The Advocate 11-02-2025 by The Advocate

Landry embracing fast,blunt style

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

After ﬁring LSU football coach Brian KellyonSunday,athletic director Scott Woodward began preparingtoﬁnd his successor —until Gov.Jeff Landry made asurprise announcement.

Answering aquestion at a news conference on an unrelated subject, Landry brought up Woodward’s2021 hiringof Kelly,sayingit wasa“terrible contract” that left the university on the hook for nearly $54 million for the remainingyears.

ward is not selecting the next coach,” Landry said. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select it before Ilet him do it.”

Scott Ballard,the Landry-appointed chairofthe board, expressedsurprise at thegovernor’sannouncement when a WBRZ-TV reporter asked for his reaction.

“Well then, Ibetter get to it!” he said as he was leaving the interview

Landrykept up his attacks on Woodward in interviews on two sportsshows Thursday,despitea chorusofcomplaints that he was meddling in theaffairsofthe athletic department.

Landry’srole in forcing out Woodward is only thelatest example of his philosophy to move fastand break things if necessary. Hisapproach hasinvited comparisonstoPresident Donald Trump and former Gov.Huey Long.

“When have Ievermoved slow? Idon’t move slow,”Landrysaid during a2024 interview

BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

This is Cade Brumley in his element. Louisiana’sstate superintendent of education parks his Ford Expedition outside arural elementary school.Hegreetsaschool district official and asks about his wife, then strides into aconference room crowded with school and district administrators. He leads a lively andwide-ranging discussion on ahost of education shoptalk,

BY JENNA ROSS Staff writer

As aresult, Landry said, the LSU Board of Supervisors, not Woodward, would choose Kelly’s successor.

“I can tell you right now,Scott Wood-

Hours later,LSU announced that Woodward was stepping down immediately. The Governor’sOfﬁce on Friday said Landry had no comment for now

As governor, Landryhas relished battles with critics, asurprise to no one who has known him since he was aselfdescribed hyperactive teenager in St. Martin Parish When opponents of legislationtorequire schools to post theTen Commandments said they would take him to court last year,for example,the governor shot back, “I can’twait to be sued.”

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

9 dead, dozens injured in surge at Hindu temple

NEW DELHI A crowd surge at a popular Hindu temple in southern India left at least nine people dead and dozens injured, local authorities said Saturday

The incident occurred at the Swamy Venkateswara Temple in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state where hundreds of devotees had gathered to mark one of Hinduism’s sacred days, Ekadashi, senior police ofﬁcer K.V Maheswra Reddy told The Associated Press.

On this day, the devotees fast and offer prayers to Lord Vishnu, a key Hindu deity

An initial investigation suggests that an iron grille meant to maintain the queue of worshippers at the temple broke, leading to the uncontrolled crowd surge, Reddy said.

Of the deceased, eight are women and one is a child, senior local government ofﬁcial Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar said. He added that at least 16 devotees injured in the crowd surge are being treated at a local hospital while 20 others are in a state of shock and put under observation at a different hospital.

State authorities in Andhra Pradesh said the location was a private temple on 12 acres of land and wasn’t under the control of the government administration. Despite its maximum capacity of 3,000 the crowd swelled to around 25,000 on Saturday

Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively officially tossed

Justin Baldoni’s defamation claim against co-star Blake Lively and his libel lawsuit against The New York Times have ofﬁcially been thrown out.

According to legal documents obtained by TMZ on Friday Judge Lewis Liman entered a ﬁnal judgment to the earlier dismissal of the multimillion-dollar suits. Baldoni can potentially appeal the dismissal pending Liman’s ruling on attorney’s fees.

The New York judge in June tossed Baldoni’s $400 million suit against Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane, as well as his $250 million ﬁling against The Times for its December exposé titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”

Lively at the time accused Baldoni of having sexually harassed her on the set of their film and of waging a retaliatory PR campaign. Baldoni responded by ﬁling a countersuit alleging defamation, in addition to his suit against the Times for its coverage of Lively’s claims. Baldoni’s filing against The Times asserted the deep-dive was “rife with inaccuracies (and) misrepresentations,” which drew signiﬁcantly from Lively’s “self-serving narrative.” He accused the paper of relying on “ ‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” However, Liman found that Lively was not liable for her claims because the allegations originated in a civil rights complaint The New York Times — having based its story on the “available evidence” and Lively’s initial complaint — was also not liable, Liman ruled, saying it had “no obvious motive to favor Lively’s version of events.”

November’s supermoon will be closest of year

NEW YORK The moon will look slightly bigger and brighter Wednesday night during the closest supermoon of the year

The moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle, so it gets nearer and farther as it swings around. A so-called supermoon happens when a full moon is closer to Earth in its orbit. That makes the moon look up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the faintest moon of the year, according to NASA. November’s supermoon is the second of three supermoons this year and also the closest: The moon will come within just under 222,000 miles of Earth

Tides may be slightly higher during a supermoon because the moon is closer to Earth, said astronomer Lawrence Wasserman with Lowell Observatory But the difference isn’t very noticeable.

Pope declares new church doctor

Honor bestowed on St. John Henry Newman

BY NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on

Saturday bestowed one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors on St. John Henry Newman, the deeply influential 19th-century British convert and theologian, declaring him a doctor of the church and holding him up as a model for Catholic educators.

Only 37 other people have been given the title “doctor” in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Newman now joins the ranks of such monumental Christian ﬁgures as St. Augustine, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. John of the Cross.

The title recognizes that Newman, beloved in both the Anglican and Catholic churches, has universal appeal and made a timeless, eminent contribution to understanding the Christian faith.

A theologian and poet raised in the Church of England, Newman is best known for his writings and sermons on the development of doctrine, truth and the nature of a university He is admired by conservatives and progressives alike, because he followed his conscience at great personal cost when he decided to convert to Catholicism in 1845.

Leo pronounced Newman a church doctor on Saturday during a special Holy Year Mass for Catholic teachers and students, during

which he also declared Newman a co-patron of Catholic education, alongside St. Thomas Aquinas.

It was particularly ﬁtting: It was Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who made Newman a Catholic cardinal after his conversion, and it was the earlier Leo who declared Aquinas a doctor of the church and patron of Catholic education.

Leo’s decision to hold out Newman as a model for Catholic educators suggests that Catholic teaching will be a priority for him going forward, especially as he emphasizes the ethical use of artiﬁcial intelligence for future generations.

Last week, Leo penned a new document that cited Newman in his call for Catholic schools to be places for spiritual growth and community, and where the use of technology always keeps human

dignity front and center

In his homily, Leo quoted from Newman’s most famous text, the British hymn “Lead, Kindly Light,” to urge that Catholic educators “shine like stars in the world” in the collective search for truth.

“The task of education is precisely to offer this Kindly Light to those who might otherwise remain imprisoned by the particularly insidious shadows of pessimism and fear,” he said. “We are called to form people, so that they may shine like stars in their full dignity.”

The Rev George Bowen, the postulator who oversaw Newman’s canonization and designation as a doctor, said Newman too was confronted with the 19th-century equivalent of the information age, when cheap periodicals were readily available and reading rates shot

up Newman insisted on the need for a holistic liberal education that included Catholic theology, but also focused on students and teachers interacting in a relational way in the quest for truth and knowledge, he said.

“Suddenly, the world was swimming with information,” Bowen told reporters. “So Newman’s ways of coping with this huge ocean of knowledge and making sense of it, having a connected view, is something very, very relevant today.”

When Newman defected from the Church of England to the Catholic Church in 1845, he lost friends, work and even family ties, believing the truth he was searching for could only be found in the Catholic faith. And yet even today, Newman remains beloved in the Church of England. His hymns were sung last week in the Sistine Chapel when King Charles III prayed alongside Leo in the historic ecumenical service.

Several important Anglican leaders wrote to the Vatican supporting his designation as a church doctor, and the Anglican archbishop of York was invited to participate in Saturday’s service. It featured the hymn, “Lead, Kindly Light,” which remains a ﬁxture of Anglican services.

“Newman is a big ecumenical figure in the sense that he owes his faith to his upbringing in the Church of England,” Bowen said.

St. John Paul II declared Newman venerable in 1991, in the ﬁrst step to possible sainthood; Pope Benedict XVI beatiﬁed him during a 2010 visit to Birmingham, England; Pope Francis canonized him in 2019 with Charles in the audience, and now Leo declared him a church doctor

Ukraine says it hit key fuel pipeline near Moscow

BY SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press

KYIV,Ukraine Ukrainian forces hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Saturday as Russia kept up a sustained campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The operation was carried out late Friday, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging channel. The agency, which is known by its acronym HUR, described it as a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics.

HUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which spans

250 miles and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from reﬁneries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow

The operation, which targeted infrastructure near Ramensky district, destroyed all three fuel lines, HUR said.

The pipeline was capable of transporting up to 3 million tons of jet fuel, 2.8 million tons of diesel and 1.6 million tons of gasoline annually HUR said.

“Our strikes have had more impact than sanctions,” said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of HUR, referring to international sanctions on Russia imposed over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed its

forces defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces that were rushed to the eastern front-line hot spot of Pokrovsk in a bid to stop Russian troops from pushing farther into the city

It later posted videos showing two men it said were Ukrainians who surrendered in the embattled city The videos show the men, one dressed in fatigues and the other in a dark green jacket, sat against a peeling wall in a dark room, as they speak of ﬁerce ﬁghting and encirclement by Russian forces

The videos’ authenticity could not be independently veriﬁed, and there was no immediate public comment from Kyiv on the Russian ministry’s claims.

Russia and Ukraine have pre-

Israel says latest remains handed over from Gaza aren’t of hostages

BY RENATA BRITO Associated Press

JERUSALEM — The remains of three people Hamas handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza do not belong to any hostages, Israel said Saturday, in the latest setback to the U.S.brokered ceaseﬁre in the Israel-Hamas war The handover followed Israel’s return on Friday of the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, which completed an exchange after militants turned over remains of two hostages earlier in the week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ofﬁce conﬁrmed that the remains of the three people did not belong to hostages. It was unclear who the remains belonged to.

Hamas’ armed wing said it had offered to hand over samples on Friday of unidentiﬁed bodies but Israel refused and asked for the remains for examination.

“We handed the bodies over to stop the claims of Israel,” the statement said Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify bodies without access to DNA kits.

Since the ceaseﬁre took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 17 hostages. Eleven remain in Gaza. Militants have released one or two bod-

ies every few days Israel has urged faster progress. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation and Israeli military presence in some areas. Israel has been releasing the unidentified remains of 15 Palestinians for the remains of each Israeli hostage. The number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel since the ceasefire began now stands at 225. Only 75 have been identified by families according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

It is unclear if those returned were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that sparked the war, died in Israeli custody as detainees or were recovered from Gaza by troops during the war

The fragile truce faced

its biggest challenge earlier this week when Israel carried out strikes across Gaza that killed more than 100 people, following the killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city Jordan’s foreign minister warned Saturday that Israel maintaining a military presence in Gaza puts the ceaseﬁre at risk.

Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security summit, Ayman Safadi added it was “imperative” to have a Palestinian police force maintaining security, supported by an international stabilization force with a U.N. Security Council mandate.

Multiple nations have shown interest in taking part in a peacekeeping force but called for a clear U.N. mandate before committing troops.

Customer Service:

sented conﬂicting accounts of what is happening in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week that his forces had encircled the city’s Ukrainian defenders.

But Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Saturday that while the situation in Pokrovsk remains “hardest” for Ukrainian forces, who are trying to push Russian troops out of the city there is no encirclement or blockade as Moscow has maintained.

A key goal for Moscow has been to take all of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, made up of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about one-tenth of the coal-rich region.

GET IN TOUCH

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANDREW MEDICHINI

Pope Leo XIV presides over Mass with participants in the Jubilee of the Educational World on the Solemnity of All Saints in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Saturday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ABDEL KAREEM HANA

Tents fill a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

Then Brumley, a former teacher and principal, tours a few classrooms where students use the math ﬂashcards he had shipped to every elementary school. “This is where the magical work is happening,” he tells school staffers on his way out. “I can’t thank you enough.”

The school visit took place in early October Several months earlier in April, Brumley, was on a different, more public stage — the guest on a talk show hosted by Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a think tank that opposes same-sex marriage and “LGBTQ indoctrination” in schools There, Brumley discussed the social issues roiling many states and local districts, and said schools must “reject radical ideologies.”

“Schools don’t need to be for indoctrination,” he said, adding that students should be taught to read, do math and “love their country.”

In his ﬁve years as Louisiana’s education chief, Brumley, 44, has navigated the two overlapping — but distinct realms of education policy and education politics he encountered in that rural school and on that political talk show As a career educator steeped in policy, he’s driven improved student outcomes. As a public official in a conservative state, he’s demonstrated a knack for the politics around education and the ever-roiling culture wars.

Under his leadership, formerly back-of-the-pack Louisiana has shot up in national rankings, with its fourth graders leading the country in reading growth, while Brumley has notched major policy wins, including literacy reforms, a statewide tutoring program and stricter school accountability He’s now setting out to achieve in math what he accomplished in reading.

Students’ rising scores and Brumley’s conservative political stances — opposing protections for transgender students, rejecting diversity programs and endorsing President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the U.S. Department of Education — have elevated his national proﬁle, made him a plausible contender to be Trump’s education secretary and attracted the attention of leading Republicans, including the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who Brumley said reached out to discuss “the future of American education.”

Still, Brumley is viewed less as a partisan combatant than an amicable policy wonk and even-keeled executive, according to interviews with 20 current and former state ofﬁcials, district leaders, advocates and others who have worked with or observed Brumley closely throughout his career He has managed to find common ground with business groups and teachers unions, Democratic and Republican governors, reformers and traditionalists.

“He’s good at working with people,” said Frederick Hess,

a center-right education pundit. “He’s not an ideologue.” Yet at times, advocates argue, Brumley’s political instincts have appeared to drive his decision-making, as when he dismantled an equity ofﬁce he had established or promoted videos produced by a right-wing media company for classroom use.

“In the past few years, I think he’s allowed the political climate to impact the type of leader he is,” said Tramelle Howard, Louisiana state director of Education Trust, a left-leaning advocacy group.

Despite the impressive academic gains, Brumley has acknowledged that student scores remain low, absenteeism is high, racial gaps are stubbornly wide and a slate of math reforms are just getting started. The question before him is whether he can tackle those challenges and push Louisiana schools to the next level while navigating the job’s political currents.

“My role is one that lives in state and national politics,” Brumley said. “My job is to get better outcomes for kids.” Leader who ‘got it done’

Before that October school visit, Brumley began his day in the usual way on his knees, praying for the state’s students. Then he hopped in his SUV, radio tuned to a station playing Billy Graham sermons, and headed to the Louisiana Department of Education’s Baton Rouge ofﬁces.

A six-time marathon runner, he climbed the stairs to his fifth-floor office overlooking the state Capitol. He fielded a call from Gov Jeff Landry about a truancy program, met with state higher education officials, then checked in with his math, literacy, attendance and artificial intelligence leadership teams Leaning forward in his chair, red pen in hand as he posed clarifying questions, he called to mind a school principal.

“What are you struggling with right now?” he asked a deputy who oversees AI work. “Is there anything you need from me?”

Brumley grew up in Converse, a village of about 400 residents an hour south of Shreveport, the son of a school cafeteria worker and a police ofﬁcer. School was the vehicle for his ambition.

“I come from a very humble family,” he said. “I was very aware that education was my ticket to the middle class.”

After college, he returned to Converse High School as a social studies teacher and coach. Under his leadership, the girls’ basketball team made it to the state playoffs for the first time in over a decade

“He came in and turned the program around,” said Emily Anderson, 35, who was on the team. “Because he was so motivated and driven, it helped us find that in ourselves.”

Brumley rose quickly from the classroom to district leadership. In 2012, he became superintendent of DeSoto Parish, a small district of nine schools and about 5,000 students with a budget crisis so severe it was on the verge of not making payroll. Brumley had to cut costs and

created a plan that included layoffs and school closures. When he presented it at the School Board meeting, local law enforcement insisted he wear a bulletproof vest

He weathered the storm, partly by cultivating relationships in the parish’s Black community By the time he left, graduation rates were up, suspensions were down and the district had earned its ﬁrst-ever “A” state rating.

“He was not a loud or a ﬂashy kind of a guy at all,” said Dudley Glenn, a longtime DeSoto School Board member, “but he got it done.”

In 2018, Brumley took the top job in Jefferson Parish, whose enrollment is 10 times the size of DeSoto’s. There he led a successful campaign to boost teacher pay through a tax hike by rallying business and teachers union leaders behind the cause.

When state Superintendent of Education John White stepped down in 2020 after eight years in the role, the state Board of Education decided, after two inconclusive rounds of voting, to give Brumley the job

Critics had cast him as a champion of the education establishment, but he soon deﬁed those expectations. He pushed for looser COVID-19 restrictions and stricter school accountability, putting him at odds with teachers unions, superintendents and then-Gov John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who had celebrated Brumley’s selection.

Then he scored a major victory — a literacy campaign that earned national praise and is credited with helping raise students’ reading scores. Working with lawmakers, he developed a package of bills rooted in research-based practices known as the “science of reading.” He teamed up with an advocacy group to establish a statewide tutoring program for struggling readers, which he helped convince the Legislature to fund. And his agency provided schools with on-the-ground support to effectively enact the changes.

“You’re partnering with the people closest to the work versus just giving policy directives,” said St. Charles Parish schools Superintendent Ken Oertling, adding that such support was “lacking under previous superintendents.”

When Landry, a Trumpaligned Republican, ran for governor in 2023, Brumley said he secured his blessing: “He was like, ‘Cade, if I win man, I’m going to support you.’” It was a shrewd political move, since the gover-

nor appoints three of the 11 board of education members, but it also reflected their shared views.

“Philosophically, we’re very aligned on basic issues,” Brumley said.

Landry introduced LA GATOR, a private school voucher program like those embraced by Trump and many Republican-led states. Public school supporters fiercely opposed the program, but Brumley championed it, saying that giving parents tax dollars to pay for private school tuition advances “educational freedom.”

While many public school educators were upset, Brumley also advocated for teacher raises and attributed academic gains to their hard work.

“There have been a whole lot of really tough conversations,” said Rapides Parish Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell. “But at the end of the day, we’re moving forward under his leadership.”

Wading into culture wars Brumley often pursues a nonpartisan agenda, like literacy reform, that he knows works for students. But, at times, politics take center stage.

After he was appointed state superintendent in May 2020, just as anti-racism protests erupted across the U.S., he established an Ofﬁce of Equity, Inclusion and Opportunities within the state Education Department and hired Kelli Peterson, a New Orleans school official, to

run it. His agency also announced a partnership with LSU to train school leaders in social-emotional learning, including “SEL through a racial equity lens,” partly to help reduce student suspensions.

But as equity programs nationwide faced a conservative backlash, Brumley dissolved the ofﬁce and discontinued the training. In July 2021, Peterson addressed a scathing resignation letter to Brumley

“I choose to no longer serve in an organization that allows political agendas to drive decisions,” she wrote.

When announcing the SEL staff training, Brumley had said that supporting students’ social-emotional health “leads to greater academic outcomes and happier kids.”

But a year later, he objected to new early learning standards because they referenced social-emotional learning, which he now suggested could be “a Trojan horse for critical race theory.” One of the early education experts who developed the standards called that misinformation, adding that “the department leadership knows that.”

Brumley argued in an interview that he has been consistent in pursuing academic excellence and equal opportunities for all students. He said he abandoned terms like equity and social-emotional learning after others twisted their meaning.

“In so many ways, words got hijacked,” he said. “They got radicalized.”

He’s made other forays into politics. He has spoken at events hosted by Moms for Liberty and the Heritage Foundation, two conservative advocacy groups. He advised schools not to comply with former President Joe Biden’s rules extending Title IX anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ students and he welcomed the use of videos by the right-wing nonproﬁt PragerU, including one in which an animated Christopher Columbus downplays the horrors of slavery Brumley said his political stances, such as his opposi-

tion to Biden’s Title IX rules, reﬂect his genuine beliefs

“I don’t think that biological males should be in the girls’ bathroom” and what he thinks is best for students, like reopening schools postCOVID. But he said politics isn’t his main concern.

“I don’t spend my day focused on culture issues,” he said. “I spend my day focused on there aren’t enough kids that can read on grade level, there aren’t enough that can do math.”

Thinking about the future Brumley’s stock keeps rising.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently kicked off a cross-country school tour in Louisiana where she called Brumley “a good resource and a good friend,” and Landry tapped him to lead a new highereducation task force. All the buzz has fueled speculation about his next moves, including whether he would apply to be LSU’s next president. “I had people talking to me about that, but I didn’t do it,” Brumley said. “I routinely have opportunities presented to do other things, but I haven’t felt the desire to do any of that yet.” For now Brumley appears to be enjoying his job. During his early October visit to French Settlement Elementary School, he observed a fourth grade classroom where pairs of students were competing to see who could solve multiplication flashcards first. Brumley asked the students whether they find math easy or hard. One girl said it’s easy because her mom is a math teacher: “I think you have an unfair advantage!” Brumley joked. Then he asked the students to consider what they want to do when they’re older, urging them to choose jobs they’ll love. Later Brumley recalled how he had declared in the first grade that he wanted to become a school principal. “I’ve been able to live out that dream,” he said, “and use the pulpit I have to get better outcomes for kids.”

Leadership vacuum Landry’s push into managing LSU’s storied football program comes during a leadership vacuum at the university.

A search for a new president is underway after William F. Tate IV resigned in May to lead Rutgers University

Political insiders have said Landry favors McNeese State President Wade Rousse for the LSU job. Landry’s ofﬁce didn’t respond Friday when asked about the presidential search.

Landry has already inserted himself into the hiring of at least one university president.

Last year, the governor said publicly that he wanted the University of Louisiana system board, whose chair he appointed, to hire thenLouisiana Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Genovese to be the next president of Northwestern State in Natchitoches. The board truncated the selection process and selected Genovese.

The LSU presidential search committee, chaired by Ballard, is zeroing in on its pick. The search committee favored James Dalton, executive vice president and provost at the University of Alabama, when it winnowed its list to three ﬁnalists on Wednesday Rousse and a former president of the University of Arizona also received strong support.

The LSU board, which includes several members on the search committee, is scheduled to choose the university’s new president Tuesday No ‘business as usual’

In the meantime, Landry is under fire from some commentators who think he has gone too far in ousting Woodward — the university won six national championships in his six years and has created other controversies at LSU.

“Jeff Landry has damaged the university’s reputation,” said James Carville, the Democratic political pundit who has undergraduate and law school degrees from LSU and taught at the university for four years. “It’s not just about football. They have profoundly devalued the degree of everyone who graduates from LSU or is on the faculty of LSU He has taken an ascendant university and dragged it down.”

Shane Guidry defended Landry’s moves with Woodward.

“Sometimes in business you have to make changes,” said Guidry, a business owner in New Orleans who is one of Landry’s closest advisers. “You can’t keep rewarding bad behavior or bad business decisions. It can’t be business as usual. At the end of the day, this governor is a businessman who wants to be a good steward for taxpayers and make fans happy He wants the right person as coach and athletic director.”

During Landry’s 22 months as governor, he has gotten a Republican-controlled state

Legislature to approve a series of measures that have expanded his already considerable powers and has shoved the state to the right politically after eight years of a Democratic governor John Bel Edwards.

Most recently, Landry called for an extraordinary state takeover of New Orleans’ finances as a condition for his administration agreeing to a $125 million short-term loan for the Democrat-led city. New Orleans elected ofﬁcials dropped the loan request to avoid giving up control over the city’s ﬁnances.

Landry gained more control over the LSU and University of Louisiana system boards last year thanks to a measure that allowed him to name the chairs of state boards and commissions, rather than have the boards themselves select their chairs.

During his tenure, Landry and state lawmakers have moved to lock up more offenders, expand private school vouchers and prohibit transgender students from insisting that teachers call them by their preferred pronouns.

Landry has been touting changes to the state tax system and announcements for billion-dollar investments by such companies as Hyundai and Meta.

“Under Landry’s administration, we’ve made incredible strides forward,” said state Rep John Wyble, RFranklinton. “We’re bringing economic opportunities for our communities That’s what will matter most to our families. That’s going to be the real measuring stick.”

Aggressive moves

Landry has moved aggressively on many fronts as governor

Shortly after taking ofﬁce, Landry brought a permanent 20-person State Police unit to New Orleans called Troop Nola. It has deployed drones and cameras in the French Quarter and, while working with the New Orleans Police Department and the FBI, has targeted guns, drugs and violent attacks. Crime has dropped.

Two months ago, Landry announced plans to open a detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“This facility is fulﬁlling the president’s promise to make America safe again,” Landry said, ﬂanked by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Despite these moves, Landry did not score well in a public survey in midOctober by John Couvillon, a Baton Rouge-based pollster for Unite America, a national group that opposes closed political primaries, which Louisiana adopted for congressional races last year at Landry’s behest.

Couvillon’s poll showed that 39% of likely voters in Louisiana held a favorable view of Landry while 51% viewed him unfavorably For comparison’s sake, Trump had a 48% favorable rating and a 47% unfavorable rating.

Couvillon was struck that Landry’s favorable/unfavorable rating among Republicans was 65% to 27%, versus Trump’s 85% to 13%.

Trump was 34 percentage points more popular among Republicans than Landry

“He has problems with his own base,” Couvillon said of the governor LSU headlines

But it’s Landry’s involvement in LSU that often grabs the biggest headlines because of its central role in the state.

“It is the most indispensable state university in the country,” Carville said. “We don’t have a Mississippi State, an Auburn or an Iowa State.”

Landry won both applause and brickbats on Monday night when he called for the university to erect a statue of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was shot to death at Utah Valley University in September The governor called it a move “to defend freedom of speech on college campuses.”

“C’mon, ladies and gentlemen, let’s see if we can be the first campus to do it,” Landry said in a video while

standing beside the Mike the Tiger statue near Tiger Stadium.

Tim Miller, a conservative anti-Trumper who lives in New Orleans, called the idea of a Kirk statue at LSU “insane” during a podcast Thursday for The Bulwark.

“He isn’t from Louisiana, he didn’t go to LSU, he has no connection to the university, he didn’t even finish college,” Miller said. “There is no reason to honor him. There are a million LSU graduates out there or people from the state of Louisiana who have done great things, who have done honorable things, who have reﬂected the values of free speech, the values of the state and the country you can build statues to.”

Landry also inserted himself into the affairs of LSU last year by forcing university ofﬁcials to bring a live tiger back to Tiger Stadium for the Alabama game. The tiger, named Omar Bradley, stayed on the ﬁeld for only seven minutes.

Landry’s push into LSU football came within hours

of the team’s embarrassing loss to Texas A&M last Saturday and a week after LSU was defeated by Vanderbilt, traditionally a weak opponent. In his initial comments, Landry excoriated the decision, announced the day before the Texas A&M game, to raise ticket prices next year On Sunday night, he convened a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion with LSU ofﬁcials and others to study Kelly’s contract and the path forward.

Landry ﬁrst blasted Woodward while answering a question Wednesday during a news conference devoted to how to help the poor during the federal government shutdown.

“My role is about the ﬁscal effect of ﬁring a coach under a terrible contract, OK?” Landry said. “All I care about is what the taxpayers are going to be on the hook (for). I was also not happy with the fact that we were raising ticket prices while we were having a losing season. And we were paying a coach $100 million, and we were not getting the

results.”

Jay Dardenne, a former state senator from Baton Rouge and LSU graduate who oversaw the operations of state government for Gov John Bel Edwards, echoed the views of many others in questioning whether paying off the $54 million remaining in Kelly’s contract would cost state taxpayers. Dardenne said that private donations to the Tiger Athletic Foundation typically pay for that kind of contract. LSU now also will have to pay Woodward $6.7 million for the ﬁnal four years of his contract.

Kim Mulkey, who brought LSU a national title after Woodward brought her back to Louisiana to coach the women’s basketball team, was “heartbroken” at his departure, said the team’s associate coach Thursday night. Landry had criticized Mulkey and her team in April 2024 for not being on the court during the national anthem. Woodward defended his coach. Numerous commentators have said that Landry’s attack on Woodward has sullied LSU’s reputation in the sports world.

Stewart Mandel, writing for The Athletic, said coaching at LSU is a dream job. “But with one unhinged press conference moment on Wednesday,” he added, “Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry may have scared off all of the top candidates.”

Landry’s moves with the tiger and his push to oust Woodward have invited comparisons to Long. Long involved himself in nearly every part of LSU’s campus, but especially the football team. He recruited players, gave state government jobs to them and delivered pregame and halftime pep talks.

Landry recently said he is ﬁnishing a new biography of Long, “American Populist.” Long, Landry said, “was a masterful fellow.”

Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate. com.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Gov. Jeff Landry addresses the Louisiana Legislature on April 14 on opening day of legislative session at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge.

Lincoln Bathroom remade in marble andgold

BY BRIAN NIEMIETZ Newyork Daily News (TNS)

President Donald Trump’s efforts to remodel the White House in his image continued Friday with the unveiling of ashiny newLincoln Bathroom.

The president’ssocial media accounts shared photos of the renovatedrestroom in the Lincoln Bedroom

—and true to form, the makeover leans heavily on marble and gold, reﬂecting the aesthetics of his hotels in the private sector

Trump boasted of the update, declaring that the once-modest,green-andwhite bathroom was“totally inappropriate.”

“It was renovated in the 1940s in an art decogreen tile style, which was totally inappropriatefor the Lincoln Era,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble. This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!

Numerous photos showing the glitzy new bathroom feature agold shower head and matching faucets against swirling white-andgray walls and ﬂoors

The Lincoln Bedroom was posthumouslynamed after the 16th president in 1945, according to the White House Historical Association. Since it’snot designated aState or other ofﬁcial room, funding for its decoration andfurnishing falls “outsidethe purviewofthe Committee for the Preservation of theWhiteHouse, which was created in 1964 to advise on the maintenance of the museum character of the State Rooms.”

Trump also said Friday that construction crews were working on the Kennedy Centerfor thePerforming Arts, which will soon be more shiny as well.

“The exterior columns, which were in serious danger of corrosion if something (wasn’t) done, are completed, and look magnificent in whiteenamel —Like adifferent place!” Trump posted.

Claiming the nation’smost storied cultural institution “was dead as adoornail,” he said the “marble is being done,stages are being renovated” and new seats, fab-

Uncertaintyover food aiddeepens

BY STEPHEN GROVES, ALI SWENSON and SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press

WASHINGTON Thecrises at the heart of the government shutdownfight in Washington were coming to ahead Saturday as the federal food assistance program faced delays and millionsofAmericanswere set to see adramatic rise in their healthinsurance bills.

Theimpacts on basic needs —food and medical care —underscored how the impasse is hitting homesacross theUnited States. Plans by theTrump administration tofreeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramonSaturday were halted by federal judges, but the delay in payouts will still likely leave millions of people short on their grocerybills.

It all added to the strain on thecountry,with a month ofmissed paychecks for federal workers and growing airtravel delays.

The shutdownisalready the second longest in history andenteredits second monthonSaturday

TheHouse has not met for legislative business in more than six weeks, while Senate MajorityLeader John Thune,R-S.D., closed hischamberfor theweekend after bipartisan talks failed to achieve signiﬁcant progress.

Thune said he is hoping “the pressure starts to intensify,and theconsequences of keeping the government shut down become even morereal for everybody that they will express, hopefully new interest in trying to come up with apath forward.

Thestalemate appears increasingly unsustainable as Republican President Donald Trumpdemands action and Democratic leaders warn that an uproar over risinghealth insurance costs will force Congress to act.

TheDepartment of Agricultureplanned to withhold $8billionneeded for payments to the food program starting on Saturday until two federal judgesordered the administration to make them. Trump said he would provide the money but wanted more legal direction from the court

On Saturday,U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell in Rhode Island ordered that the government needed to tell the court by Monday howitwould fund SNAP accounts. McConnell, who was nominated by Presi-

Volunteers prepare emergency food packages Tuesday at the

dent Barack Obama, said theTrumpadministration neededtoeither makea full payment by Monday, or if it decidestoonly tap $3 billion in acontingency fund, ﬁgure out how to do that by Wednesday

“There is no question that thecongressionally approvedcontingencyfunds must be used now because of theshutdown,” McConnell wroteinhis order

But that still leaves uncertaintyabout whether thedepartment will use additional money or only provide partial beneﬁtsfor the month.The SNAPprogram serves about 1in8Americans and costs about $8 billion per month

Beneﬁts were already facing delays becauseittakes a week or moretoload SNAP cards in manystates.Some governors and mayors have steppedin, using what money they have available to ﬁll the programthatfeeds about42million Americans.

“People are just nervous, scared,”said Jill Corbin, thedirector of theSt. VincentDePaulsoupkitchen andfoodpantry in Norwich, Connecticut. “It’snot really adefinite answer that we have right now.”

As people lined up early Saturday for hot meals and groceries, theorganization had 10 extra volunteersto help newcomers navigate the process. On Wednesday, some 400 families visitedthe food pantry and 555 people received hot meals HouseMinorityLeader Hakeem Jeffries,D-N.Y., criticized Trump for spending Saturday at one of his Florida golf courses, sayingonsocial media that “Trump andRepublicans

areillegally withholding SNAPbeneﬁts.”

“Millions of childrencould go hungry,” he added.

Democratsdemanded that thegovernment fund SNAP but Republicansresponded by arguing the program is in such adiresituation because Democrats have repeatedly voted against ashort-term government funding bill.

“Weare now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding, now 14 different times,” House SpeakerMikeJohnson,RBenton,said Friday Trump injectedhimself into thedebateThursday by suggesting thatRepublican senators, who hold the majority, end the shutdown by getting rid of the ﬁlibuster rules that preventmost legislation from advancing unless it hasthe support of at least60senators. Democrats have usedthe filibusterto block afunding bill in the Senatefor weeks.

Republican leadersquickly rejected Trump’sidea,

prompting thepresident to double downonthe demand Saturday night.

“Don’t be WEAKAND STUPID. FIGHT,FIGHT, FIGHT! WIN, WIN, WIN!”

Trumpposted on social media, arguing that Democrats would terminate the ﬁlibuster rules if they regain the Senate majority.“We will immediately END the Extortionist Shutdown, get ALL of our agenda passed, and makelife so good for Americansthat these DERANGED DEMOCRATpoliticians will neveragain have thechance to DESTROY AMERICA!”

“Republicans, you will rue the day that you didn’tTERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!!!” he added.

The annualsign-up period for the Affordable Care Act health insurance began Saturday,and there aresharp increases in what people will have to payfor coverage. Enhanced tax credits that help mostenrollees pay forthe health plans areset to expire next year Democrats have rallied

around apush to extend those credits and have refused to votefor government funding legislation until Congress acts.

“Millions of Americansin every state across this country are waking up to drastically higher premiums for the same health carecoverage they’re already on.” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in astatement.

If Congress does notextend the credits, subsidized enrollees will face cost increases of about 114%,or more than $1,000 per year, on average, health care research nonproﬁt KFFfound.

SomeRepublicans in Congress have been open to the idea of extending the subsidies, but they also want to make major changesto the health overhaul enacted while DemocratBarack Obama waspresident.Thune has offered Democrats a vote on extending thebeneﬁts, but has not guaranteed a result. And he is demanding that Democrats ﬁrst vote to reopen the government.

Tarrant Area Food Bank in Fort Worth, Texas

only one here to troubleshoot. Then, alone in the studio on a recent October day, he cleared his throat, pressed a button and turned a dial

“The time is now 6:04 on this Wednesday, and you are listening to Red River Radio News,” he said, shaking his hands to add emphasis to his voice. “Good morning, I’m Jeff Ferrell. The Trump administration is expected to announce a plan very soon to bail out farmers ” His delivery was tight, precise. After 3 minutes and 29.9 seconds of news, he pressed another button, turned another dial and exhaled. It was a crucial day among crucial days.

The Shreveport-based radio network was mid-pledge drive, a fundraising rite with increased importance after the federal government clawed back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting, money that used to make its way to stations across the country President Donald Trump had accused the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio of liberal bias, arguing that taxpayers should not be forced to fund them.

The move walloped the budgets of radio and TV stations across Louisiana, including WWNO and WYES in New Orleans Red River Radio lost $193,000 toward its $1.2 million budget. An already lean operation, the network boasts the second-largest public radio geography in the country, spanning northwest Louisiana, east Texas, south Arkansas and parts of Mississippi.

In response to the sudden cuts, some small, rural radio and TV stations will go off the air But more will respond as Red River Radio has responded: by leaving a position unﬁlled by asking volunteers to step up, by expecting its six staff members to do more. Ferrell, the only full-time news employee, was already working 12-to-16-hour days.

‘Troy, it’s not playing’

Hours pass at the station on the edge of the LSU in Shreveport campus as Ferrell crafts a local story for each state where he broadcasts, edits language he deems inflammatory and perfects each piece he posts to the web. Over and over, he ﬁnds himself alone again at 11 p.m. He leaves on a single lamp, giving him a little light for when he returns six hours later

“Lighting is everything,” Ferrell said as he plugged in picture lights above two framed prints outside his ofﬁce doors.

The walls inside his ofﬁce are covered in artwork, a personal project he undertook when he inherited the cramped, dusty space in 2023, wallpapering the ceiling to match a fresco in an Italian church, depicting the assumption of Mary into heaven.

Two digital clocks ticked through the seconds as NPR’s “Morning Edition” played between his hourly broadcasts. Then, at 6:31 a.m., his radio went silent. His eyes narrowed. He popped out of his office chair and strode to the studio where it, too, was quiet

Ferrell’s hand shook as he pulled up a fader on the sound board, bringing on a music stream he always has running, just in case As an upbeat tune from an ensemble named Nightnoise played, he called Troy Jones, the station’s chief engineer whose cellphone number was taped to the desk: “Troy, it’s not playing.”

By the time they hung up, just a few minutes later they’d gotten the news back on the air

‘A new, bigger challenge’ Before 7 a.m. on this October morning, two more staffers and a few volunteers arrived to answer the phones and make the pleas.

General manager Kermit Poling settled in behind the microphone.

“And a very good morning to you,” he said, his

in my paperwork.” Streaming and studio engineering, transmitters and satellites.

“We’re the mighty six here at Red River Radio,” Jones said. Ferrell chuckled. Afterward, Jones touted the roles of his ﬁve co-workers. Membership coordinator Henry Edwards is also a musician, he said, who schedules volunteers. Assistant general manager Ranae Moran handles corporate support and underwriting, but also produces shows, running the board when needed Poling a maestro, “does all the things that he does.”

Canadian PM told Ontario’s leader not to run anti-tariff ad

BY ROB GILLIES Associated Press

TORONTO Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he told Ontario’s premier not to run an anti-tariff advertisement that prompted President Donald Trump to end trade talks with Canada.

prime minister, for the relationship with the president of the U.S., and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the U.S. government,” added at a news conference as he wrapped a nine-day trip to Asia.

voice resonant, casual. “It’s 19 minutes after 7 o’clock. Another day of our pledge drive We’ve got three days left of this.”

The goal for the hour: $65,000. For the day: $70,000. For the two-week drive: $100,000.

“It’s because of him we’re not sweating bullets,” Ferrell said of Poling.

A conductor and composer Poling had never intended to run a radio station. He’d moved to Shreveport in 1985 as concert master and associate conductor of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. Listening to the station, he said he was driven crazy by the fact that they kept playing the same few symphonies, over and over

So he grabbed some records and brought them to the studios. He began volunteer hosting, then became music director In 2005, he was named general manager, thinking he’d take over the station for a couple years. The network needed new transmitters and new studios. “You accomplish one thing and see, well, this needs to be done,” he said.

Plus, Poling believes in the work Always has “It’s not proﬁt-driven,” he said “It’s driven by need and connection.”

Now, two decades later, he’s still in charge, leading the network through its biggest challenge yet When Trump was elected, philanthropists knew public broadcasting could be on the line. This summer, after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced its dissolution, it launched the Public Media Bridge Fund to prevent the shuttering of stations, many of them rural sources of emergency alerts, local news and quality children’s programming.

“As we speak with funders, we’re very clear that this is a public commons,” said Erik Langner, the fund’s executive director. “And it’s one that if it goes away it’s highly unlikely it would ever come back.”

The fund, which is currently accepting applications, is focused on stations that have heavily relied on federal funding, receiving at least 25% of their budget from CPB grants That leaves Red River Radio, which got just 15% from CPB, without a chance.

“Each station is struggling right now, even the large ones, given the cuts,” Langner acknowledged So Red River Radio and other Louisiana stations are trying to fundraise their way out, at least in part KEDM, the public radio station in Monroe, hosted a fete, “The Boot on the Bayou,” a nod to five years of “The Boot,” its local music program. WWNO in New Orleans is putting on an inaugural benefit concert featuring Stanton Moore. In August, WYES, a PBS member station in New Orleans, aired its first live pledge drive, with clips from WYES documentaries, pleas for support and phones ringing in the background

But each of those stations is also making cuts WYES killed its app, cut the printed program from New Orleans Magazine and stopped hiring a makeup artist for guests on its shows, said president and CEO Robin Cooper They’re also slimming staff, starting with administrative support Volunteers now staff the front desk.

“When has it ever been

easy? It never has,” said Cooper, who rose to CEO after three decades at the station. “So we’re used to challenges, and we continue to face challenges. It’s just a new, bigger challenge to face.”

‘The mighty six’

After ﬁxing the internet, another casualty of the morning’s technical difﬁculties in Shreveport, Jones, the engineer found his way into the studios.

In a last-minute switch, he also found himself on the air.

A volunteer had split early, leaving Ferrell without a guest for a pledge drive break. So Jones took a seat, pulling on headphones.

“For anybody that maybe doesn’t recognize your name what do you do?” Ferrell asked. Jones smiled. “Oh, a lot of things, all things as directed, I think is what it says

They coordinate 22 locally produced programs, from “Bird Calls,” a live call-in show hosted by ornithologist Cliff Shackelford, to broadcasts of local symphonies, hosted by Poling himself. (Poling tries not to play his own performances too often, he said, but given that he leads several area symphonies, it’s tough to avoid.)

“There’s no one person wearing one hat,” Jones said. “We never say, ‘Well, that’s not my job.’

“You need me on the microphone? Great. You need me wiring stuff? Great.”

Listeners love hearing Poling on the air Jones said What they don’t see is when it’s snowing and a transmitter site goes off the air, Poling is the one, with his fourwheel-drive, trekking out to the tower to clear off the snow

As they told the story, pulling up photos on their phones, Edwards arrived with an update: They’d hit $68,000.

Three days and $32,000 more to go.

Carney also confirmed that he apologized to the president during a dinner at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit because Trump was “offended.”

Ontario’s television advertisement that aired in the U.S. criticizes Trump’s tariffs by citing a speech from former President Ronald Reagan.

The ad upset Trump, who ended trade talks with Canada and said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%.

When asked on Saturday what Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s response was to being asked not to run the ad, Carney said, “Well, you saw what came of it. It’s not something I would have done.”

Ford is a populist Conservative while Carney is a Liberal. As premier, Ford is the equivalent of a U.S. governor “I’m the one who is responsible, in my role as

A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately respond when asked if Carney told Ford not to run the ad.

Ford previously said Carney and Carney’s chief of staff watched the ad before it was released.

Ford pulled the ad last Monday but allowed it to be shown in the first two games of the baseball World Series.

Trump said the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president and a beloved figure in the Republican Party But Reagan was wary of tariffs and used much of the 1987 address featured in Ontario’s ad spelling out the case against them.

Trump has complained the ad was aimed at inﬂuencing the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of arguments scheduled this month that could decide whether Trump has the power to impose his sweeping tariffs, a key part of his economic strategy Lower courts had ruled he had exceeded his authority

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JILL PICKETT

Jeff Ferrell, left, news director for Red River Radio, goes on-air with musician Alan Dyson during the station’s Fall Fund Drive on Oct. 8 at the station’s studios and offices in Shreveport

S. KoreaasksChina to

BY HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press

GYEONGJU,South Korea South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to make greaterefforts to persuade North Korea to return to talks, as the two leaders on Saturday agreed on aset of stepstoexpand theireconomic and other ties

Their one-on-one meeting came hours after they and otherAsia-Pacific leaders wrapped up an annual summit in South Korea with a joint statement pledging stronger economiccooperation. The two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the city of Gyeongju took place aday after Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to dial back earlier steps and de-escalate theirtrade war

During his meeting with Lee, Xi called for Seoul to work with Beijing to “practice genuine multilateralism,” according to Chinese state media, as he continued to position Beijing as the defender of the global trade order upended by Trump’s sweepingtariffs.

Chinese state media reports on the Xi-Lee meeting didn’timmediately carry any North Korea-related comments by Xi.

However, Wi Sung-lac, Lee’snational security director,saidLee duringthe meeting outlined his strategy for achieving denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and “requested a

constructiveChinese role to help realize theresumption of talkswith North Korea.” “Xi replied that he would continuehis effortstohelp resolve issues involving theKorean Peninsula and promote peace and stability here,” Wi said. China is North Korea’s traditional ally andeconomic pipeline, but there are still questions about how much leverageithas on its impoverished neighbor.China has been long suspected of avoiding fullyimplementing U.N. sanctionsonNorthKorea andsendingclandestine aidshipments to help the North stay afloat and continue to serve as abulwark against U.S.inﬂuence on the

Korean Peninsula.

The North Korea item in the Lee-Xi meeting drew an irritated responsefrom Pyongyang.North Korean Vice Foreign MinisterPak Myong Ho slammed South Korea for talking about “its daydream” of realizing North Korea’sdenuclearization

Aftertwo days of talks, APEC leaders vowed greater cooperation to tackle shared challengesina global economy hithardbyrising protectionism and trade tensions between the United States andChina,the world’s two largest economies.

Their jointstatementdeclared that the APEC leaders “acknowledge the global

2moresuspectscharged in Louvre case

BY SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press

PARIS TheParis prosecutor said Saturday twonew suspects were handedpreliminary charges fortheir alleged involvementinthe crown jewelsheist at the Louvre museum, three days after they were arrested by police as part of the sweeping investigation.

Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor,said a37-year-old suspect was charged with theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy.He was known to authorities for previous thefts, the statement said.

The other suspect,a 38-year-old woman, was accused of being an accomplice. They were both incarcerated. They both denied involvement, the prosecutor said.

The lawyer for the woman told reporters his clientis “devastated” because she disputesthe accusations “She does not understand how she is implicated in any of theelements sheisaccused of,” he said.

Officials said the jewels stolen in the Oct. 19 heist have not been recovered —a trove valued around $102 million thatincludes adiamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleongave to Empress Marie-Louise as a wedding gift, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-

Amélie andHortense, and Empress Eugénie’spearland-diamondtiara.

Five people were arrested by police Wednesday in connectionwith thecase, including one tiedtothe heist by DNA. That person is suspected of belongingtothe team of four who used afreight lifttruck to enter the Louvre.The prosecutor did not specify whether the person was among those chargedon Saturday.The three others have been released without charges,Beccuau said Twoearliersuspects, men aged34and 39 from Aubervilliers, north of Paris, were chargedwiththeft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy

Beccuau said bothgave “minimalist” statements and “partiallyadmitted their involvement. The two are believedtobethe men whoforced their way into the Apollo Gallery.One was stopped at Charles de Gaulle

Airport withaone-way ticket to Algeria;his DNA matched ascooter used in thegetaway

Neithernames norextensive biographical details aboutthe suspects have been madepublic. Information about investigations is meanttobesecret under French law,toavoid compromising police work and to ensurevictims’right to privacy,apolicyknown as “secret d’instruction.”

Beccuau praised an “exceptional mobilization” about 100 investigators seven days aweek, with roughly 150 forensic samples analyzed and 189 items sealed as evidence.

It tookrobbers less than eight minutestosteal the jewels. The team of four used afreight lift,allowing two of them to force awindow and cut intotwo display cases withdisc cutters, before the four ﬂed on two scooters.

trading system continuesto face signiﬁcant challenge.”

“Wereaffirm our shared recognition that robust trade and investment are vital to thegrowth andprosperity of the Asia-Paciﬁc region,” it says.

