The Advocate 11-06-2025

Edwardsproposes budget cuts forBR

Hundreds of layoffspossibleacrossdepartments

BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer

East Baton Rouge Mayor-President

Sid Edwards hasproposed major budget cuts and possibly hundreds of layoffs across every city-parish department —except forpoliceand firefighters.

The mayor presented a2026 budget to Metro Councilmembers Wednesday afternoon that would slash $15.5 million from the general fund —the city-parish’soperational budget —by wayofdouble-digitpercentage cuts to agencies like the District Attorney’sOffice,public works andmore. Meanwhile, the Baton Rouge Police Department and Baton Rouge Fire

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN

Staff writer

The federal government says it received ajudge’sorder blocking ICE from deporting aman with claims to U.S. citizenship —but it hadalready put him on aplane to Laos four hours earlier

Now it’snot clear whether U.S

Department had no money cutfrom their budgets

Edwards pointed to public safety as amajor priority,which is why BRPD and BRFD would not get cut, if this budget is approved. But he called the city-parish’sfinancial situation “dire.”

“Asfar as us cutting, we are breakingthe bone andsucking themarrow out,” Edwards said.

In hisproposed budget, more than 200 city-parish workers would be laid off, an overall workforce reduction of 33%for general fundagenciesother than police and fire.

Baton Rouge’s general fund has shrunk because thenew city of St. Georgetook ownership of roughly $54 million worthofsales taxes. Though

Immigration andCustoms Enforcement knows whereChanthila Souvannarath is, and the government saysLouisiana’sfederal MiddleDistrictCourt cannot order himreturned because it has no jurisdiction over Laos, according to aNov.3court filingbyanassistant U.S.attorney

The government saysitwas

FAA reducing airtraffic by 10%

Move aimedatmaintaining safety during shutdown

BY MATTHEW DALY,JOSH FUNK and RIOYAMAT Associated Press

WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it would reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 “highvolume” markets beginning Friday morningtomaintain safety during theongoing government shutdown.

The reduction stands to impact thousands of flights nationwide because the FAAdirects more than 44,000 flights daily,including commercial passenger flights, cargo planes and private aircraft.

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid sincethe shutdown began Oct. 1. With some callingout of work, staffing shortagesduring someshiftshaveled to flight delays at anumber of U.S. airports.

ä Trumplashes out at GOP senators to end shutdown Page 4A

ä Money removedfrom someLouisiana SNAP accounts. Page 7A

major cuts wereapproved late last year,thoseonly accountedfor half a year’slossoftax revenue,since St. George had not yet fully taken over responsibilityfor city services.

Edwards’ proposedbudget, plus the cuts in last year’sbudget,accounts for afull-year’s worth of lost revenue to thecity-parish —roughly $54 million.

One of the largestdepartmentalcuts by percentagewenttothe Public Defender’s Office, whose $1.09 million appropriation for 2025 will be reduced by 22% to about $855,000.

Someagencies —including the public defender,district attorney,coroner and courts —are createdunder the

ä See BUDGET, page 5A

acting on a2006 removal order indicating Souvannarath became deportable toThailand or Laos following acriminal conviction. In immigration records,the U.S. government allegedhewas acitizen of Laos, but the American Civil LibertiesUnion of Louisiana says Souvannarath hasnever been to thecountry

Citing growing staffing pressures, FAAAdministrator Bryan Bedford said the agency would not waitfor acrisis to act.

“Wecan’tignore it,” he said. Bedford andTransportationSecretary Sean Duffy said they would meet withairline executives later Wednesday to determine howtosafelyimplement thereduction in flights.Until then, both declined to namethe affected markets. Bedford said a list would be released sometime Thursday “If the pressures continue to build even after we take these measures,” Bedford said, “we’ll comeback and take additional measures.”

The Associated Press on Wednesday sent requests for comment on the FAA’sdecision to major U.S. airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines.

Southwest Airlines said it was evaluating potential impacts to its schedule and would

The ACLU, one of the organizationsrepresenting Souvannarath, says he is now being kept in ajail in Laos, and that he was only able to tell his wife by borrowing a guard’sphone.

ä See FAA, page 7A

Butthe government “cannot confirm”that Souvannarath is in a Laos jail, Assistant U.S. Attorney Davis Rhorer wrote in the Nov. 3 court filing. Court records show that, while he wasbeing held in the “Louisiana Lockup” on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola,Souvannarath raisedhis U.S. citizenship claiminmultiple filings on Oct. 16 and 17 —several

ä See DEPORTED, page 5A INSIDE

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

Mayor-President SidEdwards speaks during anewsconference after presenting his 2026 operatingbudget to theEast Baton RougeParishMetroCouncil on Wednesday.

Miss. Democrats appear to break supermajority

JACKSON, Miss. Mississippi Democrats appear to have broken a Republican supermajority in the state Senate, claiming victories in two Republican-held districts that were redrawn after a court ruled they should have greater representation for Black voters.

Unofficial election results show Democrats leading, but vote totals may change as absentee ballots can still be received up to five days after the election.

The Democrats’ gains come after a panel of three federal judges ordered the state to redraw some of its legislative districts, saying the state’s 2022 legislative map diluted the power of Black voters. The judges ordered legislators to draw majority Black Senate districts around DeSoto County in the northwestern corner of the state and around Hattiesburg in the south, and a new majority Black House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties in the northeastern part of the state.

The court-ordered reshaping of voting districts played a significant role in Democrats’ victories, said Heather Williams, president of the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

“When there are representative maps — and there is a process that actually gives voters a choice of who their elected officials are — we can connect with voters and win,” said Williams. Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst called the results “disappointing.” “Republicans were the underdogs in these gerrymandered districts drawn by an unelected court,” Hurst wrote in a statement Meta told to stop using ‘PG-13’ as description

The Motion Picture Association is asking Meta to stop referring to content shown to teen accounts on Instagram as “guided by PG-13 ratings,” saying it is misleading and could erode trust in its movie ratings system.

A lawyer on behalf of the MPA sent Meta Platforms a ceaseand-desist letter asking the tech giant to “immediately and permanently disassociate its Teen Accounts and AI tools from the MPA’s rating system.”

Instagram had announced last month that its teen accounts will be will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default.

The MPA says Meta’s claims claims that its Teen Accounts will be “guided by” PG-13 ratings and that its Teen Account content settings are “generally aligned with movie ratings for ages 13+” are “false and highly misleading.”

The association’s movie ratings are done by parents who watch entire movies and evaluate them to come up with a rating.

“Meta’s attempts to restrict teen content literally cannot be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating because Meta does not follow this curated process,” the association’s letter says “Instead, Meta’s content restrictions appear to rely heavily on artificial intelligence or other automated technology measures.”

FBI names third man accused of terror plot

LANSING, Mich. — Investigators say a third Michigan man is now facing charges in a plot to stage a terror attack on Halloween. He traveled to an amusement park to scout the location, they said.

Ayob Nasser 19, was arrested Wednesday He is accused of participating in the planning of a possible attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit that was inspired by the Islamic State, federal authorities have said.

Nasser, his brother Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud are charged with conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated terrorist organization and receiving and transferring guns and ammunition for terrorism, according to court documents. According to court records, Nasser is one of two people being sued in federal court by the makers of the popular video game Fortnite. The two are accused of making thousands of fake “bot” accounts that earned “tens of thousands of dollars in unearned payments.”

Engine fell off plane in Ky. crash

Death toll rises to 12

BY BRUCE SCHREINER, HALLIE GOLDEN and DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A UPS cargo plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before it crashed and exploded after takeoff in Kentucky a federal official said Wednesday, offering the first investigative details a disaster that killed at least 12 people, including a child.

First responders, meanwhile, searched for more victims, a day after the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, though Gov. Andy Beshear said finding survivors seemed unlikely The inferno consumed the enormous aircraft and spread to nearby businesses.

After being cleared for takeoff, a large fire developed in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board which is leading the investigation

The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman told reporters. Airport security video “shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” he said.

The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder were recovered and the engine was discovered on the airfield, Inman said.

“There are a lot of different parts of this airplane in a lot of different places,” he said, describing a debris field that stretched for half a mile.

The plane with three people aboard crashed about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday as it was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport at the Louisville airport.

The crash had a ripple effect, striking and causing smaller explosions at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and hitting an auto salvage yard, Grade A Auto Parts. Beshear said the child who died was with a parent at the parts business.

University of Louisville Hospital said two people were in critical condition in the burn unit. Eighteen people were treated and discharged at that hospital or other health care centers.

The airport resumed operations on Wednesday, with at least one runway open.

Beshear said he did not know the status of the three UPS crew members aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 made in 1991. It was not clear if they were being counted among the dead.

UPS said it was “terribly saddened.” The Louisville package handling facility is the company’s largest. The hub employs more than 20,000 people in the region, handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour

“We all know somebody who works at UPS,” Louisville Metro Council member Betsy Ruhe said.

Eric Richardson stood outside a police training academy, where people gathered waiting for word of their missing loved ones Tues-

Israel says Hamas hands over additional remains

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and SAM METZ Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hamas has handed over remains believed to be of a deceased hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza, the latest step forward under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

The military said in a statement that the remains were being brought back into Israel. Ahead of the announcement, Hamas had returned the remains of 21 hostages to Israel under the terms of the ceasefire that began Oct. 10. If the latest remains are confirmed during forensic testing, that would leave the remains of six others in Gaza.

The announcement came after search operations in Gaza City’s Shijaiya neighborhood uncovered the remains. A bulldozer with an Egyptian flag flying on it was seen digging in a heavily destroyed area in Shijaiyah as masked members of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, guarded the area. ICRC vehicles were also present.

Hamas militants were seen later leaving the area with several bags seen in the back of a pickup truck. In late October, Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help search for hostages’ bodies.

Hamas has said recovering bodies is

complicated by the widespread devastation in the coastal enclave and has returned one to three bodies every few days. Israel has pushed to speed up the returns and in certain cases has said the remains were not those of hostages.

Earlier in the day Israel handed over the bodies of 15 more Palestinians, a day after militants in Gaza returned the body of Itay Chen, an Israeli soldier killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered Israel’s 2-year-old campaign in Gaza. So far, Israel has handed over 285 bodies, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handles the exchanges.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on Oct. 13. The further exchanges of the dead are the central component of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered agreement which requires Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of breaching other terms of the deal.

Israeli officials have decried parts of the process as a violation of the agreement, accusing Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others.

Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire at civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory

California Republicans sue over new U.S. House map approved by voters

BY TRÂN NGUYEN Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. California Republicans filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block a new U.S. House map that California voters decisively approved at the ballot.

Proposition 50, backed by Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom, is designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year The lawsuit claims the map-makers improperly used race as a factor to favor Hispanic voters “without cause or evidence to justify it,” and asks the court to block the new boundaries ahead of the 2026 elections. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The Supreme Court has ruled that

“states may not, without a compelling reason backed by evidence that was in fact considered, separate citizens into different voting districts on the basis of race,” the lawsuit says.

The complaint was filed by The Dhillon Law Group, the California-based firm started by Harmeet Dhillon, who is now an assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The map is designed to favor one race of California voters over others,” Mike Columbo, whose plaintiffs include a state Republican lawmaker and 18 other voters, said Wednesday “This violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law and the right under the 15th Amendment.”

Newsom’s office said on a social media post that the state hasn’t reviewed the lawsuit but is confident the challenge will fail.

“Good luck, losers,” the post reads

day night. He said his girlfriend, who had been at a metal recycling business near the explosion, wasn’t answering her phone Her phone’s live location said she was still there. Bobby Whelan, Richardson’s friend, had been in front of her in line, but left minutes before the explosion. “We don’t even want to think about anything but the best,” Whelan said. “All our friends were there.” Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said a number of things could have caused the fire as the UPS plane was rolling down the runway

He said the crash bears a lot of similarities to one in 1979 when the left engine fell off an American Airlines jet as it was departing Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, killing 273 people. Guzzetti said this UPS plane and the American plane were equipped with the same General Electric engines. The 1979 crash involved a DC-10, but the MD-11 UPS plane is based on the DC-10.

Judge in Comey case scolds prosecutors

BY ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered prosecutors in the criminal case of former FBI Director James Comey to produce to defense lawyers a trove of materials from the investigation, saying he was concerned the Justice Department’s position had been to “indict first” and investigate second.

Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick instructed prosecutors to produce by the end of the day on Thursday grand jury materials and other evidence that investigators seized during the investigation.

The order followed arguments in which Comey’s attorneys said they were at a disadvantage because they had not been able to yet review information that was collected years ago as part of an investigation into FBI media leaks.

Comey who attended the hearing but did not speak, is charged with lying to Congress in 2020 in a case

filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies. Comey has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued that it’s a vindictive prosecution brought at the direction of the Republican president and must be dismissed. Fitzpatrick raised his own concerns, telling lawyers on Wednesday “The procedural posture of this case is highly unusual.” Comey’s defense lawyers had already asked for a transcript of grand jury proceedings, citing irregularities in the process and potential legal and factual errors that they said could result in the dismissal of the case.

The judge granted that request and ordered prosecutors to produce to defense lawyers evidence seized through search warrants in 2019 and 2020 from Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and close friend of Comey

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

Hamas militants and Egyptian workers search for the bodies of Israeli hostages Wednesday in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City

Justices appear skeptical of unilateral tariffs

BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A majority of Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical Wednesday about President Donald Trump ’s ability to unilaterally impose far-reaching tariffs, putting at risk a cornerstone of his agenda in the biggest legal test yet of his boundary-pushing presidency

Three conservative justices raised questions about whether an emergency law gives Trump nearlimitless power to set and change duties on imports, with potentially trillion-dollar implications for the global economy

The court’s three liberal justices also appeared dubious, so at least two conservative votes could limit Trump’s tariff power under the law It likely would not end it altogether, however.

The case is the first major piece of Trump’s agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape by naming three of the nine justices in his first term The conservative majority has so far been reluctant to check his extraordinary flex of executive power in short-term orders in cases ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts. That could change with a more detailed ruling in the tariff case, though it will likely take weeks or months to come down.

The Constitution says Congress has the power to levy tariffs. But, in a first, the Trump administration argues that an emergency law allowing the president to regulate importation also includes imposing tariffs.

Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared concerned that could shift too much congressional power to the president on an issue that helped

spark the American Revolution.

“It’s a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives,” he said, later suggesting the “power to reach into the pockets of the American people” must be “done locally, through our elected representatives.”

Chief Justice John Roberts raised questions about whether the emergency-power law allowed for tariffs on “any product, from any country in any amount for any length of time.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett also pressed the government on the broad range of Trump’s action.

“Spain? France? I mean, I could see it with some countries but ex-

plain to me why as many countries needed to be subject to the reciprocal tariff policy.”

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said lopsided trade deals are a “global problem,” and Trump’s tariffs are primarily about regulating foreign commerce to be fairer, rather than raising money that would encroach on Congress’s taxation power. “The fact that they raise revenue is only incidental,” he said. Within hours, though, Trump said his tariffs would help slash the deficit. “My tariffs are bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said in a speech to business leaders in Miami.

Trump has called the case one of the most important in the country’s history and said a ruling against

him would be catastrophic for the economy

The arguments were about two sets of tariffs. The first came in February on imports from Canada, China and Mexico after Trump declared a national emergency over drug trafficking. The second involves the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries that Trump announced in April. Multiple lawsuits have been filed over those tariffs, including a case from a dozen largely Democraticleaning states and another from small businesses focused on everything from plumbing supplies to women’s cycling apparel. They argue the 1977 emergency powers law Trump used doesn’t even mention tariffs, and no president

before has used it to impose them.

Lower courts have agreed that the tariffs were an illegal use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, though some appeals court judges did side with the Trump administration and found the law gives the president broad power

At the Supreme Court, much of the argument centered around the legal principle known as the major questions doctrine. It doomed some signature policies of former President Joe Biden, including his $500 billion student loan forgiveness program.

The challengers say Trump’s tariffs should get the same treatment, since they’ll have a much greater economic effect, raising some $3 trillion over the next decade.

The government said the tariffs are different because they’re a major part of Trump’s approach to foreign affairs, an area where the courts should not be secondguessing the president.

Attorney Neal Katyal, representing a group of small business challenging the tariffs, argued that Congress would cede control of tariffs for good if the court sided with Trump.

“We will never get this power back if the government wins this case. What president wouldn’t veto legislation to rein this power in and pull out the tariff power?” he said.

If Trump eventually loses at the high court, the aftermath could be complicated, if the government must issue refunds. So far, the Treasury has collected almost $90 billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law Trump could still impose tariffs under other laws, though they have more limitations on the speed and severity with which he could act.

BY LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press

WASHINGTON President

Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at Senate Republicans to end the government shutdown, now the longest ever at 36 days, blaming the impasse for the party’s defeat in closelywatched elections while Democrats, emboldened by their off-year victories, dug in for a fight.

Trump, whose first term at the White House set the previous government shutdown record, said this one was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s races. He revived his demands for Republicans to end the Senate filibuster as a way to reopen government — something senators have refused to do. Democrats hardened their resolve after sweeping governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey and the mayor’s race in New York. The Democratic leaders said Trump needs to get serious about negotiating an end to the stalemate and resolve the problem of expiring health care subsidies that are central to the debate

“The election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis,” said Senate Minority Leader

Chuck Schumer D-N.Y

Now into a sixth week, the shutdown and its impacts have deepened nationwide.

The federal closures are disrupting the lives of millions of Americans with program cuts, flight delays and workers scrambling to make do without paychecks.

Expectations were high that the logjam would break once results were tallied in elections that were widely watched as a gauge of voter sentiment over Trump’s second term.

But Trump’s demands on Wednesday that Republican senators get rid of the filibuster as a way to end the shutdown complicated an already difficult situation. And Democrats facing divisions within their progressive and moderate ranks said the results showed that voters will reward them for the fight.

“It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” Trump said during a breakfast meeting Wednesday with GOP senators at the White House.

Trump told the GOP senators they could bring the shutdown to a close by ending the Senate rule, which requires a 60-vote threshold for advancing most legislation, and steamroll the Democratic minority Republicans now hold a 5347 majority in the Senate,

and Democrats have been able to block legislation that would fund the government, having voted more than a dozen times against.

That push from Trump is likely to go unheeded by Republican senators — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said later changing the filibuster does not have support and is “not happening” — but it could spur them to deal with the Democrats.

Trump’s approach to the shutdown stands in marked contrast to his first term, when the government was partially closed for 35 days over his demands for money to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. At that time, he met publicly and negotiated with congressional leaders. Unable to secure the money, he relented in 2019.

This time, Trump stayed out of the shutdown debate, instead keeping a robust schedule of global travel and events, including at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida And it’s not just Trump declining to engage in talks. The congressional leaders are at a standoff, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, sent lawmakers home in September after they approved their own funding bill, refusing further negotiations.

A “sad landmark,” Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday about the

record shutdown.

The speaker dismissed his party’s election losses and said Democrats need to drop their demands on health care until after the government reopens. While talks have intensified among a loose coalition

of centrist senators trying to negotiate an end to the shutdown, Democrats are also doubtful that any deal struck with the Republicans will be upheld unless Trump also agrees.

The Democrats said Trump’s postelection unease with the shutdown should spark talks. But they also question whether the Republican president will keep his word, particularly after the administration restricted SNAP food aid despite court orders to ensure funds are available to prevent hunger

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

Protesters stand outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Wednesday.

state constitution and provide services parishwide, even to residents of other incorporated cities. Since St. George’sincorporation, some have argued those cities aren’tcontributing their fair share, because the general fund that pays for those services no longer receives tax revenue from them.

“A justice system can only work if every part of it is adequately supported —prosecutors, defenders, and courts alike,” District Attorney Hillar Moore said in astatement Wednesday responding the budget proposal and calling for a parishwide solution to the problem.

BRPD’s2025 budget of $98.3 million is the singlelargest item in the cityparish general fund, with the fire department next at $57.4 million. Eachhad their budgets reduced last year —BRPD by 8.1% and BRFD by 4.4% —asthenMayor-President Sharon Weston Broome was forced to account for lost sales tax revenue set to transfer to St. George.

“Public safety is indeed my number one priority and the most important thingin East Baton Rouge Parish,” Edwards said. “So that’s where we started.”

Though Broome’s 2025 budget came with an over-

pected to handle the workload generated by afully funded police department while operating on significantly reduced budgets.

The mayor’sproposed cuts for2026 could also mean the elimination of morethan250 positions that are currently unfilled,inaddition to layoffs.

The Metro Council has untilDec. 9todecide whether they will approvethe mayor’s 2026 budgetorreject it andreplace it with their own.

Republican council member Dwight Hudson said the mayor’sproposed2026budget showsthe city-parish’s general fund is too limited to meet its needs.

“This budget speaks to the problemthatwehavealways had in the city-parish, wherewefundour general fund very poorly,while our special revenue funds and ourenterprise funds do quite well,” Hudson said.

“Weneed additional flexibilitywithin thegeneral fund in ordertoprovidethe ser-

vicesthatare importantto afunctioning municipality.” Edwards andthe council are asking voters’ approval on Nov.15torededicate some of the taxmoney that is currentlydedicatedto libraries, mosquito control andthe Council on Aging so that it instead flows into the general fund.

The current budget proposal was written assuming voters do not pass the three upcoming tax rededications collectively dubbed “Thrive.”Ifvoters approve them, the budget would likely be amendedtoinclude more funds, officials said, though it is unclearwhen those changes would take place.

