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Captured carbon emissions shipped to other states

Oil major expanding business along Gulf Coast BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer

SpaceX launch in Texas shows La. what’s to come Musk eventually plans 30 liftoffs a day from Vermilion Parish

BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer

STARBASE, Texas — Plumes of vapor burst from the launchpad beneath the rocket, then a flame, pale in the early morning light, visible but silent. The rocket rose steadily. A seagull screeched. People yelled: “Whoa!” and “Go!” Then, as the rocket pierced the clouds, the sound arrived, about 30 seconds after ignition — a fast, pulsing rumble, like the thrum of one car window cracked open on the highway, but much stronger, deep enough to feel in your chest and rattle windows. SpaceX’s Starship — a 40-story, twostage behemoth, the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown — climbed over the Gulf as hundreds watched from the tip of South Padre Island last week. It was the 14th test launch for Starship, and the first time the company would attempt to get the rocket into orbit and deliver working satellites to space. What SpaceX learns from this launch, it will carry with it to Louisiana, where Elon Musk plans to build a $100 billion, 10-launchpad spaceport — several times larger than his Texas site. From Louisiana, he hopes to one day launch rockets at a clip comparable to the pace of departures from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. And when SpaceX lands in Vermilion Parish, the spaceflight superfans will follow. Some are glad they will soon not have to travel so far. “I want to put down my gun and watch the launches from the duck blind,” said

STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER

Spectators watch Monday’s SpaceX launch of Starship Flight 14 from the jetties in South Padre Island, Texas. ABOVE: Starship is launched from Starbase. Kirk Robicheaux, 58, who hunts on his family’s land on White Lake in Vermilion Parish, near Pecan Island, only a few miles from the location of the newly announced Starbase Louisiana, SpaceX’s next spaceport. Robicheaux watches every launch online, but this was his ﬁrst in person. “I have my concern about it affecting the ecosystem and the culture,” he said. “But I think it’s worth doing all that just because of what it’ll do for Louisiana. We’re such a poor state right now.”

By the time the countdown starts, a pop-up society has formed around the rocket, with its own subcultures, rituals and monuments. The night before launch, 10 miles from the pad, several men hoisted upright a 50-foot-tall bronze statue of Prometheus, who, in Greek mythology, stole ﬁre from the gods and gave it to the mortals. It was transported here from France by a group of right-wing sculptors whose past work

ä See LAUNCH, page 8A

One of the world’s largest companies has begun employing carbon capture at Louisiana plants — but it is shipping those emissions by pipeline to Texas and Mississippi for now rather than store them here amid local opposition to the technology. The move by ExxonMobil comes as the landscape shifts in Louisiana for carbon capture and storage, once promoted as a promising industry for the state. A movement opposing carbon storage underground has gained steam and includes a broad spectrum of viewpoints, from rural conservatives worried about the effects on their land to environmentalists arguing it is not a responsible way to address climate change. Regardless, petrochemical plants that export their products are under increasing pressure in overseas markets to reduce their carbon footprint, and they are aggressively pursuing carbon capture to stay competitive. Louisiana plants are demonstrating they do not intend to sit on the sidelines. Two months ago, Exxon began siphoning off carbon emissions from Nucor Steel’s iron purification plant in St. James Parish, the third such carbon capture project that the oil major has started in Louisiana in the past year and a half, company officials said. “Our startup with Nucor is more than a milestone. It is proof that customer demand is growing for scalable solutions that reduce emissions while continuing to deliver the products society depends on,” Dominic Genetti, Exxon senior vice president for carbon capture and storage, said in a statement. “CCS is a critical part of that equation, and ExxonMobil has the infrastructure and experience to help deliver it at scale.” Nearly three years after buying out Denbury and its interstate carbon dioxide pipeline along the western Gulf Coast for close to $5 billion, Exxon has moved steadily into the decarbonization business. It is offering capture and long-term storage services to big industrial clients with heavy emissions. But Exxon’s efforts to build big, underground storage sites in Louisiana have been among the projects facing fierce opposition. That opposition has helped trigger Gov. Jeff Landry’s state moratorium on new injection applications. Exxon has taken customers’ CO2 and shipped it through the former Denbury line to recover oil fields in Texas and Mississippi. CO2 helps push out oil in wells with otherwise played-out or reduced yields.

ä See EXXON, page 7A

State scientist may have found key to pregnancy cravings Study found brain changes in mice

tified a brain mechanism that could explain those urges. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience in September, the researchers found that serotoninBY HALEY MILLER producing neurons in a region of Staff writer the brain — an area in the brain Why do some women crave ran- stem called the dorsal raphe — bedom foods, from pickles to red come less active during gestation. meat to ice cream, during preg- The mother then experiences food cravings and can overeat, leading nancy? A Pennington scientist has iden- to maternal obesity, Yanlin He, a

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neuroscientist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, said. “All those things will form a new stimulation to form a change in your brain,” He said. “Before pregnancy, your circuits may have been tightly regulated, so you are not overeating. But under the pregnancy, because so many new factors changed, the circuits cannot be tightly regulated.” He led the study, along with sci-

entists at the University of Illinois Chicago and the Baylor College of Medicine. The researchers were curious about reward feeding during pregnancy and hypothesized that a reduction in the activity of serotoninproducing neurons was generating food cravings, He said. In addition to other physiological functions, the neurotransmitter serotonin helps with the feeling

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of fullness and regulates appetite and mood. The researchers tested their theory on pregnant female mice, in which they saw greater foodcraving behavior than nonpregnant mice. The scientists discovered the importance of a particular potassium ion channel, a passageway in the

ä See STUDY, page 6A

102ND yEAR, NO. 96

2A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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FROM WIRE REPORTS

Residents say Ethiopian forces retake airport

KAMPALA, Uganda — Ethiopian federal forces have taken the airport in Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray region, according to people in the city who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday, reversing a takeover by Tigrayan fighters that prompted the suspension of commercial flights last month. It wasn’t immediately clear when federal forces recaptured Alula Aba Nega Airport. Those who provided the information declined to be identified for fear of retribution amid uncertainty over who controlled the city. Severe disruptions to internet and cellphone networks have made gathering and verifying information from Tigray difficult. Details of how the airport changed hands, including whether fighting took place there, remained unclear. “The military is in full control of the airport. That much I can confirm,” an Ethiopian general said on condition of anonymity. Neither the Ethiopian government nor the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had issued an official statement on the airport’s reported capture. It wasn’t clear who controlled Mekelle itself.

Car drives into crowd in Australia, injuring 10

NEWCASTLE, Australia — A vehicle drove into a crowd standing on a road to cheer on the Newcastle Knights rugby team north of Sydney on Saturday, injuring 10 people, including several children, Australian ofﬁcials said. Two of the injured — a 5-yearold girl and a 67-year-old man — were in critical condition, and the other eight were in stable condition at a hospital, according to New South Wales police. Those in stable condition included another 5-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl. Police said they arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to terrorism. Thousands had been cheering the team on this week as they trained, Australian Associated Press reported.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

The remains of medieval ruler Czar Samuel are displayed inside a coffin during a handover ceremony Saturday in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Remains of medieval ruler arrive in Bulgaria

SOFIA, Bulgaria — The remains of medieval ruler Czar Samuel arrived in Bulgaria on Saturday, after decades of negotiations with neighboring Greece. Samuel, or Samuil in Bulgarian, was a warrior emperor who battled the Byzantine Empire to expand his kingdom but was ultimately defeated and died shortly afterward in 1014. He is considered a symbol of Bulgaria’s national identity. The remains, discovered at a Greek border area 60 years ago, were flown to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, aboard a military aircraft that was escorted by Bulgarian air force fighter jets from the country’s border with Greece. The coffin with the remains arrived at a central square in Sofia, where it was welcomed by thousands of Bulgarians. In a rare show of unity, politicians from all ends of the fragmented political spectrum also paid tribute to the medieval ruler, listening to the national anthem and a 21-gun salute. “Today we Europeans are learning to read history with a desire to belong not only to our homeland, but also to the culture that unites us across the entire European continent,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said at the ceremony. A procession accompanied the remains of Czar Samuel to the nearby Church of Saint Sophia, a sixth-century basilica that gave its name to the Bulgarian capital. According to church officials, Samuel was baptized in this church.

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Tennessee’s prisons chief resigning

former U.S. Attorney Ed Stan- update Saturday on her condition at lieved problems with the IV lines Official stepping down that ton would lead a review of what a hospital. They had disclosed Fri- caused the pentobarbital to flow in Pike’s death chamber. day that she was on a ventilator and into her body instead of her bloodafter failed execution happened Stanton previously was named to unconscious in the hours following stream. conduct a review after Lee called the execution attempt and that hosPike was extraordinarily coopof Christa Pike off a different ex- pital staff were trying to clear the erative with the execution team,

BY ED WHITE

Associated Press The head of Tennessee’s prison system is resigning, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday, the ﬁrst major staff shake-up since Christa Pike’s stunning failed execution left her unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital. Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down this month, Lee said. Some of the governor’s fellow Republicans and other elected officials had been urging a change in leadership. It was the second time since May that Tennessee has not been able to execute a prisoner who was seemingly moments away from death. The governor also announced

ecution in 2022; he found in that case that Tennessee had not complied with its own lethal injection process. Strada said in a statement that reStrada signing was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while Stanton’s review is conducted. The state failed to execute Pike despite administering two doses of a lethal drug, pentobarbital. Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage in 1995. She became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. There was no immediate response from Pike’s lawyers for an

two doses of pentobarbital. The shocking failure has left both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Lee has ordered an independent review and halted any new executions. Strada said he believes the state “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.” Pike’s legal team welcomed Strada’s departure but said “it does nothing to help Christa now.” “What happened to her Wednesday reﬂects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” the four-lawyer team said. “We hope the governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.” Pike’s attorneys said they be-

even instructing them to “please try here, please try here” as they tried to insert lines, lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters Thursday. In May, Tennessee stopped the execution of Tony Carruthers after staff placed an IV into his right arm but couldn’t get a secondary IV line. The governor ordered ofﬁcials to wait at least a year before trying to execute him again. Strada took over the Correction Department in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. In late 2024, he announced that Tennessee was changing its lethal injection protocol and would use only pentobarbital. Four people have been executed in Tennessee since 2025, according to the Correction Department.

Russian attacks kill 6 in Ukraine, damage bridge By The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least six people and damaged Kyiv’s Northern Bridge, suspending trafﬁc and causing tailbacks for a third day in Moscow’s latest effort to disrupt life in the Ukrainian capital. The strike came after two days of Russian assaults forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv’s six road bridges over the Dnipro River. Previously, Russia has hit apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, gas stations and data centers, among other targets. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday it would continue to carry out “mass retaliatory strikes” on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, urging foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the country. It previously issued a similar warning in May. Russia invaded its neighbor more than 41/2 years ago, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement might be possible. Fighting along the roughly 780-mile front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the strike on the bridge damaged the road surface and trolley bus cables, forcing traffic to be suspended. He later said two people were wounded in the attack, one of whom was brieﬂy hospitalized. Russia’s Defense Minis-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ANDRII MARIENKO

People clear rubble Friday from a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. try on Saturday conﬁrmed it was behind the latest attack, claiming the bridge is used to “facilitate troop movements and the logistics of military cargo deliveries” for Ukraine’s armed forces. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the moment of impact as vehicles crossed the bridge, including footage purportedly recorded by a driver’s dashcam. The aerial war has intensiﬁed, with Kyiv striking Russia’s oil industry and businesses while Moscow has menaced Ukrainian cities with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Saturday that the war is “danger-

ously reaching” her country, following a spate of airspace incursions. “I condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine this morning. Its war is dangerously reaching Moldova,” she said in a post on X, adding that ﬁve “Russian air attack weapons, including Banderol missiles and drones, violated our airspace and exploded on our soil.” “Moscow is putting lives at risk across Europe and must be stopped,” she added. Ukraine’s air force said that Moscow overnight launched Banderol cruise missiles — low-cost, jetpowered loitering munitions that Russia uses to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses — at the Odesa

Hospital says 5 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza By The Associated Press Israeli strikes overnight in Gaza killed five people, according to Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Four women were among those killed. A mother and daughter among them were Christians, a minority in Gaza, the hospital said, and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed condolences. A large fire burned at the site, where the strikes tore a gaping hole in the ground floor of a multistory building. The hospital said that people were still reported missing beneath the debris. Israel’s military didn’t immediately comment, saying it was checking for information. Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,439 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached with the Hamas militant group nearly a year ago, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its figures are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It doesn’t give a breakdown of civilians and militants. Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks. Meanwhile, Israel’s army said Satur-

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEHAD ALSHRAFI

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Gaza City.

day that it killed the most senior Hamas figure in Gaza and the right hand man to Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Ali Ahmed Al-Amoudi was killed in an apartment used by Hamas, said the army. It said he was the deputy chairman for Hamas’ political bureau and that he was involved in decision-making surrounding the group’s attacks that sparked the war. The army said Al-Amoudi took part in an attack in the West Bank in 1993 in which four Israelis were killed and in the killing of an officer the year later in Ramallah. It said that today he is directly involved in rebuilding Hamas’ capabilities to fight.

region, which shares a long land border with Moldova. A loitering munition is designed to hover over an area, searching for targets, and detonate while crashing into them. Russia attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and nearby areas with drones and guided bombs on Friday and overnight, killing five people and wounding over 40, according to region-

al head Oleh Syniehubov. In nearby Izyum, Russian drone strikes wounded three people, according to the local military administration. It said a drone slammed into an industrial warehouse, while another damaged homes. In Ukraine’s Odesa region, home to multiple Black Sea ports, a sailor was killed and three others wounded after Russian forces struck a civilian cargo ship on Saturday, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority reported. It said the ship was ﬂying the Liberian ﬂag. In eastern Ukraine, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Ukrainian drones killed two people and wounded two others, according to Kremlin-installed regional head Leonid Pasechkin. Pasechkin said the drones attacked a truck and passenger car driving along a highway, adding all victims were civilians. In Russia, Ukrainian drone strikes killed a civilian and wounded two more in the Belgorod region, in villages just miles from the Ukrainian border, local authorities said Saturday. Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Coventry, England, contributed to this report.

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Trump urges calls to senator over daylight saving time winter mornings when President pushes ous children will be waiting for buses and parents for bill to make it school will be driving to work in permanent; Ark. darkness. It was a remarkable escalawmaker against lation on Trump’s part of a long-standing ﬁxation shared measure by both men — with Trump

BY MELISSA GOLDIN and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but Cotton it faces roadblocks in the Senate where some Republicans are strongly opposed. Proponents, including the White House, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazard-

supporting making daylight saving time permanent, and Cotton vociferously opposed — at a time just weeks before the midterms, when Republicans would prefer that the president focus on talking about affordability issues and the party’s achievements. Cotton is also up for reelection this November, although that race is not expected to be competitive. Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it — and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill’s enactment. “For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it’s very easy to do, it only takes one!” Trump wrote on social media, noting

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By CHARLES KRUPA

President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the lawmaker’s personal cellphone number. that passing the bill would give professional golfers more time on the greens. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all,” Trump said. Trump included a phone number with an Arkansas area code. The Associated Press called the number, but no one answered and the voicemail box was full. Cotton, a member of Re-

publican leadership, reiterated his opposition to permanent daylight saving time in a social media post of his own Saturday afternoon. He is not the only GOP senator who opposes the policy, though he has been among the most vocal opponents. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced ab-

surdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.” Trump, who was spending the day at his northern Virginia golf club before traveling to Ohio later Saturday, promptly fired back. “If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn’t have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so,” Trump said, adding that “that is really putting Arkansas FIRST.” As his motorcade was rolling back to the White House, Trump added that “a table full of very distinguished people just told me that they HATE, immediately after a mandatory time change, going home at night — and it’s DARK.”

“It’s depressing!” Trump continued. “One of the gentleman stated that, ‘I just hate going home in darkness.’ It’s also, in Crime Ridden Blue States, a lot more dangerous to be walking home in the dark!” A 2025 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that if forced to choose, most Americans would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening. Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which requires people in most states to change their clocks twice a year, while 47% oppose it and 40% are neutral. Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential beneﬁts and costs of daylight saving time since it was ﬁrst adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed a bill four years ago to make daylight saving time permanent, but it stalled in the House.

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President announces Man suspected in plot against U.S.-run base $90 payments for seniors on Medicare in U.K. released on bail BY MELISSA GOLDIN Associated Press

President Donald Trump is promising more payments to voters just ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections — this time, to more than 20 million seniors, giving them $90 each to help pay for Medicare premiums. The announcement, made late Friday night by Trump on social media, comes after the president last month said about 1 million people would get rebate checks of $500 for Affordable Care Act premiums. He has also promised on the campaign trail to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. That pledge — which would require approval from Congress — would likely cost more than $1 trillion, adding to the deficit and worsening inflation. Polls show Americans increasingly blame Trump for the high cost of gasoline and groceries with just 17% approving of his handling of inflation. Trump has sought to shrug off concerns about affordability, saying the economy is booming. The White House said the $90 payments for seniors will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, established by Congress in 2008 as flexible funding

to improve program operations and payments to health care providers. Medicare Part B enrollees can expect to receive a one-time payment in October, either through direct deposit or by check, the White House said. Total monthly costs for the program — which covers costs like doctor’s visits, ambulance services and lab tests — start around $200 and vary with income. To be eligible, seniors must be living in the U.S. and not be already receiving premium assistance from Medicaid or paying adjusted monthly premiums based on income, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage, a private plan alternative to traditional Medicare coverage, are not eligible for the payment. More than half of eligible Medicare beneficiaries have Medicare Advantage, according to healthcare research nonproﬁt KFF. Previous administrations have not used the Medicare Improvement Fund in this way, although Congress has periodically taken out money from the fund to pay for other priorities, said Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy. For example, $20.74 billion was used for the creation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

By The Associated Press

LONDON — A dual U.K.-Iranian national arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a U.S.-run military air base in England has been released on bail, authorities said Saturday. The 25-year-old man was arrested Thursday in London on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts close to the RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran. He was the sixth person taken into custody and then released on bail as detectives investigate the incident. British authorities have linked the incident to Tehran. The ﬁve other men were not named, but police said they are all British nationals in their 20s and from London. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes near the base on Sept. 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swooped on the rural area. Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in three vans linked to the ﬁve suspects, but no explosives. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the U.K. sees “strong indications” that Iran played a part in the incident. He did not provide details about what the suspects were planning or why the U.K. thinks Iran was involved.

Iran has denied involvement. It has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target. RAF Fairford has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran. Top U.S. officials have criticized the decision to grant the five suspects bail.

SATURDAY, OCT 31

DOWNTOWN BATON ROUGE

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President defends data centers at Ohio rally Trump stumps for candidate in tight Senate race

BY SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

VANDALIA, Ohio — President Donald Trump on Saturday defended data centers that power artiﬁcial intelligence projects but have become a contentious campaign issue nationwide, as he took his midterm tour to Ohio to insist his party will keep their majorities in Congress despite steep political headwinds. Trump took several minutes during his campaign rally in southwestern Ohio to promote his administration’s action on data centers, saying he was seeking to ensure they “beneﬁt local communities” and praised Republican Sen. Jon Husted for an illfated attempt this week to push forward legislation on the issue. “Look, there’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” Trump

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

President Donald Trump speaks Saturday during an event at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio. said, repeating his defense of data centers that he had made before. The crowd, which had reacted enthusiastically as the president talked about other policies, was far more muted during the data centers remark. Trump is embarking on what he says will be a 32-day blitz ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, hitting the deep red states of Texas, Oklahoma

and Alabama this week before pivoting to Ohio, a battleground state that’s home to one of the top-tier Senate races this cycle. Husted — who was appointed to ﬁll the Senate vacancy left by now-Vice President JD Vance — is running to win the seat outright. There is likely no path to a Senate majority for Democrats without ﬂipping Ohio, where

former three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown is trying to return to the Senate after losing to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago. Since last year, Democrats have listed Ohio, along with states such as North Carolina and Maine, as key races to win control of the Senate. And this week, the head of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm said Ohio is among 10 battleground races that are “within striking distance.” “The good news for us is that Jon Husted is a closer,” Sen. Tim Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters. “We’re seeing the gap that was there between the two candidates, which was just a few points, now it is right at a dead-even race. So this is as tight as ticks, as we say in South Carolina.” At his rallies, Trump has been trying to convince voters that the economy is better than they feel it is, even though polls show Americans are frustrated with the way he’s handled it. The high cost of living, including gas prices elevated by Trump’s

war on Iran, is a top issue in the Dayton area, too. And just days before Trump’s rally, nearly 1,400 people were laid off from a truck factory in nearby Springﬁeld. Trump’s rally comes as Republicans worry that Husted’s campaign has failed to adequately catch fire with voters in the Republicandominated state. Brown and allied groups have hammered Husted for his role in attracting data centers to the state when he was lieutenant governor, and the NRSC has pinpointed it as a political vulnerability. The massive warehouse campuses powering artificial intelligence projects have become a toxic political issue, drawing bipartisan opposition in races across the country, with voters concerned about their impact on electricity prices, farmland and water supplies. The GOP-controlled Senate tried to advance legislation this week sponsored by Husted that would ask utility regulators to effectively charge large power users more, as consumers struggle

with high energy costs. But it was blocked by nearly all Democrats. “You got to remember, Sherrod Brown was for data centers, and Jon Husted is for data centers being responsible,” Scott told reporters this week. “If a community doesn’t want them, he doesn’t want them either.” But Trump has become one of data centers’ most vocal proponents, shrugging aside voter concerns and arguing that the U.S. cannot cede advancements in AI to China. “Senator Jon Husted gave billions in tax breaks to Big Tech to make sure they would build their data centers in Ohio,” Brown wrote on X on Friday, ahead of Trump’s visit. “Now, he’s making Ohioans foot the bill.” Brown’s campaign also has hammered Husted for donations he’s received from retail magnate Les Wexner, who once employed the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Husted has donated remaining Wexner contributions to an anti-human trafﬁcking charity.

Mormon leader decries explosion of sports gambling, prediction markets BY MATTHEW BROWN and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM

is robbing time from their studies and relationships as smartphones make gambling The Associated Press possible anywhere. “For us as Latter-day SALT LAKE CITY — A leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Saints, overarching all othof Latter-day Saints er concerns is the warned Saturday fact that gambling that an explosion in is morally wrong. gambling driven by Gambling is built on online prediction the desire to obtain markets and sports something for nothbetting is fostering ing,” Christofferson greed, particularly said at the faith’s among youths, while Christofferson twice-annual general producing “nothing conference. of value.” The declaration that preD. Todd Christofferson, diction markets are gamone of the top three leaders bling puts the conservative of what is known widely as church at odds with Presithe Mormon church, said dent Donald Trump. The rampant betting among Republican’s administration teenagers and young adults has argued the platforms

such as Kalshi and Polymarket don’t constitute gambling and therefore shouldn’t be subjected to state gambling bans such as the one enacted this year in Utah, where the church is based. Prediction markets allow wagers on anything from whether it will rain in Los Angeles or if the United States will go to war. “Or even, if you can imagine, the timing of the Second Coming,” Christofferson said Saturday. “Where do you go to collect on that bet?” Opposition to gambling is common among religious organizations. The Methodist Church refers to it as “a menace to society.” The Southern

Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, has condemned gambling several times and in 2025 declared sports gambling inconsistent with biblical principle. Gambling is forbidden

in Islam and considered a vice among Hindus. In the Catholic Church, gambling is not in itself a sin, but is considered potentially problematic. For more than a century, Utah kept gambling almost

entirely out of the state. There are no casinos, no lotteries and no racetracks that allow bets. The prohibition is rooted in the ideals of Mormons who view gambling as a path to selﬁshness and addiction.

Mary Bird Perkins puts breast cancer early detection and education at the forefront of care

5K & 1 MILE RACE By Amanda McElfresh | amcelfresh@theadvocate.com This article is brought to you by by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

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For Natasha Gay, one of the most important messages about breast cancer screening is one of the simplest: It’s never too late, even if it has been several years since your last mammogram, or you have never had one. As a nurse practitioner with Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center’s Prevention on the Go program, Gay regularly meets women throughout Louisiana and Mississippi who face barriers to routine cancer screenings. Some have no insurance or are under-insured. Others have transportation challenges or limited access to healthcare. Others are not sure when or how often they should be screened. “Some women are embarrassed if they haven’t had a mammogram or know they are overdue,” Gay said. “We always welcome them with a smile. Life happens. I always say, ‘I’m just happy you’re here today.’ I had a patient who was 58 years old and came for her first mammogram. There’s no need to fuss or make a big deal about it. I just say, ‘Let’s get started.’ It’s important to make people feel comfortable and not reprimanded.” As one of Mary Bird Perkins’ key outreach services, the nationally-recognized Prevention on the Go program brings cancer education and early detection services into communities with mobile medical clinics. The program offers free screenings for breast, colorectal, oral, prostate and skin cancers at convenient locations where people live, work, worship, shop and play. Prevention on the Go has provided more than 125,000 screenings and detected more than 1,000 cancers since it was launched in 2002. Helping women stay aware of symptoms and physical changes Duringbreastcancerscreenings,Gayoranothernursepractitioner performs a clinical exam before patients move to an adjacent Woman’s Hospital mobile unit for a complete mammogram. “The mammogram takes place in a machine that lightly touches the breasts. It’s not painful at all,” Gay said. “It takes about five minutes and it takes pictures of the breasts from different angles. We usually receive the results in three days, then mail them to the patients, so the patients usually receive the results in seven to 10 days.” Gay said the goal is to detect breast abnormalities or potential problems as soon as possible. If a mammogram shows something concerning, a Mary Bird Perkins patient navigator will contact the person and help them arrange further diagnostic testing. “When breast cancer is detected at an earlier stage, it can provide the patient many more treatment options and improve her overall outcome,” Gay said. “For example, some women may only need radiation or surgery, without chemotherapy. Early detection opens up many more possibilities, and a mammogram can detect breast cancer before a woman has any symptoms or detects anything abnormal. That’s why we recommend clinical breast exams and mammograms every year.” Annual mammograms are recommended for women beginning at age 40 if they are of average risk. Women should speak with a

doctoraboutpotentiallybeginning mammograms before age 40 if they have high breast cancer risk factors, including a strong family historyofthedisease,densebreasts, obesity after menopause, taking hormonesforfiveyearsormore(not including birth control), certain genetic mutations, starting their menstrual cycle early or previous radiation treatment. Regardlessoftheirrisklevel,Gay said she encourages all women to performmonthlybreastself-exams so they become familiar with what is normal for their bodies. The self-exams should occur around the same time every month, and within three to five days before or after menstruation for women who have cycles. “You know your body better than anyone else,” she said. “If you detect a lump or something abnormal, you know when you found it or if it was there the previous month.” Changes that should prompt immediate medical attention include breast swelling, pain, inverted nipples, a lump in the underarm area, skin irritation or dimpling; redness, scaliness or thickening of the nipple or breast skin, and discharge other than breast milk. If any of those symptoms appear, Gay said women should make an appointment right away rather than waiting for their next routine screening. Education helps women understand and potentially reduce cancer risk In addition to free screening services, Prevention on the Go shares health education to residents. For breast cancer, Gay said this often means discussing how women can reduce their risk of the disease. “Women can support their breast health by avoiding excessive alcohol, avoiding tobacco altogether, exercising regularly and eating healthier, especially a diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables,” Gay said. “All of those steps can lessen your breast cancer risk. A lot of women are very surprised by that.” While family history can’t be changed, Gay said it is important for women to know if they have a family history of breast cancer, including which relatives had the disease, the approximate age at which they were diagnosed and what their outcomes were. “Knowledge is power,” she said. “Our goal is to help women be more knowledgeable not only about their family history, but about lifestyle choices they can make, what screenings they need, what to look for in their bodies and what treatments are available to them if needed.” Visit marybird.org/get-screened/ to learn more about Prevention on the Go and marybird.org/breast to learn more about breast cancer services at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 5A

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Preston

Tour bus operator

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$1.6 billion for Louisiana businesses. Catering for 40 people used to be a good week. Now they hit 400. And that’s just the tacos. From coﬀee shops to bus tours, Meta’s Richland Parish investment is already paying oﬀ for businesses across Louisiana.

The future is for everyone. meta.com/BuildingLouisiana

6A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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yanlin He holds vials filled with mice brains in a preservation solution at Pennington Biomedical Research Center on Thursday. STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

LSU student Katelyn Tran mounts sections of mice brain onto a glass slide so they can be later observed under a microscope at Pennington Biomedical Research Center on Thursday.

Mugs, shirts, hats, posters, books.

STUDY

Continued from page 1A cell membrane that helps regulate whether the serotonin neurons ﬁre. Heightened activity in this channel decreased the number of serotonin neurons that fired, which in turn increased food-seeking behavior. Removing the potassium ion channel from serotonin neurons helped restore their activity and curbed the craving-like behavior, the scientists found.

Pregnancy changes brain Their discovery adds to research that explores how pregnancy changes the brain’s reward system and incentivizes eating not to satisfy hunger, but essentially “for fun,” He explained. “During pregnancy, women will have stress, anxiety, and this type of reward feeding will relieve their anxiety and stress,” He said. “But when you are exposed to these huge, tremendous high-calorie diets, you cannot tightly control this type of circuit.” Evolutionarily, food crav-

ings are likely driven by the imperative to provide sufﬁcient nutrients to the baby, He said, as past eras of humans did not have the same reliable access to food. More calories translated to more, and healthier, offspring. But in the present day, this underlying function can cause a problem, He said. It can create the conditions for maternal obesity, which can result in poor outcomes for both the fetus and the mother. “Nowadays it has changed signiﬁcantly,” He said. “We have a lot of high-calorie density diets. But at the evolutionary level, this basic neural circuit is still there.” He plans to further the research by studying human subjects. The goal, He said, would be to improve treatment for maternal obesity.

The brain-gut connection One potential intervention could be through diet. Studies show that around 90% of the body’s serotonin comes from the gut. “Maybe we can identify a very specific microbiome to specifically reduce the food cravings during

pregnancy,” He said. However, He noted that the serotonin produced and used outside of the brain does not cross the bloodbrain barrier, meaning it is still unknown whether certain foods can directly inﬂuence the pathway the scientists identiﬁed. The research is still at an early stage and not at the point of being “translational,” or applicable to healthcare yet, He said. He is hesitant to recommend the development of a medication tied to their research down the line. The serotonin system is crucial to the growth of the fetus’s brain, the study says, and pharmacological intervention would need to be “cautious.” “I think most pregnant women would hesitate to try if the craving is not an urgent issue that would affect their health and also the baby’s health,” He said. Based on existing literature, the scientist said avocado and soymilk could be areas for future dietary research for pregnant women. “That’s just one direction,” He said. “We may not be

Classic Eats,Timeless Memories

successful. Avocado is very easy, and people eat it daily. We just need to design and make speciﬁc diets.”

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EXXON

An ammonia tank bearing the CF Industries logo sits behind the new CO2 Dehydration and Compression Unit at CF Industries in August 2025.

Continued from page 1A Exxon officials say, however, they are now closing in on a new permit from Texas regulators for a permanent underground storage area near Beaumont, which would mean the company could greatly expand its business along the Gulf Coast, and especially in Louisiana. With the pending permit in Texas, Exxon would have its first permanent storage under new federal rules and only the second allowed in Texas since the state won the power to issue these “Class VI” permits in November. But Genetti said Exxon is working on multiple additional storage permits in Texas and Louisiana, adding that Louisiana has “great geology” for CCS. “Obviously we can’t do these projects without a very robust, but also a very certain and transparent permitting process, and so it’s a big milestone for us to get one done in Texas,” he said. “And I’d like the people of Louisiana to know we’d like to do this in Louisiana, and we have some permits that are progressing through the system in Louisiana.” The state Department of Conservation and Energy, which handles approvals for carbon storage wells, declined to comment on pending permits. Landry, when issuing the moratorium on new applications a year ago, said a pause was needed “to provide a clear road map for citizens and local officials.”

4 million tons per year Texas regulators also faced opposition from nearby landowners in the rural farming community of Cheek, Texas, over concerns about groundwater and controlling the large underground CO2 plume, echoing debates in Louisiana. But, following the recommendation from its technical examiners, the state’s Railroad Commission voted 2-1 to grant Exxon three Class VI injection wells. The vote came with criticism from the commission chair, who supported the permit, for what she saw as Exxon’s lack of communication with them and residents. If granted final approval in Texas, the so-called Rose project is expected to take 53 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over 13 years. Exxon says it is hopeful for ﬁnal approval by late 2026, though a community group opposed to the plan is preparing to ask for a rehearing, Amid controversy in Louisiana, Exxon has withdrawn or halted some of its proposed storage sites. No remaining ExxonMobil projects that predated the state moratorium are near the top of the list of those seeking a

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS

state permit, a state listing shows. The state has already approved three storage permits for other companies prospecting in Louisiana. Nucor and Exxon began CCS in July, with plans to capture and store up to 800,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. Nucor did not respond to requests for comment. Exxon’s Genetti said he expects further announcements of CCS work starting from more of its seven customers in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi after the approval of the new storage site in Texas, as well as agreements with new clients. The other two ExxonMobil customers already engaged in carbon capture in Louisiana are CF Industries, which started in July 2025 at its fertilizer plant in Donaldsonville, and the NG3 gas plant in Gillis, which began capture in February. That company processes natural gas from north Louisiana and east Texas for use along the Gulf Coast and for overseas shipment as liquefied natural gas, ExxonMobil says. Collectively, those three Louisiana customers are capturing 4 million tons per year of CO2. While the Trump administration continues to pull back from regulation of greenhouse gases, other nations are moving in the opposite direction as they seek to address climate change. In January, the European Union fully implemented an import fee on selected products, including fertilizer and hydrogen, that aren’t low carbon. LSU experts have said foreign markets continue to be a growth sector for Louisiana energy products.

‘Don’t want it here’ The “capture” part of CCS typically happens at a plant site, where greenhouse gases produced as part of a chemical or reﬁning process are drawn off and then sent by pipeline in a near-liquid

state to an injection well. That’s where the CO2 is supposed to be “sequestered” permanently underground. The federal government incentivizes this process with lucrative tax credits. Critics of CCS have questioned the safety of the pipelines and wells, as well as the certainty with which geologists and other experts assert underground sites can permanently hold the buoyant gas forever. Experts at LSU, in the oil and gas industry and others say those concerns are overstated and the technique is similar to the enhanced oil recovery process that has been used for ﬁve decades. Matt Rota, a senior policy director with Healthy Gulf, a New Orleans-based nonproﬁt that has been tracking CCS development in Louisiana and Texas, said the region where ExxonMobil’s Rose wells are being proposed between Beaumont and Houston is similar to parts of Louisiana that have seen heavy industrial development. “And there are still the very real concerns about what happens if there is a carbon dioxide pipe leak, whether it’s the Denbury pipe, the Exxon Rose facility or the pipelines that connect them, and we think, similar to all the other CCS projects in Louisiana, that this is being rushed through and that it is in support of building new carbon-emitting and polluting industries,” Rota said. Douglas Cormier, president of the Cheek Texas

Community Association, said his community is familiar with oil and gas extraction and related industry,

about the much larger scale being proposed. Residents remained concerned about their drinking water aquifer and long-term monitoring after CO2 injection ends. He said they plan to seek air monitors in case of possible CO2 leaks. Exxon has promised decades of underground monitoring, aboveground seismic modeling of the plume, injection procedures that will keep control of the plume as it grows, and a thick geologic seal over the storage area. Cormier, who retired from a career at a regional water authority, called it a “tough pill” that his Texas community could be getting CO2 one day from plants in Louisiana, where a moratorium is in place, and at least one other state. “We don’t want it here just like they don’t want it in Louisiana right now,” Cormier said.

with two chemical plants nearby. He said residents David J. Mitchell can be understood the enhanced oil reached at dmitchell@ recovery model, but worried theadvocate.com.

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8A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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LAUNCH

Continued from page 1A includes $300 plaster busts of Canadian conservative provocateur Jordan Peterson. The titan looms over a misshapen foam-and-fiberglass statue of the SpaceX founder’s head, with an inscription that reads: “Elon Musk aka MemeLord,” inspired by a 2019 drawing that went viral on Reddit. Down the road, past the Border Patrol station, a group of 20-somethings was midway through a marathon livestreaming session, drinking beers on top of a raggedy RV and filming themselves on their phones. Launches draw certain types. Many of the spectators were flight enthusiasts or pilots. There were older folks who recalled the heyday of the space race. Some had come as much for Musk as for the rocket, subscribers to his worldview. Because the launch site is on a public road, spaceflight fans can drive up nearly to the base of the rocket, which is about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. In its shadow, a small crowd wearing the tech-worker uniform of plain T-shirts and jeans, some in SpaceX caps, snapped selfies. Previous launch attempts have had mixed results. One rocket exploded as it soared over the Caribbean, dropping rocket parts on beaches and roads in Turks and Caicos and forcing commercial airliners to divert to avoid flaming debris. Another launch attempt blew up part of the launchpad, showering nearby homes with dust and shooting hunks of concrete into the neighboring wildlife refuge. Yet another, a successful test flight, carried the rocket’s first payload into space: a toy banana. SpaceX ran the banana through the federal cargo-approval process as a dry run for the satellites it would launch later. To Musk, each of these attempts was, in its own way, a win. The goal of testing a rocket is to collect data to fine-tune its functioning. Failures are expected. SpaceX engineers have a tongue-in-cheek acronym for that expected outcome: RUD, or rapid unscheduled disassembly. “We’ve got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if it blows up, it’s cool,” Musk said at a news conference in 2018. It’s a line that residents nearby have not forgotten. Musk told Fox News last year that his goal is to “make life multiplanetary,” as an insurance policy for life on Earth. “Eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun,” he said. “We do at some point need to be a multiplanet civilization because Earth will be incinerated.” To some in Brownsville, a city of nearly 200,000 people, 20 miles west of the launchpad, Musk’s priorities seems misaligned. “Humanity needs help on Earth first,” said Bekah Hinojosa, a Brownsville resident and the founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. “People in Brownsville need help. So many people I know can’t even make rent.” At the viewing area, the spectators were optimistic about this launch’s chances of success. Around 2 a.m., five miles from the launchpad, hundreds gathered to wait out the hours until the 75-minute launch window that would begin at 7:15 a.m. Teslas, the electric cars made by another of Musk’s companies, filled the parking lot. Allen Choi, 34, prepared to see his first launch. Drawn by the engineering of spaceflight, which he described as marvelous, he took a 14-hour flight from Hong Kong the day before and hadn’t slept at all. Mia Xu, 32, came in from Austin with friends to see the launch, also a first for them. “I would just like to see the future,” she said. Nearby, the livestreamers had parked their RV and were dozing on air mattresses. They had been filming continuously, broadcasting live to the internet since the

STAFF PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER

Spectators watch from the jetties of South Padre Island, Texas, as Starship launches from Starbase, Texas, on Monday.

lites that are too large to be transported by SpaceX’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9. It was the first working payload that Starship had ever delivered to space. SpaceX cut the flight short, sending the Ship around the planet twice rather than the planned six orbits. It descended toward the Pacific, north of Hawaii, about three hours after liftoff. It landed in the Pacific and exploded. This is what Louisiana can expect, many times over. The company has spent around $7 billion in capital investment in Texas, according to Gilberto Salinas, the president of the Greater Brownsville EDC, an economic development organization. In Louisiana, SpaceX plans to spend $100 billion. Even with all that money coming in, some remain skeptical that locals will see their lives improve. “Louisiana needs help,” said Erica Robicheaux. “But I don’t know if we’ve changed the politician culture enough for us to truly benefit from the money coming in.”

donation, residents walk tion. They’d only put the through town wearing blue Ship in orbit if everything bandages around their up- checked out. “The go/no-go poll for orper arms. bit has finished,” Dan Huot, ‘Go for orbit’ SpaceX’s webcast host, told Minutes after liftoff, the viewers. “We are go for orstages of the rocket separat- bit.” The Ship lit an engine and ed. The Super Heavy booster fell back to Earth, igniting its settled into orbit about 170 engines over the Gulf’s wa- miles up. It deployed the first ters to soften its landing, and 26 operational Starlink V3 Email Alex Lubben at splashed down. The upper satellites — a new version of alex.lubben@theadvocate. bullet-shaped Ship stage of the internet-supplying satel- com. the rocket, as SpaceX calls it, continued on, propelled by its six engines, until one of them Ryan Wycoff makes pancakes out the back of his Tesla unexpectedly shut down Cybertruck as he waits for the launch of the SpaceX Starship early in its climb through the Flight 14 on Monday. atmosphere. The Ship was now coasting day before, their cameras and when, where to eat in on a path that would bring it trained on themselves even town afterward. He hopes back down to Earth without as they slept. Musk will notice it, and ei- reaching orbit, unless it fired Robicheaux, the Pecan Is- ther offer him a job or send again. For 20 tense minland hunter, has long been a him a cease-and-desist. utes, engineers in SpaceX’s “Either way, he’ll know control room at Starbase spaceflight fan, said his wife, me,” he said. Erica, 54. checked readings. Before Though he’s a visitor, he launch, they’d stressed cau“He loves all that techie stuff and automation,” she has heard what the people said. “He brings all that to who live here say. “If you talk to the locals, my house and I’m like, ‘I don’t want that. We’re too they hate it,” he said. “But it stupid already. People need brings in so much money for to think for themselves a the local economy.” A recent report from little more.’ ” While Robicheaux is en- SpaceX estimates that the thusiastic about Starbase company has injected $13 billion into the regional Louisiana, Erica’s wary. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” economy over two years and she said of the landscape. employs 4,300 people direct“Once they build that Star- ly. SpaceX estimates that it ship base, that’s it. We can’t has generated $305 million in indirect tax revenue for get it back.” Ryan Wycoff, 28, a com- municipal governments. New restaurants have mercial airline pilot and flight instructor, served opened downtown since pancakes out of the back of the company came to town. his Tesla Cybertruck. This Sprawling new subdivisions was his 19th launch, and he have popped up, catering to the newly arrived, wealthy doesn’t intend to miss any. “If I’m not here, the rock- workforce. Home values et’s not launching,” he said. are up. But the area is still visibly He’s created an app, called Visit Starbase, that contains poor. Buildings are boarded all the info any spectator up and abandoned, and near could need: where to watch the plasma center that pays the launch, how to get there around $100 for a first-time

Demystifying Roth Conversions: When and how they might ﬁt into a ﬁnancial plan

By Stevie Cavalier Licciardi | stevie.licciardi@theadvocate.com This article is brought to you by Gregory Ricks Total Wealth. IRA, 401(k), 403(b)—even the names of retirement accounts can feel confusing to those who are getting acquainted with the ins and outs of financial planning. However, learning about these accounts doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. Breakingdowntermssuchas“Rothconversion”canmake theseconceptseasiertounderstandandhelpfamiliesfamiliarizethemselveswiththefinancialtoolsthatareavailable as they work toward their goals. A Breakdown of the Basics IRA stands for “individual retirement arrangement,” a broad category of tax-advantaged retirement plans. They can have differing tax treatments and rules that govern contributions and distributions.1 Two common types of IRAs are: • TraditionalIRAs:Contributionsareoftenmadewith pre-taxdollarsandmaybetaxdeductible,dependingonan individual’s circumstances. Generally, taxes are deferred until distributions are made, and early withdrawals may be subject to an additional tax. • Roth IRAs: Contributions are made with after-tax dollars and are not tax-deductible. Qualified distributions, including investment earnings, are generally tax-free. Roth IRA owners are not required to take minimum distributions.2 Employer-sponsoredretirementplans,suchas401(k)and 403(b)plans,mayoffertraditionaland/ordesignatedRoth options, depending on the plan.1 Roth Conversion: A Layperson’s Definition ARothconversionreferstotheprocessofshiftingmoney fromatraditionalIRAorothereligibleretirementaccount into a Roth IRA or designated Roth account. The amount converted generally must be included as income for the year of the conversion and is subject to taxes based on an individual’s circumstances.3 Why Consider a Roth Conversion? Everyone’sfinancialgoalsandcircumstancesdiffer.While Roth conversions can be a useful planning tool for some individuals, they may not be appropriate for everyone. When discussing financial strategies, Gregory Ricks, founder, CEO and wealth advisor at Gregory Ricks Total Wealth, notes several factors worth considering. • AnticipatedTaxBracket:Anindividualwhoexpects to be in a higher marginal tax bracket in retirement may considerwhetherpayingtaxesonaconversioninthecurrent year makes sense. Depending on the individual’s circumstances,convertinganamountthatfitswithintheircurrent marginal tax bracket may be a desired strategy. • Estate Planning: Planning for how retirement assets may be distributed after death can also be a consideration. UnliketraditionalIRAs,RothIRAsgenerallydonotrequire theownertotakerequiredminimumdistributions(RMDs)

during their lifetime. Many non-spouse beneficiaries of inheritedRothIRAsaresubjecttoa10-yearrulerequiring theaccounttobefullydistributedbytheendofthe10thyear after the owner’s death, but they are not subject to a yearly RMD. The specific distribution requirements can vary depending on the beneficiary and other circumstances.2 • Long-Term Growth: Individuals with a longer time horizonbeforetheyexpecttousetheaccountforincomemay considerthepotentialtaxtreatmentoffuturedistributions. InvestmentgrowthinaRothaccountgenerallyisnotsubject tofederalincometaxwhileitremainsintheaccount.Qualified distributions can generally be withdrawn tax-free.2 What to Keep in Mind A Roth conversion can create taxable income in the year of the conversion, so the amount converted and the timing of the conversion are important considerations. “A common mistake I see with individuals doing Roth conversions on their own, is that they convert too much at onceandendupbumpingthemselvesupunexpectedlyinto a higher marginal tax bracket,” said Ricks. When evaluating a conversion, Ricks considers potential tax implications and may evaluate whether spreading conversions over multiple years could be appropriate for a client. Other factors can include the potential effect on the taxation of Social Security benefits, Medicare premiums and other income-based thresholds. For individuals who are required to take RMDs on traditional accounts, the RMD generally must be taken before additional eligible funds can be converted to a Roth IRA, as an RMD itself cannot be converted. It is also important to understand that Roth conversions generally cannot be undone through recharacterization.4 ReasonsaRothConversionMayNotBeAppropriate AccordingtoRicks,therearecircumstancesinwhichan individual may determine twqwwhat a Roth conversion does not align with their financial plan. • Alowerprojectedtaxbracket:Ifanindividualexpects to be in a substantially lower tax bracket in retirement, paying taxes on a conversion today may not provide the anticipated benefit. • Insufficientfundstopaythetax:Ifanindividualdoes nothaveadequatefundsoutsidetheretirementaccountto pay the resulting tax liability, using retirement assets to pay the tax could reduce the amount remaining invested for retirement. • Retirementassetsandliquidity:Ifpreservingretirement assets and maintaining liquidity are priorities, the potential effects of a conversion should be evaluated carefully before deciding to complete a Roth conversion. For more information on Gregory Ricks Total Wealth, or to schedule an appointment, in person or virtually, visit gregoryricks.com.

Sources IRS. Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). Page Last Reviewed or Updated July 31, 2026. Accessed Sep. 17, 2026. https://www.irs.gov/ retirement-plans/individual-retirement-arrangements-iras 1

IRS. Traditional and Roth IRAs. Page Last Reviewed or Updated August 1, 2026. Accessed Sep. 17, 2026. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/traditional-and-roth-iras 2

3 Charles Schwab. What Is a Roth Conversion? Rules, Taxes, and More. Published August 5, 2026. Accessed Sep. 17, 2026. https://www. schwab.com/learn/story/why-consider-roth-ira-conversion-and-how-to-do-it 4 IRS. Retirement plans FAQs regarding IRAs. Page Last Reviewed or Updated November 16, 2025. Accessed Sep. 17, 2026. https://www. irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-iras

This article is meant to be general and is not investment or financial advice or a recommendation of any kind. Please consult your financial advisor before making financial decisions. For more detailed information, contact a financial advisor with Gregory Ricks Total Wealth. Investment advisory products and services made available through AE Wealth Management, LLC (AEWM), a Registered Investment Adviser. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Please remember that converting an employer plan account to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA. 4483264 - 9/26

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 9A

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10A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Pressure builds on Iran as Trump ups military presence BY PETER MARTIN, PATRICK SYKES, FIONA MACDONALD and SAMY ADGHIRNI

brinkmanship as the midterms approach. He said this week that heavier strikes on Iran were “possible” after the Nov. 3 vote, while the Pentagon is sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier as well as additional forces toward the Middle East. The ship’s arrival could give the U.S. three carrier strike groups in the region, a concentration not seen in the area since the opening phase

Bloomberg News (TNS)

Seven months into war with the U.S., Iran’s leaders are feeling the strain. Inflation in the Islamic Republic is almost 90%, oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz are recovering despite continued Iranian attacks, and President Donald Trump is sending another aircraft carrier and 10,000 sailors and Marines to the region. A U.S. blockade is choking off Iran’s crude exports, while diplomacy remains deadlocked. Even for a regime accustomed to sanctions and economic hardship, that is a punishing combination. The squeeze matters because it could force Iran into a choice: make concessions to try to revive peace talks or escalate a conflict that’s already damaging its economy. Trump’s domestic situation will likely influence Tehran’s thinking. The U.S. leader also is in a bind, with oil around $100 a barrel and high fuel prices hurting U.S. consumers ahead of November midterm elections. “Everyone has a breaking point, and Iran is no exception,” Bader Al-Saif, assistant professor at Kuwait University, said. He cited Iran’s recent proposal of a seven-day truce and a Bloomberg report that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has suggested restoring access for United Nations nuclear inspectors — in return for sanctions relief — as evidence of the increasing burden. “The irony is that such pressure can yield opposing responses: concessions or a preemptive strike,” he added. Iran’s economic situation is extremely painful but the country is adapting, according to one Tehran official, who asked not to be identified so they could speak candidly. The Islamic Republic is preparing for a fresh U.S. bombing campaign, potentially greater than before, but has the ability to respond, the official said. Iran’s biggest source of leverage throughout the war, which began in late February with a U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign on the Islamic Republic, has been its ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway is a vital conduit for energy and other commodities. The disruption has driven up the price of oil and natural gas and fueled global inflation, imposing a political cost on Trump at home. But Iran’s grip over the waterway — and its ability to constrain Gulf Arab oil exports — is weakening. Saudi crude exports jumped to about 6.1 million barrels a day in September from 3.4 million in August, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. JPMorgan estimates Middle East crude shipments have recovered to 17.5 million barrels a day, or 98% of

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By VAHID SALEMI

In September, Iran shipped no crude on tankers, according to preliminary Bloomberg estimates. It was the first time that has happened since the start of the war, underscoring the increasing effectiveness of the U.S. blockade on its ports. “For the first time in history, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday in an interview with Axios. “They will have no revenues.” Iran is still supplying some Chinese refiners from stockpiles of oil shipped earlier and located in Asia. But those may soon run down, further cutting off the government’s most important source of revenue. Tehran has redirected more trade via land borders and the Caspian Sea, but those routes cannot fully offset the squeeze. State media reported increased truck traffic and delays at crossings with Turkey and Pakistan in September, while the Caspian gives Tehran a sea link to its ally Russia. Washington is broadening its economic pressure. On Thursday, it imposed sanctions on Iran’s largest automakers and several rail companies. Earlier measures on the aviation sector are starting to bite. Iranian flights to the United Arab Emirates were halted in late September as governments and airport operators responded to the threat of secondary sanctions, and flights to Iraq, Turkey and Oman have also been disrupted. The economic burden is especially dangerous for Iran because the war began only weeks after security forces crushed nationwide protests over soaring prices and a collapsing currency, killing thousands of demonstrators. The government is now trying to ease the pressure on its budget without reigniting unrest. In September, officials cut some gasoline subsidies — a measure that sparked deadly protests back in 2019. This week, Tehran’s municipality fixed the prices of 12 essential food items for six months through its network of municipal markets. Trump has shown a renewed appetite for military

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Trump has repeatedly threatened attacks he ultimately did not carry out. In July, he vowed to hit bridges and power plants in response to attacks on shipping only to pull back at the last minute. Even so, the approaching midterms and voter disapproval of his handling of the war are giving him an incentive to break the stalemate. Iran may feel it can withstand the pain until Trump buckles.

