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Legal battle still underway over LSU roster SEC, NCAA case playing out in state courts

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY PEARL SPURLOCK

A student gets a high-five on the first day of school. Two efforts are underway to reimagine how the state funds schools.

Separate groups review school-funding formula

Dueling efforts underway to revamp spending system BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

Dueling efforts are underway to reimagine how Louisiana funds public schools. One is a “top-to-bottom review” of the system Louisiana uses to distribute more than $4 billion in state money to schools each year. Established by Gov. Jeff Landry and legislative leaders, the task force conducting the review must propose a “revised or replacement” school-funding formula by January — giving it ﬁve months to overhaul a system that has been in place over 30 years. The other effort is being led by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Launched partly

in response to the legislative review, board members say they want to help steer the debate rather than simply wait for lawmakers to propose changes to the school-funding formula, known as the Minimum Foundation Program. The BESE and legislative groups will meet separately this week. They are expected to examine similar parts of the funding formula, including the base per-student amount schools receive and how much money they get for special education. But whereas Landry has called for a “brand-new MFP,” board members are more interested in ﬁne-tuning the formula. “I don’t see the MFP being rewritten by us,” said Kevin Berken, the board member leading BESE’s

school-funding task force. “Tweaks, possibly.” Yet neither elected body can change the funding system on its own. Under Louisiana’s constitution, the education board is responsible for developing the formula, but lawmakers must approve and fund it. Either group can propose changes, but they won't take effect unless both sides agree. “They need to work hand-in-hand,” said David Claxton, who leads the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and is a member of the legislative task force. What do lawmakers want? The legislative group has some clear marching orders.

LSU may have decided not to add players who worked with professional teams to its football roster, but the legal battle between college players and the SEC and NCAA is still playing out in Louisiana courts. A group of student athletes notched an early win Monday afternoon when Louisiana’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal left in place an injunction issued by the district court earlier this month that allows them one more year of competition while the case plays out. Judges Allison Penzato, Walter Lanier III and Wilson Fields in a ruling Monday refused to pause the lower court proceedings or suspend District Judge Will Jorden’s preliminary injunction, saying that the Southeastern Conference had “not shown an abuse of discretion by the district court.” The SEC still has the option to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to review Jorden’s decision. The NCAA, another defendant, also has the option to appeal Jorden’s decision. And the full case on the merits still has to be litigated. Tony Clayton, one of the attorneys for the plaintiff student athletes, said he doesn’t know what the SEC’s next move will be, and he accused the league of continuing to ﬁle a slew of fruitless motions,

ä See SEC, page 4A

Trump slams Supreme Court for rejecting push to restrict ‘She stole everything that he could have been’ mail ballots Family relieved by verdict in Lake Charles 4-year-old’s murder case

BY MEGAN WYATT

Staff writer

Dion Polk had waited more than two years to see justice served after her grandson died when his mother abandoned him along the side of Interstate 10. Four-year-old Legend Jack drowned behind a welcome center in Vinton after his mother left him and his 1-year-old brother, Kingtrail, near the roadway. Kingtrail survived thanks to a trucker who spotted him crawling in a ditch 6 miles from where his brother’s body was found and who called for help. A Calcasieu Parish jury convicted their mother, Aaliyah Jack, late Monday of second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles.

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For Polk, it felt like justice for her grandson. She and other family members said they hope Kingtrail can live a normal life going forward. And they mourned the loss of Legend, who they described as loving dogs, his siblings and his cousins. “I felt relieved,” Polk said about the verdict. “I felt like justice was served for Legend because that’s what it was about. It was about Legend and Kingtrail.” It took less than four hours for the jury to return a verdict after hearing evidence in the two-day trial, which took place in 14th Judicial District Judge Michael Canaday’s courtroom. Chasity Gray, Legend’s cousin, broke into applause in the courtroom after the verdict was read, which Canaday told her was inappropriate. Tears streaked down Gray’s cheeks as she walked out of the courthouse. “Aaliyah just stole his whole life from him,” Gray said. “She stole everything that he could have been.”

ä See VERDICT, page 4A

ä See FUNDING, page 4A

BY SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

PROVIDED PHOTO

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mailin voting in this year’s midterms, saying justices who opposed him were “not the people I interviewed.” His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally. On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot.

Legend, 4, holds his dog, Coco.

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ä See BALLOTS, page 4A

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2A ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Senate blocks cryptocurrency regulation bill

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Fourth measles death reported in Pennsylvania

NEW YORK — Pennsylvania officials have reported a fourth measles-associated death. The latest death involved an 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County, in the center of the state, the county coroner’s ofﬁce said in a Facebook post. The cause was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles, it said. On Saturday, a 40-year-old woman from Jefferson County, a rural area in western Pennsylvania, died of measles complications. And last month, two measles-infected infants died in Lancaster County, in the southeastern part of the state. None of the four were vaccinated, according to the state health department. The infants were too young for vaccinations, according to current recommendations. The U.S. is enduring its worst year for measles since 1991 and has seen seven reported measles-associated deaths in the past two years — more than the combined total of reported deaths over the previous three decades. Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak continues to grow, with nearly 700 illnesses reported so far this year across 38 counties, including about 100 cases in the last seven days. The measlesassociated deaths are the first reported in the state in 35 years, state ofﬁcials say.

Court awards 1 euro to Kardashian after robbery

SAINT-ETIENNE, France — A Paris court on Tuesday awarded 1 euro, or $1.15, to Kim Kardashian for having been the victim of an armed robbery in the French capital in 2016, the amount of compensation she had asked for, according to a lawyer involved in the case. Kardashian has sought to move on since the court last year found eight people guilty for their roles in what the celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience of my life.” In Tuesday’s joint statement with stylist Simone Harouche, Kardashian expressed gratitude to the French justice system. “The experience was deeply traumatic, and its impact has stayed with us. Today’s decision is not about the compensation, but about accountability and recognition,” the statement to The Associated Press from the two Americans read. “We are thankful to the Court and everyone who supported us throughout this process, and we hope to now move forward and continue to heal.” The court awarded a former receptionist at the Hôtel de Pourtalès $126,472, according to his lawyer. Kardashian had been staying at the hotel when the robbery gang targeted her. The receptionist said he had been traumatized by the Oct. 2, 2016, jewel heist during Fashion Week. He had sought $634,868 in damages and interest. His lawyer, Mohand Ouidja, welcomed the decision as a victory.

2 U.S. personnel shot in Eswatini by accident

MANZINI, Eswatini — Soldiers in the African nation of Eswatini accidentally shot two U.S. government personnel last week, the country’s government said. The U.S. personnel were shot during an anti-smuggling operation by the Eswatini army in a rural region in the northeast of the country late Friday, Eswatini’s government said in a statement late Monday. The Americans suffered “minor injuries” and there was an investigation underway, Eswatini government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The Eswatini government didn’t immediately identify the U.S. personnel or say why they were present. The U.S. State Department said that it was aware of the shootings and the “affected U.S. personnel are safe,” but also didn’t immediately identify who they were. It said it was working with the Eswatini government on an investigation. Eswatini army spokesperson Sandile Gwebu told the AP that it was now “a diplomatic issue” handled by both countries and didn’t give further details.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS MAGANA

Visitors walk by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Sept. 6.

Kennedy Center’s board votes to close Move comes after judge blocks returning Trump’s name to building

BY STEVEN SLOAN and ASHRAF KHALIL

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted on Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building. In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress. “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling on Tuesday. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chair last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media that the Justice Department would appeal Cooper’s ruling. He said he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution. The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.” “You’re holding up the whole country,” she responded. The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for de-

cades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture. The venue’s leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building’s main hallway earlier this month intensiﬁed the calls for renovations. But Trump’s insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution’s longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks. The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump’s second term bid to dramatically remake the nation’s capital in his gilded tastes. He’s demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He’s also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River. The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor. Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name once stood. Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a ﬁling earlier this week, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.

Nick Reiner avoids the death penalty over his parents’ killings Man still faces life in prison if convicted

fender Kimberly Greene, said prosecutors made the right decision. “Nick has a serious mental illness and a long history of struggling with self-medBY ANDREW DALTON ication. His circumstances are a tragic example of how difficult it can be for Associated Press people experiencing significant mental LOS ANGELES — Hollywood filmmaker health challenges to access and navigate Rob Reiner’s son will not face the death the treatment and support they need,” penalty on charges he fatally stabbed his Greene said in a statement. “Nothing can parents after lying in wait at their home undo the profound loss experienced by the Reiner family and those who in Los Angeles late last year, loved them. Our hearts remain prosecutors said Tuesday. with the family.” If convicted, the maximum Nick Reiner was charged with sentence 33-year-old Nick Reiner first-degree murder on Dec. 16, could get is life without the postwo days after the stunning killsibility of parole, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan ings. His former defense attorHochman said at a news conferney, Alan Jackson, adamantly insisted that “pursuant to the laws ence. Before reaching its deci- N. Reiner of California, Nick Reiner is not sion, Hochman said his office did a thorough review, including speaking to guilty of murder.” Jackson had to withdraw for undisRob and Michele Singer Reiner’s families and evaluating mitigating factors in closed reasons that he said were beyond his and the client’s control, and a public Nick Reiner’s favor. Nick Reiner, who briefly appeared at a defender took over for him. A grand jury indicted Nick Reiner in court hearing Tuesday morning, has twice pleaded not guilty. The death penalty had July. The judge in the case was deciding been on the table because of the lying- whether to make public the transcripts in-wait allegation, the fact that multiple of those secret grand jury proceedings, a people were killed, and the use of a knife, move that would likely reveal many key which is considered a dangerous weapon. details about the killings. Hochman said his office will not oppose However, it’s been two decades since California’s last execution, and Democratic the transcripts’ release, but Nick ReinGov. Gavin Newsom declared a morato- er’s siblings Jake and Romi Reiner were adamantly opposed, saying it would add rium on the practice in 2019. Reiner’s attorney, Deputy Public De- to their trauma and harm.

have been supportive of Democrats the bill aside from the ethics concerns said they were demand more still open to negotiating. Sen. Mark Warlimits on Trump’s nerVirginia said he still wants reguinvestments lation of the crypto indus-

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked legislation to create a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, stalling an industry-backed effort to place new guardrails around digital assets after demanding more limits on President Donald Trump’s investments. The 49-50 vote on whether to move forward with the legislation was a pivotal election-year test for the $2.3 trillion cryptocurrency market as the industry has pushed aggressively for a uniform set of rules. The Senate debate came as cryptocurrency companies have become a major political force, and as Trump has amassed significant wealth in crypto while in office. While some Democrats are friendly toward the industry and support the idea of regulation, they have been adamant that the bill include strong ethics safeguards to prevent the president and his family from enriching themselves while he’s in office. The opposition appears to have only solidified two months before the midterm elections, despite significant donations that crypto groups have given to some Democrats in recent years. In the end, no Democrats supported it. “Let’s make sure that we do not pass a crypto bill that will let Donald Trump continue to rake in billions of dollars in crypto profits while working families across this country struggle to deal with higher prices and an economy that gets worse by the day,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. Several Democrats who

try, but “we cannot pass landmark legislation governing this industry while allowing the president of the United States to personally profit from it.” The White House indicated Tuesday that it would now turn to agencies to implement parts of their crypto agenda and warned that the failed vote would continue to stifle financial innovation domestically while it flourishes abroad. “The full cost of today’s result may not be known for years to come, but this much is clear: It increases the risk that the standards that global financial markets adhere to in the future will be those of Brussels or Beijing, rather than Washington and New York,” said Patrick Witt, the White House’s crypto adviser. As Democrats made clear they would block the bill, Trump agreed to some concessions on ethics, including new restrictions on federal elected officials from issuing digital assets like the presidential meme coins he and his wife Melania launched before he took office for his second term. He agreed to new concessions Sunday, such as additional powers for state attorneys general that Democrats had sought to enforce the crypto measures. Those concessions were not enough for Democrats, who sent a counteroffer late Monday to expand the ethics provision but were not able to strike a final deal. Among other issues, they said the bill still needed stricter enforcement and a requirement for Trump or any future president to divest if holdings reach a certain value. Republicans needed Democratic support to win the 60 votes necessary to move forward on the bill in the 53-47 Senate.

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Saudis seek Egypt’s backing amid Houthi attacks Strikes rattle Red Sea oil routes

BY LEE KEATH, FATMA KHALED and SAMY MAGDY

Associated Press

CAIRO — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince sought backing Tuesday from the president of Egypt, his ally across the Red Sea, as the kingdom faces increased attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saudi shipping and infrastructure that have helped drive a surge in global oil prices. Saudi Arabia has largely been on its own in confronting the Iranian-backed rebels, who rapidly captured more territory in Yemen over the past week and strengthened their ability to choke off Saudi oil exports out of the Red Sea. The vulnerability of the kingdom’s oil production was further underscored by an attack days ago that damaged its biggest pipeline. The strike was reportedly carried out by Iran’s allied militias in Iraq. It means the East-West Pipeline will be largely shut down for weeks as it is repaired, regional ofﬁcials say, likely taking several million barrels of oil a

day off the market. The Houthi offensive has opened up a new front in the Mideast’s war and boosted the hand of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s traditional archrival in the region, which has attacked shipping through the region’s other major maritime route, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Cairo with Egyptian President AbdelFattah el-Sissi. The crown prince said in a statement that they both confirmed “their shared commitment to ensuring freedom and security of maritime navigation” in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the choke point at the sea’s southern end. El-Sissi’s office put out a statement expressing “Egypt’s unwavering position in supporting Saudi Arabia.” Neither side gave firm details on any future steps. While Egypt is unlikely to offer military help to Saudi Arabia, the country is influential in the Arab world and can help rally support. Egypt has been at the center of mediation efforts in the last three years of turmoil in the region, keeping open relations with all parties, including Iran and its allies. In recent days, Houthi fighters made dramatic ad-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ABDULNASSER ALSEDDIK

An armed man walks past a boy on Tuesday at the Sirah fish market in Aden, Yemen. vances, seizing the Red Sea port of Mokha and three strategic islands in and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The gains have further improved the Houthis’ position to seal off the strait to Saudi shipping, which they have been attacking since late July. Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and, from there, to Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil customers in Asia. Saudi Arabia has so far seemed reluctant to unleash a major military campaign against the Houthis, wary of bringing greater Houthi

attacks on its oil infrastructure and being dragged back into an all-out civil war in Yemen, its southern neighbor. But as Houthi attacks continue, the kingdom faces a potential decision about whether to step up its military response or seek a diplomatic solution. The Saudis’ most essential ally, the United States, has been unpredictable and sometimes unreliable. U.S. President Donald Trump seems reluctant to widen an already unpopular and stalemated Mideast war ahead

of congressional elections. The United Arab Emirates, previously a partner in the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, has withdrawn from the war after conﬂicts between its allies in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping during the Gaza war led to a decrease in trafﬁc through the Suez Canal, gouging Egypt’s revenues. During the Iran war, Saudi Arabia redirected its oil exports through the Red Sea, much of it going through the Suez Canal or through an Egyptian pipeline from

the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. But the shutdown of the East-West Pipeline is likely to greatly reduce or end those shipments for weeks. There are limits to the help Egypt can give. “I don’t think MBS wants troops from Cairo, which he knows would be a very difﬁcult ask,” said analyst H.A. Hellyer, using the crown prince’s initials. Instead, Cairo can give the Saudis political backing among Arab nations for whatever steps they take against the Houthis, said Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. “There’s genuine international consensus that the Houthis cannot be allowed to hold a choke point like Bab al-Mandeb hostage,” Hellyer said. But some nations are wary about working with Saudi Arabia because of past experience in Yemen. The coalition that Prince Mohammed ﬁrst put together to fight the Houthis in 2015 largely fell apart years ago because of infighting and factionalism. “MBS is keenly aware of this and will be trying to make it clear there is a much better plan for going forward,” Hellyer said. “It just depends on how many are convinced.”

Carney: Canada can wait for right conditions in Trump trade war

BY ROB GILLIES Associated Press

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Canada intends to emerge from its trade war with the United States as a more resilient and independent economy, signaling that Ottawa is prepared to wait for the right conditions rather than rush into a deal with Washington. “And to our American friends, let me say this. We will always be neighbors,” Carney told hundreds of

global investors gathered in Toronto for his Canada Investment Summit. But he said the relationship works when the two countries engage as “true partners that respect each other’s traCarney ditions and sovereignty.” “When those opportunities return, Canada will be an even better partner — stronger, more resilient, more in-

dependent,” he said. Carney also unveiled a major expansion of business tax breaks that the government says will nearly halve Canada’s effective tax rate on new investment to 6.4%, less than half the U.S. rate, as Canada competes with the United States for global capital. The expanded “productivity mega deduction” will allow businesses to immediately write off more than 65% of eligible capital investment, up from roughly 15%. “The incentive for companies to invest in Canada is

Opening acts drop out of Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore BY MARK KENNEDY Associated Press

NEW YORK — Ed Sheeran’s tour of North and South America was plunged into chaos Tuesday when four of his supporting acts — including his touring band — abruptly quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore, who was dropped for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage. Hours after Sheeran posted on social media about Macklemore’s ouster and attributed the decision to the tour’s promoters, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas posted on Instagram that they were leaving the tour. Rowe and Lukas Graham

would have been replacements for Macklemore on Sheeran’s remaining U.S. dates, while Beoga was serving as Sheeran’s touring band. Finneas, who is Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year. “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas said on Instagram. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.” The moves by his fellow artists put enormous pressure on Sheeran, who has tried to avoid politics and taking a side in the Gaza conflict, arguing that his fans don’t come to his shows to

hear politics. Rowe and Beoga each cited their country’s history in their statements explaining their decision. “We are Irish people who understand colonialism. As founding members of the Irish Artists for Palestine movement, we are committed activists for justice and will continue to be,” Beoga said. Rowe called Sheeran a friend and said the British singer-songwriter changed his life. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation,” he said, adding that he couldn’t “stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up.”

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twice as high as it is in the United States,” Carney said. Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Candace Laing called the tax change “a launchpad to make Canada globally tax competitive,” saying it was “a moment we’ve been waiting for.” Carney also announced that Ottawa will seek private investment through longterm concessions to operate Canada’s four largest airports, while retaining public ownership of the land and as-

sets. He said the plan could raise tens of billions of dollars to reinvest in transportation and other infrastructure. Without naming U.S. President Donald Trump, Carney then took aim at the increasingly transactional and zero-sum approach to international economic relationships that has characterized Trump’s trade policies. “Our reputation — as a reliable, predictable partner — has rarely been more valuable in a world where

transactions are replacing relationships, and zero-sum is favored over win-win,” Carney said. Carney said economic integration and national sovereignty are increasingly in tension, arguing that countries seeking to preserve their independence need to work more closely with likeminded partners. He heads to Europe later Tuesday, where he is scheduled to address the European Parliament.

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Polk and Gray described Legend as a normal 4-year-old who loved Sonic the Hedgehog and the Ninja Turtles but was scared of the dark and water. “He was supposed to go to school the next month, but he passed away in July,” Gray said. “He was looking forward to going to school.” Prosecutor Jacob Johnson presented evidence during trial that portrayed Jack as upset about a custody agreement with Polk, who was Legend’s paternal grandmother, when she placed the boys in her vehicle without proper restraints on July 6, 2024. She drove with her sons to Houston, Texas, as Hurricane Beryl approached the Gulf Coast. Investigators with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office pieced together a timeline and path of travel from Houston to Meridian, Mississippi, from July 6-8 through cellphone records, surveillance footage and witness interviews. Surveillance footage showed Jack on July 7 at a Beaumont gas station, pulling her 1-year-old by the arm, his body dragging along behind her. Later that day, Johnson said, she would abandon her sons along I-10 in Louisiana. Four-year-old Legend’s body was discovered July 8 in a shallow body of water at a state welcome center in Vinton. No witnesses testified or surveillance footage showed what transpired there, but the autopsy report said the cause of death was drowning. The next day, a trucker spotted 1-year-old Kingtrail crawling along the Interstate shoulder. He’d been bitten by mosquitoes and was dehydrated, but was otherwise healthy. The jury saw images of both boys. “To see my grandson, to see him laying on that pallet, swollen,” Polk said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘He was yelling for you to help. You just left him. He was screaming for help.’ I know he was because he was terrified of water.” At one point after leaving her sons, Jack texted her aunt, Tiffany Jackson, from Baton Rouge that her sons were safe. “She chose to leave Legend,” Gray said. “She chose to keep driving down the road. She chose to put that baby on the side of the interstate.” “You went a mile, you didn’t turn around,” Polk added. “You went 6 miles, you didn’t turn around. You went 20 miles, you didn’t turn around. You made a choice.” Gray said she wants her cousin to be remembered for more than the circumstances surrounding his death. “I don’t want his death to be the only thing people know about him,” she said. “He loved puppies. He loved playing with kids. He was just your normal 4-year-old kid.” Polk said Legend loved his younger brother and would want Kingtrail to live a normal life. “That child needs to grow up, and when he’s old enough, competent people need to explain to him correctly what happened when he asks questions,” Polk said. “I want him to go to college, get married, have a family and just live his life.” Canaday scheduled Jack’s sentencing for Nov. 5. A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence in Louisiana. As Johnson left the courthouse, Polk thanked him for his work prosecuting the case and apologized for growing frustrated at times. “It’ll never bring back my grandson, but he deserved justice and he got it today,” Polk said.

Landry and the Legislature created the task force in June after voters rejected a plan to ﬁnance teacher raises by tapping education trust funds. The 15-member task force, which is made up largely of lawmakers, has instructions to find money for raises in the funding system. The group also has a much broader mandate to overhaul the school-funding formula. The resolution establishing the task force doesn’t call for specific changes, but says the MFP should be restructured “to improve clarity, sustainability and long-term effectiveness.” Some lawmakers have complained that the intricate formula, which dates to the early 1990s, makes it nearly impossible for nonexperts to track how school funding is allocated. “I think we’re still in the phase of trying to understand it,” said Sen. Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, a task force member who

Continued from page 1A

SEC

Continued from page 1A which he likened to low-accuracy “Scud missiles.” “I don’t have a clue what these people will do next, but whatever they do, they’ll be met with ﬁerce resistance,” he said. Clayton is also the district attorney for West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes, and the chair of the Southern University Board of Supervisors. Jason Williams, the New Orleans district attorney, is on the oppos-

chairs the Senate Finance Committee. “Once we understand it, then we’ll be able to chart our course.” An open question is whether the task force will also dig into school spending. Landry has argued that school systems could pay teachers more if they cut down on “waste and bureaucracy.” Erin Bendily, senior vice president at the Pelican Institute, a right-leaning Louisiana think tank, said that any school-funding review must also examine how schools use the tax dollars they receive, and whether their spending is improving student outcomes. “I don’t think you can have a robust conversation about public education funding and only look at the revenue side,” she said. But school-finance experts say that it would take a year or more to analyze Louisiana school expenses and spending. The legislative task force, which held its first meeting last month, must finish its work by Jan. 1. What do education board members want? Louisiana’s constitution is clear:

The state education board is responsible for adopting a formula that sends schools enough money to properly educate every student. Each year, BESE sends a formula to the Legislature for approval. If lawmakers don’t sign off, then the existing formula remains in effect. The Legislature has not approved a new formula since 2022. The legislative task force reverses the usual process: Lawmakers will propose a formula, and BESE will decide whether to adopt it. Caroline Roemer, who leads the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, said the board should not wait for the Legislature to come up with a new formula. “We are really pushing for BESE to be proactive and aggressive,” she said. “They have the responsibility to set the formula.” The board typically begins reviewing the formula a few weeks before the March 15 deadline to submit it to the Legislature, but this year it is starting the process much earlier. At its meeting last month, the board heard presentations about the MFP from education department ofﬁcials and two

external groups that have studied the formula. Board members say the formula could be updated, but that it generally does a good job allocating money fairly based on students’ needs and how much local revenue schools receive. A bigger challenge, some members say, is that funding amounts have not kept up with the rising cost of insurance, utilities and other expenses. They also point to Louisiana’s rapidly rising test scores, saying schools need adequate resources to maintain the progress. “What we’re doing now is working,” Berken said. “I don’t want us to go backwards.” Along with protecting students’ academic gains, some board members also want to protect their own authority. In a recent letter to the editor, board member Joseph Cao said that BESE is in charge of the funding formula, not the legislative task force. “While I welcome all proposals,” he wrote, “it is the job of BESE to defend our schools’ interests and needs.”

ing legal team representing the SEC; both are working on the case through their private practices. Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Clayton said he is “extending an olive branch” to the SEC and Commissioner Greg Sankey to try to work out an agreement. “I’m willing to get all my parties to sit down with the NCAA and the SEC and see if we can bring some closure to this,” he said. Last month, in Louisiana state court, a group of more than 40 players sued the two college athletics governing bodies seeking a

final year of eligibility to play in various sports after the NCAA this summer changed its rules to allow athletes to play five seasons over the course of five years. The plaintiffs are 2022 high school graduates, who were excluded from the NCAA’s new eligibility model. A subset of those players signed with pro teams before the rules changed but were either cut from professional teams or chose not play, and they argued they would have remained in college for another year under the recently implemented model. LSU football coach Lane Kiffin was prepared to bring on two of

the plaintiffs: tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, who had signed with the Browns and Saints, respectively, but did not end up playing for those teams. However, the SEC filed its own lawsuit against Kiffin and other LSU and state officials in a federal Alabama court over issues related to conference self-governance and rules prohibiting professional players. Kiffin ended up not rostering Wright or Harris, instead adding two injured players to the roster, cornerback Aidan Anding and defensive end Gabriel Reliford.

