The Times-Picayune 09-22-2025 by The Advocate

HAPLESS IN SEATTLE

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LINDSEyWASSON

Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, center,scores on atouchdown reception during thefirst half of Sunday’sgame againstthe Saints in Seattle. The New Orleans Saints hitthe road for the first time in the 2025 season Sunday,and their trip to Seattle couldn’thavegone awhole lot worse, resulting in a44-13 debacle. The hostSeahawks scored on a95-yard punt return, set up another touchdown with ablocked punt and poured it on behind quarterback SamDarnold’s perfect first-half passer rating. The result was anew Saints worst of 38 points allowedinthe first half. Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough made abrief debut late in the blowout, but the secondhalf mostly was waitingfor the clock to hitzerosothe Saints could make avery long flight back home.

ä SEE COMPLETECOVERAGE OF THE SAINTS GAME. PAGE 1C

Thenext waveof conservation

Chefs, fishermenand AI programmers join Louisiana’s fight againstinvasive fish

BY AIDANMcCAHILL Staff writer

Philippe Parola slaps a40-poundslabof raw ﬁsh onto his cutting board, then brandishes asmall saw to begin theﬁllet.

The chef, environmental advocateand showman is holding court on abackyard patio in Baton Rouge, wherediscussion of nature’s delicate balance ﬂows as freely as the wine provided to his 20 or so guests, many of whom came unaware of what wasonthe menu.

“Thisisthe very ﬁrsttime in thiscountry that we’re going to be cooking this ﬁsh,” said Parola, pointing to the massive black carp, caught two days before in Simmesport. “No one else has the ballstogoout thereand do it.”

ä See FISH, page 4A

CharlieKirk’sfaith

praisedatmemorial

Officials, supporters paytribute at serviceinArizona

BY JONATHAN J. COOPER,EUGENE

GARCIA, AAMER MADHANIand MEG KINNARD Associated Press

GLENDALE,Ariz. President Donald Trumppraised Charlie Kirk as a“great American hero” and “martyr” for freedomasheand other prominent conservatives gatheredSunday evening to honorthe slain conservative political activist whose work they say they must now advance.

Kirk

The memorial service for Kirk, whom Trump credits with playing apivotal rolein his2024 election victory,drew tens of thousands of mourners, including Vice President JD Vance, other senior

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN LOCHER President Donald TrumpembracesErika Kirk at amemorial for Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale,Ariz.,on Sunday.

administration ofﬁcials and young conservatives shaped by the 31-year-old ﬁrebrand.

“He’samartyrnow forAmerica’s freedom,” Trump said in his tribute. “I

ä See KIRK, page 3A

Metairie Towers complex settobe

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Metairie Towers, avacant, 50-year-old complex of condominiums in the Old Metairie neighborhood, will be auctioned off in a48-hour onlinebidding process that begins Monday The auction comes twomonths afterdeveloper Darren Aschaffenburg, whopurchased the complex nearly ayear ago and planned to renovate it with larger upscale units and luxury amenities, said he was walking away from the project because he couldn’tsecure ﬁnancing.

Aschaffenburg paid $24.5 million in October for the 265,000-square-foot building, whichhas seven ﬂoors andsits on 4 acres. He estimated his plans to convert the original 219 units into 160 larger,upscaleunitswithaneighthﬂoor of luxury penthouse condoswould have costatleast $50 million to complete.

“There are not alot of people in New Orleans whocan pull that off, especially in this tough lending environment,” Aschaffenburg said Friday by phone. “Projects from coast to coast are having trouble getting funding.”

The auctionwas originally scheduled for late August, but Aschaffenburg delayed it twice in recent weeksafter receiving potential offers that he said were worth exploring.

“Once Iput it up for auction and went widewiththe media, people came outof thewoodwork andjumped at theopportunity to talk to me about potentially partnering,”hesaid.“ButI couldn’tcometo termswith any of those groups, so Ihave to let it go.”

ä See COMPLEX,

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

For Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is “legendary.”

“This is afacility that’snotorious,” she said, as she stood beside Gov.Jeff Landry to unveil the “Louisiana Lockup” forU.S. Immigrations and CustomsEnforcement detainees in adisusedwing of theprison that was once used to punish misbehaving inmates with solitary conﬁnement.

“That’samessage that these individualsthatare going to be here thatare illegal criminals need to understand,” Noem continued. “Ifyou come into this country and you victimize someone, if you take away their child forever, if you trafﬁc drugs andkill ournext generation of Americans, and if you trafﬁc our children and menand women, absolutely there’s

ä See ANGOLA, page 3A

SE AHA W KS SAINT S

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Trump: Murdochs, Dell could join TikTok deal

President Donald Trump said prominent billionaires including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and tech founder Michael Dell could be part of a deal in which the U.S. will take control of the social video platform TikTok.

Trump namedropped the 94-year-old Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp, as part of a group of possible participants in a deal during an interview recorded Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News.

“I think they’re going to be in the group. A couple of others Really great people, very prominent people,” Trump said “And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country I think they’re going to do a really good job.”

Trump’s disclosure of the potential involvement of the Murdochs and Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, is the latest twist in a fast-moving potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S.

Trump also said Sunday that tech giant Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison was part of the same group. His involvement had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would be responsible for the app’s data and security and that Americans will control six of the seven seats for a planned board.

Much is still unknown about the actual deal in the works.

Trump discussed the TikTok deal with China’s Xi Jinping in a lengthy phone call on Friday Cyberattack disrupts more flights in Europe

BRUSSELS Fallout from a cyberattack that disrupted checkin systems at several European airports extended into a second full day on Sunday, as passengers faced dozens of canceled and delayed ﬂights and the impact poised to worsen for at least one major airport.

Brussels Airport, seemingly the hardest hit, said it asked airlines to cancel nearly 140 departing ﬂights scheduled for Monday because a U.S.-based software system provider “is not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system.” The airport said 25 outbound ﬂights were canceled on Saturday and 50 on Sunday

Starting late Friday, airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to electronic systems that snarled up check-in and sent airline staffers trying options like handwriting boarding passes or using backup laptops. Many other European airports were unaffected.

The cyberattack affected software of Collins Aerospace, whose systems help passengers check in, print boarding passes and bag tags, and dispatch their luggage The U.S.-based company on Saturday cited a “cyber-related disruption” to its software at “select” airports in Europe. It was not immediately clear who might be behind the cyberattack, but experts said it could turn out to be hackers, criminal organizations or state actors.

Taliban rejects Trump’s bid to retake air base

JALALABAD, Afghanistan The Taliban government on Sunday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban’s hands.

Trump on Saturday renewed his call to reestablish a U.S presence at Bagram, even saying “we’re talking now to Afghanistan” about the matter He did not offer further details about the purported conversations. Asked by a reporter if he’d consider deploying U.S troops to take the base Trump demurred.

“We won’t talk about that,” Trump said. “We want it back, and we want it back right away If they don’t do it, you’re going to ﬁnd out what I’m going to do.”

On Sunday, chief Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Trump’s assertions and urged the U.S. to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality.”

U.K., Australia, Canada recognize Palestinian state

Move prompts angry response from Israel

BY PAN PYLAS Associated Press

LONDON The U.K Australia and Canada formally recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, prompting an angry response from Israel, which ruled out the prospect.

The coordinated initiative from the three Commonwealth nations and longtime allies reﬂects growing outrage at Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the steps taken by the Israeli government to thwart efforts to create a Palestinian state, including by the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank

British Prime Minister Keir

Starmer, who has faced pressure to take a harder line on Israel within his own governing Labour Party over the deteriorating situation in Gaza, said the U.K.’s move is intended “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis.”

He insisted it wasn’t a reward for Hamas, which was behind the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which the militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others.

“Today, to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clearly as prime minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognizes the state of Palestine,” Starmer said in a video message. “We recognized the state of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people. Today we join over 150 countries who recognize a Palestinian state also.”

The moves by the three countries prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that the establishment of a Pales-

tinian state “will not happen” while Hamas urged the international community to isolate Israel.

Later on Sunday, Portugal said it was recognizing a Palestinian state as well.

The British announcement was widely anticipated after Starmer said in July that the U.K. would recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel agreed to a ceaseﬁre in Gaza, allowed the United Nations to bring in aid and took other steps toward long-term peace.

More countries are expected to join the list recognizing a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week, including France, which, like the U.K., is one of the ﬁve permanent members of the Security Council.

Netanyahu blasted the three countries for proffering a “prize” to Hamas.

“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”

Netanyahu, who is set to give a speech to the General Assembly on Friday before heading to see President Donald Trump at the

White House said he would announce Israel’s response after the trip.

Netanyahu has threatened to take unilateral steps, including the possibility of annexing parts of the West Bank, in response to world leaders’ recognition of a Palestinian state. Such a move would clear the way for Israel to deepen its control over the territory and escalate tensions with the international community

Hamas hailed the decision, calling it a “rightful outcome of our people’s struggle, steadfastness, and sacriﬁces on the path to liberation and return.” The Islamic militant group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, called on the world to isolate Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in towns and cities in the West Bank, said the U.K. announcement is an important step toward achieving a “just and lasting peace in the region based on the two-state solution,” the ofﬁcial Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

Ukrainian, Russian attacks kill 3 civilians

The Associated Press

Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Belgorod border region killed two civilians while Russian shelling of eastern Ukraine left a man dead, ofﬁcials said Sunday Vyacheslav Gladkov the governor of Belgorod, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that a woman was killed when shelling struck a private home in the border town of Shebekino, while a man died in a drone strike on the village of Rakitnoe.

The Belgorod region, which bor-

ders Ukraine, has faced frequent cross-border attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In Ukraine, a man was killed and residential buildings and infrastructure were damaged by Russian shelling in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, Serhii Horbunov, head of the city’s military administration, said Sunday The latest round of attacks came after Russia launched a largescale missile and drone attack targeting regions across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three

people and wounding dozens. Russia launched 619 drones and missiles during the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.

Also on Saturday, 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

N.H. AG: Patrons at restaurant shooting halted worse tragedy

1 killed, 2 hurt; suspect in custody

BY MICHAEL CASEY and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

NASHUA, N.H. — Patrons at a restaurant acted quickly and selflessly to stop a gunman who opened ﬁre while a wedding was taking place at a New Hampshire country club, averting a worse tragedy, authorities said Sunday

One person was killed and two others were wounded by gunﬁre Saturday night before a suspect was taken into custody in a nearby neighborhood not long after the shooting, authorities said.

The gunﬁre killed Robert Steven DeCesare, 59, at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke. They said the suspect was Hunter Nadeau, 23, of Nashua, and that he had been arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder for knowingly shooting DeCesare.

Nadeau was a former employee of the club, Formella said, adding that

An American Red Cross Disaster Relief van is parked outside a hotel that is acting as a reunification center after a shooting Saturday at a country club in Nashua, New Hampshire, that left one person dead.

Nadeau made a number of statements during the shooting and appeared to be attempting to cause chaos in the moment as opposed to showing a hate-based motivation. Witnesses reported that Nadeau said “Free Palestine” during the confusion.

Some witnesses said someone struck Nadeau with a chair in an attempt to subdue him. Formella cited “selﬂess acts of courage by the patrons in the restaurant who put aside care for their own safety and worked to intervene and stop the shooter.”

The shooting happened adjacent to a wedding that was taking place at the club. Wedding DJ Michael

Homewood credited the chair strike with preventing an even worse shooting.

“He hit him over the head with a chair, and he probably saved a bunch of lives just doing that,” Homewood told WCVBTV Investigators were working to determine a motive, Formella said. Police did not immediately respond to a question about whether Nadeau is represented by an attorney and attempts to reach family members of Nadeau were not immediately successful. Authorities said there is no known connection between Nadeau and DeCesare.

Officials: Israeli strikes kill over 40 in Gaza

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

CAIRO Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health ofﬁcials said Sunday Health ofﬁcials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.

Another strike that targeted a group of people in front of a clinic in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least eight Palestinians, according to the Al-Awda Hospital. The dead include four children and two women, the hospital said. Another 22 people were wounded, it said.

Israel did not comment on the strikes.

The latest Israeli military operation, which began this week further escalates a conﬂict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceaseﬁre further out of reach. The Israeli military, which has told Palestinians to leave, hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months. Israel says the operation is meant to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages and surrendering. Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, peace activists in Israel have hailed the planned recognition of a Palestinian state On Sunday, a group of more than 60 Jewish and Arab organizations representing about 1,000 activists, including some veteran organizations promoting peace and coexistence, known as It’s Time Coalition, called for an end to the war the release of the hostages and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

“We refuse to live forever by the sword. The U.N. decision offers a historic opportunity to move from a death trap to life, from an endless messianic war to a future of security and freedom for both peoples,” said the coalition in a statement.

On Saturday night, tens of thousands of people in Israel protested, calling for an end to the war and a hostage deal.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ABDEL KAREEM HANA

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza Strip on Saturday along the coastal road near Wadi, Gaza.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MICHAEL CASEy

know Ispeakfor everyone here today when Isay that none of us will ever forget Charlie. And neither now will history.”

Speakers highlighted Kirk’sprofound faith and his strong belief that young conservatives need to get married, build familiesand pass on their values to keep building their movement.They also repeatedly told conservative activists, sometimes in confrontational tones, that the best waytohonor Kirk wasdoubling down on his mission to move American politics further to the right

“For Charlie, we will remember that it is better to stand on our feet defending the United StatesofAmerica and defending the truth than it is to die on our knees,” Vance said. “My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is ahero to the United States of America. And he is amartyr for the Christian faith.”

Kirk’sassassination at a Sept. 10 appearance on a Utah college campus has become asingular moment for the modern-dayconservative movement. It also has set off aﬁerce debate about violence, decencyand free speechinanera of deep po-

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consequences. You’re going to end up here.”

That message oughtto convince people to self-deport, Noem said. As part of President Donald Trump’scampaign to detain and deport immigrants in recordnumbers,ofﬁcials have established aseries of high-profile detention centers across the country.

From “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida swampsto the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska, they have advertised the facilitiesastools to remove who they say are the “worst of the worst.”

Shortly after opening the Louisiana Lockup, formally called Camp 57, the Department of Homeland Security released alist of 51 immigrants it said had committed heinous crimesand were being held there. Those crimes included rape, homicide and sexual abuse of children,according to the list.

Despite assurancesthat the Louisiana Lockup would congregate immigrants convicted of such crimes, the decision to open the facility at Angola has drawn both skepticism and horrorfrom immigration advocates, who noted that many of those sent to AlligatorAlcatraz did not have violent criminal records.

Angola sits on aformer slave plantation. It became infamous in the 1900s as one of America’sbloodiest prisons. In 1951,31inmates slashed their Achilles tendons to protest conditions there.

Over the past few decades, stateofﬁcialshavetried to soften that notoriety,emphasizing efforts to rehabilitate prisoners.

But the facility still draws scrutiny,not least because its mostly-Black inmate population is put to work on the “farm line” for as little as2 cents an hour,performing tasks such as cotton picking, sometimes in the brutal Louisiana heat.

“Angola is the largest

litical division. The shootinghas stirred fear among some Americans that Trump is trying to harness outrage over the killing as justiﬁcation to suppress the voices ofhis criticsand political opponents.

High security at stadium

Those close to Kirk prayed andthe ﬂoors shook from the bass of Christian rock bands as the home of the NFL’s ArizonaCardinals took on thefeelofa megachurch service.

“Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus,” said the Rev.Rob McCoy, Kirk’spastor People beganlining up before dawn to secure aspot insideState Farm Stadium west of Phoenix, where Kirk’sTurning Point organization is based. Security was tight, similar to the Super Bowl or other high-proﬁle event.The speakers delivered their tributes from behind bulletproof glass.

The63,400-seat stadium quicklyfilled withpeople dressed in red, whiteand blue,asorganizers suggested.

Kirk’swidow,Erika, in herown addresssaid in themidst of her grief she was finding comfort that her husband leftthis world without regrets. Shealso said she forgives the man who is charged with killing him.

maximum security prison in the country,with 18,000 acres, bordered by the Mississippi River,swampsﬁlled with alligators andforests filled with bears,” Landry said. “Nobody really wants to leave the place.”

Advocatesraise concerns

Criticsworry that, after theinitial mediasplash, immigrants without criminal recordswill end up at the detention facility

“Wesaw it happen in Florida,” said Homero López, referring to Alligator Alcatraz Trump ofﬁcialsdescribed thatdetentioncenter as a harsh place appropriate for holding the“worst of the worst.”

Butthe Miami Herald reportedthatover 250 detainees had no criminal convictionsorpending chargesin theUnited States. They only had immigrationviolations, the report found López directs Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy inNew Orleans and is a former immigration judge whowas ﬁred afterTrump took ofﬁce this year Critics also say the messaging from Trump and his alliesperpetuates thestereotype that immigrants tend to beviolent, when statistics show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than American-born citizens.

“It’stryingtofeed into that, that immigrants are by deﬁnition criminals and rapists and murderers,” said Bill Quigley,the former director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis LongPoverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans. “I think it’s part of the propaganda, it’s part of theattemptto justify the arrest and wholesaledisappearance of immigrants.”

Nora Ahmed, legal director of the American Civil LibertiesUnion of Louisiana,saidholding ICEdetainees at Angola wrongly “promotes anarrative that immigration proceedings are criminal proceedings, or that immigration detention can be used ascriminal punishment.” Immigration proceedings

“My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the onewho took hislife,” saidErika Kirk, who is taking over as Turning Point’sleader.She added, “I forgive him.”

Trumphas blamed the “radical left”for Charlie Kirk’sdeath and threatened to go after liberal organizationsand donors or others who he feels are maligning or celebrating his death. Dozens of people, from journaliststoteachers to late show host Jimmy Kimmel,havefaced suspensionsorlost theirjobsas prominent conservative

are civil proceedings. ICE often picks people up after theyhave servedtheir criminal sentences, she said.

Still, Camp 57 has drawn praise from Republican officials. In an op-ed in the Washington Times, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,R-Baton Rouge, said the facility would promote public safety.

“The recent opening of the ‘Louisiana Lockup’ at theLouisiana State Penitentiary in the town of Angola demonstrates the key role our state is playing in facilitatingthe president’s Make America Safe Again agenda,”she wrote. What’s next forCamp57

Twoweeks ago, at the facility’s opening, Landry said Camp 57 wouldholdaround 200 people by mid-Septemberand ultimately be able to accommodate some400 detainees

Butofﬁcials have provided little information since then.

Aspokesperson for Landry did not answer questions abouthow many people are nowatthe facility.The Department of Homeland Security also did notansweraninquiry about whetherthere were new detainees andwhat their crimeswere.

TheLouisianaDepartmentofPublic Safetyand Corrections referred questions to ICE, whichisunder the DepartmentofHomeland Security Officials have said ICE contractorswould run Camp 57. They have not identiﬁed the contractors, but LaSalle Corrections, aprivate prison companythatruns multiple ICE detention centers in Louisiana, recently posted openings forjobsinAngola ScottSutterfield,anexecutive for the ﬁrm,did not answer inquiries.

Camp 57 is located in a wing of Angola formerly known as “Camp J,” which once held prisoners in solitary confinement. Criminal justice advocates have pannedthe facility.

Ofﬁcials closed thewing in 2018, citing safety concerns. State ofﬁcials saythe

activists andadministration officials target comments about Charlie Kirk that they deem offensive or celebratory.The retaliation has in turn ignited adebate over theFirst Amendment as the Republican administration promisesretribution against those who air what are seen as disparaging remarks in the wake of Charlie Kirk’sdeath.

Some speakers at the memorial said he was battling evil and referred often to a vague“they”asthe enemy. Others were blunt.

“You have no ideathe dragon you have awakened,

facility was renovated before Camp57opened, and that the cells nowhaveair conditioning.

Whoisbeing held?

According to the Department of Homeland Security,ofthe ﬁrst 51 Louisiana Lockup detainees, 26 had homicide convictions,eight had rape convictionsand 17 had been convicted of sexoffenses against children. While some offenses are more recent, others date as far back as 1981: Raymundo Poey-Marrero,ofCuba, has ahomicide convictionfrom that year,accordingtothe Ofﬁce of the State Attorney for the 5th Judicial District of Florida. Poey-Marrero also has apending battery charge against himfromJuly,court recordsfrom Marion County, Florida, show Another detainee, Yamil Ballate-Martinez, also of Cuba, has two 2009 convictionsfor the possession and transmission of child pornog-

you have no idea how determinedwewill be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic,” said White House deputy chief of staffStephen Miller Charlie Kirk was aprovocateurwho at times made statements that some called racist,misogynistic, antiimmigrantand transphobic That has drawnbacklash from conservatives who view thecriticism as cherry-picking afew select momentstoinsult thelegacy of someone they see as an inspirational conservative leader A22-year-old Utah man, TylerRobinson,has been charged with killing Charlie Kirk andfaces the death penaltyifconvicted of the most serious charges. Authorities have not revealed aclear motive in the shooting, but prosecutors say Robinsonwrote in atext to his partner following theshooting that he “had enough” of Charlie Kirk’s hatred.

Kirk’s legacy of influence

Turning Point, the group Charlie Kirk founded to mobilize young Christian conservatives, became a multimillion-dollar operation under his leadership with enormous reach.

“Charlie’s having some serious heavenly FOMO right now,”TylerBower,Turning

raphy, accordingtothe Florida sex offender registry

In one case, the Department of Homeland Security saidadetainee was a convicted murderer when court records showahomicide charge against him was dropped.

