Issuu

‘Never stop tellingtheir stories’

Riders with theGulf Coast Brotherhood passunder an American flag Fridayaspartofamemorial servicetohonor

Baton Rouge lawenforcement officers whodied due to a2016 ambush.

BY BLAKE LESCHBER Staff writer

Officer MatthewGerald’smother Patricia wears ahomemade necklace withhis photo on it. Her sister made one forall of the familymembers of the four law enforcement ofﬁcers who died in the July 17, 2016, ambush

“People will ask, ‘Whoisthatyou have around your neck?’ ”PatriciaGeraldsaid.

ä More photos. PAGE 1B

“Then Iget to tell amagical story, especially in July.…It’sjust away to keep their memory alive.”

This is one of many ways thatthe Baton Rouge community honored the 10th anniversary of ashooting that took thelives of fourlaw enforcementofﬁcers.

On July 17, 2016, sixofﬁcerswereshot in an ambush at aconvenience store off AirlineHighway,about amile from the BatonRouge Police Department headquarters. Three of them —Cpl. MontrellJackson,Ofﬁcer Matthew Gerald and sheriff’s Deputy BradGarafola —diedthatday

ä See STORIES, page 4A

TJ Morse delivers aspeech at a memorial service Friday at police headquarters for the four officers killed in a2016 ambush.

Restaurants, grocersin La.respond to parasitic outbreak

BY STEPHANIERIEGEL Staff writer

The food-borne parasiticoutbreakthatcan cause extreme diarrhea and has affected several U.S. states, including Louisiana, is creating headaches forowners of local restaurants and supermarkets.

They’ve stopped buying some baggedshredded lettuce, which has been linked to the outbreak, and scrambledtoensure the lettuce they do have is safe.

“I heard about it on the ‘Today’ show like everybody else, so Istopped ordering it and startedbuying headsoficeberglettuceinstead,” said Cindy Mandina, afourth-generation owner of Mandina’s, aMid-City establishment known for its gumbo, pastas and fried shrimp andoyster loaf.“Now, I’mshredding it myself,old school.”

The outbreak of the cyclospora parasite, as the bug is called, has been linked to Taco Bell locations in ﬁve states that served bagged shredded lettucefromone of thecountry’s largest agricultural producers, Taylor Farms. Louisiana was not among the statesidentiﬁed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, the number of reported cases in Louisiana of the parasitic infection have more than doubled in one weekto55, including ﬁve

ä See OUTBREAK, page 5A

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

During Louisiana’srecent legislative session, aslew of bills restricting the use of artiﬁcialintelligence stalled afterPresident Donald Trump’sadministration said it wanted to create anational regulatory framework around the technology —and threatened states’federal broadband funding if they acted on their own. Noncontroversial bills,including ones that toughened penaltiesrelated to AI-generated childpornography,did pass.But proposals that entailed more dramatic changes —such as restrictionstohow insurance companies

ä See REGULATION, page 4A

STAFF PHOTOSByMICHAEL JOHNSON

four

Baton Rougepolice Chief

Montrell Jackson Matthew Gerald Brad Garafola Nick Tullier

Body found after boat tragedy in San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO Police have recovered the bodyofawoman who was one of three people missing after aboatsankthis week in San Francisco Bay

The body was identiﬁedasTondra Madruga, 58, also known as Tondra Miller,the San Francisco medical examiner saidFriday Madruga’sbody was recovered Thursday by apolice marine unit, two days after the Volare,a 49-foot cabin cruiser,sank with 20 people aboard after being hit by awave and capsizing. The group was on the boat to scatter the ashes of aloved one.

One man, Clifford Boisa, died immediatelyafter being retrieved from thechillywater

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended rescue efforts Wednesday evening but police are still looking forthe missing.

Ralph Boisa said his extended family and some close friends were on the boat Tuesday to celebrate the life of his daughter,who died over adecadeago. Madruga was afriend.

The two people who remain missing are Ralph Boisa’s sister, Carol, and Clifford Boisa’swife, Jackie, he said.

Magnitude7.3 quake hits southernMexico

MEXICO CITY Mexican authorities were reporting no immediate damage after astrong earthquake struck in the Paciﬁc Ocean off the coastofthe southern state of Chiapas, resulting in shakinghundreds of miles away in Mexico City

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake —with amagnitude of 7.3 —occurred at 8:48 a.m., with an epicenter about 30 miles southwestofthe city of Huixtla, in Chiapasstate, near the border with Guatemala. ReportsinChiapas indicated aseries of aftershocks as panickedresidents left their homes as aprecaution.

Trump urges Darline Graham to runfor term COLUMBIA,S.C.— President Donald TrumpsaidFriday that Darline Graham,the sister of thelate Lindsey Graham, has his support to run for afull term to replace her brother in the U.S. Senate. He wrote on socialmedia that she “has been aWINNER all of her life and, should she accept, has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

The president said he had discussed apotential campaign with Darline Graham at the WhiteHouse.Four peoplefamiliar with the deliberations, none of whom were authorized to speak publicly,had previously said that she privately expressed interest in running. Plans for Lindsey Graham’s funeral were also announced Friday.There will be aservice in Washington on July 28 and more in South Carolina on July 29. After both of theirparents diedwhen Darline Graham was only13, Lindsey became her legal guardian and later adopted her,toensure his military beneﬁtswould ﬂowtoher

Man confronts ‘Today’ show host, is arrested NEW YORK NBC reportedly ﬁred asecurity guard afteran intruder breached the “Today” show set, where he sought out Al Roker and Craig Melvin, allegedlyusing racial slursand turningviolent before being taken into custody

Asource close to the matter conﬁrmed the guard’stermination to TMZ after Andrew Truelove snuck into Studio 1A in New York City’sRockefeller Center

The suspect allegedly entered through the lobby,then followed closely behind an employee, who used an ID card to scan in to a restricted area, according to a complaint in the case. Truelove then made his way backstage, where he apparently beganto search for 71-year-old Roker. According to the complaint, a person identiﬁed as Informant 2—presumably Melvin—spottedthe suspectatthe bottom of astairwell in an “Employees Only” zone. Truelove, 41, was charged with burglary and menacing, both as hate crimes, in addition to criminal trespass and harassment in connection with the case

U.S.,Iranescalateattacks

Airstrikes hitmorebridges;tower collapsesatkey port

BY JONGAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— The United States and Iran escalated their attacks across the Middle East on Friday, trading strikes aimed at infrastructure andmilitary targets as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensiﬁed.

The U.S. expanded itsattacks against Iran by hitting more bridges and energy sites andcollapsing atower at akey Iranian port, following through on President Donald Trump’sthreats to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the waterway vital to world energy supplies.

In response,Iranlaunched missilesintoU.S.-allied nations in the Mideast, including Qatar,a media-

torinthe war,and Kuwait, where oneofthe desert nation’swater desalination plantswas damaged.

U.S. Central Commandsaid late Friday it had launched its seventh straight night of attacks aimed at degrading Iran’smilitary

In astatementearly on Saturday, the Iranian militaryclaimed that two oil tankers exploded and caught ﬁre as they attempted to transit aminedroute in the Strait of Hormuz. It did notprovide further details, and the U.S. denied thereport. “This is false,” CENTCOM said in asocial media post.

Crossingsthrough the straitfell to athree-week low,according to an international shipping tracker

TheU.S. airstrikeshit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozganprovince, Iranianstate television reported The attacks hit Bandar Khamir,a city on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’smain port, from roadsleading intothe Islamic Republic’scentral region onward to Tehran, the capital.

Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S.airstrike campaign for the ﬁrst timeFriday when itsEnergy Ministry issued acallfor people to use lesspower in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” The ministrydid notspecify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 46 people have been killedand more than 400wounded in recent U.S. strikes, including eight killed in astrikeonabridge Friday U.S. ofﬁcials acknowledged 13 additional U.S.servicemembers—10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors—had been injured since Monday,but offerednofurther details.

Lawmakersdemand answersonICE vetting

Officerwho shot man in Mainehas hadpast mental health issues

BY LISA MASCARO AP congressional correspondent

WASHINGTON Democratic members of Congress are demanding answers about Homeland Security’svettingand trainingofimmigration enforcementagents afteritwas disclosed that the ICE ofﬁcer involved in adeadly shooting this week in Maine had ahistory of mental health issues andviolent behavior

The Associated Pressreported Thursdaythat DavidBrouillette, the Immigration and CustomsEnforcement ofﬁcer who shot aColombian man in Maine, is an Army veteranwho has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

TheAPreached out to congressional leaders andseveral key lawmakers of both majorpolitical partiesfor response.

The top Democrat on the House HomelandSecurity Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson ofMississippi, said Brouillette’shistory of violence and mental health issues andthe deathinBiddeford, Maine, “directly call intoquestion the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

“Thissenselesstragedy must be investigated and the ofﬁcer responsible should be takenoff ourstreetsand face justice for hisactions,” Thompson saidin astatementtothe AP Brouillettedidn’trespond to text messagesoranemail seeking comment, but three relatives who said theyhad spoken to himsince theshooting, including an ex-wife and adaughter, said he told them

BY DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

LONDON Brenda Fricker,who became theﬁrst Irish woman to win an Academy Award for her role as BridgetFagan Brown in the 1989 ﬁlm “MyLeft Foot,” diedThursday inDublin. She was 81. Fricker won theAcademy Awardin 1990 for best supporting actressfor her portrayal of the determined mother of Christy Brown,awriter and painter who wasbornwithcerebralpalsy andcould control only his left foot. Daniel Day-

he acted in self-defense.

SenateMinority Leader Chuck Schumer,D-N.Y., wholed ashutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democratstried to impose restraintsonimmigration enforcement operations, said the consequences of failing to put guardrails on ICE are now being measured in lives.

President DonaldTrump’sadministration“rushed12,000 agents onto our streetswithout ensuring they were ﬁt to carry abadge and agun —and Republicans gavethisrogue agency vast power andnoaccountability,” Schumer said in astatement.

The report on Brouillette’stroubling past comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been on ahiring spree, fueled by vast sumsofmoney from Republicans in Congress to help carry out Trump’smass deportationagenda. It raises freshquestionsabout the department’sefforts to quickly hire,vet, train and dispatch recruits who are being sent to patrol communities across America.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the powerful AppropriationsCommittee, said earlier that it is “extremely unfortunate” that the agent did not have abody-worn camera.

The senator ensured $20 millionfor expanded useofbody-worn cameras and $2 millionfor de-escalation training as partofthe Homeland Security funding bill that Congress approved to end the departmentshutdown.

At least 10 people have diedinencounters with immigration agents since Trumplaunched the crackdown after retakingofﬁce, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, the Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Mondaywhile in hiscar near hishome in thecoastal Mainecity of Biddeford.

Lewis, who played Brown,won bestactor She later spoke of how the award doomed her to being typecast to forever playingrolesasmothers. Laterinlife, she said she used the weighty statuette to prop open her bathroom door Fricker,who appeared in more than 90 ﬁlmsand television shows between 1964 and2024, was known forher role as the “pigeon lady” in the 1992 film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” where she played ahomeless woman who befriended Macaulay Culkin’scharacter in New York’sCentral Park.

Central Commandsaid it hit dozens of military and military infrastructure targets in Friday’s airstrikes.

The strikes collapsed atower at Iran’s Chabaharportonthe Gulf of Oman, akey traderoute forlandlocked,neighboringAfghanistan, thestate-runIRNAnewsagency reportedand the U.S. military later conﬁrmed.

Iransaidthe tower oversees commercial trafﬁc into the port.

ButCentral Command said it was part of amaritime surveillance network used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to “track and target” commercial vessels in the strait.

In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked apower and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. Kuwait said it extinguishedthe blaze and wasworking to assess the damage and get the station working again. About 90% of the country’sdrinking water comes from desalination.

BY ANDYWONG Associated Press

CHONGQING, China Alandslide Fridayonthe outskirts of thesouthwestern Chinese city of Chongqing killed at leasteightpeople andleft 34 missing, burying residential buildings andforcing morethan 1,100 people to evacuate, according to local ofﬁcials and state media reports.

Thelandslide occurred at around 9:08 a.m. in Pengshui Countyonthe outer edge of the Chongqing municipality,when massive amounts of rocks and soil washed downslope, burying morethan 10 residentialbuildings, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Tenpeople were rescued from thedebris, including twowho were seriously injured, Pengshui County Mayor Ren Xujiang said. Chinese President Xi Jinping asked authorities to determine the cause of the disaster,state media said.

Thelandslide contained about636,000 cubic feet of rocks and debris, and the largest single rock was around 106,000 cubic feet,

Customer

said Wang Chuanjun, head of Planning and NaturalResources in PengshuiCounty,atanews conference. Wang also warned of persistent risk of further collapse under extreme weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall or prolongedperiods of clear and hot weather,based on experts’ field inspections that foundscattered unstable rock masses remain at the top and along the sides of the steep cliff. Water,electricity and gas supplies were cut off within a0.6-mile radius of the landslide to prevent furtherdisruptions. Over 800 rescuers workedon site,alocal government statement said. Residents said local officials andcommunities organized an evacuation after small rocks fell and unusualsounds were heard from thehills.The landslide happened duringthe evacuation, local newspaper Chongqing Daily reported Rescue efforts were hinderedbythe unstable terrain and the risk of another landslide,according to the broadcaster

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People hold signs in protest during avigil Fridayfor Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, aColombian national whowas shot and killed by an ICE agent, in Biddeford, Maine.

Texas floods leave big cleanup job ahead

More than 570 people rescued

BY JESSE BEDAYN, JAMIE STENGLE and JOHN HANNA Associated Press

UVALDE,Texas First responders in storm-battered Texas again rushed to save people trapped in high waters Friday, as more heavy rain widened the danger from floods that have killed at least two people and left hundreds more in need of rescue.

A week of punishing downpours dumped more than 2 feet in some areas. The rain was expected to taper off, but another round of showers worsened already swollen rivers and flooded rural communities near the border with Mexico that had largely been spared major damage Near Ozona, a small town about 200 miles west of San Antonio, floodwaters spilled over Interstate 10. More than 50 people were rescued by boat from flooded apartments and a waterlogged RV park

A section of a bridge also collapsed over the Nueces River in Uvalde County, where months’ worth of rain has fallen in a span of days. In Uvalde, about 80 miles southwest of San Antonio, ﬂoodwaters rushed through Miguel Vasquez’s home twice this week, leaving a layer of mud and knocking over his refrigerator and other items

Debris was strewn around his neighborhood and a neighbor’s shed teetered over a washed-away section of the property. He said Friday that he’d been caught in the waters’ current and nearly been swept away and drowned in trying to get to his house Wednesday

“I had to grab on with my hands and my feet. You couldn’t swim,” he said. “People think that when there’s a flood, you can swim. Swimming’s not going to help you. It’ll take you. The current’s too strong.”

Almost a trillion gallons of water

Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties over three days enough to ﬁll 1.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools or supply 11 million homes for a year

Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month,

according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The Hill Country is especially prone to ﬂash ﬂoods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil.

During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before ﬁlling the narrow river basins.

Emergency personnel across a wide swath of southern and central Texas have rescued more than 570 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Gov Greg Abbott said. Hill Country residents were beginning to clean up after ﬂoodwaters again barreled

down the Guadalupe River and through communities still reeling from deadly ﬂoods a year ago.

Giant border buoys set adrift Floodwaters on the Rio Grande temporarily closed the two international bridges on the border with Mexico at Eagle Pass, stranding a few people on the wrong side.

About 600 huge buoys placed on the river to deter migrants from crossing into the U.S. illegally were set adrift by the rising waters, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said. Cuellar said about 480 of them were captured by noon Friday

Critics have worried about the

damage the buoys might do if they became untethered and got caught along banks and against bridge piers. Each is about 15 feet long and weighs 1,000 pounds.

In the Hill Country, Serena Reyna woke up Thursday morning to ﬁnd her Kerrville boutique, Nu Accents, covered in debris after four feet of ﬂoodwater rushed into the store. She described the store as “a total loss.”

“The ﬂoors, I mean they’re soaked in mud and still you know an inch of water in some spots,” she said.

The Texas Department of Transportation said high waters closed a 50-mile stretch of U.S. 57 and that parts of the roadway were not expected to reopen until Monday In all, roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a ﬂood watch at various points this week. A return to flooded homes

Floodwaters had overrun Uvalde and cut off most outside routes, making it one of the hardest hit cities. The waters were receding Friday, and officials said a major highway Route 90, had reopened. One person died while driving on a flooded road, swept away near Uvalde, authorities said. Another victim, 65-year-old John Mark Steward of Kerrville, died after his mobile home was swept into Goat Creek on the Guadalupe River, his wife said. The same river was wrecked by flash floods last year when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic. Authorities on Thursday said summer campers were safe. In Ozona, the seat of Crockett County, authorities used seven rescue boat teams to get people out of the hardest-hit areas They were taken to the local civic center for shelter

BY PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press

NEW YORK Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildﬁres on Friday The thick smoke enveloped the nation’s capital in a gloomy, eerie haze.

Warnings of dangerous conditions were expected to remain in effect through Saturday across a wide swath of the U.S., though there’s potential for temporary improvement with storms forecast in some affected areas during the weekend.

D.C. resident Stewart Verdery awoke Friday to take in his usual sunrise view of the city’s famous landmarks from a rooftop, only to be greeted by a darkened horizon and no monuments in sight.

“It’s pretty crazy to wake up at sunrise and not see the sun when it’s not even raining,” he said by phone after posting a video of the surreal scene on X. “And it smells like somebody’s having the world’s largest cookout.”

No end in sight

There may be pockets of relief at times, such as this weekend, but the smoky conditions won’t be gone

anytime soon as the fires continue to burn largely unchecked, cautioned Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service based in Maryland Wildfires are burning in the Ontario area of Canada as well as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which U.S officials have closed as they ﬁght to put out the blazes.

“The source of the smoke is going to continue on for certainly a week, probably,” Oravec said “It’s just going to depend upon which way the wind’s blowing as to where the smoke is going to affect the most.”

On Friday, communities in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan, including Detroit, again registered some of the worst air quality in the world, according to IQAir, an air quality monitoring website.

Not far behind Detroit was Washington, D.C., where the smoke created eerie scenes.

The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and other national landmarks were enveloped in an orange-hued haze throughout much of the day

People, particularly those with heart or lung disease, older adults and children, were urged to limit or avoid going outside until air quality improved.

Long-term exposure to

smoky conditions can complicate existing health problems and lead to chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases and premature death, ofﬁcials warned.

For Maria Travela, Friday was her first day outside since after smoke from the wildﬁres blanketed the Chicago area early Thursday “Now it’s better This morning, it was bad,” said Travela, who has asthma and wore a mask as she crossed a bridge over the Chicago River downtown. “They were saying that, for people like me, with asthma, any kind of issues like that, it would be bad for your lungs.”

Trump criticizes Canada

Hundreds of wildﬁres are burning in Canada, including about 190 in northern Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference. Flames destroyed the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation community, and 10 northern Ontario communities have been evacuated or were being evacuated, with more possible.

The increase of ﬁre in vast Canadian forests has largely been blamed on climate change.

In response to the smoke, U.S. President Donald Trump made a social media post Friday that blamed

Canada for its forest management and threatened additional tariffs on Canada.

