The Acadiana Advocate 07-19-2025

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La. public radio, TV stations seek help

Aid sought after ‘devastating’ funding cuts

BY JENNA ROSS

Staff writer

Five minutes into a national news program airing Friday afternoon on KEDM, a public radio station in Monroe, a familiar voice spoke up.

“Federal funding for public radio was just eliminated by an act of Congress,” Jay Curtis, the station’s general manager, told listeners as

part of a request for support. “But one thing will always be true: You have the power to make a big difference right now.”

Public radio and television stations across the U.S. were grappling with news of dramatic cuts in funding on Friday after Congress passed the so-called rescission package that slashes $9 billion from a host of federal programs.

On air and by email, stations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and other Louisiana cities quickly turned to listeners and donors, notifying them of the cuts and asking them for help.

Filling the gap will be difficult, if not impossible, station leaders said. The bill claws back $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn

funds NPR, PBS and member stations across the country.

Republicans have argued that taxpayer money should not be spent on public media when, according to Sen. John Kennedy, RMadisonville, “Americans can find the same content — in many cases, better content — online for free.”

But station leaders say that especially in rural areas, public media is a rare source for high-quality news and information, essential during hurricanes and other emergencies.

WELCOME HOME

Paul Maassen, general manager of WWNO in New Orleans and WRKF in Baton Rouge, the state’s two largest public radio stations, said that in targeting national news organizations like National Public Radio, lawmakers are hurting local stations that are generally popular.

WWNO in New Orleans will lose $220,000 a year in federal funds, and WRKF in Baton Rouge will lose about $150,000. That’s about 8% of those stations’ annual budgets.

ä See STATIONS, page 4A

Library suit deal includes changes to meeting guidelines Former board director will not have to pay anything

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR

Staff writer

An agreement that settles a federal free speech lawsuit against Lafayette Consolidated Government and two library board members includes a $13,200 payment and changes to meeting guidelines that the plaintiffs allege limited speech and intimidated speakers.

Former Lafayette Public Library board President Robert Judge, who is largely responsible for the policies and actions that generated the lawsuit and estab- Judge lished online fundraisers to help cover his expenses, won’t have to pay anything as part of the settlement.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Lafayette in March 2023 by Lynette Mejia and Melanie Brevis, founders of Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship, was settled this week with LCG, Judge and current board President Daniel Kelly.

The board voted Monday to settle nonmonetary portions of the lawsuit. Judge was absent.

ä See LIBRARY, page 4A

STAFF PHOTO By JOHN MCCUSKER

Lafayette native Dustin Poirier waves to the crowd Friday in the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans at the weigh-in for Saturday’s UFC 318 mixed martial arts event. Poirier will face off against Max Holloway for the BMF belt, a symbolic title that is awarded to UFC fighters for their toughness. Poirier plans to retire after the bout and return home to Lafayette, ending a 16-year career as a professional mixed martial artist. ä More UFC coverage in Sports, 1C.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By CLAIRE TAyLOR

Matthew Humphrey, an LGBTQ+ advocate, was arrested during a Lafayette Public Library board meeting on Feb. 21, 2022.

$28 million in after-school grants restored for Louisiana

BY PATRICK WALL, MARIE FAZIO and ELYSE CARMOSINO

students next month when they return from summer break.

Schools and nonprofits like the Staff writers Boys & Girls Club rely on the Louisiana is set to receive nearly money to run summer and after$28 million for after-school pro- school programs that serve an esgrams that had been held up by timated 30,000 Louisiana students, President Donald Trump’s admin- advocates said. It is part of $1.3 istration, easing fears that schools billion for after-school programs would have to cut services for that the U.S. Department of Educa-

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tion is expected to release to states in the coming days, following a weekslong delay while the Trump administration reviewed whether the programs align with the president’s priorities.

But nearly $5 billion in education grants that schools had expected to receive on July 1 remains frozen. The federal money, which

Congress approved earlier this year, pays for teacher training and programs for migrant students, English learners, adult literacy, arts and science education and violence prevention in schools across the country.

Advocates and educators have decried the funding delay, saying it upended plans for the coming

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school year and could disrupt critical services, including after-school programs that provide a safe space for students and child care for working parents. This week, 10 Republican senators — though none from Louisiana — wrote a letter urging the administration to

ä See GRANTS, page 4A

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2A ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Report: Naval Academy will replace leader

BALTIMORE — The U.S. Naval Academy will replace its first female superintendent, according to reporting from USNI News, the Naval Institute’s news site.

Vice Adm. Yvette Davids was confirmed to lead the academy in January 2024. She will be renominated for a third star and go on to serve the chief of naval operations staff.

USNI reports that Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte will be nominated to succeed Davids.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Borgschulte will be the first Marine general to serve as the academy’s superintendent.

Davids’ Navy career began aboard the combat stores ship USS San Jose during Operation Desert Storm.

She took the helm of the USS Curts, becoming the first woman of Hispanic descent to command a Navy warship and leading the guided missile frigate in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

The Naval Academy was the last of the five service academies to have a woman nominated as leader. In June, Joanna Nunan stepped down from her role at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, where she was the first female superintendent.

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Trump sues paper over Epstein story

BY ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Friday against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami. It seeks at least $10 billion in damages.

Trump promised a lawsuit after The Wall Street Journal described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

Trump denied writing the letter, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”

The letter revealed by The Wall Street Journal was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein before

the wealthy financier was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump.

The letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper.

The outlet described the contents of the letter but did not publish a photo showing it entirely or provide details on how it came to learn about it.

The Justice Department asked a federal court earlier Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts in Epstein’s case at Trump’s direction amid a firestorm over the administration’s handling of records related to the wealthy financier.

The move seeks to contain a growing controversy that has engulfed the administration since it announced that it would not be releasing more government files from Epstein’s sex trafficking case.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed motions urging the court to unseal the Epstein transcripts as well as those in the case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Epstein killed himself in 2019 shortly after his arrest while awaiting trial.

The Justice Department’s announcement that it would not be making public any more Epstein files enraged parts of Trump’s base in part because members of his own administration had hyped the expected release and stoked conspiracies around the well-connected financier.

The Justice Department said in the court filings that it will work with with prosecutors in New York to make appropriate redactions of victim-related information and other personally identifying information before transcripts are released.

“Transparency in this process

17-year-old charged in paddleboarder’s killing

BY PATRICK WHITTLE

Associated Press

Police: 4 dead in crash involving bus, stolen car SAN ANTONIO — A speeding stolen car smashed into a bus on an interstate in San Antonio on Thursday, causing a multi-vehicle crash that left four people dead and more than a dozen injured, police said.

Two people traveling on the bus were pronounced dead at the scene on Interstate 35 and two died at a hospital, police said. Another 16 people received treatment for their injuries.

Several people fled the stolen Camaro without stopping to help, including at least one who was armed, police said.

The Camaro struck a trailer attached to the bus, causing the bus driver to lose control of the vehicle, which then bounced into a guardrail. A tractor-trailer then smashed into the bus, which rolled onto its side. Several people were ejected from the bus, police said.

Man with chain necklace pulled into MRI machine WESTBURY, N.Y. — A man was pulled into an MRI machine in New York after he walked into the room wearing a large chain necklace, police said.

The man, 61, had entered an MRI room while a scan was underway Wednesday afternoon at Nassau Open MRI. The machine’s strong magnetic force drew him in by his metallic necklace, according to the Nassau County Police Department.

Police said the incident “resulted in a medical episode” that left the man hospitalized in critical condition.

MRI machines “employ a strong magnetic field” that “exerts very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels, and other magnetizable objects,” according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which says the units are “strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room.”

will not be at the expense of our obligation under the law to protect victims,” Blanche wrote.

But despite the new push to release the grand jury transcripts, the administration has not announced plans to reverse course and release other evidence in its possession. Attorney General Pam Bondi had hyped the release of more materials after the first Epstein files disclosure in February sparked outrage because it contained no new revelations.

A judge would have to approve the release of the grand jury transcripts, and it’s likely to be a lengthy process to decide what can become public and to make redactions to protect sensitive witness and victim information.

The records would show testimony of witnesses and other evidence that was presented by prosecutions during the proceedings, when a panel decides whether there is enough evidence to bring an indictment, or a formal criminal charge.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ETIENNE LAURENT

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna gets a hug from Supervisor Kathryn Barger as he arrives for a news conference after three members of the department were killed in an explosion at a training facility on Friday in Los Angeles.

Blast at training facility in L.A. kills 3 deputies

BY ETIENNE LAURENT, ERIC TUCKER and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A Friday blast at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility killed three members of its arson and explosives unit, marking one of the department’s worst losses of life from a single incident, the sheriff said.

All three were veteran deputies. The department hasn’t said what they were doing at the time of the blast or what caused it.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the arson and explosives team undergoes in-depth training and responds to more than 1,000 calls a year.

The deputies had served 19, 22 and 33 years in the department, Luna said.

“They have years of training,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “They are fantastic experts and, unfortunately, I lost three of them today.”

The explosion was reported about 7:30 a.m. at the Biscailuz Training Facility, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Nicole Nishida said.

Aerial footage from KABC-TV shows the explosion happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff’s patrol cars and box trucks. Three covered bodies could be seen near a truck with a ramp attached

to a side door. A patrol cruiser parked nearby had its rearview mirror shattered by the blast.

Luna said it took more than four hours to render the scene safe and the deaths are being investigated by the department’s homicide detectives, with the assistance of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. No one else was injured in the explosion, he said.

An early line of investigation was looking at a possible training accident, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter who was not authorized to discuss it and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Luna said the deaths marked the department’s worst loss of life in a single incident since 1857, when four officers were killed by gunfire, and noted that he couldn’t release the deputies’ names because he had yet to speak to one of the families.

“I have met with two of three families thus far. Those were extremely challenging conversations,” Luna said, his voice breaking.

Arson investigators from the Los Angeles Fire Department and members of the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad were also assisting the investigation at the training facility, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on X.

Trump signs new stablecoin regulations

BY SEUNG MIN KIM and ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law new regulations for a type of cryptocurrency, a major milestone for an industry that has spent heavily to strengthen its legitimacy and political might.

The GENIUS Act sets initial guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, which are tied to assets like the U.S. dollar to reduce price volatility compared with other forms of cryptocurrency. It passed both the House and Senate with wide bipartisan margins.

The new law is meant to bolster consumer confidence in the crypto industry, which has quickly become a major power player in Washington thanks to massive campaign donations and spending on lobbying. Its passage comes as Trump had repeatedly pledged to make the U.S. the “crypto

capital of the world.”

“For years you were mocked and dismissed and counted out,” Trump told crypto industry executives at a White House bill signing attended by about 200 people. “This signing is a massive validation of your hard work and your pioneering spirit.”

The crypto industry has long complained it was unfairly targeted by former President Joe Biden’s administration and spent heavily to help Trump win last year’s election.

The president lavished praise on crypto leaders during his speech Friday, saying “nobody has gained the respect in such a short period of time.”

Trump said helping the cryptocurrency industry was “good for the dollar and it’s good for the country.”

“That’s why I backed you at an early stage,” said Trump, who had previously been a skeptic of cryptocurrency before embracing it. His administration has taken several early steps to boost

the crypto industry.

The president also joked that lawmakers had named the GENIUS Act after him. The acronym stands for “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins.”

A provision in the GENIUS Act bans members of Congress and their families from profiting off stablecoins. But that prohibition does not extend to the president and his family, even as Trump builds a crypto empire from the White House. His family holds a significant stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that launched its own stablecoin earlier this year and received an early boost from an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates.

The House also passed two other bills Thursday that are meant to help the crypto industry. One creates a new market structure for cryptocurrency, and the other bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a new digital currency.

Both measures now go to the Senate.

PORTLAND, Maine — Authorities in Maine said Friday they have charged a 17-year-old with murder in the death of a paddleboarder who went missing on a rural pond that is a popular summer destination.

The body of Sunshine Stewart, 48, of St. George, was found this month on Crawford Pond in Union, about 80 miles north of Portland. The killing shocked and scared the community, where trips to the pond and nearby campground are a summer staple.

Court documents identified the teen as Deven Young, of Frankfort, Maine. He made a brief initial court appearance on Friday in which he entered a denial to the charge. His attorney, Jeremy Pratt, declined to comment to The Associated Press via email.

A medical examiner determined Stewart’s cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, police said.

Authorities have not revealed a motive. Court

documents contain little detail other than stating that Young is a juvenile and “did intentionally or knowingly cause the death of another human being, namely Sunshine Stewart.”

Stewart lived about 21 miles from the pond. A person reached by phone who identified herself as Stewart’s sister on Thursday declined to comment.

Friends of Stewart have posted online testimonials remembering her as fiercely independent and always up for a challenge, including outdoor adventures and building projects.

A lifelong friend, Bethany Leach Parmley of Washington, Maine, described Stewart as “dauntless,” and the glue of a group of friends who stayed close even as life took them in different directions. Parmley said Stewart was a longtime paddleboarder who previously taught lessons in the activity.

“She was just a wonderful friend, a really loyal, wonderful friend,” Parmley said. “She was just so fun and funny and you couldn’t help but have a good time around here.”

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Venezuela releases Americans Hegseth talks of

detention centers in Indiana, N.J.

10 exchanged for migrants U.S. sent to El Salvador

BY REGINA GARCIA CANO, ERIC TUCKER and MEGAN JANETSKY

BY DAVID KLEPPER and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

Associated Press

CARACAS,Venezuela — Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, officials said.

The complex, three-country arrangement represents a diplomatic achievement for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, helps President Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a swap that he proposed months ago.

“Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked Bukele, a Trump ally.

Bukele said El Salvador had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. Maduro described Friday as “a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela” during his address to a gathering of agriculture producers.

Venezuelans leave prison Central to the deal are more than 250 Venezuelan migrants freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a $6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in its notorious prison.

That arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove the men that his administration had accused of belonging to the violent

PHOTO PROVIDED By EL SALVADOR’S PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE

Men who El Salvador’s government identify as Venezuelans who the U.S. government detained and flew to El Salvador months ago are shown boarding a Venezuelan plane bound for Venezuela as soldiers stand by Friday at the Oscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador.

Tren de Aragua street gang, teeing up a legal fight that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims.

The Venezuelans have been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele’s war on the country’s gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths as well as cases of torture inside its walls.

Lawyers have little access to those in the prison, which is heavily guarded, and information has been locked tight, other than heavily produced state propaganda videos showing tattooed men packed behind bars.

In April, in a heated exchange of diplomatic letters with Venezuela, Bukele proposed exchanging the Venezuelans for the same number of what he called “political prisoners” held by Maduro.

It provoked a harsh response from Venezuelan authorities, who called his comments “cynical” and referred to Bukele as a “neofascist.”

fice responsible for negotiating the release of American detainees posted a photo Friday evening of the newly released prisoners smiling for the camera inside an airplane bringing them home, some clutching an unfurled American flag.

Among those released was 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, whose family says he was kidnapped in January by Venezuelan border guards from inside Colombia, where he was vacationing.

“We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,” his sister Sophie Hunter said.

Venezuelan authorities detained nearly a dozen U.S. citizens in the second half of 2024 and linked them to alleged plots to destabilize the country.

“We have prayed for this day for almost a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime,” said a statement from Christian Casteneda, whose brother Wilbert, a Navy SEAL, was arrested in his Caracas hotel room last year.

Global Reach, a nonprofit organization that had adAmericans are innocent vocated for his release and The State Department of- that of several other Ameri-

cans, said Venezuelan officials initially and falsely accused him of being involved in a coup but backed off that claim.

Swap gives Maduro boost The release of the Venezuelans, meanwhile, is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year.

Long accused of human rights abuses, Maduro for months has used the migrants’ detention in El Salvador to flip the script on the U.S. government, forcing even some of his strongest political opponents to agree with his condemnation of the migrants’ treatment.

Just a week ago, the U.S. State Department reiterated its policy of shunning Maduro government officials and recognizing only the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the legitimate government of the country. Signed

by Rubio, the cable said U.S. officials are free to meet and have discussions with National Assembly members “but cannot engage with Maduro regime representatives unless cleared by the Department of State.”

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says bases in Indiana and New Jersey can house detained immigrants without affecting military readiness — a step toward potentially detaining thousands of people on bases on U.S. soil.

Hegseth notified members of Congress from both states this week of the proposal to temporarily house detained immigrants at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

President Donald Trump has moved to aggressively detain and deport people in the country illegally, a push that has swept up large numbers of immigrants, including many with no prior criminal records, and forced federal authorities to find places to house them.

Hegseth said the presence of the detainees would not negatively affect the bases’ operations or training. Officials have not said when detainees could begin arriving at the facilities or if other military bases are under consideration.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said there are about 60,000 beds currently available for detained immigrants and the goal is to expand to 100,000.

“We’re looking for any available bed space we can get that meets the detention standards we’re accustomed to,” Homan said Friday. “The faster we get the beds, the more people we can take off the street.”

Democratic lawmakers from both states and

Gabbard alleges Democratic ‘conspiracy’ in 2016 election

BY NICK WADHAMS and RYAN CHUA

Bloomberg News (TNS) WASHINGTON — The top U.S. intelligence official declassified an email trove purporting to expose a Democratic conspiracy to cast doubt on Donald Trump’s 2016 election win.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the 114 pages of heavily redacted emails reveal that former President Barack Obama’s national security Cabinet faked and manipulated intelligence behind the assessment that Russia wanted Trump to win the election.

In a press release, Gabbard said the information “clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials

at the highest level of our government.” She called for an investigation and prosecution of those involved, “no matter how powerful,” and said on X that the documents would be turned over to the Department of Justice.

Gabbard’s claim stands in contrast to the findings of a bipartisan Senate investigation that ended in 2020 and the conclusion of a Central Intelligence Agency review released earlier this month.

That review faulted some aspects of a 2017 assessment on Russian interference but stood by the conclusion that Moscow wanted Trump to win in 2016.

The documents include exchanges between officials of intelligence agencies discussing and debating the contents of an assessment

on possible Russian election interference before the November 2016 election.

The release includes copies of two versions of an intelligence community assessment — a draft dated Sept. 12, 2016, saying that “foreign adversaries do not have and will probably not obtain” the ability to hack election systems, and another dated Jan. 5, 2017, concluding that “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in the summer of 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.”

The January report never concluded that Russia tried to hack election infrastructure — instead finding that Russia tried to undermine faith in democracy, attack Hillary Clinton and show a preference for Trump.

civil rights advocates condemned the idea of housing immigrants at the bases, questioning the impact on military resources and the justification for so many detentions.

