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MOBILE PROGRAM EyES A PERMANENT OUTPOST IN NORTH LAFAyETTE FOOD DESERT

$2.00X

How will Trump tax cuts impact state’s residents?

Complex changes embedded in wide-ranging bill

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON — After narrowly passing Congress without a single Democratic vote, the sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law July 4 codifies much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, like building a wall along the Mexican border.

But mostly, the legislation is about tax cuts — about 50 different ones.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, says preventing existing tax breaks from expiring and adding new ones will energize the nation’s economy.

ä See TAX CUTS, page 3A

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Customers shop at the Second Harvest Food Bank’s recent Makin’ Groceries mobile market at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Lafayette. Offering low-cost fresh produce, protein and dairy items at locations in underserved areas, the mobile program is planning construction for a free-standing Makin’ Groceries in north Lafayette.

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

A few years ago, Lafayette’s Second Harvest food bank saw a dire need among the people they were serving.

The food bank, 215 E. Pinhook Road, is located in Lafayette’s 70501 ZIP code, an area that encompasses almost the entirety of north Lafay-

ette, bordered by University Avenue, Interstate 10 and St. Martin Parish. It is also marked as a food desert by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, defined as having a lowincome population where at least 33% of residents live more than a mile from the nearest full-service grocery store.

This isn’t always a problem where reliable transportation is available.

There are large shopping centers in central Lafayette and Carencro, but they are mainly accessible via personal vehicle — and according to Second Harvest southwest regional director Paul Scelfo, around 30% of people living at poverty level in the region do not have dependable transportation.

ä See DESERT, page 5A

Lake Charles mom training for trip to space

Entergy worker a research astronaut candidate

BY MEGAN WYATT

Staff writer

Jenee Fox was working out four years ago when an audiobook about spacesuits — and the differences among those made in America, Europe and Russia — piqued her attention.

She had a casual interest in space exploration before, but the book ignited a new passion.

Now, the Lake Charles power plant worker and mother has become an expert in spacesuit design and is training to be a research astronaut for a March 2029 flight.

“This isn’t just my mission,” Fox

WEATHER HIGH 90 LOW 75 PAGE 10C

said. “It’s for every child who’s ever looked up at the sky and dared to wonder, ‘What if?’”

Fox, 35, was recently named an astronaut candidate by Titans Space Industries, a private space tourism company headed by veteran NASA astronaut Bill McArthur. She’s one of about 50 research astronaut candidates from across the globe whose training and potential orbital trip is being fully paid for by the company.

Fox said she hopes the mission will inspire her sons, ages 8 and 5, and her community at large. As a woman and a Catholic, she said she

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Rebekah Prevost, left, and sister Samantha Reed have grown closer following Prevost’s recent near-death experience following a lightning strike in Baton Rouge.

BR woman recovering after lightning strike

BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer

PROVIDED PHOTO

Jenee Fox performs a space flight simulation as she trains as an astronaut researcher ahead of a planned orbital ä See SPACE, page 3A flight with Titans Space in March 2029.

It was just a short walk to the front door from the driveway.

But Rebekah Prevost, a Baton Rouge mother living on a quiet street a couple blocks from Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge, still wasn’t taking any risks.

Fueled by past “close calls” with both hurricanes and tornadoes, Prevost said she has always felt a mix of “fear and fascination” for extreme weather.

Classified .....................4A Lottery..........................4B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Opinion ........................2B Commentary ................3B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C

ä See LIGHTNING, page 5A

101ST yEAR, NO. 14

2A ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Israeli strikes kill at least 32 in Gaza

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

2 killed in Ky. church shooting: suspect killed

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two women were killed in a shooting at a Kentucky church Sunday in an incident that began after a state trooper was shot and wounded, authorities said. The suspect was also killed.

It began after the trooper pulled over a vehicle near the airport, Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers told a news conference. After shooting the trooper, the suspect carjacked a vehicle and fled to Richmond Road Baptist Church in southwest Lexington and began shooting at people there.

“Preliminary information indicates that the suspect may have had a connection to the individuals at the church,” Weathers said.

The suspect, who wasn’t immediately identified, was later killed

by Lexington police.

“Please pray for everyone affected by these senseless acts of violence, and let’s give thanks for the swift response by the Lexington Police Department and Kentucky State Police,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a social media post.

Farmworker who fell off roof during ICE raid dies

SAN FRANCISCO — A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid last week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Duran posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

The United Farm Workers reported Alanis’ death prematurely late Friday. The Ventura County Medical Center later issued a statement authorized by the family saying he was still on life support.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the UFW said recently in a statement on the social platform X. The union does not represent workers at the raided farm.

The Department of Homeland Security said it executed criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria.

Glass House is a licensed cannabis grower. The farm also grows tomatoes and cucumbers.

Biggest piece of Mars on Earth up for auction

NEW YORK — For sale: A 54-pound rock. Estimated auction price: $2 million to $4 million. Why so expensive? It’s the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.

Sotheby’s in New York will be auctioning what’s known as NWA 16788 on Wednesday as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that’s more than 6 feet tall and nearly 11 feet long.

According to the auction house, the meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling 140 million miles to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, Sotheby’s says.

The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby’s says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches.

“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in an interview.

“So it’s more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars.”

It is also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, Sotheby’s says.

Palestinian war deaths top 58K

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and IMAD ISSEID Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERIC GAy

Rain falls Sunday over a makeshift memorial for flood victims along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas.

Search for Texas flood victims briefly paused Heavy rains bring new threat of high water

BY GABRIELA AOUN Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas — More heavy rains in Texas on Sunday temporarily paused a weeklong search for victims of catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River and led to high-water rescues elsewhere as officials warned that the downpours could again cause waterways to surge.

It was the first time a new round of severe weather had paused the search since the July Fourth floods, which killed at least 129 people. Authorities believe more than 160 people may still be missing in Kerr County alone, and 10 more in neighboring areas.

In Kerrville, where local officials have come under scrutiny over the failure to adequately warn residents about the rising water in the early morning hours of July 4, authorities went door-to-door to some homes after midnight early Sunday to alert people that flooding was again possible. Authorities also pushed phone alerts to those in the area.

During the pause in searches, Ingram Fire Department officials ordered crews to immediately evacuate the Guadalupe River corridor in Kerr County, warning the potential for a flash flood is high.

Late Sunday afternoon, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office announced that search teams in the western part of that county could resume their efforts. The Ingram Fire Department would resume their search and rescue efforts Monday morning, said agency spokesman Brian Lochte.

Gov. Greg Abbott said on X that the state was making rescues in San Saba, Lampasas and Schleicher counties and that evacuations were taking place in a handful of others. Texas Task Force 1, a joint state and federal urban search and rescue team, had rescued dozens of people in the Lampasas area, Abbott said.

The latest round of flooding damaged about 100 homes and knocked down untold lengths of cattle fencing, said Ashley

Johnson, CEO of the Hill Country Community Action Association, a San Sababased nonprofit.

“Anything you can imagine in a rural community was damaged,” she said.

“Our blessing is it was daylight and we knew it was coming.”

With more rain on the way, county officials ordered everyone living in floodprone areas near the San Saba River to evacuate. Johnson said people were being moved to the San Saba Civic Center, which has become a safe, high place for people to receive aid and shelter.

“Everyone is in some way personally affected by this,” she said. “Everyone is just doing what they can to help their neighbors.”

The weather system brought multiple rounds of heavy rains and slow-moving storms across a widespread area, pushing rivers and streams over their banks.

Heading into the afternoon and evening, the heaviest rains were expected along the I-35 corridor and east, said meteorologist Patricia Sanchez from the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office.

“A few spots might see up to 2 to 4 (inches per hour), pretty much through the evening, before the rain, the coverage of rain and the intensity of the rain, slowly decreases,” Sanchez said.

Forecasters warned that the Guadalupe River could rise to nearly 15 feet by Sunday afternoon, about five feet above flood stage and enough to put the Highway 39 bridge under water in Hunt, the small town where Camp Mystic is located along the river.

“Numerous secondary roads and bridges are flooded and very dangerous,” a weather service warning said.

The rains were also causing other waterways to swell further north in Texas, where emergency crews rescued one motorist who was left stranded in waisthigh rapids on a submerged bridge over the Bosque River. The man leaned onto the vehicle for support as crews tried to reach him with life jackets.

“He drove into it and didn’t realize how deep it was,” said Jeff Douglas, president of the McGregor Volunteer Fire Department. “Luckily he was able to stand next to the vehicle.”

EU delays retaliatory tariffs on U.S. in hopes of reaching deal

BY ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press

PARIS — The European Union will suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.

“This is now the time for negotiations,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday, after President Donald Trump sent a letter announcing new tariffs of 30% on goods from the EU and Mexico starting Aug. 1.

The EU — America’s biggest trading partner and the world’s largest trading bloc — had been scheduled to impose “countermeasures” starting Monday at midnight Brussels time. The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries.

Von der Leyen said those countermeasures would be delayed until Aug. 1, and that Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the first of August” to negotiate.

Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits.

“We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she said. If they can’t reach a deal, she said that “we will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.”

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni warned Sunday that a trade war “would make us all weaker in the face of the global challenges we face together” and said Italy would actively work for a fair deal.

“Europe has the economic and financial strength to make the case for a fair and common-sense agreement,” her office said in a statement.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was heading to Washington for talks Monday with the U.S. administration and Congress. The right-wing government of Meloni, the only EU leader to attend Trump’s inauguration, has sought to position itself as a “ bridge” between Brussels and Washington.

Trump has said his global tariffs would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades. Trump in his letter to the EU said the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.

Trump isn’t satisfied with some of the draft agreements on trade, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on ABC News Sunday.

“The bottom line is that he’s seen some sketches of deals that had been negotiated with Howard Lutnick and the rest of the trade team, and the president thinks that the deals need to be better, and to basically put a line in the sand, he sent these letters out to folks. And we’ll see how it works out,” he said.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people on Sunday, including six children at a water collection point, while the Palestinian death toll passed 58,000 after 21 months of war, local health officials said.

Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in indirect talks meant to pause the war and free some Israeli hostages after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington visit last week. A sticking point has emerged over Israeli troops’ deployment during a ceasefire.

Israel says it will end the war only once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, about 20 said to be alive, in exchange for the war’s end and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Frustrated, families of some hostages demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s office Sunday evening. “The overwhelming majority of the people in Israel have spoken loudly and clearly: We want to do a deal, even at the cost of ending this war, and we want to do it now,” said Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage killed in captivity.

Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Funerals were held there Sunday for two Pal-

estinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, killed by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In central Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Among the dead were six children.

Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Palestinians walk some 1.2 miles to fetch water from the area.

The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but a technical error made its munitions fall “dozens of meters from the target.”

In Nuseirat, a small boy leaned over a body bag to say goodbye to a friend.

“There is no safe place,” resident Raafat Fanouna said as some people went over the rubble with sticks and bare hands.

Separately, health officials said an Israeli strike hit a group of citizens walking in the street on Sunday afternoon in central Gaza City, killing 11 people and injuring around 30 others.

Dr. Ahmed Qandil, who specializes in general surgery, was among those killed, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher al-Wahidi, told the AP that Qandil had been on his way to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital.

In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Later, Al-Awda Hospital said a strike on a group of people in Zawaida killed two.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By OHAD ZWIGENBERG

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are seen Sunday from southern Israel.

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TAX CUTS

Continued from page 1A “It’s going be jet fuel,” Johnson told “Fox News Sunday” and anybody else who asked. “Small business owners, entrepreneurs, risktakers, the people that provide the jobs, manufacturers, farmers get assistance here, and that will lift the economy.”

“Waiters and waitresses with no tax on tips. We get rid of all taxes on overtime pay for blue-collar workers. It’s going to lower inflation, create higher wages for families,” added House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, in a video released on X. The rub for Democrats is that the new law pays for the tax cut’s drop in federal revenues — about $4.5 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office — mostly with reductions in spending on Medicaid and food stamps. Republicans say the changes will protect those programs for those who truly need them.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, points out that most of the tax benefits for working people expire in four years and include provisions that limit the breaks available to employees who work for tips, rely on overtime, or Social Security.

“All they care about is making sure Trump doesn’t hurt their reelection campaigns and giving a handout to their wealthy donors,” Carter said.

Keeping the 2017 cuts The biggest reduction isn’t a new tax cut. The new law makes permanent Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that were set to expire, staving off a tax increase that would have affected most taxpayers.

“If we hadn’t passed this bill, tax-

es on the American people would have gone up $4.3 trillion,” U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy, R-Madisonville, said Thursday in a floor speech.

“Our economy would have gone down like a fat guy on a seesaw.”

About 85% of U.S. taxpayers will see lower taxes in 2026, mostly from extending the 2017 tax cuts, according to an analysis from the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture think tank by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, based in Washington.

Had the bill not been approved, Louisiana taxpayers would have seen a $2,135 increase, on average, in federal taxes next year.

But that’s the average.

Lower-income filers’ taxes would save about $150 from what they would have paid had the bill not passed, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Middle-income filers, making $66,801 to $119,200 annually, would see about a $1,750 tax reduction.

Those earning over $217,100 annually would save about $12,540 in taxes — almost 60% of the tax benefits, calculates the Tax Policy Center.

ried and filing jointly.

ZipRecruiter, a national employment website, estimates that servers in New Orleans earn about $27,059 per year, while those in Lafayette make an average of $26,908 annually.

At those income levels, standard deductions already will relieve the average Louisiana server or bartender from paying most federal taxes.

The change applies only to voluntary tips, meaning that service charges often applied by restaurants and caterers cannot be included.

Though applying to 2025 income, any tax savings won’t be seen until the worker files federal income tax returns, which are due by April 15, 2026.

Employees still must report their tips if they total more than $20 per month. Employers still must withhold Social Security and Medicare fees, along with state income taxes, from tip income.

“Small businesses need to go beyond the talking points and read the fine print of the ‘no tax on overtime or tips’ section of the bill if they have tipped employees or employDeductions for tips ees who qualify for overtime pay,” The most talked-about other said Karen Phillips, general counchanges will temporarily allow sel for the Louisiana Small Busiworkers to deduct tips and over- ness Association. “Under the bill, these employers have new recordtime pay.

About four million workers keeping and W-2 reporting requireacross the nation rely on tips to ments that start right now.” help pay their rent, according to the National Restaurant Association. Overtime deduction About 198,400 Louisiana taxpayers The new law also makes overwork in food service. time pay tax deductible — up to The law allows those in tipped oc- $12,500 for workers making less cupations — the Treasury Depart- than $150,000 annually, $300,000 for ment will pick the exact categories, those who are married and filing but they presumably will include jointly. The benefit expires in 2028.

The provision only applies to the waiters, bartenders, and the like — to deduct on their federal tax “half” portion of the “time and a returns up to $25,000 of their tips half” usually paid for overtime. The through 2028 if they make less than “time” part — the worker’s regular $150,000 a year or $300,000, if mar- hourly rate — is to be reported and

SPACE

Continued from page 1A wants people “to see that science, faith and service can exist side by side.”

She works full-time at Entergy in Lake Charles while raising her children, and Fox is also pursuing her graduate certification in bioastronautics from the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. She’s specializing in the operational safety of spacesuits worn during flight, and is training to become an astronaut.

Still, Fox’s co-workers at the Lake Charles power plant call her “Giggles” and describe her as “just a pile of joy,” said Damien Givens, her supervisor at Entergy.

She’s often the first to notice if a colleague is having a rough day and checks on the well-being of those around her, he said.

“It’s nothing but an honor to work with her and to be able to see her ultimately be able to get to this goal of being able to go to space,” said Givens, general manager of Entergy power plants in the Lake Charles region. “Because she’s more deserving of it than anybody I could ever think of.”

Fox is responsible for maintenance and regulatory compliance at Entergy’s Lake Charles power plant. When something breaks, she’s the one tracking down parts at all hours and instructing operators on repairs. She also

PROVIDED PHOTO

Jenee Fox, who works full-time at Entergy in Lake Charles while raising her children, is also pursuing her graduate certification in bioastronautics from the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. She’s specializing in the operational safety of spacesuits worn during flight, and is training to become an astronaut.

searches for upgrades or new vendors for equipment that frequently fails.

“She’s like the key to the cog that makes the plant go,” Givens said. “She’s always in that mindset of, ‘What can we do to make something better?’”

Later this month, Fox will transition into a new role at Entergy’s engineering support group.

Fox said her work at Entergy and background in drafting prepared her for designing and repairing spacesuits.

“I’ve done a lot of piping and mechanical design,” Fox said. “And somehow, that does actually tie back to spacesuits because of all the

tubing and hardware features.”

If Fox makes it to the company’s inaugural orbital flight, she plans to experiment on spacesuits while in orbit. The flight would allow about three hours of zerogravity time for research before returning to Earth.

Fox has been involved in designing every kind of spacesuit, as different missions have specific needs.

“And that’s why she is an indispensable asset to the company,” said Dr. Venkataramana Vijay, the chief operating officer and chief engineer of Titans Space Industries. “And not just to our company, but just to science in general.”

Vijay and Fox’s two research interests overlap.

He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon and Boeing pilot by trade who focuses on life support systems. Those can circulate blood and oxygen during heart surgeries on Earth, but they can also assist with breathing and temperature regulation during space missions.

Meanwhile, Fox has worked on integrating life support systems into nextgeneration spacesuits. That work helped capture the attention of Vijay and other members of the Titans’ selection committee during her interview process.

“One couldn’t be involved in space and not be impressed with all the things that she has been doing,” Vijay said. “She’s a candidate who is a subject matter

taxed as annual earnings.

The legislation doesn’t take into account some of the practices used by businesses that routinely have their employees work more than 40 hours per week, said Louis Reine, president of the Louisiana AFLCIO, the largest organized labor group in the state.

Many employers, particularly in the distribution industry, don’t follow the time-and-a-half practice.

“If your salary is $400 for a 40hour week and you work 50 hours, instead of figuring your overtime at $10 an hour, they divide the $400 by the 50 hours and that gives you a reduced rate. Your ‘half’ isn’t calculated on your regular $10 per hour, it’s figured on an $8 rate,” Reine said. “You really don’t get true time and half.”

Social Security deduction During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump promised to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits. The rules Republicans used to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act without Democratic input, however, forbid such a change.

Republicans came up with an additional $6,000 deduction on federal tax returns for Social Security recipients older than 65. The deduction applies for 2025, to be factored into 2026 tax returns and expires after 2028.

Almost all the seniors who rely solely on Social Security won’t pay federal taxes on those benefits, according to the White House.