The Canadian government didn’t initially respond to questions about Trump’s comments.

Asked about a Michigan lawmaker’s criticism about

the smoke, Ford noted Canada has helped the U.S. ﬁght ﬁres in the past.

“If there’s some politicians out there chirping away, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help, because we have done the exact

same thing for our American friends and that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Ford said.

Saturday brings a high chance of thunderstorms across much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, which will help dampen the bad air.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By GERALD HERBERT

An aerial view shows flooding on Friday in Ozona, Texas.

STORIES

Continued from page 1A

Almost six years later sheriff’s Sgt. Nick Tullier succumbed to his wounds.

At 8 a.m. Friday, community members walked from the police headquarters to the Benny’s BQuik convenience store, honoring the exact time stamp — 8:40 a.m. — when the ambush occurred Later, at 3 p.m., about 300 law enforcement officers, family members and community members gathered at a memorial at the police headquarters to remember the lives lost that day

“Today is one of those deﬁning days of our city, that everyone can think back and remember where you were 10 years ago,” Baton Rouge police Chief TJ Morse said “The memories of those heroes will never leave us. Their smiles, their service, the way they raise their children, loved their families, lifted up their friends and looked after this community.”

The shootings at Benny’s BQuik lasted a little under 14 min-

REGULATION

Continued from page 1A

and employers can use AI died on the vine despite bipartisan support.

Yet Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers, including the Senate president, have expressed a desire to revisit the bills in 2027. That could set the stage for a ﬁght in the Legislature next year, depending on where Gov Jeff Landry stands and what happens at the federal level.

In May, Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said he told the White House that Louisiana would hold many AI bills this year but move forward with them if Congress does not create national regulations by the time the next regular session arrives.

“We’re going to hold those for a year, and then next year at this time, if they haven’t taken any action, then we’ll pass the bills that we would have liked to have passed this year,” Henry said.

The Senate president did not specify which of the many AI bills ﬁled this year he favored. Henry did not return multiple follow-up request for comments this month. Other Republican lawmakers have expressed interest in moving ahead with Henry’s plan.

“I agree with Cameron (Henry) — you know, if Congress doesn’t act within the next year, the states are going to have to do something,” said state Rep. Vincent Cox R-Gretna, who unsuccessfully sponsored two AI-related bills. “I don’t see (Congress) doing anything right now.”

Meanwhile, it appears unlikely that Gov Jeff Landry would green-light legislation in deﬁance of the Trump administration. Landry who has the power to veto most

utes. The gunman Gavin Long, a 29-year-old former Marine who traveled from Kansas City to Baton Rouge to target law enforcement officers — chose the location because it’s about a mile from police headquarters. Officers often dropped by the store for coffee and other items, District Attorney Hillar Moore said Before speeches Friday dozens of charity members arrived at the headquarters on bicycles, biking 90 miles from Slidell. Michelle Beck, a former police officer and member of the Gulf Coast Brotherhood Ride, said they biked here to honor the fallen officers and fulfill their mission of never forgetting what happened. Beck is also the widow of BRPD K-9 Officer Mark Beck, who died on duty in 2008.

“A man dies two deaths: one when he physically leaves Earth and one when the last time his name is ever spoken,” Beck said “Part of my reason for being here is to speak those names, make sure those names and their memories live.”

Beck said this is the ﬁrst time the Gulf Coast Brotherhood Ride has done a ride for an anniversary

bills, is a close friend of the president.

“We agree with the Trump administration that these decisions are best regulated at the federal level,” said Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry “The Trump administration issued the national policy framework in March of 2026. They also issued an executive order on June 2. We will use those two documents as guiding lights going forward.”

Trump has generally been reluctant to curb the use of AI, arguing that restrictions would hinder U.S. advances in the technology

In March, the Trump administration released its AI policy agenda, which says Congress should block state AI laws that “impose undue burdens,” all with the goal of ensuring “a minimally burdensome national standard” to promote American dominance in the technology.

But the framework endorsed regulations that would protect children from the dangers of AI, such as sexual exploitation and selfharm linked to chatbot use.

And in June, the president took a small step toward creating more restrictions around the technology signing an executive order that established a federal framework for reviewing the risks AI systems pose to national security Participation by developers would be voluntary, according to the order The order also stressed the importance of laws that prevent AI from being used to commit crimes.

Louisiana bills that failed In the spring, numerous bills filed by Republicans and Democrats alike lost their shot at moving forward amid opposition from the Trump administration

One of the many bills on the table would have required humans to review health insurance claim denials made using AI. Another

Typically, the nonproﬁt bikes longer routes — Louisiana to Alabama or vice versa — but decided to connect members from different law enforcement agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi for this day “We did what we do on all our other rides, and we searched for those magic words to bring some healing and take some pain away from these families,” said Craig Russell, president of the Gulf Coast Brotherhood Ride. “But I don’t know if

proposal would have required employers to do the same for decisions to hire, ﬁre and promote employees.

Cox voiced frustration that his two bills which included the bill regulating employers, House Bill 421, “didn’t get a chance to pass.”

The state representative’s other proposal, House Bill 157, attempted to protect Louisiana musicians by making it illegal to use AIgenerated content of another person’s likeness or voice for commercial purposes without that person’s permission.

Cox pulled both bills upon learning from the Landry administration that Trump threatened to go after federal funds used to expand broadband access if states passed certain AI regulations. That could have put millions of dollars that Louisiana was slated to receive on the line, though it was unclear how much power the Trump administration actually had over the funding.

Cox recently vowed to bring HB157 back next year; he said he is less certain about whether he will move forward with HB421, which would be more controversial.

The health insurance legislation — Senate Bill 246 was sponsored by state Sen. Jay Luneau, a Democrat from Alexandria, who also parked his bill out of concern for the broadband funds but promised to sponsor it again next year

“My plan all along has been to bring my bill back, and the reason for that is because it really is a very commonsensical bill,” he said.

“It’s not unreasonable, certainly, and I think a whole lot of people want to see that.”

SB246 received early support from state Sen Adam Bass, a Republican from Bossier City, who helped shape the legislation The teamwork between Bass and Luneau was unusual, considering the two senators often

those words are out there; I don’t have them But what we brought today is love and honor.” Through Scripture, praise and emotions, attendees of the memorial listened to each other speak their hearts for about an hour East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said the ambush was one of the darkest days in Baton Rouge history, but community gatherings honor not just the tragedy, but the beauty of how the

clash on insurance issues. Bass did not return a request for comment. What did pass

Measures that did pass included laws toughening criminal penalties around the use of some AI-generated pornography, regulating the use of AI in political advertisements and requiring healthcare workers to disclose when they record patient visits for AI transcriptions.

For example, Act 806 by state Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, requires political advertisements to disclose the use AI to imitate a candidate in some cases.

Act 782 by state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, made it a crime for minors to “possess, sell or maliciously disseminate” AI-generated

fallen lived.

“They were husbands, fathers, sons, friends, partners and public servants,” Gautreaux said. “They laughed together and served together They believed this community is worth protecting, and that is a legacy we honor.”

Morse and Gautreaux made promises that they would never forget what happened, and would always carry the ofﬁcers’ legacies.

“As sheriff, I make a promise to you: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce will never stop telling their stories,” Gautreaux said.

“We will never stop supporting their families, and we will never forget the price they paid for this community.”

After the memorial, Patricia Gerald reﬂected on how she sees Matthew every day and hopes to see more respect and honor for law enforcement ofﬁcers.

“I say Matthew’s name every day,” Patricia Gerald said. “I have a sticker on my car; my license plate says ‘PD.’ I always take the opportunity to the bag boy, or whoever’s getting around my car, I say, ‘This is my son who died protecting and serving.’”

pornography “with the intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate another person.”

It also requires schools to educate kids about AI-generated pornography laws.

And Act 211 by state Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, made it a crime to use a child’s image to train AI to generate pornography The child pornography laws passed thanks to the Trump administration’s support of AI laws protecting children.

But other bills in that vein did not move forward.

HB734 by state Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, one of the most conservative voices in the House, would have established an AI consumer bill of rights and required parental permission for AI chatbot interactions with children. Carlson did not re-

turn requests for comment. Chatbots have caused growing public concern after several high-proﬁle cases in which they have encouraged people in mental health crises to harm themselves. Some users died by suicide. State Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, who did not sponsor a chatbot bill but has helped shape state technology regulations, said she agreed it would be best to have one set of national AI restrictions in place. But she, too, expressed interest in pursuing state AI regulations especially when it comes to child protection — and she said she believed Trump’s position gives “leeway” for such policies.

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

Patricia Gerald wears a necklace with a picture of her son, Officer Matthew Gerald.

STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s Cpl. Orlando Woodard shares a moment with Patricia Gerald mother of fallen officer Matthew Gerald, during a memorial service to honor the four law enforcement officers who died as a result of a 2016 ambush.

An East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy salutes after placing a flag with the honor guard during Friday’s memorial service at Baton Rouge police headquarters.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux addresses the crowd gathered for Friday’s memorial service.

Documents don’t prove Trump’s claims, review finds

BY JILL COLVIN and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump released a trove of documents during a prime-time address to the nation that allies had hyped as a smoking gun that would prove his long-debunked allegations of mass voter fraud

Speaking from the White House on Thursday night, he described shocking revelations, like Chinese meddling to undermine his failed candidacy in 2020 and a cover-up by the “deep state.” He claimed, “Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure.”

But a review by The Associated Press found no such confirmation in the collection of newly declassiﬁed reports, investigation ﬁles, intelligence analysis and assorted correspondence. Many pages are so heavily redacted that their findings are unclear.

Others outline vulnerabilities and assessments that have been welldocumented for years. There’s no evidence that China or any other foreign entity manipulated the vote in 2020 or any other year

“The White House promised a

bombshell, and they delivered a dud,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, who attended a White House brieﬁng on the material ahead of the speech. Despite what appeared to be a concerted effort by administration ofﬁcials, “there was absolutely nothing here that was news, nothing here that even calls into question past elections and certainly not the 2020 election.”

Here’s a look at what the documents say China has our data. Lots of it

“Starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,” Trump said Thursday night.

There is no evidence, however, that China actually used that information in any way.

It has long been established that China collects immense volumes of data on Americans unrelated to any efforts to manipulate votes or alter election outcomes. And public versions of voter ﬁles are widely available, including online, and can be bought and sold by campaigns and political parties so they know which doors to knock on

and where to send mail.

China on Friday called Trump’s allegations “groundless” and “entirely fabricated” and said it has never interfered in U.S. elections and has no interest in doing so. Noncitizens on voter rolls

In his remarks, Trump touted the release of a new Department of Homeland Security investigation, based on state voter rolls and public records, that he said had identiﬁed approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections.

The report said the agency uncovered more than a quarter of a million noncitizens illegally registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada, based on public records, which are often erroneous or incomplete.

Another 28,000 noncitizens, it claimed, were found on voter rolls in 25 states using the new Systematic Alien Veriﬁcation for Entitlements system.

the database from being used over fears that voters will be wrongly purged from voter rolls.

Studies have found noncitizen voting to be extremely rare. Russia’s election efforts

Trump has spent years criticizing the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help him win. But the documents shed new light on the country’s ongoing efforts.

One declassiﬁed document from 2020 portrays Russia as the country that has tried the most to penetrate American election systems — but in an effort to defeat Joe Biden. It notes how Russia worked to amplify claims that Biden, while serving as vice president, engaged in inappropriate behavior involving Burisma, the Ukrainian energy ﬁrm that employed his son Hunter, a charge frequently repeated by Trump and Republicans.

Vulnerabilities in voting systems

The documents, Trump told the nation, included intelligence “revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure” that leave it vulnerable “to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.”

One report included a list of recent breaches mostly by Russia — and called on state and local election ofﬁcials to step up their defenses to prevent information from being used to obtain absentee ballots or alter voter rolls. Election ofﬁcials acknowledge that voting machines also carry risk — which is why they don’t rely on them alone to ensure the accuracy of the vote. Safeguards like physical security, equipment testing, paper ballot backups and postelection audits help to catch machine errors or threats.

BY TRAVIS LOLLER and KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Clara Ester an activist who as a 20-year-old college student rushed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s side when he was shot, has died.

Ester, who died on July 9 at the age of 78, was among a few remaining witnesses to King’s assassination and its immediate aftermath in Memphis. With the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson

OUTBREAK

Continued from page 1A

There is no allegation, however, that any of those people actually voted, which would be a crime.

That data has also not been veriﬁed. Reports have found that the SAVE database is plagued with errors, including outdated information that has often classified naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Indeed, a federal judge has barred

The document went on to state that both China and Iran wanted Trump to lose. But it included a chart documenting each country’s known efforts. Only Russia was marked as having been known to have engaged in “targeting, accessing, or manipulating election processes or election-related systems.”

Russia has continued to deny interfering in U.S. affairs.

But it is unclear what the administration is doing to facilitate their efforts. Earlier this month, Trump ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form, after the group resisted his efforts to require potential voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.

Clara Ester, activist who rushed to King after he was shot, dies

Sr in February and Ester this month, King aide and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young is believed to be the last surviving eyewitness to the shooting Ester grew up in Memphis attending Centenary United Methodist Church, where her pastor was civil rights leader the Rev James Lawson

hospitalizations, underscoring the many questions that still remain about other potential sources of the outbreak.

Reports on the parasite have not gone unnoticed. At Canseco’s, which owns six supermarkets in the New Orleans region, produce sales have slipped slightly in recent days, according to owner Sinesio Canseco, even though the store doesn’t carry Taylor Farms lettuce.

So far, though, the reaction has mostly been muted.

“We haven’t heard much from customers, at least not yet,” said Canseco. “That could change. People get paranoid pretty fast.”

cyclospora outbreak reached retailers or other businesses beyond Taco Bell restaurants. Trump

Since May 1, the CDC has received reports of 1,645 conﬁrmed cases of cyclosporiasis in the U.S. and is aware of more than 5,100 cases that require further analysis to conﬁrm the illness

In Louisiana, cases have been reported in every region of the state, with the highest numbers in East Baton Rouge and Lafayette parishes.

On Thursday, the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-

“We used to joke about colored water being KoolAid and the white water just being water, and so that satisﬁed us as children,” Ester told The Associated Press in 2018, around the 50th anniversary of King’s death. “But until you see the racism, until you see what has been withheld from you because of your color — is what started to really truly anger me And I knew if there was a movement that could help change any of that, I had to be in it.”

Civil rights issues were often discussed from the pulpit of her church, Ester said. Lawson was very involved in the sanitation workers’ strike, so it was natural for her to become involved too.

“I got to the point that I didn’t miss a mass meeting,” she said. “I picketed every day that the picket lines were up.”

Even 50 years later, she clearly remembered the impact of hearing King’s speech at the Mason Temple the night before he was

assassinated and how it seemed to foreshadow his death the next day

“He had seen the mountaintop,” Ester said. “It was evident on the balcony how calm.”

Ester had gone to the Lorraine Motel for dinner on April 4, 1968, when she saw King chatting on the balcony with people below Then she heard a shot.

“He was speaking calmly and pleasantly to a crowd,” she said. “And so he was happy at that moment. But to lay there with his eyes open, looking toward heaven. He had seen the promised land, and he may not get there with us, but he promised that we as a people will see the promised land.” Ester said she ran to King and saw he was struggling for air She tried to loosen his belt and asked someone to bring towels to try to staunch the bleeding. After King was taken away by ambulance, she had to stay at the hotel, where she was questioned by police.

medical director of infection prevention at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.

Taco Bell, in a statement Friday, said the affected lettuce would be “indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states.”

It did not identify the states.

The statement added, “Taco Bell has taken precautionary action, and we encourage all relevant restaurants, retailers, and foodservice operators to do the same.”

One of Louisiana’s largest Taco Bell franchisees, Morgan Citybased B&G Foods, declined to comment on the lettuce used at its 230 Taco Bell outlets in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, referring a request for comment to the statement released by Taco Bell’s corporate ofﬁce.

Rouge said it doesn’t either Rouses, which has 76 supermarkets in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, said it also had not been affected by the outbreak, and provided an “all clear” letter from Taylor Farms issued late Friday

“Our records indicate that you WERE NOT shipped iceberg lettuce products included in this action,” the letter from Taylor Farms to Rouses said.

It added that the company had stopped sourcing iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico.

Some restaurant operators said they were relying on their wholesalers for guidance and weren’t worried.

tion conﬁrmed that public health ofﬁcials had linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

The agencies said the lettuce came from five-pound bags produced at Taylor Farms’ facility in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Also, they’re often consumed without being cooked, which would kill the parasite.

“What happens is some form of sewage or stool that has this organism in it gets into the soil of where this produce is being grown, and then gets on that produce through the soil,” said Dr Katie Taylor,

Local health experts said lettuce and berries are common sources of cyclospora because they grow close to the ground, where they can be contaminated by feces.

Some local grocers and wholesalers have pointed out that while they carry some Taylor Farms produce grown in the U.S., they do not stock the company’s shredded lettuce from Mexico.

Dorignac’s and Zuppardo’s in Metairie both said they don’t stock bagged iceberg from Taylor Farms.

Southside Produce in Baton

“I’ve been dealing with the same supplier for 20 years and I trust them,” said Justin Kennedy, manager of Parkway Bakery & Tavern near Bayou St. John. “They haven’t notiﬁed me of a problem.”

Mandina said she isn’t taking any chances at her Canal Street restaurant.

“We’ve had a few customers ask about it, not many,” she said. “But we’ve made changes anyway No one wants to get this bug. So I’m just being careful.”

Staff writers Margaret Delaney and Joy Holden, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Packages of lettuce and salad greens fill a refrigerated display at a grocery store. Lettuce sold across the United States is facing increased scrutiny as federal and state officials investigate whether iceberg lettuce linked to a multistate

Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coverage fortheir entire workinglife, throughemployer-provided benefits. Whenthosebenefits endwith retirement, paying dental billsout-of-pocket cancome as a shock,leading peopletoput off or even go without care

Simply put —without dental insurance,there may be an important gap in yourhealthcare coverage.

Whenyou’re comparingplans ...

 Look forcoveragethat helps pay formajor services. Some plans may limitthe number of procedures —orpay forpreventive care only.

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 Shop forcoverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits. Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.

Medicare doesn’tpay for dental care.1

That’s right. As good as Medicare is, it was never meanttocover everything. That means if youwant protection, you need to purchase individual insurance.

Early detection canprevent small problems from becoming expensiveones.

The best way to preventlargedental bills is preventive care.The American Dental Association recommends checkups twiceayear.

Previous dental work canwear out. Even if you’vehad qualitydentalwork in the past,you shouldn’t take your dentalhealth forgranted. In fact, your odds of havinga dental problem only go up as youage.2

Treatment is expensive— especiallythe servicespeople over 50 often need.

Consider these national averagecosts of treatment. $274for acheckup. $299 for afilling $1,471 foracrown.3 Unexpected bills like this canbeareal burden, especially if you’re on afixedincome.