“Using our country’s military to detain and hold undocumented immigrants jeopardizes military preparedness and paves the way for (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids in every New Jersey community,” New Jersey’s Democratic delegation said in a statement.

Rep. Andre Carson, DInd., said his questions about detainee conditions have gone unanswered by the Trump administration.

He cited concerns raised about conditions at other facilities and said, “The fact that ICE has detained so many individuals that they now need to expand detention space in Indiana is disturbing.”

Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said in a statement that housing immigrants in military facilities sets a dangerous precedent “and is contrary to the values embedded in our Constitution.”

During Trump’s first administration, he authorized the use of military bases to detain immigrant children, including Army installations at Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.

In 2014, President Barack Obama temporarily relied on military bases to detain immigrant children while ramping up privately operated family detention centers to hold many of the tens of thousands of Central American families who crossed the border.

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STATIONS

Continued from page 1A “If you have a beef with a national programmer, that’s fine, but that should be handled differently,” Maassen said by phone.

In an email Friday to listeners, WWNO said that the loss of federal funding will mean pausing or scaling back plans to update backup generators and to expand the signal of sister station KTLN to reach more listeners in the bayou parishes, among other things.

The cuts will impact stations across the country, in communities large and small, that do “tremendous good,” Maassen said.

In smaller, rural places, the cuts could cause them to “severely curtail what they do — or even close.”

In Monroe, the loss is “devastating, but it is not the end,” said Curtis, the station’s general manager since 2012. Unlike stations in bigger markets, who can turn to deeppocketed donors, KEDM has a coverage area of just 320,000, “and a whole lot of that is corn field and cotton fields and big, wide open spaces with just a few people living in them.”

KEDM expects to lose more than a fifth of the station’s annual revenue, or about $145,000. The station employs just a handful of people yet puts out local news and music programming, including, ”The Boot,” which highlights Louisiana artist and southern musical traditions, including blues, soul and zydeco. The station pays NPR to air national programs. On a call Friday, local stations learned that NPR would offer a discount on such programs, but the details are still to be settled.

Since airing its calls for donations, the station has heard from new listeners and those who had long let their membership lapse.

But fundraising is expensive, Curtis said. Because of Gov. Jeff Landry’s hiring freeze, the uni-

LIBRARY

Continued from page 1A Details of the settlement were made public Thursday. They include payments of $12,500 to Mejia and Brevis as well as another $600 to Brevis and $100 to Mejia.

“LCG is paying the totality of it,” City-Parish Attorney Pat Ottinger said.

Judge, in May, set up three online fundraisers soliciting about $10,000 in donations.

LCG was part of the lawsuit because the Parish Council appoints library board members, including Judge, who has been controversial since his appointment in 2021 and

GRANTS

Continued from page 1A release the congressionally approved money.

On Friday, advocates cheered the news that the after-school grants were being restored while calling for the rest of the money to also be released.

“The uncertainty of that remaining $4.9 billion and whether or not it’s going to come is already forcing districts to make really tough decisions,” said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager at AASA, the national school superintendents association. “No matter what is cut, it’s students who are going to have to bear the consequences.”

Sighs of relief The money expected to be released next week is for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, also known as Title IV-B. It’s the main federal funding source for afterschool programs, which provide students with free meals, academic support and a safe space to socialize after class.

At FirstLine Schools in New Orleans, about a third of students attend afterschool programs, said CEO Sabrina Pence. The students are fed “supper” before buckling down for 45 minutes of tutoring and 45 minutes of enrichment activities, such as band, sports and coding.

FirstLine, which runs four charter schools in the city, relies on about $1.2 million in annual federal grants to fund the program. It was a welcome relief that the

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Bob Pavlovich, who hosts the ‘All Things Considered’ and ‘Louisiana Considered’ shows at WWNO, prepares for a show on the campus of the University of New Orleans on Friday. Major cuts in federal funding will likely affect future programming of the NPR station.

The cuts will also affect national services to member stations, such as the satellite system used to feed and receive programming, and shared expenses like music copyrights.

Public radio and television “The true impact of this will not “This cut is a historical mo- be known for weeks or months,” ment,” said Robin Cooper, presi- Cooper said Friday.

WYES broadcasts both national dent and CEO of WYES, the public television station serving the New PBS programs and produces its Orleans area. That station will own, local programs, some of lose more than $800,000 in federal which are distributed beyond Louisiana. “We are reevaluating funding, or 13% of its budget.

anything and everything,” Cooper said.

The station counts 18 staff members, Cooper said. “We’ve run a very lean operation,” she said.

“We’re understaffed as it is.” So staffing changes, which are “a likelihood,” she said, will “be felt very deeply.”

After walking her dog Friday morning, Christy Wood heard WWNO’s plea.

Wood is the gallery director and co-owner of Lemieux Galleries in

New Orleans, which supports the station as an underwriter. She was also a PBS kid who, growing up in Massachusetts, watched “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers.”

So she was disappointed to learn that the federal government, which is increasing its spending on agencies such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, would no longer fund public broadcasting.

“It’s part of what makes our society great,” Wood said.

election as board president just months later.

The settlement also: n Prohibits the display of Louisiana Revised Statue 14:103, defining disturbing the peace, on library board meeting room doors. n Prohibits Louisiana Revised Statute 14:103 from being read aloud or distributed at library board meetings. n Prohibits rules that limit protected speech from being read or enforced at library board meetings. n Prohibits law enforcement officers from standing in the front of the library board meeting room during meetings. n Requires LCG to provide the library board and other commis-

Speakers and others attending meetings may only be removed if they “willfully disrupt a meeting to the extent that the orderly conduct of the meeting is seriously compromised.”

Judge instituted policies while he was board president that Mejia and Brevis believe limited free speech and intimidated potential speakers.

He posted on the front door of the main library and on the board’s meeting room door a copy of part of the law about disturbing the peace.

Two off-duty law enforcement officers were hired for meetings and positioned at times on either side of the board, facing the public and speakers during

meetings.

Judge had a resident arrested during a meeting in February 2022 for speaking one word out of turn after Judge chastised he and others at the meeting for verbally disagreeing with the board.

The man was charged with disturbing the peace, but the charge was dismissed by a district judge who apologized for the arrest and attempted prosecution of the misdemeanor charge.

In February of 2023, Judge ordered off-duty deputies to remove Brevis from the speaker’s podium because she was criticizing he and another board members.

versity-affiliated station can’t fill a position responsible for business sponsorships. Like other public stations, it can’t and won’t turn to commercials.

“The uncertainty of that remaining $4.9 billion and whether or not it’s going to come is already forcing districts to make really tough decisions.

No matter what is cut, it’s students who are going to have to bear the consequences.”

TARA THOMAS, government affairs manager at the national school superintendents association grants will come through and the schools won’t have to scale back the program, Pence said Friday.

But FirstLine is still waiting for about $300,000 in grants for teacher training and English learners that remains frozen. Because schools have already finalized their budgets and hired staffs, the organization plans to increase its deficit to cover the loss of any grants this school year.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” Pence said. “I understand they’re trying to make cuts, but future planning is extremely important for schools.”

In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana’s largest school district, School Board member Derrick Shepherd said he was relieved Friday to learn that the after-school funding would come through.

The grants pay for ACT prep and makeup courses for high school students, along with traditional afterschool programs, he said.

Still, he added that the district is waiting to learn whether the money will come “with any strings attached.”

sions with instruction on Louisiana Open Meetings Law and First Amendment rights. n Requires a bound copy of the open meetings law to be displayed on a stand near the library board meeting room.

An exhibit attached to the settlement, titled First Amendment and Open Meetings Law Guidelines for the Lafayette Library Board of Control, contains additional restrictions which, if violated, can lead to the board’s removal by the Parish Council.

The guidelines allow speakers who properly sign up to speak at meetings to do so, even if they disagree with the board or their comments are “offensive” or “hateful.”

“Our after-school programs are so important,” he said, “not just to the school, but to the whole community.”

Without the federal money, some school districts and nonprofit groups were expecting to scale back their after-school programs this fall, said Andrew Ganucheau, director of the Louisiana Center for Afterschool Learning.

“It really was looking like

by Labor Day many of the programs were going to have to shut down or only have enough funding to run one site,” he said.

The restoration of the grants, he added, is “great news for Louisiana and the working families that rely on these programs.”

Ongoing review The Trump administration has provided schools with little explanation for the funding delay.

But in statements to the media, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said some of the grant money had been “grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.” The office cited instances when it said schools had used some of the money to support immigrants in the

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country illegally or promote LGBTQ+ inclusion.

In their letter this week to the office’s director, Russell Vought, the Republican senators said they “share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs,” but that they do not believe the after-school grants are used for that purpose.

“These funds go to support programs that enjoy long-standing, bipartisan support,” they wrote.

The administration’s review of the after-school grants has been completed, a senior official told The

Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@ theadvocate.com.

Associated Press on Friday. The person declined to be identified so they could share progress from the review.

That funding will be released to states, the official said. The rest of the withheld grants, close to $5 billion, continues to be reviewed for bias.

On Monday, more than 20 states filed a lawsuit challenging the funding freeze, including the money for English language instruction, teacher development and adult literacy that remains on hold. The lawsuit, led by California, argued

withholding the money was unconstitutional, and many low-income families would lose access to critical afterschool care if the grants were not released.

Ted Beasley, a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Education, said the agency supports the Trump administration’s ongoing review of federal education funds.

“We’re pleased by today’s allocation,” he said in a statement Friday, “and will continue to encourage school systems to take a measured approach as they begin the school year.”

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Man pleads guilty to role in Burrow burglary “Most of my business was Pawn shop owner completely legitimate, and it was a good business.” acted as fence Nezhinskiy pleaded guilty count of conspirfor stolen goods toacya single to receive stolen prop-

BY PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press

NEW YORK — A Manhattan pawn shop owner pleaded guilty Friday to serving as a fence for luxury items stolen from wealthy residences across the country, including a brazen burglary at the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow while he was playing an away game last year.

Dimitriy Nezhinskiy admitted to knowingly purchasing stolen watches, jewelry and other high-end goods in order to re-sell them in his pawn shop. But he maintained that he did not know they had been taken from people’s homes until after his arrest.

“I am very sorry for my actions,” the 44-year-old New Jersey resident said in Brooklyn federal court.

erty. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison as well as restitution of about $2.5 million and forfeiture of more than $2.5 million. He’ll be sentenced at a later date.

“This defendant ran a black-market pipeline, buying stolen luxury goods from organized theft crews that targeted homes and businesses,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.

“It was a deliberate operation that helped professional burglars prey on innocent people.”

Nezhinskiy, who was born in the nation of Georgia but has legal status in the U.S., could also face deportation, U.S. District Court Judge William Kuntz noted.

Juan Villar, a New York resident who ran the pawn shop with Nezhinskiy, plead-

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By CAROLyN KASTER

Cincinnati Bengals and former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow catches a ball during football practice May 13 in Cincinnati. ed guilty to the same charge last month and will be sentenced in December.

Prosecutors said the shop in Manhattan’s famed Diamond District fenced stolen goods for international burglary crews that targeted homes of prominent athletes around the country.

They say Nezhinskiy and Villar had been purchasing items from various crews

and re-selling them from 2020 until the FBI raided the storefront and arrested them in February.

The crews, many consisting of foreign nationals from South America, mostly hit homes while athletes were out of town, including while playing in road games, prosecutors have said. Targets also included the homes of NFL quarterback Patrick

Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, Luka Doncic of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Mike Conley Jr. of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The investigation spanned several states and led to at least six arrests.

Nezhinskiy and Villar weren’t charged in connection with specific robberies, but prosecutors said phone records link Nezhinskiy to one of the men charged with ransacking Burrow’s house.

Prosecutors also say a large amount of suspected stolen property was found at the two men’s business and at storage units in New Jersey belonging to Nezhinskiy, including luxury handbags, wine, sports memorabilia, jewelry, artwork and power tools commonly used for burglaries and opening safes.

The break-in at Burrow’s home happened on Dec. 9, 2024 while the Bengals were playing in Dallas. Police said a person arrived at the Anderson Township home to find a shattered

bedroom window and the home ransacked. The person called her mother, who notified authorities, and was later revealed to be Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Olivia Ponton, not Burrow’s previous girlfriend.

“I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one,” Burrow said afterward. “Way more is out there than I would want out there and that I care to share.”

Police said they apprehended those burglars the following month after finding them in an SUV with a Louisiana State University shirt and a Cincinnati Bengals hat believed to be stolen from Burrow’s home. Burrow played college football at LSU. Police also found photos the robbers took of themselves flashing some of the other spoils — jewelry, watches, designer luggage and glasses. One even wore necklaces with pendants showing “JB9” and the number 9 — Burrow’s jersey number.

Minnesota lawmaker convicted of felony burglary Senator broke into estranged stepmother’s home

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

POOL PHOTO By ANNA PAIGE

A Minnesota state senator was convicted of burglary Friday for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s home, allegedly in search of her father’s ashes and other mementos.

The jury found Nicole Mitchell, 51, guilty of firstdegree burglary and possession of burglary tools.

Mitchell displayed little emotion as the verdicts were read.

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy was quick to issue a statement saying that Mitchell has told her colleagues that she planned to resign if convicted, “and I expect her to follow through on that pledge.”

The Democrat from the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury has maintained her innocence and refused to resign since her arrest in the

Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell is seen during her felony burglary trial Friday at Becker County District Court in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

early hours of April 22, 2024, at her stepmother’s home in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes.

Mitchell insisted in her testimony that she went there purely to check on her stepmother, who has Alzheimer’s disease. And she said she initially lied when she told police repeatedly the night of her arrest that she went there in search of her late father’s ashes and other items of sentimental value. She testified that she didn’t want to further upset her stepmother by expressing concern about her wellbeing.

Mitchell’s father died in

2023 at the age of 72. He had been married to Mitchell’s stepmother, Carol Mitchell, for nearly 40 years.

The jury saw bodycam video of Mitchell telling police repeatedly after her arrest that she broke into the home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her father, including some of his ashes, photos and a flannel shirt.

The first-term senator was dressed in all-black, including a black hat, and had a flashlight covered with a black sock when she was arrested. The video showed her telling police, “Clearly, I’m not good at this,” and “I know I did something bad.”

But Mitchell testified Thursday that despite what she told police, she didn’t really intend to take anything.

She said she had become increasingly concerned about her stepmother’s worsening memory problems and paranoia, and wanted to check on her well-being.

She testified her stepmother was afraid of being put in a nursing home. Mitchell said she thought her stepmom would be less upset to hear

Long sworn in as IRS commissioner

BY MELISSA GOLDIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Former Missouri congressman Billy Long was ceremonially sworn in as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Friday in the Oval Office, taking over a beleaguered agency that he once sought to abolish and that has since been beset with steep staffing cuts and leadership turnover.

Long won confirmation in a 53-44 Senate vote last month despite concerns from Democrats about his

connection to a tax credit scheme and campaign contributions he received after then President-elect Donald Trump nominated him for the top IRS job in December.

Long’s commissionership comes after months of acting leaders and massive staffing cuts that have threatened to derail next year’s tax filing season. Tens of thousands of workers have voluntarily retired or been laid off as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy through the Department of

Government Efficiency.

“In my first 90 days I plan to ask you, my employee partners, to help me develop a new culture here,” Long wrote in a message to IRS employees. “I’m big on culture, and I’m anxious to develop one that makes your lives and the taxpayers’ lives better.”

While in Congress, where he served from 2011 to 2023, the Republican sponsored legislation to get rid of the IRS. A former auctioneer and real estate broker, Long has no background in tax administration.

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she wanted some of her father’s items than to have her competency questioned.

The former broadcast meteorologist and now-retired Air National Guard officer was charged with one count of first-degree burglary of an occupied dwelling, a felony that carries a mandatory minimum of six months in jail but requires proof of intent to commit a crime inside, and one count of possession of burglary tools, a lesser felony without a mandatory minimum.

Mitchell testified that she had long had a good relationship with Carol Mitchell, but that their final break came in a series of increasingly acrimonious text messages about a month before the break-in.

In the texts, which were

shown to the jury, her stepmother refused to reschedule the interment of her father’s ashes from a Tuesday, during a busy stretch of the legislative session, to another date. Her stepmother did, however, send her a fishing bobber at some point containing a small amount of his ashes as a memento, she acknowledged.

Defense attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. told the jury in his closing argument that Mitchell did not steal anything and did not intend to.

He conceded that she used poor judgment. He said everybody has told “white lies,” and that Mitchell’s goal was to avoid aggravating her stepmother’s distrust even further.

Under such difficult circumstances, Ringstrom

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argued, “Nicole’s white lies make perfect sense.”

Carol Mitchell struggled with her memory when she took the stand for the prosecution, and was unable to recall names and key details about the night of the breakin. But she said she felt violated.

Mitchell’s rejection of calls for her resignation after her arrest frayed relations between Democrats and Republicans in the narrowly divided state Senate.

Democrats hold only a one-seat majority in the Senate, so they needed her vote.

They said she deserved to have the legal process play out and declined to expel her or ask her to step down. But they excluded her from caucus meetings and took her off her committees.

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ALMANAC

AIR QUALITY

LAFAyETTE THROUGH 5 P.M. FRIDAy

YESTERDAY

TEMPERATURE

High/low Normal high/low Record high Record low

GOOD

86°/74° 92°/75° 98° in 1893 67° in 1967

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

READING 38

TODAY

PRECIPITATION

GOOD

24 hours through 5 p.m. Fri. 0.75” Month to date (normal) 3.96” (3.87”) year to date (normal) 50.96” (35.02”)

SUN AND MOON Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

6:19 a.m.

8:09 p.m.

1:08 a.m.

3:22 p.m.

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates SOURCE: AIRNOW.GOV

NEW

FIRST

FULL

LAST

JUL 24

AUG 1

AUG 9

AUG 16

THE NATION AND WORLD Today City

LOUISIANA FORECAST

RIVER STAGES MISSISSIPPI

Monroe 90/75

Shreveport 92/78

Jackson 91/75

Longview 93/76

Many 91/74

Hattiesburg 93/75

Alexandria 90/73

Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO

Cairo COMITE

Near Olive

Baton Rouge 89/76 Beaumont 91/77

Port Arthur 90/79

Lafayette

AMITE

Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent

New Orleans 88/77

Lake Charles 90/77

TICKFAW

Montpelier Holden

Houma 90/74

ATCHAFALAYA

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

TIDES HIGH

Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) 3:45p Shell Beach 9:18a South Point, Marsh Island 2:29a Cypremort Point 6:05a Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) 5:20a Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) 4:44a Wine Island 6:28a

First FT. LOW

FT.