Many seniors augment their Social Security benefits with other income, most notably from private 401(k) plans. Seniors with more than $75,000 annual income, $150,000 for married filing jointly, may not see a tax reduction.

Other tax breaks Some other major tax breaks include:

expert on spacesuits and life support system integration into spacesuits, and I don’t think we could find someone of that level, even if we searched all the universities.”

Although tickets aboard the space planes are expected to start at $1 million, the space tourism company also plans to offer sponsored tickets to those who otherwise would not be able to af-

n Increase the child tax credit to $2,200 for every qualifying child. n Make permanent the $750,000 principal limit for home mortgage interest deductions. n $10,000 deduction for interest on loans to buy a new car assembled in the U.S. n Eliminate $7,500 tax credits for electric vehicles starting Sept. 30. n Eliminate $3,200 tax credits for energy-saving improvements on homes. n $100,000 cap on Grad Plus loans for graduate students n $200,00 cap on loans for medical and law school students The impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act varies depending on who is asked.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the Baton Rouge business advocacy group, had warned that 76,000 jobs in the state would have been lost had the 2017 tax breaks not been renewed.

“Lower taxes, smart regulatory reforms, and policies that support domestic energy production and manufacturing are critical to Louisiana’s economy,” Will Green, LABI president, said in a statement supporting the new law. “This legislation provides tools to help businesses of all sizes invest, expand and hire more workers.”

Center for American Progress, a Washington-based liberal advocacy group, sees the new law differently.

“By stripping away health care and food assistance from working-class people and undermining production of American-made energy, the OBBBA will increase the cost of living and lower aftertax income for the bottom 40% of earners while giving the top 20% of earners a $6,000 per year average tax cut,” the organization said in a statement.

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.

ford such a trip, such as high school science teachers and students with an aptitude for science and technology.

For Fox and other astronaut candidates who make the cut, the trips to space will be free.

Their training — which ranges from scuba diving to mountain climbing to obtaining a pilot’s license — is also covered. Astronaut candidates receive a stipend

during the 21/2-year training program.

“Life comes at you fast,” Givens said. “And with her, being a mother and working at the power plant full-time and still pursuing this goal of hers, it just shows the fight she has in herself to put in the work to be able to pursue that dream.”

Email Megan Wyatt at mwyatt@theadvocate.com.

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4A ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

lll

Trump to meet with NATO secretary general shows growing inter- CBS, said there is also grow- thal said.

French Defense Minister ments from the U.S., he said.

Plan takes shape Trump Rubio said Friday that “It’s a lot faster to move Sebastien Lecornu in an inest in helping Ukraine fight ing consensus on Capitol Hill back Russia. It’s a cause that and among European offi- some of the U.S.-made weap- something, for example, terview published Sunday in for Ukraine Trump, who during his cam- cials about tapping some of ons that Ukraine is seeking from Germany to Ukraine La Tribune Dimanche said made quickly ending the $300 billion in Russian are deployed with NATO al- than it is to order it from that European officials have weapons sales paign the war a top priority, had assets frozen by Group of lies in Europe. Those weap- a (U.S.) factory and get it been making the case to the

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is set to meet President Donald Trump this week on the heels of the U.S. leader announcing plans to sell NATO allies weaponry that it can then pass on to Ukraine.

NATO announced on Sunday that Rutte will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday and would hold talks with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as well as members of Congress. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the visit.

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as

previously dismissed as be- Seven countries early in the ons could be transferred there,” Rubio told report- Trump administration to bolto Ukraine, with European ers last week during visit to ster air defense capabilities ing a waste of U.S. taxpayer war to help Ukraine.

“It’s time to do it,” Blumen- countries buying replace- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. money. with any coming packages.

“In the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation. He added, “One of the biggest miscalculations (Vladimir) Putin has made is to play Trump. And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there’s going to be a massive effort to get MED SUPPLY/EQUIP Brand New Elite ES Electric Putin to the table.”

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Call 601-287-3001 Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of ConLegal Notices Legal Notices Legal Notices Legal Notices Legal Notices Legal Notices necticut, who appeared with South Carolina lawmaker on

.theacadianaadvocate.com

ORDINANCE NUMBER 2025-8 AN ORDINANCE ADDING TO CHAPTER 32, SUBDIVISIONS, ARTICLE IV, SEC. 32-35, RESIDENTIAL FENCING OFTHE SCOTT MUNICIPAL CODE

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JACQUELyN MARTIN

President Donald Trump, right, and first lady Melania Trump attend the Club World Cup final soccer match on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Trump marks Butler anniversary at FIFA Club World Cup final Man attempted to assassinate then-candidate 1 year ago in Pa.

BY AAMER MADHANI and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — President Donald Trump on Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of a failed attempt on his life, joining family and close advisers at the FIFA Club World Cup final.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump travelled from their golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to East Rutherford 40 miles away to watch the final match of the U.S.-hosted tournament between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea at MetLife Stadium.

Trump was greeted with cheers as he arrived at the stadium just ahead of the pre-match musical performance by singers Robbie Williams and Laura Pausini.

And he got a smattering of boos when he was briefly shown on the stadium’s mega-screen.

The president waved to the

crowd as he and his entourage arrived at the stadium luxury box where they were taking in the match.

The Trumps were joined

by FIFA President Gianni Infantino for the start of the match. Other guests in the president’s suite included Attorney General Pam Bondi, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, NFL great Tom Brady and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

MetLife in a little over a year will host the 2026 World Cup final.

PSG was looking to win its fourth major title of the season, exactly 100 days after it clinched Ligue 1 on April 5.

The team added the Coupe de France by beating Reims 3-0 on May 24, then romped over Inter Milan seven days later in the Champions League Final.

Chelsea, however, was dominating and held a 3-0 halftime lead behind a pair of goals from Cole Palmer and one from João Pedro.

Sunday’s match falls on the first anniversary of the assassination attempt he survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, while campaigning for president.

Nigeria’s ex-President Buhari dies at 82

By The Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria — Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who led the country twice as a military head of state and a democratic president, has died at 82, his press secretary said Sunday.

Buhari died Sunday in London, Buhari where he had been receiving medical treatment.

He first took power in Africa’s most populous nation in 1983, after a military coup, running an authoritar-

ian regime until fellow soldiers ousted him less than 20 months later. When he was elected in 2015 on his fourth attempt, he became the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election there.

Buhari rode into power in that election on a wave of goodwill after promising to rid Nigeria of chronic corruption and a deadly security crisis. He led until 2023, during a period marked by Boko Haram’s extremist violence in the northeast and a plunging economy.

WHEREAS, the City Council for the City of Scott desires to add Sec. 32-35 to Article IV. Residential Fencing of the Scott Municipal Code in furtherance of the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Scott.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Mayor and City Cou;ncil for the City of Scott, in regular session assembled, that Chapter 32, Article IV Residential Fencing is added to read as follows: ARTICLE IV. RESIDENTIAL FENCING Sec. 32-35. (a) All residential lots constructed on shall be required to install a fence in accordance with the provisions of this article. (b) The provisions of this article shall apply to all residential subdivisions in development and before final plat approval as of the effective date of this article. (c) All residential lots in a subdivision shall meet the following requirements: 1. No fence shall be erected or permitted to remain on any lot in the Subdivision between the street and the front setback line.

2. Fences constructed between the front sill of any dwelling and the rear property line, whether parallel or perpendicular to the street and along the rear property line shall be constructed of wood, concrete or brick.

3. Wooden fences may have metal posts provided however that no metal or wooden posts and no runners shall be visible from any street, with the better side of the fence faced outward toward all of the streets.

4. No fence or wall serving the purpose of a fence situated anywhere upon any lot shall have a height greater than eight (8’) feet above the finished graded surface of the ground on which the said fence or wall is situated.

5. Fences erected shall be properly maintained.

provision of the Code but shall constitute additional rules dealing with residential fencing.

This ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption.

Any provisions of the code of ordinances which are in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

This ordinance having been submitted to a vote in regular session assembled of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Scott, the vote thereon being as follows:

(d) All fences shall be constructed in accordance with this article before final building inspection or before a certificate of occupancy. (e) A fence not in compliance in accordance with this article shall prevent the home from passing final building inspection and/or a certificate of occupancy being issued. (f) If the provisions of this article are in conflict with any other articles, the provisions of this article shall rule.

The provisions of this article are intended to supplement other provisions of the code of Ordinances of the city relating to residential fencing. The provisions herein are not intended to replace any other

ORDINANCE NUMBER 2025-9 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE SCOTT MUNICIPAL CODE TO REVISE CERTAIN FEES AND CHARGES WHEREAS, the City Council for the City of Scott desires to amend various fees and charges contained in the municipal code, as hereinafter set forth; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Mayor and City Council for the City of Scott, in regular session assembled, that Sec 40103, Subdivisions., subparagraph (c), (4) is amended to read as follows: (c) Application and fees.

Permit/Review

Fee-Effective 07/07/25

Comments

Preliminary Plat Approval - 1 year Extension

$300.00

Due at time of request

Minor Plat Revision Residential (4 or less lots)

$500.00

Due at time of submittal

Final Plat Review/ Approval - Residential

$25 per lot (Min. $300.00)

Due at time of final plat submittal for review

Final Plat Review/ Approval Commercial

$50 per lot (Min $500)

Due at time of final plat submittal for review

Construction Plan Review (Residential Development)

$50 per lot (Min. $500.00)

Due at the time of construction plan submittal for review

Construction Plan Review Resubmit (Residential Development)

$10 per lot (Min. $200.00)

Due at the time of construction plan submittal for review

Construction Plan Review (Commercial Development)

$100 per lot (Min $500)

Due at the time of construction plan submittal for review

Construction Plan Review Resubmit (Commercial Development)

$25 per lot (Min $300)

Due at the time of construction plan submittal for review

Final Construction Inspection (Residential Development)

$25 per lot (Min. $500)

Due at the time of request for final inspection

Final Construction Inspection (Residential Development)

$10 per lot (Min. $300)

Due at the time of request for additional additional inspection

Final Construction Inspection (Commercial Development)

$50 per lot (Min. $500)

Due at the time of request for final inspection

Final Construction Inspection additional (Commercial Development)

$25 per lot (Min. $200)

Due at the time of request for additional inspection

Drainage Impact Analysis Review - Less than 3/4 acre

$600.00

Due at the time of drainage impact analysis submittal for review

Drainage Impact Analysis Resubmit Less than 3/4 acre

$300

Due at the time of resubmittal

149489-522576-jul 14-1t $ 151.00

Drainage Impact Analysis Resubmit Greater than 3/4 acre

$600

Due at the time of resubmittal

Site Plan Review (Commercial & Residential)

$350

Per Plat/per request; due at the time of submittal

Property Boundary Line Adjustments

$500

Per Plat/per request; due at the time of submittal

Recording Fees

Invoiced Amount+ 25% Administration Processing Fee

Due at time of recordation

Annexation into City Limits

Varies

Due at time of submittal or as discussed with administration

This ordinance shall not affect or repeal any ·other fees and/or charges listed under this section not addressed by this ordinance.

This ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption.

Any provisions of the code of ordinances which are in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

This ordinance having been submitted to a vote in regular session assembled of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Scott, the vote thereon being as follows:

149484-522562-jul 14-1t $ 198.25

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● 5A

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LIGHTNING

Continued from page 1A As her husband, Dale, pulled the family truck into the driveway on July 3, Prevost planned to run inside, leaving the groceries for him to carry.

She said a short prayer under her breath for protection.

That prayer was the last thing Prevost remembers.

As she opened the truck door and stepped onto the rain-slickened concrete in her sandals, a bolt of lightning struck a tree in her front yard before jumping to her, knocking her unconscious.

A ‘red flash’ Prevost has lived with an excess of caution for hazardous weather, based on past traumatic experiences with storms.

She stayed in a Prairieville school gym with her family during Hurricane Andrew in 1992, even as wind began to damage a corner of the gym. As a child in St. Joseph, Missouri, she hid in a closet while a tornado roared past outside. In 2009, she witnessed the roof of her apartment being ripped off above her during a storm.

“I always said, ‘When is the next time going to not be a close call, but the real deal’?” Prevost said. “So there’s that fear, but at the same time, weather is just so powerful and so fascinating.”

Using radar apps, Prevost has often volunteered with a group of North Carolina storm spotters.

On the day of the lightning strike, the drive home from the grocery store had been shadowed by large, dark-gray thunder clouds.

Only minutes before the couple arrived home, Prevost was taking photos of the clouds, telling her husband it was a “beautiful formation.”

Her husband, Dale, and her 10-year-old son, Kaden, witnessed the strike that sent Prevost to the hospital.

Kaden said he had been waiting at the door for his mom to come home.

He described the instant as a “red

DESERT

Continued from page 1A “Something as simple as crossing the thruway can be a barrier to getting to a store,” said Scelfo. In 2021, Second Harvest decided to address the problem by launching the Makin’ Groceries mobile market, an initiative to bring produce, meat and dairy products to people where they live.

The market is still rolling, with a weekly calendar showing trips to the Gueydan Library, Lafayette’s Parc De Oaks food truck park and Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Church Point.

Based on its success, Second Harvest started a mobile market in the greater New Orleans region earlier this year. However, Scelfo and others recognized that a market on wheels is a limited solution to the need for a fully-stocked grocery store where people can run in on their schedule.

According to Scelfo, “there was a need to create dignity, have this experience where people can go in and select and really have a shopping experience.”

At an unspecified date — Scelfo said the construction

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

The trunk of a tree shows signs of a lightning strike that then hit Rebekah Prevost in Broadmoor in Baton Rouge. flash” that filled the whole yard.

Father and son said they heard a thunder clap closer than ever before, then saw Prevost almost lifted in the air by the force of the strike. Then, she fell forward onto the concrete, stiff as a board. Her arms were rigid at her sides.

“For 10 or 15 seconds, they both thought I was dead,” Prevost said.

She had been standing little more than 5 feet from the tree that was struck.

But despite having no memory of the rest of the afternoon, Prevost reportedly picked herself up and ran the rest of the way inside, bleeding from an ear and her nowbroken jaw.

As her family called emergency services, they said Prevost came inside the house obviously dazed, but still trying to move her children into their designated storm-safety spots in the house.

“I fell on my knees, I was bleeding everywhere from my chin and my ear, and I started saying, ‘Get my babies in the hall, call 911,’ ” Prevost said as she retold how the events were relayed to her.

Despite her fear of the rumbling thunder outside, Prevost eventually allowed paramedics to wheel her out into the rain and onto an ambulance.

Staff described the fact that she survived as a “miracle.”

Around 90% of lightning strike victims survive, but researcher John Jensenius, of the National Lightning Safety Council, said anyone struck is “lucky to be alive.”

Jensenius has spent decades studying lightning strikes on people, first as a professor of meteorology and then as a researcher with the National Weather Service. He has been recording fatal lightning strikes in the U.S. since 2006.

The average person has a 1 in 1.6 million chance of being struck by lightning in a given year, or a 1 in 20,000 chance over their lifetime, according to Jensenius’ research.

Only 13 people have been killed in Louisiana by lightning strikes since the start of Jensenius’ research in 2006, while 500 have been killed across the country in that time.

Most fatal lightning strikes occur while the victims are fishing, boating or standing out on a beach.

However, Jensenius has recorded the “deadly dozen” activities that victims are engaged in when killed by lightning.

Traveling to or from a vehicle is No. 10.

Doctors told Prevost they believe the lightning bolt had entered from her foot, traveling up her left side and exiting through the top of her ‘Miracle’ outcome head.

In Jensenius’s research, there When Prevost awoke that evening, she was in the trauma ward are five ways that lightning can hit a person, and it rarely is a direct at Our Lady of the Lake.

“Something as simple as crossing the thruway can be a barrier to getting to a store.”

PAUL SCELFO, Second Harvest southwest regional director timeline is still uncertain — Makin’ Groceries will open as a free-standing nonprofit grocery store focusing on produce and ingredients to make meals, near Second Harvest at 319 E. Pinhook Road.

The mobile market will still make rounds in Acadiana’s rural food deserts, but the Makin’ Groceries store (which is also being supported by local partners United Way of Acadiana, Beacon Community Connections and others) will give people “a place in the community,” Scelfo said.

He said it’ll be around 38,000 square feet of shelving with freezers, fresh produce and retail-quality products at discounted prices. “We won’t sell donated food,” Scelfo said. “That will still be given away to people who need it.”

The plan is for the store to also provide wrap-around services for low-income shoppers, such as help signing up for Medicaid or SNAP benefits, and food nu-

trition and demonstration areas. “We can have cooking demonstrations,” Scelfo said. “If we have a group come in from the Council on Aging, we can have a demonstration on nutrition for seniors.”

Makin’ Groceries will be accessible to all, but Scelfo said there may be systems in place when it opens, such as member cards, to ensure that discounted prices and services are available for the people who need them most.

Holly Howat, who founded Beacon Community Connections in 2019 to help Lafayette residents access social services, said that Beacon will be involved with the store to help low-income shoppers learn about other services they may be eligible for.

“I’m very eager for it to get up and running,” said Howart, who resigned from her role as executive director at Beacon on July 1. “We meet so many families who can’t afford food, and when we look at it, we see they aren’t enrolled in SNAP. That’s money that can then be freed up for other things.”

“Everyone needs to go to the grocery store,” she said.

“It’s a place you’re already going, so it’s less stigmatiz-

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strike.

In Prevost’s case, it’s possible that she was hit by a portion of the strike’s current that ricocheted from the tree and into her, what researchers call a “side flash” or “side splash.”

Another possibility is a “ground current,” where the energy from a strike hitting a tree or tall object goes into the ground, before coming up through a person’s leg.

The only physical evidence that actually remained from Prevost’s strike was a bruise on the bottom of her foot and a small scab on her scalp.

Prevost, however, felt echoes of the massive amount of electrical energy that had coursed through her.

Not only did she smell like burnt hair, a smell that remained even after multiple showers, but she said she could almost remember the path of the strike as it ran through her.

“The only thing I remembered after, like a day or two later, was how it felt for the surge to run through me,” Prevost said with a shiver.

“And it was only for a split second I remembered it.”

Those jitters were another poststrike symptom. Prevost said she felt like she was wired on cups of coffee with how much she shook.

Only now, over a week since the strike, have these begun to subside.

She also had blood work done to measure her “CPK levels,” an enzyme that plays a role in controlling the flow of energy to certain tissues in the body. Victims of electrocution have higher levels of CPK in their blood, and these levels can be measured to gauge if the electricity has damaged heart or brain tissues.