“Medicare&You,”Centersfor Medicare &Medicaid Services,2025. 2 “Aging changesinteeth and gums”, medlineplus.gov,4/17/2022. 3 FairHealth, Inc. National average dental fees.Datacurrent as of July 2025;subject to change

“Absolutely love” “I absolutelylove my dental insurance. My dentalofﬁce ﬁles the claims,leaving me with very littlebalancetopay.” DorothyP TN

A WALK TO REMEMBER

Community honors fallen offi

cers who died 10 years ago in an ambush

LEFT: Chad Parker with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office jogs past the crowd to get ahead of them during the memorial walk for law enforcement victims of a 2016 ambush shooting from Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters to the site of the shooting Benny’s B-Quik at 9611 Airline Highway, on Friday. RIGHT: Justin Bennett with BRPD’s 95th basic training unit holds his hat to his heart while holding the American flag during a prayer at the end of the memorial walk.

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Prairieville teen to be featured in ESPN ‘My Wish’ series

She will meet WNBA star A’ja Williams

BY ANNAKATE FREELAND Staff writer

Man arrested in drug bust near LSU

Coke, meth, MDMA found, deputies say

BY OLIVIA TEES Staff writer

A Baton Rouge man was arrested after police were informed he was allegedly selling cocaine out of an apartment near LSU’s North Gates. Jordan Langlois, 35, was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on June 30 on three counts of possession with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond review is set for

Sept 22.

In March, the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce was contacted by an anonymous source who said Langlois was selling drugs at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of East Magna Carta Place, according to an arrest warrant.

with other individuals, typical of inconspicuously handing off drugs, according to the warrant. Agents obtained probable cause and executed a search warrant at the West Chimes Street apartment and arrested Langlois.

Detectives also received information from LSU Police saying Langlois was a cook and was selling drugs to LSU students, the warrant states. During the investigation, agents set up a drug sale between a conﬁdential informant and Langlois at an apartment on West Chimes Street. After the sale, agents observed Langlois had interactions

Deputies found 70 grams of individually packaged cocaine, 21 grams of meth, and MDMA pills in a locked safe. They also found multiple digital scales, empty clear mini baggies and a bottle of Inositol a sugar substitute commonly used to cut drugs, the warrant states. After being read his Miranda rights, Langlois admitted to being an active user of drugs and knew

the safe was in the apartment, but said he was not selling the drugs. Based on the training and expertise from the agents, the amount of cocaine found in the apartment was exceedingly more than a person would have for personal use, the arrest warrant said. Langlois was identiﬁed in police documents as a cook for Delta Chi fraternity However, House Corporation President of the LSU Chapter of Delta Chi John Dunlap said Langlois was not employed at any point by the fraternity or the catering company it uses. LSU Police did not return a call for comment on Langlois’s employment.

A Prairieville teen’s wish to meet one of the WNBA’s biggest stars will be featured on national television this weekend as part of ESPN’s long-running “My Wish” series. Khloe C., 18, is one of ﬁve children and young adults featured in ESPN’s 20th anniversary “My Wish” special, which partners with Make-A-Wish to grant sports-themed wishes for children with critical illnesses. An avid basketball fan who enjoys playing with her family, Khloe underwent a liver and kidney transplant after being diagnosed with a genetic disorder, leaving her unable

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

Mayor-President Sid Edwards, Police Chief TJ Morse, District Attorney Hillar Moore and other law enforcement and members of the community reach the end of the memorial walk for law enforcement victims of a 2016 ambush shooting

Bernhard sells longtime pipe fabrication business

New york firm purchases parent company of Epic

BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer

Bernhard Capital Partners has sold a Baton Rouge pipe fabrication business to a New Yorkbased ﬁrm, marking the second time the private equity ﬁrm has sold a longtime portfolio company to the group.

New York-based One Equity Partners will purchase United WELD Holdings, the parent company of Epic Piping, in a deal ex-

pected to close by the end of the year Epic Piping CEO Remi Bonnecaze said in a release that One Equity Partners has the ability to scale the pipe fabrication business, which had been with Bernhard Capital Partners since 2014.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the sale Steel fabrication and induction bending company BendTec has also been under United WELD Holdings’ umbrella since 2021.

One Equity Partners, a former afﬁliate of JP Morgan, manages about $10 billion in assets, focusing on businesses in the technology, healthcare and industrial sectors. About a year ago, the ﬁrm announced it had purchased

Bernhard’s stake in Baton Rougebased industrial service provider Brown & Root, which was one of the ﬁrst companies in its portfolio. Epic Piping, one of the largest pipe fabrication businesses in the world, announced late last year it would spend $25 million to upgrade its Livingston facility, a move that would add nearly 80 jobs to its overall team of about 2,000. The expansion will support the state’s burgeoning energy and data center industries, which have influenced expansions at other metal fabrication companies in the Capital Region including Pipe & Steel Industrial and The Shaw Group, founded

Orleans Parish DA and special prosecutor ask to block subpoenas

White calls demand for records a ‘retaliatory campaign’

BY MATT BRUCE and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers

Orleans Parish District Attorney

Jason Williams and special pros-

ecutor Laurie White each asked a judge Friday to block subpoenas that aim to expose misconduct or leaks in the grand jury process that led to this month’s indictment of Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on public intimidation charges. White and Williams each filed motions to quash Murrill’s subpoenas against them for records and communications.

In doing so, White accused the attorney general and her legal team of a “retaliatory campaign to harass and intimidate” her and Williams.

In Williams’ motion, his first assistant Ned McGowan wrote that the District Attorney’s Ofﬁce recused himself from the grand jury inquiry on June 1. Murrill’s subpoena is “facially defective and contrary to law,” he wrote

The subpoena sought the records too fast, Murrill failed to pay the required fees and the request violates a Louisiana Supreme Court stay in the case, McGowan argued. McGowan wrote that Murrill’s subpoena also seeks “almost every communication in any form with everyone ‘who was not an empaneled member of the grand jury.’” He wrote that the subpoena to Williams impugns victim rights law as well as restrictions on compelling testimony from lawyers.

Robert Chaisson, the ad hoc judge appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to preside over Murrill’s criminal case, on Tuesday signed the subpoenas demanding records that Murrill’s defense attorney, Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, sought against White and Williams. Chaisson set a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday for their responses.

White decried the subpoena as a ﬁshing expedition in her motion to quash it, writing that Murrill’s team asked for communications over lengthy periods of time and failed “spectacularly to identify any document.”

She chided Murrill’s attorneys for targeting Williams, a purported victim of public intimidation from the attorney general, with a subpoena of his own.

“In Louisiana’s history, no Court has allowed a criminal defendant the ability to conduct the retaliatory campaign against a prosecutor and victim of crime — even when the criminal defendant is a public ﬁgure or held a public ofﬁce at the time,” White wrote.

“The Defendant and her counsel,

WEST NILE

Continued from page 1B

Control Board director Claudia Riegel. Riegel emphasized that any little bit helps mosquito numbers as a whole and encouraged residents to spend just 10 minutes a week scanning their yard on trash day to see if there are any items that could be collecting water Small containers with water inside like a soda can, can be an incredibly productive site for mosquito breeding.

As for keeping the bugs off your skin, bug spray, long sleeves and staying near airflow from fans while outside is your best bet

however, act with impunity without the realization that despite her current job title, she is merely a defendant in a criminal matter wherein the law provides no favoritism because of her title.”

Rodrigue sought records about how the New Orleans grand jury came to indict Murrill over alleged threats to Williams, Mayor Helena Moreno and ﬁve City Council members.

The subpoena requests are part of Murrill’s attempt to have the criminal case against her thrown out. She faces 16 felony counts of public intimidation and malfeasance in ofﬁce from the July 2 indictment.

The Louisiana Supreme Court issued a swift stay in Murrill’s case but said she could ﬁle “any and all defensive pleadings, including motions to quash” in the meantime.

White wrote in her Friday ﬁling that the high court’s stay order did not authorize Murrill to issue subpoenas to either her or Williams.

Murrill’s attorneys declined to comment Friday on either ﬁling.

The subpoenas seek any correspondence from Williams and White involving the grand jury or the judge who oversaw its proceedings, Criminal District Court Judge Leon Roche.

Murrill’s legal team has also sought Williams’ communications with Moreno, City Council President JP Morrell, former Congressman Cedric Richmond, state Sen. Gary Carter or news media related to the grand jury’s inquiry

“Louisiana’s Top Prosecutor and her counsel should know that District Attorney Williams enjoys the right to not be abused via the overreaching and procedurally deﬁcient (subpoena),” White wrote. “Yet, the Defendant and her counsel attack him too.”

From White, Murrill’s attorneys seek correspondence with Williams, Roche, Moreno or members of the news media.

The subpoenas seek records dating to March 1 before White’s appointment as a special prosecutor, she wrote

Williams denies involvement

Williams’ office issued a statement late Thursday denying any involvement in Murrill’s indictment

Williams recused himself and his ofﬁce from the probe, prompting Roche to appoint White as special prosecutor.

Murrill’s attorneys have also argued that White is conﬂicted The Louisiana Supreme Court seemed to agree in its order staying the case.

Williams said Thursday that he’d turned over information sought by Murrill’s attorneys in a separate public records request. He said they show “no communication” about the indictment between the District Attorney’s Ofﬁce, Moreno or any council members.

Southern house mosquitoes also bite in the evening, Reigel said, so try to lessen your time outside at night.

Here are a few extra tips to stay safe during mosquito season: n Wear an EPA-registered insect repellent when you know you’ll be outdoors n Wear long-sleeved, loose-ﬁtting clothing n Spray bug spray on exposed skin or on top of clothes

n If you’re using sunscreen, apply sunscreen ﬁrst and then insect repellent

n Wear clothing or gear treated with permethrin if you know you’ll be outside for prolonged periods of time

n Weather-strip doors and windows and check for holes in

by Bernhard Capital Partners founder Jim Bernhard.

Epic Piping is headquartered in Baton Rouge and has a distribution facility in Texas, with other hubs in Livingston, Lake Providence, San Marcos, Texas and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Ante Kusurin, partner at One Equity Partners, said in a release that the ﬁrm can help Epic Piping continue to grow with its investments in the energy sector and “sustained infrastructure.”

“Pipe fabrication work has shifted from being predominantly field-based to in-house due to labor advantages enabling quicker completion of projects,

and Epic has emerged as a leader with the required scale, certiﬁcations and execution capabilities to compete for large, complex projects,” Kusurin said in a release.

This year, Bernhard Capital Partners has announced the sale of two other portfolio companies, including surety carrier The Gray Casualty & Surety Co. and United Utility Services. It also announced the acquisition of utility service Spire Inc.’s natural gas business, power company Cleco Corp. and consulting ﬁrm ECM Consultants.

Email Ianne Salvosa at ianne salvosa@theadvocate.com.

Man who died in crash on Old Hammond identified

Rodrigue criticized Williams’ response to the records request, which is separate from the subpoenas.

“The DA never actually denies that these records exist; he is just refusing to produce them,” she said.

Murrill warned officials

Williams’ office received notice that the grand jury wanted to investigate Murrill several days after Moreno posted a video to Instagram on May 13, responding defiantly to the letters Murrill had sent earlier that day to her, Williams, and five council members.

In them, the attorney general told them their jobs were in jeopardy over their support for electing a new uniﬁed Orleans Parish court clerk.

Murrill wrote that City Council resolutions calling for an election and appointing an interim clerk, former criminal court judge Calvin Johnson, violated state “usurper” laws.

Johnson may have been an “innocent bystander” to the council actions, Murrill wrote, but he “would face personal exposure for fines or imprisonment” if the council stood firm and he took office. Johnson has filed an attorney misconduct complaint against Murrill.

In her video, Moreno said Murrill’s letter had surprised her citing the same public intimidation statute that the grand jury went on to wield against the attorney general. Williams formally recused his office on June 1. The grand jury returned the indictment against Murrill on July 2.

In McGowan’s response to Murrill’s public records request Thursday he wrote a letter calling it “improper,” saying it makes “abusively overbroad and vague requests, and it seeks information that is not a public record.”

Williams’ office said it had no responsive records of communications with White and isn’t the custodian of them. His response says that phone records demanded by Murrill’s lawyers “are not created or maintained” by the district attorney

“At no time did the OPDA ‘handle’ the case against your client,” McGowan wrote. “Because the matter was not initiated by, or prosecuted by, the OPDA, no writings in possession of the OPDA meet the legal deﬁnition of a public record.”

McGowan also wrote that Williams had no advance knowledge of White’s selection as special prosecutor

Rodrigue called Williams’ claim “a troubling interpretation” of public records law

“This raises serious questions about the DA’s understanding of his obligations pursuant to the public records laws and his so-called commitment to transparency,” she said.

screens to ensure no bugs are able to sneak inside

n Dump any standing water around your home, including in bird baths, buckets, trash cans and children’s toys, at least once a week to prevent mosquito breeding

n Flip over any items that could collect standing water

n Scrub bird baths or any items that hold water constantly to kill larvae n Clean swimming pools that aren’t being used collect water outside

n Use mosquito fish in your ponds

n Check and clean your gutters.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@theadvocate com.

A man who crashed his truck into a pole along Old Hammond Highway on Tuesday may have suffered a medical condition before the incident, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce said.

The accident happened close to noon on Tuesday, when 84-year-old Bernard Zimlicki, who was driving on Old Hammond Highway, left the roadway and struck a trafﬁc pole near Millerville Road, a Sheriff’s Ofﬁce spokesperson said.

The cause and manner of Zimlicki’s death has not been ﬁnalized the Coroner’s Office said Friday

Man killed in head-on car crash, State Police say

A multi-vehicle crash Thursday evening in Livingston Parish killed a 19-year-old Denham Springs man, according to Louisiana State Police.

The accident occurred shortly after 5:15 p.m. Thursday on La. 447 at Dot Lee Drive. Hunter Roe was northbound on La. 447 when he attempted to pass a truck in front of him in a designated no-passing zone. Roe’s vehicle crossed into the southbound lane and collided head-on with another southbound truck, according to a preliminary State Police investigation. Roe was transported to a hospital, where he died from injuries sustained in the crash.

State Police said that due to the severity of the crash, whether seat belts were used is unknown at this time. The driver of the truck involved in the collision was properly restrained and uninjured.

State Police said impairment is not suspected, but routine toxicology samples were obtained. The crash remains under investigation.

La. high court fast-tracks lawsuit on N.O. judges

BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer

The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday took over and fasttracked a lawsuit challenging a new state law that reduced the number of judges in New Orleans courts.

Criminal District Court Judge John Fuller sued Gov. Jeff Landry and other state ofﬁcials, asking the courts to block the provision of Act 748 that eliminates three sections of criminal court by Jan. 1. Landry signed the measure into law last month. Fuller the newest member of the criminal court bench, argues that the Louisiana constitution calls for a two-thirds supermajority vote to change the number of judges in Louisiana and that both chambers fell shy of the mark

State ofﬁcials claim the measure didn’t need a supermajority for passage. They cite an exception for New Orleans municipal ofﬁces from the 1974 cwonstitutional convention The delegates made Crescent City courts “sub-

TEEN

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to compete in the sport she loves Her wish was to meet four-time WNBA Most Valuable Player and three-time champion A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. The segment follows Wilson as she gives Khloe a behindthe-scenes look at what it is like to be a professional basketball player, creating what ESPN describes as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Khloe’s story will premiere during “SportsCenter” at 8 a.m. July 19, the first of five “My Wish” features airing this year

Produced in partnership with Make-A-Wish, the annual series showcases children whose sports dreams are made possible by some of the biggest names in athletics This year’s featured athletes include Wilson, PGA Tour champion Scottie Schefﬂer, WWE’s Seth Rollins, San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr and the Tennessee Volunteers

ject to change by law” with a simple majority, the state argues. Judge Tarvald Smith of the 19th Judicial District this week enjoined state ofﬁcials from enacting any provision of Act 748 until after the qualifying period, which runs Aug. 5-7.

That left open a door for Fuller and the two others with seats marked for elimination — Judges Rhonda Goode-Douglas and Simone Levine to run for reelection.

Murrill vowed to appeal Smith’s injunction Fuller’s attorney, Jerome Matthews, asked the state’s high court to step in. The Supreme Court halted proceedings at the lower courts and gave Murrill and others until next week to ﬁle any oppositions to Fuller’s claims.

Matthews said he expects the court to rule before Aug. 5, given its expedited track.

“Whoever lost at the (appeals court) would’ve just had to go to the Supreme Court anyway,” he said. “So let’s just go straight to the Supreme Court to get a ruling.”

football team. “Now more than ever, the courage of these children and the love and resourcefulness of their families remain inspiring,” longtime “My Wish” host Chris Connelly said in a news release. “Thanks to ESPN and our friends at Make-A-Wish, this year’s wishes go a long way to restore so much of the joy and exuberance that critical illness takes away.” Now in its 20th year, ESPN’s “My Wish” series has featured hundreds of wish recipients and some of the biggest names in sports, highlighting the hope and encouragement wishes can bring to children and their families during difﬁcult times.

CRIME BLOTTER staff reports

Broussard,Joan

St.Patrick's Catholic Church,12424

Brogdon Lane,at11a.m

Caballero,Cecile

St.Jude theApostle Catholic Church 9150HighlandRd., BatonRouge,LAat 12pm

Hidalgo, Betty

St.GeorgeCatholic Church at 11am

Nelson, Maebell

Little Zion BaptistChurch,195574th

Avenue,at8 .am.

Parks, Gary Unitarian Church of BatonRouge 8470 Goodwood Blvd. at 2pm

Rutzen,Christopher Trinity Lutheran Church,15160 S. Harrell'sFerry Road,at4 p.m

Stoothoff, Robert Drusilla Seafood, 3482 Drusilla Lane,Suite D, at 11 a.m.

Washington, Dorothy Antioch BaptistChurch at 11 a.m.

Obituaries

Clayton, Inez Annette

Inez Annette Clayton wasborn on October 23, 1959, to the late Edna Mae Allen Claytonand Joshery Clayton, Sr. She was the ninth child born to this union. Inez entered into eternal rest on July 12, 2026, at OLOL Hospital, she leaves to cherish her memories, two daughters, China Spradley and Africia Spradley; grandchildren who affectionately called her "Momo", Doneshia Spradley, Lydell Link, Jr Lyeshia Link, Tyree Link, and Troyneshia Link, Ja'Kwan Peterson, Ja'Vion Peterson, Ja'Shon Peterson, and Ja'Shad Spradley; great-grandchildren, Journee Snearl and Jrexel Snearl, A'riyaLink and Arayla Link; sisters, Joann Bosley (Herman, Sr.) ,Cecile Marie Davis (Hall IV); sister-in-law, Carolyn Clayton; brothers, Larry Clayton and Cedric Clayton; special friend, Rodger Dale Williams; Godmother, Audrey Bosley; host of nieces and nephews; cousins and friends;lifelong friend, Inez Mitchell. Precededin death by her parents; sisters, Osia Mae Baker and Gwendolyn Williams; brothers, Clifford Earl Clayton, Sr., JosheryClayton, Jr., and Jessie Clayton, Sr. Visitation Tuesday,July 21, 2026,Hall'sCelebration Center, 9348 Scenic Highway, Baton Rouge, LA., 8:00 am until religious services at 11:00 am. Entombment Heavenly Gates Cemetery of Baton Rouge,Baton Rouge, LA. Pastor Carnel Joseph officiating. Funeral Service EntrustedtoHall Davis and Son.Funeral will be livestream theday of the service

Falvey, Rema Renee

Rema affectionally known as Renee passed away July 4, 2026. Sheis survived by her daughter Taylor Carbo and granddaughter Ella Rae. Her son Dylan Falvey. Mother Rema Fields. Sister Francis Falvey. Brother James Falvey IV (Krystal). Fiancée Terry Didier. Niece Heather Simon. Nephews Brock Simon, Roman and Declan Falvey. She is preceded in death by James Falvey III, father. She was afriend to all who knew her and she never met astranger.

