Six new members were inducted into the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday Inductees included Brett Baer, football; Kevin Brooks, men’s basketball; Corey Coles, baseball; Richard Ainley, golf; Haley Hayden, softball; and Ed Dugas, administration. It was one of the first events to be held in the McElligott Club of the new Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
Boy lacked proper supervision, police say
N.O. mother arrested after son found dead
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
The mother of a nonverbal New Orleans boy who was found dead in a lagoon last month after a desperate 12-day search appeared in a New Orleans courtroom on Monday to face allegations of deadly negligence, as court records revealed new details behind her weekend arrest
According to police, the short life of 12-year-old Bryan Vasquez was defined by failed parenting and physical abuse at the hands
of Hilda Vasquez, with his grisly death a tragic consequence.
The boy had left his home in New Orleans East in only a diaper that he would soon shed, sparking a search that ended Aug. 26 when his body turned up amid alligators.
Vasquez, 34, appeared in shackles and jail scrubs in Magistrate Court saying through a Spanish language interpreter that she would hire a private attorney to face felony counts of seconddegree cruelty to juveniles and negligent homicide. Both carry a maximum 10-year sentence upon conviction She has not yet been charged. The attorney, Cinthia Padilla,
confirmed that she plans to represent Vasquez but declined to comment, saying it was premature.
In a police affidavit supporting Vasquez’s arrest, New Orleans Police Department Officer Mario Bravo, of the Special Victims Division, wrote that Vasquez had left the boy and his 11-year-old sister home alone the morning of his Aug. 14 disappearance, as she took a younger child to school. She’d “elected not to bring Bryan or his sister to school,” having yet to provide a new address for a school bus to reach them, Bravo wrote. Vasquez called home about 10 a.m., and her daughter said the boy, who had repeatedly left
home, was missing again.
“Vasquez stated she had not taken preventative measures to secure the window because Bryan had never attempted to leave through one before,” the detective wrote of Bryan’s escape route. “Vasquez further disclosed two prior incidents of Bryan running away.” On Aug. 1, at their previous residence, the boy was “found by the police, completely naked and drinking water from a drainage ditch,” the affidavit states. The second escape happened on Aug. 4, his birthday, and wasn’t reported to police.
Lawyer: Client a pawn in bribery scheme
Lafayette official’s trial starts in federal court
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
The lawyer for an assistant district attorney in Lafayette charged in a bribery scheme said in federal court Monday his client was the pawn of two men who accepted plea deals from federal prosecutors in exchange for their testimony against him.
Haynes
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Loew and Todd Clemons, of Lake Charles, the attorney for Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes, gave their opening statements Monday afternoon to a jury of six men and six women. District Attorney Don Landry of the 15th Judicial District Court was the first witness in the trial, called by the prosecution. Clemons is expected to cross-examine Landry when the trial resumes Tuesday morning in Lafayette. Clemons, in his opening statement, said evidence will show Haynes never received money or
ä See TRIAL, page 3A
Outreach urged for carbon capture
BY DAVID J MITCHELL Staff writer
A top state official is urging carbon capture executives to make greater efforts at outreach to local leaders and the public, as increasing opposition threatens to derail an industry that Louisiana has sought to embrace.
Growing opposition in rural Louisiana has included attempts to pass parishwide moratoriums on carbon capture and demands that residents or local governments be allowed to vote on whether to permit the technology, among other grassroots initiatives.
Those are “a direct result” of a lack of communication from companies, said Dustin Davidson, the new secretary of Louisiana’s energy and natural resources agency “I can tell you that a lot of the moratoriums we’re seeing from different parishes is a direct result
PROVIDED PHOTOS By BENJAMIN R. MASSEy/RAGIN’ CAJUNS ATHLETICS
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Hall of Fame event at McElligot Club in Lafayette.
ABOVE: Haley Hayden speaks during the UL Athletics Hall of Fame induction. LEFT: Brett Baer, right, stands with Bryan Maggard, vice president for intercollegiate athletics, during the event.
Murdoch family reaches deal over media empire
Rupert Murdoch’s family has reached a deal on control of the 94-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for President Donald Trump and conservatives
The deal creates a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s chosen heir who has been running Fox in recent years, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.
Lachlan Murdoch’s three older siblings, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch, give up any claims to control of Fox in exchange for stock currently valued at $3.3 billion, according to The New York Times, which first reported news of the deal.
It ends a drama that has been like a real-life version of HBO’s “Succession,” only with huge financial implications and an impact on U.S. politics.
French government collapses after vote
PARIS Legislators toppled France’s government in a confidence vote on Monday a new crisis for Europe’s secondlargest economy that obliges President Emmanuel Macron to search for a fourth prime minister in 12 months.
Prime Minister François Bayrou was ousted overwhelmingly in a 364-194 vote against him. Bayrou paid the price for what appeared to be a staggering political miscalculation, gamblingthatlawmakerswould back his view that France must slash public spending to rein in its debts. Instead, they seized on the vote that Bayrou called to gang up against the 74-yearold centrist who was appointed by Macron last December
The demise of Bayrou’s shortlived minority government now constitutionally obliged to submit its resignation after just under nine months in office — heralds renewed uncertainty and a risk of prolonged legislative deadlock for France as it wrestles with pressing challenges, including budget difficulties and, internationally, wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the shifting priorities of President Donald Trump.
Banksy mural to be removed from court
LONDON A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel will be removed from a wall outside one of London’s most iconic courts, authorities said Monday. The mural appeared Monday and depicts a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard while a judge in a traditional wig and black gown beats him with a gavel. Banksy posted a photo of the work on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.” Security officials outside the courthouse covered the artwork Monday with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being guarded by two officers and a security camera. Because the Victorian Gothic Revival-style building is 143 years old, the mural will be removed with consideration for its historical significance, according to HM Courts and Tribunals.
“The Royal Courts of Justice is a listed building and HMCTS are obliged to maintain its original character,” it said in a statement.
While the artwork doesn’t refer to a particular cause or incident, activists saw it as a reference to the U.K. government’s ban on the group Palestine Action. On Saturday, almost 900 people were arrested at a London protest challenging the ban. Defend Our Juries, the group that organized the protest, said in a statement that the mural “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by the government ban.
Ruling against Trump upheld
Appeals court orders president to pay $83.3M to columnist in defamation case
BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press
NEWYORK A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a civil jury’s finding that President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks and public statements against the longtime advice columnist after she accused him of sexual assault
The 2nd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s appeal of the defamation award, calling the jury’s damages awards “fair and reasonable.”
A three-judge panel, citing hundreds of death threats Carroll faced,
said the case record supported the trial judge’s “determination that ‘the degree of reprehensibility’ of Mr Trump’s conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.”
Trump had argued the damages were unreasonably excessive particularly a $65 million punitive damage award, and pushed for a new trial after the Supreme Court expanded presidential immunity.
But the appeals court roundly rejected those arguments, writing that Trump’s “extraordinary and unprecedented” broadsides against Carroll, 81, justified the steep award, given “the unique and egregious facts of this case.”
Lawyers for Trump responded through a spokesperson to a request for comment by calling for “an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system
and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.” The case is likely headed to the Supreme Court.
In its ruling, the 2nd Circuit said there is “ample evidence” that Trump was recklessly indifferent to Carroll’s health and safety after “castigating Ms. Carroll as a politically and financially motivated liar” and “insinuating that she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted” and would “pay dearly” for speaking out.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that the appeals court affirmed that “Carroll was telling the truth, and that President Donald Trump was not.” Noting the threats to her client, Kaplan said they “look forward to an end to the appellate process.”
At trial, Carroll testified she feared for her safety after receiving hundreds of death threats and losing her decadeslong career at Elle magazine.
The ruling centered on the second — and far more expensive — of two defamation awards issued to Carroll over Trump’s yearslong attacks on her character, which began after she accused Trump in her 2019 memoir of sexually assaulting her decades earlier at a Manhattan department store.
In her memoir and again at a 2023 trial, Carroll described how a chance encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue in 1996 started with the two flirting as they shopped, then ended with a violent struggle inside a dressing room.
Freight train, bus collide outside Mexico City
At least 10 killed, over 40 injured
BY RAMSES MERCADO VALDES and FERNANDO LLANO Associated Press
ATLACOMULCO, Mexico A freight train sheared a double-decker bus in half at a crossing northwest of Mexico City early Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 40, authorities said.
The accident took place in an industrial area of warehouses and factories in the town of Atlacomulco, about 80 miles northwest of the Mexican capital.
The state of Mexico’s civil defense agency said on X that authorities were still working at the site of the accident, and the state prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation. The bus from the Herradura de Plata line was ripped apart by the collision
The agency said 10 people were killed and 41 injured. Local media reports said the injured were taken to hospitals throughout the state.
The bus company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The train line, Canadian Pacific Kansas City of Mexico, confirmed the accident and sent its condolences to the families of the victims. The Calgary, Canadabased company said its personnel were on site and cooperating with authorities.
Israel bombs another Gaza City high-rise
BY WAFAA SHURAFA, MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip Israel struck and destroyed another high-rise building in Gaza City on Monday after warning residents to evacuate, part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city. The military said it was targeting Hamas observation posts and bombs placed around the 12-story office building.
Over several days, Israel has destroyed multiple high-rise buildings in Gaza City, accusing Hamas of putting surveillance infrastructure in them It has ordered people to flee ahead of its ground offensive into the city of some 1 million residents, which experts say is experiencing famine.
President Donald Trump said he was giving his “last warning” to Hamas regarding a possible ceasefire, as Arab officials described a new U.S. proposal for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages in exchange for 3,000 Palestinian prisoners and a temporary ceasefire. A senior Hamas official called it a “humiliating surrender document,” but the militant group said it would keep negotiating.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals received the bodies of 65 people killed by Israeli fire over the past 24 hours, with another 320 people wounded.
The Israeli military said four soldiers were killed in Gaza City on Monday when a group of militants threw an explosive device into a tank. Another soldier was wounded, according to the military which said two of the militants were shot.
Authorities did not immediately give details about how the accident occurred but one video circulated on social platforms showed the bus in heavy traffic slowly moving across the train tracks when the fast-moving train suddenly appeared out of frame ramming the bus at its midpoint. The train’s momentum carried the bus down the tracks and out of frame. The front half came to rest in the opposing traffic lanes beside the crossing and the rear half farther down on the opposite side of the tracks.
There were no visible crossing gates or other stop lights, witnesses said.
But shortly before 7 a.m., 33-yearold Miguel Sánchez said he heard the train blow its horn like trains always do well ahead of the crossing.
Sánchez works at a service station about 100 yards away
Cars continued to cross the track in the lead-up to the crash. Then, the train barreled into the bus.
Cars going in the other direction stopped crossing the tracks at the time the bus drove onto them, though a motorcycle scooted
Israeli police and rescue teams respond after a shooting attack carried out by two Palestinian gunmen in which several people were killed and others injured at a bus stop Monday in Jerusalem.
Palestinian gunmen kill 6 in attack on Jerusalem bus stop
BY MELANIE LIDMAN and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press
JERUSALEM Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during the morning rush hour in Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and wounding another 12, according to Israeli officials.
An Israeli soldier and civilians who were at the scene shot and killed the two attackers, said police, who later arrested a third person in connection with the shooting. Footage of the attack showed dozens of people fleeing from the bus stop at a busy intersection. The windshield of a bus was riddled with bullet holes and belongings were scattered across the street
Paramedics who responded to the scene said broken glass covered the area, and people wounded lay unconscious on the road and a sidewalk near the bus stop. Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said the two attackers were 20- and 21-year-old Palestinians from the West Bank with no prior arrests. Hamas hailed the attack without claiming responsibility calling it a “natural response to the occupation’s crimes against our people.
Soldiers and rescue personnel work the scene of a deadly accident where a freight train slammed into a doubledecker bus Monday in Atlacomulco, Mexico.
across seconds before the crash.
The train hit the passenger side of the bus.
“We heard a crash. We thought it was just a car We never thought it would be a bus with so many people aboard,” Sánchez said.
Another video showed the bus at rest to the side of the tracks. The roof of the bus was gone and people could be seen moving on the top level as the train slowed to a stop. A woman could be heard crying, “Help me, help me.” Shortly after, a flood of ambulances arrived at the scene, Sánchez said.
WASHINGTON For years, Republicans have disparaged their political rivals by describing them as socialists. But that may not be the insult it once was for rank-and-file Democrats, who have warmed to socialism and increasingly see “capitalism” as a barb.
A new Gallup poll finds that while U.S. adults overall are more likely to have a positive view of capitalism than socialism, Democrats feel differently According to the survey, only 42% of Democrats view capitalism favorably, while 66% have a positive view of socialism.
Capitalism’s image has slipped with U.S. adults overall since 2021 the survey finds, and the results show a gradual but persistent shift in Democrats’ support for the two ideologies over the past 15 years, with socialism rising as capitalism falls. The shifts underscore deep divisions within the party about whether open support for socialism will hurt Democrats’ ability to reach moderates or galvanize greater support from people who are concerned about issues like the cost of living
Those tensions were cast into sharp relief earlier this yearwhenZohranMamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary in the race for New York City mayor, leading some centrist Democrats to worry about his impact on the party’s national brand. Meanwhile, years after independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaigns put a new face and brand on socialism, Sanders is attracting massive crowds with a “fighting oligarchy” tour pushing Democrats to embrace his ideas as they search for a path back to viability
The new poll, conducted
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The family moved into their new home on Aug 5, less than two weeks before Bryan went missing for the last time, according to police.
Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman on Monday set a Gwen’s Law “dangerousness” hearing for Monday which means Vasquez will remain in the Orleans Parish lockup until then.
Friedman said there was “appropriate probable cause for both charges” in the arrest warrant. He said he would sign domestic protective orders for Vasquez’s other three children, requiring her to stay 600 feet from them and make no contact. Friedman pledged to revoke any bail she receives if she violates the order Vasquez began to weep as she said she acknowledged those terms.
Detectives and officials with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services began reviewing Vasquez’s criminal history soon after a volunteer using a drone discovered Bryan’s body
It turned up near where he’d gone missing at Michoud Boulevard and Sevres Street, ending a search that had gripped New Orleans. The coroner determined Bryan died from blunt force trauma and drowning suffered during an alligator attack.
Family members and authorities described Bryan as nonverbal and autistic
A child welfare department report from 2021, however, said his disability was classified in an individualized education plan as a “traumatic brain injury (non-accidental).”
An earlier police report states Vasquez injured the boy when he was 3 months old. He’d been taken to the
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in August among a sample of 1,094 U.S. adults, shows that both younger and older Democrats have both warmed slightly on socialism since 2010. But Democrats under 50 are much less likely to view capitalism favorably while the opinions of Democrats ages 50 and older haven’t shifted meaningfully, according to Gallup.
Other polls suggest that capitalism’s waning popularity reflects a growing sense of economic unfairness, rather than a broader rejection of an economic system Views of free enterprise remain largely positive, according to the new Gallup poll, but perceptions of big business have soured since 2010
Just over half of U.S. adults, 54%, have a positive view of capitalism, according to the new survey, a slight decline from 61% in 2010. Democrats have driven some of the shift but favorable opinions of capitalism have fallen among independents as well. Sanders’ rise as a national political figure over the past decade also brought criticism of capitalism into the mainstream. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020 He fell short both times but built a devoted movement around his concept of democratic socialism, drawing crowds and engaging voters disaffected with politics with a message of class struggle between workers and elites. Mamdani and other young progressive Democrats, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have drawn on his work. Young adults generally — but particularly younger Democrats are much less positive about capitalism than they were 15 years ago. Only 31% of Democrats under 50 have a positive view of capitalism, the new poll found, compared to 54% in 2010.
emergency room with injuries that included a damaged lung, retinal hemorrhages, fractures in both legs and a skull fracture Vasquez was charged in 2014 with cruelty to juveniles and second-degree cruelty to juveniles. She later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of negligent treatment or neglect.
Bravo wrote that he reviewed child welfare investigations from 2013 and again in 2022, when Bryan “was observed with scratches near his genitals, on his inner thighs, and on his right wrist. However, the agency did not validate allegations of physical abuse regarding these injuries.”
A fresh investigation is pending, he wrote.
In the arrest warrant affidavit, Bravo said there was a “documented history of failure to provide adequate supervision for a medically vulnerable child, despite repeated interventions and warnings over a 12-year span.” He wrote that Vasquez “failed to take appropriate steps to secure her residence despite her knowledge of special needs and history of leaving the residence.”
Nicholas Gernon, NOPD’s chief detective, confirmed Sunday that state social workers removed Bryan for a time from the Vasquez home after his visit to the ER.
The 2021 child welfare department report, which was prompted by a notice from school, stated that Bryan had been found with large bruises on his face and his inner thigh. He also had “tapeworms on two different occasions,” the report states.