Eddy Lopez-Jemot, of Cuba, was charged with homicide in 2021 but never convicted. Instead, under a plea agreement, he agreed to accept an arson conviction, according to court records fromMonroe County Florida.The Department of Homeland Security, which did not answer questions aboutthe discrepancy,said he was aconvicted murderer.

Lopez-Jemot’sconviction was connectedtothe deathofMaryBonneville, a70-year-old womanwho was found dead with knife wounds to her neck in a burned home in KeyLargo in 2017, local media outlets reported.

After Lopez-Jemot’scrim-

Point’s chiefoperating ofﬁcer,said, likening the momenttobringing “the Holy Spirit into aTrump rally.” The crowd wasatestament to themassive inﬂuence he accumulated in conservative America with his abilitytomobilize young people Charlie Kirk wasaMAGA celebrity with aloyal following that turned outto support or argue with him as he traveled the country forthe events likethe one at Utah Valley University, where he was shot. he grew the organization, in large part, through theforce of hispersonalityand debating chops.

“He slayed ignorance,” said Director of National IntelligenceTulsi Gabbard. “He cutthrough lies. He wokepeople’sminds, inspiredpeople’s hearts and impartedwisdom every day.”

Speaker afterspeaker,including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth andSecretary of State Marco Rubio, expressed their aweatCharlie Kirk’sability to go into what many conservativessaw as the lion’sden to make the conservative case: college campuses.

“Why don’tyou start somewhere easier,”Rubio joked when he first heard about Charlie Kirk years ago. “Like, forexample, communist Cuba?”

inal case wasresolved, his defense attorney,Philip Massa,saidhewas shocked to learn ICE picked Jemot up andtook him to AlligatorAlcatraz, wherehewas held before being movedto Camp 57.

Lopez-Jemot had been in the country for awhile, Massa said, and Alligator Alcatraz “doesn’tconjure up Eddy Jemot. It conjures up someonewho snuck across the border during the Biden administration andisa gang member.” Massa did not know of any prior homicide convictionsagainstLopez-Jemot, he said. Monroe County court records show Lopez-Jemot hasa convictionfor aggravated assaultwith adeadly weapon in 2017. He pleaded no contest to the charge but wasadjudicated guilty under aplea agreement.

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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JULIA DEMAREENIKHINSON

Erika Kirk wipes tears as she prepares to speak at a memorial for her husband, conservativeactivist Charlie Kirk, at State Farm StadiuminGlendale, Ariz., on Sunday.

As the fish begins to sizzle on the grill, his French accent thickens with urgency as he explainsa grim reality: The black carp is the latest speciesofAsian carp to spread through Louisiana’smajor river systems, inundating the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, Redand Ouachita rivers, alongwith their tributaries. It joins the bighead, grassand silver carp —the last notorious for transforming rivers into minefields, with entire schools leaping from the waterwhen startled, sometimes injuring unsuspecting boaters Helping Parola that evening were Dennis Riecke, aretired biologist from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and Michael Johnson, head chef for LSU athletics. Riecke explains howAsiancarp were first imported to the U.S. in the 1970s to clean aquacultureand wastewater treatment ponds. Ponds tend to flood, he said, and after the fish escaped into the Mississippi River Basin,the population exploded. Afemale silver carp can lay up to 5million eggs ayear,and devour up to 40%oftheir body weight in aday,mostly plankton from the base of thefood chain, which throws the entire ecosystem out of balance.

“Tounderstand what this ﬁsh does, it’sfrightening,” Johnson added. “Wecould be the proactive ones about trying to do something about this.”

One promisingweapon in the ﬁghtagainst Asian carp is artiﬁcial intelligence. For the past year,the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and researchers at the University of Louisiana in Lafayettehave been developing AI recognition software that can help biologists detect new populations of Asian carp before they get out of control, offering apeekinto the next wave of conservation.

Even with the new technology,though, the state’s strategy remains the same as it has always been: Give ﬁshermen areason to go after them.

“Anything that can help to remove those ﬁsh out of the water,that’sawin,” Parola said. “But Itrulybelieve that the ﬁshermen are the only ones who are physically going to put the net out.” Algorithms vs.Asian carp

As the carp population metastasizesthrough the Mississippi River’smain arteries—including the Ohio, Missouri and Arkansasriversystems —states are spending millions to contain its spread. In Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun work on a$1.15 billion projectto block the ﬁsh from reaching the Great Lakes, where they could endanger the region’s $7 billion ﬁshingindustry

Yetprecise data on the impact of the four species, plus theirpopulation, migration patterns and breedinghabitsremainsparse,

as much of the tedious tracking and analysis falls on under-resourced state environmental agencies. A decade-oldsurvey found that 14% of juvenile ﬁsh in Louisiana’smajor river systems were Asian carp, while in some regions of the Midwest they now account for more than 90% of ariver’s biomass. Mostly,though, the impact ismore felt than measured.

“Ouroptions are limited to assessingwheretheyare, then doing studies to ﬁgure out what impact they are having,” Riecke said.

Robert Bourgeois, Wildlifeand Fisheries aquatic invasivespecies coordinator,saididentifying new populations often involves graduate students spending hoursstaring through a microscope,countingbody segmentsofacarp larva often smaller than the size of apinkie nail.

“Identifying carp larvae is avery time-consuming process that drives people nuts,” he said. In searchofnew methods, Bourgeois partnered with the Informatics Research Institute at UL to develop user-friendly software capable of detecting carp larvae almost in real time.

Peyton Leathem-Boe, an AI researcheratthe institute, built themodel by feeding itmore than 4,000 images of carp larvae. The system, aform of neural networkspecialized in imagerecognition wasalready pretrainedon millions of other images. Leathem-Boethenadapted it to the carp problem.

“I took that modeland said,‘OK,you havesome generalknowledge ofthe world. Now here’saspeciﬁcproblem Iwant you to learn,’” Leathem-Boe said The approach, known as transfer learning, has gained momentum in the past decade thankstoadvances in deep learning —a branch of AI that uses layered networks and massive data sets to extract increasingly complex patterns.

Henry Chu, the institute’s executivedirector, comparedthe process tohow human vision works. Basic information gathering, he said,depends on lower layersofthe network trained on millionsofparameters, much like the cells closest to the retina. Higher-order recognition —such as identifying different ﬁsh larvae —are added later,just as thebrain’scortexrefines signals from the eye.

“You can train those lower-level cells on almost anything —trees, ﬂowers, animals, people. It’s probably better if it’snot limited to fish images,” Chu said. “The 4,000 carp images were used at amuch higher level.”

Leathem-Boe’sbeta-stage model is 97% accurate. Using abasic microscope camera, scientists can capture imagesofcarp larvae and uploadthem toadesktop application, which classiﬁes the sample. She stressedthe system still requires expert oversight tocatch errors or potential AI hallucinations.

“Our current level of reasoning in AI is notsuf-

Chef

nextwaveofconservation.

“Wehaveaneed

to get these species out of the environment, and yet we don’thaveconsumer acceptance, we don’t have funding,wedon’t have infrastructure.”

DENNISRIECKE, aretired biologist from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

ﬁcient.I design it to always have humanoversight because Iknowthere is agap we haven’tquite figured out,” shesaid.

Bourgeoissees thetechnology’s most immediate impact in states like Oklahoma, wherecarp populations haven’tyet reached self-sustaining levels. Monitoring those waters requires painstakingly examining thousands of larval samples,hesaid.

“The biggestthing in invasive species is early detection and rapid response If youcan detect it early and act, it costs alot less,” Bourgeois said.

In Louisiana, he envisions the softwarebeing usedto pinpoint breeding grounds

“The onething we don’t know is where they’re breeding,” he said. “If you can locate the breeding aggregations, you can target them for mass removal.”

Bourgeois said the technology could one day be paired with existing systems that shoot ﬁsh through tubes over dams and other barriers, by automatically identifyingspecies as they pass. Beyond fish, similar tools couldalsoaccelerate thestudy of otherlife that is notoriouslydifﬁcult

Thecasefor eating carp

While Bourgeois looks to harness newtechnology,heacknowledges that without aviable market for carp, their numbers will only keep rising. In Louisiana, carpsellfor less than 20 cents apound —barely enough to cover the icefor the few ﬁshermenwho bother to haul them in (between 400,000 and 500,000 pounds are harvested ayear in Louisiana). Other states like Illinois and Arkansas have offered subsidies to prop up demand, which Bourgeois doubts is asustainable longterm goal.

“No one’sﬁgured out one solution, but the end goal is to remove more,” Bourgeois said. “If you make ‘em worth something, people will ﬁsh forthem.”

to monitor,like insects, or open up entire new avenues of ecological research

Kelly Robinson, amarine biologistonthe UL research team, imagines asystem in which cameras towed behind boatscapture continuousimagesoffreshwater life, while onboardAIsorts andclassiﬁesspecies in real time.

“By accelerating this tedious partofscience, it allows us to start asking moreadvanced questions,” Robinsonsaid. “Questions aboutthe broader food web,orhow environmental factors change species competition.”

Carp are showing promise as apotential feed source for catfish and crawfish, he said, and could also be used in fertilizer,pet food and even skin products. But one of the biggest hurdles to making carpmarketable lies in its anatomy.The ﬁsh containlargefree-floating bones, making them difficult to process, and less appealing for average American consumers, who prefer boneless fillets.Grinding them down into fish balls or cakes might be more palatable, but it requires expensive machinery to remove the bones. That, in turn, requires investment in ﬁsh processing plants afar less sexy use of taxpayers dollars than, say,a newHyundaifactory,said Riecke, the Mississippi biologist.

“Wehave aneed to get these species out of the environment, and yet we don’t have consumer acceptance, we don’t have funding, we don’thave infrastructure,” Riecke said.

For Parola, the answer has always been to put carp on the plate. By the 1990s —just over adecade after moving from France to Louisiana andestablishing himself as awell-known chef —hebegan building a reputation as the godfather

of invasive-species dining, promoting disheslike lionfish meunière, wild boar with berry sauceand ragondin (nutria) àl’Orange. Among all those experiments, carp remains his obsession, though one that is an uphill battleinLouisiana “Let’sface reality,welike fish from salt water.Carp nobody wants to eat carp,” he said. “But it’sabsolutely an incredible fish. …This is aresource that is untapped.” And while Louisiana culture is steeped in fishing for manyofthe species nowthreatenedbycarp, including largemouthbass and crappie, the issue often gets overshadowed in a state facing moreexistential environmental crises. Meanwhile,Parola’sefforts to rebrand the fish and outsource processing to Vietnam have stumbled, but the self-describedhardhead refuses to quit. He is now partnering with sustainable fish-protein companiesand teamingupwith his former protégé MichaelJohnsonto continue educating the public. Johnsonsays he has fed the meat —which is high in protein andomega-3 fatty acids —toafew brave LSU football players.

“There’snothing wrong with this fish. What’swrong with this fish is it’scarp and Americans don’tlike carp,” Johnson said. “When you look at aworld facing rising costs and food shortages. I don’tunderstand whywe don’tlook at stuff like this.” At his Baton Rouge demonstration, Parolaserved up arivermonsterworthy of seconds. The dish had a light, not too fishy,almost aneutral, tofu-likeflavor that soaked up his marinade of French dressing, brown sugar and alittle bit of Slap Ya Mama seasoning. While AI may help slow carp’sadvance in U.S. rivers, providing incentives to fish them seems to remain the main answer.Good recipesand Frenchflairmight help tip that scale.

Email Aidan McCahill at aidan.mccahill@ theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTOSByHILARy SCHEINUK

Philippe Parola, left, talks about the bigheadcarp as Dennis Riecke looks on in Baton RougeonSept. 10. Louisiana scientists are developing artificial intelligence recognition software that can help biologists detect new populations of carp before theyget out of control, offering a peek into the

Chef Philippe Parola checks on aslab fillet of black carp on the grill in Baton RougeonSept. 10.

Israelidrone

BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press

BEIRUT An Israeli drone strikein

southern Lebanon killed ﬁve people Sunday,including threechildren, Lebanon’sHealth Ministry said. ParliamentSpeaker Nabih Berri said four of the killed, the three childrenaswellastheir father, held U.S. citizenship.

Twoothers were wounded,including the mother in the family.

Ofﬁcials at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut could not immediately be reached for comment. Since aceasefire agreement was reached in November to end Israel’smonthslong war with the

COMPLEX

Continued from page1A

Long saga

The pending auction is the latest development after severaldifficult years for Metairie Towers,which sits on some of the most valuable real estate in Jefferson Parish within walking distance of achurch, asupermarket and aretail district.

The building was badly damaged during Hurricane Ida and besetbysubsequent problems while being repaired. Aﬁght with the insurance companyensued. In late 2023, amajority of owners voted to sell the building andhired abroker to solicit proposals.

Aschaffenburg’sbid was selected in March 2024 over several others becauseit was the highest with the most favorable terms of those received, the broker handlingthe process said at the time. Unlike several of the other proposals, he planned to keep the building intact and renovateit.

Aschaffenburg, who grew up in Old Metairie and now splitshis time betweenDallas and New Orleans, said the area’shigh-end amenities would appeal to buyers of his condos. He had planned to price smaller units at around $600,000 withlargerand penthouse units priced at several million dollars each, he said He ﬁnalized the purchase of the building last October and over the next several months gutted the building and completed the design and engineering work, he said. He also secured all the necessary permits to add an eighth ﬂoor and begin construction

But the temporary loan that financed the preconstruction work was coming due in October and he couldn’tsecure permanent financing in the current lending climate.

“The project is fantastic the property is fantastic, he said. “I just wasn’tﬁnancially strong enough to get it over the ﬁnish line.” ‘Lotsofinterest’

Theauctionwillbeadministered by commercial auction houseTen X, which estimates that condosales could generate $200 million for the new owner and $100

Hezbollah militantgroup, Israel has continued to strike southern and eastern Lebanon almost daily

The Israeli militarysaid it was targeting aHezbollah militant, and that he “operated from within acivilian population.” Itacknowledged that civilians were killed andthatit was reviewing the incident.

“The IDF is operating against the Hezbollah terroristorganization and will continue to act to remove any threat posedtothe State of Israel,” the statement said.

Israel frequently says it is targetingHezbollah militants or infrastructure in the tiny country’sbattered southern region. Hezbollah hasonly claimedﬁring across the

borderoncesincethe ceaseﬁre, but Israel says themilitantgroupistrying to rebuild its capabilities. Lebaneseofﬁcials have warned thatthe ongoing strikes risk the country’srecent efforts to disarm the group andcould destabilize the country.Hezbollah has maintained that it no longerhas amilitarypresence south of theLitani River,and has refused to speak of disarmament withoutIsraelstopping its attacks and withdrawing fromsouthern Lebanese territory

President Joseph Aoun, who earlier landedinNew York ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, condemned the strike andcalled on the international community

to pressure Israel to stop. Aoun alongside Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, endorsed an agreement last month that would gradually disarm Hezbollah.

“Thereisnopeace above the blood of our children,” said Aoun in astatement from his ofﬁce.

The monthslong war between Hezbollahand Israel killed some 4,000 peopleinLebanon and displaced residents across southern and eastern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Salamcalledthe attack a“message of intimidation targeting ourpeople returning to their villages in the south.”

Hezbollah ofﬁcials saythe ongoing strikesjustify their refusal to

give up their arms, and claim that the ceaseﬁre agreement and monitoring mechanism with the United States, France, andUnited Nations peacekeeping forces is ineffective.

“Theyhaveproven once again that resorting to ofﬁcial protection underinternationalauspiceshas notprovidedthemwithsecurity andstability,” said Hezbollah parliamentarian Hassan Fadlallah.

Under the Washington-brokered ceaseﬁre, both the militant Hezbollah group and Israel were supposed to withdrawtheir forcesfrom southern Lebanon and halt strikes against each other.Israeli forces have continue to occupy ﬁve Lebanese hilltop points by the border

millioninproﬁt

The minimum bid is $10 million, though Aschaffenburg has said the“reserve” or minimum amount he is willing to accept is much higher.Real estate market watchers estimated earlier this summer that the property could gofor between $25 million and$40 million.

The appraised landvalue, however,isaround$8million, so if afuture buyer planned to demolishthe building and build something new on the site, it would likely go for much less than Aschaffenburg paid He said he hopes that isn’t the case.

“I hope whoever buys it picks up the ball and runs with our beautiful design,” he said.

Aschaffenburg won’tsay how many biddershaveregistered for the auction but nearly100 potential bidders had requested information.

“I hope whoever buys it does something special,” he said. “Itis right in the middle of everythinginOld

Metairie and there should be avery nicedevelopment there.”

Email StephanieRiegel at stephanie.riegel@ theadvocate.com.

STAFFFILE PHOTOByCHRIS GRANGER

Rebuilding efforts stopped months agoatthe Metairie Towers on Metairie Road.

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SEPTEMBER 2025

Parish Council seat structure faces change

Committee: Districts may decrease to 12, making 2 at-large

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

A St. Tammany committee ex-

amining the government has voted against reducing the size of the Parish Council, its most controversial question it has debated so far It recommends cutting the number of districts and adding two at-large members. Instead of hav-

JEFFERSON PARISH

ing 14 council members represent 14 different districts, the Home Rule Charter Review Committee recommended having 12 council members who represent 12 districts and two at-large members who represent as-yet-undetermined geographic areas.

The question of whether to reduce the size of the council has sparked concern over the representation of rural areas and people of color on the council.

“I thought that was a good compromise,” said Parish Council member Joe Impastato, who introduced the motion to recommend a

Nearly 6% of third graders held back under reading law

Summer Bridge program helped some students pass test

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Nearly 6% of Jefferson Parish third graders were held back this year under a new Louisiana law that requires school districts to retain students who score poorly on a state reading test

Just over 200 Jefferson Parish students were barred from advancing to the fourth grade this fall after they failed to meet the state’s reading targets, according to data provided by the school district. Students who were in third grade last school year were the ﬁrst to be impacted by the law which does not apply to charter schools.

While intended to ensure students have time to master basic reading skills, critics have argued that the law could place too much weight on a single assessment, leaving some students feeling demoralized.

This spring, about 20% of Jefferson Parish third graders were at risk of retention because they scored “well below” grade level on their state DIBELS test, an assessment taken three times a year that measures their ability to sound out words and read sentences. While some received exemptions, others were able to raise their scores when retested Ultimately, 220 of the district’s roughly 3,800 third graders had to be held back. Under the law, students who are held back must receive additional support from their school system, such as tutoring, and be screened for dyslexia.

Students who were far behind on the spring reading test were encouraged to participate in the district’s Summer Bridge Program. State law says school systems must provide third and fourthgraders who score below grade level on their end-of-year assessment with 30 hours of summer reading instruction.

Just under 30% of third graders who were eligible for the summer program chose to attend, the district said. Fifty of those roughly 300 summer school students were eligible for “good cause” exemptions, allowing them to move on to fourth grade because they had speciﬁc learning challenges, such as dyslexia or being able to speak limited English.

More than 60% of third graders who attended summer school brought their scores up to a passing level by their ﬁnal retake at the end of the summer, district ofﬁcials said. But 60 students who participated in the program did not improve their scores enough and were held back.

“Every student deserves the chance to grow,” said district Superintendent James Gray in a statement. “While that support happens all year, Summer Bridge provided young learners with targeted support when they needed it most.” Passed in 2023, Louisiana’s third grade reading law mirrors legislation enacted by Mississippi over a decade ago that

12-2 council structure.

The committee’s recommendations will now go to the full council, which will vote on whether to send them to the voters.

To the council

Dividing up the parish into 12 districts would increase the average size of each district by a few thousand, up to over approximately 22,000 per district, said Parish Council Administrator Mary Burckell. The committee recom-

mended that redistricting happen after the 2030 U.S. census.

The committee has left it up to the parish council to decide whether “at-large” representatives would represent the entire parish or a specific geographic area, such as east and west sides of the parish.

“I’m not quite sure how you do it,” Impastato said. Still, he thinks having two representatives who look at the parish from a larger view point would be good. “As we start to grow and evolve I think we need to look at things parishwide,” he said.

The council members would have to be full-time, Impastato said, and their salaries would likely be signiﬁcantly larger. The 14 council members are now parttime and earn about $30,000 a year

“The substitution of at-large council members is truly going to change the dynamic of the St. Tammany Parish Council,” Parish Council member Arthur Laughlin said.

“Everybody’s going to have two council members automatically,” Laughlin said. Parish residents

See COUNCIL, page 2B

Leading in green

N.O. employee recognized for innovative solutions

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

The hilly ﬁelds and sloped neutral grounds scattered across Gentilly Woods and Pontchartrain Park were first conceived when Meagan Williams was in high school.

Neighbors began pushing for long-term flood solutions after hundreds of homes were destroyed in the levee breaks after Hurricane Katrina, and planners designed a $15 million stormwater management project to hold 8 million gallons to alleviate pressure on the city’s overburdened pump system.

When it was completed in 2020, Williams was at the helm of the project as city engineer But heavy rainstorms almost immediately put it to the test, and it passed.

New Orleans native and awardwinning actor Wendell Pierce congratulated Williams with a personal shoutout on Twitter, now called X.

“Eureka it works! I had my doubts. The water is gone. Meagan Williams, a young city engineer, is the brainchild of the project. Congrats,” he said in the summer of 2020.

