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

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

In August 2025, Parsons was arrested on a count of malfeasance in ofﬁce for allegedly having driven around with Horton in his cruiser on the night of her death. He was rearrested earlier this year on a count of negligent homicide in Horton’s death. Of the grand jury’s ﬁnding of manslaughter, D’Aquilla said, “I think they heard the evidence and considered the law in returning the manslaughter indictment.”

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, 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 opposing 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.

ä See DROWNING, page 4A

ä See LSU, page 4A

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 re-

placement” 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.

ä See FUNDING, page 4A

Former officer charged in woman’s drowning Victim found dead in St. Francisville hotel

BY ELLYN COUVILLION Staff writer

A former St. Francisville police ofﬁcer has been indicted on a manslaughter charge in the 2022 case of a woman who drowned in a hotel bathtub, ofﬁcials say. Richard Parsons Jr., 39, was indicted by a West Feliciana Parish grand jury Tuesday,

WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 74 PAGE 8B

according to 20th Judicial District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla. Parsons resigned from the force shortly after Rene Horton was found drowned in the tub of a St. Francisville hotel room. Investigators at the time believed Horton had accidentally drowned, or possibly committed suicide, from an overdose of her prescription medicine. However, photos recovered from Parsons' phone led authorities to later suspect he had given the woman drugs, D’Aquilla said last year.

Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C

102ND YEAR, NO. 78

2A ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The 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.

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-

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 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 Tuesday. The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media 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. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”

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 decades 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. “The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement. 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 façade 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 was once displayed.

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-medication. His circumstances are a tragic BY ANDREW DALTON 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.

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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FUNDING

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.

“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 handin-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. 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 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

Continued from page 1A

DROWNING

Continued from page 1A In Louisiana law, one of five definitions of manslaughter is when the offender “unlawfully distributes or dispenses a controlled dangerous substance of Schedule I through V of the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law, or any combination thereof, which significantly contributes to the death of the recipient who ingested or consumed the dangerous substance.” According to D’Aquilla, Parsons dropped off Horton at the Francis Hotel about 3:45 a.m. March 7, 2022, just before the end of his shift. Parsons then returned to the hotel once he was off work. Parsons told investigators he found Horton drowned in the room’s bathtub, at which point he called police, D’Aquilla said at the time. The evidence on Parsons' phone that led to the new charge in the drowning case showed Parsons in May 2022 performing a sexual act on a man who appeared to be unconscious. When police contacted the man, he told officers he had not consented to the act. Parsons was booked on a sexual battery charge in that case in October.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Simone Champagne speaks during a presentation about Louisiana’s Education Scorecard in May.

“We are really pushing for BESE to be proactive and aggressive. They have the responsibility to set the formula.” CAROLINE ROEMER, of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools 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?

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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.”

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Trump slams Supreme Court over voting order ruling Justices rejected push to restrict mail ballots

BY SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in 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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS MAGANA

President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival Sunday at the Ellipse outside of the White House in Washington. deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. 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.” 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

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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.

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. Trump has opposed mail voting and falsely blamed fraud associated with mail voting for his 2020 election loss. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

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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 sev-

eral 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.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ABDULNASSER ALSEDDIK

An armed man walks past a boy on Tuesday at the Sirah fish market in Aden, Yemen. In recent days, Houthi ﬁghters made dramatic advances, 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 Mediter-

ranean. 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 trade war Canadian PM says country to emerge stronger from clash

more resilient and independent economy, signaling that Ottawa is prepared to wait for the right conditions rather than rush into a deal BY ROB GILLIES with WashAssociated Press ington. Carney “And to TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said our American friends, let Tuesday that Canada intends me say this. We will always to emerge from its trade war be neighbors,” Carney told with the United States as a 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 traditions and sovereignty.” “When those opportunities return, Canada will be an even better partner — stronger, more resilient, more independent,” he said. Carney also unveiled a major expansion of business tax breaks that the government says will nearly halve Cana-

da’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 twice as high as it is in the United States,” Carney said. Canadian Chamber of Com-

merce 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 assets. He said the plan could raise tens of billions of dollars to reinvest in transporta-

tion and other infrastructure. Without naming President Donald Trump, Carney then took aim at the increasingly transactional and zero-sum approach to 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.

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ELIMINATE Back Pain and Sciatica WITHOUT the Scars s and Expense of SURGERY

View of Lower Spine

LeBlanc Spine Center is Leading the Way in Non-Surgical Spinal Solutions for lasting pain relief Nothing’s worse than feeling great mentally, but physically feeling held back from life because you hurt and the pain just won’t go away. We understand what it feels like tolive in pain, because we see it every day. We are Dr. Scott LeBlanc and Dr. Dana LeBlanc of LeBlanc Spine Center. We’ve helped hundreds of patients with disc herniations and sciatica leave our office pain free.

treatment, there’s plenty of research to back up its claims. Here’s just a handful of scientific studies... “We thus submit that decompression therapy should be considered first, before the patient undergoes a surgical procedure which permanently alters the anatomy and function of the affected lumbar spine segment.” -Journal Of Neuroscience Research

When cushions in your back joints, called discs, get injured or wear out, they begin to degenerate and cause pain. Bulging and herniated discs begin to form, pressing on the nerve roots. The most common invasive treatment for disc herniations is surgery. Even with health insurance the patient is left with their own portion of the bill, in excess of $10,000 - $15,000, and sometimes more.In addition, the recovery time and missed work can be anywhere from 3 to 6 months, not to mention the obvious severe risks associated with all surgeries.

“86% of the 219 patients who completed the therapy reported immediate resolution of symptoms.” -Orthopedic Technology Review

Before You go Under the knife And Opt For Spinal Surgery... You should seriously consider a less invasive approach called spinal decompression. Non-surgical spinal decompression is a new technology that has been proven to help disc herniations. It creates a vacuum effect on the disc, which pulls the disc back into its normal position and brings in a fresh blood supply to promote healing.

“vertebral axial (spinal) decompression was successful in 71% ofthe 778 cases” -Journal of Neurological Research “good to excellent” relief in 86% of patients with Herniated discs” -The American Journal of Pain Management “decompression therapy reported a 76.5% with complete remission and 19.6% with partial remission of pain and disability: -Rio Grande Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery

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Another study presented at the American Academy of Pain Management in 2007 showed... “Patients reported a mean 88.9% improvement in back pain and better function...No patient required any invasive therapies (e.g. epidural injections, surgery).”

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As you can see, spinal decompression has a high success

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rate. What this means for you is that in just a matter of weeks, you could be back on the golf course, enjoying your love life, or traveling again. Could This Be Your Sciatica And Back Pain Solution It’s time for you to find out if spinal decompression will be your sciatic pain solution. For 7 days only, we are running a special offer where you will find out if you are a candidate for spinal decompression. This offer is normally priced at $250. What does this offer include? Everything. Here’s what you’ll get... • An in-depth consultation about your health and well-being where we will listen...really listen...to the details of your case. •A complete neuromuscular examination. •A full set of specialized x-rays (if clinically necessary) to determine if a spinal problem is contributing to your pain or symptoms. •A thorough analysis of your exam and x-ray findings so we can start mapping out your plan to be pain free. • You’ll get to see everything first hand. We’ll answer all of your questions about spinal decompression and will let you know if this amazing treatment will be your back pain solution, like it has been for so many other patients. We have two offices located in Baton Rouge and Kenner, LA. Call 225-763-9894, and our amazing staff will get you scheduled. No charge at all and you don’t need to buy anything- but you will find out if you qualify for this revolutionary new therapy.

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Before coming to LeBlanc Spine Center, I was dealing with low back pain and an SI joint problem, and I had no gel between my lower joints. I had been struggling with this for about a year and had tried exercises and wearing belts just to get by. Since starting care here, I’d say I’ve improved about 80%. The pain relief has made a real difference, and I’ve also noticed improved posture. The staff here is a great group to work with - they really care and treat you well. I can’t say there’s anything I disliked about my care, because everything has been positive. I may not be doing anything brand new, but I’m doing it with less pain than before, and that has made life better. I would definitely recommend LeBlanc Spine Center to others because they’re a great group to work with, they help improve posture, and most importantly, they help reduce pain.

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I had been suffering for about 8 months with pain shooting down my left arm and shoulder. I had previously tried injections in my shoulders, and I was still suffering. I came to Dr. LeBlanc and began Spinal Decompression treatments. I am now 90% improved! My range of motion has improved 95% and I have no more pain at night. I am now able to do anything I want- all without the pain! What I like most about my care here is the personal care from the whole staff and the Doctor’s. What would my comments be if asked to recommend LeBlanc Spine Center? I would say, “Why are you not there yet?!”

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NATO jets shoot down drone over Lithuania Russian ship fires flares at Danish helicopter

BY LIUDAS DAPKUS Associated Press

VILNIUS, Lithuania — NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, the day after the head of the alliance said strikes close to its territory would only increase its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia’s fullscale invasion. Military officials in Lithuania, a NATO member, said the incident marked the first time that a drone had been shot down in its airspace. Authorities didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, saying further investigation was needed, but two senior officials said the device was likely carrying explosives. Officials in other NATO countries, including Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Poland, have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in acts such

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Lithuanian soldiers secure the area where Italian fighter jets, as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission, shot down a drone Tuesday near Pratkunai village, Kaisiadorys district about 60 miles west of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania. as drone incursions, sabotage, arson and surveillance of defense facilities and in plans to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport. Separately, Denmark said Tuesday that one of its air force helicopters was ﬁred on with ﬂares as it was carrying out surveillance of a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea. Strikes close to NATO territory showed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation and also his desire

to sow fear and terror,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday. He spoke after a Russian drone struck a railway line near the UkrainePoland border on Sunday shortly after senior visiting ofﬁcials passed through. Rutte pledged to bolster the 32-nation alliance’s own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia and with Belarus, a Russian ally. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said the incidents

in Lithuania and Denmark were not isolated but “part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe, testing our readiness and our resolve.” “Russia will find our resolve only growing stronger,” she said. The drone downed Tuesday in Lithuania fell near the village of Pratkunai, about 60 miles west of the capital, Vilnius, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said Tuesday. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the crisis center, told Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT that the drone most likely entered from Belarus. It remained in Lithuanian airspace for about 30 minutes and ﬂew along the outskirts of populated areas before being intercepted, he said. Writing on Facebook on

Tuesday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said an explosive device was detected on the drone and neutralized by bomb-disposal experts. Menacing drones have repeatedly loomed over the skies of Lithuania, which shares borders with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. In May, residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter, and the president and prime minister were taken to safe locations during an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus. Stray Ukrainian drones have also previously crossed the border into Baltic airspace, including in May, when a NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Meanwhile, Denmark accused Russia of firing flares

at one of its air force helicopters in connection with “routine photographic coverage” of a Russian frigate in waters off the port of Gedser in the Baltic Sea. “This is completely unacceptable,” the Danish Foreign Ministry wrote on X, saying that the Russian ambassador was summoned over the incident. Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said it was “not the ﬁrst time” that Danish air force helicopters “carried out dangerous maneuvers near Russian warships.” He said the Danish helicopter conducted “provocative actions against the Russian frigate.” The Kremlin declined to comment Tuesday, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that he did not have details.

Maduro ally pleads guilty in $195M money laundering case BY JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press

MIAMI — A close ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro long described by U.S. officials as the ousted leader’s frontman pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of money laundering tied to an alleged bribery conspiracy to win lucrative government contracts in the South American country. As part of the plea deal, Alex Saab agreed to cooperate in continuing federal investigations, paving the way for his eventual cooperation against his former protector. He also agreed to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme. Saab, 54, was deported in May by Venezuela’s acting

President Delcy Rodriguez to the U.S., which has been targeting the Colombianborn businessman for more than a decade. The money laundering offense carries a maximum 20-year penalty but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the recommended range and seek additional reductions should his cooperation prove substantial. Saab was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran. But President Joe Biden pardoned Saab in 2023 in ex-

change for the release of several imprisoned Americans in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the pardon. “This case sends a clear message: Political connections, wealth and proximity to a corrupt regime will not put anyone beyond the reach of American justice,” said Jason A. Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who attended Tuesday’s proceedings along with more than a dozen federal agents.

South African police issue alert after seventh woman’s body found By The Associated Press JOHANNESBURG — A woman’s body was found on Tuesday in the same area east of Johannesburg in South Africa where the discovery of several other victims in the past two months has sparked fear of a potential serial killer at large and led to a public warning by the police. According to South African authorities, the cases appear to be linked, though they did not conﬁrm whether they are the work of the same killer. The South African Police Services has issued a public

warning for women to be cautious when doing activities like jogging in the area. “While investigations are still underway and SAPS has not, at this stage, confirmed that the deaths are linked to a serial killer, the similarities are sufﬁciently concerning for the police to issue a public warning and intensify investigations,” said police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe. President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that he had directed police authorities to prioritize the ongoing murder investigations. “I have directed that these

cases be prioritized and that no stone be left unturned in bringing those responsible to justice. Our law enforcement agencies are undertaking this work in partnership with citizens, on whom we depend for any information that may help end these attacks on women,” he said in a statement. The police alert followed the discovery on Tuesday of a body in the Kwa-Thema area, about 21 miles from Kempton Park. Police said the victim was found fully naked and in an advanced stage of decomposition.

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FBI chief 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 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 investigations 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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY MANUEL BALCE CENETA

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies Tuesday during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington. 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 reflected 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 Republican Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, grilling Pa-

tel 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.” The Associated Press reported last month that the FBI still intends to bar some applicants who are revealed to have previously engaged in prostitution, including if they’ve done so within the last 10 years. The hearing took place two months before the midterm

elections in November and at a time when the FBI has opened investigations related to the 2020 contest, including by seizing voter data in Fulton County, Georgia. Trump regularly makes false claims that elections are rigged and riddled with fraud, especially in the months before an election. But there is no widespread fraud in American elections. Local election ofﬁcials have detailed processes for auditing the accuracy of the vote after ballots are tallied. Even as he disputed his loss in 2020, audits, reviews and recounts in the battleground states where he challenged the outcome all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win. Those voter fraud claims, and the FBI’s efforts to investigate the 2020 race, has spurred Democratic concerns that Patel could plunge the bureau into the upcoming election.

Asked whether the FBI has the general authority to monitor elections, Patel replied that responsibility rests with the Department of Homeland Security. He said the FBI’s presence on Election Day will be “housed” with election crimes coordinators at each of the bureau’s 56 field offices, but under questioning, he declined to rule out that agents would be dispatched to the polls in the event of problems or reports of interference. “Do you pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the America people when they go to the polls in November?” asked Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in one of the hearing’s more combative exchanges. “I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies,” Patel said, later calling Welch a “total fraud.”

SAVE BIG TODAY Mistrial declared in N.H. youth QUA LITY FU R N I TUR E AT TH E R I G H T P R I CE.

detention center sex abuse case BY HOLLY RAMER Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A New Hampshire judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the case of a former youth detention center worker charged with repeatedly raping a teenage boy after his accuser briefly testified about allegations involving other staff. Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, is charged with 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against David Meehan, who was 14 when he arrived at the Youth Development Center

in Manchester in 1995. Testifying for a second day on Tuesday, Meehan was in the midst of describing an alleged assault by Buskey when he said he had also been assaulted by another staffer earlier that day. That prompted Buskey’s defense to ask for a mistrial, a request Judge Will Delker denied after reminding lawyers that “witnesses are human beings” who can struggle to maintain control of their emotions. The judge then instructed jurors to disregard the testimony. But a few minutes

later, Meehan said “no” when prosecutor Audriana Mekula asked whether Buskey was the ﬁrst person with whom he had experienced a certain sexual act. The defense objected, and Delker declared a mistrial. Meehan later declined to comment. Buskey left the courthouse without commenting, and his lawyers did not respond to a phone message. Mukula’s co-counsel, Associate Attorney General Thomas Velardi, said the state will consider its options, including retrying the case.

Australian court rules to release serial killer in Snowtown murders By The Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian court ruled Tuesday that one of three serial killers convicted over the murders of 11 people in one of the country’s most notorious criminal cases can be released from prison, rejecting a state government’s bid to block his parole. The victims were killed over seven years, and most of their bodies were found

in 1999 in barrels of acid in Snowtown, a small town north of the South Australia state capital, Adelaide. The discovery led the crimes to become known as the “Bodies-in-Barrels” murders. Three judges of the South Australia Court of Appeal upheld a parole board decision made last month to release the youngest of the three convicted murderers, James Vlassakis. Vlassakis, now 46, was

18 when his crimes began in 1998. He pleaded guilty to four murders, including those of a half brother and stepbrother. He became a star witness for the prosecution, and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 26 years, which expired in August of last year. He was granted parole in December but the state government succeeded in overturning that parole board decision.

