The Acadiana Advocate 09-20-2025 by The Advocate

NorthLafayette to getnew K-8school

J.W. FaulkElementary wasbuilt in 1958. School will merge students from Faulk Elementary,Baranco Elementary andPaul Breaux Middle

BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer

The Lafayette Parish School Board voted unanimously to build anew schoolinnorth Lafayette that will serve kindergarten through eighth grade students.

The board voted at its Thursday meeting to work with an underwriter for up to $50 million in bonds. That money will be used to build anew facility on the J.W.FaulkElementary property

“(This)was along time coming,” said board member AmyTrahan. “I have had such support from members within my district. I’ve had so many calls for this new school. People are ﬁred up for this.”

Third-grade teacher Taylor Wallace works withstudents at Baranco Elementary, afacility that wasbuilt in 1926.

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff

It’s $3,500 for the Senate and $1,500 forthe House. All other candidates forthose races —for example,unafﬁliated “no party” candidates,Green Party members and Libertarians —are required to qualifythrough the state’slittle-used nominating petition process. To qualifybynominating petition,acandidate

La.teachers investigated forKirkposts

Social media comments about killing of activist draw scrutiny

BY PATRICK WALL and ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writers

SeveralLouisiana teachers have come under ﬁre forsocial media posts related to theassassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with some facing district investigationsand intense online criticism.

Four educators in Ascension Parish were placed on leave this week while district officials investigated their online posts, ateachers union representative confirmed. In Caddo Parish, a School Board member put out acall for evidence of district employees celebrating Kirk’skilling, while someonline commenters demanded that a local teacher be fired forher remarks on social

ä See SCHOOL, page 4A

The school will merge students from J.W.Faulk Elementary,Dr. Raphael BarancoElementary and Paul Breaux Middle schools after its completion. Baranco was built in 1926; Faulkand Paul Breaux were built in 1958. The need for anew building comes as thoseaging facilitiesneed more and more capital funding to completerepairs.Current PaulBreaux

ä See TEACHERS, page 4A

Corpsagain planssilltohaltsaltwater in MississippiRiver

Officialsmonitor flow rate amid drought

BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

said Friday that it will build an underwater sill to keep saltwater from moving up theMississippiRiver,the fourth-straight year in whichthe structure has been needed to protect upriver water systems

The barrier will be constructed near Myrtle Grove in Plaquemines Parish. Due to adeepening drought, the Mississippi’sﬂow rate has fallen and that is allowing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to travel north.

The Corpshas built the sill every yearsince 2022. Prior to that year,the agency had only built asill in the river three times: in 1988, 1999 and 2022. Under normalconditions, the steady flow of fresh water down theriver keeps saltwaterinthe Gulf.But in times of extreme low water,the rate

at which thewater flows downriver slows, andsaltwater,whichisdenser than fresh water,will creep upriver in awedge shape along the river bottom.

The sill is designed to halt it

The construction prompts flashbacks for residents in New Orleans and surrounding parishes,who in 2023 ﬂocked to grocerystores to stock up on bottled water as thesaltwater wedge approached drinking water intakes. Salt water poses arisk to municipal

See SILL, page 4A

STAFF FILEPHOTOSByLESLIE WESTBROOK

STAFFFILE PHOTOByCHRIS GRANGER U.S. Army CorpsofEngineers dredges move silt to an underwater sill in the Mississippi Riverin2023.

Trump asks to strip Venezuelans’ TPS status

WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order allowing it to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants

The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that the administration wrongly ended Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco refused to put on hold the ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen while the case continues.

In May, the Supreme Court reversed an order from Chen that affected another 350,000 Venezuelans. The high court provided no explanation at the time, which is common in emergency appeals.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new court ﬁling that the justices’ May order should also apply to the current case.

Flights snarled at Dallas airports over equipment

DALLAS Hundreds of flights in and out of Dallas were delayed or canceled Friday as telecommunications equipment issues disrupted one of the nation’s busiest airports, federal officials said The Federal Aviation Administration said it was slowing flights at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport because of a “reported local telephone company equipment issue.” The same problems were also impacting Dallas Love Field, according to the agency, which said the issue did not involve FAA equipment.

According to FlightAware, as of late Friday afternoon, nearly 700 flights in and out of DFW Airport were delayed while about 200 canceled. About 160 ﬂights were delayed in and out of Love Field while one flight was canceled.

As of late Friday afternoon, departures from Love Field were delayed by an average of about 30 minutes, according to the FAA website. At DFW Airport, a ground stop was in place for American Airlines and ﬂights on other airlines were being delayed by over an hour Administration proposes $6B in weapons to Israel

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has told Congress it plans to sell nearly $6 billion in weapons to Israel, a fresh surge of support for the U.S. ally as it faces increasing isolation over its war in Gaza.

It includes a $3.8 billion sale for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters, nearly doubling Israel’s current stocks, and a $1.9 billion sale for 3,200 infantry assault vehicles for Israeli army according to a U.S. ofﬁcial and another person familiar with the proposal who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public.

The weapons would not be delivered for two to three years or longer

The huge sales come as U.S. plans to broker an end to the nearly two-year war between Israel and Hamas have stalled and after Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, drew widespread condemnation among U.S. allies in the Middle East.

The U.S. has kept up its support despite growing international pressure on Israel and attempts from a growing number of U.S. Senate Democrats to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.

Estonia: 3 Russian jets in its airspace

BY GEIR MOULSON and ANDREW WILKS Associated Press

Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian ﬁghter aircraft entered its airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said. It happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Russia violated Estonian airspace four times this year “but today’s incursion, involving three ﬁghter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.”

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur also said the government had decided “to start consultations among the allies” under NATO’s article 4, he wrote on X, after Russian jets “violated our airspace yet again.”

The North Atlantic Council, NA-

TO’s principal political decisionmaking body, is due to convene early next week to discuss the incident in more detail, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Friday Article 4, the shortest of the NATO treaty’s 14 articles, states that: “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.” Russian ofﬁcials did not immediately comment. Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022. Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory

The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as U.S.-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Friday’s incursion “an extremely dangerous provocation” that “further escalates tensions in the region.”

“On our side, we see that we must show no weakness because weakness is something that invites Russia to do more,” she said. “They are increasingly more dangerous — not only to Ukraine, but also to all the countries around Russia.”

Estonia, along with fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia and neighboring Poland, are staunch supporters of Ukraine.

The Russian MIG-31 ﬁghters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement.

The aircraft did not have ﬂight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air trafﬁc services.

NATO ﬁghter jets scramble hun-

Mexico City remembers deadly 1985 earthquake

BY MARÍA VERZA Associated Press

MEXICO CITY Every Sept. 19, residents of Mexico City ask themselves an unsettling question: “Is the ground shaking?”

nothing, she said.

BY FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

dreds of times most years to intercept aircraft, many of them Russian warplanes in northwest Europe flying too close to the airspace of its member countries, but it’s rarer for planes to cross the boundary Dozens of NATO jets are on round-the-clock alert across Europe to respond to incidents such as unannounced military flights or civilian planes losing communication with air traffic controllers.

The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.

Earlier Friday, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency said there is “absolutely no evidence” that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 as it is more commonly known, said Putin was “stringing us along.”

“He seeks to impose his imperial will by all means at his disposal. But he cannot succeed,” Moore said.

On that day 40 years ago, at 7:19 a.m., a 8.1-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks left the Mexican capital devastated Ofﬁcial counts put the death toll around 12,000, but the real number remains unknown. The earthquake was a watershed moment for the city A new culture of civil defense evolved, better warning systems developed, building codes changed and, since 2004, there have been annual earthquake drills held on that day Then on that very same day in 2017, things changed again. Barely two hours after the annual drill, a 7.1-magnitude temblor began shaking the ground; its epicenter was so close to the capital that the warning alarms didn’t even sound. Nearly 400 died this time and word spread in an instant on social media, but the destruction showed some lessons still hadn’t been learned, as many deaths could have been prevented. Whether the ground shakes or not, Sept. 19 continues to rattle residents of the capital, because for many there are symbols across the city that have not been forgotten.

Screams of the seamstresses

First came the screams from the seamstresses buried under one of the capital’s collapsed textile plants, recalled Gloria Juandiego, now 65. Soon after, the screams were from people like her outside the rubble, who shouted that others were trapped inside The soldiers did

“The bosses got the equipment out, the raw materials, their safe boxes, they prioritized that,” she said. They didn’t let them tear up the salvaged clothing to make tourniquets. Then came the smell and the image of how “the bodies were tossed into trucks, even as more and more women came out to demand authorities rescue their colleagues. In the end, hundreds of seamstresses, normally holed up working 12-hour days without breaks, died.

“Our submission was buried under the rubble,” a popular sign at the time read. It was the start of the Sept. 19 seamstress union to ﬁght for decent working conditions.

‘The Moles’

“We were digging with sardine cans and our hands,” recalled Francisco Camacho, now 66. In 1985, he was one of the young people looking for survivors of a collapsed apartment building on Tlatelolco Plaza, where today a sun dial marks the time of the earthquake.

A woman organized a chain of volunteers removing buckets full of debris. Children brought water Camacho recalled the tenor Plácido Domingo, who was also helping, saying the volunteers were making holes and crawling into them “as if they were moles.”

And so a volunteer rescue group known as “Los Topos” (The moles) was born. The organization has grown from 20-some amateurs to a diverse force of some 1,200 people today Now, a powerful symbol of Mexican solidarity, they have traveled to 32 countries to assist at times of catastrophe. They continue training every Sunday for what could happen next

Grammy-winning songwriter James dies in plane crash

BY KATHY MCCORMACK and JOSH FUNK Associated Press

Grammy award-winning country

songwriter Brett James whose string of top hits includes “Jesus, Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood and “When the Sun Goes Down” by Kenny Chesney, died in a plane crash in North Carolina, authorities said Friday

The small plane with three people aboard crashed Thursday afternoon “under unknown circumstances” in the woods in Franklin, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report. There were no survivors, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said in a statement. It was not known if James was the pilot. The patrol confirmed his death. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board said they will investigate the crash The other two people on the plane were Melody Carole and Meryl Maxwell Wilson, the patrol confirmed. A native of Oklahoma City James 57, left medical school to pursue a music career in Nashville, according his biography on the Hall of Fame’s site. His first No. 1 hit was “Who I Am” in 2001, by Jessica Andrews. “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which he co-wrote for

Underwood, earned the 2006 Grammy for Best Country Song, among other honors. James had more than 500 of his songs recorded, for albums with combined sales of more than 110 million copies, according to his Grand Ole Opry biography online. Additional hits include “Cowboy Casanova” by Underwood, “Out Last Night” by Chesney and “Summer Nights” by Rascal Flatts.

WASHINGTON The Senate on Friday confirmed Mike Waltz to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ﬁlling the last vacancy in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet after eight months of delays and the withdrawal of a previous nominee. The bipartisan vote for Waltz came after a recent procedural hurdle sent his nomination back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it had to be voted on again on Wednesday The Senate did not vote on a separate matter that would formally designate Waltz as a representative at the General Assembly, due to objections from

Democrats, according to a person familiar with the Senate deliberations. It is unclear how or whether Waltz would be able to participate in the annual U.N. gathering in New York next week The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clariﬁcation.

It is unclear why Waltz wasn’t advanced before Democrats employed the procedural move last week, given that his nomination moved out of committee last month with bipartisan support. A State Department spokesperson said they had worked closely with the White House “to advance every one of our nominees as quickly as possible,” including Waltz. But a Democratic congressional aide said this week that the administration ofﬁcials had shown “no urgency” in getting Waltz conﬁrmed before the U.N. General Assembly, which kicks off Tuesday

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JON ORBACH

People bring flowers to the site where seamstresses died inside a textile plant that collapsed in the 1985 earthquake on the 40th anniversary of the quake in the Obrera neighborhood of Mexico City on Friday.

James

Waltz

House approves resolution honoring ‘legacy’ of Kirk

Dozens of Democrats oppose, abstain

BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press

WASHINGTON The House overwhelmingly passed a resolution honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Friday, but a signiﬁcant number of Democrats voted against it, highlighting the deepening political divide in the wake of his assassination

The resolution, which praised “the life and legacy” of Kirk, passed the Republican-controlled House with 310 votes in favor While 95 Democrats supported the resolution, 58 voted against it and 38 voted “present,” effectively abstaining. Republicans had warned ahead of the vote that no one should oppose the measure, but many Democrats said they felt Kirk’s death had been politicized and that the resolution elevated views they disagreed with.

“Today’s resolution underscores the majority’s recklessness by choosing to author this condemnation and honoring on a purely partisan basis,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

of New York, a high-proﬁle Democrat who voted against the resolution “We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was.”

Speaker Mike Johnson said that there was “no partisan language” in the resolution and that there was “no excuse” for anyone not to vote in favor of it

“We are honoring someone who contributed greatly to the free marketplace of ideas and public discourse and who died in a disgraceful, horriﬁc manner,” Johnson told reporters. The vote capped a week of heightened tensions in Congress and across a nation grappling with Kirk’s assassination and the legacy he left behind. Many on the right have blamed the left for fostering a political climate that led to his death, pushing for more than condemnation and allowing little room for criticism of his views. In the days since, backlash to such criticism has led to ﬁrings — ranging from teachers to journalists as conservative activists have launched aggressive pressure campaigns.

“No single member of the House Democratic caucus, not a single member, condones political violence in America,” House Demo-

cratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday

Earlier this week, the House narrowly declined to punish one of its own over commentary in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The Republican effort to censure Rep Ilhan Omar came after she criticized Kirk’s views of gun ownership and race relations in the aftermath of George Floyd’s 2020 death in Minneapolis. After the vote fell short, President Donald Trump responded by calling Omar “terrible.”

While Friday’s resolution aimed to honor Kirk and denounce political violence, many Democrats took issue with its language. The text described Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, as someone who was “seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding, and strengthen the Republic,” and that he stood “as a model for young Americans.”

Many Republicans in Congress are set to travel to Arizona on Sunday for Kirk’s funeral. Johnson, who plans to attend the funeral, gave a long tribute on the House floor on Thursday saying the the best way to honor Kirk was to “advance the principles that he advanced, and to adopt his approach.”

N.O. lawyer confirmed for CIA job

Senate breaks logjam on nominees

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON — New Orleans lawyer Peter Thomson was confirmed Thursday to be the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general as the U.S. Senate Republican majority used the “nuclear option” to break a partisan logjam in confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees. Thomson, who is a member of the Stone Pigman law firm, was among the first the Senate confirmed on a voice vote. He also is one of a handful of Trump’s nominees from Louisiana who have cleared committee hearings, then languished on the calendar awaiting a final confirmation vote by the full Senate. The vote was 51-47. The three Louisiana nominees on the Senate Executive Calendar who are still awaiting an en bloc confirmation vote under the “nuclear option” rules are: n James S. Baehr, of New Orleans, to be general counsel at the Department of Veterans Affairs

n David A LaCerte, of Baton Rouge, to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the remainder of a term expiring June 30, 2026

n Kurt L. Wall, of Livingston, to be U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana based in Baton Rouge.

Thomson was among the ﬁrst tranche of 48 nominees confirmed simultaneously under a procedure known as the “nuclear option” that the Senate’s Republican majority imposed to move along Trump’s nominations.

The Democratic minority insisted on strictly following Senate rules, which slowed the process, as a way to protest what they called extreme ideological positions taken by some of Trump’s nominees and for Republican refusal to allow Democratic input on other issues.

Changing the process, for the first time, allows the Senate to confirm groups of nominees with a simple majority rather than by 60 votes.

Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he would use the new process on different groups of nominees as soon as practical to finish the conﬁrmation process and get the candidates on the job.

Senate rejects competing bills to fund government

It’s unclear how shutdown Oct. 1 will be avoided

BY KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Senate rejected competing measures on Friday to fund federal agencies for a few weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.

Leaders of the two parties sought to blame the other side for the standoff. Democrats accused Republicans of not negotiating with them to address some of their priorities on health care as part of the funding measure, even though they knew Democratic votes would be needed to get a bill to the president’s desk.

Republicans said Democrats were making demands that would dramatically increase spending and were not germane to the core issue of keeping agencies fully running for a short period of time while negotiations continued on a full-year spending package.

It’s unclear how the two sides will be able to avoid a shutdown. Republicans are planning on what amounts to a do-over vote on their proposal close to the deadline in the hopes that more Democrats will have second thoughts. Democrats are repeating their demand that Republicans sit down with them and work on a compromise.

“The theater must end,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the vote. “Let’s sit down and negotiate.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., gave no indication of a change in course. “All it takes is a handful of Democrats to join the Republicans in keeping the government open and funded, and to ensure we have a chance to get the appropriations process completed in the way it was intended,” Thune said.

The Senate action came after the House earlier in the day passed the Republicanled funding bill. The measure would extend government funding generally at current levels for seven weeks. The bill would also add about $88 million in security funding for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and executive branch in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The vote was 217-212. Rep Jared Golden, of Maine, was the lone Democratic member to support the bill. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., also said

she tried to vote for the bill but was not recognized by the presiding ofﬁcer She was listed ofﬁcially as not voting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, said he knew he had few votes to spare as he sought to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for the funding patch, something many in his conference have routinely opposed in past budget ﬁghts. But this time, GOP members saw a chance to portray the Democrats as responsible for a shutdown. “The ball is in Chuck Schumer’s court. I hope he does the right thing. I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inﬂict pain on the American people,” Johnson said.

President Donald Trump had urged House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it. GOP leaders often need Trump’s help to win over holdouts on legislation “Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump said on his social media site

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., said that in opposing the continuing resolution, Democrats were working to protect the health care of the American people. He said that with Republicans controlling the White House and both branches of Congress, “Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop.”

The Senate moved quickly after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter Both bills fell far short of the 60 votes required for passage.

The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year

The Democratic measure actually received more votes than the Republican one due to absences. The 47-45 vote went strictly along party lines.

The Republican measure gained 44 votes, including from Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania But 48 voted against it, including two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska.

Both chambers of Congress are out of session next week because of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year Senators will return on Sept. 29. House Republicans don’t plan to be back until October They were advised by leadership Friday that no votes would take place on Sept. 29-30, as previously scheduled.

The move by House GOP leadership essentially forces the Senate to approve the House-passed measure or risk a shutdown.

A New Orleans native Thomson attended Tulane University for his undergraduate and law degrees

He was an assistant U.S. attorney for 23 years and served on special assignment at the National Security Agency

As inspector general, Thomson will oversee audits to detect fraud, waste, abuse and other forms of misconduct within the CIA.

Thomson told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would not be bullied. He was criticized by some senators for ducking the issue by saying he didn’t have enough information to opine on whether the CIA whistleblower who prompted the ﬁrst impeachment proceedings against Trump should have gone to Congress with the information about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.

The post has been vacant since the end of the Obama administration. Thomson was nominated for the post in 2020 and cleared committee hearings but never received a floor vote after Trump lost the presidential election.