Later that year, CNN highlighted her work, naming her and 10 others around the U.S. as Champions

for Change for “leading the charge to a better world with new ideas and groundbreaking solutions,” according to the media platform. Now the 36-year-old millennial is the city’s new urban water affairs administrator in the Ofﬁce of Resilience and Sustainability She oversees a laundry list of some of the city’s largest drainage and green infrastructure projects, from the $26 million Lincoln Beach renovation, to the $40 million Mirabeau Water Garden, to the $141 million Gentilly Resilience District transforming woodlands near Dillard University into

See HEALTH, page 2B ä See READING, page 2B ä See GREEN, page 2B

National chain buys Mandeville health club

Pelican is Genesis Athletic Club’s 78th location

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

The largest privately-owned health club operator in the U.S. has added a second St. Tammany Parish location to its portfolio, purchasing the popular Pelican Athletic Club in Mandeville Genesis Health Clubs, based in Wichita, Kansas, took over the Mandeville club on Aug. 28. It is now called Genesis Health Clubs — Pelican Athletic Club Genesis declined to disclose the sale price. Paul Hansen, who heads Genesis’ Culture and Brand Department, said by email that the rates at the Mandeville club will remain the same.

“Genesis leadership will also review PAC to identify opportunities to enhance the member experience, while preserving the traditions and strengths that have made the club special,” Hansen’s email said. Pelican Athletic Club, often known as “PAC,” opened in 1996 and for years, along with Franco’s in Mandeville and Stone Creek in Covington, commanded a huge chunk of western St. Tammany’s health club business. In recent years, a number of smaller gyms have

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

Gallier Hall will not be splashed with a fantastical, custom-ﬁt video projection this November, and a psychedelic silent disco will not transpire in the Piazza d’Italia. LUNA Fête, the glowing, glittering light festival that has taken place each year since 2014, has been canceled in 2025. According to Arts New

Orleans president and CEO Joycelyn Reynolds, the 2024 event was a big success, drawing approximately 40,000 spectators who strolled through an array of glowing high-tech displays along Lafayette Street in the CBD. The upcoming fest would have cost approximately $500,000, Reynolds said. And the money didn’t materialize. For reasons not entirely clear Reynolds said, corporate sponsorship was lower than expected. But the death blow was the loss of an $80,000 grant from the

See LIGHT, page 2B

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Meagan Williams is a civil engineer who is the urban water administrator at New Orleans City Hall. She oversees stormwater management and green infrastructure projects across the city such as this one in and around Taylor Park in the 2600 block of South Roman Street.

ST. TAMMANY PARISH

Fire forces evacuations at Royal Sonesta

BY EMILY WOODRUFF

Staff writer

At least 10 ﬁre trucks lined two blocks of Bourbon Street late Sunday morning as New Orleans

ﬁreﬁghters battled a three-alarm blaze inside the Royal Sonesta hotel.

The fire, reported around 11:15 a.m., forced guests out of the iconic French Quarter landmark and drew crowds of tourists to watch as crews stretched hoses along the busy sidewalk. Fire ofﬁcials had the blaze under control within about 30 minutes

The cause of the ﬁre was still under investigation, but New Orleans Fire Department spokesperson Deronta Laugand said it started in a second-ﬂoor storage room. Multiple rescues were made, including a person in a wheelchair on the fourth floor No injuries

COUNCIL

Continued from page 1B

could even have three representatives, he said, depending on how the at-large council members are divided up.

Pushback

But the compromise has been met with some pushback

Council member Larry Rolling, who is on the committee, said he favored nine district representatives and two at-large representatives

“I wish I would have seen more aggressive change,” Rolling said But he noted they’re just recommendations. “At the end of the day the full council is going to get all of the recommendations. They can do anything they want.”

GREEN

Continued from page 1B

a nature preserve.

Williams grew up in Laﬁtte on the West Bank but spent a lot of time in Treme with her dad’s family She went to Immaculata High School before it merged with another Catholic high school in 2007 and became Academy of Our Lady She has a master’s in civil engineering from the University of New Orleans.

As a kid, she played in the mud and enjoyed building things with her dad, from mud houses to Legos.

“It spoke to my spirit,” she said of her path to engineering, one she never expected to lead where she is today Lincoln Beach

Williams is managing the renovation of Lincoln Beach, an attraction many New Orleanians are excited to see brought back to life.

Once a prominent recreational space for Black residents during segregation, the beach is especially personal to New Orleans residents and stakeholders. Their frustrations over delayed opening dates for initial phase of the $26 million project include claims of poor communication from nonlocal consultants and past city project managers.

“They need a local voice because they had too many transplants,” said Jessica Dandridge, executive director of advocacy group The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans.

“When you’re communicating issues, when they feel unheard, having someone who they believe cannot understand them doesn’t help the situation. I think she does a great job with that,” she added.

The projects Williams has managed exemplify the growing need for green infrastructure, as an alternative to relying on the city’s strained system of pumps, catch basins and aging drainage pipes.

were reported

Taxi driver Vlado Madaric was stopped just outside the hotel when fire trucks blocked the street, trapping his van inside the police tape. From the sidewalk, he watched firefighters extend a ladder to a second-floor balcony and help two people down, both of whom appeared uninjured.

Bobbi Adkins, a hotel guest visiting from Texas, said she was on the fifth floor when she was evacuated down the stairs She saw smoke in the lobby but had not received any information on when guests will be allowed back into their rooms.

Several other guests reported smelling smoke but said they did not see ﬂames.

With narrow streets, traffic that moves slowly and plenty of pedestrians, the French Quarter can be a difficult place to fight fires,

Like Rolling, council member Cheryl Tanner voted for the 12-2 structure, but she has been against reductions out of concern for what it might mean for rural representation.

She remains unsure of whether she will vote for the 12-2 structure as a member of the council.

“My goal was to get it out of the committee with as many council members as I could, and I think we achieved that,” Tanner said.

Council member Jimmy Strickland, who is the only Black member of the Parish Council and was not on the committee, said he is against any reduction in the size of council. “I won’t be voting for it,” he said of the 12-2 proposal. He said any reduction could threaten minority representation.

The chair of the committee, former Parish President Kevin Davis, said he will present the

said Andy Monteverde, the New Orleans Fire Department Union representative.

“The French Quarter is about as challenging a place for ﬁre suppression as you can ﬁnd — if not in the country then on the planet,” Monteverde said.

Monteverde said it is fortunate that the French Quarter maintains a ﬁre station and that some security measures that close down streets and make access difﬁcult were not in effect so early in the day

Another fire was reported in the same area in December 2024, when a car that caught ﬁre outside the Royal Sonesta scorched banners hanging from the building’s balcony and led to road closures in the French Quarter

Email Emily Woodruff at ewoodruff@theadvocate.com.

recommendation and many others decided on by the committee, which has been meeting since January, at an upcoming Parish Council meeting Other recommendations including allowing for the establishment an inspector general’s ofﬁce, and shifting the balance of power between the parish president and the parish council.

“The citizens and I are awaiting the final report from the HRC Advisory Committee. I’m particularly interested in what recommendations the final report will provide regarding a change in the form of government, council size, and creation of the office of the inspector general,” said current Parish President Mike Cooper in a written statement.

Email Willie Swett at willie. swett@theadvocate.com.

READING

Continued from page 1B

some education experts have credited for that state’s considerable literacy improvements in recent years.

Louisiana’s law which applies only to traditional public schools, not charters, went into effect alongside several other reading reforms that placed heavier emphasis on tutoring and literacy training for teachers Under the law, third graders who fail to hit benchmark or above on the ﬁnal of the thrice-yearly tests must be

HEALTH

Continued from page 1B

opened, as well as large, national chains such as Planet Fitness and Crunch.

Pelican has several pools and tennis courts, as well as weight training and cardio equipment and group exercise classes. Hansen said Pelican members will now have access to Genesis gyms across the U.S.

Pelican is the chain’s 78th club Genesis also operates gyms in Slidell and Baton Rouge, Hansen

held back.

While Louisiana’s Department of Education has yet to release statewide data detailing how many students have been retained, the percentage of Jefferson Parish third graders who were required to repeat the grade is higher than in other states that have passed similar legislation. In Tennessee, around 900 third graders, or about 1.2% of the state’s total third grade population, were held back in 2023. In Michigan, less than 1% of third graders were retained.

Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate.com.

said.

Pelican, which was privately owned as Pelican Athletic Club LLC, was an attractive acquisition for Genesis to expand its Louisiana holdings.

“Pelican Athletic Club has long been recognized as one of Louisiana’s premier fitness destinations, with a reputation for excellence and deep community roots,” Hansen said in the email.

“With clubs now in Baton Rouge, Slidell, and Mandeville, members will enjoy expanded access, more programming, and more opportunities to connect,” he added.

LIGHT

Continued from page 1B

National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2024, Arts New Orleans had received an ofﬁcial letter announcing that the organization would receive the money to help cover the cost of producing LUNA Fête. But with the arrival of the Trump administration in 2025, the grant was rescinded.

Reynolds said the Arts New Or-

Work continues Aug. 27 on a new drainage system being built in and around Taylor Park where the city is creating a massive underground stormwater runoff site in the 2600 block of South Roman Street in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans.

That reality became evident for Williams in August 2017 when a thunderstorm caused widespread flash flooding in just three hours, inundating vehicles and roadways with up to 10 inches of rainfall in some areas.

“That was probably the ﬁrst time in my adult life that I saw a level of ﬂooding that was not related to a hurricane. I was like, oh my God, we can’t just rely on our pump stations,” she said.

Katrina’s force

But Katrina was the initial force that helped catalyze her career. She was 16 years old when the hurricane ravaged New Orleans.

Williams recalled touring the city with her family upon their return in 2005. At the 17th Street Canal ﬂoodwall dried sediment resembling alligator skin and debris lined the

break where storm surge rushed into the city, she said. She saw holes in roofs where people had been rescued. In New Orleans East, she remembers seeing dead ﬁsh ensnared in the tall, wrought-iron fence around a family member’s home.

Williams said those experiences shaped her trajectory The 2017 ﬂooding opened her eyes to thinking about drainage differently by creating unique ways to live with water beyond the standard of pumping it out of the 300-year-old former swamp that is now New Orleans.

An uphill battle

But it’s been an uphill battle getting other city departments, the City Council, community members and funders on board with nature-based ﬂood solutions, which are often not

prioritized amid the tangles of bureaucracy, Dandridge said.

“In my opinion, Meagan is probably one of the hardest working people at the city of New Orleans because of how much she has to navigate,” she said.

Dandridge said communicating with federal agencies about what a green infrastructure project entails and applying for grants is challenging. And Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration has multiple new departments that overlap. Getting approvals, permits and communications in order is challenging, frequently leading to project delays. In addition to duties like reviewing drainage studies and engineering plans, and using her expertise to guide contractors through projects, Williams serves as a steward for outside agencies like the Water Collaborative as well as the community

leans staff and board of directors discussed presenting a smaller fest or seeking a suggested donation for entry, but rejected those plans.

Instead, the management of the organization decided to postpone the next LUNA Fête until November 2026. The 2024 free festival was “the best we’d ever done,” Reynolds said, and “keeping it at that level was important.”

Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate.com.

Williams and the collaborative are working on a community engagement framework for city employees and contractors to guide them on engaging with residents. They are also working on an app where residents and organizations can easily search through infrastructure projects, public meetings and related information.

“She actually wants to see positive change happen in New Orleans,” said Jeff Supak, co-founder and executive director of Water Wise Gulf South.

Building trust

Supak said Williams frequently attends their public meetings or listening sessions where residents are concerned about ﬂooding an uncommon occurrence among city ofﬁcials, he said.

“Meetings can be heated, and she’s very cool and good at listening to people,” he said.

Williams helped his nonprofit navigate through several green infrastructure projects, from helping them collect data to obtaining city permits and leading educational tours.

“She’s advanced this whole green infrastructure movement and doing a lot of work to push it forward,” Supak said.

“If we lost Megan tomorrow at City Hall, we’d have to start from ground zero almost because she’s really built out trust,” Supak said. “She’s built out a pathway for these projects to move forward.”

LOTTERY

SATURDAY, SEPT 20, 2025

PICK 3: 9-0-5

PICK 4: 3-2-4-4

PICK 5: 0-6-3-5-7

EASY 5: 4-10-13-17-28 LOTTO: 3-4-24-32-35-37

POWERBALL: 15-29-64-66-67 (4)

Unofficial notification, keep your tickets.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

PROVIDED PHOTO By ARTS NEW ORLEANS Camille Gross’ popular animated projection, ‘Night at the Circus,’ which appeared on Gallier Hall in 2019, was slated to return for this year’s LUNA Fête, New Orleans’ light and art festival.

STAFF PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER

New Orleans firefighters respond to a blaze at the Royal Sonesta hotel on Bourbon Street on Sunday

NewOrleans Area Deaths

Dickerson, William Dominick, Ursula NewOrleans Charbonnet

Dominick, Ursula

Greenwood

Dickerson, William Obituaries

Dickerson, William Daniel 'Dan'

WilliamDaniel“Dan”

Dickerson passedawayon September 17, 2025, at the age of 60. Danissurvived byhis belovedwife, Susan Bentz Dickerson; hissons, Patrick Dickersonand Ryan Dickerson;and hisbrother, ThomasAlanDickerson (Michelle). He is preceded indeath by hisparents, WilliamLouis Dickerson and Sharon Phillips Dicker‐son;and hisfather-in-law

GeorgeE.Bentz,Sr. Dan cherished hisfamily, and those who will miss him dearlyare hismother-inlaw,GloriaBentz;brotherin-law, George E. Bentz, Jr (Anna), sister-in-law, Diane Bentz Riehlmann; andher sonsMatt(Amber), Christopher (Michelle),and Nick(Emily). Born in Lake Charles,Louisiana, Dan graduated from BarbeHigh Schooland LouisianaTech Universitywitha degree in MechanicalEngineering. WhileatLouisiana Tech,he was amemberofthe LARHO ChapterofSigma Alpha EpsilonFraternity. His engineeringcareer began as aProject Man‐ageratPennzoilinShreve‐port, andhewas avolun‐teer member of theFire Brigade.Heworkedinen‐gineering salesatJohnH CarterCompany formany years.Dan wasknown for hisloveofadventure,hunt‐

ing, skiing, ﬁshing, racing, motorcycles,and mountain biking. He wasinstrumen‐tal in spearheading the creationofthe NewOr‐leans MetroAreaMountain BikeOrganization(NO‐MAMBO)Bonnet Carre SpillwayMountainBike Trail. He wasalsoa mem‐ber of theSportsCar Club ofAmerica (SCCA).His fa‐voritepastime wasenjoy‐ing andattendingFormula 1 Races with hisbest friend andboys, as well as watchingthe NewOrleans Saints. Although askiing accident left himparalyzed in2009, Dancontinued to bea greatmentortohis children. Histalentfor guiding others throughin‐stallations or repairswas alwaysvalued. Hiscourage servedasaninspiration to all who knew him. Special thankstofriends and care‐giver JeffreyCarter, Nicole Williams,Donna White, GuardianAngelsHospice and ahostofother care‐givers, family,and friends. Familyand friendsare in‐vited to avisitationfrom 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on Wednesday,September 24 2025, at Greenwood Funeral Home, 5200 CanalBlvd. New Orleans, LA,followed byinterment at Greenwood Cemetery. We also invite you to shareyour thoughts, memories,and condolences online at www.greenwoodfh.com

Arnaud Do‐minick, belovedwifeofthe lateRalph J. Dominick, passedawayonFriday, September 12,2025 at the age of 92. Sheissurvived byher children,Renette Dominick, RalphDominick, Erin Dominick,Elizabeth DominickCavaliere,and StevenDominick; her grandchildren,Douglas Raymond,AmandoDo‐minickand RileyDominick; great-granddaughter,Lily Raymond;sister, AnnJulie Arnaud;son-in-law, Kevin

M. Dotson;her dear cousin, SheilaAugustin; andmany niecesand nephews. She was preceded in deathby her parentsCharles S. Ar‐naudand PearlBeaulieu Arnaud; hersisterLoisAr‐naudDownin; andher brother,Charles J. Arnaud Relatives andfriends of the familyare invitedtoattend the RequiemMassofChris‐tianBurialatCorpus Christi-EpiphanyCatholic Church,2022 St.Bernard Ave., NewOrleans,LA 70116 on Tuesday, Septem‐ber 23, 2025 at 10:00 am Visitationat9:00a.m (Rosary at 9:15 a.m.). Cele‐brant,Rev.Henry Davis S.S.J Pastor.Interment at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 4000 Norman MayerAve New Orleans, LA 70122 Pleasesignthe online guestbook at www.cha rbonnetfuneralhome.com. Charbonnet-Labat-Glapion Directors, (504) 581-4411.

biggeststories customizedtoyourinterests –delivered direct to your inbox

Whywould N.O. turn downhelp from National Guard?

Muchhas been said about sending National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to patrol the streets and decrease the crime rate. District leaders have said that crime is decreasing so the National Guard was not needed, butPresident Donald Trump made acomparison about crime when he said the murder rate in D.C. is higher than Bogota, Colombia and Mexico City Let’scheck the numbers. Asimple search on the internet revealed that Bogota recorded 15 homicides per100,000 in 2024. MexicoCity recorded 26.6 per 100,000 in 2022 Washington, D.C., in 2024 had 27.3 per 100,000. The president’s statement is correct and nota lie as suggested by Will Suttonina Sunday column New Orleans has done extraordinary policing during major public events like the SuperBowl by using state police and federal law enforcement personnel to assist the understaffed policeforce. Help from outside sourcesisnot unusual andevery citizenshould be concerned about the levelof crime in their city and accept help to make improvements. We should never considerthe numbers presented above to be acceptable. There are large cities that are consistently below 10 homicides per 100,000 residents.For example,one such city is Austin, Texas, which had ahomicide rate of 6.7 per 100,000 in 2023.

BRIAN ALMON Metairie

NewSEC schedule might complicate things forLSU

With theSEC moving to anine-game schedule andgiving each team three permanent opponents,I rarely hear Arkansas mentioned among fans as one of the three SEC teams they predict LSUwill play annually However,whether LSUprefers it or not,I see it as aguarantee Arkansas will be one of the permanent opponents for LSU. The last week of theregular season cannot be an SEC rotational game for LSU. Why? Because every other SEC team (except Oklahoma) has an annual rivalry game scheduled to ﬁnish theseason

The SEC can’tleave this date open for LSU, as finding anonconference opponent to play onrivalryweek is quite difficult. Unless LSU wishes to renew its rivalrywith Tulane, then the SEC must provide LSUwith an annual opponent to finish theseason. But who? Oklahoma is available, but LSU would fightstrongly against selecting Oklahoma to occupyone of the three permanent opponentslots for the Tigers, as it will mean

sacriﬁcing an annual gameagainst one of LSU’sideal permanent opponents such as Ole Miss, Auburn, Alabama, Florida or A&M.These teams are not available for rivalry week, as Ole Miss plays Mississippi State, Auburn and Alabama play each other, Floridaplays FloridaState and A&M plays Texas. So, what is the solution? The onlyteam that makes sense to play LSUonrivalry week as one of the three permanent conference opponents is Arkansas. The Razorbacks can still play Missouri annually earlier in the season, and aMissouri-Oklahoma rivalry week gamemakes more sense for both of them anyway

In order to select three permanent opponentsfor LSU that have ahistory and provide an opponent for rivalry week, what option does theSEC have for LSU other than Arkansas?

DUSTIN HART Baton Rouge

Katrina anniversary coverage wasstellar

Suchwonderful facts,memories and tributes in the recall of Hurricane Katrina.

Thanks to all for reminding us of the tragedythat displaced many, called to arms numerous helpers both professional and everyday heroes and showed us that humanityinits manyforms continues to exist. And congratulations to the many whoreturned to the Lower 9th Ward to rebuild for reminding us what being a part ofaneighborhood really means. Kudos to all.

YVONNE BAHRYCABALLERO Baton Rouge

Litigation against firms fordestroying coastjustified by science

Iwas amazed to read the recent op-ed by Steve Milloy,who criticized Louisiana forparticipating in litigation against oil corporations fordestroying the coastal zone. His website is called “JunkScience. com,” which accurately describes his column. Among other things, he declares that there is no reasonable science showing damage from oil and gas operations. He is wrong. Indeed, studies have shownthat the coastal zone was relatively stable, even after the levees werebuilt in the l930’s. When oil and gas operations began operating seriously in the l940’s, however,the zone started to collapse. The ﬁrst reason was the access canals, that tore up the wetlands surface like a power mower on steroids. The second wasthe extraction of ﬂuids below the marshes, which extracted astronomical amounts of gas and oil and morethan eight times that volumeofbrines. In fact, aclassic one-two punch, one to the chin and the other to the gut. The dual effects were catastrophic. Louisiana began losing 35 square miles of wetlands ayear,and that would be doubled by the year 2050. The scientists behind these conclusions include Robert Morton from the U.S. Geological Survey and three celebrated Louisiana scientists, Eugene Turner and John Day of LSU, Walter Sikoura from Alabamaand the dean of them all, Sherwood Gagliano.