The joint declaration said that APEC members remain committed to the Putrajaya Vision 2040, a20-year growth vision adopted in 2020 that calls foratrade environment that’s“free, open, fair,non-discriminatory,transparent and predictable.”

While thesummit’s opening sessiononFridayfocused on waystoboost trade and investment, Saturday’s meeting hadcooperation in the field of artificial intelligence, demographic challenges and cultural industries on its agenda.

Xi urgedAsia-Pacific countries on Saturday to promote the “sound and orderly development” of AI in away that is mindful of all

of humanity’swell-being. He proposed the formation of a new global body called the World Artiﬁcial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. Trump,knownfor his dismissal of multilateralism, hadquickly left South Korea after the agreement with Xi,leaving the Chinese president to steal the limelight at the APEC summit. The U.S. under Trump has steppedback from effortsto regulate AI andwould be unlikely to join the group that China has proposed.

On Friday,Xitold the summitthat China would support global free trade and supply chain stability —an apparent effort to position his country as an alternative to Trump’sprotectionist policies. In written remarks sent to aCEO summit held in conjunction with the APEC summit, Xi said that “investing in China is investing in the future.”

PRESS PHOTO

Chinese President Xi Jinping,center left, and South Korean PresidentLee Jae Myung,center right,

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10 hospitalized aftertrain stabbing attack in U.K.

BY PANPYLAS Associated Press

LONDON Britishpolicesaid 10 people havebeen hospitalized, nine with life-threatening injuries, following amass stabbingattack on aLondon-bound train Saturday evening,and that counter-terrorism police are supporting the investigation.

In astatement early Sunday, British Transport Police, which took the lead in the response given it is responsible for security matters on the trains, saidtwo individuals have been arrested in connection with the stabbings.

“Ten people have been taken to hospital with nine believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries,”the statement said. “This has been declared amajor incident and Counter Terrorism Policing are supporting our investigation whilst we work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident.” The police force also saidthat

services when responding to what could be a“marauding terror attack,” was initiated.Thatdeclaration was later rescinded but no motivefor the attack was disclosed.

“We’re conducting urgent enquiries to establishwhathas happened, and it could take some time before we are in aposition to conﬁrm anything further,”Chief Superintendent Chris Casey said.

“Atthisearly stageitwould not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”

The attack took place as the Doncaster to LondonKing’sCross train headed southtoward Huntingdon, amarkettowna fewmiles northwest of the university city of Cambridge.

Emergency services, including armed police and airambulances, respondedquickly as thetrain drew into Huntingdon.The attack appears to have beencontained swiftly after the train arrived at thestation, and police officers

wearing forensic suits, with apolice dog, could be seen on the platform Cambridgeshire Constabulary, the local police force, said armed police attended the incident after ofﬁcers were calledtothe scene at Huntingdonstation at 7:39 p.m. on Saturday.Itadded that the two people were arrested at the station, whichisaround 75 miles north of London. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his “thoughts are with all those affected” after the “appalling incident.”

Paul Bristow,the mayor of Cambridgeshireand Peterborough, said he had heard of “horrendous scenes” on the train.

London NorthEastern Railway, or LNER, which operates the East CoastMainline services in the U.K., conﬁrmed the incident had happenedonone of its trainsand urged passengers not to travel because of “major disruption.”

Trumpwarns Nigeriaitmay face U.S. military action over attacks

Bloomberg News (TNS)

President Donald Trump threatenedpossible U.S. military action in Nigeria, saying its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians” by Islamic militants. In apost on Truth Social, Trumpsaid he’sinstructing thePentagon “to prepare for possible action” and threatened an immediate cutoff in aidtoNigeria, an OPEC member that is Africa’s most populous country Trumpsaid Friday he’s designatingNigeria aCountryofParticularConcern because of worries about the safety of Christians in

thecountry

NigerianPresident Bola Ahmed Tinubu rejected Trump’scharacterization of thecountryasreligiously intolerant in apost on Xand said the U.S.president was disregarding “the consistent andsincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”

Lawyer disputes terror plot allegations

BY JOSH FUNK Associated Press

AMichigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI allegations that his 20-year-oldclient and four otheryoung suspects were planning to carry out aterror attack on Halloweenweekend. Authorities with the FBI and in Michigan have offered few details about the case, however as he announced the arrests on Friday,FBI Director Kash Patel said more information would be released. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday

The investigation involved discussion inan online chat room involving atleastsome of the suspects who were taken into custody,according to two peoplebriefed on theinvestigation who could not publicly discuss details

Thegroup allegedly discussedcarrying out an attack around Halloween, referring to “pumpkin day,” according to one of the people. The other person briefed on the investigation conﬁrmed that there had beena “pumpkin” reference.

Amir Makled, who represents aman from Dearborn who was being detained Saturday, told The Detroit Newsthat he doesn’tbelieve his client or the four otherpeople who

were questionedbythe FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force should be charged. The all-male group of U.S. citizensranges in age from 16 to 20, Makled said.

“This is not aterrorist cell,” Makled told the News.“There was never any planned mass-casualtyevent or terrorism plot of any kind that I’maware of.Theymight have been on some websites or online chat groups that theyshouldn’t have been, butnothing that is illegal.”

Patel said Friday in apostonXthat “the FBI thwarted apotential terrorist attack andarrested multiple subjectsinMichigan who were allegedly plotting aviolent attack over Halloween weekend.”

“Havinga curiosityabout globalevents is notillegal,” Makled said. “Being in those chat rooms is not illegal. If there is athreat, if they became radicalized, or if an (FBI) agentistrying to antagonize or get themto agree to do something that is inappropriate or illegal, then you cross athreshold.None of that happened in this situation.”

Investigators say they believe the Halloweenplot was inspiredbyIslamic State group extremism. It wasn’tclear if the group had the means to carry out an attack, but the reference to Halloweenprompted the FBI to make arrests Friday, one of the people familiar with theinvestigation told the AP

Tinubu hascome under pressure this year from an increasing Islamist insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, including attacks of dozens of fortiﬁed army bases. Nigeria’spopulation of about 230millionisroughly split between Christians and Muslims, and attacks have targeted both groups In April, Tinubu said at least 40 people were killed when Muslim gunmen attacked a Christianfarming community

AnyU.S.attack would be “fast, vicious, and sweet, he said.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country,‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committingthese horrible atrocities,” Trumpsaid on Saturday

RedCross in Louisiana serves4.65millionresidentsacrossall64parishesandextendshopeto communitiesacrossthenationandaroundtheworld.Whenyousupportyour localRedCross,youmakeadirectimpactinyourcommunity

PA PHOTO By CHRISRADBURN

Emergency personnel inspect atrain at the Huntingdon, England, train station in Cambridgeshire afterpeople were stabbed Saturday

BY CLAIRE GALOFARO Associated Press

CHICAGO The 2-year-old boy was so frightened, he stuttered “Mommy, mommy, mommy,” he repeated, clinging to her

His mother, Molly Kucich, had been grocery shopping when her husband called, panicking She heard “immigration raid.” Then: “tear gas.”

She abandoned her grocery cart and drove as fast as she could to her toddler and his 14-month-old brother, who, on that warm October Friday, were among the hundreds of Chicago children caught in the turmoil of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Parents, teachers and caregivers have been grappling ever since with how to explain to children what they’d seen: how much to tell them so they know enough to stay safe, but not too much to rob them of their childhood. A toddler shouldn’t know what a tear gas canister is, Kucich said.

“I don’t know how to explain this to my kids.”

Children were playing on the monkey bars outside Funston Elementary School just before noon on Oct. 3 when a SUV rolled down their street in Logan Square, a historically Hispanic neighborhood that’s been steadily gentrifying for years. Cars followed behind it, drivers laying on their horns to alert neighbors that these were federal agents. A scooter pulled in front of the SUV, trying to block it in. Suddenly, tear gas canisters ﬂew from the window of the SUV

The cloud of gas rose, ﬁrst white then green, and the street exploded into pandemonium. Some people ran. Others shouted at agents to leave Sirens screamed toward them.

Kucich’s son was a half-block away, having lunch in the window of Luna y Cielo Play Cafe, where

enforcement must END. We will not be deterred by rioters and protesters in keeping America safe.”

The statement said that in Logan Square, agents deployed tear gas along with pepper balls “after repeated vocal attempts to disperse the crowd.”

Oliva-Perez was feet away on the sidewalk and didn’t hear them say anything. Videos show cars and the scooter trying to block the SUV and a few pedestrians heckling the ofﬁcers. Oliva-Perez ran toward the school, yelling at staff to get the children inside.

“Here I am, a U.S. citizen, a teacher, and I got treated like a common criminal,” she said.

‘Our skin color defines us’

Two little boys walking by Evelyn Medina’s gift shop next door to the school gripped each other so tightly their ﬁngers dug into each other’s hands.

“They were so scared,” said Medina, who cries when she thinks about how they looked leaving school that day “It was really hard to see, imagining what’s going on in their little minds.”

Medina, a 43-year-old citizen, understands the fear these children face: She came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 8. As a child, she worried someone would take her parents away

children learn Spanish as they play with pretend food and toy cars. His nanny takes him there most days.

Owner Vanessa Aguirre-Ávalos ran outside to see what was happening, as the children’s nannies hustled them to a back room. Aguirre-Ávalos is a citizen; the nannies, Hispanic grandmothers, are citizens or are legally allowed to work in the U.S. Still, they were terrified. One begged Aguirre-Ávalos: If they take me, please make sure the children get home safe.

The SUV eventually drove away, the cloud of smoke cleared, and parents arrived. “What’s happening?” a girl cried, over and over

Kucich’s son, who is White, now worries about his nanny, a U.S. citizen from Guatemala.

‘Act like nothing was wrong’

Fifth grade teacher Liza OlivaPerez walked to the grocery store across the street for lunch. She noticed a helicopter circling, then the SUV and its tail of honking cars. That morning, another teacher gave her a whistle, with instructions to blow it if immigration agents were in the neighborhood. Oliva-Perez fumbled the whistle to her lips. Just then, the SUV’s

window rolled down and she saw a masked man inside throw a tear gas canister “I couldn’t fathom that was happening,” said Oliva-Perez.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents were “impeded by protesters” during a targeted enforcement operation in which one man was arrested.

The Chicago crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” began in early September Masked, armed agents in unmarked trucks patrol neighborhoods, and residents have protested in ways big and small against what they see as their city under siege Agents stormed an apartment complex by helicopter in the middle of the night. They’ve detained U.S citizens, including elected ofﬁcials. An agent shot and wounded a woman who allegedly used her car to box them in. Protesters have been tear-gassed and shot with pepper bullets. President Donald Trump wants to deploy the National Guard.

DHS wrote that its agents are being terrorized: “Our brave ofﬁcers are facing a surge in increase in assaults against them, inducing sniper attacks, cars being used as weapons on them, and assaults by rioters. This violence against law

She was shaking when she got to her classroom of 25 students, who wanted to know what just happened. All of them are Hispanic. She knows they are having agonizing conversations at home — who they’ll call if their parents disappear, where they’ll go. Oliva-Perez became a teacher six years ago, after her daughter died by suicide at 16 years old. She wanted to help kids feel loved and safe. She never had a harder time than on that afternoon.

“I had to act like nothing was wrong,” she said. “I don’t want them to be like, if Ms. Oliva is scared then I’m going to be scared too.”

She and the other teachers spent the afternoon telling the children that everything was ﬁne. But each dreaded the bell at the end of the day They’d have to lead the students outside and they didn’t know what would be waiting.

First grade teacher Maria Heavener spread the word in community group chats that the school needed help. When the bell rang, she walked her students outside. In every direction, neighbors lined the sidewalk, dozens of them. There were people who’d never considered themselves activists, or even particularly political, standing there, enraged, scanning the streets for unmarked SUVs and masked men. They signed up to come back every morning and afternoon.

She noticed people picking up multiple children that day for their friends and neighbors who were too afraid to leave their houses.

A 13-year-old girl wept when she saw a neighbor there to get her Her mother usually comes for her but not that day When that girl got home, she told her mother she thought the house might be empty, that agents might have been there and taken her away Her mother does not have permanent legal status and asked that her name not be used. Her greatest fear is being separated from her children.

This fear is no longer reserved for families lacking permanent legal status.

One mother, whose 12-year-old son was in the school that day, now jolts awake each morning at 4 a.m., her head pounding, her heart racing. She checks social media frequently for reports of people spotting Border Patrol or ICE: another tear gassing; another raid. She and her son are citizens, but she asked that only her ﬁrst name, Ava, be used.

“Our skin color deﬁnes us,” she said.

Her son cries constantly, “I don’t want to lose my grandparents.”

He’s offered to get them groceries so they can stay inside.

“Losing them, it would forever break him apart,” she said. “His question is always: why? Why? “I don’t know why.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By REBECCA BLACKWELL

Three sisters, whose single mother fears being mistakenly detained by federal immigration agents because she is of Puerto Rican descent and speaks Spanish, walk into Funston Elementary School in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

Louisianahas thenation’shighest childpoverty rate

It couldworsen with thefederal shutdown

WASHINGTON —Few likely are surprised that Louisiana, per capita, has more children living in poverty than any otherstate.

One in 5 Louisiana children live in poverty, according to the report released last week by the inﬂuential Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Mark Ballard

If food stamps were removed from the equation —asthreatened nationwide on Saturdaybecause of the partisan stalemate that prolongs afederal government shutdown—Louisiana’schild poverty ratio would increase to roughly 1 in 3, the analysis contends. That works out to 263,599 of Louisiana’s1,066,394 children under the age of 18 years living in poverty right now and383,902 who would live in poverty without the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP In Baton Rouge, 25,520 now live in poverty,which would increase to 37,769 children if food stamps were unavailable. In New Orleans, the increase would be from 26,664 now to 31,846 without SNAP; Jefferson Parish, from 21,881 to 30,444; Lafayette from 4,507 to 6,654; and for the Shreveport area, 16,648 to 23,411. But the study’ssting comes in the ﬁnding that Louisiana had the nation’s steepestjump —up8percentage points —inchild poverty ratesfrom 2021 to 2024.

“With aquarter of childrenliving in poverty and almost athird of children having parents who lack full-time, year-round employment, economic stability continues to be a widespread challenge for children and communities throughout the state,” the report concluded. Thefoundation and its supporters in Louisiana link thehike in child povertyto arollback of government beneﬁtsexpanded during the pandemic and now seen as nolonger needed. An extension of the tax credit to offset the high cost of privatehealth

Landrywants LSUtoerect

statue of Charlie Kirk

Gov.Jeff Landry posted avideo on social media last Monday night saying LSU should put up astatue of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist whowas assassinated during a speech on acollege campus.

Capitol Buzz STAFF REPORTS

“We’regoingto put achallengeout to the LSU Board of Supervisors to ﬁnd aplace to put astatue of Charlie Kirk to defend thefreedom of speech on college campuses,” Landry says in the video,in which he is standing next to the Mike the Tiger statue nearTiger Stadium.

“C’mon, ladies and gentlemen, let’s see if we can be the ﬁrst campus to do it.”

Landry posted the video after speaking at an event at LSU’s student union theater hostedby Turning PointUSA, theconservativestudentorganization Kirk founded. More than 1,500 people

insurance purchased by low-income workers and small businessesthrough the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, which is a keycause to the monthlong shutdown, is one of those programs.

“You know,unfortunately, this isn’tnews,” said Jan Moller,executive director of Invest in Louisiana, aBaton Rouge-based progressive think tank. “It just reinforced what we knew,which is public policy has theability to reduce child poverty.”

Teresa Falgoustagreed.

“Wewere able to make ahuge dent during the pandemic; that we made the right investments for

the right kids at the right time,” said Falgoust, director of data and research at Agenda for Children, aNew Orleans-based advocacy group that helps children’sfacilities. She is amember of Gov.Jeff Landry’sChildren’sCabinetAdvisory Board.

Both Invest Louisiana and Agenda for Children are independent entities that are partially supported by the AnnieE.Casey Foundation.

Perhaps the mostimportant program during the pandemic was the Child TaxCredit expanded in 2021, both Falgoust and Moller say

Trumpposthumously awarded him the Presidential MedalofFreedom Kirk frequently generated controversy forcriticizingthe Civil RightsAct and Martin Luther King Jr.and for his commentsabout immigrants andtransgenderpeople, among other issues.

LSU women’sbasketball star Flau’jae Johnsonreposted Landry’svideo calling for astatue with the comment “????.”

Depending on income, many families received the full credit of $3,600 per child under age 6and $3,000 for older children. Money was paid out monthly,which helped needy families cover bills. That temporary program expired in December 2022.

The Republican majority in Congress added a child tax credit to its One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law July 4. Now,the Child Tax Credit is permanent with the maximum credit of $2,200 per child and collectible as alump sum on 2025 tax returns, which

him to take ajob with an industry tradegroup,his ofﬁceannounced Wednesday

are ﬁled before April 15, 2026. The credit is available, on asliding scale, for families with incomes up to $400,000. Low-incomeﬁlers now have to earn acertain amount to take advantage. But the nation’sattention has turned to the food stamps that help feed 42 millionAmericans, which were set to expire Saturday.Though not part of the pandemic package, SNAP is one of the few remaining relief programs.

Twofederal judges ordered the administration Friday to make payments to the food program. However it was unclear as to when the debit cards that beneﬁciaries use could be reloaded after the ruling. Louisiana gets abrief reprieve, however,because the Republican-run state government diverted about $150 millioninrainy day funds to replace the pause in federal funding to prop up SNAP during the month of November,atleast for the state’selderly,disabled and families with children.

“We’re excited to see that the Landry administration is trying to preserve SNAP beneﬁts for children and families in Louisiana, but it’svery concerning that this is even aquestion at this point,” Falgoust said. Moller added that the movebyaRepublican governor and GOPmajority Legislature showsawillingness forLouisiana to invest in poverty-stricken children that he hopes could extend to other policies.

“So, we know it’spossible to have political consensus around feeding hungry people and giving people public support,” Moller said. Email Mark Ballardat mballard@theadvocate. com.

attended, organizers said. Kirk had been scheduled to speak at the LSU event beforehe was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while addressing students at Utah Valley University Landry,President DonaldTrump and other Republican leaders have praised Kirk as achampion for free speech and Christian values.

After another user replied to her by saying, “I’ma Kirkfan, but this would be stupid. Landryneeds to stay out of LSU business,” Johnson responded: “For the sake of clarity,ifyou alignyourself with or endorse hisracistrhetoric and discriminatory views toward people of color,Irespectfully ask that youutilize the unfollow option at thetop right of my proﬁle.”

Scalise’stop adviser is leaving for trade group

WASHINGTON —U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise’stop adviser as House majority leader is leaving after more than adecade working for

Chief of Staff Brett Horton, of West Monroe, is joining the American Hotel&Lodging Association on Dec. 1, where he will oversee direct lobbying efforts, PACstrategy, grassroots engagement, coalitionbuilding and issue advocacy campaigns.

our country.” Horton joined Scalise in 2010, serving as counsel, policy director, ﬂoor director and then as chief of stafffor the leader’sofﬁce.

Since Scalise was elected to a House Republican leadership position in 2014, ﬁrst as GOPwhip and then as majority leader,Horton wasinchargeofcommunicating with House and Senate leaders as well as the White House.

“There are fewpeople that know Capitol Hill better than Brett Horton,” Scalise,R-Jefferson, said in astatement.

“Most importantly,hehas been by my side through challenges that extend far beyond legislating —in the aftermath of theCongressional Baseball Game shooting, Brett’s friendship and steady leadership carried my staff, my family and the entire (Republican) conference through an unprecedented attack on the institution. Iamso incredibly grateful to Brett forhis yearsofdedication and service to

In aplace where top aides often change jobs, Horton has remained in his stressful post running the majority leader’soffice in the U.S. Capitol about twice as long as other leadership chiefs of staff. Scalisealsohas asecond office that works with Louisiana officials and the 1st Congressional District. The chief of stafffor the constituency office is Megan Bel Miller,of Amite.

Scalise plans to run forreelection next year.Noplans for Horton’sreplacement have been made yet.

Horton’snew employment was first reported by Punchbowl, an online news service focusing on Capitol Hill.

Horton

PROVIDED PHOTO

Gov. Jeff Landryposted avideo on social media saying LSUshould put up astatueofCharlie Kirk, theconservativeactivist whowas killed during aspeech on acollege campus Sept. 10.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByJ.SCOTT APPLEWHITE

SecretaryofAgricultureBrooke Rollins speaks alongside Speakerofthe House MikeJohnson, R-Benton, Fridayatanews conference at the Capitol in Washington to talk about SNAPfood aid benefits on Day31ofthe government shutdown.

Egyptunveils huge museum of antiquities

BY SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

CAIRO In an extravaganza of pharaonicimagery with adrone light show depicting ancient gods and pyramids in thesky,Egypt on Saturdayinauguratedits longdelayedGrand Egyptian Museum, amegaproject aiming to give the country’smillennia-old heritage a rich, modern display Twodecades in the making, the museum located near the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx is the centerpiece of the government’sbid to boost Egypt’stourism industry and bring cash into the troubled economy At the elaborate grandopening ceremony,attended by anumber of European and Arab royals and other presidents and primeministers,EgyptianPresident AbdelFattah el-Sissi sought to give the event an international scale. He called on attendees to“make this museum aplatformfor dialogue, adestination for knowledge, aforum for humanity,and abeacon for all who love life andbelieve in the value of humankind. The museum, known as GEM, is one of several megaprojects championed by el-Sissi sincehe took office in 2014, embarking on massiveinvestments in infrastructure with the aim of reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Egypt’spharaonic historyhas long made it atouristmagnet.But it has also long struggled to organize and display the sheer huge amount of artifacts —everything from tiny pieces of jewelry and colorful tomb murals to towering statues of pharaohs andanimalheaded gods, with more discoveries constantly being made across

the country

Touted as the world’sbiggest museum dedicated to asingle ancientcivilization,the newbuilding, in acontemporary style, aims to correct that. Its large,open halls give space and rich explanations for some 50,000 artifacts on display,alongwith virtual reality exhibits. It displaysthe entire collection of treasures from the tomb of thefamedKingTutankhamen for the ﬁrst time since its discovery in 1922.

Themuseum replaces theEgyptian Museum, housed in building more than acentury old in downtown Cairothat —while elegant in its Neo-Classical style —had become antiquatedand was often compared to awarehouse,over-

packed with artifacts withlittle explanation.

Aplannedgrand opening over thesummer had to be put off after the 12-day-long war between Israel and Iran erupted in June.

GEM is expected to attract 5million visitors annually,said Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister, Sherif Fathy.In2024, by comparison, Paris’sLouvre brought in 8.7 million, the British Museum 6.5 millionand the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 5.7 million. Saturday night’sgrand opening stoked the pharaoh-mania.

As an orchestra played fanfares, lines of actors dressed in ancient Egyptian garb arrayed around the museum,the pyramids andthe Sphinx. Hundreds of drones cre-

ated alight show in the sky,depicting well-known Egyptian gods like Isis and Osiris and the pyramids.

El-Sissi posed with delegates from more than 70 countries, includingmembers of theroyal families from Belgium,Spain, Denmark,Jordan, Gulf nations andJapan, and anumber of European and regional presidents and primeministers. It wasa throwback to thegrand opening of anothermegaproject in Egypt,the 1869 inauguration of theSuezCanal, when Egypt’srulers gathered ahost of European royal families.

The museum boasts atowering, triangular glass facade imitating thenearby pyramids, with 258,000 square feetofpermanent exhibition space.

It opens to agranitecolossusof Ramses the Great, one of ancient Egypt’smostpowerful pharaohs whoreigned for around 60 years, from 1279-13 B.C., and is credited with expanding ancient Egypt’s reach as far as modern Syria to the east andmodern Sudan to the south. The statue greets visitors once they step inside the museum’s angular atrium. The museum’s12main galleries, which opened last year,exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, organized by era and by themes.

Twohalls that will be opened for the ﬁrst time afterSaturdayare dedicated to the 5,000 artifacts from the collection of King Tutankhamen —a boypharaoh who ruledfrom1361-52 B.C. The tomb wasdiscovered by British archaeologistHoward Carter in 1922 in the southern city of Luxor.But the oldEgyptianMuseumdidn’thave enough room to displaythe whole collection.

The collection includes the boy pharaoh’s threefuneralbedsand six chariots, his golden throne, his gold-covered sarcophagus and his burial mask, madeofgold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and colored glass.

Zahi Hawass,Egypt’s most renownedarchaeologist andformer minister of antiquities, said the Tutankhamen collection is the museum’s masterpiece.

“Why this museum is so important, and everyone is waiting for the opening?” he told TheAssociated Press. “Because of Tutankhamen.” The government has also revamped the area around the museum and the nearby pyramids and the Sphinx. New highways were built, and ametro station is being constructed nearby.Anairport, Sphinx International Airport, has also opened west of Cairo —40 minutes from the museum

BY AUGUSTASARAIVA

Bloomberg News (TNS)

As Donald Trump steps up his targeting of Venezuela, theregion’sfragmented governments are failing to agree on anyjoint response to rein him in. Not only have President Nicolás Maduro’scallsfor LatinAmerican solidarity largely fallenondeaf ears, butanew poll shows asigniﬁcant number of people in the region even see U.S. military interventionasthe best shot at restoring Venezuelan democracy That contrasts with the response in 2018 whenthe Venezuelan refugee crisis was nearits peak, and governments from acrossLatin Americaand the Caribbeanput

aside ideological differences to meet and coordinate aresponse. Braziland Colombia,two key players which last year teamed up to mediate with Maduro, now take very different approaches as theU.S. sends ships andplanesto the southern Caribbean in what it says are effortstoﬁght drug trafficking. While Colombian leader GustavoPetro’scriticisms have heightened tensions between Washington and Bogotá, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has adopteda more diplomatic tone as he seeks to convince Trump to lower the50% tariffs imposed on many of his country’s goods Lula distanced himself from Maduro after last year’selection in Venezuela, and never recognized

his victory in avote whichwas widely considered to be fraudulent.

Colombia’sleader has refused to condemn Maduroand has continued to engage with Caracas on issues including trade, security and energy.Hehas also been more strident in his criticism of Trump’sactions, and his combative tone made him thetarget of U.S. sanctions. “Latin American fragmentation is central to Trump’sstrategy,” said Carlos Gustavo Poggio, apolitical scientistwho focuses on U.S.LatinAmerica relations.“We’re all on our own, and his strategy is to divide and conquer ” It doesn’thelp for regional leaders that asignificantnumberof theirvoters have apositive view of Trump’sVenezuela policy.A

survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News found that 39% of people believe the U.S. president is “very committed” to bringing freedom to Venezuela, compared to 17% forLula and 16% for Petro. What’smore, those polledsee aU.S. intervention as offering agreater chance of success in restoringdemocracy to Venezuela thandiplomatic negotiationsor social protests.

The poll of 6,757 people wasconducted Oct. 22-28 and has amargin of error of 1percentage point.

The survey was carried out across theregion, as well as among Latin Americans in the U.S. and Canada.

Lulaistrying to avoid aspat with eitherVenezuela or theU.S. before any full-blownconﬂict, according

to Braziliandiplomats who asked not to be identiﬁed.

Awar in Venezuela would be much more devastating forColombia,which is home to millions of Venezuelans and has amore integrated border with its neighbor This mightexplainPetro’s more vocal stance, one of them said. Mexico’sClaudia Sheinbaum and Chile’s Gabriel Boric have made clear their opposition to aU.S. invasion of Venezuela but, like Lula, have avoidedstatementsthatmight jeopardize their relationship with Washington.Withleaders focused on trade talks with the U.S., Argentina grappling with an economic crisis and Boric focusing on an election at home, Trump is beneﬁting from their fragmented attention.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILEPHOTOSByAMR NABIL

Visitors pose for agroup photo under astatue of Hatshepsut on May23atthe GrandEgyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt. Agrand opening for the museumwas held Saturday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOSByNATACHA

Zooclosedin2020and left itsanimals stranded

Butrescueefforts areunderway in Argentina

BY ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press

LUJAN, Argentina Lions,tigers and bears that managed to survive in substandard conditions at anow-shuttered zoo on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, paced weakly in their claustrophobic cages on Thursday,waiting their turn to receive urgent veterinary care for the ﬁrst time in years.

The 62 big cats and two brown bears were being evaluated and treated before their eventual transfer to vast wildlife sanctuaries abroad —among the most complex animal rescues undertaken in Argentinaafter the country’srecent arrangement with an international animal welfare organization.

Argentine authoritiesin 2020 shut down the Lujan Zoo —famous for letting visitors handle and pose for pictures with tigers and lions —over mounting safety concerns.

But the plight of the captive cats there only worsened. For the past ﬁveyears, the animals were sustained by little more than afew loyal zookeepers who, despite having lost their jobs at Lujan, took it upon themselves to feed and care for the stranded lions and tigersleft behind. Most didn’tmake it.

When Four Paws, an animal rights charity,ﬁrstvisited the zoo in 2023, caretakers counted 112 lions and tigers —already down from the 136 big cats housed in the zoo at the time of its closure.

Twoyears on, almost half of the animals have succumbed to illnesses from poor nutrition, wounds from fights with animals they’d never encounter in the wild, infections from lack of medical attention and organ failure from the stress of living in such cramped conditions.

“It was really shocking,” said the organization’s chief program officer,Luciana D’Abramo, pointing to a10-square-foot cage crammed with seven female

lions. “Overcrowded is anunderstatement.”

Next-door,two Asian tigers shareda tiny cage with two African lions —a “social composition that would never be found in nature,” D’Abramosaid. “There’s a lotofhostility,ﬁghting.”

Asingle lion typically gets 2.5 acres to itself at Four Paws’sanctuariesaround the world.Afterstriking an agreement with Argentina’s government earlier this year, Four Paws took overresponsibility for thesurviving wild animalsinLujanlastmonth

Thememorandumofunderstanding involved Argentinacommittingtoend the sale and private ownership of exotic felinesinthe large SouthAmerican country, where enforcementefforts often run aground across 23 provinces that have their ownrules and regulations.

Although the Vienna-based organization has previously evacuated starving tigers from Syria’scivil war,abandoned bearsand hyenas from the war-ravaged Iraqi city of Mosuland neglected lion cubs fromthe besieged Gaza Strip,ithas never rescued such alarge number of big cats before

“Here, the number of animals and the conditions where they are kept make this amuchbiggerchallenge,”saidDr. Amir Khalil, the veterinarianleadingthe group’semergency mission.

“This is one of our biggest missions notonly in Argentina or Latin America, but worldwide.”

On Thursday,veterinarians and experts from the

organization were scrambling around the derelict zoo to assess the animals one by one. Most hadnot been vaccinated, sterilized or microchipped for identiﬁcation.

The team whisked sedated lions and tigers ontooperatingtables, dispensingnutrients, antibiotics and doses of pain medication via IV drips.

The quickcheckups frequently transformed into emergency surgeries. One tigerwas treated for ableeding gash in itstaillastweek and alioness for avaginal tumor on Thursday.Several tigersand lionsneededroot canals to repair infected molars thathad been broken on the steel cage bars

Others received treatment forclaws that hadgrown inwardfromwalking too much on unnatural, plank ﬂooring in the enclosures.

After evaluating each animal in the coming weeks, Four Paws will arrange for their transfer to more expansive,natural homesd.

SomeArgentine zookeepers whospent decades feedingand caring for thebig catssay they’rehappy to see Four Paws improving the conditions. But there was also asense of nostalgia for how thingswere.

“Itused to be avery popular place I’ve seen people cry because theycould touch alionorfeed atigerwith a bottle,” said Alberto Díaz, who spent 27 years working with the wild cats at the LujanZoo, overseeing hands-on experiences

“Time changes, laws change, and you have to adapt or get left behind.”

BY BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press

Abirdsighting on New York’s Long Islandhas avian enthusiasts flocking to theregion in hopes of spottingafeathered friend that has never been seen before in the state.

Thecommoncuckoois typically found fromEurope to Japan, withthe majority of the population wintering in Africa.

But one was recently spotted in Riverhead —a town on thenorth shore of LongIsland about75miles from New York City—bya golfer who snapped aphoto andsentittohis nephew,a birding enthusiast.

The information eventually was sharedwiththe Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.Once the bird was conﬁrmed as acommoncuckoo, birders quickly sharedthe news in their communities.

The bird has since been spotted morethan 200 times by enthusiasts who have noted theirsightings on the birding site ebird.org and various social media sites, including theAmerican Birding Association.

Many people in other parts of the U.S. also have reported makingspecial treks to the region in hopes of seeing it forthemselves.

The last confirmed sightings came Oct. 26.

It’snot clear how or why thebirdendedupinsouthern New York, or if it’seven still in the region.

Experts say it’sajuvenile —meaning it hatchedthis spring or summer —soit’s reasonable to conclude it was trying to migrate for the winter but somehow gotlostorblown off course

The common cuckoo has been found only three other times in the eastern U.S. and Canada, experts said. Jay McGowan, acurator

at the Cornell Lab’sMacaulayLibrary,saidthe bird maystillbeinthe area,but if it has relocated, it maybe unlikely anyone will happen acrossitagain. He urged anyone who does see it to report their sightings to the birder community

“This is deﬁnitely amajor event for anyone birding in New York state, and unusual enough forthe broader region,”McGowan said, adding that he’snot surprised to see many people are willing to make long trips to the area for achance to see a bird they would otherwise be unlikely to see unless they went to Europe or Asia

“If people see it, they shouldn’tapproach too closelyfor photos,but otherwise it’sfairly tolerant of peopleand trafﬁc,” McGowan said. “Itlooksalot like asmall hawk, like the commonCooper’shawk, so don’tbefooled if you see one of those.”

PISARENKO

Florencia, abrown bear,lies in her cageat the former Lujan Zoo, which closed in 2020, where in recent days aglobal animalwelfareorganization has been treating animals, in Lujan, Argentina.

Members of the global animal welfare organization Four Paws treat atiger at the former Lujan Zoo.

THE GULF COAST

Waterfront Gautier restaurant closes

Huck’s

was also home to resident alligator

BY MARY PEREZ Sun Herald

A slice of the Caribbean with its resident alligator, Willie, and dining decks overlooking a Mississippi Coast river closed up shop for good over the weekend.

Oct. 26 was the last day for owners Don and Joann Worner at Huck’s Cove Grill on the Bayou in Gautier They sold the restaurant to a local buyer who owns another restaurant on the Coast

“Sad,” is how they describe the end of the era that began on Oct. 19, 1999, when they purchased the restaurant on the West Pascagoula River They recently totaled $10 million they’ve invested in the business and community since then, the college kids and local staff members who worked there, the bands who entertained and the countless people they fed.

“We’re kind of an icon in Gautier Like a yacht club where everyone could belong,” Don said.

Times change, and it’s hard for a small restaurant to survive, he said, especially when the owners spend six months on weather watch.

“It’s come time for us to retire,” Don Worner said

“It’s a younger person’s business,” Joann Worner said.

A local hot spot for decades

The restaurant was known for its burgers and seafood, and they added Coast favorites like fried green tomatoes, gumbo and fried dill pickles.

“We tried to have items none of the other restaurants served,” Joann Worner said, like being the

ﬁrst to put gator tail on the menu.

The couple bought the waterfront restaurant from Beau Speed, a Gautier pharmacist who opened Huck’s Cove in 1996, bringing a taste of his tropical Caribbean experiences to South Mississippi.

The building was just hit by

“We’re kind of an icon in Gautier. Like a yacht club where everyone could belong.”

DON WORNER, owner of Huck’s Cove Grill on the Bayou

Hurricane Georges before the sale went through, and was repaired.

“We’ve always built back,” Don Worner said, restoring the building, the docks and decks torn up by tropical storms and deluged by Hurricane Katrina.

The water line of Katrina is marked above the window in the restaurant, amid the license plates, photos of celebrities who ate there and the wallpaper of memorabilia.

The Worners said most of the license plates are theirs. “We traveled a lot,” said Don Worner.

He was from Ocean Springs and when they were ready to settle back on the Coast, they were looking for a place that reminded them of the Bahamas, where they had spent a lot of time

Diners will miss Huck’s Cove

Customers could pull up in their boat or set their map to 3000 Oak

St. to reach Huck’s Cove

Or they can go with local directions to turn off U.S. 90 by the bridge and hang a right just after the cemetery

Then it’s a weave past the separate restroom building like those in the Bahamas, into the entry with its porch swings and out beyond to the decks.

People just seem to ﬁnd the restaurant.

“We wanted to go somewhere on the water,” said two customers from Cleveland, Ohio, who were having lunch on the deck with their dogs after visiting the alligator.

Manatees also have been known to swim up to Huck’s a time or two.

“I love this little place,” said Lisa Simpson, who wants the new owners to keep the menu and the restaurant the same She and Jeffrey Saylors visit whenever they come to Biloxi from Florida, and she always orders the same thing.

“I’m not getting crawfish in West Palm Beach,” she said. As the new owner takes on the care of the building and the history

Huck’s Cove Grill on the Bayou in Gautier was sold

Twin disastersreshapedHabitat forHumanityunder CEO

Leader shares insights from Katrina,tsunami

BY GLENN GAMBOA Associated Press

JonathanReckford jokes that before he became CEO of Habitat for Humanity International he couldn’treally keep ajob. In the two decades after he graduated from the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, Reckford had been afinancial analyst at Goldman Sachs, coach of the Korean rowing team for the 1988 Olympics, and held executive and managerial positions at Marriott, Disney and Best Buy.Hewas executive pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church near Minneapolis,whenhewas recruited to lead Habitat in 2005. What Reckford did not expect was how the twin disasters of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina would make the global housing nonproﬁt expand its work so quickly.Orthat they would make building affordable housing such amajor priority

“It was an inﬂection point,” Reckford, 63,told The Associated Press in an interview “Those two giant disasters forced Habitat to changein some ways that Ithink had long-term beneﬁts. We were designed as agrassroots movement to buildafew houses in thousands of locations. Suddenly,weneeded to work at scale in afew

countries in Asia and then across theGulfCoast. I’m reallyproud of these enormous efforts.” Reckford talkedabout other lessons learned in his 20 years leadingHabitat, as he prepared for the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project —the ﬁrst since thedeath of Reckford’s“hero and role model” President Carter in December— whichwill build25 sustainable homes in Austin, Texas, starting on Oct. 26. The interview was edited for clarity and length. Iwas in New Orleans in June and some areas arestill not what they used to be. But so much ofitisback. Exactly.One thing we certainly seeeverywherein the world —global North or global South —isit’s5to7 times cheaper to invest in mitigationthan it is tofix stuff after the disaster.Another thing for the public to know is about 80% of the funds after abig disaster go to the relief effort. You certainly need all of that relief effort. Butthen there’s very little leftfor long-term recovery.And thepractical reality after these big disasters is that it’sa 10-year cycle, a15-year cycle to really come back.

The Trump administration has changed its Federal Emergency Management Agency funding and declined to provide mitigation fundingfor states. Does that worry you? It does because we’reseeingmore extreme weather It’s not about politics.We’re having more ﬂooding events andwehave an insurance crisis from an affordability perspective. We’reinvest-

Those experiments went well enough that 12 years ago, we launchedthe MicroBuild Fund. We raised $100 million—borrowed

$90 millionofthat, which was the ﬁrst time we’d ever taken on debt —and now,12 yearslater,we’re winding that fund down and getting ready to launch an even bigger fund.

The fund hasloaned out

$230 million to 56 microfinance banks in 36 countries. Those banks found their homeloan repayment rates have been as good or better than theirsmall-business loans, so it’screated anew business channel for them. It’sdirectly helped amillion people makehome improvements.

ing in fortiﬁed housing. We always want to build relative to therisks in thearea andwe’vehad areally good record. We’retrying to do it to convince theinsurance industry thatfamilies should getlower insurance payments because we’ve created safer housing.It’s just cost-effective.Itmakes more sense to investinlowering risk because it’s incredibly expensive to do the rescuing afterwards

What accomplishment are you proudest of in the past 20 years?

The day after Iwas announced, we drove and built the200,000th Habitat home in Knoxville, Tennessee, and thatmeant Habitat hadhelped aboutamillion people worldwide. As of last year,we’ve helped another 61 million people. A big piece of that Iwould say was changing ourframing question from “Howmany

Hurricanes-batteredFlorida county spends $125Mon

BY CURT ANDERSON Associated Press

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla.

Thewhite sandy beaches along aswathofFlorida’s Gulf Coast were battered by three hurricaneslast year,leading to amultimillion-dollar effort to repair a coastline that is the region’s economic engine.

Crews are working with dredges, trucksand pipelines along the 35-mile stretchofbeach in Pinellas County that includes cities such as Clearwater Beach, Indian Rocks Beach, Belleair Beach and Redington Beach.

It’saprime touristdestination that is still recovering from hurricanes Helene, Milton andDebby Helene wasthe most destructive for the beach towns, even though it made landfall fartothe north. Twelve people died in Pinellas County because of storm surge that reached8feet in some places.

In past years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played amajor roleinbeach restoration, but not this time. The Corps wants private landowners to sign up for permanent easements that would allowgovernment access in perpetuity

achangethat has met with stiff resistance. So PinellasCountyisdoing thebeach restoration itself, spending more than $125 million in tourism tax revenuetocover thecosts. The county also has an easement program, but because some propertyowners won’tsign up, therewill be gaps in the beachrenourishment that couldlead to damage in future storms.

“Wecan’tdo it as well as we could,” saidBarry Burton, the Pinellas County administrator.“Our desire is to place sand across as much of the beach as we can.” The project calls for using2.5 millioncubic yards of sandthat’sbeingdredged andpumped fromoffshore

In places where property owners refused to sign the easements, newsandisbeing placedtoward the Gulf side of the beach, which is public. The beaches are being widenedbyasmuchas 100 feet.

Forits part, the Army Corps said it can’tjustify spending millions of U.S taxpayer dollarsonbeach renourishment without permanent easements to allow access.

“The Corps cannotconstruct aproject with ‘gaps’ due to missing easements,” the agency said in astatement. “The Congressionally authorized, engineered project cannotprovide the level of protection when constructed with gaps.”

houses can we build?”which was areally good question, to “Whatwould it taketoactually address the housing need?”

Your MicroBuild Fund is partof that. What we found, especially in middle-and low-income countries, is that only about 5-10% of the population have accesstoa bank loan for housing. We started lending money to microfinancebanks and training them on howtodohome improvementlending

And those banks have now put in $1.1billionoftheir own capital, so we’veactually started to show proof thatthere is amarketopportunity for giving small unsecuredhome improvement loans to very low-incomefamilies to do home upgrades. This is scalable on alevel that we can’tmatch.

It’samuch greater number than we could ever build.

Inthe U.S.,inthe past 15 years after the housing bubble burst, it seemsthe idea of what Habitat does

and the importance of affordable housing has become more widely known. But it also seems likefor more people, achieving it is further away Yeah, I’msad to say you’re right. I’ll give you an oversimpliﬁed, quick version of how I’ve seen this happen. We’ve always had an affordability challenge.But what’s really shocking in the last six yearsishow much worse it’sgotten. If you go back to the housing crisis, lots has been written about whatwent wrong and how that sort of corrupted the whole housing value chain. But what really happened, in my view,isif youlook at thesmall buildersorthe big buildersafter the housing crisis, the big builders got recapitalized and came back. The small builders didn’t. And they represented, dependingon the market, 50-60%ofthe housing supply As we started under-building, initially,there was aton of housing. But we had ten, 12 years of under-building by hundreds of thousands of units ayear.The cumulative impact of that starts to addup. We need an “allof the above” approach to address that.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford says the Indian Ocean tsunamiand Hurricane Katrina helped the globalhousing nonprofittoquickly expandits work.

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTO

BR high schools to get upgrades

Officials seek to spend $40M bond sale proceeds

BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer

Fifty-seven

Cole said. He said he won’t be releasing a ﬁnal list until January, with a board vote planned for later that month and work starting in February

“(We’re looking at) how are these projects going to improve the high school experience, because ultimately we want what happens at each of our high

Data center money to fund jail, raises

Agreement could bring in $90M yearly to West Feliciana

BY IANNE SALVOSA

Office employees thanks to an agreement with a data center developer that could generate up to $90 million in annual revenue for the parish. Construction is underway at the $2.5 billion data center stewarded by Hut 8, a Miami-based company that will lease the computing services to an undisclosed client, providing thousands of construction jobs and at least 50 maintenance and technician jobs. Thanks to a recently approved revenue structure, earnings from the center are coming sooner to fund priorities for parish agencies.

Before Tuesday’s Industrial Development Board meeting, it was unclear how much the parish would be able to reap from the center since the state exempted data centers from paying sales and use taxes. The parish could collect property taxes on the center after construction wraps, but Tuesday’s meeting cleared the way for the parish to collect payments in lieu of taxes. Instead of paying property taxes on the facility, Hut 8 will donate its 611-acre site to the Industrial Development Board. The board will then lease the property back to the company, charging rent equal to what sales and use taxes would be on the billions of dollars worth of sophisticated electronic equipment that will ﬁll up the data center. The data center will be about the size of four Walmart Supercenters.

The board is comprised of West Feliciana Sheriff Brian Spillman, School Superintendent Hollis Milton and former council member Clay Pinson, who will each administer a third of the revenue.

The revenue could have a significant impact. The school system had total revenues of $36.5 million in fiscal year 2025, while the parish adopted a $3.3 million budget for the current fiscal year The Sheriff’s Office had more than $12 million in revenue for fiscal 2024.

“We want to make sure that the people that sat on our board, ﬁrst of all, were the stakeholders,” Parish President Kenny Havard said.

“And secondly, that it was people that were accountable to the people.” The board was formed last week during a Parish Council meeting. Havard said the timing of the formation of the body was in response to Hut 8 ﬁnalizing paperwork on the center The last time the parish

FUN AT THE FAIR

BY ROBIN MILLER

Riders enjoy the sunset from the top of a ferris wheel at the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair on Thursday

LEFT: Kelsi Dickerson takes a photo with her daughter, Kenslei, as they ride the merrygo-round. BELOW: Skifter jumps over the bar while doing a demonstration for owner Erin James.

STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Mom arrested after baby’s death

Officialsalsolooking forgirl’sfather

BY EMMA DISCHER Staff writer

An infant girl died with brokenribs and internal bleeding from asevered spine, according to the Opelousas Police Department. Ofﬁcers have now arrested her mother and continue to search for her father

The 2-month-old died Oct. 25 in Opelousas after ofﬁcers responded to amedical emergency call and found her not breathing. She was pronounced dead at alocal hospital.

After an autopsy, investigators said the baby had signs of “severeneglectand physical abuse,” including extreme dehydration andmalnourishment andbroken ribs with somesigns of healing. The infant also had a severed lower spine,which ofﬁcials say resulted in internal bleeding and her death.

The baby’smother,Kayla Fontenot, was arrested on counts of ﬁrst-degree murder,crueltyto juveniles and second-degree battery.The infant’sfather,TaylorBroussard, is wanted on the same counts.

Opelousas Police Chief Graig LeBlanc said this remains an active and ongoing investigation.

“Our hearts are with this infant who suffered unimaginable abuse. Thiscase is in its early stages, and our investigators are working tirelesslytouncover every detail. We ask the public for patience, cooperation andassistance in helping us pursuejustice.”

Anyone with information on this case or the whereabouts of Broussard is urged to contact theOpelousas Police Department at (337) 948-2500 orsubmitatip anonymously through St. Landry Crime Stoppers at (337) 948-8477.

Email Emma Discher at edischer@theadvocate.com.

BY BOBWARREN and DOUGMacCASH Staff writers

David “Doc” Mancina has had alot of rotten Mondays in his 69 years.

AMetairie native and aSaints

fan all hislife, Mancina saidhe’s always taken losses hard. He’s suffered through plentyofthem through the decades, bothfrominsidethe Superdome and in front of his TV.But this year,though Kellen Moore’sSaints are adismal 1-7, it’s nothitting the same way

“Used to be that it would wreck my Mondays.And sometimes my Tuesdays,”Mancina said, laughing. “But it doesn’tanymore.”

What gives?

“Maybe I’mgetting old,” he said. Or maybe I’m just beat up.”

As Saints fans trudge through a season that at times has felt like a jail sentence, Mancina isn’talone in feeling alittle numb to it all.