EXPLORATIONS IN GENEALOGY

Iranian missiles and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, and the late armed forces commanders, who were killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes, are displayed Monday in a military exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war at Baharestan Square in Tehran. prewar levels. Still, there is debate about whether Iran still holds the upper hand over the maritime choke point. One senior defense official in the region said Iran retains a large degree of control over the strait. Another senior energy official stressed that Tehran’s grip was loosening, despite frequent hits on vessels. Overnight, a British Navy-sponsored organization said it received a report of a crude-oil tanker being struck by an unknown projectile around four miles off the coast of Oman. All crew members were reported as safe, it said. “Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz has changed,” said Arman Mahmoudian, a research fellow at the University of South Florida. “The gradual increase in oil shipments suggests the U.S. is finding ways to reassure tanker operators about the safety of transit. At the same time, I think shipping companies are gradually moving beyond the initial panic stage and beginning to accept instability in the Strait of Hormuz as part of the new reality.” Iranian officials see little prospect of a peace deal before the U.S. midterms on Nov. 3 and believe there’s a high chance of escalation after that, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday said it’s ready to deliver an “immediate, painful, regret-inducing response” to any aggression by the U.S. or Israel. “Both sides generally want an agreement, but they are moving further apart rather than closer,” Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, an associate fellow at Chatham House, told Bloomberg Television. With Gulf Arab states’ oil exports rising, she said, “the U.S. feels stronger in the Strait of Hormuz compared to a few weeks ago.” Iran’s fading influence over the strait comes on top of a dire economic situation at home. Soaring inflation is eroding what ordinary Iranians can afford, and the rial has lost about 25% of its value against the dollar in the past two months, making imported goods more expensive.

of the U.S.-led war on Iraq in 2003. It’s unclear, however, whether one of the other carriers will leave once the Roosevelt arrives in the coming weeks. “The U.S. is mirroring Iran’s approach, willing to strike a deal or go back to active combat,” said Kuwait University’s Bader Al-Saif. “But if both sides don’t give in and agree on sequencing and clear concessions, a return to war is inevitable.”

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Nominate a Baton Rouge Top Workplace for 2027

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or all the time people spend at work, how often do we celebrate it when it’s done right? Here’s a chance to nominate a Top Workplace in the Baton Rouge metro area. This is the second year The Advocate will shine a spotlight on outstanding workplaces in the region, as viewed by workers. Any organization with 35 or more employees in the region is eligible to seek a Top Workplaces award. Companies will be honored in spring 2027. Anyone can submit a nomination. The nomination deadline is Nov. 6. Participating employers can be public, private, non-proﬁt, a school, or even a government agency. To nominate an employer or for more information on the awards, just go to theadvocate.com/ nominate. There is no cost to participate. To qualify as a Baton Rouge Top Workplace, employees evaluate their workplace using a 26-question survey that takes just a few minutes to complete. Companies will be surveyed

through January. Energage, the Pennsylvaniabased research partner for the project, conducts Top Workplaces surveys for media in 70 markets nationwide and surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 8,000 organizations in the past year. “Earning a Top Workplaces award is a distinctive mark of excellence, setting companies apart in a recognizable way,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “Top Workplaces embody the highest standards, and this award, rooted in authentic employee feedback, should be a point of immense pride.” For the 2026 awards, more than 1,000 organizations in the Baton Rouge metro area were invited to survey their employees. Based on employee survey feedback from participating companies, 10 earned recognition as Top Workplaces.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 11A

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Stop Living in Pain-There’s a Better Way Living with chronic pain isn’t just frustrating — it can be life-altering. Whether it’s back pain, sciatica, neck discomfort, or disc-related issues, it can stop you from doing the things you love. Maybe you can’t play golf, get through a workday, or even sit comfortably in the car for 30 minutes. You can’t remember the last time you had a restful night’s sleep. You feel great mentally, but your body is holding you back. Most people don’t realize that spinal discs are often the root cause of this pain. These discs act as cushions between the spinal bones and create the necessary space for nerves to exit the spinal column. But when discs are injured, worn down, or begin to degenerate, they bulge or herniate — pressing on nerve roots and triggering pain in the back, legs, neck, and arms. This pressure doesn’t just cause pain. It can lead to numbness, tingling, weakness, and even issues with balance and mobility.

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I was suffering with lower back pain for years, and it was getting worse and worse. It was so painful that I could not function. I could not get out the bed without falling to the floor. I had tried orthopedic doctors, medication, scans, physical therapy- all to no avail. I came to LeBlanc Spine Center, and I started Spinal Decompression treatments in August…and I now feel 100% improved! I am now sleeping better, driving without pain, walking further – all of these activities I can now do, and I have energy that I only had when I was young. I am treated wonderfully by the staff at LeBlanc Spine Center. They are so polite and caring. Dr. Scott and Dr. Dana are unbelievably helpful. The treatment is not painful, and I enjoy the music while I am there too! If asked to recommend LeBlanc Spine Center, I would say that I am convinced that you will improve a big amount, if not 100%. Decompression therapy is the way to go! Ronnie Hebert (Civil Engineer) Hometown - Plaquemine, LA

I had been suffering with pain from herniated discs in my lower back. I could not stand for longer than 5 minutes without pain. I had tried epidural steroid injections and physical therapy in the past, but was still suffering. I have always been active and my back pain was affecting my lifestyle greatly. I came to LeBlanc Spine Center and began Decompression treatment..... and I am now 100% improved! I can do everything I did before my pain started, and my favorite part about this treatment is the results! I can do all of my daily activities without any pain. The doctors and staff here have also treated me great. I have recommended LeBlanc Spine Center to many people.....and will continue to do so! Mark Evans (Former High School Coach and Insurance Agent) Hometown - Baton Rouge, LA

I have been suffering with sharp painful back aches causing immobility for years but came here when my pain was more severe. I began Spinal Decompression treatments at LeBlanc Spine Center and I am now 80-90% improved! I can still do my hobbies and work with less pain than before, I am also sleeping better and I have more mobility. I feel so much better! The staff here is always caring, helpful, and accommodating. The doctors are always assessing and evaluating issues trying to find a solution. One of the best things I like about my care at LeBlanc Spine Center is that everyone is so caring and the attentiveness I receive! I would 100% recommend LeBlanc Spine Center, the staff is always nice and helpful. Dr. Scott and Dr. Dana have always been proactive and thorough when trying to find a solution! Cory Manuel (Project Management) Hometown - Gonzales, LA

Before coming to LeBlanc Spine Center, I suffered from lower back pain when standing and a constant dull pain in my lower left hip for nearly three years. I had CT scans, an MRI, and even tried physical therapy, which only gave me some relief. A friend recommended LeBlanc Spine Center, and I’m so glad they did. The doctors and staff are top-notchwonderful, competent, and genuinely interested in helping their patients. Since starting care, I’ve improved about 80%. I can now stand longer, walk, fish, and enjoy activities that were previously limited by pain. In fact, I’m even planning two vacations this year. Before my visits, I felt like my world was shrinking. LeBlanc Spine Center gave that world back to me, and I recommend them with enthusiasm. Leonard Kleinpeter (Retired government worker and owner of Southern Hydroseeders) Hometown - Baton Rouge, LA

12A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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LOUISIANA POLITICS Some Republicans starting to question Trump Comments come as midterms approach

action to another taxpayerfunded PSA that blasts Democrats and promotes the Iranian conflict. Trump said Thursday, “I’m not running for office, I’m promoting the country.” WASHINGTON — The most “I’m offended,” said striking thing about the U.S. Senate leaving town early to Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton campaign was all the grous- Rouge, about the PSAs. “Taxpayer dollars should ing Republicans did about not be used for political President Donald Trump purposes.” before going. Cassidy has been more “Now, the White House vocal about where he sees sees it differently, but I Trump and the Rethink there ought to be a rule that publicans failing you can’t — well, since May when he there probably is lost reelection in a a rule — you can’t closed party primary spend public money to Rep. Julia Letlow, to promote yourthe northeast LouisiMark self,” U.S. Sen. John lawmaker Trump Ballard ana Kennedy, R-Madibacked instead of him. Nobody can claim sonville, said Sept. that Kennedy isn’t an 27 on CBS News’ “Face the ardent Trump supporter. Nation.” But he also has been sayHe was talking about a taxpayer-funded “public ing that even his polling in service announcement” that Louisiana shows “people all aired repeatedly during across the political speccollege football games last trum are very unsettled” Saturday. Though the adand that could’ve played ministration called it a PSA, into his chiding Trump on the spot looked an awful like the PSAs last weekend. By Tuesday night, howa Trump commercial for the congressional midterms, in ever, Kennedy took the Senwhich it is more and more ate floor to defend Trump’s looking like Democrats will unpopular military action in win. Iran even as his colleagues “There’s nothing in there angled to pressure the adthat strikes me as out of the ministration, once again, to ordinary or that would mer- come to Congress for a decit any sort of FCC review,” laration of hostilities. Federal Communications It’s rare for any elected Commission Chair Brendan Republican to even mildCarr said Wednesday in rely disapprove of what

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, agreed in an interview with KTAL-TV in Shreveport. He said pretty much the same thing in July during interviews and news conferences. “It’s been a priority and an objective of every administration, for 50 years nearly, to ensure that Iran didn’t have a nuclear capability. Now that’s done. Operation Epic Fury was an epic success. … The world is safer because of it,” Johnson said Tuesday. “But now we’ve got to bring that to a resolution.” Voter confusion is the takeaway from a long series of town halls and voter focus groups in which former ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN Louisiana lieutenant governor and former New OrPresident Donald Trump speaks to reporters Friday on the South Lawn of the White House in leans Mayor Mitch Landrieu Washington before boarding Marine One. has participated during the past year. He has been saycontrol the legislative agenanalysts of congressional ing in op-eds, blogs and to Trump does. campaigns, wrote Thursday influencers that voters are da for the next two years. Plunging poll numbers evening. “Vulnerable GOP still frustrated by their lack Massive leads Trump racked up in 2024 are evapo- candidates could try to dis- of financial progress, not to Just a few weeks ago, a miffed Trump was far more rating in the historically tance themselves from pol- mention all the vitriol that seems to accompany politics dangerous to the careers of Republican Midwest. Even icy decisions by President these days. Republicans elected in red crimson red states like Tex- Donald Trump that have “You can just see people states than any Democratic as, Florida, Ohio and Missis- contributed to the higher struggling to find a better opposition. That dynamic cost of living, like the Iran sippi are seeing previously way. A new thing is being changed in the past week or War or sweeping tariffs. unthinkable movement formed,” Landrieu said in so as a series of polls comBut they also fear alienattoward the Democrats. Long Play Series on You“As gas prices climb missioned for partisans on ing the three-quarters of both sides — along with non- and consumer confidence Republican voters who still Tube that he co-hosted about partisan campaign handicap- plummets, Republican can- give the president a thumbs the changing politics in the up on the economy.” South, adding: “I don’t know pers, and just about every didates for Congress are Still, as the Nov. 3 elecwhat it’s going to be.” commentator with a laptop struggling to prove to vot— declared the strong posers that they feel their eco- tions gets closer, more Email Mark Ballard at sibility that Democrats may nomic pain,” Amy Walter in and more Republicans are calling for Trump to end very well take majorities in the Cook Political Report, mballard@theadvocate. the war with Iran. House both chambers and thereby one of the most respected com.

Ex-congressman discusses ‘politically directed’ prosecution BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

Q&A WITH BOB LIVINGSTON

Bob Livingston, 83, grew up in New Orleans, served in the Navy, graduated from Tulane Law School, became a local prosecutor and won a special election to the United States House in 1977. Over time, he rose in the ranks to chair the Appropriations Committee and was nominated to be speaker, but resigned in February 1999 when he admitted to a marital inﬁdelity. He formed a lobbying company in Washington and moved back to New Orleans in 2022. Livingston wrote “The Rainbow Chaser: The Man Who Gambled for Success and Broke Even,” published this year by Humanix Books. This interview was edited for length and clarity. Talk us through the process of writing “The Rainbow Chaser.” What made you want to write the book in the first place? In February 2023, I got a knock on the door. The FBI wanted to talk to me about a case I had in 2018. We talked for about two hours. They knew a great deal about the person I represented, the then-candidate for the president of Ukraine. I gave

them all the background, answered all the questions. I didn’t think anything about it. The guy agent in a man bun handed me a subpoena for all my records — phone records, documents, computer records — anything we possibly had relating to the representation of (Julia) Tymoshenko. This was an investigation in whether I violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I knew damn well I hadn’t. My whole world was turned upside down by these politically directed, ill-motivated prosecutors and FBI agents in the Justice Department under the Biden administration. Why? I am absolutely convinced it was because I was a Republican who had supported President Trump. I was one of many thousands of people they went after, if not hundreds. I fought it. It cost me a fortune. But I didn’t get charged. I saved my reputation. I saved my company. I saved my employees. And I beat them. And not everybody does. The more I thought about it, the more

angry I got, and I started writing this book. It was therapeutic. A lot of people believe that Trump has engaged in lawfare.You don’t agree? I can’t answer yes or no. If he does, then he’s as wrong as the Biden administration was. But nobody was a victim of lawfare more than he was. That whole Russian collusion was bull****. The two impeachment charges were bull****. I think Biden wanted to destroy him so he couldn’t run again. You chose to write honestly about your father’s flaws.Why? Going back in the history of the country, I had a stellar family. It was very successful and inﬂuential at the beginning of this country. But as I write, over the generations, my family went into decline. It culminated with my father making a mess of his life, and he died at 51 of alcoholism. The combination inspired me, probably, to do something better. Compromise has become a dirty word for a lot of elected officials today.Yet you praise compromise.Why? That’s what the Constitution envisions. It’s necessary to run a free republic.

were “corrupt to the core.” Why? It wasn’t just my case. I believe my case was example number one. What they did to Trump was paramount. What they did to the J6ers was incredible. I’ve talked to too many people who were just passing by, who were there. A lot of people believed that the elections had been slammed. So they go to Washington and they protest, which is Americans’ fundamental right. In many instances, I’ve seen the ﬁlms, the cops invited them into the Capitol. If STAFF FILE PHOTO they were in the Capitol for By SCOTT THRELKELD three or four minutes, they Former U.S. Rep. Bob got prosecuted. Livingston I’ve seen video of protesters acting very violently. Yes, yes. Maybe a handful. I am upset with the fact that It looked to me like it was more today is very much unlike it was when I was there. When than a handful. I do not defend in the book I was there, I had Democrat those people who were viofriends. Today you don’t see that. It bothers me. The lent. If they were violent, I country is factionalizing. don’t care if they were prosOpen debate and comproecuted. But proportionately, the vast majority of people mise are mandatory for the were just walking by. continuity of this nation. I Any regrets about voting for Dondon’t like anybody who says, “My way or the highway.” ald Trump? As far as I’m concerned, No. I’d vote for him tothey can take the highway day. I acknowledge all of and get the hell out of Conthe complaints about his personality. But I look at gress. You believe that Joe Biden and his his performance. I think he has been the most perattorney general, Merrick Garland,

formative president in my lifetime since FDR. Has he misjudged things and been erratic on occasion? Yes. He said we’d be out of Iran in six weeks. It’s been six months, and we’re not out of Iran. I think he misjudged that. Do I question his fundamental cause of not letting the Iranians have nuclear weapons? I totally agree with that. House Speaker Mike Johnson has been criticized for being too submissive to Trump and hasn’t acted enough as an independent leader of a coequal branch of government. What do you think? If he had a margin of 10-15 people, then he’d have the opportunity to be more independent. But with a margin of one, two or three people, he has no latitude. What he’s accomplished in passing some things is incredible considering that he has no margin. You rose through the ranks to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee and almost became Speaker of the House.What was the key to your rise in Washington? Some people are show horses. Some people are work horses. I’m not a show horse. Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate.com.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 13A

Poll shows voters favor Democrats on key issues But survey finds they lack faith in either party to solve problems

BY THOMAS BEAUMONT and LINLEY SANDERS

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Aaron Siever was never a single-party voter. But now, the 41-yearold from southwest Virginia is more frustrated than ever with the two political parties whose chief accomplishment, he says, is blaming each other for getting little done. “There’s so much turmoil,” said Siever, a former police officer who now guides Civil War battlefield tours. “It really messes up chances of getting anything done. It gets really disgusting.” Voters are deeply dissatisfied with President Donald Trump and his Republican Party heading into the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to an Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, and Democrats have built a clear advantage on pressing issues such as the cost of living and healthcare over just a few months. But the survey also points to a bigger problem for both parties: Few registered voters think either party is able to solve important problems or help Americans like them. That undercurrent of cynicism will be a challenge for Democrats and the Republicans, no matter which party controls Congress. Frustration with Republicans is growing, but voters do not appear to think Democrats have a long-term solution to the country’s problems, either. Voters give Democrats the advantage when it comes to which party would be better to handle the cost of living, an issue that has proved to be a weak spot for Trump. The survey finds that 38%

spending on healthcare and Some 45% say the same by a half percentage point about the Democratic Party. — roughly 3,800 votes — ilimmigration enforcement. Voters overall do not see lustrating Democrats’ soulBut gridlock has not been exclusive to Republican con- an abundance of moderate searching in the Upper Midtrol. Despite Democratic sentiment in either party. western swing state. In the November general majorities early in Demo- But they are more likely cratic President Joe Biden’s to say Democrats are “too election, Ludwig is “relucadministration, the party moderate” than Republicans tant,” but plans to vote for did not achieve its goals on — a reflection of the lack of Crowley rather than Repubkey priorities such as abor- unity within Democratic lican Tom Tiffany, a congressman. Ludwig hopes tion rights, voting rights and Party about its strategy. Slightly fewer than half of that Crowley, if elected, perraising the minimum wage. Siever is frustrated by Democratic voters say their ceives the discontent about what he sees as a commit- party is “too moderate,” his party. “We need to seize the opment to partisanship in Con- while a similar share say it gress at the expense of prog- is “about right.” That is a portunity to boldly enact ress at a time when consum- sharp contrast with Repub- policies that will improve ers are paying higher prices lican voters, who mostly say the lives of Americans,” for daily necessities such as their party is “about right.” said Ludwig, who is marVoters such as Meagan ried and has an elementary groceries and gasoline. Driving around the region Ludwig of Milwaukee illus- school-age child. “I’m tired to lecture and guide tours, trate the party discontent of us pursuing incremental his travel costs have soared that has emerged in Wiscon- change.” and led him to raise his pric- sin and other closely conThe AP-NORC poll of 2,140 ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ELLEN SCHMIDT es. adults, including 1,766 registested states this year. Ludwig, a 41-year-old real tered voters, was conducted “I’ve really become tired A voter casts a ballot on Sept. 18 during early voting in estate broker, voted for Sept. 24-28 using a sample of the idea that, if you’re in Minnesota at the Elections & Voter Services building in this party, you have to be democratic socialist Franc- drawn from NORC’s probMinneapolis. loyal to this but, if you’re esca Hong in the Democrat- ability-based AmeriSpeak in that party, you have to ic primary for governor in Panel, which is designed of registered voters say the istered voters say the same be loyal to that,” he said. August, arguing the candi- to be representative of the Democrats would be better about the Democratic Party. ”There’s big problems and date seemed more commit- U.S. population. The margin for costs, compared with While voters expressed neither side seems able to ted to a policy agenda aimed of sampling error is plus or 27% who say that about the deep dissatisfaction with fix them.” at helping working families minus 2.9 percentage points Republicans. The issue was Republicans, the survey Meanwhile, 55% of regis- than Milwaukee County Ex- for adults overall and plus or about evenly split among indicates that voters have tered voters say the Repub- ecutive David Crowley. minus 3.1 percentage points U.S. adults in February, with relatively little confidence lican Party is “too extreme.” Crowley won the primary for registered voters. about 3 in 10 saying each Democrats have their probparty would be better. lems in mind. Democrats have also Democrats are less likely gained ground on the econo- to be described as corrupt or my. About 4 in 10 registered focused on the wealthy than voters now pick the Demo- are Republicans, but not crats, compared with 26% more likely to be seen as foThe East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters Office announces of U.S. adults in February. cused on ordinary people or the last day to register to vote or make changes to your These shifts are good news capable of solving problems. voter registration for the November 3, 2026 Election is: for Democratic candidates Only about 2 in 10 regiswho are hammering an in- tered voters say that “able to creasingly unpopular presi- solve important problems” Monday, October 5, 2026 by-mail or in person at the offices of the dent — and by extension, his or “focused on helping peoRegistrar of Voters, weekdays 8:00 am until 4:30 pm. party. Few Americans ap- ple like me” describes the prove of Trump’s handling Democratic Party “extremeof the cost of living, and ly” or “very” well. That is Main Office: City Hall – 222 Saint Louis St. – Room 201 views of his performance similar to the percentages Southeast: Fire Station Building – 11010 Coursey Blvd. on the economy are only a who say this about the GOP. little better. Democrats are out of Baker: Motor Vehicle Building – 2250 Main. St. Voters appear to view Re- power in Washington, and publicans, in particular, as that may contribute to the or focused on the wealthy. The perception that they are unsurvey finds that about 6 in able to get traction in solvTuesday, October 13, 2026 for online transactions at 10 registered voters say the ing problems. www.GeauxVote.com phrase “focused on helping In the last year alone, the rich and powerful people” federal government pardescribes the Republican tially shut down twice for Call (225) 389-3940 for more information. Party “extremely” or “very” weeks because of partisan well. Only about 3 in 10 reg- disputes in Congress over

Voter Registration Deadline

14A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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EDUCATION Florida Head Start center teaches in two languages But Trump overhaul would require only one be used: English

would amend that approach. If finalized, the proposal would require Head Start programs to conduct all education in English, though programs could seek waivers and certain Tribal-language instruction would be exempt. BY GISELA SALOMON “A ﬁrm foundation in the Associated Press English language” is critical IMMOKALEE, Fla. — It’s almost to preparing kids for school, noon, and after playing on said the Department of the playground, working Health and Human Services, with clay and washing their which oversees Head Start. hands, the 2-year-olds are Multilingual teaching ready for lunch. The eight children and Toys line shelves in the their Head Start teachers Immokalee classrooms, lapray in English, thanking beled in English and SpanGod for the meal. Then, the ish — helicopters, airplanes, adults bring over several tower builders. Bilingual bowls. signs show shapes in differ“Hoy tenemos arroz.” In ent colors and list children’s Spanish, the teacher an- birthdays. Every day, teachnounces the children are ers sing and read in both lanhaving rice. A little boy guages. grabs a ladle and scoops rice One afternoon, it suddenonto his plate. ly grows dark outside and Both English and Span- thunder rolls. Noticing the ish are core to daily life in preschoolers look worried, a this Head Start preschool teacher explains in English, in Immokalee, Florida — an “When you see it, it’s lightagricultural area about 120 ning. When you hear it, it’s miles northwest of Miami. thunder. What was it?” The center serves more than “Thunder,” a boy responds. 50 children from mostly Another answers in Spanish, Guatemalan families, ages noting the danger: “Es muy six months to 5 years. Most peligroso.” students arrive speaking “Si te cae un rayo muy little or no English. fuerte, te puedes lastimar,” Children who speak a lan- the teacher responds. (If a guage other than English at very strong bolt of lightning home account for at least a hits you, you could get hurt.) third of the enrollment in Then she adds in English: Head Start, a federally fund- “So we don’t go outside.” This is part of Head Start’s ed early childhood program serving roughly 700,000 low- Planned Language Approach income children and their in action. Educators help parents. For decades, Head children learn English while Start has supported these also using the language they kids by hiring multilingual speak at home — not simply teachers to teach them Eng- as an accommodation, but as lish, while using their home a teaching strategy. Research shows skills and languages as a foundation. But an overhaul of Head knowledge developed in a Start’s standards pro- child’s home language can posed by President Donald provide a foundation for Trump’s administration learning English. If a child

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By REBECCA BLACKWELL

Children look through a book of first words on Sept. 10 at a Head Start preschool in Immokalee, Fla. already knows the word for “yellow” in Spanish, she doesn’t have to completely rediscover the concept behind the color when learning the word in English. Asked for research supporting the proposed English-only requirement, the Department of Health and Human Services pointed to Trump’s executive order designating English as the country’s ofﬁcial language. “The changes set forth in the proposed Head Start rule help achieve these goals by exposing children to English earlier, during a critical time in children’s development,” a department spokesperson said. But education studies don’t back up the administration’s claim, said Michael López, a child psychologist who has led Head Start studies for the federal government.

“There’s really not any credible research basis that suggests that English-only instruction will produce stronger English academic outcomes,” López said. “It’s a mistake. It’s really going back 30 years.” Dual-language instruction produces better academic outcomes, he said, including in subjects like mathematics. In the 1970s, Head Start began requiring centers with signiﬁcant numbers of non-native English speakers to hire at least one staff member ﬂuent in their home language — a regulation still in place today. The Trump administration wants to drop that requirement, saying it could help centers more easily staff classrooms. The language changes are part of a broader effort by

the Trump administration to eliminate or rewrite many federal Head Start requirements for classroom conditions, curriculum and safety. Instead, state and local regulations — which are often more lenient — would apply. The proposed changes do not require a vote in Congress, but the administration is required to seek and consider feedback from the public. Thus far, most comments related to the Englishonly proposal oppose that approach.

Involving parents At Immokalee, teachers give daily notes to parents when they pick up their children, writing in both English and Spanish. Beyond these simple reports are monthly parent meetings, plus four in-person parent-teacher confer-

ences every year — two at the children’s homes and two at school. (Those conferences would become optional under the Trump administration proposal.) In all of these interactions, parents and staff currently speak in Spanish with each other. The executive director overseeing the Immokalee center said she is unsure what the English-only proposal would mean in practice. “I don’t know how you’re going to keep people from … speaking Spanish, because it is the home language,” said Isabel Garcia, who, as executive director of the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, supervises 26 Head Start and Early Head Start locations. “It is important that (family members) feel comfortable understanding what is happening with their child.” HHS told the AP the English-language requirement would apply only to instruction. Head Start teachers could continue using kids’ home languages to explain safety rules or providing comfort, for example — and when communicating and engaging with families, the department said. In fact, the law requires Head Start centers to communicate with parents in a language they understand, “to the extent practicable,” which wouldn’t change. The department acknowledged eliminating requirements for bilingual staffers “may negatively affect communication with non-English speaking families and weaken family engagement.” It suggested using online translation tools. AP education writers Alia Wong and Moriah Balingit contributed reporting.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 15A

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Supreme Court to hear major climate change case Litigation involves devastating Colorado wildfire

BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST and BRITTANY PETERSON Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Less than an hour after the first warning that a wildfire was headed for her suburban street, Tawnya Somauroo’s Colorado home was in ashes. She has worked tirelessly for nearly five years to rebuild her house and help ensure her neighborhood can withstand the next blaze. But as climate change contributes to more frequent wildfires, she worries that the careful landscaping, metal fencing and flame-resistant siding are not enough. “We lost our homes and they left us to figure out for ourselves how to make our neighborhoods safe again,” Somauroo said. “At the end of the day, it comes out of our pockets, you know? And

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By BRITTANy PETERSON

Tawnya Somauroo leans on a ledge in her new fire-resilient home on Sept. 21 in Louisville, Colo. it does feel like maybe the oil and gas industry should have a part in this.” She lives in Boulder County, one of dozens of jurisdictions across the United States suing oil and gas companies to help pay for damage from disasters linked to climate change. The case is part of a wave of climate change litigation across the country and the world, with billions of dol-

lars at stake. On Monday, the ﬁrst day of the Supreme Court’s new term, the justices will hear the Boulder case that could decide the fate of others like it. The city and county of Boulder first sued two oil companies in 2018, years before the ﬁre. They argued that Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil had violated state law by deceiving the public about their contributions to

Bessent says AI industry must own its risks and find solutions BY MARÍA PAULA MIJARES TORRES Bloomberg News (TNS)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized prominent artificial intelligence figures’ warnings about existential risks posed by the technology as alarmist and unhelpful, calling on the industry to police itself and produce solutions. “I believe that we have to be prepared for every occasion, but on the other side, this alarmism without solutions by some of the AI community, that’s not leadership,” Bessent told Axios in an interview published Saturday.

Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Dario Amodei, OpenAI chief Sam Altman and xAI Corp.’s Elon Musk in September called for the industry to slow development of its most advanced models, citing growing risks for humanity. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also warned the technology is powerful enough to cause “a billion deaths” and called for government regulation. President Donald Trump almost immediately rejected such calls, labeling the increasingly dire warnings about risk to humanity a “hoax” and insisting the U.S. must push forward to main-

tain leadership over China — a sentiment that Bessent echoed in his remarks to Axios. “We cannot lose our lead to the Chinese,” he said. “It is the people at the labs who have to accept responsibility, and I agree with that,” Bessent said. “I think the labs have come around to that way of thinking, too.” In a meeting with top industry executives including Musk, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, Palantir Technologies Inc. CEO Alex Karp and OpenAI President Greg Brockman. this week, the U.S. president shot down the idea of new federal regulation.

climate change and sought unspeciﬁed damages to help cover the cost of worsening disasters. The companies say that a ﬂood of lawsuits in state courts is not the way to deal with the global issue. “The problem is that climate change is caused by pretty much everybody living on earth,” said Phil Goldberg, special counsel for the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, an industry group. “We need to figure out how to address that. We need to address it in a very meaningful way. This litigation doesn’t do that.” The companies have the backing of the Trump administration. Federal government attorneys say the lawsuits are a backdoor way to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and amount to an unconstitutional power grab. “No one state can super-

impose its own regulatory preferences on the rest — least of all to address a global problem that exists almost entirely outside its borders and affects the world at large,” they wrote. The Clean Air Act, they say, allows the federal government, rather than states, to regulate emissions. The Republican administration has largely used that power to roll back environmental regulations. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency ceded some of its climate authority by repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. The move could complicate its argument. Boulder says it is not trying to regulate emissions beyond its borders, only holding companies accountable for local costs.

“Boulder County and city aren’t trying to change what’s happening in Texas or New York, they’re trying to get compensation for things happening now in Colorado,” said Sam Sankar, senior vice president at Earthjustice, which filed an amicus brief in the case. Climate change was considered a factor in the 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed Somauroo’s home, after the county’s suit was originally filed. The total damage was estimated at $2 billion. It was the costliest wildfire in Colorado history. “Local county municipal governments play a very important role in helping front line communities adapt to climate change. This case could very well set a precedent,” said Chris Winter, executive director of the Getches-Wilkinson Center, an environmental research group in Colorado.

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16A ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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THE GULF COAST Popular N.O.-based restaurant closes Bay St. Louis location

The Peter Anderson Festival returns to downtown Ocean Springs, Miss., each November. SUN HERALD FILE PHOTO By HANNAH RUHOFF

BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

Mississippi Coast to host fall, Halloween events BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

The Mississippi Coast hosts dozens of Halloween-themed events each fall. And even as the summer tourist season slows, many of the region’s attractions still lure visitors from Louisiana. Here’s a list of some of the Coast’s most popular fall attractions and events.

Pumpkin patches The Mississippi Coast features several popular pumpkin patches each year. Options near the Louisiana state line include Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian and Southern Promiseland Farm in Kiln. Visitors to Biloxi can also enjoy pumpkin patches at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer and Lemoyne Boulevard Baptist Church.

friendly costume party in downtown Bay St. Louis that includes hundreds of revelers dressed up as witches, warlocks and wizards. It takes place during the day on Oct. 24. On the other end of the coast, the Witches Ride of Ocean Springs hosts an annual parade of bikes, golf carts and walkers dressed as witches and warlocks. Participants decorate bicycles and wear elaborate costumes while handing out treats to spectators. It takes place the evening of Oct. 24 through downtown Ocean Springs.

Southern Promiseland Farm Southern Promiseland Farm in Kiln, Miss. features a 10-acre corn maze, hayrides, farm animals, concessions and a pumpkin patch. Admission is $10, and children ages two and under are admitted for free. The farm is cash-only. 1212 Raygan Lane, Kiln, Miss. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays Sept. 26 through Nov. 1. See website for additional availability.

line and about an hour outside of New Orleans. The farm’s website says zinnias and sunﬂowers began blooming in September. The farm encourages visitors to wear closed-toe shoes and bring a bucket, clippers, garden gloves, drinks and snacks. Admission is $18, and children ages 11 and younger are admitted for free. Tickets can be purchased in advance on the Coastal Ridge Farm website or with cash at the gate. 27290 Road 221, Picayune, Miss. 9 a.m. to sunset through October, closed Wednesdays. Check website for seasonal availability.

Peter Anderson Festival

The Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs is the largest arts festival in Mississippi. It allows artists to showcase works to thousands of visitors, who can view crafters painting, sculpting and working on pottery at booths that Halloween parades, parties line the streets. The festival is now in its 48th The Boo in the Bay parade in Bay year. It began as a way to honor PeSt. Louis, Miss., features golf carts, Jeeps and classic cars decorated in ter Anderson, who founded Ocean Halloween themes. It takes place Coastal Ridge Farm Springs’ Shearwater Pottery workat 5:30 p.m. Oct. 17 in Old Town Coastal Ridge Farm offers ﬁelds shop in 1928. Bay St. Louis. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 7-8 in downof wildﬂowers available to pick in The Witches Walk is a family- Picayune — just north of the coast- town Ocean Springs, Miss.

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The Bay St. Louis location of Barracuda Taco Stand has closed for the season as the summer tourism boom begins to decline on the Mississippi Coast, and it’s unclear if or when the restaurant will reopen. Barracuda’s owner Brett Jones conﬁrmed Tuesday that the Bay St. Louis location closed after Labor Day. The popular taco spot started serving customers in Bay St. Louis in late 2024. Jones said the restaurant has posted a sign on its door informing customers of the closure. A listing on Google also says the restaurant is temporarily closed. “We’re grateful to the Bay St. Louis community for their support,” Jones said in a text message. Barracuda Bay St. Louis sits in the heart of the Mississippi Coast city, on a popular stretch of Second Street near antique shops, Creole Creamery and Mockingbird Cafe. The closure came just before one of the busiest weeks

of the year in southern Mississippi: An annual October car show called Cruisin’ The Coast that draws thousands of visitors from around the country. The closure comes as many restaurants face seasonal challenges in Bay St. Louis, which ﬁlls with visitors each summer and grows quieter during the winter months. Several other restaurants — including the barbecue spot Murky Waters and the seafood spot Tripletails Restaurant — have closed this year. Some restaurateurs in the area have also said they are challenged by food costs. Jones did not explain what led to the decision to close for the season, but said the location does not have a reopening date. “We’re evaluating our options for Bay St. Louis, so we can’t give a deﬁnitive answer right now,” he said. Barracuda’s original location opened in 2019 on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans, and the restaurant has also expanded to Algiers Point, Baton Rouge and Huntsville, Ala. The other locations are open as usual, Jones said.

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is docked on July 3, 2024, at the International Space Station.

NASA ramps up support to fix Boeing’s capsule BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer

CAPE CANAVERAL,Fla.— NASA is throwing extra support and money behind Boeing’s troubled astronaut capsule to get it fixed and flying again as soon as possible. Boeing’s Starliner capsule had so many problems in 2024 that its two test pilots were stuck at the International Space Station for nearly a year. NASA later reclassified the botched mission as a crew-endangering “Type A mishap,” its most severe ranking. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced Monday that Boeing should be ready to launch a new and improved Starliner to the space station — with cargo but no crew — by December. Astronauts will not strap in until 2028 because of the need for further safety redesigns that will take months, if not years, to complete. Manager Dana Weigel stressed that everyone must be conﬁdent that all of Starliner’s problems have been resolved before putting astronauts back on board. “Bottom line: We’re on the right path,” said NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, who will command the next Starliner ﬂight. Hoburg said Starliner’s original test pilots — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, now both retired — are “American heroes and I am deeply humbled to follow in their footsteps.”

THE CABILDO

NASA always wanted two U.S.-based means of getting astronauts to and from orbit. The space agency shelled out billions of dollars to Boeing as well as SpaceX for ferry service once the space shuttles retired. Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the first private business to send astronauts to orbit in 2020. His company will launch its 14th crew for NASA later this week. After struggling to carry out a pair of empty Starliner test flights, Boeing’s Starliner flew astronauts Wilmore and Williams, but they had to hitch a ride back with SpaceX nine months later. SpaceX intends to phase out its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules in another few years and focus on its newer, larger Starship, which reached orbit for the first time Monday. That is why NASA is so keen to redeem Boeing’s repeatedly bedeviled ride. The extra Starliner upgrades and new rocket certifications will cost NASA another $359 million, Weigel said. Among the many fixes: new valves and seals. While the aging space station is due to be abandoned and deorbited by 2031, several private U.S. companies are working on their own orbital outposts that will need reliable taxi service. SpaceX’s Starship is way too big to dock and Musk has moon and Mars travel as the company’s overriding goals.

Bruce Techow, 81, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, passed away peacefully on September 19, 2026 surrounded by his loving family. Bruce was born in Detroit, Michigan. He went on to attend the University of Michigan, where he earned his degree in Chemical Engineering. He spent the majority of his career at Kaiser Aluminum, building a reputation as a dedicated and skilled chemical and process engineer over his many years with the company. After retiring from Kaiser, Bruce concluded his career at ENGlobal. Bruce also served his country as a veteran of the Vietnam War. After growing up in the Midwest, Bruce made his way south and settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though a Michigander at heart, he came to embrace the warmth, food, and hospitality of his adopted home, making Louisiana just as much a part of who he was as the state where he was born. Bruce was a quiet man, but those who knew him understood the depth of his kindness, generosity, and intelligence. He didn't need many words to make an impression — his steady, thoughtful presence and everyday acts of care spoke for him. And when you needed something fixed, Bruce was the first (and best) person to call. He wouldn't give up until he'd figured out how to solve your problem. Bruce loved to see the world, and some of his most cherished trips were to Italy and Australia in the 1980s, and then Ireland and a tour of Europe after retirement. In addition to going abroad, he enjoyed sharing adventures with his kids and grandchildren, taking them to Disney World, Universal and many beach vacations. Bruce is survived by his wife, Liana Techow, and her son, Enrique Castells; his daughters, Dawn Techow (Scott Kawczynski) and Beth Techow (Jason Primm); and his grandchildren, Chester Kawczynski and Lilybeth and Annabelle Primm. A visitation and memorial will be held at Greenoaks Funeral Home on Saturday, October 10th from 2 to 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Mission for

VISIT THE LANDMARK SITE OF THE HISTORIC LOUISIANA PURCHASE CEREMONY. LOUISIANASTATEMUSEUM.ORG

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 17A

ative talent.

He studied acting at LSU, but he never needed a stage. He played a whole cast of characters wherever he went, and no matter who you were, he found a way to make you laugh. He painted, took photographs, acted, and wrote and voiced radio commercials during a career at Star 101 FM in Orlando and at Fox 97 and B98 in Atlanta. He never stopped exploring his creativity. In retirement Ben moved to the beautiful north Georgia mountains and spent his time fly fishing, hiking, and volunteering to maintain the Benton MacKaye Trail.

Frank Benton "Ben" Yaun, 67, died peacefully on September 22, 2026, at the family cabin in Mineral Bluff, Georgia, his happy place. His wife and sons were with him.

Ben was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2020 and faced it with the grace and humor that defined him.

Ben was born in McComb, Mississippi, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In high school he gave himself an artist name, Sir De Ben Yaun. He signed his artwork with it and called himself by it for the rest of his life, because that is who he was: a cre-

He was preceded in death by his parents, John Clifton Yaun, Jr. and Robbie J. Yaun; his first wife, Jeanmarie Kenny Yaun; his brothers Jesse F. Yaun, Charlie L. Yaun and John C. Yaun III; and his sister Robin Y. Schexnayder Elliott. He is survived by his

wife, Carol Huey; his sons, Benton and Jesse Yaun; his sisters, Janie C. Casey and Lucinda K. Higgins; and many nieces, nephews and friends.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, October 9, 2026, at St. Ann Catholic Church in Marietta, Georgia. He will be laid to rest beside Jeanmarie Kenny Yaun at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs, GA. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to Alzheimer's Association (alz.org) or the Benton MacKaye Trail Association Land Acquisition Fund (bmta.org/donate). Ben filled the world with color, characters, caring, laughter and stories. He will be deeply missed.

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$30M roundabout project nears finish line BY ANNAKATE FREELAND Staff writer

A $30 million project to add roundabouts along La. 30 in Gonzales that began in 2024 is entering its last phases, but local business owners say years of construction

and lane closures have taken a toll on their sales. The project adds roundabouts at the two Interstate 10 ramps and at the intersection of St. Landry Avenue and Robert Wilson Road. The left-turn lane from La. 30 westbound onto I-10 east-

bound was closed on Friday. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development advises motorists to bypass the intersection and continue to the La. 30 roundabout at Robert Wilson Road and St. Landry Avenue to make a U-turn before head-

ing east on La. 30 and accessing the I-10 ramp. Beginning Oct. 12, the leftturn lane from La. 30 eastbound onto I-10 westbound will also close. The existing La. 30 eastbound through lane will be converted into a temporary

left-turn lane for motorists accessing I-10 westbound. The existing right through lane will remain open. Both closures are expected to remain in place through Nov. 13. DOTD anticipates all three roundabouts will be func-

AT RANDOM

A wren reminds me that home can grow anywhere

LSU star gave it to friend; it’s now back with family BY MATTHEW MCNAMARA Louisiana State University

tant to D’Aquilla for six years, Dodd worked as an attorney for the state corrections department beginning in 1998 and served as an assistant warden in various capacities at the

With an acclaimed new two-hour documentary, LSU football great Billy Cannon is having a moment. Not that he ever really left the headlines eight years after his death. But the new Louisiana Public Broadcasting bio ﬁlls in a lot of blanks. The counterfeiting charges, his financial struggles and his years of redemption at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. But one detail is not fully settled. What happened to the Heisman Trophy he won after this 89-yard punt return in 1959? Wasn’t it at TJ Ribs, the Baton Rouge restaurant for many years before it changed hands? Was the trophy sold? Or does LSU have it in a trophy case on campus? When Cannon’s legal and financial troubles started to mount in the early ‘80s, so did the rumors about its whereabouts. He sold it, he lost it, he gave it to LSU or, according to one published account, he hid it in his garage. Bunnie Cannon, a daughter of Billy Cannon, recalls hearing all the talk. “A journalist asked Billy where the trophy was,” Bunnie said. “And he jokingly quipped ‘it was under a carport under a bunch of oily rags.’ The journalist published the story and made people actually believe he did not care about it,” she said in an interview. In fact, Billy Cannon cared a great deal. He was determined that the U.S. government, which was after him for back taxes and other misdeeds, not get a hold of it. “My father did not want the IRS to get the trophy, so he loaned it to his friend and LSU supporter, T.J. Moran, in the 1980s,” Bunnie Cannon said. It was a handshake deal,

ä See DODD, page 2B

ä See CANNON, page 2B

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Southern Jaguars cheerleaders perform a special routine during Southern’s homecoming pep rally Friday at the F.G. Clark Activity Center in Baton Rouge.

JAGUAR SPIRIT ä More homecoming photos.

PAGE 2B

ABOVE: Southern football players wind up to throw T-shirts into the crowd during the pep rally. RIGHT: The Gold-N-Bluez Dance Team performs during Southern’s homecoming pep rally on Friday.

ä See AT RANDOM, page 2B

New East and West Feliciana district attorney sworn in BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer

A longtime ofﬁcial with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections will serve as district attorney for East and West

ä See PROJECT, page 2B

Where’s Billy Cannon’s Heisman Trophy?

Danny Heitman

I was putting our house to bed the other night when I noticed that the hanging basket near the front door was parched. The basket is full of our purslane, which makes lively violet flowers, tiny as buttons, that seem to open all at once when the morning sun comes to life. Purslane is a hearty succulent that usually fends for itself, but the soil in our basket looked as dry as a bucket of ashes. There was a glass of ice water on our coffee table, so I gave the plant a good drenching. That’s when a sudden flutter of wings nearly grazed my face. At first, I thought I’d surprised one of our night moths — strong, buzzy creatures that can be as big as a hummingbird. But the source of the commotion soon became clear. I’d accidentally doused a Carolina wren, and it had fled to the arm of our Carolina wren porch rocker to dry out. As many Louisiana homeowners know, wrens are famous for taking up residence in odd places. My well-worn copy of “Attracting Birds to Southern Gardens,” authored by Thomas Pope, Neil Odenwald and Charles Fryling, offers a few details about the wren’s embrace of just about any kind of accommodation: “It will readily nest in wren houses, but if suitable nesting sites are not avail-

tional and open to trafﬁc in late November or early December, weather permitting. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in early 2027. The roundabout at St.

Feliciana parishes for the next three months. L. Bruce Dodd, 75, took the oath of ofﬁce as the 20th Judicial District’s chief prosecutor before a court session Thursday in St. Francisville.

Sam D’Aquilla, who served as district attorney for nearly 24 years, resigned Wednesday as he prepares to assume his duties as the Division B judge for the district in January. In addition to serving as an assis-

2B ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Kenner spends millions on Pontchartrain Center Mold, leaks, more repaired

BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer

The inside of Kenner’s Pontchartrain Convention & Civic Center leaked during rain, and the air conditioning system sputtered from old age. Then, earlier this year, contractors discovered mold growing in the ceiling. Now, amid workers sprinting to complete renovations in time for the NBA Pelicans G-League team to start playing there in November, the city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars more than anticipated to make surprise repairs. The city’s costs for roof replacement, HVAC system upgrades and mold abatement are now estimated to cost about $4.5 million — about $750,000 more than ﬁrst expected because of the mold. It comes as the city also oversees up to $5 million in Pelicans-funded renovations to the building including locker rooms, two basketball courts, a new video board and streaming equipment. A vice president for the Pelicans said Friday the facility will be renamed the Waste Pro Civic Center as part of the overhaul. With so many contractors working on the 72,000-square-foot building, the city has hired a separate contractor to oversee it all. Gibbs Construction will be paid up to $100,000

to coordinate and assure the work is being done correctly. Natalie Newton, Kenner chief administrative ofﬁcer, said oversight is needed as the Pontchartrain Center’s problems have fed into one another, such as roof and HVAC problems creating mold. She said managing those repairs is even more complex under the tight deadline for the Pelicans’ arrival. “While we had the remediation company in here getting rid of the mold, we were also fighting the existing roof leaks and having to do temporary repairs — knowing we’re getting ready to get a new roof,” Newton said. “It’s a little bit of chasing our tail.” Newton added that costs will likely continue to rise as more problems may surface in the “30-year-old facility that really hasn’t been touched in 30 years.” Kenner City Council member Joey LaHatte, who represents Laketown where the center is located, likened it to peeling an onion: “You keep seeing more requests for repair and replacement, and I don’t think the whole onion is peeled yet.” The NBA G-League, which begins its season in the center on Nov. 6, functions as a minor league for basketball, providing training and development for prospective players. Kenner approved an agreement with the Pelicans in February to move its team from Birmingham, Alabama, to the Pontchartrain Center under the name Laketown

Squadron. Stephen Pate, vice president of operations for the Pelicans, said in a statement Friday that the G-League renovations are still on schedule and unaffected by the city’s repairs. Kenner is spending $1.3 million to replace the roof following damage from Hurricane Ida, which officials plan to get reimbursed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The city will spend another $2.5 million on the first phase of fixing the building’s HVAC system, although the entire project will require at least another $1 million to complete, Newton said. Kenner took over management of the Pontchartrain Center this summer from Legends Global, which also manages the Smoothie King Center. Legends Global oversaw the Pontchartrain Center for decades but moved to terminate their agreement with Kenner after the city did not respond to a new contract proposal. Mayor Michael Glaser later said the contract was too costly. The city now has six full-time Pontchartrain Center employees. Four were retained from Legends Global’s staff of 16. Newton said since taking over the building in July, city officials have found more deferred maintenance and other issues that they believed Legends Global was handling. Newton cited air conditioning filters that hadn’t been changed in years and an inoperable chiller. She also alleged that Legends

hasn’t submitted closing finance reports that were due in July, and that the city is considering legal action against the company. In a response, Legends Global said in a statement that it “has a long history of successfully managing the Pontchartrain Center on behalf of the City of Kenner,” and that the company regularly identified capital repair and maintenance needs that the city was responsible for fixing. The company said the financial closeout process remains underway in accordance with the terms of their agreement with Kenner. Glaser, Newton and other administration officials have said the costs they’ll save from running the Pontchartrain Center in-house instead of contracting will help cover repairs. The center operated at a roughly $600,000 deficit every year, which the city paid Legends under their agreement. Kenner officials contend the Pelicans arrival will be an economic boon for Laketown, a $19 million amphitheater built by Jefferson Parish on the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline. Already, a nearby hotel has undergone major renovations, and Kenner police have opened a new substation in the area in anticipation of increased foot traffic, Glaser said. While LaHatte said he looks forward to the Pelicans’ arrival, he worried about the rising costs of the Pontchartrain Center repairs. “I don’t want it to become a money pit for the city of Kenner,” he said.

Southern pep rally

Event emcee LaDonte Lotts has his hair braided into an S during Southern’s homecoming pep rally.

CANNON

Continued from page 1B never put in writing, and both men agreed the trophy would be returned to the Cannon family at its request. Moran owned TJ Ribs and put the trophy on display in his restaurant. Moran later died and gave the restaurant to his son, Burke, who sold it. It remains open — but without the trophy. Its absence only increased speculation about the whereabouts of the trophy. Most people believe the trophy was given to LSU. Owen Morris, an LSU student and sports fanatic, believed Cannon sold his trophy to cover the money he owed for his crimes. “I have been

DODD

Continued from page 1B Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola before retiring in 2020 as deputy warden. He ran unsuccessfully for district attorney in 1998. Dodd is the son of the late William J. “Bill” Dodd, who served as Louisiana’s lieutenant governor under the administration of Gov. Earl K. Long from 1948 to 1952 and as state superintendent of

It turns out Baton Rouge actually has two Heisman trophies. Following the 1966 season, seven years after Cannon won, The Downtown Athletic Club and later the Heisman Fund began awarding two trophies, one to the player and one to the school, and it retroactively gave all past winners a replica for the college to keep. Hence, LSU’s trophy in its football operations facility is a copy. True to the handshake deal, the original Heisman that then-Vice President Richard Nixon presented to Billy Cannon is in Bunnie Cannon’s home. PROVIDED PHOTO LSU has borrowed the real one peBilly Cannon poses with his riodically. Heisman Trophy in 1959. There is one key difference between the two statues. The one givwondering where it is now, since it en to Billy Cannon is sterling silver, used to be at TJ Ribs.” not bronze like all the others. Can-

education from 1964 to 1972. District Judge Betsy Jones administered the oath of office to Dodd in a brief ceremony attended by the district’s other judge, Sydney Picou Walker, the two parishes’ clerks of court, employees of the District Attorney’s Office, sheriff’s deputies and other court officials. Noting the brevity of his term, Dodd said he does not expect to make significant changes in the operations of the office. “I just want to keep the

AT RANDOM

Continued from page 1B able it will nest in hanging baskets, tin cans, old hats, discarded boots or shoes and other things you would not dream it would use.” Let me add mailboxes to the list of possibilities when wrens are on the hunt for a place to live. As we were remodeling our

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Lacumba dances with the crowd during Southern’s homecoming pep rally at the F.G. Clark Activity Center in Baton Rouge on Friday.

boat pointed in the way that Sam has had it going,” he said. Dodd said nearly every attorney thinks of one day becoming a district attorney or a judge. For that reason, being district attorney — if only for three months — is “an honor to have,” he said. West and East Feliciana voters will choose Nov. 3 between Cy D’Aquila and Ken Fabre for the district attorney’s position. Cy D’Aquila is a distant relative of Sam D’Aquilla.

house in 2006, a contractor stopped by and slipped some blueprints in our mailbox. The long roll of paper kept the box lid open a few hours, and by the time I got home, a wren had built a nest inside. I slowly removed the blueprints, replacing them with a long wooden spoon to prop up the lid. When I explained our predicament to the postman, he didn’t bat an eye. It wasn’t the ﬁrst time along his route that a wren had displaced the U.S.

non’s was the exception, as his trophy commemorated the 25th year of the Heisman award. “There will never be another one like it,” Bunnie Cannon said. “The ownership of the trophy resides with the Cannon family, and the memorial trust in his name,” she said, referring to her father. “The trophy is in a trust for 100 years and cannot be sold unless the items are together and the family agrees.” This story was reported and written by a student with the support of the nonproﬁt Louisiana Collegiate News Collaborative, an LSU-led coalition of eight universities funded by the Henry Luce and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundations.