So muchfor Junk Science. The science behind oil and gas impacts on the coastal zone has been proven, both in theory,lab experience and on-side cause and effects measurements. If Milloy has any questions about these statements, Iinvite him to look at an article called “The Reckoning,” published in 2019.

emeritus professor DAVID BOIES chair in public interest law, Tulane University

Don’tpaint Planned Parenthood as all aboutwomen’s health

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR

AREWELCOME.HEREARE

TO SEND US ALETTER SCAN HERE

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com.

Regarding theAug. 25 letter by Morgan Landry ofPierre Partinvoking certain biblical passages to justify deportation policies: Those passages arebeing misused, and an important distinction is blurred.

Romans2:13 does not speak of man’s laws for governing society, but of God’slaw giventogovern our relationship with Him To equate it with civil statutes is to miss Paul’s point.Likewise, Romans 13:1 is not ablank check for rulers. Taken literally,it would sanctify even tyrannical regimes. Paul’s counselwas to encourage order under Rome, nottobaptizeevery regime. And Luke 20:25remindsusthat Caesar has civil authority,but only God claimsour worship andultimate loyalty Unlawfulpresence is often acivil offense, not acrime. The Constitution guarantees due process to all everyone. Enforcement of deportation should be done justly.And beyond man’slaw stands the higher law of

love. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus teaches that love of neighbor is paramount —not by citizenship or status, but by need. In theparable of the road to Emmaus, we see that Jesus’ presence becomes clear when we invite the stranger to share what we have; in thebreaking of bread, our eyes are opened. As Exodus tells us, we cannot see God’sface, but we can recognize when Hisglory has passed before us. We should not trytoclaim authority to settle every disputebyappealing to scriptural passages removed from their greater moraland historical context.Like the man once blind in John 9:25, one thing is clear to me. We becomePharisees ourselves when we use Scripture to twistGod’slaw into a tool for fear or exclusion. We are blind when we confuse man’slaw with God’s—but by Christ’smercy,wemay yet see.

BRIAN HANLEY Baton Rouge

I’d like to respond to letter writer Rosalind Hinton regarding her comments about the closure of Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana. She states that Planned Parenthood did not perform abortions in our state. That is true, but only due to state laws largely preventing it. Planned Parenthood did provide over $650,000 for travel expenses to facilitate abortion in other states. So, at their heart and with their government provided funding from our tax dollars, they certainly helped perform abortions. As aCatholic theologian, Hinton should be well versed in the Catholic Church doctrine as stated in our catechism regarding abortion, and I quote, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the ﬁrst moment of its existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of aperson among whichisthe inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” Here then, is the answer to her question, where is my church? It is standing on truth, against the tide of death. Won’tyou join Her?

SUSAN ROTOLO Slidell

OLIVER HOUCK

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Members of the

football team carrythe trophy into the locker room after defeating

11,2017, in Baton Rouge.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER People dance and march during the 20th anniversaryofHurricane Katrina Marchand Second-LineonAug.29inNew Orleans.

COMMENTARY

WINNER: KennyMathews, Mandeville WALT’S CAPTION CONTEST

HERE COMES AUTUMN

Tasty! We received616 entries in this week’sCartoon Caption Contest. We gotabunch of nutty politicianjokes (go figure!)and ahilarious arrayofoff-the-wall approaches that were greatly appreciated.Food deliverygags were also plentiful, and our winner had aterrifictakeonthat! Great job,folks! As always, when we have duplicate entries, and we alwaysdo, we pick the earliest sent in. Well played, everyone. —Walt

JUNE DUCHMANN, METAIRIE: “He gets an unlimitedsupply from hiscousin in Washington, DC.

MARIANO HINOJOSA, BATONROUGE: “Thehomeowner found away to keep Fredout of the birdfeeder.”

JOHN WEGER, BATONROUGE: “I bet thedog left thenuts to slow Joedown.”

MICHAEL B. RIEMER, JEFFERSON: “He claimshe’sallergic to acorns!”

KIRBY JANE NAGLE, METAIRIE: “Steve hasmore waste than agovernment spending bill.”

JOHN HANLEY,BATON ROUGE: “He says he doesn’tlikethe unsaltedonesinthe trees.”

RAYLIGHTELL, METAIRIE: “Forget winter storagehe’sgoing forearly retirement.”

DARLIN BRADY-CARO, DESTREHAN: “He’slookingfor the pumpkin spice flavored one!”

DENNIE WILLIAMS,ALEXANDRIA: “Looks likeheisjust picking out the cashews to eat.

BRUCE TAMPLAIN, LAPLACE: “I wonderwhere he foundthat tree?”

JOHN ARCENEAUX, MANDEVILLE: “I told youweneeded to go to Buc-ee’s.”

MARTHA STARNES,KENNER: “Oh great… nowhe’sgoingto be starting afood blog!”

ASHLYN GRAVES,NEW ORLEANS: “Mixed nuts? With this heat those nuts are roasted.”

ERIN O’SULLIVAN FLEMING, RIVER RIDGE: “He’sbulking up fora one on one with the cat.

JAYDARDENNE,BATON ROUGE: “Heordered it from Amazon. It’scalled the Congressional Special.”

SAM JOHNSON, ZACHARY: “Don’ttell momma… she thinks Dad still climbs trees!!”

DANNIEP.GARRETT, III, BATONROUGE: “He must have bought those before the tariffs.

DONALD BOREY,GONZALES: “He doesn’tworry about winternow that he has Amazon homedelivery.”

JOHN E. GALLOWAY, KENNER: “He says acan of those goes perfectly with the daily news.

KEVINSTEEN, CORPUS CHRISTI,TX: “I thought he had a nut allergy!”

WENDYKING, NEWORLEANS: “I’ll have what he’shaving!”

P. GEARYVANCE, BATONROUGE: “I totally misunderstood that guy when he saidhewas goingtothe can…”

DAVIDD.DELGADO, NEWORLEANS: “I’m getting thirsty just lookingathim!”

PHILLIP T. GRIFFIN, NEWORLEANS: “We’ll know whose house to go to when the freeze comes.”

KERI ANNE STIEGLER, NEWORLEANS: “Guess who’sbeen pilferingpicnics in the park again.

STUART CLARK,LAFAYETTE: “Dang! Isaw it first but it looked likea ‘pop-upsnakeprank’ can.”

KathyHochul’schanging‘principles’

NewYork Gov.Kathy Hochul’s endorsement of Democrat SocialistZohran Mamdani for mayor of NewYork City,reminds me of an old Groucho Marx line: “Those are my principles and if you don’tlike them. well,Ihaveothers.” Only last week, Hochul called on Mamdani to apologize to police for calling the New York Police Department “racist” and a“major threat to public safety.”Four days later she said while they still have theirdifferences,she is for him anyway. Whatthose “differences”are she did not say, but perhapsa reporter mightask her. Mamdani’smajor campaign theme hasbeen making New York City more “affordable.”The way to begin that process is by cutting taxes. The state income tax can run as high as 10.9% for high earners. On top ofthat, and of courseontop of federal incomes taxes, the city income tax is nearly 4% for those earning more than $50,000. Add to that other state and local taxesand the federal income tax. Does Hochul support tax cuts to help keeppeople in the state and city?Bloomberg reports “a net 30,000 New Yorkersﬂed the city for Florida’sPalm Beach and Miami-Dade counties in the ﬁve years through 2022, takingwiththemacombined$9.2billioninincome.” John F. Kennedy,who cuttaxes, would have troublemakingitin

today’sDemocratic (and socialist) party.Hochul also called herself “a staunch capitalist” before her endorsement of Mamdani. What do a capitalist and asocialist have in common?

to roam free.”Does Hochul disagree with his position?

WilliamF. Buckley would recognize CharlieKirkas akindred spirit

NEW HAVEN, Conn. On atranquil, sun-dappled afternoon here, the day before the killing of Charlie Kirk on auniversity campus morethan 2,000 miles west, Yale University hosted aceremony at which the U.S. Postal Service unveiled acommemorative stamphonoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of aYale man in whose large footsteps Kirk had walked. William F. Buckley Jr., whodied in 2008 at age 82, would have recognized the 31-year-old Kirk as akindred spirit.

The poet Robert Frost wrote of his “lover’squarrel with the world.” Buckley burst upon the national scene in 1951, at age 25, by announcing such aquarrel with his alma mater.Itwas heatedly explained in his ﬁrst book, “God and Man at Yale.” Looking back, this volumewas an early spark that lit the fuse that led to the explosion that has blown universities into the maelstrom of today’scontentiousness.

Kirk was called “divisive.” So was Socrates, whoalso paid with his life forthe offense of being too argumentative, corrupting young Athenians by encouraging independent thinking.

Seven decades ago, Buckley,the foremost maker of the postwar conservative movement, wasnot often somberly denounced as divisive. His immunity was primarily because conservatism then wasoften regarded condescendingly as aharmless eccentricity —naughty but unserious.

By founding National Review magazine in 1955, and by his tireless traveling to small and soon not-so-small gatherings on campuses and in communities, Buckley madehistory: Without National Review,Barry Goldwater would not have been the Republicans’ 1964 presidential nominee. Without Goldwater,Ronald Reagan’snomination would have been less likely Kirk was killed at the beginning of what wasto have been aBuckley-like tour of political evangelism among the unconverted: college students. He also wasprobably killed because, unlike Buckley when he was 31 in 1956, Kirk wasadvocating apowerful and ascendant politics.

When Goldwater,anArizona businessman, decided at age 40 in 1949 to run forthe Phoenix City Council, he said of politics, “Itain’tfor life, and it may be fun.” In 1949, Yale was incubating Buckley as an undergraduate who, like Kirk, had atalent formaking politics fun. It ought to be such. It ﬂows from what makes us human. Today,onboth sides of the barricades, politics is practiced with asnarl. It makes people cranky, permeates everything, and in twomonths, will spoil innumerable Thanksgiving dinners. Why then must we have politics?

Because we are what Aristotle said makehumans distinctive creatures: Like Buckley and Kirk, we all are language users. Trout get along swimmingly without politics. Ants and beavers collaborate building anthills and dams, and bees in apiaries have hierarchies (queens and drones), but we do not speak of the “politics” of ants, beavers and bees. Only humans have politics, fortwo reasons: We are opinionated, and we are egotistical. We think our opinions are preferable to others’ opinions. Hence the primary purpose and challenge of politics is to keep the peace among such creatures living together

The leading candidate for mayorhas also made antisemitic comments. In an op-ed forthe American Enterprise Institute, Samuel J. Abrams, a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, writes: “Mamdani hasrefused to explicitly condemn theslogan ‘Globalize theIntifada,’ which hasbeen widely understood as acall to violence against Jews.His defenders insist it’sasymbolic plea for Palestinianrights.But nuance offerslittle comfort when thephrase gloriﬁes violent uprisings andisroutinely chanted alongsidecalls for Israel’sdestruction.” Amazingly it appears amajority of the largest population of Jews in the U.S.are preparedtovote for him. What is Hochul’sview of Mamdani’s antisemitic statements?

Hochul has said she and Mamdani agree that children should be able to “grow up in safe neighborhoods.”

How does that align with Mamdani’s past statements about defunding the police andsoft on crime positions?

According to theNew York Post, Mamdani’sendorsement of astate parolereform law would allow “85% of ex-conswho commit new crimes

Mamdani also wantsthe cityto create anetwork of grocery stores to provide “affordable food.” That wastried in Kansas City wherelast month acity-owned grocery store was forced to close due to high expenses and reduced revenue. The city had poured $29 million intothe store. Youmight think Hochul and Mamdani could learn alesson from this failed socialist experiment,but ideologies are hard to break even when there are examples that prove them wrong.

If Mamdani wins, as appears likely, theDemocratic Party will own him and be forced to defend his socialist ideology.That might work for many young people who have been indoctrinated in someoftheir public schools and universities with anti-capitalist and other views contrary to America’shistory,but it is unlikely to work for theparty between the coasts.

In what will likely be seen as an “and you, Brutus” stab in the back, Mamdani has refused to endorse Hochul’sreelection.

LastNovember’selection should have sent amessage to Democrats. For Hochul and others that message appears to have been forgotten. At least she has principles, whatever they might be.

Email Cal Thomas at tcaeditorstribpub.com.

Many visionary nuisances think that keeping the peace is acontemptibly modest, even banal purpose forpolitics. They believe that social peace —living together congenially —isnot merely overrated, it is evidence of bad character: too little passion forperfecting the world. Sacriﬁcing social peace is, they think, an inevitable price worth paying forapolitics with properly elevated ambitions, including the suppression of those whose opinions and egotism are impediments to politically driven progress.

Addressing what he called, with notable understatement, “mydissatisﬁed fellow-countrymen,” Lincoln said in his ﬁrst inaugural: “Weare not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” When he spoke, seven states had voted to secede. The nation was fractured by disagreement about the right of somehuman beings to own other human beings. Today,American politics is embittered by many disagreements, but not even all of them cumulatively begin to justifythe insanely disproportionate furies that so manypeople on both sides of the metaphoric barricades relish feeling. Perhaps they feel important, even to themselves, only when cloaked in the derivative importance that comes from immersion in apocalyptic politics. Politics too grand to settle formerely keeping the peace that gives congeniality achance.

Kirk, like Buckley,was ateacher unconﬁned to a classroom. Anyone is such whoargues foraliving —who by welcoming interlocutors pays them the compliment of acknowledging the kinship of all serious users of language. It is horriﬁc that nowadays this can be fatal.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

Cal Thomas

George Will

LEGION OF GLOOM

Seattle Seahawksdefensive tackle ByronMurphy, second from right, celebrates after sacking

game SundayinSeattle.

Everything that couldgowrong for NewOrleans didinblowout loss

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

SEATTLE The living embodiment of Murphy’sLaw took theﬁeldinNew Orleans Saints uniforms Sunday. There was essentially nothing good to take away from the Saints’ 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but the ﬁrst 10 minutes were adisaster reel, with the failures growingprogressively,maddeningly more egregious

“We’ve got to do agreat job of studying this,” said head coach Kellen Moore. “There’sno‘throwthis film away and justmove on.’ This is,100%, we have to evaluate every little item that happened today and get better from it.”

Consider all that happened as the Seahawks raced out to a21-0 lead:

n On theiropening defensive possession, the Saints werepoised to get offthe ﬁeld after deﬂecting aSam Darnold pass at the line on thirdand-8. But, afterthe play, defensive lineman Bryan Bresee was penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness after head-buttinga Seattleplayer. On the next play,Darnold rolled to his leftand hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a12-yard touchdown.

n TheSaintstookoverand, facing afourth-and-1, they lineduptorun the tushpush forthe second time this season. Also,for the second time this season, theplay was negated ä See SAINTS, page 4C Moore’shoneymoon is over as wheels fall offfor Saints in

SEATTLE The honeymoonfor Kellen Moore ofﬁcially ended in theﬁrst quarter of his third game as New Orleans Saints head coach Somewhere between Tory Horton’s95-yard punt return for atouchdown,the blocked punt that set up another Seahawks’ TD and an embarrassing three-penalties-in-four-plays sequence on offense, the bloom was removed from the proverbial rose. Whatever patience, understanding and empathy Saints fans had for Moore in his debut season in New Orleansvaporized during one of the mostembarrassing losses in Saints franchise history

As the ugly 44-13 beatdown played out and the deﬁcit climbed to historic levels, from 21-0 after one quarter to 38-3 at halftime, the reality of what lies ahead began to sink in: The Saints aren’tnearly as close as they led us to believe, and along, frustrating season is upon us. “Wedid not play up to our standard at all today,” Moore said. “It’sonme.” Yes, it is. Moore has mostly been given afree pass in his nascent tenure in NewOrleans, but that won’tbethe case after Sunday The Saints’ eternally optimistic

Jeff Duncan

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByLINDSEy WASSON

RyderCup noteasytowin on road

Europe haswon on U.S. soil just four times

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. Rory McIlroy, who became only the sixth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam of majors by winning theMasters, now faces another tall order McIlroy has been saying for the past few years that winning the Ryder Cup on the road is the biggest accomplishment in golf He would know.McIlroy was on thelastwinning roadteamin this passionate competition. That was 13 years ago and requiredso much to go right on the ﬁnal day that it became known as the“Miracle at Medinah.”

“Weweren’tsupposed to win in ‘12,” McIlroy once said. “Even since then, the home team has won, each time pretty convincingly.”

The Americans were coming off arecord rout over Europein2021 —19-9 —when they went to Marco Simone in Italy with hopes of ending 30 years without aroad victory Europe swept the opening session and sailed to aﬁve-point win.

After Europe’swin at Medinah, thehometeam haswon by the following margins: ﬁve points in Scotland, six points in Minnesota, seven points in France, 10 points in Wisconsin and then last time in Rome.

Europe returns Luke Donald as captain and 11 of the players who woninRome. Now it faces abig, loud crowd at Bethpage Black when the matches start Friday The course will be groomed to favor an American style of golf. That led Donald to say winning aRyder Cup in New York “is adifferent animal.”

But the Europeans have doneit before—four times in the past 40 years.Here’s how theydid it

MuirfieldVillage, 1987

Europe was coming off its ﬁrst Ryder Cup victory since 1957, facing an American team with Jack Nicklaus as the captain on theMuirﬁeldVillage course he built

Among the three captain’spicks for Europe was Jose Maria Olazabal,the perfect partner forSeve Ballesteros. They went 3-1 in team play as Europe,behind a4-0 session in Friday fourballs, and built aﬁve-point lead going into Sunday singles.

The Americanrallycame up short, particularly on the 18th hole. Ballesteros closed it outbybeatingCurtisStrange fora15-13 victory,the ﬁrst time the Americans lost on homesoil since the matches began in 1927.

Noteworthy: This was thelastRyder Cup in which the Americans didnot havecaptain’spicks.

OakHill, 1995

American dominance appeared to be restored with wins at Kiawah Island in 1991 andatThe Belfry in 1993. And thenCorey Pavin chipped in on the 18thfor afourballs victory Saturday evening at Oak Hill for a9-7 lead that looked insurmountable given the U.S. edge in singles. An aging European team —this was the last playing appearance by Ballesteros —dominated the 18th hole, as it had done in its previous road victory Nick Faldo got up-and-down for par from 93 yards away on the18th to rally for a1-up win over Strange, who bogeyed thelastthree holes. Philip Walton clinched it for Europe in a141/2-131/2 victory

Noteworthy: Phil Mickelson went 3-0 in his Ryder Cup debut.Itwas theﬁrst of his record 12 consecutiveappearances.

WNBA PLAYOFFS ROUNDUP

OaklandHills,2004

Europe recorded its largest margin of victory in the RyderCup, 181/2-91/2,and yet this Ryder Cup will be bestremembered for U.S. captain Hal Sutton pairing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for the ﬁrst time. They lost the opening match to Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie. Suttonsent themout again and they lost to Lee Westwood and DarrenClarke.

Europe alreadyhad afive-point lead after the first day and won four of thefive sessions with Bernhard Langer at thehelm Trailing 11-5going into Sunday Sutton decided to send out his players in the ordertheymadethe team. By the fifth of 12 matches, Europe had securedthe cup.

Noteworthy: For the ﬁrst time since 1981, Europe had no major champions on itsteam.

Medinah, 2012

TheAmericans were poised to take an 11-5 lead into singles when Ian Poulter finished with ﬁve straight birdies to carry him and McIlroy to astunning point in theﬁnal fourballs match. The momentumwas enormous.

The Americansstill had afourpoint lead.McIlroy forgot Chicago was in the Central timezone andnearlymissed his teetime, arriving at Medinahwith10minutes to spare. And then the Europeans staged thegreatest comeback by aroad team in Ryder Cup history

Their top five players in the lineup won, none bigger than Justin Rosemaking birdie on the last two holes to beat Mickelson. Martin Kaymer madea6-foot par putt to beat Steve Stricker.The cup in Europe’shands, Tiger Woods conceded ashort par putt to Francesco Molinari fora141/2-131/2 victory

Noteworthy: European captain Olazabal hadanimage of Ballesteros sewn into the sleeves of his team’s Sundayshirts. It was the ﬁrst Ryder Cup since Ballesteros died from abraintumorinMay 2011.

Mitchell scores 34 points as Fever upsets Aces

By The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS Kelsey Mitchell scored aplayoff-career high 34 points and the Indiana Feverbeat the Las Vegas Aces89-73 on Sunday in Game 1ofthe best-of-ﬁve semiﬁnal series.

After seeing itsdouble-digit lead shrink to three points with 2:51 left in the third, the Fever closed the quarter on an 11-0 run to extendits advantageto14 points, seizing controlofthe game and never looking back.

Mitchell scored 17 points in the first half, setting the tone for theFever’soffense.The veteran guard, whofinished the regular season ranked thirdinscoring with 20.2 points per game, shot 12 of 23 (52.2%) from the floor,including 4of6from 3-point range for the game.

OdysseySims had17points, while NatashaHoward finished with adouble-double (12 points, 11 rebounds).

TheFever ﬁnished the game hitting50% from theﬂoor (34 of 68), while the Acesshot just 29 of 71 (40.8%).

Aces star A’ja Wilsonﬁnished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Wilson shot just 27.3% (6 of 22) from the ﬁeld.

JackieYoung led the Aces with 19 points, while Dana Evans came off the bench toscore 14 points and Chelsea Gray chipped in with13.

LYNX 82, MERCURY69: In Minneapolis,Courtney Williams scored a game-high 23 points, Kayla McBride scored 21, and Napheesa Collieradded 18 points and nine reboundsasthe top-seededMinnesotaLynxdefeated thePhoenix Mercury in Game 1ofthe semiﬁ-

nal series.

