LSU coach Brian Kelly listens toaquestion followingthe loss to Texas A&MatTiger Stadium inBaton RougeonSaturday.
McNeese Stateand UTSA
BY BLAKEPATERSON |Staff writer
The NewOrleans Regional Transit Authority’sboard of commissioners has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle alawsuit brought by aconstructionfirm whose controversial contract with the transit agency led to an exodus of board members last year andattracted the attention of the FBI and federal prosecutors.
TheRTA’s decision to settle with BRC Construction GroupLLC comes despite astate appellate court ruling in April that the contractor had failed to provide sufficient evidence to compel apayment from the transit authority That ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed alower court decision that required the RTAtopay BRC the nearly $456,000 the firm argued it was owed, plus $68,400 in attorney’s fees and interests.
It’sunclear whythe RTAboard ultimately decided to settle for $750,000 or nearly $225,000 morethan what BRC argued it was entitled to in court records. The chair of the RTAboard, Fred Neal Jr., didn’trespond to multiple requests forcomment. The RTA’sdirector of communications, Tara Letort, declined to comment.
BY WILSON ALEXANDER |Staff writer
LSU has fired coach BrianKelly, The Advocate confirmed on Sunday witha source familiarwith thedecision.
The decision was finalizedafter the eighth game of Kelly’sfourth season with the Tigers turned intoa49-25 home loss to No. 3TexasA&M. With that defeat, LSU fell to 5-3, losingwhateverwas left of its already faint College Football Playoff hopes.
ä Kelly’sbuyout: Alook at howmuch LSUwould owehim PAGE 1C
On Sunday,LSU leadership held discussionsabout Kelly’sfuture, sources said, including talk of apotential negotiated buyout.Those conversations will continue into the Tigers’ open date as thetwo parties work toward agreeing to buyout terms.
Running backs coach and associate head coach FrankWilson will be the interimheadcoach,asourceconfirmed. Wilson was previously the head coach at
Kelly was owed aroughly$54 million buyout, the second-largest in college football history, accordingtohis contract That could be reducedbyany “footballrelated employment” he has next, per the contract, includingincoaching, administration or media. Kelly’s buyout must be paid in equal monthly installments through2031.
ABULL MARKET
Angola’s prison rodeo is amajor economic driver forthe region andfor inmates
BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT |Staff writer
The gospel musicflickersintorange around mile 17 on theTunica Trace, atrail formerly used by the Tunica Native American tribe paved into a20-mile highwayin West Feliciana Parish.Ashundreds of cars pass churches releasing their congregations, the broadcast of 91.7 KLSP-FM “The Incarceration Station”—sharpens. “I’m doing thebestI can;I’m doing the best Ican,” the Rev.Andrew Cheairs and The Songbirds sing. “WhileI’m traveling, I’m travelingthrough this land.” Thebroadcast emanates from theroad’s end: the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. It’sadestination few ever leave, imprisoningaround3,900inmates,withroughly 70% of those sentenced for life. However,onOct. 12, the prison’sinmate-
Kelly took the LSU job in 2021 after he became Notre Dame’sall-time winningest coach acrossthe 12 years he spent in South Bend, Indiana.The Tigers played for the SECchampionship in his first year and produced Heisman trophywinning quarterback Jayden Daniels in his second, but they have not come close to reaching the playoff in anyofthe four seasonshespent in Baton Rouge.
In 2025, LSU lost its hopes of reaching the CFP across astretch in whichit lost three of four games, starting with aSept. 27 road defeat to No. 7Ole Miss. TheTigers’ offense collapsed down the
ä See KELLY, page 4A
An inmate hits the ground at the startofabull rideduring the Angola PrisonRodeo on Oct. 12. EveryApril and October,the Louisiana State PenitentiaryatAngola hosts the last remainingprisonrodeo in thenation. It’sa majoreconomic driver for the region.
run radio station played for thousands of peopledriving toward the Angola Prison Rodeo. EverySundayinOctober andone weekend in April,crowds witness incarceratedmen voluntarily participating in rodeo events Some are traditional bull- or horse-riding
competitions, but there are also events like “Convict Poker,” where four inmates compete to be the last man sitting at apoker tablewithanangered bull charging them.
ä See RODEO, page 4A
Thesettlement is the latest development in the long-running dispute between the RTAand BRC, which landed a $250,000 construction services contract in March2022 that, through aseries of board-approved change orders, grew to encompass morethan $1.2 million worth of work.
‘Whenthe
race
is over,you move on,’ congressmansays
BY TYLER BRIDGES |Staff writer
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter acknowledges that threekey membersofhis Algiersbased political organization didn’tperform well on electionnight in NewOrleans twoweeks ago. Twoofthem lost badly as they sought more powerful positions, and the third, an incumbent, wasforced into arunoff against anewcomer
Carter
But Carter dismisses anysuggestion thatthe results say anything abouthis political influence at home or his political strength ahead of next year’s midterms, whenhemight face arocky road to reelection if the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates Louisiana’scongressional map
“Inthis town, where there’salways an election, youpickpeoplethatyou think are the best for the job at the time,” Carter said. “Sometimes it works, and
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIERGALLEGOS
BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS
Suspects arrested in Louvre jewelheist
PARIS Twosuspects were arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels fromParis’ Louvre museum, justice and police officials said Sunday,a week after the heistthat stunned the world and sparked amassive manhunt.
TheParisprosecutor said that investigators made arrests Saturday evening, adding that one of the men takenintocustody was preparing to leavethe country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody.Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuaudid notconfirm the number of arrests and did not say whether any jewels had been recovered.
Apolice official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case, told The Associated Press that two men in their 30s, bothknown to police, were taken into custody. He said one suspect was arrested as he attempted to board aplane bound forAlgeria. The official added that one of the suspects was identified through DNA traces. Beccuausaid earlier this week that forensics experts were analyzing 150 samples at the scene.
Thieves took less than eight minutesonOct.19tosteal jewels valued at $102 million from the museum.
Flights to airporthalted by controller shortage
The Federal Aviation Administration said flights departing for Los AngelesInternational Airport were halted Sunday morning duetoastaffing shortageat aSouthern California air traffic facility
The FAAissued atemporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports soon afterU.S Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed and canceled in the coming days as the nation’sair traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. Duringanappearance on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said more controllers werecalling in sick as money worriescompound the stress of an already challenging job.
“Just yesterday we had 22 staffing triggers.That’sone of thehighest that we have seen in the system since the shutdown began. And that’s asign thatthe controllersare wearing thin,” he said.
TheFAA said planesheaded forLos Angeles were held at their originating airports starting at 10:42 a.m., causing delays averaging an hour and 40 minutes. The agency said it expected to lift the ground stop at 12:30 p.m. but might continueto restrict traffic into LAX 1killed in shooting at Pennsylvania university LINCOLN UNIVERSITY,Pa. Gunfire erupted during outdoor festivities at Pennsylvania’sLincoln University late Saturday,killing one person and wounding six others as students and alumni celebrated homecoming at the historically Black school, authorities said.
Aperson who had afirearm was detained, and officials are investigating the possibility that there was more than one shooter but don’tbelieve thereisany activethreat to the campus, Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe saidduringa briefnewsconference early Sunday
“Wedon’thave alot of answers about exactly what happened, he said.“What Iwill tellyou is that today we’re operating as if this is not an incidentwhere someone came in with the design to inflict massdamageona college campus.” Authorities say the shooting took place at about 9:30 p.m. outsidealarge building called the International Cultural Center, where tents and tables were set up fortailgating andsocializing after afootball game earlierin the day
Authorities weren’tsharing details about the victims, includingtheir conditionsorwhere the injured were being treated
Melissagrows into Category 4hurricane
Stormthreatens
Jamaica, Haiti
BY MAURICIO SAVARESE and JOHN MYERS JR. Associated Press
KINGSTON, Jamaica A strengtheningMelissa grewintoaCategory 4 hurricane Sunday and U.S. forecasters said it could reach Category5status, unleashing torrential rain and threatening to cause catastrophic flooding in the northernCaribbean,including Haiti andJamaica, TheU.S.National HurricaneCenter added that Melissa is expected to move near or over Jamaica as amajorhurricane early Tuesday, then reachCuba Tuesday night, and head across the southeastern Bahamas onWednesday “Conditions (in Jamaica) aregoingtogodown rapidly today,”Jamie Rhome, the center’sdeputydirector,saidonSunday.“Be ready to ride this out for several days.”
Melissa was centered about 115 miles southsouthwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 295 miles south-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba,onSunday night. It had maximum sustained winds of145 mph and was moving west at 5 mph, the hurricanecenter said
Melissa was expected to droprainsofupto30inches on Jamaica and southern Hispaniola —Haiti and the Dominican Republic accordingtothe hurricane center.Some areas may see as much as 40 inches of rain
It also warned thatextensive damage to infrastructure, power and commu-
nication outages,and the isolation of communities in Jamaica were to be expected.
Melissa should be near or over Cuba by late Tuesday, whereitcould bring up to 12 inches of rain, before moving towardthe Bahamas later Wednesday
The Cuban government issuedahurricanewarning for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin. It also sent atropical storm warning to theprovinceof Las Tunas. Jamaica’stwo main airports, theNorman Manley International Airport and the SangsterInternational Airport in Montego Bay, wereclosed by Sunday Local officialsordered the evacuation in the seaside community of Old Harbour Bay in the southern parish of St Catherine on Sunday
The order came after Jamaican officials said at apress conference earlier that they were contemplating enforcement because manyresidents in flood prone and low-lying communities werenot heeding the advice to seek safer alternative locations.
Melissa is forecastto reach Category5when it makes landfall along the south coastonTuesday DesmondMcKenzie, whoisleading the Jamaican government’sdisaster response,said in apress conference, that all the moreof650 shelters in Jamaica areopen.
Officials said earlier that warehousesacrossthe island werewell-stocked and thousands of food packages pre-positioned for quick distribution if needed.
Evan Thompson,the
principaldirector of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, saidthe storm surge is expected mainly over the southern side of the island.
“There is potential(for) flooding in everyparishof our country,” Thompson said. “Ifyou’reina flood prone, low-lying area, you need to take note. If you’re near ariver course or a gully,you need to takespecial noteand find somealternative location that you can move to should you be threatened by theheavy rainfall.”
Some foreign governments arealso preparing forthe hurricane’sarrival in Jamaica.
The government of Antiguaand Barbudais housing visiting students at ahotel in Kingston. As of Sunday morning, 52 of themhad checked in.
“Theyhave abetter bounce back regimen here (at the hotel) in terms of standby power and water (incomparison with university dorms,” said Jewel Moore, 19,a chemistrystudent at UWIMona. She and her fellow studentsare enjoying snacks and games before thehurricanearrives.
“The passing of the storm should be okay,” she added. “It’s getting out that will be aproblem.”
Theerraticand slowmoving storm haskilled at leastthree people in Haiti anda fourthperson in the Dominican Republic,where anotherperson remains missing.
Haitian authorities said threepeople had died as a consequence of thehurricane and another five were injured due to acollapsed wall.
Officials: Russia testsnew nuclear-capablemissile
ByThe Associated Press
MOSCOW— Russiatested anew nuclear-capable and powered cruise missile fit to confound existing defenses, inching closer to deploying it to its military, President VladimirPutin said in remarks released on Sunday
The announcement, which followed years of tests of theBurevestnik missile, comes aspart of nuclear messaging from the Kremlin, which has resisted Western pressure for aceasefire in Ukraine and strongly warned the U.S. and other NATO allies against sanctioning strikes deep inside Russia with longer-range Western weapons
Avideoreleased by the Kremlin showedPutin, dressedincamouflagefatigues, receiving areport from Gen. Valery Gerasimov,Russia’schiefof general staff, who toldthe
Russianleader that the Burevestnik covered 8,700 milesinakey test Tuesday Gerasimov said theBurevestnik, or storm petrel in Russian,spent 15 hours in the air on nuclear power,adding “that’snot the limit.”
Little is known about the Burevestnik, whichwas code-named Skyfallby NATO, andmany Western expertshave been skeptical about it, noting that a nuclear engine could be highly unreliable.
WhenPutin first revealed that Russia was working on the weapon in his 2018 state-of-thenation address, he claimed it would have an unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defense systems.
Many observers argue suchamissile could be difficult to handle and pose an environmental threat. The U.S.and theSovietUnion worked on nuclear-pow-
USDAsaysno food aidwillgo outSaturday
BY ADRIANA GOMEZLICON Associated Press
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on itswebsite sayingfederal food aidwill not go out Saturday,raising the stakesfor families nationwide as thegovernment shutdowndrags on.
The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billionin contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP,flowing into November.That program helps about 1in8 Americans buy groceries.
“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the USDA notice says.“At thistime, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We areapproaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats.”
The shutdown, which began Oct. 1, is now the second-longest on record.
Whilethe Republicanadministration took steps leading up to the shutdown to ensure SNAP benefits were paid this month, the cutoff would expand the impact of the impasse to a wider swathofAmericans —and some of those most in need —unless apolitical resolution is found in just a fewdays.
The administration blames Democrats, who say they will not agree to reopen the government until Republicansnegotiate with them on extending expiring subsidies underthe
AffordableCare Act. Republicans say Democrats must first agreetoreopen the government before negotiation.
Democratic lawmakers have written to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins requesting to use contingency funds to cover the bulk of next month’sbenefits. But aUSDA memo that surfaced Friday says “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.” The document says the money is reserved forsuch things suchashelping people in disaster areas. It cited astorm named Melissa,whichhas strengthenedinto amajor hurricane, as an example of why it’simportant to have the money available to mobilize quickly in the event of adisaster The prospect of families notreceiving food aidhas deeply concerned states run by both parties. Some states have pledged to keep SNAP benefits flowing even if the federal program haltspayments, but there are questions about whetherU.S. government directives may allowthattohappen. The USDA memo also says states would not be reimbursed for temporarily picking up the cost. Other states are telling SNAP recipients to be ready for the benefits to stop.Arkansasand Oklahoma,for example,are advising recipients to identify food pantries and other groups that help with food
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted anotice on itswebsite saying federal food aidwill not go out Saturday
ered missiles during the Cold War, but they eventually shelved theprojects, considering them too hazardous
The Burevestnikreportedly suffered an explosioninAugust 2019 during tests at anavyrange on the White Sea, killingfive nuclear engineers and two service membersand resultingina brief spikein radioactivitythat fueled fears in anearby city
Russianofficials never identifiedthe weapon involved, but the U.S. said it was the Burevestnik.
“Weneed to determine thepossibleusesand begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces,” Putin toldGerasimov
The Russian leader also claimed it was invulnerable to currentand future missile defenses, due to its almost unlimited range and unpredictable flightpath
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATIAS DELACROIX
People buy groceries Sunday ahead of the forecasted arrival of Hurricane Melissa in Kingston, Jamaica.
U.S. warshipdocksinTrinidadand Tobago
Move puts more pressure on Venezuela
BY ANSELM GIBBS Associated Press
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago—
AU.S. warship docked in Trinidad and Tobago‘s capital Sunday as the Trump administration boosts military pressure on neighboring Venezuela and its President
Hamas expands search for remainsof hostages
BY SAMY MAGDYand
MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press
CAIRO— Hamas hasexpanded its search for bodies of hostages in the Gaza Strip, the Palestiniangroup saidSunday,aday after Egypt deployed ateam of experts and heavy equipment to help retrieve them. Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to returnthe remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible.Israel has agreed to return 15 bodies of Palestinians for each one Children and others watched the Egyptian equipment claw through the sand near badly damaged buildings in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Hamas has returned the remains of 15 hostages but hasn’thanded over any in five days. Israel has returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians, many of them
Nicolás Maduro. The arrival of the USS Gravely,aguidedmissile destroyer,inthe capital of the Caribbean nation is in addition to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which is moving closer to Venezuela. Maduro criticized themovement of thecarrier as an attempt by the U.S. governmenttofabricate”anew eternal war” against his country PresidentDonaldTrump has accused Maduro, without providing evidence, of being
theleader of the organized crime gang Tren de Aragua. Government officials from thetwin-island nation and the U.S. said the massive warship will remain in Trinidad until Thursday so bothcountriescan carry out training exercises
Aseniormilitary official in Trinidadand Tobago told The Associated Press that the move was only recently scheduled. The official spoke undercondition of anonymity duetolackofauthoriza-
ASSOCIATEDPRESS
Palestinians watchmachineryand workers from Egypt searchfor the bodies of hostages on Sunday at Hamad City,inKhan younis, southernGaza Strip.
unidentified.
More complicated steps lie ahead underthe ceasefire plan, including the disarming of Hamas and the postwar governance of faminestricken Gaza, where the U.N. andpartnerscontinue to urge Israel to allow in more humanitarian aid. International media have been barred fromGaza aside frombriefvisitswithIsrael’s military,and IsraelonSunday said that hadn’tchanged. Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group started searching new areas for bodiesofthe remaining 13 hostages, according to comments the group shared Sunday U.S. PresidentDonald TrumpwarnedSaturdayhe was “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodiesinthe next 48 hours. “Some of the bodies
are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason,theyare not,” he wroteonsocial media.
Hamas has repeatedly said effortstoretrieve remains face challenges because of the massive destruction.
An Egyptian team with equipment including an excavator and bulldozersentered Gaza on Saturday as partofmediators’ efforts to shore up theceasefire, two Egyptian officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to talk to the media.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended themilitary’sactions after Israeli forces struck thecentral Nuseirat refugee camp in Gazalate Saturday accordingtoAl-Awda Hospital, which received the wounded.
tion to discuss thematter publicly Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidadand Tobago,has been a vocal supporter of theU.S. military presence andthe deadly strikes on suspected drug boatsinwatersoff Venezuela.
U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jenifer Neidhart de Ortizsaid in astatement that theexercisesseek to “address shared threats like transnational crime
and build resilience through training, humanitarian missions, and security efforts.”
The visit comes oneweek afterthe U.S. Embassyin Trinidad and Tobago warned Americanstostay away from U.S. government facilitiesthere.Local authorities said areported threat against Americans prompted the warning.
Many people in Trinidad and Tobago criticize the warship’sdocking in town.
At arecentdemonstration
outside theU.S.Embassy, David Abdulah, the leader of theMovementfor Social Justice political party,said Trinidad and Tobago should not have allowed the warship into its waters.
“This is awarship in Trinidad, which will be anchored here forseveral days just miles off Venezuela when there’sathreat of war,” said Abdulah, who is also the leaderofthe Movement for Social Justice political party “That’sanabomination.”
U.S.,China saytrade deal drawing closerasTrump,Xiprepare to meet
BY CHRIS MEGERIAN, DAVID RISING and EILEEN NG Associated Press
KUALALUMPUR, Malaysia A trade deal between the United States andChina is drawing closer,officials from the world’s two largest economies said Sunday as they reached an initialconsensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leaderXiJinping to aim to finalizeduring their high-stakes meeting. Any agreementwould be arelief to international marketseven if it does not addressunderlying issues involving manufacturing imbalances and access to stateof-the-artcomputer chips Beijing recentlylimited exportsofrareearthelements that are needed for advanced technologies, and Trump respondedbythreatening additional tariffs on Chinese products. The prospect of awidening conflict riskedweakening economic growth worldwide.
China’s top trade negotiator,LiChenggang, told reporters the two sides had reached a“preliminary consensus,”while Trump’streasury secretary,ScottBessent,saidthere was“avery
Trump also expressed confidence that an agreement was at hand, saying the Chinese “want to make adeal and we want to make adeal.” The Republican president is set to meet with Xi on Thursday in South Korea, the final stop of his trip through Asia. Bessent told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the threat of additionalhighertariffs on China was “effectively off the table.” In interviews on several American news shows, he said discussions with China yieldedinitial agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the U.S., and that Beijing would make “substantial” purchasesof soybean and other agriculturalproducts while putting off export controls on rare earths.
When asked how close a deal was, Trump’strade representative, JamiesonGreer, said on “FoxNews Sunday” that “it’sreally going to depend” on the two presidents. Meanwhile, Trump reiterated thatheplans to visit China in the future and suggested that Xi could cometo Washington or Mar-a-Lago, Trump’sprivate club in Florida.
The progress toward a potential agreement came during the annual summit of the AssociationofSoutheast AsianNations, in Kuala Lumpur,with Trump seeking to burnish hisreputation as an international dealmaker Yethis wayofpursuing deals has meant serious disruptions at home andabroad Hisimporttaxes have scrambled relationships with trading partners while aU.S. government shutdown has him feuding with Democrats. At thesummit, Thailand and Cambodia signed an expanded ceasefire agreement during aceremony attended by Trump. Histhreats of economic pressure prodded the two nations to halt skirmishes alongtheir disputed border earlier this year Thailand will release Cambodian prisoners and Cambodia will begin withdrawing heavy artillery as part of the first phase of the deal. “Wedid something that alot of people said couldn’t be done,” Trumpsaid. Cambodian PrimeMinister Hun Manet called it a“historic day,” and Thai Prime Minister AnutinCharnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for alasting peace.”
AMillion Futures And Counting Thisyear,Junior AchievementofGreaterNewOrleanswillreacharemarkable milestonewithits1millionthstudent.That’sonemillion studentsinspired,prepared,andempoweredthroughtheir hugelyimpactfulhands-onprogramsinfinancialliteracy,career readiness,andentrepreneurship.