Interviews with theteam’sfaithful over the past week offered a sense of resignation, even if most were takingitinstride.

Moore’sﬁrst yearashead coach has comewith asteady beat of pounding losses, missed opportunities andquestions abouthow long the rebuilding process might take. Starting quarterback Spencer Rattler was taken out in the third quarter on Sunday against the Buccaneers and rookieTyler Shough has been elevated tothe startingrole forthis Sunday’sgame againstthe Rams in Los Angeles, but there’s notmuchhope thataturnaround is in the works for this season.

So, most Saints fans say they’re going to grin and bear it, andtry to eke out fun during tailgates and other parts of perennialfandom, even if the games are hard to watch.

“It’sbeen tough,” said Larry Rolling, alongtime season ticket holder knownas“The SignGuy,” forhis pithy, hand-paintedsigns and ability to get on TV from his frontrow seat. “I thinkeveryone is just tired.”

Rolling’ssign for the lasthome game offered asense of how far fans’ expectations have been lowered. He scrawled “Rattled” one he knew could worknomatter whathappened on the ﬁeld. Maybe theBucswould be “Rattled” by a superior displayofoffensive acumen from Rattler and the sign maker would prove prescient. Instead, Rattler was benched. “Rattled” still worked.

Oldmemories

For longtime fans, the last few seasonsare bringing back dark, sometimes repressed,memories

fans did.

Deslatte’stailgating crew occupied oneofthe forlornpatches of land along Poydras Street. Nearby, acadre of insufferably cheery Tampa Bay fans had erected their own tailgating headquarters at the intersectionofPoydrasand Caliborne Avenue, aclear taunting infraction if there ever was one.

The jerseys of visiting teams have lately covered larger areas in the Dome stands. New Orleans, afterall, is afabulous road trip, and tickets to the Saints games are pretty easy to ﬁnd these days. BlessYou Boys

of empty Dome seats and fans with bags over their heads. There were bad teams spread across the decades,capped by —but certainly not limited to —the disastrous 1-15 season of 1980.

Thencame theturnaround in 2006. Sean Payton arrived.Sodid Drew Brees, andwithhim, winning seasons, aSuperBowlvictory and astring of runs deep into the postseason.The success. The swagger.Itwas all so intoxicating.

Now,some fans liken thesemore recent losing seasons to ahangover,one that comes with areminder of how great theparty was.

“Maybe we thought it would neverend,”said Mancina, noting thatthe Super Bowl in 2010 seems like eons ago. “It’slike we’re back to the ’60s.”

DiedreHayes,alicensed clinical social worker and Tulane University professor withadegree in psychology and adoctorate in social work, said it’s notuncommon for some fanstoexperience the stagesofgriefasthey watch their favoriteteams struggle

“Wehaveangerwiththe team, we getsad,we’re in denial about how bad they might be,” she said.

AskedFridayafternoon what fans can takeaway from the season so far,Moore saidhe’sstressed to theteam that winning is aprocess, and that if they trustthe process, theresults will follow

“I feel likethe thingthatIlove and appreciate is our guys battle each and every week,” he said. “And Ithink if you do that, andyou trust theprocess, just keep focusing on the process and doing it the right way,the goodthings happen.”

‘Wecomeout either way’

Oct. 26 began withcloudy skies and persistent rain. So even though the sun burst through by noon like Taysom Hill hitting the line in his prime,the tailgating crowd around

theDome featured mostly diehards.

Hope for victory was slim. As Slidell Saints fan Roy Provenzano put it,“The Saints areindark times right now.”

Still, Provenzano was in agaggle of Who Dats who clustered around their converted school bus in a Loyola Avenue parking lot as they hadfor two decades. The team was then 1-6, andonly hours away from being 1-7, but Provenzano and his Slidellians remained faithful. “We come out either way. We comeout to have agood time; we’ve got a good group of people, but obviously thevibe is alittleless funwith less people.”

Askedtodiagnose the Saints’ current torpor,Provenzano skipped themixture of youthful inexperience and athletic obsolescence thatseems to plague the players and went straight to the top.

“I’m just aguy,” he said, “but I think theupper management has been alittle different (lately) or maybethe same fortoo long.I think we need change.”

Mosttailgaters seemedtophilosophically accept thecycles that affect every football team, years of glory —orthe real chance of it —followed by decline andthe dreaded “rebuilding.”

Tailgater Ronnie Deslatte said he’s been going to Saints games sincethey started at Tulane Stadium. He believesthe team’s performancecan inﬂuence the tenor of the region.

“When they win,” he said, “the city is just allhappy-go-lucky and everything’sgood. Even when you go to work, everything’sgood. But when they lose, it ain’tgood.”

Deslatte remembers the socalled “Aints” eraofthe 1970s, when the team seemed similarly hopeless. But, he said, he did not resort to disguising himself with a paper bagmask as somedisdainful

The Bless YouBoys, atrio of Saintssuperfans who dress as Who Dat pontiffs, looked especially peculiaronSunday,having donnedpink bath robes, presumably in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Before the game, they cavorted with fans andposedfor pictures outsideof Gate A.

Paradoxically,the threepink popeswereasign of normalcy

Their joyous, theatrical brand of fandom had survived the Saints’ forlorn performance. They continued to cheer with gusto from their front row seats. Asked to describe the current mood of Saints fans,Dijai Smith, oneofthe Bless YouBoys, usedthe term “sketchy.”

“A lot of people are doubting,” Smith said. But, he vowed, the forsakenstate of affairs “doesn’t change my heart for the team.” It’s just agame

Loyalty aside, the ruinous season haseventhe most die-hard Who Datsthinking abouttheir checking accounts, including Brian “Signature Saint”Henry,who has managed to get 171 Saints player autographs tattooed on his body “My season tickets are $1,900,” he said.

But here are waystocope, said Hayes, the Tulane professor Trytohavesome empathy for the players —after all, “They want to win as bad as we do”—and realize that as fans, we have no control over the teams’ performance.

Oh, and this: “You have to acknowledge it’sagame,” she said. For manySaints fans, the cliche rings true —hope doesspring eternal. Moore is still in the honeymoon stage, and, as Rollingthe sign guy noted, other teams have had quick turnarounds.

The Doc, forone,sayshe’llnever lose hope.

“I tellya, Ibleed black andgold,” he said.

Will he get to witness another Super Bowl? Who knows.

“I didn’texpect to get one in my lifetime,” he laughed.

Staff writer Luke Johnson contributed to this story

STAFFPHOTO By DOUGMacCASH

■ Sunday,November 2,2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ TheAdvocate

Debra, age 70, passed away peacefully at her home on Monday, October 27, 2025. Throughout her life she was afaithful parishioner of Visitation of Our LadyChurch and St. John Bosco Catholic Church. Debra dedicated her life to publicservice, servingwithintegrity and commitment. She began her career as aJefferson Parish dispatcher before joining the Gretna Police Department, initially as a dispatcher. At 48 years old, she completed the Gretna Police Academy and proudly earned the title of law enforcement officer. This was atrue testament to the resilient and determined woman we all knew Debbie to be. Debbie loved to dance, listen to music (especially Elvis and Kenny Rogers), and spend time with family. She loved horses and found peace in the Arkansas mountains, joy in agood shrimp poboy and gumbo, and comfort in crocheting, needlepointing, and sewing, a skill passed down from her mother. To her grandchildren she was Nana. She filled their lives with laughter, love, and the kind of humor only Nana could get away with. Debbie had an unforgettable spirit and an infectious laugh that everyone loved. She will be deeply missed by her family, friends, and all who were blessed to have her in their lives. She is survived by her loving husband of 51 years, Generoso Alfaro; daughter, Marritez A. Spitzer (Brian); son, Bradley Alfaro (Lacie); brother, Jay Entrekin; grandchildren, Joshua Spitzer, Maya Spitzer, Luke Spitzer, Gabby Keller, Chloe Roussel, and Cambrie Brignac(Bobby); great -grandchildren, Kinsley Donaldson, Kollins Donaldson, Vera Miley, and Tillie Jo Brignac; and numerous nieces and nephews for whom she loved dearly. Debra was preceded in death by her parents, Willie Entrekin and Dillon Entrekin Sr.; her beloved sisters, Bobbie Penix, Betty Jo Gomez, and Diana Jackson; brother, D.C. Entrekin Jr.; brothers-in-law, Salvador Alfaro and Armando Alfaro; and sister-in-law, Susan A. Gepty. Relatives and friends of the familyare invited to attendthe visitation at Brandon G. Thompson Funeral Home, 7738 Florida Blvd., Denham Springs, LA, on Monday, November 3, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. until the funeral service at 11:00 a.m.

Obituaries JacquelynAskew McClenny, and son-in-lawLeviMcClenny, of Carlsbad, CA Nancy was adevoted wife, loving mother, cherishedgrandmother, and dearfriendtomany. Her warmth, kindness, and grace touched allwho knew her,and she willbe deeply missed In lieuofflowers, the family requestdonations be made to Nancy's favorite charity St.Jude's Children Hospital, In Memory of Mrs. Nancy Lee Askew. Graveside service to be held at GreenoaksMemorial Park, 9595Florida Blvd, Baton Rouge,onWednesday, November 5, 2025 at 2:00pm. Sunshine passes, shadows fall, Love's rememberance outlasts all; And though the yearsbe many or few, They are filled with remembrance, of you.

ship Coffee Club,she enjoyed presenting humorous programs for groups throughout thecity. In 1994 Gervaisand Frank moved to Natchitoches where she was activein The UnitedDaughters of theConfederacy,Friends of theNatchitoches Parish Libraryand theNatchitoches Beekeepers Aprivategraveside service willbeheld. In lieu of flowers,donations may be madetoa favorite charity.

Choppin, GeoffreyNeal

membrances bemadeto

Ronald McDonald House at St. Jude's Hospital or to DSAG-Baton Rouge (Down Syndrome Awareness Group), and in aheartfelt nodtoSpoke, keep collecting poptops forthe cause he loved.

Memorial Contribution

Details: Ronald McDonald House CharitiesofMemphis, 535 Alabama Avenue,Memphis,TN38105 Down Syndrome Awareness Group of Baton Rouge, P.O. Box 82378, Baton Rouge,LA70884, https://dsagbr.org/donate -now/

memories at www.Charlet FuneralHome.com. gional MedicalCenter Heart andVascular Critical CareUnitfor theircareof Johnny during hisfinal days. In lieuofflowers,please make memorials in Johnny'smemorytoFamily of Faith ChurchBuilding Fund,10748 Perkins Road Baton Rouge, LA 70810 (https://fofsbc.com/give). Family and friends may sign theonlineguestbook or leave apersonal note to thefamily at www.resthav enbatonrouge.com

Downs, Johnny E.

Aprivate burial will be held by the family. Condolences and other information may be found at www.thompsoncares.com.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Brandon G. Thompson Funeral Home.

Nancy Lee Askew passedawaypeacefully on October 17, 2025, in Carlsbad, California. Born on November 2, 1928, to Clyde and Lizzie Shehee in Kaufman, Texas. She lived along and full life, passing just prior to her 97th birthday. Nancy was married to Daniel Blake Askew for70 wonderful years. He preceded her in death in March 2022. They were long-time residents of East BatonRouge and Nancy expressed her love of dogs by founding Janan's Dog Grooming Salon. She operated herefor 30 years before her daughter took over and continues to run it today. She is survived by her daughter Victoria Jane Cox andhusband TomCox of GreenwellSprings, LA, grandson Anthony Cox and Margo Clark, and greatgrandson Maverick Cox of Denver, Colorado. When Nancy went home to meet the Lord she was with —her son Daniel Gene Askew, daughter-in-law Lori Askew, granddaughter

Karen Hurdle Bossier, a native ofRosedale, La passedawayonOctober 30, 2025 at the ageof63. Karenwas passionate abouther work as aregistered nurse, andworked for Fresenius Medical Care for 25yearsbeforeshe went on to retire. She was amemberofElmo Baptist ChurchinRoxie, MS.Karen enjoyed spendingtime in her yard and working with her flowers. Sheloved traveling to the mountains Before all, Karen was devoted to herchildrenand grandchildren. She loved alland never met a stranger.Karenissurvived by her husband of 39 years, Ralph Bossier; children, Rachel Guerin (J Bob), Jennifer Lasseigne (Danny), Lindsey Bossier (Tiger), Amanda Fremin, and Ryan Bossier (Whitney); grandchildren,Courtney Crabtree(Mason), Collin Guerin, Beau Guerin, Alex Lasseigne (Kaitlyn), Kash Bossier,Bradley Whitlow, Curtis Freemin IV, CainFreemin, Tritan Williams, PresleeBossier, and Rafe Bossier;greatgrandchildren,Hallie and Ella KateCrabtree;siblings, Tammy Chustz (David), KimHurdle,and Clayton Hurdle(Kerri); special aunt,Sherry Hue (Harry); and many loved ones. Preceded in deathby her parents,Karen and James Hurdle.Visitation willbeheldatNiland'sFuneral Home in Livonia, La on Monday, November3, 2025 from 9:00 am until the religious serviceat11:00 am. The burial will follow in Rosedale Cemetery. A reception will immediately followatThe GrossTete Lions Club. Pallbearerswill be J. Bob Guerin, Danny Lasseigne,Collin Guerin, Alex Lasseigne,Beau Guerin, and Ryan Bossier. Honorary pallbearers will be Bradley Whitlow and Kash Bossier.Aspecial thanks tostaffatThe LaCour House and Pointe Coupee Home Health and Hospice.The family would also like to recognizethe staffwho felt like familyat Fresenius Medical Care, Dr. Mitchell Hebert, Keasha Brown, Flo Falencki, and WilliamBowman.

Bouser, Gervais Aldredge GervaisAldredge Bouser passed awayonOctober 12, 2025,inWalnutCreek, CA, at the age of 93. Born March 24, 1932, in Natchitoches, LA, she was the daughterofElton and LucilleFord Aldredge Gervais is survived by her husband of 66 years, Frank Bouser;daughter and son-in-law, M'Lu and Chris KnausofWalnut Creek, CA; grandsons Ben Knaus (Brittany) of Visalia, CA, and Stephen Knaus of Livermore, CA;and greatgranddaughter, Lennon Knaus,ofVisalia, CA She was agraduate of Northwestern State College and receiveda Master's DegreefromPeabody CollegeinNashville, TN. A resident of Baton Rouge since1954,she wasa teacherinthe East Baton Rouge school system, doing supervision of student teaching forLSU ACampFire Leader for twelve years, she also served as President of the Board of Directorsofthe Big River Council. Shewas an eighteen-year docent at the LSU Rural LifeMuseum whereshe served as Docent Chairman twice. An active memberofLEDS, Wednesday Club (serving as Presidenttwice), Thalians, and the Friend-

Geoffrey Neal Choppin passed away on October 30, 2025, peacefully surrounded by theloveand comfort of family and friends. Born in Baton Rouge in 1955, Geoff was a proud graduateofUniversity Lab School (1974) and LSU(1978). While stillin college,hebegan serving as areservedeputywith theEast Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office,laterbecoming adetectiveafter graduation. He went on to along and respected career in loss prevention with Wilson's Jewelers, Service Merchandise,and AutoZone, where he eventually retired. Geoff brought dedication, steadiness, and hearttoeverything he did, especially to his family, who were thecenter of his world

Geoff was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur and Emelda, and his siblings,Ricky and Margaret"Tootie". He is survivedbyhis loving wife Beverly; his daughter Amanda and son-in-law Jason McAllister; sonNeal and daughter-in-law Jamie; grandchildren Catherine McAllister (Monkey 1), Caroline McAllister (Monkey 2), Claire Choppin (MonkeyBear), and Rabb Choppin (Bugger); and siblings, Lorraine Leblanc (Bookie), ChrisChoppin (Shelly), and Catherine Choppin (Shari). He was privilegedtobeGodfather to Jeremy Clark, Kelsey Clark, Lindsay Shelton Ellis, and GriffStrain, as well as "Uncle" to many more.

Geoff was an avid motorcyclerider and collector, so he became known as "Spoke" to allthe grandkidsand army of lovedones. He was Founderand Chief Cookfor theChosen Krewe of LSU tailgaterssince 1975. He lovedLSU football and baseball, includinghis and Beverly's first triptoOmaha this year.

Spoke has always been there forhis family and friends. He was House Manager and alum advisor forThetaXiFraternityand laterbecame President of theHOA at Phoenix XinOrangeBeach. He was glad to help any of his Krewe with afixitproblem, for cars, houses, or especially motorcycles. Forever known as thegatekeeper of "odd knowledge," he lovedsharing what he knew and teaching therest of us something new. He lovedtotravel, enjoyed Jimmy Buffetand a Bushwackeronthe beach, and chasing his grandkids around Disney while talkingabout "Mickey Magic, with family and friends by his side. We all wanted to come back as one of Geoffy'sdogs. He loved Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Wayne,and was atrue patriot His grandkidsadorned hishospital room with wonderfulartwork tributes to Spoke.One granddaughter, referencing the compass he gaveher in Maine, left himanoteona Heart,writing "for all the treasures youhavegotten me along our 'journies'! But youwilleventually get to thefinish line." We will miss him terribly, and struggletokeep things on track without him, butwe are thankful he reached thefinish line in peace and love.Heisathome The family wouldliketo thank thenurses, doctors, and staff at Ochsner New Orleans -MainCampus for their compassionateand professional care, and a specialthanks to his nurse, Edna,a trueangel on earth.

Visitationfor Spoke will be held at St.Judethe Apostle CatholicChurch on November 4, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. until noon, followedbya Mass of Christian Burial.Inkeepingwith his spirit, thefamily invites friends to wear colors that reflect his warmthand love of life In lieu of flowers,the family requeststhatre-

Coates, Bertha Bobby BerthaGreen Coates was awoman of grace, faith, and quiet strength BornonSeptember 3, 1950, to thelate WilliamBen Green and Lee EsterStewart Green, she grew up in Louisiana surrounded by family and love.Atanearly age, she acceptedChrist and was baptizedatBeech Grove Baptist Church. Later in life,she rededicated her life to Godunder the leadership of Apostle Richard Hillatthe First Pentecostal Church of Wakefield.

On June 10, 1967, Bertha married theloveofher life, LionelCoatesSr.,and togethertheybuilt abeautiful family rooted in faith, laughter, and togetherness. She was adevoted wife, mother, grandmother, and friend whose kindness and compassion touched everyone she met Bertha's strength was quietbut powerful she faced life's challenges with dignity and leaned on her faith throughitall.She lovedcooking,spending time withfamily,and seeing thejoy on herchildren's and grandchildren's faces.Her home was alwaysopen, her heart always full,and her love unconditional. She leavesbehinda legacy of love and faith throughher children, grandchildren, family,and friends who willforever cherish her memory.Her spirit livesoninevery life she touched,and her words of wisdom continue to guide those who loved her most Afuneralservicewillbe held from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM on 2025-11-01 at Beech Grove Baptist Church, Jackson, Louisiana #1, 890 Hwy 68.

Gail Herrod LeaDeLee, a residentofClear Creek (Clinton),was born on Feb. 2,1938 alongwithher twin sister, Jean Yokley Ratcliff. She wasa Registered Nurse andworkedatELSH, LAWar Veterans Home, and GraceNursing Home She lovednursing andwas a blessing to others.Visit‐ing will be on Monday,Nov 3,2025 at ClearCreek Church,17887 Hwy. 432 Clinton,from9 am until 11:30 am with services at 11:30 am conductedby Rev.Rusty Bowser,Rev Danny Greigand Rev. Joe Ratcliff. Intermentwillbe inMasonic Cemetery,Clin‐ton.She is survived by 3 daughters,DawnLea, Susan LeaLandryand Heather Lea; 2sons, Al Lea and TommyLea.She is also survivedbyher husband of 30years,DonaldRay DeLee, andstepchildren, Glenn DeLee, Donna Brashierand Jo Allison Elkins. Twin sister,Jean YokleyRatcliffand hus‐band, Joe, siblings,Janet Forrest,Jay Herrod and Mac Herrod;21grandchil‐drenand 27 great-grand‐children. Sheispreceded indeath by herparents, Jasper(Jap) Herrod and JewellPostonReames, a sister, CarolynK.Seago and grandsons, Lorenzo DeLeonand Andrew Cody Lea.Pallbearers will be Tommy Lea, Nick Lea, Glenn DeLee, Ryan Pierson, ArnoldDeLee, CliffHurst, Shane Landry andConnor Rollins.Honorarypallbear‐ers will be Al Lea, Bill Hurst,Joe Ratcliffand Randy Allen. Gail wasthe closest thingtoanangel thatwalkedonthisearth She livedher life in service toothers. Sharesympa‐thies, condolences, and

Johnny EdwardDowns, born March8,1942, went to be with Jesusat3:36 a.m. on Thursday, October 30, 2025. Along-time resident of Baton Rouge, he was born in Carrollton,Mississippi and grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana.Johnny wasone of four founding ownersofSt. GabrielValve Service, workingalongside DavidDowns, Frank Forbes, and LaRue Forbes. He wasthe last surviving founder,remembered for hishardworkand dedication.Johnny found his happiest days in thewoods of St. FrancisvilleatJED Farm or on the wateratToledo Bend, fishingfor bass. A person of great faith, Johnny wasa member of Family of Faith Church forover 30 years. Johnny, alovingand dedicatedhusband and father,issurvivedbyhis devotedwife of 53 years, Charlotte Gray Downs; son, David'Wayne' Downs (Melinda); grandchildren Laurie Geter (James) and EthanDowns (Shelby); as well as great-grandchildren, DexterGeter and Cooper Downs.Othersurviving family membersincludehis sisters,Joyce Schramand NoraAnn McCulley, alongwithnumerous nieces andnephews. He waspreceded in death by hisparents, Johnson 'JC' Downs and Marie Petty Downs;sons, John Eric Downs andJames Edward Downs;granddaughter, Mary AnnDowns;brothers, DavidDowns and Donald Downs;and sisters,Donna SueGoffand Christine Saragusa.

He lived his life with orderand purpose,guided by aclear sense of right andwrong. Those who knew himbest understood that hisfirmness came fromlove; adesire to protect,toguide,and to ensure thebest forhis family.His presencebrought structure and directionto everyroom he entered, leaving behinda legacyof order, consistency,and care Relatives and friends are invitedtoattenda Funeral Serviceat12:00 p.m. on Monday,November 3, 2025, officiatedbyBrother Mike Erickson, at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. AVisitation will be held at thefuneral home beginning at 10:00 a.m. Intermentwill follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory.

Servingaspallbearers will be Bubba Anselmo, RaymondAnselmo, Mark Jones, James Kennerly Mark Leto, and Rusty McCulley, with honorary pallbearers Brad Downs and Lee Nettles

Charlottewishesto thankthe medical staff at Our Lady of theLake Re-

DavidLarguierFabre, owner of Acura and Infiniti of Baton Rouge, anative andlifelong resident of BatonRouge, Louisiana, went to hiseternal rest with the LordonOctober 28, 2025, at theage of 68. Bornon June 13, 1957, in Baton Rouge, Davidwas the son of thelateCliftonand MargeryFabre. He was precededindeathbyhis parentsand leaves behind alegacyofdevotion, hard work,and generosity that will long be remembered by those who knew him Davidissurvivedbyhis loving wife,Lauren Mitchell Fabre,and their twodaughters: FarinFabre -Bolton, husbandAndrew, andLindsey Lennard,& husbandAlan. He wasa proudand beloved grandfather to Ezra, Elijah, Eloise, Leighton, Elodie, andBreckyn. He is also survivedbyhis siblings Clifton"Kip" Fabre,John Fabre,FarinFabre Ware, andCalvinFabre, as well as numerous extended family membersand close friends who will cherish hismemory. David wasa Baton Rouge High alumni anda respectedleader in theautomobile industry formorethan40years, achieving remarkablesuccess andbuildinga lasting legacyalongside hisbrother,John Fabre.His vision, integrity, and commitment to excellenceearnedhim deep respectfromcolleagues, peers, and the communityalike. David's passionsextended far beyond hisprofessional life An avidboater,golfer, and cook, he also hada deep love forLSU sports, racing, music,and travel.His enthusiasm forlife andhis ability to bring peopletogether wereamonghis mostendearingqualities. He never missed an opportunity to make others feel welcomed andvalued. A proudsupporter of theU.S. military,Daviddedicated histimeand resources to many charitable organizationssuchasThe Folds of Honor and TheNavy SEAL Foundation, causes that reflected hispatriotism andcompassion forthose who served.Davidwill be remembered forhis largerthan-life personalityand passionatespirit. Never

Alfaro, Debra Entrekin

Fabre, David L.

Bossier, Karen Hurdle

DeLee, Gail Herrod Lea

Askew, Nancy Lee

OUR VIEWS

As LSUpicks next leader, here’s what matters

The LSU presidential search committee bore aweighty responsibility—evaluating whoshould be considered to the next leader to usher in anew era for the state’sﬂagship university.Wehave beenwatching the process with interest as it has arrived at threeﬁnalists —Dr. Robert Robbins, former University of Arizona president; James Dalton, executive vice president and provost at the University of Alabama; and current McNeese State President Wade Rousse.

The candidates have been scheduled for campusvisits to meet with students, faculty and staff. They have faced questions from members of the committee about their resumes and qualiﬁcations.

Now,after months of suspense, the full LSU Board of Supervisors will convene Tuesday to interview the ﬁnalists and make adecision.

There are afew things we hope they keep in mind as they deliberate. First is simply the tremendous import of this decision. The person chosen to become the 29th president of LSU will shape the directionofthe university for years to come. Acollege president often outlasts gubernatorial administrations and legislatures and so must be independent enough to deftly position LSU to thrive no matter the environment.

The LSU system comprises eight campuses, which are home to 41,700studentsand 1,400 faculty.Its $1.1 billion endowment supports a wide array of scholarships.

In recent years, the system has seen enrollment gains, and its research budget swelled to $543 million under previous president William Tate IV.LSU needs aleader who can keep it on that trajectory of growth, not downsize its ambitions.

The Board of Supervisors also should recognize that whoever it chooses will be immediately faced with some prettybig decisions. LSU’sparting of ways with its head football coach Brian Kelly and athletic director Scott Woodward recently means those big vacancies must be ﬁlled. In addition, LSU must come up with astrategy to deal withthe ongoing uncertainty surrounding federal funding to universities, which puts some of its major research at risk. Then there is the ongoing construction on campus with apotential new arena also in the works. Add to that, the struggling University of New Orleans is set to rejoin the LSU system in the coming months. We can’timagine anew president coming in at amore pivotal time. Without adoubt, the stateneeds astrong LSU, one that is able to attract top-notch faculty and students. As we said when this search began, with all that’satstake,there’snoplace for politics or cronyism in thispick. We expect, and indeed all the LSU community demands, that the decision come down to who is best for the job —and nothing else. We urge members of the Board of Supervisors, as they are making their decision, to reﬂect on the fact that the future of LSU, and our entire state, restsin their hands.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE

WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

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TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

Do you have any William F. Buckley Jr.stamps? As Itravel to different cities this fall, this has become my routine. Findapost ofﬁce and buy somestamps. Imay go broke on Bill Buckley stamps, but there are worse ways to spend money.Nov.24marks what would be Bill’s100th birthday.And while it would obviously be abig deal at National Review,the magazine he founded, therelease of a U.S. “forever” postage stamp has madeitsomething of abigger occasion.

ﬁed man beyond anypower of the emperors and gold seekers and legions of soldiers and slaves: astar that implanted in each oneofusthat essence that separates us from the beasts, and tellsusthat we were madeinthe image of Godand were meant to be free.”

Oneofmyfavorite Buckley speeches is one he called “What Americanism Seeks to Be,” which heincluded in a 2,000 volume of talks, “Let Us Talk of Many Things.” In it,heemphasizes that the “majesty” of the United States Constitution has to do withitnot puttingprohibitions on people, but on the government.Ithonors human freedom —agift given by God —and is set up to ensure and promote it.

In Buckley’sreﬂections on America’s beginnings, he went right to Bethlehem.The Bill of Rightsitself, in particular,hesaid, “grew out of along, empirical journey,and “the eternal spark of which, of course, traces to Bethlehem, to that star that magni-

Of course. Andyet, lost in whatever the media frenzy of theday might be, this sure can seem like aforeign concept. It reminds us that politics is not themost important thing there is. That’sthe reason, in fact, that theConstitution does what it does. For this whole American experiment to work, we need virtuous people. That doesn’tmean that everyone must be a believer.This doesn’tmean that every believer must be Christian or subscribe to one of the Abrahamic faiths. It means that we need people whovalue bigger thingsthan just themselves. In celebrating Buckley’s100th, I ﬁnd myself thinking about Playboy Which seems somewhat quaint. One of the crucial relationships of Bill’s life, it could be argued, wasthe one he had withHugh Hefner,the founder of Playboy.Bill would famously joke that he did an interview forPlayboy so that he could reach his son.Bill had Hefner on his “Firing Line” public-affairs

show,but on Buckley’sterms —WFB madeclear he considered Playboy and its philosophy acultural detriment, mostespecially to the human family.Inturn, Hefner invited Bill to write forPlayboy.So, what did Buckley write about forPlayboy? Virtue! Charity! Perhaps the last topics you might expect in that magazine, whose philosophy wasmore about radical individualistic pleasure and utilitarian relationships —especially the exploitation of women for men’s play It’s all important, because we are not meanttolive forourselves. Life and love involve sacrifice; they often depend on it. As Istop at another post office and dorkily ask foranother sheet of William F. Buckley Jr.stamps, that’swhy I’mdoing it. Because the moreweremember what we are truly about —beyond the possibly inane debate of the day —the better we will all be. And if you can brighten another person’s day with asurprise postcard from the road, even better.Itmay not be your mostimportant action, but it is acommitment to our nation’sfounding principles —tolook beyond selfish desires to see afuller view of life.

Email Kathryn Jean Lopez at klopez@ nationalreview.com.

Reflection on theBuckley centennial Questionsand

While we don’thave the capacity to answer all the questions we receive from readers, we do trytoanswer them when necessary In theletters, readers often voice skepticism about how we determine what’s ﬁt to publish. I welcome these concerns. Partof thereason Iwritethis column is to answer questions from readers that we can’talways respond to individually

whether an idea is worth sharing on our platforms based on asentence or two. We evaluate the column or letter based on what has been published before and whether the writer has aunique point of view

It is our goal to have aforum where readers can express their opinions. Sometimes, letters suggest that we will not publish criticisms of our reporting or of our Opinions section. Butthat is far from thecase. We welcome critics and supporters alike. Having aconversation about our coverage, as long as it meets our guidelines, is what the Opinion pages are for When we get apitch from readers about whether we would be interested in aguest columnoraletter,Itell them it is generally best to send their letter or the entire piece. We cannot decide

Andplease understand that it can take weeks forustomake adetermination. We receive a large amount of content that we have to consider.Some issues aremore urgent than others. For guest columns, somerequire additional questioning of the writers. We want to make sure that what we publish has merit. Our readers expect that. Onequestion that keeps arising is why we don’tpublish letters on Sundays. That is for thesimple reason that Sunday is our largest circulation day in print, so some might expect that lettersonSundays carry extra weight. All ourlettersfrom readers have value, and we do not wantanyone to assume that someormore important than others. Even letters from pub-

lic ofﬁcials go through our process and are on equal footing with letters from the public, though if alawmaker writes about legislation that is imminent, we maychoose to present that to you while the issue is being discussed. Turning to our letters inbox, forthe week of Sept. 25-Oct. 2, we received 57 letters. The issue of the National Guard being deployed to U.S. cities, and potentially New Orleans, continued to be a top concern. We received ﬁve letters on the subject, both supporting and opposing the use of troops. We also received three letters each on the following topics: the administration’ssuggestion that use of Tylenol by pregnant women could be asource of autism, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’scalling generals and admirals to a meeting in Virginia and the content of our Opinions pages.

Arnessa Garrett is Deputy Editor | OpinionPage Editor.Emailher at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

Arnessa Garrett

Kathryn Jean Lopez

COMMENTARY

Guns and weed lawshouldgoupinsmoke

Gun laws! Legalized marijuana! In terms of spurring emotional responses pro or con, fewissues have been so consistent for so many decades as those two

Well, please forgive the self-reference, but when a constitutional principle is strong enough to override acolumnist’spreferences and predilections,that’sa signal to pay heed to the principle.

Ihaven’tﬁred agun in decades, andIdon’treally like guns at all. And Ihate pot: I’ve never smoked it, not even once.I despise the smell, and I’ve written dozens of columnsand editorials against its use and legalization.

Still, in acase the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 20 agreed to consider,inappeal of aruling from the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the correct application of principle overwhelmingly advises in favor of the stance that is effectively pro-gun and pro-weed.

My distaste forguns and mari-

juana must bow to the Constitution and to common sense. For 13 years, I’ve written on this gun/pot nexus,and finally,the high court will decide it. At issue is afederal law,18 U.S.C.§ 922(g)(3), that makes it afelonyeven to own afirearm or ammunitionfor someone “who is an unlawful userofor addicted to anycontrolled substance.”The law’sclear purpose is to stop major, violent drug running and to keep people from carrying weapons, much lessusing them,while underthe dangerous influence of narcotics.

Alas, though, the law’slanguage is so broad that it can and hasensnared people who smokea single joint in one place —which at most is barely amisdemeanor and is legal underthe laws of numerous states —while their otherwise legalhandgun sits in aclosetmany miles away.Not only is this application of the law self-evidently senseless, as there is no nexus at all between the gun and thejoint, but it alsoshould be seen as an ob-

vious violation of theConstitution. The ﬁrsteight amendments to the Constitutionprotect rights that the American people have deemed to be fundamental.The Supreme Court twice hasheld, rightly Ibelieve,thatthe Second Amendment right to bear arms is indeed aright pertaining to individuals. The high court in hundreds of cases hasmade clear that government can limit afundamental right in particular waysonly after “strict scrutiny,” whichmeansthe limitation must be “narrowlytailored” andbe the “least restrictive means” of achieving a“compellinggovernment interest.”

Obviously,alaw withholdingthe fundamental right of gun ownership (not actual use,just ownership), andthus of self-defense, merelybecause someone is allegedly committing amisdemeanor 100 milesaway from thegun, is notanarrowlytailored law using the least restrictivemeans to achieve acompellinggovernmental interest. Those phrases, of course, allowfor some interpre-

tive leeway, but the leeway isn’t even within light-years of how this gun law is written and applied.

Note that the law doesn’tsay it appliesonly to people convicted of drug use, or those medically treated for addiction, or any other formal ﬁnding that could be used to take away an otherwise fundamental right after giving proper notice to the individual affected. Instead, the law says, and occasionally has been applied in such a broad way,that any unlawful user may notpossess aﬁrearm. Consider acomparative situation. If Person Adeliberately lets afriend do the driving so Person Acan drink, and then Person A imbibestwo too many beers and walks on the street while publicly inebriated, that public inebriation is typically amisdemeanor Imagine if afederal law said that anyact of public inebriation, even if unprosecuted, would disallow the privilege of owning acar which, if misused, obviously can be adangerous piece of equipment —even if the car wasn’tin

use that night. The public would howl in outrage, and correctly so. Yetacar, unlike ownership of abasic weapon for self-defense in one’shome, isn’tpart of afundamental right explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. By analogy,then, how can it even make sense, muchless be constitutional, to allow the government to charge someone with afelony for mere possession of a constitutionally protected device, just because he puffed on adoobie 100 milesaway?

The case before the Supreme Court, U.S. v. Hemani, should be an easy one. The law,asapplied in many cases and in the broadness of its actual language, is patently unconstitutional. If Congress wants to salvage its original intent, it should be forced to rewrite that particular provision. Otherwise, anyone reading the current version might think its legislative drafters were smoking something.

Email Quin Hillyer at quin hillyer@theadvocate.com

Theone name that matterswon’t be on the’26 ballot

Louisiana will choose aUnited States senatorabout ayear fromnow,and here’s the current state of play: Democratscan’t ﬁnd acandidate. And Republicans can’t seem to agree on one. Let’stake those one by one.

Last month, Democrats got entirely expected bad news from former Gov John Bel Edwards when he said he would not run.

Not so long ago, Edwards would have been acentral casting candidateregardless of his party,assomeone who has won the highest statewide ofﬁce twice and who left with plenty of goodwill. But even he admits that’s not enough to overcome what has become one of the most immovable obstacles in politics these days: the fact that so many voters treat congressional elections as national referenda on the parties—ormore speciﬁcally,onPresident Donald Trump. Edwards can easily tick off examples of minority party governors like him who’ve lost Senate races,such as Maryland Republican Larry Hogan and Montana Democrat Steve Bullock, both popular chief executives who fell far short when they offered themselvesupfor service in aCapitol where the only thing that often matters is whether acandidatewould empower Trump or stand up to him. Alsobeggingoff is stateSen. Jay Luneau of Alexandria, avocal but farlower-

proﬁle Democrat than Edwards.Hesaid he’sgot little appetite for Washington partisanship, which is pretty much theonly thing on the menu anymore. With six declared candidates and perhaps more to come, Republicans don’t have adearth of options. What they do have is amuddle of aﬁeld.

This conversation begins with secondterm U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,who in any normal year would be an insurmountable favorite but who now has thedistinction of being both the front-runner and ahot mess. In his favor are the trappings of incumbency: Amassive campaign account approaching $10 million, amajor committee chairmanship, arecord of passing meaningful legislation that beneﬁted the state and endorsements from his party’s majority leader,John Thune of South Dakota, and the head of the Senatecampaign committee, TimScott of South Carolina, as well as some noteworthyLouisiana Republicans.

Andyet the stench of desperation is strong, ever since Cassidy voted his conscience in 2021 to convict Donald Trump for inciting theJan. 6attack on Congress, only towatch him return to power four years later

This onceproudBaton Rouge physician came off as nothing but desperate when he handed Trump thedecisive vote to conﬁrm amanifestly unqualiﬁed and dangerous conspiracy theorist to manage —some would fairly say dismantle —our

nation’spublic healthand research infrastructure.

That and what has become constant groveling —nominating Trump foraNobel Prize, boasting of being invited to the WhiteHouse (two days in arow!), showing off his autographed Gulf of America hat —are big turnoffs to those who expected better,yet they’ve done little to mend fences with those who won’tforget his one transgression.

Cassidy alsofaces anew party primary designed largely to highlight his impeachment vote, and ahost of candidates eager to be theone to capitalizeonitand proceed to the November generalelection against whatever candidate the Democrats manage to scrounge up.

StateTreasurer John Fleming of Minden

was ﬁrst to announce,but if he hopedto scareoff the anti-Cassidy competition, the parade of subsequent announcements put thatnotiontorest. Soon camestate Sen. Blake MiguezofNew Iberia, and Public ServiceCommissionerEric Skrmetta of Metairie, andSt. Tammany Parish Councilmember Kathy Seiden. The newest entrant is state Rep. Julie Emerson of Carencro,a high-proﬁle chair of the Ways andMeanscommitteeand authorofseveral ideological bills thatshould playwell with GOP voters. The waythings aregoing, she might not be the last.

Cassidy may well enjoy watching all these wannabes ﬁght among themselves. On the otherhand, maybe it doesn’tmatterthatthe ﬁeld is splintered, because in a primary in whicheveryone is aconservative,they’ve allgot the same cardtoplay: The Trump one.

If you believe Cassidy’sunforgivable sin is thathedidn’tback Trump’slies aboutthe 2020 election results or horrendous actions that fateful day —and if you’re playing to apartisan-by-design electoratewhere many voters believe that too— thenthe waytorun against him is to prove you’d never, ever do that. So honestly,nomatter how many other Republicans sign up, it’ll be all about Trump. These days, it just always is.

Email Stephanie Grace at sgrace@ theadvocate.com.

TheseLouisiana Republicansmay notbered enough

If you think Louisiana is aruby red state with ruby red conservative congressional representatives, think again. Not so, says one of the nation’s most conservative groups According to the Institutefor Legislative Analysis,yes, Louisianacongressional representatives have decent to good conservative records, but there are better even far better —conservative representatives in the nation. Using arevised Republican policy voting alignment system, ILA —identifying as anonpartisan, conservative nonprofit —used the 2024 RepublicanParty platform to go beyond other Republican scorecards. AccordingtoILA, their scorecardwas produced after “analyzing thousandsofpages of congressional journals, legislativetexts, fiscal notes, andofficial documents to identify every substantive roll call vote related to the Republican platform.”

him? Start with former U.S. Sen. JD Vance. He got the group’shighestranking at 97.67%. That’sless than3%off of aperfect score. Guess that worked well for him. He’snow Vice President Vance. Apparently thereare enough people in Higgins’ district who think it’sOKwhen he says morally embarrassing, wacko thingslike American SNAP recipients should have amonth of groceries in their pantriesand not collect more beneﬁts unless they “stop smoking crack.”

lican stronglyidentiﬁed across our state as ahard-core conservative. With aratingof84.96%, he deﬁnitely makes the cut.But I would’vethought he’d be ranked higher based on our Louisiana perceptions Youmightnot believe this,but thenext highest-ranking Louisiana politician is theman who’s themaster of the ah-shucks, I’mone-of-you, sound bitepersona, U.S. Sen. JohnKennedy.He’s ranked No. 114, barely getting by thedesired mark with arating of 80.60%. That’sborderline. That’sitfor those who meet McGowan’s thresholdof80%.

76.12%. I’m OK with the calmer of our two U.S. senators falling below thedesired threshold, but Idon’tthink manyinthe Republican base like seeing that number Iguessthat’swhy he’sgot several challengers who want his job. Not far behind him,coming in at No. 169isU.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,R-Start. She has a75% rating. Maybe that’swhy she’snot jumped in to challenge Cassidy for his seat.

Of our six congressional representatives and our two U.S. senators, only one makes the Top50, and he barely makes the list. Coming in at No. 50 is U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette. He almost hit a90% rating withan 89.35% score. Who’s ahead of

Rounding outthe Top 5were U.S. Rep.Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, at 97.27%; U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, 97.10%; U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, 97.01% and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy,RTexas, 96.96%. Though it makesmewince, ILA CEO Ryan McGowan told me on WBOKthathe’spleased to see congressional leaders with that level of conservative consistency He considers 80% the floor for anyone who is areal conservative, not based on party affiliation. Below that, he said, is dangerous territory.Really? Let’slook at more of our Louisiana elected officials. Coming in at No. 76 is House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, anorthwestern Louisiana Repub-

Soooo, who’smissing themark?

U.S. Rep.SteveScalise, R-Metairie, has a77.38% rating, getting him intothe No. 144 position. Yes, themajority leader.Yes, the manwho is thechief Republican strategistinthe House, carefully managingthe ﬂow of bills and ensuring party members vote together on key legislation andﬁnding waystobuild coalitions and consensustomake sure that the party gets what it wants

Well, maybe he doesn’tcount himselfinthat number sometimes.

The next highest-ranking Louisiana Republican, coming in at No. 156, is U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge,witha ranking of,gulp,

Iwouldn’texpect our two Democratic congressional representatives to get an ILA score anywhere close to Letlow’sand theothers. U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, did quite poorly with ILA. He ranks at No. 383 with ascore of only 7.12%. Notsurprising for aDemocrat representing a more progressive district. U.S. Rep.Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, wasn’t included on the scorecard becausehis district is new and the data was based on the ﬁscal year that includes January-December 2024. Without naming names, ILA points out that moretraditional scorecards produced by advocacy organizations and think tanks often use limited subsets of votes and aren’tmore inclusive. “(T)his methodology includes all pertinent votes, thus preventing cher-

ry-picking and providing aholistic picture of congressional actions,” ILA says on its website. Adifferent but related setof ILA data looks at how effective congressional leaders are with the group’slimited government interest. That ranking system uses the group’sviewoftruelimited government as the guide. Usingthat measurement, here’show our state’scongressional representatives,including one whose seat Fields now holds ranked:

54. Clay Higgins, 86.71%

88. MikeJohnson, 81.74%

149. Steve Scalise,74.18%

177. Julia Letlow,70.88%

184. GarretGraves,70.30%

192. John Kennedy,68.57%

238. Bill Cassidy,60.92%

427. Troy Carter,6.05%

As much as we think we’re one of the most conservative states in the South and in the nation, clearlywe’renot. Adeeper look at the records of our lawmakers showsthey’renot. Maybe that’sa good thing. Maybe,just maybe,wehave a chance to seemoreofthem slip belowthat80% threshold and come closer to wheremoreof us are.

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.

Quin Hillyer

Stephanie Grace

Will Sutton ASSOCIATED PRESS FILEPHOTO

Sen.Bill Cassidy, R-La

KELLY’SDOWNFALL

People closetoLSU football lend insight into what went wrong, andcoach’s ill-fatedattempt to reshape programinto ‘mold of NotreDame’

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

Inside an area of the home locker room designated for the head coach, Brian Kelly met with top LSU athletic ofﬁcials on thenight of Oct. 25 to discuss thefuture of the team after a49-25 loss to Texas

A&M. They asked what changes Kelly would make on offense after losing three of theprevious four games, the latest asecond-half collapse that emptied out Tiger Stadium

Afterward, they agreed to meet again Sunday inside thefootball oper-

ations building. Entering the day,several people connected to the program expected LSU to make offensive staff changes, most likely the firing of offensive coordinator Joe Sloan. But by theend of the meeting, LSU had made adecision on Kelly himself. There was asense among officials that Kelly could not turn around the team, and sources involved in the decision said he did not haveenough internal support anymore. He was informed then of the intention to fire him.Discussions were held over the rest of the day,including abouthis

roughly $54 million buyout, that culminated in ameeting at the governor’s mansion Sunday night. “Weweren’tgetting better,” an athletic ofﬁcial said. “This can’thappen at LSU.”

In the midst of his fourth season, Kelly wasout. He boasted LSU had the best roster of his tenure after a signiﬁcant ﬁnancial investment, and the year began with expectations of College Football Playoffcontention. Instead, LSU dropped to 5-3 with the

ä See KELLY, page 7C

Expect pain before LSUovercomes this crisis

On the morning of the anniversary of the most legendarymomentin LSU sports history—Billy Cannon’s Halloween night punt return against Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium —a group of LSU officials met with reporters Friday at that same stadium to try to describe howthe athletic program moves forward from perhapsthe wildest week in its history Football coach Brian Kelly:fired Sunday Athletic director Scott Woodward: parted wayswith LSU on Thursday. It’salso afiring, but we’ll playalong with the official verbiage. Rarely,historically,have such diverse events intersected. Cannon’s

run— amoment for the college football world to still marvel at —and the Kelly/Woodward double play —a moment forthe world to again have a laugh at Louisiana’sexpense.

Twothings can be true at the same time. Kelly didn’tlive up to his mandatetomake LSU achampionship programand was likely,eventually,

Tyler

Sundayinthe

to be sacked. AndWoodward did swing and miss at his two mostrecent football hires: Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M and Kelly here. Butthe timing of both together,and theobviously heavy hand of Gov.Jeff Landry on the whole production, have at the very least complicated LSU’shopes of hiring their replacements.

Let’scomb through afew facts and half-truths here:

1. Landry is correct: LSU would be on the hook for Kelly’sroughly $54 million buyout if no one stepped up. Private donors always step up, as boosters apparently have done here,

ä See RABALAIS, page 7C

STAFFPHOTO

LSUinterimathleticdirectorVergeAusberry,left, speaks alongside LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott

during anewsconferencetodiscuss the changeinLSU athletic department leadershiponFriday.

BY MATTHEWPARAS Staff writer

Fair or not, everyperformance from Shough is about to be scrutinized. He might notbeexpected to rally the Saints from the bottom of the standings, but the 26-yearold is expected to demonstrate enough encouraging signs to show he’sworth building around forthe long haul. But what are those signs? That’ll be thetrickypartofthe evaluation, particularly as the schedule gets softer once the black and gold gets past the 5-2 Rams.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVIDGRUNFELD

Saints quarterback

Shough throws against theTampa Bay Buccaneers last

CaesarsSuperdome.

Scott Rabalais

By HILARy SCHEINUK

Ballard

STAFF FILE PHOTOByMICHAEL JOHNSON

LSUcoach BrianKelly argues acall against Arkansas on Oct. 19, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. Kelly was fired last Sunday after a49-25 loss to Texas A&Mdroppedthe Tigers to 5-3 on the season.

