The Advocate 08-12-2025 by The Advocate

‘IT’S WORKING’

U.S. Secretary of Education McMahon praises gains in reading scores in Louisiana during visit to BR school

BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visited a Baton Rouge elementary school on Monday morning to praise Louisiana’s improved reading scores, her ﬁrst stop on a cross-country tour as the Trump administration pushes to dismantle the Department of Education and grant more educational authority to the states.

McMahon said during a stop at the Jefferson Terrace Academy that she embarked on the “Returning Education to the States” tour to collect best practices that have shown educational success.

With Louisiana’s unprecedented improvement in national rankings, the state seemed a natural starting point, she said. State Superintendent Cade Brumley East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent LaMont Cole, Baton Rouge Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and other ofﬁcials toured classrooms Monday morning at the East Baton Rouge Parish public school with McMahon, the former head of World Wrestling Entertainment and the administrator of the Small Business Administration in President Donald Trump’s ﬁrst term. McMahon watched intently as Melanie Arceneaux’s first grade class sat cross-legged on the car-

pet and broke down words that use a “short A” sound. Following Arceneaux’s lead, the group spelled out C-A-T, tapping on each letter sound with their fingers before writing the word. “It’s just like being back in first grade,” McMahon said as she walked out of the room. During a discussion with state education officials following the classroom visits, McMahon praised Louisiana’s recent literacy gains, which Brumley attributes to the state’s implementation of Science of Reading training for teachers and rigorous tutoring programs.

ä See WORKING, page 5A

Abortion pill fight has high stakes

La., N.y. case could help define post-Roe v Wade era

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 ended a constitutional, nationwide right to abortion, states have passed their own, oftentimes widely divergent laws. Louisiana has a near-total ban and criminal penalties for providers, for example, while in New York, there is an “absolute right” to abortion until 24 weeks in a pregnancy As some states outlaw abortion, others have passed shield laws to protect abortion providers and patients within their borders from states that have restricted

ä See ABORTION, page 4A

Firm hired to repair orphan wells sued

State alleges leaders drained money ‘for personal gain’

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

Louisiana is suing a company it had tasked with plugging orphan oil and gas wells, alleging its leaders engaged in “self-dealing” with the help of a former state official who oversaw them. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the 19th Judicial District Court, asks a judge to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the Louisiana Oilfield Restoration Association and its directors from getting rid of business records or spending funds as the state seeks to recover money from the company Louisiana terminated its deal with LORA after an audit and a financial review of the company raised questions about its spending — including facilitating a $700,000 “bridge loan” to help the state official buy a house.

The lawsuit states LORA misrepresented its finances; it failed to plug most of the wells for which it was responsible or pay the state to do so; and it collected unauthorized late fines from operators who failed to pay their fees when it should have reported those operators to the state. It also lacked financial controls, breached its fiduciary duties and collected more money in administrative expenses than was allowed, misusing funds that should have gone to plugging orphan wells, the state has argued.

ä See WELLS, page 5A

Trump taking over Washington police

declaring a public safety emergency and his administration would be removing homeless encampments.

BY JOSH BOAK and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Monday he’s taking over Washington’s police department and activating 800 members of the National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime, even as city ofﬁcials stressed crime is already falling in the nation’s capital.

The president, ﬂanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary and the FBI director, said he was

“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump declared, adding he’d also be “getting rid of the slums.” For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reﬂects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-oncrime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume

ä See TRUMP, page 4A

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, center, talks with Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley while touring Jefferson Terrace Academy on Monday in Baton Rouge. At left is Shanna Beber, Louisiana Department of Education executive director of literacy.

PHOTO PROVIDED By THE U.S FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE An orphaned and leaking oil well site undergoes testing in the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge.

Ousted FDA vaccine chief returning WASHINGTON A Food and Drug Administration ofﬁcial is getting his job back as the agency’s top vaccine regulator less than two weeks after he was pressured to step down at the urging of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump.

Dr Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the FDA center that regulates vaccines and biotech therapies, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement

Monday Prasad left the agency late last month after drawing ire of rightwing activists, including Laura Loomer, because of his past statements criticizing Trump. A longtime a critic of FDA’s standards for approving medicines, Prasad briefly ordered the maker of a gene therapy for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy to halt shipments after two patient deaths. But that action triggered pushback from the families of boys with the fatal condition and libertarian supporters of increased access to experimental medicines.

Prasad’s decision to pause the therapy was criticized by The Wall Street Journal editorial board, former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and others. The FDA swiftly reversed its decision suspending the therapy’s use. Loomer posted online that Prasad was “a progressive leftist saboteur,” noting his history of praising liberal independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

But Prasad has had the backing of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Appeals court nixes Maine election law

PORTLAND, Maine Maine can’t enforce a voter-approved foreign election interference law that a federal appeals court said likely violates the Constitution by limiting political donations.

Voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on foreign governments and companies with 5% or more foreign government ownership from donating to state referendum races. The law is one of a handful around the country that attempt to limit foreign inﬂuence on U.S. elections.

The law has been on hold pending federal lawsuits from utilities companies and media organizations that raise constitutional challenges about it. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said in court papers in July that it afﬁrmed a lowercourt ruling that the law likely violates the First Amendment.

“The prohibition is overly broad, silencing U.S. corporations based on the mere possibility that foreign shareholders might try to inﬂuence its decisions on political speech, even where those foreign shareholders may be passive owners that exercise no inﬂuence or control over the corporation’s political spending,” Judge Lara Montecalvo wrote.

Summer’s best meteor shower peaks soon

WASHINGTON Summer’s most dazzling meteor shower, the Perseids, peaks early Wednesday At the same time, Venus and Jupiter will converge in the sky — overlapping like a very bright star

If your focus is the meteor shower, it’s worth knowing that this year a bright moon will dampen viewing during the predawn peak, so some experts recommend waiting a week or so to glimpse shooting stars against a darker sky

The Perseids “are an incredible meteor shower,” said Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium program coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota. Under dark skies with no moon, the Perseids can produce between 60 to 100 meteors per hour, he said. Since the moon will be around 84% full during the peak, skywatchers might expect between 10 to 20 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society

“This year I’m actually recommending that people go out a little bit later” — a week or so past the peak when the moon will not be as bright, LaCoursiere said. Viewing of the Perseids lasts until August 23.

STAFF PHOTO By OHAD ZWIGENBERG

Journalists, aid-seekers killed in Israeli strikes

Australia backs Palestinian statehood

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces killed at least 55 people across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Monday including a well-known journalist Israel said was a militant as well as people seeking humanitarian aid, according to local health ofﬁcials.

Hospital ofﬁcials reported at least 34 people were killed on Monday, not including journalists who were slain in a tent shortly before midnight

More than 15 people were killed while waiting for aid at the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, said Fares Awad, head of the ambulance services in northern Gaza.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths.

Earlier on Monday, it said air and artillery units were operating in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis, where resident Noha

Abu Shamala told The Associated Press that two drone strikes killed a family of seven in their apartment

Among the dead were at least 12 aid seekers killed by Israeli gunﬁre while trying to reach distribution points, or awaiting aid convoys, according to ofﬁcials at two hospitals and witnesses.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its Saraya Field Hospital received about 30 injured from the Zikim area. Al-Shifa hospital received ﬁve bodies and over 70 wounded, said Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the hospital’s director

Relatives said casualties included children and an infant. Witnesses to gunﬁre near the Morag corridor said they saw barrages of bullets and later dead bodies, describing the grim scene as a near-daily occurrence

Witnesses who were among the crowds in central Gaza, the Teina area and the Morag corridor said that Israeli forces had ﬁred toward the crowds.

“The occupation (forces) targeted us, as they do every day,” said Hussain Matter, a displaced father of two who was in the Morag corridor “Out of nowhere, you ﬁnd bullets from everywhere.”

Aid seekers were killed from nearly 2 miles to just hundreds of yards from sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Nasser and Awda hospitals

The United States and Israel support the American contractor as an alternative to the United Nations, which they say allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The U.N., which

has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.

The latest deaths raise the toll to more than 1,700 people killed while seeking food since the new aid distribution system began in May, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

U.N. agencies generally do not accept Israeli military escorts for aid trucks, citing concerns over neutrality, and its convoys have come under ﬁre amid severe food shortages.

The deaths came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called reports about conditions in Gaza a “global campaign of lies,” and announced plans to move deeper into the territory and push to dismantle Hamas.

Five more Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Israel increased the ﬂow of supplies two weeks ago amid such concerns.

Israel’s military targeted an Al Jazeera correspondent with an airstrike Sunday, killing him. The strike killed a total of eight people, including six journalists and two other civilians, according to Shifa Hospital. Press advocates described the attack as a brazen assault on those documenting the war

The network said that along with its correspondent, four others of the slain journalists also worked for Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military claimed responsibility for the strike. It came less than a year after Israeli army ofﬁcials ﬁrst accused correspondent Anas al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif have previously dismissed as baseless.

Al Jazeera called the strike a “targeted assassination” while press freedom groups denounced the rising death toll facing Palestinian journalists working in Gaza. Mourners laid the journalists to rest in Gaza City.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday added his country to a list moving toward recognition of a state of Palestine along with France, Britain and Canada. He said his government’s decision aimed to build momentum toward a two-state solution, which he called the best path to ending violence and bringing leadership other than Hamas to Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world’s worst fears,” he said. “The Israeli government continues to defy international law and deny sufﬁcient aid, food and water to desperate people, including children.”

Blasts at U.S. Steel plant in Pa. leave 1 dead, 1 missing, 10 hurt

BY MARC LEVY, GENE PUSKAR, MICHAEL CASEY and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

CLAIRTON, Pa. — Explosions at a U.S. Steel plant that shook the ground near Pittsburgh left one dead and sent at least 10 to hospitals Monday, with emergency workers still searching the badly charred rubble hours later for a missing worker, officials said One worker was pulled from the wreckage hours after the explosions sent black smoke spiraling into the midday sky in the Mon Valley, a region of the state synonymous with steel for more than a century Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51 a.m. A search and rescue effort was still active on Monday afternoon and officials said they had not isolated the cause of the blasts.

The explosions sent a shock through the community and led to ofﬁcials asking residents to stay away from the scene so emergency workers could respond.

“It felt like thunder,” Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. “Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then

when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it’s like something bad happened.”

At a news conference, Scott Buckiso, U.S. Steel’s chief manufacturing ofﬁcer did not give details about the damage or casualties, and said they were still trying to determine what happened. U.S. Steel employees “did a great job” of going in and rescuing workers, shutting down gases and making sure the site was stable, he said.

Buckiso said the company, now a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp., is working with authorities. He also said search teams were still looking for one person who was missing. They think they know the general location of that person, but weren’t sure, he said.

“Obviously, this is a tragedy that we want to understand,” Buckiso said. Allegheny Health Network said it treated seven patients from the plant, and discharged ﬁve within a few hours. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said it is treating three patients at UPMC Mercy the region’s only level one trauma and burn center

Judge won’t release Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts

BY LARRY NEUMEISTER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

NEW YORK Transcripts of grand jury testimony that led to sex trafﬁcking charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell shouldn’t be released, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision suggesting the Trump administration’s real motive for wanting them unsealed was to fool the public with an “illusion” of transparency

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written decision that federal law almost never allows for the release of grand jury materials and that making the documents public casually was a bad idea.

The judge also belittled the Justice Department’s argument that releasing grand jury materials might reveal new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, calling that premise “demonstrably false.”

The decision was a blow to President Donald Trump, who had called for the release of transcripts as he seeks to dispel rumors and quell criticism about his long ago involvement with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019. Trump campaigned on a promise to release files related to Epstein, but was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked any real bombshells.

In his ruling, Engelmayer wrote that after privately reviewing the grand jury transcripts, anyone familiar with the evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafﬁcking trial would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”

“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore un-

known means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said. He said the materials also don’t reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of Epstein’s death or the path of the government investigation. The best argument to release the transcripts might be that “doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote.

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he said. Another federal judge is weighing whether to release transcripts from the separate grand jury proceeding that led to Epstein’s indictment.

Florida lawyer Brad Edwards, who has represented nearly two dozen Epstein accusers, said he didn’t disagree with the ruling and most wanted to protect victims “The grand jury materials contain very little in the way of evidentiary value anyway,” he said. Maxwell, Epstein’s exgirlfriend, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse several underage girls. Her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, declined comment. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Epstein saga has again become a national ﬂashpoint years after Epstein served jail time and registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty to Florida prostitution offenses in a 2008 deal that let him avoid federal charges then.

Trump raised questions about Epstein’s death, and Trump allies stoked conspiracy theories that dark secrets were covered up to protect powerful people.

Smoke rises Sunday after an explosion in the Gaza Strip

Trump suggests he’ll know quickly if Putin wants deal

BY WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Monday that he expected to determine mere moments into his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week whether it would be possible to work out a deal to halt the war in Ukraine.

“At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said at a White House news conference that he called to announce plans for a federal takeover of Washington’s police force to help combat crime.

He said he thought Friday’s sitdown with Putin in Alaska would be “really a feel-out meeting.” Trump added that “it’ll be good, but it might be bad” and predicted he may say, “lots of luck, keep ﬁghting. Or I may say, we can make a deal.” Putin wants to lock in Russia’s gains since invading Ukraine in February 2022 as Trump presses for a ceaseﬁre that has remained out of reach.

Trump’s eagerness to reach a deal has raised fears

in Ukraine and Europe about such an agreement favoring Russia, without sufﬁcient input from Ukraine. Trump has alternately harshly criticized both leaders after promising — and so far failing — to swiftly end the conﬂict.

Trump on Monday ducked repeated chances to say that he would push for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take part in his discussions with Putin, and was especially dismissive of Zelenskyy and his need to be part of an effort to seek peace

He said the Ukrainian president had been to “a lot of meetings” without managing to halt a war that Russia started Trump also noted that Zelenskyy had been in power for the duration of the war and said “nothing happened” during that time. He contrasted that with Putin, who has wielded power in Russia for decades Trump said that, after his meeting with Putin, “The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin” but it could also be a meeting with “Putin and Zelenskyy and me.”

European allies have

pushed for Ukraine’s involvement, fearful that discussions could otherwise favor Moscow

To that point, Trump said he would call Zelenskyy and European leaders after his discussion with Putin to “tell them what kind of a deal —

I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal.”

Trump spent the early part of his administration decry-

U.S. and China extend trade truce an additional 90 days

BY PAUL WISEMAN and DIDI TANG Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days Monday, at least delaying once again a dangerous showdown between the world’s two biggest economies.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that “all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same.” Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause

via the ofﬁcial news agency Xinhua

The previous deadline was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday Had that happened the U.S. could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on U.S. exports to China

The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the U.S companies doing busi-

ness with China.

Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the extension is “critical” to give the two governments time to negotiate a trade agreement that U.S. businesses hope would improve their market access in China and provide the certainty needed for companies to make medium- and longterm plans.

“Securing an agreement on fentanyl that leads to a reduction in U.S. tariffs and a rollback of China’s retaliatory measures is acutely needed to restart U.S agriculture and energy exports,” Stein said.

Police say 3 killed in shooting at Target in Texas; suspect detained

BY NADIA LATHAN Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas A gunman opened fire Monday in the parking lot of a Target store in Texas’ capital, killing at least three people, before stealing two cars during a getaway that ended with police using a Taser to detain him on the other side of the city, authorities said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the suspect is a man in his 30s with “a mental health history.” Davis said the suspect ﬂed the scene in a stolen car, wrecked that car and then stole another from a dealership. He was captured about

20 miles away, in south Austin, where he was taken into custody, she said during a news conference She said ofﬁcers responding to a call about 2:15 p.m. found three people who had been shot in the Target parking lot.

Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Chief Robert Luckritz said two people were pronounced dead at the scene and one person was taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. He said another person was treated on the scene for unrelated injuries.

“This is a very sad day for Austin. It’s a very sad day for us all and my condolences go

out to the families,” Davis said. She said she had no information to release about the victims.

Lonnie Lee, 22, said she had visited the Target with her sister just a couple of hours earlier before they left to get lunch with their grandparents. When they returned to the area to continue shopping, she said they were shocked to see that the parking lot was cordoned off and ﬁlled with police.

The shooting came amid back-to-school shopping ahead of the upcoming academic year Target corporate has not responded to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment

ing Zelenskyy, even suggesting he was a dictator because his country has not held elections during the war Zelenskyy was hounded out of the Oval Ofﬁce in February after Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggested he hadn’t been grateful enough for U.S. support More recently, Trump has expressed frustration with Putin that Russia hasn’t appeared to take a push for a

ceaseﬁre more seriously, and softened his tone toward Zelenskyy His comments Monday suggested he might have had another change of heart.

“President Putin invited me to get involved,” Trump said. He noted that he thought it was “very respectful” that Putin is coming to the U.S for Friday’s meeting, instead of insisting that Trump go to Russia.

“I’d like to see a ceaseﬁre.

I’d like to see the best deal that can be made for both parties,” Trump said. The president repeated that any major agreement could involve land swaps, without elaborating. He had threatened Moscow with more economic sanctions if more isn’t done to work toward a ceaseﬁre, but suggested Monday that, should Friday’s meeting be successful, he could see a day when the U.S. and Russia normalize trade relations.

Putin is expected to be unwavering in his demands to keep all the territory his forces now occupy and to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, with the longterm aim of returning it to Moscow’s sphere of influence.

Zelenskyy insists he will never consent to any formal Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory or give up a bid for NATO membership. Putin believes he has the advantage on the ground as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances along the 600-mile front. On the front lines, few Ukrainian soldiers believe there’s an end in sight to the war

Colombian senator and presidential hopeful dies 2 months after shooting

BY ASTRID SUÁREZ Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia A Colombian senator and presidential hopeful whose shooting at a political rally in June recalled some of the darkest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled violence died Monday

The family of Miguel Uribe Turbay said the politician died at a hospital in the capital, Bogota. Uribe, 39, was shot three times, twice in the head, while giving a campaign speech in a park and had since remained in

an intensive care unit in serious condition with episodes of slight improvement.

“Rest in peace, love of my life. I will take care of our children,” his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, wrote in a social media post conﬁrming his death. “I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you.”

A teenage suspect was arrested at the scene of the June 7 attack in a workingclass Bogota neighborhood. Authorities later detained several other people, but they have not determined who ordered the hit or why

The shooting, which was caught on multiple videos, alarmed Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against presidential candidates since Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar declared war on the state in the 1990s. Uribe’s own mother, wellknown journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims of that period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug trafﬁckers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition to the United States.

BY THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press

PARIS A heat wave gripping parts of Europe sent temperatures over 109.4 degrees in southern France and the Western Balkans on Monday, fueling wildfires, triggering top-level weather alerts and forcing evacuations in several countries across what scientists warn is the world’s fastest-warming continent. Fires burned in France’s Aude wine region, along Bulgaria’s southern borders, near Montenegro’s capital and coast, and in Turkey’s northwest — and Hungary recorded record-breaking weekend temperatures 2025 is predicted to be the second- or third-warmest year on record, according to the U.K.-based Carbon Brief. The extreme heat in Europe ﬁts that global pattern but the continent is heating far faster than the

rest of the world. Land temperatures have risen more than 4 degrees above preindustrial levels, nearly twice the global average, intensifying heat waves and driving record ﬁre seasons With major outbreaks in Spain, Portugal and deadly blazes in Greece since late June, the burned area is already far above the seasonal norm.

On Monday, the French national weather authority, Météo-France, placed 12 departments on red alert, the country’s highest heat warning, anticipating exceptional heat stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean plains. Forty-one other departments were under lower-level orange alerts, as was the neighboring microstate of Andorra, between France and Spain.

Across the English Channel, the U.K.’s Met Office expects the country’s fourth

heat wave of the summer to peak around 90 in London on Tuesday. The U.K Health Security Agency issued a yellow health alert for older adults and those with medical conditions.

Montenegro reported wildfires near the capital Podgorica and along the Adriatic coast, prompting urgent appeals for help from neighboring countries. Families were evacuated from an area north of the capital as army units worked to protect the ruins of the ancient city of Duklja. Fires also burned above Canj, a popular coastal resort.

Bosnia’s southern city of Mostar reached 109, while Croatia’s Dubrovnik hit 93 in the morning. In Serbia, farmers on Suva

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By EVGENIy MALOLETKA Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian strike drones Sunday in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine.

responsibility for Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, Trump said, as he also railed against potholes and grafﬁti in the city and called them “embarrassing.” The president did not provide a timeline for the control of the police department, but he’s limited to 30 days under statute unless he gets approval from Congress.

As Trump spoke, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest his moves. And local ofﬁcials rejected the Republican president’s depiction of the district as crime-ridden and called his actions illegal.

“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.” Schwalb, a Democrat, said violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down an additional 26% this year

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding the “so-called emergency” even as she indicated that Trump’s actions were a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal protections from such actions.

“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser said.

The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its 3,500-ofﬁcer police force, even as

ABORTION

Continued from page 1A

the procedure.

The clashing state regulations could put Louisiana at the center of an unprecedented legal conflict, one that experts say is likely to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Louisiana’s criminal prosecution of Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor who mailed abortion pills to West Baton Rouge Parish for use in an abortion, may be the spark for what legal scholars have called a looming “war between the states.”

“It can feel a little bit like an arms race,” said Carmel Shachar, a professor of law and health policy at Harvard.

She gave an example: “Louisiana and Texas brought cases against Dr Carpenter, so a lot of shieldlaw states are adding provisions eliminating provider information from the prescriptions written for shield law patients.”

Carpenter is one of the founders of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a group formed after the Dobbs decision whose mission is to support “clinicians who make safe, timely, and affordable telemedicine abortion care available to patients in all 50 states.”

The majority of women who have an abortion do so by taking pills, a number that has risen steadily ever since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug mifepristone for abortion 25 years ago, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

And now with the rise of telehealth, an increasing number of women are accessing abortion pills online, according to data from the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access A grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish indicted Carpenter for the felony of “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs” for mailing abortion pills to the mother of a pregnant Port Allen teen.