CelebratingOne Million Students Reachingonemillion childrenfromacrossLouisianaandMississippiisasignificant milestone.Itrepresentsyearsofcommitmentfromeducators, volunteers,andcommunitypartnerswhobelieveinthelimitless potentialofyoungpeople.Itmeansclassroomsfullofstudents whoseepossibilityinsteadoflimitation,andwhorecognizethat leadership,integrity,andperseverancearewithintheirreach.
What’s Next Aswecelebratethismilestone,we’relooking forwardtothenextmillion.Becauseeverystudentwhowalks outofaJuniorAchievementprogramcarrieswiththemnot justknowledge,butconfidence–theconfidencetoowntheir future,strengthentheircommunity,andleadwithvision.
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PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI
stretch of a Week 8 road loss to then-No. 17 Vanderbilt, then let 28 second-half points go unanswered on Saturday against the Aggies. After the game, Kelly was asked to address his job security at LSU.
“That’s out of my hands,” Kelly said. “It’s impossible for the head coach that’s been here for four years and 35 years of doing this to think anything else, but this is my responsibility, and we’ve got to get it turned around.”
Kelly also said he’d evaluate his program “from the inside out,” hinting at possible changes to his coach-
RODEO
Continued from page 1A
Inmates generally speak highly of the event, which allows them to earn money Under pavilions outside the arena, other inmates sell handcrafted items ranging from wooden swing sets to American flag paintings at a craft fair
The festival — the last remaining prison rodeo in the nation — has achieved a semimythic status in American culture, with books, news reports and documentaries covering it But at the rodeo’s center is a large economy, beginning with the monetary awards and winding outward to St. Francisville hotel reservations and Little Debbie bakery sponsorships.
‘We get slammed’
Economic indicators flashed from the start
On Oct. 12, a wooden sign warned that all $20 rodeo tickets were sold out, while a nearby billboard advertised correctional officer positions starting at a salary of $45,437.
West Feliciana Parish historically depended on plantation agriculture that used slave and sharecropper labor In 1900, the U.S. Census Bureau data shows there were more than 2,300 farms and 146,000 acres of farmland; by 2022, that had declined to 95 farms at just under 37,000 acres.
The prison lies atop the former Angola plantation, which operated until the state purchased the land in the early 1900s. Today the 18,000-acre penitentiary is the region’s largest employer, with more than 1,400 workers, with up to 750 people employees and their families — living in a town inside the gates.
The penitentiary continues to use the land for agriculture. Working at a pay of up to 40 cents an hour, inmates raise cattle, some of which were exhibited at the rodeo, and harvest crops, including soybeans and cotton. Statewide, prison agricultural sales generated around $3.8 million from 2023 to 2024. In the parish seat of St
ing staff. On the offensive side, LSU underachieved in both seasons it played under play caller Joe Sloan — the former East Carolina quarterback and Louisiana Tech assistant who took over as offensive coordinator after Mike Denbrock left for the same job at Notre Dame following the 2023 season
“That’s not my decision in terms of whether I’m here or not,” Kelly said, “but that’s what I will do as a head coach that’s been doing it for over three decades. When things are not going well from a football standpoint, the head football coach has to be agile enough and able to make those changes and find out what we need to do to get out football team to play better.”
In Year 4, LSU’s offense struggled to convert third
downs, score in the red zone, and complete passes downfield. Its defense, under secondyear coordinator Blake Baker, never figured out how to slow down mobile quarterbacks — a persistent issue in his first season in charge as well. Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed combined to rush for 207 yards and four touchdowns in their wins over the Tigers.
“I get it,” Kelly said. “There should be noise. You should be disappointed. I’m disappointed, but I have to really focus my time inside out the program so we can make sure this never happens again.”
LSU went 10-3 and defeated Alabama in dramatic fashion in Kelly’s debut
JAVIER GALLEGOS
A bull bashes into inmates wearing inflatable bubbles during the rodeo.
Francisville, the economy has shifted to tourism, with some remaining plantation houses now hotels. John Kean, the chair of the parish tourism commission, said hotels are generally booked full for the rodeo
The Francis Southern Table and Bar just marked its 10th anniversary, and event coordinator Casey Sanders said other restaurants are closed on Sunday so it brings in a significant amount of business.
“We kind of base scheduling our workers around Sundays in October because we know that we get slammed,” she said.
Cash only
On Oct. 12, the vehicle line rose and plunged over the loess hills before rounding the final curve and ascending toward the prison.
A monument behind the gates welcomed the roughly 10,000 people entering with a quote from a former inmate: “You Are Entering The Land of New Beginnings.”
Inside, cash is king. Inmate bands sang gospel songs while others sold crawfish étouffée and funnel cakes. Children circled on a carousel or played Dunk-A-Con, a dunk tank with an inmate. Rodeo ticket sales go into the Inmate Welfare Fund, which pays for inmate recreational and educational programs.
Attendees on Oct. 12 hailed from Denmark, Georgia and Alabama Joey and Stacy Whitfield, of Greenwood, Mississippi,
visited for the first time and stayed at the nearby Greenwood Plantation. They said competitors’ lack of experience makes it more entertaining than regular rodeos.
“I’ve been to a bunch of rodeos,” Joey Whitfield said “It’s good It’s entertainment; it’s different.”
Department of Corrections staff accompanied The Advocate during interviews. At one point, when a reporter asked an inmate how much he earned from hobby-craft sales, staff said money questions were offlimits.
Inmate Charles Grace, convicted of armed robbery sells handmade grills and tables in the hobbycraft area. It’s intricate handiwork, with one metal table created to look like a spiderweb He mentioned he had earned around $5,000 that day, before the prison deducted taxes and fees.
“I’ve been out here 10 years, and I try to make just a high-quality product,” he said. “It really basically sells itself.”
Blue Bell and Little Debbie
Since ticket sales fund inmate programming, sponsors from Tractor Supply to the Louisiana Lottery pay for the rodeo itself. Cornerstone Inc., a prison equipment contractor; Gerry Lane Enterprises; and West Feliciana Hospital paid for the PremiumElite tier The Francis restaurant was a VIP sponsor; United Equipment Rentals was Elite tier The crowd packed into the
season, raising the stakes for Year 2 with Daniels returning for his second year as the starter Daniels not only matched but exceeded those expectations, winning the Heisman Trophy and becoming the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft alongside first-round wide receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas
The defense that trio of stars played with, however, failed to meet expectations. The unit surrendered over 440 yards per game against SEC competition, allowing 33 points per contest to league opponents It gave up 45 points to Florida State, 55 to Ole Miss and 42 to Alabama in three losses.
Kelly responded by overhauling his defensive staff, replacing coordinator Matt
inmate-built arena. Events advanced in quick succession. Bust Out, sponsored by Little Debbie bakery, opened the competition. Blue Bell Ice Cream sponsored Wild Cow Milking, where teams of three battled to be the first to squeeze milk into a Blue Bell cup.
During bareback riding, one inmate hit the ground and lay motionless. Prison medical personnel stationed nearby rushed over; after a few minutes, the man was placed on a stretcher and carried out
Inmates are outfitted with a helmet and padding. All those who spoke praised the event, although some admitted they felt scared during the competitions. Christopher Bounds, sentenced to life for murder, said he’s grown bolder over the years and that the competitions release tension for him
“I look forward to it. Not only the money, but just the competition,” he said. “Being able to really just release the energy you have in you.”
The bull riding event, sponsored by Bunny Enriched Bread with prizes from local sheriffs, mixed up the onlyinmate competitions.
House with Baker Corey Raymond returned to coach the LSU defensive backs, while Kevin Peoples followed Baker from Missouri to coach the Tiger edge rushers. LSU’s defense improved marginally the next season. Garrett Nussmeier took the reins at quarterback and guided the Tigers to a big win over No. 9 Ole Miss at the halfway point of the year, but they began to sputter soon after that. Two weeks later, LSU embarked on a threegame losing streak that included defeats to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida, then finished the year at 8-4.
In three full seasons under Kelly LSU defeated Purdue in the Citrus Bowl to end the 2022 season, beat Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl the
“We have what we call ‘free bull riders’ here. We’ve got three guys that are not incarcerated here at Angola State Penitentiary,” the announcer explained. “They’re going to be a part of the bull riding against our inmates here.”
An inmate perched on the 2,000-pound animal, waiting to be released. “Black Betty” by Ram Jam — a 1977 cover of an African American prison work song famously sung by Lead Belly, who was once imprisoned at Angola — blasted from loudspeakers. The mostly White crowd stomped and clapped and shrieked, a swelling roar
The gate opened.
Guts, Glory and $500
For inmates, sometimes it pays to be wild. Five hundred dollars, to be exact.
It’s time for the final event
“Guts and Glory,” sponsored by M&L Industries.
Fifty inmates spread across the dirt while a red chip is tied between the horns of a bull. The men have three minutes to seize it.
“The first inmate to grab that chip is going to win $500 here this afternoon,” the announcer explained. “That
next year and took down Baylor in the Texas Bowl to finish last season. Between its victory over Baylor and its win over Oklahoma in the 2024 regular season finale, Kelly made a bold prediction. Next year, he said, LSU would make it to the national championship game. “We’re taking receipts,” Kelly said, “and we’ll see you at the national championship.”
Less than one year later, Kelly won’t be making the trip to Miami the site of the 2025 title game. LSU fired him instead, ending a short-lived marriage with one of the nation’s most accomplished coaches. Staff writers Koki Riley and Reed Darcey contributed to this report.
might as well be $5,000 here at Angola.”
The charging bull is loosed upon the prisoners. Most jump onto the arena fence, avoiding confrontation. One man moves toward the beast. It slams him into the dirt as he struggles for the $500. It drives over him. Others try to snatch the prize and hit similar fates. Thirty seconds remain. The animal backs into a corner Some inmates scoot on their butts, angling to get low and close. The crowd tenses, urgent and expectant The beast launches at multidecade rodeo veteran Buckethead, the nickname of Travis Johnson. He’s rammed beneath its hulking mass, reaching for the chip. His hand clasps it and pulls. The crowd roars, thousands stomping, standing, howling and cheering. Buckethead rises, raising his fist and clutching the chip. A smile bursts across his face. The rodeo is over until the following Sunday Everyone shuffles out, some going home and some, like the Whitfields, driving to nearby lodging. In the arena, the inmates wait to be taken back to their cells.
Continued from page1A
Thecontract’sever-expanding scope eventually sparked aset of internal investigations and ledtoan extraordinary exodusinFebruary 2024, when half of the RTA’seight-member board resigned in quick succession afterlosing confidence in how RTACEO Lona Edwards Hankins and her team had managed the contract.
Afederal grand jury later subpoenaedthe RTA’sthengeneral counsel, Sundiata Haley,inJune 2024for records related to the contract.
The contract caught the attention of the RTAboard after an internal audit in late 2023 found that the authority’sprocurement process was repeatedly circumvented. The audit noted several instances whereBRC invoice
amountswererounded“to the nearestthousand dollars, often an indication of over/ fraudulentbilling” and said the proposals BRC provided theRTA “lacked detailed costinformation and supporting documentation.”
That audit prompted the board to commissionits own investigation,which found that the RTA’sformer facility director,John DiLosa Jr., hadrepeatedlyexceeded his authority in approving work and faultedthe agency’sleadership for failingtopromptly address histransgressions aftertheywere discovered.
Afterreading theBRC report, half of theRTA’s eightmember board resigned, including Sunni LeBeouf, a former assistant U.S. attorneywho servedascity attorney underMayorLaToya Cantrell, and all threeJefferson Parish appointees: Tim Coulon, BrianBruno and Joe Ewell. Thedustup prompted
Jeffersontocut ties with the authority entirely,dealing a blow to theagency’sdecadeslong goal of growing intoa regionalpowerhouse.
Coulon, the former JeffersonParishpresident,later toldThe Times-Picayune he felt Hankins hadn’t been honestwith the board, particularly when herteam asked for a$550,000 change order on the BRC contract in August 2023 withoutdisclosing that it was to pay for work thathad already been completed.
As of November 2023, the RTAhad paid BRC atotal of $811,540, and the firm had sent an additional $918,370 in outstanding invoices, according to theinternal audit
In April 2024, BRC sued theRTA to recoup some of those funds, arguing that it was owed nearlyhalf amillion dollars for workthat had already been completed. The RTAincourtfilings said
the paymentshad been withheld for “reasonablecause,” arguing that BRC hadfailed to provide “documentation to support itsinvoices.”
Orleans Parish CivilDistrict Court Judge Jennifer Medleyinitially sided with the RTA, rejecting BRC’s request. But Medleybacktracked weeks later,issuing awritten ruling vacating her earlier decision and setting anew hearinginJune 2024, whereshe orderedthe RTAtopay BRC themoney it claimed it was owed, plus attorney’sfees and interest.
In April, theFourth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed Medley’sdecision,finding that “BRC failed to introduceevidence” in thecourt record—including copies of the contract or areceipt of acertified requestfor payment —tocompel theRTA to pay By then, the RTAboard had replaced Haley as gen-
eral counsel with the Wright Gray Harris law firm. According to meeting minutes, theboard discussed BRC’s litigation behind closed doors in executivesessions at meetings in May and July and in both instances approved the recommendations of its counsel.
The $750,000 settlement, acopyofwhich The TimesPicayune received from the transit authority through a public records request, is dated Sept. 9and resolves any current or future disputes between the RTAand BRC.
On Thursday,BRC’sattorney,André Maillho, filed a motion in Medley’scourt to dismiss the lawsuit against the RTA. Maillho didn’trespond to arequest forcomment.
The status of the federalinvestigation into thecontract is unclear
Thesubpoena, which the
Times-Picayune obtained from the transit agency through apublic records request, askedfor documentation of any kind pertaining to BRC; its owner,Bryant Carter Sr.; CITI Approved Enterprise LLCand itsowner,Ingrid Thibodeaux; and afirm that Carterand Thibodeaux co-owned,BRC-CITI Approved JV LLC, whichwas established in 2022 and dissolved in July.The subpoena also asked for emails, telephone recordsand personnelrecordsassociated with DiLosa Aspokespersonfor the U.S. Attorney’s Officedidn’t respond to arequest forcomment, though they toldThe Times-Picayune lastyear that they couldn’tconfirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Email Blake Paterson at bpaterson@theadvocate. com.
sometimes it doesn’t. But when the race is over,you move on.”
State Rep. Delisha Boyd lost her race to be an atlarge city council member, and Edwin Shorty,constable for the 2nd City Court in Algiers, failed in hisbid to become the sheriff.
Darren Lombard, the clerk of criminaldistrict court, finished second in the primary and faces atough battle to keep his seat in the runoff election on Nov.15.
Carter cut digital ads for all three of his candidates and campaigned in person for each one
“Hisorganization didnot do well in this election,” said Robert Collins, apolitical analyst who is aprofessor at Dillard University Carter admitted that his candidates fell short of expectations in the Oct. 13 primary
“No doubt about it,” he said. “Ihave three very dear friends who had abad night But I’m loyaltoafault, and Istand with my friends. I had several good friends who had good nights, and I stand with them as well. But Idon’tthrow my friends away when they havebad nights. My loyalty means something.”
Carter also endorsed Helena Moreno, who was elected mayor,and JP Morrell, who was reelected as acity council at-large member Carter’srecord in the election “was mixed,” said veteran pollster Ron Faucheux, who served as astaterepresentative for eight years and finished second in the 1982 mayor’srace. “He had those two losses, but he did support the winning candidate for mayor.And that may be more important than the other races.” Moreno aired aTVcommercial where Carter told viewers,“I’ve seen her fight every day to make our community betterfor everyone.” Carter noted that his political group —called the Alli-
ance for Public Action and Change —backed twoother candidates who won outright on Oct. 13 (assessor Errol Williams and council memberFreddie King III),while two others are advancing to runoff elections next month. They areHolly Friedman for District A(which includes Uptown and Lakeview) and Jason Hughes for District E(which includes New Orleans East).
Atough night
But political insiders say the races that mattered most to him involvedBoyd, Shorty andLombard becauseofhis close personal and political relationships with them.
Boyd was elected to the state House in 2022 to replace Gary Carter,who won thestateSenate seat vacatedbyTroyCarterwhen he waselected to the U.S. House in 2021. Gary Carter is Troy Carter’snephew Boyd announced in December that she would run for the councilat-large seat that Morenoisgiving up. In April, fellowstate Rep. Matthew Willard joined the race.
Boyd faced questions afterThe Times-Picayune reported on Sept. 24thatshe anda group supporting her campaignhad paidmore than $39,000 in campaign money to areal estatecompany owned byher andher daughter. The article also reported that herhome in the English Turn neighborhood was facing foreclosure in November
On Oct. 9,the newspaper reported that Boydhad acknowledged using campaignfunds to advertise her real estatebusiness —a potential violation of state campaign finance laws. Willard won easilywith 59% of the vote to Boyd’s 31%.
“He was the far superior candidate,” said state Rep. MandieLandry,ofNew Orleans.
Landry’ssupport showed howCarter can alienate other elected officials when he endorses their opponents. In 2023, Carter and Boyd endorsedLandry’soppo-
nent,Madison O’Malley, when Landry was reelected Shorty began his campaign lateand never caught fire, although he sent out negative mail pieces on the front-runner,formerNew OrleansPoliceChief Michelle Woodfork. Woodfork won with53% while Shorty captured only 21%.
Meanwhile,Lombard tried to undermine his opponent,Calvin Duncan, who had served alife sentence in prisonfor a1981 killing until he was freed in 2011 after his conviction was vacated.Lombardaccused Duncan of murder. Duncan has saidcourt rulings show that he was innocent.
Afterthe election, political analysts saidthe results showed that Lombard’s accusation boomeranged against him,and he won only 46%, one percentage point behind Duncan.
Collinsbelieves theprimary election resultsindicate Duncan has theedge.
“Ifyou’re happy with your incumbent,you’ll vote for them in theprimary,” Collins said. “If they don’t win in the primary,they mayhave hit their ceiling. Duncan is probably happy with his current position.”
Severalincumbents who failedtowin theprimary lost in the runoff recently, including former Sheriff Marlin Gusman and former Public ServiceCommissioner Lambert Boissiere III.
“He expended alot of political capital,” saidpollster SilasLee. “But he won’tbe judged eternally by aloss. Nobody hasa100% record of alwayswinning elections.”
Carter saidhehas so many friends after yearsof being in politics that, when he backs one over the other,that “doesn’tmean that when it’sover, theworld comes to an end. It means thatwejustcontinue doing the jobthatwedoand that is doing what’sbest for the people whojointly elect us, to continuetoworkasIdo everyday of my life, whether it’sinthe nation’scapital fighting to bring resources home, or passing laws that will make life better.”
Achanginglandscape
By most accounts, Carter hasgained respect in Democratic circles in Washington
as aworkhorse sincewinning aspecial election in 2021 in adistrict that’sanchored in NewOrleansand extends up the Mississippi Riverinto BatonRouge.
Carter has been astrong advocateofDemocratic social and economic causes whileworkingwithRepublicansonselected issues.
He hasbeen named to key strategy andpolicycommittees withinthe House Democratic Caucus and has quickly ascended within the ranks of the 62-member CongressionalBlack Caucus. He is now the group’s first vicepresident.
“He understands thepolitical process, and he understands the importance of relationships and how to build relationships,”said U.S. Rep. StevenHorsford of Nevada,the immediate past chairofthe CongressionalBlack Caucus. “He’s not here for likesand personality.He’shere because he’s really trying to make a difference.”
Carter won his second term with 60% of the vote last year
But now he is facing uncertainty in next year’s midterms because of alawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Louisiana’s current congressionalmap that elected Carter,U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, aDemocrat from BatonRouge, and four Republicans. Legal observers believe theU.S.Supreme Court may nullify thatmap.That could lead state legislators to draw anew mapthat puts Fields andCarterinRepublican-majority districts or a mapthat pits them against each other.
No matter what, Carteris confident he will win reelection.
“Rest assured,I’ve gota record I’mextremely proud of, andwe’llstandonitseven days aweek,” he said. Faucheuxsaidthe recent failureofCarter’scandidates hurt him among political insiders,but said, “Troy still has alot of allies. He’ll have the mayor of NewOrleans and JP Morrell. He still haslegislators whoare friends. He hasconsiderable support among voters.”
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OCTOBER 2025
N.O.-based rehab expands into Slidell
Facility’s goal is to improve treatment experience
BY BOB WARREN Staff writer
Like many business ideas, NOLA Detox was born of both necessity and desire.
Two men from prominent New Orleans families, both deep in their own recovery journey, were brought together by friends and shared the same idea: Improve upon the addiction treatment they had experienced.
State advocates seek to block EPA
Environmental groups sue to stop pollution rule delays
BY JOSIE ABUGOV
Staff writer
Louisiana environmental groups have sued President Donald Trump and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after the administration gave industrial facilities a reprieve from following an emissions reduction rule, arguing that the exemptions endanger the health of people living near chemical facilities and give the industry “a free pass to continue to pollute.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, responds to a July proclamation that gave 50 chemical manufacturers nationwide a two-year delay to comply with a 2024 rule aimed at curbing pollution and cutting cancer risks.
The exemptions include 12 companies in Louisiana operating in the industrial corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and the Lake Charles area. Local advocacy organizations RISE St. James, Concerned Citizens of St John and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and other groups are asking the court to declare Trump’s exemptions unlawful and stop the EPA from implementing them.