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate. com.

BY PAIGE CORNWELL

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, right, joined by Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, center left, leads a memorial Monday night at the Capitol in Washington to honor conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in Utah last week.

Middle School Principal Tia Trahan said she’s thankful for the work that has been done on the campus recently, but those are just “BandAids” for the bigger facility issues.

“Our students deserve more than what these aging walls can offer,” she said. “They deserve an environment that is safe, modern and inspiring, a place where they can feel proud of and where they can thrive.”

The district has completed similar projects to replace aging buildings at Lafayette High, Carencro “Bob Lilly” Elementary, Prairie Elementary and the Truman Early Childhood Education Center. Acadiana High, L.J. Alleman Middle and Judice Middle are the next set of schools that will see major renovations.

The current enrollment for Baranco, Faulk and Paul Breaux is 974, a district staff person said Thursday night. LPSS Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr said the new facility would be able to house between 1,200 and 1,300 students. The school is expected to open for the 2027-28 school year Board member Jeremy Hidalgo said he wanted to ensure that number would account for projected

PRIMARIES

Continued from page 1A

goes out and collects handwritten signatures and identifying information from a required number of voters Senate candidates need at least 2,500 signatures, with 250 of those coming from each congressional district. House candidates need 750 signatures from within the district. Instead of paying a fee to qualify, candidates submit the collection of signatures to the Secretary of State’s Ofﬁce.

But before they do, those signatures need to be certiﬁed by the local registrar of voters in the parish where the signatories live That could mean trips to the Registrar of Voters’ Ofﬁce in multiple parishes.

The window for non-Democratic and Republican candidates to collect signatures opened Sept. 16 and

TEACHERS

Continued from page 1A

media after Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on a college campus in Utah this month.

Last week, a Southern University law professor was suspended for allegedly posting disparaging remarks about Kirk on social media.

Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said he welcomes investigations into any school system employees who made “inhumane comments” about Kirk’s death.

“Anyone who celebrates the assassination of Charlie Kirk has no place educating Louisiana students,” he said in a statement. Across the country, teachers and professors — along with ﬁreﬁghters, government employees, journalists and others — have been suspended or lost their jobs in recent days for criticizing Kirk online or appearing to make light of his death. On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was taken off the air after he commented on Kirk’s killing.

Conservative activists and Republican politicians have demanded that people who mock Kirk’s death face professional consequences, with Vice President JD Vance saying professors who celebrate the assassination should lose their jobs or their universities lose federal funding. Some school leaders have urged educators to be especially cautious in this

SILL

Continued from page 1A

water systems, which are not designed to handle it. But for now, ofﬁcials say New Orleans’ water system is not at risk.

“We are monitoring the situation along with the Corps of Engineers,” said Ceara Labat, a spokesperson for the Sewerage & Water Board.

Farther south in Plaquemines Parish, the water supply also remains safe to drink, ofﬁcials said.

While salt water could pose a risk to water treatment plants

growth in the area and that the school wouldn’t need a wing addition in the near future. Momentum for a new facility on the north side has been growing in the past year after the idea was ﬁrst ﬂoated last fall as part of a se-

closes Dec. 17.

Also, under the new system, only the Democratic Party and Republican Party are allowed to hold closed primary contests in spring, allowing the two parties to narrow down the ﬁeld to a single preferred candidate.

That will likely result in one Republican and one Democrat on the generalelectionballotinNovember, at which point the two major-party candidates will compete against each other and against any other candidates that qualiﬁed earlier in the year by nominating petition.

The November general election can be won with a plurality rather than a majority of the vote.

Louisiana state lawmakers, with the backing of Gov Jeff Landry, created the new closed party primary system shortly after taking ofﬁce in January last year

Republican and Democratic candidates will have to go through an “extensive process” of fundraising, campaigning and voter outreach to win the party nomination

volatile political climate, with the Ascension Parish superintendent reminding employees in a recent email that “professionalism extends beyond the school building.”

But critics argue that the crackdown amounts to an assault on free speech, and that public schoolteachers have a right to voice their personal opinions unless doing so interferes with their work.

“The government shouldn’t be able to punish you for addressing a topic (that’s) uncomfortable,” said Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University “You can’t limit speech just because it makes you uncomfortable.”

In at least two Louisiana parishes, teachers’ social media posts about Kirk were ﬂagged by members of the public.

An Ascension Parish teacher was cited in a post on Tiger Droppings, an online discussion board dedicated to LSU sports, politics and other topics. The Sept. 11 post featured a screenshot of a Facebook comment allegedly made by the teacher saying, “Gun violence happens to everyone” with a shrugging woman emoji above a photo of Kirk. The user who posted the screenshot wrote, “She (teaches) some of your kids.”

The following day, Ascension Parish Public Schools Superintendent Edith Walker sent district staffers an email urging them to use “good judgment” and display “professionalism in every setting.”

She did not reference the controversy around Kirk’s killing but said that staff members are seen

in Pointe a la Hache on the Mississippi River’s east bank, and in Belle Chasse on the west bank, there is no immediate risk to either one, according to Patrick Harvey, Plaquemines Parish’s director of homeland security and emergency preparedness.

The parish plans to take precautions, however, to ensure that the Pointe a la Hache plant stays up an running by bringing in a reverseosmosis ﬁltration system, which can remove salt from water

“We’ve made significant improvements since 2023,” said Harvey “This year, we’re prepared for it.” At this point in 2023 — a year in

ries of optimization proposals from a district-hired strategic planner

The suggestion was to move Paul Breaux Middle to the Northside High property and construct two new buildings that would separate sixth through eighth graders from

in spring elections, said state Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, who sponsored the legislation setting up the new system.

“By engaging in the nominating petition process, minor party or no-party candidates will not have as extensive of a process but will still have to engage in some type of voter contact like the major party candidates,” Emerson said.

Louisiana secretary of state records show the last time a candidate for major ofﬁce qualiﬁed via nominating petition was in 2014, when Bryan Barrilleaux ran for the 3rd Congressional District.

(Charles Boustany won in a landslide with 79% of the vote.)

Under the old rules, which did not require third-party candidates to use nominating petitions, a dozen or more candidates could end up competinginasinglerace,withfewwinning a signiﬁcant share of votes.

ninth through 12th graders. The suggestion ultimately died after the board rejected other proposals that would have helped secure the necessary funding.

Community members, who have long called for investment in north

In 2022, when Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, won 62% of the vote, he competed against 12 other candidates on the November ballot.

as representatives of the school system whether they are “in public or engaging on social media.”

Eventually four staffers were placed on leave pending district investigations into their online comments, the union representative said.

In a statement, Walker said she cannot comment on personnel matters, but added that district ofﬁcials carefully review any concerns brought to their attention.

“The trust placed in us to educate and care for students is a responsibility we take very seriously,” she said, “and we will continue to uphold the standards that keep that trust strong.”

In Caddo Parish, someone last week shared images in a local Facebook group of posts she said were made by a high school teacher One of the posts said, “I don’t wish anyone dead, but I do believe in Karma.” The person who shared the posts called them “disgusting” and said: “Caddo parish school board get RID of this problem!”

Separately, School Board member Don Little asked on Facebook for members of the public to send images of any district employees “celebrating assassination.”

During a Caddo Parish School Board meeting this week, Shreveport resident Flora Levels said that school employees who follow ethical guidelines and do not condone violence should be allowed to express their views.

“Their right to speak out should not be taken from them,” she told the board.

In an interview, Little said that

which Louisiana suffered a recordbreaking drought — the Corps had already completed the construction of the sill. Salt water overtopped it on Sept. 20, 2023.

“We’re starting a little bit later than we have in the previous couple of years,” said Matt Roe, a spokesperson for the Corps. He noted that it’s too early to make comparisons to the 2023 saltwater wedge, but said that the current drought is expected to last for another month, allowing salt water to continue to move farther upriver

In 2023, local ofﬁcials detailed a plan to build a pipeline to source fresh water from farther upriver had the saltwater wedge threat-

Lafayette, have raised concerns about preserving the history of Paul Breaux Middle and the legacy of its namesake.

Paul Breaux was an educator in Lafayette Parish who advocated for and led Black students. He originally led the Lafayette Parish Training School when it opened in 1896 after the U.S Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” ruling that allowed segregation laws to persist.

An elementary and high school for Black students later opened in Lafayette Parish and were named after the educator The high school closed in 1970 to meet court mandates that the district must racially integrate students. Paul Breaux Middle opened in its place the following year Board member Amy Trahan, whose district includes north Lafayette, said the board working together to approve the new school and giving students a facility they can be proud of honors Breaux’s legacy

“If Paul Breaux himself were here, as an educator so passionate about the community, he would say to us, ‘Kudos to you all for actually working together to bring all of this together and not be divided,’” she said.

Email Ashley White at ashley white@theadvocate.com.

isn’t running in 2026.

In 2020, when Sen Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, won his seat with 59% of the vote, there were 14 other candidates listed on the ballot.

Beryl Billiot, who ran as a noparty candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022, 2020 and 2016, acknowledged the new nominating petition requirement will ensure the ﬁeld is limited to serious candidates.

“That cleans up the ﬁeld a little bit,” he said. “It helps keep the people that really aren’t interested in the race out of the race.”

At the same time, Billiot said there are better ways to achieve that outcome without preventing working-class people from running for ofﬁce.

“It limits the ability of the average American to be part of the political system,” he said of the new rules.

Howard Kearney a Libertarian from Mandeville who has run multiple times in the 1st Congressional District, said the nominating petition requirement is part of why he

while he strongly supports the First Amendment, there are reasonable limits to free speech such as inciting violence. He added that school employees are subject to the district’s policies on professional conduct, political neutrality and social media use.

He said he received reports about a dozen or so social media posts, several by the same staffer, but only three were “questionable” enough to forward to district ofﬁcials for review None of the posts explicitly celebrated Kirk’s death, he added.

“The vast majority of our employees had extraordinary conduct during this event,” he said.

Caddo Parish Public Schools spokesperson Mary Nash-Wood said that no employees were put on leave due to their social media comments.

“However, we continue to caution our employees to be vigilant in what they post,” she added.

Larry Carter, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union, said in an email Thursday that the union was aware of “fewer than five” educators across the state who had been placed on leave during investigations of their social media posts related to Kirk He noted that is a tiny fraction of Louisiana’s more than 52,000 public schoolteachers.

“Educators across Louisiana are focusing on their noble calling: fostering learning, promoting understanding, and engaging citizens in a multifaceted democracy,” he said.

ened New Orleans’ water supply

That plan proved unnecessary; rain returned to the Mississippi River Basin and ﬂushed the salt water downstream.

Drought in the Ohio River Basin since early August has reduced the amount of water flowing into the Mississippi River Normally, the Ohiosuppliesabouthalfofthewater in the lower Mississippi, but right now it contributes only about 8%.

Water is just 3 feet deep at the Carrollton gauge in New Orleans, and it has dropped by about 4 inches in the last 24 hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts above-average temperatures

“I do ﬁnd it unfortunate, but not surprising, that both parties are so concerned about holding power that they force a duopoly,” he said. “It is obvious they do not trust their message and policies to keep them in ofﬁce.”

The secretary of state this month launched a statewide campaign to educate voters about the transition to closed party primaries in April.

Along with U.S House and U.S Senate, races for Louisiana Supreme Court, Louisiana Public Service Commission, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will use the closed primary rules. Races for all other elected ofﬁces will continue under the so-called jungle primary system, where all candidates compete against each other on the same ballot following the same rules, regardless of party afﬁliation.

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

The online posts by educators and others have ranged from criticisms of Kirk’s past statements, which some critics have called racist and sexist to more inﬂammatory comments mocking or even celebrating his assassination.

The content of the posts makes a difference when it comes to educators’ free speech rights, experts said.

Under Pickering v Board of Education, a landmark 1968 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, public school employees have a constitutional right to comment or reflect on matters of public concern, explained Alex Morey a First Amendment specialist for the Freedom Forum, a nonproﬁt organization dedicated to fostering First Amendment rights. But school districts can still discipline teachers if they consider their speech to be inﬂammatory to the point of interfering with their duties as public workers, she added. Social media adds another layer of complexity when it comes to what kind of speech can be considered disruptive, experts said. Even if a teacher posts an opinion to a private page, that post can be screenshot and shared widely, giving employers room to argue that the teacher cannot effectively do their job.

Still, “it’s incumbent upon a school system to establish that real and actual disruption will occur,” said Paulson, the free speech expert.

Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate.com.

through the end of the month, which could make the drought worse. Water levels in the lower Mississippi are expected to drop further, and, already, much of Louisiana is facing a moderate risk of wildﬁres.

Still, any impacts on water supplies due to the saltwater wedge, if they materialize, are weeks away The Corps’ latest estimate puts the saltwater wedge near Port Sulphur about 20 miles downriver of where it will build the sill.

Construction on the sill is expected to be complete by late October Email Alex Lubben at alex. lubben@theadvocate.com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Principal Tia Trahan helps a student on the first day of school at Paul Breaux Middle School on Aug. 7

Vaccine panel changes COVID shot guidance

RFK Jr.’s advisers say it should be a choice

BY MIKE STOBBE and LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press

ATLANTA Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisers added confusion Friday to this fall’s COVID-19 vaccinations — declining to recommend them for anyone and leaving the choice up to those who want a shot.

Until now, the vaccinations had been recommended as a routine step in the fall for nearly all Americans just like a yearly ﬂu vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration already had placed new restrictions on this year’s shots from Pﬁzer, Moderna and Novavax, reserving them for people over 65 or younger ones who are deemed at higher risk from the virus.

In a series of votes Friday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unprecedented step of not recommending them even for high-risk populations like seniors. Instead they decided people could make individual decisions after talking

with a doctor nurse or pharmacist.

The panel also urged the CDC to adopt stronger language around claims of vaccine risks, despite pushback from outside medical groups who said the shots had a proven safety record from the billions of doses administered worldwide.

The divided panel narrowly avoided urging states to require a prescription for the shot. The move came after protests from some of the advisers that the extra step would block access to vaccination.

“I have to wait a year” to see his primary care provider, said panelist Dr Cody Meissner of Dartmouth College. “It’s essentially going to be a barrier.”

The meeting represented the latest example of Kennedy’s monthslong effort to reshape the nation’s vaccine policies to match his long-standing suspicions about the safety and effectiveness of well-established shots.

Independent public health experts reacted with relief that the panel didn’t add more roadblocks to vaccination, but they said the lack of a recommendation will prove confusing for people who don’t know if a shot might beneﬁt

them. “The good news is anyone can get this vaccine. The bad news is that no one is encouraged to get it even if you’re in a high-risk group,” said Dr Paul Ofﬁt, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a vaccine researcher and former government adviser who has sparred with Kennedy for years.

Dr Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said the panel’s daylong debate involved clear efforts to sow distrust about vaccines that would have “real-time impacts on American children.”

But he said people could instead follow guidelines from his and other medical groups that still make speciﬁc recommendations for the vaccines.

“It was a very, very strange meeting,” O’Leary said.

Several states have announced policies to try to assure that access, worried about Friday’s decision. And a group representing most health insurers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said earlier this week that its members will continue covering the shots through 2026.

The panel’s decision still must go to the CDC’s interim director, Jim

O’Neill, for sign-off. A former investor, critic of health regulations and Kennedy’s deputy at HHS, O’Neill recently took the lead at the agency following the ﬁring of its Senate-conﬁrmed director Susan Monarez. COVID-19 remains a public health threat. CDC data released in June shows the virus resulted in 32,000 to 51,000 U.S. deaths and more than 250,000 hospitalizations last fall and winter Most at risk for hospitalization are seniors and young children, especially those who were unvaccinated.

The COVID-19 vaccines are not perfect, but CDC data shows they provide the strongest protection against severe infection and death, even if people still become infected. Likewise, people can get COVID-19 repeatedly as the virus continues to evolve.

Like flu vaccines, COVID-19 shots now are being updated yearly but only about 44% of seniors and 13% of children were up-todate on the coronavirus vaccinations last year, the CDC said.

The meeting was more freewheeling and chaotic than in the past. Many committee members challenged CDC’s data, and raised questions about studies in mice or

other concerns that the agency’s own safety surveillance hadn’t deemed credible.

The panel did recommend that the CDC add more information about risks and uncertainties to vaccine sheets that are given to patients.

One risk that already is on the vaccines’ label is a rare side effect called myocarditis, a kind of heart inﬂammation, that was discovered in the early days of vaccination in 2021. On Friday a scientist studying whether people with certain genes are uniquely susceptible to that risk told the panel the Trump administration had canceled his grant before the research could be ﬁnished.

The advisers postponed a decision on whether to end a longstanding CDC recommendation that all newborns be vaccinated at birth against a liver virus, hepatitis B.

The panel had been considering whether to recommend delaying that initial vaccination — something doctors and parents already can choose to do — but pulled back amid criticism from independent pediatric and infectious disease specialists who say the vaccine is safe and has helped infant infections drop sharply

550 arrests made in Chicago area, top ICE official says

BY REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press

PARK RIDGE, Ill. — Immigration enforcement officials have arrested almost 550 people as part of an operation in the Chicago area that launched a little less than two weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday The updated figure came hours after a senior immigration ofﬁcial revealed in an interview with The Associated Press that more than 400 people had been arrested in the operation so far The ﬁgures offer an early gauge of what is shaping up as a major enforcement effort that comes after similar operations were launched in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The figures released by Homeland Security include arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as other federal agencies assisting in the operation.

ICE launched its Chicago area operation dubbed “Midway Blitz” on Sept. 8, drawing concern from activists and immigrant communities who say there’s been a notice-

able uptick in immigration enforcement agents That has deepened dread in communities already fearful of the large-scale arrests or aggressive tactics used in other cities targeted by President Donald Trump ‘s hardline immigration policies The operation has brought allegationsofexcessiveforce and heavy-handed dragnets that have ensnared U.S. citizens, while gratifying Trump supporters who say he is delivering on a promise of mass deportations. The Trump administration

has promised to send an inﬂux of immigration agents and National Guard troops to Chicago, over the ﬁerce of objections of local leaders and residents. A military deployment to Chicago has yet to materialize even as immigration enforcement operations continue.

Officials and activists in the Chicago area opposed to the enforcement surge argue the approach is dangerous and imprecise, pointing to accounts of two U.S. citizens who were briefly detained this week by fed-

eral officers focused on immigration enforcement. Advocates also have protested the death of a man shot by an ICE officer on Sept. 12 after authorities said he tried to flee during a traffic stop, dragging the officer

Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said in an interview with the Associated Press Friday that as of Thursday roughly 50% to 60% of the Chicago operation arrests were targeted arrests, meaning they were specific people that ICE was trying to find because they had committed a crime, had a final order of removal or had done something that put them on ICE’s radar

The rest were what’s often referred to as “collateral ar-

rests,” meaning people that ICE comes across during their operations who aren’t the person they’re looking for but are in the country illegally, so ICE can arrest them.