New York Gov Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has said she will not allow the doctor to be extradited or turned over to Louisiana for prosecution, “not now, not ever.”

But Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the case “is far from over.”

“We are continuing to evaluate our options to ensure that Dr Carpenter faces justice in Louisiana,” she said. Tony Clayton, the local district attorney prosecuting the case, echoed that sentiment.

“We will take all legal

matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.

Bowser, a Democrat, has previously questioned the effectiveness of using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.

“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she said Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” acknowledging it is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”

cate for homeless people, called Trump’s plan “fascist” and a “waste” of resources. He said the move wasn’t about safety

“It is about power and it is about fascism and authoritarianism,” said Rabinowitz, the campaign and communication director for the National Homelessness Law Center “If Donald Trump wanted to keep D.C. safe, he would fund housing and support Instead, the Republicans just gutted health care, and they’re passing through a budget that will make homelessness worse They do not care about helping people.”

Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.

he seeks to have more armed personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.

“What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them,” he said.

Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration could take over the city’s police force. He signed a directive for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard

While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan. 6

measures afforded to us to extradite Dr Carpenter back here, and you will see something along those lines in the not-so-distant future,” he said In Texas, ofﬁcials are pursuing a civil case against Carpenter for prescribing abortion pills via telehealth.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton late last month said he ﬁled a legal petition in New York to force a court there to enforce his state’s judgment against the doctor. Paxton sued and won a default judgment against Carpenter for $100,000 in damages But a New York county clerk this spring refused to ﬁle the judgment, citing the state’s shield law

Legal and abortion scholars speculate that disputes arising from Louisiana or Texas could land before the Supreme Court.

When a federal right to abortion was overturned in 2022, abortion bans and other restrictions took effect in many states across the country.

In response, some other states enacted laws speciﬁcally protecting doctors, patients and others involved in an abortion from prosecution by those states, legal protections known as shield laws

There are abortion shield laws in 22 states, eight of which protect telehealth providers regardless of where the patient lives, according to the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA, which maintains a guide of shield laws across the country.

New York’s shield law prohibits law enforcement there from cooperating or sharing information with out-of-state investigations into abortion care that is legal under New York law And courts there can’t issue subpoenas for out-of-state proceedings related to legal care.

New York’s shield law also blocks law enforcement from arresting or extraditing anyone for providing abortion care that’s legal under New York law in response to out-of-state proceedings.

It’s among the states that protect providers from civil and criminal liability imposed by other states when providing services via telehealth to patients in other states.

Without cooperation from New York, Louisiana’s criminal case against Carpenter is stalled, and Louisiana’s options to move it forward remain murky

“Telehealth has become this flashpoint between states that are choosing really different directions to go on this question of abortion,” said Shachar, the Har-

2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police ofﬁcers.

About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are contributing ofﬁcers.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel

vard law professor

Because the practice of medicine is regulated at the state level, each state gets to decide whether its regulations view telehealth as taking place at the location of the provider or the patient, she said.

“Until recently that answer was always wherever the patient is physically located at the time,” she said.

But abortion shield laws are now “flipping that assumption,” with some states changing their rules about the location of telehealth services, Shachar said. “So then you have this conﬂict where essentially you have two states trying to claim ownership over the same telehealth visit.”

There is an entire area of the law known as “conﬂict of laws” that deals with situations that could be handled in more than one jurisdiction and that raise “choice of law” questions about which jurisdiction’s laws should be used.

Many legal scholars argue that the state-by-state patchwork for abortion laws is raising unprecedented legal questions in this area. That’s because regulations from one state to another could now be in direct conﬂict especially between states trying to impose liability for abortion-related actions on people located in other states and those with shield laws batting away those attempts.

“On the subject of abortion, the so-called ‘United’ States of America are becoming more disunited than ever,” George Washington University law professor Paul Schiff Berman wrote in a 2023 article titled “Conflicts of Law and the Abortion War Between the States.”

“These partisan and geographic divides create perhaps the biggest set of nationwide conﬂicts of law problems since the era of the Fugitive Slave Act before the Civil War,” wrote Berman and his co-authors.

“We cannot predict with certainty which state’s law would apply in an interstate abortion situation,” Susan Frelich Appleton, a law professor at Washington University, wrote in a 2023 paper analyzing abortion and choice of law issues.

Legal scholars also note that jurisdictional issues between states don’t often come before the Supreme Court, leaving little direct precedent to guide abortion and choice-of-law conﬂicts.

In the Carpenter case, Louisiana courts and New York courts will assess those in fundamentally different ways.

“The thing that will probably drive these cases to the Supreme Court is that con-

Bowser noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. She stressed during a Monday news conference that she believed Trump’s views of the city were shaped by the “challenging times” of the coronavirus pandemic, when he faced protests and crime spiked as the country began to recover from the outbreak.

Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go, and he did not give details at his news conference Monday

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday in a social media post. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

Jesse Rabinowitz an advo-

ﬂicts of law aspect, because what you’re going to have is basically two parallel legal structures,” said Shachar

“Really, the only way to resolve it is to take it out of New York and Louisiana and bring it to the Supreme Court,” Shachar said. “That’s part of what the Supreme Court was designed to do, is resolve conﬂicts between the states.”

Just one constitutional issue in the Carpenter indictment stems from the extradition clause of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, which

The president has criticized the district as full of “tents, squalor, ﬁlth, and Crime,” and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efﬁciency Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.

“This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,” Trump said Wednesday

He called Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining.

regulates the relationship between the states.

The extradition clause says that states have to respect extradition requests from other states for fugitives who commit crimes and “ﬂee from justice.” Carpenter, however, was never physically in Louisiana, nor did she ﬂee from that state to New York.

Typically, states cooperate on extradition requests, but with the rise of conﬂicting abortion laws, that cooperation could break down.

Clayton, the district at-

torney, said that because Louisiana can show probable cause that Carpenter caused harm through an act that is criminal under Louisiana law, other states are required to honor that ﬁnding.

“We’re called the United States of America for a reason,” he said. “You can’t have folks go run to another state and hide under the political leadership of their state and avoid prosecution.”

Email Alyse Pfeil at alyse. pfeil@theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks as Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A Smith listens during a news conference Monday discussing President Donald Trump’s plan to place Washington police under federal control and deploy National Guard troops.

After long being stuck at the bottom of the pack, Louisiana made unprecedented reading improvements on a national test known as “the nation’s report card,” jumping from 49th place ﬁve years ago to 32nd this year Fourth grade students jumped from 42nd place in 2022 to 16th place in reading last year

“It’s working,” McMahon said. “It’s incredibly important to get out and see what is happening in our states. Across the board, let’s take best practices. Let’s put together tool kits so that we can distribute that information to our states.”

Jefferson Terrace, a “D”-rated school, has implemented the new reading initiatives The school, which improved from an “F”rating the year before, was highlighted by the district in January for starting a program of “high dosage tutoring,” giving students 120 minutes of focused tutoring each week.

McMahon’s tour took place as the Trump administration continues its effort to break apart the Department of Education. Trump, making good on a campaign promise, issued an executive order in March calling for the federal department to be dismantled

Conservatives have long attacked the agency, which Congress established in 1979, calling it federal overreach and saying it has failed to improve student outcomes.

McMahon was tasked with carrying out Trump’s plan — what she called the agency’s “ﬁnal mission.”

She has said that eliminating bu-

WELLS

Continued from page 1A

LORA has gone 10 weeks without fulﬁlling the state’s request to provide a full accounting of its funds and spending, according to the lawsuit.

“As a direct result of the Defendants’ activities, the State of Louisiana and its citizens have been and continue to be harmed in a manner that money damages cannot adequately compensate,” the lawsuit states. “Every day of delay is another day that Louisiana orphaned wells are left unplugged, putting Louisiana’s environment and the lives, property, and ‘health, safety, and welfare’ of the citizens of Louisiana further at risk.”

LORA has made a $5 million partial payment to the state, the lawsuit states, but Louisiana has been unable to determine the full extent of damages.

“LORA is proud of the work it did to plug orphan wells in Louisiana,” David LaPlante, a spokesperson for LORA, said in a statement. “LORA understands that the current administration has different plans for addressing orphan wells. LORA is winding down its operations and will respond to the State’s allegations through the legal process.”

LORA was set up in 2019 to deal with the long-standing problem of “orphan” oil and gas wells. A well can become orphaned either when its operator abandons it without plugging it, or when the

reaucratic bloat at the department would allow more money to ﬂow to schools and that transferring “educational oversight” to states would promote local autonomy and decision-making.

Brumley has endorsed Trump’s call to abolish the department, arguing that education decisions should be made locally He said he also supports removing restrictions from federal grants that specify how the money can be

operator stops maintaining the well in accordance with state regulations. Louisiana has some 4,971 orphan wells, which pose public health and environmental hazards.

LORA collected fees from well operators in exchange for “financial security,” meaning it would take responsibility for wells if their operators went out of business — either by plugging the well itself or by paying the well’s promised ﬁnancial security amount to the state. But the lawsuit states the arrangement had red flags from the start.

It alleges that Johnny Adams, a former senior attorney and assistant commissioner for the Ofﬁce of Conservation, had a preexisting relationship with Van Mayhall III, LORA’s president. Yet Adams “was extensively involved in and greatly inﬂuenced” the creation of LORA’s cooperative endeavor agreement, which “greatly favored LORA, while prejudicing the state,” the lawsuit states. It is unclear just how much control Adams had over LORA’s arrangement with the state. An advisory opinion issued by the state ethics board last year said it was the conservation commissioner who controlled the contract Adams sought that opinion to see if Arkus Management Services could employ his daughter In addition to Mayhall, Adams also had preexisting personal relationships with LORA’s four other directors, dating back to at least 2012, according to the lawsuit. It lists those directors as Jacob

used, such as to support homeless students or English learners, and allowing states to decide how to spend the money

In an interview after the school visit, Brumley said his relationship with McMahon “positions Louisiana very well to be able to do the things that we need to do for our students.”

McMahon said she calls Brumley to “bounce ideas off him” and ask how initiatives would play out

Dickinson, Andrew Berthelot, Phillip Marchiafava and Lance Chad Lott Sr All four men, along with Mayhall and Adams, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with a host of companies linked to LORA’s directors. They include Arkus, Chromos Wealth Solutions, the LORA Foundation and Willow Lake Well Services.

State business records and federal tax ﬁlings show that at least one of LORA’s directors manages each one of those entities, except for Willow Lake Well Services, which is managed by Arkus.

LORA paid management fees to Arkus, and it paid investment fees to both Arkus and Chromos, the lawsuit states.

LORA first fell into the spotlight in October when news broke that East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies were investigating Adams for possible malfeasance in ofﬁce. A subsequent state review of LORA found the company had, through Chromos, loaned Adams $780,000 to buy a house.

John McLindon, Adams’ attorney, has repeatedly emphasized that Adams dealt with Chromos, not LORA.

“All I can tell you is John borrowed money from a company called Chromos. What happened between Chromos and LORA, we have nothing to do with that,” McLindon said.

The money was a bridge loan that Adams paid off in full, with interest, early, McLindon said.

“I don’t know why they left that part out of the lawsuit,”

McLindon said.

in Louisiana. “I value his opinion; I value what’s being done in Louisiana,”

McMahon said. “I’m very happy that I can be able to have him as a good resource and a good friend.”

McMahon also reiterated her vision to rid the Department of Education of “bureaucratic red tape.”

She said the Trump administration hopes to shift to a “block funding” approach that allows states to decide how to spend federal funding

He contended the lawsuit has little to do with his client.

“Ninety-nine percent of the lawsuit doesn’t apply to Johnny The documents that they ask that he not dispose of, he already turned them over,” he said.

LORA, meanwhile, issued a filing opposing the state’s request for a temporary restraining order The filing disputes the state’s allegation that LORA breached its cooperative endeavor agreement, arguing instead that the state

dollars.

“If the secretary and her team are able to move to more formulaic funding,” Brumley said, “then I feel we can align those dollars to the priorities we have in Louisiana, such as early childhood education, Science of Reading, foundational math, redesigning these high schools and school choice.”

Emphasizing that major federal school funding, such as IDEA and Title funds, would still be allocated to states through other means if the Department of Education was dismantled, McMahon acknowledged that some programs could get a “haircut.”

Trump’s recent budget proposal for ﬁscal year 2026 called for a $4.5 billion reduction to federal grant programs for homeless students, rural schools and after-school programs.

McMahon said that while “reducing the bureaucracy and regulatory environment” will make it less expensive to implement the programs, “there’s some opportunity to look at whether all the programs that are part of those grants are necessary and are good ones.”

When asked whether states would have less oversight and accountability without the Department of Education Brumley said that states would still be held to federal laws.

While Congress would likely need to approve the Education Department’s complete elimination, the Trump administration has already started downsizing it, cutting half of the agency’s staff and shrinking the divisions that collect educational data and enforce civil rights laws.

Staff writers Patrick Wall and Charles Lussier contributed to this report.

itself violated the agreement. It states LORA distributed its funds appropriately

The filing notes that in 2023, Mayhall, LORA’s president, sent a letter to the state with suggestions for how to improve the agreement to “better serve the State’s interests and LORA’s dual mandate to provide low-cost ﬁnancial security for operators and to plug and abandon orphan wells.”

LORA plugged many orphan wells for which it was not responsible, the filing

states, adding that the state requested that LORA plug such wells. Marchiafava, one of the individual defendants in the lawsuit, declined to comment. Mayhall, Dickinson, Berthelot and Lott either did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached No criminal charges have been filed in the case, according to ofﬁcials.

Email Meghan Friedmann at meghan.friedmann@ theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon high-fives student government ambassador Christal Weber an eighth grader during a tour of Jefferson Terrace Academy on Monday in Baton Rouge.

BUSINESS

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Stocks slip as Wall Street awaits update

U.S. stocks edged back from their record heights on Monday in Wall Street’s ﬁnal moves before an upcoming update on inﬂation.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.3% after flirting with its all-time high, which was set two weeks ago, earlier in the day The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 200 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite shaved 0.3% off its own record.

The highlight of this week for Wall Street will likely arrive on Tuesday, when the government will report how bad inflation was across the country in July

Economists expect it to show U.S. consumers had to pay prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.8% higher from a year earlier, a slight acceleration from June’s 2.7% inﬂation

Inﬂation has remained above 2%, even if it has improved substantially from its peak above 9% three years ago. And the worry is that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inﬂation higher

That in turn is raising fears about a potential worst-case scenario called “stagflation,” where the economy stagnates but inﬂation remains high.

AOL to pull the plug on dial-up service

AOL will pull the plug and end its dial-up internet service after more than 30 years.

The ISP said it will discontinue dial-up — along with its memorable, high-pitched connecting noise and “You’ve got mail” greeting — and “associated software” on Sept. 30.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” the company stated.

“This service will no longer be available in AOL plans As a result, on Sept. 30, this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.”

Free AOL email accounts and services will not be affected.

Roughly 163,000 households (about 0.1% of the nation’s household internet subscriptions) had dial-up as of 2023— the most recent year data available — according to the U.S. Census Bureau The 2019 census revealed that 265,331 people solely went online through dial-up.

The company said it would provide connectivity options based on location for customers still using the service.

America Online launched its dial-up service in 1991. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, America Online had more than 25 million subscribers in the U.S. The service was synonymous with the internet and became a mainstay in pop culture in movies like “You’ve Got Mail” and TV shows like “Sex and the City.”

Paramount to be new home to UFC Paramount will become the new home to Ultimate Fighting Championship events across the U.S. next year, through a seven-year agreement announced with TKO Group on Monday Under the deal, Paramount will exclusively distribute the UFC’s full lineup of its 13 marquee numbered events and 30 “Fight Nights” on its streaming platform Paramount+ — with select numbered events also set to simulcast on CBS starting in 2026. It’s a shift away from the UFC’s existing pay-per-view model which Paramount and TKO say will allow the mixed martial arts programming reach more consumers nationwide. UFC events currently air on ESPN — which has offered tiered pricing for fans to view content across the sports network’s TV offerings and streaming platform ESPN+ since 2019

The Associated Press

NEW YORK Nvidia and AMD have agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China with the U.S. government, as part of a deal to secure export licenses for the semiconductors.

The Trump administration halted the sale of advanced computer chips to China in April over national security concerns, but Nvidia and AMD revealed in July that Washington would allow them to resume sales of the H20 and MI308 chips, which are used in artiﬁcial intelligence development

President Donald Trump confirmed the terms of the unusual arrangement in a Monday news conference while noting that he

originally wanted 20% of the sales revenue when Nvidia asked to sell the “obsolete” H20 chip to China.

The president credited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for negotiating him down to 15%.

“So we negotiated a little deal. So he’s selling an essentially old chip,” Trump said. Nvidia did not comment about the speciﬁc details of the agreement or its quid pro quo nature, but said it would adhere to the export rules laid out by the administration.

“We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide,” Nvidia

wrote in a statement to the AP

“America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America’s AI tech stack can be the world’s standard if we race.” AMD did not reply to a request for comment.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, expressed concern over the deal.

“There are questions about the legal basis for doing so,” he said “Export controls are a frontline defense in protecting our national security, and we should not set a precedent that incentivizes the government to grant licenses to sell China technology that will enhance its AI capabilities.”

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, said he would seek answers about the legal basis for this arrangement and demand full transparency from the administration.

“Our export control regime must be based on genuine security considerations, not creative taxation schemes disguised as national security policy,” he said. “Chip export controls aren’t bargaining chips, and they’re not casino chips either We shouldn’t be gambling with our national security to raise revenue.”

The top Democrat on the panel also raised concerns over the reported agreement, calling it “a dangerous misuse of export controls that undermines our national security.”

BY MARC LEVY Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.

— Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

It’s not clear that any state has a solution and the actual effect of data centers on electricity bills is difﬁcult to pin down. Some critics question whether states have the spine to take a hard line against tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta.

But more than a dozen states have begun taking steps as data centers drive a rapid build-out of power plants and transmission lines.

That has meant pressuring the nation’s biggest power grid operator to clamp down on price increases, studying the effect of data centers on electricity bills or pushing data center owners to pay a larger share of local transmission costs.

Rising power bills are “something legislators have been hearing a lot about. It’s something we’ve been hearing a lot about. More people are speaking out at the public utility commission in the past year than I’ve ever seen before,” said Charlotte Shuff of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group. “There’s a massive outcry.”

Some data centers could require more electricity than cities the size of Pittsburgh,

Cleveland or New Orleans, and make huge factories look tiny by comparison. That’s pushing policymakers to rethink a system that, historically, has spread transmission costs among classes of consumers that are proportional to electricity use.

“A lot of this infrastructure, billions of dollars of it, is being built just for a few customers and a few facilities and these happen to be the wealthiest companies in the world,” said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University “I think some of the fundamental assumptions behind all this just kind of breaks down.”

A ﬁx, Peskoe said, is a “can of worms” that pits ratepayer classes against one another Some ofﬁcials downplay the role of data centers in pushing up electric bills.

Tricia Pridemore, who sits on Georgia’s Public Service Commission and is president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, pointed to an already tightened electricity supply and increasing costs for power lines, utility poles, transformers and generators as utilities replace aging equipment or harden it against extreme weather

The data centers needed to accommodate the artiﬁcial intelligence boom are still in the regulatory planning stages, Pridemore said, and the Data Center Coalition, which represents Big Tech ﬁrms and data center developers, has said its members are committed to paying their fair share.

But growing evidence suggests that the electricity bills of some Americans are rising to subsidize the massive energy needs

of Big Tech as the U.S. competes in a race against China for artiﬁcial intelligence superiority

Data and analytics ﬁrm Wood Mackenzie published a report in recent weeks that suggested 20 proposed or effective specialized rates for data centers in 16 states it studied aren’t nearly enough to cover the cost of a new natural gas power plant. In other words, unless utilities negotiate higher specialized rates, other ratepayer classes — residential, commercial and industrial are likely paying for data center power needs.

Meanwhile, Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog for the mid-Atlantic grid, produced research in June showing that 70% or $9.3 billion of last year’s increased electricity cost was the result of data center demand.

Last year, ﬁve governors led by Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro began pushing back against power prices set by the mid-Atlantic grid operator, PJM Interconnection, after that amount spiked nearly sevenfold. They warned of customers “paying billions more than is necessary.”

PJM has yet to propose ways to guarantee that data centers pay their freight, but Monitoring Analytics is ﬂoating the idea that data centers should be required to procure their own power

In a ﬁling last month, it said that would avoid a “massive wealth transfer” from average people to tech companies.

At least a dozen states are eyeing ways to make data centers pay higher local transmission costs.

BY BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ford Motor Co will invest nearly $2 billion retooling a Kentucky factory to produce electric vehicles that it says will be more affordable, more proﬁtable to build and will outcompete rival models. The automaker’s top executive unveiled the new EV strategy at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, which, after producing gas-powered vehicles for 70 years, will be converted to manufacture electric vehicles. “In our careers, as automobile people, we’re lucky if we get to

work on one, maybe two, projects that really change the face of our industry,” CEO Jim Farley told plant workers in Kentucky on Monday “And I believe today is going to

automakers to go electric. Trump’s

massive tax and spending law targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new electric car Yet Farley and other top executives in the auto industry say that electric vehicles are the future and there is no going back. The ﬁrst EV to be produced by the revamped Louisville production process will be a midsize, four-door electric pickup truck in 2027 for domestic and international markets, the company said

and pack enough power

to have a targeted 0-60 time as fast as a Mustang EcoBoost but with more downforce, Ford said The electric trucks will be powered by lower-cost batteries made at a Ford factory in Michigan. The Detroit automaker previously announced a $3 billion investment to build the battery factory

The automaker sees this as a “Model T moment” for its EV business — a reference to revolutionary changes on the production line led by the company’s founder, Henry Ford, when it began churning out vehicles from a factory more than a century ago. Farley said the changes will upend

Farley

Trump’s new congressional map in Texas still stymied

Calif. governor urges president to give up

BY BILL BARROW, NADIA LATHAN and SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press

AUSTIN,Texas Texas Republicans were unable again Monday to approve new congressional districts to meet President Donald Trump’s demands as California Gov Gavin Newsom and other Democrats urged Republicans to stand down and avoid a partisan brawl spanning multiple statehouses. Texas Democratic lawmakers remained outside of Texas after leaving the state to deny their GOP colleagues the quorum necessary to vote on Trump’s aggressive redistricting play and push the stalemate into its second week. The president’s agenda also spurred Democratic governors, including Newsom, to pledge retaliatory redistricting efforts in their states — setting up the possibility of an extended standoff that could upend the 2026 midterm elections.