“I don’tknowthatsome people understand the magnitude of the situation we are in East Baton Rouge Parish,” Edwards said. “But Iwant the residents to be assuredofthis: This mayorpresident, my administration and our council are working tirelessly to fix it and do what we can.”

days before ICE took him to Alexandria on Oct. 20 for his deportation flight.

Then, on Oct. 23, Judge Shelly Dick found Souvannarath had a“substantial” citizenship claim and granted atemporary restraining order blocking thegovernment from transferring him out of her jurisdiction or the country The U.S. Attorney’sOffice learned of the order just before 3p.m. the next day,itsaid in court documents. That was about 12 hours afterhewas flown out of Alexandria to Baltimore, and about 4hours after his flight left Baltimore for Laos, according to the records.

Even then, the U.S. should have turned the plane around or taken Souvannarath back to the U.S. once he landed in Laos, lawyers for the ACLU wrote in a brief. They also argued the government should have been expecting apossible temporary restraining order after Souvannarath requested one on Oct. 17, but that ICEdeported him anyway.

“Willful blindness does not qualify as an excuse to ignore acourt order which, in anyevent,Respondents were apprised of when they still maintainedcustody of the petitioner (albeit when he was in the air),” the ACLU’sfiling states. Meanwhile, the government contended that if Souvannarath is in aforeign jail,

allgeneral fundcut of $33 million, she was able to avoidlayoffsbyinstituting hiring freezes, cashing in on interest funds and cutting departments. Last year,BRPD was cut by about $9 million.

Afterthe mayor unveiled hisbudgetWednesday,several council members —including Democrats Carolyn Coleman and TwahnaP.Harris —questioned why police

“on afundamentallevel, the Court lacks jurisdictionover theGovernment of Laos, a foreignsovereign,toorder hisreturn,” according to Rhorer’sbrief.“Similarly, theUnitedStates cannot compel theGovernment of Laos to take aspecified action.”

Rhorer also argued Dick lacked jurisdictionover Souvannarathbecause ICE transferred himout of her districttoAlexandriabefore she issued the restrainingorder.The transfer came after Souvannarath opened the case.

Souvannarath was born in arefugee camp in Thailand and came to theUnited States in 1982 as ababy,he said in court filings. Souvannarath’s father was acitizen of Laos beforeimmigratingtoHawaii butbecamea UnitedStatescitizen in 1988, accordingtothe filings.

Souvannaratharguesthat, per immigration law at the time, he automatically obtained citizenship as achild once his father was naturalized.

Thegovernmentisdisputing that claim, according to court filings.

andfire budgets were left untouched while other departments face layoffs and some public safety-related agencies sawcutsexceeding 10%.

“I thought budget cuts were going to be across the board for thoseagencies as well,” Harrissaid. “Why were they not cutwheneverybody else is feeling it and carrying theburden?”

Coleman echoed those

In hisNov.3 brief, Rhorer contends Souvannarath stayed in the UnitedStates for 19 years after his removal order without challenging it or seeking proof of citizenship. He notes that Souvannarath said ICE detained him at aregularly scheduled ICE meeting, questioning “why he was ‘regularly’ reporting to ICE if he believed he was acitizen.”

In 2004, Souvannarath was convicted of unlawful possession of afirearm and domestic violence-related second-degree assault in Washington state.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to questionsabout whether it knewwhere Souvannarath was being held or would be able to repatriate him.

Instead, theagency issued the same statement from Assistant SecretaryTricia McLaughlin that it released last week,after Souvannarath’s case came to light.

“Chanthila Souvannarath, acriminalillegal alien, with arap sheet that includes convictions for assault and unlawful possession of afirearmhad no right to be in this

thoughts andwondered why “if it’s as bad as it has been displayed,”policeand fire get apass.

“And it’snot thatwedon’t think policeand fire need money,” she said. “Everybody needs money.But we need to be fair; that’sthe key.”

Coleman also questioned how theDistrict Attorney’s

Office, thepublicdefender and the court system are ex-

country.Following his heinous crimes, he losthis green card,and an immigration judge ordered him removed in 2006,” McLaughlin said. “20 years later,hetried a Hail Mary attempt to remain in our country by claiming he was aU.S. citizen.”

The Embassy of Laosin Washington, D.C., did not return an inquiry about Souvannarathsent Monday

The U.S. State Department website describesLaos as an authoritarian countryruled by one party,the LaoPeople’sRevolutionary Party

PUBLIC NOTICE OF BUDGET HEARINGLIVINGSTONPARISH LIBRARYBOARD OF CONTROL

In compliance with LouisianaRevised Statutes 39:1307, apublichearing on theLivingstonParishLibrary’s amended budget forthe fiscal year 2025 and theproposedbudgetforfiscalyear2026 will be held on Tuesday, November 18, 2025,at6:00p.m.atthe Main Branch of theLivingstonParishLibrary located at 20390IowaStreet, Livingston,LA 70754. Thetentative budgetswillbe availablefor public inspection at the Livingston Parish LibraryAdministrationBuildingat13986 FloridaBlvd., Livingston,LA70754,Monday- Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

STAFF PHOTO By HILARySCHEINUK

Mayor-PresidentSid Edwards, right, speaks withAliceWashington, left, and KathyWascom, center,after presenting his 2026 budget to the East Baton RougeParish Metro Council on Wednesday.

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FROM WIRE REPORTS

Upbeat economic reports boost stocks

NEW YORK Stocks gained ground on Wall Street Wednesday following several upbeat economic updates and a steady flow of quarterly reports from U.S. companies. The gains were broad and marked a reversal from the prior day’s dip. Much of the market’s push and pull came from the technology sector, where several companies with huge values have an outsized influence over the market

Google’s parent, Alphabet, jumped 2.4%, Broadcom rose 2%, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms rose 1.4%. They helped counter losses from a few technology behemoths, including Nvidia and Microsoft.

Taser maker Axon Enterprise slumped 9.4% after forecasting weaker profits than analysts were expecting. Live Nation Entertainment fell 10.6% after its latest results fell short of analysts’ forecasts. The latest round of earnings offers Wall Street a source of information on consumers, businesses and the economy that is otherwise lacking amid the government shutdown. Important monthly updates on inflation and employment have ceased, leaving investors, economists and the Federal Reserve without a fuller picture of the economy A monthly report from ADP showed that private payrolls rose more than expected in October The report offers a partial glimpse into the job market, which has been generally weakening and raising broader concerns about economic growth Epic, Google to settle Android store dispute

SAN FRANCISCO Video game maker Epic Games has reached a “comprehensive settlement” with Google that could end its 5-year-old legal crusade targeting Google’s Play Store for Android apps. Epic and Google revealed the settlement agreement in a joint legal document they filed in a San Francisco federal court Tuesday Epic, which makes the hit online game Fortnite won a victory over the summer when a federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict condemning Google’s Android app store as an illegal monopoly The unanimous ruling cleared the way for a federal judge to enforce a potentially disruptive shakeup that’s designed to give consumers more choices. Google took another hit in October when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to protect it from the judge’s required app store makeover

The two companies said the settlement closely follows U.S. District Judge James Donato’s October 2024 ruling ordering Google to tear down the digital walls shielding its Android app store from competition. FDA warns about unapproved Botox sales

U.S. health regulators on Wednesday sent warning letters to 18 websites selling counterfeit or unapproved versions of Botox and similar injectable drugs commonly used to smooth wrinkles.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was taking action after receiving reports of injuries in connection with the products, including toxic side effects.

Botox is a diluted, purified form of botulinum, one of the most toxic substances in the world. The ingredient works by temporarily blocking nerve signals and causing muscles to relax. While most famously approved for cosmetic use, Botox is also approved in the U.S. for a number of medical conditions, including muscle spasms, eye disorders and migraines. The FDA warning letters mostly went to cosmetic websites. In each case, the FDA said the companies were offering unofficial or mislabeled versions of Botox-like drugs that haven’t been approved by the agency

Google Maps to debut smarter AI

Drivers can ask questions while using navigation app

BY QUEENIE WONG Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Drivers navigating traffic on

their morning commutes will be able to do much more than just find directions and the nearest gas station on Google Maps

In the coming weeks, Google will add its artificial intelligencepowered assistant Gemini into Google Maps, making it possible

for drivers to get answers to more complex questions while they’re on the road.

Users will be able to chat with the AI assistant by saying “Hey Google” or tapping on the Gemini icon in Google Maps. Google Maps currently has an AI assistant within the app but the questions it can answer are limited.

In a demonstration of how Gemini works in Google Maps, the assistant answered questions about budget-friendly vegan restaurants along a driver’s route and parking options. It even added a calendar event for soccer practice.

“It really is like having a friend

who’s a local expert sitting right next to you in the passenger seat,” said Vishal Dutta, group product manager for Google Maps at a virtual press event. Google Maps users will be able to use their voice to report a crash. The AI assistant will also summarize information such as sports results, emails and the news as people are commuting to and from the office.

Google said it also built a new feature, called Lens built with Gemini, where people can use the AI assistant by clicking on the camera icon when they stumble across an unfamiliar place on a

map. They can ask the assistant why a restaurant is so popular or what the ambiance is like inside before deciding whether to spend time there. That feature will roll out later in the month.

The product updates are examples of how the Mountain View, California, company is integrating new AI-powered features as it competes with tech companies such as OpenAI, Meta and Apple that also have AI assistants. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT has been going up against Google with new products, such as a new web browser, to rival Google Chrome.

Pipe & Steel fabricators to expand facility, add jobs

BIG EXPANSION

BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer

Pipe & Steel Industrial Fabricators will add a new steel processing facility and expand its Denham Springs facilities, creating 56 direct and indirect jobs.

Pipe & Steel will add 20 direct jobs at an average salary of $62,400 and Louisiana Economic Development projects that the expansion will lead to 36 indirect jobs. The company will keep 70 employees.

Pipe & Steel President and CEO Kylie Sparks said the company expanded in response to a “tremendous” amount of demand from new businesses in the state Pipe & Steel works on small- to medium-sized projects with capital of $30 million or less, which Sparks said is a profitable niche he intends to stay in after the expansion is complete.

The $5.1 million project will create a 63,000-square-foot steel processing center and add equipment for the fabrication facility to increase productivity and safety It’s the company’s second expansion in two years, after adding a permanent covered blasting and painting facility and expanding its structural steel shop and pipe fabrication facility starting in 2023. The project will start construction in Janu-

BY DEE-ANN DURBIN Associated Press

McDonald’s sales got a lift from Snack Wraps and other value-oriented products in the third quarter But McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski warned Wednesday that consumers in the U.S. and other top international markets remain under economic pressure, a problem he thinks will persist well into 2026. Concern about SNAP food aid benefits and whether the U.S. government will

ary and finish in June and will ultimately expand their beam cutting operation and meet demand from the state’s manufacturing industry The company can currently process 100 tons of steel, and the expansion will increase its processing capacity by three to four times.

Pipe & Steel will use $200,000 from the LED’s Economic Development Award Program and LED FastStart, the department’s workforce recruitment and training team, for the expansion The company will also use the state’s industrial tax exemption, an 80% property tax abatement on new investments, and the High-Impact Jobs Programs, a state grant for companies that create jobs paying higher than the parish average wage.

LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois met with Pipe & Steel leaders Wednesday afternoon as part of her Driving Louisiana Opportunity Tour, to garner feedback on the state industries’ challenges and needs She kicked off her tour in September, visiting Shreveport and Monroe and visited the northshore last month. She said Pipe & Steel’s expansion exhibits innovative technology that people may not expect out of Louisiana, especially from smaller businesses. The LED has reformed incentives to ensure small- to medium-sized

pay them during the shutdown is exacerbating those worries, he said. Kempczinski said U.S. visits to fast food restaurants by lower-income consumers fell again in the July-September period, a trend that has persisted for nearly two years. And while higher-income customers are continuing to dine out, they’re also looking for deals.

“I think sometimes there’s this idea that value only matters to low-income (customers). But value matters to everybody,” Kempczinski said on a conference call with investors. “Feeling like you’re getting good value for your dollar is important.” As a result, McDonald’s is leaning heavily into discounts. It launched Extra Value Meals in

businesses can benefit, when historically eligibility for incentives was based on job count. For example, the FastStart program was designed to provide recruitment and training support for large businesses, but Bourgeois said the LED has pivoted to make the resources accessible to small businesses in the last six to nine months.

Her visit to Pipe & Steel’s Denham Springs headquarters makes good on the promise that the state will grow existing businesses, in addition to attracting new companies, she said. Growing and attracting businesses has been the focus of the Landry administration, rolling out a plan to streamline communication between state agencies and integrate Louisiana businesses with large projects in the state in September. The LED set a goal to visit 800 “driver companies” by the end of the fiscal year as part of their Nine by Ninety plan.

“Truth be told, the existing Louisiana businesses that are doing the work, day in and day out and have built the Louisiana economy, are getting attention from LED for the first time in a very intentional and obvious way,” she said.

Email Ianne Salvosa at ianne.salvosa@ theadvocate.com.

the U.S. in early September, piling those on top of other deals, including its McValue menu, which was introduced in January

U.S. restaurant sales got a boost in July when Snack Wraps returned after a nine-year absence.

McDonald’s said Snack Wraps were the most popular new chicken product in recent U.S. history, with 20% of customers buying one in the first month they were on sale. The $2.99 Snack Wraps also appealed to value-conscious consumers, Kempczinski said. McDonald’s global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 3.6% for the July-September period That was slightly ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of 3.5%, according to analysts

polled by FactSet. Same-store sales rose 2.4% in the U.S. in the third quarter

The deals are costly for McDonald’s. Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said the company agreed

STAFF PHOTO By IANNE SALVOSA

Pipe & Steel Industrial Fabricators in Denham Springs will spend $5.1 million to create a steel processing center and add equipment to its fabrication facility. The expansion will create 20 direct jobs.

Confusion over La. SNAP benefits sorted out

“Food security shouldn’t be threatened by political gridlock in Washington — every family deserves stability and dignity.”

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON Some Louisiana

SNAP recipients had money removed from their cards this week, but the Louisiana Department of Health announced Wednesday that all beneficiaries would receive at least some food stamps, furloughed staffers would return to work and offices would be reopened immediately

The hiccup shows the chaos caused by the federal government shutdown and shifting Trump administration guidance on what to do about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“I’m relieved that Louisiana families will begin receiving SNAP benefits again and that our SNAP offices are reopening,” said U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans.

Continued from page 1A

reach out as soon as possible to customers whose travel plans may be impacted.

“We continue to urge Congress to immediately resolve its impasse and restore the National Airspace System to its full capacity,” the carrier said.

The federal government on Saturday stopped sending money to the states as the shutdown forbids appropriating new funds. SNAP provides groceries for 42 million low-income Americans, including about 792,769 people in 396,157 households in Louisiana. The program is funded by the federal government but administered by the states.

Two federal district judges found Friday that President Donald Trump had both the authority and the money to fund SNAP during the federal government shutdown, which has entered its 36th day They ordered him to do so.

The Trump administration agreed Monday to use money set aside for food aid during disasters, which would cover about half the roughly $9 billion monthly cost of food stamps.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides the funding for

“It’s frustrating for travelers because there’s not much you can do.

At the end of the day you either fly or you don’t,” she said. “You go on your trip and you roll the dice and you show up at the airport, or you choose to drive. So you don’t have that many options.”

SNAP, issued guidance Tuesday on how the partial payments would be handled since the states would have to calculate who got paid, when and how much. SNAP payments are staggered through the month.

At about the same time on Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that SNAP benefits wouldn’t go out. The White House later clarified that partial SNAP benefits would be funded.

On Wednesday morning, the administration announced that payments would start being processed Thursday

Gov. Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Legislature had set aside money to cover when the federal government would not. The state spent about $11 million to fund food stamps for the elderly and disabled, about 200,000 recipients.

After the federal government announced the November benefits would soon be issued, state officials paused the state-funded benefits while the federal benefits situation was sorted out. The federal money was for the

entire SNAP population, including able-bodied adults without children, who were left out of the state’s temporary appropriation.

States had to recalculate benefits that accounted for USDA determinations and Louisiana began retracting some of the benefits that had been issued. That caused questions and criticisms to swirl on social media, as some recipients posted screenshots showing the money leaving their accounts.

The Louisiana Department of Health on Wednesday afternoon released a statement explaining that all SNAP recipients will receive approximately 50% of their usual food stamp benefits, depending on household size, which will be sent on their usual distribution day

“Those who received state-funded emergency SNAP assistance on Nov 1-4, specifically the elderly and individuals with disabilities, will also receive federal benefits on Nov 7,” the Health Department statement said.

Also, any unused federal SNAP benefits would remain on the Electronic Benefits Transfer cards and could be used.

Eligible SNAP recipients do not need to take action to receive SNAP benefits, according to the state Health Department. However, SNAP recipients must continue to meet all program requirements on time to continue their federal SNAP eligibility

The USDA also announced it would provide funding to cover state administrative expenses. As a result, the department ended furloughs for all SNAP employees and reopened all SNAP offices, effective Wednesday

The Health Department and the Louisiana Workforce Commission, which administer the food stamps the federal government pays, had furloughed about 1,100 state employees who work on SNAP and receive half their pay

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.

That leaves little time for a side job to help cover bills, mortgage payments and other expenses unless controllers call out.

Major airlines, aviation unions and the wider travel industry have urged Congress to end the shutdown.

AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said some travelers were adjusting their plans and considering driving to their destinations, but that’s not an option for everyone She advised people with booked flights to try to stay informed by downloading their airline’s app and watching it for updates, or checking airport websites for the latest information.

Diaz recommended allowing plenty of time at the airport before a scheduled flight.

The FAA sometimes slows down or stops flights from taking off toward an airport due to weather conditions or when there aren’t enough controllers and other personnel or facilities are unable to pick up the slack. Last weekend saw some of the worst staffing shortages of the shutdown, which became the longest on record early Wednesday From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 different air traffic control facilities announced there was some potential for limited staffing, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans sent through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown During weekend periods from

Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the average number of airport towers and regional centers that oversee multiple airports and facilities that monitor traffic at higher altitudes announced the potential for staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis.

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But during the five weekend periods since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the average more than tripled to 26.2 facilities. Most controllers have continued to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown.

Wednesday’s announcement came on the heels of Duffy warning a day earlier that there could be chaos in the skies next week if the shutdown drags on long enough for air traffic controllers to miss their second full paychecks next Tuesday

Duffy said the FAA wanted to take a proactive approach instead of reacting after a disaster He pointed to the deadly midair collision in January between a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“We learned from that. And so now we look at data, and before it would become an issue, we try to assess the pressure and try to make moves before there could be adverse consequences,” Duffy said. “And that’s what’s happening here today.”

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New UNO logo unveiled for transition

BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer

As the University of New Orleans prepares to rejoin the LSU system, officials already are developing a new purple-and-gold UNO logo and have assembled a highpowered transition team that includes restaurateur Emeril Lagasse Jr., rapper Master P and shipbuilder Boysie Bollinger.

The 19-member transition committee met for the first time Wednesday to begin planning UNO’s move from the University of Louisiana system to the LSU system, which will be completed by next July Much of the meeting focused on rebranding UNO as LSU at New Orleans, with more substantive changes to be hashed out later

Along with Lagasse Jr co-owner and chef at Emeril’s restaurant, and Percy “Master P” Miller, the recording artist who is UNO’s president of basketball operations and assistant coach, the transition team includes Vincent Scelfo of Gambino’s Bakery, state Sen. Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans, and several LSU Board of Supervisors members, including board Chair Scott Ballard. Roderick “Rico” Alvendia, an LSU board member who is chairing the team, asked the committee members to lend their weight to UNO’s revival.

“Just looking around the room,” he said “We have the firepower to make this a world-class university.”

Wade Rousse, who was selected as LSU’s new president Tuesday echoed the idea that returning UNO to the LSU system — which it was part of from its found-

ing until 2013 — presents an opportunity to bring the New Orleans school “back to its glory days.”

“I’m truly, truly excited to be part of this turnaround,” said Rousse, who earned an MBA from UNO, “and I absolutely do believe our best days are ahead of us.”

Earlier this year, as UNO contended with a major financial crisis that university officials have blamed on years of low enrollment and accumulated debt, state legislators passed legislation allowing UNO’s transition back to the LSU system.

Supporters said the move would financially stabilize the struggling university, which enrolled 10,000 fewer students last year than it did at its peak before Hurricane Katrina. Pending approval from UNO’s accrediting agency, LSU will assume leadership of the university on July 1.

State legislators kicked in $20 million for the transition, which UNO used to erase some long-standing debt.

“This represents more than an administrative mile-

stone,” Ballard said Wednesday. “It is a homecoming, one that brings renewed opportunity, fresh energy and shared purpose.”

Gov Jeff Landry’s chief of staff Kyle Ruckert, state House Speaker Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, and UNO

President Kathy Johnson also spoke at Wednesday’s meeting. It was attended by dozens of business leaders, university officials and student government members who will contribute to working groups focused on real estate, governance, student services, marketing, athletics, academics and other topics.

The transition committee will meet regularly until UNO officially shifts to LSU in July In the meantime, UNO remains a part of the UL system.

The transition comes at a busy time for LSU, where Rousse was chosen Tuesday to replace former President William Tate IV, who took a job at Rutgers University

The university also fired football coach Brian Kelly and athletic director Scott Woodward left under pres-

sure from Landry

“We’re in strategic planning for the future,” Alvendia said, “and that’s why we’re here.”