BALLOTS

Continued from page 1A But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections — and said their systems were already secure and accurate. The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this year’s election. “The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.” Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from the order, and Trump on Tuesday called them “legends both.” Trump has nominated three of the justices on the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said. He asserted that the court "is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.” It won't be the last time Trump criticizes the court, his attorney

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival at the Ellipse just outside of the White House on Sunday. general says Attorney General Todd Blanche said later Tuesday that the administration was going to comply with the decision but “that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do everything in this administration that we can to make sure that there are free and fair elections.” Blanche also defended Trump's commentary about the court, dismissing the idea that it was undermining the court's independence and saying it was part of the democratic process for the president to be critical of another branch of government.

“He has every right and indeed, he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them," Blanche said at the White House. “This isn’t the ﬁrst time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.” The president has a lengthy track record of attacking judges, often very personally, who issue decisions that go against his wishes, and Trump has long viewed his legal appointments as owing loyalty to the person who nominated them to the bench. So as Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch ruled against Trump at

varying points over the years, the president has not hesitated to go after them publicly, while praising them if they sided with him in a case. Yet this court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled in favor of Trump on several of his priorities, most notably the 2024 decision from the court's conservative majority that said former presidents are presumptively entitled to immunity for all ofﬁcial acts. That paved the way for Trump to run for reelection without threat of a criminal trial that year.

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‘Widow’s Bay’ breaks Emmys record with 14 wins ‘Pitt’ wins best drama BY ANDREW DALTON Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A “Widow’s Bay” wave slammed into the Emmy Awards on Monday night as the Apple TV show set a single-season record for a comedy with 14 wins, including best comedy series and best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who personally took home three trophies. “The celebrations will be long, varied, and I hope at times wild,” Rhys said backstage while holding two of his Emmys. “The Pitt” won best drama series for the second straight year, and star Noah Wyle repeated as best actor in a drama, but the HBO Max emergency room drama won no other Emmys and underperformed its expectations. Rhea Seehorn won best actress in a drama for “Pluribus,” and Jean Smart won her fifth best actress in a comedy award for the ﬁfth and ﬁnal season of “Hacks.” No actor had won an Emmy every year for a series that lasted more than three seasons until Smart did it Monday.

Every other comedy award went to “Widow’s Bay,” which unequivocally owned the night and broke the comedy series record set last year by “The Studio” when it won 13. Along with best actor in a comedy, Rhys won best actor in a limited series for “The Beast in Me,” becoming the first man to win two leading actor categories in the same year, and he gets one of the best comedy series trophies as an executive producer for “Widow’s Bay.” The first-season series created by Katie Dippold leans hard into both comedy and horror as it tells the story of a New England island community, with Rhys as its mayor, reckoning with a centuriesold curse. “Thank you, Apple, for letting us take this crazy, creative swing,” Dippold said as she accepted the best comedy award. “They truly just let us do this weird show.” Apple TV solidified its status as the owner of the Emmy comedy categories. Between “Widow’s Bay,” “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” it has won best comedy series four times in six seasons. The latter two shows were between seasons and not eligible this year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY RICHARD SHOTWELL

Matthew Rhys poses with the awards for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for ‘The Beast In Me,’ and outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for ‘Widow’s Bay’ on Monday during the 78th Emmy Awards at the JW Marriott in Los Angeles. “Widow’s Bay” also won for directing for Hiro Murai and for writing for its creator Dippold, a ﬁrst-time Emmy winner and ﬁrst-time nominee who was previously best known for a decade-old viral tweet showing her awkwardly dressed as “The Babadook.” “When I was sitting there in that costume,” Dippold said backstage after the show, “I did not think that

this moment would happen.” “Widow’s Bay” had won eight Emmys in a previous ceremony before sweeping all six of its categories Monday night. Stephen Root won best supporting actor in a comedy series and Kate O’Flynn won best supporting actress. “The Pitt” was the top drama nominee with 25 and “Hacks” was the top comedy nominee with 24, but neither

made much of a splash when it came time to claim trophies. Smart’s was the only win for “Hacks” on Monday night. “What a ride this has been,” an emotional Smart said after getting a standing ovation. The 75-year-old has won eight Emmys overall in a career that was already more than respectable when she

landed her defining role of Deborah Vance, a brash stand-up comic pushing back against age, obscurity and sexism in the HBO Max series. And best drama and best actor were the only wins for “The Pitt,” though it had won four at an earlier ceremony. Wyle won for playing Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a role that brought him a major career revival after starring in “ER” in the 1990s. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and this is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join,” Wyle said in his acceptance. Seehorn won her first Emmy for playing the lone central character on Apple TV’s “Pluribus.” The 54-year-old had been nominated twice without winning for her breakthrough role on “Better Call Saul,” a show from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, who put Seehorn at the center of “Pluribus.” Gilligan won his ﬁfth career Emmy for his writing on the show. Allison Janney won best supporting actress in a drama for “The Diplomat,” and Tom Pelphrey won supporting actor in a drama for “Task,” both beating several nominees from “The Pitt.”

FBI chief Patel defends hiring policy changes at hearing BY ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel defended Tuesday a recent policy change to allow some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for employment, insisting that the move was made to enable victims of those acts to apply for a job without fear of automatic disqualification. The subject arose during a fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Patel clashed with Democrats over his firing of agents who participated in investigations of

President Donald Trump and suggested that agents might be dispatched to the polls on Election Day amid Justice Department and White House concerns about voter fraud. The hourslong hearing featured the name-calling Patel and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to deﬁne Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill, with Democrats characterizing the Trump appointee as unqualiﬁed, criticizing him for politically charged investiga-

tions into Trump’s enemies and highlighting travel that has included a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy in which he partied with U.S. hockey players and a snorkeling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii. “He’s an incompetent lackey. He’s like an 18-year old-kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He’s an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn’t qualify even to be an FBI agent,” said an exasperated Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, his voice rising in anger.

“What a mockery you are,” he added. Patel shot back, “You are the biggest mockery in the United States Senate, and you’re sitting next to Schiff.” That was a reference to Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and outspoken Patel critic. The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical hiring restriction on applicants who had previously participated in prostitution. The bureau made a similar change with regard to childhood experience in bestiality. Under questioning, Patel denied that the changes re-

flected a lowering of employment standards and insisted they were designed to prevent victims who had been forced to engage in that conduct from being automatically disqualified. “We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if were a victim of these awful, heinous acts,” Patel said. “We are not going to target victims and prevent them from serving in their capacity to serve this country.” The questioning spanned partisan lines, with Repub-

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Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given that sealed bids will be received either electroni‐ cally at www.centralbidd ing.com or in the office of the Purchasing Divi‐ sion at the Lafayette Govern‐ Consolidated ment Building, located at 705 West University Av‐ Lafayette, enue, Louisiana, until 2:00 PM Central Time on the 13th day of OCTOBER, 2026 for the following: AS-NEEDED INSTALLATION OF BACKFLOW PREVENTERS AND HOSE BIBS AT WATER/WASTEWATER/ ELECTRIC FACILITIES RE-BID #3 and will, shortly there‐ after, be opened and read aloud in a room lo‐ cated at 705 West Univer‐ sity Avenue, Lafayette, LA. Bids received after the above specified time for opening shall not be considered and shall be returned unopened to the sender. Bidders are encouraged to virtually join the bid opening via ZOOM using the follow‐ ing link: https://us02web. zoom.us/j/82706712380? pwd=3vOrRhOx5SV9nBI NVFVantpfXzjwuf.1 Scope of Services: The scope of work shall con‐ sist of, but not limited to, the installation of back‐ flow preventer assem‐ blies, hose bib assem‐ blies, customer cutoff valves, and 1-inch ser‐ vice lines on an asneeded basis at waste‐ water facilities, as di‐ rected by LUS and identi‐ fied in individual Work Authorizations. In

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Public Notices Bids/Proposals

Louisiana RS 38:2212. may submit vendors their bid electronically at the website listed above. Bidders wishing to sub‐ mit their bid electroni‐ cally must ﬁrst be regis‐ tered within LCG Vendor Access at the website listed above. The regis‐ tration process can take some time; therefore, LCG recommends regis‐ tering days in advance of the time that bids are due. It is the sole respon‐ sibility of the bidder to ensure their bid is deliv‐ ered (whether electroni‐ cally via Vendor Access, in person, or via mail) to the Purchasing Division prior to the scheduled date and time of the bid opening. Vendors may request the bid package from electronically Dabne Dover at dabne‐ dover@lafayettela.gov.

opening date. Questions relative to the bidding documents shall be ad‐ dressed to Dabne Dover dabnedover@ at lafayettela.gov or (337) 291-8262.

Bidders submitting bids are re‐ electronically quired to provide the same documents as bid‐ ders submitting through the mail as soon as avail‐ able. Only a bid bond, check or certified cashier’s check shall be submitted as the bid se‐ curity. Electronic copies of both the front and back of the check or bid bond shall be included with the electronic bid. Bids must be signed in accordance with LRS Title 38:2212(B)5. A Cor‐ porate Resolution or Cer‐ tificate of Authority au‐ thorizing the person signing the bid is re‐ quired to be submitted with bid. Failure to sub‐ mit a Corporate Resolu‐ tion or Certificate of Au‐ thority with the bid shall be cause for rejection of bid. Copies of the bidding documents are available at the office of Purchas‐ ing & Property Manage‐ ment, Attn: Dabne Dover (337) 291-8262 located at 705 W. University Avenue, Lafayette, LA 70506. Bid shall be documents available until twentyfour hours before the bid

Each bid shall be accom‐ panied by a certified check, cashier’s check, or bid bond payable to the Lafayette Consoli‐ dated Government, the amount of which shall be five percent (5%) of the base bid plus additive al‐ ternates. If a bid bond is used, it shall be written by a surety or insurance company currently on the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service list approved bonding of companies which is pub‐ lished annually in the Federal Register, or by a Louisiana domiciled in‐ surance company with at least an A-Rating in the latest printing of the A.M. Best’s Key Rating Guide to write individual bonds up to ten percent (10%) of policyholders’ surplus as shown in the A.M. Best’s Key Rating Guide, or by an insurance com‐ pany in good standing li‐ censed to write bid bonds which is either domiciled in Louisiana or owned by Louisiana resi‐ dents. The bid bond shall be issued by a company licensed to do business in Louisiana. The certi‐ check, cashier’s fied check, or bid bond shall be given as a guarantee that the bidder shall exe‐ cute the contract, should it be awarded to him, in conformity with the con‐ tract documents within ten (10) days. No contractor may with‐ draw its bid prior to the deadline for submission of bids. Withdrawal of bids thereafter shall be allowed only pursuant to LA R.S. 38§2214.C. Other‐ wise, no bidder may withdraw his bid for at least forty-five (45) days after the time scheduled for the bid opening of bids. Each bid shall be submitted only on the bid f id d i hi

Public Notices Bids/Proposals y bid form provided within the specifications. The successful bidder will be required to execute per‐ formance and labor and material payment bonds in the full amount of the contract as more fully defined in the bid docu‐ ments. No contractors may withdraw his bid for at least forty-five (45) days after the time scheduled for the open‐ ing of bids. Each bid shall be submitted only on the bid form provided with the specifications. The contractor successful will be required to exe‐ cute performance and labor and material pay‐ ment bonds in the full amount of the contract as more fully defined in the bid documents. Bids will be evaluated by the Purchaser based on the lowest responsible and responsive bid sub‐ mitted which is also in compliance with the bid The documents. Lafayette Consolidated Government reserves the right to reject any and all bids for just cause in ac‐ cordance with LA R.S. 38§2214.B. Contractors or contract‐ ing firms submitting bids the amount of in $50,000.00 or more shall certify that they are li‐ contractors censed under Chapter 24 of Title 37 of the Louisiana Re‐ vised Statutes of 1950 and show their license number on the front of the sealed envelope in which their bid is en‐ closed. Contractors shall be licensed for the clas‐ sification of “PLUMBING”. Bids in the amounts specified above which have not bid in accor‐ dance with the require‐ ments, shall be rejected and shall not be read. information Additional relative to licensing may be obtained from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Lafayette Consoli‐ Government dated strongly encourages the participation of DBEs (Disadvantaged Business Enterprises) in all con‐ tracts or procurements let by the Lafayette Con‐ Government solidated for goods and services and labor and material. To that end, all contrac‐ tors and suppliers are encouraged to utilize DBEs business enter‐ prises in the purchase or sub-contracting of mate‐ rials, supplies, services and labor and material in disadvantaged which businesses are available. Assistance in identifying said businesses may be obtained by calling 2918410. PURCHASING DIVISION Lafayette Consolidated

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Legal Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF ORDINANCES NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the following ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the City Coun‐ of the City of cil Louisiana, Youngsville, held on September 10, 2026. ********** The following Ordinance was offered by Lindy Bol‐ giano and seconded by Shannon D. Bares: ORDI‐ NANCE NO. 517-2026 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY YOUNGSVILLE, OF AMENDING LOUISIANA THE CODE OF ORDI‐ NANCES CHAPTER 130 USE REGULA‐ “LAND TIONS” AS IT RELATES TO REGULATIONS OF GAS STATIONS. BE IT OR‐ DAINED by the City Coun‐ of the City of cil Youngsville, Parish of Lafayette, Louisiana that: WHEREAS, the City Coun‐ of the City of cil Youngsville desires to amend the Youngsville of Ordinances, Code Chapter 130 “Land Use Section Regulations”, 130-5 “Requirements, re‐ and re‐ strictions, sponses”. NOW, THERE‐ FORE, BE IT FURTHER OR‐ DAINED, by the City Council of the City of Youngsville, Parish of Lafayette, Louisiana that: SECTION 1: All of the aforedescribed “WHEREAS” clauses are herein adopted as part of this Ordinance. SECTION 2: The City of Youngsville of Ordinances, Code Chapter 130 “Land Use Section Regulations”, 130-5 “Requirements, re‐ and re‐ strictions, is hereby sponses” amended by adding sub‐ section (r) as follows: (r) requirements, Specific and re‐ restrictions sponses for gas stations. 1) Application. Gas sta‐ tion facilities must ad‐ here to the standards of the City's Land Develop‐ ment Code, unless a spe‐ cific requirement or re‐ is defined striction within this subsection. All proposed gas stations shall go before and be approved by the city council prior to plan sub‐ mittal. 2) Limitations on location. a. A gas station shall be approved only within the Major Arterial District as designated in the District Map in “Sec‐ tion 130-11”. b. Gas sta‐

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tions shall not be devel‐ oped or operated within 500 linear feet of a gov‐ well ernment-operated used for public drinking water. This buffer will be measured from the near‐ est point of the main gasoline or building, diesel underground stor‐ age tanks, or fuel canopy to the nearest lot or par‐ cel owned by a local gov‐ ernment water depart‐ ment and used as a well. 3) Development stan‐ dards. a. Lot dimensions. A lot containing a gas station shall be of ade‐ quate width and depth to meet all setback require‐ ments, but in no case shall a corner lot have less than two (2) street frontages of at least one hundred fifty (150) feet each and an area of at least twenty-two thou‐ five hundred sand (22,500) square feet, and an interior lot shall have a street frontage of at least one hundred (100) feet and a minimum area fifteen thousand of (15,000) square feet. If lo‐ cated on a roundabout, no entrances shall be al‐ lowed within two hun‐ dred fifty (250) feet from the splitter island of the roundabout adjacent arm and all entrances near roundabout arms shall be right in and right out only. b. Perimeter Wall. When a parcel con‐ taining a gas station abuts or adjoins residen‐ tial property, a minimum 20-foot buffer shall be provided. Said buffer shall include a PVC fence or solid masonry wall along the common prop‐ erty line, eight feet in and architec‐ height turally finished on both sides, and a row of Type “A” trees every 50 feet or Type “B” trees every 25 feet, which are not less than three feet high at the time of planting, and which shall be main‐ tained in good condition. When the wall reaches the established front yard setback line of a residential parcel adjoin‐ ing or directly across the alley from the gas sta‐ tion, that portion of the wall shall decrease to a height of three feet. No more than ten feet of the width of said 20-foot buffer shall be utilized as a retention area. c. Land‐ scaping. All gas stations within the city shall in‐ clude green space that is a minimum of fifteen percent of the area of the total development. d. De‐ sign. Gas stations must provide architectural de‐ tails that enhance the character of the commu‐ nity. The principal build‐ ing shall be the dominant architectural feature visi‐ ble from the public street. Fuel canopies and pump islands shall be lo‐ cated to the side or rear of the principal building whenever practical. Ad‐ ditional landscaping plan b i d h

p gp may be required when this is not practical. Cor‐ porate prototype designs shall be modified as nec‐ essary to comply with Youngsville architectural i. Exterior standards. Façade Materials. 1. Pri‐ mary materials. Two or more of the following materials shall be used for a combined total of 60% of the exterior façade (not including the required windows found in the fenestration re‐ quirement below): brick, stone or cast stone (granite, limestone, or precast), high-quality masonry high-quality units (architectural con‐ crete block with smooth or split-faced finish) - not standard concrete ma‐ sonry units (CMU), wood (treated hardwood), or fiber cement siding. Gas canopy support columns shall be finished with brick, stone, or other ma‐ terial used on the pri‐ mary building. 2. Accent materials. The following materials shall not ac‐ count for more than 40% of the exterior façade (not including the re‐ quired windows found in the fenestration require‐ ment below): stucco (tra‐ ditional of EIFS), metal panels (modern, powdercoated or treated fin‐ ishes), or decorative tile or terra cotta. Color ac‐ cent banding on all structures, is prohibited. ii. Fenestration. building facades that face a pub‐ lic road shall include windows transparent and/or doors across a minimum of 50% of the horizontal length, mea‐ sured between two and ten feet above finished grade. 1. There shall be no obstructions on win‐ dows except for hours of operation and ownership information. No market‐ ing, sale or promotional information allowed on windows. 2. Windows, doors and other building features shall not be adorned, encircled, or framed with light-emit‐ ting diode (LED) lighting. e. Gasoline pump is‐ lands/Canopy. i. All gaso‐ line pump islands shall be set back at least 40 feet from the right-ofway line, or where a fu‐ ture widening line has been established, the setback line shall be measured from such line, and where pump islands are constructed perpen‐ dicular to the right-ofway line, the pump is‐ land shall be located not less than 50 feet from the right-of-way line; how‐ ever, the pump island shall be at least 60 feet from the center line of a major arterial street. All gasoline pump islands shall not be within two hundred fifty (250) feet of the lot line of any property that is residen‐ ii. Neither the tial. canopy nor the pump is‐ lands shall block visibil‐ ity at intersections of rights-of-way or drives. iii. Bands of bright or bold color are not al‐ lowed along the edge of canopies. Iv. The canopy shall be connected to the principal structure. f. Ac‐ cess to site. i. Developer shall provide a traffic im‐ pact analysis. ii. Adjacent properties commercial shall provide cross-ac‐ cess whenever practical. iii. Vehicular entrances or exits for gas stations shall: 1. Not be provided with more than one (1) curb cuts for the first

lican Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, grilling Patel about the rationale for a change that the FBI director said was proposed to him by subordinates. “When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say what planet did you parachute in from?” Kennedy asked. Patel conceded that was his initial response, but “they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and applied to the FBI and so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualiﬁcation.”

Legal Notices

one hundred (100) feet of street frontage or frac‐ thereof, except tion when the corner is on a roundabout the first curb cut shall be more than two hundred fifty (250) feet; 2. Shall not have any two (2) driveways or curb cuts any closer than two hundred fifty (250) feet at both the right-ofway line and the curb or edge of the pavement along a single street. iv The City Engineer shall have discretion on turn‐ ing movements of the ac‐ cess. g. Accessory Uses. If a fast food, carry-out, or drive-thru restaurant is proposed as accessory uses, they shall be con‐ tained in the same build‐ ing as the primary use. Primary businesses shall be responsible for the use busi‐ accessory nesses on the premises, and those businesses shall comply with all or‐ dinances as the primary business. Drive-through windows and stacking lanes for accessory or additional principal uses shall be physically sepa‐ rated from on-site park‐ ing and vehicle circula‐ tion areas. No drivethrough stacking lane shall be permitted within fifty feet (50') of a resi‐ dential area and if the accessory business is a car wash or a business that operates past 10:00 pm, then the drivethrough lane shall not be within (100') of a residen‐ tial area. h. Lighting. All exterior lighting shall be arranged so that it is de‐ flected away from adja‐ properties and cent streets. Illumination val‐ ues at a property line abutting a residential area shall not be more than 0.2 fc. The illumina‐ tion values at all other property lines shall not be more than 1.0 fc. All lighting elements must be consistent in their de‐ sign throughout the de‐ velopment, be shielded with an opaque material, have cutoff luminaires with less than a ninetyangle (down degree lighting), and may be no more than twenty (20) feet in height. Measure‐ ments of light readings shall be taken along any property line subject with a light meter facing the center of the prop‐ erty at six-foot intervals. Developer shall submit a photometrics plan at time of plan submittal to demonstrate that the proposed lighting meets requirements. i. Any out‐ door speakers shall meet requirements of the Chapter 12, Article III – Noise. j. Outdoor trash can receptacles shall be provided for each row of pumps and outside of primary building; and shall be regularly emp‐ tied and maintained. k. Signage shall comply with Chapter 145 – Signs. l. Fuel delivery. A parking area for fuel delivery trucks shall be provided which does not interfere with vehicle circulation or parking. m. Storage of flammable products. Un‐ derground storage tanks shall be located at least 25 feet from any property line or right-of-way. Out‐ side above ground tanks for the storage of gaso‐ line, liquefied petroleum gas, oil or other inflam‐ mable liquids or gases shall be prohibited at any gas station. All used motor oil shall be stored in underground tanks. k

Legal Notices

g However, storage tanks for the retail sales of propane gas shall be per‐ mitted. n. Outdoor sales. There shall be no storage of, selling, renting, or service repairs of motor vehicles, trailers, recre‐ ational vehicles, boats, or similar equipment. 4) These regulations shall not apply to gas stations that are in existence or have already started the permitting process for the construction of a gas station as of the date of the adoption of the ordi‐ nance from which this subsection is derived, ex‐ cept if the gas station is closed for a period of six months and/or if an ex‐ isting gas station is being reconstructed, in which case it cannot reopen without complying with all regulations. Re‐ construction of a gas station includes casualty loss, voluntary demoli‐ tion and rebuilding, or of a implementation façade renovation, site renovation or moderniza‐ tion, provided that after such reconstruction the gas station shall comply with and meet all applic‐ able standards. Fuel dis‐ pensers, pump islands, overhead canopy, and air and water dispensers shall be removed upon cessation of the use for a period of more than 1 year. SECTION 3: All Ordi‐ nances, or parts thereof, in conﬂict herewith are hereby repealed. SEC‐ TION 4: This Ordinance shall be in full effect as permitted by law. This Ordinance having been introduced on August 13, 2026, and published by title only giving Notice of a Public Hearing on Sep‐ tember 10, 2026, was submitted to a vote and the vote thereon was as follows: YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. This Ordinance was de‐ clared adopted on this 10th day of September, 2026. /s/ Ken Ritter, Mayor /s/ Nicole Guidry, City Clerk 200906-SEP 16-1T $ PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE OF INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the following enti‐ tled ordinances were in‐ troduced at a meeting of the City Council of the of Youngsville, City Louisiana, held on September 10, 2026, and laid over for publication of notice. ******* Ordinance No. 519-2026 An Ordinance of the City of Youngsville, Louisiana amending the Code of Ordinances Chapter 130 “Land Use Regulations” as it relates to regula‐ tions of bars, lounges and nightclubs. ******* NOTICE IS HEREBY FUR‐ THER GIVEN that the Gov‐ Authority will erning meet on Thursday, Octo‐ ber 8, 2026, at 6:00 o’clock p.m., at 201 Iberia Youngsville, Street, Louisiana, at which time there will be a public h i h d i