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‘Widow’s Bay’ breaks Emmys record with 14 wins ‘The 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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY RICHARD SHOTWELL

Matthew Rhys holds 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. 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. “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

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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.” “DTF St. Louis” won best limited series. Stars David Harbour and Linda Cardellini both won for supporting acting at a previous ceremony on Sept. 6 as the Television Academy moved several categories off the main telecast to shorten the show. “DTF St. Louis” won seven Emmys overall. “Widow’s Bay” brought a combination of younger, well-respected unknowns and widely known and beloved veterans to work on the show. It was the ﬁrst Emmy for both O’Flynn and Root. O’Flynn, a 40-year-old British actor whose previous acclaim came mostly for her work in theater, plays Patri-

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CLASSIFIEDS continued from Public Notices Bids/Proposals

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

included in the Bid Docu‐ ments for this project.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

The successful Bidder shall be required to fur‐ nish a Performance and Payment Bond written as described in the Instruc‐ tions to Bidders included in the Bid Docu‐ ments for this project.

Sealed bids will be re‐ ceived for the State of Louisiana by the Coastal Protection and Restora‐ tion Authority, 150 Ter‐ race Avenue, 4th Floor Conference Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 until 2:00 P.M., Wednesday, October 14, 2026. ANY PERSON REQUIRING ACCOMMODA‐ SPECIAL TIONS SHALL NOTIFY THE PROTECTION COASTAL AND RESTORATION AUTHOR‐ ITY OF THE TYPE(S) OF RE‐ ACCOMMODATION QUIRED NOT LESS THAN SEVEN (7) DAYS BEFORE THE BID OPEN‐ ING. FOR: State Wildlife Refuge Terracing & Shoreline Protection Vermilion Parish, Louisiana PROJECT NUMBER: TV-0100 Complete Bid Documents for this project are avail‐ able in electronic form. They may be obtained without charge and with‐ out deposit from http://coastal.la. gov/resources/rfps-rsiqscontracts/bids/. Printed copies can also be ob‐ tained from: COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AUTHORITY (CPRA) 150 Terrace Avenue Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Attn: Kayla Causey E-mail: cpra.bidding@la. gov Phone: (225) 342-9421 Fax: (225) 800-5599 All bids shall be accom‐ panied by bid security in an amount of ﬁve per‐ cent (5.0%) of the sum of the base bid and all al‐ ternates. The form of this security shall be as stated in the Instructions to Bidders

A NON-MANDATORY PREBID CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD at 2:00 PM on Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 150 Terrace Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70802 and via Microsoft Teams Webinar. You may regis‐ ter for the hybrid pre-bid meeting via Microsoft Teams at: https://events.gcc. teams.microsoft.com/ event/127cf4a0-d7734e83-a2ba-f30b36e1e36 5@89b0b16b-677c-4e6fa254-61311d5b4a86? source=copyLinkLega‐ cyShareLinkDialog. The information to access meeting audio through phone, or computer, other device will be pro‐ vided after registering through the link above. It is the responsibility of all potential bidders to visit the job site to as‐ sess the location, logis‐ tics, and site conditions prior to bidding. The job site (State Wildlife Refuge) is open to the public; however, contractors must abide to the Refuge’s Rules and Regulations (wlf.louisiana.gov/page/ state-wildlife-refuge), in‐ cluding the restriction of airboats. Access to por‐ tions of the Job Site that require airboats (North Lake) will only be permitted on September 22 through September 24, 2026. Con‐ tact Todd Baker at (225) 3424807 or Todd.Baker@la. gov at least seven (7) days in advance to schedule a visit. Contrac‐ tors shall be responsible for providing their own outboard and any rental and boat launching fees. The job‐ site visit is not manda‐ tory, but it is highly en‐ df h

cia Moyer, a city worker and social outcast dealing with a demonic darkness on “Widow’s Bay.” “This is the role of a lifetime,” O’Flynn said from the stage. “This is for all the Patricias out there.” Root, one of the most ubiquitous character actors of the last few decades, beat out Harrison Ford, who many thought would get his ﬁrst major competitive Hollywood award for his role on “Shrinking.” “Thank you, sir, for all your many years of great, great, great acting,” Root said to Ford during his acceptance. Root, 74, is the oldest person to win the category. Sally Field, 79, became the oldest woman to win best actress in a limited or anthology series or TV movie for “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” taken off the air by CBS, won best variety series. It’s one of six Emmys the show has won this year after the show was canceled for what the network said was economic reasons while many believe it was his criticism of the Trump administration. “If you like the comedy tonight, my old writers wrote it,” Colbert said. Mariska Hargitay hosted the NBC telecast held at the traditional Emmys home of the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “NBC is celebrating its 100th year, and I have been on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ for all of them,” said Hargitay, a three-time Emmy winner who has starred in the show for 27 seasons, during her opening monologue.

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

g p to the bidding deadline.

tractor is fully executed. y g y couraged for those and Coastal Protection a bid. submitting Restoration Authority is Small a participant Contact Toddin the Baker at (SE) Entrepreneurship (225) 342-4807 or Todd. (the Hudson Ini‐ Program Baker@la.gov for any tiative) andor issues re‐ questions the and to the non-manda‐ latedVeteran-Owned Dis‐ Service-Connected pre-bid tory Veteran-Owned abled conference or access to Small (LaVet) Site. Entrepre‐ the Project neurships Program. Bid‐ ders are Bids shall be accepted encouraged to consider who from Contractors Informa‐ participation. LA. are licensed under is availableforfrom tion 37:2150-2192 the R.S. Protection and Coastal Heavy Con‐ classification Restoration struction. In Authority or at LA. R.S. on its website accordance with http://www.coastal.la. anyone ob‐ 37:2165(C), gov/. jecting to the classifica‐ tion must send a certi‐ STATE OF toLOUISIANA, both the fied letter PROTECTION COASTAL State Louisiana AU‐ AND RESTORATION Licensing Board for Con‐ THORITYand the CPRA at tractors MICHAEL HARE, listed above. the address EXECUTIVE letter DIRECTOR must be re‐ The ceived no later than ten 198907 Sept. 2, 9, 16, 2026 (10) working 3t days prior to the day on $244.66 bids are to be which opened. Bidder is required to comply with provisions and requirements of LA R.S.38:2212(B)(5). No bid may be withdrawn for a period of forty-five (45) calendar days after receipt of bids, except under the provisions of LA. R.S. 38:2214. The Owner reserves the right to reject any and all bids for just cause. In ac‐ cordance with La. R.S. 38:2212(B)(1), the provi‐ sions and requirements of this Sec‐ tion; and those stated in the bidding documents shall not be waived by any entity. When this project is fi‐ nanced either partially or entirely with State Bonds or financed in whole or in part by federal or other funds which are not readily available at the time bids are re‐ ceived, the award of this Contract is contingent upon the granting of lines of credit, or the sale of bonds by the Bond Commission or the availability of federal or other funds. The State shall incur no obligation to the Contractor until the Contract be‐ tween Owner and Con‐

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

Electronic bids for the solicitation will be down‐ loaded by the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, Pur‐ chasing Division. Begin‐ ning as soon as feasible after the bid closing time all electronic bids will be downloaded and publicly read aloud along with all paper bids received, if any, in Room 806 immedi‐ ately after the 11:00 a.m. bid closing. Bidders or their authorized repre‐ sentatives are invited to be present. NOTE: The only vendor information shared at the bid open‐ ing will be the reading of the names of those ven‐ dors who submitted bids.

PUBLIC NOTICE --VOUCHER# 26-091052 BIDS TO BE OPENED: 09/24/266 NOTICE TO BIDDERS Electronic or sealed bids will be received by the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, Purchasing Divi‐ sion, City Hall Building, Room 826, 222 Saint Louis Street, 8th Floor, Baton Rouge, La. until 11:00 A.M. CST, September 24, 2026 for the following: A26-91052 DRAIN CLEANING & GREASE TRAP CLEANING SERVICE Ofﬁcial bid documents are available at Central (https://www. Bidding centralauctionhouse. com/rfpc10656-city-ofbaton-rouge.html) or by request from the City of Baton Rouge at dsstew‐ art@brla.gov. Bids shall be submitted electronically via www. centralbidding.com or on the solicitation bid forms furnished by the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge prior h biddi d dli

Note: The City-Parish has elected to use LaPAC, the state's online electronic bid posting and notiﬁca‐ tion system, in addition to its standard means of advertising this require‐ ment. This Invitation to Bid is available in elec‐ tronic form at the LaPAC https:// website wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana. gov/osp/lapac/dspBid. cfm?search=departm ent&term=102. Bids, amendments to bids or request for with‐ drawal of bids received after time speciﬁed for bid openings shall not be considered for any cause whatsoever. Inquiries will be received up until 5 pm on Septem‐ ber 18, 2026. Full information may be obtained upon request from the above address or by telephoning Dexter Stewart at (225) 389-3259, Ext. 3264, or via email dsstewart@brla.gov. Any vendor who would like to listen to the open‐ ing of this bid can access the following link, at the date and time of this bid opening: NOTE: The only vendor information shared at the bid opening will be the reading of the names of those vendors who submitted bids. Join by phone +1-408-418-9388

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

United States Toll Access code: 263 373 080 (followed by the # but‐ ton) Alternate numbers to call if number above is not available, which may occur due to network trafﬁc (use the same Ac‐ cess Code, followed by the # button): United States Toll (Boston) +1-617-315-0704 United States Toll (Chicago) +1-312-535-8110 United States Toll (Dallas) +1-469-210-7159 United States Toll (Denver) +1-720-650-7664 United States Toll (Jacksonville) +1-904-900-2303 United States Toll (Los Angeles) +1-213-306-3065 These numbers will pro‐ vide you with live audio access to this bid open‐ ing. 200053 Sept. 9, 16, 2026 2t $107.24

Legal Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE --PUBLIC NOTICE OF VACANCY Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West Bank Board of Commissioners Pursuant to La. R.S. 38:330.1 et seq., notice is hereby given that appli‐ cations are being ac‐ cepted from persons in‐ terested in serving on the Board of Commis‐ sioners for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protec‐ tion Authority-West Bank (“SLFPA-W”). Nine mem‐ bers serve on the Board Commissioners. A of Nominating Committee comprised of representa‐ tives of civic, profes‐ sional, and academic or‐ ganizations reviews ap‐ plications and recom‐ d i di id l f

Legal Notices

p mends individuals for ap‐ pointments by the Gover‐ nor and conﬁrmation by the Senate. The Nominat‐ ing Committee is com‐ prised of representatives from the following orga‐ nizations: Public Affairs Council of Research Louisiana, Leaders for a Louisiana, Better Louisiana Geological Sur‐ vey, Association of State Managers, Floodplain National Society of Black Engineers, UNO College of Engineering, Tulane University School of Sci‐ ence & Engineering, Southern University College of En‐ gineering, LSU College of Louisiana Engineering, Society, Engineering American Society of Civil Engineers, West Bank Business and Industry Association, and Holy Cross College. CURRENT VACANCY The Nominating Commit‐ tee is accepting applica‐ tions for one position on the SLFPA-W Board of Commissioners: 1. A resident who resides in Orleans Parish on the west side of the Missis‐ sippi River, within the ju‐ risdiction of SLFPA-W to complete a term from July 2, 2026, to July 1, 2030. RESIDENCY MENTS

REQUIRE‐

Three members shall re‐ side in Jefferson Parish on the west side of the Mississippi River within the jurisdiction of West Jefferson Levee District. Two members shall re‐ side in Orleans Parish on the west side of the Mis‐ River. Three sissippi members shall reside outside of Jefferson or Orleans Parishes. One member shall reside in the territorial jurisdiction of the Laﬁtte Area Levee District. QUALIFICATIONS Engineering/Related Field Professional Three members shall be either an engineer or a professional in a related ﬁeld such as geotechni‐ cal, hydrological, or envi‐ ronmental science. At

Legal Notices

least one of the three members shall be a civil engineer. Non-Engineering Profes‐ sional Three members shall be professionals in disci‐ plines other than engi‐ geotechnical, neering, hydrological, or environ‐ mental science. They each shall, at a mini‐ mum, hold a baccalaure‐ ate degree from an ac‐ credited institution of higher learning with at least ten years of profes‐ sional experience in that discipline. Engineering/Related Field Professional or Non-Engineering Profes‐ sional Three members shall possess the qualifica‐ tions of either an engi‐ neering/related field pro‐ fessional or of a non-en‐ gineering professional. Once the new member is appointed, the composi‐ tion of the Board must meet the residency and occupational qualifica‐ tions defined above. HOW TO APPLY You may obtain an appli‐ cation by going online to www.slfpaw.org or con‐ tacting: Jesse D. Noel, P.E. Regional Director, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West Bank 7001 River Road Marrero, LA 70072 (504) 371-6847 director@slfpaw.org 200510-SEP 16-1T $72.52 PUBLIC NOTICE --REQUISITION 11297779 OFFICIAL PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE METROPOLITAN COUNCIL OF THE PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE AND THE CITY OF BATON ROUGE Notice is hereby given to all citizens of the City of Baton Rouge, Parish of d

Legal Notices

g East Baton Rouge and to all other interested per‐ sons, of the introduction at the regular meeting of the Metropolitan Council of the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, held on September 9, 2026 of the proposed resolutions/or‐ dinances, the titles of which are set forth here‐ inafter, and that public hearing will be held thereon by the Metropol‐ itan Council at 4:00 P.M., Wednesday, October 28, 2026, in the Council Chambers (Room 348) on the third floor of the CityGovernmental Parish Building in this City, these proposed resolu‐ being tions/ordinances entitled as follows: RESOLUTION Receiving a report from finance to determine the financial implications of deconsolidation of the City and Parish. The re‐ port should include, but not be limited to a sepa‐ ration of East Baton Rouge Parish and City of Baton Rouge revenues and expenses, a sample annual budget for both the city of Baton Rouge and the parish of East Baton Rouge. The report should also include an finance from opinion and/or a qualified third party on if the city of Baton Rouge would have the independent tax base to cover its own ex‐ The report penses. should also include a recommendation on the sustainability of the city of Baton Rouge and the parish of East Baton Rouge if deconsolidation were to happen. Finally, the report should state the independent finan‐ cial responsibility of the City of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge as it relates to the office constitutional funding requirements. By Councilman Cleve Dunn, Jr. 200702-SEP 16-1T $54.70

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Families of 67 killed in midair collision seek reforms BY JOSH FUNK

AP transportation writer The loved ones of the 67 people who died last year when an airliner and Army helicopter collided over Washington, D.C., urged Congress and regulators Tuesday to do more now to prevent other families from being left clutching belongings and memories instead of their spouses and children. Several of the victims’ families joined with top lawmakers and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board outside the U.S. Capitol to demand action, but it may be difficult for this Congress to pass anything ahead of the midterm elections. And lawmakers are still trying to draft a compromise bill that will combine elements of the competing proposals that previously passed the House and Senate. Doug Lane said he has the U.S. figure skating jacket that his son Spencer worked so hard to earn and pieces of his wife Christine’s laptop that were retrieved from the wreckage after their plane plunged into the icy Potomac River in the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since 2001. Everyone aboard was killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission collided. The victims included 28 members of the figure skating community. Lane said the families don’t want to see the key reforms recommended after this crash — which include requiring planes to be equipped with systems that will let pilots know exactly where other aircraft are — to wind up like some of the never-implemented measures proposed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Airline pilots are still pushing for secondary barriers to keep someone from storming the cockpit when the door is opened.

shame to reach the second anniversary of the crash that happened on Jan. 29, 2025 without Congress passing the reforms her agency recommended and the Federal Aviation Administration and Defense Department making more safety improvements. Cruz said he hopes Congress will be able to pass a bill during the lame duck session that will follow November’s elections. Rachel Feres, who lost her cousin and his wife and two young daughters in the crash, ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE said she can’t believe there’s still debate about whether National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer pilots transporting hundreds Homendy, center, helps to comfort Christina Stovall, center of passengers should have with back to camera, and Laura Augendre, right, family the best collision-avoidance members of victims of flight 5342, the deadly January 2025 technology available, when most modern cars come midair collision between an American Airlines plane and equipped with arrays of sena Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, during a sors to check blind spots and news conference Tuesday on air safety reforms at the Capitol even apply the brakes in an in Washington. emergency. Feres and the other fami“That is what fading ur- ited from relying only on pi- lies have been surprised gency looks like. Something lots to see other aircraft and everyone agrees will make avoid them. people safer gets caught in But concerning incidents process, objections, excep- continue to happen, such tions and delay until you look as when an airline jet was up and an entire generation allowed to take off just as has passed. Flight 5342 can- President Donald Trump’s not follow that path,” Lane helicopter was taking off from the White House last said. The FAA quickly restrict- month. Lane and many other viced helicopter traffic around Reagan National Airport tims’ families traveled to when it became clear that Washington, D.C. time after a helicopter route in the ap- time in the 595 days since the proach path of the airport’s crash, pushing for changes secondary runway didn’t that he hopes will be apensure enough separation proved before the tragedy between helicopters and that cut his family in half planes. But the NTSB re- fades any further from the mains unsatisfied with the headlines. “We can tell them stories, FAA’s response to a third of the 33 safety recommenda- we can ask questions. We can push for answers. We tions it received. FAA Administrator Brian can take action. That’s the Bedford testified on Capitol work that belongs to us. But Hill Tuesday that his staff we cannot do anybody else’s will work to address those work for them,” Lane said. concerns, but he also needs “We need the people with the power to turn this tragedy guidance from Congress. Already, steps have been into change to do theirs and taken to prevent helicopters to finish it.” Senators Ted Cruz and and planes from sharing the same airspace around Rea- Maria Cantwell and NTSB gan airport, and air traffic Chairwoman Jennifer Hocontrollers are now prohib- mendy said it would be a

Classic Eats,Timeless Memories

at the amount of lobbying against requiring all planes flying in crowded airspace to be equipped with existing technology that can help pilots know the location of all other aircraft ﬂying nearby. Homendy has said those ADS-B In systems would have prevented this crash. Some airlines have endorsed them, but cost concerns from other airlines and private plane owners have been a stumbling block. The airlines have the money and power to get this done, Feres said. “This is not about whether you can afford to act ... you have the leverage, you have the voice. The question is why safety so rarely gets the same urgency as the next quarterly earnings report.” “Do the thing you would demand if your wife and son were on that airplane. Do what you would do if your granddaughter was traveling home with her teddy bear.