Questions over identity

At the meeting, Alvendia said UNO’s transition would have to be accompanied by a branding change.

He presented a “working draft” of a rebranded name and logo: LSU at New Orleans in purple and gold, replacing UNO’s traditional blue and silver The school’s privateer mascot was also presented in LSU’s purple and gold.

Some UNO students and alumni have raised concerns that the transition could erase the school’s unique identity and change other aspects of student and campus life. At Wednesday’s meeting, Master P said he thought the revamped logo needed a little more blue and silver UNO was founded in 1958 as LSUNO. It dropped Louisiana State from its name in 1974, but remained in the LSU system for several more decades.

hinted at bigger changes than just UNO’s logo.

“Some of it’s going to be loved,” he said in an interview “and some of it’s going to hurt because we’re in a triage situation.”

Leaders emphasized the importance of UNO within the city of New Orleans and that the merge with LSU offered an opportunity to ensure the university would exist long into the future.

Alvendia argued that UNO would benefit from its new association with LSU, citing bolstered enrollment at LSU’s Shreveport, Alexandria and Eunice campuses.

LSU Alexandria Chancellor Paul Coreil told the crowd that enrollment spiked after he changed the school’s colors from blue and yellow to purple and gold.

“That brand is known internationally, nationally, and students want to be part of LSU,” he said. “It’s a winning team.”

Uncharted future

Many of the speakers cast UNO’s shift to LSU and an opportunity to remake the university stronger than ever

“It’s the beginning of the new era,” said UNO President Kathy Johnson, “one where we once again unite the power of the LSU brand with the heart and soul of New Orleans, one of the most vibrant and creative cities in the world.”

Still, beyond rebranding, little information was shared about how UNO’s governance structure, academic programming or other aspects of campus life could change Alvendia didn’t rule out a tuition increase but said tuition would remain lower than at LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge.

“Our goal is to keep it affordable,” Alvendia said. Ballard, who said UNO needs to better meet New Orleans’ workforce needs,

Alvendia charged the working groups with recommending two to three short-term transition goals by Dec. 5.

The academic group was asked to determine what programs the institution should invest in that will keep graduates in the area by preparing them for jobs in Gulf Coast industries, health care, engineering, hotel, restaurant and tourism, national defense, business and arts administration.

The real estate group was directed to propose ways to leverage UNO’s “prime lakefront real estate,” such as by constructing new properties on campus, developing housing for students or community members or leasing some buildings.

The student services group was charged with suggesting ways to make the registration process easier for students, ensure students can afford tuition and improve quality of life on campus.

The marketing group was tasked with thinking through branding changes, creating “ambassadors” for the university, using marketing to drive enrollment and fundraising and telling the school’s “comeback story.”

The transition team will meet on Jan. 15, Feb. 26 and May 21. Alvendia also said LSU and UNO officials will schedule a day to meet with lawmakers at the Capitol after they determine how much funding to request for the transition.

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

President of LSU Wade Rousse speaks next to LSU Chancellor James ‘Jim’ Dalton during a UNO Transition Team meeting Wednesday at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans.

Report warns of child care cuts

Fund providing affordable access running out of money

BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer

Nearly 1,000 Louisiana families could lose access to affordable, high-quality child care within the next five years unless the state Legislature agrees to put more money into one of its major funding sources for early education, a new report warns.

Plant proposal draws more pushback

Hearing attendees express wide-ranging opposition to Lake Maurepas project

BY DAVID J MITCHELL Staff writer

A wide-ranging mix of residents, environmental advocates and local elected officials spent nearly four hours airing their concerns this week over plans to build a blue hydrogen and ammonia plant in Ascension Parish that will use carbon-capture technology to store CO2 deep under Lake Maurepas.

The public hearing in LaPlace was the latest opportunity for opponents of the project to make their voices heard. The company behind the plan, Air Products, again defended it as an important economic development project that will safely remove climatewarming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with little disruption to the lake.

The unlikely coalition of opponents at the hearing included a veteran with two-century-old roots in Livingston Parish who cherishes the tranquility of Lake Maurepas and its swamps, crabbers worried about the potential for damaged marine life and environmental justice advocates who see residents again bearing the brunt of the impacts in the name of economic development and tax revenue.

With as much as 138 million tons of CO2 expected to be pumped underground over 25 years, Air Products’ storage site under Lake Maurepas would be the largest in the world, according to the company

The permanent storage will allow Air Products to make low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia.

Discussed since late 2021, the $4.5 billion project has spawned public displays of concern, unsuccessful attempts by legislators to block it and nonbinding expressions of opposition from councils in Livingston and St. John the Baptist parishes.

More than 250 people showed up at a church in LaPlace on Tuesday to speak to officials from the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy

The agencies are considering permits to allow Air Products to run a 38-mile carbon dioxide pipeline and other lines from its proposed Mississippi River complex to Maurepas. The company would build a network of carbon injection and monitoring wells along with control platforms visible across the lake’s surface.

Opposition centered around a number of issues: potential leaks

The Early Childhood Education Fund, a state program that incentivizes communities to invest in affordable child care by matching local funding dollar-for-dollar may be forced to cut the number of families it serves in half if the state declines to contribute additional dollars to keep the program afloat, according to an analysis released this week by Leaders for a

Better Louisiana, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for economic and educational policy reforms.

Roughly 2,000 children in 14 parishes receive child care financed through the match program, which the state Legislature funded with a one-time appropriation of $40 million in 2023. Local governments contribute $30 million to the fund.

As participation in the program has grown by 18% over the past two years, the state’s funding likely will be depleted by 2030 at the latest, the report found, even if the number of children served each year remains flat.

If enrollment continues to increase at a steady rate, the funds could be exhausted as soon as

the 2027-28 fiscal year the report says. To meet growing demand, the report suggests that lawmakers allocate $30 million annually for the program a big ask of the state’s Legislature, which made $10 million in cuts to early education last year The annual funding would allow the program to serve 10% more students each year and keep the program sustainable through the mid-2030s.

PET PROJECT

Burtt, petting his pitbull

at Raising Cane’s Dog Park.

is surrounded

Woman accused of abusing daughter

Authorities: Girl told group home staff she was struck with bats

BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer

A St. Francisville woman faces charges after years of alleged physical abuse of her adopted daughter, who recalls being struck with sticks, firewood and metal baseball bats, according to court records. Gretchen Hanchey, 50, was arrested on Sept. 26 and booked into the West Feliciana Parish Jail on one count each of cruelty to juveniles and second-degree battery

According to court records, Hanchey and her husband, Glenn, are the girl’s aunt and biological uncle, and adopted her in 2018 when she was 4 years old. In February 2024, the couple brought her to the Tupelo Children’s Mansion, a children’s group home in Mississippi, according to a report filed by the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services.

At the time, staff members noticed burn injuries on the child’s face and had difficulty understanding her speech, according to the report. The child’s face, nose and lips were also scarred,

her teeth were chipped, and blood had collected between her ear cartilage and skin, an injury known as a hematoma auris or “cauliflower ear,” which is usually the result of blunt force trauma.

The report is undated, but indicates law enforcement first made contact with Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services in July It largely relies on the girl’s account given to the group home’s staff, detailing extreme abuse at the hands of her adoptive parents.

The report added that the child, now 12, was admitted to a hospital and treated for cranial swelling during her stay at the group home.

When staff contacted the parents, they were told the child’s scarring resulted from a car accident that occurred while she lived with her biological parents

However, when staff reviewed the photo from the girl’s adoption application, they saw no scarring on her lip at that time.

The girl told staff she remembered undergoing multiple plastic surgeries in Baton Rouge. Staff requested her medical records, but the parents provided only documentation of a cleft palate surgery, according to the report.

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Before Boosie, Kevin Gates and NBA Youngboy Glenn “Young Bleed” Clifton Jr was the Baton Rouge rapper of the 1990s. He and his rap group, Concentration Camp, including C-Loc and Happy Perez, were originators of the Baton Rouge sound. Clifton gained notoriety with the single “How You Do Dat” in 1997, which he released with C-Loc. The song led to his signing with No Limit/ Priority Records.

In 1998, after Clifton signed with the record label, Master P rereleased “How You Do Dat,” and it became a platinum record. Clifton died Saturday after suffering a brain aneurysm in Las Vegas. He was 51. He had performed with No Limit at the No Limit v. Cash Money Verzuz event on Oct. 25 and collapsed at an after-party following the event. Clifton, also known as “Tank” and “Bleed,” was born June 6, 1974, in Baton Rouge. Even though he traveled the world performing, he always came back to his hometown.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Baton Rouge rapper Glenn ‘young Bleed’ Clifton Jr., 51, died Saturday.

STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Richie

Maeve,

by a gang of dogs looking for pets of their own recently

2ndman arrested in case of missingBaker girl

CRIME BLOTTER staff reports

Investigators withthe state Attorney General’sOffice and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation have made another arrest in the case of amissing 13-year-old girl from Baker,who was found in a Pittsburgh basement. Alvin Hanson, 64, wasarrested in New Orleans on Oct. 28 on acount of contributingto the delinquency of ajuvenile.Heisnot believed to have been akidnapper himself, andheisnot accused of knowing or working with Ki-Shawn Crumity,26, who is accused of kidnapping the girl.

Hanson is accused of picking up the girl at the Baton Rouge Greyhound bus station, driving her around to buy food and clothes, and failing to notify police that he had seen her Investigators with the Attorney General’sOffice were called on Oct. 25 to assist in the search for the kidnapped teen.

Chris Masters, asupervisory special agent with the Attorney

DAUGHTER

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“Weare glad someone stood up and did the rightthing to help this child,” West Feliciana Parish District AttorneySam D’Aquilla said in astatement. “By the right thing, Imean reported theissue and hopefully they will stand by and help us bringthe offenders to justice.”

On Sept. 30, Gretchen Hanchey posted a$100,000 bond and signed an order of proactive custody the same day,barring her from contacting her adoptive daughter or coming within 100 yards of her Her arraignment is set for Nov.13.

D’Aquilla said Tuesday that his office is considering bringing the case before agrand jury,aswell as charging Glenn Hanchey.

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His eldest son, Ty’Gee Ramon Clifton, who lives in Baton Rouge, said his dad was his hero.Although GlennClifton Jr.was only 17 when Ty’Gee Clifton was born, Glenn Clifton Jr.was amajor influence in his life. Although Young Bleed was well-known, Ty’Gee Clifton said he wasjust “Dad.” “I always will love and respect him. He was definitely aman of honor.He’smyrole model,” Ty’Gee Cliftonsaid. “He’sthe reason Iliterallywalkand talk the way that Ido.” Known forhis lyricism and wordplay, Glenn Clifton’sfirst album, “My Balls and My Word,” reached the Billboard charts andbecame nationally recognized.

Ty’GeeCliftonsaidhis dadwas the smartest man he knew —a walking dictionary —whose flow and poetic style kicked down the door forBaton Rouge rappersto follow after him.

Young Bleed’ssignature gritty yet smooth deliverywas Baton Rouge all the way,and his mark on Southern hip-hop is unforgettable. He leaves behind his mother,Florida Allen, and four other children, Destiny,Charlé, Tiaand Tyrell.

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General’sCyber Crime Unit,said the LBIdoes not believe Hanson had any contact with Crumity. They also do notbelieve Hanson was attempting tokidnap the girl himself or deliver her to someone else.

“He ran across her at the bus stationinBaton Rouge,” Masters said. “He essentially drove her around,took her to get food, found out that shewas arunaway and 13 years old, and did notcontact law enforcement. That’swhy Alvin’s arrested.”

The juvenile was with Hanson forapproximately fourorfive hours, during which they visited at least oneotherlocation, authorities said.

“As far as this investigation goes, anybodythatplays any role in aiding or assisting this child in getting where she needed to get, whether they had previous knowledgeornot, they will be arrested,” Masters said.

AttorneyGeneral Liz Murrill had Masters’unit reach outto Baker police to offer support in the search for the girl.The unit processed the girl’s devices at

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of highlyconcentratedCO2 from pipelinesatrisk of corrosion, federal taxpayer support for the project, the impactofdredging of potentially contaminated sediments, questions about whether the storage will prevent as manyemissions as predicted, damage to wetlands, and,perhaps at the center of it all, anear-universal appreciation for Lake Maurepas.

Albert Ken Davidson, 71, a38year veteran of theU.S. Army and Springfield native, said he grew up on land ahalf-milefromthe lake that hisfamilysettled in 1805.It’s where he lives withother generationsofhis family

“I’vebeen all over the world. Seen some ugly places, seen beautiful places, none more beautiful than thatlake,” he said. “And it would be ashame if my children, their children, and their childrencouldn’t see it the way our ancestors did years ago.”

Facing concerns like that, ahandfulofRepublican Livingston and Tangipahoa parish legislatorsand local officials joined withleft-leaning environmental advocates to call for the Corps to conduct afull environmental impact statement.

Afew called for an even deeper look, known as aprogrammatic environmental impact statement, to consider not just AirProducts’ plans but also thecumulativeimpact of carbon-captureproposals popping up in the state and their often dispersedpieces taken together from production planttoCO2 transport pipeline to undergroundstorage site.

‘Failedasacommunity’

State Sen. Bill Wheat, R-Poncha-

CARE

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Unless theLegislature finds a waytoincrease funding,experts worry that families andthe state economywill suffer.

“More familiesare going to have to make decisions about theirwork arrangements,which could mean dropping out of the workforce,” said BarryErwin,president of Leaders for aBetter Louisiana, “and it’sgoing to mean fewer kids are being served in high-quality settings.”

Around 57,000 Louisiana children areenrolledinday care through state and federally funded early learning initiatives, including the local-match program, Head Start and the Child Care Assistance Program, saidLibbie Sonnier, director of theLouisiana PolicyInstitute

their forensic lab, looking forinformation that might identify who she was contacting and where she might have gone. Some of that informationpointed to wherethe girlwas heading, whichMasters said was shared with Louisiana State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service. Her devices alsoshowed she had been communicating with several people onlineprior to her disappearance.

Manaccused of starting fire for insurance payout

Fireinvestigators with the St. George Fire Protection District arrestedaBaton Rougeman Tuesday morning accused of burning down ahome on Pecue Lane for insurance money

StanGranier,55, wasbooked intothe EastBaton Rouge Parish jailona count each of arson with intenttodefraudand aggravated arson.

Firefighters arrived to aresidenceinthe 10000 block of Pecue Lane in response to acall about a structure fire on Aug. 11. Heavy

toula, told theofficialsnear the endofthe lengthy hearingwith54 speakers that the federal agency was thelast hope of hisconstituents who have consistently and broadly opposed AirProducts’ plans.

“Folks,the people that Irepresent arenot here asking for alot. They’re just asking for afuture to be like the past of Lake Maurepas They want to seethat legacy of the livelihoodsoftheir familiesprotected,” Wheat said. “We’ve been failedasacommunity,tohave the state listen to ourconcerns, up to this point.”

CorpsofEngineers officials couldn’t commentonthe request Wednesday withthe permit processjust starting.

UnderCorps rules, the review starts outasaless detailed, typically one-year-longenvironmental assessment unlessthe agency findings bump it up to alonger and moredetailed EIS.

If the Corps did proceed withthe EIS, it would mean twoyears of review and potentially another delay for aproject that has already been pushed back to a2028 or 2029 start, at the earliest, due to financial concerns,according to reports.

In late April, Air Products’ new CEOsaid that thecompany was trying to “de-risk” by selling off the ammonia and carbon-capture portionsofthe project nowseeking state and federal blessing and to continue finding buyers for its products.

AndrewConnolly,anAir Products vicepresident, toldCorpsofficials thatthe Louisiana Clean EnergyComplexwill make the state agloballeaderincleanhydrogen, a key industrial feedstock, while the storage operation will capture 95% of itsCO2 emissions.

“This will dramatically reduce our work’spotential impact on the environment andthe surrounding

for Children. Experts estimate that another 116,000 children statewide qualify for subsidized child care but are not enrolled. Lack of widespread access to day carecost thestate roughly $1.3 billion each year in lost tax revenueand productivity, according to a2021 report fromthe UniversityofLouisiana at Lafayette, though Sonniersaid that number haslikelychanged sincethe state match programwas introduced For children, notparticipating in early education programs has been linked to worse academic outcomes and development gaps

While advocates have so farnot convinced theLegislature to restore the millions it previously cut from the state’searlyeducation programs,Erwin believeslawmakerswill be morewilling to approve additional funding for the match program.

This fund “is an attractive way

fire was visible from the north side of the large, two-story home.

Afterthe fire was extinguished, investigators were called to determine its originand cause, ruling that Granier had set it to collect insurance money

“Any actofarson not only endangers property,itputs our firefighters andthe community at risk,” said Gerard Tarleton, St. George fire chief. “Weare grateful forthe teamworkand diligence that led to this arrest.”

No injuries werereported from thefire.

Police seek helpin finding missingGonzales teen

The Gonzales Police Department is asking forthe public’shelp in locating a17-year-old girl who has been missing for more than three weeks.

Stephianna Jones is believedto have left herhome at the Palms Apartments on North Coontrap Road during the night of Oct. 14.

The teen wasscheduled to begin school that day,policesaid in a news release, andhas been noted

community, while creating markets for ourclean Louisiana products and creating and supporting local jobs,” he said.

The project would create 2,000 construction jobs, up to 200 permanent jobs and $1.3 billion in local taxrevenue over its life span, Connollysaid, citing arecent economic analysis

‘Safelyoperate’

In addition to salesand property tax revenue going primarily to Ascension Parish andthe state, Louisiana and Livingston, St. John andTangipahoa parisheswould also shareinupto$160 million in injection payments over theproject’s life because CO2 is being sent under state water bottoms.

But, the line to deliver that CO2 to Maurepas would run past apublic elementary school andneighborhood in Sorrento, near the tip of ahurricane protectionlevee still underconstruction, near aplanned sediment diversionfor wetland restoration andthroughthe Maurepas Wildlife Management Area.

The company would also run a19mile natural gas line, mostly in the lastleg of the CO2 line route,to power lakeoperationsand also a 2-mile hydrogenline onshore. Constructionwill require extensive digging, underwater dredging and the destruction of 362acres of wetlands, according to Corps papers. Nearly 90% will be highvalue, coastal cypress and tupelo swampsthatadvocates noted the wildlife management area and broader state efforts have fought for years to protect and restore in theface of degradation due to rising sea levels and salinity.

Connolly said Air Products has taken stepstominimizethe impact by,for example, using existing utility routes andco-locating itsvarious pipelines. Thecompany also plans

for legislators who wanttofund earlychildhood education to do it in away that really stretches those dollars,” he said.

Localcommunities

Losingthe Early Childhood Education Fund would have asignificant impact on the communities thatrely on it, advocates say In Jefferson Parish,about 17,000 children under age 5are eligible for some form of publicly subsidizedchild careprogram, but only around 4,500 areenrolled, said Sarintha Strickland, executive director of the Jefferson Ready Start Network, which works to create comprehensive early childhood services foryoung children.

To help closethatgap,the parish hasput $1.2 millionintothe state match program,Strickland said. Muchofthe funding hascome through the Jefferson Parish Council, which recentlypledged

by the school system as truant since then.

Her motherreported hermissing on Oct. 25, police said. Jonesisdescribed as having reddish-blonde dreadlocks anda tattoo of aflower on her lower left arm, police said.

“Social media accounts known to Stephianna arenolongeractive andmay have been deleted,”police said.

Jones

Sources have told officersthat she may be in Mississippi, with a male known only as C.J., or that she maybeinthe Atlanta area, officials said. Jones has been entered into the National Crime Information Center as amissing person. Anyone with information about herwhereabouts or the case is asked to call Gonzales Police Detective Kati Wallace at (225) 6479575, referencing case No. 2025010601, or callthe department’s dispatch numberat(225)621-8300, ext. 1.

to rehabilitate morethan 800 acres of wetlands north of the lake near the Joyce Wildlife Management Area andhas planted 6,000 cypress trees andplans to plant more. He addedthatthe companyhas an unsurpassed safety record with industrial gasesand is working with Ascension emergency officialsand others to set up detailedsafety proceduresfor workersand thepublic. Connolly said thecompanywas confident “inour abilitytosafely operate under these permits,” though environmental advocates pointed outAir Products is seeking to selloff thecarbon-capture piece of theproject.

Until astate moratorium announced last month, the concept of carbon capture hashad strong support fromthe state’sbusiness community,LSU scientists and most statewide elected leadership. It’s seen as an attainable and safe bridge technology perfectly suited for Louisiana’ssedimentary geology that can create alower carbon-emitting industrial base.

The technology pumps carbon dioxide that’sbeen pressurized to anear-liquid state underground into naturalformations thatAir Products, othercompanies and LSUgeologistssay have confining layers that would prevent leaks into aquifers.

Amid growing publicbacklash over theproposals beingreviewed across the state, though, Gov.Jeff Landrycalled forthe moratorium last monthonnew permits and for aprioritization processfor proposals that weren’t among six state regulatorskeyed for fast tracking. Air Products’ carboninjection permit also wasn’tone of the six. DavidJ.Mitchellcan be reached at dmitchell@ theadvocate.com.

to contribute $250,000 per year forthe next three years.