Collateral arrests were not allowed during the Biden administration but the Trump administration threw out those restrictions almost immediately after coming into ofﬁce as part of Trump’s efforts to beef up deportations.

“It doesn’t mean that the collateral arrests are noncriminal. Some of our collateral arrests also have criminal convictions and arrests They just weren’t the people we were looking for at the time,” said Charles.

The Department of Homeland Security launched “Midway Blitz” after months of

Trump administration criticism of Chicago and Illinois over state and local policies that restrict law enforcement cooperation with ICE. ICE says these policies mean that immigrants who’ve committed crimes in the U.S. and can be deported as a result are instead released into the community ICE says it then has to go out into the community and track them down to remove them. Many local officials and activists have said that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and that if they cooperate with ICE, it makes it less likely that immigrants who are victims or witnesses to crime will come forward to work with police.

BY RYAN TARINELLI

CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

WASHINGTON Federal prosecutors on Friday said a man who pleaded guilty in a plot to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh should receive a prison sentence of 30 years to life.

Nicholas Roske, who was arrested after authorities said they found him near Kavanaugh’s Maryland residence in June 2022, has pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate a justice of the United States. Roske, according to an af-

fidavit, told a detective he was upset about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Federal prosecutors, in a ﬁling Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, said the court’s sentence must be significant “to send the message that the consequences for these acts — no fewer than 30 years to life in prison — are not worth the perceived ideological ends.”

The sentence, according to the prosecutors, must

send a strong message that condemns Roske’s actions and deters others from turning to violence and threats based on disagreement with rulings from the judiciary.

“The defendant’s crime was considered, planned, targeted, and callously indifferent to others’ lives and the impact on their families,” according to the ﬁling.

According to authorities, Roske said he ﬂew from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C. area in June 2022 with the intent to kill Kavanaugh and then himself.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERIN HOOLEy

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents make an arrest early Friday morning in Park Ridge, Ill.

PresidentofTexas A&Msteps down

He won’tsay if controversial classroomvideo wasfactor

BY JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press

HOUSTON The president of Texas A&M University,roiled by an online video of a confrontationbetween astudent and professor in aclass that discussed gender, said Friday that nowisthe time to leave, but he did not offer aspeciﬁc reason Mark A. Welsh III andthe school had faced political pressure and criticism,includingfrom the governor, afterthe video was posted on social media.Colleges and universities around the countryhavebeen weathering controversies overgender identity,sexual preference and diversity,issues derided as part of a“woke” agenda.

The video was posted last week by Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison andshowed aconfrontation during achildren’s literature course.The professorwas laterﬁred after Harrison called the professor’sactions “DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination.” Welsh’sresignation, announced Thursday,

took effect Friday

“President Welsh’sdecision to resign comes at acritical moment, and we agree with him that now is theright time for change in leadership,” Robert Albritton, chair of the board of regents, saidina statement

When Welsh departed the administration buildingFriday,hewas met by hundreds of cheeringstudents, faculty and others as he andhis wife Betty left thecampus.

But Welsh had lost thesupport of many studentsand faculty over ﬁring the professor,Melissa McCoul, said Leonard Bright, aprofessoratTexas A&M’sBush School of Government and Public Service.

“I thinkweall wish that he would have recognized thatcapitulating to thesepoliticalrequestswas never going to endwell for him,” said Bright, interim president of the American Association of UniversityProfessors A&M chapter

The video was taken by astudent heard debating withMcCoul about gender identity. Thestudent saidthosediscussions in class were illegal because of President Donald Trump’sexecutive order thatrecognizes two genders and thatthe topic was against her religious beliefs

TrumpasksSupreme Courttoallow itspolicyonpassports fortrans

BY LINDSAYWHITEHURST

Associated Press

WASHINGTON PresidentDonald Trump’sadministration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to let it enforce apassport policy for transgender and nonbinary people that requires male or female sex designations based on birth certiﬁcates.

The Justice Department appealed alower-court order allowing people use the gender or “X”identification marker that lines up with their gender identity

It’sthe latest in aseries of emergency appeals from the Trump administration, many of which have resulted in victories amid litigation, including on banning transgenderpeople from the military

The government argues it can’tberequiredtouse sex designations it considersinaccurate on ofﬁcial documents. The plaintiffs, meanwhile, say the policy violatesthe rights of transgenderand nonbinary

Americans.

TheState Department changedits passport rulesafter Trump handeddownanexecutive order in January declaring the United States would “recognize twosexes,male and female,”based on what it called “an individual’simmutable biological classiﬁcation.”

Transgender actress Hunter Schafer,for example, said in February that hernew passport hadbeen issued witha malegender marker, even though shesubmitted the applicationwith the female gender marker she’s usedfor years on herdriver’slicense andpassport.

Ajudge blockedthe Trump administration policy in June after alawsuit from nonbinary and transgender people, some of whom said they were afraid to submitapplications. An appeals court left the judge’sorder in place

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to put the order on hold while the lawsuit playsout.

Trumpimposes

people

“The Constitution does not prohibit the government from defining sex in terms of an individual’sbiological classification,” SolicitorGeneral D. John Sauer wrote. He pointed to the high court’srecentruling upholding aban on transition-related health care for transgender minors. The courts conservative majority found that law doesn’tdiscriminate on the basis of sex, and Sauer argued that finding also supports the Trump administration’sdecision to change passport rules issued in 2021.

An attorneyfor the plaintiffs, on the other hand,saidthe passport rules are discriminatory

“This administration has taken escalating steps to limit transgender people’s health care, speech and other rights under theConstitution, and we are committed to defending those rights,” said Jon Davidson, seniorcounselfor the LGBTQ &HIV Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

BY BARBARAORTUTAY and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday signedaproclamation that willrequire anew annual $100,000 feefor H-1Bvisa applications, among otherchanges to the program forhighlyskilled foreign workersthat has come under scrutiny by theadministration. H-1B visas aremeant to bringthe bestand brightestforeignersfor high-skilled jobsthat tech companies find difficult to fill with qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The program instead has turned into apipeline for overseas workers who are often willing to workfor as little as $60,000 annually.That is far less than $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers. TrumponFriday insisted that the tech industry would not oppose the move. “I thinkthey’re going to be very happy,” he said. Representatives forthe biggest tech companies,including Amazon,Apple, Google and Meta, didnot respond to messagesfor comment on Friday.Mi-

crosoft declined to comment. Trump also announced he will start selling a“gold card” visa with apotential pathwaytoU.S. citizenship. The “Trump Gold Card” will be available for aprocessing fee anda $1 million contribution after vetting. For companies, it will cost $2 million. The “Trump Platinum Card,” meanwhile, will be available fora $5 millioncontribution and will allow foreigners to spend up to 270 days in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxesonnon-U.S. income. Trump announced a$5million gold card in February to replace an existing investor visa —this is now the platinum card. TheH-1Bprogram wascreatedin 1990 for people with abachelor’sdegreeorhigherinﬁelds where jobsare deemed hard to ﬁll, especially science, technology,engineering andmath.Critics say they allow companiestopay lower wages with fewerlabor protections. Critics say H-1B spots often go to entry-level jobs, rather than senior positions with unique skill requirements. And while the program isn’tsupposed to undercut U.S. wages or displace U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels.

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTOByJAy JANNER

TexasA&M University President Mark Welsh, accompanied by hiswife,Betty,exits the administration building in CollegeStation, Texas,after resigning Friday.

Lawsuit filed over crane wreck

Work zone incident triggered multiple crashes

BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN Staff writer

After being injured in an Aug. 16 crash involving a hijacked crane, a 30-year-old man is suing the driver of the crane, the company that owns the equipment and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for damages. Matthew Vincent 37, allegedly stole a crane sitting in a work zone on Interstate 10 and triggered multiple crashes around 5:30 a.m. Aug. 16. He left the key fob for his own truck in the crane’s operator cab, leading police to him, according to a news release from Louisiana State Police.

Peredio Mentor, 30, was in the process of moving from North Carolina to Houston for a new job when his car was ﬂipped during the hijacking, according to the Shamieh Law Firm. A release from the company states that Mentor suffered life-altering injuries. On Tuesday, Mentor ﬁled a lawsuit against Vincent, the Louisiana

Department of Transportation and Development, and Johnson Bros. Corp., a Southland Company Mentor’s legal team is arguing that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and its contractor, Johnson Bros., failed to secure and supervise construction equipment at the I-10 construction site near milepost 9.5, which created dangerous conditions for the traveling public, according to attorney Ramez

Shamieh.

Shamieh said Mentor suffered a traumatic brain injury and has been relocated to live near family in Maryland.

“(Mentor’s) entire life just got derailed,” Shamieh said. “He hasn’t made any decisions on where he’s going to be long-term, but he made a decision to go back to where his family is to have them help him.”

See LAWSUIT, page 2B

RIGHT ON TRACK

ABOVE: Faculty members, students and parents make their ﬁrst lap around the new 0.8-mile track at Martial Billeaud Elementary in Broussard on Friday

LEFT: Kindergarten students Emersyn Hebert, from left, Isaac Neuville and Emmett Champagne join hands as they take their ﬁrst walk around the new Martial Billeaud Elementary track Friday

STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK

McNeese State University sees 5% enrollment bump

Increase is largest in two decades

BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN | Staff writer

With the fall 2025 semester in full swing, McNeese State University is celebrating a 5% increase in enrollment over last year, following years of declining enrollment.

“Our analysis goes back to 2009, when McNeese enrolled around 9,000 students,” McNeese State University President Wade Rousse said. “By fall 2023, that number had fallen to about 6,000 There were obvious outside pressures — hurricanes, COVID and other challenges but the truth is, the decline started long before those events.”

“Enrollment growth means greater ﬁnancial stability, which is critical for McNeese’s long-term success,” Rousse said. “But it’s also energizing to walk across campus and see so many students, to hear their stories, and to witness their dreams taking shape. It’s a reminder that our mission is to deliver life-changing educational opportunities, and that work is incredibly rewarding.”

Rousse said the increase after 14 years of declining enrollment started after McNeese administrators acknowledged the

Rousse said the university didn’t previously have a clear plan that put enrollment front and center However once a plan was created and committed to 16 months ago, the university began to see real momentum in reversing the trend. In fact, 2024 was the first year since 2018 that the university saw any sort of increase, as it went from 6,061 students in 2023 to 6,243. This fall, McNeese enrollment rose by 5% to 6,556 students

Contestant from Lafayette affected in surprise

BY JOANNA BROWN | Staff writer

As a “Big Brother” super fan, Lafayette bridal consultant Lauren Domingue hoped to go the distance in Season 27 of the reality competition series in which someone is always watching — and you never know if your alliance is about to turn against you. “Big Brother” fans, be warned: There are spoilers ahead.

Knowing what’s happening in your alliance is a big deal on these shows, and that vulnerability showed for Domingue in a surprise Double eviction alters ‘Big Brother’ dynamics

See ‘BIG BROTHER’, page 2B

PROVIDED PHOTO

22-year-old bridal consultant Lauren Domingue from Lafayette was voted out in a double eviction episode of Big Brother 27 on Thursday.

Stateauditor to review N.O.’s finances

Councilseeks

budget clarity

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

The New Orleans City Council is planning to ask the state’stop auditor to examine the city’sﬁnances and provide clarity on the size of its budget deficit after acitybudgethearing this week left council memberswith morequestions than answers. The 2025 budgetdeﬁcit— the difference between the budgeted expenses and revenue and the actual spending andcollections that accrue over the year —ismore than $100 million, according to council member Joe Giarrusso and the Bureau of Governmental Research. That amount includesa $73 million personnelcost overrunand a$30.5million reductioninestimatedrevenue. But officials with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’sadministration, while reporting thecost overrun and certifying the

reduced revenue estimate, have not provided anumber for thebudgetdeﬁcit, and at abudget committeemeeting Wednesday,offered adifferent measureof the city’sfinancial health that council memberssaid was aseparateissue. On Thursday,the council is expected to vote on aresolutionasking Louisiana Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack “to determine the existence and extentofany budget deﬁcit” and, if necessary,offer recommendationsfor digging outofits shortfall, according to draft legislation sponsored by council members Helena Moreno, JP Morell and Giarrusso.

and Giarrusso decided to ask for Waguespack’sassistance afterthey reviewed numbers provided by the Cantrell administration and realized they “didn’t calculate right.”

“I think it’sa really important step so that we finally end all this confusionand have afull understanding of theproblem and can move forward on ﬁnding asolution,”Moreno said.

“Weneed acommon set of facts,” Giarrusso said.

Cantrell’sofﬁce didn’timmediately respond to arequest for comment Friday Hiring freeze,furloughs?

By the endofthe meeting, however,council membersand administration ofﬁcials agreed cityﬁnances needed urgent attention and seemed to reach a truce, albeit ashaky one.

Chief Administrative Officer Joe Threat saidhe will soon propose apackage of revenue and savings measures,some of which will require council action.Thosemeasures could include overtime restrictions,amore expansive hiring freeze and furloughs, though officials say they want to avoid furloughs if at all possible.

sis, another candidate for mayor,said he’d order a “hard audit” of the budget within his first 60 days of taking office. He also criticized Moreno in asocial media video Thursday for not attending the budget committee meeting the day before “I don’tknow why HelenaMorenowas notatthe meeting, but Ithink somebody that is running to be a‘24/7 mayor’ …shouldat leastbeata meeting to talk aboutabudgetdeficitthat we’re facing,” Duplessis said in the video.

Waguespack saidMoreno called him Friday morning to request his assistance andhetoldher he’s happy to help. He saidhis ofﬁce plans to startcompiling records next week andcould have a report ready as early as the following week. Moreno,who sharedthe draft resolution with The Times-Picayune,said she

Council members and administration officialshave arguedsinceJanuary about the conditionofthe city’s finances,and theargument continued at some length at Wednesday’scommittee meeting. Council members said they’ve received mixed messages, while FinanceDirectorRomySchofield-Samuel saidher warnings had been written off.

The proposals notably did not include any new fee proposals, which have been publicly contemplated in other recent meetings. They do include newdebt: Cantrell’sadministration is considering bond sales to dig out of the budget hole.

The budget deficit has emerged as afrequent subject of debate on the campaign trail among candidates, including Moreno, vying to succeed Cantrell in theOct. 11 primary State Sen. Royce Duples-

Asked to respond to Duplessis’ criticism, Moreno said she’sbeen in frequentcontact with Giarrusso “for quite sometime over budgetconcernsand will continue to work on ﬁnding solutions.

“Ultimately it’sabout who is doingthe work andwho is ﬁnding solutions,” Moreno said. Staff writerBen Myers contributed to this report.

EmailBlake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate. com.

BatonRouge manpleadsguiltytomanslaughter

Watson shot ex-girlfriend’snew boyfriendwhile carrying child

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

Tyrus DewayneWatson pulled up to the La Playa apartment complex last summer and emerged from his vehicle carrying his 2-year-old daughter, with a pistol in thefront pocket of his shorts. Prosecutors said Watson walked up astairwell and burst into an apartment, where he shot Kedrick Glasper,the 31-year-old boyfriend of his ex-girl-

‘BIG BROTHER’

Continued from page1B

double eviction episode that aired on Thursday

The22-year-old faced eviction last night after her closestally,Vince Panaro, won the head of household competition. He bowed to pressure from other contestants and put Domingue

LAWSUIT

Continued from page1B

Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development public information

MCNEESE

Continued from page1B

problem and were honest that what they had been doing was no longer working. The university developed its aforementioned strategic plan, with stabilizing enrollment being the top priority “Westreamlined operations, reorganized the university and created anew organizational chart built around measurable goals,” Rousse said. “Today,every employee can explain how their worksupports recruitment, retention or career placement for our students. That shared sense of accountability has created aculture of determination, and we’re thrilledtosee it paying off.”

Rousse said in aMonday news release that, along with the increase in enrollment, the university has its largest ﬁrst-time freshman class in many years, witha

friend. Watson carriedout thefatal shooting while holding his daughter in his arms, according to court records.

On Tuesday morning,Watson stood before aBaton Rouge judge to accept an offer from state prosecutors and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. In doing so, the 23-year-old Baton Rouge man avoided the second-degree murder charge he was indicted on and removed thepossibilityofa mandatory life sentence. District Judge Gail Horne Ray can send Watson to prison up to 40 years when he returnstocourt forsentencing on Nov.13. The shooting happened themorning of Aug. 15, 2024, at the apartment

on theevictionblock,but she did not go down without aﬁght.

Domingue then won the final Blockbustercompetition of theseason, making her safe from eviction —for only afew minutes. Competitor Morgan Pope, who had convinced Panaro to betray Domingue as head of household, then became headofhousehold herself. She placed Domingue back

ofﬁcer John Guidroztold TheAdvocate that the department cannot comment on pendinglitigation. TheAdvocatealso reached outtoJohnson Bros. Corp. but didnot receive an immediatere-

13.3% increase over 2024. “Even ourdorms arefull for the first time in over two decades,”Rousse said in the release. “You can feel the energyand excitement across campus.”

In therelease, Rousse saidthat faculty and staff played an important role in showcasing the campus, its diverse programs, and academic reputation. The university’s“winning culture,” illustratedby the men’sbasketball team’s back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, was also notedasa contributor to the momentum.

Rousse said that to continue building theuniversity’senrollment,McNeese will keep executing its plan

“That meansbuilding excitement through our outward-facing programs, ramping up marketing, making the enrollment processassmooth as possible, and strengthening studentretention,” Rousse said. “Just as important, we’llcontinuetracking job

complexinthe 6500 block of Hanks Drive,just east of Airline Highway.East Baton Rouge ParishSheriff’s Ofﬁce deputies found Glasper dead on asecondfloorbreezeway of the apartment building with multiple gunshot wounds. Atrail of blood led from his body to his nearby apartment. Investigators searched the apartment and found a9mmcartridge and abullet projectile inside, according to prosecutors. Glasper’sbedroom was alsodestroyed, deputies noted when they entered the apartment. Deputiesdetainedseveral people who were in theapartment, and investigatorsquestioned two witnesses who identified

on the voting block, where all of theremaining contestants, except Panaro, voted to send herhome.

Player KelleyJorgensen was theﬁrst to be voted out in the double eviction episode,also thanks to avote from Panaro, whowas one of Jorgensen’searly alliances.

Fiveplayers are left, including VincePanaro, Morgan Pope, KeanuSoto, Ava

sponse

“If we allow businesses to do whatever they want and fail to implement proper safetyprocedures and also implementdisciplinary actions againsttheir employees, our society as

placementrates andstarting salaries for our graduates. Sustainedgrowth depends on one thing above all else —ensuring McNeese graduates are landing good jobs.”