You know how to move fast when money is on the line. Move fast when lives are,” Feres said. But some airlines have already begun to add the technology to their planes, partly because in addition to the safety beneﬁts, the systems can help increase the number of planes that can ﬂy into an airport by spacing them more precisely. American Airlines leads the industry, having added the technology to its Airbus A321s over the past several years, equipping more than 300 of its roughly 1,000 planes to date, but the systems aren’t yet standard equipment on all planes. Roughly three-quarters of the pilots of business jets and smaller single-engine Cessnas and Bonanzas use portable devices that only cost $400. They can tap into this location data and display the information about nearby aircraft on an iPad.

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Instigator of fatal police chase pleads guilty

Tony Clayton said the on a high-speed chase over the Mis- to manslaughter and other charges. 2 teens killed in pursuit across WBR, EBR torney charges for Zanders were a little sissippi River bridge into West BaZanders then drove back across

BY OLIVIA TEES Staff writer

Just over 31/ 2 years after a police chase inadvertently killed two teens in West Baton Rouge Parish, the man who started the pursuit pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges.

Tyquel Zanders, 28, withdrew a previous plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of manslaughter and one count each of aggravated flight from an officer, negligent injuring and reckless operation of a vehicle. West Baton Rouge District At-

more complicated because they occurred in both Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge. “Not only did he steal the car, he called all of this into action. He’s the real culprit, if you ask me,” Clayton said. On Dec. 31, 2022, Zanders stole his father’s car in East Baton Rouge Parish and led Baton Rouge police

ton Rouge Parish where Brusly and Addis police ofﬁcers assisted. While chasing Zanders through Brusly, Addis police Officer David Lee Cauthron ran a red light and rammed into a vehicle, killing 16-year-old Caroline Gill and 17-year-old Maggie Dunn and injuring Dunn’s 20-year-old brother Liam. Cauthron later pleaded guilty

the Mississippi River bridge and was apprehended at the Dalrymple Drive exit on Interstate 10. His original trial date was delayed because of defense team’s claims that he was not mentally competent to stand trial. Zanders was found incompetent

ä See PLEA, page 2B

Gonzales officials consider ordinance for store City Council introduces tax incentive to lure BJ’s Wholesale Club

BY ANNAKATE FREELAND Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS BY PEARL SPURLOCK

‘PIE A DELTA’ FOR RESEARCH ABOVE: Ellie Cate Dietz gets pied during Tri Delta LSU’s ‘Pie a Delta’ event on Tuesday. The event raised money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. RIGHT: Bethanie Charles pies Ellie Cate Dietz during Tri Delta LSU’s ‘Pie a Delta’ event.

Gonzales ofﬁcials are considering a tax incentive that would allow a proposed $47 million BJ’s Wholesale Club store to use a portion of the sales tax revenue it generates to offset development costs. The City Council introduced an ordinance Monday to create an economic development district for roughly 30 acres near Veterans Boulevard, where the Massachusetts-based membership warehouse retailer is considering a new store. BJ’s, which is similar to Sam’s Club and Costco, is primarily based in the Northeast, but the company has been expanding into the South and Texas in recent years. The company’s nearest location is in Foley, Alabama. “The ﬁrst thing is getting the ordinance adopted creating the district. Thereafter, we have to come to an agreement with BJ’s specifying terms. Then all the rest has to happen,” Gonzales Chief of Staff Wade Petite said. Attorney Adam Parker said a resolution needs to be passed designating a sales tax increment. The one being contemplated is one voters approved in 2005: a 1% sales tax to be used for economic development purposes, he said. Petite said the project is estimated to cost roughly $47 million. He said half the city’s salestax revenue generated by the development would be used to offset development costs. The

ä See INCENTIVE, page 2B

1 dead, 1 critically injured Baton Rouge riverfront property in two-vehicle morning hits the market for $12 million crash on Perkins Road Property prime for One man was killed and another left in critical condition when a car speeding down Perkins Road hit a curb near Essen Lane and ﬂipped onto another vehicle Tuesday morning, police say. A 2011 Chevrolet Impala was CRIME speeding eastBLOTTER bound on Perkins Road when the staff driver ran off the reports road to the right and hit a curb, according to police. The car overturned and struck a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup truck that was waiting to turn onto Perkins Road from Bles Avenue.

Both drivers were transported to a hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the Impala, Malachi Antoine, 22, died at the hospital, police said. The investigation is ongoing. Police urged anyone who has information to contact Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.

Gonzales law office struck by lightning A lightning strike Monday evening caused a fire at a Gonzales law office that led to two firefighters being taken to a hospital for

ä See BLOTTER, page 2B

industrial use, visitor attraction

BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer

One of the last pieces of developable land along the Mississippi River in the Baton Rouge area is on the market for $12 million. The 32.3-acre tract known as River Park, adjacent to The Queen casino, has been eyed by developers for years, driving strong interest from prospective buyers. Most recently, the new master plan for downtown Baton Rouge envisioned part of the land as a potential site

for a youth sports complex. Previously, real estate agents eyed River Park as a site for an amphitheater, though it caused a tug-of-war between developers, since some saw it as an industrial space. Pete Clements, who previously owned the land, envisioned the site as a mixed-use development with restaurants, live music venues and a boardwalk. Clements and the casino teamed up to build a railroad underpass to improve access to the land. Girod Reo LLC, serviced by Massachusetts-based Capital Crossing Co., took over the land in 2020 after the failure of First NBC Bank. The bank acquired the land after a judge ruled Clements owed First NBC more than $19 million in prin-

cipal and interest payments stemming from a 2008 loan he took out on the property. At a Planning Commission meeting in May, an attorney representing the LLC spoke in opposition to any potential rezoning of the land for recreational use. Plan Baton Rouge III focuses on revamping the Mississippi riverfront to entice locals and visitors to come downtown. Other riverfront suggestions include turning surface parking lots into housing. Listing agent Paul Ellis, of Momentum Commercial Real Estate, said the best use of the property would be for freight logistics or distributors, given its proximity

ä See PROPERTY, page 2B

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

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BLOTTER

ASCENSION PARISH SCHOOLS

Superintendent to serve on national board Walker one of 12 appointed to 2-year advisory term

effectiveness. Walker is one of 12 education leaders appointed to the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching’s 2026-28 Educator Advisory Board. She is one of two members BY ANNAKATE FREELAND from Louisiana. The other Staff writer is Brandy Turner-Jackson, Ascension Parish schools deputy chief of teaching, S u p e r i n t e n d e n t E d i t h learning and programs for Walker has been selected to NOLA Public Schools. Walker will serve a twoserve on a national advisory board focused on teacher year term on the board,

which includes education leaders from Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas. The board helps shape the organization’s learning programs to help to support teachers nationwide. “I am truly honored to be selected to serve as a superintendent on the NIET national advisory board. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the impor-

tant work ahead and excited to learn alongside and from outstanding educational leaders from across our nation,” Walker said in a statement. Ascension schools Director of Communication Jackie Tisdell said Walker’s appointment to the board will not affect her capacity to serve as the district’s superintendent. Walker has 29 years of

experience in public education, including 25 years with Ascension Parish Public Schools. She began her career as an English teacher and school counselor before moving into school and district leadership. Walker was named superintendent in 2023, leading one of the largest school districts in the state, with about 24,000 students and 3,500 employees across 33 schools.

Testimony begins in trial over reporter’s death Co-defendant details plan to drug ‘tricks’ to steal

BY MICHELLE HUNTER

Staff writer

On the ﬁrst day of testimony in the trial of two people charged with the death of New Orleans Super Bowl reporter Adan Manzano, the defendants’ alleged coconspirator took the witness stand in a Jefferson Parish court room to recount how the trio worked together with others to drug and steal from unsuspecting French Quarter tourists. Shackled at the waist and clad in an orange jumpsuit, Christian Anderson, 34, told jurors Tuesday that he and his associates targeted men who appeared to be rich, wearing nice watches or spending lots of cash in bars and nightclubs. “A lot of times in that environment, when men want to have a good time, they will ﬂaunt it and make it noticeable,” Anderson said. “So, when you see that, that will be known as a good mark.” Anderson admitted that he and his co-defendant,

Danette Colbert, 49, would steal from “tricks” and “Johns” who were impaired by alcohol or drugs like Xanax that the suspects secretly slipped into their drinks. The crew would then make off with cash, jewelry, cellphones and credit cards that they’d use to transfer money and make purchases in local stores, according to Anderson. Colbert, he testified, turned her ill-gotten loot over to her pimp, codefendant Rickey White, 35, who doled out instructions and the drugs used to sedate their targets. Manzano, of Kansas City, fell victim to the scheme, which Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Voss said the trio had been executing for years — and he died because of it. “You’re going to hear that they knew it was possible. They knew it was dangerous, and it was only a matter of time,” Voss said.

allege Colbert drugged Manzano and then left him to die in his Kenner hotel room after stealing his credit card and cellphone. Anderson was charged with the same counts. But Voss told jurors during opening statements that he accepted a deal to plead guilty to the lesser charges of simple robbery and access device fraud in exchange for his testimony. Anderson had not yet pleaded guilty as of Tuesday. Manzano traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl for KGKC-TV, the Kansas City affiliate for Telemundo, and Tico Sports, a company that broadcasts professional sports in Spanish. Tico Sports Owner Oscar Monterroso testified that he called Manzano’s hotel, the Comfort Suites in Kenner, after Manzano uncharacteristically missed a meeting earlier in the morning. A hotel manager and a responding Kenner police officer found Manzano dead in bed. Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office forensic patholoFirst-day testimony gist Dr. Randall Bissessar Colbert and White have testified that Manzano died of pleaded not guilty to charges positional asphyxiation while of manslaughter and rack- lying face down on a pillow eteering in Manzano’s Feb. due to the combined toxic 5, 2025, death. Investigators effects of alcohol and alpra-

PROPERTY

zolam, the generic name of Xanax. Manzano’s blood alcohol content was 0.232%, almost three times the legal limit of 0.08%, Bissessar said. The alcohol made the alprazolam more potent, depressing Manzano’s central nervous system and his body’s drive to breathe.

Taking advantage Kenner police detectives identified Colbert as a suspect from surveillance videos in the French Quarter and Manzano’s hotel. She was the last person seen entering and exiting his room and had a history of drugging unwitting tourists to steal from them, authorities said. Manzano’s cellphone and debit card were recovered from Colbert’s Slidell home along with cellphones belonging to seven other victims, according to Voss. Anderson, the last witness of the day, testiﬁed that White had a few girls in his “household,” in addition to Colbert, who took part in the theft and fraud scheme. “They’d go to bar. If there was a drunk man they could get up on, they would get up on him and coerce him to come with them or even ap-

One of the last pieces of developable land along the Mississippi River in the area is on the market for $12 million.

Continued from page 1B

to the ExxonMobil reﬁnery. But entertainment and recreational use is not off the table, he said. Though industrial use may be best for the land, PHOTO PROVIDED Plan Baton Rouge III’s viBY MOMENTUM sions for the land are not COMMERCIAL REAL immediately squashed. ESTATE Sarah Gardner, vice president of communications for the Baton Rouge Area a portion of what Plan Ba- There is land surrounding been proposed for housing, Foundation, said the land ton Rouge envisioned for The Queen not included in a hotel, restaurants and offor sale only overlaps with riverfront development. the marketed land that has ﬁce space.

PLEA

Continued from page 1B to assist in his defense in 2024, when he was hospitalized with substance use disorder, chronic depression, characteristics of a personality disorder and previous lack of cooperation with

taking medications, according to a sanity commission report. In connection with the chase, Zanders is facing charges of home invasion, theft of a motor vehicle and aggravated flight from an ofﬁcer in East Baton Rouge Parish. Zanders’ sentencing in the crash will take place Nov. 5.

INCENTIVE

Continued from page 1B remaining portion would go to the city. Once the developer’s eligible costs are fully recovered, the city would retain 100% of the sales-tax revenue, Petite said.

The company has not shared an expected tax revenue amount with the city, according to Petite. Representatives for the company could not be reached for comment. The vacant property is currently owned by Montan LandCo LLC, according to assessor records. “To my knowledge, BJ’s

proach them on the street,” Anderson testiﬁed. Events like the Super Bowl were a big deal for their crew. “You come across people who have a lot of money, and they want to have fun and they’re easy to take advantage of,” Anderson said. Anderson admitted that he, too, drugged and robbed several victims over the years. But he also provided technical support for the scheme. He said he helped the girls use the victims’ identifying information to keep debit cards from being shut off due to fraud alerts. He assisted them with stealing cryptocurrency from targets, and he said he allowed Colbert and others to transfer stolen money into his accounts if their own had already been flagged for fraud. Defense attorneys Leo Caillier III and Stavros Panagoulopoulos challenged Anderson’s truthfulness and his assertion that he was simply testifying to do what was right. “He’s a slippery little con artist who’s trying to save his own behind the best way he can,” Panagoulopoulos said.

The plan is a visionary document meant to provide ideas for downtown, not prescribe them, she said, and planners ultimately have the goal of drawing development downtown, Gardner said. The plan details other family recreation ideas like a destination children’s playground. “We hope whoever gets their hands on the land activates the riverfront,” Gardner said. Email Ianne Salvosa at ianne.salvosa@ theadvocate.com.

has yet to acquire the property, which is, I’d assume, contingent upon creation of the district and execution of the agreement,” Petite said. The City Council will hold a public hearing and consider ﬁnal adoption of the ordinance at its regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 12.

Continued from page 1B smoke inhalation. The Gonzales Fire Department said it received a report at 6:20 p.m. of a structural fire at the Gauthier & Amedee Law Office on 2111 S. Burnside Ave. When they arrived on the scene, the firefighters found a hole in the roof of the three-story building with smoke and heavy fire coming from inside. They were able to control the heavy fire in about 20 minutes, officials said. During the investigation after the fire was extinguished, authorities determined that the building had been struck by lightning and sustained severe fire, smoke and water damage. The fire and smoke damage were limited mostly to the third floor, while the water damage spread throughout the building, Fire Chief Preston Landry said. The two firefighters who were taken to the hospital were released later that night, officials said.

LOTTERY

MONDAY, SEPT. 14, 2026 PICK 3: 9-7-7 PICK 4: 3-2-3-6 PICK 5: 5-5-9-9-1 POWERBALL: 19-20-5761-67 (22) Unofficial notification, keep your tickets.

P.O. BOx 2406 BatOn ROuge, La 344-STOP

Submit a tip anonymously from our website www.crimestoppersbr.com, or download the free anonymous P3 Tips App. CaLL tOLL FRee 1-877-723-7867

9/16/2026

Crime Stoppers will pay a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of these wanted fugitives.

LAVART HARRIS

06/11/1993

BLACK / MALE 6’00 HGT / 160 LBS BLACK HAIR BROWN EYES MONETARY INSTRUMENT ABUSE & MISD. THEFT

SUNNY KNOX

08/09/1986

BLACK / MALE 5’08 HGT / 160 LBS BLACK HAIR BROWN EYES FELONY THEFT

Warrants active as of 9/15/26

IMPORTANT: ALL PERSONS ARE PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

If you have any information on these fugitives contact: CRIME STOPPERS at 344-STOP (7867), submit a tip anonymously from our website www.crimestoppersbr.com, or download the free anonymous P3 Tips App.