HIGH

Second FT. LOW

FT.

0.7 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.3 1.5 1.5

0.0 -0.2 -0.6 -0.1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.2

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3:17a 9:31p 4:34p 8:33p 4:57p 3:26p 5:59p

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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 36.40 40.00 24.20 15.80 12.06 8.10

+0.05 -0.99 -0.80 -0.80 -0.60 -0.37 -0.24

40

23.08

+0.60

19

-1.39

-0.05

18 29 8

-0.75 13.74 2.27

-0.25 +2.60 +0.89

13 15

1.89 0.81

-0.10 -0.20

47 34 29 20 12 6

18.40 14.68 12.87 10.63 7.60 4.02

-1.60 -0.65 -0.65 -0.30 -0.30 +0.21

Austin Boston Dallas Fairbanks Honolulu Las Vegas Louisville Miami Nashville

The World Amsterdam Bangkok Barcelona Berlin Brussels Cairo Dublin Frankfurt Havana Hong Kong Jerusalem

Sunday

Hi

Lo

W

Hi

Lo

W

City

97 84 98 79 87 104 87 92 89

77 71 79 59 75 82 76 80 75

s s s pc sh s t pc t

99 87 99 76 88 104 91 92 92

76 67 78 58 75 82 75 79 75

s t s c sh s t s t

New Orleans Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego Tampa

85 91 86 82 86 97 68 89 94 92 86

64 80 74 62 64 76 58 64 74 82 66

pc r pc s t pc sh pc t t s

76 89 87 85 74 94 66 85 92 85 86

60 80 76 67 60 78 57 64 73 82 68

sh r s c c pc r c t r s

Kuwait City London Madrid Mexico City Montreal Moscow New Delhi Paris Rome Stockholm Tokyo

Hi

Today

Sunday

Lo

W

Hi

Lo

W

88 96 84 108 87 93 95 74 94

77 75 74 87 72 76 78 65 80

t t t s t t t pc t

92 96 90 102 81 94 96 73 95

78 76 70 84 61 75 78 65 81

t t t s t t t pc t

117 74 91 75 80 78 92 81 87 81 90

96 62 64 54 64 64 79 64 73 54 79

s t s r c pc pc sh c s c

118 71 89 71 76 75 95 76 87 79 91

96 58 60 54 55 64 82 60 72 55 79

s sh s r t t c pc s s pc

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 Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri.

Major

Minor

Major

7:06a 12:52a 7:34p 7:58a 1:43a 8:28p 8:52a 2:37a 9:23p 9:49a 3:33a 10:20p 10:46a 4:30a 11:16p 11:42a 5:28a 12:11p 12:11a 6:24a 12:37p

Minor

1:20p 2:13p 3:08p 4:04p 5:01p 5:56p 6:51p

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

EPA eliminates research and development arm Agency laying off thousands of employees

BY MATTHEW DALY Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human

health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water.

The agency said Friday it is cre- Zeldin ating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science “more than ever before.”

Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly $750 million, officials said.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement that the changes announced Friday would ensure the agency “is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback.”

The EPA also said it is beginning the process to eliminate thousands of jobs, following a Supreme Court ruling last week that cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce, despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees

will be out of their jobs.

Total staffing at EPA will go down to 12,448, a reduction of more than 3,700 employees, or nearly 23%, from staffing levels in January when Trump took office, the agency said.

“This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” Zeldin said, using a government term for mass firings.

The research and development office “is the heart and brain of the EPA,” said Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thou-

sands of EPA employees.

“Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,” Chen said.

“Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.”

The research office — EPA’s main science arm — currently has 1,540 positions, excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to agency documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology earlier this year. As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other sci-

entists could be laid off, the documents indicated.

In addition to the reduction in force the agency also is offering the third round of deferred resignations for eligible employees, including research office staff, spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said. The application period is open until July 25.

The EPA’s announcement comes two weeks after the agency put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a “declaration of dissent” with agency policies under the Trump administration. The agency accused the employees of “unlawfully undermining” Trump’s agenda.

Trump gloats after cancellation of Colbert’s ‘Late Show’

BY LAUREN HARVEY

Los Angeles Times (TNS) LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump is celebrating the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” on CBS — and calling for even more late-night hosts to be axed.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”

He added that Greg Gutfeld, who has a late-night show and co-hosts “The Five” on Fox News, “is better than all of them combined, includ-

ing the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show,” referring to Jimmy Fallon.

Although “Late Night” is the toprated late-night broadcast show, “Gutfeld!” draws a bigger audience.

Colbert, 61, has hosted the show for a decade and shared the news of its cancellation Thursday night, noting that he was made aware of the decision only the night before.

“The Late Show” will end in May. “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS,” Colbert said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

CBS said the decision was “purely financial.” The cancellation

comes after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, for settling a lawsuit filed by Trump last year over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Colbert called the $16 million settlement a “big fat bribe” Monday night, noting that Paramount is awaiting federal approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.

Both branches of the Writers Guild called on New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate Paramount.

Fellow late-night hosts have since criticized the show’s cancellation.

“Love you Stephen. F*** you and

all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel wrote in an Instagram story.

“I’m just as shocked as everyone. Stephen is one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it. I really thought I’d ride this out with him for years to come,” Jimmy Fallon posted in an Instagram story.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., suggested that the move was politically motivated.

“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” she wrote Thursday night on X. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for

political reasons.”

Trump had called for Colbert’s termination in September.

“I briefly watched an interview of Stephen Colbert on highly government subsidized PBS, and found it fascinating for only one reason — Why would they be wasting time and the public’s money on this complete and total loser?” he wrote on Truth Social. “He is not funny, which he gets paid far too much to be, he is not wise, he is VERY BORING, and his show is dying from a complete lack of viewers.

“CBS should terminate his contract and pick almost anyone, right off the street, who would do better, and for FAR LESS MONEY.”

Connie Francis, whose hit songs included ‘Pretty Little Baby,’ dies

BY BOB THOMAS Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Connie Francis, the wholesome pop star of the 1950s and ’60s whose hits included “Pretty Little Baby” and “Who’s Sorry Now?” — the latter would serve as an ironic title for a personal life filled with heartbreak and tragedy — has died at age 87.

Radio DJ Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, a longtime friend, told The Associated Press that she died Wednesday at a hospital in Florida.

Morrow did not cite a specific cause of death, but Francis had posted on social media earlier this month that

she had been hospitalized with “extreme pain.”

Francis had gained renewed attention in recent months after “Pretty Little Baby” became a sensation on TikTok. “I’m flabbergasted and excited about the huge buzz my 1962 recording of ‘Pretty Little Baby’ is making all over the world,” she said in a video on TikTok, which she had joined in response to the song’s unexpected revival. “To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is captivating new generations of audiences is truly overwhelming for me.”

Francis was a top performer of the pre-Beatles era, rarely out of the

charts from 1957-64. Able to appeal to both young people and adults, she had more than a dozen Top 20 hits, starting with “Who’s Sorry Now?” and including the No. 1 songs “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You” and “The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own.” The dark-haired singer was just 17 when she signed a contract with MGM Records following appearances on several TV variety shows.

Her earliest recordings attracted little attention, but then she released her version of “Who’s Sorry Now?” an old ballad by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

It, too, had little success initially until Dick Clark played it on his

“American Bandstand” show in 1958. Clark featured her repeatedly on “American Bandstand,” and she said in later years that without his support, she would have abandoned her music career.

Francis followed with such teen hits as “Stupid Cupid,” “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” and “Lipstick on Your Collar.”

Concetta Rosemarie Franconero was born on Dec. 12, 1937, in Newark, New Jersey. At age 9 she began appearing on television programs, including “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” and “The Perry Como Show.” It was Godfrey who suggested she shorten her last name.

AP FILE PHOTO

Dick Clark, host of ‘American Bandstand,’ left, appears with Connie Francis during taping of the show Dec. 9, 1980, in Los Angeles.

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S at u r d ay, J u ly 19, 2025

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$2.5M donated to restore La. wetlands Conservation nonprofit works to conserve habitats

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

One of the country’s largest conservation nonprofits announced Friday that its initiative to restore coastal marshes and prairie in Louisiana and Texas has received a boost from a major donor.

Ducks Unlimited announced at an event at City Club at River Ranch that the James M. Cox Foundation donated $2.5 million to fund projects that restore wetlands, enhance wildlife habitat and create natural

buffers that protect vulnerable communities from storms and flooding.

This announcement follows a $1.1 million grant from the foundation in 2022 to Ducks Unlimited to preserve nearly 20,000 acres of Louisiana wetlands.

“Restoring wetlands in coastal Louisiana and Texas is critically important to the future of North America’s waterfowl,” said Cassidy Lejune, south Louisiana director of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited. “Habitats for waterfowl, people and other wildlife are disappearing at an alarming rate.

“In the next year, Ducks Unlimited plans to invest more than $61 million to impact over 40,000 acres across the western Gulf Coast.”

Ducks Unlimited was founded in 1937

Kara Bullock, assistant vice president for Cox Foundations, from left; Len Pitcock, vice president of government and public affairs for Cox Communications; Chuck Smith, chairman of the board for Ducks Unlimited; and Jeff Breaux, executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Cox Communications, pose with ceremonial paddles during the Ducks Unlimited Major Donor Luncheon at City Club at River Ranch in Lafayette on Friday.

ä See DONATED, page 2B

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

A PARK REMINDER ABOVE: The new Bayou Wheels Skatepark is being transformed from the old City Park swimming pool in New Iberia on Monday. Skateboarders will have a 6,500-squarefoot concrete course with rails, launches, boxes, stairs, pyramids and embankments. The deep end of the pool will become a large bowl ranging from 7 to 10 feet deep. The skatepark is designed by the city of New Iberia, Grindline Skateparks and architect Paul J. Allain. LEFT: Elmore James’ ‘Dust My Blues’ plays on a sound box while Chance Male, Will Male and Joe Ciccarelli dig away.

PHOTOS By LEE BALL

La. woman who helped campers during Texas floods honored Emma Foltz gets distinguished civilian service medal

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday honored a Louisiana college student who evacuated 14 campers to safety during the deadly July 4 floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas.

Emma Foltz, 21, grew up near Alexandria and is a rising senior at Louisiana Tech. She worked

as a counselor at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp, on the day of the flooding.

At least 27 counselors and campers there died during the disaster.

“I had 14 sweet little campers and two amazing co-counselors,” said Foltz during Thursday’s ceremony.

Once she read the news that a different part of the camp had been hit by the floods, “our main focus was just keeping our girls entertained and safe and happy, not letting them know what was happening,” Foltz said. “And then

ä See HONORED, page 2B

Judge dismisses La. prison lawsuit Case challenged housing juveniles in Angola

BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer

Nearly three years after parents sued state officials over holding juveniles in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a federal judge dismissed the class-action lawsuit.

Brought by the parents of young offenders held in Angola, the case began as a challenge to the constitutionality of housing juveniles there. Later, the par-

ents sought to stop the state from transferring juveniles to any adult prison.

State officials attempted to have the case dismissed in early 2024 after all the juveniles were moved to a facility at the Jackson Parish jail. The court denied the state’s motion but said the lawsuit would become moot should officials move the teenagers to secure-care facilities run by the state Office of Juvenile Justice.

The state canceled its contract with the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office in October and transferred the juveniles to a new securecare facility. On July 2, Chief Judge Shelly Dick of the U.S. District Court for the Middle Dis-

trict of Louisiana found the case moot and dismissed it.

“The Court held in the previous Ruling that, ‘(s)hould all OJJ youth be removed from Jackson Parish and housed in OJJ secure care facilities, this lawsuit will be moot.’ The uncontroverted record in this matter shows that this has been accomplished,” she wrote.

An OJJ spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Attorney Connell Archey, who helped represent the state, declined to comment.

Attorney Nancy Rosenbloom, a senior litigation adviser at the

ä See LAWSUIT, page 2B

2B ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

HONORED

Continued from page 1B we evacuated and made sure all our girls were safe.”

For her work, Foltz received the distinguished civilian service medal, which is the highest award a civilian can get from the Louisiana National Guard, Landry said.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, who heads the Louisiana National Guard, presented her with the award.

Landry also gave Foltz an

official commendation for her actions.

“Emma Foltz of Alexandria, La., a dedicated counselor at Camp Mystic, acted with courage and selflessness under life-threatening circumstances,” Landry said. “Emma heroically led 14 young campers to safety, ensuring that each girl in her care was evacuated. Emma’s action exemplified the highest standards of leadership, devotion and compassion.”

More than 100 people lost their lives during the Texas floods. Many remain missing.

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LAWSUIT

Continued from page 1B

PROVIDED PHOTO

Gov. Jeff Landry honors Louisiana college student Emma Foltz on Thursday for evacuating 14 summer campers during the deadly July 4 flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas.

DONATED

Continued from page 1B by a group of sportsmen interested in preserving the nation’s population of waterfowl, particularly in response to a devastating drought across the Prairie Pothole/Great Plains region of North America, which extends from western Canada into the northern Midwest states and is a key habitat for migrating birds.

Today, the organization primarily works to conserve wetlands, grasslands and other waterfowl and wildlife habitats.

The James M. Cox Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Cox Communications and is named for its founder, James Cox, an Ohio politician and businessman who founded the Cox Enterprises media conglomerate in 1898.

The foundation funds special projects and capital campaigns in the communities where the company operates and largely concentrates on projects concerning biodiversity, conservation and the environment, early childhood education, health and family success.

Through Cox Enterprises, Cox Communications and the James M. Cox Foundation, the conglomerate has had a substantial impact on Ducks Unlimited. Jim Ken-

Abuse allegations

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Attendees watch a video presentation during the Ducks Unlimited Major Donor Luncheon at City Club at River Ranch in Lafayette on Friday. During the event, a $2.5 million gift toward wetlands conservation from the James M. Cox Foundation to Ducks Unlimited was announced. nedy, James Cox’s grandson, is chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises and the current chairman of the foundation. He is also Ducks Unlimited’s largest individual donor, and in 2022, the organization announced a $100 million gift in honor of Kennedy’s philanthropic legacy to establish a fund for conservation in the Prairie Pothole

region.

Jeff Breaux, executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Cox Communications, said at the luncheon that these gifts represent an ongoing commitment to wildlife and communities.

Breaux, who is from New Iberia, said that he spent many winter mornings as a child hunting ducks in the

.theacadianaadvocate.com Announcements Anyone knowing the whereabouts of a certain Promissory Note payable to GMFS, LLC, executed by FELICIA SCHEXNAYDER, and dated December 19, 2014, from dated until paid, and providing reasonable attorney fees, and all charges associated with the collection of same. Please contact Herschel C. Adcock, Jr., Attorney at Law, at P.O. Box 87379, Baton Rouge, LA 708798379, (225) 756-0373.

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American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project who helped represent the youth and parents, said in a written statement that the group succeeded in their goals for three years.

“Our brave young clients and their families asserted their constitutional rights (in a class action) and succeeded for three years in forcing the state of Louisiana to stop locking up children with juvenile delinquency cases in adult prisons and jails,” she wrote. “While the state has fought us every step of the way, we will continue to make clear that young people have a right to rehabilitative services rather than punishment.”

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marshes of Pecan Island.

“These aren’t just scenic landscapes and thriving ecosystems. They’re home,” he said. “And we’re not only safeguarding habitat, we’re investing in the ongoing restoration and resiliency of communities.”

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

The lawsuit stemmed from former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ announcement in July 2022 to temporarily house young offenders deemed particularly problematic in the old Death Row building within the gates of Angola.

The proposal emerged following reports of violence and multiple escapes at two youth detention facilities in different parts of the state.

Parents sued in August 2022 to stop the plan, but Dick allowed the state to proceed while litigation continued.

The following year, attorneys alleged the teens at Angola had been confined in sleeping quarters without air conditioning, held in extended isolation and forced to shower while shackled and handcuffed.

In response, Dick ordered the state to remove all juveniles from the facility and excoriated OJJ officials for failing to live up to a pledge that the facility would be safe, temporary and rehabilitative.

“Virtually every promise that was made was broken,” she said at the time.

Facility conditions The case continued once

the juveniles were moved to the Jackson Parish jail, with Dick writing that the lawsuit concerned the holding of juveniles in adult prisons and not confinement conditions.

Attorneys said abuse continued. Inmates reported they had been sprayed with tear gas, forced to wear shackles while showering and denied basic services like counseling and consistent schooling.

After the state terminated its contract with the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office in October, state officials filed a motion in May to dismiss the case since the juveniles had all been transferred to a new secure unit at the Swanson Center for Youth at Monroe. The filing added that OJJ “currently has no plans” to house youth in the Angola facility.

The parents objected, arguing the voluntary closing of the Jackson Parish jail youth facility did not mean the state wouldn’t house juveniles at adult jails in the future.

Dick disputed that, writing that “there has never been evidence in this case that OJJ’s ultimate goal was to house youth in adult prisons.”

“Rather, the stated goal, now borne out by the completion of the Cypress Unit at SCY-Monroe facility, has always been to house OJJ youth in a secure care facility operated by the OJJ,” she wrote. “This has now been accomplished.

There is no evidence to contradict this fact.”

Email Christopher Cartwright at christopher. cartwright@theadvocate. com.

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BUSINESS

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● 3B

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/news/business

DOW 44,342.19 -142.30 -0.32%

NASDAQ 20,895.65 10.01 0.05%

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FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Wall Street closes record-breaking week

NEW YORK — Wall Street closed its third winning week in the last four with a quiet finish on Friday.

The S&P 500 edged down by a whisper, less than 0.1%, after setting its all-time high the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 142 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1% to add its own record.

The heaviest weight on the market was Netflix, which fell 5.1% despite reporting a stronger-than-expected profit. Analysts said it wasn’t a surprise given the stock had already soared 43% for the year so far coming into the day, six times more than the gain for the S&P 500.

Stronger-than-expected profit reports for the spring did help several stocks rally. Charles Schwab climbed 2.9%, Regions Financial jumped 6.1% and Comerica added 4.6%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report suggested U.S. consumers may be feeling less fearful about coming inflation. They’re bracing for inflation of 4.4% in the year ahead, down from last month’s projection of 5%, according to preliminary results from a University of Michigan survey.