To retain newstudents, McNeese launchedaFirst Year Experience program this year that is designed speciﬁcally to boost retention “Weknowthatstudent involvement during the freshman year is thesingle mostimportant factorin keeping studentsontrack,” Rousse said. “This program is builttomakesureour newest Cowboysare en-

LOTTERY THURSDAY, SEPT.18, 2025

PICK 3: 5-3-3

PICK 4: 2-3-8-7

PICK 5: 2-0-3-6-3 Unof

Watson as the man seenon videosurveillanceinthe parking lot.

The video showed awhite sedan backing into aspace andaman emerge from the vehicle carrying asmall childinhis armswitha black pistol protruding from the front pocket of his shorts.The gunman went up astairwell and came running backdownabout three minutes later,still carrying thechild withthe weapon in his waistband. The man got in his carand drovefrom the scene.

Awitness who lived in the complex told detectives theyheard afight around the time of the shootingfollowed by the sounds of gunshots ﬁred in thebreezeway The neighborsaid they went

Pearl and Ashley Hollis.

The “Big Brother” Season 27 ﬁnale will air on Sunday, Sept. 28 on CBS, and the ﬁnalplayer left standing will walkaway with a$750,000 grand prize.

Domingue was known forher middle-of-the-road approach through much of theseason,but wasa dominant playerwho won head of household twice —which givesplayersim-

awhole is going to suffer,” Shamieh said. “It’s not only about ourclient, Mr Mentor,it’sabout theentirecountry knowing that we have checks and balances to ensure businesses like this and departments

gaged and connected from day one.”

The university is also hoping that itsnew student union, opening at the end of 2025, withstudy and meeting areas,aballroom for events and anew cafeteria,

outside to see what was going on and saw aman that matched Watson’s description running down the stairs carrying achild in his arms. The witness sawthe man escape in awhite sedan.

Detectives determined Watsonand his ex-girlfriend —the womanthe victim was dating at the time —were parents of the child Watsonwas carryingwhen he shot andkilledGlasper, according to reports.

Glasper’srelatives sat in court Tuesdayand watched as Watsonpleaded guilty to manslaughter.Prosecutors said they arepushing for the judge to issue the maximum40-year sentence.

Email Matt Bruceatmatt. bruce@theadvocate.com.

munity and the power to nominatepeoplefor eviction. She often wavered in herdecisions while in the leader seat,and heavily relied on her locked-in ally Panaro to bring her to the final round —which ultimately led to an ouster she wasn’texpecting.

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

like the (DOTD) provide us with asafeworkplace, so this doesn’thappen.”

EmailCourtney Pedersen at courtney pedersen@theadvocate. com.

will assist in enrollment andretention.

“Our goal is to makeMcNeese the premier regional university in Louisiana and Southeast Texas, and we arewellonour way,” Rousse said in the release.

Waguespack

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Wall Street coasts to latest record-setting week

NEW YORK Wall Street tacked on some more gains Friday as it glided to the ﬁnish of its latest record-setting week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% to close out its sixth winning week in the last seven. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 172 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.7%.

FedEx helped lift the market after delivering stronger proﬁt and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It rose 2.3%, thanks in part to strength for its domestic package business.

Newmont rallied 4.3% after the gold miner sold its investment in Canada’s Orla Mining for $439 million.

American Airlines hit with $9.6M judgment

A federal California jury ruled that Fort Worth-based American Airlines should pay $9.6 million for neglecting a passenger who suffered a stroke onboard a ﬂight from Miami to Madrid, failing to report his midflight symptoms.

The San Jose-based jury found that when Watsonville, California, resident Jesus Plasencia suffered a stroke after takeoff on Flight 68 in March 2021, ﬂight crew did not follow American’s policies and procedures, according to a statement from his attorneys.

Plasencia, a chef, suffered a short transient ischemic attack, sometimes referred to as a mini stroke, while at the gate in Miami, according to evidence presented at the six-day trial, the statement said. Plasencia was unaware that the attack had happened. However, Plasencia’s wife alerted a flight attendant that her husband temporarily lost motor control and began speaking “gibberish,” according to the statement.

Instead of reporting the incident to medical personnel, an American Airlines pilot cleared Plasencia for takeoff, in contradiction with the carrier’s policies, the statement said. After Plasencia began displaying stroke symptoms after takeoff, the ﬂight crew asked other passengers to watch him but did not inform the pilot about the incident, according to the statement.

N.C. judge orders $50M for helicopter crash death

CHARLOTTE,N.C.— A North Carolina judge has ordered $50 million be paid to the family of a Charlotte TV station meteorologist who was killed in a helicopter crash three years ago after ﬁnding the companies that owned and operated the aircraft liable in his widow’s wrongful death lawsuit.

Following an evidentiary hearing earlier in the week, state Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges issued a judgment order Thursday directing insurers for the Total Trafﬁc & Weather Network, iHeartCommunications and iHeartMedia to make the payment within the next two months.

WBTV meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag died in November 2022 after the Robinson R44 helicopter crashed along a Charlotte-area interstate. The ﬂight’s purpose was to provide Myers video training over a simulated news scene, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Jillian Myers initially sued the companies and a maintenance facility in March 2023 for the death of her 41-year-old husband, with whom they had four children. The maintenance facility was later removed as a defendant. A National Transportation Safety Board report last year determined the probable cause of the crash was inadequate inspections, resulting in an eventual loosening of hardware and subsequent loss of helicopter control. A postcrash examination of the ﬂight controls showed hardware that should have been connected to a part on the main rotor was disconnected and the connecting hardware was missing, the ﬁnal NTSB report says.

BY CURT ANDERSON Associated Press

ST PETERSBURG, Fla.

— A Florida federal judge on Friday tossed out a $15 billion defamation lawsuit ﬁled by President Donald Trump against The New York Times.

U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled that Trump’s 85-page lawsuit was overly long and full of tedious and burdensome” language that had no bearing on the legal case. The judge gave Trump 28 days to ﬁle an amended complaint that should not exceed 40 pages.

“A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally,” Merryday wrote in a

four-page order “This action will begin, will continue, and will end in accord with the rules of procedure and in a professional and digniﬁed manner.”

Trump’s legal team plans to continue the lawsuit “in accordance with the judge’s direction on logistics,” spokesman Aaron Harison said

The lawsuit named four Times journalists and cited a book and three articles published within a two-month period before the last election.

The Times had said it was meritless and an attempt to discourage independent reporting. “We welcome the judge’s quick ruling, which recognized that the complaint was a political document

Trump, Xi speak on wider trade issues

BY DIDI TANG and JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump

said he would meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a regional summit taking place at the end of October in South Korea and will visit China in the “early part of next year,” following a phone call between the two on Friday In a Truth Social post, Trump said Xi would come to the United States “at an appropriate time” and that they had made progress on “the approval of the TikTok Deal” to allow the popular social media app to keep operating in the U.S., though he didn’t give details.

A statement from the Chinese government did not mention the visits, nor did it offer clarity on what Xi had agreed to regarding a sale of a controlling stake by TikTok’s Chinese parent company to avoid a U.S. ban. But Xi told Trump to avoid imposing trade restrictions to keep trade ties from getting worse, according to the statement.

“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” Trump wrote, referring to the Asia-Paciﬁc Economic Cooperation group of 21 economies on the Paciﬁc Rim.

Efforts to finalize the TikTok deal

ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, expressed interest in ongoing negotiations to ensure the app’s services continue for U.S users, without providing much insight into how the ownership question would be resolved.

The Trump administration said earlier this week that a framework deal for the app’s ownership was reached with Chinese ofﬁcials during trade talks in Madrid.

Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, several times has extended a deadline for it to be spun off from ByteDance. It is a requirement under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.

U.S ofﬁcials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.

BY QUEENIE WONG Los Angeles Times (TNS)

More than a decade ago, pricey smart glasses that allowed people to snap photos, text and browse the web generated a lot of buzz but also resistance People who wore Google Glass in 2014 faced backlash over fears that the smart glasses, priced at $1,500, would secretly record people or make human interactions socially awkward. Two years later, the company behind the disappearing messaging app Snapchat tried selling sunglasses equipped with a camera in vending machines, but the wearable gadget also ﬂopped. Today, major tech companies — including Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google and Snap — are racing once again to entice more people to wear a computer on their face, competing to build what they view as the next big computing platform.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, and e-commerce giant Amazon are reportedly working on hightech glasses too. And ChatGPT maker OpenAI this year teamed

rather than a serious legal ﬁling,” spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said Friday Merryday noted that the lawsuit did not get to the ﬁrst defamation count until page 80. The lawsuit delves into Trump’s work on “The Apprentice” TV show and an “extensive list” of Trump’s other media appearances.

“As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” wrote Merryday, an appointment of former President George H.W Bush. “Although lawyers receive a modicum of expressive latitude in pleading the claim of a client, the complaint in this ac-

tion extends far beyond the outer bound of that latitude.”

The lawsuit named a book and an article written by Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig that focuses on Trump’s ﬁnances and his pre-presidency role in “The Apprentice.” Trump said in the lawsuit that they “maliciously peddled the fact-free narrative” that television producer Mark Burnett turned Trump into a celebrity — “even though at and prior to the time of publications defendants knew that President Trump was already a mega-celebrity and an enormous success in business.”

The lawsuit also attacked claims the reporters made about Trump’s early business dealings and his father, Fred.

Chinese ofﬁcials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the “use of intellectual property rights,” including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, said there does not appear to be a done deal over TikTok.

“Beijing frames market-based talks under Chinese law, keeping a de facto veto, while Trump casts himself as the ﬁnal approver,” he said.

Trump and Xi speak on wider trade issues

Top U.S. and Chinese ofﬁcials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls.

They are yet to reach any deal however on tech export restrictions, Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products or fentanyl. The Trump administration has imposed additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods linked to allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the ﬂow to the U.S. of the chemicals used to make opioids. China responded by levying additional 10% to 15% tariffs on U.S. farm goods.

up with Jony Ive, a former Apple executive known for designing the iPhone, to build new AI devices that will “completely reimagine what it means to use a computer.”

The race to develop wearable technology that could become as ubiquitous as smartphones is intensifying as AI assistants become increasingly integrated into people’s daily lives. The use of smart glasses, however, is still niche and may take several years to become more mainstream, analysts say “We’re heading in the right direction. It seems like 2025, 2026, even 2027 will be the years of inﬂection in the growth trajectory for smart glasses,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at the International Data Corporation who covers wearables.

Consumer adoption of smart glasses is growing. In the U.S., roughly 17% of online adults indicate they’ve used smart glasses, up 4% compared to last year, a survey Forrester released this year shows.

“While Meta has a head start on AI glasses, competition is champing at the bit,” wrote Mike Proulx, a vice president and research di-

Trump’s second-term trade war with Beijing has cost U.S. farmers one of their top markets. From January through July, American farm exports to China fell 53% compared with the same period last year The damage was even greater in some commodities: U.S. sorghum sales to China, for instance, were down 97%.

rector at Forrester in a blog post about Meta’s AI-powered glasses. Samsung, HTC and Apple are expected to release smart glasses next year

Snap, the Santa Monica-based tech company behind Snapchat, is also positioning itself as a contender Snap plans to sell more powerful augmented reality glasses in 2026. The company announced this week that it updated the operating system that powers its AR glasses.

Augmented reality technology overlays computer-generated images over the physical world and is used in games like Pokémon Go. It is also used for face ﬁlters on apps like Snapchat where people wear digital dog ears or change their hair color

Meta, which already sells RayBan smart glasses and virtual reality headsets, showcased its latest smart glasses in Menlo Park, Calif., on Wednesday night.

The lineup: a more advanced pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses starting at $379 with a longer battery life, AI assistant and the ability to capture more vivid videos; Oakley

Meta Vanguard glasses starting at $499 designed for workouts; and Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with a high-tech wristband starting at $799 that makes it possible for people to send text messages and complete other tasks using subtle hand gestures.

“Glasses are the only form factor where you can let an AI see what you see, hear what you hear, talk to you throughout the day,” said Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday night at Meta’s developer conference. “So it is no surprise that AI glasses are taking off.”

During the event, Zuckerberg showcased how donning smart glasses allows him to capture video while walking and running at the same time. He showed how the smart glasses, when paired with a smart wristband, could be used to write and send text by subtly moving one’s ﬁngers. He played music and even tried to take a WhatsApp video call — though that live demo failed.

“We’ll debug that later,” Zuckerberg said on stage after he couldn’t answer the WhatsApp call using the wristband and glasses.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By SUSAN WALSH

President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.

AP FILE PHOTO By DAMIAN DOVARGANES The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif. in 2023.

OPINION

Abitter moment of national division

Recent events have not brought the nation together, as many had hoped, buthave torn us further apart. We all know Democratsdon’tlike the Republican Party and Republicans don’tlike the Democratic Party That’sunderstandable. But anew national poll from the Economist/YouGov lays out evidenceofthe deeper, more scorching, temperofour times. Majorities of voters in eachparty describe the opposing sideas“evil,” “extreme,” “intolerant” and “corrupt.” Mind you, these areAmericans talking about one another, including neighbors, friends and family members.

The poll ﬁnds that 88% of voters believe the nationhas become more “politicallydivided” during the past ﬁve years. More ominously, nearly nine out of 10 voters believe there is greater politicalviolence now than there was 10 years ago. These numbers paint apicture of Americashaped by internal discord,a conditionthatwill become more hateful, more distrustful— and, heavenforbid, more violent —aslong as commonvalues and shared beliefs fall away.

Based on the poll, 10% of the nation’selectorate which includes 16% of Kamala Harrisvoters and 5% of Donald Trump voters— sayit’s“justiﬁed for citizensto resort to violence in ordertoachievepolitical goals.”

At ﬁrst glance, you maythink this is somewhatgood news, that only one out often Americans thinkviolence can be justiﬁed. But consider whatthisnumber really means: The equivalent of 10% ofU.S. adults is 27 millionpeople. That’salot of peoplewho see political violence as an option.

Overall, 65% of voters are concernedabout left-wing extremism (including 90% of Republicans) and 62% are concerned about right-wing extremism(including 88% of Democrats). Among independents, who eschew both party labels, 56%are concerned about extremism on the left and 57% aboutextremismonthe right. Not surprisingly,awhopping 73% majority ofconservatives think most politicalviolenceinthe U.S. is committedbythe left, andahuge 69% of liberalssay most is committed by the right. Independentssplit nearlydownthe middle.Mostmen,Whitesand those 45 and olderperceive the left as the culprit; mostwomen, Blacks and those youngerthan45view theright as the culprit. Hispanics are closely divided.

From awider perspective,72% of votersbelieve thecurrent momentinAmerican politics feels likea “signiﬁcant turning point.” This is howself-fulﬁlling prophecies come true. The recent assassinationofconservativeactivist Charlie Kirk wasboth anationaltragedy and apainfulcatalystfor much of this moment. While millions of Americans across the spectrum mournhis death and pray for his family, the entire electorate is evenly divided on Kirk himself: 39% favorable,39% unfavorable. The partisan differenceisstark: 75%ofRepublicans are favorable toward him and only 5%are unfavorable; in the reverse,just 4%ofDemocratsare favorable toward him and 68% are unfavorable. That’sabout as polarizedasyou canget While 68% of Republicans believe Kirk’skiller was motivated by left-wing beliefs,only 10% of Democrats agree. Fifty-three percent of Democrats believe other beliefs motivated the killing. As we often see, it’sbecoming harder to get agreement across party lines on thefacts forany issue.

For years, political scientists argued that the nation needed a“responsible” two-party system, which meant parties marked by cohesionwithin their ranks and clearly opposing viewsbetween them. Well, they got it. And it’satleast partlyresponsible forthe slow-motion collapse of American democracy. When you add together technology,social media, unlimited money and ideologically rigid parties,the result is apolitical system that breeds extremismand corruption. It also pushesindependent thinking out of the process and forces unpleasant Election Day choices.

Today’spartisans and politicians don’tnecessarily want the system to be thisway —the founders gaveus fair warning —but they have walkedbackwardinto the morass. While they pursue honestly-held beliefs, they tend to only blame the otherside,and notthe system itself, for its ills. This means no common ground, only killing ﬁelds of political combat. Andthat, more than anything, has led to this moment. Is this what it feels like whenacountry is on the vergeofbreaking apart? Let’s hope not.

RonFaucheux is anonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writerbasedinLouisiana.

Help keep olderLouisianans on their feet with access to physical

We don’toften think of slips and trips being public health concerns, but falls andfalls-related injuries are some of the most pressing health risks facing olderLouisianans. Theseaccidents often lead to serious injuries, aloss of independenceand substantialhealth care costs —all figures that will keep risingunless lawmakers intervene. My colleaguesatPhysiofitPhysical Therapyand Irecently hadthe opportunity to welcome staff from the office of Sen. Bill Cassidy,where we shared more information aboutthe keyrole physical andoccupational therapists play in reducingfall risks.

Thegood news is that falls are preventable.The badnews? Medicare doesn’t currently cover fallsrisk assessments providedbyphysical andoccupational therapists —falls experts whoare trainedto assess balance, strength andmobility and help individuals developpersonalized plans to avoid falls. That’s

why I’m encouraging Sen. Cassidy to support the bipartisan Stopping Addiction and Falls for the Elderly (SAFE) Act. This common-sense legislation would allow Medicare beneﬁciariestoreceive ano-cost falls risk assessment during their annual wellness visit by the very professionalstrained to prevent falls: physical andoccupational therapists. Passing the SAFE Act would help reversethe trends of the costly,deadly andgrowing problem facing adults 65 and older,asfalls are the leading cause of injury for this population.

Older Louisianans deserve access to the preventive care that will keep them on theirfeet and out of the hospital. Iurge Congress to take action to safeguard the health, safety and qualityoflifeofour aging population by improving access to physical therapy.

RUTGERUSJONGBLOETS regional vice president, UpstreamRehabilitation

We areheading toward acceptingapolicestate

Ihave traveled extensively throughout theU.S., Europe and Israel. There are only four places in which Iencountered armed military troopsonthe street: New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, Jerusalem and TelAvivin1991 and communist-occupied Prague in 1969.

Now,President Donald Trump’s solution to crime is thedeployment of military troops on U.S. streets, beginning in Washington, D.C. He

threatensthat Chicago is on the list.

From what I’ve read, Adolf Hitler showed his power in Nazi Germany by sending paramilitary forces into German cities as early as 1933.

TheRepublican Party has always stood for less federal government involvementinour lives. Is this really the way to make America great?

MARYSCULLY NewOrleans

Notinhumanetopunishthose whobreak immigrationlaws

In arecent letter,areader implied thatthose who recite the Pledge of Allegianceand yet advocate to house “nonviolent immigrants” at Angola may be hypocritical. The Pledge says, “with liberty and justicefor all,” yet some politicians advocatefor incarceration in Angola The reader seems to believe that such apolicy is cruel, inhumane and even “ungodly.”