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● 7A

lll

Legal Notices

p hearing on the adoption of the aforesaid ordi‐ nances. /s/ Nicole Guidry, City Clerk

y Champagne, seconded by Lindy Bolgiano, ap‐ proving the July 2026 ﬁ‐ nance report. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. AB‐ SENT: Matt Romero. AB‐ SENT AT VOTE: Nicholas Niland. Motion Approved. 5. OTHER BUSINESS 5.1 Gabriel Lewis introduced himself as Justice of the Peace elect for Ward 9. 5.2 Art LeBreton, Jr. an‐ nounced his candidacy for Chief of Police. 5.3 David Way announced his candidacy for 15th JDC District Court Judge, Division I. 6. RESOLUTIONS 6.1 Reso‐ lution No. 2026-24 A Reso‐ lution authorizing the Mayor of the City of Youngsville to execute a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement and all neces‐ sary documentation be‐ tween the Louisiana De‐ partment of Treasury, State Of Louisiana, and the City of Youngsville for an appropriation from Act 3 of the 2026 Regular Legislative Session for road construction, main‐ tenance & repairs. ($200,000) Motion made by Simone B. Cham‐ pagne, seconded by Lindy Bolgiano, adopting Resolution No. 2026-24. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Cham‐ pagne. NAYS: None. AB‐ STAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Resolution Adopted. 6.2 Resolution No. 2026-25 A Resolution authorizing the Mayor of the City of Youngsville to execute a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement and all necessary documen‐ tation between the Louisiana Department of Treasury, State Of Louisiana, and the City of Youngsville for an appro‐ priation from Act 961 of the 2026 Regular Legisla‐ tive Session for Road Im‐ provements. ($50,000) i d b i d

p Motion made by Lindy Bolgiano, seconded by Shannon D. Bares, adopt‐ ing Resolution No. 202625. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Resolution Adopted. 6.3 Resolution No. 2026-26 A Resolution adopting the Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire for Audit Engagement for the City of Youngsville for ﬁscal year ending June 30, 2026. Motion made by Si‐ mone B. Champagne, seconded by Lindy Bol‐ giano, adopting Resolu‐ tion No. 2026-26. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Ni‐ land, Simone B. Cham‐ pagne. NAYS: None. AB‐ STAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Resolution Adopted. 6.4 Resolution No. 2026-27 A Resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute Equipment Lease-Purchase Agree‐ ments for the Youngsville Police Department. Mem‐ bers of the council held discussions on the de‐ tails of the lease with Chief Broussard and CFO Cathryn Greig. Ms. Cham‐ pagne requested the Chief Broussard provide a written ﬂeet plan. Mo‐ tion made by Simone B. Champagne, seconded by Lindy Bolgiano, adopt‐ ing Resolution No. 202627, as amended. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Ni‐ land, Simone B. Cham‐ pagne. NAYS: None. AB‐ STAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Resolution Adopted. 7. ORDINANCES FOR PUB‐ LIC HEARING AND FINAL ADOPTION 7.1 Ordinance No. 517-2026 An Ordi‐ nance of the City of Youngsville, Louisiana, amending the Code of Ordinances Chapter 130 “Land Use Regulations” as it relates to regula‐ f i i

g tions of gas stations, was read aloud and opened for Public Hearing by Mayor Ritter. Hearing no comments, a motion made by Lindy Bolgiano, seconded by Shannon D. Bares, adopting Ordi‐ nance No. 517-2026. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Cham‐ pagne. NAYS: None. AB‐ STAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Ordinance Adopted. 8. ORDINANCES FOR IN‐ TRODUCTION 8.1 Ordi‐ nance No. 518-2026 An Ordinance of the City of Youngsville, Louisiana amending the ofﬁcial map of the City of Youngsville, providing for the annexation of addi‐ tional land into the cor‐ porate limits of the City of Youngsville, Louisiana being the tracts owned by J & M Land Invest‐ ments, LLC and S & C De‐ velopers, LLC, consisting of 196.778 acres located in Section 30. Township 11 South, Range 5 East, Lafayette Parish, as shown on that map titled Map Showing Property to be annexed into the City of Youngsville, LA, con‐ taining 196.778 acres, prepared by Jeremy P. Soirez, Professional Land Surveyor, dated May 7, 2026. Development in‐ vestor John Cazayoux stated that the entire de‐ velopment would consist of approximately 600 res‐ idential homes ranging from $250,000 - $1.3 mil‐ lion with lot sizes rang‐ ing from 55’-120’. Upon questioning, he advised that there is a possibility for future variance re‐ quests and that the de‐ velopers are holding dis‐ cussions with local con‐ tractors. Public com‐ ments were received from Brian Langlinais and Dewayne Viator. Mayor Ritter and mem‐ bers of the Council held various discussions on

200712 Sept. 16 1t $35.76 PUBLIC NOTICE --PROCEEDINGS OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUN‐ CIL OF THE CITY OF YOUNGSVILLE, LOUISIANA TAKEN AT THE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMEBR 10, 2026 AT 6:00 PM AT YOUNGSVILLE CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1. OPENING 1.1 Invocation was led by Pastor Andy Tribe, Youngsville Com‐ munity Church. Mayor Ritter expressed his con‐ dolences to the family of Youngsville resident Rocky Landry. 1.2 Pledge of Allegiance was led by Simone B. Champagne. 2. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Mayor Ken Ritter, Shan‐ non D. Bares (Division A), Mayor Pro Tem Lindy Bol‐ giano (Division B), Nicholas Niland (Division D) entered the meeting at 6:07 p.m., Simone B. Champagne (Division E). ABSENT: Matt Romero (Division C). STAFF: Nicole Guidry (City Clerk), Cathryn Greig (CFO), Jean Paul Brous‐ sard (Police Chief), Wade Trahan (City Attorney). 3. MINUTES 3.1 Approval of August 13, 2026 min‐ utes. Motion made by Shannon D. Bares, sec‐ onded by Lindy Bolgiano, approving the August 13, 2026 minutes. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. AB‐ SENT: Matt Romero. AB‐ SENT AT VOTE: Nicholas Niland. Motion Approved. 4. FINANCE REPORT 4.1 Approval of July 2026 ﬁ‐ nance report. Motion made by Simone B. h d d

Lafayette Parish School Board - Regular Board Meeting Minutes August 13, 2026 at 5:30 PM 202 Rue Iberville Lafayette, LA 70508 Board meeting called to order at 5:30 PM. 1. MEETING OPENINGS 1.1

Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and Presentation of Colors and Moment of Silence Board President Hannah Smith Mason asked Britt Latiolais to lead in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. Roll call followed: Board members present: LeJeune, Davidson, Edmond, Trahan, Latiolais, Bergeron, Labue, Mason and Hidalgo Board members absent: None Ms. Amy Trahan entered at the end of Information Item 2.1.

1.2

Opening Comments - Superintendent Superintendent Francis Touchet, Jr. addressed retirees who have expressed their concerns over health insurance issues. Mr. Touchet announced at the next Regular Board Meeting on September 10, 2026, Gallagher along with Meritain will be in attendance to present facts about the issues members are experiencing. He also noted and recognized all the students being recognized in the audience because it serves as a reminder of the great things happening in Lafayette Parish. Mr. Touchet indicated he and his team have visited over 32 schools the first two days of the 2026-27 school year. The visits allow Mr. Touchet and his team to support the schools. Mr. Touchet added that Board President Hannah Smith Mason joined Mr. Touchet and his team on most of the vists. Mr. Touchet thanked the leaders of the schools, teachers, all support personnel and district level employees who support the schools so the 2026-27 school year would have a great start.

2.2

ADMINISTRATION: Recognition of 2026 State Elementary Fitness Meet Champions by Representative Dr. Annie Spell Jeffers/LeBlanc Representatives Dr. Annie Spell and Dr. Tehmi Chassion recognized Lafayette Parish for winning first place in the Louisiana Governor’s Games 31st Annual Elementary State Championship Fitness Meet. The team consisted of: Tiana Franks, Brennon Poullard, Amir Alsayed and Aubrey Porter. The team also consisted of two alternates: Johniyah Abarham and Jace Babin. The team anchored Lafayette Parish to victory. Representative Dr. Annie Spell provided the entire team with an official signed copy Senate Resolution No. 110 from the Speaker of the House Philip DeVillier. Board Member Kate Labue recognized Dr. Tehmi Chassion for the work he did while he served on the Lafayette Parish School Board and noted once he was elected as a State Representative, he fought to get money for Northside High in the state budget. Ms. Labue also noted Parish Proud Day at Northside High would take place on Saturday, August 15, 2026. BOARD: Lafayette High Student Serves as National Delegate for Girl Scouts of the United States of America - Bergeron Lily Barousse, a rising senior at Lafayette High School, represented the Girl Scouts of Louisiana Pines to the Gulf Council as a delegate on the Girl Scouts of the United States of America 58th National Council in Washington, D.C. July 20–24, 2026. As part of her three-year term (2025–2027) as a National Council Delegate, she prepared for this business meeting by researching proposals submitted by the 110 councils across the nation and Girl Scouts Overseas, discussing them with fellow delegates from other councils and regions via numerous webinars, and traveling to Washington to debate and vote on behalf of sister Girl Scouts everywhere. In addition to the proposals, she also voted in the new National Board that will serve for the next triennium. She exhibited leadership and governance on the national stage, helping to shape the future of Girl Scouts. 20260721_085432. jpeg 1000074924.jpeg

2.4

ACADEMICS: 2026 SLEMCO Scholarship Recipients - Ms. Mary Laurent with SLEMCO - Rabalais/Richard Mary Laurent, Communication Coordinator with SLEMCO, announced the recipients from Lafayette Parish who received the 2026 SLEMCO Scholarships. They are as follows: • Layne Landry – Acadiana High School • Harlem Green – Carencro High School • Shaniyah Trahan – Southside High School BOARD: Recognition of Acadiana High School’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) - LeJeune Board Member David LeJeune recognized the accomplishments of the Acadiana High’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter for the 2025-2026 school year. Acadiana High’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) won a total of six state championships which is more than any other school in Louisiana. The state championships were in the following: Land Evaluation, Parliamentary Procedure; Dairy Cattle Evaluation; Vet Science; Poultry Evaluation and Carpentry. Mr. LeJeune indicated Acadiana High’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) won the Area III Sweepstakes Award for the third year in a row. They also won the overall State Sweepstakes Award for the first time ever. The State Sweepstakes Award is won by the school that earned the most points throughout the school year by the way their teams placed in each contest. Mr. LeJeune also recognized Acadiana High’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) is the only chapter in Louisiana to have won a state contest and represented Louisiana at the national level for the past 10 consecutive years. Ms. Jessica Leger, Agriculture teacher at Acadiana High, gave recognition to the students in the Agriculture Program on their accomplishments in competitions. She noted the competitions are career development events and teach the students skills they can take into the workforce once they graduate. Ms. Leger thanked everyone for their support of the Agriculture Program at Acadiana High. Wayne Oubre, Advisor of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) at Acadiana High, thanked Board members for their support and

p & Pump Station 5 Up‐ grades – plans complete, pending funds. Pump Stations 8 & 17 - precon‐ struction meeting last week. • Fire Department The Fire Prevention Program was approved on Aug. 31 by the Fire Marshall. They’re moving forward continuing with pre-ﬁre plans and will start building inspections. • Farmers Market - Sat 812. Empower Women Connection - Sept 24. Ca‐ reer Fair at YSC - Nov 10. Chamber Golf Tourna‐ ment - Nov 20. Little Big Town Concert this Satur‐ day. 9.1. Council Announce‐ ments – none. 10. ADJOURNMENT 10.1 Adjourn Meeting Motion made by Lindy Bolgiano, seconded by Nicholas Ni‐ land, to adjourn the meeting. YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Motion Approved. /s/ Ken Ritter, Mayor /s/ Nicole Guidry, City Clerk 200907-sep 16-1t $117.43

Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

PUBLIC NOTICE --Agenda City Zoning Commission Public Meeting Monday, September 21, 2026 5:30 P.M., or immediately following the conclusion of the Lafayette City Planning Commission, whichever occurs later Community Development and Planning Department ill

p 220 West Willow Street, Building C Town Hall Auditorium I. Call to Order II. Chair’s Opening Remarks III. Approval of the Minutes August 17, 2026 IV. New Business 1. Case No. 2026-16-REZ Lots 4-12, Block 6, Gen‐ eral Mouton Avenue Re‐ zoning A request to rezone lots 4 through 12, Block 6, Gen‐ eral Mouton Avenue, from CH (CommercialHeavy) to MN-1 (MixedUse Neighborhood) lo‐ cated generally north of Rose Street, west of Gen‐ eral Mouton Avenue, and south of Violet Street. Note: This case was de‐ ferred from August 17, 2026 Zoning Commission Meeting. 2. Case No. 2026-17-REZ 201 Jefferson Street & 110 East Cypress Street CUP A request for a Condi‐ tional Use Permit (CUP) for a bar/lounge in a D (Downtown) zoning dis‐ trict located generally north of Lee Avenue, west of East Cypress Street, and south of Jef‐ ferson Street. 3. Case No. 2026-19-REZ 1409 East Butcher Switch Road #C (Lot 1) Annexa‐ tion A request for a zoning classiﬁcation of RS-1 (Residential Single-Fam‐ ily) for property pro‐ posed for annexation into the city of Lafayette located generally north of East Butcher Switch Road, east of Louisiana Avenue, and south of East Gloria Switch Road.

3.1

EMPLOYEE SERVICES: Discussion and/or action regarding revisions to Employee Services Job Descriptions – Clement/ Gardner Coordinator of Custodial Services - Coordinator of Custodial Services Job Description Revised.pdf Coordinator of Student Services - Coordinator of Student Services Job Description Revised.pdf Insurance Billing & Collections Facilitator - Insurance Billing & Collections Facilitator Job Description Revised.pdf Telecommunications Technician II - Telecommunications Technician II Job Description Revised (1).pdf That the Board approve the revisions to the job descriptions as attached in the description section of this agenda item, effective August 13, 2026. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3.2

FACILITIES: Discussion and/or action concerning Broadmoor Wing Addition Guaranteed Maximum Price #2 (GMP2) Fontenot/Touchet Broadmoor Elementary Addition - CD - FINAL PACKAGE 20260722.pdf That the Board approve the Broadmoor Wing Addition Guaranteed Maximum Price #2 (GMP2) with The Lemoine Company, LLC, in the amount of $7,657,100 Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3.3

FACILITIES: Discussion and/or action concerning Paul Breaux Elementary and Middle School Guaranteed Maximum Price #3 (GMP3) - Fontenot/Touchet Architect Recommendation of GMP 8.5.26.pdf That the Board approve the Paul Breaux Elementary and Middle School Guaranteed Maximum Price #3 (GMP3) with JB Mouton LLC in the amount of $37,664,042.00. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3.4

FACILITIES: Discussion and/or action concerning Westside/ Milton Wing Addition Guaranteed Maximum Price #2 (GMP2) Fontenot/Touchet Milton Westside - CD FINAL.pdf That the Board approve the Westside/Milton Wing Addition Guaranteed Maximum Price #2 (GMP2) with The Lemoine Company, LLC, in the amount of $9,503,850. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3.5

FINANCE: Discussion and/or action concerning the August Budget-to-Actual/Revisions for FY 25-26 - Mouton/LeBlanc FY26 General Fund BTA-Revision #13.pdf FY26 Capital Improvement Fund BTA-Revision #13-REVISED. pdf FY26 Self-Funded Construction Fund BTA-Revision #13.pdf FY26 2025 Bond Construction Fund BTA - Budget Revision #4.pdf FY26 2025A Bond Construction Fund BTA - Budget Revision #3.pdf FY26 Debt Service - Budget Revision #6.pdf FY26 Special Revenue Federal and state BTA revision #5.pdf FY26 Special Revenue State and Local BTA revision #8 v2.pdf FY26 2002 Sales tax BTA #5.pdf FY 26 School Food Service Budget Revision #3.pdf FY26 Cafe Beauregard BTA - Budget Revision #2.pdf That the Board approve the August Budget-to-Actual/Revisions for FY 25-26 as attached above to this agenda item. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3.6

3.7

3.8

FINANCE: Discussion and/or action concerning the August Budget-to-Actual/Revisions for FY 26-27 - Mouton/LeBlanc FY27 General Fund BTA-Revision #2.pdf FY27 Capital Improvement Fund BTA-Revision #2 (REVISED2). pdf FY27 Self-Funded Construction Fund BTA-Revision #2 (REVISED)-.pdf That the Board approve the August Budget-to-Actual/Revisions for FY 26-27 as attached above to this agenda item. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0 INSURANCE: Discussion and/or action regarding the LPSS Wellness Way Program Incentive - Gardner/LeBouef On June 11, 2026, the Board approved a District-wide wellness program launching January 2027 for active employees, pre-65 members, and eligible spouses. Powered by the WellRight platform, the LPSS Wellness Way initiative centers on four pillars of wellbeing: preventative, mental, physical, and financial wellness. 8.13.26 LPSS Wellness Way Program Incentive.pdf That the Board approve the Board Insurance Committee’s (BIC) July 23, 2026 recommendation to increase the annual LPSS Wellness Way Group Health Insurance deductible incentive from $250 to $500 per eligible participant, effective January 1, 2027. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0 INSURANCE: Discussion and/or action regarding the LPSS

Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

V. Other Business 1. Director’s Report and review of Lafayette City Council action on mat‐ ters previously consid‐ ered by the Zoning Com‐ mission. 2. Proposed amendments to Rules of Policy and Procedure i. Add Part IV: City Zoning Commission Policy ii. Add to proposed Part IV: A. The City of Lafayette Zoning Com‐ mission shall defer until the next regular meeting any application appear‐ ing before the Commis‐ sion where the applicant is not in attendance of the meeting where the application is scheduled to be heard.

Public Notices Successions

2. All movables within the estate home at 311 Sunny Lane, consisting of home furnishings, deco‐ rations, and kitchenware. Any objections to the sale of the above prop‐ erty can be ﬁled with the 15th Judicial District Court – Parish of Lafayette under probate docket number 20250640, pursuant to LA C.C.P. art 3282. 198202 Aug. 22 to Sept. 20, 30t $456.60

VI. Adjournment 199406 Sept. 6, 16, 20, 3t $71.49

Public Notices Successions

PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE Administrator for the Succession of Mary Fern Cobb Briggs gives notice of his intent to sell via private sale, the follow‐ ing: 1. The immovable estate home and property lo‐ cated at 311 Sunny Lane, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506, Being the same property acquired by Mary C. Briggs by Cash Sale from Jeanie Slay Mellinger dated April 29, 1994, recorded on May 2, 1994, under instrument no. 1994-00016195 of the public records of Lafayette, Louisiana.; and

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Humana Medicare Advantage Plan - Gardner/LeBouef The Lafayette Parish School System (LPSS) currently provides medical and pharmacy coverage to 837 members under the Humana Medicare Advantage plan. For the 2026 plan year, the premium rate is $252.10 PMPM (Per Member Per Month). The Humana Decoupled Plan maintains existing benefits while adding expanded dental and vision coverage for District retirees and their eligible dependents. This provides enhanced postretirement benefits, reduces individual out-of-pocket costs, and delivers a projected $212,469.84 in District savings for FY26–27. 8.13.pdf That the Board approve the Board Insurance Committee’s (BIC) July 23, 2026 recommendation selecting the Humana Decoupled Plan, inclusive of dental and vision, at $230.87 PMPM for plan year 2027. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0

3. CONSENT AGENDA

MINUTES: Board member Roddy Bergeron recognized and congratulated Lily Barousse on her accomplishments. He also congratulated her parents. Rachel Broussard, CEO for Girl Scouts, was in attendance. Ms. Broussard congratulated and thanked Lily Barousse for her leadership. 2.3

the processes for annex‐ ation and platting asso‐ ciated with the proposed development. Motion made by Lindy Bolgiano, seconded by Nicholas Ni‐ land, introducing Ordi‐ nance No. 519-2026. YEAS: Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland. NAYS: Shannon D. Bares, Si‐ mone B. Champagne. AB‐ STAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Motion Failed. 8.2 Ordinance No. 519-2026 An Ordinance of the City of Youngsville, Louisiana amending the Code of Ordinances Chapter 130 “Land Use Regulations” as it relates to regulations of bars, lounges and nightclubs. Motion made by Simone B. Champagne, seconded by Lindy Bolgiano, intro‐ ducing Ordinance No. 519-2026.YEAS: Shannon D. Bares, Lindy Bolgiano, Nicholas Niland, Simone B. Champagne. NAYS: None. ABSTAINED: None. ABSENT: Matt Romero. Motion Approved. 9. MAYOR & COUNCIL AN‐ NOUNCEMENTS 9.1 Mayor/Staff Announce‐ ments • Roads/Drainage Hwy. 89 Phase 1B – wrapping up transitions, Phase 2 – 60% complete with de‐ sign & working on utility relocations. Fortune Rd Ext. – accepted and under the lien period. Larriviere Improvements – ﬁnishing up transitions from Hill Ridge to Hwy. 92, followed by comple‐ tion of the second bridge. Left Turn Lanes completed road work, working on ditch section near A&P Electrical. Road Striping Project – work‐ ing preconstruction meeting. Chemin Agree‐ able Ph. 1 - complete and punch list underway. Hwy 89 Sidewalk – pend‐ ing CEA from TAP grant. • Water/Sewer WWTP 47% complete. Water Fil‐ ter 4 – delivery expected in Feb. SMP Pump Station i

Public Notices Meet/Hear/Min

Legal Notices

gave special recognition to Board members David LeJeune and Britt Latiolais for always meeting the needs of the Agriculture Department at Acadiana High.

2. INFORMATION ITEMS 2.1

Legal Notices

3.9

INSURANCE: Discussion and/or action regarding the Voluntary Benefits & Administrative Services Request for Proposal (RFP) Gardner/LeBouef Agenda item pulled for further discussion by Jeremy Hidalgo. Public comment was received. FINAL BIC 8.6.26 Voluntary Benefits RFP 07-27 TLeBouef -PDF. pdf 1st Presenter - HUB - AGM Presentation (1).pdf 2nd Presenter - McGriff a Marsh McLennan Agency (1).pdf 3rd Presenter Gallagher Benefit Services (1).pdf LPSS Insurance _ Benefits _07-27 Voluntary Benefits and Administrative Services RFP Scoring Sheet (1) (1).pdf That the Board approve the Board Insurance Committee’s (BIC) August 6, 2026 recommendation to continue with the current Voluntary Benefits & Administrative Services provider, HUB International and AGM Benefits, for another year. Moved by: Roddy Bergeron; seconded by: Kate Bailey Labue Yes: Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Roddy Bergeron, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson No: Britt Latiolais, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, and Joshua Edmond Motion Carries 5-4 Sub-motion: That the Board approve a contract with Gallagher Benefit Services to provide voluntary benefits and administrative services, based upon the recent Request for Proposals (RFP). Moved by: Jeremy Hidalgo; seconded by: Britt Latiolais Yes: Britt Latiolais, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, and Joshua Edmond No: Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Roddy Bergeron, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Motion Fails 4-5

3.10 RISK MANAGEMENT: Oil and Gas Mineral Lease - Consent to Assignment Request - Early Agenda item pulled by Kate Labue for further discussion. OLIPDP II, LLC (“OLI”), current owner of the oil and gas leases, intends to assign and convey its interest in and to the Oil and Gas Leases - including any amendments thereto - together with the wells and all related property located thereon, to Hackberry Acadiana LLC, the parent company of OLI. Consent to Assign. pdf That the Board not approve the Consent to Assign as attached in the Agenda Item Description content section of this agenda item. Moved by: Kate Bailey Labue; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Abstain: Jeremy Hidalgo Absent: Britt Latiolais Motion Carries 7-0 That the Board approve the Consent to Assign as attached in the Agenda Item Description content section of this agenda item. 3.11 SUPERINTENDENT: Discussion and/or action concerning the Minutes of July 23, 2026 - Touchet LPSB - Public Hearing on Discipline - July 23, 2026 - Minutes - Html LPSB - Regular Board Meeting - July 23, 2026 - Minutes - Html That the Board approve the minutes of July 23, 2026 as attached to this agenda item. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0 3.12 Approval of all Action Consent Items That the Board approve all Action Consent agenda items with the exception of items pulled. Moved by: Britt Latiolais; seconded by: Roddy Bergeron Yes: Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason, Kate Bailey Labue, Amy Trahan, Jeremy Hidalgo, Roddy Bergeron, Joshua Edmond, David LeJeune, and Robert Davidson Carried 9-0 4. ADJOURN 4.1

Adjourn Meeting There being no futher business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:33 PM.

/s/Francis Touchet, Jr. Francis Touchet, Jr. Secretary-Treasurer /s/Hannah Smith Mason Hannah Smith Mason Board President

200691-687443-sept 16-1t $ 398.67

8A ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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TODAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

A t-storm around in the p.m.

Partly sunny and warm

Sunny

Plenty of sunlight

A t-storm around in the p.m.

A couple of t-storms; humid

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

94° 75°

LOW

HIGH

94° 69°

LOW

92° 69°

Beaumont 94/78 Port Arthur 95/79

Baton Rouge 93/74

Lake Charles 96/77

New Orleans 91/79 Houma 88/74

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

Hattiesburg 95/70

Alexandria 100/75

Lafayette 94/75

10s

20s

30s

40s

50s

LOW

HIGH

LOW

92° 74°

TEMPERATURE Jackson 97/72

Many 99/73

HIGH

93° 73°

YESTERDAY

TODAY

READING 37 MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

Lafayette through 5 p.m. Tuesday

Longview 97/76

-0s

LOW

Monroe 100/74

Shreveport 98/76

-10s

HIGH

93° 73°

Well, easterly winds will be bringing a lot of dry air today and for the next few days. Temperatures will still be high, but dry air means lower dew points and lower humidity. So expect a mostly sunny and hot day with a light breeze. Temperatures will be rising to the mid-90s with heat index or “feels-like” temperatures up to 106. The UV index will be very high this afternoon and winds will be easterly at 5 to 10 mph. There is a slight chance of rain today but no rain is expected for the rest of the week.

60s

70s

80s

90s 100s 110s

High/low Normal high/low Last year’s high/low Record high Record low

Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

24-hour total Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date

HIGH

11:19a 5:28a --1:40a 1:03a 12:18a 2:11a

6:53 a.m. 7:12 p.m. 12:17 p.m. 10:26 p.m.

FIRST

FULL

LAST

NEW

SEP 18

SEP 26

OCT 3

OCT 10

City

Austin Boston Dallas Fairbanks Honolulu Las Vegas Louisville Miami Nashville

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

94°/75° 89°/71° 90°/71° 100° in 1912 48° in 1902

TODAY’S TIDES Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) Shell Beach South Point, Marsh Island Cypremort Point Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) Wine Island

TODAY

99 77 99 51 90 96 95 90 98

74 64 80 44 79 75 75 78 73

t s s r sh s t t s

97 75 97 54 88 94 97 89 98

GOOD

PRECIPITATION

THU. Lo

76 69 78 39 77 74 74 78 72

t c s c sh s t t s

FT.

0.8 1.9 --1.7 1.5 1.8 1.8

LOW

11:56p 3:38p 12:35p 4:05p 12:55p 11:22a 1:57p

0.00” 2.37” 2.80” 46.16” 46.48”

FT.

HIGH

0.2 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.4

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

FT.

---------------

LOW

---------------

FLOOD

FT.