Astronomer board probes kiss-cam scandal Astronomer, the company whose CEO, Andy Byron, is believed to be the embarrassed man spotted at a Coldplay concert in an intimate embrace with an employee, slammed a “fake” statement circulating on social media and issued their own saying it was investigating the matter.

On Thursday, Astronomer told TMZ that a supposed apology shared on X was “not a real statement” from the company CEO. The hoax message, which was attributed online to Byron, acknowledged the incident and included apologies to his wife, children and employees.

Astronomer later on Friday put out a legitimate statement on LinkedIn and X announcing that the company’s board of directors “has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.”

This comes after a viral video taken during a Coldplay concert in Boston captured a man who resembles Byron hugged up with a woman many online sleuths identified as Astronomer’s HR boss Kristin Cabot.

Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern discuss merger OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are in merger talks to create the largest railroad in North America that would connect the East and West Coasts.

The merger discussions began during the first quarter of this year, according to a person familiar with the talks who isn’t authorized to discuss them publicly. It would combine the largest and smallest of the country’s six major freight railroads.

Both railroads declined to comment.

Within the industry there is widespread debate over whether such a merger would be approved by the Surface Transportation Board even though those regulators approved the deal that created CPKC railroad two years ago with the Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern railroad.

That merger combined the two smallest major railroads in North America and left only six major freight railroads. But it was the first major rail merger approved in more than two decades.

The bar for railroad mergers in the U.S. was raised substantially at the start of the century after a disastrous combination of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific in 1996 that snarled rail traffic for an extended period, followed by the 1999 split of Conrail between Norfolk Southern and CSX, which created backups in the East.

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Chevron gets go-ahead for $53B Hess deal Acquisition includes access to major oil find

BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN Associated Press

HOUSTON — Chevron has scored a critical ruling in Paris that has given it the go-ahead for a $53 billion acquisition of Hess and access to one of the biggest oil finds of the decade.

Chevron said Friday that it completed its acquisition of Hess shortly after the ruling from the

International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Exxon had challenged Chevron’s bid for Hess, one of three companies with access to the massive Stabroek Block oil field off the coast of Guyana.

“We disagree with the ICC panel’s interpretation but respect the arbitration and dispute resolution process,” Exxon Mobil said in a statement on Friday.

Guyana is a country of 791,000 people that is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway. It has become a major producer in recent years.

Oil giants Exxon Mobil, China’s CNOOC, and Hess squared off in a heated competition for highly lucrative oil fields in northern South America.

With Chevron getting the green light on Friday, it is now one of the major players in the Stabroek.

“We are proud of everyone at Hess for building one of the industry’s best growth portfolios including Guyana, the world’s largest oil discovery in the last 10 years, and the Bakken shale, where we are a leading oil and gas producer,” former Hess CEO John Hess said in a statement. “The strategic combination of Chevron and Hess cre-

ates a premier energy company positioned for the future.”

Chevron also said that on Thursday the Federal Trade Commission lifted its earlier restriction, clearing the way for John Hess to join its board of directors, subject to board approval.

Chevron announced its deal for Hess in October 2023, less than two weeks after Exxon Mobil said that it would acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for about $60 billion.

Chevron said at the time that the acquisition of Hess would add a major oil field in Guyana as well as shale properties in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota.

Beef prices soar in the U.S. Ground beef up 12% from a year ago

BY JOSH FUNK Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Anyone firing up the grill this summer already knows hamburger patties and steaks are expensive, but the latest numbers show prices have climbed to record highs.

And experts say consumers shouldn’t expect much relief soon either.

The average price of a pound of ground beef rose to $6.12 in June, up nearly 12% from a year ago, according to U.S. government data.

The average price of all uncooked beef steaks rose 8% to $11.49 per pound.

But this is not a recent phenomenon. Beef prices have been steadily rising over the past 20 years because the supply of cattle remains tight while beef remains popular.

In fact, the U.S. cattle herd has been steadily shrinking for decades. As of Jan. 1, the U.S. had 86.7 million cattle and calves, down 8% from the most recent peak in 2019. That is the lowest number of cattle since 1951, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Many factors including drought and cattle prices have contributed to that decline. And now the emergence of a pesky parasite in Mexico and the prospect of widespread tariffs may further reduce supply and raise prices.

Here’s a look at what’s causing the price of beef to rise.

Smaller herd The American beef industry has gotten better at breeding larger animals, so ranchers can provide the same amount of beef with fewer cattle, said David Anderson, a livestock economist at Texas A&M. Then in 2020, a three-year drought began that dried out pastures and raised the cost of feed for cattle, according to the American Farm Bureau. Drought has continued to be a problem across the West since then, and the price of feed has put more pressure on ranchers who already operate on slim profit margins.

In response, many farmers slaughtered more female cattle than usual, which helped beef supplies in the short term but lowered the size of future herds. Lower cattle supplies have raised prices.

In recent years cattle prices have soared, so that now animals are selling for thousands of dollars apiece. Recent prices show cattle selling for more than $230 per hundredweight, or hundred pounds.

Those higher prices give ranchers more incentive to sell cows now to capture profits instead of hanging onto them for breeding given that prices in the years ahead may decrease, Anderson said.

“For them, the balance is, ‘Do I sell that animal now and take this record high check?’ Or

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NAM y. HUH

A price for beef is displayed at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Ill., on Thursday. ‘do I keep her to realize her returns over her productive life when she’s having calves?’ ” Anderson said. “And so it’s this balancing act, and so far the side that’s been winning is to sell her and get the check.”

Disease dilemma The emergence of a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds in Mexico has put extra pressure on supply because officials cut off all imports of cattle from south of the border last year. Some 4% of the cattle the U.S. feeds to slaughter for beef comes from Mexico.

The pest is the New World screwworm fly, and female flies lay eggs in wounds on warmblooded animals. The larvae that hatch are unusual among flies for feeding on live flesh and fluids instead of dead material. American officials worry that if the fly reaches Texas, its flesh-eating maggots could cause large economic losses as they did decades ago before the U.S. eradicated the pest.

Agricultural economist Bernt Nelson, with the Farm Bureau, said the loss of that many cattle is putting additional pressure on supply that is helping drive prices higher.

Tariff trouble President Donald Trump’s tariffs have yet to have a major impact on beef prices, but they could be another factor that drives prices higher because the U.S. imports more than 4 million pounds of beef every year.

Much of what is imported is lean beef trimmings that meatpackers mix with fattier beef produced in the U.S. to produce the varieties of ground beef that domestic consumers want.

Much of that lean beef comes from Australia and New Zealand that have only seen a 10% tariff, but some of it comes from Brazil, where Trump has threatened tariffs as high as 50%.

If the tariffs remain in place long-term, meat processors will have to pay higher prices on imported lean beef. It wouldn’t be easy for U.S. producers to replace because the country’s system is geared toward producing fattier beef known for marbled steaks.

Prices will likely stay high It’s the height of grilling season and demand in the U.S. for beef remains strong, which Kansas State agricultural economist Glynn Tonsor said will help keep prices higher.

If prices remain this high, shoppers will likely start to buy more hamburger meat and fewer steaks, but that doesn’t appear to be happening broadly yet — and people also don’t seem to be buying chicken or pork instead of beef.

Nelson said that recently the drought has eased — allowing pasture conditions to improve — and grain prices are down thanks to the drop in export demand for corn because of the tariffs. Those factors, combined with the high cattle prices might persuade more ranchers to keep their cows and breed them to expand the size of their herds.

Even if ranchers decided to raise more cattle to help replace those imports, it would take at least two years to breed and raise them. And it wouldn’t be clear if that is happening until later this fall when ranchers typically make those decisions.

“We’ve still got a lot of barriers in the way to grow this herd,” Nelson said. Just consider that a young farmer who wants to add 25 bred heifers to his herd has to be prepared to spend more than $100,000 at auction at a time when borrowing costs remain high.

There is typically a seasonal decline in beef prices as grilling season slows down into the fall, but those price declines are likely to be modest.

Dairy official talks immigration agricultural impact than other execs’. tainty about agricultural labor and based Land O’Lakes, immigration Land O’Lakes CEO weight “For a dairy producer, if they lose immigration “continues to harm remains a hot topic.

“That is the primary discussion staff, I mean, that’s a black workers and their families, farm sees need for change their swan event. There’s not much you employers, rural communities and point in our conversations,” she

BY BROOKS JOHNSON

The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS) As Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford sees it, one will break first: gridlock on U.S. immigration policy or the nation’s food system.

How President Donald Trump’s crackdown is affecting agriculture and thus the economy overall is at the forefront for Ford, chair of the immigration committee for Business Roundtable. That CEO organization lobbies on behalf of the nation’s businesses, meaning Ford’s voice on the issue carries more

can do,” Ford said. “As we look at challenges with immigration, with labor, especially on the dairy side, they don’t have options. There is no year-round visa. And that is stressful.”

Nationwide, more than half of all farmworkers are foreigners, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Different operations have different needs, meaning some growers make do just fine while others are hurting for help. Dairy falls into the latter category.

The National Milk Producers Federation said the country’s uncer-

national food security.”

Milking cows doesn’t happen only at certain times of year, which makes seasonal temporary visas feasible for other farming unworkable. And in most cases, automation is too expensive or unwieldy to consider.

So ensuring a predictable flow of labor — alongside strong border security — is imperative for Ford’s coop, best known for its butter, cream and cheese. As she talks with the more than 3,000 dairy producers, farmers and smaller cooperatives who own Arden Hills, Minnesota-

said. “It’s not as if producers haven’t been out trying to hire Americans.

Americans don’t want these jobs.”

What’s more, she said, animal agriculture requires a technical knowhow that means “not just anybody can take these jobs.”

Nearly 80% of the U.S. milk supply comes from producers that employ immigrant labor, according to a Texas A&M survey. Having yearround farmworker visas or a similar solution to import labor for yearround farm operations would make a meaningful difference, Ford said.

4B ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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

ANOTHER VIEW

Measuring Trump’s political health Just like doctors measure blood pressure and heart rate to assess your physical health, pollsters measure approval ratings of presidents to assess their political health.

This week marks the six-month anniversary of Donald Trump’s second presidency. It’s a good time for a check-up.

Overall, how is Trump doing?

Six recent national polls give him an average approval rating of 46%.

While that’s not so great, for Trump it’s enough to hold together his partisan Ron base and secure his capacity to govern.

Faucheux Trump’s sixth-month rating in this term is much better than it was in his first term, 46% vs. 38%, based on Gallup poll findings.

The latest Harvard-Harris poll shows the president’s current approval rating is 85% among Republicans, 36% among independents and 15% among Democrats.

Note the enormous 70-point gap dividing partisans.

Trump’s rating is 52% with Whites, 29% with Blacks, 39% with Hispanics and 46% with Asian Americans.

He does better with men (52%) than women (41%).

The Economist/YouGov survey finds that only 36% of voters believe the president is honest and trustworthy, but a clear majority (55%) believe he’s a strong leader. It’s still unclear the full effect the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could have on Trump’s ratings.

In any case, Trump continues to have a hard base of voters who support him on everything. In addition, he attracts voters who have personal doubts about his behavior and temperament, but who fervidly prefer his policies over those of Democrats. This is his support formula, and it’s why he does better in elections than in popularity polls.

How does Trump compare to other presidents?

Looking at six-month mileposts in first terms, Trump’s 46% approval rating is a point above Bill Clinton’s and four points below Joe Biden’s. Other presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — were doing 10 to 20 points better than Trump at this point in their presidencies.

To be fair, we should also look at the six-month milepost in second terms, since Trump is now serving a second term, even though it’s not consecutive.

Based on this comparison, Trump’s approval rating is two points better George W. Bush’s and the same as Obama’s. However, Trump is 12 points short of Clinton’s standing and 17 points below Reagan’s.

How is Trump doing on policy?

His two best issues are immigration (50% approve) and “returning America to its values” (50% approve), according to the Harvard-Harris poll. His two worst issues are tariffs and inflation (each 42% approve).

Falling in between are the economy, foreign affairs and administering the government.

According to Harvard-Harris, 60% of voters oppose Trump’s plans to move FEMA activities to the states and 60% also oppose his tariffs on Chinese goods.

These issues pose substantial political risks to Republicans.

The most important issue for all voters is inflation.

The second most important is immigration for Republicans, civil rights for Democrats and health care for independents.

How popular are Trump’s top appointees?

According to the Economist/YouGov poll, Vice President JD Vance is rated 41% favorable and 52% unfavorable. Thirteen percent of voters who cast ballots for Trump don’t like Vance.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, caught in the middle of the Epstein tumult, posts a favorable rating of only 25% and a much higher unfavorable rating of 46%, for a wide 21-point gap. Only one cabinet member tested has a net positive rating, and that’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Based on the Harvard-Harris poll, the secretary of health and human services’s rating is 43% favorable and 38% unfavorable (+5). Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s rating is 32% favorable, 34% unfavorable (-2) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s is 26% favorable, 30% unfavorable (-4).

How is Trump’s party doing?

The Harvard-Harris poll shows 48% of voters approve of the Republican Party. That’s eight points better than the Democratic Party’s 40% rating.

So what do all these numbers mean?

Donald Trump’s popularity has remained remarkably stable, despite the controversies. In 2016, he won 46.1% of the popular vote; in 2020, he won 46.8%; and now, his job rating averages 46%. Last year, he reached a high point, when he received 49.8% in the election.

While he doesn’t have to worry about reelection, Trump still has to worry about the effects of his popularity on passing an agenda and next year’s midterm elections. That’s why it’s useful to have a check-up.

YOUR VIEWS

Here’s the way to save horse racing in Louisiana

Cal Thomas promotes war from his chair Every week, I open the Opinion section of this paper, and I am blown away by two things: the enormity of Cal Thomas’ forehead and the sheer stupidity of his opinions. Throwing around the idea of murdering the elected leader of a sovereign nation may seem normal to a warped and twisted warhawk, but to most people who have been around more than 20 years, “regime change in the Middle East” means nothing more than death, wasted taxpayer money and national shame.

Are there enough Iranians prepared to stand against the power and weapons of the ayatollahs?

Is this some joke? If Cal Thomas wants to change the head of state of Iran, I recommend he head down to the recruiting office and join the Army. When we are inevitably dragged into another war halfway across the world, hopefully he will find the opportunity to do what he has wanted do all of his miserable career: kill people.

Regarding racing at Fair Grounds and Louisiana in general, the one way to help the situation is to not have tracks running an overlapping racing schedule. Why is Delta running races the same months as the Fair Grounds?

It’s just stupid.

Based on seniority, the Fair Grounds should run in December, January, February and March. Evangeline then takes April, May, June. Louisiana Downs takes July and August, followed by Delta running September, October and November. There can be a few days overlap, but the same amount of racing days can be squeezed into every track’s schedule.

That makes Louisiana-bred horses only having one track open to racing at a time, leading to bigger fields of 10-12 horses per race which leads to a larger handle by every track. That, of course, leads to higher purses. It’s a win-win situation. We need the Legislature to pass a bill to put each track in their “window” as soon as possible. Believe me, this will work, but since the tracks will not voluntarily do this, probably the governor needs to ask former Fair Grounds owner Louie Roussel III about this ideal solution. Maybe he can personally get involved.

PETER CHOL Baton Rouge

Big Beautiful Bill forces us to pick a side The Opinion pages of the July 1 edition had two opinion pieces presenting opposing views on the future of Louisiana under the provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Rep. Steve Scalise praised the bill as crucial to getting our state back on track while promoting, in his words, “another golden age of American recovery.”

The other piece was co-authored

by Greg Feirn and Pete November, CEOs of LCMC and Ochsner Health, along with several others state leaders in the health care and hospital industry.

They wrote of the horrendous

damage Medicaid cuts will do to their services to Louisiana citizens and those in need. They stated, “We face the largest cut to health care in our state’s history.”

Who do we choose to think is giving us valid information: a politician who stands with President Donald Trump no matter what he asks or medical professionals, who are concerned about the real daily needs of Louisiana citizens? I know where I stand, and it is with the honest professionals not the lying politician.

LOUIS ARCENEAUX New Orleans

BOBBY BRETTEL River Ridge

Why schools need to make student passwords more secure I’m a student who wants to talk about something important — school passwords. At my school, the passwords they give students are super easy to guess. A lot of the time it’s just something like the first three letters of a month and the last four numbers of their school username, and that’s not safe at all.

I tried to show how weak the system was by demonstrating it, and I ended up getting in trouble. I wasn’t trying to hack anything or do something bad.

I just wanted to prove that if I could figure out someone’s password in a few tries, then someone with worse intentions could do the same thing.

I think schools need to do a better

job at keeping students’ accounts secure. We use those accounts for everything now — grades, assignments and even personal stuff. It’s not fair to blame students when the real problem is the school not taking cybersecurity seriously.

FRANCESCO MORA Mandeville

Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

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Steady UL hoops player Warner dies at 62

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Known as one of the most consistent players in UL basketball history, Graylin Warner died Thursday after a battle with prostate cancer.

Warner, 62, was a central figure during one of the Cajuns’ golden eras of basketball.

“Graylin was always so upbeat,” former UL coach Bobby Paschal said. “We maintained a close relationship over the years.

All I can say is that I’m absolutely heartbroken over this. It’s like I just can’t believe that Graylin has passed.”

Paschal said Warner called him shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.

“He told me, ‘Coach, don’t worry about it.

I’m going to beat it,’ “ Paschal said. “That was his attitude. Unfortunately, it was just an opponent he wasn’t equipped to defeat.”

He arrived in Lafayette out of Booker T. Washington in New Orleans in 1980 along with fellow freshmen Dion Brown and Alonza Allen.

“Graylin always had a smile on his face,” Allen said. “He was always nice and friendly to everybody. The cafeteria workers were always giving him extra food.”

That first season was a transition year at 15-13 coming off the 21-win campaign in Andrew Toney’s senior year that ended with a loss to the Kevin McHale-led Minnesota Gophers in the NIT quarterfinals.

But Warner and the Cajuns began a memorable three-year run with an upset of No. 5

Saints first-round draft pick Kelvin Banks runs through drills during the team’s rookie minicamp on May 10. AP FILE PHOTO

ä See WARNER, page 3C

By GERALD HERBERT

Saints devote significant resources into solidifying offensive tackles

BY LUKE JOHNSON

Staff writer

A year ago, it seemed like the New Orleans Saints were in dire straits at offensive tackle.