Gernon said investigators believe that Bryan’s poor treatment led to “undue pain and suffering.”
Staff writer Missy Wilkinson contributed to this report
of not knowing who these operators are and not knowing who the people are who are coming in and setting up their seismic surveys or their drilling rigs, not knowing what’s going on,” Davidson said on the final day of a three-day industry conference on carbon capture at LSU on Friday
“There has to be direct communication with the parish,” he said.
Davidson, whose agency is the state’s chief regulator of carbon-capture projects, added that residents and leaders in rural Louisiana need to be able to put “a face to a name” and have someone to whom they can ask questions.
He added that the opposition is an indication that “we have a public engagement problem that we really need to address.”
Industry and state economic policy officials as well as scientists in LSU’s geology and petroleum engineering disciplines see carbon capture as one of the most readily available ways to decarbonize Louisiana’s major industries, which have intensive greenhouse gas emissions.
They argue the technology remains safe, well suited to the state’s geology and keeps Louisiana industries competitive in a decarbonizing global market
‘A key strategy’
Greg Upton, executive director of the LSU Center for Energy Studies, said at the conference that demand for low-carbon energy sources and production methods,
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gifts as part of what federal officials alleged was a kickback and bribery scheme involving the pretrial intervention program in the District Attorney’s Office.
It was Landry, Clemons said, who hired Dusty Guidry, of Youngsville, to work on contract with Haynes in the program and it was Landry who, shortly after his election in the fall of 2022, pushed assistant district attorneys to tackle a backlog of more than 6,200 cases he inherited when he took office.
Guidry had worked for the District Attorney’s Office in East Baton Rouge Parish about 20 years and was known as the “guru of PTI.”
It was Guidry, Clemons said, who ran the pretrial intervention program and arranged the scheme, not Haynes.
Clemons alleged Haynes invested $219,000 in the companies of Leonard Franques, a vendor who was paid by pretrial intervention defendants to take classes and treatment to clear their criminal record. He said Haynes did not earn any return on that money Franques and Guidry both pleaded guilty for participating in the scheme under plea deals.
It was revealed during Loew’s opening statement that Franques agreed to cooperate with federal officials immediately after his home was searched by the FBI.
Loew said Franques recorded several meetings with Haynes and Guidry about the bribery scheme.
The government, Loew said, plans to present as evidence calls, text messages, documents and testimony that show Haynes’ involvement in the bribery scheme, including one in which Haynes allegedly told the others to delete text messages from their phones, which led to a charge of obstruction of justice.
Haynes allegedly was recorded saying to one of the men, “I told him time and time again We don’t talk about this s*** on the phone,” Loew told jurors.
Prosecutors, Loew said, also plan to introduce recordings of the men discussing whether to pay Haynes with an $80,000 truck instead of cash.
Haynes received two checks from Franques, kickbacks for sending pretrial intervention defendants to
like carbon capture, was being driven by the increased use of Louisiana’s energy and chemical production for foreign export
Companies are trying to find ways to reduce the emissions of those products in a cost-competitive way to meet global demand and their own internal goals for low-carbon products, regardless of political winds in the United States, Upton added.
“Of course, carbon sequestration is a key strategy that could be used to reduce emissions intensity of products,” he said.
Davidson said part of the message local officials need to hear is that carbon dioxide storage brings in businesses looking to make more competitive exports.
But fears about what decades of stored carbon could do to groundwater critical for drinking water and agriculture in rural Louisiana and worries over the risk of CO2 pipeline leaks has sparked grassroots opposition in Republican and typically pro-oil-and-gas sectors of the state.
The opposition has spurred continuing legislative and local attempts to block or restrict the technology and become a campaign issue for U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer John Fleming.
In 2022, Livingston Parish adopted a moratorium over a proposed carbon-capture field under Lake Maurepas and another planned under timberland and country estates near Holden, only to see a court block the law due to the state’s authority in permitting the projects.
Early last month, Allen Parish withdrew its own carbon-capture permitting regime after ExxonMobil
Franques’ companies, but did not deposit the $20,000, Loew said. He was not charged with accepting bribes, he said, but with conspiring to commit bribery In his testimony, Landry said Haynes was the pretrial intervention track chief
sued in federal court in July, arguing state primacy in permitting trumped the local permitting rules.
Late last month, the Iberia Parish Council considered a moratorium until the parish’s attorney warned the law wasn’t on its side.
Cooperation is ‘critical’
While state officials, university scientists and industry executives participated in the high-level talk about better presenting carbon capture Friday, officials at the Department of Energy and Natural Resources were grappling with new legislative pushback over a CO2 pipeline project in southwestern Louisiana.
A letter signed by 32 legislators asked the department on Wednesday to delay a hearing planned Tuesday to decide whether to grant Low Carbon Logistics CCS Transport’s pipeline certificates that would have allowed the ExxonMobil subsidiary to expropriate land for the pipeline corridor
The land takings, which require fair market value payment, are another flashpoint for opponents of carbon capture.
The legislators wrote that new state rules, which would make getting those expropriation rights tougher, were adopted in the most recent session and take effect Oct. 1, less than a month after the now-canceled hearing.
This pipeline also wasn’t legislatively granted a waiver to the new rules as a project in St. James Parish has been, the letter added. The legislators said the public needs more time to gather information and comment and couldn’t do so before the Tuesday hearing. “We are in a moment where
who made final decisions on whether defendants were qualified for the program.
The district attorney is the top authority, he said, but he delegated authority to Haynes. Landry said he suspended Guidry’s contract when he
cooperation is more critical than temporary success,” the letter said. “Our citizens and our culture are in some places fractured due to the uncertainty brought on by these projects and by the threats to property rights that actions like these might bring about.”
State Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, and state Sen. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, were the first two names on the list of signatories.
On Friday, the department issued a statement that the ExxonMobil subsidiary was withdrawing the application and also defended its public notice of the hearing.
The agency statement said the now scuttled hearing wasn’t to permit the pipeline but would have served as an evidentiary hearing to verify procedural steps, including that the line had end users, and so followed different, more limited public notice requirements.
The line west of Lake Charles would have linked a methanol plant to an existing CO2 line owned by Denbury another ExxonMobil subsidiary The line would have carried the plant’s CO2 to Texas, both to a permanent storage site and to an enhanced oil recovery field.
An ExxonMobil spokesperson said the company asked for the cancellation “to allow more time to review the route with potential stakeholders.”
“We’re following Louisiana’s pipeline approval process, sharing information with relevant parties and engaging landowners transparently We’re here to listen, provide clear information, and build lasting relationships,” the spokesperson said.
was arrested in St. Martin Parish in December 2021 with illegal drugs, but rehired him after receiving letters of support from psychologists, social workers and a priest at St. John Cathedral asking for a second chance for Guidry
Congress releases Epsteinnote
Trumpdenies signingletter with drawing
BY MICHELLEL.PRICE Associated Press
WASHINGTON Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Monday a sexually suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein purportedly signed by President Donald Trump, which he has denied.
The letter was included as part of a50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, awealthy and well-connected financier whowas oncea friend of Trump’s.Epstein killed himself in aManhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019oncharges that he sexually abused andtrafficked dozens of underage girls.
Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of acurvaceous woman that surrounds the letter,and he filed a$10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal forearlier reporting on his link to the letter
Hegseth,
Cainevisit
Puerto Rico
U.S. military stepping up operations in Caribbean
BY DÁNICA COTO Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
U.S Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air ForceGen. DanCaine, chairmanofthe Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Puerto Rico on Mondayas the U.S. steps up its military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean. Their arrival in the U.S. territory comes more than aweekafter shipscarrying hundreds of U.S. marines deployed to Puerto Rico for atraining exercise, amove that some on theisland have criticized.
Puerto Rico’sGov.Jenniffer González said Hegseth and Caine visited on behalf of President Donald Trump’s administration to support those participating in the training.
“WethankPresident Trumpand hisadministration for recognizing the strategic importance of Puerto Rico to U.S. national security and for their fight against drug cartels and the narcodictator Nicolás Maduro,” González said.
Hegseth and Caine met with officials at the 156th Wing Muñiz Air National Guard Base in Carolina, a city just east of the capital of San Juan.
GonzálezsaidHegseth spoke to nearly 300soldiers at the base and thanked those he described as “American warriors” for their work. The visit comes as the U.S. prepares to deploy 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico for operations targeting drug cartels, aperson familiar with the planning said Saturday.The person spokeon condition of anonymity because information about the deployments has not been made public.
On Sept.2,Trump announcedthat the U.S. carried out astrike in the southern Caribbean against avessel thathad left Venezuela and was suspectedofcarrying drugs.Eleven people were killed in the rareU.S. military operation in the Caribbean, with the president sayingthe vessel wasoperated by the Venezuelan gangTren de Aragua.
While the prime ministerof Trinidad and Tobagopraised the strike and said the U.S. should killall drug traffickers “violently,” reaction from otherCaribbean leaders has been more subdued.
“As Ihave said all along, it’s very clearPresident Trump didnot draw this picture, and he didnot signit,” White House presssecretary Karoline Leavittsaidinastatement posted on X. President Trump’slegal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”
White Housedeputychief of staff Taylor Budowich posted variouspictures on X of Trump’ssignature over the years and wrote, “it’snot his signature.”
Therelease of thedrawing comes as the president has for months faced increasing pressuretoforcemore disclosure in the case ofEpstein and hisformer girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was accused of payingunderage girls hundreds of dollars in cashfor massages and then molesting them, while Maxwell wasconvicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abusedbyhim.
It also once againputs a spotlight on Trump’sformer friendship withEpstein, which the president has said ended twodecades ago after afalling-out. Trump said recently thathe cut tieswith Epstein because he “stole”
young women— including Virginia Giuffre, who was amongEpstein’smost wellknown sex trafficking accusers —who worked for the spa at hisMar-a-Lagoresort.
Thecaseagainst Epstein wasbrought more than adecade after he secretlycut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Trump hadsuggested during the presidential campaignthat he’d seek to open thegovernment’sfiles into Epstein, but much of what thegovernment has released so far had alreadybeen outthere
Democratsonthe House Oversight Committee received acopyofthe birthday album on Mondayaspart of abatch of documents from Epstein’sestate.
Trump has denied writing the letterand creating the drawing, calling The Wall StreetJournal report on it “false, malicious, anddefamatory.”
“These are not mywords, not theway Italk. Also, I don’tdraw pictures,” Trump said.
The letter released by the committeelooks exactly as describedbyThe Wall Street
Journalinits report.
Theletter bearing Trump’s name and what appears to be his signature includestext framed by ahand-drawn outlineofacurvaceous woman “A palisawonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret,” theletter says.
Theletter’sdisclosure comes amid abipartisan push in Congress for the releaseofthe so-calledEpstein filesamid years of speculation and conspiracy theories. Calls for the release of the records camefrom Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, before he was sworninto the country’sNo. 2 position
The Justice Departmentin August beganturning over recordsfromthe Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
The committee subpoenaed theEpstein estatefor documents lastmonth.Inaddition to the birthdaybook,lawmakers requested Epstein’slast will and testament, agreementshesigned withprosecutors, his contact books, and hisfinancial transactionsand holdings.
NewChicago immigration campaign spursconfusion
BY SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press
CHICAGO The DepartmentofHomelandSecurity trumpeted thestart of anew immigration operation Monday in Chicago, stirring up freshconfusion andanxiety as thecityremained on alertfor afederal interventionPresident Donald Trump has touted for days.
Blasting so-called sanctuarylawsinChicago and Illinois, the latest effort targetspeoplewithout legal permission to live in the U.S. who have criminal records. Like other Trump administration plans, it was stamped with asplashy name, “Operation Midway Blitz,” and circulated on social media with the mugshotsof11 foreign-born men it said shouldbedeported.
“ThisICE operationwill target the criminal illegal alienswho flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor (JB) Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect themand allow them to roam free on American streets,” saidastatement from DHS.
Pritzker, whohas been locked in aback-and-forth withTrump for days, criticized themove. He and Mayor Brandon Johnson have defendedthe state and city’sextensive laws thatbar coordination between local policeand immigration agents. They’ve accused the Trump administration of usingscare tactics, particularly with Latino residents, inthe nation’s third-largest city.
“Onceagain,this isn’t about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination —yet we’ve experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks,”Pritzker said in astatement. “Instead of takingsteps to work with us on publicsafety, the Trumpadministration’s focused on scaring Illinoisians.”
Chicago has beenbracingfor an influx ofimmigration agents and possiblythe National Guard for twoweeks. Numerous protests have cropped up downtown, outside asuburban military base DHS
plans to use andatanimmigration processing center that’sexpected to be ahub of activity Trumpdeployedthe National Guard to LosAngeles over the summerand as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C., where he has direct legal control. For the federal intervention in Los Angeles, ajudge deemed the National Guarddeployment illegal, but the Trump administration gotavictoryrelated to immigration enforcement there when the U.S. Supreme Courtlifteda restraining orderbarring agents there from stopping people solely basedontheir race, language,job or location
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the Senate’sNo. 2 Democrat,rejected the latest operation announced in Chicago
“These actionsdon’t make us safer,” he saidinastatement. “They are awasteof money,stoke fear, and represent another failed attempt at adistraction.”
It remained unclear what role Monday’sannounced programwould playinaChicagosurge
Adding to theconfusion was ahandful of immigration arrestsover the weekend in Chicago, which galvanized the city’s vocal activist network andworries that it was thestartofsomething bigger.
“This is about terrorizing our communities,” Chicago City Council member Jeylú Gutiérrez said. “Butwewill not be intimidated.” She andimmigrant rights activistssaid thatfive people arrested were “beloved community members.” Some wereontheir way to work
Suspectedwould-be assassin apologizes to potentialjurors
BY DAVID FISCHER Associated Press
FORT PIERCE, Fla. The man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump while he played golf last year in South Florida stood before agroup of potential jurors in aFloridacourtroom on Monday and said he was“sorry for bringing you all in here.”
Ryan Routh, wearing a graysportscoat, redtie with white st ri pe s andkhaki slacks, is representing himself in the trial that began with jury se le ct io n on Monday in the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
“Thank you for being here,” Routh toldthe first group of 60 jurors who were brought into the courtroom after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon introduced prosecutors and Routh to the panel. Cannon signedoff on Routh’srequest to represent himself but said court-appointed attorneys needed to remain as standby counsel. During ahearing earlier to go over questions that would be asked of jurors, Routh waspartially shackled. But he did not appear to be restrainedwhenthe first of three batches of 60 potential jurors were brought into the courtroom on Monday afternoon.
Cannon dismissed the questions Routh wanted to ask jurors as irrelevant earlier Monday.They included asking jurors about their views on Gaza, the talk of the U.S. acquiring Greenland and what they woulddoiftheyweredriving and saw aturtle in the road.
when arrested Sunday.Another worksasaflower vendor
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementconfirmed four arrests but gave sparse information, noting criminal histories withprevious arrestsand oneconvictionfor driving under the influence.
“ICE has always operated in Chicago,” theagency said in astatement. “Wewill continue our law enforcement andpublicsafetymission, undeterred, as we surge ICE resources in thecityincoordination withour federal partners.”
DHS said the operation announcedMondaywould be in honorofKatie Abram, one of two Illinois women killed in aJanuary fatal car crash. A grandjuryindicteda 29-yearold maninthe hit-and-run. TheGuatemalan national also faces federal false identification crimes.
Associated Presswriter ChristineFernandocontributed to this report
The judge approved mostofthe other questions forjurors submitted by prosecutors. Thepanel of 120 potentialjurors filledout questionnaires on Monday morning and the first group was brought into the courtroom during the afternoon session. The judge inquiredabout any hardships that would prevent them from sitting as jurors during aweekslong trial. Twenty-seven noted hardships and the judge dismissed 20 of them on Monday
The court hasblocked off four weeks for Routh’s trial, but attorneys are expecting they’llneed less time.
Jury selection was expected to take three days in an effort to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements were scheduled to beginThursday,and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that.
Cannon told Routh last week that he would be allowed to use apodium whilespeakingtothe jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free rein of the courtroom Cannon is aTrump-appointed judge who drew scrutiny forher handling of acriminalcaseaccusing Trump of illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lagoestate in Palm Beach. The case became mired in delays as motions piled up over months, and was ultimately dismissed by Cannon last year after she concludedthatthe special counsel tapped by theJustice Departmentto investigateTrumpwas illegally appointed. Routh’strial begins nearly ayear after prosecutors say aU.S. Secret Service agent thwarted Routh’sattempt to shoot theRepublican presidential nominee. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidentialcandidate, assaulting afederal officer and several firearm violations. Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’sear,before being shot by aSecret Service counter sniper Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeksbeforeaiminga rifle throughthe shrubberyas Trumpplayed golfonSept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. ASecret Service agent spotted Routh before Trumpcame into view.Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routhtodrophis weapon andfleewithout firing ashot. Lawenforcementobtained help from awitness whoprosecutorssaid informed officers that he saw aperson fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to anearby interstate whereRouth was arrested, and the witnesses confirmed it was the personhehad seen, prosecutors have said. The judge last week unsealed the prosecutor’s33page list of exhibits that could be introduced as evidence at the trial. It says prosecutors havephotos of Routh holding the same model of semi-automatic rifle found at Trump’sclub. Routh wasaNorth Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii.