Psalm116:15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. James Richard Hatcher died at home, peacefully on July 1. He was90years old,born &raisedand livedinBaton Rouge.He was aphysician- urologist for35years.Heretired from medicine& went on to work with Patrician Management for25more years. He servedinthe Air Force as an officer,being drafted during the Vietnam War. He wasmarried for48 years to Denise, had 4children &10grandchildren. He lovedLouisiana,Baton Rouge, LSU,golf, his patients, his business associates &his friends. Most of allheloved hisfamily& his Saviour Jesus Christ. Revelation7:17 For the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be theirShepherd, &shall guidethem to springs of the water of life; &God shall wipe every tearfromtheir eyes.

Gwendolyn "Gwen" LeBlanc June 8, 1939 -July 9, 2026 Gwen LeBlanc passed awaypeacefully at her home on July 9, 2026, at the ageof87, surrounded by her family. Alongtime resident of Plaqueminebeforemoving to Baton Rouge,Gwen devoted her life to her Catholicfaith,family, and community. Shelovingly cared for generations of children through Miss Gwen's Playschool andwill be rememberedfor her kindness, generosity,and quiet strength. Sheissurvived by her husband of 68 years, Dickie LeBlanc; her children, RickieLeBlanc,Michael (Dana) LeBlanc, and Angele (Robert) Peek; 10 grandchildrenand 21 greatgrandchildren. VisitationwillbeMonday, July 20, from 9:00 a.m. until the 10:00a.m. Mass of ChristianBurialatOur Ladyof Mercy Catholic Church. Intermentwill follow.Inlieuofflowers,the family requests prayers and Massesinher memory

Oivanki, Sarah

SarahCatherine HendersonOivankipassed away Sunday, July 12, 2026at Ochsner Medical Center Sarah was borninBoston, MA February 18, 1951 and withinmonths was adopted by Wilmah and Charles Henderson. In 1956 the family moved to Louisiana. ShegraduatedfromWalker High School in 1969 and from Southeastern

Louisiana University with a degree in nursing in 1973. Upon graduation, Sarah enlisted in theNavyand was stationed at NASJacksonville, Florida for aperiod of two years. She was devoted to her nursing career helping others. She was avery kind and gentle nurse and very proudof her serviceinthe Navy Two days after her service in theNavy, she married Gregory Oivanki,who she had met on afamily camping tripin1970. Sarah and Gregorysettled in Denham Springswhere she worked at Baton Rouge General Mid-City, then Dixon Memorial HospitalinDenham Springs, then back at Baton Rouge GeneralMidCity working in theChemical Dependency Unit.Her nursing careerspanned 46 years, retiring from OchsnerMedical Center whereshe was theNight Shift nurse on thetelemetry floor. During her nursing careerSarah formed close friendshipswith threeofher coworkers, Ellen, Christaand Cathy. They spent thirty-plus years working, loving, and supporting one another in thebuilding on O'Neal Lane and continuedafter retirement, getting together everymonth for lunch. They calledthemselves "the Ochsner Beauties." She also had alife-long friendship beginning in grammarschoolwithRicci who she cherished immensely.Sarah had family ties to NewEngland where she and Gregory traveled frequently,astheyboth lovedtotravel.She was a die-hard BostonRed Sox fan. She lovedthe Fall season colors and everything related to theNew England area and chose that décor forher home. She and Gregory especially enjoyed twotrips to Kenya and one to Botswana, Africa where she saw her favoriteanimals: thelion, Simba, and lioness, Simba Jike. Sarah was predeceased by her parents, Wilmahand Charles Henderson, her inlaws, Kaarlo and Marion Oivanki,her brother-inlaw, C. Scott Cannonand an adoptive sister. She is survivedbyher adoring husband of 51 years Gregory, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law; Stephen Oivanki (Jan), PaulaOivanki Cannon, Millie Oivanki Bailey (Kirk), Lisa Oivanki,Anna Oivanki Lucas, twoadoptive sisters and many nieces and nephews, including her godchild, Rachael Cannon Koske. Sarah wasa kind, patient, loyal, humble, true friend and alover of cats, especially lions. She willbe greatlymissedbyall those who lovedher. Visitation willbeheldatImmaculate Conception Catholic Church in Denham Springs on Monday, July 20, 2026 from 10am until thefuneral serviceat11am. Family visitationwillbegin at 9:30 am. In lieu of flowers, please considera donation in her name to your favorite charity.

LeBlanc, Gwendolyn 'Gwen'

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

U.S. restores trade privileges for Hong Kong

HONG KONG The United States conﬁrmed Friday that it will not renew an executive order that revoked Hong Kong’sspecial trading status. The decision comes after China signaled that the city’spreferential privileges were being restored.

The U.S. order, which President Donald Trump signed in July 2020 in his first termin response to Beijing imposing anational security law to limit dissent in Hong Kong, is not being renewed, according to a Treasury Department spokesperson who was not authorized to speak publicly on theissueby name andspoke on conditionof anonymity. Trump’sorder was last renewed fora year in July 2025.

China considers the national security law for HongKong necessary to restore stabilityin the city aftermassive anti-government protests in 2019. Under the order,Trump said Hong Kong was no longer sufﬁciently autonomous to justify differentialtreatment in relation to mainland China under certainlaws. It eliminated the preferential treatment for Hong Kong to the extent permitted by lawand in thenational security, foreign policy,and economic interest of the United States.

The implications of the decision not to renew the order were not immediately clear

TheWhite House referred questions about the executive order lapsing to the Treasury Department.

General Mills recalls PillsburyBreadRolls

Twokindsoffrozen Pillsbury Bread Rolls were recalledafter glass might have gotten into the dough, according to General Mills.

The two lots of Pillsbury BreadRolls Hard Roll Dough are lot Nos. 11JUN6JL and 12JUN6JL with best bydates of Oct. 12 and 13, 2026, respectively.This covers544,400 rolls. There’sonly one lot, 12JUN6JL, of PillsburyBreadRolls Kaiser Roll Dough recalled. This covers 181,440 rolls.

Astatement by General Mills said the “two frozen doughproducts were baked onsite and sold exclusively at Walmart in-store bakeries in the UnitedStates. This voluntary recall is limited in scope, highly contained and all potential impacted product has been removed.”

Recalledbreadswenttodistributors in 19 states including Louisiana.

If you have arecalledproduct, throw it away or return it to the store for afull refund. If youhave more questions about this recall, call General Mills at (763) 764-7600. GeneralMills statement didn’t address how the glass got into some of the dough, what facility wasused, or why no news releasewas issued.

FAAwill allow Boeing to certify its planes

Boeing will be allowedto take responsibility for certifying all of its 737 Max and 787planes starting next week, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday The FAAsaid that after months of review the agencydecided that Boeing’sfinalsafety checks on its planes are good enough to ensure theyare airworthy. Since September,Boeing and the agency had been taking weekly turns performing the safety checksthat are required beforeaircraft are cleared for delivery and declared safe to fly.The FAAsaidFriday that the plane maker and government inspectors were both issuing similar findings as they issued airworthiness certificates. Federal regulators took full control over 737 Max approvals in 2019, after the second of two crashes that were later blamed on anew software systemBoeing developed for the aircraft. The FAAended the company’s righttoself-certify 787 Dreamliners in 2022, citing ongoing production quality issues.

BUSINESS

THEADVOCATE.COM/news/business

NewChinese AI model surprisestech industry

Kimi K3 appears to be catching up to Claude,ChatGPT

BY MATT O’BRIEN AP technologywriter

Another powerful new artificial intelligence model from China took theU.S. tech industryby surprise Friday,the latest sign that Chinese startups thatpublicly release their “open-source” AI technologyare making the California titansofAIsweat.

The newestKimi K3 model fromBeijing-based startup Moonshot, run by aPink Floydloving entrepreneur who earned hisdoctorate inPittsburgh, appears to be catching up to the best versions of Anthropic’s Claudeand OpenAI’sChatGPT.

“This may be the single biggest release of the year,” and marks amoment when open-source Chinese modelsare surpassing closed U.S. models, saidAnastasios Angelopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Arena, aplatform for evaluatingAI systems.

Kimi K3 topped the charts in Arena’s ranking of what it calls “front-end coding capability,” a measureofanAIlarge language model’sperformance. “More results are rolling in that are likely to continuetoshow it is at the top of the pack,” Angelopoulos said on social media. It was not likely acoincidence that K3’sunveiling came shortly before Chinese President Xi Jinping’sopening address Friday to the nation’s annual World ArtiﬁcialIntelligenceConference in Shanghai American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world’smost advanced technologies,spurring China’sefforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the rivalry between the world’stwo

biggest economies.

“The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country butrather asymphony of global cooperation,” Xi said at theevent K3 follows another major AI model release last month from the Chinese startup Zhipu, or Z.ai. Its newflagshipGLM-5.2 model is already widely used by software developersaround the world who say it can perform workalmostaswell as top U.S models at alower price.

The hype over thenew Chinese model resembles themarket-shaking panic that followed Chinese startup DeepSeek‘s new model release in early 2025, though not everyone ﬁnds it justiﬁed. The response toK3isan “overreaction shockingly similar”toDeepSeek’srelease last year,saidtech analyst Patrick Moorhead on social media. He said it could be good for parts of thebroader AI industry but poses arevenue challenge to Anthropic and OpenAI.

During the conference, which runs until Monday,tech giant Huawei has alsobeen showcasing anew AI computing system called the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, a signal that China increasingly is amassing the domestic hardware it needs despite U.S.restrictions on imports from chipmakers like Nvidia.

Moonshot hasn’tsaid what hardware it usedtobuild K3, but thestartup is apartner with Huawei.

The price to use K3 is the highest yetfor aChinese AI model, but is still half as expensive as OpenAI’shigh-performingGPT5.6 Sol model, according to aFri-

day report by Bank of America research analysts.

U.S.politicians and several major U.S.AIcompanies including Anthropic and OpenAI have accused Chinese AI models of illicit “distillation” of their models to extracttheir technologies, aclaim that Beijing says is “groundless.”

Anthropic in February accused DeepSeek, Moonshot and athird China-based AI lab, MiniMax, of engaging in campaigns to “illicitly extract Claude’scapabilities to improve their own models” using thedistillation techniquethat “involves training aless capable modelonthe outputsofa stronger one.

Anthropic said that distillation canbealegitimateway to train AI systems but it’s aproblem when competitors“use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in afractionof thetime, and at afraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.”

But it can go bothways.San Francisco-based startup Anysphere,maker of the popular coding tool Cursor,has acknowledgedthatone of its topproducts was based on Moonshot’s K2.5 model. Elon Musk’sSpaceX is planning to close adeal to buy Cursor for $60billionlater this year

Developers who build “opensource” AI make key componentsofthe technology accessiblefor anyone to examine, modify and build upon. Proponentssay open-sourcepractices promoteinnovation, while critics warnthat making powerful AI models publicly accessible poses safety and security dangers.

IBM warning is ‘hammer’ on tech’s AI outsiders

BY RYAN VLASTELICA and CARMEN REINICKE

Bloomberg News (TNS)

International Business Machines’ warning this week that its sales are falling well short of expectations highlights agrowing divide between artiﬁcialintelligencewinners andeveryone else in the tech universe. On Tuesday,IBM said it failed to predictthatits customers would shift their spending away from the company’sproducts so they can focus on servers, storage and memory products used in AI computing.The company’sshares plunged25% for their worst dayeverindatagoing back to the 1960s. Butinamuch broader sense, the revelation explained how the current technology trade is throwing awrench into the stock prices of huge companies that provide popularproducts and services unrelated to AI “It’snot just awrench, it’s like ahammer,” saidBrian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management. “It’snot that there’snot demand for(other services). There is. It’s just thattheycan’t getthere because there’sonlya ﬁnite amount of capex that can be spent.”

Perhaps the best examples of this bifurcation are software giants Salesforceand ServiceNow,which sell tools that manage sales, human resourcesand IT functions for companies. The stocks have lost roughly athird of their value this year and are among the 20 worst performers in the S&P 500 Index. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is up 62% in 2026. IBM’snews marked “a pivotal moment in thetech trade,” Mulberry said. It underscored how companies are de-emphasizing traditional tech products and services and prioritizing AI-related infrastructure and security software, which is in demand because the existence of AI represents arisk to corporate security With those costs rising —particularly soaring memory prices —the businesses are being forced to reassess how much theycan spend elsewhere. Software developers like Workday and SAP SE are also likely to feel the pinch from the spending shift, according to BloombergIntelligence analyst Anurag Rana. And leading tech business indicators like cloud backlogs and new subscription sales maycomeinbelow Wall Street expectations as these companies report earnings in the coming weeks.

“While theshortfall may be because of shifting IT budgets, this fundamental weakness will likely be interpreted as AI disrupting their core businesses, which could put further pressure on the sector’svaluation,” Rana wrote in anote on July 14. Wall Street hasbeen lowering its estimates for the software andservices sector,which is expected to post earnings growth of 16.5% in 2027, aconsensus thathas steadily declined for seven straight weeks, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. An indexofsoftware-as-aservice stocks is down 26% this year,compared with an 11% drop for abroader software index and a 13% rise in the tech-heavyNasdaq 100 Index.

BYKEN SWEET AP business writer

NEWYORK Citizens Banksaid it plans to wind down its ﬁnancial relationship with two private prison companies that have been government contractors underthe Trump administration to help run immigrationdetention centers, bowing to public pressurefromadvocates andleft-leaningcity governments. CitizensprovidedbankingservicestoCoreCivic and The GEO Group, both companies that own or run private prisons throughout thecountry.UnderPresident Donald Trump, both companies have beencontracted by U.S. Immigrationand Customers Enforcement

to operate detention or deportation centers as partofthe Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration.

Thebankcame underanintense public campaign for its relationship withCoreCivic and GEO who demanded that Citizenscut ties with thetwo companies. At least two city councils in New Jerseyhave voted to withdraw theirmoney from Citizens if theydid not cutties with the private prison operators.

“Today’s announcementthat CitizensBankwill exit itscurrent lending relationships with private prison giantsCoreCivic and The GEOGroup is an importantvictory forthe people whorefused to letamajor bank financehu-

man suffering brought on by ICE detention activitiesofthe current federaladministration,”saidthe De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, in astatement.

In astatement, Citizenssaidthey were ending their relationship with the two companies purely for business reasons and not because of politicalpressure. The federal government has said it plans to buy several facilities run by CoreCivic and is in talkstodosowith GEO. Becauseofthis, Citizens said thecompanies’ ﬁnancialneeds have been reduced.

“This is abusiness decision based on changed commercial circumstances and does not reﬂect anychange in ourviewregarding

these companies’ business models or operations,” the bank said in a statement. Banks cutting ties with businesses or individuals is known as debanking, and it has become apolitically charged topic in Trump’s second term.Under the Trumpadministration,bankregulatorshave been conductinginvestigations into bank’sdebanking practices, withthe potential of these bank regulators issuing ﬁnes or penalties to any banks that are found to have committed debanking. “Allbanks, including ourselves, must considerthese regulatory and contractual frameworks in making decisions on who to bank or not bank,” Citizens said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByNGHAN GUAN

Chinese President Xi Jinpingspeaks Fridayatthe opening ceremonyfor the WorldAIConferencein Shanghai. The newest Kimi K3 model from Beijing-based startup Moonshot appears to be catching up to thebest versionsofAnthropic’sClaude and OpenAI’sChatGPT

Americans have endured adizzyingstretchofcontroversies and sudden turns in recentmonths— fromwars in Iran and Ukraine to Supreme Court rulings, congressional maneuvering and presidential drama. It’sbeen exhausting and, at times, confusing Through it all, DonaldTrump’sjob approvalratings have remained steady.His latest ratingaverages43%, exactly where it was fourmonthsago The president’scritics ﬁnd that hardto believe; they keep hearing about individual polls showing his popularityfalling. But pollingaverages, which combineresults from multiple surveys, have shown little movement.

But the morerevealing story maybe what voters say aboutspeciﬁc issues.

Iran: Thelatest Economist/YouGov poll ﬁnds that only 36% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the war with Iran, while nearly 6 in 10 disapprove. Fewer than athird believe going to warwas the right decision.

Trump campaigned in 2024 as dealmaker-in-chief, promising to bring peace throughquick, smart negotiations.Yet 60%now say he’s beenineffective in negotiating with Iran.

More voters expected areturn to full-scalewar than anegotiatedsettlement.Only31% believe theUnited Statesshould continue attacking Iran, including 59% of Republicans, 17% of independents and 5% of Democrats. Israel: 32% of U.S. voters say theirsympathieslie more with Israel,25% side more withthe Palestinians andanother 25% are unsure. AmongDemocrats,just 10% side with Israel, while 36% favor the Palestinians. Thirty-six percent of voters support continuedU.S.military aid to Israel, while 45% oppose it. Support among Republicans is 57%; amongDemocrats,22%.

Ukraineand Russia:Americans overwhelmingly support Ukraine in the waragainst Russia. Sixty-nine percent side with Ukraine, compared with only4%who side with Russia. A56% majoritysupportssending military aid to Ukraine, while 28% oppose.Yet voterssee no clear winner in thewar

The economy: Only 27% of votersratethe economy as excellent or good. Those views are heavily inﬂuenced by partisanship. While 49% of Republicansgive the economy positive marks,only 9% of Democrats and14% of independents do. On top of that, amajority of Democrats and Independents believe theeconomy isgetting worse. Politicians and sexual assault: ThecollapseofDemocrat Graham Platner’sSenate campaign in Maine has pushed this issuebackintothe headlines. The poll ﬁnds that 62% of votersnationwide believea candidateaccusedofsexualassault by several womenshould drop out of the race, unless theallegations can be disproved. That view is shared by 58% of men, 63% of women,74% of Democrats, 60%ofindependents and 49% of Republicans At thesame time, 62% believe political candidates are, at least sometimes, unfairly accusedofsexualassault. Voters are also unimpressed with how both parties handle such charges.Only25% say Democrats do agood or excellent job,while 24%say thesame of Republicans. World Cup: 41% of Americans say theywatched at least some of the 2026 FIFAWorld Cup. Thatincludes47% of men, 37% of women, 36% of Whites, 53% of Blacks and 60% of Hispanics. Only 21% approved of Trump’srequestthatthe onegame suspension of U.S. player Folarin Balogun be overturned. Greenland, Canada and Cuba: Americansshow little appetite for using military force toseize other countries. Only10% support using forcetotakecontrolof Greenland. That low number drops further to 6%whenit comes to Canada. Taking control of Cubadraws slightly greater support, though still only 20%. World leaders: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyreceives the highest favorable rating among the fourforeign leaders tested: 53% favorableto31% unfavorable.

RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’snegative ratingin the U.S.is10times greater thanhis positive rating— 80% to 8%. Iran’sMojtabaKhameneiisevenworse;his negative is nearly 11 times larger thanhis positivescore, 54% to 5%.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is viewed favorably by 28% of U.S. voters and unfavorablyby52% That’sfar down from where it stood. Netanyahu has become apariahamong Democrats, with afavorable rating of just 9%. He does better withRepublicans, where nearly 50% view him positively Numbers tell the story,but they canchange.That’sexactly why they’re worth watching.

Ron Faucheux is anonpartisanpoliticalanalyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

Iwritetoday to express my agreement with Garret Graves’ June 30 commentary on the issue of open vs. closed primaries. I, too, believe that open primaries foster greater electoral participation, result in better candidates and, generally,better serve our state. What Ihope now is that Graves’ concern with voter engagement and ensuring that “citizens choose their representatives and government remainsaccountable to its people” extends to other areas of our electoral process.

Graves, as acongressman, voted in 2020 to reject the electoral college delegation from Pennsylvania after they were properly elected by thecitizens of their state, basically telling those citizens their votes didn’tcount. Mr.Graves’ own party has also enthusiastically taken advantage of their legislative majorities around thecountry to ger-

As alongtime reader of the obituary section and an expert on local funeral customs and traditions, I have noticed asigniﬁcant decline in thenumber of funeral notices published in the daily paper

Though this letter may not be reaching the right audience, since people who do not read thenewspaper mostly likely do not post obituaries., it should be noted that published obitsserve anumber of purposes. They inform thepublic of the death. They highlight thelife of thedeceased and identify the next

rymander congressional districts, effectively disenfranchising Democratic and minority voters at every opportunity,and further dividing our country.They also, without evidence, daily cast doubt on the integrity of our electoral process. Each of these seems amuch greater infringement of voting rights and a much greater risk to our democracy than how we go about selecting candidates in aprimary election.

To ﬂip Graves’ point, Louisiana and the United States currently have aproblem in search of asolution. Ihope Graves and the rest of those in his party will, forthe good of the state and the country,turn their backs on this “win at all costs” approach to politics and governance and stand up fordemocracy andthe sanctity of aperson’svote when it matters.

PATFORBES

Baton Rouge

of kin. Butperhaps mostimportantly,they preservethe lifeofthe individual in perpetuity forfuture generations, researchers and historians.While manydeaths are now noted on social media, which is not incidentallyfree while it costs money to post in the paper,those outlets are ephemeral and today’s post disappears into the ether by tomorrow

Postinganobituary in the newspaper ensures thememoryofour loved ones lives on.

JAYMAZZA NewOrleans

This year,some people in our country are celebrating our 250th anniversary.Not me. Iam ashamed of what the United States has become. Sadly,this is not the ﬁrst timeour government has screwed things up so badly Fifty years ago, as we celebrated our 200th anniversary,wehad just been defeated in South Vietnam, having lost 58,220 of our best young people and atrillion dollars. We watched in horror as the Communist North Vietnamese Army overran the country,slaughtering amillion of the people whohad believed in us.

Now, here we are, 50 years later, watching in horror again as our government, led by acriminal madman and his incompetent Secretary of “War,” pursue another senseless slaughter forreasons based upon faulty logic and vanity When will we ever learn?

ED BROCK Baton Rouge

Youdoyour readers adisservice by giving disproportionate attention to U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow over her Democratic election opponent. Yougave moreattention to her losing primary opponent, John Fleming, forexample, than to Democratic candidate Jamie Davis, not to mention posting ahuge picture of Letlow and atiny one of Davis on election night.

Youalso unfairly minimized the potential draw of Davis by ignoring the fact that aDemocrat won the statewide position of governor very recently,serving from 2016 to 2024, if Irecall correctly

Regardless of whom you personally prefer forthe position, you owe us, your readers and those paying not-insubstantial subscription fees forjournalism, better and fairer reporting.

ROWENA JONES NewOrleans

GLENJACKSON NewOrleans

President Donald Trumphas squandered hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to “upgrade” the luxury airplane gifted to him.This plane, thenew Air Force One, will becomehis personal property once he leaves office. Yetwhen departing therecent NATO summit in Turkey,heflew on theprevious Air Force Onebecause it was deemed safer and more capable than thegifted airplane. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on an aircraft that cannot perform as well as theprevious plane. Lookslike the definition of waste, fraud and abuse on the largest scale to me.

Ron Faucheux

Tulane returning to LSU schedule in 2030

Tigers to host Southern in 2028, other state schools

BY JON BLAU Staff writer

LSU adding Tulane back to its football schedule is a big deal. But what week the Tigers will play the Green Wave in 2030 is an

even bigger deal.

The matchup is scheduled for Aug. 31 of that year in Tiger Stadium, according to a Friday release from LSU, which means it could lead off the Tigers’ 2030 slate.

LSU is also adding an Aug. 28, 2027, opener with Northwestern State; an Aug. 26, 2028, opener with UL-Monroe; and a Sept. 9 2028, contest with Southern.

Coach Lane Kifﬁn has made it known he doesn’t love playing marquee opponents, such as a

Clemson, in Week 1 of the regular season. College football programs don’t have preseason games to prepare, and starting the season with a loss to a difficult opponent can change the course of a season from both a momentum and perception standpoint. In this playoff era, a bad start can be the difference between making or missing the College Football Playoff field, which was a point of discussion for Kiffin on the Pardon My Take podcast in May

He highlighted his 20-0 record in nonconference games during his six seasons at Ole Miss.

The Rebels made the CFP last season and went on a run to the semiﬁnals after Kifﬁn left to take the LSU job.

“We didn’t play in any of them big openers,” Kiffin said. “This place (LSU) in a four-year span lost three of four openers. ‘Yeah, that’s so great (to play a big game),’ whatever But you don’t get rewarded for it because it’s not

PROTECTION PLAN

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

The progress has been slow and it has not gone without some bumps in the road, but through the draft and free agency, the Saints have assembled an offensive line that should serve as the bedrock of a successful offense.

It is bookended by two tackles taken in the top 15 of back-to-back drafts in Kelvin Banks on the left and Taliese Fuaga on the right. It is led by Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy, who is hopeful he can put his injury woes from the last two seasons behind him. And it may be taken to the next level by pricey free agent acquisition David Edwards, who boasted an impressive 95% pass-block win rate last season, according to ESPN.

For a team that has been searching for an offensive identity for quite some time,

a strong offensive line can help right that ship. Just by virtue of their personnel at the point of attack, the Saints should hold up in both the run and passing game, allowing them to dictate the game to the defense.

That is a theory at this point. A lot of things can go wrong, as recent seasons have proven. But on paper, this is the best offensive line the Saints have put on the ﬁeld since Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk lined up at tackle.

Number to know: 742

That is the number of combined offensive snaps McCoy has played the last two seasons — fewer than any one of his ﬁrst ﬁve seasons.

Smoke clouds conditions for World Cup

worth it enough.” LSU lost five straight openers from 2020-24, starting the skid with a home loss to Mississippi State and a road defeat at UCLA. Brian Kelly opened his

Burns, Herbert shoot majors-record round; DeChambeau penalized

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

SOUTHPORT England The British Open came to life Friday when Lucas Herbert and former LSU golfer Sam Burns took their place in history by tying the major championship record with 62s, and Bryson DeChambeau was penalized two shots after his round for inadvertently improving the path of his swing. In the midst of all the late drama was Jon Rahm getting an official conduct warning for throwing his club after a bad tee shot. The real emotion came in the twilight hours with no spectators around as DeChambeau stood in high grass on the fifth hole with two rules officials, pleading his case and ultimately losing the argument. His 4-under 66 became a 68, and he went from one shot behind Herbert to three behind. And then he went to the range until the only light came from the video boards. DeChambeau has turned down media at the majors dating to his missed cut at the Masters in April.

Herbert, who was at 8-under 132, was slightly disappointed with his record-tying round because he missed a 5-foot par putt that would have given him a 61.

“Very very proud to put my name on that list of guys that have shot 62 in a major championship. So it’s kind of holding two emotions there at the same time,” Herbert said. “It’s a pretty good problem to have, too, to be disappointed you shot 62.” Burns didn’t even know he tied a record when he holed a bunker shot on

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By PETER MORRISON

STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD

Saints offensive linemen Dillon Radunz, second from left, and Kelvin Banks,

LSU loses freshman signee chosen late in MLB draft

One of LSU baseball’s freshman signees will no longer begin his collegiate career in Baton Rouge. Anthony Murphy a power-hitting California center ﬁelder who was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 16th round of the 2026 MLB Draft, said in a social media post Friday that he had “decided to decommit” from LSU and “reopen my recruitment.” He later pledged to Miami.

“Being committed to LSU has been an incredible honor,” Murphy said, “and I’ll always be thankful for the relationships I’ve built and the support I’ve received.

“This decision was not made lightly and is in no way a reﬂection of LSU, its coaches or the program. I have nothing but respect and appreciation for everything they’ve done for me.”

Smith-Njigba cream of WRs

BY ROB MAADDI Associated Press

Jaxon Smith-Njigba won the AP Offensive Player of the Year award and the Super Bowl last season before the Seattle Seahawks gave him the biggest contract for a wide receiver in NFL history

No surprise he was voted the NFL’s top wideout by The Associated Press in a preseason survey

Smith-Njigba received four ﬁrst-place votes, three thirds and a fourth from a panel of eight AP pro football writers, who ranked the top five receivers entering the 2026 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Secondthrough fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle Seahawks

The 24-year-old set a team record for yards receiving (1,793) and receptions (119) last season. He received a four-year, $168.6 million extension that averages $42.15 million annually and includes over $120 million in guaranteed money

Smith-Njigba, a unanimous All-

Pro selection, had nine 100-yard receiving games during the regular season and was a key to Seattle winning its second Super Bowl in franchise history

2. Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals

Chase, a unanimous All-Pro selection in 2024, tied Justin Jef-

Arizona TE McBride continues to shine

BY ROB MAADDI Associated Press

Trey McBride was the bright spot last season for a dismal team in Arizona. He was the most productive tight end in the NFL, a near-unanimous All-Pro selection and made his second straight Pro Bowl. McBride’s success has also landed him the top spot at tight end in a preseason survey by The Associated Press. He received five first-place votes from a panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers who ranked the top five players at the position.

1. Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals

McBride had a breakout year in 2024 and followed that up with a record-setting season in 2025. He caught 126 passes last season, breaking Zach Ertz’s record for most in a season by a tight end, had 1,239 receiving yards, and his 11 receiving touchdowns tied for first. McBride also led tight ends with 566 yards after the catch.

2. George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

Kittle had 57 receptions for 628 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in only 11 games last season, averaging 11.0 yards per reception. He had just two drops and 259 yards after the catch

The seven-time Pro Bowl pick and two-time All-Pro is one of the best blocking tight ends in NFL history

3. Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders

After a sensational All-Pro rookie season, Bowers was plagued by injuries last year. He caught 64 passes for 680 yards and seven TDs in 12 games and made his second Pro Bowl. Bowers gained 296 yards after the catch, and had three drops. A

AP FILE PHOTO By JOSHUA A. BICKEL Cardinals tight end Trey McBride catches a touchdown pass in the end zone against the Bengals on Dec 28 in Cincinnati.

dynamic receiver Bowers is still a work in progress as a blocker

4. Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions

LaPorta was limited to nine games because of injuries last season and had 40 catches for 489 yards and three TDs. He wasn’t charged with any drops and totaled 273 yards after the catch. LaPorta is one of the best all-around tight ends in the league and an asset in Detroit’s run game because of his outstanding blocking skills.

5. Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons

Pitts earned second-team AllPro honors after a career-high 88 catches for 928 yards and ﬁve TDs last season. Pitts, who was the highestdrafted tight end in NFL history in 2021 when the Falcons selected him No. 4 overall, lived up to expectations as a rookie when he made the Pro Bowl But he was disappointing until a breakthrough season last year

ferson for ﬁrst place in voting last year in this survey He had 125 receptions, 1,412 yards receiving and eight touchdowns last season after earning the receiving triple crown in 2024.

3. Puka Nacua, Los Angeles Rams

Nacua was a unanimous All-Pro

selection after leading the NFL with 129 catches for 1,715 yards and 10 TDs.

Nacua has averaged 104 catches, 1,397 yards receiving and six TDs over his three seasons in the NFL, giving Matthew Stafford a top target and the Rams an elite passing attack.

4. Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings

In a down season, Jefferson had 84 catches for 1,048 yards and two TDs while catching passes from three different Vikings quarterbacks. The two-time All-Pro has averaged 97 catches, 1,413 yards and seven TDs over his six seasons in the NFL.

5. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions

St. Brown was a second-team All-Pro after earning first-team honors the previous two seasons. He had 117 receptions, 1,401 yards receiving and 11 TDs last season for the Lions. St. Brown has four straight seasons of more than 100 receptions and more than 1,100 yards receiving.

RB Robinson meets hype

BY JOSH DUBOW Associated Press

The expectations for Bijan

Robinson were high as soon as he entered the NFL in 2023 as the ﬁrst running back taken with a top-10 pick in ﬁve years.

Robinson made an impact almost from the start with the Atlanta Falcons and then took his game to another level last season when he led the NFL in yards from scrimmage and was picked as the All-Pro running back.

That production helped Robinson win the honor of being named the top running back in the league by The Associated Press.

1. Bijan Robinson, Atlanta Falcons

Robinson, the eighth pick in 2023, is one of the top dual-threat backs in the league, finishing fourth in the league in rushing last season with 1,478 yards to go along with 820 yards receiving.

He became the second player ever with at least 1,400 yards rushing and 800 yards receiving in the same season, joining Steven Jackson, who did it in 2006. Robinson led the NFL with 2,298 yards and scored 11 touchds

2. Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers

McCaffrey has established himself as the most dangerous receiving threat out of the backﬁeld and is a focal point of Kyle Shanahan’s passing game in San Francisco. McCaffrey wasn’t the explosive runner last season as he had been earlier in his career, rushing for 1,202 yards and averaging just 3.9 yards per carry He more than made up for that with 102 catches for 924 yards as he nearly became the first player ever with two seasons with at least 1,000 yards rushing and receiving.

3. Derrick Henry, Baltimore Ravens

People have been waiting for Henry to shows signs of decline as he reached his 30s, but it hasn’t been evident yet.

Henry has topped 1,500 yards rushing in each of the past two seasons after turning 30, with his ﬁve 1,500-yard seasons tied with Lions legend Barry Sanders for the most ever Henry ranked second in the NFL last season with 1,595 yards rushing and is 10th all-time with 13,018 yards.

4. Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles

Barkley took a step back from his record-setting 2024 season when his 2,504 yards rushing in the regular season and playoffs were the most ever as Philadelphia’s offense was less potent last season. He still managed to rush for 1,140 yards and scored nine total touchdowns.

5. Jahmyr Gibbs, Detroit Lions

Gibbs has been a scoring machine since entering the league with Robinson in 2023, when he was picked four spots later at No 12 overall. Gibbs’ 49 career TDs are the most ever for a player before turning 24, topping the previous mark of 47 set by Sanders.

Had Murphy decided to join the Tigers, he would’ve faced a roster crunch. LSU was projected to have more than 40 players on its 2027 roster before Friday and a likely competition for the starting center ﬁeld spot.

A’ssign Southern infielder as undrafted free agent

KJ White’s stellar senior season at Southern earned him a chance with an MLB team as he signed with the Athletics as an undrafted free agent, the program announced on Thursday

“I’m extremely proud of KJ and everything he accomplished during his time at Southern University,” Southern coach Chris Crenshaw said in a statement. “He came to work every day with a professional mindset and earned this opportunity through his dedication, consistency and commitment to becoming the best player he could be.” White, a 5-foot-10 inﬁelder, was named Southwestern Athletic Conference Hitter of the Year and ﬁrst-team All-SWAC after having the nation’s third-best batting average in the country (.421).

NFL suspends Cardinals executive over gambling

The NFL has suspended Arizona Cardinals personnel executive Ryan Gold indeﬁnitely for violating the league’s gambling policy

The league said Friday that its investigation determined that Gold provided conﬁdential, non-public inside information regarding 2026 draft selections by the Cardinals before the picks were announced, and Gold also participated in parlay bets on NFL and college games. The league didn’t say who Gold had provided with the information. Gold, who is in his 13th season with the Cardinals, was promoted to director of college scouting in June 2025. He spent 2022-24 as the assistant director of college scouting.

Titans to honor Johnson as Ring of Honor inductee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans will induct Chris Johnson, the sixth man in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in a season, into their Ring of Honor during halftime of their regular-season opener Sept. 13. The Titans announced the honor Friday following Johnson’s revelation June 29 that he was diagnosed with ALS, the fatal nervous system disease a year earlier Johnson was the 24th pick overall in 2008 by the Titans and played six of his 10 seasons in the NFL with Tennessee. Johnson nicknamed “CJ2K,” rushed for 7,965 yards and had 58 total TDs in that span.

MLB restricts dugout iPad usage to prevent use of AI

NEW YORK Major League Baseball is restricting iPad usage in dugouts to prevent the tablets from running artificial intelligence to help make decisions. The tablets have access to video and league-provided data, and also included a custom tab where teams could access other programs. MLB made the custom tabs inaccessible to teams starting Wednesday night.

“In many cases, the custom tab had expanded the use of the dugout iPads beyond their originally intended purpose to include recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other ingame decisions traditionally made by players and coaches,” MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword wrote in a June 11 memo to GMs, assistant GMs and video coordinators.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By BEN VANHOUTEN Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba runs with the ball during the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 25 in Seattle.

AP FILE PHOTO By BRyNN ANDERSON Falcons running

Yankees slugger Judge still not cleared to play

He hasn’t played since May 31 due to rib fracture

BY RONALD BLUM Associated Press

NEW YORK Aaron Judge’s broken rib has not completely healed, and the New York Yankees captain still hasn’t been cleared to resume baseball activities.

Judge hasn’t played since May 31 because of the stress fracture in his right ribs. He had a scan during the All-Star break and called the result positive news

“Part of it’s healing. The other part of it’s still trying to bridge together,” the three-time AL MVP said before the Yankees started the second half Friday night against the two-time reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Judge and the Yankees were waiting for an evaluation of the scans from Dr Gregory J. Pearl, chair of the department of vascular surgery at Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital in Texas. Judge will need another scan before he is cleared for baseball activities and given a time frame for a return.

“I’m going to wait for the doctors to kind of tell us what to do and what they see when they look at it,” Judge said. “We got a big team of guys looking at this just so we get the best answer and have the right plan.”

Judge is hitting .248 with 17 homers and 38 RBIs but had just one homer in his last 18 games. The 34-year-old outfielder has done lower-body work, treadmill and climbing steps but no baseball

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C

The two injuries that ended McCoy’s last two seasons — an elbow in 2024 and a torn biceps in 2025 — were somewhat freak occurrences. McCoy recently said the action that caused him to tear his biceps last year was something that he’d done countless times before. It doesn’t change the fact the Saints need McCoy to stay on the ﬁeld, because there is no question the offense functions at a higher level when he is playing.

The lowdown

The question of how good the offensive line can be likely will come down to the development of the young offensive tackles.

New Orleans used the No. 9 overall pick in 2025 on Banks to be their left tackle of the future. He took over that position from Fuaga, who slid over to the right side after his impressive rookie season as the No. 14 pick in the 2024 draft Banks appears to be a home run pick for the Saints. He played nearly every offensive snap in 2025 and improved as the season went along, cutting his quick pressure rate from over 5% in the ﬁrst half of the season to less than 2% in the second half.