PHOTO By JAMES MINTON

Twentieth Judicial District Judge Betsy Jones administers the oath of office Thursday to L. Bruce Dodd, who will serve as district attorney for the Feliciana parishes for the three months left in the current term.

mail. We left a paper sack beneath the box to collect our mail as the mother wren tended her tiny eggs. My wife and I, along with our two small children, learned to give our new neighbors some space. One afternoon, we heard the metal box gently rumbling, like a tea kettle about to boil. At the window, we watched as the family of ﬂedgling wrens darted from the box for its maiden ﬂight.

Our kids are grown now, and as empty nesters, my wife and I have more time to stop and watch backyard wonders, including the wren I’d unceremoniously evicted from our hanging basket. I’m not sure where my visitor relocated after it shook off its feathers and ﬂew away. But because it’s a wren, nothing would surprise me. Email Danny Heitman at danny@ dannyheitman.com.

PROJECT

Continued from page 1B Landry Avenue and Robert Wilson Road is already operating in its ﬁnal twolane conﬁguration. It has operated as a single-lane roundabout since opening in October 2025. The other two are still under construction. The project also includes construction of the westbound exit ramp framework, installation of curb and gutter and raised concrete median islands, according to Public Information Director Rodney Mallett. The project was originally expected to be completed in mid-2026. Mallett said weather delays, utility relocations and plan revisions affected the schedule.

Business comes to halt For almost 15 years, Gonzales city and state highway officials have been trying to reduce traffic choke points on La. 30 and I-10. The area sees a lot of cars due to the Cabela’s Parkway and Tanger shopping centers and restaurants. The highway is also the main route to the industrial area in Geismar. Average daily traffic in the area is around 24,000. DOTD expects it to increase to 30,000 by 2042. According to DOTD, 513 crashes occurred on the stretch between 2010 and 2012, and studies show roundabouts would reduce conflict points by 64%. Business owners say they understand the need for improvements, but the prolonged construction has made it harder for customers to reach their businesses. “We understand that construction can be disruptive, and we appreciate the community’s patience. Although some impacts are unavoidable during major roadway improvements in a heavily traveled area, DOTD and the contractors continue working to minimize disruptions,” Mallet said. Melissa Thompson, owner of Top Notch Daiquiris and Sports Grill on Cabela’s Parkway, said her revenue has “come to a halt,” with the worst of it being in the past six to nine months. “We are normally bustling at lunch, but the complaint that we have heard from our customers is, ‘It just takes entirely too long for us to get there and get out of there without having direct access like we used to,’ ” she said. Thompson said she understands the need to address congestion as both a business owner and a Gonzales resident, but she questions whether some problems could have been addressed through changes to traffic signal timing rather than replacing intersections with roundabouts. David Comeaux, owner of American Factory Direct Furniture located at the I-10 exit, estimated his sales have dropped about 25% during the past several years of lane closures. “It’s definitely been a challenge having a business there,” Comeaux said. Comeaux owns six furniture stores throughout the Gulf South. He said he increased his advertising budget for his Baton Rouge-area stores at the beginning of the year, but additional advertising can only do so much when customers have difficulty accessing the businesses. “Advertising-wise, I cannot outspend my way out of that problem through marketing,” he said.

LOTTERY

FRIDAY, OCT. 2, 2026 PICK 3: 5-0-5 PICK 4: 8-4-4-5 PICK 5: 2-8-6-2-5 MEGA MILLIONS: 6-37-40-41-55 MEGA BALL: 10 Unofficial notification, keep your tickets.

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Obituaries Avera, Elizabeth Hamilton 'Bessie'

Elizabeth "Bessie" Hamilton Avera, age 99, passed away on Saturday, September 26, 2026, in Baton Rouge. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she was born July 16, 1927, to a Cajun French-speaking home in Cecilia, Louisiana. Bessie was valedictorian of her 1944 Cecilia High School graduating class, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Southwestern Louisiana Institute (ULL) in 1948. Bessie was always grateful for the friends and family that supported her throughout her education, including the teacher who first taught her how to speak English; another who instilled in her a lifelong love of books; those who helped her obtain a college scholarship; and relatives who provided transportation, meals, and a place to live while she obtained her degree at SLI. She worked in Lafayette for Arkansas Fuel Co., and briefly taught adult education classes for returning WWII soldiers before marrying William J. Avera. The two had a memorable 56year life together after settling in Baton Rouge, and raised their family on the edge of the LSU campus. Bessie is survived by seven children and their spouses, William J. "Buster" and Robbin Avera, Cut Off; Dixie A. and Andrew Karnowski, Overland Park, Kansas; David W. and Carolyn Avera, Baton Rouge; Catherine A. and Keith Lauter Sr., Baton Rouge; Lucy A. and Ross Perry, Kansas City, Missouri; John A. and Michelle Avera, Baton Rouge; and Mary A. and Robert Addison, Sunshine; and 13 grandchildren, Francine Avera; Grace Karnowski and Alden Karnowski; Keith Lauter Jr., Lara L. Robinson (Brock), and Scott Lauter; William Avera (Karla), Caroline A. Curtis (Dalton), Mary Frances Avera, and Thomas Avera; Genevieve A. Jock (Dustin), Leslie A. Savoy (Jacob), and Will Addison (Courtney); and 17 great-grandchildren, Blair Cortez; Nolan, Marshall, and Mila Avera; Henry and Lola Curtis; Ava, Emmett, Vivian, Calvin, and Louis Jock; Margot and Blythe Savoy; Liam, Isla, Eris, and Cali Addison; and two more to come. Bessie is also survived by her brother James "Jim" Hamilton and his wife Betty. She was preceded in death by her husband, William Justin Avera Sr., granddaughter Adelaide Laurance Avera, and infant grandsons, John Hamilton Avera and Kurt McMichael Lauter, as well as her parents Carson and Laurence Angelle Hamilton, her brothers Leroy Hamilton, and David Hamilton and wife Lona, and her sisters Leola Guidry and husband Stephens, Elsie Judice and husband James, Odile Roberts and husband Irvin, and Agnes LeBlanc and husband Donald. Bessie worked for many years as a secretary, for oil

companies in Lafayette as well as for the State of Louisiana in the Secretary of State's Office. She worked on the LSU campus, in the Continuing Education Department; the Paul M. Hebert Law Center admissions office; and in the CEBA School of Business, until her retirement. Bessie loved to laugh and passed that love of laughter on to her family. There was no greater pleasure for her than holding a baby in her arms. She was an excellent cook and seamstress; loved her family dearly; reread her favorite Southern novels more than once; and completed word puzzles daily. She loved seashells and beach trips. She loved sports of all kinds and avidly followed LSU sports, especially Tiger baseball. Bessie and Bill enjoyed traveling the U.S. and marveling together at its immense beauty. She was a longtime member of St. Agnes Catholic Church and St. Gabriel Catholic Church. Bessie's Catholic faith was central to her life, and she prayed for her loved ones daily. "Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure." Special thanks to Dr. Michael Rolfsen and Bessie's dear friends Carey, Charna, and Debbie of Hospice of Baton Rouge, as well as the entire staff at Glenncrest at Siegen, where she lived the last two months. Your warmth and kindness toward Bessie will never be forgotten. "It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing." A memorial mass will be held at 11 a.m., on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at St. Gabriel Catholic Church, St. Gabriel, Louisiana. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital or your favorite charity.

the LSU alumni travel group or friends. Whether you worked with Gary, attended LSU events with Gary, or just were lucky to spend time with Gary, you couldn't help but love him. Him and his brother William had a great bond, he would call and check on Gary daily. Thanks to all who helped Gary have a better life. For the complete story, please attend his funeral services in LSU attire. In lieu of flowers, please donate to your favorite charity or St. Jude's. A memorial visitation will be held at Greenoaks Funeral Home, 9595 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70815 on Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 10am until services at 11am. Gary's ashes will be laid to reset with his parents at Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church Cemetery, Donaldsonville, LA. Please share memories online at www.wilbertservices.com.

Berthelot, James Joseph

James Joseph Berthelot, age 69, of Bayou Pigeon, passed away on Monday, September 21, 2026, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. James was born on April 25, 1957, in Baton Rouge to Mabile Carline Berthelot and Joseph Berthelot. He was a faithful member of Beam of Life Tabernacle. James is survived by his children, Mandy Berthelot Rivet and husband Christopher, Joshua Berthelot and wife Kat, and Michael Trefry; grandchildren, Paige Rivet and wife Tori, Krystal Briggs, Micah Champagne and wife Amanda, Cybil Wetherell, Jayden Berthelot, Sean Pourciau and Desmia Trefry Nugent; great-grandchild, Rebecca Cunningham; sisters, Violet Blanchard and husband Geno, Lucy Berthelot, and Allison Berthelot; numerous nieces, nephews, extended family members, and friends. Preceded in death by his parents; son, Allen Trefry; and siblings, Ida Berthelot Bouquet and Joseph Berthelot. A memorial service will be held at Beam of Life Tabernacle on Friday, October 9, 2026, from 6 to 8pm with a prayer service at 7pm, conducted by Apostle Frank Manguno. Please share memories online at www.wilbertservices.com.

Barbier, Gary P.

Gary P Barbier passed away Sunday, September 13, 2026, at Baton Rouge General after a short illness at the age of 77. He retired from Sea Ties; was a resident of Baton Rouge since 2005 and a native of Port Allen, LA. Gary is survived by his sister, Betty Soulier; brothers, Norris Barbier and wife Alma and William Barbier; numerous nieces and nephews. Preceded in death by his parents, John F. Barbier, Jr. and Mary Lydia LeBlanc Barbier; sister, Jeanette Lemoine; and brother, Alvin Barbier. In 1993, Gary went to apply for a job at Sea Ties. One of ten applicants, Gary, was selected for the job because he was the only one who wore an LSU shirt for the interview; it really does pay to be an LSU fan! Gary was an exceptional employee, always on time, ready to work, and always ready to make the next bungee cord. Sea Ties was fortunate to have Gary as an employee until his retirement in 2024. He was an LSU fan through and through; shirts, caps, posters, and even a bench, he had it all. Gary and his buddy Frank Burns attended countless LSU football, basketball, and baseball games together; even traveling to away games with

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Casteix, John Bertrand

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Southern California, where he pledged Sigma Chi. John loved USC with his whole heart. He attended Trojan football games faithfully until age made it impossible, although his enthusiasm for the team never diminished. After graduating from USC, John served in the United States Coast Guard in Seattle. There, he met his first wife, Judy. They married and returned to Santa Ana, where John built his career and raised his family.

John was someone everyone liked. He was warm, funny, and could make a friend anywhere. More importantly, he kept those friends for life. He remembered you. He loved a tell a good story, USC football, and spending time with the people he cared about. John was born on June 1, 1938, in Santa Ana, California, to John Bertrand Casteix II and Mabel Louise Lewarton Casteix. His father, the former coroner of Orange County, died suddenly in 1943, leaving John's mother to raise him on her own. She began work for the County of Orange and worked to ensure that her son received the Catholic education his father had wanted for him. John attended St. Joseph School in Santa Ana and later Mater Dei High School. He became the first Mater Dei graduate to attend the University of

Fight On.

Davis Sr., Claude Monroe

He was a longtime member of Santa Ana Elks Lodge No. 794 and served his hometown as a member of the Santa Ana Planning Commission. Following Judy's death and his retirement, John moved to Palm Springs. Then life gave him an unexpected second act.

John Bertrand Casteix III—beloved husband, father, grandfather, and lifelong USC Trojan—died at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on September 23, 2026. He was 88.

to Zero Abuse Project.

John became reacquainted with Eleanor, whom he had known as a teenager and young man while visiting his father's family in Louisiana. Eleanor had fallen in love with him when she was 16. Four decades later, that became a long and loving marriage. After losing their home in Hurricane Katrina, John and Eleanor relocated permanently to Louisiana. John is survived by his loving wife, Eleanor; his daughters, Jennifer Casteix and her husband, George Jenson, and Joelle Casteix and her husband, Michael Winter; and his grandson, Nicholas Casteix Winter. He is also survived by his stepchildren, Mandy Nesom and her husband, Nance; Jeff Gremillion and his wife, Phyllis; and Robert Gremillion and his wife, Brandi; his nieces, Judy Fehringer and Jane Shade; his nephews, Rick Shade and Michael Shade; and numerous grandnieces and grandnephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his first wife, Judy; and his sister, Mabel Louise Casteix Shade. There will be no services. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in John's memory

Claude Monroe Davis, Sr., 88, of Baton Rouge passed away peacefully September 30, 2026. He was born to his late parents Roy "Shorty" and Anna Davis on January 24, 1938. He was a member of the Louisiana National Guard. He enjoyed hunting, gardening, fishing and watching LSU Tiger football and baseball. He was one of Welsh's Greyhounds best football players during his time in high school. He was a daredevil at heart who enjoyed bull and bronc riding in the rodeo. He is survived by his loving wife of 64 years, Elsie Davis; three sons, Claude Davis, Jr., Jeff Davis, Mike Davis; two daughters, Pam Davis, Becky Kauffman and husband Mark; one sister, JoAnn Fontenot of Welsh, LA; five grandchildren, Chaney Vancel (Aaron), Morgan Suire (Skylar), Clark Davis, Marilyn Kauffman, Olivia Kauffman; one great granddaughter, Vera Kate Vancel. Claude is preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, RJ Davis II, Lewis Thomas Davis, William "Babe" Davis; five sisters, Virginia Doiron, Arzella Arceneaux, Geraldine Conner, Yvonne Coppels and Patty Lane. Visitation will be held at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge on Saturday, October 10, 2026, 12:30 p.m., until the Funeral Services begin at 2:30 p.m. Interment will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook or leave a personal note to the family at

Brown Harris, Georgia Mae 'BB'

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Louisiana, passed away peacefully on September 29, 2026 at the age of 76. She was a native of Norwood, Louisiana. She was preceded in death by her parents, Hezekiah Brown, Sr. and Minnie Lee Woodside Brown; her brothers, Hezekiah Brown Jr., Roosevelt Brown, Tom Brown, and Arthur Ray "Michael" Brown; her maternal and paternal grandparents. Georgia leaves to cherish her memory four sisters: Emma Lee Woodside, Betty Lue Brown Ennis, Jacquelyn Brown Bell, and Evangeline Brown, along with a host of nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.

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Delahoussaye, René Francis

René Francis Delahoussaye Jr., passed away following a brief illness on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, leaving behind a legacy of family, faith, friendship, and service. Born in New Iberia on June 12, 1951, he was the oldest of seven children born to René Sr., and Mercedes Delahoussaye. René grew up surrounded by extended family and friends and took great pride in being a graduate of Catholic High School in New Iberia Class of 1969. He was selected to represent his school in several sports, including track and field, where he held the school record in the 100 yard dash. After graduation, René pursued his academic career at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School, earning a degree in physical therapy. René married his high school sweetheart, Tonda, whom he adored his entire life. The couple chose to make Denham Springs their home, where they raised their three daughters, Yvette Subramanian (Vivek), Monique Nolan (Michael), and Valarie Welton (Aric). Rene loved being a father to his three girls, but even that love could not compare to the joy he felt in being a devoted grandfather to Kush, Gage, Sinclair, Emery, Russell, Graham, and Jude. He never missed an opportunity to attend a grandchild's sporting event, birthday party, or school concert. Following his arrival in Denham Springs, he opened his physical therapy office, Capitol Therapy, and worked tirelessly to provide his patients with excellent compassion and care. He later owned and helped grow Save A Back, a business dedicated to preventing workplace injuries, into an international company. René fully embraced his life in Denham Springs and served the community in many capacities. He was elected twice to the Denham Springs City Council and was an active member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where he celebrated his deep faith with others. In addition, René volunteered many years as an athletic trainer for the Denham Springs High School football team, combining his passion for sports with his desire to help others succeed. After retiring, René spent his years traveling and visiting family and friends all over the world. His retirement allowed him to generously offer his home to family for reunions, to friends for dinner and games, and to any person who was lucky

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enough to stop by for a quick chat that invariably turned into a coffee and long conversation. René always made others feel welcome. He had a remarkable ability to keep people connected and became the glue for his family much the way he was for his lifelong friends. His selflessness and love was felt by everyone with whom he interacted. The family wishes to extend their deepest gratitude to the doctors, nurses, therapists, and staff at Our Lady of the Lake Neurology Intensive Care Unit for caring for René with dignity and compassion. The family also acknowledges the grace and guidance given to them by the members of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to please be made in René's memory to Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency at www.lopa.org or to Catholic High School in New Iberia at www.chspanthers.com. A memorial celebration will be held at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Denham Springs on Saturday, October 31, 2026. Visitation is from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., followed by a mass of Christian burial at 10:30 a.m. Private interment will be at a later date. Envisagez un don, comme demandé par la famille.

Ellsworth, Caroline Spiller

Caroline Spiller Ellsworth, born Caroline Louise Spiller in Monroe, Louisiana, died September 22, 2026, in Houston, Texas, at the age of 82. Caroline grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana surrounded by her siblings Edmund Ogden Spiller Jr., John David Spiller, and Lindsey Wood Spiller. She carried forward her family's deep musical tradition by studying as a classical pianist from the young age of four. After graduation from University High School, Caroline attended Southern Methodist University where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and continued her study of piano under Alfred Mouledous. Fashion and beauty came with ease for Caroline, and she was named Finalist for Homecoming Queen at SMU in 1965. Her studies in art appreciation formed the beginning of a lifelong devotion to beauty in all forms, especially fashion, antiques, homes and gardens, opera, and art of all kinds. After graduating, Caroline moved to New Orleans where she met her first husband, Thomas Shotwell Padgett. The couple made their home in New Orleans, where they welcomed their first daughter, Anna Louise Ogden Padgett. They later moved to Houston for Tom's medical residency, where their second daughter, Mary Caroline Spiller Padgett, was born. After her divorce from Tom, Caroline taught at Palmer Montessori, where

she met Warren Aldrich Ellsworth III — known to all as "Chip" — an opera singer performing with the Houston Grand Opera. Caroline and Chip married in 1977 and had two sons, Warren Aldrich Ellsworth IV and Edmund Winthrop Partridge Ellsworth. Chip achieved international acclaim as a Wagnerian tenor, singing all over the world. This period of Caroline's life was marked by almost two decades of international travel, as she worked to raise her children in the schools and opera houses around the world. Those years of travel sparked another of Caroline's passions: she went on to found Caroline Ellsworth Antiques, a Houston-based business that drew upon her keen aesthetic sense and the inspiration she found in European design. After Chip's death from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1993, Caroline continued to run her antiques business while returning to teaching, working with many area schools including River Oaks Baptist, St. Mark's, and First Presbyterian. She also became a much-loved private tutor, known for her patience, sense of humor, and deep appreciation for her young students that always brought out their best. In 2007, Caroline married her college sweetheart from SMU, Jerry Don Rucker, a lawyer. Together they made a life in Houston, sharing a love of travel. In her later years, Caroline enjoyed profound meaning and joy in her role as "Mamie" to her grandchildren. She will be deeply missed. Caroline is survived by her husband, Jerry Rucker; her children, Anna Louise Ogden Padgett, Mary Caroline Spiller Padgett, Warren Aldrich Ellsworth IV (Rachel Ellsworth), and Edmund Winthrop Partridge Ellsworth (Logan Cornett); her grandchildren, Penelope Littleton, Isabel Ellsworth, Warren Ellsworth V, Eloise Ellsworth, Madeline Ellsworth, and Evelyn Ellsworth; and her siblings, Edmund Ogden Spiller Jr., John David Spiller (Linda), and Lindsey Wood Spiller (Terry). A visitation will be held from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Friday, October 9th at Bradshaw-Carter Funeral Home, 1734 West Alabama Street Houston, Texas 77098. A memorial service celebrating Caroline's life will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, October 10th at Christ Church Cathedral, 1117 Texas Avenue Houston, Texas 77002.

Kimball, Clyde Walker

Clyde Walker Kimball was called home to be with the Lord on October 2, 2026. Clyde was born in New Roads, La, on July 11, 1942, to Edna Erle Walker Kimball and Albert Eugene "AE" Kimball. He was a graduate of Poydras High School and Louisiana State University where he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He was proud to be a resident of Pointe Coupee Parish for most of his life. Clyde lived as full a life

as was humanly possible. He made a name for himself from a very young age with his mischievous, adventurous behavior. He loved to have a great time with good people and was absolutely fearless in the pursuit of any endeavor. From his teenage years through his college time, he had already hitch-hiked to Mexico, driven a 1957 Ford into False River, broke his arm riding a bull in the LSU rodeo and led a fullsized adult Brahma bull up the stairs in the Kappa Sig House. It was going to take a strong woman to corral Clyde, and he found her. He was riding across the Mississippi River with his blind date, Catherine "Kitty Ann" Dick. Clyde told "Kitty Ann" that he knew the captain, and then asked her if she wanted to drive the ferry. She said yes and grabbed the wheel. He then told her "I am gonna marry you!", to which she said, "I don't think so!". They were married 6 months later.

"Kitty" Kimball, two sisters, Kathleen Kimball David and Bettyrene Kimball Vigorito; his children, Kevin Hudson Kimball (Trish), Catherine Kimball Leggio (Dr. Chris), and Lyria Kimball O'Brien (Shawn); seven grandchildren, Trent Kimball (Haley), Hudson Kimball (Jessie), Clayton Kimball, Catherine O'Brien, Connor O'Brien, and Garvey O'Brien, Ethan Leggio; and one great-grandson Rhett Kimball.

His adult life took him through work as a jewelry salesman, a parole & probation officer, an elected official, an appointed official, an oil company man. He was a founding member of People's Bank of Pointe Coupee "so that local people in Pointe Coupee could have a better chance to get the money they need!". He will be remembered by most as a 4-term member of the La House of Representatives representing Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge Parishes, 8 years of that as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. He was appointed by both Gov. Edwin Edwards and Gov. Mike Foster as Deputy Secretary of the La. Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries.

In the true spirit of service to others, Clyde leaves his body to science in hopes of helping to enhance more lives even after he is gone. We do not know what they will discover when they see what this man was made of but we expect it will be a little of John Wayne's true grit, Marshall Dillon's compassion, Dean Martin's joie de vie, Huckleberry Finn's pursuit of adventure, Dennis the Menace's knack for mischief, Patrick Swayze's dance moves and Morgan Freeman's secret for Driving Miss Daisy.... but ABSOLUTELY NO trace of Arnold Palmer's golf swing!

Clyde seemingly spent his life in laughter! He was the first one in line for a good time, the life of the party, and the last one standing! On one trip to Ireland the locals tried to entice him to stay and run for mayor. He was the most fiercely loyal friend anyone could ask for, and his ability to light up a room was legendary. No one could out work, out laugh, out party, out dance, or out love him. Clyde is survived by his soulmate and beloved wife of 59 years, former La. Chief Justice Catherine D.

Clyde's family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to Annie Lewis, Beverly and Tina for their daily care, Dr. Michael "Trey" Conners III for his expertise and invaluable compassion, Dr. Kevin Dean and the rest of the Respiratory Care Team at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (with a special thanks to RN Helena Carroll), and JoAnne Christmas and the staff of Pointe Coupee Hospice for their exceptional care.

The family will hold a private celebration of life at a later date. We ask that anyone that may feel so moved to please make a donation in his honor to Our Lady of the Lake's Children's Hospital or any local charity of their choosing.

Mayeux, Keith Andre'

Keith Andre' Mayeux, 52, passed away September 17, 2026, at his Baton Rouge home. Born May 3, 1974, he graduated from LSU in Chemical Engineering and worked with the LA Dept. of Environmental Quality, LA Dept. of Transportation, and Riecke Mechanical. Keith is survived by his fiancée, Crystal Pitre; children, Zaira and Ronan; parents, Vincent (Wayne) and Kathleen Mayeux; sister, Cynthia Rojas; and his nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brother, Chris Mayeux. Memorial visitation will be Saturday, October 10, 2026, at Seale Funeral Home in Denham Springs (1720 S. Range Ave.) from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM. Condolences may be shared at sealefuneral.com.

McDavid, Myrtle Leggett

Myrtle Leggett McDavid passed away on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026 at her home in Zachary. She was 85 years old and was retired from BREC with 55 years of service. Visitation will be at First Baptist Church Zachary on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026 from 5pm until 8pm and continues on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026 from 10am until service at 12pm conducted by Dr. Eddie Wren. Burial will be in Azalea Rest Cemetery with Order of the Eastern Star Service. She is survived by her daughter, Stephanie Carpenter and husband, Adam, 2 sons, Donnie McDavid and wife, Pam, and David McDavid

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and wife, Sherry. 10 Grandchildren, 19 Great grandchildren, 2 Great-great grandchildren, Myrtle is preceded in death by her husband, Bud McDavid, a daughter, Belinda Courville, a grandson, DR McDavid, parents, Jack and Bessie Leggett, and siblings, Frank Leggett, Mary Murihead, Edna Smith, Rena Smith Peggy Applewhite and Patricia Kennedy. Myrtle was a member of Order of the Eastern Star Ruston Chapter. Special thanks to Angie and Chris Hennings, Lane Home Health and Meghen Blackwell, Cast a Line and Elaine Gardner, Tami Tucker, Pat Jones and Kathleen Waller, Dr. Thomas Gould, Dr. Jon Traxler and Dr. Henry Patrick and Hospice of Baton Rouge nurse, Julie Suggs for all of your incredible care and compassion given to our Myrtle over the years. Memorial donations may be made to Zachary Charity League, PO Box 64, Zachary, LA 70791. Share memories at ww.CharletFu neralHome.com.

Meyer, Barry Alan

Barry Meyer, loving husband and devoted father and grandfather, passed away suddenly on September 28, 2025, in Baton Rouge at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, at the age of 75. He was born on July 11, 1950, in Westmont, Illinois, the son of Bob and Gerrie Meyer. He graduated from Hinsdale High School in 1968 and received a scholarship from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, IL. While attending IIT, he began advocating for individuals with disabilities as a member of the Proviso Township Youth Association for Retarded Citizens during his student days and worked as a teacher. In 1972, Barry married Ellen Wright and the couple relocated to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, where they served as the founding teachers of the Tangipahoa Association for Retarded Citizens (TARC) in Hammond. During this time, he received his Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University. Barry and Ellen helped to grow TARC for six years before the couple moved to Baton Rouge and he became Adult Service Director of the Arc of Baton Rouge in 1978. He was named Executive Director of the Arc of Baton Rouge in 1993. He served in that position until his retirement in 2018. Barry was preceded in death by his parents, Bob and Gerrie Meyer of Westmont, Illinois. He is survived by his loving wife of 52 years, Ellen Meyer; his son, Adam Meyer, and Adam's wife, Casey; and his grandsons, Mason Meyer and Rhys Meyer, all of Baton Rouge. He is also survived by his brother, Robert Meyer and his wife, Sharon, and their children, Rob and Melinda, all of California; his sister, Linda Hoyt, and her children,

Kathy and Russell, all of Washington; and dear friends Mary and Stephen Pirosko and family. Barry's son, Adam, was his pride and joy. He spent his entire life teaching Adam his morals, values, humor, and love of life. That devotion extended naturally to his grandsons, Mason and Rhys, with whom he cherished his "Pop-Pop" time. Spending time with the family at soccer games, swimming, and school functions were so enjoyable to him, but just hanging around was where his love really flowed. Barry found joy and peace in the natural world and in the beauty of human creativity. His passions included hunting for fossils with Ellen as a Citizen Scientist for LSU in Louisiana creeks, visiting Art Museums to marvel at the beauty of creativity expressed by people from all walks of life. He loved walking and rock collecting. Trees, plants, birds, and sunsets nourished his spirit every day. Barry was deeply respected for his advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities and for his commitment to inclusion, dignity, and opportunity. His dedication was recognized with many honors, including the John W. Barton Excellence in Nonprofit Management Award from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the National Inclusion Award in Recreation from the Arc/US, the Excellence in Leadership Award from the National Conference of Executives, and the President's Cup, Board Member of the Year, and Executive Director of the Year Awards from the Arc of Louisiana. These awards reflected what so many already knew that Barry led with purpose, humility, and a sincere desire to make life better for others. Barry dedicated much of his life to improving the lives of others through nonprofit leadership, advocacy, public policy work, and community involvement. He was a member of the Arc/US Board of Directors and served as Board President of the National Conference of Executives of the Arc and the Louisiana Conference of Executives. He was a Founding Board Member and Board Chair of the Louisiana Association of Nonprofits, known widely as LANO, and he was a tireless advocate for the Special Olympics. He also served as a Founding Board Member and Chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Louisiana Budget Project, Board Chair of the Louisiana Group on Health, and Board Member of the Industrial Technical College. His leadership extended to his role as President of the Capital Area United Way Executive Directors Council and as an ex officio member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Capital Area United Way. He also served on the CATS Qualification Review Committee, chaired the Advisory Committee of the Southern University Department of Rehabilitation, served as Secretary of the Baton Rouge Sunrise Rotary Club, Treasurer of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History Foundation, Board Member of Good Fellows and Good Samaritans, and Board Member of the Goodwood Property Owners Association. Barry also served as an Arc of Louisiana Contract Trainer of Disability Awareness for law enforcement personnel, sharing his knowledge and

compassion in service of greater understanding and inclusion. Donations in memory of Barry Meyer may be made to the Arc of Louisiana, American Red Cross, or the Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Nunneley, Frederick Richard Fred

Celebrating the life of a Legend. Visitation will be held on Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. until services at noon. A reception will follow. Broadmoor Baptist Church, 9755 Goodwood Boulevard, Baton Rouge, LA 70815

home beginning at 9:30 a.m. Burial will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to three ministries that were close to Anne's heart: Lighthouse Family Retreat, INC. (PO Box 117823, Atlanta Georgia, 30368); Women's Giving Circle (Baton Rouge, LA) and Sid Roth Ministries (PO Box 39222, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28278). Many thanks to Anne's long-time loving caregiver, Dianne Baham. The family would also like to thank Shannon Jarrell, Bowole Sengbe, Ashley Dozar, Destiny Spears, Mycah, and all other personal caregivers.

Scott, Mae Ralphine

Rhodes, Anne

Anne Rhodes, a faithful daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ, passed away on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at the age of 96. She was born on August 26, 1930, in Marshall, Texas, to James and Ida Cornwall. After graduating from Marshall High School, Anne spent her life as a homemaker, devoting herself to caring for her family. She enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. She truly had an eye for decorating and was also a talented seamstress. Anne was a member of Aglow International and the Women Praying for Women Organizations. Anne was truly a devout woman; she was a Bible teacher. Her favorite question to ask was, "Do you know Jesus?" She was proceeded in death by her loving husband of 71 years, Travis Dean Rhodes; her parents, James and Ida Cornwall; her son and daughter-in-love, James and Laura Rhodes; and great-grandchildren, Brantley Travis Feske and Douglas "DW" Walter Feske. Anne is survived by her daughters, Susanne Feske (Houston, Texas) and Sarah-Lynne (Robert III) McLaughlin (Baton Rouge, Louisiana); grandchildren, Rebecca (Nick) Ladikos (Gulf Breeze, Florida), Caleb (Kelsey) Rhodes (Auburn, Georgia), Rob (Kami) McLaughlin (Round Rock, Texas), Patrick (Mel) McLaughlin (Northlake, Texas), Brandon (Sara) Feske (Houston Texas), and Matthew Feske; and great-grandchildren, Alexa Ladikos, Noah Rhodes, Sophia Rhodes, Lily Rhodes, Bobby McLaughlin, Charlotte McLaughlin, Skyy-Lynn Nagy, and Griffin Feske. Pallbearers will be Robert McLaughlin, III, Brandon Feske, Caleb Rhodes, Noah Rhodes, Patrick McLaughlin, Rob Mclaughlin, and Nick Ladikos. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Service at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, October 12, 2026, at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. A Visitation will be held at the funeral

With great sorrow we announce the passing of our beloved wife and mother, Mae Ralphine Scott on Saturday, September 26, 2026; just four days shy of her 84th birthday. The wife of Ardie J. Scott, Jr. for 67 years and mother of Ardie J. Scott III (Linda), Sundrilla Zoe Scott Varmall, and the late Fredrick Nelson Scott. Viewing: Sunday, October 4, 2026 from 5 PM to 7 PM. Celebration of Life Monday, October 5, 2026 at 10 AM at Hurst Methodist Church 58225 Court Street Plaquemine, LA 70764. Interment: Port Hudson National Cemetery. Final arrangements entrusted to Roscoe Mortuary, Plaquemine, LA

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 5B Spangler, Barbara

Spry, James 'Jim'

Barbara Theresa Spangler passed away Sunday, September 27th at Brookdale Dowlen Oaks in Beaumont, Texas. She was born in Wanamie, Pennsylvania on May 2nd 1938, the beloved daughter of the late Joseph and Victoria Waclawski. Barbara is survived by her daughter Susan and her husband William Ellis, and granddaughter Sarah Ellis.

James C. Spry (Jim) passed away peacefully on September 24, 2026, in his home with his wife, Bonni, at his side.

Barbara was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Ray, and her other siblings, Anthony, Thomas and John. She is survived by her Sister Mary Ann Madjewski and Sisters-In-Law Charlotte Waclawski of Williamsport, Pennsylvania and Luna Spangler of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and by several nieces and nephews. Barbara worked in the civil service with the federal government. She was a skilled seamstress from a young age, an avid puzzle solver and a devout Catholic. When living in Baton Rouge, Barbara and Ray were members of St. Jean Vianney Catholic Church. The family wishes to thank everyone who assisted Barbara at the end of her life, especially the staff of Brookdale Dowlen Oaks assisted living facility and Altus Hospice. We are also very appreciative of Virginia Ellis and the many friends whose prayers helped us during this time. Barbara had a sharp, bright mind and loving heart. She will be missed by all who knew her. Barbara will have a private cremation at Broussard's Mortuary, in Beaumont, TX before being interred with her husband Ray at Resthaven Gardens of Memory, Baton Rouge, LA. A service is planned for a later date.

Born on February 13, 1951, in Bluefield, West Virginia, Jim grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1973 with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering. He met Bonni there and began a 53-year love story. He spent 35 years with Exxon Research and Engineering, a job he loved, which took him all over the world. Jim retired in 2007, and he and Bonni moved to their "little piece of Heaven" in the Champion Hills community in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Jim is survived, in addition to Bonni, by his son, Jason, and his wife, Harmony, and two grandsons, Greyson and Ryder, of Aurora, Ohio, all of whom he adored. He was preceded in death by his parents, Jim and Allegra Spry, his sister, Maurisa Payne, and his son, Justin Marshall Spry. A Celebration of Life will be held on October 20, 2026, at 3:00 PM at Saint John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church in Flat Rock, NC. A reception will follow in the church Parish Hall. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. John in the Wilderness, Children and Family Resources or the Boys and Girls Club of Hendersonville. With special thanks to Four Seasons Hospice and Cappy Home Care

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6B ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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More degrees mean more opportunity for Louisiana residents

The Board of Regents recently reported that more than half of Louisiana adults now hold some credential beyond high school. That’s likely due to an increased focus among educators in the state to push dual enrollment and other programs that get young people connected early with training and education that can lead to highpaying jobs. In 2026, the share of adult population holding what is known as a “credential of value” in the state reached 54%, after steadily improving since 2019, when it was 44.2%. While Louisiana stlll lags the national average of 55% of adults who have education beyond a high school diploma, this growth is encouraging. After Louisiana officials identified educational attainment as a severe gap in the state’s ability to develop a highly skilled workforce, they put together goals aimed at getting every high schooler information about their options for more education. Right now, they are far exceeding those goals. Last year, for instance, the state graduated 85,000 students with credentials or degrees, a number officials had not expected to hit until 2030. That indicates to us that future generations are realizing that higher education and advanced training can be a pathway to a better life. The Board of Regents says the state should reach a 60% educational attainment rate by 2030. We know much work remains. There is still too big a gap between students at predominantly Black universities and predominantly White ones in graduation rates. And access to post-high school programs can differ between wealthy and high-poverty areas. Still, the new numbers show that Louisiana has a comprehensive plan to solidify education gains in recent years that goes beyond secondary school. It hopefully sets the state up for a future where more young people are prepared for the jobs of the future. That can only happen, though, with continued investment in higher education. For every positive advance we note — for instance, the state Department of Education said Louisiana posted the highest rate of growth in the nation in high scores on Advanced Placement exams, which often lead to college credit — we see a familiar downside, such as fewer Louisiana students having access to AP courses than their peers in other states. We know funding for higher education in our state is always precarious, but these trends should make it clear that we need to change that reality. Similarly, our community and technical colleges, which are serving a growing population of students, need to be treated like the important players they are. Expanding access to postsecondary education will only accelerate the positive momentum we’re seeing. One thing is evident: Louisiana students, when given the opportunity, can excel beyond our wildest dreams. It’s our job to make sure they have that opportunity.

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Happy blessed Fulton J. Sheen Day! Blessed Sheen Day didn’t grab the headlines like last week’s nor’easter or Xi Jinping’s White House visit, but it marks something important. On Sept. 24, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was raised to the status of “Blessed” in the Catholic Church, advancing him on the possibility of eventually being a canonized saint. Sheen taught philosophy at my alma mater, the Catholic University of America, for 23 years, 34 books and Kathryn published brought an unapologetiJean cally Catholic worldview Lopez to newspaper op-ed pages from 1949-1977. But he’s probably most famous for his work on television, hosting “Life Is Worth Living” and “The Fulton Sheen Program,” which brought his message to millions of viewers each week in the 1950s and ’60s If Sheen is saint material, it can’t simply be because he proved to have a commanding enough presence to provide Milton Berle some competition. Yes, he had a sense of humor, a great voice and a pleasant appearance. But it was the something more that made the difference, that makes him more than a celebrity or talking head: It was the Holy Spirit within that sanctiﬁed him. Sheen was a teacher. He knew his material and could talk about it. But it’s the embodiment of the material that made the difference. “Your Life Is Worth Living” is a collection of transcripts of audio recordings from Sheen, ﬁnally published in 2001. Its words will remind you of the truth of its title. “Every day of my priestly life I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. The power that is not

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KATE MUNSCH

Worshippers gather for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on Sept. 24 at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. human, not physical, not intellectual; rather, a power coming solely from living the Christ life, the power to inﬂuence people, the power to impress you with the divinity of the Holy Spirit.” There he was giving you a little window into his show prep. There was no teleprompter. He did not write a script. He prayed. He knew his stuff, but he asked the Holy Spirit for the words. There really is no way of knowing everyone Sheen reached through television. But Sheen wasn’t in it for power or inﬂuence. If he made any converts, it’s because God was using Sheen as an instrument. He remained a humble man bringing a message of good news, no matter his platform. “If I have given you any deeper comprehension and closer understanding of

the beautiful love of the Trinity,” Sheen wrote, “I trust you will, in gratitude, sometime say a little prayer to the Holy Spirit for me that I may more in mind, heart, and body show forth the Spirit of Christ.” We would all be blessed if we prayed for each other in similar ways and remembered to be grateful for the gift of life, in all its wonder and sadness. We might not all be Catholics. We won’t all be named saints. But blessings will abound. Sheen shows us that. His legacy can be perpetual blessed days — ones in which we wake up knowing our unworthiness, and yet living it in joy, knowing it’s worth it because it does not rely on us alone. Email Kathryn Jean Lopez at klopez@nationalreview.com.

Tips can lead to interesting news stories The conversation we have with read- the information with other sources. Not all tips will lead to a news story, ers can yield tips that require more reporting or can enhance the reporting but all will get considered. Sometimes, the best tips are about issues that raise we are currently doing. We often get letters from readers that recount expe- questions about accountability and transparency in government that resoriences they’ve had or issues they’ve noticed in their neighborhoods. Those nate with a large swath of the public. letters get forwarded to the approBut there also may be good stories from a conﬂict or controversy in priate editors. We also have a neighborhood or local group. email addresses where readAnd there are also personal tragers can submit tips at newstips@theadvocate.com and edies and triumphs that make good human interest stories. nolanewstips@theadvocate. Tips about someone who is sellcom. The best tips include as Arnessa ing a product or service generally much detail as possible, inGarrett go to our advertising department, however — unless it’s so unusual cluding names, dates and that it becomes newsworthy. other basic information. While Tipsters should disclose as well if they the person who sends a tip can choose have an economic interest in the subwhether to stay anonymous, we like to have as much information as possible. ject they want us to pursue. And we like to know how the tipster acWhen reporters are chasing stories quired the information. Of course, any on trends in the news or issues that are controversial, they may seek out reporter will thoroughly verify any tips we receive and seek to corroborate sources in the public with direct expe-

rience related to their reporting. They can issue what are called callouts online, asking for people who would like to talk about their experiences for a story. These tips can help make somewhat dry data about a topic come to life for readers. So our readers are often an important part of our journalism, and that’s why we always urge you to tell us when you see something interesting. Turning to our letters inbox for Sept. 17-24, we received 36 letters. There were no huge trends this week, with the biggest category of letters being miscellaneous. We got three letters on LSU sports, and two letters on our coastal issues. Otherwise it was a rather quiet week. So drop us a line if you have a news tip. You could help us report the next front-page story. Arnessa Garrett is Managing Editor | Opinion Page Editor. Email her at arnessa.garrett@theadvocate.com.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 7B

COMMENTARY A productive Congress? Scalise has a reasonable point. Despite multitudinous critics, maybe the fishermen to comply with federal regulacurrent Congress actually is being quite tions. It directs the National Oceanic and productive. Atmospheric Administration to launch a That was the message from House Macentralized website to map and promulgate jority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, in vessel guidelines, marine protected areas, fishing regulations and restrictions and a Sept. 20 post on social media. other information. “This week,” Scalise wrote, “@HouseThat new law won’t ever make network GOP passed 76 pieces of legislation, including bills to: protect Americans from costly news, but Louisiana sportsmen certainly will benefit. climate mandates; crack down on Also regarding fisheries, S. 283, fraud and protect taxpayer dollars; which passed both the House and hold Russian and Iran accountable.” Senate in slightly different form As it turns out, Scalise is largely but seems sure to be sent to the right, and he provided numerous president soon, will protect local additional details in another post. commercial fishermen and diners Congress can go months without acQuin by making it easier to identify iltually passing bills, but all the while Hillyer it could be doing the preparation legal importation of foreign, somework, holding committee hearings, times-less-healthy seafood. traversing parliamentary procedure. Then, Numerous other bills that have passed the suddenly, near the end of a fiscal year, all House only, but seem destined to pass the that work can reach fruition. Senate and become law, range from efforts The media usually focuses on controto protect seniors from phone and Internet scammers to ones giving tax relief to vicversial, big-picture bills, but much of Congress’ work involves smaller efforts to tims of fraud — and ones aimed at strengthhelp ordinary Americans find opportuniening electric grids and helping recover critical minerals domestically, thus reducties or navigate — sometimes literally — federal regulations. ing dependence on foreign suppliers. Take a bill chosen almost at random from In a phone interview, Scalise celebrated Scalise’s list, one that President Donald numerous bills he called “very bipartiTrump signed into law on Sept. 25. A bisan,” including the so-called SPEED Act, awaiting Senate action, that he said would partisan effort by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cut red tape by being “really focused on and Maine’s Angus King, an independent allowing America to build things quicker who caucuses with Democrats, S. 759 will … expedite those kind of processes” so make it far easier for honest boaters and

that, for example, “Louisiana could move more energy around the country through pipelines.” He said the reforms, if passed, “would have an immediate impact on people’s lives, on lowering costs.” Scalise also mentioned a healthcare cost transparency bill he expects to become law, and he insists Republicans still aren’t getting enough credit for more controversial laws such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which not only extended and expanded tax cuts but also cracked down on — indeed, essentially eliminated — illegal border crossings. Far more under the radar, he touted the passage of “over 20 Congressional Review Act” bills that allow Congress to “reverse costly red tape” by overturning agency regulations Congress never intended to authorize. The biggest of those, he said, was a Biden-era rule giving California a “waiver” so it could impose especially restrictive emissions standards on cars. The standards were so stringent, he said, that “this California emissions standard that they were going to try to make go national, if we did not stop it, would have basically said you can’t make cars in America that use gasoline. Think about the implications of that. That was going to happen. We passed a bill to reverse it.” (That law remains unenforced, due to an ongoing court battle.) Meanwhile, Louisiana certainly has ben-

efited from the 119th Congress. Most notably, Louisiana likely will get $47 million more annually (of $150 million for all Gulfof-Mexico states) from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, to be used for coastal restoration. And offshore revenues will continue to flow because Scalise secured language mandating 30 Gulf lease sales over the next 15 years. Louisiana also surely will see rewards from national allocations of $450 million for maritime workforce development programs, $750 million to support the domestic industrial base through supplier development and $250 million for advanced manufacturing processes that will help Louisiana’s shipbuilding industry. Other Louisiana beneficiaries of significant funding will be the Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in Belle Chasse, multiple flood abatement projects around Lake Pontchartrain and various projects in Tangipahoa and Ascension parishes and Grand Isle. And more. All in all, even if some of us can justly complain of some things this Congress has done and others it left undone, the reality is that it is doing a considerable amount of good, in areas where few people are looking. Credit, now, where due. Email Quin Hillyer at quin.hillyer @theadvocate.com

Kennedy’s claptrap degrades Senate. Who will call him out? In the years since his spection. For how that works, look to tacular rise to power at the side of Johnson’s colleague in the upper chamber, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, Donald Trump, I’ve often thought back to the ﬁrst time I interviewed R-Madisonville. That Kennedy likes to call House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rpeople names is not news. Ever Benton, in 2017. since he discovered the power of He was a lowly freshman cona hokey accent and a glib insult, gressman then, and the topic he Kennedy’s been recycling wanted to talk about was lines like “it must suck to civility in public life. He be that dumb,” which he’s was for it. aimed at targets ranging In fact, Johnson was so from Nancy Pelosi, confor it that he wrote out a “Commitment to Civility” sidered the most effective which 46 of out of 52 fellow House speaker in modern newbies — Republican and Stephanie times, to Michigan Senate Grace Democrat — signed. candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Let’s just say that that a Rhodes Scholar. idea didn’t take. These may not be Some folks might have missed the least civil times in Congress, Kennedy’s latest master class in but they could compete. incivility, during last week’s SenAnd if it’s true that Johnson ate Judiciary Committee hearing doesn’t seem particularly enthutargeting former special counsel Jack Smith — if only because he siastic about the state of affairs, was overshadowed by his colit’s also true that he’s done nothing to change the culture. Rather league Eric Schmitt. The Missouri than scold the man who has turned senator spectacularly ﬂubbed an political dialogue into a neverattempt to nail Smith as a “perending stream of personal attacks, jurer” and a “dirtbag” for alleghe’s taken Trump loyalty to the edly lying about not attending an extreme. On the occasions when NBA Hawks in Atlanta, when in he’s asked about some latest offact he was watching Caitlin Clark fense, he tends to claim ignorance and the Iowa Hawkeyes compete in Maryland. or dismiss the question as inapSmith’s alleged original sin, of propriate. course, is that he built a strong Grinning and bearing the incienough criminal case against vility is one way to stay in the big Trump after his attempt to overguy’s graces, I guess. Another is to embrace the turn the 2020 election that he won politics of character assassinaa grand jury indictment.

he’s an idiot. He’s a bottom feeder in the Washington swamp. He’s a political operative masquerading as a prosecutor. He’s the kind of Washingtonian who would unplug your life support to charge his cellphone.” I mean, who says things like that? Would any of the rest of us still have a job if we talked that way at work? Where’s H.R. when you need it? OK, OK, you could argue that politicians have long used congressional hearings not to fact-ﬁnd but to grandstand, and ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MARIAM ZUHAIB that attacking witnesses to score Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, center, speaks with a reporter on points is a feature, not a bug. Fair April 14 in Washington. point, even if it feels like the pretense of that civility Johnson once Kennedy and other senators in believes in the Tooth Fairy and the claimed to champion has become a big joke. the room were victims of the atEaster Bunny. He suggested bias It’s also fair to point out that tack on the Capitol Trump instigat- because Smith sought telephone our system has righted itself beed as part of that scheme, which is records only from Republicans Trump was talking to during the something you’d think they might fore, most famously when lawyer period under investigation. Smith want to talk about. If so, you’d Joseph Welch took the air out of responded that Democrats weren’t U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy’s 1950s think wrong. in on the scheme to overturn Joe Instead, Kennedy insinuated communist witch hunt with these Biden’s win, and noted that Repub- words: “Have you no sense of dethat Smith was “bitterly disappointed” that Trump had beaten licans who cared about law and or- cency, sir, at long last?” Hillary Clinton, based on the fact Kind of makes you wonder where der were his strongest witnesses. that his wife had made a “glowing Kennedy wrapped up the line of today’s version of Welch is — and saccharine-sweet documentary” questioning with another of his go- also whether anyone who consulted about Michelle Obama. Smith their conscience and spoke from to gems: “You make me want to responded that he was there to a position of principle could even throw up in my mouth.” talk about his work, not his family, compete with all the claptrap And afterward in a Fox News and noted that he’d joined the ﬁrst interview, he offered up this take around politics these days. Trump administration. on the witness: “I’m sure Jesus Kennedy drilled him with ridicu- loves him. But everyone else who Email Stephanie Grace at believes in the rule of law thinks sgrace@theadvocate.com. lous questions about whether he

Donald Trump is on the ballot in November’s election “Please pretend that I am running,” a “hoax” and proclaimed on Truth Social, President Donald Trump told Republicans “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI at their recent convention in Dallas. needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High Well, no one has to pretend. Democrats IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, agree completely. They also want voters to in spades!” view the November elections as a referenIn 2000, George W. Bush famously camdum on Trump’s presidency. paigned as “a uniter, not a divider,” but Both sides have good reasons Trump takes exactly the opposite apto follow these similar campaign proach. His strategy has always been strategies. But in the end, both to maximize the turnout of his True can’t be right. One party is making Believers. The real danger to Repuba better bet than the other — and licans is not that those Red Hats will today, the odds strongly favor the back Democrats, but that they’ll stay Democrats. home. Steve Trump’s reasoning is clear. He “Right now, there is a substantial Roberts remains by far the most dominant enthusiasm gap, with Democrats far and magnetic figure in American more enthusiastic about voting in the politics, and MAGA Nation, his core base midterms than Republicans,” GOP pollster of support, is much more loyal to him perWhit Ayres told USA Today. “So, anything that can close that gap would help Republisonally than to a party or a set of policies. Playing on his potent appeal is the best can candidates.” way to motivate support for Republican But Republicans cannot close that enthucandidates. siasm gap by running on Trump’s record, King Louis XIV of France is credited since only one-third of voters approve of with the famous (likely apocryphal) statehis economic policies, according to an avment “L’etat, c’est moi,” or “I am the state.” erage of national polls, and only 26% supAnd Trump is increasingly acting the same port his handling of inflation. So as the Dalway, converting every issue into one of las convention graphically demonstrated, personal influence or devotion. they are left with one option: fear. Run a Recently, for example, he dismissed risscare campaign that cries: “The other guys ing concerns about artificial intelligence as are worse.”

Red-baiting has long been part of American politics, and it’s back in full force. Republican convention speakers used the words “communist” and “socialist” as often as possible. Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, described Democratic candidates as the most “dangerous, radical and frankly, weird” in American history. Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, went even further, linking two international conspiracies together and warning that the Democratic Party was now dominated by a “red-green alliance: communists and Islamists coming together.” Fearmongering has worked before, and it could work again. Democrats did Republicans a huge favor by nominating leftists in some key races, especially the Senate contest in Michigan, and the party is hardly more popular than Trump. Fiftysix percent of Americans view the Democrats negatively, and 48% consider them “extreme,” according to CBS News. That’s why the Democrats are so eager to make the election about Trump, not them. Trump has always been far more effective as an outsider than an insider, nurturing grievances instead of defending records. He’s run for president three times, and only lost when he was the incumbent. And no matter how much he tries to blame

the country’s problems on Joe Biden, he is the president, and voters hold him responsible for breaking two of his most popular promises: ending wars and reducing prices. As the conﬂict with Iran continues with no end in sight, gas prices have skyrocketed again to over $4.30 a gallon. Diesel has risen even faster, up to more than $6.25 a gallon, which is crushing farmers and boosting the price of every service — from air travel to food deliveries — that must pay elevated fuel costs. All these failed promises and frustrated voters are taking a huge toll on Trump’s reputation. In a recent Economist/YouGov survey, 60% of Americans say Trump isn’t honest and trustworthy, and 58% say he doesn’t have the temperament to be president. And 3 out of 5 say the president doesn’t care about people like them. When voters were given a list of 13 words and asked to pick one that described Trump, the greatest number, 52%, chose “dangerous.” Only 24% selected “honesty,” 18% “steady” and 17% “inspiring.” No wonder Democrats want voters to think Trump is on the ballot. Email Steven Roberts at stevecokie@ 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.

