire prospects move closer

Dozens of anti-government protesters detained in Serbia

Crowds mourn slaincommanders, nuclearscientists

Senators launch weekend of work on tax, spending bill

FLORIDA

Groups protest building of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Sponsored:One Crisis Away –

WhyLouisiana NeedsSocial Safety NetPrograms

What YouCan Do:Protect Louisiana Families

Bezos wedding stirs controversy in Venice

Japan launches climate monitoring satellite on H-2A rocket’s last flight

Democratswrestle with howtoconduct oversight

Biden, Harris, Walz attend funeral for slain lawmaker

Roberts warns against heated political words about judges

Timelineofoil and gas lawsuits

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

RFKJr.’s movesonvaccinescause problems forCassidy

portcommission

Canadian rocksmay be oldest on Earth

LSUinterim presidentwants to keep winning

Q&A WITH MATT LEE LSU INTERIM PRESIDENT

Trafficstops forwhales on ‘humpbackhighway’

THE GULF COAST

Food trucks getsamescrutinyasrestaurants

Hospital leaders warn of Medicaid cuts

Proposals would have dire consequences, open letter states

WBR tackles school absence problem

BR PRIDE

Baton Rouge judge back from suspension

DA criticizes ruling vacating death sentence

Flowers through the cracks in New Orleans

MEDICAID

JUDGE

Last traces

Historic Tujague’s sign comes down, likely museum bound

Nungesser again floats idea of hotel in Fontainebleau

OPINION

OUR VIEWS Committee should cast a wide netfor next LSU president

In Iran,let’s hit’em hard andagain

COMMENTARY

In CVSsuit, Murrill is wrongonfreespeech

Dropping thef-bombwon’t avoida war

ExplodingU.S.indebtednessmakes

Roomies Nussmeier, Manning sharealot

SPORTS

Rookie classaimstoplotnew course forPelicans

Opportunityknocksfor Djokovic

Wimbledon mightbehis best chance at winningrecord25thGrand Slam

OUTDOORS

Friends, fireworks, fishing: It’s rodeotime

Harrington, Cink, Hensby tied at U.S. Senior Open

SCOREBOARD

LSU

ALL-METROTRACK AND FIELD

TRACKEVENTS

TRACKEVENTS

FIELDEVENTS

Retiring afaded OldGlory showslove of country, too

TRAVEL

Nonstopflights addedfor 2favoritevacationspots

COMMUNITY

Charity

Charity Ball names 2025 debs

Louisiana School Physical Activity Award

Good Ole Boys

LASM board of trustees and officers

CURIOUS

AT RANDOM

AT THE TABLE

ShallotSageButter

Texas barbecue pitmaster behind Buc-ee’s brisket

Appalachian Trail hikers take on one additional challenge

Let’slosethe cancer ‘battle’ lingo

SOAKING IN THE SUMMER PAGES