ADVOCATE THE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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T h u r s d ay, J u n e 19, 2025
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Louisiana officials fear proposed Medicaid cuts
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: LSU 6 l ARKANSAS 5
ON TO THE FINALS NINTH INNING RALLy LIFTS LSU PAST ARKANSAS Tigers to face Coastal Carolina beginning Saturday
Senate leader says special session may be called
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — State Senate President Cameron Henry said he’s worried Louisiana won’t be able to cover the losses should Congress ratchet back Medicaid spending the way the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has proposed for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “If this bill takes effect immediately, we’ll absolutely come back into special session, no doubt about it,” Henry said during a video conference hosted Tuesday by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. “If this bill “What we do there would not be pleasant, but we’d have takes effect to do it,” the Metairie Repubimmediately, lican continued, adding that we’ll absolutely Louisiana couldn’t afford the estimated $4 billion the bill, come back into if passed as written, would special session, remove from the state’s trea- no doubt about sury. it. What we do Henry said he phoned U.S. there would not Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton be pleasant, Rouge and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, but we’d have to Monday night after the panel do it.” released its recommendations for Medicaid and other SENATE PRESIDENT provisions in the massive bill CAMERON HENRy, that includes much of PresiR-Metairie dent Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. They discussed the problems Louisiana could have covering the costs and discussed strategies about “how to move forward with the changes they want to make without devastating local hospitals, rural hospitals and so forth,” Henry said. The Senate’s language has “a bunch things in it that would have significant effects on Louisiana, not in a positive way,” Henry said. About 1.8 million people in Louisiana are covered by various Medicaid programs, which is roughly 40% of the state’s population, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. Henry also contacted the U.S. House’s top two leaders, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. “They’re aware of it but they are also aware that the rest of the country wants changes,” Henry
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU first baseman Jared Jones celebrates as he heads to first base after hitting the game-winning RBI single to lift the Tigers over Arkansas on Wednesday in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Jones also had a solo home run in the eighth inning of the game. The victory moves LSU into the finals of the CWS where they will face Coastal Carolina in a best-of-three series beginning Saturday.
ä Complete game coverage in Sports, 1C.
Supreme Court rules against transgender rights Ban on gender-affirming care for minors upheld
ATF agent in undercover sting wounded
Staff writer
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a jolting setback to transgender rights. The justices’ 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump’s Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to Tennessee’s. Louisiana passed a law in 2023 banning doctors from prescribing hormone therapy
ä See COURT, page 4A
PAGE 8B
Three BR men in federal custody BY AIDAN McCAHILL
BY MARK SHERMAN
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 75
ä See MEDICAID, page 5A
A federal agent involved in an undercover sting was wounded after being robbed at gunpoint outside a Baton Rouge convenience store Tuesday, authorities said in announcing the arrests of three men in the shooting. Torion Bobbs, 20, and Cordell Sims, 19, each face charges of assault on a federal officer and robbery, while Caylup Anderson, 18, STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS faces charges of robbery and aiding and abetting. Law enforcement officers gather outside the Triple S Food Mart The violence stemmed following a shooting that injured an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and from a Bureau of Alcohol, Explosives agent on Tuesday. Tobacco, Firearms and Ex-
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plosives operation, where two ATF agents had arranged separate purchases of guns equipped with machine-gun conversion devices outside Triple S Food Mart on Tuesday afternoon, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Additional federal court records show that after agents purchased a weapon for $900, the parties agreed to arrange another sale, after which Anderson and Sims drove off in a Honda Accord. The two returned to the store with Bobbs, authorities said. As Anderson spoke with one of the undercover agents, security camera footage shows Bobbs and Sims surrounding the agents’ vehicle with
ä See CUSTODY, page 5A
100TH yEAR, NO. 354