But now? They might be positioned well in that area — as long as a couple of things work in their favor.

Taliese Fuaga is coming off a strong rookie season during which he played an unfamiliar position at left tackle.

Rather than keeping him there, New Orleans is poised to shift Fuaga to the right side — the position he played his entire career at Oregon State — to make room for No. 9 overall pick Kelvin Banks at left tackle.

This is not set in stone, of course, but the Saints rolled with it all the way through their summer program and seem content to let it play out this way.

Best case This is kind of obvious, isn’t it? The Saints have devoted top-15 picks in consecutive years to offensive tackles, and

Pelicans rookie Queen out at least 12 weeks

BY ROD WALKER

Staff writer

The New Orleans Pelicans, coming off an injury-plagued 2024-25 season, have been bitten by the injury bug yet again.

Rookie forward Derik Queen underwent surgery for a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist Friday in Los Angeles, the team announced Friday afternoon.

Queen suffered the injury Tuesday during a Summer League game in Las Vegas against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Queen was selected with the No. 13 pick in this year’s draft after the Pelicans traded up 10 spots from the No. 23 position to select him. He was the second player the Pelicans drafted in the first round after taking guard Jeremiah Fears with the No. 7 pick.

The trade to get Queen was a highly criticized move because the Pelicans gave up

ä See PELICANS, page 3C

if both of them hit it means the Saints could be on their way to having one of the NFL’s premier offensive tackle tandems.

They’re a long way from that at the moment. Banks has yet to play a down, and he wasn’t viewed as a slam-dunk offensive tackle prospect (some preferred him at guard).

Fuaga enjoyed a solid rookie season, but he’s switching positions and has to prove he wasn’t a product of a friendly scheme.

Still, the Saints are making the right type of gamble at this position. Each of the eight highest-paid tackles in the NFL were selected in the first round, almost all of them in the top-15 picks. Only two Associated Press All-Pro tackles in the last five seasons were drafted outside of the first round — David Bakhtiari and Jordan Mailata.

Taking a first-round tackle is no guarantee of success, but if you’re going to find a good one, that is more often than not where they come from. Since Fuaga already has

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE

Graylin Warner, shown here being recognized at a UL game in 2016, died Thursday of cancer at 62. The Booker T. Washington of New Orleans product is seventh in school history with 1,762 points.

Poirier promises ‘banger’ in final UFC fight Lafayette native faces Holloway in N.O.

BY ANDREW VALENTI Contributing writer

Dustin Poirier took to the microphone at a news conference Thursday.

The Lafayette native was taking in and digesting the moment roughly 48 hours before squaring off in the octagon for the final time of his career against UFC BMF champion Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 318 on Saturday night at the Smoothie King Center.

“I’ve got to be a tough guy right now,” Poirier said. “You guys are making me cry, and people are sending me notes who I have a lot of respect for. It’s been incredible feeling the love and appreciation.

“I want to thank UFC for coming back here after 10 years and to thank (Holloway) for showing up and doing what we’re going to do Saturday night, because it’s going to be a banger.”

STAFF PHOTO By JOHN MCCUSKER Poirier (30-9) has had a decorated career.

Reigning UFC BMF champion Max Holloway, left, shakes hands with Lafayette native Dustin Poirier during the UFC 318 weigh-in on Friday at the Smoothie King Center.

ä See UFC, page 3C

2C ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS On TV

AUTO RACING 12:30 p.m. NASCAR Cup: Practice TRUTV 1:30 p.m. NTT IndyCar: Qualifying FS1 1:40 p.m. NASCAR Cup: Qualifying TRUTV 2 p.m.

Pro Motocross: Round 25 NBC 3:30 p.m. NASCAR Xfinity: BetRivers 200 CW MEN’S BASKETBALL 11:30 a.m. The Ville vs. Boston Fox 3 p.m.

Assembly Ball vs. Fail Harder FS1 5 p.m.

Boeheim’s Army vs. Herkimer FS1 7 p.m.

Stars of Storrs vs. Brown Ballers FS2 BEACH VOLLEYBALL 7 p.m.

AVP Pro Tour: Week 6 CW CFL FOOTBALL 6 p.m.

Saskatchewan at B.C. CBSSN CYCLING 5:30 a.m. Tour de France PEACOCK

BOYS FLAG FOOTBALL Quarterfinals ESPN GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL 9 a.m.

Quarterfinals NFLN/ESPN GOLF 5 p.m.

DP World/PGA: Barracuda Golf BOYS HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL 8 a.m.

EyBL Peach Jam NBATV HORSE RACING 4 p.m.

American Oaks Stakes Fox MEN’S LACROSSE 2 p.m.

Boston vs. Denver ABC MIXED MARTIAL ARTS 5 p.m.

UFC 318 Early Prelims ESPN2 7 p.m.

UFC 318 Prelims ESPN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 3 p.m.

Cincinnati at N.y. Mets MLBN 6 p.m.

St. Louis at Arizona Fox 8:30 p.m. Houston at Seattle MLBN 1 p.m.

IN BRIEF

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NBA SUMMER LEAGUE 2:30 p.m. TBD NBATV MEN’S RUGBY 4 p.m.

U.S. vs. England CBSSN WOMEN’S RUGBY 1 p.m.

U.S. vs. Fiji CBS 10:40 p.m. Sydney at Brisbane FS2 SAILING 10 a.m. SailGP: Event 7 CBSSN MEN’S SOCCER 3 p.m.

Hartford at Rhode Island CBS WOMEN’S SOCCER 2 p.m.

France vs. Germany Fox 3:50 p.m. Venezuela vs. Bolivia FS2 6:55 p.m. Colombia vs. Paraguay FS1 TENNIS 9 p.m.

Los Cabos-ATP Tennis WNBA ALL-STAR 7:30 p.m. Team Collier vs. Team Clark ABC

WNBA ALL-STAR GAME

Injuries take toll on Team Clark Fever star, another starter are ruled out

BY ALYCE BROWN AP sportswriter

INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark is out but most of the WNBA’s best are in for the league’s All-Star Game.

The Indiana Fever’s injured superstar won’t be able to play Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse when the team she drafted, Team Clark, faces Team Collier, picked by opposing captain Napheesa Collier.

The events started Friday night with a 3-point contest, headlined by event record-holder Sabrina Ionescu, Preview and skills challenge.

Clark also had been scheduled to compete in the 3-point contest.

Here are a few things to note heading into the busy weekend.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark watches as players warm up before a game between the New york Liberty and the Fever on Wednesday in New york.

Injuries bog down Team Clark

ä Team Collier vs. Team Clark.

Clark, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, will be sitting out after suffering a groin injury in the Fever’s game against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday.

As the player who received the most fan votes and the captain of Team Clark, Clark said she is “looking forward to helping (coach Sandy Brondello) coach our team to a win” in Thursday’s announcement of her withdrawal.

“I will give the coaching hat to her as much as she wants, to be quite honest,” Brondello said.

“You’ve seen it with the Fever, she’s been very active on the sideline when she wasn’t playing.”

Phoenix’s Satou Sabally, a fellow starter on Team Clark, will also be sidelined.

She announced Wednesday that she will be sitting out this weekend with an injured ankle.

A’ja Wilson, a third Team Clark starter, said Friday afternoon that it’s still to be determined if she will play in Saturday’s game, after suffering a wrist injury against the New York Liberty last week.

The absence of two members of Team Clark led the league to ap-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By FRANK FRANKLIN II

7:30 P.M. SATURDAy, ABC

point two replacements for the All-Star Game, bringing Washington’s Brittney Sykes and Atlanta’s Brionna Jones onto the roster Thursday afternoon.

The Fever’s Lexie Hull will be replacing Clark in the 3-point contest.

Rookies on the roster It’s a young All-Star Game this year, with rookies Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen making up the largest rookie contingent at the game since 2011.

Citron and Iriafen are on Team Clark, and Bueckers is a starter for Team Collier.

“It’s amazing,” Citron said. “This rookie class is really talented, and I’m just happy that I’m one of the ones here. It’s really cool.”

Before the recent three-year string of rookie starters — Aliyah Boston in 2023, Clark in 2024 and now Bueckers — only seven rookies had ever been selected as AllStar starters in the game’s 26-year history.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By AARON LAVINSKy

Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier scores on a jump shot against the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday in Minneapolis.

A fun format

It’s a return to a more traditional format after the 2024 Olympic This year’s All-Star format is year shook things up.

“It’s a little more loose, has that different from last year’s, when the U.S. women’s Olympic team fun element to it,” Team Collier played against Team WNBA. This coach Cheryl Reeve said of this time, each team is headed up by year’s game. “It’s obviously very a captain (Clark and Collier) who player centric, and you just want to drafted players from a pool of se- have fun and enjoy the experience.

It’s for the fans, so it’s a fun year.” lected All-Stars.

Clark’s impact remains despite absence

BY MICHAEL MAROT AP sportswriter

INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark bounced a ball, joined a team huddle and gave one of her All-Star teammate’s shots a playful thumbs down before gingerly lobbing her own half-court heave Friday.

It may be the most demanding action anyone sees from Clark this weekend.

Indianapolis’ big midseason weekend wasn’t supposed to play out this way, with Clark patrolling the sidelines instead of impressing her home fans with more nifty passes or trademark logo 3-pointers. But as she sits this one out because of yet another injury, Clark remains the center of attention.

From the 30-story, larger-thanlife image covering Indianapolis’ JW Marriott Hotel to the wraps around the city’s maze of skywalks, last season’s Rookie of the Year seems every bit as in demand — maybe even more — as All-Star teammates with the Indiana Fever, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, or anyone else in town.

“Oh, yeah. I am going to be there,” Clark told “Good Morning America” on Friday, referring to Saturday night’s game. “I am going to be there, active on the sideline.

I’m going to cheer these two on.”

Clark did not speak during Fri-

day’s scheduled interviews with reporters.

For a league that has seen ticket sales and television ratings soar since Clark’s arrival last season, her absence comes at the worst possible moment.

Indianapolis was selected as the All-Star host last summer, and Clark was set to make her debut in the 3-point contest in her adopted hometown.

The contest may have featured the strongest field ever — the last two contest winners, Sabrina Ionescu of New York, Alisha Gray of Atlanta, former NCAA Division I scoring champ Kelsey Plum of Los Angeles and Washington rookie Sonia Citron — if Clark was in it.

Instead, Fever guard Lexie Hull will replace Clark in Friday’s contest.

“I think Lexie deserves it,” Mitchell said. “I think that C.C. is dope for making sure that happened or the WNBA, for that matter, I don’t know, and I think for the Fever it’s just a good way to represent us and have someone the that this city loves.”

Of course, everyone wanted to see Clark, who remains quite active off the court.

In addition to the morning interview and a midday practice with the team she “drafted,” the coach she acquired in a trade and the

team that bears her name, Clark was scheduled to appear on Sue Bird’s podcast, WNBA Live and with two sports brands — Nike and Wilson — before returning for Friday night’s festivities.

It’s also a good bet Clark’s schedule includes some injury treatment time.

Ionescu’s advice: Take full advantage of the unexpected opportunities.

“I went through something similar in my career,” Ionescu said.

“My first year, I didn’t play due to injury and then second year, I had like three to four soft tissue injuries. You look back and it’s a blessing in disguise because you’re able to learn and grow and understand it’s all part of your journey, continue to figure out what you need in a pro career.”

Clark won’t have much down time Saturday, either.

There’s a morning shootaround, a 15-minute interview session with reporters and then she’ll have to navigate the newly constructed stage inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse before testing her coaching skills. And that may not be all.

“Obviously, unfortunate about Caitlin, but she’s going to still have a great impact on this team,” said Liberty coach Sandy Brondello. “I will give the coaching hat to her as much as she wants, to be quite

honest. We’re going to play around with it a little bit. It’ll be fun.”

Clark never missed a game in college or her first pro season because of injury but already has missed 10 this season with three muscle injuries.

Boston and Mitchell have seen how their teammate has responded in all 10 and expect nothing different this time, a contest that doesn’t count in the standings.

“Caitlin will still be Caitlin, trust me guys,” Mitchell said, drawing laughter. “She’s going to be in a coaching uniform, like you’ll definitely see the competitive nature. But I think for her, her body deserves what it deserves from a break standpoint. I think this weekend will still be about what her and other individuals have brought to our league.”

So while the league’s biggest stars compete on the court, Clark will return to her role as promoter.

It’s a role she must embrace if she hopes to play Tuesday when the regular season resumes with a home game against the defending champion Liberty — even if it’s a disappointment for the women’s basketball fans.

“I am feeling good,” Clark told GMA. “Obviously, a lot of this cheers me up. It’s fun to see everybody out here having such a good time.”

Guardians P Ortiz’s leave extended to Aug. 31

Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz will remain on non-disciplinary leave through Aug. 31 while he is the subject of a Major League Baseball gambling investigation.

Ortiz’s paid leave began on July 3 and was supposed to end on Friday before MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to extend it.

The investigation is related to in-game prop bets on two pitches thrown by Ortiz that received higher activity than usual during his starts at Seattle on June 15 and his recent outing against St. Louis on June 27.

The 26-year-old Ortiz is in his first season with Cleveland after he was acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh last December.

The right-hander is 4-9 with a 4.36 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 16 starts this season.

Marlins’ Norby sidelined after left wrist surgery

Miami Marlins third baseman Connor Norby will be sidelined for several weeks after having surgery on his wrist. The procedure on Wednesday was to repair a broken hamate bone in his left wrist and was done by hand specialist Dr. Don Sheridan in Phoenix, the team said Friday. The recovery timeline is six to eight weeks.

The Marlins acquired Norby from Baltimore last summer in a trade that also landed first-time AllStar Kyle Stowers in Miami.

While Norby’s tenure with the Marlins started strong, his performance had been uneven this year, with a .241 average and .289 on-base percentage, six home runs and 26 RBI in 72 games. He was sidelined the first two months of the season with an oblique injury.

Chargers wide reciever Williams retires at age 30

Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams has retired from the NFL at age 30.

Williams signed a $6 million, oneyear deal in mid-March to return to the Chargers for his second stint with the team. On Monday, he was placed on the physically unable to perform list with an undisclosed injury and two days later called it quits.

Williams played eight seasons in the NFL, including stints with both the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024.

The Chargers drafted Williams in the first round with the seventh overall pick in 2017.

He had 330 career receptions, 5,104 receiving yards and 32 touchdown receptions over his eight-year career.

Raiders defensive tackle Wilkins placed on PUP list

The Las Vegas Raiders placed defensive tackle Christian Wilkins on the physically unable to perform list Friday.

Wilkins suffered a season-ending injury in Week 5 last season.

Then, he experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken foot causing him to miss all of organized team activities and minicamp.

Wilkins will miss at least the beginning of training camp, which opens Wednesday. Because he was placed on the PUP list before practices began, the Raiders can activate Wilkins at any time during camp once medically cleared.

Wilkins, 29, was the Raiders’ marquee free-agent signing last year, agreeing to a four-year, $110 million contract with $82.75 million guaranteed.

NFL Players Association leader Howell resigns

Lloyd Howell has resigned as executive director of the NFL Players Association, citing distractions his leadership has caused in recent weeks.

Howell has come under scrutiny since ESPN reported he has maintained a part-time consulting job with Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that holds league approval to seek minority ownership in NFL franchises. That followed a revelation where the NFLPA and league had a confidentiality agreement to keep quiet an arbitrator’s ruling about possible collusion by owners over quarterback salaries.

The latest issue revealed two player representatives, who voted for Howell, were unaware he was sued in 2011 for sexual discrimination and retaliation during a stint as senior executive at Booz Allen.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● 3C

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PELICANS

Continued from page 1C

ble in all three Summer League games in which he played. His best outing was the game he got injured when he scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the loss to the Blazers. He also had three assists and two blocked shots.

In three games in Las Vegas, he averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds and 2.3 assists. He shot 43.8% from the floor. Turnovers were a big issue as he averaged 5.7 turnovers in the three games, including eight against Portland.

Queen’s injury is the latest for an organization that has three other players who also are rehabbing from surgeries. Trey Murphy (shoulder), Herb Jones (shoulder) and Dejounte Murray (Achilles) all are recovering after suffering injuries in a season that saw the Pelicans finish 21-61.

If Queen isn’t ready for the start of the season, it makes the Pelicans thinner on the inside.

The four remaining healthy big men are Yves Missi, Karlo Matkovic, Kevon Looney and Hunter Dickinson.

Looney, signed in free agency after 10 seasons with the Golden State Warriors, is the most experienced player among that foursome. Dickinson, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas, is on a twoway contract.

their 2026 first-round pick to select the 6-foot-9 big man from the University of Maryland.

“When you identify a player that you think can be one of the foundations here, you go and get him,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said on draft night. “That’s what we did. We targeted Queen. We thought he could be a heckuva addition here, and we were really aggressive about going to get Queen in this draft.”

Queen, whose college career included a buzzer beater to take down Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament, was pleased to see the Pelicans make a bold move to grab him with the 13th pick.

“It shows how much they wanted me and how much they believe in me,” Queen said on draft night.

“I’m just ready to show them they got their money’s worth and ready to put on for the Pelicans.”

Now the Pelicans may have to wait.

Queen will be re-evaluated in approximately 12 weeks. That timetable means Queen will be re-evaluated around Oct. 10, which is about three weeks before the start of the season.

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@ Queen recorded a double-dou- theadvocate.com.

Pelicans forward Derik Queen answers questions during his rookie introductory news conference on June 28. Queen suffered a wrist injury Tuesday during a Summer League game in Las Vegas.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

UFC

Continued from page 1C The former interim UFC lightweight champion owns 15 wins by knockout and eight by submission, with 13 first-round finishes. “The Diamond” holds wins against Conor McGregor twice, and his two most recent victories are against Benoit Saint-Denis and Michael Chandler.

Poirier’s last fight in New Orleans was at UFC Fight Night in 2015 when he defeated Yancy Medeiros.

This will be the third meeting between Poirier and Holloway, with Poirier winning the first two meetings — once in 2012 and again in 2019.

“The only thing I can take from the previous two fights is his output and his durability,” Poirier said. “We’re different fighters every time. This is a trilogy that has spanned 13 years. We were kids at the beginning, more mature and technical fighters the second one. This time, it’s going to be who we are in this day and age, and we’re going to see who’s better.”

New Orleans native and rapper Lil Wayne will walk out with Poirier for his final match on Saturday. Poirier has said he plans to raise his daughter in Lafayette after retiring.