---------------

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter. MAJOR MINOR MAJOR MINOR

Today Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday

City

New Orleans Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego Tampa

3:51a 4:44a 5:36a 6:27a 7:15a 8:00a 8:43a

91 90 84 86 84 85 94 77 91

10:03a 10:57a 11:49a 12:15a 1:02a 1:48a 2:31a

TODAY Lo

79 74 70 75 69 60 77 69 74

4:16p 10:28p 5:09p 11:22p 6:02p ---6:52p 12:39p 7:40p 1:27p 8:24p 2:12p 9:07p 2:55p

t pc s t t s t pc t

90 88 86 95 80 90 97 79 89

THU. Lo

73 73 71 82 67 67 76 67 75

s t pc pc t s t s t

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

N O R T H A M ER I CA’S

TUE.

24-HOUR

MISSISSIPPI STAGE STAGE CHANGE Memphis 34 -4.29 +0.45 Vidalia-Natchez 48 15.52 -0.06 Red River Landing 48 18.71 +0.01 Baton Rouge 35 6.45 -0.55 Donaldsonville 27 3.88 -0.32 Reserve 22 2.92 -0.23 New Orleans 17 2.40 -0.53 OHIO Cairo 40 16.01 +1.26 COMITE Near Olive 19 -1.54 -0.06 AMITE Near Darlington 18 -1.02 +0.20 Denham Springs 29 9.97 -0.05 Port Vincent 8 2.10 +0.02 TICKFAW Montpelier 13 2.69 +1.23 Holden 15 0.71 -0.01 ATCHAFALAYA Simmesport 47 6.43 -0.22 Melville 34 4.17 -0.11 Krotz Springs 29 3.10 -0.21 Butte La Rose 20 3.19 -0.12 Bayou Sorrel 12 3.00 +0.10 Morgan City 6 2.32 -0.41

data as of 7 a.m. Tuesday

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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

W e d n e s d ay, s e p t e m b e r 16, 2026

1bn

One dead in Lafayette shooting Suspect arrested on second-degree murder

BY DEAN BOUDREAUX Staff writer

A 22-year-old Lafayette man died after being shot near a business on Surrey Street on Monday night. Ephrim Rose was fatally shot following a disagreement during an attempted exchange of items for money, Lafayette police said. Asher Cormier, 18, of Rayne, was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center on one count of second-degree murder, police said. Ofﬁcers responded to 200 block of Surrey Street at 8:22 p.m. Monday after reports of an active shooting incident. They found Rose dead from the gunshot wounds. STAFF PHOTOS BY LESLIE WESTBROOK

ä See SHOOTING, page 4B

A coming-soon sign is displayed outside Trader Joe’s on Tuesday in Lafayette. The store will open 8 a.m. Thursday.

Excitement growing for Trader Joe’s grand opening

Specialty grocery store set to open doors to public on Thursday BY ADAM DAIGLE

Level Homes to offer 22 designs for Gray’s Landing

Acadiana business editor Not many people get excited about items in a supermarket’s frozen food section, but Maria Cooper gets that way with Trader Joe’s. Ask her about the croissants. It is important, she pointed out, that you follow the directions on the package: Proof them overnight, do the egg wash and bake them. Do that and you will not regret it. “They just smell like heaven,” Cooper said. “They’re perfect — perfect flaky croissants. I’m just drooling thinking about them right now. It’s my favorite thing.” Those items and all the other unique merchandise a Trader Joe’s store usually carries will be for sale when the Lafayette store finally opens at 8 a.m. Thursday at 1710 Camellia Blvd. The opening date has finally arrived, about 18 months after public documents first surfaced that the company was serious about opening a Lafayette location. It has been a long time coming, particularly as construction has moved along and customers have waited for the day to come. It is the specialty grocer’s sixth store in Louisiana but first outside the Baton Rouge and New Orleans metro areas. The store is also the latest retail grab for the Lafayette area, which has had other wins in recent years such as TopGolf and Buc-ee’s. Yet with Trader Joe’s, more sales tax dollars will remain in the city and alleviate some of the leakage to the Baton Rouge location, said Mandi Mitchell, president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. Tiffany Borel, of Lafayette, said she and her husband shop for other people so much

Developer to build 67 homes in subdivision BY ADAM DAIGLE

Acadiana business editor

Jen Roberts straightens products at Trader Joe’s on Tuesday in preparation for the store’s grand opening later this week in Lafayette. at the Baton Rouge Trader Joe’s that the couple joked they should have started a delivery service. “Every time we would go, we would spend 100 to 200 bucks,” Borel said. “Just have a grocery cart full of Trader Joe’s stuff. We would always tell (the store’s staff), ‘Oh yeah, we’re from Lafayette.’ And the cashiers would always say, ‘We get a lot of people from Lafayette here.’” The south Lafayette store will be located in what is now the commercial hub of the parish. The area is already humming with grocery activity; the Rouses Market that

opened in 2024 was the seventh full-service supermarket within 21/ 2 miles between Ambassador Caffery Parkway and Camellia Boulevard. Trader Joe’s, as the eighth, is not expected to take customers from those other stores, Mitchell said. “One thing I learned about Trader Joe’s is there’s not a concern of cannibalization of other grocery stores,” Mitchell said. “They cater to a very speciﬁc type of consumer. It’s complementary to their grocery store

ä See GROCERY, page 4B

A Baton Rouge builder has purchased dozens of sites for homes in the southwest corner of Lafayette Parish near Maurice. Level Homes acquired 67 lots earlier this month to build the ﬁrst phase of Gray’s Landing just off Johnston Street and south of Willie May Lane, records show. The company bought the lots from a group led by Lafayette builder Bailey Shivers. It is the seventh project in the Lafayette area for Level Homes but the ﬁrst in which it is the sole builder, the company announced this week. It will offer 22 designs and homes in a price range of around $260,000 to around $450,000. “Lafayette has welcomed Level Homes from day one, and Gray’s Landing is our chance to invest back into that,” said Lance Faucheaux, operations manager at Level Homes. “Being the only builder in Gray’s Landing means every decision — the home sites, the plans, the way it all comes together — reflects the quality and design we want our name on. We’re proud to keep planting

ä See HOMES, page 4B

Local animal shelter to host annual free rabies vaccination clinic for dogs BY DEAN BOUDREAUX Staff writer

The Lafayette Animal Shelter and Care Center will host its annual drive-thru rabies vaccination clinic for dogs on Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Cajundome. The clinic at 444 Cajundome Blvd. will run from 8 a.m. to noon, with gates closing at 11:30 a.m. Participants should enter through Gate 8 off Congress Street. The clinic, held in partnership with WildCat SpayNation for Dogs

& Cats, provides rabies and DAPPV vaccinations for dogs at no cost. A limited number of $20 spay/neuter vouchers will be available, along with $20 cash-only microchipping. Shelter Manager Shelley Delahoussaye said the clinic draws large crowds, and she encouraged participants to arrive early. “We anticipate a high turnout,” Delahoussaye said. “We serve over 1,000 dogs each year.” Louisiana law requires dogs to be vaccinated for rabies once they are 3 months old. Delahoussaye

said the shelter tracks compliance with the law and has issued 41 citations this year for failing to vaccinate a pet. Outside of the annual clinic, the shelter offers low-cost rabies vaccinations year-round for $10 to any pet in Lafayette Parish, Delahoussaye said. She said vaccination is the most effective way to protect pets from rabies exposure. “The first and most important

ä See CLINIC, page 4B

Lafayette Animal Shelter and Care Center workers vaccinate a dog outside the Cajundome at last year’s 15th annual free drive-thru rabies clinic for dogs. The clinic will be hosted Oct. 4 this year. PROVIDED PHOTO BY LAFAYETTE CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT

2B ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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OPINION T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

OUR VIEWS

Decline in opioid deaths can mark turning point for Louisiana Louisiana is outpacing the nation in the decline in deaths related to opioid use, and we’re hoping that it signals a turning point in the fight against substance abuse in the state. According to preliminary figures for 2025 released by the Louisiana Department of Health, opioid-related deaths in Louisiana decreased 59% from 2022 to 2025. That’s compared with a 46.2% decline nationally. At the same time, opioid-related emergency department visits declined 52%, and the rate of opioid prescriptions per 100 residents decreased by 10%. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t more work to do. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2023-2024 national survey shows that the state ranked 51st for opioid misuse (in other words, worst, among the 50 states and Washington, D.C,) and 49th for opioid use for the past year. LDH analyzed the SAMHSA data for its latest report on opioid use disorder for the past year. SAMHSA uses responses from residents 12 and older combined with population-level data to produce the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey counts abuse of heroin and prescription opioids, but doesn’t measure addiction to fentanyl, which has been growing in recent years. So we may not have a complete picture. Still, for many years, Louisiana previously had ranked near the bottom for opioid abuse using those measures, so the momentum seems to be in the right direction. And even more impressive is that we’re seeing progress in access to mental and behavioral healthcare, one of the factors that can make a difference in moving people to lead productive lives. LDH points to the Mental Health America study, which has Louisiana improving by nine spots, from 36th in 2023 to 27th out of 51 in 2025 in the prevalence of mental illness and access to care. As we see our state welcoming new economic development projects that promise to bring high-wage, high-skill jobs to our communities, we often hear talk about workforce readiness. That readiness has to include not only education and skills training, but also access to mental and behavioral healthcare as well as drug treatment programs. We all want to see Louisiana offer its young people a brighter future so they make better choices for themselves and their families. The decline in opioid deaths in Louisiana comes thanks to hard work by advocates, policymakers and clinicians across the state who’ve brought the problem to the fore. It’s a problem where there are no easy solutions. But we are confident that progress will continue if we continue to have discussions across key stakeholder groups, including those who are suffering from addiction, and devote resources to behavioral health. It’s work that is necessary. It’s work that matters. It’s work that can save lives.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE ARE OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published

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

YOUR VIEWS

Much to learn from LSU dean’s book on Lincoln

Terrorists must face justice, wherever they might strike As I feel the weight of the loss of our fellow citizens at the hands of terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, I am both saddened and outraged. I am pleased that our government honored nearly 3,000 who died that day and also for its steady success in pursuit of, and efforts to eliminate, those who planned the attack and those who carried it out. We followed the biblical instruction, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” I can’t stop thinking about the more than 1,200 Israeli innocents who were murdered and tortured on Oct. 7, 2023. They included babies who were killed, parents forced to watch their children killed, elderly women viewing their families murdered and entire families burned alive, all by excited terrorists ﬁlming the carnage. The United States and the Israeli government followed the biblical instruction, “Justice, justice

shall you pursue.” They are relentless, and their job is not ﬁnished. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran still live and promise gleefully the same carnage again on Israel. Why is the world ignoring these threats and rejecting the biblical call to protect themselves? Does not Israel have the same rightful goal? These terrorists would do the same thing to us if they could. Just as we pursued the criminals who murdered so many citizens of all countries here in the United States on 9/11, we would do it again as we seek real protection and justice for our citizens and visitors. We know that if we had a 9/11 event here again, our government would follow “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” As Israel should do.

After seeing your interview with LSU Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle, I am looking forward to reading his new book, “He Has the People,” about the enormously consequential presidential election of 1860. Dean Earle’s earlier works about Bleeding Kansas and John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry were excellent. While reading this book, I will have several questions. Abraham Lincoln had limited success in seeking office before he ran for president in 1860. How did he win on that occasion? Would Lincoln have won the election if he had only one opponent? Did Southern Democrats run a candidate splitting their party’s base expecting or understanding that this might cause Lincoln to win the general election, provoke a political crisis and lead to armed conflict? Could Lincoln have said anything during the campaign to diminish prospects of secession and civil war? By the way, Earle observes that, by the end of the Civil War, Lincoln believed in extending voting rights to some Black men, especially veterans of the Union armed forces. When he made that statement in April 1865, shortly before his assassination, he was expressly speaking about Louisiana. This book promises to be a terrific read. There is always much to learn from Lincoln.

STAN KESSLER Metairie

After 25 years, peace is still elusive It’s 25 years after 9/11. As the terrible images of 9/11 ﬂash through our brains, I ask myself how, as a nation, we have responded to that devastating attack on our country. Soon after it, President George W. Bush visited a mosque with the message that Muslims are not the enemy; radical terrorists are. I hoped our nation would lead in bringing peace and cooperation to our world community. Instead, under this current administration, the attitude is: “We live in a world that is governed by strength, by power. ... the iron laws of the world for all ages.” Right? Wrong. From our earliest evolution as human societies, partnership with others, not

power over them, is the primordial ingredient of life on Earth. The dominant rigid hierarchies and patriarchies have risen to power and eventually collapsed, as we witnessed with the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. War has never been the solution to human conﬂict, no matter how many times it’s been tried. Yes, we have had to stop by force the violence of others, but our fundamental challenge is to make peace with our fellow citizens of the Earth and with the Earth itself — which we are currently destroying.

STEVEN BERIZZI Norwalk, Connecticut

JIM O’NEILL Metairie

What happened to the party of fiscal responsibility?

Comic strip is insulting, un-American propaganda TO SEND US A LETTER, SCAN HERE

The Mallard Fillmore comic strip published on Sept. 11 left me disgusted. To suggest that just because an American is a Democrat, he or she has an unpatriotic and/or inappropriate response or remembrance regarding 9/11 is outrageous and should insult all of us. That the author of this has a low opinion of Democrats is obvious. That Democrats are lumped together into a monolithic, extreme and imagined persona is a perfect example of the “us vs. them” thinking that has been encouraged by our enemies through a wide

variety of social media tactics, because they understand that to conquer they must divide. Of all times for Mallard Fillmore to put aside such self-destructive impulses, 9/11 should qualify. Since it does not, what, indeed, does he see as the solution? Simply deport all Democrats? The editors of the newspaper have a responsibility to say no to such hateful, anti-American propaganda.

What in the world? I thought we were the party of ﬁscal responsibility, against handouts, for less government and who mocked Dems for buying votes. So, a $5,000 giveaway? Bad juju, sir. I’m a lifelong Republican, retired Marine and proud American.

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COMMENTARY The vindication of Tom Homan Where does Tom Homan go to get his According to The Guardian, they say apology? that because arrests are “generally When Trump put his border czar in happening routinely, and quietly, voluncharge of unwinding the controversial teers who had taken to keeping watch DHS operation in Minneapolis for ICE vehicles and officers in earlier this year, critics on the certain cities and blowing whisright believed that Homan tles when they spotted immigrawould be the instrument of a tion agents were lately having broad Trump climb-down on his trouble seeing how and where signature issue. ICE is operating.” Gregory Bovino, the border The new tactics depend heavRich officer who had been in charge ily on routine pickups of illegal Lowry in Minneapolis before getting aliens at traffic stops and imsupplanted by Homan, accused migration check-ins, as well as him of pretending to be tough while airports. giving up on mass deportations. A spate of news stories has emphaAs it turns out, immigration arrests sized, in a critical tone, how for the first hit a record for Trump’s second term time a majority of those apprehended in June at 43,000, and the number inhaven’t committed other crimes becreased again in July to 50,000. sides their immigration offenses. It Removals, too, were at a high in July, may be that Trump and Homan have 34,000. put too much emphasis in their rhetoThere was a dip in enforcement after ric on going after “the worst of the Trump pulled back from Minneapolis. worst,” but there is no reason that It didn’t last long, though. As the admore routine immigration offenders ministration settled on a new approach should be held harmless. (The effort to track down and detain and funding from the Big Beautiful Bill — $75 billion for ICE — flowed into ad- criminals continues, by the way — Opditional enforcement assets, the numeration Rotten Apple in New York has taken murderers, rapists and gang bers began to increase again. Homan has avoided the pyrotechnics members off the streets over the last few weeks.) favored by the attention-seeking forIt is true that staying and working mer head of DHS, Kristi Noem, who here illegally doesn’t necessarily make sent Bovino to Minneapolis. Instead, someone a threat to public safety. It he’s continued robust enforcement does, however, involve committing without relishing cinematic images of other crimes — identity theft, Social militarized raids and clashes with proSecurity fraud, falsifying I-9 employtesters for their own sake. In fact, anti-ICE activists are comment forms and the like. Regardless, immigration law very clearly gives the plaining about the lack of flashiness.

government authority to arrest and detain illegal immigrants, and in some instances, mandates it. ICE is required to detain aliens who are under final orders of removal, and there are plenty of those. Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies points out that immigration judges issued nearly half a million orders of removal in the first nine months of this fiscal year alone. The fact is that the illegal immigrant population in the United States is roughly 15 million people, with a substantial number arriving during the Biden years alone. The only way to reduce this population is to arrest and deport illegal aliens, or to convince them — as a way to avoid their own arrest and deportation — to leave under their own power. It is Tom Homan’s insight that the most politically sustainable way to effect this policy is to pursue it in a nonconfrontational manner, and keep it out of the headlines to the extent possible. There is even more the administration could do along these lines if it used various forms of bureaucratic enforcement to squeeze businesses employing illegal workers. For now, though, Homan has established proof of concept for a less lurid, but more effective version of immigration enforcement. There is much work yet to do, but Homan was never waving the white flag on enforcement and now has the numbers to prove it. Rich Lowry is on X @RichLowry.

Don’t let the war on woke lull us to sleep History is written to be argued about, I have often said. Recent efforts by the Trump administration’s culture war have offered numerous examples. In recent days, we have seen Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a break from the administration’s war against Iran, announce the re-installation of a Confederate memorial that had been removed from Arlington National Cemetery in 2023. History buffs may recall that the sculpture Clarence had been removed as Page part of a congressionally mandated effort to rid military bases and sites of Confederate names and images. If you are one of those innocents who believe, as I once did, that the Civil War ended in 1865, guess again. Hegseth’s move is only the latest of many by President Trump’s administration to restore Confederate names and symbols that had been removed as part of what some sarcastically call “the Great Awokening” of racial reconciliation efforts following George Floyd’s murder in 2020. The sculpture by Moses Ezekiel, often called without irony “The Reconciliation Monument,” will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site. “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings.” Hegseth posted on X. “Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history — we honor it.” Yet Hegseth’s record of “honoring” history is problematic, at best. Last year he issued a controversial order to scrub all materials related to race and gender from Arlington National Cemetery’s website. “History is written by the winners,” as an old saying goes. And while Hegseth may believe he is the winner in question, I believe most Americans would prefer our national monuments, museums and markers of historical memory to tell the whole story. After the original memorial was removed from Arlington, it was replaced with a marker explaining that it had portrayed a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” These took the form of a Black female “Mammy” ﬁgure and a Black man in uniform, “a faithful negro body-servant following his young master” to battle. (That’s how Col. Hilary Herbert, the ex-Confederate soldier and chairman of the committee that installed the monument, described it around the time it was dedicated in 1914.) Some folks, particularly slavery

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Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch speaks at a February event in Washington, D.C. descendants such as I, still shake our heads at the glorification of the “Lost Cause” that was so ferociously and seditiously fought to resist any limitation on the right of some humans in this country to own and exploit other humans. Looking at it, I can’t help but wonder what those faithful slaves were thinking on their way to combat. Hegseth, among many others, has some peculiar notions of what “reconciliation” means, especially when so much in modern eyes remains to be reconciled. That’s why it is important to tell, as much as possible, both sides of such complicated conflicts and, one hopes, avoid future conflicts. In the spirit of that pursuit of the whole truth, I find it painfully ironic that Hegseth’s restoration effort comes on the heels of Lonnie Bunch’s announced retirement from his position as the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The Trump administration has accused the Smithsonian leadership of presenting a “radical view” of American history and threatened to withhold federal funds and support. I have always known Bunch to be a cheerful and scholarly intellectual and organizer who probably will be remembered most as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 and quickly became one of the capital city’s most popular must-see attractions. I have known him since he served as head of the Chicago Historical Society from 2001 to 2005. The Smithsonian has traditionally operated independently of the party in power, but Team Trump seems to

love to defy the traditions of his ofﬁce, especially when they can be branded “woke.” The biggest bum rap they have promoted is the idea that the Smithsonian teaches children to hate America and offers a pessimistic view, devoid of hope. The Interior Department recently threatened to cut funding for the Smithsonian facilities, NBC reported, due to its “radical ideology” that weakens “shared American identity.” Did those folks actually visit the museum? That’s quite the opposite of my family’s impression after numerous visits. Even the exhibits regarding slavery ultimately deliver the message that, as bad — miserably bad — as race relations and other conditions might have been over the centuries, reasons for hope endure. If anything, Trump and Co. should appreciate the visions of hope, resilience and achievement that we should all build on today as we try to make what the preamble to our Constitution called “a more perfect union.” The ideology is no more “radical” than that of James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass, whose ideologies only strengthened our “shared American identity.” In other words, we’re all Americans. As Martin Luther King Jr. and other great leaders have said, let us not let our few differences get in the way of the many things we share in common. And I don’t have to be “woke,” however you deﬁne it, to appreciate that.

Women keep politics honest This is a generalization, I know. As Mark Twain is said to have said, “All generalizations are false, including this one.” But there is growing evidence that women tend to be more protective of our American democracy than men. They are more willing to put their foot down when partisan schemers try to game the electoral system, mostly Froma by changing the rules or gerryHarrop mandering. A recent sign that women place more value on being a force for good comes out of conservative Utah. Both parties gerrymander, that is, draw voting district boundaries to give unfair advantage to their candidates. But a faith-based group called Mormon Women for Ethical Government wanted to stop that practice. In 2018, they backed Proposition 4, a ballot measure to create an independent districting commission that would prevent gerrymandering. It passed a statewide vote. The backstory: Utah remains solidly Republican, but its capital, Salt Lake City, has become bluer in recent years. In 2021, the Republican-run legislature drew its own congressional map that split Salt Lake County to favor their party. The women sued. It takes a certain inner steel to keep things honest when gaming the system might result in a preferred outcome. About 40% of the Mormon women’s group are registered Republicans, and only 34% are Democrats. Their motivation is simply to maintain a level playing field. “Gerrymandering breaks things,” the group’s co-executive director Emmy Petty Adams said. “It physically fractures communities. It breaks trust.” The matter has been in and out of courts, and the fight is not over. But because the Utah Supreme Court refused in February to block the new nonpartisan map, the 2026 election will be conducted under the new districts. Defenders of democratic integrity understand that safeguarding free and fair elections is the best way to guarantee the public good. It’s in their interest to ensure that their votes are properly counted. It was hard to find a more conservative and politically brave House Republican than Wyoming’s Liz Cheney. She voted to impeach President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2001 attack on the Capitol and did not flinch before the inevitable blowback. She was also one of only two Republicans to later serve on the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, which investigated the violent rampage and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The other Republican was Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a decorated combat veteran. Cheney ran for another term, undoubtedly knowing that she would lose the Republican primary to Trump’s revenge pick. Kinzinger retired from the House. “If I have to choose between maintaining a seat in the House of Representatives or protecting the constitutional republic,” Cheney said shortly before the primary vote, “I’m going to choose the Constitution and the truth every single day.” Over in the Senate, Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska voted to convict Trump for inciting an insurrection. Five Republican men did join them: Richard Burr, North Carolina; Bill Cassidy, Louisiana; Mitt Romney, Utah; Ben Sasse, Nebraska; and Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania. It’s important to note, however, that there were 42 male Republicans in the Senate compared with just eight female Republicans. Thus, the men voting for conviction represented only 12% of the male Republican caucus, while the two women represented a quarter of its female members. Four of the men subsequently retired. Cassidy remained in office, but come the primary, Trump punished him by endorsing Rep. Julia Letlow. She went on to become Louisiana’s Republican Senate nominee. Cassidy gets credit for putting himself before the voters. Of course, there are plenty of unprincipled women in politics. No need to list them here. The point is that women seem more invested in keeping politics honest, as a generalization, of course. Froma Harrop is on X, @FromaHarrop. Email her at fharrop@gmail.com.

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N.O. mayor, others called to testify over AG indictment

State lawmakers axed the King, Aimee McCarron and Records sought in Matthew Willard, according seat of the popular criminal clerk-elect, Calvin Duncan. court records. ongoing public toAlong with testimony, Williams, Moreno and a City battle they seek communications Council majority angled for

BY JOHN SIMERMAN

Staff writer

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, five City Council members and Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams were each issued subpoenas Monday to testify in court and to bring records as Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill presses for answers about her now-tossed indictment this summer by a New Orleans grand jury. An attorney for Murrill sought the subpoenas as part of a public records lawsuit filed last month against special prosecutor Laurie White. Murrill’s lawyers have alleged that White wasn’t candid in responding to a request for communications and other records about the unusual July 2 charging of a sitting attorney general. An Orleans Parish grand jury indicted Murrill on 16 counts of public intimidation and malfeasance in office over letters she sent in May to Moreno, Williams and five council members. Though the Louisiana Supreme Court stayed the prosecution and White dismissed the charges under pressure weeks later, Murrill and Gov. Jeff Landry have vowed to find any wrongdoing in the grand jury’s probe. Murrill also said she may sue for malicious prosecution. “I do not believe and nobody that I know believes that this just happened magically all by itself,” Murrill said last month. “It’s for me to know, and I think for everybody to know. I think we all deserve to, at this point.” When the charges were pending, her lawyers filed public records requests with both White and the District Attorney’s Office, seeking emails and other records. Blake Arcuri, an attorney for Murrill, then sued over their responses. The subpoenas were issued in those civil suits to Moreno, Williams, Council President JP Morrell and council members Jason Hughes, Freddie

in which those officials arranged to appear before the grand jury; communication about the July 21 letter urging White to drop the case; and any talk of being Murrill’s victims. “Elected officials in New Orleans publicly claimed they had absolutely no involvement with this matter,” said Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, who filed for the subpoenas Monday. “Now records we have obtained are proving otherwise. We are going to see this through.” Arcuri filed a similar lawsuit against Williams, alleging the district attorney also was hiding public records. But last week, private attorneys hired by Williams’ office sought a continuance “with the hope of resolving the disputes between them in this matter.” No future hearing date was set. Morrell’s office referred questions to City Attorney Charline Gipson and City Council Executive Counsel Ashley Becnel. A spokesperson for the mayor declined to comment. None of the council members named in the subpoenas responded to requests to their offices for comment as of Tuesday. Williams did not respond to a request for comment. He is represented by attorneys W. Raley Alford III and Matthew Paul, of the Stanley Reuter Alford Owen Munson & Paul firm. Council members Lesli Harris and Eugene Green did not support City Council resolutions about the clerk’s office, which sparked the public battle, and were not issued subpoenas in the case, which is assigned to Civil District Judge Cheryl Howard. The subpoenas did not require a judge’s approval, and the recipients could try to quash them. Murrill’s indictment culminated a public battle that began with a series of letters and responses relating the Legislature’s controversial move this year to unify two court clerks offices in Orleans Parish and choose its leader.

an election and interim appointment to fill a seat the Legislature had given to Civil Clerk Chelsea Richard Napoleon. Murrill wrote that they were breaking the law and risked their jobs. The Louisiana Supreme Court later upheld the law that merged the clerks’ seats. The grand jury followed with the felony charges against Murrill. Prosecutors normally present cases to a grand jury to consider an indictment. But according to Williams’ office in a recusal motion, the grand jury took it upon itself to investigate Murrill, exercising an obscure power in state law. In early June, Criminal District Judge Leon Roche appointed White to oversee the probe. The Supreme Court swiftly stayed the indictment. White dropped it in late July at the urging of the recipients of Murrill’s letters. By then, Gov. Jeff Landry had called for a Louisiana State Police investigation and said he would pardon Murrill if she were convicted. Concerns rose about the political ramifications of the case as Landry and Moreno traded barbs. The mayor yanked a request for approval of $110 million from the State Bond Commission, saying she expected payback. Landry has said he won’t meet with Moreno until an investigation into Murrill’s indictment is done. White filed a motion last week seeking to toss the lawsuit against her. She argues that Murrill’s attorneys botched the filing, that she’s already turned over some records and that others the attorneys seek aren’t public or in her custody. White said Monday that the Oct. 1 hearing is to argue her two causes to throw out the case. “And since no additional evidence or witnesses can be offered on a peremptory exception hearing, this is clearly harassment,” she said. White filed detailed briefs Tuesday supporting her attempt to have the suit tossed.