TheLynx trailed by as manyas nine and faced aseven-point deﬁcit at halftime. As Phoenix threatened to even thegame down the stretch, Williams and McBride kept making big shots to keep the Mercury at bay. McBride drilled a shot from deep to put theLynx up 73-67 with under four minutes to play,and Minnesotanever looked back.

Game 2isTuesday in Minneapolis before the teams head to Phoenix for Game3onFriday Kahleah Copperled Phoenix with 22 points and Alyssa Thomas had18. Mercury leading scorer Satou Sabally (16.3 ppg) was held to just 10 points. Collier had 10 first-quarter pointsand scored eight in the third as theLynx evened thegame at 59 heading to theﬁnal quarter

Aces center A’ja Wilson looksto shoot overFever forward Makayla Timpson, left, on Sunday in Las Vegas.

Stormannounces Quinn will not returnascoach

TheSeattleStorm announced on Sunday that Noelle Quinn will not return as coach, days after the franchise lost in the ﬁrst round of the WNBA playoffs

The Storm lost in Game 3toLas Vegas on Thursday after finishing seventh in the standings in the regular season. Quinn was the only Black female head coach in the WNBA this season.Teresa Weatherspoon (Chicago)and Tanisha Wright (Atlanta) were both ﬁred at theend of the 2024 season.

She started her Storm career as aplayer in 2013and continued her tenure from 2016-2018, including being part of the 2018 WNBA championship team. Quinn ﬁnished with the secondmostwinsofany coach in Seattle franchise history,ending her tenure with a97-89 record.

Aces star Wilsonearns historic fourth MVP award Las VegasAces starA’jaWilson is in aclass by herself, winning the WNBA MVP for an unprecedented fourth time.

She won the award last season as the unanimous choice and also in 2020 and 2022. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson all wonthe award three times. Wilsonand formerHouston Comets star Cynthia Cooper were theonly ones to winthe award unanimously

The 29-year-old Wilson again led the league in scoring (23.4 points per game) as wellasblocked shots (2.3)and helped the Aces wintheir last 16 regular-season games, earning the No.2seed in the playoffs.For the second consecutive season, Wilson averaged at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, 2assists, 2 blocks and asteal per game.

Italyrouts U.S. to retain Billie Jean King Cup

SHENZHEN, China Jasmine Paolini beat Jessica Pegula on the fourth match point as defending champion Italy won the Billie Jean King Cup with acomprehensive victory over the United States on Sunday Italywon both singlestiesin straight sets, meaning there was no need foradecisive doubles match. The No. 8-ranked Paolini beat seventh-ranked Pegula 6-4, 6-2 after No.91Elisabetta Cocciaretto won 6-4, 6-4 against Emma Navarro, breaking herservethree times. Italy was contesting its third straight ﬁnal and clinched itssixth title. The Americans’ previous ﬁnal came in 2018.

Hall of Fame goaltender, ex-Flyer Parent dies at 80

PHILADELPHIA Bernie Parent, the Hall of Famer considered one of the great goalies of alltime who anchored the netfor thePhiladelphia Flyers’ only two StanleyCup championships in the1970sduring their Broad Street Bullies heyday has died. He was 80.

Parentdiedovernight in hissleep, formerteammateJoe Watsonsaid. Watson, astar defenseman on theStanleyCup teams, said by phone that he saw Parent and other former Flyers players at a function Fridaynight in Delaware

“Bernie was in such pain, he could hardly walk,” Watson said, citing Parent’sbad back.

Parent’ssteel-eyed stare through hisold-school hockey masklanded him on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 when the Flyers reigned as one of the marquee teams in sports.

BYEDDIE PELLS Associated Press

TOKYO— Former LSU standout Sha’Carri Richardsonsavedthe day in her relay, and Noah Lyles and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone put exclamation points on theirs. Thebestinthe U.S. splashed through the rainy relays Sunday in Tokyo to capture threegold medals and close out world championships on anight when track also bid ahug-ﬁlled farewell toJamaica’s sprint legend,Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

“I felt like Iran with my heart because of the ladies I’m standingwith,” Richardson said, as she celebrated her first gold medal of achampionships thatwas far from perfect. “I feel really good. It came back. I’mready to startall over again.” It has been atough, injurytainted year for Richardson, who ﬁnishedﬁfth last weekend in the women’s100. Even so, sheran the anchor leg for the 4x100 relay same place she’sbeen for goldmedal performances the past two years —and shedidn’tdisappoint.

baton from Kayla White. It took a few steps for her to build alead of herown, and she held off Jonielle Smith down the stretchand leaned in for the win in 41.75 seconds. It wasa .04-second margin, and the difference might have been aslight hiccup in an exchange between Jamaican twins Tiaand Tina Clayton. The U.S. had none of those problems. Afull-circlemoment

to the opponentsshe passed,

In acouple of near-perfect moments, it was Richardson’scomebackthat turned Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, whoran the lead leg, into the first three-time sprint winneratworlds —100, 200 and relay —since Fraser-Pryce did it in 2013. It also left the Jamaican they call the“Mommy Rocket”with silver,the same color she wonin her debut at worlds, back in 2007 in Osaka when she was20and earned aspot on the foursome that ran thequalifying round.

Popstar Styles runs Berlin Marathon in under 3hours

BERLIN English singer and songwriter Harry Styles ran the Berlin Marathon in under three hours on Sunday Organizers confirmed to news agency dpa that Styles took part. Local newspaper Der Tagesspiegel was the ﬁrst to report his participation.

The 31-year-old former member of the One Direction boy band was amongsome 55,000 runners taking part in the race on what is widely regarded as the fastest marathon track in the world. Styles —reportedly using the pseudonym Sted Sarandos and wearinga headband andsunglasses —completed the route in 2hours, 59 minutes, 13 seconds. A sub-3 hour marathon is acoveted mark for many marathon runners.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Ireland golfer Philip Walton, right, is huggedbyEuropean team captain BernardGallacher moments after Walton clinched aRyder Cupvictory for Europe on Sept. 24, 1995, in Rochester,N.y

AP PHOTO By CANDICE WARD

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

NFL ROUNDUP

Mariota, Commanders offense run past Raiders

The Associated Press

LANDOVER, Md. — A reconfigured Commanders offense nearly half the starters were different from a game ago, including quarterback Marcus Mariota filling in for an injured Jayden Daniels produced 201 yards on the ground, 174 in the ﬁrst half alone, and Washington beat the Las Vegas Raiders 41-24 on Sunday

In his ﬁrst NFL start since 2022 with Atlanta, Mariota went 15 for 21 for 206 yards with a late touchdown through the air, and ran six times for 40 yards, including a 2-yard TD on the game’s opening possession. Mariota, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft after winning the Heisman Trophy at Oregon, also lost a fumble on a run.

In addition to Mariota’s 43-yard scoring pass to Luke McCaffrey with a little more than two minutes left, Washington (2-1) got touchdowns via a 60-yard run by Jeremy McNichols, a 1-yard plunge by rookie seventh-round draft pick Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt that was set up by Mariota’s 56-yard throw to Terry McLaurin and a 90yard punt return by rookie fourthround selection Jaylin Lane. McNichols never had a run or reception that gained more than 28 yards in his eight NFL seasons before Sunday; his play was the longest rushing TD for Washington since Adrian Peterson scored from 90 yards out against Philadelphia in 2018.

Lane’s return, meanwhile, tied for the longest punt score in franchise history and was the first for Washington since Jamison Crowder brought one back in 2016.

Daniels sat out with an injured left knee, the first game he’s missed since entering the NFL; he got hurt in Washington’s 27-18 loss at Green Bay on Sept. 11.

Starting running back Austin Ekeler was lost for the season in that game with a torn Achilles tendon, and receiver Noah Brown picked up groin and knee issues that held him out Sunday Plus, guards Nick Allegretti and Brandon Coleman were both benched against the Raiders (1-2) replaced by Andrew Wylie and Chris Paul, with Trent Scott often checking in as a sixth offensive lineman.

Washington’s 174 yards on the ground in the ﬁrst half were the most for the team since gaining that same number against Tampa Bay in 2010.

Chris Rodriguez started at running back after being inactive the ﬁrst two weeks, and he ran on four of Washington’s first five plays, gaining 25 yards, most by going to the left side behind tackle Laremy Tunsil.

Washington’s defense still hasn’t produced a turnover this season, but it did deliver ﬁve sacks of Geno Smith, including two by Bobby Wagner and one by Von Miller

Dorrance Armstrong became the third player in club history with at least one in each of a season’s initial three games.

Smith was 19 for 29 for 289 yards and three scoring passes — all three to Tre Tucker who caught eight throws for 145 yards. Ashton Jeanty, the No. 6 overall pick in the draft, started the day with 5 yards through ﬁve carries, but he ﬁnished with 63 yards on 17 runs.

JAGUARS 17, TEXANS 10: In Jacksonville, Florida, Trevor Lawrence found Brian Thomas Jr. for a 46yard gain, Travis Etienne scored on the next play and the Jacksonville Jaguars held on to beat the Houston Texans on Sunday It was Jacksonville’s first win over the Texans at home since 2017 Houston had won 12 of the previous 14 in the AFC South se-

ries. This one was decided on the ﬁnal two drives.

The Jaguars (2-1) got a huge play from Lawrence to Thomas, a connection that has been mostly missing all season, and then the Texans (0-3) seemingly let Etienne score from 10 yards out with 1:48 remaining.

C.J. Stroud drove Houston into striking distance in the waning seconds, but Josh Hines-Allen tipped his pass and Antonio Johnson intercepted the wobbler to seal the victory

The Texans can point to Nico Collins’ fumble as the turning point. Tyson Campbell knocked the ball out and it bounced into Devin Lloyd’s hands. It got Jacksonville headed in the right direction after a sluggish performance.

COLTS 41, TITANS 20: In Nashville, Tennessee, Jonathan Taylor ran for 102 yards and three touchdowns and the Indianapolis Colts continued their best start since 2009 by beating the hapless Tennessee Titans Sunday The Colts are now 3-0 and off to their best start since 2009 when Peyton Manning led them to the AFC championship.

Kenny Moore put the Colts ahead to stay on the third offensive play of the game He picked off rookie Cam Ward and went 32 yards for the pick-6.

Tyquan Lewis had two of the

Ravens have been stellar in prime time, but Detroit can handle spotlight

BY NOAH TRISTER AP sportswriter

BALTIMORE Lamar Jackson’s experience with “Monday Night Football” growing up sounds pretty relatable.

“My mom used to make me go to sleep because I had school,” the star quarterback said.

If parents nowadays are any more lenient, their kids should be in for quite a treat this Monday, when Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens host the Detroit Lions. It’s a matchup of two of the league’s most entertaining offenses — and Jackson tends to play his best in this particular showcase game.

In nine starts on Monday night, he’s thrown 22 touchdown passes and no interceptions while producing a passer rating of 124.3.

“Probably that extra rest day I’d say that. Extra ﬁlm,” Jackson explained “Get a good feel for who we are playing against and go from there.”

For a team that gets criticized for not advancing far enough in the postseason, the Ravens have been pretty darn good in certain spotlight games in the regular season.

Under coach John Harbaugh, they’re 22-3 in prime-time home games, with Jackson producing a 10-1 mark. The Ravens have won ﬁve straight Monday night games

Last season, Baltimore won road Monday night games against the Buccaneers and Chargers. The Ravens haven’t lost on Monday night since Las Vegas beat them in overtime to start the 2021 season. The most recent time they lost a night home game with Jackson in the lineup was against Kansas City back in 2020

Although they’ve played their share of prime-time home games and games on Monday night, Baltimore (1-1) hasn’t hosted a Monday night game since Oct. 11, 2021, when Jackson rallied the Ravens to two touchdowns and two 2-point conversions in the ﬁnal 10 minutes of the fourth quarter to force over-

Colts’ four sacks in a game they outgained Tennessee 145-34 and led 17-3 after the ﬁrst quarter in a game Indy controlled throughout.

Daniel Jones now has as many victories this season as he had in his last 16 starts over two seasons with the New York Giants Jones also has yet to have a pass intercepted as he threw for 228 yards and a touchdown to Michael Pittman.

The Titans (0-3) have lost nine straight going back to last season. They played without three starters, including right tackle JC Latham and right guard Kevin Zeitler

BROWNS 13, PACKERS 10: In Cleveland, Andre Szmyt kicked a 55yard field goal as time expired and the Cleveland Browns rallied from a 10-0 deﬁcit with under four minutes left to beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday

The Browns (1-2) snapped an eight-game losing streak dating to last season when it appeared for much of the game they might be shut out. But the defense kept them in it with four sacks and came up with the key turnover which resulted in it being tied. Green Bay (2-1) appeared as if it might win with a last-minute ﬁeld goal when it drove to the Browns 25, but Shelby Harris blocked a 43yard ﬁeld goal attempt by Brandon McManus and Greg Newsome II recovered at the 47.

VIKINGS 48,BENGALS 10: In Minneapolis, Isaiah Rodgers helped make Carson Wentz’s debut at quarterback for Minnesota a rousing success, setting a Vikings record with two defensive touchdowns and forcing three of Cincinnati’s ﬁve turnovers in a 48-10 romp on Sunday for the worst loss in Bengals history

Jordan Mason rushed for 116 yards and two scores on just 16 attempts, Will Reichard made a 62-yard field goal the longest in Vikings history — as the first half ended and Wentz threw for two touchdowns over three quarters before yielding the mop-up work to rookie Max Brosmer Jake Browning was picked off twice in a rough start for the Bengals (2-1), who lost three of their five fumbles and missed Joe Burrow more than ever in their first game since their franchise quar-

terback had toe surgery that will sideline him for at least three months.

Wentz hit Josh Oliver and T.J. Hockenson for scores and went 14 for 20 for 173 yards without a turnover for the Vikings (2-1), who posted their most lopsided victory since 1998 and their highest score since 2015.

EAGLES 33, RAMS 26: In Philadelphia, Jordan Davis blocked a field-goal attempt by the Rams’ Joshua Karty on the ﬁnal play of the game and returned it 61 yards for a touchdown — the Eagles’ second blocked kick of the fourth quarter — to give Philadelphia an exhilarating win over Los Angeles on Sunday

The Rams (2-1) led 26-21 midway through the fourth when Jalen Carter blocked Karty’s 36-yard try, and Jalen Hurts then led the Super Bowl champion Eagles (30) on a 17-play, 91-yard drive for the go-ahead score. That left 1:48 on the clock for Matthew Stafford, who led the Rams into position for Karty’s 44-yard attempt with 3 seconds left.

Davis instead wedged his way through, knocked the ball down, scooped it and rumbled to the end zone, where he was mobbed by his teammates as fans at the Linc erupted in celebration of the Eagles’ 12th straight home victory Philadelphia slogged through a listless ﬁrst half and trailed 26-7 in the third quarter after Stafford’s second TD pass of the game. Karty had already kicked four ﬁeld goals for the Rams, who lost a tight NFC divisional-round playoff game to the Eagles last season.

49ERS 16, CARDINALS 15: In Santa Clara, California, The San Francisco 49ers had lost another star to an injury, given up a fourth-quarter lead on a safety and were relying on a backup quarterback and a brand new kicker to maintain their perfect start to the season. Mac Jones and Eddy Pineiro delivered.

Jones calmly moved San Francisco down the field in the closing minutes to set up Pineiro’s 35-yard field goal on the final play that gave the 49ers a 16-15 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday

Panthers dominate Falcons for ﬁrst win of the season

BY STEVE REED AP sportswriter

CHARLOTTE, N.C Bryce Young ran for a touchdown, Chau SmithWade returned an interception 11 yards for a score and rookie Ryan Fitzgerald made three field goals and the Carolina Panthers routed the Atlanta Falcons 30-0 on Sunday for their first win of the season. Young was 16 of 24 for 121 yards, but played mistake free after turning the ball over five times in the previous two games.

quarter for Kirk Cousins with the Falcons trailing 27-0.

After the game, coach Raheem Morris squashed any talk of making a change at quarterback saying Penix will remain the starter “Game was out of hand. Move on and take some guys out of harm’s way,” Morris said. It was a promising performance for Carolina, which started the past three seasons 0-2 under Young. Unlike the previous two games, the Panthers avoided falling into an early deﬁcit.

time against Indianapolis. Baltimore ultimately won 31-25, and Jackson ﬁnished with a couple of career highs that still stand — 37 completions for 442 yards.

“We’ve done pretty well on the road on Monday night,” Harbaugh said. “The home games, you have your crowd. That’s really what it boils down to. You have your crowd, and I hope they’re out there. I expect them to be out there like they always are and be really into it, be loud and really make it tough.”

The Lions (1-1) enter this matchup at Baltimore with a three-game winning streak in Monday night games. They played two of them last season a sign of how much more of a draw they’d become under coach Dan Campbell. Detroit beat Seattle 42-29 last September, and the Lions went on the road and beat San Francisco 40-34 on Dec. 30.

Jared Goff completed all 18 of his pass attempts in the Monday night game against the Seahawks

He’s 7-2 as a starter on Monday night with a passer rating of 105.6.

One of Goff’s ﬁrst Monday night starts was an epic 2018 matchup between his Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Goff threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns as the Rams outlasted Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs 54-51.

Goff says playing on Monday night is still special.

“We’ll be the only thing on TV and on the road in a raucous environment, against a team that’s got the history they got,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

The previous time Detroit faced Baltimore was in 2023. That was a home game for the Ravens — although not at night — and they scored touchdowns on their ﬁrst four possessions and won 38-6. Baltimore was up 28-0 before the Lions managed a ﬁrst down.

“I want to see us improve on the road against a really good opponent,” Campbell said. “There’s a lot of things I feel like are similar between us. It’s not a mirror image necessarily but yet, the principles I feel like are very much alike. And so, you want to see us go in there and really improve under that environment against that team. I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Smith-Wade’s third-quarter pick-6 highlighted a dominant performance for defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero’s unit as the Panthers (1-2) intercepted Michael Penix Jr twice, forced three turnovers and limited the Falcons to 5 of 16 conversions on third and fourth downs for their ﬁrst shutout since Nov 22, 2020.

“When you score in every phase, you give yourself a great chance to win,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. The Panthers’ shutout came despite playing without injured defensive end Turk Wharton and outside linebacker Pat Jones, two of the team’s biggest free agency pickups in the offseason.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for coming out of camp,” Panthers defensive end Derrick Brown said “I feel like this is how we executed during (training) camp, the physicality we had during camp. So to be able to come out here and put it on display and get the result we did today, we’re happy about it.”

Outside of Bijan Robinson, who combined for 111 yards from scrimmage — 72 on the ground and 39 through the air the Falcons (1-2) got little production from their offense.

Penix looked tentative and was ineffective from the start, ﬁnishing 18 of 36 for 172 yards before getting benched in the fourth

Playing at home for the first time this season, the Panthers scored on their first possession on a 4-yard scamper from Young around left end. It was Young’s third touchdown on the ground against the Falcons in the past two meetings. Fitzgerald made a 57-yard field goal to make it 10-0 at the half.

“We put an emphasis on having the urgency to start fast,” Young said. “The defense getting a stop right off the bat and the offense going down and getting a score, I think that was big.”

The Falcons had their chances, but Carolina’s defense thwarted every opportunity, even when returner Trevor Etienne fumbled a punt at the Carolina 33. Parker Romo, who replaced Younghoe Koo last week and went 5-for-5 on ﬁeld goals in his debut, missed from 49 and 55 yards in the ﬁrst quarter

“We had two misses, so obviously you have to evaluate those things when we move on and figure out what we’ve got going on,” Morris said “Wecan’thavethosemoments.”

With the Falcons struggling to get much going, Penix looked to throw a pass down to Robinson in the third quarter, but Smith-Wade stepped in front of Robinson and hauled in the interception and raced to the end zone Mike Jackson could have had another pick-6 later in the quarter but was tripped up by Penix after a 54-yard return.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota scores a touchdown as Raiders linebacker Germaine Pratt defends during their game on Sunday in Landover, Md.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NICK WASS

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson passes against the Cleveland Browns during the first half of a game on Sept. 14 in Baltimore.

ä Lions at Ravens. 7:15 P.M. MONDAy, ABC, ESPN

SEAHAWKS 44, SAINTS 13

THE NUMBERS

Special teams is a disaster in Seattle

BY MATTHEW PARAS AND LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

RUSHING—New Orleans, Kamara 18-42, Miller 7-27, Rattler 2-10. Seattle, Walker 16-38, Holani 10-27, Wright 5-20, Milroe 1-3, Lock 1-(minus 1). PASSING—New Orleans, Rattler 28-39-1-218, Shough 0-2-0-0. Seattle, Darnold 14-18-0-218, Lock 2-3-0-15. RECEIVING—New Orleans, Olave 10-57, Johnson 6-51, Shaheed 4-42, Cooks 3-24, Stoll

2-21, Miller 2-9, Kamara 1-14. Seattle, SmithNjigba 5-96, Horton 3-32, Kupp 2-31, Holani 2-15, Barner 1-23, Saubert 1-12, Walker 1-12, Young 1-12.

PUNT RETURNS—New Orleans, Shaheed 1-40. Seattle, Horton 3-114. KICKOFF RETURNS—New Orleans, Miller 8-182. Seattle, Young 2-92.

TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS—New Orleans, Werner 7-6-0, Reid 4-0-0, Davis 2-9-0, Jordan

2-2-0, Rumph 2-2-0, Sanker 2-1-0, Bullard 2-00, Taylor 2-0-0, Yiadom 2-0-0, Shepherd 1-4-0, Howden 1-2-0, Granderson 1-1-0, McKinstry 1-0-0, Riley 1-0-0, Bresee 0-4-0, Burgess 0-1-

0. Seattle, Jobe 9-2-0, Okada 7-2-.5, Woolen

5-0-0, E.Jones 3-4-0 Knight 3-2-0, Morris

3-1-0, Bryant 3-0-0 Williams 2-2-.5, Kendrick

2-2-0, Murphy 2-1-1, Thomas 2-1-0, Lawrence

2-0-0, Hall 1-1-0, Bell 1-0-0, Je.Reed 1-0-0, Ja.Reed 0-2-0.

INTERCEPTIONS—New Orleans, None. Seattle, Kendrick 1-0. MISSED FIELD GOALS—New Orleans, Grupe

52. OFFICIALS—Referee Alex Moore, Ump Terry Killens, HL Dana McKenzie, LJ Tom Eaton, FJ Mearl Robinson, SJ Anthony Jeffries, BJ Terrence Miles, Replay Tyler Cerimeli.

SEATTLE The New Orleans Saints spent the summer evaluating a close-knit punting battle. They might spend next week evaluating whether they need a new punter Kai Kroeger and the Saints’ special teams had a disaster of a performance in Sunday’s 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The Saints not only allowed a 95-yard punt return touchdown, but they also proceeded to follow that up by having the Seahawks block a punt that was recovered at the 11-yard line. The back-to-back sequence put the game into blowout territory with less than ﬁve minutes remaining in the ﬁrst quarter

The Saints’ problems, of course, extended beyond Kroeger It’s not the punter’s fault that no one brought Tory Horton down on his long return, or that the offensive line allowed pressure in the lead-up to his blocked punt. But after a strong debut in Week 1, the rookie has been shaky over the last two games. His meltdown Sunday saw Horton record the longest punt return touchdown in Seahawks history

Before Sunday, according to Pro Football Reference, there

hurt us. We’ve got to ﬁnd a way to clean that up.”

Everything that happened after that opening salvo was just a runof-the-mill beatdown.

before it could start because of a false start penalty Saints punter Kai Kroeger then trotted on the ﬁeld and boomed a 61-yard punt which Tory Horton returned 95 yards untouched for a touchdown n The penalties came back to haunt New Orleans on the ensuing possession. Two false starts and an offensive holding penalty forced them into a third-and-21 situation, which the Saints could not convert. Kroeger came back onto the ﬁeld and had no chance of getting his punt off. D’Anthony Bell, whom the Seahawks elevated off the practice squad, came unblocked off the edge and blocked the kick Seattle running back Kenneth Walker plunged into the end zone from 3 yards out two plays later

By the time the game ended, the Saints had been penalized 11 times, not including two that were declined. Seven of them were of the pre-snap variety Four of them

gifted Seattle a ﬁrst down.

“It’s self-inﬂicted wounds, man,” said defensive end Cam Jordan.

“We’re not a good enough team to overcome those right now, and at this point in time, it clearly shows every game. These penalties have

By the time they went to the locker room at halftime, the Saints trailed 38-6. It was the most points they’ve allowed in the ﬁrst half in franchise history

After two competitive games to start the season, the Saints very much looked the part of a team that will be in the running for the No 1 overall pick in next year’s draft on a hapless afternoon in the Emerald City

Defensively, New Orleans had no answer for the Seahawks’ passing game. By the time the ﬁrst half was over, Sam Darnold had completed 10 of his 11 pass attempts for 169 yards and two touchdowns for a perfect 158.3 rating. He ﬁnished 14 for 18 for 218 yards before giving way to backup Drew Lock early in the fourth quarter

Seattle only ran 20 offensive plays in the first half, and yet Smith-Njigba nearly had 100 yards receiving before the break.

At one point, the Seattle star hauled in a 45-yarder down the middle of the ﬁeld between three Saints defenders.

Jordan said the film review of the blowout would begin on the long journey back to New Orleans. “This is something that has to

had only been three other times in NFL history when a team scored a 90-plus yard punt return and blocked an opposing punt with the last instance coming in 1976. Coincidentally, it happened twice Sunday: The Washington Commanders did the same against the Las Vegas Raiders.

New Orleans’ special teams saw major upheaval over the offseason. While coach Kellen Moore opted to promote Phil Galiano to special teams coordinator, the Saints saw longtime special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi depart to Denver after the interim coach did not get New Orleans’ top job. Galiano ran the unit’s special teams last season after coach Dennis Allen was ﬁred, but Rizzi still had a hand in that operation.

The Saints also made a controversial decision to cut special teams ace J.T. Gray just before the season. Moore said the Saints needed the roster ﬂexibility and that it was a tough choice. But the move meant that New Orleans parted ways with a three-time AllPro on special teams.

Against the Seahawks, New Orleans’ special teams issues also extended to the kicking game. Blake Grupe missed a 52-yarder making it three straight weeks with a missed kick.

Last Thursday, Galiano said he

went up to Grupe following his second miss and said, “Do me a favor: Don’t do that again.” Grupe did it again.

Shough appearance

With the game well out of reach, Tyler Shough made his NFL debut.

The Saints’ rookie quarterback entered Sunday’s contest with 3:31 left, replacing starter Spencer Rattler Shough took the field for just one series, failing to complete a pass on his two attempts. Though the Saints trailed by a big deﬁcit for most of the game, Moore pulled Rattler much later than Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald sat his starter Backup Drew Lock replaced Sam Darnold near the start of the fourth quarter, with the Seahawks ahead 44-13.

Rattler went 28 of 39 for 218 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Shorthanded lineup

Klint Kubiak had to call plays for the New Orleans Saints last year when injuries decimated the lineup. Now, with the Seahawks, perhaps Kubiak was relieved he didn’t have to do the same this week. The Saints were shorthanded along the offensive line and at wide receiver Sunday Right tack-

be immediately broken down, because there is clearly something glaring,” Jordan said. Offensively, New Orleans continued a concerning trend where it could not generate any explosive offensive plays. The Saints did not manage a gain of 20 or more yards

until the final play of the third quarter, when Spencer Rattler hit tight end Juwan Johnson for a gain of 21. Through three games, the Saints now have just one play from scrimmage that gained more than 25 yards. With two starting offensive line-

le Taliese Fuaga missed the contest with knee and back injuries, while guard Trevor Penning was technically available but did not make his season debut after missing more than a month with turf toe.

The Saints started undrafted guard Torricelli Simpkins at left guard and Asim Richards at right tackle instead. Dillion Radunz, who started the ﬁrst two games, also did not make the trip out west because of a toe injury

At wide receiver, the Saints were down Devaughn Vele (hip) and Trey Palmer (hamstring). The injuries saw the Saints sign wideout Kevin Austin to the roster on Saturday from the practice squad and also give MasonTipton several snaps after he didn’t log an offensive snap in the ﬁrst two games.

Concussion tests

Two members of the Saints starting secondary went down with injury on the same play in the ﬁrst half.

Kool-Aid McKinstry and Justin Reid were both evaluated for a concussion after a Cooper Kupp catch near the goal line in the ﬁrst quarter, but both were eventually cleared to return.

Reid appeared to take a shot to the face, and when he returned to the ﬁeld, he did so with a protective visor on his helmet.

men out because of injury, the Saints could not get anything going on the ground despite stubbornly committing to it. New Orleans managed a meager 2.9 yards per carry against Seattle, with none of their 27 runs gaining more than 8 yards.

“We’ve just got to be better,” Rattler

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHEN BRASHEAR

Saints kicker Blake Grupe kicks a field goal during the first half of New Orleans’ game against the Seahawks on Sunday in Seattle.

SEAHAWKS 44,SAINTS13

THREEAND OUT: RODWALKER’STOP THREETAKEAWAyS FROM SAINTS LOSS IN SEATTLE

FARFROMSPECIAL

1

Whatadisaster.That could apply to the Saints’ entire performance Sunday. But for now, let’sjust focus on the special teams, whichhad about as rough agameasa team canhave. Having apunt returned for aTDand havingapunt blocked in the same game is hard. Doing both in the first quarterseems almost impossible. Butthat’swhat theSaintsdid tobury themselves in adeep hole.That wasn’tall.Theyalso gave up a60-yard kickoff returninthe second quarterthat set up another touchdown. Oh,and BlakeGrupe misseda field goal in the first half.The five-hour flight back home had to feel even longer for special-teams coordinator Phil Galiano.

FLAGS GALORE

Simply put, the Saints aren’t good enough to beat most teams.To getawin,theywill have to playacleangame.Threegamesinto the season, and it’scleartheycan’tdothat yet. Penalties haunted theSaints again, just liketheydid in Week 1.TheSaints committed 11 penalties against Seattle, including eight in the firsthalf. BryanBresee’sunnecessary roughness penalty for head-butting aplayerafter athird-down stop extended aSeattle drive, leadingtoa TD.The Saints also had afalse startona fourth-down attempt and ended up having to punt.That punt was returnedfor aTD. Cleaning up the penalties shouldbepriority No. 1for Kellen Moore if he wants to gethis first win anytime soon.

I’LL BE DARN(OLD)

The Saints’defense was supposed to at least make them competitiveinmost games.In the first two games,the defense made some keystopslate to givethe offense achance.That wasn’t the case this time around as the Saints gave up the most first-half points in franchise history(38).yeah,some of that was duetopoor special-teams play,but the defense had its struggles,too. They gave up 320 yards.Forthe second straight week,the Saints made an averagequarterbacklook great.Last week, it was MacJones of the 49ers.Thistime it was Sam Darnold (14-18 for 218yards,twoTDs),whodidn’t have to play the fourth quarter.Things getmuchtougher next week in Buffalo when theSaints face JoshAllen,last season’sMVP

Saints areanundisciplined mess

BY MATTHEW PARAS

Staff writer

SEATTLE As he wasdragged to the ground, Justin Reid‘s helmet cameﬂying off. And then came thepain Teammate Kool-Aid McKinstry reﬂexively kicked his leg, making direct contact with the New Orleans Saints safety’shead.

“It feels like Igot hit in the face,” Reid said. “Literally and figuratively. Reid couldn’thave said it any better.When the safety got hurt in Sunday’sbrutal 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the Saints (0-3)weredown by two touchdowns and about to trail by athird —with still four-plus minutes remaining in the first quarter.It was appropriate that the blow was the result of friendly fire —the Saintshad been kicking themselves all day. All that was missing was ayellow flag, and the play wouldhave beena perfect encapsulation of the Saints season. TheSaintsare an undisciplinedmess after three games. No team has been penalized more than coach Kellen Moore’sclub to start the year,although the 0-3 Tennessee Titans have taken as many penalties as the blackand gold: 31.New Orleans’ problems were obvious in the first two weeks, butthe issue came to the forefront in its worst loss of the season. But penalties are only oneaspect of the Saints’ lack of discipline. It also occurs in other glaring areas, such as the missed open-field tackles that lead to a 95-yard punt return touchdown or the inability to start fast on offense.

“Wegotta be more prepared,” Moore said. “It starts with me.”

Moorewouldn’tbethe first coach to harp on the details, only to be perplexed come gametime when thesame mistakes are repeated. Dennis Allen and Darren Rizzi, the last men to coach the Saints, each vowed that the Saints would ﬁx what was needed.Moreoften than not, those issues failed to get corrected.

To startthisseason, theSaintsare committing penalties at ahigher rate than last year’ssquad. And it’snot for alackofemphasis. Moore had referees for almost every training camp practice, including when the team spent nine days in California. Then, when the Saints committed 13 penalties in Week 1, Moore brought alocal crew back to pay close attention. Reid said the Saints wouldn’tpoint ﬁngers and place the blame on any in-

dividual. And that reasoning is sound —because theSaints are committing penaltiesinall threephasesofthe game. Of their 31 penalties, 14 belong to the offense, 11 to thedefense and six tothe special teams.

said, later adding, “Westart doing some positive on offense —penalty Youstart doing some positive on defense —penalty.”

37-year-oldhead coach spentmost of the afternoon pacing the sideline and casting long stares at thescoreboard and his call sheet. Neither provided an answer or solution. Everything that could gowrong did during one of the worstquarters of Saints football in recent memory

The Saints were whistled forsix penalties in the ﬁrst 10 minutes,including one stretch on the team’ssecondoffensive serieswhentheycommittedthree infractions in fourplays. There was a95-yard punt fora touchdown, in which Horton raced untouched through alane wider than Puget Sound in the Saints’ coverage unit en route to recording thelongest punt return score in Seahawks franchise history

There was ablocked punt by an unblocked D’Anthony Bell thatset up another touchdown.

And there was a60-yard kickoff return by Dareke Young toset upanother score.

Meanwhile, the Saints offense was holding, false-starting and liningup wrong, just as it had in previousoutings.

“Wejust have to be more dialed in,” Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler said. “It’sthe details, the details, the details.” It’sone thing to lose to amore tal-

Theyaren’tjust onetype of penalty, either.The Saints, for instance, have 15 pre-snap penalties —but forevery frustrating false start, there’sadisappointing illegal shift to come with it The most costly,however,have come on defense.The unit has allowed ﬁve penalties on third down,leading to points—two touchdowns and two ﬁeld goals —onfourofthem.

Against Seattle, IsaiahStalbird made aterriﬁcpassbreakup on Cooper Kupp —only for Bryan Bresee to getcalled for unnecessary roughness on third down. With anew setofdowns,the Seahawks immediatelyscored on a 12-yard pass to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njiba.

“We’re not agood enough team to overcome those right now, and at this pointintime, it clearly showsevery game,” defensive endCam Jordan

ented andexperienced team, which theSeahawksclearly were at almost every position.But it’s another thing to go down the way the Saints did, in aﬂurry of mistakes and self-inﬂicted wounds. That’sthe sign of abad team, an undisciplined and poorly coached one.

Until Sunday,the Saintshad largely accounted themselves well in defeat They were competitive in close losses to the Cardinals and 49ers.

But therewas nothing competitive abouttheir effort on Sunday.This was atotal team failure, aCat 5failure of execution and effort. The Saints trailed from start to finish for the secondconsecutive game this season and have now led foronly four minutes total so far this season. They committed 11 penalties for 77 yards, including five pre-snap infractions on offense. On defense, they missed tackles, blewassignments and committed personal foul infractions. And they hemorrhaged specialteams mistakes, including another missed field goal by BlakeGrupe.

“We’ve got to play better in all three phases,” Moore said. “This is apowerful learning experience for us. We’ll see how we respond.”

Only three games into his debut season, Moore now has amassive challenge on his hands as he tries to right the ship and instill conﬁdence in the locker room. Up next is adaunting trip to Buffalo, where theSaints will face theundefeated Bills at High-

Mooresaid he would study how the Saints’ preparation can improve. Though it’s far too earlytojudge the trajectory of the ﬁrst-year coach’s career,New Orleans’sloppy start does create questions about some of his approach. Take, for instance, New Orleans’ use of the tush push, theplay made famous by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Saints have attempted theshort-yardage sneak twice this season, but each time, afalse start negated the play and forced New Orleanstopunt Throughout training camp, the Saints didnot practice thepush in front of reporters, and Moore was always coyabout whether his team would attempttorun it after spending last year in Philadelphia. But he andothers would often note thatto execute that playsuccessfully,itrequireda significant commitmentto hone in on the details

markStadium, where they have won 12 consecutive games dating to 2023.

“We’ve got to get this as far behind us as possible,” veteran defensive end Cam Jordan said. “We’re already at a point in theseason where we have to be as critical as possible.”

Jordan said he and the other team captains planned to start addressing theissues on the charter ﬂight home. It was already going to be along ﬂight.The dispiriting setback only

Perhaps Moore wanted to keep the play asurprise for opponentscome the regular season, andperhapsincamp, he had the team work on the push in walkthrough settings when the media was not allowed. That does happen in the NFL.

Butit’sfairtowonderifthe Saints would have avoided the falsestarts if they had drilled it over and over at live speed in practice.

“It just starts in practice, man we’ve got to be cleaner,” wide receiver Chris Olavesaid, speaking generally andnot specifically aboutthe tush push. “Be moretechnical.Like Isaid, just practice at ahigher level.”

Standing at the lectern, Moore avoided using the cliché of tossing out a game like this. In fact,the 37-year-old went the opposite route. He vowed to evaluate “every little item” so he and the Saints could learn from the loss.

“You got to eliminate all the silly things,” he said.

Email Matthew Parasatmatt. paras@theadvocate.com

madeitfeel longer

Unfortunately,there have been manylong ﬂights homefrom the Emerald City forthe Saints over the years.

This is where the Saints’ 2010 and 2013 seasons ended with playoff losses to the Seahawks, including the infamous Beast Quake gamein20102011.

This was also where the Saints were taken to the woodshed on awet, frigid Monday night in 2013. In that one, the Seahawks similarly raced to acommanding ﬁrst-quarter lead (17-0) on their way to alopsided 34-7 rout. If that weren’tbad enough, the Saints’ charter plane experienced acrack in the cabin window of the cockpit, making the long ﬂight homeeven longer as the team wasforced to deplane in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and spend an extra night in Seattle.

For the Saints, there weren’tany flight issues to overcome on this visit to Seattle. All their problemswere on the field, where the wheels unexpectedly came off just three games into their season. It all madefor along, embarrassing afternoon forthe Saints. As they trudged off the field with one of their mostlopsided losses in the last quarter century,asnarky Seahawks fantrolled them with asign from the front row above their exit tunnel: “Hey,Saints, Amazon’shiring.”

Email JeffDuncanatjduncan@ theadvocate.com.

AP PHOTO By STEPHEN BRASHEAR Saints head coach Kellen Moore walks on the sideline in the second half of a game against the SeahawksonSunday in Seattle.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByLINDSEy WASSON

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp carries the ballnear the goal line during the first half of agame against the Saints on Sunday in Seattle.

COLLEGEFOOTBALL

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ROGELIOV.SOLIS

Sumrall: Brutal nonconference schedule caught up to Tulane

BY GUERRYSMITH

Contributing writer

Coach Jon Sumrall’sfear about thewear and tearofa toughnonconference schedule came to fruition in Tulane’s45-10 mauling at the hands of 13th-ranked OleMiss on Saturday

The Green Wave, which already had knocked off two Power 4conference foes and survived anailbiting finish at South Alabama, was not at full throttle coming off avery emotional win against Duke and Darian MensahlastSaturday

“Welooked really slow and tired,” Sumrall said. “Most people through four games have probably at least played agame that you might call adrop-down game

We’ve played four real games. Our starters have played more snaps through four games than probably I’ve ever beenaround. Usually you’ve gotatleast one game where they play ahalf or three quarters. They’ve had to play every snap.”

To his point, all but 21 of 136 FBS programs have playedanFCS opponent throughthe first four weeks. Tulane and Stanford are the lone schools that have notfaced an FCS opponent, had an open dateor hosted aGroup of 5conference school.

The gauntlet caught up to the Wave against the high-ﬂyingRebels, evenafterSumrall lightened the practice schedule during the weektoguardagainst legweariness.

“It did not look like enough to me,” he said.“Thereweresome (Ole Miss) plays that weren’t even double moves, that were just go balls, andwelookedslowon

them. Ole Miss is really fast, but we didn’tlook likewewereplayingwith thebest speed we could. I’m kindof racking my brain for what can we do to makeour players fresher or faster.”

Quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who outran Northwestern and Duke defendersfor touchdowns, could notget by linebacker Suntarine Perkins whenhescrambledon third-and-12from the Ole Miss 19 in thesecondquarter,getting pushedout of bounds fora3-yard gain thatforced the Green Wave to settle for aﬁeld goal.

Nickelback Javion White did not move back fast enough to interceptanunderthrown pass from OleMissquarterback Trinidad Chambliss, tipping it right to receiver De’ZhaunStribling behind himfor what turned into a53-yard gain that set up theRebels’ second touchdown.

Even beingafraction off made a monumental difference.

“It comes with football,” Tulane receiver Anthony Brown-Stephens said. “We’re fourweeksin and are going to have bumps and bruises. It’sall about our character and how we aregoingtokeep going.”

The only solace Sumrall took from aterribleday cameina scoreless third quarter for both teams. Down 23-3athalftime, the Wave drove 70 yards on its opening possession before turning over theball on downs, then forced Ole Miss’s only punt. The ensuing drive reached the Rebels 39-yard line before theWavewas stopped on fourth-and-1.

“The third quarter,our guys cameout and fought,” Sumrall said. “I told them (athalftime)

characterisbuiltwhen things aren’tgoing well, not when it is goingwell, andright now things aren’tgoing very well. Isaid we can’t ﬁx what’salreadyhappened; we just have to move forward, and we responded by coming outand competing.”

The Wave (3-1) will have to reset for its conference opener at Tulsa (2-2, 0-1 American) next Saturday (3 p.m.,ESPNU)beforea muchneeded open date arrivesthe following week.

“We’ve played really physical games, anditshows right now,” Sumrall said. “We’re beat up a little bit.”