A win Saturday for Holloway (26-8) — the fifth-ranked lightweight and a former featherweight champion — would not only mean a retention of the BMF championship and playing spoiler for Poirier’s farewell fight but it also could put him in position for a shot at the lightweight title in the future.

“This man is a hometown hero,” Holloway said. “Give this man his respect. It’s going to be a fun one on Saturday.”

The match is slated for five rounds of five minutes each.

WARNER

Continued from page 1C Georgetown in the first game of his sophomore season. Warner was right in the middle of the success with 16 points and six rebounds.

The Cajuns went to two NCAA Tournaments and the NIT final four over Warner’s last three seasons.

The NIT final four run in 1984 began with Warner’s game-winning jumper to beat Utah State 94-92 on the road.

“That was a very good group of guys he played with — good players and good people,” Paschal said.

“Graylin was very knowledgable

HOW TO WATCH To watch the 9 p.m. UFC 318 main card, you must subscribe to ESPN+ streaming service and then purchase the pay-per-view for $79.99. The preliminary fights will air on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. The early preliminary fights will air on ESPN2 at 5 p.m.

The co-main event will feature a middleweight bout between former title challenger and Brazilian Paulo Costa (14-4) and rising contender and Russian Roman Kopylov (14-3). Twelve of Kopylov’s 14 wins have come via knockout.

Other fights on the main card include a welterweight fight between Kevin Holland (28-13) and Daniel Rodriguez (14-3); a featherweight match where Dan Ige (19-9) will take on Patricio Pitbull (36-8); and a lightweight bout between Daniel Zellhuber (15-2) and division veteran Michael Johnson (24-19).

The preliminary bouts also will have a decided Louisiana flair.

Covington native and No. 11 middleweight Brendan Allen (247) will take on No. 10 Marvin Vettori of Italy (19-8-1). The 29-yearold has dropped back-to-back fights for the first time in his career coming into Saturday’s tilt.

“I’m just trying to stay positive and focus on myself and get back to where I was when I was winning all those fights,” Allen said at media availability on Wednesday.

“Laziness, complacency, comfort zone. There’s none of that this time.”

Allen still lives on the northshore with his family and has been commuting back and forth from New Orleans throughout the week.

Carli Judice (4-2), who also is fighting out of Lafayette, will collide with Nicolle Caliari in a women’s flyweight matchup.

about how to play. He had a natural instinct about playing the game.

“Watching him play in high school, you could tell his whole focus was on winning the game and doing what he could do to help win the game. I watched him play at Destrehan one night and he had a broken nose. Graylin was struggling with that mask. So one trip down the court, he just threw the mask to the bench and kept playing. Obviously, he had a thin frame, but he had a unique toughness about him as well.”

Georgetown ended up being the national runner-up in 1982, and the Cajuns lost to national runner-up Houston in 1983 by one point on the road when a last-second shot attempt didn’t fall.

Media members pick LSU fourth in SEC LB Weeks only Tiger on the first team

2025 PRESEASON MEDIA DAYS ALL-SEC TEAM OFFENSE

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The LSU Tigers are among the prime contenders for the Southeastern Conference championship this season. At least that’s what media attendees at this year’s SEC media days think.

The Tigers were picked to finish fourth in the chase for the SEC title in a vote of participating media at SEC media days, the conference announced Friday.

In addition, seven LSU players earned a total of eight preseason All-SEC first-, second- or thirdteam honors.

Voting concluded Thursday on the final day of SEC media days in Atlanta.

Texas was picked to finish first in the SEC regular-season standings and win the SEC Championship Game. LSU got the fourthmost overall points with 2,668 and fourth-most votes to win the championship game with 20.

The Tigers ranked behind Texas, Georgia and Alabama and just ahead of South Carolina in both polls.

With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC in 2024, the conference did away with divisions and will follow the same format this year. The top two teams in the final standings will meet Dec. 6 in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.

Linebacker Whit Weeks was LSU’s only All-SEC first-team selection. As a sophomore, Weeks tied for second in the SEC with 125 total tackles.

Six Tigers were picked on the All-SEC second team, led by fifthyear quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, the league’s top returner in passing yards (4,052) and touchdowns (29). Running back Caden Durham, wide receiver Aaron Anderson, linebacker Harold Perkins and wide receiver Barion Brown were also honored. Brown, a transfer from Kentucky, was selected as a return specialist. Another LSU wide receiver, Zavion Thomas, was picked as the second-team allpurpose player and the third-team return specialist.

Durham was LSU’s top rusher in 2024 with 753 yards and six TDs on 140 carries. Anderson was the Tigers’ top receiver with 61 catches for 884 yards and five scores.

Perkins played in only four games with 17 tackles before a season-

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C shown that he can offer competent play at a minimum, Banks is the key.

It’d be foolish to expect Banks to play at a top-10 level immediately, but if he can offer something similar to what Fuaga gave New Orleans last year — roughly top-20 play at left tackle — that would be reason to celebrate. It would mean the Saints drafted a foundational player at a premium position.

That becomes especially meaningful if Fuaga’s transition to the right side brings more out of him.

He enjoyed one of the best seasons by a rookie tackle last year while playing a new position. On the right side, he will be back where he played at Oregon State, and it’s reasonable to expect a jump in his play.

Good offensive line play — and, specifically, good tackle play — can be a tone-setter for an NFL offense. If the Saints can get the best versions out of Banks and Fuaga this year, their chances of successfully implementing what Kellen Moore wants to do on offense will

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU linebacker Whit Weeks runs across the field before a game against Arkansas on Oct. 19 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. 2025 PRESEASON MEDIA POLL SEC champion

School Texas Georgia Alabama LSU South Carolina Oklahoma Vanderbilt Florida Tennessee Ole Miss Auburn

First-place votes 96 44 29 20 5 3 2 2 1 1 1

School 1. Texas 2. Georgia 3. Alabama 4. LSU 5. South Carolina 6. Florida 7. Ole Miss 8. Texas A&M 9. Tennessee 10. Oklahoma 11. Auburn 12. Missouri 13. Vanderbilt 14. Arkansas 15. Kentucky 16. Miss. State

Total points 3060 2957 2783 2668 2109 1986 1979 1892 1700 1613 1272 1170 936 764 512 343

Predicted order of finish

ending ACL tear in September.

LSU coach Brian Kelly said at media days that Perkins and Weeks, who broke his fibula in December in the Texas Bowl, are expected to be full go when the Tigers open preseason camp later this month.

Texas quarterback and New Orleans native Arch Manning was the All-SEC third-team pick at quarterback. LaNorris Sellers of South Carolina was the first-team quarterback selection. LSU hosts South Carolina on Oct. 11 in Tiger Stadium but does not play Texas in the regular season.

Since the SEC Championship Game was begun in 1992, the preseason media pick has gone on to win the conference title 10 times.

LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson and opens SEC play at home Sept. 13 against Florida.

EXTERIOR OFFENSIVE LINE DEPTH CHART PLAYER Taliese Fuaga Kelvin Banks Landon young Josh Ball Josiah Ezirim Barry Wesley Easton Kilty

HT. 6-6 6-5 6-7 6-8 6-6 6-7 6-6

WT. EXP. 324 2 315 R 321 5 325 4 329 1 310 1 307 R

go way up.

Worst case

DEFENSE

First Team DL – Keldric Faulk, Auburn DL – Dylan Stewart, South Carolina DL – Colin Simmons, Texas DL – Christian Miller, Georgia LB – Anthony Hill, Texas LB – Whit Weeks, LSU LB – CJ Allen, Georgia DB – KJ Bolden, Georgia DB – Michael Taaffe, Texas DB – Daylen Everette, Georgia DB – Jermod McCoy, Tennessee Second Team DL – Caleb Banks, Florida DL – Tim Keenan, Alabama DL – LT Overton, Alabama DL – R Mason Thomas, Oklahoma LB – Deontae Lawson, Alabama LB – Harold Perkins, LSU LB – Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss DB – Malik Muhammad, Texas DB – Domani Jackson, Alabama DB – Will Lee, Texas A&M DB – Jalon Kilgore, South Carolina Third Team DL – Tyreak Sapp, Florida DL – Trey Moore, Texas DL – Cam Ball, Arkansas DL – Zxavian Harris, Ole Miss LB – Taurean York, Texas A&M LB – Arion Carter, Tennessee LB – Princewill Umanmielen, Ole Miss DB – Keon Sabb, Alabama DB – Boo Carter, Tennessee DB – Bray Hubbard, Alabama DB – Isaac Smith, Mississippi State

SPECIALISTS

First Team P – Brett Thorson, Georgia PK – Peyton Woodring, Georgia LS – Beau Gardner, Georgia KS – Peyton Woodring, Georgia RS – Zachariah Branch, Georgia AP – Zachariah Branch, Georgia Second Team P – Jack Bouwmeester, Texas *PK – Trey Smack, Florida *PK – Lucas Carneiro, Ole Miss LS – Rocco Underwood, Florida KS – Trey Smack, Florida RS – Barion Brown, LSU AP – Zavion Thomas, LSU Third Team *P – Devin Bale, Arkansas *P – Aidan Laros, Kentucky PK – Alex McPherson, Auburn LS – Ben Anderson, Oklahoma KS – Will Stone, Texas RS – Zavion Thomas, LSU *AP – Eugene Wilson, Florida *AP C Jadan Baugh, Florida * – Includes tie

just because he’s switching positions. New Orleans minimized its offensive line’s shortcomings last season by combining their heavy zone running scheme with a steady diet of play-action passes and bootlegs — stuff that will not be as prevalent under Moore. The Saints also had Derek Carr, who played a bigger role than he got credit for in minimizing the rush.

There’s a chance that Fuaga is a better fit for former offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s scheme than he is for Moore’s, and that it shows in his play.

Even if both Fuaga and Banks play well, depth is a concern.

The Saints don’t have a lot of experience behind their presumptive starting tackles. Landon Young has played a lot of football in New Orleans, but he is best used as a stopgap solution at a lot of spots.

Offseason signee Josh Ball hasn’t played since 2022, and no other true tackle on the roster has played a snap in the NFL.

While it is true the top half of the first round is generally where the better offensive tackles are found, that doesn’t mean top-15 picks don’t bust. It’s less common, but it does happen.

If Banks doesn’t pan out — either as a tackle or guard — it would be a nightmare scenario for an organization that is already lacking in young and cheap impact talent.

New Orleans needs Banks to hit for a lot of reasons related to its Prediction in 10 words or less on-field product, but it also needs Banks struggles early but closes a win from a premium pick after a strong in rookie season. run of middling draft success.

There’s also some risk of Fuaga Email Luke Johnson at taking a step back in 2025, and not ljohnson@theadvocate.com.

“There’s no doubt he was one of the best.

I think his consistency goes back to the fact that he didn’t play for himself. He played for the team with the goal of winning the game.”

BOBBy PASCHAL, former UL coach The skinny 6-foot-7 forward averaged 14.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists for his career while making 53.6% of his shots.

“I was fortunate enough to coach a lot of great players at USL and at South Florida,” Paschal said.

“There’s no doubt he was one of the best. I think his consistency goes back to the fact that he didn’t play for himself. He played for the team with the goal of winning the

First Team QB – LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina RB – Quintrevion Wisner, Texas RB – Le’Veon Moss, Texas A&M WR – Ryan Williams, Alabama WR – Cam Coleman, Auburn TE – Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt OL – Kadyn Proctor, Alabama OL – Cayden Green, Missouri OL – DJ Campbell, Texas OL – Austin Barber, Florida C – Jake Slaughter, Florida Second Team QB – Garrett Nussmeier, LSU RB – Jaydn Ott, Oklahoma RB – Caden Durham, LSU WR – Aaron Anderson, LSU WR – Ryan Wingo, Texas TE – Oscar Delp, Georgia OL – Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Texas A&M OL – Trey Zuhn, Texas A&M OL – Jaeden Roberts, Alabama OL – Fernando Carmona, Arkansas C – Parker Brailsford, Alabama Third Team QB – Arch Manning, Texas RB – Nate Frazier, Georgia RB – Jam Miller, Alabama WR – Eric Singleton, Auburn WR – Kevin Coleman, Missouri TE – Jack Endries, Texas OL – Earnest Greene, Georgia OL – Chase Bisontis, Texas A&M OL – Xavier Chaplin, Auburn OL – Trevor Goosby, Texas C – Connor Lew, Auburn

was going to block my shot.”

When Warner left UL, he was the school’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,762 points and still ranks seventh.

“He was definitely stronger than it appeared he was,” Paschal said.

“He could play a finesse game and he could play a strong game, and he always played to win.”

He currently ranks third in minutes with 4,011, second in games played with 117 and sixth in steals with 153.

Warner was drafted in the sixth round of the 1984 NBA Draft by Seattle but never played in the NBA.

game.”

In his final three seasons, Warner averaged 15.8 points and 5.4 rebounds; 16.6 points and 5.2 rebounds; and 15.4 points and 6.5 rebounds.

“Because of his size, people thought they could get physical with him, but it didn’t work,” Allen said. “He had such long arms. We were very competitive in practice. Email Kevin Foote at He would always tell me that he kfoote@theadvocate.com.

4C ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Scheffler rises to top No. 1 player in world shoots 64 for one-shot lead

DeChambeau surges to make cut; other big names not so lucky

BY STEVE DOUGLAS

BY DOUG FERGUSON

AP sports writer

AP Golf Writer

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Scottie Scheffler had no idea what was coming his way Friday in the British Open. He warmed up in a shortsleeved shirt. The umbrella was out when he walked off the first green.

For the thousands at Royal Portrush watching him, they knew exactly what to expect from the world’s No. 1 player, and Scheffler delivered another relentless performance. Three straight birdies to close the gap. Two more at the end to take the lead.

Scheffler had a 15-foot putt that was one turn away from dropping for a final birdie. He happily settled for a 7-under 64, his lowest round in a major, to take a one-shot lead over former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of England.

It was his lowest round in a major, yes, but there was a normalcy about it, too. Scheffler has been doing this for three years now and there is little left to say. Even when Sky Sports showed a list of his key statistics — driving accuracy down, greens in regulation great — that elicited little more than a shrug.

The statistics led to a shrug.

“Overall, I’m hitting the ball solid,” Scheffler said. “The tournament is only halfway done. I got off to a good start.”

Scheffler made eight birdies on another wild afternoon of weather, putting him at 10-under 132 as he chases the third leg of the career Grand Slam.

Fitzpatrick was equally dynamic when he began the back nine with four straight birdies, only to miss a 5-foot par putt on the 14th to slow his momentum, and a 3-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole that was mildly irritating. He shot 66.

“I felt like every facet of my game was on today and I felt like I really played solid,” Fitzpatrick said. “To take advantage of the opportunities I had out there was obviously really positive.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JON SUPER

Scottie Scheffler of the United States hits his tee shot on the eighth hole during the second round of the British Open on Friday at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

Brian Harman got the best of the weather — surprising sunshine — and took dead aim in his hunt for another claret jug. Harman played bogey-free for a 65 that left him only two shots behind, along with Li Haotong of China, who had a 67.

Everyone else was five shots behind or more.

That includes Rory McIlroy, who went around Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland with plenty of cheers but only a few roars.

McIlroy had a 69 but lost a lot of ground because of Scheffler, Fitzpatrick and Harman.

McIlroy started the second round just three shots behind. He goes into the weekend seven shots behind the top-ranked player in the world.

“I’ve been somewhat close to my best over the first two days in little bits here and there,” McIlroy said.

“I’m going to need to have it all under control and have it sort of all firing over the weekend to make a run.”

Fitzpatrick was at his lowest point just four months ago when he changed his caddie and coach and began pulling himself up. And now he takes that into the weekend against Scheffler.

“He’s going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He’s an exceptional player. He’s world No. 1, and we’re seeing Tiger-like stuff,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think the pressure is for him to win the golf

tournament. For me, obviously, I hope I’m going to have some more home support than him, but it’s an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year.”

Scheffler spent 20 minutes after his round going over video with Shane Lowry over Lowry’s ball moving a fraction in the rough on No. 12, which led to a two-shot penalty. Lowry wasn’t sure he caused his ball to move, but he said he would rather take the penalty to avoid even the slightest suspicion.

His attention turned to Scheffler when someone suggested he had been on the fringes of contention before the penalty.

“Eight shots behind Scottie Scheffler isn’t in the fringes of contention the way he’s playing,” Lowry said.

Scheffler was sharp from the start. He hit eight of the 14 fairways — compared with three in the opening round — though his misses never left him too badly out of position. But he is seeing the breaks on smoother Portrush greens, and he looks confident as ever.

None of his eight birdies were closer than 7 feet. Five of them were in the 10-foot range and then he threw in a 35-foot birdie on the sixth. His lone bogey came on a drive into deep grass on the 11th that kept him from reaching the green.

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Bryson DeChambeau left the windswept links at Royal Portrush somewhat bashed up after a tough first round of the British Open and said to himself: “I want to go home.”

The American woke up Friday with a different mindset.

“I said, ‘You know what, I can’t give up,’ ” said DeChambeau, who has a popular YouTube channel and is one of the biggest draws in golf. “My dad always told me never to give up, just got to keep going, and that’s what I did today.”

Rebounding from an opening 7-over 78, DeChambeau shot 6-under 65 in the second round — tied for the second-lowest round of the day — and made the weekend in Northern Ireland.

The two-time U.S. Open champion didn’t even feel he played that much better than on Thursday. The putts just dropped this time.

“There wasn’t much different,” he said. “That’s why links golf is the way links golf is.”

DeChambeau made the cut on the number at 1 over. Eleven strokes adrift of leader Scottie Scheffler, he has little hope of lifting the claret jug for the first time.

Other high-profile players have no hope at all.

Brooks Koepka, another LIV Golf star in search of points to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team, was headed home after a round of 74 that left him 7 over.

The five-time major champion missed the cut at three of the four majors this year, finishing 12th in the other at the U.S. Open.

Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open winner at St. Andrews and another LIV player, failed to make the weekend at a fifth straight major after rounds of 72 and 78.

AP PHOTO By PETER MORRISON

Bryson DeChambeau of the United States plays off the first tee during the second round of the British Open on Friday at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. DeChambeau made the cut on the number.

It’s three straight missed cuts at majors for Patrick Cantlay, who shot 73-72.

The highest-ranked player to leave Royal Portrush early was No. 6 Collin Morikawa (75-74), the 2021 champion from Royal St. George’s.