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8B ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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TODAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Heavy rain and a thunderstorm

A thunderstorm

Some sun with showers around

Intervals of bright sunshine

High thin cloudiness

A shower in the afternoon

HIGH

LOW

82° 72°

LOW

85° 69°

LOW

88° 69°

88° 67°

88° 66°

Beaumont 82/72 Port Arthur 81/73

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

Hattiesburg 79/71

Alexandria 80/69 Baton Rouge 82/72

Lafayette 82/72 Lake Charles 82/71

10s

20s

30s

Houma 81/73

40s

YESTERDAY

TODAY

READING 32 MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

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Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today

90s 100s 110s

NEW

OCT 10

OCT 18

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Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Dallas Denver Houston Las Vegas

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

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

HIGH

2:23p 8:17a 2:42a 4:54a 4:15a 3:22a 5:23a

FT.

1.0 2.2 2.5 2.2 1.7 2.2 2.1

7:00 a.m. 6:46 p.m. 12:37 a.m. 3:12 p.m.

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69 70 56 65 48 67 54 71 75

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80 85 71 79 65 84 87 88 95

GOOD

PRECIPITATION

92°/75° 85°/64° 87°/67° 96° in 2019 46° in 2003

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 81/75

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

LOW

85° 66°

TEMPERATURE Jackson 81/70

Many 79/66

LOW

Baton Rouge through 5 p.m. Saturday

Longview 85/64

-0s

LOW

Monroe 84/67

Shreveport 84/66

-10s

HIGH

Today, most of the Baton Rouge area is under a slight risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to some measure of flash flooding. Expect a mostly cloudy, warm, humid and breezy day with scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms. Rainfall totals of 1 to 2 inches are possible, with up to 3 inches likely through early Monday. Temperatures this afternoon will rise to the mid-80s. Rainfall chances will fall to about 20% tomorrow. If you’re tailgating for the Saints game, an isolated shower is possible.

64 64 46 55 48 60 56 66 73

sh s pc c s s s c s

LOW

2:09a 8:58p 3:54p 8:20p 4:16p 2:35p 5:18p

0.02” 0.02” 0.46” 46.40” 48.34”

FT.

HIGH

0.0 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.2

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

FT.

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

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

LOW

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

FT.

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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 6:49a 12:35a 7:19p Monday 7:43a 1:29a 8:10p Tuesday 8:31a 2:18a 8:56p Wednesday 9:14a 3:02a 9:38p Thursday 9:55a 3:44a 10:17p Friday 10:36a 4:25a 10:58p Saturday 11:19a 5:07a 11:41p

City

TODAY

Los Angeles 103 Miami 90 Nashville 81 New york City 63 Philadelphia 66 Phoenix 99 St. Louis 79 San Francisco 84 Seattle 73

78 79 56 57 58 79 51 61 52

s t pc r r s s pc pc

GOOD

104 90 81 68 72 99 73 84 68

1:04p 1:57p 2:44p 3:26p 4:06p 4:47p 5:30p

MON. Lo

76 77 50 48 49 77 50 58 53

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

s t s s s s s s pc

FLOOD STAGE

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

SAT. 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

8.96 24.21 25.63 10.37 6.05 4.58 3.33

-0.88 +0.89 +1.90 +1.13 +0.58 +0.62 -1.47

20.19

-1.35

-1.64

+0.06

18 29 8

-1.29 9.76 3.22

none none +0.10

13 15

2.45 0.58

+0.01 -0.04

47 34 29 20 12 6

9.61 6.58 5.14 4.92 3.90 2.67

+0.73 +0.60 +0.15 +0.43 +0.10 -0.05

data as of 7 a.m. Saturday

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S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 4, 2026

HOMECOMING BLUES

Special teams issues doom Southern in loss to UAPB, Page 3C 1cn

‘D DOMECOMING’ LIVES ON ä Falcons

at SSaints

7:155 MONDAy, ESPN N

ä In njury

repoort:

Saintts down at leaast 3 defennders on Moonday, Page 7C

Saints safety Steve Gleason celebrates with teammate Omar Stoutm mire following a blocked punt p and nd score against the Atl Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 25, 2006 25 2006, at the Superdome. STAFF FILE PHOTO By SCOTT THRELKELD

Twenty years later, sights, sounds and smells remain from iconic Saints game

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

Everybody carries something with them from that day 20 years ago that would be impossible to shed even if they wanted to — sounds, colors, smells, emotions seared into their being from the day the Superdome reopened after Hurricane Katrina. These things are readily accessible, and they pour forth alongside the memories of that game, when Steve Gleason’s blocked punt announced what everyone in the building and in the city was feeling — we aren’t going anywhere. For Leroy Mitchell, it’s two contrasting images.

LSU

The ﬁrst he sees whenever he visits his local dry cleaner, where it hangs on the wall as a reminder: A giant ray of sunlight streaming through the wreckage that was the Superdome’s roof, illuminating the scene of human suffering below. The second he personally witnessed and will never forget: Densely packed among thousands of New Orleanians waiting to get inside and watching the black cover drop from the countdown banner, signaling the doors were once again open with the words Our Home. Our Team. Be a Saint. Mitchell, who has attended Saints games for more than three decades under the “Whistle Monsta” persona, felt chills going through his body while recalling those memories from 20 years ago. “The contrast in those two things was so

ä See SAINTS, page 10C

McNEESE

NO PAIN RECORD: 4-1 UP NEXT: AT KENTUCKy, 6 P.M. SATURDAy, ESPN

STAFF PHOTO By PEARL SPURLOCK

McNeese safety Morris Taylor tries to stop LSU running back Harlem Berry on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. Berry logged 125 yards on 15 carries in LSU’s 63-14 win.

LSU dispatches of McNeese while apparently keeping key players healthy BY JON BLAU Staff writer

Business was handled Saturday in Tiger Stadium. No. 11 LSU (4-1) beat McNeese State 63-14 in the nonconference ﬁnale. Sam Leavitt, dealing with a hamstring injury, still played nearly an entire half, completing 18 of 23 passes for 176 yards, three touchdowns and one

pick. He helped LSU record the secondmost yards in a game in program history with 731, just shy of the record 746 gained versus Rice in 1977. The Tigers also ran a program-record 101 offensive plays and converted a record 39 first downs. The defense allowed two first downs on McNeese’s first drive, then didn’t allow another

ä See LSU, page 4C

Kiffin sets records straight, sends message to his team despite gaudy numbers It was a strange night for making history in Tiger Stadium. Pizza boxes (empty, I assume) ﬂying through the nearly empty stands in the fourth quarter. A quarterback, Husan LongScott street, shagging punts before Rabalais going out to take snaps. A defensive tackle, Deuce Geralds, rushing for a 1-yard touch-

down. Somewhere, Booger McFarland had to be smiling. And Lane Kiffin, the man who brought a basketball goal and a fire extinguisher to Death Valley’s hallowed sidelines, calling a timeout BEFORE LSU ran the first play of the second half to tear into his team for its lack

ä See RABALAIS, page 5C

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BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS On TV

AUTO RACING 3:30 p.m. NHRA Midwest Nationals FOX 4:30 p.m. NASCAR Cup: South Point 400 USA WOMEN’S COLLEGE SOCCER 11 a.m. Michigan at Indiana BTN 2 p.m. Oklahoma at Texas SECN 2:30 p.m. Florida St. at Clemson ACCN WOMEN’S COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL noon Missouri at LSU SECN 12:30 p.m. Georgia Tech at N. Carolina ACCN 1 p.m. Indiana at Rutgers BTN 2 p.m. Colorado at Baylor ESPN 3 p.m. Illinois at Oregon BTN 4 p.m. Iowa St. at Arizona St. ESPN 5 p.m. Wisconsin at Minnesota BTN 7:30 p.m. Kentucky at Florida ESPN GOLF 11 a.m. Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic GOLF

2 p.m. 4 p.m. 7 p.m.

Korn Ferry Tour GOLF Bank of Utah Championship GOLF LPGA: LOTTE Championship GOLF HORSE RACING 8:30 a.m. Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe FS1 noon America’s Day at the Races FS1 3:30 p.m. America’s Day at the Races FS2 MLB 3 p.m. San Diego at Milwaukee FS1 7 p.m. Atlanta at L.A. Dodgers FS1 NFL 8:30 a.m. Indianapolis vs. Washington NFLN noon Jacksonville at Cincinnati CBS noon Dallas at Houston FOX 3:25 p.m. Kansas City at Las Vegas CBS 7:20 p.m. Detroit at Carolina NBC NHL noon Winnipeg at Detroit NHLN

IN BRIEF

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

7 p.m. 7 p.m.

Calgary at Seattle PRIME Florida at Anaheim PRIME MEN’S SOCCER 7:55 a.m. Azerbaijan vs. Lithuania FS2 10:50 a.m. Kosovo vs. Austria FS2 1:30 p.m. Portugal vs. Norway FS2 2 p.m. Louisville City at Hartford ESPN2 4:50 p.m. Trinidad & Tobago vs. Curaçao FS2 6:50 p.m. Costa Rica vs. Haiti FS2 8:50 p.m. Nicaragua vs. Dominican Rep. FS2 WOMEN’S SOCCER 7:55 a.m. London City at Tottenham CBSSN noon Angel City at Gotham ESPN 3 p.m. Denver at Chicago CBSSN TENNIS 10 p.m. Beijing & Tokyo Semifinals TENNIS WNBA PLAYOFFS 1 p.m. New york at Atlanta ABC 3 p.m. Las Vegas at Golden State NBC

GAME OF THE WEEK

No. 25 Missouri routs No. 8 Florida Tigers end 9-game skid against Top 25 opponents

Missouri running back Jamal Roberts, left, runs with the ball as Florida safety Lagonza Hayward defends during the first half of a game on Saturday in Columbia, Mo.

BY DAVE SKRETTA AP sportswriter

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Austin Simmons threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns, Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards and three more scores, and No. 25 Missouri trounced eighthranked Florida 45-17 on Saturday to snap a nine-game losing streak against ranked opponents. Cayden Lee had eight catches for 110 yards, Donovan Olugbode and Caleb Goodie had TD receptions, and the Tigers piled up 560 yards of offense while giving coach Eli Drinkwitz his first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries with them. Missouri (4-1, 1-1 SEC) collapsed late against Mississippi State last week, but it bounced back by stopping one of the nation’s top offenses. Gators quarterback Aaron Philo threw for 197 yards and a touchdown, but much of that happened as they played from behind. Jadan Baugh, who had been receiving some early Heisman Trophy hype after running for 11 touchdowns over his ﬁrst four games, carried 12 times for only 13 yards, often struggling to even make it back to the line of scrimmage. The Gators (4-1, 2-1), who routed

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JEFF ROBERSON No. 4 Mississippi last week, had been averaging 532.8 yards of offense. They had 325 on Saturday. “We knew a couple of things were coming and still didn’t stop it,” Florida coach Jon Sumrall said. “They played with physicality. Hat’s off to them. They deserved the win. We earned the loss. We have a lot to work on.” The Tigers clearly prioritized bottling up Baugh, the nation’s secondleading rusher, especially after watching him rip off a 12-yard gain the ﬁrst time he touched the ball. He carried 11 more times for exactly 1 yard the rest of the game. Florida evidently didn’t prioritize stopping anything. Simmons was 16 of 21 for 238

yards and his two TDs in the first half alone, slinging the ball to all corners of the field. He hit Olugbode for a 47-yard strike and a 10-3 lead, then delivered Goodie his first career touchdown reception later in the half. It was a handful of possessions spanning halftime that decided the game, though. The Gators went three-and-out late in the first half, giving the Tigers the ball with 1:33 left, and Blake Craig’s 50-yarder as time expired made it 20-10. Then, after getting the kickoff to start the second half, Roberts added a short touchdown run, the Tigers forced a quick punt, and Craig banged through a 52-yarder to make it 30-10 late in the third quarter.

The coup de grâce came on the penultimate play of the quarter, when Roberts spun out of a pileup and ran 76 yards, getting shoved out at the Florida 2. On the ﬁrst play of the fourth, he slammed into the endzone, and a 2-point conversion made it 38-10. As if the Tigers needed an exclamation mark, Roberts added it with an 80-yard touchdown run a couple of minutes later. By that point, the Tigers were mockingly chomping at the Gators, who have struggled mightily in Columbia over the years. They have now lost four of their last ﬁve games at Faurot Field — though unlike the rest, this one didn’t come down to the wire.

TOP 25 ROUNDUP

QB Sayin leads No. 5 Ohio State to victory Buckeyes WR Smith breaks three school records By The Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa — Julian Sayin threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns, two to Jeremiah Smith, and No. 5 Ohio State beat No. 14 Iowa 31-14 on Saturday. Sayin was 20-of-27 passing, and his favorite target was Smith, the nation’s top receiver. Smith had 11 catches for 206 yards, becoming Ohio State’s leader in receptions (207), receiving yards (3,381) and receiving touchdowns (36). Smith caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Sayin with 12 seconds left in the ﬁrst half to give the Buckeyes (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) a 17-6 lead. Iowa (4-1, 1-1) got its only points on two field goals and Braeden Jackson’s fourth-quarter 2-yard touchdown run. NO. 3 NOTRE DAME 37, NORTH CAROLINA 26: In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, CJ Carr threw for four touchdowns and ran for another and thirdranked Notre Dame regained control after halftime to beat North Carolina on Saturday. The Fighting Irish (5-0) led 21-14 after the Tar Heels (2-2) turned a goal-line stand into a long touchdown drive right before halftime, then came out of the break with Jaden Jefferson sprinting through the rain for a 98-yard kickoff return for another score. NO. 2 GEORGIA 38, VANDERBILT 14: In Athens, Georgia, Gunner Stockton threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns as Georgia cruised to win over Vanderbilt. Georgia (5-0, 3-0 SEC) scored an opening drive touchdown for the fourth time this season as Stockton found Landon Roldan for a two-yard TD.

A Vanderbilt team led by backup quarterback Blaze Berlowitz showed some fight, answering back two drives later as Berlowitz found Junior Sherrill for a 60-yard touchdown and tied the game 7-all. NO. 7 ALABAMA 56, NO. 16 MISSISSIPPI ST. 23: In Starkville, Mississippi, Keelon Russell passed for 285 yards and three touchdowns to go with another TD rushing, and Alabama routed Mississippi State in a matchup of previously unbeaten teams. Alabama (5-0, 3-0 SEC) outgained Mississippi State (4-1, 2-1) 179-18 in yards rushing in its 17th straight victory in the series — the last seven by 23 or more points.. NO. 20 HOUSTON 27, UCF 17: In Houston, Conner Weigman threw for 239 yards and rushed for three second-half touchdowns, and Houston rallied to beat Central Florida. Weigman rushed for 50 yards, Re’Shaun Sanford ran for 62 yards and Patrick Overmyer caught six passes for 76 yards for Houston (41, 1-1 Big 12). NO. 21 SMU 25, BOSTON COLLEGE 16: In Dallas, Kevin Jennings threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score and SMU beat Boston College in a soggy defensive struggle. Jennings’ other TD toss also came on a short drive when SMU (4-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) returned a punt to the BC 41. The Eagles (2-3, 0-2) had a chance to get within two points early in the fourth quarter, but Cameron Kossmann dropped a pass when he was wide open and probably would have scored easily on fourth-andinches from the SMU 8. NO. 17 TENNESSEE 24, AUBURN 14: In Knoxville, Tennessee, DeSean Bishop rushed for a career-high 220 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 17 Tennessee to a victory over Auburn on Saturday. Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 in Southeastern Conference) overcame a sluggish start with the help of George

MacIntyre replacing Faizon Brandon at quarterback late in the second quarter. Auburn (3-2, 1-2) was led by quarterback Byrum Brown with 159 passing yards and a touchdown as well as 107 rushing yards and a touchdown. Brown was intercepted twice and had a fumble. NO. 24 KENTUCKY 35, SOUTH CAROLINA 34, OT: In Columbia, South Carolina, Kenny Minchey threw a 6-yard TD pass to Henry Boyer and a two-point conversion to Willie Rodriguez as No. 24 Kentucky rallied from 17-0 down to beat South Carolina in overtime on Saturday. The Wildcats (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) needed to fight back several times, but, he victory was ﬁnally won as Kentucky connected on the winning conversion pass to Rodriguez open in the back of the end zone. NO. 10 BYU 17, TCU 10: In Fort Worth, Texas, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier ran for two touchdowns, including a clinching 21-yarder with 2:06 left and the No. 10 Cougars survived without injured running back LJ Martin for a victory over TCU on a rainy Saturday night. Both teams had trouble moving the ball, with 72 of the 216 total yards by BYU (4-0, 2-0 Big 12) coming of the late drive. TCU (2-3, 0-2) got a 44-yard ﬁeld goal from Nate McCashland with 32 seconds left, but was then unable to recover an onside kick. NO. 22 BOISE STATE 37, UTAH STATE 18: In Boise, Idaho, Maddux Madsen was 17-of-21 passing for 244 yards and two touchdowns, Dylan Riley added two rushing touchdowns and No. 22 Boise State beat Utah State on Saturday in the inaugural game as a member of the Pac-12 Conference for both teams. Boise State (4-1) has won four in a row since a 34-27 loss to then-No. 2 Oregon in the season opener. Utah State (1-4) beat Troy 21-10

last Saturday to snap a five-game skid, which began with a 25-24 home loss to Boise State in the 2025 regular-season finale. NO. 18 USC 25, WASHINGTON 21: In Los Angeles, Jahkeem Stewart returned a fumble 48 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, and No. 18 Southern California overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half for a victory over Washington on Saturday night. Jayden Maiava passed for 245 yards and hit Tanook Hines for a second-half score while the Trojans (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) surged back with the game’s final 15 points for their first victory over the Huskies (3-2, 0-2) since 2016. NO. 12 TEXAS TECH 29, COLORADO 7: In Boulder, Colorado, Linebacker John Curry picked off a pass in the end zone for an easy touchdown, one of four interceptions for No. 12 Texas Tech in a win over mistakeprone Colorado on Saturday night. The Red Raiders (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) outscored the Buffaloes (2-3, 0-2) 29-0 after allowing a touchdown on the opening drive. NO. 4 MIAMI 41, CLEMSON 13: In Clemson, South Carolina, Darian Mensah threw for 227 yards and a touchdown and had a 34-yard scoring run as No. 4 Miami routed Clemson on Saturday night. The Hurricanes (5-0, 3-0 ACC), have started 5-0 for the second straight season. Freshman Tait Reynolds completed 29 of 44 passes for a careerhigh 295 yards with one interception for Clemson (4-2, 2-1). NO. 6 INDIANA 47, RUTGERS 15: In Piscataway, New Jersey, Turbo Richard ran for 204 yards and a touchdown and Josh Hoover passed for 251 yards and four touchdowns to extend No. 6 Indiana’s win streak to 21 games in a win over Rutgers Saturday night. Indiana (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) amassed a season-high 593 total yards.

OF Judge left off Yankees’ Division Series roster

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Yankees captain Aaron Judge was left off the roster for New York’s AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays while he tries to work his way back from a calf injury. A three-time AL MVP, Judge hasn’t played since Sept. 16. Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn’t played since April 24 because of strained calf muscles in both legs, remained on the 26-man roster for the best-of-ﬁve series starting Saturday. Stanton was active for the Wild Card Series sweep of Boston but didn’t get in the games, which both turned into blowouts. Judge was sidelined by a fractured rib from May 31 to Sept. 8 and played in just seven games before straining his right calf. He was limited to 66 games this season.

No. 1-ranked Rybakina loses to Charaeva in China Open

BEIJING — No. 1-ranked Elena Rybakina was ousted from the China Open by No. 118 Alina Charaeva of Armenia in the second round on Saturday. Charaeva held her head in her hands in disbelief after winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. “I was just trying to stay really hard mentally and keep believing that at some point I could turn it around again to my side. And I guess I just never stopped believing,” said Charaeva. Rybakina had seven double faults and dropped her serve ﬁve times, the last time to fall behind 4-2 in the third set. In the men’s tournament, top seed and U.S. Open champion Alexander Zverev beat wild card Shang Juncheng 6-0, 6-3 to set up a quarterﬁnal against Novak Djokovic.

No. 1 Sinner withdraws from Shanghai Masters

SHANGHAI — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner has withdrawn from the Shanghai Masters as he deals with a knee problem. Sinner has not played since beating Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon final. He withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a right knee injury. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play at the Rolex Shanghai Masters this year as I had hoped,” the Italian wrote on his Instagram account Saturday. Sinner announced last week that he wouldn’t be able to defend his China Open title in Beijing, saying “my knee is not there where I would like to be and I am not ready to compete yet, but I will do everything possible to be there on court as soon as I can.”

Trail Blazers fire broadcaster for inappropriate old posts

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Trail Blazers ﬁred new play-by-play television broadcaster Braiden Bell on Thursday when inappropriate social media posts that he made as a teenager resurfaced just hours after the team announced his hiring. “The Portland Trail Blazers have zero tolerance for racist, sexist, or harmful comments,” the team said in a statement Thursday night. “Social media posts made by our recently announced play-by-play broadcaster are in clear violation of team and league policies, as well as our values and expectations. Therefore, we will not be moving forward with this broadcaster.” Hours after the 29-year-old Bell was hired, posts surfaced that Bell made on his X account in 2012 and 2013.

Niners owner York suspended 6 games after arrest in sting

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The NFL suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York for six games Friday following his arrest earlier this year in a prostitution sting in Ohio. The league announced that York also was ﬁned $500,000 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. York has not attended any games or league meetings so far this season and was credited with three games served. He is eligible to return on Oct. 20, following the team’s game the previous night against Washington. York said in a statement released by the team that he accepts the punishment given by the league and apologized for his actions. Owners have been previously punished for violating the personal conduct policy.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 3C

UAPB 41, SOUTHERN 10 THREE AND OUT: TOyLOy BROWN’S TAKEAWAyS FROM THE JAGUARS’ HOMECOMING LOSS TO UAPB

SHOCKING HOME LOSS Southern’s homecoming loss to UAPB is the most shocking of the season.While the Jaguars were missing multiple key players, including their starting quarterback, they shouldn’t have been blown out by the Golden Lions, who have a poor defense. Southern’s special teams problems, primarily in kickoff coverage, were abominable.After losing to Jackson State last week on the road, Southern blew its chance to get a feel-good SWAC victory

FIRST QB START Sophomore Wyatt McCauley made his first career start at Southern. Unsurprisingly, he was inconsistent and not good enough to boost Southern’s chances.The Long Beach City College transfer looked uneasy in the first couple of plays, but suddenly looked ready for the moment the rest of the first quarter. However, his game tailed off from there with several mistakes. Despite the disappointing close, the third-stringer showed some glimpses of what he could be.

IMPRESSIVE WIDE RECEIVER A budding playmaker for Southern is wide receiver Miles Dixon.The junior transfer from Diablo Valley College went from not playing to being the second-best wideout for Marshall Faulk’s group.The 6-foot, 192-pound Dixon is physical, has strong hands and knows how to get open. He made an impressive contested catch, rising over a defender on third-and-long and got a deep 38-yard reception. Southern should be pleased with this surprise contributor.

MORE HEADACHES

STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS

Arkansas-Pine Bluff quarterback Garrison Davis turns the corner against the Southern defense on Saturday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium.

Southern’s special teams issues crop up again in loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Entering Saturday’s homecoming game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the special teams units had caused Southern coach Marshall Faulk the most headaches. That pain was only amplified for Faulk after seeing his team give up more big plays in the punt and kickoff return game on Saturday. Southern’s failure to gain strong field position while consistently giving the Golden Lions offense a good starting point proved critical in the Jaguars’ 41-10 loss at A.W. Mumford Stadium. Southern’s second straight loss dropped the Jaguars to 2-4, 0-2 in the SWAC. “We didn’t compete today,” Faulk said. “We didn’t compete regardless of whatever the situation was. We didn’t compete at a level to where Faulk we gave ourselves a chance to win the game.” Southern had six kickoff returns for 79 yards while UAPB (3-2, 1-1) had three for 167 yards (a 55.7-yard average) in beating the Jaguars for the second straight season and first time at Southern since 2020. Southern was shorthanded with multiple players unavailable, including at quarterback. Faulk started third-stringer Wyatt McCauley in place of junior starter Christian Johnson, who finished Southern’s last game at Jackson State. Also not dressed to play were senior backup quarterback Ashton Strother, backup running back Mike Franklin and star defensive end Ckelby Givens. All of those players except for Givens didn’t play because of “conduct detrimental to the team,” Faulk said. Givens didn’t play because he got injured during practice, Faulk said. McCauley, making first Division I start, nearly threw an interception on his second pass attempt from Southern’s 25-yard line. Despite the shaky start, McCauley made some good decisions and threw accurate passes on his first two drives. The Long Beach City College transfer led a game-

Southern’s Trey Johnson nearly has his punt blocked by defensive back Derrick Murdock on Saturday. opening touchdown drive with his best delivery being a 38-yard pass to Miles Dixon on second-and-19. The drive ended with a 20-yard McCauley touchdown pass to Daejawn Smith in the right corner of the end zone. Southern led 10-7 at the end of the first period as McCauley was 8-of-14 passing for 102 yards and a touchdown, but his play tailed off after the first period as UAPB brought more pressure. In the third quarter, McCauley threw an interception to UAPB’s Raylen Spratt. This mistake came after Southern picked off a Golden Lions pass on a trick play as running back Jaylen Jennings’ deep pass was returned 63 yards by cornerback Michael Williams. Faulk replaced McCauley with freshman Vashaun Coulon with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter. “After the interception, instead of being upset with him, I was like, ‘Let me just put somebody else in,’ ” Faulk said. “It’s my job to protect the kids from themselves when they do the damaging things like he did. Because continuing to put him back out there, it could hurt his confidence.” McCauley finished 12-of-24 passing for 141 yards with one touch-

down and one interception. Southern’s special teams issues have been a big issue all season. The Jaguars lead the SWAC in missed extra points with five (11 of 16). That is more misses than any SWAC team had all of last season. Although freshman kicker Chris McKenna made a 23-yard field goal and an extra point early, the kickoff coverage unit was atrocious. On the first kickoff, Southern allowed a 33-yard return, which got worse after a 15-yard penalty was tacked on for a late hit out of bounds to allow UAPB to start at midfield. On McKenna’s next kickoff, UAPB running back Jalen Williams had a clear runway to the end zone but was chased down at the Jaguars 40, limiting him to a 60-yard return. The strong field position resulted in UAPB touchdowns both times. “I promise you, we work on stuff,” Faulk said. “It has nothing to do with the plan because when they do it, when they do it the way they’re supposed to, and they run down there the way that they’re supposed to with the effort, it’s done. They’re just not playing with the effort.” The Golden Lions’ best kickoff return came at the start of the second half as Williams had a 74-yard

return to the Southern 25. That drive concluded with a 27-yard field goal, giving UAPB a 20-10 lead with 13:46 left in the third period. Southern linebacker Herman Brister said the kickoff issues were “huge.” “We’ve got to be better on special teams for sure,” Brister said. “I think we gave up like 50 yards every time we kicked the ball off, and that’s unacceptable.” The Jaguars missed Givens, who is third in the FCS in tackles for loss (91/ 2). Southern didn’t have the same level of defensive pressure in its front four. However, defensive ends Bryson Jennings and Lance Joseph each had a sack in the first half. Linebacker Tay James led the team with nine tackles. Southern running back Trey Holly entered the game second in the SWAC in both rushing yards per game (87.6) and rushing touchdowns (five), and fifth in all-purpose yards (101.0). He was largely neutralized until he had a 38-yard carry in the fourth quarter as his team trailed by 31 points. He finished with 114 yards on 23 attempts. Southern’s next game is against Prairie View at 2 p.m. Saturday at Panther Stadium in Prairie View, Texas.

Faulk explains absent key players QB Johnson among those out Saturday BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

With less than 40 minutes before kickoff, Southern’s starting quarterback Christian Johnson was unexpectedly not in uniform for the first time. The same was true for the Jaguars’ backup quarterback Ashton Strother. Both players donned the team sweatsuits on the field as teammates were warming up. The quarterbacks casually tossed a few short passes to receivers who were preparing to play their homecoming game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff that ended in a 41-10 loss on Saturday at A.W. Mumford Stadium. The second question asked at Marshall Faulk’s postgame news conference was why Johnson, a junior, didn’t play after seemingly not getting hurt last week against Jackson State. The first-year coach didn’t give many details but con- Johnson firmed it wasn’t because of injury. “I try to keep this stuff inhouse,” Faulk said. “You know, just conduct detrimental to the team, and yeah, I had to sit him.” The absences of senior Strother, who started several games last season, and backup running back Mike Franklin were also non-injury related. Franklin is averaging 9.1 yards per carry and has two TDs this season. “All the guys that you saw as a healthy scratch, conduct detrimental to the team,” Faulk said. The Jaguars also missed star defensive end Ckelby Givens, but it was because of an injury. “Ckelby’s a medical,” Faulk said of the graduate student who is third in the FCS in tackles for loss (91/ 2). “Ckelby had got dinged in practice.” Two other notable players out because of injury were starting offensive lineman Trinidad Wilson and No. 3 running back Champ Davis. Faulk didn’t use the absence of multiple contributors as the reason for his team’s poor showing against UAPB (3-2, 1-1 SWAC). He said he was not happy with his team’s effort level, especially during kickoffs. “I mean that’s for you guys to decide,” he said when asked about whether the player absences affected the outcome. “We have players who play, we play a lot of players. We need those guys to step up, and if they weren’t ready to play, then that’s their lack of accountability to their teammates. And that’s our accountability as a staff to make sure that they are ready to play. So I don’t really look at that. They take reps, they’re practicing, they sit in meetings, they do all the things that’s necessary. And they got thrown into the fire and (if) they weren’t expecting it, that’s a problem. And we’ll fix the problem.” Sophomore quarterback Wyatt McCauley, making his first Division I start in place of Johnson, had a strong first quarter but was replaced by freshman Vashaun Coulon with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter. McCauley finished 12-of-24 passing for 141 yards with one touchdown and one interception. “Early in the game he was good and then as the game sort of got going, it kind of got away from him a little bit,” Faulk said. “Being thrown in this situation, I’m going to say, what Tuesday or Wednesday, you know, that’s a lot to ask of him to come out homecoming from all these fans, that’s tough, and I commend him for it.” Faulk didn’t provide a time line for any of his absent players’ returns before next game at Prairie View at 2 p.m. Saturday. Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.

4C ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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LSU 63, MCNEESE 14

BOX SCORE No. 11 LSU 63, McNeese 14 McNeese St. 0 0 14 0 — 14 LSU 14 21 14 14 — 63 First Quarter LSU—D.Jones 1 run (Starzyk kick), 9:23. LSU—Mothershed 1 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), 3:18. Second Quarter LSU—Clark 3 run (Starzyk kick), 7:37. LSU—Barber 6 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), 4:01. LSU—Barber 12 pass from Leavitt (Starzyk kick), :57. Third Quarter LSU—Geralds 1 run (Starzyk kick), 11:34. LSU—H.Berry 11 run (Starzyk kick), 8:22. MCNS—Levi 43 pass from Barrier (De.Camron kick), 4:48. MCNS—Levi 64 run (De.Camron kick), 3:32. Fourth Quarter LSU—Gage 46 run (Starzyk kick), 13:56. LSU—Gage 39 run (Starzyk kick), 10:55. MCNS LSU First downs 6 39 Total Net Yards 196 731 Rushes-yards 30-102 53-367 Passing 94 364 Punt Returns 3-30 0-0 Kickoff Returns 0-0 1-19 Interceptions Ret. 1-7 1-21 Comp-Att-Int 8-17-1 31-48-1 Sacked-Yards Lost 3-16 0-0 Punts 10-43.6 3-43.0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-0 Penalties-Yards 4-32 3-11 Time of Possession 22:46 37:14 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—McNeese St., Levi 1-64, Wiggins 10-21, Swilley 5-18, Citizen 6-4, M.Davis 1-2, Barrier 3-0, Strong 4-(minus 7). LSU, Berry 15-125, Gage 6-108, D.Jones 16-79, Longstreet 4-32, Durham 5-13, Clark 3-11, Geralds 1-1, Gainey 2-0, (Team) 1-(minus 4). PASSING—McNeese St., Barrier 5-7-0-74, Strong 3-10-1-20. LSU, Leavitt 18-23-1-176, Clark 7-16-0-126, Longstreet 6-9-0-62. RECEIVING—McNeese St., Levi 2-46, So.Lewis 1-17, Deville 1-11, Senegal 1-7, Swilley 1-6, Haman 1-5, Citizen 1-2. LSU, Barber 7-83, Wilson 4-58, Jayc.Brown 4-52, Harris 4-37, T.Brown 3-50, Watkins 3-40, Mothershed 2-11, D.Jones 2-5, Elzy 1-25, Jo.Jackson 1-3. MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

NOTEBOOK

QB Leavitt gets plenty of reps LSU played most starters in first half BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

It was unclear whether quarterback Sam Leavitt would even suit up Saturday for LSU’s tune-up against McNeese State. Leavitt tweaked his hamstring last Saturday in the Tigers’ 35-6 win over Texas A&M, and though the redshirt junior said he was “just fine” after the game, coach Lane Kiffin cautioned that he’d take an “extremely” cautious approach to managing his reps throughout the week. But on Saturday, Leavitt trotted onto the field with his pads. And then he started warming up just like he would for any other game. Then he popped on his helmet and entered the action for LSU’s first drive, along with the rest of the first-team offense. The only sign that anything was amiss was the extra tape he wore on his left leg. Leavitt wound up playing most of the first half of the Tigers’ lopsided win over the Cowboys. He looked calm and confident. He didn’t take off and run very often, but he really didn’t have to. The LSU offensive line kept McNeese at bay, allowing Leavitt to operate from the pocket with surgical precision. The Arizona State transfer completed 18 of 23 pass attempts for 183 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. The pick, his seventh of the year, was the only ill-advised pass Leavitt threw all night. And he didn’t get hurt. LSU entered Week 5 after losing three key starters to significant injuries in just the previous two weeks: defensive back Dashawn Spears (ACL), tight end Trey’Dez Green (knee) and linebacker Whit Weeks (leg). That list did not appear to grow after the win over McNeese, which was perhaps the most important development of the night.

Freshman stands out

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU running back Stacy Gage races past the McNeese State defense in the fourth quarter on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.

LSU threw three touchdown passes in the ﬁrst half of its win over McNeese on Saturday, and a freshman wide receiver caught two of them. Corey Barber, a former four-star recruit from Alabama, hauled in scoring grabs of 6 and 12 yards from Leavitt. Kiffin told the game’s SEC Network broadcast at halftime that Barber started playing more snaps after starter Winston Watkins dropped two nicely

STAFF PHOTO By PEARL SPURLOCK

LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt passes to a receiver on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. thrown passes that would have resulted in scores of 41 and 30 yards. “One player, Winnie Watkins, dropped two touchdowns,” Kifﬁn said. “Obviously disappointed in that. We put a freshman in behind him, and he went and scored two touchdowns.” Barber was a top-60 national recruit, according to 247Sports composite rankings. He was initially committed to Ole Miss, but he dropped his pledge to the Rebels and signed with the Tigers instead in December after Kifﬁn switched jobs. On Saturday, Barber became just the seventh LSU player since 1995 to catch multiple touchdown passes in one game as a true freshman.

Two more sacks LSU defensive linemen Princewill Umanmielen and Deuce Geralds each dropped McNeese quarterback Jake Strong behind the line of scrimmage on Saturday, adding to their already eye-popping sack totals. Umanmielen and Geralds have combined for 13 sacks. Entering Week 5, no FBS player had more sacks than Umanmielen (seven) and no FBS freshman had more

than Geralds (four). Umanmielen, an Ole Miss transfer, recorded nine sacks as part of his breakout redshirt junior season in 2025, and he already has eight through his ﬁrst ﬁve games at LSU. He’s on pace to break the program’s single-season sack record, which Arden Key set when he dropped opposing quarterbacks 12 times in 2016. Geralds was a fringe top-50 national prospect from Georgia when he signed with the Tigers. Before Saturday, he had logged 19 more snaps than any other LSU defensive tackle. The star freshman also scored a rushing touchdown on Saturday when he took a direct snap early in the third quarter and plowed into the end zone for a 1-yard score.

Opening-drive score The 1-yard touchdown that running back Dilin Jones scored on Saturday to give LSU a 7-0 lead was the Tigers’ first opening-drive score of the season. LSU punted three times and threw an interception on its ﬁrst four opening drives of the year. The offense managed only 14 total yards on the 11 plays it ran on

LSU

Continued from page 1C until late in the third quarter. “Milestones, I don’t care,” LSU coach Lane Kiffin said postgame. “We’ll break all those.” Most importantly, LSU appeared to be unscathed by injuries Saturday as it prepares to finish the rest of its Southeastern Conference slate, which resumes next Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky, as the Tigers visit the Wildcats (4-1) after their overtime win against South Carolina. “I think we didn’t have any major injuries for the first game,” said Kiffin, who was admittedly “freaked out” after star linebacker Whit Weeks joined tight end Trey’Dez Green on the long-term injury list after a win over Texas A&M. “So that was really big. We obviously pulled people really early. We’re concerned about our depth and things.” Now the question is whether LSU can finish October as well as it started, all the way through matchups with Kentucky, Mississippi State and Auburn and into a bye week that could allow Green to return on the other side of it. There’s a slight chance Weeks could, too. In the meantime, Kiffin received the respite he desired from a ninegame SEC schedule. But he didn’t hold Leavitt back completely despite the quarterback playing hurt last week. “I just thought what we were calling was pretty safe,” said Kiffin, who credited offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. with changing plays depending on McNeese’s fronts to make sure Leavitt wasn’t hit.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU defensive tackle Deuce Geralds runs the ball on an offensive play for a touchdown against McNeese on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. Leavitt didn’t scramble but he completed 13 of his ﬁrst 15 passes, despite a drop by Winston Watkins streaking wide open down the seam for what would have been a score. Leavitt led two quick touchdown drives anyway. The first traveled 48 yards and was capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Dilin Jones. The second went 77 yards and finished with a 1-yard toss from Leavitt to converted tight end Roman Mothershed. “He really didn’t move very much during the week at all,” said Kifﬁn, noting Leavitt missed Tuesday’s practice and was told he had to participate in Wednesday 7-on7s to play. “He did, so he was ob-

viously a lot better than he was a week ago. But he was still limited.” On Leavitt’s third drive, another on-target throw to Watkins down the seam was dropped. His next attempt to push it down the ﬁeld to Eugene Wilson was snagged by McNeese defensive back Lorenzell Dubose. But the defense wasn’t going to allow the Cowboys to take any momentum. LSU edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen logged his eighth sack of the season to send McNeese to a three-and-out. LSU then scored touchdowns on its next ﬁve drives. “He had, to his credit, a really good offseason,” Kiffin said of

Umanmielen. “He’d been up and down for us (at Ole Miss) a year ago, consistency-wise and how to practice at a high level. He’s got his life together, and his focus — his No. 1 thing — is football.” A range of Tigers flashed in a game where there were more opportunities to go around. Freshman receiver Corey Barber, a fourstar recruit, had six catches for 76 yards in extended action, including touchdown receptions of 6 and 12 yards from Leavitt. Sophomore running back Harlem Berry, a former ﬁve-star recruit who has played second-ﬁddle to Jones this season, logged 125 yards on 15 carries, including an

those possessions. On Saturday, the Tigers’ first drive spanned nine plays and 48 yards. They got the ball after safety Tamarcus Cooley intercepted Strong on a third-down pass from the LSU 45-yard line. LSU leaned heavily on Jones on its ﬁrst drive. The redshirt sophomore picked up 28 yards on six carries on the possession while adding one catch for 4 yards. He ﬁnished his night as the Tigers’ second-leading rusher with 16 carries for 79 yards and a score.

Series history Only 130 miles separate LSU and McNeese, but the schools now have met just three times in football — 2010, 2021 and 2026. The Tigers and Cowboys were supposed to face off in September 2015, but persistent lightning strikes and heavy rain forced the cancellation of the game after they played just five minutes. That matchup remains the only LSU football game canceled since World War I. Rain was in the forecast ahead of Saturday’s matchup, but none fell in Tiger Stadium before or after the game’s 6:55 p.m. kickoff.

11-yard touchdown run that put LSU up 49-0. Stacey Gage took over in the fourth quarter, running through the McNeese defense on touchdown runs of 46 and 39 yards. Jones added 79 yards on 16 carries as the Tigers totaled 367 yards on the ground. LSU even allowed freshman defensive tackle Deuce Geralds, who recorded his fifth sack in as many games, to line up at running back for a direct-snap touchdown run from 1-yard out in the third quarter. “It’s been my dream to ever be in Tiger Stadium,” said Geralds, who spent his youngest years in Baton Rouge before moving to Georgia. “So scoring a touchdown in Tiger Stadium was unbelievable for me.” The LSU defense and special teams would have lapses to close the third quarter, though. First, LSU allowed a 28-yard punt return to the Tigers 43, which was immediately followed by a 43-yard touchdown pass from Brady Barrier to Jamaal Levi to make it 49-7. On McNeese’s next drive, an endaround was taken 64 yards up the sideline by Levi, which gave the Cowboys receiver a pair of scores separated by 76 seconds. Even with the second-half lull, the final totals reflected LSU’s ease of victory. The Tigers outgained the Cowboys 731-196. LSU totaled 39 first downs to McNeese’s six. Saturday’s victory marked the most points LSU had scored since a 72-0 win over Grambling on Sept. 9, 2023. “The goal was to get up and then to evaluate these guys because they’re gonna need to play with the injuries that we have,” Kiffin said. “Now you got seven conference teams in a row.”

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 5C

LSU 63, MCNEESE 14

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THREE AND OUT: SCOTT RABALAIS’ TOP THREE TAKEAWAyS FROM LSU’S BLOWOUT OF MCNEESE

GIVE AND TAKE After speculation all week about whether he would play, LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt and his sore hamstring got the start against the Cowboys. Certainly an “A” for effort given the circumstances as he threw for 176 yards and three touchdowns in a little less than a half of work. But he made a major gaffe when he threw yet another interception, his seventh. Leavitt has thrown at least one pick in every game this season. Somehow, that has to stop.

DEUCE ON THE LOOSE Defensive tackle Deuce Geralds’ remarkable freshman season added another amazing chapter Saturday night. Geralds recorded his fifth sack in the first half. That’s to be expected, especially against an outmatched offense like McNeese’s.Then the unexpected: Geralds lined up as a running back (fullback to make LSU’s Jacob Hester happy) and scored on a 1-yard smash. It was shades of Booger McFarland’s freshman season in 1995. McFarland was eventually an AllAmerican. Geralds could be just as good.

EMPTYING THE BENCH While Lane Kiffin didn’t appear to rest any key starters, the LSU coach did go deep into his bench. That included freshman wide receiver Corey Barber, who had the first two touchdown receptions of his career, and quarterbacks Landen Clark and Husan Longstreet. It didn’t always go according to script: The Tigers had three straight punts and gave up two long touchdowns in the third quarter. But it served the purpose of conserving energy going into the Kentucky game.

Berry could boost LSU ground game Running back shines in blowout with 125 yards, touchdown

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Harlem Berry hesitated before the fog of bodies cleared, and a crease opened between the center and right guard. A sliver of space was all he needed. The running back turned on the jets, blasting past four McNeese State defensive linemen and a linebacker before juking a cornerback out of his shoes — literally sending him to his knees — and sprinting out to the McNeese State 16-yard line for a 46-yard carry with less than two and a half minutes remaining in the first half. Berry had 10 carries for 89 yards by halftime and finished with 15 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown. His impressive scamper late in the opening half was tied for the Tigers’ longest play of the night in their 63-14 drubbing of McNeese State. “I’m really proud of him,” LSU coach Lane Kiffin said. “I’m proud about how things happen in our program that you don’t just get handed (opportunities).” Berry’s second season hasn’t gone exactly as he probably planned. He was LSU’s third choice at running back through the first three weeks of the year, getting delegated to mop-up duty as a pair of transfers held the top spots on the depth chart. Wisconsin transfer Dilin Jones is still LSU’s top option in the backfield, logging 16 carries on Saturday before the game quickly got out of hand. But Berry passed UCF transfer Stacy Gage in the pecking order after LSU’s loss to Ole Miss, and will likely keep his spot after Saturday’s explosive performance, even though Gage had 112 rushing yards on six carries in garbage time against McNeese State. “Sometimes you get demoted, and you’ve got to earn (your opportunities),” Kiffin said. “And he’s done a really good job with that.” Berry showed patience before getting upfield and was decisive once he found a crease to puncture on Saturday. His natural speed and explo-

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C of focus, despite being up 35-0 on McNeese State at the time. Oh, the Nick Saban of it all. All the while, Kiffin’s Tigers were spinning hit record after hit record, like some long-ago DJ on the Saturday night owl shift. In Saturday’s 63-14 victory over McNeese, the Tigers set singlegame program records for first downs (39, breaking the mark of 37 against Clemson in the season opener), total offensive plays (101, breaking the record of 99 against Tulane in 1969) and posted the second-most total yards in school history (731, just shy of LSU’s 746 yards against Rice in 1977). All this when the Kiffin/Charlie Weis Jr. offense hasn’t even really lit all the steam boilers yet. What did those marks mean to the visored one, the coach former LSU quarterback Josh Booty

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU running back Harlem Berry falls forward during a run against McNeese on Saturday at Tiger Stadium. siveness made him a five-star recruit coming out of St. Martin’s Episcopal School, but his willingness to run downhill — and not bounce runs to the perimeter — improved greatly compared to last season. “I think getting vertical in the running game and not trying to bounce everything,” Kiffin said when asked what Berry had improved most since Kiffin arrived at LSU. “You saw him today really take what was there and get vertical, which is a normal transition, especially for a young running back maybe coming from a lower level.” After finishing second on the team in carries and yards a year ago, Berry likely won’t surpass those numbers as a sophomore. But he may be a better player in the long run because of this season. LSU running backs coach Kevin

called Steve Spurrier 2.0? “I don’t care,” Kiffin said. “We’ll break all those. It’s about the way you’re playing.” Kiffin’s confident yet dismissive tone spoke to the fact that the Tigers were playing a mighty outclassed opponent. No offense to McNeese, but the school that gave Will Wade a new lease on his basketball coaching career does not play at LSU’s level. The Tigers are Premier League and the Cowboys are English Football League. Arsenal against Wrexham AFC. Despite all the Fun ‘n’ Gun Spurrier-type vibes, Kiffin definitely channeled his inner Saban in this one. The timeout was to chew out his players to make sure they stayed mentally sharp. That they kept the hammer down. That they took no prisoners. Kiffin even said the game officials came to him and asked whether he wanted to play with a running clock in the second half. “I said no,” Kiffin said. “I just don’t believe in that. You play the

Smith — who followed Kifﬁn to LSU from Ole Miss — has a strong track record of developing running backs, most notably helping Quinshon Judkins and Kewan Lacy become elite college backs in Oxford. “It’s every day, the same things,” Berry said about Smith. “He’ll keep repeating it, keep repeating it, keep repeating it, and he’s not going to stop coaching you, not stop telling you about the details, about the little things that we need to work on.” LSU’s rushing attack has excelled this season. The Tigers averaged over 200 yards per contest and 4.5 yards per carry before Saturday, when they ran for another 367 yards and averaged 6.9 yards per attempt against the Cowboys. Last week, they surpassed last year’s rushing touchdown total of 10, and they

game, and we decide when the game is over by the way we play and how physical we play.” It wasn’t said with the same Sabanesque fervor and implied threat of volcanic eruption, but it sure sounded the same. “I challenged them (the players) to come out and play really well,” Kiffin said. “Set a tempo of how you play and a standard — regardless of whether you’re first, second or third team — about how you play at LSU. And how you should make the game (so) that people don’t want to schedule you.” To make a point about “The Standard,” Kiffin pulled wide receiver Winston Watkins, one of the players who came with him from Ole Miss and one of LSU’s best receivers in 2026, after he dropped two touchdown passes. Asked at halftime on LSU radio about his team’s play in the first half in which the Tigers led by the aforementioned 35-0 score and had outgained McNeese 347-31, Kiffin responded: “We dropped

now lead the FBS with 19 scores on the ground through ﬁve games. Their success has mostly come from Jones’ stellar start and an offensive line that has impressed as a runblocking unit. But if Berry can provide a bigger boost against tougher competition — he didn’t make much of an impact against Texas A&M until the score got lopsided — his explosiveness as a complement to Jones’ physicality could take LSU’s ground game to another level. “We’ve all got our different style of play,” Berry said. “I like to say I’m elusive, fast. … Dilin’s got that in his bag, too; I’ve seen a little bit of pop. But Dilin’s a physical, downhill runner, things of that nature. “So just being able to play off each other is good.”

two touchdown passes.” Kiffin replaced Watkins with freshman Corey Barber, who instead of dropping two touchdown passes caught two touchdown passes. It wasn’t quite the memorable night Geralds had — he was perhaps the first Tiger to ever have a sack and a rushing touchdown in the same game — but it was mighty nice. The overall message was clear. Kiffin is trying to establish a culture at LSU. His kind of culture. The kind that appeals to the attention span-challenged TikTok generation of players but also gets them to play hard in the tough tilts. Aside from a brief lapse in the third quarter when mostly LSU backups had three straight punts on offense and gave up two long touchdowns on defense, Kiffin got what he asked for. “I know you’re supposed to win these games big,” he said, “but that doesn’t always happen.” Yes, this was a guarantee game. LSU paid McNeese $750,000 to be

its final nonconference punching bag. Hopefully the Tigers also slipped the Cowboys a couple of pizzas on their way back to the bus for being so cooperative. But there was also future groundwork at play. The rest of the season is paved with Southeastern Conference opponents, with nary an easy mark except for once again woeful Arkansas in the regular-season finale. By that point in the season, we will know where LSU is headed. Either into the College Football Playoff or into a much less satisfying bowl game. That long road resumes next Saturday at upstart Kentucky, which rallied from 17-0 down to beat a melty South Carolina 35-34 in overtime. The Wildcats will be primed for the Tigers in Lexington, where they’ve never forgotten the Bluegrass Miracle. The point of Saturday’s tough Kiffin talk despite the blowout was to try to make sure LSU doesn’t need a Bluegrass Miracle to win.

LSU SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Sept. 5

Sept. 12

Sept. 19

Sept. 26

Oct. 3

Oct. 10

Oct. 17

Oct. 24

Nov. 7

Nov. 14

Nov. 21

Nov. 28

51-10 45-14 32-24

35-6

63-14

at Kentucky 6 p.m. TV: ESPN

Mississippi St. TBA TV: TBA

at Auburn 11 a.m. TV: TBA

Alabama TBA TV: TBA

Texas TBA TV: TBA

at Tennessee TBA TV: TBA

at Arkansas TBA TV: TBA

OVERALL: 3-2 SEC: 1-2

OVERALL: 2-4 SOUTHLAND: 1-3

OVERALL: 4-1 SEC: 2-1

OVERALL: 3-2 SEC: 1-2

OVERALL: 5-0 SEC: 3-0

OVERALL: 4-0 SEC: 1-0

OVERALL: 4-1 SEC: 1-1

OVERALL: 2-3 SEC: 0-2

W W L W W

OVERALL: 3-2 ACC: 2-1

OVERALL: 2-2 SUN BELT: 0-0

OVERALL: 3-1 SEC: 1-1

6C ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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WEEK 4

SUNDAy Colts vs. Commanders 8:30 a.m., NFL

ON TV THIS WEEK

SUNDAy Jaguars at Bengals Noon, CBS

SUNDAy Cowboys at Texans Noon, Fox

SUNDAy Chiefs at Raiders 3:25 p.m., CBS

SUNDAy Lions at Panthers 7:20 p.m., NBC

MONDAy Falcons at Saints 7:15 p.m., ESPN

STANDINGS, SCORES & SCHEDULE AFC East

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

NFC East

Philadelphia N.Y. Giants Dallas Washington South Carolina New Orleans Atlanta Tampa Bay North

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ASHLEy LANDIS

Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins catches a pass against the Buffalo Bills during the first half on Sept. 13 in Houston. Collins is expected to return Sunday after missing the previous two games.