4:30

Hamlin in pole position for first NASCAR title

Denny Hamlin’s quest to win his first career NASCAR championship will begin from pole position.

Hamlin will lead the field to green at Phoenix Raceway in Sunday’s winner-take-all finale. The Cup will be awarded to the highest finisher among Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe, and William Byron and Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports.

Manning throws 3 touchdowns in win

BY JIM VERTUNO AP sportswriter

AUSTIN, Texas Texas quarterback Arch Manning returned from a concussion a week earlier to pass for 328 yards and three touchdowns, including a 75-yard connection with Ryan Wingo on the ﬁrst play of the game, to lead the No. 20 Longhorns over No 9 Vanderbilt 34-31 Saturday Texas led 34-10 in the fourth quarter before Vanderbilt staged a desperate rally behind quarterback Diego Pavia’s touchdown run, 67-yard scoring pass to Eli Stowers and a final TD toss to Richie Hoskins with 33 seconds left.

The Vanderbilt rally ended when the Commodores’ onside kick bounced through several players and eventually rolled out of bounds.

“Almost a playoff type game in November,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “A great win You’ve got to play 60 minutes in this conference for sure ” Manning had been injured in Texas’ overtime win over Mississippi State and spent the week in concussion protocol. By Friday night, he’d been removed from the team’s injury report to the Southeastern Conference and started against the Commodores

“I felt good the whole time,” Manning said. “It feels good to be back.” His ﬁrst throw of the day was a

short toss to Wingo, who broke two tackles and was off on a sprint to the end zone. Manning also connected with C.J. Baxter as Texas built a 24-3 lead in the ﬁrst half. Against Vanderbilt Manning went 25 of 33. Quintrevion Wisner rushed 18 times for 75 yards and a score, and Wingo had two receptions for 89 yards for Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC).

GAME OF THE WEEK AP TOP 25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP

Manning took a hard hit on his third touchdown pass, this one to Emmett Mosely V, but popped right up and celebrated with his teammates. It was one of few times Manning was under pressure all day “This was the best protection he’s gotten all year,” Sarkisian

said. Pavia struggled to get the Commodores (7-2, 3-2) going until late against a Texas defense that sacked him six times and limited his ability to run over the first three quarters. Pavia ﬁnished with a career-high 365 yards passing and had 408 total yards.

Stockton, No. 5 Georgia rally to beat Florida

By The Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Gunner Stockton threw two touchdown passes, Chauncey Bowens scored on a late 36-yard run and No. 5 Georgia escaped the rivalry known as the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” with a 24-20 victory against Florida on Saturday It was the Bulldogs’ fifth consecutive victory in the series and their eighth in the last nine meetings. But this one was closer than any of those others Georgia stopped Florida on a fourth-and-1 at the Bulldogs 18yard line with a little less than eight minutes to play, a momentum-turning moment in a backand-forth game. Stockton and Zachariah Branch took over from there, putting Georgia (7-1, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) in position for its fourth come-from-behind victory in six league games. Bowens darted up the middle following the duo’s second connection and scampered untouched to the end zone. Florida (3-5, 2-3) had a chance late, but DJ Lagway’s deep pass short-hopped intended receiver J. Michael Sturdivant. Sturdivant got behind the defense and probably would have scored had the pass not been badly underthrown Stockton, a noted alligator hunter in the offseason, completed 20 of 29 passes for 223 yards. Branch caught 10 passes for 112 yards. Bowens and Nate Frazier combined for 115 yards on the ground. No. 13 TEXAS TECH 43, KANSAS STATE 20: In Manhattan, Kansas, Berhen Morton threw for 249 yards and two touchdowns in his return from an injury, J’Koby Williams ran for 135 yards and a score, and Texas Tech romped past sloppy, mistake-prone Kansas State. Cameron Dickey also had a touchdown run for the Red Raiders (8-1, 5-1 Big 12), who forced ﬁve turnovers while snapping an eight-game losing streak against the Wildcats (4-5, 3-3) with their ﬁrst win in Manhattan since the 2008 season. SMU 26, No. 10 MIAMI 20: In Dallas, T.J. Harden scored on a 1-yard run in overtime, and SMU upset Mi-

ami, handing the Hurricanes their second loss in three weeks and damaging their playoff hopes.

Ahmaad Moses put the Mustangs (6-3, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) in position to win even with a ﬁeld goal by intercepting Carson Beck just short of the goal line on the ﬁrst possession of the extra period.

No 2 INDIANA 55, MARYLAND 10: In College Park, Maryland, Fernando Mendoza threw for a touchdown and ran for one, and Indiana remained undefeated with a rout of Maryland Mendoza recovered from an early interception, and he also had to play most of the game without his top target Star receiver Elijah Sarratt left in the ﬁrst quarter with an apparent injury, ending his nationleading streak of 46 consecutive games with a catch.

No. 1 OHIO ST 38, PENN ST. 14: In Columbus, Ohio, Julian Sayin passed for 316 yards and four touchdowns, Jeremiah Smith scored twice and Ohio State pulled away in the second half to defeat Penn State.

The Buckeyes (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) had a 17-14 lead at halftime, but took control in the second half, scoring on three of their ﬁrst four

possessions

WEST VIRGINIA 45, No. 22 HOUSTON 35: In Houston, Scotty Fox Jr threw for 157 yards and accounted for

three touchdowns as West Virginia snapped its five-game losing streak with a win over Houston. Fox was 13 of 22 and threw a touchdown pass of 24 yards to Cam Vaughn. He also rushed for 65 yards and had touchdown runs of 6 yards and 34 yards. No. 12 NOTRE DAME 25, BOSTON COLLEGE 10: In Boston, Jeremiyah Love broke free for a 94-yard touchdown run on the first play after a Notre Dame interception squelched a potential game-tying drive and the Fighting Irish won their sixth straight, beating Boston College. Notre Dame (6-2) had a surprisingly difficult day against the one-win Eagles (1-8), mired in a scoreless tie after one quarter and giving up a touchdown just before the half that left the Irish with a 12-7 lead.

No 15 VIRGINIA 31, CALIFORNIA 21: In Berkeley, California, J’Mari Taylor ran for two touchdowns and Virginia extended its winning streak to seven straight games for the ﬁrst time since 2007 by beating California. Taylor scored on two of the ﬁrst three drives of the game for the Cavaliers (8-1, 5-0 ACC) in their first meeting with the Golden Bears (5-4, 2-3).

No 16 LOUISVILLE 28, VIRGINIA TECH 16: In Blacksburg, Virginia, Isaac

Larson is the only driver in the championship field with a title, while two-time reigning Daytona 500 winner Byron is back in the final four for the third consecutive year Briscoe is making his title race debut, and Hamlin is back in the field for the first time since 2021. Hamlin turned a lap at 133.759 mph to earn the top starting spot.

Grizzlies suspend All-Star guard Morant for 1 game

Memphis has suspended twotime All-Star guard Ja Morant for its game Sunday at the Toronto Raptors, with the Grizzlies citing what they described as conduct detrimental to the team.

Morant scored only eight points in Memphis’ 117-112 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. He had a brief postgame interview session, with most of his answers some form of “Go ask the coaching staff.”

Morant also seemed disengaged at times in that game, even walking a few steps away from the bench area during a time-out in the second half.

Asked about what happened in the game, Morant said, “Go ask them,” referring to the coaching staff. He did not score in the second half.

Sinner routs Zverev to reach Paris finals

Jannik Sinner routed Alexander Zverev 6-0, 6-1 in a little more than an hour Saturday to reach the Paris Masters ﬁnal and move closer to reclaiming the No. 1 ranking.

The four-time Grand Slam champion from Italy will replace sixtime major winner Carlos Alcaraz at the top if he wins Sunday’s ﬁnal against ninth-seeded Felix AugerAliassime, who needs a win to clinch the eighth and ﬁnal spot for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy

Auger-Aliassime earlier beat Alexander Bublik 7-6 (3), 6-4 in their semiﬁnal at La Défense Arena.

Brown rushed for 130 yards and a touchdown before leaving late with a leg injury and Keyjuan Brown scored twice in the second half to lift Louisville to a victory over Virginia Tech. Miller Moss added a touchdown pass for the Cardinals (7-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who rallied from a 16-7 halftime deﬁcit to win their third straight game. Louisville also kept alive its hopes of making it to the ACC championship game.

No. 21 MICHIGAN 21, PURDUE 16: In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jordan Marshall had career highs with 185 yards rushing and three touchdowns, helping Michigan hold off Purdue for a win. The Wolverines (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten) were in a closely contested game against a team without a conference win because Bryce Underwood struggled and the Boilermakers (2-7, 0-6) were able to move and possess the ball.

No. 7 OLE MISS 30, SOUTH CAROLINA 14: In Oxford, Miss., Ole Miss sacked LaNorris Sellers six times and the Rebels held off upsetminded South Carolina Ole Miss, third in the SEC and ninth nationally in total offense, looked rather pedestrian as Trinidad Chambliss completed just 12 of 21 passes with a touchdown and an interception.

He threw an 8-yard TD pass to Dae’Quan Wright and scored on a 15-yard run, but the Rebels (8-1, 5-1 SEC) were forced to settle for short ﬁeld goals on other possessions when they could’ve taken control.

N.C. STATE 48, No. 8 GEORGIA TECH 36: In Raleigh, North Carolina, Duke Scott ran for a career-best 196 yards in place of injured Atlantic Coast Conference rushing leader Hollywood Smothers to help N.C. State stun Georgia Tech, ending the Yellow Jackets’ unbeaten run.

CJ Bailey threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns while running for another for the Wolfpack (5-4, 2-3 ACC), which rode a crisp offensive showing from the opening possession to the program’s ﬁrst win against a top-10 opponent in more than four years.

Sinner extended his indoor winning streak to 25 matches, including a victory over Zverev in the Vienna ﬁnal last weekend. He beat Zverev for the fourth straight time and leads 5-4.

Swiatek handles Keys in WTA Finals opener In a clash of Grand Slam winners Iga Swiatek swept aside Madison Keys in straight sets on the opening day of the WTA Finals on Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

The Wimbledon champion needed just over an hour to beat Australian Open winner Keys 6-1, 6-2 at the season-ending tournament for the world’s top eight players.

“I was in the zone from the beginning to the end,” said Swiatek, who won 58 of 87 points.

It was Keys’ first match in 68 days, since her ﬁrst-round exit at the U.S. Open. Swiatek, the 2023 WTA Finals champion, acknowledged such a long absence “can make you a bit rusty.” Keys may need to beat Amanda Anisimova and Elena Rybakina to advance. Rybakina beat Anisimova 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday

Forever Young captures Breeders’ Cup Classic DEL MAR,Calif. Forever Young beat reigning champion Sierra Leone by a half-length to win the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday giving Japan a victory in North America’s richest race. Ridden by Ryusei Sakai, Forever Young ran 1¼ miles in 2:00.19 and paid $9 to win at 7-2 odds. The colt was third in last year’s Classic behind Sierra Leone and Fierceness. The race lost Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Sovereignty when the colt was scratched after spiking a fever earlier in the week. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi earned his third career Cup victory while Sakai claimed his ﬁrst.

Fierceness was third and Preakness winner Journalism was fourth Mindframe ﬁnished ﬁfth, followed by Baeza, Nevada Beach, Antiquarian and Contrary Thinking.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ERIC GAy Texas quarterback Arch Manning runs as he looks to throw against Vanderbilt during the first half of a game in Austin, Texas on Saturday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN RAOUX

Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton looks for a receiver during a game against Florida on Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Oct. 26

Indianapolis.

Chiefs, Bills share respect

BY JOHN WAWROW AP sportswriter

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y Patrick Mahomes has made enough trips to Buffalo to know he and the Kansas City Chiefs shouldn’t expect a warm welcome from Bills fans on Sunday “They don’t like us,” Mahomes said. Can you blame them? Since 2020, Mahomes and the Chiefs have blocked Josh Allen and the Bills’ path to the Super Bowl with four playoff wins, including Buffalo’s 32-29 loss in the AFC championship game in January

The most memorable was Kansas City’s 42-36 overtime win in a divisional-round meeting in January 2022, since dubbed “13 Seconds.” That’s how much time Mahomes had to complete two passes for 44 yards and set up Harrison Butker’s tying, 49-yard ﬁeld goal on the ﬁnal play of regulation.

The stakes of Sunday’s meeting aren’t as high, yet the Chiefs (5-3) and Bills (5-2) have playoff seeding to think about.

If there’s any solace in Buffalo, it’s that the Bills have won four straight in the regular season against their fellow AFC contender Buffalo fans may not like the Chiefs, but the team certainly has the Bills’ respect. Allen recounted the number of times he and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo have exchanged greetings after games, no matter the outcome.

“Sometimes it just kind of happens, we’re walking by and sometimes we look for each other,” Allen said. “Yes, I would say there is mutual respect, at least I hope there is.”

Allen is 4-1 in the regular season against KC, averaging 252 yards passing with 13 overall touchdowns (10 passing) and three interceptions.

On Sunday, the quarterback will be challenged by Spagnuolo’s defense, which ranks fourth in the NFL and third against the pass. Kansas City has allowed a combined 652 yards and 24 points during a three-game winning streak. Meanwhile, Allen and the Bills’

passing attack have struggled over a four-game stretch in which he’s thrown four interceptions, lost a fumble and had difficulty finding open receivers downfield.

“It’s just some of the smaller things and again, it pertains to what I’m doing,” Allen said.

Buffalo has a dynamic ground attack featuring James Cook, who rushed for a career-best 216 yards and scored twice in a 40-9 win over Carolina last weekend.

Mahomes has been on a roll, taking advantage of an offense that has a nearly full complement of threats.

Receiver Xavier Worthy is back after hurting his shoulder in Week 1. Fellow wideout Rashee Rice has been a dynamic option since his return from a six-game NFL suspension for his role in a high-speed car crash in Dallas in March 2024.

Whatever welcome Mahomes receives, the quarterback intends to enjoy what should be a raucous atmosphere.

“I love playing in historic stadiums, and that stadium has had so many great players play in it,” Mahomes said.

STANDINGS, SCORES & SCHEDULE

Niners QB Purdy out

a fifth straight start Quarterback Brock Purdy will miss his fifth straight start for the San Francisco 49ers with a toe injury, but he has made enough progress that he could be available in a backup role Sunday against the New York Giants.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said Friday that Purdy is still not “fully healthy” but has made enough progress to get some time with the starters in practice this week. Mac Jones got the bulk of the snaps with the starters and will get the nod once again this week.

QB Brissett to start again for Cardinals

Veteran backup Jacoby Brissett will start his third straight game at quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night while Kyler Murray continues to recover from a lingering foot injury

Coach Jonathan Gannon conﬁrmed on Saturday that Brissett would start on the road against the Dallas Cowboys Murray — who has a 9-0 career record at AT&T Stadium going back to his high school career — could still be active and have a role if his foot improves over the next 48 hours. Murray hasn’t played since Oct. 5.

Ravens trade CB Alexander to Eagles

The Baltimore Ravens have agreed to trade cornerback Jaire Alexander and a 2027 seventh-round draft pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2026 sixth-round pick. The Ravens announced the move Saturday Alexander joined the Ravens before this season, but he’s played in only two games for them, even though Baltimore was ravaged by injuries for a period of time. The Ravens are healthier now, and they also traded for defensive back Alohi Gilman last month.

Dolphins, GM Grier separate after 10 years

The Miami Dolphins and Chris Grier have agreed to part ways, ending his 10-year tenure as general manager The decision comes after Miami fell to 2-7 on the season after Thursday night’s 28-6 rout against the Baltimore Ravens. During Grier’s tenure — he has been with the organization since 2000, and general manager since 2016 — the Dolphins recorded ﬁve winning seasons and three playoff appearances but failed to win a postseason game. Miami’s 25-year playoff win drought remains the longest active streak in the NFL.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ZACH BOLINGER

Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor runs with the ball during a game against the Tennessee Titans on

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By NICK WASS

Houston Texans tight end Brenden Bates is tackled by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Teddye Buchanan and cornerback Jaire Alexander during the second half of a game on Oct. 5 in Baltimore.

SAINTS GAMEDAY

FOUR THINGS TO WATCH

DEFENSIVE CARRYOVER

GOODSTART

SHOUGH TIME

TylerShough, draftedwiththe No.40overall pick in April, will make his firstNFL startSunday. Chancesare,Shough won’tfacea tougher team therestof hisrookieseason. TheRamshavethe second-mostsacks in theNFL (26).Byron younghas nine.On topofthat, they aretiedfor the fifth-highestpressurerateinthe league (38.4%). So theSaints offensivelinewillbetested, and Shough needsa cleanpocket. A successful dayfor Shough would be taking care of theball like SpencerRattler didthrough the firstsix weeks. Avoiding turnovers is theonlyway theSaintshavea chance

MAKE PLAYS It shouldbepretty clear by now that alot of things will have to go right forthe Saints to pull offa huge upset.TheSaints opened as 131/2-point underdogs.It’ll take either a flawless performance by the Saints or aclunker of a performance by the Rams forthe Saints to gettheir second win of theseason. Theyneed to do all of thelittle things right. Catch every ball that hitstheir hands. Hold on to theball oncetheycatch it. GetStafford down when they get to him. Line up correctly.Score in thered zone. Make field goals. youget thepicture. The margin of erroristhinner than everfor the Saints. 1 2 3 4

It’sasking alot, but the defense needs to bottleuplast week’s performance against the Buccaneersand takeitout west TheSaints held the Bucs,led by MVP candidate Baker Mayfield, to just 212 total yards. TheRams, led by quarterback MatthewStafford, area step up in weight class, though.They have oneofthe most potent offenses in the league, averaging 360.1 yards per game. TheRams’ passing attack (256.7 yards per game) ranks third in the NFL. Receiver Puka Nacua, whohas battled an ankle injury, is expected to returnthis week,making the offense evenmore dangerous.

TheSaintsneedsomething good to happen early. TheRamsaren’t thetypeofteamthe Saints need to play catch-up against. Especially sincethe Saints are turningtoarookie quarterbackmaking his firstNFL start. TheSaintshave spentmostofthisseasontrying to climbout of ahole. They have had84offensive possessions, andtheyhavebeentrailingfor 70 of those. In five of theirfirst eightgames,the Saints never havehad alead. It wouldhelp if theSaintscould getsome help from specialteams or if the defensecould create aturnover or twotoset theoffense up in good fieldposition.

Future

The momentoftruthhas arrived for Tyler Shough. All theyears of dreaming and scheming, playing and praying, have delivered himtothis point

It’stime to see whether he has what it takes to be astartingNFL quarterback. This is thesituation he has planned and preparedfor since he was akid, wearing aBrett Favre jersey and slinging the ball around his yard in the Phoenixsuburbs.

Shough said. “What agreat opportunity to go out there and let it rip.”

QUESTIONABLE:

asset. See: Chicago, 2024, with Caleb Williams-Justin Fields.

So there’salot on the line over the next twomonths, both forShough and the Saints.

“We’re really excited about this opportunity forhim,” Moore said. “I feel like Tyler is ready to go.”

“You can callita dream, Iguess,” Shough said. “I’ve always believed it (might happen).”

Shough will earn the ﬁrst start of his nascent NFL career against the Rams on SundayinLos Angeles. In so doing, he will join exclusive company.Onlysix other rookie quarterbackshavestarted for the New Orleans Saints in their 59-year history

Thelast onetobedrafted as highly as Shough, asecond-round selection from Louisville,was Archie Manning in 1971. Shough will be thrown into thedeep end. The Rams run one of the most sophisticated defensive schemes in theNFL. They are ranked in the top ﬁve of almost every majordefensive category.Their defensive line features the best edge tandem in the league: NFLsack leader Byron Young and2024 Defensive Rookie of theYear Jared Verse.

It’ll be asink-or-swim experience for Shough at SoFiStadiumonSunday

“Their defense is incredibly good,

Shough and the Saintsare going into this thingwith their eyes wide open. They know there will be growing pains along the way.With that mind, the clubis giving him along leash. Barring injury Shough will be thestarter,and Spencer Rattler will be thebackup. There will be no ﬂip-ﬂopping between thetwo. This is Shough’sjob and Shough’steam

“We’re not doing this back-and-forth thing,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said. He added that having Shough as the permanent starter “is certainly the goal.” Moore declinedtodiscuss the big picture, but it’s evident. This is essentially anine-game audition. How Shough fares over the next two months is signiﬁcant— notjust for his future but also the franchise’s

TheSaints are staring at athree- or four-win season, whichwould land them atop-ﬁve selection in the 2026 NFLDraft.

If Shough passesthe test, he likely will become thepermanent starter freeing the Saints up to look elsewhere for help in the draft. If he fails, the Saints will be forced to look at quarterback options, starting with Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and Ty SimpsonofAlabama. Athird optionsremains, albeit an unlikely onethat few have considered: Shough plays well, but theSaints fall in love with aquarterback prospect in the draft and use Shough as apotential trade

He’ll need to be to turn around this listless offense. The Saints rank near the bottom of the league in mostkey offensive categories. They’re 29th in scoring (16 points per game) and 27th in total offense (295.0 yards agame). They’re 28th in rushing and dead last in red-zone offense. The offense gradually has declined in both scoring and yards annually since former head coach Sean Payton acolyte Pete Carmichael was ﬁred as offensive coordinator in 2023.

Can Shough turn things around? Time will tell.

Since Drew Brees retired in 2020, the Saints and their loyal legion of fans have turned their lonely eyes to a parade of offensive saviors in recent years, from Derek Carr to Klint Kubiak to Spencer Rattler to Moore. So far,no one has been able to rekindle the magic of the golden Payton-Brees era.

“It’sone game; it’sone week,” Moore said. “(Shough doesn’t) have to makeit any bigger than it is. The biggest thing is growth.” Moore never would say it publicly,but this was the plan all along. The Saints selected Shough with the No.40overall pick in April to eventually be their starter.Itwas only amatter of time until they handed him the keys to the offense. That timehas arrived. Now, it’supto Shough to deliver

Email JeffDuncan at jduncan@ theadvocate.com.

Rod Walker

STAFFPHOTO By BRETT DUKE

tackle

Veadefendsinthe second half on

SAINTS

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If the season were to end today,the Saints would have the No. 1pick —and their choice of any quarterback in the draft,if desired.

First,they must determine whether they have enough in Shough to make taking another quarterback unnecessary

“I’m excited for him,” Saints coachKellenMooresaid.“I think he’sgoing to handle this thing really,reallywell.”

Moore made no bold declarationsabout Shough’sfuture, outside of saying that the rookie would startover Spencer Rattler for therest of theseason Askedabout what he needs from afranchisequarterback, the first-yearcoach rattled off alist of traits. Great command. Protect the football. Make plays whenyou have to. Lead The Saints hope Shough is ready to step in and pounce after sitting for most of the first eightgames.The Louisville product got his first extended action in last week’s losstothe Tampa Bay Buccaneers,and coachesand players saidthey couldsee the quarterback’s growth after running the scout team.

“I’m going to make mistakes,” Shough said. “SoI’m going to do everything Ican to learn from those mistakes.”

The worst outcome would be if Shough manages to win games withoutperformances that deﬁnitively answer whether he’sthe guy Victories overthe Miami Dolphins, NewYorkJetsand Tennessee Titans —who areright near the Saints at the top of the draft order —have the potential to be misleading, especially if the Saints win with Shough just doing enough while the team steps up in other areas.

Yes, those wins could push the Saints out of the rangeto take the top quarterback prospect, but that shouldn’teliminate the possibility of taking, say,the third quarterback if they end up with the sixth pick instead of the ﬁrst or second Look at the2020draft, for instance.Thatyear,the Washington Commanders— or the Washington FootballTeam, as they were calledthen— passed on achance to take Tua Tagovailoa or JustinHerbert to draft defensive end Chase Young second overallinstead. Washington, at the time, felt it would be better off selecting apass rusher labeled as agenerational talent,since the team also had drafted quarterback Dwayne Haskins in thefirst round the previous year This decision might have doomed coach Ron Rivera’s four-year tenure in D.C. Haskinswas benched—and then cut —that fall.And while Washington made the playoffs in 2020 with a7-9 record, the lack of afranchise quarterback wasthe hurdle that Rivera and his staff could not overcome. Washington may havebeen persuaded mistakenlyby Haskins’ close to the2019 season. Like Shough, Haskins’ first start didn’tcome until Week 9, but his two victories down the stretch came against bad teams: the DetroitLions, whoﬁnished 3-12-1, and a5-11

Carolina Panthers team that lost eight straight to close the year.Haskins didshow some ﬂashes in that span, but there were warning signs the team overlooked

There are other examples, too.

TheDenver Broncos famously drafted passrusherBradley Chubb over future MVP Josh Allen with the ﬁfthpick in 2018, choosingtosign veteran Case Keenum rather thanrely on a young signal-caller

The Cleveland Browns also traded outofthe picksthat becameCarson Wentz and Deshaun Watson,although that was more centered on the franchise’smultiyear teardown strategy rather thanpreserving hope that anotherquarterbackwouldpan out

Complicating matters, the 2026 draft does not appear to be the star-studded class it seemed before the season began.

Arch Manning at Texas and Garrett Nussmeier at LSU originally wereseen as the prizes for rebuildingclubssuch as theSaints, but both have underwhelmed. In theirplace, Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and Dante Moore of Oregon have played well enough totop most mock drafts, but neither hasgenerated franchise-savior hype Alabama quarterback Ty Simpsonand SouthCarolina quarterback LaNorrisSellers —ifthey declare —also ﬁgure to be in the ﬁrst-round mix

“At this pointintime, Iwould saythere’ssome good,”NFL

Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said aboutthis year’s quarterback classonthe “Rich Eisen Show” this week. “I don’t necessarily think I’ve seen some great.”

So what does Shough have to show? Asked this question before the season, The Athletic’s Robert Mays compared the situationtoNew Englandand Drake Maye, the third overall pick in last year’sdraft.

Like the Saints, the Patriots sat Maye until he was ready

Therookie then thrived, even with poor pass protection upfront and alackluster passcatching group.

“The numbers weren’tgood for DrakeMayelastyear,but the numbers were way better than they should have been,” Mays said. “If youlook at the underlying metrics forthe Patriots last year,itwas way better than it had any right to be, considering some of the personnel deﬁciencies that team had.”

Then again, asking aquarterbackwho went40thoverall to playlike ahighly regarded quarterback from what looks like an all-time great draft class may be setting thebar too high. Perhaps themore apt comparison is what Davis Mills showed for the Houston Texans as athird-rounder in 2021.

The Stanford productkept the Texans in enoughgames down thestretch to prevent Houston fromreaching fora quarterback in aweak draft class.

Eventhen, Mills wasn’t the long-term answer. He wasreplaced in 2023 when theTexansdrafted C.J. Stroud with the second overall pick.

At alectern in the Saints’ facility on Wednesday, Shough seemed to understand the gravity of thesituation.But hisultimate goal, he said, is to win He knows what’s on the line. He plays in aleague where the Arizona Cardinals discarded Josh Rosen just ayear after takinghim 10thoverallto draft Kyler Murray ﬁrst overall. Justin Fields got only three seasons in Chicago beforethe BearstookCaleb Williams with theﬁrst pick.

“If it doesn’tgowell this year, (and) they have an earlier ﬁrstround pick, oneofthose top quarterbacksisavailable to them, then yeah,Iwould absolutely not even hesitatetomake amove,” Walder said.

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.com

STAFF PREDICTIONS

RODWALKER

RAMS 37,SAINTS13: Thepotentoffense forthe Rams is averaging360.1 yards pergame, so theSaintsdefense is in for astern test.The Rams aregivingupjust 16.7 points pergame(second best in the league). This is probably thebestoverall team theSaintshavefaced so farthis season.The resultsofthisgamewillshow it

LUKE JOHNSON

RAMS 31,SAINTS17: Weirdthings happen in theNFL,but there’snothing aboutthismatchup that makesmefeel good aboutthe Saints.Matthew Stafford is playingatanelite leveland hastwo AllPros to throwto, andthe LosAngeles pass rush is oneofthe best in theleague. The good news is theschedulegetslighter after this week

JEFF DUNCAN

RAMS 30,SAINTS19: TylerShoughis beingthrownintothe deep endfor his starting debut. TheRamsare SuperBowl contenders andboast oneofthe stingiest defenses in theleague. Still, Ilikethe Saints to keep it closefor ahalforso thankstothe “new quarterback” bump Rams have toomuchtalent, though,to succumbtoanupset

MATTHEWPARAS

33,SAINTS14:

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TyLER KAUFMAN Tyler Shough looks to pass against the Tampa BayBuccaneers last Sundayinthe Caesars Superdome.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVIDGRUNFELD

Saints quarterback Tyler Shough calls aplayfromthe huddle during the second half against the Tampa BayBuccaneers last Sundayinthe Caesars Superdome.

THE VARSITY ZONE

Surging University High nabs district title

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

Week 9 of the high school football season in the Baton Rouge area has come and passed. Teams bolstered their power rating, while others took a tough loss late in the season. Here are three takeaways from this past week’s action.

Cubs clinch District 6-3A

University High and Madison Prep played in one of the bigger games in Week 9. The Cubs (7-2, 5-0) defeated the Chargers in a defensive battle 14-8. Madison Prep’s lone score came off a Landon Johnson 75-yard punt return.

University High avenged its 14-6 loss to the Chargers last season and clinched the District 6-3A title in the process The Cubs have been on fire after a 1-2 start. University High has won six straight games and has risen in the power ratings with the playoffs quickly approaching.

“You’re playing for the end,” U-High coach Andy Martin said. “We play a tough schedule to start with, to get ready for these games. We just want to be peaking at the right time.”

Denham Springs on a roll

Denham Springs opened the season 2-2 with close losses to Central and East Ascension. Since their second loss, the Yellow Jackets offense has become nearly unstoppable. Their high-powered offense began with a 41-14 win over Southern Lab.

Denham Springs has since scored 63 points against Live Oak, 42 points against Dutchtown, 51 points against Prairieville and 62 points in its latest game versus Walker Against Walker, the Yellow Jackets scored 56 of their 62 points in the ﬁrst half — a new school record for most points in a half.

Denham Springs has quickly gone from .500 to 7-2 overall and is tied for first in District 5-5A with East Ascension at 4-1.

The key to the success has been a mix of stellar play by quarterback Da’Jean Gol-

mond, a lethal run game led by Brenton Paul and a plethora of talented pass catchers, such as wide receiver

Da’Sean Golmond and tight end Hayden Ray

Central nabs key win

The Wildcats entered Thursday’s matchup on the road against the Broncos with a record of 6-2 but had lost two of their past four games.

Central jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the ﬁrst quarter, but Zachary responded with 20 straight points scored across the second and third quarters. Down 27-21, the Wildcats made a big fourthdown stop in Central territory in the third quarter

Central then drove down the ﬁeld to retake the lead with a touchdown. The Wildcats would hold on for a 35-33 win. The win ended Zachary’s chance at a District 4-5A title, and more importantly, positioned Central in ﬁfth in the Division I non-select power ratings.

“This is huge for us,” Central coach David Simoneaux said. “Just sets us up to be trending in the right direction come playoff time.”

JOHNSON

Catholic, St. Joseph’s bring home city championships

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

Roars from Catholic and St. Joseph’s teammates rang around the pool as the Bears and Redstickers swam their way toward team titles.

The Bears won their 41st city championship and 34th straight on the boys side in the Capital City Swim League Championship meet on Saturday at Crawfish Aquatics. St. Joseph’s Academy won its 24th straight and 31st overall on the girls side. Catholic’s Noah Vargas won top individual on the boys side, while Parkview Baptist’s Lydia Talley won the award on the girls side.

Bears coach Sion Cavana was pleased with how his team performed Saturday to claim another team title.

“A lot of these guys are handling four swims throughout the session,” Cavana said. “A few lows, but mostly just highs today A lot of season’s bests, a lot of lifetime bests.” He said seeing some of his athletes achieve lifetime bests this close to the state meet puts his team in a good position to bring home a state title. Cavana also pointed to the brotherhood within his team and the support for one another as a key factor in their success. “Their teammates’ successes are their own successes,” he said. “That just

builds on themselves.”

Vargas won two individual races with the boys 200-yard IM with a time of 1 minute, 53.42 seconds and the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.90.

“Threw down a monster 200 IM,” Cavana said “His closing speed is what really impresses me. He just ﬁghts through the pain, gets his hand on the wall and ﬁgures out a way to win races.”

Vargas’ teammate, senior Khoa Nguyen, won the boys 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.56. The pair competed in four total races. Nguyen said he was happy with how he competed, dropping time in several of his races.

“It’s been hard trying to go fast, especially as a club swimmer,” Nguyen said. “Dropping time isn’t easy. I’ve had all of my buddies alongside me and my family push me forward to really get going.”

St. Joseph’s shines

The Redstickers saw similar results as Catholic, with several swimmers notching lifetime and season-best times St Joseph’s coach Jimmy Roberts was especially happy with how they performed in the relay races.

“Those relays were very important to us preparing for the state meet,” Roberts said. “Very happy with how we swam overall, and it was exciting.”

Roberts called the city meet the most fun of the year He said the environment at Crawﬁsh Aquatics helped his team step up in their races and swim faster than they thought they could.

“Outstanding relay swims,” Roberts said. “We won two relays, but the last one, even though we lost it was a phenomenal swim. We need that competition as we look forward to the end of the season.”

The Redstickers won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:49.78 and the 200yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:43.49. Molly Mayo was one of the standouts on the team. She won the girls 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.40. She also ﬁnished ﬁrst in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.75. Her time in the 200-yard IM set a new school record for that event.

“It’s an individual and team sport,” Roberts said. “But Molly is the one that was the star of our team this weekend.”

The Redstickers brought the noise Saturday, too, which Roberts said played a big part in their success

“We’ve really spent a lot of time on growing as a team and supporting each other,” Roberts said “We have 40 people, only 18 can compete, but we have that support from the side of the pool It makes a tremendous difference.”

MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL

St. Joseph’s Molly Mayo, left, breaks the water at the start of the 100-yard breaststroke during the CCSL Championship meet on Saturday at Crawfish Aquatics.

KELLY

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loss to Texas A&M. Kelly had a 34-14 record, results that didn’t match the size of his 10-year, $95 million contract.

When Kelly came to LSU in December 2021, he never had been ﬁred in three-plus decades as a head coach. He left Notre Dame as the team’s winningest coach with 113 victories, and he believed LSU could help him capture his ﬁrst FBS national championship. After all, the Tigers’ previous three head coaches won national titles by their fourth seasons

“He built his success at Notre Dame off of his traits of excellence and his total preparation, as he calls it, and that’s kind of the thing that undermined him,” a former member of the LSU athletic department said, “because he was too married to what had worked for him at Notre Dame and not open-minded enough to what would work for him at LSU.”

The Advocate spoke to 15 people connected to the LSU program over the past four years. They were granted anonymity in order to speak freely. Kelly has not spoken publicly since he was ﬁred, and former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, who parted ways with the university on Thursday, did not respond to a request for comment.

What the people described was a coach who did not connect with enough of his players, made bad staff decisions and never adapted to recruiting in the SEC. Kelly tried to install his structure, they said, but it did not translate.

“He did not embrace Louisiana, and he didn’t embrace LSU culture,” one former staff member said. “He felt like it needed to be changed, and part of it needed to be changed, but you have to come in and really embrace it.”

Unable to harness LSU

Inside the football operations building, Kelly ﬁlled his corner ofﬁce with mementos from his career One of them was a glasstopped box full of rings from championships and bowl games. It commemorated the highlights from what had been a long and successful career, and it was a reminder of what he still needed to accomplish when he came to LSU.

At Notre Dame, Kelly revived a program that had declined for years. Notre Dame reached the 2012 national championship game in his third season, and he ﬁnished with ﬁve consecutive 10-win seasons that included two playoff appearances.

Kelly came to LSU with a 26395-2 record. He thought he could continue what he had done before while harnessing LSU’s advantages.

“We were not at the same point in terms of what I needed and what I felt like the program needed,” Kelly told The Advocate in the spring of 2022. “Notre Dame, I think, wanted to do it. They’re like a big ship that is turning, and it takes a long time to turn that ship. I needed to turn a little faster than they did.”

At the time, Woodward had watched LSU win the 2019 national championship, only to go 11-12 over the next two years under coach Ed Orgeron Woodward ﬁred Orgeron in the middle of the 2021 season. He thought the football program had gotten too volatile. He wanted a stable hand, and he believed Kelly could provide it.

RABALAIS

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but there is technically no guarantee.

2. Landry is also correct in saying that these sky-high coaches’ contracts are ridiculous. It is a fact that Kelly’s buyout, at the moment, is the second-largest in college football history Landry said he wants to change that, and that’s admirable. But reversing the course of the free market is a Herculean project.

3. Landry is incorrect in saying that Woodward is responsible for the contract that led to this buyout (true) AND Fisher’s stillrecord $77 million buyout at Texas A&M two years ago. Woodward did hire Fisher in 2017 when he was the Texas A&M athletic director, but it was Woodward’s successor there, Ross Bjork, who signed Fisher to the extension that led to his staggering buyout.

LSU FOOTBALL

Given permission to clean house, Kelly overhauled the staff. He got rid of several longtime assistants, starting with strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt. The cold way Moffitt was dismissed upset many people close to the team, especially former players. Multiple staff members also said Kelly fixed some things that needed to be in the process.

“The organization fell in some areas, and he really brought that in,” a longtime staff member said “I think the message was always right. I really do. I think the thought process behind what we were doing was right in a lot of aspects. There’s just a certain edge that this place has, and that’s what ultimately slipped from us.”

Kelly’s approach was “a shock to the system,” one former staff member said. Players had to check in daily on an app that measured their activity throughout the week, and some thought it never resonated enough. Issues as the CEO

Throughout his career, Kelly has taken a CEO-style approach to being a head coach. He wanted to establish accountability, lean on quality assistants and run the organization from above. Multiple former staff members appreciated that he empowered them to do their jobs instead of micromanaging them, and they respected his intelligence.

That has worked in the past for

Kelly His ﬁve straight doubledigit win seasons at Notre Dame coincided with a string of successful defensive coordinator hires in now-Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko, now-Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea and nowNotre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman But that didn’t pan out at LSU.

“My ﬁrst four weeks here, I didn’t see him,” a current staff member said.

Multiple people said three of Kelly’s top assistants when he ﬁrst got to LSU — special teams and recruiting coordinator Brian Polian, chief of staff Beth Rex and mental performance coach Amber Selking — rubbed people the wrong way Polian was let go after one year and Rex left the

Woodward did some highly laudable things as the LSU athletic director

Among them, he hired Jay Johnson to coach baseball, Kim Mulkey to coach women’s basketball and Jay Clark to coach gymnastics. Those three have combined to win four national championships since 2023. But at a school like LSU, athletic directors ultimately are judged by their football hires. Not everyone at LSU was enamored with Woodward and the way he ran the department, including how much money he spent on coaches and, subsequently, buyouts. Landry could have tied Woodward to two ultimately ﬁred football coaches, Kelly and Fisher, and said LSU couldn’t afford to allow him to make another football hire and left it at that. Instead, he followed the money to some conclusions that were only partially correct. He also asserted that Kelly’s agent, Trace Armstrong, is Woodward’s agent, but no evi-

program in the middle of the 2024 season.

Still, LSU reached the SEC championship game in Kelly’s ﬁrst season after he inherited a roster with less than 40 scholarship players. An offense led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels was capable of competing for a national title in 2023, but the defense was so bad that the entire defensive coaching staff was replaced after the year Woodward was heavily involved in those decisions.

In the midst of the staff changes, LSU wanted to keep defensive tackle Maason Smith. As Smith debated whether or not to enter the NFL draft, a donor heavily involved in LSU’s name, image and likeness collective participated in a meeting. He suggested Kelly should call Smith, thinking that could help reassure him during the transition.

“ ‘That’s a great idea. If you have his phone number, please share it with me,’ ” the donor recalled Kelly saying. “It seems odd that I have his phone number and you don’t.”

Many players on the team thought they did not have a strong relationship with Kelly, multiple people said. It rubbed some players the wrong way when he messed up their names. One staff member said that in the NIL era, establishing relationships with players has become even more important for the head coach.

“If you love them up, they’re OK with being screamed at and yelled at because they know you really care,” a former staff member said. “I feel like that was a blindspot, for sure.”

One parent of an LSU player did not meet Kelly for almost a year after he got the job. He spoke to him for the second time ever this summer, even though his son has been on the team the entire time.

“It was just strange,” the parent said. “People would ask me, ‘What kind of guy is he?’ We didn’t know.”

Mistakes in recruiting

One former staff member remembered looking at LSU’s recruiting boards early in Kelly’s tenure. “We had people up there from

dence of that has come to light.

A lot of folks in Baton Rouge like Woodward. I’m one of them. He’s Baton Rouge born and bred, graduated from Catholic High and LSU, and has Mississippi River mud on the soles of his shoes.

But let’s be honest: Most folks wouldn’t care whether a potted plant is named LSU’s next athletic director They want to know how all this craziness is going to affect LSU’s ability to hire its next football coach.

Friday morning, LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard, board athletics committee chairman John Carmouche and newly named interim athletic director Verge Ausberry met with reporters to try to quell concerns about that. They did their best to squash the notion that Landry would hire the next football coach, like some modern-day Huey Long, or that all this upheaval would preclude LSU from hiring a top-shelf coach.

“We’re LSU,” said Ausberry,

Providence, Rhode Island, and all kinds of places,” the staff member said. “I thought, ‘Mmmm.’ ” Louisiana’s homegrown talent is seen as a built-in advantage to the job, but LSU signed only five of the top 10 players in the state in the 2023 recruiting class, the first full cycle under Kelly That quickly began to change, as LSU signed nine of the 10 a year later Now, most of Kelly’s first class is gone and only a handful are starters when it should have formed the backbone of the team.

“At ﬁrst, from a recruiting perspective, it was tough to get him to do a lot of things because he didn’t have to up at Notre Dame,” a former staff member said. “I wouldn’t say he was necessarily stuck in his ways, but he wasn’t fully willing to adapt at times.”

Kelly was involved in recruiting, but two former staff members noted the recruiting staff was given a certain number of phone calls per week that Kelly would make with prospects. One former staff member who has worked at other SEC schools said calls with recruits had to be arranged for Kelly, whereas the other coaches he worked with did that on their own. Kelly viewed himself as the closer

“The biggest complaint we’d get from recruits, their parents, coaches was, ‘Hey, we’ve heard from coach once since we committed’ or ‘we haven’t heard from coach ever,’ ” the former staff member said.

After a string of recruiting misses early on, LSU needed to add experienced players going into Kelly’s fourth year, especially on defense. It signed the No. 1 transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports. The roster cost about $18 million, Kelly said, a number that was more than triple what the team had spent the year before.

That raised expectations.

“What blows my mind about this is that the more money that we spent on the roster and I think by all accounts, the better the talent got — the worse the results were,” said the donor involved in LSU’s collective. “And I do not understand that.”

A season off the rails

Before spring practice started,

who is leading a search committee including Ballard, Carmouche and three others to ﬁnd the next football coach. “My phone is still ringing. A lot of people still want to come to LSU. It’s the best job in the country.” This has been a tumultuous, stunning and in some ways embarrassing week for LSU, LSU athletics and LSU football. From my time as a student at LSU in the 1980s during the “Crazy Days at LSU” saga through 33 years of covering LSU athletics, I have seen a string of crises wash over the program like storm surges, tearing things apart. Eventually, things get rebuilt. LSU is scheduled to name a new president Tuesday It will, according to the men on the podium Friday then hire a football coach and then (an interesting point) name a new athletic director That whole process probably will wrap up no earlier than late November or early December That’s 5-6 weeks away It

Kelly expressed conﬁdence in his team, saying LSU could win the SEC championship now that it had improved the roster But many of the same issues continued from last season, primarily on offense. Although the defense helped LSU start 4-0, the Tigers quickly fell off. They have the worst rushing offense in the SEC for the second straight year, and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has been unable to pick up the slack in the passing game behind a shaky offensive line. LSU ﬁred secondyear offensive coordinator Joe Sloan the day after Kelly

“The message with BK was always about the process and our details need to be better,” a current staff member said. “It can kind of just go in one ear and out the other We’d talk about details and process so much. I have no idea what our process was, and I have no idea if we know what details are.”

On Sunday morning, LSU staff members went back to work as they normally would on the ﬁrst day before an open date. They hosted recruits, but as the day continued, they could tell something more than the ﬁring of the offensive coordinator could be coming, especially when Kelly left the building. They knew for sure when they were told to come to an 8 p.m. team meeting.

Now, LSU has to conduct another coaching search while ﬁnishing the season under interim coach Frank Wilson. Interim athletic director Verge Ausberry has been given “full authority” to make the hire, two members of the LSU Board of Supervisors said Friday

“BK tried to build LSU in the mold of Notre Dame, and that’s not what LSU needed,” the former member of the athletic department said. “LSU needed structure, but it didn’t need to swing so far away from its identity that it forgot who it was.

“And so I think he brought in structure, but there was a disconnect between the LSU identity and the identity of the head coach and the football program.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

doesn’t seem that long, but who would have thought Kelly and Woodward both would have been ousted ﬁve weeks ago?

Ausberry is correct. Someone will be eager to take the job no matter the political climate. Maybe it’ll be someone viewed as a proven winner, like Ole Miss coach Lane Kifﬁn or Oregon coach Dan Lanning or even Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. It may well be an up-andcomer or a ﬁrst-timer such as a current college or NFL coordinator Perhaps the latter isn’t ideal, but consider this: Seven of the teams in this week’s AP top 10 Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia, Oregon, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and BYU — are led by coaches who either never had been head coaches before or at least hadn’t coached at the Power Four level. LSU football and LSU athletics will survive this crisis and thrive again. It’s just going to take some pain to get there.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU coach Brian Kelly gestures to his players during a game against South Carolina on Oct. 11 in Tiger Stadium.

ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 40, SOUTHERN 21

THREE AND OUT: TOyLOy BROWN’S TOP TAKEAWAyS FROM SOUTHERN VS. ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF

UNPREPARED FROM START

The way Southern opened the game was inexcusable. Kickoff returner Princeton Cahee failed to catch the kickoff that was not especially challenging to field.That lost fumble essentially gifted a touchdown to UAPB just 8 yards from the end zone. Southern lacked urgency far too often on both ends, and that was unexpected for a team that now has lost seven straight games.

EFFORT LEVEL LACKING

Southern is not as talented as many thought entering the season.Teams like this with a slim margin for error can’t afford mistakes such as turnovers or penalties.The biggest thing that can’t be allowed is lackluster effort. From offensive linemen not blocking a body to defenders making a bump tackle instead of wrapping up the Jaguars didn’t play hard enough throughout.

TREY HOLLY’S VERSATILITY

The LSU transfer has been depended on in the run game more than ever the last two weeks.Against UAPB, Southern rightfully found him as a receiver when he wasn’t able to break free as a runner Holly had four catches for 40 yards, along with 18 carries for 71 yards. The redshirt sophomore was let down multiple times by his offensive line but still managed to be productive.

Historical loss

UAPB blitzes Southern, which loses 7 in a row for first time ever

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

PINE BLUFF,Ark. Southern football made history on Saturday, but not the kind the Jaguars ever envisioned entering this season

Southern fell 40-21 to ArkansasPine Bluff at Simmons Bank Field as the Jaguars lost their seventh straight game for the ﬁrst time in program history

“I thought we was ready to play this game,” Southern interim coach Fred McNair said. “It’s up to me to get these guys ready to prepare to play. And we thought we was ready, but we just didn’t have the outcome that we wanted.”

Southern (1-8, 0-5 SWAC) started quarterback Ashton Strother for a third consecutive game, but he was replaced by Cam’Ron McCoy with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter with the Jaguars trailing 38-7. UAPB (3-4, 2-3) scored its most points against a Division I opponent this season. The Jaguars had a disastrous opening quarter On the kickoff return, returner Princeton Cahee let the ball go through his hands and bounce backward through his legs at his own 20-yard line. UAPB recovered the fumble and started its ﬁrst possession 8 yards from the end zone.

The Golden Lions used backup quarterback DJ Stevenson instead of its normal starter in the redzone situation, and he eventually

punched in a 2-yard touchdown run.