Newsom urged Trump in a letter Monday to abandon his scheme, telling the president he is “playing with ﬁre” and “risking the destabilization of our democracy.”

At the Texas Capitol, House Speaker Dustin Burrows ad-

journed another attempted session within minutes of its early afternoon opening. He used the brief gathering to chastise dozens of Democrats who have civil warrants out for their arrest.

Because they are out of state, those lawmakers are beyond the reach of state authorities

Burrows said Texas law enforcement agencies have been to the residences of the absent legislators, “conducting surveillance, knocking on doors” and calling their cellphones trying to bring them to the statehouse “The search continues, and it will not stop,” the speaker said. Later he added, “Eventually you will be here.”

Burrows’ GOP House majority wants to redraw districts so that five more Republicans can be elected. Trump, who has said the GOP is “entitled” to the seats, is pushing other Republicancontrolled legislatures to follow suit as he tries to avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms. Those elections during Trump’s ﬁrst presidency yielded a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied his agenda and twice impeached him. Existing maps nationally put Democrats within three seats of a House majority at a time when there are only several dozen competitive districts out of 435.

“Stealing congressional districts — mid-decade — is wrong,” Texas Rep. Trey

Martinez Fischer, one of the lawmakers who left the state, said Monday “It’s just nothing other than old-school cheating.”

Texas Democrats intend to run out the clock on their current special session, which cannot extend beyond Aug. 19 But Gov Greg Abbott said he’ll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the attendance threshold required to vote on the bill.

Responding to Texas, Newsom and other California

Democrats are considering new boundaries to yield a ﬁve-seat shift toward Democrats, neutralizing any Texas change. That would require, however, getting California voters to set aside existing maps drawn by an independent commission. New York Gov Kathy Hochul and Illinois Gov JB Pritzker have promised similar efforts in their Democratic-run statehouses.

In his letter to Trump, Newsom said he prefers that independent bodies draw political districts rather

than partisan legislatures, as is done in Texas and most GOP-controlled states. But, Newsom wrote, “California cannot stand idly by as this power grab unfolds.”

If Texas and “the other states call off their redistricting efforts,” the governor added, “we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”

The absent Texas lawmakers are staying in Illinois, New York and elsewhere. They have appeared with Newsom, Pritzker and Hochul at various points and

say they have no intention of returning as long as Republicans are intent on mollifying Trump.

Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a U.S. Senate candidate, want state courts to remove Democratic lawmakers from ofﬁce, asserting that they have abandoned their posts. Paxton has asked an Illinois court to enforce the Texas warrants issued for absent lawmakers so they could be arrested beyond Texas’ borders.

State Rep. Rhetta Bowers, who’s also staying in Illinois, pointed back to some white politicians’ tactics during the Civil Rights Movement. She noted the proposed Texas maps would disproportionately affect districts represented by Black and Latino Democrats, and she raised concerns about Abbott and Paxton’s use of law enforcement and the justice system against their political opponents.

Those are “the very same tactics used against Black and brown Americans” who pushed for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, she said.

“Their fight is our fight, and just like the Civil Rights heroes of the past, no matter the cost we are prepared to see it through to the end,” Bowers said. At the very least, the Democrats face $500 fines for each daily absence under legislative rules.

Milwaukee area recovers from record rain and flooding

BY SCOTT BAUER Associated Press

MADISON,Wis. — The Milwaukee area began drying out Monday after weekend rain hit unofficial records in Wisconsin of more than 14 inches in less than 24 hours, leading multiple rivers to flood at record-high levels, washing out vehicles, flooding basements and cutting power to thousands of homes.

No fatalities had been reported as of Monday morning from the storms that began Saturday night and stretched into Sunday Road closures were more isolated Monday as flood warnings continued in Milwaukee, Waukesha and Ozaukee counties. About 2,000 homes in the area remained without power as of Monday afternoon.

Residents couldn’t believe what they saw as rains pounded the area Saturday night.

Colby McMillan and a friend were driving home around 11 p.m. in Milwaukee when their car stalled out in what McMillian thought was just a puddle. Then the water started coming in under the door “As the water was coming in, it was like, ‘What is happening?’” McMillan said

Monday “It was very, very shocking to me. We had to get out of this car and out of the rain. I had never seen anything like this before.”

They escaped and helped others avoid getting stuck like they did. But the car was totaled, McMillan said.

The city of Milwaukee was still assessing the extent of the damage Monday as ﬂoodwaters were receding, said the city’s public works director, Jerrel Kruschke

Rob Sieracki lives across the street from a dog park that he said was completely underwater One car was

submerged, something Sieracki didn’t realize until he saw a photo the next day

About two feet of water came up the front of his house, built in 1890, resulting in several inches of ﬂooding in his basement. He also lost power for 15 hours.

“Because we’re on a hill, we turned out to be relatively OK,” Sieracki said. “Some water did come in, it’s stinky water, we think it’s sewage, but we’ll be OK.”

The flash flooding led to the cancellation of the final day of the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis outside of Mil-

Man fired 180 shots, breaking

BY MIKE STOBBE Associated Press

NEW YORK The man who attacked the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Friday ﬁred more than 180 shots into the campus and broke about 150 windows, with bullets piercing “blast-resistant” windows and spattering glass shards into numerous rooms, according to information circulated internally at the agency It may take weeks or even months to replace windows and clean up the damage, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel said.

A Georgia man who had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal opened ﬁre late Friday, killing a police ofﬁcer No one at CDC was injured.

The shooter was stopped by CDC security guards before driving to a nearby pharmacy and opening ﬁre late Friday afternoon, a law

enforcement ofﬁcial has told the AP The ofﬁcial wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The 30-year-old man, Patrick Joseph White, later died, but authorities haven’t said whether he was killed by police or killed himself

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr toured the CDC campus on Monday CDC security pointed out broken windows across multiple buildings, including the main guard booth, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statement.

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and CDC Director Susan Monarez accompanied him, according to the statement. Kennedy also visited the DeKalb County Police Department, where he met with the police chief. Later He also met privately with the widow of the fallen ofﬁcer, David Rose. Monarez posted a state-

ment on social media Friday night that said at least four CDC buildings were hit in the attack.

The extent of the damage became more clear during a weekend CDC leadership meeting. Two CDC employees who were told about what was discussed at the meeting described details to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal the information. Details also were also in an agency memo seen by an AP reporter Building 21, which houses Monarez’s office, was hit by the largest number of bullets. CDC officials did not say if her office was hit CDC employees were advised to work from home this week. Kennedy issued a statement Saturday that said “no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” and that top federal health officials were ”actively supporting CDC staff.”

waukee on Sunday, as well as USA Triathlon’s Sprint and Paratriathlon National Championships in Milwaukee Thousands of athletes from around the country were expected to participate in that event

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he’s hearing stories of residents across the city, including his own

uncle, who had water all the way up to the top of their basement.

“I certainly hope that a storm like this does not visit on the city for at least another millennium,” Johnson said.

The National Weather Service predicted more rain for the area Monday night, but nothing like the prolonged deluge Saturday into Sunday that caused the flash flooding. “There could be some areas that get some heavy downpours,” said Sarah Marquardt, a National Weather Service meteorologist at the Milwaukee/Sullivan office. That could prolong areas with standing water but not result in additional flooding, she said.

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTO By JAy JANNER

Many seats remain empty Monday during the session in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Austin, Texas.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANDy MANIS Patrick Carrol helps clean out the basement of Franky’s Newport bar on Monday in Milwaukee.

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LOUISIANA AT LARGE

Alushgreen tourist attraction

Houmas House’s 70-year-old owner seeksbeautyatsite

Back in 2003, Kevin Kelly bought Houmas House on the Mississippi River in rural Ascension Parish. Shortly after the purchase, he held agrand affair to launch his endeavors toturn the plantation into amajor tourist attraction.

If the 4,000 or so people who attendedcame for ashow,they got one,Kelly explained Friday morning, sitting in the driver’s seatofagolf cart in front of the massive home built in 1829.

As he talked, guides in period dress occasionally sauntered across the porch with tour groups following, as Kelly,70, pointed out key spots of that day long ago.

He had promised aspecial ceremony back in 2003 —the invitation said “paws” instead of “pause,” adetail that many assumed was atypo. It was not.

When the masses gathered on the front lawn, they proceeded to witness the spectacle of Kelly’s two beloved Dutch Labradors, Grace and Sam, getting married. The groom arrived in an 1828 Houmas House hunting carriage pulled by four horses through the stately oaks.The bride followed in Cinderella’scarriage drawn by Belgian Draughts. Kelly waslooking for publicity —and he got it.

Notahistory buff

The spectacle should have been asign that Kelly was not interested in playingbyany rules that went with owning ahistorical plantation.

He is not ahistory buff.

He is simply interested in pretty In the 23 years since he bought the place, Kelly has set about to make the home and gardens as pretty as possible —and he has gone to elaborate lengths todo so. The result? Plenty of pretty. And plenty of criticism,too.

“I made ajoke one time about 15 years ago that Iwant Houmas House to be the Disneyland of plantations,” he said. “All I meant by that was Iwanted tobe aplace where people vacation andspend their money happily becauseGod knows Disney is way too expensive for anybody Still, they go to Disney.” Kelly wanted people to have a similar,positive experience at Houmas House.

“My story has never been about slaveryand our dark history,” he said. “It’snot an interest of mine. Most people who do not like Houmas House say that it’s because Idon’ttell the story of slavery here. So then, Iopened the Great River Road Museum (on the grounds) —and Itell the story of slavery there.”

He thinks the story of slavery can be told in one place or the other

“But you don’tneed to tellitin both places,” he said.

Kelly says he understands how much some people feel negatively toward plantations, but he thinks the feelings aren’t completely fair.After all, he says, other places were built using slave labor and they are still celebrated —including the White House and many of the mansions in New Orleans.

First-gradeart appreciation

Kelly made his money largely in warehouses and real estate in

NEWSTOP

BR linked to newAmtrak ‘Mardi Gras’line

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

BatonRouge residents won’t be left out of theAmtrak “Mardi Gras Service” between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

Starting Aug. 18, they can hop on abus in the CapitalCity to connect seamlessly with thetrain departing fromUnion PassengerTerminalin New Orleans.

“You can get on the bus hereinthe morning and be in Mobile in time for lunch that afternoon,” Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said.

Buses will depart daily at 5:35 a.m.

and 2p.m. from Baton Rouge’sGreyhound station, according to arelease from Amtrakand Flix, parent company of Greyhound andFlixBus, with arrivals scheduledfor 7:05 a.m.and 4:45 p.m. Passengers can thenjump on the Amtrak service to Mobile without worrying aboutcoordinating aseparateticket

Faresfor the bus servicewere not immediately available, but the rail service between New Orleansand Mobile startsat$15 one way

The Amtrak Mardi Gras Servicebetween Mobile and New Orleans was announced in April andwill also start Aug. 18. The previous daily route between thetwo cities, called Gulf Coast Limited, ceased operation in 1996, according to previous reporting from The Advocate.

TheMobile-New Orleanspassenger train service will also makestops in Bay Saint Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula, Mississippi. ThosedepartingfromBaton Rougecan book con-

necting tickets to the passenger train service starting this week.

Amtrak leaders hope to bring passenger train service in addition to bus connections to Baton Rouge in the coming years, Magliari said.

But fornow,they’re excited to offer the new connection option and provide a“quick and easy” experience forBatonRouge residentstransferringfrom the bus to the train, Magliari said.

“We’re talking about taking the trains that go from, let’ssay,Mobile, New Orleans, bringing them on up here,” Magliari said. “But that’safew years away.Why wait when we can have abus connection right now?”

Florian Sitrin, who oversees business collaborations at Flix, said the announcementaligns with the company’s goal to make intercity travel easier across the country

“It’simportant to us to create opportunities for passengers to travel,”

ä See AMTRAK, page 2B

St.Helenateenconvicted as adultinschoolshooting

Williamssentenced to 9years in prison

BY CLAIREGRUNEWALD

Staff writer

ASt. Helena Parish teen was sentenced Monday in afatal school shooting aftervictims’ family members gave emotional speeches in the Greensburg courtroom.

ChristopherWilliams, 16, was sentenced to nine yearsin prison after pleading guilty to the shootingatSt. Helena College and Career Academythat killed onejuvenile and injured twoothers in September2023. The shooting took place on campus whenthe three victims weresitting in acar after school. Vernon Gordon Jr., 16, diedinthe shooting.

Williams was charged on counts of second-degree murder,two countsofattempted second-degreemurder and illegal carrying of aﬁrearm. He was 14 years old at the time of

the shooting andwas tried as an adult.

Vernon Gordon Sr.said the sentence didn’treflect the value of his son’s life.

“My family was servedalife sentence of grief,”hesaid.

He described hisson as an outgoingathleteonthe honor roll who wantedtogotocollege. He would have turned 18 ﬁve days ago.

The victim’sfather andseveral other family members donned T-shirts with his photo thatsaid “Justice forVJ” and “Until We Meet Again.”

Marquelle Bernard-Gordon, Gordon Jr.’smother,described herfamily as struggling with griefafter theshooting, especially her juvenile special needsdaughter The mothersaid the death “changed ourfamily forever.”

Other relatives and the mother of the other two injured victims spoke about their grief. Some sharedtheir frustrationabout the sentencing. Some forgaveWilliams

Williamskept his head down as the seven victim impact statements were read in court

Initial reportsfrom law enforcement said bullying may have fueled the shooting. Thomas Damico, Williams’ defenseattorney, said after the sentencing, there was evidence of “serious bullying” both verbally and physically, andthatWilliamswas nota “bad kid.” Bernard-Gordon testified in court that there was “noproof” of bullying. Thedefense attorneysaid his client and family were both remorseful. Williams’ mother and a handful of women satonthe side of the room near him, wearing T-shirtsthat displayed Bible verse “Mark 11:25” and“Standing in Love with CJaye.”

“Fourteen is theyoungest I’veever had,”Damico said aboutrepresenting the juvenile. “TheDistrict Attorney’s Ofﬁce understood the gravity of the kids’ ages.”

Fred’s barsuit

BR establishment accusedofnegligencein man’s’24 death

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

Afamily’swrongful death lawsuit stemmingfrom afatal brawloutside apopular Tigerland bar will proceed after aBaton Rouge judge ruled Monday that there was enough cause for the plaintiff’sclaims.

Sheylli Pantoja filedthe lawsuit against Fred’sBar and Grill in March on behalf of her deceased boyfriend’s two sons. Devin Repath was killed early the morning of March 23, 2024, resulting from aﬁght in the parking lot of Fred’sBar

The lawsuit surviveda bid by Fred’s to get the case dismissed. During Monday’shearing, attorneys for the defendant arguedthe barcan’t be suedfor negligence because the ﬁght happened

ä See FRED’S, page 2B

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Passengers disembark from aGreyhound busatthe intercity busstation on MondayinBaton Rouge.

Daughters mourn Mississippi father

Man died from ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria

BY POET WOLFE Staff writer

Last month, Basil Kennedy scraped his leg on a trailer parked outside his home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He rinsed the cut with hydrogen peroxide and pressed on a Band-Aid.

Three days later, the 77-year-old was in the emergency room, vomiting with a fever. His symptoms escalated — his blood pressure dropped and lab results showed high levels of lactic acid, a warning sign of impending septic shock. Doctors later found the culprit was Vibrio vulniﬁcus: a rare and potentially deadly bacteria found in brackish, warm coastal waters. The infection often occurs when open wounds come in contact with contaminated water or shellﬁsh. So far this year, 32 people across the Gulf Coast have contracted it, and eight have died, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. But Kennedy’s case was different — he didn’t enter water after cutting his leg, his daughter Kay Kennedy Regimbal said. Instead, the bacteria came from his trailer, which he had recently used to launch a boat in water

After receiving treatment from hospitals in Bay St. Louis and New Orleans, including two surgeries to remove skin tissue, Kennedy died on July 21 of organ failure caused by the infection, Regimbal said

RISHER

Continued from page 1B

New Orleans. He bought his ﬁrst warehouse in 1983. Over the next 30 years, he went from owning a 50,000-square-foot warehouse to owning 3.5 million square feet of warehouse space — much of which has foreign trade zone status.

He is a product of New Orleans but has been amazed how much he likes the quiet of Houmas House — enough to build multiple restaurants and a bar so he could enjoy evenings much like he did in New Orleans.

He says it was his early education that planted the seed for pretty things.

“I went to a private school in the Gentilly area. And at that private school, in ﬁrst grade, they taught you ﬁne arts,” he said. “You take a class, and they show you the great paintings in the Louvre, and they taught you about them. And all I can imagine is from that class, the seed got planted.”

He went to high school at Brother Martin and on to graduate from Loyola, where he rarely went to class. Instead, he explains that he sat with various friends near the snack bar on campus and played spades — every day He went to class only on test days.

“I can ace a multiple-choice test on any subject matter at all,” he said. “There’s one realisticlooking answer and there’s three stupid answers, and you can look at it and tell.” These days, he lives upstairs in one of the bedrooms at Houmas House. Each day, he has to be up and out of his room for the tours to start by 10:30 a.m.

He’s given some thought to his legacy He has no children. He does have a niece and nephew who he plans will inherit everything. He has set up a foun-

AMTRAK

Continued from page 1B

Sitrin said. “It enables economic growth, and we serve different communities and people from all walks of life that might not be able to take a plane when they want to travel somewhere.”

Flix also wants people to understand that “bus travel isn’t what it used to be,” he said. The buses offer bathrooms, Wi-Fi, outlets and onboard entertainment passengers can access with their personal devices, he said. “We’re trying to put bus travel on the map of people that used to not necessarily consider the bus,” Sitrin said. Email Haley Miller at haley.miller@theadvocate. com.

Regimbal and her sister Rebekah Kennedy said their father’s case underscores a widespread misunderstanding of how Vibrio vulniﬁcus can be contracted. People with open wounds should be cautious when swimming in brackish or warm coastal waters or handling raw seafood, particularly those with weakened immune systems. Vibrio can also be contracted by eating raw or undercooked seafood

Some Vibrio vulnificus infections lead to necrotizing fasciitis a severe bacterial infection that kills the flesh around an open wound, which is why it is called a “flesh-

eating” bacteria, health officials said.

“There doesn’t need to be a fear of the water,” Regimal said.

“There needs to be an education and a knowledge of if you have a cut, if you potentially could have been exposed, if there is a risk, how to handle it and what to do.”

The notion that the infection may make people fear the water is personal for Regimbal and Rebekah Kennedy, whose happiest memories are of tubing and ﬁshing with their father on his sailboat.

“All of our favorite family memories are on the water,” Regimbal said.

Basil Kennedy’s lifelong love for the water never dwindled, even in retirement, when he and his wife took a transatlantic cruise from England to Miami and boated through Canada.

When he wasn’t sailing, Basil Kennedy traveled the world. In 2023, he, his wife and Rebekah Kennedy took a train across Europe and made brief stops in London, Paris and Amsterdam.

But most of all, Basil Kennedy loved his home: Hancock County, Mississippi.

Rebekah Kennedy noted how “he always wanted to give back to the community,” including his hometown of Waveland, where he served in the city’s yacht club and co-founded the Waveland Ground Zero Museum to help commemorate the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“He was happy He was resilient. He had a servant’s heart,” Rebekah Kennedy said, describing him as “the life of the party.”

Regimbal and Rebekah Kennedy hope their father’s death helps spread awareness and education about Vibrio vulnificus, without instilling fear of water

“My dad would be devastated,” Regimbal said, “to hear that people fear his most favorite thing in the world.”

If you notice symptoms of Vibrio after being near water or seafood, such as diarrhea, vomiting, fever or skin lesions, seek immediate medical attention.

dation that owns his River Road Museum. When he dies, Houmas House and Gardens will go to the foundation — and only at that point will he allow it to apply for

a historical landmark designation. Until then, Kelly says, he plans

Continued from page 1B

after security kicked the brawlers out for being disorderly District Judge Richard “Chip” Moore denied the motion for dismissal, determining the plaintiff’s claims have enough merit for the case to be heard by a jury

“These patrons were removed from Fred’s Bar and Grill already knowing that they were aggressive with one another,” he said. “And to throw them out together without any oversight, without any supervision, I believe that is a cause of action.”

According to an arrest report, Repath took a swing at Matthew Marsiglia, a 21-year-old LSU student involved in the fracas. Marsiglia ducked the punch and shoved Repath, whose head hit the pavement when he fell to the ground.

Repath, a 26-year-old Westwego man, was in town for a friend’s bachelor party He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was taken to a hospital, where he died three days later from blunt force trauma. Marsiglia was indicted on a single count of manslaughter, stemming from the fatal brawl. His case is ongoing in the 19th Judicial District Court.

None of the other participants was charged or arrested. In her lawsuit, Pantoja alleges bartenders at Fred’s continued “overserving” Repath and Marsiglia “beyond the point of intoxication.” Marsiglia is named as a defendant along with Fred’s Bar, the bar’s insurer, an unidentified server and an unnamed security guard. Vincent Leco, a Jefferson Parish man, is also named as a defendant. The lawsuit alleges Leco was involved in the brawl and had a fight with Repath as well. The plaintiffs contend the defendants are liable for Repath’s death, alleging Fred’s violated state liquor laws that prohibit licensed establishments from selling or serving alcohol to intoxicated persons. According to the complaint, cameras showed staff serving the brawlers the entire time they were inside the bar, even after they became boisterous and belligerent. When Repath, Marsiglia, Leco and others began fighting inside, security kicked them out together

According to the plaintiff, ejecting the visibly inebriated parties at the same time through the same exits while they were feuding was reckless and amounted to a second act of negligence by Fred’s. Once they were ousted, Repath had another fight with Marsiglia that turned deadly, the lawsuit alleges. It claims Fred’s staff should’ve stopped serving the men alcohol and done more to intervene to prevent a “foreseeable and preventable harm.