TOP TOPICS FOR WEEK 4 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lone Star State showdown The Dallas Cowboys have struggled under 34-year-old first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker. Dallas ranks 30th in the NFL by allowing 387 yards a game and is dealing with mounting injuries in the secondary. The unit will be tested this week with the return of Texans star receiver Nico Collins, who has missed the past two games with a hamstring injury. Quarterback C.J. Stroud ranks seventh in the NFL by averaging 264.7 yards passing a game but has thrown just three touchdown passes. Stroud hasn’t thrown an interception this season and hasn’t been picked off in six straight home games.

Expect Panthers, Lions shootout Carolina appears better equipped on offense should its Sunday night game against Detroit morph into a shootout, which is entirely possible given that the Lions offense has scored at least 31 points in all three games and their defense is surrendering a league-high 31.7 points per game. young is also off to the best start of his career. He leads the NFL in yards passing and has seven TD passes. Detroit does have 12 sacks, trailing only Minnesota’s 14 entering Week 4. The Lions also have four players with two sacks through three games for the first time in franchise history.

Raiders, Chiefs stage unbeaten battle In a battle of 3-0 AFC West division rivals, the matchup to watch is the Las Vegas Raiders offensive line against the Kansas City Chiefs defensive front. Las Vegas running back Ashton Jeanty has been hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 44.4% of his carries, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, for the third-most in the league. The Chiefs have gotten into the backfield on 52.6% of rushes, the third-highest rate. Chiefs coach Andy Reid is 6-1 at Allegiant Stadium. If Kansas City wins Sunday, he would become the all-time winningest coach at the stadium.

Rams take aim at Eagles defense Rams quarterback and reigning MVP Matthew Stafford has thrown four interceptions already this season. That number could stay put against an Eagles defense that has yet to force a turnover. The Eagles did not have a sack against the Bears on Monday, and third-string QB Case Keenum lit up the defense. The Eagles are 13th in yards allowed and 16th in points allowed. Philly seemingly caught a break in its first two games by playing Washington (27th in pass offense) and Tennessee (30th in pass offense) but could be exposed against a prolific Rams offense. The Eagles have only three sack.

Niners to get stiff challenge from Broncos Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers have been in peak form early this season. The Niners lead the league in yards per play and success rate, have limited negative plays and rank second in the league in scoring to fuel a 3-0 start. That unit will get its toughest test yet on Sunday when the 49ers host the Denver Broncos (2-1) and one of the league’s best defenses under coordinator Vance Joseph. The Broncos are also a very tough out outside their division, having won 10 straight nonconference games for the longest active streak in the NFL.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Burrow aims to extend mastery of Lawrence BY JOE REEDY AP sportswriter

Joe Burrow has gotten the better of Trevor Lawrence whenever their teams have met. Burrow is hoping that trend continues Sunday when his Cincinnati Bengals host Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in a matchup of 2-1 teams. Burrow is 3-0 in starts against Lawrence. The ﬁrst was in the College Football Playoff national title game in the 2019 season when he threw for 463 yards and accounted for all six touchdowns in LSU’s 42-25 victory over Clemson. The most recent time Burrow faced the Jaguars is one he would like to for-

get. The franchise quarterback suffered a turf toe injury during the second quarter of last season’s Week 2 game while being sacked by Jaguars defensive tackle Arik Armstead. Even though the Bengals rallied for a 31-27 victory behind Jake Browning, Burrow missed the next nine games after having surgery on his left big toe. The Bengals season imploded as they lost eight of nine. Burrow’s focus though is making sure Cincinnati gets back on track after a loss at Pittsburgh despite passing for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Cincinnati was in Steelers’ territory during the fourth quarter when Burrow fumbled after being sacked by

Derrick Harmon. Burrow will face a Jaguars defense that is second in pressure rate this season. “They’re deep. Their two edge rushers — Armstead and DaVon (Hamilton) — are really good. All those guys can play really good football, get pressure on the quarterback, stop the run,” Burrow said. “Then the rest of their defense plays with their roles really well, understands what they’re trying to do with their coverages.” The Jaguars defense has picked off a pass in eight straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL, and has allowed a leaguelow 36 points this season. The Cincinnati defense

also has plenty of questions going into the game. After strong games against Tampa Bay and Houston, the Bengals reverted back to the level of the past couple of seasons against the Steelers with missed tackles and lapses on long pass plays. Lawrence has 65 completions of at least 20 yards since the start of last season, third most in the AFC. The Bengals allowed ﬁve last week. “Things have changed, and I think they’ve figured out kind of what they’re good at. And in some ways I think it’s kind of simpliﬁed,” Lawrence said of the Bengals, the only AFC team he hasn’t defeated.

Minnesota Detroit Chicago Green Bay West San Francisco Seattle L.A. Rams Arizona

W 3 1 1 0

L 0 2 2 3

T Pct PF 0 1.000 101 0 .333 64 0 .333 36 0 .000 36

PA Home Away 78 2-0-0 1-0-0 61 0-1-0 1-1-0 51 1-0-0 0-2-0 86 0-1-0 0-2-0

AFC NFC Div 2-0-0 1-0-0 0-0-0 1-0-0 0-2-0 0-0-0 1-1-0 0-1-0 0-0-0 0-2-0 0-1-0 0-0-0

W 2 1 0 0

L 1 2 3 3

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .667 .333 .000 .000

PF 82 72 37 54

PA Home Away 36 2-0-0 0-1-0 91 1-1-0 0-1-0 59 0-2-0 0-1-0 75 0-2-0 0-1-0

AFC NFC Div 2-1-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 1-2-0 0-0-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 0-2-0 0-0-0 0-3-0 0-0-0 0-1-0

W 3 2 2 2

L 1 1 1 2

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .750 .667 .667 .500

PF 81 92 80 77

PA Home Away 95 2-0-0 1-1-0 78 0-1-0 1-0-0 63 1-0-0 1-1-0 87 2-0-0 0-2-0

AFC 1-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 1-2-0

NFC Div 2-0-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 0-0-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0

W 3 3 2 0

L 0 0 1 3

T Pct 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 .667 0 .000

PF 88 88 60 44

PA Home Away 50 2-0-0 1-0-0 54 1-0-0 2-0-0 70 2-0-0 0-1-0 76 0-2-0 0-1-0

AFC 3-0-0 2-0-0 1-1-0 0-2-0

NFC Div 0-0-0 1-0-0 1-0-0 1-0-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0

W 2 2 1 1

L 1 1 2 2

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .667 .667 .333 .333

PF 55 46 88 75

PA Home Away 69 1-0-0 1-1-0 55 2-0-0 0-1-0 82 1-0-0 0-1-0 92 1-0-0 0-2-0

AFC 1-0-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 0-0-0

NFC Div 1-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 1-1-0 1-2-0 0-2-0

W 1 1 1 0

L 2 2 2 3

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .333 .333 .333 .000

PF 89 81 51 62

PA Home Away 83 0-1-0 1-1-0 83 0-1-0 1-1-0 68 0-1-0 1-1-0 79 0-2-0 0-1-0

AFC 0-1-0 1-1-0 0-1-0 0-2-0

NFC Div 1-1-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 0-0-0 1-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-0-0

W 3 2 2 1

L 0 1 1 2

T Pct 0 1.000 0 .667 0 .667 0 .333

PF 71 93 89 56

PA Home Away 41 1-0-0 2-0-0 95 2-0-0 0-1-0 53 1-1-0 1-0-0 91 0-1-0 1-1-0

AFC 0-0-0 1-1-0 0-0-0 1-0-0

NFC Div 3-0-0 2-0-0 1-0-0 0-0-0 2-1-0 0-1-0 0-2-0 0-1-0

W 3 2 1 1

L 0 1 2 2

T Pct 0 1.000 0 .667 0 .333 0 .333

PF 98 75 61 63

PA Home Away 50 2-0-0 1-0-0 50 1-0-0 1-1-0 63 1-1-0 0-1-0 81 0-1-0 1-1-0

AFC 1-0-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 1-0-0

NFC Div 2-0-0 2-0-0 1-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 0-1-0 0-2-0 0-2-0

WEEK 4

WEEK 5

Thursday’s Games Cleveland 27, Pittsburgh 24 Sunday’s games Indianapolis vs Washington, 8:30 a.m. Arizona at N.Y. Giants, noon Dallas at Houston, noon Green Bay at Tampa Bay, noon Jacksonville at Cincinnati, noon L.A. Rams at Philadelphia, noon N.Y. Jets at Chicago, noon New England at Buffalo, noon Tennessee at Baltimore, noon Miami at Minnesota, 3:05 p.m. Denver at San Francisco, 3:25 p.m. Kansas City at Las Vegas, 3:25 p.m. L.A. Chargers at Seattle, 3:25 p.m. Detroit at Carolina, 7:20 p.m. Monday’s game Atlanta at New Orleans, 7:15 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 8 Tampa Bay at Dallas, 7:15 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 Philadelphia vs Jacksonville at London, GBR, 8:30 a.m. Chicago at Green Bay, noon Cincinnati at Miami, noon Cleveland at N.Y. Jets, noon Houston at Tennessee, noon Indianapolis at Pittsburgh, noon Las Vegas at New England, noon Minnesota at New Orleans, noon N.Y. Giants at Washington, noon Denver at L.A. Chargers, 3:05 p.m. Detroit at Arizona, 3:25 p.m. San Francisco at Seattle, 3:25 p.m. Baltimore at Atlanta, 7:20 p.m. Open: Kansas City, Carolina Monday, Oct. 12 Buffalo at L.A. Rams, 7:15 p.m..

NFL BRIEFS

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By FERNANDO LLANO

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott throws while threatened by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Trey Hendrickson during the first half of a game on Sept. 27 in Rio de Janeiro.

Panthers WR Legette Ravens edge rusher Hendrickson out Sunday put on injured reserve

Baltimore Ravens edge rusher Trey Hendrickson will miss Sunday’s game against Tennessee because of a ﬁnger injury. Coach Jesse Minter said Hendrickson had a procedure to fix the issue and will not play. “We think it will be very, very short-term,” Minter said. “But just in a quick way to get that ﬁxed and get him back, I think that is going to be best for us moving forward.” The Ravens signed Hendrickson in the offseason to boost their pass rush. He has one sack.

The Carolina Panthers placed wide receiver Xavier Legette on injured reserve Saturday with a knee injury. Legette, a ﬁrst-round draft pick in 2024, already had been ruled out of Sunday night’s game against the Detroit Lions after sitting out last week’s 21-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Legette was injured in Week 2 while hauling in a 55-yard reception against the Atlanta Falcons. Legette has two receptions for 64 yards this season.

Niners receiver Evans a game-time decision

Colts receiver Allen out for London game

San Francisco 49ers receiver Mike Evans will be a game-time decision Sunday against the Denver Broncos after leaving last week’s game with a rib injury. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Evans will be listed as questionable for the game after returning to practice on a limited basis Friday. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw (quadriceps), defensive lineman Keion White (hamstring) and linebacker Jaden Dugger (shoulder) were also listed as questionable, with Dugger’s injury coming from practice this week.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Keenan Allen has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London because of a groin injury. The Colts said Saturday the six-time Pro Bowler was downgraded after being limited in practice this week and then sitting out Friday, when he was listed as questionable. Allen caught six passes for 63 yards and a touchdown in last week’s 19-17 win over the Houston Texans.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 7C

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Another thrilling finish for East Ascension Central among District 4-5A teams that have overcome shaky starts

BY JACKSON REYES Staff writer

East Ascension keeps finding ways to win. The Spartans won 45-42 on a field goal in double overtime against rival St. Amant in Week 4. They may have one-upped themselves in Week 5 at previAnalysis ously unbeaten Walker. After falling behind 24-7, East Ascension rallied to win 28-24 after returning a blocked punt for a touchdown with less than 30 seconds left. The win moves East Ascension to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in District 5-5A. The Spartans are now tied for first in the district with Denham Springs, which beat Live Oak 35-17 on Thursday. Here’s a look around the rest of the Baton Rouge area with some takeaways.

District 4-5A looking good Zachary, Central and Catholic all started the year ranked in the top 10 of the LSWA Class 5A poll. All three programs slipped out of the rankings after early losses,

but all three are showing why they had lofty preseason expectations. The Broncos (3-2) started the year with losses to Plaquemine and Acadiana. Zachary has since won three straight, including Friday night’s 56-28 victory at St. Amant. Central (3-2) saw a halftime lead slip away on the road to perennial powerhouse West Monroe in Week 4. The Wildcats lost that game 42-36 in overtime, but bounced back in a big way in Week 5 by beating reigning Division I nonselect champion Ouachita Parish 42-21. Catholic (2-3) has played one of the toughest schedules in the state to start the year, with losses to No. 2 Ruston, a nationally ranked Carrollton (Georgia) team and a talented St. Thomas More squad. On Friday, the Bears went to Mississippi and defeated one of the state’s top teams in MadisonRidgeland Academy 37-14.

Baker’s turnaround The Buffaloes defeated West St. John 28-6 on Friday to move to 4-1 on the year. First-year coach Demetric Rogers has turned this Baker program around after a 3-7 ﬁnish last year. Baker is also the lone team in District 6-3A with a winning record and could be viewed as the early favorite to win the district. The Buffaloes’ Week 5 victory was also the team’s third double-

STAFF PHOTO By PEARL SPURLOCK

Central wide receiver Marcus Watson, right, scores a touchdown against Ouachita Parish on Friday at the Central High School stadium. digit win of the season. Baker is currently the No. 15 seed in the Division III select power ratings.

Early district test set In District 6-4A, Plaquemine and St. Michael will meet in a

Week 6 game that could have major district implications. The Green Devils staved off a late comeback to beat Brusly 42-36 on Friday. The win moved Plaquemine to 3-2 and 2-0 in the district. The Warriors handled Scotlandville 45-13 on Thursday

WEEK 6 SCHEDULE

WEEK 5 REPORT Thursday’s scores Area

Ascension Christian 33, Houma Christian 20 Denham Springs 35, Live Oak 17 Kentwood 52, Ferriday 6 Madison Prep 47, McKinley 0 St. Michael 45, Scotlandville 13

Friday’s scores Area

Alexandria 51, Liberty 6 Ascension Catholic 51, Assumption 8 Ben Franklin 54, Springﬁeld 30 Catholic High 37, Madison-Ridgeland Academy 14 Central 42, Ouachita Parish 21 Dutchtown 9, Prairieville 6 Denham Springs 35, Live Oak 17 East Ascension 28, Walker 24

East Feliciana 30, Parkview Baptist 20 Episcopal 16, Albany 2 Independence 39, Istrouma 30 Lutcher 54, Franklinton 41 Madison Prep 47, McKinley 0 Plaquemine 42, Brusly 36 Parklane Academy 37, Dunham 7 Port Allen 26, Glen Oaks 20 Southern Lab 62, East Iberville 6 St. James 42, L.B. Landry 6 St. John 28, White Castle 0 University 28, Teurlings Catholic 7 West Feliciana 40, St. Helena 0 Woodlawn (BR) 14, Donaldsonville 13 Zachary 56, St. Amant 28 Northeast 6, Capitol 10

Dutchtown 9, Prairieville 6 Team First Downs

PHS 10

DHS 8

Yards Rushing 22-74 35-157 Yards Passing 121 105 Passes (C-A-HI) 11-19–0 7-13-0 Punts-avg. 4-32.6 5-29.5 Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0 Penalties-yards 4-30 4-40 SCORING SUMMARY Prairieville 0 6 0 0 —6 Dutchtown 0 3 6 0 —9 DHS: Kade Foley 30 field goal PHS: Parker Faust 25 pass from Skylar Kelly (kick blocked) DHS: Foley 31 field goal DHS: Foley 20 field goal

St. Michael 45, Scotlandville 13 Team First Downs Yards Rushing Yards Passing Passes (C-A-HI)

to move to 4-1, 2-0. The two teams will meet next week in a crucial district game. Madison Prep (3-2, 2-0 in District 6-4A) will also be a factor, but the Chargers won’t play Plaquemine or St. Michael until Week 8.

STM 12 27-239 51 3-5-1

SLV 8 23-67 147 6-19-2

Punts-avg. 3-25 Fumbles-lost 3-1 Penalties-yards 3-25 6-50 SCORING SUMMARY St. Michael 24 14 7 0 —45 Scotlandville 0 6 7 0 —13 STM: CJ Levingston 34 run (Dylan Raffray kick) STM: Team safety STM: Gavin Romero 9 run (Romero run) STM: Brady Patt 50 interception return (Raffray kick) STM: Romero 10 run (Raffray kick) STM: Caden Levingston 20 pass to CJ Levingston (Raffray kick) SLV: Jordan Carmouche 57 pass to Caleb Harvey (Jeremiah Gunera kick missed) SLV: Carmouche 6 pass to Demicus Cooks (Gunera kick) STM: Caden Levingston 25 pass to Joseph Bourgeois (Raffray kick)

All games at 7 p.m. unless noted.

Thursday’s games McKinley at Broadmoor Donaldsonville at Episcopal Dutchtown at Live Oak Catholic vs. Liberty at Olympia Stadium Baker vs. Helix Mentorship Academy at Belaire High Scotlandville vs. Madison Prep at Memorial Stadium Livonia at Beau Chene Lutcher at Berwick Port Allen at Collegiate Baton Rouge Northeast at Dunham Slaughter Community Charter at Springﬁeld Kentwood at Varnado

Friday’s games East St. John at Denham Springs Istrouma at Belaire

East Iberville at Ascension Christian White Castle vs. Southern Lab at A.W. Mumford Stadium Plaquemine at St. Michael Ben Franklin at Central Private Prairieville at East Ascension St. John at North Iberville West St. John vs. Ascension Catholic at Floyd Boutte Memorial Stadium West Feliciana at Parkview Baptist Zachary at Central Catholic-PC at East Feliciana Thrive Academy vs. Capitol at Memorial Stadium Walker at St. Amant Woodlawn at St. Martinville Tara at Brusly North Vermillion at Glen Oaks Albany at Jewel Sumner University High at Kaplan St. Charles at St. James

SAINTS NOTEBOOK

Saints down at least 3 defenders vs. Falcons BY LUKE JOHNSON and MATTHEW PARAS Staff writers

At least one of the New Orleans Saints starting linebackers will miss Monday night’s rivalry game against the Atlanta Falcons, and there is a decent chance another one will join him on the sideline. The Saints ruled out linebacker Kaden Elliss (calf) as well as edge defenders Carl Granderson (ankle) and Anfernee Jennings (knee) for their Week 4 clash against the Falcons. Linebacker Pete Werner (stinger), who did not Elliss participate in any of the three practices this week, is questionable for Monday’s game. Tight end Noah Fant (abdominal) is also questionable. Coach Kellen Moore said Elliss is “week-to-week” with his injury, but the extra day before “Monday Night Football” is going to give Werner a chance to play. “We’ll give it a little bit of time. We have a decent amount of time until Monday night,” Moore said. “… We’ll just let it be evaluated for the next 24 or so hours.” Even if Werner is able to go, New Orleans is guaranteed to be without three of its top run defenders with one of the NFL’s best running backs, Bijan Robinson, on deck. Robinson is coming off a 194-yard rushing performance against the Green Bay Packers and is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. The Saints may have to promote linebacker Jackson Sirmon from the practice

squad if Werner can’t go. As things currently stand, the only healthy linebackers available are Danny Stutsman, Isaiah Stalbird and Chris Rumph. Prior to this season, Rumph had been an edge defender. Stutsman had been rotating in for Werner throughout this season. The second-year linebacker has made 14 tackles in 66 defensive snaps.

General thoughts Saints offensive lineman William Sherman has a nickname. It’s the one you’d expect. “The General,” Sherman said. Sherman is not named after that William Sherman, but he does happen to share the same name as the Union general. And this week, the Saints branched out further by adding running back Ulysses Bentley, who shares the same ﬁrst name as Ulysses S. Grant. One Civil War connection is odd enough. Two warrants a story. “It’s deﬁnitely cool to have another commander here with me,” Sherman said. Sherman and Bentley have learned to embrace the jokes. Bentley notes that Ulysses is a family name — he’s the fourth — while Sherman said he needs to ask his family about the origin of his name “because it’s so random.” For the record, he goes by Will. Neither is a history buff, but the duo hasn’t been able to escape the references to their name at each of their past stops. Sherman, who’s from Dallas and played at Colorado, was first called “The General” in college, and that’s when the jokes really picked up. Bentley was born in New

Orleans but went to Ole Miss — where he heard plenty about his late Union namesake. “Everybody say the same thing pretty much,” said Bentley, who said he finds the jokes “a little bit” funny. “It is what it is.” Sherman said he has grown to like his nickname, in particular. When he was drafted in 2021, the sixthrounder joined the New England Patriots. To begin his career, The General was literally a Patriot. “Bill Belichick is a big historian,” Sherman said, referencing the former New England coach. “He deﬁnitely was happy about me playing right and left tackle and coming to New England.”

Stutsman fined Saints fans in the Caesars Superdome were not pleased with the penalty flag thrown against Stutsman during last week’s Saints-Raiders game, and now Stutsman is really not pleased about it. The NFL fined Stutsman $7,011 for his roughingthe-passer penalty against Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins in the second quarter. Las Vegas was facing a third-and-4 from the Saints’ 6-yard line when Stutsman burst through the line and delivered a hit on Cousins right as he was throwing the ball. Though it appeared to be a clean hit — Stutsman’s head was to the side of Cousins — the Saints linebacker was penalized and subsequently ﬁned for breaking the “body weight” rule, in which pass rushers are not allowed to land with the full force of their body on the quarterback.

The

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Pels’ practice at St. Aug not just for fun BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

New Orleans Pelicans rookie Jaron Pierre entertained the crowd by dancing to Boosie’s “Wipe Me Down” at the end of Saturday’s practice. Pierre didn’t mind one bit. After all, he was at his old stomping grounds. His dance floor was at midcourt of the St. Augustine High School gymnasium, the same place Pierre made so many memories a few years ago when he was a star player for the Purple Knights. This was the fifth day of Pelicans’ training camp and the first practice away from the practice facility in Metairie. Instead, the Pelicans were in the city’s Seventh Ward at one of New Orleans’ most renowned high schools. “We talk about representing the city the right way, representing our organization the right way,” first-year Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley said. “You have to be out in the community, out in the city to represent it. It’s not enough for us to just have the words being said. We have to back it up with actions.” This practice wasn’t all fun and games. Many times when teams hold these public practices, players go through a bunch of layup lines and put up shots and run 5-on-0 fast breaks ad nauseam. But Mosley made sure this practice wasn’t like that. His players scrimmaged, including an endof-practice period where they

This was to also get some serious work in as the season approaches. Shots were contested. Players argued calls and talked trash to each other. According to Pierre, it’s the same type of intensity that’s been on display during the team’s ﬁrst four days of camp in the portions of practice closed to the media. “This is an everyday thing,” Pierre said. “Our energy is always at 100 every time.” The Pelicans play their preseason opener Tuesday on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder. While Mosley graded Pierre’s dancing an “A”, he gave the actual practice itself a “C.” The defense, a staple of Mosley’s coaching, is ahead of the offense. “That’s what it’s supposed to be,” Mosley said. “Usually in training camp, the defense is ahead of the offense. At the end of the day, I wasn’t even all the way pleased with the defense. So I think there is room to grow.” Mosley would like to see his players talk more on the defensive end. “We have to do a much better job with our communication,” STAFF PHOTO By ROD WALKER Mosley said. “That has to turn New Orleans Pelicans’ rookie Jaron Pierre poses with fans after up another level to be a great Saturday’s practice at St. Augustine High School. Pierre is a St. Aug defensive team. You’ve got to communicate with one another graduate. at the highest level. The effort worked on end-of-game situa- down and not do the things that we deﬁnitely was there, and you can do every single day,” Mosley told see there is a competitive edge to tions. this group.” “I didn’t want to come out here the crowd afterward. So this wasn’t just some weekend with a bunch of fluff out there, The starting lineup for the with a bunch of running up and outing just to appease the fans. blue team in the scrimmage

was Dejounte Murray, Jordan Poole, Trey Murphy, Zion Williamson and Yves Missi. The red team’s starting five was Jeremiah Fears, Herb Jones, Saddiq Bey, Bennedict Mathurin and Derik Queen. After the practice, Mosley said not to read anything into those lineups. He’s used several different ones in 5-on-5 sessions throughout the week. The end of game period began with the red team leading by three points with eight minutes left. It ended up winning 119-107. The day’s real winner was St. Augustine. In addition to hosting a practice for an NBA team, the school received a $35,000 donation from Murphy. It’s the type of impact Mosley wants to see his team make. “He shows that he is pouring himself into the community,” Pierre said of Murphy. “He really wants to be die-hard about New Orleans and show that he really cares.” Pierre and Mosley have developed a close relationship since the Pelicans drafted him in the second round in June. But that bond didn’t stop Mosley from having a little fun when asked why it was important to hold a practice at Pierre’s alma mater. “He’s a rookie, so we didn’t really do it for him,” Mosley said jokingly. “Just the history of this school and what it means to the city. It’s so important that we continue to pour into the city, but also represent it the right way. This is a great place to do it.”

SCOREBOARD Hole-in-one

Monday, Oct. 5: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (Williams 14-8), 4 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/ HBO Max) Wednesday, Oct. 7: Cleveland at Chicago White Sox, 4 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max) x-Thursday, Oct. 8: Cleveland at Chicago White Sox, 5 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max) x-Saturday, Oct. 10: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland, 5 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max)

Luke Mire

Course: Baton Rouge Country Club Hole: No. 14 Yardage: 105 yards Club: 8 Iron Witness: Dustin Mire

Tampa Bay 1, N.Y. Yankees 0

Odds Sports Betting Line NFL Sunday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Indianapolis 1½ 4½ (46½) at WASH LA Rams 2½ 3½ (42½) at PHILA Green Bay 1½ 3½ (39½) at TAMPA at CHICAGO 8½ 3½ (43½) NY Jets at CINCINNATI 2½ 2½ (51½) Jax at BUFFALO 3 6½ (49½) New Eng Arizona 7 2½ (44½) at GIANTS at BALTIMORE 8½ 11½ (42½) Tennessee at HOUSTON 2½ 3 (48½) Dallas at MINNESOTA 7½ 9½ (38½) Miami Kansas City 5½ 4½ (47½) at VEGAS at SEATTLE 3 7 (42½)LA Chargers at SAN FRAN 2½ 2½ (48½) Denver Detroit 3 3½ (51) at CAR

Monday

FAVORITE at N.O.

MLB

OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG 2½ 2½ (48) Atlanta

Sunday

National League FAVORITE LINE at MILWAUKEE -215 at LA DODGERS OFF

NHL

Sunday

FAVORITE LINE at DETROIT -115 at N.Y RANGERS -143 at SEATTLE -144 Florida -139 Vegas -239

UNDERDOG San Diego Atlanta

LINE +174 OFF

UNDERDOG Winnipeg Utah Calgary at ANAHEIM at VANCUVER

LINE -107 +117 +119 +115 +190

Pro basketball WNBA Playoff Glance (x-if necessary) First Round (Best-of-3)

New York 2, Minnesota 0

Sunday, September 27: New York 91, Minnesota 75 Tuesday, September 29: New York 87, Minnesota 71

Golden State 2, Dallas 1

Sunday, September 27: Golden State 104, Dallas 80 Wednesday, September 30: Dallas 108, Golden State 100, OT Friday, October 2: Golden State 77, Dallas 73

Las Vegas 2, Indiana 1

Sunday, September 27: Las Vegas 102, Indiana 85 Tuesday, September 29: Indiana 99, Las Vegas 89 Thursday, October 1: Las Vegas 94, Indiana 83

Atlanta 2, Washington 0

Sunday, September 27: Atlanta 92, Washington 77 Wednesday, September 30: Atlanta 93, Washington 75 Semiﬁnals (Best-of-5)

No. 2 Golden State vs. No. 3 Las Vegas

Sunday, October 4: Las Vegas at Golden State, 3 p.m. Wednesday, October 7: Las Vegas at Golden State, 8:30 p.m. Friday, October 9: Golden State at Las Vegas, 8:30 p.m. x-Sunday, October 11: Golden State at Las Vegas, TBA x-Wednesday, October 14: Las Vegas at Golden State, TBA

No. 4 Atlanta vs. No. 8 New York

Sunday, October 4: New York at Atlanta, 1 p.m. Wednesday, October 7: New York at Atlanta, 6:30 p.m. Friday, October 9: Atlanta at New York, 6:30 p.m. x-Sunday, October 11: Atlanta at New York, TBA x-Wednesday, October 14: New York at Atlanta, TBA

Major League Baseball MLB Postseason Glance x-if necessary

DIVISION SERIES

(Best-of-5) x-if necessary

American League

(TBS, TruTV, HBO Max)

Chicago White Sox 1, Cleveland 0

Saturday, Oct. 3: Chicago White Sox 3, Cleveland 0

Saturday, Oct. 3: Tampa Bay 1, N.Y. Yankees 0 Monday, Oct. 5: N.Y. Yankees (Schlittler 14-6) at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max) Wednesday, Oct. 7: Tampa Bay at N.Y. Yankees, 8 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max) x-Thursday, Oct. 8: Tampa Bay at N.Y. Yankees, 8 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max) x-Saturday, Oct. 10: N.Y. Yankees at Tampa Bay, 8 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max)

National League (FOX, FS1)

L.A. Dodgers 1, Atlanta 0

Saturday, Oct. 3: L.A. Dodgers 5, Atlanta 3 Sunday, Oct. 4: Atlanta at L.A. Dodgers, 8 p.m. (FOX/FS1) Tuesday, Oct. 6: L.A. Dodgers at Atlanta, 6 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Wednesday, Oct. 7: L.A. Dodgers at Atlanta, 6 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Friday, Oct. 9: Atlanta at L.A. Dodgers, 7 p.m. (FOX/FS1)

Milwaukee vs. San Diego

Saturday, Oct. 3: San Diego (Ray 13-8) at Milwaukee (Misiorowski 16-5), n Sunday, Oct. 4: San Diego (King 12-10) at Milwaukee (Henderson 11-3), 3 p.m. (FOX/FS1) Tuesday, Oct. 6: Milwaukee at San Diego, 9:30 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Wednesday, Oct. 7: Milwaukee at San Diego, 10 p.m. (FOX/FS1) x-Friday, Oct. 9: San Diego at Milwaukee, 4:30 p.m. (FOX/FS1)

Chicago White Sox 3, Cleveland 0 Chicago

Cleveland

ab r h bi ab r h bi Meidrth 2b 4 0 0 0 Kwan cf 3 0 00 Grichuk lf 2 0 0 0 Ramírez 3b 3 0 00 Peters ph-lf 2 0 1 0 DeLauter rf 4 0 00 Vargas 3b 2 1 1 0 Adell dh 4 0 00 Murakmi 1b 4 1 2 2 Martínez lf 4 0 00 Pham dh 2 0 0 0 Fry 1b 1 0 00 Antonacci dh1 0 0 0 Lowe ph-1b 2 0 10 Doyle cf 4 0 0 0 Bazzana 2b 4 0 10 Teel c 3 1 0 0 Hedges c 1 0 00 B.Mtgmry rf 3 0 0 0 Bailey ph-c 1 0 10 C.Mtgmry ss3 0 2 1 Rocchio ss 2 0 00 Totals 30 3 6 3 Totals 29 0 3 0 Chicago 000 200 100 — 3 Cleveland 000 000 000 — 0 DP_Chicago 1, Cleveland 3. LOB_Chicago 4, Cleveland 7. 2B_C.Montgomery (1), Bazzana (1), Lowe (1). HR_Murakami (1). IP H R ER BB SO Chicago H.Smith 2 2⁄3 0 0 0 3 4 1 Hudson W,1-0 ⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 2 Hicks H,1 ⁄3 0 0 0 1 2 Kay H,1 1 1⁄3 1 0 0 1 0 Taylor S,1-1 4 2 0 0 0 6 Cleveland Messick L,0-1 4 1⁄3 4 2 2 2 6 2 Espino ⁄3 1 0 0 1 0 Sabrowski 1 2⁄3 1 1 1 1 2 1 Gaddis ⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 Herrin 1 0 0 0 0 1 C.Smith 1 0 0 0 0 1 ABS Challenge_Messick (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Vargas (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Taylor (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Taylor (Ball-Overturned to Strike). Umpires_Home, Cory Blaser; First, Gabe Morales; Second, Todd Tichenor; Third, Jansen Visconti; Right, Tom Hanahan; Left, Vic Carapazza. T_2:49. A_34,287 (34,788).

L.A. Dodgers 5, Atlanta 3

Atlanta

Los Angeles

ab r h bi ab r h bi Baldwin dh 4 0 1 0 Betts ss 3 0 10 Acuña rf 4 1 1 0 Ohtani dh 4 0 10 Albies 2b 3 1 1 2 Smith c 4 0 00 Olson 1b 4 0 0 0 Freeman 1b 3 1 10 Harris cf 4 0 0 0 T.Hernández lf 4 2 2 2 Dubón lf-ss 3 0 0 0 E.Hernández lf 0 0 0 0 Riley 3b 4 0 0 0 Tucker rf 4 1 22 Murphy c 3 1 1 1 Pages cf 4 0 00 Ha.Kim ss 1 0 0 0 Muncy 3b 4 1 11 Thomas ph-lf1 0 0 0 Edman 2b 2 0 00 Totals 31 3 4 3 Totals 32 5 8 5 Atlanta 000 001 002 — 3 Los Angeles 000 203 00x — 5 LOB_Atlanta 4, Los Angeles 6. HR_Murphy (1), Albies (1), T.Hernández (1), Tucker (1), Muncy (1). SB_Tucker (1). IP H R ER BB SO Atlanta Dodd 3 2 0 0 0 4 1 Mederos L,0-1 2 1 0 ⁄3 2 2 Smith-Shawver 2 2⁄3 3 3 3 2 2 Suter 2 1 0 0 0 3 Los Angeles Skubal W,1-0 6 2 1 1 2 7 Stewart 1 0 0 0 0 1 Vesia 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 Scott ⁄3 2 2 2 0 0 1 Phillips S,1-1 ⁄3 0 0 0 1 0

ABS Challenge_Harris (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Riley (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Dodd (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Pages (Strike-Confirmed); Murphy (Strike-Confirmed); Olson (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Suter (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Acuña (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Phillips (BallConfirmed). Umpires_Home, Roberto Ortiz; First, Chris Guccione; Second, James Hoye; Third, Tripp Gibson; Right, Mike Estabrook; Left, Jim Wolf. T_2:44. A_50,194 (56,000).

Winnipeg at Detroit, noon Utah at N.Y. Rangers, 5 p.m. Calgary at Seattle, 7 p.m. Florida at Anaheim, 7 p.m. Vegas at Vancouver, 8 p.m.

New York

College football

Tampa Bay 1, N.Y. Yankees 0 Tampa Bay

ab r h bi ab r h bi Rice dh 3 0 0 0 Díaz dh 4 0 10 Bellinger lf 4 0 0 0 Aranda 1b 4 1 11 García 1b 3 0 0 0 Caminero 3b 2 0 0 0 Jones rf 3 0 0 0 Mateo pr 0 0 00 Lombard ss 3 0 0 0 Williamson 3b 0 0 0 0 Chisholm 2b 2 0 0 0 Hicks c 3 0 10 Grisham cf 3 0 0 0 Simpson lf 4 0 00 A.Wells c 3 0 1 0 Mesa rf 3 0 10 McMahon 3b2 0 0 0 DeLuca cf 3 0 00 Stanton ph 1 0 0 0 Palacios 2b 3 0 10 Walls ss 3 0 00 Totals 27 0 1 0 Totals 29 1 5 1 New York 000 000 000 — 0 Tampa Bay 001 000 00x — 1 LOB_New York 2, Tampa Bay 7. 2B_A.Wells (1), Palacios (1), Hicks (1). HR_Aranda (1). SB_Chisholm (1). IP H R ER BB SO New York Cole L,0-1 5 5 1 1 1 5 Weathers 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Blackburn 1 2⁄3 0 0 1 ⁄3 0 0 0 1 0 Headrick Tampa Bay Rasmussen W,1-0 8 1 0 0 2 10 Baker S,1-1 1 0 0 0 0 2 ABS Challenge_Caminero (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Simpson (Strike-Overturned to Ball); McMahon (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Rasmussen (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Baker (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Baker (Ball-Conﬁrmed). Umpires_Home, Shane Livensparger; First, Jeremie Rehak; Second, Dan Bellino; Third, Ben May; Right, Ryan Wills; Left, D.J. Reyburn. T_2:30. A_40,542 (25,025).

Hockey NHL Glance EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division Boston Florida Montreal Toronto Ottawa Detroit Buffalo Tampa Bay

GP 2 2 1 2 0 1 1 1

W 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

L OT 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Pts GF GA 4 7 3 3 4 4 2 3 2 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 6 0 1 5

N.Y. Rangers Pittsburgh Columbus Washington New Jersey Carolina Philadelphia N.Y. Islanders

GP 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 1

W 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0

L OT 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0

Pts GF GA 4 7 4 2 7 0 2 6 3 2 5 2 2 3 2 1 2 6 1 2 10 0 1 2

W 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

L OT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 2 0

Pts GF GA 2 6 0 2 8 4 2 4 0 2 3 1 1 3 4 0 1 3 0 0 4 0 2 11

Metropolitan Division

WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division Utah Colorado St. Louis Minnesota Winnipeg Nashville Dallas Chicago Paciﬁc Division

GP 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2

GP W L OT Pts GF GA Edmonton 2 1 0 1 3 14 13 Seattle 1 1 0 0 2 6 1 Anaheim 1 1 0 0 2 4 3 San Jose 1 1 0 0 2 4 3 Vegas 2 1 1 0 2 8 6 Vancouver 2 1 1 0 2 13 14 Los Angeles 1 0 1 0 0 4 8 Calgary 1 0 1 0 0 1 6 NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Friday’s Games

N.Y. Rangers 2, Detroit 0 Washington 5, Carolina 2 Boston 4, Winnipeg 3, OT St. Louis 4, Dallas 0 Anaheim 4, Vegas 3

Saturday’s Games

Buffalo 4, Chicago 3 Tampa Bay 3, Washington 1 Utah 4, Columbus 1 Edmonton 3, Seattle 1 Carolina 3, Philadelphia 2, OT Ottawa 3, Toronto 2

Pittsburgh 6, Montreal 5, OT N.Y. Islanders 6, New Jersey 0 Boston at Minnesota, n Dallas at Nashville, n St. Louis at Colorado, n Calgary at Vancouver, n Los Angeles at San Jose, n

Sunday’s Games

Major scores Friday’s games EAST

Liberty 30, Delaware 14

SOUTH

Pittsburgh 35, Virginia Tech 33

MIDWEST

Northwestern 34, Penn St. 13

FAR WEST

Idaho 35, Montana St. 34

Saturday’s games EAST

Albany (NY) 28, Delaware St. 3 Bryant 31, NC A&T 30 CCSU 45, Wagner 14 Cornell 35, Georgetown 14 Dartmouth 14, Penn 10 E. Michigan 38, UMass 14 Harvard 20, Colgate 17 Indiana 47, Rutgers 15 LIU Brooklyn 27, Mercyhurst 24 Lehigh 34, Fordham 0 Monmouth (NJ) 41, Towson 40 Morgan St. 38, Villanova 35 New Hampshire 30, Elon 23 Princeton 35, Columbia 7 Rhode Island 13, Brown 10 Richmond 40, Lafayette 31 Robert Morris 33, Norfolk St. 31 Sacred Heart 24, Maine 16 Syracuse 42, UConn 41, OT W. Michigan 20, Buffalo 17 Yale 41, Merrimack 24

SOUTH

Alabama 56, Mississippi St. 23 Ark.-Pine Bluff 41, Southern U. 10 Austin Peay 42, New Haven 17 Bethune-Cookman 16, Alabama St. 10 Campbell 38, NC Central 31 ETSU 14, Chattanooga 3 FAU 66, Texas Southern 10 Florida St. 38, Virginia 7 Gardner-Webb 12, Charleston Southern 10 Georgia 38, Vanderbilt 14 Georgia Southern 31, Coastal Carolina 24 Georgia St. 42, Old Dominion 10 Grambling St. 63, Alcorn St. 59 Holy Cross 41, William & Mary 14 Howard 27, Hampton 13 Jackson St. 31, Alabama A&M 28 James Madison 45, Marshall 17 Kentucky 35, South Carolina 34, OT LSU 63, McNeese St. 14 Louisiana Tech 31, Army 29 Louisiana-Lafayette 23, Arkansas St. 20 MVSU 28, Prairie View 27 Marist 28, Stetson 14 Memphis 59, Charlotte 8 Mercer 54, VMI 3 Miami 41, Clemson 13 NC State 31, Louisville 28 North Alabama 20, E. Kentucky 16 Notre Dame 37, North Carolina 26 Presbyterian 55, St. Thomas (Minn.) 21 South Alabama 52, Louisiana-Monroe 35 Temple 17, South Florida 13 Tennessee 24, Auburn 14 The Citadel 34, SC State 31 UAB 33, Samford 14 Valparaiso 37, Morehead St. 3 W. Carolina 44, Tennessee Tech 20 Wake Forest 57, Stanford 3 Wofford 32, Furman 25

MIDWEST

Bowling Green 24, Miami (Ohio) 20 Cent. Michigan 41, Akron 17 Drake 30, Dayton 22 Iowa St. 45, West Virginia 42 Kansas 55, Middle Tennessee 0 Minnesota 20, Michigan 14 Missouri 45, Florida 17 N. Dakota St. 28, Wyoming 0 Nebraska 48, Maryland 23 North Dakota 55, Murray St. 28 Ohio 13, Kent St. 10 Ohio St. 31, Iowa 14 Purdue 24, Illinois 17 S. Dakota St. 31, Illinois St. 14 South Dakota 44, Indiana St. 14 Toledo 39, Ball St. 24 W. Illinois 28, Tennessee St. 21 Wisconsin 31, Michigan St. 3 Youngstown St. 28, S. Illinois 16

SOUTHWEST

BYU 17, TCU 10 East Texas A&M 20, UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros 17 Houston 27, UCF 17 Houston Christian 16, Nicholls 2 Lamar 42, Northwestern St. 14 SMU 25, Boston College 16 Stephen F. Austin 28, Incarnate Word 26

Texas A&M 34, Arkansas 7 UTSA 16, Rice 14

FAR WEST

Air Force 14, Navy 9 Boise St. 37, Utah St. 18 Montana 36, N. Colorado 14 New Mexico 61, UTEP 7 Oregon St. 56, Colorado St. 26 San Diego 63, Davidson 14 Southern Cal 25, Washington 21 Texas Tech 29, Colorado 7 UNLV 39, California 31

Tennis WTA China Open Results Saturday

At National Tennis Center Beijing Purse: $9,415,725 Surface: Hardcourt outdoor Results Saturday from China Open at National Tennis Center (seedings in parentheses):

Women’s Singles

Round of 64 Donna Vekic (30), Croatia, def. Zhu Lin, China, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Coco Gauff (3), United States, def. Camila Osorio, Colombia, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2. Elise Mertens (13), Belgium, def. Katie Volynets, United States, 6-0, 4-6, 7-5. Ann Li (21), United States, def. Ashlyn Krueger, United States, 6-4, 6-2. Maria Sakkari (25), Greece, def. Storm Hunter, Australia, 6-2, 6-2. Jelena Ostapenko (24), Latvia, def. Paula Badosa, Spain, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Iga Swiatek (8), Poland, def. Gao Xinyu, China, 6-2, 6-3. Elina Svitolina (6), Ukraine, def. Katerina Siniakova, Czechia, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. Kamilla Rakhimova, Russia, def. Leylah Fernandez (23), Canada, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Zheng Qinwen, China, def. Anna Kalinskaya (15), Russia, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-0, ret. Belinda Bencic (9), Switzerland, def. Anastasia Zakharova, Russia, 6-1, 7-6 (3). Iva Jovic (10), United States, def. Harriet Dart, Britain, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Xinran Sun, China, def. Cristina Bucsa (27), Spain, 6-4, 7-5. Marie Bouzkova (18), Czechia, def. Kimberly Birrell, Australia, 6-4, 6-4. Sonay Kartal, Britain, def. Wang Xinyu (31), China, 6-3, 6-2.

Auto racing NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 Lineup After Saturday qualifying; race Sunday

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas. Lap length: 1.50 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 186.787 mph. 2. (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 186.677. 3. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 186.220. 4. (19) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 186.136. 5. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 186.111. 6. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 185.861. 7. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 185.287. 8. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 185.230. 9. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 185.077. 10. (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 185.027. 11. (7) Daniel Suárez, Chevrolet, 184.862. 12. (60) Ryan Preece, Ford, 184.433. 13. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 184.426. 14. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford, 184.049. 15. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 183.924. 16. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 183.755. 17. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 183.755. 18. (71) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 183.755. 19. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 183.511. 20. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 183.480. 21. (43) Erik Jones, Toyota, 183.187. 22. (35) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 183.125. 23. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 183.113. 24. (41) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 182.599. 25. (97) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 182.519. 26. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chevrolet, 181.971. 27. (34) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 181.849. 28. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 181.720. 29. (10) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 181.372. 30. (38) Zane Smith, Ford, 181.281. 31. (88) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 180.632. 32. (42) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 180.349. 33. (33) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 179.671. 34. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 178.459. 35. (21) Josh Berry, Ford, .000. 36. (4) Noah Gragson, Ford, .000.

Transactions Major League Baseball

American League NEW YORK YANKEES — Activated LHP Ryan Weathers. National League ATLANTA BRAVES — Activated LF Lane Thomas. Activated RHPs AJ Smith-Shawver and JR Ritchie. LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Activated DH Josue De Paula. SAN DIEGO PADRES — Activated RHP Randy Vásquez. Placed RHP Walker Buehler on the paternity list.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 9C

lll

OUTDOORS A mallard takes flight past another on the banks of Capitol Lake in Baton Rouge as the sun sets on May 5, 2024.

Larson, Hamlin aim for title, remember racing legend BY KIRK KERN

The Associated Press

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

DUCK DECISIONS

Take on mallards, pintails leads Tuesday’s LWFC agenda BY JOE MACALUSO Contributing writer

Through Friday, there was little more information on an agenda item for Tuesday’s 9:30 a.m. Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting in Baton Rouge. Offered by commission member Duke Lowrie, the item reads: “Introduction of Notebook Proposal to Limit Harvest of Hen Mallards and Hen Northern Pintails for the 2027-2028 Season.” If “limit” means cutting back on regulations already passed down by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and approved the commission — a limit of two hen mallards and one hen pintail on a daily hunt — then any reduction would limit hunters to taking one hen mallard and no hen pintails. The daily limit is a total of six ducks of which there can be no more than four mallards (only two of which can be hens) and three pintails (only one of which can be a hen.) Other agenda items include: n Recognizing the 22 new enforcement division agents who graduated from the agency’s 38th cadet academy; n And, a demonstration of a new electronic trip ticket, and to consider a notice to modify trip ticket reporting by commercial fishing interests. The meeting has live audio/video access via Zoom.

NASCAR Cup leaders reﬂect on loss of Busch

is open to applications. It’s a joint project between the Louisiana Wildlife Federation and state Wildlife and Fisheries. A panel will select one boy and one girl “who best represented the joy, thrill and camaraderie of hunting.” The young hunters must be Louisiana residents 15 and younger at the time of the hunt, and the hunt must have taken place during 2026. The application deadline is Jan. 31. Rules are listed on the Wildlife Federation’s website. Winners will honored in April during the federation’s 61st annual Conservation Achievement Awards banquet.

For hunters

While fishing conservaton and fishing-related groups have praised Donald Trump’s recent executive order that eases regulations on outdoorsmen, the order contains several initiatives for hunters, notably access to public lands. Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops and an avid conservationist, was one of the first to comment on the hunting provisions. “These actions are about expanding access opportunities and conservation, ensuring Americans have a place to hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors while strengthening fish and wildlife habitats that make those experiences possible,” Morris said. Topping the list of provisions was expanding “hunting on federally managed lands including improving Youth hunters access to difficult-to-reach This year’s Youth Hunter public lands and waters.” Others included: of the Year Award contest

n Supporting healthy populations of game species and restoring wildlife habitats through stronger partnerships with state wildlife agencies; n Improving hunter recruitment and retention by expanding opportunities for youths and veterans; n Protecting the use of ammunition and tackle with science and federal law; n And, encouraging expanded Sunday hunting opportunities and wild-game donation programs. Yes, there are states that ban Sunday hunting. Organizations pushing for the changes included the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl.

A council move Federal fisheries managers have published a final rule under Amendment 62 to increase red grouper catch limits and modify management measures. According to the Gulf Council the new rule includes: n Increases the Gulf red grouper annual catch limits for the commercial and recreational sectors and set commercial quota and recreational annual catch target with increases each year through 2028 and remain at those levels in succeeding years; n Removes the Feb. 1-March 1 recreational seasonal closure for shallow-water grouper species in federal waters (to the 20-fathom boundary) for red, gag, yellowmouth, grouper and yellowﬁn groupers and scamp.

LAS VEGAS — NASCAR Cup Series leaders Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are focused primarily on maximizing their performances in an effort to win the season championship. At the same time, they and other drivers competing Sunday in Las Vegas took time to reflect on the loss of Las Vegas native Kyle Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion who died May 21 from sepsis following severe bacterial pneumonia. “This is a place I know the Busch brothers, especially, took a lot of pride in running and wanting to run well, as it’s their hometown,” Hamlin said. “I like all the tributes, because in our society we tend to move on to the next thing so easily and it’s easy to forget. When you have these tributes that keep going on throughout the year, it’s a really good reminder to put things in perspective and keep remembering someone who was so big and influential in our sport.” Track organizers scheduled multiple celebrations of Busch’s life leading into the race. Fans and drivers will observe a “Moment of Rowdy” on Lap 8 and the Friday night race at nearby short track was renamed the Kyle Busch Classic. Brother Kurt Busch, also a Cup champion, will lead the field as the pace car driver for Sunday’s race. Larson attended the inaugural Kyle Busch Classic and will run a throwback paint scheme honoring Busch’s early career at Hendrick Motorsports. Driver Carson Hocevar said the Busch celebration means more in Las Vegas than at the other tracks on the circuit. “A lot of his fans — probably most of his fans — are here,” Hocevar said. “So it’s very important. Anybody’s home track is going to be their most special place.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO

Daniel Suarez, left, and Brad Keselowski head down the front straightaway during a NASCAR Cup Series race last Sunday in Kansas City, Kan. ä South Point 400. 4:30 P.M. SUNDAy, USA

Teammate reacts to Keselowski news Chris Buescher, teammate to Brad Keselowski at RFK Racing, said he learned of Keselowski’s impending departure during an internal team meeting before the news broke on social media. “I’ve built a great friendship with Brad as a teammate, boss and mentor,” said Buescher, who enters the weekend 15th in the Cup Series standings. “I want what’s best for him going forward, whatever that looks like.” Despite the timing of the announcement regarding Keselowski’s transition from the organization he co-owns, Buescher expects him to remain behind the wheel.

New father

Daniel Suárez and wife Julia welcomed their first child, Otto Suárez Piquet, on Sept. 22. Julia is the daughter of three-time Formula One World Champion Nelson Piquet. Suárez said he has been most amazed by his newborn son’s feeding schedule. “He’s eating every two hours,” said Suárez, who enters Sunday’s race ranked 16th in points. “Julia’s breastfeeding, so it’s a lot of work. You spend 45 minutes feeding him and 15 minutes burping him, Hamlin, Larson’s success and then he falls asleep for 30 minutes beHamlin has the record for most complet- fore it’s time to eat again.” ed laps (7,696) in his 29 races at LVMS. He also is tied for most lead lap finishes with 25 Odds and Ends and is the oldest driver to win a race here Larson (+350) enters as the betting fa(March 15, 2026 at age 45 years, 3 month, 25 vorite to win the South Point 400, followed days) and is the last driver to win the race by Hamlin (+400) and Christopher Bell from the pole position (Oct. 12, 2025). (+500). A non-playoff driver has never won Larson has led the most laps (881) in his 20 a Cup Series Playoff race at Las Vegas Moraces here and has the highest average start- tor Speedway, where five of the last seven winners have started from the front row. ing position (7.2) and average finish (8.9)

Erie Roofing Since 1976

CALENDAR TUESDAY

LA. WILDLIFE & FISHERIES COMMISSION MEETING: 9:30 a.m., Joe Herring Room, state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, Quail Drive, Baton Rouge. LA. OUTDOORS FOREVER TECHNICAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING: 2 p.m., state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters, 2000 Quail Dr., Baton Rouge. LA. CPRA BIRDFOOT DELTA HYDROLOGIC RESTORATION MEETING: 4-6 p.m., New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club, 235 Cypress Cove Rd., Venice to gather public comment from recreational anglers on project in the Birdfoot Delta area of the Mississippi River.