But without those state dollars, “thatpowerful partnership that wascreated as an incentive forlocal municipalitiestoget involved in theearlycare and education space goes away,” Strickland said. “Itreally puts parents in real precarious situations.” About 1in4households in Jefferson Parish with children under 18 live below the poverty line, according to federal data. If the child care program goes away, manyparents could be forced to leave the workforce, Strickland said.

“The message is simple,”she said. “Weneed additional funding in order to support eligible children to be in quality settings so that parents can get to work.”

Email Elyse Carmosino at ecarmosino@theadvocate.com.

Obituaries

Flynn, Dr.ThomasBrown

Thomas BrownFlynn, MD,FACS, FAANS, FRCS (Thi). Dr.Flynn wasbornin Halls, TN on 9/15/1936, at theBaird Memorial Hospi‐tal, Dyersburg, TN,the son of Thomas Theodore Flynn, Jr.and HelenBradford Brown, who predeceased him. He wasrelated by birthtothe Bradford Brownand Spence fami‐lies,all of West Tennessee. Hisfather, an author of some note,divided his time between NewMexico andTennessee, resultingin Dr.Flynn’searly years beingdivided between Northern NewMexicoand West Tennessee, until he beganhighschool,and permanentresidency in NewMexico. Schoolingand professional development was, from theoutset, di‐rected toward thesolegoal of becoming aphysician, beingthe descendant of threegenerations of physi‐cians. He and hisloving wife of thirty-six years, LindaBryantFlynn, have made theirhomefor the past thirty-five yearsinSt. Francisville,LA. They have twochildren, thru previous marriages, Mary Daniel Godke(John) andJason Robert Lanoha (Kalli). Six grandchildren, Emery Godke(Lydia),Ashleigh Godke, Andrew Godke, Riggs Lanoha,Blakely Lanoha andPresley Lanoha.Dr. Flynn’sthree survivingchildren, by his firstmarriage, Sean MichaelFlynn, HeidiFlynn Barnett(Arden),and Rhys Bradford Flynn(Stephanie) areresidents of theBaton Rougeand Jackson, MS areas. He is survived by theirchildren, Alayna Cherie Flynn, Lauren Allen, Hayden B. Allen, andCar‐alie AbigailFlynn. Follow‐inggraduationfromHigh‐land High School in New Mexico,Dr. Flynnattended theUniversityofthe South at Sewanee, TN,graduat‐ingwitha BS degree. Ma‐triculationatTulaneMed‐ical School,where he re‐ceived hisMDdegreein 1962.Further education wasfocused on training in neurosciences, as aNeuro‐logicalSurgeon.Thus,a fellowship in theOchsnerTulane neurosurgicalpro‐gram,duringwhich he was appointedtochief of Neu‐rosurgeryatCharity Hospi‐talinNew Orleans,and achieved boardcertifica‐tion in Neurological Surgerywithadmittance as afellowofthe American CollegeofSurgeons. Dr Flynnholds an honorary degree of Doctor of Medi‐cine in Neurosurgery at the Kohn Kaen University of Thailand andisanhon‐orarymemberofthe Royal CollegeofSurgeonsof Thailand andThe Neuro‐surgical Associationof Thailand.Dr. Flynn founded TheNeuroMedicalCenter in BatonRouge,LA, amul‐tidisciplinary Neuroscience grouppracticeencompass‐ingall majoraspects of neurosciencesand related specialties. Professional affiliationshaveincluded membership in theCon‐gressofNeurologicalSur‐geons, American Collegeof Surgeons Southern Neuro‐surgical Society, TheHous‐tonNeurological Society, membership in the LouisianaNeurosurgical Society, where he served as presidentin1977. He

hasbeen AssociateProfes‐sorofNeurologicalSurgery at theLouisiana StateUni‐versityMedical School and Clinical AssistantProfes‐sorinthe Department of neurosurgery,TulaneUni‐versitymedical school.Dr. Flynnwas aConsultantin Neurological Surgeryatthe former Earl K. Long Memo‐rial Hospital in Baton Rouge. He served as Chief of Surgical Services at BatonRouge GeneralHos‐pitaland ChiefofNeuro‐surgical Services at the BatonRouge GeneralHos‐pital. He wasChief of the MedicalStaff, BatonRouge GeneralHospital. He was electeda member of the American Societyfor Stereotactic andFunc‐tional Neurosurgery.Mem‐bership in American Acad‐emyofMedical Directors wasinstrumentalinaiding himinthe developmentof TheNeuroMedicalCenter. Beginningin1983, Dr.Flynn regularlyled ateamofvol‐unteerstoThailand, Viet‐nam, andCambodiainfur‐therance of theChristian idealofgiving. This effort wasundertaken, with the supportofhis surgical team andresultedinmany lastingrelationships with professionalsinthese countries. Dr.Flynn served formanyyears on the Boardofthe Louisiana MedicalMutualCompany (LAMMICO). As adecadeslong member of TheRotary International, he wasthe recipientoftheir "Service AboveSelfAward". He was therecipient of the"Hu‐manitarian Award" of the American Associationof Neurological Surgeons AndservedontheirTask forceonNeurosurgical Practice Assessment and QualityAssurance. Dr Flynnservedonthe boards BoyScoutsofAmerica West FelicianaHospital, Franciscan Missionariesof OurLadyUniversity (FranU)and Councilof Aging. Hishobbies in‐cluded hunting, black‐smithing,playing the piano, traveling, fishing andwriting.The family wouldliketothank Dr.Tim Lindsey, Dr John Godke, Dawn Hanna PA., Dr.Jef‐frey Hyde,Dr. Mitch Hebert,Dr. Venkat Banda andHospice of Baton Rouge(JulieSuggs)for theircaringand supportof Dr.Flynn andhis family. Visitation will be at Grace EpiscopalChurch in St Francisville on Friday,Nov 7, 2025 from 830amuntil serviceofChristian Burial with Eucharistofferedat 11am conductedby The Rev. CanonDr. Stephen Holmgren Burial will be in GraceEpiscopal Church Cemetery,St. Francisville In lieu of flowers, memorial donationsmay be made to FranU, HospiceofBaton RougeorBoy Scouts of America. Sharesympa‐thies, condolences, and memories at www.CharetF uneralHome.com

Laurent,Mary Celeste Miller 'Pucky'

Mary "Pucky" Celeste Miller Laurent, aloving wife,mother, grandmother,sister and friend, passedawaypeacefullyat her home surrounded by family and friends on Tuesday, November4,2025, at the ageof85. Shewas a resident and nativeof Plaquemine, LA. Visitation willbeheldatSt. John the EvangelistCatholic Church, Plaquemine onFriday, November 7,2025, from 9am until Mass of ChristianBurialat11am, celebrated by FatherJason Palermo.Interment willfollow at Grace Memorial Park, Plaquemine. Puckyis survived by her children, KennethLaurent and wife Janiece, and Beryl L. Raffray and husband Brian; granddaughter, the love of her life,Courtney B. Maxwelland husband Cody,who she loveddearly;siblings, Shirley M. Kirkland, OwenMiller, Jr. and wifeCatherine,and John Miller and special friend Gillie Courtard; numerous nieces and nephews; and the Friday night KC card crewthat werefamily. Preceded indeath by her husbandCyril "BabyJack" Laurent, Jr.; son, Michael Anthony Laurent; parents, OwenMiller, Sr.and Selma Seymour Miller;brother, Lawrence "Manny" Miller, Sr.; and nephews, Charles "BabyCharles" Kirkland, Jr and Cody Navarre Pucky was amemberof the KC Council 970,Ladies AltarSociety, and an Adoration Adorer.Inlieu of flowersthe family ask do-

nations to be madetothe IbervilleParish Animal Shelter and St. JudeChildren's Hospital. Pallbearerswillbeher nephews, Daryl and Bret Besson, Stephen Miller and Buddy Navarre, her dear friends Ralph Comeaux and Archie Callais. Honorary pallbearerswillbeLloyd Bouchereau, Gary Pruitt,Brandon Bouchereau, Mervin "Butch" Gourgues, Michael Middleton, Cody Maxwell, and KC Council 970. Special thankstoBridgeway Hospice and Staff,Dr. Rebecca Treuil, and "Pucky's Angels"RitaGuercio,Dodie Falcon, Lisa Hebert, Allison Gilbert and Paula LeBlanc for theirlove, careand devotion. Please sharesympathies, condolences, and memories online at www.wilbertservices.com.

Mahaffey, Mary Angiolina Saverina Falzon 'Marie'

Mary (Marie)Angiolina Saverina Falzon Mahaffey October2,1924-November 3, 2025. "Trust in theLord with allyourheart,and lean notonyourown un‐derstanding. In allyour ways acknowledgeHim andHewilldirectyour paths."Proverbs3:5-6 (Marie's favorite Bible verse) Marie, at theage of 101, enteredintothe arms of herlovingfatherand her eternalhomeonMonday, November 3, 2025. Shewas born on theislandofMalta on the2nd of October1924, to herparents,JeanBap‐tisteand Rosina Falzon Herfatherservedasan evangelist.Her life was spentaround themission field. Shefellinlovewith an American soldierand minister during WW2.He broughther to Americato starta newlife, leavingher countryand familybehind. Shewas retiredfromEast LouisianaState Hospital, where sheworkedinthe admissionoffice.She hada passionfor cookingmany deliciousmeals,especially Italianand Mediterranean, that herfamilyand friends thoroughly enjoyed. When shewas notcooking, she always spenttimewiththe Lord readingher Bibleand devotionals, as well as neverforgettingtoprayfor allofher family, friends, andthe needy. Shealso lovedcompleting herword find books, like achamp! Throughher exampleof Christ,she left alegacyof love.Her time with family andfriends wasveryspe‐cial to her. Sheloved each of them dearly.The most importantmessage she wanted everyone to know wastolet Godguide you everyday!She is survived by her five children,Eric Mahaffey (Sherry)ofMon‐roe, Louisiana, LillianGer‐aldofFrenchSettlement, Louisiana, Margaret Owens (Keith)ofJackson, Louisiana, CarolynGuillory (Mike) of Jackson, Louisiana, Simeon Mahaf‐fey(Melissa)ofPanama City,Florida,16grandchil‐dren,37great-grandchil‐dren,8 great-greatgrand‐children,and 1great-great on theway,due in Decem‐ber. Sheisalsosurvivedby averyspecial niece, Ann Estey, as well as numerous otherspecial nieces, nephews, cousins, andin‐cludingher familyover‐seas.Marie is preceded in deathbyher husband, Simeon WoodrowMahaf‐fey, herparents,Rosina andJeanBaptisteFalzon, herbrothers, Jacquesand Samuel Falzon,her sisters, LydiaCarbonaro,Adele Bocca,DoryLaBelle,her son-in-law,TroyGerald, her great-grandson,Simeon Jonathan Cain,her nephews-in-law,GaryFer‐raro andRickEstey,and hergreat nephew, Manny Schmidt. We wouldliketo acknowledgea special thanks to allthose who helped in Marie'scare, to DianeYork, andtothe staff at St.Joseph'sHospice Family andfriends arein‐vitedtoattend Marie'sCel‐ebration of Life on Satur‐day, November 15th, at CharletFuneral Home in Zachary, Louisiana, with visitation beginningat 10:00, followed by thefu‐neralservice at 12:00. In‐terment will be at Eastern Star Cemetery in Wilson, Louisiana. In Lieu of flow‐erspleasesenddonations to St.Jude'sChildren's Hospital.Share sympa‐thies, condolences, and

memories at www.Charlet FuneralHome.com

Medlen,Charles E. 'Bill' 'Soupbone'

CharlesE.Medlen, knownas“Bill”or“Soup‐bone”tomany, passed away on Saturday,October 18, 2025, at West Towne As‐sisted Living Facility in Port Allenatage 87. He wasa native andlifelongresident of Plaquemine.Billwas an Army veteranand aretired plantoperator. At hisre‐quest, he wascremated. A CelebrationofLifewillbe held on Saturday,Novem‐ber8,atBayou Plaquemine BaptistChurch,29215 High‐way75, Plaquemine, Louisiana. Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m. Theser‐vice,conducted by Pastor WallaceKraemer,will beginat11a.m.Billissur‐vivedbyhis wife of 58 years, Judy Broussard Medlen;their twochildren, Brandi Medlen Carrolland Hunter CharlesMedlen; onepreciousgrandchild, Olivia C. Hanesand hus‐band Graham;two siblings, James“Pot” Medlen and wife Farrell, andMelba “Sweet”Diamond andhus‐band Henry; anda very de‐votedfriend, George “Boy” Ramirez. Bill waspreceded in deathbyhis parents, James“Henry” andEsther “Dootsie” Landry Medlen; siblings,Earl“Hosey” Medlen andJoyce Medlen Bill wasanavidhunter and fisherman, andhewas a member of Bull Tail and TenShothuntingclubs Memorial donationsmay be made to St.JudeChil‐dren’s Research Hospital, 501 St.JudePlace,Mem‐phis TN 38105 or acharity of your choice.The family wouldliketothank the staffs at West Towne As‐sisted Living andComfort Care Hospicefor thecare that he wasgiven by both SpecialthankstoChristie St.Romain, Leslie Boudreaux, JamieDenoux, andJohnBarbeefor their care,concern,and com‐passion. Please share memories at www.wilbert services.com

RhondaLynette Robinson passed away on Wednesday,October 8, 2025, at theage of 66. She was aresident of Baton Rouge, LA.Rhondaissurvivedbyher siblings, Roosevelt Robinson, Jr. (Kathy), RaefordRobinson, Rutha Lynn Cox (Brian), Ramona Robinson, and Reginald Robinson (Martha); and ahost of otherlovingfamily mem-

bers andfriends. Sheis preceded in death by her parents, Roosevelt, Sr.and Ruby Robinson; brother, RonaldRobinson; and nieces, Jasmine Fleming and Jillian Robinson.Visitationwill be at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge,LA, on Saturday, November 8, 2025, from 9am untilthe time of memorial services at 10:30am. Inurnment will immediatelyfollow at Greenoaks Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donationsmay be made in Rhonda's name to Mu Zeta Foundation,Inc.via Zelle at muzetafoundationinc200 4@gmail.com or mailinga checkto2021 HardingBlvd Baton Rouge,LA70807. Familyand friends are invited to sign theonline guestbook at www.greeno aksfunerals.com

Jesse R. Taylor entered into eternalrestatBaton RougeGeneral Medical Center-BluebonnetonSat‐urday, November 1, 2025 followinga briefillness. He wasa 90-year oldretired AssistantPrincipal at LouisianaTrainingInstitute (LTI), U.S. Army veteran, member of OmegaPsi Phi Fraternity,and at Greater BeachGrove Missionary BaptistChurch,heserved as adeacon, wasanavid SundaySchool attendee, Chairman of theTrustee Board, anda member of theFinance Ministry to name afew.Viewing at GreaterBeach GroveM.B.C on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 beginningat9:00am; OmegaMemorialService at 10:00 am;Celebration of Life Serviceat11:00 am conductedbyPastorKeno Spurlock;interment at Southern Memorial Gar‐dens.Survivors includehis devoteddaughters,Mar‐jorie T. Putman (Jessie) CynthiaT.Pearson (Carl) andMonaT.Welsh;daugh‐ter-in-law,KaylynTaylor; 11 grandchildren; 10 greatgrandchildren; onegreatgreat-grandchild;nieces, nephews, otherrelatives

andfriends;precededin deathbyhis wife,wife, Olevia Taylor;son,Cerel Taylor;parents,Hesterand AllenTaylor; andfoursib‐lings. Arrangements en‐trustedtoMiller &Daugh‐terMortuary

Calvin Lawrence Thierry passedawaypeacefullyon Tuesday, October28th ,2025 at hishomesur‐rounded by hisfamily. He was91years old. Born on February 2, 1934, in Plai‐sance, Louisiana. Calvin wasone of eightchildren born to Felix andLillian Malveaux Thierry.He bravelyservedhis country in theUSArmyin1953 and washonorably discharged in 1955. Calvin wasa car‐penter by tradeand built thousandsofresidences across Louisiana. As acon‐tractor, he employed and mentored/hundredsacross acareer that spannedover 40 years. He maintained re‐lationshipsand friendships with everyclient, business associateand vendor even beyond hisretirement. His reputation of honesty, in‐tegrity, qualityofworkand customer serviceled to his incredible successinthe construction industry Calvin wasa generous givertomanycharities specificallythose that fo‐cusedonthe needsofchil‐dren.Hewas adevout catholic anda member of Immaculate Conception Church in BatonRouge, Louisiana. He possesseda servant’sheart.Calvin’s greatest joywas hisfamily. He lovedentertaininghis children,grandchildren andgreat grandchildren with storiesabout hislife includinghis prowessasa greatbasketballplayer; his

Taylor,Jesse R.

Bean, Maurice James

Maurice James Bean, entered into eternal rest with the Lord on October 25, 2025, at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Visitation will be held at Calvary Third Baptist Church, 1911 Georgia St. Baton Rouge, LA 70802, on Saturday, November 8, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. until Funeral Service at 12:00 p.m.

Robinson, Rhonda Lynette

See more DEATHS, page

For those who might havemissed it,the world hasquietly reached aremarkable milestone In the first six months of theyear,renewable energy,including as windand solar, surpassed coal for the first time in history as asource of electricity generation globally,the energy think tank Ember said last month.

Some have called it atipping point, but there are headwinds brewing. While developingcountriesand China are increasing their push toward renewables, the United States and the European Union are pulling back, due to avariety of factors —but the overarching reason is the lesseningofpolitical will.

How do these global trends impact us in Louisiana? We have noted in the past that as the state embraced astrategy to diversifyits energy industry,renewable energyhas gained a foothold in cities and towns around our state

That includes companies like Arizona-based First Solar,whose 2.4 million-square-foot solar panelmanufacturing facilityinNew Iberia employs hundreds of workers, andFlorida-based NextEra Energy Resources, whose Amite Solar Energy Center began operations in June.

Five years ago, there were no utility-scale solar developments in Louisiana. Today, there are around adozen and growing

On the wind power front, Gulf Wind Technology haspartnered with Shell to create aresearch andtechnologyhub at theAvondale Global Gateway.Two companies, Virginia-basedAES Corporation and Toronto-based Cordelio Power, have leased land in St. Landry Parish to develop wind farms. These enterprises representnew jobs and opportunities for Louisianaresidents. They position our state to take alead in the economy of thefuture. That’swhy it’s concerningtohear that hundreds of millions in federaldollars aimed at supporting these projectsare in jeopardy The University of LouisianaatLafayette recently learned that the DepartmentofEnergy maycut agrant to fund itsLouisiana Solar Corpsinitiative to train workers to build solar microgrids that could help thestatebecome more resilientafter storms. TheCenterfor Energy Studies at LSU could lose$8million for aproject with Shell and the University of Houston to study the feasibility of a direct air capture project in southwest Louisiana.

Theprojects are on alist of potentialcutscirculating in Washington. We don’tknowifthey will come to fruition, but theTrump administration has voiced skepticism of the feasibility of clean energy

We acknowledge there are growingquestions about carbon capture that must beaddressed, but it’sclear that other nations are racing forward with wind and solar

The Trump administration has scaledback investmentinrenewables at just thepoint when it’s becoming evident they are more thanviable. If the United States doesn’t investinthese energy options, it willbeleft behind And tragically,Louisiana, whose economy is not often on the leading edge, standstolose what it has gained thus far

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

President Donald Trump famously said in his 2016 presidential campaign thathecould stand in the middle of FifthAvenue in New York City and shoot somebody and wouldn’tloseany votes. Between attempted insurrections, felony convictions, sexual assault cases and corruption, it now doesn’t seem so far-fetched that even shooting someoneinthe middle of abusy New York Citystreet would affect his support very much In fact, his supporters seemingly embraced his crimes, with some proclaiming “I’m voting for the felon” during his 2020 campaign. “Teflon” Don is an apt nickname, as nothing seemstostick to him Yet, if it’strue that absolutely noth-

Reps. Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise have abandoned the responsibility of the office to which they were elected.They may choosenot to negotiate with Democrats over the continuing resolution, but they do not have the right to deprive theUnited States of a representative government There is work to be done, even if the

My first semester studying engineering taught me thefundamental principle of material balance. i.e. OUT = IN +or—accumulation.

It’sclear to me that this so-called government shutdown has only affected half of this equation. Much of the“OUT” has been stopped. Butthe “IN” has kept going

On Tuesday,Sept. 30, Ibegan to glance over the newspaper’sopinion section while enjoying my firstcup of coffee. Here arethe titlesofall four: “Don’tlet government bully networks into submission,” “What government does to others is awarning,” “No apology to Canadians likely from Trump,” and “Teachings of Jesus areclear,so areTrump’sactions.”

All arebashing President Donald Trump and his administration. Iasked myself, “Why do Isubject myself to this one-sidedness every morning?” I mustbeaglutton for punishment.You

ing sticks to Trump, then it really begs thequestion: Just what is House Speaker Mike Johnson so afraid of? More specifically,why is he so intent on preventing therelease of the Epstein files? He seemshell-bent on doing whatever he can to obstruct and prevent thetruthfrom coming out. At best,the release of these files will absolve Trumpofany wrongdoing. At worst, well, how bad can it possibly be? He’s“Teflon” Don,after all. Based on Johnson’sbehavior,itmust be quitebad. AndwhileTrump’ssupporters may overlook thehypothetical murder on Fifth Avenue, Johnson must believe that whatever is in those files is far worse.