“While loud arguments are normal occurrences in bars, the escalation of the argument to more than mere words necessitated prompt and reasonable action to protect both patrons and employees,” the lawsuit states.

“The unfortunate and tragic killing was a result of Fred’s Bar’s failure to fulﬁll its duty to protect its patrons and employees.”

Hayden Presley, an attorney for Fred’s Bar, told Moore that state courts have made it clear in the past that overserving alcohol is not a sufﬁcient enough act to sue a bar for negligence.

“It is the person that is consuming the alcohol that is in the best position to stop these things from happening, not the vendor,” the Lafayette attorney said.

enters the new Greyhound bus that will deliver Amtrak customers to New Orleans in a new joint venture at the intercity bus station on Monday in Baton Rouge.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Danielle Mackie, one of the Metairie attorneys representing the plaintiff, countered that the combatants were clearly intoxicated when Fred’s security booted them after the ﬁrst altercation inside the bar Mackie told the judge they staggered outside, where the fatal brawl ensued.

“This case is not about a bartender serving too much alcohol,” she said. “It’s about serving (notice) upon the dangerous conditions by Fred’s Bar’s staff. Conditions that led to a volatile situation and ended deadly.”

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

PROVIDED PHOTO By KAy KENNEDy REGIMBAL

Basil Kennedy, who died of organ failure from Vibrio vulnificus, sailed in Bay St. Louis his whole life.

STAFF PHOTO By JAN RISHER

In the 23 years since he bought Houmas House, Kevin Kelly has set about to make the home and gardens as pretty as possible.

Hebert,Floyd

St.John theEvangelistCatholic Church in Plaquemineatnoon.

Jones, Nelda FirstUnitedPentecostal Church of Independence, 11289HWY 40 Independence, LAat 6pm

Obituaries

Belleu, William 'Bill'

William (Bill) Belleu passed awaypeacefullyon the morning of August8 2025,with his sons by his side. He was 82 years old.Born in 1942 in Victoria, Texas, Billwas raised in Jennings, Louisiana, and spent the last 58 years of his life in Gonzales, Louisiana—a community hecame to deeply love and call home. Aproud veteran, Bill served in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1963, demonstrating thequiet strength and dedication that would define his life.Bill was preceded in death by his mother Velma Flournoy, andhis brother, Norman Belleu. He is survived by hisdevoted wife, Linda Belleu (Leger), and their sons William Jr. (Rae Sheets), John (Amanda Decoteau), and Roman (Emily Freund). Five grandkids, Jack, Trey (MichelleMcmahan), Sophia Hilbun (Landon), Cade and Audrey. One greatgrandson Brooks.He worked for 40 yearsatPCS Nitrogen before retiring, where his reliability and work ethic left alasting impression. Outside of work, Bill had alifelong passion for automobiles, especially drag racing—owning and driving race cars at two different stages in his life. Hisretirementyears were filled with exploration and creativity; he enjoyed American Western art, astronomy, model railroads, remote control airplanes, and meticulously building model cars and ships.Bill Belleu will be rememberedfor his wisdom, his hands-on ingenuity, and the love he shared with his family. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.A visitation for Bill willbeheld Wednesday, August 13, 2025 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Ourso Funeral Home, 13533 Airline Hwy, Gonzales, Louisiana 70737, followedbya funeral service from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Bill will be laid to rest in Hope Haven Garden of Memory, 604 E. Highway 30, Gonzales, LA, 70737

Frederick, Presley Joseph 'Buck'

Presley"Buck"Joseph Frederick, 89 yearsold,was called to be with hisLord andSavior, Jesus Christ,on August 8th, 2025, sur‐rounded by hislovingfam‐ily. He enteredthisworld on October12, 1935, born to Edmoniaand Theodore Frederick, in Vermilion Parish,LA. Aftergraduat‐ingfromSouthwestern LouisianaInstitute (ULL) with aB.S.inCivil Engi‐neering, he served his country forover12years in theUnitedStatesArmyNa‐tional Guard& Reserveand was1st Lieutenant at the time that he wasHonor‐ably Discharged.Hewas a member of St.Alphonsus LiguoriCatholicChurch Buck wasa choirmember, Lector,workedinthe St VincentdePaulPantry, andwas on theSteward‐ship Committee. Regis‐teredasa Professional En‐gineer in CivilService in 1957, Buck worked forthe LouisianaDepartmentof Transportation for36 years. He wasa licensed Surveyor.Heservedas Presidentofthe Louisiana SocietyofProfessionalEn‐gineersinCivil Service from 1975-1977. He was awardedthe CharlesE Dunbar,Jr. Career Service Awardin1984. Upon retire‐ment from theState,he went to work in theprivate sector forG.E.C.and LTM. His ﬁnalproject wasthe JohnJames Audubon Bridge in SaintFrancisville, LA.Buckbelievedincom‐munity serviceand wasa BoyScout leader where he encouraged hissonstobe‐come EagleScouts. He was inducted into theOrder of theArrow.Heworkedfrom ayoung ageasa carpen‐ter'sapprentice with his father andwas running construction crewsfor his father at theage of 10. As an adult, he designed and builthis family'shomein BatonRouge.Wood work‐ingwas alifelonghobby Buck andhis wife also en‐joyedsquaredancing, campingwithfriends,and traveling. Buck is survived by hislovingwifeof64 years, Mary AnnAbshire Frederick; sons,Joseph Mitchell Frederick(Lynn) andMarkDanielFrederick (Marci); daughter,Rebecca AnnFrederick;grandchil‐dren,Heather Frederick, Matthew Frederick, An‐drew Perez, Harold Perez, Todd Perez, Danielle Stan‐ley, andMatthew King; great-grandchildren, Kyle Frederick, Lily Frederick, AbigailBourgoyne,An‐naliseBourgoyne;Dixie Stafford; Skip Stafford; Todd AaronPerez;and AidanPerez;sisters,Ella Dean Hebert andJoAnn Noel;and ahostofnieces andnephews.Buckispre‐cededindeath by hisfa‐ther,TheodoreFrederick; mother, MarieEdmonia BernardFrederick;broth‐ers, NolanFrancis Freder‐ick, Roland JamesFreder‐ick, RonnieLee Frederick, BradyAnthony Frederick, andinfantbrother,Joseph Frederick; andsisters, DorisJaneHebertand Peggy Joan Frederick. Rela‐tivesand friendsare in‐

vitedtojointhe familyfor thevisitationatBaker Fu‐neralHome, 6401 Groom Road,Baker,LA, Thursday, August 14th,2025, from 9:00 AM until theChristian Serviceat11:00 AM,ofﬁci‐ated by Fr.Michael Mo‐roneyand Fr.David Hebert Theinterment will follow at HillcrestMemorialGar‐dens Mausoleum, in Baker, Louisiana.

Hebert,Stephen James 'Steve

Stephen James Hebert passed away peacefully at hishome on July23rd,2025 at theage of 70. He was born on March 5th, 1955 to Gordonand Barbara Hebert.Steve was anative and resident of Port Allen, LA.Hegraduated fromPort AllenHighin1974. He was an avid outdoorsman and especially enjoyed bass fishing. Steveissurvived by his threesons, Spencer (Emily), Clay (Christina), and Taylor(Jenna) and six grandchildren, Kaylee, Madelynn, Molly, Sutton, Sawyer, and Shepherd.He was precededindeathby his parents, Barbara and GordonHebert; and sister, Patsy Concepcion. A Memorial Service to honor his life will be held on Saturday, August 16, 2025 at Holy FamilyChurch with visitationfrom 9:30 -10:30 AM, followedbya Memorial Service.

Larry Leon Kidwell, a belovedhusband,father, grandfather, greatgrand‐father anda mentor to many who wasimmensely loved. Larry Kidwell, 78,of Clintonpassedawayathis home in theearly hoursof August 10th, 2025sur‐rounded by hislovingfam‐ily. Originally from Louisville,Illinois, he started hisaviationcareer in Lafayette,Laworking for PetroleumHelicopters Inc. He laterworkedfor Paul Fournetand wasactivein theCommemorative Air‐force(CAF) andchief me‐chanic on aWWIIP38 ﬁghter, “The Scatterbrain Kid” alongwithother vin‐tage aircraft.Through his hard work andlovefor avi‐ation, he acceptedthe po‐sition of theDirectorof Flight Services (DOM)of theState of Louisianain 1972, he then movedto BatonRouge where he re‐mained until he retired in 2020. Larry Kidwellwas the recipientofthe FAA CharlesTaylor“Master Me‐chanic Award”,a presti‐

gioushonor recognizing his50+ yearsofservice in theaviationindustry. He is preceded in deathbyhis father Leon Kidwelland his mother DellaKidwell. He is survived by hisdotingwife of 43 years, Mellisa“Faye” Kidwell. Hischildren: Brian Kidwell, Stacey Dupreand husband Derrick Dupre, BridgetKidwell Thibodaux andhusband Chad Thibo‐daux,ChristieEvans and ﬁancé BasilCrawfordand Jennifer KidwellSinclair andhusband Jeremy Sin‐clair. Grandchildren: Liam Kidwell, Ashlyn Langley andpartner LucasLeCoq ConnerLangley andwife Claire Langley, LoganLang‐ley, PresleyDupre,Alex Westcott, Kira Thibodaux, RyleeRomano, Blakely LeBourgeois, BellaLeBour‐geois, Brooklynn LeBour‐geoisand Easton Sinclair Greatgrandchild: Evelyn Langley. Brothers in law andsisters in law: Ricky Richard, Joey Richard, PatsyBall, GlynnBall, Eliza‐beth “Kootsie” Bauerand Rick Bauer. Numerous nieces andnephews and specialniece,Nannette Curry.Visitationwillbeat CharletFuneralHomein ZacharyonThursday,Au‐gust 14,2025from3pm until serviceat6pm con‐ducted by Chaplain Booker Baskin.Share sympathies condolences, andmemo‐ries at www.CharletFune ralHome.com

Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge J. David Orlansky passed away at home on August 2, 2025, at theage of 94. Born in Greenville, MississippionOctober5 1930, he was raised in Drew, where his immigrant parents operated adry goodsstore.David was the onlyone of threechildren to survive to adulthood, and graduated fromDrew High School in 1948, having played basketball (notparticularly well, he noted) and been Captain of the Eagles Marching Band. David then attended LSU, becoming thefirst member of his family to go to college.Hewas amemberofthe GoldenBand From Tigerland,a fact he consciouslyconcealed from his fellowOle Miss boosters in lateryears. He also served as thePresident of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity before graduating in 1952. By far themost important event during his years at LSUwas hismeeting abrilliantand beautiful coed from Alexandria, named Shirley RuthEttinger. Insteadofusing his bachelors degree in Commerce to join thefamily business back in Drew, David enrolled in theOle Miss Law School. Hisrecollections of that experience focused on striving to earn thefavor (or, at least, tolerance) of theintimidating Professor John Fox; breakfasts at Smitty's; and the Rebels' landmark football

victory over Maryland in November of 1952. He served on theeditorial boardofthe Mississippi Law Journaland as Chairman of theMootCourt Board, andwas awarded hisBachelorofLaws (later convertedtoJuris Doctor) degree in August of 1954. During his secondyear in law school, David made thefateful decision to drive anumberofclassmates to the American Law StudentsAssociation (now theStudent Division of theAmerican Bar Association)meeting in Houston.Heagreed to do so because he knew that Shirley (withwhomhe'dhad no contactsince she left LSU threeyearsprior)was working there. He tracked downher address and wrote to her, asking that shebehis datefor the weekend andthatshe find dates for eightofhis classmates. Sheacceptedboth thedateand thechallenge. Therest is history, and in what he often referred to as "the best decision of my life,"David marriedShirley on May27, 1954. After briefly practicing law in Drew,David entered theU.S. Army andwas stationed at Fort Jackson, SouthCarolina, wherehe woncommendation for his work in the development of theArmyCommand Management System, whichwas then being tested at Fort Jackson.After hisdischarge in 1956, David andShirleysettledin Greenville.Hepracticed law thereuntil1975, when he wasappointed thefirst full-time United States Magistrate Judge for the NorthernDistrict of Mississippi.

For the next 20 years, he held court in Greenville, Clarksdale,Oxford andAberdeen,earninga reputation for thethoroughness of hispretrial conferences. Lawyersdeclining to stipulatetomaterial facts were expectedtobeabletojustify theirpositions. He also pridedhimself in the success rateofhis settlement conferences, in whichhis goal was"amutually unsatisfactorysettlement," whichheconsidered generallypreferable to the cost and uncertainty of trial. In Greenville,David served as Presidentofthe Washington County Bar Association,the Kiwanis Club, theChamber of Commerce, theUnited Fund andtwice as Presidentof Hebrew UnionCongregation.Hewas alongtime Rotarian in Greenville andthe North Jackson club,which he joined after he and Shirleymoved to Madison in 2008. They were members of Beth Israel Congregation, whereDavid served on theJackson Jewish Film Festivalfilmselection committeeand delivered MealsonWheels. In retirement, David andShirley discoveredthe joys of travel,especially cruising Most memorable to the familyisthe Alaska cruise to whichDavid andShirley treatedtheir childrenand grandchildrenincelebration of their50th wedding anniversary in 2004. David wasa devotedfather,grandfatherand great-grandfather, taking great interest and pride in milestones andachievements large and small.The grandchildrenand greatgrandchildrenknewhim as "Da." Lawyerswho appeared before therather humorlessJudgeOrlansky wouldhave been surprised

Tuesday,August 12, 2025

by the"Da face," in which he contortedhis lips and tongue for the children's amusement David waspredeceased by hisparents, Abeand Dora Sklar Orlansky, and by Shirley, whodiedin 2018. He is survived by his children, Steve andBeth OrlanskyofJackson,Larry andNaomi Orlanskyof NewOrleans,and Linda andDr. Mark PosnerofBaton Rouge;grandchildren Abram Orlansky(Jackson MS), Jonny Orlanskyand Dr.Jessica Reeves (Philadelphia, PA), Benji andEmilyOrlansky (Austin,TX), Shana Orlansky and Ben Halverson (Chicago, IL),Adamand BlairOrlansky (Denver, CO), Joshua andMegan Posner (Denver,CO), Aaron Posner (Seattle, WA)and RachelPosner (San Francisco, CA); and seven great -grandchildren. Thefamilyisgratefulto Chris Funkhouser,NPfor hiscompassionatecare of David, andtoEssie Ross for herlengthyand diligent assistance to David and Shirley.

Afuneral service was held at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson,onTuesday, August 5, 2025, at 10:30 a.m., and burialfollowedatBethIsrael Cemetery. Thefuneral service canbeviewedathttps://w ww.youtube.com/@bethisr ael7676 In lieu of flowers, the familyrequests that friends consider memorials to Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, MS,the Institute of SouthernJewish Life in Jackson, Jewish Children'sRegionalService in NewOrleans or the CommunityStewpot in Jackson.

Kidwell, LarryLeon

Vilas, Santiago

In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation for Santiago Vilas may be be made to Compassuslivingf oundation.org Amemorial service willbeheld from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM on Saturday, August 16, 2025 at ResthavenGarden of Memory &Funeral Home, 11817 JeffersonHwy.

Orlansky, J. David

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

No better time to be back to school in La.

At the start of the school year,there’salways afeeling of newness. The hundreds of thousands of K-12 studentsreturning tothe classrooms acrossLouisiana this monthlikely have new backpacks and notebooks. They’re sporting new shoes and freshly cut hair.Their teachers, too, are ready with new books and lesson plans.

But this year,more than ever,feels like a new day for education in our state. After jumping from 42nd to 16th in the country in fourth grade reading since 2022onthe National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said he wants to bring the same level of focus to math instruction this year.Indeed, the pace of education reforms pushed by Brumley and state leaders has been as strategic as it has been ambitious. Instead of expecting big changes everywhere all at once, they have set speciﬁc goals and given educators the tools they need to meet them, making standards more stringent along the way.That’s arecipe for success.

It’snowonder then that more states are lookingtoLouisiana as an example of how to innovate in education. And it’s ﬁtting that U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon kicked off her “Returning Education to the States” tour at Jefferson Terrace Academy,aBaton Rouge elementary school, on Monday While we haveconcerns with the administration’sstated goal of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, we are glad that McMahon acknowledged the success Louisiana has had. We wouldbealittledismayedif, just as Louisiana students are climbing the national rankings, those measures get less emphasis in the future.

Private and parochial schools, which serve more than 110,000 studentsacross the state, are also part of the picture. This year,the state invested in the LA GATOR scholarship program in an attempt to give more students in failing schools access to other options. We know that many hoping to attend private schools were disappointed that the program did not fund more scholarships. However,we believethe Legislature was wise to seewhat demand there is in this ﬁrst year and expand it when funding sources are clearer We recognize there are challenges on the horizon with declining enrollment at both public and private schools as thestate loses population, prompting some tough discussions about schoolclosures. Also concerning is the rise of unregulated and often unstable nontraditional schools, which are increasingly luring homeschooling parents. Despite this, we are bullish on education in Louisiana.

If the state is to solve its long-festering issues, we have to invest in the talents of each new generation of students. We haven’talways done that well, but those attending Louisiana schools this year will experience agolden era that generations past can only envy.Weurge them to make the most of it.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

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

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

OPINION

Irecently wrotetoour twosenators requesting the continued funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPBprogramming has brought us Sesame Street, Mr.Rogers and Ken Burns’ great historical documentaries, besides the best of the BBC’s drama, mysteries and classic programming.

To his credit, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy did respond to me. Unfortunately Kennedy did not see such beneﬁtsas sufﬁcient for his support. After stating his concern that“ablatant bias of the media outlets such as NPR threatens the integrity of our media,” the senator amazingly sidetracked ontoaclassic antisemitic trope by warning me thatAmerican George Soros’, aHungarian-born Jew,“recent purchase of several hundred radio stations in Louisiana threatens the integrity of our media,” implying a sinister threat from Soros to our communities. The actual factsare that Soros Fund

Contrarytowhat letter writer Thomas Shepley wrote, Mandonna Kashanian did commit one serious crime, admitting marriage fraud at leastonce, confirmed by the5th U.S Circuit CourtofAppeals.Marriage fraud is punishable by up to five yearsimprisonment and a$250,000 fine (a seriousfelony).

She came into the U.S. in 1978 on a student visa. She made adefensive asylum requestwithanoutstanding deportation order.Itwas denied in partbecause of her sham marriage, afelony.She appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals,which turned her down and then to the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, which afﬁrmed the BIA ruling.

The letter writer’s assertion that Kashanian lived in the U.S. for nearly 50 yearsand committed no crime

bought Audacy Inc. in Chapter 11 reorganization in Texas in February 2024. Of the 220 Audacy radio stations acquired, there are only ﬁve radio stations located in Louisiana, all in New Orleans, not “several hundred.” Kennedy has been featured on occasiononRupert Murdoch’sFox News. Could the senator’s anxiety arise from displeasing his overlord, our president, or even the greater inﬂuencer the Australian-born Rupert Murdoch?

One might ask how evil George Soros is. The 95-year-old Soros has alifetimephilanthropy of more than$32 billion, withhis donations focusing on democracy and human rights. In contrast, since 2008, Rupert Murdoch’sphilanthropy has been minimal. Are our senators’ ability to see the factssoobscured by partisan politics thatthey are afraid to decide on their own? Ithink most of us know JOHN NACKLEY Baton Rouge

is false.

It’salsofalse that Kashanian was kidnapped (She was arrested upon a federal deportation order issued by afederal immigration judge.) and false that agents displayednoidentiﬁcation (badge and commission were displayed.)

What is morally wrong is the calumny,pejorative and reprehensible comments heaped uponafederal law enforcement agencythatisdoing itsdutyinprotecting the public. This letter in no way is meant to disparage Kashanian, as in the evidence Ihave seen,she is indeed a good person.However, it is both possible for one to be agood personand, at times, engage in bad or illegal conduct.

JOE IAFET Metairie

Iwonder what our leaders in Washington were thinking when they chose to pass thenew budget bill.

How can you even think of cutting major funds for healthcare and education while increasing funding for defense spending? There should have been an increase in funding for Med-

icaid, as well as education, and less for weapons. Maybe if someofour leaders were in the shoes of the many Americanswho will lose their coverage, then Ithink thevotes would have been different

VINCENT YOUNG Baton Rouge

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter brought Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Nanette Barragán, DCalif., and Robin Kelly,D-Ill., to New Orleans to discuss the harmful impacts of the budget reconciliation law.While the panel did agreat job explaining how the bill hurts health care access in Louisiana, they failed to offer any solutions. They encouraged the audience to spread the word ahead of the next election about how Republicans hurt us, but they failed to articulate whatDemocrats will do if they take back power. When asked directly if they would support Medicare forAll, Carter and Jeffries couldn’tcommit. His other distinguished guests remained quiet. If Democrats wanttoundo the horrors that TrumpRepublicans are doing in Washington, they need to offer solutions, not just complaints. One smart and compassionate solution would be asingle-payer system that provides health care based on patient need, not on proﬁt. Ihope Carter pushes Democratic leadership to publicly and enthusiastically back Medicare forAll. HUEYFISCHERGARCÍA NewOrleans

Opinions lead to musings on issues of theday

The letters to you on July 12 sparked interest and inspired my comments. The ideas proposed for asensible immigration solution presented agreat outline.

Next, that universities are more liberal is understandable. While they should be aplace for lively discussion, rioting, intimidation and aggressive behavior must not be allowed.

Iagree that President Donald Trump can be labeled reactionary.Ibelieve that being reactionary is called for to correct movements, themselves reactionary,that were contrary to the good of our country And to the point of some citizens not being aware of blessed law enforcement, to that Iamdisappointed. For one to act outside of acceptable and proper protocol is inexcusable.