Aself-styledmercenary leader,Routh spoke out to anyone who would listenabout his dangerous, sometimesviolent plans to insert himself into conflicts around theworld, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CAROLyN KASTER Aperson talks to amasked guard Monday at the entrance of an immigration processing center in Broadview,Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
Routh
BY ASIM TANVEER and BABAR DOGAR Associated Press
JALALPURPIRWALA,Pakistan Rescuers backed by troops evacuated more than 25,000people from acityin Pakistan’seastern Punjab province overnight as rising rivers threatened to flood the region,officials said Monday
The emergency rescue operation in Jalalpur Pirwala began late Sunday and continued through the night, said Irfan Ali Kathia,director-general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority.ByMonday morning, about25,000 residents from high-risk neighborhoods had been moved to safer areas.
The latest evacuations from Jalalpur Pirwala came two days after a rescue boat capsized in floodwaters on the city’soutskirts, killingfive people. Fifteen others were rescued after the boat overturned Saturday, localofficials said.
Ghulam Shabir,a50-year-old construction worker,said thathemoved to higher ground near the city after floodwater entered his village, inundating homes and farmland. He appealed to the government to expedite rescue work as many people were still stranded in flooded villages. The government has deployed hundreds of boats, and thousands of rescuers and volunteers for evacuations in flood-hit districts.
The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, avolunteer group known for being among the first responders in natural disasters, is among those involved in the efforts, with members spread across the country.The group’sspokesman, Taha
Muneeb, said that floodwaters had already submerged all the villages surroundingJalalpur Pirwala and had begun to seep into thecityitself.
“Many residents refuse to leave, saying it is better to remain on their rooftopsthanto sithelpless on the roadside,” he said. Survivors told reporters that many people remainstrandedon rooftops and trees.
“I saw with my owneyes people perched on branches of trees, halfsubmerged in floodwaters,” said Taj Din, who was among adozen evacuees rescued by aboat.
Punjab government spokesperson Uzma Bukhari said thatthey’re utilizing thermal imaging drones to locate stranded people in flooded
areas,enablingthemtoberescued by boat. She said that “the government is doing itsbesttohandle this situation.”
Though Pakistan hasn’t issued any appeal for help, the Saudi government on Monday delivered 10,000 food packages and10,000 shelter kits to the Punjab government for flood-hit families. The Saudi shipment came just twodays after Washington also dispatched emergency supplies for Pakistan’sflood victims.
Floods have so far affected more than 4.1 millionpeopleacross4,100 villages in 25 districts of Punjab province. Since Aug. 26, therehave been at least 56 flood-relateddeaths, while more than2 million residents
have been moved to safety,Kathia said.
The disaster management official told The Associated Press that displaced families were being provided with tents and food supplies. He said thatthe local administration, assisted by troops and police, was expediting evacuations in the city, which has apopulation of nearly 700,000. Mosquesbroadcastevacuation announcements as residents scrambled onto vehicles amid heavy rainfall.
Punjab hasbeen conducting one of itslargest rescue operations, including with theaid of drones, since last month, when floodwaters inundated multiple districts after India released water from its dams. The
surges swelled the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers, while torrential monsoon rains further raised water levels
Kathia said that Punjab’schief minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, is personally monitoring the evacuation effort from acentral control room. The Pakistani army, police and rescue services are assisting, including helicopter airliftsfrom remote villages.
Sincelate June,monsoon flooding has killed more than 900 people acrossPakistan,according to the NationalDisasterManagement Authority.Over the weekend, India again notified Islamabad through diplomatic channels of potential cross-border flooding,the agency said.
Kathia said that surging waters have already displaced morethan2 million people across Punjab since Aug. 23, when heavy rains anddam releases beganoverwhelming rivers. Only about 60,000 of them are living in official relief camps, he said, while most sought shelter with relativesinnearbytowns or setup makeshift camps along river embankments, waiting forthe waters to recede.
Evacuationsare also underway in southern Sindhprovince, which faces growing threats as water continues to flow downstream into the Indus River and where more than 100,000 people havealready been relocated fromvulnerable settlements.
Sindh was among the worst-hit regions in thecatastrophic 2022 floods, whichkilled1,739 peoplenationwide Munir Ahmed contributed to this report fromIslamabad.
Invasive tick foundinMaine,the farthest northeastithas been spotted
BY PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press
PORTLAND,Maine Research-
ershaveconfirmedthe presence of an invasive species of tick in Maine for thefirst time, marking the farthest northeast in the United States the pest has been discovered.
The University of Maine and state conservation officials said Monday they confirmed the presenceof the Asian longhorned tick
PROVIDED PHOTO Asianlonghorned tick
in the state in July.The tick is native to east Asia, where it is capable of spreading tickborneinfectionssuch as spotted fever Thetickwas first con-
firmedinthe UnitedStates in New Jersey in 2017 and it hassincespread to more than 20 states, clustering mostly around the eastern thirdofthe country.Exactly how the tick arrivedinthe country isn’tcertain, but public health officials have cited possible routesofentryincluding on petsand livestock.
“This discoveryunderscores thecritical importance of continued tick surveillanceinMaine,” said
Griffin Dill,directorofthe
UMaine Extension Tick Lab.
“While this appears to be an isolated case, we are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and federal partners.”
The tick specimen was not yetanadult anditwas collected in the southern part of the state, thelab said in astatement. Follow-upsurveillance didn’tturnupany additional specimens in the surrounding area, the lab said.
Asian longhorned ticks feed on numerousanimals including cattle and humans. They pose achallenge for pest control authorities because female ticks of the species can reproduce without mating, which means a single individual can create an infestation,the lab said. The specimen found in Maine could notreproduce yet because it was ajuvenile, the lab said. Research is still going on to determine the tick species’
abilitytospread pathogens in Maine and elsewhere in the U.S., the lab said. Ticks are amajor public health concern in the Northeastern U.S., where another species, the blacklegged or deer tick, spreads Lyme disease. In themeantime,the publiccan prevent tick bitesby takingsteps such as conducting rigorous checks for them, avoiding overgrown vegetation and wearing protective clothing, public health officials said.
JanRisher
LOUISIANA AT LARGE
Mysterious past of aship in abottle
Most weeks, I’m lucky enough to write about one Louisiana adventure or another.This week, though, I’m telling someoneelse’s story For the past 15 years, Catherine Schoeffler Comeaux, of Lafayette, has gone to an area along the coast near Cheniere au Tigreto celebrate her birthday.Saturday was her birthday —soshe and her husband decided to make their annual pilgrimage.
Getting to that section of the Louisiana coast is quite the process.The area,about 40 miles south of Abbeville, is named for the live oaks growing on the ridge about 3feet above sea level. (“Cheniere” means “oak grove” in French.)
Indigenous people spenttime there, followed by early settlers, pirates, privateers and other renegades. There was even asmall hotel,the Sagrera HealthResort, from 1913 until 1957, when Hurricane Audrey closed it forgood.
There are no roads to Cheniere au Tigre, but Comeaux hasbeen goingthere her whole life.
“My parents took us camping there, and then subsequently we would go beachcombing,” Comeaux said. Even as akid, Comeauxrecognizedthat the items she found on Cheniere au Tigre were not typicalbeach finds.
She says that in her “little kid brain,” she thought other people camping left their trashbehind.
“I was wondering, ‘Well, why would they leave afluorescent light bulb?’ Like, who’scamping with one of those?” she said. “Or ahalf-eaten jar of peanutbutter? Hard hats? Or only one flip-flop?It wasbizarre trash to find. Eventually,Irealized this was not people camping —because nobody camps at Cheniere au Tigre.It’s very buggy.”
Beyond the bugs, another deterrent to camping near the
ä See RISHER, page 4B
Arts education to expand in district
St.MartinParish, Acadiana Center forthe Arts partnerfor initiative
BY STEPHENMARCANTEL
Staff writer
The AcadianaCenterfor the Arts and the St. Martin Parish School Board are partnering to expand arts education throughout district schools. The initiative willlaunchthis fall and will offer professional performances,in-classroomsessions with artists, access toonline visuals and performing art lessons with professional development workshops for educators, according to the School Board.
“This partnership helps the youth of today fallinlove withthe music and culture thatmakes this region great,” said FredWiltz, superintendent of St. Martin Parish schools. “Weare excited towork with (theAcadianaCenter for the Arts) to bring these opportunities to St. Martin Parish students.” The partnership is part of arts
ä See ARTS, page 4B
Academyoffersvirtual experience
Lafayettestudentshavefreeonlineeducation path
BY ASHLEYWHITE Staff writer
As students return to school, most are heading into brick-andmortar buildings. But more than 400students across southLouisianaare loggingontothe computers for acompletely virtual experience.
The Lafayette Connections Academy,operating as apod of
Lafayette RenaissanceCharter Academies, allows fourth through 12th grade students to attend an online school that’s free andfollows theacademic standardsset by the state Department of Education.
“Families want more accountability andtheywantmore flexibility.Weofferthat,” said Tara Carr,the Lafayette Connections Academy schoolleader. “It’sa
great method and way of learning while staying the public education system.” The academy is in its second year andserves students in Acadiana and across south Louisiana, including Lafayette, East Baton Rouge,West Baton Rouge, Vermilion, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson parishes. Last year, theschool worked with about 280 studentsand hasexpandedits
enrollment forthe 2025-26 school year to about410 students. Whenstudents enroll in the Lafayette Connections Academy, they are placed in acohort with theirpeersand have accessto their online classrooms, which uses material from education giant Pearson. Studentswill be able to seeanoverviewoflessons and coursework in their planner, Carr said. They can also access their textbooks, videos andother
SWIM.BIKE. RUN.
TOP: Athletes start the20-mile bike ride during the2025 CajunmanTriathlon at Lafayette Regional Airport lakeonSunday
The athletes competed in a 800-meter swim, 20-mile bike and a5Krun.
RIGHT: Family members cheer on their athlete during the5Krun.
An athlete jumpsinto thewater to starthis 800-meter swim.
STAFF PHOTOSByBRAD KEMP
ABOVE: Angela McGhee, left, of Baton Rouge, and Patrick Rees, of New Orleans, transitiontostart the 20-mile bikeride.
LEFT: Corinne Hester jumpsfor joy while racing to the finish of the5Krun.
ä See ACADEMY, page 4B
OUR VIEWS
No excuse for U.S. 90’s continuing bridge closures at stateline
As Congress returns to session andashurricane season reaches its peak,federaland state officialsshould look with shame at the continued closure of 3.3 miles of U.S.90atthe LouisianaMississippistate line Aftermorethan three years, theutterfailure to produce afinancial plan to replace fiveold, unsafe bridges along the highway is embarrassing. It’salso dangerous. East-West traffic flow along theGulf Coast, no less than North-South flow awayfromthe coast,is acrucialpartof hurricane evacuation considerationsand of post-storm aid and rescueoperations.
And as tens of thousandsofdrivers have experienced through the years, anyaccidentonInterstate 10 near either Pearl River bridge there canback up that highway for miles, makingU.S. 90 avital alternative route. Since Mayof2022, that alternative has been unavailable,and multiple recent reports provide nothing more than themost ephemeral hopes for progress there anytime soon.
One would have thoughtthat the20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrinamight have spurred some action, but alas, those thoughts would have been wrong. The stateofLouisiana says the $350 million price tag is too high forittobear, and so far,neither thefederal governmentnor the state of Mississippi have ponied up,either.
As this paper has reported twice in the past six weeks, the bridge closures also have been economically devastating for the small town of Pearlington, Mississippi,and nearby communities.With that stretch of U.S. 90 closed, local bars,restaurants, convenience storesand other businesses all have struggled mightily And forthose needing emergency health care, delays caused by reroutingcould mean life or death.
We understand that $350 million doesn’tgrow on trees, much lessinmarsh grass. Still, with Congress having passednot onebut threemassive “stimulus” and “infrastructure”bills in the past six years, along with executiveorders providing some fast-track (or at leastfasterthan-before-track) permittingfor transportation projects, surelythere should be reasonable accesstofederal highway dollars and concrete (no pun intended) plans to usethem.
It’s not as if Louisiana doesn’thavepower and access to knowledge of the system, with both Speaker Mike Johnson andMajority Leader Steve Scalise hailing fromhere andwith former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu having served as infrastructure czar for formerPresident Joe Biden. Surelytheycan “talkamongst themselves,” both formally and informally,to find asolution. State and local governments, too, should be doing all they can to provide matching funds for federal monies.
“We’re past thepoint of shrugging our shouldersand saying we don’thave themoney,” said state Rep. Stephanie Berault, R-Slidell. Beraultisright. And it is incumbent on every local, stateand federal official from the area, elected and appointed alike, to find themoney andstart rebuilding thebridges. Soon.
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR
GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence
TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.
TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE
OPINION
YOUR VIEWS
We should askwhether immigrationenforcement is aboutwhattheysay it is
If thepurposeofthesenew deportation policies is to deport criminals and drug dealers, why arethey deporting women and children?
If it’sabout theeconomy,why are they spending $14 billion extra to deportpeople? If it’sabout law enforcement, whyare they arresting immigrantsattheir courthearings while trying to do it right?If it’s about immigrants not working, why are they arresting them at work?
If it’sabout tax burdens, why are they using theirincome tax documents to find them? If it is about deporting “illegal” (I prefer undocumented) immigrants, why was a 4-year-old boy with stage4kidney cancer,who is acitizen and whose father is acitizen (nonimmigrant) deported?
He and his mother were abducted from Manning Children’sHospital in New Orleans while receiving
What follows is amachine gun firing at therule of law: Issuing an executive order that usurps the power of Congress andthe states to regulate elections; picking up and deporting people without due process of law; ignoring or disobeying court orders; unlawfully removing people from government agencies; illegally withholding funds from various groups andagencies; mass firing of inspectors general; freezing foreign aidwithout Congress’sapproval; institutingmass terminations of federal workers; purging independent government watchdogs; illegally dismantling parts of the government; threatening to extend the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.; andthreatening to take additional actions, nowand in thefuture,that would be illegal or corrosive
Republicans during President Barack Obama’sterm complained constantlyabout his executive orders and howhewas bypassing Congress with them. Obama issued122 executive
treatment. If they claimtobe“sending them back to where they came from,” why are they sending them to prisons in other countries?
Just to reiterate, ICE agents are using income tax documents to find immigrants, arresting immigrants at work, arrestingimmigrants tryingtomake thingsright at their court dates, deporting women and children (one was akid with stage 4kidney cancer), deporting legal citizens because of the colorof theirskin and terrorizing children while arresting their parents (An ICE agent made a46-year-old wet himself by brandishing his weapon to him, outside an immigration court appointment).
How can anyone claim to care about life and applaud these atrocities? Or does caring about life end once the fetus exits the womb?
JOSHUAOVERMAN NewOrleans
orders in thefouryears of his second term. Trump has issued 188 executive orders in his first seven months, notjust bypassing Congress but also kicking them to the curb.
Republicans won’tcall out the attacks on the ruleoflaw;they are too self-serving and fearful of losingtheir next election. Democrats callout the attacks but have themselvesbeen guiltyofsomeof the same activity,albeit to amuch lesser degreeinscope and quantity.Ifthe Democrats regain power in 2028, that scope and quantity could increase.
Thereisnoclear picture of what this will evolve into, but it is clear that if this machinegun doesn’t run out of bullets soon, our democracy will be gravely wounded or something muchworse.
“The world no longerhas a choice between force and law.If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.” —Dwight
D. Eisenhower
RIKKI THARPE Baton Rouge
No surprise Trumphas aCabinet of dunces
When Isee the astounding incompetence of the daily news makers in President Donald Trump’scabinet, people such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among others, Iamreminded of the maxim that asecond-rate leader chooses third-rate staff.
To call our current president second-rate, however,ismuch too generous. He strikes me more as the ringmaster of acircus from Hades. And the “performances” in this circus feature sabotaging health care, creating anascent police state, trying to resurrect the Confederacy,giving industrialpolluters free rein and so muchmore.
JOE BARBARA Metairie
It’s TrumpWorld that’s deranged,not therestofus
“TrumpDerangement Syndrome” that’saterm which MAGAfolks throw out at someone whodares question the wisdom,legality or decency of something President Donald Trumpsays or does. Their diagnosis is right, but the patient has been misidentified. For over 200 years, America has been basically anation of lawsand societal decency.Wehave asixth sense of when someone crosses the line, and we speak up.