Iwonder if the reader believes that those who are convicted of robbery, assault and even murder shouldstill enjoy liberty. If not, then whatabout those who break this country’s laws by entering illegally? Shouldtheyremain at liberty? Would that servejustice? Immigration is greatly to be desired, but only when done lawfully

Our elected representatives here in Louisiana never disappoint in their ability to defy reason or decency Rep. Clay Higgins’ recent call to defund the New Orleans Health Department is anew low in idiocy Why would we listen to pediatricians who have hadabachelor’sdegree, followed by four years of medical school and then athree-year pediatric residency? After which, they must become licensed by passing the appropriate exams. Instead, we should follow the latest social media posts by our Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr alawyer and vaccine skeptic who hasaworm in his brain? Aman who wasconﬁrmed in his post due to the idiocy of Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is nowhaving buyer’sremorse. Higgins, along with other ﬂat-earth science deniers and “their band of sorcerers,” should stay out of the way of the dedicated health professionals doing their jobs to keep us healthy PATTY SPINALE NewOrleans

Murrillwilling to play gameswiththe lawin opposing Caddovote

Iwonder if Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill would be as concerned about avote by the Caddo Commission to welcomeSen. Bernie Sanders to Shreveport that wastaken by machine instead of by avoice vote (viva voce) if the resolution had been to welcomeAttorney General Pam Bondi or Vice President JD Vance. Is she going to ask ajudge to

Ron Faucheux

GAMEDAY

SouTheASTern AT LSu • 6:45 p.m. SATurdAy • Secn

SH S ‘S ’

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

Afew games into his ﬁrst season as a tight end, Bauer Sharp called his dad.

“I’m never playing quarterback again,” Sharp’s dad recalled him saying. “I love this.”

Sharp had been recruited to Southeastern Louisiana as a quarterback, but after spending his freshman year so far down the depth chart that he remembers being ﬁfth string, he changed positions.

Four years later, Sharp is the starting tight end for No. 3 LSU. Everyone in his family has gotten tattoos on their wrists once they’re old enough that say “our story,” and Sharp’s stands out on a team ﬁlled with former blue-chip recruits. He’s the only starter at LSU this season whose career began at an FCS school.

Sharp was an unranked, zero-star prospect coming out of Dothan (Ala.) High. His one scholarship offer came from Southeastern.

He has thought a lot about how far he has come since then, especially this week LSU plays Southeastern at 6:45 p.m. Saturday inside Tiger Stadium

“That’ll probably be a little emotional for me,” Sharp said.

meet the LSu starting tight end whose career began as a fifth-string Qb at Southeastern ä

LSUGAMEDAY

BROADCAST INFORMATION TEAM SCHEDULES

LSU vs. Southeastern

6:45 p.m. Saturday,Tiger Stadium

TV: SECN | Line: LSUby38½ Radio: WDGL-FM, 98.1; WWL-AM, 870; WWL-FM,105.3; KLWB-FM, 103.7

LSU

Date Opponent Time/TV

Southeastern

8.30 at Clemson W, 17-10

9.6Louisiana Tech W, 23-7

9.13 FloridaW, 20-17

9.20 Southeastern 6:45 p.m./SECN 9.27 at OleMiss2:30p.m./ABC 10.11South CarolinaTBD 10.18atVanderbiltTBD 10.25Texas A&M TBD

at AlabamaTBD

LSU

SoutheasterngaveSharpachance whenno one else did, and it began his development into a tight end. He hadplayedthe positiononce before hisredshirtfreshmanyear.But he gotgood enough to transfer to Oklahoma, then come to LSU for his ﬁnal college season,hoping to prove he can playinthe NFL.

“His story was one offer,” saidSharp’smom, Amy.“He’s like,‘With thisone offer,whatam Igoing to do with it?’ And he is doing exactly what the Lord has written out. He puts in the hard work. He’sgoing to showwhat he can do.”

Through three games, Sharp is LSU’sthirdleading receiver withnine receptions for 97 yards,including a65-yard catch-and-run in a winagainst Florida. Lined up as afullback on the ﬁnal drive against theGators, he helped spring running back Caden Durham for a51yard gain that letLSU drain the rest of the clock.

“You don’twant atight end that can’t hold his own in the run game, and he certainly can do that,” LSUcoach BrianKelly said. “Catches the ball, is accountable, is agreat teammate and at the end of the day,he’sgoing to compete his tail off for youfor fourquarters.”

Looking back, there were signs thatmaybe Sharpalwaysshould have playedtight end. He was aphysical childwho likedtowrestle with hisdad andbox in the front yard with the neighbor. Therewas atimewhenhefelt timid playingfootball,but once thatwentaway, he lovedcontact. He once toldhis momhewanted to playdefense so he could hit people. He never slid as aquarterback

“He played quarterback likehewas alinebacker,” said Sharp’sdad,Jason Sharp didn’tcomefromafootballfamily His dad had played second baseatAuburn University at Montgomery.Sharp was alsoa talented baseball player,starring as ashortstop andcenter ﬁelder,and he didn’t play football in ninthgrade becausesummerbaseballhad run long. The arm strength he needed to makethose throws was the reason he played quarterback

“I hadone speed: just slinging it as hard as I could, just because of baseball,” Sharp said. “I’d runaround,throw it wherethe open guywas. I was raw.Iwasn’tagood quarterback.”

Sharp was home-schooled until eighth grade, when his parents enrolled him at Northside Methodist Academy.Heimpressed as thestart-

STAFF PREDICTIONS

WILSON ALEXANDER

LSU 38,SLU 0

Afterholdingits firstthree opponentsto10pointsor fewer, LSUwillrecordits firstshutout of theseason. Southeastern hasscored101 points over itspasttwo games, butitgot shut outinits season opener against LouisianaTech. LSUhas an even better defense, andit’s hungry fora shutoutafter lettingone slip away against LouisianaTech. Andyes,the offensewilllookbetter againstanovermatched opponent

REED DARCEY

LSU 35,SLU 7

Note that Southeastern hasatop-20FCS scoring defensethrough threegames,but don’tforgetthe caveat that it shouldn’tmatter. TheLions areanFCS team.The LSUoffense should roll.Ifitdoesn’t,then GarrettNussmeier mightbefurther away from full health than BrianKelly hasindicated,and theTigers’ offensiveissuesmight be more ingrainedthanwethink they are. Expect four or five touchdowns

ing quarterback, but if he wanted to play college football, he needed to go to ahigherlevel.He transferred to Dothan High, a6Aschool at the time,and playedmultiple positions during his junior year

Thefollowing spring, former Alabamacoach NickSaban visited Dothan High to check on afour-star runningback. He talked to Sharp while he wasthere. Sharp, whogrew up rooting forAlabamabecause his dad’s side of the family was from Tuscaloosa, felt stunned. “But in the back of my mind,”Sharp said, “I didn’thave conﬁdence that Icould go to Alabama and play football at quarterback.” Afew weeks later,the COVID-19 pandemic began. Normal recruiting shut down as Sharp became Dothan’sstarting quarterback. He was talland lankyatthe time, so he joineda CrossFit gym. His parents also got him aspeed coach. The pandemic wrecked his recruitment, butinhindsight,itgavehim time to develop his body

“I wasmore athleticcoming outofCOVID than Iwas before,”Sharp said.“That setme up for life, honestly.”

During his senioryear,Dothan went 2-7after moving up to the 7A classiﬁcation. South Alabama, his mom’salma mater,showedinterest in Sharp, but it never extended acommittable offer after the NCAA gave every player an extra year of eligibility because of COVID.

“That broke his heart,” Sharp’sdad said. At the same time, then-Northwestern State assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Anthony Scelfo was looking for aquarterback in the2020 class. Using asoftwarethatlet him find every high school quarterback within driving distance, he compiled alist of names from around the South and watched their film. Scelfo identified Sharp and aquarterback out of Arkansas. Northwestern State planned to take the first one that joined the class. The other player got the spot, but Scelfo called his dad, Southeastern head coach Frank Scelfo, to recommend Sharp.

Though then-Southeastern offensive coordinator GregStevens said the team wasalready recruiting him, Sharp credited Anthony Scelfo with getting him an offer.Ifnothing had come, he would have played junior college baseball.

“If he didn’twork out at quarterback,” Stevens said, “he was big enough and athletic enough that we could movehim to another position.”

As Sharp redshirted his ﬁrst season, the coaches noticed his training in the weight room and began to talk about his position. He wasn’tready to playquarterback anytime soon, andSharp

SCOTTRABALAIS

LSU 41,SLU 3

I’mgoing to go outonashort limb here andsay theTigers finallyget theiroffense untracked… to a reasonable degree.yes,Garrett Nussmeierdoesneedto play in this game despitehis naggingtorso injury.Such is thestate of theLSU offense— no time fortimeoff.The Tigers at long last buildsomeoffensive momentum and haveNussputting hisfeetupshortly afterhalftime.

KOKI RILEY

LSU 49,SLU 7

LSU’soffensive issues havebeendocumentedatlength, andnewsofGarrett Nussmeier’storso injury adds to theconcerns.But Southeastern Louisianaiseasilythe weakestteamonLSU’s schedule.The Lionswereshut outbyLouisiana Tech back in Week 1, andthey’re the only FCSschoolLSU faces. If LSUdoesn’t jump outto abig lead by halftime,the groans will grow louder

STAFFPHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU tight end Bauer Sharp races upfield after making acatchagainst Florida in the fourthquarter of their game on Sept.13atTiger Stadium.

wanted to do whatever he could to get on the ﬁeld. They had conversations about turning him into adefensive end/outside linebacker. But listed at 6-foot-5 and 220 poundsatthe time with his experience on offense, tight end made the mostsense. It took time for Sharp to learn anew position after he switched during spring practice. He understood the offensive scheme from playing quarterback, which he thoughtgave him an advantage, but his techniqueneeded alot of work. As raw as he was,he did everythingatfull speed

“He had no idea what was going on,” Stevens said. “He was like awildbuck running everywhere.”

As he began to ﬁgure things out, Sharp played in every game and started twice as a redshirt freshman. He caught 11 passesfor 78 yards and a touchdown and ran 10 times for 83 yards. He became known for the hits he delivered on kickoffs.

Ayear later,Sharp impressed in aseason-opening loss to Mississippi State. He caught only two passes for 20 yardsand ran oncefor 13 yards, but physically,helooked like he belonged with everyone else on theﬁeld After the game, some Mississippi State players talked to him.

“Bro, our coach said he wants you to play for us,” Sharp remembered them saying. Sharp began to think about transferring afterthat.

during an in-homevisit with tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley and then-offensive coordinator SethLittrell.

“They weregreat at ﬁguring out what to do with that intensity,thataggression, howtohelp himkind of point it in the right direction and use it to his beneﬁt,” Sharp’sdad said.

In his ﬁrst year in the SEC, Sharp led Oklahoma in receptions (42) and yards receiving (324) while starting everygame. But gutted by injuries, theOklahomaoffense was amess.

Littrell got ﬁred in the middle of the season.

They were greatatﬁguring outwhat to do with that intensity, that aggression, how to helphim kind ofpointitin the right direction and useitto his beneﬁt.”

JASON SHARP Bauer’sdad, on Oklahoma football

“I know Icould play somewhere big,” Sharp said. “There was alwaysthis feeling like, bro, I’m meant for something so much bigger.”

Over the rest of the 2023 season,Sharp played in every game and made eight starts. He caught 29 passes for288 yards andthree touchdowns, and he added133 yards and ﬁve touchdownsonthe ground asa wildcatquarterback. His dad got phone calls before the season ended from teams that wanted him to transfer

“When he walkedinand tolduswhat was happening,” said Anthony Scelfo, whojoined Southeastern’sstaff in 2021, “and theoffers that were coming in, we’re like, ‘What areyou doing? Whyare you still in the building?’ ”

This time, many teamswere interested Sharp narrowed them down to Oklahoma, Utah and Tennessee. He committed to the Sooners

With uncertainty around the coaching staffand quarterback situation,Sharp beganto thinkabout transferring again for his last year of eligibility He needed moreﬁlm to reach theNFL,and hisfamilywas concernedOklahoma would not use the tight end position theway he needed it to.He and his parents thought about it for weeks before he entered thetransfer portal.

“It smelled like arebuilding year coming,” Sharp’sdad said.

“And with oneyear left to really show theNFL scouts what he can do, we didn’twant to be part of arebuild.

“Now, Oklahomahas done a great job,and we had no doubt that they wouldspend whatever it took to get thatteam back to where it needs to be. It’s Oklahoma, so you know they would get back. Butthere wasn’t aguarantee, andthere weren’tenough pieces in place at the time.”

Sixdays later,Sharp visited LSU. Auburn had called,too. It’s closer to home,and his sister goes there. But LSU offered him everything he wanted. He committed before he left campus, making him the ﬁrst transfer to join theteam in the offseason.

On Saturday, Sharp looks forward to seeing theformer Southeastern coaches and teammateswho helped him get this far.Hehas told hisdad he wished he couldhave gone to one school and stayed there for four years.

Butthat’s not his story

“It blows my mind,” Sharp said. “You really can never take it for granted, what God does.”

FormoreLSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/ lsunewsletter

at St. Francis(Pa.) (0-3), noon Troy (1-2) at Buffalo (2-1), 2:30 p.m. Ball St. (1-2) at Uconn (1-2), 2:30 p.m. Howard (2-1) vs.Hampton (1-2), Md., 3p.m.

Youngstown St.(2-1)atTowson (2-1),5 p.m.

Lehigh(3-0) at Bucknell(2-1), 5p.m. Cornell (0-0) at Albany (NY)(0-3), 6p.m.

SOUTH SC State (2-1) at South Florida(2-1), 11 a.m.

Bowling Green (2-1)atLouisville(2-0),11a.m.

Arkansas (2-1) at Memphis(3-0),11a.m. Syracuse (2-1) at Clemson(1-2), 11 a.m.

at Virginia Tech (0-3), 11 a.m. UAB(2-1) at Tennessee

Murray St. (0-3) at Jacksonville St. (1-2), 6p.m.

Lane(0-0) at Alabama A&M (2-1), 6p.m.

GreensboroPride (0-0)atDavidson (0-3), 6p.m.

Nevada (1-2) at W. Kentucky (2-1), 6p.m.

Coastal Carolina (1-2)atSouth Alabama (1-2), 6p.m.

Maine (0-3)atGeorgia Southern (1-2), 6p.m.

Stanford(1-2) at Virginia (2-1), 6:30 p.m.

Georgia St. (1-2) at Vanderbilt (3-0),6:30 p.m.

BYU(2-0) at East Carolina (2-1), 6:30 p.m.

Christian(1-2),7 p.m. Nicholls (1-2)atTexas State (2-1),7p.m. UL-Monroe (1-1)atUTEP(1-2),8 p.m. FARWEST

STAFF PHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK LSU tight end Bauer Sharpstiff-arms Florida defensivebackJordan Castell in thesecond half of their game on Sept. 13 at TigerStadium.

THENATION

THINGS TO WATCHINWEEK4

QB ARNOLD RETURNSTOOKLAHOMA

Auburn quarterbackJackson Arnold revisits his old stomping groundsinNormanwhenNo. 22

Auburn (3-0)visitsthe 11th-rankedSooners (3-0) on Saturday.The Tigers offense averages 37 points and415.7 yardsper game.JeremiahCobb hasrushedfor 314yards and four touchdowns andaverages 6.8yards percarry,and Eric Singletonand CamColeman lead thereceiving corps. OU counters with oneofthe nation’s best defenses.The Soonersranksecond nationally in fewest yardspassing allowedper game (84.7),fourthintotal defense(181.0) and fourth in points allowedper game (6.3).

RANKED BIGTEN SQUADS TO BATTLE

Bret Bielemaand Curt Cignetti havebuilt budding powers in theBig Ten, BielemaatNo. 9Illinoisand Cignetti at No.19Indiana.Bothhave3-0 marks headingintoSaturday. Last year Cignetti brokethe Hoosiers’ losing legacy with theschool’s firstCollege Football Playoff appearance.Illinoishas followed asimilar trek up thepolls.The Fighting Illinihavetheir highest rankingsince Dick Butkus finalcollege season in 1964 andheadintothisweekend seeking their firstroadwin as atop-10teamsince 1990 Indiana is lookingfor asignature wintoput itself back in themix foranother playofftrip.

GAMECOCKSHEADTOCOLUMBIA

No.23Missouriplays host to SouthCarolina(2-1) on Saturday.The Tigers (3-0)feature arobust ground game ledbyrunning back AhmadHardy, whohas 462yards on 57 carriesand five touchdowns Senior QB Beau Pribulahas 791 passingyards,seven TDsand oneinterceptioninthree games. Mizzou hasthe nation’s fifth-best defensethisseason, allowing 191.3yards pergameand only 100passing yards pergame. QB LaNorris Sellersand theGamecocks look to bounce back from last week’s 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt.Sellers haspassedfor 431yards,two TDsand an interception this season 2

—AssociatedPress

1. GEORGIA

Record: 3-0 overall, 1-0 SEC

Previous rank: 2

Last week: DefeatedTennessee44-41 (OT)

Thisweek: Idle

2. LSU

Record: 3-0 overall, 1-0 SEC

Previous rank: 1

Last week: DefeatedFlorida 20-10

Thisweek: vs.Southeastern Louisiana, 6:45 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork)

3. TEXASA&M

Record: 3-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 12

Last week: DefeatedNotre Dame 41-40

Thisweek: Idle

4. TEXAS

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 3

Last week: DefeatedUTEP 27-10

Forasmuch anticipation as there is for every LSU footballseason,from theaction on theﬁeld tothe bands toMikethe Tiger prowling and growling in his habitat, every campaign hasits low point. Its“Hit the snooze button and wake mewhen things start cooking again” week.

Typically,Saturday’sWeek4 encounter between No. 3LSU and the Southeastern Lions in TigerStadium (6:45 p.m., SEC Network) would qualify

But this has not been a typical week. This has not been atypical team, theﬁrst potential powerhouse LSU team of thetransfer portal/ NIL era, stuffed as it is with atalented roster compiled for $18.5 million, per coach Brian Kelly

Normally,everyone around here would like to hit the fast-forward button on a game like this and get to theﬁnal score, then get on with the preparationsand chatter leading up to an always heated and hated rivalry game with Ole Miss. As Grand Moff Tarkin said in “Star Wars” before he and the DeathStar were blown to smithereens, 3-0 LSU will have time to “deal with your Rebel friends soon enough.” For now,there is pressing business and pressing things to prove against the 2-1 Lions. There has been alot moredrama and intrigue this week for LSU than normal for your garden variety in-state game. The Tigers have won 38 straight against in-state opposition since fallingin1982 to Tulane. Unless asinkhole opensupbeneathKelly’s heroes coming down VictoryHill before the

game, thatstreak is certain to run to 39 It’simportanthow LSU plays against SLU,not just thatitplays. Afterscoring just 53 offensive pointsintheir ﬁrst three games —albeit against good to very good defenses from Clemson, Louisiana Tech and Florida —the Tigers absolutely have to get the engine revved up against the Lions LSU’splayers appear to have grasped that concept coming off a20-10 win against Florida in which the Tigers scored only 13 offensive points.