THURSDAY

JUNIOR SOUTHWEST BASSMASTERS MEETING: 7 p.m., Seminar Room, Bass Pro Shops, Denham Springs. Boys & girls age-group bass tournaments for ages 7-10, 11-14 & 15-18 anglers for Oct. 17-18 Toledo Bend event. Call Jim Breaux (225) 772-3026.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

BASSMASTER COLLEGE CLASSIC CUP: Wilson Lake, Florence, Alabama. Website: bassmaster.com

SATURDAY

BUCKS & DOES DEER HUNTING 101: 9 a.m.-noon, Wildlife & Fisheries ofﬁce, 368 Century Link Drive, Monroe. Hunting regulations, equipment, deer behavior, scouting, shot placement, game recovery & basic ﬁeld dressing. Preregistration suggested: wlf.la.gov. Email: huntereducation@wlf. la.gov

HUNTING SEASONS

DEER/PRIMITIVE FIREARMS: Oct. 10-16, State Deer Area 3, 7, 8 & 10. DOVES: North Zone: Oct. 10-Nov. 15. South Zone: Oct. 17-Nov. 29. BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS: Thru Oct. 11, statewide, special permit required. DEER/ARCHERY: Thru Oct. 15, State Deer Areas 5, 6 & 9, bucks only; Oct. 16-Feb. 15, State Deer Areas 5, 6 & 9; thru Jan. 31, State Deer Areas 1, 2, 4 either-sex take allowed; Thru Jan. 15, State Deer Areas 3, 7, 8 & 10. RABBITS/SQUIRRELS: Thru Feb. 28, statewide, private lands only & selected wildlife management areas.

AROUND THE CORNER

OCT. 12 — RED STICK FLY FISHERS PROGRAM: 7 p.m., Bluebonnet Regional Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd, Baton Rouge. Open to the public. Email Brian Roberts: roberts. brian84@gmail.com. Website: rsff.org OCT. 14 — GULF COUNCIL LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Hilton Sandestin, Miramar Beach, Florida. OCT. 14 — BUGS & BEERS: 6:30 p.m., Skeeta Hawk Brewing, 455 N. Dorgenois St, New Orleans. Casual fly tying. Open to public. Email A.J. Rosenbohm: ajrosenbohm@ gmail.com. Website: neworleansflyfishers.com OCT. 14 — DELTA WATERFOWL BATON ROUGE BANQUET: 5:30 p.m., L’Auberge Casino & Hotel. Live/silent auctions & raffles. Tables available. Website: deltawaterfowl.org/ events

OCT. 15 — CCA BATON ROUGE CHAPTER/S.T.A.R. BANQUET: 5:30 p.m., Live Oak at Cedar Lodge, Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge. Awards to winners of summer-long Statewide Tournament and Anglers Rodeo. Website: ccalouisiana.com

FISHING/SHRIMPING

SHRIMP: Fall inshore season open statewide; all outside waters open. OPEN RECREATIONAL SEASONS: Greater amberjack (through Oct. 14); gray triggerfish; flounder; lane, blackfin, queen & silk snappers & wenchmen among other snapper species; all groupers except closed for goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters. CLOSED SEASONS: Private recreational, state & federal charters red snapper; commercial greater amberjack; bluefin tuna; gag, goliath & Nassau groupers in state/federal waters.

LDWF UPDATES

n CLOSED: Portion of Dobbs

Bay Road (Richard Yancey WMA, water control structure construction); Hope Canal Road/boat launch (Maurepas Swamp WMA, levee construction); Reserve Relief Canal Boat Launch by order of Corps of Engineers (Reserve Relief Pump Station construction) with alternate launch locations at Pete’s Landing, the Akers boat ramp & Bonnet Carré Spillway boat launch. n DRAWDOWNS: Saline Lake & Iatt Lake; Henderson Lake (through Nov. 2); Cheniere Lake (through Nov. 15); Clear-Smithport Lake (through Nov. 16); Lake Bistineau (through Nov. 30); Chicot Lake & Grand Bayou Reservoir (through Jan. 4); Vernon Lake (through Jan. 5).

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10C ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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MLB ROUNDUP

Rays pitcher Rasmussen loses no-hit bid in 8th Tampa Bay shuts out yankees in ALDS opener The Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Drew Rasmussen didn’t allow a hit until two outs in the eighth inning, Jonathan Aranda homered off Gerrit Cole and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 1-0 in their AL Division Series on Saturday night. Rasmussen retired 15 consecutive batters before Austin Wells doubled with two outs in the eighth inning, ripping a liner just inside the right-field foul line on an inside sinker. He was easily thrown out on shortstop Taylor Walls’ relay to third baseman Junior Caminero of right fielder Victor Mesa’s throw. Wells ran through the stop sign of third base coach Luis Rojas, who raised both arms before Wells rounded second. Rasmussen dominated a lineup that scored 18 runs in a two-game Wild Card Series sweep of Boston and was still missing three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge, sidelined since Sept. 16 by a calf injury. A 31-year-old righty, Rasmussen struck out 10 and walked two in eight innings. He threw 69 of 101 pitches for strikes, getting 23 swings and misses. Bryan Baker pitched a perfect ninth for the save, finishing the one-hitter. He struck out pinchhitter Giancarlo Stanton, in his first plate appearance since April 24 after recovering from calf injuries, froze Ben Rice with a changeup for a called third strike and retired Cody Bellinger on a grounder to secure Tampa Bay’s first postseason win since losing the 2020 World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baker converted 41 of 44 saves in the regular season, including his

last 30. Aranda drove a Cole’s 2-2 changeup several rows deep into the right-center field stands for his first career postseason hit. In his first postseason game since Tommy John surgery in March 2025, Cole allowed one run and five hits, striking out five in five innings. Rasmussen was 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA for the Rays and made the AllStar team for the second straight season. He twice had surgery for a torn ligament in his elbow in college and needed an internal brace procedure in July 2023 that forced him to miss more than a year. His 10 strikeouts tied Tyler Glasnow’s franchise record for the most in a postseason game. DODGERS 5, BRAVES 3: In Los Angeles, Tarik Skubal tossed six dominant innings in triple-digit heat, Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy homered, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of their NL Division Series on Saturday. Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, allowed one run and two hits, struck out seven and walked two while starting a postseason game at home for the first time in his career. His previous playoff starts were all on the road for the Detroit Tigers, who traded him to the two-time defending World Series champions just before the Aug. 3 deadline. Skubal’s 63 strikeouts are the second-most in a pitcher’s first seven postseason appearances behind Bob Gibson’s 74. Hernández and Tucker each hit a two-run homer against the Braves’ bullpen. Atlanta’s rotation got upended during its three-game NL Wild Card Series win over Philadelphia, with the Braves using ace Chris Sale in relief in the deciding game. The Braves managed just four hits. Sean Murphy’s two-strike,

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CHRIS O’MEARA

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen pitches against the New york yankees during Game 1 of an American League Division Series on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Fla. 421-foot homer leading off the sixth left them trailing 2-1. Ronald Acuña singled leading off the ninth against reliever Tanner Scott, who then served up a 432foot homer to Ozzie Albies, cutting the lead to 5-3. Scott then got two outs before Evan Phillips induced a groundout by Austin Riley with a runner aboard to earn the save. Braves starter Dylan Dodd tossed three scoreless innings and gave up only singles to Shohei Ohtani in the ﬁrst and Mookie Betts in the third. The Dodgers broke through against Atlanta’s bullpen in the fourth. Losing pitcher Victor

Mederos walked Freddie Freeman before serving up Hernández’s 431-foot shot to left-center, making it 2-0. Still bothered by nagging arm and knee issues, Ohtani batted second behind Betts and lined to second with a runner on to end the third and flied out with a runner on in the fifth. Tucker went deep in the sixth and Muncy added a solo shot off AJ Smith-Shawver two batters later, extending the lead to 5-1. WHITE SOX 3, GUARDIANS 0: In Cleveland, Munetaka Murakami hit a two-run homer, five Chicago pitchers combined for a three-hitter and

underneath along with his usual whistle helmet because “it was red Continued from page 1C carpet, baby!” He thought about the ray of sunshine coming into the Dome, and he saw the banner drop to let him overwhelming,” Mitchell said. know that the city was moving back “It just brought tears to my eyes toward something closer to norwith joy inside. I knew deep down mal, and he was overwhelmed by inside of my heart this was somethe sense of community he felt. He thing so special that I would not cried as he made his way to his seat ever forget it. I knew I was going in Section 111, and he cried when to remember where I was, regardhe saw the stadium attendants that less of where I was in my life or feel like family members. And then how I felt at that time.” he got really, really loud. The New Orleans Saints will play “I felt a sense of community, and the Atlanta Falcons on Monday it was just all of us in there, and night, an homage to the original people were just hugging and so “Domecoming” game featuring happy to see each other,” Mitchell the same rival clubs that played said. “But when the blocked punt 20 years ago last week. The game, happened, I knew deep down inand what transpired in it, represide there was nobody — I don’t sents arguably the most iconic mocare who it was in the history of ment in franchise history. NFL football, you could put the Domecoming isn’t just Saints best of the best teams on the other lore. It is one of those moments in sideline and we were going to kick space and time that still resides PROVIDED PHOTO By LEROy MITCHELL their ass. There was no way in hell under their skin. It is fresh and Leroy Mitchell, who attends New we were losing that game.” visceral after all these years. Go back and watch the broadcast They can still see the banner Orleans Saints games under his of that game near the 13-minute drop and feel the goosebumps on ‘Whistle Monsta’ persona, wore a their arms. tuxedo to the Saints’ game against mark of the fourth quarter. There in the front row is a young girl They can still smell the new the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 25, wearing a giant whistle helmet on paint and feel the dust in the bathher head. Mitchell gets emotional room from the freshly installed 2006. thinking about this, too. This was sheetrock. “It smelled like paint, like a new about his neighborhood, he saw his daughter, Monty, who was 11 build,” said Shannon Ockman, the an image of water obscuring most years old on the day of that game. He has thought about fatherpresident of the Touchdown Club of of Parkway Bakery’s front door. New Orleans. “We were all familiar He lost most of his possessions hood and the things he is passing with those smells because we were in the storm, but not all. When an on to Monty. He has thought about all rebuilding in some capacity. upstairs neighbor saw water com- legacy. And when he thinks about “... You knew when you were ing into Mitchell’s home, he went that, he recalls the time Monty was walking in that people had suf- inside to grab some of Mitchell’s caught on camera watching history through a giant helmet. fered there, greatly. You were belongings. “Man, she grew up on the front wondering how it was going to feel One of the things that neighbor when you walked in. But it just re- gathered was the whistle. It was rail of the Superdome watching minded you — at home, I’m suffer- partially submerged in the flood. the game with her dad,” Mitchell ing. My house is gutted, my house Mitchell eventually got it back and said. “Then later on, she ended up is freshly painted, I got a new roof, gifted it to his daughter. The water buying her own seat next to me on that front rail.” I’ve got building supplies all over line is still visible. my back porch right now. We’re all He remembers watching the in this together, you know?” Saints that year from Florida, and SHANNON OCKMAN • Touchdown Here are their recollections he still gets emotional thinking Club of New Orleans president from that day, and the meaning about how those games made him, they took away from it. for at least a few hours, feel conOckman’s first game as a seasonnected to all the other displaced ticket holder — Section 138, row 6 LEROY MITCHELL • ‘Whistle Monsta’ New Orleanians during an other- — was the Domecoming game, but wise trying time. Saints Sundays had been a part of “We already knew before Ka- her life for a long time. She was Mitchell’s game-day uniform has changed over the years, but it al- trina how the fans felt about this born and raised in New Orleans ways has included a football helmet city and the team, the relation- and describes herself as someone that he has fashioned into a large ship that they have, and that just who had to be “rolled down the whistle. For a fanbase that is known solidified it for me when I was ramps in the Dome” in a stroller for its members treating game day displaced,” Mitchell said. “When during the 70s. Going into that night, she knew it like Mardi Gras, Mitchell is one of the game came on, there was a calmness, and I felt other fans in was going to be different. its most recognizable figures. “It was like a high school reHe fashions a new whistle for other states. I felt like we were all every year, including one he built pulling that rope in tug of war in union where we were all getting for the 2005 season. But when the same direction. Even though, back home,” Ockman said. “You he packed up and evacuated to when it wasn’t a game, it felt like just knew that night was going Florida days before the storm ar- we were pulling in different direc- to be bigger than whatever football game was going to be played. rived, the whistle was not one of tions.” All of which made the return to We’re going to get our voices back the things he took with him. When he got into his car to drive east, the the Superdome so meaningful to after listening to months of politiwhistle was back in his home, rest- Mitchell. He knew it was special cal debate about, ‘Should NOLA in the moment — so special that he rebuild? Were we worth it?’ Everying on top of a table. Mitchell knew he was in trouble altered his usual get up and wore body was tired of hearing it, and when, searching for information a tuxedo with a Superman shirt we were going to say, ‘Yeah, we are

worth it.’ “It makes me emotional thinking about it. It was exciting, it was electric, you’re surrounded by all your people again — people that are all going through the same things that you’re going through. “Steve blocked that punt, and you knew that it was going to be a core memory being made in real time. You just knew, right there in that moment. The most beautiful moments in our lives, you don’t plan on, they just happen. You remember them so vividly. I’m never going to forget exactly how I felt in that moment, because you knew it was never going to happen again. “That’s the memory I have from that night, everybody’s got tears in their eyes. You ﬁrst got there and everybody’s asking, ‘How’d you make out? How’s your mom’n’them?’ People you hadn’t seen in a long, long time. And then after that punt, everybody’s got tears in their eyes and we’re hugging and high-ﬁving. It was like a home town just wrapped inside a big city. Everybody’s connected in that moment. I just feel I was very blessed to be there. For me, it reminded me of why I wanted to come back home and rebuild. It put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence. I literally have tears in my eyes just thinking about it.”

SAINTS

HARRY CONNICK JR. • Musician “I was at that game. It is one of my favorite memories of all time. I remember that play. I remember the feeling I got, which was so past football. We all shared that sentiment. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that the Saints were the reason that New Orleans started to rebuild. That game in particular was the turning point for New Orleans. The Saints buoyed us through that time.”

FRANK BRIGTSEN • Restauranteur “There was so much uncertainty around our recovery at the time. We desperately needed something. We didn’t know what it was. But when that play happened, we knew that was it. It left us all tingling with excitement and hope and conﬁdence that if that can happen, anything can happen. It was a pivotal moment in New Orleans history. We all felt it. We still feel it. We revere Steve Gleason for giving us that moment.”

HELENA MORENO • Former WDSU anchor, current New Orleans mayor “Twenty years later, I can still remember the feeling of that day. I was working the morning show as an anchor, and from the earliest hours, people were already ﬁlling the streets in their Saints

the White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday. Colson Montgomery added an RBI double for the White Sox, who have won nine of their last 11 games dating back to the regular season. Chicago advanced to the division series after sweeping Houston in the wild card series. Cleveland — which won its third straight AL Central title by one game over the White Sox — had the bases loaded with two outs the third and fourth innings, but couldn’t get any runs across. The White Sox went with a bullpen game for the second time in three postseason contests. It worked again as the pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts. Bryan Hudson (1-0) got the win and Grant Taylor got the save, going four innings and striking out six while allowing two hits. Starter Hagen Smith retired the first eight Cleveland hitters before walking Brayan Rocchio, Steven Kwan and José Ramírez to load the bases with two outs in the third. Bryan Hudson came in and got Chase DeLauter to line out to left. The Guardians didn’t get their first hit until Travis Bazzana’s linedrive double down the right-field line with two outs in the fourth. Austin Hedges drew a walk to load the bases again before Rocchio lined out to right. After Miguel Vargas lined a base hit to left to lead off the fourth, Murakami drove a first-pitch elevated sinker 440 feet into the right-field stands for his first postseason home run. Montgomery extended the advantage to 3-0 in the seventh with a double down the left-field line to drive in Kyle Teel. Cleveland starter Parker Messick (0-1) allowed two runs on four hits in 4 1/ 3 innings. The rookie lefthander struck out six and walked two.

gear. I did live shots outside the Superdome, and you could feel that this was about so much more than football. After everything our city had endured, Domecoming was a powerful sign that New Orleans was coming back, that we would rebuild, that our spirit could not be broken and that New Orleans could never be destroyed. I wasn’t able to be inside the Dome that night, so I watched the game on television, and I remember the happy tears. When Steve Gleason blocked that punt and the Dome erupted, it felt like an entire city was releasing everything we had carried since Katrina. Twenty years later, that night still represents the resilience, determination and unbreakable spirit of the people of New Orleans.”

DEANNA GAUTREAUX • Saints season-ticket holder Gautreaux will be there this Monday, her 60th season as a Saints season-ticket holder. She and her husband bought season tickets as recent high school graduates for the inaugural season along with 14 other friends. For that Domecoming game, only 12 of that group remained. When the 77-year-old Gautreaux attends Monday’s game, she will do so as the last surviving member of that friend group. The things that linger with her for 20 years are the noise, both outside and inside the Superdome, and the way her hands hurt from clapping so hard. But it was also the togetherness of the moment. “When you went in, it was just unbelievable,” Gautreaux said. “You got to see all your old friends, the people you sit around, because that’s what makes the game — the people that you sit around, that you’re friends with, that you see every week. “It was just unbelievably loud, and it was just a good feeling all over to be with the people that you know. And to go through that again after waiting and waiting and waiting, that night, I don’t think anybody sat down. We just stood up the whole time.” Those memories have become more dear as her friends and family have passed away. Her husband died last year on Christmas Day. When she goes to the games now, she thinks to herself, “Oh, I’m doing it for y’all.” “The last three or four years have been kind of bad, but I’m still hanging on like everybody else,” she said. “You know, it’s just something that you can’t — you want to be part of that number. You want to be there. You have to be there.” Staff writers Rod Walker, Keith Spera and Ian McNulty contributed to this report

LOUISIANA INSPIRED: Robin Barnes’ new TV docuseries explores Louisiana culture 5D D

LIVING

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

S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 4, 2026

1dn

Jan Risher

On the freedom of being unnoticed When I told a friend that I have come to believe I could be a great spy, she said, “You’d have to change your glasses.” Maybe so. But I still believe that at this point in life I could be a good spy — maybe not great. But good. Here’s why: When I’m out and about on my own, no one is paying much attention to me. I know this because I have proof. This spring, I walked into a tiny bar in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I knew The Black Keys were performing and that the show was sold out, but I thought I was just walking into the bar. When I opened the door, the sound did one of those Doppler effects, almost like I was walking into another dimension. The ticket person and I nodded at each other. I took three steps and there they were: The Black Keys, playing their hearts out on a stage the size of my dining room table. What’s a girl to do? I knew I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, but I leaned against the wall and started watching. The Black Keys. In Red’s Blues Club. In Clarksdale. I was overwhelmed with the Delta-ness of it all. The moment had the air of magic, and I couldn’t force myself to walk out. Two minutes later, a friend of mine walked in through the same door as I had. She walked over and stood beside me. Worth noting that she is a stunning brunette. She looked like she had just stepped out of a magazine. I looked more like I had just stepped out of my car — after a long trip. The ticket person noticed. Then, apparently, she noticed me, too. We were asked to leave. Let me acknowledge that leaving was the right thing to do from the get-go, and my mother would likely say I should be ashamed of myself for not leaving the moment I realized I was somewhere I didn’t have the privilege of being. But I was transﬁxed and knew that the moment was so full it couldn’t last long. I was right. But being outside wasn’t bad either. My friends were there, and the mood was right. That night — and so many other moments over the years — made me reconsider something I had believed for a long time: that people were paying attention to me. Turns out, I was wrong.

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

The Painted Posse, whose painted jerseys spell out ‘Beat The Aggies!’ sings to ‘Callin’ Baton Rouge’ as LSU warms up for the game against Texas A&M on Sept. 26 in Tiger Stadium.

The Bigger picture

A Tiger Stadium tradition, the Painted Posse combines faith and fandom on LSU game day BY ROBIN MILLER

Staff writer

onathan Skipper holds out his arms on either side. “Gentlemen, start your engines!” he yells to the 13man posse backing him in the arched entrance of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at LSU. That’s the posse’s signal to start its walk to Dalrymple Drive for the procession to Tiger Stadium, where, on this Saturday night, Sept. 26, the Tigers will take on Texas A&M. Make that the Painted Posse, the group’s official name. Their presence has become an LSU game day tradition in person and on television. The group sits in a row fronting the student section with purple and gold “jerseys” painted on their shirtless chests, backs and arms. Hence the “Painted” part of their name. Instead of numbers, their “jerseys” bear letters on the front and back, which, when standing or sitting in order, spell out messages, which aren’t revealed until the posse reaches Victory Hill. “When we get there, we’ll line up in order and walk down the hill,” Skipper said. “The message on the front is always something about the game.”

STAFF PHOTO By ROBIN MILLER

Mallory Richard, a junior from New Iberia majoring in international finance, paints a gold jersey on a Painted Posse member at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at LSU on Sept. 26.

But the back message is always mission of the Baptist Collegiate an expression of Christian faith, as Ministry. It has no ofﬁcial memberthe Painted Posse is more than just a ship, no registration as a university bunch of LSU students united in Ti- organization. The mission simply has grown ger fandom. They’re Christians, and organically at the ministry, plantthis is how they share their faith. ing the seed in football season and A grassroots mission gradually blossoming into other It’s been that way since 2003, ä See POSSE, page 7D when the posse became a grassroots

ä See SPY, page 7D

GRAB YOU A CUP OF AMBITION

Before death, Dolly Parton partnered with Community Coffee Dolly Parton and her Cup of Ambition Community Coffee brings together Parton’s love of coffee and her unmistakable spirit in a coffee line she helped create. PROVIDED PHOTO

Staff report Dolly Parton’s Cup of Ambition, the late icon’s new coffee line and a dream of hers more than 40 years in the making, is now ofﬁcially available for purchase nationwide. Developed in partnership with family-owned Community Coffee in Louisiana, the collection brings together Parton’s love of coffee and her

unmistakable spirit in a coffee line she helped create. “I thought the Cup of Ambition would be a fantastic name for a coffee brand, and I’ve been working towards this for over 40 years,” Parton said in a news release back in June when she was visiting Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop. “This is just one of those dreams that’s taken a little longer than I thought it might, but we’ve got it and it’s

working. I can’t wait for you to try it. But I couldn’t be more happy with it. Community Coffee has been a fantastic partner for me and I like the way they think.” Following its debut at Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop in June, the coffee line is now available for nationwide shipping on cupofambition.com,

ä See DOLLY, page 7D

2D ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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COMMUNITY

Associated Women in the Arts

Southern University Alumni Federation The Southern University Alumni Federation celebrated its 85th anniversary on Sept. 18 at the Leon R. Tarver II Cultural and Heritage Center. Shown are, from left, Past National Presidents Reginald Joseph, Domoine Rutledge, LaQuitta Thomas and Carlton Jones, and National President Howard L. White Jr.

Southern Alumni Federation celebrates 85 years of service, leadership

U.S. Navy Submarine Veterans The Baton Rouge-area U.S. Navy Submarine Veterans recently held its annual potluck dinner at the Lutheran Church of our Savior. Seated, from left, are Thomas Lacy, William Pedneau, Cmdr. James Stell, Stephen Walmsley, William Powell, John ‘Tiny’ Ruisch and Paul Barker; standing, Gary Surber, James Powell, Joel Tewes, Kenneth Shutt, Robert Biggs, Rodney Fielder, William Hardin, Kevin Vizinat, Daniel Ross, David Voisin, Stuart Dupre and Brian Watson. Also at the dinner were David Reynolds, Andrew Barker and Charles Paradelas.

The Associated Women in the Arts welcomed two new members at a fall luncheon at the Baton Rouge Country Club on Sept. 15. Gathered are, from left, Dee Dee Wilbert, new member; Kathy Daigle, president, and Carol Hackler, new member.

The Southern University Alumni Federation celebrated its 85th anniversary on Sept. 18 at the Leon R. Tarver II Cultural and Heritage Center. The celebration, themed “Honoring the Past. Inspiring the Future. Shining Through Generations,” brought together alumni, university leaders, elected ofﬁcials and supporters to commemorate the federation’s legacy of service and leadership. East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sid Edwards offered greetings in recognition of the federation’s 85th anniversary. U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields delivered an address highlighting the historic milestone and issued a call to action for alumni to give, recruit and advocate in support of Southern University. National President Howard L. White Jr. honored past national presidents and former executive directors for their leadership and contributions to the federation. Executive Director Darrin Dixon recognized new life enhanced diamond members for their continued commitment and support. The celebration reﬂected on the federation’s history since 1941 while honoring the generations of Southernites who have shaped its legacy and those who will carry it forward, according to a news release. PROVIDED PHOTOS

Rotary Club Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, the fifth-largest Rotary Club in the world, installed officers for 2026. They are, from left, Kent Landacre, treasurer; Perry Franklin; Nancy Ellis; Robert Diagrepont, secretary; Mary Erlingson, vice president; Michael Tipton, president-elect; Susan East Nelson, president; Todd Schexnayder, immediate past president; Darrell Papillion; Michelle Hardy; Robert Douglas; Virginia Graham, and Rhaoul Guillaume.

Newcomer/Encore Club of Baton Rouge The Newcomer/Encore Club of Baton Rouge celebrated the fall season at its annual style show luncheon at Mike Anderson’s Restaurant on Sept. 10. Members of the club modeled the fall collection from J.Jill with Shannon Fowler, manager of J.Jill, narrating the program. Shown are, top row, from left, Anita Flynn, Erin Camden, Phyllis Immethum, Julia Rambin and Sandy Brechtel; botton row, Charlotte Brent, Mary Jane Clark, Maria Lambert, Susan Ferguson and Laura Rozas.

Garden Discovery Series

GLAD Red Hatters The GLAD Red Hatters met at Albasha’s Greek and Lebanese Restaurant for lunch on Sept. 15. Gathered are, from left, seated, Linda Henning, Linda Crane and Stuart Greer; standing, Gilda McDowell, Carol LaRouche, Debbie Harris, Liz Walker and Gerri Cornett.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

in the upcoming Sunday column. Because of space limitations, organizations that meet monthly or more are The Community column runs Sundays in the Living section and accepts submissions for news of events that have taken limited to one photo per month. If submitting digitally, we place with civic, philanthropic, social and religious auxiliary prefer JPG files 300KB or larger. If taking a photo of a group, have them stand or sit shoulder-to-shoulder. If more than six organizations, as well as academic honors. Submissions should be sent by noon Monday to run people are in the photo, arrange them on multiple, distinct

225-400-8040 & 225-938-0748 info@weknowblinds.com customblindsbr.com

Speaker Bob Dillemuth, left, and board member Anita Smith are shown prior to the Sept. 12 Garden Discoveries Event at the Main Library on Goodwood.

rows. Avoid strong background light sources. Identify those pictured by first and last names as viewed from left to right, row by row. We prefer emailed Community column submissions to features@theadvocate.com. We also accept submissions by mail at P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge LA 70821. A phone number must be included.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 3D

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TRAVEL

As the weather cools, head to the outdoors Check out five places to enjoy camping season

trails, mountain biking trails, a full-service marina and more. Try a sunset cruise, snorkeling trip, guided hike or birding tour. In the winter, guests can participate in eagle watch tours on DeGray Lake.

BY ELIZABETH DEAL Staff writer

Lake Ouachita State Park

People are almost always surprised to find out that I enjoy tent camping. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I tried it and immediately learned that I love nothing more than being off in the woods, next to a campfire, near water whenever possible. We have camped in state parks, national forests and privately owned locations. We usually hike one or two trails and kayak, canoe or swim in a river or lake during the spring and summer. Some campgrounds offer mountain biking and horseback riding too. I prefer camping when it’s warm. He likes it cold. So October is the perfect month to camp for us both. We mainly do car camping, where campsites are numbered — each with a place to park, a flat-ish area for setting up a tent, a picnic table, a fire ring and sometimes a park-style barbecue pit. We don’t sleep in our car, though you can. There’s also primitive camping where there is no access to potable water, electricity, restrooms or showers, and some people find their own sites by carrying gear and backpacking into a natural area. RV camping, on the other hand, has electric and sewer hookups. Glamping, a totally different style, is becoming more widely available, with yurts, teepees and other interesting styles that require no setup. There’s an actual bed and sometimes heat and air conditioning available. Most campgrounds have a pit toilet, if not a flush one. But the fact that there’s no air conditioning or heat, and there may or may not be cell service, a restroom or a shower, doesn’t faze me. It’s all part of the off-the-grid fun. My husband, who also camps in Missouri at least twice a year with his friends, owns all the gear we need: a tent, a camp stove, cooking

5451 Mountain Pine Road, Mountain Pine, Arkansas Lake Ouachita State Park features 93 campsites, eight fully equipped cabins with kitchens and four camper cabins. Visitors can enjoy the lake, which includes 40,000 acres of water, along with swimming, scuba diving, boating, kayaking and fishing. Interpretive programs, like guided hikes, eagle cruises and kayak tours, and offered year round. The Caddo Bend Trail and Dogwood Trail are available.

Lake Catherine State Park Primitive car-camping at Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. and eating utensils, a water filter, warm sleeping bags, sleeping mats, headlamps, flashlights, lighters, coolers, tarps, ropes, a canopy and string lights. And we always pack water jugs, ice, coolers, bug spray, sunscreen, water shoes, hats, towels, blankets, pillows, rain gear, trash bags, paper towels, toilet paper and a first aid kit. My preference is staying in a large tent where I can stand up, over the one-person very-small tent we started out in. I always want to look at the moon and stars through the screen ceiling of the tent, but I’m outvoted. My husband puts the rain-fly cover on the tent because, well, you just never know. It’s rained in the middle of the night more times than I can count. And he says it keeps the tent warmer for sleeping. Unless there’s a fire ban, you’ll want to bring fire starter and purchase wood at the camp store or a convenience store near the campsite. Typically you can’t bring firewood into or out of a campsite to prevent the spread of invasive in-

sects and plant diseases. Planning ahead is key when it comes to food, especially if you’re out of reach of a grocery or restaurant. We use a camp stove for cooking (or just warming up) simple meals; some people bring small barbecue pits. You could also warm up a pre-prepared one-pot meal in a skillet over the fire if you’re careful. Tent camping is inexpensive, usually around $10 to $50 a night, and making a reservation is recommended. Of course, when tent camping, people are subject to the actions of their neighbors. It’s not uncommon to hear a party with laughter and loud music on the weekends. On a perfect night, all I can hear are sounds of crickets, the fire and the lapping water nearby. Here are five places I recommend to enjoy camping.

Caney Lakes Recreation Area, Kisatchie National Forest 3288 U.S. 79, Homer, Louisiana Beaver Dam campground on

STAFF PHOTO By ELIZABETH DEAL

1200 Catherine Park Road, Hot Springs, Arkansas Lake Catherine is one of five lakes in the Ouachita Mountain region. The state park offers 20 cabins, 70 campsites, six primitive tent sites, one yurt, picnic sites, playgrounds, hikes, lake tours and more. A women’s outdoor weekend is scheduled for Oct. 9-11, when participants will connect with nature and join in on activities for all experience levels. Admission is $125. Call (501) 844-4176 for more information.

the shores of Upper Caney Lake has waterfront, wooded, and open sites and full water/sewer/electric hookup sites, with a fishing pier and rentals for canoes, kayaks, and paddle boats. You can hike or bike the Sugar Cane National Recreation Trail which was named for the crop that was once cultivated here in addition to cotton. There is a swim beach which Lucky’s Caddo River Canoe opens the Friday before Memorial Sweetgum Lane, Glenwood, ArDay weekend and closes the Tues- kansas Are you up for a float down the day after Labor Day. river? Lucky’s Caddo River Canoe DeGray Lake State Park offers float trips with tubes, caState Park Entrance Road, Bis- noes, kayaks and rafts, along with fishing and camping. Three cabmarck, Arkansas DeGray Lake State Park, near ins, tent camping and RV sites are Hot Springs and Little Rock, has available for guests. over 100 campsites ranging from Rules of the river include: fastenwalk-in tent sites, Class AAA sites ing cooler lids, attaching and using with full hookups and three yurts a mesh litter bag, using a floating to rent. holder for beverages and leaving The park features an 18-hole all glass containers at home. golf course with a driving range and practice green, an 18-hole disc Email Elizabeth Deal at golf course, two beaches, basket- elizabeth.deal@theadvocate. ball and tennis courts, five hiking com.

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER By Christopher Elliott

Customer billed an extra $670 on prepaid overseas trip I paid in full for an Overseas Adventure Travel trip to Spain and Portugal almost a year in advance. I did this specifically to take advantage of the Good Buy program, which OAT advertises as a way to “secure your trip’s price and protect yourself from cost increases.” A few months later, Air France canceled our original flight. OAT rebooked us on Delta, but then it mailed me an invoice for an additional Christopher $670 for customized airfare. I called and spoke Elliott with a representative who told me the fee was for a seating upgrade to Delta Comfort+. Since I wanted the extra legroom, I paid it. When we got to the airport, the gate agent told us we were in standard coach.

No Comfort+ seats were ever reserved. When I returned home and asked for a refund, OAT changed its story. First, it said the $670 was an “excess” charge.Then, it admitted its agent gave me “incorrect information” about the seat upgrade, but claimed the $670 was actually to cover the cost of the more expensive Delta flight. I pointed to Section 7 of OAT’s own terms and conditions, which says the company cannot increase airfare costs for Good Buy customers who have paid in full. OAT told me that clause applies to “other things” but not airfare, and that the $670 was simply “correcting an error.” OAT offered me a $670 credit toward a future trip, but after this experience, I don’t trust the company. I want my money back. Does the Good Buy plan actually mean anything, or can OAT charge me whatever it wants? — Michael Hughes, Burnsville, Minn.

Overseas Adventure Travel should have honored its contract with you. When a company offers a price lock as an incentive for customers to hand over thousands of dollars months — or even years — in advance, that agreement isn’t a suggestion. It’s a binding promise. Section 7 of OAT’s agreement says the company reserves the right to increase the trip price due to changes in airfares “unless you pre-paid according to the terms of the Good Buy Plan prior to the cost increase going into effect.” You paid in full 10 months before your departure date. OAT shouldn’t have passed that cost on to you. Beyond the contract, there are

federal protections to consider. The U.S. Department of Transportation is very clear: once a ticket is fully purchased and the transaction is complete, an airline — and by extension, the agent acting on its behalf — is generally prohibited from increasing the price. You did the right thing by keeping a meticulous record of your correspondence. When a company agent tells you a fee is for a seat upgrade, and it turns out to be for a price hike it wasn’t allowed to charge you in the ﬁrst place, “oops” isn’t a valid defense. When you hit a wall like this, you should always appeal the initial rejection to an executive. I list the OAT executive contacts

on my advocacy site, Elliott.org. A polite, ﬁrm email to an executive often works better than a dozen frustrating calls to a frontline agent who is reading from a script. The company conducted a full internal review after I made them aware of your case. A spokesperson for OAT told us that the team processed a refund of the $670 in question. It also apologized to you for the “confusion.” Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonproﬁt organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him on his site.

4D ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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BOOKS

Underground metal bands shine ‘Rough Beast’ highlights N.O. groups

BETWEEN THE PAGES WITH ADRIAN VAN yOUNG

BY RIEN FERTEL Contributing writer

“Rough Beast,” by Adrian Van Young, Black Lawrence Press, 330 pages. Adrian Van Young is one dark dude. Over two short story collections, a novel and a picture book playfully titled “Vampire Pool Party,” the New Orleansand Paris-based writer has taken his goth-horror sensibilities to nightmarish, and often morbidly humorous, extremes. Search out his deliciously macabre story “The Roux,” about a father unable to step away from the stove, whisking, whisking, whisking away until he is consumed by his own gumbo. Van Young’s newest novel, “Rough Beast,” takes readers into the depraved underbelly of New Orleans’s black metal music scene, its beer-soaked bars and opiate-sludged flophouses. It follows Sammy Singerman, bassist for Bethlehem — a group with a sordid history, more than one doomed interband romance and a solidly heavy sound. When its charismatic frontman is murdered, Sammy sets out to solve the mystery and avoid getting swallowed by the scene, in what Van Young calls a “crust punk ‘Great Gatsby.’ ” This interview was edited for length and clarity. Your last several books have been categorized as horror, and though “Rough Beast” has elements of the grotesque, it’s more noir, crime-oriented. Tell me what went into writing a murder mystery. I do consider it a genre shift. I’ve always been a huge crime and noir fiction fan, but it’s always something that I’ve read and admired from afar. It takes a certain kind of insider’s knowledge of that genre to really make it effective. So I guess it was actually a confidence thing. I’m good at writing a descriptive sentence that’s evocative, good at giving people the shivers, but crime fiction has to be several things at once. Noir has to take this misanthropic, pessimistic view of human nature, has to create a web-work plot, keep readers guessing, has to have strong characterization. The language has to be snappy. I read a lot of crime fiction when I was writing “Rough Beast” and gave myself over to it fully. In a city that’s renowned for its music scene, which has an untold number of venues and has had a very strong metal scene for decades, why does it still feel so hidden and underground? It’s huge. New Orleans is known for its heavy music scene, which this book is immersed in. Part of it is underground and part of it’s not. There’s a huge concert coming up at UNO Arena in November called the Great NOLA Trendkill. It’s all the very famous New Orleans metal bands who have the socalled New Orleans sound — this kind of sludgy, bayou, riffy metal, including Pantera, Down, Eyehategod, Crowbar and Corrosion of Conformity. But then there’s another side of the New Orleans scene, which is much more underground. It’s sort of queer, a lot more politically engaged, a lot more gender fluid and a lot more, oddly, partial toward women. There are certainly women in the more mainstream metal scene, but in

PROVIDED PHOTO

Author Adrian Van young

the underground one, it’s much more likely that you will get a show with half women, half men. It’s a lot more allied with crust-punk, punk rock and indie rock. It’s sort of a mélange of those scenes. That is very much the scene the book is about — this very speciﬁc, crusty, NOLA metal community. If you don’t mind playing favorites, could you recommend a band or two from that scene? The ﬁrst one that comes to mind is Avowal, a sludge band, kind of like Eyehategod, but more glacial and melancholy and extremely heavy. Another band I’ve been very into recently is SLOWHOLE. They’re almost My Bloody Valentinelike, combining elements of grunge and indie rock and doom metal to create this feedbackdrenched and screamy sound. There was an amazing band that I ran into early on in my research named Cauche Mar, which is French for nightmare. They were one of the strangest bands that I encountered, but really one of the best. This is very hard to imagine, but they had elements of salsa, classical string instruments, hardcore punk and black metal woven all

PROVIDED PHOTO By JIMMy HUBBARD

New Orleans-based sludge metal band Crowbar together. In the book, you write about the aesthetic crossover between pagan black metal and Black Mardi Gras. Say more. This is a larger discussion about the narrator, a young,

well-to-do White kid from a Maryland suburb. He has these transplant notions about New Orleans, very romantic, that I had once when I moved here in 2013. I was very much trying to

reflect these connections he was trying to make of his experience. The element of masking — of putting on a theatrical display, of embracing darkness and decay, to some extent, and celebrating it — has some distinct crossovers with Black Mardi Gras. The only reason that I would hesitate to put them on the same playing field is because pagan black metal has been hounded by such an iniquitous history: racism, ethnonationalism and other stuff. But if you look at the aesthetics, side by side, it’s pretty remarkable. When you moved to New Orleans, did the city feel like the dark place you might have wanted it to be then, and is it still a scary place today? Yeah, definitely. I have always been somewhat of a goth, and I was not disappointed by the extent to which New Orleans lived up to all my gothic fanboy fantasies. Just the way it looks, the resplendent decay of the city, the degree to which it welcomes outcasts and weirdos and people obsessed with the arcana and the occult. In so many ways it completely lived up to my expectations. I still think that that is a very strong undercurrent in the city. I have never felt like a weirdo in New Orleans. There was an ongoing joke about me rolling up to pick my kids up at their schools wearing these hideous metal T-shirts with disemboweled unicorns. But to everybody’s credit, nobody blinked an eye. You can be a visibly underground or countercultural person in New Orleans, with some very extreme flourishes to your style. Do what you wanna is a real thing, and that applies to the occult weirdos in the city, too. Blue Cypress Books, 8123 Oak St., New Orleans, will host Van Young for a “Rough Beast” launch party on Oct. 13. Rien Fertel is the author of four books. He recently won his fifth Best Critical Review Award from the New Orleans Press Club.

THIS WEEK’S BESTSELLERS FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY HARDCOVER FICTION

1. “The Thoroughbreds” by Hilderbrand/Cunningham 2. “Dead Beat” by Leigh Bardugo 3. “Hollow Bones” by Jodi Picoult 4. “The Calamity Club” by Kathryn Stockett 5. “The Altar of Pergamon” by Jonathan Cahn 6. “Exit Party” by Emily St. John Mandel 7. “The Emperor’s Enemy (deluxe ed.)” by Jasmine Mas 8. “Eldritch (deluxe ed.)” by Keri Lake 9. “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke 10. “We Chase Shadows” by Richard Osman

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. “Protocols” by Andrew D. Huberman 2. “The Art of Gravity Falls” by Hirsch/ Renzetti 3. “Oversharing” by Cortney LaCorte 4. “Pokémon Deluxe Character Guide” by Alex Irvine 5. “Making Peace with What I Can’t Control” by Lysa TerKeurst 6. “F*ck Failure” by Benny Blanco 7. “Lost in Space” by Tyson/Walker 8. “This Oak House” by Annie MeyersShyer 9. “Veg Everything” by Tanya Sichynsky 10. “Confronting America” by O’Reilly/Hammer

TRADE PAPERBACK

1. “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi 2. “Grim Tidings” by B.K. Borison 3. “Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman 4. “Verity” by Colleen Hoover 5. “The Women” by Kristin Hannah 6. “Brain Damage” by Freida McFadden 7. “Murdoku” by Manuel Garand 8. “Shield of Sparrows” by Devney Perry 9. “The Killer Isn’t Alice” by Iris Starling 10. “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 5D

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LOUISIANA INSPIRED

Musical roots sparks a docuseries Robin Barnes spotlights La. culture

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Robin Barnes, affectionately known as the “Songbird of New Orleans,” is an award-winning vocalist, songwriter and Louisiana State Music Ambassador whose work celebrates the traditions and sounds of her hometown. Raised in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward in a family of musicians, she grew up surrounded by gospel, jazz, funk, R&B, second-line traditions and Creole culture. After a health scare, Barnes wanted to leave her family’s oral tradition for her daughter, so she spent three years doing the research for that as she made “Louisiana Love,” her debut full-length album. Her latest project takes her from the stage to being in front of the camera. Inspired by working on her album, Barnes brought her cultural discovery to a television docuseries, “Discovering Home with Robin Barnes,” airing in three installments on WLAE on Oct. 4, 11 and 18. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What inspired you to to go on this journey of “Discovering Home?” Tell me a little bit about your show and what it means to you. I couldn’t have come up with a better title because it really is discovering home. It’s for my daughter. I need to leave her more than just music. I needed to create a visual for her, and honestly, for all of us. So I decided to learn more about the places that I know as home and discover more of Louisiana and more of the culture completely. And so I dove in. I’m a self-funding little artist. I’ve got three cities: Lafayette, Lake Charles and New Orleans. It was such a humbling experience because to take such a major feat — all I know is music, and now

I am creating a TV show. How did you find the people to talk to and know where to go? I would never have the audacity to just learn from Google. I’m going to learn from the elders. … I spent three years researching the people that I wanted on the album, and I say that because I wanted the culture bearers to bless this album. Those are the people I leaned on because those were the right people to teach me about our culture. So every single episode, I was so lucky I was able to call on some of the artists that I performed with on the album. The people did not know me, so I’m like this girl from New Orleans going, “Hi. I want to do this project, and it means a lot to me. I want to learn everything right. Can you teach me?” That’s why you really see the love on the show and the music. The warmth and the love that our culture really has is so humbling. I went to these different cities where people don’t know who I am, but literally now I can call them all my cousins because we all bonded on what we care about. We care about the people. We care about the food. We care about the music. But more importantly, we care about life. We care about celebrating life to the fullest. What were some other moments that surprised you during filming? I’m from New Orleans, and I think I know so much. Going into Acadiana, I had no idea about the history and storytelling of the Black Creole cowboy, and I get to go into a sea of hundreds of them riding horses. I’m in the thick of it. Then I get to learn how to cook gravy and rice with Jourdan Thibodeaux. In the last episode, everyone gets to ﬁnd out a little bit about more of the women that inspired me — the eldest daughters in my family. Because we have everything through oral tradition, we’ve never found one of those particular ancestors. The last episode was insane to ﬁnd this ancestor. It was a miracle

that means a lot. How did you actually get a crew together? What was the process of getting it to air? The ﬁrst person I worked with, Brandon Guichard, asked who I was making it for, and I told him it’s for my family and the world. He said yes. And then my friend Drake LeBlanc, who is a Black Creole cowboy and a ﬁlmmaker, said he wanted to help. It was the three of us. I’ve been a state music ambassador for New Orleans and Louisiana for a minute. I get to travel the world and talk about our city and our state. They trusted me enough to support the idea, and the seasoning Slap Ya Mama and Visit Lake Charles also partnered with us. How can readers watch if they are not in New Orleans? My YouTube page, Robin Barnes, will have it streaming. I wanted to make it accessible to everyone. It’s just a joy to share. PROVIDED PHOTO By CHANSEy AUGUSTINE

Singer Robin Barnes stands next to the sign for her new docuseries, ‘Discovering Home’ at its screening at the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Sept. 22. how it happened. Since this was your first visual media project, how did filming go? We spent a year and a half ﬁlming, and throughout it all, I was thinking I had cancer. The idea of mortality is the reason why the people see the drive in me to make all this happen. Because in my mind, I didn’t know if I had enough time. And it’s something powerful to think about we’re gonna be someone’s ancestor one day. That’s why I feel this charge about being a part of the generation that’s about preserving the culture, but more importantly, I really feel this stewardship to be a part of bridging of our culture. Can you elaborate on that idea of “bridging our culture?” Bridging New Orleans to Louisiana because it’s been so separate. I feel like every single person you could pick them up and put them in New Orleans, or you could pick

Mars platform

someone up from New Orleans and put them in Lake Charles, and it would be the same feeling, the same warmth, the same laugh, the same food. I really want to be part of creating this beautiful tapestry of who and what our culture is. What is inspiring you now? As a native daughter of Louisiana, I am grateful that my family passed everything down through eldest daughters. But it was very warm to me to ﬁnd so many of our culture bearers were excited about women. “Big Chief” Monk Boudreaux has one song on my album called “Hands Up.” I listen to it every morning because it is so hard to do all this on my own as an independent artist. He says something in the beginning of this song like, “Get yourself together and bring this to the world. Show people who you are, and where you come from, and believe me, you are the one.” To have a native daughter be told

Email Joy Holden at joy.holden@ theadvocate.com.

Nominate someone extraordinary for our 2026 Inspirit Awards Know someone in Louisiana who is making a positive difference? We’re looking nominees for our 2026 Inspirit Awards — people of any age who do their best to make their local community a better place, whether in their work, at schools, in organizations or in neighborhoods. Nominate someone at nola.com/ site/forms/the_inspirit_award by Sunday, Nov. 1. Recipients will be announced in December. Be sure to include details and examples of how you think their efforts can inspire others. We’re eager to share their stories.

“It’s just a great sense of pride to be part of the energy past and energy into the future. We have produced a billion barrels and we are not done yet.” Billy Lott Operation Supervisor

reaches historic 1-billion barrel milestone

Since 1996, the Shell-operated Mars platform has played a defining role in deep water energy production. Designed for waters nearly 3,000 feet deep, Mars was a bold step forward at the time and helped redefine what was possible offshore. Nearly 30 years later, continued investment, enduring engineering, and the commitment of generations of people have helped bring Mars to this landmark achievement. To be the first platform in the Gulf to reach one billion barrels is a momentous milestone, but for those who have been part of Mars, it has never been just about the number. The Mars community identifies as Martians, united by the enduring principle, “once a Martian, always a Martian.” This milestone carries the weight of long days offshore, shared challenges, and moments of problem-solving that happen when people rely on one another. It reflects years of dedication and quiet perseverance, and the deep sense of pride that comes from being part of something that continues to move forward.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry joined Shell GOA and Pipeline staff to commemorate one billion barrels produced from the Shell Mars asset via the Mars booster station in Port Fourchon. From L to R: Greg Mouras, Nick Stone, Ken Duplantis, Jeff Bergeron, Gov. Jeff Landry, Lynn Belanger, Shawn Danos, Wayland Neil, Colette Hirstius, Chris Nace, Kevin McMahon, Richard Krebs, Sean Guillory

shell.us/louisiana | #PoweringProgress

6D ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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DINING SCENE

WEDDINGS, ENGAGEMENTS & ANNIVERSARIES

Engagement, Wedding and Anniversary announcements are paid notices in The Advocate. They appear in Sunday’s Advocate. To submit an announcement, go to The Advocate’s website at www.theadvocate.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page, look under ‘’Our Sites’’ and click on ‘’Celebrations’’. The deadline is noon Monday. For more information call (225) 388-0738 or e-mail nuptials@theadvocate.com.

Darcy Aimée Wilkins & Eric Michael Wilson Karen A. Westphal and James his fiancée, Kailyn Oliver, uncle, G. Wilkins proudly announce Michael Westphal, aunts, Becky the marriage of their daughter, Butler and Tami Do, cousins Darcy Aimée Wilkins, to Brent and Sheila Whittington, Eric Michael Wilson, both of Blake and Alexia Whittington, Washington D.C. The wedding Debbie Waters, Melinda Clark, took place on May 9th, 2026, Mary Helen Clark, Scot and at the Fairmont Banff Springs Mary Beth Clark, Joshua and Hotel in Alberta, Canada, Maren Bell-Do and Patrick with the reception in the same and Megan Do. The groom’s were venue. Chase Ewing Smithburg family-in-attendance presided over the service on the his father Michael Wilson, terrace. It was a perfect, sunny, his mother Cheryl, Lynn Fox, and warm day with crows and and cousins Christopher and sparrows flitting throughout the Jamie Armstrong. The bride is service. The bride’s attendants a graduate of Hendrix College were Megan Schafer (Matron and is a Creative Video Producer of Honor), Swati McManus and Director. The groom is a (Matron of Haven), Kathleen graduate of Bowling Green State Healy (Maid of Harmony), University and is a Compliance Danielle Skipper (Maid of Testing Manager with Capital Hallow), and Jordan Gann One. After the wedding, the (Man of Merriment). Standing couple and their friends and up for the groom were Chase family spent the next week McConnell (Best Man), Gary skiing and sight-seeing in Schneider, Adam Cellar, Sean Alberta, Canada. The couple Kennedy, and Jenna Schneider will reside in Washington, D.C. (Grooms-woman). The bride’s family-in-attendance were her father and mother, brothers Blaine G. Wilkins and Shane G. Wilkins, sister-in-law Angela Wilkins, uncle John H. Wilkins, nephew Turner G. Wilkins and

Brasserie one of N.O.’s top eateries The one word that kept coming to mind was sumptuous. We were seated at a corner table with scallopbacked, velvet banquettes forming a cove in the small dining room at MaMou. We’d already been IIan an dazzled by McNulty tyy a progresWHAT’S sion of COOKING first-course dishes, starting with the bread, a perfectly pretzeled bâtard loaf with smoked butter. When the flounder arrived, everyone at the table had to have a good look, not to snap photos for the ’gram, but just to admire the delicate beauty of its structure, draped with a sauce dappled with caviar, crowned with a crisp Parmesan tuile, looking like the tiara. Then the forks descended, and we devoured it. The room itself was a visual delight, all Art Nouveau swoops and swirls and flowers hung from the coffered ceiling. The flowers are artificial; the transporting feeling is very real. MaMou has earned a following in the four years since chef Tom Branighan opened it with sommelier Molly Wismeier. It’s grown into one of the most consistently excellent and exciting restaurants for modern cuisine in New Orleans. Yet it still feels under the radar. That accentuates the pleasure of bringing someone there to dine for the first time and watching their delight as character and flavors of this small, luxurious epicurean den sink in. MaMou is also that increasing rarity in the restaurant world, a place with both style and substance in equal measure.