Flushing the frustration from Saturday’sbeat-down will be paramount

“You’vegot to moveonwhether youwin or lose,” linebacker Sam Howard said. “If you don’t, it’sgoing to beat you thenext week or down the road. It’s aone-game season from here on out where every gametruly matters.“

The coaches alsohave to figure outhow they will use Retzlaff and backup Brendan Sullivan, who playedthe fourth quarter after taking onesnapwhile both were on the field in thefirst half.

“Brendanhas alot of thingshe can addtoour offense andour team,” Sumrall said. “Wewouldn’t have three wins right nowifit wasn’tfor Jake. He’sdone some greatthings. We’llgointo every week and evaluate what personnel gives us thebest opportunity Youwill continue to see some more two-quarterback stuff as we go How we play when it’sone quarterback systemwe’llevaluate as we move intothe week, justlike we do every week.”

FSU’splacementin Top25pollachallenge

Texas Tech, 12. Tennessee, 13. Notre Dame, 14. Auburn, 15. Michigan, 16. Florida State, 17. Alabama, 18. Ole Miss, 19. Missouri, 20. Vanderbilt, 21. TCU, 22. Georgia Tech, 23. USC, 24. Arizona State, 25. Iowa State. Just missed: Illinois, Nebraska, Washington, Kansas

RankingMichigan

Through four weeks, it has become increasingly difficult to figure outwhat to do with Florida State in my AP Top25poll. The answer seemseasy on the surface. The Seminoles beat my preseason No.5team (Alabama) at home before scoring dominant wins over two overmatched foes. It’sthe résuméofa top-10 team if you strictly rank them by that metric. Butthe AP poll isn’taranking of the 25 best résumés; it’sapecking order of the 25 best teams. And though it’sobvious to see that Florida State belongs in that top 25, it’s hard to place the Seminoles ahead of some other clubs that have been tested moreoften and came into the season as amore proven commodity Auburn, Notre Dame and Tennessee have played more difficult schedules. Despite all three teamshaving at least one loss, they were all by razor-thin margins andagainst clubs that are ahead of Alabamainmy rankings. Auburn deserved to at least go to overtime with Oklahoma on the road this weekend. Notre Dame lost by acombined four pointstotwo top-6 teamsinmy rankings. Tennessee wasafield goal away from beating my No. 3team. Tennessee andAuburn are also theowners of good-looking wins over Baylor and Syracuse, respectively.All three teamshave proven on multiple occasions that they’re atop-15 caliber team. Florida State, meanwhile, hasn’tbeen challenged since the Alabama game. We knowmoreabout Auburn, Notre Dame andTennessee through four weeks than we do about Florida State. The Seminoles were also nowhere near my top25heading into the season, as opposedtoAuburn, Notre Dame andTennessee, three teams thatwereatleast close to cracking my preseason top-25 poll andhaveproven they deserve to move up in the rankings (or, in Notre Dame’s case, not move them down as much). Next weekend’smatchup against asolid Virginia team will tell us moreabout Florida State. Adominant road victory over theCavaliers would be moreevidence suggesting the Seminoles’ win over Alabamawasn’tafluke.

My AP poll afterWeek4

1. Penn State, 2. Miami, 3. Georgia, 4. Ohio State, 5. Oregon, 6. Texas A&M, 7. Oklahoma, 8. LSU, 9. Texas, 10. Indiana, 11.

In my mind, there was no case forMichigan to be ahead of Auburn this week. Auburn arguably should have beaten OU on the road, while Michigan waseasily defeated by the Sooners in Norman in Week 2. Auburn also has astronger winthan Michigan, taking down Baylor by 14 on the road, while the Wolverines’ victory over Nebraska in Lincoln this weekend wasonly by three.

But whyput Michigan ahead of FSU? The Seminoles’ win over Alabamaismuch more impressive than anything Michigan has done, and Florida State, unlike the Wolverines, hasn’t lost agame.

The difference lies in the gap between these teams heading into the season. That margin wasquite large, and despite the Alabamawin, Istill haven’t seen enough from the Seminoles to put them ahead of aMichigan team that’sﬂawed but just earned aquality winover agood Huskers team on the road. Ihave abetter feel forMichigan through four weeks. And when in doubt, I’mvoting forthe team that’sfaced the tougher schedule and has come out on the other side of it still looking like agood team.

Othernotes

Clearly,Indiana’s63-10 shellacking over Illinois —myNo. 11 team last week —demonstrates that Ishould’ve had morefaith in the Hoosiers this season. Fernando Mendoza might be the best quarterback in the country As aformer Pac-12 reporter,I can guarantee you that earning awin in Salt Lake City is no easy feat. So credit to Texas Tech for pulling away from Utah on Saturday.The Utes passing game wasalmost nonexistent, but that’snot an easy team to put up 34 points or dominate both lines of scrimmageagainst. The money Texas Tech spent this offseason clearly paid off. If Will Hammondremains at quarterback —the offense looked much better once he entered forthe injured Behren Morton —then Texas Tech should be considered the favorite to win the Big 12.

Email Koki RileyatKoki. Riley@theadvocate.com.

LSU’stwo targetingejections prompt frustration

BYREED DARCEY Staff writer

Twoweeks. Twoimportant LSU players ﬂagged for targeting and disqualiﬁed fromagame —all for lowering the crown of their helmets into routine tackles. Against Florida, it wasstar linebacker Whit Weeks. Against Southeastern LouisianaonSaturday,itwas reserve offensive lineman DJ Chester.Both plays frustrated Brian Kelly,the fourthyear Tigers coach who doesn’t want to see players thrown out of games when they’re involved in garden-variety tackles with helmet-to-helmet contact.

“I don’t know whattosay anymore,” Kelly said on Saturday In the waning seconds of the third quarter of their 56-10 win over theLions,the No.3 Tigers (4-0) lined up for a59-yard field goal with a42-7 lead. Damian Ramos left the kick 10 yards short of theuprights, giving Southeastern achance to return the kick from the goal line. Then things got weird. Chester LSU’ssixth offensive lineman, was flagged for targeting after he tried to make atackle at midfield, then disqualified after avideo review confirmed that he had lowered the crown of his helmet into Da’Shun Hugley —the Lion receiver who fielded the kick and returned it 47 yards. The SECNetwork broadcast captured Kelly yellingatofficials

after the play

“It’san offensive lineman who we don’twork any time with tackling,” Kelly said.“Andit’sarunner,and he might nothavehad thebest form on the play,but he wasn’t looking to target or knock somebody out of thegame. He was trying to hold on fordear life.”

Now Chester must serve asuspension for the first half of LSU’s Week 5road matchup with No. 13 OleMiss(4-0) Why is that ameaningful development? Because the Tigers started the second half with Chester playing right tackle in place of Weston Davis, the redshirt freshman who struggled at times through his firstfour starts of the season. Weeks found himself in asimilar situation in Week 3. Only he wasflagged fortargetingon Florida’sfirst drive of the game. Because his penalty occurred in thefirst half of that matchup, he didn’thave to miss any action of LSU’ssubsequent contest against Southeastern.

Chesterwasn’tasfortunate.

“I mean,thatwas afootball play that Ifeel likeI’ve made countless timesinmylife,” Weeks said on Saturday

“I spend my whole life preparing to play this game, and Ionly get 12 opportunities. And Ispend every singleday of my life, what time Iwake up, everythingI eat —nomatterwhat I’m doing, it’s

preparing to get 12 opportunities to play, andyou only geteight of them in Death Valley. Agoldout at night?Like, those arethe games Idreamed of playing in as akid.So, when Iget kicked out after three plays, it’s frustrating.”

KellysaidonMondaythat he’sbeen “very vocal” about the NCAA’s targetingrules. He’d support aproposal, he said, to split the penalty into two differentcalls —one that carries only a15-yard penalty for routine hits withhelmet-to-helmet contact and another that comes with an ejection for more reckless, dangerous plays

“A guy sat out agame,” Kelly said, “and Idon’t knowhow to coach him differently.I don’t knowwhattotellhim to do differently.And you’regonna throw him outofthe game.Thatmakes no sense to me.”

Kelly also saidthat some folks would object to changing the targeting rules becauseitcould lead to an uptick in head injuries, but he called that point “an easyway out of this conversation.”

“I just don’tknow why we can’t ﬁgure this out,” Kelly said. “We can’tdoitright now.Iget it.But at the end of the year,this has got to be addressed.”

Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com. For more LSU sportsupdates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

Ole Misswide receiverDeuce Alexander,right,tries to fight off atackle attemptbyTulane defensiveback Javion White during theirgame on SaturdayinOxford,Miss.

Koki Riley

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU coach Brian Kellycoaches fromthe sideline in the second half of the game against SoutheasternonSaturdayatTiger Stadium. Twocostly targeting ejections in the pasttwo weeks have been hard for Kelly to swallow.

Taking astabatpredictingSEC’s annual opponents

Scott

Rabalais

TheSoutheastern Conference will reveal the annual opponents foreach team and the conference schedules for 2026-29 at 6p.m Tuesday with agrand extravaganza on the SEC Network and ESPN2. It’sthe perfect time …the perfect time for me to try to embarrass myself and predict who those annual opponents will be for all 16 SEC teams.

Not 2025 Saints level of embarrassment, mind you. I’ll actually getafew of these picks right. But taking astab at what the SEC will decide is fraught with journalistic peril. Remember,these are just predictions, educated guesses, not actual fact. So don’tblame me when your prop bet goes pffft! Here we go

•LSU’spredicted annual opponents: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas

Thereasons behind thepicks: OleMiss, which, of course, LSU plays this weekend, is as traditional arival as the Tigers have. For historical reasons, this one makes huge sense. For geographical reasons and along-term rivalry in and out of the SEC, we think LSU will get Texas A&M, as well. Why Arkansas and not Alabama, Florida or even Mississippi State?The main reason is theﬁnal week of the season. LSU does not have arival who does not have a bigger rival, who they tradition-

ally play aroundThanksgiving weekend. Texas A&Mand Texas are backtogether now.Alabama has Auburn. Ole Miss hasMississippi State. Florida goes out ofconference to play Florida State, and South Carolina does thesame to playClemson (good forthe Gamecocks).Arkansas, which LSU played every year to end the season from 1992-2013 (when Texas A&M joinedthe SEC that changed) makes sense to be thatteam forthe Tigers again.The annual Battle for the Boot lives on.

•Alabama: Auburn,Tennessee, Mississippi State TheIron Bowl, of course, is a biggie, oneof thenation’sbiggest annual grudgematches. Bama-Tennessee isn’tfar behind. Idon’t thinkthe SEC will want to give theCrimson Tide athird heavyweightlike LSU despitethe great TV ratingsofthis matchup. Bamaand State(83 miles) are the closest geographically of any SEC schools, so this is agood alternative.

•Arkansas: LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M

TheRazorbacksget the seasonendinggamewith the Tigers back that they have cravedsince it wentaway and willbehappy to boot Missouri from that schedule spot, though they would still play There’snolovelost between Arkansas andTexas A&M, apretty special rivalry going way back to theold SouthwestConference.

•Auburn:Alabama, Georgia, OleMiss Auburn-Alabama is anobrain-

on Saturday.

Coulon,St. Augustine outduelTexas school

Purple Knightsroll up nearly 600yards of offenseinwin

BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer

The

ﬁrst play resulted in atouchdown —and that stood as an indicator of what was to come.

St. Augustine senior Vashaun Coulon threw seven touchdown passes as the Purple Knights put up nearly 600 yards of total offense on the way to defeating Legacy School of SportSciences (Spring, Texas) 68-40 on Saturday at TadGormley Stadium.

Coulon completed 13 of 21 passes for 276 yards and threw touchdowns to four different receivers

—the ﬁrst one to wide-opensophomore Lucas Jeffersononthe

ﬁrst play after the St. Augustine defense stuffed afourth-and-1 run on the opening drive of the game.

Jeffersoncaughtthree touchdown passes among his four receptions for 128yards

Verchaun Simms caught two touchdown passes, and Miguel Whitley and Ray’Quan Williams had one each.

“The whole receiver room, they all can win their one-on-one matchups,” Coulon said. “That’s what happened tonight. I’m so proud of these guys steppingup and taking those roles

St. Augustine (3-0)alsoshowed good balance on offense as sophomore Khlil Lewis ran for 221yards and one touchdown on 23 carries.

He carried aheavier workload after seniorKeith Hill left with an injury early in the second quarter

Backup QB Jaelle Noble, asophomore, played most of the fourth quarter and ran for atouchdown as St. Augustine ﬁnished with593 yards in total offense.

St.Augustine coachRobertVal-

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier

quarter against Ole Miss onOct. 12, 2024

29-26 in overtime.

er.SoisGeorgia, preserving the South’soldest football rivalry Ole Miss is anod to these old SEC West Hugh Freezeemployers.

•Florida: Georgia, South Carolina, Vanderbilt Florida-Georgia is almost as much of anobrainer as the Iron Bowl. SouthCarolina is an old SEC East rival, and Vanderbilt, well, Vandy is better than Florida right now.So, this is atough draw

•Georgia: Florida, Auburn, SouthCarolina Reverse engineer Florida’sannual opponents and you pretty much have theBulldogs’ trio. This potentially could be three of thetoughest annuals for any SEC team, though not at the moment.

to pass in the

•Kentucky: Tennessee, Vanderbilt,South Carolina Tennessee andVandy are traditional rivals forthe SEC’ssecondmostnorthern outpost.

•Ole Miss: LSU,Mississippi State, Auburn The Rebels’ annual foes, including, of course, in-state Egg Bowl rival State, is about as old school as the new SEC scheduling will get

•Mississippi State: Ole Miss, Alabama, Oklahoma State-OleMiss is the SEC’smost unheralded rivalry.Alabama again is anext-door neighbor OU? Well, ﬁnding athird team for theSooners is aproblem

•Missouri: Arkansas, Okla-

homa, Texas No matter how you ﬁgure it, Mizzou doesn’tfeel like an SEC team.Best to keep things geographic with old Big 12 and regional rivals.

•Oklahoma: Texas, Mississippi State, Missouri

The Red River Rivalry (OUTexas) does ﬁt in well with the classic SEC clashes. Mizzou is a border skirmish, and State ﬁlls out the dance card.

•South Carolina: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky

South Carolina and Texas A&M have been forced to play each other every year since 2014 forno good reason. Time to stop that.

•Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky,Vanderbilt Tennessee-Bamadeserves to be preserved, despite the fact it was the reason forconvoluted SEC scheduling in the divisional days. In-state Vandy and UK also mean something to the Volunteers.

•Texas: Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Missouri Iwanted to give the Longhorns an annual gamewith Arkansas but just couldn’tswing it. This scheduling stuff is hard.

•Texas A&M: LSU,Texas, Arkansas The Aggies are surrounded by annual rivals they love to hate. As it should be.

•Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Kentucky,Florida

When all this new schedule talk started, the joke was how some lucky school would get the Commodores forall three annual rivalry games. Notany more.

Miamijumps LSU, Penn State to No.2 behind Ohio State

BY ERIC OLSON AP collegefootball writer

Miamijumped LSU and Penn State into theNo. 2spot behind Ohio State in The Associated Presscollege football poll on Sunday while Oklahoma climbed into thetop 10 for the ﬁrst time in two years and Indiana and Texas Tech madebig moves after lopsided wins over Top25opponents.

dez said he was “glad to get awin” on anight when hisdefensegave up six touchdowns

“Excited aboutthe offense, but defensively,wegave up toomany bigplays,” the coach said as he looked ahead to the start of District 9-5A play in Week 4against Warren Easton

The teamswere tied 22-allbefore St. Augustine scored thenextthree touchdowns beforehalftime as Legacy (2-2)had its three drives during that span end with afumble,apunt and when the clock expired to end the half.

The Titans reached the St. Augustine 1-yardline with 3seconds remaining but were called for holding on what would have been a touchdown run. The half ended with an untimeddownthat resulted in asack

St. Augustine scored the ﬁrst two touchdownsafter halftime and extended itslead to 60-22 midway through the third quarter

Senior cornerback Zyan Williamsintercepted alow throw toward thesideline to set up the second touchdown after halftime.

Junior Payton Thomas intercepted apass inthe ﬁrst half. Sophomore defensiveend Darren Coates made multiple plays in thebackﬁeld.

Legacy quarterback Keisean Henderson, listedbyrecruiting websitesasthe No. 1QBinTexas and aUniversityofHouston commitment, completed26of35passes for384 yards with ﬁve touchdowns and ran for ascore

St. Augustine has 180 points in threegamesthisseason. Included among thoseare apairof56-6victories against McDonogh 35 and EastSt. John. Legacy will make areturntrip to Louisiana when the team coached by former KansasState quarterback Michael Bishop faces St. Charles in Week 7. Legacy won 34-28 when those teams met last season.

The Hurricanes have beaten tworanked opponents, and they turnedinanother completeperformance in a19-point home win over Florida to earn their highest ranking since 2017. Penn State, which had been No. 2since the preseason, was idle andslipped to No.3.LSU fell one spot to No.4after an easywin over Southeastern Louisiana of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision. No. 5Georgia andNo. 6Oregon held their positionsand were followed by No. 7Oklahoma, which beat previously rankedAuburn at home and returned to the top 10 for thefirst time since it started 7-0 in 2023. Florida State,Texas A&M andTexas round outthe top 10. Ohio State had an open date and received 52 of 66 first-place votes from themedia panel. Miami got sevenfirst-place votes, fourmore than aweek ago. Penn State had five first-place votesand Oregon andOklahoma each received one. Indiana had played one of the softest schedules in thecountry

throughthree games before raising eyebrows with its 63-7 hammering of then-No. 9Illinois. The Hoosiers made the biggest move up,climbing eight spots to No. 11. TexasTech gotaﬁve-rung promotion to No.12for its 24-point winatUtah. The Red Raiders won easily despite playing backup quarterback Will Hammond most of the secondhalfinplace of an injuredBehren Morton.

In andout No. 24 TCU beat SMU to go 3-0 and earn itsﬁrst regular-season ranking since it wasaﬁxture in

the top 10 the second half of the 2022 season.The HornedFrogs, beaten 65-7 by Georgia in the national title game that season, were No. 17 in the2023 preseason poll and hadn’tbeen back since. No.25BYU, whichﬁnished last season No.13, picked up aroad win at East Carolina and is ranked for the ﬁrst time this season. Utah (16) andAuburn (22) dropped out.

Poll points

n Oklahoma is the lowest-ranked team to receive aﬁrst-place vote in aregular season since then-No. 7Washington got one on Sept. 24, 2023.

n Illinois’ 56-point loss at Indiana was the most lopsided in Bret Bielema’sﬁve seasons and caused theIllini to tumble from No. 9to No. 23.

n The last time Miamiwas ranked as high wasinback-toback polls in November 2017, when MarkRicht’s Hurricanes were 9-0 and 10-0. That team lost three straight to end the season. n Texas Tech has its highest ranking since Kliff Kingsbury’s ﬁrst team wasNo. 10 following a 7-0 start in 2013.

Conference call SEC (10) —Nos. 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20. Big Ten(7) —Nos. 1, 3, 6, 11, 19, 21, 23. Big 12 (4) —Nos. 12, 14, 24, 25. ACC (3) —Nos. 2, 8, 16. Independent (1) —No. 22.

Blaney opens2nd roundofNASCAR CupSeriesplayo

By The Associated Press

LOUDON, N.H. In arace in which Fords were fastest at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney barely was best in class for thesecond-round opener of the NASCAR CupSeries playoffs. The 2023 Cup champion led 116 laps in his No.12Mustang, including the final39, butstill had to fendoff afuriouscharge by runner-up Josh Berry,who closed within afew car lengths with 10 laps left before overdriving acorner Blaneypulled away to win by 0.937 seconds Sunday in his third victoryofthe season and 16th of his career “That was probably the hardest 20 laps that Idrove,” the Team Penske driver said. “I was trying to kind of bide my stuffand pull Josh alittle bit, then he really started coming. It was all Icould do to hold him off, trying new lanes. That was goodand clean racing. Iappreciate Joshfor not

throwing me thebumperwhen he could have

“What acool day,what acool weekend. Superfastcar.Really have been strong through the playoffs.It’sgreat to geta win in the ﬁrst race of theround.”

Blaney,who is trying to reach theChampionship 4season ﬁnale forthe third consecutive year,becamethe ﬁrst driver to advance into oneofthe eight available spots in the third round of theCup playoffs.

Berry,whose No.21Wood Brothers Racing Ford hasa competitive alliance with Penske,overcame aspinonthe 82nd lap and rebounded fromhis firstroundelimination afterfinishing last in each of the first three races in the playoffs. “It was definitelyanawesome day,” said Berry,who led10laps.

“Hats off to Ryan at theend.All our cars were really strong, and Ryan did agreat job there. Iwas honestly surprised Iwas able to keep him honest at the end.

“Just ashame to finish sec-

ond, butafter thelastcouple of weeks, it feels good.This is deﬁnitely whatwe’recapable of,and hopefully we can keep it going.”

TheFords backed up their impressive performances in qualifying Saturday when Penske star Joey Logano wonthe pole positiontocap asweepofthe top three starting spots withBlaney andBerry.The same trio led273 of 301 laps Sunday.

WilliamByron wasthe highest-ﬁnishing Chevrolet driver in third.

“It was agood day overall,” said Byron, who is the highestranked driver behind Blaney in theplayoff standings with two races left in the second round. “Penske guys weresuper fast. I felt like theywereinanother zip code.”