The groups are represented by the environmental law firm Earthjustice. Community groups in Texas and national environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club, were other plaintiffs in the case.
“We think this is an unlawful, unprecedented use of power to give industry more time to delay while EPA tries to roll back these really important protections for people’s health,” said Adam Kron, senior attorney with Earthjustice.
A spokesperson for the EPA said the agency does not comment on any current or pending litigation
David Cresson, CEO of the Louisiana Chemical Association industry group, said the Trump administration’s exemptions enabled facilities to continue operation without shutting down or disrupting supply chains Without these delays, the current regulations “do not provide a realistic timeline” for meeting the new standards.
Trump’s proclamation this summer cites concerns over cost, national security impacts and technological availability for chemical companies to follow the EPA’s Hazardous Organic National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, known as the HON Rule. The exemptions delay compliance beyond the original 2026 and 2027 deadlines, the lawsuit notes.
So in 2021, businessmen Chris Copeland and Dan Forman opened NOLA Detox in Algiers, a 48-bed treatment center featuring inpatient and outpatient programs.
The Slidell facility was expected to begin accepting patients Monday, and has 30 employees
If the business owners’ names are familiar, it’s because both are connected to well-known families. Copeland, 52, is the son of the late Popeyes fried chicken
Now, they’ve expanded to the northshore, where the pair has spent millions of dollars converting a former physical therapy center into a NOLA Detox branch with 30 beds, therapy programs and even warm cookies and milk at bedtime. (More on the cookies later.)
founder and restaurateur Al Copeland. Forman, 49, is the son of Ron Forman, the longtime CEO and president of the Audubon Nature Institute.
“We wanted to do a place that was different from what we experienced,” Chris Copeland said recently as he and Forman showed off the Slidell campus, located in a quiet complex off Lindberg Drive. Copeland recalled the treatment centers he attended both in and out of Louisiana, “that were
cold, sterile really institutional. Just not a very good environment.”
Forman said he had similar experiences.
“When people stay in treatment, they get better,” Copeland said.
Forman said he and Copeland “got sober” around the same time 15 years ago and began formulating their plan. “We saw a huge void in treatment opera-
BONE TO BE WILD
TOP: Krewe of BOO! parades through the French Quarter on Saturday
ABOVE: The KIPP marching band performs.
LEFT: A krewe member gets their scare face on before the parade rolls.
River captain who sped to Luling ferry disaster dies
Toby Wattigney had many leadership roles in maritime industry
BY BOB WARREN Staff writer
Maurice Wattigney doesn’t recall his father Louis “Toby” Wattigney Jr., talking about the Luling ferry disaster all that often. But when he did, the son could see the trauma in his dad’s eyes and hear it in his voice. Toby Wattigney and his older brother, Wil-
liam, were on the Mississippi River that October morning in 1976, and responded to the mayday calls after a huge tanker crashed into the George Prince passenger ferry that was carrying vehicles and people from Destrehan to the landing in Luling just before dawn. The Wattigney brothers were working on a tug, preparing to turn a ship around when the calls crackled over the radio.
“He said they heard ‘Help! Help! We just ran over the ferry,’”
Maurice Wattigney said. Their tugboat was the first to arrive at the scene of the overturned ferry “He said, ‘We could hear people screaming.’ But he said they were just working off sounds — they couldn’t see the people. And they didn’t want to run people over, so they had to be careful.” Oct. 20 marked the 49th anniversary of the ferry disaster that claimed 78 lives and stunned a region that had grown up around the Mississippi River But while he might not have spoken often about what he witnessed as an 18-year-old on that chilly morning, Maurice Wattigney said
the Luling ferry disaster persisted in his father’s heart and mind, and became a cautionary tale during a maritime career that would ultimately take him to a leadership role in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association, known as NOBRA.
Capt. Louis M. “Toby” Wattigney Jr died Oct. 12 while at his hunting camp in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He was 67. Maurice Wattigney said his father appeared to have suffered a heart attack.
Capt. Wattigney, a native of New Orleans and longtime resident of Belle Chasse, graduated from O.
Wattigney
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
A QUICK BREAK
16-year-old arrested in Destrehan shooting
64-year-old Metairie man killed in car crash
Staff report
CAPTAIN
Perry Walker High School and attended classes at the University of New Orleans before joining his elder brother working on the river for Crescent Towing.
Maurice Wattigney said his father’s career was “amazing,” working up the maritime industry ladder
“You got a guy who worked his way from being a deckhand to being president of NOBRA,” he said.
“He was a man of faith and loyalty,” Maurice Wattigney said. “And perfection. He loved teaching, but he didn’t have any room for people who only did things halfway.”
Capt. Wattigney was a steamship pilot with NOBRA for 30 years and was serving as its president at the time of his death.
“He was one of the best guys I ever worked with or had the pleasure to be around,” said Andrew Cooper senior vice president at Crescent Towing and a longtime friend. “He had a talent to teach young mariners and solve problems on the river You trusted everything he said.”
Wattigney held a multitude of leadership positions with NOBRA and other groups, and was chair of Gov Jeff Landry’s task force on navigation and safety for the Louisiana Ports, Waterways and Investment Commission.
The governor noted Wattigney’s death in a Facebook post Oct. 13, writing “Toby’s decades of service ensured the safety of countless vessels and the strength of our maritime industry.”
Maurice Wattigney said his father was especially proud of the work he did with the Rev Michael Champagne in 2024 on the Fete-Dieu du Mississippi, a “blessing of the river” and those who had lost their lives on it.
Staff report
A 16-year-old boy from Destrehan was arrested Saturday in connection with a shooting that wounded an 18-year-old earlier that morning, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The boy was jailed on a count of attempted second-degree murder and three counts of attempted armed robbery with a firearm, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
SUE
Continued from page 1B
“The HON Rule imposes substantial burdens on chemical manufacturers already operating under stringent regulations,” the proclamation states. Industry groups similarly opposed the rule as too expensive and unsupported by science. Trump’s proclamation granted the two-year
The Sheriff’s Office said a group walking along the railroad tracks near River Oaks Drive in Destrehan got into a fight about 11:15 a.m. Saturday when the 16-year-old assailant opened fire and shot the victim in the arm. The victim was taken to a hospital and later released.
exemptions to Shell, BASF, Dow, Union Carbide, Denka, Sasol, Westlake and other companies in the state.
Cresson, whose organization represents some of the state’s largest petrochemical companies, said that there are not enough contractors or equipment available to meet the HON Rule’s requirements without the exemptions.
“This, in turn, safeguards local jobs and supports our state’s economic future,” he
tions in our community,” he said, adding that the pair thought “hospitality focused treatment” would help people recover
The pair says the days of institutional sterile treatment centers are numbered, particularly as the stigma once tied to addiction falls by the wayside.
“What’s great is that people talk about it now,” Forman said, noting that few people don’t know someone — or have a family member or friend who has experienced drug or alcohol addiction. “It’s truly everywhere.” Copeland and Forman also have other business interests, but the NOLA Detox in Algiers has been successful, said Nick Richard, executive director of NAMI Southeast Louisiana, the local branch of the national mental health awareness organization.
“They’re well-respected,” Richard said. “Their model is ‘You can recover.’” Need for treatment
Richard noted that many St. Tammany residents are acutely aware that the parish has been on the front
A 64-year-old Metairie man died after he crashed his car Saturday afternoon on West Judge Perez Drive in Arabi, according to State Police. Scott Sanders was driving a 2025 Hyundai Palisade north on West Judge Perez just after noon when he veered off the road near Schnell Drive and collided with a billboard’s steel support pillar, State Police said. Sanders, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, died later at a hospital, according to State Police. Police said they do not believe Sanders was intoxicated at the time of the crash but investigators gathered routine toxicology samples.
said of the exemptions.
What is the HON rule?
Last year, environmental advocates hailed the new rule as a major step in improving air quality for minority and poor communities that often bear the brunt of industrial pollution.
The rule required over 200 chemical manufacturers around the country to update operational practices, implement fence-line
monitoring and repair their facilities, among other mandates. It put a special focus on reducing emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene, two chemicals linked to cancer
The EPA said it will reduce by 96% the number of people with increased cancer risks related to air toxics in communities within 6 miles of large plants.
“We really can’t wait,” said Shamell Lavigne, chief operating officer of RISE
lines of the state’s opioid addiction battle. Figures compiled by the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office show that 116 people died of drug overdoses in 2023, and 115 people died in 2024. So far this year, 73 people in St Tammany have died of overdoses.
“But as the stigma has decreased, you’re seeing high-
er rates of people seeking treatment,” Richard said.
But in St. Tammany and across the northshore, inpatient beds have traditionally been very scarce, Richard said NOLA Detox will be the lone rehab center to operate in the Slidell and eastern St. Tammany Parish area, he added.
“I think they’ll make a huge difference,” he added.
“This is life-saving medical treatment.”
Forman said the state Department of Health has licensed the facility after completing a “needs study,” and that NOLA Detox has a partnership with Tulane Medical School. The treatment program focuses on medicine and does not include religion, like at some facilities.
St. James. “We have family members in all of the parishes throughout Cancer Alley.”
The environmental groups see Trump’s exemptions for individual facilities as “a pretext” to relieve the chemical industry to comply with the HON Rule while the EPA tries to repeal it altogether
Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@ theadvocate.com.
“That was one that meant a lot to Dad,” Maurice Wattigney said.
In addition to his work on the river and his love of hunting, Capt. Wattigney also coached boxers, his son said.
“He loved boxing. He grew up with boxing,” Maurice Wattigney said.
In addition to his son, Capt. Wattigney is survived by his wife, Catherine Kloor Wattigney; his brother, William Louis Wattigney Sr.; his granddaughter, Grace Wattigney; and numerous other family members.
A funeral Mass was said Tuesday at Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church in New Orleans. Memorial donations can be made in Capt. Wattigney’s honor to the Manresa House of Retreats in Convent or the Father Seelos Center in New Orleans.
A New Orleans-based addiction treatment company has expanded its footprint into St.
During a recent tour, Copeland and Forman showed off some of the rooms, which are equipped with king-size beds and Roku-ready TVs. Food for patients is catered by Copeland’s restaurants, Copeland said. And about the cookies and milk.
Copeland said warm chocolate chip cookies will be prepared as a bedtime snack for patients.
“It’s the smell,” he said.
“It’s comforting.”
The NOLA Detox facilities accept most major
surance plans and have contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs to serve military personnel.
STAFF PHOTOS By BOB WARREN
Dan Forman, left, and Chris Copeland are the owners and founders of NOLA Detox, which opened a new Slidell treatment center
Tammany Parish, opening a center in Slidell.
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Cafe Du Monde workers come out to watch the Krewe of BOO! parade in the French Quarter in New Orleans on Saturday
NewOrleans Area Deaths
BabinJr.,Stephen
Moore, Robert
Villavaso,Etta
Williams,Patricia
NewOrleans
DW Rhodes
Williams,Patricia
Lake Lawn Metairie
Villavaso,Etta
St Tammany
EJ Fielding
BabinJr.,Stephen Obituaries
Babin Jr., Stephen George
Stephen George Babin, Jr passed away on Wednesday, October 22 in Covington LA. He was 87 and preceded by his parents Stephen George Babin, Sr and Anna M. (Roman) Babin. He was born on April17, 1938 in Plainfield, NJ and livedinNorth Plainfield, NJ; Martinsville, NJ, and finally settling in Covington, LA where he spent the last 21 years. Prior to moving to Covington, he worked as a Science and Math teacher in the Scotch Plains Fanwood School Districtas amiddle school teacher before retiring after 25 years of service. After teaching,his next passion was nursing. He worked at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, NJ, Somerset Medical Center, NJ, and Lakeview Hospital, Covington, LA, where he became the Administration Director of the Lakeview ER for 12 years. He ulti-
mately retired fromnursing in 2023. He was loved by many forhis devotion in the medical field. He is survivedbyhis wifeofnearly30years, Michele LaFontaine Babin and his children, Michael S. Babin and hiswife, Rebekah, StephanieBabin, and Jill Accomando and herhusband, Jerryalong with his six grandchildren: RyanAccomando, L. Alexander Trusty,Sean Accomando,Jackson Babin, Fiona Babin, and CassidyBabin. He is also survived by his brother, Richard Babin and sister, Nancy Babin
Family members and friends are respectfully invited to attend the Memorial Mass on Wednesday,October 29, 2025 at 3:00 pm andthe visitation willbegin 1:00 pm, at EJ Fielding Funeral Home, 2260West21st Avenue, Covington, LA. E.J. FieldingFuneral Home has been entrusted with funeral arrangements. Please signthe guestbook at www.ejfieldingfh.com
Moore,Robert J. 'Bob'
BobMoore of New Orleans,LA, went peacefully to his heavenlyhome on October10, 2025 at the ageof81. Bob was born on October 4, 1944,and was a resident of Slidell,LAfor thepast 22 years. He was predeceased byhis loving parentsHermanT.Moore and Regina Higgins Moore, his brotherEddie Moore and his sister Sharon Moore Avril.Bob is survived by his lovingwifeof 32 years, Deborah "Debi" Fleming Moore,his daughter Kim Moore Calamari, his son-in-law HenryP Calamari, two grandchildrenHenryJ.Calamari and Ashley Calamari Owens (Ethan), hissister Cindy Moore, Kim's motherKaren Roppolo Moore,and many brother-in-laws, sister-inlaws, nieces and nephews. After graduating from East JeffersonHigh School in 1961,Bob enlisted with the
Army National Guard for6 years and subsequently retired fromthe US Post Office after 37 years of employment. He was an excellent bowler having bowled 6perfect 300 games, an 800 series, as well as an avid softball, golf, and tennis player whose 4.0 SeniorsUSTA team madeittoNationals. Hisloveofsinging started as ayoung adult in theSt. Agnus Catholic Church choir which eventually landedhim thehonorof singing the National Anthem at theopening of many NewOrleans Zephrys baseballgames once at aNew Orleans Jazz basketball game as well as winning numerous karaoke contests.
Bob never met a stranger withhis outgoing personality, his witty sense of humor, his love of telling jokes, always the first one on the dance floor and thelast one to leavea party.
Family and friends are invitedtoattend amemorial Mass at Our Lady of LourdesCatholicChurch, 400 Westchester Pl, Slidell, LA 70458, on Saturday, November 8, 2025. Visitation from10am-11am with aMass at 11am. In lieu of flowers,pleaserequest Mass intentions in thename of Bob Moore at Our Lady of Lourdes CatholicChurch.
Etta Jane"Penny" Pentecost Villavaso,a devotednurse, wife, mother, and belovedfriend, passed away peacefully on September 14, 2025, at the ageof92. Bornon November 28, 1932, Penny dedicated her life to caring forothers. She graduated from theMathers School of Nursing in 1953, beginning aremarkablecareer in healthcare that would span half acentury.Penny retired fromSouthern Baptist Hospital of New Orleans as head ER nurse after 50 years of service, leaving behind alegacy of compassion,skill, and tireless dedication to herpatientsand colleagues. In
1967, Penny marriedthe love of herlife, Don Villavaso.Together, they raisedtheir daughter, Doni, whom theycherished deeply. Familywas always at thecenterofPenny's world, and shecarried that love anddevotion throughouther life. Pennywas precededindeathbyher parents, Robert Dewey Pentecost andEva Miller Pentecost. Herbeloved husband, Donald Phillip Villavaso,and theirdaughter, Doni Evetta Villavaso Also,her best friendof many years, BeverlyLeak. Though herlater years broughtloss, Pennyfound comfortand joyinthe lovinghomeofChristine and Mike Spalt, whereshe lived herfinal years surrounded by love,care, andcompanionship. Pennywill be rememberedfor herkindness, hergentlespirit,and theway shetouchedevery life sheencountered.Her legacyoflove, service,and dedication will live on in theheartsofall whoknew her. In place of flowers, please donate to yourfavorite charity in hermemory. Amemorial gathering will be held at Lake Lawn MetairieFuneral Home, 5100 PontchartrainBlvd
NewOrleans,LAon
Saturday, November 1, 2025 from 9:00am until 12:00pm.
Williams,PatriciaAnn With sadnessweshare the passingofPatriciaAnn Williams,onOctober 23, 2025. Please visitwww.rho desfuneral.comtoview service information, sign onlineguestbook,send flowersand sharecondo‐lences.
Villavaso,Etta Jane'Penny'
Examinethe real costsof theMeta deal in Richland Parish
An article by Stephanie Riegel —“Tiny Louisiana parish becomes AI boomtown as Meta builds $10B data center” —was published on Aug. 20 in thenewspaper and discusses the project’s economic impacts on Richland Parish.
The piece fails to adequately address the potential consequences of this drastic andlikely temporary economic investment into acommunity that is already struggling. Richland Parish has a lower educational attainmentaverage and employment ratethan Louisiana as awhole. These factors likely contribute to thepovertyrate of 23.5% —higherthan Louisiana’saverage by nearly five percentage points.
The Meta data center is not a sound investment. It is the result of areckless deal meant to appeal to corporate interests instead of creating sustainablewealththat would support Richland Parish residents.
The prospect of 5,000 new jobs becauseofthis project seems promising in aparish of just 20,000. However,Meta hasnot guaranteed that theywillemploy locals, and only 500 jobs are expected to be permanent.
When thefacility is complete and 5,000 workers leave Richland Parish, they will also takewith them the business that they have provided —these brand-new RV lots, hotels, gyms and restaurants. Five hundred employees will not be enough to sustain anewly built economy that was designed to meet the needs of aworking population 10 times as large. This project has costs. Those costs will not be borne by Meta, but by the residents of Richland Parish, who will be left with junk real estate and higher energy prices
Those are not factors that encourage growth and development —infact, they encourage outmigrationand disinvestment. The newspapershould not turn away from holding Gov.Jeff Landry’s administration accountablefor signing off on this deal that could do further damage to an already vulnerable Louisiana parish MARIONCANDLER student, Tulane University
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR
AREWELCOME.HEREARE
La.
Signs opposing aproposed sale of water from ToledoBend Reservoir
thelakeinwesternLouisiana.
Many questionsunansweredin proposed Toledo Bend watersale
In aguest column,H.N. Goodeaux II, chairman of the Sabine River Authorityof Louisiana,stated the proposed sale is only reallocating 5% of water that’sused for hydropower.Hedoesn’tsay this reallocation is for aTexas entity.Texas water studies show that alternative water sources are needed. A2022 legislative audit included several mattersfor legislative consideration, including arecommendation relevant to the developmentofacomprehensive water resource management plan and theregulation of surface water Louisiana has yet to conduct acomprehensive water study to project water needed for growth, alternatives to depleting aquifers supplying municipalities and agriculture, amongother things, over theproposed sale term. The Sabine River Authority of Louisiana was created to manage the water resource for Louisiana, not Texas. Goodeauxstates that just as hydropower water usage is managed to maintain lake levels, any water sale would follow safeguards. What is not said is current FERC licensing
safeguards to operate the hydropower facilitymay cease when hydropower ceases.
Correspondence between theauthority’s board and potential purchaser reveals water supplied to Texas is not obligated to maintain those safeguards, and aconstant supply of water will need to be assured, no matter the lake level.
The 99-year proposed sale starts at 200,000 acre-feet of water annually,escalating to 800,000 over 20 years. Separately,Texas has filed permitsthat allow about1million acrefeet of water withdrawal. The opposition is concerned by theabsence of acomprehensive Louisianawater study over the projected 99 years. This is not fear,but facts.
The opposition is not merely about lake levels, fishing tournaments and the direct correlation to property values. It is about preserving water toreplace Louisiana aquifers at risk from rapid depletion and attracting business and growth to improve the quality of life for the region.
MARK KYLE Many
Basicscience researchatuniversities should benefiteveryone, notjustindustry
Column ignored keyfacts about Republicans’ role in shutdown
Even if one disagreed with Quin Hillyer,itwas impossible not to respect his intelligence, thoughtfulness and intellectual honesty.The important wordinthat first sentence is “was.” His column, “The Democrats absolutely are to blame forshutdown,” destroyed any respect Ihad forhis objectivity In March, ahandful of Democrats voted foracontinuing resolution, hoping that it would avoid apending shutdownand give Congress timetoamendabill that would otherwise be disastrous to millions of poorer Americans —changes that had approval of three-quarters of the public, including amajority of MAGAsupporters.
Instead, the Republicans used the timetoshoot downevery Democrat suggestion, and the administration froze billions of dollars in Congressionally-appropriated federal spending, shuttered several executive agencies, deployed military troops to major U.S. cities, weaponized the Justice Department against its critics, bullied law firms and universities and terrified neighborhoods with masked, U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement kidnappers acting without apparent controls.
Hillyer’smost unfortunate and misleading statement was, “This, though, is where Speaker Johnson’s consistent message has been right on target, and where Republicans in general have been on the side of angels.” Unless he meantthe fallen angels, Idonot understand. Speaker Mike Johnson’sresponse has been either early or prolonged recesses, and the administration canceled its originally scheduled meetings with the four Congressional leaders and then rescheduled a meeting at atimetoo late to do anything substantial. As soon as that meeting wasover,the White House released an AI-generated lampooning of the House Minority Leader with amustache and sombrero, thus proving it had not come to the meeting to dialogue in good faith. Nowhere have Democrats shown any desire to extend government health care to undocumented aliens. It seemstomethat it’sthe Republicans acting in bad faith.