Prevost’s levels indicated no longterm damage, but she said her doctors are keeping an eye on it.

Dr. Mary Anne Cooper is another member of the National Lightning Safety Council and a lifelong researcher in lightning-related injuries. She said many of Prevost’s symptoms, including amnesia, nerve pain and ruptured ear drums are common in lightning strike survivors.

Both Cooper and Jensenius urge

ing than going to this heavily-branded place where everyone knows I’m enrolling in SNAP. The whole idea behind this is it preserves the dignity of people who find

people to take thunderstorms seriously, plan activities around when storms will be active, don’t take unnecessary risks and only take shelter inside cars or buildings.

Prevost’s worst injuries actually came from losing consciousness and falling to the ground after the strike. Her jaw was shattered on one side, forcing her to have surgery, stitches in two places and to live for the next few weeks on a liquid-only diet.

She also spent nearly a week with a tube in her neck, draining blood and fluid into a small plastic bag.

Prevost said having the tube removed was actually the most painful part of the entire experience.

Lingering effects Her family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for Prevost’s liquid diet and to allow her husband time off work to care for her. They said their neighbors in Broadmoor have given love, support and meals.

Like the experts, Prevost said the experience has made her wish that others would treat thunderstorms with more caution.

“I just really hope that people are more weather aware, because even when you think that you are safe, and you can outrun something or get over there quick, you can’t. Just don’t even chance it,” she said.

Prevost said the experience has left her scared to go outside unless the sky is clear and blue. She checks her radar app religiously.

The damaged tree is set to be cut down this week. Prevost’s sister Samantha Reed plans to find where the lightning’s arc is scorched into the wood and to make some kind of keepsake for her sister, “the lightning lady.”

Prevost also said the ordeal “has God written all over it.”

“In a way, prayer works. Obviously, I’m still here. I prayed before I got out of the truck, and I feel like he was protecting me, and I’m so grateful for that,” she said. “I definitely feel like he has a purpose for me. I’m just not sure what that is yet.”

Email Quinn Coffman at quinn. coffman@theadvocate.com.

themselves in challenging circumstances. Emergency boxes — that’s food that someone else has packed for you. A grocery store that preserves autonomy

and dignity, that is a really great idea.”

Email Joanna Brown at joanna.brown@ theadvocate.com.

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6A ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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M o n d ay, J u ly 14, 2025

Farmland makes up one third of La. Jefferson Davis Parish has largest average at 1,252 acres

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

According to the 2022 United States Census of Agriculture, there were 1.9 million farms and ranches (down 7% from 2017) with an average size of 463 acres.

In total, 880 million acres were farmed in the United States in 2022 — approximately 39% of the nation’s total land area.

In Louisiana, just under 8 million acres were farmed in 2022, making up 28.8% of the state’s total land area.

Jefferson Davis Parish had the largest average farm size with 1,252 acres.

That’s more than double the size of the national average at 463 acres, and four times

the size of Louisiana’s average at 319 acres.

The parishes with the largest average farm size, in acres: n Jefferson Davis Parish with 1,252 acres n Plaquemines Parish with 1,226 acres n Iberville Parish with 1,116 acres n Madison Parish with 1,041 acres n East Carroll Parish with 955 acres n St. John the Baptist Parish with 944 acres n Assumption Parish with 895 acres n St. Mary Parish with 870 acres n Concordia Parish with 809 acres n St. Bernard Parish with

785 acres.

The parishes with the smallest average farm size in acres, in ascending order: n Tangipahoa Parish with 40 acres n Livingston Parish with 60 acres n St. Tammany Parish with 73 acres n Vernon Parish with 83 acres n Lafayette Parish with 85 acres n Webster Parish with 89 acres n LaSalle Parish with 92 acres n Bienville Parish with 108 acres n Washington Parish with 118 acres n East Baton Rouge Parish with 120 acres.

1Bn

How big are Louisiana farms?

The average size, in acres, of farms in each Louisiana parish.

Webster Webster Caddo Caddo

DeSoto DeSoto

More than 900 acres

East East Carroll C arroll

Lincoln Lincoln

Bienville Bienville

AVERAGE FARM SIZE:

West West Morehouse Carroll Morehouse Carroll

Union Union

Claiborne Claiborne

Bossier Bossier

Ouachita Ouachita

Richland Richland

Red Red River R iver

Caldwell Caldwell

Franklin Franklin

Winn Winn

701 to 900 acres

Madison Madison

Jackson Jackson

501 to 700 acres Tensas Tensas

301 to 500 acres

Catahoula Catahoula Natchitoches Natchitoches

Grant Grant

Sabine Sabine

Beauregard Beauregard

Concordia Concordia

Rapides Rapides

Vernon Vernon

Avoyelles Avoyelles

Allen Allen

100 to 300 acres

LaSalle LaSalle

Evangeline Evangeline

Less than 100 acres

W. FFeliciana W. eliciana E. Feliciana E. Feliciana

Tangipahoa Tangipahoa

St. St. Helena H elena Pointe Pointe St. Landry St. Landr y C Coupee oupee

Washington Washington

EBR EBR

St. TTammany St. ammany Livingston Livingston Acadia A cadia St. John St. John Iber ville Iberville Lafayette St. Lafayette Ascension A scension Orleans Orleans St. Martin Martin JJefferson efferson St. James St. James St. St. Iberia Iberia Assumption Assumption St. Bernard St. Bernard Charles Charles Vermilion Vermilion WB R WBR

Calcasieu Calcasieu

JJefferson efferson Davis Davis

Cameron Cameron

St. Mary St. Mar y

Lafourche Lafourche

Plaquemines Plaquemines

Terrebonne Terrebonne Staff S t f f map Source: 2022 Census of Agriculture

Marines being sent to ICE facilities

Mobilization of up to 700 troops approved

BY MARCO CARTOLANO Staff writer

Members of the U.S. Marine Corps are coming to Louisiana to aid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with administrative and logistical work as ICE continues its immigration crackdown across the country, according to the Department of Defense’s U.S. Northern Command.

About 200 Marines will be the “first wave” assisting ICE. The Marines will mainly be sent to Florida, but there will be support locations in Louisiana and Texas, the government said last week.

The Marines are prohibited from direct contact with people in ICE custody or to take any part in the process of detaining people, according to the Department of Defense.

“Service members participating in this mission will perform strictly non-law-enforcement duties within ICE facilities,” the news release read.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth approved a mobilization of up to 700 troops from active, National Guard and reserve forces to assist ICE in response to a Department of Homeland Security request from May, according to the Northern Command.

Louisiana has nine detention facilities that house immigrants waiting for legal proceedings or deportation. All but one are operated by private prison firms. n Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield n Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena n Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Jonesboro n South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile n Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe n Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Pine Prairie n River Correctional Center in Ferriday n Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria n Allen Parish Public Safety Complex in Oberlin The Jena facility drew national attention as the facility that housed pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student

ä See ICE, page 4B

PHOTOS By ROBIN MAy

ABUNDANCE OF ARTWORK TOP: Art admirers attend the Acadiana Center for the Arts show ‘Our Point In Space’ during Art Walk on Saturday in Lafayette.

ABOVE: Music, food and drink were provided.

RIGHT: A giant cardboard lunar lander is on display.

‘Big Brother’ house includes Lafayette native

BY JOANNA BROWN

remaining.

One of America’s most popular The “Big Brother” house is reality competia notorious place where social tion shows, “Big isolation, constant surveillance B r o t h e r ” h a s and weekly strategy games play been airing on havoc on contestants. This sum- CBS since 2000. Domingue mer, Lafayette native Lauren Contestants have Domingue will join the Season to use gameplay strategies and 27 cast of “Big Brother” to com- personal connections to avoid pete for the $750,000 cash prize getting voted out of the house, — if she’s the last house guest with the goal of being the last Staff writer

house guest standing after 14 weeks of competition.

Domingue is a 22-year-old bridal consultant, and she will move into the “Big Brother” house with 15 other players, including one “mystery house guest” this season. The cast, including attorneys and professional bull riders, hail from cities across the country like San Antonio, New York and Washington, D.C.

In a preseason interview, Domingue said, “I’m a super competitive person and I’ve been loving ‘Big Brother’ for as long as I can remember. I don’t think ‘Big Brother’ has seen someone who is a super sweet Southern belle, but at the same time is willing to crush the competition if she needs to, and is a super fan as well.”

Season 27 of “Big Brother” premiered on Thursday.

2B ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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YOUR VIEWS T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

What will Zurich Classic get get from LIV Golf?

Like letter writer Kathy Higgins, I am not in favor of the state spending $7 million to bring the LIV tournament to New Orleans in 2026 without more details about how New Orleans and who in Louisiana would benefit from this expected $60 million LIV spending.

As a member of the Fore!

Kids Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs the PGA Zurich Classic of New Orleans, I am familiar with what’s required to orchestrate and work such an event. We do it with hundreds of volunteers.

As a nonprofit, the foundation distributes the net profits from the tournament to children’s charities throughout Louisiana.

According to the website, “Fore!

Kids has raised just over $51 million to date, providing health care, education, and hope for over 200,000 children.” That’s a real benefit to Louisiana and it’s very transparent.

Will LIV donate to Louisiana charities and educational institutions from this tournament? Who will work the tournament as marshals, standard-bearers, concession workers and transportation drivers? How was the estimated $60 million of spending determined?

If $2 million of the $7 million is used to improve the Bayou Oaks course for the tournament, what will be the increase in ongoing maintenance costs for these improvements? Will these enhancements require an increase in green fees for the everyday golfer? Without more details about all the aspects of the event, I would rather see the taxpayer money go to local needs, such as the University of New Orleans.

Doing so would have a much longer positive impact on the city and the state as opposed to maybe a one-year event.

CHARLES HIRLING River Ridge

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are

published identifying name and the writer’s city of residence. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and TO SEND US A LETTER, phone number SCAN HERE 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.

Withdrawing from the fray as Americans can’t debate civilly anymore This letter will be my last as a recent encounter with someone I’ve known for five years made me realize just a general comment can cause a violent reaction.

I asked him what he thinks about the protests in California, where they were burning stores and looting. He immediately launched into a vulgar tirade against the president and vice president.

Be mindful, no mention of the president and vice president was presented in my statement. If every comment someone makes about events in the country turns out like this, this country will never heal.

I also could have retaliated. He’s retired and earns extra money as a greeter for a large retailer, where the employees wear blue vests. But I chose to take the high road.

As an independent, I want to thank everyone who expresses their opinions. I don’t always agree with what’s being written by either side, and as someone who would like honest roundtable debate, I know that after the first question is asked, it would devolve into an angry tirade.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Covanta is a former co-generation plant that is now closed. It was located in Delano, Calif.

Let’s not pretend market is demanding carbon capture In a guest column on the future of Louisiana and its tie to carbon capture, utilization and storage, Spencer Martin says global markets demand cleaner energy solutions.

Respectfully, I would ask for some evidence of that assertion. This is a mantra, but no one can produce a receipt. There may be hard left ideologues who want American subjugation via “cleaner energy,” but no market is demanding it. Ask Germany, which just signed a long-term LNG contract last year with the U.S. and buried carbon is not in the equation.

As to geological advantages: While Louisiana may have some great geologic formations to bury carbon, we also have some that are uniquely unsuitable and dangerous for burying carbon. We need to be wise.

Martin says we might lose business to Texas if we don’t “lead” in carbon management. The Texas Railroad Commissioner tells me no such thing is in the plan for the Lone Star State. He

sent a letter to the House Natural Resources Committee to that effect. I’d be glad to share that letter with anyone who is interested.

Martin speaks of compliance: I say it is uniquely not our culture to comply with bad things. We shouldn’t bend our knee to climate ideologues who want to take our liberties and land. I’ll agree that captured carbon might create jobs, but put it in fuels, concrete or fertilizer. No one is demanding it be buried except hard-left climate alarmists.

At the end of his article, Martin gets to the issue of billions of dollars. On this front, he is completely correct. Billions of U.S. tax dollars are creating a synthetic demand for an activity that is unproven and probably very risky. No rational market or consumer wants or cares about burying carbon. If the U.S. tax credits disappear, burying carbon will, as well.

DAVE HEBERT Lafayette

Reliving Cuba’s slide into totalitarianism I see scary similarities between the dictatorial regime in Cuba for the last 66 years and our newly elected presidential administration.

I lived in Cuba for the first 12 years of my life, so I have clear memories of those times.

An early target of the Castro regime were universities; several were closed by the government.

The regime did not trust the media.

Eventually, newspapers and TV stations were allowed to broadcast only government-approved news.

Blind loyalty to the Castro regime was demanded in all aspects of life.

The government chose the leaders of block committees based on their loyalty. Their main duty was to inform the higher-ups on who was sympathetic or not to the government.

Due process was nonexistent.

People in my neighborhood would suddenly disappear and their families didn’t know where they were.

Reminds me of ICE kidnapping people today.

My own father was abducted by the government one day from our family table while having lunch. We did not see him again for 23 days.

Someone reported he was counterrevolutionary.

This déjà vu has caused me PTSD. God help us.

STATE REP. CHARLES OWEN District 30

Vatican has the wealth to compensate victims In rebuttal to a recent letter titled “Catholic faithful should consider making amends to abuse victims,” I am a Catholic faithful and I disagree.

I love my church and support its local mission to provide spiritual guidance and education to its parishioners.

If that writer had ever visited the Vatican as I did in 2023, he might not have held that opinion. The vast amount of priceless artwork, sculptures, busts and other pieces boggled my mind. I asked our tour guide, a local, how the church had amassed all this. He said that at one time, the pope was considered a king, and if anyone found something of value, the church would take it. I didn’t research that, but it didn’t matter to me.

My issue is that the mother church seemingly has so much wealth that it certainly can afford to assist the dioceses around the world to help pay for the abuse of their parish priests/religious workers, etc. I think most everyone would agree that the church leadership, from the local parishes to the Vatican, all knew abuse was being perpetrated on innocent children and did not do nearly enough to address it.

I believe that, due to their negligence throughout the church leadership chain, the Mother Church, not its faithful parishioners, should be held accountable monetarily for their sins and take any necessary steps to compensate the victims.

MARK RICARD Slidell

What woke really means and why it is a threat I learned in American history classes that Paul Revere rode through the countryside waking his neighbors up to prepare for the British soldiers coming to capture revolutionary leaders. I learned that the Wide Awakes were a youth organization cultivated by the fledgling Republican Party in 1860 that were instrumental in helping Abraham Lincoln to be elected U.S. president.

I remember my mother telling me to stay alert and look for cars both ways before crossing the street. I worked for a petrochemical company which expected me to watch out for safety hazards and to address those hazards to prevent injury to my fellow workers and myself.

ADA TORRES New Orleans

These examples are part and parcel of woke philosophy that is debated in our society today. I suggest that woke philosophy in its many forms is embedded in our cultural fabric. It won’t be diminished. It won’t be eliminated.

I think that our current U.S. administration is very awake as to its intention to diminish what it labels as woke. It intends to guide us toward hiding our heads in the sand so that it can accomplish what they feel is good — for whom, I am not sure.

My fellow Americans, stay awake. Stay woke.

Maybe what’s missing in schools isn’t Ten Commandments Maybe instead of posting and teaching the Ten Commandments in the classroom, they should post and teach the Constitution.

LOUIS SHEPARD New Orleans

STEPHEN PASTOREK Baton Rouge

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COMMENTARY Emanuel needs candor to defeat ‘culture police’

WINNER: Brian Hanley, Baton Rouge

WALT’S

CAPTION CONTEST

What a haul! We received 553 entries in this week’s Cartoon Caption Contest.There were tons of great punchlines sent in and a lot of clever puns. Our winner, an avid viewer of criminal justice shows, came up with a caption that sounded straight out of a courtroom drama and fit the cartoon perfectly. Great job, everyone!

As always, when we have duplicate entries, and we always do, we pick the earliest sent in.

— Walt

EDWARD LASCELLE, PINEVILLE: “No, I don’t think this is a good time to break for lunch!”

MIRTILE DUGAS, CARRIERE, MISS.: “But judge, I didn’t know it was his worm!”

JEFFREY NAY, NEW ORLEANS: “your Honor! I would like to file a quick ingestion injunction!!”

DAVID DELGADO, NEW ORLEANS: “Boy, have I got a fish story for you!”

GREG STEEN, METAIRIE: “This verdict was a load of carp!”

MICHAEL B. RIEMER, JEFFERSON: “He should have never been let off the hook.”

MARY MALONE, NEW ORLEANS: “What do you MEAN that this is too big for small claims court?!”

SHEREE MURRAY, BATON ROUGE: “I call my first witness ... Charlie Tuna!”

JOSEPH KOVACS, NEW ORLEANS: “I think we’re about to graduate to criminal court…”

SHERI LINDSEY, BATON ROUGE: “Please don’t throw the hook at me!”

STUART CLARK, LAFAYETTE: “I’m afraid the big guy’s going for an open and shut case!”

HARPER VICIDOMINA-MILLS (AGE 10), METAIRIE: “Isn’t this illegal because only small fish are supposed to be here, right?”

BOB BRUMBERGER, BATON ROUGE: “Was told he was a vegan.”

PHILLIP T. GRIFFIN, NEW ORLEANS: “I don’t have a chance; he ate my attorney on the way in!”

HOWARD W. STREIFFER, METAIRIE: “I’m requesting an expedited ruling here!”

BOB USSERY, NEW ORLEANS: “What do you mean,‘Where’s my lawyer?’ He’s right behind me. Isn’t he?”

MICHELE STARNES, KENNER: “I’d like you to subpoena his stomach contents!”

RAY AUTREY, MORGAN CITY: “your Honor, I seriously object to this line of questioning!!”

GINA VILLAVASO, NEW ORLEANS: “All I told him was his story sounded ‘fishy’!”

BRYAN REUTER, METAIRIE: “Judge, I know your docket is underwater, but you’ve got to do something.”

MARY ANN RIDDLE, BATON ROUGE: “Judge, help the small fish for a change.”

RICHIE CORVERS, RIVER RIDGE: “I plead the 5th!! Now hurry up and take me into custody.”

JEFF HARTZHEIM, FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C.: “He said he wants a pretrial herring.”

TIM PUJOL, MAUREPAS: “I need to report a hostile takeover.”

MARTHA STARNES, KENNER: “I was just minding my own bubbles!”

CHARLESE BROWN, NEW ORLEANS: “Where’s the LARGE claims court?”

RORY STEEN, DENVER, CO.: “I’m beginning to suspect this victory will be short-lived.”