Southern had a normal return on its next kickoff from star tailback Trey Holly, who had a 24-yard return But Southern wasn’t done with poor special-teams plays. On UAPB’s ﬁrst punt in the ﬁrst quarter wide receiver Damien Knigthen caught the ball but slipped immediately and was down at the 23-yard line.

Southern’s ﬁrst drive of the second quarter was one of its best of the season. After starting on its own 11-yard line, Strother perfectly executed the team’s hurryup offense on a 10-play drive. He completed all six of his passes on the drive, with his deepest throw being a 29-yard completion to Zackeus Malveaux. The final play was an accurate throw to the left side to Darren Morris on a corner route that allowed the redshirt junior to walk into the end zone untouched.

That play tied the game at 7-7 with 8:59 remaining in the first half

The Jaguars followed that drive with their second turnover of the game. On third and 11 from their own 11-yard line, Strother threw an interception to the left sideline that went directly into the chest of Golden Lions freshman Azayvonne Stribling. UAPB entered the game leading the Southwestern Athletic Conference with nine interceptions.

“We just had some turnovers that kind of got us off page,” McNair said. “We got a kickoff return we fumbled the ball. We didn’t play as well as we expected to play.”

UAPB punished the Jaguars again for a turnover by tacking on a touchdown. Quarterback Christian Peters ran 19 yards into the end zone, breaking a tackle by linebacker Mike Jones along the way and getting to the right pylon after some shoving from teammates to take a 14-7 advantage with 6:12. Southern then had a devastating close to the first half. UAPB made a 39-yard field goal before a Southern three-and-out. The Golden Lions scored another touchdown with 17 seconds remaining in the first half.

Peters ran to the right outside the pocket and threw a 31-yard pass to Ellis Stewart. The freshman from Breaux Bridge reeled in the catch with one hand, giving his team a 24-7 lead at halftime.

Stewart had a second one-handed catch as Peters found him on a seam route in the third quarter Stewart turned sideways as he reached high, using all of his 6-foot-3 frame for the 32-yard touchdown. This gave the Golden Lions a 31-7 lead.

Southern was without preseason All-SWAC ﬁrst-team defenders in safety Horacio Johnson and linebacker Vincent Paige. Cornerback Landon Carter, who

Southern QBs swap roles vs. UAPB

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

PINE BLUFF, Ark Originally Southern’s third-string quarterback, Ashton Strother made his third consecutive start against Saturday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

The junior transfer from Coahoma Community College earned that spot after repeatedly proving himself to be the better passer than Cam’Ron McCoy, who started the majority of the games after Jalen Woods’ concussion on Aug. 30.

Strother delivered some solid showings in relief of McCoy in road games at both Fresno State and Bethune-Cookman earlier this season.

But the roles changed against UAPB when an ineffective Strother was replaced by McCoy, who led the Jaguars on a pair of scoring drives in their 40-21 loss to UAPB on Saturday at Simmons Bank Field.

On fourth and 2, Southern had the ball on its 50-yard line with a 24-point deﬁcit and a little under nine minutes remaining in the third quarter On the previous play, Strother found senior wide receiver Khalil Harris free up the middle for an 18-yard reception.

Instead of handing the ball off to star tailback Trey Holly — who had not been getting consistent blocking throughout, on fourth down — Southern interim coach Fred McNair cued up a pass play Strother wandered outside of the pocket to his right side with defenders trailing. He threw a pass at least 10 yards down the ﬁeld into the turf.

That was the last pass the junior made. He ended his night completing 12 of 21 passes for 126 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He was also sacked three times.

McNair, who led the Jaguars for the second time this season, said he replaced Strother because the team was in need of a “spark” with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter “Well, I thought (McCoy) could come in, give us some stuff in the running game like quarterback runs, RPO stuff,” McNair said “He can come in and be a dual threat, which he did. He came in, gave us a little spark there at the end. Second half, he scored a touchdown. So just something that he always gives us in the running game.”

had two tackles and an interception, said that their absence isn’t an excuse.

“We have depth on our defense,” Carter said. “There’s no real dropoffs.”

McCoy entered the game and instantly provided a spark for the Southern offense as he used his running ability to keep the ball moving. His best play was a 41yard pass while facing pressure to Morris, who caught the ball with his left hand while falling on the 3-yard line. After the Jaguars were pushed back, Morris finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown reception.

McCoy ignited a 73-yard drive that ended with his own 3-yard carry into the end zone to make it 38-21 with 8:44 left in the game.

The run of positive plays ended with a safety McCoy had a pass deﬂected at the line of scrimmage and he caught it himself and while being tackled, he threw it to the side of his end zone for the safety

The Jaguars’ best defensive play came from Carter The redshirt freshman from New Orleans got an interception by punching the ball out of a receiver’s hands and catching it before it touched the ground. The team trailed 38-13 with 13:12 left in the game when he made his play Southern’s next game is against Alcorn State at 3 p.m. Saturday in Lorman, Mississippi.

McCoy reminded his team that he can be a threat as a deep-ball thrower, too. His ﬁrst two plays were a short completion that Holly did most of the work for 8 yards and a quarterback run for a couple of yards.

On second and 8 from the UAPB 44-yard line, McCoy was moving left out of the pocket with a defensive end in pursuit. While still facing forward, he uncorked a 41-yard bomb into a tight window to wide receiver Darren Morris, who was down at the 3-yard line.

After a bevy of plays and penalties that led to a fourthdown chance, McCoy finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Morris again on the right side of the goal line.

McCoy continued to succeed on the next drive. His best pass was a 16-yard delivery to tight end Dupree Fuller

The drive ended with a slick run-pass option play where McCoy sold the handoff to Holly and scampered into the end zone, giving Southern 21 points. He ﬁnished the game completing 6 of 10 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown He also rushed four times for 15 yards and a touchdown. Besides the safety he had toward the end of the game, McCoy improved the quality of the offense just as Strother did earlier in the year

PHOTO By STACI VANDAGRIFF

Southern wide receiver Damien Knighten is tackled by Arkansas-Pine Bluff defensive back Tavon Hardwick during the first half on Saturday at Simmons Bank Field in Pine Bluff, Ark The Golden Lions won 40-21.

OUTDOORS

LWFC resurrects menhaden issue

Contentious topic tops Thursday’s commission agenda

BY JOE MACALUSO

Contributing writer

Notebook

A year after striking an agreement over the take of menhaden from Louisiana waters, the issue over the buffer zone for the menhaden industry will become another contentious item on Thursday’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission agenda.

The 9:30 a.m. meeting, at state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters in Baton Rouge, again will pit recreational ﬁshing and conserva-

tion organizations against the two foreign-owner menhaden ﬁshing companies operating in state waters.

The agenda item: “Receive and Consider a Notice of Intent to Modify Commercial Menhaden Reduction Fishery Buffers Along Certain Portions of the Louisiana Coast.”

Fishing and conservation groups battled for a handful of years for an expanded buffer zone — the distance menhaden boats could work from a line stretching across Louisiana’s coast — and believed it had worked out a 1-mile buffer zone.

Then, in a move ordered by Gov Jeff Landry that distance was narrowed to one-half mile, then was approved by the commission last year and was in effect for the 2025 menhaden season Even after at least two run-ins

with menhaden ﬁshing operations this year, a shocking announcement by commission chair Kevin Sagrera came at the end of October’s commission meeting when he charged Wildlife and Fisheries’ Marine Fisheries staff to come up with a notice to change last year’s agreement. If approved, the notice demands a period of public comment, and possible amendments, until ﬁnal ratification sometime in early 2026.

Other agenda items include:

n To announce the winner of the 2026 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition;

n To consider a notice of intent to the Hunter Education Program;

n To hear a presentation on developing the state’s ﬁrst stakeholderdriven black bass management plan;

n And, to consider a change in the Special Bait Dealer’s Permit.

n Public comment period will follow each item, and others will be taken at the end of the meeting before the commission considers moving to a closed executive session to learn about updates on two legal matters.

n The meeting will be available via Zoom with a live audio/video feed.

Line up ladies Wildlife and Fisheries has set a Nov 30 deadline for novice women to participate in a lottery deer hunt scheduled Jan. 9-11 on the Floy McElroy Wildlife Management Area.

It’s part of the Beyond Becoming an Outdoors Woman. To be eligible for the lottery, applicants must have attended a previous Becoming an Outdoors Woman Workshop.

The lottery drawing will be held Dec. 1.

The hunt is for women new to deer hunting Other requirements, and the application, are listed on the agency’s website: louisianaoutdoors.com/lottery-applications Red snapper

Who would have believed it: The recreational red snapper season remains open. That comes after state ﬁsheries managers reported the LA Creel survey through Oct. 19 showed a one-week catch of 9,158 pounds to push this year’s total to 874,777 pounds.

It means there’s 20,178 pounds remaining in our state’s 894,955-pound annual allocation. Word from Wildlife and Fisheries is a closure “could occur as early as mid-November.”

GUNS

PHOTO

Brody Domingue, left, and Dwayne Vidrine started the South Louisiana High Power Rifle Club’s championship by scoring bull’s-eyes on the 200-yard course at the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Range in Gonzales. They went on to take club titles in the junior and overall divisions with respective scores of 461 and 491 out of a possible 500 points.

High Power Riﬂe Club crowns champs

Dwayne Vidrine began with a score of 97 for his 10 shots in the opening slowfire standing portion of last weekend’s South Louisiana High Power Rifle Club club championship.

By the time he finished with his next 40 shots at 200 yards on the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Range in Gonzales, Vidrine claimed the title.

TUESDAY LA. FINFISH TASK FORCE MEETING: 10 a.m. state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, 2000 Quail Drive, Baton Rouge. Top agenda item: notice of intent to modify menhaden buffer zone.

WEDNESDAY

JUNIOR SOUTHWEST

BASSMASTERS MEETING:

7 p.m., Seminar Room, Bass Pro Shops, Denham Springs. Boys & girls age-group bass tournaments for ages 7-10, 11-14 & 15-18 anglers. Call Jim Breaux (225) 772-3026.

THURSDAY LA. WILDLIFE & FISHERIES COMMISSION MEETING: 9:30 a.m., state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive, Baton Rouge.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

MLF TOYOTA SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP: Grand Lake, Grove, Oklahoma. Website: MajorLeagueFishing.com

HUNTING SEASONS

DUCKS/YOUTH-ONLY: Nov.

8-9, West Waterfowl Zone.

DEER/PRIMITIVE FIREARMS: Nov. 8-14, State Deer Areas 1, 4, 5, 6 & 9. Either-sex take allowed.

GEESE: Nov. 8-Dec. 7, West Waterfowl Zone. Includes Canada, blue, snow & Ross’ & specklebellies. Take of Canada geese prohibited in portions of Cameron & Vermilion parishes.

RAILS/GALLINULES: Nov. 8-Jan. 7, statewide.

DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Nov. 15-Dec. 5, State Deer Areas 1, 4 & 6.

DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Nov. 15-Dec. 5, State Deer Areas 5 & 9, bucks only except either-sex take allowed Nov. 15-16 & Nov. 28-30.

DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Through Dec. 2, State Deer Area 2, still-hunt only

SNIPE: Through Dec. 7, ﬁrst split, statewide.

DEER/ARCHERY: Through Jan. 15, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8 & 10. Either-sex take allowed.

DEER/ARCHERY: Through Jan. 31, State Deer Areas 1, 2 & 4. Either-sex take allowed.

DEER/ARCHERY: Through Feb. 15, State Deer Areas 5, 6 & 9, either-sex take allowed.

RABBITS & SQUIRRELS: Through Feb. 28, statewide, private lands only

AROUND THE CORNER NOV. 10—RED STICK FLY FISHERS MEETING: 7 p.m., Regional Branch Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Boulevard, Baton Rouge. Open to the public. Email Brian Roberts: roberts.brian84@gmail.comFISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Fall inshore & outside waters open statewide. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Red snapper, gray triggerfish; lane, blackfin, queen and silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. CLOSED SEASONS: Flounder (recreational/commercial take closed through Nov. 30); greater amberjack; bluefin tuna; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. Commercial greater amberjack season closed.

LDWF UPDATES

CLOSED: Hope Canal Road/ boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction).

During the next three rounds, rapidfire sitting (10 shots/60 seconds), rapid-fire prone (10 shots/70 seconds) and the slow-fire prone (20 shots/20 minutes),Vidrine had posted a score of 491 of a possible 500 score with 16 bull’s-eyes to his credit.

bull’s-eyes) and Paul Smith taking the Sharpshooter title with a 453 score.

Among the junior division, Brody Domangue stood tall with a 461 score including six bull’s-eyes.

All marksmen fired AR-15s.

Others were close, like Mike Burke taking the Master Class title with a 480 score (15 bull’s-eyes), James Davis winning the Expert Class with a 479 (12

The club’s next match, the M1 Garand and Springfield state championships, comes up Nov. 23 at the Gonzales range.

Joe Macaluso

Southeastern scores another blowout; Nicholls St., UL win

By The Associated Press

DUCKS/WEST ZONE: Nov. 15-Dec. 7.

DUCKS/EAST ZONE: Nov. 1516, youth- & veterans-only weekend.

GEESE/EAST ZONE: Nov. 15-Dec. 8.

QUAIL: Nov. 15-Feb. 28, statewide, private lands only

DOVES: North Zone, through Nov. 16; South Zone, through Nov. 30.

DEER/MODERN FIREARMS: Through Nov. 30, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8 & 10.

ROAD CLOSURE: Section of La. 975 through Sherburne WMA closed through June 12, 2026 (replace bridge) access from U.S. 190 and I-10 open.

DRAWDOWNS: Underway on Henderson Lake, Lake Bistineau, Saline, Kepler, Iatt, Black & Clear lakes, Clear-Smithport Lake & Lake Martin. EMAIL: jmacaluso @theadvocate.com

HAMMOND Carson Camp threw two touchdown passes, Dkhai Joseph returned a punt 63 yards for a score and added a 32-yard touchdown reception, and Southeastern Louisiana beat East Texas A&M 59-14 on Saturday for its ﬁfth straight win. Southeastern Louisiana (7-2, 5-0 Southland Conference), No. 21 in the FCS poll, is unbeaten since a 56-10 loss to then-No. 3 LSU on Sept. 20. Jaylon Domingeaux had four receptions for 157 yards and two touchdowns for SLU. Calvin Smith. added two rushing TDs, while Deantre Jackson scored on a 1-yard run and Kyree Paul’s 27-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes capped the scoring. NICHOLLS STATE 31, HOUSTON CHRISTIAN 7: In Thibodaux, Ean Rodrigue completed 17 of his 22 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns, and he rushed for 89 yards and another score as Nicholls rolled The Colonels (3-6, 3-2 Southland) have won two straight after losing six in a row Dany’e Brooks and Everett Hunter each caught touchdowns from Rodrigue, and Paxton Lafont caught another from running back Shane Lee.

rush and Gabe Showalter kicked a 29-yarder to give the Colonels a 17-0 lead at the half.

After an interception gave Nicholls the ball at the opposing 24-yard line, Lee found Lafont for a ﬁrst-play touchdown Rodrigue added a 5-yard

UL 31, SOUTH ALABAMA 22: In Mobile, Alabama, Lunch Winﬁeld threw for 232 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for another score and UL beat South Alabama to end a three-game skid in the Sun Belt Conference. Winfield threw a 25-yard scoring pass to Shelton Sampson for the game’s ﬁrst points. After Tony Sterner made a 32-yard field goal for a 10-0 advantage, South Alabama got on the board when Keenan Phillips ran it in from the 15 with 9:38 before halftime. From there, the Ragin’ Cajuns scored 21 straight points.

PROVIDED

If Pels don’t fight, Greenwillget KO’d

Once upon atime when theNew Orleans Pelicans were trending in the right direction, Willie Green delivered afiery speech in Los Angeles that defined his first season as aheadcoach. His Pelicans were buried in a10-point hole heading into the fourth quarter of aplay-in game against the Clippers that night during the 2021-22 season.

“Get your freaking heads up,” Green told his team. “This is what we live for.This is what we work hard for.OK, we ain’tgivingitup. We are not freaking giving this up.You gotta freaking ﬁght.You gotta ﬁght.”

The Pels fought back and won that night.

More times than not since then, theﬁght the Pelicans put on display in that game 31/2 years ago has been missing.

You’ll see glimpses from time to time, like in Friday night’s126-124 loss to the Clippers decidedbya Kawhi Leonard buzzer beater. The Pels trailed by 10 going into the fourth quarter Friday.This time unlike that play-in game in 2022, they couldn’tclose the deal. But most other times —like earlier in the week when thePelicans got blasted in back-to-back losses to the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets—you’ll see a team that has the same amount of ﬁght as it has wins —zero.

In those times when it seems the players have given upon Green, the question becomes is it time for the front ofﬁce to give up on him, too?

For every game like Friday night when you see the Pels ﬁght to the end, they’ll negate it with

STAFF PHOTO By DAVIDGRUNFELD

NewOrleans Pelicans coach Willie Green directs aplayagainst the Boston Celticsduring the first half of agameonMonday at the Smoothie King Center.The Celtics won122-90.

ä Pelicans at Thunder 2:30 P.M.

SUNDAy WAFB

an embarrassingreality check. Thenext one could come as early as Sundaywhen thePelicans (0-5) wrap uptheir road trip against the undefeated Oklahoma City Thunder, thereigning NBA champions.

It’sstill early in the season, but JoeDumars —who replaced David Grifﬁnasexecutive vice president of basketball operations in April —already could be facing abig decision. Does heride it out with Green? Or has he seen alarge enough sample size?

Is Dumars discouraged by the two embarrassinglosses this week from ateam that hasn’twon agame since March 30? Or does the ﬁght he saw Friday in taking the Clippers to thewire offset that?

OutsideofFriday’sgame, what thePelicans have shown so far isn’twhat Dumars said fans would see when he took over.He didn’tpromiseaplayoff berth this season, but he did promise effort.

“Before you can get to the playoffs or acertain amount of wins, theﬁrst thingyou have to get to is,‘We compete hard every night,’ ”Dumars said in April. “If you don’testablishthat in your building ﬁrst,you’re just talking. You’re just giving quotes out at that point. For me, it’sa process of establishing ahard, competitiveplaying team every night. Then we will get to thewins and losses.”

The competitivenesshasn’t been there consistently and certainly not thewins.

The Pels’ losing streak is at 12 dating to last season.Fourof the last sevenlosses have been by at least 25 points, including

the pair of 30-plus point beatdownsthis week against the Celticsand Nuggets. Alossto OKC on Sunday would tiethe franchise recordfor most consecutive losses. When evaluating Green, an asterisk can go beside last season. ThePels tied for the secondfewest wins in team history, but even Phil Jackson couldn’t win with ateam decimated by that many injuries. The season beforethat, Green led the team to 49 wins, the second-most in franchise history

He hasn’t recaptured what he had in the 2023-24 season. It seemsasifGreen’smessage isn’t gettingthrough to the players at times It’snot just that the Pels are losing. It’show they are losing. In all ﬁve games this season, there have been lulls. That falls on Green. It doesn’thelp when the team has games like Wednesday night’sloss to the Nuggets when two of its best players (Trey Murphy and Herb Jones) combine to shoot 3of15from the ﬂoor and the best player (Zion Williamson) goes theentire game without arebound. After the loss to the Nuggets, Green’spostgame message was that his team needed to do some soul searching.

“Pretty much we are ateam right now that has to dig down and find ouridentity,” Green said. “Wehave to believe in each other That’sfirst. The first order of business is you’ve got to compete harder,play harder,play more together,and the belief has to be there.”

Yousaw that Friday as they climbed out of a17-point,thirdquarter hole to almost force overtime. But it still goes down as aloss.

“Even through adifﬁcult loss,

SCOREBOARD

3:28 0-1 0-0 0-2 01 0 Totals 240:0040-8326-2912-43 28 18 124

Percentages: FG .482, FT .897

3-Point Goals: 18-37, .486 (Poole7-13,Mur-

phyIII 5-10, Jones 3-4, Fears 2-5,Alvarado 1-3, Bey 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers:None. Blocked Shots: 4(Matkovic,Missi,Poole, Queen). Turnovers: 15 (Poole 5, Missi 3, Williamson 3, Jones 2, MurphyIII, Queen) Steals: 8(Fears 4, Murphy III 2, Alvarado, Jones). TechnicalFouls: None. FG FT Reb

LACMin M-AM-A O-TA PF PTS

Jones28:42 7-10 0-0 2-3 11 16

Leonard36:1411-16 7-7 0-5 52 34 Zubac 33:37 5-7 4-4 1-11 15 14

Beal 21:11 3-8 2-2 0-1 22 9

Harden 39:03 8-19 4-5 1-5 14 224

Dunn 22:45 3-6 0-0 0-0 04 6

Collins 18:50 6-10 1-1 1-3 10 14

Batum 16:25 1-4 0-0 3-5 03 3

Lopez 14:17 1-5 1-2 1-3 00 3 Paul 8:57 1-4 0-0 1-1 40 3

Totals 240:0046-8919-2110-37 28 19 126

Percentages: FG .517, FT .905 3-Point Goals: 15-39, .385 (Leonard5-8, Harden 4-13, Jones Jr. 2-5, Batum 1-2,Beal 1-2 Paul 1-2, Collins1-3, Dunn 0-1,Lopez 0-3). Team Rebounds: 8. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 6(Zubac 3, JonesJr. 2, Lopez). Turnovers: 12 (Harden 4, Batum 2, Leonard2 Beal, Collins, Dunn, Lopez).

Steals: 12 (Leonard6,Dunn 3, Harden 2, Lopez).

TechnicalFouls: None. New Orleans 28 31 25 40 —124 L.A. Clippers 26 41 27 32 —126 A_16,083 (18,000). T_2:17.

Major LeagueBaseball

MLB Postseason Glance All Times Central x-if necessary WORLD SERIES (Best-of-7) (FOX)

Toronto 3, LosAngeles 3 Friday, Oct. 24: Toronto 11,Los Angeles 4 Saturday, Oct. 25: LosAngeles 5, Toronto 1 Monday, Oct. 27: LosAngeles 6, Toronto 5, 18 innings Tuesday, Oct. 28: Toronto 6, LosAngeles 2 Wednesday, Oct. 29: Toronto 6, LosAngeles 1 Friday, Oct. 31: LosAngeles 3, Toronto 1 Saturday, Nov. 1: LosAngeles at Toronto, n Late Friday L.A. Dodgers

UAB19

23, St. Francis (Pa.) 20

24, Columbia 10 SOUTH Bethune-Cookman42, MVSU 34

Clemson45

42,

24, Florida 20

Forest 7

St. 13, Alabama A&M 10

St. 41, Florida A&M 16 Kentucky 10, Auburn 3 Liberty 59, Delaware 30 Lindenwood (Mo.) 35, Tennessee St.13 Louisiana-Lafayette 31, South Alabama 22 Louisville 28, VirginiaTech 16 McNeese St. 50, NorthwesternSt. 3 Mercer 52, Furman 28 Mississippi 30, South Carolina14 Morehead St. 28, Davidson24 NC State 48, GeorgiaTech 36 Nicholls 31,Houston Christian 7 Old Dominion 31, Louisiana-Monroe 6 Presbyterian 43, Valparaiso 14 Richmond 17, Fordham 14 S. Illinois 27, Murray St. 7 SC State 36, Morgan St. 30 SE Louisiana 59, East TexasA&M 14 Tennessee Tech 27, Gardner-Webb 21 TheCitadel 35, VMI 24 Towson 62, NC A&T 9 W. Carolina 35, Chattanooga 28 W. Kentucky 35, New Mexico St. 16 William &Mary 37, Albany(NY) 7 Wofford26, Samford16 MIDWEST Arizona St. 24, Iowa St. 19 Buffalo28, BowlingGreen 3 Charleston Southern 23, SE Missouri 17 Drake24, Butler 19 Illinois35, Rutgers 13 IllinoisSt. 31, N. Iowa 16 Indiana St. 24, S. Dakota St. 12 Kansas 38, Oklahoma St.21 Michigan 21,Purdue 16 Minnesota 23, Michigan St. 20, OT N. Dakota St. 38, Youngstown St. 30 Ohio St. 38, Penn St. 14 South Dakota 26, North Dakota 21 Southern Cal 21, Nebraska 17 St. Thomas (Minn.) 45, Marist 0 TexasTech 43, Kansas St. 20 UT Martin27, E. Illinois20, OT W. Michigan 24, Cent. Michigan 21 SOUTHWEST Abilene Christian 31, Tarleton St. 28 Alabama St. 31, Prairie View 28 Alcorn St. 33, TexasSouthern 14 Ark.-Pine Bluff 40, Southern U. 21 Baylor 30, UCF 3 E. Kentucky 34, Cent. Arkansas 13 Incarnate Word 24, Lamar 17 Mississippi St.38, Arkansas 35 North Texas31, Navy 17 SMU

the response we all saw tonight is agroup that is learning each other and coming together,” Green said Friday.“But they care. They went out and competed at ahigh level and gave everything they got. We are going to continue to get better.”

Will Green get to continue leading that charge?

Dumars gets to decide whether he believes in Green. Many of the fans no longer do.

Social media has been in shambles all week. So have someofthe fans in the Smoothie King Center Boos wereheard when Green’s namewas called during pre-game introductions at the homeopener against the San Antonio Spurs. To avoid the boos, Green’sname wasn’tannounced during introductions forthe second home gameagainst the Celtics.

Those boos will get only louder At least until fans stop showing up, typically the next step when teamsdon’tplay with effort.

“Weare here to raise the bar,” Dumars said in April. “We’re not here to be happy with mediocrity.”

Five games into the season, the Pelicans aren’teven mediocre.

One of three winless teamsinthe NBA, they are toward the bottom of the league in moststatistical categories.

Pelicans governor Gayle Benson typically doesn’tget rid of coaches in the middle of aseason. She did last year though, ﬁring Dennis Allen, the head coach of her other franchise the NewOrleans Saints.

The Pelicans last got rid of a coach midseason when Byron Scott was let go after the thenNewOrleans Hornets started 3-6.

Will Green last that long? It’s too early to say Or is it?

Rod Walker

LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN

What is thestory behind the two lighthouses?

BY RACHEL MIPRO

Contributing writer

Twolighthouses on Lake Pontchartrain, once avital part of themaritime landscape, are still beacons for curious tourists andlocals who love New Orleanshistory Metairie reader Perry Dolce, who often visits thesouth shore ofLake Pontchartrain,noticed a lighthouse in the area that used tobethe Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park. His questions: “Were there two lighthouses and was the one furtherinto Lake Pontchartrain destroyed?Was thelighthouse on the peninsula movedtothe currentlocationfurtherinland on dry land?” Kristi Trail,executive director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy,shedsome

ä See CURIOUS, page 4D

Workers waterproof and paint the Milneburg Lighthouse on theUniversityof NewOrleans’ Research and Technology campus in 2021. Also known as the Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse,itwas in operation from 1839-1929.

“I remember my grandparents cooking in them on my mother’sand father’sside, and Ijust grew up alwaysseeingthem. It really hitmethat these pots were special ” JUDE ARTIGUE

‘ITMEANS

SOMETHING’

DannyHeitman AT RANDOM

Paddle parade on BayouTeche a greatstart to fall

When avolunteer with The TECHE Project handed me asouvenir pin stamped with an image of achickadee lastmonth, IknewI’d nabbeda treasure. With their black and whitefeathers that look like atuxedo, chickadees are among my favorite birds. What Ilike most is their spunk —how they holdtheir own atmybirdfeeders in spite of their small size.

Aﬁtting mascot, in other words, for

ä See AT RANDOM, page 4D

Gettoknow Magnalite, the Ohio cookware that became a Louisianalegend

BY JOANNABROWN Staff writer

Few other brands are associated with Cajun cooking quitelike Magnalite. Blackpotsand cast iron have averyimportant place in the regional culinary landscape —but Magnalite roasters,fry pans and rice pots areso ubiquitous throughout Louisiana home kitchens,locals are often surprised to learnthatthe company stopped producing cookware in the United States over 25 years ago. Theyare also frequentlysurprised to ﬁnd out that Magnalite was never aLouisiana product. The famousaluminum and magnesium alloy pots, prized

various

for their heat distribution, were manufactured in Sidney, Ohio, by the WagnerManufacturing Company,which introduced the Magnalite brand in 1934. The Ohio plantclosed in 1999, the brand was sold, and production of Magnalite-derivativecast aluminum cookware largely moved to China, wherebrands like Mc-

and

Onceproduced

and derivatives are nowproduced

Ware (owned by Cajun Classic Cookware out of Mamou) are manufactured. McWare, and similar products like Magnaware, preserve the distinctive look andcooking feel of Magnalite, and the home cook won’tnotice muchofadifference

ä See MAGNALITE, page 4D

STAFFPHOTOSByBRAD KEMP

The ‘Magnalite Man,’JudeArtigue, cooks apot of shrimp pasta while showing offand explaining the history of Magnalite pots at his homeinLafayette.

Artigue displays

Magnalite pots

dishes.

in Sidney,Ohio, the brand was sold

overseas.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

PROVIDED PHOTO

Baton Rouge Area Library Club

Mary Stein, assistant director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, provided planning and construction information on the new South Branch Library to members of the Baton Rouge Area Library Club on Oct. 23. Shown are, from left, Melanie Sims, hostess; Susan Gauthier, hostess; Barbara Wittkopf, convenor; Stein, presenter; and Patrick Abadie, branch director

Krewe of Orion

Krewe of Orion Queen XXVII Brittany

and Evelyn

WBR Garden & Civic Club

PROVIDED PHOTO

Twenty-two members of the West Baton Rouge Garden & Civic Club met for a guided tour by Keith ‘Kicka’ Guedry at the Cora Texas Manufacturing sugar factory on La. 1 in White Castle on Oct. 14.

Garden Discovery Series

Wally Taylor, board member, is shown with Linda Auld aka the NOLA BugLady before the program event ‘Monarchs, Migration, Milkweed, Oe’ at the Main Library at Goodwood on Oct. 11. The event was co-sponsored by the Baton Rouge Botanic Garden Foundation.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Associated Women in the Arts

Members of the Associated Women in the Arts chose Kathy Chassee’s ‘Sippin’ on Sunshine’ as their top pick at the AWA’s annual ‘Art Exhibition and Sale’ at the Louisiana State Archives. The show will continue to Dec. 1.

Associated Women in the Arts

Elayne Kuehler’s ‘A Silver Lining’ was the juror’s pick at the Associated Women in the Arts’ annual ‘Art Exhibition and Sale.’ At right is juror Saska Ozois, founder of the Fine Arts Preservation Society in New Orleans. A reception was hosted for the show on Oct. 16.

ON THE ARTS AND CULTURE SCENE

Kinetics

Baton Rouge Gallery’s annual live art auction, Kinetics, is set for Nov. 7 at the gallery 1515 Dalrymple Drive.

The auction will offer more than 30 works by Baton Rouge Gallery artist members up for bid, with all bids opening at $100. In addition to the auction, enjoy complimentary signature cocktails from some of the area’s best drink makers, music and bites. All funds raised beneﬁt the artists and Baton Rouge Gallery’s cultural and educational programming throughout the year. Tickets are $75. Visit batonrougegallery.org.

Free First Sunday Admission is free Nov. 2 for Free First Sunday in Baton Rouge.

FYI BR staff reports

Little Wars to host creators fair Little Wars, the local game store in Baton Rouge, will host an event as an ode to local businesses and creators from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Nov 8 at Little Wars, 7543 Jefferson Highway Visitors to the second annual faire can experience over 30 local vendors, artists, and/or makers, food trucks/booths, performances from local artists, personal presentations by local specialists, participation rafﬂes, costume contests, game demonstrations and more. Over-Wintering Natives with Louisiana Wild Society

Winter is a special and essential time of rest and slowing down in nature. Learn how to tend to your garden for winter while keeping pollinators and other ecological factors in mind, as well as learning about all the amazing essential creatures that are spending winter sleeping in your stems

The event is scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov 11 at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum, 11855 Highland Road Tickets are $15 for students, Friends of Hilltop and Louisiana Master Naturalist Members, and $20 for the general public. Louisiana Wild Society is an inclusive, women-led, not-for-proﬁt organization that believes in the importance of protecting and regenerating the planet through community engagement. They encourage landscape stewardship and environmental education in and around the state Visit www.blacktie-america.com/

online_sales/rsvp_ticket_purchasebt cfm?rsvpid=4542 to purchase tickets.

AgCenter holds online Home Citrus course

For those who would like to plant citrus trees but don’t know where to start, the LSU AgCenter has an online Home Citrus course. The LSU AgCenter offers free, high-quality courses that help participants apply the knowledge they gain in their own gardening endeavors. Take the free online Home Citrus Course developed by the Greater New Orleans LSU AgCenter horticulture agents, available at www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/ lawn_garden.

Mosaic Genius Institute at Southern University

Head and Heart Philanthropy and Mosaic Genius, a collective of cross-sector philanthropic and business leaders, has announced the launch of the Mosaic Genius Institute, a new hub for research, innovation and workforce development designed to power the future of work.

Operating from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, MGI will build a sustainable ecosystem for innovation by improving educational outcomes, bridging the digital divide through AI, reimagining the future of work and expanding entrepreneurship pathways.

The Institute will empower communities to design and lead their own economic futures through access to capital, mentorship, digital literacy and workforce development.

Participating museums are the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 S. River Road; LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St.; Capitol Park Museum, 660 N. Fourth St.; USS Kidd Veterans Museum, 305 S. River Road; Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, 100 North Blvd.; LSU Textile & Costume Museum, LSU Human Ecology Building, 140 Tower Drive; Louisiana’s Old Governor’s Mansion, 502 North Blvd.; Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, 533 St. Ferdinand St.; and Magnolia Mound Museum + Historic Site, 2161 Nicholson Drive.

‘Colors That Speak’

The Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 S. River Road, in partnership with local nonproﬁt W3 Bee-Long, will host the special Sensory Sunday event, “Colors That Speak,” from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 9. The event is a sensory-friendly art workshop led by Iveth Esmahan, founder and director of W3 Bee-Long and inspired by the vibrant work of colonial portrait artist José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza. The workshop blends color, language, movement and adaptive painting in an interactive class designed for individuals of all ages and abilities.

For this event:

n Classroom 2 will host the workshop from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

n Classroom 1 will serve as a Sensory Regulation Space from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and remain closed and quiet to ensure a soothing, uninterrupted space for participants. The workshop is included with general admission. Due to limited space, preregistration is recommended at tinyurl.com/LASMSensorySunday. For more information and to register, visit lasm.org.

‘8 Fluid Ounces’ The LSU School of Art’s biennial “cup show,” “8 Fluid Ounces,” will be on view, with works for sale, from Nov. 7 to Dec.

peaceful contemplation to bold protest, from reﬂections on the natural world to urgent political and social commentary The collaboration with Kelwood Contemporary Art offers an opportunity for the organization’s members to present work that pushes beyond traditional expectations. Participating artists hail from across Louisiana — stretching from Alexandria and Avoyelles Parish through Baton Rouge to St. Tammany Parish.

There will be an opening reception from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 1, and a closing reception from noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 14. Gallery

are

p.m. to

Monday, Thursday and Friday, along with special Saturday

from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the run of the exhibition, featuring CFAL artists demonstrating their techniques and sharing their creative process in the gallery For more information, visit KelwoodContemporaryArt.com.

Dvorák Symphony No. 9

Tickets are on sale for the Baton Rouge Symphony’s concert, “Dvorák Symphony No. 9: From the New World,” on Nov. 13 in the

At NuNu

Tickets are on sale for performances by Scots singer Iona Fyfe at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12, and Andrina Turenne at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, at NUNU Arts & Culture Collective, 1510 Courtableau Highway, Arnaudville. Admission is $25 for each show. For Fyfe tickets, visit events.humanitix.com/nunu111225 and Turner tickets, visit events.humanitix. com/nunu111325. Also, NUNU will open a members’ art show and “Hidden in Plain Sight” exhibit on Nov. 7 and will show a screening of the “Louisiana

PROVIDED PHOTO

Lipome held her queen luncheon on Oct. 19 at the Country Club of Louisiana. Gathered are royal court members, first row, from left, Camille Forrester, Maddie Sweet, Anniston Billings

Desormeaux; back row, Kailie Blythe, Lipoma, Allyson yerby and Gianna Purpera.

PROVIDED PHOTO

TRAVEL

Experience Tuscaloosa beyond game day

BY CHERÉ COEN

Contributing writer

When the Crimson Tide rollsintoBaton Rougeto play LSU in Death Valley, there’selectricity in the air. The senses are heightened, and the anticipation is palpable. But this year,the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama Nov.8inBryant-Denny Stadium. For those who are heading north to Alabama for the game, here are afew suggestions for game day activities, restaurants, entertainment and more.

Game day experience

Just like Baton Rouge covers itself with purple and gold, Tuscaloosa ownsa crimson hue.

Home to the University of Alabama and itslegacy of championship football, game day weekends in Tuscaloosa mean asea of red and sometimesthe famous houndstooth that Alabama coach PaulW.“Bear” Bryant wore on his head during his reign.

Like most SEC teams, game day weekendsonthe Bama campus bring hundreds of tents on the Quad lawn serving up tailgating dishes. Don’tmiss the traditional Walk of Championsand theCoaches Walk at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where two hours and 15 minutes before kickoff, players andcoaches arrive to the roar of thousands of fans lining the walkway.

Paul W. Bryant Museum Amust-visit for any footballfan,regardless of their loyalty,isthe Paul W. Bryant

On Nov. 7, the Paul W. Bryant Museum will mark the centennial of Alabama football’s first national championshipwiththe release of ‘Remember the RoseBowl,’a newbook commemorating the team’s historic1926 victory

ism

Regretfully,the famous barbecue joint gets crowded on game day weekends, but if you don’tmind standing in line, the waitisworth it. Downtown Tuscaloosa Beyondfootball, Tuscaloosa’swalkable downtown is ﬁlled with local restaurants, live music and nightlifethat carries well into game day weekends.

Fora family-friendly break, the Tuscaloosa Riverwalk offers ascenic stretch along the Black Warrior River,ideal for amorning jog, coffee stroll or casual downtimebefore heading to the stadium

Historyand culture

mation, visitbryantmuseum.com.

Roll Call at TheAlamite LSU fans who haven’tbeen to townsince the 2021 game

The Tuscaloosa Civil Rights Trail provides an important perspective on the city’s place in civil rights historywith aself-guided, 18-stop trail that tells the stories of those whohelped break barriers.

Stopsinclude FirstAfrican Baptist Church, where MartinLuther King Jr

Museum, which ry of Alabama Bear Bryant’ acy to the pr national champ Visitorsw factsand plus videoso game highlights museum’sa Nov.7,the LSU-Alabama museum wi tennialofA national championship

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

By ChristopherElliott

FedExmissedi

My wife and Ishipped two suitcasesfrom IowatoNorway for acruise usingFedEx (via LuggageToShip).

The luggagearrived on time but wassent back to Oslo for customs verification. Despite daily calls to FedEx, agentsprovided conflicting updates and blamed Norwegian customs. Forfourdays, FedEx offered no information on how Icould getmyluggageout of customs.

Christopher Elliott

Finally,FedEx claimed it couldn’tdeliver the luggageuntil after our cruise departed, forcing us to pay $1,237 for shipment of luggage, which we didn’t receive whenweneeded it.We contacted FedEx executives using your site’scontacts but received no response.We also sent a letter.W scripts. Whyd ly or resolve refund? FedE your vided Its In guara tingent —whi Youu Lugga “simple, luggage its site. Luggage is notr delay

PROVIDED PHOTO By VISIT TUSCALOOSA

football players and coaches arrive

Walk at Bryant-DennyStadium in

PHOTO By CHERÉ COEN

CURIOUS

Continued from page1D

light on the subject. Trail’sorganization runs an outreach and education center out of the New Canal Lighthouse, situated at Lakeshore Drive.

Trail sets the scene in the 1830s, the time of the New Basin Canal construction. The canal, a massive project, created ashipping route to connect thecityto Lake Pontchartrain.

The name was intendedto differentiatethe route from the popular previous shipping route, the Carondelet Canal, now known as the Old Basin Canal.

“The New Canal Lighthouse was constructed to navigate the entrancetothe new canal,” Trail said. “It’sjust alittle bit comical, because the Americans were so creative when they named this new waterway.They named it the ‘new canal.’And the lighthouse constructed in 1839 wasthen named the New Canal Lighthousetonavigate theentrance to the new canal.”

The New Canal Lighthouse has always been in the same place, Trail said, although it hasundergone many different iterations, due to multiple storms andthe lake land reclamation project of the 1920s. The familiar structure with its red roofs even has an address, 8001 Lakeshore Drive.

Lighthousesofthe past

The ﬁrst lighthousewas acypresstower that quickly blew over in astorm. The second construction of the lighthouse bearsmore resemblance to the lighthouse thatcan still be seen today,built in acottage style on supports overthe water.This version lasted until the construction of anearby yachtclub building, which was so tall that it blocked the lights the lighthouse used to guide vessels,Trail said. The lighthouse was torn down and anew lighthousewas built, remaining in place duringthe 1920s, when the Orleans Levee Board began ahuge project of land reclamation from thelake. This reclamation project impacted both the New Canal Lighthouse and the Milneburg Lighthouse, the area’sother notable lighthouse. Situated by the former site of the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park the distinctive white-bricked lighthouse was built around the timeperiod of the New Canal

AT RANDOM

Continued from page1D

The TECHE Project, whichis prettyplucky itself.Since its founding in 2010, the Acadiana nonproﬁthas done much to advance the goals of its acronym, which stands for The Teche Ecology,Culture and History Education Project. As part of its goal to promote the preservation and enjoymentofBayou Teche, the group helped create theBayou Teche National Paddle Trail, which extends 135 miles through four Acadiana parishes Through access docks along the trail, it’sbecome ahaven for kayakers and canoeists.

Isampled afew miles of the trail around Breaux Bridgelast month as part of The TECHE Project’sannual “Shake Your Trail Feathers Paddle Parade,” atwo-hour procession of kayaks and canoes that concluded at Parc des Ponts Breaux, an oakshaded public green space. Proceeds from the weekend parade and related festivities support improvementstothe paddle trail. I’m anovice kayaker,but the leisurely pace of the parade is an easy lift for beginners. I waswith my more experienced brother,who likes recreational paddlers because of their casual sense of fun. That spirit was much on display during last month’sevent, where some of

Lighthouse,and named for the lakeside resort town built in the 1830s byAlexander Milne.

Trail said theareaaroundthe MilneburgLighthousewas ﬁlled in as aresult of thelake land reclamation project.The massive project included building aconcrete seawall andﬁlling in large swathes behind theseawall with newlycreated land, stranding the Milneburg Lighthouse. Accordingtothe U.S. Coast Guard, thelighthouse was deactivated in 1929, losing status as aworkinglighthouse.

“Once that happened, it kind of fell into disrepair through the years aswell,” Trail said.

Thelighthouse remained abeloved landmark even as the land arounditbecame thePontchartrain Beach Amusement Park. Today,it stands on theUniversity of New Orleanscampus.

AvictimofKatrina

The New Canal Lighthouse, while connected to land after the 1920s land project, was still outinthe water when Hurricane Katrina knocked it down in 2005, Trail said.Atthat time, thelocation was an activeCoast Guard station. After its destruction, the Coast Guard abandoned the location and built anew station in the Bucktown area, Trail said.

“Wewere successful in petitioning to the governmentatthe time, saying we would love to rebuild the lighthouse, but this time we’re goingtoturn it intoa museum,” Trail said.

The reconstruction, completed in 2012, was elevated 19 feet due to lakelevel increases from Hurricane Katrina, andbuilt with steel pilings and concrete pillars. Trail said much of thematerial wassalvaged,suchaspine ﬂooring and original wood.

“Wehaveamuch sturdier construction now,with wooden siding andsteel framing and a metalroof to makeitsurvive the storms of today,” Trail said.

The lighthouse retains its “signature blink” —which is thelight pattern unique to each individual lighthouse beacon. All throughthe night,the lighthouse can beseen with three blinks, then apause, ﬂashing out over thewater

Do you have aquestionabout something in Louisiana that’s got you curious?Emailyour question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com.Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.

the participants donned plumage andnovelty costumesina nod to the parade’sbird theme.

It was aﬂawless Saturday to be onthe water

Early hints ofautumn took an edgeoff thetemps, and several dozen of us ﬂoated under asoft blue sky. Cypress trees threw their arms across the water, shadingusfrom therising sun. Spanishmoss hungfromoaks alongthe bank, likecurtains quietly drawn against thebrilliance of noon

What Ifelt as Iglided through the dark brown water wasn’tthe largeness of the bayou but itsintimacy,asense of enclosure. At times, it was easy to feel as if we paddlers werethe only people in theworld.But homesalong the bank reminded us that thebayou threadsthrough many lives, as it has for centuries.

Dogs barked from the bank, unsettled by theodd pageant we made asweﬂoated along.

“You’re almost there,” a woman cheerfully yelled from thewater’sedge,unfazed by so many strangers sliding by her backyard.Her greeting told us we’d nearly reached the ﬁnish line, then church bells welcomed us to the end of our trip.

If we want visitors to embrace Louisiana’s best places,Ithought as we drew in our kayaks, then we should takethe time to enjoy them, too.

Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

Birthday partyisnothing like reader hadenvisioned

Dear Harriette: My 30thbirthday just passed, and it was awful. Ihate to sound ungrateful, but what should feel like amajor milestonefelt completely overlooked. Honestly,I’ve had arough year,soIwas OK with having aquiet birthday this year —just somereminiscing, goal settingand maybe some qualitytime with friends. Someone asked meifthey could plan asurprise for me. While thethought was sweet,Iexpressed that Ididn’twant anyone spending money on me, but they insisted on doing something. They asked what Iwould want, and all Iasked was that it be low-budget and that my parentsbepresent.Ifound out that everyone who attended had to pay,despite it being in my friend’shome, my parents were not invited and the host had a program full of her favoriteactivities for thegathering. It didn’t feel like this party was for me at all. Should Isay something to my friend? Or will Iappear ungrateful? —BirthdayBlues Dear BirthdayBlues: Youcould ask

your friendtodoadebrief with you about theparty.Tread carefully.Whileeveryone had to pay something, do you know how much? She may have needed somecash to defray costs. The party may have had alow budget, even if it wasn’tfree. Notinviting yourparents when you made that request wasnot cool. Youcan ask how she pulled the party together and express disappointment that she didn’tkeep your key thoughts in mind. Let her know that you don’tmean to sound ungrateful, but you are sad that it felt like your surprise 30th birthday party was not a partyfor you at all. Next time, say no to such a thing,and plan your own event. That’show you maintain control. Dear Harriette: My girlfriend of ﬁve years andI broke up acouple of months ago. It’s been difﬁcult as we try to rework our entire lives without each other.Honestly,Ikepthoping we’dresolve our issues and patch things up, but she didn’t see things that way.Inthe process of breaking

up, Idecided Ishould moveout and let her keep the apartment; I didn’thave to do that. To add insult to injury,she is now insisting that she keep our puppy.This is unfair! Idid her afavor by moving out. Icould’ve fought to stay there, but Ididn’t. Nowshe wants to keep the dog we got together too? This experience has shown me atotally different side of her What are somereasonable options here? This breakup has been hard enough; Ican’trisk losing my dog. —PuppyCustody

Dear PuppyCustody: Do you have the wherewithal —including the timeand resources —toproperly care forthe puppy? If so, treat this just like acustody issue for children. Let your ex know that you wanttoshare custody of the puppy,and do your best to work out aplan. Hopefully,she will be reasonable. If not, enlist friend and family support to help you resolve the custody battle.

Sendquestions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/o AndrewsMcMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St Kansas City MO 64106.

MAGNALITE

Continuedfrom page1D

in their gravy,according to Jude Artigue— also knownasthe “Magnalite Man.”Artigue, who lives in Lafayette, is achemist and lifelong Magnalitelover He said thedifference in quality is more subtle and comes down to poorly controlledvariation in thesebrands’ production andmaterials

“When production of everything in the worldmoved over to China, quality control got harder,” Artigue said. “Wecan scan these pots using X-ray diffraction, and it gives you theexact content of aluminum and magnesium. In oldschool Magnalite by Wagner,the compounds are so exact —soprecise every time.