REMEMBER YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE YOUR NAME TO COLLECT THIS OR ANY CRIME STOPPERS REWARD BUT YOU MUST CALL CRIME STOPPERS.

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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

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

AP economics writer

WASHINGTON — U.S. household income finally topped pre-pandemic levels last year, a stark sign of how the past five years of rising prices have limited Americans’ earnings and purchasing power. Median U.S. household income rose a healthy 2.6% in 2025 from the previous year, after adjusting for inflation, to $87,460, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That is a record high, topping 2019 household income of $85,320. The median is the level at which half of households had higher earnings

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 a six-year period, which helps explain the generally sour mood Americans have had about the economy since COVID-19 struck in early 2020. Concerns about affordability have taken a leading role in the fast-approaching midterm elections. Household income has risen 2.5% since 2019, according to Census data. Yet over the previous six-year period, from 2013 to 2019, a period of very low inﬂation and declining unemployment, it jumped 19%. The Census report also showed 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.

4B ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

Funerals Today Klenke, Betty

Dudley, Joan Elizabeth Pittman

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Hales, Brian Joseph

St. Patrick Catholic Church, 12424 Brogdon Ln., Baton Rouge at 11:00am.

Nalls, Lawrence

Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Hwy., Baton Rouge at 11:00am.

Obituaries Bankston, Dale Leon

Dale Leon Bankston passed away peacefully on Sunday, Sep. 13, 2026. Dale was 83, having been born in Baton Rouge on Dec. 23, 1942. Dale was a loving husband, father, son, brother, grandfather, and mentor, a yellow-dog Democrat, and a conscientious caretaker for all those around him. He is now at rest, but those he cared for continue on, sustained by the tireless support he never hesitated to give. Dale was a proud 1960 graduate of Baton Rouge High School, and later attended LSU, where he received his B.A. and his M.B.A. He spent his business career supporting nonprofit hospitals across the Southeast, spending over 27 years as the regional CEO of the Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA), a healthcare cooperative of nonprofit, community-owned hospitals. In addition to his educational and business pursuits, Dale enjoyed spending his summers in North Carolina, all LSU sports, and lively political debates. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Gayle Maggio Bankston, and his mother and father, Jesse Homer Bankston and Ruth Paine Bankston. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Rebecca Sanders Bankston; his three sons Dr. Bradley Stephen Bankston and wife Christina Anne Kleiner, Kevin Stuart Bankston and wife Madeleine Clare Elish, and Matthew Moore Bankston and wife Leah Rene Star; and his three grandchildren, Emily Star Bankston, Eve Elish Bankston, and Rosalie Elish Bankston. He is also survived by his three siblings, Shirley Newsham, Larry S. Bankston Sr. and his wife Lynn Naebers Bankston, and Jesse H. Bankston Jr. Visitation will be Friday, Sep. 18, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Blvd. The family wishes to thank the staff at the Baton Rouge General for their tender care and expertise. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Hospice of Baton Rouge Butterfly Wing. A visitation will be held from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM on 2026-09-18 at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Boulevard.

Mrs. Joan Elizabeth Pittman Dudley passed away peacefully at home on September 14, 2026. Born February 16, 1949, Joan lived a full life surrounded by those she loved. After graduating from Jackson High School, she married her high school sweetheart, Richard Dudley, and traveled with him during his service in the Army. Upon returning to Jackson, she worked for the state welfare office, a local bank, and in the pharmacy at East Louisiana State Hospital, where she eventually retired. Joan was also a member of Jackson United Methodist Church. After being voted "Most Beautiful" in high school, Joan carried the title throughout her life, as her family and close friends felt it reflected her spirit and her beauty, both inside and out. Joan found happiness in the simple things and, most of all, in staying connected to the people she loved. In her younger years, she enjoyed sewing and cooking, and her family will especially remember her chocolate cake and roast. Living close to family meant that holidays were often spent gathered around the table together, sharing meals, stories, and laughter. Those ordinary moments together became some of the most treasured ones. Known for her kindness, wit, humility, and gentle spirit, Ms. Joan was deeply loved and will be greatly missed. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Richard Chovin Dudley III; their two children and their spouses, Richele "Rhee" Rome (Kevin) and Richard "Rick" Chovin Dudley IV (Georgia); and four grandchildren, Garrett Rome, Jacob Rome, Ella Dudley, and Anna Kate Dudley. She was preceded in death by her father, Howard Pittman; her mother and stepfather, Juanita and Joseph Hebert; sister Lena Paulette Sproles. The family extends its heartfelt gratitude to Hospice of Baton Rouge for the excellent and compassionate care provided to Joan, with special thanks to Nurse Julie Suggs and her caretaker, Roxie Nevels. Services will be held Thursday, September 17, at Jackson United Methodist Church, 1727 Sycamore Street, Jackson. Visitation will be from 9:0011:00 a.m., with the funeral service beginning at 11:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Jackson Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Rick Dudley, Jacob Rome, Kevin Rome, Garrett Rome, Chip Kent, Matt Leggett, and Jamey Norsworthy. Share memories at www.CharletF uneralHome.com.

Brian Joseph Hales was born March 29, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois and died September 8, 2026, in Baton Rouge. He earned his BS from Carnegie Mellon University, completed postdoctoral work at the Royal Institute of Great Britain with Nobel Laureate Sir George Porter and was an NIH Post Doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University with Paul Loach. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota. He came to Baton Rouge in 1973 to join the Chemistry faculty at LSU and became a valued member of the university community. With prestigious sabbaticals at MIT and Cal Tech, he was published in numerous scientific journals and received honors and awards for his work. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 2010, the same year he married Cathy. In addition to significant accomplishments in his research and teaching career, Brian was endlessly endeavoring to learn new skills. When his children were young, he began experimenting in the kitchen, much in the same way he did in the chemistry lab. He became an avid cook who loved reading books about cooking, watching cooking shows, grocery shopping, and preparing all meals he and Cathy ate at home. This included many memorable dinner parties he and Cathy hosted on their back porch with its BBQ Palace. Brian was a theater buff and amateur actor, taking leading and supporting roles in several local plays. Also a movie enthusiast, he could easily recall actors, directors, movies, and television shows from years past. Add to this scuba diving, juggling and the violin. Brian and Cathy enjoyed traveling near and far with friends as well as in their RV, dubbed the Road Pirogue. A favorite tradition became their annual trek to Montana, taking different off-highway routes to explore the country. They also loved quick escapes to their beach condo in Mississippi, always with the dogs in tow. Although Brian had never had a dog before his marriage to Cathy, he quickly learned the meaning of "dog love" through Venus, a rescue pet that remained their beloved companion for fourteen years.

and Stella Howe and Reuben and Gertie Espeseth. Brian will be remembered for his sense of humor and quick wit, his breadth of knowledge, and his delight in the last chapter of his life. Most of all, he will be remembered for the love he shared with Cathy, his family, his friends and his pets. They were all important parts of his life, as he was of theirs and he will be deeply missed. Funeral services will be held on September 24 at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 2025 Stuart Ave. Visitation begins at 10am and the funeral at 11am, followed by a private reception at their home. Memorial donations may be made to Companion Animal Alliance at caabr.org, the ALS Association of Louisiana at als.org - specify Louisiana, or The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana at nature.org specify Louisiana.

Noland, John Burden

John Burden Noland died in Highlands, NC, on Tuesday, September 8, after a long illness. He was born August 7, 1946, in Natchitoches, Louisiana to Rev. Iveson B. Noland and Nell Burden Noland. The family moved to church parishes in Charlotte, NC and Lake Charles, LA. When John was 5, the family moved to Alexandria, LA where he attended Rugg Elementary until age 13. He then attended Christ School, an Episcopal boys boarding school in Arden, North Carolina, graduating with Honors. John went to UNC on a Morehead Scholarship. He was a member of the Zeta

After graduation he practiced law with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson for fifteen years. He retired and then became a part-time US Magistrate judge. John left the law practice and began a successful business career. He formed several meaningful business partnerships: AllStar Automotive with Matt McKay, real estate development with Lindsey Landreneau and Robert Peek, and Roto-Rooter with Larry Musgrove, among others. John served on a number of boards during his lifetime. He enjoyed being a member of Coca Cola Bottling United Company board in Birmingham, AL. He was a founder and board member of St James Place retirement home. He was a long-serving board member and a leader of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. He was also the head of the LISC (Local Initiative Support Corporation) board for nearly 15 years, which then evolved into the Redevelopment Authority. John was devoted to his communities, particularly the Episcopal church and its schools; he served on the boards of Episcopal School in Baton Rouge and of Christ School in North Carolina. He served on the vestry of St James Church, where he was also a chalice bearer. He was awarded the NCCJ Annual Brotherhood Award, shared with Eula Smith, in 2001. He was an enthusiastic and tireless traveller and cook. He cherished his many years in Pecan Island as a member of the Section 14 duck club. John was also a past president and lunchtime regular of the Baton Rouge City Club. He is predeceased by his parents and his older brother, Iveson (Butch) Noland. John is survived by his wife Virginia Bailey, his son John B. Noland, Jr, his daughter Scott Hickson, his son-in-law James Hickson and his grandchildren, Nell and Wingate Hickson

and John B. Noland, III and Fairfax Noland. He is also survived by his brother Daniel Noland and his wife Pat, and his sister-in-law Judy Noland. The funeral will be held at St James Church on September 25th, with visitation from 9-11 am and the service at 11:30. The family would like to thank Goldie Wilson, the caregivers of At Home Care of Louisiana and the compassionate staff of Hospice of Baton Rouge. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial gifts to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation or St James Episcopal Church.

St. Amant, Philemon Andrews 'Phil'

Born in Baton Rouge on 6 October 1941 to (then) Lieutenant Philemon A. and Mrs. Corinne L. St. Amant, died on 10 September 2026, at the age of 84. As the son of a career military officer, Phil enjoyed the traditions of an Army upbringing. During World War II, he and his mother resided in Baton Rouge with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred D. St. Amant, while his father was assigned to the European Theater of Operations. After the war, the family followed his father's 20-year military career, both at home and overseas. Phil attended schools in North Carolina, Maryland and California, before moving to Germany, where he lived for three years during the occupation in Bad Kissingen, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Oberammergau. When he returned to the United States in 1952, he continued his schooling in Missouri and North Carolina, where he graduated from Fayetteville Senior High as the valedictorian of the Class of 1959. He was appointed to West Point by Senator Allen J. Ellender and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1963. He was commissioned a sec-

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Brian especially cherished his daughters and their families and was in constant contact with them long distance. One of his special joys was watching his grandchildren grow into young adults. Brian was preceded in death by his parents, Douglas and Wanda Hales, his brothers, Doug and Greg Hales, and the mother of his children, Jacqueline Hales. He is survived by his wife, Cathy Coates; his daughters, Mariesa Howe (Paul) of Rochester, NY and Allison Espeseth (Scott) of Madison, WI, and his grandchildren, Quentin

Psi fraternity. He graduated in 1968, having completed his first year of law school. He returned to Baton Rouge with his wife, Virginia, also a Baton Rougean. John graduated in 1970 from LSU Law School. They have lived here with their family for the following 59 years.

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1 “Medicare & You,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2025. 2 “Aging changes in teeth and gums”, medlineplus.gov, 4/17/2022. 3 FairHealth, Inc. National average dental fees. Data current as of July 2025; subject to change.

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ond lieutenant of artillery, and after attending the Field Artillery Officers Basic Course at Ft. Sill, OK, and the Army's Basic Airborne Course at Ft. Benning, GA., he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, NC, where he served with the 319th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment.

Bragg, serving as an XVIII Airborne Corps fire support officer, a battalion operations officer and the operations officer of the only airborne field artillery brigade in the Army, before being promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanding a battalion in the XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery.

He volunteered for assignment to Vietnam, and after being promoted to first lieutenant, was transferred in 1965 to the US Military Assistance Command in Pleiku, where he was assigned first as a Regional/Popular Forces Advisor, and then as a battalion advisor to the 37th ARVN field artillery battalion. Upon his return to the United States, he attended the Field Artillery Officers Career Course at Ft. Sill, OK, and Ft. Bliss, TX, and was subsequently assigned as a battery commander and assistant operations officer in the Officer Candidate Program, after which he was sent again to Vietnam, where he served as a fire direction officer for the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and then as commander of a field artillery battery of the 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery in the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). At the end of this tour, he rejoined his family and was reassigned to Paris, France, where he studied for two years at the Alliance Française, the Institut de phonétique et de recherche sur le langage de l'Université de Paris, and the Sorbonne, before receiving a Master of Arts degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. He then taught French as a major at West Point for three years, before attending the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. He was reassigned to Ft.

He was selected to attend the Navy War College (Senior Course) at Newport, RI, and after graduation was seconded to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (Palestine), where he commanded Observer Group Lebanon, an organization of military observers from 15 nations during the civil war in that country. That unit was among those recognized as laureates of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1988. Upon his return to the United States, he was assigned to the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, where, as a colonel, he was Egypt Desk Officer and Chief of the Middle East Branch, Plans and Policy Division (J-5). He served briefly as chief of the foreign intelligence branch in the office of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, before being reassigned for two years to Greece, where he commanded a US Army Artillery Group, before being reassigned as Chief of Staff of the United States Alaskan Command, headquartered at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Upon his retirement after more than 30 years of commissioned, active service, Phil returned to Baton Rouge, studied accounting at Louisiana State University, passed the qualifying exam on his first try, and received his CPA certificate. Finding no great enthusiasm among public accounting firms for a 55year-old, newly minted CPA, he accepted a posi-

tion as Supervisor of Social Studies with the Department of Education for the State of Louisiana and was subsequently assigned as a member of the newly organized Educational Leadership Group. After four years, he retired again and devoted his time to veterans' activities. He was a Perpetual Member of the Military Order of the World Wars, for which he served in 2009-2010 as national Commander-in-Chief. He was also a Life Member of The Retired Officers Association (later the Military Officers Association of America); The American Legion Post #38, Baton Rouge; Hancock Lodge #311 of Ft. Leavenworth, AF&AM; of Kansas; St. James Lodge # 47 of Baton Rouge, F&AM; of Louisiana; National Sojourners; Heroes of '76; 32°Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (SJ); a Knight Templar of the York Rite of Freemasonry, and a member of Abdallah Shrine Temple of Overland Park, Kansas. He was a Life/ Benefactor Member of the National Rifle Association. Phil was predeceased by his parents; his sisters, Suzanne Corinne Carson and Jeanne Yvette Harvey; his brother, Alexis Alexandre St. Amant II, and his son, Philemon A. St. Amant III. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Harriet O. St. Amant; daughters, Renée S. Hudson (Karl) and Lys S. Penney Fuchs; grandchildren, Kristina B. Hudson Murray (Trist), Emily H. Hyde (Eric), Niko B. Penney, and Rayne S.

Penney; eight great-grandchildren; and numerous nephews, nieces and cousins. Visitation will be at Rabenhorst Funeral Home (825 Government Street) from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on Monday, September 21, and again on September 22 from 10:00 AM until religious services at 11:00 AM, followed immediately by interment at Roselawn Memorial Park (4045 North Street).

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ 5B Taylor, Carol Tircuit

Carol Tircuit Taylor passed away on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at the age of 83. She is survived by her sons, Christopher Webb (Laura) and Jeff Webb; grandchildren, Cody Webb (Mallory) and Lindsey Richard (Taylor); great

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6B ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The 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 earlier this year, critics on the in certain cities and blowing right believed that Homan whistles when they spotted imwould be the instrument of a migration agents were lately broad Trump climb-down on his having trouble seeing how and signature issue. where 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 criminals continues, by the way — Bill — $75 billion for ICE — flowed into additional enforcement assets, the Operation Rotten Apple in New York has taken murderers, rapists and gang numbers 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

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

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.

Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com.

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.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCAN HERE

8B ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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TODAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

A stray afternoon thunderstorm

Mostly sunny and warm

Warm with plenty of sun

A t-storm around in the p.m.