CHARLES SMITH, ST. ROSE: “Do I really need to explain my intimidation claim?”

LAUREN GAUTHIER, KENNER: “yes he’s mad, he’s haddock with these jokes!”

Welcome to the immigration industrial complex Lots of groups will be harmed by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which recently became his One Big Beautiful Law. Among them: the poor, the young, the math-literate.

But it’s also worth assessing who will benefit from the GOP’s rearrangement of fiscal priorities. The answer is not only the rich and corporations; it’s also America’s growing immigration industrial complex.

Trump’s new mega-law invests $178 billion in additional immigration enforcement over the next decade, primarily through new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To be clear, this is not merely about “border security,” which has significant bipartisan appeal. Democrats tried to beef it up last year, though Trump ordered Republican lawmakers not to cooperate.

Catherine It’s largely for more detenRampell tion centers and boots on the ground within the U.S. interior. This means spending more dollars to round up gardeners, home health aides, grad students, nannies, construction workers, etc.

In other words, the administration is going after your family, neighbors and friends, regardless of how long they’ve been here, whether they present any “safety” threat or how much they’ve contributed to their communities.

A dollar figure this huge can be challenging to wrap one’s arms around. So here are some ways to put it in context: Trump has some flexibility on when he spends the new money Congress gave him (which comes in addition to the usual annual appropriations that immigrationrelated agencies receive), but it’s reasonable to assume that this year’s annual budget for ICE alone will be larger than

that for most other law enforcement agencies combined. This includes the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ICE spending this year will also be larger than most other countries’ military budgets.

Funding for ICE agents specifically is expected to quadruple in the last year of Trump’s second term, according to estimates from Bobby Kogan, a former Senate budget staffer and researcher at the Center for American Progress.

As former president Joe Biden has often said, “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” Today, American values point in one direction: expanding the immigration police state.

What might these new investments mean in practice? ICE, with the help of law enforcement personnel seconded from other federal, state and local agencies, has already sown terror across the country with far fewer resources.

Agents have descended upon big cities and small town America alike, often masked, armed and refusing to show warrants or identification. With daily arrest quotas to meet, agents are filling detention centers not with criminals and gangbangers, but people with no criminal history whatsoever.

In fact while the number of convicted criminals held in ICE detention is about 1.6 times what it was before Trump took office, the number of detainees with zero criminal convictions or charges is up nearly 14-fold, according to government data analyzed by Syracuse University researcher Austin Kocher.

Turns out, maintaining a massive immigration police state is expensive. ICE has been burning through cash and running low on funds. Meanwhile, ICE agents are still not meeting their daily quotas, and

the potential pool of people they could be snatching off the streets and jamming into overcrowded detention centers is rapidly expanding.

That’s because Trump is not merely siccing immigration forces upon those who had been undocumented (with or without criminal records). Under the stewardship of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, this administration has also been working to “de-document” hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are here legally.

These include Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came in with advanced permission under a Bidenera program, after undergoing onerous screening abroad and securing a sponsor here in the United States. It also includes Hondurans and Nicaraguans who had been living and working in the United States legally for decades, as Trump announced recently. Some of our Afghan allies, including many who supported U.S. military efforts at great personal risk to themselves and their families, are in the crosshairs as well. As are some Ukrainians and many, many others.

Many of these policies have been challenged in court and have either been paused or otherwise not yet taken effect.

But the administration is charging ahead anyway. The Justice Department recently announced plans to prioritize revoking citizenship from naturalized U.S. citizens.

After a recent Supreme Court ruling, the administration is also still trying to strip birthright citizenship from babies born in the United States, including those born to both undocumented and many authorized immigrant parents.

Perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that ICE needs all those funds. Have you seen the price of cribs these days?

Email Catherine Rampell at crampell@ washpost.com. She is on X, @crampell.

Rahm Emanuel’s stint as ambassador to Japan followed his two terms as Chicago’s mayor, which followed his 20 months as Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff. But before he formally begins his likely campaign for the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination, he has become a social scientist.

As an avid bicyclist, Emanuel, when he retired from the mayor’s office, took a two-week, 900-mile ride around Lake Michigan with a friend. During the ride, he made a sociological discovery: “The worse the cellphone coverage is, the nicer people are.”

Niceness is sometimes secondary for Emanuel, whose salty vocabulary expresses the serrated edge of his personality. But his discovery of the inverse relationship between smartphones and congeniality indicates his interest in today’s culture, and his party’s contribution to its strangeness. Although politics is the Democratic Party’s business, it currently has scant aptitude for it.

Politics is mostly talk. In an interview, Emanuel says, more in anger than in sorrow, that too many Democrats speak as though their words have been “focus-grouped in a faculty lounge.” He has a point.

If the progressives who coined the term “Latinx” had known a few Hispanics, they would have known there was no interest in a “nonbinary” (more progressiveGeorge speak) name for members Will of an ethnic group who have said they prefer to be called “Americans.” Between 2020 and 2024, Donald Trump increased his portion of the Latino vote from 36% to 48%. When progressives refer to people in jail as “justice-involved populations,” voters are apt to be mystified, then bemused, and ultimately unlikely to fill public offices with peculiar people who speak a private language.

Emanuel wishes some Democrats would worry less about “a child’s right to pick his pronouns” and more about “children who do not know what a pronoun is.” He is proud of an education reform he instituted as mayor: Before handing a diploma to a high school senior, the student had to hand over a letter of acceptance from a four-year college, a community college, an armed service or a vocational school.

Emanuel mused about all this a few days before the 65% of New York City’s registered Democrats who voted in the mayoral primary nominated (by a plurality) a 33-year-old who resembles an adjunct professor of applied Trotskyism (free stuff for everyone!) who wandered out of a satirical campus novel.

In 1992, Emanuel says, Bill Clinton won while promising not to “defund” the police but to hire 100,000 more of them. In 1996, Emanuel says, Clinton became the first Democratic president reelected since Franklin D. Roosevelt by running 40% of his ads promising to “end welfare as we know it.” In 2008, candidate Obama campaigned by stressing that it is easy to father a child but hard to be a father.

Emanuel sees signs of incipient sanity in the fact that in this year’s gubernatorial contests, the two most important contests, Democrats have nominated two centrists with national security backgrounds: in New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former helicopter pilot; in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and congresswoman. (The uber-progressive president of New Jersey’s teachers union finished fifth in a primary field of six.)

Emanuel is wagering that “candor and authenticity have currency,” and that “strength, confidence and optimism” can be projected by ignoring “the culture police” on his party’s left. He tickles optimism from a fact about Chicago’s summer country-music festival: It features a number of Black singers of a genre associated with rural America. That is thin evidence for national reconciliation, but Emanuel thinks the 2026 midterm elections will give his party momentum for 2028.

He says that in midterms when the same party controls the presidency and both houses of Congress, turnout is usually higher for the out-of-power party, independents break 2-1 for that party, and turnout drops for the inpower party. This drop might be particularly pronounced next year because many supposed supporters of the incumbent party are actually just fans of its entertaining leader, whose absence from the ballot will make politics unappetizing.

Mayor Emanuel did not halt Chicago’s slide toward bankruptcy, and as a national candidate he must shed the stigma resulting from Democratic control of sagging cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc.). And there will be the drama of watching progressives of the “globalize the intifada” stripe (see their choice for New York mayor) ponder a candidate whose middle name is “Israel.”

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost. com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the

writer’s city of residence. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone 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, SCAN HERE

4B ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

The core stage of the Artemis II rocket is rolled out at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in 2024. The Artemis program is facing cost overruns and delays.

NASA contractor lays off nearly 300 at Michoud

federally mandated Worker were located. S3 did not file positions.

Michoud, that power Ar- touted as one of the ecoCompany Adjustment and Retraining a WARN with the Mississiptemis and replace them nomic bright spots in New filed with the pi Workforce Commission, Questionable future with more cost efficient, Orleans East. serviced N.O., Notification commission that it would according to that agency’s The changes at Michoud commercial rockets. But Miss. facilities for lay off 296 employees at website. comes just three months the One Big Beautiful Bill Email Stephanie Riegel at the end of last The notice does, however, after Boeing, the lead con- passed by Congress on at stephanie.riegel@ nearly 10 years Michoud month because its contract say that dozens of positions tractor on NASA’s Artemis July 3 and signed by Trump, theadvocate.com.

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Nearly 300 workers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility have been laid off after the company that employed them lost its contract with the space agency, according to a notice the company sent to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Syncom Space Services, which provided operations and facilities maintenance at Michoud and the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for nearly 10 years, said in a

with NASA expired June 30 and had not been renewed.

NASA declined to comment. But in a post on its website, the space agency said it had selected a new contractor, NOVA Space Solutions of Anchorage, Alaska, to take over the $822.7 million contract at Michoud and Stennis.

It is not clear how many of the affected employees were based at Michoud and how many were at Stennis.

The WARN notice that S3, as the company is known, filed with the commission does not specify where the jobs

were affected, including electricians, environmental technicians, engineers, maintenance workers, millwrights and power plant operators.

S3 did not respond to a request seeking comment and NOVA Space Solutions could not be reached for comment.

The change in contractors does not necessarily spell long-term job losses for all of the affected workers. In many cases, new vendors with large contracts will extend offers to rehire some, if not most, of the employees into similar or comparable

space program, said it would lay off 89 employees at Michoud, raising fresh doubts about the future of the program and the role New Orleans may play in getting astronauts back to the moon.

Even before President Donald Trump’s election last fall, NASA’s Artemis program, a $24 billion initiative to return manned crews to the moon and, eventually, to Mars, was facing cost overruns and delays.

Trump said earlier this year he wanted to phase out the Space Launch System rockets, which are built at

includes $4.1 billion in funding for two upcoming Artemis missions, as well as $120 million for improvements at Stennis and $30 million for improvements at Michoud.

Still, the administration has said it wants to replace SLS with less expensive commercial rockets after the launches of Artemis II and III, scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

Any cuts to Artemis would signal yet another blow to Michoud. The facility, and the parts of the space program it supports, has been

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BY JA’KORI MADISON

Staff writer

The Opelousas Police Department is looking for an escaped inmate believed to be in the area.

Raymond Howard, 34, escaped Tuesday from a Madison County, Mississippi, Sheriff’s Office transport van in Opelousas. He escaped through

ICE

Continued from page 1B Mahmoud Khalil after he was arrested in New York City in March. Khalil was ordered released by a federal judge in June and he filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday.

Alireza Doroudi, 32, an Iranian doctoral student studying at the University of Ala-

a rear window when the van was parked onWallior Street, police said. Howard was in town for a hearing at the St. Landry Parish Courthouse.

Witnesses said they saw Howard running across Wallior Street, past the Take 5 Car Wash. He then removed his orange jumpsuit, revealing a white Tshirt, and entered a wooded

area north of the car wash.

He is considered a wanted fugitive and was described by the police as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds.

The public is urged not approach or detain Howard. If you see him, contact the Opelousas Police Department at (337) 948-2500 or Crime Stoppers at (337) 948-TIPS (8477).

bama, was also detained in Jena after he was arrested over an allegedly revoked visa. He decided to self-deport to Iran.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student who also allegedly had her visa revoked over support for Palestinians, was detained in Basile before she was ordered to be transferred to Vermont.

ICE arrests of Louisiana residents have also made

headlines. The detention of Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian, a 47-year resident of New Orleans originally from Iran, drew local outrage and she was released following outreach by U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise — the second-ranking House Republican — to Homeland Security.

Email Marco Cartolano at marco.cartolano@ theadvocate.com.

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M o n d ay, J u ly 14, 2025

1Cn

Mariners take Anderson at No. 3

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU baseball sophomore lefthanded pitcher Kade Anderson was selected Sunday by the Seattle Mariners with the No. 3 overall pick in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft.

Anderson is the third LSU player to go in the first three picks of the draft in the past three years, joining No. 1 Paul Skenes and No. 2 Dylan Crews in 2023.

He was a candidate to go No. 1 overall to the Washington Nationals, but they elected to select high school shortstop Eli Willits with the top choice. The Los Angeles Angels followed by choosing UC Santa Barbara right-handed pitcher Tyler Bremner.

“Obviously, extremely excited,” Scott Hunter, vice president of amateur scouting for the Mariners, said.

“Weren’t sure if Kade would get to us this year. There’s a lot of mock drafts that had him one or two, but really exciting for the organization.”

Anderson posted a 3.18 ERA in 119 innings for the Tigers this season.

He struck out 37.4% of the batters he faced and walked only 7.3% of the hitters while leading the country in strikeouts by the end of the year.

His 180 strikeouts placed him third on LSU’s single-season strikeouts list, trailing only Paul Skenes (2023) and Ben McDonald (1989).

“When you get a pitcher that can throw four pitches and they’re plus on our scale, and he can touch 96 mph on the 130th pitch of a big game,” Hunter said, “I think the sky’s the limit for guys like that.”

Anderson also threw two shutouts, and Baseball America named him the 2025 College Pitcher of the Year.

He was a first-team All-American and an All-SEC selection, and he was awarded the National Pitcher of the Year Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

“When you see kids — and you see a lot of SEC players and hitters and pitchers during the course of the year that are going very high in the draft — to excel and to achieve what he did in just this one full year of college baseball was pretty impressive,” Hunter said.

Anderson became an LSU legend this season after guiding the Tigers to their eighth national championship and second title in three years this summer.

The Louisiana native and drafteligible sophomore tossed a shutout in Game 1 of the College World Series final against Coastal Carolina.

LSU earned the 1-0 victory before

clinching the national championship in Game 2 with a 5-3 win the next day.

His heroics in Omaha won him the Most Outstanding Player Award at the College World Series.

“Just being able to watch him in the College World Series at the end, I was actually on a flight coming back from the combine,” Hunter said. “I think that was a moment for us that said, ‘Man, even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he can find a way to get you.’ “ Anderson’s leap in production comes after a solid freshman season, where he punched out 13.81 batters per nine innings and had a 3.99 ERA in 381/ 3 innings as a

Kade Anderson

ä See ANDERSON, page 3C

WIMBLEDON

Sinner puts end to Alcaraz’s streaks

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

STAFF FILE PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU offensive lineman Lance Heard, right, blocks Auburn linebacker Jalen McLeod on Oct. 14, 2023, at Tiger Stadium. Heard, a five-star offensive tackle when he signed with LSU out of high school, is one of 15 players from LSU’s Class of 2023 who has already left the program.

VANISHING ACT LSU football not alone in losing large chunk of its junior class

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

Two years ago, Brian Kelly and his staff signed their first full recruiting class. It included one player who has already turned into a star, linebacker Whit Weeks, and a few others who have become starters.

But by the time the spring transfer portal closed, most of those players had left LSU before their junior year.

LSU signed 25 high school recruits in the 2023 class, and 15 of them (60%) are gone. Fourteen transferred, while one withdrew before he ever practiced.

Traditionally, juniors formed the backbone of a team. They had developed, and they had one more season before they could leave for the NFL. But that won’t be the case this fall, and LSU isn’t alone in the Southeastern Conference.

Two years after the 2023 class arrived, eight SEC teams have lost at least half of their high school signees, mainly to the transfer portal. Arkansas (86%) and Mississippi State (81%) have lost the highest percentage of their classes. Missouri (28%) and Texas (28%) are tied for the lowest.

Recruiting misses are nothing new, and sometimes players are encouraged to enter the transfer portal. The numbers show just how common it has been to lose large chunks of a high school recruiting class in an era with unlimited transfers, immediate eligibility and unchecked NIL inducements.

Arkansas, now entering its sixth season under coach Sam Pittman, only has three

LONDON — Jannik Sinner insisted early on at Wimbledon that he put an excruciating loss to Carlos Alcaraz in their epic French Open final behind him. Sinner was sure that one defeat wouldn’t haunt him, wouldn’t prevent a quick recalibration and certainly wouldn’t mean a thing at the All England Club.

Sure was right about all of that.

Exactly five weeks after the devastating defeat at Roland-Garros against his rival, Sinner reversed the result, defeating the two-time reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win his first championship at the grass-court major.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win or you lose the important tournaments. You just have to understand what you did wrong. Trying to work on that — that’s exactly what we did. We tried to accept the loss and then just kept working,” Sinner said Sunday, his shiny gold hardware in his hands.

“And this is, for sure, why I’m holding this trophy here.”

The No. 1-ranked Sinner earned his fourth Grand Slam title overall, moving him one away from No. 2 Alcaraz’s total as the two established stars of the game separate themselves from the rest of the pack in men’s tennis.

Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian, put an end to several streaks for Alcaraz, a 22-year-old Spaniard.

Alcaraz had won their past five matches, most famously across five sets and nearly 51/ 2 hours on the red clay of the French Open on June 8. Sinner took a two-set lead, then held a trio of match points, but couldn’t close the deal.

Asked during Week One at Wimbledon whether that created lingering doubts, Sinner immediately replied: “Why negative feelings? Because I lost in (that) final?”

Then he continued: “No. Look, it’s a new tournament, new Grand Slam, new

ä See TENNIS, page 3C

LSU defensive end Da’Shawn Womack, left, dives to make a tackle on South Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez on Sept. 28 at Tiger Stadium. Womack is one of 15 players from LSU’s Class of 2023 who has left the program. players left from the class. Seventeen transferred — 13 of them to other powerconference programs — and one player medically retired. To make up for the lack of retention, the Razorbacks signed 54 transfers over the past two years.

Mississippi State actually lost more players — 21 total with 19 to the transfer portal — but it started with a larger class than Arkansas. The 2023 recruiting

cycle was also the last before the sudden death of coach Mike Leach. Mississippi State changed coaches again a year later, and rosters often undergo significant upheaval during transitions.

Alabama and Texas A&M stand out for that reason. Alabama has lost 12 of its 26 players, but even with coach Nick

ä See LSU, page 3C

AP PHOTO By KIRSTy WIGGLESWORTH

Jannik Sinner of Italy holds the trophy after winning the men’s singles championship against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain at Wimbledon in London on Sunday.

2C ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Browns rookie RB Judkins arrested on battery charge

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Cleveland Browns rookie running back Quinshon Judkins was arrested Saturday night in Florida on a charge of battery and domestic violence.

According to Broward County arrest records, Judkins was jailed overnight and was awaiting his first court appearance. The charge is described in the arrest report as “touch or strike/battery/domestic violence.”

The charge is a misdemeanor.

A Browns spokesman said the team is aware of the incident and gathering more information.

The 21-year-old Judkins was the 36th overall pick in the April draft after rushing for 1,060 yards and 14 touchdowns at Ohio State last season.