Bystanders console one another as Lafayette police investigate the scene of a homicide Monday near the intersection of Ransome and 7th streets in Lafayette. STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK

SHOOTING

Handy said. Cormier was previously Continued from page 1B arrested for second degree battery, according to court records ﬁled in January. The incident remains unPolice arrested Cormier after interviewing wit- der investigation, and police nesses and ﬁnding a weap- say there are no other suson at the scene, Cpl. Ken pects involved.

CLINIC

against rabies,” Delahoussaye said. “If your pet is Continued from page 1B scratched or bitten by a wild animal, contact your local veterinarian.” The clinic is supported line of defense is ensuring your pet is vaccinated by the Cajundome, ASPCA,

HOMES

In nearby Milton, a 180-lot development could start Continued from page 1B construction soon just north of Julie Drive. On the edge of Lafayette, the developer of a 237-lot roots here.” The homes will be 1,500 to project next to Keeneland 3,200 square feet and offer Lane backed out of the styles for a variety of stages project after it received apin life, ofﬁcials said. proval from the city zoning It is the latest activity in commission. that section of Lafayette Parish and across the Ver- Email Adam Daigle at milion River into Maurice. adaigle@theadvocate.com.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lafayette Police Department or Lafayette Crime Stoppers at (337) 232-8477. Tips can also be submitted through the Police Department app or the P3 Tips app. Callers may remain anonymous.

Petco Love, BISSELL Pet Foundation and WildCat SpayNation for Dogs & Cats. Contact Dean Boudreaux: dean.boudreaux@ theadvocate.com.

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Aisle artwork has a local flair at Trader Joe’s on Tuesday as shelves are packed in preparation for the store’s grand opening on Thursday in Lafayette.

GROCERY

Continued from page 1B of choice. It helps to have the Costco nearby and a Whole Foods nearby.” The company has been a standout in the grocery industry this year, reports indicate. While overall national spending was down 3% entering 2026, Trader Joe’s this year has posted mid-single-digit growth, according to Consumer Edge, a national research ﬁrm. The store appeals to a broad range of incomes and leads all specialty grocers, including Aldi, with a 35% retention rate. Among Gen Z customers, the store has posted double-digit gains. It does that without using the popular e-commerce methods other grocers utilize, including online shopping or delivery. The stores are small and do not offer coupons, but its cult following is unlike any other supermarket, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal said in their podcast, Acquired. “Trader Joe’s is not the best grocery store,” Gilbert said. “But it might be your favorite store.” The store’s unique items

Bells, which are used by employees to signal various needs or issues, stand at each cash register at Trader Joe’s on Tuesday as preparation is underway for the store’s grand opening. are what draw customers, and a typical store might generate up to $2,000 per square foot, which is double the closest competitor. Customers likely will be lined up at the door when the Lafayette store opens Thursday. When the uptown New Orleans location opened its doors in June, about 200 people were in line to get in. Many of them had been waiting there since before 7 a.m.

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“I had been hearing rumors for years,” Cooper said of the Lafayette store. “Then I heard about it, and everybody started texting me because they know how much I love (Trader Joe’s). Then it got conﬁrmed that it was right by my house, and I was just elated. I love going there.” Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@theadvocate. com.

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L S U A T O L E M I S S • 6 : 3 0 P. M . S A T U R D A Y • A B C

Babineaux catching on for Cajuns BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS BY GERALD HERBERT AND ROSS D. FRANKLIN

LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, left, and Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss square off Saturday night in an SEC showdown in Oxford, Miss.

Pocket dividers

Kiffin’s two most recent quarterbacks will battle for supremacy in Oxford BY JON BLAU Staff writer

There are two ways of describing Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. He’s the hot new thing on the SEC block, because former Rebels coach Lane Kifﬁn snatched him away from Division II Ferris State just last year. But Chambliss is also a 24-year-old playing college football at an age when some people, including former Ole Miss and current LSU offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., would make their way into a coaching career. “You realize when you hired me at Alabama, I was three years younger than

BY THE NUMBERS Height Weight Age Class

LEAVITT 6-2 216 21 Jr.

CHAMBLISS 6-0 205 24 Sr.

Trinidad is now?” Weis recently told Kifﬁn, who brought in the former Kansas student manager as an offensive analyst after the 2014 season. Weis turned 22 on April 19, 2015, a day after Alabama’s spring game.

LSU starting quarterback Sam Leavitt won’t turn 22 until just before Christmas. Chambliss turns 25 in August, when he’ll likely be in training camp with an NFL team. “You got to remember you’re dealing with a really mature quarterback that doesn’t make many mistakes, so you’re gonna have to play really well for a long period of time,” Kifﬁn said. “Trinidad (is) 24 years old now, still playing college football. That’s the same as (NFL quarterbacks) Drake Maye and Caleb Williams.” Kifﬁn’s return to Oxford, Mississippi, on Saturday will be a test of maturity for the quarterback he unearthed last year and the

ä See POCKET, page 3C

Thank Underwood for Saturday’s showdown Most people look back at history and see it as a static thing, something that was always destined to be. In truth, history is nothing of the sort. What if, on a sunny afternoon in 1979 in Tiger Stadium, LSU had beaten Florida State instead of losing 24-19? Bobby Bowden once said he would have taken the LSU job, never leading the Seminoles to an incredible dynasty (two national titles and 14 straight top-ﬁve AP ﬁnishes from 19872000). Perhaps he leads LSU to something approaching that success, instead of the school churning through seven coaches over the next two decades. Consider the Miami Dolphins’ decision not to sign Drew Brees in early 2006 when he was coming off a severely torn labrum with the Chargers. If Brees had his Pro

Scott Rabalais Football Hall of Fame career with the Dolphins instead of the Saints, would Nick Saban ever have left Miami for Alabama that year? Would Bama have won six national championships over the next 14 seasons? Probably not. Wound the Saints have ever won a Super Bowl without Brees? Also highly questionable. Instead, LSU likely would have won another national championship or two under Les Miles.

In 1952, Ray Bradbury penned the classic science fiction short story “A Sound of Thunder” about a man traveling back in time to hunt a dinosaur. He chickens out, steps off a path and squashes a butterfly that alters 60 million years of history. It’s the story that helped inspire the phrase “The butterfly effect.” There’s much historical stuff in the air this week as No. 7- LSU travels to face No. 8 Ole Miss on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC). It’s the first top-10 meeting between the Tigers and Rebels since 1962, a nice historical tidbit being completely overshadowed by the first Lane Kiffin Bowl. The LSU coach’s return to Oxford — where history will show they hate his guts

ä See RABALAIS, page 3C

UL coach Michael Desormeaux always has been impressed with former Acadiana High “Mr. Everything” Russell Babineaux. So when Babineaux picked up the Cajuns’ depleted wide receiver corps last weekend, the coaching staff wasn’t at all surprised. “Russ, since Day 1 that he’s gotten here, has just been some- ä UAB one I’ve been at UL. super impressed 7 P.M. SATURDAY, with,” said D e s o r m e a u x , ESPN+ who considers Babineaux and fellow redshirt freshman receiver Trenton Chaney co-starters. During UL’s 49-30 loss to No. 14 USC on Saturday, Babineaux led the Cajuns with six receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown. “He did a really good job with the opportunities,” Desormeaux said. “You go into the game and you kind of say, all right, who are the guys that have been making plays up that we trust to make plays, and you try to put them in position to be primary targets.” With Babineaux, it’s more than just numbers. “From the first time I met him as a person, I mean the guy doesn’t have a bad day,” Desormeaux said. “If you ever seen him without a smile on his face, I want to know about it because I’ve never seen it. “He comes in every day. He loves to practice. He loves to work. He’s tough. He comes from a good program where toughness is valued and he’s got it.” That is part of the reason the coaching staff wasn’t worried about leaning on Babineaux

ä See BABINEAUX, page 3C

STAFF PHOTO BY BRAD KEMP

UL wide receiver Russell Babineaux had six receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown on Saturday against USC.

Saints passing game turned things around after solving Lions’ blitz BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

There are a ton of different ways one can break down the difference between what happened with Saints quarterback Tyler Shough in the ﬁrst 36 minutes of SunAnalysis day’s season opener and what followed, but the starkest change was what he did against pressure. Through the ﬁrst two drives of the second half, Shough went 2-of7 passing against Detroit blitzes with a pair of turnovers — an interception and a strip sack. The continuous mental pressure appeared to get to him even when ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY REY DEL RIO the Lions weren’t blitzing, with Saints tight end Juwan Johnson pulls in a first-down reception as Detroit Shough looking sped up early in Lions safety Thomas Harper defends during overtime on Sunday in Detroit. the game.

ä Saints at Ravens. NOON SUNDAY, CBS

But when the solution clicked, it really clicked. After that strip sack in the third quarter, Shough torched the Lions when they blitzed him. On the Saints’ ﬁnal six drives, Shough completed 8 of 11 passes against the blitz for 79 yards and all three of his touchdowns. Some of Shough’s biggest plays came late in the game when the Lions were trying to rattle his cage, none bigger than the gottahave-it play late in regulation. With the Saints facing a fourthand-12 from their own 23-yard line and needing a touchdown to tie the game, the Lions dialed up a perfect slot blitz with defensive

back Roger McCreary. McCreary came screaming untouched off the edge, perfectly timing his rush to get to his spot before right tackle Taliese Fuaga noticed he was coming. But Shough beat the rush by stepping up in the pocket before ﬁring a rocket toward the sideline for a 15-yard gain to Bryce Lance. That play in particular was made only because of Shough’s brilliance, but coach Kellen Moore said the improvement against Detroit’s pressure packages as the game wore on were a result of better communication across the board. The game-tying touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson with 1:07 remaining was a great example of

ä See SAINTS, page 3C

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IN BRIEF

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

6 p.m. Vancouver FC at CF Montreal FS2 8:30 p.m. St. Louis City SC at Colorado CBSSN WOMEN’S SOCCER 7:45 a.m. Brazil vs. U.S. FS2 11:15 a.m. Spain vs. Portugal FS2 TENNIS 11 a.m. WTA: Guadalajara, Sao Paulo Tennis

Gators look to end 6-game road skid Florida takes on Auburn to open SEC play on Saturday BY MARK LONG Associated Press

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida linebacker Myles Graham welcomes playing on the road in the unrelenting Southeastern Conference. He likes the raucous crowds, the frosty receptions and even the potential of getting pelted by flying objects. “It’s thousands and thousands of people that want to see you fail,” Graham said. “And there’s nothing like just ä Florida at having that Auburn. bond with 6 P.M. SATURDAY, ESPN your brothers and going in there and doing your thing. There’s nothing like it.” If you win, anyway. The Gators (2-0) have lost six consecutive games away from the friendly confines of Florida Field, better known as the Swamp. It’s a skid they hope to end when they open SEC play at Auburn (2-0) on Saturday night. It’s a pivotal early game for both programs, with Florida’s Jon Sumrall and Auburn’s Alex Golesh Golesh looking for a signature win. Florida is a 2 1/2-point favorite. Sumrall, though, is 0-4 against Auburn, including 0-2 at JordanHare Stadium. He was on the wrong side of lopsided road losses as a Kentucky linebacker in 2004 and as a UK assistant in 2020. “They’ve had a great home-field advantage there for a long time,” Sumrall said. “We have to handle that challenge.” It’ll be the first road start for Florida quarterback Aaron Philo, who has been mostly efficient through the first two weeks. He’s thrown for 517 yards, with five touchdowns and an interception. He also has two rushing scores. But how well will he command the huddle with 88,000 fans screaming around him? “He’s been really, really steady,” Sumrall said. “He’s made a lot of good decisions. Doesn’t mean he’s played perfect, but he’s done a lot of things. If he plays like he’s played through the first part of this year, he will give us a chance to win every week, and that’s all you can ask.”

The Philadelphia Phillies placed All-Star left-hander Jesús Luzardo on the 15-day injured list Tuesday, three days after he was scratched from a start at Atlanta because of left shoulder inﬂammation. Luzardo had an MRI on Saturday that showed no serious issues, then did not throw Sunday or Monday. Interim manager Don Mattingly said the Phillies’ medical personnel believed Luzardo was better Tuesday but not as far along as they would like. Luzardo is 14-5 with a 2.87 ERA and made his ﬁrst All-Star appearance this season. He ranks second in the NL with a career-high 221 strikeouts in 29 starts, and he threw his first career complete game in his last outing, a two-hit shutout of Atlanta on Sept. 7.

Astros shut down Correa for rest of season, playoffs

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO BY GERALD HERBERT

Florida linebacker Myles Graham, center, shown tackling LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier on Sept. 13, 2025, at Tiger Stadium, says he welcomes the noise that comes with playing on the road in the SEC. There are several other subplots to the game: n Sumrall was Auburn’s top choice to replace Hugh Freeze last year, but Florida lured him away after Lane Kiffin chose LSU over the Gators. Had Sumrall ended up on the Plains, he likely would have brought offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and Philo with him. Plus, Sumrall’s wife and some of her family members are Auburn grads. Does Sumrall have to worry about any of them rooting against the Gators? “If I do, they’re not family to me,” Sumrall quipped. “There’s ties, but Florida pays my mortgage, so any family that is pulling against us, they ain’t my family. I don’t care what their last name is. You know what I mean?” n Golesh, quarterback Byrum Brown and about a dozen other current Auburn players won in the Swamp last year with South Florida, an 18-16 upset that was the beginning of the end for former Gators coach Billy Napier. “We’re not worried about that game,” Graham said. “That game doesn’t matter to this game now, but it definitely gives us the experience. … It’s the same kind of system, so we know what to expect going into it.” n Florida receiver Eric Singleton returns to Auburn for the first time since transferring to Gainesville in January. Singleton missed

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO BY ROGELIO V. SOLIS

Then-Tulane football coach Jon Sumrall, now head coach at Florida, is 0-4 against Auburn, including 0-2 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. last week’s game against lowerdivision Campbell after spraining his left ankle in the season opener and was wearing a walking boot through Saturday night. He was “very, very, very limited” in practice Monday, Sumrall said, calling him questionable for the game. “Is there a shot? Yes,” he added. Singleton, who spent one season at Auburn after two years at Georgia Tech, caught 58 passes for 534 yards and three touchdowns in 2025. He said in April he “most definitely” circled the Auburn

BY JOE REEDY

Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ERIC GAY

Ohio State coach Ryan Day watches players warm up on Saturday before a game against Texas in Austin, Texas. back to 2004, top-ranked teams in the AP Top 25 were 197-0 when holding a 20-point lead at any point in the fourth quarter. Ohio State was up 23-3 going into the ﬁnal 15 minutes before the Longhorns scored on their ﬁnal three drives. Day might have been too aggressive at times — including a failed fourth-down conversion when the Buckeyes could have kicked a field goal — which he owned up to. “When it’s time to go win the game, we all have to be on the same page and we have to live with the result. Just like we throw the ball on third-and-4 to Jeremi-

Houston Astros star Carlos Correa will not return this season as the team chases a playoff berth, manager Joe Espada said Tuesday. Correa had been working to make a comeback after undergoing left ankle surgery on May 11 that was expected to keep him out 6-8 months. It appeared this weekend that Correa was nearing a return and Espada said Sunday that he would likely play rehabilitation games for Triple-A Sugar Land this week. Instead they decided to give up on Correa playing again this season and focus on being ready for spring training next year. Espada said Correa didn’t experience a setback but rather that the ramping up of activity toward his return caused some inﬂammation in his ankle.

Argentina adds Messi for possible friendly finale

game on Florida’s schedule. “Every game is a big game for me because this is my last season,” Singleton said. n And Golesh hasn’t forgotten his lone matchup against Sumrall as head coaches. Sumrall and Tulane smoked Golesh, Brown and the Bulls 45-10 two years ago in New Orleans.“If you wanted to have a really, really rough morning, you could have sat with me and watched that (Sunday) again — for maybe the 200th time,” Golesh said. “And, again, wanted to throw up.”

Buckeyes seek quick fixes after ‘maddening’ loss COLUMBUS, Ohio — Coach Ryan Day might have been understating things slightly when he said there’s a lot that comes with a loss at Ohio State. Last Saturday’s historic fourthquarter collapse by the Buckeyes in their 24-23 loss at Texas has brought angst and second-guessing usually reserved for losses to arch-rival Michigan. Day spent Tuesday’s news conference going through the postmortem after experiencing only his second setback in 27 games in September ä Kent State while trying at Ohio State. to outline his 11 A.M. SATURDAY, FOX hopes of preventing the loss from snowballing and impacting the rest of the season. “It’s extremely frustrating, it’s maddening and we’re excited to get back on the field and get going because the last couple of days haven’t been fun around here,” Day said. “Had some really good conversations with the guys. I think they’re going to be in a good mindset moving forward. We understand we have a lot of football ahead of us. So this highlighted some things that we got to get fixed.” It was the first time in program history the sixth-ranked Buckeyes have lost when leading by at least 17 points at halftime. Going

Phillies put All-Star LHP Luzardo on injured list

ah (Smith) on a fade to go win the game (in the fourth quarter). Yeah, I absolutely own that. We didn’t have enough answers in the fourth quarter to go win the game, but we will moving forward.” One late-game situation Day acknowledged he might do differently next time is letting a team score in order to have enough time to possibly go on a gamewinning drive. Day called his final timeout with 53 seconds remaining when Texas’ Hollywood Smothers was stopped on ﬁrst-and-goal at the 1. Smothers ended up scoring two plays later and with 25 seconds on the clock.

“If we win the game, then it would’ve been the right decision. And in the moment you’ve got to make a hard decision and I decided to try to hold the line,” he said. “Ultimately would have loved to see what it would’ve looked like if they would’ve scored. So we’ll have to think about it when it happens again.” Julian Sayin passed for 278 yards, but completed only ﬁve of 16 passes in the second half. The junior has a 75.9% completion rate in his two seasons as Ohio State’s starter, but it is 62.5% in losses. Before opening Big Ten play on Sept. 26 against Illinois, the Buckeyes (1-1) host Kent State on Saturday. Ohio State is averaging 59 points and winning by an average margin of 51.7 points in its seven matchups against MAC teams since Day took over as head coach in 2019. The bigger concern is making sure the Buckeyes correct mistakes by the time they have crucial road tests next month against No. 18 Iowa, No. 4 Indiana and No. 12 Southern California. “It’s see what we did wrong, try to improve those and make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Sayin said. “I think we have a good group of guys on our team. I think we can use this as fuel. I love the group of guys on the team and have a lot of conﬁdence in them.”

Lionel Messi might have one last dance with Argentina after all. Despite announcing his international retirement, the 39-year-old Inter Miami star was included Tuesday in Lionel Scaloni’s 28-man Argentina squad ahead of three home friendlies. Messi has yet to confirm whether he will join the team, but the head of Argentina soccer said the icon accepted the invitation for the Oct. 6 game against Benin in Buenos Aires for what will be a grand finale. Messi led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title and helped the Albiceleste reach the final this year. Earlier, Argentina had announced it would face Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin in its first batch of friendly matches after Messi’s retirement from the national team after a 21-year spell.

Vanderbilt goes with freshman as starting QB

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said Tuesday that freshman quarterback Jared Curtis gives the Commodores the best chance to win now and will start Saturday against NC State after coming off the bench the ﬁrst two games. Curtis split snaps with starter Blaze Berlowitz as the Commodores won their ﬁrst two games, but Lea said he isn’t planning on playing two QBs anymore. The 6-foot-3 Curtis became the highest-ranked recruit ever to sign with Vanderbilt. He was the nation’s No. 4 overall recruit in his class, according to the 247Sports Composite. Curtis ran for two touchdowns and was 14-of-22 passing for 210 yards last week against Delaware.

Receiver Lambert-Smith placed on IR for Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers placed wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith on injured reserve on Tuesday. He played in two special teams snaps in the team’s season-opening 26-14 loss to Arizona last Sunday. The team signed Gary Jennings to the active roster and signed cornerback Isas Waxter to the practice squad. Jennings spent the end of training camp with the Chargers. He’s spent time with Baltimore, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Kansas City and Carolina since being drafted in the fourth round by Seattle in 2019. Waxter was on the Chargers’ practice squad last year. LambertSmith was a 2025 ﬁfth round pick out of Auburn and had ﬁve catches last season for the Chargers.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● 3C

RABALAIS

POCKET

— is sucking virtually all the oxygen out of what on its own merits would be one of the season’s most compelling matchups. Because of Kifﬁn’s fame — or notoriety, take your pick — it is arguably the season’s most anticipated regular-season contest. But how did LSU get here? Start in January 2024 with the commitment from a certain quarterback named Bryce Underwood. The nation’s No. 1 prospect for the 2024-25 cycle, LSU reportedly offered Underwood an NIL package of about $1.5 million per year. Chump change, said multibillionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Barstool Sports founder (and Michigan man) Dave Portnoy. They got Michigan native Underwood to stay and play for the Wolverines for the non-hometown discount of about $12 million total. Michigan’s grinding 1710 win over Oklahoma this past weekend notwithstanding, it is highly questionable whether Michigan has gotten its money’s worth out of Underwood yet. But locally, the Underwood saga prompted LSU boosters to shovel more money into roster building for 2025. After an NIL budget of about $5.5 million for 2024, LSU poured in about $18 million. Talk about not getting a return on your investment. The LSU offense failed to catch ﬁre all season behind an injured Garrett Nussmeier. After a 4-0 start melted into a 1-3 stretch — started by a 24-19 loss

one he acquired this season. Chambliss has been a sound decision-maker on the football field. He has 27 touchdown throws to just four interceptions at Ole Miss, including a run to the College Football Playoff semifinals where he didn’t throw a single pass to the other team. Leavitt, unquestionably a playmaker, has racked up 709 total yards in his first two LSU games — including 113 rushing in the opener against Clemson — to go with six touchdowns. But the Arizona State transfer also has four interceptions, including three on consecutive first-half possessions in last week’s win over Louisiana Tech. To contrast further, Chambliss has completed 71% of his passes in two games, which ranks inside the top 30 nationally. Leavitt has connected on just over 62%. From snap to throw, Chambliss gets rid of the football in 2.57 seconds on average, according to Pro Football Focus. Leavitt is a few tenths of a second slower at 2.9. “If you look at Trinidad and running back Kewan (Lacy) last year, there’s very few negative plays. They both have phenomenal feet,” Kiffin said. “Even when we don’t block somebody, what happens is you don’t get negative plays because Kewan makes the guy miss and Trinidad scrambles around.” Kiffin wanted Chambliss

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against the nationally ranked Trojans “One of the concerns you have as the head coach going into an environment like that is, how are these young guys going to handle that environment?” Desormeaux said. “Can you just take it for what it is, separate that from what really matters, what’s between the white lines and go execute and play? He did just that. He made plays that he’s made (in practice).” Coming from a veer offense in high school, Babineaux had some learning to do, especially with extending his route tree. “He’s tough as hell,” Desormeaux said. “He blocked, he plays without the ball, he does that stuff. We’ve coached him really hard, and he’s done a great job with the details. He’s a student of the game.”