“I feel as if we didn’tplay our best,” starting left tackle Tyree Adamssaid Tuesday. “Everyone could see that. We have to focus now on dominating practice, and that will carry us through thegames.”

Kelly indicated that Adams’ attitude was one that pervaded theteam, declaring Thursdaythat theTigers had agreat week of preparation

They needed it. No one inside that locker roomwants to see arepeat of the Nicholls Stategame from ayear ago, agame LSU won 44-21 but one that the Tigers only led 23-21 in the third quarter.OrLSU’slackluster 23-7 victory over LouisianaTech two weeks ago. LSU simply has to get going offensively or it risks squandering avery realistic opportunity to win awide-open Southeastern Conference and get intothe CollegeFootball Playoff. All this talk circles back to thedebate over whether Garrett Nussmeier should play quarterback for the Tigers on Saturday.Kelly revealed Monday that his star slinger has been battlinga“torso injury” (thinksome kind of muscle pull or strain that has limited his throwing ability) since preseason camp.Kelly said Nussmeier will

play,adamant that he feels better than he has in weeks and is “returning to health,” as aformer LSU coach used to say For Kelly,parking the Nuss bus this week to vastly increase theodds of having him healthy for the season’snext big showdown at Ole Miss apparentlyhas not entered into the equation.

“Let’s play Garrett, see how it goes and makeadjustments during the game,” Kelly said Thursday,hinting that if the Tigers get far enough ahead of the Lions you could see backup quarterback Michael VanBuren get his ﬁrst on-ﬁeld action in this one.

That has to be LSU’shope, not needing to have Nussmeier take aknee in victory formation as he was at the end of the Florida game. That was Florida. No offense to the folks from Hammond, but this is SLU.LSU has got to show something positive offensively against the Lions, who are arespectable team on the FCS level. If not this week, when? If Nussmeier’sinjury situation has indeed limited the offense as Kelly suggests, we should start to seesomesigns.

Not that scoring 40, 45 or 50 points against SLU with 200 yards rushing and 300 yards passing will prove LSU’s offense is ready to be an upper-echelon unit in the SEC. Butitwould be astart. An important, perhaps conﬁdence-building start. Don’t thinkfor asecond LSU’soffensive players and coaches aren’twondering the same thingsabout themselves that everyone on theoutside is wondering. So don’tsleep through this LSU non-con contest. There is plenty to watch for, and plentytoevaluateonthe other side.

Thisweek: vs.Sam Houston, 7p.m. Saturday (ESPN+/SECNetwork+)

5. OKLAHOMA

Record: 3-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 4

Last week: DefeatedTemple42-3

Thisweek: vs.Auburn, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

6. VANDERBILT

Record: 3-0 overall, 1-0 SEC

Previous rank: 7

Last week: DefeatedSouth Carolina 31-7

Thisweek: vs.Georgia State,6:30 p.m.

Saturday(ESPNU)

7. TENNESSEE

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-1 SEC

Previous rank: 10

Last week: Lost to Georgia 44-41 (OT)

Thisweek: vs.UAB,11:45 a.m. Saturday (SECNetwork)

8. OLEMISS

Record: 3-0 overall, 2-0 SEC

Previous rank: 11

Last week: DefeatedArkansas 41-35

Thisweek: vs.Tulane,2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)

9. MISSISSIPPISTATE

Record: 3-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 9

Last week: DefeatedAlcornState 63-0

Thisweek: vs.Northern Illinois, 3:15 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork)

10.AUBURN

Record: 3-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 5

Last week: DefeatedSouth Alabama 31-15

Thisweek: at Oklahoma, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

11.MISSOURI

Record: 3-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 6

Last week: DefeatedUL52-10

Thisweek: vs.South Carolina, 6p.m. Saturday(ESPN)

12.ALABAMA

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: 14

Last week: DefeatedWisconsin 38-14

Thisweek: Idle

13.ARKANSAS

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-1 SEC

Previous rank: 13

Last week: Lost to Ole Miss 41-35

Thisweek: at Memphis, 11 a.m. Saturday (ABC)

14.SOUTH CAROLINA

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-1 SEC

Previous rank: 8

Last week: Lost to Vanderbilt 31-7

Thisweek: at Missouri, 6p.m. Saturday (ESPN)

15.FLORIDA

Record: 1-2 overall, 0-1 SEC

Previous rank: 15

Last week: Lost to LSU20-10

Thisweek: at Miami, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

16.KENTUCKY

Record: 2-1 overall, 0-1 SEC

Previous rank: 16

Last week: DefeatedEastern Michigan 4823

Thisweek: Idle

Scott Rabalais

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU running back Caden Durham dives forward forextra yards over Louisiana Tech defensivebackJacob Fields on Sept. 6atTiger Stadium. LSU looks to getits offense revved up againstSoutheasternonSaturday

SPORTS

Shot of conﬁdence

STAFFPHOTO By BRAD KEMP

Cajuns searchingfor some positivesastheyvisit

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

YPSILANTI, Mich. UL coach Michael Desormeaux’sﬁrst two seasons as head coach had their fair shareofangst and frustration.

But Desormeaux isn’tsosurehis anxiety meter isn’tatan all-timehigh heading into Saturday’s2:30p.m. kickoff against Eastern Michigan at Rynearson Stadium.

“Yeah, it is,” he said. “That ﬁrst year we were not good on offense. We knewthat. We knew we had some real personnel issues. We don’thave personnel issues right now.Wehave performance issues

Saints defensive end Carl Granderson reacts after making a stop against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in the Caesars Superdome.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

right now

“That’sreally frustrating. Ithink as a coach,your jobistotry to get themost you canout of everyplayerfor them to get to their potential,and right now,Ifeel like we’re not gettingthat.”

The biggest issue has been thepassing game,whichhas produced only 178 yards in three games for the Cajuns (1-2).

EasternMichigan

“We’re trying to make things easier right now,but thechemistry piece is just off alittle bit,” UL associate coach Jorge Munoz said. “It’sjust how this guy runs an outroute is different whenthe next guy runs an out route—alow ball to oneguy was maybe aperfect ball to theother guy

“Wedidn’tsee it during fall camp.We didn’tsee this at all. It’sonly when the game startedthat this started happening.”

Redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Bealeand backup Lunch Winﬁeld combined to go 2-of-14 passing for 4yards in last week’s52-10 loss to Missouri

Saints’Grandersonoff to fast start

BY MATTHEW PARAS

son is tied for the NFL lead in sacks, start with aplay that wasn’ta sack at all. In the Saints’ season opener,Arizona Cardinals running back Trey Benson broke containment down the right side. This, admittedly,was terribledefense from the Saints. But as Benson ran downthe 25, the 35 and the45, Granderson suddenly entered the frame. The defensive

endsprintedpastcornerback KoolAid McKinstry and linebacker Pete Werner to bringdownthe running back. He limited the damage to 52 yards instead of atouchdown Want to know why Carl Granderson leadsthe NFL in sacks? Hustle. Effort.Grit. “He’sgot arelentless motor that’s obvious on the silent tape,” defensive coordinator Brandon Staley said Granderson’s relentlessnesshas resultedin31/2 sacks to beginthe season, tying him with Cleveland’s MylesGarrettand NewEngland’s

HaroldLandry at the top of the leaderboard. Granderson’ssacks arevery much areflection of hiseffort. Against the Cardinals, he chased Kyler Murray out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage and then took Murray downagain fora half-sack afterteammateCam Jordan made the initial hit. Aweek later against the San Francisco 49ers, Granderson cleaned up on an initial pressure generated by Bryan Bresee. Then on hissecond sack, Grandersonsprinted over to greet quarterback Mac Jones after aWerner blitzforced himtostepupinthe pocket.

ä See GRANDERSON, page 8C

BY ANNE M. PETERSON AP sportswriter

“Wehave got to do things to help ourplayers, but we gottostepup, we gottoperform in someareas, too,” Desormeaux said. “Westill need to take play-actionshots.Weneed to complete somedang nakeds. That’sone thing that we’ve been really good at. Right now,we can’teven complete nakeds.”

For the season, UL quarterbacks are completing just 40% of their passes.

“Wegot to help thequarterback out who is trying to ﬁnd arhythm,” Munoz said. “Even if he wasaveteran guy we’ve gottomake the tough catches. Not

6inEugene, Ore.

“The Oregon versus Oregon State (rivalry) fora player,yeah, it’snot what it used to be. Conference alignment. Guys aremoving from here to there, so that’spart of it for the players. Nowthe fans are different,” Bray said. “But for the players, it’sagameagainst a top-level opponent, and that’sthe exciting thing in an environment that’sgoing to be great.”

The Pac-12 began to fall apart in 2022 whenUSC and UCLA announced they werebolting for the Big Ten, with Washington

There’sstill nostalgia for the Paciﬁc Northwest’sformer Pac12 rivalries, even if the realities of college football mean the gap between the teams involved is growing wider Washington visitsWashington State in the 117th Apple Cup on Saturday and Oregon State visitsOregon in arivalry that dates back to 1894. The rivalries used to be the highlight of theyearfor many fans in both states,and thegames were playedonthe last weekend of the season, adding to the tradition and drama. But realignment changed everything. NIL money and the transfer portal added to the divide between programs. Oregon State coach Trent Bray pointed to someofthose things ahead of the Beavers’ game Saturday against the No. 6Ducks at Autzen Stadium, while saying it was still agrowth opportunity for his players.

against Riceinthe season opener on Aug. 30 at OurLadyofLourdes Stadium. The Cajuns defensemust produceagainst EasternMichiganonSaturdayinypsilanti, Mich., while the offense searches for answers in thepassing game.

5:30

Cecilia routs Northside for first win

BY ERIC NARCISSE Staff writer

It took longer than he would have liked it to have taken.

Nevertheless, Cody Champagne got his ﬁrst win of his head coaching career Thursday when his Cecilia Bulldogs defeated the Northside Vikings 41-21.

“It’s great,” Champagne said. “But I’m happy for those guys. They are the ones putting in the work.” After the Vikings (2-1) took a 7-0 lead and recovered the ensuing kickoff Champagne’s Bulldogs went on to excel in all three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams.

Offensively, the trio of quarterback Collin Dore, running back Braylon Calais and receiver Jermaine Davis scored all six of the Bulldogs’ touchdowns

Dore, who rushed for a touchdown, was 10-of-22 passing for 139 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

Calais rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries and caught three passes for 24 yards and another score. Davis, who didn’t have a reception in the second half, ﬁnished the game with six catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns

“Our offense works whenever everybody does their job,” Champagne said.

“Braylon is a special kid, but he is an even more special human being. Collin has blossomed a lot, and JJ (Davis) has a lot of wiggle out there. They did a great job.” Defensively, things didn’t start out well for the Bulldogs (1-2).

They allowed the Vikings to take the opening drive 63 yards in ﬁve plays, capped by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kaleb Josephe to Jai Joseph.

Josephe completed 17 of 32 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown. But after the Vikings recovered the ensuing kickoff at the Bulldogs 33, Cecilia’s defensive unit held strong.

Eli Williams, who recorded a sack on the opening drive, dis-

rupted the drive on the ﬁrst play when he sacked Josephe for a loss of 7 yards.

A 4-yard run and a 3-yard completion resulted in a punt for the Vikings.

After the opening touchdown drive, the Bulldogs defense held the Vikings to 48 yards of total offense over their next eight possessions en route to building a 41-7 lead midway through the third quarter Linebacker Braylon Jones was outstanding, establishing him-

self as a tackling machine with double-digit tackles, recording a sack and blocking a punt. Williams finished with two sacks, while Conner Helaire also recorded a sack.

“Our defense came out and hit them in the mouth right away,” Champagne said.

“We’ve talked about wanting to take it to people, and that’s what we want to do on offense, defense and special teams.”

Northside added two fourthquarter touchdowns on a 1-yard

run by Javante Broussard and a 2-yard run by Kamron Celestine to cut the deficit to 41-21 with 4:21 remaining in the game.

Broussard finished with a team-high 86 yards on four receptions, while Celestine led the rushing attack with 40 yards on eight carries.

“I think our guys fought hard,” Champagne said. “From the second quarter on, they carried us.”

Email Eric Narcisse at enarcisse@theadvocate.com.

LCA cruises past Westgate to stay unbeaten

BRANDON COMEAUX

Contributing writer

In a battle of who could control the line of scrimmage, the Lafayette Christian Academy Knights dominated with their rushing attack while shutting down Westgate’s ground game en route to a 45-21 victory on Thursday at Knight Field.

“I’m so proud of our defense,” said LCA coach Matt Standiford, who praised a Tiger squad ﬁlled with sophomores and juniors.

“We expected this performance on our end.”

On the ﬁrst drive of the game, sophomore Caiden Bellard gave the Tigers defense a taste of what they would see all night as he scored on a 34-yard run.

Nearly six minutes later, on fourth-and-8, Bellard scored on an 18-yard touchdown catch as LCA took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter Bellard ﬁnished with 225 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries as the Knights controlled the line of scrimmage and had the Tigers defense reeling. Bellard was quick to credit his offensive line following what was statistically the best game of his young career

“The O-line did an excellent job tonight,” Bellard said.

“They opened up holes that were so wide open that I had to hit them.” Bellard was also quick to credit his mentor and running backs coach, former UL Ragin’ Cajun all-time leading rusher Ty Fenroy

“None of this would be possible without Coach Fenroy,” Bellard said, adding that Fenroy has helped him improve his game each practice.

Church Point def. Washington-Marion, 3-0

St. Martinville def. McKinley, 3-0 Highland Baptist def. Carencro, 3-0 Northside Christian def. Vinton, 3-0 Delcambre def. Westgate, 3-0 Notre Dame def. Lafayette Christian, 3-0 Abbeville def. Northside, 3-0 Acadiana Renaissance def. Lafayette, 3-2 Iota def. Sulphur, 3-2

Teurlings def. Rayne, 3-0

St. Martinville def. Comeaux, 3-0 Acadiana def. Cecilia, 3-1

St. Thomas More def. Southside, 3-0 North Vermilion def. Vermilion Catholic, 3-1

Breaux Bridge def. Church Point, 3-2

Iota def. Sulphur, 3-2 Eunice def. Lake Charles College Prep, 3-2

Commanders QB Daniels will miss game vs. Raiders Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels will sit out Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders because of an injured left knee, the ﬁrst start he’ll miss since entering the NFL last season. For a third consecutive day, Daniels was unable to practice fully on Friday He was not on the ﬁeld with the rest of the team during the portion of the workout open to the media, and the Commanders officially listed him as “limited.”

Marcus Mariota will replace Daniels in the lineup and make his ﬁrst start since 2022 with the Atlanta Falcons.

Mariota, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft after winning the Heisman Trophy at Oregon, came in during three games in relief of Daniels last season.

Heat G Herro has ankle surgery, to miss camp start

All-Star guard Tyler Herro underwent surgery Friday to repair an issue affecting his left ankle and foot, meaning the Miami Heat will be without their leading returning scorer when training camp starts later this month. The 90-minute procedure to alleviate posterior impingement syndrome in the ankle was performed by Dr Thomas San Giovanni, assisted by Heat team physicians in Miami.

Herro is expected to be out for eight weeks, though a more exact return-to-play plan likely won’t be ﬁnalized until he begins rehabilitation and gets through the surgery The issue had been bothering Herro throughout offseason training and evidently worsened in recent weeks.

Astros activate Paredes, put Alvarez on injured list

The Houston Astros activated inﬁelder Isaac Paredes off the injured list and placed left ﬁelder Yordan Alvarez on the 10-day injured list prior to their series opener against the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.

Paredes suffered a right hamstring strain in Seattle on July 19 while running to first base on a single. He began running, doing ﬁelding work and hitting at the beginning of September

Paredes was hitting .259 with 19 home runs and 50 RBIs this season before the injury Alvarez, who was placed on the injured list retroactive to Tuesday, suffered a left ankle sprain after scoring in the ﬁrst inning of a game Monday night against the Rangers.

Italy defeats Ukraine at Billie Jean King Cup semis Defending champion Italy reached the Billie Jean King Cup final for a third straight year after coming from behind to beat Ukraine 2-1 in the semifinals on Friday French Open champions Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini won the deciding doubles against Marta Kostyuk and Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-2, 6-3. In the second set, Kostyuk and Kichenok led 3-1 and had a point for 4-2 but double-faulted. It was the second point earned by Paolini, who was a set and 4-2 down to Elina Svitolina but recovered to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second singles. Kostyuk gave Ukraine a strong start by beating Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-2, 6-3. Ukraine was playing in the semifinals for the first time.

Football player at Miss. college dies after game

A Mississippi community college football player died from medical complications after a football game, according to a statement released by Mississippi Delta Community College on Friday Emanuell Cooks of Elba, Alabama, was a freshman offensive lineman, according to his proﬁle on MDCC’s website.

“He’s just great, and I love having him as my coach.” QB Braylon Walker, a UL commit, also ran for a touchdown, as well as 123 yards passing and three touchdowns through the air Seniors Draylon August and Jace Babineaux each scored their ﬁrst of the season. The LCA defense also kept the explosive Westgate offense

Ascension Episcopal 3, Pineville 0 AES: Gabby Arhabi 6 kills, 2 aces; Meg Gif-

ﬁn 9 kills, 2 blocks, 8 aces; Ella Arceneaux 6 digs, 1 ace; Hylece Mitchell 4 kills, 7 blocks; Aria Van Way 5 digs.

Cooks died after playing a game against Hinds Community College in Raymond on Thursday The college’s statement does not specify Cooks’ cause of death.

“Our entire Trojan family is devastated by this loss,” MDCC President Steven Jones said in a press release. “We will come together as a community to support one another through this tragedy.” The college is offering support services to students and staff.

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE

Cecilia quarterback Collin Dore is pressured by Northside’s Braydon Lawrence. Dore accounted for three scores in the Bullldogs’ 41-21 win over Northside on Thursday.

PHOTO By ROBIN MAy Draylon

center, and Lafayette Christian rolled past Westgate on Thursday night

Monarchs show they’readarkhorse

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Old Dominion was oneofthe populardark-horsesteamsmentioned at Sun Belt football media days in New Orleans back in July Coach Ricky Rahne’sclub showed just why with adominating 45-26 win over Virginia Tech to highlight lastweekendinthe Sun Belt. There weren’t any other glittering nonconference wins,but Arkansas Stateand SouthAlabama performed well against Power Four teams.

Thefirst Sun Belt strike was tossed by Southern Miss, which returned one of threeinterceptions 99 yards for ascore to beat Appalachian State. There’szero reason to think anytrips to Hattiesburg will be much fun this season.