A stray afternoon thunderstorm

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

93° 74°

LOW

93° 67°

LOW

95° 69°

93° 74°

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

Beaumont 94/78 Port Arthur 95/79

Baton Rouge 93/74

Lake Charles 96/77

10s

20s

30s

Houma 88/74

40s

50s

YESTERDAY

60s

70s

80s

Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

90s 100s 110s

FIRST

SEP 18

City

Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Dallas Denver Houston Las Vegas

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

PRECIPITATION

94°/74° 89°/69° 92°/70° 97° in 1921 49° 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

New Orleans 91/79

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

Hattiesburg 95/70

Alexandria 100/75

Lafayette 94/75

LOW

95° 73°

TEMPERATURE Jackson 97/72

Many 99/73

LOW

Baton Rouge through 5 p.m. Tuesday

Longview 97/76

-0s

95° 72°

Monroe 100/74

Shreveport 98/76

-10s

LOW

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 to partly cloudy, hot and breezy day. Temperatures will be rising to the mid-90s with feels-like temperatures up to 105. Winds will be easterly at 5 to 15 mph with gusts to 20 mph. A small craft advisory is in effect through Thursday and there is a 30% chance of rain and storms today, which will fall to zero tomorrow.

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

6:50 a.m. 7:09 p.m. 12:14 p.m. 10:21 p.m.

FULL

LAST

SEP 26

TODAY

91 99 77 88 73 99 83 95 96

68 74 64 62 68 80 61 77 75

NEW

OCT 3

s t s s t s t t s

OCT 10

92 97 75 91 77 97 78 89 94

THU. Lo

71 76 69 68 67 78 59 75 74

s t c s 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” 0.00” 2.44” 44.47” 45.90”

FT.

HIGH

0.2 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.4

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

LOW

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FINF OUT WHAT

YOURIS WORTH HOME

IS WORTH Call Today for an Expert Valuation and Make Your Next Move

1-833-671-6632

CALL TODAY

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OF SELLING? A home evaluation is a great place to start

addressbatonrouge.com DRE#01901536 This website is a marketing and information program that sends all inquiries to state-licensed real estate professionals.

READING 64 MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

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

3:47a 4:40a 5:32a 6:23a 7:11a 7:56a 8:39a

Los Angeles Miami Nashville New York City Philadelphia Phoenix St. Louis San Francisco Seattle

80 90 98 78 84 86 94 70 75

9:59a 10:53a 11:45a 12:11a 12:58a 1:44a 2:27a

TODAY Lo

67 78 73 68 70 75 77 62 53

4:12p 10:24p 5:05p 11:18p 5:58p ---6:48p 12:35p 7:36p 1:23p 8:20p 2:08p 9:03p 2:51p

pc t s s s t t pc s

80 89 98 81 86 95 97 74 77

THU. Lo

65 78 72 69 71 82 76 57 53

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

FIND OUT WHAT YOUR HOME

MODERATE

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

FT.

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

TODAY

MODERATE

s t s pc pc pc t pc s

MISSISSIPPI Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO Cairo COMITE Near Olive AMITE Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent TICKFAW Montpelier Holden ATCHAFALAYA Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

FLOOD STAGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

TUE. 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

-4.29 15.52 18.71 6.45 3.88 2.92 2.40

+0.45 -0.06 +0.01 -0.55 -0.32 -0.23 -0.53

16.01

+1.26

-1.54

-0.06

18 29 8

-1.02 9.97 2.10

+0.20 -0.05 +0.02

13 15

2.51 0.71

+0.01 -0.01

47 34 29 20 12 6

6.43 4.17 3.10 3.19 3.00 2.32

-0.22 -0.11 -0.21 -0.12 +0.10 -0.41

data as of 7 a.m. Tuesday

SPORTS

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

1Cn

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

Jaguars off limits

Faulk explains media blackout for players BY TOYLOY BROWN III 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 Trinidad is now?” Weis recently told Kifﬁn, who

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. LEAVITT CHAMBLISS “You got to remember you’re dealing with a really mature quarterback that doesn’t make Height 6-2 6-0 many mistakes, so you’re gonna have to play Weight 216 205 really well for a long period of time,” KifAge 21 24 ﬁn said. “Trinidad (is) 24 years old now, still Class Jr. Sr. playing college football. That’s the same as (NFL quarterbacks) Drake Maye and Caleb Williams.” brought in the former Kansas student manKifﬁn’s return to Oxford, Mississippi, on ager as an offensive analyst after the 2014 Saturday will be a test of maturity for the quarterback he unearthed last year and the season. Weis turned 22 on April 19, 2015, a day after one he acquired this season. Alabama’s spring game. ä See POCKET, page 3C LSU starting quarterback Sam Leavitt

BY THE NUMBERS

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 1987-2000). 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 champi-

onship 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

ä See RABALAIS, page 3C

Marshall Faulk’s first comments at the lectern weren’t about Southern’s upcoming game against Louisiana Christian on Saturday. The first-year coach used his opening statement to clarify why his players were unavailable in the postgame news conference after last Saturday’s 77-6 loss at No. 22 Houston and why they remained unavailable for Tuesday’s media availability. ä Louisiana “I just didn’t Christian want to put the players, after at Southern. last Saturday’s 6 P.M. SATURDAY, game, I didn’t SWAC TV want any players to get up there and speak out of frustration,” Faulk said. “Say anything that, you know, they didn’t mean or that they wanted to take back. In those moments, as a coach, I feel like speaking for the team after a loss like that, my words should be final and not putting players in that situation.” Faulk said immediately after last game that feelings were hurt and the locker room was down because of how one-sided the loss was for Southern (12). He said it’s his staff’s job to “convince them to continue moving towards our goals,” he said last Saturday, because “a game like this can really set you back.” Faulk detailed why his players remain unavailable three days after the game. “In light of us moving forward, it’s hard to not ask questions,” Faulk said. “I understand the media aspect of it. Although that game is over, there still may be some lingering questions. My job right now is to get them to look forward and not allow one game to define them. And so in doing that, removing them from media today as well, just trying to do what’s best for the team. “Nothing personal to nobody

ä See JAGUARS, page 4C

PHOTO BY THOMAS B. SHEA

Southern wide receiver Daejawn Smith reacts after watching a replay against Houston on Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

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

ä See SAINTS, page 4C

2C ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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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 Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ 3C

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Ole Miss players brush off Kiffin’s return BY CHRIS BURROWS

Associated Press

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy listened intently as he was asked about how he’s gotten along with Lane Kiffin since the former Rebels coach left for LSU. He reflected silently for a moment, shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly said, “I really don’t have a relationship with him.” Lacy, the featured running back for the Rebels, said he has maintained contact with several former Ole Miss assistant coaches and teammates who followed Kiffin to LSU. But Lacy “won’t really talk to them until after the season,” he said Tuesday. “I just want to be focused on the game plan and the game.” The on-field storylines surrounding Saturday night’s tilt between the No. 8 Rebels and No. 7 Tigers have been overshadowed by Kiffin’s return to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the first time since he accepted the LSU head coaching job Nov. 30 — a week before the Ole Miss program he’d built received its first bid to the College

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ROGELIO V. SOLIS

Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy spins into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown run past Charlotte defensive back Dylon Womack on Saturday in Oxford, Miss. Football Playoff. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was tapped to replace Kiffin and led Ole Miss to a pair of CFP wins, and very nearly a third in the national semifinals against Miami at the Fiesta Bowl. Kiffin’s departure “was crazy,” defensive tackle Will Echoles said. “I was planning on deer hunting in

the woods that morning. A team meeting got called to announce PG (Golding) as the head coach. “It didn’t really hit me until the next day when I went to the weight room and (strength) coach (Nick) Savage wasn’t there. That’s when I realized there were coaches that weren’t there anymore.”

RABALAIS

Texas quarterback Arch Manning: ‘I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It’s easy to say I didn’t mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that.’

Continued from page 1C

people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that,” Manning posted on Instagram. “I speciﬁcally want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward.” In a statement posted on X and Instagram, Rowe thanked Manning for his apology and said they discussed the matter. “Thank you, Arch. I appreciate our conversation about this — which will remain private,” Rowe posted. “Apology accepted. We move forward with respect and kindness for one another.” Manning’s public misstep and ensuing apology are notable for one of college football’s most prominent players. The nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson of family patriarch Archie Manning has endorsements with major brands such as Red Bull, Vuori athletic wear and

Google Gemini artificial intelligence, to name a few. And they come as issues about depictions of violence toward women have affected other sports. Last month, Good Good Golf lost its partnership with Callaway and its title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in the fallout over a video for a new driver that showed a man shoving to the ground a woman who was trying to touch the golf club. The fake Texas video that Manning laughed about stemmed from a real postgame exchange between Sarkisian and Rowe that appeared testy on live TV. Earlier technical difficulties had caused delays for Sarkisian’s halftime interview with reporter Laura Rutledge. When Rowe tried to interview Sarkisian amid the loud postgame celebrations, the coach repeated “Texas ﬁght!” and said “Hook’em!” before walking away. A clip of that exchange was altered to show Sarkisian striking Rowe on the right side of her face, knocking her down.

— where history will show they hate his guts — 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 nonhometown discount of about $12 million total. Michigan’s grinding 17-10 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 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

onds 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 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 four-alarm 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 Ti-

gers 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 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 threepick 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

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ERIC GAY

Manning apologizes for reaction to altered video

BY JIM VERTUNO AP sportswriter

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas quarterback Arch Manning apologized Tuesday for publicly joking about an AIaltered video that depicted Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe in the moments after Texas’ big win over Ohio State. At the team’s weekly media availability on Monday, Manning was asked if he’d seen any socialmedia posts about the postgame celebration. He mentioned the fake video clip, called it “hilarious” and laughed about it. Several others in the room laughed with him. A clip of Manning’s remarks posted later on social media quickly drew widespread criticism directed at Manning over joking about violence against women in general and Rowe in particular. “I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It’s easy to say I didn’t mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of

POCKET

Continued from page 1C 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 sec-

Echoles acknowledged there was pressure for many Ole Miss players to follow Kifﬁn to LSU but said, “Nah. Not me. I told my mom that I liked it here and this is where I was supposed to be.” Eight assistant coaches and four support staff members, along with four players, chose to switch sides in the rivalry between public universities in neighboring states, including two defensive starters: end Princewill Umanmielen and linebacker TJ Dottery. Echoles, along with Lacy and wide receiver Deuce Alexander, who spoke at a news conference Tuesday, said the players who switched sides have remained friends with some of their old teammates. “I still see P-Will and TJ. They’re my boys,” Echoles said. Alexander emphasized that the significance and timing of the game are what have their attention this week. It’s the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams and could carry weight in both the SEC standings and CFP rankings. “There’s no bad blood. After the game, we will be friends,” said Alexander, who added that when Kifﬁn departed, “I never knew what

happened. Those coaches treated me great here. I had the opportunity to go (to LSU), but I was home. I live in Oxford.” Alexander said he has not been surprised by LSU’s success offensively during Kifﬁn’s two games with the Tigers. “I can see the same plays; yeah, I see the tweaks,” Alexander said with a knowing grin. “And the defense is great. “They’ve got great players in the secondary. It’s going to be a great matchup with our receivers and their secondary.” The pregame hype and fan intensity in Oxford concerning Kifﬁn’s return has been impossible to avoid, but has not been a distraction, the players said. “We hear about it,” Echoles said. “But for us, it’s the game. I’m working hard to get back into my groove and get better.” Added Alexander: “We see students trash-talk it. We hear it outside. Every time people see me, it’s the only game they want to talk about. “But in our locker room, we’re about blocking out all those things and keeping the main thing the main thing.”

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

will thrive in their fast-paced 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.” Email Jon Blau at jon.blau@ theadvocate.com

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SAINTS

Continued from page 1C of 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.

Looking ahead

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY GENE J. PUSKAR

Highmark Stadium is seen before an NFL exhibition game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills on Aug. 27 in Orchard Park, New York.

Grass vs. turf debate rages

There’s little doubt NFL players prefer natural surfaces over artificial fields BY JOHN WAWROW AP sportswriter

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — For Josh Allen, the grass is most definitely greener across the street. As the Buffalo Bills moved closer to their first regular-season game Thursday in their new Highmark Stadium, the quarterback looked forward to not having to deal with the added wear and tear his body previously experienced playing on the artificial turf of the team’s now-demolished old facility. “I’ve gotten numerous, numerous burns on my legs from artificial turf, to the point I can’t sleep at night because it’s bubbling over. It’s very painful,” Allen said, noting he still feels it after the Bills practice on the turf inside their fieldhouse. “If I could snap my fingers and make every field grass, that’s what I would do.” The new Bills stadium and Allen’s comments reflect an increasingly heated debate in the league over whether teams should play on artificial turf or natural grass. It follows a World Cup in which tournament organizers mandated converting seven NFL stadiums from turf to grass, only to switch back to artificial surfaces for the pro football season.

Players support grass NFL players and their union overwhelmingly favor natural grass and are perplexed about why the league’s billionaire owners can’t do what FIFA did for the World Cup. “It’s a little bizarre, but what can you expect?” 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa said. As with most debates, it’s about money. Though the NFL does not provide cost figures, it’s widely accepted that artificial turf is much more affordable than grass, which requires year-round maintenance and constant re-sodding. NFL grass fields generally have a lifespan of about seven events. Artificial fields also require some maintenance to replace infill and generally have a lifespan of between three to seven years. That still doesn’t square with players, even as the NFL continues trending toward artificial surfaces. “Natural grass isn’t out of reach. Prioritizing players shouldn’t be either!” Colts running back Jonathan Taylor posted on his X account with the hashtag “WorthTheCost.” Sixteen of the NFL’s 30 facilities will feature grass this season, including Green Bay’s Lambeau Field, which is made up of 95% grass and reinforced with polyethylene fibers. Of the 18 NFL facilities built since 2000, 11 have artificial surfaces, and those don’t include Carolina and Tennessee, which recently made the switch to turf. Cost and maintenance appear to play more of a factor than geography, with six of the NFL’s seven coldest markets and all three Florida-based teams featuring grass surfaces. Where there is consensus is that NFL playing surfaces are far more advanced today than 50 years ago when several teams, starting with the Houston Oilers, played on As-

JAGUARS

Continued from page 1C

here. I’ll stand up here and answer as many questions as possible and represent the team.” Faulk said the team’s morale has improved as it prepares to face Louisiana Christian (3-0) at 6 p.m. Saturday at A.W. Mumford Stadium. The NAIA program beat two fellow Sooner Athletic Conference teams and won its season opener 42-37 at Northwestern State, an FCS program. The Jaguars aren’t overlooking the Wildcats and have practiced with the requisite level of determination. “Today we got on the ﬁeld, and

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 defensive-minded coach, but the talk of the game afterward was first-year offensive playcaller 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.

Quick hitters

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ERIC CHRISTIAN SMITH

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen runs the ball against the Houston Texans on Sunday in Houston.

The NFL cites its own studies in saying troTurf — essentially a thinly padded carpet there has been no significant difference in laid over concrete or asphalt. injury rates when comparing artificial turf Setting standards and grass over the past three seasons. And Nick Pappas, the NFL director of field sur- last season’s lower-extremity injury rate was faces, said the advancements in turf technol- half of the average level that occurred from ogy are night and day since the AstroTurf 2018-22. And yet players, and even some NFL ownera. The focus now, he said, is the NFL and ers, prefer grass. NFLPA working with all turf manufacturers That was the case in Las Vegas, where to establish standards for surfaces based on Raiders managing general partner Mark Daplayer feedback and metrics from testing vis cited player safety as one reason to install conducted by the league. grass despite moving into an indoor facility. This led to the league and union jointly reThe same applied in Buffalo, where owner leasing a series of standardized playing sur- Terry Pegula considered installing natural face requirements each facility must meet grass in the team’s old facility before electby 2028. ing to wait until the new one was built. The list of criteria covering both playing and practice surfaces includes minimum Re-sodding in Buffalo standards for impact, traction, and guideThe Bills have encountered a few hiccups in making the switch, and that’s despite inlines for when to resurface. The objective is to achieve as much consis- stalling heating coils, grow lights and ventency as possible across all 30 NFL playing tilation systems to spur growth. The team recently elected to re-sod its entire field surfaces, whether grass or artificial. “The goal is that we take the emotions out ahead of schedule after divots and worn arof the material makeup,” Pappas said. “What eas became exposed after just two preseason the composition of the field is should only be games and two practices. secondary to how the field performs.” Pappas called it a trial-and-error process, In the past, Pappas said, the guidelines for because there’s a learning curve involved to field composition were easy to comply with, determine how grass reacts to a new envileading to teams choosing their turf by cut- ronment. “Obviously, we were seeing a grass that ting the best deal with a manufacturer. Now, the league and union are having manufactur- maybe didn’t have the strength that everyers present their products for testing before body had hoped for and was pulling apart a little more than expected or preferred,” said being certified. “That’s really the course correction,” Pap- Pappas, who personally inspected the Bills’ pas said. “It’s, bring us a product once you field before and after the team’s preseason believe you’ve met (the criteria). And then finale last month. “They’ll continue to adapt we’ll run it through the wringer and get it in and make adjustments as they need to. ... front of our athlete and ensure that we feel And I do anticipate things will continue to improve.” comfortable putting it into play.”