Employee worried about being overlooked Artistry, execution Dear Harriette: Over the years, I have become extremely specific with my scheduling, which encouraged me to also become extremely efficient at work. I try to get all my work done within work hours. I genHarriette erally leave work at 5 p.m. Cole on the dot. I SENSE AND am not doing SENSITIVITy essential or life-saving work, so I no longer feel the need to overextend myself by staying late to prove my dedication to my superiors. Despite being a trusted voice and leader in my department, recently, my director mentioned that I may be passed over for a major promotion because I’m always “the first person out the door.” During my work hours, I outwork my peers, I support them and I provide mentorship and guidance, but because they take longer doing their work, they may be up for a promotion. How is that fair? — Work Hours Dear Work Hours: Every business has its customs, commonly known as “corporate culture.” These are the unwritten rules about how people interact, what they wear, how they spend time after work, what they talk about and when they arrive and leave. Your productivity seems to be fueled by your desire to follow a 9-to-5 schedule. If your company does not follow that drumbeat, your efforts are not in sync with theirs. Being efficient is only part of the secret sauce of moving up in an organization. You have to be willing and interested in being a team player, being available at the same times as your peers — and more important, with your bosses. What you are doing now may seem like showing people up or being eager to leave because you have something more important to do.

Neither option will help you grow with the company. Dear Harriette: My friend is going through an extremely tough time with a guy who’s mistreating her. They’ve had a casual but intimate relationship for over a year now. Her guy mentioned early on that he was not ready to be in a serious relationship, but they still moved forward with each other — dating publicly, sharing friend groups, being physically intimate, etc. Now, he seems ready to move on, and he’s been ignoring my friend and flirting with other women when they are out together with friends. My friend is an accomplished and bright young woman, and it hurts me to see her confidence breaking because of a man who doesn’t value her. I try to encourage her to move on, but she seems stuck. Sometimes she calls me crying or panicking after another argument with him, and I simply don’t know how to help. What would you say to your friend? — Moving On Dear Moving On: It’s one thing to want to be casual — even though he hasn’t been — and another thing entirely to be disrespectful. This guy ignoring your friend and flirting with other women around her is unacceptable — period. Take his behavior as a sign that he has checked out. No need to wait for him to tell her in words. It’s her turn to tell him goodbye. Remind her that as she kicks him out of her heart, she should make it clear that she does not appreciate his dishonorable behavior. It would have been way more mature to tell her that he was ready to end the relationship. Send questions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

Dishes bring intricate artistry, though it is technique and execution that make them so good and memorable. The small, 44-seat brasserie is a vision from the Belle Epoque era Paris. But the experience goes beyond looks. The service is polished too — confidently knowledgeable and comfortably welcoming. Lustiness and delicacy share the plate across the menu. The tuna crudo plays with the idea of comfort food sushi, the type that runs heavy on the mayoladen crabstick salad, the type most often eaten on the sofa at home rather than at the sushi bar. But MaMou’s version elevates it to a dish of omakaselevel precision. It starts with blue crab claw meat wrapped with slices of tuna glistening with citrusy yuzu oil. Drag these bundles through an aioli that resembles creamy wasabi, but is more delicate with fermented citrus flavor and a hint of truffle. Were these served as a passed hors d’oeuvres at a party, I would be a high risk for whipping out the whole tray. The steak tartare reworks the dish’s traditional accoutrements like linear modern art. A seam of savory, creamy Chantilly sauce with the kick of Dijon hems the gleaming beef, next to a line of finely minced capers. Combine a bit of each to make small bites on the carawayflecked cracker for a burst of flavor.

STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER

Tom Branighan, chef and owner of MaMou restaurant in the French Quarter, prepares his poisson a la Florentine.

MAMOU 942 N. Rampart St., (504) 381-4557 Dinner from 5 p.m.Wed.Sun. tion of steak and potatoes. It is the classic French treatment of a regal, bone-in rib eye steak, richly marbled, and it’s ideal for sharing around the table (the price varies by the size of cut). The potatoes, thick with cream and cheese, slip from the spoon like a sauce. Shrimp risotto is another example. The creamy texture is the right vehicle for the sweet and charred ﬂavor of the shrimp, while tiny radishes land like arrows of fresh ﬂair. A newer dish, the Cornish hen “piccata,” is an elevation of rustic comfort food. The buttery sauce around the roasted bird zings with lemon and tart capers between fregola sarda, the pearl-shaped pasta with a bounce to the bite and a whiff of toasty smoke.

Wine and roses Desserts are the one underwhelming act of the performance, and I miss the baba au rhum that was once ﬂambéed tableside. Still, typically I go so big

Celeriac remoulade is served with oysters and caviar at MaMou restaurant in the French Quarter. on the early courses that the simple, and well-made, lemon Madeleines tie a bow nicely on the meal, maybe with an amaro (MaMou is where I discovered the wonderful Traiteur amaro, made in the 9th Ward by the unrelated brand Mamou Spirits). MaMou is a restaurant for wine lovers, with a list focused on France and other Old World producers. The entire inventory is kept in glass-fronted wine cellar displays in the dining room, some of which double as decanting tables. It brings wine into the room in a prominent but unpretentious way. The restaurant’s name might conjure the Evangeline Parish town Mamou,

famous for its Cajun music and Mardi Gras traditions. But this MaMou is a nickname for the chef’s greatgrandmother. Bits of family history are embedded in the decor, from the chef’s love of auto racing and culinary antiques. This restaurant feels personal while bringing a unique expression of modern Continental cuisine in New Orleans. With so much else clamoring for attention in the restaurant world, is it still possible to be quietly fabulous? MaMou makes the case in the French Quarter. Email Ian McNulty at imcnulty@theadvocate. com.

YEARS

Classics, elevated Some MaMou dishes are more about the straightahead satisfaction of a classic dish done precisely, as it should be. The côte de boeuf, served with pommes purée, is an idealized rendi-

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Continued from page 1D sports, including gymnastics, soccer, baseball, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball. Still, its members need someone to keep them organized, so every year a president and vice president are appointed. This year, the president is Baton Rouge senior and biology major Jake Mathis, and the vice president is Skipper, who rallies the troops in the archway. He’s a senior biology major from Fort Worth, Texas. Some posse members’ individual accessories have become their trademarks, including a captain’s hat for one, a cheesehead wedge hat for another, along with cowboy hats and oversized sunglasses. “Everyone chooses their own pants and shorts and hats,” Mathis said. But the common thread tying them together is their painted jerseys, which usually are standard white with purple and gold trim with the exception of special games when fans are speciﬁcally asked to wear purple or gold garb. The Texas A&M game is the season’s gold game, so female members of the ministry start the session by stirring yellow acrylic paint on a fold-out table while posse members gather on a large tarp inside the entrance of the cavernous Frank Horton Chapel. The ESPN College Gameday broadcast from Knoxville, Tennessee, silently airs on the ﬂat screen televisions at the front of the chapel, while a soundtrack of music mostly dating from the 1960s to the 1990s plays in the background. And, yes, these Gen Z-ers know all the words.

The game day ritual The posse’s Saturday ritual begins around 10:30 a.m. with Mathis calling the group, including the painters, into a room behind the chapel for an opening prayer. The young men return to the chapel, remove their shirts and take their places on the tarp.

Leah Choi, right, a Leesville freshman majoring in kinesiology, paints the second coat of yellow on a member of the Painted Posse.

STAFF PHOTOS By ROBIN MILLER

Painted Posse vice president Jonathan Skipper, center, revs up the posse in the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at LSU’s arched entryway before leading the group to Tiger Stadium, where LSU played Texas A&M on Sept. 26. “We’ll have to paint three coats of the yellow paint on them today,” said Leah Choi, a freshman from Leesville majoring in Kinesiology. “The gold is thin, and we need to make it thick so it will show up.” Meanwhile, Hannah Franks, Mallory Richard and Makaili carefully mix red and blue to create the right shade of LSU purple. Franks is a sophomore biology major from Brusly, Richard is a New Iberia junior majoring in international ﬁnance, and Wise is a freshman in pre-nursing from Bulchar, Texas. The women have the option of attending the game and sitting in the row behind the Painted Posse. Most times, when television cameras zoom in the posse — and they often do — the ladies also get TV time. But for now, painting takes priority, and slathering 14 guys in three coats of yellow paint takes time, because one coast must completely dry before the next is applied. But the waiting time is never boring. Everyone talks, sings, and when Texas A&M fan Gilbert Mwihaki peeks in the chapel’s open door, members rush over to shake his hand. “I used to go the BCM when I was a student at Texas A&M, and I thought I’d come check out the BCM here,” Mwihaki said. “I didn’t know the LSU guys that painted up are connected to LSU’s BCM, and I think it’s pretty awesome.” And like Mwihaki, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry connection isn’t always known to LSU fans, who often stop Painted Posse

Hannah Franks, a sophomore biology major from Brusly, paints a cross on a Painted Posse member’s painted jersey. The cross, always painted on the left side near the heart, is a standard part of the posse’s uniform and ministry. members for selﬁes. “The tradition started with a couple of guys in 1983, but it didn’t become organized until 2003,” Mathis said. “And it started out as just a group of guys here from the Baptist Collegiate Ministry going out there trying to express their love for Jesus while also showing their fandom for LSU football. Now we’re considered a subsidiary of the BCM.”

devoted organizations to get involved in when I came here. I’m Presbyterian, and I’m involved in the Salt ministry at The Chapel. I learned about the Painted Posse and that it was Christ-based, so I decided to join as a painter.” Game day usually is limited to 14 members, because, as Skipper explains, that’s how many the row in Tiger Stadium can accommodate. Senior posse members usually vote on the week’s messages early in the ‘Friends for life’ week, then send out a sign-up The Painted Posse recruits sheet for those who want to atnew members from a booth at tend the game. LSU’s Free Speech Alley at the Attendance usually rotates beginning of the semester. Be- among the posse members with ing Baptist isn’t a requirement. senior members getting ﬁrst dibs. “We don’t try to get to the sta- Email Robin Miller at “I’m a Christian,” Choi said. “And I was looking for Christ- dium before the rest of the stu- romiller@theadvocate.com.

DOLLY

SPY

communitycoffee.com, TikTok Shop and other major retailers online, including amazon.com and walmart.com. Available in light, medium and dark roast varieties, the collection offers a cup for every Parton fan and coffee lover. It’s available for preorder in K-Cup pods and available now in ground coffee. The collaboration between Parton and Community Coffee began with a shared appreciation for quality coffee, family and community. Cup of Ambition reflects that connection, bringing together Parton’s vision for her first coffee line with Community Coffee’s expertise in crafting coffee since 1919. “Dolly had a warmth that made you feel like you’d known her forever,” said Donna Saurage, thirdgeneration owner of Community Coffee, in a news release. “We connected over our love of family, serving our communities and bringing people together, and it was a true joy to help make her dream of a Cup of Ambition coffee become a reality.” Parton brought her Cup of Ambition coffee to life on camera in July 2026, filming three commercials for the brand and shared in her own words on what the coffee line meant to her. The animation was illustrated by Katie Reed of She Got Good and Monica Woodward of Happy Web Co., animated by Joel Rob-

Or at least, they weren’t paying nearly as much attention as I had imagined. That realization has been surprisingly liberating. Most of us spend a lot of time believing that people are noticing — that we are being watched. We worry about our hair, our shoes, our clothes, the way we just tripped a little bit on the edge of that carpet, the stupid thing we said yesterday and how many people noticed that we said it. Meanwhile, everyone else is busy worrying about their own hair, their own shoes, their own walk and the ridiculous thing they said or the carpet edge that almost had them spilling down the hall. The truth is, most people are not watching us. They are living their own lives. Once I understood that, I stopped worrying so much about whether anyone was watching. I can sit in a sports bar by myself and watch the game, and no one wonders why. I can ask the obvious question. I can laugh too loudly at my own joke in the grocery store. I can walk into a room without ﬁrst wondering how I look walking into the room. The world keeps moving right along. And that realization has turned out to be a pretty serious kind of freedom. Which brings me back to spying.

Continued from page 1D

dents,” Skipper said. “We’re not about that. We just get in line, and we’re part of them.” Once in line, posse members have a chance to talk to their fellow students. “We have conversations with them, and we ask if they need prayer or want us to pray with them,” Mathis said. “Even in the middle of the excitement, no one has ever turned us down.” Back in the chapel, the dried coats of yellow are trimmed in purple and white, and a purple cross is painted near the heart on the left side of each “jersey.” Then come the purple letters on front and back. “The pastor at my church was doing this in 2012,” said Carter Grace, of North Carolina, who stopped in to watch. “I painted up for three years, but I’m retired now. I’m in grad school majoring in finance. But I know freshmen whose parents did this.” Once the paint has dried and the letters are outlined in white to make them pop on television, the posse lines up for an official game day photograph in the ministry’s courtyard. This is the pre-reveal before the official reveal on Victory Hill. On the front: “Beat The Aggies!” On the back: “Praise Be To God!” “I have to say that I’ve made friends here that will be friends for life,” said Norman Brown, a Baton Rouge senior majoring in film engineering. “I’ve been doing this since I was a freshman, and I love spreading the Gospel.”

Continued from page 1D

PROVIDED PHOTO

Dolly Parton and Donna Saurage visited to chat about Parton’s Cup of Ambition collaboration with Community Coffee.

ertson of Fourthcrown, directed by TK McKamy, produced by Olly Rowland of NOZ Entertainment, colored by Rodney Williams of Big Finish and video edited by Adam Davis of CTK Enterprises. Every cup of Cup of Ambition coffee helps support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and its mission to inspire a love of reading in children from birth to age 5. Community Coffee will serve as the anchor funding partner for Lafayette Parish, expanding its commitment to early childhood literacy in Louisiana. Consumers can also join in supporting the mission by making an optional donation to Imagination Library at checkout on cupofambition.com.

STAFF PHOTO By JAN RISHER

Red’s Blues Club is a legendary juke joint in Clarksdale, Miss. A spy’s job has two parts: Go unnoticed. Notice everything. Some spies also need a third part, which involves kung fu or special knife skills. The third part could be my downfall in the world of espionage. I’ve been practicing the second part for most of my life — long before I got into journalism, which involves a lot of sitting in the back of rooms, writing down what people say and watching what they do with their hands when they don’t know what to say next. The ﬁrst part, apparently, took care of itself and may be one of the strange gifts of getting older.

So, I go about my business of noticing things. I notice the couple in the next booth — arguing while speaking through their teeth. I notice the woman who has been reading the same page for 20 minutes. I notice who lights up when somebody walks into a room and who winces just a bit when they move their left elbow. And every now and then, the world gives me something extraordinary to notice. Like The Black Keys playing in a tiny juke joint in Clarksdale. Same glasses. Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.

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Nipping engagement questions in bud

TODAY IN HISTORY: By The Associated Press Today is Sunday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2026. There are 88 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 4, 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. Also on this date: In 1777, Gen. George Washington’s troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, resulting in heavy American casualties and the retreat of Washington’s Continental Army. In 1927, sculptor Gutzon Borglum began construction on what is now Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In 1965, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit the Western Hemisphere as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly. In 1970, rock singer Janis Joplin was found dead in her Hollywood hotel room at age 27. In 2001, a Russian airliner flying from Israel to Siberia was accidentally downed by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile over the Black Sea, killing all 78 people aboard. In 2002, “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh received a 20-year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. (He was released from prison in May 2019.) In 2004, the SpaceShipOne rocket plane broke through Earth’s atmosphere to the edge of space for the second time in five days, capturing the $10 million Ansari X prize aimed at opening the final frontier to tourists. In 2010, a vast release of red toxic sludge from an aluminum oxide plant in Hungary flooded three towns, killing eight people and injuring more than 220 others. The highly alkaline sludge burned the skin of some victims while others were swept away in the flood and drowned. In 2017, four U.S. Army Green Berets and four Nigerian soldiers were killed during an ambush of a joint U.S.-Nigerian mission outside the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger. U.S. officials later said a local affiliate of the Islamic State militant group bore responsibility for the attack. In 2021, Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms suffered an hourslong global outage, throwing businesses, services and the people who rely on the platforms into chaos. Facebook later apologized, saying there were no signs of malicious activity and it was trying to understand what caused the largest social media disruption in years. Today’s birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa is 82. Actor Susan Sarandon is 80. Actor Armand Assante is 77. Actor Christoph Waltz is 70. Singer Jon Secada is 65. Actor Liev Schreiber is 59. Actor Abraham Benrubi is 57. Actor Alicia Silverstone is 50. Actor Caitríona Balfe is 47. Actor Rachael Leigh Cook is 47. Actor Melissa Benoist is 38. NBA All-Star Derrick Rose is 38. Actor Dakota Johnson is 37. Actor Ryan Lee is 30. Actor Ella Balinska is 30. Singer Lunay is 26

Dear Miss Manners: My daughter and I could use a refresher course in how to answer the seemingly endless questions regarding her marital status. She is a 23-year-old full-time college student, happy in a relationship, and not terribly interested in getting married Judith yet. But more and more Martin she is enduring “the quesMISS tion” from seemingly MANNERS well-meaning people, most notably her cousin’s wife: “Chet and I dated for six months and then I had my ring. Why don’t you have yours?” My daughter is thinking of posting an angry comment. I would like her to have something more witty and demure to say that will get the point across without being rude. Gentle reader: That is one nasty cousin your daughter has. Perhaps the young man who gave her that ring was too hasty. Miss Manners would be tempted to say, “But not everyone is as irresistible as you.” Maybe even to lead her on to offer advice about how to maneuver a

suitor into proposing, in which case your daughter could sigh and say, “Maybe I’ll just wait until he is sure he wants to. And until I’m sure I want to.” As for those other nosy people, a secretive smile and “Oh, please, we’re still courting” should do. Dear Miss Manners: My husband and I had his sister stay at our house for a holiday. She lives in a city two hours from us; we live in a semirural area. My husband picked her up from the bus stop and also drove her back there after her visit (an hour drive). She has stayed with us a couple of times before, and seemed to enjoy it. I went all out to get her room and bathroom ready, prepare special meals, etc. We provided food, a bed and a quiet atmosphere as well as entertainment, but we couldn’t tell if she really enjoyed her two nights out of the city this time. She thanked us once, but it seemed compulsory and not from the heart. She never sent a follow-up card or gift. We have friends from out of state, and after they stay with us just one night, they always give a nice gift and/or send a thank-you card. My husband said he thought he was doing her a favor to get her out of the

city for a couple of days, but it seemed like she was doing us a favor by her visit. Needless to say, we don’t want to entertain her again because it seemed like she didn’t care that we provided all this for her visit. We don’t expect a gift, just an acknowledgment of the hospitality we provided. What are your thoughts? Gentle reader: That she’s family. She and your husband grew up the same house. She is used to his looking out for her, as in this example of feeling she needed a holiday. So she is not in the same category as your occasional houseguests, although Miss Manners agrees that family members should also be gracious and helpful when they visit. Just don’t apply the same checklist that you expect of unrelated guests. And please do not cut off your husband from his sister because you judged her thanks as not coming from the heart. 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.

Two easy tricks make freezing corn a cinch Dear Heloise: My mother froze a lot of corn, and she used these two easy tricks: After she blanched the corn, she would set the ear of corn on an angel food cake pan and use an electric knife to cut off the kernels. This made Hints from cutting off the kernels and easier. And Heloise quicker the pan caught the kernels, so there was less mess. — Michelle R., via email

Clean the dryer vent Dear Heloise: Regarding the recent letter about leaving the dryer on, it’s most likely the lint-clogged vent that caused the fire, not leaving the house with the dryer going. Follow the instructions, clean the lint filter after every use, and clean the vent pipe annually. Don’t use a flexible vent pipe, except for very short runs that connect the rigid vent pipe to the machine. — Scott R., in Northampton, Massachusetts Scott, personally, I’m obsessed with

cleaning the lint in my dryer. However, from time to time, many people forget to clean out the dryer lint that collects over repeated use. I wish manufacturers would put a warning on dryers to help the public remember how dangerous collected lint can be. — Heloise

Online auction service Dear Heloise: Clearing out a house with an online auction service was so much easier than hauling everything to a charity. Also, the fees that we paid employed the photographers and stagers, and we still made a little money. The funny part was when the auctioneer came to meet us; he literally brought stuff back in the house from the trash bin, telling us that these items would sell. — M.A., via email M.A., what a clever idea! I hadn’t heard of an online auction for clearing out a house before, but I can already see the advantages. — Heloise

A special keepsake Dear Heloise: I received a save-the-date card for the wedding of a great-nephew

by marriage (whom I haven’t seen in 15 years). The bride’s from a wealthy family, and the wedding will be a luxurious affair. I’m elderly and on a ﬁxed income, and I live many states away. So, I’ll be replying with regrets to the invitation when it comes. All of that said, what’s the protocol regarding wedding gifts? Would a nice card with handwritten good wishes be acceptable? Do I check the bridal registry and try to come up with something that’s suitable for my budget? Things have changed so much over the years that I don’t know anymore if the old Emily Post rules still apply. Thank you for all your hints over the years! — Linda C., via email Linda, a handwritten letter would make such a wonderful gift. I’ve kept a handwritten letter from both my mother and grandmother that I take out and read once in a while. They’ll receive many wedding gifts, but a handwritten letter will be a keepsake that they can enjoy long after the other gifts have worn out. — Heloise Send a hint to heloise@heloise.com.

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

S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 4, 2026

1en

PICK OF

PEPPERS

Louisiana Pepper Exchange turned a hot commodity into a side hustle, then a global enterprise

Chris White is moving his company, Louisiana Pepper Exchange, into the former Schwegmann’s distribution center in St. Rose. After renovations, the company will move operations making hot sauces and pepper products from its facility in New Orleans near the Mississippi River.

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Louisiana businessman Chris White isn’t afraid to change things up. Since the 2016 Great Flood damaged his Baton Rouge house, for instance, he and his family have lived in ﬁve different places, including a recent stint in a former French Quarter church that was converted into a luxury apartment. That same willingness to embrace the new has helped White grow his business, Louisiana Pepper Exchange, from a side hustle into a global enterprise earning tens of million in annual revenue and, by the entrepreneur’s estimation, closing in on the

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

IDEAS &

INNOVATION

ä See EXCHANGE, page 2E

Jalapeños, habanero peppers, chili peppers, ghost peppers and more hot pepper varieties GETTy IMAGES PHOTO

‘AI is carrying the U.S. economy,’ says forum speaker State, national energy leaders discuss sector ‘Hyperscalers’ in the spotlight The most-heard buzzword at this shifts back to fossil fuels and nuclear power year’s conference was “hyperBY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

When Tulane University hosted its inaugural Future of Energy Forum in 2024, the event centered on how Louisiana’s energy sector ﬁts into a world trying to balance growing power demand with concerns about the environment. While the event’s logo still features a stylized globe sprouting green leaves, this year’s forum, which featured many speakers from the Trump and Landry administrations, underscored how the energy industry — both in

Louisiana and nationwide — has shifted the conversation from renewables and clean energy back to fossil fuels and next-gen nuclear. Driving the discussions during the three-day forum, which was held Sept. 28-30 on campus, was the need for more energy to power the country’s artiﬁcial intelligence data center boom. Panelists also talked about Louisiana’s robust LNG sector, the future of Venezuelan oil, nuclear innovation and streamlining the regulatory process. Here are some takeaways from this year’s event:

scaler,” a term that describes tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta that are spending billions on data centers and other infrastructure to support cloud computing, AI and more. There’s good reason for the focus. In the two years since news of Meta’s $50 billion Hyperion data center in Richland Parish leaked at the ﬁrst Future of Energy Forum two years ago, Big Tech has become the state energy industry’s biggest new customer. At least ﬁve data center projects are in the

PROVIDED PHOTO By CHERyL GERBER

Will Baldwin, from left, James Martin, Madelyn Smith and state Rep. Joseph Orgeron speak during a panel on offshore wind at Tulane ä See ENERGY, page 2E University’s Future of Energy Forum on Tuesday.

2E ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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EXCHANGE

down and distribution. For nearly a decade, he ran this business alongside his work selling flexitanks to many types of customers, but in 2018, he decided to focus on the pepper business. In particular, he wanted to grow the market for pepper mash beyond hot sauce makers. “I thought the rest of the food manufacturing world should have access to this as well,” he said. “It is the most authentic pepper ingredient on the planet.”

Continued from page 1E $100 million mark by the end of the decade. While not a household name like Tabasco, Crystal or other famous Louisiana-born pepper sauce brands, the 16-year-old company is gaining ground behind the scenes as White has parlayed his patented idea for shipping pepper mash more efficiently into a multifaceted enterprise that sells pepper products to other hot sauce manufacturers, food companies and restaurants. Louisiana Pepper Exchange helped create a ghost pepper-flavored sandwich at a popular fastfood joint a couple years ago. It makes all the hot sauce used at a national chain restaurant known for its spicy chicken wings. And it manufactures and packages marinades and dressings for wellknown brands. For the last eight years, the company has grown briskly while operating out of a 25,000-squarefoot facility near in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District. But White is making changes again. Last year, he moved the business’s executive office and test kitchen to the first floor of the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute in the Warehouse District. And now he’s investing $10 million to stand up a 100,000-square-foot production facility in a former Schwegmann’s distribution center in St. Rose. The investments, which come three years after White spent $22 million to build a pepper mash storage and fermentation facility in New Mexico, are a sign that the entrepreneur sees opportunities ahead based on the continued strength of Americans’ embrace of spicy foods even as food manufacturers overall are slumping. “I’m betting on vertical integration,” White said during a recent interview. “As consumers have embraced more flavor and heat in their food, the supply chain that supports that was very fragmented, but because of our intellectual property, my engineering and logistics background, and the experts we have, we can do a lot of this under one roof.”

Expansion in N.M., New Orleans

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

New railroad tracks are being laid behind the St. Rose warehouse under renovation for Louisiana Pepper Exchange operations.

Solve a problem, start a business Before he created Louisiana Pepper Exchange, White was an executive at Chemetec, a Baton Rougeborn business founded by his father that supplies pumps, agitators, mixers and other equipment to industrial customers and food manufacturers, including the McIlhenny Co., the Louisiana-based maker of Tabasco hot sauces. The seeds for his own venture were planted in 2000, when McIlhenny asked White to devise a way to customize a then-new type of packaging called a “flexitank” so it could ship its pepper mash — crushed peppers combined with salt — more efficiently and affordably from Latin America and other destinations. Flexitanks are essentially heavy-duty plastic bags that fill an entire 20-foot shipping container and are used to transport liquids like oils, juices and syrups in bulk. “Pepper mash is such a difficult product to handle, because it’s fermenting in transit, causing sepa-

ENERGY

Continued from page 1E planning stage or under construction in the state, representing a collective $80 billion in spending with billions more dedicated to power generation. The topic came up at nearly all the Tulane event’s panels. During one, the founders of several nuclear power startups discussed the possibility of using on-site small modular reactors at data centers. At another, an investor said capital will keep ﬂowing to hyperscalers as long as they maintain their audiences with products like Meta’s new Muse, an AI app that can book airline tickets, cancel subscriptions and handle other tasks. Jonathan Krautmann, a partner at Rubric Capital, took it a step further, explaining that what the hyperscalers are doing for Louisiana’s economy is happening nationwide. “AI infrastructure is carrying the U.S. economy right now, and in the absence of that, we’d probably already be in a deep recession,” Krautmann told the forum audience Monday afternoon. “That should not gloss over the real concerns that are going to show up in the midterms. The onus is on hyperscalers to show consumers that they’re not just coming for your job and your water and your farmland and to show them the beneﬁts of agentic AI.”

Louisiana Pepper Exchange has operating out of a 25,000-squarefoot facility near in New Orleans’ STAFF FILE PHOTOS By SOPHIA GERMER Lower Garden District for the last Workers test out ideas in the bottling area at Louisiana Pepper Exchange eight years. in New Orleans in 2022. ration of solids and liquids,” White said. “That’s why it was mostly shipped in smaller drums, barrels and totes for many years.” An engineer by training, White devised a system that uses bursts of air to keep the product moving, letting it separate in transit and then agitating it back to a homogeneous state. After four years of trial and error — and “a lot of being covered in pepper,” he said — his team ﬁled for a patent in 2004. The new solution was welcomed by McIlhenny, which has used hundreds of flexitanks annually

for more than two decades, but it also made pepper mash more accessible to the hundreds of new hot sauce makers that have emerged in the last 15 years. “I was just trying to solve Tabasco’s problem, and when that system worked, they allowed me to patent it,” White said. “I am very thankful for that. We started shipping for Tabasco and then eventually for a lot of other people.”

Nuclear’s new image

and other breakthroughs unrelated to power generation. Panelists also shared enthusiasm for the emergence of small modular reactors although they acknowledged that the decentralized infrastructure would create new safety and security concerns.

Many baby boomers and Gen Xers are skeptical of nuclear power because of well-documented disasters, the danger of nuclear waste and the high cost of building, maintaining and securing reactors. But the sector is going through a major image makeover this decade, as its ability to produce energy without creating carbon emissions makes it a potential part of the solution to lower emissions overall. The Trump administration’s changes to regulations and new tax incentives are encouraging entrepreneurs and investors to make bets on nuclear, and Matt Krozak, the director for strategy and policy development at the Nuclear Energy Institute, told forum attendees there’s been a “remarkable sea change” in the nuclear energy policy environment overall. “Over the last decade, advocates have made an effort to explain why it’s important,” he said. “We have seen the public conversation evolve, and our public support is higher now than it’s ever been when we look at the Gallup surveys.” In Louisiana, two nuclear power startups have announced plans for the state, and during Monday’s panel, Chris Wright, a director at the Idaho National Laboratory, touted the possibility of using nuclear reactors to create synthetic fuels, isotopes for cancer research

Selling peppers for the first time While still working full-time at Chemetec, White partnered with a

More Venezuelan oil in La.? After the United States’ military action in Venezuela in January, which led to the U.S. gaining more control of the South American country’s oil industry, there was talk about Louisiana’s refineries seeing an increase in the oil from the region, but experts at the energy forum said don’t expect any radical changes anytime soon. One reason is the poor condition of the country’s oil infrastructure. “To describe it as ‘delayed maintenance’ might be very kind,” said Matthew Goitia, president of Peaker Energy and Pelorus Terminals, during a panel about the topic. “When you look at that current state of the pipelines and terminals, the maintenance wasn’t there. It all has to be uprooted and redone.” Another problem is that many of the engineers, pipe ﬁtters, cutters and other experts with knowledge of the reﬁneries left the country years ago. “Those who could left during the Chavez regime, and we have been beneficiaries of that huge intellectual knowledge and operational skill set,” he said. “It’s going to take almost an entire generation

ﬂexitank manufacturer and spent several years supplying the packaging to customers. He called this new business Gray Hog Industries, a reference to his time studying at West Point before his U.S. Army career. In 2010, though, a small hot sauce company founder contacted White, hoping to buy a small amount of pepper mash. And that’s when inspiration struck to sell the product himself. White launched Louisiana Pepper Exchange that year and started bringing peppers into a small facility in Baton Rouge for break-

to rebuild that efﬁciency.” Panel moderator Eric Smith said that even if additional Venezuelan oil could be efﬁciently extracted and shipped to Louisiana, there isn’t an existing infrastructure to move it to other parts of the country that need it. “We need to be a little more introspective than we’ve been so far in trying to assume that there’s a market in the U.S.,” Smith said. “We can’t take massive amounts of crude from Venezuela without having some sort of a massive rebuilding of our own pipeline infrastructure here in the U.S.”

Wind energy is down but not out

While Louisiana Pepper Exchange was born out of an idea to improve the way peppers are transported over water, the company’s biggest expansion to date happened on land. In 2023, White partnered with farmers and processors in northern Mexico to grow peppers. The same year, the company opened a pepper mash storage and fermentation facility in New Mexico for product coming across the border. The place has 120 tanks that together can store 30 million pounds of mash. “It’s so huge, it looks like an oil refinery,” White said. Now, the expansion continues in Louisiana. In May, White signed a 15-year lease for the former Schwegmann’s distribution center, with plans to move there from the 25,000-square-foot warehouse near the Uptown Walmart that it has occupied since 2018. Last week, White gave a tour of the new space, where two industrial food mills, still wrapped in plastic and resting on wood pallets, were the first equipment to arrive. Eventually, they will be joined by 20 giant storage tanks and other food-processing infrastructure. The side of the building facing Airline Highway has multiple loading docks for 18-wheelers, which will bring pepper mash from the Port of New Orleans to the site for processing. Out back, workers are building a new railroad track that will haul finished product to customers. White said the site will be operational before the end of the year. Louisiana Pepper Exchange also will continue to lease space on the first floor of NOCHI, just off Harmony Circle, to house executive offices and a test kitchen that’s used to create new products for food companies and restaurants. An on-site chef and food scientist will help visiting company executives find their way around the test kitchen with a view of a streetcar stop just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. “We entertain a lot,” White said. “New Orleans is an important sales tool, so it’s great for us to be walkable to great restaurants as we meet with partners.” White said he hopes activities at all of his company’s new facilities will help him grow company sales of “value-added” products. That’s because turning pepper mash into purees, finished hot sauces, marinades and more increases its value. It’s all part of his vision to bring together efficient farming, transportation, fermentation, processing and manufacturing of the ingredient that’s key to consumers’ desires for heat and flavor in their food. Said White: “We’re really the only vertically integrated pepper company in the world.”

to be complete next year. Edison Chouest Offshore built the ECO Liberty service and operations vessel for Empire Wind, a collection of 54 turbines capable of powering a half-million homes, according to the developer. “The last time I checked, there were at least four Louisiana-built vessels at work on projects in the East Coast,” said Madelyn Smith, program manager at the Southeastern Wind Coalition, an advocacy organization. “Each one of these ships is an engineering marvel in itself and represents hundreds of millions of dollars that are being spent here in Louisiana to service that industry.” Even though offshore wind is on pause, two onshore wind projects in the state are working their way through the approval process: Mt. Joy in Morehouse Parish and Cajun Prairie in St. Landry and Evangeline parishes. “If Louisiana can position itself to be a hub for manufacturing, logistics and transportation for onshore wind, we have the potential to position ourselves to service a broader regional market,” said Smith, who believes Louisiana should take a cue from Virginia, which built a local supply chain for its ongoing $11 billion offshore wind project. “That really has created a lot of support from companies that are getting those contracts,” she said.

On President Donald Trump’s first day in office for his second term, he ordered a pause on federal offshore wind leasing and permitting. A few months later, he ended federal tax credits for new wind and solar projects. Those actions essentially froze investment in the industry for future projects, but they didn’t shut down existing offshore wind farms or stop all ongoing projects from being finished. On the East Coast, there are now six offshore farms either complete or partially complete. Two more are under construction. Louisiana shipbuilders have been key contributors to some of these efforts, including the decade-old Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island and the Empire Wind offshore wind Email Rich Collins at rich. farm near New York, which is due collins@theadvocate.com.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 3E

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TALKING BUSINESS A S K T H E E X P E RT S

Crowley rice mill ‘a chain link in a massive chain’ BY ADAM DAIGLE

Acadiana business editor Along Mill Street in Crowley, there was a time where 13 rice mills operated to serve local farmers and the local economy. Now there are only two, one of which is Falcon Rice Mill, which co-owner Robby Trahan never envisioned he would oversee. His father ran the family business that dates back to 1942, while Trahan was living in Texas and working as a certiﬁed public accountant. But in 2011, when Trahan nudged his father about what his long-term plans were, he decided to move back to Louisiana. He, his sister Christine and their spouses bought the business to allow their father to retire. Trahan soon discovered his accounting background did not make it an easy transition into operating the business. “If you ran this place like dollars and cents, it probably wouldn’t work because we’re a chain link in a massive chain,” Trahan said. “The farmers need an outlet to sell their product, and we need farmers for the supply. We’re all like a water hose — the stuff has to move.” In this week’s edition of Talking Business, Trahan talks about issues facing the rice industry, his history with the mill and the status of its $6 million expansion at Falcon, maker of Cajun Country Rice and other brands. This interview has been edited for clarity. How has the weather been for the farmers this year? It’s been a bit of a dry summer. Has that been beneficial? Growing conditions have been fairly good this year for our guys. In the South, we do have a smaller crop, probably one of the smallest crops we’ve had since the 1980s between Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. There was a little bit of reduction here in Louisiana, but Arkansas was

STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK

Co-owner Robbie Trahan took over Falcon Rice Mill in Crowley with his sister in 2011 after living in Texas. ‘I’ve been around a lot of places, and there are not many places that are unique. We have something pretty special with our culture here,’ he said.

Q&A WITH ROBBy TRAHAN

FALCON RICE MILL CO-OWNER

down at least 30% to 40%. They were increasing acreage a couple years ago, and the price of rice just dropped. What has the overall yield looked like so far? This year is fairly good. I wouldn’t say it’s our best yielding crop ever, but it’s not bad. It’s better than last year, and the milling yields are better, too. We’re making more head rice from this rice than we did last year. So that’s good. The millings have been kind of off the last couple of years. The head rice

numbers are better — down here at least. What’s causing that? I think the weather was pretty good for them this year. Last year we had rains at the wrong time or dryness at the wrong time. This year I don’t think we had any of that. And our guys plant pretty good varieties down here for the most part. Typically, when you have hybrids and things like that, the millings could go down, but our guys don’t do as much of that as they do in other areas.

The rising cost of diesel is hurting several industries across the country. How are your business and farmers dealing with it? The price of rice is getting higher, which is great, but then their diesel costs are so high and their fertilizer costs are so high. So it’s just a double-edged sword. And even on our end, it’s one thing when a mill adjusts prices for commodities, which is ﬁne, but every single bucket is being affected. So it’s not fun, and customer don’t like it because prices are going up across the board on the groceries. When that happens, people don’t buy as much. How is the industry faring in the export business? What kind of headwinds is it facing with other countries exporting a cheaper product?

When we have a normal crop in all the states, we’ll export half of that rice. The exports have been down. They’ll export to Haiti and Iraq, but the problem with Iraq is you either have to ship it through the Strait of Hormuz, or they’re talking about now shipping it to Jordan and then trucking it across, which is really risky. Then it jumps the price. Then you’ll hear about bad players, India and (other countries), they can dump rice onto customers. They can ship rice into Mexico cheaper than we can ship it to, which doesn’t make sense. Speaking of international trade, how have tariffs affected the expansion of the mill? We ordered the stuff (for our expansion) back in December, and the next thing you know we have a tariff on the stuff coming. I didn’t know that was in play when we ordered it. Now we recently just got it refunded. It’s in the upper tens of thousands. It’s not quite $100,000, but it’s pretty close to it. Did tariffs make exporting rice more challenging? The U.S. exports a good bit of rice in Mexico and Canada, and a lot of that is because of the NAFTA agreement. When you start tarifﬁng those guys, they can get cheaper rice somewhere else. At one time, the U.S. had 80% of the market share in Mexico, and I think it’s down to like 25% to 30%. Tariffs really harm the amount of rice that we’re going to grow because it’s not good for export. Take me back to when you took over the mill from your dad. What drew you back? Nobody wants to move away if you don’t have to, right? This is a pretty unique place. I’ve been around a lot of places, and there are not many places that are unique. We have something pretty special with our culture here. Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@ theadvocate.com.

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4E ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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ACROSS THE REGION

Tunica-Biloxi Tribe to launch prediction market app BY TIMOTHY BOONE

Staff writer

Through a partnership with sports betting company Kalshi, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana is set to launch a prediction market app, making it the first tribe to enter the fast-growing sector. The app will allow customers to bet on real-world events, such as weather forecasts, political races and Oscar winners through SaltTrade Derivatives, a new tribal business that harkens back to the Tunica-Biloxi’s history as salt traders. The app will allow customers to buy and sell contracts with other consumers, tied to the outcome of an event. Marshall Pierite, chair of the Marksville-based Tunica-Biloxi, said the venture came out of a conversation he overheard involving leaders of other tribes who were concerned about the impact that prediction markets could have on their gambling operations. Pierite said he sees the prediction market, which is expected to see its trading volume hit $410 billion this year, as Goliath and tribal gaming as David. But he said he isn’t looking to challenge the sector. “We wanted to see how we can work together to be a part of a changing industry and utilize our experience and expertise as one of the first tribes to be involved in small-dollar lending and one of the first involved in financial literacy,” he said. Pierite said he began to research prediction markets, trying to find out as much as he could about the industry and making sure that the tribe wouldn’t miss out on the financial opportunities it was creating. He sees this as a way to merge tribal entrepreneurship with cut-

PROVIDED PHOTO By TUNICA-BILOXI TRIBE OF LOUISIANA

The Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center is located in Marksville. Through a partnership with Kalshi, the Tunica-Biloxi are launching a prediction market app, making it the first tribe to enter the fast-growing sector. ting edge technology. About six or seven months ago, the Tunica-Biloxi approached Kalshi about ﬁnding a way to work together, Pierite said. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement his company was proud to partner with the TunicaBiloxi. “The debate can no longer be reduced to prediction markets on one side and tribes on the other,” Mansour said. “What’s clear is that regulated national infrastructure and tribal entrepreneurship can develop together — and one does not have to lose for the other to win.”

Kalshi will provide the infrastructure for the app and set odds. The tribe will market the prediction site to it consumers, Pierite said. Financial details about the arrangement were not disclosed, along with revenue projections. The SaltTrade Derivatives app is set to launch in the next 90 days, Pierite said. People in every state except Louisiana will be able to bet on events. Pierite said the tribe purposely decided not to operate the prediction market in Louisiana because the tribe “didn’t want people

knocking on our doors” to place a trade. The tribe does plan to open a physical ofﬁce for SaltTrade on its lands. But SaltTrade will be separate from all of its current businesses, such as the Paragon Casino Resort. Prediction markets are controversial. Some states have filed suits against Kalshi and Polymarket in an attempt to regulate their activities. There have also been concerns about insider trading and the role the markets play in causing gambling addiction. But Pierite said anything that challenges the status quo is going

to generate controversy. “We know we were going to take criticism because people don’t like change,” he said. “But we believe in the vision and the strategy we’re creating with Kalshi and SaltTrade.” Pierite said he sees the Kalshi partnership as paving the way for future agreements with the 575 federally recognized tribes. “In every industry, it takes one person to be courageous enough to do it and others will follow,” he said. Email Timothy Boone at tboone@theadvocate.com.

“The debate can no longer be reduced to prediction markets on one side and tribes on the other. What’s clear is that regulated national infrastructure and tribal entrepreneurship can develop together — and one does not have to lose for the other to win.” TAREK MANSOUR, CEO of sports betting company Kalshi

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6E ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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NATION & WORLD Malaysia campaigns to boost its pungent durian BY KANIS LEUNG Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia is pushing to take durian, whose powerful smell delights its lovers and repels its haters, beyond its roadside stalls and family orchards to convince fans of the spiky fruit that its varieties are worth seeking out. Devotees savor durians like wine. For Malaysian ones, the taste of their rich and creamy flesh varies widely across types. Some are prized for their sweet custard and fruity notes, others for a hint of bitterness, an alcohol tinge or even a peanut butter ﬂavor. Malaysians’ efforts to elevate the industry can be found in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, at a center devoted exclusively to the fruit and the growing variety of products made from it. At the Kuala Lumpur Durian Experience Centre, near the landmark Petronas Twin Towers, visitors venture into a replica durian orchard to discover the fruit’s culture and history. In another room, a theater show draws laughter. Downstairs, visitors enjoy platters and egg tarts crafted from it. Launched this summer after an investment of nearly $2 million, the two-story center spans about 20,450 square feet and is open daily. Its durian shop welcomes guests from morning to midnight. Its founder, Edison Ang, said the center targets both local customers and tourists, especially those from China, the world’s biggest durian importer. He said Chinese palates have long been inﬂuenced by Thai durian culture. “What we actually hope for now is not to get people who don’t eat durian to start eating durian,” he said. “Instead, we hope consumers who are already eating durian from

other countries will switch to Malaysian durian.” In 2025, China imported 1.87 million tons of fresh durian worth $7.5 billion, with volume jumping over six times in the past decade, according to its customs data. Thailand’s earlier entry helped it secure over half that market by value in 2025. Malaysia, which began exporting fresh durian to China in 2024, was dwarfed. But for the first half of 2026, the value of China’s fresh durian imports from Malaysia quadrupled compared with the same period last year, pointing to rapid growth. Unlike their rivals, Malaysian growers typically do not harvest early, instead collecting only naturally ripened fruit caught in nets or ropes as they fall. That’s the industry’s biggest advantage and also its biggest weakness, Ang said, as sellers have to race against time because the fruit’s shelf life is at most two to three days. Any delays would affect its quality. When his stock was held up for several days during customs checks, his refund rate climbed, he said. Durian sales are also sensitive to economic conditions, said Leron Yee, founder of DKing, whose business covers both export and domestic markets. When the Chinese economy performs well, his business improves, but if the buying power of Chinese consumers falls, he needs to find alternative markets, he said. “It is a luxury, not a necessity,” he said. Businesses are finding opportunities in what the fruit can become. Yee’s business sells durian paste, durian-flavored chocolate and mochi — and even mooncakes ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival. DurianBB founder Adrian Choy’s company offers durian

ice cream, desserts and dried durian at a cafe, alongside coffee flavored with the Musang King variety and other items. His brand also offers guided farm tours. In July, Choy’s brand went a step further and launched a durian flower perfume that smells sweet and floral. Choy said branching into other products is important because it will add value to the food itself and differentiate his business, even when others compete on price. “Food is food,” he said. “You cannot sell it like 50% more because your branding is different.” Across China, durian specialty shops have mushroomed, with some specializing in Malaysian varieties. In Beijing, the Jiang Sir durian shop sells platters priced roughly between about $44 to $150, depending on the weight of the pulp and the varieties chosen. Its employee, Hou Yuxin, welcomed the growing number of similar shops and brushed off pressure from competition, saying it would help boost the market for Malaysian durians. She noted many people now want to enjoy durians during their trips to Malaysia. Back at Ang’s center in Kuala Lumpur, Henry Zhang was one of them. Zhang, a visitor from Shanghai who started eating durian during his university days, saw a durian no bigger than his palm for the first time. He said Malaysian ones were creamier than those from Thailand and had different flavors. He was impressed by the center offering more than just the fruit. “I may still eat durians from other countries. But after eating them, I may miss Malaysian ones even more,” Zhang said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS By VINCENT THIAN

A customer poses beside a giant durian display at a durian stall in Petaling Jaya, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The country is pushing to take durian, whose powerful smell delights its lovers and repels its haters, beyond its roadside stalls and family orchards to convince fans of the spiky fruit that its varieties are worth seeking out.

Workers unload durians at a durian farm collection point in Karak, Pahang state in Malaysia.

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The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 7E

NATION & WORLD

Dollywood’s billionaire owners plot future without Parton BY DEVON PENDLETON

Bloomberg News (TNS)

Since it opened in 1986, Dollywood has been both a monument to Dolly Parton and a bustling venue where visitors can wander through a replica of the tworoom log cabin where the singersongwriter grew up and munch on Parton loaves of her fragrant cinnamon bread between thrill rides. Now the Tennessee theme park’s legacy rests in the hands of a lowkey billionaire family. Following Parton’s death in late August at age 80, her longtime partner and Dollywood’s co-owner, Herschend Entertainment, has assumed the role of overseeing and growing the venue, which was molded in the entertainer’s image near her birthplace in the Smoky Mountains. Her impact will keep unfolding in the years ahead as the park is in the middle of a $500 million expansion with rides and amenities that were all Partonapproved. “We want to honor her by continuing to make Dollywood what she intended it to be,” said Chris Herschend, chair of Herschend Entertainment and a third-generation member of the family that owns the closely held business. He spoke in a videoconference from his ofﬁce in front of shelves stuffed with children’s books, surplus from Parton’s Imagination Library. “Nobody could replace Dolly. She was one of one.” In Herschend, Parton found a partner that shared her mix of business savvy and social responsibility, said Robert Niles, founder and editor of Theme Park Insider. Herschend offers a range of perks to its 22,000 employees, or “hosts,” from proﬁt sharing to free tuition, while donating 1% of its top-line revenue to charity. “Dolly was a businesswoman; it’s not like she was some altruistic saint; she hustled every day of her

DREAMSTIME/TNS PHOTO By JOE HENDRICKSON

Following Dolly Parton’s death in late August at age 80, her longtime partner and Dollywood’s co-owner, Herschend Entertainment, has assumed the role of overseeing and growing the Pigeon Forge, Tenn., venue, which was molded in the entertainer’s image near her birthplace in the Smoky Mountains. life,” Niles said. “But she treated her customers with respect and delivered value.” The success of Dollywood has allowed Herschend to expand signiﬁcantly. The suburban Atlantabased company now owns and runs 10 other U.S. theme parks as well as water parks, resorts, campgrounds, aquariums, a jeeptouring operation and the Harlem Globetrotters. Moody’s estimated the company generated around $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Based on that and other financial information, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index values the business at at least $1.7 billion. It’s entirely owned by the Herschends, who declined to comment on the valuation. Herschend declined to say how large a stake Parton owned in the park but said “considerations” had been made in advance to ensure it would continue as usual following her death. Located in the town of Pigeon Forge (population 6,600), Dollywood sprawls over 165 wooded acres and boasts roller coasters,

numerous music stages, a pair of World War II-era steam trains and a dedicated Dolly museum whose facade is dominated by a glittering pink butterﬂy. In 2024, the most recent year available, it drew 3.1 million visitors, according to the Themed Entertainment Association, making it the 18th-most visited U.S. theme park on a list dominated by Disney attractions. Among seasonal theme parks — Dollywood is open mid-March through early January — it ranks among the top three and is the biggest ticketed tourist venue in Tennessee. The Herschend family business traces back to the early 1950s when Chris’ grandparents — Hugo, a door-to-door vacuum salesman and his wife, Mary, a librarian — came across a cave while on a trip through Missouri. On a whim, they bought the cave and turned it into a tourist attraction. After Hugo’s death in 1955, Mary continued to run the site with her sons Jack and Pete, and expanded it to include a reconstructed 1880s mining town, which they named Silver Dollar

City. After the 1970s oil embargo curtailed road-tripping visitors, the brothers decided to broaden their geography and bought a second park, a small destination in the Smokies that they rebranded as Silver Dollar City, Tennessee. When Parton announced in an interview with Barbara Walters that she wanted to open a theme park in her Tennessee hometown of Sevierville — just up the road from Silver Dollar — “it was like a shot, not an invitation,” Herschend recalled. “It was perceived by us as ‘Oh Lord, we’ve got to ﬁgure this out.’” As it turns out, Parton was a regular visitor to Silver Dollar, where she’d bring her nieces and nephews and set them loose with pocket money. Coincidentally, the mother of the park’s general manager at the time worked at the post ofﬁce with the mother of Parton’s tour bus driver. The moms brokered an introduction and the GM pitched Parton on collaborating after catching up with her at one of her concerts. Convincing Herschend board

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members of the merits of teaming with Parton wasn’t easy, Herschend said. They were wary of some hotshot celebrity running roughshod over the organization. A board member from Nashville, Tennessee, brokered the deadlock and cast the deciding vote, according to Herschend. “He said, ‘Y’all don’t understand,’” Herschend said. “’This is not like most people; she’s one in a billion and you’ve got to do this deal.’” Parton’s talent for storytelling and connecting with people informed both the feel of the park and the speciﬁc attractions, most of which nod to local culture, like stages featuring bluegrass bands and Appalachian roots music, blacksmithing demonstrations and the Lumberjack Lift tower climb. Boosting the region was a major motivation for her founding the park, which is the county’s largest employer and was estimated in 2021 to generate $1.8 billion annually for the local economy. Her business instincts affected the Herschend group in other ways, as well. She encouraged the company to open a resort near Dollywood years ago — a suggestion Herschend said they resisted given it wasn’t their expertise. “She was patient with us as we explained over and over again why we weren’t willing to do it,” Herschend said. Eventually they gave in and the hotel — the Dollywood DreamMore Resort and Spa — was an immediate success, he said. They now have two with a third Dolly Parton-branded hotel under construction in Nashville. In the wake of Parton’s death, Dollywood’s president announced the park’s plans to honor the singer posthumously, including new features like a cascading waterfall with a guitar sculpture next to the park’s existing chapel. “The thing that made Dollywood work was the trust between Dolly and our family and the mutual conﬁdence that each would kind of do our part,” Herschend said. “And Dolly always over-delivered.”