Garner flashes UL coaches have said from the start that the Cajuns are good at running back.

caller Declan Doyle. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Doyle began his rapid ascent through the NFL coaching ranks with the Saints, who hired him before the 2019 season. The 30-year-old Doyle spent four seasons in New Orleans before joining Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos staff. The Ravens had an incredibly efficient day against the Colts. Quarterback Lamar Jackson attempted only 25 passes but threw for 324 yards. Running back Derrick Henry went for 144 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Top receiver Zay Flowers (whose injury status will be one to follow this week) had 150 yards on five receptions … while running only 11 routes before leaving the game with a hamstring injury. The Lions were a difficult matchup in Week 1. The Ravens may be the best offense the Saints face the entire season.

throw was seventh-fastest through Sunday’s games). That made it tough for the Saints to get home, but some of their relatively new defenders brought some heat. Kaden Elliss, in his ﬁrst game back with the organization that drafted him, had three pressures in eight pass-rush snaps — including a couple of big hits on Goff that forced rushed and incomplete throws. Vernon Broughton, who missed all but one game of his rookie season with an injury, also recorded three pressures. The Saints will take that production from two players who are not primary pass rushers. n Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs is really, really good. He broke a careerhigh 12 tackles while racking up 84 of his 156 yards after contact, according to Next Gen Stats. New Orleans was, statistically, one of the NFL’s better run defenses in 2025, but it’s hard to tell after one week what things will look like in 2026. Will they decline, or can you just chalk it up to the Gibbs of it all? Next week’s game against Henry and the Ravens might not even clear up that question. n Two somewhat surprising things based on

Quick hitters n Lions quarterback Jared Goff was getting the ball out of his hands faster than just about any quarterback this week (his 2.66-second time to

In the season-opening win over Lamar, redshirt freshman Darrell Smith shined. With half of the carries that Smith received, redshirt freshman JJ Garner put his talent on display against USC on Saturday. After the Cajuns struggled to run the ball against the Trojans’ defensive front early on, Garner broke loose on an 18-yard run to ignite the offense. “He had the first big run for us that sparked that drive,” Desormeaux said. “Then he bounces back when he pressed it and bounces it with a tough finish on the run to pick up 8 yards on the second one. “So yeah, that was a little bit of a spark for us. JJ is incredibly talented.” Garner finished with five carries for 26 yards, teaming with Steven Blanco and Anthony Reagan to pick up the slack for Smith, who is not 100% physically. “Thankfully those other three guys stepped up, and I think JJ was certainly the one who flashed,” Desormeaux said. “You can see it.” With Smith expected back

for Saturday’s home game against UAB, it appears UL has four capable running backs this season.

Wilson’s long road Junior safety Kerry Wilson may be one of the least recognizable names on the UL depth chart, but the Destrehan graduate caught the eye of the UL coaches. “He had a great camp,” Desormeaux said of Wilson. “He’s going to play a lot of (special) teams. I mean, he’s one of those special teams captain type guys. Kerry is one of those guys who have just grinded their way to importance on this team. I don’t know another way to say it. “He was not a recruited as a walk-on. He just came out and showed up. I think it was walk-on tryouts. You talk about getting in the hard way. He’s done it every step of the way, and he had a heck of a camp on defense.” Wilson had two tackles against USC. “He’s played really well,” Desormeaux said. “He communicates really well.” Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@theadvocate.com.

the snap counts: Martin Emerson played 10 defensive snaps, all in place of a healthy Quincy Riley, and undrafted rookie running back CJ Donaldson played 14 offensive snaps. The Donaldson snaps were particularly interesting because New Orleans seemed

to have a package for him. He sometimes lined up as a sort of H-back, but he also stayed on the ﬁeld in thirdand-long situations to block. n New Orleans was one of the more shotgun-heavy offenses in the NFL last season, and that was true again in Week 1 — the Saints ran

a league-high 60 offensive snaps out of the shotgun, compared to 26 snaps under center (middle of the pack). But the game flow threw that a little out of whack. In the first quarter, the Saints actually had more undercenter snaps (five) than shotgun snaps (four).

Email Jon Blau at jon. blau@theadvocate.com

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The Baltimore Ravens opened the season as one of the betting favorites to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LXI, and nothing that happened in Week 1 changed that. Baltimore beat the Indianapolis Colts 41-23 in Jesse Minter’s head coaching debut. Minter is a defensiveminded coach, but the talk of the game afterward was ﬁrst-year offensive play-

coach? Probably. What would LSU have spent to build him a roster in 2026 around Underwood? And here’s one last intriguing possibility. Say 2026 was the year Kelly would have faltered and been fired. Then LSU turns its attention to Kiffin this year. But what if Kiffin coached Ole Miss to great success in last season’s CFP, success that convinces him, like Bowden, not to leave Oxford? “(If) Pete Golding is in the press box calling the defense, that team is in the national championship,” Kiffin told USA Today in May. “We might win it, but we’re definitely in it. We ain’t losing to Miami (in the semifinals).” It’s all conjecture, of course. Things happened as they happened, in real time. Kiffin is at LSU now, and this season and his tenure are an unwritten book. Still, we may look back one day to figure Bryce Underwood was the butterfly that changed it all.

Looking ahead

to Kiffin and Ole Miss, and ending with a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M — fourth-year coach Brian Kelly was fired. LSU’s inability to spend its way to success begat much more spending. First there was Kelly’s $54 million buyout. Then LSU signed Kiffin, who left Ole Miss on the eve of the College Football Playoff, for $91 million over seven years. Heap on top of that the $40 million (per Kelly in an offseason interview) to possibly $50 million to build this roster, and you can see how far LSU has come from that modest $1.5 million per year budgeted for Underwood. What if Michigan balked on guaranteeing Underwood more than Saints quarterback Tyler Shough is getting on his four-year rookie deal ($2.7 million per season)? What if he’d taken up the reins from a faltering Nussmeier, led LSU to a respectable 9-3 mark in 2025 and was still the quarterback going into 2026? Would Kelly still be the

that. Detroit sent a ﬁve-man pressure on a zone blitz and added a layer to the rush with a looping stunt. New Orleans addressed the pressure beautifully, with left guard David Edwards picking up the looper on the stunt before he could get to Shough and Fuaga holding down the right edge. Shough had a clean pocket from which to loft his touchdown. The adjustment happened too late for the Saints to truly make it count, but it was encouraging to see the offense respond after such an ugly performance out of the gates.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY PAUL SANCYA

Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood rolls out against Oklahoma on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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Princewill Umanmielen, who leads LSU with five sacks, and former Ole Miss linebacker TJ Dottery, who tops LSU with 14 tackles, should know Chambliss’ tendencies. But Umanmielen wasn’t sharing much intel Tuesday. “We really just gotta keep them in the pocket, things like that,” Umanmielen said, refusing to talk about Chambliss by name. “Be grindy and gritty.” It will be on Leavitt to limit Chambliss’ plays by taking care of the ball. He was keenly aware of the necessity moments after his three-pick performance on Saturday. He talked about “calming” his feet and “trusting” his “process.” He wouldn’t spend much energy hyping up the Ole Miss game. “But no,” Leavitt said, “it’s going to be an incredible opportunity.” It’s Chambliss, a D-II national champ who led Ole Miss to within a couple of plays of an FBS title game, versus Leavitt, who helped Arizona State play within eight points of Texas in a 2024 CFP quarterﬁnal. It’s the quarterback Kiffin and Weis coached to new heights a season ago versus the one they hope will thrive in their fastpaced offense in 2026. Chambliss, they know, will be ready. “He’s got a lot of maturity in age and a lot of plays in big-time games,” Kifﬁn said, “that you’re going to have to play really well for a long period of time against him.”

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and Lacy to come with him to LSU, but newly promoted Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding pitched both on staying. He asked them to google Kiffin’s name, because Ole Miss fans had just flipped from wanting to build a statue of their old coach, Golding told ESPN, to not wanting to “piss” on Kiffin if he was “on fire.” Chambliss is now a fouralarm problem for LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who had relative success containing him in 2025. LSU went on the road and held Ole Miss to 24 points, but the Tigers had only 19 on their side of the scoreboard. They held Chambliss to a 59% completion percentage, but he still racked up 314 yards passing and 71 rushing. He did throw one pick. Kiffin was asked Monday whether anything from Baker’s game plan could roll into 2026. “You guys are getting really schematical. I mean, I don’t know how I can answer that,” Kiffin said. “I’m sure both places are already worried about leaks within the building, getting game plans out.” He wasn’t elaborating, but reasonable guesses can be made. Pressure is important, with as few rushers as possible, because Chambliss can get the ball out quickly versus a blitz. Even if a defense brings four, it has to hold its rush lanes or Chambliss will slide out of the pocket for a scramble drill with his receivers. Ex-Ole Miss edge rusher

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Kaplan workhorse runs hard, is ‘unblockable’ Cormier built for I-formation but is thriving as fullback BY MIKE COPPAGE Contributing writer

De’Maurion Cormier isn’t your prototypical fullback. Kaplan High football coach Vinnie Bullara said that in an ideal world, the 6-foot, 190-pound senior would be lined up at tailback in an old-school I-formation offense. “He’s a stud,” Bullara said of Cormier, who recorded his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game in a 29-12 win at Assumption last week. “De’Maurion is an I-formation type of guy, but he’s becoming one

heck of a fullback for us.” Cormier ran for 161 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns in the win over Class 4A Assumption, giving him close to 300 yards in two games for the undefeated Pirates after topping the 1,000-yard mark last year with 20 touchdowns. “He runs incredibly hard,” Bullara said, “and his pad level is starting to improve. In the second half, he Cormier was breaking off runs. When he decides to run, he’s unblockable.” And it’s not just Cormier’s physical skills that stand out. “He has a great attitude,” said Bullara, whose Pirates play their ﬁrst home game this week when Catholic New Iberia makes the

trip west Friday. As good as the Pirates have been, there is still much room for improvement (three fumbles last week), which will be needed against the Panthers (1-1). “If they’re not the toughest test on our schedule, they’re the second,” Bullara said. “They’re that good.” The Pirates’ offensive line paved the way for Cormier and Jeremy Roy to each rush for over 100 yards in a 34-7 win over Ascension Episcopal in Week 1. Center Carter Hebert (6-foot-4, 320 pounds) anchors the line for quarterback Jayden Hargrave, who ran for a touchdown last week. “He’s so smart,” Bullara said of Hebert. “He can make all the signals, gets everybody on the same page and has great command of the O-line. It would be nice to have him elsewhere (guard or tackle),

but we need him at center.” While the Pirates have rushed for almost 800 yards, Bullara said the defense set the tone against Assumption, which completed a meager 12 of 30 passes. Roy had an interception. “We have an excellent pressure package that we hadn’t shown yet,” Bullara said. “We had a few blown coverages, but the guys were real sticky.” Jason Roy was effective on the defensive line, and linebacker Aiden Hargave is “the glue” of the unit, Bullara said. Jayden Hargrave doesn’t just run in the Pirates’ flexbone offense. In Week 1, he threw a touchdown pass to Kodi Clement, who also scored a defensive touchdown and has good size (6-1, 175) on the perimeter. Hargrave also takes snaps at outside linebacker when needed.

“Oh, man, he’s a leader and a competitor,” Bullara said of Hargrave, a junior and Aiden’s twin brother. “He scored one of our touchdowns on a busted play by ﬁnding a way to get into the end zone on a 12-yard scamper.” Bullara added that Assumption, which was coming off a 21-point win over Donaldsonville, was keying on Roy after the sophomore ran for 120 yards on four carries in Week 1. “I told JJ (Roy) to keep grinding it out,” Bullara said. “He’s a team player.” When freshman linebacker Zachary LaPointe went down with an injury, another freshman stepped up in Andres Ramirez. “It’s exciting, man,” Bullara said. “But we do have a lot to clean up. We’re running the ball well and playing outstanding defense. That’s really the key.”

SCOREBOARD Hole-in-one

Pro baseball

Rick Dunaway

MLB glance

Course: Webb Memorial Hole: No. 3 Club used: 9-iron Witnesses: Ed Odom, Ronnie Strother, James Rashery

American League

Jeffrey Newell

Course: Webb Memorial Hole: No. 15 Club used: 9-iron Witnesses: Mike Allen, Billy Blackwood, Doug Newell

High schools Volleyball schedule Wednesday’s games

Rayne at Teurlings, Beau Chene at CatholicNI, Loreauville at Hanson, Cecilia at Port Barre, Eunice at Welsh.

Odds Thursday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at BUFFALO 3 4½ (53½) Detroit Sunday FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at TAMPA BAY 6½ 8½ (41½) Cleveland Philadelphia 4½ 7 (39½) at TENN Green Bay 6½ 3½ (44½) at NY JETS at HOUSTON 2½ 3 (46½) Cincinnati at NE 4½ 4½ (41½) Pittsburgh at CHICAGO 3½ 5½ (48½) Minnesota Carolina 1½ 2½ (43½) at ATLANTA at BALTIMORE 7½ 8½ (46½) N. Orleans at DENVER 3 2½ (45½) Jax. at CHARGERS 8½ 7 (43½) Las Vegas at SAN FRAN 10½ 13½ (45½) Miami Seattle 10 4½ (41½) at ARIZONA at DALLAS 4½ 3½ (50½) Wash. at KAN. CITY 5½ 6½ (47½) Indianapls FAVORITE at LA RAMS

OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 9½ 7 (48½) NY Giants

College Football Thursday

FAVORITE at PITT

OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 10½ 10½ (51½) Syracuse

FAVORITE Miami (FL) at TX TECH at OREGON

OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 19½ 20½ (56½) at W. FORST 14½ 7½ (53½) Houston 57½ 56½ (69½) Portland St

Friday

Saturday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at DELAWARE 5½ 4½ (57½)Cst.Carolina at GA TECH 42½ 39½ (58½) Mercer at TEXAS ST 3½ 2½ (63½) North Texas Arizona State 5½ 5½ (50½) at KANSAS at OHIO STATE 52½ 52½ (59½) Kent State at CLEMSON 9½ 3½ (43½) N.Carolina at PENN ST 39½ 40½ (50½) Buffalo Georgia 17½ 25½ (54½)at ARKANSS at IOWA ST 23½ 23½ (44½)Bowling Grn at KANSAS ST 20½ 20½ (49½) Tulane at MINNESOTA 28½ 23½ (49½) Akron at WISCONSIN 24½ 24½ (45½) E.Michigan at VANDERBLT 5½ 3½ (50½) NC State at C.MICH. 1½ 1½ (39½) Wyoming at BOSTN COL 39½ 37½ (53½) Maine at ILLINOIS 41½ 41½ (54½) S.Illinois at TOLEDO 1½ 5½ (50½) Temple at CINCINNATI 14½ 14½ (49½) Miami (OH) at UMASS 34½ 33½ (49½) Stonehill at WASH. ST 35½ 38½ (53½) Duquesne at UTAH 27½ 27½ (57½) Utah State USC 24½ 23½ (60½) at RUTGERS at MICHIGAN 35½ 34½ (49½) UTEP at ALABAMA 15½ 19½ (48½) Florida St at LOUISVILLE 1½ 1½ (59½) SMU at TEXAS A&M 14½ 16½ (50½) Kentucky at LIBERTY 13½ 14½ (50½) Ball State at INDIANA 44½ 44½ (60½)W. Kentucky at IOWA 41½ 38½ (49½) N.Iowa at BAYLOR 18½ 19½ (53½) La. Tech at DUKE 11½ 9½ (51½) Stanford at S.CAROLINA 7½ 3½ (58½) Miss. State at UL MONROE12½ 11½ (48½)Southeastrn at FL. ATLNTC 9½ 7 (62½) Florida Int’l at OLD DOMN. 2½ 3 (49½) E. Carolina at APP. STATE 19½ 17½ (51½) Charlotte Marshall 4½ 3½ (51½) at MIZ ST. Florida PK 2½ (53½) at AUBURN W.Michigan 10½ 9½ (43½) at RICE at OKLA. ST 57½ 55½ (70½) Murray St at S. ALABAMA3½ 5½ (51½) Ohio at MISSOURI 27½ 26½ (50½) Troy at S.FLORIDA 37½ 37½ (61½)Delaware St Nevada 6½ 3½ (50½) at M.TENN at S.HOUSTON 18½ 18½ (50½) Nicholls St at JAX STATE 3 3½ (52½) Ga. Southrn at MEMPHIS 35½ 34½ (57½) UT Martin UConn 2½ 3 (54½) at SO. MISS at UCF 19½ 18½ (50½) Georgia St at WASHNGTN 44½ 42½ (57½) E. Wash. at NEBRASKA 24½ 24½ (52½) N. Dakota at OKLAHOMA 21½ 22½ (46½)New Mexico LSU 2½ 3 (59½) at OLE MISS at NOTRE DAME 29½ 29½ (52½) Michigan St at N’WESTERN 5½ 3½ (48½) Colorado at VIRGINIA 8½ 10½ (53½) W. Virginia Virginia Tech 1½ 2½ (54½) at MRYLND BYU 20½ 18 (52½) at COLO. ST at TENNESSEE 35½ 35½ (60½) Kennsw St at UL 8½ 7½ (56½) UAB at TCU 20½ 20½ (56½)Arkansas St at TULSA 42½ 42½ (56½) E. Tx A&M at TEXAS 29½ 30½ (58½) UTSA at BOISE ST 22½ 24½ (54½) S.Dakota at S. DIEGO ST 1½ 2½ (46½) J. Madison N.Dakota St. 23½ 27½ (51½) at SACR. ST at ARIZONA 31½ 34½ (49½) N.Illinois at OREGON ST 9½ 17½ (52½) Montana Fresno State 5½ 6½ (50½)at S.JOSE ST at UCLA 13½ 14½ (53½) Purdue

MLB

Wednesday

z-Tampa Bay z-New York Boston Toronto Baltimore Central Division Chicago Cleveland Detroit Minnesota Kansas City West Division Houston Texas Seattle Athletics Los Angeles

Monday’s games

NFL

Monday

East Division

American League FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE at CLEVELAND OFF Chi. White Sox OFF N.Y Yankees -150 at MINNESOTA +122 Detroit -120 at TORONTO -102 at TAMPA BAY -201 Athletics +162 Boston -116 at TEXAS -107 at HOUSTON -147 Kansas City +121 Seattle -140 at LA ANGELS +115 National League LINE UNDERDOG LINE FAVORITE at ST. LOUIS OFF San Francisco OFF LA Dodgers -216 at CINCINNATI +174 -140 at PITTSBURGH +115 Milwaukee Philadelphia -140 at WASHINGTON +115 at CHICAGO CUBS -144 Atlanta +118 San Diego -175 at COLORADO +142 at ARIZONA -133 Miami +110 Interleague FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE at N.Y METS -143 Baltimore +117

W 90 87 82 75 73

L 59 63 68 76 78

Pct .604 .580 .547 .497 .483

GB — 3½ 8½ 16 18

W 77 76 71 70 66

L 73 75 79 80 84

Pct .513 .503 .473 .467 .440

GB — 1½ 6 7 11

W 75 74 70 61 57

L 75 76 81 89 93

Pct .500 .493 .464 .407 .380

GB — 1 5½ 14 18

Chicago White Sox 7, Cleveland 3 Baltimore 2, N.Y. Mets 1 Detroit 6, Toronto 5 N.Y. Yankees 8, Minnesota 3 L.A. Angels 6, Seattle 4

National League Leaders

Tuesday’s games

Athletics at Tampa Bay, n Chicago White Sox at Cleveland, n Detroit at Toronto, n Baltimore at N.Y. Mets, n N.Y. Yankees at Minnesota, n Boston at Texas, n Kansas City at Houston, n Seattle at L.A. Angels, n

Wednesday’s games

Chicago White Sox (Kay 9-9) at Cleveland (Messick 11-9), 12:10 p.m. N.Y. Yankees (Rodón 6-3) at Minnesota (Matthews 9-10), 12:40 p.m. Detroit (TBD) at Toronto (Scherzer 2-8), 2:07 p.m. Athletics (Basso 1-2) at Tampa Bay (Martinez 14-4), 5:40 p.m. Baltimore (Bassitt 7-5) at N.Y. Mets (Stock 1-3), 6:10 p.m. Boston (Bennett 9-7) at Texas (deGrom 109), 7:05 p.m. Kansas City (Lynch 5-5) at Houston (Javier 2-5), 7:10 p.m. Seattle (Kirby 9-11) at L.A. Angels (Kikuchi 1-5), 8:38 p.m.

National League East Division

W 88 83 74 70 69

L 63 67 77 81 81

Pct GB .583 — .553 4½ .490 14 .464 18 .460 18½

W 93 84 75 75 70

L 57 67 75 76 80

Pct GB .620 — .556 9½ .500 18 .497 18½ .467 23

W z-Los Angeles 91 San Diego 82 Arizona 80 San Francisco 62 Colorado 55 z-clinched playoff berth

L 59 68 71 89 95

Pct GB .607 — .547 9 .530 11½ .411 29½ .367 36

Atlanta Philadelphia Miami Washington New York Central Division z-Milwaukee Chicago Pittsburgh St. Louis Cincinnati West Division

Monday’s games

L.A. Dodgers 4, Cincinnati 1 Baltimore 2, N.Y. Mets 1 Chicago Cubs 7, Atlanta 3 St. Louis 2, San Francisco 1 San Diego 8, Colorado 7 Arizona 8, Miami 7

Tuesday’s games

L.A. Dodgers at Cincinnati, n Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, n Philadelphia at Washington, n Baltimore at N.Y. Mets, n Atlanta at Chicago Cubs, n San Francisco at St. Louis, n San Diego at Colorado, n Miami at Arizona, n

Wednesday’s games

San Francisco (Molina 3-1) at St. Louis (Liberatore 5-14), 12:15 p.m. L.A. Dodgers (Snell 4-1) at Cincinnati (Abbott 6-11), 5:40 p.m. Milwaukee (Henderson 10-3) at Pittsburgh (Jones 4-6), 5:40 p.m. Philadelphia (Wheeler 12-5) at Washington (Cavalli 12-5), 5:45 p.m. Baltimore (Bassitt 7-5) at N.Y. Mets (Stock 1-3), 6:10 p.m. Atlanta (Ritchie 1-2) at Chicago Cubs (Imanaga 10-10), 6:40 p.m. San Diego (Ray 12-8) at Colorado (Adams 0-0), 7:40 p.m. Miami (Gusto 1-5) at Arizona (Kelly 9-13), 8:40 p.m.

American League Leaders

33; Murakami, Chicago, 31; C.Montgomery, Chicago, 31; M.Vargas, Chicago, 31; Dingler, Detroit, 27; 5 tied at 26. STOLEN BASES — C.Simpson, Tampa Bay, 41; Chisholm, New York, 40; Witt, Kansas City, 40; Ramírez, Cleveland, 33; Caballero, New York, 32; J.Naylor, Seattle, 27; Arozarena, Seattle, 23; Ju.Rodríguez, Seattle, 21; Tolbert, Kansas City, 21; Walls, Tampa Bay, 21. PITCHING — S.Gray, Boston, 17-5; N.Martinez, Tampa Bay, 14-4; Rasmussen, Tampa Bay, 14-5; Schlittler, New York, 14-6; G.Williams, Cleveland, 13-8; Soriano, Toronto, 12-7; L.Gilbert, Seattle, 12-9; Woo, Seattle, 12-9; Cease, Toronto, 11-5; Bradley, Minnesota, 11-6. ERA — Schlittler, New York, 1.95; Cease, Toronto, 2.38; Messick, Cleveland, 2.51; S.Gray, Boston, 2.76; Rasmussen, Tampa Bay, 2.81; N.Martinez, Tampa Bay, 2.92; Wacha, Kansas City, 3.25; Detmers, Los Angeles, 3.36; Burke, Chicago, 3.47; Soriano, Toronto, 3.56. STRIKEOUTS — Cease, Toronto, 236; G.Williams, Cleveland, 235; Schlittler, New York, 228; Detmers, Los Angeles, 199; Bradley, Minnesota, 190; L.Gilbert, Seattle, 187; deGrom, Texas, 186; Messick, Cleveland, 178; Burke, Chicago, 173; Gore, Texas, 172.