The Browns drafted Judkins to help replace veteran Nick Chubb, who signed with the Houston Texans. Cleveland also drafted Dylan Sampson from Dutchtown.

Cardinals activate Herrera; OF Nootbaar heads to IL

Chris Gotterup of the U.S. competes at the Scottish Open on Sunday at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.

The St. Louis Cardinals activated catcher Iván Herrera from the 10day injured list on Sunday before the series finale against the Atlanta Braves.

In a corresponding move, the Cardinals placed outfielder Lars Nootbaar on the 10-day IL with a left rib injury.

Herrera hasn’t appeared in the lineup since June 19 when he strained his hamstring rounding first base after a hit in the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Herrera is hitting .320 with eight homers and 36 RBIs. Nootbaar left Saturday’s game in the sixth inning and did not return.

He has battled rib pain and an intercostal strain for several weeks.

Gotterup earns British Open invite

Astros All-Star Paredes will skip Tuesday’s game

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MALCOLM MACKENZIE

He holds off McIlroy for Scottish Open win

The Associated Press NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Chris Gotterup had a plane ticket for California to play an oppositefield event in Lake Tahoe. The only change in itinerary would be to take down Rory McIlroy at the Scottish Open before a sellout crowd expecting the Masters champion to claim his 30th title on the PGA Tour.

Gotterup handled it all with poise to go with his great strength.

He delivered all the right shots — the short birdie putt on the par3 12th to build a two-shot lead, the 10-foot birdie on the par-5 16th to restore a two-shot lead — and closed with a 4-under 66 to hold off McIlroy and Marco Penge of England.

The victory sends him to Royal Portrush for his British Open debut, an extended trip to links golf that is starting to suit him.

Time to cancel that flight.

“I might do it right now in front of you,” said Gotterup, the trophy

at his side that also sends him to the Masters next year for the first time.

He earned those perks. Gotterup, tied with McIlroy to start the final round, drove into a bunker and had to make a nervy 4-footer for bogey on the opening hole.

That was a reminder nothing was going to come easily.

“I definitely was the villain out there today,” he said. “I felt like I was ready and prepared mentally today. And that’s kind of what I’ve been talking about over the last couple of weeks, that I’ve kind of gotten into the mix a little bit and just faded away a little bit. And today, my goal was to hang in there tough and I felt like I did that really well.”

He finished at 15-under 265 and moves into the top 50 in the world for the first time.

“Chris played a great round of golf. He was so solid,” McIlroy said. “Made the bogey on 15 but bounced back with a really nice birdie on 16. After he got a couple

ahead, I just couldn’t claw back.”

Gotterup was one shot ahead of McIlroy when he hit his tee shot on the 196-yard 12th hole to 2 feet for birdie — McIlroy missed from 4 feet — to take command.

His lead was down to one over McIlroy and Penge, but McIlroy missed a 12-foot birdie at the par5 16th and Gotterup hit a right-toleft putt from 10 feet in the heart of the cup for a two-shot lead with two to play.

Gotterup was so emotional when it was over he could barely speak, rubbing his eyes before saying, “Everyone at home ... this is awesome. I’m not going to be able to keep it together.”

Gotterup earned one of the three final British Open spots through the International Qualifying Series, joined by Nicolai Hojgaard and Matti Schmid.

Hojgaard closed with a 64 to move up 11 spots into a tie for fourth to join his twin brother at Royal Portrush. Schmid shot 71 and tied for 17th, helped by Jake Knapp’s late collapse.

Knapp was tied for the lead

through five holes, but he took double bogey on the par-3 ninth and the rest of the back nine didn’t go much better. He closed with a 74, losing on a chance to win and to play next week at Royal Portrush.

McIlroy had said he was playing his best golf since going into the Masters. This was the first time he had seriously contended since that Masters victory, good timing with the Open in his native Northern Ireland starting on Thursday.

“I’m really happy with where my game is — the way I played over the weekend, the shots that I hit, how I controlled my ball flight,” McIlroy said. “It has been a great week. Missing the trophy, that’s about it.”

Former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick had a 67 and tied for fourth with Hojgaard, picking up valuable FedEx Cup points in what has been a down year.

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player coming off a two-week break, had a 67 and tied for eighth. It was his 10th consecutive tournament finishing eighth or better, a streak that began in the Houston Open.

Kim wins first LPGA major after wild finish The Associated Press EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — Grace Kim always dreamed of winning a major on the LPGA Tour. What happened Sunday in a wild final hour at the Evian Championship was beyond her imagination.

“I don’t know how it happened, really,” Kim said after an eaglebirdie-eagle finish to win on the second playoff hole against Jeeno Thitikul.

A final round at Evian Resort that nearly saw Lottie Woad become the first amateur to win a major in 58 years ended with Kim standing upright after her 12-foot eagle putt dropped, with her hand over her mouth, motionless as she tried to digest what had transpired.

Two shots behind on the final hole, Kim hit a 4-hybrid so perfectly that it slowed at the top of a slope behind the flag and rolled back to 2 feet for an eagle and a 4-under 67 to force a playoff with Thitikul.

Her approach to the par-5 18th in a playoff bounced off a cart path, over rocks and into the water, while Thitikul was in good position to make birdie. Tournament over?

Not quite. Kim pitched over the pond and across the green and into the cup for birdie to stay alive.

“I was pretty bummed to find out that my ball was in the middle of the water. But, again, it’s not quite

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LAURENT CIPRIANI

Grace Kim, of Australia, celebrates with her trophy after winning the Evian Championship women’s golf tournament on Sunday in Evian, eastern France. finished until the very end,” Kim said. “Just wanted to make sure I got it there. Yeah, just happened to have chipped it in. I don’t know if I can do it again.”

Back to the 18th for a third time — twice in the playoff — the Australian again hit 4-hybrid to 12 feet. Thitikul, who missed an 8-foot birdie putt in regulation for the win, missed the green to the left and chipped to 5 feet. She never had to putt.

Kim holed the eagle putt to capture her first major and second LPGA title. She is the second straight Aussie to win a major, fol-

lowing Minjee Lee. “It’s a huge achievement for me,” Kim said. “I’ve had a lot of doubts early this year. I was kind of losing motivation. I kind of had to get some hard conversations done with the team. Yeah, kind of had to wake up a little bit. So to be sitting here next to this trophy is definitely surreal.”

It was a big setback for Thitikul, who along with Ai Miyazato is the only woman to have reached No. 1 in the world ranking without winning a major.

Thitikul’s biggest challenge had been Woad, the No. 1 amateur who

was coming off a win in the Irish Women’s Open and at one point had the lead on the back nine of Evian Resort. She closed with 64 and then waited to see if that would be enough.

Woad was bidding to become the first amateur to win a major since Catherine Lacoste at the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open.

Thitikul birdied the 17th to take the lead, and the Thai player was on the verge of her first major when she laid up short of the pond and hit wedge into 8 feet on the final hole.

But then Kim appeared with the sublime 4-hybrid to 2 feet for eagle. Thitikul’s birdie putt for the win just missed to the right, and she shot 67 to join Kim at 14-under 270.

“I think I’m so proud of myself on battling out there today,” Thitikul said.

Woad tied for third with Lee (68) and now has secured an LPGA card for the rest of this year and all of next year if the senior-to-be at Florida State chooses to turn pro. Woad already is in the Ladies Scottish Open and Women’s British Open.

Kim’s victory extended what already is a record streak in the LPGA Tour’s 75-year history, the 18th consecutive tournament to start a season with a different winner. It also makes 13 different winners in the last 13 majors.

Houston Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes has dropped out of Tuesday’s All-Star Game to attend to a family matter.

Paredes was added to the roster Wednesday after Cleveland’s José Ramírez opted out to rest a nagging Achilles tendon injury.

Paredes was in the Astros’ lineup at designated hitter Sunday for the finale of a series against the Texas Rangers, and manager Joe Espada said he wouldn’t miss any time after the break because of the issue.

It was the second straight season Paredes had been named an All-Star. The 26-year-old is in his first season with the Astros after a trade from the Chicago Cubs. He entered Sunday hitting .254 with 19 homers and 49 RBIs.

Marlins All-Star Stowers goes deep three times

All-Star Kyle Stowers had his first three-homer game and drove in six runs against his former team, leading the Miami Marlins to an 11-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

Stowers is the first Marlins player to hit three homers in a game since Brian Anderson on Sept. 18, 2020, against Washington. The 27-year-old left fielder also joins fellow Marlins Mike Lowell (2004) and Cody Ross (2006) in accomplishing the feat.

Stowers led off the second inning with a shot to right against Brandon Young (0-4) to open the scoring. An inning later, he sent Young’s first-pitch curveball 398 feet for a two-run blast to rightcenter. In the fifth, Stowers homered over the scoreboard in right.

Two-time champion Els withdraws from British Open

Former champion Ernie Els has withdrawn from the British Open, the second time this year he has chosen not to compete in big championships.

The R&A did not give a reason Sunday for the withdrawal of the 55-year-old South African. Els was replaced in the field by Si Woo Kim, who was next on the alternate list.

Els won the British Open at Muirfield in 2002 after a four-man playoff. He won again in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes when Adam Scott lost a late lead.

Open champions are exempt to play until they are 60.

Els also chose not to compete this year in The Players Championship, for which he qualified by winning the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone in 2024.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● 3C

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SEC MEDIA DAYS

LSU

Continued from page 1C

ON STAGE MONDAY

LSU

SOUTH CAROLINA

LAST YEAR: 9-4 (5-3 SEC) COACH: Brian Kelly (4th year) PLAYERS: QB Garrett Nussmeier, LB Whit Weeks, WR Chris Hilton THE BUZZ: LSU upped its spending, then used that cash to sign one of the nation’s best transfer classes.Will a playoff appearance follow? We should get a decent idea by Week 1, when the Tigers play Clemson — at Clemson. Remember, LSU hasn’t won its opener since 2019.The pressure’s on in Baton Rouge.

LAST YEAR: 9-4 (5-3 SEC) COACH: Shane Beamer (5th year) PLAYERS: QB LaNorris Sellers, DT Nick Barrett, S DQ Smith THE BUZZ: South Carolina almost made the playoff last season.Then it brought back Sellers, one of the country’s top quarterbacks; Dylan Stewart, one of its best edge rushers; and Nyck Harbor, an athletic wide receiver oozing potential.The Gamecocks look like they can compete at the top of the SEC again.

OLE MISS

VANDERBILT

LAST YEAR: 10-3 (5-3 SEC) COACH: Lane Kiffin (6th year) PLAYERS: QB Austin Simmons,WR Cayden Lee, LB TJ Dottery THE BUZZ: Ole Miss built a playoff-caliber team around quarterback Jaxson Dart last season but narrowly missed the freshly expanded field.After a roster reset, its hopes for a CFP berth now lie squarely on the shoulders of Simmons, a redshirt sophomore and former four-star recruit who’s beginning his first year as a starter.

LAST YEAR: 7-6 (3-5 SEC) COACH: Clark Lea (5th year) PLAYERS: QB Diego Pavia, CB Martel Hight, S Randon Fontenette THE BUZZ: Pavia challenged an NCAA eligibility rule and won, earning himself a chance to lead Vanderbilt to another bowl win.The Commodores went 2-10 in 2023. Now they can scare (and maybe even upset) the SEC’s top programs. Just ask Alabama, which learned that lesson the hard way in October.

Reed Darcey

First Clark-Bueckers WNBA battle goes to Fever

By The Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers each produced remarkably efficient stat lines in their first professional matchup against each other Sunday.

The ultimate result wasn’t nearly as close.

Clark helped Indiana dominate the second quarter, leading the Fever past the Dallas Wings 102-83. Clark had 14 points and a season-high 13 assists, needing only 25 minutes to earn the 19th double-double of her two-year career.

Bueckers wound up with 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and four turnovers in 33 minutes in a head-to-head matchup that lived up to the hype of the past two No. 1 overall picks squaring off.

“It’s fun to watch, not as an opponent on the other sideline. But for a lot of young players that come into this league, there’s a learning curve,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “And how quickly they figure it out is always interesting to see. Paige, she’s figured it out.”

The highly anticipated matchup between Clark and Bueckers was supposed to take place June 27 at Dallas. But Clark, last year’s Rookie of the Year, missed the game with an injured left groin. Indiana still won 94-86 de-

ANDERSON

Continued from page 1C midweek starter and late-inning reliever.

To begin this season, Anderson rose to become LSU’s Friday night starter and never relinquished the role, serving as one half of the Tigers’ dynamic one-two punch atop their with junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson.

Without Anderson and Eyanson, LSU will have to rely on new faces atop the rotation next season. But it’s not a situation

TENNIS

Continued from page 1C surface. I’m not concerned about my level I can play. I’m not concerned that one loss can influence you for so long a time. I believe that here is a new chance that I can do something good.”

Great, even.

This time, he didn’t waver, asserting himself in a match that featured moments of terrific play by both men, but also the occasional lapses — and one memorable, brief, interruption right before a Sinner serve when a Champagne cork came flying out of the stands and settled on the turf.

Alcaraz stepped into the sunlight bathing Centre Court with a career-best 24-match unbeaten run. He had won 20 matches in a row at the All England Club.

“It’s difficult to lose,” Alcaraz said. “It’s always difficult to lose.”

The last man to beat him at Wimbledon? Sinner, in the fourth round in 2022.

So this served as a bookend win for Sinner, who would be forgiven for at least thinking a bit about his collapse in their last match — es-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DOUG MCSCHOOLER

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark goes for a loose ball during the first half of a game against the Dallas Wings on Sunday in Indianapolis. spite Bueckers finishing with 27 points, six assists, two steals and two blocks.

So WNBA fans waited until Sunday for their next chance.

They previously squared off in the 2024 Final Four when Clark helped Iowa rally past UConn 7169 to reach the national championship game.

Clark got the upper hand again Sunday, but Bueckers also demonstrated why so many consider her this year’s Rookie of the Year favorite — she’s not afraid

of mixing it up with anyone, including Clark, on the professional level.

“We’re just trying to be aggressive, read what the defenses are doing, get out in transition and do what we’ve been doing,” Bueckers said after matching Clark’s seven-point first quarter. “My teammates are doing a great job setting screens, getting me open.”

Bueckers went 9 of 15 from the floor and 2 of 4 from beyond the arc while Clark’s shooting strug-

that coach Jay Johnson is unfamiliar with.

LSU replaced its top two starters from 2024 and 2023. After the 2024 season, the Tigers turned to Anderson and added Eyanson from the transfer portal to replace Luke Holman and Gage Jump after they were selected with the 71st and 73rd overall picks of the 2024 draft, respectively.

After LSU’s national championship in 2023, Johnson had to replace Paul Skenes and Ty Floyd when Skenes was selected No. 1 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Floyd was picked in the second round.

LSU has options when it comes to replacing Anderson and Eyanson. Freshman right-hander Casan Evans emerged as an elite arm after posting a 2.05 ERA and 31.7% strikeout percentage in 522/3 innings. Junior right-hander Zac Cowan could return after a year in which he posted a 2.94 ERA in 52 innings.

After those two, the Tigers have plenty of returning depth.

A talented freshman class — including left-hander Cooper Williams, and right-handers Mavrick Rizy and William Schmidt — is expected to make a leap in its second season.

Redshirt sophomore right-

pecially when facing two break points while serving at 4-3, 15-40 in the fourth set Sunday.

But he calmly took the next four points to take that game before eventually taking the championship.

“Very happy that I (held) my nerves,” Sinner said.

When it ended, he put both hands on his white hat. After embracing Alcaraz, Sinner crouched with his head bowed, then pounded his right palm on the grass.

“Thank you for the player you are,” Sinner told Alcaraz. “It’s so difficult to play against you.”

Sinner has participated in four consecutive major finals, including triumphs at the U.S. Open — shortly after the world learned about a doping case that eventually led to a three-month ban — and the Australian Open.

Wearing the same tape job and white arm sleeve to protect his right elbow that he has been using since falling in the fourth round, Sinner never showed any issues, just as he hadn’t while eliminating Novak Djokovic on Friday.

In the final, Sinner and Alcaraz produced scintillating points, with few, if any, half-measures. They sprinted at top speed and swung

gles continued. She was 4 of 12 from the field and 2 of 7 on 3s but also had five steals.

The biggest difference: Clark’s ability to get teammates involved.

Indiana finished with 30 assists on 40 baskets, including one midway through the second quarter that began with a block

by Clark. All-Star center Aliyah Boston grabbed the ball, got it ahead to Clark who immediately whipped a perfect touchdownlike pass over the outstretched hands of one defender and into the hands of Sophie Cunningham for a layup midway through the second quarter.

The play started a 14-5 run that put Indiana in control and allowed the Fever to score a league-high 64 first-half points.

Clark did give the Fever a brief scare, though, with an awkward collision with the basketball stanchion on a missed layup. She stayed down momentarily and left the game for a few minutes before returning to help Indiana deliver the knockout punch.

“I thought my playmaking was really good, there was no reason for me to shoot that much,” Clark said. “When we have five people in double figures, we’re going to be pretty hard to beat.

We were just kind of clicking on all cylinders, moving the ball well, getting to the next action.”

hander Jaden Noot and junior right-hander Gavin Guidry are eligible to be drafted but are strong candidates to return to Baton Rouge. Sophomore righthander Deven Sheerin, after missing the entire year with a torn ACL, is back pitching in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer.

With Anderson and Eyanson, LSU had one of the top pitching staffs in the nation. But even without them, the Tigers project to have a strong core on the mound next year.

Email Koki Riley at Koki.

Riley@theadvocate.com.

Saban’s retirement, a new staff has kept the majority of the class intact.

Texas A&M, which fired coach Jimbo Fisher during the 2023 season, has lost only 42% of the class.

Meanwhile, the highest rates of retention over the past two years were at Missouri, Texas and Florida, in that order.

Texas signed 25 players, including quarterback Arch Manning and linebacker Anthony Hill, and only seven have left the team. For comparison, LSU, Oklahoma and Tennessee signed the same number of recruits, but all three teams have lost at least half of their 2023 classes.

Even though the Florida Gators have gone 13-12 since that recruiting cycle, coach Billy Napier’s first full class largely has remained intact amid speculation about his job security. Only six of the 20 high school signees (30%) have transferred.

For LSU, the 25-member class was supposed to set the foundation of Kelly’s team after the rocky end of the Ed Orgeron era. The group was ranked No. 5 in the country, according to 247Sports, which is the highest-ranked class of Kelly’s tenure to this point.