But something has gone haywire in this country.Suddenly,people are calling up, downand black, white —like in “Alice In Wonderland.”
So yes, MAGAfolks have accurately named the illness, but they’ve misdiagnosed the patients and the symptoms.
ALEXCHAPMAN
Ville Platte
Jesusdidn’tspeak to governments, buttoindividuals
On Aug. 11, aletter from Keith Istre, in response to Medicaid cuts, asked Jesus’ question: Have you fed me,clothed me cared for me?
Jesus didn’task that question to, or demand it from, the government. He asked that of individuals. For me to answer yes, I need to dip into my pockets and give directly,orthrough my church, to help. If Istre wants to answer yes, he needs to reach into his own pockets and keep his hands outof my pockets. It’seach individual’schoice
TIM ALFORD Kentwood
Fearfulcongressional
Tanned, rested and ready,Congress has returned from theAugust recess. It is unclear why The Democrats’ House and Senate minorities have no power —the ability to achieveintended effects. The Republicanmajorities have no power becausetheyare not permitted intentionindependent of this president’spreferences.
He refuses to enforce the law that strictly required the TikTok app to be sold or banned, at the latest,byApril. He believes Congress’sspending power is merely the power to suggest spending ceilings. Trytocitealongstandingtenet of conservatism hehas nottraduced. Federalism? To endvotingbymail and impose voter identification requirements,hewould truncate, by executive order,the states’ constitutionally enumerated power to conduct elections. He would commandeer state and local governments withanexecutive order banning no-cash bail. Free markets? See “state capitalism,” below. The Constitution’sarchitecture presupposes legislative andexecutive powers not merelyseparated but somewhat rivalrous. “Ambition,” wrote James Madison, “must be made to counteract ambition.” Thearchitecture collapses when, as today,the controlling ambition of most members of the congressional majorities is reelection requiring sycophancy toward today’s president. Individual andinstitutional pride have vanished, supplanted by unapologetic and undignified fear Hence, it is regrettable thatlast year Republicanscaptured Senate control. They said this would enable them to preserve the filibuster,which prevents enactment of large measures on slenderand entirely partisan majorities Instead, Senate Republicans have advanced the president’sagenda —the sliver of it requiring legislative action
rather than executive fiats—bya parliamentary maneuver (reconciliation) that evades the filibuster Absenta Republican Senate majority, these Cabinet members(among other wreckers masquerading as reformers) would beabsent: Health and Human Services SecretaryRobert F. Kennedy Jr., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The confirmation of each required abject deference to presidential discretion that precludes independent senatorial judgments concerning any nominee’s character and competence.
The Senate confirmed, 50-49, Emil Bove, thepresident’sformer criminal defenseattorney,toafederal appellate court,on thethreshold of the Supreme Court. His jurisprudential thinking, if any,isunknown. Hiscoarseness is not: When theacting U.S. attorney in Manhattan resigned to protest the Trump administration’sdropping, for political reasons, the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, Bove’s thuggish reflexwas to ominously threaten to “investigate” her Voters, remember Bovenext year.If aSupreme Court vacancy occurs before 2029, an invertebrate Republican Senatemight mean asullied court Presidents are mistakenly accorded vast discretion in foreign policy,so Congress candolittle when today’s president, for no discernible strategic reason, usesinsults and economic coercion to propel the most populous nation, India,into closer collaboration with thesecond most populous, China. Congress could, however,inhibit this administration’sprimary domestic policy It is frequently,and illogically,described as “state capitalism,” an oxymoron coined to avoid candidly calling it “socialism”: government supplanting markets in the allocation of capital and,hence, of opportunity.Many business leaders in what should now be called “thequasi-private sector” have
responded to presidential bullying with groveling. Intel, for example, has given the government a10%interest in it.This dilutes the value of other shareholders’ portions of the company —anunconstitutional, because uncompensated, takingofproperty
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says thegovernment might take stakes in defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, which he says is “basically an arm of the U.S. government.” If so, Congress should pass an “Armof-the-Government CEO Compensation Act,” stipulating: No executive of any company in which the government owns as much as 1% can receive total annual compensation exceeding in value the$162,672 paid for aGS-15 civil servant.
Half acentury ago, Congress adopted budgeting rules it rarely obeys. They stipulateatimetable for presenting budget resolutions, and passing 12 appropriations bills by Sept.30.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., proposes thePrevent Government Shutdown Act. When government funding lapses because Congress ignores its rules, arenewable 14-day continuing resolution would fund critical operations, but:
During the continuing resolution, members’ office funds cannot be used for travel other than aone-way trip back to Washington. No campaign funds can pay travel expenses. Neither the House nor theSenate can be adjourned for morethan 23 hours, and mandatory midday quorum calls, seven days aweek, will confirm members’ attendance. Unlike the budgetary rules Congress pretends tohave imposed on itself, Lankford’slaw would be obeyed. Congress is tanned, rested and ready to resumeits passivity.
Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.
Kaine’signorance aboutour heritage
TimKaine needs to report to aremedial civics class as soon as possible. The Virginia senatorand former vice presidential candidate expressed outrage at acongressional hearing that aTrumpnominee said that our rights comefrom God, not government.
Kaine suspected incipient theocracy, warning that theIranian regimepersecutes religious minorities on exactly this basis. “They do it,” he explained, “because they believethat they understand what natural rights are from their creator.”
In searchingfor an example more relevant to theAmerican experience, Kaine mightcasthis mind back to afellow Virginian —a tall, sandy-haired, Charlottesville-area gentleman with an interest in architecture, ataste for fine wine and knackfor writing. Ring any bells?
Thomas Jefferson had three things inscribed on his tombstone: drafter of the Virginia statutefor religious freedom, founder of the Universityof Virginia and author of the Declaration of Independence.
Kaine could lodge all the same complaints he made about theoffending nominee, Riley Barnes, against the Declaration of Independence that shockingly maintains that allpersons are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” andcalls this proposition —with arrogant certitude—a“self-evident”truth.
Luckily for the Sage of Monticello, he didn’thave to get confirmed as ambassador to France by aSenateForeign Relations Committee including Tim Kaine (as it happened, the U.S. Senate didn’texist yet). Kaine might consider that,intaking his oath of office, he actually pledged to defend aconstitutional system that is founded on the idea thatour rightsexistprior to government.
As Jefferson noted later,the sentiments of the Declaration were commonplace in 18th-centuryAmerica. Jefferson’snemesis, Alexander Hamilton, stated that “the sacred rights of
mankind” are “written,aswith asun beam,inthe whole volumeofhuman nature,bythe hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”
JohnAdams, James Wilson and John Dickinson,among other Founding figures, saidexactly thesame thing.
Whereas TimKaine hears someone say ourrights come from God and thinksofthe writings and thought of, say,the Ayatollah Khomeini, the philosophical basis of the idea is found in the work of John Locke, one of the greatest Enlightenment thinkers.
Locke grounded his liberalism in an understanding of mankind as possessing inherentGod-given rights and dignity.
The power of this idea is that in a conflict between our rights and laws impinging on them,the laws must give way Kaine’sview that rights come from thegovernment implies that the state getstodecidewhether or not and to what extent we have rights. The American project, though, is based on the belief that it is duty of government to respect preexisting rights, and if a government tramples on them, it has failed and is illegitimate.
Theabolitionists used this view to
great effect in the 19th century.Even though the government had decided that it was permissible for one class of people to enslave another,the abolitionists believed that this was an offense against God. Enslaved people had a natural right to liberty that couldn’tbe erased. So, Kaine must have abeef with the likes of William LloydGarrison, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. He presumably would have gone ballistic over Garrison’sconviction that the “right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp theprerogative of Jehovah.” Rather than awarrant for theocracy,the Garrison view supported the extension of rights. As he put it,“wherever there is ahuman being, Isee God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be thesex or complexion.”
Kaine’soutburst shows how progressives have an allergy to God in any contextother than apersonal one, and how it isn’tjust schoolchildren who are ignorant about our history and system of government.Isittoo much to ask that a U.S. senator know alittle bit about our heritage?
Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry
Imagine someone made you this offer: You press abutton, and you get $5 million. But somewhere in the world, several dozen young men become afflicted with adisease that leaves them in constant pain and suffering from substantial cognitive impairment. Would you press that button?
No?Let’smake it alittle easier on you: Youget the money now, they get the debilitating disease 30 or 40 years later.Tempting? Still won’tpress? Let’scomplexify it further: Youdon’tget the money, they do. Youjust get afew hours of entertainment watching them destroy their bodies andbrains. So again: Do youpress that button?
Yes, obviously,many of you would. Repeatedly.Because that’swhat happens whenyou push the button on the remote and sit backtoenjoy another football game —asmillions of Americans did this weekend with the NFL kicking off its season.
KFF and ESPN recently released the results of ajoint survey of NFL players from the 1988 season, who are now at an average age of 62. Not surprisingly,they reported high rates of physical disability,with athird saying thattheyhad chronic pain severe enough to limit daily life or work activity most days (the rate for the general population of similarly-aged menis13%).
More worryingly,they also reported extremely high degrees of cognitive disability: While 6% of meninthat age group report serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions, 47% of the former NFL players do. Fifteen percent report having been diagnosed with dementia, while just less than 4% of men65and older have dementia, according to ESPN.That raises ethical questions about watching football, doesn’tit? Obviously,you are not tuning in to watch some hardy young manturn into apainwreckedretiree who can barely walk without crippling pain or remember whetherhehas grandchildren. But you are watching the process that leads from one to the other That process is exciting to watch, no doubt, whichiswhy it’sAmerica’sfavorite pastime.It reminds me of aquote Ionce read: “I do notlove war,but Ilove the courage with which men face war.” The courage, the athleticism,the teamwork —it’sthrilling. And part of the fun is that so many other people watch it, so you ride the highs and lows in fellowship with legions of fans. All of that rests on the willingness of these young mentodestroy their bodies and minds for our entertainment. It matters that they’re willing, of course, that they’re not just victims of astranger with abutton, but avid players who love the game and are well paid forplaying it. In the KFF/ESPN survey,90% of the players said they’d do it again. So why shouldn’tyou watch, if they’re willing to trade their future welfare for today’sglory?
As alibertarian, you’d expect me to resonate with that argument, yet Ithink it’snot thatsimple. Idon’tthink football should be illegal —obviously.But when participating in markets, we have ethical obligations that go beyond what’s legal. And there are some things youshouldn’t buy or sell, even if it’slegal to do so Iwon’tpresume to tell you whatthose things are, because life is full of trade-offs —vegetarianism,widely practiced, saves cows not just from death, but from existence in the first place. We all have to negotiate those trade-offs as best we can, and no one can tell anyone else where their duty lies.
But Iwill lay out the drawback of doing so: Football fandom provides the moneyand the social status that attracts so many young mento pursue it as acareer.Many of them will suffer the injuries without having the career, or the money,orthe fame.
Yes, they play willingly,but at an age when people are notoriously bad at grasping the needs of their future self. That incapacity is why we create institutions and cultural scripts that guide them toward things that will be good for their future well-being (marriage, education, stable employment), and not things thatmight be fun right now but will be disastrous later,like drug addiction and crime. In football, we have created acultural script that valorizes wrecking your future body and brain.
Every time you press that button, youreinforce the script. Your eyeballs fund the ads, your purchases support the endorsements, andyour willingness to watch them tear each otherapart gives players the fame that is amajor attraction of the job.
Iwon’ttell you not to press the button in the end. I’d just ask you to think about the crippled old menthose boys will become, and askyourself whetherthe fun you’re all having is really worth what youare doing to that far-off stranger MeganMcArdle in on X, @asymmetricinfo.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Sen. TimKaine, D-Va., arrives for ahearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
George Will
Rich Lowry
ega McArdle M n
ShaneGuidrysaysguest
posted on Instagram
Fishing team’s postscalledBlack leaders‘ignorant’
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
Shane Guidry,aconfidant
of Gov. Jeff Landry who often serves as his point person for New Orleans issues, said aseries of posts on his fishing team’sInstagram storyblasting Blackleaders —including one asking “Why are Black leaders so ignorant” —were put there by aguest on the team’s fishing triptothe British Virgin Islands.
Guidry,whose fishing group is called Team Harvey,said the guest made that and three other posts criticizing Black leaders but quickly deleted them. He saidthe guestapolo-
ACADEMY
materials online through their portal. Students engagewith their peers and teachers in live classrooms. Inside those classrooms, studentscan talk with each otherand work on class assignments. Classes also have virtual andin-person field trips throughout the year Eachstudent also has acaregiver who actsas their learning coach. Oftentimes, it’saparent or guardian, but canalso be an older sibling or family member,Carr said. That person cansee what their student is working on, the assignments they complete and thegrade book It’sacollaboration with teachers, students and learning coaches working togethertoensurestudents succeed, said Carr,who’s been an educator for21 years with about half that time working in avirtual school setting.
“I learned very quickly thatinthe virtual setting, you actually communicate with the students —even the families —frequently,” she said. “Weensure that at Lafayette Connections Academy,the families and students are really tapped in.”
The Lafayette ConnectionsAcademy isn’tthe onlycharter school in the statetooffer fully online schools forfamilies. The Louisiana Connections
gized but did notwishto comment
Anotherpostfeatured aheadline about New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s indictment and was captioned, “Why do so many black femalepoliticiansfeel soinvincible.”
“Weabsolutely disagree with what they wrote,” Guidry saidSundayevening, adding that he has had Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Costa Ricans andMexicansworkonhis boat. “There’scertainly no place on our fishing team for that.”
When first asked about theposts, Guidry saidhe had not seen them. But after areporter described them,hesaid he agreed with the sentiment that Cantrell musthavethought shewas “invincible.” Guidry added, “I personally don’tbelieve all Black
Academy operated in BatonRouge from 2011 to 2016. It then changed its name to the University View Academy.Itenrolled about 3,700 students statewide lastyear.Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy opened in 2011 and served nearly 2,500students statewide lastyear
The Lafayette Connections Academy offers flexibility for students.Students have someflexibility as to whentheycomplete their lessons. If astudent has an appointment,issick or needs to reserve certain times for practice,they can workaround those schedules. Theycan also choose from awider range of electives after chatting with theircounselorsabout theirinterests.
For middle and high school students, theacademy workswith students on their post-graduation goals, whetherthat path includes auniversity degree, technicalcertificationorenlisting in themilitary.
“Wedefinitely recognize that thosehigh school students have different pathways they want to pursue,” Carr said. “Wewantto make sure we’re covering and givingthoseopportunities for all students.”
Beyond what the Lafayette Connections Academy already offers, Carr is excited for the future of the school. And it boils down to the prospect of growth —offering moreunique experiences suchasdual enrollment,graduating more students, expandingtoinclude students in
leaders are bad. Ipersonally don’tbelieveall White leadersare bad.”
As for the post thatasked ‘Why are Black leaders so ignorant’— whichwas attached to apicture of ChicagoMayor Brandon Johnson with acaption saying Johnson blamed thecity’s gun violence on red states —Guidry said he agreed Johnson’sremarks were ignorant.
“Guns don’tkill people. People kill people,”hesaid.
In anotherone of the posts,animage shows two Black people who wereapparently arrested in connection withastore heist, with the caption, “Whyisit alwaysBlack peopledoing this, answer caused by White DEMOCRATS.”
Guidry,who is based in Metairie, owns multiple businessesthat provide oil field servicesinthe Gulf.
kindergarten or pre-Kand being able to workwith students in everyLouisiana parish
Carr said virtually every student can thrive in the academy andare most successfulwhen they have someoneathome whois involved and able to oversee their student’sexperience. Andstudents need to want to learn in an online setting.
She encouraged families who think their students might be interested in an online learning settingto give it atry.Ifthings don’t work out, Carr said the academy will help them transition to aschoolthat’s abetterfit.
“Weknowthat most families and students, when they come here, they’re goingtolovethisenvironment, and they do opt to stay and carry on,” she said. “If you want areally solid virtual experience, I’m so happy to walk families through what thatwill look like before they make that decision.”
Learnmore about the Lafayette Connections Academy by visiting connectionsacademy.com/ louisiana-online-school. com
Cheniere au Tigre area is that it takes aserious commitmenttoget there. By midmorning, Comeaux andher husband setout in their 21-foot, single-engine outboard flatboat from Intracoastal City. With calm water,the boat ride on Saturdayonly took an hour
Once there, Comeaux said they are carefulto stay in the public beach area, while the rest of the area is privately owned On Saturday,she andher husband beachcombed about21/2 miles, finding a 3-foot length of brain coral; wild not-yet-ripe watermelonsgrowing; ared sandal; asingle doll’sleg;amylar “Happy birthday” balloon (she finds oneevery year); adumpster-like container on castersthathad the words“PLASTIC WASTE” stenciled on top (itwas empty); awild hogskull; andthe crown jewel —a ship in abottlewitha note included.