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. Box588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588,or email letters@theadvocate.com. TO SEND US ALETTER, SCAN HERE
Theradical dismantling of governmentfunded basic research will acceleratethe deterioration of universities’ beneficent implementation of the scientific method thegreatest accomplishment of Western civilization.Since World WarII, universities have been thego-to source of innovation that was unhindered by intellectual property management. Youneed it, and it’salready yoursbecausethe public paid for it. In recent decades, science has become increasingly hamstrung by theencroachment of industry into university income streams. The Trumpadministration’sdrastic reduction of governmentgrantswill makethis worse by forcing universities to rely more on technologylicensing, start-up income and jointventures with industry.Asuniversities rush to enhance these activities, they encourageentrepreneurship by providing space, funding and administrative support, andby rewarding faculty with advancement and relief from their traditional duties. Faculty already experience the tension of withholding discoveriesfor the protection of intellectual propertyversus publishing discoveries for the benefitofeveryone. Intellectual property culture influences
faculty choices of research topics. Would studying this help everyone, or would studying this other thing lead to patentable tech? Somewould argue that protection of intellectual property is necessary forits commercialization because competition will be too fierce in thedevelopment phase. This argument was easier to accept when universitytech was developed through patents and licenses.
Nowadays, an almost equally common path is through astart-upenterprise, often with direct investmentbythe university.These activities encourage the profit motive at the expense of public welfare and stretch the capacity of research oversight mechanisms to protect the reliabilityand reputation of science. Whereas the Trumpadministration is tearing down basic science research, it should build up basic science research that benefitsall people and stimulates nonacademic entrepreneurs to invest in product development,rather than force universities to distract themselves with product development.
SAMUEL J. LANDRY DepartmentofBiochemistryand Molecular Biology, Tulane University
Here it is October,and we Louisianans have been fortunateand blessed not to seea hurricanethis year Iwonder,and do you think,it’sbecause they can’tfind theGulf of Mexico? I’mjust saying.
CAROLYNROUSSEAU Slidell
KEVIN CALAHAN Kenner
Don’tpunish schoolsfor truancyissues
The article on student absenteeism in public schools in arecent edition mademerealize that one important component of the problem seemstobemissing —that of parental responsibility.Itisthe parents of school-age children who are responsible forseeing that their children get up in the morning, have breakfast and get to school on time. If the family is eligible fora breakfast program,then the mother and/or father need to see that their children arrive on time. Truancy programsshould focus on including the parents in any plans. In actuality,schools have no control over whether astudent attends classes, so the school system should not be punished by having funds cut for truancy
GEORGIABRYANT NewOrleans
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID J. MITCHELL
line
191, which rims
Americans’ pockets holddigital devices delivering oceansofinformation anddistractions.But another technology that dramatically shaped thenation’s life,and hadrevolutionary consequences abroad,was aditch. Raise aglass as the200th birthdayofthe Erie Canalwas celebrated on Sunday.
Marshall Schwartz, NewOrleans
WHO-DAT CANDY
Wow! We received arecord-breaking 1,186 entries in this week’sCartoon Caption Contest.That’s themost since this contest beganbackin2014.There’sobviously alot of frustration with the way this season hasdeveloped, but your Who Dat sense of humor has remained Super Bowl quality Theseentries arrived before Sunday’s Bucs game —but winorlose, the hope for better days is palpable in your punchlines.Well played, everyone!Asalways, when we have duplicate entries, andwealways do, we pick theearliestsent in. Greatjob! —Walt
ROBERT KOHN, RIVER RIDGE: “Frightfully unsatisfying!”
CAROLYN MCCARTY,SLIDELL: “Ifthrown will be intercepted!”
STUART CLARK, LAFAYETTE: “you can’t be booing if youkeep on chewing.”
BROTHER PAUL MONTERO,S.C., BATON ROUGE: “Wrapper expands to large brown bag.”
BARRI BRONSTON, METAIRIE: “Mounds of Mistakes.
RICHARD ROBBINS,NEW ORLEANS: “Once youtry,ityou’ll demand your quarterback.”
LISA WINNINGKOFF,METAIRIE: “May cause upset stomach, anxiety,and depression.”
MARYPERRAULTWILLIAMS,BATON ROUGE: “FizzleSticks.”
LAURENGACHASSIN, NEWORLEANS:
“Fuelfor fans still saying,‘We gotnext week!’ ”
DAVIA MORGAN,PONCHATOULA: “Guaranteed to slip through your fingers!”
JUDI GUTH, NEWORLEANS: “Sticks in your craw, not on your teeth!!”
DEVENDRA ALGU,GRETNA: “Warning: Hard to swallow.
RALPH STEPHENS,BATON ROUGE: “Always leavesyou wanting more.
GREGJOHNSON, JEFFERSON: “The candythat always tastes better next year!”
JEFFHARTZHEIM, FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C.: “Comes in five pieces since four quarters just ain’tenough!”
RORY STEEN, DENVER, CO: “Because heartbreak tastes better with caramel.”
KEITH SAGONA, FORDOCHE: “Full of SourPatches, Not ManySnickers, &Too
ManyButterfingers.”
ALAN SEICSHNAYDRE, METAIRIE: “I’m still ‘nuts’ about the Saints.”
RICHARD MILLER, BATONROUGE: “Sometimesyou feel likeachamp, most times youdon’t.”
JOHN CARLIN,MADISONVILLE: “Contents maycontainfalse hope.”
CINDY HARTZHEIM, FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C.: “Firstin flavor… last in the NFC South!”
MICHAEL B. RIEMER, JEFFERSON: “It’ll fill your tummy and break your heart!
JERRYDAVIS,CHICAGO: “So good you’ll forget about the losing.”
CHARLES SMITH, ST.ROSE: “Snap, crackle and flop.”
H.W.VANHORN, III, NEWORLEANS: “Potential chokinghazard.”
LAUREN GAUTHIER, KENNER: “It makes Kellen want Moore.”
Toronto’sBlueJaysare Canada’s team
MONTREAL Don’t think of them as Toronto’steam. Think of them insteadas Canada’steam. Suddenly the Toronto BlueJays, underdogs in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, have an entire country behind them. The Dallas Cowboys may have adapted acolorful asideduring their 1978 highlights film and made “America’s Team” their motto, but theynever were embraced nationally the way the Blue Jays are now.Besides, the Jays are Canada’s only major league baseball team.
But what really matters in the2025 World Series is that, like February’s4 Nation Face Off hockey tournament, simmeringgrievances against theUnited States and President Donald Trump have transformed asportingevent into acultural clash that’s part of amassive surge in Canadian nationalism. Now the Blue Jays are, in the words of Edward Rogers, executivechair of team owners Rogers Communications, “aninspiration for 41 million people in Canada from coasttocoast.” Trump is the bête noireofCanadian life, perhaps more prominent in daily conversation here than even in his own country.He’sthreatened steep tariffs on Canada. He’sattacked thecountry’s sovereignty by suggestingitshould be the 51st state. He denigrated former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as“Governor Trudeau.” The very fact that the Conservative leader Pierre Poilevre had asurfacesimilarity to Trumpassured that the Liberal Mark Carney would be elected prime minister in March’sfederal election Now all those tensions are focused on the World Series, which theBlueJays
won in 1992 and 1993. In truth, Trumphas prompted amajor transformation in therelations of the two countries, in effect all but severing theties that John F. Kennedy celebrated in a1961 address to the Canadian Parliament and that every Canadian politician andcommentator seems to know by heart:“Geographyhas made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics hasmade us partners. And necessity has madeusallies.”
No longer,apparently —afact of contemporary life that Canadians mourn, so much so that those draping themselves in Canadiana after theBlue Jays’ victory in the American League Championship don’thave to be Canadians at all.
ListentoGeorge Springer,whose seventh-inning homerun put theJays ahead in theseventh gameofthe American League championship game: “I’m just so happy for everybody here —our fans, our city,our country,” he said. He is from New Britain, Conn., and is married to an American softball star from Kingston,N.Y Or to manager John Schneider,who spoke of how Canadians “have this team to grasp onto.”Hewas born in Princeton, N.J., and attended theUniversity of Delaware. Now he drinks TimHortons coffee every morning.
All but a handful of theJays are Americans. The team’sstar,Vladimir Guerrero Jr., was born in Montreal, when his father,Vladimir Sr., played for the Montreal Expos, ateam that broke the city’sheart when it committed the unforgivable sin of becoming theWashington Nationals in 2005.
So many Canadians are American even Quebec francophones who regard Toronto with the contempt Bostonians reserve for New York.
“People who care about baseball here
in Quebec are definitely behind the Jays against an American team,” said Daniel Beland,director of the McGill Institute for theStudy of Canada. “Winning might be good for national pride but this World Series also underlines how closely the two countries’ geography and cultures are intertwined.”
Even that contributes to the current passion for theJays.
Canadians have long resented how writers, artists and musicians havefelt theneed to win cultural appropriation in the United States, withactors flocking to Hollywood, amere 5miles from Dodger Stadium. Just as Canadian writers such as Mordecai Richler (who wrote for The New Yorker) and Leonard Cohen (who wrote asong called “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,” inspired by his romance there with Janis Joplin), swarmed to New York, Canadians such as Raymond Burr,Glenn Ford Walter Huston, Raymond Massey,Jay Silverheels and Jack Warner fled to Hollywood. One of them:Mary Pickford, known, pointedly,as“America’sSweetheart.” She was born in Toronto.
Another flashpoint for Canadians: Los Angeles for manyyears was the home of hockey star Wayne Gretzky,revered in Canada until it becameknown he had consorted withTrumpand was photographed wearing aMAGA hat Kyle Wyatt, aNebraskan transplanted to Torontowho is theeditor of the Literary Review of Canada, believes there are three certainties growing out of this best-of-seven series: “Toronto won’tbe invited to celebrate in Trump’sWhite House. Canada won’tcare. Andthe MAGA faithful won’tbeable to stomach that we’re the‘American’League champions.”
Email David Shribman at dshribman@ post-gazette.com.
Its363 miles —the longest previous U.S. canal extended 27 miles —were dugbyhuman muscleinthe serviceofimprovised cleverness. Improvised because America hadfew engineers to create 18 aqueducts, and 83 locks, “to overcome changes in elevation totaling 675 feet.” So writes DanielWalkerHowe in “WhatHath God Wrought:The Transformation of America, 1815-1848” in theOxford History of theUnited States. Howenotes that thecanal,“oneofthe most importantachievements of national economic integration,” was wrought —two yearsahead of schedule andunderbudget— notbythe national government, but by onestate, which the canal would transform into theEmpire State. Work beganonJuly Fourth,1817. Thatyear,the NewYork Stock Exchange’s forerunner was founded. The canal “exemplified a‘secondcreation’byhuman ingenuity perfecting theoriginaldivine creation andcarryingout itspotential forhumanbetterment.”
Soon it wascarryingtwice thevalue of goods floating down theMississippi to NewOrleans. Horses or mules that could pull awagon weighing two tons could, walkingonthe canal’s towpath,pulla bargeweighing 50 tons.
From Buffalo to Albany,where it met the Hudson River, thecanal,40feet wide and4 feet deep,carried trafficat4mph.But it radically accelerated social change, discomfiting some alongits route. Thesudden disorienting growth of cities— e.g Rochester,Syracuse, Utica stirred religious intensity in what was calleda “burned-over” region.
Many NewEngland farmswere amongthe economic, cultural and emotional casualtiesof thedynamismunleashed by theErieCanal’s contribution to globalization. Americanswere, however,asHowe says, “a mobile andventuresomepeople, empowered by literacy andtechnological proficiency,” welcoming dynamism. Headlines announced thearrivalofLong Island oysters in Batavia,atown in western NewYork.By1850, theprice of awallclock had plunged from $60 to $3. Howe: Largelybecause of lowertransportation costs, “changes from the rustic to the commercial thathad taken centuries to unfoldinWestern civilization were telescoped intoageneration in westernNew York state.” By lessening thecommercial andpolitical isolation of prairiefarmers, thecanal helpedto populate theprairies by connecting them with Eastern markets. Andbylinking Americans living west of theAppalachianMountains to the Hudson River, it created New York City as a financial center.One dayin1824, Howewrites, there were324 ships in NewYork harbor. One dayin1836, there were 1,241. Through thecity’s port, America exported grainand revolution. In 1986, New York’s U.S. Sen. DanielPatrick Moynihan, speaking in Buffalo,speculated that America’s19th-century tsunami of immigration was“in considerable proportion”aresult of “the huge wave of agricultural exports that began to reach Europeoncethe railroads reached our Middle West.” Moynihancited ahistorian’scalculation that at least athird of amillionEuropean farms “in alongarc from England andDenmarkthrough PrussiaonintoRussia” were shut down by competition from theAmerican prairies. Wheat acreageinEngland alonewas reduced 40% between 1869 and1887. The historian wrote: “The smallcapitalistfarmers of NorthAmerica hacked away at the economicbase of theruling landedclasses in Europemore destructively than allthe revolutionaries on thecontinent.” To markthe canal’s opening, akeg of Lake Erie water was dumped intoNew York’sharbor— the“wedding of thewaters.” The 100,000 —halfthe city’s population —who celebrated exceeded allprior American gatherings. As Howesays, theErieCanal demonstrated “what could be done by an involvedgovernment.” The example is still pertinent. Railroads soon eclipsed theimportance of canals, but before they did, in 1849, theU.S.government granted patentNo. 6469 foraninventionthatfacilitatedthe passageofcanal traffic “over bars, or through shallowwater.” The inventorwas aformer one-term congressman from Sangamon County,Illinois,who promoted canalsfor developing central Illinois. Abraham Lincolncould nothave anticipated theimportance of theErieCanal supplanting much Mississippi Rivercommercial trafficand stimulatingthe Midwest’spopulation growth. This changedthe primary axis of U.S. commerce from North-SouthtoWest-East,fueling Northern economicdynamism, withconsequences seen at Appomattox. Someditch Email George Will at georgewill@washpost. com.
David Shribman
George Will
SPORTS
OVERPROMISED AND UNDERDELIVERED
toTexas A&M.
of agameagainst TexasA&M on Sunday
Former LSUcoach talked thetalk, butnever walked thewalk
LSU has fired Brian Kelly
Let those fivewords sink infor amoment.
That they becamereality on Oct. 26, 2025,isnot the most shocking thing. After Penn State jettisoned James Franklinafter athree-game losing streak earlier this season,anything seemed possible.
Butifyou’d told me the night of Aug.30, less than twomonths back, in the afterglow of LSU’s gritty 17-10 win at preseason No. 4Clemson, that this would be Kelly’s fate, I’dhavethought therewas no way. Ibelievedthen, as most everyonewho follows college football did, that Kelly’sheroes were on their waytoa bigseason. Surely aberthinthe College Football Playoff. Maybe much morethan that.
But as was thecase withFranklin, the life of Brian at LSU unraveled at warp speed. Not witha three-game losingstreak, butclose —three Southeastern Conference losses in the past four games.
By the second one, last week’s3124 loss at Vanderbilt,Iwrotethatit seemed like awatershed moment, an inflection point for theKelly era. After Saturday night’s49-25 drubbing by Texas A&M, anight filled with chants of “Fire Kelly”and chants of Aggie fans celebratingtheirmost lopsided win over the Tigers in more
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
LSUfiredcoach BrainKelly,following an embarrassing loss to Texas A&M on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
Scott Rabalais
than ageneration, you knew there was noturning back.
Sunday was full of rumors and reports, smokeand fire. Would Kelly survive, for now,byjust firing some coaches like offensive coordinator Joe Sloan and offensive line coach
Moorebenches QB Rattlerfor Shough in ugly loss to Tampa
BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer
Brad Davis? Would LSUreally find themoney for what is currently about a$54 million buyout?
By Sunday night,the news was stark and unbelievable, but true. Kelly is gone after three seasons plus eight games witha34-14 record. That’s a.708 winning percentage. That’s26points higher than the career record of Charles McClendon, LSU’sCollege Football Hall of Fame coach wholasted here for 18 seasons.
The get-in price for theBucsSaintsgame Sunday was $7. That’sright. Youcould buy a ticket on the secondary market to see thegamefor less than a smoothie.
On Sunday,LSU leadership held discussionsabout Kelly’sfuture, sources said, including talk of apotential negotiated buyout. Those conversationswill continue into the Tigers’ open date. Following the firing, Kelly is owed aroughly $54 million buyout —an amount large enough to becomeone of the mostexpensive buyouts in the history of college football. Kelly was four yearsintothe
Andfor the resilient souls who sat through TampaBay’s23-3 demolition of theSaints, $7 probably seemed high. Whatever cost of admission Saints fans paid was too much for this stinker.Ona chamber of commerce day in New Orleans, there were plentyofbetter ways for them to spend their fall afternoon. Alas,this is where the Saints are midway through the 2025 season. Their 1-7 start is tied for theworst in the league and is the club’sworst since 1999, the dark days of Ditka and the Billy Joes. For all intents andpurposes, the Saints have becomeeither an afterthought or alaughingstock, depending on your point of view “Frustration,” is how Saints head coach Kellen Moore described the Saints’ postgamelocker room “We’ve got to play cleaner.We’ve got to play to ahigher standard.” No one in attendance at the SuperdomeonSunday would argue, especially after being forced to watch the team’s anemic, mistake-proneoffenseoperate. Theunithas lacked
STAFFPHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSUhead coach Brian Kelly walks the sideline in the second half
at TigerStadium.Kelly was fired on Sunday following LSU’s embarrassing 49-25loss
Shoughtakes
the Tampa Bay
on Sunday at the Caesars
Pelicans rookies make early impact
BY ROD WALKER Staff writer
Jeremiah Fears is so fearless, he’s made Willie Green just as fearless.
How else do you explain Green’s willingness to throw two rookies (Fears and Derik Queen) into the fire down the stretch of Friday’s overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs?
The closing lineup in regulation consisted of Fears, Queen, Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy and Jordan Poole.
“I saw a lot of poise from both guys at the end of the game,” Green said. “Throughout the whole game, really. Their competitiveness, you can see it They want it. When you evaluate those two guys on the floor with our group, the future is bright.”
Both Queen and Fears made an impact in what ended up being a 120-116 loss. Of the nine Pelicans who played in the game, four had a positive plus-minus: Fears, Queen, Zion Williamson and Jordan Hawkins.
Fears, who scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting in the season-opening loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, followed that up with a 13-point, four-rebound performance. He’s made 12 of 18 shots He played a little over 28 minutes against the Spurs.
Queen’s workload was even heavier He played just over 34 minutes and finished with 15 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots against San Antonio.
“It shows that the coaching staff trusts you,” Fears said. “Especially being a rookie and playing in overtime and being able to play the last four minutes of the fourth quarter means a lot. There is still going to be some room for improvement Continuing to learn, continuing to grow It’s only the second game of the season, a long season. Stay confident.”
Fears’ productivity shouldn’t really come as a surprise He showed flashes in the preseason of why the Pelicans drafted him with the No. 7 overall pick.
Queen, however, didn’t even get a preseason. He was busy rehabbing a torn ligament in his left wrist suffered in summer league play He had surgery in the middle of July and was cleared by doctors just four days before the start of the season.
“Once I got cleared, I thought I was going to be the last man on
Ex-Jets center Mangold dies of kidney disease
Nick Mangold’s long, blond hair and bushy beard made him instantly recognizable. His gritty outstanding performances on the field for the New York Jets made him one of the franchise greats. Mangold, a two-time All-Pro center who helped lead the Jets to the AFC championship game twice, has died, the team announced Sunday He was 41. The Jets said in a statement that Mangold died Saturday night from complications of kidney disease. His death came less than two weeks after he announced on social media that he had kidney disease and needed a transplant. Mangold was diagnosed with a genetic defect in 2006 that led to chronic kidney disease. He was on dialysis while awaiting a transplant.
NHL suspends coach for season; Capitals fire him NEWYORK The NHL has suspended Mitch Love for the remainder of the season after an investigation into allegations that arose while he was interviewing for head-coaching jobs around the league.
The Washington Capitals simultaneously fired Love, who served as an assistant on coach Spencer Carbery’s staff the past two years and was placed on leave last month pending the investigation. No details have been provided about the nature of the investigation.
The NHL said Love, 41, was suspended for conduct detrimental to the league, pending what it called a thorough investigation. Love is eligible to apply for reinstatement for the 2026-27 season subject to certain conditions.
the bench,” Queen said “Because
I haven’t had time to prove myself or do anything to show that I’m ready I feel like the few practices I did have definitely helped.
Coach Green and everybody saw how hard I was working.”
Queen’s night included having to guard Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama.
“Everything he asks for, I just try to go out there and do it,”
Queen said.
Although Queen is only 20 and Fears just turned 19, their older teammates aren’t surprised they were on the Smoothie King Center floor during crunch time.
Murphy’s assessment of his young teammates?
“Phenomenal,” Murphy said.
“I’m not going to say I’m shocked because I’ve seen it in practice.
They are fearless Him and DQ played really big tonight Their future is so bright.”
While they are getting their minutes and points, they still haven’t got their first NBA win.
They get another chance Mon-
day night when the Pelicans host the Boston Celtics The Pelicans have lost their past eight games against the Celtics. The Pels’ last win against Boston came in March 2021. Fears was 14 then. Queen was 16. Now they are rookies in the NBA making an early impact.
“They want to step on the floor and contribute to winning,” Green said. “I can’t say I’m surprised. I get a chance behind closed doors to watch how they work. I’m very pleased with their play on the floor.”
Email Rod Walker at rwalker@ theadvocate.com.
LSU men win exhibition game over UCF
BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer
The LSU men’s basketball team opened a new season with a 75-68 exhibition victory over Central Florida on Sunday at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida. While the win won’t count, it was still an impressive performance against a Big 12 team that already played an exhibition at No. 6 Duke, where it lost 96-71. Fourth-year coach Matt McMahon was able to win even without two expected rotation players: returning forward Robert Miller and 22-year-old freshman signee Ron Zipper from Israel. Miller didn’t play after “tweaking” his ankle in a closed scrimmage last week Zipper wasn’t mentioned, according to LSU. While he has practiced throughout the offseason, he didn’t participate in LSU’s open practice on Oct. 13. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Sunday matchup. LSU’s new point guard shines Fans will soon know the name Dedan Thomas if they don’t already The 6-foot-1 lefty point guard was clearly the best player for the Tigers. The UNLV transfer had 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and nine assists. The 20-year-old junior brought more order to the offense than at any time last year against quality opponents. His gaudy assists total doesn’t fully reflect how well he orches-
trated the team’s attack, as he had only two turnovers. Thomas’ most impressive pass was his second alley-oop pass to center Michael Nwoko for the slam. Thomas also scored 15 of his points in the second half. His floaters deceived defenders at times, who failed to contest because they thought it was an alley-oop pass. In his 31 minutes on the court, LSU outscored UCF by 19.
Jalen Reed is back healthy
Jalen Reed played his first organized basketball game since he tore his right ACL on Dec. 3 against Florida State. He looked healthy and finished the game with six points and four rebounds
in 19 minutes. The starting forward moved around without discomfort all game but did grimace once after being fouled toward the end of the game. Reed lightly limped to the free-throw line, made his second of two free throws and walked to the bench normally to be substituted out.
The redshirt junior wore a knee brace and was notably rusty He made one of his four shot attempts, which was a 3-pointer, and also had three turnovers. None of this should be concerning since it was the first game against a quality opponent. Reed didn’t show anything to doubt that he’ll eventually look more like the player who averaged about
11 points and seven rebounds a season ago.
LSU is a much bigger team
After ending last season playing a four-guard lineup, size was a quality LSU desperately sought in the offseason. Against UCF, LSU finally showed it had it.
The Tigers started a front court of two 6-10 bigs and a 6-9 small forward in Marquell Sutton, an Omaha transfer They also played a pair of 6-6 guards in the game
— Rashad King and Max Mackinnon.
Nwoko’s bulk was the most pronounced as he threw around his 261-pound body for six rebounds, with four on the offensive side, and three dunks. He also scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, making a pair of post shots.
“I thought Nwoko was terrific for us around the basket,” McMahon told reporters after the game.
“He’s a lot more skilled as an offensive player than I anticipated, and I thought you saw some of that today with his jump hooks down in the post.”
Not to be outdone in using his size was Sutton. The 22-year-old, fifth-year senior was a menace on the glass with a game-high 11 rebounds. He was physical on defense and scored 14 points.
LSU’s next game will be the season opener against Tarleton State at 4 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com
Lakers’ Doncic out with finger sprain, bruised leg LOS ANGELES Luka Doncic is expected to be sidelined for at least one week because of a sprained finger on his left hand and a bruised lower left leg, the Los Angeles Lakers announced Sunday Doncic had been off to a spectacular start to the season with back-to-back 40-point games for the Lakers, who play at Sacramento on Sunday night. He will be reevaluated in approximately one week, the team said.
Doncic scored 43 points in the Lakers’ loss to Golden State on opening night, and he racked up 49 points in a victory over Minnesota last Friday night. Doncic scorched the Timberwolves despite spraining a finger on his non-shooting hand in the opening minutes.
The Lakers also are without LeBron James due to sciatica.
NCAA ordered to pay $18M in concussion suit
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The NCAA owes a former college football player and his wife $18 million, a South Carolina jury decided while finding college sports’ major governing body negligent in failing to warn the player about the longterm effects of concussions. Following a civil trial that wrapped up late last week, Orangeburg County jurors awarded $10 million to 68-year-old Robert Geathers, who played at South Carolina State University from 1977 to 1980 as a defensive end. His wife, Debra, was awarded $8 million, according to a court document.
A physician diagnosed Robert Geathers with dementia several years ago. Now he has trouble with day-to-day tasks such as dressing himself and helping making meals
Lapuente, Mexico’s coach at 1998 World Cup, dies MEXICO CITY Manuel Lapuente, one of the most successful coaches in Mexican soccer history, has died. He was 81. The Mexican Soccer Federation made the announcement on its social media channels on Saturday without disclosing the cause of death.
Lapuente, who was a professional footballer between 1964 and 1975, had two stints as national team coach. The first in 1990-1991 lasted only 11 matches.
In the second, he won the 1999 Confederations Cup title with a 4-3
STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER
New Orleans Pelicans center Derik Queen, left, scores over San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet on Friday at the Smoothie King Center
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears, left, scores against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday at the Smoothie King Center
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU guard Dedan Thomas works in a drill during practice on Sep. 24, 2025, at the PMAC. The UNLV transfer had 16 points and nine assists in an exhibition win over UCF on Sunday.
Stroud leads Texans over the 49ers
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON With star receiver Nico Collins out Sunday against San Francisco, the Houston Texans needed someone to step up to make up for his absence. Turns out a lot of different players helped do that.
C.J. Stroud threw for a seasonhigh 318 yards with two touchdowns and the Texans got off to a quick start and held on for a 26-15 victory Stroud did a great job of distributing the ball, completing passes to nine different players with Collins out after sustaining a concussion Monday night. Xavier Hutchinson led the group with a career-high 69 yards receiving and a score and rookie Jaylin Noel added 63 to help the Texans (3-4) bounce back after a loss to Seattle.
“We’ve got a lot of players who want the ball and can do something with the ball,” Hutchinson said. “I felt like that was a great time for us to step up and show up and that’s exactly what we did.”
Stroud knew it would have to be a group effort to make up for Collins being out and was glad to see so many guys contribute
“Spreading the ball around is great for everybody,” he said. “I love seeing my guys make plays.”
BRONCOS 44, COWBOYS 24: In Denver, Bo Nix threw for four touchdowns, rookie R.J. Harvey scored three times and the Denver Broncos routed the Dallas Cowboys for their fifth consecutive victory
J.K. Dobbins ran for 111 yards on 15 carries and the Broncos (62) also got big performances from rookies Pat Bryant and Jahdae Barron as they extended the NFL’s longest home winning streak to nine games.
Bryant scored his first touchdown and Barron picked off Dak Prescott for his first career inter-
ception
DOLPHINS 34, FALCONS 10: In Atlanta, Tua Tagovailoa threw a season-high four touchdown passes and the Miami Dolphins ended their three-game losing streak by dominating the short-handed Atlanta Falcons.
The Dolphins (2-6) outgained the Falcons (3-4) 338-213. Tagovailoa, who threw three interceptions in each of his last two games, was added to the injury report before the game with an illness but showed no signs of being limited.
Atlanta veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins made his first start since a Dec. 16, 2024, win at Las Vegas. Cousins, who appeared in only one game this season in a
backup role, couldn’t rescue the offense against a Miami defense determined to contain running back Bijan Robinson.
RAVENS 30, BEARS 16: In Baltimore, in what they hope will be their final game before Lamar Jackson returns, the Baltimore Ravens finally looked pretty good without him.
Derrick Henry ran for two touchdowns, Tyler Huntley made a big third-down throw late in the fourth quarter and the Ravens beat the Chicago Bears.
The Ravens (2-5) snapped a four-game skid and ended Chicago’s four-game winning streak. The Bears (4-3) dominated the first quarter, but managed only two field goals in that period
Chiefs are hoodwinking defenses with creative plays; there’s a reason for ’em
BY DAVE SKRETTA AP sportswriter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was going to be a walk-in touchdown.
Patrick Mahomes was sure of it
He had served as a brilliant decoy, and the Las Vegas Raiders were utterly fooled, as their old quarterback, Gardner Minshew, took the snap instead. Everything went perfect on the trick play except for one thing: the cadence.
“We had talked about through the week if I should do the cadence or if he should do the cadence, and we decided I should,” Mahomes said afterward. “Obviously, we should’ve let him do it.”
That’s because Mahomes’ own count caused a false start, wiping out the score — and what would have been another successful trick play in a Chiefs playbook so packed full of them that they might as well be their own book.
They could call it “Tricks and Treats.” Perhaps no other NFL team has used trickery as often, for as long, and with as much success as Chiefs coach Andy Reid and his crew Whether it’s the “Snow Globe” play in a different game against the Raiders, or “Catch and Release” that ended up a touchdown for left tackle Eric Fisher the combined creativity of Reid and Mahomes knows no bounds.
“There’s a lot of plays that we work on, especially throughout training camp and stuff like that, and then there’s plays that come to us with every single week that are new and that are innovative,” Mahomes explained to The Associated Press. “You don’t know if that situation is going to happen this week or it’s going to happen at the end of the year.”
That trick play in the 31-0 romp past Las Vegas last week wasn’t even the only one in the game.
On fourth-and-inches in their own territory Mahomes went to the line of scrimmage and began barking his cadence. Then he stood up and yelled out, “This never works.” The Raiders relaxed ever-so-slightly, thinking the Chiefs were just trying to draw them offside. Suddenly Mahomes took the snap, handed off to running back Kareem Hunt, and they had a first down.
“The guys enjoy those,” said Reid, who probably has a few up his sleeve for Monday night’s
ä Commanders at Chiefs, 7:15 P.M. MONDAy ESPN
game against the Commanders
“We practice them, and we feel like by the time we use them, they’re a part of the offense.”
The Chiefs often unveil their trick plays near the goal line, where they’ve been reluctant for years to run simple quarterback sneaks after Mahomes hurt his knee trying one in a game against Denver
The field is compacted, making it a challenge to get that last yard or so before the end zone, and the myriad ruses tend to catch defenses off guard.
In a game in 2019 against the Ravens, Mahomes took a snap and threw to Fisher, who had reported as eligible and snuck out from his position. The 6-foot-7, 315-pounder grabbed the ball in his big mitts, and “Catch and Release” so named for its intended target, whom his teammates lovingly called “Big Fish” — had been a success.
The next year, in a game against Carolina, also near the goal line, Mahomes began wandering to his right as if he was changing the play Then he suddenly sprinted left and took the snap in stride, getting the defense off balance.
The quarterback wheeled back to his left, fired into the back of the end zone and had a wideopen wide receiver waiting for the ball.
Reid is often the one drawing up the trick plays, a creative outlet for a coach who’s loved to draw up plays since he was a kid.
Mahomes will dream some up during the offseason, too, and Reid is perfectly willing to try
and didn’t score again until the fourth.
JETS 39, BENGALS 38: In Cincinnati, the winless start for the New York Jets took a toll on Justin Fields. At one point in the runup to the game in Cincinnati, he found himself laying down in his closet and crying.
Helped by the support of family and friends, Fields got up. Then he rallied his team.
Breece Hall rushed for two second-half touchdowns and threw a 4-yard TD pass to Mason Taylor with 1:54 left, helping Fields and the Jets edge the Cincinnati Bengals for their first win under coach Aaron Glenn.
BILLS 40, PANTHERS 9: In Charlotte, North Carolina, a little rest proved just what Josh Allen and
the Buffalo Bills needed. James Cook ran for a careerhigh 216 yards and two touchdowns, Allen accounted for three scores and the Bills returned from their bye with a resounding win over the Carolina Panthers. Allen improved to 8-0 following the bye week and established an NFL record by becoming the first player to run and throw for a touchdown in 46 games, breaking the mark previously held by former Panthers QB Cam Newton.
PATRIOTS 32, BROWNS 13: In Foxborough, Massachusetts, the New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel wanted to add energy in Gillette Stadium after watching his team lose two of its first three games at home to open the season. He did it by bringing back individual pregame introductions for the first time since 2001. It might have been exactly the boost New England needed. Drake Maye threw three second-half touchdown passes to help the Patriots (6-2) erase an early deficit and roll to their fifth straight victory over the Cleveland Browns.
COLTS 38, TITANS 14: In Indianapolis, Jonathan Taylor rushed for two touchdowns and caught another in a milestone game, and Daniel Jones threw for two more scores to help the Indianapolis Colts continue their surprising start with a rout over Tennessee.
Taylor also scored three TDs against the Titans in each of their previous two meetings, making him the first player in league history to have three touchdowns in three consecutive games against the same team.
He finished with 12 carries for 153 yards, the fourth 100-yard game this season for the league’s rushing leader
Barkley has big game in Eagles’ win over Giants NFL ROUNDUP
them. Some work; some do not. Reid warns that he has “51% of the power on those,” meaning he can veto any play at any time.
“But we practice those things,” Reid said, “and we spend time on them.”
Inspiration can come from anywhere. In the case of an infamous trick play from the 2020 Super Bowl against San Francisco, it was the 1948 Rose Bowl between Michigan and USC. The Chiefs broke the huddle on fourth-and-1 at the 49ers 5, with Mahomes in the pistol and three teammates behind him. At once, everyone did a 360-degree spin, and one of the backs wound up at the tight end spot. The direct snap went to another back as Mahomes faked the pitch, and that back plowed forward for a first down.
“Everybody talks about the Rose Bowl play We worked on that from OTAs and we didn’t run it until the Super Bowl,” Mahomes said. “That’s just stuff you have to stay on the details, because you never know when that exact moment is going to come up.”
The Raiders, the Chiefs’ longtime and bitter rival, seem to be a common target of their attempts
Two years ago, in the aptly named “Snow Globe,” the Chiefs had the ball at the Las Vegas 10. The entire Kansas City offense locked arms in the huddle and began spinning, before breaking and sending receivers off in all directions. Then-running back Jerick McKinnon took the snap and pitched to Mahomes, who threw back across the field for a TD; the play was wiped out by a holding penalty, though it made just about every highlight package anyway
BY DAN GELSTON Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA Saquon Barkley
burst free for a 65-yard touchdown on his first carry and topped 100 yards rushing for the first time this season before he left with a groin injury, the kind of setback that could derail last season’s 2,000-yard rusher just as he was playing like his old self.
Hold up, Barkley said. He’s fine, honest.
Barkley said he likely could have finished the game had the Philadelphia Eagles not been dominating the New York Giants — a hefty lead against his old team thanks in large part to his most prolific game of the season.
Barkley ran for 150 yards and the long TD, and he caught one of Jalen Hurts’ four scoring passes as the Eagles beat the Giants 38-20 on Sunday
“I don’t think there’s anything that we can’t do,” Hurts said. “It’s a matter of are we working towards it and working in it the right way?”
The answer through eight games seems to be a clear yes.
The Eagles (6-2) evened the season series against their NFC East rivals after the Giants won 34-17 earlier this month, and they put the rest of the conference on notice over the last two games that their offense has its groove back.
Barkley ripped off a 28-yard run on the final play of the third quarter but shook his head as he ran gingerly back to the sideline
He was checked out inside the medical tent — he called the injury “nothing crazy” — and later grabbed his helmet and jumped in celebration when backup Tank Bigsby ran for a 29-yard gain.
“I went out swinging,” Barkley
said with a laugh.
Hurts, who completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards, put the game away with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert to finish that drive and make it 31-13. Bigsby ran for 104 yards, and Barkley has an extra week to recover with the Eagles headed into a bye. Hurts’ fourth TD pass of the game was a 40-yard strike to Jahan Dotson.
Barkley’s initial carry gave him more yards than he had in all but one game this season. He had just 44 yards last week against Minnesota and rushed for a low of 30 against Denver, a precipitous drop a season after he rushed for more than 2,500 total yards for the Super Bowl champions.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage and that was a major point of emphasis and give them credit for doing that,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said “When a team runs for nearly 300 yards, it’s pretty difficult to control the game, if you will. And we missed out on some opportunities.”
Barkley’s early breakout was another sign the Eagles’ offense is clicking after a sluggish start to the season. In a win at Minnesota last week, Hurts threw for more than 300 yards and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith had big games. The Eagles ran for 277 yards on Sunday, the final piece they needed under firstyear offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo who was on the hot seat early — to feel like they’re on the path toward a repeat championship run.
“In
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHARLIE RIEDEL
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes speaks during a news conference following a game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 19 in Kansas City, Mo.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATT SLOCUM Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley runs with the ball near New york Giants linebacker Abdul Carter on Sunday in Philadelphia.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERIC CHRISTIAN SMITH
Houston Texans quarterback C.J Stroud, middle, is congratulated by teammates Aireontae Ersery, left, and Tytus Howard after throwing a touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in Houston.
TAMPA BAY 23, SAINTS 3
BY THE NUMBERS
DE Young provides spark for defense
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
New Orleans, Rattler 15-21-1-136, Shough 17-30-1-128. RECEIVING—Tampa Bay, T.Johnson 5-43, Otton 4-40, Egbuka 3-35, White 2-26, Shepard
1-8. New Orleans, Shaheed 9-75, Olave 8-63, Johnson 5-53, Cooks 3-22, Neal 3-11, Kamara
2-24, Vele 1-10, Hill 1-6. PUNT RETURNS—Tampa Bay, K.Johnson 1-8. New Orleans, Shaheed 1-8. KICKOFF RETURNS—Tampa Bay, Tucker 2-50. New Orleans, Neal 5-106, Tipton 1-36.
TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS—Tampa Bay, Dean
5-1-0, David 4-6-0, Smith 4-4-0, Dennis 4-3-1, Winfield 4-2-0, Parrish 4-1-1, McCollum 2-4-0, Nelson 2-2-2, Morrison 2-1-0, D.Jones 2-0-0, E.Roberts 2-0-0, L.Hall 0-1-.5, Watts 0-1-.5, Diaby 0-1-0, Vea 0-1-0. New Orleans, D.Davis
4-7-0, Reid 4-3-.5, McKinstry 3-1-0, Sanker
3-1-0, Godchaux 2-4-0, Rumph 2-2-0, Howden
2-0-0, Riley 2-0-0, Taylor 2-0-0, C.Young 1-3-
1.5, Werner 1-3-0, Shepherd 1-2-1, Bullard
1-1-0, Stalbird 1-1-0, Burgess 1-0-0, Bresee
0-1-0, Granderson 0-1-0, Jordan 0-1-0, Ridgeway 0-1-0. INTERCEPTIONS—Tampa Bay, Nelson 1-3, Winfield 1-0. New Orleans, None.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.
OFFICIALS—Referee Ron Torbert, Ump Barry Anderson, HL Frank LeBlanc, LJ Brian Bolinger FJ Ryan Dickson, SJ Keith Washington, BJ Courtney Brown, Replay Kevin Stine.
Against one of the best left tackles in pro football, Chase Young recorded a trifecta. With less than a minute remaining in the first half, the New Orleans Saints defensive end used speed and power to beat tackle Tristan Wirfs around the edge, arriving just as quarterback Baker Mayfield was cocking his arm back to throw Young knocked the ball out of Mayfield’s hands, getting credit for the sack and the forced fumble. The ball bounced to the turf, and after several players failed to come up with it, Young scooped up the recovery as well. It was the type of effort the Saints must have envisioned when they signed Young to a three-year $51 million contract this offseason — a supremely talented player beating one of the NFL’s premier players to make an impact play
Young’s strip sack and recovery set the Saints up with a short field, leading to a field goal that represented the only points New Orleans scored. It was not Young’s only big play of the game. He split a sack with safety Justin Reid earlier in the game and made a tackle for loss as well. Young missed the first five games of the season with a calf injury, but he’s provided a spark to the Saints’ defense since his return. In three games, he’s now recorded two sacks, four quarterback hits and two pass breakups in addition to his forced fumble and recovery Inadvertent whistle
The Buccaneers appeared to take a 14-0 lead on the Saints late in the second quarter when safety Antoine Winfield scooped up a Rashid Shaheed fumble and raced 47 yards for a touchdown which would’ve been Tampa Bay’s sec-
ond defensive touchdown of the game. But after a replay review, officials determined an inadvertent whistle had blown after the recovery thereby nullifying the return. In a pool report after the game, NFL official Ron Torbert said, “We ruled that there was a fumble. It was recovered by the defense, but there was a whistle blown from the other side of the field. The official thought that the runner was down. We were able to award the defense the ball after the fumble but because the whistle had been blown, we could not award the advance afterwards.”
First of his kind
Alvin Kamara joined a prestigious group Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with his 600th career reception, joining Larry Centers and Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and LaDanian Tomlinson as the only running backs to reach that mark
in NFL history
But of the group, Kamara was the only one to do it all with one franchise.
Kamara ranks second in franchise history in career receptions, trailing only Marques Colston (711 receptions). He is less than 100 yards shy of 5,000 career receiving yards, and if he gets there this season, he would become the fourth player in NFL history with at least 7,000 career rushing yards and 5,000 career receiving yards. Odds and ends
Kamara led the pregame Who Dat chant With a short dumpoff to Kamara that turned into a 15-yard gain late in the first half, Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler converted his first third down of 9 or more yards this season through the air Before that pass, Rattler had completed 15 of 24 passes for 84 yards on third and 9 or longer without converting a first down this season.
through the third quarter the black-and-gold faithful cheered as loudly as they had all day
The change did not lead to a different result, however Moore benched Rattler for Shough in Sunday’s 23-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the Saints fell to 1-7 on a season that has been increasingly hard to watch at the near-halfway point “We just need to find a way to create something on offense,” Moore said. “It has more to do with the offense collectively We’re just not executing at a high enough standard, and we’ve got to find a way to move the football consistently.”
So what comes next?
Moore declined to name a starter for next week’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, telling reporters he’d take the next 48 hours to make a decision. But the Saints’ season had been trending toward this point, particularly with how Rattler’s play appeared to regress over the last two weeks.
Rattler said he did not put pressure on himself following a fourturnover, four-sack debacle in last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears. But the reality was that performance had already prompted questions over whether it was time to turn to Shough. And while Moore stood by Rattler throughout the week, it was clear that for the quarterback to save his job he needed to perform significantly better against the Buccaneers. He did not.
By the time Rattler was pulled with 3:57 left in the third, down 17-3 after an ugly three-and-out,
the Saints had very little to show offensively New Orleans crossed into Tampa Bay’s territory four times on six possessions, though it only produced three points — a 48-yard field goal just before halftime.
What ultimately doomed Rattler was the turnovers.
After throwing three interceptions and fumbling last week, the 25-year-old fumbled on the Saints’ opening possession and then threw a pick six backed up near the team’s own goal line early in the second quarter
Six turnovers in two games from Rattler were too much for Moore to ignore. It was an unfortunate development for the quarterback, too, because he won — and maintained — the starting job in part because he showed clear growth in his decision-making before this recent rut. Rattler committed just one turnover in his first six outings this season, a year after committing eight turnovers in seven games as a rookie.
“A little bit,” Rattler said when asked if he was surprised about his benching. “But hey no bad feelings at all with Kellen. We haven’t really gotten anything going on offense the last two weeks, so you know, hey, I understand.
“I’ve just got to show back up and figure out what we need to get better at.”
Moore said he told Rattler that he made the switch because the Saints were looking for a spark.
Shough, though, didn’t provide much of one.
The Louisville product went 17 of 30 for 128 yards and threw an unfortunate interception, one that was snatched from an open Chris Olave’s hands as the wide receiver went to the ground. Moore said he saw “little moments” from
Shough that helped the offense perform better but said he also needs to do a better job of putting the offense in a position to be successful.
“I felt prepared,” Shough said.
“For me, I was just going out there and doing everything I can.” The offensive struggles were even more frustrating for the Saints because of the defense’s performance. Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield — an MVP candidate — was limited to only 152 passing yards. The Saints’ defensive line also responded after a poor showing in Chicago. The front forced one goal-line stand in the first
quarter to kill a 17-play drive and nearly another in the third, until Bucs running back Sean Tucker punched it in on fourth down. Pass rusher Chase Young stripped Mayfield and recovered a fumble that set up New Orleans’ lone points. New Orleans even caught a break from the officials. An inadvertent whistle wiped out a Buccaneers touchdown return on a Rashid Shaheed fumble, forcing Tampa Bay to take the ball at the 47-yard line rather than giving them a 14-0 lead.
Rattler said he saw the Saints’ defense “playing with more fire.”
He indicated his unit didn’t play with that same level of intensity
“You got to catch a rhythm,” Rattler said. “Our rhythm wasn’t there. We started out the game well, turned it over That’s not great, but how you respond is everything. We didn’t respond well. You gotta execute to have that fire. We’re dialed in, but we just gotta execute better.” Rattler seemed especially bothered by his first turnover He repeatedly noted he should have kept the ball “high and tight,” and failing to do so led to Buccaneers pass rusher Anthony Nelson punching the ball out on a scramble. He appeared to have less of a problem with the second, crediting Nelson for making a great play
Shortly after New Orleans’ goalline stand, Nelson batted Rattler’s pass with his left arm, caught it with the right and took it to the house for an easy score to put Tampa Bay up 7-0.
“I thought we were gonna respond and try to bounce back from that,” Rattler said.
But the Saints were never in a position to truly rally Even when Young forced a turnover, for instance, the ensuing sequence summed up much of Rattler’s season: The Saints moved the ball — but not enough. They had to settle for a disappointing field goal.
Now, if Moore sticks with Shough for another week, the Saints will see if the rookie can be any different.
“I love Spence, I love Tyler; I love these guys to death,” Moore said. “These are never easy things. They are really, really challenging, because I know what each of these guys puts into it every single day
But we’re just trying to find a formula that works to our advantage.”
Email
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler is pressured by the Tampa Bay
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase young picks up a loose ball in the first half of a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.
TAMPABAY 23,SAINTS3
MAKING THESWITCH
1
youknewKellen Moore wouldeventually make the switch.With the seasonalready pretty much down the drain and Spencer Rattler not being able to getthe team into the end zone,itwas time Late in the third quarter,MooregaveTylerShough his chance. Rattler took care of the ballthe first six weeks of the season (just three turnovers), but thelasttwo weeks weren’t kind to him. Oneweek aftercommitting four turnovers against the Bears, he committedtwo more Sunday. His dayincluded acostly pick-six. So it’s understandable whyMoore wantedto seewhat the No 40 draft pick coulddo. It was waytoo small of asample size to knowwhat Shough (17of30, 128 yards) cando.
DEFENSEDID ITSPART
2
youreally couldn’t have asked formuch morefromthe Saints defense.Theyheld the Buccaneerstojust81yards in the firsthalf andkept them out of the endzone throughthe first twoquarters.The most impressive sequence came in the second quarter,when theBucs had first-and-goal from the1.The Saints stuffed them on four straight running plays and breathed some life into the Dome. Unfortunately,the defense, led by Chaseyoung, didn’t getmuch help from itsoffense.IfItoldyou beforethe game that the Saints wouldholdMVP candidate Baker Mayfield to just 152 passingyards,you would’veliked the Saints’ chances.
3
QUIETONTHE SET
The WhoDat Nation is clearly frustratedwith this season forthe Saints, nowoff to a1-7 start.There were plenty of emptyseats in the Dome on Sunday, particularly in the 600 level.you couldhear boos at times when the Saints offense couldn’t move the chains or when there was apenalty flag thrown.With along road trip to Los Angeles to face the Rams next week, it would be asurprise if the Saints aren’t 1-8seven days from now. Sunday was just the latest reminder that the Saints are in serious rebuild mode. If you’re aSaints fan, I’dadvise you to exercisesomeserious patience. This might takea while.
‘Itdidn’tseemtoo fast forhim’
Saints turn to Shough in search of aspark
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
It was 5:04 p.m. in the 504 when the New Orleans Saints made what might’ve beentheirmostconsequential decision of the 2025 season
After nearly three quarters of ineffective offensive football, Saints coach Kellen Moore decided there was no more reason to wait. With theSaints trailing 17-3 late in the third quarter,rookie quarterbackTyler Shough jogged onto the field with the starting offense in place of Spencer Rattler
The fans in the Superdome met the decision with cheers. That wasthe loudest ovation Shough would get for the rest of the day
Getting his most extensive playing time of the season, the No.40overall pick turned in roughly equivalent results to what New Orleans had gotten outofRattler.Shough completed 17 of his 30 attempts for 128 yards with an interception,and none of his four drives resultedinpoints
“At the endofthe day,wedidn’tscore enough points, so it sucks,” Shough said “We’ll lookatit, and especially myself, and see how Ican get better,and then we’ll continue to grow as an offensive unit to try and get the job done.”
But this is less about what happened Sunday and more about what toexpect for the rest of the season.Eventhough Moore declined to name Shough the starter beyond Sunday’sgame, somethingclearly shifted in the loss to the Buccaneers.
“We’ll make that evaluation here quickly and make some decisions moving forward,” Moore said. “But this had to do with the whole offense not playing well enough and hopefully trying to generate some formofaspark there.”
Things appeared to be trending this directioninrecent weeks.
Though Rattler had outplayed the modest expectations of him coming into the season, the Saints entered their Week 8gamewitha1-6 record. Rattler’sindividual playhad also started to slip; the negative plays he’d avoided early in the season began to pile up in losses to the Bears and Buccaneers, against whom he took acombined seven sacks while committing six turnovers.
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Saints have trailed essentially from start to finish, failing to lead fora single minute It was the third consecutive game the Saints haven’thad arun of more than 10 yards. Only one of the Saints’ 71 playscovered more than 16 yards.
“Wedidn’tdoenough good on offense to give ourselves achance,” Moore said. “We’ve got to find away to move the ball consistently.”
Thegame’sonly redeeming value came in the second half, when Moore finally turnedthe keys to theSaints offense over to Tyler Shough.
The rookie quarterback responded with afew flashy throws to give Saints fans amuch-needed glimmer of hope for the future. He completed 17 of 30 passes for 128 yards, mostly on throwsunderneath the Bucs’ conservative coverage.But otherwise, that was about the extent of the positivity from this one On aday when the Saints committed four turnovers and 11 penalties, they were no match for their NFC South division rivals. Once the Bucs received their wake-up call at halftime, they pretty much did what they pleased against the Saints. They scored on their first four second-half possessions to quickly quash any potential
Though the outside questions wondering when Shough wouldget his opportunity began to get louder,inside thebuilding the Saintsdid not have any sort of meeting or conversation with their young quarterback about himgettingonthe field any time soon Shough, instead, prepared the way he had allseason:Heoperated the scoutteam offense, featuring theSaints’ backup offensive players, against the first-team defense.
Thoserepswereeffectively theextent of hison-field preparation. While Shough studieshis ownoffensive game plans every week in the event his number wouldbecalled, his actual playing time was almost exclusively limited to the scout team. That hadits benefits,though.
“For me, it’sjust football,” Shough said. “You’re not going against ascouted look,alook of what you may see. So how can you make it like agame? And that’s kind of beenthe emphasis
(from) my quarterback coach,Kellen and all the guys: How can Imake this game-like?”
Shough had somebright moments Sunday, despite the results. He made some difficult sideline throws andwas generallydecisive with thefootball. Of his four drives, tworeached inside TampaBay’s25-yard line.
“I thought Tyler did great to be able to get in in themiddle of the game and be able to execute some of those plays,” veteran wideout Brandin Cooks said. “It didn’tseem too fast for him.” His teammates also did not always help him out Tightend Juwan Johnsonhad oneobviousdrop to negate apotential explosive play andmissedanother catchableopportunitytoconvert afourth down. The interception came when Shough pinned athrowtoChris Olave’schest, only to see TampaBay safety Antoine Winfield arriveduringtheprocessofthecatchtorip the ball out of Olave’shands.
on Sunday
upset hopes the Saints might have entertained By the9-minute markofthe fourth quarter,the Dome had largely emptied out. Mercifully,the Bucs finally put an end to things with asack of Shough onthe game’sfinal play.Itwas afitting end to aforgettable afternoon forthe Saints Whether the quarterback switch proves to be permanentorsimply a
one-off remains to be seen. Moore was non-committal afterward, saying he and the team’sbrain trust “have to makesome decisions in thenext 48 hours” and “evaluate this whole thing.”
“I’m not intoflip-flopping quarterbacks,”Moore said. “I love Spence. I love Tyler.These (decisions) are never easy.We’vegot to findaformula that works to our advantage.”
Shough hadsome regrettable moments, too. The Saints were in comeback modewhile he was in, meaning TampaBay consistently sent pressure his way,sacking him twice and disrupting the timing of severalotherplays. Shoughalsooverthrew apotential touchdown pass to Rashid Shaheed,a play that happened quickly with pressure closing in. Nowthe Saints have to decide their next move. New Orleanshas another difficult game on the schedule next week, aroad game against a5-2 Los AngelesRams team that is coming off its bye week.
If NewOrleansdoes decide to turn the offense over to its rookie quarterback, he stated asimple goal.
“I want to win,” Shough said. “We’ve got to go out there and execute and win.”
Email Luke Johnsonat ljohnson@theadvocate.com.
The benching of Rattler felt significant, though. After asolid start to the season, the second-year passer has regressed in recent weeks. He committed four turnovers against the Chicago Bears last weekand followed that up with twomore in the first half against the Bucs. His fumble on the Saints’ opening drive took potential points off the board. His interception in the second quarter resulted in atouchdown. In seven possessions, he led the offense to only seven first downs and 121 total yards. The Saints’ only points came after asack-fumble forced by Chase Young just before halftime. Otherwise, the offense couldn’tget out of its own way. The offensive inefficiency wasn’tall Rattler’sfault. Between the penalties, dropped passes and anemic rushing attack, the entire unit was abumbling mess. But clearly something had to be done, and giving Shough achance to provide aspark wasthe right —and popular —call. “Weneed to findaway to get this thing going,” Moore said. “We’re not there yet.”
At this point, it’sfair to wonder if Moore and the Saints will ever get there during what has becomealost and forgettable season. The Saints aren’tgetting better.They’re getting worse.
Email JeffDuncan at jduncan@ theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO By BRETTDUKE
Saints coachKellen Moore looks on near the end of agameagainst the Tampa BayBuccaneers
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Saints quarterback Tyler Shoughruns the ball as Tampa BayBuccaneers defensivetackleVita Veadefendsinthe second half of their game Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.
5 quick facts about new coach Wilson
LSU fired coach Brian Kelly on Sunday, and now coach Frank Wilson will take over the program on an interim basis, the school said.
Wilson, the Tigers’ associate head coach and running backs coach, has worked on Kelly’s staff since his tenure in Baton Rouge began in 2022. LSU hired the New Orleans native away from his previous position as head coach of McNeese’s football program, bringing him back for a second stint with the Tigers LSU decided to fire Kelly on Sunday after his team suffered a 49-25 loss at home to No. 3 Texas A&M. The two sides now plan to carry discussions of a potential negotiated buyout into the Tigers’ open date, according to a statement from athletic director Scott Woodward. Kelly is owed a buyout of roughly $54 million — a figure that would become the secondlargest severance agreement in the history of college football.
Here are five things to know about Wilson, the coach who will now lead the Tigers through the last four games of a lost season
RABALAIS
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But patience is virtually nonexistent in college football anymore. Especially at a school like LSU. Still, why was Kelly sent packing so relatively fast? You can look at his 5-11 record against top 25 opponents. You can say 2022, with an SEC West title coming on the heels of a Texas Bowl that LSU played with 39 scholarship players, was his high-water mark. The goodwill from that year’s thrilling overtime win over Nick Saban and Alabama was mighty shortlived. People say Kelly wasn’t a fit. I’m not sure I buy that. Saban wasn’t a fit, either, never having set foot at LSU until the day of his introductory news conference. No one was a better fit than South Louisiana’s own Ed Orgeron, and LSU fired him two years after leading the Tigers to their greatest season ever Kelly doomed himself in two important ways. One, he talked a big game and never quite delivered.
“LSU football and LSU athletics is about being elite,” Kelly said in July at the Baton Rouge Rotary Club meeting. “It’s about a standard, a Tiger standard, that is a high bar, that we expect you to meet and exceed every day.” Kelly never got LSU to that standard, and the talk of “We’ve got to get better” wore thin So did his teams’ inability to play what he always preached: “complementary football.” Something was always missing from Kelly’s teams — special teams, defense, or this season, an offense that functioned properly All three elements failed LSU against Texas A&M, a team that complementary footballed the Tigers into a TKO before the end of the third quarter Why now, LSU? Well, Kelly is already the seventh Power Four coach to be fired this season and 10th in the FBS overall. You have to light up your “Vacancy” sign early these days, though this has
Head-coaching experience
Wilson is the only Kelly assistant with head coaching experience — he’s spent six years of his career as a head coach. He ran UTSA’s football program from 2016-2019, then took over the head job at McNeese in 2020.
The Roadrunners won 19 of the 40 games they played during Wilson’s tenure, which included an appearance in the New Mexico Bowl at the end of his first season in charge. Wilson also guided the Cowboys to seven wins in two years, even though Hurricanes Delta and Laura devastated the Lake Charles area shortly before his coaching tenure at McNeese began.
Second stint at LSU
Wilson has worked under two LSU head coaches. He was a running backs coach and a recruiting coordinator on Les Miles’ staff from 2010-2015 — a stretch in which the Tigers relied heavily on star tailbacks such as Leonard Fournette, Jeremy Hill, Stevan Ridley, Spencer Ware, Alfred Blue and Kenny Hilliard. Wilson recruited those running backs to Baton Rouge and oversaw their
collegiate careers, helping each of them develop into NFL draftees. Fournette was one of the most highly rated recruits LSU ever signed, and today, he’s the Tigers’ fourth all-time leading rusher
One of Kelly’s first hires
When Kelly took the LSU job, he made sure to add some Louisiana flavor to his coaching staff. So, one of his first decisions was to hire Wilson, a New Orleans native who attended St. Augustine High School and either played or coached across the southern half of the state. Wilson played his college football at Nicholls, then began his coaching career at Edna Karr in Algiers, then returned to Louisiana for stays in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles after he made stops outside the state. He knows how to recruit in-state talent
Ace recruiter
It’s not just Fournette and the running backs. Wilson also had a hand in recruiting Louisiana natives and program greats Tyrann Mathieu, Odell Beckham and Devin White in his first stint at LSU, according to 247Sports, as well as linebacker Harold Perkins, defensive tackle Dominick
been LSU’s M.O for decades. Mike Archer, Curley Hallman, Gerry DiNardo, Les Miles and Orgeron were all fired before their final seasons ended. The fact that LSU has fired six of its last seven full-time head coaches is a cautionary tale for the next man up. Nonetheless, I believe LSU is still a great job.
It’s the lone Power Four program in a talent-rich state, with money great facilities, a huge stadium and tradition There arguably isn’t another job quite like it. One last thing, and it’s a very big thing: Will athletic director Scott Woodward get to do the hiring? Woodward’s resume includes two major whiffs Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M and now Kelly
Even though Fisher was at another school, it will be interesting to see if he gets a third trip to the plate. There is also the fact that LSU
is without a full-time president. Will that be resolved this coming week? How much will Gov Jeff Landry, who rightly criticized LSU after the A&M rout for its ham-handed announcement that it’s raising ticket prices for 2026, be involved?
You can get folks to accept ticket price increases if you get the right guy Hope is powerful advertising.
“Will we win a national championship?” Kelly asked at the Rotary luncheon in July “(That) is not the question. It’s when are we going to win a national championship? Because we will.” Someone will at LSU. One day It won’t be Brian Kelly After a whirlwind Sunday, that fact is still sinking in.
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Coach did not want to fire offensive coordinator, report says
BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer
LSU coach Brian Kelly has coached his last game in Baton Rouge, as sources told The Advocate on Sunday that the Tigers are moving on from Kelly after less than four seasons.
But tension had reportedly started to build between LSU and coach Brian Kelly earlier in the day
On Sunday, following the Tigers’ 49-25 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, Kelly and athletic director Scott Woodward, according to The Athletic, got into a heated discussion regarding potential changes on staff.
McKinley and running back Harlem Berry in his second. Wilson also worked as one of the lead recruiters for U-High star senior defensive lineman Lamar Brown, an LSU commit who’s rated as one of the country’s five best recruits from the Class of 2026.
Faced harassment allegations
In 2022, a former LSU athletics employee named Sharon Lewis said in court filings of a retaliation lawsuit she filed against the university that Wilson “exposed himself” to her in 2013. Wilson was not a defendant in the suit, but he did face two separate allegations — one from Lewis and another from a different LSU employee who said he once kissed her without her consent. LSU said at the time that it had found no evidence that those accusations were ever reported to school officials, while Kelly said the allegations were “egregious” and “unfounded.” Lewis’ lawsuit was later dismissed.
Wilson Alexander contributed to this report.
Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.
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10-year, $100 million contract he signed in 2022 to succeed Ed Orgeron as LSU’s football coach. According to his term sheet, the school’s athletic department would owe him 90% of the remaining value of the contract should it fire him without cause at any point before the deal expires.
The current buyout cost for Kelly dwarfs the one LSU agreed to pay when it fired Orgeron. The school owed him only $17 million then, and it won’t even finish paying the full amount of that deal until the end of 2025.
Kelly’s buyout could have a similar structure His contract allows LSU to split its total buyout cost into equal installments that it would pay monthly until 2031. LSU could also fire Kelly without having to buy his assistants out of their contracts All coaches on his staff signed deals with clauses that free the athletic department from paying the full cost of their buyouts, whether Kelly is no longer LSU’s head coach or if they leave the program to take other jobs.
Still, firing Kelly comes with a historically large price tag. In 2023, Texas A&M agreed to pay coach Jimbo Fisher a record $77 million when it fired him near the end of a 7-6 season. His buyout is still by far the largest ever paid in the history of the sport, though hefty severance payments have become more common because coaches across the country have commanded increasingly longer contracts and higher salaries in recent years.
Penn State fired coach James Franklin on Oct. 12 — only four years after the school signed him to a 10-year, $85 million contract extension. Franklin’s buyout could cost as much as $49 million, though a clause in his deal reportedly says that if he lands another job, then Penn
Woodward, per the report, approached Kelly on Sunday afternoon, requesting that he make changes to his staff, including firing offensive coordinator Joe Sloan. LSU’s offense is 12th in the Southeastern Conference in scoring and 14th in yards per contest.
But, instead of granting his athletic director’s wishes, Kelly reportedly told Woodward that he wanted to make other staff changes that Woodward didn’t approve of. The situation then reportedly escalated further, with Kelly continuing to disagree with his boss.
“It went bad fast,” an LSU program source told The Athletic. Sources had told The Advocate on Sunday that discussions regarding his future at LSU had begun within the leadership at the school.
Kelly’s record at LSU was 3414 as the defeat to Texas A&M dropped the Tigers to 5-3 on the season and essentially eliminated them from College Football Playoff contention. LSU never made the CFP under Kelly
Staff writer Wilson Alexander contributed to this report.
Email Koki Riley at Koki.Riley@ theadvocate.com.
State would owe him only the difference between his new salary and his old one.
Kelly has a similar “duty to mitigate” clause in his contract, which requires him to pursue other jobs “with due diligence and good faith” for as long as he receives money from LSU.
Kelly, 64, is already one of the most accomplished coaches in college football history Earlier this season, he became just the 20th coach to win at least 200 career games at the FBS level. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is the only active FBS coach with more career wins. LSU won at least nine contests in each of the first three seasons of Kelly’s tenure, but it still hasn’t reached the College Football Playoff since he took over in 2022. An offseason fundraising push, coupled with the implementation of a revenuesharing system, allowed LSU to triple the size of its football program’s payroll before the 2025 season. Kelly said before the year kicked off that he and his staff had spent around $18 million to build their most recent roster
But that team, because it fell to Texas A&M on Saturday, has now dropped three of its last four games and lost any chance it had of sneaking into the 12-team CFP field.
LSU will next begin an open date, then enter November with three losses for the first time since Kelly took over During his tenure, the Tigers are went 5-11 against ranked opponents. The Aggies hadn’t won in Tiger Stadium since 1994 before they blew out LSU on Saturday
“I get it,” Kelly said. “There should be noise You should be disappointed. I’m disappointed, but I have to really focus my time inside out the program so we can make sure this never happens again.”
Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com. For
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU coach Brian Kelly stands on the sidelines late in the second half of a game against Texas A&M on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. Kelly was fired by LSU on Sunday following an embarrassing loss to the Aggies.
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU associate head coach and running backs coach Frank Wilson is seen at the Texas Bowl against Baylor on Dec. 31 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Big12lands season-high5 teamsinTop 25
BY ERIC OLSON AP collegefootball writer
The Big 12 has five teams in the Top25for the first time this season, Vanderbilt earned its highest ranking in 88 years and LSU dropped out of The Associated Press college football poll Sunday following its third loss in four games. The top six was unchanged, with Ohio State holding the No. 1spot for aninth straight week followed by Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia and Oregon.
Theidle Buckeyes received 53 first-place votes and the Hoosiers got11, sixmorethanlastweek. Texas A&M was No.1onone ballot No. 7Mississippi and No. 8 Georgia Tech swapped spots, as did No. 9Vanderbilt and Miami, which is tied at No. 10 with BYU The Big 12’sfive rankedteams are BYU, No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 17 Cincinnati, No. 22 Houston and No. 24 Utah. TheBig 12 lasthad five Top25teams in the Sept. 22, 2024, poll Houston, which knockedoff then-No. 24 Arizona State 24-16 for its firstroad win against a ranked opponent since 2017, is in the Top25for the first time since thefirst two polls in 2022. Vanderbilt’s17-10win over then-No. 15 Missouri gave the Commodores a7-1 start for the first time since 1941 and, at No. 9, its highest ranking since it was No. 7for one week in 1937. Vandy has aprogram-record three regular-season wins over Top25 opponents.
ASSOCIATED
Houston quarterback Conner Weigman throws against ArizonaState duringthe second half of agameonSaturday in Tempe, Ariz
LSUwas ranked as high as No. 3 for three weeksinSeptember and in the top 10 for thefirst five polls. Road losses to Mississippi and Vanderbilt and this weekened’s 24-point home loss against Texas A&M put the Tigers on theoutside looking in It’s the second straight year the Tigers have taken afast fall. They were No. 8ayear ago and dropped outafter three straight losses.
Lookingahead
Week 10 features several pivotal matchups that could alter theplayoff race.
No. 5Georgia faces Floridaina
historicrivalrygame. No. 9Vanderbilt heads to No. 20 Texas, which could be without quarterback Arch Manning. No. 14 Tennessee hosts No. 18 Oklahoma in amatchup between two playoff hopefuls.And No. 17 Cincinnatitravels to No. 24 Utah in aBig 12 clash.
Meanwhile, No. 8Georgia Tech and No. 13 Texas Tech hope to avoid trap games against unranked opponents What theoddsmakers say Ohio Stateremains the favorite to win thenational championship at 5-2odds, perBetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana continuestobuild mo-
Losses andmeltdowns spur Kelly’sfiring in fourth season
BY SPENCERURQUHART
Staff writer
LSU football coach BrianKelly
was fired on Sunday after adisappointing 2025 season that’sseen the Tigers lose three of theirpast four games.
Kellywas letgoafter eight games with LSU all but out ofCollege Football Playoff contention, receiving abuyout of roughly $54 million. Kelly served as LSU’s head coach since 2022 but had several low points that led to his firing.
Listed below are events and reasons that led to LSU movingon from Kelly in his fourth season as head coach.
Pressconferencemeltdowns
LSU defeated Florida20-10 to begin the 2025 season 3-0, but Kelly was unhappywhen a reporter beganthe postgame press conference by asking about LSU’soffense. LSU was coming off an underwhelming performance on offense against Louisiana Tech and once again struggled to score against Florida, but Kelly wasn’tinthe mood for questions about theoffense following the win.
“Stop, really,isthat the first question?” Kelly said when the reporter asked about LSU’soffense. “Wewon the game 20-10, try another question.” Kelly went on to say,“What do you want, do you want us to win70-0 against Florida to keep you happy,” calling the reporter “spoiled” and saying that the question was“out of line.” Kelly apologized to the reporter on the following Monday This wasn’tthe first timeKelly got angry during apressconference. He poundedhis fist in frustration after aseason-openingloss to USC in 2024 in which he said, “we’re sitting here, again, talking about the same things. I’m not doing agood enough job as acoach.”
The USC game marked LSU’sfifth straight opening-week loss, three of which occurred under Kelly Offenseunderperforming
It turned out the early-season concerns about LSU’soffense were valid, as theTigers failed to score more than 25 points in any of their five gamesagainst SEC opponents. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier was among the Heisman Trophy favorites before the startofthe 2025 season, but the senior has underperformed, with some speculating that he’splaying throughaninjury
An improved LSU ground game was apoint of emphasis heading into the season, but it’sbeen amajor disappointment through eight weeks. The Tigersrank last in the
HILARySCHEINUK
STAFF PHOTO By
Brian Kelly coaches in the first half of agamebetween LSU andSouth CarolinaonOct. 11 at TigerStadium. Kelly was fired Sunday.
SECinrushing yards.LSU has averaged just 25.5 points per game in 2025,ranking 12th in theSEC while ranking 14thintotal yards per game
Failingtoliveuptoexpectations
LSU wasrankedNo. 9inthe preseason AP Top25entering 2025, so the expectationwas thataCollege FootballPlayoff berth would be achieved under Kelly this year.A loss to Ole Miss meant LSU couldn’tafford more than one more SEC loss to havearealistic shot at theCFP,but asecond loss to Vanderbilt made it to where it needed to win the rest of its gamestostayinpostseason contention.LSU fell flat the following week againstTexas A&M, anda three-loss season proved too much for Kelly to keep his job. This season wasn’tthe first time Kelly failed to live up to expectations.LSU had the nation’s top-scoring offense in 2023 with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels and1,000-yardreceivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas, but astruggling defense cost LSU ashotatthe CFPdespite the
prolificoffense. LSU’s defense ranked second-to-last in points allowed amongSEC teams in 2023 in what ended up being a 10-3 season.
Disappointinglosses
LSU sufferedsometough defeats in Kelly’stenureashead coach, including athree-year losingstreak in season openers. LSU lost to FloridaState in 2022 and 2023, with the second straight season-opening lossbeinganugly 45-24 defeat. The following year resulted in a27-20 opening loss to USC, which finishedits season a disappointing 7-6. Kelly’sTigers also suffered their share of tough SEClosses. LSU reached the SEC Championship game in Kelly’sfirst season but fell to Georgia in a50-30 defeat.The following season, atwo-loss LSU team entereda contestagainst Alabama with achance at the postseason, but a42-28 defeat dashed their hopes.LSU didn’tfare any better against Alabama the followingyearina 42-13 loss. This season’stwo-game losing streak began with a31-24 loss to Vanderbilt followed by a49-25 home loss to Texas A&M.
Matt Murschel is acollege football writerfor The Orlando Sentinel and has been an AP Top 25 voter for over five years. You can follow him on X: @osmattmurschel.
Cincinnati continues its climb Cincinnati’sclimb in the rankings continuedthisweek following a41-20 victory over Baylor The Bearcats improved to No. 17, the program’shighest ranking since2021. Theyfirst cracked the Top25two weeksago,coming in at No.24after beating UCF.
It’sthe first timeCincinnati has won seven straightgames since 2021, when they went on to reach the College Football Playoff. CanMiami recover?
mentum andhas the second best odds at 7-1. Alabamaisclose behind at 8-1. Texas A&M rounds out thetop four contenders at 9-1. OhioState, Indianaand Texas A&M remainunbeaten through Week 9and make up Nos. 1through 3inthe AP Top25. TheCrimson Tide have won seven straight and sit comfortably at No.4 Cincinnati’s earlyloss
Cincinnati would love forNebraska to be ranked when it’sall said and done to make its case for astrong finish. But theHuskers don’tface anyone of any consequence in the final month, so it will be tough. The Bearcats are asolid team right now and are playing really well.
It’s going to be tough forMiami to moveuptoo much over the next monthunless someone like Pitt moves into the Top25. The rest of the schedule isn’tthat strong. Oklahoma dropstoNo. 18 Oklahomaand Missouri suffered the steepest falls among ranked teamsthis week.
The Sooners dropped five spots, slipping from No. 13 to No. 18 after losing to Ole Miss. Missouri fell four spots, from No.15toNo. 19, after alast-minute loss to Vanderbilt.
It’s Missouri’slowest ranking since Week 5and Oklahoma’slowest since Week 1. LSU is knocked outofthe rankings after losing to Texas A&M LSU’s49-25 loss to TexasA&M on Saturday droppeditout of therankings
Week 9ofthe college football season had somenear-upsets, but it ended up becoming a pretty tameweekend across the country.Ifyou wanted more fireworks, direct your ire to Alabama and Texas forstaging comeback wins. Buteven if we didn’tget a bunch of surprise results, we still have an AP poll to fill out this week. Here is my AP Top25poll after Week 9. Koki’s AP poll afterWeek9
The top 8ofmypoll remained unchanged. Three of theteams (Ohio State, Georgiaand Notre Dame) didn’teven play thisweekend, and the only team thatplayed in aclose gamewas Alabama. Therefore, Ole Miss rising to No. 9inmypoll was my first notable alteration. The Rebels took down my No.10team heading into this week in Oklahomaon theroad, losing the lead briefly but looking like the better team for most of the day
Iconsideredtaking the Rebels over Texas Tech in my poll this week, but the Red Raiders’ only loss was on the road to adecent Arizona State team without their starting quarterback. And though Texas Tech doesn’thave awin that’sasimpressive as Ole Miss’ this week, it’sdominated everyone elseonits schedule while Ole Miss struggled to beat Kentucky, Arkansas and Washington State. As for Oklahoma, theSooners have anice winover Michigan but not much else on their resume. I haven’tpunished themseverely for the Texas loss because of how limited quarterback John Mateer was in that game, but thisOle Miss defeat showed how flawed the offense is around him.
Istill kept theSooners ahead of Georgia Tech because the win over the Wolverines is still alot more impressive thananything the Yellow Jackets have done this year.Georgia Tech has the No. 83 strength of schedule in the nation Vandykeeps winning Joining Ole Miss in my top 10
this weekwas Vanderbilt, ateam Islid past both the Sooners and Oregon, despite the Ducks taking downWisconsin on Saturday Vanderbilt’s17-10 win over Missouri on Saturday was its best win yet, but it wasn’ta wildly successful performance. The Commodores had nine fewer first downs, were outpossessed by nearly 13 minutes and the Tigers outgained thembyover 100 yards.
Missouri also lost starting quarterback Beau Pribula in the third quarter,and despite it, had achance to winthe gameinthe final seconds.
Iconsidered keeping Vanderbilt behind Oregon even after defeating atop-20 team forthose reasons, but the Ducks’ resume is severely lacking abig win, and a14-point winathome this weekend over one of the worst power conference teams in the country (Wisconsin) didn’tdo them any favors either Othernotes
There was adropoffinmypoll after Georgia Tech at 17. Missouri, Michigan and Washington took the next three slots fordifferent reasons. The Tigers may have lost this week, but they outplayed Vanderbilt anyway and they lost their quarterback. How they look moving forward, likely without Pribula forthe rest of the year,isanother story,but close losses to twotop-10 teams (the other being Alabama) is no crime in my book.
Ididn’tloveMichigan being in aclose game with Michigan State thisweek, but the Wolverines don’thave abad loss, and they have nice wins over adecent Nebraska team on the road and Washington at home last week. Speaking of theHuskies, they finally mademypoll this week after flirting with my top 25 for the openingeight weeks. Washington earned it with itsfirst good win of theyear over Illinois at home. TheFightingIllininow have three losses, but that’sstill atop-25 win in my book because Illinois beat USC andDuke on the road, qualitywinsintheirown right Houston also made my rankings for the first time after taking down ASU on the road. It was the Cougars’ first good win of the season, and given that their only loss came to Texas Tech, theywere an obvious addition to my rankings. Texas, despite barely beating lowly Kentucky andMississippi State,stayedinmyrankings on the strength of soundly beating adepletedOklahoma team andlosing by just atouchdown to my No. 3team (Ohio State). But alosstoVanderbilt at home next Saturdaylikely means the Longhorns areout of my top 25.
PRESS PHOTO By ROSS D. FRANKLIN
Koki Riley
Pitchers throwing their hardest in October
BY RONALD BLUM AP baseball writer
TORONTO Velocity rules in October.
There have been a record 255 pitches of 100 mph or faster this postseason, up from 105 last year and the previous high of 169 in 2022.
Right-handed relievers averaged 96.2 mph with their four-seam fastballs through the World Series opener, an increase from 95.8 mph last postseason and 93.3 mph when Major League Baseball started tracking in 2008.
“That’s crazy That’s insane,” Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott said. “You see kids in college throwing 100 (mph) and a couple of years ago they were throwing what, 94, 95?”
Pitchers averaged a record 94.5 mph with four-seam fastballs during the 2025 regular season, a speedup from 91.9 mph in 2008. Among righties, this year’s average was 95 mph, including 95.6 mph by relievers.
Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman is averaging 96.4 mph with his fourseamer in October, up from 95.6 mph during the season.
“A lot of it is adrenaline and knowing that this is it. You’ve got to empty your tank every single night,” he said. “Velocity is king. I know there are a lot of kind of conflicting opinions on that, but it’s harder to hit faster pitches, so it’s important to have your best stuff.” While pitches are getting faster, offspeed use is increasing Pitchers have thrown four-seamers 32.8% of the time during the postseason, down from a high of 40.9% in 2014.
Overall use includes 17.2% sliders, 15.2% two-seamers, 9% curveballs, 8% changeups, 6.5% splitters, 5.9% cutters, 4.6% sweepers and 0.7% slurves.
A study released by MLB last offseason concluded rising velocities, pitch shaping and emphasis on maximum effort are the likely
causes of the vast increase in pitcher injuries.
MLB decided last month to prohibit scouting of many high school prospects for three months during the offseason and of college prospects for two months in an effort to mandate recovery time.
“Starting at the bottom is the best
way,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday “That’s part of a larger program that we’re going to continue to roll out in an effort to address this issue.”
Dodgers pitchers have averaged 96.2 mph with four-seamers in the postseason, up from 94.7 mph during the regular season, and Blue
Jays pitchers 95.1 mph, an increase from 94 mph. Among righty relievers, Los Angeles is averaging 97.6 mph in October and Toronto 96.8 mph.
“These are the most significant pitches that anybody’s thrown all year,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “A lot of it just happens to do with the pressure of these situations, and I think you see it across baseball in the playoffs. Everybody’s stuff ticks up, for the most part. It seems like their stuff is at a different level.”
Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski reached 100 mph with 58 pitches — more than the entire postseason total as recently as 2018. He was followed by Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene (28), Philadelphia’s Jhoan Duran (25) the Chicago Cubs’ Daniel Palencia (23) and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (22). San Diego’s Mason Miller threw a 104.5 mph called third strike to the Chicago Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki in Game 2 of their NL Wild Card Series, the fastest postseason pitch in the Statcast era.
Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen said particular playoff environments can lead to faster pitches.
“When you go to places like the Padres last year, you just feel the hate, so you’re trying to counter with an ability to keep quiet,” he said. “The more you get deeper into the playoffs, the more you are just competing with it’s energy At this point in the World Series you are trying to empty the tank.”
Marist 17 Georgetown 31, Bucknell 24 Harvard 35, Princeton 14 Howard 33, Morgan St. 27, OT LIU Brooklyn 38, New Haven 16 Lehigh 27, Fordham 6 Maine 35, Elon 14 Navy 42, FAU 32 New Hampshire 34, William & Mary 24 Pittsburgh 53, NC State 34
Island 38, Bryant 17
Morris 24, St. Francis (Pa.) 14
22, Mercyhurst 15
Brook 27, Towson 19 TCU 23, West Virginia 17 Villanova 29, Albany (NY) 16 Wagner 24, Duquesne 13 Yale 35, Penn 13
Race statistics Average Speed of Race Winner: 73.742 mph. Time of Race: 3 hours, 33 minutes, 59 seconds. Margin of Victory: .717 seconds. Caution Flags: 10 for 78 laps. Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers. Lap Leaders: W.Byron 0-30; M.McDowell 31-35; W.Byron 36-265; T.Reddick 266-271; R.Blaney 272-376; R.Chastain 377-384; R.Blaney 385-456; W.Byron 457-500 Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led Laps Led): W.Byron, 3 times for 304 laps; R.Blaney, 2 times for 177 laps; R.Chastain, 1 time for 8 laps; T.Reddick, 1 time for 6 laps; M.McDowell, 1 time for 5 laps. Wins: D.Hamlin, 6; S.Van Gisbergen, 5; C.Bell, 4; C.Briscoe, 3; K.Larson, 3; R.Blaney, 3; W.Byron, 2; C.Elliott, 2; J.Logano, 1; B.Wallace, 1; R.Chastain, 1; A.Cindric, 1; A.Dillon, 1; J.Berry, 1. Top 16 in Points: 1. C.Briscoe, 4116; 2. C.Bell, 4107; 3. K.Larson, 4106; 4. D.Hamlin, 4103; 5 W.Byron, 4070; 6. J.Logano, 4068; 7. R.Blaney, 4059; 8. C.Elliott, 4044; 9. T.Reddick, 2270; 10. B.Wallace, 2236; 11. R.Chastain, 2210; 12. S.Van Gisbergen, 2172; 13. A.Bowman, 2152; 14. A.Cindric, 2123; 15. A.Dillon, 2114; 16. J.Berry, 2093. NASCAR Driver Rating Formula A maximum of 150 points can be attained in a race. The formula combines the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish. Pro golf
PGA Tour: Bank of Utah Championship par scores Sunday At Black Desert Golf Course Ivins, Utah Purse: $6 million Yardage: 7,421; Par: 71 Final Round Michael Brennan 67-65-64-66—262 22 Rico Hoey 68-68-63-67—266 -18
Pierceson Coody
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Jackson Suber
Jesper Svensson
Kevin Yu
Zac Blair
Jason Day
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ASSOCIATED
LIVING
BY DOUG MacCASH | Staff writer
We’re not talking here aboutcarving an old-fashioned spooky face with triangular eyesand ajagged,toothy grin into apumpkinpatch find with adullbutcher knife. No, we’re talking about trying to create one of those elaborate, artistic jack-o’lanterns,withfine lines, authentic features, and other creative complexities.
We’re talking aboutmaking ajack-o’-lanternthe way Michelangelo would have done it. Or Banksy anyway
After tryingmaking one myself, by drawing and then carving abat that’s supposed to look like afleur-de-lis (and it does,kindof), I’ve created astep-by-step guide that will lead you to certain success. Maybe.
ä See PUMPKIN, page 2D
What are ways to include an individual with dementiainHalloween activities?
Halloween is one of the most celebrated days in the United States and the second-largest commercial holiday,with Americans spending more than $6 billion annually on costumes, candy,decorations and the like.
Scary costumes and frightening decor can create anxiety or stress forsomeone with Alzheimer’sordementia. For some, “Halloween activates that sense of someone being in danger and being surprised and caught unaware,” says Dr.Lauren Cook, atherapist, speaker and author.Therefore, it is so important to organize and makeHalloween stressfree and an occasion forfun and enjoyment forthe individual with dementia.