JONATHAN VARNADO Madisonville

government is shut down.The members of Congress arenot subject to layoffs, and their support staffare not subject tolayoffs. There is oversight to be performed, long-term financial legislation to be debated, andmuch morework to be done. Let’sget to it!

WALTER LEVY

Metairie

strong without abreak

Oh yes, theIRS has not shut down. Payroll deductions andquarterly estimated tax collectionsnever stopped. Neither has thehidden federal sales tax called tariffs. Next time, shut down the IRS, too.

KEN MUSICK Baton Rouge

areguaranteed publication if you send in letters of this nature. If you want to enjoy your firstcup of coffee, Isuggest you pick and choose the articles you read carefully.Otherthan that, have a good day Imight bet my house that this doesn’t get published. Ifeel betterafter writing it though, and there’salways achance, like one in amillion.

CYNTHIA LITZ Baton Rouge

Editor’snote: Thanks for youroffer,but you can keep your house. We publish all letters that meet ourcriteria.

Most Americans are descendants of courageous immigrants who hadthe couragetoleavetheir homes andcome to awilderness to start over.Theywere attracted by thefreedoms andopportunitiesguaranteed by ourremarkable Constitution.Theycame legally witha sponsor whovouched forthem Over thelast two decades, federal politicians have intentionally ignored laws requiring closed borders. This hasflooded ourcountry withmillions of immigrants here illegally,including criminals andthe mentally ill, increasing violence againstour citizens. Dangerousdrugs have been smuggled, killing over 100,000 peopleannually Polls show that over 70% of Americanswantour borders closed andillegals removed. Presently, we are sending illegal immigrants back to their country of origin. Shouldn’twemake someeffort to find those who would make good citizens? If an illegal immigranthas been here forthree years, has no criminal record, is notonwelfare, is employed and paying taxes, shouldn’tsome discretion be appropriate? If forseven years they continued to followthe law, learn Englishand pass an exam that proves they understand ourConstitution,why notgive them apath to citizenship? It would takesome time andeffort, but it should be good forour country Sinceour birth rate is low, it would help keep ourpopulation growing. History hasshownthatnew immigrant citizens are usually morepatrioticand passionate about U.S. freedoms and opportunities than many multi-generational Americans.

Let’sstop blindly rejecting allillegal immigrants andstart using somediscretion

SIDNEYPULITZER NewOrleans

Avery short letter and simple request to Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy,Reps. Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins and others: Please let the people of Louisiana know if and how you were impacted by the No Kings march. Didyou hear us? Didyou hear the country? Did you hear the message, or did you reinterpret it? Athoughtful answer is much appreciated.

ANNE ASPRODITES NewOrleans

Cheney wasagreat American

In real life, despite the media’s portrayal, Dick Cheney was no Darth Vader Cheney,the former vicepresident, White House chief of staff,Defense Secretary,and House Minority Whip whodied Monday at age 84, was not only one of the greatest American statesmen since World WarII, but alsoa good and decent man.

about Libby not as apawn but as aperson. Of local interest, Cheney through the years workedwithLouisiana’slongtime congressman BobLivingston both on thecommittee that cleaned up the ABSCAM bribery messinthe late 1970s andonthe Intelligence Committee.

“Hewas honestand straightforward, andverythoughtful,” Livingston said upon hearing news of Cheney’sdeath.

Let’sstart with Cheney’s decency.In my years in Washington, D.C., journalism, Iheard repeatedly fromthose who workedbothfor and with Cheney that he was likable and reasonable, and that he cared deeply about his staff andtreated them well.

Igot two glimpses of the somewhat more private Cheney at small, invitation-onlyjournalist lunches at the vice president’smansion in January 2008 and 2009,the first off the record but the secondlargelyonthe record.

Apart from the substance of those discussions (available if youGoogle my name and Cheney’satthe Washington Examiner), what struckmeabout Cheney’sstyle was the light and easy relationship he had with daughter Liz whowas at both lunches, years before launching her own political career andthe respect with whichhetreated his chiefofstaff David Addington.

Yes, Cheney was direct and businesslike, but frequently with awry,attractive half-smile.

His demeanor changed, though, when asked about his former chief ofstaff Scooter Libby,who later was found to have been wrongfullyconvictedof perjury in afamousspy-relatedcase.

Cheney showed afierce andadmirable loyalty to his former staffer.Hemade absolutely clear not justthatLibby was “hisman” but that he believedentirely in Libby’sinnocence. He clearly cared

NEW LOOK NEEDED!

Thosetiesplayed an important role years later when Livingston was running alobbying group. After the destructionofdictator Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, theLibyan government approached Livingston to represent it in matters before Congress. As Libya hadlong been apariah, Livingston was wary,sohecalled Vice President Cheney.

Cheney’steam strongly encouraged Livingstontotake the work, for very good national-securityreasons.What resulted, as part of thewhole interaction, was that Libyaturned over huge stores of weaponry, dismantled itssurprisingly advanced and dangerous nuclear program, and finally paid generously to compensate families of victims of the 1988 PanAm103 terrorist bombing. And therewas more.

When Libyandictator Moammar Gadhafieliminated his own nuclear program, he also provided extensive documentationand intelligence about the entire,international, clandestine nuclearproliferation regime of Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan. The Bush administration dismantled Khan’snetwork, and Khan wasput underhouse arrest by thePakistanigovernment led by President PervezMusharraf, whom Cheney personally enlisted to crack down on al-Qaida Thereisnotelling how many tens of thousandsoflives might have been destroyedifKhan’sblack marketinnukes hadnot been stopped. Thatwas par for the course for

Thanksgiving is coming up soon, andeveryone’s getting excited forthe big feast. But it appears this bird’strying for awhole newlook to avoid the cook! So,what’sgoingoninthis cartoon? youtellme. Be witty, funny, crazy,absurd or snarky —just tryto keep it clean.There’snolimit on the number of entries. The winning punchline will be lettered into the word balloonand runon Mondayin our print editions andonline.Inaddition, the winnerwill receive asigned print of the cartoon along with acool winner’s T-shirt! Some honorable mentions will alsobelisted Emailentries to cartooncontest@ theadvocate.com.All entries mustinclude your name,homeaddress and phone number.Cell numbers are best.Thedeadline for all entries is midnight on Thursday. Good luck! —Walt

When Martha Ellen Truman, the new president’smother,was told she could sleep in the White House’sLincoln Bedroom, she, “her Confederate blood rising, said if that was the choiceshe would prefer the floor.” (This from David McCullough’s“Truman.”) The building’sfloors, however,were sagging. Upstairs, afloor caved beneath daughter Margaret’spiano.The president, who at one point was stranded in the rickety elevator Theodore Roosevelt had installed, was told his bathroom was about to collapse. An engineer told Harry Trumanthe State Dining Room’sceiling stayed in place largely“from force of habit.”

Cheney,who spent an entire career defending the American people and American interests. When President Gerald Fordsteadied the nation’sship of state after the nightmareofWatergate, Chief of Staff Cheney was his chief navigator. When President Ronald Reagan was winning the Cold War, Representative Cheney was (as Reagan’sdiaries show) one of his mosttrusted congressional allies on national security. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, DefenseSecretaryCheney performed brilliantly as his reorganized military evicted Saddam’s army and crushed Iraq’ssupposedly eliteRepublican Guard.

Meanwhile, Cheney himself insisted to all who would listen that he was far less adirector of action in G.W.Bush’s presidency than he was Bush’sloyal deputy; but,tothe extent that Cheney was adding heft to the implementation of Bush’sdecisions,which clearly he was,heand the administration deserve far more credit for the bombs that didn’texplode, the terrorism thatnever occurred, the thousands of Americans who weren’tmurdered.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, almostevery American alive would have said it would be crazy to predict thatnomoremajor attacks on ourhomeland would occur in the following seven years. Instead, apart from 10 people killed by two homegrown snipersonthe Washington, D.C. Beltway, agrand total of only threeAmericans werekilled domestically by terrorists during the remainder of the BushCheney administration.

Volumes could be written to refute allegations saying Cheney did things that he didn’tactually do. Much more should be written about all the wiseand effective thingshereally did, to keep this nation safe.

Email QuinHillyer at quin.hillyer@ theadvocate.com

donJr. notes that when Eleanor Rooseveltwantedtoattach aswing to atree for her grandchildren, UlyssesS.Grant III, apresident’s grandson, and director of theNational Capital Parkand Planning Commission, forbade this “lest it damage the bark” of the tree. Eleanor’s husband firedGrant.

decades-long siesta, has empowered presidentstounilaterally tax (see: tariffs) and wage war (hello, Venezuela)as theyplease. Congress is now composed almostentirely of two cohorts: those who do nothing but genuflect to their party’spresident,and thosewho do nothing but caterwaul about him.

As the government shutdownapproaches the longest in history —35days during Donald Trump’sfirst term —one word explains the dynamic and duration of the paralysis: trust. Washington today suffers from aTrust Deficit. Democrats see that Trumpand his budget director,Russell Vought, are ruthlessly reversing previous decisions madebyCongress closing departments, firing federal workers, and impounding billions of dollars already appropriated by the legislature. So, they have good reason to believe that any deal forged with congressional Republicans to reopen the government could be summarily ignored by the White House.

Even Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska admits that Democrats are right to be wary: “Ifyou’re aDemocrat you’re saying, ‘Why am Igoing to try to be helpful, if Mr.Vought and OMB is just going to do abackdoor move and rescind what we’ve been working on?’”she told reporters. “So, yeah, there’salack of trust. Does it makeitharder to come to terms on hard things like agovernment shutdown? Absolutely,itmakes it harder.”

Republicans have offered proposals to reopen the government and simply fund it at current levels, which would cause manyAmericans’ health insurance costs to skyrocket. Democrats have used the only lever of power they possess —the Senate filibuster —tokeep the governmentclosed until Republicans agree to extend expiring subsidies, passed during the COVID-19 pandemic, that help families buy health insurance on the public marketplace.

The 17 million Americans whorely on those policies face, on average, a30% boost in their premiumsnext year.Ifthe subsidies are allowed to end, reports the Washington Post, “millions of people will see their health insurance payments double or even triple in 2026.”

The real problem is not money,however.Budget battles can usually be resolved by finding acompromise figure. But informal negotiating groups that “have tried to brainstorm ways out of the standoff” have so farfailed miserably, reports the Associated Press. “Lawmakers have found themselves running up against the reality that the relationship between the two parties is badly broken.”

“The shutdownisthe mostacute symptom of ageneral lack of goodwill on Capitol Hill, where bipartisan deal-making has increasingly gone out of vogue,” adds Bloomberg.

“Tohave good-faith conversations, you have to have trust. There’sareal challenge of trust,” Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois told the AP “Wecannot trust that they will abide by any deal that’sdone by ahandshake,” Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware said on CNN.

There have been manystandoffs like this in the past. And eventually,ofcourse, somesort of deal is always reached to reopen the government. But now it feels like we are witnessing asignificant shiftinthe way that Washington works.

Trumphas poisoned the climate and culture of the capital. His approach to politics prizes division over unity,anger over accommodation. He sees himself as the president of MAGANation, not the American Nation, and he’swaging aholy war of Us against They/Them,Good versus Evil.

When told that the building’sonly secure place was the new balcony,Truman said in perfect Midwestern idiom, “Doesn’tthat beat all!” He hadbeen excoriated by the great and the good for the architectural crime of building what today is fondly knownasthe Truman Balcony Donald Trump, who oftenmakes even defensible actionsgrating, actedonthe White House with unapologetic unilateralism. Part of his politicalstrength is that apologies are not in his repertoire. He said the new ballroomwould not impact the East Wing. By now, however, the number of his “Oh, nevermind” presidential statements contains two commas. Like alocomotive encountering acobweb, he blew through whateverregulatory rules or norms pertain to White House alterations. ButmanyAmericans think our democracy has become a vetocracy, coagulated by blocking procedures that stop things. Presidential highhandedness in dealingwith such procedures is not new The National Journal’sGeorgeE.Con-

Trump’sballroom has already served the public good. It has triggered some people who need triggering. They have been blasé about his presidential grandiosity when he spends money for purposesCongresshas explicitly refused to authorize(theBig Beautiful Wall),orwhen he insults local police forces by sending troops to pacify U.S. cities, or when he vaporizes perhaps criminal Venezuelans.Now,however,because of theballroom, and the East Wing, the blasé aresuddenly aghast.

During the fierce late-1970s oppositiontoconferring on Panama controlof thecanal there, aU.S. senatorsaid: My state consists of millions of people of diverse political, social, religious, racial, and ethnicbeliefs and backgrounds, but they are united by fervent devotion to a canal that they have not thought about since learningofitinhigh school. Todaythere is asimilar eruption of devotiontothe East Wing, the destructionofwhich is being called a“desecration.” Well. To desecrateistodisrespect a sacredplace. Somethingissacred when it is venerated because it is associated with worship andreligious purposes. Republicsdonot have sacerdotal offices. Fordecades, theconstitutional, political, social(and, lately,aesthetic) damages done by the ever-more-swollen modern presidency have become increasinglyevident.Congress, in its

It is especially amusing to hear progressives, the principal creatorsof the wateryCaesarismoftoday’spresidency,sorrowfully describing Trump’s ballroom as discordant with the White House’spropermodesty. They should worry less about the president’sresidential immodesty and moreabout his anti-constitutional immodesty

Some skeptics about the ballroom are understandably distraught that it might mimic the aesthetic of Trump’sredecoratedOval Office —gold here, there and everywhere.But asubsequent president can cleanse that space. Indeed, sensible citizens will make their votes contingent on apromiseto do that. Nuclear weapons should notbe entrustedtoanyone pleased by Trump’s Gilded Age Brothel school of interior design.

Apresidentialspokesperson says, “In large part,hewas reelected back to this People’sHousebecauseheisgood at building things.” “Reelected back.” Perfect. Good grammar should not taint this episode. The leakage of dignity from public life accelerates. Next July 4, for America’ssemiquincentennial celebration, the White House will hostanUltimate Fighting Championship match. AWorld Wrestling Entertainment “fight” would be better —choreographed fakery for people who want even more of this than American politics provides.

Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.

At Charlie Kirk’smemorial service, Trump said: “I hate my opponent, and Idon’twant the best forthem.” He didn’tsay he disliked or disagreed with his foes —perfectly reasonable attitudes. He said he hated them

That hatred is at the core of Trumpism.He doesn’twant to defeat his opponents; he wants to conquer them. Obliterate them.And Trumpism is the single biggest reason whyrelations between the parties on Capitol Hill are so badly broken.

Democrats are hardly blameless forthat collapse. They didn’tstart this war, but forevery action in politics, there is areaction. The ferocity of Trump’scrusade has triggered an equally virulent backlash. Trumphates his opponents, and now his opponents hate him back.

Icovered Congress during the ‘80s, when Ronald Reagan waspresident and TipO’Neill was the Democratic speaker of the House. They differed sharply on manyissues, and that’sthe way it should be in ahealthy two-party democracy.Voters deserve choices. But even as they disagreed, the twoleaders, and manyoftheir allies, had acertain respect foreach other,anunderstanding that they represented clashing but credible interests and ideologies. On abasic level, they trusted each other to bargain in good faith, to recognize the need forcompromise, to keep their word. That trust is absolutely essential forthe smooth functioning of any legislature, but especially one that tries to govern acountry as vast and diverse as this one. And that trust has virtually disappeared in Trump’sWashington. Email Steven Roberts at stevecokie@gmail. com.

George Will

Steve Roberts

Quin Hillyer

Baton Rouge Weather

2025,atHospice of Acadiana -Calcutta House in Lafayette. ReverendHoward Blessing willofficiatethe services. The family requests that visitation be observed on Saturday, November 8, 2025,atMartin &Castille's Downtown Locationfrom 9:00AMuntil time of services. ARosary willbeprayed at 10:30AM. Survivors include his beloved wifeCelia Marie Thibodeaux; hischildren, George CortneyWhite (Amber),Lesley Anne White(PartnerGary); grandchildren,George Brennan White (Madeline), Riley ClareWhite, and Taylor PaigeWhite; greatgrandson, George Waylon White;nephews,Don Swearingen (Nancy), WilliamL.White III, Darwin Paul White; and great niece and nephews, Cara Swearingen,Kevin Swearingen,RyanSwearingen(Leticia), and GarretS White

He was preceded in death by his parents, Camille Marie Planche White and WilliamLeo White,Sr.;sisters, June "Tugy" Swearingen Holiday and Connie M. White; brother,WilliamLeo White Jr.; and nephews, Carl Swearingen and Mike Swearingen.

ney White. In lieu of flowers,donations can be madein GeorgeHubert White's name to Hospice of Acadiana, 2600 Johnston St Lafayette, LA 70503. His family extendstheir deepest appreciationto Our LadyofLourdes Regional Medical Center, LourdesOncology Center, Dr. Jeff Thibodeaux, and Dr. Brierre and hisstaff for exceptional carefor the past several years and to Hospice of Acadiana -CalcuttaHouse for thecomfort and dignity they providedinGeorge's final days View theobituary and guestbookonline at www.mourning.com

Martin& Castille Funeral Home- DOWNTOWN,330

St.Landry Street, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506, 337-234-2311

vember 7, 2025 from 4-6 pm; viewingresumes at New St.LukeB.C., Solitude, onSaturday, November 8, 2025 at noon untilCelebra‐tionofLifeService at 1:00 pmconducted by Pastor Li‐onelDavis.Survivors in‐clude hischildren, Connie Batiste,Ventress, Louisiana; Jamieand Jason Wilkerson(Shonta), Baker; 11grandchildren;numer‐ous,great-grandchildren; niecesand nephewsMyrtle RomseyMinor,Zachary, Louisiana;AnjoSmith Casanave, Lacombe, Louisiana; Joseph Wilkerson (Dora), BatonRouge, Louisiana;James and Mamie Wilkersonand Fan‐nie Carr,Zachary;a dear friend,BeulahRobertson

Born in Bogalusa on September 22, 1951,to Camille and LeoWhite, George was the youngest of four.Hegraduated from LSU with abachelor's degree in accounting. He spent alongand dedicated career with the Department of Corrections,serving manyyearsasDeputy Assistant Secretary for the DepartmentofCorrections, Juvenile Services.Friends and colleagues willremember George forhis kind heart, quick wit, and quiet strength. He was adevoted son who enjoyedspending time with his motheruntil her passing at the ageof 103. He was afierceadvocate for his family as a son,father,grandfather, great-grandfather, and uncle, and he was adedicated and lovinghusband. George enjoyed spending time with friends and family and being in the great outdoors.Heloved dancingand traveling-especiallybymotorcycle-as well as gardeningand beekeeping. Urn Bearer willbeCort-

BatonRouge;other rela‐tives andfriends travelsabroad, preparing special meals; planning holiday events including his specialChristmas gumbo andsomuchmore. Calvinleavestocherish his memoryhis beautifulwife of65years Patricia Thierry; 5 daughters; Donna Cole‐man (David)(Sugarland, TX);Kathy McCray (Baker, LA);LoriGregory(Zachary, LA);Tonja Thierry (Hous‐ton,TX);ToyaDomineck (Zachary, LA); 2sons: Carl Thierry (Melanie)Zachary LA; Dwayne Thierry (Joy) Jackson,LA; 2brothers: Clifford Thierry (Dorothy) Opelousas,LA; Alvin Thierry (Mary) Houston, TX; 2sisters:Rosalee Pitcher (San Francisco, CA);Leona Smith(Richard) LakeCharles,LA; 18 grand‐children; 14 greatgrand‐children; numerous nieces nephews,cousins andgod children. Calvin waspre‐ceded in deathbyhis par‐entsFelix andLillian Thierry;a belovedson Keith Thierry;a brother Wilbur “Kelly”Thierry;2 sisters;Alberthaand her husband AntonioRachal; Bernice andher husband Henry Smith; andBrotherin-LawAlexPitcher.Ser‐vices will be held at Im‐maculateConception Church, 1565 Curtis St Baton Rouge, LA on Friday, November7th,2025. Visita‐tionwillbefrom9:00am11:00 am with aMassbe‐ginning at 11:00 am.Burial willfollowinGreenoaks MemorialPark, 9595 Florida Blvd., BatonRouge, LA70815.

Wilkerson, Rev. Roosevelt

DEATHS continued from

Rousse’s comments latest twistatLSU

Newpresident muddlesADsituation, potentialstability

After the most tumultuous week for LSU athletics in virtually anyone’sliving memory firing the football coach and the athletic director back-to-back for the first time since 1955 —LSU seemedtobegetting its administrative house in order and the searchfor football coachBrian Kelly’sreplacement intogear LSU hired Wade Rousse from McNeese State as its newsystem president and namedJames Dalton from Alabama as the new system vice president and Baton Rouge campus chancellor

Good moves, as running theLSU system and its flagship campus is a huge job. LSU also decided to make interimathletic director VergeAusberry the full-time successor to Scott Woodward.

In an interview with Piper Hutchinson of the Louisiana Illuminator,Rousse saidofthe Ausberry decision: “I’ll remove the interim (title) andthen we’ll assess the situation. Ican’tmake avery good decision after being on the job for eight hours …” Then, Rousse added: “I don’t know what permanent means versus removing the interim.” Um …what?