I’m just telling you they worked their butts off,” Faulk said. “That effort that I’m talking about, it was back.” Faulk said one of the keys in helping his team move on is transparency. While the team didn’t have full ﬁlm analysis of the Houston game as it would with other contests, he said there was an edited tape that showed plays centered on effort. He wanted his team to know the difference between being outmatched and losing plays because of a lack of trying, which he said is correctable. Faulk also discussed his own college career at San Diego State (1991-94). Even though his highlights and victories are what people remember most, the former No. 2 pick in the

1994 NFL Draft also has been on the wrong end of blowout losses. “Listen, I’ve gotten my teeth kicked in many a times,” Faulk said with a chuckle. “I didn’t go to a Power Five school at the time. I went to San Diego State. We played UCLA, USC, Miami. I’ve been in some of those lopsided games. “The key thing is one game doesn’t deﬁne you. That game, how we played, it doesn’t get to say we’re a bad team. And I told them you’ve worked too hard. You’ve put too much time in. There’s too much sweat equity in what we’ve been building to let this game deﬁne the rest of the season for us.” Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com.

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 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 passrush 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 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 under-center snaps (five) than shotgun snaps (four).

Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@ theadvocate.com.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ASHLEY LANDIS

Houston wide receiver Amare Thomas scores a touchdown against Southern on Saturday in Houston.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ 5C

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PGA Tour not giving LIV players path back via returning-member program BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY MIKE STEWART

Scottie Scheffler holds the trophy after winning the PGA Tour Championship on Aug. 30 in Atlanta.

PGA Tour to have new two-tier model Tour outlines plans for eligibility for new system in 2028

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

The PGA Tour announced new eligibility for its two-tier model in 2028 that treats the elite Championship Series tournaments with equal standing as the four majors and The Players Championship. It also spells out clearly how to reach — and stay on — the top level. The simpliﬁed system does away with ﬁve-year exemptions for winning majors, The Players and the FedEx Cup. Those are now twoyear exemptions on the Championship Series, with an additional two years on the lesser Challenger Series. Winners of Championship Series events also will get a two-year exemption on the elite circuit. The tour also is giving the top college senior a spot on the top tier, and offering a “Last Chance Series” in the fall Rolapp that will award the top three players a shot at rejoining the Championship Series. “I don’t think it’s perfect,” CEO Brian Rolapp said Tuesday in a conference call. “But I think it’s a huge improvement, and I think we’ll continue to innovate as the years go on because we’ll be smarter after the ’28 season and smarter after the ’29 and we’ll continue to try to get better.” It starts with a key transition period — how to determine who gets on the Championship Series with its $20 million purses, and who starts on the Challenger Series of prize funds expected to be half as much. Each tier will have its own points system. For the Championship Series, all tournaments — including the majors — are treated equally. Currently, there is a bump in points for the majors and The Players. The tour said it would honor exemptions earned in 2026. That means PGA champion Aaron Rai and British Open champion Ryan Fox will get five-year exemptions on the Championship Series through 2031. Major champions in 2027 will be exempt on the elite level through 2029. But it makes 2027 a pivotal year. The top 70 in the FedEx Cup through the Tour Championship — and the top 95 after the fall portion — will be in the Championship Series, along with those who have exemptions from winning regular tournaments in 2026. The top 20 on the Korn Ferry Tour this year earn PGA Tour cards. For 2027, the top 10 will get on the top tier, and the next 10 start on the Challenger Series.

The PGA Tour boards approved the plan Monday. Still to be decided are the rest of the Championship Series events and where they ﬁt in the schedule. Nine such events already have been announced. Rolapp has asked for offers from potential sponsors and sites by the end of the month. The tour is still negotiating with the European tour on a renewed alliance that currently provides PGA Tour cards for the leading 10 players in the Race to Dubai. At stake is how many of those players would go straight to the Championship Series. Rolapp said he doesn’t see a scenario where Championship series spots are not offered. Rory McIlroy saw that as critical. “I don’t see any reason why a DP World Tour player would go to the Challenger Series. I don’t see that as an upward move in your career,” McIlroy said Tuesday ahead of the European tour’s flagship event at Wentworth. “I see it as a very lateral move. “How many cards is reasonable to give to the DP World Tour for the Championship Series? I would imagine that’s what the ongoing discussions are.” Rolapp said the key to the changes was “to reward excellence and ensure there is always a clear path for top performers at every stage of their career.”

Championship Series criteria The Championship Series will be for the top 90 players from the previous season; the top 20 players from the Challenger Series; players who win multiple times in a season on the Challenger Series; players who have won in the past two years on the Championship Series; players who wish to use a one-time exemption from the career money list; and any medical extensions. Players generally will no longer get additional years tacked onto their exemptions by winning multiple times during a season.

Challenger Series criteria The Challenger Series will be for players relegated out of the Championship Series; players who finish between No. 21 and No. 90 on the Challenger points list; the leading 20 players from the Korn Ferry Tour; players finishing Nos. 2-5 in the PGA Tour University ranking; and five players from qualifying school. The Challenger Series also will have two sponsor exemptions and allow for two Monday qualifiers at tournaments that are held the same weeks as the Championship Series. The “Last Chance Series” will be for anyone who has Challenger Series status secured for the following year. The tour said there will be a minimum of four fall tournaments, and players will be required to play them all — pending a medical exception — if they want to earn the three spots in the Championship Series.

PREP REPORT Football Week 3 schedule All games at 7 p.m. unless noted.

Thursday McKinley at Belaire St. Martin’s Episcopal at Glen Oaks Denham Springs at Woodlawn Ascension Christian vs. Thrive Academy at Olympia Stadium Tara vs. Helix Mentorship Academy at Baker High Stadium University High at Plaquemine Collegiate Baton Rouge at Dunham Istrouma at JS Clark

Friday South Terrebonne vs. Ascen-

sion Catholic at Floyd Boutte Memorial Stadium Liberty at Broadmoor West St. John vs. Capitol at Istrouma High Stadium St. Thomas More vs. Catholic-BR at Memorial Stadium John Ehret at Central St. John at Central Private Central Catholic at East Iberville Catholic-PC at Episcopal Wesminster Christian at Live Oak Livonia at Port Allen Dutchtown at St. Michael Walker at Scotlandville Madison Prep at Zachary East St. John at West Feliciana Assumption at North Iberville Slaughter at East Feliciana Prairieville at Brusly Slidell at Lutcher John F. Kennedy at St. Amant

Terrebonne at St. James Albany at Springﬁeld Baker at Northeast Amite at Parkview Baptist Donaldsonville at White Castle Kentwood at St. Helena

Volleyball Tuesday’s scores Glen Oaks 3, Tara 0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-18) Madison Prep 3, Baton Rouge 0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-23) Covington 3, Central Private 1 (25-4, 23-25, 25-15, 25-15) Dutchtown 3, U-High 1 (2521, 21-25, 25-27, 25-27) Central-B.R. 3, Episcopal 1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-11, 25-16) Live Oak 3, West Feliciana 0 (25-8, 25-8, 25-15) St. John 3, Sacred Heart 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-12) Southern Lab 3, WoodlawnB.R. 0 (25-5, 25-10, 25-21)

CEO Brian Rolapp said Tuesday the PGA Tour is not considering a path back for LIV Golf players like the program it offered Brooks Koepka and three other top players at the start of the year. LIV’s future has never been more murky after the rival circuit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week as it plots a new model no longer bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund. Still to be determined is how many players stick around for the less lucrative “LIV 2.0.” The other part of the equation is where else they would go. Koepka got out of the last year of his LIV contract and was offered a path back to the PGA Tour through the “returning-member program.” Rolapp then offered that to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith — all major champions since 2022 when LIV launched — and gave them a three-week deadline to accept with no guarantee it would be offered again. “In terms of where we are today, we are not currently contemplating a returning-member program like the one you saw in January,” Rolapp said on a conference call to discuss the eligibility for the new competition model on the PGA Tour that starts in 2028. “Everyone at the PGA Tour, myself included, has been focused on what is best for the organization.” Rolapp has leaned into meritocracy in the new model, making players earn their place. Koepka, along with the other players offered a return, had ﬁve-year exemptions from winning majors. Koepka was required to pay $5 million to charity, and he had no access to player equity grants for ﬁve years. He also was not eligible for any of the $20 million

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY BRIAN LAWLESS

Jon Rahm of Spain tees off on the second day of the Irish Open at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Friday. signature events unless he qualified for them through his play. Koepka failed to get into any of those tournaments, and he did not qualify for the PGA Tour’s postseason. Rahm has been elusive when it comes to his plans. He has one year left on the contract he signed ahead of the 2024 LIV season, and now that contract is in doubt because of the Chapter 11 ﬁling. “There’s a long legal process they have to go through before a lot of things fall into place,” Rahm said Tuesday at the BMW PGA Championship on the European tour. “I really can’t give you an answer right now. ... Until this current season is done, I really won’t be able to give you an answer.” Rolapp has been guided by making the PGA Tour the ultimate destination in golf, and the two-tier system that includes a Championship Series with stronger ﬁelds and higher purses makes it the most attractive place to be. The likes of Rahm and DeChambeau are two of the biggest pieces missing if golf wants to patch itself together after such

a disruptive time brought on by LIV. But Rolapp also has to respect his players who watched their peers chase Saudi riches that caused the disruption. Rolapp said in June when he revealed the bones of the new model, “We do have to account for whatever lingering discipline is left, or rules that have been broken. There’s scar tissue, and that has to be accounted for. That’s not to say we’re going to be punitive, it’s just that we’re a membership organization of rules.” At least two players who were with LIV are in position to return by earning 10 tour cards available through the European tour — Patrick Reed, who leads the Race to Dubai, and Eugenio Chacarra, who is No. 3 on the list. Both have been out of LIV for more than a year, so the tour’s one-year ban has expired. Bernd Wiesberger of Austria also is in position to get a card. The PGA Tour has not said how many cards it would offer the European tour going forward. They are still negotiating an alliance that provided those cards, and that could be a path back for European tour members like Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton.

Fever star Cunningham discusses next WNBA commissioner, ‘booming’ league BY MICHAEL MAROT Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has discussed the soon-to-be vacant WNBA commissioner’s job with Adam Silver after the NBA commissioner reached out to her. “I have talked to Adam Silver a couple times, and I think he’s a great guy,” Cunningham said Monday after a Fever practice during the women’s FIBA World Cup break. “He was very knowledgeable and full of wisdom and so getting to talk to him and hear his perspective of how he approaches the NBA is huge, who he’s kind of looking for. I think if you want to know the real answers, you go to him. “But I think he’s going to put someone in place who really wants to take our league to another level than it’s already at,” Cunningham added. “Our league is booming, so why would we not (want) someone who’s going to make it even more booming?” Current commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently announced she would retire at the end of the year. Silver has a long history of speaking with players about various topics in the NBA or the WNBA, though the NBA declined to speciﬁcally address what Silver and Cunningham discussed. Cunningham, however, was more outspoken about the traits and characteristics she wants to see in the WNBA’s next leader, though she didn’t share names of any possible candidates she might have in mind. Cunningham has emerged as a polarizing player this season because of her position on transgender athletes competing in women’s and girls sports. She has not backed down from her opinion despite a backlash that has included fans of Cunningham and her stance being confronted at games. Yet Cunningham believes the league needs a uniﬁer. “I think the WNBA has always been a place for people to feel safe and comfortable. I think there’s all types of walks in this organization, or in this league, which I think is absolutely awesome,” Cunningham said. “But I do think with that you need someone who’s going to unite everybody because it can be so differ-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY MARC LEBRYK

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham smiles while warming up before a game against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 28 in Indianapolis. ent. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I think it makes it a lot of fun.” She also wants someone committed to helping the league continue to grow. The WNBA has seen ticket and merchandising sales, television ratings and interest in the league soar since the Fever drafted Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 selection in 2024 even amid the many controversies about everything from whether the hard fouls that Clark has taken this season are too hard to questions about Englebert’s leadership. Engelbert’s accomplishments include signing a new, richer television contract; a new collective bargaining agreement; and charter ﬂights for teams. Cunningham said it may be time for the league to discuss if playing games on back-to-back nights creates a better product on the court or if they could be eliminated with shorter in-season breaks — though she noted that’s part of the reason for higher salaries. But the biggest thing Cunningham is looking for is someone who values the players. “I really do think that you need a commissioner who is players’ first, who wants a relationship with their players,” Cunningham said. “I think that’s so important. That doesn’t mean we’re always

going to get along, and we’re always going to agree. Like they have a job, they work for the owners, and so they’re going to have to make hard decisions. But if you have that open line of communication and that respect level, I think that it just feels different. I think that is a very important piece for our new commissioner.” And regardless of the fans or the critics, Cunningham insists she wants the WNBA to continue its overall mission. “You continue to have a growth mindset and see other people’s walks of life and really get to know why they are the way they are, and I think that’s truly fun,” she said. “Like you are playing the best basketball, you’re in the best league in the entire world and you’re getting to learn so much about who you are as a human, how other people are as a human. But with all that, with all the diversity you do need someone who’s going to unite our league and have a common goal and get us all on the same page. I think that’s super important.” Indiana is waiting for All-Stars Clark and Aliyah Boston and coach Stephanie White to rejoin the team. The trio was part of the United States’ gold-medal winning team in Berlin. The Fever resumes play on Friday at Toronto.

6C ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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

Jeffrey Newell

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

Odds NFL Thursday

FAVORITE OPENTODAY O/U UNDERDOG at BUFFALO 3 4½ (53½) Detroit Sunday FAVORITE OPENTODAY 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

Monday

FAVORITE at LA RAMS

OPENTODAY O/U UNDERDOG 9½ 7 (48½) NY Giants

College Football Thursday FAVORITE at PITT

OPENTODAY O/U UNDERDOG 10½ 10½ (51½) Syracuse

FAVORITE Miami (FL) at TX TECH at OREGON

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

Friday

Saturday

3½ 18½ 3½ 34½ 3 18½ 42½ 24½ 22½ 3 29½ 3½ 10½ 2½ 18 35½ 7½ 20½ 42½ 30½ 24½ 2½ 27½ 34½ 17½ 6½ 14½

(50½) at M.TENN (50½) Nicholls St (52½) Ga. Southrn (57½) UT Martin (54½) at SO. MISS (50½) Georgia St (57½) E. Wash. (52½) N. Dakota (46½)New Mexico (59½)at OLE MISS (52½)Michigan St (48½) Colorado (53½) W. Virginia (54½) at MRYLND (52½) at COLO. ST (60½) Kennsw St (56½) UAB (56½)Arkansas St (56½) E. Tx A&M (58½) UTSA (54½) S.Dakota (46½) J. Madison (51½) at SACR. ST (49½) N.Illinois (52½) Montana (50½)at S.JOSE ST (53½) Purdue

MLB Wednesday

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 FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE at ST. LOUIS OFF San Francisco OFF LA Dodgers -216 at CINCINNATI +174 Milwaukee -140 at PITTSBURGH +115 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

Chicago Cleveland Detroit Minnesota Kansas City West Division Houston Texas Seattle Athletics Los Angeles

Monday’s games

East Division

W 89 83 74 71 69

L 63 68 77 81 82

Pct GB .586 — .550 5½ .490 14½ .467 18 .457 19½

W 94 84 75 75 70

L 57 68 76 76 81

Pct GB .623 — .553 10½ .497 19 .497 19 .464 24

W z-Los Angeles 92 San Diego 82 Arizona 80 San Francisco 62 Colorado 55 z-clinched playoff berth

L 59 68 71 89 95

Pct GB .609 — .547 9½ .530 12 .411 30 .367 36½

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

Tuesday’s games

L.A. Dodgers 4, Cincinnati 0 Washington 6, Philadelphia 3 Milwaukee 5, Pittsburgh 1 Atlanta 6, Chicago Cubs 3 Baltimore 7, N.Y. Mets 5, 11 innings San Francisco at St. Louis, n San Diego at Colorado, n Miami at Arizona, n

W 91 88 82 75 74

L 59 63 68 77 78

Pct .607 .583 .547 .493 .487

GB — 3½ 9 17 18

W 77 77 72 70 66

L 74 75 79 81 85

Pct .510 .507 .477 .464 .437

GB — ½ 5 7 11

W 76 74 70 61 57

L 75 76 81 90 93

Pct GB .503 — .493 1½ .464 6 .404 15 .380 18½

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

NFL glance Monday’s game

Kansas City 31, Denver 10

Thursday’s games

Detroit at Buffalo, 7:15 p.m. 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.

Tuesday’s games

Tampa Bay 2, Athletics 1 Cleveland 7, Chicago White Sox 6 Detroit 10, Toronto 1 N.Y. Yankees 8, Minnesota 1 Houston 4, Kansas City 2 Baltimore 7, N.Y. Mets 5, 11 innings Boston at Texas, 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 (Mat-

Monday, Sept. 21

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

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.