Padraig Harrington, a two-time British Open champion from Ireland, was given the honor of hitting the first tee shot at this British Open and was given warm ovations everywhere he went on the Dunluce Lunks. He won’t be getting anymore after a 76 left him at 9 over.

Xander Schauffele shot 69 and made the cut for the 15th straight major, the longest active streak in men’s golf. Yet, at 2-under par, his chances of winning the claret jug in back-to-back years are slim.

Former No. 1 Dustin Johnson kept a career streak going of never missing the cut at all four majors in the same year — but only just. Johnson teed off at No. 18 on the number at 1-over par. He hit the flagstick with his second shot, and the ball settled a foot away from cup for a birdie and a 69.

SCOREBOARD Odds

Washington vs. New York, 2:30 p.m.

Houston vs. Minnesota, 4:30 p.m.

Cleveland vs. Golden State, 6:30 p.m.

Detroit vs. San Antonio, 7 p.m.

Portland vs. Phoenix, 8:30 p.m.

Sports Betting Line MLB Saturday

Major League Baseball

American League FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG at TAMPA BAY -120 Baltimore at TEXAS -124 Detroit at CLEVELAND -134 Athletics at SEATTLE -120 Houston National League FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG at N.Y METS -178 Cincinnati San Diego -142at WASHINGTON St. Louis -118 at ARIZONA at LA DODGERS -134 Milwaukee Interleague FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG San Francisco -132 at TORONTO Kansas City -116 at MIAMI at PHILA -138 LA Angels at PITTSBURGH -142 White Sox at CHI CUBS -158 Boston N.Y Yankees -132 at ATLANTA Minnesota -190 at COLORADO

LINE +102 +106 +114 +102 LINE +150 +120 +100 +116 LINE +112 -102 +118 +120 +134 +112 +160

Pro basketball WNBA Glance EASTERN CONFERENCE

W 15 13 12 11 7 3

L 6 9 11 11 15 19

Pct GB .714 — .591 2½ .522 4 .500 4½ .318 8½ .136 12½

Minnesota Phoenix Seattle Las Vegas Golden State Los Angeles Dallas

W 20 15 14 11 10 8 6

L 4 7 9 11 12 14 17

Pct GB .833 — .682 4 .609 5½ .500 8 .455 9 .364 11 .261 13½

Wednesday’s Games

East Division Toronto New York Boston Tampa Bay Baltimore

W 55 53 53 50 43

L 41 43 45 47 52

Pct .573 .552 .541 .515 .453

GB — 2 3 5½ 11½

Detroit Minnesota Kansas City Cleveland Chicago

W 59 47 47 46 32

L 38 49 50 49 65

Pct .608 .490 .485 .484 .330

GB — 11½ 12 12 27

Houston Seattle Texas Los Angeles Athletics

W 56 51 48 47 41

L 40 45 49 49 57

Pct .583 .531 .495 .490 .418

GB — 5 8½ 9 16

Central Division

West Division

Wednesday’s Games

New York Atlanta Indiana Washington Chicago Connecticut

WESTERN CONFERENCE

American League

Atlanta 86, Chicago 49 Minnesota 79, Phoenix 66 Seattle 67, Golden State 58 New York 98, Indiana 77 Las Vegas 90, Dallas 86

Thursday’s Games

No games scheduled

Thursday’s Games No games scheduled

Friday’s Games

Chicago Cubs 4, Boston 1 Chicago White Sox at Pittsburgh n L.A. Angels at Philadelphia, n San Francisco at Toronto, n Athletics at Cleveland n Kansas City at Miami, n N.Y. Yankees at Atlanta, n Baltimore at Tampa Bay, n Detroit at Texas, n Minnesota at Colorado, n Houston at Seattle, n

National League East Division

W 55 55 44 42 38

L 41 42 51 53 58

Pct .573 .567 .463 .442 .396

GB — ½ 10½ 12½ 17

W 57 56 51 50 39

L 39 40 46 47 58

Pct .594 .583 .526 .515 .402

GB — 1 6½ 7½ 18½

Pct .598 .542 .536 .485 .229

GB — 5½ 6 11 35½

Philadelphia New York Miami Atlanta Washington

No games scheduled.

Central Division

No games scheduled.

Chicago Milwaukee St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh West Division

Friday’s Games

Saturday’s Games

2025 All-Star Game Team Clark vs Team Collier, 7:30 p.m., Indianapolis

NBA Summer League At Las Vegas Wednesday, July 16

Sacramento 94, Cleveland 86 Minnesota 89, Phoenix 85 Chicago 102, Milwaukee 96 Brooklyn 94, Orlando 90 Philadelphia 90, Dallas 82 Oklahoma City 95, New Orleans 81 Utah 86, Washington 76

Thursday, July 17

Detroit 108, Miami 88 Indiana 91, New York 88 Atlanta 92, Memphis 88 Charlotte 106, San Antonio 81 Portland 102, Houston 83 Boston 87, L.A. Lakers 78 Toronto 81, Golden State 69 Denver 81, L.A. Clippers 76

Friday, July 18 Consolation

Dallas 92, Orlando 69 Philadelphia vs. Brooklyn, n Miami vs. Milwaukee, n Utah vs. Chicago, n Indiana vs. New Orleans, n Denver vs. L.A. Lakers, n

Saturday, July 19 Consolation

Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco Arizona Colorado

W 58 52 52 47 22

Wednesday’s Games

L 39 44 45 50 74

No games scheduled

Thursday’s Games No games scheduled

Friday’s Games

Chicago Cubs 4, Boston 1 Chicago White Sox at Pittsburgh n L.A. Angels at Philadelphia, n San Diego at Washington, n San Francisco at Toronto, n Cincinnati at N.Y. Mets, n Kansas City at Miami, n N.Y. Yankeesat Atlanta, n Minnesota at Colorado, n St. Louis at Arizona, n Milwaukee (TBD) at L.A. Dodgers (TBD), 9:10 p.m.

Golf The Open Championship Friday

At Dunluce Links

Portrush, United Kingdom Purse: $17 million Yardage: 7,381; Par: 71 Second Round S. Scheffler, United States 68-64—132 -10 Matt Fitzpatrick, England 67-66—133 -9 Brian Harman, United States 69-65—134 -8 Hao-Tong Li, China 67-67—134 -8 Harris English, United States 67-70—137 -5 C. Gotterup, United States 72-65—137 -5 Tyrrell Hatton, England 68-69—137 -5 Rasmus Hojgaard, Denmark 69-68—137 -5 Robert Macintyre, Scotland 71-66—137 -5 Tony Finau, United States 70-68—138 -4 Nicolai Hojgaard, Denmark 69-69—138 -4 K. Bradley, United States 72-67—139 -3 Sam Burns, United States 70-69—139 -3 R. McIlroy, Northern Ireland 70-69—139 -3 Jordan L. Smith, England 71-68—139 -3 Lee Westwood, England 69-70—139 -3 Ludvig Aberg, Sweden 73-67—140 -2 C. Bezuidenht, South Africa 67-73—140 -2 Harry Hall, England 73-67—140 -2 R. Johnston, United States 74-66—140 -2 Matthew Jordan, England 68-72—140 -2 Oliver Lindell, Finland 72-68—140 -2 Kristoffer Reitan, Norway 72-68—140 -2 Justin Rose, England 69-71—140 -2 X. Schauffele, United States 71-69—140 -2 Akshay Bhatia, United States 73-68—141 -1 Tommy Fleetwood, England 73-68—141 -1 Rickie Fowler, United States 69-72—141 -1 Lucas Glover, United States 69-72—141 -1 Jason Kokrak, United States 71-70—141 -1 Marc Leishman, Australia 73-68—141 -1 Aaron Rai, England 69-72—141 -1 J. Thomas, United States 72-69—141 -1 Daniel Berger, United States 72-70—142 E Dean Burmester, South Africa71-71—142 E W. Clark, United States 76-66—142 E Russell Henley, United States 72-70—142 E Viktor Hovland, Norway 73-69—142 E Sungjae Im, South Korea 71-71—142 E D. Johnson, United States 73-69—142 E Riki Kawamoto, Japan 72-70—142 E Romain Langasque, France 71-71—142 E Shane Lowry, Ireland 70-72—142 E Phil Mickelson, United States 70-72—142 E Jon Rahm, Spain 70-72—142 E Antoine Rozner, France 72-70—142 E J.J. Spaun, United States 73-69—142 E Jordan Spieth, United States 73-69—142 E Jhonattan Vegas, Venezuela 72-70—142 E Matt Wallace, England 73-69—142 E Corey Conners, Canada 74-69—143 +1 B. DeChambu, United States 78-65—143 +1 Thomas Detry, Belgium 72-71—143 +1 Sergio Garcia, Spain 70-73—143 +1 Takumi Kanaya, Japan 71-72—143 +1 Nathan Kimsey, England 71-72—143 +1 T. Lawrence, South Africa 73-70—143 +1 Justin Leonard, United States 70-73—143 +1 Hideki Matsuyama, Japan 74-69—143 +1 M. McNealy, United States 69-74—143 +1 Francesco Molinari, Italy 72-71—143 +1 Andrew Novak, United States 71-72—143 +1 Jacob Skov Olesen, Denmark 67-76—143 +1 John Parry, England 72-71—143 +1 Adrien Saddier, France 72-71—143 +1 Matti Schmid, Germany 73-70—143 +1 Sebastian Soderberg, Sweden73-70—143 +1 Henrik Stenson, Sweden 75-68—143 +1 Sepp Straka, Austria 72-71—143 +1 Jesper Svensson, Sweden 71-72—143 +1 Missed Cut Jason Day, Australia 73-71—144 +2 Ryan Fox, New Zealand 75-69—144 +2 Ben Griffin, United States 74-70—144 +2 Daniel Hillier, New Zealand 71-73—144 +2 Rikuya Hoshino, Japan 74-70—144 +2 Matteo Manassero, Italy 73-71—144 +2 Joaquin Niemann, Chile 70-74—144 +2 Justin Suh, United States 73-71—144 +2 73-72—145 +3 Cameron Adam, Scotland John Axelsen, Denmark 70-75—145 +3 73-72—145 +3 George Bloor, England Brian Campbell, United States73-72—145 +3 Patrick Cantlay, United States73-72—145 +3 Ethan Fang, United States 75-70—145 +3 Max Greyserman, United States78-67—145 +3 Julien Guerrier, France 73-72—145 +3 Angel Hidalgo, Spain 70-75—145 +3 Zach Johnson, United States 70-75—145 +3 Tom Kim, South Korea 69-76—145 +3 Si Woo Kim, South Korea 74-71—145 +3 D. McCarthy, United States 74-71—145 +3 M. McCarty, United States 71-74—145 +3

T. McKibbin, Northrn Ireland 72-73—145 Carlos Ortiz, Mexico 75-70—145 Taylor Pendrith, Canada 75-70—145 Elvis Smylie, Australia 75-70—145 Nick Taylor, Canada 77-68—145 Kevin Yu, Chinese Taipei 79-66—145 John Catlin, United States 78-68—146 Stewart Cink, United States 75-71—146 N. Echavarria, Colombia 72-74—146 OJ Farrell, England 74-72—146 Lucas Herbert, Australia 74-72—146 Michael Kim, United States 74-72—146 Dylan Naidoo, South Africa 74-72—146 N. Norgaard Moller, Denmark 77-69—146 Thorbjorn Olesen, Denmark 72-74—146 Marco Penge, England 74-72—146 Jesper Sandborg, Sweden 72-74—146 Y. Song, South Korea 73-73—146 C. Young, United States 74-72—146 Daniel Young, Scotland 75-71—146 Byeong Hun An, South Korea 76-71—147 Bud Cauley, United States 72-75—147 S. Kaewkanjana, Thailand 68-79—147 Chris Kirk, United States 73-74—147 Min Woo Lee, Australia 74-73—147 Shaun Norris, South Africa 72-75—147 Matthieu Pavon, France 76-71—147 A. Potgieter, South Africa 77-70—147 Patrick Reed, United States 77-70—147 Laurie Canter, England 74-74—148 D. Clarke, Northern Ireland 75-73—148 J. Hastings, Cayman Islands 74-74—148 Stephan Jaeger, Germany 72-76—148 F. Jakubcik, Czech Republic 75-73—148 Curtis Knipes, England 73-75—148 L. Oosthuizen, South Africa 77-71—148 D. Thompson, United States 73-75—148 Daniel Brown, England 76-73—149 D. Fichardt, South Africa 78-71—149 Mackenzie Hughes, Canada 79-70—149 B. Koepka, United States 75-74—149 C. Morikawa, United States 75-74—149 J.T. Poston, United States 72-77—149 S. Theegala, United States 75-74—149 Frazer Jones, England 77-73—150 Curtis Luck, Australia 80-70—150 Ryan Peake, Australia 77-73—150 Cameron Smith, Australia 72-78—150 Richard Teder, Estonia 74-76—150 Justin Walters, South Africa 73-77—150 S.-yunhe Zheng, China 77-73—150 Mikiya Akutsu, Japan 78-73—151 Martin Couvra, France 78-73—151 Padraig Harrington, Ireland 75-76—151 Shugo Imahira, Japan 76-75—151 Davis Riley, United States 77-74—151 Adam Scott, Australia 72-79—151 Connor Graham, Scotland 73-79—152 Sebastian Cave, England 76-77—153 Tom Hoge, United States 81-73—154 Guido Migliozzi, Italy 77-77—154 K.J. Choi, South Korea 81-74—155 D. Van Tonder, South Africa 79-77—156 B. Newman, South Africa 82-75—157

+3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +11 +12 +12 +13 +14 +15

Cycling Tour de France Friday 13th Stage A 6-mile individual time-trial from Loudenvielle to Peyragudes

1. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 23:00.

2. Jonas Vingegaard, Denmark, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 23:36.

3. Primoz Roglic, Slovenia, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 24:20.

4. Florian Lipowitz, Germany, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 24:56.

5. Luke Plap, Australia, Team Jayco Alula/ AUS, 24:58.

6. Matteo Jorgenson, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 25:03.

7. Oscar Onley, Great Britain, Picnic PostNL, 25:06.

8. Adam Yates, Great Britian, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 25:15.

9. Lenny Martinez, France, Bahrain Victorious/BRN, 25:21.

10. Felix Gall, Austria, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, 25:22.

Also

21. Sepp Kuss, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 26:18.

48. Neilson Powless, United States, EF Education-EasyPost, 27:50.

54. William Barta, United States, Movistar Team, 28:06.

Overall Standings

1. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 45:45:51.

2. Jonas Vingegaard, Denmark, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 45:49:58.

3. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium, Soudal QuickStep, 45:53:15.

4. Florian Lipowitz, Germany, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 45:53:21.

5. Oscar Onley, Great Britain, Picnic PostNL, 45:54:02.

6. Kevin Vauquelin, France, Arkea-B&B Hotels, 45:54:06.

7. Primoz Roglic, Slovenia, Red Bull — BORA — hansgrohe, 45:54:41.

8. Tobias Johannessen, Norway, Uno-X Mobility, 45:56:27.

9. Felix Gall, Austria, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, 45:57:34.

10. Matteo Jorgenson, United States, Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 46:00:06.

Team Standings

1. Team Visma ‘ Lease a Bike, 137:47:08.

2. UAE Team Emirates XRG, 138:05:29.

3. Arkea-B&B Hotels, 138:17:06.

4. Decathalon AG2R La Mondiale Team, 138:24:04.

5. Red Bull — Bora — Hansgrohe, 138:24:21.

6. Groupama-FDJ, 138:56:57.

7. Movistar Team, 139:00:13.

8. Ineos Grenadiers, 139:07:43.

9. XDS Astana Team, 139:11:12.

10. Total Energies, 139:16:05.

Transactions Major League Baseball

MLB — Suspended Colorado minor league LHP Eric Veras 56 games after testing positive for Boldenone, a performanceenhancing substance in violation of the Drug Prevention and Treatment Program for Minor League Players Assigned Outside of the United States and Canada.

American League BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Agreed to terms with RHP Corbin Martin on a major league contract. Agreed to terms with C Ike Irish on a minor league contract. Sent C Chadwick Tromp to Delmarva (CRL) on a rehab assignment. Sent RHP Zach Eflin to FCL Orioles on a rehab assignment.

BOSTON RED SOX — Agreed to terms with C Ronaldo Hernandez to a minor league contract.

CLEVELAND GUARDIANS — Recalled RHP Nic Enright from Columbus (IL).

KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Sent 2B Michael Massey to NW Arkansas (TL) on a rehab assignment. Activated 2B Adam Frazier. Recalled RHP Andrew Hoffman from Omaha (IL).

MINNESOTA TWINS — Sent 2B Luke Keaschall to St. Paul (IL) on a rehab assignment.

TAMPA BAY RAYS — Sent OF Jonny DeLuca to Durham (IL) on a rehab assignment. Reinstated 2B Brandon Lowe from the reserve list. Optioned 1B Curtis Mead to Durham.

National League ATLANTA BRAVES — Activated RHP Dane Dunning.

COLORADO ROCKIES — Reinstated SS Ezequiel Tovar from the 10-day IL. NEW YORK METS — Reinstated LHP Brooks Raley from the 60-day IL. Sent RHP Jose Butto to Syracuse (IL) on a rehab assignment. Designated LHP Richard Lovelady for assignment.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Sent RHPs Johan Oviedo and Bailey Ober to Altoona (EL) on rehab assignments. Recalled SS Liover Peguero from Indianapolis (IL).

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Selected the contract of LHP Matt Gage from Sacramento (PCL). LHP Scott Alexander has elected free agency.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — Reinstated OF Jordan Walker from the 10-day IL.

FOOTBALL

National Football League GREEN BAY PACKERS — Signed T Anthony Belton. Released DLs Nesta Jade Silvera and Cameron Young.

LIVING

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

|

S at u r d ay, J u ly 19, 2025

5CN

2025 POSTCARD PROJECT

New year, more messages from lands all over

BY JAN RISHER

Staff writer

The 2025 Postcard Project is in full swing. Thus far, we have received postcards from 39 states and 18 countries. One of the goals of the project is to receive postcards from all 50 states.

To complete the 50-state set, we need postcards from Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In the latest batch of postcards, we received one from Lenny and Judi Zimmerman who were visiting Salzburg, Austria, and sent a postcard from Mirabell Gardens, which is where the Von Trapp children learned to sing.

Rafael Bienvenu-Albers sent a postcard from Park City, Utah, and wrote, “Park City, where you come for the winter but stay for the summer.”