Being agood citizen does not necessarily require aword-for-word memory of cherished words from our civics class, but it does require an understanding of those ideals. Hopefully,wecan cometogether with respect and work to build anation for all of us.

JEAN HAYDEL River Ridge

Donald Trumpshouldget hisnew census —in2030

Donald Trump wants anew census.

If, by this, he means asnap-census before the scheduled 2030survey,he’s demanding that the federal government undertake agargantuan task with minimal planningand no discernible source of funding. In statistical terms, it’d be like launchingD-Day after amonth’s preparation.

If the WhiteQueen believes six impossible things before breakfast, that the Census Bureau could pull this off would qualify as one of them

The agency couldn’tevencompetently conduct the last regularly scheduled census in 2020.

Given that conducting thecensus is acore function of the federal government —indeed, mandated by the Constitution —itisoutrageous thatthe last survey missed so badly.It undercounted Florida and ahandfulofother Red states(as well as Illinois) and overcounted New York and anumber of Blue states (plus Ohio andUtah)

Because the apportionment of congressional seats depends on population as determined by the census, these were highly consequential errors that can’tbeallowed to happen again There’snolegal mechanism for ﬁxing it,though. We just have to do better in 2030.

Trump is also, understandably,chagrined that illegal immigrantsare included in the census and declares that, going forward, they “WILLNOT BE COUNTED.” Here he’s goingtorun smackinto the relevant legal texts

Article1 Section 2ofthe Constitution refersto“the Whole Number of free Persons,” while the 14th Amendment says “the whole number of persons in each State.” In similarfashion,the U.S. code calls for a“tabulation of total population by States.”

So it’shard to see how illegal immigrants can be excluded from the count. As it happens, they don’tseemto have much of an effect on thepartisan breakdown of congressional seatsone wayorthe other.Althoughthe highest number of illegal immigrants live in California, they are spread around the country,and there are also large num-

bers in Texas andFlorida.

Achange that Trumpwanted in the 2020 censuswas the inclusion, once again,ofacitizenship question. This is highlyrelevant information that it’s entirely appropriatetoask.

There was along period from the 19th century through 1950 when the survey had acitizenship question. Then,it was relegated to the so-called “long form.” Finally,the long form itself was axed after 2000.

Now,it’sconsidered ascandal to even think about reviving thequestion. Trump’sproposal to ask thequestion on the2020 census encountered stiff resistance andthe SupremeCourt squashed it. By the way,non-citizens do have a notable impact on congressional apportionment. Recent research by theCenter for Immigration Studies found that all immigrants (naturalized citizens as well as all other categories of immigrants) shifted 14 congressional seats to Democratic states on net in 2020.

Non-citizensalso distort the composition of congressional districts. Accordingtothe study,there are thesame number of citizens in the 13 congres-

sional districts with thehighest share of non-citizens as in the 9districts with the lowest share of non-citizens. In other words, thecitizens in those 9 low-immigration districts get 4fewer representatives than the citizens in the 13 high-immigration districts.

It’sone man,one vote—with an asterisk To takeanexample from Texas, the Democratic-held 33rd district, where non-citizens are nearly 30% of the population, has 208,000 fewer voting-age citizens than the Texas 21st district. So thecitizens in the 33rd district have marginally moreclout and representation,thanks to apopulation tilted toward those who can’tvote. Ultimately,the way todiminish these effects is to reduce thelevel of immigration. Early indications are that there has been alarge exodus of illegal immigrants sinceTrump’selection, and theU.S. will have net negative migration for the ﬁrst time in ahalf century If Trumpwants to fully capture the changes he’seffecting in immigration policy,heshould indeed want anew census —in2030.

Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry

No easy waytostoplooming debt disaster

Successful democracies endanger their success because of the complacency success breeds. They solve problems only when lashed by necessity: Britain considered Winston Churchill aCassandra —until the German army reached the English Channel ports. In the 1960s, Americans realized they could not have domestic tranquillity without new civil rights laws. Today’scrisis of the nation’s ﬁscal trajectory elicits apeculiar optimism: Necessity,inthe form of the exhaustion of theSocial Security trust fund, will lash Congress into reforming two entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare) that are driving the nation’sindebtedness. This optimism is delusional. To understand why,read arecent lecture on “The Fiscal Future” by Harvard economics professor and former chair of President George W. Bush’sCouncil of Economic Advisers, N. Gregory Mankiw

in goldbullion. FDR abrogated those clauses. Although theSupremeCourt upheld (5-4) his power to do this,it was, Mankiw says, “without doubt” a default.

Remember when then-candidate Donald Trump said during an Iowa campaign rally in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,and I wouldn’tlose any voters, OK?”

Iquickly put that aside as just another example of the New Yorker’soutlandish braggadocio, but like other political observers, Ihave since been impressed by Trump’sseeming wall of invulnerability to scandal.

However,asthe Jeffrey Epstein scandal boils up around our ears, Ihave begun to notice some cracks.

The difference is apparent as new questions arise about Trump’srelationship with the late ﬁnancier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in jail awaiting trial on charges that he hadsextrafﬁcked teenage girls.

Instead of calming the waters, demands from skeptical corners of the public have ledtomore curiosity,particularly from Trump’smost deeply committedMAGA (“Make America Great Again”) base of supporters.

The irony for Trump is the fervor of the conviction that Epstein’scrimes are the rottencore of the U.S. political power structure.It’sabelief that Trump and his surrogates promoted when they suggested that Epstein’spolitical associates were Democrats. It was one of arich arrayof conspiracy theories that Trump has usedtowhip up his populist movement.

The MAGA faithful have clung to Trump throughout the many tribulations of his ﬁrst term and interregnum: the impeachments, the failed insurrection at the Capitol, the stolen documents investigation and sexual assault lawsuit.

But that steadfast support seems to be weakening. For example, recent polling from CBS News and YouGov found nearly 90% of Americans —including 83% of Republicans —think the Department of Justice should release all the information it has regarding the case against Epstein. That’sthe opposite of what Trump, already busy with trade talks, warfare in the Middle East and other challenges, wants to talk about now

After the Wall Street Journal report described arisque drawing that Trump wassaid to have sent to Epstein decades ago, Trump sued the paper,its owner and reporters. Add to that the Journal’sreport that Trump was informedthat his name appeared in the Justice Department’s investigation of Epstein, and it should be no surprise that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum have questions.

Youcould even say that the Epstein scandal has led to one of the most uniﬁed moments in recent political history —uniﬁed, that is, against Trump’shandling of the mess.

The discontent shows up in the ranks of his own party,which has been abig source of strength. For example, apoll from Quinnipiac University found that only 40% of Republicans approve of Trump’shandling of the release of the ﬁles on Epstein, while more than athird of them (36%) disapprove.

In 2016, candidate Donald Trump, in an exchange with areporter,was asked how he would handlethe national debt.He answered: “renegotiate” it. “You go back andyou say hey,guess what, the economy crashed, I’m going to give youback half. Trump, Mankiw notes, has shown “that he is willing toexpand the Overton Window (therange of policies and arguments deemed acceptable in political discourse).Remember this exchangethe next time someonesays that adefault on U.S. government debt is unimaginable.”

Republicans don’twant to raise taxes on anyone (except universities with large endowments). The Democrats want to raise taxes only on the richest 1%. So, thetwo parties essentially agree that 99% of Americansshould not have to endure higher taxes.”

There are, he says, ﬁve waysto“stop this upward trajectory” of debt: extraordinary economic growth,government default, large-scale money creation, substantial cuts in government spending and large taxincreases. The probability of each is low Extraordinary growth?The internet managed to “revolutionize” work and leisure without igniting extraordinary economic growth. Cominginnovations (e.g., artiﬁcial intelligence, biotechnologies) will be life-changingbut are unlikely “to establish an entirely new growth path.” Government default? The United States “is not immune to thepolitical and economic forces thatcan make defaultanattractive option.” When Franklin D. Roosevelt took the nation off the gold standard,manyU.S bonds had clauses ensuring their value

Large-scalemoney creation? This would be intended to fuel inflation, which is aslow-motion repudiation of debts. Bondholders are paid back in dollars worthmuch less than those they used to purchasethe bonds. Substantial spending cuts? Remember Elon Musk’sU.S. DOGE Service. Itsrole in thefirings of federal workerswas entertaining theater,but compensation for civilian government employees is only about 4% of the government’sbudget.Mankiw: “Federal civilian employees made up about 4.5% of theeconomy’stotal nonfarm employment in the 1950s. Today,it’sunder 2%.” Significant spending cuts can only comefrom Social Security and health programs. Good luck. Large tax hikes? Closing the fiscal gap between outlaysand revenue would require, Mankiw estimates, increasing overall tax revenue 14%. Economically,this is, he says, “entirely feasible.”But politically? Mankiw: “There is now abipartisan consensus about acentral tenet of tax policy.The

Today’snational debt is an immense intergenerational transfer of wealth from unborn future Americanswho will inherit the debt obligations to today’sconsumers of government goods and services. The political class is moreunited by class interest than it is divided by ideology.Politicians and their constituents enjoy having huge deﬁcitsthroughout thebusiness cycle. Mankiw believes alarge tax increase is “inevitable,” and he recommends a value-added tax,which mostnations have. He warns: “Change might occur only when the bond market loses faith in American political institutions.”

Optimists believe change will come soon. The reform-forcing event supposedly will occur by 2033, when Social Security’strust fund will be exhausted: Without reform, beneﬁts will be cut morethan 20%. Butthat happening is not believable. With just afew words, thelaw can be amended to say that Social Security’srevenue shortfall will be ﬁlled withgeneral revenue, which meansenlarging thenow-constant borrowing binge.

Those amending thelaw will dismiss worries that thebond market will demandmuch higher interest rates.They will reassuringly say this has not happened during decades of promiscuous borrowing. Mankiw,however,reminds us of an axiom:“In economics, things takelonger to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.”

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

Quite frankly,ifI were advising Trump’scampaign, ahighly unlikely possibility,Iwould make arecommendation to whichIamconﬁdent he would notlisten: Stop talking so much. Sure, he can’tseem to help himself. Anyone who hasbeen in apress pool covering Trump will tell you that the manloves the sound of his own voice.

But this time, Trump’scritics in the media are not only coming from the center and left. Some of Trump’susually loyal supporters have been outraged by the possibility that Team Trump is holding out on them or outright misleading them.

For example, many were disappointed after the Justice Department said Epstein did not leave behind a“client list,” contradicting anarrative that has been amainstay on the right’s conspiracy theorists’ circuit. AttorneyGeneral Pam Bondi suggested in February thatthe list was on her desk, although she later explained, unconvincingly to many,that she wasreferring to the overall case ﬁle. Plus, she said DOJ staff were sifting through a“truckload” of previously withheld evidence But the Justice Department ultimately decided not to disclose any more material on the case.

In mid-July,inﬂuential Trumpistas suchas Tucker Carlson, Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon were hufﬁng and fuming over the lack of transparency,and some observers wondered whether anger over Epstein would divide the MAGA faithful.

Well, Iwouldn’tbet on it. Democrats and others on the left still have alot of work aheadto get their own acts —and activism —together. But whenIsee Trump scurrying around to put out ﬁres in his own MAGA movement, I can’thelp but wonderhow long he can reunite a movement that seems increasingly divided by the array of fears and paranoid notions of which he never seems to get enough.

Email Page at clarence47page@gmail.com.

Rich Lowry

George Will

Clarence Page

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

President Donald Trump

SPORTS

First AP Top 25 poll a tale of two Tigers

Breaking down preseason rankings ahead of LSU-Clemson showdown

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

How valuable is the AP poll in 2025? Especially in a world where the College Football Playoff exists? The value it holds is the debate it creates among college football fans and pundits alike. It’s a fun exercise, and isn’t that the point of watching sports? To have fun?

I’m one of 66 voters on the AP football poll this season. It’s my second year voting in the poll, and after getting my feet wet last

year, I decided to write a weekly column to pair with my rankings this season. My hope isn’t to convince every reader that my rankings are right and everyone who disagrees with me can take a hike. Instead, I want to shed some light on the thought process behind my decision-making each week.

Here’s my preseason AP poll coupled with my thoughts on a handful of teams heading into this year

My preseason AP ballot 1. Clemson, 2. Penn State, 3.

Texas, 4. LSU, 5. Alabama, 6. Ohio State, 7. Notre Dame, 8. Georgia, 9. Oregon, 10. Arizona State, 11. Illinois, 12. Oklahoma, 13. Texas A&M, 14. Kansas State, 15. Michigan, 16. Miami, 17. South Carolina, 18. Texas Tech, 19. Iowa State, 20. Duke, 21. Baylor, 22. Auburn, 23. Pittsburgh, 24. SMU, 25 Indiana

Just missed: TCU, Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Missouri

Why Clemson at No. 1?

The margins among Clemson,

ä See POLL, page 4C

21ST CENTURY’S BEST

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

If you put the best LSU football players from the past 25 years on one team, what would the starting lineup look like?

Well, we tried to answer that question.

From 2000-24, LSU won three national championships and five Southeastern Conference titles. It produced two winners of the Heisman Trophy, 46 first-team AllAmerica selections and 30 first-round NFL draft picks.

But with a limited number of spots on offense, defense and special teams, not everyone could make the hypothetical starting lineup.

In selecting the team, we considered what the players accomplished at LSU, how they inﬂuenced team success, individual honors

and their production throughout their college career Five former LSU players from the era — none of whom made the list — were consulted for their thoughts.

It was difﬁcult to choose among some of the best players in school history, but ahead of the 2025 season, The Advocate made an All-Quarter Century Team to look back on what has been the most successful era in LSU football history

Quarterback

JOE BURROW: In 2019, Burrow led LSU to an undefeated national championship season by directing the most proliﬁc offense in college football history. He won the Heisman Trophy by the widest margin ever becoming LSU’s second winner of the award — and he set multiple records, including the NCAA mark for single-season yardage.

Joe Burreaux turned into a Louisiana icon.

Also considered: Jayden Daniels

Running back

LEONARD FOURNETTE: A consensus ﬁrst-team

All-America selection in 2015, Fournette ﬁnished his career fourth in LSU history with 3,830 yards rushing — even though defenses knew LSU wanted to run the ball. Despite being limited by an ankle injury his junior year, Fournette was the fastest player in LSU history to reach 3,000 yards.

Also considered: Jeremy Hill, Joseph Addai and Clyde Edwards-Helaire Wide receiver

JA’MARR CHASE,JUSTIN JEFFERSONAND JOSH REED: Even though he played only two seasons at

Defense feels ‘pain’ of dealing with Nussmeier

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

LSU observations

Once Garrett Nussmeier saw single coverage and noticed that receiver Barion Brown had gained a step on cornerback Ashton Stamps, the LSU offense had found the highlight of Monday’s practice. Brown tilted his head back, secured an over-the-shoulder catch and dragged a foot inbounds as he tumbled to the

him a chance to connect on a long touchdown pass

could do.

“(Nussmeier’s) a pain in the butt,” LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker said with a laugh. “I know that.”

thrown from outside of the red zone. There wasn’t much the defense

to the goal line. On the second, it strung together four completions to set up the deep touchdown toss to Brown. At times during camp, the defensive front has controlled team drills. It’s stopped runs behind the line of scrimmage It’s also

fought through an offensive line with four new starters to earn sacks, but only when it’s teamed up with the secondary to force Nussmeier and the LSU quarterbacks to spend too much time in the pocket. Monday’s session showed that the LSU offense can win the day when it moves quickly The Tigers have enough receivers who can create separation on their routes. They also have a quarterback who knows the offense well enough to make the right reads and get the ball out quickly Nussmeier has even mixed in a few scramble runs, such as the one he broke off on

ä See LSU, page 4C

BY MATTHEW PARAS and LUKE JOHNSON Staff writers

IRVINE, Calif.

— The Saints have one preseason game in the books.

After Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, the coaching staff now gets a full game of tape to dissect, break down and pick apart the quarterback competition — and so much more. And so do we. With beat writers Luke Johnson and Matthew Paras still out west for training camp, the two took a moment to ponder some questions from the team’s ﬁrst exhibition game of the year Did QB competition change?

Luke Johnson: If we’re talking a full picture, then it changed only a few degrees for me: I think the gap between the two still exists, but it is closing. Tyler Shough continued the upward trajectory that we’ve seen out of him in the last week of training camp as he has gotten more comfortable operating Kellen Moore’s system. Although he’s improved, Shough is by no means a ﬁnished product. There’s more to tap into — and the Saints also must be willing to live with mistakes. I still feel the same about Rattler too: He’s a good, functional athlete who can operate an NFL offense. I just don’t know if an offense can operate at a consistently high level with him.

Matthew Paras: Yes, it did. Shough might not quite be the favorite to win the starting job, but he did well enough that Moore should start him in next week’s preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Shough’s growth has been evident lately and he told reporters that he feels he’s building momentum. The Saints need to let that play out.

Biggest concern after game?

Johnson: Let’s just paint with a broad brush and say the rushing attack. The offensive line injuries are a concern, but the Saints had four of their ﬁve regular starting linemen out there early against the Chargers backup defense and couldn’t get anything going. We haven’t seen many explosive runs during training camp, but that’s always been couched by the fact that there’s no tackling in training camp. Take out the ﬁve QB runs Sunday, and the other 15 carries went for 29 yards.

Paras: While we don’t know the severity with some of the injuries that happened against the Chargers, it could be a huge problem for New Orleans if Trevor Penning has to miss time. Imagine saying that a year ago. Heck, even two months ago. The Saints retooled their offensive line this offseason, but their depth

ä Jaguars at Saints. NOON SUNDAy, WAFB

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, right, celebrates with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase after a first-half touchdown against Mississippi State on Oct. 19, 2019, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss. Both Burrow and Chase are part of The Advocate’s All-Quarter Century Team.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier showed his pinpoint accuracy in Monday’s practice, leading a sharp Tigers offense.

Coach Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers are ranked fourth in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll. They’ll host No. 9 LSU on Aug. 30.

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Familiar NFLfaces ﬁndnew places

Carroll, Rodgers amongthose who foundnew teams

BY ROBMAADDI

Associated Press

Aaron Rodgers joined Pittsburgh. Davante Adams went to Hollywood. Cooper KuppisinSeattle. Russell Wilson’slatest stop is the Big Apple.

But the most veteranface in anew place this NFLseason is 73-year-oldPeteCarroll on the sideline in Las Vegas. Carroll is leading the Raiders after aone-year hiatus fromcoaching following 14 years with the Seahawks. Rodgers and Wilson are the most notable quarterbacks who changed teams. Geno Smith,Sam Darnold, Justin Fields and Jameis Winston also found new homes. Several star wide receivers joined Adams and Kupponthe move,including DK Metcalf, Deebo Samuel, Stefon Diggs and George Pickens. On the defensive side, Super Bowl standouts Josh Sweat and Milton Williams cashed in after helping the Philadelphia Eagles dominate Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Teammate Darius Slay also moved on. Jalen Ramsey and Minkah Fitzpatrick swapped teams. JonathanAllen, Grady Jarrett, Joey Bosa,Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw arewearing new uniforms

Here are 25 of the top players on new teams:

AaronRodgers

The four-time MVP chose to extend his career with the Steelers after two disappointing seasons with theNew York Jets.Rodgers, 41, had the worstrecord of his career last season, going5-12. But he still threw for 3,897 yards with 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a90.5 passer rating.The Steelers and coach Mike Tomlin are hoping Rodgershas one more run in him to help them overcome their recent playoff failures.

RussellWilson, Jameis Winston

The10-timePro Bowl QB is on his fourth team in five seasons. Wilson started 6-1 in Pittsburgh last year,but the team lost five straight to end the season. Wilson had 2,482 yards passing, 16 TDs, ﬁve picks and a95.6 passer rating in 11 games in the regularseason He signed with the New York Giants, who also added Winston and then drafted QB Jaxson Dart in the ﬁrst round.

SAINTS

Continued from page1C

SteelersquarterbackAaron Rodgers, right, and quarterback coach

during training camp in Latrobe, Pa on July 30. The 41-year-old Rodgers had the worst

Geno Smith

Carroll reunited with Smith in LasVegas following atrade with theSeahawks. Smith, atwo-time Pro Bowl pick, gives the Raiders stability at QB.

SamDarnold

After abreakout year in Minnesota, Darnoldcashed in with theSeahawks in free agency.He threw for 4,319 yards, 35 TDs, 12 picks and a102.5passer rating while going 14-4 with the Vikings.

Justin Fields

The No. 11 overall pick in 2021 by Chicago showed promise in Pittsburgh, going 4-2insix starts. He’ll get an opportunitytoprove himself with theNew York Jets.

DavanteAdams

The three-time All-Pro went fromLas VegastoNew York last season and back to the West Coast with the Los Angeles Rams Adamshad 85 catches for 1,083 yards and eight TDs last season.

Cooper Kupp

The Seahawks traded Metcalf and signed Kupp, the 2021 AP Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP.Kupp hasn’t played afullseason since’21 but had 67 receptions for 710 yards andsix TDs in 12 games in 2024.

DK Metcalf

Before Rodgers ofﬁcially signed with theSteelers, they gave him a No.1 receiver. Thetwo-timePro

remains abig concern. That could be said about mostteams,but it’s especially glaring here.Dillon Radunz deﬁnitely looks better suited for guard than tackle, which puts swing tackle high on the list of priorities. Hottesttakeorbiggest overreaction?

Johnson: Matt toldmetomake it spicy,so here we go: I’m back on theCharlie Smyth hype train. This has been an unfortunately rough training camp for the Irishman, who acknowledged recently thatsomething has been off. He missed several ﬁeld goal attempts during ascrimmage Friday,afew of which were from extra-pointrange.But he drilleda50-yarder against theChargers with plenty of room to spare,and Idofeelit’sgoing to click for him eventually —itjustwon’t be here. Blake Grupe was great last year, and he’sbeen better than great in training camp. My original take that Matt ﬂaggedfor cowardice: Tyler Shough will be the starter sooner ratherthan later

Paras: I’m ready to give Alvin Kamara the Saquon Barkleytreatment, andI’m only half-kidding.Kamara mightnot beable to withstand aworkload of 345 carries like Barkley did last season when Moorewas the Eagles’ play-caller.And Kamara hashistorically shown to be more effectivewhenhe has acomplement to providethat1-2 punch. But none of the running backs were very inspiring against the Chargers withKamara resting. More broadly, the Saints probably won’t win many games running only 15 timesper game. The team’srun-pass ratio wasskewed by the team’sneed to evaluateits quarterbacks, but come the regular season, it’sKamara time.

Bowl pick had66catches for992 yards and ﬁveTDs in 15 games last season for Seattle.

DeeboSamuel

The Washington Commanders gave Jayden Daniels another playmaker,acquiring Samuel from San Francisco.

Stefon Diggs

Coming off atorn ACL, thefourtime Pro Bowl wideout headed to New England to give Drake Maye atop option.

George Pickens

TheDallas Cowboysacquired the mercurial Pickens fromPittsburgh to team with CeeDee Lamb and bolster Dak Prescott’soptions.

Laremy Tunsil

The Commanders got theﬁvetime ProBowl left tackle from Houstontoprotect Daniels’blind side.

JoeThuney

Atwo-timeAll-Pro guard, Thuney was dealt from Kansas City to Chicago, which revamped its offensive line.

Josh Sweat

Sweat turned 21/2 sacks in the SuperBowlintoa $76.4million deal from theCardinals.

Milton Williams

After getting two sacksinthe Super Bowl,Williams received a $104 million deal from the Patriots.

Darius Slay

The six-timePro Bowlcornerback stayed in Pennsylvania, goingfromthe Eagles to the Steelers.

JalenRamsey, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jonnu Smith

Pittsburgh also boosted itscoverage unit by trading forRamsey, the three-time All-Pro cornerback. TheSteelerssentFitzpatrick,a three-timeAll-Pro safety, to Miami in thetrade thatalso brought tight end Smith to Pittsburgh.

Jonathan Allen

After two Pro Bowl seasonsin eight years in Washington,Allen signed with the Vikings to boost the interior of their defensive line.

GradyJarrett

The two-time Pro Bowldefensive tackle joined Chicago after 10 seasons in Atlanta.

TalanoaHufanga, DreGreenlaw

An All-Pro safety in 2022, Hufanga left San Francisco forDenver.Sodid Greenlaw,the veteran linebacker

Joey Bosa

The five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher signed with the Buffalo Bills after nine seasons with the Chargers.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByERIC THAyER

Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler fumbles as he is hit by Los Angeles Chargers linebacker

Caleb Murphyduring the ﬁrst half of Sunday’spreseason game in Inglewood, Calif.

Were yousurprised by anythingSunday?

Johnson: Somethings Ithought I’dsee more of, given what we’ve seen in practice: Tyler Shough in the designed run game, Spencer Rattler going for an aggressive shot downﬁeldearly and maybe asplash play or two from rookie defenders Danny Stutsman and Quincy Riley.Instead, it was Rattler as arunner (22 rushing yards, ateam-high, which: woof), Shough making the aggressive downﬁeld shots (hethrew two, connected on one) and it was aseventh-round rookie defender whocommanded my attention. Fadil Diggs, fresh off atwo-sack scrimmage, racked up

four tackles,asack and two tackles forloss. Paras: Iwas mildly surprised we didn’tsee the caliberofrun defense we’ve watched throughout camp, but onlybecause Ididn’trealizethat Davon Godchaux was on the“must preserve at all costs” list. Godchaux didn’tplay against the Chargers, andhis absence was felt. The Chargers rushed for 148 yards on 34 carries, though 48 of those yardswere from quarterback Trey Lance. With Godchaux, and also safety Justin Reid, Ifeel optimistic thatthe rundefense will improve this fall.

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@ theadvocate.com

Clarkmaking progress in recoveryfrom groin injury

INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Fever

coach Stephanie White said Monday that All-Star guard Caitlin Clark is progressing from an injured right groinbut still is not practicing.

Clark hasnot playedsince suffering the injury in the ﬁnal minuteofan85-77 victory over Connecticut on July 15.

Team officials have already ruledher outofTuesday’s matchup againstrookie Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings.

There’sstill no timetable for when one of the league’s most popular players could return.

“No return to practice, she’s been able to get alittle bit moreof herfull-court running with allof herbodyweight,” White said following practice.

Yankees aceCole makes throws off of flat ground

NEW YORK Yankees ace Gerrit Cole took another step in his recovery from Tommy Johnsurgery on his right elbow by making 20 throwsoff ﬂat ground on Monday

“It felt really good today,” Cole said before New York opened a three-game seriesagainst the Minnesota Twins at YankeeStadium. “I was fairly accurate and Ihad a good time.”

Cole beganhis throwing programfive months aftergetting an internal brace inserted into his elbow in an operation by Los AngelesDodgers team physicianDr. NealElAttrache.

The normal rehabilitation time is about14monthsand Cole had been building up to getting off ﬂat ground for the past few weeks. Colesaid hisinitial progressing will last for afew months before he can offamound, andthen he will getshut down and expects a normal offseason.

Lions safety in concussion protocol after scary hit

ALLEN PARK, Mich. Detroit Lions safety Morice Norris, whowas taken off the ﬁeld in an ambulance late in apreseason gamelast week, is in concussion protocol and doing well, coach DanCampbell said Monday

“We’re going to take it nice and easy here to makesure he’sgood over the next 10 to 14 days and reassess,” Campbell said. “That’s good news.”

After spending Friday night in an Atlanta hospital followingthe exhibition gameagainst the Falcons, Norris ﬂewback to Detroit on Saturdayand returnedtothe Lions’ facility on Sunday

“It was great, everybody was ﬁred up to see him.It’sa breath of fresh air,” Campbell said.

Chiefs

losesafety for season; cornerbacksits

ST.JOSEPH, Mo. Chiefs starting cornerback Jaylen Watson was placed in theconcussionprotocol and backup safety Deon Bush lost forthe season to aruptured Achilles tendon in what proved to be a costly first preseason game for the Kansas City defensive backfield Watson missed mostofthe 2024 regularseasonafter breakinghis tibia and fibula in aWeek 7win at San Francisco. But after undergoing surgery,the fourth-year pro managed to make it back in time to help the Chiefs on their playoff run. Bush has appeared in 24 games over thepast threeseasons in Kansas City

Southernranked No. 4 in preseasonHBCU poll

The Southern football team has hadhigh expectations placed on the program from the outside.

The Jaguars received aNo. 4 ranking in BOXTOROW’spreseason HBCU poll released Monday.They werethe second-highest ranked team fromthe Southwestern Athletic Conference, behind Jackson State, which is ranked No. 1after winning theSWACchampionship and the Celebration Bowl last year

Four SWAC teams were ranked in thetop 10, and Southern wasthe only other HBCU team to receive afirst-place vote outside of Jackson State, which wasvoted first by 22 of 23 voters. Southern, led by second-year coach Terrence Graves,ranked No. 5inthe HBCU poll at the end of the 2024 season after losing in the SWAC championship game and finishing 8-5.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByGENE J. PUSKAR

TomArthwatch adrill

record of his career last season.

Outgoing USAGym leader eagerfor break

She’sled organization outofdark times

BY WILL GRAVES AP national writer

Li Li Leung repeats the question out loud, leans back and then does something that’sbeenall toorare during her transformative tenure as the president and CEOofUSA Gymnastics.

She stops.

“What have Ilearned?” Leung said again.

After abrief exchange to buy some time, she settles on an answer that,intypical Leungfashion, saidalot by saying only alittle.

“I haven’thad time (to think about it),” Leungtold TheAssociated Press. “And that’sthe whole point, is like,Ihaven’t hadtime to digest everything that hashappened over the past sixyears.”

It’sone of the many reasons and perhaps the mainreason —it’s time for her to step away

From the day Leung walked into the organization’s then dungeonlike Indianapolis office (it has since moved to one with farmore natural light) in March 2019 at the height of the LarryNassar sexual abuse scandal, through this weekend’sU.S. Championships, shehas been in perpetual motion.

And while partial blamefalls on Leung’sinherent work ethic, the reality is the former Michigangymnast knew she didn’treally have a choice. Oneofthe crown jewels of the U.S. Olympic movement was in tatters, ﬁscally —USA Gymnastics had all of six weeks of cash ﬂow at the time Leung tookover— and, far more pressingly,culturally Trust, both internallyand externally,had eroded. Restoring it would take time. It wouldalso take the kind of compassion that Leung’simmediate predecessors had been unable to muster Before Leung accepted the job,

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GERALD HERBERT

on stageafter the senior men’s finals of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Saturdayatthe Smoothie King Center

one of her mentors told her to avoid trying to “boilthe ocean,” thattrying to become everything to everyonewas afool’serrand.

It might have been theone bit of advice shereceived that she didn’t take.

“My response to him was, ‘Well, I’m goingtoboil as much of it as I can,’ “Leungsaid.

Quietcompassion

Whilethe former NBAexecutive began the process of trying to keep theorganization ﬁnancially viable, Leung knew earlyonthat themost importantaspect of hermission was to restore faith among the organization’shundreds of thousands of members—and just as vitally, the hundreds of women who were abused by Nassar under theguise of medical treatment.

While Leung was limited in what she could say publicly as the lengthy mediation processbetween USA Gymnasticsand the survivors played out, sheand USAG board chair Kathryn Carson made it a pointtoattenddozensofhearings listening to the experiences of the women abused by Nassar andusing quiet moments whenthe tape recorder was off to reconnect.

“(We) had the opportunity to express personally how much we cared abouttryingtodothe right thing andheard theirstories directly,” Carson said. “There were

alot of tears.”

Andeventually,progress.While therecord $380 million settlement offered abit of closure, Leung understood it was merelyone milepost in aprocess that she understands will never be over

When Leung toldthe organization’sleadership group in early June thatshe was stepping down at the end of the year,her message wasn’ttoreﬂect on how far theorganization has comebut how far there still is to go.

“I waslike, ‘You guys got this, ”Leung said. “And they have it Imean,I think Ihaveinstilled in themthat we’re never done. There’salways more that can be done, always challenge ourselves to be better.Wetalk about it in our meetings all the time.‘Whatelse can we be doing better?’ And I thinkthey understand that.”

Coming full circle

It’s one of the reasons why Leung is hesitant to reﬂect. Growing up in New Jersey,her parents instilled in Leung and her twin sister MayMay ahumbleness that even now— after steering USA Gymnastics out of thedarkness —she is reluctant to turn the spotlight on herself.

Leung would much rather deﬂect, pointing out that the work of the team she assembled is just as important as anything she hasdone.

It’satrait that —alongwithher

Browns formulatingplan to name starting QB

BY JOE REEDY AP sports writer

BEREA, Ohio KevinStefanski has committed to one thing when it comes to selecting the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.

Stefanski didn’tsay that he would announce astarterfor the Sept. 7opener against the Cincinnati Bengals nextweek, but he did say there wouldbemore clarity after Saturday’spreseason game againstthe Philadelphia Eagles andtwo days of joint practices.

“I thinkyou take everything into account, but we’llsee how we get through this week and then make adecision. on when to make adecision,” Stefanski said Monday Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy who hadhis ﬁrst1,000-yard receiving season last year after being traded by Denver to Cleveland— also indicated that Stefanskihasn’t told the team when adecision will be made.

“As areceiver group,wecan’t really toomuch focus on the quarterback competition but just focus on our job, ourexecution and making ajob easier forwhicheverquarterback’sin the backﬁeld,” he said. “I think we’ve grown alot. Alot people arealot more conﬁdent within the playbook,soonce youknow theplaybook down, it’sall about executing it andIfeellikeeverybody’sbeen doing agreat job with that.”

With Kenny Pickett unable to be afull participant in practice since July 28 because of ahamstring injury,Joe Flacco has taken most of the snaps with the first-team offense. Pickett did have three touchdown passes during asevenon-sevenred zone drillMonday, but he hasn’ttaken part in work during 11-on-11 periods since July 26. Third-round pick Dillon Gabriel was limited lastweek because of astrained hamstring, but he

did some 11-on-11 work Monday.

Fellowrookie Shedeur Sanders had most ofhis work with the second team as he looks to continue his momentum after directing three touchdowndrives and playingnearlythree quarters in Friday’s30-10 victory over the CarolinaPanthers. Theheralded ﬁfth-round pickcompleted 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards andtwo TD passes. Jeudywas impressed with Sanders’secondTD, a12-yard toss to Kaden Davis to put the Browns up 14-7 in the second quarter

“Shedeur’s gota greatarm very accurate,” Jeudy said.“He threw two great, accurate balls andthe last onewas as he went through all his progressions. It was the lastread. Forhim as a young quarterbacktobeable to

background in asport that can be equal parts thrilling and unforgiving —helped her navigate those crucialearly days when everythingfelt so tenuous.

“She did notallowherself to get rattled at times that any of the rest of us might have been,” Carson said. “Thebiggest thing that she did was exercise her passion for thesport by being just there in the community,everywhere, with every different type of person.”

While Leung had nothing to do with the systemicbreakdowns that created aculture in which the balanceofpower tilted toofar away from theathletes, sheunderstood howimportant it wastolet those mostaffected be heard and part of thesolution.

Leung had been on the job ﬁve months when Olympic champion Simone Biles, herself aNassar survivor,calledout USA Gymnastics ahead of the2019U.S.Championships for its repeated inability to protect its athletes. Five years later, Biles credited the organization for “putting in the work” to make the changes necessary to restore trust.

Three decades ago, Dominique Moceanu becamethe youngest national champion in USAGymnastics history.Ayear later,she was part of the“MagnificentSeven” that earned Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games Moceanu also —long before Nassar’scrimescametolight —became an outspoken critic of coaches who were physically and emotionally abusive. She felt like a“pariah” and ﬁguredher relationship with USA Gymnastics was over Yetthere shewas on Sunday night,waving to the crowd inside the Smoothie King Center on the 30th anniversary of hertriumph, afull-circlemoment that wouldn’t have happened without Leung and thechanges Moceanu sees in the sport at large.

“Li Li’sbeen aconstant and a stable leader,which has been very good, and Ithink there are things that are shifting,” Moceanu said. “Andthat’sa sign thatUSAG is starting to heal as well, in asense, from the wounds andthe damage andeverythingthathad happened.”

Moving forward

The healing process is far from

over.And Leung is acutely aware that allthe progress that’sbeen madeover the last sixyears can unravelquickly without constant vigilance.

“Wewant to make our environmentasunwelcome aplace as possible forpredators,”she said. “And that’skind of aphilosophy that we use whenwetalk about how we try to mitigate (problems). How we try and have zero tolerance and create accountability.”

It’s telling of how farUSA Gymnastics has come on just about every front that ajob nobody wanted six years ago —not even Leung, initially —issuddenly remarkably more attractive.Ithelps that membership has risen to more than 240,000 athletes, coaches and gym owners during Leung’swatch. The corporate sponsors that ﬂed after Nassar have returned. Just last week USA Gymnastics announced apartnership with NBC Sports that will run through the 2032 Olympics.

Leung is serving as an adviser in the search for her successor.While she thinks it would be “beneﬁcial” if the next president was agymnast, she strongly believes whoever it is must be aformer athlete.

“(They need) someone whounderstands sports and understands high-pressure environments and high-pressure competition,inorder forthat person to be successful,” she said. As forLeung, she says she wants abreak. The last fewmonths have been challenging in her personal life, reinforcing the need for her to step away and hit reset.

How long that might take, she’s not sure, pointing out that how she feels in early August might not be the way she feels on Dec.31.

Leung has received numerous overtures from other entities in recent years as USAGymnastics found itselfonincreasingly ﬁrmer footing. She said no to themall. She might say no to them some morebefore moving on to what’s next.

The one thing she will do,however,islisten.IfLeung haslearned anything over the last six-plus years, it’sthat. Listening leads to growth, apersonal philosophy that has also becomeone of USAGymnastics’ guiding principles.

make those reads, make that progression, kudostohim.”

Stefanski hasn’t outlined how the snaps will be dividedamong the quarterbacks in Philadelphia.

The best scenario would be for Flacco to get his work in thejoint workoutsalong with Pickett if he makesprogress over the next couple of days. That would allow Sandersand Pickett, if healthy, to get the playing time in thegame alongwith some snaps in the joint workouts.

“That’swhy you do thesepractices,Ithink,” Stefanski said. “And both sidesviewitthatway,typically,because you script thepractice so that the ones get thevast majority so that then your guys that are getting thetwos and threes reps can getthe majority of their reps in the game.”

BY MARK LONG AP sportswriter

GAINESVILLE, Fla. Florida quarterbackDJLagwayisthrowing 70 passesaday while working his way back from astrainedleftcalf.

Coach Billy NapiersaidMonday thatLagway is “on schedule” with his rehab but will remain “modifed for awhile” in practice. The sophomore who went 6-1 in seven starts last season sat out Saturday’sscrimmage andhas yet to take part in 11-on-11 team drills.

The 15th-rankedGators open theseason Aug. 30 against Long Island University

“His workload is high,” Napier said. “It’s justnot with apass rush, you know? We’re controlling the environment, trying to takecareof him from asoft-tissuestandpoint.”

Lagway strained acalf muscle whilerunning with teammates a week before the Gators opened training camp. It was the latest injury forthe Heisman Trophy hopeful who missedspring practice with ashoulder injury after undergoing sports hernia surgery

Florida’s star player also was limited last fall withshoulder soreness and slowed in November because of astrained left hamstring.

“Any football playerwould be better off taking the reps,” Napier said. “The key is to be creative in terms of howweformat practice, formatthe walkthrough. We’vegot to maximizeall the mental reps, theprocessreps, the communication reps.

“It’snot ideal. That’sthe way I’ve tried put it in the past, and Istill kind of stand by that. In a perfect world, he’d be 100% and taking every single rep. Buthe’s

not able to do that.”

The silver lining: Lagway’sabsence has allowed the Gators to get abetter look at three QBs vying forthe backup job.And freshman Tramell Jones Jr.has been so impressive that he’snow pushing returner AidanWarner andcollege journeyman Harrison Bailey forthe spot behind Lagway Napier calledJones’ performance “buzz worthy.”

“He’sstill got to operate much quicker,got to process quicker, communicatebetterunderthe gun andthe playclock,his ability to manage the problems as they arise. All those things need to improve,” Napier said. “But he throwsareally good ball. He’s very accurate. He’sgot arm talent, and Ithink he’sasmartkid.”

Lagway completed 60% of his passes for 1,915 yards, with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2024. He took over the startingroleafter Graham Mertz tore aknee ligament at Tennessee in October

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVIDRICHARD

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, left, talks to quarterbackJoe Flacco during apractice on July 26 in Berea, Ohio.

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, right, flips the ball to quarterback

Ju’Juan Johnson during aspring practice at the team’spractice facility.Johnson worked at running back during Monday’s practice.

POLL

Continued from page1C

PennState and Texas at the top are extremely thin, but Ilanded on the Tigers forafew reasons. They have morereturning talent at critical positions in comparison to Texas. Iprefer their quarterback, Cade Klubnik, over Arch Manning (Texas) or Drew Allar (Penn State), and they enter the year with the best defensive line in the nation, led by Peter Woods and TJ Parker It’shard to bet against ateam that’sbringing back atop-tier quarterback, multiple starters at wide receiver and major contributors on both lines of scrimmage. Clemson isn’tastalented as last year’sOhio State team, but theTigers have the best roster in college football heading into 2025.

LSU’sranking

LSU

Continued from page 1C

Monday to pick upaﬁrstdown whennoreceivers were open.

“He’sareally,really good player,” Baker said of Nussmeier

“He’svery smart. He does aphenomenal job understanding coverage and how to look that coverage off.

“He’sdone areally,really good job this camp.”

Here’swhat else stood out from LSU’s10th practice of preseason camp, the entirety of which was open to reporters.

JohnsonbackatRB?

LSU has sophomore Ju’Juan Johnson listed as aquarterback, but on Monday he worked as a running backinboth individual drills and team periods.

The change comes threedays after JT Lindsey —afreshman from Alexandria who was practicing in camp as the Tigers’ fourthscholarship running back —turned himself in to authorities after a warrant was issued for his arrest He now faces achargeofaccessory after the fact to second-degree

CENTURY

Continued from page1C

LSU, Chase cemented himself as one of the best players in school history. He set then-SECsingleseason receiving records for touchdowns (20) and yards(1,780) in 2019 to win the Biletnikoff Award. Chasewas theﬁrstwidereceiver in LSU history to become a unanimous All-America selection

Another catalyst for the2019 offense, Jefferson holds an LSU single-season recordwith 111catches. He had 1,540 yards that year, the fourth-most in LSU history and caught 18 touchdowns. His24 career touchdown catches are tied for the third-most behind Dwayne Bowe and BrandonLaFell—and four of them came in the ﬁrst half of aCollege Football Playoff semiﬁnal.

Reed set the standardfor LSU receivers for almost two decades Despite playing in arun-ﬁrstera, he had 3,001 yards receiving, now the second-most in LSU history behind Malik Nabers.

In 2001, Reed caught 94 passes for 1,740 yards to win theBiletnikoff Award. He still has theSEC recordfor most catches in agame with 19 against Alabama in 2001.

Also considered:Malik Nabers, Michael Clayton, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon LaFell, Brian Thomas and Odell Beckham Jr Tightend

MASON TAYLOR: Who can forget Taylor’scatch to beat Alabama on a2-point conversion in overtime as atrue freshman? But it’s not just that.Athree-year starter, Taylor became the most productive tight end in LSU history with 129 receptions for 1,308 yards and sixtouchdowns. He caught 55 passes hisjunior year,arecord for themost in one season by an LSU tight end. Also considered:Richard Dickson Tackle

ANDREW WHITWORTH, WILL CAMPBELL:

Whitworth was one of the best offensive linemeninLSU history He started 52 games over four years, and the only time hemissed practice was to attend graduation. Whitworth was atwo-time firstteam All-SEC selection. He led the team with 1,008 snaps during LSU’s2003 national championship season. After taking over at lefttackle during his ﬁrst spring practices, Campbell went on to earn consensus All-America honors in 2024 and be named atwo-time ﬁrst-team All-SEC selection. As a junior,hewas aco-winner of the

murder,and he’ssuspendedfrom team activities until the case is resolved Lindsey’ssuspensionleft LSU with three scholarship tailbacks. Johnson, aformer Lafayette Christian Academy two-way star, might be thefourth.

The sophomoreenrolledlastseason as adefensive back,but LSU movedhim to runningback early in the year after veteran John Emerysuffered aseason-ending knee injury.Then the Tigers added him to their quarterback room once the season endedlargely so it could experiment with wildcat packages. Now it appearsthat Johnsonwill begin his sophomore year as arunning back.

Long fieldgoaltry

LSU does not have akickercompetition as Damian Ramos is back as the starter Butinteam drillsMonday,the second-team offense’s stalled drive gave coach Brian Kelly and his staff achance to try something different. They lined up for a60yard ﬁeld goal withsophomore kickoff specialist Aeron Burrell as thekicker Alow snap foiled his kick, which

landed in the end zone well short and wideright.

Kelly has said that Burrell mayone day kick ﬁeld goals for LSU. Monday showed that his ﬁrst chance could comeassoon as this season, perhaps when the Tigers areforced into long tries that stretch beyond Ramos’ range. Burrell has the stronger leg.

“He’sjust got to throwstrikes,” Kelly said Aug. 4. “Hecan kick it from whatever distance you throw it out there, but he’sgot to put it through the uprights, and that’s what he’sworking on —his accuracy,which is about consistency in his steps and all the things that go (toward) just hitting it down the middle every time.”

Injury updates

Receiver Aaron Anderson(knee) returned to practiceSaturday for limited work. On Monday,hepracticed without restrictions for the ﬁrst timesince LSUopened camp.

Transfer cornerback Ja’Keem Jackson left Monday’ssession early afterheappeared to suffer alower-body injury in one-on-one reps against receivers. He spent the bulk of practiceonanexercise bike.

SEC’sJacobsBlocking Trophy Campbellallowed only ﬁve career sacks, and he was even awarded theNo. 7jersey Also considered: La’ElCollins, Ciron Black Guard

STEPHEN PETERMAN,HERMAN JOHNSON: Aconvertedtight endand defensive end, Peterman turned into a talented guard his sophomore year He started 39 games over the next three seasons,twice earning ﬁrstteam All-SEC honors. As asenior on LSU’s2003 national title team, Peterman receivedﬁrst-team AllAmerica recognition. Johnson was 6-foot-7 and 386 pounds, and he could move. A starter on LSU’s2007 national championship team,Johnson appeared in 52 games and made 38 starts. He was atwo-timefirst-team All-SECselectionand earnedan All-America honor in 2008. Also considered: Trai Turner, Damien Lewis Center

BEN WILKERSON: Wilkerson became thestarting center as atrue freshmanand went ontostart 41 games.

He helped LSU win the 2003 nationaltitle.A year later,hewas a co-winner of the2004 Rimington Trophy,which goes to the nation’s best center. He also was named a

consensus All-American despite missing thelastthree games of theseason.

Defensiveend

MARCUS SPEARS,TYSON JACKSON: A three-year starter,Spears ﬁnished hiscareer with 341/2 tackles for loss —the mostbyone LSUplayer this century— and 19 sacks. He returned an interception for atouchdown to help LSUwin the 2003 national title. His senior year,Spears was aconsensus All-American after he recorded nine sacksand 17 tackles for loss. Jackson was aforce on the edge at 6-5 and 290 pounds. He led the2007 national championship team with 15 hurries, and he even ranked second with 10 pass breakups. Jackson ﬁnished his career with27tackles for loss and 181/2 sacks. He was atwo-time second-team All-SEC selection who became thehighest-drafted LSU defender

Alsoconsidered: Barkevious Mingo, Sam Montgomery,Danielle Hunter,Arden Key Defensivetackle

GLENNDORSEY, KYLEWILLIAMS: One of thegreatest players in LSU history,Dorseywon theLombardi Award, Outland Trophy,NagurskiAward andLottAward as a senior in 2007. He wasthe most important player on that champi-

LSU’squestion marks along theoffensive line leftcoach Brian Kelly’ssquad astep below Clemson, Penn State and Texas, but there aren’tmany issues with this roster once you get past the line.

Unlike Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia and Oregon, LSU won’t be breaking in aﬁrst-year starter under center Garrett Nussmeier cracked my preseason AP All-America ballot. The defense also will be improved, thanks to the return of linebacker Harold Perkins and theNo. 1transfer portal class in thenation.

With this roster,there’snoreason LSU can’tmake the CFP Rest of theSEC

Texas is my top team in the Southeastern Conference heading into 2025.

The Longhorns may have lots of new pieces on offense, but thedefense is likely the best in the nation. Edge rusher Colin Simmons, safety Michael Taaffe, cornerback Malik Muhammed and linebacker Anthony Hill have returned.

I’m also cautiously optimistic

onship team —while playing hurt through the second half of the season. Dorsey was the 2007 SEC Defensive Player of the Year and atwo-time ﬁrst-team All-America selection. He was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Williams wasn’tthe biggest defensive tackle at 6-2 and 295 pounds, but he knew how to be disruptive. Once he becameastarter midway through his sophomore year in 2003, Williams became a critical piece of the defensive line. He finished his career with161/2 sacks and 26 tackles for loss. As a senior in 2005, he earned ﬁrst-team All-SEC and All-America honors.

Also considered: Chad Lavalais, Bennie Logan, Michael Brockers Linebacker

DEVINWHITE, BRADIEJAMES: After originally signing with LSUasa runningback,Whiteturned into one of the program’sbest linebackers. He hadback-to-back seasons with at least 123 tackles. In 2018, he earned consensus All-America honors and won theButkus Award, making him the ﬁrst LSU player to winthe award forthe nation’s top linebacker.

James finishedhis career with 418 tackles,the second-mostin LSUhistory.Hemade aschool-record 154 in his senior year alone, when he received first-team AllAmerica recognition. James was also atwo-time first-team All-SEC selection.

Defensiveback

PATRICK PETERSON, TYRANNMATHIEU

COREY WEBSTER, DEREK STINGLEY,LARON

LANDRY: The winnerofthe 2010

Bednarik and Thorpe awards, Peterson is arguably the best cornerback in LSU history.Heplayed in 39 games, starting 30 times, and finished his career with 135 tackles, 22 pass breakups and seven interceptions. He also scored four touchdowns. He was voted aconsensus All-American in 2010. Even though he played for only twoyears, few players have ever generated the mystique of the HoneyBadger. Mathieucreated 14 turnovers, including 11 forced fumbles, and scored four touchdowns in 26 games. In 2011, Mathieu won theBednarik Award, was afinalist forthe Heisman Trophy andwas voted an unanimous first-team All-American. Websterwas not LSU’sfirst great cornerback,but he startedthe “DBU” tradition. Atwo-timefirstteam All-America selectionand two-time semifinalist forthe Thorpe Award, Webster ranks second in LSUhistory with16careerinterceptions. He had an NCAA-record 32 passes defended as astarter on the2003 championship team.

about Manning. His size, speed and strong feel forthe game should allow him to thrive in coach Steve Sarkisian’squarterback-friendly offense as aﬁrstyear starter I’mhigher on Oklahoma, Florida and Texas A&M than mostof my colleagues in the poll. The Sooners were dreadful on offense ayear ago, but alot of that had to do with horrible injury luck.

This season, they add John Mateer at quarterback —a clear upgrade over Jackson Arnold —and also bring over his offensive coordinator from Washington State in Ben Arbuckle. California transfer Jadyn Ott wasalso an excellent spring addition at running back. Florida has one of the most talented quarterbacks in the nation in DJ Lagway.The Gators are also strong on both lines of scrimmageand have apotentially explosive receiving corps to pair with an experienced running back room Ihad trouble ﬁnding reasons not to place this team in the top 10.

Stingley was alockdowncorner as atrue freshman on the 2019 national championship team. He led the SEC with six interceptions and 21 passes defendedthatseason to earn consensus All-America honors. Limited by injuries, Stingley wasn’taseffective therestofhis career,but he still receivedﬁrstteam All-America recognition as a sophomore.

Landry, a6-2 and 202-pound safety,was not afraid to hit.Hemade 315 career tackles —tied forthe mostever by an LSU defensive back —and he ranks third in LSU history with12career interceptions and40career passesdefended. He started as afreshman for Nick Saban. There werealot of worthycandidates for this spot, but oneformer teammate summed up Landry like this: “Hewas terrifying.”

Also considered: Morris Claiborne, JamalAdams,Grant Delpit, Eric Reid, Craig Steltz Kicker

CADE YORK: Is there amoreimpressive kick in LSU history than York’sgo-ahead 57-yarderthrough the fogatFlorida in 2020? He also made thesecond- and third-longest kicksinLSU history.Noone has been better from more than 50 yards, and York waspretty consistent, too. His career ﬁeld goal percentage of .818 ranks third. Also considered: JoshJasper, Colt David Punter

DONNIE JONES: Jones still holdsthe record for the longest punt in LSU history,an86-yarder at Kentucky in 2002. After starting for fouryears, he also has school records for the most punts (233) and mostpunt yardage (9,798) in acareer.His career average of 42.0 yards per punt ranks eighthinLSU history. Also considered: Brad Wing Long snapper

REID FERGUSON: Afour-year starter, Ferguson wasconsistent throughout hiscareer.Heonly hadone bad snap, which happened as afreshmaninhis ﬁrst home game. Ferguson played in 51 games at LSU. He is nowentering his ninth season with the Buffalo Bills. Also considered: Blake Ferguson All-purpose/return specialist ODELLBECKHAM JR.: Beckham won the Hornung Award in 2013 as the most versatile player in the nation. He did alot of his work as a widereceiver,catching 59 passes for1,152 yards, but he also earned ﬁrst-team All-America honors as akickreturner. Thatyear,heset asingle-season LSU record with 2,315 all-purpose yards. Also considered: Skyler Green, Trindon Holiday

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFF FILEPHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK

LSU tight end Mason Taylorpulls in atouchdown reception as Alabama defensive backKool-Aid McKinstry, right, defends during the second half of the Tigers’32-31 win in overtime on Nov. 5, 2022, at TigerStadium

ASSOCIATED

Guardians firstbaseman Kyle Manzardo celebrates in the dugout after hitting ahome runduring the seventhinning againstthe White Soxon SundayinChicago.

Clevelandcutsinto itsALCentral deﬁcit

Guardiansonatear despitechallenges offthe field

BY NOAH TRISTER Associated Press

It has been atough fewweeks for the Cleveland Guardians except on the ﬁeld. Star closer Emmanuel Clase joined teammate Luis Ortizinbeing placed on leave as part of an investigation into sports betting. Then the front ofﬁce traded away formerCyYoungAward winner ShaneBieber as he neared areturn from Tommy John surgery —not exactly the type of movea team makes when it fanciesitself acontender

And yet, the Guardians have won nine of their past 11, even after aloss Sunday to the ChicagoWhite Sox. Cleveland wasa half-game behind the New York Yankees for the ﬁnal wild card in the American League heading into Monday night’sgames. The Guardians had the night off. After losing to Detroit on July 6—just overamonth ago —the Guardians had dropped 10 in a row andtrailed the AL Centralleading Tigers by 151/2 games. That lead is now six. If Cleveland actually catches Detroit and wins thedivision, it wouldbethe biggest comebackinthe divisional play era. Here are the largest comebacks to date, according to Sportradar 1978New York Yankees (14 games): NewYork won the AL East thanks to Bucky Dent’shomer in aonegame playoff at Fenway Park, andalthough this wasa painful episode in Red Sox history,the Yankees won this more than Boston lost it. New York went30-9to ﬁnish the regular season. After stumblinginearlySeptember, theRed Sox later won eight in a row to force the playoff.

1995 Seattle Mariners (13 games): Afterawin on Aug. 2, the California Angels led Seattle by 13 in the AL West and Texas by 11. Then theAngels went 22-34 therest of theway while the Mariners were 36-20. When the teams metina one-game playoff, it wasa9-1 blowout in Seattle’sfavor, and although wild cards wereinthe playoffs for the ﬁrsttime, California couldn’teven salvage one of those.

2012 Oakland Athletics (13 games):

Freshoff twostraight pennants, the Texas Rangers led the Angels by 61/2 and theA’s by 13 at theend of June. But Oakland went 3313 downthe stretch, forcingthe Rangers to settle for awild card.

1973 NewYork Mets (12½games): Tug McGraw’sfamous phrase —“Ya gotta believe!” —was arallying cryofthiscomeback. NewYork was 121/2 back in early July and still in last place in lateAugust, but theMets took aweak NL East with an 82-79 record andthen beatCincinnati to winthe pennant

2006 Minnesota Twins (12 ½games): Detroit was 35-14 and led the Twinsbyovera dozen games, butthere wasenoughtimeleft for Minnesota to edge theTigers in theALCentral when Detroit dropped ﬁve in arow to endthe regularseason. Although there are similarities between 2006 and this year,the good news forthe Tigers is they didmakethe World Seriesthat season as awild card.

Trivia time

Which team did the Red Soxa momentary favor by routing the Yankees9-2 to help force that playoff game in 1978?

Line of theweek

SheaLangeliers had five hits —including three solo homers forthe Athleticsa16-7 win over Washington on Tuesdaynight Langeliersbecame thefourth catcher with twothree-homer games, joiningJohnny Bench, Gary Carter and Travis d’Arnaud.

Comeback of theweek

The NewYork Mets led Milwaukee5-0 in thefourth inning Sunday,but nobodywho has watched those two teams recently should have been shocked when the Brewers chippedaway andeventually won 7-6 on asolo homerbyIsaacCollins in thebottom of theninth.

Milwaukee, which had awin probability of 7.1% in the fourth according toBaseball Savant, haswon nine in arow to takea five-game lead over the Phillies andBlueJays for baseball’s bestrecord.The Mets,onthe other hand, have dropped seven straight and lead Cincinnati by only 11/2 gamesfor theNational League’sﬁnal wild card.

Trivia answer

Cleveland, which won just 69 gamesthatseason.

Driver dies aftermedical emergencyduringrace

ByThe Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.— Aveteran

stock-car driver at aNorth Carolina short track died over the weekend after suffering amedical emergency while competing in arace, ofﬁcials said. Robbie Brewer’scar struck head-on awall on the quartermile trackatBowmanGrayStadium in Winston-Salem andcame to astop near the start-ﬁnish line. Track workers peeled away the roof to remove the53-year-old Brewer,and an ambulance took him to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist hospital, after which he died, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

“Weare saddened by the passing of Robbie Brewer after he was transported to an area medical facility following an on-track medical incident,” track ofﬁcials said Sunday in astatement. “Robbie was atalented and passionate racer,and highly respected

Pawolearns praise for herworkbehindplate

Umpire breezes throughher first majorleague games

BY CHARLESODUM Associated Press

ATLANTA— Jen Pawol breezed through Sunday’sMarlins-Braves gameasifbreaking agender barrier was just another day on the job.

Considering Pawol becamethe ﬁrst femaleumpiretoworkbehind theplateinthe majors, making history appear to be routine was especially impressive.

“I think Jen did areally nice job,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after Atlanta’s7-1 win over the Marlins.

“I think she’svery composed back there. She handled andmanaged the game very well. And big day for her.Big day for Major League Baseball. Icongratulated her again on that because it’s quite theaccomplishment.”

It was an impressive cap toa memorable weekend for Pawol. She made history in Saturday’s doubleheaderasthe ﬁrst female umpire to workaregular-season gameinthe majors. She called the bases in the doubleheader before moving behind theplateonSunday, placing herinthe brightest spotlight for an umpire.

Pawolnevershowedany indication of being affected by theattention, even whileknowingevery call would be closely watched. She called balls andstrikes with 93% accuracy,according to Ump Scorecards.

“Congrats to Jen,obviously,” said Braves left-hander Joey Wentz,who earned the win by allowing one run in 51/3 innings.

Askedabout Pawol’scalls, Wentz said, “I try not to focus on the zone, to be honest with you. Ithought it was good though.”

Therewere few opportunities

for disputes as Wentz and Miami starting pitcherCal Quantrillcombined foronly threestrikeouts.

The first called third strike came in thefifthinning, when Pawol used a fist pump when calling out Miami’s Kyle Stowersona pitchthatwas close to the edge of the plate.

McCullough wasseen in the Marlins dugout with his palmsheld up as if askingabout the pitch call. He saidafter thegameit’snot unusual to question aclose called strike.

“Over the course of the game, there are anumber of times that you just aregoing to be asking for clarityonone,ifyou aren’t sure,” McCulloughsaid.“So it couldhave been that.”

The 48-year-old Pawol was called up as arover umpire, so her next assignment in the majors hasnot been announced.

“I wish herthe best moving forward as she continues to, I’msure, hopefullyone daybeupfull time you know,apermanent big league umpire,” McCullough said.

Pawol also receivedpositive reviews from Braves manager Brian

Snitker, who on Saturdaysaid, “You can tell she knows whatshe does.” Pawol’swork in the minor leagues began in 2016 whenshe wasassigned to the Gulf Coast League. She worked in the Triple-A championship gamein2023 and in spring training games in 2024 and again this year “Wecertainly didn’tcallher up from Aball, right?” Quantrill said. “So yeah, I’m sure she waswell prepared. And like Isaid, Ithink, youknow, part of the game moving forward is that if this is normal, then we’re going to treat it normal, too. So,you know, Ithought it was ﬁne. Ithink she did she did aqualityjob And yeah,Ithink she’d be very proud of herself.And, you know,it’skind of acool little thing to be part of.” Pawol spoke to reporters on Saturday when she said, “The dream actually cametrue today.I’m still living in it. I’m so grateful to my family and Major League Baseball for creating such an incredible work environment. …I’m just so thankful.”

BYNATERYAN Associated Press

Labelingstatistics as “kind of an American thing,” Shane van Gisbergen avoids dwelling on his record-setting rookie season in the NASCARCup Series.

competitor among his peers. Our thoughtsand prayersare with Robbie’sfamilyand friends at this time.” Details of the medical emergency weren’treleased.

Brewer was competing in a 20-lap Sportsman Series race at Bowman Gray,where thousands of racingfansturn out weekly on Saturdaynightsinthe spring and summer for races across four divisions. Bowman Gray also was thelocale for this year’spreseason NASCAR Cup Series exhibition eventinearly February

Brewer’sfirst career start at the oval came in1990, and he made nearly 260 starts in the Sportsman Division, winningthe points championship in 2011, the newspaper reported FellowBowman Gray driver Brad Lewis, whose race shopis near where Brewer lived, said Brewer “was likeabig brother to me even though we were not that far apart in age.”

“It normally hitsmeonthe plane ride home or at 4a.m. after afew beers,” vanGisbergen saidSunday after conquering the Watkins Glen International roadcourse in New York for hisfourth victory this year.“Itry to reﬂect on it,but Ialso try and get to thenext week pretty quick. I’ll trynot to tweet at 4a.m. this morning.

If the laid-back Kiwi were into chest-pounding on social media, thelist of heady accomplishments includes being the third driver with four consecutive Cup wins on road or street courses, joining2020 championChase Elliott andNASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.

It also includes being the first rookie withfour victories —breaking atie with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnsonand three-time champion Tony Stewart —and the largest margin of victory(11.116 seconds) in Watkins Glen history andsecondlargest this season behind his 16.567-second win at MexicoCitythatwas thebiggest

gap from ﬁrst to second since 2009. Thenext achievement could be theloftiest yet forthe driver from Auckland,New Zealand, who strugglesmassively on the ovals that comprise mostofthe season. Can vanGisbergen be alegitimate championship contender in Year 1? Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks, who put his reputation on theline andconvinced sponsors to risk millions on an audacious plan to make the Cup playoffs with an inexperienced and unheralded rookie,suggests adeep run awaits theNo. 88 Chevrolet.

“Shane just continues to go showcase whywe’ve madea longtermcommitment to him,why we brought him over here from New Zealand and built thisteam around him,” said Marks, who signedvan Gisbergen to amultiyear extension last week.“Because in asport like this where winning is so important and so hard to do, if you can catch somelightning in abottle like we’ve got with SVG,you’ve gottoreally lean into it. That’s what we’ve done. It’slike seeing a plan cometogether.”

The plan now has apath to the doorstep of aCup title.

The ﬁrst round of 16 drivers is contested on three ovals, but van Gisbergen has asizable 22-point

cushion (victories are worth five points apiece for the playoffs) to overcome a26.9 averagefinish on ovals. Pared downto12drivers, the second roundfeaturesa road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.Awin there would catapult a driver into the third round, where eight drivers will square off for fourberths in thechampionship finale at Phoenix Raceway

“He’sinareally good position,” Marks said. “I think we have areal opportunity to get to the Round of 8.”

The playoffs open at tricky Darlington Raceway,among the most difficult layouts in NASCAR due to its odd shape, but van Gisbergen is more concernedabout the firstround cutoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway.Hefinished 38th in his April 13 debut on the Tennessee short track.

“I ran terrible there,” said van Gisbergen, who finished20th a weekearlier at Darlington. “Bristol wassofar from anything I’ve ever done, and that’sareally tough place. That’sprobably the biggest worry.Darlington,I feel ﬁne,especially nowthatwehavealot of points. You’ve just got to have three solid weeks, and you might get through.”

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByCOLIN HUBBARD

Homeplate umpire JenPawol calls astrike during the first inning of a game between the Marlins and BravesonSunday in Atlanta.

PRESS PHOTO By MATT MARTON

ASSOCIATEDPRESS

PHOTOBySETH WENIG

Shane vanGisbergen pumps his fist after winning the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday in Watkins Glen, N.y

LIVING

Simple stepsto remove dead, dying, diseased or damaged tree branches

If you find yourself needing to removeatreebranch, there’s a right and awrong way to do it. The wrong way can unnecessarily harm your tree —and even you.The right way gets rid of the problematic branch while keeping both you and the tree safe. So, where to begin? First, make sure the branch youwant to removereallyneeds to go right now. Cutting off branches is stressful for trees,and that stress is only magnified in the hot summertime. That’swhy most trees —except fruiting and flowering species —should be pruned during late winter or very early spring. If your goal is improved aesthetics or better airflow, hold off on pruning for now But it’sOKtoremove thefour Ds —dead, dying, diseased or damaged branches —any time of year,said Damon Abdi, LSU AgCenter assistant professor of landscape horticulture. Abdi recommends using the three-cut method to remove these branches. This technique limitsdamage to the tree’s bark, which aids the healing process and promotes safety.Itinvolves making acut from underneath the branch and then from the top before cleaning things up.

LSU AGCENTERPHOTO

By OLIVIA McCLURE

Dead, dying,diseased and damaged tree branches can be removedany time of theyear

STEP 1

Notch the underside of the branch

At least 2inchesaway from the branch’sjunction witha larger limb or the trunk, make an upward cut from the underside of the branch. Don’tcut all the waythrough. Stop about a third to half of the way up

This notch plays an important role.

“When the weight of the branchstartstocollapse,it’s not going to peel the bark all the way down the tree, which is going to protect the tree andits long-term health,” Abdi said. The notch also makes it easier to predict where the branch will fall.

STEP 2

Makethe top cut

Place your saw on top of the branch 4to6inches downbranch from the notch. Cut downward until the branch snaps at the notch and falls to the ground.

STEP 3

Trim the stub

You’ll be left with ajagged stub at this point. Don’tcut the whole thing off. Trim just enough to give it aﬂat edge. “You want to give it plentyof space,”Abdisaid. “You don’t want it to be completely ﬂush with the trunk.”

GENTLE GIANTS

BY HANNAH LEVITAN Staff writer

Louisiana’songoing heat wave has sentresidents racing to beaches along the Gulf Coast just in time for alucky few to spot packs of mobula rays, also known as “devil rays,” dappling the oceanfront.

Resembling asynchronized swimmer troupe, the diamondshaped creatures often travel in schools —glidingtogether as they look for plankton.

With their graceful, wing-like ﬁns, they often leap andskimjustabove the water’ssurface, making aray sighting even moremesmerizing.

“These larger rays actually ﬂy through water,and so they live more in athreedimensional space, much likebirdsdo,” Dr.Deby Cassill, integrative biology professor at theUniversity of South Florida, said.

Like sharks, Cassill said rays are constantly on themove looking for prey like crustaceansand are especially active near shores during thesummer months.

A pedestrian crossing sign under the Overpass is covered by atree.

Staff report

The Baton Rouge community is invited to reimagine the possibilitiesofPerkins Road near theoverpassfrom 9a.m. to 4p.m. on Aug. 16. “Perk Up Perkins” Demo Day is aone-dayevent that will temporarily transforma section of PerkinsRoad into asafer,morewalkable and morevibrant corridor Activations and exhibits will be setuponPerkins

Road between Hollydale and Cedardale avenues— near Schlittz &Giggles to Magpie Cafe—with live demonstrations of planned revitalizations forpedestrian crossing, enhanced landscaping and trafﬁc calming demonstrations. There will also be family-friendly activities, giveaways and more. The event is free and open to the public.

“PerkUpPerkins” is a grassroots neighborhood

STAFFPHOTO By JANRISHER

On NavarreBeach, Jan Risher watched small rays called devil rays swim up and down the water’sedgeatthe beach, likebutterflies flapping their wings in the

Help!Someone mightoverhearhow oldIam!

Dear Miss Manners: WhenIam picking up aprescription,the druggist usually asks for my birth date, sometimes in front of other people. Must Isay the year? I bristle at this. Aren’tladies allowed to hide their ages? Isn’tthe name, date and month enough?

Gentle reader: Oh, please don’teven think that way Yes, the idea has long been prevalent that alady should be able to conceal her age. Do you know why? Because only nubile females were considered worthwhile —making it an embarrassment for women toage. Youapparently believe this, or you wouldn’tbefrettingthat

strangers picking up their own prescriptions mightoverhear your birthdate. Miss Mannersbegs you not to hang on to this humiliating idea.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Dear Miss Manners: I’m throwing asurprise 90th birthdayparty for my father —atruly wonderful and well-loved man. Iwant this celebration to feel intimate and meaningful, centered around his closest friends, beloved neighbors andfamily In tryingtodecide whom to invite, Itook asomewhat roundabout approach: I’d casually ask my dad, who is still unaware of the party,ifhe’d recently spoken

Reusinggreetingcards

Dear Heloise: Saved greeting cards are cluttering up my closets —Christmas cards, birthday cards, and Mother’sDay cards! I have shoe boxes full of them, but some of them Ican part with So, Icut out the images on Christmas cards and write “to” and “from” on the backs to make gift tags. This saves me from buying more gift tags and keeps some paper out of the recycle bin.

have beendoing thisfor over 40 years andrarely have bitter coffee. —Lynda D.,via email

Nightlight

with so-and-so. If he hadn’t, Itook it as asign that that person was not central tohis life at this time, and Ileft them off the guest list.

Here’swhere thingsgot tricky: Someinvited guestsasked to bring others, or suggested Iinvite additional people. Afew even informed me they had already told others about the party

To maintain themore intimate feel of themain event, Itold those gueststhat while the ofﬁcial party ends at 5, anyone they wanted to invite could stop by afterward. I let them know that there wouldn’t be another meal, but we’dhave beverages and snacks.

Somepeople didn’teven ask they simply increased their RSVP numbers without explanation. I

wasn’tsure how to respond to this without sounding rude or ungracious, and I’mstill wrestling with whether Ihandled everything the right way Wasitinappropriate to suggest thatuninvited guests comeafter 5? Should Ihave just said “no” to adding more guests, even if it riskeddisappointing some people?

Am Iabad person for trying to prioritize intimacy over inclusion?

This party meanssomuch to me; Iwant it to be worthy of my father’swarmth and legacy.But I’m struggling with boundaries, expectations and etiquette.

Gentlereader: Of course the host is in charge of the guest list, and is justiﬁed in explaining that the list is closed. The polite way is to

express regret and say you hope to see those proposed guests on another occasion.

Butinthis case, MissManners suggests that youmean it —not just therejection, but thesubsequent occasion. “I’m sorry Ican’t accommodate those friends now,” youcould say,“but I’msure my father would love to see them.Why don’tyou getintouch withhim after this,and arrange another visit?”

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mailtoMiss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO 64106.

Weight changescause bodyissues

Iuse birthday and other greeting cards the same way,and it is fun when the tag that gets cut from acard endsup on agift to the personwho sent me the card!

Ialso tape the top edge of the gift tag onto the package or gift bag so that it can be lifted up to show who gets the gift. Youcan also use apaper punch to makea hole for aribbon to slip through. —Charlotte Kelly,inChristiansburg, Virginia Cinnamon’s thetrick

Dear Heloise: Iread the letters in arecent column regarding bitter coffee. Many years ago, Iwas told by an Italian gentleman to use about one-fourth of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to counteract the bitter taste. This smallamount does not affect the taste of the coffee. Just sprinkle it over the ground coffee before brewing!

Cinnamon provides several health beneﬁts. If you are acinnamonlover,you can addmore to ﬂavor your coffee this way. I

Dear Heloise: Ireceived abook reading light that clips ontobooks. Ilove it. I recently found myself stuck in awheelchair for seven weeks. Iused this book lighttohelp me navigate aroundmy house at night. Iclippedittothe dresser drawer and to the wheelchair itself toﬁnd my way to the bathroom. Even my physicaltherapist thought it was a clever idea. —Pat B.,via email Hiding abag in thecar

Dear Heloise: Iwent to arestaurant with friends andparked my vehicleonthe street. Ihad alargesoft-sided tote with me that Ididn’twanttocarry inside, but my bag wastoo largetohide under thefront seats of my SUV So,Ipulled up thefloorofthe cargoarea in the trunk, which exposed thespare tire. Ithenplaced my bag on top of the tire and replaced thefloor panel.While the fit was not perfect, it was impossible to tell this from outsidethe car.Ihad completepeace of mind!You can also putathintowel over the tire for cleanliness.

Ilove yourhints. —D.J.F., in Houston

Send ahint to heloise@heloise. com.

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Tuesday,Aug. 12,the 224thday of 2025. There are 141 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Aug. 12, 2017, adriver sped into acrowd of people peacefully protesting aWhite nationalist rally in the Virginia college townofCharlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring more than adozen others. (The attacker,James Alex Fields, was sentenced to life in prison on 29 federal hate crime charges, and life plus 419years on state charges.)

Also on this date:

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked amove to impeachhim as he deﬁed Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton,with whom he had clashed over Reconstruction policies.(Johnson was acquitted by the Senate.) In 1898, ﬁghting in the SpanishAmericanWar came toanend.

In 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,home to the Indianapolis 500, ﬁrst opened In 1944, during World WarII, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy,was killed withhis co-pilot when their explosivesladen Navy plane blew up over England.

In 1953, the Soviet Union conducted asecret testofits ﬁrst hydrogen bomb.

In 1960, the ﬁrst balloon communicationssatellite —the Echo 1—was launched by the United Statesfrom Cape Canaveral

In 1981, IBM introduced its ﬁrst personalcomputer,the model 5150, at anews conference in New York.

In 1985, the world’sworst single-aircraft disaster occurred as acrippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on adomestic ﬂight crashed into amountain, killing 520 people. Four passengers survived. In 1990, fossilcollector Sue Hendrickson found one of the largest and best preserved Ty-

rannosaurusrex skeletons ever discovered; nicknamed “Sue” after Hendrickson, theskeleton is nowondisplay atChicago’sField Museum.

In 1994, in baseball’seighth work stoppagesince 1972, playerswent on strikerather than allow team owners to limit their salaries.

In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118mancrew were lost during naval exercises in theBarents Sea.

In 2013, James “Whitey” Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives, was convicted in astring of 11 killingsand dozens of other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was saidto be an FBI informant. (Bulger was sentenced to life; he was fatally beaten at aWest Virginia prison in 2018, hours after being transferred from afacility in Florida.)

In 2022, Salman Rushdie, theauthorwhose writing led to deaththreatsfrom Iran in the 1980s, was attacked and stabbed in the neck by aman who rushed the stage as he was about togive alecture in western New York.

Today’sBirthdays: Investor and philanthropist George Soros is 95. Actor GeorgeHamilton is 86. Singer-musician Mark Knopfler(Dire Straits) is 76. Singer Kid Creole (Kid Creole and the Coconuts) is 75. Film director Chen Kaigeis73. Jazz guitarist PatMethenyis71. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 69. Basketball Hall of Famer Lynette Woodard is 66. Rapper SirMix-A-Lot is 62. Actor Peter Krause is 60. Tennis Hall of Famer PeteSampras is 54. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is 54. Actor Yvette Nicole Brown is 54. Actor Casey Affleckis50. Boxer Tyson Fury is 37.Actor Lakeith Stanfield is 34. NBA All-Star Khris Middleton is 34. Actor Cara Delevingne is 33. Tennisplayer StefanosTsitsipas is 27.

Dear Harriette: Iwas skinny for most of my life —uncomfortably so. Then Ihad my son, and Igained a lot of weight. It has been morethan 20 years, and Ihave yet to get back to aslim size. To be honest, Iamoverweight. Ifeel like Ihated how Ilooked when I was younger because Iwas toosmall, and now I’mshy about how Ilook because I’mtoo big. Yes, Isee that Ihave somebody-image issues, but Ineed to do something about my body today as I’m too big and I’ve been diagnosed with some health issues thathave come from carrying excess weight.How can Iget ahealthy mindsetabout my body and take the steps to lose the weight? —Weighty

DearWeighty: Ratherthan focusing on how you feel about how you look, ﬁrst work with your doctor and possibly adietitian to createa plan to get your body healthy.This will involve changing your diet and moving your body.Ifyou are able

to commit to aregimenthatwill help you to lose weight,itislikely thatyou will start feeling better physically and psychologically Don’tstop there. Find atherapist whocan workwithyou on your self-esteem issues and help youget to the heart of your concerns. Onething Ihavelearned is that our bodies changeoverthe years. Ihave adopted the approach of making theeffort to thankmybodyfor all that it does formeand, in turn,making conscious choices to takebetter care of it.Little by little, this hashelped me to be kinder to myselfand more accepting of me as Iam. Dear Harriette: Ihave afriend whose husband is going through ahard time. He has always been acurmudgeon,but it’sgetting worse thesedays. He has some healthissues that have exacerbated his negative behavior.I cringe sometimes when Ihear him talkingtohis wife, but she

seemstotake it in stride. She told me that it is part of her marriage vowstodeal with him however he is —for better or worse. Iget that, but it’shard to see someone being abusive to his spouse. He doesn’thit her,but he says disparaging things all the time. Do you think that people should stay married when they are suffering emotional abuse? Should Isay anything to her about this? —Uncomfortable Observer Dear Uncomfortable Observer: You cannot live your friend’slife forher,nor can you walkinher shoes. Youcan be supportive by being agood listener.Ifshe asks your opinion about something that she has experienced, tell her the truth. Don’t sugarcoat it. If it gets to the point where you feel uncomfortable being around the twoofthem,you can tell her that as well. Don’tabandon her,but limit your interaction with him

Sendquestions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com.

Searchingfor somethingmoreinlife

Dear Annie: Iama72-year-old widow,and mostdays, Ifeel like I’m simply fading into the background of life. Ilost my husband in 2018, and in 2023, Ilost my oldest son. The grief has taken a toll, and so has my health. Inow wear acolostomy pouch, and because of that, Irarely leave the house. I have no transportation of my own andrely on Uber for thefew trips Ican manage. Most days, it’s just me and the silence. Idohave one living son, but he has chosen tocut ties with me. My only other family is aniece who lives in Georgia, while I’m in Michigan. We talk occasionally, but Istill feel very much alone.

Annie Lane DEAR ANNIE

life is now just waiting. Iﬁnd myself asking whyGod has kept me here. For awhile, I believed Iwas meantto care formyson, the one who lived with me and had many health problemsof his own.I prayed often for peace, even if it meant God taking me home. But Iamstill here. And now I wonder —for what?

Ifeel invisible. Unwanted. Ican’timagine anyone wanting to be with an older woman who wears apouch on her stomach. Intimacy is off the table. Companionship feels out of reach. Am Imeant to just sit here, alone, waiting for the end? Or is there still something leftfor me somesmall purpose, someﬂicker of connection?

Dear Wondering: My heart goes out to you. Youhave been through immense loss, and it is completely understandable to feel overwhelmed and alone. But please know your lifestill matters, and you do not have to face this pain by yourself Istrongly encourage you to reach out to alicensed therapist or grief counselor,ideally someone whocan meet with you virtually if leaving the house is difﬁcult. They can help you process your grief,navigate your feelings of isolation and explore ways to reconnect with life.

My doctors have said there’sa chance my colostomy could be reversed, but at myage and in my condition, surgery feels too risky So Ilive with it. And Ilive with thefear that this is it —that my

GENTLEGIANTS

Continuedfrom page1D

“This is the season to be ﬁnding them,” Cassill said, adding that it’s notuncommon to see giant manta rays off the Gulf Coast near St.Petersburg, Honeymoon Islandand St.Andrews FloridaState Park.

‘Puppies of thesea’

Thedevil ray’sname might be a little misleading, according to Dr Prosanta Chakrabarty,director and ﬁshcurator of theLSU Museum of Natural Science, who instead likes to callthem “the puppiesofthe sea.”

There are twotypes of rays the mobula birostris and mobula hypostoma.

The mobula birostris, widely known as thegiant manta ray,isthe largest ray in the Gulf, according to Chakrabarty, adding thatthey can

PERKINS

Continuedfrom page1D

from 7a.m. to 9a.m.

n Street crossing demonstrations and live walk audits at 10 a.m. and 2p.m.

n ABLDG 5-sponsored, kid-powered lemonade stand from 10 a.m. to 4p.m. beneﬁting the Perk Up Perkins Fund.

n Free Gail’sFine Ice Cream

Idon’texpect miracles. Ijust want to know if anyone else has ever felt this way —and what they did to feel human again. Wondering

grow up to be well over 20 feet long.

“They are famous for jumping outofthe water and shocking people by their size, but they’re completely harmless.”

Themobula hypostoma is aconsiderably smallerray,measuring approximately 5feet in length.

“(The rays) are like an icon of gentle-naturedﬁshes,” Chakrabarty said, noting that rays belong in the same family as sharks.

But without atop ﬁn, rays can bit more difﬁcult to spot in the water,

kiddie cones while they last from noon to 1p.m. n Chalk, lawngames, live art, music,the EBRParish Mobile Library and BREC on the Geaux activity zone forkids of allagesfrom 10 a.m. to 3p.m. n Rafﬂeand giveaway drawings forcustom“PerkUpPerkins”Tshirts,

AARP Louisiana, The Center forPlanning Ex-

Youmight also look into local senior services or faith-based outreach programsthat offer companionship or virtual support groups. There are people out there whowant to help. Youjust need to take the ﬁrst brave step.

Send yourquestions forAnnie Lane to dearannie@creators com.

unless you see them jumping.

What to know if youspotthem

Rays will wanderthroughoutdifferent habitats and ocean depths, but Chakrabartysaidsightings are morecommon in the Gulf’s deeper waters and further east from the end of the Mississippi River

“They sort of prefer clean water, so what’spouring outofthe Mississippi into the Gulf is generally not that,” Chakrabarty said.

That’sbecause of the DeadZone, alow-oxygenareathatdevelops along the coast every summer that often forces animals to venture into deeper waters.

It’snot uncommon for boaters to encounter the sleek animals, but it’sbest to leave themalone, Chakrabarty said. Their size maybeintimidating, but these rays don’tsting.

“Theyare gentle giants,” Chakrabarty said.

cellence, Tipton Associates, Little Rouge Hen, alongwitha coalition of localrestaurants, businesses and civic partners like Strong Towns, Baton Rouge Green, BREC andthe East Baton Rouge Parish Library.For more information and adetailed schedule, visit the event’sFacebook page. Youcan also sign the petition, volunteer or donate to support the event. For more information, visit the Perk Up Perkins: Demo Day page on Facebook.

Hints from Heloise

PHOTO By EMMA HICKERSON

Aschool of devilraysinFlower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Follow your heart and use your intelligence to navigate your way forward with confidence. Put your energy where it can work its magic and bring the return you crave.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) A change will make you feel uncomfortable, but don't hesitate if it's necessary. Take a deep breath and proceed with your eyes wide open, ready to make a difference.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Use your energy wisely. Refuse to waste time on nonsense you have no control over. A little ingenuity and discipline will ensure that you receive the acknowledgment you deserve.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Listen and observe, but when it comes to personal preferences, take the initiative to choose what's best for you. Feeling good about how you present yourself will change the dynamics of your conversations.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) You are in the zone and ready to achieve whatever you set out to do. Leave nothing to chance. Take control and see your dreams manifest into something concrete.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Be careful what you wish for Be on the lookout for negativity, deception and false claims. Verify information and distance yourself from anyone or anything that appears dubious.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) You're on the right track. Maintain the momentum

and keep your communication with key people open. Partnerships and progress will go hand in hand, providing you with plenty to work toward.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Refuse to let a change to your environment unnerve you or make you reluctant to voice your opinion. When in doubt, ask; don't be afraid to say no or move forward on your own.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Mixed emotions will permeate your day, leaving you uncertain about how to respond. Talks look promising and will help you keep whatever's festering from turning into a meltdown.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Believing in yourself and your abilities is the best route forward. Distance yourself from anyone who puts a damper on your day. Trust your instincts and lead the way.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Take hold of whatever change appeals to you, and don't look back. Walk away from situations that are damaging to your ego, reputation or the lifestyle you want.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Take stock of how you live and where you are heading. Honesty is necessary if you want to bring about positive change. Don't get wrapped up in someone else's plans. The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by NEA, Inc., dist.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

toDAy's cLuE: L EQuALs M

CeLebrItY CIpher

For better or For WorSe

peAnUtS zItS

And erneSt

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

LAGoon

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS Hi and LoiS

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

J.P. Morgan of banking famesaid, “A man always has two reasons for doing anything —agood reason and the real reason.”

Abridge player chooses abid for two reasons —todescribehis hand as accuratelyaspossible andtoreach the right final contract. Of course, they are symbiotic, one helping the other. However, sometimes it isn’t obvious what bidtomake. Look at theSouth hand. You open one spade, and partner responds two clubs. What would you rebid?

Acolumnist explained that with6-4 shape, opener rebids in hissix-card suit with aminimum, but showsthe sidesuit when he has extras. That is true only whenthe four-card suitisa minor.When it is amajor, opener always showsit. To rebidtwospadeshereinprincipledenies four hearts.

NowlookattheWesthand.Whatwould you lead against sevenhearts?

The writer gave abizarre auction before discussing the play in seven heartsafterWestleads alow club. South wins withhis queen, then shouldruffa spade,cashtheheartking,playaheartto his ace, ruff another spade, ruff aclubto establishthesuit,drawEast’slasttrump, and claim, the diamond ace being the entry to the club winners. He takes one spade, three hearts, one diamond, five clubs and the three ruffs.

Butwhy wouldWestlead aclub? Perhaps he hoped that East wasvoid in the suit.But if he had been, he probablywouldhave made aLightner Slam Double, asking for alead in the first suit bid by dummy.Adiamond lead defeats sevenhearts.Ingeneral,donotleadsuits bidbythe opponents

Andrews McMeel

Syndication

Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters 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 wordsare not allowed toDAy’s WoRD InFERRInG: in-FUR-ing: Deriving as aconclusion fromfacts or premises.

Average mark11words

Timelimit 25 minutes Can you find 23 or morewords in INFERRING?

yEstERDAy’s WoRD —DIALysIs