Thursday

Pro football

Sunday’s games

Kansas City 31, Denver 10

National schedule

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.

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

Late Monday

College football

Wednesday’s games

American League z-Tampa Bay z-New York Boston Toronto Baltimore Central Division

National League

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

MLB glance East Division

thews 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.

Monday’s games

Pro baseball

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.

Transactions 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.

SELF-SCH TO

ULE ED

SCAN

FAVORITE OPENTODAY 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 MINNESOTA28½ 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.CAROLINA7½ 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 at S.HOUSTON 18½ at JAX STATE 3 at MEMPHIS 35½ UConn 2½ at UCF 19½ at WASHNGTN 44½ at NEBRASKA 24½ at OKLAHOMA 21½ LSU 2½ at NOTRE DAME29½ at N’WESTERN 5½ at VIRGINIA 8½ Virginia Tech 1½ BYU 20½ at TENNESSEE 35½ at UL 8½ at TCU 20½ at TULSA 42½ at TEXAS 29½ at BOISE ST 22½ at S. DIEGO ST 1½ N.Dakota St. 23½ at ARIZONA 31½ at OREGON ST 9½ Fresno State 5½ at UCLA 13½

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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

1dn

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

STAFF PHOTOS BY MADDIE SCOTT

Joelle’s Soul & Savour had its grand opening on Sept. 11. The new restaurant serves up soul food with a distinct Caribbean fusion.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK Former LSU quarterback drops back and cooks up Louisiana-Caribbean fusion at Joelle’s Soul & Savour

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

BY MADDIE SCOTT

Staff writer

Joelle’s Soul & Savour in Baton Rouge, soul food ﬁxings are served with a Caribbean twist, and the kitchen has a familiar football face. Located at 3015 Westfork Drive, the elevated soul food restaurant grand opens at 5 p.m. today with a menu that incorporates Louisiana cuisine with Caribbean infusion, inspired by the Jamaican roots of co-executive chef and former LSU quarterback Rohan Davey — joined by 15-year Baton Rouge chef Ja’Ron Johnson Sr. “What better food did you get than going to your mom’s house on a Sunday evening and having a meal with the family?” said coowner Charles George. Think jerk grilled lamb chops, Jamaican-style braised oxtails and red snapper served with dirty rice. Customers can get the best of both worlds with soulful sides like mac and cheese, candied yams and red beans and rice. George and other co-owner Martin Knightshead wanted to open a restaurant that serves traditional Louisiana food with an element of surprise while enjoying a comfortable, elevated atmosphere. Knight-

Charles George is co-owner of Joelle’s Soul & Savour, 3015 Westfork Drive, Baton Rouge.

JOELLE’S SOUL & SAVOUR 3015 Westfork Drive, Baton Rouge l Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and an all-day brunch served 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays l Reservations are strongly recommended.

shead took it to heart when his daughter said she wanted her own restaurant one day, hence naming the restaurant after her. “We didn’t want to take away from the home-cooked meal experience, but we wanted to add to the appearance of it, to give people a really unique feel for what we’re

ä See JOELLE’S, page 2D

Lagasse to attend opening of his new BR restaurant L’Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge announced its partnership with Emeril Lagasse to open a steakhouse in 2026. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

After plans for Emeril’s Chop House in Baton Rouge were announced earlier this year, Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant now has a grand opening date. The celebrity chef’s restaurant will open to the public Thursday, Sept. 24, inside L’Auberge Casino, 777 L’Auberge Ave., starting with a ribbon-cutting from 4 p.m.

to 5 p.m. The event will feature the man himself, according to Jerry Abner, vice president of marketing at L’Auberge. With head chef Brendan Rufty, the new restaurant is Lagasse’s take on the classic American steakhouse with premium steaks, fresh seafood and craft cocktails. With space to seat 175 guests, the restaurant will also include

ä See LAGASSE, page 3D

2D ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

lll

Tub lift gives senior independence

STAFF PHOTOS BY MADDIE SCOTT

The main dining area at Joelle’s Soul & Savour features an almost monochrome-grey color palette with pops of blues and whites.

JOELLE’S

to ceiling in ﬂowers, greenery and two swings, making for a picture-perfect photo backdrop. Turn right and enter the main dining area which features an almost monochrome-grey color palette with pops of blues and whites. “I want them to have a comfortable, casual dining experience, but we want them to elevate it as much as they feel they want to,” George said about the customers. Charcoal-grey leather seats and white marble tables under chandeliers envelop the main dining area, and local art by Gillian Stevens adorns the walls. One dining area’s walls wear a Baton Rouge mural scene by local artist Amos Brown, featuring cultural emblems such as Louisiana’s Capitol, the Horace Wilkinson Bridge and logos of LSU and Southern University. “It’s for everybody,” Davey said about the Joelle’s. “That’s one of the biggest things that I want to get across is that everybody is welcome.” In about a month, the restaurant will get a food truck to feed those sitting in the patio area, Davey said. It’ll have a completely new menu equipped with ﬁnger foods like jerk chicken or pork tacos, tostones, jerk quesadillas, wings and kebabs.

Continued from page 1D putting on a plate for them,” George said.

Soul meets Caribbean Born and raised on a family farm in Jamaica, Davey grew up picking peas and learning the ins and out of cooking from his grandfather, grandmother, great uncles and his mother. The farm’s produce included onions, sweet potatoes, citrus and pineapples, and animals like cows, goats, pigs and chickens were slaughtered and sold at the market every Friday and Saturday, Davey said. He remembers growing up with soups, jerk chicken, curries and ackee and saltfish — Jamaica’s national dish. After playing for LSU from 1998 to 2001, Davey retired from the field in 2013 and started his culinary career with the opening of his Jamaican catering business, Quick 6 Catering. Now at Joelle’s, he collaborates with Johnson, from Louisiana, to fuse the two cuisines. Johnson has a 15-year career in Baton Rouge kitchens, including stints at Jubans and Colonel’s Club. “When it comes to creativity, we both collab or create together,” Davey said. “When it comes to the process, especially working in a bigger space, larger proportions and things of that nature — Chef J and his mind for it is just awesome.” One of Davey’s favorite dishes is the lamb chops. From start to finish, he trims the fat off New Zealand lamb chops in 4-ounce portions and marinates them in a dry and wet jerk sauce for 24 to 30 hours to eliminate the gamey taste. They’re grilled at a high temperature on each side for about two and a half minutes and seasoned with a pineapplehoney-mango glaze. “It does give you a little kick of spiciness,” Davey said. “So, we try to cool you off with the sweetness and the tanginess of the pineapple-mango-honey glaze.” Garnished with a flower, the lamb chops are served with asparagus and a choice of garlic mashed potatoes or

The Joelle’s 75 from Joelle’s Soul & Savour candied yams. The seafood pasta au Joelle’s is a mix of shrimp, crab and crawfish stirred into a creamy sauce seasoned with Louisiana spice. It’s served with three garlic knots seared with garlic butter to awaken the roll’s flavors, George said. Try the millionaire’s spinach dip, an appetizer George says is unbelievable. One of Rohan’s favorite bites is the crawfish boudin dip served with grilled crostini and made with boudin from Jerry Lee’s Cajun Foods off Greenwell Springs Road. George doesn’t want people to miss the brunch menu, so it’ll be available all Sunday with dishes including chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits or sweet potato waffles with praline cream syrup. The selection of cocktails includes some eye-catching garnishes. One, the BarVana, is a tropical sip with pineapple and white rum, Blue Curaçao and garnished with a toothpick structure of citrus and berries. For something chic, try the Joelle’s 75, a mix of strawberry lemonade, cognac and fernet, garnished with a strawberry rose.

The goal George said he believes that people in Baton Rouge deserve the same excitement surrounding the local food scene as people in other major cities like Dallas, Chicago and Miami. He wants to bring that same excitement with Joelle’s, and if the team gets it right, he hopes to eventually take the brand to other cities. “The goal is to have the perfect blueprint created here in Baton Rouge, and then we take that, and we move that to other cities as we grow,” George said. For Davey, he’s thankful to work with the team and staff at Joelle’s, who has already taught him a lot. “It’s a space that I love to be in,” Davey said. “Football, family and food are my passions. Football, of course, I’m done with that. Now it’s the food component.”

Step inside The building once belonged to the Hawk’s Nest, a 50-year restaurant that closed in 2019. The space spans 6,000 square feet and features 160 seats between the indoor, bar and patio dining areas. Upon walking in, guests will see a wall covered ﬂoor

Dear Heloise: Recently, you you can just slide your legs out of the tub. published a comment and My mother has been usquestion about someone who needed help ing such a unit for getting into and out over 10 years and of a bathtub. But just has to recharge after they checked the control by simthe prices for tubs ply disconnecting it that you can walk from the chair, grabinto, they decided bing it, and replacHints from ing it gently after not to consider this Heloise it’s been charged. and figure out a difThis has allowed her ferent way to bathe. to retain independence and My mother has always privacy. — Tim M., via email been someone one takes a bath and dislikes showers. Marking the date She started to have difficulty getting in and out of Dear Heloise: We like varithe tub, until a sibling sug- ety in our home, but not gested a tub lift. It’s a chair everyone likes the same thing. For example, I just that goes inside the tub counted 13 different cerewith flaps that slide easily over the side of the tub. als in our kitchen cabinet. It has a simple remote These take up a lot of that allows one to lower room, so when they’re and lift themselves in and about half full, I trim the out of the tub. So, there’s boxes down to about half no need to try to stand in their size. Often, this ends the tub to get up or crawl up cutting off the “best if over the side of the tub — used by date.”

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Anticipating this, whenever I buy a new product (not just cereal but salad dressing, condiments, lunch meat, etc.), I mark the container with the date that it was purchased. This has saved me a lot of time wondering whether the item is old or if it should be tossed in the trash. Also, whenever I put leftovers or bulk items in the freezer, I always mark the date on the container with a label or marking pen. — Glenn, in Simi Valley, California Glenn, thanks for writing 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

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Muddy, sweaty, barefoot: Time for your surprise party! could snatch the car keys Dear Miss Manners: My and flee. co-worker was given a And presumably there surprise baby shower at were too many witnesses her mother-in-law’s house. to dispatch the husHer husband 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 had completed two MISS hours of yard work; serious 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, well and looking ridiculous. donations be made to one What would Miss Manners of 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.

TODAY IN HISTORY gan, by William C. Durant. In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera ofﬁcially opened its Today is Wednesday, new opera house at New Sept. 16, the 259th day of York’s Lincoln Center for 2026. There are 106 days the Performing Arts with left in the year. the world premiere of Today in history: Samuel Barber’s “Antony On Sept. 16, 1893, the and Cleopatra.” largest land run in U.S. In 1982, the massacre history occurred as more than 100,000 White settlers of more than 1,300 Palesrushed to claim over more tinian men, women and than 6 million acres of land children at the hands of in what is now northern Israeli-allied Christian Oklahoma. The land had Phalange militiamen began been acquired by the forc- in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. ibly displaced Cherokee In 2007, O.J. Simpson Nation, which came under was arrested in the alleged U.S. pressure to sell land armed robbery of sports rights before the run. memorabilia collectors in Also on this date: Las Vegas. (Simpson was In 1810, Catholic priest later convicted of kidnapMiguel Hidalgo y Costilla called on his parishioners ping and armed robbery to join him in a rebeland sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was lion against Spanish rule, released in 2017.) marking the beginning of In 2013, Aaron Alexis, a the Mexican War of Indeformer U.S. Navy reservpendence. In 1908, General Motors ist, went on a shooting was founded in Flint, Michi- rampage inside the Wash-

By The Associated Press

ington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being fatally shot by police. 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. Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 55. Singer-songwriter Musiq Soulchild is 49. Actor Alexis Bledel is 45. Actor Madeline Zima is 41. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 34.

Friend group dislikes co-worker Dear Harriette: Over the sum- their bond. Don’t try. Dear Harriette: I was pet sitmer, I became extremely close friends with a new ting my friend’s cat, and it co-worker. We talked when- ended with an emergency visit to the vet. Everyever we worked together and eventually began hang- thing was going ﬁne until I noticed she voming out outside of work. The semester ited multiple times just began and all around the house, so my other friends I called my friend have returned to to alert her and took campus, and a few her cat to the vet. of them don’t like It turned out the Harriette cat ate the roomthe co-worker I beCole friended. Before I mate’s hair tie SENSE AND knew my co-worker, and needed to get SENSITIVITY they were all friends a $7,000 surgery, and didn’t end on the which I agreed to best of terms. I’m in an exbefore talking to my friend. tremely awkward situation. She was understandably extremely upset when I told I love my co-worker and her what happened. She we’ve become close, but I also adore my friends; how- was worried about her cat ever, I don’t want their own and was also overwhelmed by the unexpected $7,000 history to cloud my feelsurgery. ings. How should I move I feel awful this hapabout this situation and navigate my friendships? — pened while the cat was Friend or Foe in my care, even though I Dear Friend or Foe: Unfortuhad no idea she had eaten the hair tie. I was watchnately, you cannot force this friend on your curing the cat responsibly and acted as soon as I realized rent friend group. You can something was wrong. Now choose to be that person’s I am worried about who is friend and spend time with the co-worker separately. In responsible for paying the that case, be sure to let your vet bill. My friend believes that friend group know you two because the cat was under are friends. That way nomy care when she became body is surprised if you all sick, I should be responﬁnd yourselves at the same place. But don’t be naive in sible for at least some of thinking you can transform the cost. I don’t think that is

LAGASSE

Continued from page 1D a private dining room, bar and lounge area. It has replaced the former 18 Steak in L’Auberge and will feature expansive views of the

Mississippi River. In August, the restaurant scored second place in the seafood category at Fête Rouge. The dish was a Louisiana yellowfin tuna with tartare of caper, sun-dried tomato, shallot, extra-virgin olive oil and caviar. Lagasse was raised in

fair, because I did not give the cat the hair tie or know she had swallowed it. I also feel like this was a completely unexpected accident that could have happened even if my friend had been the one watching her. Should I be responsible for the $7,000 vet bill simply because the cat was in my care when the accident happened? — Pet Sitter Dear Pet Sitter: This is an extremely unfortunate situation. No, you are not responsible for footing the $7,000 bill. The mistake you made — a big one — was to go ahead with the surgery without informing your friend and getting her consent to do the surgery. Just as with humans, a doctor should get consent from a responsible party. You did not have the authority to OK that surgery and the contingent expense. If you ever watch a pet again, don’t agree to an expense, surgery or any other extreme situation without express permission from the pet owner.

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Send questions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

Massachusetts and built his expertise in kitchens across the globe. In 1990, he opened his flagship restaurant, Emeril’s, which has earned two Michelin stars and an international following. He currently owns restaurants in New Orleans, Las Vegas and three on cruise ships.

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4D ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY CeLebrItY CIpher Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

toDAy's cLuE: G EQuALs s

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ 5D

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CurTiS

Hi and LoiS

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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6D ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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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

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

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

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

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.

toDAy’s WoRD — KILoGRAM: KIL-oh-gram: The base unit of mass in the

Bizarro

marmaduKe

International System of Units. Average mark 20 words Time limit 40 minutes Can you find 32 or more words in KILOGRAM? yEstERDAy’s WoRD — MAnnERs mane manner manse mare maser mean mesa amen arms

name namer near earn ramen ream same sane saner

seam sear smear snare

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

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

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Wednesday, September 16, 2026 ■ 7D

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classifieds.theadvocate.com Search Search& &Place PlaceAds AdsOnline Onlineatatclassifieds.theadvocate.com classifieds.theadvocate.com* Call * Call -Friday Us Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM at 225-383-0111 8AM-5PM at 225-383-0111

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Merchandise

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Calculated Builders, LLC d/b/a Benchmark Properties of LA, LLC", please contact Creighton B. Abadie, Attorney, at (225) 924-5150. 200913-Sept 16-18, 3t $81.70

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Public Notices

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE --ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS BID EVENT NO. 139 Sealed Bids will be re‐ ceived electronically through our E-Procure‐ ment site at www. jeffparish.gov/supplier until 2:00 p.m., October 6, 2026 and shall, at the below listed time and place, be publicly opened and read aloud. At no charge, bidders may sub‐ mit via Jefferson Parish’s electronic procurement page by visiting www. jeffparish.gov/supplier to register for this free site. Bids will be accepted and received through Bridge until 2 p.m. The public bid opening will be held at the West Bank Pur‐ chasing Department at 200 Derbigny Street, Suite 4400, Gretna, LA 70053 beginning at 2:30 p.m. on each bid opening date for the following project: Pre-Placed Emergency Contract to Supply Equipment and Opera‐ tors on an Emergency Basis to Compliment Jef‐ ferson Parish Forces in Clean Up and/or Restora‐ tion Efforts, As Needed, in Unincorporated Jeffer‐ son Parish in Response to a Natural Disaster or Other State of Emer‐ gency, For A Period of Three (3) Years Late bids will not be ac‐ cepted Jefferson Parish strongly encourages the involve‐ ment of small busi‐ nesses, minority busi‐ nesses, women's busi‐ ness enterprises, and veteran-owned busi‐ nesses to stimulate par‐ ticipation in procurement and assistance pro‐ grams. work in accor‐ dance with the speciﬁca‐ tion with no additional cost to the owner. Megan Grantham Director Purchasing Department Misty A. Camardelle Assistant Director Purchasing Department

ADV: The Baton Rouge Advocate: September 2, 9, and 16, 2026 For additional informa‐ tion, please visit the Pur‐ chasing Webpage at https://www.jeffparish. gov/464/Purchasing or you may call 504-3642678.