“When you compare theChinese products, forexample, the percentageofaluminum will be less consistent. They might makethem alittle thicker to makeupsome of thatquality,but it’s allover the place.You’re mass-producing a million pieces and mixing all these metals in agiant vat, and there’s just less qualitycontrol.”

Thesetopics, andother quality- and care-related issues, often come up in theFacebook group Artigue opened in 2022 as ahome for all things Magnalite: “Magnalite Community (Cleaning, Cooking, Collecting, etc.),” now almost 80,000 members strong. The group is apassion project for him, started as away to help people learn about and appreciate these culturally and personally signiﬁcant pots andpans.

“I remember my grandparents cooking in them on my mother’s andfather’sside, andI just grew up alwaysseeingthem. It really hit me that thesepots were special when therewas adeath in the family on my father’s side, and my dad was lower on the food chain, so he didn’tget the pot.

“I couldtellthathewas really bummed.That was one of the ﬁrst times I’d ever seen him sad or up-

set. Iwas like, this is something more than just apot. And Iwas only 7or8,” Artigue said, explaining how Louisianans tend to create core memories in the kitchen —whether it’s Mawmaw’s gumbo recipe, or thepot she madeitin. In theearly years, Magnalite produced everything from tea kettles to drip pans, as new-fangled cast aluminum cookware rode awave of popularity across post-World WarIIAmerica. Louisiana gradually became itsdominant market, and enthusiasm for thebrand hascontinued almost unabated ever since, thanks to a thrivingsecondary market stoked by generations of shared Magnalitememories.

When it comes to these pots, nostalgia can fetch ahefty price.

An 8-quart roaster in mint condition,perfect for making afamilysized jambalaya or crawﬁsh étouffée, often sells for$300 or more at ﬂea markets, vintage shops and online.

Artigue’sfriend and Magnalite co-aficionado, BryanDeslatte of New Iberia, has his own Facebook group devoted to buying and selling the brand. “Vintage Magnalite Swap ShopBuying or Selling” has 65,000 members, all on the hunt for theincreasingly rare cookware.

“People love to cook their meat and gravy in them,” Deslatte said of the pots. “The way the heat distributesisdifferent. The other day Idid some roux in asmaller roaster,and within 20 minutes, Ihad my roux from start to dark.”

Overthe past fouryears in Deslatte’sgroup, the average price of alarge roaster has gone up to $375 from about $250.

“Some people charge $500,” Deslatte said. “If someone says, ‘I have to have it,’ they’ll pay any price. Don’tmean it’s worth that much.”

One lingering myth continues to lurk in Magnalite communities, suggesting alink between aluminum cookware and memory loss. According to the Alzheimer’sAssociation, that link emerged in Alzheimer’sresearch in the 1960s and1970s, but studiesfailedto

prove thateverydayaluminum exposure causes Alzheimer’s.

Magnalite fear has never withstood the devotion people continue to feel for the brand, especially in Louisiana. Artigue and Deslatte say that resellers and homecooks have latelytaken notice across the country,and people are hunting forMagnalite all over the U.S., but before WagnerManufacturing closed down in Ohio, they did about 80% of their business in the South.

“Now it’sjust blown up,” Artigue said.

That popularity is partially thanks to the way Cajun families have themselvesgrown, dispersed and disseminatedtheir generational cookware outside of the region. The wedding sets of Magnalite that Louisiana couples started off withinthe 1950s and 1960s have long been broken up, and are now aging into the homes of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, wherever they happen to live.

SandraCorne, of New Iberia, recentlypassedonher mother’s Magnaliteset to herdaughter, Lauren, who lives in Austin. Her family’shistory with Magnalite is atypical onefor the area, with roasters, fryers and pots moving around on both sides of the family whileeachnew generation keeps an eye on the best specimens.

“When Ipacked that box forher, Iincluded the roaster —myroaster,” Corne said. “It meanssomething to her. Youlook at them and they’re kind of used, but it’sbattle wounds. It’sscars. It shows that alot of love was cooked in these pots.”

Sandra Corne cooked her first meal in her mother’sMagnalite pot whenshe was11years old smothered pork chops withrice and gravy

“It’sa big deal to give life back to these pots, because they’re so pricey now,” she said. “But, oh, they will make the best gravy ever whenyou’re cooking meattoput over rice.”

Email Joanna Brownatjoanna. brown@theadvocate.com.

Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy

STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP BryanDeslatte, left, and the ‘Magnalite Man,’Jude Artigue, talkabout the historyofMagnalite pots at Artigue’s homeinLafayette.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETTDUKE

The NewCanal Lighthouseisseen along LakePontchartrain in New Orleans.

By The Associated Press

Today is Sunday,Nov 2, the 306th day of 2025. There are 59 days left in the year.Daylight saving timeends today.

Todayinhistory:

On Nov.2,1948, in one of the most unexpected results in U.S. presidential election history,Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeated the heavily favored Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey

Also on this date:

In 1783, Gen. George Washington issued his Farewell Address to the Army In 1861, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln relievedMaj. Gen John C. Fremont of his command of the Army’s Western Department, following Fremont’sunauthorized efforts to emancipate slaves in Missouri.

In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his Hughes H-4 Hercules, nicknamed the “SpruceGoose,” on its only ﬂight; amassive wooden seaplanewith awingspan longer than afootball ﬁeld it remained airborne for 26 seconds.

In 1959, Charles Van Doren testiﬁed beforea congressional committee that he had conspired with television producers to cheat on the television quiz show “Twenty-One.”

In 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter,aformer governor of Georgia, became the ﬁrst candidate from the Deep South to be elected president since the Civil War, defeating Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

In 2000, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev,became the ﬁrst crew to reside onboardthe International Space Station; they spent atotal of 136 days in the station before returning to Earth on Space Shuttle Discovery

In 2003, in Iraq,insurgentsshotdown aChinook helicopter carryingU.S. soldiers, killing 16 and wounding 20 others. In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush was elected to asecond term, defeating Democratic Sen.JohnKerry as theGOP strengthened its control of Congress. In 2007, British college student Meredith Kercher, 21, was foundslain in her bedroom in Perugia, Italy; her roommate, American Amanda Knox,and Knox’s Italian boyfriend,Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of killingKercher,but both were later exonerated. In 2016, ending achampionshipdrought that had lasted since 1908, theChicagoCubs won the World Series, defeating the ClevelandIndians 8-7 in extra inningsinthe deciding seventh game. In 2021, the Atlanta Braves won their ﬁrst World Series championship since 1995, defeating the Houston Astros in Game 6.

In 2023, FTX founder anddisgraced cryptocurrency star Sam BankmanFriedwas convicted of fraudbyaNew York jury for stealing at least $10 billion fromcustomers and investors. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison forthe massive scheme that led to thecollapse of the FTX platform for exchanging digital currency

Today’sbirthdays: TennisHall of Famer Ken Rosewall is 91. Political commentator Pat Buchanan is 87 Olympicgold medal wrestler Bruce Baumgartner is 65. Singer-songwriter k.d. lang is 64. Playwright Lynn Nottageis61. Actor David Schwimmer is 59. Jazz singer Kurt Elling is 58. Rapper Nelly is 51 Film director JonChu is 46. TV personalityKaramo Brown (“Queer Eye”) is 45 NFL quarterback Jordan Love is 27.

Dear Miss Manners: Ihave now been to three (!) weddings where Ifound out that the couple was already married, and just going through themotions

The ﬁrst was acouple who had gotten legally married weeks prior to thewedding so he could go on her healthinsurance.

through it all, congratulating them, and —here’sthe mainpart —spending serious money to buy them somethingfrom their registry list.

The second was an older couple who said they’d never had a “real wedding.”That mademethink they hadn’treally been married all along, but it turns out they had been; they just hadn’thad the kind of event they’d wanted.

The last one, which sent me over the brink, was our college friends. Since our larger friend group is now spread out in different cities, this couple traveled around, repeating the wedding ceremony to “save people theexpense of traveling.”

My mother asks me whyIcare if people want tomake fools of themselves, and why Ican’tjust “be nice” and celebrate with my friends. The answer is because I’mexpected to go along withthis farce and play the Wedding Guest:dressing up, sitting

In fact, I’m expected to do all of theabove manytimes over,ifIgo to their pre-wedding(but postmarriage!)parties, which Itry to avoid. Am Iright or wrong?

GentleReader: Youare certainly right thatpeople arenow using the word “wedding” to refer to the party associated with the marriage ceremony, ratherthan —asdeﬁned in the Oxford English Dictionary,and dating from Old English —the act of getting married. Thus thefestivities you mention —nodoubt including the heroine’s white dress and thepastry chef’s white iced cake —are considered to be theweddings. Andyou are right that in cases where thepartyis, so to speak, divorced from thelegal ceremony,the guestsgenerally overlook that omission. If you read aboutthe splashy so-called weddingsofcelebrities, you must have noted that the guests scrupulously refer to the already married couple as only afﬁanced until the reenactment has taken place. Miss Manners can understand your reluctance to play asupporting role

in this rerun. The emotional component of witnessing the establishment of amarriage is missing. Youneed only politely decline to attend. Nevertheless, you should recognize that manypeople have transferred their concept of cementing aunion from the ceremony to the celebration. Should you care about such people, you might attend.

Perhaps it will help if you think of it as merely adelayed wedding reception or an anniversary party,without the pretense that you are witnessing amarriage ceremony

Dear Miss Manners: What is the appropriate nametouse on an envelope containing aletter to awidow?Mrs. John Doe, Mrs. Ellen Doe,Ms. John Doe, Ms. Ellen Doe?

Gentle Reader: What this lady called herself before, Miss Manners cannot guess. Everyone has an opinion about the correct address forladies, and everyone is indignant when others’ choices are different.But Miss Manners can relieve your anxiety about widows: They are addressed exactly as they werebefore their husbands died. However that was

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at dearmissmanners@gmail.com.

Freezing loaves of breadtoextenduse

Dear Heloise: As aretired couple, we just don’tuse up bread like we used to. When Ibuy aloaf, I immediately separate it into two-slicepackages in plastic sandwich bags and rebuild therest of theloaf in theoriginal bag. Ithen freeze thewhole loaf. It is easy to use and thaw two slices at atime! —Judi Brauns, in Green Valley, Arizona

There’sanapp forthat!

Dear Heloise: Yousuggested atape measure rather than aruler for a college student to have on hand. Cellphones come with an app called Measure.

It is quite handy and accurate!

Robin A., in Bakersfield, California

Catching food peelings

Dear Heloise: Instead of putting newspaper or other things in your sink drain to catch vegetable peelings,

why not just use acolander? It’s easy to use and washable. —C.J.E., in Arkansas C.J.E., there is now anew product on the market that grinds up leftover food scraps and makes the perfect compost out of them. It’s odor-free and can be found online, in appliances stores, and sometimes in hardware stores. —Heloise Ourwonderful libraries

Dear Heloise: Readers recently wrote in about different resources for research, such as bookstores, internet searches, and thelocal library Libraries areconnected to an app titled Libby; by using your library card from your local library,you can access books through your electronic device and also listen to audiobooks.

Afriend told me about this when I wasspending too much on electronic books and subscriptions forthe privilege to read them. —S.C., in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Preserving guacamole

Dear Heloise: To keep guacamole from

turning brown, it needs to be kept oxygen-free. Iused to makeguacamoleinarestaurant (using 20 pounds of avocados). After Idivided it up into the serving containers, Iwould take plastic wrap and press it onto the surface of the guac. Then Iwould pat it downsothat there were no air bubbles. Make sure you get around the edges, too. —DawnG., via email Snackmachines

Dear Heloise: Iwanted to mention how back in the day,weused $1 bills for snack machines. Ihaven’tseen asnack machine that takes less than $1 in along time —or rolls of quarters, too! —Daphne K., in Vancouver,Washington Daphne, Ihaven’tused asnack machine in over 10 years. In fact, I’ve noticed anumber of places that used to have snack machines don’thave them anymore or have reduced the number they have. Thanks forthe update! —Heloise Sendahinttoheloise@heloise.com.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Hints from Heloise

BETWEEN THE PAGES WITH U.S SEN. JOHN KENNEDy

Stories tell what really happens in D.C.

Senator goes behind the scenes of his bestseller

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy had been thinking about writing a book when an agent approached him and secured a deal with a HarperCollins imprint. Kennedy took a year to write “How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will.”

Thanks to his home-spun phrases during frequent appearances on Fox News and other conservative TV networks, Kennedy’s book shot to number one on Amazon.com and has been a New York Times bestseller since being published in early October Kennedy grew up in Zachary, graduated from Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia Law School and obtained a First-Class Honors degree from Oxford University in England He was elected state treasurer ﬁve times before being elected to the Senate in 2016 and winning reelection in 2022. He is 73 years old. The interview has been edited for length and clarity

What was your approach in writing the book?

I talk about policy But I do it through stories. Some of the stories are funny, I think Some are bizarre. But they’re all true. I try to use stories to explain to readers what the Senate and Washington are really like from the inside. I try to use stories to explain to them why in Washington, normal is a setting on a clothes dryer, and I tried to explain why it doesn’t have to be like that if we just use a bit of common sense.

I have stories about President (Donald) Trump, President (Joe) Biden, Sen. (Chuck) Grassley, Sen. (Ted) Cruz, Sen. (Chuck) Schumer I have stories about my meeting with (China’s) President Xi. I have a lot of stories about my work in government in Louisiana. I have stories about growing up in Louisiana. I have stories about college and law school.

You write that your colleague Sen. Lindsey Graham is “whip-smart and can talk intelligently on almost anything.”You also wrote,“If you want to stump Lindsey, just ask him to name a country he wouldn’t bomb.”You’re a fan, right?

I admire him because he’s very, very bright.

He’s also unﬁltered He’s kind of like me — he plays outside of the pocket. He’ll just let it rip. I was visiting with Lindsey in the cloakroom off the Senate ﬂoor before the book came out. He

said, “Kennedy, what did you write about me”? I told him, “I love you because you’re unique.

If I invite you to dinner, I don’t know if we’ll have an intellectual conversation or you’ll vomit in the ﬁsh tank.” He thought that was funny.

Your book is full of clever one-liners.

Like: “I believe this country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.” I think a lot of people wonder: Where do you get these lines?

Some of them are organic. There are expressions that were commonly used when I was growing up.

Most of them are my own.

I’ve always admired people who have a clever turn of phrase. If someone writes something in an especially attractive way, I have a ﬁle on my iPad, and I’ll make a note about the article and the way somebody expressed something. Nobody writes stuff for me. The responsibility, the blame, the credit, whatever you want to call it, is all mine.

In your book, you note that your approach as a senator has generated criticism.What goes through your mind when you hear or read someone calling you

“Senator Foghorn Leghorn”?

It’s just part of the process. I’ve been called much worse than that on social media. I’ve been in politics for a while. It doesn’t take long to learn that to survive, you need to have a big heart, a lot of wind and very thick skin. When the Foghorn Leghorn characterization was ﬁrst used, I didn’t know what Foghorn Leghorn was. I had to go look it up. People have accused me of faking an accent, which isn’t true. Looking back, how do you view the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by the Trump supporters and the ransacking of the Capitol?

It was a dark day for America. I was there. I’ve never thought it was an insurrection. It didn’t appear to be organized to me. But it was clearly a riot. I condemned it very loudly at the time. I still condemn it.

And President Trump’s role in it?

I don’t really know what the facts were.

I wasn’t at the White House that day I don’t know what went into this thinking. I don’t know much about the rally that was organized to march on the Capi-

tol. I don’t even know who organized it. I tried to stick to the facts in the book that I know You noted that Biden pardoned his son and uncle and wrote: “I personally don’t believe that the Trump administration would have prosecuted any of the Bidens.”

Do you still believe that after Trump called on the Justice Department to indict former FBI director James Comey, and they did so, and after he called on the Justice Department to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, and they did so? I still believe that. Sooner or later, the sufficiency of the indictment is tested before a federal judge. I don’t know what supporting facts the Justice Department has. I do know Mr Comey In my opinion, he did more to undermine the legitimacy of the FBI and the Department of Justice than anyone in my lifetime. I do not know Ms. James. I never thought it was appropriate for her to run for office on a claim that if she were elected, she would indict someone and prosecute them, specifically President Trump. In fact, in Louisiana, that would be illegal.

Do you have any concerns that Trump is going too far in calling for these indictments? A lot of people think he is being very vindictive in using his power to seek retribution.

I remember when the so-called lawfare began under President Biden. It’s a term often used up here to refer to the weaponization of the Justice Department.

I remember when Attorney General (Merrick) Garland decided to prosecute a former president, who happened to be his boss’ chief political opponent in the next election. I thought it was a huge mistake. Then you had the prosecutions in Georgia and New York. You had Jack Smith. I remember thinking at the time that President Biden and his people have unleashed spirits that they won’t be able to control. I talked about that at the conﬁrmation of Ms. (Pam) Bondi and Mr (Kash) Patel. I strongly encouraged them to reject the adage that is popular in Washington, which I don’t agree with, that two wrongs don’t make a right. They make it even. My request to them was to go over to the FBI and the DOJ and get rid of the bad people and lift up the good people. They are doing that.

You write: “Trump can be cruel, sometimes he is wrong.” Can you give a couple of examples of either?

I disagreed with what the president did when he put pressure on a lot of private law ﬁrms. It’s true that those private law ﬁrms

are Democratic ﬁrms, and they have been very critical of the president, and they had represented a lot of his opponents, in some cases for free. But that is their right.

Is there an example where you think Trump has been cruel?

The president is clearly not a forgiving person. He believes that if you turn the other cheek, you just get it in the neck. I agree with that, particularly in Washington, but not to the extent the president does. I talk about it in the book. I don’t hate anybody I look for grace in Washington. Up here, you really have to work at it. Once I start hating, that’ll be a pretty good signal for me to come home.

You talk about your candor in the book, but are you like many Republicans in Washington who are very careful in what you say about Trump? Well, yes. He is my president. I have private conversations with President Trump. We have very frank, honest discussions. But up here, if you try to be fair and balanced, the other side will try to make you eat it. So you do have to be careful in what you have to say An issue you don’t address in your book is the state of democracy A lot of people think Trump is acting in a heavy-handed, authoritarian manner Do you share any of those concerns?

No. The people who are pushing back against President Trump are Democrats. When Biden was president, they supported his attacks on democracy They supported his abuse of the FBI and the Department of Justice. They supported his student loan efforts that were struck down by the Supreme Court. As soon as he got the opinion, he said, “I don’t agree with it. Instead of going through the front door, I’m going to go through the side door.” The people who are complaining now never complained when the Biden administration overreached. I think it’s all politics.

You wrote,“I’ll do this job until I run out of gas or my people tell me to come home.” Does that mean you are likely to run for reelection in 2028 when you’re 76?

Yes, I plan to run for reelection. I think I’ve got $20 million in my campaign fund. Last time I ran, I raised a record $42 million. I’ve got pretty good support across the state and the country I plan on raising probably $50 million or $60 million.

Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ALEX BRANDON

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, leaves the White House in March.

DININGSCENE

‘Michelineffect’ couldmeannew eraindining

Restaurant watchers call it the “Michelin effect.” It’sthe impact on arestaurant from havingthe endorsementofthe famousMichelinGuide, and it can also mean the impact on acity orevena region from having Michelin in the mix, too.

The potential to winastar,or just to work in restaurants that have them,can be amagnet for culinary and hospitality talent to areas up forMichelin assessment.

What would aMichelin star restaurant look like in Baton Rouge, or downtownLafayette, or somewhere downacountry highway?

Ian

McNulty

WHAT’S COOKING

Michelin attention can turn local restaurants into destinations, make achef’s career and generate more gastro tourism. As with all that seems to glitter likegold, it comes with potential perils.

We’re about to see this in action in our own backyard and around adjacent regionswe know well. We’ll see it both immediately,inbolstered prestige and bulging reservations books for restaurants that pick up the highest Michelinhonors

And we’ll see it over time, through seasonal tourism cycles, in the careers of chefs already here and yet to come, in ways restaurants themselves may change and in ways that willsurely vary by locale, as Michelin plays outin dining scenesasdifferentasNew Orleans, Acadiana and coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Michelin, of course, is the French-based brand that has set aglobal standard for ﬁne dining with its Michelin Star ratings(it’s part of the same company that makes Michelintirestoo)

It’sabout to releaseits ﬁrst Michelin Guide American South, covering not only Louisianabut also Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, NorthCarolina and Tennessee. The restaurants that win the ﬁrst stars, and awhole harvest of other Michelin distinctions at other levels, willberevealed Monday at an event in Greenville, South Carolina. I’ll be there following the action as it unfolds.

People have been making their own predictions on which local names will get awards, andyou canﬁnd my updated prognostications on New Orleans contenders at nola.com.

Below are my predictionsfor the bigger Michelin effect

Gettingtothe table

From its start early in the20th century,Michelin has been for travelers. The restaurantguide was originally devised to encourage people to drive more (and thus drive the need for more tires), giving recommendations on where to ﬁnd good food along the way Today,Michelin is recognized around the world, but it does not bring its reviews everywhere. From its home base in France, its guides have expanded by market, landing in areasitdeems destination-worthy for great food, and (critically these days) where state andcity tourism agencies help fund its work.

That ﬁnancial backing from groups around the South led to the format and boundaries for

SaundersConroy prepares atable as dinner beginsatEmeril’sRestaurant

Canapes arriveongold-painted oyster shells over adriftofvapor on the chef’stasting menu at Restaurant R’evolution in New Orleans.

thesweepingnew Michelin Guide American South across six states. Michelin saysitretains editorial control of its picks, but thepartnerships bring the brand to the table, and the regions involved arebankingonarise in tourism in return.

The Michelin era could shape the restaurants travelers ﬁnd, too.

Culinaryaccelerator

New Orleans has been afamous food destination at least since the time of Lafcadio Hearn. The millions of visitors who now come annually are not here for mountains or beaches, butfor thecity’s culture, with dining at distinctive local restaurants usually at the top of theitinerary

With Michelin,local restaurants will be recognized in asystem that inspires some people to travel speciﬁcally forbucket list dining experiences.

They’re more likely to ﬂy in now ratherthan bounce along on Michelin tires, and they tend to be awell-heeled,international set, just the type tourism boosters covet. Casual wildcards notwithstanding, Michelin Star restaurants are typically very expensive.

Butthe guide is not limited to theCrescent City, and here’s

Sous-videcooked red

tasting menuatVestigeinOcean

where things could get really interesting.

Great food is abirthright all over Louisiana, but outside of New Orleans, it doesn’talways register as robust restaurant

scenes. That is starting to change, and Michelin recognition could be apowerful accelerator Restaurants with Michelin recognition immediately become known as “Michelin restaurants.”

Will people mount food tours of rural Louisiana formore than a Cajun butcher shop romp?

This Michelin effect could makeanenormous difference along the Gulf Coast, where a conﬂuence of demographic shifts and trends are already creating a much richer,more modern dining scene, busting the old image of little beyond beach burgers and baskets of royal reds.

Michelin brings international attention wherever it goes, and the possibility of gaining it sets a new goal and reward.

Pressure,identity

For all the excitement evident in the dining scene over Michelin’sarrival, there is also some trepidation.

Michelin Stars and other ratings are not permanent. Guides are updated annually,and restaurants can rise or fall out of them each year.This system can bring enormous pressure to meet and maintain Michelin’sstandards. Operating arestaurant at the level that typically draws Michelin Stars is an expensive proposition, from the stafﬁng levels to the groceries. This new regional guide arrives as restaurants across the spectrum have been grappling for years with higher costs just to maintain their own status quo.

One of the often-cited concerns of Michelin’spower is its potential to shape arestaurant scene it covers, with restaurants mimicking styles that have wonstars in other cities. The worst result would be asort of homogenized luxury as chefs play to the guide. After all, the heart of local dining resides in restaurants you can only ﬁnd here, not restaurants that could be anywhere with enough money to ﬂoat them

For New Orleans in particular,another concern is how the overlay of aMichelin hierarchy, establishing the star haves and have-nots, could be adisruptor in the local restaurant community Today,it’sone with aremarkable sense of collaboration and mutual support instead of cutthroat competition. Could star chasing change that?

My conﬁdence in the positives of the Michelin effect come from the source material, and the culture underpinning it in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast morebroadly

The local identity is strong, expressed in acuisine created with asense of place and in restaurants that reﬂect relationships between hosts and guests spanning generations. That will endure in the Michelin era, wherever the stars land.

Email Ian McNultyat imcnulty@theadvocate.com.

BY HILARYFOX Associated Press

FoodNetwork

LONDON In the early hoursofthe morning, while everyone is asleep, something magicalisbeing cooked up on the set of “Harry Potter.” Hagrid, Dobby and Voldemort are all there, but …they’re edible. We’re not talking about the forthcoming HBO TV series, here. The Food Network show “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking,” back for asecond season Sunday,filmed overnightthissummer on the same Warner Bros. set of theeight movies. No strangers to that set, twins James and Oliver Phelps are presiding over proceedings, spoonsat the ready,asThe Associated Press observes Best known for playing Ron Weasley’sbrothers Fred and George in the Daniel Radcliffe era,bothestimate they’ve spent about 12 years on set —more than in their childhood home. It might be old hat for the Phelps, but for the judgesand contestants, being on the “Harry Potter” setsis abig deal. Multisensorychef JozefYoussef ajudge, said he ends up “geeking out” every day.Chef, author and judge Carla Hall —who “bakes in” an hour aday to enjoy the exhibitions after the crowds havegone —rued leaving her wandathome, scuttling plans to takephotos with it by the Hogwarts Express. Theshow features paired culinary professionalscompeting by creating showstoppers inspired by the on-screenstories of Harry, Ron andHermione, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s books. Hall says when youthink of the movies, you don’tknowhow the special effectswork— and this season works on the same premise. While thefood has to be delicious, it also hastoleave thejudges spell-

bound.

“They put all this timeinto bakingthese beautifulpiecesbut it’s themagic that we want to enthrall us,”Youssef says.

Andwhile Season 1boasted a Slytherin-themed snake fountain, aflame-colored sculptureofthe phoenix Fawkes and 6feet tall Great Hall-themed cakes,things do level up for thesecond season.

“There’sa lotofdifferent ways that they bring the enchantment of thestory intoit,”OliverPhelps says of the contestants. That could include amovement, areveal or a surprise —incorporated around athemelike magical transportation —illusions or gravity-defying ﬂoating items. Each twin says they’ve eaten the best thingthey’ve ever tasted in their lives during Season 2—and they were each talking about different dishes, which theywon’t reveal because of spoilers.

This season, Hall, who enjoys tellingstories with herintricate hairstyles like thecontestants do with food, says they’ll explain theMinistersofBakingjudging process morethoroughly,sothat viewersknowexactly whya team doesn’tmake it through to the next round.

Hall also tries to put theviewer in her place, givingthem an analogy of what each dish tastes like For aSzechuan pepper ingredient, for example, she explains how it works likea potion to make the tongue go numb andthe mouth salivate.

Standing by aﬁreplace on set, they pick their ideal charmed culinary creation —quietly so that the contestants don’tget ideas. Each opts fora variation on a British classic: James imagines a Goblet of Fire-themed crumble, complete with custard, while Oliver chooses an Eton Mess —adessert explosion caused by awand. Jozef Youssef, one of the judges on “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking,” passes on these three tips for hosting an enchanted party n “Lots of effort always goes into theming the dining table, from table runners, decorations, minipumpkins forHalloween and holly at Christmas, candles —scented to match the theme (cinnamon at Christmas forexample) —orLED lights can add asense of theater to the table.”

n “For sharing meals, agame changerisusing ‘risers’ —platformsofvarying levels to elevate thefoodspresented on thetable This adds height andfullness to the presentation of the table.” n “Dry iceisalways acrowdpleaserand there’s no denying there is something magical about the smoke it produces and the whimsical smoke thatwafts across the dish or the table.You can buy dry ice as pellets which are easy to activate —just alittle warmwater and you getaspooky or enchanting vapor!” Bewitching

“The talentisjust getting better and better,” explains Youssef, citing unique ﬂavor combinations.

Jamesand Oliver Phelps both say that they’ve both become a lot moreinterested in food since hosting the show.This season, they stick around to eat the entries, whereas last season, they’d be wrapped by the judging time.

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

in NewOrleans.

STAFF PHOTO By IANMCNULTy

STAFF PHOTO By IAN MCNULTy

snapper withtomato dashi is servedonthe

Springs, Miss.

STAFFPHOTO By IAN MCNULTy Vestal in downtown Lafayette servessteaks, seafood and small plates withamodernedge.

PROVIDED PHOTO

shows hosts Oliver Phelps, right, and James Phelps, watch contestants Katie Bonzer,left, and Jujhar Mann on the set of the competition series ‘Harry Potter:Wizards of Baking.’

ARTS &CULTURE

‘Indigeaux’paystribute to role of enslaved women

Handswere stainedbluewith precious dye

Dave Walker

The traveling exhibit “Indigeaux: Yes, Spirit. I’ll go …” recently arrived at the Whitney Plantation in Wallace. Created by Leia Lewis,an educator,artist and self-described “light-bringer” and “cultural architect,” the exhibit features hand-dyed textiles and originalartwork conceived as “an offering to the enslaved women whose hands were stainedblue withindigo,”she says On view through Dec. 31, the exhibit supplements apermanent installation that recalls indigo’s role in the plantation’shistory.Inthe 18th century,indigo was amajor export for Louisiana farmers, as European textile makerscoveted the blue hue.

“As early as 1721, indigo wasbeingproduced along the river just on the outskirts of New Orleans in what they call the Tchoupitoulas area,” said Ibrahima Seck, director of research at the plantation. “Then it expanded uprivertothe so-called German Coast.” Indigo and the labor of enslaved workers who cultivated the crop and processed the dye made Ambroise Heidel, the originalowner of the land on which the Whitney Plantation now sits, awealthy man. Same and morefor his heirs, who eventually transitionedthe plantation’s maincrop to sugar. But indigo was“really the cash crop of the 18th century that allowed the planters alongthe Mississippi River to be richer and richer,” Seck said.

Today,the Whitney is known for telling the plantation’shistory through the lives of the enslaved people who worked there

“Weemphasize the skills brought by Africans (to) this land,” Seck said. “Weemphasize the fact that they builtthe founda-

PROVIDED PHOTOSByAMy MARQUIS

was aremembrance. Though Ihad never seen it before, there was this awareness, like,‘Iknow that my soul knows this.’

“Thatreally sparked me on this journey.”

In addition to academic research, thejourney took her to severalhistoric sites around the state

tionofthe economy of this land. But also,wegobeyond allofthat to letpeopleunderstand (that) they also brought with them their culture —materialculture, nonmaterialculture —and they left very deep imprints in theculture here in terms offoodways,folk tales… the music and many other aspects.”

Theartist’sindigojourney Lewis was agraduatestudent at theUniversity of New Orleans

when she ﬁrst saw“Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash’sstory of threegenerations of Gullah women in South Carolina.

“There was apoignant scene in thatﬁlm when the matriarch of the family is remembering the experience of their ancestors, and there are these powerful images of people who are dyeing indigo,” said Lewis, who uses Iya Oriade Queen Leia Lewis as her professional name. “And when Isaw the blue hands and Isaw the vats, there

“I really wasintending to visit places, landscapes of Louisiana, and to feel the vibes, you know —tochannel, to get in touch, to askquestions, to go with an open mind, heart, spirit, and to imagine and to remember and to see what inspiration would comefrom those places,” Lewis said. “So, in visiting these places and in sharing my art, it fundamentally comes back also to honoring the humanity of these people. In terms of revisiting history,wecan think of it as events and eras and movements and certain aspects of productivity that came forward.

“But these are still people. These arewomen, men, children, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunties, you know?

“This indigo crop that was grown in Louisiana was made possible by the labor and the cultural genius of African people who were

Scooter

growing this plant back home.

Back in Africa, already there were vast, ancient traditions of indigo dying and indigo textiles and healing with indigo as aspiritual tool as well, as amedicinal tool of midwives.

“And so, these people who were extracted, stolen, imported and brought to colonial Louisiana had vast knowledge. They were wise people, and so they brought that expertise to whatwould become our state. And thus an empire, for some, wasborn.”

Travel-timesoundtrack

The Whitney is an approximate 42-minute drive from central Baton Rouge. In acreative solution to visitors’ travel-time challenge, staff members have curated a Spotify playlist titled “The Road to Remembering” with music to prepare visitors for the emotional experience of their plantation visit. Learn more Instagram, @whitneyplantation.

Dave Walkerfocuses on behindthe-scenes coverage of the region’s many museumsat www.themuseumgoer.com. Email Dave at dwalkertp@ gmail.com.

AROUND THEREGION

GAINING GROUND

Pricetag nearly triplesfor AI data center as Meta points to widening footprintinLouisiana

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

Nine monthsafter Metabroke ground on itsmassive artiﬁcialintelligence data center in Louisiana, the cost of the project is now expected to be nearlythree timesgreaterthan ﬁrst announced, suggesting the tech giant is already planning for future expansions in Richland Parish.

In astatementlast week announcing aﬁnancial partner for theproject, Meta,the parentcompanyof Facebook and Instagram, said theHolly Ridge data center,since named Hyperion, will cost $27 billion, up from the $10 billionannounced in late2024. The company said in an Oct. 21 announcement the larger price tag in-

cludes “the buildings andlong-lived power,cooling, and connectivity infrastructure at thecampus.”

“Weare proud to be part of the RichlandParish community,and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership foryears to come,” said Rachel Peterson, aMeta executive overseeing data centers, in the statement. The announcement, which comesasworkiswellunderwayonthe formerfarmlandin Richland, sheds new light on recent remarks from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. TheFacebook founder saidinJulythatthe north Louisiana data center,which was originally expected to cover an area the size of 70

football ﬁelds, would be much larger, with an eventual footprint the size of Manhattan Afew weeks later,ata Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump praised the planned sizeofthe Hyperion data center,boosting its price tag to $50 billion.

“When they said ‘$50 billion for aplant,’Isaid, ‘What the hell kind of aplant is that?’” Trump said at theAug. 26 meeting. “But when youlook at this, youunderstand why it’s$50 billion.

Louisiana Economic Development ofﬁcials, who wooed Meta to the Louisiana site throughout much of 2024, saidthe companyhas notofficially told themofany plans to expand the

scope of the project. But LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois said the new $27 billion price tag is notthe result of cost overruns or inﬂation, and could signal Meta’sfuture expansion plans in Louisiana.

Bourgeois

“Wehope, as with any company,that theysee potentialfor growth and expansion in Louisiana,” BourgeoissaidMonday. “Wecontinue to have conversations with them and hope the relationship continues.”

Aspokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the company’splans

ä See META, page 2E

Construction is underwayinJulyonMeta’sartificial intelligence data center in Holly Ridge.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently saidthat the north Louisiana site, top,which was originally expected to coveranarea the size of 70 football fields, would have an eventual footprint the size of Manhattan. STAFF FILE PHOTOBySOPHIAGERMER Zuckerberg

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Canyou pick agoodhealthplanthis open enrollment when it’s allpricey?

WALDO

Continuedfrom page1E

Puttouse

Michelle Singletary

THE COLOR OF MONEy

My 27-year-old son, who works part-time, justreceived notice of his health insurance premium for nextyear Under his Affordable Care Act plan throughthe Maryland marketplace, his monthly premium will increase by 17.1%. He’salso facing a 10.3% jump to his deductible, to just over $10,000, in 2026. Althoughhis value plan includes preventive services, primary care doctor visits, vision care and prescription drugs,hehas to pay ahigh deductible before other services, such as ahospital stay,are covered. Once he meets the ﬁve-ﬁgure threshold, the plan pays aportion of the costs.

My son is on the autism spectrum and is working hardtoﬁnd steady fulltime employment. After he turned 26, he had to ﬁnd his own insurance and opted for the high-deductible plan to keep down his monthly payments. He can manage the latest premium increase because he lives at home. Iknow my son is fortunate; he can still keep his coverage. Millions of others may not be able to do the same. The federal government is shut down right now because Democrats are demanding that Republicans extend pandemic-era health care law subsidies that could prevent an untold number of Americans from going bankrupt should they have amedical emergency. The premium tax credits, which lower your monthly health insurance bill, expire at the end of this year

This political stalemate is occurring just as we enter open-enrollment season for the ACA marketplace, which started Saturday.If the credits expire, enrollees who receive the subsidy probably will pay about double, from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026, according to KFF,a nonpartisan health policy organization.

If the price hikes are too high, some folks may opt out of coverage —it’sthat or paying their rent. If they elect to get medical insurance, they make the calculated decision to signupfor aplan that isn’tgreat butat least covers some things, which will still leave them

Continued from page1E

ﬁnancially vulnerable to an expensive hospitalbill or emergency roomvisit.

But the cost jumps won’t justhit the ACA marketplace. Fall is alsoopen-enrollment season for workers coveredbyemployerplans. And if you get insurance on your job, you probably will also experiencesticker shock.

KFFconductsanannual survey of privateand nonfederalpublic employers with at least10employees. In 2025,annualpremiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached$26,993, up 6% from thepreviousyear.On average, workerscontributed$6,850towardthe cost of family coverage.

“Early reports suggest that cost trends will be higherfor 2026, potentially leading to higherpremium increasesunless employers andplans ﬁnd ways to offset highercosts throughchanges to beneﬁts, cost sharing, or plan design,” KFFsaidin its report.

To manage rising costs, employees’contributions toward coverage maygoup, the report concluded.

Asurveyfrom the consultancyMercer alsoforecast highercosts: Basedon projections frommorethan 1,700 employers,employers could see a6.5% increase in health beneﬁt costs peremployee— the highest since 2010

The surveyfoundthat 59% of employersplan to make cost-cutting changes in 2026 thatmight, among other things,resultinhigher deductibles and co-paysto limit premium increases.

So what doesthis all mean for you, whether you get coveragethrough the ACA, an employerorMedicare?

Gettinghealthinsurance in Americacan beanabsolute ﬁnancialnightmare. It’s atestofhow well youcan avoidprofaneoutbursts. Given thisreality,until we have leaders willingtounite to make health care more affordable, you need to be your own advocate. Yes, the documents you receive are dense and confusing. My son’s2026beneﬁtspolicy guide is 168 pages. But don’tgive up. Keep these principlesinmind to save somemoney. First, one of the biggest mistakespeople make when selectinga health insurance plan is focusing only on the monthlypremium. Aplanwith alow monthly premium usually hasa high

beyond what was in the release.

“As Mark shared earlier this summer,this site may grow,and we’ll share more when we’reable,” Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle said.

‘Largerproject newdeal’

TheHyperion datacenter is already transforming Richland Parish, which has apopulation of fewer than 20,000. It is attracting real estate speculators and out-of-state workers to the area, driving up land prices and spawning abuilding boom with aripple effectthat economic developmentexperts have heralded.

It hasalsoraised concernsamong environmentalists and climate activists, who pointtohigher utility rates and water shortages in other places with giant AI data centers.

If the 4million-square-foot Hyperion facility grows larger,it’s unclear what it would mean foran area already reeling from rapid change.

Also unclear is what it would meanfor Meta’sdeal with the state. According to the terms of the incentive package announcedlast December by Meta officials and Gov.Jeff Landry,Meta is eligible for a30-year break on its sales and property taxes in return for making a“payment in lieu of taxation,” or PILOT,equal to aportion of its total tax liability

The amount of the annual payment will be calculated by an independent boardand basedonthe amount of new capital investment the company has made. Under theterms of the deal, Meta hasagreed to invest $10 billion and

deductible (theamount you pay out of pocket before the insurer startspaying), along withhigher co-paymentsor coinsurance for services. Conversely,aplan witha higher monthly premium typically offersmoreimmediatecoverage, meaning you’ll pay less —ornothing —beyond that initial payment when visiting thedoctororhospital.

Second, always consider the worst-casescenario —such as an unexpected hospital visit —todecide if the lower monthly payment is worth therisk of ahefty bill later

Youmight think:“Well, I’m healthy and don’tneed alot of care.” For you, a cheaper plan with ahigh deductible might make sense. But what if you get sick and need to go to the emergency room or be admitted to the hospital?

If you have a$10,000 deductible, do you have that much saved? Or would you have to go into debt?

This happened to afamily I’m working with. Their child got sick and was hospitalized, but they didn’thave the money to cover their deductible, forcing them to consider taking money out of their retirement savings. (They ended up avoiding thatscenario by getting ﬁnancial assistance from family.)

Finally,asmuch as it’sa pain, go through the plan materials carefully to pick one thatincludes your preferred doctors and hospitals. Don’tassumewhat you had last year will roll over into 2026.

At healthcare.gov,you’ll be able to preview ACA health plans. If you’re unsure or uncomfortable using the online tool to compare them, workwithabroker. If you’re on Medicare, you can call (800) 633-4227. TTY userscan call (877) 486-2048. Iunderstand why people dread open enrollment, and Irecognizethat procrastinating on reviewing your plan information often comes from feeling overwhelmed: Openenrollment reminds us how financially burdensome finding the right health carecoverage can be. It’s atime of change, confusion and less-than-ideal choices.But don’tlet the confusion paralyze you; focus on finding the best protection you can afford.

Email Michelle Singletary at michelle.singletary@ washpost.com

Wohlstadter, agraduate of Harvard and Oxford universities, spent eight yearsleading his ﬁrst tech startup, Wonder, which he describesnow as “basically ahuman precursor to ChatGPT” that crowdsourced thousands of researchers to do workfor big companiesand consulting ﬁrms. His new venture is an example of what is now being called an “AI platformintegrator,” which means itssoftware uses the power of existing tools like ChatGPT or Claude to serve customers. The software monitors “signals” online and on social media that are relevant to ad agencies and brands. This could be customer complaints or praise on Reddit message boards, news aboutacompetitor’sproduct launch on awebsite or industry trends evident in Instagramvideos.

“There’stoo much information out there:too many articles, too many people posting on social media and toomany inﬂuencers,” Wohlstadtersaid. “Soweuse AI to read all of that for youand turn it into opportunities.

The latestversion of Waldo might tell afood companyhow to take advantage of the currentcraze forproteinenhanced foodsoroffer specific ways an airline can marketanew route to Gen Zcustomers.

Waldo originally aimed itsservices at marketing agencies,but nowbrands cansign up directly.Clients include Airbnb, the short-term rental platform; Kettle&Fire,afood brand; andConair, maker of small appliances and personalcareproducts.

“Wewillhavereadthe last 1,000 Instagram posts abouthair care,and if they are all talking aboutnostalgia forthe looks of the Roaring ’20s, we’ll suggest that clientsinthatspace should come up with campaigns inspired by that,” Wohlstadtersaid.

For theservice, brands or their agencies pay about$1,000 permonth Less ‘insular’community

Wohlstadter is not the ﬁrst in his family to move from New York to New Orleans to start or run a business.

His maternal grandparents, Henry and Eva Galler,made the move

around 1960 after seeing an ad fora jobatRubensteins men’s clothing store in the pages of The Times-Picayune. Later,Henry Galler foundedMr. Henry’s Custom Tailor, which is still in operation todaynearthe intersection of Jackson and St.Charles avenues. The Gallers, both survivors of the Holocaust, spent years teaching students about their experiences during World WarII.

Wohlstadter’s father,DavidWohlstadter,made a similar move in thelate 1970s to run an ink factory in theWarehouse District, near the site of the current Peche restaurant,before he andJustin’smothermoved to Dallas in the 1980s. These New Orleans connectionsmeantJustin Wohlstadter visited New Orleans frequently over the years growingup. After attending college and grad school and then working on theEast Coast for adecade, he moved to the city full-time in 2020. He nowliveswithhis wife and twochildren near Audubon Park and his parents ownahomenearby

Wohlstadter said in New Orleans he’sfound an escape from the intensity of New York City and asupportive group of post-pandemic expats working at high levels of marketing, media and tech.

“In New York, Itried to stay outofthe tech world becauseit’sa little insular,” he said. “But here, there’sa handful of people literally within afive-block radius from me who have been executives at big media companies, andtheyare working on crazy tech stuff. It’scool to ﬁnd the little pockets that exist.”

Wohlstadter hopes to help bring moretech activity to his adopted home,where tech entrepreneurs punch above the city’sweight class farfrom thecountry’shubs, he said.

ProKeep,based in the Warehouse District, closed a$25 million fundraising round ayear ago, bringing its total haul to around $34 million. The company,which makes software solutions to help distributors in the construction,automotive and trucking industries, has 100 employees in total, aquarter based in New Orleans.

Founder Jack Carrere said his software has helped handlemore than 10 billion transactions since thecompany was formed in 2016.

Nest Health, ledbyformer secretaryofthe Louisiana Department of Health Rebekah Gee, has raised more than $20 millionand employs 60 people to provide preventive health care through house calls and virtual

visits. And Rep Data, aresearch technology company foundedbyPatrickStokes, received amajor investment of an undisclosed amount from Colorado-based private equity firm Mountaingate Capital earlier this year.The company has about 20 local employees outof100 overall. New Orleans-based Lucid, Levelset and Turbosquid, all of which were acquiredin 2021, are someofthe state’s biggest tech success stories that led the way for the new ventures.

Earlyadopters

The globaladvertising industry that Waldo serveshas undergone an intense period of consolidationoverthe last quarter-century.Today,itis dominated by the “big six” holding companies —WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe,the Interpublic Group of Companies, Dentsu and Havas —that own half of the world’shundreds of thousands of smalleragencies.

Waldo counts them all among its clients, as well as the remaining independent agencies, including Gulf SouthstalwartPeter Mayer Advertising, headquartered in NewOrleans’ LowerGarden District.

Michelle Edelman, who bought Peter Mayer in 2022, said herteam usesthe tool like a“juniorstrategic planner,”reducing research time, staying on top of trends and generating insights. Because it can monitor existing marketing efforts from rivals, the ﬁrm uses it to avoid duplicating their efforts. The tool andothers like it come as AI andother technology are disrupting the industry by giving the impression that machines can compete with people by generating images, jingles, videos and ad copy all virtually instantly

“Some people say,‘If we can’ttell the difference between an AI and ahumanmadeone,thenwhy paya human and waitadditional time for their output?” Edelman said. “Butadvertising has to compel humans, not digits, so there always needs to be human intervention to have atruly great idea.” Edelman said Waldo and technology like it will change theway youngpeoplebreak into the industry

“The workthat is done in afew hours usedtobewhat fresh advertising folks cut their teeth learning how to accomplish,” she said. “I see that we will need to adjust our approach to growing talent as aresultofwhatthese tools can do faster and as well.”

Email RichCollins at rich. collins@theadvocate.com.

createupto 500 full-time jobsby the endof2032. Thecompany has committed tohiring local workers for as many positions as possible.

Bourgeois said a“hypothetical $27 billion project would mean a larger project and anew deal,” though no such deal has been negotiatedyet.

In recent weeks, Meta has been buyingupthe land for its data center that it initially was leasing from the state. In September,itexercised an option to purchase 1,420 acres of state-owned land dubbed the Franklin Farms megasite that is ground zero for the facility,paying $12.5 million for the property

At the same time, it acquired from private landowners an additional 1,200 acres of adjacentproperty for an undisclosed price, givingita totalof2,600 acres so far according to the Richland Parish

Assessor’sOfﬁce. Twopeople familiar with real estate transactions in Richland said the company is negotiating for other large tracts next to the growing 2,600-acresite,though no other sales have been ﬁnalized Ability to walk away?

Documents filed by Metalast week also shednew light on how thecompany plans to pay for the massive datacenter.According to afiling with theU.S.Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta has formed ajoint venture with aNew York-based asset management firm,Blue OwlCapital, to finance the project.

In the statement on itswebsite, Meta says that Blue Owlisproviding privatecredit to thejoint venture andwill retainan80% ownership stake in the facility,withMeta

keeping a20% share. Meta will leasethe facilitiesonthe Hyperioncampus from the joint venture once construction is complete.

Thelease agreements have an initial four-year term with options to extend, “providing Meta with long-term strategic ﬂexibility,” the companysaid in astatement.