I’ve interviewed literally thousands of people, and sometimes you catch them off guardwitha question.Iget that, and frankly, it’s not aposition Iwould like to be in. ButRousse shouldn’thave been caught off guardbyaquestion aboutAusberry’s status. Especially since Friday,LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballardsaid Ausberry has full authority to conduct thecoaching search The plot thickens.Wednesday afternoon in an interview on WWL radio withBobby Hebert and Mike Detillier,Rousse said: “I removed the interim tag (from Ausberry). He’sthe acting AD. He has my full authority to go find us acoach for the best job in

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

As the New Orleans Saints navigated this year’strade deadline, general manager Mickey Loomis said the main discussion inside team headquarters centeredonthe development of their young quarterbacks.

ä Saints at Panthers, NOON SUNDAy,FOX

TheSaints, afterall,recentlyhad turnedtorookie TylerShough after starting second-year signal-callerSpencer Rattler the first eight games. Although the Saints are 1-8, arecord that warrants aselloff forfutureassets, Loomis indicated the franchise had to be conscious of making deals that would “hinder” theirquarterbacks’ growth —or the coaching staff’s chance to fully evaluate them.

“So our assessment at the end was, look, the value of what we’re doing is greater than any risk of hurting our chances to improve and develop,” Loomistold The Times-Picayune.

The Saints completed two trades Tuesday before the deadline. Theysentwide receiverRashid Shaheed to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange forfourth- and fifth-round picks in 2026. AndNew Orleans also received a2027 sixth-round pick from the Los Angeles Chargers for guard Trevor Penning.

In doing so, the Saints lost two starters on the offensebut gained draftcapital that could help in the long term Loomis said the Saints still “absolutely” have enough of asupporting cast to see what they have in Shough, though he noted they’re more focused on Shough’s overall development rather than evaluation. Notably,the Saints did not trade wide receiver Chris Olave, running back Alvin Kamaraorany members of their defense.

BY TOYLOYBROWN III

CanLSU coaching hire

BY WILSON ALEXANDER

Staff writer

As LSU searches for its next football coach, thereisa question loomingoverthe process What kind of contract will the school offer,and if it wants to avoid anotherlarge buyout, will that affect the candidate pool? Last week, Gov.Jeff Landry made it clear he wants adeal structured more on perfor-

ä LSU at Alabama, 6:30 P.M. SATURDAy,ABC

mance-based incentives than guaranteed money.Hecalled the 10-year,$95 millionagreement with former coach BrianKelly “irresponsible” and criticized formerathletic directorScott Woodward for his contracts. Landry is not the only influentialpersonaroundLSU who

wantsthe next coach to have a deal withheavier incentives and alower buyout, but it is unclear whether LSU will do thatwhen it finds Kelly’sreplacement.Multiplepeople with experienceinthe college sports industry doubted theidea, especially if LSU wants an established head coach. “Our job, Iwas told, is to get the best football coach there is anddon’t worry aboutthatat all,” LSU athletic director Verge

Ausberry said Friday.“Whatever it takes to get that person here, we will do.” New LSU president Wade Rousse supportedthe idea of incentive-based contracts at an introductory newsconference Tuesday.Hesaid the deals for himselfand James Dalton, the new executive vicepresident andchancellor of the Baton

“If you go back and look at all these quarterbacks, it just takes time,” Loomis said. “And nobody wants to hear that, right? All we have to do is look around ourleague andsee BakerMayfield, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold. And there’s abunch of examples of guys that, ‘Hey, if they would have stuck with the development plan, where would those franchises be with those players?’

“Very rarely do (quarterbacks) have instant success.”

Loomis’ answer prompted afollow-up question: How does the general manager weigh that patience withthe fact the Saints areontrack to have the first overallpick—a selectiontypically used on quarterbacks?

He said that while it was “way premature” to have that discussion, the Saints will have to evaluate the incoming quarterback classagainst the quarterbacks they already have.

“We’vegot two young quarterback prospects we like alot,” Loomissaid. “Wehaven’t really discussedthe quarterbacks in this class. Andlook,we’ve got to build abetter team around them.”

The draft picks they acquired Tuesday couldhelpthe Saintsbuild abetter team, as long as they hit on their selections something thathasn’t alwaysgonewell for the franchise in recent years.

STAFFPHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU athleticdirector VergeAusberry,left, greets LSUwomen’sbasketball assistant strength and conditioning coachThomas Lene at the LSU women’s basketball game vs. Houston Christian on Tuesday at the Pete Maravich AssemblyCenter

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU forward Jalen Reed gets alayup past TarletonState guard Cam McDowell on Wednesdayatthe Pete Maravich Assembly Center

BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS

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Steelers stay quiet on trade front

Quarterback Rodgers likes Pittsburgh’s receiving weapons

BY WILL GRAVES AP sportswriter

PITTSBURGH Mike Tomlin admitted ahead of the NFL trade deadline that he likes shopping Maybe, but the Pittsburgh Steelers and their longtime coach kept the franchise’s wallet effectively closed as Tuesday’s deadline came and went without the AFC North leaders making any bold moves. No swap for a defensive back to help an injury-riddled secondary No acquisition of a veteran offensive lineman to give a young and improving group another experienced backup. And perhaps most tellingly, no splashy move for a wide receiver with a proven résumé who could take some of the attention off almost pathologically double-covered DK Metcalf.

While the Steelers did sign twotime Super Bowl winner Marquez Valdes-Scantling to the practice squad, reuniting him with former Green Bay teammate Aaron Rodgers, they otherwise stood pat. Rodgers isn’t sure that’s a bad thing.

“(We) feel pretty good about our guys,” he said Wednesday Perhaps that’s because there are so many of them who have found a way to make an impact. Metcalf, a two-time Pro Bowler who signed a lavish new deal after being acquired last spring, is third in the NFL in yards per reception. Calvin Austin, finally healthy caught a season-high five passes in last week’s win over Indianapolis. Roman Wilson is making strides in his second season. Throw in the tight end group of Pat Freiermuth, Jonnu Smith, Connor Heyward and 6-foot-7 Darnell Washington — who is among the most compelling skill position players in the NFL because of his size — and Rodgers doesn’t lack for options.

Rodgers has spread his 17 touchdown passes to nine different players, eight of whom have at least 100 yards receiving halfway through the season No other team in the league checks both of those boxes.

The four-time MVP isn’t kidding when he says he’s going to throw it to the open guy, regardless of who

that might be on a given snap.

“Whoever gets open usually gets the opportunity,” Rodgers said. And considering the outsized attention Metcalf receives weekly, that means plenty of opportunities for everyone else. While Metcalf has been highly productive when the ball comes his way, he’s also on pace for the fewest receptions he’s had in a season since the league went to 17 games in 2021.

Yet Metcalf’s next outburst will be his first. While Metcalf did clap his hands last Sunday when he found himself running free in the middle of the field, only to have Rodgers look elsewhere, there was no outburst. No pouting. He jogged back to the huddle and went about his business on a day he finished with season lows of two catches for 6 yards.

“I’ve been playing with great receivers my whole career,” Metcalf said. “So it’s nothing new to me that, you know, the quarterback is going to throw it to the open guy or throw it another guy I’ve just got to do a better job of getting open and staying open.”

A year after signing a lucrative contract extension and leading the Steelers with a career-high 65 receptions, Freiermuth has taken on a more secondary role. The ar-

rival of Smith and the emergence of Washington have cut into his playing time, yet Freiermuth has taken it in stride.

Rather than go to Rodgers and ask for more targets, he’s instead focused on honing his craft. Against the Colts, that meant turning a bit of guidance from Rodgers into his third touchdown of the season. Pittsburgh had the ball deep in Indianapolis territory late in the second quarter after Payton Wilson intercepted Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith called a play they’d been working on since training camp though Rodgers felt it “didn’t quite look right” in practice recently So Rodgers pulled Freiermuth off to the side and the two worked on Freiermuth being patient in his route and waiting to “sell” a move to the outside before stopping in the middle of the zone. That homework paid off when Freiermuth stopped at the Indianapolis goal line as Rodgers fit the ball into a tight window for a go-ahead score.

“When you see stuff like that in practice, it allows you to have the confidence to go to that guy on those plays in the game,” Rodgers said It was the type of impactful

moment Freiermuth knew would happen eventually It’s one of the reasons he didn’t spend much time lobbying Rodgers for more targets earlier in the season. Freiermuth knows Rodgers is heading to the Hall of Fame for many reasons, and his decision-making is one of them.

Freiermuth knew his time would come. Just as Rodgers did. On Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, it might be someone else.

“When a guy’s not getting the ball and they still show up to work the same way every single day, every week, there’s a lot to be said for that,” Rodgers said.

That hasn’t always been the way in Pittsburgh. George Pickens endured three productive but volatile years, eventually wearing out his welcome before being traded to Dallas in March.

If Pickens had stayed, maybe there wouldn’t be the perception that the Steelers need a bona fide No 2. Then again, maybe the chemistry in the room wouldn’t be quite as good either

“From the moment I got here, everybody’s worked their butts off,” Metcalf said.

“So everybody deserves a shot at the ball.”

Jets focus on big picture after huge trades

BY DENNIS WASZAK JR. AP pro football writer

FLORHAM PARK, N.J Darren Mougey insisted this wasn’t

“a

teardown.” Aaron Glenn reiterated that the New York Jets will be a team that makes the fans proud. But a day after trading two of the biggest stars in Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, it was clear the Jets are in a major rebuild during which patience will need to precede pride.

“It was a pretty intense day,” Glenn acknowledged Wednesday And for many of the players, coaches and fans, a stunning and sad one. Gardner was traded to Indianapolis on Tuesday for a first-round draft pick in 2026 and another in 2027, along with wide receiver Adonai Mitchell.

A few hours later, Williams was dealt to Dallas for a second-round pick in 2026, a first-round selection in 2027 and defensive tackle Mazi Smith. Gardner and Williams were thought to be key parts of the foundation that both Glenn and Mougey are trying to set for the Jets’ future while attempting to return the franchise to respectability

“When an opportunity presents itself for us to be able to build this team, it’s hard to pass it up,” Glenn

said. “Listen, those two guys are great players we all know that. All-Pro players The one constant in this league is change.

“And I’ve said that to all our players, not just today but throughout this season, that this is a fluid game. Players come and go. Coaches come and go. But the one thing I do know is with change, there comes opportunity.”

While both Gardner and Williams are now on teams trying to reach the playoffs, the 1-7 Jets are likely going to miss the postseason for the 15th straight year

And that was clear even before the franchise-altering moves.

“I wouldn’t call it a teardown,” Mougey said Tuesday, a few hours after the trades. When Glenn was hired, he preached patience and the process. That has been a tough sell to the fanbase, though. And now they have to watch their team play out the string of the last nine games without two of their best players, first-round picks who were once symbols of hope.

“Nothing different than I’ve been saying,” Glenn said of what

Cardinals QB Murray heads to injured reserve

TEMPE, Ariz Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is going on injured reserve because of a nagging foot injury that’s caused him to miss the past three games. Coach Jonathan Gannon made the announcement Wednesday, one day after confirming that veteran backup Jacoby Brissett would make his fourth straight start against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Brissett has played well over the past three games — throwing for 860 yards, six touchdowns and one interception — raising the question if Murray would start even if he was healthy The Cardinals (3-5) snapped a five-game losing streak on Monday against the Dallas Cowboys. The 32-year-old Brissett completed 21 of 31 passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns in the victory

Anisimova beats Swiatek, advances in WTA Finals

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Amanda Anisimova reached the last four of the WTA Finals by beating secondranked Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday

The 24-year-old American earned her second consecutive victory over Swiatek since losing to the Polish player 6-0, 6-0 in the Wimbledon final.

Anisimova, ranked No. 4, had also eliminated Swiatek in the U.S Open quarterfinals.

Anisimova got the first break of serve in the contest to take the second set to force a decider She faced only four break points and saved each one. Elena Rybakina, who had already advanced to the semifinals, completed her roundrobin phase with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Texans QB Stroud out vs. Jaguars with concussion

HOUSTON — Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud won’t play Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars after suffering a concussion last week.

Coach DeMeco Ryans said Wednesday that Stroud would not be available this week and Davis Mills will start.

Stroud was injured early in the second quarter of a loss to the Broncos on Sunday He scrambled for 6 yards and was hit on the shoulder near the end of his slide by Kris Abrams-Draine and the back of his head violently bounced off the ground. Abrams-Draine was initially flagged for unnecessary roughness. But the play was reviewed and the call was overturned.

World Series Game 7 most-watched since 1991

NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in 11 innings in Game 7 of the World Series averaged 51 million viewers combined across the United States, Canada and Japan. Major League Baseball said it is the most-watched game since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.

he’d say to frustrated fans. “Listen, I want this to be a team that the fans are proud of, but again, I never said that we’re gonna be proud of them right now At some point, I want this to be a team that the fans are proud of and I still stick with that.”

The big picture view for the Jets is clear: They have two first-round draft picks in 2026, along with two second-rounders, and three first-rounders in 2027. That’s the glimmer of hope in a season that quickly went awry

In theory, Mougey will have the flexibility in the next two drafts to remake the roster and, most importantly, find a quarterback who can be the foundational-type piece New York has been craving for decades. But the Jets will need to hit on most, if not all, of those decisions to make the two stunning moves Tuesday look good.

“The goal is always to win,” Mougey said. “Look, these coaches and players work too hard every day, all day, with the goal of winning on Sunday And that never changes because that’s what the fans deserve. That’s what the players deserve and that’s what the coaches deserve and that never changes.

“I understand the trade deadline and different moving parts, but the goal is to always win on Sunday.”

Saturday’s game averaged 27.33 million on Fox Sports, Fox Deportes and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second most-watched broadcast of last week.

It also was the most-watched Fall Classic game since 2017’s Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros averaged 29.07 million.

Ex-Grizzlies guard Allen arrested on drug charges MEMPHIS,Tenn. — Former Memphis Grizzlies defensive stalwart Tony Allen, a mainstay from the team’s Core Four success era, was arrested on drug charges in Poinsett County Arkansas, on Wednesday Allen, 43, faces two charges of drug possession. A car, driven by William Hatton, 33, of Memphis, was stopped on Interstate 555 about 50 miles northwest of Memphis. A report from the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office said a package of leafy substance, later identified as marijuana, was found on Allen. A search of the car found a cigarette box with a powdery substance, later identified as cocaine, according to the report. Allen played for Memphis from 2011 to 2017. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 2004 after playing at Oklahoma State He finished his career with the New Orleans Pelicans.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF DEAN New york Jets coach Aaron Glenn saw the team trade star cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams on Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MATT FREED

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

The AFC North-leading Steelers didn’t make any bold moves before Tuesday’s trade deadline.

Brees to serve as in-game analyst for FOX

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

New Orleans Saints icon

Drew Brees is back in the broadcasting business.

According to a report from The Athletic, Brees is joining FOX as an in-game analyst and will begin calling games during the Week 11 slate — when the Saints are on their bye week.

Brees will call games with the network through at least the end of next season, according to the report

The future Hall of Famer has served as an in-game color analyst previously with NBC shortly after his retirement, calling Notre Dame games and serving as a studio analyst for NFL contests. He lasted one season in the role, and he roundly was criticized for his performance in the booth during a 2020 playoff game between the Raiders and Bengals.

Still, Brees consistently has maintained his belief that he could be the best analyst if given time to grow into the role “I would love to broadcast NFL games at some point again,” Brees said last year when he was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame. “I think I

could be the best at it.”

Brees is expected to be paired with FOX broadcaster AdamAmin He replaces Mark Sanchez, who is embroiled in controversy after his arrest in Indianapolis last month.

Injury report

Right tackle Taliese Fuaga did not practice with the rest of his teammates Wednesday Fuaga, who exited in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams with an ankle injury, did not make an appearance until late in Wednesday’s practice, when he walked out to observe while wearing a walking boot. With the bye coming the following week, the Saints offensive lineman is not expected to play Sunday at the Carolina Panthers. Veteran tackle Asim Richards is expected to play in his place

The other player who left last week’s game with an ankle injury, tight end Jack Stoll, was in uniform at Wednesday’s practice but was limited.

Running back Alvin Kamara continued to be limited with an ankle injury — something that has cropped up on the injury report for several weeks but has not kept him out of a game.

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With Shaheed and Penning, the Saints dealt players who were on expiring contracts. Loomis indicated that status factored into the team’s decision.

Shaheed told reporters after Sunday’s loss to the Rams that he and the Saints hadn’t discussed extending his contract since the season began. And New Orleans previously had a chance to retain Penning for at least one more season, but it turned down the former first-rounder’s fifth-year option in the offseason.

“It’s always an assessment of what’s the likelihood we can get them resigned based upon the conversations that we’ve had, information that the agent tells us and what the compensatory option might be,” Loomis said.

Loomis said Seattle had been asking about Shaheed “for a while,” adding there were several other teams that reached out about the 27-year-old. Despite reports the Saints were seeking at least a third-round pick for him, they accepted fourth- and fifth-round picks. Asked about the compensation, Loomis pointed to the Jaguars-Raiders trade that took place just about an hour beforehand. Jacksonville sent a fourthand a sixth-round pick to Las Vegas for wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, creating a framework for New Orleans.

“You just have to evaluate what’s the market, what’s happened in the past with receiver,” Loomis said. In August, the Saints sent their own fourth-rounder out, along with a 2027 seventh-round pick, to the Denver Broncos for wide receiver Devaughn Vele But Loomis said that deal did not affect what they sought for Shaheed because of the differences in their contract, with Vele under team control through 2027. He said the Saints did not make the trade for Vele or

wideout

Ja’Lynn Polk from the Patriots in anticipation that they would lose Shaheed by the end of the year

Elsewhere, Loomis declined to discuss whether there were any other deals he felt the Saints were close to executing. ESPN reported that the Indianapolis Colts inquired about cornerback Alontae Taylor, though they instead traded for star Sauce Gardner in a blockbuster deal with the New York Jets.

Teams also checked in on Olave. By keeping him, was that a sign the Saints are optimistic they can reach a long-term extension with the receiver?

Olave said last month that the team approached his camp about a new contract

“He’s under contract for this year and next year already, and then we’ll have rights,” Loomis said, referring to options such as the franchise tag. “So he’s a really good player, and we want to keep our really good players.”

As for Penning, Loomis did not specify whether the trade with the Chargers came together late in the day — it was reported minutes before the deadline. Either way, it meant parting ways with the 2022 first-rounder whom the Saints invested so much in, from a pre-draft trade that gave them the No. 19 overall pick to trying him at three different positions. Loomis was asked what lessons he took from the saga He said he’d save those conclusions for after the season.

“Sometimes you take a player and you have a vision for them and it doesn’t work out,” Loomis said. “And you definitely have to go back and say, ‘OK, what we did miss? Why did we think one thing and it didn’t happen?’

“So we’ve done that. We’ll do that some more. When we get into the draft season and free agency we can reflect back on that with Trevor.”

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate. com

Quarterback Taysom Hill (knee) defensive end Cam Jordan (ankle) and defensive end Jonah Williams (shoulder) were all listed as full participants. On the Panthers’ side, breakout running back Rico Dowdle was one of two players who were held out of

Wednesday’s practice. Dowdle has rushed for 652 yards and three touchdowns in his last five games, during which the Panthers have gone 4-1, but he missed Wednesday’s practice with a quadriceps injury Offensive lineman Chandler Zavala (elbow) was the Pan-

thers’ other nonparticipant, and safety Lathan Ransom (elbow) was limited with an illness.

Roster moves

After trading Rashid Shaheed and Trevor Penning on Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints had two open spots on their 53man

signed running back Audric Estime to the active roster from their practice squad. Taking Estime’s spot on the practice squad is defensive lineman Coziah Izzard who had spent most of the season on New Orleans’ practice squad before his release last week. Estime was a 2024 fifth-

Wilson labels Whit Weeks as ‘doubtful’

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

LSU linebacker Whit Weeks is doubtful to play Saturday night against No 4 Alabama, interim coach Frank Wilson said Wednesday morning. Weeks did not practice Tuesday and continued to wear a walking boot on his lower right leg. He has missed the past two games, a pair of losses in which LSU gave up a combined 80 points. “I think he’s probably more doubtful at this time,” Wilson said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “We’ll see at today’s practice how he looks. We’re hopeful, but I’m not quite sure with Whit.”

LSU FOOTBALL

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Rouge campus, “are going to be based on incentives,” the details of which are unknown.

“I would like to think that we could do that in our athletics contracts,” Rousse said, “but we all know that the market is the market.”

The primary goal appears to be avoiding the situation that LSU found itself in with Kelly, who was the eighthhighest paid coach in the country this season, according to USA Today The Tigers owe him $54 million over six years, although buyout negotiations are ongoing and the total could be offset if he gets another job. Landry called the price tag a “liability.”

“We are not doing that again,” he said.

One member of the LSU Board of Supervisors, vice chairman Lee Mallett, called large buyouts “financially terrible to us” at a September board meeting. Kelly’s buyout would be the secondlargest in college football history if paid in full, and LSU paid former coach Ed Orgeron $17.1 million after firing him in 2021.

Two other board members, James Williams and Remy Starns, argued during the September meeting that large buyouts are dictated by the market. LSU deputy athletic director of leadership and strategy Lori Williams claimed that day LSU is “better than the industry in many respects” because most of its coaches are owed 80% to 90% of their total compensation instead of the full amount if they are fired without cause.

“We can be idealistic all we want, and then we wouldn’t be able to field a competi-

run in a straight line. But he needs to be able to do all the movements required of a football player, including changing directions and accelerating.