Fuaga appeared to be on that same track after his rookie season. But after switching to the right side — the side he played at Oregon State Fuaga’s play fell off a bit in 2025 as he managed an injury throughout the season.

If a healthy Fuaga can rediscover his form and Banks takes another step forward, the Saints could have one of the NFL’s best young

Belichick is hoping lessons learned lead to more success

North Carolina coach heads into second college season

BY AARON BEARD Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NFL coaching great Bill Belichick spent a bumpy debut season at North Carolina trying to blend a roster full of newcomers and adjusting to life in the college ranks.

It was a learning experience even for someone with a résumé featuring six Super Bowl titles as a head coach and ranking as one of the NFL’s all-time leaders in coaching wins.

“Look, I learn every year; I learn things every day,” Belichick said Friday morning during the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason football media days.

activities or heavy weightlifting.

He’s stopped the bicycle work he did earlier in the layoff.

“It’s feeling better It was a couple weeks that were tough, couldn’t do a lot, but now we’re feeling 10 times better,” he said “So that was my big complaint, well, if I’m feeling better how about we start moving? But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and other stuff and all of a sudden we have a setback and it pushes everything back.”

When he is able to play, Judge doesn’t want to go on a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment.

“I hate rehab games, so I got to to talk with them about all that, because why waste at-bats in a rehab game?” Judge said New York was 36-23 when he last played but was 18-19 since as the second half began Friday

“I feel good about the fact that he will be back, but it’s just a matter of when,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Other Yankees injury news

Left-hander Max Fried, out since May 14 because of a left elbow bone bruise, was to make his ﬁrst rehab start on Friday for TripleA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Worcester and will have at least one more minor league outing.

Left-hander Carlos Rodón, who has not pitched since June 28 because of left elbow inﬂammation, threw 10 pitches off a mound Friday but has not progressed to a bullpen session.

Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn’t played since April 24 because of a strained right calf, started a running progression outdoors.

SAINTS DEPTH CHART

Name Ht. Wt. Exp.

LEFT TACKLE

Kelvin Banks 6-5 315 2

Asim

Simpkins 6-5 312 2

William Sherman 6-4 300 2 RIGHT GUARD

Cesar Ruiz 6-4 316 7

Jeremiah Wright 6-5 331 R

Xavier Truss 6-7 320 2 RIGHT TACKLE

Taliese Fuaga 6-6 324 3

Barry Wesley 6-7 310 2

Alex Wollschlaeger 6-7 310 R

offensive tackle tandems. That does not even include what happened along the interior Edwards was one of the best available free agents at any position this offseason, and the Saints snapped him up for $61 million over four years.

The veteran has drawn rave reviews for quickly settling into a leadership role for the Saints, and he ﬁlls a crucial need — left guard was a bit of a black hole a year ago.

That leaves veteran Cesar Ruiz, the Saints’ 2020 ﬁrst-rounder He is coming off a disappointing 2025 season but has shown at times in his career that he can play at an above average level. He has two years remaining on his contract but no guarantees after this year and the Saints added a little pres-

“Every week is a learning experience for me. Try to listen to the people that are around me that work for us, that do various things, whether it’s academics, training nutrition, offense, defense, special teams, so forth. Try to do the best I can to help put it all together

“Recruiting, fundraising — you name it. There are a lot of different things, and I can improve in all of them.”

It was a rough debut for the 74-year-old Belichick, best known for his time hoisting trophies and winning with relentless precision alongside star quarterback Tom Brady with the New England Patriots.

His arrival at the college level was a spectacle, one that put a national spotlight on a school with a football program that had long been an ACC also-ran compared to its tradition-rich men’s basketball program being among the nation’s blueblood elite.

There’s less buzz this time around. There’s no curiosity to imagining what it will look like for Belichick to roam a college sideline sporting his trademark hoodie garb. And the Tar Heels’ poor on-ﬁeld performance offers little reason to expect a big leap in Year 2.

Yet similar to what he was known for in his Patriots tenure, Belichick is focused on his internal evaluation. And he sees cause for optimism

“Last year when we started, we were literally starting from scratch,” he said. “We’re above that now for sure.

Hoping for more continuity

Belichick has pointed numerous times to the Tar Heels getting a late run into recruiting after his December hiring, starting with jumping into the transfer portal and then pulling from the

sure on him by selecting Jeremiah Wright out of Auburn in the fourth round.

While Ruiz likely isn’t going to share starters’ reps with Wright during training camp, the stakes are relatively high for him to prove he should still be the right guard beyond 2026.

Potential camp battle

The Saints were able to navigate McCoy’s injury to a degree last season because they traded for Luke Fortner, who wound up starting the ﬁnal 10 games and playing well enough to earn a $2.75 million contract from the Carolina Panthers in the offseason.

That leaves relatively untested young players such as Torricelli Simpkins and William Sherman to compete for the primary spot behind McCoy Both started a pair of games at guard while New Orleans endured a rash of injuries on the interior of the offensive line last season.

Simpkins is the younger of the two, entering his true second season in the NFL. Sherman was drafted in 2021 but spent several seasons on practice squads before returning to a game day roster last season. This summer, Simpkins took snaps with the second team, though that is hardly an indication of where things will land in September

One thing to keep in mind: Ruiz is listed as a G/C on the team’s website (as is McCoy) and was primarily a center in college. The Saints didn’t want to shift him inside after McCoy’s injury last season because they felt it would make them worse at two positions, but perhaps that mindset would change if New Orleans feels conﬁdent about Wright.

high school ranks. That meant pulling together a roster to get started with spring drills, then going through more waves of roster changes leading into preseason camp.

“The biggest thing last year was just how behind we were,”

Belichick said of his December 2024 arrival.

By the time the Tar Heels started last season, they had 70 new players.

“This time a year ago, we didn’t have a quarterback who had taken a snap even in spring ball for us,” Belichick said.

“Last year we didn’t have any player-run practices. We couldn’t actually line up a team and run against another team without the coaches being out there because we didn’t have anybody that knew enough on either side of the ball to do that. Whereas this year these guys have done it all spring and all summer.”

To that point, the Tar Heels have plenty of newness on the roster with 60 new players, 40 true freshmen and 17 redshirt freshmen. But UNC also had 35 of the freshmen arrive in time to go through spring practices while there’s enough returnees to offer continuity and better stability

“Culture’s a lot different, work ethic’s different,” Belichick said.

“I’m not taking anything away from the guys that were here. But compared to a year ago, we just know a lot more about what we’re doing and how to do it and our culture’s a lot different.”

UNC knows what to expect

Belichick’s appearance at this ACC kickoff event last year was the center of attention So too was his nationally televised Labor Day debut in front of a sellout home crowd against TCU.

Yet the Tar Heels lost that game in a blowout in what turned out to be a harbinger of frustra-

LSU

Continued from page 1C

Kelly finally won an opener at Clemson last season. Now LSU has to complete the home-andhome series against Clemson with a Sept. 5 contest in Baton Rouge, which will be Kifﬁn’s debut.

Kiffin doesn’t want to play a tough nonconference slate when he doesn’t believe other leagues are doing the same. He argues the Big Ten, home to the last three national champions, isn’t as deep as the SEC and those teams don’t have as many games to “get up for on their schedule each year

“That schedule, where half your games you don’t have to get up for, it’s a mental toll that you gotta play when you have to get up for (it),”

Kifﬁn said on Pardon My Take.

Kiffin would much rather open with a school from a non-Power Four conference, and American Conference member Tulane fits the bill Tulane also happens to be the team LSU played in its first football game ever in 1893, which Tulane won 34-0.

That’s not to say the Green Wave has become pushovers, because it made the playoff under now-Florida coach Jon Sumrall last season. But the last time LSU played Tulane was an Oct. 31, 2009, contest in Tiger Stadium, which the Tigers won 42-0.

LSU’s only other game against Southern came in 2022 for a 6517 victory LSU last faced Northwestern State in 2019 and prevailed 65-14.

UL-Monroe is a program LSU has faced four times. The Tigers have won all four games in the series, though its 2014 win was

tion to come And Belichick’s mere presence on the sideline only magniﬁed the pressure that arose from on-ﬁeld troubles and unwanted off-field headlines, from an assistant coach’s suspension to tabloid-like interest in Belichick’s relationship with 25-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.

“Seeing a guy like Coach Belichick, who’s constantly in the spotlight I mean, the guy could cure cancer and people would still write negative pieces about him,” offensive lineman Christo Kelly said.

“But seeing how he handles himself through everything, seeing how he’s continued to block out the noise, it really sets the standard for what we should be doing.”

By the end of the year, Belichick had fielded a team that had more losses by double-digit margins (five) than total wins, with two home losses ending in an empty stadium with Tar Heels fans having fled early for the exits. UNC’s three wins against Bowl Subdivision opponents came against teams with a combined 8-28 record (Charlotte Syracuse and Stanford), while the Tar Heels failed to make a bowl for the first time since 2018.

“We really felt like it was all Carolina Carolina for Carolina, nobody else was really rooting for us, everybody wanted to see Coach Belichick fail,” receiver Jordan Shipp said.

“It was just like we knew that we were in this by ourselves. And everybody that was here last year we know that feeling. So now we know what to expect. The same goes for Belichick, who was asked in the afternoon what he had learned about himself at UNC.

“That I like coaching in college,” Belichick said “I didn’t know whether I would or wouldn’t, but I do.”

vacated because of a booster scandal.

Officially, LSU is a combined 16-0 vs. Northwestern State, ULMonroe and Southern.

LSU holds a combined record of 69-22-7 vs. Tulane, but the Tigers have won 18 straight and haven’t lost since 1982. Of Tulane’s 22 wins over LSU, 18 came prior to 1950.

LSU will open 2027 with Northwestern State, Houston and Texas-San Antonio before launching into a nine-game conference slate. The 2028 campaign will open with UL-Monroe, SMU and Southern. In 2029, the Tigers are slated to make a return trip to SMU before hosting Rice and McNeese State in Tiger Stadium. LSU currently has a home-andhome series scheduled with Utah in 2031-32, as well.

Email Jon Blau at jon.blau@ theadvocate.com

FILE PHOTO By KATHy ANDERSON LSU coach Lane Kifﬁn rides in the Endymion parade on Orleans Avenue on Feb 14 in New Orleans.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JASON BEHNKEN

Aaron Judge watches from the yankees’ dugout during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 6 in St Petersburg, Fla

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS SEWARD

North Carolina coach Bill Belichick is seen on the sidelines during a game against Duke on Nov. 22 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

BRITISH OPEN

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By PETER MORRISON

RoryMcIlroyofNorthernIreland looksatthe lie of his putt on the fourth green during the second dayofthe British Open on FridayatRoyal Birkdale golf club in Southport, England

McIlroymakes weekend with sizablegap to close

BY STEVE DOUGLAS AP sportswriter

SOUTHPORT,England Rory McIlroy hasdone enoughtomakeittothe weekend at RoyalBirkdale.

He’ll have to do much, much more to lift the claret jug.

The world No. 2bounced back with a3-under 67 in the second round at the British Open on Friday,ensuring he wouldthe cut with his score of 1-under par overall. But he sitsseven shotsback of leader Lucas Herbert while sitting in atie for 38th.

McIlroy knew he’d left afew shots out there, though, especially whenhesaw that two other morning starters —Herbert andformer LSU golfer Sam Burns —tiedthe major championship record with rounds of 62 in gorgeous conditions.

“It was alittle better today,”

BRITISH

Continued from page1C

minutes after Herbertshot his 62. But there was no mistaking the frustration of DeChambeau, who tends to draw attention no matter what he does. He has been more visible on his successfulYouTube channel than in the majors,particularly having missed the cut in all three of them until this week

Six-time major champion Nick Faldo criticizedhim for having no strategy for links golf, and DeChambeau responded by working his way into contention with plenty of power.

DeChambeau was hand-slapping with the gallery afterhemadea12foot birdie putt on the 18thtoget within one shot of Herbert going into the weekend. That changed when ofﬁcials asked him to review his shot from the ﬁfth hole.

DeChambeau asked to be taken to thesceneofthe infraction, in thick, high grass to the right of the 321-yard hole. TV cameras picked himuparguing withGrant Moir the R&A executive director of governance,and Mark Luiten, achief referee from the European tour He drove well to the right and was stomping around as hetried to ﬁgure out how to navigateashot 72 yards from the hole. At issue was whether he violated Rule 8that governs the intended swing.

Officialseventually deemed a section of grass behind the ball was tamped down by hismovement, whichmighthaveaffected his backswing on the shot

“A player is allowedtofairly take their stance by takingreasonable actionstoget to the ball and take astance, if in some situations that improves thecondition affecting the stroke,” Moir said. “But when doing so, the player must take the least intrusive course of action to deal with the particular situation and is not entitled to a normal stance or swing.”

He said the rule applies even when there is no intention to improve the area. Even more dramafollowed when DeChambeau stormed off to the range. His agent, BrettFalkoff, was asked if the two-time U S

McIlroysaid, “butstill didn’tfeel

100% comfortable. Hopefully try to ﬁgure that outasthe week goes on.”

He mighthaveﬁgured it outtoo late.

While McIlroyisseven shots off theclubhouse lead held by Herbert, morerelevantmight be No. 4-ranked Cameron Young being at 6under.Other players such as top-ranked Scottie Schefﬂer,Jon Rahm and BrysonDeChambeau are also well ahead of thebackto-back Masters champion on the leaderboard.

McIlroy,who wonthe British Open just down the road in Hoylake in 2014, struggled on the greens in shooting72onThursdayand said he still hasn’tﬁgured them out.

“I felt like Ihit good puttsand they didsomething completely different to what Isaw in the read,

PLAYERS

and Ithink that’salittle unnerving,” he said.

McIlroy was happy with his driving. He drove the green on the par4ninth hole with a377-yard tee shot thatsettled 11 feet from the pin, settingupthe third of his four birdies on Friday

Yet, for all his excellence off of thetee, he has madeonly one birdie on the par 5s this week.

McIlroy hopes theconditions allow him to be aggressive off of the teeoverthe weekend.Itmightbe his only hope of avictory

“I think any time Ican get adriver in my hand, I’mgoing to tryto,” he said. “I just feel like with how I’m feeling with thedriver,Ithink it’sa big advantage if Ican get the ball down there and take out some of these fairway bunkers

“l continue todothat when Ican, andthenI’m still trying to ﬁgure out these greens alittle bit.”

SHOOTING 62 IN MAJORS

Playerswitha62inmen’smajor championshipswithround,year andcourse(par)

U.S. OPEN

■ Rickie Fowler, first, 2023, Los Angeles Country Club (70)

■ Xander Schauffele, first, 2023, Los Angeles CountryClub(70) PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

■ x-XanderSchauffele, first, 2024, Valhalla (71)

Open champion would play on Saturdayand replied,“We’ll see.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” the agentsaid.

Herbert was long gone when all this was takingplace, withmixed emotions about ashortmiss on the finalholebut proud to becomethe sixth person to shoot62inamajor.And then Burns madeitseven with his astonishing finish —a 40foot birdie putt from off thegreen at the 16th,a 20-footbirdieonthe 17th and thefirst birdie of the day on the18th with his bunker shot.

Still steamingfrom abogey-bogey-bogeyﬁnish on Thursday for a3-over 73, Burns’ goal was to get back under parand keep his hopes aliveinthe championship.

“The ﬁnishthere thelast three holeswas just abonus,” Burns said of his roundFriday Burns wasn’teven supposed to be at the British Open.His wife was due with their second child this week, but when she hada daughter earlier than expected on July 3, Burns decided to cross the Atlantic for another shot at amajor. He wasrunner-up by oneshot in the U.S.Open.

When the dustﬁnallysettled on thebrown-bakedlinks of Royal Birkdale, the only clarity was Herbert having his first 36-hole lead in amajor.And golf’s oldest championship,which rarely lacks fordrama, hadalmostmorethanit could handle.

Reigning champion Scottie Schefﬂer couldn’tbuy aputt until a12-footer for par on the ﬁnal hole gave hima68and left himonly four shots behind “All you can do is continue to

Rose,Fitzpatrick amongthe ﬁeld saying farewells

BY DOUG FERGUSON AP golf writer

SOUTHPORT,England Justin Rose could feel the warmthand adulation as he walked up the 18th holeFriday in the British Open. He just wishes he could have changed the day of the week. Rosehad lefthimself too big of ahole and didn’t ma ke nearly enough putts to make the cut at Royal Birkdale. He closed with a2-under 68 —heshot76inthe firstround—and his exit was moreceremonialthan it wasa celebration.

“I was trying to get out of my own head at that point and just enjoy theglorious walkthat an Open Championship 18th hole is,” Rosesaid. He knowsfromexperience, particularly at Royal Birkdale. It was in 1998 when Rose, the 17-year-old amateur,chipped in on theﬁnalholetotie forfourth. He’snot been able to capture that moment since then, but the adoring spectators sounded just as loud.

“I could feel that they wanted it forme,” Rose said. “I think up 18, it was just about the warmreception. Obviously,Ithink people often remember yesteryear,me walking up thathole at Birkdale, but Ithink it’salot of appreciation for the career I’ve had since then,and Ijust really wanted to enjoy it with them.”

English hopes were high for this British Open because of players such as Rose, at No.10inthe world,and Matt Fitzpatrick with three wins this year and rising to No. 3inthe world.

Fitzpatrickalsomissedthe cut— his younger brother,Alex, goes into theweekendfourshots behind the leader —and the frustrationwas evidentwithevery missedputt. He often gave apronounced thumbs up over his misses.Fitzpatrickchalked it up to the quirks and bounces of links golf.

■ Shane Lowry, third, 2024, Valhalla (71) BRITISH OPEN

■ Branden Grace, third, 2017, RoyalBirkdale (70)

■ Lucas Herbert, second, 2026, RoyalBirkdale (70)

■ Sam Burns, second, 2026, RoyalBirkdale (70)

The Associated Press

give myself opportunities,” Schefﬂer said. “I was hittingsomegood putts as well, the balls just weren’t dropping. If Icontinue to strike it like Idid today and yesterday over thenext coupledays, I’ll be in a good spot.”

Jackson Suber (69) and Ryan Gerard (67), apair of newcomers to linksgolf, were tied for second withCameronYoung, whohas powerfully put together apair of 67s as he looks morelike the player who dominated the spring.

Rahm,who misseda4-footbirdie putt on theﬁnalholeand shot 67, was very muchinthe mix just four shotsbehind and not about to change his intensity,eventhough anotherconduct violationwould be atwo-shot penalty

“It’snot like I’m going to if I trytoalter who Iamtoo much, it might costmealittle bit on the course,”Rahmsaid. “Butcertainly shouldn’thave moments like the one on 15. Iget it.”

Sixteen playerswere separated by four shotsgoing into the weekend, whichincludeshometown star Tommy Fleetwood,who had threebirdies over the last five holes for a67.