BATTING — Alvarez, Houston, .310; C.Simpson, Tampa Bay, .305; Ya.Díaz, Tampa Bay, .301; DeLauter, Cleveland, .289; Greene, Detroit, .284; Rafaela, Boston, .282; Caglianone, Kansas City, .281; Witt, Kansas City, .280; Caminero, Tampa Bay, .279; Aranda, Tampa Bay, .278; Arozarena, Seattle, .278; Kwan, Cleveland, .278. RUNS — Arozarena, Seattle, 100; M.Vargas, Chicago, 98; Rice, New York, 96; Alvarez, Houston, 95; Neto, Los Angeles, 95; McGonigle, Detroit, 93; Caminero, Tampa Bay, 91; Alonso, Baltimore, 89; Ya.Díaz, Tampa Bay, 86; Henderson, Baltimore, 86. RBI — Alonso, Baltimore, 100; Alvarez, Houston, 96; Caminero, Tampa Bay, 95; Rice, New York, 92; Aranda, Tampa Bay, 89; Dingler, Detroit, 88; Okamoto, Toronto, 88; Adell, Cleveland, 88; Bell, Minnesota, 87; I.Paredes, Houston, 85. HITS — Ya.Díaz, Tampa Bay, 173; Alvarez, Houston, 162; C.Simpson, Tampa Bay, 162; Caminero, Tampa Bay, 159; McGonigle, Detroit, 153; Aranda, Tampa Bay, 152; Alonso, Baltimore, 151; Rafaela, Boston, 151; Clement, Toronto, 150; J.Naylor, Seattle, 149. DOUBLES — W.Abreu, Boston, 36; Nimmo, Texas, 33; Rafaela, Boston, 32; Clement, Toronto, 31; Jensen, Kansas City, 31; Peters, Chicago, 31; Alvarez, Houston, 30; Arozarena, Seattle, 30; Greene, Detroit, 30; M.Vargas, Chicago, 30; Witt, Kansas City, 30. TRIPLES — Clemens, Minnesota, 6; C.Simpson, Tampa Bay, 6; Cam.Smith, Houston, 6; Taveras, Baltimore, 6; Henderson, Baltimore, 5; Neto, Los Angeles, 5; 10 tied at 4. HOME RUNS — Caminero, Tampa Bay, 40; Alvarez, Houston, 38; Rice, New York, 38; Alonso, Baltimore, 35; Okamoto, Toronto,

BATTING — Arraez, Philadelphia, .313; O.Lopez, Miami, .309; Gonzales, Pittsburgh, .304; Moreno, Arizona, .301; Rumﬁeld, Colorado, .299; McCarthy, Colorado, .296; F.Freeman, Los Angeles, .293; Chourio, Milwaukee, .292; M.Harris, Atlanta, .292; Tatis, San Diego, .289. RUNS — Crow-Armstrong, Chicago, 112; Wood, Washington, 102; Reynolds, Pittsburgh, 101; Olson, Atlanta, 96; Turang, Milwaukee, 95; Turner, Philadelphia, 94; I.Herrera, St. Louis, 93; E.De La Cruz, Cincinnati, 92; J.Walker, St. Louis, 92; Suzuki, Chicago, 91. RBI — Burleson, St. Louis, 110; S.Stewart, Cincinnati, 107; Crow-Armstrong, Chicago, 102; J.Walker, St. Louis, 100; Devers, San Francisco, 98; Abrams, Washington, 96; Schwarber, Philadelphia, 94; Turang, Milwaukee, 92; Contreras, Milwaukee, 86; B.Lowe, Pittsburgh, 85; Olson, Atlanta, 85. HITS — O.Lopez, Miami, 180; Arraez, Philadelphia, 177; Tatis, San Diego, 168; Crow-Armstrong, Chicago, 164; Burleson, St. Louis, 162; M.Harris, Atlanta, 161; J.Walker, St. Louis, 160; Gonzales, Pittsburgh, 158; Hoerner, Chicago, 157; F.Freeman, Los Angeles, 156. DOUBLES — Burleson, St. Louis, 36; Devers, San Francisco, 36; Reynolds, Pittsburgh, 36; Olson, Atlanta, 33; Turang, Milwaukee, 33; J.Walker, St. Louis, 33; F.Freeman, Los Angeles, 32; M.Harris, Atlanta, 32; Bregman, Chicago, 31; Harper, Philadelphia, 31; O.Lopez, Miami, 31; Moreno, Arizona, 31. TRIPLES — Carroll, Arizona, 16; McCarthy, Colorado, 10; O.Lopez, Miami, 9; Lile, Washington, 8; Arraez, Philadelphia, 7; CrowArmstrong, Chicago, 7; X.Edwards, Miami, 6; G.Perdomo, Arizona, 6; Stott, Philadelphia, 6; E.De La Cruz, Cincinnati, 5; L.García, New York, 5; Marsee, Miami, 5; Vargas, Arizona, 5. HOME RUNS — Schwarber, Philadelphia, 44; Crow-Armstrong, Chicago, 42; Olson, Atlanta, 39; Goodman, Colorado, 38; Devers, San Francisco, 37; S.Stewart, Cincinnati, 31; Wood, Washington, 30; Ohtani, Los Angeles, 30; Abrams, Washington, 30; B.Lowe, Pittsburgh, 29. STOLEN BASES — Nuñez, Washington, 46; Crow-Armstrong, Chicago, 37; Tatis, San Diego, 35; O.Lopez, Miami, 30; E.Ruiz, Miami, 30; Abrams, Washington, 29; McCarthy, Colorado, 29; O.Cruz, Pittsburgh, 27; D.Hamilton, Milwaukee, 27; Merrill, San Diego, 26. PITCHING — C.Sánchez, Philadelphia, 17-5; Burns, Cincinnati, 15-3; E.Rodriguez, Arizona, 15-6; Luzardo, Philadelphia, 14-5; Misiorowski, Milwaukee, 14-5; B.Ashcraft, Pittsburgh, 14-6; Sale, Atlanta, 14-9; Ashby, Milwaukee, 13-3; Yamamoto, Los Angeles, 13-8; S.Alcantara, Miami, 13-10. ERA — Misiorowski, Milwaukee, 1.95; Sale, Atlanta, 2.18; Yamamoto, Los Angeles, 2.62; E.Rodriguez, Arizona, 2.62; C.Sánchez, Philadelphia, 2.79; Burns, Cincinnati, 2.80; Luzardo, Philadelphia, 2.87; M.King, San Diego, 3.03; Cavalli, Washington, 3.12; McLean, New York, 3.24. STRIKEOUTS — Misiorowski, Milwaukee, 236; Luzardo, Philadelphia, 221; C.Sánchez, Philadelphia, 210; Cavalli, Washington, 194; Sale, Atlanta, 190; Skenes, Pittsburgh, 185; McLean, New York, 184; Burns, Cincinnati, 181; B.Ashcraft, Pittsburgh, 173; Wheeler, Philadelphia, 172.

Pro football NFL glance AMERICAN CONFERENCE East

N.Y. Jets Buffalo New England Miami South Jacksonville Houston Tennessee Indianapolis North Baltimore Cincinnati Pittsburgh Cleveland West Kansas City Las Vegas L.A. Chargers Denver

W 1 1 0 0

L 0 0 1 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 23 0 1.000 36 0 .000 10 0 .000 13

PA 10 31 13 27

W 1 0 0 0

L 0 1 1 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 34 0 .000 31 0 .000 10 0 .000 23

PA 10 36 23 41

W 1 1 1 0

L 0 0 0 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 41 0 1.000 33 0 1.000 20 0 .000 10

PA 23 27 13 34

W 1 1 0 0

L 0 0 1 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 31 0 1.000 27 0 .000 14 0 .000 10

PA 10 13 26 31

W 1 1 0 0

L 0 0 1 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 28 0 1.000 24 0 .000 22 0 .000 20

PA 20 22 24 28

W 0 0 0 0

L 1 1 1 1

T 0 0 0 0

Pct PF .000 13 .000 27 .000 30 .000 37

PA 20 33 31 59

W 1 1 1 0

L 0 0 0 1

T Pct PF 0 1.000 39 0 1.000 59 0 1.000 31 0 .000 22

PA 22 37 30 39

W 1 1

L 0 0

T Pct PF 0 1.000 27 0 1.000 26

PA 7 14

NATIONAL CONFERENCE East

N.Y. Giants Philadelphia Washington Dallas South Atlanta Tampa Bay New Orleans Carolina North Minnesota Chicago Detroit Green Bay West San Francisco Arizona

Seattle L.A. Rams

Monday’s game

1 0

0 1

0 1.000 0 .000

13 7

10 27

Kansas City 31, Denver 10

Thursday’s games

Detroit at Buffalo, 7:15 p.m.

Sunday’s games

Carolina at Atlanta, noon Cincinnati at Houston, noon Cleveland at Tampa Bay, noon Green Bay at N.Y. Jets, noon Minnesota at Chicago, noon New Orleans at Baltimore, noon Philadelphia at Tennessee, noon Pittsburgh at New England, noon Jacksonville at Denver, 3:05 p.m. Las Vegas at L.A. Chargers, 3:05 p.m. Miami at San Francisco, 3:25 p.m. Seattle at Arizona, 3:25 p.m. Washington at Dallas, 3:25 p.m. Indianapolis at Kansas City, 7:20 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 21

N.Y. Giants at L.A. Rams, 7:15 p.m.

Late Monday

Kansas City 31, Denver 10

Denver 7 0 3 0 — 10 Kansas City 7 7 10 7 — 31 First Quarter KC—Mahomes 15 run (Butker kick), 8:11. Den—Engram 19 pass from Nix (Lutz kick), 3:48. Second Quarter KC—Rice 13 pass from Mahomes (Butker kick), 1:39. Third Quarter KC—K.Walker 60 run (Butker kick), 12:43. Den—FG Lutz 31, 7:34. KC—FG Butker 28, 3:17. Fourth Quarter KC—K.Walker 2 pass from Mahomes (Butker kick), 14:39. A—73,543. Den KC First downs 9 19 Total Net Yards 176 392 Rushes-yards 15-61 38-220 Passing 115 172 Punt Returns 2-36 2-7 Kickoff Returns 5-138 3-78 Interceptions Ret. 1-24 1-5 Comp-Att-Int 17-28-1 15-27-1 Sacked-Yards Lost 4-16 2-12 Punts 6-52.333 4-54.5 Fumbles-Lost 3-1 2-0 Penalties-Yards 7-52 7-60 Time of Possession 26:18 33:42 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—Denver, Dobbins 8-36, Harvey 3-18, Franklin 1-5, Nix 3-2. Kansas City, Walker 23-173, Johnson 8-24, Mahomes 7-23. PASSING—Denver, Nix 17-28-1-131. Kansas City, Mahomes 15-27-1-184. RECEIVING—Denver, Engram 4-43, Bryant 4-42, Harvey 4-23, Sutton 2-11, Trautman 2-10, Waddle 1-2. Kansas City, Kelce 3-71, Walker 3-18, Worthy 3-18, Johnson 2-44, Rice 2-19, Briningstool 1-9, Gray 1-5. MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

College football National schedule Thursday

EAST Syracuse (1-1) at Pittsburgh (2-0), 6:30 p.m.

Friday

SOUTH Miami (2-0) at Wake Forest (2-0), 6:30 p.m. SOUTHWEST Houston (2-0) at Texas Tech (2-0), 7 p.m. FAR WEST Portland St. (0-3) at Oregon (1-1), 9:30 p.m.

Saturday

EAST Coastal Carolina (1-1) at Delaware (1-1), 10:30 a.m. Buffalo (1-1) at Penn St. (2-0), 11 a.m. Maine (1-2) at Boston College (1-1), 1 p.m. Stonehill (1-2) at UMass (2-0), 2:30 p.m. Southern Cal (3-0) at Rutgers (0-2), 2:30 p.m. Virginia Tech (2-0) at Maryland (2-0), 6:30 p.m. SOUTH Mercer (2-1) at Georgia Tech (0-2), 11 a.m. North Carolina (2-0) at Clemson (1-1), 11 a.m. NC State (1-1) at Vanderbilt (2-0), 11:45 a.m. Florida St. (1-1) at Alabama (2-0), 2:30 p.m. SMU (2-0) at Louisville (1-1), 2:30 p.m. Ball St. (1-1) at Liberty (1-1), 3 p.m. Stanford (1-1) at Duke (2-0), 3 p.m. Mississippi St. (2-0) at South Carolina (2-0), 3:15 p.m. East Carolina (0-2) at Old Dominion (1-1), 5 p.m. Point (Ga.) (0-0) at Charleston Southern (1-2), 5 p.m. Charlotte (0-2) at Appalachian St. (2-0), 5 p.m. Dayton (2-0) at E. Kentucky (1-2), 5 p.m. FIU (1-1) at FAU (1-1), 5 p.m. Florida (2-0) at Auburn (2-0), 6 p.m. Ohio (1-1) at South Alabama (1-1), 6 p.m. Delaware St. (2-1) at South Florida (2-0), 6 p.m. Nevada (1-1) at Middle Tennessee (1-1), 6 p.m. Georgia Southern (1-1) at Jacksonville St. (1-2), 6 p.m. UT Martin (1-2) at Memphis (2-1), 6 p.m. UConn (1-1) at Southern Miss. (1-1), 6 p.m. Georgia St. (2-0) at UCF (1-1), 6 p.m. Virginia (2-0) vs. West Virginia (2-0) at Charlotte, N.C., 6:30 p.m. Kennesaw St. (1-1) at Tennessee (2-0), 6:45 p.m. MIDWEST Kansas (1-1) vs. Arizona St. (1-1) at London, United Kingdom, 11 a.m. Kent St. (1-1) at Ohio St. (1-1), 11 a.m. Bowling Green (0-2) at Iowa St. (1-1), 11 a.m. Akron (1-1) at Minnesota (1-1), 11 a.m. E. Michigan (1-2) at Wisconsin (1-1), 11:30 a.m. Wyoming (1-1) at Cent. Michigan (1-1), noon S. Illinois (2-1) at Illinois (1-1), 1 p.m. Temple (1-1) at Toledo (1-1), 2 p.m. E. Illinois (1-2) at Illinois St. (3-0), 2 p.m. UTEP (1-1) at Michigan (2-0), 2:30 p.m. Cincinnati (2-0) vs. Miami (Ohio) (1-1) at Cincinnati, 2:30 p.m. W. Kentucky (0-2) at Indiana (2-0), 3 p.m. N. Iowa (1-1) at Iowa (2-0), 3 p.m. Marshall (1-1) at Missouri St. (1-1), 5:30 p.m. Troy (2-0) at Missouri (2-0), 6 p.m. North Dakota (3-0) at Nebraska (2-0), 6:15 p.m. Michigan St. (2-0) at Notre Dame (2-0), 6:30 p.m. Colorado (2-0) at Northwestern (1-0), 6:30 p.m. SOUTHWEST North Texas (1-1) at Texas State (0-2), 11 a.m. Georgia (2-0) at Arkansas (1-1), 11 a.m. Kentucky (1-1) at Texas A&M (2-0), 2:30 p.m. W. Michigan (1-1) at Rice (1-1), 6 p.m.

Murray St. (1-2) at Oklahoma St. (1-1), 6 p.m. New Mexico (2-0) at Oklahoma (1-1), 6:30 p.m. Arkansas St. (1-1) at TCU (1-1), 7 p.m. East Texas A&M (1-2) at Tulsa (2-0), 7 p.m. UTSA (2-0) at Texas (2-0), 7 p.m. FAR WEST Duquesne (0-2) at Washington St. (0-2), 2:30 p.m. Utah St. (0-2) at Utah (2-0), 2:30 p.m. Wagner (1-2) at California (1-1), 2:30 p.m. E. Washington (1-2) at Washington (2-0), 6:15 p.m. BYU (2-0) at Colorado St. (2-0), 6:30 p.m. San Diego (0-2) at Cal Poly (2-1), 7 p.m. N. Arizona (2-1) at Utah Tech (0-3), 7 p.m. Stetson (1-2) at UC Davis (2-1), 9 p.m. South Dakota (3-0) at Boise St. (1-1), 9 p.m. James Madison (2-0) at San Diego St. (1-1), 9 p.m. N. Dakota St. (3-0) at Sacramento St. (1-2), 9:30 p.m. N. Illinois (0-2) at Arizona (1-1), 9:30 p.m. Montana (3-0) at Oregon St. (0-2), 10 p.m. Fresno St. (1-1) at San Jose St. (2-1), 10 p.m. Purdue (1-1) at UCLA (2-0), 10 p.m.

State schedule

Tulane (1-1) at Kansas St. (2-0), 11 a.m. Louisiana Tech (1-1) at Baylor (1-1), 3 p.m. Southeastern (1-2) at UL-Monroe (0-2), 3:30 p.m. Louisiana Christian (1-0) at Southern (1-2), 6 p.m. Nicholls (2-1) at Sam Houston St. (0-2), 6 p.m. LSU (2-0) at Ole Miss (2-0), 6:30 p.m. McNeese St. (1-2) at UT Rio Grande Valley (1-2), 7 p.m. Northwestern (0-3) at Weber St. (1-2), 7 p.m. UAB (1-1) at UL (1-1), 7 p.m.

Tennis WTA Guadalajara Open Results Tuesday At Panamerican Tennis Center Guadalajara, Mexico Purse: $1,206,446 Surface: Hardcourt outdoor Women’s Singles Round of 16 Cristina Bucsa (6), Spain, def. Panna Udvardy, Hungary, 6-4, 6-4. Sara Bejlek (3), Czechia, def. Alycia Parks, United States, 6-4, 6-3. Women’s Doubles Round of 16 Catherine Harrison and Dalayna Hewitt, United States, def. Iryna Shymanovich, Belarus, and Miriam Skoch, Czechia, 6-2, 6-3. Women’s Doubles Quarterﬁnals Maia Lumsden, Britain, and Maria Kozyreva (4), Russia, def. Alexa Guarachi, Chile, and Makoto Ninomiya, Japan, 7-5, 7-5.

Transactions Baseball Major League Baseball

American League HOUSTON ASTROS — Recalled LF Joey Loperﬁdo from Sugar Land (PCL). Placed LF Taylor Trammell on the paternity list. TAMPA BAY RAYS — Reinstated RF Jake Fraley from the 60-day IL. Recalled RHP Alex Cook from Durham (IL). Optioned C Kenny Piper to Durham. Sent 2B Ben Williamson on a rehab assignment to Durham. National League ATLANTA BRAVES — Recalled RHP JR Ritchie from Gwinnett (IL). Placed RHP Reynaldo López on the 15-day IL. Sent RHP Joe Jiménez on a rehab assignment to Gwinnett.

Basketball

National Basketball Association

BROOKLYN NETS — Waived G Dwight Murray Jr. and G Isaiah Wong. DETROIT PISTONS — Waived F Dawson Garcia and F Basheer Jihad. INDIANA PACERS — Waived F Keion Brooks Jr., G Cameron Hildreth, F M.J. Iraldi and G Wade Taylor IV. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS — Waived F Johnny O’Neil.

Football

National Football League

ARIZONA CARDINALS — Released WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette from the practice squad. BALTIMORE RAVENS — Signed WR Gage Larvadain to the practice squad. Released K Jake Moody from the practice squad. CAROLINA PANTHERS — Signed LB Tyrel Dodson from the practice squad to the active roster. Waived WR Jimmy Horn Jr. CLEVELAND BROWNS — Placed RB Dylan Sampson on injured reserve. Signed RB Jaleel McLaughlin from the practice squad to the active roster. Signed T Obinna Eze, RB Eric Gray, P Wes Pahl and T Xavier Truss to the practice squad. Released DB D’Angelo Ross and DT Chris Williams from the practice squad. DALLAS COWBOYS — Signed RB Tyler Goodson to the active roster from Atlanta’s practice squad. Waived RB Israel Abanikanda. DENVER BRONCOS — Signed WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey. GREEN BAY PACKERS — Released WR Chris Hilton Jr. from the practice squad. Waived DB Trey Dean from injured reserve with an injury settlement. HOUSTON TEXANS — Placed LB Henry To’oTo’o on injured reserve. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Released DB Rob Carter from the practice squad. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Released DB Tanner McCalister from the practice squad. LOS ANGELES CHARGERS — Placed WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith on injured reserve. Signed DB Isas Waxter to the practice squad. Signed WR Gary Jennings from the practice squad to the active roster. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Signed S Elliott Davison to the practice squad. Released TE Shane Zylstra from the practice squad with an injury settlement. NEW YORK JETS — Signed DB Jordan Clark from the practice squad to the active roster. Signed WR Tyler Johnson, DB John Saunders and WR Sterling Shepard to the practice squad. Released LB Jaden Keller and G Xavier Newman-Johnson from the practice squad. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES — Placed G Landon Dickerson on injured reserve. Signed WR Britain Covey from the practice squad to the active roster. Signed TE Josiah Deguara to the practice squad. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Signed TE Brayden Willis to the active roster from the practice squad. Signed DT McKinnley Jackson to the practice squad.

LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

W e d n e s d ay, s e p t e m b e r 16, 2026

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THE BEST THINGS WE ATE THIS WEEK

Simple bites serve up big ﬂavor Staff report

Pho n Bao

Vietnamese Kitchen, 8342 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge

It’s been years since my STAFF PHOTO BY last bowl of pho. MADDIE SCOTT I woke up on Saturday morning with an empty stomach and no plans until the early evening. I’ve always heard good things about Bao Vietnamese Kitchen, so that’s where I ventured. I ordered the buildyour-own pho bowl and chose a beef broth base. For the two proteins, I picked steak and took a chance on the tendon, something I’ve never had before. The bowl came out in a couple of minutes with a little plate of lime, jalapeño, Thai basil and bean sprouts. The aroma hit me ﬁrst, and I could already tell it was going to be delicious. It was. The warm broth felt nourishing, and the green onions added a brightness to the savory base. I enjoyed jazzing up bites with squeezes of lime. This was just the thing I needed. — Maddie Scott, features reporter

Carmelo panini n La Divina

Italian Cafe, 3535 Perkins Road Suite 360, Baton Rouge

For Sunday STAFF PHOTO BY lunch, I met a JOY HOLDEN friend at La Divina, which is such a cute place for a get-together. I am a big fan of paninis, and this place has so many creative choices. I chose the carmelo panini because I was in the mood for some veggies. The carmelo, perfectly pressed on ciabatta bread, came with eggplant, red onion, roasted red bell peppers, tomatoes, basil pesto and pecorino cheese. The eggplant and roasted red bell peppers were delicious. The pesto and pecorino cheese complemented the vegetables. I ate half, and I even had enough to bring home for later. — Joy Holden, features reporter

Burger n Fat Pats Bar

and Grill, 626 Verot School Road, Lafayette

Known as the BAE burger, PROVIDED which stands PHOTO for “bacon and egg” burger, this is home to one of my top places to go for a good burger. Along with traditional toppings like lettuce, tomato, pickle, bacon and cheddar cheese, this burger had a specialty sauce that tasted like a Cajun mayonnaise with a mild, tangy kick. Then add a fried egg on top, the BAE burger was made to perfection and big enough to ﬁll me up. I chose to do sweet potato fries on the side, but any side can be substituted for an additional charge. — Jakori Madison, features reporter

STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK

Ruby Sharlow, her husband Jack, son Timothy Sr. and grandson Timothy Jr. pose inside Ruby and Jack’s home in Sunset on Sept. 9.

‘We are all family here’

From Ruby’s Restaurant to Tim’s Kitchen, how Acadiana family’s legacy lives on

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

ustomers walk through the doors of Tim’s Kitchen in Broussard looking for Southern comfort food and leave with a taste of something deeper: the Sharlow family’s history and heritage. Most of the dishes on Timothy Sharlow’s menu trace back to his mother, Ruby Sharlow, who owned Ruby’s Restaurant. When Tim’s Kitchen opened in 2018 at 1000 Albertson Parkway, Timothy Sharlow wanted to create a menu focused on the homestyle food he grew up eating. “Tim’s Kitchen is an extension of Ruby’s Restaurant,” he said. “This is where we come from. This is our heritage.” He still makes his roux by hand and prepares seasonings in-house, continuing traditions passed down by his mother. But the family’s food traditions go beyond the Sharlow family matriarch. Tim’s Kitchen serves barbecue on Sundays, a representation of Timothy’s father, Jack Sharlow, who barbecued every Sunday

PROVIDED PHOTO

Ruby Sharlow shares a meal with her son Timothy Sharlow at Tim’s Kitchen.

when the family was growing up. The restaurant’s barbecue sauce is even based on his recipe. And then there are the bread rolls. Ruby Sharlow learned to make them while working in school cafeterias, and decades later, customers still recognize them at Tim’s Kitchen.

Some lifelong customers of Ruby’s Restaurant know the relation between the two establishments. Others may not realize it at all until they taste the food. Customers sometimes walk into Tim’s Kitchen without realizing the connection to Ruby’s Restaurant, then they see a bread roll or taste the food, and suddenly the memory comes back. “They’ll say, ‘Man, this tastes just like Ruby’s,’ ” said Timothy Sharlow’s son, Timothy Sharlow Jr. Ruby’s Restaurant was known for familiar, homemade favorites — from bread and rolls to smothered chicken, gumbo, rice and gravy, chicken fricassee, Thursday turkey wings and more. But before there was Ruby’s Restaurant, or Tim’s Kitchen, there was a curious little girl in Church Point following her mother and grandmother around the kitchen. This is how Ruby Sharlow learned how to cook. “My mom was a great cook, and my grandmother lived with us. She was also a great cook,” she said. “So I was a nosy little girl, and I’d follow them around and watch them cook.”