Think about the decorations in the house. These should be kept to aminimum.Such things as creepy plastic, hanging spiders, skeleton or monster decor,anoutdoor fake cemetery,scary and abrupt sounds, and even candles and flashlights lit all through the homeshould be avoided. An individual with Alzheimer’sor dementia often experiences visual perception changes and these lights cast shadowsand eerie glowsthat can lead to anxiety.Agood rule of thumb is that if it scares a6-year-old, it will scare the affected individual. Trydecorating with traditional autumn colors and use non-threatening Halloween and/or fall decor to represent the holiday Crowded parties and/or elaborate celebrations maybetoo muchexternal stimulation for the affected individual, so try to organize opportunities for smaller,more intimate gatherings so the individual can be included and feel more comfortable. Additionally,the constant ring of the doorbell or the knock on the door and children yelling, “Trick or treat!”, can make the affected individual extremely nervous and anxious. Agood suggestion forthe caregiver and loved one would be to sit outside near the front door,and if the individual with dementia is willing, have them distribute the candy to the kids. This provides opportunities forsocialization and enjoyment in the community and chances to share in the excitement of little children. However,asmentioned, do be aware if the affected individual becomes anxious or agitated at seeing all the various costumes the trick-or-treaters are wearing. If behavioral expressions begin to spew, take the individual to amore comfortable, quiet place inside until they settle down. There is really no Halloween without candy,with filled candy dishes around the house and kids sharing their trickor-treat goodies with siblings and friends. It is difficult for the affected individual to avoid high-calorie and
PUMPKIN
Continued from page1D
1. Before attempting an artsy pumpkin,ask yourselfsome important questions.Are you crafty? Do you have time to kill? Are you able to endure the torture of your own perfectionism? If you even equivocatedwhile answering any of the above, turn back now
2. Buy an expensive pumpkin carving kit. Sure, you probably alreadyhave all the tools necessary in your kitchen drawers —aserving spoon and an old grapefruit knife wouldprobablydothe trick.But areal pumpkin carving kit is better,because all the tiny sawsand the serrated scooper will help you pretend to be a ghoulish medieval surgeon.
3. Buy,download, or draw apattern for your jack-o’-lantern before youbuy your pumpkin. That way you can find apumpkin the right size to fit the pattern. Much, much easier than enlarging the pattern.
Getting readytoscoop out the goowith
4. Use your largebone saw to cut acircle around the stem. The hole must be big enough for your hand to go through. Remove the cap. Scrape out the pumpkin brains —all the seeds and goo —with your ser-
rated spoon. If this is your favorite part, you really shouldn’ttell anybody.
4B.Separate the seeds from the stringy stuff, coat them in some olive oil and lots of salt, and roast them until they’re crisp. Eat them. Or just feed the whole unspeakablemesstothe birds.
5. Carefully tape your stencil to the pumpkinjust so. Since flat paper doesn’treally like to wrap around apumpkin, youprobablyneed to cut some slits here andthere from theedges toward the center,until you cantape the stencil down smoothly
6. Useasafety pin or abulletin board tack to pricktiny holes through thepaper, tracing thepattern onto the pumpkin. Take yourtime. Make lots and lotsofholes. This will be your pattern when carving. Note: Some fancy-schmancy pumpkin carvingkits come witha little pinwheel gizmothat probablymakes this easier
7. Remove the stencil. Usea nail, or the plastic poker in your jack-o’-lantern carvingkit, to pierce ahole somewhere in the negative area of thepattern (the part where goingtocut the pumpkinaway that will subsequently glow)
8. Useyour finest, narrowest,
cerebral saw to carefully, meticulously,tediously,cut out the pattern. Keep your head in thegame. Don’tsaw off apinkie. And don’tmess up thewhole project by cutting out what you’re supposed to save and saving thepart you’re supposed to cut out. Aren’tyou glad you madeplenty of holes?
8B.Next year I’m investing in the battery-operated jack-o’-lanternsaw.Yes, there really is such athing.
9.Trynot to dwellonthe imperfections. If there are places where your carving sags, you can maybe support the area with toothpicks. Note: The ears on my bat are messed up alittle. They’re supposed to be thicker and morecurvy on the inside. Butthere was no time to start over.Drat!
10. Installa votive candle, or asafe LED votive candle. Voilà, after abreezy three or four hours, your fancyschmancy jack-o’-lantern is finished. Relax. Sip a decaf pumpkin spice latte. Preparetograciously accept the praise of passersby and the envy of neighbors. Begin planning your Mardi Gras costume.
Editor’snote: Aversion of this column firstran in 2022.
Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate. com.
Walkingafter amealhelps keep bloodsugar in check
Dear Doctors: My husband hasprediabetes. Iread that going for awalkafter you eat can help your blood sugar,soIalwaysdothat. But my husband says when yousit down again, your blood sugar goes right back up, so what’sthe point? Is that true? I’m notgivingup on him joining me. Dear reader: Prediabetes is aconditionwhere blood sugar levels arehigher than normal, but notyet high enough to meet the threshold for diabetes. However,prediabetes is considered awarningsign of an increased risk of developing Type 2diabetes Type 2diabetes is when the body can’t use insulin effectively to control blood sugar levels. Sometimes, the body can also no longerproduce the required amounts of thehormone. Over time, the chronic high blood sugar of Type 2 diabetes can cause tissue, nerve andorgan damage. More serious complications include cardiovasculardisease, stroke, kidney issuesand blindness. Allof this means it’simportant to take the prediabetes warning seriously Now let’s talkabout the post-meal walks thatyou have added to your routine. Several years ago, agroup of researchersinIreland found thattaking awalk
By The Associated Press
Today is Monday Oct. 27, the 300th day of 2025. There are 65 days left in theyear
Todayinhistory:
On Oct. 27, 2018, agunman shot and killed 11 congregants and wounded sixothers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in thedeadliest domestic attack on Jews in U.S. history;authorities saidthe suspect, Robert Bowers, raged against Jews during and after the rampage. (Bowers was convicted and sentenced to death in 2023.)
Also on this date:
In 1787, thefirst of the Federalist Papers, aseries of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.
In 1998, powerful Hur-
HALLOWEEN
Continuedfrom page1D
like sugary sweets. Tryto keep thecandy in asafe place and out of sight,as theaffected individual oftentimes has no control when it comes to sweets. Allow him or her to enjoy thecelebrations and monitor intake. Aside from theseprecau-
ing. When activated, these muscle groups use glucose, which helps prevent the spikes associated with diabetes.
Dr.Elizabeth Ko
Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THEDOCTORS
after ameal has abeneficial effect on blood sugar.This proved true even when the walk wasonly five minutes long and taken an hour after eating. Some people in the study had diabetes, and some did not. The beneficial effects on blood sugar occurred in all of the participants, regardless of their diabetes status. Although simply standing after a meal also improved blood sugar numbers, the results were far more modest. The reason apost-meal walk is good for blood sugar control lies in the muscles. Even the slight contractions, like standing up, help use up glucose available after ameal. When you walk, you are using some of the largest muscles in the body.Those are the gluteus maximus, the hamstrings and the quadriceps. The latissimus dorsi, fan-shaped muscles in the mid-back that help support trunk and arm movement, are also work-
TODAYINHISTORY
ricaneMitchcut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastalHondurasand Belize;the storm causedseveral thousand deaths in Central Americabeforeeventually making U.S. landfall in southwest Florida as a tropical storm.
In 2019, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi diedbydetonating a suicide vest as U.S. special forces raidedhis compound in northwest Syria. He once commanded tens of thousands of fighters who had carvedout aterritorialcaliphate for a time in parts of Syria and Iraq andcarriedout a wave of atrocities.
In 2023, Israel knocked outcommunications and created anear-blackout of informationwith steppedup bombardment andartillery fire in the Gaza Strip.
Managing those blood sugar spikes is an important factor in lowering cardiovascular risk. Among people who walked, the post-meal spike was not only less extreme, but the spike was also more gradual. There is also evidence that repeated blood sugar spikes play arole in the development of Type 2 diabetes.
Your husband is correct that blood sugar will rise again after the walk. However,the change will be gradual and less extreme than without the added exercise. Walking smooths out those dangerous spikes and lessens the risk of the health consequences we just discussed. Your husband is fortunate that his blood sugar issues were noticed at the prediabetes stage. With proper diet and exercise, he still has time to prevent an escalation to Type 2.
Sendyour questions to askthedoctors@mednet. ucla.edu,orwrite: Ask the Doctors,c/o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10880 WilshireBlvd., Suite 1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.
The Israelimilitary said it wasexpanding ground operations in the territory ahead of aplannedinvasionasitsought to crush the ruling Hamas militant group afterits Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack and hostage-taking in southern Israel. Today’sbirthdays: ActorcomedianJohnCleese is 86. AuthorMaxine Hong Kingstonis85. Country singerLee Greenwoodis 83. BrazilianPresident Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is 80. AuthorFranLebowitz is 75. Actor-director Roberto Benigni is 73. Golf Hall of Famer Patty Sheehanis69. SingerSimon Le Bon(Duran Duran) is 67. Internet news editor Matt Drudge is 59.AuthorAnthony Doerr is 52. Violinist Vanessa-Mae is 47. TV personality Kelly Osbourne is 41.
tions, Halloween can be adapted and personalized to make ameaningful and enjoyable celebration for the individual with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Involve the affected individual as much as possible, like making decorations together,allowing for creative selfexpression, carving jacko’-lanterns, and building self-esteem. Keepinmind personal choices, cultural differences, and past experiences with Halloween celebrations in the life of the affected individual and honor them.
Dana Territo is an Alzheimer’sadvocate and authorof“What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’sDisease.” She hosts “TheMemory Whisperer.” Email her at thememorywhisperer@ gmail.com.
The carefully trimmedand taped fancy jack-o’-lantern stencil.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Work your magic, interact, participate and paint a vivid, compelling picture. It's time to stand out rather than work behind the scenes. Be bold and expressive.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Refuse to let anyone dictate or complicate your life. Emotional meddling can interfere with how you do your job or earn your living. Don't hesitate to make a change if someone is taking advantage of you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) When opportunity knocks, open the door. Discuss possibilities and do your due diligence. What you discover will lead to interesting suggestions and the foresight to commit and make a difference.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Put more emphasis on making money and investing wisely. Enhance your skills, knowledge and experience, and navigate your way forward.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Live, learn and excel. You have more going for you than you realize. Engage in talks, listen attentively and connect with people who have something to offer in return.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) If something sounds too good to be true, it's probably false. Hard work pays the bills and helps you gain respect. Trust your instincts and see things through to completion.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Be open to suggestions and learn all you can, but do only what's in your best interest. Focus on domestic issues, lowering your
overhead and investing more time and money in personal growth and financial gain.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) A shift is taking place. Allow your mind to wander, explore and learn, and embrace the freedom to grow Ask questions and you'll gain insight into what's valid and what's fake.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Pay attention to detail and do your best in everything you pursue. You will gain ground in ways that will enhance your reputation, life or position. Protect yourself from injury, illness and emotional manipulation.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Change or let go of whatever doesn't really matter or make sense to hold on to. Engage only in pastimes that address concerns or make your world a better place. Positive actions bring peace of mind.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept 22) Communication will determine your next move. Explore the possibilities of travel, relocation or acquiring a new skill. A commitment will stabilize your life. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Emotions are on the rise. Overdoing it or spending impulsively will leave you at a loss. Protect your physical well-being and your heart from manipulative people. Practice self-love.
InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of thesudoku increases from monday to sunday.
Saturday’s PuzzleAnswer
THewiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS
CurTiS
Bridge
BY PHILLIP ALDER
W.C.Fieldssaid,“Aftertwodaysinthe hospital, Itook aturn for the nurse.”
This deal would put some declarers intothe hospital, metaphorically speaking. Southisinfour hearts. West leads the diamondtwo. East winswithhis ace andreturnsthe diamond eight. After ruffing, how should declarer proceed?
South’s three-heart rebid wouldusually advertise 14-16 high-card points, butthishandhassevenclear-cutplaying tricks, making it easily strong enough forthe jump. Do not be locked into highcardpoints; always think about winners. Northhadaborderlineraise,butwelove to tryfor agamebonus, especially when vulnerable.
Southhas four potential losers: one spade, one diamond and two clubs. He hasonly nine immediate winners: one spade,sevenheartsandoneclub.Declarer mustget two club tricks.
Some players would go thatfar, draw trumps, cross to dummy with aspade, and play aclub to their queen. Butwhen the finesse lost, they wouldgodownone and complain about being unlucky.
However, that was only a50percent line. Therewas a63percenter available. Along with East’s having the club king, SouthshouldalsotrytofindEastwiththe club jack and 10. Declarer should cash his heart ace, play ahearttodummy’s king, thenlead aclub to hisnine.
wuzzles
Here, it pulls out the king, ending South’sproblem.
But if West could have won thetrick withthe 10 or jack, declarer wouldhave returned to dummy with aspade and played aclub to his queen, losing nothingover finessingthe queen on the first round.
Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn
Previous answers:
word game
InstRuctIOns: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed tODAY’s WORD cARAPAcE: KAH-ruh-pace: Aprotective, decorative or disguising shell.
Average mark12words Timelimit 20 minutes Can you find 17 or morewords in CARAPACE?
sAtuRDAY’sWORD —EstROnE
loCKhorNs
God createdall. He canhelp all thatcome to Him. G.E. Dean
marmaduKe
Bizarro
hagar the horriBle
Pearls Before swiNe
garfield
B.C.
PiCKles hidato mallard
dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of 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 are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.
ken ken
InstructIons: 1 Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 thorugh 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given 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.
FURNITURE 2Beautiful Dinning Room Chairs Comfortableseats $150 each 504-837-1285
John Deere Equipmentand Repair SOURCING EVENTNO.: 4579 TYPE OF SOLICITATION: Materials, Equipment, Supplies
DBEOPPORTUNITY: NO RELEASED ON: October27, 2025
DEADLINETORESPOND: November 11, 2025 4:00 PM CST
NO RELEASED ON: October27, 2025 DEADLINETORESPOND: November 11, 2025 4:00 PM CST PRE-BIDCONFERENCE: November 4, 2025 10:00am CST MicrosoftTeams MeetingID: 244 381 610 659 5 Passcode: C7Rk3up2 Dial in by phone +1 504-356-4110, 970688553# United States NewOrleans PhoneconferenceID: 970 688 553# Datesare subjectto changesvia an adden‐dumpostedbythe Bu‐reau of Purchasing on theCity’ssupplierportal. If this solicitation is fed‐erally funded,prospec‐tive bidder/respondent must payparticularat‐tentiontoall applicable laws andregulations of theFederal government andthe Stateof Louisiana. TheBureauofPurchas‐ingusescommodity codestonotifysuppliers of therelease of asourc‐ingevent andsubse‐quentmodificationsvia addendum. Note that you wouldreceive thosenoti‐ficationsifyou selected thefollowing commodity code(s) before there‐leaseofthe sourcing event: COMMODITYCODE(s): 928-86 TheCityofNew Orleans strongly encourages mi‐nority-owned and women-ownedbusi‐nesses, socially andeco‐nomicallydisadvantaged businessesand small businessestorespond to this solicitation,orto participateinsubcon‐tracting opportunities pursuant to this solicita‐tion Formoreinformation aboutthissourcing event, go to www.nola govand clickon“BRASS SupplierPortal” under “BIDS& CONTRACTS”
PRE-BIDCONFERENCE: November 4, 2025 10:30 am CST MicrosoftTeams MeetingID: 260 582 999 207 1 Passcode: ZN7we9UK Dial in by phone +1 504-356-4110, 246831685# United States NewOrleans PhoneconferenceID: 246 831 685# Datesare subjectto changesvia an adden‐dumpostedbythe Bu‐reau of Purchasing on theCity’ssupplierportal. If this solicitation is fed‐erally funded,prospec‐tive bidder/respondent must payparticularat‐tentiontoall applicable laws andregulations of theFederal government andthe Stateof Louisiana.
TheBureauofPurchas‐ingusescommodity codestonotifysuppliers of therelease of asourc‐ingevent andsubse‐quentmodificationsvia addendum. Note that you wouldreceive thosenoti‐ficationsifyou selected thefollowing commodity code(s) before there‐leaseofthe sourcing event: COMMODITY CODE(s): 934-46
TheCityofNew Orleans strongly encourages mi‐nority-owned and women-ownedbusi‐nesses, socially andeco‐nomicallydisadvantaged businessesand small businessestorespond to this solicitation,orto participateinsubcon‐tracting opportunities pursuant to this solicita‐tion Formoreinformation aboutthissourcing event, go to www.nola govand clickon“BRASS Supplier Portal” under “BIDS& CONTRACTS” Once on theSupplierPor‐tal, search “Open Events.” Thankyou foryourinter‐estindoing business with theCityofNew Or‐leans. JamesSimmons,Jr. ChiefProcurement Officer AdvertisingDates: October27, November 3 and10,
III. Public Comment
THENEW ORLEANS PUBLIC BELT RAILROAD COMMISSION FOR THEPORTOFNEW ORLEANS MINUTESOFTHE REGULAR COMMISSIONMEETING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
AREGULAR MEETING OF THENEW ORLEANS PUBLIC BELT
RAILROAD COMMISSION FOR THEPORTOFNEW ORLEANS, HELD IN THEFIRST FLOOR AUDITORIUM OF THEPORTOFNEW ORLEANS’ OFFICES, LOCATEDAT1350 PORTOFNEW ORLEANS PLACE, NEWORLEANS, LOUISIANA, WASCALLED TO ORDERBY CHAIRMAN MICHAELA.THOMASAT1:35 P.M.
J. Rhein, Elephant Quilt Productions,Stopthe GrainTrain
S. Acquisse, Elephant QuiltProductions
D. Williams, ParkAvenue Intermodal
J. Wittenbrink, Holy Cross NeighborhoodAssociation
P. T. West, EJES,Inc.
C. Nicks, Stop the Grain Train
A. Perez,Holy Cross Neighborhood Association
B. Perez,Holy Cross NeighborhoodAssociation
H. Carroll,Stopthe GrainTrain
J. French, Stop the Grain Train
G. Varuso,Stopthe GrainTrain
C. Shepard,Stopthe GrainTrain
A. Mercadel, Stop the Grain Train
I. Roll Call &DeterminationofQuorum Following arollcall of
Chairman Thomas called for agenda-related public comments but therewerenone.
IV.Report of the General Manager
Ms. Bryant reportedonthe August volumes andproductivity statistics.
V. Approval of Meeting Minutesfor August 2025
Chairman Thomas called for amotion to approve thepublic meeting minutes for August 2025,aspreviouslycirculated. Commissioner Murphy movedtoapprove theminutes andCommissioner Leger seconded. MOTION CARRIEDUNANIMOUSLY
VI. Action Items:
A. Acceptance of the Financial Statement for August 2025
Ms. Bulliard presented theCommission’s financial statement for themonth of August,acopy of whichismade apartofthese minutes. Commissioner Ferrer movedtoaccept the financial statement andCommissioner Williams seconded. MOTION CARRIEDUNANIMOUSLY
B. Consider Approval of aResolution ConfirmingtoAuditors the Commission’sCompliance with Applicable Laws and AccountingPrinciples as SetOut in the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Compliance Questionnaire.
C. Consider Approval of aResolution Authorizingthe Chief Executive Officer to Enter into Investment, Depository, Retirement, and Revolving Credit TransactionswithFinancial Institutions, Including, butNot Limited to Approving Account Openings and Modifications
D. Consider Approval of aResolution Awarding aContract to CAN USA, Inc. for the Delivery,Installation, and Removal of Protective Netting on the Huey P. Long Bridge over Highway 90 and River Road on the Westbank, at aCostNot to Exceed $388,360
Mr.Kocur presented andrecommended approvalofthe resolution.Commissioner Ferrer movedtoapprove theresolution andCommissioner Williams seconded. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY E. Consider Approval of aResolution Awarding aContract to C.D.L. ElectricCompany,Inc.
METAIRIE
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CIVILACTION NO.25-1827 SECTION: “P”(3) NOTICE TO CLAIMANTS OF COMPLAINT FOREXONERATION FROM OR LIMITATIONOF LIABILITY NOTICE is hereby given that theabove-named Complainanthas filed a Complaintpursuantto Title46ofthe United States Code,46USC § 30501, et seq.,for exoner‐ationfromorlimitation of liabilityfor allclaims forany loss,damageor injury arisingout of an allision on or about March14, 2025,all as more fullydescribed in theLimitationComplaint filedinthe United States DistrictCourt forthe EasternDistrictof Louisianaonthe 5thday of September, 2025,bear‐ingcivil action number 25-cv-1827. Allpersons having such claims must file theirre‐spective claims,aspro‐videdinRuleF including Paragraphs (IV) and(V) thereof, of thesupple‐mental rulesfor certain Admiraltyand Maritime Claims of theFederal RulesofCivil Procedure, with theClerk of this Courtatthe United States District Court, 500 PoydrasStreet,New Or‐leans, LA 70130, andmust servea copy thereofon theattorneysfor Com‐plainant,WalterP Maestriand Bert M. Cass,Jr. with the DeutschKerriganlaw firm at 755Magazine Street,New Orleans, Louisiana70130 on or be‐fore November 10,2025, or be defaulted.Personal attendance is notre‐quired If anyclaimantdesires to contesteitherright to exonerationfromorthe righttolimitationoflia‐bility,heorshe shall file d th tt