The cut was at 1-over 141 and a few of England’sbest hopeswon’t be around —Matt Fitzpatrick, the No. 3player in the world, and Justin RoseatNo. 10. Herbert,who has won on five tours around the world and most recentlyonLIV Golf, made the cut for only the 10th time in 18 majors. He madeitlook easy until theﬁnalhole, andnow histhoughts shift from having his nameinthe record book to hisname on the

Low scoring at Royal Birkdale —highlighted by the recordtying 62s by Lucas Herbert and SamBurns on Friday—put the cut at 1-over 141. It wasthe secondstraightyearthat1-overpar madethe cut.

Jordan Spieth, whowon at Royal Birkdale in 2017, made apair of birdies early to raise hopes he wouldmakeittothe weekend. But then he three-putted from 4feetonNo. 7. He three-putted from 8feet on No.14. He madea 9onthe 17th hole.Itaddeduptoa 77 as he ﬁnished at 10-over 150 to miss the cut by nine shots. Masters champion Rory McIlroy (139) was the only major champion this year whowill be around for the weekend. PGA champion Aaron Rai (142) and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (143) both missed the cut. And thenwerewas Harry Hall of England, whoopened with a77 and had a68that left him three shots outside the cut. He became the only player to miss the cut in all four majors this year There were somelate heroics, with Min WooLee andJosele Ballester each making birdie on the 18th hole —the hardest on the course —tomake the cut on the number “Just making cuts is not the big picture, butmomentslikethat when youneed to, Ithink that will help in the long run,” Lee said. “It would have been abit of a bummer to pack my bags and go home. I’m excited fortomorrow Hopefully we get good conditions in the morning and can put alow one there.”

Cameron Smith, who won the Open at St.Andrews in 2022 a few months before he bolted for LIVGolf, missed the cut in three of the four majors this year.He missed all four of them in 2025. Smith even went to amallet putter,asurprise movefor someone reputed to be amongthe best. His problemwas before he got to the green as he was unable to give himself abirdie look inside 20 feet on the entire back nine in his round of 69. He missedthe cut by one shot.

“I’ve hit decent shots, gotten no luck and come away with4-over par.That’s the waylinks golf is,” Fitzpatrick said. “You need to have thatrub of the green sometimes, andI didn’thaveitthis week.”

Justin RoseofEngland acknowledgesthe crowd after completing his second round of the

BYDOUG FERGUSON

AP golf writer

MarcusPlunkett, who left the Army as acaptain to pursue golf achieved one goal in his British Open debut. He made it to the weekend. Plunkett wasat2-over par with seven holes to play when he nearly chipped in on thepar-5 14th and tapped in forbirdie, then had no stress in closing with six pars for a71. The cut was 1-over 141, and he wound up making it on the number

“When Igot out of the Army and kind of embarked on this journey this was the goal forsure,” said Plunkett,who currently playson theAsian Tour

“I got outand just wanted to see howfar Icould takethis. Very grateful and feeling very fortu-

nate and lucky to be in aposition like this.”

He wasatransportation ofﬁcer in the U.S. Army,mainly overseeing the movement of convoys.

How does that carry over to golf?

“I think thething that separates alot of people in the military if youtakeout thephysical ﬁtness aspect —isjust being able to stay calm under pressure and make sound decisions,” he said.

“That’sdeﬁnitely something Itry to carry with me.”

ä Scores. PAGE 5C

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByDAVID GOLDMAN

British Open on FridayatRoyal Birkdale in Southport, England.

Photo portended generational clash at World Cup years later

Messi held baby yamal in now

iconic pictures

BY JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain

Almost two

decades ago, photographer Joan Monfort didn’t think much of his photo shoot of a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a cute baby boy in a plastic bathtub. Not until the remarkable twist of fate became clear years later, when that infant blossomed into Lamine Yamal

Now those images of the longhaired Messi, his hands covered in soap suds as if anointing Yamal as soccer’s Next Big Thing, have become the most talked about — and gawked about in the run-up to Sunday’s World Cup ﬁnal, when Messi’s Argentina will play Yamal’s Spain for the biggest trophy in the sport.

“I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explanations,” Monfort told The Associated Press from his home in Barcelona on Friday

Monfort, who works as a freelance photojournalist for the AP, took the photos in 2007 as part of a charity calendar produced by local newspaper Sport and UNICEF

Luck dictated that Yamal’s mother, who appears in the calendar photo, won a rafﬂe of families in the city of Mataró, near Barcelona, who wanted to participate. Soccer destiny then deemed that her baby boy, who would become a star for Barcelona some 15 years later, was paired up with the Argentine who would become one of the greatest of all time.

A tearful Messi left Barcelona in 2021 when the club was in ﬁnancial trouble. Yamal erupted at the club two years later. The journey is now complete, from bathtub to World Cup final, where the 19-year-old Yamal will face a Messi who is 20 years his senior

SMOKE

Continued from page 1C

Spanish Football Association asking whether that was considered or possible were not returned. Air quality improved Friday, but the uncertainty lies in what will follow what could be up to 1.25 inches of rain expected to fall

Saturday

“Following that, it looks like there is another smoky air mass following in behind that system, but it’s not clear right now how much or how it might reach New York or New Jersey, when it comes to actually Sunday,” said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. “If the fire intensity really picks up again through (Saturday), it’s possible it puts more smoke into the atmosphere that then might quickly follow that rain event.”

Jonathan Belles, senior meteorologist for The Weather Channel app and weather.com, expects to have improved conﬁdence in the forecast as game time gets closer

mation in different parts of the body, often attacking a person’s weakest points, which can then cascade into different effects of an immune system trying to ﬁght a nasty irritant, doctors and scientists say There could be an effect on players’ performance even if the air conditions are moderate according to University of California, San Diego professor of medicine

Chantal Darquenne.

“It’s kind of a dose dependent effect,” Darquenne said. “If it’s moderate, it’s going to be less of an effect, but it’s still going to be there, especially because they are doing vigorous exercise during these events.”

Roughly 80,000 fans are expected at the ﬁnal, which takes place in the large, open-air stadium in the Meadowlands that is home to the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets.

Monfort had no recollection of the photos until Yamal’s father posted one on social media during the 2024 European Championship, when a teenage Yamal was enjoying his international breakout and led Spain to the title.

The photo went viral then. But now with the World Cup final looming, Monfort said, interest in his photos has skyrocketed.

“This has exploded all over the world, and the fact that the final is in the U.S. has given it the extra push,” Monfort said. “And now this has culminated with the final between Messi and Yamal. It is better than any film script.”

Monfort said he has been bombarded by queries for the photos by professional media outlets, while also seeing his images reproduced countless times on social media and the internet without any credit or compensation.

Yamal’s Spain teammate Mikel Merino had the same reaction as most people who see the photos.

“The first time I saw it, I thought it was AI and that it

wasn’t even real,” Merino said Friday “It’s unbelievable that two of the best players to have played the game and hopefully Lamine, in the future, will be one of those — share a picture like that. Hopefully we’re going to see a very bright ﬁnal with those two protagonists at their best, playing and giving all the fans a great spectacle.”

Like many Barcelona fans, Monfort’s loyalty is split. It is common to see children wearing both Yamal’s Barcelona and Spain shirts, as well as any Messi shirt, whether from his Barcelona years or Argentina or his current club, Inter Miami, on the city’s streets.

Monfort, 58, is considering traveling to see the ﬁnal in New Jersey, but whether he watches it in person or at home, he said he will have trouble cheering for one team or the other

“My heart is split. I don’t know if I want Messi or Yamal to win,” said Monfort, a lifelong Barcelona supporter “I have an everlasting love for the best player of all time (Messi). Yamal has broken the mold here.

“Maybe they can both win I wouldn’t rule it out after everything we have seen.”

“The question is whether smoke behind that (rain) system reaches ground level over northern New Jersey on Sunday and, if so, how concentrated it becomes,” Belles said “Current forecast models range from little to no ground level smoke to levels that could become more concerning for players and fans.”

Smoke from wildfires attacks nearly every system in the body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours Smoke can trigger inﬂam-

During a rehearsal Thursday night at MetLife Stadium for Sunday’s halftime show some members of the New York Philharmonic wore masks and some used outdoor-friendly instruments rather than the regular ones they play The haze has caused complaints across sports, with athletes critical about the decision to play in hazardous conditions. Before his New York Yankees played at home roughly 12 miles from the Meadowlands, manager Aaron Boone said he was not hearing much about the smoke.

“Obviously they’re monitoring it to see if it gets any worse,” Boone said.

“We’ll be communicating with our guys a lot. We’re able to test oxygen levels and things like that if guys are having trouble. So, we’re paying attention to it, and we’ll take the guidance from the league and the weather and the smoke people.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEPHEN K.H MOyES

A general view of the stadium is shown during a World Cup match between Panama and England on June 27 in East Rutherford, N.J

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOAN MONFORT

Soccer star Lionel Messi, then 20, cradles Lamine yamal, who was 6 months old, during a photo session in September 2007 in the dressing room of the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain.

BR Ballet Theatre names interim leader

Staff report

Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre

announced the appointment of MystiByrnesasinterim executivedirector Byrnes is anonproﬁt leader, communityadvocateand arts supporter whosecareerhas focused on strengthening communitiesthroughphilanthropy, public engagement, foodaccess and cultural enrichment.

Shepreviously served Baton Rouge as the development director of the Big River Economic &Agricultural Development Alliance, directorofPublic Relations for the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, associate director of Opéra Louisiane and is currently aBaton Rouge Area Foundation Development fellow Her commitment to the community extends beyond herprofessional roles. She currently serves as aCapital Area CASA volunteeradvocate, secretary for the Baton Rouge Opera Guild Board of Directors and is adedicated co-leader of the “Perk Up Perkins”initiative agrassroots movement focused on improving pedestrian safety and corridor enhancements along Perkins Road.

As atrained opera singer,Byrnes is no stranger to the performing arts and has long been an advocate for preserving and expanding access to classical arts organizations throughout the Capital Region.

“I’m honored and excited to return to the performingarts and gratefulfor the opportunitytohelp guideBaton Rouge Ballet Theatre through its next chapter,” Byrnes saidin anews release. “BRBT hasarich history of artistic excellence that has made an enduring contribution to our region’scultural identity Ilook forward to working alongside the Board, staff, instructors, and supporters to continue building on that legacy.”

As interim executivedirector,Byrnes will overseethe

ä See BALLET, page 2D

As the schoolyear starts,we’re thinkingabout thepeoplewho stand at the front of the room, who open classroom doorswith asmile. Sometimes astranger in August becomes the person a student never forgets. Certain teachers saysomething on arandom October afternoon and students repeat it for decades to come —orateacher mayleadbyexample and givein waysthat changes lives. We invite readers to tell us about that teacher who made all the difference: write aletter directly to the teacher and send it to us. Or tell the story plain:a name, aclassroom and the moment that stuck. We’relooking for the lessons that have outlasted the chalkboard(or the dry erase board,as the case

in the

BY JUDYBERGERON Staff writer

As TLC’sfreshman season of “Little Singles” passes the midway point, three series principals were outand about in New Orleansthis week.

John Ferguson, Stephanie Vrettakos and Sammy Replogle traveled to the cityalong with about 700 fellow little people for the nonproﬁt Little People of America’sannual conference. Their entourages —both short-statured and average-sized family andfriends brought total attendance to around 2,000, according to thetrio of castmates known as “the threeamigos.”

They’ve been buddies for years, having ﬁrst met at past conferences. Forging friendships, whichsometimeslead to permanentrelationships are part of the camaraderie of conference week.

“It really is asupport group and a community where, for oneweek, you can really feel like everyone else wouldfeelall year ’round,” Ferguson, 28, of Toronto, Canada, said. “It’s our chance to just leave the average world where we obviouslystand out

and we’re looked at and all of that, but here it’s like everyone shares the same experiences and it’ssuper-relatable.” Adigital content creator, Ferguson added that the conference is great for all age groups. Younger kids have a

Singles cast members fromleft, John Ferguson, Stephanie Vrettakos and Sammy Replogle visitNew Orleans thisweek for the Little Peopleof America conference. PROVIDED

BigEasy

BROS.DISCOVERy ‘LittleSingles’castmates, from left,StephanieVrettakos, Sammy Replogle, John

Krista

and Jordanna

in the backyard of theirPalmSprings vacation rental

Louisianaartistinspiresfashion line

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

ChristianDiorHaute Couture for about ayear,but he has alreadydelivered oneofthe plum couture commissions of all time: Taylor Swift’swedding gown. It’s unclear from reports in the fashionpress howexactly Anderson, 42, becameenamored with Lynda Benglis’ art. His fall 2026-27 couture collection is concentrated on Benglis’ mostbeautiful sculptures, particularly a

ä See BENGLIS, page 2D

‘Little

PHOTOFROM WARNER

Ferguson,

Sulaica

James gather

Byrnes

Women’sretreat in Denham Springs

LAYD Retreat House, 10875 Fontenot Road, DenhamSprings,will host “God’sDaughters Retreat: Who Am I? Identifying the REAL ME!” from 6:30 p.m. Friday,July 31, through noon Saturday,Aug. 1. The overnight retreat is designed to help women rediscover their identity in Christ through worship, prayer,fellowship, reﬂection and Biblical encouragement.

“Participants will be remindedthat they are chosen, loved, healedand deeply valued as daughters of God,” anews release states Registration is $214.19 and is available through

eventbrite.com Event to promote spiritual renewal

Global Network Outreach Ministries, 9466 Greenwell Springs Road, Baton Rouge,will host “The Indwellingofthe HolySpirit: Breath on Us Again,Lord” from 1p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday,July 25

This SpeakLifeEncounter is designed to encourage spiritualrenewal through worship, prayer and the powerofthe HolySpirit.Inspired by Ezekiel37:14, the event will focus on restoring faith, healing brokenness and renewing God’s spirit in everyareaoflife. Lavern Thames will be thefeatured speaker.All are welcome.

TODAYINHISTORY

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, July 18, the 199th day of 2026. There are 166 days left in the year

TodayinHistory:

On July 18, 1976, at the Summer Olympics in Montreal,Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the ﬁrst gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 from Olympic judges for her performance on the uneven bars.

Also on this date:

In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England

In 1863, during the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina. The Confederates were able to repel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th’s commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw,was among those who were killed.

In 1925, Adolf Hitler published the ﬁrst volume of his autobiographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf (My Struggle).”

In 1947, President HarryS.Truman signed aPresidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In 1964, nearly aweek of rioting erupted in New York’sHarlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of aBlack

BALLET

Continued from page1D

organization’sday-to-day operations while working closely with the company’s board of directors to support the organization’s mission, strategic priorities and continued artistic excellence.

“Weare delighted to welcome Mysti to the BRBT family,” said Heather Herman, chair of BRBT’sBoard of Trustees,inthe release “I have the utmost confi-

teenager,James Powell, two days earlier In 1994, abomb hidden in avan destroyed a Jewish culturalcenter in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people. In 2005, an unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-dutypolice ofﬁcer andmaimed a nurse.

In 2013, Detroit became the biggestU.S. city to filefor bankruptcy,its financesravagedand its neighborhoods hollowed outbyalong,slow decline in population and auto manufacturing. Today’sBirthdays: Olympic gold medal figure skater Tenley Albright is 91. Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 88. Singer Dion DiMucci is 87. Actor James Brolin is 86.Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 86. Singer Martha Reevesis85. Business mogul Richard Branson is 76. Actor Margo Martindale is 75. Musician Ricky Skaggs is 72. World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 69. Actor Elizabeth McGovern is 65. Actor VinDiesel is59. Author ElizabethGilbert is57. Retired NBAAll-Star Penny Hardaway is 55. Singer-songwriter M.I.A. is 51. Actor Elsa Pataky (“TheFast and the Furious” films) is 50. Movie director Jared Hess is 47. ActorKristen Bell is 46. ActorPriyanka Chopra is 44. Actor Chace Crawford is 41. Boxer CaneloAlvarez is 36. Olympic sprinter Noah Lylesis29.

denceinher leadership and her ability to position BRBT as theregion’sleading performingartsorganization.”

TheBaton Rouge Ballet Theatre, under the artistic direction of Rebecca Acosta andJonnaCox, is anonproﬁtorganization charteredin1960 to promote and assistthe advancementofclassical and contemporary dance by maintaining aperforming company,presenting ahigh-quality season, and providingdanceeducation and community outreach

STATEOFMIND

shifts buzz from

BY THOMASADAMSON AP fashion writer

PARIS Jonathan Anderson arrived at Paris couture week with the fashion world still waiting to see theDior wedding dress he made for Taylor Swift On Monday,onthe first day,hetried to give it somethingelse to look at.

Three days afterSwift married NFL starTravis Kelce at New York’sMadison SquareGarden, with both dressedbyDior, Andersonreturned to therunway withasculptural, heavily pleated hautecouturecollection inspiredbyAmerican artist Lynda Benglis. The commission was a coup for theLVMH-owned house and for Anderson, the 41-year-old Northern Irish designer appointed ayear ago to overhaulall of Dior’s fashion lines.

Formonths, industry watchers hadbet on American names, such as Ralph Lauren, or on Vivienne

Westwood, whom Swift wears often.

The one dress theworld wanted to see was theone Anderson would not show

So on Mondayhechanged thesubject —toart Poured,not sewn

Thecollection tried to movethe conversation from Swift’shiddengown to the work of Benglis, known sincethe late 1960sfor pouring latex onto gallery ﬂoors and letting metal fold and sag intoshape.

Dior workrooms were treated as aversion of her studio—aplace where ﬂat fabric is pressed, knottedand bent into threedimensions. Benglis bends ﬂatmaterial intoshape; so, in theend, does couture.

The clothes followed that idea. Askirt of silver-foiled petals moved with each step. Astrapless silver lamé gown was cinchedwith an oversized bow.Trousers and blouses were ﬁnished in tight hand-pressed pleats.

Dior’ssignature Bar jacket, the nipped-waist shape the house has builtonsince 1947, was remade several ways: in fern-green tweed with afrayed fringe, in gray houndstooth folded into agiant bow,and once with loose chiffon threads lefthanging at the hem

Otherlookswerebuilt entirely from embroidered silk ﬂowers.

Awide fanofblue tulle was splayed across thefront of one dress.

Handbags came in metallic pleats —four of them designed with Benglis herself Fans out, starsin

Francewas in another heat wave, with temperatures above 86 F.

Dior had sent fans with its invitations, and guests used them through the show in the gardens of the Rodin Museum

The front row mixedpop stars with artists.

Singer Sabrina Carpenter and actor Josh O’Connor sat

among guests including Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, NaomiWatts,Rebecca Ferguson and Alexa Chung. Despite the razzmatazz, Anderson’swager is plain: that the world’smost storied fashion house can afford to be strange. He is often comparedto MatthieuBlazy,the newdesigner at rival Chanel, who madethe wedding dress for singer DuaLipa this month. Theseason nowcarriesa peculiardistinction:Its two biggest stories are dresses no one is allowed to see.

Thebride youcan’t see As couturetraditiondictates, theshowclosed with abride. Anderson sent out apale, strapless columngownunder along veil of hand-pleated chiffon, trimmedwith feathered dandelions and embroideredcactusﬂowers. It wasthe second wedding dress Anderson showcased this week —and theonly one anyone could photograph.

series of large works that appeared to be shimmering pleated ribbon knotted into loose bows.

He respectfully translated Benglis’ visioninto gowns that are both spectacular andquietlyelegant. Anderson, who is certainly aware of Benglis’ role as a1970s feministfirebrand, also scored aconceptual coup by wrapping young women in the pioneering artist’s life’s work.