But heading into preseason camp next month, there are only 10 players left. One of them, running back Trey Holly, remains indefinitely suspended as he awaits trial for an illegal weapon charge.

Six of the 11 top-200 prospects, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, are gone. That includes the two highest-rated recruits, five-star offensive tackle Lance Heard and top50 edge rusher Da’Shawn Womack.

Heard left after one year for Tennessee, and Womack went to Ole Miss after struggling to crack the rotation for two years. Two top-100 wide receivers, Jalen Brown and Shelton Sampson, never contributed before they transferred.

For the most part, the players who left were going to need to develop or could find earlier playing time elsewhere. But the only top-100 prospect still on the team, defensive back Javien Toviano, has bounced around the secondary without finding a major role yet.

So far, the biggest success has been Weeks, who finished second in the SEC in tackles as a sophomore and will represent LSU at SEC media days in Atlanta on Monday. Two others, offensive lineman DJ Chester and cornerback Ashton Stamps, started every game last season.

The rest of the remaining class has yet to make an impact, but that could change in the fall. Tyree Adams is expected to start at left tackle after waiting behind Will Campbell, and Toviano will compete at safety. Running back Kaleb Jackson and offensive guard Paul Mubenga could have roles.

Kelly has talked often about building the roster on high school signees and then retaining them. He still believes in that approach, but on top of losing so much from 2023, LSU only has four players on the roster who were in the 2022 or 2021 classes: quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, wide receiver Chris Hilton, linebacker Harold Perkins and backup offensive lineman Bo Bordelon. Of the 37 combined players in those classes, 22 of them transferred.

Without a high rate of retention, LSU supplemented its needs through the transfer portal, especially this year. While signing the No. 1 class in the country, according to 247Sports, it looked for veterans who could start, trying to address the inexperience on the roster created by so much attrition.

LSU may not add that many transfers in the future. It still would prefer to retain its recruits, and so far, it has done a better job with the 2024 class.

After one year, only four of them have left the team.

away with full force, rarely bending to the other’s will.

From 4-2 down, Alcaraz took four games in a row. That spurt included a 140 mph ace that sprayed the air with a cloud of white chalk dust and a set-capping, flick-of-abackhand winner at an impossible angle after barely getting his racket on the ball.

As fans rose and roared, Alcaraz pointed to his ear and spun around, then pumped his right fist overhead.

Sinner was undaunted, quickly breaking to lead the second set. He returned exceptionally, even as Alcaraz served aggressively, which did lead to 15 aces — but also to a 53% first-serve percentage and seven double-faults.

Much like at the French Open, there was often an unrelenting intensity to these three-plus hours, and any slight misstep created problems. It was Alcaraz who had more of those, although Sinner might have had the most memoASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIRSTy WIGGLESWORTH rable, blowing an overhead right after coming up with a behind-the- Jannik Sinner, left, of Italy hugs Carlos Alcaraz of Spain after winning the back, through-the-legs half-volley men’s singles final at Wimbledon in London on Sunday. in the third set.

In all, these guys showed why of the last 12. him,” Alcaraz said about Sinner. they combined to win the past sev“I’m just really, really happy “It’s great for us, and it is great en Grand Slam trophies, and nine about having this rivalry with for tennis.”

4C ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Pelicans struggling to Michigan sign-stealer Stalions reveals games share in Summer League he knew teams’ signals

Just three minutes into the second quarter Saturday night, Lester Quinones threw a pass to Jeremiah Fears.

Fears, the New Orleans Pelicans’ No. 7 overall draft pick, buried a 3-pointer.

That pass by Quinones was the last assist of the night for the Rod They Walker Pelicans. went the final 27 minutes without another assist, which tells you all you need to know about why the Pelicans were on the wrong end of a 94-81 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Pelicans finished with six assists — four in the first quarter and two in the first three minutes of the second quarter.

“We’ve got to have more ball movement,” Pelicans Summer League coach Corey Brewer said. “We are running stuff, but everybody is (playing iso ball).

It’s a little bit on me. I’ve got to put them in situations to move the ball. We got to run more motion stuff.”

The Pelicans looked every bit like a young team playing just their second game together.

The Lakers, meanwhile, were much more cohesive in what was their fifth game together. The Lakers played three games in the California Classic Summer League before the start of the regular Summer League.

The Lakers had 24 assists, equaling the number the Minnesota Timberwolves had against the Pelicans in the Summer League opener Thursday. The Pelicans had just 13 assists in that game. So that’s 19 assists in two games, a subpar 9.5 assists per game for a team that drafted a point guard in Fears and a forward known for his ability to pass in Derik Queen.

Fears and Queen have combined for six assists through their first two games. Fears had two in the first game and none in the second. Queen had three in the first game and one against the Lakers.

You can attribute those low numbers to the growing pains for rookies getting their first taste of NBA action while adjusting from the college game.

As far as the Pelicans as a team, you can chalk some of the low assist numbers up to a roster with guys trying to prove they belong in the NBA. Sharing the ball isn’t always a priority in Summer League play.

Fears made just 5 of the 21 shots he took. His 3-pointer on the Pelicans’ final assist of the night was the only shot he made on his first 11 attempts. Many of his shot attempts came up empty as he drove to the basket.

“I like the aggressiveness, but we’ve got to make some layups,” Brewer said. “You have to look at film and make rim decisions. You’ve got to make

(the shot) or you’ve got to kick it out, which is something he’s going to learn. You’d rather him do it now than later. It’s good that he’s getting there (to the basket).”

Fears got going in the third quarter and finished with 15 points.

“Just continue to stay aggressive,” Fears said. “When you stay aggressive, everything else will open up.”

Queen, the other first-round draft pick, recorded his second straight double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds to go along with an assist, a steal and a blocked shot. But he shot just 4 of 12 from the floor.

It’s just two games into Summer League play, so it’s way too early to assess what Fears and Queen will become.

Antonio Reeves, the Pels’ second-round draft pick in 2024, finished with 20 points to go with six rebounds and three steals. Micah Peavy, the Pelicans’ second-round draft pick, didn’t suit up for the game because of an ankle injury in Thursday’s game against Minnesota. He was replaced in the lineup by Quinones, who led the Pelicans in scoring in the first game with 20 points. This time, Quinones led the team in assists with just two.

Four other players (Queen, Keion Brooks, Hunter Dickinson and Christian Shumate) had one assist each.

The Associated Press ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Former Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions, whose actions triggered an NCAA investigation into sign-stealing, said he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

Stalions shared those details Saturday on social media, responding to TCU coach Sonny Dykes telling On3 that his team changed some signs in advance of its win over the Wolverines in the 2022 College Football Playoff semifinals.

“We got some favorable matchups because of that and, yeah, there was some big plays in the game,” Dykes said in the On3 report.

Stalions bristled at the latest attempt to suggest Michigan won or lost games because of his sign-stealing role with the team.

“There were 7 games in my time at Michigan where I knew almost every signal the whole game: 2021 MSU, 2022 MSU, 2022 PSU, 2022 OSU, 2022 TCU, 2021 Georgia, and 2021 Wisconsin,” Stalions wrote in his post. “We lost 3 of those games because we didn’t tackle well, and Georgia was historically good. We won the four other games because we dominated the line of scrimmage & tackled well. Blocking, ball security, tackling, run fits & coverage tools.

“That’s football. This is not

rocket science.”

Nearly a year ago, the NCAA alleged in a notice relating to Michigan’s sign-stealing investigation that current coach Sherrone Moore violated rules as an assistant under former coach Jim Harbaugh, who served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its own investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court.

Moore also was accused of deleting text messages with Stalions, before they were recovered and provided to the NCAA. Moore has said he has and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation.

Michigan is prepared to suspend Moore for two games during the coming season. The NCAA will decide if that selfimposed sanction is enough to address allegations that Moore failed to cooperate in an investigation that rocked college football during the 2023 championship season with Harbaugh on the sideline.

The school had a hearing with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions last month. The governing body takes three months on average for contested cases to make a final decision.

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then go to Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

SCOREBOARD Pro basketball WNBA Glance EASTERN CONFERENCE New York Atlanta Indiana Washington Chicago Connecticut

W 13 12 11 10 7 3

L 6 8 10 10 13 17

Pct GB .684 — .600 1½ .524 3 .500 3½ .350 6½ .150 10½

Minnesota Phoenix Seattle Golden State Las Vegas Los Angeles Dallas

W 18 14 13 10 10 6 6

L 4 6 8 10 11 14 16

Pct .818 .700 .619 .500 .476 .300 .273

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Saturday’s Games

GB — 3 4½ 7 7½ 11 12

Chicago 87, Minnesota 81 Las Vegas 104, Golden State 102

Sunday’s Games

Indiana 102, Dallas 83 New York 79, Atlanta 72 Connecticut at Los Angeles, n Washington at Seattle, n

NBA Summer League At Las Vegas Saturday, July 12

Cleveland 93, Milwaukee 83 San Antonio 76, Dallas 69 Oklahoma City 104, Indiana 85 Charlotte 96, Philadelphia 94 Sacramento 109, Chicago 92 L.A. Lakers 94, New Orleans 81 Minnesota 94, Denver 83 Memphis 96, Portland 86

American League Toronto New York Boston Tampa Bay Baltimore

W 55 53 53 50 43

L 40 43 45 47 51

Pct .579 .552 .541 .515 .457

GB — 2½ 3½ 6 11½

Detroit Minnesota Kansas City Cleveland Chicago

W 59 47 46 45 32

L 38 49 50 49 64

Pct .608 .490 .479 .479 .333

GB — 11½ 12½ 12½ 26½

Houston Seattle Texas Los Angeles Athletics

W 56 51 48 47 40

L 40 45 49 48 57

Pct .583 .531 .495 .495 .412

GB — 5 8½ 8½ 16½

Chicago Cubs 5, N.Y. Yankees 2 Seattle 15, Detroit 7 Minnesota 12, Pittsburgh 4 Boston 1, Tampa Bay 0 Miami 6, Baltimore 0 N.Y. Mets 3, Kansas City 1 Cleveland 6, Chicago White Sox 2 Houston 5, Texas 4, 11 innings L.A. Angels 10, Arizona 5 Athletics 4, Toronto 3

Sunday’s Games

Boston 4, Tampa Bay 1 Chicago Cubs 4, N.Y. Yankees 1 Pittsburgh 2, Minnesota 1 Texas 5, Houston 1 Seattle 8, Detroit 4 Miami 11, Baltimore 1 Cleveland 6, Chicago White Sox 5 Kansas City 3, N.Y. Mets 2 Athletics 6, Toronto 3 Arizona 5, L.A. Angels 1

Monday’s Games

No games scheduled

National League L 41

L 39 40 46 47 58

Pct .594 .579 .521 .515 .402

GB — 1½ 7 7½ 18½

West Division

Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco Arizona Colorado

W 57 52 52 46 22

Saturday’s Games

L 39 43 44 50 74

Pct .594 .547 .542 .479 .229

GB — 4½ 5 11 35

Chicago Cubs 5, N.Y. Yankees 2 Atlanta 7, St. Louis 6 Minnesota 12, Pittsburgh 4 L.A. Dodgers 2, San Francisco 1 Miami 6, Baltimore 0 Cincinnati 4, Colorado 3 Milwaukee 6, Washington 5 N.Y. Mets 3, Kansas City 1 San Diego 5, Philadelphia 4 L.A. Angels 10, Arizona 5

Pct .573

GB —

At The Renaissance Club North Berwick, United Kingdom Purse: $9 million Yardage: 7,282; Par: 70 Final Round C. Gottrp $1,575,000 68-61-70-66—265 R. McIlry $788,175 68-65-66-68—267 M. Pnge $788,175 65-67-69-66—267 N. Hjgrd $407,250 68-69-67-64—268 J. Rose $322,200 70-68-68-63—269 S. Strka $287,550 64-69-70-67—270 L. Aberg $233,400 67-65-71-68—271 X. Schauffele $233,400 68-66-71-66—271 S.Scheffler $233,400 67-68-69-67—271 W. Clark $189,675 66-69-66-71—272 V. Hvlnd $189,675 66-72-67-67—272 C. Bzdnht $153,450 70-68-69-66—273 A. Novak $153,450 72-63-68-70—273 T. Pndrih $153,450 67-69-69-68—273 K. Reitan $153,450 71-65-68-69—273 H. Hall $120,510 67-64-74-69—274 T. Kim $120,510 66-70-67-71—274 A. Sctt $120,510 69-68-70-67—274 A. Sullivn $120,510 68-66-70-70—274 N. Echvrra $80,625 64-72-72-67—275 H. English $80,625 72-65-66-72—275 J. Knapp $80,625 64-69-68-74—275 M. McCarty $80,625 69-65-71-70—275 M. McNealy $80,625 67-71-71-66—275 A. Rozner $80,625 67-67-69-72—275 N. Taylor $80,625 67-66-73-69—275 J. Thomas $80,625 69-70-71-65—275 J. Campillo $80,625 68-71-67-69—275 G. Forrest $80,625 67-68-71-69—275 R.Mansell $80,625 69-67-73-66—275 J. L. Smith $80,625 71-67-68-69—275 T. Fleetwd $52,950 70-67-71-68—276 S. W. Kim $52,950 70-69-68-69—276 M. Kim $52,950 69-67-70-70—276 A. Smalley $52,950 70-69-69-68—276 K. Yu $52,950 67-67-69-73—276 L. Canter $52,950 69-69-70-68—276 M. Siem $52,950 65-71-73-67—276 E. Smylie $52,950 67-71-71-67—276 S. Soderbrg $52,950 69-66-72-69—276 V. Perez $40,950 64-70-71-72—277 J. Svnssn $40,950 73-64-71-69—277 U. Coussaud $40,950 68-71-67-71—277 Y. Paul $40,950 68-66-73-70—277 S. Burns $34,860 67-71-72-68—278 C. Connrs $34,860 70-69-71-68—278 A. Rai $34,860 69-67-71-71—278 B. Harman $29,754 69-65-74-71—279 K. Mitchell $29,754 66-67-74-72—279 J. Vegas $29,754 67-71-70-71—279 M. Wallce $29,754 71-68-68-72—279 F. Laporta $29,754 71-64-69-75—279 D. Berger $25,920 68-71-72-69—280 67-70-68-75—280 B. Cauley $25,920 R. Lngsque $25,920 71-67-67-75—280 K. Nakajima $25,920 73-65-71-71—280 J. Parry $25,920 71-68-68-73—280 T. Olesn $23,220 67-70-74-70—281 S. Valimaki $23,220 70-69-70-72—281 G. Woodland $23,220 69-69-70-73—281 D. Brwn $23,220 70-66-73-72—281 A. Del Rey $23,220 67-67-73-74—281 L. Clanton $19,800 72-66-74-70—282 R. Fox $19,800 66-70-74-72—282 R. Mcntre $19,800 68-71-72-71—282

S. Bairstw $19,800 J. Kryswjk $19,800 D. Whitnll $19,800 T. Detry $18,810 P. Hrringtn $18,810 M. Couvra $18,540 R. Gerard $18,360 J. Bridgeman $18,000 S. Stevens $18,000 C. Syme $18,000 H. Nrlndr $17,640 B. An $17,460

70-66-75-71—282 70-68-71-73—282 70-68-74-70—282 68-70-73-72—283 69-70-72-72—283 70-68-74-72—284 67-70-75-73—285 71-68-71-76—286 72-67-72-75—286 68-71-72-75—286 67-72-73-75—287 67-72-76-73—288

Evian Championship

+2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +4 +5 +6 +6 +6 +7 +8

Sunday

At Evian Resort Golf Club Evian-les-Bains, France Purse: $8 million Yardage: 6,504; Par: 71 Final Round

(x-won on second playoff hole)

Sunday

Major League Baseball

W 55

W 57 55 50 50 39

Genesis Scottish Open

Atlanta vs. Houston, 3:30 p.m.

Chicago vs. Indiana, 5 p.m.

Charlotte vs. Dallas, 5:30 p.m.

Boston vs. Miami, 7 p.m.

Utah vs. San Antonio, 7:30 p.m.

Phoenix vs. Sacramento, 9 p.m.

L.A. Clippers vs. L.A. Lakers, 9:30 p.m.

New York

Chicago Milwaukee St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh

Central Division

Golf

Monday, July 14

East Division

½ 11 12 16½

No games scheduled

Atlanta 98, Phoenix 80 Detroit 98 Houston 83 Boston 94, New York 81 Toronto vs. Orlando, n Miami vs. Cleveland, n Brooklyn vs. Washington, n Milwaukee vs. L.A. Clippers, n Golden State vs. Utah, n

Saturday’s Games

.568 .457 .447 .400

Monday’s Games

Sunday, July 13

West Division

41 51 52 57

Chicago Cubs 4, N.Y. Yankees 1 Cincinnati 4, Colorado 2 Pittsburgh 2, Minnesota 1 Miami 11, Baltimore 1 Kansas City 3, N.Y. Mets 2 Milwaukee 8, Washington 1 Atlanta at St. Louis, n L.A. Dodgers 5, San Francisco 2 Arizona 5, L.A. Angels 1 Philadelphia 2, San Diego 1

Minnesota at Chicago, 7 p.m.

Phoenix at Golden State, 9 p.m.

Central Division

54 43 42 38

Sunday’s Games

Monday’s Games

East Division

Philadelphia Miami Atlanta Washington

-15 -13 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -9 -9 -8 -8 -7 -7 -7 -7 -6 -6 -6 -6 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -3 -3 -3 -3 -2 -2 -2 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 E E E E E +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +2

x-Grace Kim, $1,200,000 65-68-70-67—270 -14 Jeeno Thitikul, $722,002 68-68-67-67—270 -14 Minjee Lee, $523,761 66-71-66-68—271 -13 Lottie Woad 68-69-70-64—271 -13 Andrea Lee, $365,644 65-70-71-66—272 -12 Angel Yin, $365,644 72-67-70-63—272 -12 A. Jutanugarn, $245,081 69-70-68-66—273 -11 Leona Maguire, $245,081 65-71-70-67—273 -11 Gaby Lopez, $185,790 68-74-67-65—274 -10 G. Ruffels, $185,790 65-71-66-72—274 -10 J. Kupcho, $148,891 65-69-72-69—275 -9 E. Pedersen, $148,891 70-67-69-69—275 -9 Rio Takeda, $148,891 69-67-70-69—275 -9 Hye Jin Choi, $112,525 67-68-70-71—276 -8 Cara Gainer, $112,525 68-70-64-74—276 -8 Chisato Iwai, $112,525 69-74-67-66—276 -8 S. Kyriacou, $112,525 70-68-74-64—276 -8 Somi Lee, $112,525 67-65-71-73—276 -8 M. Yamashita, $112,525 69-71-68-68—276 -8 C. Alexander, $94,081 67-68-69-73—277 -7 Na Rin An, $81,600 74-70-66-68—278 -6 Celine Boutier, $81,600 68-70-70-70—278 -6 P. Delacour, $81,600 70-71-70-67—278 -6 Megan Khang, $81,600 68-75-68-67—278 -6 Ruixin Liu, $81,600 72-71-63-72—278 -6 N. Nadaud, $81,600 71-67-67-73—278 -6 Yuri Yoshida, $81,600 72-69-63-74—278 -6 Aditi Ashok, $67,198 67-69-70-73—279 -5 Mi Hyang Lee, $67,198 71-68-70-70—279 -5 J. Lopez Ramirez, $67,198 72-67-70-70—279 -5 B. Henderson, $58,502 73-71-68-68—280 -4 Hyo Joo Kim, $58,502 71-70-70-69—280 -4 Jenny Shin, $58,502 69-68-68-75—280 -4 J. Suwannapura, $58,502 72-68-73-67—280 -4 Jin Young Ko, $50,597 70-69-71-71—281 -3 Mary Liu, $50,597 67-71-70-73—281 -3 Rose Zhang, $50,597 71-70-71-69—281 -3 Manon De Roey, $42,929 74-70-71-67—282 -2 Jin Hee Im, $42,929 70-72-70-70—282 -2 Jeong Eun Lee5, $42,929 74-69-70-69—282 -2 Paula Reto, $42,929 69-71-71-71—282 -2 Mao Saigo, $42,929 67-72-69-74—282 -2 Peiyun Chien, $34,390 71-71-67-74—283 -1 Auston Kim, $34,390 69-68-74-72—283 -1 Nelly Korda, $34,390 67-70-75-71—283 -1 Aline Krauter, $34,390 73-69-72-69—283 -1 P. Tavatanakit, $34,390 71-68-74-70—283 -1 C. Wannasaen, $34,390 69-75-70-69—283 -1 P. Anannarukarn, $27,049 73-70-68-73—284 E Allisen Corpuz, $27,049 76-67-68-73—284 E G. Dryburgh, $27,049 74-70-73-67—284 E Esther Henseleit, $27,049 72-72-70-70—284 E You Min Hwang, $27,049 75-68-72-69—284 E M. Sagstrom, $27,049 72-72-70-70—284 E Sarah Schmelzel, $27,049 70-71-69-74—284 E Helen Briem, $22,926 67-75-67-76—285 +1 N. Krstz Madsen, $22,926 74-68-68-75—285 +1 Amy Yang, $22,926 72-71-71-71—285 +1 Jenny Bae, $19,765 71-73-70-72—286 +2 Brianna Do, $19,765 76-68-68-74—286 +2 Ayaka Furue, $19,765 67-72-74-73—286 +2 Nasa Hataoka, $19,765 70-68-76-72—286 +2 Azahara Munoz, $19,765 72-71-74-69—286 +2 Shannon Tan, $19,765 73-68-70-75—286 +2 Lucy Li, $17,788 70-73-71-73—287 +3 Hira Naveed, $17,788 71-71-73-72—287 +3 Ina Yoon, $17,788 68-70-76-73—287 +3 Minami Katsu, $16,800 72-70-72-75—289 +5 Gigi Stoll, $16,800 72-70-71-76—289 +5 Haeji Kang, $16,010 72-71-72-75—290 +6 Maria Marin 75-69-73-73—290 +6 Weiwei Zhang, $16,010 71-69-73-77—290 +6 Bronte Law, $15,617 71-73-73-75—292 +8 Lindy Duncan, $15,413 69-69-77-WD

Tennis Wimbledon Results Sunday

At All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club London Purse: £19,414,000 Surface: Grass LONDON Results Sunday from the Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (seedings in parentheses):

Men’s Singles

Championship Jannik Sinner (1), Italy, def. Carlos Alcaraz (2), Spain, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Women’s Doubles

Championship Veronika Kudermetova, Russia, and Elise Mertens (8), Belgium, def. Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, and Jelena Ostapenko (4), Latvia,

3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Cycling Sunday 9th Stage A 108-mile ride from Chinon to Châteauroux

1. Tim Merlier, Belgium, Soudal Quick-Step, 3:28:52.

2. Jonathan Milan, Italy, Lidl-Trek, same time.

3. Arnaud De Lie, Belgium, Lotto, same time.

4. Pavel Bittner, Czechia, Team Picnic PostNL, same time.

5. Paul Penhoët, France, Groupama-FDJ, same time.

6. Biniam Girmay, Eritrea, IntermarchéWanty, same time.

7. Phil Bauhaus, Germany, Bahrain Victorious, same time.

8. Jordi Meeus, Belgium, Red Bull-BORAhansgrohe, same time.

9. Stian Fredheim, Norway, Uno-X Mobility, same time.

10. Kaden Groves, Australia, Alpecin-Deceuninck, same time.

Also

43. Matteo Jorgenson, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 3:28:52.

57. Neilson Powless, United States, EF Education-EasyPost, 3:29:09.

84. Sepp Kuss, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, same time.

111. Quinn Simmons, United States, LidlTrek, 3:31:11.

154. William Barta, United States, Movistar Team, 3:35:50

Overall Standings

1. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 33:17:22.

2. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium, Soudal QuickStep, 33:18:16.

3. Kevin Vauquelin, France, Arkea-B&B Hotels, 33:18:33.

4. Jonas Vingegaard, Denmark, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 33:18:39.

5. Matteo Jorgenson, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 33:18:56.

6. Mathieu van der Poel, Netherlands, Alpecin-Deceuninck, 33:19:08.

7. Oscar Onley, Great Britain, Picnic PostNL, 33:20:11.

8. Florian Lipowitz, Germany, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 33:20:24.

9. Primoz Roglic, Slovenia, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 33:20:28.

10. Mattias Skjelmose, Denmark, LIDL-TREK/ USA, 33:21:05.

Team Standings

1. Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 99:56:32.

2. UAE Team Emirates XRG, 100:04:25.

3. Groupama-FDJ, 100:10:49.

4. Arkea-B&B Hotels, 100:13:09.

5. Decathalon AG2R La Mondiale Team, 100:17:08.

6. Red Bull — Bora — Hansgrohe, 100:17:08.

7. Ineos Grenadiers, 100:20:14.

8. EF Education — EasyPost, 100:22:48.

9. Total Energies, 100:24:38.

10. Team Picnic PostNL, 100:24:52.

Auto racing NASCAR Toyota / Save Mart 350 Results Sunday

At Sonoma Raceway Sonoma, Calif.

Lap length: 1.99 miles (Start position in parentheses) 1. (1) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 110 laps, 59 points.

2. (2) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 110, 44.

3. (13) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 110, 35.

4. (15) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 110, 33.

5. (10) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 110, 32.

6. (8) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 110, 31.

7. (6) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 110, 32.

8. (3) William Byron, Chevrolet, 110, 36.

9. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 110, 28.

10. (17) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 110, 35.

11. (21) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 110, 26.

12. (20) Ryan Preece, Ford, 110, 25.

13. (25) Josh Berry, Ford, 110, 24.

14. (19) Daniel Suárez, Chevrolet, 110, 23.

15. (29) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 110, 22.

16. (14) Chris Buescher, Ford, 110, 24.

17. (26) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 110, 29.

18. (5) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 110, 19.

19. (9) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 110, 18.

20. (16) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 110, 17.

21. (33) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 110, 16.

22. (35) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 110, 15.

23. (27) Cole Custer, Ford, 110, 14.

24. (4) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 110, 23.

25. (28) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 110, 12.

26. (30) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 110, 26.

27. (12) Zane Smith, Ford, 110, 10.

28. (18) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 110, 9.

29. (31) Erik Jones, Toyota, 110, 8.

30. (24) Austin Cindric, Ford, 110, 7.

31. (37) Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 110, 6.

32. (23) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 110, 5.

33. (34) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chevrolet, 110, 17.

34. (36) Cody Ware, Ford, 108, 3.

35. (11) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 108, 11.

36. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, accident, 106, 6.

37. (32) Noah Gragson, Ford, accident, 99, 1.

Race Statistics Average Speed of Race Winner: 75.087 mph.

Time of Race: 2 hours, 54 minutes, 55 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 1.128 seconds.

Caution Flags: 6 for 17 laps.

Lead Changes: 12 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders: S.Van Gisbergen 0-22; R.Chastain 23-26; S.Van Gisbergen 2753; K.Larson 54; S.Van Gisbergen 55-58; C.Briscoe 59; S.Van Gisbergen 60-83; C.Bell 84; K.Larson 85-86; M.McDowell 87-89; S.Van Gisbergen 90-105; C.Briscoe 106; S.Van Gisbergen 107-110 Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): S.Van Gisbergen, 6 times for 97 laps; R.Chastain, 1 time for 4 laps; M.McDowell, 1 time for 3 laps; K.Larson, 2 times for 3 laps; C.Briscoe, 2 times for 2 laps; C.Bell, 1 time for 1 lap.

Wins: K.Larson, 3; D.Hamlin, 3; C.Bell, 3; S.Van Gisbergen, 2; W.Byron, 1; C.Elliott, 1; R.Blaney, 1; R.Chastain, 1; C.Briscoe, 1; J.Logano, 1; A.Cindric, 1; J.Berry, 1.

Top 16 in Points: 1. W.Byron, 632; 2. C.Elliott, 619; 3. K.Larson, 613; 4. D.Hamlin, 589; 5.

T.Reddick, 584; 6. C.Bell, 565; 7. R.Blaney, 539; 8. R.Chastain, 490; 9. C.Briscoe, 482; 10. A.Bowman, 480; 11. C.Buescher, 476; 12. J.Logano, 471; 13. B.Wallace, 443; 14.

R.Preece, 441; 15. A.Allmendinger, 400; 16.

K.Busch, 397.

NASCAR Driver Rating Formula A maximum of 150 points can be attained in a race.

The formula combines the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish.

IndyCar Weekend Race 2 Results Sunday

At Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa Lap length: 0.894 miles (Start position in parentheses) 1. (1) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 275 laps, Running.

2. (8) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

3. (12) Marcus Armstrong, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

4. (3) David Malukas, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

5. (9) Pato O’Ward, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

6. (22) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

7. (2) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

8. (17) Christian Rasmussen, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

9. (11) Robert Shwartzman, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

10. (4) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevrolet, 275, Running.

11. (25) Jacob Abel, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

12. (26) Rinus VeeKay, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

13. (18) Kyffin Simpson, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

14. (16) Louis Foster, Dallara-Honda, 275, Running.

15. (20) Santino Ferrucci, Dallara-Chevrolet, 274, Running.

16. (7) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevrolet, 274, Running.

17. (15) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Chevrolet, 274, Running.

18. (21) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Honda, 274, Running.

19. (10) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 272, Running.

20. (19) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 252, Did not finish.

21. (13) Callum Ilott, 173, Did not finish.

22. (14) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 127, Did not finish.

23. (24) Sting Ray Robb, Dallara-Chevrolet, 48, Did not finish.

24. (6) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 21, Did not finish.

25. (23) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 0, Did not finish.

26. (27) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevrolet, 0, Did not finish.

27. (5) Nolan Siegel, Dallara-Chevrolet, 0, Did not finish.

Transactions Major League Baseball American League ATHLETICS — Reinstated 2B Luis Urias from the 10-day IL. BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Sent LHP Cade Povich to Aberdeen (SAL) and RHP Zach Eflin to Chesapeake (EL) on rehab assignments.

Placed RHP Scott Blewett on the 15-day IL. Recalled LHP Grant Wolfram from Norfolk (IL).

CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Reassigned LHP Cam Booser to the minor leagues. Optioned LHP Cam Booser to Charlotte (IL).

LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

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M o n d ay, J u ly 14, 2025

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ALZHEIMER’S Q&A

STAFF PHOTOS By ROBIN MILLER

Judith Braggs’ textile pieces depict the Creole folktale, ‘The Honest Thief,’ in the ‘Kont Kréyol-yé’ or ‘Creole Folktales’ exhibit.

Folktales as only Creoles can tell them take the spotlight in the West Baton Rouge Museum

STORY TIME

A full shot of Henry Watson’s wood-carved artwork, ‘The Maringouins,’ in the West Baton Rouge Museum’s exhibit ‘Kont Kréyol-yé’ or ‘Creole Folktales.’ The piece shows two men who are not from Louisiana being chased by mosquitoes.

RIGHT: Henry Barconey’s painting depicting the Creole folktale ‘Br’er Rabbit: Why His Tail is Short.’

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

“Oh, this is a cute story,” Angelique Bergeron says.

She’s right, it is cute, and it comes with a humorous twist at the end, as do most of the stories in the West Baton Rouge Museum’s exhibit, “Kont Kréyol-yé.”

The exhibit’s title translates to “Creole Folktales,” which are told through the work of local artists in the museum’s Whitehead Gallery.

The show runs through Oct. 12.

Bergeron is the museum’s executive director, and it’s Henry Watson’s wood-carved picture, “The Maringouins,” enchanting her at the moment.

“This artwork illustrates the Creole folktale, ‘Lé Maringwin,’ which translates to ‘The Mosquitoes’ in English,” Bergeron said. “And it’s about these guys who are trying to get through the swamp. They’re so tired, so they find a high ground, and they put down their blankets and try to sleep. But these mosquitoes are biting them all night.”

The men don’t know why the mosquitoes are plaguing them. In fact, they don’t know what mosquitoes are, because neither is from Louisiana.

“They haven’t been in the swamp before, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is this creature?,’ ” Bergeron continues.

“Then, the next day, they find a cabin. And they’re so happy, because they’re so tired they could almost sleep standing up.”

But when they settle in the cabin for the night, they see the glow of a firefly.

“And they’re like, ‘Oh, you gotta get outta here, because the bugs came back and they brought a lantern to find us,” Bergeron said, turning to Watson’s depiction of the story showing two men being chased out of a cabin by giant mosquitoes.

The story is one of 28 folktales filling the gallery’s walls. Some are similar to fairy and folktales found in other cultures but with alterations to fit Louisiana’s environment.

Here, visitors will read about the turtle and the deer instead of the tortoise and the hare. They’ll also read it in Creole French.

Which means even speakers of French aren’t immune to the otherness of this language, being that Creole French is a totally different dialect.

Don’t worry. A smartphone click on the QR code at the beginning of the exhibit provides English translations of all the stories. The museum has also published a book, “Kont Kréyol-yé, Creole Folktales,” to coincide with the show. Its pages are not only filled with the exhibit’s 28

Keith ‘Cartoonman’ Douglas’ painting depicts the Creole folktale, ‘Br’er Rabbit: Why His Ears Are So Long.’

Henry Barcony’s painting depicts the Creole folktale, ‘The Ball at Mister Deer’s.’

Malaika Favorite’s painting depicts the Creole folktale, ‘Br’er Rabbit & Br’er Hyena.’

Zora White, a 10-year-old artist, painted her own nose and pressed it to the paper to depict the nose prints of the seven men in the Creole folktale, ‘Seven Lost Men.’

ä See FOLKTALES, page 6C

TNT loaded tea trailer offers big flavors on the move

BY SERENA PUANG Staff writer

A new food trailer is joining the growing collection of businesses parked out in the parking lot in front of Purple Cow on Perkins Road. TNT, a loaded tea trailer, opened last week, and it plans to be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Co-owners Shaylee Covill and Nick Demas didn’t grow up in Louisiana but decided to call

Baton Rouge home. Demas was a running back for LSU football, and Covill said she fell in love with loaded teas while studying at LSU — they were a pick-meup drink and finals-studying fuel.

While visiting home in Austin, Texas, for the summer, she was really craving one and asked Demas to bring her one … from seven hours away. Demas didn’t drive the seven hours with a single loaded tea, but he did buy a trailer off

ä See TEA, page 6C

TNT co-owner Nick Demas mixes a drink called Tiger Tango before adding ice in the food truck located in the Acadian Perkins Plaza Shopping Center in Baton Rouge.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Recent study shows benefits of having active lifestyles Does sustaining an active lifestyle in midlife lower the risk of dementia?

In a February 2019 study highlighted in Neurology, researchers reported that staying both physically and mentally active in midlife (40s) may protect the brain decades later.

The study involved 800 Swedish women with an average age of 47 who were followed for 44 years and who were scored in two areas of mental and physical activities.

Women who were assigned to high levels of mental activity were 46% less likely to have developed Alzheimer’s disease and 34% less likely to have developed dementia overall than the women in the group who performed lower levels of mental activity practices. With regards to physical activity, 52% of the women in the study were less likely to have developed a type of dementia associated with cerebrovascular (refers to blood flow in the brain) disease and 56% less likely to have developed more general dementia than the women in the group who remained less physically active.

While the results indicate that levels of both physical and mental activities could affect cognition later, physician and study author Jenna Najar of the Institute for Neuroscience and Physiology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, noted that physical activity may lower the chances of vascular dementia in particular.

The study’s conclusions also showed how the two effects — mental and physical activity — are distinct.

As Najar put it, “We found that mental activities in midlife, such as reading a book, doing crossword puzzles, singing or attending concerts, to name a few, reduced the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, regardless of how physically active the women were.

Physical activity, meanwhile, in midlife reduced the risk of more vascular forms of dementia, regardless of how mentally active the women were.”

Experts agree that more studies need to be conducted to find the physical pathway connecting lifestyle factors in midlife to specific protective effects in the brain. Brain health has long been promoted for overall aging and cognitive health, and in that respect, the study was a confirmation and offered more validity that being mentally and physically active can lower the risks of cognitive decline in aging. While research is still developing, strong evidence exists that individuals can reduce their risk of cognitive decline by making key lifestyle changes, including participating in regular physical and mental activity, staying socially engaged, and maintaining good heart health.

According to the Healthy Brain Initiative by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “public health’s role in maintaining cognitive health

ä See LIFESTYLE, page 6C

6C ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Stem cells being researched to help with Type 1 diabetes Dear Doctors: I have Type 1 diabetes. I try to stay healthy and keep my blood sugar under control, but it feels like a fight every day.

I read there’s a study using stem cells for a cure. Are there any updates? Does it seem like this might lead to a treatment?

Dear reader: Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease.

The immune system mistakenly targets and destroys beta cells in the pancreas. These cells are mainly responsible for producing insulin, the hormone crucial to glucose metabolism. Without enough insulin, the body is unable to keep blood glucose within a healthy range. Ways to manage blood sugar in these cases include injectable insulin, a carefully curated diet and healthy lifestyle choices.

TODAY IN HISTORY

By The Associated Press Today is Monday, July 14, the 195th day of 2025. There are 170 days left in the year.

Today in history: On July 14, 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners held there.

Also on this date: In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed by the government of Nazi Germany.

In 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall first arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her study of the wild chimpanzees living there.

In 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)

In 2013, thousands of demonstrators across the country protested a Florida jury’s decision one day earlier to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

In 2016, terror struck Bastille Day celebrations in the French Riviera city of Nice as a large truck plowed into a festive crowd, killing 86 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State extremists; the driver was shot dead by police.

In 2020, researchers reported that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. boosted people’s immune systems as scientists had hoped; the vaccine was developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. Today’s birthdays: Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is 93. Actor Vincent Pastore (TV” “The Sopranos”) is 79. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 77. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 67. Singersongwriter Anjelique Kidjo is 65. Singer-guitarist Kyle Gass (Tenacious D) is 65. Actor Jane Lynch is 65. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 64. Actor Matthew Fox is 59. Rock singer-musician Tanya Donelly is 59. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is 54. Country singer Jamey Johnson is 50. Hip-hop musician Taboo (Black Eyed Peas) is 50. Actor/writer/producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge is 39. Rock singer Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) is 38.

LIFESTYLE

Continued from page 5C is a vital part of healthy aging and quality of life is emerging.”

Public health professionals are gaining a better understanding of brain disorders and risk factors, and the public health community should embrace cognitive health as a priority.

Dana Territo is an Alzheimer’s advocate and author of “What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’s Disease.”

She hosts “The Memory Whisperer.” Email her at thememorywhisperer@gmail. com.

blood sugar can be both daunting and tiring. That brings us to your question.

Stem cells are what is known as undifferentiated cells. That means they have not yet developed a specific function, like muscle, bone or nerve cells.

Because stem cells are like a ASK THE DOCTORS blank slate, they can develop into other types of specialized cells.

Introduced in 1922, injectable They can also self-renew. These insulin revolutionized diabetes unique qualities have made stem treatment. Before that, life expec- cells the focus of research into treatment for a wide range of tancy with the disease was just a diseases, including Type 1 diafew years. Today, even with the benefit of insulin, people with dia- betes.

In the clinical trial you asked betes are at an increased risk of developing serious complications, about, participants were infused including cardiovascular disease, with stem cells “taught” to benerve damage, kidney disease have like beta cells. It was a small and eye damage. As you point out, study with just 17 patients, but the vigilance required to manage the preliminary results were en-

Dr. Elizabeth Ko Dr. Eve Glazier

couraging. One participant’s body began to produce insulin and release it in response to blood sugar fluctuations. On the other hand, because these stem cell infusions introduce foreign tissue into the body, they require antirejection drugs. These drugs can cause side effects that can be hard to tolerate. Several participants dropped out of the study due to the adverse effects.

Many readers have asked for information about upcoming clinical trials into this line of research. Earlier this spring, the researchers announced they are moving on to the next expanded phase of research. As with all clinical trials, the parameters for participation are quite specific.

In this case, the study is recruiting people with Type 1 diabetes

who also have severe episodes of hypoglycemia or have impaired awareness of hypoglycemia. Due to the antirejection drugs, it is important to remember there is also an element of risk.

The 27 locations of upcoming trials include cities in Illinois, Florida, California, Maryland, Texas, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trials in Canada and Europe are scheduled as well. For more details, visit clinicaltrials.gov and search for VX-880.

Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.

FOLKTALES

Continued from page 5C folktales in English and Creole but also their accompanying artwork.

A copy of the book is available for viewing within the exhibit.

Copies also are for sale in the museum store.

Both the show and book are based on the 1931 LSU Master’s thesis by Lafayette Jarreau, who recorded folktales told to him by both Black and White Creoles in both Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge Parishes.

Bergeron’s great-uncle, Hecky Olinde, introduced her to Jarreau’s thesis 20 years ago, and they’ve since lingered in the back of her mind.

“I’ve known that I wanted to do something with these stories for 20 years,” she said. “When my greatuncle handed me a copy of the thesis, it was the first time I saw the language and humor of the old Creoles captured on the page.”

Bergeron was born and raised in New Roads, where her own grandfather spoke Creole French, and earned a doctoral degree in French studies at LSU. “Creole, often misunderstood, is a language and culture born out of diversity,” Bergeron writes in the exhibit book’s introduction. “In our region, the Creole language is spoken by people of all shades and phenotypes. I am Creole, as are most people involved in this project.”

She points out that Jarreau called the language a “patois,” which refers to Louisiana’s regional French dialects.

“But, the Creole spoken in our area is a fully developed language,” Bergeron said. “It’s now referred to as ‘Kouri-Vini,’ to distinguish it from other Creole languages.”

Meanwhile, Bergeron gave the job of researching Jarreau’s storytellers’ biographers to author and fellow Creole Brian Costello, founding historian and archivist of the Historic Materials Collection of the Pointe Coupee Parish Library in New Roads.

Creole activist, artist and producer Clif St. Laurent provided the orthography, or conventional spelling, for this area’s Creole dialect, officially called Kour-Vini. The Baton Rouge native, self-taught in the language, has received certifications in linguistics from British universities of Leicester and York and translated Louisiana Creole texts for universities and the federal government.

Bergeron also enlisted her Creole friend, artist and former Baton

TEA

Continued from page 5C Facebook Marketplace the next day and renovated it so they could start a loaded tea business of their own.

Thus, TNT was born.

What is loaded tea?

STAFF PHOTOS By ROBIN MILLER

Angelique Bergeron, left, executive director of the West Baton Rouge Museum and artist Jonathan Mayers worked together in putting together the stories and artwork in the museum’s exhibit, ‘Kont Kréyol-yé’ or ‘Creole Folktales.’

André-Phillipe St. Romain depicts the Creole folktale, ‘A Man and His Lion.’

Rouge Poet Laureate Jonathan Joseph Mayers, to recruit artists for the show.

Mayers is known throughout the state for his promotion of the Creole language and culture through his work, and he even went as far as to hand-craft paper out of banana leaves and the fibrous sugar cane residue called bagasse, which he distributed to the show’s 14 artists.

Most of the artists painted their interpretations of the stories on Mayers’ paper, but the show also

includes wood-carved pictures, textiles, a ceramic sculpture and handmade dolls.

But in the end, all 28 stories are illustrated on surfaces created from Louisiana byproducts.

Among the artists are George Marks of Arnaudville; Malaika Favorite of Geismar, who most recently created murals for the Princess and the Frog ride in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; and Keith “Cartoonman” Douglas, a teacher in Central’s Gifted and Talented Program.

Douglas’ illustration for “Br’er Rabbit: Why His Ears Are So Long,” appears on the book’s front cover.

And not all of the artists are adults. When one artist had to bow out of the project, Bergeron’s 10-year-old daughter, Zora White, stepped up. She’s well-versed in Creole French and has participated in the museum’s French immersion programs.

Her most noted piece in this show is “Sét Nomm Perd, Seven Lost Men,” told to Jarreau by Louis Bizette. In the story, the men seemed to have lost a member in their group.

“One of the men is counting, but he’s only counting six men and isn’t counting himself,” Bergeron said. “Finally, a man comes along

and has them all stick their noses in the mud. That’s when they see there are seven nose prints in the mud.”

So, making her painting as authentic as possible, White stuck her nose in paint and made seven nose prints on her picture.

Bergeron and Mayers hope to tour the show, but those plans have yet to be finalized. Still, visitors have plenty of time to stop by the museum to see Henry Watson’s illustration of Etienne Stama’s “Lé Maringwin,” where the mosquitoes “çé Djab minm!”

That’s Creole French for “the Devil himself.”

“I love that story,” Bergeron said. “Now none of them will be forgotten.”

The West Baton Rouge Museum, 845 N. Jefferson Ave., Port Allen, will show “Kont Kréyol-yé,” or “Creole Folktales” through Oct. 31. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for seniors, military and students. For more information, call (225) 336-2422 or visit westbatonrougemuseum.org.

Email Robin Miller at romiller@ theadvocate.com.

and made with zero multi-level marketing products, such as Herbalife. Flavors like Tiger Tango (citrus, mango, peach) and Geaux Gold (citrus, dragon fruit, pineapple) pay homage to LSU, while other flavors are a nod to Covill’s home state or the couple’s dogs.

Now with the trailer, Covill and Demas are busy with six jobs between them in private equity, retail, Companion Animal Alliance and LSU. “We’re gonna try to hopefully get this up and running and narrow down our jobs,” Covill said.

In the future, the owners have aspirations to expand into dirty sodas or energy drinks, but for now, they’re going to be ironing out details at this location. They also plan to participate in events, which might mean that some of their hours might change or fluctuate.

Keep up with them on social meSTAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON dia for the most current hours at TNT co-owner Shaylee Covill hands out a drink called Tiger Tango from the instagram.com/siptnt.

Loaded teas are vitamin-infused, tea-based energy drinks that are known for being high in caffeine while being low in calories. Covill and Demas want to offer fully customizable drinks infused with vitamins C, B3, B6, B12, biotin, calcium and taurine.

The teas come in 16-, 24- or 32-ounce cups (many loaded tea places only have 32-ounce cups), and the caffeine in them can go from 0 milligrams to 350 milligrams of caffeine. The standard drinks with no modifications contain 80, 140 and 180 milligrams, respectively, depending on size. food truck.

For comparison, the average shot of espresso contains 64 milligrams feine and get some fun drink for of caffeine. themselves,” Covill said.

“If a little kid wants to come up, The teas come in 20 named flathey can technically get no caf- vors, but people can also custom-

TNT, 3651 Perkins Road, Baton ize their drinks by picking a base Rouge. (citrus, orange or berry) and adding two flavors. All of the teas are Email Serena Puang at serena. sugar-free, sweetened with stevia puang@theadvocate.com.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● 7C

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zodIAC CANCER (June 21-July 22) Dream it, believe it and follow through. You have choices, and at the end of the day, what's important is that you have no regrets. Be open to suggestions, but follow your heart.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) What you do will far exceed what you say. Actions speak louder than words. Watch out for people who try to slow you down. Think positive thoughts, and rewards will follow.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Take better care of yourself, your reputation and your job. Concentrate on taking care of your responsibilities and helping others.

Positive suggestions will take flight.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Test your theories privately before sharing your thoughts. Too much of anything will backfire. Add to your qualifications to ensure you head in your chosen direction.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Test your talents. Focus on completing tasks on time. Refuse to let partnerships suffer due to poor communication, anxiety or trust issues. Emotional spending will lead to regret.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Changing how you earn a living or handle your cash looks promising. The happier you are, the less money you'll spend. Contentment and gratitude have healing powers.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Expand your interests and friendships. Take better care of your physical well-being by

making healthy choices. Refuse to let temptation and indulgence interfere with personal and physical progress.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Pay attention to detail, and you'll surpass your expectations. Use your imagination to implement changes at home. Romance is evident; however, jealousy and emotional instability are also present.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Direct your energy wisely. Show passion in all you do, and let your actions reflect your feelings. Once you express your position and digest responses from others, you'll know which path to take.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Set a budget, and you'll have more cash to enjoy your favorite pastime, hobby or entertainment. Pay attention to your emotional well-being. A fitness routine can improve your outlook.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Arguing is a waste of time. Participating in community events can foster friendships with individuals who share your values, ethics and beliefs. Broaden your horizons, and new interests will develop.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) You may crave change, but before you make a move, consider if you are trying to please yourself or someone else. Boredom will lead to regret. Use your intelligence to ward off poor choices.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

For better or For WorSe WonderWord

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY CeLebrItY CIpher Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

TODAy'S CLUE: L EQUALS F

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

8C ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers.

The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

THe wiZard oF id

nea CroSSwordS

La TimeS CroSSword

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● 9C

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B.C.

Bridge

BY PHILLIP ALDER Will Rogers said, “An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.”

A bridge expert’s guess is liable to be better than a lesser player’s. In this deal, how should South plan the play in four spades after West leads the club queen?

South’s jump to four spades is normal, but he might guess to rebid three notrump. North would then have to guess whether to pass (he has 4-3-3-3 distribution) or to remove to four spades (he has four trumps). Here, three no-trump has nine easy tricks.

South has four potential losers: three hearts and one diamond. In real life, he might guess that either East has the heart ace or West has the diamond king. But in a lesson setting or a newspaper column, declarer should know that East will have the diamond king and West the heart ace.

How can South still survive?

If declarer wins the first trick, draws trumps, and takes the diamond finesse, East wins with his king and shifts to the heart queen — the contract is kaput.

Instead, South should duck the first trick. He takes the club continuation with his ace, draws trumps ending on the board, throws a diamond on the club king, cashes the diamond ace, and contin-

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

ues with the diamond jack. If East plays low, declarer discards a heart and has 10 tricks (six spades, two diamonds and two clubs), even if West produces the king.

If East covers, declarer ruffs, returns to dummy with a trump, and cashes the last diamond. He is home with no guesswork. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

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 — cAssOWARY: KASS-oh-ware-ee: A large bird closely related to

Bizarro

marmaduKe

the emu.

Average mark 14 words Time limit 20 minutes Can you find 18 or more words in CASSOWARY? sAtuRDAY’s WORD — PALIMOnY pail pain palm palmy piano pima plain plan play ploy pony

pylon alimony lain lamp lapin layin limn limo limp limy lion

lipoma loam loamy loan loin imply inlay inly mail main mainly

manly many moan moil myna myopia oilman oily only opal nail

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for it is great.” Psalms 25:11

The Lord will hear this kind of praying. — G.E. Dean

10C ● Monday, July 14, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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ALMANAC

AIR QUALITY

LAFAyETTE THROUGH 5 P.M. SUNDAy

YESTERDAY

TEMPERATURE

High/low Normal high/low Record high Record low

GOOD

89°/77° 91°/75° 107° in 1901 65° in 1905

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

READING 44

TODAY

PRECIPITATION

GOOD

24 hours through 5 p.m. Sun. Trace Month to date (normal) 1.69” (2.83”) year to date (normal) 48.69” (33.98”)

SUN AND MOON Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates SOURCE: AIRNOW.GOV

LAST

6:16 a.m.

8:11 p.m.

10:58 p.m.

9:57 a.m.

JUL 17

NEW

FIRST

FULL

JUL 24

AUG 1

AUG 9

THE NATION AND WORLD Today City

LOUISIANA FORECAST

RIVER STAGES MISSISSIPPI

Monroe 94/76

Shreveport 93/76

Jackson 94/74

Longview 90/74

Many 92/72

Hattiesburg 96/75

Alexandria 93/74

Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO

Cairo COMITE

Near Olive

Baton Rouge 91/75 Beaumont 91/75

Lafayette

Port Arthur 91/77

AMITE

Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent

New Orleans 90/78

Lake Charles 90/76

TICKFAW

Montpelier Holden

Houma 90/74

ATCHAFALAYA

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

TIDES HIGH

First FT. LOW

Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) 10:48p 0.6 Shell Beach 5:03p 1.4 South Point, Marsh Island 8:36a 1.6 Cypremort Point 11:02a 1.4 Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) 12:24p 1.1 Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) 11:47a 1.3 Wine Island 1:32p 1.3

FT.

9:40a 0.0 2:21a -0.1 11:57a 1.3 2:48a 0.0 10:46p 0.2 9:19p 0.0 11:48p 0.2

Second FT. LOW

HIGH

--------4:38p 1.3 7:24p 1.2 -------------

FT.

--------11:15p 0.0 4:42p 1.1 -------------

Forecasts and graphics, except KATC forecasts, provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2025

Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

FLOOD STAGE 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

7.50 40.80 43.70 27.50 18.30 14.09 9.30

-0.40 -0.64 -0.60 -0.50 -0.40 -0.26 -0.19

40

22.69

-0.39

19

-1.37

-0.09

18 29 8

-0.66 12.25 1.31

-0.25 +1.39 +0.10

13 15

2.11 0.84

-0.21 +0.06

47 34 29 20 12 6

22.94 17.72 15.95 12.41 8.10 4.39

-0.24 -0.34 -0.15 -0.27 -0.10 -0.07

Austin Boston Dallas Fairbanks Honolulu Las Vegas Louisville Miami Nashville

The World Amsterdam Bangkok Barcelona Berlin Brussels Cairo Dublin Frankfurt Havana Hong Kong Jerusalem

Tuesday

Hi

Lo

W

Hi

Lo

W

City

91 82 89 72 89 114 87 87 90

75 72 75 55 75 87 74 75 74

t t t pc pc pc t t t

94 88 91 67 88 110 89 85 93

76 71 78 52 76 84 76 79 75

s pc pc c sh s t t t

New Orleans Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego Tampa

78 94 86 79 79 95 68 79 91 92 87

62 80 72 61 59 77 55 60 73 84 65

pc t s sh sh pc pc t t t s

72 92 86 72 74 97 68 78 89 91 89

58 80 74 57 59 79 52 58 73 84 69

c r s sh pc pc sh sh r t s

Kuwait City London Madrid Mexico City Montreal Moscow New Delhi Paris Rome Stockholm Tokyo

Hi

Today

Tuesday

Lo

W

Hi

Lo

W

90 92 85 110 82 90 86 72 90

78 75 75 89 69 75 74 66 77

t t t pc t t t pc t

95 90 86 108 90 88 87 74 88

78 75 74 86 71 73 76 66 75

s t t s s t t pc t

119 79 98 73 85 80 91 84 85 71 83

94 57 66 56 69 67 80 61 68 58 80

pc pc s pc t t r pc s sh r

120 70 101 72 88 75 90 80 89 72 84

92 58 69 56 70 64 80 59 68 58 79

pc sh s r pc t r pc s pc r

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

-10

-0s

0s

10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s

SOLUNAR TABLE The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter.

Today Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.

Major

Minor

2:52a 9:03a 3:44a 9:56a 4:35a 10:47a 5:25a 11:38a 6:15a 12:02a 7:06a 12:52a 7:58a 1:43a

Ready To Make The Move

Major

Minor

3:15p 9:27p 4:07p 10:19p 4:59p 11:10p 5:50p ---6:41p 12:28p 7:34p 1:20p 8:28p 2:13p

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation.

Temperature bands are highs for the day.

Showers T-storms

Rain

Flurries

Snow

Ice

Cold

Warm

Stationary

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