Logano took fourth afterleadingarace-high 147lapsinthe No. 22 Ford.The Middletown, Connecticut, native started from the pole forthe ﬁrst time at New Hampshire, whichheconsiders his home track

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

St. Augustine quarterbackVashaun Coulon andthe Purple Knights defeated Legacy SchoolofSport Sciences 68-40

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

drops back

second

at TigerStadium.LSU won

AP FILE PHOTO By LINDABEST/BOZEMAN DAILyCHRONICLE

ROBERT REDFORD

AUG. 18,1936— SEPT.16, 2025

FILM LEGEND

Longtime actor, director’s 11 most memorable movies,and wheretowatch

BY LINDSEY BAHR | AP film writer

When you’re alarger-than-life, generation-spanning star like Robert Redford, the hard truth is that every movie is notableinsome way.Hewas iconicinhis own time,whether in front of thecamera, or behind it. And in hislifetime, so many of his films transcended their original reviews to find passionate fanbases: Just ask older millennials aboutthe 1992 hacker movie“Sneakers” or the“Sexand the City” generation about “The WayWeWere.” Redford diedSept. 16 at 89, leaving behind an arsenal of great roles that he owned, whether he was playing aquiet CIA agent, acon man, abaseball player,a grizzled mariner,anambitious journalist, or acharming WASP in love. Youcould make afeast out of his Sydney Pollack collaborations alone, staring with “Jeremiah Johnson” (streaming on Tubi), aclassic that also took on asurprisingafterlifeas ameme that became so popular,younger generations didn’teven realize it was Redford behindthat beard. Hisvery last role camethisyear,a cameoin“Dark Winds,” theAMC show aboutNavajo police officersheproduced.

ä See REDFORD, page 2D

diagnosis

HowdoI tell my familyabout my Alzheimer’sdiagnosis?

It is difﬁcult to discern when or how to reveal your diagnosis to close family members. It might be helpful to write your thoughts on paper before meeting with anyone. When you are emotionally ready,set aside an appropriate time and a place to meet in private so you and your family members can speak and respond freely.Let your family know in advance that you have something important to discuss with them

Letting them know about your diagnosis is an important part of coping with the diagnosis. Youwill wantyour family to know so that they can support and assist you as you navigate the journey.Bewell informed about the disease so that you can explain it thoroughly to your family.Have educational materials or tips sheets available to share with them

The morethey know and learn about Alzheimer’s, the morecomfortable they may feel around you. Be open and honest and allow them to be the samewithout judgement and give them timetoreact and process what you are telling them.The uncertainty of the disease makes it difﬁcult to predict how anyone will respond, so patience and understanding should guide the conversations. Most likely after being told of your diagnosis, family members will have manyquestions and have concerns about how they should act around you. Though relationships may change as the disease progresses, you will wantto focus on the positive and assure them of your wishes and desires. Begin somedialogue about your preferences forfuture healthcare needs and about establishing legal safeguards like durable powers of attorney and other imminent ﬁnancial decisions. When conversations get heavy or anxieties reach apeak, or if you get overwhelmed, makesure that everyone takes abreak and perhaps consider convening at alater time so everyone can absorb all the discussions that have transpired.

BY JUDYBERGERON Staff writer

After aTuesday night “America’sGot Talent” performance

that brought the audience to its feet, New Orleans street performer Jourdan Blue is headed to theshow’s20th-seasonﬁnale next week.

Blue and his nine fellow “AGT” ﬁnalists received the goodnews on Wednesday night’sepisode,

where host Terry Crews revealed theresults of America’svote. Although the audienceappearedtolove Blue’svocal interpretation of “Stargazing” by British singer-songwriter Myles Smith onTuesday,comments from the judges were mixed.

“Jourdan,I don’tknowwhatitis aboutyou,yourvoice, your hair, Imean, your eyes, the songs that

NewOrleans singer Jourdan Blue performs in the semifinalson NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’ on Tuesdaynight.

Once your diagnosis is disclosed, your family members and then your friends face the harsh reality that accompanies Alzheimer’sdisease. Realize that those close to you might not have the reaction you had hoped fororthe support you want, but you cannot control how they react. Many people are uncomfortable with the disease, fear it, and don’treally know how to handle it.

Author Carol BradleyBur-

sack,founderofMinding Our Elders CaregiverSupport, notes that “people begin to stay away, notbecause they’re badpeople. It takes avery strongperson to continuetokeep visiting someonewho may getsothey don’tremember you, who can’t

PROVIDED PHOTOS By TRAE PATTON/NBC

Plant-forwarddietcan help controlblood glucose

Dear Doctors: Isuggest you talk about the beneﬁts of awholefood, plant-based diet for people with Type 2diabetes. The results are marvelous, and Ithink the peoplewith diabetes could be cured.

Dear reader: Plant-based diets date back thousands of years. The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras is considered by many to be the father of vegetarianism. For him, it was amoral andethical decision. In the early 1800s, driven by social and cultural changes, the focus shifted to improvedhealth and well-being.Today,agrowing body of research links aplant-based diet to awide rangeofbeneﬁts. These include reducedinﬂammation, improved cardiovascular health, lower rates of heart disease, improved gut health and lower rates of

REDFORD

Continued from page1D

Thisisa list of some of Redford’smost memorable performances, but don’t forget about the ﬁlms he directed, too: among them are the all-timers “Ordinary People” (streaming on MGM+), which won him the best director Oscar, and “Quiz Show” (rent on Apple TV+),which got him another nod.

‘Barefootinthe Park’ (1967)

Redford and Jane Fonda play apassionate but mismatched newlywed couple whose relationship is tested by their walk-up New York apartment in this Neil Simon comedy.Reprising the role he’d played on Broadway,Redfordisthe uptight, conservative foil to her more free-spirited character and they’re both stunningly beautiful and fun to watch. Fonda told The Guardian in 2015 that she was “always in love withRobert Redford.”He later responded that he wasn’taware.The two also appeared together in “The Chase” (1966), “The Electric Horseman” (1979) and “Our Souls at Night” (2017) WHERE TO WATCH: Stream on Kanopy; rent on several services, including Prime Video

‘Butch Cassidyand the Sundance Kid’ (1969)

Redford met Paul Newman on “Butch Cassidy,” George Roy Hill andWilliam Goldman’sWestern buddy ﬁlm about outlaws on the run. It was the start of alifelong friendship, but it almost didn’thappen, since the studio wanted astar like Steve McQueen or Marlon Brando instead of Redford “I was not aname equal to Paul’s. Iwas just sortof moving up at that time,” he told the AP in 2015.“There was abig argument that went on for months and months.They said it had to be astar.(Newman) said, ‘Well, Iwant to work with an actor,’ because Paul respected acting. Had it not been for Paul, Iwould not have gotten that break.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Rent on several services, including Prime Video

‘Downhill Racer’ (1969)

Aﬁlm that’s as stylishas it is compelling, Redford plays an ambitious and smug downhillskier out for Olympic gold in this Michael Ritchie ﬁlm. Roger Ebert, in his review,wrote that it is “a portraitofa man that is so complete, and so tragic, that ‘Downhill Racer’becomes the best movie ever made about sports —without really being about sports at all.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Stream on Kanopy or FuboTV;rent on Prime Video

‘The Sting’ (1973)

After the success of “Butch Cassidy,” “The Sting,” another Hillﬁlm, fell into place more easily Redford and Newman play grifters in 1936 Chicago who ﬂeece RobertShaw’s rich mobster in this memorable caper that went on to win best picture.

“What was interesting was

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

certain cancers. And, as you’ve pointed out,improved blood sugar control.

Forthose who aren’tfamiliar, Type 2diabetes is achronic and progressive condition. This condition ﬁrst impairs the body’s response to insulin. Over time, thecondition also affects production of the hormone by the pancreas. This leads to elevated blood glucose levels. Elevated blood glucose can cause serious

healthproblemsifleft untreated. It can cause nerve damage, kidney disease, impaired vision, tissue damage, heart disease and an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Currently,there is no cure for Type 2diabetes. Even if it can’tbecured, it can be successfully managed. Aplant-based or even plant-forward —diet can play akey role. Studies have found that aplantbased diet can have dual beneﬁts. For people living withType 2 diabetes, it can greatly improve blood sugar control. It’s alsobeen found that aplant-based diet can signiﬁcantly reduce therisk of developing thedisease. Astudy of 113,000 adults in Great Britain analyzed their health data. The study found that people with diets highest in fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes and grains lowered

the switcheroo,” Redford told the AP.“Paul had played these iconic,quiet,still characters in the past, and that’s not what Paul is.Hewas a chatty,nervous guy who was always bitinghis ﬁngernails. …Heloved to have fun and play games.”

WHERETOWATCH: Stream on Spectrum;rentonseveral services, includingApple TV+

‘The WayWeWere’ (1973) Ah Hubbell,thatbeautiful, carefreeWASP who falls in love with BarbraStreisand’s ﬁercely opinionated Katie The making of the Pollack ﬁlm, fromascript standpoint, was fraught and the original writerArthur Laurentswas never quite happy with how it turned out. But this romantic drama with that memorablesong has enduredover the generations (it was even areference in apivotal“Sexand the City” episode).

WHERETOWATCH: Rent on various services including Fandango

‘Three Days of theCondor’ (1975)

Redford teamed with Pollack again for this paranoid thriller about aquiet CIA codebreaker whoreturns fromlunch only to discover his co-workers have allbeen murdered. The ﬁlm sends him on the runfrom the bosses involved in this vast conspiracy,and ahit man playedbyMax von Sydow WHERETOWATCH: Streamon MGM+

‘All thePresident’s Men’ (1976)

To Redford, the history of this ﬁlmwas more interestingthan the project itself. He started obsessingover the Watergate saga during awhistle-stop tour for “The Candidate,”alsoa great and prophetic Redford ﬁlm, when he overheard some journalists gossiping about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters andbecame fascinated bythe journalists covering the story,Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

“I wanted to know who these guys were,who created all this disturbance,” Redford told the AP WHERETOWATCH: Rent on several services, including Prime Video

‘The Natural’ (1984)

This is one of those ﬁlms that might not be many critics’ favorite,but its cultural impactalmost negates that

their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 25%.Aseparate review of morethan 60 studies and research papers on the possible benefitsofa plant-based diet corroborated these findings. Eating aplant-based or plantforward diet involves mealsand snacks that contain agenerous amount of fiber.Fiber is acrucial nutrient that is notably scarce in the modern American diet. A high-fiber diet slowsdown how thebody breaks downglucose and absorbs it. This can lead to improved insulin response. Subbing out processed foods for fresh fruit and vegetables, beans, grains and legumes reduces simple carbsand added sugars that can contribute to insulin resistance andpoor blood glucose control. Aplant-based diet also lowers systemic inflammation,

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, Sept.22, the 265th day of 2025. There are 100 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Sept.22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,declaring all enslaved people in Confederate states should be freed as of Jan. 1, 1863, if the states did not end the ﬁghting and rejoin theUnion.

Also on this date:

In 1957, Haitian women were allowed to votefor theﬁrst time, 153 years

Redfordplayed baseball player Roy Hobbs in Barry Levinson’sadaptation of Bernard Malamud’snovel about an up-and-coming talent whose career is derailedafter getting shot, but who getsanother chance at greatness 16 years later WHERE TO WATCH: Renton several services, including Prime Video

‘Out of Africa’(1985)

This breathtakingly beautifulhistorical romance (alsodirected by Pollack)

ﬁnds Meryl Streep, as the Danish expat Karen Blixen, unable to resist thecharms of Redford’sbig game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, an English man with no accent (Pollack thought it would be distracting for audiences)

The ﬁlm didn’tget the best reviews, but it did go on to win the best picture Oscar WHERE TO WATCH: Renton several services, including Prime Video

‘All Is Lost’(2013)

J.C. Chandor directed Redford in this harrowing survival story, in which aveteran sailor on asolo voyage in theIndian Ocean tries to survive after his yacht is struck by aﬂoating cargo container.Made for only $9 million, it’s stripped-down and thrilling.

“It’s apure cinematic experience,”Redfordtold The Hollywood Reporter.“And that was very appealing to me at this point in my life —tobeable to go back to my rootsasanactor,tobe interesting enough to have theaudience ride along with you and almost be a part of what you are feeling and thinking.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Stream on Tubi, The RokuChannel, Kanopy

‘The OldMan &The Gun’ (2018)

This indie gem from ﬁlmmaker David Lowery, about a70-year-old San Quentin escapee who embarks on a series of bank heists, was abit of aswan song for Redford, who was 82 when it was released. His character,Forrest Tucker,isthe kind of thief who left his victimsdisarmed, with one bank teller explaining to thepolice, “He was agentleman.” It’sone of those ﬁlmsthat’s almost comforting to watch, areassuring testamenttohis enduring appeal. Charisma doesn’t need to dwindle withage, and Redford was proof. WHERE TO WATCH: Rent on several services, including Apple TV+

BLUE

Continuedfrom page1D

youpick, everything, it’s like it’s beautiful, it’s so emotional,” judge and actress Soﬁa Vergara began. “You wereamazing tonight.”

Recording artist MelB added, “I wantyou to give us that grit again. When we firstsaw you,you left everything there on that stage. Ithink you’re still holding back alittle bit, and why? This is your stage, and you’ve got this.”

Judge Simon Cowell agreed.

“Fromthe minutewe firstsaw you, we really,well still, love you. There’s something about you. You’re really sincere, you’re areally nice person, you deserve abreak,”Cowell said. “The only thing Ido feel is Ithink you’re playing it safe right now.And Istill think America will vote you through. My suggestion is, if youmakethe final, do something unexpected. Se-

DIAGNOSIS

Continuedfrom page1D

remember the same things you remember.Ittakes alot of dedication. That doesn’t mean thatthey think any

improving overall health outcomes. Like we said, Type 2diabetes cannot be cured. But forsome people, adopting aplant-based or plant-forward diet can lessen or even eliminate the reliance on medications. However,it’simportant to remember that diabetes is asilent disease. If you wantto adopt aplant-based diet, work closely with your doctor as you track the resulting blood glucose response. Never change, reduce or eliminate medications without medical guidance.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite 1450, Los Angeles CA, 90024.

TODAYINHISTORY

after Haiti becameanindependent country; François Duvalier was elected president.

In 1993, 47 people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed and plunged off abridge into Big Bayou Canot near Mobile, Alabama.

In 2014, the United States and ﬁve Arab nations launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, sending waves of planes and Tomahawk cruise missiles against an array of targets.

In 2017, as the scale of the damage from Hurricane Maria started to be-

riously,just do it.”

Judge and comedian Howie Mandel, who awarded Blue his “goldenbuzzer” (allowinghim to skip the next phase of the competition) after hisaudition,still had nothing but praise forthe 24-year-old singer

“I think you played it pitch perfect,” he said.

“I love whatyou did. There’snobetter singer in this competition.”

But as this is atalent contest, Blue will be going up against not only singing acts forthe “America’sGot Talent”top prize next week. Here arethe rest of theﬁnalists: n LightWire,LED dance troupe n ChrisTurner,improv rapper n Jessica Sanchez, singer n Leo High School Choir, 22 singers n Sirca Marea, trapeze duo n Micah Palace, rapper n MamaDuke, rapper n Team Recycled, dance team n Steve Ray Ladson, sing-

less of you. They’re simply hurting foryou andhurting forthemselves.”

In the long run, be gentle and patient with others and be especially the samewith yourself

Dana Territo is an

come clearer,Puerto Rican ofﬁcials said they could not contact morethan half of the communities in the U.S. territory,where all power had been knocked out to the island’s3.4 million people.

Today’sbirthdays: Singerchoreographer-actor Toni Basil is 82. Musician King Sunny Adé is 79. Football Hall of Famer Harold Carmichael is 76. Rock singer David Coverdale (Deep Purple, Whitesnake) is 74. Actor Shari Belafonte is 71. Singer Debby Boone is 69. Country singer June Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 69.

er-songwriter The 10 hopefuls will perform onelasttime for America’s vote on the 7p.m Tuesday episode. Voting will be open from7 p.m thatday to 6a.m. the following morning to give everyone extra timetoweigh in on who deserves the grand prize the most, according to anews release. On the 7p.m.results show Wednesday, thewinnerof “America’sGot Talent” Season20will be announced The episodescan also be streamed on Peacock the followingday “You might also see the return of somefan favoritesfor special performances,” the release also stated. Thewinner receives $1 million (before taxes, if taken as an annualpayment of $25,000 for 40 years) or alump sumestimated at $300,00-$350,000 (before taxes). They also have the opportunity to headline a show in Las Vegas. For moreinformation, visit https://www.nbc.com/ americas-got-talent.

Alzheimer’sadvocate andauthorof“What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’sDisease.” Shehosts “TheMemory Whisperer.” Email herat thememorywhisperer@ gmail.com.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Don't make a move or change athing if you feel somethingisnot right. Direct your energy towardself-improvement, rather than trying to change others or attempting the impossible LIBRA(Sept. 23-Oct.23) Research is the best placetostartwhen you want to makealifestyle adjustment. Consider what sparks your interest and see what's available in your community.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) You'llneed an outlet to calm your nerves. Look for acreative way to takethe edge off. Expanding your interests will tweak your imagination and encourage innovative pursuits.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec.21) Home is where theheart is, so do your bestto make it as comfortable andconvenient as possible. Keep track of your health andavoid high-risk environments.

CAPRICORN(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Look for opportunities to expand your knowledge. Talk to experts, get up to date withthe latest technology and trends and consider how you can upgrade your skills.

AQUARIUS (Jan.20-Feb. 19) Put more time and energy into yourinvestments. A change at home that lowers your overhead or adds to your assets is favored. Don't make asnap decision that leads to regret.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Spend more timeonpersonaland domestic improvements. Pay attention to meaningful relationships and consider how to nur-

turethemand ensure youare working toward similar goals.

ARIES(March 21-April 19) Simplify your life and spend time with loved ones or pursuingyour passion.Channel your energy to benefit yourself instead of helpingsomeoneelse getahead.Discipline, asolid plan andopendiscussions will payoff.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Put your energy where it counts. Refuse to let anyone redirect your activities or take advantage of you. Engage in physical activities thatpromote strength, stamina and self-confidence.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Think big, but don't subscribe to somethingyou cannot afford or thatyou don't have the time to pursue.Balance, integrity andfair play will be the pathway to success and peace of mind.

CANCER(June 21-July 22) Take time to breathe, rethinkyour next move and adjust plansthatare far-fetched or too expensive. Moving forward with restraint, common sense and knowledge of what's possible will give you the upperhand.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Live, love and learn Conversationswillbeeye-opening if youask the right questions. Don't brag or exaggerate, or you'll enduptakingon more thanyou can handle.

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

Bridge

BY PHILLIP ALDER

RobertG.Allen, aCanadian-American businessman who has written several personal-finance books, said, “Don’t let the opinions of the average mansway you. Dream, and he thinks you’re crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you’re lucky. Acquire wealth, andhethinks you’re greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn’t understand.”

Bridgeplayers who are greedy rarely achieve wealth —theyusuallyend up complaining about bad luck.

In today’s deal,how should South plan theplay in fourhearts after West leads alow diamond?

South wondered about aslam opposite an opening bid, but he knew his side’s combined point-count was at most 29 (North’s two-heart raise indicating 12-14 points), which is insufficient foraslam unlessthere are distributionalpluses shortages, or asidesuit that can provide discards.

Southhas fourpossible losers: two spades, one diamond and one club. But he has 10 available winners: one spade, sixhearts, one diamond and twoclubs.

It looksasthough it cannot cost to take thediamondfinesse at trick one. However,hereEastwill win with his king and shift to aspade, which is clearly marked giventhe dummy. Declarer can duck one round and take the second spade, but when the club finesse fails, East will cash aspade for down one.

wuzzles

South must not be greedy. He should take the first trick with dummy’s ace, draw trumps andrun the club jack. Yes, the finesse loses, but he has those 10 tricks. ©2025 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrewsmcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word,phrase, name, place, saying, etc. Forexample: nOOngOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words mustbeoffour or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by theaddition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. additional words

by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns,

or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAY’s WoRD cEMEtERY: SEM-eh-ter-ee:A burialground.

Average mark 12 words

Timelimit 35 minutes

Can you find17ormore words in CEMETERY?

sAtuRDAY’s WoRD—EPonYMous

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add pointsof each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words arein theOfficial sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

Formoreinformation on tournaments and clubs,email naspa– north american sCraBBlE playersassociation:info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visitour website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzleinquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro andits logo sCraBBlE associated logo,the design of thedistinctive sCraBBlE

kenken

InstructIons: 1 -Each row and each columnmust contain the numbers1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numberswithin theheavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (in any order)to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner

WiShinG Well

HErE is aplEasanTliTTlE gamEthat

the numberofletters is

left

Scrabble GramS

Getfuzzy

roSe

p y y method isacceptable. Thebiddertowhomthe Contract is awarded shallalsoberequiredto furnish aperformance bond equalto100% of thetotal amount of the bid. Thebid

September22, 2025. 157079-SEP8-15-22-3T $308

nishingall labor, mater‐ial, andequipment for theOrpheum Avenue CrestWidening& Slope paving project, whichin‐cludes approximately 3,300 feet of concrete slopepaving, an exten‐sion of theexisting bike/pedestrianpath