Public Notices Bids/Proposals

g www. ment site at jeffparish.gov/supplier until 2:00 p.m., October 8, 2026 and shall, at the below listed time and place, be publicly opened and read aloud. At no charge, bidders may sub‐ mit via Jefferson Parish’s electronic procurement page by visiting www. jeffparish.gov/supplier to register for this free site.

y Clelland, Inc. Printed copies are not available from the Designer but arrangements can be made to obtain them through most repro‐ graphic ﬁrms. Plan hold‐ ers are responsible for their own reproduction costs.

Bids will be accepted and received through Bridge until 2 p.m. The public bid opening will be held at the West Bank Pur‐ chasing Department at 200 Derbigny Street, Suite 4400, Gretna, LA 70053 beginning at 2:30 p.m. on each bid opening date for the following project: Labor, Materials, and All Other Incidentals Necessary to Demolish and Properly Dispose of 3133 Edenborn Avenue, Metairie, LA 70002 Late bids will not be ac‐ cepted Jefferson Parish strongly encourages the involve‐ ment of small busi‐ nesses, minority busi‐ nesses, women's busi‐ ness enterprises, and veteran-owned busi‐ nesses to stimulate par‐ ticipation in procurement and assistance pro‐ grams. work in accor‐ dance with the speciﬁca‐ tion with no additional cost to the owner. Megan Grantham Director Purchasing Department Misty A. Camardelle Assistant Director Purchasing Department ADV: The Baton Rouge Advocate: September 9, 16, and 23, 2026 For additional informa‐ tion, please visit the Pur‐ chasing Webpage at https://www.jeffparish. gov/464/Purchasing or you may call 504-3642678. 199624-sept 9-16-23-3t $109.03

PUBLIC NOTICE --ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Sealed bids will be re‐ ceived by the Louisiana Tech University, Purchas‐ ing Ofﬁce, Keeny Hall Room 408, 208 Keeny Cir‐ cle, Ruston, LA 71272. The deadline for receipt of bids is 2:00 PM on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at which time bids will be opened and read aloud in Keeny Hall Room 408, 208 Keeny Circle, Ruston LA 71272. FOR: Replace Chiller Lomax Hall Louisiana Tech University Ruston, Louisiana BID NUMBER: 50012-66427

199269-SEP 2-9-16-3T $117.13 PUBLIC NOTICE --ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS BID EVENT NO. 159 Sealed Bids will be re‐ ceived electronically through our E-Procure‐ i

Complete Bidding Docu‐ ments for this project are available in electronic form. They may be ob‐ tained without charge and without deposit from Aillet, Fenner, Jolly & Mc‐ l ll d i d

Questions about this pro‐ cedure shall be directed to the Designer at: Aillet, Fenner, Jolly & Mc‐ Clelland, Inc. 3003 Knight Street, Suite 120 Shreveport, LA 71105 Telephone: 318-425-7452 E-mail: mmiddleton@ afjmc.com All bids shall be accom‐ panied by bid security in an amount of five per‐ cent (5.0%) of the sum of the base bid and all al‐ ternates. The form of this security shall be as stated in the Instructions to Bidders included in the Bid Documents for this project. The successful Bidder shall be required to fur‐ nish a Performance and Payment Bond written as described in the Instruc‐ tions to Bidders included in the Bid Documents for this project. A MANDATORY PRE-BID CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD at 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 24, 2026 at Lomax Hall, 1201 Lomax Drive, Ruston, Louisiana 71270 Bids shall be accepted from Contractors who are licensed under LA. R.S. 37:2150-2192 for the classification of Mechan‐ ical Work. Bidder is re‐ quired to comply with provisions and require‐ ments of LA R.S. 38:2212(B)(5). No bid may be withdrawn for a pe‐ riod of forty-five (45) days after receipt of bids, except under the provisions of LA. R.S. 38:2214. The Owner reserves the right to reject any and all bids for just cause. In ac‐ cordance with La. R.S. 38:2212(B)(1), the provi‐ sions and requirements of this Section; and those stated in the bidding documents shall not be waived by any entity. When this project is fi‐ nanced either partially or entirely with State Bonds or financed in whole or in part by federal or other funds which are not readily available at the time bids are received, the award of this Con‐ tract is contingent upon the granting of lines of credit, or the sale of bonds by the Bond Com‐ mission or the availabil‐ ity of federal or other funds. The State shall incur no obligation to the Contractor until the Con‐ tract Between Owner and Contractor is fully exe‐ cuted. ANY PERSON REQUIRING SPECIAL ACCOMMODA‐ TIONS SHALL NOTIFY LOUISIANA TECH UNIVER‐ SITY OF THE TYPE(S) OF

NOTICE OF SPECIAL ELECTION NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an election will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, within Cross Gates Subdivision Crime Prevention and Neighborhood Improvement District (“District”) and that at said election all registered voters in the district shall be entitled to vote on the following: CROSS GATES SUBDIVISION CRIME PREVENTION AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Shall the Cross Gates Subdivision Crime Prevention and Neighborhood Improvement District (“District”) be authorized to levy and collect an annual parcel fee of $150 on each improved and unimproved parcel within the District for a period of 10 years, beginning in 2027 and ending in 2036, as provided in La. R.S. 33:9097.42 with the proceeds of the parcel fee to be used to aid in crime prevention and to add to the security of the District residents by providing for an increase in the presence of law enforcement personnel and to add to the betterment of the District by providing for beautification and other improvements (an estimated $11,700.00 is reasonably expected to be collected from the initial collection)? The estimated cost of said election, as determined by the Louisiana Secretary of State, is $600.00 based on the actual cost of similar elections. The election will be held in accordance with the Louisiana Election Code at the following polling places in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m: Precinct

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Public Notices Bids/Proposals

ACCOMMODATION RE‐ QUIRED NOT LESS THEN SEVEN (7) DAYS BEFORE THE BID OPENING.

the Bid Documents for this project.

199335-SEP 9-16-23-3T $128.76 PUBLIC NOTICE --ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Sealed bids will be re‐ ceived for the State of Louisiana by the Coastal Protection and Restora‐ tion Authority, 150 Ter‐ race Avenue, 4th Floor Conference Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 until 2:00 P.M., Wednesday, October 14, 2026. ANY PERSON REQUIRING SPECIAL ACCOMMODA‐ TIONS SHALL NOTIFY THE COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AU‐ THORITY OF THE TYPE(S) OF ACCOMMODATION RE‐ QUIRED NOT LESS THAN SEVEN (7) DAYS BEFORE THE BID OPENING. FOR: State Wildlife Refuge Terracing & Shoreline Protection Vermilion Parish, Louisiana PROJECT NUMBER: TV-0100 Complete Bid Documents for this project are avail‐ able in electronic form. They may be obtained without charge and with‐ out deposit from http:// coastal.la.gov/resources/ rfps-rsiqs-contracts/ bids/. Printed copies can also be obtained from:

COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AU‐ THORITY (CPRA) 150 Ter‐ race Avenue Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Attn: Kayla Causey E-mail: cpra.bidding@la. gov Phone: (225) 342-9421 Fax: (225) 800-5599 All bids shall be accom‐ panied by bid security in an amount of ﬁve per‐ cent (5.0%) of the sum of the base bid and all al‐ ternates. The form of this security shall be as stated in the Instructions to Bidders included in

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The successful Bidder shall be required to fur‐ nish a Performance and Payment Bond written as described in the Instruc‐ tions to Bidders included in the Bid Documents for this project. A NON-MANDATORY PREBID CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD at 2:00 PM on Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 150 Terrace Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70802 and via Microsoft Teams Webinar. You may regis‐ ter for the hybrid pre-bid meeting via Microsoft Teams at: https://events.gcc. teams.microsoft.com/ event/127cf4a0-d7734e83-a2ba-f30b36e1e36 5@89b0b16b-677c-4e6fa254-61311d5b4a86? source=copyLinkLega‐ cyShareLinkDialog. The information to access meeting audio through computer, phone, or other device will be provided after register‐ ing through the link above. It is the responsibility of all potential bidders to visit the job site to as‐ sess the location, logis‐ tics, and site conditions prior to bidding. The job site (State Wildlife Refuge) is open to the public; however, contrac‐ tors must abide to the Refuge’s Rules and Regu‐ lations (wlf.louisiana. gov/page/state-wildliferefuge), including the re‐ striction of airboats. Ac‐ cess to portions of the Job Site that require air‐ boats (North Lake) will only be permitted on September 22 through September 24, 2026. Con‐ tact Todd Baker at (225) 342-4807 or Todd.Baker@ la.gov at least seven (7) days in advance to schedule a visit. Contrac‐ tors shall be responsible for providing their own outboard and any rental and boat launching fees. The jobsite visit is not mandatory, but it is highly encouraged for those submitting a bid. Contact Todd Baker at (225) 342-4807 or Todd. Baker@la.gov for any i i

Public Notices Bids/Proposals g y questions or issues re‐ lated to the non-manda‐ tory pre-bid conference or access to the Project Site. Bids shall be accepted from Contractors who are licensed under LA. R.S. 37:2150-2192 for the classification Heavy Con‐ struction. In accordance with LA. R.S. 37:2165(C), anyone objecting to the classification must send a certified letter to both the Louisiana State Li‐ censing Board for Con‐ tractors and the CPRA at the address listed above. The letter must be re‐ ceived no later than ten (10) working days prior to the day on which bids are to be opened. Bidder is required to comply with provisions and requirements of LA R.S.38:2212(B)(5). No bid may be withdrawn for a period of forty-five (45) calendar days after re‐ ceipt of bids, except under the provisions of LA. R.S. 38:2214. The Owner reserves the right to reject any and all bids for just cause. In ac‐ cordance with La. R.S. 38:2212(B)(1), the provi‐ sions and requirements of this Section; and those stated in the bidding documents shall not be waived by any entity. When this project is fi‐ nanced either partially or entirely with State Bonds or financed in whole or in part by federal or other funds which are not readily available at the time bids are received, the award of this Con‐ tract is contingent upon the granting of lines of credit, or the sale of bonds by the Bond Com‐ mission or the availabil‐ ity of federal or other funds. The State shall incur no obligation to the Contractor until the Con‐ tract between Owner and Contractor is fully exe‐ cuted. Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is a participant in the Small Entrepreneurship (SE) Program (the Hudson Ini‐ tiative) and the VeteranOwned and Service-Con‐

CLASSIFIEDS.THEADVOCATE.COM Public Notices Bids/Proposals

nected Disabled VeteranOwned (LaVet) Small En‐ trepreneurships Pro‐ gram. Bidders are en‐ couraged to consider participation. Informa‐ tion is available from Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority or on its website at http:// www.coastal.la.gov/. STATE OF LOUISIANA, COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AUTHORITY MICHAEL HARE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 198932-sept 2-9-16-3t $232.66 PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE TO BIDDERS SP# 164 Sealed bids will be re‐ ceived by the Procure‐ ment Section of the Divi‐ sion of Administration, 1201 N. 3rd. St., 2nd. Floor, Suite 2-160, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at 10:00 A.M. for the follow‐ ing: RFx No. 3000026665, Fork‐ lifts - LADF, 9/30/26 RFx No. 3000026662, Fish Attracting Device Buoys – WLF, 10/1/26 RFx No. 3000026629, High Pressure Pump for DOTD, 10/1/26 Bid proposal forms, in‐ formation and speciﬁca‐ tions may be obtained by accessing the bid num‐ ber in LaPac at www.doa. la.gov/doa/osp/ or from the procurement section listed above. No bids will be received after the date and hour speciﬁed. The right is reserved to reject any and all bids and to waive any infor‐ malities. Amy Vincent Director of State Procurement FAX (225) 342-8688 200590-sept 16-1t $13.20

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Public Notices Bids/Proposals

PUBLIC NOTICE --NOTICE TO BIDDERS The East Feliciana Parish School Board is accept‐ ing sealed bids until 2:00 pm, Tuesday, October 27, 2026 in connection with E-rate and related items utilized in East Feliciana Parish School Board owned schools/facilities. Specifications may be obtained at the office of: Jonathan Loveall, Supervisor (225) 683-8277 East Feliciana Parish School Board 12732 Silliman Street Post Office Box 397 Clinton, LA 70722, during regular office hours of 7:00 am until 4:15 pm, Tuesday through Friday. The Board re‐ serves the right to reject any and/or all bids. Sealed bids should indi‐ cate whether any and/or all items bid are on State Contract Pricing (by indi‐ cation of State Contract Number on each item), be delivered to the above address and identified by marking on the envelope "E-Rate Sealed Bid," due 2:00 pm, Tuesday, Octo‐ ber 27, 2026. Bids may also be accepted online at http://centralauctionh ouse.com. The East Feli‐ ciana Parish School Board has the right to re‐ ject any and/or all nonresponsive bids/quotes. Keisha L. Netterville, Superintendent of Schools 200393-sep 16-23-30-3t $58.77

Legal Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE ---

Legal Notices

Hilcorp Energy Company P.O. Box 61229 Houston, Texas 77208 (713) 289-2721 Pursuant to LAC 43:XIX. Chapter 47 et seq., Hilcorp Energy Company is applying to the Office of Permitting and Com‐ pliance of the Depart‐ ment of Conservation and Energy request‐ ing expedited processing of a Class II saltwater disposal well permit ap‐ plication previously no‐ ticed to the public on June 25, 2026 in The Ad‐ vocate. The well is identi‐ fied as Schexnayder SWD Well No. 008 Serial Number 95836, located in Section 038, Township 12S, Range 15, LA Pice Field, Saint James Parish, Louisiana. In ac‐ cordance with the Public Records Act, R.S. 44:1 et seq., all public records concerning this request for expedited processing are available to the pub‐ lic for inspection and copying. Please address all comments or inquiries to: Gavin D. Broussard, Director Engineering Division Office of Permitting and Compliance 617 North 3rd Street, 8th Floor Baton Rouge, LA 70802 200930-sept 16-1t $173.46

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LEGAL NOTICE Department of Conservation and Energy Ofﬁce of Permitting and Compliance

VISIT BATON ROUGE BOARD MINUTES September 8, 2026 A Special Joint Meeting of the Visit Baton Rouge Board of Directors and the VBR-232 Lafayette PBC Board was held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at the Visit Baton Rouge Office located at 359 Third Street. The following are the minutes of the Visit Baton Rouge Board of Directors meeting: Present Board Members: Rowdy Gaudet Gary Patureau Gary Jupiter Karen Soniat Robyn Merrick Claude Reynaud Jeremy Fontenot Stephen Hightower Janice DeLerno Absent Board Members: Marty Engquist Attendees Present but not participating in formal actions: Jill Kidder, Staff Lisa Clary, Staff Danielle Prejean, Staff Stacy Simon, Staff Laura Cating, Staff Emily Mastrantonio, Staff Geraldine Bordelon, Staff Lauralyn Maranto, Staff Scott Michelet, PBC Board Chairman Mary Stein, PBC Board Member Henry Olinde, Legal Counsel Chuck Elkins, Legal Counsel Trippe Hawthorne, Legal Counsel Lisa Nice, Architect Chairman, Rowdy Gaudet called the meeting to order and opened the meeting for public comment. Discussion/action was held in connection with the construction bids proposed and selection of the alternates in order to adopt a resolution awarding the public works contract for the new headquarters for Visit Baton Rouge to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, pursuant to Louisiana Public Bid Law, and authorizing execution of all necessary documents to finalize the contract award. A motion was made by Claude Reynaud, seconded by Stephen Hightower, to adopt the following Resolution:

Motion Carried There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned on a motion by Gary Patureau, seconded by Stephen Hightower.

NOTICE IS HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN that the district will meet on November 5, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at 16445 N. Antioch Crossing, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70817, and shall then and there in open and public session proceed to examine and canvass the returns and declare the result of the special election.

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