Dudley Hartz went to Hawaii, bought a postcard and tried to mail it but couldn’t find a stamp until he got home to Louisiana.

Farley Lobdell, from Hammond, is visiting Iceland and sent a postcard of an impressive church in Reykjavik, where they were able to hear an organ play.

PHOTOS By APRIL BUFFINGTON

‘Threads of Evolution: Engineering a Community That Sparkles’ by Jaime Glas Odom is on display at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge.

WHERE SCIENCE MEETS SEQUINS

Queen of Sparkles takes center stage at BR’s LASM

BY JAN RISHER and LAUREN CHERAMIE

A

s staff set up the new Queen of Sparkles exhibit at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, a little boy walked by and spotted a sparkly dress.

Surrounded by exhibits featuring dinosaur bones and Apollo 11, the boy pointed and asked, ‘Why is this in a museum?’

Curator Tracey Barhorst can’t wait to answer that question and explain why the sparkly work of Baton Rouge designer Jaime Glas Odom has earned an exhibition at LASM. The summer show, “Threads of Evolution: Engineering a Community That Sparkles,” opens to the public Saturday.

“Jaime is taking art and science and blending them — and it’s coming out of something that turns out to be this,” Barhorst said as she pointed to one of the Queen of Sparkles dresses on exhibit. “All of it coming together in this space, thanks to her engineering background, is so perfect.”

Barhorst noted that Odom has been a longtime supporter of the

STAFF PHOTO By JAN RISHER

One postcard was received from Australia for the 2025 Postcard Project.

The East Cleveland Public Library sent a hand-colored postcard that Jarese Jackson did as part of their 2025 Postcard Project. They wrote that the library system is sending out handcolored postcards from their patrons to various libraries and postcard exchanges across the country.

Martha Williams, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sent a postcard that is a sample of a quilting square that she created. It’s a colorful piece made with a dozen different fabrics.

From Australia, we received a curious postcard that features an illustration of “the Bunyip of Natural History.” The postcard is from “Anne in Australia” and reads, “G’day from Australia, the land where our swamp creatures stick to the swamps and only eat the occasional person.

They’re called Bunyips — giant man-eating cryptids that make horrible noises at night.”

Join the fun of the Postcard Project. If you go somewhere, send us a postcard. If you have friends or family, particularly those in states listed above, who might be up for sending a postcard, encourage them to do so.

And if you stay home, you can still play along. To add to this year’s fun, as a suggestion by multiple readers, we are collecting as many as possible from as many cities and towns around Louisiana as possible.

Thus far, we have received 17 Louisiana postcards.

SEND A POSTCARD TO: Jan Risher, The Advocate, 10705 Rieger Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70809.

Staff writers

Jaime Glas Odom is the founder of the fashion brand Queen of Sparkles. museum, and she has sponsored the entire exhibition.

Sparkly by birth Odom graduated from LSU with an engineering degree and got a job with Chevron. In 2016, when she learned that she had to wear

men’s fire-resistant coveralls on job sites, she knew she could do better and worked with patternmakers in Nashville to design her own line of what initially were utilitarian women’s work coveralls. She created her first business, HauteWork, and sold the brand to National Safety Apparel in 2019.

Engineer by degree, sparkly by birth — coveralls weren’t the end of Odom’s fashion story.

She wanted to add personality, glitz and glamour to the picture.

Odom is all about using both sides of her brain. Yes, she is good at math, but she also loves art — and she’s cared about what she wears for as far back as she can remember.

Her love affair with sparkles took root during her many years in dance.

“I remember being so much more excited, when I did a solo, to design the costume than anything else,” she said. “I didn’t really care what the dance looked like. I didn’t really care what the song was.”

For her, it was all about the clothes.

When people visit the show,

ä See SPARKLES, page 6C

Italian ice shop set to open second location in BR Jeremiah’s Italian Ice brings sweet treats to Baton Rouge, located at 4343 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd.

PROVIDED PHOTO

BY SERENA PUANG Staff writer

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice has opened a second location in Baton Rouge at 4343 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd.

The Italian ice shop has operated in Baton Rouge since 2022.

It’s a family business, said Cody Loveland, who is the operating partner for the Baton Rouge locations. His mother-in-law, Lisa Rapson, is the franchisee, and he

and his wife, Kayla Loveland, are cooperating partners.

After almost three years, the family wanted to expand. They were drawn to the South Sherwood Forest location because of the community and potential partners like schools, churches and nonprofits. The location by LSU presents unique challenges with seasonality: there are way fewer students around in the

ä See JEREMIAH'S, page 6C

6C ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

lll

Well-meant gift turns into food poisoning Dear Miss Manners: My husband all the trouble they went through and I are good friends with a cou- of making us something special, they will obviously want to ple who were kind enough know how we liked it. to cook us some delicious I’m not sure if the polite food. They brought back thing to do is to tell a halfingredients from their truth — that we loved the country of origin the last food and appreciate them time they visited family making it for us — or the there, and made us a dish Judith full truth: that we loved using a recipe from their Martin the food, we appreciate grandma. They even went MISS them making it for us, but to the trouble of freezing MANNERS that it made us sick. the dish so they could give This is now the second us a few containers of it time that friends have made the the last time we all hung out.

The next day, my husband heat- kind gesture of cooking for us, ed up the food in the oven. He and only to give us food poisoning. (It occurred with a different couple I enjoyed the meal immensely … and then we both got food poison- before.) Now that it’s happened again, I’m wondering if etiquette ing that lasted a couple of days. dictates transparency, or if we Now, we’re supposed to go out should stick to the half-truth like to dinner with this couple. After

we did the first time.

If we knew these friends were going to be eating some of what they made for us, it would feel like a public service to say something, but that’s not the case here.

Gentle reader: The more concerning question is: Why are all of your friends trying to poison you?

Even though this couple may not be consuming the food themselves, it would still be a public service to warn them about transporting perishable food internationally. “It was delicious,” you may say, “but I’m afraid something in the dish did not agree with us. I wonder if the ingredients you flew in might have lost something in transit.”

Miss Manners would not go so far as to say that you should take a break from your friends’ cook-

FROM STAFF REPORTS

educational program informa- Pastor Byron K. Sanders of Youth Enrichment that fosters cultural de- Macedonia Baptist Church.

Summer Event on tap tion velopment, personal growth All are invited. and greater opportunities.

All are welcome to attend and share the news!

Star of Bethlehem celebrates milestone

need to recharge by being alone?

I’ve already told her that barking dogs give me headaches, but nothing has changed.

Gentle reader: As this neighbor puts their dog’s needs ahead of those of humans, Miss Manners suggests you respond in kind: “Hamlet isn’t feeling very sociable today. Perhaps the two of them can have a playdate next week when his head is feeling better. We’ll reach out.”

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www. missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

Making fresh fruit pops at home

RELIGION BRIEFS

Mirror of Grace Outreach invites the community to the Annual YES! 2025 Youth Enrichment Summer Event — School Ready! from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 19.

This event, held in collaboration with the Melrose East Community Crime Prevention District, will take place at The Boom Box, 6537 Harry Drive, Baton Rouge.

The goal of the event is to provide youth with access to

ing, but she might recommend that until this unfortunate streak dies down, you make sure to see them take a bite before you do.

Dear Miss Manners: How can I become a better listener and not think I’m always right?

Gentle reader: Practice.

Dear Miss Manners: My neighbor has a new dog. Frequently she sees me out back with my dogs, and asks to come into my yard so that our dogs may have a playdate.

This is fine occasionally. However, she asks me every day, and her dog barks a lot. This is too much. Sometimes I just want to be alone with my quiet pups.

We have a chain-link fence, and a taller privacy fence is not an option. How do I politely tell her that her dog hurts my head and I

Speaker to feature at men’s, women’s day

First Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, 555 Education St., will host its Men’s Star of Bethlehem Baptist and Women’s Day service at Church, 1204 St. Joseph St., 8 a.m. Sunday, July 20.

The guest speaker will be Baton Rouge, will celebrate the pastoral anniversary of Apostle Dr. Nichelle Landry Pastor Henry J. Brown at of Victory International Ministries.

10 a.m. Sunday, July 20.

All are welcome to attend.

The guest speaker will be

Dear Heloise: We make doctor, hairdresser, denfresh fruit pops by freeztist, etc., so I started writing lemon-lime soda ing a note to myself with different fresh on sticky notes and fruits: pineapples, posting them on my blueberries and wabathroom mirror.

Now I no longer termelon. — Gaby E., in miss an appointSan Antonio Gaby, one caution: ment because the Hints from notes remind me.

I wouldn’t suggest Heloise — Irene H., Beaverton, this for the little ones; I’d recomOregon mend a plain pop. The fruit could be a choking hazard. Water restriction reminder — Heloise Dear Readers: Many parts of this country are sufferSticky note reminders ing from a drought. Before Dear Heloise: I have a nasty you water your lawn, be habit of forgetting appoint- sure to check with your local water department to ments for things like the

find out what, if any, water restrictions you have in your area. — Heloise

Baby powder uses Dear Readers: Here are some other uses for baby powder: n Use it as a dry shampoo. n Use it on sheets to help absorb nighttime perspiration. n Sprinkle it in shoes to keep them fresh. n Sprinkle it on a necklace to help untangle the necklace. — Heloise Send a hint to heloise@ heloise.com.

TODAY IN HISTORY

By The Associated Press

PHOTO By APRIL BUFFINGTON

‘Threads of Evolution: Engineering a Community That Sparkles’ by Jaime Glas Odom is on display at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge.

SPARKLES

age groups in the community — and to make the exhibContinued from page 5C its as accessible as possible.

“We don’t want to just be the museum that you come Barhorst hopes that they’re to when you’re in fifth grade inspired by Odom’s nonlin- and never come back again,” ear career trajectory and she said. “We’re trying to hopes Odom’s story will make it a place where peochallenge that narrative. ple, lifelong learners, can “Everyone talks about come back and experience being left-brained or right- art and science altogether.” brained,” she said. “You’re either an artist or you’re a Add a little sparkle mathematician. This proves In the nine years since that you’re not just one Odom started her career thing. You have the possibil- in fashion, she’s started a movement with her brand, ity of being both.”

Just as the sparkles are offering sequin-covered multifaceted, so is Odom pieces that are big on flair and flash — and changing and her career. the face of gameday fashEngaging the community ion at Tiger Stadium and the Originally, LASM invited PMAC. She’s known to dress the Odom to design a 1920sinspired piece for the mu- likes of LSU head coach seum’s historic train station Kim Mulkey, Andi Dorfman, centennial. But that idea Jojo Siwa, Hoda Kotb, Jenna blossomed into a full-blown Bush, Kelsey Anderson and retrospective of her career. Cambell Puckett (aka PookMost exhibitions at LASM ie). take two to three years to Odom credits her Baton plan. “Threads of Evolu- Rouge-based team, particution” came together in four larly Genevieve Cottrell, for months. helping bring the LASM exBarhorst says the goal in hibit to life. showcasing someone like “I think I always hope that Odom, who visited the mu- what our brand symbolizes seum as a child, is to engage is that you can do anything with all socioeconomic and you want with hard work be-

hind it,” Odom said.

“Threads of Evolution: Engineering a Community that Sparkles” is on view from July 19 to Nov. 9 at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum. To celebrate the show’s debut, the museum is hosting a “Behind the Seams with Queen of Sparkles” opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. July 24.

As a special feature of opening night, guests can submit their own design ideas for a chance to have their concept personally selected and brought to life by the designer. Tickets are $20 for nonmembers and $10 for LASM members.

Space is limited, and early registration is encouraged.

Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/LASMBehind theSeams.

The museum is also hosting “Sequins & Starlight: A Laser Taylor Swift and Queen of Sparkles Extravaganza” at 1 and 2 p.m.

Aug. 1. Attendees will be able to tour the new Queen of Sparkles show and enjoy a Swift laser show in the planetarium.

Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

Today is Saturday, July 19, the 200th day of 2025. There are 165 days left in the year.

Today in history On July 19, 1848, the first “Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of Woman” convened at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Also on this date: In 1812, during the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack.

In 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.

In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.

In 1980, the Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.

In 1990, baseball’s alltime hits leader, Pete Rose, was sentenced in Cincinnati to five months in prison

for tax evasion.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced a policy allowing gays to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.”

In 2006, prosecutors reported that Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of Black suspects from the 1970s to the early 1990s to try to extract confessions from them.

In 2005, President George W. Bush announced his choice of federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. (Roberts ended up succeeding Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in September 2005; Samuel Alito followed O’Connor.)

In 2013, in a rare and public reflection on race, President Barack Obama called on the nation to do some soul searching over the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, George Zimmerman, saying the slain Black teenager “could have been me 35 years ago.”

In 2018, a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds on a lake in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people.

In 2021, Paul Allard

Hodgkins, a Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, carrying a Trump campaign flag, received an eight-month prison term in the first resolution of a felony case arising from the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

(In 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the riot.)

In 2022, Britain shattered its record for the highest temperature ever registered amid a heat wave that seared swathes of Europe.

Today’s birthdays: Civil rights activist and educator Rachel Robinson, widow of baseball’s Jackie Robinson, is 103. Blues singer-musician Little Freddie King is 85. Singermusician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) is 79. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase is 79. Rock musician Brian May (Queen) is 78. Rock musician Bernie Leadon is 78. Movie director Abel Ferrara is 74. Movie director Atom Egoyan is 65.

Actor Campbell Scott is 64.

Actor Anthony Edwards is 63. Ukrainian politician and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko is 54.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 49.

JEREMIAH’S

Continued from page 5C summertime when cold treat sales are typically at their peak.

The new location will help them tap into different parts of Baton Rouge. Cody Loveland said they hope to continue to partner with people for catering events and fundraising.

The menus and offerings at both locations will be identical. The store layouts are also essentially the same. For those trying Jeremiah’s for the first time, Cody Loveland recommend the mango vanilla jelati — he’s been eating it since he was 11 years old. It’s mango ice layered with soft vanilla ice cream.

“It just gives a nice, decadent little twist to the mango,” he said.

For those who can’t have dairy, he likes the mango and strawberry ice together.

Since last year, the LSU

PROVIDED PHOTO

Sweet treats at Jeremiah’s Italian Ice layer different flavors of ice and/or soft ice cream. location has piloted a new product line called hopaway treats, which includes ice cream sandwiches, jelati cakes and layered quarts of on-the-go ice/ice cream products. Now that the brand has decided to move forward with those products in all stores, they’re running a special on the weekends.

Through the last weekend of August, Jeremiah’s will be handing out a free slice

of their jelati cakes with a purchase of a different sweet treat.

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, 4343 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., hours are from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. They’re currently soft opened, and plan to host their grand opening on Aug. 31.

Email Serena Puang at serena.puang@ theadvocate.com.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● 7C

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FrAnK And erneSt

bIG nAte

zItS

zodIAC cAncER (June 21-July 22) Participate in something that concerns and motivates you. Be part of the solution and help eliminate the problems that irk you.

Push for positive change and a healthier lifestyle.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Sharing your thoughts and feelings can help you alleviate tension and foster healthier relationships. Make plans to travel and visit people you enjoy spending time with.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Protect yourself against illness and injury. Rely on intelligence and charm to defuse potential conflicts. Prioritize having fun, being active and nurturing your emotional well-being.

LIBRA (sept. 23-Oct. 23) Go on a learning spree. Stop ignoring what needs updating or replacing, and start living according to your needs. Choose equality, not dominance, in relationships. scORPIO (Oct. 24-nov. 22) The tension between what you want to do and what others expect of you will cause distress.

Strive to strike a balance between pleasing others and prioritizing your own needs. sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Talks will lead to encounters and new beginnings.

Love will play a role in your choices, and spending more time working toward a common goal with someone special will be beneficial. cAPRIcORn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Home improvement projects can often turn out better than anticipated and enhance your lifestyle. An opportunity to expand your

circle of friends will lead to someone who intrigues you.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) A change will be uplifting. Home improvements that enhance comfort and convenience will help you relax, enjoy and appreciate what you have. Love and romance are in the stars.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Do the research, take the initiative and start something that pumps you up and brings you joy.

Social interaction and engaging in activities you love will lead to friendships with people who share your enthusiasm.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Keep as many options open as possible. Scrutinize what's unfolding around you. Look for more affordable ways to achieve what you want. Keep an open mind, make suggestions and prepare to implement positive change.

TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Put your emotions aside when dealing with shared expenses or joint ventures. Do what's right, not what you think someone else wants you to do. Take nothing and no one for granted.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Follow your instincts and use your voice to bring positive change at home and work. Show your diversity, and you'll capture the attention of someone willing to help you further your goals.

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: J EQuALs O

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

8C ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

CurTiS

Hi and LoiS

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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.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

THe wiZard oF id

nea CroSSwordS

La TimeS CroSSword

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● 9C

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B.C.

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER Tryon Edwards, a 19th-century theologian, said, “The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.”

That is so often true. However, bridge fascinates many people who do not have a good memory for what has happened at the table. They also do not remember when to break the “golden rules” of the game. Which dictum should West break on this deal?

South is in three no-trump. West leads the club king. South holds up his ace until the third round. What happens next?

North made a weak jump overcall, showing a reasonable six-card diamond suit and 5-10 high-card points. South, knowing North would not have a fourcard major, bid what he hoped he could make.

It is normal for declarer to play a diamond to dummy’s nine at trick four.

Here, that works nicely. East wins and shifts to a spade, but South takes his ace and collects one spade, two hearts, five diamonds and one club.

Instead, West must ignore “second hand low” and play his king on the first round of diamonds. Then declarer is doomed. If he plays low from the dummy, West cashes his clubs. If South wins with dummy’s ace, he gets just two diamond winners.

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

Note that even if East has the spade king and West the diamond king, those finesses give South only eight tricks: three spades, two hearts, two diamonds and one club.

Watch out for this second-hand-high opportunity when dummy has no side entry. © 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 — nOTIcEs: NO-tih-sez: Warnings or announcements.

Bizarro

marmaduKe

Average mark 30 words Time limit 50 minutes Can you find 43 or more words in NOTICES? yEsTERDAy’s WORD — GROcERIEs goes gore gorier grocer rerig rescore rice ricer rigor rise riser

roger rose rosier ogre orgies osier cerise cero coir core corer

corgi crier cries egis ergo erose score scorer scree seer sere

serge siege sire soiree sore sorer

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him.” Psalms 34:7-8 It’s true. Put your faith in the Lord. — G.E. Dean

10C ● Saturday, July 19, 2025 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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