1. JamesMadison

Record: 1-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 1

Last week: Open date

This week: at Liberty,2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

Extrapoints: There’s not much more to say about the Dukes. They didn’t play lastweek and still haven’tplayed ateam on their level, so there’s plentyofmystery For now,JMU will get thebeneﬁt of thedoubt. TheDukes open Sun Beltplayvs. Georgia Southern next week. That should tellus more.

2. TexasState Record: 2-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 2

Last week: Lost at Arizona State 34-15

This week: vs.Nicholls, 7p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extra points: The return trip to the Sun Devils didn’tgonearlyaswell as taking Arizona State to the wire in San Marcos lastseason. The Bobcatswere down 27-3 in the third while giving up 245 yards rushing. Losingtwo fumbles certainly didn’t help.Texas State is still very much in the developing stage with abye week next week before opening league play against Arkansas State.

3. SouthAlabama

Record: 1-2overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 6

Last week: Lost at Auburn 31-15

Thisweek: vs. Coastal Carolina, 6p.m.Saturday (ESPN+)

Extra points: TheJaguars have followed up alackluster win over Morgan State with two good performances in losses to Tulane and Auburn. Perhaps too much credit is being given herefor losses, but quarterback Bishop Davenport was solid againwith 170 yards and two TD passes. South Alabama opens up league play against a strugglingCoastal Carolina offense.

4. OldDominion

Record: 3-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 8

Last week: Defeated Virginia Tech 45-26

This week: Open date

Extra points: Not only did theMonarchs steamroll Virginia Tech, but nowtheyget two weeks to enjoy thewin. Folks, it was 28-0 at the half.ColtonJosephthrew for276 yards and twoscores and also ran for 63 more yards andanother touchdown. TheMonarchs posted 526 total yards.

5. Southern Miss

Record: 2-1overall, 1-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 9

Last week: Beat Appalachian State

38-22

This week: aLouisianaTech, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extra points: What ajuicy matchup with theEagles travelingtofuture

CAJUNS

Continued from page5C

every ball’sgoing to be perfect. As aunit, we havegot to be able to make some space for him as well.

“It doesn’t take much.Ittakes one bigcatch to kind of ﬁndthatrhythm.

We just haven’tdone it yet.”

On paper,the EasternMichigan defense could be just what the doctor ordered.The Eagles are allowing 234 yards passing and six touchdowns in their three losses —Texas State52-27, Long Island 28-23 and Kentucky 48-23. EasternMichiganalsogives up

Sun Belt member Louisiana Tech.

The Bulldogs are playing much better this year at 2-1 with a23-7 loss at LSU. The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, turnedthree interceptions into a38-22 win in their Sun Beltopener. Defensively, Southern Miss limited App State running back Rashod Dubinion to 95 yards on 24 carries.

6. Arkansas State

Record: 1-2overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 7

Last week: LosttoIowa State 24-16

Thisweek: at Kennesaw State, 5p.m. Saturday (ESPN+).

Extrapoints: One week after gettingburied against by an explosive Arkansas offense, theRed Wolvestook Iowa State to the wire. It was 17-16 in the fourth quarter.Jaylen Raynor continues to shine with 222 yards passing and 83 yards rushing with ascore. Arkansas State shouldget another win here at a1-2 Kennesaw squad, which just got its ﬁrst win27-13 over Merrimack.

7. AppalachianState

Record: 2-1overall, 0-1 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 4

Last week: Lost at Southern Miss 38-22

This week: Open date

Extrapoints: The Mountaineers lost by double ﬁgures at Southern Miss in their Sun Belt opener,but AppState actually outgained the Eagles 470-389 while getting off 90 plays to 56 for Southern Miss. Theproblem wasAJSwann threw three interceptionsbeforebeing helped off the ﬁeld after the third one. The bye week came at the right time.

8. Troy

Record: 1-2overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 3

Last week: LosttoMemphis 28-7

This week: at Buffalo, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: The score wasn’t allthatbad for Troy in athreetouchdown loss to Memphis, but the box scorewas ugly.The Trojansrushed for only 40 yards and

291.7 yards rushing agame, which is last in thecountry.And that’s even with theEaglesroutinely puttingextra players in thebox to stop the run.

“I don’tthink there’sany more theycan do from adefensive structure to wanttostop therun,” Munoz said. “That’s just who they are. That’stheir structure.” Offensively,the Eagles have been far more productive than the Cajuns. Quarterback Noah Kim has thrown for 767 yards with four touchdowns andonlyone interception.RunningbackDontae McMillan (30-219, 1TD) andtop receiver Terry Lockett (16-230, 1 TD) are also off to good starts.

were 12-of-32 passing forjust 112 yards. Getting back on track a long way from home may notbe easy at Buffalo, whichis2-1 with the only loss being 23-10 at Minnesota.

9. Georgia Southern

Record: 1-2 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 9

Last week: Defeated Jacksonville State41-34

This week:vs. Maine, 6p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: TheEagles’ return home from their long California voyage wasn’teasy.Fortunately for Georgia Southern,Dalen Cobb ran akickoff back 95 yards and also had 70 yards receiving. OJ Arnold also rushed for128 yards and twoscores. The Eagles get abit of abreather with winless Maine in town. The Black Bears losttoLiberty 28-7 earlier this season.

10.UL

Record: 1-2 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 5

Last week: Lost at Missouri 52-10

Thisweek: at EasternMichigan, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: Losing to Missouri is onething,but the Cajuns didn’t compete. UL was one 84-yard touchdown run awayfrom the stats looking way uglier. The passing game produced only two completions for 4yards. Before starting Sun Belt play against Marshall in two weeks, the Cajuns have one more chance to show somegrowth.

11.UL-Monroe

Records: 1-1 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 11

Last week: Open date

This week: at UTEP,8 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: We knowlittle about UL-Monroe at this point. It shut out St. Francis and then got demolished by Alabama before a

You’ve gottoget them in longyard situations where yougot to make them throw it,” Desormeaux said. “I don’tknow if they wantto throw as much as they have been, butthey are throwing it pretty well.” Partofthe UL pass defense will be differentinthis matchup after Maurion Eleam suffered ahip injury against Missouri.Trae Tomlinson takes over forEleam as the starter

“It was really sadtosee, because apersonlike Maurion worked so hard in the offseason andjust earned that scholarship, too,” Tomlinson said. “Being in practice, askinghim questions

bye week. UTEP played competitively withTexas before falling 27-10, so this could be amore revealing gamefor the Warhawks.

12.Georgia State

Record: 1-2overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 13

Last week: Defeated Murray State 37-21

This week: at Vanderbilt, 6:30 p.m Saturday (ESPU)

Extrapoints: This is the wrong year to play Vanderbilt, but the Panthers showedsome offensive punch while rolling past Murray State. The interesting part is TJ Finley threw for 150yards with two interceptions and Cameran Brown threwfor 138 yards and three scores. It sure helps having an elite target like TedHurst with 10 catches for 172 yards and two scores.

13.Marshall

Record:1-2 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 14

Last week: Defeated Eastern Kentucky 38-7

This week: at Middle Tennessee, 6p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: TheThundering Herd led31-0atthe half in rollingto their ﬁrst win. Offensively,Marshall didn’tput up any impressive numbers, but thedefenselimited Eastern Kentucky to 11 yards rushing and 102 overall. The Blue Raiders are 1-2 coming off a14-13 road winover Nevada.

14.Coastal Carolina

Record: 1-2overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 12

Last week: Lost to East Carolina 38-0

This week: at South Alabama, 6:30 p.m.Saturday (ESPN+) Extra points: Thenumbers were ugly in the loss to East Carolina as theChanticleerswereoutgained 497-239with five turnovers. The defenseplayedwellagainst CharlestonSoutherntwo weeks ago, so we’ll see if South Alabama is abetter test. Otherwise, it’s been apretty scary starttothe season.

and feeding off of him,itdeﬁnitely hurt alot. Itold him I’mreplacing him now,and I’mout there on the ﬁeld forhim.” Tomlinsonsaid the full-time movetothe Star position from cornerback has helped him “maximize my potential and get better at the nickel position now.” Tomlinson said the Cajuns need to trust their preparation. “Weneed to quit beating ourselves, and we need to go find away to win on theroad,” Desormeaux said. “That’swhatit comes downto.”

Email KevinFoote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

The plays aren’tnecessarily the result of near-perfect technique or Granderson overwhelming his man with pure brute strength But they don’t havetobe. Granderson just has to get the job done.

“That’sthe key,just to play fast and play together,” Granderson said. “A lot of my sacks came from effort and not giving up on the play If it wasn’tfor my teammates and thewhole D-lineplayingtogether,it wouldn’thave been able to happen

RIVALRIES

Continued from page5C

and Oregon later following suit. After aﬁnal season in 2023, the Pac-12 essentially dissolved and the only teams left in the once-proud ConferenceofChampions were Washington State and Oregon State.

The Beavers and the Cougars struck atemporary deal last season to play in the Mountain West. They are operating as independents this season and will play each other twice before the Pac12 is revived next season with new members Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, Colorado State and Texas State. Gonzaga is also joining the league as anon-football member

While the AppleCup will continue for the foreseeable future, the rivalry game between Oregon and Oregon Statewon’tbeplayed next year but could be revived in 2027.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning said despite the disparities, the rivalry stillhas meaning.

“I think all of college foot-

SCOREBOARD

Cleveland (Cecconi 6-6) at Minnesota (Ober 5-8), 6:10 p.m., 2ndgame San Diego (Darvish 4-5) at Chicago White Sox(Gómez 3-2),6:10 p.m. Seattle(Kirby9-7)atHouston (Valdez

Mia_Gordon 2run (Patterson

Buf_Kincaid20pass from Allen (Prater kick), 4:04. Second Quarter Buf_Hawes5pass from Allen(Prater kick), 11:54. Mia_Waddle 3pass from Tagovailoa (Pattersonkick), :08 ThirdQuarter

(Márquez

Buf_Cook 2run (Prater kick), 10:23

Fourth Quarter Mia_T.Hill 5pass from Tagovailoa (Patterson kick), 12:17. Buf_Shakir 15 pass from Allen (Prater kick), 7:17. Buf_FGPrater 48,:22 A_70,641. MiaBuf

First downs 19 23 Total Net Yards276 360 Rushes-yards25-130 27-157 Passing 146 203 Punt Returns 2-22 2-15 Kickoff Returns 5-152 3-95

Interceptions Ret. 0-0 1-24

Comp-Att-Int 22-34-1 22-28-0

Sacked-YardsLost0-0 2-10 Punts 4-50.02-47.5

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-0

Penalties-Yards 6-57 3-35 Time of Possession28:13

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_Miami, Achane 12-62,Gordon 9-38 M.Washington 2-20,Tagovailoa 2-10.Buffalo, Cook 19-108,Allen 4-25,Ty.Johnson 3-13, Moore1-11. PASSING_Miami, Tagovailoa 22-34-1-146. Buffalo, Allen 22-28-0-213.

RECEIVING_Miami,Achane 7-29, T.Hill 5-49 Waddle 5-39, M.Washington 3-12,Conner 1-13, J.Hill 1-4.Buffalo, Kincaid 5-66, Shakir 4-45, Coleman 3-20,Cook 3-10,Moore2-30, Shavers 2-24, Ty.Johnson 1-8,Hawes 1-5, Palmer 1-5. MISSED FIELD GOALS_Buffalo, Prater 39. Major League Baseball

for me.

“I’m just going to keep my foot on thegas and keep going.”

Granderson has been here before.

Not as the NFL’s sack leader,but the 28-year-oldhas started strong in each of thelastthree seasons.

Grandersonrecorded 21/2 sacks afterthe ﬁrst twoweeks of the2023 and2024 campaigns. But Grandersondidn’talways keep his foot on thegas. Last year, despite playing all17games, he ﬁnished withonly 51/2 sacks. The year beforethat, Granderson had 81/2 —arespectable number,but he cooled off in the middle of the season before heating up again in

ball feelsdifferent thelast fewyears, butthis game still meansalot to us,for sure

It’sthe opportunity to play a team in state, it’sjustdown theroad. Alot of fans grew up either Ducks or Beavs, right?” Lanning said.“So this game means alot to a lotofpeople, and certainly meansa lottothe people on ourteam.”

It’sbeen obvious that the demise of the Pac-12 has stung the tworemaining members. Both teams lost coaches and notable playerstoPower Fourschools, andthe programs have found it difﬁcult to compete interms of NIL opportunities

Oregon State lost coach andformer quarterback Jonathan Smith to Michigan State ahead of the 2024 seasonand promotedBray, another alum.But theBeavers have struggled. They’ve gone 0-3 this season and they’ve lost nine of 10 dating back to last season Bray has remained outwardly optimistic.

“We’ve got good players,” he said. “I feel confident about our players and what they cando. And Ifeelconﬁdent in our coaches toget them ready to play and go

p.m., 1st game Athletics(Morales 4-1)atPittsburgh (Chandler 2-1),5:40 p.m. Boston (Harrison 1-1)atTampaBay (Houser 8-4), 6:05 p.m. Miami (Mazur 0-4) at Texas(Corbin 7-9), 6:05 p.m. N.Y. Yankees (Rodón 16-9) at Baltimore (Sugano 10-8),6:05 p.m.

December

Players and coaches like to say sacks comeinbunches, so perhaps Granderson’sdips are anatural part of football. But 59 players surpassed Granderson’ssack totallast year.Thirty-twodid so in 2023.

How does Granderson make the jump fromgood to great?

“For him, it’s just getting more and moreconfidentinhis technique,”Staleysaid,adding thecaveat that Granderson also has to stay healthy. “Gettingmore and more confident in the scheme. Carl’swiredthe right way.” Granderson believes the scheme can go along way toward helping

out there and execute.”

Washington Statefared welllast year,going 8-5and playing in theHoliday Bowl, but coach Jake Dickertleft theCougars forWakeForest, taking anumber of players with him. Quarterback JohnMateer transferredto Oklahoma.

The Cougarshired Jimmy Rogersfrom FCS-level South Dakota State, where he led the undefeated Jackrabbitstoanational title in 2023. At Washington State, he had75new players on the roster heading into this season.

While he’sbeen realistic about what he’s up against in rebuilding theprogram, he hasn’tused it as an excuse. Askedabout the gap in resources as theCougars prepared to face the Huskies, he wouldn’tbite.

“I’mnot going to talk aboutthe lack of resources, I’m just notthatway.There are things that we don’thave that other schools have, I’ve been at that level. We have to execute.

“Wehave to havethe mindset thatwecan beat anybody,”Rogers said.“I think, over time,when you build aculture that’sstrong and competitive and players

at N.Y. Mets (McLean 4-1), 3:10 p.m. Athletics(Morales 4-1) at Pittsburgh (Chandler 2-1),5:40 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Assad3-1)atCincinnati (Littell 9-8),5:40 p.m. Miami (Mazur0-4)atTexas (Corbin7-9), 6:05 p.m. San Diego (Darvish 4-5) at Chicago White Sox(Gómez 3-2),6:10 p.m. Milwaukee (Patrick 3-8) at St. Louis(Mikolas 8-10), 6:15 p.m. L.A. Angels (Hendricks 7-10) at Colorado (Márquez 3-14), 7:10 p.m. Philadelphia (Nola4-9)atArizona (Gallen 12-14), 7:10 p.m. San Francisco (Teng2-4)atL.A. Dodgers (Glasnow3-3), 8:10 p.m.

College football

Major scores Thursday’s game SOUTH Rice 28, Charlotte 17 Friday’s games EAST ColumbiaatLafayette,n Iowa at Rutgers, n SOUTHWEST TulsaatOklahomaSt., n Golf

FedEx Open de France Friday At Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche Paris Purse: $3.3 million Yardage: 6,977; Par: 71 Second Round Marcus Armitage, England64-68—132 -10 MinWoo Lee, Australia 66-68—134 -8 Jeff Winther,Denmark 71-63—134 -8 Jens Dantorp, Sweden 67-69—136 -6 Gregorio De Leo, Italy 68-68—136 -6 Jeong-Weon Ko,France68-68—136 -6 Mikael Lindberg, Sweden 69-67—136 -6 AdrienSaddier, France 70-66—136 -6 Todd Clements, England70-67—137 -5

him take thatleap.The pass rusher said he likes how fast the unit is playing.

In Staley’sdefense, Granderson has generated aquarterbackpressure rate of 14.3%, which wouldbe acareer high.

To play fast, Granderson also slimmed down.After playing between 280-285pounds last year,he lost 10-15 pounds. He worked with anutritionist —“shoutout to chef Ash,”hesaid —who helped him cut down on carbs andemphasized lean meats and veggies.

Granderson has helped the Saints rank secondinsacks this season, but New Orleans also

believe in themselves, because theyput in the work, you’re able tohave success

wants morepressure on opposing quarterbacks. According to Next Gen Stats, the Saints have the ﬁfthfewest pressures (19) and the thirdlowest pressure rate (23.5%). The lack of disruption has contributed to New Orleans’ ineffectiveness on third down, with the Saints allowing a50% conversion rate.

Butthe Saints are optimistic that those numbers will improve. “He’sgot really good burst,” coach Kellen Moore said,“but I think hiseffort andﬁnish are really special.”

Email MatthewParas at matt. paras@theadvocate.com

when you get into tight battles versus teamsyou aren’t deserving to beat maybe based off of resources or dollars or stuff like that. I just don’tlook forexcuses.”

Could this be La.’s year on ‘The Voice’?

New season begins Monday

BY JUDY BERGERON Staff writer

After 27 seasons, Louisiana is still minus a winner of “The Voice.” With the NBC singing competition series’ 28th go-round set to premiere on Monday, fans have their ﬁngers crossed once again. Meanwhile there have been several “almosts,” with state contestants reaching the ﬁnals, and even the top three. Here’s a look back at some recent successes:

Karen Waldrup, Mandeville, fifth place, Season 25 (2024) Releasing her breakout single, “Blue Cowboy Boots,” in May, the now Nashville-based Waldrup, a country/ soul artist, is on a national tour and will be performing in her hometown on Oct. 26 for the Festival of the Lake. She’ll also have tour stops on Feb. 6 and 7 for a Mardi Gras concert and parade in Metairie.

Gyth Ringdon, Singer, runner-up, Season 16 Yes, Ringdon hails from the small southwestern community of Singer The country singer-songwriter also leans into soul and Southern rock on his debut album, “Where I Began” (2016) and follow-up, “When I’m Gone.” (2018) He’s performed with Jake Owen, Andy Grammar and Chase Bryant.