ä See LEGACY, page 6C

‘WE’RE PROUD TO BE PIONEERS’

Menudo reunites for six-day 50th anniversary tour Members of the music group Menudo, from left, Robby Rosa (Draco Rosa), Ray Reyes, Roy Roselló, Charlie Massó and Ricky Meléndez pose during a reception in their honor in New York on Feb. 10, 1984. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO BY RICHARD DREW

BY MARIA SHERMAN AP music writer

NEW YORK — Menudo, widely considered one of the most popular Latino boy bands of all time, will reunite for a six-day run this fall in celebration of their 50th anniversary. That’s a major milestone for any act, but a particularly remarkable one for the group established in Puerto Rico in the late ’70s — and not just because it was

in Menudo where performers like Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa got their start. Across ﬁve decades, Menudo transformed to meet the current cultural moment. When its members turned 16, most were replaced, making way for newer, junior performers to match its perpetually youthful and increasingly global audience. It worked. And across their run,

ä See MENUDO, page 6C

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Tub lift gives senior independence Muddy, sweaty, barefoot: Time for your surprise party! could snatch the car keys Dear Miss Manners: My coand flee. worker was given a surAnd presumably there prise baby shower at her were too many witnesses mother-in-law’s house. Her to dispatch the hushusband got her there by fibbing, band with one of the saying he needed to gardening tools. pick up a tool and After being grashe could just sit in cious with the guests the car. and treating it all as This was right a charming prank, Judith after my co-worker one trusts that your Martin co-worker had a sehad completed two MISS hours of yard work; rious conversation MANNERS she was in grubby, with her husband, ill-fitting clothes and explaining that he had no shoes on, as hers does not wish to learn the were muddy. She had taken consequences of anything them off so she wouldn’t remotely similar ever hapsoil the car. pening again. Now she is stuck with Dear Miss Manners: In my dozens of pictures from the mother’s obituary, I asked shower with her not feeling that, in lieu of flowers, dowell and looking ridiculous. nations be made to one of What would Miss Manners three charities involved have done? in animal welfare. While a Gentle reader: That must few people complied with have come as a shock, althis request, the majority of the donations were made though Miss Manners does to other charities, none of not quite understand how your co-worker was enticed which had anything to do out of the car once she real- with animal welfare. Since these donations ized something was up. Perwere made in my mother’s haps the car was swarmed memory, I believe that the by well-wishers before she

donations should have been made to one of the named charities or, at least, made to a group doing similar work. I’ve sent the required thank-you notes acknowledging the gifts, but I feel that these people basically gave a gift to themselves rather than for my mother. Gentle reader: If the charities chosen were not ones that would have interested your mother, then you are right to think that those gifts have little to do with her. But you were also right to acknowledge them. A funeral is not a fundraising opportunity, so the gifts are beside the real purpose, which was to honor her memory. Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners. com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail. com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

Friend group dislikes co-worker Dear Harriette: Over the sum- terms. I’m in an extremely awkward situation. I love mer, I became extremely my co-worker and close friends with a we’ve become close, new co-worker. We but I also adore my talked whenever we friends; however, I worked together and don’t want their own eventually began history to cloud my hanging out outside feelings. How should of work. The semesHarriette I move about this sitter just began and Cole all my other friends uation and navigate SENSE AND have returned to my friendships? — SENSITIVITY campus, and a few Friend or Foe of them don’t like Dear Friend or Foe: the co-worker I befriended. Unfortunately, you canBefore I knew my co-work- not force this friend on er, they were all friends and your current friend group. You can choose to be that didn’t end on the best of

person’s friend and spend time with the co-worker separately. In that case, be sure to let your friend group know you two are friends. That way nobody is surprised if you all ﬁnd yourselves at the same place. But don’t be naive in thinking you can transform their bond. Don’t try. Send questions to askharriette@harriettecole. com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

LEGACY

Continued from page 5C She grew up in a rural sharecropping community, where work began early, and food was grown, prepared and shared by the family. They planted cotton, potatoes and corn, raised animals and gathered as a family on Sundays, while neighbors helped one another. Those early experiences helped shape the way her restaurant would later run, she said. “I just didn’t want to live in the country the rest of my life and work in a ﬁeld,” she said. “I was determined to ﬁnd something else.” Before opening her own restaurant, Ruby Sharlow built her experience in school cafeterias where she worked for 20 years. She started out working at a small school in Church Point, where she learned the ins and outs of feeding students and managing a cafeteria. As she moved forward in her career, she realized she needed her high school diploma to advance into a management position. She went back to earn her GED and continued to work her way up in school food service. Eventually, she and her husband moved to Lafayette, where he began to work as a janitor at Our Lady of Fatima; then she also took a position there as a cafeteria manager. At the time, Timothy Sharlow Sr. was working for a utility company, but he wanted something different. “I didn’t like the job — not because it was bad, but because I wanted to control my own destiny and follow the calling I felt on my life,” he said. He approached his mother with an idea of opening a restaurant. Ruby’s Restaurant opened in 1991 in a small grocery store that the family transformed into a restaurant in just a few days. “I wanted it to have a legacy for my children,” Ruby Sharlow said. “I wanted them to know that if you want to do

Dear Heloise: Recently, you it’s been charged. This has published a comment and allowed her to retain indequestion about someone pendence and privacy. — Tim who needed help M., via email getting into and out Marking the date of a bathtub. But after they checked Dear Heloise: We like the prices for tubs variety in our home, that you can walk but not everyone into, they decided likes the same Hints from thing. For example, not to consider this Heloise I just counted 13 and figure out a difdifferent cereals in ferent way to bathe. our kitchen cabinet. These My mother has always take up a lot of room, so been someone one takes a bath and dislikes showers. when they’re about half full, I trim the boxes down She started to have difficulty getting in and out of to about half their size. the tub, until a sibling sug- Often, this ends up cutting gested a tub lift. It’s a chair off the “best if used by date.” that goes inside the tub Anticipating this, whenwith flaps that slide easily over the side of the tub. ever I buy a new product It has a simple remote (not just cereal but salad that allows one to lower dressing, condiments, and lift themselves in and lunch meat, etc.), I mark out of the tub. So, there’s the container with the date no need to try to stand in that it was purchased. This the tub to get up or crawl has saved me a lot of time over the side of the tub — wondering whether the you can just slide your legs item is old or if it should be out of the tub. tossed in the trash. My mother has been usAlso, whenever I put lefting such a unit for over 10 overs or bulk items in the years and just has to refreezer, I always mark the date on the container with charge the control by sima label or marking pen. — ply disconnecting it from Glenn, in Simi Valley, California the chair, grabbing it, and Glenn, thanks for writing replacing it gently after

a record 17 years, spanning three separate terms. In 1966, the Metropolitan Today is Wednesday, Opera ofﬁcially opened its Sept. 16, the 259th day of new opera house at New 2026. There are 106 days York’s Lincoln Center for left in the year. the Performing Arts with Today in history: the world premiere of On Sept. 16, 1893, the Samuel Barber’s “Antony largest land run in U.S. and Cleopatra.” history occurred as more In 1982, the massacre than 100,000 White settlers rushed to claim over more of more than 1,300 Palesthan 6 million acres of land tinian men, women and in what is now northern children at the hands of Oklahoma. The land had Israeli-allied Christian been acquired by the forc- Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and ibly displaced Cherokee Nation, which came under Shatila refugee camps. In 2007, O.J. Simpson U.S. pressure to sell land was arrested in the alleged rights before the run. armed robbery of sports Also on this date: memorabilia collectors in In 1810, Catholic priest Las Vegas. (Simpson was Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla later convicted of kidnapcalled on his parishioners to join him in a rebelping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to lion against Spanish rule, 33 years in prison; he was marking the beginning of released in 2017.) the Mexican War of IndeIn 2013, Aaron Alexis, a pendence. former U.S. Navy reservIn 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michi- ist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washgan, by William C. Durant. In 1940, Samuel T. Rayington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being burn of Texas was ﬁrst elected speaker of the U.S. fatally shot by police. In 2021, President EmHouse of Representatives; he would hold the post for manuel Macron announced

By The Associated Press

Continued from page 5C

PROVIDED PHOTO

something, you can do it.” The restaurant grew, eventually becoming a family business with multiple locations. Timothy Sharlow Sr. said he initially worked behind the scenes managing the business before eventually moving into cooking and management full-time. Although Ruby’s Restaurant closed after the family sold the business in 2013, her legacy was still prevalent, and the family’s pull toward the restaurant business never stopped. Timothy Sharlow Sr. returned to corporate America, but he said he couldn’t stay away from entrepreneurship. The family had expected a quieter life after the restaurant closed, but that didn’t last long. In 2018, when an opportunity arose to purchase a building, a friend encouraged Timothy Sharlow Jr. to take a look.

He called his father with a simple question: “Do you want to open another restaurant?” The deal was accepted, and in 2018 Tim’s Kitchen opened. “I’m still having lunch with people I met as a kid at Ruby’s, and now I’m seeing their children have children of their own,” Timothy Sharlow Jr. said. At 90 years old, Ruby Sharlow still cooks when people want to eat. She spends her days surrounded by family, and she continues to be with her grandchildren. When asked what legacy she wanted to leave through Ruby’s Restaurant and Tim’s Kitchen, her answer was this: “Treat everyone as family,” she said. “We are all family here.” Email Ja’kori Madison at jakori.madison@ theadvocate.com.

Lifespans of paint Dear Heloise: Does household paint go bad? — Dawn T., in Fort Wayne, Indiana Dawn, below is a list of the durability of paint types that come in a can. However, you may ﬁnd the color can sometimes vary if you decide to touch up a few places after a year or two: n Oil-based paint: 15 years if unopened, 2-5 years if opened n Latex paint: 10 years if unopened, 2-5 years if opened n Acrylic paint: 5-10 years if unopened, 2-5 years if opened n Chalk paint: Approximately 5 years if unopened, 1-2 years if opened. — Heloise Send a hint to heloise@ heloise.com.

TODAY IN HISTORY

MENUDO

Ruby Sharlow in 2011, cooking at Ruby’s Kitchen

in, and great hint! Just a heads-up: The “best if used by” date doesn’t mean that the item has gone bad for many products. If it’s salad dressing, for example, it could be a month out from this date and still be edible. — Heloise

the group featured over 40 performers. So, how was the reunion lineup determined? That decision was made by businessperson Paul Tarnopol, who acquired the Menudo brand name and selected the seven who will hit the road later this year: René Farrait (who was in the band from 1979-1982), Roy Rosselló (1983-1986), Raymond Acevedo (1985-1988), Sergio Gonzales (19861990), Ralphy Rodriguez (1987), Ruben Gomez (19871990) and Robert Avellanet (1988-1991). The tour kicks off on Oct. 10 at Los Angeles’ YouTube Theater before hitting Chicago’s Rosemont Theatre on Oct. 17, New York’s United Palace on Nov. 7, Mexico City’s Metropolitan Theatre on Nov. 28 and Hollywood, Florida’s Hard Rock Live on Dec. 4. It will conclude at San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Coca-Cola Music Hall on Dec. 12. During an interview in Miami, the band told The Associated Press they didn’t want to spoil the setlist, but assured that “There’s going be motorcycles in the production, for sure,” in reference to their 1981 single “Súbete A Mi Moto.” “It’s going to be hits,” Avellanet jumped in. Below, the septet discussed rehearsals, choreography, Puerto Rico and how Menudo has continued to resonate across genera-

tions. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: This lineup spans generations of Menudo. It’s like a new band. ACEVEDO: It’s been quite an exciting time to be able to come together again after all these years, even though some of us have been together on stage on other projects. … But, for example, I’ve never been on stage with René and it’s an honor. He is like, you now, one of the OGs. … We have a lot of chemistry. How have rehearsals gone? Are you relearning old choreography? AVELLANET: We’re rehearsing a lot. A lot. It’s been like three weeks so far, a lot of muscle ache, you know, we are recovering still. No, it’s coming out super, super great. I’ve learned stuff that I didn’t learn in Menudo, that I didn’t sing … but it’s ﬁne. We’re all professionals and we’ve done it before. And what about the songs — do you have to adjust them for your matured voices? RODRIGUEZ: Some of the songs, especially the earlier songs, the voices were a lot higher and maybe you go down like three steps, or something like that. But then there are other songs throughout the generations where we’re only going, like, one step down. So, it’s actually not that different, which is kind of cool. But either way, whether it’s the older ones or the middle ones or the newer ones, there’s still that freshness. There’s still that Menudo magic because it’s us who’s singing it. And because we still have that child, that inner child in us that’s coming

that France had killed Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara. Macron’s office said al-Sahrawi personally ordered the killing of six French aid workers and their Nigerien colleagues in 2020 and was behind a 2017 attack that killed U.S. and Niger military personnel. Today’s birthdays: Actor George Chakiris is 94. Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 77. Author-historian-filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is 76. Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 76. Actor Mickey Rourke is 74. Jazz musician Earl Klugh is 73. Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 71. Magician David Copperfield is 70. Actor Jennifer Tilly is 68. Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 68. Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 67. Singer Richard Marx is 63. Comedian Molly Shannon is 62. Singer Marc Anthony is 58. Comedianactor Amy Poehler is 55. Singer-songwriter Musiq Soulchild is 49. Actor Alexis Bledel is 45.

out while we’re singing. ACEVEDO: We’re not going to name names of songs because it’s a surprise, but it’s super cool to be able to do that. And it just takes you in this journey. … It’s going to be very visual as well. And it’s going bring back all that nostalgic feeling, deﬁnitely. GOMEZ: It’s a visual time, you know, traveling through time. The last Menudo album was in 1996, 30 years ago. Are you working on new music? GONZALES: We’re concentrating on the anniversary. But who knows what could happen in the future? ACEVEDO: We are just, like, full force. So, who knows what’s gonna happen after? Go to these shows and you tell us. Fifty years on, and Menudo is still viewed as the biggest Latino boy band of all time. What is it about this group that people continue to love and connect with? GOMEZ: I think it’s the music. … The formula of the songs, in conjunction with the dancing, the music really speaks for itself. When you hear a Menudo song, before the song ends, you already know the lyrics. And that’s a real song. And they were just written by incredible writers. They were from Spain. Carlos Villa, Alejandro Monroy. They were the ones who actually created that whole sound and the songs. I think the songs are what keeps it going. ACEVEDO: The songs and then the visual obviously. Menudo, the dances, in sync with the music — and you know, the time Menudo came out, there was just there was nothing like it.

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● 7C

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FrAnK And erneSt

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zodIAC VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Positive conversations will get results. Discussing joint ventures, shared expenses, and how and what you can do to get along better with those you live or work with will help resolve pending problems. LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Speak up, paint a picture that others can respond to and take control. A change of attitude will be a lesson well learned. Positivity will help you engineer exactly what you need. scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Having completion as the goal will be necessary to make the most of your day. Follow through with your promises, and be honest with yourself about what you can do before you start offering your services. sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) You are overdue for a change of heart, position or lifestyle. Hit the reset button, use your imagination and put muscle behind your actions. It's up to you to make the first move. cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Refuse to believe everything you hear. Someone will lead you astray or misinterpret what you say. Keep your thoughts to yourself and listen carefully. What you do will have a far greater effect on how others view you. AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) A job prospect looks inviting. Let your innovative imagination shine through at interviews, and you'll be a contender. Protect your health and well-being in situations that pose a risk factor. PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Put your emotions on the back burner. The less you

let others see your vulnerabilities, the better. Put your energy into handling your medical, legal and financial affairs promptly and efficiently. ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Turn your anxiety into initiative. Put pressure on yourself to get fit, feel good and do your best. Energy well distributed will bring results that encourage both financial and personal growth. tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Look in the mirror. Instead of trying to change those around you, focus inward to determine what you can do to be at your optimum performance. What you project is what you'll get back. GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Observe and adjust. Make the changes necessary for your emotional well-being. Don't put up with those who bring you down. If you use your intelligence, you'll easily outmaneuver anyone standing in your way. cAncER (June 21-July 22) Having a good memory and taking an innovative approach to work, money and medical issues will encourage good results. Personal care, a new look and romance are encouraged. LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Don't let anger get the better of you when having a sound mind and intellectual conversations will help you wiggle your way to your heart's desires. Learn from experience. The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

For better or For WorSe WonderWord

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8C ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday. Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

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The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ● 9C

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Bridge By PHILLIP ALDER Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer who has a relaxed approach to life, letting it come to him. He said, “We no longer sing and dance. We don’t know how to. Instead, we watch other people sing and dance on the television screen. Christmas, which was once a festival of active enjoyment, has turned into a binge of purely passive pleasures.” Do you agree with that? This week we are comparing active and passive defense. The bidding is the first piece of evidence. In today’s deal, look at the auction and West’s hand. What should West lead against four spades? North’s three-heart response was a transfer bid, showing five or more spades and at least zero points. His three-no-trump rebid offered a choice of games. Here South would have done well to settle for three no-trump, which has nine top tricks. But it was normal to bid four spades with such weak clubs and the potential blockage in spades. It is very dangerous to lead around to a big balanced hand. West ought to select a trump. South can make his contract if he plays with mirrors, catching West in a red-suit endplay. The curious may work out the

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details. But declarer is likely to use his two club entries to dummy to try each red-suit finesse and go down when they both fail. He would lose one heart, two diamonds and one club. However, if West leads actively, picking the heart four, he concedes the contract immediately. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

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

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word game InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

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today’s thought “And the word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 The word is Jesus. Have you surrendered your life to Him? He is the only way to Heaven. G.E. Dean

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BUSINESS T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/news/business

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FROM WIRE REPORTS

U.S. stocks tumble slightly on oil prices

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks slipped Tuesday after oil prices and the bond market cranked up the pressure on Wall Street. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 328 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8%. They felt pressure as the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the U.S. bond market, climbed to 5.00% from 4.97% late Monday and briefly touched 5.04% overnight. It’s been jumping to its highest level in years, and Monday was the first time it breached 5% since 2023. Higher yields mean everyone from the U.S. government to households to businesses must pay more in interest to borrow money, which slows the overall economy. They also make people less willing to pay high prices for stocks because they can earn more from sitting in bonds, which are considered safer investments. “The result is a market that must work harder to generate earnings growth just as investors become less willing to pay premium valuations for that growth,” according to Darrell Cronk, president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The last time the 10-year yield was consistently above 5% was around the turn of the millennium, and it’s been a long march back since it bottomed out below 0.50% in 2020. The pace has accelerated since February, after the war with Iran sent oil prices much higher. That raised worries about high inﬂation potentially lasting for years, which are layering atop long-standing concerns about the U.S. government’s massive debt level and other issues. Oil prices rose further Tuesday following several sharp swings in the morning. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 2.9% to settle at $108.75. It remains well above its $72 level from early July and from before the war with Iran began in February, as doubt continues about whether the ﬁghting will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf anytime soon through the Strait of Hormuz.

Federal tax credit could add 143K film, TV jobs A federal film and television tax credit could boost U.S. production spending by $125 billion and add more than 143,000 jobs by 2035, according to a study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association. The analysis, released Tuesday, is expected to bolster Hollywood’s push for a federal production incentive, which the industry says is necessary to compete with the generous credits offered abroad. Sixtyfive nations now offer them, the study said. A coalition that includes the Motion Picture Association, industry unions, producers’ groups and small production businesses, along with Democratic and Republican lawmakers, pressed the case Tuesday. “Thousands upon thousands of our people are out of work — out of the work they love — and are struggling to find ways to put food on the table for their families,” said actor Jon Voight, one of President Donald Trump’s Hollywood ambassadors who has played a key role in bringing the issue to the White House. “It’s a very serious situation.” The effort has been quietly building for more than a year. It got a major boost last month when Trump posted on Truth Social backing a proposed credit, a move he said came after he spoke with Voight. Details are still being worked out, but the study assumed a transferable credit with a minimum rate of 20% on qualified spending for U.S. resident labor — broadly what industry groups have supported.

S&P 500 7,585.73 -34.25 -0.45%

EURO 1.1535 -0.0016 -0.14%

CRUDE OIL 101.39 1.34 1.34%

GOLD 4,291.60 -18.40 -0.43%

6-MO T-BILLS 4.21 0.0 0.0%

30-YR T-BONDS 5.37 0.01 0.26%

Fed expected to raise benchmark rate

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

AP economics writer

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lift its short-term interest rate Wednesday for the first time in three years to fight stubbornly high inflation, a move that would put the central bank at odds with President Donald Trump's support for a cut. A quarter-point increase in the Fed's rate, currently about 3.6%, isn't guaranteed because Fed Chair Kevin Warsh doesn't provide the signals about next moves that his predecessors did. Still, most analysts and economists expect a hike after a speech two weeks ago at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in which Warsh argued that the Fed had not yet achieved its

goal of putting inflation in check. A rate increase would throw another sharp shift into a volatile period for the economy and financial markets. As recently as March, the Fed had forecast it would cut its rate once this year. But with the Iran war flaring up again and causing sharp increases in oil and gas prices, inflation is likely to remain higher than the Fed's 2% target for even longer. “I don’t see any end to the war in Iran right now,” Kristin Forbes, an economist at MIT's Sloan School, said. “Given what everyone has been through in the last few years of high inflation, consumers are more sensitive, companies are more sensitive, they raise prices faster ... The risks are much more on more

persistent inﬂation than it falling quickly.” Surging investment in AI data centers has also been accelerating inﬂation and contributing to higher longer-term interest rates, though now leading companies are discussing slowing the technology's development. The Fed's potential rate hike comes just seven weeks before the midterm elections in which high prices and affordability have taken key roles. Trump has demanded that the Fed cut rates, a move that isn't on the table, and on Sunday the president said, “the United States is so strong we should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world.” Trump repeatedly attacked Warsh's predecessor, Jerome Powell, in harshly personal terms,

upending decades of tradition in which presidents treated the Fed as independent. Kevin Hassett, Trump's top economic adviser, said Sunday on CNN that Trump “100% respects the independence of Kevin Warsh.” Yet at the same time, Hassett suggested in a Fox News interview that the Fed shouldn't hike so close to the midterms. “I’d be wary of a rate hike ... I think if you want an independent Fed, then one thing the Fed does is it stays out of the way of elections," Hassett said. Financial markets expect that Warsh and the central bank will brush off such warnings. Traders now see a 90% chance the Fed will hike Wednesday, according to futures prices.

Tech CEOs call for AI regulation Trump and Congress are not rushing to act

BY STEVEN SLOAN and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The technology industry's increasingly urgent warnings about the potential harm of artificial intelligence are slamming into political intransigence in Washington, offering a fresh test of the federal government's willingness and ability to confront what may become a defining issue of the era. President Donald Trump is leading the opposition to recent calls by tech leaders seeking greater government oversight, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk. The president dismissed efforts to limit the technology on Monday as a “conspiracy.” Other leading Republicans including Vice President JD Vance have expressed caution. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, has largely deferred to the White House. Democrats, meanwhile, are pressing for a more robust response, convening in private on Tuesday in the House to discuss AI. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is hosting his colleagues for a briefing with experts on Wednesday. Top candidates on the ballot this year such as Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia are pressing for sweeping action in Washington. And former President Barack Obama is encouraging those with White House aspirations to develop a “very clear plan” to address AI concerns. The contrasting responses illustrate a yawning disconnect emerging between a tech sector warning of AI's existential threats to humanity and a federal government often struggling to accomplish basic functions under the weight of intense partisanship and election-year pressure. “The signals we're receiving from our political leaders are not representing an understanding of the crisis that I think we are in fact in,” said Max Stier, the president and chief executive of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. “Delay is going to prove very costly.” There are notable exceptions to the partisan divide. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., opened an investigation last week into OpenAI for its artificial intelligence system hacking into another AI company on its own. And, speaking at a Washington AI conference on Tuesday, Trump ally Steve Bannon embraced overlapping views with Sanders on the issue. “We have to rise above it,” Bannon said. “This is a hinge in history.” Congress and the White House have man-

STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER

Construction continues at the Meta Hyperion Data Center site in Richland Parish this month. aged to respond swiftly to past crises and the intensifying AI debate is emerging as a new referendum on whether they can do so again. During Trump's first term, his team worked with Democrats in control of Congress to stabilize the economy as federal agencies worked to produce a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. As the economy teetered on collapse in 2007 and 2008, President George W. Bush's Republican administration teamed with congressional Democrats to inject money into the financial system. But Congress has long been reluctant to regulate the technology industry. The Biden administration called on lawmakers to develop policies after a 2023 executive order on AI oversight, which Trump rescinded soon after returning to office. As the technology has progressed at a rapid clip, Congress has refrained from imposing rules or funding ways for people to successfully adjust to the potential changes from AI. A bipartisan working group on artificial intelligence formed by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a report in 2024 recommending the U.S. spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and implement safeguards around it. But there was little follow up. Similarly, a bipartisan bill on internet safety for children has repeatedly stalled. “We never do anything until we have a holy heck moment,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and former technology executive. Lawmakers in both parties agree more guardrails are needed, but even narrow at-

tempts at regulation have fallen apart and a certain skepticism has set in. “Have we gotten election security done?” asked Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. “Did we balance a budget? Oh, did we pass a budget? See, what have we gotten done? So you think we're going to get AI done?” Ossoff cast the AI debate as an example of Washington’s inability to tackle anything big. “What ﬁlls us with dread is the crushing weakness of our politics against the massive stakes of our times,” he said during a Sunday reelection rally in Athens, Georgia. There are some signs of renewed urgency. After the tech leaders called for greater oversight on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he spoke that night with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, DMinn., about a “path forward” on legislation they're working on. “You don't want to stiﬂe innovation, but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated and there's a capability and place to do that,” he said. “I also think,” he added, “that there is a way in which Congress can put guardrails around those types of more consequential threats without, in any way, harming our ability to stay ahead in the AI race.” Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, said he plans to offer a so-called kill switch measure on Wednesday that would require developers to have the capacity to shut down their systems if needed. It would need the Senate’s full support to advance. “AI is becoming an issue, particularly in the last few days,” he said.

U.S. incomes finally top pre-pandemic levels Households fighting against inflation

and half had less. The figures show that even after taking into account higher prices, the typical household now earns more than it did before the pandemic. But it's a small gain over BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER a six-year period, which helps AP economics writer explain the generally sour mood WASHINGTON — U.S. household in- Americans have had about the come finally topped pre-pandem- economy since COVID-19 struck ic levels last year, a stark sign of in early 2020. Concerns about afhow the past five years of rising fordability have taken a leading prices have limited Americans’ role in the fast-approaching midearnings and purchasing power. term elections. Median U.S. household income Household income has risen rose a healthy 2.6% in 2025 from 2.5% since 2019, according to the previous year, after adjusting Census data. Yet over the previfor inflation, to $87,460, the Cen- ous six-year period, from 2013 to sus Bureau said Tuesday. That is 2019, a period of very low inflation a record high, topping 2019 house- and declining unemployment, it hold income of $85,320. The me- jumped 19%. The Census report also showed dian is the level at which half of households had higher earnings that women's paychecks rose

3.2% last year, while men's declined slightly. The solid gain for women narrowed the gender wage gap, though it remains large, with women earning nearly 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, up from less than 81 cents in 2024. The Census report also showed that income inequality in the U.S. remained high last year, even as Americans at most levels saw their inﬂation-adjusted incomes grow. Americans at the top 10% of incomes reported growth of 1.7% last year to $261,300, the report said, while the poorest one-tenth reported a slight decline to just over $20,000. As a result, the top one-tenth earn a bit more than 13 times the poorest households, up from 12.7 times in 2024. The record was 13.5 in 2021.

A household is deﬁned by Census as a family unit or an individual living alone or living with people who aren’t relatives. The agency includes all sources of cash income, including wages, investment income, and payments from government programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance. It doesn’t include non-cash beneﬁts, such as food aid — formerly known as food stamps — or Medicaid. By demographic group, Asians reported the highest median incomes, at $126,300, a 1.6% increase from 2024. White households saw their incomes rise 2.9% to $96,710 while Hispanic households reported a 1.1% rise to $73,260. Black households saw the biggest increase, of 4.8%, to $59,980.