Benglis might be themost famous artist to have ever graduated from Newcomb College’sart department— now part of Tulane University.She was already achieving fame in New York by 1974 for her experimental

in 2015.

style. Imagine gallonsand gallons of rainbow-colored latex paintpoured directly onto thefloor of an artgallery. Lava flows of foam plastic insulation gushing from the walls and piling up in the

corners. Imagineenormous crusty, curly,coils of clay coated in gold or silverglaze. That’sthe sort of thing Benglis has been known since the 1960s. Back then, big-time art was mostly aboys’ club.

Benglis satirized the situation by taking outanadina respected art magazine that featured atotally nude photo of herself with alarge dildo. It was an art world hand grenade that immediately made her afeminist icon. Acouple of Benglis’ major works are on permanent display in New Orleans. One of her golden abstractions stands on the Poydras Street neutralground near theintersection of Baronne Street, and awave-shaped bronze piece rises from the bank of Big Lake on the walking path near the entrance to City Park. There are also sixsmaller Benglis sculptures in the New Orleans Museum of Art collection.

Email Doug MacCashat dmaccash@theadvocate.

Dior

Taylor Swift’swedding gown to sculptural couture

STAFFFILE PHOTO By DOUGMacCASH

Lynda Benglis’‘The Wave’fountain wasdedicated in CityPark

Amodel wears acreation as partofthe Christian DiorHaute Couture

in Paris on July 6.

We arenot

Dear Miss Manners: Whenever someonebrings doughnuts into the ofﬁce, thereare always afew people who cut adoughnut in half and leave one half in the box. Ifeel this is rude, as it is unappetizing to see food that has been cut up and left. I understand they only want half adoughnut, but Ifeel they should take the whole thing and throw half away, or offer it to someone who wants the other half. Idon’twant to eat someone else’shalf doughnut. Is it polite and appropriate to cut up communal food on aserving platter or box and leave half?

wastingdoughnuts

As consolation, perhaps you canstart amovement to have your co-workers bring doughnut holesto work instead

than about 15 minutes.The indoor air quality of all but themost hyper-clean buildings causes him long-term inﬂammation.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Dear Miss Manners: Howdoyou tell someone their pants are too thin?

Gentle reader: Meaningwhat?Too tight? Toonarrow? Tooseethrough?

Gentle reader: Sorry,but as long as aknife is used or the cut is otherwise clean, Miss Manners sees nothing wrong with leaving half adoughnut. Throwing the other half away is wasteful, and trying to ﬁnd an immediate taker for it would be tedious.

STARS

Continued from page1D

chance to make friends with others who look like them, while adults may look for love and fun.

The Big Easy —heat aside —had alot to offer conferencegoers.

“Wewent to Bourbon Street yesterday,had agreat time,”Ferguson said. “Did a bar night with karaoke, went to watch some sports this morning.”

The sports competitions, directed by the DwarfAthletic Association of America, include soccer,basketball and track and ﬁeld.

“It’snice because then it’s like you’re on an equal playing ﬁeld for once, too,” said Vrettakos, 33, who works in marketing in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The conference also offers medical sessions, workshops, field trips, dances and othercelebrations. The packed schedule included aSteamboat Natchez dinner cruise, aNational WWII Museum tour,apontoon ride through the swamp and a jazz brunch.

“The three amigos” are all about such fun on their new unscripted series, set in California, where acast of ﬁve vacation at aluxury Palm Springs getawaywhile exploring life and love in their 20s and30s.

Predictably with reality television, tension comes whena romance triangle threatens longtime friendships. Other friends also drop by for parties, adding to the fun and drama.

“I miss that house,”Vrettakos lamented of the spacious party house with a large backyard pool.

Miss Mannersis notsurewhy sheis bothering to clarify because any ofthe three —weight, fashion sense or poor eyesight— wouldbeequally impolite to mention. Unlessthere is areal problem, such as body partsbeingunknowingly exposed,you should remain silent. Your opinion on anyofthese matters is notrequired.

Dear Miss Manners: My husband is extremely medically sensitive, to thepoint that he cannot be inside most buildings for more

Ourfourth grader has his ﬁrst piano recital coming up. My parents were theones to sign him up for lessons and have been driving him.Myhusband and Iwould like to support our son, but can’tafford to compromise my husband’s healthover it

There are some things he can do, like wear arespirator and take medication immediately after the exposure, but his doctor recommends against doing this.Myhusband also hates using therespirator and will rarely wear it. My mother said that it’s all right to leaveright after our son plays his piece. I would feel like it would be very rude for us to do that. Isn’titproper etiquette to stay for all the children’s pieces at arecital? If my

‘Little Singles’ castmates and longtime friends John Ferguson, left, and Sammy Replogle saythey’re oftenmistaken for brothers. Both made their firsttriptoNew Orleans this week for the Little PeopleofAmerica conference.

“Little Singles”follows asuccession of TLC series revolving around thelives of families withdwarfism, including “Little People, Big World, “The LittleCouple” and“7Little Johnstons.”

Those series have adifferent dynamicthan“Little Singles,” Vrettakos pointed out.

“I’ve watched some of ‘Little People, Big World.’ I don’tfollow anyofthe other ones too closely,but they’re justmore family-oriented, whereas ours is obviously —we’re all navigating our 20s and 30s,” she said. “So it’sjust avery different dynamic that Ithink is relatable too, but adifferentdemographicofpeople.”

Producers from Shed Media initially reached out to FergusononInstagram about apossiblerealityseries.Considering thestunts and tricks reels heposts, the ﬁrst idea was aprank show “Then Iexplained alittle about our community and how crazy and close we all

husband’smedical exception would somehow exempt him from that rule of etiquette, how should we indicate to others present why we have to leave before theother performances?

Gentlereader: Long-term inﬂammation is as good an excuse as Miss Manners has heard for making a swift exit from achildren’s concert. If your husband can safely leave on his own, allowing you to stay longer, that would be ideal. If not, tell theother parents that you are afraid you will have to exit right after Eli’s piece, but you have amedical issue to which you have to attend. Presumably your parentscan ﬁll you in. Just do not be surprised if the other parents startstealing theexcuse.

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com.

said. “Andmymom always taught me growing up, you can do anything youput your mind to, just maybe a littlebit different than how someone else would do it. Andsoyou just kind of have to look at it that way.”

Another misbelief is that little people aren’t happy with who they are, according to Ferguson.

“At least all the friends I have whoare small, Iknow they’re conﬁdent withwho theyare and they wouldn’t change whotheyare or what they look like,” he said. “Even like growing up, everyone always asked me, ‘Hey,how wouldyou feel if you were average? Isn’tthat what you want?’ It’slike, honestly,‘No.’”

are. And they were like, ‘Scrap the pranks. We want to see you and all of your friends,’ ”said Ferguson. “I hit up the closest friends Ihave in this community (Vrettakos and Replogle).

Krista Sulaica, 31, acontent creator from Lake Orion, Michigan, and dancer and actress Jordanna James, 37, of Hartford,Connecticut, ﬁlled out the cast.

“It’s great because we also help create it,you know what Imean? Because like even the greatest of producers don’tfully understand what we deal withorour struggles or what we like,” Ferguson said. “So it really feelslike agroup project rather than like, ‘Hey,we’re going to throwyou in this houseand like,thisisexactly what you need to do.

The cast’s input shapes how misconceptions get addressed on-camera.

“For me, it’sthe fact that everyone thinks that we can’t do everythingthateveryone else does,”Replogle

In Louisiana, thetriowas happy to report that allthe locals were super-friendly and respectful.

Such is not always the case,asseenonarecent “Little Singles” episode where the gang is in agrocery store. They areannoyedbya shopper who can’t seem to stop gawking at them. Later, at abar,an average-sized strangerliterally grabsFergusonoff the dance ﬂoor,raising him over thecrowd.

“I thinkit’s(theseries) an eye-opener for alot of people to see how our age bracket just lives their life —and that we still party.Westill have relationship problems. And, we can just live life to thefullest at the endofthe day,” said Replogle.

“Little Singles” airs at 8p.m. Mondays on TLC and is available for streaming thenext day on HBO Max.

Email Judy Bergeron at jbergeron@theadvocate. com.

Dear Heloise: Please encourage the staffatsmall businesses to wearaname tag. For example, Igoto the dry cleaners about once amonth and would like to greet afriendly person by their name, especially because she always knows my namedue to my order.Knowing someone’sname is away to build warm relationships, and if Ican see it written on aname tag, it helps build conﬁdence, especially as we age. —AnAvid Reader, via email Avid Reader,this is a good hint. We all enjoy being addressed by our names, and it does build friendly relationships at work. —Heloise Taking astepup

Hints from Heloise

donating personal items (toothbrushes, toilet paper,etc.) to food pantries, you’re correct to first check if the local pantry accepts those items. If not, Isuggest folks seek out other organizations that accept personal itemsfor people in need. There’sawonderfulfree healthcare clinic in my county called Volunteers in Medicine that accepts nonfood items(ranging from shampoo to household cleaning supplies) fortheir patient pantry.They recognize that patients often need assistance beyond health care during these difficult financial times. (Plus, a clean body and aclean homeare essential to good health.)

Dear Heloise: My elderly mom had ahard time getting in and out of bed due to the height of her mattress and box springs, so we got her an aerobic step to put alongside the bed. It waslong enough to give her plenty of room to safely get in and out of bed, and it could be pushed under the bed when it wasn’t in use. —Patty G., viaemail

Sheltersupplies

Dear Heloise: As afollow-up to Beverly,who suggested

Iencourage your readers to show their kindness at food pantries and other charitable outlets that serve those in need because we’re all in this together! Thank you forall of the great tips. —Katherine, in Cape MayCounty,New Jersey Katherine, battered women’sshelters across the country usually need these items, as do children’shomes and shelters forthe homeless. —Heloise Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Speak your mind, but be prepared to live with the consequences. Letting go is hard but also rejuvenating. Carrying burdens affects your emotional andmental wellbeing.

LEO(July 23-Aug. 22) Arguments over money, personal choices and how you want to spend your time will escalate quickly. Useyour imagination, and you'll find away to do what pleases you and those you encounter.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Contemplate your personal andprofessional situation, and you'll discover apath to better days ahead. Reach out, start conversations and choose the road that offersa chance to do things your way.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct.23) Sitback and study situations carefully. How you deal with others will make adifference to theoutcome. Positive changeiswithin reach if you channel your energy in adirection that's comfortable.

SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov. 22) Be gracious, humble and kind, and you'll attract the same in return. Keepyour promises doableand honor your word. Setting high standards will lead to greater respect from your peers.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Afinancial gainlookshopeful. Go over your documents, be resourceful andput your plans in motion. Achange at home will encourage you to rethink your lifestyle.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Apply pressure andbereadytodefend yourself

and your plans if someonetries to intervene. Take advantage of any opportunity you get to voice your opinion and enlistpeople who have something to contribute.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Achance to be withordosomething nice for someone you careabout will pay off. Apositive change at home will develop due to your innovative planning.

PISCES (Feb.20-March 20) Stop worrying about what othersthink or do. Createopportunities, and embrace what belongs to you. Love and romance are on therise.

ARIES (March 21-April19) The more receptive youare,the easier it becomes to manipulatewhatever situation you face by offering incentives to getwhat you want in return. Aunique offer or opportunitywill develop.

TAURUS (April 20-May20) Keep your eye on the money and the people who can help or hinderyour journey. Navigating your waytothe prospectsthat excite you will encourage greater freedom to follow your heart.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Refuse to let emotional mayhem ruin your day. Size up situations, andpoint yourself in a direction thatoffersaunique perspective on how to use your connections, skills and attributes.

FAMILY CIrCUS

Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letterinthe cipher stands foranother.

CLUE: yEQUALS U

GooSe And GrIMM

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS CurTiS

BY PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Thefirst sentenceof“1984” by George Orwell is, “It was abright coldday in April, and the clocks were striking 13.”

When you bid to agrand slam, there is normally notmuch point in counting losers, becauseyou cannotafford any. Youmight as wellonly trytofind 13 winners. In this deal, which 13 tricks should Southhope to take in sevenhearts after West leads the diamond three?

The bidding had amodern tinge. South’s four-club rebid was asplinter, showing at least game-forcing values with asingleton or void in clubs. North then control-bid (cue-bid)his diamond ace, which Eastdoubled to askfor adiamondlead.AndSouthoptimisticallytook ashot at all of the marbles.

Outside hearts, South hassix winners: four spades, one diamond and one club. He could rely on the diamond finesse andtry to take six trump tricks. But East’s double strongly suggests that that finesse will fail. Instead, declarer should play for seven trump tricks. But which seven?

South should usedummy’s winners to remove East’s trumps andtakethree ruffs in his hand. However, he hastobe careful with his communications.

wuzzles

Declarer wins with dummy’sdiamond ace, ruffs aclub withahigh trump (queen, king or ace), returns to dummy with aheart, ruffs another club high, leadsaheart to dummy,and ruffsthe last lowclub. Then, after aspade to dummy’s queen,declarer draws trumps and claims.Itisa classic dummy reversal. ©2026 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. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Wordsthat 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” maynot be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words arenot allowed.

ToDAY’S WoRD PALMETTE: pal-MET: Adecorative motif suggestive of apalm.

Average mark 35 words Time limit 55 minutes

Can you find 47 or more words in PALMETTE?

YESTERDAY’S WoRD —GLABRouS

today’s thought “Trust in him at all times; you people, pour outyourheart before him: Godisarefuge for us.Selah.” Psalms 62:8

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

loCKhorNs

Youcan count on theLord. He is faithful. G.E. Dean

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

forcementTrackingNo. MM-CN-20-00387A,and otherviolationsincluded in thesettlementand whichare notinthe Con‐solidatedCompliance Order& Notice of Poten‐tial Penaltyand AmendedConsolidated Compliance Order& No‐tice of PotentialPenalty TheDepartmentofEnvi‐ronmentalQuality will accept commentsonthe proposed settlement for thenextforty-five (45) days.The public is in‐vitedand encouraged to submit writtencom‐mentstothe Louisiana Department of Environ‐mental Quality, Office of theSecretary,Legal Divi‐sion,PostOffice Box 4302, BatonRouge Louisiana70821--4302, At‐tention: OscarMagee, At‐torney.All comments will be considered by theDe‐partment of Environmen‐talQuality in reaching a decision on whetherto make thesettlement final. Termsand conditions of theproposedsettlement agreementmay be re‐viewed on theDepart‐ment of Environmental Quality'swebsite at www.deq.louisiana.gov by selectingAbout LDEQ Enforcement, andSettle‐ments. Thedocument mayalsobeviewedat, andcopiesobtained from,the LouisianaDe‐partment of Environmen‐talQuality,Public RecordsCenter, Room 127,GalvezBuilding, 602 NorthFifth Street,Baton Rouge, Louisiana70802. To requesta copy of the proposed settlement, submit acompleted Pub‐licRecordRequest Form (DEQ Form ISD-0005-01) Theformand instruc‐tionsfor completion may be found on theDEQ Websiteatthe following address: http://deq.louisiana.gov/ assets/docs/General/Pub licRecordsRequestForm. pdf,orby callingthe Customer Ser‐vice Center at 1-866-8965337. Pursuant to La.R.S 30:2050.7(D),the Depart‐ment of Environmental Qualitymay hold apublic hearingregarding this proposed settlement when either of thefol‐lowing conditions are met: 1) awrittenrequest forpublichearing has been filedbytwenty-five (25) persons, by agov‐ernmentalsubdivision or agency,orbyanassocia‐tion having notlessthan twenty-five (25) mem‐bers whoresideinthe parish in whichthe facil‐ityislocated;or2)the secretary findsa signifi‐cant degree of public in‐terest in this settlement Forfurther information, youmay call theLegal Division of theLouisiana Department of Environ‐mental Qualityat(225) 219-3985. 194524July18, 1t $392.91

JamesGraves Jennifer Landry

2. MINUTESOFTHE PREVIOUS MEETINGOF May12, 2026, regular meeting h i d b PUBLIC NOTICE TheCityofSt. George Planning &ZoningCom‐missions will hold public hearings on Monday,Au‐gust 3, 2026, at 6:00 pm at St.GeorgeCityHall, CouncilChambers, 11207 Proverbs Ave, St.George, LA 70816, to consider the following: Zoning Commission PO-26-0004 Changesto ConceptPlanfor Long Farm PUD:Thiscombined property is locatedon thenorth side of Airline Hwy, east of Baringer ForemanRoad, on Lots 1227, ALLEYTR. C, ALLEY TR.D,GS-3, GS-3-A,GS-4, GS-5,GS-6, GS-7,P-1,P-S RW-1,AW-1thruAW-4of Long Farm Subdivision, andLotsREM.TR. Z-1-D, TR.P-4-B,TR. P-4-C, TR.A1-C, TR.A-1-A-2-D,TR. A1-A-2-A, TR.A-1-A-3-B-2 TR.RPS,TR. A-1-A-1-C, TR A-1-A-3-A-5, TR.A-1-A-3-B1-A, TR Z-1-A, TR.Z-1-C, TR.Z-1-B,TR. A-1-A-3-A-1B, TR.A-1-A-2-C,TR. A-1A-2-B, TR.A-1-A-3-A-2,TR. A-1-A-3-A-1-A, TR.A-1-A-3A-3-B, TR.A-1-A-3-A-4-B-2 TR.A-1-A-3-A-4-B-3,TR. A1-A-3-A-4-B-1, TR.A-1-A-3A-4-A, andTR. A-1-A-3-A3-AofRussell Long Prop‐erty,inSec.50, 51, 52, T8S, R2E, GLD, EBR. The applicantrequestsmajor changestothe Long Farm PlannedUnitDevel‐opment ConceptPlan withinthe R-9Residen‐tial-9 andMX-4MixedUseRegionalzoningdis‐tricts/PO-PUD-4-09 PlannedOverlay,includ‐ingrevisions to land use acreages,parcelloca‐tions, circulationplan andother relatedmat‐ters.(Applicant: Zach Schmidt, Westwood Pro‐fessionalServices, on be‐half of RKLFarm, LLC)

Z-26-0002 R1 to B1 at 15222 PerkinsRd: This ±2.334-acre property is locatedona portionof Lot7.4 AC.ofthe Mildred L. MangrumCurtis,1/2 USUF locatedinSec.61, T8S, R2E, GLD. Theappli‐cant requests to rezone from R1 Residential-1to B1 Business-1ZoningDis‐trict. (Applicant:Duane Mizell, D&TRentalProp‐erties,LLC,onbehalfof MildredL.Mangrum Cur‐tis, TheOlenDoddCurtis Testamentary Trust) T-26-0006 Outdoor Stor‐ageand Display: Amend Title7 of theUniﬁed De‐velopmentCodetoup‐date regulationsfor out‐door storageand display,

PARISH OF EAST BATONROUGE STATEOFLOUISIANA AmbreDeVirgilio, Chairwoman CITY OF ZACHARY 194509 July 18, 1t $33.41

None ADJOURNMENT Themeetingwas adjournedat6:34p.m CERTIFICATION KarenBurdette Clerkofthe City Council CITY OF ZACHARY PARISH OF EAST BATONROUGE STATEOFLOUISIANA DavidMcDavid,Mayor