In return, Meta is agreeing to paythe joint ventureifitwere to decline to renew the lease or terminate it. Some Wall Street tradepublications last week said thetermsof the deal give Meta an out should it decide to walk away from Richland Parish.

“Meta wants the optionality to be able to walk away from this facility if either theirstrategychanges or theydecide they are going to take adifferent approach to AI training, or Godforbidthis‘bubble cracks’

The Hyperion data center is already transforming Richland Parish, which has a population of fewer than 20,000. It is attracting real estate speculators and out-of-state workers to the area, driving up land prices and spawning abuilding boom with aripple effect that economic development experts have heralded.

andthe world goes adifferentdirection,” Naveen Sarma,amanaging director at S&P,who covers credit ratings for companies in the telecommunication and media sector,told the ﬁnancial publication PitchBook.

Bourgeoissaidshe is not concerned about that hypothetical andsaidMetahas always been up front about its plans to ﬁnance the Richland Parish facility with money from private investorsand lenders.

“The financing deal doesn’t change any of the terms of the company’sdeal with us whatsoever,” she said. “Itdoesn’tmean anything forusorthe parameters of the deal.”

EmailStephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.

STAFF FILE PHOTOBy JILL PICKETT

ASK THEEXPERTS

“There is alot of newactivityinthe market that is building agood economy while existingemployers likeMichoud have fascinating things going on.”

SouthLouisiana’s challenges creating opportunity

BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer

When Gay LeBretonjoined Chaffe and Associates in 1987, the New Orleans-based ﬁnancial advisory and investment banking

ﬁrm was helping its clients —local banks and savings and loans —work through what, at the time, was the worst ﬁnancial crisis since the Great Depression. Many local institutions didn’tmake it.

“Wewere like hospice workers for banks,” LeBretonsaid. “So many were deadordying.”

The downturn became an opportunity for Chaffe, which helpedits healthy clients repositionthemselves either by acquiring smaller banks or selling themselves to larger ones. Eventually,LeBreton parlayed herexperience with banks into amergers and acquisitions advisory service for clients in other industrysectors.

Today,LeBreton is the managing partner for Chaffe and knows moreabout M&Aactivityinsouth Louisiana than almost anybody.In this week’sTalkingBusiness, she discusses the changes she’switnessed over her nearly 50-year career,how Chaffe positioned itself as one of the foremost ﬁnancial advisory ﬁrms in the areaand whyshe’s stillbullish on hernative NewOrleans,despite downturns and the departure of dozens of corporate headquarters during her time. Interview has beeneditedfor length and clarity What aresomeofthe biggestchanges you have seen in the New Orleans business community during your career? When you say the New Orleans business community,Inever think Orleans Parish. Iamincapable

Q&A WITH GAyLEBRETON

economywhile existing employers like Michoud have fascinating things going on. There is also alot going on in the industrial sector.Some $44 billion in industrial activity is underway in theNew Orleansarea andanother $33 billion is awaiting ﬁnal investment decision. Shell and BP are doing things offshore, and the facilitiesthatare needed to support that are based here. Iget excited by that. We have alot going on. The banking industryhas seen the departure of corporate headquarters of allthe regional and national players. Doesn’tthat concernyou?

ing. Youhave Meta building in north Louisiana. Youhave Radiance Technologiesbuilding afacilityinRuston that is fabulous. Iﬁnd Ascension Parish fascinating, and Iamstill amazed the ﬁrst newsteel plant being done in the country is being built in theDonaldsonville area.

All of our companieshere that operate in industrial construction and maintenance, whichare all over thestate, with the amount going on in the state, they are all going to have alot of workfor a numberofyears.

sector —not only M&A but people building companies.

Youseem to be optimistic. Does that just go withyour job?

If youare going to be in M&As, there is acertain amount of optimism youbetter havegoing into the job, and honestly,you have to have abit of astick-at-it attitude because there are bumps in every deal. So, you have to have alittle bit of optimism because youare always looking forhow to make it work.

That said,how do yousee things right now?

of thinking at that levelbecause businesses workacross parish lines, state lines, and alot of our businesses servicecustomersnationally andinternationally.But when Ilook at the New Orleans area, Iknowweare not projected to have alot of growth, population wise, in the next year Still, Ilook at Venture Global in Plaquemines; LITinSt. Bernard; investment in the RiverDistrict, and downtown by Tulane and Domain Cos. (which arepartnering to redevelop Charity Hospital); Ochsner’snew Children’sHospital.

There is alot of new activityin the market that is building agood

Our biggest banks like Regions, Hancock Whitney and, obviously, JP Morgan Chase are all out of state,true. Butwehaveseveral local banks— Gulf Coast Bank, ResourceBank, First Guaranty Bank outofHammond, b1Bank outofBaton Rouge, an impressive groupofpeople building across thestate.Innorth Louisiana, we have Origin Bank, and let’s not forgetLiberty BankinNew Orleans, which is agreat bank and is expanding itself. No doubt, losing headquarters of any company is aloss to Louisiana andthat is true in banking. But we have built some sizable banks that are ﬁlling some of the gap. Maybe theyare notgoing to be the bank to Venture Global,but they can handle the needs of most of all our business community in Louisiana. Let me go back to corporate headquarters. Does it concernyou to see Louisiana continue to lose corporate headquarters? Ilook at what’s coming, not go-

We talkedrecently about all the M&A activity in the market. What do you thinkis driving it?

Third-quarter numbers arejust comingout, andweare seeinga lot more deal activity locally and nationally.Ithink there are several reasons. Youhavestabilized interest rates withthe expectation of at least one or morefurther cuts in the rate, which is giving people conﬁdence.

TheOne Big Beautiful Bill passed andisvery pro-business and supports capital investment. Justknowing the lay of the land, rather than having abig question mark, helps give people confidence. And Ithink we are seeing it across the country

Locally,there are moresales of local companies thanpurchases by local companies, but there are plenty of purchases. And we’re seeing alot of industrial services activity.Everyone is looking at the work that is goingtobein thepipeline.Idothink we will seemore activity in the maritime

New Orleans proper has an opportunity to change its proﬁle over the next 20 years with higher-paid jobs, industry and it just remains to be seen whether we are going to do it. Tourism has been wonderful, but it generateslower-paying jobs. We have improved our educational system.Now,weneed to build on that. We cannot relent. What kind of challengesdid you face as a woman in this field?

There are some challenges. I never really thought about them. I just wasfocused on getting the job done. That seemed to work. Igrew up at atime when you maybe had to have alittle tougher skin than youdotoday.Ifsomeonecalled me “honey,”atleasttheywere calling me. So long as we were getting the job done, we were employed. That’sall that mattered. Today, thereismoreflexibility in the workforce, so women can define what they want to do alittle more easily.They can work from home if they need to. It is definitely easier today

EmailStephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate. com.

PROVIDED PHOTO By KATHy ANDERSON GayLeBreton is amanaging partner withNew Orleans-based financial adviser Chaffe and Associates, whereshe has been since1987.

AROUND THE REGION

City bonds key to unlocking $1B investment in redevelopment

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

A slate of bond propositions on New Orleans’ Nov 15 ballot could serve as the ﬁnancial linchpin for roughly $1 billion in long-awaited redevelopment projects across the city including the restoration of some of its most blighted and iconic properties.

City ofﬁcials and economic development leaders say the measures, particularly a $415 million infrastructure bond, represent a rare opportunity to combine public funding with major private investment. If approved, the bond propositions could trigger construction at sites ranging from the historic Charity Hospital on Tulane Avenue to the former Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City, the abandoned Naval Support Activity complex in the Bywater and the long-dormant Six Flags and Lake Forest Plaza properties in New Orleans East

Most of the money tied to those redevelopment efforts is contained in the infrastructure measure, Proposition 2, though related funding is also spread across a $50 million drainage and stormwater management bond and a $45 million affordable housing bond. Together, the three propositions would authorize $510 million in new borrowing to upgrade city infrastructure, spur economic growth and attract outside capital to neighborhoods that have seen little investment for decades, supporters say

“Proposition 2 is so critical because it funds linchpin projects for the future of New Orleans,” said Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., the regional economic development agency Hecht and other advocates say that apart from the direct investment, the bond proceeds would also provide the public infrastructure investments — roads, drainage, utilities, and site work that developers need to unlock private ﬁnancing and move forward

Many of the cornerstone devel-

opments tied to the bond proposals include signiﬁcant affordable housing components, a key feature at a time when few marketrate housing projects are being built anywhere in the metro area. Combined, the projects could produce roughly 1,000 new affordable units, helping to address a widening housing gap as insurance costs and interest rates have stalled most private apartment construction.

The city is grappling with a multimillion-dollar deficit and could be forced to slash more than $200 million from the 2026 budget. However, all of the proposed bond funds are designed for capital improvements and could not be used to offset a deficit, city officials have said.

Cornerstone of renewal

The largest of the redevelopment efforts centers on Charity Hospital, the long-vacant art deco landmark that has loomed over Tulane Avenue since Hurricane Katrina About $30 million in city funds has already been earmarked for the project, including $20 million from a June settlement of liti-

gation involving the Wisner Trust. City officials say that additional bond money would likely support the project’s 260-unit affordable housing component.

Tulane University plans to occupy much of the 20-story structure with research laboratories and ofﬁces, anchoring the project’s biomedical and educational focus. The redevelopment is being led by Domain Cos. and LMXD, a New York-based affiliate of L+M Development Partners, which joined the original developer, 1532 Tulane Partners, after the project’s cost ballooned beyond its initial $300 million estimate.

City leaders view Charity as a cornerstone for the revitalization of the surrounding medical corridor, bringing new jobs, residents and retail activity to a part of downtown that has been slow to recover A water and demolition project

Another major project closely tied to the bond package is the redevelopment of the former Lindy Boggs Medical Center, also known as Mercy Hospital, on Bayou St. John. The storm-ravaged struc-

ture has stood vacant since Katrina, one of the city’s most visible reminders of post-disaster stagnation.

The city has earmarked about $10 million from the infrastructure bond to support the site’s transformation — a project officials describe as both an economic catalyst and a flood mitigation investment. Engineers estimate the stormwater retention system planned for the site could hold six times more water than comparable Mid-City drainage projects, making it one of the city’s most effective water management tools. The redevelopment plan calls for replacing the crumbling hospital with housing, retail and public green space, coordinated with Sidney Torres IV, who owns adjacent property along the bayou. Officials say the combined $160 million project will not only eliminate a notorious eyesore but also link Mid-City’s redevelopment corridor to the Lafitte Greenway and the biomedical district anchored by Charity Unlocking HUD financing Farther downriver, the city is preparing to invest bond funds in the former Naval Support Activity site on the Bywater riverfront. The first phase of the NSA East Bank Apartments project, financed in part through the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, will convert two of the three large buildings on the property into housing and commercial space. Before that financing can close, however, HUD has required that the third building also be secured and made presentable, even though it is not part of the first construction phase. The city plans to use about $6 million of the bond proceeds for that work sealing the structure, stabilizing it and improving its exterior — to satisfy HUD’s conditions and clear the way for the main project to proceed. Once complete, the development will bring hundreds of new apartments, including affordable units,

to a riverfront site that has been shuttered for more than a decade, reconnecting the Bywater neighborhood to the Mississippi River Catalysts for New Orleans East In New Orleans East, the proposed bond funding could jumpstart the Six Flags site and nearby Lake Forest Plaza, two of the city’s most visible symbols of post-Katrina decline. The city has already allocated $5 million for infrastructure work at Six Flags — a step officials say is essential for attracting private developers and finally putting the massive site back into commerce. Plans call for a mixed-use redevelopment combining retail, entertainment, and housing, as well as drainage and green infrastructure improvements. Mayor-elect Helena Moreno has singled out New Orleans East as a priority for her administration, calling the Six Flags site “a cornerstone of equitable growth” during her campaign. Funding for the Lake Forest Plaza site, however remains less certain. Property owner Gowri Kailas said he is working to settle millions of dollars in back taxes and repay a loan owed to Lowe’s, steps that would allow him to advance a new mixed-use plan for the sprawling complex. City officials said they intend to see visible progress on the property next year, one way or another, after nearly two decades of dormancy

Other projects include investment to convert Dryades Market in Central City into an outlet providing subsidized food sources, as well as improvements in “commercial corridors and districts,” including Freret Street, Harrison Avenue and the BioDistrict. If voters approve all three bond propositions city ofﬁcials estimate that work could begin as early as 2026, triggering a wave of construction across neighborhoods that have waited years for investment.

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

The former Lindy Boggs Medical Center overlooking Bayou St. John has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina.

NATION & WORLD

GM’s high-tech pitch: Eyes-off self-driving cars

BY SUMMER BALLENTINE

The Detroit News (TNS)

NEW YORK General Motors unveiled plans to offer eyes-off autonomous driving in the battery-powered Cadillac Escalade IQ SUV beginning in 2028 as the Detroit automaker seeks to recast itself for the 21st century

The announcement at a recent swanky, invite-only event in midtown Manhattan is part of a broader pitch that GM is a tech company, not just a 117-year-old auto manufacturer with deep roots in industrial Detroit. At stake is GM’s place in the global auto industry amid competition from China, where carmakers are making more and more advanced vehicles at blazing speeds.

“We’re drawing from our rich heritage, our engineering our design (and) our manufacturing expertise and we’re doing something entirely new,” CEO Mary Barra said as journalists, inﬂuencers and executives sipped lattes topped with the company logo displayed in dusted cocoa. “We’re working to accelerate the future.”

Whether and how that would work remains to be seen. GM faces a tough sell in convincing investors and prospective tech employees that it has moved beyond being a legacy automaker, analysts said “I don’t think GM can totally shed the image,” Morningstar analyst David Whiston said. “But what they can do is try to show people they are working on this.”

GM at the event also announced plans for what Apple alum David Richardson, now GM’s senior vice president of software and services engineering, described as “conversational” Artiﬁcial Intelligence powered by Google Gemini. The interactive software launches next year GM did not specify on which models the feature will be available.

“GM has been a technology company for a very long time,” said Stephanie Brinley, principal auto-

Detroit automaker GM is facing headwinds in its effort to scale up electric vehicle production and sales as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have scrapped tax credits and moved to roll back emissions regulations — the carrot-and-stick approach of the Biden administration meant to encourage EV adoption.

motive analyst for the Americas at S&P Mobility “This development for GM isn’t like they woke up yesterday and said, ‘Wouldn’t this be cool?’”

GM’s tech showcase took place after the company reported that it outperformed third-quarter expectations from Wall Street, which has long favored Tesla and other EV startups for their potential as innovators. Wall Street responded favorably to GM’s third-quarter earnings report, with the automaker’s stock surging 15%.

After teasing autonomous driving and in-house software development to investors, Barra and other executives showed off a mock lithium manganese-rich battery, an early design of the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ with the autonomous driving features, and equipment for turning the automaker’s EVs

into backup home generators.

To illustrate the capabilities of its forthcoming Level 3 self-driving tech, GM deployed a sevenscreen display that simulated human vision versus the autonomous vehicle system on California’s Highway 1.

The event is not GM’s first attempt at a tech makeover The company, for years, has been poaching high-paid Silicon Valley executives to engineer softwaredeﬁned vehicles, AI programs and self-driving cars — a best-andbrightest talent strategy Barra has publicly acknowledged and endorsed, despite internal grumbling.

GM continues to face internal tensions between its longtime, engineering-minded workers and the tech employees taking their jobs for higher pay The stakes are high

Beyond Boundaries.

Thehealthcareindustryhas asingle constant:change.

As thefastest growingsectorofthe American economy, theindustryisalwaysinastate of change in responsetomacroeconomic forces,the public’s demandfor high-quality andaccessible health care,and ﬁscal constraints. We help our clients successfullynavigateachallenging andconstantly evolving business andregulatory landscape as they create, andrespond to,new delivery models to meet thesenew challenges.

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as the Detroit automaker seeks to compete with Chinese electric vehicle innovators, as well as U.S. EV leader Tesla and other traditional rivals.

The Detroit automaker also faces headwinds in its effort to scale up EV production and sales as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have scrapped tax credits and moved to roll back emissions regulations — the carrot-and-stick approach of the Biden administration meant to encourage EV adoption.

While Barra recently told investors that electrification remains GM’s “North Star,” the automaker has canceled or scaled back numerous EV investments and ramped up investments to produce V-8 engines and high-proﬁt, gas-powered trucks and SUVs.

The company’s BrightDrop elec-

tric vans were the latest casualty

The company last year scrapped funding for its Cruise robotaxi and absorbed its engineers to work on improving autonomous features for passenger vehicles.

GM executives determined, after spending $10 billion on Cruise since 2017, that it was too expensive, especially in light of its sofar-unprofitable work on EVs.

A pedestrian crash in 2023 also opened up Cruise to scrutiny from public ofﬁcials and consumers.

In October, GM closed its hydrogen fuel cell program after decades of research failed to develop it as a feasible vehicle power source.

And the company took a $1.6 billion writedown on EV investments that are no longer needed with unfriendly federal policy under Trump and tepid interest in battery-powered vehicles among U.S. drivers Plants that had been slated for EV assembly are being retooled to make more proﬁtable gas-powered pickup trucks and SUVs.

“They’ve made a lot of interesting announcements,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry “But that’s all they are right now is announcements.”

Some automakers have already launched Level 3 technologies in limited conditions BMW AG offers a Personal Pilot L3 feature in Germany, for example, and Honda Motor’s Traffic Jam Pilot was the first certified Level 3 technology in Japan.

In the United States, the Mercedes-Benz Group eyes-off Drive Pilot is certified for most major freeways in California and parts of Nevada. Tesla offers a Level 2 hands-free eyes-on-the-road Full Self-Driving feature on its passenger cars, but also operates fully automated robotaxis.

“GM is every bit as advanced as everyone else in developing (autonomous vehicles), and more than others,” Brinley said.

Evolving LegalLandscape Shapes Digital Healthcare Innovation andCompliance.

Digitalhealthcareinthe United States is continuously shaped by acomplex patchwork of federaland statelawsand regulations.

Federallawsgovernprivacy,while federal agencies regulate medicaldevices and certainsoftware. Telehealth rulesvaryby state, though Medicare andmanystates have expanded coverage andlicensure ﬂexibility,and oversightcomes from multiple agencies. However, challengespersist regardingthe regulation of AI,cross-state telehealth practices, cybersecurity, anddata notcovered by federallaw,sopolicymakers continue to pursue reformstoensure innovationaligns with patientprotections

Ourﬁrm is proudtohelpleadthe wayforward forLouisiana healthcare providersand supportcompanies as they undergo digitaltransformationand navigatethisevolving andcomplex legal andregulatoryenvironment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By DAVID ZALUBOWSKI

AllisonBell Nadiadela Houssaye

Staff report

The following appointments, promotions and new hires at south Louisiana businesses and nonprofits have been announced in recent weeks.

BatonRouge

UrsulaWhite,anassociate professor at LSU’sPenningtonBiomedical ResearchCenter, has been elected as secretary/treasurer of The Obesity Society.White,who will formally start in the new role in January,isthe director of the Adiposity,Lifestyleand Metabolic Health Lab.

NewOrleans

Dale Revelle,alifelong shipping professional, was sworn inthis month to afive-yeartermasa commissioner for the Port of

Fool’sTake: Growth potential, dividend yield

New Orleans. Gov. Jeff Landry appointed him as oneoffour representativesfrom OrleansParish on the seven-member board.

The longtime chief of Revelle Shipping Agency and current president of DSR Properties will also serve on the board of theNew Orleans Public Belt.

Louis“Jeff”Williams,aNew Orleans native,was appointed as regional director of the SoutheastLouisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.

Williams previously worked as the senior project manager for the local district of theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers before the authority hired him as chief engineer.

McGlinchey Stafford announced the promotion of twonew members ofits leadership team.

ﬁrst half of the year,total revenue rose 16% yearover year

José Cot,who beganatthe lawﬁrm in the 1980s and returned last year, has become themanaging member of McGlinchey’s NewOrleans ofﬁce.

Marcelle Mouledoux,who joinedthe ﬁrm in 2022, was named chair of its enterpriselitigation and investigations practice group.

Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann announced the hiring of tworecent law school graduates.

HenryHamlett,who will focus on business litigation,isa graduateofthe University of Ala-

Agreat example is Coca-Cola.

bamaLaw School. While in law school, he was a member of the National Environmental Moot Court Team,the Bench Bar Honors Society and the Anti-Human Trafﬁcking Society Landon Pettigrew,who will focuson transactional law,isaTulane University Law School graduate who was amember of the Tulane Law Review He clerkedfor the New Orleans City Attorney’s Officeand played tuba in the LSU Golden Band from Tigerland while he was an undergraduate.

EyecareAssociates announced thehiring of Nicole Songy to see patients out of its Uptownand Metairie ofﬁces.

Songy,who focuses on ocular disease management and specialty contact lenses, earned abachelor’s in biological sciences from

Don’tdiscount income stocks:

Songy

LSUand adoctor of optometry from the Southern College of Optometry She completed an externship at the practice and trainingrotations at The Eye Center andthe Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Johnson City,Tennessee.

ShannonBruno Bishop,adistrict judge withthe Louisiana Workforce Commission, has been sworn in to the board of directors for the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions. The nonproﬁt association is composed of government agencies and private sector professionalsresponsible for workers’ compensation Do you have personnel changes to shareorother ideas forour business coverage? Drop us a lineatbiztips@theadvocate. com.

Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is abig player in the GLP-1 drug market, with Wegovy (for weight loss) and Ozempic (for diabetes) being two core products that generate billions of dollarsin revenuefor its business.

Its share price crashed in late Julyafter the companylowered its projections for the ﬁscal year, as growth was abit slowerthan expected. And NovoNordiskhas been ﬁghting alosingbattle to keep knockoff versions ofits popular drugs off the market. These two headwinds have resultedin the stock price falling by half over the past year

There’splenty of reason to remain bullish on NovoNordisk. Even with the challenges it has faced recently,the company boasts astrong pipeline of products in development, solidrevenue growth and promisinggrowth prospects in diabetes treatment andweight management. Inthe

The health carestock recently tradedataforward-looking priceto-earnings ratio of only 14, which makes it look like an excellent deal given its long-term growth potential. While it’snot having agreat year, NovoNordisk is likely to rebound. Patient long-term believerscan enjoy adividend recently yielding 3.2%while they wait.

(The Motley Foolrecommends NovoNordisk.)

Fool’sSchool: Warren

Buffett’s‘secret sauce’

Dividend-paying stocks are oftenunderappreciated, as many investorschase high-ﬂying growth stocks instead of incomeproducing investments. But some growth stocks also pay meaningfuldividends, offering awin-win scenario

Consider WarrenBuffett, who hasone ofthe best investing recordsaround: He grew the value of hiscompany,BerkshireHathaway,byanaverage of close to 20% each year for awhopping 60 years. He achieved that in large part by investingindividend-paying stocks.

As Buffett noted in his 2022 letter to shareholders, in asection titled “The Secret Sauce,” Berkshire Hathaway had spent $1.3 billion on sharesofCoke by 1994 and collected $75 million in dividends from it thatyear.Aswithmosthealthy and growing income stocks,that payout was increased over time, and “by 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million.” Buffettadded: “American Express is much the same story. Berkshire’s purchases of Amex wereessentially completed in 1995 and, coincidentally,also cost $1.3 billion. Annual dividends received from this investment have grown from $41 million to $302 million. Thosechecks,too, seem highly likely to increase.”

That’show Buffett and Berkshire areproﬁting from long-term investmentsindividend payers. Even companies held for shorter periods can be boffo dividend producers. In his 2020 letter to shareholders, Buffett noted that the company had bought about 1 billion shares of Apple (a growth stock!) between 2016 and 2018, and thatithad sincecollected around $775 million in dividend income from Apple —annually

Many Americans arefortunate to have dentalcoverage fortheir entire working life, through employer-providedbenefits. Whenthose benefits end with retirement, payingdental billsout-of-pocketcan come as ashock, leading people to put off or even go without care.

Simply put—without dental insurance, there maybe an importantgap in your healthcare coverage

When you’re comparingplans.

 Look forcoverage that

formajor services.Some plans may

thenumber of procedures —orpay forpreventive care only.

 Look forcoverage with no deductibles.Some plans may require you to payhundredsout of pocket beforebenefits are paid.

 Shop forcoverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits.Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.

had quality dental work in the past, you shouldn’t takeyour dental health forgranted. In fact, your odds of havingadental problem only go up as you age.2

Treatmentisexpensive— especially the servicespeopleover 50 often need. Consider these national average costs of treatment. $222 fora

They can be your secret sauce, too. Youmight seek healthy and growing dividend payers on your own. Or you could take the simpler (but also powerful) route of investing in one or more dividendfocused exchange-traded funds, suchasthe Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD), the Fidelity High Dividend ETF (FDVV) or the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM). For bestlong-term results, considerreinvesting your dividend dollars in additional shares of stock.

Ask theFool: The long and shortofit

What does being “long” or “short” astock mean? —N.N., Manhattan, Kansas Most of us are “long” on our stocks.Thatmeans we’ve bought expecting the shares to increase in value. When someone “shorts” astock, they’re betting it will fall in value —sothey borrow shares and sell them,hoping to buy replacement shares(to repay the loan) at alower price later Shorting is astrange, but legal, thing to do.There are good reasons nottoshort stocks, though.

For one thing, the company’smanagement will be working against you to make the business succeed. Even if astock does lose muchof its value, it can take along timeto do so.

Iread that electric vehicle makerLucid executed a“reverse split.”Isthat good? —D.Y., Clinton, Mississippi Reverse splits are generally red ﬂags. Consider aregular stock split, say one that splits 2-for-1. If you owned 100 shares trading at $50 apiece, after the split you’d own 200 shares trading at around $25. The total value would be around $5,000 both before and after the split.

Lucid Group hada1-for-10 reverse split. If you’d owned 100 shares pre-split, whenthey were trading for around $2 apiece (total value: $200), you’d end up with just 10 shares post-split, with the share price adjusted proportionately to $20 (total value: $200). The fact that Lucid’sshares fell considerably below $5 each means the company wasdeep in penny-stock territory,and penny stocks tend to be risky.Lucid was and is facing challenges, as it has been delivering alot fewer of its EVs than expected and is not yet proﬁtable.

White

Revelle

Cot Mouledoux

Hamlett

Pettigrew

MADE IN LOUISIANA

Meet the ‘caftan lady,’ a designer making ‘wearable fun’

Viral video spurred demand for Mardi Gras-themed clothing, more

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

When Kelsey Campion started making handmade Mardi Gras-themed clothing from a 200-square-foot bedroom nearly a decade ago, she never expected to get stopped on the street and asked if she’s the “caftan lady.”

But a viral video and strong local demand for her signature sequined items — jackets, dresses, vests, shirts and the full-length caftans seen everywhere on local parade routes — propelled her home-based sewing enterprise into a pair of businesses with millions in revenues and a growing clientele from the Gulf Coast and beyond.

Campion and her business and life partner, Liz Ellis, now operate both businesses from a hot pink former paint factory on Howard Avenue. One is an e-commerce retailer called Fringe & Co. that sells Campion’s creations directly to consumers. The other is a growing manufacturing arm, Fringe Factory, that makes clothes for Fringe & Co. as well as for other local and regional businesses in search of domestic clothing manufacturers.

“I create pieces that I want to see in the world,” Campion said “And when I found gaps in the market for certain pieces, I was like, ‘Well, if no one’s going to make them, I’ll make them.’”

Campion a Minnesota native got into festive clothing after abandoning her pursuit of a Ph.D. in forensic psychology a decade ago. She taught herself to sew, moved to New Orleans shortly before Mardi Gras in 2016 and, not long after, started selling homemade

headwraps in purple, green and gold at pop-up markets in her new home. Fringe & Co. was born.

She expanded into online sales, ﬁrst on the Etsy platform and later via her own e-commerce website.

From the outset, she has deﬁned her brand as creative, whimsical, size- and gender-inclusive “wearable fun” with a commitment to ethical production. Her creations, besides clothing, include jewelry and accessories suitable for Carnival, festivals or routine fabulousness. By far her most popular product is the sequined caftan, which starts at $150. In fact, it was a brief, direct-tocamera video of her in a shimmering caftan that went viral on TikTok in 2021 and propelled Fringe & Co. to the next level.

“Within 20 minutes, I knew something was up,” she said of that video. “Within a day, I knew that something was really up. And within a week, I knew that my business had fundamentally changed.”

That week, the email waiting list for Campion’s products went from about 500 to 13,000. For the next 16 months, Fringe sold out of every item it released. Unable to keep up with demand. Campion began searching for a local manufacturer, which was a priority she said. She found one in Terrytown.

“People really liked that they were made in New Orleans when I was handmaking them, and I knew that a value of mine was local manufacturing,” she said.

Three years ago, the owners of

the Terrytown facility decided to retire and shut down. Campion and Ellis purchased their sewing machinery and launched the Fringe Factory from the West Bank plant, retaining its eight-person production staff.

In July, they moved the equipment to their 4,000-square-foot headquarters, bringing both businesses under a single roof. Their dozens of clients now include a trio of New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes as well as local and regional companies that make bags, bedsheets and school uniforms and, like Campion and Ellis, want their products to be manufactured closed to home.

Currently, the two Fringe companies have combine annual revenues of between $1 million and

$5 million, Campion said. Her goal is to expand the factory side of the business until it makes up the majority of revenue. She also hopes to soon offer a white-label program to allow brands to “plug and play” with existing designs, cutting the costs of developing new designs while offering licensing fees.

Fringe Factory offers several advantages over its cheaper overseas competitors, making it appealing for clothing brands just starting out, Campion said. Its minimum order size is 10 compared with triple-digit minimums overseas. And while it takes 12 to 18 months to make a product from scratch overseas, Fringe can do it locally within six months — without any language barriers or transportation complications.

Also, clients get assistance with design and development, as well as support with production costs, pricing, margins and marketing strategy

“We really look at ourselves as like a creative boutique manufacturer that can help at all phases of the product development,” Campion said. “We’re not just making your pieces. We really want to be a creative partner.”

Fringe is also more sustainable than its “fast fashion” competitors abroad because it uses “deadstock” — surplus material from larger manufacturers — for much of its fabric supply

But because all that fabric and all those sequins are produced overseas, new tariffs have increased Fringe’s costs across the board. Campion and Ellis have responded by reducing inventory and adjusting new releases on the retail side. It’s not all bad, though: The import duties have attracted interest from potential new manufacturing clients.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” she said. “It helps one business and hurts the other.”

Email Jonah Meadows at Jonah. Meadows@theadvocate.com.

Science, Jobs,and Balance: RethinkingLouisiana’s Menhaden Buffer Zone

Brought to youbythe Louisiana Commercial Fishing Coalition,LLC

Louisiana’sworking coast has long depended on the Gulf menhaden ﬁshery -asustainable industry thatsupports morethan 2,000 jobs contributes $419 million annually,generates $25million in state and local tax revenue, and purchases $62 million in goods and services from 32 parishes.Yet,despitethisenormous positiveimpact,recent regulatory changes threatentoundermine thislifeline industry and the communities thatdepend on it

At issue is the decision to extend the state’s menhadenbuffer zone in recentyears. Historically,the fishery operatedalong the Inside/Outside Line and Double RigLine -longstanding boundariesfor commercial fishing thathad already limited where menhaden vessels could operate.In2021, the buffer zone wasextended by one-quarter mile, and again in 2024toahalf-mile from the original line. While thesechanges maysound incremental, the impact has been anything butsmall. The half-mile restriction has excluded thousands of acres of historically productivefishing grounds. In just 3years, the industry experienceda25% reduction in fish caught. Foranindustryalreadyoperating on tightmargins,this lossisunsustainable, harming not only the companies thatfish for menhaden but alsothousands of Louisiana families whoselivelihoods depend on this fishery

An Industry ThatFuels Local Economies Louisiana’smenhaden industry is powered by twocompanies -Westbank Fishing out of Empire, LA (Plaquemines Parish) and Ocean Harvestersout of Abbeville,LA(Vermilion Parish). Contrary to the misinformation thathas been spread, both thesecompanies areU.S.-based, U.S.-owned and aretotally controlled by U.S. citizens.Together with the twoprocessing companies (Daybrook Fisheries and OmegaProtein), theyemploy morethan 800 people directly on vessels and in processing plants,while another 1,200 jobs ripple acrossrural communities through suppliers, service companies,and transportation providers. Theseare stable, year-round jobs thatanchorsmall-town economies in parishes whereeconomic opportunitiesare limited. Beyond economics,menhaden plays a critical role in globalsupply chains.These small, oily fish areprocessedintofishmeal andfish oil essentialfor petfood, animalfeed, and aquaculture. Without areliable domestic menhaden supply,the United States would be forced to rely on imports, raisingcosts forconsumers and weakening food security. Bycatch NumbersTell the Real Story Toooften, buffer zone expansions have been driven by perception rather than science. Proponents citeconcerns about bycatch, particularly the unintended capture of reddrum. But Louisiana’sown $1 million bycatchstudy tells adifferentstory -one that underscores howsustainable and responsible the menhadenfishery is

Thestudy foundthe menhadenfleet accounts forjust 3.4% of reddrum caught. In addition, the ﬁshery operatedwellbelow the 5% total bycatchset by theState of Louisiana as amaximum bycatchthreshold. By contrast,the recreational sector -nearly 407,000 licensed saltwateranglersin202324 accordingtothe Louisiana Departmentof Wildlifeand Fisheries-accounts for96.6% of all reddrum mortalities off Louisiana’s coast.Infact, LDWF data showred drum areexperiencing overﬁshing drivenbythis recreational pressure.

What’smore, the bycatchstudy found that 84% of reddrum surviveafter beingrolledout of the nets after the completion of menhaden sets.Industry-led innovations aredriving this survival rate even higher.The adoption of newhose-end cage technology industrywide, forexample, has reduced the menhaden industry’s reddrum mortalityby24% in 2025.

The menhaden fleet has alsoinvested heavily in improving gear to preventpast issues. Since 2023, companieshavespent $6.5 million upgrading to Spectra/Plateena nets,which arestronger,moredurable, and significantly reduce net tearsthatonce led to unintended spills Takentogether,the data showa fishery that is meeting bycatchstandards,innovating to improve, and ensuring reddrum populations arenot negatively impacted.

The Myth of Predator Dependence Another argumentoften cited against menhaden harvesting is thatpredatorﬁsh like speckled trout and reddrum depend almost exclusively on menhaden as food. Yetnew

research disprovesthis claim. AUniversity of Southern Mississippi study found Gulf predatorspecies do not exclusively rely on menhaden. Instead, theyconsume avariety of prey,including shrimp,crabs,and other forage ﬁsh.

This evidence underscores thatthe ecological role of menhaden, while important, is not thesole factor sustaining predator populations.The buffer zone expansions therefore, do littletoprotect prizedgamefish but imposeenormous costs on the menhaden industry and the communities it supports ACall for Balance Louisiana has long prided itself on balancing conservation with economic opportunity. The recenthalf-mile buffer zone extension has introduced quantifiable challenges forthe menhaden fishery,limiting areas wherevessels canoperate and reducing accesstohistorically productivewaters. The industry remains asignificant contributor to thestate’s economy and operates under state science-based managementstandards,which aredesigned to ensuresustainability.

Forthe thousands of Louisiana workers, families,and communities connected to this ﬁshery,the issue is morethan abstract policy Menhaden has long been aresource thatfeeds people, pets,and economies,and decisions around its managementwill help shapehow it continues to playthatrole in the future.

STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

Kelsey Campion and Liz Ellis are the co-owners of Fringe & Co. and the Fringe Factory, a pair of clothing businesses operated out of a warehouse in Gert Town.

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EDUCATION

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Yes, knowledge is power, and thechoice is yours. But you MUSTACT NOW to put your estate planinplace. It all starts by attendingone of LauraPoche’s free educational eventswhich makes it clear that regardless of your networth,ifyou want to preserveyourhard-earned assetsorhavepeople in your life you need to protectorhavecauses that youwanttopromote, EVERY PERSON NEEDSALEGAL ESTATEPLAN. Let LauraPoche and her professional and knowledgeable staffmakethis process as easyaspossible so youcan livewith PEACEOFMIND

LAURAPOCHE INVITES YOUTOATTEND AFREE WORKSHOP TO LEARN ABOUT:

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7STUPIDESTATEPLANNING MISTAKES TO AVOID IN 2025

If youhaveeverwantedtoeliminateworry becauseyou don’t havea program in place to protectyourestateand family,without aslewof untimely legaland taxproblems,thenthis will be one of the most important workshops youeverattend.I am going to showyou howtobulletproof what youhavetoday, and whatyou leaveyourkids tomorrow.You’llbeable to take advantageofmyestateplanninglegalstrategieswithout youoryour lovedoneshavingtodeal with Succession Courts,long estate settlement delays,Medicaid liens,nursing home poverty, and death tax. But before Ido that, letmetell youastory of howwehelped Mary.

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LOUISIANA

Assessingrisks

Pre-pregnancycarecan lowerchances of birthdefects,CDC says

BY MARGARETDELANEY Staffwriter

The window of opportunitytoaddress risk factors for birth defects lies in prepregnancy care, accordingtoa study based on responsesfrom5,374women that published in August.

Research, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, gathered survey responses between 2007 and 2020 from non-pregnant women between the ages of 12 and 49

The 13-year study found thatjustover

two-thirds of women have at leastone of ﬁve modiﬁable risk factors that can lead to birth defects.

The ﬁve risk factors include reducing obesity,addressing food insecurity,limiting smoke exposure,controlling diabetes and increasing folate levels (also knownasvitamin B9 that decreases the risk of defectslike spina biﬁda).

Dr.Jane Martin, who lives in New

Orleans, is an OBGYN andhigh-risk pregnancyspecialist andisthe medical director for labor and delivery at Ochsner Health throughout Louisiana Every day, Martinmanages high-risk and complicated pregnancies. To Martin, the newrisk factors as described by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention don’tcome as asurprise.

“The (CDC) ﬁndings arenot necessarily new to those of us that practice in theﬁeld of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine,” Martin said. “But they definitely put numbers to it that we

haven’tbeen able to quote before.”

Researchers specifically looked at more common birth defects in this study —babiesbornwith congenital heart problems, neural tube defects (brain and spine problems) and facial birth defects. Those are just some of thesystems that can be affected when ababy is growing. Birth defects arerelatively common, according to Martin, with 2% to 3% of babies are born with abirth

See RISKS, page 2X

Research explores music’simpactonwell-being

Scientists explore howpainperception canchange

BY CHRISTINALARSON

AP sciencewriter

Nurse Rod Salaysay workswith all kinds of instruments in the hospital: athermometer, astethoscope and sometimes his guitar and ukulele. In the recoveryunit of UC San

Diego Health, Salaysay helps patients manage pain after surgery Along with medications, he offers tunesonrequest and sometimes sings. His repertoire ranges from folksongs in English and Spanish to Minuet in GMajor andmovie favorites like“Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Patientsoften smileornod along Salaysay even sees changesin their vital signslike lower heart rate and blood pressure, and some mayrequest fewer painkillers. “There’soften acycle of worry,

pain,anxiety in ahospital,”hesaid, “but you can help break that cycle with music.”

Salaysay is aone-man band, but he’snot alone. Overthe past two decades, live performances and recorded music have ﬂowed into hospitals and doctors’officesas research grows on how songs can help ease pain.

Thehealingpower of song may sound intuitive given music’sdeep rootsinhuman culture. But the science of whether and how music dulls acute andchronic pain

technically called music-induced analgesia —isjust catching up.

No one suggests that acatchy song can fully eliminate serious pain. But several recent studies, including in the journals Pain and Scientiﬁc Reports, have suggested that listening to music caneither reduce the perception of pain or enhance aperson’sability to tolerate it.

What seems to matter mostis thatpatients —ortheir families choose the music selections themselvesand listen intently, notjust

as background noise.

“Pain is areally complexexperience,” said Adam Hanley,a psychologist at Florida State University.“It’screated by aphysical sensation, and by our thoughts about thatsensation and emotional reaction to it.”

Twopeople with the samecondition or injury may feel vastly different levels of acute or chronic pain. Or the same person might experience pain differently from

GETTy IMAGESPHOTO

HEALTH MAKER

Doctors perform pediatric robotic spinal surgery

First such operation

done in Gulf South

BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer

Louisiana doctors, Dr Lawrence Haber and Dr Ryan Farmer, have performed the ﬁrst ever roboticassisted pediatric spine surgery in Louisiana and the Gulf South.

The duo at Ochsner Children’s work with patients with varying degrees of scoliosis, a curving of the spine.

About 2% to 3% of the U.S. population develop scoliosis that’s approximately 6 to 9 million people. The prevalence is higher in children with the primary diagnosis happening between 10 and 15 years old, according to the National Scoliosis Foundation

Up to 8% of patients with scoliosis may develop Scheuermann’s kyphosis, a structural spinal curve in the upper back that makes the top part of the spine rounded so it looks hunched over The procedure to straighten the spine of a patient with Scheuermann’s kyphosis involves surgically attaching various chords to vertebrae in the spine. Using the ExcelsiusGPS robotic system Haber and Farmer were able to improve the accuracy of the placement of these chord.

Although used in adults for two years, Farmer said the inclusion of the robot-assisted surgery for pediatric patients can lead the way to faster safer recovery Farmer lives in Lafayette, but travels across the state to see patients and perform procedures like the robotic-assisted surgeries as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.

Originally from Colorado, Farmer fell in love with the South and Louisiana when he got his master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Even when he moved back to Colorado for medical school and postgraduate training, he came back to visit Louisiana a few times each year He settled down in Louisiana with his wife in 2019 and has been at Ochsner Children’s for two and

a half years

What is scoliosis? What does it look like?

South.

Scoliosis is a 3D curvature of the spine It’s not only visible from the front and back sides of the body

There’s a rotational piece of the puzzle that you can’t necessarily see on an X-ray or in person.

Sometimes we see it present as one side of the back looking longer than the other — that’s a very visual cue that something is happening in a spine

Diagnostically scoliosis is a curve in the spine greater than 10 degrees in a speciﬁc plane or direction. Curves in the coronal plane, facing the eyes, are all quite normal.

Of the 2% to 3% of the population with scoliosis, 10% have a recommendation of surgery

What are the current treatments for children with spinal curves?

Treatment is largely dependent on how big or how old a child is.

The golden standard for care with scoliosis is monitoring.

If the spinal curve is between 20 and 40 degrees, and there is some growth-time remain for the patient, we utilize a brace to prevent

GETTy IMAGES PHOTO

The window of opportunity to address risk factors for birth defects lies in pre-pregnancy care, according to a study based on responses from 5,374 women that published in August

RISKS

Continued from page 1X

defect each year in the U.S. — whether it’s major or minor

“It’s important to note that the women included in this study were not currently pregnant,” Martin said. “And the modiﬁable risk factors are something that we can change or impact prior to a pregnancy that could then improve a pregnant woman’s outcomes.”

The study found that:

n 33.8% of the women studied had obesity, a condition that can affect early cell growth when a baby is forming days to weeks after conception.

n 19.5% of the women studied had low folate concentrations, an essential vitamin regularly supplemented for pregnant women. Folate can decrease the risk of spina biﬁda, a condition where parts of the spinal cord and membranes that line the skill are exposed

n 18.8% of the women studied were exposed to smoking. Previous CDC studies have linked smoking and smoke exposures to cleft lips or cleft palate birth defects.

n 6.7% of the women studied reported very low food security.

n 4.8% of the women studied had diabetes, including both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. How wellcontrolled the diabetes is Martin said, will determine how likely a baby is to have a birth defect.

In theory, if mothers are healthier, babies will be healthier, too.

Addressing the risks will not completely eliminate birth defects — sometimes mothers who exhibit no risk factors have children with birth defects.

“I take care of many pregnant women who are very unhealthy and have totally normal, uncomplicated pregnancies,” Martin said. “On the ﬂip side, I take care of very healthy women — who are doing everything right — and have babies with really devastating birth defects. This is not direct cause and effect, but it’s just an accurate reﬂection of a larger population.”

The underlying message, according to Martin, is that improving pre-pregnancy health among women of reproductive age will have downstream positive beneﬁts for both future mothers and future babies.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate. com.

the curve from getting signiﬁcantly worse. If the spinal curve is between 40 and 45 degrees, we recommend surgical intervention.

In most studies about scoliosis, is a patient does not receive treatment, the curvature of their spine will get worse over time at a rate of about one degree per year

A 15-year-old with a 26-degree spinal curve might just need monitoring. But, if we let it go untreated or unmonitored, that patient may have a 60-degree curve in their spine at age 50.

Once a spinal curve reaches 80 degrees, the spine starts to affect lung function making it difﬁcult to walk long distances or do much activity

If we can catch these curves at an earlier time, at a young age, we feel that we can prevent these curves from reaching high-degree thresholds. Plus, kids heal signiﬁcantly better than adults.

In my mind, with scoliosis treatment, it’s an important distinction between recommended surgeries and required surgeries. We are not treating an infection, a tumor or a

fracture. We really have to do surgery to improve a patient’s quality of life as they get older

We allow patients and their families some time to think about it as well. How have spinal treatments and technologies changed over the years?

Spine fusion procedures introduced in the 1960s infused a Harrington rod, or metal rod, to the spine surgically in order to straighten spinal curves. Patients would be in body casts for an extended period of time to heal.

In the ’80s, spinal fusions moved to placing screws into the bony column of the spine within each individual vertebrae. Then, surgeons would attach that to the rod, a ﬁxed object. Over the last 40 years, we have gained incredible knowledge of the normal balance of the spine. Implants have also improved in both their material science — like special threads to attach the screws and what the rods themselves are made out of.

Past spinal fusions made the natural curve of the spine in the side place of the chest region straight,

HEALTH NOTES

which causes huge balance problems. The spine should not be completely, ‘ramrod’ straight. What patient was the first to receive a robot-assisted surgery? Why was it an important step in pediatric care?

The first patient that we treated was young man who had Scheuermann’s — a specific type of disorder where a patient has a spinal curve in the frontal plane. There’s a normal lean forward in the chest region where the spine curves naturally for balance. With Scheuermann’s, a patient will have a more than significant curve in that area resulting in a fairly large hump on their back.

When we do spinal fusions, we place the screws on each individual vertebrae (freehand). We use landmarks to ﬁnd the bony column of the spine. We take and instrument and make a path along the spine.

We are 93% accurate in placing those screws freehand in a safe fashion. With robotics assistance, we are 97% accurate. With the robotics, we are improving the accuracy of screw placement and reducing risks associated with the surgery

The robot itself has been used in adult spine surgeries for many years, but we can safely use the robot on our smaller patients as well. We used the robot-assisted arm in a patient who was 8, a young girl who had the body size of a 4-year-old. This patient had extremely small bony columns to place those screws, and having the ability to safely put those screws in was a huge win for both me and Dr Haber

This robot, speciﬁcally, is used to hold a tube that instruments are then placed through. We are the ones examining X-rays and CT images to pick the best, and safest, pathway — the size, the length, how the implant goes into the body That information that we decide and collect gets translated to the robot.

The robot holds that tube for us so that we can place the screws and instruments in the appropriate positions.

The robot simply acts as a third, unmovable hand in the operating room.

Our Lady of the Lake Children’s and LSU launch culinary medicine training

Staff report

Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health is partnering with Louisiana State University’s School of Human Ecology to provide resident physicians with hands-on culinary medicine training to better counsel patients on nutrition and healthy eating.

The “Chefs-in-Training” session gives residents the opportunity to apply evidence-based dietary guidance, practice meal preparation and knife skills, and learn how to translate complex nutrition concepts into patient-friendly recommendations. Recipes and exercises focus on balance, portion control and practical, sustainable dietary strategies that residents can use when advising patients.

Tulane scholar elected to National Academy

Anita Raj, a globally recognized scholar whose research on gender, public health, violence prevention and numerous other areas ranks among the most widely cited in the world, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Raj serves as the executive director of Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute and the Nancy Reeves Dreux Endowed Chair and Professor of Public Health in the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She has more than two decades of leadership in advanc-

ing research at the intersection of health, gender and global development. Her work has shaped public health strategies around the world. Election to the National Academy of Medicine honors individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service. New members are elected by current members through a highly selective process that acknowledges those who have made major contributions to advancing medical science, health care and public health.