A union of perspectives

Meghan Linsey, Ponchatoula, runnerup, Season 8 (2015) Also based in Nashville now, Linsey’s latest single, “Humble Again,” dropped in April. Her songs have been featured in episodes of “Station 19” and “Queer Eye.” Koryn Hawthorne, Abbeville, fourth place, Season 8 (2015) — A contemporary Christian and gospel singer Hawthorne received Grammy nominations for her songs “Won’t He Do It” (2019) and “Speak the Name” (2020). Her album “On God” was released in early 2024 with a deluxe version with ﬁve more songs dropping later that year Here are some details about the new season of “The Voice”: FIRST EPISODES: 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, NBC; streaming on Peacock the following day THE COACHES: Reba McEntire, Niall Horan, Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé

THE HOST: Carson Daly

THE FORMAT: Six episodes of blind auditions, four episodes of battles, ﬁve episodes of knockouts, two episodes of playoffs, and then the live shows. MORE INFO: nbc.com/thevoice.

Email Judy Bergeron at jbergeron@theadvocate com

A tiny screech owl and a dud of a cow become heroes in LSU Vet Med artist-in-residence’s work

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

The screech owl was tinier than Pippin Frisbie-Calder expected, which made him all the more perfect.

Then he winked at her.

Technically, it’s more of a blink that happens when an owl’s eyelids fall out of sync, but Frisbie-Calder didn’t care.

To her, it was a wink, and she lifted her camera just in time to catch it through the habitat window in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine’s raptor enclosure.

“This is my first screech owl,” said Frisbie-Calder, who is the school’s artist-in-residence. “I just love him.”

The best part of her discovery is knowing that this winking owl is not only native to Louisiana, but he’s being rehabilitated in the very place that is inspiring her artwork.

Art is the reason why FrisbieCalder readily enters the raptor enclosure’s stuffy heat on stiﬂing August days. She brings the owl’s image, along with the experience of meeting him, to her studio within the cool comfort of the Stephenson

Pet Clinic, where she’s spent the past month working as the artistin-residence.

She’s the fourth artist to work in this position, the ﬁrst from Louisiana.

For now, her work in progress hangs in the makeshift studio. The artwork is a collaged swampscape

of Frisbie-Calder’s drawings and block prints layered onto a tablesized canvas to highlight native Louisiana birds mingling among the fauna. Will the screech owl become a part of it? Maybe. Still, none of the ﬁnished works

ä See ARTIST, page 10C

Italian restaurant in BR updates outdoor patio area with expansion

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

Brothers Italian Cafe is upping its patio game. The restaurant at 2903 Perkins Road recently expanded its outdoor area with mahogany French doors, red umbrellas and greenery “We’ve

Linsey

STAFF PHOTO By ROBIN MILLER

LSU Vet Med artist-in-residence Pippin Frisbie-Calder shows a drawing of the school’s resident cow MilkDud, along with photos on which she based the drawing

PROVIDED PHOTO By CHRISTOPHER JONES

LSU Vet Med artist-in-residence Pippin Frisbie-Calder sits beside a large work created during her August residency at the school.

DiGiulio Brothers Italian Cafe updated

patio with mahogany French doors.

PROVIDED PHOTO BY JOY HOLDEN

CanIdecline to be introduced to someone?

Dear Miss Manners: Ienjoy having friends and acquaintances from different walks of life, and have found unexpected kinship with people who hold beliefs very different from my own. In other words, I try not to be judgmental

My natural inclination whenmeeting someone is to ﬁnd common ground.

introduction foisted upon me. Is it ever permissible to refuse aconnection as the introduction is occurring? And howwouldone do that?

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

However,Irecently found myself in asituation where amutual friend introduced me to someone whose public statements and actions are so reprehensible to me that I had no desire to ﬁnd whatever redeeming qualities the person may have. Iwas, in fact, ashamed at theconnection with him that the

Gentle reader: Refusing an introduction is not only impolite to the person being introduced, but, more importantly,tothe friend introducing you. All you have to do is say,“How do youdo?”and thenmove on. Notice that Miss Manners does not suggest saying any version of the common (but not etiquette-sanctioned) “It’s nice to meet you,” because she knows it is not. But even if youslipand accidentally say that —and you should

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2025. There are 102 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On Sept. 20, 1973, in their so-called“Battle of the Sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, in the Houston Astrodome.

Also on this date:

In 1946, the ﬁrst Cannes Film Festival, lasting 16 days, opened in France.

In 1962, James Meredith, aBlack student,was blockedfrom enrolling at the University of Mississippi by DemocraticGov Ross R. Barnett.

In 1964, The Beatles concluded their ﬁrst full-ﬂedged U.S. tour by performing in acharity concert at the Paramount Theater in New York.

In 1967, the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2was christened by Britain’s Queen ElizabethIIin Clydebank, Scotland.

In 2011, the repeal of the

U.S. military’s18-year-old “don’task,don’ttell” compromise took effect,allowing gayand lesbian service members to serve openly.

In 2017, HurricaneMaria, the strongest storm to hitPuertoRico in more than 80 years, struck the island, wiping outas much as 75% of power distribution lines and causing an islandwideblackout.

In 2019, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania,the 1979 site of the nation’sworst commercial nuclear power accident, was shut down by its owner after producing electricity for 45 years.

Today’sBirthdays: Actor SophiaLoren is 91. Author George R.R. Martin is 77. Actor Gary Cole is 69. TV news correspondent Deborah Roberts is 65. Actor MaggieCheung is 61. Actor Kristen Johnston is 58. Rock singers Gunnar andMatthew Nelson are 58. Race car driver Juan PabloMontoyais50. Actor Jon Bernthal is 49. Actor Aldis Hodgeis39. Mixed martial artist Khabib Nurmagomedov is 37.

RELIGION BRIEFS

FROM STAFFREPORTS

Inclusive Louisiana holds Eucharist event

Inclusive Louisiana, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, invites all to aspecial EucharistCelebration and reception from 6p.m. to 8p.m.Monday at St. Margaret’sEpiscopal Church, 12663 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge. Hosted as part of Inclusive Louisiana’smission “to proclaim and embody God’sall-inclusive love for LGBTQ+ persons and their allies,” this evening gathering is open to everyone,no exceptions.

She SOARS Women’s Conference 2025 New Covenant Christian

Center,6515 E. Myrtle Avenue, Baker,will host theShe SOARS Women’s Conference 2025, atwoday gatheringdesigned to empower women torise above limitations and soar into their purpose. The conference begins at 7p.m. Friday,Sept.26, with adynamic worshipservice featuring guest speaker Regina Martin and worship led by the Nixon Sisters. Guests will experience a“Panel &Prophetic Impartation” from 9a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday,Sept. 27, with theRev.Tilesha Warren, Terrica Jackson and Shanika Stewart offering real conversations and prophetic insight. Admission is free. All are welcome. Visit eventbrite. com for more information

FLAU’JAE

Continued from page9C

The athlete is posed in front of asoft mauve background, sitting on avintage pink couch with ﬂowers at her feet. In the spread, she’s also seen in looks from Baton Rouge native and designer Christopher John Rogers, Gucci, Loewe and more. Johnson, ahighly touted guard and arecording rap and R&B artist,hintedat

aspecial event happening on her Xaccount Sept. 15. She posted that something very bigwas happening the next day. Thecover story,entitled “No OrdinaryGirl,” is ﬁlled with high fashion photography,and Johnson shines as amodel.She sharesbits about her last season at LSU and whirlwind scheduleas arapper,businesswoman, athlete andphilanthropist.

Email Joy Holden at joy. holden@theadvocate com.

saysomething, out of respect to your friend —simply meeting someone does not asocial connectionmake. Still, MissManners will understand if you move along quickly enough tomake sure that no pictures are taken as evidence.

Dear Miss Manners: Arewhitepainted ﬁngernails and toes out of line as awedding guest?

Gentlereader: Yes, if your plan is to upstage the bride withyour hands and feet

Dear Miss Manners: Arethe rules for attending operatic concerts relaxed when the venue is apublic place, such as apark? Today at thelocal opera’sannual concert Igritted my teeth and said nothing to the sotto voce chatterers beside me. Butwhen someone

started loudlysinging along, I turned and said, “Excuse me, but we want to hear him,not you.” Wasthis a“draw”inrelative rudeness?

Your booksand columns have given me much pleasure.

Gentlereader: But not much tact, Miss Manners notices. Your sentiment was valid,but the words abit harsh, makingitindeed adraw.Next time, perhaps you could politelytellyour vocalistthat you are havingtroublehearing the singer you came to see.

Dear Miss Manners: Ihave just gone back to workwith abroken wrist. How do Istop people, in apolite way,from trying to grab at my arm?

Iclearly have acast on; how-

ever,several people think it’sOK to try and grab my cast.

Gentle reader: “Ouch.”

If that, or swiftly dodging out of the way, does not work, Miss Manners suggests you try some protective padding —anarm cozy,ifyou will. It will be abonus if it also protects you against those whodid not get the urge to write crude things on casts out of their systemsinhigh school.

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

Artworks in different stages of completionhang on the wall of PippinFrisbie-Calder’sLSU

of anesting bird, left. Frisbie-Calder was the school’sartist-in-residence in August.

ARTIST

Continuedfrom page9C

at the vet school —ofﬁcially known as theLSU VetMed —willberevealed until Nov. 10, when theschool hosts a show of the residency’s works in its library.The show includesbothworks completed at theschool and pieces thatFrisbie-Calder will completeinher New Orleansstudio. Either way,the artwork will be areflection of her interaction with theschool’s clinicians, researchers, studentsand animals,which shehas approachedwith joy.

Theresidency

The LSU vet school launched the artist-in-residence programin2022. It’s the nation’sﬁrst at any vet school andisdesigned to explore theintersection betweenart andveterinarian medicine.

So far,artistshave explored this subject through visual art, musiccomposition and poetry by spending time with the school’s personnel and the animals for which they are studying and treating.

Frisbie-Calder,the program’s second visual artist, is known for herinterdisciplinary workatthe intersection of artand science. She not only maintains a personal studio, but she’san adjunct professor at Tulane University in both the Newcomb Art Departmentand theuniversity’sDepartment

DIGIULIO

Continuedfrom page9C

probably five years now sinceCOVID,”said manager SkylarJohnson. “We just found way to kind of do amore affordable way to close in the patio.”

In 1987, theDiGiuliofamilyopened therestaurant in Baton Rouge. Since then, the ownership haspassed down from generation to generation

The building’sfront wall hasbeenreplacedbyarow of mahogany French doors that can propopenondays with beautiful weather. Air

of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology.

TheHammondnative’s passion fornature began in childhood, when shewas home-schooled aboard a boat built by her parents, which sailed through Cuba, the Caribbean andCentral America. She is represented by AnnConnelly Fine Artin Baton Rouge and LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans. Her LSUresidency ran from Aug. 4toAug. 29.

Frisbie-Calder’s work is a mix of printmaking, woodcutting, silk screening and large-scale installation that oftencenters on such bioindicators as birds. Her mission is to raise awareness of endangered species and environmental challenges. Her practice alsoembodies the VetMed’s“One Health” philosophy,which emphasizesthe deep connection between human, animal and environmental health.

“Weare delighted to attract artists of Pippin Frisbie-Calder’scaliber to our growing Artist-in-Residence Program,” Dean Oliver Garden said. “Her keen observations and interpretations of the natural world lay the groundworkfor not only creating beautiful art but also posing questionsthat are vital to thehealth of animals,humans and the natural world.”

Frisbie-Calder added that she hopestoinspire environmental stewardship through educational and interactive art, “tasking each viewer to consider how artand science together can solve manyof

DIGIULIOBROTHERS ITALIAN

CAFE

2903 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge l Open 11 a.m. to 2p.m. and 5p.m. to 9p.m. Monday and Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 2p.m. and 5p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdayand Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2p.m. and 4p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday;and 10:30 a.m. to 2p.m. Sunday.

conditioning andheating unitshave been added in the ceiling as well. The whole process took aboutthree weeks, Johnson said. Outside,the old umbrel-

the issues facing us today.”

MilkDudinspires

Birds aren’tthe only animalsinhabiting the artist’s vet school studio. Acow named MilkDud seemsto have carvedout herown space in Frisbie-Calder’s heart.

MilkDud is thestar of a smalldrawing that FrisbieCalder is considering for a painting. And deservedly so. Thecow is abeloved vet school resident,and herstory is the perfect illustration of Frisbie-Calder’sresidency

The cow is not only agentle spirit but plays an important role at the vet school.

“MilkDud isn’tjust acow, sheisalifesaver,” said ClareScully, theveterinarian in charge of the cow.“As aﬁstulated cow at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine,she plays avital role in transfaunation,aprocess that transfers healthy rumenmicrobes from her digestive system to animals suffering from ruminal dysfunction. Thanks to her, thousands of cattle, sheep andgoats have recovered from life-threatening conditions and returned to productive lives.”

Frisbie-Calder points to a place in herpicture,where MilkDud appears to have a hole in her left, back quarter.Inreality,the hole was purposely placed there and is maintained with care.

“It’slikea port,” theartist explains. “So, cows basically have four stomachs, and they need rumen for digestion.”

The rumen allows cows to

las were replaced by bright red umbrellas, matching the main sign’scolor palette atop the building. New cement pots separate the picnic tablesfrom theparking lot, which will soon hold more greenery and small trees. No seating has beenadded, but Johnson hopes to change that in the near future. They also mayeventually add a newbarroom attached to the patio.

“Whenthe football season gets alittle bit more colder, we’ll have the game on,and we’ll open up allthe doors,” Johnson said. “I think that will be really nice, just to have people walking in and outina good temperature.”

regurgitate theirfood so it canbereswallowed,thereby breaking down coarse material for digestion. But some grazing animals have trouble in this department.

“And so they put asurgical implant in MilkDud to access this part of her stomach forthe rumen,” FrisbieCalder said. So, healthy rumen is taken from MilkDud and injected into animals with depleted rumen, thereby saving their lives.

“MilkDud’sjourney began witha challenge,” Scully said.“She wasbornwith a mild wry nose,a congenital condition that can range from cosmetic to life-threatening. While hers is notsevere,itmeantshe wasnot a candidate for breeding,as her offspring could inherit amore seriousform of the condition. Additionally,her anatomymade her unsuitable fordairy production.” So, she was labeled a “dud,” the origin of her name, MilkDud. In Frisbie-Calder’sart collection, MilkDud is depicted looking straight at the viewer in her grazing pasture.

“What somesaw as alimitation,” Scully said, “became her superpower.”

MilkDudhas earned a place of honor in this collection, but what of the screech owl?Well, if Frisbie-Calder’s wide smile is any indication, thelittleowl is adefinite shoo-in.

Email RobinMillerat romiller@theadvocate. com.

AP FILE PHOTO By yOUNG KWAK

LSU’sFlau’Jae Johnson stands on the courtduring the end of an Elite Eight game against UCLA in on March 30 in Spokane, Wash.

PROVIDED PHOTO

The updated storefront patio at DiGiulio Brothers Italian Cafe on Sept. 12, has new umbrellas, cementpots and mahoganyFrench doors.

STAFFPHOTO By ROBIN MILLER

VetMed studio,includingaview

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Put safety first wherehealth, wealth, rulesand regulationscomeintoplay. Do your research andproceed with common sense. Be the onetoenforce change, notthe onewho must succumb to others' demands.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Takeaslowlook around andconsider whatworks best for you.Sticking closetohomewillgive you time to fine-tune your surroundings to better suit your needs.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Keep life simple, your plans doableand your conversations pleasant. Personal gain, physical fitness, updating your look or enjoying time with someoneyou love is in your best interest.

sAGITTARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Weigh the pros and cons before you act. Leave nothing to chance or up to athird-party player.Call the shots, say no when necessary anddowhat's best foryou

cAPRIcoRn(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You'll face conflicts between what youwanttodo andwhatyou must take care of today Trust your instincts, not whatsomeone else tells youortries to convince you to do

AQuARIus (Jan.20-Feb. 19) Size up your financial situation. You mayfeel inclined to alter your domestic space or relationshipwith someone, but a wait-and-seeapproach is in your best interest.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Social events will provide an opportunitytogather information. Gravitatetowardthose whohave expertise regarding some-

thing that interests you, andyou'll gain insight. ARIEs (March 21-April19) Let your imagination wander and your creativity soar. It's timetoembark on something engaging that helps youfulfill your needs. Don't overreact or turn aminor setback into an unmanageable disruption TAuRus (April 20-May 20) Be mindful of whatyou ingest and how you treat your body.Keeptrack of indulgentorexcessive behaviortoprevent therisk of illness or injury. Work toward ahealthy lifestyle anda happy home

GEMInI(May 21-June 20) Youcan change the world around you if you participate. Airyour concerns; useyour voice to make adifference. Do your research andrefrain from makingcostly domestic upgrades.

cAncER (June 21-July22) Discipline and hard work will payoff. Invest timeand moneyinyourself, your home and your future.Assess howyou look andlive, and establish afitness and diet regimen that leads to improved health LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Takeanenergetic approach to domestic chores,but be mindful not to infringe on aneighbor or local regulations without obtaining approvalfirst. Aslight mistakecan lead to abig disaster.

Celebrity Ciphercryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present.Eachletter in thecipher stands for another.

ToDAy's cLuE: AEQuALsK

For better or For WorSe

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon

bIG

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place thenumbers 1to9inthe empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontainsthe samenumber only once. The difficulty level of theSudoku increasesfromMonday to Sunday

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS Hi and LoiS

By PHILLIPALDER Bridge

Kate Adie OBE, an English journalist who was known forreporting from war zones for the BBC, said,“If I’m in danger, then it’susually my fault andit’s up to me to get myself out of it.I am not in it just to getanadrenaline rush.”

At the bridge table, adrenaline rushes can make players rush, when they should be stopping to look for potential dangers.

In this deal, for example,how should Southplan theplay in six spadesafter West leads the heart two? Also, how would you have bid with that North hand after partneropened two no-trump?

In this auction, North transferred into spades, then bid the contract he hoped hispartnercouldmake.Amodernsuperscientist would have jumped to fivediamonds over three spades, Exclusion Roman Key Card Blackwood. It would have asked South for key cards excluding the diamond ace.

Many players would win the first trick andimmediatelyplayatrump.However East wouldwin with hisace and return aheart for his partner to ruffand defeat the contract.

Slightly unlucky, it is true. And many Souths would then ask their partners why they had not bid six no-trump, which is impregnable. But these declarersshouldhavepausedforthoughtwhen

wuzzles

thedummycamedown.Especiallygiven that South can seeevery heart honor, the openinglead hasall the aura of a singleton. To avoidgoingdown, declarer should take the first trick in his hand and discard dummy’s remaining hearts on the diamond ace and king. Then it is safetodraw trumps.

Andrews McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle whichcreates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InsTRucTIons: 1. Words mustbeoffour or moreletters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,”are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

ToDAy’s WoRD EPonyMous: ih-PON-ih-mus:Relating to thepersonorthing forwhomorwhich something is named.

Averagemark 34 words

Time limit 60 minutes

Canyou find51ormorewords in EPONYMOUS?

yEsTERDAy’s WoRD —REJoInDER

today’s thought

“And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, TrulyIsay to you, To day shall you be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:42-43

loCKhorNs

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.