“That’s the true test,” Wilson said. “If you walk out today and you just ask him to run, he can do that. We have to put him in situations to gauge his pain tolerance to see if he could. He has a high threshold for pain tolerance, but you just don’t know because it’s not just muscles that are in there.”

Former LSU coach Brian Kelly previously said Weeks has a bone bruise in his ankle. It’s the same ankle that required surgery

tive team,” James Williams said. “I don’t disagree with you on how distasteful a buyout can be under certain circumstances, but if that’s the marketplace — and if it affects our ability to attract and retain top-notch talent — then we can’t be the first out there.”

Mallett responded: “I don’t agree with it We can be the first to break the mold.”

Landry and Mallett have argued for loading the contract with performancebased incentives. Landry said in an interview with WNXX, 104.5-FM last week that he would not have a problem with a contract that equals $100 million over

after Weeks suffered an injury in the Texas Bowl at the end of the 2024 season. Wilson said Weeks can put weight on his ankle and

Wilson also said freshman offensive lineman Carius Curne is “trending in the right direction” after getting hurt in the fourth quarter of LSU’s loss Oct 25 to Texas A&M.

One industry source who has run a football coaching search at another powerconference school pointed out that Elko could end up with a much larger deal now that No. 3 Texas A&M is 8-0 in the country in his second season because the athletic director and other university leaders won’t want to lose him. But the source believed LSU’s ability to hire coaches would be limited by looking for a similar contract.

“I’m not saying the market can’t be reset,” he said. “It just can’t happen overnight and it can’t happen with one school.”

time if the coach reaches certain benchmarks, such as winning an SEC championship or the national title. Standard contracts already include postseason incentives, but his idea would increase the value of them. Texas A&M may have provided a blueprint. After paying a record $76 million buyout when it fired Jimbo Fisher two years ago, it signed Duke coach Mike Elko to a six-year deal that has a base annual salary of $7 million. On top of that, Elko can earn multimillion incentives, including $3.5 million for winning the national championship. By comparison, Kelly would have earned $500,000 for winning the national title at LSU.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU linebacker Whit Weeks stands outside the tunnel after a loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 27 at Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Mickey Loomis, Saints general manager, talks during a news conference at Saints headquarters in Metairie on July 22. On Tuesday, Loomis agreed to two separate trades that sent receiver Rashid Shaheed and offensive lineman Trevor Penning to other teams.

CFP committee will use ‘eye test’ to sort teams

BY EDDIE PELLS AP national writer

The College Football Playoff selection committee came into its meetings armed with a dozen metrics to help it tease out the differences that will decide which teams play for a national championship. When the first set of rankings were revealed Tuesday night, committee chairman Mack Rhoades said the members were just as apt to look at game tape alongside all the statistics.

“I think we refer to it as art and science,” said Rhoades, the athletic director at Baylor

If you’re reading between the lines, the “eye test” — that decades-old splash of subjectiveness that the 12-team playoff was built to subvert will play a meaningful role in setting the bracket.

What’s known after the first reveal: Reigning champion Ohio State is No. 1 but is considered barely better than two other undefeated teams behind the Buckeyes, Indiana and Texas A&M.

There’s no big controversy there, though the Aggies did have an argument Their 41-40 victory at Notre Dame early in the season might be the most impressive in the sport so far this year They also have played a tougher schedule — one of the metrics — than either of the Big Ten teams ahead of them.

Rhoades’ answer to that: Ohio State and Indiana have been better on defense, a conclusion the committee drew from both the stats and their eyes.

“I think the art is watching the team on film and tape and how good they are, how physical they are up front, offensive line, defensive line play, how good are they up the middle, their quarterback play, their skill players,” Rhoades said. “And then certainly contemplating and looking at metrics.” CFP vs. AP

If the playoff was held based on the initial CFP rankings, the matchups would be:

• No. 12 seed Memphis at No. 5 Georgia, winner vs. No. 4 Ala-

RABALAIS

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America.”

Acting AD. Not interim. Or permanent. Rousse was not pressed in the interview as to what he meant by “acting AD.” OK, hold all that in your head, as the plot thickens further

The Advocate has learned that Wednesday morning, Ausberry sent out an email to members of the LSU “athletics community” saying that Rousse and the LSU Board of Supervisors would be announcing his “appointment as permanent athletics director soon.” The signature on the email referred to Ausberry as “athletics director.”

Sources said at some point Wednesday that it appeared LSU wants to get through the coaching search, with Ausberry running said search, then Rousse will make a decision on whether Ausberry will continue as the full-time athletic director beyond that.

One last bit: Rousse also told Hutchinson, “When you’re trying to hire a coach, instability is not healthy.” Indeed it is not For one brief, shining moment it appeared LSU was steering away from instability

Then Wednesday happened. Please bear in mind, dear reader, that as I write this something new may have been added to the mix.

The one silver lining in all of this — if silver linings can be applied is that if you hire the right football coach — a powerful football coach, a highly successful coach — you can get everyone to get in line. A meddling governor, a contradicting president, the chancellor (fortunately no one has heard from him), the board the athletic director (whoever that ends up being). Everyone. Tout le monde No one wants to mess with a successful football coach, especially at a place like LSU.

bama.

• No 11 seed Virginia at No 6

Ole Miss, winner vs. No. 3 Texas

A&M.

• No. 10 seed Notre Dame at No.

7 BYU, winner vs. No. 2 Indiana.

• No. 9 seed Oregon at No. 8

Texas Tech, winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State.

The first three teams out: Texas, Oklahoma, Utah.

If the playoff was held based on the latest AP Top 25 rankings, the matchups would be slightly different:

• No. 12 seed Memphis at No.

5 Georgia, winner vs. No. 4 Alabama.

• No 11 seed Virginia at No 6

Oregon, winner vs. No. 3 Texas

A&M.

• No. 10 seed Notre Dame at No.

7 Ole Miss, winner vs. No. 2 Indi-

ana.

• No. 9 seed Texas Tech at No. 8

BYU, winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State.

The first three teams out: Oklahoma, Texas, Louisville.

A Memphis mystery

Memphis, which would have made the bracket this week, is nowhere to be found in the committee’s first top 25.

Despite that, the Tigers of the American Conference would be the 12th seed this week based on the fact they are the fifth-best projected conference champion.

The automatic byes for conference champions have been eliminated this year, but five champions are still guaranteed spots in the tournament (No. 14 Virginia of the ACC also would displace a top-12 team).

Memphis, which is 8-1 and is ranked 22nd by the AP, vaulted into this spot with a win two weeks ago over South Florida, which has victories over Boise State and Florida and had an inside track on the Group of Five spot

Now, it’s up for grabs. There is no 2024 Boise State out there, and the fifth conference champion

figures to jump ahead of about 15 teams to make the bracket, which will undoubtedly have some impact on how the SEC and Big Ten view automatic bids in discussions on playoff expansion.

Despite all this uncertainty and, yes, downright embarrassment for LSU, there is still time for the school to get its house in order and hire a coach. A topshelf coach, one with the confidence to know he can rise above all the politics and folly and, actually, lead. It’s worth remembering that after the school fired football coach Gus Tinsley and AD Skipper Heard at the same time 70 years ago, it ushered in the Paul Dietzel coaching era. A phoenix can indeed rise from the ashes. Sometimes. Whatever you think of Ausberry as the choice — for the search, for acting athletic director, for the permanent gig — it’s worth considering a few things. Ausberry played football for LSU. He is from New Iberia, so he knows Louisiana He loves LSU, has a competitive fire and passionately wants LSU to succeed in football. He’s been involved in every football coaching search dating back to Nick Saban a quarter-century ago. And, perhaps most importantly, he understands politics. His wife, Cheri, is the daughter and sister of former New Orleans mayors Dutch and Marc Morial, respectively And there’s no way Ausberry could have lasted in the athletic department, including through the school’s sexual harassment scandal that resulted in his 30-day suspension for his part in failing to report and respond to allegations of sexual assault by LSU athletes, if he couldn’t survive politically

“I have the utmost confidence in our athletic director to get the best coach for the best job in America,” Rousse said on WWL. That confidence, and that search, is being tried by the fire of what is unfortunately typical Louisiana-looking dysfunction. Staff writer Wilson Alexander contributed to this report.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

Mulkey says guard Fulwiley an ‘engine’ instead of spark plug

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Coach Kim Mulkey doesn’t like the term “spark plug.” She never has, at least not since it was used to describe her early during her playing career at Louisiana Tech. So the fifth-year LSU women’s basketball coach is reluctant to assign the label to MiLaysia Fulwiley, as she explained Tuesday after the No. 5 Tigers (1-0) began their 2025-26 season. The term certainly suits the 5-foot-10 junior — a transfer guard from South Carolina who plays with speed, aggression and energy — but Mulkey doesn’t think it conveys a sense of her full capabilities.

“OK, I’m a spark plug,” Mulkey said, “but when am I gonna be the engine?

“And so I’m very careful about how I use that with MiLaysia because her skill level and her talent is better than just a spark plug, and it’s our job as she goes into her third year of college to help her become a complete player — not one that does it in spurts or coming off the bench.”

It’s early LSU won’t play its second regular-season game with Fulwiley until 7 p.m. Thursday when Southeastern Louisiana visits the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (SEC Network+).

But Fulwiley is already showing signs of progress.

On Tuesday when LSU defeated Houston Christian 108-55, she came off the bench and played only 21 minutes. Yet she still posted a game-high 21 points and a career-high seven steals, which she paired with four rebounds, two assists and two blocks. She also shot an efficient 8 of 14 from the field and 2 of 5 from beyond the 3-point line.

Fulwiley scored more than 20 points in only seven of the 77 games she played with the Gamecocks. She rarely logged starter’s minutes. Transferring to LSU was supposed to give her more run, responsibility and chances to jolt games the way she did throughout the first two years of her career LSU gave Fulwiley those chances Tuesday, and she took advantage of them. Only Mikaylah Williams, the star junior guard from Bossier City, played more minutes than she did against the Huskies.

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had 16 points, eight assists and five rebounds. The team also earned coach Matt McMahon’s 200th win of his career

When the fourth-year coach was asked about how well the team played together, he credited his players’ unselfishness.

“Great way to start the season,” McMahon said. “As I’ve told you going in, love our team. Lot of fun to coach. For having so many new guys, it’s impressive to see how connected they are here early in the season, but I think you saw the unselfishness on the offensive end of the floor, the efficiency there.”

Tarleton State (0-2) already played its season opener last Monday, losing to SMU 96-76 on the road. Despite Tarleton State having one more game of experience, LSU rolled.

The Tigers made eight of their first 10 shots. Most of the attempts came as a result of point guard Thomas, a UNLV transfer, pushing the pace when the Tigers secured a rebound.

A primary recipient of Thomas’ passes was the 6-foot-6 Mackinnon. LSU’s second basket was a left-corner 3-pointer he drained within the first six seconds of a possession. The Portland transfer shot 40% from beyond the arc last year and showed off his marksmanship early, making two 3s within the first five minutes.

“I thought Max’s start to the game was huge for us,” McMahon said. “Knocking down some of those threes to space the floor. (Thomas) just orchestrates the offense.”

On what would have been Mackinnon’s fourth attempt from beyond the arc, a Tarleton State defender fouled him in his shooting motion. After he made all three free throws, the senior had nine points as the Tigers led 16-8 at the 14:21 mark.

The uptempo style also served Jalen Reed well as he made a reverse layup on a fastbreak off a feed from Thomas with 14:49 remaining in the first half. This

“I think you can feel it,” Williams said, “as soon as the crowd goes wild every single time she steps on the floor, and then I feel that energy. She just is exciting She’s exciting to play with, exciting to be around, and I’m just extremely excited to see what the season holds for us.”

Fulwiley complemented Williams and Flau’jae Johnson. In the first quarter, she took over for Williams on a stalled possession and created her own open look — a step-back 3-pointer from the right wing. In the fourth, she stepped into a catchand-shoot 3 that Johnson set up for her with a quick pass to the perimeter. Mulkey slotted Fulwiley in with the starters at the beginning of the second half, then watched her string together a series of highlight plays.

Williams teed her up for two three-point plays, one of which Fulwiley converted through a half-court set and another one that she scored on a transition chance.

Fulwiley also involved her teammates. She dropped a nolook pass between two defenders on a fast break in the second quarter, giving Williams an easy layup. Then, in the third, she unfurled a long, one-handed outlet pass to point guard Jada Richard, who collected the feed in stride to finish a layup through contact.

“The good thing is (Fulwiley’s) very unselfish,” Mulkey said. That’s only one of the reasons why LSU thinks she’s more than just a spark plug. In the opener, Fulwiley looked like the complete player Mulkey envisions.

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

was his first field goal since Dec. 3, when he tore his right ACL in a game against Florida State.

The redshirt junior finished with 11 points and six rebounds in 18 minutes.

The starting lineup consisted entirely of transfers: Thomas and Mackinnon as the guards, Marquel Sutton and Pablo Tamba as the forwards, and center Mike Nwoko.

Tamba’s place in the lineup was a surprise since he was inserted over two returners at his position: Reed and sophomore Robert Miller

“He earned it,” McMahon said about Tamba’s start. “Hard work. Cares. (An) everyday guy, all about the team, productive, and he’s been a great addition to our program. He’s just all about winning, and so you don’t have to run a lot of plays for him.”

The graduate student transfer from UC Davis played 15 minutes and had four points.

The LSU defense was also impressive, keeping Tarleton State from scoring in the paint A big part of that was Miller, who used

his 7-5 wingspan to dissuade shots at the rim and to get a pair of steals. His defensive effort was rewarded with a right-handed poster dunk after driving from the top of the key, making the score 30-18 with 9:51 left in the first quarter

LSU created numerous open shots because of ball and player movement. It had 13 assists on 16 made field goals in the first half. It also made 16 of 21 at that point while holding its opponent to 10 of 31.

Nwoko scored his first field goal with 18:09 left in the second half, receiving an alley-oop pass from Mackinnon for a layup. About two minutes later, the pair connected again on an alley-oop that Nwoko, a Mississippi State transfer, guided into the hoop.

Tarleton State finished shooting 32%.

LSU’s next game is against UNO at 7 p.m. Monday at the PMAC. The Privateers are coming off a 78-74 victory at TCU

Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK

LSU forward Marquel Sutton dunks the ball against Tarleton State on Wednesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK LSU guard MiLaysia Fulwiley gets a layup against Houston Christian on Tuesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

THE VARSITYZONE

Enrollment numbersmay bring6-4Achanges

BY JACKSONREYES

Staff writer

The LHSAA’s first classification meeting is set for Thursday

While many schools look to stay in their same district becauseof theirenrollment numbers changing little, District 6-4A could see several changes forBaton Rouge area schools.

Here’swhat to know

Madison Prep to 4A

MadisonPrep’sclass was listed at 4A after enrollment numbers put them at 604 students.

The Chargers compete in District 6-3A for football with University High, but they could see achange in the district schedule soon.The move likely willnot affect their playoff outlook,withthe school already competing in the Division II select bracket.

While the change will affect only district opponents and not

who Madison Prep plays in the playoffs, Madison Prep athletic director Jeffery Jones still sees positives in thechange.

“It’ll give us amorecompetitive district forsure,” Jones said. “This would give us achanceto have some meaningfulgames in a district deal.”

Jones pointed to District 6-3A coming down to Madison Prep andU-High the past few seasons.

District 6-4A could offer moreimportant games rather than justthe game played between theChargers andCubs each season.

He was less concerned with the change indistrict and pointed to howthe district title winner doesn’treceive apower point for atitle.

“You don’teven want to play a districtgame ifit’sagainst an opponent that’sgoing to hurt your power rating,” Jones said. “Everything’sabout thepower point now It takes some of the steam away

from districts if you don’thave competitive district teams.” More nondistrictgames?

In itscurrent makeup, District 6-4A features nine schools for football, which makes it one of the largerdistrictsinthe state.

The district’ssize also means teams play only two nondistrict games,making it moredifficult to find open dates with schools not already in their district West Feliciana, Istrouma and Belaire’slatest enrollmentswill move them down to 3A. With the addition of Madison Prep and also potentially Scotlandville, District 6-4A couldbecomeaneight-team district, allowing schools more freedom to find nondistrict games to improve their power rating.

The opportunity is afun onefor Brusly coach Hoff Schooler.He said it could be nice to have an extra chance to get out of the Baton Rouge area for adifferentchal-

Central’sLori Morristries for akill during aplayoff match againstPonchatoula on Wednesday in Central. Central woninstraight sets 25-17, 25-22, 25-17.

lenge.

“It also can help with power points,” Schooler said. “The big thing is, youcan getsomebody that’snot playing someone else on your schedule andcancelling out points.”

He’salso excited about the idea of having Madison Prep in the district

“The more weeks you have to line up and play playoff-type teams,” he said, “the better off you’re goingtobeinthe playoffs.”

St. Michael coach Zach Leger saidthe freedom of having one more week without districtplay could make the scheduling process easier.He’shad several moments thepast four years where he’shad to tellcoaches he’d get back with thembecause of scheduling constraintsinanine-team district.

“It gives everybody another game they cangoout andfind,” Leger said. “We’ve also added some good teams to the district,

whichwillonly strengthenthat Baton Rouge 4A sector.”

Whereschools stand

The size of District 6-4A still could pose problems.

Leger said the difficult aspect aboutthe districtisthatevenif everyone is close to anine- or 10win team,they still will cancel each other out throughout during the season.

“Thatisthe downside of such a bigdistrict,” Leger said. “You’re notonly worriedabout five weeks of cancellation, so to speak, you’re worried about eight or nine.”

Thatissue makes nondistrict games even more important, and if aschool draws abye week that is later in the season, it can be hard to find schools that aren’talready in the thick of district play,Leger said.

Still, he’s excited to seenew schools enter the fold within the district to shake things up.

BY CHARLES SALZER

Contributing writer

All the earmarks of atightly contested volleyball matchwere in place when 16th-seeded Central hosted No. 17 Ponchatoula in the opening round of the Division I playoffs, butthe Wildcats turned in what might have been their best performance of the season.

Sparked by Addison Guy’s14 kills, Central answered every Ponchatoula rallyonits waytoa3-0 win by set scores of 25-17, 25-22 and 25-17 on Wednesdaynight at Central.

Central coach Amy Rawlinssaid her team’slevel of play wasas good as she has seen this year

“This was what I’ve beenwaiting for all season,” Rawlins said. “The team played amazing.They trustedeach other,the offense was clicking —everyone wasworking together.Ifsomeone made amistake,then someone pickedupthe

next ball. Nothinghit theground.”

Thewin movesCentral (20-13) into the regional round where it will face top-seeded Dominican, which had astringoffive consecutive statetitlessnapped in last year’sfinal. The winner of that matchwill advance to next week’s statetournament at UL’s Cajundome in Lafayette. “Wewillfight from the time the matchstarts until thetime it ends, and we’ll see what happens,” Rawlinssaid of her team’snext match.

Ponchatoula(23-17) pushed Central to five setsinanearly October regular-season match, but struggled to keep up with theWildcats’ attack on Wednesday The Green Wave’sbestrun came late in the secondset. With Central leading 19-12, Ponchatoula won eight of the next 10 pointstopull within 21-20.

Olivia Boudreaux and Addison Hebron each had two kills during the run, but Central righted itself

Division III No. 4Haynesdef. No. 29 Port Allen(25-6, 25-4, 25-7) No. 8Lutcher def.No. 25 Livonia(25-10 25-12, 25-8) No. 6E.D.White def. No.27Istrouma (25-1, 25-11) No. 3Parkview Baptist def. No. 30 Collegiate Baton Rouge(25-4, 25-6, 25-1) No. 1St. Michael def.No. 32 Franklinton (258, 25-4, 25-3) No. 15 Acadiana Renaissance Charter def. No. 18 Glen Oaks (25-10, 25-11,25-7) No. 13 MadisonPrepdef. No. 20 De La Salle (18-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-14) No. 5University def.Landry(25-7, 25-6, 25-9) No. 16 Raynedef. No. 17 West Feliciana (2522, 25-12, 25-23) Division IV No. 9Episcopal def.No. 24 Many (25-15, 25-13, 25-16) No. 1Dunhamdef. No. 32 Evangel Christian (25-11, 25-7, 25-4) No. 8Notre Dame def.No. 22 St. James (25-8, 25-7, 25-8) No. 13 Doyle def. No. 20 Springfield (25-13, 25-20, 25-18) Division V No. 5Ascension Catholic def. No. 28 Hanson Memorial (25-8, 25-6, 25-6) No. 13 Central Private def. No. 20 Academy of Sacred Heart GC (25-21, 25-12,25-11) No. 14 Catholic High Pointe Coupee def. No. 19 St. Martin’s (25-11, 23-25,25-19,25-17)

withakill from Guy.Ponchatoula stayed within twopoints, and trailed 24-22 beforea service error accounted for Central’sfinal point in a25-22 setwin. In the third set, Ponchatoula stayed closeand trailed 15-12 before Central took control.Kills fromGuy,Stella Wolfe andLori Morris helped theWildcatsextend to a20-14 advantage.Ponchatoula got no closer than four pointsthe rest of the set, and Central’sAnna Kent closed out the match with an ace. Wolfe finishedwith four kills while Morris hadseven kills,four solo blocks and ablock assist.The Wildcatsgot production from Madison Eastwood(11 kills), Lexie Guercio (17digs) and Kynlee Rheams (32 assists)

Ponchatoula was led by Morgan Adams with nine kills, eight digs and eight assists. Boudreaux finished withfive kills and sevendigs while Hebron had eight kills.