Ochsner launches genetic wellness assessment

The Genetic Wellness Assessment, announced by Ochsner Baton Rouge, is a screening tool that allows individuals to determine whether they may have a higher genetic risk of developing cancer by answering a few simple questions that evaluate individual risk factors. Those identiﬁed as having a high risk, or anyone interested in further evaluation, can schedule an appointment to discuss genetic testing.

The results of genetic testing are used by health care providers to offer personalized recommendations for cancer screening, prevention and further evaluation for patients and family members.

The Genetic Wellness Assessment is now available for adults interested in learning more about

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and reexamining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

their cancer risk at Ochsner.org/ GeneticWellnessSurvey

LSU Health professor releases new book

World-renowned neuroscientist and director of LSU Health New Orleans’ Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Dr Nicolas G. Bazan, has released his new book, “Brain Aging and Resilience: Exploring the Adaptability of the Human Brain in the Face of Aging and Adverse Conditions.” Bazan’s book is now available as an eBook from Springer Nature Hardcover and softcover editions are also available.

In this new publication, Bazan explains how the human brain adapts and stays resilient as it ages or faces challenges such as disease or injury Drawing on decades of groundbreaking research, he explores how brain cells communicate and support one another; and what happens when those systems begin to fail. His earlier studies on epilepsy, for example, revealed how tiny structures in brain cells change during stress, offering new clues into how aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s affect the brain.

Health Notes is an occasional listing of health happenings around Louisiana. Have something you’d like to share? Contact us at margaret. delaney@theadvocate.com.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana.

Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you.

Email margaret.delaney@theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

PHOTO PROVIDE By OCHSNER HEALTH

Louisiana doctors Lawrence Haber and Ryan Farmer have performed the first robotic-assisted pediatric spine surgery in Louisiana and the Gulf

Eat Fit LiveFit

Sleep: Thethird pillar of wellnesswecan’taffordtoignore

DaylightSavingTime endsthisweekend, andI’lladmit:I’mnot afanoftheearlysunsets thatcomewithit.Darkness fallingat5p.m.makes mefeelliketheevening isoverbeforeitbegins. ButasmuchasIdislike theseasonaltimechange it’saperfectreminderof howpowerfullylightand darknesssetourinternal clocks—andwhysleep deservesthesamepriority astheothertwopillarsof wellness:nutrition andexercise.

Recently,Iinterviewed oneofmyfavoritesleep experts,ErinHanlon,Ph.D.aresearch associateprofessorattheUniversityof Chicago,formyFUELEDWellness+ Nutritionpodcast.Dr.Hanlonstudies howsleepandcircadianrhythmsaffect everythingfromcravingsandglucose controltoweightandevenkidneyhealth.

“Our sleep needs vary person to person,” she said. “But everyonebeneﬁts from optimal sleepduration and quality. For too long, we’ve treatedsleep as the time left over after everythingelse. We need to ﬂip that.”

WhyItMatters

Thisisourﬁfthpodcastinterview together,andinearlierepisodeswe alsoexploredthesciencebehindsleep. Forexample,sleepaffectshungerand thefoodswecrave.Whenwe’resleepdeprived,shesaid,weeatabout300 extracaloriesaday—mostlyfrom ultra-processedfoods.

“Thoseappetitesignalsdon’tgoupfor fruitsandvegetables,”Hanlonsaid.“They goupforsweetsandsaltysnackfoods.” Lackofsleepcanalsoaffectmood,

reactiontimeandinﬂammationthroughout thebody.Itinterfereswithglucose regulationandcanincreasetheriska personwilldevelopdiabetes.There’sno questionthatprioritizingsleepisn’tjust aboutfeelingrested—it’salsoaproven nutritionandmetabolicstrategy

PracticalWaystoProtectSleep

The good news: Helping our bodies adjust to earlier darkness and keeping sleep strong year-rounddoesn’t have to be complicated. Here are thesciencebacked basics for bettersleep Dr. Hanlon and Idiscussed on the podcast •Getmorninglight.Lightisthe strongestsignalforourinternalclocks.

Aimfor10–15minutesof outdoorlightsoonafter waking,evenoncloudy mornings.Thishelps suppressmelatoninat therighttimeandsets usuptofeelsleepy whenbedtimearrives.

•Keepaconsistent waketime.Bedtime matters,butwake timeisreallythetrue guide.Goingtobedand wakingupatroughly thesametimes—even onweekends—keeps circadianrhythms steady.Thisiseasy tosay,Iknow,but understandablyharder toimplementwhenreallifehappens.

•Giveeveningsa“dimmerswitch.” Anhourbeforebedtime,turndown thelights,shutdownallscreensand shifttocalmingactivitieslikegentle stretchingorreadingarealbook.If youcan’tfallasleepafter20to30 minutes,getupanddosomething quietunderlowlightuntilyou’re feelingsleepyagain.

•Bemindfulofcaffeineandtiming.

Caffeine’s half-life means that a2 p.m.coffee can still be active in our system at bedtime, subtly delaying the body’s natural rise in melatonin andmakingitharder to fall asleep

MollyKimball,RD,CSSD,isaregistereddietitian withOchsnerHealthandfounderofOchsnersEatFit nonproﬁtinitiative.Formorewellnesscontent,tuneinto Molly’spodcast,FUELEDWellness+Nutrition,andfollow @MollykimballRDand@EatFitOchsneronsocialmedia. Emailnutrition@ochsner.orgtoconnectwithMollyor scheduleaconsultwithherteam.

BY THENUMBERS

MORE THAN HALF OF ADULTS REPORTED HIGH BLOODPRESSUREINONE PARISH

In the United States, nearly half of adults have high blood pressure —approximately 119.9 million Americans

Louisiana had the fourth-highest rate of high blood pressure in the U.S.,with 39.9% of adults reporting the condition diagnosis by ahealth professional in 2023, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-based data says.

High blood pressure,also called hypertension, is amajorriskfactor for heart disease and stroke, whichare theleading and fifth-leading causes of death in the United States.

These parishes had the highest percent of adults whowere told by apractitionerin 2022 that theyhavehigh blood pressure, in descending order:

n East Carroll Parish with 51.4%, n Madison Parish with 45.6%, n Tensas Parish with 45%,

MUSIC

Continued from page1X

one day to the next.

Acutepainisfeltwhen pain receptors in aspeciﬁc partofthe body—like a hand touching ahot stove —send signals to the brain, which processes the shortterm pain. Chronic pain usuallyinvolves long-term structural or other changes to the brain, which heighten overall sensitivity to pain signals. Researchersare stillinvestigating how this occurs. “Pain is interpreted and translated by the brain,” which may ratchetthe signal up or down, said Dr Gilbert Chandler,aspecialist in chronic spinal painat the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic. Researchers know music

Everyone’s sensitivity is different, but many peoplesleep better when they stop consuming caffeine by late morning or early afternoon

•Reconsidereveningcocktails. Alcoholdeservesitsowncaution sign.“Alcoholmighthelpustofall asleep,butitdeﬁnitelydoesn’tkeep usasleep,”Hanlonexplained.Itactsas asedativeatﬁrst,Hanlonsaid,helping usdozeoff,butalcoholfragments deepsleepandshort-circuitstheREM cyclesthatrestoreourmindandbody.

•Skiplate-nightsnacks.Evenasmall servingofbreadordessertlateat nightcansendglucosehigherthanthe samefoodwouldearlierintheday. Melatonin,whichrisesintheevening naturallyinhibitsinsulinsecretion. Finishingdinnerafewhoursbefore bedhelpsourbodykeepbloodsugar levelsstable.

•Knowwhentoseekhelp. If sleep issues are interfering with your qualityoflife, consider discussing them with your healthcare provider. Cognitive behavioral therapyfor insomnia (CBT-I)can be an effective, unmedicated approach.

AClosingThought

Whenitcomestowellness,muchofour focustendstobecenteredoneatingwell andstayingactive.Truewellbeing,though, includessleepasanequalcomponent. “Sleepisessentialforwhole-bodyhealth —notonlyourenergyandmood,but alsoperipheralorganslikethepancreas, liverandkidneys,”Hanlonemphasized.As thedaysgrowshorter,thinkofthistime changeasyourcuetoprotectthisthird keyelementofwellness.

Foradeeperdiveandmorepractical tips,listentomynewestFUELEDWellness +NutritionpodcastepisodewithDr. Hanlon—availablenowwhereveryouget yourpodcasts.

n Claiborne Parishwith 44.6%, n Morehouse Parishwith 44.5%, n Avoyelles and Concordia parishes with 43.2%, n St. Helena Parishwith 43.1%, n Webster Parishwith 42.9%, n Bienville Parishwith 42.8%

Theseparishes had thelowest percentage of adults whowere told by apractitioner in 2022 thattheyhavehigh blood pressure, in ascending order:

n St.TammanyParishwith 32.9%, n LivingstonParishwith 33.2%, n Ascension Parishwith 33.9%, n Bossier and Vernon parishes with 34.2%, n Cameron Parishwith 34.5%, n Beauregard Parishwith 35.3%, n Jefferson Parishwith 35.4%, n St. Charles Parishwith 35.9%, n East Baton Rougeand Jefferson Davis parishes with 36.1%

can draw attention away from pain, lessening the sensation. But studies also suggest that listening to preferred music helpsdull painmore than listeningto podcasts.

“Music is adistractor.It draws your focus away from the pain. But it’sdoingmore than that,” said Caroline Palmer,a psychologist at McGill Universitywho studies music and pain.

Scientists arestill tracing thevarious neural pathways at work, said Palmer “Weknowthatalmostall of the brain becomes active when we engage in music,” said Kate Richards Geller,a registered music therapist in Los Angeles. “That changes the perception and experience of pain —and theisolationand anxietyofpain.”

The idea of using recorded music to lessen pain associated with dentalsurgery beganinthe late 19th century before local anesthetics were available. Today researchers arestudying what conditions make music mosteffective.

Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlandsconducted astudy on 548 participants to seehow listening to ﬁve genres of music —classical, rock,pop,urbanand electronic —extended their ability to withstand acutepain,

as measured by exposure to very cold temperatures.

All music helped, but there was no single winning genre

“The morepeople listened to afavorite genre, the more they could endure pain,”said co-authorDr. Emyvan der Valk Bouman. “A lot of peoplethought that classical musicwould help them more Actually,weare ﬁnding more evidencethatwhat’sbestis just the music you like.”

Theexact reasonsare stillunclear,but it maybe because familiar songs activate more memories and emotions, she said.

The simple act of choosing is itself powerful, said Claire Howlin, director of the Musicand Health Psychology Lab at TrinityCollege Dublin, who co-authored astudy that suggested allowing patients to select songs improved their pain tolerance.

“It’sone thing that people

can have control over if they have achronic condition —it gives them agency,” shesaid. Active, focused listening also seems to matter Hanley, theFlorida State psychologist, co-authored a preliminary study suggesting daily attentive listening might reduce chronic pain.

“Music hasa wayoflightingupdifferentparts of the brain,”hesaid, “so you’re giving people this positive emotional bump that takes their mind away from the pain.” It’sa simple prescription with no side effects, some doctors now say Cecily Gardner, ajazzsinger in Culver City,California, said she used music to help get through aserious illness and has sung to friends battling pain.

“Music reduces stress, fosters community,”she said, “and just transports you to a better place.”

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTO By JAVIER ARCIGA NurseRod Salaysayplays guitar for patient Richard Hoang on Sept. 30 in the recoveryunit of UC SanDiegoHealth.

BRO UGH TT OY OU BY

Molly Kimball RD,CSSD

Leading careto keep youmoving

SandraA. | ShoulderSurgeryPatient

AttheOchsnerAndrewsOrthopedicsandSportsMedicineInstitute,every decisionwemakeisfocusedonhelpingourpatientsmoveforward.Fromthe latesttechnologytothedepthofourexpertise,ourteambringselitecare, cutting-edgeresearch,andadvancedtrainingtothecommunitiesweserve. Yourrecovery,goals,andqualityoflifedriveeverythingwedo—andwe moveforwardwithyou,everystepoftheway.

Learnmoreorscheduleanappointmentatochsner.org/BRortho

Foundation of service

Women’sorganization hasshaped BatonRouge for90years

BY JOYHOLDEN Staff writer

Agroup of Baton Rouge women is a testamenttothe power that comeswith working together —despitethe internationalorganization folding in 2020 and the national organization closing in 2024 TheBaton Rougewomen carryon, along with other local clubsdottingthe globe. They pool their time, talents and resources to helpothers.They have been doing so since June 1935, when 17 women gathered together at Anderson’sTea RoomonFourth Street to do something good for their city

During the Great Depression, people were in need. Professional women of the city,led by respected attorneyFrances L. Landry,started QuotaBaton Rouge,a 90-year-oldclub founded on the mission of leadershipand service.

“Those were challenging times,” current Quota Baton Rouge president Laurie Allen said at the 90th anniversary celebration, “and yet these women got togetherand they said,‘We cannot save the world, but we can do something in our small part of the universe tolend ahelpinghand,tobringhope, to bring comfort, and to some sunshine, where it’sdesperately needed.’

The long history of servicecontinues to sustain the club’s work.

On Oct. 12, Quota Baton Rouge celebrated the organization’s 90thbirthday and honored 24 past presidents at the Old Governor’sMansion. The theme was the 1930s, which wasrepresentedin holding theevent at thestately landmark built in 1930.

“While we may dress differentlyand the things and activities that we dohave changed andevolved,” Allen said, “we are still built on the foundation of selflessness, service,friendshipand sharing. So that’swhat guides us,and is the foundationofabedrock that has sustainedusfor ninedecades.”

Quota Baton Rouge’s membership is comprised of accomplished professional women who areleaders in their respective ﬁelds. Though working and leading in diverse industries, Quotarians —the name for Quota members —share a commitment to service and purpose

After refreshments and ajazz serenade, Allen spoke about the club’s achievements andintroduced Bobbie Carey,amember of Quota Baton Rouge since 1979, the owner and CEO of the CommunicationInstitute, former Quota Baton Rouge president and formerQuota International president.

PHOTO By

Past presidents of Quota Baton Rougeattend the group’s90thbirthday celebration on Oct. 12 at the Old Governor’sMansion.

‘Weshare’

Nearly 16 yearsbeforeQuota Baton Rouge began, Wanda Frey Joiner founded Quota Club International in Buffalo, New York. Joinerstarted the international service organizationasa response to women’sinvolvement in WorldWar I and to popular all-men’sclubs.

WhileQuota International was still functioning, the Baton Rouge chapter was the only club in the world to have three of its presidents become international presidents.

Theclub’sguiding mottois“We share,” and the name is derived from the Latin word, quota, which signiﬁed aportion or ashare.

Over theyears, Quota has held ﬁrm to the commitment to serve women, children, and people who are Deaf, hard of hearing andspeech-impaired.Quota’s early service projects sponsoredBrownie and Girl Scout troops.

In 1939, Quota Baton Rouge partnered with the East Baton Rouge School Board and the federal government to establish thestate’s ﬁrst National YouthAdministration clerical unit for girls. During World WarII, Quota Baton Rougecreated the ﬁrst nursery school fordefense workers’ children. Quota also helped establishYWCA in Baton Rouge. By the 1950s,Quotahad expanded its reach with programs such as Aid to the Hard of Hearing, youth mentoring and emergency assistance funds formothers and children.

The long-running fundraiser,Open Door Tour of Baton Rouge homes, started in 1951 and lasted until 2006. Funds raised helped start the Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation, which is now the Emerge Center.Another event that raised moneyfor Emerge Center

ä See QUOTA, page 2Y

Lessons from my grandmother

Afew weeks ago, in the rubble of our house ﬁre, Ifound the soggy quilt my grandmother made from scraps of clothes she’d sewn for me throughout my childhood.

My grandmother was aseamstress.

She made everything from wedding dresses with hundreds of handsewn pearls on long, frilly trains, to cheerleader uniforms with complicated red, white and blue pleats —and, on amore personal level, the majority of my dress clothes while I wasgrowing up.

Some of my most delightful childhood memories happened in fabric stores, where Iloved mixing prints and textures —and enjoy it still. For her,fabric stores were social outings. She would talk to the women who worked there, including a woman we called “Aunt Beatty,” though Inever understood how she was related to us. Meanwhile, I would wanderthe aisles, imagining the wonders we could make. In aworld that didn’thave many artistic outlets, fabric stores were where my imaginationcould test its boundaries.

To my grandmother’scredit, she would listenasIdescribed the dress or outﬁt Isaw and could usually see it herself —and she could take it one step further: She could make it.

She had expensive taste and thrived on apauper’sbudget. She often reused zippers and saved every button that ever cameher way. She repurposed clothing in ways that would wow“Project Runway” judges. Iloved watching hercreate beautiful things. Working with my grandmother on an outﬁt took aspecial touch. She thrived on ﬁnding clever shortcuts and wasamaster at making do. She grew up during the Depression. Frugality wasbaked deep into her being. She loved to save fabric, even whenthere wasplenty

Her thriftiness led to some legendary moments —like Christmas of 1989, when she gave me acute organizer wallet that included acalendar.Itwas from 1987.

Marie Kondo would make my grandmother’shead spin. Ican’t imagine the level of absurdity she would attach to the idea of only keeping things that “spark joy.”

My grandmother saved every scrap of fabric she ever cut, which often led to beautiful things —like the quilt she gave me whenIgraduated from high school, made from the clothes she’d sewn for me since Iwas ababy.Ifound it in the rubble after the ﬁre —soggy,smoky,ﬁlthy, but, in her words, “with agood washing, it will be as good as new.” She knew joy often comes later pieced together,one scrap at atime She saw the potential in leftovers and pieces others discarded. These days, she’d be called asustainability expert. Back then, we tried to keep her over-the-top frugality on the down-low

Working with heronasewing project required patience —and veto power.She always had multiple, sometimes ridiculous, ideas for ﬁxing problems. But she taught me there was rarely just one wayto make something work. Thatlesson has stayed with me more than any stitch or seam.

In the weeks sinceour house ﬁre, I’ve thought about her constantly Like me,she would’ve been sick over the waste of it all —the piles of things that couldn’tbesalvaged, the ruined family photos. But she also would’ve found joy in the challenge of rebuilding, of ﬁnding creative ways to make things “as good as new.”

And Iﬁnd myself doing the same —sorting through the wreckage, saving whatIcan, imagining what beauty might comenext —piecing life back together,one scrap at a time.

PROVIDED

CAROL BEHRMANN

PROVIDED PHOTO

Quota Baton Rougemembers gather together to compile baby items for their mothers’ starterkits. Theymade90inhonor of the club’s90th anniversary

ASK THE EXPERTS

St. Landry woman works to lower maternal mortality rates

Doula-turned-nonprofit founder reaches out to moms in need

BY LAUREN CHERAMIE

Staff writer

Devin Bailey-Nicholas, affectionately known as Divine, is a charter member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical SocietyLouisiana Chapter She is a cultural worker with a focus on Black folk healing and Black midwives in the South. In 2012, Bailey-Nicholas founded Community Birth Companion, a nonproﬁt in St Landry Parish.

Bailey-Nicholas serves as the executive director and works toward lowering infant and maternal mortality rates among low-income mothers through childbirth education, breastfeeding promotion and community doulas.

She is also a certiﬁed lactation counselor maternal-child community health worker, student-midwife and doula trainer. Currently, she’s the local ambassador for the National Perinatal Task Force and member of Healthy St. Landry. She lives with her husband and five children in Opelousas.

This conversation was edited for length and clarity

How did you identify what gaps Community Birth Companion would focus on in maternal and infant health?

In 2012, I trained as a doula and at the time, the doula organization was called The International Center for Traditional Childbearing, based in Oregon. But they did a training in New Orleans, and one of our training sessions talked about disparities.

For America to be so technologically savvy, we had a lot of mothers and babies dying for things that could be prevented, no matter what cultural background someone had.

When we saw the statistics we were seeing that the mortality and morbidity rates in Black mothers and Black babies were three to four times higher than our White

QUOTA

Continued from page 1y

counterparts. The 2024 March of Dimes Report Card gave Louisiana an “F” for preterm birth. The rates of those babies among communities of color is very dismal

We know that preterm babies are often born too small, and they have a failure to thrive a lot of the time.

It’s happening in all communities, but sometimes it’s happening more within different cultures That really touched me and made me want to dig in more to see how I could help in my local community

How has this work changed your view on motherhood and your community?

I had my second child by the time I became a doula.

When I really dug into what was happening in the maternal health world, it made me understand how much support and education our families needed to navigate the maternal health system really understanding what their medical providers are telling them, what to expect during prenatal care and how to best communicate their needs

I understood how doulas can step in, by teaching grandmas, boyfriends and husbands how to be the best support systems as they’re going through this journey of parenthood.

How does Community Birth Companion build trust within the community?

When we were ﬁrst starting, and we still do this, we went to community baby showers, had a table and communicated with the parents.

We’re asking questions like, “Who’s your doctor? Where are you delivering?” We would educate right then and there, and then pass out ﬂyers for our childbirth education classes and breastfeeding support groups, because that’s open to both pregnant and postpartum moms That was the way, and still is the way, we continue to build bridges.

I became a community liaison with Opelousas General Hospital when they were ﬁrst establishing their Baby Friendly initiative. That was a way I was able to talk with the hospital and understand the needs of the mothers in the com-

and Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital was the “Eyes on the Ties” 2019 gala that featured a live auction of celebrity ties modeled by community leaders in a men’s fashion show

In the 1960s, Quota was involved in bringing Margaret Neely to Baton Rouge from Canada, and she became the ﬁrst director of the Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation, which is now Emerge.

Other prominent examples of major giving and sharing that Quota Baton Rouge has done through the years include:

n Co-founding what is now The Emerge Center

n Establishing Girls Hope of Baton Rouge

n Pioneering programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Louisiana State University.

n Endowing a Top Scholar Program at Louisiana State University with a grant of $100,000.

n Funding construction programs at Woman’s Hospital, Mary Byrd Perkins

Q&A WITH DEVIN BAILEy-NICHOLAS FOUNDED COMMUNITy BIRTH COMPANION

munity Then we had folks who wanted to support and volunteer and become doulas. When they call, we show up. What we don’t know, we connect to resources that we share, and I believe that’s how we maintain our trust in the community

On a policy level, what changes need to be made to make a difference in maternal health outcomes in Louisiana?

We’ve had some positive changes. Medicaid now covers doulas, even private insurance is reimbursing doulas. That was an item that a lot of maternal health advocates were pushing for because we don’t want doulas to be a luxury that only certain people can get. We need to educate our moms that, if they’re low risk, there is an option in Louisiana that they can have a midwife and birth at the birth center or at home. What makes that safe is only when we all work together and breakdown

Cancer Center and Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital.

n Providing ampliﬁcation equipment to school classrooms and the Performing Arts Center

n Providing infant hearing testing equipment to hospitals and encouraged the program internationally

n Funding for Louisiana Public Broadcasting Children’s Programs

“There’s not a hospital in Baton Rouge that hasn’t beneﬁted from Quota,” Carey said.

When Carey was Quota International president, she initiated the Universal Hearing Screening program, which encouraged Quota Clubs to fund the new technology for hearing screening for infants. Through the international conference and Quota International taking on the charge, it was adopted around the world.

“Many people don’t really know our name, but we know our name, and we know the impact that we’ve had over many, many years,” said Carey Current Quota projects include sponsoring Magnolia Woods Elementary and its STEM program, helping with ﬂooring repairs in the Louisiana School for the Deaf library, supporting CASA through the Stars for a Cause beneﬁt,

those silos.

We’re moving in the right direction, but we can’t put the weight just on doulas, because at the end of the day, they’re not medical providers. We want to continue to educate our doctors to support mothers and have the best outcomes possible.

And, also, just listen to moms. When we sit down and really listen to their concerns, whether they’ve had a vaginal birth or cesarean section, they want to be listened to. They want to feel like they’ve had a part in the care they received. They want to know that they were able to give educated consent.

But we can’t do that when we’re rushing to the next person. We can’t keep treating people like numbers.

From your experience working with families, how are Black mothers treated compared to White mothers?

In our state, and even nationally, Black moms and babies die at three times the rate of our White

counterparts. What’s so important is that it crosses socioeconomic boundaries.

A Black mom that has her master’s degree would still have a worse outcome, say, from a White mother that didn’t graduate high school. It’s a racial gap there, and we know that, for whatever reason, when Black mothers go into the hospital, they’re not listened to as much as others.

The hope is that all mothers, no matter where they come from, when they step into a Louisiana hospital, they feel heard, respected and that their concerns are taken into account so we can have those great outcomes those beautiful, bouncing babies who are going to be cared for and who are our future.

Email Lauren Cheramie at lauren.cheramie@theadvocate. com.

Nominate someone for the Inspirit Awards

Name who makes a difference in the lives of others

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Louisiana Inspired is all about shining a light on people and organizations who are working toward solutions in Louisiana neighborhoods, communities, towns, cities and throughout the state — it’s work that takes extra effort by special people, demonstrating the good stuff of the human spirit.

Nominate someone you know who is making a positive difference in the lives of others at www

nola.com/site/forms/the_ inspirit_award/ by Nov 12. We encourage nominations of people of all ages — those who systematically go about doing their best to make the world a better place. The nomination process focuses on people who are working toward solutions in their workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, communities and state. Be sure to include stories of impact and details of personal stories that inspire change. Award recipients will be announced in December in Louisiana Inspired.

Email Joy Holden at joy holden@theadvocate. com.

At FMOL Health |Our Ladyof theLake Cancer Institute, we want to make sureyou never miss amoment of what really counts. Our attention to your careisbased on adecades-long foundation of experience and compassionate, comprehensive treatment forLouisiana families,including allthe resources youneed to ﬁght cancer.That’s why we’re theregion’sleading cancer treatment destination. That’s why it allcounts here. Learnmoreatololrmc.com/cancer.

Thomas Marsden, MD, Thoracic Surgery; Emily Cassidy,MD, Thoracic Surgery; Nicholas LeBlanc, MD, Thoracic Surgery; Abdulla Majid-Moosa, DO,Pulmonology;

PROVIDED PHOTO

Devin Bailey-Nicholas, affectionately known as Divine, is a charter member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society-Louisiana Chapter In 2012, she founded Community Birth Companion, a nonprofit in St. Landry Parish.

PROVIDED PHOTO Quota Baton Rouge members pack

of Love’ for local nonprofits and service organizations. They made 90 in honor of the club’s 90th anniversary.

12-year-old named to Time ‘Girls of the Year’ list

New Orleanian is an organ transplant advocate

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

Naomi DeBerry decided she wanted to be a transplant surgeon on the day her father got a kidney transplant. When her father former columnist at The Times-Picayune Jarvis DeBerry, got sick, Naomi DeBerry didn’t understand what her father’s medical diagnosis entailed. The experience was a confusing whirlwind, she said, but she knew she wanted to make a difference.

“I want to be able to give back, and I want to help people in the way that those doctors were able to not only help my dad, but my mom and myself as well,” Naomi said.

While Naomi, 12, works toward her dream of becoming a doctor, she’s already made an impact in other ways. Last year, she published a book, “My Daddy Needs a Gift,” that tells her story of a young girl spreading the word about organ transplantation and bringing her community together to support her dad

Her ongoing advocacy around organ transplantation landed her a spot this August on Time’s inaugural “Girls of the Year List,” featuring 10 girls around the world who “challenged stereotypes, tackled problems head-on and sought to build solutions from the ground up,” according to the magazine. DeBerry, a born and raised New Orleanian, is the only girl from the United States on the list.

“That selflessness of

thinking of others was really inspiring,” said Dayana Sarkisova, a senior editor at Time who selected DeBerry for the award.

“Her putting together her book so others didn’t have to go through the process alone was really what made us want to include her in the list.”

Promote organ advocacy

The other nine winners, all between the ages of 12 and 17, include a young pilot from Turkey pushing for gender equality in her country, a skateboarding Olympian from Japan and a Zimbabwean-New Zealander fantasy writer

The idea for Time’s newest list came in the months before Sarkisova welcomed her first daughter into the world and considered the qualities she wanted her child to one day carry: bravery, intelligence and kindness. The award is sponsored by Lego.

“Even though I’m being honored, what I really want to do is promote organ advocacy and organ awareness,” Naomi said.

Her ongoing advocacy keeps Naomi busy. She’s been featured on “The Tamron Hall Show” multiple times, most recently in April. Over the summer, she attended a medical and science program at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley where she was one of the few kids who didn’t get too squeamish in a lung dissection activity.

In September, Naomi spoke on a youth panel at the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation, alongside a boy who received a heart transplant. Disparities in needs

Her book may soon be reaching a wider audience. Naomi’s mother, Kelly Har-

ris-DeBerry, said there’s been an interest in translating the story into other languages to reach more disadvantaged communities.

Helping address health disparities within Black and other minority communities is a key component of Naomi’s advocacy work.

According to the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA, 68% of those in the state waiting for a kidney transplant are Black.

“When it comes to transplants, especially in African American communities, there is a lot of mistrust in these ﬁelds and a lot of misrepresentation, which is one of the reasons

why I do want to become a transplant surgeon,” Naomi said.

Cheryl McGee-Hills, a community educator at LOPA, was a navigator for the DeBerrys during their journey The educator championed Naomi’s plan to write her book when the story was in its infancy

With McGee-Hills’ support, LOPA sponsored the book, offering background information and donating funds for its publication.

“It’s a miracle, it’s a blessing to have a second chance in life,” McGee-Hills said. “(Naomi), as our next generation, she’s going to be that individual to help young as well as folks like me understand the need.”

‘Raised by New Orleans’

While Naomi is making strides as a pioneering individual, her advocacy is a reflection of the city that raised her, said her mother, Harris-DeBerry Watching the New Orleans community support her father helped inspire Naomi’s book and ongoing activism. Her cousin, Aisha DeBerry, even donated her kidney “She’s been raised by New Orleans, truly,” Harris-DeBerry said. “To me, this honor really reflects New Orleans.”

Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@theadvocate. com.

With thousands of Shell men and women across thestate,we

Our tomorrowdepends on whatwedotoday. Together,

arepoweringprogressfor abrighter future. Louisiana is whereweliveand we’reproud to call it

Naomi DeBerry displays copies of her book, ‘My Daddy Needs a Gift,’ at the 2024 New Orleans Kidney Walk.

PROVIDED PHOTOS By THE DEBERRy FAMILy

Naomi DeBerry, 12, wrote a book about her experience as her father underwent kidney transplant surgery, and the ways that her family’s New Orleans community came together to support him.

FAITH & VALUES

Christian muralist found calling painting mosques

BY ULAA KUZIEZ Contributing writer

In the Lebanese countryside where church bells and calls to prayer echo together, Harout

Bastajian grew up walking to afternoon Mass with his mom, then crossing the street to spend hours with friends at a mosque.

“I used to play with my matchbox cars on the mosque’s carpet frames,” said Bastajian, who now lives in Dearborn, Michigan. “I somehow grew up in the part of Lebanon during the war where Christians (and) Muslims lived in harmony.”

Bastajian’s interfaith upbringing has continued to inspire and motivate his work as an artist. An Armenian Christian, he has helped to restore several churches, including a landmark 19th-century Roman church and an 18th-century Armenian monastery in Lebanon

But the muralist has come to be known most for the nearly 50 mosque domes he has painted, including in the U.S. Weaving together traditional arabesque patterns, natural motifs and elegant Arabic calligraphy, Bastajian’s work graces dozens of grand mosques, such as Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, Lebanon’s largest, Nigeria’s Ilorin Mosque and the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit (IAGD)

A new exhibition at the Arab American National Museum in Michigan celebrates these domes and offers visitors an intimate look at Bastajian’s large-scale designs through original panels and photographic displays

“It’s the pride of the community that we are in America and we brought our culture, our art here, and we’re putting it in a nice display,” Bastajian said. “The best place to put your history is the museum or the house of worship where all the people come together.”

The artist has not always worked in sacred places. For years after studying interior design in college,

he painted murals for palaces and mansions owned by Middle Eastern mafias and politicians. Now, he said he is “lucky” his work is fulﬁlling.

“I am doing something for the house of God not somebody’s house,” Bastajian said.

Father Hrant Kevorkian was among dozens of attendees at the opening night for Bastajian’s exhibition on Sept. 25. Kevorkian, the pastor at St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church in Dearborn, ﬁrst saw Bastajian’s work nearly 15 years ago at the Islamic Center of America, one of the largest mosques in the country which sits adjacent to Kevorkian’s church.

They met many years later when Bastajian moved to Dearborn and came to Kevorkian’s church for Sunday Mass. Since then, the two Armenian men have become friends.

“It’s his passion. It’s a God-given gift that he wants to give back to God, and that’s how I see it,” Kevorkian said, adding that Bastajian is designing a cross for the church.

Bastajian conceives each project from the ground level where worshippers will view the art. He said it sometimes takes months to come up with a design that blends his own artistic touch with traditional styles appropriate for a particular sect and ethnic group Islamic art avoids physical representation of animated beings in places of worship. Instead, Muslim artists across ethnic backgrounds developed elaborate geometric designs, ornamental Arabic calligraphy and natural motifs. Bastajian said those elements together are meant to remind worshippers of the divine.

“God created this world filled with beauty and harmony And calligraphy and ﬂoral representation can connect a person with God,” said Zulﬁqar Ali Shah, the director of religious affairs at IAGD.

“So when you enter a mosque, the coloring scheme, the carpet, the woodwork, the calligraphy all of them take you away and you tran-

scend the concerns of the material world.”

The “Art of Spiritual Enlightenment” exhibition, on display until December traces Bastajian’s artistic process and showcases the sometimes risky task of painting mosque domes as high as 150 feet.

Mark Mulder a curator at the museum who worked with Bastajian over the summer to create the displays, said he hopes people engage with the exhibition “and then apply something that they take to their life.”

For Mulder, the exhibition is a lesson in compassion.

“It’s a lesson in caring, but it’s also that you don’t have to belong to a group to learn about them, to understand them and to care about them and to produce things for them,” Mulder said.

Providing diapers for parents who need them most

BY CHABELI CARRAZANA

Contributing writer

Editor’s note: This story created by Chabeli Carrazana for The 19th is part of the Solutions Story Tracker from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonproﬁt organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems Louisiana Inspired features solutions journalism stories that provide tangible evidence that positive change is happening in other places and in our own communities — solutions that can be adopted around the world.

In America, diapers have long been treated as a luxury good rather than a necessity

Half of families with young kids struggle to afford all the diapers they need. A quarter of families miss work as a result, often because they don’t have enough diapers to send with their children to child care.

It’s a largely invisible issue with enormous consequences for the health of parents and children. Studies have found that diaper need is a greater contributor to postpartum depression than food insecurity and housing instability And when parents don’t have enough diapers, they make do with sanitary pads, rags or other materials. Some report having to leave their children in soiled diapers for extended periods, raising the risk for urinary tract infections and diaper rash.

So Amy Kadens, who has worked in the diaper space for nearly 15 years, wondered: What if diapers were free for the parents who need them most? For decades, the United States has not had a good answer. So she came up with her own.

Diaper banks started popping up across the nation in 2011, collecting donations and dispersing diapers to families through a complex network of local partnerships. They are one of the few lifelines for parents.

Kadens, who co-founded a nonproﬁt that provides diapers called Share our Spare in 2011, knew that diaper banks often operate with limited staff and resources, and operationally can only address a small percentage of a massive need. Without more government support, they can only get at a slice of the problem.

Federal assistance programs that help low-income families, such as food stamps and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), have never allowed families to use those funds to purchase diapers.

“Diaper banks are doing heroic work with very little. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel,” Kadens said. But, “I wanted to continue to sink my teeth into this.”

So Kadens started to work on a solution that could give people the funds to get whatever diapers they needed, without the warehouses to store donations or the teams to get those donations out.

That solution was Diaper Dollars, a $40 e-card that users get in their email every month. The virtual card comes with a barcode they can scan at checkout at most major retailers, including Walmart, CVS and Walgreens, that will cover the cost of diapers. So far, users in Illinois and Ohio can access the program.

The idea, Kadens said, was to make it as simple as possible, while also giving parents the ability to choose what brands they preferred

“Families have brand loyalty,” Kadens said. “I wanted to keep dignity and choice at the forefront of everything we did.”

The Diaper Dollars team went through months of market research to reﬁne the tech to work well for participants. They didn’t want coupons because there was too much fraud in the system, and gift cards meant users could be limited on where to shop.

Instead, they landed on a system that allowed them to build out a catalog of diapers at 6,200 retail locations in the country The bar code on the digital card recognizes the diapers when it’s scanned and deducts the price from the total purchase. That catalog of diapers is monitored daily and updated in case brands come out with new box sizes or products. It also works for online purchases.

The system does have some limitations. It’s not valid in Amazon or Target, two retailers that don’t yet accept that form of payment. And it also likely only covers a portion of the need: The average family spends about $100 on diapers a month but families earning a median income can only afford to

cover about $65, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute. It’s also more expensive parents are paying retail prices plus sales tax (23 states charge sales tax on diapers). By contrast, products at diaper banks are donated or sold to the banks from the manufacturer at deeply discounted rates.

To find participants, Diaper Dollars partners with organizations such as WIC clinics and local hospitals to refer people to the program, which is funded from a mix of philanthropy and ﬁnancial support from those same partners. Partners establish the eligibility criteria, how long participants can be a part of the program, and whether the stipend will be higher for those with multiple babies.

A pilot program launched in 2023 with 100 people, then in 2024 the Illinois Department of Human Services dedicated $1 million to run its own pilot at a larger scale. Nearly 8,000 people have been served so far, with 10,000 projected by 2026. Illinois Lt Gov Juliana Stratton told The 19th that she had been looking for solutions that could support people in the postpartum period, when maternal mortality is high, particularly for Black women Diaper need, speciﬁcally, is linked to maternal mental health and considered a potential risk factor for moderate to high maternal depressive symptoms. According to the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, in 2023, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. For White women it was 14.5 deaths. So when Illinois launched a birth equity initiative to address the needs of postpartum parents, from a home visiting program to better diaper access, it chose to partner with Diaper Dollars.

“Giving someone a card where they can go to the store of their choice, decide what’s best, that is what’s part of dignity,” Stratton said. “Every woman deserves to bring life into this world safely and with dignity.”

Brendan Kitt, Diaper Dollars’ program director, said the program was able to offer an operational solution to a problem the state wanted to address but didn’t have a mechanism for The system works similarly to a universal basic income, where people in need are given a cash stipend, but it’s more targeted.

“Both for funders and supporters, it’s always a question when you talk to people about where the money goes,” he said “The fact that we can limit the transactions to the speciﬁc needs that we’re trying to serve, I think, is one of the biggest things that legitimized our operation over just giving basic cash assistance.”

Parents who beneﬁted from Diaper Dollars told the organization

in testimonials that they’ve had to turn to using underwear or old T-shirts when they didn’t have the money for diapers, often making decisions between paying for rent or diapers.

After going through the program, parents reported that the funds gave them the wiggle room to buy their children other essentials or to make them better meals.

About 90 percent of those who went through the program reported being able to better afford essentials like food, rent and other bills. Some 95 percent felt less stressed about not having enough diapers.

Joanne Samuel Goldblum, the CEO of the National Diaper Bank Network, which has more than 240 partners nationwide, said a model like Diaper Dollars can address unmet needs, particularly in rural areas where it’s harder for diaper banks to distribute products.

“The need is really so big, and it’s not going to be addressed through just one sort of answer or one type of program,” Samuel Goldblum said. “It’s really important to have ways to reach people in all sorts of different communities.”

The Diaper Dollars program has raised about $2 million so far — 45 percent from the state of Illinois, 35 percent from philanthropic donors and 20 percent from grants from community partners. It is now also running in Ohio and expected to expand to Washington soon.

Kadens’ dream is to take the program to every state. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned and some red states instituted abortion bans, conservative lawmakers have been looking for ways to support postpartum parents.

In Tennessee, for example, where abortion was banned in 2022, the state rolled out a new policy in 2024 that allowed families enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program to receive up to 100 free diapers a month for the ﬁrst two years of life.

Samuel Goldblum said the National Diaper Bank Network has seen more bipartisan support for addressing diaper needs this year “than we’ve ever seen before.” It should be that simple, Kadens said: “It doesn’t matter if you’re blue or red. Babies need diapers.”

PROVIDED PHOTO By ULAA KUZIEZ

Artist Harout Bastajian poses with a variety of his work on display at the Arab American National Museum on Sept 25 in Dearborn, Mich.

A group of women view art by Harout Bastajian during the opening of ‘The Art of Spiritual Enlightenment’ exhibition.

SUNDAY, November 2, 2025

CURTIS /byRay Billingsley

SLYLOCKFOX / by BobWeber Jr

GET FUZZY / by DarbyConley

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE/ by Chris Browne

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM /byMikePeters

ZIGGY / by TomWilson

ZITS / by JerryScott and JimBorgman

SALLYFORTH / by FrancescoMarciuliano &Jim Keefe

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE /byStephan Pastis

directions: Make a2-to7-letter word from the letters in each row. Add pointsof each word, using scoring directions at right.Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” usedas any letterhave no point value All thewords are in theOfficial SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary,5th Edition.

Axy DL BAA xR iS LO NgFELLOW One letterstands foranother.inthis sample, Aisusedfor the three L’s, xfor the twoO’s,etc.Single letters, apostrophes, the lengthand formation of the words are allhints. Eachday the code letters are different.

word game

instructions: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by theaddition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are notallowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are notallowed.

todAY's Word —VAnisHed: VAN-ish'd: Disappeared.

Average mark 38 words

Time limit 60 minutes

Canyou find 58 or more words in VANISHED?

ken ken

instructions: 1 -Each rowand each column must contain thenumbers 1through4 (easy) or 1through6 (challenging) without repeating 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using thegiven operation (inany order)toproduce the target numbersinthe top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fillinthe single-boxcages withthe numberinthe top-left corner

instructions: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 gridwith several given numbers. The object is to placethe numbers 1to 9in theempty squares so that each row,each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficultylevel of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

directions: Complete thegridso that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally

Sudoku

goren Bridge

Overlooked

Bidding the “other” major after Stayman to show a fit and slam interest is a common tool for today’s experts. North-South looked good in the bidding but South dropped the ball in the play

He won the opening heart lead in dummy and led a spade to his king. When West showed out, he tried to cash two more hearts to discard a club from dummy, planning to give up a club and ruff a club. East ruffed the third heart and led a club to West’s ace for down one.

South had an alternate line of play that is often overlooked — a dummy reversal. After West’s discard on the first trump, the chance of a 6-2 heart split became greater than usual. South should havecashedthekingofdiamonds, led a diamond to the ace, and ruffed a diamond with the queen of spades

monds split 5-2, South would have to decide whether to continue the reversal and hope the opponent with the ace of clubs was out of diamonds, or lead a high club immediately to set up his club trick.

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

super Quiz

Bothopponentsfollowingsuitto three rounds of diamonds would make this line a sure thing. A low spade to dummy would be followed by another diamond ruff, this time with the jack. South could then draw all the trumps and concede a club, knowing that the opponents would not be able to cash a diamond. Had dia-

Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2025 Tribune Content Agency

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Check out what’s available in your community, and participate in local events. Protect yourself from injury or illness by prioritizing safety. Be bold; ask, and you shall receive.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Be the one to make a positive shift, and you will flip a switch and turn your expectations into a reality Trust and believe in yourself, and follow your heart.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Your energy is rising, and opportunity is within reach. Make a commitment to yourself and those you encoun-

ter and follow through; the results will make a difference and bring you pride. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Keep moving. Refuse to let others tempt you or push you in a direction that makes you forego what’s meaningful to you. Use your intelligence and move forward alone if necessary. PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Let discipline and unique ideas carry you forward Use your imagination to figure out how to turn your plans into something great, and you’ll meet requirements and surpass your expectations.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) You can waste your time lazing around, overreacting and creating drama, or you can make every moment count. Take the initiative with a positive attitude and a grateful heart.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Take advantage of an opportunity to get closer to the people in your circle. The effort you put in and the emphasis you place will help you recognize who is worthy to sit at your table.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Balancing equality and structuring your life to fulfill your needs and please

others will help you make some decisions. Speak up, take a leadership position and make your voice heard.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) The extra hours you put in helping others will make a difference. Refuse to let negativity set in or indulgent behavior interfere with progress.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Turn anger into passion and pursue goals that make you feel good about yourself and your accomplishments. Change what you don’t like and clean up unfinished business.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Calm down before you address domestic issues

or other personal conflicts. How you approach situations will make a difference. Simplify, minimize and say no to excessive behavior

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Reach out to people who have something to offer you in return. Put more effort into your surroundings to ensure that you spend your downtime in an atmosphere that helps you rejuvenate.

wuzzLes

1. Softball. 2. Golf.3.Basketball. 4. Hockey 5. Soccer.6.Triple jump.7.Badminton. 8. Football. 9. Tennis. 10.100-yard dash. 11. Lacrosse. 12. Volleyball. 13. Cricket.14. Shot put. 15. Squash

SCORING: 24 to 30 points —congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points—honorsgraduate; 13 to 17 points —you’replenty smart, but no grind; 5to12points —you really shouldhit the booksharder;1point to 4points —enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0points who reads thequestions to you?

Saturday's Cryptoquote: Remember me, though Ihavetosay goodbye. Remember me, don't letit make youcry.— Hector,"Coco"

jeFF mACnelly’s shoe / by Gary Brookins &Susie MacNelly

The Advocate 11-02-2025

Landry embracing fast,blunt style

Pope declares new church doctor

Honor bestowed on St. John Henry Newman

Ukraine says it hit key fuel pipeline near Moscow

Lincoln Bathroom remade in marble andgold

Uncertaintyover food aiddeepens

Canadian PM told Ontario’s leader not to run anti-tariff ad

S. KoreaasksChina to

2moresuspectscharged in Louvre case

10 hospitalized aftertrain stabbing attack in U.K.

Trumpwarns Nigeriaitmay face U.S. military action over attacks

Lawyer disputes terror plot allegations

LOUISIANAPOLITICS

Louisianahas thenation’shighest childpoverty rate

It couldworsen with thefederal shutdown

Egyptunveils huge museum of antiquities

Zooclosedin2020and left itsanimals stranded

THE GULF COAST

Waterfront Gautier restaurant closes

Huck’s

Twin disastersreshapedHabitat forHumanityunder CEO

BR high schools to get upgrades

Officials seek to spend $40M bond sale proceeds

Data center money to fund jail, raises

FUN AT THE FAIR

Mom arrested after baby’s death

Choppin, GeoffreyNeal

OUR VIEWS

As LSUpicks next leader, here’s what matters

Reflection on theBuckley centennial Questionsand

COMMENTARY

Guns and weed lawshouldgoupinsmoke

Theone name that matterswon’t be on the’26 ballot

TheseLouisiana Republicansmay notbered enough

KELLY’SDOWNFALL

Expect pain before LSUovercomes this crisis

Manning throws 3 touchdowns in win

GAME OF THE WEEK AP TOP 25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP

Stockton, No. 5 Georgia rally to beat Florida

TOP TOPICS FOR WEEK 9

GAME OF THE WEEK

Chiefs, Bills share respect

STANDINGS, SCORES & SCHEDULE

SAINTS GAMEDAY

FOUR THINGS TO WATCH

GOODSTART

Future

SAINTS

STAFF PREDICTIONS

THE VARSITY ZONE

Surging University High nabs district title

Catholic, St. Joseph’s bring home city championships

KELLY

RABALAIS

LSU FOOTBALL

ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 40, SOUTHERN 21

THREE AND OUT: TOyLOy BROWN’S TOP TAKEAWAyS FROM SOUTHERN VS. ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF

UNPREPARED FROM START

Historical loss

Southern QBs swap roles vs. UAPB

OUTDOORS

LWFC resurrects menhaden issue

GUNS

High Power Riﬂe Club crowns champs

Southeastern scores another blowout; Nicholls St., UL win

If Pels don’t fight, Greenwillget KO’d

SCOREBOARD

LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN

What is thestory behind the two lighthouses?

SOMETHING’

ON THE ARTS AND CULTURE SCENE

TRAVEL

Experience Tuscaloosa beyond game day

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

FedExmissedi

CURIOUS

AT RANDOM

Birthday partyisnothing like reader hadenvisioned

MAGNALITE