The message in abottle, this time an oldHaig & Haig whiskeybottle, is not Comeaux’sfirst. It was the third oneshe’s found on herbirthday—and she’s learned alot abouthow to open them withouttearing. Still, she was disappointed when she unfolded it and allthe writing was gone
“When Irolleditout, there was notadamn thing on it,”she said. “Nothing, youcould seenothingon this note.”
Hermiddle child hada suggestion —use apencil to sketch over it andsee if the message wouldshow
ARTS
Continuedfrom page1B
center’s regional effort to integratethe artsinto the core curriculum and provide accesstoarts experiences for allstudents. The
found
confused.
up. “I was like, I’m not doing that,” Comeaux said. “That’sgonna mess it up.”
So she searched the internet looking for suggestions on what to do.
Finally,she decided on a course of action to unravel the mystery
“I said, ‘Oh heck, I’m just gonna do like my kid told me,’”she said. “I scratched apencil and sure enough it started coming out.” It helped some, but not much.
Still, we’ve figured (and Isay “we” because I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure it out), that the note reads: “Friday,May 2, 3:25 a.m.Ouachita River,West Monroe, LA, Launched by Jim Lee.
1968”
The tiny ship was areplica of Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria.
We’ve discussed numerous hypotheses as to why this manwould launch a ship in abottle with anote that said little at 3:25 a.m We also realize that in 1968, May 2was on a Thursday,but we figure that at 3:25 a.m., he maybe
sessions combine the arts withsubjects like science, social studies, math and English.
The parish is the fourth districttojointhe initiative, following Lafayette, St. Landry and Vermilion parishes.
“Webelieve the arts
Six years ago, she found an illegible message in a bottle with a$1bill. She kept the dollar and thought it was funny.Then, in 2022, she found Paxton Oliphant’smessage in abottle with awatercolor map/ drawing and anote that predicted his bottle would go to Asia.
Oliphant was from Pecan Island —soitdidn’tgofar Comeaux knew someone who knew someone who knew him and was able to get him word that she had found the bottle.
“Ironically,every year we go, we drink abottle of prosecco,” she said, “and I write amessage and throw it in the sea somewhere near Southwest Pass, south of Vermilion Bay,right in the Gulf.” In 2018, Andy Boudreaux found the bottle she had thrown in September on the Louisiana coast south of Morgan City She’shoping that someone can help her identify “Jim Lee” who was in West Monroe in 1968.
If you have any information, email me at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.
are essential to learning and development,” said Samuel Oliver,executive director of the Acadiana Center forthe Arts. “From improved academic performancetobetterattendance, thearts create lasting impact in schools and communities.”
PROVIDED PHOTO Catherine Schoeffler Comeaux
abottlecontaining a smallshipand anote on Saturday near Cheniere au Tigre on the Louisiana coast.
SPORTS
SILVER LINING
In what could be aseason of silver linings, the biggest from the New Orleans Saints’ opener was theperformanceof Spencer Rattler
The final box scoremight notindicate it, but Rattler played well. Certainly well enoughfor the Saints to steala victory from amore talented Arizona Cardinals team.
Don’tlet Rattler’sunderwhelming 70.4 passer efficiency rating fool you. His pedestrian stats in the heartbreaking 20-13 loss belied the level ofhis performance In short, Rattler playedexactly the waythe Saints need him to playtogive them achance to win this season. He led theoffense with poise and confidence,
BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer
Before discussing any details about any strategies, potential problem areas or even aTop 25 road opponent, UL coach Michael Desormeaux wanted to make something clear Monday He fully appreciatedhow his Ragin’ Cajuns responded to a disappointing 14-12 loss to Rice in the season opener
There are still concerns, but addressing those witha1-1 record instead of 0-2 coming off aloss to McNeese Stateare two very different things.
“It would have been really easy to feel sorry for yourselves after Week 1, having agame that certainly didn’tgothe way you expected,” Desormeaux said. “Knowing McNeese, the way Iknow them and coach (Matt) Viator,Iknew that if we didn’t
BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
Whenever Brian Kelly wasquestioned aboutthe LSU offensive line during preseason practice, he said the unit would play well even though it had to replace four starters. Some of his confidence came from the addition of center Braelin Moore, aVirginia Tech transfer who he said “setsthe rest of thegroup up for success.”
If Moore is that critical, whatwould happenwithout him against tougher competition?
FloridaatLSU, 6:30 P.M. SATURDAy,ABC
It’s apotential issue facing No. 3LSU Moore begins the week questionable to play against Florida after he suffered an ankle injury on the first snap of LSU’s 23-7win against Louisiana Tech,Kelly said Monday.Moore is “day-to-day”after undergoinganMRI, and LSU will see what he can do at practice. Multiple reportssaid Moore sufferedahigh-ankle sprain.
“Wedidn’tget the true sense that we have ahigh-ankle sprain with Braelin,” Kelly said. “There was nothing that gave us that sensewhen we lookedat the MRI that this is aTightRope procedure and he’s going to be out for four weeks.
avoided major mistakes and kept the Saintsinfavorable down-and-distance situations throughout the game. And when the team needed it,hedirected aprecise two-minutedrive thatnearly snatched victory from thejaws of defeat
His second-to-last pass to Juwan Johnsonwas athing of beauty,perfectly timed and placed.Ifnot for agreat
ä UL at Missouri, 3P.M. SATURDAy,ESPN+
show up ready to go, though, it was going to be something that couldhave really damaged the rest of ouryear.”
The Cajuns exploited their biggest advantage withthe rushing game against McNeese’sdefensive front. The Cajuns rushed for 315 yards in the 34-10 win, led by acareer-high 132 yards from redshirt sophomore back Bill Davis.
“It was thesamerotation,”
Desormeaux said of the offensiveline. “I thoughtthey played and strained really hard allthe way through the whistle. That was something that we challenged them todofrom the first play of thegame where Zylan
See UL, page 3C
breakup by apairofCardinals defenders, it might have gone down as one of themost dramaticpassplays in Saints history
“Veryclose,veryclose,” Rattler said. “That’sthe only spotitcould have been thrown. Game of inches. Ithink that guy made agood playonthatball to Juwan (Johnson), but Itold Juwan before that playthatI’m comingatyou, so be ready I’llthrowthatballtohim 100 times out of 100.”
Rattler’sfinalnumbers don’tjump off thestat sheet. He completed 27 of 46 passes for214 yards andadded 29 yards
ä See DUNCAN, page 4C
“We’ll seehow he feels. He felt better today.I think we’re going to list him as questionable, andthat couldchange to probable as we go through the week. We’ll see how he progresses.”
Even if Moore can’tplay against Florida, it wasnotablethat Kelly saidthe staffdoes not think he needs TightRope surgery.The procedure has accelerated returns from high-ankle sprains, but it still indicates amultiweek recovery time.
Last year,LSU offensive lineman Garrett Dellinger underwent TightRope surgery after suffering ahigh-ankle sprain Oct. 26 against Texas A&M. Kelly suggested he might be able to come back, but Dellinger missed the last four games of the regular season before optingout of the Texas Bowl. Former Georgia tight endBrock Bowers returned in 26 days after havingthe surgery in 2023, and former Alabamaquarterback TuaTagovailoa came back in less than a month in 2018.
Sports worlddenounces recent spitting instances
BY TIM REYNOLDS AP sports writer
Luis SuárezofInter Miami further damaged his reputation. Jalen Carter of the Philadelphia Eagles cost himself the chance to play in aseason-opening game. And Brendan Bett of Floridagave South Florida a15-yard gift on its drive that decided its win over the Gators Their transgression: spitting. In thespanofseven daysfrom
Aug. 31 through Saturday,there were three high-profile spitting incidents in sports. They were immediately condemned, includingbythose close to theoffendingparties such as Florida coach Billy Napier who called such behavior “unacceptable.”
The reviled responses show there are limitstoallowable aggressions, eveninthe most heatedcompetitions.
to just demonstrate disdain for your opponent.” Suárez, who previously has been sanctioned in his career for biting opponents, spit on amemberofthe Seattle Sounders’staff after Inter Miami’s3-0 loss there in the Leagues Cup final. Carter spit —orspit back, depending on perspective —atDallas quarterback Dak Prescott before the first play from scrimmageinthe Jeff Duncan
“Thereare alot of written andunwritten rules about how
youinteractwithothers,”said Peter Valentin, the chair of the forensicscience department at theUniversityofNew Haven in Connecticut. “And in the sports world, you can have two opponentsvie for supremacy and they go at each other very,very aggressively.But it’sdone witha measure of respect “The ideaofspitting on your opponent communicates disrespect.And Iwould be shocked if that wasn’tthe intent of that act,
LSU needs Moore ready as soon as possible. In preseason practice, Kelly describedhis combinationblocksas “outstanding” andhighlighted his recognition of fronts. He said acenter like him “allows everything else to kind of fall into place” on the offensive line. Moore then received SECoffensive lineman of theweek after LSU’sseasonopening winagainst Clemson. But Kelly spent part of his news conference Monday expressing confidence in redshirt sophomore DJ Chester,who replaced Moore against Louisiana Tech. After starting all 13 games at center last season, Chester has moved around since Mooretransferred to LSU. Chester took snaps at tackle, guard and center during preseason practice.
See
ä See SPITTING, page 3C
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler throws the ball against the Arizona Cardinals at the CaesarsSuperdome on Sunday
STAFFPHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
DJ Chester
up at center in the first quarter of the game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday at TigerStadium.
MOORE, page 3C
STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP UL running back Steven Blanco runs withthe ball for atouchdown withhelp from wide receiver Landon Strother during the Cajuns 34-10 win over McNeese on Saturday.
8:30
8:30 p.m. Cincinnati at S.D./Ariz. at S.F. MLBN MEN’S SOCCER
Ravens running back Derrick Henry, front, fumbles the ball as he is hit by Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver,on the ground, during their game in Orchard Park, N.y., on Sunday.
AP PHOTO By JEFFREy T. BARNES
1:30 p.m. Francevs. Iceland FS2
6:30 p.m.
6p.m.Florida
6p.m.Texas A&M at SMU ESPN2
8:30 p.m.Stanford at Missouri ESPN WNBA
6:30 p.m.Minnesota at Indiana ESPN 9p.m.Los Angeles at Phoenix NBATV
Severaltop teamslosetheir openers
Last season’s No.1seeds areamong teams with 0-1records
BY ROBMAADDI Associated Press
TheNFL’s twoNo. 1seeds last season are off to 0-1 starts,and the Baltimore Ravens blew a 15-point, fourth-quarter lead.
Let the overreactionsbegin
The Detroit Lions were no contest for Jordan Love, Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday
They joined the Kansas City Chiefs, who opened with alossto the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil on Friday night.
The Ravens became thefourth 2024 division winner to losein Week 1when Josh Allenrallied the Buffalo Bills to a41-40 victory The Houston Texans were the other,fallingtothe Los Angeles Rams 14-9.
JaredGoffand Detroit’sdynamic offense sputteredinthe first game since offensive coordinatorBen Johnson left for Chicago. The Lions didn’t scorea touchdown until the final minute in a27-13 loss at Green Bay After winning afranchiserecord 15 games last season, the
Lions were eliminated in the divisional round by Washington. They lost Johnson and defensive coordinatorAaron Glenn, who went to the NewYork Jets. Expectations were still high for Detroit despite losing both assistants andcenter Frank Ragnow to retirement.With star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson coming back to boostthe defense, the Lions were focused on unfinished business. Alopsided loss in Green Bay doesn’tsignal theirtwo-year reignatopthe tough NFC North is over It’sone game. Of course, the Packersprovedthey’re areal contender.
“I thoughtwe’dbemuch cleaner thanwewere, and it wasn’t as clean,” Lionscoach DanCampbell said. “But there again, you’re talking about afew plays that were critical. Butlike Itoldthe team, theseare allso correctable.Everythingthat showed up is so correctable, and we will, we’ll hit it head on. Our players are accountableman; they’reready. And nobody takes it worse than they do, so that’sthe goodnews. We gotthe right dudes.”
TheChiefs, who also went 15-2 last season and were denied a three-peat by the Philadelphia Eagles, lost 27-21 to the Chargers.
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid’s Chiefsare staring atthe possibility of their first 0-2 start since 2014 with the Ea-
gles coming to Kansas City for a SuperBowl rematch.
Butit’sway too early to claim theChiefs’ runofdominance they’ve won nine straight AFC West titles —has ended. It may be near,but it’s nothereafter just onegame 3,500 miles away Until another team provesthey can defeat Mahomes in January, theChiefsare still theteamto beat in theAFC. Also, twoofthe threeteams Ravens andTexans— considered to be theirbiggest threats in the conference also lost.
Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry andthe Ravens looked unstoppable againstBuffalo for 31/2 quarters. Then Henry fumbled, opening the door for Allen to pull off astunning comeback capped by Matt Prater’s32-yard field goal as time expired. It’sahuge win for the Bills, who’ve losttothe Chiefs in the playoffs four times in five years They’rethe classofthe AFC East, but another division title isn’tthe goal.Buffalo won’tbesatisfied withanything less than atrip to theSuperBowl Same goes for Baltimore.
The Ravens have fallen short in theplayoffs sixtimes with Jackson
“Weall hate losing,” said Jackson, atwo-time NFL MVP.“Probably letitlingerfor anight then we have to forgetabout it andget readyfor theBrowns, adivision
rival.”
The loss to the Bills could have home-field advantage implications down the road, but Baltimore knows it’s just onegame. TheRavensstarted 0-2last seasonand ended up winning the AFCNorth Houston faced ateam that nearly knocked off Philadelphia in the playoffs last season. C.J. Stroud hada toughtimeagainst aformidable defense.Hewas sacked three times and threw an interception.
TheTexans, who’ve wonthe AFC South two straight seasons, overcame an 0-2 start in 2023. They’ll have adifficult task trying to avoidthat when the TampaBay Buccaneersvisit next Monday.
“I think it’sgood, it’searly, there’sabunch of upside Ithink we could possibly have,” Stroud said. “I always try to think positively and give ourselves alittle grace, but also there’sanurgency and there’ssome things we need to fix, so Iknow conversations will be hard. We’ll be hard on each other,but Ithink it’s agood thing. It’s what friction is. Ithink that’slove. So Iwant to see all my teammates do well. Ithink whenthere’s friction in that, Ithink sometimes is a good thingina positive way.”
TheTexans, Bills, Lions, Chiefs and the rest of the teams have 16 more games to figureitout.The Super Bowl wasn’twon or lost in Week 1.
GreenBay’s rundefense passes test in Week 1
BY STEVE MEGARGEE Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. ColbyWooden
hadheard the speculation that the Packers run defensemight struggle without Kenny Clark,who was traded in the deal that brought star pass rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay
All that talk even got back to the Packers defensivetackle’s father
“My dad called me on Thursday,” Wooden said. “(He said): ‘Do me afavor.Shut them up.’” Wooden andhis teammatesdid just that.
The Packers limited Detroit to 46 yards rushing on 22 carries in their season-opening27-13 victory over the Lions on Sunday.David Montgomery andJahmyr Gibbs, who teamed up to run for 2,187 yards and 28 touchdowns last season, were limited to 44 yards on 20 carries.
Montgomery had rushed for at least 121 yards in two of his past three visits to Lambeau Fieldand had 96 yards from scrimmage in the Lions’ victory at Green Bay last season. He ran for 25 yards on 11 carries and caught fourpasses for 18 yards Sunday Gibbs, atwo-timePro Bowl selection, had nine carries for 19 yards and 10 catches for 31 yards.
“I just did my job, went out there and stopped the run,” said Wooden, who had acareer-high six tackles as his playing time increased in Clark’sabsence. “I took it personal, honestly.Ifelt
like it was kind of disrespectful like, ‘Well, they’re going to runthe ball.’Imade it mymission, excuse me,wemadeitour missiontostop therun.” Green Bay benefited from the fact the Lions were breaking in three newstarters on theoffensive line and playing their first gamewith coordinator John Morton,who tookoverafter BenJohnson left to take the Chicago Bears’ head coaching position Even so, this represented quite the opening statement for Green Bay’s defense. TheLions scored an NFL-leading 33.2 points per game lastseason That defense won’thave much
time to get ready for itsnext test.
ThePackers arebackatLambeau Field on Thursday night to face the WashingtonCommanders, who rushedfor 220 yards on 32 carries in a21-6 victory over theNew York Giants.
Jayden Daniels ran for 68 yards while throwing for 233 yards in thatgame. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, arookie seventh-round draft pick, had82yardsand atouchdown on 10 carries.
“It’sgreat to start off aweek with awin, dominate,” Wooden said. “But we’ve got to keep it going. We’ve gotagood team coming in on Thursday.Weknow we’ve got to be ready to stop that run
Reid’ssister fatallyshot at NewJerseyapartment
JACKSON,N.J.— The sister of Minnesota Timberwolves player and formerLSU standoutNaz Reid was fatally shot at aNew Jersey apartment complex by her boyfriend, who wascharged withmurder, authorities said Monday Police went to the Paragon apartment complexinJackson around 11 a.m. Saturday after receiving reports of shots fired. They soon found Toraya Reid, 28, unresponsive near the complex’sexit, and she apparently had been shot multiple times, Ocean County prosecutorBradleyBillhimersaid. Officers also saw Shaquille Green, 29, of Jackson running downanearby road,and he wassoon taken into custody without incident.
Reid, 25, aNew Jersey native anda star scholasticplayerinhis homestate, is about to enter his seventh season with Minnesota and recently signed afive-year contract with the team
Chiefs may be without Worthy,Royalsvs. Eagles
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— The Kansas City Chiefs could be without Xavier Worthy androokie Jalen Royals because of injuriesina depleted wide receiver group when they face the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowlrematch on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium Worthy hurt his shoulder in the opening minutes of the Chiefs’ season-openingloss to the Chargers in Brazil, when he collided with tight end Travis Kelceona crossing route.
Royals, afourth-round pick, did not practice last weekand missed Friday night’sgame while dealing with aknee injury
Alcaraz replaces Sinner at No. 1after U.S. Open title NEW YORK Carlos Alcaraz officially returned to No. 1inthe ATP rankings for the first time in two yearsonMonday,replacing Jannik Sinner there after beating him in the U.S.Open men’s final, and Amanda Anisimova jumped five spots to acareer-best No. 4inthe WTAafter finishing as the runnerup to Aryna Sabalenka. Alcaraz moved up from No. 2 andswapped places with Sinner by virtue of a6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over him in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday Sabalenka was assured of remaining at No. 1bygetting to the quarterfinals in New York, then wound up collecting her second U.S. Open title in arow with a6-3, 7-6 (3) win Saturday over Anisimova, a24-year-old American.
SEC fines Mississippi St. $500K for field storming
and contain that quarterback.”
What’s working
The defense collected four sacks and nine tackles forloss against a Detroit team that scored an NFLleading 33.2 points pergame last year.The Lions didn’tget atouchdown untilthe finalminute of the game. …After struggling early in games against NFC North teams lastyear,the Packers grabbedan early 17-3 lead this timebyscoringoneachoftheir firstthree drives. …The Packers didn’tturn theball over andwere penalized just four times
What needshelp
The Packers rushed for 78 yards on 25 carries, an averageofjust 3.1 yards per attempt.
Stockup
Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper hada career-high 12 tackles. Defensive lineman Rashan Gary recorded 11/2 sacks. …Safety Evan Williams had an interception in thered zone. …Daniel Whelan averaged 54.7 yards on his three puntsand landed twooftheminside theDetroit 20-yard line.
Stockdown
After playing nearly 90% of Green Bay’soffensive snaps last season, Sean Rhyan found himself in more of arotation at right guard with 2024 first-roundpick Jordan Morgan. Rhyanstill was on the field abouttwo-thirds of thetime.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Mississippi State University has been fined $500,000 by the Southeastern Conference forits fans rushing the football field following ahome win over then-No. 12 Arizona State The Bulldogs knocked off the Sun Devils 24-20 on Saturday,and their students rushed the field afterward, carrying the goalposts with them out of Davis Wade Stadium as they left.The win was Mississippi State’sfirst over atop-15 nonconference opponent since 1991. The SEC altered its policy on field andcourt storming over the summer,imposing a$500,000 fine foreach instance.
Unrivaled
women’shoops league valued at $340M
Another group of big-name sports figures has invested in NapheesaCollierand Breanna Stewart’s3-on-3 women’sbasketball league, Unrivaled, as it aims to build on its promising inaugural season.
The league announced Monday that it is now valued at $340 million —amassive figure for the young league that wrappedupits first season in March, anda reflection of the increasing momentum and interest in women’s sports. Serena Williams’ venture capital firm Serena Ventures cameon as an investor,along withAtlanta Hawks star guard Trae Young, Franz andMoritz Wagnerofthe OrlandoMagic, University of Maryland president Darryll J. Pines and his wife, Sylvia, and prominent sports executive Sam Rapoport.
Alex Morgan’s TrybeVentures and Warner Bros. Discovery also builtontheir previous investments in the league.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATT LUDTKE
Lions running back David Montgomery, center,runs the ball against the Packersduringtheir game Sunday in Green Bay, Wis.
Berry’s impressive run grabs Kelly’s attention
BY REED DARCEY, KOKI RILEY and SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writers
The run plays LSU called Saturday in its 23-7 win over Louisiana Tech were good for only marginal gains, save for a couple of key exceptions.
One of them was a fourth-quarter carry by running back Harlem Berry The five-star freshman took an inside handoff behind a couple of blocks, spun through one tackle attempt, juked past another and raced toward the boundary for a 43-yard gain to give the offense one of the few highlight plays it produced in a lackluster home opener Did that run earn Berry a larger role in the LSU offense?
“He required a conversation,” coach Brian Kelly said on Monday With sacks excluded, LSU rushed 30 times for a respectable 154 yards against the Bulldogs. Take a closer look at those numbers, however, and it was an inefficient night on the ground
The Tigers gained more than half of those yards on two carries: the 43-yard run by Berry and a 48-yard first-quarter run by receiver Zavion Thomas The remaining 28 carries gained a total of only 63 yards. Only six of those runs picked up more than 5 yards, and just two gained more than 10. Berry finished with six carries for 56 yards, more than any other LSU tailback. Starter Caden Durham led in carries (13), but he turned those opportunities into only 30 yards.
“(Berry) did a great job,” Kelly said “He made a couple of guys miss, extended the play We knew
SPITTING
Continued from page 1C
first NFL game of the regular season Thursday night Bett spit at a South Florida player, and those 15 penalty yards helped the Bulls get a chip-shot field goal to win 18-16 on the final play of the game. Napier called Bett’s action “unacceptable” on Saturday night and didn’t back down from that stance when addressing it again Monday Napier said that Bett will reach out to the South Florida player to apologize, plus will issue a public apology Bett will face internal disciplinary action, but Napier did not say whether he will be suspended Saturday at No. 3 LSU.
he was talented, right? I mean, this is much more about catching up to the system that we want, protections out of the backfield, right reads. Those things. “But it required a conversation that this is a guy that we’ve got to keep an eye on.” In the Tigers’ win over Clemson,
Berry played only one snap per Pro Football Focus. He then logged 12 against Louisiana Tech.
Injury update
LSU senior center Braelin Moore and sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green will be listed as questionable to play heading into the Saturday
with forward
“He made a mistake and he compromised the team,” Napier said Monday “He made a selfish decision. He misrepresented our fans, our alumni, the university And when a young man comes into your office and that’s his immediate concern, how he didn’t represent this place the right way, I think that’s a good indication of his attitude towards it.” Around the NFL this week, the reactions to spitting were clear
“That’s just not professional,” Arizona offensive lineman Paris Johnson said.
matchup against Florida, Kelly said Monday Moore injured his left ankle on the opening snap against Louisiana Tech He walked off of the field under his own power but finished the night wearing street clothes and a walking boot. Kelly said Moore did not suffer a
“You can’t do that,” Green Bay defensive lineman Rashan Gary said.
“You don’t want to see anyone getting spit on,” Tennessee offensive lineman Lloyd Cushenberry said.
Suárez got a six-game suspension from future Leagues Cup matches and will miss the next three Major League Soccer matches for his team as well, which will hurt the playoff push for Lionel Messi and his squad Carter got kicked out of the Eagles-Cowboys game, with Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni saying Monday that any possible team discipline levied against him would remain private. Bett was ejected for what became the final seven plays of the Florida-South Florida game.
“It was a mistake that happened on my side,” Carter said. “Just won’t happen again.”
Replays later revealed that Prescott spit first, but only in the general direction of the Eagles defense and not onto an opposing player Carter, in response, spit on Prescott.
“I guess I needed to spit,”
high-ankle sprain and that he will be day-to-day
The transfer from Virginia Tech was the SEC offensive lineman of the week after LSU’s 17-10 win over Clemson in Week 1.
Kelly said Green suffered a right MCL sprain during the fourth quarter His night ended on crutches and with a brace on his knee.
Sources told The Advocate on Sunday that Green likely will miss a few weeks, but the ailment is not deemed serious enough for him to miss the rest of the season.
Kelly, however, did not rule out Green for this week’s game against Florida. Green caught LSU’s first touchdown pass of the season against Clemson.
“Those are injuries (MCL sprains) that you can come back from,” Kelly said, “and rather quickly.”
‘SEC Nation’ heads to LSU
The “SEC Nation” pregame show, the SEC Network’s version of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” returns to the LSU campus Saturday The show is set for 9 a.m. and will be televised from the LSU Quad. Now in its 12th year, the “SEC Nation” cast includes Paul Finebaum, former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, former New Orleans Saints player Roman Harper, host Laura Rutledge and Jordan Rodgers In addition, the “Marty & McGee” show will be televised from the quad before “SEC Nation” at 8 a.m., featuring ESPN’s Marty Smith and Ryan McGee
Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com. For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter
Prescott said. “I wasn’t going to spit on my linemen. I just spit ahead. I don’t wish for anybody to get out of the game. I’m sure he probably regrets that to some extent. I’m pretty sure he knows I didn’t try to spit on him or wasn’t even aiming to spit on him.” Players around the league could see how that sort of back and forth escalated quickly
“You’ve got to fight me at that point, spitting on another player,” Tennessee Titans tight end Chig Okonkwo said. “If you spit at his feet, I guess it’s just like talking. But spitting on another player like that is unacceptable.”
In the way spitting occurred in and after those three games this past week, it was simply considered degrading. And there are few things that seem to trigger stronger reactions in sports than when someone intentionally spits on another person.
“It’s just a new level of disrespect, not only for your opponent, but for the game itself,” Valentin said. “The unwritten rules are important. Spitting has never been part of the culture. I am certain of that.”
Continued from page 1C
(Perry) rips off a 40-yard run all the way to the last play where Steven (Blanco) breaks it for a touchdown.
“I thought our offensive line played with an attitude and a demeanor that, if you want to be really good running the football, you got to play with that type of mindset.” With that strength now established, the next chore for UL is a huge one in the No. 25-ranked Missouri Tigers, who are coming off an emotional 42-31 win over Kansas.
“It’s everything right now,” Desormeaux said of the Missouri offense, which is averaging 51.5 points and 577.5 yards a game. Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula has thrown for 617 yards on 79.1% passing with five touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s also gained 91 yards rushing.
“He’s made really good decisions,” Desormeaux said of Pribula. “He made some big plays last week in that Kansas game. It’s a tight game, and whenever they needed him, he came up with big plays. I think he can hurt you with his legs, but he runs the offense really well.”
Missouri’s top rushing threat is familiar to UL in former ULMonroe running back Ahmad Hardy (35-212, 2 TDs).
At receiver, Kevin Coleman leads the way with 16 catches for 174 yards and a score, and tight
“He’s made really good decisions. He made some big plays last week in that Kansas game. It’s a tight game, and whenever they needed him, he came up with big plays. I think he can hurt you with his legs, but he runs the offense really well.”
Pribula
end Brett Norfleet has 10 grabs for 85 yards and three touchdowns.
By contrast, UL has only one receiver with more than 25 yards through the first two games.
“They’re going to throw playactions in naked and stuff like that off of it,” Desormeaux said.
“They’re going to take shots down the field. You better have them covered because they got some wideouts that can really go
They’ve got really good tight end play I mean, this is a good football team, a really good team.”
There’s some familiarity scheme-wise with the Missouri defense coordinated by Corey Batoon, who was the South Alabama defensive coordinator from 2021-24 and coached at Arkansas State from 2009-11.
“It’s well designed,”
Desormeaux said of the defense.
“I think he does an awesome job, too, man. They mix up man and zone They get their safeties in the run fits.”
Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com
“For him to come in on the second play and be mentally ready to do it, I think that’s a really big thing,” Kelly said of Chester “Some guys mentally have a hard time not starting and not being in the game, and then when you put them in, it’s hard for them to be in that performance mindset, right? They’ve been sitting around. He’s unique in that way He’s mature. He can step in.”
Kelly thought Chester faced a tough test because Louisiana Tech played a three-down defensive front, which put a nose guard right in front of him.
“If he has to start, we’re very comfortable with him,” Kelly said. “I thought he did a nice job. Three down is hard because you get somebody on your nose right on top of you, and you’re snapping the ball in shotgun situations.
“To have a guy like him is invaluable, right? He didn’t take a ton of snaps the last couple of weeks at center We had him out at left tackle. He’s played guard. He’s so valuable, and he went in there and he did a heck of a job.”
Even though Florida was upset at home Saturday by South Florida, the Gators are still a dangerous team, especially if top defensive lineman Caleb Banks returns from a lower-leg injury Banks, who’s 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds, had a sack
and a forced fumble in Florida’s win over LSU last season. Perhaps Moore can recover in time for the SEC opener If not, LSU could hold him out against Southeastern Louisiana, then reassess before it plays at No. 17 Ole Miss. If Moore has to miss games, Kelly expressed confidence in Chester “I think this really says a lot more about what we know we have with Braelin Moore was on display against Clemson,” Kelly said, “and then what we saw this past weekend is that we have a No. 2 who can play as a No. 1, and that’s a really good asset.”
For more LSU sports
The LSU offensive line, from left, of Weston Davis, Josh Thompson, DJ Chester, Coen Echols
Louisiana Tech on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LINDSEy WASSON
Seattle Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas, bottom left, lies on the ground after being pushed during an altercation against Inter Miami, including
Luis Suárez and midfielder Sergio Busquets (5), after the Sounders won a Leagues Cup final soccer match Aug. 31 in Seattle.
MICHAEL DESORMEAUX, UL coach, on Missouri QB Beau
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU running back Harlem Berry is tackled by Louisiana Tech defensive back Kam Franklin in the second half between the Tigers and Bulldogs on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
Saints fear S Blackmon is done for season
BY LUKE JOHNSON, MATTHEW PARAS AND JEFF DUNCAN Staff writers
Safety Julian Blackmon suffered a shoulder injury that could end his season during the New Orleans Saints’ loss to the Arizona Cardinals, coach Kellen Moore said Monday.
“That will be a long one,” Moore said. “Potentially for the whole season, so that’s a tough one.”
According to an NFL media report, the concern is that Blackmon suffered a torn labrum.
Blackmon also injured his labrum last year while playing for the Indianapolis Colts, though he elected to play through it in 2024 and undergo surgery in January Moore was not able to say whether it was the same shoulder
It’s not clear when Blackmon suffered the injury Sunday He was on the field for each of the Saints’ 66 defensive snaps, recording seven tackles. Moore said the issue became apparent after Blackmon returned to his home after the game.
“That’s what adrenaline does to you during games, I guess,” Moore said. “Sometimes these things happen for these guys. Everyone’s sore after a football game. Sometimes it takes a little time to realize what’s sore and what’s an injury.”
New Orleans signed Blackmon to make up for the unexpected retirement of Tyrann Mathieu in August. He looked like an ideal fit for Brandon Staley‘s defense, recording five training camp interceptions. Moore declined to say who would fill Blackmon’s spot, but the Saints may turn to rookie safety Jonas Sanker, a 2025 third-round pick out of Virginia Sanker played only one defensive snap against the Cardinals, with his role focusing mainly on special teams, but he impressed during the preseason
with his physical play
New Orleans also could turn to Jordan Howden, who was inactive against Arizona after being limited in practice with an oblique injury Howden has appeared in 33 games with 11 starts since the Saints selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 draft.
Fuaga update
Offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga will be monitored throughout the week to determine whether he can play Sunday against the San Francisco
49ers, Moore said. Fuaga was pulled from Sunday’s 20-13 loss with a knee injury
Moore said “we’ll see” when asked whether Fuaga was OK, but he also said there were a handful of players who would require “maintenance” as the week progressed.
“Just during the game, it became a thing that just kept bothering him,”
Moore said. “Ultimately, we had to make the decision to slide Asim (Richards) in there and give him a chance and put us in a position there.”
The Saints inserted Richards into the lineup to start the fourth quarter Moore said Monday that the medical staff alerted him that Fuaga needed to be out.
Before Fuaga exited the game, the 2024 first-rounder had a rough performance. In his first start at right tackle, the position he played in college, Fuaga allowed four pressures and one sack, according to Pro Football Focus.
Two weeks ago, Fuaga suffered a knee injury during an Aug 21 practice, sat out the next day’s practice, missed the Aug. 23 preseason game against the Denver Broncos and returned for an Aug. 27 session.
Moore said then that the tackle’s knee injury was “nothing major.”
Highly improbable
Should Juwan Johnson have caught that late pass from Spencer Rattler on Sunday?
SCOREBOARD
Buf_Kincaid 15 pass from Allen (Prater kick), 11:19.
Bal_FG Loop 52, 3:38 Second Quarter
Bal_Henry 30 run (Loop kick), 13:35. Bal_Lam.Jackson 10 run (Loop kick), 9:47.
Buf_FG Prater 25, 2:50 Bal_FG Loop 49, :31
Buf_FG Prater 43, :00 Third Quarter
Bal_Flowers 23 pass from Lam.Jackson (Loop kick), 12:48
Buf_Cook 2 run (pass failed), 7:47. Bal_Hopkins 29 pass from Lam.Jackson (Loop kick), 1:09 Fourth Quarter
Buf_Allen 2 run (pass failed), 12:51
Bal_Henry 46 run (kick failed), 11:42
Buf_Coleman 10 pass from Allen (Prater kick), 3:56. Buf_Allen 1 run (pass failed), 1:58
Buf_FG Prater 32, :00 A_70,745. BalBuf First downs 19 29 Total Net Yards 432 497 Rushes-yards 29-238 31-108 Passing 194 389 Punt Returns 1-6 1-0 Kickoff Returns 6-167 7-193
Interceptions
Sacked-Yards
Fumbles-Lost
Penalties-Yards
DUNCAN
Continued from page 1C
on four runs. His 70.4 passer rating was the sixth lowest of all starting quarterbacks in Week 1 primarily because of his 58.7 completion percentage and 4.7-yard average gain per passing attempt. But Rattler was simply taking what the defense gave him. The Cardinals’ defensive game plan was designed to take away the Saints’ big-play opportunities in the deep passing game. Safeties Budda Baker and Jalen Thompson spent most of the day in deep center field. A year ago, Rattler might have forced things and made a game-changing mistake On Sunday, he took what the defense allowed and kept the ball out of harm’s way “It was a shell fest,” Rattler said. “They played very conserva-
tively on the back end, so we had to take what they gave us.” Likewise, Rattler was forced to operate in unfavorable circumstances. Five of the Saints’ 10 offensive possessions were undermined by penalties. The Saints trailed for all but four minutes of the final three quarters. You’re not going to win many games when you commit 13 penalties and miss a 37-yard field goal.
“He was spinning that thing,” veteran defensive end Cam Jordan said of Rattler. “We all saw the moxie. We all saw the poise he played with at training camp.” By no means was Rattler perfect. He missed some throws he’d like to have back. And as the on-field leader of the offense, he must take some responsibility for the pre-snap mayhem that accompanied some plays. And the red zone was again an issue. The Saints scored just one touchdown in their four trips inside the Ari-
(Matthews 4-4) at L.A. Angels (Hendricks 6-9), 8:38 p.m. St. Louis (Liberatore 7-11) at Seattle (Kirby 8-7), 8:40 p.m. Boston (May 7-11) at Athletics (Springs 1010), 9:05 p.m.
Some people think so.
Advanced analytics say it was highly improbable.
The completion probability on the attempted 18-yard pass attempt was 14.7%, according to the NFL’s NextGen Stats.
Had the veteran tight end come down with the ball, it would have tied 49ers tight end Jake Tonge’s game-winning 4-yard touchdown catch against the Seahawks for the most improbable completion of the weekend in the NFL.
Cardinals safety Budda Baker was credited with a pass breakup on the play, which came with nine seconds left on third and 10 Fellow Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson also appeared to get his right hand on the ball as Johnson corralled it at the goal line.
“I knew I had the ball in my hands, and when I hit the ground, it wasn’t there anymore,” Johnson said afterward. “… At the end of the day I didn’t make the play.”
Completion probability is an advanced metric created by Next Gen Stats in 2018 to contextualize passing and receiving performances on a per play basis. The advanced statistic factors in variables such as separation, depth and distance to the sideline and occlusion-aware separation, designating throws as more difficult when the defender is directly in the ball’s path and actively contesting the catch point.
QB PURDY QUESTIONABLE TO FACE SAINTS
The San Francisco 49ers may not have their usual starting quarterback available when they face the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that quarterback Brock Purdy has left shoulder and toe injuries that make his status for next weekend’s game uncertain. “Not sure, has to see how it heals and how the week goes on it,” Shanahan said, according to Bay Area News Group’s Cam Inman.
If Purdy can’t go, the 49ers would turn to Mac Jones — the former New England Patriots quarterback who was shut out by the Saints in 2023. Jones, the 15th overall pick in 2021, joined the 49ers this offseason after spending last year in Jacksonville. He is 20-29 all-time as a starter, going 2-5 last year Purdy isn’t the only 49ers player banged up. Shanahan announced tight end George Kittle is out multiple weeks with a hamstring injury and wide receiver Jauan Jennings will undergo a CT scan for his shoulder injury. Matthew Paras
zona 20. But overall, Rattler delivered a performance good enough to inspire confidence from his teammates and coaches.
“I thought Spencer did some good stuff and put us in position there (at the end of the game),” Saints coach Kellen Moore said.
“Obviously, there are highs and lows you go through in a game, but I loved the way that he approached it, the mindset he played with. He gave us a chance.” Things will get tougher from here. Opponents now have game film on Rattler and Moore’s offense. The element of surprise will diminish with each game. Eventually, Rattler will be asked to be more of a playmaker and less of a game manager It’s the litmus test of every NFL quarterback, and it awaits Rattler at some point this season. But against the Cardinals, his play was a silver lining. If he plays with that kind of efficiency, decisiveness and smarts the rest of the season, quarterback will be the least of the Saints’ concerns. Moore and the offensive staff will take it every time.
Email Jeff Duncan at jduncan@ theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, center, braces for a tackle by New Orleans Saints safety Julian Blackmon, right, during the first half at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday. Notebook
Fine featheryfriends
The hummingbirds arehere. Learn aboutthese fascinating tiny travelersat upcoming events
BY COLETTEDEAN
Contributing writer
If you’re seeing hummingbirds buzzing the blooms in your yard, it’saclear sign that it’sSeptember in Louisiana.
It’sestimated that onehummingbird will visit feeders every 10 to 15 minutespreparing for migration
Patterson
Thelast two weeksofthis monthare peak fall migration for the ruby-throated hummingbird as they move throughthe state on theway to their wintering grounds in Mexicoand Central America. The rubythroated hummingbird is the only breeding hummingbird in the eastern United States.
Jane Patterson, president and education chair of theBaton Rouge AudubonSociety,said,“Fall is where you will see thegreatest number of hummingbirds, because the birdsthat flew here in the spring had their babies in the summer andthey are all migrating back,sothe population has grown exponentially.”
Hummingbirds weighabout 2grams (less than anickel) and can travel about600 miles in one journey
Your backyard hummingbird feeder is anectar rest stop for fill-ups for these tiny crosscountry travelers.
To help youlearn more about these flyingjewels, here are two events scheduled in the area
In Hammond
The Hummingbird Celebration, sponsored by theBaton Rouge Audubon Society,will take place from 8a.m. to1p.m Saturday,Sept. 20, at LSUAgCenter Hammond Research Station, 21549 Old Covington Highway
The HammondResearch Stationfocuses on plants for the home garden and grows many species of plants that aregreat
ä See BIRDS, page 6C
Summer is winding down,and autumn is on the way. Here’s what to do in thegarden.
Afemale ruby-throated hummer feedsona Mexican sunflower The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only breeding hummingbird in the easternUnited States.
PROVIDED
Communityinvited to upcoming prayer breakfast
Staff report
“Re-Imagine, Renew,Rise: Enhancing the Interfaith Federation and Its Mission” will be the theme of the annual CommUNITY Prayer Breakfast 7a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Boudreaux’s, 2647 GovernmentSt., Baton Rouge. The Interfaith Federation of Greater Baton Rouge will host the event.
Baton Rougefaith leader and Episcopal Archdeaconof the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana Charles N. DeGravelles will bethe guest speaker DeGravelles, afounder of theEpiscopal ministry at Louisiana State Penitentiary,now the Chapelofthe Transfiguration, hasworked for more than 30 years with incarcer-
ated andformerlyincarcerated menand women, includingthree yearsas aspiritual adviser for a deathrow inmate. He has volunteered with theInterfaith Federation, collaborating on numerous community presentations on peace and justice. He is awriter, musician and photographer who also works with theEpiscopalSchoolofBaton Rouge, where he often teaches service learning andcommunityimpact. At the breakfast, DeGravelles will discuss how each person can make an impact on unity, justice andpeace, the missionofthe InterfaithFederation sinceits founding 39 years ago. He leads
The kids have gone back to school, football season is upon us and pumpkin spice-flavored products are back. That can mean only one thing: Fall will be here soon —onSept. 22, to be exact. Our gardens are beginning to wither in the heat, signaling the coming transition from summer to fall. Although it’sstill hot outside, you can go ahead and start preparing your garden forthe change in seasons. Here’sachecklist of things you can do now to get ready for the fall: n Remove vegetables that have stopped producing and start fall crop seeds. The intense heat of August can shut down tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and other vegetables. If you have plants that are no longer bearing fruit, feel free to pull them. But you don’thave to be in arush to discard plants that are still doing well. In fact, some warm-season crops, including okra and eggplants, can remain productive until our first freeze. In the meantime, get started on your fall vegetable garden. Youcan start seeds forawide variety of crops, from broccoli to collard greens to potatoes. Check out the LSU AgCenter’s free Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide at www.LSUAgCenter.com/VeggieGuide for recommended varieties and planting dates. n Spruce up beds with shoulder crops. Remove any seasonal bedding plants that are looking tired. While it’stoo early to replace them with cool-season favorites like violas, you can refresh your garden with shoulder crops —plants that bridge that gap between one season and the next. Look for heat-tolerant plants that can last into the first part of fall. For sunny locations, crotons, marigolds and zinnias make excellent choices —and even offer asplash of autumnal color n Prune roses by the first weekofSeptember Everblooming roses like hybrid tea, grandiflora and shrub roses benefit from ahaircut this timeofyear.Roses tend to look leggy and overgrown in late summer.Pruning also will help stimulate the fall bloom
ä See BREAKFAST, page 6C
PHOTO By DENNIS DEMCHECK
PHOTO By HEATHER KIRK-BALLARD/ LSU AGCENTER
DeGravelles
Collegeonthe horizonfor children
Dear Heloise: Whenmychildren went offtocollege, Isent them off with afishing tackle box that was filledwith these items: athermometer,Tylenol,Advil, NyQuil, bandages, Neosporin, rubbing alcohol, peroxide,and atimer with amagnetic back (to remind them that they had clothes in the washing machine or the dryer)
Asewing kitwas also apartof the pack. Q-tips and cotton balls were included as well. My kids are now 36 and 40. My sonstill has his tackle box and refills it when needed. Afriend of mine would give her kids gift cards forUber or other ride-shares. Thanks for the greatideas. —Cindy Wolfe, via email Containerorganization
Dear Heloise: Searching for con-
tainer lids is frustrating, so Ihave two drawers forfoodstorage containers. Onedrawer is for the round containers and lids, and theother is for the square containers and lids. Lids areseparatedfrom thecontainers and placed on their edges in aplastic basket in the drawer
how to read and sound out words that Ididn’tknow.Iwas 4years old back then, and Iam34years old now and teaching my daughter toread from your column. —Diana M., in Kerrville,Texas Disposingofmedications
To speed up the search, thecolor of thelid is written with marker on the bottom of theclear containers: “BLU,” “GRN” and“RED.” —Cody, in NorthDakota
LearntoreadwithHeloise
al. This is so important, especially for theprevention of dangerous exposure through the local drinking water forour youth. Check your area (search online or call city hall) and follow through. Never flush chemicals down thetoilet or drain! Thanks! —N.H.,An Old Nurse
Hints from Heloise
Dear Heloise: Just anote to let you know that my dad andIread your column every day while Iwas growing up. It’s where Ilearned
Dear Heloise: Alwaysdiscard of unused medicationsproperly to avoid contamination of the ground and waterways! In our city in Alabama, there are many pharmacies that have apublic disposal container,and thepolice departmentalso has one. The discarded medications are covered with amixture of clumping, hardening material that is then handled securely for dispos-
BIRDS
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for hummingbirds. Many will be in full bloom this month, right on time for the birds passing through. Tangipahoa Parish Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions Other highlights of the celebration will include Erik Johnson, from LSU’s ornithology department, who will be hummingbird banding and enabling a close-up look at ahummingbird. Also, Wild Birds Unlimited BatonRouge and Backyard Birds and Gardens in Covington will share more information about hummingbirds and backyard feeders. Learn about the natural history of the ruby-throated hummingbird, as well as about other hummingbirds that may visit in winter in
SEASONS
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cycle and encourage better airflow,which helps prevent diseases.
Start by removing dead and damaged canes entirely.Then, trim shoots that are sticking out far beyond the plant. Finally,prune up to one-third of the height of the plant, always cutting right above anode. Don’tprune once-blooming varieties like old garden roses and climbing roses right now.These roses set blooms on old wood, so you’ll cut off next year’s flowers if you prune now n Pull summer weeds before they drop seeds Warm-season weeds such as chamberbitter,Virginia buttonweed, goosegrass, mulberry weed, spurge and barnyardgrass are nearing maturity —which means they have developed lots of seeds that you don’twant falling into your lawn or
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Louisiana,while watching them in action in thegarden andatthe feeder observation stations. In BatonRouge
Masternaturalist and photographer Dennis Demcheck will present “The Daily Lives of Louisiana Hummingbirds —and theGardens that Attract Them”atthe Discover Nature program at LSU Hilltop Arboretum,11855 Highland Road, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday,Sept. 23. Demcheck will share an up-close look andinsights into the hummingbird’s daily behaviors, including feeding, courtship,nesting and migrations. This highlyvisual talk will also highlight the nativeplants that provide food, shelter and year-roundappealto hummingbirds, so youcan create agarden that truly supports these dazzling pollinators.
landscapebeds. To curb the soil seed bank —and next year’sweedpopulation pullthese weeds before the plantsdrop them. Throw theweedsaway.Don’tleave them on theground or add them to your compost pile. Spraying mature weeds with herbicides mightkill the plants —but theirseeds will still beleft behindand possiblyremain viable. That’swhy hand-pulling is your best bet atthispointin theyear
n Tackle vines. Vinescan grow vigorously in the heat of summer.If youhaven’tstayed on top of controllingthem, tryto catch up.It’stemptingto wait for cooler temperatures for this tediouschore, but don’tput it off too long. Vineswill lose their leaves in late fall and winter,making them easiertooverlook. Annual vines like morning glory often can be pulled by hand. Perennial, woodyvines likeVirginia creeper can bepulled if small; large, established
Pattersonsaid she hopes many will take advantage of the opportunities available this monthtolearn about hummingbirds in Louisiana. The Baton Rouge Audubon Society website, www braudubon.org has alink dedicated to feeding hummingbirds and another link to an online presentation.
“I’m doing eight presentationsthis month between New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Ponchatoula, so everybody should be able tolearn alittle something about hummingbirds. If not,it’s your own fault,” she said, laughing.
This column is provided by the Louisiana Master NaturalistsofGreater Baton Rouge,which seeks to advance awareness, understanding and stewardship of the natural environment.For more information email infor@ lmngbr.org.
vines should be cut and treated with aherbicide containing triclopyr.With either type of vine, don’t forget to removeany top growthcovering nearby plantsorstructures to reduce thenumber of seeds that get dropped into the landscape.
n Replenishmulch. Mulch plays acrucial role in suppressing weed growth, retaining moisture and moderating temperatures around tree and plant roots. But it breaks down over time, so yours may have thinned out over the summer.Now is agood time to put down some fresh mulch. It’ll enhance theaesthetics of your landscape and ensure it is ready for cold weather Aim for a2-to4-inch layer of mulch and take care when applying it around trees. Don’tpile thematerial into avolcanolike shape that touches the trunk, which can interfere with airflow and cause tree healthproblems.
Aspecial code
Dear Heloise: Regarding the frustration that Susan H. had with determiningwhether her clothing/shoes wereblue or black, I used to havethe sameproblem Iworked in retail for44years, and awonderful vendor told me that the “universal” color code for black is always 01 or 001. Every label should have acolor code, and if it’s01or001, it means
that the color is black. Hope this helps! —Gail, in Springfield,Ohio Ready, set, rinse
Dear Heloise: Ijust read your short response concerning whether or not to rinse after brushing one’s teeth. My dentist does say not to rinse forthe samefluoride reason, but Ienjoy rinsing. My own solution, which has not yet been sanctioned by anyone, is to rinse with water after brushing to get the taste out. Then I rinse with afluoride mouth wash that tastes good and theoretically replaces the fluoride Ijust rinsed out. —Larry G., M.D.(But Not aDentist), in HuntingtonBeach, California Send ahinttoheloise@heloise com.
Brother’snew wife upspressure
Dear Harriette: My younger brother got married last year.This is his first marriage, and he’sinhis 50s. In some ways, Ithink gettingmarried later can be a bit easier: Youknow what you want,you know your boundaries and you are likely moreestablished (professionally and financially).Ithink in some ways that rang true for my brother,but Ithink after they made thingsofficial, his wife has shown him different sides of herself. She moved into my brother’slongtime home when they got married and is now requesting that he purchase something new withmore space— despitehaving two spare bedroomsintheir current home. She works full-time but does not want tocontribute to anybills. My brother seemssomber He’ll talk to me about the pressure sometimes, but he tries his best not to express anger or resentment. He’dbeen planning for early retirement but is now reworking his plans to stay in the workforce abit longer.How can Isupport my brother as he tries to handle this new pressure
By The Associated Press
gracefully? —Sister-in-Law
Dear Sister-in-Law: While marriage does require compromise, not every requirement or request has to be honored. It’s too bad that your brother and his wife didn’ttalk about these things beforehand and map out aplan for the future, especially something as important as where they wanttolive. Obviously,you cannot control what he does, but you might recommend to him that the twoofthem sit downand review their goals forthe future based on available resources, needs and desires. It seems reasonable that if she wants them to buy abigger house, she should be willing to contribute. This is their life, though, and they must determine responsibilities and choices.
Dear Harriette: Youadvised “Working Hard,” the man whowas in a“highdemand environment” to tell his girlfriend that his job required him to give 100%. That leaves 0% for others —oreven himself That may be OK if it is time-boxed (for example, if the boss says, “wehave anew client and are hiring
TODAYINHISTORY
North America.”
Today is Tuesday, Sept.9,the 252nd day of 2025. There are 113 days left in the year
Todayinhistory: On Sept.9,1971, prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, taking 42 staff members hostage and demanding improvements to inmate treatment and living conditions.
Also on this date: In 1776, thesecond Continental Congress formally adopted the name “United States of America,” replacing the “United Colonies of
In 1850, California was admitted as the 31st U.S. state.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction, ameasure primarily concerned with protecting voting rights. It also established aCivil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice.
In 2022, King Charles III gave his first speech to Britain as its new monarch, vowing to carry on the “lifelong service” of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who diedaday earlier
ateam member to take the extra work”), and he has learned from this how to better manage his capacity and how to meet client expectations. But if he cannot figure out how to get his lifeback into somebalance —e.g. hire apartner, set clearer expectations with new clients, learn to say no or negotiate vs. automatically saying yes to a client and therefore no to his girlfriend —heshould not be pretending to be in arelationship and should let her go on with her life until he is established and ready to be present in a relationship. —Response to ‘Working Hard’ DearResponse to ‘Working Hard’: Goodpoint. My suggestion of supporting him during this critical moment was based on ashort-term vision, not forever.There are many professions that require total immersion for alimited period of time. If apartner is willing to wait that out and be there for the hard worker,life can be sweet afterward. Youare right: This type of total immersion cannot last forever,atleast not for a relationship to survive. Sendquestions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com.
Today’sbirthdays: Singer Dee Dee
Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy
PROVIDED PHOTO By DENNISDEMCHECK
The last twoweeks of Septemberare peak fall migration for ruby-throated hummingbirds like this male.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Expand your reach by communicating with experts and broadening your scope and longterm plans. When one door closes, don't hesitate to open another and move forward with confidence.
LIBRA (sept. 23-Oct. 23) Focus on what's meaningful and use your energy innovatively. Your attention to detail will be the difference between success and failure. Know your audience and tailor your message to them.
scORPIO (Oct. 24-nov. 22) Discipline will be your saving grace. Consider what's vital to achieving your goals and act accordingly. Knowing what you can do and confidently displaying your skills will attract positive feedback.
sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) A lifestyle change will give you a chance to rediscover what you want out of life Let your emotions guide you and your physical ability carry you to your destination.
cAPRIcORn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Think before making a move. Refuse to let outside influences push you in the wrong direction. Opportunity is within reach, but it's up to you to take advantage of what's available.
AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Review your financial situation and implement a plan that will help your money grow. Put more time and effort into personal or professional contracts and improving your relationships.
PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Overspending to make an impression or paying for
someone else's mistake will lead to a loss. Look for opportunities that expand your mind, interests and chances to advance.
ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Use your imagination, but keep your cash in a safe place. You're likely to buy into something overpriced or unnecessary. Your time, money and effort will flourish if directed toward your health.
tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Home is your refuge, so don't allow anyone to annoy or distract you Establish who you want to spend time with and what you want to achieve, and you'll gain insight into how to make it happen.
GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Fix your surroundings to suit your needs Reach out to people you can trust for input, expertise and hands-on assistance. Implement a schedule adjustment.
cAncER (June 21-July 22) Don't sign up for something that will exceed your budget tax your energy or waste your time. Protect yourself from scammers and people making false claims or offers that sound too good to be true.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep the information flowing and your finger on the pulse. Knowing how to play fair and smart will help you navigate your way to positive change and connections.
Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.
tODAy's cLuE: I EQuALs F
CeLebrItY CIpher
For better or For WorSe
And erneSt
SALLY Forth
beetLe bAILeY
Mother GooSe And GrIMM
SherMAn’S LAGoon
bIG nAte
Sudoku
InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer
nea CroSSwordS La TimeS CroSSword
THewiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS CurTiS
Bridge
By PHILLIP ALDER
Edward R. Murrow is acentral character in the WorldWar II book “Citizens of London” by Lynne Olson (Random House).Murrowsaid, “The speed of communicationsiswondrous to behold. It is also truethat speed can multiply the distributionofinformationthatweknow to be untrue.”
At the bridge table, since cards are hidden, distribution information can be uncertain. Playersmusttry to allow forasmany as possible. Thisdeal is an example. Southwas in four hearts. How didheplayafter West surprisingly led the spade three and East dropped the king under dummy’s ace? North and Southwere using two-overone game-forcing, so three hearts was forcing. South signed off in four hearts because he hadaminimum opening bid. At trick two, declarer ledaheart to his ace. When West dropped the 10, South wondered if this wasa singleton or from adoubleton queen-10or10-nine. Rather than decide immediately, declarer led hisdiamondqueen. West won with her ace and played another spade. East took thetrickwith his queen and returned a diamond. Now South had an almostsurething. He carefully played ahearttohis king. Here, the queen dropped, so he drew the lasttrumpandclaimedanovertrick.But
if West had discarded, South wouldhave played on clubs,discarding spades and holding East to one trump trick.
Note that if South had finessed his heart jack at trick five, he would have failed,becauseWestwouldhavewonthe trick and led aspade, Eastoverruffing dummy’sheart eight withhis nine.
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 EnActs: ih-NAKTS: Makes into law.
Average mark18words
Timelimit 30 minutes
Can you find 25 or morewords in ENACTS?
yEstERDAy’s WORD —APPROVAL
wuzzles
loCKhorNs
Honor the Lord andhis word and pass it on to your children and grandchildren. G.E. Dean
marmaduKe
Bizarro
hagar the horriBle
Pearls Before swiNe
garfield
B.C.
PiCKles
hidato
mallard fillmore
BRIEFS
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Wall Street flirts with another record
NEW YORK Stocks nudged higher ahead of a week with several data reports that could dictate by how much or even whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting in a week.
The S&P 500 added 0.2% and finished just below its record set last week The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5% to a record.
AppLovin and Robinhood Markets helped lead the market after learning they will join the S&P 500 index later this month Trading across Wall Street was relatively quiet ahead of updates coming later this week on the job market and inflation.
China’s export growth slows in August
BEIJING China’s exports grew last month but at a slower pace than in recent months, the country’s customs agency said Monday.
Exports reached $321.8 billion in August, a 4.4% increase compared with the same month last year That was down from a 7.2% jump in July Meanwhile, imports totaled $219.5 billion, a 1.8% rise.
China’s large trade surplus has become a contentious issue with major trading partners, including the U.S. and the European Union. Low-priced Chinese imports are a boon for consumers but can lead to job cuts in manufacturing. In the first eight months of the year, China exported $785.3 billion more in goods than it imported from other countries, according to the monthly customs data.
President Donald Trump has imposed 30% in additional tariffs on imports from China since taking office early this year He backed down from even higher tariffs after China retaliated with import taxes of its own. The two countries are in talks to try to reach a trade agreement.
U.S. firm, Pakistan agree to $500M deal
ISLAMABAD A U.S. metals company signed a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan on Monday Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organization — which is the country’s largest miner of critical minerals — signed a memorandum of understanding with Missouri-based U.S. Strategic Metals for collaboration plans that include setting up a polymetallic refinery in Pakistan. The deal comes after Washington and Islamabad last month reached a trade agreement that Pakistan hoped would attract American investment in its minerals and oil reserves.
U.S. Strategic Metals is focused on producing and recycling critical minerals, which the U.S. Department of Energy has defined as essential in a variety of technologies related to advanced manufacturing and energy production.
A second agreement was signed between the National Logistics Corp of Pakistan and Mota-Engil Group, a Portuguese engineering and construction company
Judge reviews $1.5B Anthropic proposal
SAN FRANCISCO A federal judge has started reviewing a class-action settlement between AI company Anthropic and book authors.
The authors claimed Anthropic violated copyright law by pirating copies of their books to train its chatbot. The company has agreed to pay $1.5 billion, which would award about $3,000 for each of the estimated 500,000 books covered.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup has raised questions about the agreement and asked representatives to appear in court Monday Alsup previously ruled that training AI on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal, but Anthropic wrongfully acquired them
Trump can ax FTC member, for now
Chief justice overturns lower court orders
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press
WASHINGTON Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
Trump first moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but she sued and lower courts ordered her reinstated because the law allows commissioners to be removed only for problems like misconduct or neglect of duty
Roberts halted those decisions in a brief order, responding to an appeal from the Trump administration on the court’s emergency docket.
The Justice Department has argued that the FTC and other executive branch agencies are under Trump’s control and the Republican president is free to remove commissioners without cause.
Slaughter’s lawsuit over her firing will keep playing out, as Roberts asked her lawyers to respond to the Trump administration’s arguments by next week.
The court has previously allowed the firings of several other board members of independent agencies.
It has suggested, however that his power to fire has limitations at the Federal Reserve, a prospect that could soon be tested with the case of Fed Gov Lisa Cook.
Monday’s order is the latest sign that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has effectively abandoned a 90-year-old high court precedent that protected some federal agencies from arbitrary presidential action.
In the 1935 decision known as Humphrey’s Executor, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.
The decision ushered in an era
of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination, the airwaves and much else. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue the modern administrative state gets the Constitution all wrong because such agencies should answer to the president.
The agency at the center of the case was also the FTC, a point cited by lower-court judges in the lawsuit filed by Slaughter. She has ping-ponged in and out of the job as the case worked its way through the courts.
The FTC is a regulator created by Congress that enforces consumer protection measures and antitrust legislation.
BY ALEX VEIGA AP business writer
LOS ANGELES — Skyrocketing housing values and a shortage of homes on the market gave homeowners the upper hand for years when it came time to sell. That’s no longer a given. Across the country, it’s getting tougher for sellers to drive a hard bargain. A dearth of home shoppers who can afford to buy and uncertainty about the outlook for the economy, jobs and mortgage rates is putting pressure on sellers to give ground at the negotiating table.
In some markets, mainly in the South and West, homeowners who are eager to sell are more likely to give buyers a better deal. This could include a lower price, up-front money to nudge down the buyer’s mortgage rate, and funds for closing costs and any repairs or improvements that may pop up after the home inspection.
The reasons: Would-be buyers balk at what they view as unreasonable asking prices, while at the same time, new construction is giving buyers more options and putting pressure on sellers to make their homes more appealing
As a result, while the national median home listing price rose slightly in July, some metro areas saw a decline, signaling a reversal in the power dynamic between buyers and sellers. It’s rare to see the type of eye-popping bidding wars that exploded home values by roughly 50% nationally earlier this decade. Low-ball offers are more common.
Despite this hopeful trend, the housing market remains mired in a slump. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes are running about 1.3% below where they were through the first seven months of last year, when they sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.
The national median home listing price rose slightly in July from a year earlier to $439,450, according to Realtor.com The real estate listing company found the most a homebuyer who earns the median U.S. household income can afford to spend on a home is $298,000. The analysis assumes a 20% down payment and a 30-year mortgage at a fixed rate of 6.74% By those criteria, 7 out of 10 home shoppers are priced out of the market.
The housing market has been in a rut since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The number of homes available for sale sank while prices kept ris-
Rules reinforcement proof of policy, she says
BY JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
LONDON U.S. Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday she doesn’t think the detention of hundreds of South Koreans in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia will deter investment in the United States because such tough actions mean there is no uncertainty about the Trump administration’s policies. The detention of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Korean, in the Thursday raid has caused confusion, shock and a sense of betrayal among many in the U.S.allied nation.
“This is a great opportunity for us to make sure that all companies are reassured that when you come to the United States, you’ll know what the rules of the game are,”
ing. Nationally, more homes are going on sale and remaining unsold longer because buyers have been unwilling or unable to make a deal. Active listings — a tally that encompasses all homes on the market except those pending a finalized sale — increased in July for the 21st month in a row, climbing nearly 25% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.
The inventory of homes for sale across the U.S has increased gradually as the market has slowed and is now at a level where supply and demand are more balanced. But in states like Texas and Florida, the number of homes on the market has climbed sharply, partly because those states are hotbeds of new home construction.
Home shoppers may now have more leverage relative to sellers in the South and West, where home inventory has risen in the single digits, compared to pre-pandemic levels. Conditions are tougher in markets in the Midwest and Northeast, where the supply of homes remains 40% and 50% below prepandemic levels, respectively, according to Realtor.com.
After roughly two months on the market and three open houses, Doug McCormick’s home has yet to receive a single offer.
Noem said at a meeting in London of ministers from the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing partnership focused on border security.
“We’re encouraging all companies who want to come to the United States and help our economy and employ people, that we encourage them to employ U.S. citizens and to bring people to our country that want to follow our laws and work here the right way,” she said.
The detained Koreans would be deported after most were detained for ignoring removal orders, while “a few” had engaged in other criminal activity and will “face the consequences,” Noem said.
Newly appointed U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood welcomed Noem and ministers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand to the 18th-century headquarters of the Honourable Artillery Company for talks on countering unauthorized migration, child sexual abuse and the spread of opioids. Mahmood, who was given the
The retired business owner and his wife initially listed the 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath house located in Evergreen, a mountain community about 30 miles west of Denver, for $1.3 million They lowered their asking price to about $1.28 million. That, too, failed to bring in a buyer McCormick, 80, says he’s hoping mortgage rates ease a bit and bring out more buyers. But he’s also considering just renting the property
“That’s something that’s kind of in the back of my mind,” he said. “I keep reminding myself you only need one buyer.”
McCormick’s situation is not unique. As demand has slowed, more sellers have resorted to lowering their initial asking price — often multiple times — to no avail.
“Even though we are seeing a substantial amount of price reductions, sometimes it’s not enough to move the home, it’s still sitting,” said Annie Foushee, an agent with Redfin in Denver
The median home listing price in Austin fell 4.9% in July from a year earlier, while in Miami it dropped 4.7%. Among other metro areas that had sharp drops in their listing price were: Chicago (4.4%), Los Angeles (4.2%) and Denver (4%).
The far-flung countries are close allies with some common problems but also widely differ in their approaches to migration. The Trump administration’s program of street raids, mass detentions and largescale deportations of unauthorized migrants has drawn domestic and international criticism and a host of legal challenges.
Noem said there had not been disagreements among the ministers in talks focused on sharing information on criminal gangs, using technology to disrupt their networks and speeding extradition arrangements.
interior minister job in a shakeup of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Cabinet on Friday, said the ministers would “agree on new measures to protect our borders with our Five Eyes partners, hitting peoplesmugglers hard.”
“I don’t think that the discussion today has covered politics at all,” she said “It is what resources do we have that we can share so we can each protect our countries better?”
Noem said that “when we put tough measures in place, the more that we can talk about that and share that is an inspiration to other countries to do the same.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID ZALUBOWSKI
Doug McCormick’s home in Evergreen, Colo., has been for sale for almost two months.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Britain’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, left, greets U.S Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday in London.