8E ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

PEOPLE IN BUSINESS Staff report South Louisiana businesses and nonprofit groups recently announced the following promotions, new hires and resignations.

Baton Rouge

Amato

Jason Amato has been hired by Louisiana Hospitality Group as the general manager of The St. Francisville Inn & Spa, Hotel Toussaint and The ShadeTree Inn. Amato was previously a multiproperty general manager and senior operations director at Marriott.

Industry Makes, an advocacy association for manufacturing and industrial companies, elected new board members at its recent annual meeting. Newly elected members include: Randy Attuso, director of industry outreach at Cajun Industries; Peyton Chiasson, manager of community relations at OxyChem; Michelle Hardy, vice president of Turner Industries; and Brandon Maxwell, public and government affairs manager for ExxonMobil.

New Orleans Nick Weldon, formerly the senior editor at The Historic New Orleans Collection, has been promoted to director of publications for the free French Quarter museum, research center and publisher. Weldon

Branch

Hodnett

Beth Branch, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, has been elected to a two-year term on the board of the American Association of Port Authorities. Branch, who previously worked for the Alabama Port Authority, the Port of Oakland and shipping company Maersk, was elected to an at-large seat during the association’s annual convention in New Orleans. Bryan Hodnett has been named executive vice president of DonahueFavret Contractors. Hodnett has been with the company for 15 years, most recently as vice president of business development. Lauren Andrews has been named corporate secretary of DonahueFavret. She has been with the company for more than 20 years, most recently as director of administration.

Do you have personnel changes to share or other ideas for our business coverage? Drop us a line at biztips@theadvocate.com. Andrews

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Fool’s Take: Attention chocoholics

Berkshire Hathaway into a trillion-dollar business before retiring as CEO at the end of 2025, after 60-some Hershey (NYSE: HSY) is years. He’s famous for his an iconic consumer staples annual letters to shareholdstock focused on confecers, which are known for being readable, educational tions and and even entertaining. You other snacks. can read most of them at Although the berkshirehathaway.com. company has Here are a few tidbits: expandMotley been n 1996: “You don’t have to ing its busiFool ness to include be an expert on every comitems like pany, or even many. You only popcorn and pretzels, one of have to be able to evaluate its most important products companies within your circle remains chocolate. of competence. The size of It’s an affordable luxury that circle is not very importhat consumers love, and tant; knowing its boundaries, Hershey’s sales seem to keep however, is vital.” n 1989: “It’s far better to rising. In the second quarter, buy a wonderful company at Hershey reported consolia fair price than a fair comdated net sales up 6.6% year pany at a wonderful price.” n 1977: In discussing how over year to $2.8 billion. A shocking rise in cocoa he evaluates stocks: “We prices, a key input in making want the business to be (1) chocolate, is a concern, and one that we can understand, investors worry it could hurt (2) with favorable long-term Hershey. But Hershey isn’t prospects, (3) operated sitting still; it’s controlling by honest and competent the things it can. people, and (4) available at a Cocoa is a commodity, very attractive price.” n 1997: “Only those who and Hershey has to take the price volatility in stride. It will be sellers … in the near has been raising prices, cutfuture should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospecting costs and attempting to improve its business eftive purchasers should much prefer sinking prices.” ficiency. (It also briefly cut n 2013: “My advice to the the cocoa content of some products, though it has since trustee (of my estate) could reversed that decision.) not be more simple: Put 10% Eventually, cocoa prices will of the cash in short-term normalize. Investors, howgovernment bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 ever, have treated the stock as if cocoa prices will remain index fund. (I suggest Vaninflated forever. Even in that guard’s.) I believe the trust’s situation, costs would get long-term results from this passed on to consumers over policy will be superior to time. those attained by most inChocolate is way too vestors — whether pension popular for people to simfunds, institutions or individply stop eating it. So one uals — who employ high-fee way or another, Hershey is managers.” likely to return to growth, In 1962, before taking making now a good time to over Berkshire, Buffett also buy in. Hershey’s forwardwrote: “I think you can be looking price-to-earnings quite sure that over the next ratio was recently 18, below ten years there are going to its five-year average of 24, be a few years when the gensuggesting an undervalued eral market is plus 20% or stock. (The Motley Fool owns 25%, a few when it is minus shares of and recommends on the same order, and a maHershey.) jority when it is in between. I haven’t any notion as to the sequence in which these will occur, nor do I think it is of any great importance for the long-term investor.” Warren Buffett built

Fool’s School: Lessons from Warren Buffett

Y’all see Jan Risher’s new story?

We did! On the new Advocate app!

Wait, you’re reading it on the app?

We are!

Ask the Fool: When to sell?

When should I sell a stock? — S.A., Lawrence, Kansas One good reason is if you simply need the money now — or within the next ﬁve or 10 years. (Remember that the stock market can pull back sharply at any time, and you don’t want that to happen just before you are going to sell.) If you’ve realized that you just don’t understand the company very well or how it makes money, that’s another reason to sell; yet another is if you don’t really know why you own it. If the reason you bought it is no longer valid — perhaps due to a merger or a decline in revenue — you should consider selling. You might also sell if you have found a much more compelling investment. Don’t jump in and out of stocks rapidly, though, without giving them time to deliver for you. (Rapid trading can also trigger higher tax bills on short-term capital gains.) For best results, keep your money in your most promising stocks — and be patient. How many mutual funds exist? — J.K., Holly Springs, North Carolina According to the Institute of Business & Finance, there were recently about 6,800 mutual funds in the U.S. — down from a peak of about 8,000. While the number of traditional mutual funds has declined, the number of exchange-traded funds — funds that trade like stocks — has been surging, growing by more than 1,000 in 2025 to total around 5,000. Both kinds of funds feature pooled

money invested in portfolios of various securities. To learn more about investing in funds, visit Morningstar.com or the “How to Invest” nook at fool.com.

Dumbest Investment: ‘Massive’ 37% gain I’ve been investing in individual stocks for more than 20 years.The Great Recession provided fantastic opportunities, and I bought some cheap stocks between 2008 and 2010. One that really haunts me is Nvidia, but not for the reason you might expect. I bought it at $7.50 per share — which, after splits, would be $0.19 per share. I was still a somewhat novice investor and hadn’t yet developed a long-term mindset — so after about six months, I sold the shares for a MASSIVE gain of 37% and never bought the stock again.After all, it was nothing more than a cyclical semiconductor company.Those shares today would be worth around 1,200 times my original investment. Ouch! — R.B., online It can be hard for newish investors to appreciate that by not reaping a 37% gain — or even a 137% gain — they may end up with a much bigger proﬁt. You shouldn’t hold stocks blindly, but if you keep up with your holdings regularly and your faith in their growth potential remains intact, hanging on for years or even decades can often deliver the best results. And if you’re ever torn about whether to sell, you could split the difference and just sell half your shares. Do you have a smart or regrettable investment move to share with us? Email it to tmfshare@fool. com.

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MADE IN LOUISIANA Growing printer keeps its eye on the big picture Elmwood-based company counts casinos, Saints among clients

Planning for growth

BY GRACE MAYER Staff writer

Industrial-size machines create a cacophony of whirring and humming inside Crystal Clear Imaging Production’s warehouse in Elmwood — the sound of printers, laminators and sewing machines putting brand logos and images onto sturdy signs, weather-resistant tarps and yards of vinyl that will be stuck onto the sides of skyscrapers. During particularly busy periods — which is often for CCI, now that football season is underway — the machines may run 24 hours a day for weeks on end. “Super Bowls, especially, are insane,” said John Davidson, 58, the company’s chief financial officer. “It’s exhausting.” CCI’s 35-person team is known as one of the largest sports graphics and marketing materials companies in the country — and experts in executing large-scale projects. Locally, it has been known for putting wraps on downtown New Orleans skyscrapers and the Caesars Superdome. But it took about a decade of pivots and lucky breaks before CCI broke into the sports business — landing deals with the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans and the Superdome in 2005 — that the company found its sweet spot and embarked on a growth trajectory that continues more than two decades later. Today, CCI prints between 300 and 400 jobs a month, including signs, billboards, and wall and building graphics, from its 25,000-squarefoot facility. Sales, which neared $8.5 million last year, are on track to grow 10% this year. If the company hadn’t landed those deals in the wake of Hurri-

PROVIDED PHOTO By CCI PRODUCTIONS

A large format printer runs at CCI Productions in Elmwood. cane Katrina, CEO Arthur Boisfon- fell through. “We basically put our houses up taine said, “We’d be starving. It was to buy this printer,” Boisfontaine all about the pivot to sports.” said. “We bought that machine for Growing the business that contract, and then that contract In 1999, Boisfontaine was work- didn’t happen.” Boisfontaine made a quick pivot. ing for a former printing company in the area but was young, rest- He started calling local casinos — less and eager to branch out on his and hit the jackpot: The business own. He approached his childhood began printing and laminating marfriend, John Davidson, the com- keting materials and wraps for slot pany’s chief financial officer, who machines for a handful of casinos. was working for a law firm at the Within six years, the company was time, with an idea born more out of working with casinos across the Gulf Coast. instinct than strategy. “He came to my house and said, ‘Look, I don’t know how to run a Casinos to sports stadiums business, but I can sell it,’” DavidIn 2005, when Katrina hit, promptson said. ing casinos to close and wiping out They each put $10,000 of their much of CCI’s business, the comown money into the business, start- pany had to change course again, ing small by working out of David- printing yard signs and other work son’s home. They printed CD covers for contractors who were competwith a handful of small copiers they ing for construction and rebuilding purchased, and gradually worked projects. As commercial clients up to bigger projects, including ve- received insurance settlements to rebuild, they would upgrade office hicle wraps. They soon landed a sizable con- spaces — which included new intetract with New Orleans that al- rior and exterior signage from CCI. Then, in December 2005, the lowed CCI to crystalize a long-term vision for the business. They bought Saints announced they were returna $400,000 printer and signed a ing to the city after briefly moving five-year lease for their first office to San Antonio following Katrina. space in Elmwood. The printer, Boisfontaine landed a meeting with which could do large-scale prints the Saints’ executive team and got a roughly the size of a sofa, was sit- contract. He chalks up persistence ting in their new, sparsely furnished in his sales pitch with winning the 2,500-square-foot office when things work.

CCI’s art department, a small room walled off from its larger warehouse space, begins each project by creating mock-ups of visuals for its clients. From there, concepts get turned into product. From a mounted wooden table the size of a semitruck, workers roll out and measure materials, from Plexiglas to vinyl to fabric. Those materials are then fed into one of the dozen industrial-size machines inside CCI’s printing facility, including latex printers, fabric printers, flatbed machines that print directly onto signs, liquid lamination and sewing machines. All the machines are denoted with various superhero names, such as Iron Man and the Bumblebee the Transformer, a hulking yellow printer that is used for CCI’s largest project, including 20-story building wraps. From the warehouse, an inhouse team will then transport and install the signage for clients. While business is brisk, CCI is facing the same headwinds battering lots of small businesses. Supply chain shortages for ink, which is made of petroleum and other chemicals that are sourced from different countries, are driving up costs. Shipping routes have changed amid international conﬂicts, which have caused delays and shortages. CCI is working on stocking up with vendors to avoid delays. “We have a big job in here right now that we’re trying to get done, and we had to wait ﬁve days to get ink,” Davidson. “Usually we have them the next morning.” As it plans for future growth, CCI is looking beyond Louisiana, where 60% of its clients are located. Boisfontaine said the company is particularly interested in healthcare and festivals, two sectors with untapped potential. “We see opportunity outside of New Orleans, too,” Boisfontaine said. “We’re going to utilize our platform to really attack some of that.”

He was equally as dogged about winning work with the Superdome, a separate account that required restoring signage and branding at the stadium, which weathered substantial damage from Katrina. “I kept showing up at the Superdome every day and ﬁnally one of the guys was like, just give this guy something,” Boisfontaine said. “We wound up winning the business to really redo 80% of all the Superdome.” They were huge accounts for CCI, which enabled Boisfontaine and Davidson to purchase and move into their current office space in Elmwood, a stout black building stretching more than 25,000 square feet a few blocks behind the Elmwood Shopping Center. Since then, CCI has worked with numerous sports teams around the country, including the Las Vegas Raiders, San Francisco Giants and Denver Broncos. The company also regularly does work for Nike and Adidas. It has printed materials for Super Bowls, NCAA National Championships and MBA All-Star games. “We’ve beneﬁted because there’s a lot of movement from team to team and with the management personnel,” Davidson said. “Now, we have people that worked with the Saints who are all over the country, Email Grace Mayer at grace. and they all call us.” mayer@theadvocate.com.

Working What’s

in Greater New Orleans business

with Michael Hecht President & CEO GNO Inc.

New Orleans = New Energy Last month, two alternative energy companies selected New Orleans for their new headquarters: Australian battery materials maker Sicona in New Orleans East, and advanced nuclear developer Applied Atomics in Bywater. For decades, oil and gas have made Louisiana a global energy leader, and today that same expertise is attracting cutting-edge energy technologies. Under the state’s all-of-the-above strategy, batteries, nuclear, hydrogen, renewables, and more are growing alongside traditional energy. Sicona’s path to New Orleans began on a 2025 business mission to Australia, where GNO, Inc., World Trade Center New Orleans, and Louisiana Economic Development met with the company. Sicona later acquired local battery materials startup ADVANO and is bringing production to the New Orleans Regional Business Park, located across from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, while keeping research activity at LSU New Orleans Research and Technology Park. Sicona’s New Orleans East facility is expected to produce enough material for more than 3 million battery cells, with applications ranging from data center backup systems to drones and defense. Said Sicona Founder and CEO Christiaan Jordaan: “This is our home now for what we want to do in America.”

You can read more about Sicona here

Applied Atomics, led by two former SpaceX employees, came to Louisiana through its ties to Newlab New Orleans, which GNO, Inc. and partners brought to Louisiana. The company is operating from Newlab’s beta space, while it converts a 18,500-square-foot building on Chartres Street into its headquarters, fabrication shop, and training center. The $8.2 million project will create 41 jobs averaging $121,000. No radioactive materials will be handled or stored at the site. Applied Atomics is

You can read more about Applied Atomics here

coming at a time when Louisiana’s Nuclear Strategic Framework, launched in March, targets related manufacturing, generation, and fuel work. Further, NASA is beginning to explore nuclear power for spaceships. Applied Atomics CEO Ben Kellie told The Advocate, “It’s a great location strategically and a really enjoyable place to be.” More power to you.

A greater choice for business

gnoinc.org

10E ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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Global experience. Louisiana expertise. Gallagher is committed to serving Louisiana, combining client-centric service with global resources. We’re a trusted partner for businesses and individuals seeking insurance, risk management and consulting solutions.

Connect with your local broker today. AJG.com/louisiana | The Gallagher Way. Since 1927.

The Advocate ■ theadvocate.com ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ 1F

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MANAGEMENT Advisory Manager - Application Development Services – Baton Rouge, LA. Designing, developing, and testing scalable, secure, and responsive web applications – C#, .NET, SQL, JavaScript; Implementing data warehouses, devel‐ oping SSIS ETL processes, and power BI dashboard providing real time data an‐ alytics to clients; Developing scalable microservices applications; Develop‐ ing solutions for large amounts of data processing and transferring by con‐ suming enterprise APIs; and Working on multiple active projects in Scrum/Agile environment and effi‐ ciently managing tasks between pro‐ jects using JIRA issue tracking system. Send resume to: Tammy Dehne, Eisner Advisory Group LLC, 2501 S Wayzata Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55405.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Em‐ ployer. Avoyelles Parish Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, color national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, or other prot ected class in employment or the provision of ser‐ vices. ENGINEERING Formosa Plastics Corporation, Louisiana, located in Baton Rouge, LA (jobsite), is looking for a full-time Pro‐ ject Engineer with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Electronics Engineering and 2 years related work experience. Job duties include devel‐ oping and implementing processes and procedures to optimize vinyl chlo‐ ride monomer wastewater ethylene dichloride removal column operations to reduce the steam usage, developing and implementing processes and pro‐ cedures to optimize vinyl chloride monomer ethylene dichloride reboiler distillation columns to lower energy consumption and improve operational safety, troubleshooting distillation col‐ umn operating anomalies, developing and implementing processes and pro‐ cedures to optimize AI-assisted radi‐ ographic testing and non-destructive inspection workflows to improve the real-time defect detection and struc‐ tural integrity for critical piping and process equipment, developing and modifying programs for logic con‐ trollers, developing advanced process control, and troubleshooting electrical equipment failures and taking correc‐ tive actions. Send resume to P.O. Box 271, 5 Gulf States Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70805 Attn: HR Manager.

PUBLIC NOTICE -- The Louisiana Ofﬁce of the State Museum is re‐ questing proposals for a Public-Private Partner‐ ship project to design, build, furnish, operate, and maintain an in‐ door/outdoor café at the New Orleans Jazz Mu‐ seum. For more informa‐ tion go to opportuni‐ tiesinlouisiana.com. 202696-oct 2-20-t $93.29

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PUBLIC NOTICE --Burns & McDonnell on behalf of Cloud Connec‐ tor, LLC is requesting au‐ thorization to construct a natural gas pipeline be‐ tween an interconnect station near Melville, Louisiana in St. Landry Parish, and Venture Global Plaquemines LNG, LLC and Plaquemines Ex‐ pansion, LLC Terminals in Plaquemines Parish. The U.S. Army Corps of Engi‐ neers (CEMVN) will be accepting public com‐ ments on the project until October 8, 2026. To further review and/or provide comments, addi‐ tional information and plans related to the pro‐ posal may be obtained at the following website: www.mvn.usace.army. mil/missions/regulatory/ public-notices (see Ref#: MVN-2026-00308-BV). If you have any questions or would like additional information, please con‐ tact Courtland Vice with CEMVN, Regulatory Divi‐ sion at (504) 862-1349 or at courtland.l.vice@ usace.army.mil. A certiﬁ‐ i h h d

GENERAL HELP Personal Care Aide Needed To provide aid to persons who require help with personal care and household duties. Work will be performed in Baton Rouge in the home of the care recipient. Contact VN2US at 225-767-1070

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Invested Enterprise seeks Senior Appli‐ cation Programmer to work in Baton Rouge, LA. Applicants please send CVs to Invested Enterprise, at info@Investe dEnterprise.com

y cation that the proposed activity will not violate applicable water quality standards will be re‐ quired from the LDEQ be‐ fore a Department of the Army permit could be is‐ sued. 201952-SEP 28-OCT 8-11T $1,405.06

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PUBLIC NOTICE --Redwood Cemetery As‐ sociation annual meeting to be held October 11, 2026 at 2 PM in Redwood Church Annex. We encourage members to attend. 200897-sep 26-27-oct 3-44t $134.36

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GENERAL HELP Nanny Needed To provide care for children and sup‐ port to parents in private households. Work will be performed in Baton Rouge in the home of the family. Contact VN2US at 225-767-1070

GENERAL HELP The Diocese of B.R. Child Nutrition Pro‐ gram is seeking FT school Cafeteria Mgrs., Cooks, & Porters. HS Diploma or Equiv. and BG Check req. Apply at www.cnpbr.org/employment.

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Make a little salt taste like a lot PAGE 3

DISCOVERy | INNOVATION | LIVING WELL

HEALTH

LOUISIANA

N O L A.C O M & T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

S U N D AY, O c t O b e r 4, 2026

Molly Kimball 1N

Groups help musicians get health insurance Nonprofits help performers pay premiums

BY OLIVIA ALDRIGE KUT in Austin

STAFF FILE PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

Coffee breakdown Is coffee good or bad? It depends, Louisiana expert says.

Contributing writer

Q&A WITH DR. CARL ‘CHIP’ LAVIE

Dr. Carl “Chip” Lavie has been a cardiologist at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans since 1989, specializing in preventive cardiology, obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation, exercise physiology, and advanced cardiac imaging. He has been an active researcher with more than 1,900 medical articles. Lavie published his ﬁrst paper on the effects of drinking coffee 15 years ago, at a time when public perception was that caffeine and coffee were bad for you. Is that how you first became interested in the health effects related to coffee consumption? Coffee is one of the most commonly consumed pharmacologically active beverages across the world, with over 50% of Americans above the age of 18 drinking coffee on a daily basis, and another 30% of the population consuming it occasionally. The remarkably high prevalence and frequent consumption of this beverage is a big opportunity, because even small health effects from coffee — positive or negative — could translate into

thing negative about coffee’s effects on us. This narrative suggested that its stimulatory effects could raise blood pressure and cause adverse effects on our health and well-being. But as we engaged in studies, the data we had told a different story: that low to moderate coffee consumption was neutral or potentially even beneﬁcial for cardiovascular health. So it seems like our understanding of coffee has really been on a journey. Middle Eastern doctors appear to have understood that there was something beneﬁcial about consuming coffee for more than a thousand years. But as PROVIDED PHOTO recently as late last century, there was a debate over whether coffee could be ABOVE: Dr. Carl ‘Chip’ Lavie is a raising cancer rates. cardiologist at the John Ochsner Heart The narrative now seems to be shifting back. and Vascular Institute in New Orleans. How long has the medical field understood that TOP: A barista pours a shot of coffee into coffee might be doing something positive for us? a cup in March at Flora in New Orleans. It really has been a recent thing. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, there was a suggestion that there could be some large effects on public health. It just so happens that for decades, ä See COFFEE, page 2X the public narrative was saying some-

BY MATT HAINES

AUSTIN,Texas — Musician Zack Morgan jokes that when he lost his corporate job in 2015, it was like being pushed off a cliff. For years, he said, he’d been playing both sides of the Austin coin: tech worker by day, funk keyboardist by night. “Maybe this is my sign to try the full-time music thing,” Morgan recalled thinking. “Step one in that was: Get health insurance again.” Austin bills itself as “the Live Music Capital of the World,” but it can be unaffordable for the artists who provide the city with its cultural cachet — and help drive its tourism revenue. Morgan has supported himself by patching together gigs with a number of bands. To help pay for health insurance, he turned to a local nonproﬁt, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. “That’s part of being able to make this whole thing work,” Morgan said. HAAM subsidizes the monthly insurance premiums of local musicians who purchase plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. To fund the roughly $4 million program, it works with Central Health, a public agency that provides healthcare resources for low-income residents of Austin and surrounding Travis County. Many of the performing artists pay $0 toward monthly premiums. After more than a decade, including through the coronavirus pandemic, the assistance program has become an established and reliable ﬁnancial support for Austin’s musician community. This year, after Congress failed to extend pandemic-era subsidies, premiums skyrocketed for many ACA plans. A recent report found that 5 million people nationwide

ä See MUSICIANS, page 2X

KUT NEWS PHOTO By ySA MENDOZA

Zack Morgan plays keyboard for a number of bands in Austin, Texas. He’s been a full-time musician since 2015. He turned to an Austin nonprofit to help afford health insurance.

More answers. More memories. GET SCREENED Breast Cancer Awareness

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Man has minimally invasive, robotic-assisted lung surgery The single-port approach Procedure by allows surgeons to operate through a single incision usTulane surgeon ing similar robotic technolaccording to the Mayo is first performed ogy, Clinic. Single-port robotic surgery has been used in in Louisiana other specialties for several

BY MARGARET DeLANEY Staff writer

A Tulane surgeon performed the ﬁrst lung resection in Louisiana, Arkansas or Mississippi using robotic-assisted technology that reduces post-surgical pain and lengthy hospital stays, the university’s school of medicine announced. Dennis O’Neil, 77, was in recovery for colon cancer when imaging found malignant cancer cells in his right lung. He would need a lobectomy, the removal of a section of a lung called a lobe. Instead of performing traditional open surgery, which involves a large incision up the torso and rib-cracking, Dr. Wassim Abi Jaoude performed a minimally invasive technique in July at LCMC’s East Jefferson Hospital using a single port.

years, such as for lymphedema and prostate cancer care. The single port allowed Abi Jaoude to complete the operation through one incision, 3 to 4 centimeters long, below O’Neil’s rib cage. By avoiding the spaces between the ribs, the approach reduces irritation to the nerves along the spaces between ribs and the chest wall. “This advancement represents a major step forward in thoracic oncology,” said Abi Jaoude, assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine. “By utilizing a single incision, we can offer our patients enhanced surgical precision alongside signiﬁcantly reduced pain and faster recovery times.” Open surgery typically takes between three and six

surgery, including pulmonary lobectomies, in 2025 after a six-month clinical trial period at multiple U.S. institutions. The ﬁrst successful lung resection using robotics was in 2021 in a 70-year-old woman who was operated on for 31/ 2 hours and went home three days later. O’Neil, Louisiana’s first patient, went home two days after his surgery. Bringing the single-port thoracic surgery program to the hospital required months of education, simulation, laboratory training and credentialing for Abi Jaoude. Members of the cardiothoracic operating room team also completed specialized training. “We are still pioneers and KENNy LASS / TULANE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE early adopters,” Abi Jaoude said. “The fact that we are Wassim Abi Jaoude, right, shakes hands with Dennis O’Neil, the patient who became the able to offer this technique first person in Louisiana, Arkansas or Mississippi to undergo a single-port robotic-assisted at East Jefferson through lobectomy for lung cancer. Tulane is a milestone in creating a center of excellence hours because it requires a Early clinical experience hospital stays and faster for thoracic oncology.” larger incision and spread- across major U.S. medical return to baseline activities. ing of the ribs. The in-hos- centers shows reduced postThe FDA cleared the use Email Margaret DeLaney pital stay is usually up to a operative pain, lower nar- of the da Vinci Single-Port at margaret.delaney@ week long. cotic requirements, shorter robotic system for thoracic theadvocate.com.

MUSICIANS

members with an independent insurance agent who helps them find the best health plan for their needs. The nonprofit then offers members a monthly subsidy of $100. The subsidies are a way of keeping Denton’s culture of jazz and “weird art rock” alive, said the collaborative’s president, Jennifer Kapinos. “More and more people were maybe graduating college and leaving and going to find better opportunities in other places,” Kapinos said. “People who had lived here a long time suddenly were finding it harder and harder to afford to be here.” In Austin, other sectors have been watching HAAM’s work. In 2025, Good Work Austin, a nonprofit that advocates for restaurant workers, launched

a small pilot program with Central Health to help local food workers enroll in Sendero plans and cover their premiums. Kit Abney Spelce, vice president of operations for Central Health, said partnering with an advocacy group focused on a particular workforce is key because simply announcing “free insurance for you” doesn’t mean people will sign up. “We are very much dependent on our partner entity to go out and connect with the community, to have that relationship and that trust,” she said. Though premium payments often increase year over year, the 2026 plan year was particularly expensive, increasing by 58% on average. Citing medical and pharmacy costs, Sendero raised rates by an average of 16% for its enrollees. At the same time, Congress allowed the pandemic-era enhanced premium tax credits to expire, reducing the federal subsidies that many marketplace customers relied on. “Our premiums for our members went up 60% from one year to the next,” Blair said. HAAM stepped up its fundraising into 2026, but it wasn’t enough to cover everyone who requested assistance. They had to turn away hundreds of qualiﬁed people. Still, they were able to buffer existing members, said Spelce with Central Health. “We’re going to make sure their monthly premium is paid every month,” she said. Beyond the eligible musicians they turned away in 2026, another population remains out of HAAM’s coverage reach for premium

assistance: Austin’s poorest residents. Under the ACA, the marketplace plans that HAAM helps subsidize are for lowand middle-income earners, but the people with the very lowest incomes — below 100% of the federal poverty level, set at about $15,000 — are supposed to be covered by expanded Medicaid. But Texas is one of 10 states that chose not to expand Medicaid after the ACA became law, so many of the poorest Texans remain uncovered. With no federal subsidies available for that group, HAAM and Central Health have tried to develop separate solutions for this subpopulation. Central Health has its Medical Access Program, an alternative to health insurance that gives low-income, uninsured people access to a network of local care providers. HAAM has also established relationships with primary care providers to serve its uninsured members — but Blair acknowledges it’s not an equivalent beneﬁt to what Medicaid expansion would offer. “It’s not a very sustainable solution, especially when there’s a really good alternative,” Blair said.

people that would most benefit from drinking coffee, and others who would most benefit from avoiding it? I have not reviewed or studied coffee consumption during pregnancy. But, as I mentioned, super-high doses could worsen some heart rhythm disturbances, so people with serious ventricular rhythm disturbances, for example, may be best advised to limit consumption to one to two cups per day. On the other hand, people struggling with obesity or insulin resistance, such as those with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes could beneﬁt the most from

incorporating coffee consumption into their daily routine. Is all coffee consumption created equal, or are there some do’s and don’ts we should consider? Black coffee is probably better, but the studies do not completely answer this question. It seems obvious that sugar and heavy creams can have adverse effects and could negate some of coffee’s benefits, at least theoretically. If you want milk in your coffee, nonfat milk is probably a smart option. Another thing to think about is that unfiltered coffee is worse than filtered, because unfiltered coffee

preparation methods like with a French press contains higher levels of diterpenes. These compounds signal the liver to produce more LDL cholesterol, which is not a good thing. Is there anything else you want readers to know about how coffee drinking might affect their health? We are still learning a lot, and there are randomized controlled trials that need to be conducted, but what seems increasingly clear is that the beneﬁts of low to moderate coffee and caffeine consumption outweigh the risks. I think that is important information for the public to understand.

Continued from page 1X had dropped the coverage. HAAM helped blunt the impact for its members. It has emerged as a potential model for other cities hoping to make healthcare more affordable for key populations and industries. Texas had the highest uninsured rate among states, with 19% of people age 64 and under uninsured, as of 2024. Even before the launch of the ACA marketplace in 2014, HAAM had spent a decade connecting musicians with free and low-cost care at clinics and hospitals in and around Austin. But roughly 85% of HAAM members remained uninsured, leaving them exposed when traveling to gigs in other cities and states. “When the Affordable Care Act came out, and we knew it was here to stay, it really made sense for us to start getting our musicians fully insured,” said Rachel Blair, HAAM’s chief strategy ofﬁcer. Similar nonproﬁts in other U.S. cities with strong live music cultures, such as Seattle, New Orleans, and Nashville, Tennessee, help musicians get medical care. With the advent of the ACA, some of these organizations began helping musicians navigate the sometimes complex enrollment process for the online marketplaces, though they stopped short of pitching in on premiums. But the team at HAAM recognized that without direct support to help pay premiums, many of their members would still struggle to retain coverage.

KUT NEWS PHOTO By SHUNyA CARROLL

Austin-based Latin-folk singer Gina Chavez plays on the steps of the Texas State Capitol in 2025 for the HAAM Day Music Festival, an annual fundraiser for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. “When you think about the average HAAM member making about $30,000 a year, there’s no way that they would be able to spend a third of their income on healthcare,” Blair said. The organization’s membership has grown by 77% to more than 3,300 people since HAAM began offering premium assistance, and more than 90% of members are now insured. To help subsidize costs for members, HAAM partnered with Central Health, which is Travis County’s public hospital district — a type of health agency in Texas charged with using tax dollars to fund safety net healthcare for low-income residents. Central Health also operates the nonproﬁt Sendero Health Plans, which offers marketplace insur-

ance to Travis County residents. To qualify, HAAM members must enroll in one of Sendero’s silver-level, or benchmark, plans. If their income is between one and two times the federal poverty level, Central Health pays the balance of their monthly premium after federal tax credits are applied. For members who fall above that income range, HAAM offers a more limited subsidy, covering 50% of their premium balances. In 2017, HAAM helped set up a similar program in Denton, a college town north of Dallas that has served as a testing ground for successful musicians, from Meat Loaf to Norah Jones. The Denton Music and Arts Collaborative works differently: It connects

COFFEE

Continued from page 1X beneﬁts, but most of the evidence has only been accumulated in the past 15 to 20 years. Part of what confused the data before this was a notable subgroup of our population that were both chain-smoking and very heavy coffee drinkers. This made it look like there were risks related to coffee that should have actually been attributed to smoking. Let’s get to the benefits that have been uncovered.What have you found? Research suggests that coffee can help lower risks of high blood pressure, obesity, atrial ﬁbrillation, stroke and potentially lower risks of cardiovascular diseases including coronary heart disease. The data also shows it may help reduce insulin resistance which could lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes. My focus is on the heart, but research has also linked coffee consumption with a reduction in depression, asthma, certain malig-

STAFF FILE PHOTO By JILL PICKETT

A Brick Street Coffee employee serves up a drink in June at the restaurant in Minden. nancies, liver disease, GI diseases and even in slowing cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Is this a situation where the more coffee we can consume in a day the better? That deﬁnitely wouldn’t be my recommendation. I would suggest somewhere between one to four cups per day. There is some data to suggest that much higher doses

of coffee could be connected to higher mortality rates, at least in young people under age 55. There is also some connection between coffee consumption and an increase in premature ventricular contractions, which are extra abnormal heartbeats that are most often harmless. There seems to be some evidence that, for example, pregnant women should limit the amount of coffee they drink.Are there groups of

This article is from a partnership that includes KUT, NPR, and KFF Health News. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU The Louisiana Health section is focused on providing in-depth, personal accounts of health in the state.This section looks at medical innovations, health discoveries, state and national health statistics and reexamining tried and true methods on ways to live well.

Health editions will also profile people who are advancing health for the state of Louisiana. Do you have a health story? We want to hear from you. Email margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com to submit health questions, stories and more.

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Eat Fit Live Fit B R O U G H T TO YO U BY

Molly Kimball RD, CSSD

Salt: how to make a little taste like a lot

alt has become one of those ingredients we’re conditioned to think of as something to eliminate. But sodium isn’t inherently bad. It’s an essential nutrient that helps regulate fluid balance and hydration, and supports normal nerve and muscle function. The key is getting the amount that’s right for you. General guidelines recommend limiting sodium to 2,300 mg daily, and closer to 1,500 mg for many people with high blood pressure. In last week’s column on blood pressure, we explained how sodium isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some of us are more salt-sensitive than others, while someone working or training for hours in Louisiana heat may be losing significant amounts of sodium through sweat. So, if we’re going to use salt, there’s another question worth asking: How can we make a little salt taste like a lot?

Put Salt Where You’ll Taste It

Instead of salting throughout the cooking process, consider building flavor in other ways and strategically using smaller amounts of salt. There’s science behind this. How salt is distributed within a food can influence how salty we perceive it to be. In one study, researchers were able to reduce sodium by up to 25% while maintaining perceived saltiness simply by changing where the salt was positioned within the food. Even the shape of the salt crystals can matter. Research comparing different types of salt found that certain crystal structures, including Maldon sea salt flakes, have up to 17% greater perceived saltiness at the same sodium content. This is one reason I love using flaked sea salt as a finishing salt. Think wholegrain sourdough, toasted and drizzled with olive oil, then finished with just

a few flakes. Those little bursts of saltiness hit your tongue directly rather than dissolving into the entire dish. Chef Meg Bickford, executive chef of longtime Eat Fit partner Commander’s Palace, takes a similar approach in the kitchen. “Our dishes are typically seasoned multiple times throughout the cooking process to build complexity and nuance,” said Bickford. “That seasoning does not always need to include salt.” Instead, she builds flavor through caramelized aromatics, acids, spices and plenty of fresh and dried herbs. “I love acid. I crave it,” said Bickford. Lemon juice is one of her favorites when reducing sodium, along with rice wine and sugarcane vinegars. She also uses an abundance of fresh herbs, including parsley, thyme, tarragon, basil and chives. After building those layers of flavor, Bickford said salt can be added at the very end, giving us greater control over how much ultimately lands in the dish.

Is Sea Salt Actually Lower in Sodium?

A teaspoon of coarse sea salt may contain less sodium than a teaspoon of ﬁnely ground table salt. But that’s mostly

red salt traditionally gets its color from iron-rich volcanic clay, while gray salt picks up different minerals and clay from the salt beds where it’s harvested. Some Hawaiian-style black salts are actually sea salt blended with activated charcoal. And yes, those trace minerals are really in there. Pink Himalayan salt, for example, contains more calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron than ordinary white salt. But we’d have to consume an excessive amount of sodium to obtain nutritionally signiﬁcant quantities of those minerals. So when it comes to specialty salts, use them if you enjoy their ﬂavor, color and texture – but don’t consider them a mineral supplement.

Don’t Forget Iodine

because of density: those larger, irregular crystals don’t pack as tightly, leaving more air between them, compared to the more finely ground salts – so less actual salt fits onto the spoon. Compare them gram for gram, however, and they’re essentially the same in sodium. That’s not to say that specialty salts don’t have other benefits. Pink Himalayan salt gets its color from trace minerals, including iron. Hawaiian

Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD, is a registered dietitian with Ochsner Health and founder of Ochsner’s Eat Fit nonproﬁt initiative. For more wellness content, tune in to Molly’s podcast, FUELED Wellness + Nutrition, and follow @MollykimballRD and @EatFitOchsner on social media. Email nutrition@ochsner.org to connect with Molly or schedule a consult with her team.

There’s one key nutritional difference worth noting: iodized table salt provides iodine, an essential mineral needed to make thyroid hormones. If you’ve completely replaced iodized salt with sea salt, Himalayan salt or other specialty salts, make sure you’re getting iodine elsewhere. Seafood, dairy and eggs can provide it, and many multivitamins contain iodine. The recommended daily amount for most adults is 150 mcg, so check the label.

Bottom Line on Sodium

Finally, keep in mind that our palates can adapt. Research suggests that when we consistently eat less sodium, our preferred level of saltiness can gradually drop as well. The goal doesn’t have to be eliminating salt altogether. Build ﬂavor with acid, herbs, spices and aromatics, and add salt where it delivers the greatest impact. Salt can still have a place at the table – we just don’t need it doing all the work.

Research: Schoolchildren leaving critical thinking to AI dpa (TNS) WASHINGTON — Schoolchildren are dispensing with analytical thinking as they increasingly lean on artiﬁcial intelligence, a fast-changing technology that many teenagers struggle to understand, a new survey shows. The research, published in August by U.S.-based media advice organization Common Sense Media, showed that pupils are forego-

ing “critical thinking” as the use of chatbots in the classroom expands. Around 40% of those asked said they suspected that using AI is not helping them learn, agreeing that relying on chatbots means they generate fewer ideas of their own. Around six in ten of the approximately 1,000 participants that use AI do so to get an answer to their schoolwork, with a quarter not bothering to rephrase the response and 31% changing the wording to

make the response sound like their own. In cases where schools block AI platforms, six in ten pupils turned to personal devices to access chatbots for help with assignments. However, almost three-quarters of those surveyed said they have not been instructed or advised how to use AI “safely.” “Students understand that AI threatens learning, but the reality is that it is too tempting and con-

venient for them to look the other way,” said Common Sense Media chief executive Jim Steyer, who called on adults to provide children with skills to use the technology “responsibly.” Previous research has suggested that adults — including those in elite professions — are as susceptible as teenagers to letting AI do their thinking for them. In 2025, Microsoft found multiple signs of reduced cognitive effort

and less critical thinking in a survey of over 300 knowledge workers. The latest findings were published as another poll showed that, for the first time, a majority of young adults are “more concerned than excited” about AI, with only 10% of under-30’s feeling “excited.” Published by the Pew Research Center, the survey found 52% of all age groups deeming themselves as concerned that AI could lead to mass unemployment.

Study eyes connection between climate change and ER visits BY WILLIAM TONG

The Dallas Morning News (TNS) DALLAS — Across the country, at least a quarter of emergency room visits for heat-related illness may be attributable to human-caused climate change, researchers from Climate Central, a nonproﬁt group, estimate in a new study. Published in the September issue of Climatic Change, a scientiﬁc journal, the researchers’ peer-reviewed analysis suggests climate change contributed to about 27% of heat-related ER visits in the U.S. during warm seasons from 2018 through 2025. Heat-related illness is on the rise across the United States. Yale School of Public Health researchers found that heat-related deaths increased by more than 50% between 2000 and 2020. “Our healthcare system is pretty strained, when we think of emergency medicine in particular,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central. “This data is giving us a baseline that we know we’d be building on if we continue warming our planet.” Climate change’s impact on ER visits varies by region, Dahl’s team found. In the Southern Plains area containing Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, the researchers estimated human-caused climate change contributed about 25% to the rate of heat-related ER visits. While climate change generally contributed to a bigger share of the rate in regions with milder

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS/TNS FILE PHOTO By SMILEy N. POOL

A person walks on a warm day in Dallas. Heat-related illness is on the rise across the United States. summers, the South still had a higher absolute rate due to humancaused climate change, researchers wrote. They estimated about 57 of every 100,000 ER visits in the region containing Texas were for climate change-contributed heat illnesses. On average, about 225 of every 100,000 ER visits in the re-

gion were heat-related. Dahl said climate change’s contribution to heat-related illness will likely grow without major human actions to reverse course. To calculate their results, Climate Central scientists estimated what temperatures might have looked like in a world without hu-

man-caused climate change. They used those temperatures to predict rates of ER visits for heat-related illness in the modeled world, and used the difference from actual visit rates as an indicator of climate change’s contributions. Dahl said this method is based on two decades of environmental science,

and that there are well-established relationships between temperature and hospital visits for heatrelated illness. Still, the study’s methodology provides only a rough approximation of climate change’s impact on ER visits, said University of North Texas health professor Kai Zhang. His research group studies the impact of climate change on public health. Humidity and weather variations within the study regions also play a role in ER visit rate estimates, Zhang said. And, because many hospital visits in which excessive heat played a role might be recorded with an alternative main complaint such as cardiovascular disease, official figures on heat-related ER visits are likely undercounts. It’s hard to retroactively determine which specific deaths resulted from human-made climate change, but the broad shifts in weather that we are experiencing will most likely exacerbate not just heat-related, but other illnesses in the U.S., Zhang said. “As a result of changing climate, we will see more and more extreme weather events,” Zhang said. “Extreme heat, extreme cold, hurricanes, flooding.” Dahl hopes her team’s research can help public health systems adapt to changing climate. “Because most heat-related illnesses and deaths are preventable, there’s a lot we can do with this information to help reduce the burden of hot summers,” Dahl said.

4X ■ Sunday, October 4, 2026 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate

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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE / by Stephan Pastis

wonderword

scrabble grams

word game

directions: Make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. Add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. All the words are in the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 5th Edition.

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 — dePArted: dih-PARtid: Having died, especially recently. Average mark 44 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 53 or more words in DEPARTED?

For more information on tournaments and clubs, email NASPA – North American SCRABBLE Players Association: info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visit our website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzle inquiries contact scrgrams@gmail.com. Hasbro and its logo SCRABBLE associated logo, the design of the distinctive SCRABBLE brand game card, and the distinctive letter tile designs are trademarks of Hasbro in the United States and Canada. ©2026 Hasbro. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

cryptoquote AxyDLBAAxR iS LONgFELLOW One letter stands for another. in this sample, A is used for the three L’s, x for the two O’s, etc. Single letters, apostrophes, the length and formation of the words are all hints. Each day the code letters are different.

AnsWers to ALL PuZZLes Are on inside BAcK PAGe

Sudoku

ken ken instructions: 1 - Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 - The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 - Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

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 Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

hidato directions: Complete the grid so that numbers 1–132 connect horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

AnsWers to ALL PuZZLes Are on inside BAcK PAGe

Los angeLes Times sunday Crossword puzzLe — Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis “range oF moTion” By zHouQin BurniKeL aCross 1 Beauty entrepreneur Elizabeth 6 Resort near Snowbird 10 28-Across flow 14 Captain with an ivory leg 18 Frisbee maker 19 Like samosas and wontons 20 Vein contents 21 Spanish “nothing” 22 *Motto of a calligraphy enthusiast? 25 Turning point? 26 Mono- kin 27 Brand of kitchen gadgets 28 Sicilian peak 29 Locale for clam diggers 31 Weapon in Clue 34 *Transgressions included in textbooks? 36 Second chance for a student 38 Canonized Mlle. 39 In the style of 40 Like much music of the 1990s 43 Jaguar’s roar 45 Inexact no. 47 Birds similar to crows 52 *Devoted followers of painter O’Keeffe? 56 Dessert that may have a lattice crust 58 Alfa __: sports cars 59 Cause of a quick blessing 61 College official 62 Chemical suffix 63 Scratchy sound 66 Most twisted 68 Indoor rowers

69 Part of LGBTQ+ 71 *Timepiece worn by a “Star Wars” pilot? 74 Actress Arthur 75 Video file format 77 Country that borders 14 other countries 78 Jekyll’s counterpart 80 __-pitch softball 83 Off the mark 85 Sudden bursts 88 46-Down deliverer 90 Trial version of a puzzle app, e.g. 92 *Dropping hints about the release of a director’s cut, perhaps? 95 Take the wheel 96 Hill worker? 98 User without an account 99 Small ensemble 100 Assn. 102 Hard water? 105 Backspace over 107 *Blueprints for a new wardrobe? 113 Nonconformist 117 Invisible ink? 118 “This instant!” 120 Accessory for a fish tank 121 Versailles monarch 122 Rotary phone part 123 *Like a sawmill without disposal facilities? 127 Walking pace 128 Piece in Azul or mahjong 129 Patronage 130 Spanish boys 131 Concludes 132 Sunrise locale 133 “Hey, c’mere!” 134 Like a haunted house down 1 Just terrible

2 River past Arles 3 Classmate of Beavis 4 AED-trained pro 5 Zero chance 6 __/ace: LGBTQ+ orientation 7 In real time 8 Saw things? 9 Lover of Aphrodite 10 Chop (off) 11 Playground retort 12 Put on a pedestal 13 Criticize harshly 14 Symbols in Egyptian iconography 15 Capital city that’s home to Turtle Tower 16 Embellish 17 Naive ones 19 Series of setbacks, in slang 23 Travel permit 24 Like sprinters 30 In short supply 32 Hip-hop pioneer from Compton 33 Those, in Tijuana 35 Support for a driver 37 Little ones 40 Fantasy monster 41 Very bright 42 “I need a ride home” 44 “I’ll be!” 46 Public address 48 “I’ll be!” 49 Marian Anderson, for one 50 “It’s Too Late” singer Carole 51 Scenographer’s designs 53 Like many horror films 54 Genre for Talking Heads 55 Repeated word in a Doris Day classic 57 Works in a

gallery 60 Concealer target 64 Moo __ shrimp 65 Relay 67 Hesitant around strangers 70 Reach consensus 72 Govt. intel org. 73 Bank deposit? 74 North Atlantic hazard 75 GQ and Cosmo 76 Exam for HS jrs. 77 Reuben bread 79 “Stop right there”

goren Bridge

81 “The Real” cohost Love 82 Approximately 84 Deft 86 “R u kidding!?” 87 Root veggie 89 Subsequently 91 Flower on Mississippi’s state quarter 93 Swarm (with) 94 Christmas and Easter 97 “__ we meet again”

wuzzLes

101 Take turns 103 “Mi __ es su ... “ 104 Catch in a snare 106 Wyoming range, or when read as three parts, how the answers to the starred clues were formed? 107 Sundae topping 108 Like swifts, but not Swifties 109 Prim and proper 110 Hits the brakes 111 Matters of

opinion? 112 Sushi bar bottles 114 Supermodel Shayk 115 “The Weir” playwright McPherson 116 __-face: smooching 119 Social media labels 124 Get in a pool 125 Trivial complaint 126 Shaving brand

super Quiz

Options

Take this Super Quiz to a Ph.D. Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the graduate Level and 3 points on the Ph.D. Level.

South’s jump to three spades showed a maximum with fourcard support. It was possible to be off the ace-king in a red suit, but North was not the type to worry. He blasted into slam after learning that South had three key cards. Zero or three but surely three on the bidding. South won the opening trump lead in hand with the jack and saw that a successful heart finesse would see the contract home safe. A threethree diamond split, or the fall of the 10, would provide 12 tricks without the need for a finesse. South led a spade to the king and a spade back to his ace, drawing trumps. He followed with a low diamond toward the queen, as the contract was always cold if West held the ace of diamonds. West had to duck or give up the twelfth trick, so the queen took the trick. South came back to his hand with ace of clubs to lead a low diamond. West had to duck again, so South took dummy’s jack and cashed the king and queen of clubs, discarding the nine of diamonds from his hand. He led a diamond to West’s ace and West had to lead a heart or give up a ruff-sluff, the contract making either way. Had East been able to win the first

SUBJECT: FAMOUS LINES (Example: Sir Francis Bacon: “_____ is power.” Answer: knowledge.) FRESHMAN LEVEL 1. “To be or not to be, that is the _____.” Answer________ 2. From what film is “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Answer________ 3. “Call me Ishmael” is from Herman Melville’s “Moby-_____.” Answer________ 4. From what film is “Here’s looking at you, kid”? Answer________ 5. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is from the novel “_____.” Answer________

diamond and shift to a heart, South would have risen with his ace and cashed all his black-suit winners. He would still have had excellent chances to make his contract, although it would not have been cold. Nicely played! Tannah Hirsch welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, Ny. 14207. E-mail responses may be sent to gorenbridge@ aol.com. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency

ANSWERS TO ALL PUZZLES ARE ON NEXT PAGE

GRADUATE LEVEL 6. Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely _____.” Answer________ 7. Who said, “I have a dream”? Answer________

8. This saying is often attributed to Winston Churchill: “If you are going through _____, keep going.” Answer________ 9. Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of _____. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Answer________ 10. Which president said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”? Answer________ PH.D. LEVEL 11. Who said, “I think, therefore I am”? Answer________ 12. Who said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”? Answer________ 13. Ben Franklin: “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are _____.” Answer________ 14. Alexander Pope: “To err is human; to forgive, _____.” Answer________ 15. Who said, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”? Answer________

zodiaC LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Discipline is your way to completion and the freedom it brings, knowing that you did your best. Don’t let pent-up energy and emotional angst dismantle your calm, leaving room for mistakes and regret. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Live and learn. Don’t trust others to do things for you. Someone will make your life difficult by using pressure tactics to get their way. Stand by your word. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Enjoy what you’ve worked so hard to build. Make your home your retreat, entertain the people who enrich your life,

and cultivate the projects that satisfy you. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Distance yourself from those you can’t count on or trust. Focus on tidying up loose ends and closing doors that no longer offer resources you can use. Rethink your position. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Assess your finances, then consider how to lower your overhead. Setting a strict budget and checking into programs that enhance your earning potential look promising. PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) An unexpected change will surprise you. Be open to alternatives, and you’ll

discover a positive path that will encourage you to pursue what makes you happy. Put a budget in place. ARIES (March 21-April 19) Don’t fool yourself into thinking things are what they are not. Put your emotions aside and be realistic, and you’ll discover an outlet that far exceeds your expectations. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Observation is necessary. If temper and stubbornness set in, you’ll face domestic situations and partnership problems that leave you exhausted and in limbo. Be smart, say and do little, and protect your heart.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) A change of plans will favor you. Be open, objective and smart in how you retaliate. Kind but clever responses will help you gain respect and the momentum you require to reach your goal. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Engage in activities and events that touch you intellectually and physically. Anything that can enhance your appearance and boost your spirits will encourage you to interact more with people you find appealing. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Proceed with caution. Don’t start something you can’t finish. Domestic and partner-

ship issues will surface if you are too demanding. Use your Leo charm and make whatever you want others to buy into appealing. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Check out vocations that interest you. Attend seminars, trade shows or events that offer insight into how you can use your skills and attributes in ways more suitable to your lifestyle and enjoyment. The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

dustin / by Steve Kelley & Jeff Parker

Answers to puzzles super quiz 1. Question. 2. "Gone with the Wind." 3. Dick. 4. "Casablanca." 5. "A Tale of Two Cities." 6. Players. 7. Martin Luther King Jr. 8. Hell. 9. Chocolates. 10. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 11. Rene Descartes. 12. Theodore Roosevelt. 13. Dead. 14. Divine. 15. Neil Armstrong.

SCORING: 24 to 30 points — congratulations, doctor; 18 to 23 points — honors graduate; 13 to 17 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 5 to 12 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 4 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you?

Cryptoquote Answer Saturday's Cryptoquote: It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world and with the divine. — Isabel Allende

word GAme Answer dare dart darted date dater dead dear deed deep deer deet depart deter drape drat dread eared

eater pare part parted pate pear peat peer pert petard peter prate predate adder adept aped aper

arete rapt rate read reap reed repeat tape taper tapered tare tarp tear teared teed trade trap

tread tree

sudoKu Answer jumble Answer

Crossword Answers

jeFF mACnelly’s shoe / by Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly

sCrAbble Answers

FoXtrot / by Bill Amend

wuzzles Answers

Ken Ken Answers

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