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

The St.Amant volleyball team likes to call themselvesthe “comeback queens.”

The Gatorsnever trailed in their DivisionI bidistrict playoffmatch against Parkway, but 13th-seeded St. Amant still hadtostaveoff two late comeback attempts in thefirst andthird sets to close out the 3-0 win. “Wewanttohavethatunnecessary addedpressuresometimes,”

Gators coach Lucie Hunt said “SometimesI thinkwetry to force some things. But they come together as ateam, andtheyloveeach other,and they push each other.”

St. Amant (28-13) defeated No 20 Parkway3-0 on Wednesday evening at St. Amant. The Gators won 25-16, 25-15, 25-21. Hunt saidthe team getting a homeplayoffgame washuge for the team. She said therewere aspects her team could improve upon, but was happy to getthe playoff win.

“Need to split up ouroffense just alittlebit,working on running some quicker sets,” Hunt said. “But overall, Ithought we did well. Today wasgood.”

GatorsjuniorCalli Hargrave paced theteam with15kills and alsohad two blocks. Senior Jada Bakerhad six kills. Junior Ally Frazier tallied four aces and threekills.

“My performance wasgood today,”Hargravesaid. “I really came to where Ineeded to be.”

In the first set, the Gators jumped out to a7-1 lead. The Gators used amix of players to

push their lead to 22-9 late in the set. The Panthers of Shreveport slowly chippedaway at the deficit with a7-1 runtomakethe score 23-16.

After aGatorstimeout, St Amantclosedout theset with killsbyJosie Leon andHargrave. The two sidestradedpoints to begin the second set. After amissed serve by St. Amant, Parkway trailed 10-7. The Gators responded with threestraight blocks by seniors Khayren Joseyand Ryleigh Blanchard. Junior Amari Rock added an ace to makeitfour straight points. Parkway (20-8) drew within three points later in the set, down 16-13. APanthers’ serve then went out, whichsparkeda 9-2run forSt. Amant to take a2-0 lead. Hargrave managed four kills during the run. St.Amant jumped outtoa4-0 lead in the third set. The Panthers battled back to makeit7-5. TheGators then ripped offfive straight points thanks to twokills by Hargrave and twoaces by Frazier

The Panthers clawed back with five points in arow of their own. The thirdset remained close with Parkway cutting the deficit to 2119 late.

TheGatorswould then go up 24-21 later after an ace by senior Ella Young, and akill and block by Josey.Anet violation gave St. Amant amatch point and the win. St. Amant will face No.4St. Joseph’sAcademy in theregionals at 5:30 p.m.Friday. The two sides met in the Gators’ first match of theseason,but had some girls sick forthat match.

PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS

Pasta saucefrom thestore simplifies recipe

BY LINDAGASSENHEIMER Tribune News Service (TNS)

Youcan

with this tastymeatball dish. Parmesan cheese and panko breadcrumbs give themeatballs arich flavorand texture.

To elevate astore-bought pasta sauce, Iadded atouch of garlic, then paired it with frozen green beans and sweet potatoes for acolorful, well-rounded meal ready in minutes.

HELPFUL HINTS:

n If frozen sweet potato cubes are unavailable use frozen or fresh butternut squash cubes.

n Any type of low sodiumpasta saucecan be used.

1. Addbeef, egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to asmall bowl. Mix all ingredients together and form into 8meatballs.

2. Heat oil in alarge skilletover medium-high heatand add themeatballs. Brown on all sides for 3to4 minutes Remove meatballs to aplate.

3. Add the green beans, sweet potatoes, pasta sauce and garlic to the skillet. Mix to combine all ingredients. Return the meatballs to the skillet.

4. Bring sauce to asimmer,cover with alid and cook 9to10minutes, stirring occasionally.The green beans should be tender,and meatballs cooked through. Ameat thermometer should read 130-135 F.

5. Divide in half and serve on two dinner plates.

NUTRITION INFO PER SERVING: 620 calories (31 percent from fat), 21.7 gfat (7.2 gsaturated, 8.0g monounsaturated), 213 mg cholesterol, 50.2 g protein, 55.4 gcarbohydrates, 10.6 g fiber,800 mg sodium.

This week, Iturned thecalendar to November.Mythoughts on cooking pivoted from everyday meals to holiday feasts.

BeforeIlet Turkey Day stress settle in, Iremembered that a simple one-dish meal can bringpeople around the table for an enjoyable evening. It doesn’ttake much efforttobreak bread together In thecooler air of fall, Ithink we are all morewilling to turn on the oven. Big potsof beans,soups and stews are easy to makeand share withfamily and friends. Ilike how asimple one-dish meal like apot of white beans seasoned withsmoked turkey wings and served with sweet potatobiscuitscan make aMonday night dinner areason to give thanks. Eating with the people in our lives creates time to share stories and laughter My husband, Tim, has told

adinnertime story about his Maw-Maw,Marie Pitre, and how she worked as aschool cook in Lawtell. He has shared avivid memoryofameal where his Maw-Maw madehim hot homemadebread and butter mixed with Steen’ssyrup.

With this family lore in mind, it was extra special when we went to eat at a New Orleansrestaurant, MosquitoSupper Club, and our meal began with sweet potatobiscuits served with Steen’s butter.Wewere all able to taste this sweet, buttery memory, and it did not disappoint!

The taste of chef Melissa Martin’s Steen’s butter at Mosquito Supper Club inspired me to recreate sweet potato biscuits and Steen’sbutter at home. Biscuits are afun addition tomost any meal. Iread several recipes and watched videos madebyhome

BY NICOLE HVIDSTEN

PHOTOSByLIZ FAUL

TNS PHOTO By LINDAGASSENHEIMER

Liz Faul

Sweet Potato Biscuits, Recipe 2D

Whipping up Steen’sCane Syrup Butter

SweetPotato Biscuits

PHOTO By LIZ FAUL

Serves 14. Useful tools: alargecast-iron skillet and around biscuit cutterabout 2inches in diameter

2cups all-purpose flour,plus morefor dusting

1tablespoon baking powder

1teaspoon baking soda

1teaspoon salt

8tablespoons of butter,frozen andcut into small pieces

1largebaked sweet potato, discard thepeel and mash and chill

1⁄3 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the ovento400 F.

2. In alarge bowl, sift together the flour,baking powder,baking soda and salt. Whisk together until combined.

3. Add the cold cut-up butter and cut it into the flour until the mixtureis crumbly.Iuse my hands to flatten each butter piece into the flour to the desired consistency and crumble. Usingyour hands canmake the butter warm, so many recipes suggest adding the dough back to the refrigera-

Steen’sCane

Syrup Butter Recipe is inspired by the delicious version by New Orleans Mosquito Supper Club chef Melissa Martin Servethis butter in a small ramekin to spread on sweet potato biscuits or bread. This recipe can be doubled for acrowd.

8tablespoons (1 stick of unsalted butter), at room temperature

3tablespoons of Steen’scane syrup

1. In the bowl of afood processor,place the room temperature butter and cane syrup, blend together until it forms acaramel-colored butter

2. Spoon the butter into aramekin or small serving bowl. Use aknife to smooth the topflat. Refrigerate the compound butter until it is time to serveitwith the sweet potato biscuits or dinner rolls.

Continued from page1D

chefs to gain confidence. After experimenting with different flours and techniques,Iwas able to bake biscuits that were good and simple enough to share. The best results were made by using all-purpose flour,baking powder,baking soda and cold butter In order to make the sweet

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday,Nov.6, the 310th day of 2025. There are 55 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Nov.6,1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party was elected president of the United States as he defeated John Breckinridge, JohnBell and Stephen Douglas.

Also on this date: In 1947, “Meet the Press,” the longest-running television show in America, made its debut on NBC; the host

tor for afew minutes.

4. Meanwhile, inabowl, mash the sweet potato puree together with thebuttermilk. Iused afood processor to combine the sweet potato and buttermilk into apureed mash.

5. Take the flour mixture out of therefrigerator and make awell in thecenter, add thepureed sweet potato mixture and fold it into the flour.Mix togetheruntil the dough forms.

6. Spread asmall amount of flour on aclean surface, and placethe ball of dough ontop of the flourtoprevent the dough from sticking when youform thebiscuits.Once the dough is on thefloured surface, use your hands to gentlypat outthe dough to asquare shapethat is about half-inch thick, then fold it in half and pat it out. Use flour to prevent your hands from

getting sticky.Pat out the dough again and fold over Do this threetimes, and then pat out the dough to be about three-quartersinch thick.

7. Use around biscuit cuttertocut the biscuits. Arrange the biscuitsclose together,but nottouching, in the cast-ironskillet. You mayneedtobakethe biscuits in two batches depending on the size of theskillet

8. Place thebiscuits in the preheated oven until they are agolden-orange color

This may takeabout 25 minutes. Take them outofthe oven and let cool for at least 5minutes before serving. Note: Sweet potatoes vary in size. If using smaller potatoes, you may need up to 3sweet potatoes to have a cupofpuree. Iliketomake sweet potatoeswith dinner anduse the leftovers forthis biscuit recipe.

White Beans with Smoked Turkey and Greens

Serves6-8. Thisrecipe is inspired by LeahChase’sWhite Bean with Collardsfrom “The Dooky Chase Cookbook.”

1pound bag of white navy beans, soakedand rinsedwith water

1tablespoon olive oil

½pound smoked turkey wings (for seasoning)

1large onion,chopped

2celeryribs, chopped 1green bell pepper, chopped

1tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

2cloves of garlic finely chopped 1bay leaf

6cups of water

1tablespoon of salt(addmore salt depending on taste)

Cracked black peppertotaste

2cups chopped collardgreens (stems removed)

1. In alarge bowl, add the driedbeans andcover with water,thendrain.

2. In alarge Dutch oven or Magnalite pot over medium heat, add the olive oil and the smoked turkey wings. Let the turkey seasoning meat heat in the oil for about 2minutes to add smoky flavor to the pot.

potato puree,simply bake sweetpotatoes in the oven until theyare fork-tender, anduse afood processorto combine the potato with buttermilk. This tasty orange puree workswell to provide color, flavorand moisture to the biscuit dough. Afterafew practicetrials, Iinvited my children’scollege friends over forMonday night beans and biscuits. One of my dinner guests saidthat she would pay $18.50 for one of thebiscuits

TODAYINHISTORY

was theshow’s co-creator, MarthaRountree. In 1977, 39 people, mostly students, werekilled when theKelly Barnes Dam in Georgia burst, sendinga wall of water through Toccoa Falls College. In 1984, PresidentRonald Reagan won reelection bya landslideover formerVice President Walter Mondale. TheDemocratic challenger won just one state, his native Minnesota. In 2012, President Barack Obama won reelection, vanquishing Republican former Massachusetts

Host atea partywithall thekids

Dear Heloise: After reading the suggestionabout gifting achild’stea set to agrandmother with a new granddaughter,Ijust had to say that any grandchild would love tea parties! I started tea parties with my granddaughter,but the boys felt very excluded (which they were at first). Now Idotea parties with all the kids and have finger foods (cut fruits, veggies, tinycookies and tea sandwiches). Manners are exaggerated. For example: “Sister, would you care for tea?” There are lots of “please’s” and “thank you’s.” They taketurns pouring and serving. We use water in theteapot, and Ihave a special tea quilt that soaks up spills so that there’s never any worries about accidents. Ilove your hints! —Gladys, via email Giving flower bulbs

3. Add the choppedonion, celery,bellpepperand parsley.Stir the vegetables until the onions release moisture and turn transparent. Then add the garlic and bay leaf andstir them into the vegetables and herbs. Stir the vegetables and herbs together

4. Add therinsed and drained beans and stir.Add thewater andstirthe beans andvegetables together in the water.Add the salt and pepper. Bringthe beans to a simmer,then turn themdown to low and cover the pot.

6. Letsimmerfor about an hour,and thenstir in the choppedgreens. Return the lid to the beansand simmer for another 30 minutes, occasionally stirring thepot over low heat. Once the beans are soft and the gravy thickens, taste for seasoning and add salt if needed. Serve thebeans hot over rice.

in New York City!Itook that as agreatcompliment. These biscuits would be afun addition toaThanksgiving table or any night of the week. For an extra decadent treat, spread the Steen’sbutter on ahot biscuit or bread and enjoy

Liz Sullivan Faul is a registered dietitian nutritionist whoenjoys cooking and sharing mealswith her friends and family

Gov.MittRomney with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

Today’sbirthdays: Actor Sally Field is 79. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 76. Author Michael Cunningham is 73. Journalist-author Maria Shriver is 70. Author Colson Whitehead is 56. Actor Ethan Hawke is 55. Actor Thandiwe Newton is 53. Model-actor Rebecca Romijn is 53. Actor Taryn Manning is 47. Actor Emma Stone is 37. Comedian-actor Bowen Yang is 35. Olympic swimminggold medalist Bobby Finke is 26.

among family members or planted in multiple locations. Flower bulbs are available year-round in amazing varieties and will grow as alovely reminder of the loved one whopassed. When someone young passes away, Iusually give white flower bulbs. One family sent me a lovely note and a picture of the King Daffodils that bloomed the following spring on the widow’s wedding anniversary.They wereamazed and so grateful forhow nature delivered; it wassuch perfect timing. And as bulbs naturalize, the flower bed becomes fuller and can again be divided with family and friends. Thank you for gathering and sharing all the wisdom that people have. —Susan Newman, in Marthasville, Missouri Rubber band alternative

Dear Heloise: Instead of sending flowers when someonepasses, Iprefer to give abasket of flower bulbs. They can be divided

Dear Heloise: When Ineed arubber band to secure a small bundle of papers, I often use an elastic ponytail band. They are strong and inexpensive. —Pam, in

FALL COCKTAIL RECIPES

the Villages, Florida Spinach trick

Dear Heloise: Ifound the cleanest and easiest wayto use drained and squeezed frozen spinach in arecipe: The night before you need the spinach, take the bag from the freezer and set it in abowl in the refrigerator.Take the bag out of the refrigerator,cut the bag open, gather the open part of the bag, and twist. Take small scissors that are open and makeseveral puncture holes in the bag. Youcan then squeeze the moisture out without losing alot of the spinach and without making ahuge mess. —Cindi Weiss, in Lincoln, Nebraska

Cookingveggies

Dear Heloise: This is ahint on how to cook vegetables: If they are grownunderground, put them in cold water and then cook them. If they are grownabove ground, put them in boiling water and then cook. —V.J., in North Carolina

Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Brown Sugar Bourbon Mule

Serves 4. Brown sugar complements the smooth, sweet undertones of bourbon whiskey.Lime juice and ginger beer add arefreshing one-twopunch. Recipe is from “AutumnSpirits: Cozy Fall Cocktails &Drink Recipes” by AdamsMedia.

¼cup lightbrown sugar

¼cup water

4ounces (½ cup) bourbon whiskey

4tablespoons lime juice

2(12-ounce) bottles ginger beer

4lime wedges

1. In asmall saucepan

over medium-highheat, bring brown sugar and water to aboil to makesimple syrup. Stir constantly until brown sugar is dissolved, about 3minutes. Set aside to cool for20minutes.

2. Fill four rocks glasses or copper mugs with ice.

Add to each glass 1ounce (2 tablespoons) whiskey, 1ounce (2 tablespoons) brownsugar simple syrup, 1tablespoon limejuice and 6ounces ginger beer 3. Stir gently.Garnish with limewedges before serving.

White Chocolate Negroni

Serves 2. Another drink that’sbeen experiencing arenaissance lately,the negroni is a combination of gin, vermouth and bitter liqueur.Formulating achocolate version was an especially fun challenge. How do you preserve the cocktail’squintessentially bitter nature while adding alayer of thesweetstuff? It took someexperimentation, but the results—using awhitechocolate–washed gin —are undeniablydelicious. Youwill need to startthis aday or two in advance to give the gin time to soak. Recipe is from “For the Love of Chocolate” by Phillip Ashley Rix (Harper Celebrate, 2025).

FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATEWASHED GIN: 1cup gin 1cup white chocolate chips, chopped FOR THE NEGRONI: 2ounces (4 tablespoons) white chocolate–washed gin

2ounces (4 tablespoons) sweet vermouth

2ounces (4 tablespoons) Campari 2largeking ice cubes or ice spheres Orangetwist, for garnish

1. Prepare the white chocolate-washed gin: Combine the gin and chocolate in apint mason jar.Screw the lid on tightlyand shakevigorouslytocombine. Store in the refrigerator for24to48hours, shaking often, to let the flavors meld.

2. Strain themixture,reserving the gin anddiscarding the chocolate.

3. Preparethe cocktails: In ashakerfilledwithice, combine the gin, vermouth and Campari. Shake vigorously for15to20seconds until chilled.

4. Strain into two rocks glasses with large ice cubes. Garnish with orange and serve immediately

Apple Cider Margarita

Serves 1. Here’saclassic margarita with aseasonal twist. Adding apple cider and cinnamon to the traditional limeflavor creates an autumn-in-a-glass treat. Recipe is from “Autumn Spirits: Cozy Fall Cocktails &Drink Recipes” by Adams Media.

1tablespoon cinnamon sugar

1lime wedge

1½

1. Spread cinnamon sugar in ashallow dish. Use the limewedge to dampen the rim of arocksglass and dipthe rim in cinnamon sugar.Fill the glass with ice.

2. Fill acocktail shaker with ice. Add tequila, triple sec, cider and limejuice.

3. Shake and strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with apple slice, cinnamon stick and rosemarysprig.

Hints from Heloise

SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov. 22) You'll hold your own anddoyour bestifyou trust andbelieveinyourself.Opportunities will flourish if you are straightforward and engage in open communication with people whoneed your services.

SAGITTARIUS(Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Focuson home improvements, comfort andconvenience. Channeling your energyinto something constructive will be upliftingand, over time, lucrative.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Harness your power by networking, socializingand gaining insight into thelatest trends in your field of expertise. Choose your destination carefully, andprotect yourself against illness or injury.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Don't rush; account for every move, transaction anddetail to ensure no one takes advantageofyou. You can't buy love,but you can earn it through your actions

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Listen, and, when in doubt,don't be afraid to say no. Youhaveplenty to gain if you arecognizant of thefacts and what's unfolding. Question offers that are toogood to be true.

ARIES(March 21-April 19) Negotiating contracts and dealing with authority figures,government agencies and institutions are all favored. Investments andfinancial gains are prevalent,but so is excessivebehavior and taking on toomuch.

TAURUS (April20-May 20) Negotiations look promising. Don't be afraid to ask

forwhat you want.Trust your instincts, sticktothe facts and give your best performance. Don't make unrealistic promises;the truth will pay off.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Change is bound to excite you. Don't give away too much when you can easily get what you want if you play to win. Challenge the unknown, but be ready to adaptwhen necessary

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Be creative, think outside the boxand look for highvolume outlets forwhat you can offer Don't fold under pressure. Know your worth,and accept nothing less. Proceed with confidence.

LEO(July23-Aug. 22) Participation is key today. What you see, experience and learn will point you in an inviting direction. It's time to shed what's no longer propelling you forward and replace it with something new and exciting.

VIRGO(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Be careful not to share too much personal information. Time is on your side,and the wisdom you gain will enhance your ability to make wise choices.Haste makes waste, while patience paves the way.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Leave your cards at home. Temptation to spend on things you don't need will lead to regret.Focus on communicating, learning and updating your skills. Offerperfection.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. ©2025 by NEA, Inc., dist.

By Andrews McMeel Syndication

FAMILY CIrCUS

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in thecipher stands for another.

CeLebrItY CIpher

beetLe bAILeY

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

bIG

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

THe wiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS Hi and LoiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER

Jane Goodall said, “Every individual matters. Every individual has arole to play. Every individual makes adifference.”

Abridge player might add the word “card”aftereach“individual.”However, sometimes the role of aparticularcard maybedifficult to discern.

In this deal, South is in four spades West leads the club king. Howshould declarer plan the play? What is therole of South’sheartking?

South opens two clubs, strong, artificial and forcing. His hand is aminimum because, when unbalanced, opener will usually have at least nine winners. This hand has only eight and ahalf:five spades, twodiamonds,one club and half aheart. But it is asensibleopening bid. However, when North raises spades, promising some points, South has to settlefor four spades to announce his minimum.IfNorth hasagood hand, he can bid higher.

When dummy tables with the spade ace, declarer has nine tricks. Probably his first thought is that he needs East to have the heartace. Then, aftergetting to dummy with atrump,aheart lead throughEast would generateatrick for South’sking.

Here, though, you will notice that West has the heart ace. What can South do?

Declarer must realize that the heartking is ared herring. He should play to ruff aheart on the board, which generates a seventh trump trick. He takesthe first trick(otherwise,Westmight shift to a trump) and plays aheart.When South winsthe next trick, he leadsanother heart. Andinamoment, declarer gains that key ruff.

©2025 by NEA, Inc dist. By AndrewsMcMeel Syndication

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

Previous answers:

word game

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

ToDAY’s WoRD JuBILAnT: JOO-bih-lent: Feeling or expressing great joy.

Averagemark 19 words Time limit35minutes Can youfind27ormore words in JUBILANT?

YEsTERDAY’s WoRD —oRnATE

oaten orate

thought

loCKhorNs

Man looksatthe outward part of man. Godlooksatthe heart. G.E. Dean

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles