Nicole J. Moncrief was caringfor her wheelchair-bound mother and her two nieces as Hurricane Rita barreled toward their Lake Charles home 20 years ago. Ahead of previous storms, none of which caused major damage, her momwas theone to securethe familyhome and evacuate everyone to safety.But those responsibilities fell to Moncrief, then 34, ahead of Rita.
While her family evacuated north, Rita’swinds ripped open the roof of their family home, destroying most of theirclothing andfurniture. Moncrief tried to salvagewhat she could. Her neighbors, friends and family were largely in the same predicament. It’sbeen 20 years since thestorm tore through southwestLouisiana, butthe anniversary observations for it have beenmuch quieter than the commemorations for Hurricane Katrina. Those who experienced Rita said they always experienced it as aforgotten storm, overshad-
place we called home, your place of solace, it wasgone and it wasn’t going to be there anymore. But if Ihad to reflect even further,the positive piece of it is that Iamthe house. Iamthe memories.”
NICOLE J. MONCRIEF
Program improves schools’ test scores
Building trustwithstudentsis also essential, principalsays
BY ASHLEY WHITE |Staff writer
The start of the school year at J.W.Faulk Elementary was starkly different this year than last.
The building wasvirtually unchanged. The administrative team all returned to the front office and mostofthe teachers and staffreturned. The difference was with the students.
“It’snight and day from last year to this year,” said fourth grade teacher Marley Turner.“This year,the kids know the procedures, they know the people.”
“Itjustmakes the environment feel so much morehappy and upbeat like the kids feel very at home here,” she added.
The change is credited to several factors, said PrincipalAlysia Messa: The hard workthe school’s adults poured into the campus and students last year,and the students’ willingness to grow with the newly rolled outAcceleratedCampus Excellence program
The program,whichfocuses on whole-child development, is the first of its kind in Louisiana and was brought to Faulk andDr. Raphael Baranco elementary schoolslast year through apartnershipbetween the LafayetteParish schoolsystem andthe Pugh Family Foundation.AliceBoucher Elementary implemented the program this year
TEL AVIV,Israel— Adrone fired by Yemen’sHouthi rebels breached Israel’smultilayered airdefenses on Sundayand slammed into the country’ssouthernairport,the Israelimilitary said, blowing out glass windows, wounding oneperson andbriefly shutting down commercial airspace. The damage to Ramon airport appeared limited and flights resumed within hours. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike.
The attack followsIsraeli strikes on Yemen’s
Airspace closed, flightshalted according to theIsraeli military ä See ISRAEL, page 3A
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Nicole J. Moncrief stands in the vacant lot on Aug. 25 where the homeshe grew up in once stood in LakeCharles. Moncrief rebuiltfollowing Hurricane Rita in 2005, but lost her homeduring Hurricane Laura in 2020.
Powerball winners to split
$1.8 billion jackpot
DES MOINES,Iowa Powerball players in Missouri and Texas won the nearly $1.8 billion jackpot on Saturday, overcoming astronomical odds to end the lottery game’s three-month drought without a big winner
The winning numbers were 11, 23, 44, 61, and 62, with the Powerball number being 17.
The $1.787 billion prize, which was the second-largest U.S. lottery jackpot in history, followed 41 consecutive drawings in which no one matched all six numbers. The last drawing with a jackpot winner happened May 31.
Each ticket holder will have the choice between an annuitized prize of $893.5 million or a lump sum payment of $410.3 million. Both prize options are before taxes.
Computer whiz declared first millennial saint
VATICAN CITY Pope Leo XIV de-
clared a 15-year-old computer whiz the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint Sunday, giving the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model who used technology to spread the faith and earn the nickname “God’s influencer.”
Leo canonized Carlo Acutis who died in 2006, during an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square before an estimated 80,000 people, many of them millennials and couples with young children. During the first saint-making Mass of his pontificate, Leo also canonized another popular Italian figure who died young, Pier Giorgio Frassati. Leo said both men created “masterpieces” out of their lives by dedicating them to God.
“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Leo said in his homily. The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”
The Turtles co-founder Mark Volman dies at 78 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mark Volman, a founding member of the 1960’s pop group The Turtles, whose hits include “Happy Together” and “Elenore,” died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday after a brief, unexpected illness, according to his publicist, Ame Van Iden. He was 78. Volman was known for his exuberant stage presence and distinctive vocals. In a 1967 performance of “Happy Together” posted to YouTube, Volman wears bright orange and dances around with a French horn that he doesn’t appear to play, but does place on bandmate Howard Kaylan’s head. The Turtles broke up in 1970 during an acrimonious split with their label, and a contract clause would not allow the members to perform under their own names. So Volman and Kaylan reinvented themselves as the duo Flo & Eddie, earning a reputation for their humor and versatility They toured with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, created background vocals for Bruce Springsteen, and wrote music for television shows like “Strawberry Shortcake.”
“Always funny always upbeat, and a spirited and inventive performer, we will miss him greatly,” Evan Cohen, Volman’s attorney and longtime friend, posted to Facebook. He wrote that Volman and Kaylan set an example by advocating for the rights of musicians in owning their recordings and band names. They eventually regained control of The Turtles’ music and name and began touring again.
Thousands bid farewell to Giorgio Armani
MILAN Thousands of admirers paid their last respects over the weekend to Giorgio Armani, remembered by Milan’s mayor as a “man of extraordinary elegance” who left an indelible mark on the city and the global fashion world. Armani died Thursday at 91 at his home in Italy’s fashion capital surrounded by loved ones having worked until his final days, according to his fashion house. One of his final projects was a runway show marking 50 years of his signature Giorgio Armani brand which is due to close Milan Fashion Week later this month.
More than 15,000 mourners filed over two days through the Armani theater normally dedicated to previewing runway collections.
Israel’s high court rebukes officials
Government ordered to improve nutrition for Palestinian prisoners
BY NATALIE MELZER Associated Press
TEL AVIV, Israel Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the government has failed to provide Palestinian security prisoners with adequate food for basic subsistence and ordered authorities to improve their nutrition.
The decision was a rare case in which the country’s highest court ruled against the government’s conduct during the nearly two-year war
Since the war began, Israel has seized thousands of people in Gaza that it suspects of links to Hamas. Thousands have also been released without charge, often after months of detention.
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in prisons and detention facilities, including insufficient food and health care, as well as poor sanitary conditions and beatings In March, a 17-year-old
Palestinian boy died at an Israeli prison and doctors said starvation was likely the main cause of death.
Sunday’s ruling came in response to a petition brought last year by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israeli rights group Gisha.
The groups alleged that a change in the food policy enacted after the war in Gaza began has caused prisoners to suffer malnutrition and starvation.
Last year, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison system, boasted that he had reduced the conditions of security prisoners to what he described as the bare minimum required by Israeli law
In Sunday’s ruling, the panel of three justices ruled unanimously that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure “a basic level of existence.”
In the 2-1 ruling, the justices said they found “in-
dications that the current food supply to prisoners does not sufficiently guarantee compliance with the legal standard.” They said they had found “real doubts” that prisoners were eating properly, and ordered the prison service to “take steps to ensure the supply of food that allows for basic subsistence conditions in accordance with the law.”
Ben-Gvir, who leads a small far-right ultranationalist party, lashed out at the ruling, saying that while Israeli hostages in Gaza have no one to help them, Israel’s Supreme Court “to our disgrace” is defending Hamas militants. He said the policy of providing prisoners with “the most minimal conditions stipulated by the law” would continue unchanged.
ACRI called for the verdict to be implemented immediately In a post on X, it said the prison service has “turned Israeli prisons into torture camps.”
“A state does not starve people,” it said. “People do not starve people — no matter what they have done.”
Ukraine government building damaged in Russian attack
BY SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drone and missiles Sunday in the largest aerial attack since the war began, killing four people across the country and damaging a key government building.
Russia attacked with 810 drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said, adding it shot down 747 drones and four missiles.
Associated Press reporters saw a plume of smoke rising from the roof of Kyiv’s government headquarters. It was not immediately clear if the smoke was the result of a direct hit or debris, which would mark an escalation in Russia’s air campaign, which has so far spared government buildings in the city center
The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet and its ministers Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived.
Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, confirmed to The Associated Press that Sunday’s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia also launched 13 missiles. Hits from nine missiles and 54 drones were recorded at 33 locations across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
said that four people were killed and 44 wounded. He said he spoke on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron about the attack.
“Together with France, we are preparing new measures to strengthen our defense,” Zelenskyy said.
Marcon earlier on Sunday accused Russia of “striking indiscriminately” and said Moscow “is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned the attack. “These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity He is not serious about peace. Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine and its sovereignty,” Starmer said in a statement.
In the Ukrainian capital, the attack killed two people and wounded 20 others, according to city officials.
Those killed were a mother and her 3-monthold child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. At least 10 locations in Kyiv were damaged, he added. Direct drone hits struck a ninestory residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story residential building in
President Donald Trump watches a match between Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner at the U.S Open on Sunday in New york.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By yUKI IWAMURA
Trump’s U.S. Open visit sparks boos, long security lines
BY WILL WEISSERT Associated Press
NEW YORK President Donald Trump was loudly booed at the men’s final of the U.S. Open on Sunday, where extra security caused by his visit led to lines long enough that many people missed the start of play, even after organizers delayed it. Wearing a suit and long red tie, Trump briefly emerged from his suite about 45 minutes before the match started and heard a mix of boos and cheers from an Arthur Ashe Stadium that was still mostly empty No announcement proceeded his appearance, and it was brief enough that some in the crowd missed it. Trump appeared again to more boos before the national anthem. Standing in salute, the president was shown briefly on the arena’s big screens during the anthem, and offered a smirk that briefly made the boos louder When the anthem was over, the Republican pointed to a small group of supporters seated nearby, then sat on the suite’s balcony to watch the match intently He mostly didn’t applaud, even following major points that energized the rest of the crowd as Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz bested Jannik Sinner of Italy Trump was shown on the big screen again after the first set ended, and elicited a roar of louder boos and some piercing whistles. He raised his left fist in salute as the noise continued in the stadium, which with a capacity of 24,000 is one of
the largest in tennis. The president later moved back inside the suite, where he was seen seated at a table with family members and appeared to be eating, but he was back in his seat shortly before match point. Cameras briefly flashed on Trump as Alcaraz celebrated, but his reaction to the conclusion was as muted as it had been throughout most of the match. This time, there was little crowd reaction, too. Organizers pushed the start of the match back half an hour to give people more time to pass through enhanced screening checkpoints reminiscent of security at airports. Still, thousands of increasingly frustrated fans remained in line outside as the match got underway Many seats, especially those in upper rows, stayed empty for nearly an hour
The Secret Service issued a statement saying that protecting Trump “required a comprehensive effort” and noting that it “may have contributed to delays for attendees.”
“We sincerely thank every fan for their patience and understanding,” it said. Trump attended the final as a guest of Rolex, despite imposing steep tariffs on the Swiss watchmaker’s home country The U.S. Tennis Association also tried to limit negative reaction to Trump’s attendance being shown on ABC’s national telecast, saying in a statement before play began: “We regularly ask our broadcasters to refrain from showcasing off-court disruptions.”
“I just have no more words left to express what I feel towards Russia,” said Olha, a 77-year-old Kyiv resident whose apartment was damaged. She didn’t give her last name. “Although I’m an ethnic Russian myself, from outside Moscow And I’ve never thought my people would be capable of this.”
Zelenskyy called for sanctions on Russia and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” he said. “The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop killing; only political will is needed.”
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted a video of herself inside the damaged government building, where she said a fire covering 8,600 square feet was put out.
“For the first time since the start of full-scale invasion, Russians struck our government headquarters in the center of Kyiv,” she said.
“It looks like Russia is not seeking peace and is not ready for negotiations. We call our partners to help close our sky Let’s strengthen sanctions against Russia. Let’s create the security guarantees system that will help stop the enemy,” she said.
A woman is overcome with emotion Sunday in front of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv Ukraine.
At Faulk, they aren’t only seeing behavioral improvements. Students had “dramatic” academic growth, according to a report from Steady State Impact.
On or above grade level
Beginning-of-year data in fall 2024 “scared us,” Messa said. By midyear, Messa said, data showed students were starting to show academic growth and a boost to their confidence. And end-of-year data shows students closed learning gaps from previous years and are now performing at or above grade level.
In reading, beginning-ofyear data for kindergarten through third grade students at Faulk showed about 73% of students were below or well below benchmark. By the end of the year, about 26% of students moved from that category to test at or above benchmark.
The greatest growth in reading was with kindergartners. At the beginning of the year more than 90% of students were below or well-below benchmark By the end of the year, 76% of kindergartners were at or above benchmark.
In math, when looking at all students K-5, only about 2% of students were on grade level. By the end of the year 35% of students were on or above grade
ISRAEL
Continued from page 1A
rebel-held capital that killed the Houthi prime minister and other top officials in a major escalation of the nearly 2-year-old conflict between Israel and the Iranbacked militant group in Yemen. In Gaza City, the Israeli military on Sunday leveled another high-rise tower that housed hundreds of displaced Palestinians and urged people to move south as it intensified its offensive on the city
Meanwhile, a breakthrough Israeli Supreme Court decision ruled that Israel was not providing Palestinian detainees in its custody with enough food to ensure basic sustenance. It ordered the state to “guarantee basic living conditions in accordance with the law” for the thousands of Palestinians in its detention facilities.
Sunday’s ruling, made in response to a petition by Israeli human rights groups alleging starvation among Palestinians in the country’s prisons, marked a rare instance of Israeli legal restraint on its own war policies that have drawn indignation and outrage abroad.
After Israel’s killing of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi last Thursday, the militants vowed to escalate their attacks targeting Israel and merchant ships navigat-
level. And the percentage of students who were two or more grades below level decreased significantly from about 55% to about 20%.
When looking at the school’s state testing data, across all subjects and all grades, the percentage of students who scored mastery or above increased year over year from 16% in 2024 to 20% in 2025.
Reaching grade level or above has been more tangible in the lower grades. There are oftentimes fewer barriers to growth for younger students, Messa said. And the longer a student is behind, the harder it is for them to catch up because the standards continue to get more rigorous and their confidence tends to diminish.
Students at Baranco, which also implemented the ACE program last year, also saw significant academic gains. In reading, about 61% of K-3 students ended the year at or above grade level, a 23% increase from the beginning of the year In math, only about 2% of K-5 students started the year at or above grade level. By the end of the year, 39% of students were at or above grade level.
The data shows one thing clearly to Nick Pugh III, co-founder and chair of the Pugh Family Foundation: With the right tools and support, students can succeed regardless of where they live.
“When it all gets said and done, these gals and gentle-
ing the vital Red Sea trade route.
One of several Houthi drones launched from Yemen on Sunday slipped through Israel’s sophisticated defense system and crashed into the passenger terminal at the Ramon International Airport near the resort city of Eilat, the Israeli Airports Authority said, diverting flights over southern Israel and inflicting light shrapnel wounds on a 63-year-old man.
Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group had fired eight drones at Israel to signal that the rebels “will escalate their military operations and not back down from their support for Gaza.” He warned that Israeli airports “are unsafe and will be continuously targeted.”
The Israeli military said it intercepted three Houthi drones near Israel’s border with Egypt and was investigating why it failed to identify the fourth drone that struck Ramon airport as a threat.
The Houthis have stepped up their aerial attacks on Israel in recent months, including by deploying warheads with cluster munitions that scatter smaller bomblets over a large area and can evade Israeli air defenses.
Saying that they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis began firing missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack
men are going to prove that kids on the north (side) are just as smart as the kids on the south (side),” Pugh said.
‘The kids deserve that’
The academic growth of Faulk’s students is one of the things Messa is most proud of. And it took a lot of work from staff and students
One of the biggest hurdles was building relationships with students and ensuring they understood everyone had the same goal in mind wanting to see them be successful.
Those relationships center around trust. The way to create that trust was to follow through.
“If we said we were going to do it, we did it,” Messa said. “We learned early from them that there had been
on Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating campaign in Gaza. Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted over 250 in their assault on southern Israel
While frequent, the aerial attacks from Yemen have not caused significant damage in Israel.
Before Sunday’s assault, the most damaging Houthi attack was in May, when a Houthi missile struck near Israel’s main Ben Gurion Airport, prompting international airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv for months.
The Israeli military said it razed another high-rise building in Gaza City on Sunday, shortly after military spokesperson Avichay Adraee ordered the evacuation of people from a sevenstory building in a southern Gaza City neighborhood and nearby tents. Al-Ra’iya Tower crumbled in a flash, its facade cascading down into a heap of rubble and sending people scrambling for cover Israel said the building targeted on Sunday had been used by Hamas for intelligence-gathering activities. Hamas denied the accusation. It was unclear how many people had been killed or wounded in the attack.
It’s the third Gaza City high-rise leveled in as many days as Israel ramps up its offensive to take control of what it portrays as Hamas’ last remaining stronghold, urging Palestinians to flee
times when people would say they would do things and didn’t show up or didn’t follow through.
“If (students) made the goal, they earned the incen-
parts of Gaza City for a designated humanitarian zone in the territory’s south.
Many Palestinians, exhausted from being displaced multiple time during the war, have opted to stay put rather than uproot themselves for jam-packed, increasingly unsanitary tent encampments that are unprepared to handle the influx. Others reluctantly fled even as past Israeli attacks on humanitarian zones have reinforced the feeling
tive,” she added. “And we didn’t take it away.”
Students’ behaviors also needed to be addressed. They needed structure and boundaries so they could
that nowhere is safe in the enclave.
“Every time we move to a place, we get displaced from it,” said Shireen Al-Lada’, who fled south from eastern Gaza City after her house in the once-bustling urban neighborhood of Zeitoun was destroyed. Officials at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital reported that Israeli strikes on a schoolturned-shelter and on tents and apartment buildings killed at least 13 Palestin-
focus on learning when the time called for it. The ACE program implements a social-emotional learning component, something that was key for working through students’ issues. At the beginning of last year, most students had issues with conflict, negativity and correction. Social workers and the school’s behavior team helped children understand how to handle those situations.
In the classroom, teachers worked with students to understand where they were academically and to set goals for them. Expectations were never lowered, Turner said. Instead, teachers focused on what each student needed to succeed and reiterated that with the right tools, they would be able to meet their goals.
Gradually, students began to trust the school’s adults and believe that they all wanted students to thrive emotionally and academically
All that hard work has paid off, school officials said. Students returned to Faulk this year ready to continue growing.
“It’s a team effort,” Turner said. “It takes the administrative team, the community, teachers. And the kids deserve that. They are just as capable as any other kids when they’re given the right tools.”
Email Ashley White at ashley.white@theadvocate. com.
ians, including six children and three women. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants near the school and had warned civilians to evacuate. In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said it had received five dead bodies, including that of a young girl, after Israel struck a gathering in the U.N.-administered Nuseirat refugee camp. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike
Fourth grade math teacher Marley Turner works with student Tanakous Onezine at J.W. Faulk Elementary.
STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Fourth grade students Kierston Smith and Roshawn Benoit work at their desks in math class at J.W Faulk Elementary in Lafayette on Aug. 29.
Chicago churches urge calm resistance
City bracing for influx of federal agents and possibly National Guard troops
BY SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press
CHICAGO — The Rev Marshall Hatch Sr urged congregants of a prominent Black church on Chicago’s West Side to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest as the city readied for an expected federal intervention
“You need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so you don’t disappear,” Hatch said during Sunday services at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. “We’re not going to despair We’re not going to feel threatened We’re not going to give up and give in to fascism and authoritarianism.
As Chicago braced for an immigration enforcement crackdown and a possible National Guard deployment, churches across the city turned up their response from the pulpit. Some worked to quell fears about detention and deportation while others addressed the looming possibility of more law enforcement on the streets of the nation’s third-largest city
President Donald Trump has threatened federal intervention in Democratic strongholds, most recently warning apocalyptic force could be used in Chicago to fight crime and step up deportations. He’s repeatedly cited the expected plans over fierce objections from local leaders and many residents who call it unnecessary and unwanted.
While fears have been high in im-
migrant circles since Trump took office the second time, the threat of more federal agencies and troops has also inflamed tensions, particularly in Black and Latino communities where trust in police is fragile.
Among the church attendees was Lester Burks, a 74-year-old U.S. Army veteran who said a military presence in Chicago would be threatening.
“I don’t want soldiers here,” he said. “They are trained to fight.”
Sanctuary cities targeted
Details on the expected intervention have been sparse, including its focus and when it’s expected to begin. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that federal law enforcement action will come to Chicago this week. He also promised more worksite enforcement operations like the massive one at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.
You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country,” he said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted, and unsuccessfully sued, over Chicago’s sanctuary laws, which are among the strongest in the nation. His administration launched a nationwide immigration enforcement operation in the city in January
There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs
ASSOCIATED
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Robert F Kennedy Jr appears before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Family members say
RFK Jr. is a ‘threat,’ call for his resignation
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Members of Robert F. Kennedy
Jr.’s family are calling for him to step down as health secretary following a contentious congressional hearing this past week, during which the Trump Cabinet official faced bipartisan questioning about his tumultuous leadership of federal health agencies. Kennedy’s sister Kerry Kennedy and his nephew Joseph P. Kennedy III issued scathing statements Friday, calling for him to resign as head of the Health and Human Services Department.
The calls from the prominent Democratic family came a day after Kennedy had to defend his recent efforts to pull back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and fire high-level officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a three-hour Senate hearing.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American,” Joseph Kennedy III said in a post on X The former congressman added: “None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting.” His aunt echoed those claims, saying “medical decisions belong in the hands of trained and licensed professionals, not incompetent and misguided leadership.”
This is not the first time Robert Kennedy has been the subject of his family’s ire. Several of his relatives had objected to his presidential run in the last campaign, while others wrote to senators earlier this year, calling for them to reject his nomination to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary due to views they considered disqualifying on life-saving vaccines.
Kennedy, a longtime leader in the antivaccine movement, has spent the last seven months implementing his once-niche, grassroots movement to the highest level of America’s public health system. The sweeping changes to the agencies tasked with public health policy and scientific research have resulted in thousands of layoffs and the remaking of vaccine guidelines.
The moves — some of which contradict assurances he made during his confirmation hearings — have rattled medical groups and officials in several Democratic-led states, which have responded with their own vaccine advice
you don’t disappear,’ he told congregants at the service.
Enforcement. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help. This time, the Department of Homeland Security plans to use a military base north of the city and has alerted leaders of another suburb that they’ll use a federal immigration processing center there for an operation that’ll potentially last 45 days. Meanwhile, Trump has said he might send National Guard troops to New Orleans before Chicago.
Trump has already deployed the National Guard into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where he’s also federalized the police force. A federal judge has ruled the Los Angeles deployment is illegal
“We don’t need another level of law enforcement and their presence to pretend they’re going to solve problems related to violence,” U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a Democrat, said at a Sunday news conference with other Black elected leaders on the city’s West Side. Most of Chicago’s nearly 3 million people are Black or Latino. New Mount Pilgrim is located in the city’s West Garfield Park neighborhood, a largely Black neighborhood which has faced persistent crime and years of disinvestment, including five schools near the church that closed in 2013 as part of the largest mass public closure in U.S. history The church has often called for action against street violence even
as Chicago’s rates of violent crime have dropped substantially in recent years as part of a national trend. Its large stained glass art installations depict the lives of slaves and memorialize Black people killed by violence. On Sunday, the church celebrated the groundbreaking of a nearby arts and activism center it said was part of the solution.
“We’re not calling for military, we’re calling for resources,” Hatch told congregants. “We know that there is a correlation between resources and violence.”
Chicago on edge
Elsewhere in the city, other churches worked to remind people of their rights when it comes to interactions with immigration agents, urging them to carry necessary documents.
The feeling of being on edge was familiar to many in Chicago, and the expected operation put a damper on the city’s usually festive Mexican Independence Day celebrations. Church leaders said the January immigration operation in Chicago had a chilling effect on attendance at immigrant-heavy and Latino churches as people stayed home.
Clergy said they were preparing for the same in the weeks ahead.
“It feels like anything can happen at any moment,” said the Rev Paco Amador of New Life Community Church in the predominantly Mexican Little Village neighborhood. “It would be irresponsible not to talk about this.”
Associated Press writer Calvin Woodward contributed to this report from Washington.
GOP report dings research collaborations
Investigation finds Pentagon funding aided the Chinese military
BY DIDI TANG and COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press
WASHINGTON Over a recent two-year period, the Pentagon funded hundreds of projects done in collaboration with universities in China and institutes linked to that nation’s defense industry, including many blacklisted by the U.S. government for working with the Chinese military, a congressional investigation has found.
The report, released Friday by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, argues the projects have allowed China to exploit U.S. research partnerships for military gains while the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry
“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation — not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” Republicans wrote in the report.
“Failing to safeguard American research from hostile foreign exploitation will continue to erode U.S. technological dominance and place our national defense capabilities at risk,” it said.
The Pentagon and didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment
The congressional report said some officials at the Defense Department argued research should remain open as long as it is “neither controlled nor classified.”
The report makes several recommendations to scale back U.S. research collaboration with China. It also backs
new legislation proposed by the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Moolenaar R-Mich. The bill would prohibit any Defense Department funding from going to projects done in collaboration with researchers affiliated with Chinese entities that the U.S. government identifies as safety risks.
The Chinese Embassy on Friday called the report “groundless.” “We oppose it,” the embassy said.
Beijing has in the past said science and technological cooperation between the two countries is mutually beneficial and helps them cope with global challenges.
Military applications argued
The 80-page report builds on the committee’s findings last year that partnerships between U.S. and Chinese universities over the past decade allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help Beijing develop critical technology Amid pressure from Republicans, several U.S. universities have ended their joint programs with Chinese schools in recent years.
The new report focuses more narrowly on the Defense Department and its billions of dollars in annual research funding.
The committee’s investigation identified 1,400 research papers published between June 2023 and June 2025 that acknowledged support from the Pentagon and were done in collaboration with Chinese partners. The publications were funded by some 700 defense grants worth more than $2.5 billion. Of the 1,400 publications, more than half involved organizations affiliated with China’s defense research and industrial base.
Dozens of those organizations were flagged for potential security concerns on U.S. government lists, though federal law does not prohibit research
collaborations with them. The Defense Department money supported research in fields including hypersonic technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced materials and next-generation propulsion.
Many of the projects have clear military applications, according to the report.
In one case, a geophysicist at Carnegie Science, a research institution in Washington, worked extensively on Pentagon-backed research while holding appointments at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences.
The scientist, who has done research on high-energy materials, nitrogen and high-pressure physics — all of which are relevant to nuclear weapons development — has been honored in China for his work to advance the country’s national development goals, the report said. It called the case “a deeply troubling example” of how Beijing can leverage U.S. taxpayerfunded research to further its weapons development.
In a statement, Carnegie Science said it complies with all U.S. laws. “The work cited was fundamental research, publicly available, and entirely unclassified. This research focused on basic properties of matter related to planetary science,” the institute said.
Carnegie Science also disputed the report’s assertion that the work was funded by the Pentagon, saying it came from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program.
In another Pentagon-backed project, Arizona State University and the University of Texas partnered with researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Beihang University to study high-stakes decisionmaking in uncertain environments, which has direct applications for electronic warfare
and cyber defense, the report said. The money came from the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The Shanghai university is under the supervision of a central Chinese agency tasked with developing defense technology, and Beihang University, in the capital city of Beijing, is linked to the People’s Liberation Army and known for its aerospace programs.
Calls for scaling back
The report takes issue with Defense Department policies that do not explicitly forbid research partnerships with foreign institutions that appear on U.S. government blacklists. It makes more than a dozen recommendations, including a prohibition on any Pentagon research collaboration with entities that are on U.S. blacklists or “known to be part of China’s defense research and industrial base.”
Moolenaar’s legislation includes a similar provision and proposes a ban on Defense Department funding for U.S. universities that operate joint institutes with Chinese universities.
A senior Education Department official said the report “highlights the vulnerability of federally funded research to foreign infiltration on America’s campuses.” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said the findings reinforce the need for more transparency around U.S. universities’ international ties, along with a “whole-of-government approach to safeguard against the malign influence of hostile foreign actors.” House investigators said they are not seeking to end all academic and research collaborations with China but those with connections to the Chinese military and its research and industrial base.
Japan’s prime minister resigns after party’s historic defeat
BY MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
TOKYO Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Sunday that he will resign, following growing calls from within his party to take responsibility for a historic defeat in July’s parliamentary election.
Ishiba, who took office in October, said he was stepping down as prime minister and as the head of his conservative Liberal Demo-
cratic Party Ishiba, a 68-year-old centrist, had resisted demands from opponents further to the right within his own party to resign. He argued that he wanted to avoid a political vacuum at a time when Japan faces key domestic and international challenges, including U.S. tariffs, rising prices and growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
Ishiba explained at a news conference Sunday night that he had intended for some time to take responsibility for his party’s summer election loss, but was first determined to make progress in tariff nego-
tiations with the United States. He described it as matter of the national interest.
“Who would seriously negotiate with a government whose leader says he is stepping down?” Ishiba said. He said the moment had arrived with an order by President Donald Trump on Friday to lower tariffs on Japanese cars and other products from 25% to 15%.
“Having reached a milestone in the U.S. tariff negotiations, I decided now is the time to make way for a successor,” Ishiba said.
Ishiba said he would instead start a process to hold a party leadership vote to choose his replacement, which is expected to be held in October He is to remain as prime minister until a new leader is elected and endorsed by the parliament.
The resignation came one day before Ishiba’s party was to decide whether to hold an early leadership election, which would have amounted to a virtual no-confidence motion against him if approved. He said he made the “painful decision to resign” to avert that step because “it would cause a critical division within the party, and that is absolutely not my intention.”
PRESS PHOTO By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By CAROLyN KASTER
The Rev. Marshall Hatch Sr preaches Sunday at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. ‘you need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so
Ishiba
For Moncrief and others who lived through it, Rita was the first time they experienced firsthand the vulnerabilities of living in southwest Louisiana during hurricane season. The storm uprooted trees, splintered utility poles, peeled roofs from homes and shattered windows. The days to follow were long and hot, filled with swarms of mosquitoes and limited access to water The nights were dark and quiet in an evacuated city that was without electricity
“I had to navigate where to start, what to do,” Moncrief said. “We had never had anything like it before, so it was a first. It was surreal because we evacuated several times prior, but nothing ever happened.”
‘Like a war zone’
Just a few weeks before Rita threatened southwest Louisiana, Moncrief and her neighbors watched on TV the horrors that unfolded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Moncrief, who works in human resources, had donated clothing and other essentials to Katrina evacuees staying at the Lake Charles Civic Center But the mass of evacuees who descended on Lake Charles would soon have to leave again as Rita approached southwest Louisiana.
It was a one-two punch for the state still reeling from Katrina while Rita strengthened to the strongest hurricane recorded in the Gulf.
Moncrief and her family headed to a friend’s house in Minden, about 30 minutes east of Shreveport, where Moncrief enrolled her nieces in school. They didn’t return to Lake Charles to assess the damage for about six weeks. They found their house full of mold, rain having poured into every room through a leaky roof.
It would be another year before they could rebuild and move back.
Although Moncrief felt overwhelmed, she remembers the outpouring of help from church groups, companies and other organizations that stepped in after Rita.
In a matter of weeks she’d gone from sharing with other storm evacuees to being on the receiving end of donated laundry detergent and clothes.
Southwest Louisiana had largely been spared the worst effects of hurricanes for decades before Rita, and hadn’t seen a significant storm since Hurricane Audrey in 1957.
With Katrina fresh in their minds, residents took the mandatory evacuation order seriously ahead of Rita.
Randy Roach, who was mayor of Lake Charles at the time, remembered trying to figure out where to spend the night as the storm approached. The sheriff offered Roach and City Hall staff space at the Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center
The mayor slept for a few hours in an empty jail cell as the winds tore through the city in the early morning hours of Sept. 24 2005.
He woke up to a city that had been torn apart.
“There was debris everywhere,” Roach said. “It looked like a war zone.”
‘It was dark. It was quiet.’
As daybreak arrived, Mister Edwards, who was the city’s public works director, hit the road
“The wind was still so bad you couldn’t read a street sign,” Ed-
wards said. “It was vibrating so bad, you couldn’t tell what it said.”
Edwards intended to survey the city and jot down a list of problems for his team to address. He soon ditched that plan after he couldn’t make it more than a few hundred yards down the streets.
“We’d have to go through somebody’s yard or take another street because there was so much debris and buildings and just damage in the streets,” he said.
The team instead focused on clearing major north-south and east-west streets so emergency vehicles could travel Restoring access to water was the next priority and critical to keeping hospitals open. Roots from toppled trees had ripped through thousands of water and sewer lines across the city
“At that point, I realized how vital a water system is to a community,” Edwards said.
Southwest Louisiana leaders urged residents to stay away in the initial days after the storm as essential workers tried to bring critical infrastructure back online. They implemented a “look and leave” plan that allowed residents and business owners to visit and assess damage without putting unnecessary strain on the region’s limited resources.
The nights immediately after the storm were dark and quiet.
“It was devastating and eerie in the beginning,” said Westlake Mayor Hal McMillian, who was parish president during Rita. “It was dark It was quiet.”
Retired Sheriff Tony Mancuso warned his deputies to be cautious while patrolling. Even with headlights, it would be easy for them to crash into a downed tree or utility pole without the usual lighting illuminating landmarks.
“I’ve lived here all my life,” Mancuso said. “And I could go down the street and get disoriented because it was so dark.”
‘A paradigm shift for everybody’
While Katrina was the storm that initially overshadowed Rita, Hurricane Laura’s direct hit on southwest Louisiana in 2020 has also lingered over the region.
Both Rita and Laura left a wake of destruction
Rita strengthened to a Category 5 in the Gulf but downgraded to a Category 3 by the time it made landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border Laura, on the other hand, made landfall as a Category 4 in
storm, roadside debris remaining from Laura flew through air, turning into projectiles while rainwater poured into blue tarped roofs.
In the eyes of many who experienced all of the storms, Laura was more destructive, but Rita was more of a shock.
“Coming back to Laura, it wasn’t as devastating as Rita,” Moncrief said. “It just wasn’t because you knew what could happen.”
They also learned how to accept help after Rita for the first time, she said. When her mother saw her doctor using a Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program card at the grocery store after Rita, it was the first time she considered using her own. Her mother died in 2013.
“It was just a paradigm shift for everybody on how to navigate through this process,” she said. ‘I still want to cry
While Moncrief’s family was able to rebuild after Rita, their house was a total loss after Laura. Moncrief still vividly remembers watching construction workers tear down the home she grew up in.
“Even now, I still want to cry,” Moncrief said, while fighting back tears. “All of your memories, the place we called home, your place of solace, it was gone and it wasn’t going to be there anymore.
“But if I had to reflect even further the positive piece of it is that I am the house,” she added. “I am the memories. They don’t go away They stay with me.”
A streak of bad luck continued in Lake Charles after Laura hit. A freeze in February 2021 put additional strain on the storm-ravaged water system.
Just as Moncrief made progress on rebuilding her home, floods inundated the region in May 2021. They washed away $15,000 of dirt work.
Moncrief decided it was time to move on and purchased a new home in a different neighborhood, though she stayed in Lake Charles.
Despite the obstacles, community members say they found hope in the volunteers who descended on the community after the storms. About 5,000 volunteers showed up in the weeks after Laura while donations poured in from all 50 states and 10 countries.
The most meaningful donation after Laura for the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana came in the form of $3 cash without a return address.
“We’ll never know how valuable those $3 were to that person,” said Sara Judson, the foundation’s president and CEO. “But they cared about us in southwest Louisiana enough to wrap it up and get an envelope and a stamp and send it to the Community Foundation.” There were also moments of laughter in the days and months to follow — from the portable restroom that landed in the Judson family’s driveway which they decorated and invited people to use during storm recovery, to the blue tarp capes donned by Mardi Gras royalty Moncrief, who recently earned a doctorate in public policy, credits her faith as the reason she’s been able to rebuild her life after both storms.
Still, she prays nearly every day that southwest Louisiana won’t face that kind of devastation again.
Cameron Parish. Rita had a higher storm surge on the coast, but the winds from Laura reached much higher intensity in Lake Charles Laura’s timing also coincided with a streak of other disasters, hitting while the country was still
in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. And six weeks after Laura, another hurricane hit southwest Louisiana Hurricane Delta, a Category 2 storm, exacerbated the region’s struggle to recover after Laura. Though Delta was a lower grade
“I’m not going in with rose-colored glasses,” she said. “I’m going in with some lived experiences — some great, some not so great. But with any adversity, I think that you’re only as prepared as you think you are. You just don’t know what you don’t know, right?”
PROVIDED PHOTO
Rachel Judson stands next to a portable restroom, which was carried by Hurricane Laura winds in August 2020 to her family’s driveway in Lake Charles. The Judson family turned the restroom right side up and decorated it, welcoming anyone to use it during hurricane recovery
PROVIDED PHOTO
Nicole J Moncrief’s home on V.E. Washington Avenue in Lake Charles is seen on demolition day after Hurricane Laura ravaged the region in 2020.
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Nicole J Moncrief stands in the vacant lot on Aug. 25 where the home she grew up in once stood in Lake Charles. Moncrief rebuilt following Hurricane Rita in 2005, but lost her home during Hurricane Laura in 2020.
Ochsner, SoLAcc partner on program
Registered nurse student schedules more flexible
BY JOEL THOMPSON Contributing writer
South Louisiana Community College formally announced a new partnership with Ochsner Lafayette General on Thursday aimed at filling critical registered nurse vacancies.
The program allows licensed practical nurses employed by Ochsner to apply for a pathway to an associate degree in nursing while maintaining full-time employment. The partnership allows students in the program to take nursing classes in the evenings and on weekends, while having the benefits of being full-time students. The program is designed to take approximately one year to complete, with classes in the fall, spring and summer semesters.
USDA asked to investigate monkey transport
PETA says UL’s New Iberia Research Center violated federal rules
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is claiming the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center violated federal animal welfare regulations when working with a trucking company to ship monkeys to a facility in Nevada.
The animal rights organization is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the university and JKL Secure Freight Services, the trucking company, after the two allegedly failed to obtain valid health certificates.
In a Tuesday letter to the USDA, PETA argued that the university and the trucking company violated federal Animal Welfare Act regulations when they transported 10 long-tailed macaques from the New Iberia research facility to Reno, Nevada, on Jan. 8.
“The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the New Iberia Research Center are committed to the highest standards of animal care, following all federal and state rules and regulations,” UL wrote in a statement.
Prior to transportation, primates were monitored daily under the oversight of USDA-accredited veterinarians. The pre-transport observation period began Dec. 12, and continued until transport on Jan. 8. Health assessments included a comprehensive veterinary physical exam, tuberculosis testing and testing for other communicable diseases on Dec. 12, according to the university
ä See PETA, page 4B
The college’s PN-to-RN program
began Aug. 18, with the first cohort consisting of eight students, all of whom were in attendance Thursday One of those eight students is Alexia Jackson, who received her practical nursing degree 15 years earlier, when the school was known as Acadiana Technical College. She spoke at Thursday’s announcement, highlighting how the program has helped her achieve her career aspirations.
“In the summer of 2024, I received an email that was asking interest in an Ochsner-sponsored program for LPN-to-RN,” Jackson said. “The details were outlined: I would maintain full-time status and Ochsner would sponsor our schooling. As a full-time parent, a mental roadblock was removed because this opportunity will pave the way for me to go so much further in my career, provide a higher level of skilled care and competent care to my community, and further stabilize my family.”
It was an emotional moment for Jackson, who after speaking, embraced Chancellor Vincent June, alongside several other college and Ochsner representatives in attendance.
In a news release, June said of the program, “We’re building a bridge from potential to purpose offering a pathway that empowers working professionals to advance in their careers.”
In attendance representing
TOP: A group of Helens waits their turn to pole dance at the Magnolia’s Playground stop during the Mrs. Roper Romp held on Saturday in downtown Lafayette. Helen Roper was a character on the sitcom ‘Three’s Company,’ which aired from 1977 to 1984. ABOVE: Tina de Leon starts off the limbo competition
RIGHT: Mary Chachere keeps cool with her ‘Stanley’ fan while watching the limbo competition
Lafayette native to appear in ‘The Golden Bachelor’
BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer
A Lafayette native and professional interior designer hopes to find love on Season 2 of “The Golden Bach elor,” a televised dating show that features contes tants in their se nior years. Tracy Thompson, a 62-year-old designer from Lafayette, will make her debut this month on the reality TV show Much like “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” “The Golden Bachelor”
Thompson
features contestants from all over the country competing for the affection of one man (or woman).
Episode one is set to air on ABC on Wednesday, Sept 24, at 7 p.m. Thompson will appear with 22 other women from across the country, ranging in age from 58 to 77. They all hope to accept the final rose — and an engagement ring from Mel Owens, who is a 66-year-old lawyer and former NFL player from Orange County, California. According to ABC, Owens is originally from Detroit and went to the University of Michigan. He was the ninth overall pick in the 1981 NFL Draft for the Los Angeles Rams, and after retir-
Season 2
ing from football, Owens moved to Orange County to pursue a career in law and raise a family. After the end of his marriage and raising his sons, he said he is eager to “rediscover a love rooted in the simple joys of companionship.”
Like a true Louisiana woman, Thompson said in “The Golden Bachelor” Season 2 “Meet the Women” video that she loves to jitterbug and dance. According to her Facebook page, Thompson lives in Houston and works as a self-employed designer She welcomed a granddaughter early this year Email Joanna Brown at joanna. brown@theadvocate.com.
on sale now for March 28 show
BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer
New York Times bestselling author, actor, podcaster and comedian Nate Bargatze has announced that his “Big Dumb Eyes World Tour” will stop at the Cajundome in Lafayette. The Lafayette show is set for Saturday, March 28. Tickets went on sale to the public Friday at 10 a.m. at the Cajundome Box Office and online at Cajundome.com. The tour takes its name from Bargatze’s debut book, “Big Dumb Eyes: Stories From A Simpler Mind,” which debuted at No. 1 on
The New
PHOTOS By ROBIN MAy
Congress
hasthe powertostop judges
from interfering on Ten Commandments laws
When our Founders drafted the Constitution, they intended that Congress would keep the judiciary as the “least powerful” branch of government and see to itthat judges “should be bound down by strict rules and precedentswhich serve to define their duty.” (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78). Accordingly,the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, states: “The Congress shall have power to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.” Article III, Section1states: “The judicial powerofthe United States, shall be vested in one SupremeCourt, andinsuch inferior courtsasthe Congress may from time totime ordain and establish.” Section 2 states“with suchexceptions and under such regulations asCongress shall make.”
In summary,all federal courts except the Supreme Court were created by Congress, which defined their powers and proscribed what kind of casesthey can hear —and Congress can make exceptions to the types of cases the Supreme Court can decide.
Phyllis Schlafly’sbook, “The Supremacists,” points out the judicial misconduct takingplace all over the country where federaljudges have declaredthat thedisplay of the TenCommandments in public schools or buildings is unconstitutional “under thepretense that any mention of Godviolates the First Amendment, which states: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’”Importantly,she states, “the acknowledgment of God in the TenCommandments is not an ‘establishment of religion’— Congress has neverpassed alaw banning the acknowledgment of God —and that Congressshould pass alaw to clarify that the courts (federal and Supreme) do NOT have jurisdiction over public acknowledgment of God.”
Now it’stime for Congress to use its constitutional powers over thejudiciary to protect religious freedom under the First Amendment.
STEVE GARDES Lafayette
Nurse-midwives thekey to better maternal outcomes
Iread the recent piece on nurse-midwives in the Aug. 10 Healthsection with great enthusiasm.Inmy23years as acertified nurse-midwife, Ihave lived the responsibility,the joy,the heartbreak and the humbling privilege that comes with being “with women” (the literal meaning of the word midwife) Nurse-midwives are educated in two disciplines, nursing and midwifery,and must have aminimum of amaster’sdegree in nursing to take thenational certification exam. Though some CNMs attend births in clients’ homes, the majority of CNMs practice in hospitals and birth centers. Iinvite readerstoexamine thewealth of evidence demonstratingthe positive outcomes associated with nurse-midwiferycare. There is alooming shortage of OB-GYN providers on thehorizon fueled by numerousfactors, including an aging provider workforce, decrease in interest to enter the field, rising malpractice actions and burnout related to long work shiftsand call hours. In addition to aworkforce shortage,
Louisianahas some of thepoorest maternal and child health outcomes in thecountry
Large areas of the stateare maternity care deserts, meaning women who need maternity care must travel long distances to see aprovider
Nurse-midwives can and should be part of the solution to thematernal-childhealth crisis in Louisiana. The World Health Organization released astatement in June endorsing the adoption and expansion of midwiferymodels of care globally.WHO’s guidance referenced theproven health benefits for both women and their babies when cared for by midwives
Twofairly new nurse-midwifery education programsinthe stateare answering thecall, educating nurse-midwives whowill serve Louisianacommunities and makea difference for mothersand babies across thestate. Thank you for enlightening the public about nurse-midwives andthe competent,skillful care we provide.
MICHELE COLLINS deanand professor,LoyolaUniversity New Orleans CollegeofNursingand Health
It’ssosad to me that the governor and right-to-life groups are celebrating the loss of health care to 10,000 women in Louisiana. Where will these women go when peoplein Louisiana wait so long for medical care? Crisis medical centers that offer no professional medical services? It seems they should call themselves Right to Hate: thepoor,people of color,women withcancer andfamilies struggling with unintended pregnancies.
As aCatholic theologian, Iendorse the 40 years of compassionate care for people of all faiths that Planned Parenthood has provided.
No one on the Republican side has the decency to do the right thing. The Louisiana delegation, with the exception of U.S. Reps. Troy Carter,D-New Orleans, and Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, will do anything President Donald Trumpsays to do.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, RBenton, in particular claimstobea Christian, but he is willing to overlook all the dirty deeds that Trump has done, is doing and plans to do. Back in 2020, whenTrump ordered his supporters attack the U.S. Capitol, Johnson wastrying to get House members to sign some piece of garbage to try to overlook it and say Trump did nothing wrong whenheordered the attack on national television. Johnson says he is aconstitutional lawyer,but he does not seem to know anything about the Constitution. He comes back to Shreveport and expects us to say,“Great job” and “Weare proud of you.” Isay Johnson should be ousted and charged with being an accessory to trying to overthrow the government.
GENE ALI Shreveport
To confront evil, you must recognize it
The term “the banality of evil” is a philosophical concept coined by Hannah Arendt, aJewish philosopher, after attending the trial of Adolf Eichmann, whosent millions of Jews to their deaths during World WarII. Arendt concluded that individuals can commit hideous acts due to afailure to engage in independent thought and moral reasoning.
OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com. TO SEND US ALETTER SCAN HERE
Just for therecord, Planned Parenthood of Louisianadid not do abortions, but they didnot judge women who were pregnant and whostruggled withvery personal decisions with their family and medical team.
With many recent news items about Entergy cutting power to about 100,000 people, Iwant to ask acouple of questions. It was stated that part of the problem was they had acouple of generators down and were not capable of bringing in enough power offthe grid. If this is the case, and withthem adding more solar and wind generation, how are they going to pull in power when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow?
It couldget interesting for operations needing stable power to get it from Entergy Places like medical and computer centers, many manufacturing plants and emergency
Icondemn the use of state money for thesupport of fake clinics withoutmedical care called crisis pregnancy centers. Iquestion aCatholic Church that pushes aGod of judgment and condemnation for half thepeople of Louisiana and uses its parishioners and pulpit to police love, compassionatesexuality and the health care of women. My God is an inclusive Godofjustice for all. Where did my church go?
ROSALINDHINTON NewOrleans
first responders need stable power 24/7. Does Entergy have aplan to be able to cover the natural loss of supply from solar and wind?
They are planning to build three power plants in north Louisiana to supplythe AI data center.Will theyhave the abilitytobring in power if one of those units goes down (and theywill for maintenance if not forbreakage) so the AI center can continue operating uninterrupted? What impact will theloss of oneof these generators have on the local communitieswhen power is pulled from thegrid?
MICKEY CHRISTENSEN
Baton Rouge
Iambothered that in today’sAmerica, we have normalized and desensitized individuals to acts of evil. When cruelties are rooted in everyday routines and policies, they may be perceived as “normal” or even necessary, diminishing individual responsibility and moral awareness. We expect evil to have atail, horns and apitchfork, appear in red or slither on the ground. It’s farmore likely that it will look like your favorite uncle or your sweet grandmother It just might cover itself in platitudes like “equality,” “social justice” and the “common good.” It could even be aprominent member of your church or in government. The lesson is that ordinary people can do the wrong thing if they don’tstep up to the moral imperative of reflective thinking. This makes this process as much of aspiritual process as it is apolitical one. Questions that need to be asked are: Is there awillingness to challenge authority or question the status quo if it is believed to be leading to unethical outcomes?
Are injustice and harmfulbehaviors being spoken out against, or is one choosing to remain silent, thereby allowing them to persist?
Are the consequences of actions for others considered, or is the focus primarily on what Iamtold?
Is a“deep and compassionate fighting spirit” being nurtured to keep goodness alive, or is one becoming complacent in the face of injustice? Youneed to think foryourself in order to describe the reality you find yourself in, so that you can then resist it.
SISTERBETHMOUCH NewOrleans
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Chelsea Fazande talks abouther pregnancy with Natalie Harvey,a certified nurse-midwife, in 2023.
FOOTBALL RETURNS!
Touchdown! We received 468 entries in this week’sfootball-themed Cartoon Caption Contest We had lots of punchlinesabout NIL and transfer portal deals,and abunch about bad refs (we all knowTHATpain!) Our winner crossed thegoalline with aconcept that wastruly off-the-wall andso very Louisiana! Well played, everyone.As always, when we have duplicate entries,and we always do, we pick theearliest sent in.Greatjob!Walt
JOEALFORD,BATON ROUGE: “They’re moving the TRANSFER PORTAL to theside lines!! NOW, the players canswitch teamsat HALF TIME!!”
PAMRIDER, BATONROUGE: “Ohboy,more opportunities to catch people on the‘Kiss Cam.’”
RICHARD SCHEGA, MANDEVILLE: “I haven’t seen the Statue ofLiberty playsince Knute Rockne was coaching.
LARRYDEBLIEUX, METAIRIE: “During half time, the transfer portal swapped the school mascots of these twoteams!”
JAYDARDENNE, BATONROUGE: “Unbelievable! The refs gotthe call right!”
KEVIN STEEN,CORPUSCHRISTI,TX: “This quarterback has thrown threeinterceptions in arow but at least he hasa TikTok famous girlfriend.”
VINCE CAPITANO,KENNER: “Whoa, doyou see that? Kellen Moore is in at quarterback.
DAVID DELGADO,NEW ORLEANS: “I thought streakers were athingofthe past.”
PHILLIP T. GRIFFIN, NEWORLEANS: “Now I’veseen it all —theyhaveanantenna on the football.
ToomanyAmericans goingtocollege COMMENTARY
Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (Keats),isalso when too many young Americans head to college, where too many of them will study too little under the undemanding supervision of faculty whoteach too little. Colleges illustrate the seepage of rigorfrom American life.
SHERI LINDSEY,BATON ROUGE: “Wait, did the referees finally call apenalty on the other team?”
RORY STEEN, DENVER, COLO.: “The first completion goes to afan in row6.”
MICHELE STARNES,KENNER: “Even the fans get flagged for excessivecelebration in thiscity!
JOHN WEGER, BATONROUGE: “The Saints aregoing all in for thisone! Pope Leois leading the Who Dat Chant.
KERIANNE STIEGLER,NEW ORLEANS: “TOUCHDOWN!This team has really come alivesince Coach replaced the Gatorade with pumpkin spice latte.
CHARLES SMITH, ST.ROSE: “Well, that’sa first, Fred. Local law firmscompeting to see whocan runthe most commercials during thehalftime.”
MARTHA STARNES,KENNER: “That pass waswobblier than aBourbon Street tourist at 2a.m.!”
JAMESTALLANT,WILMINGTON, N.C.: “Hey, look! Didn’t that used to be Alabama?”
ROBERTOMARAGONI, SAN JOSE,CA.: “That guy just put ketchup on his po-boy!!!”
STUART CLARK, LAFAYETTE: “Saints marching,Tigers roaring,Waverolling,Cajuns ragin’… football neversounded so good!”
BOBUSSERY, NEW ORLEANS: “They’re tied, butthe game is closer than the score would indicate.”
SAM JOHNSON, ZACHARY: “you knowI can’t believe this…instead of numbers the players are wearing aprice tag on their jerseys!!”
DAVIDM.PRADOS,METAIRIE: “Holy cow! That’sNick Saben wearing that Aflac duck suit!”
RICHARD MILLER, BATONROUGE: “It can’t be.The referees are getting astanding ovation!”
RALPH STEPHENS,BATON ROUGE: “A one-handed catch!!! And while he was signinganendorsement deal with the other hand!!!”
WILLIAM TAYLOR,THIBODAUX: “Wow,we’re in the booth next to MikeHossand Deuce McAllister.”
CHARLESSALEMI,BATON ROUGE: “Look, ahamburger,nachos and adrink cost more than the ticket for the game.
No matter what dictionary you consult, the definition of “emergency” is never “a chronic situation that the leader of acountry would like to address using powers not otherwise available to him.”
This, though, is how the Trumpadministration tends to define the term
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that the administration is considering declaring ahousing emergency, which would be its tenth emergency declaration at the national level, as wellasthe “crimeemergency” in Washington, D.C. There is no doubt that the nation is suffering an affordability crisis in housing, although this problem isn’tthe result of exigent circumstances. Over time, we have chosen to constrict the supply of housing via awelter of zoning and environmental rules that makeithard to build.
Is this atravesty? Yes. Doesitcrimpthe American Dream? Yes. Should it be addressed? Yes, again (although it’smostly a state and local issue). Is it an emergency? No,not by any common understanding of the term
Anational emergency is British troops winning the Battle of Bladensburg and heading toward the White House in 1814. Anational emergency is Iranian radicals breaching the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and taking52U.S.diplomatsand citizens hostage in 1979.
Anational emergency is apandemic reaching our shores, killing the particularly vulnerable and sickening manymillions morein2020.
Agood rule of thumb is that anational emergency should be obvious, such that no Jesuitical or motivated reasoning is necessary.Inother words, if you have to convince people that an emergency exists, it’sapretty good sign that one doesn’t. An emergency should also, by definition, be rare and of limited duration.
Trumpisn’tthe first president to honor these rules in the breach. As of last January, 2024, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Trump used to justifyhis tariffs,had been used by presidents to declare 69 emergencies, 39 of them ongoing.
Surely,few Americans realized that they lived in acountry beset by so manysimultaneous emergencies. True to form,though, Trumphas pushed this power to its max
Since 1990, collegeenrollment has increased by 6million students (29%) Reasons for this include government tuition subsidies and“college foreveryone” rhetoric. And “degree inflation:” irrational requirements for job applicants.
Preston Cooper,then of theFoundation for Research on Equal Opportunity,reported in 2023 that applicants for a$35,600-per-year job drivingan Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (a 27-footlong motorized hot dog) had to have a bachelor’sdegree. In 2000, only 16%of prime-age workers earning $35,000 (in today’sdollars) had such degrees; by 2022, 24% did. In 1990, 9% of secretaries and administrative professionals had bachelor’sdegrees;today,33% do, andahigherproportion of joblistings require applicantstohave one.This “paper ceiling” is especially egregious in state and local governments, where 63% of those earning between $40,000 and $60,000 have bachelor’sdegrees or higher.Only 28% of such earners in the private sector do.
Arecent report from theBurning Glass Institute and the Strada EducationFoundation says 52% of recent college graduates are underemployed: in jobs notusing their college learning Meanwhile, there are 750,000 industrial jobs unfilled.
Frederick M. Hess and Greg Fournier of theAmerican Enterprise Institute document that “students spend farless time studying” than formerly.In1961, theaverage full-time student at afouryearcollegestudied 24 hours aweek; today,the figureis14hours. A2016 analysis based on data from theBureau of Labor Statistics showed that “the averagefull-time college student spent only 2.76 hours aday on all educationrelatedactivities” (classes, out-of-class studying), atotal of 19.3 hours per week The 2011 book“Academically Adrift” reported that first-year studentsspend 6.3 hours aweek doing assigned reading, part of atotal of 14.3 hours preparingfor classes, adecline of about 50% from afew decades earlier.Today,Hess and Fournier say,faculty tendtothink thefigure is just 4.9 hours preparing for classes. This,although only 40% of students hold jobs, down from 79% in the mid-1990s. Many studentsconsider writing a750word essay “long.” Although 64% of studentssay they devote “a lot” of effort to schoolwork, only 6% report spending more than 20 hours per week studying and doinghomework. In 2024, 74% of first-year studentsreported no reading assignmentlonger than 11 pages and no writingassignment longer than five pages. And51% of seniors said they had written nothing longer than 11 pages in their final year
But as effort declines, grades rise. Hess and Fournier say,“At institutions like Harvard and Yale, the mean GPAis 3.7 or higher,and 80% of grades areat least an A-minus.”
Economist Arnold Kling says that despite thelimited “natural demand” for collegeeducation (“students who are
excited by academic subjects”), graduate schools continue to churn out more PhDs (almost60,000 in 2022) than the growthofundergraduateenrollment justifies. So, artificial student demand must be stimulated.Kling says “colleges adapt by offering dumbed-down courses and grade inflation.”
Andbyteachers teaching less. Hess and Richard B. Keck, also of AEI, say light teaching loads have become badges of professional status —and require schools torely on teaching by graduate studentsorpart-time adjunct instructors. Tenured or tenure-track professors teach lessand less. Most are on nine-monthcontracts requiring them to teach 13 weeks in each semester,or26 weeks of the approximately 40 covered by thecontracts —often about 15 hours aweek each semester Instead of teaching,teachers chase grantsorparticipate in “publication inflation,”filling morethan 24,000 “scholarly journals.” This dilutes the quality of what is published —215,000 articles from 2015 to 2019 —most of them ignored. The College Board, administrators of the SAT, says college applicants takingthe testwill no longer need to demonstrate comprehension of 500- to 750-word reading passages. Instead, the passages will be 25 to150 words, suited to theattention spans of young minds formed by browsing social media. The board says theabilitytocomprehend passages of “extended length” (the lengthofthis column, not “Middlemarch”) is not “an essential prerequisitefor college.” What worse can be said about higher education today? Email George Will at georgewill@washpost.com.
The problem with ruling by emergency declaration is that it fundamentally distorts our constitutional system;ituses the excuse of an emergency to exercise powers that Congress never intended to grant the presidency forthe pursuit of loop routine policy preferences.
This is the issue in the tariffs case. Trump used anon-emergency —atrade deficit that has existed fordecades and that Trumphas inveighed against mostofhis adult life—to unlock apower to impose tariffs that doesn’t appear anywhere in IEEPA. The U.S. Court of Appeals, rightly,has balked and the case is inevitably headed to the SupremeCourt.
The tariffcase underlines the inherent instability of government-by-emergency If Trumphad used moreestablished and limited powers —or, even better,gone to Congress to pass his tariffs —there wouldn’t be alegal cloud around the tariff regime in which he is so personally and politically invested.
There will certainly be partisan retaliation. Whatever hesitance afuture Democratic president might have had about declaring, say,aclimate emergency will be drastically diminished by Trump’sprecedent.
If it had any institutional self-respect, Congress would go systematically through the statute books and excise all but the very moststrict and necessary emergency powers. By and large, the presidency doesn’tneed any morediscretionary power.And, in a genuine emergency,Congress tends to act. In fact, it tends to be overly hasty and overly eager to embrace fashionable ideas. This is how we got the DHSand the Office of Director of National Intelligence after 9/11, when creating new departments and agencies seemed anecessary response to the threat of terrorism.
Regardless, it can’tbethat one of the most consequential questions in our carefully constructed constitutional system is whether the president decides to call something an emergency or not.
The murder case of Widner DeGruy was already three years old when hisdefense attorney asked to reschedule ahearing so he could escort his wife to aMardi Gras ball. The judge granted therequest.
That delay in 2018was one of many that stalled the case over 10 years, as court records show the judge agreed to attorneys’ requests to postpone hearings and trials fora dentist appointment, an opportunity to speak at a conference and to prioritize other cases.
DeGruy’sstill unresolved case stretches across adecade in which homicide prosecutions in New Orleans took longer to close than almost anywhere else in the country, an analysis by The TimesPicayune found. The system’s slow pace leaves victims’ families and defendants waiting for justice, trapped in a debilitating limbo, and shackles taxpayers with mounting expenses.
Some delays areunavoidable. But inside Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, hearings and trial dates routinely collapse for preventable reasons: lawyers triplebook trials,judges take lastminute vacations, evidence can’t be found.
“It’slikethe Wild West, said Elizabeth Strauss, aformer New Orleans prosecutor who now practices in Florida.
“It’s really scary that something can be that dysfunctional and still function.”
All involved bear some responsibility,but judges have the most power to advance cases
“Wehavetoo many courtrooms in this statewhere the culture is an expectation of a(delay),” said Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Will Crain, who is helping with an effort by the high court to review judicial caseloads, in which nearly allLouisiana judges participated. “You have to change the culture— and the judge does that.”
In New Orleans, cases often spiral out of control for reasons within the court’sgrasp records show.Courtwide case-processing rules don’t exist. Calendars lack coor-
dination. Consequences play out daily:attorneys rushing between hearings or failingto appear at all, with scheduling gaps snowballing into months of losttime.
Somejudges let homicide cases drift, unable or unwilling to hold theline. Deadlines slip; routine exchanges of evidence drag for months; trial dates hinge on asingle witness’ schedule.
It’scommon for some judges to arrive at courtlate —leavingfamilies and police officers waiting extended periods— andexitbeforenoon. In those shortenedstretches on the bench, little meaningful workgets done, records show
Theresult is asteadychurn of continuances,orpostponements, that the National Center for State Courts says is the biggest obstacle totimely fair justice.
In aletter to The TimesPicayune, JudicialAdministrator Robert Kazik said judges navigate “numerous complexities and considerations”behindthe scenes,off the bench. He added that attorneys need time outside of courttoprepare for hearings and trials
Spotty recordkeeping makesitdifficult to track court delays. In DeGruy’s case, for example, few delays have been captured as official continuances
DeGruy was arrested in 2015 andstood trialin2019. Anonunanimous 11-1 jury found him guilty of seconddegree murder,but ayear later, the convictionwas overturned and his case was sent for retrial. He’syet toface another jury.
Less than 20 continuance requestswere logged in his case’sminute entries, theofficial running notesofeach hearing. Yetcourt records suggest only about half of more than 100 scheduled proceedings took place as planned.
Court Watch NOLA,which tracks localcourts, attended 3,014 hearings and trials last year,incases of allkinds. Its volunteers saw proceedings continued 41% of the time, a tallythe groupsaysunderstates thetrue scaleofdelay because volunteersviewa limited numberofhearings.
“I was surprisedhow little got done,” onewrote. “In my over three hours in court, the judge was only therefor an hour of it.”
over DeGruy’scase, didnot respond to an interview request. Kazik wrote that the pandemic scuttled scheduled trials across thecourt,including in DeGruy’scase, and that attorney turnover and DeGruy’srecent request to represent himselfalsocaused setbacks.
Kazik cited adozen “valid” reasonsjudgesmay grant continuances to protect the constitutional rights of defendants, ranging from failed defendant transport to untested DNA
Those delays, he wrote, stem from factors outside the court’scontrol. Forexample, the court “is at the mercy” of officials charged with transportingincarcerateddefendants, he wrote, and cannot rush “the need for adequate timetoreview voluminous” discovery
By contrast, Kazik wrote that postponements following repeated attempts by lawyers to avoid trial without sufficient cause “may notbe considered valid.”
“Ultimately,” he continued, “cases mustmove forward when delays threaten constitutional protections.”
Courtwide policies include rules on case allotment, transfers and recusals, intended to “reduce unnecessary delays in docketing adefendant’s case,” Kazik wrote. But he offered no detailsabout practices designed to improve efficiency once acase wasbefore ajudge.
“When the court has come under criticism,the path of least resistance is to look at all those different factors and blame,” said Crain. “They mayberight.”
But, he added, it’sdifficult to pinpoint thecauses of delay without afullreview —something OrleansParishhas resisted. If the court isn’ttoblame for backlogs, Crainsaid, “it’sgoing to be revealed, isn’tit? So what’s the fear?”
Attorneysdouble-booked
On Aug. 18, inside the court’sSection J, Judge Franz Zibilich leaned forward in his chair as yet another case sputtered to ahaltonanoutsized, aged docket that he’d been appointed to reduce.
He called adefendant’s name, but no one rose: The attorney wasinanother courtroom.
Another matter unraveled when attorneys on both sides said they weren’tprepared to proceed. “Don’tyou lawyers
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Ochsner Lafayette General were CEO Patrick Gandy Jr.and Karen Wybles, vice president of regional communityaffairs.
“This is about empowering ourlicensed practical nurses to be able to expand in their nursing careers,” Wybles said. “It’sabout empowering them to expand their scopeofpractice, to be able todoall those things that maybe they thought wasunattainable —adream theycouldn’t get to becauseofthe many barriers like cost of educationand child care. We’re here today to tell you that we are removing thosebarriers for our nurses.” The ceremony ended with asymbolic ribboncutting that signifiedthe strengthening of ties between the collegeand
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comedy special in its first month. On the silver screen, Bargatze will soon star in afamily-friendly comedy,“The Breadwinner,” for TriStar Pictures, which he co-wrote withDan Lagana. He will also serveasanexecutive producer.He’salso expected to host thePrimetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 14 on CBS. For tickets to Bargatze’s “BigDumbEyes World Tour,” visit nateland.comor Cajundome.com
Email Ja’kori Madison at jakori.madison@ theadvocate.com
talk to one another before you come into court?” he snapped.
“I don’tget it.”
Then Zibilichcalled the case of Keith Kisack, asecond-degree murder prosecution still active after 16 years.
“Can we move on that?” Zibilich asked.
“Wehave to wait,” Michael Kennedy,Kisack’slatest defense attorney,replied. The assistant attorney general now prosecuting the case had not yet cometocourt.
Whenthe prosecutor arrived nearly an hour and a half after Zibilich took the bench, he announced he hadn’tyet been authorized to offer aresolution.
Zibilich set atrial date for Sept. 8.
“This is ago,” he said.
In April, aMetropolitan Crime Commission report showed Judge Darryl Derbigny,who had presided over Section Jfor 23 years, carried afelonycaseloadtwice that of any of hiscolleagues.
In response, theLouisiana SupremeCourt asked Derbigny to turn over his docket and calendar,Crain said. Derbigny requested medical leave instead, then resigned July 30.Justices appointed Zibilichand another retired judge,Calvin Johnson, to take over his docket.
Such direct intervention by the high court is rare. Now, Crainsaid, the court “isinterested and willingtolook into judges’competence —their ability to manage the business of being ajudge.”
Kisack’sprosecution is the oldest open homicide case in New Orleans’ court. But it didn’tbegin in Derbigny’s section.
Instead, it pinballed through six of its 12 courtrooms, offering arare mapofdysfunction across the system.
Twoand ahalf years passed before atrial date was set, then canceled. Six years into thecase, attorneys announced they were haggling overa plea.They were still negotiating more thantwo years later,pushing trial dates along the way
At least four times, attorneys didn’tshow up. In one instance, they claimed they weren’tawareahearingwas scheduled. In another,a defense attorney who failed to appear didn’tanswer phone calls from the judge. Kennedy inherited the case two years ago. Even basic discovery took four months to reach him, records show Twotrialdates dissolved
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On Jan. 6, aUSDA-accredited veterinarian inspected and approved the monkeys for transport and completed the Certificate of Veterinary Inspection; the CVI was approvedthe same daybythe Nevada Department of Agriculture and was valid for 30 days.OnJan. 8, each animal was observed to be fit for transport by the program-assigned veterinarian, the statement continued.
AUSDA-accredited veterinarian is required to examine primates no more
JUSTICEBYJUDGE
whenprosecutors said they weren’tready.
Kennedy filed aspeedy trial motion last October.But Kisack was sentenced to life in prisonin2018 underthe state’shabitual offender statute, leavingthe motion withoutteeth,Kennedy said.
On Kisack’s most recent trial date, Aug. 11, law enforcement authorities didn’tbring him to court,one of several times records show he wasn’t brought from prison.
Kazikwrote that Kisack’s case is “characterized by its complexity,stemming from multiple cases anddefendantsinvolved,” andthat the recusal of the District Attorney’sOffice from the case and the appointment of the Attorney General’sOffice added“almost two years” to the case’slife span.
Kennedy said not every homicide case should resolve within the one-year national goal. “ButI have seen where it getsegregious,” he said.
Even judges who are consideredamong the speediest in the court take nearlytwo years —almost double the benchmark—toclose homicide cases, The Times-Picayune found.
In Kisack’scase, Kennedy added, “we’re talking about amurder case so old it could drive.”
Taking steps
Across Louisiana, at least twoother court systems have recently invited external review of their case-processing efficiency, includingEast
than 10 days before they cross state lines, according to PETA.Documents obtainedbythe organization showed an inspection occurred on Dec. 12 —28 days before the monkeys were sent to Charles River Laboratories.
The need for timely inspection helps lessen the spread of tuberculosis among primate populations. The organization, in the August report, claimed the cases arerising among monkeys importedtothe United States.
“Weurge the USDAto investigate these apparent violationsand take swift, decisive action, including issuingcitationstoboth registrants for each of the
Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court.
There, Chief Judge Donald Johnson said he saw asystem wherejudges took apassive role in case progression.
“The more Ireadand learned, themoreI realized that I, as ajudge,and the court as awhole, could serve as the leader andthe primary public safety agency in setting the pace for case progression,” Johnson said.
In NewOrleans,somejudges are taking stepstocurb postponements. Forexample, three years ago, Judge Kimya Holmes held adefense attorney in contempt afterhelefther courtroom for another trial, delayingatrial in afour-yearold murder case. In July,seven judges held Sheriff Susan Hutson in contempt forallegedly failing to transportdefendants to court. Hutson has appealed, and an agency spokespersonsaid deputies transport 464 defendants perweek, on average, to thecourt Butthe courtasa whole has refused to adopt even simple solutions, such as calendar synchronization, dualdockets andunifiedcase-processing rules, which experts say can have substantial impact.
“There are different ways youcan probe these dockets to makethem work,” Crain said. “What you have to do first is be willing to say that whatiscurrently being done doesn’twork.”
Staff writerJeffAdelson contributed to thisreport
AWRs violated,” the letter read
In 2021, an Ohio-based animal rights organization called for federal fines to be levied against theuniversity after five infant monkeys dieddue to dehydration at the New Iberia facility
The deaths were marked as a“critical” noncompliance incident, with the university receiving an officialwarning. Stop Animal Exploitation Now! claimed the university had a“history of breaking federal law” andhad paid finesofup to $100,000 in 2017. The university has paid three other federal fines since 2007.
OchsnerLafayetteGeneral, which have worked together since 2012. Past and ongoing partnerships include amedical assistant apprenticeship program, scholarship awardsand lastyear’s donationoftwo $11,000 nursing podstothe school.
Formoreinformation on the college’s PN-to-RN program,visit solacc.edu/ lpn2m.
STAFF PHOTO By JOEL THOMPSON
Officials fromSouth Louisiana CommunityCollege and Ochsner Lafayette General Hospital launcha newprogram Thursdayatthe community college to help practical nurses employed by Ochsner takeclasses to obtainanassociate’sdegree and become registered nurses.
SP TS
GAME OF INCHES
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
For amoment, theNew Orleans Saints looked like they’d pulled off the improbable comeback to start the first game of the Kellen Moore era withabang
Tight end Juwan Johnsonleapt high amid three converging Arizona Cardinals defenders. He twisted his body and snared thepass from Spencer Rattler,then absorbed ashot from Arizona’sAll-Pro safety Budda Baker His hands held onto the ball as gravity brought him back downtothe turf. Andthen, as he landed in the end zone, he lost control,and the Saints lost the opener 20-13 on Sunday at
Caesars Superdome.
“At the end of the day,Ididn’tmake theplay,” Johnsonsaid.
Theball squirted out of his grip with four seconds remaining, and New Orleans’ best shot at erasing a 10-point lead in the closing minutes slipped away.Rattler’s next pass on fourth-and-10from the 18-yard line sailed incomplete.
Sunday’s defeat was thefirst in a season opener by the Saints since the 2018 season, andwhileJohnson’s missed opportunity in the closingseconds was memorable becauseofthe situation, plentyofothers came away with dirty hands.
The New OrleansSaints had agolden opportunity Sunday Even moregolden than thejerseys they wore that matched theCaesars Superdomeend zones that they could only get into once.
The Arizona Cardinals were just thetype of opponent the Saintsneeded to give us a gauge on what the first season of the Kellen Moore era could look like.
The Cardinals were also just the right kind of opponent tosteal awin against, unlike some of the more daunting foes theSaints will see in thenext few weeks.
Butthis is agolden opportunity that slipped away,just like the foot-
ball slipped away from the hands of tight end Juwan Johnson on what could have been agame-tying touchdown in the final seconds. Instead, the Saints fell 20-13 to the Cardinals. Yeah, the Saints showed somefight, which is what you wanttosee in ateam with so manynew faces, including a37-yearold head coach hired in February If the Saints are going to be any good in Kellen Moore’sfirst season, though, they will need alot of things to go right. They can’tcommit just as many
STAFFPHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Will Johnson breaks up apass in the end zone intended for Saintswide receiver Rashid Shaheed during the second halfoftheir seasonopening game Sundayatthe Caesars Superdome.
Kelly displeased with coaching effort
Lackluster win over La. Tech prompts sense of urgency
BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer
Minutes after LSU surrendered 178 rushing yards to Nicholls State a year ago, Brian Kelly walked up to the podium and delivered a message that was not born out of frustration.
“I thought they played their tails off. They were physical,” LSU’s coach said after the Tigers struggled to dominate the Colonels in their home opener last season.
“You could tell how much it meant to those young men to play here in Tiger Stadium and have a chance to play LSU.”
LSU won the game 44-21, but it had been a poor performance against an inferior opponent, much like the lackluster outing Kelly’s team had on Saturday against Louisiana Tech. But this time around, instead of complimenting the opponent first or simply saying that LSU needed to improve, Kelly’s tone was markedly different.
He was frustrated, and he wasn’t afraid to show it after LSU’s 23-7 win over the Bulldogs Within his voice lay a deep sense of urgency that wasn’t there a season ago.
“We didn’t coach well enough, and we didn’t play well enough tonight, and that’s not our standard,” Kelly said. “And so they’re disappointed in that they didn’t live up to that standard. They want to do it. They just didn’t do it tonight.”
Perhaps Kelly’s urgency stems from his confidence in his roster this season.
After making numerous upgrades in the transfer portal and bringing back fifth-year senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, junior linebacker Whit Weeks and redshirt junior linebacker Harold Perkins, Kelly has spoken like a coach who believes he has the talent necessary to make a deep run into January
“If I didn’t think we had the
players, I’d be in here giving you the Coach Kelly spin. I’d give you everything that I could come up with about how great we are,” Kelly said. “We’ve got better players on this roster.”
With a talent-rich team, Kelly, after the game, harped on LSU’s coaching as an aspect of its program that needed to improve. The Tigers had devised an effective game plan to take down Clemson on the road a week ago, but Kelly was vexed by how he and his staff couldn’t help their players as well as they could have against Louisiana Tech
“We got outcoached in a lot of areas,” Kelly said. “Hats off to coach (Sonny) Cumbie and his staff at (Louisiana) Tech They did a great job tonight.”
Among those points of irritation for Kelly was LSU’s rushing attack. The Tigers only averaged 2.8 yards per carry until freshman Harlem Berry broke off a 43-yard
carry late in the fourth quarter
“You’ve got to run the football,” Kelly said. “We didn’t run the football effectively tonight, and it made it difficult for us.”
But it wasn’t just LSU’s rushing attack that struggled against Louisiana Tech. Nussmeier also threw an interception and had an uncharacteristically high number of inaccurate throws.
Nussmeier’s receivers also dropped their fair share of passes, and his offensive line struggled at times with senior center Braelin Moore unavailable after he suffered a left leg injury on the first snap of the game.
“We’ve got to go back and figure out what was in our preparation, what was in our mindset when we took the field for this game that we couldn’t live up to that standard,” Kelly said. “And that’s what they’re trying to figure out right now.”
The lackluster showing didn’t
extend to LSU’s defense, which held Louisiana Tech to 154 total yards and just 12 first downs. Kelly said the unit played “pretty darn good.”
But LSU will need better fullteam efforts if it wants to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time under Kelly The Tigers showed they could play at that level against Clemson. The only question that remains is if they can consistently live up to that standard moving forward.
“This isn’t just, ‘Well, our coaches stink,’ or ‘Our players stink,’” Kelly said “This is everybody collectively (not living) up to the standard that we have set here. And you can only do that when you believe that you have more, and we have more, and that didn’t show up tonight, and that’s disappointing.”
Email Koki Riley at Koki. Riley@theadvocate.com.
USF breaks into Top 25; LSU stays at No. 3
By The Associated Press
The third week of the AP Top 25 college football poll showed Ohio State, Penn State and LSU retaining their slots as the top three teams as Oregon slid into No. 4 and No. 18 South Florida ranked for the first time in seven years. The Bulls, who were eight spots out of the Top 25 last week, became the biggest upward mover thanks to their 18-16 win over then-No. 13 Florida. That came after a home win over then-No. 25 Boise State. Top 3 unchanged
The Top 25 saw plenty of movement this week, but the top three didn’t budge after outscoring opponents by a combined 127-7. Ohio State remained No. 1 after a 70-0 victory over Grambling State. Penn State overcame a slow start to beat FIU 34-0 and remain at No. 2, while LSU held firm at No. 3 after a 23-7 win over Louisiana Tech.
USF ranked after Florida upset South Florida jumped into the AP Top 25 at No. 18. The list of unranked teams to open a season 2-0 with both wins coming against AP-ranked opponents is short:
1. USF did it this year vs. No. 25 Boise State and No. 13 Florida.
2. Oregon State opened 2012 with wins vs. No. 13 Wisconsin and No. 19 UCLA.
3. East Carolina managed the feat in 2008 against No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia.
4. And North Carolina started its 1976 season with wins against No. 20 Miami (Ohio) and No. 18 Florida. USF, which visits Miami this weekend, is bidding to become the fifth team to open a season with three wins over ranked opponents. Miami did it in 1987, Michigan in 1985, Iowa in 1960 and Oklahoma in 1954.
The Bulls, coming into this season, were 2-29 in their past 31
games against ranked opponents. They’re 2-0 in such games this season.
Clemson out of top 10
Preseason ranked No. 4 Clem-
son has yet to meet the expectations of poll voters. The Tigers fell to No. 8 after a close loss to a talented LSU team in Week 1.
Cade Klubnik led four scoring drives in the second half, carrying Clemson to a 24-16 win after entering the game as 31-point favorites, according to BetMGM.
Oregon, Georgia swap spots
Georgia and Oregon swapped spots in this week’s poll.
Oregon moved up two places to No. 4 in the AP Top 25 after routing Oklahoma State 69-3.
Georgia didn’t get quite the start
Kirby Smart envisioned against FCS Austin Peay The Bulldogs ultimately came out on top 28-6, but it wasn’t enough to convince voters they should rank in the top five.
Georgia fell to No 6 as a result
Illinois, Florida State jump
Illinois broke into the top 10 after knocking on the door for the
past two weeks. Illinois ranked No. 12 in the preseason poll and improved to No. 11 after beating Western Illinois 52-3. The Fighting Illini beat Duke 45-19 on Saturday, moving up to No. 9.
Florida State’s hot streak continued, surpassing East Texas A&M 77-3. The Seminoles cracked the Top 25 after a Week 1 31-17 win over Alabama, jumping from unranked to No. 14. One week later, Florida State sits at No. 10. Alabama bounces back
Pressure was mounting for Alabama after losing 31-17 to Florida State in the season opener and falling 13 spots in the poll.
The Crimson Tide bounced back in Week 2 with a 73-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe Quarterback Ty Simpson completed all 17 of his passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns. Austin Mack and Keelon Russell also saw time at signal-caller and threw two touchdowns apiece.
Mateer leads Sooners to win No. 15 Michigan traveled to No. 18 Oklahoma for the sole matchup headlining two ranked teams.
Alcaraz beats top-ranked Sinner for U.S. Open title
NEW YORK No. 2-seeded Carlos Alcaraz’s 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Sunday in the U.S. Open final was significant. Alcaraz reasserted his superiority over the defending champion, wrested away the top spot in the ATP rankings and left tennis fans eager for whenever the rivals’ next clash will come. This 2-hour 42-minute win gave Alcaraz, a 22-year-old from Spain, leads over Sinner, a 24-year-old from Italy, of 10-5 in their headto-head series, 6-4 in total Grand Slam trophies, and 2-1 in U.S. Open championships. They have combined to collect the past eight Slam trophies — four each — and 10 of 13. Novak Djokovic, the 24-time major champ eliminated by Alcaraz on Friday, took the other three.
Hamlin nabs 59th career win, 200th for Toyota MADISON, Ill. — Denny Hamlin won from the pole position at World Wide Technology Raceway, playing the strategy perfectly to lead the final 25 laps in his series-high fifth victory this season.
With his 59th career win, Hamlin advanced to the second round of the Cup Series playoffs and joined Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe, who finished second.
The No. 11 Toyota team called Hamlin to the pits for his final stop with 44 laps left, and he cycled to the front on a caution 15 laps later The Virginia native seized the lead from Brad Keselowski on the restart, delivering the 200th win in NASCAR’s premier series for Toyota.
Chase Elliott finished third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano as playoff drivers swept the top five spots.
McIlroy wins Irish Open after eagle forces playoff STRAFFAN, Ireland It turned out to be a perfect homecoming for Rory McIlroy The Northern Irishman made a 28-foot eagle putt on the final hole to force a playoff, then sealed his second Irish Open win with a birdie on the third hole of the playoffs against Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren on Sunday McIlroy and Lagergren each shot 6-under 66s on Sunday They birdied the first two playoff holes, but Lagergren found the hazard with his approach shot on the third hole to open the door for McIlroy
“To do what I did earlier in the year and then to come home and win my national Open, no matter what happens for the rest of the year, that’s a pretty cool year,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy won the Masters earlier this year to complete a career Grand Slam.
Lions WR Williams agrees to contract extension
John Mateer’s strong start continued for the Sooners, as the transfer QB delivered 21 of 34 passes for 270 yards, a touchdown and an interception while also leading the team with 74 rushing yards and two rushing scores. Oklahoma opened the season at No. 18 and didn’t budge after a 35-3 Week 1 win over Illinois State. Michigan dropped from No. 14 to No. 15 in the first regular season poll after a 34-17 win over New Mexico.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams has agreed to terms on a contract extension as he attempts to follow up on his breakthrough season from a year ago. The Lions announced the extension Sunday before the two-time defending NFC North champions began their season against the Green Bay Packers. The Lions didn’t reveal terms, but multiple reports said Williams had agreed to a three-year extension worth up to $83 million. Williams, 24, is coming off a 2024 season in which he caught 58 passes for 1,001 yards and seven touchdowns. Through his first two seasons, Williams had totaled 25 catches for 395 yards and three touchdowns over 18 games.
Verstappen dominates in win at Italian Grand Prix
MONZA, Italy Max Verstappen claimed a dominant victory at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of McLaren’s title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, after a dramatic start and end to the race at Monza.
a 58-yard
Mississippi State, Baylor surprise South Florida’s win wasn’t the sole upset of the week. Mississippi State beat No. 12 Arizona State 24-20, an effort spearheaded by quarterback Blake Sharpen. Senior receiver Brenen Thompson caught the
with
seconds
It was the first win since May for Verstappen – and only his third of the season and capped a memorable weekend at Monza for Red Bull’s four-time world champion, who had posted the fastest lap in Formula 1 history at the track on Saturday to claim pole position. Norris was second, nearly 20 seconds behind Verstappen, to trim the gap to Piastri in the title race to 31 points, with eight races left.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOHN RAOUX
Florida defensive back Devin Moore, left, and defensive back Bryce Thornton, back, break up a pass intended for South Florida
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
LSU coach Brian Kelly yells in reaction to a call against the Tigers during a game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
CAJUNS 34, COWBOYS 10
THREE AND OUT: KEVIN FOOTE’S TOP TAKEAWAyS
PASSING GAME STILL NOT THERE
1
RUNNING GAME FLOURISHES
There’s nothing better for a playcaller
working with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first career start than having a rushing attack to lean on. UL coach Michael Desormeaux did so over and over and over in Saturday’s 34-10 win over McNeese. No one was surprised by Bill Davis with 132 yards and Zylan Perry with 92, but Steven Blanco raised some eyebrows with 69 yards.
SAME TREND FOR DEFENSE
2
For the second straight game, UL’s defense had its fans a bit concerned early, and then very pleased by the end of the game. McNeese quarterback Jake Strong moved pretty easily in the first two and a half quarters. But adjustments were made and the Cowboys finished with only 238 total yards. The defense produced a fumble recovery and an interception in the win
3
The bottom line in a game like this was the win and the Cajuns took care of that But there wasn’t a lot of reason to leave the game feeling much better about the state of the passing game.There weren’t as many drops, but there were also very few passes of any distance. Certainly, it made sense not to put too much on Daniel Beale’s plate in his first start, but a lot of progress will need to be made in a hurry
Beale produced desired result
UL QB relies on ground game to secure win
BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer
The question was asked of redshirt freshman Daniel Beale after UL’s 34-10 win over McNeese on Saturday
How exactly would he grade himself after his first performance as a starter?
Initially it was pretty obvious it was a question he wasn’t very comfortable with.
In the end, his answer was an ‘A’ for one simple reason.
“I did enough to make us win,” Beale said. “I don’t want to be too hard on myself. I mean, the Cajuns win. That’s the main goal in mind.” That’s absolutely correct — for now The Cajuns’ ground game exploded for 315 yards, so the quarterback’s precision passing or handling of the little things didn’t matter as much.
“Obviously, I could do better,” Beale said. “You know, we had a lot of tip balls at the line of scrimmage. I could find the arm angle or a couple high balls that, you know, like that last third down — the slant to Rob (Williams) in the red zone. I could have made a better pass right there. It might have been a touchdown, honestly, if that’s a catch and run.”
On the night, Beale was 14-of-22 passing for 86 yards with no interceptions and one touchdown. Not many chances were being taken. This game was about doing what it took to win. There was enough shock value with the loss to Rice. For UL, a 0-2 start was not an option.
“I thought Daniel operated really well in the run game,” UL
UL 34, McNeese 10
McNeese St.7030—10 UL710017—34
First Quarter
ULL—B.Davis 6 run (Sterner kick), 12:58
MCNS—Lippold 2 run (Pinton kick), 10:08
Second Quarter
ULL—B.Davis 36 run (Sterner kick), 1:06
ULL—FG Sterner 38, :00. Third Quarter
MCNS—FG Pinton 45, 11:50 Fourth Quarter
ULL—FG Sterner 37, 10:41. ULL—Baptiste 10 pass from Beale (Sterner kick), 3:48. ULL—Blanco 34 run (Sterner kick), 1:39
A—26,071. MCNSULL First downs 14 25 Total Net Yards 238 401 Rushes-yards 26-47 45-315 Passing 191 86 Punt Returns 1-7 1--13 Kickoff Returns 4-39 3-77
RECEIVING—McNeese St., Jackson 4-83 Citizen 3-18, Campbell 3-17, Senegal 3-9, Mauldin 2-30, Paris 1-17, Echols 1-8, Harris 1-6, Hayes 1-3. Louisiana-Lafayette, Jensen 3-9, R.Williams 2-18, Wade 1-19, Perry 1-13, Baptiste 1-10, Davis 1-6, Sampson 1-4, Robertson 1-3, Chappell 1-2, Dennis 1-2, T.Miller 1-0.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—Louisiana-Lafayette, Sterner 53, Sterner 28.
coach Michael Desormeaux said.
“Certainly in the throw game, his first start, there’s some things that we got to clean up and we got to fix and do a little bit better But he operated really well.”
According to running back Bill Davis, Beale handled himself as a leader in the huddle just fine in his first start.
“So we make a joke, like, we call him like he’s a mini Ben (Wooldridge) just very composed,” Davis said. “When he
makes a bad play, he doesn’t seem rattled like most guys would.”
In the big picture, Beale’s first start in relief of injured starting quarterback Walker Howard was just a step in the process.
It didn’t take very long for Beale to notice how different it was from being thrown into the game because of injury, like his previous two appearances.
“The game is definitely slower,” Beale said “Coming in in a twominute drill, everything is faster — a faster pace. You’re snapping the ball quicker The game is on the line. Everybody’s going full speed. The defense knows it’s a pass — the D-line can pin its ears back.
“This was more like a true game where you can run your real offense and mix and match.”
Coming off a loss — really, three consecutive losses going back to last season — the last thing on Beale’s mind was putting up gaudy passing numbers. His primary focus was on the details he didn’t want to mess up.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t say I had a true concern,” he said. “I just wanted to play my game and let the athletes around me play do my 1-11 as a quarterback. Make sure the ‘Mike’ IDs were right, make sure we’re blocking who we need to in the pass game, make sure the protection’s good and do what I need to do to win the game and not put the team in jeopardy because of my play.”
There’s a lot more going on for a quarterback than many think, especially when it appears he’s just handing the ball off.
But both Beale and his head coach know much more will be
Baptiste, Blanco score
BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer
There were two Acadiana area high school products shining brightly during UL’s 34-10 win over McNeese on Saturday at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium.
The first one was Landon Baptiste. The former Southside High quarterback who walked on to the Cajuns put the game away for good with a 10-yard touchdown reception with 3:48 left to play
“From Day One, it was like, ‘Wow, there’s some stuff this guy does really well,’ ” UL coach Michael Desormeaux said. “Last week, he got in there early and dropped the ball and didn’t get a chance to go back in. He didn’t pout. He just kept working.”
He got another opportunity and capitalized on a 10-yard touchdown reception.
“That was not an easy catch,” Desormeaux said. “Those are the things you hope just builds confidence, because he’s got a lot of ability.”
The star of the game was Bill Davis with a career-high 132 yards and two touchdowns, but he was ecstatic for both Baptiste and St Martinville running back Steven Blanco, who also scored his first collegiate touchdown in the win.
“I’m going to give him a shout out,” Davis said of Baptiste. “I was just so happy for him because he’s my roommate and my dog.
“I was so happy for both of them.”
Blanco showed a burst in the game, finishing with 69 yards and a score on six carries.
“He’s practiced extremely well,” Desormeaux said. “I think the progress he’s made from last year when he got here to now is, it’s extreme.
“I thought he was going to be a good player last year, but I didn’t know how long it would take. He’s done a really good job of getting himself in great shape and he knows the offense.”
Howard hanging in there
required from the passing game very soon.
“We’ll go back and watch it,” Desormeaux said. “I think it’s just like the precision’s just a little off. A throw might be a little bit wide. We just don’t quite make the play or the foot count on the route depth might be a little bit too deep, so the timing’s a hair off.
“It’s just things that we’re just going to have to keep working through. We’re going to have to throw the ball this year, and we got guys that can do it. Right now we’re not nearly as crisp as we want to be in the throw game.”
In the 14-12 loss to Rice, dropped passes were a major issue. That wasn’t the case this time because the passing game wasn’t nearly as aggressive.
In the first game, only one receiver had more than 7 yards receiving. Incredibly, 11 different targets caught passes out of only 14 completions, but no one had more than 19 yards receiving.
“The issues that people were talking about at receiver for us, we were kind of not really concerned about it,” Desormeaux said. “We felt like what we’d seen in spring, and summer and all that stuff, we’re in a really good spot, and I still feel that way.”
Looking ahead, Beale’s next step is still pretty simple.
“I just need to settle in, play my game, sit in the pocket, make the throws that need to be thrown give the ball to the playmakers in space and let the guys make plays,” he said.
“A win’s a win. It doesn’t matter who you beat or by how much.” Yes, for now
Desormeaux is not sure he’d be handling the unfortunate situation Walker Howard is dealing with as well as the redshirt junior quarterback has.
At this third school since starring at St. Thomas More, Howard finally overcame the big hurdle of earning the starting job for the first time, only to get injured in the first game.
“I’m just really proud of him,” Desormeaux said. “I mean, put yourself in those shoes. I don’t know how I would have handled it. If that had been my journey I don’t know how well I don’t think I would have handled it very well.”
Desormeaux said Howard has remained supportive of Daniel Beale and his teammates, despite having surgery Friday on a torn oblique and being expected to miss the rest of the season.
“You don’t have the words to tell him to try to help them to make them feel better,” Desormeaux said. “But I mean this entire week, he’s been as upbeat as he could. He’s been on the scout team, you know, cheering them on, telling him to do a great job.
“The thing that I appreciate the most about our team and our quarterback room in particular is these guys have so much respect for each other.” Beale didn’t want to play at the expense of Howard’s health.
“Nobody wants it to happen that way,” Desormeaux said. “There’s just a lot of things to navigate and Walker has handled it with such maturity and grace.”
STAFF PHOTO By BRAD KEMP
UL quarterback Daniel Beale, left throws a pass as McNeese safety Shyaub Brinkley defends during the Cajuns’ 34-10 win Saturday
CARDINALS 20, SAINTS 13
Fuaga leaves game with knee injury
BY LUKE JOHNSON AND MATTHEW PARAS Staff writers
Already down one starter on the offensive line, the New Orleans Saints saw another leave the game in the second half Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
All the injuries prompted the Saints to make a trade on cutdown day, sending a future sixth-rounder to the Cowboys in exchange for Richards and a future seventh-round pick. The recent acquisition didn’t have much time to get acquainted with his new team before it relied on him.
It was Kamara’s 86th career touchdown and the 47th he’s scored as a member of the Saints in the Superdome. Kamara has scored more touchdowns in the Superdome than any other Saints player, with Marques Colston next on the list (38).
injury Boyd was listed on the injury report with a hand injury, but he was cleared to play after he participated fully over the last two days of practice. But the Saints chose to still sit the 2024 sixthrounder, who serves as a backup nose tackle.
27-46-0-214.
McBride 6-61,
5-71, J.Conner 4-5, Reiman 1-10, Benson 1-6, Mi.Wilson 1-5, Z.Jones 1-4, Higgins 1-3, Dortch 1-(minus 2). New Orleans, Johnson 8-76, Olave 7-54, Shaheed 6-33, Cooks 3-26, Kamara 2-12, Vele 1-13. PUNT RETURNS—Arizona, Dortch 3-30. New Orleans, Shaheed 2-18. KICKOFF RETURNS—Arizona, Dortch 2-44, Demercado 1-29. New Orleans, Miller 3-88, Jones 2-40
TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS—Arizona, Baker
5-5-0, Thompson 4-4-0, Ma.Wilson 4-4-0, Melton 4-2-0, Campbell 3-2-0, Taylor-Demerson 3-0-0, Collins 2-2-0, Davis-Gaither 2-2-0, G.Williams 2-2-0, Stills 2-1-0, Browning 1-2-1, Burch 1-0-0, Collier 1-0-0, W.Johnson 1-0-0, Sweat 1-0-0. New Orleans, Werner 7-2-1, Davis 6-3-0, McKinstry 5-2-0, Granderson 5-11.5, Blackmon 4-3-0, Reid 3-3-0, Yiadom 2-2-0, Jordan 2-1-1.5, Godchaux 1-2-0, Shepherd 1-2-0, Taylor 1-1-1, Bresee 1-1-0, Rumph 1-1-0, Williams 0-1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS—Arizona, None. New Orleans, None. MISSED FIELD GOALS—Arizona, Ryland 46. New Orleans, Grupe 37.
OFFICIALS—Referee Scott Novak, Ump Mike Morton, HL Brian Sakowski, LJ Mark Stewart, FJ Terry Brown, SJ Don Willard, BJ Tony Josselyn, Replay Matt Sumstine.
Right tackle Taliese Fuaga suffered a knee injury in the third quarter and watched the rest of the game from the Saints’ bench. Fuaga was replaced in the lineup by recent trade acquisition Asim Richards Fuaga was not listed on the Week 1 injury report but he did miss some time in training camp with what was believed to be a minor knee injury It is not yet clear if the two injuries are related.
The Saints went into Sunday’s season opener with Dillon Radunz starting at left guard in place of Trevor Penning, who missed the opener with a turf toe injury suffered during the preseason.
New Orleans also lost several of its backup options, with Will Clapp, Nick Saldiveri and Landon Young all suffering season-ending injuries during training camp.
“(Richards) came in and did really well, especially in those twominute situations,” said center Erik McCoy “He and (right guard Cesar Ruiz) had great communication; they were passing off twists and games I thought for only being here two weeks, a week and a half, that he came in and he executed at a high level.”
AK 1,000
Alvin Kamara followed a crease in the Arizona defense off his right guard and scooted into the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown that gave the Saints a 7-3 lead in the second quarter It marked a little bit of history, too.
Kamara’s run was the 1,000th touchdown scored by the Saints in the Superdome.
This season marks the 50th season the Superdome has been used as the site of Saints home games.
Broughton inactive
Vernon Broughton was the first defensive player the Saints selected in the draft this past April, but the rookie defensive lineman was a healthy scratch ahead of the first game of the season.
Broughton, a third-round pick, was among the Saints’ inactives announced 90 minutes before Sunday’s kickoff against the Arizona Cardinals Instead of keeping Broughton active, the Saints elevated defensive lineman Jonah Williams from the practice squad.
The Saints were down three defensive linemen in total: Broughton, defensive tackle Khristian Boyd and pass rusher Chase Young — who was ruled out Friday with a calf
Broughton was the only member of the Saints’ 2025 draft class who won’t suit up for Sunday’s game The Saints had nine picks, with eight making the initial 53man roster But on Saturday, New Orleans signed seventh-round edge rusher Fadil Diggs from the practice squad.
Odds and ends
Former Saints left tackle Terron Armstead served as the team’s legend of the game, and he led the pregame Who Dat chant Making his 15th start in a Week 1 game for the Saints, Cam Jordan padded his franchise-record sack total on the third play of the game, bringing down Kyler Murray for an 11-yard loss. Jordan tacked on a half-sack in the second half to bring his career total to 123.
Referees penalized the Saints 13 times in Sunday’s loss, eight of which occurred before the snap The offense turned only one of its first three red zone trips into a touchdown. The reliable kicker who had an extraordinary training camp missed a 37-yarder. A defense that gave up too many explosive plays a year ago allowed gains of 45 and 52 yards that flipped the field and set up Cardinals scores And Moore opened himself up for questions in his first opportunity to manage the game when he declined to use any of his three timeouts as Arizona drained the clock on a touchdown drive at the end of the first half.
“A lot of mistakes in there that we’ve just got to clean up and put ourselves in a much better position to be successful,” Moore said Still, the Saints had a chance to pull off the miracle finish.
Defensive lineman Bryan Bresee sparked some momentum in the fourth quarter when he leapt over an offensive lineman to get his hand on a field goal attempt that would have put Arizona up 2310. After Bresee deflected it, the kick sailed harmlessly wide of the uprights. Bresee pulled off a similar play last year against the New York Giants, leaping over the line to block a kick and preserve a win
“Just give the offense as many chances as we could at the end,” Bresee said. New Orleans then took over and looked poised to cut Arizona’s lead to three. Rattler hit Johnson
down the seam for a gain of 21, then found recent trade acquisition Devaughn Vele on the sideline for a gain of 13 A 12-yard Rattler scramble pushed the Saints inside Arizona’s 5-yard line. The Saints drive stalled there. Moore could have opted to go for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal, but after a loss pushed them back to the 5-yard line, he opted to trust his defense to get another stop and he sent the field goal unit in. That faith was rewarded when Alontae Taylor came unblocked off the edge on a third-and-4 play, wiping out Cardinals quarterback
Kyler Murray for a 15-yard loss.
Taylor, who missed several weeks with a groin injury in the lead-up to Week 1, said that sack was a direct result of some lastminute film study Saturday night.
“We knew we needed to make a play,” Taylor said. “On the sideline, (defensive coordinator Brandon Staley) told us he was probably going to make that call. It’s just film study, knowing how (Murray) escapes the pocket; it came to fruition for me. He did exactly what I thought he was going to do. I beat him to the spot.” New Orleans took over at its own
42 after the 2-minute warning, and the offense went to work.
Rattler used his arm and his legs to push the Saints downfield. He converted a fourth-and-1 by hitting Rashid Shaheed for a 5-yard gain, then spiked the ball with 13 seconds remaining with the Saints in striking distance. But Rattler’s next three passes fell incomplete, including the nearmiss to Johnson.
Rattler beat out rookie Tyler Shough for the starting job this summer In his first start under Moore, he completed 27 of his 46 attempts (58.7%) for 214 yards.
He neither threw a touchdown nor committed a turnover, finishing with a 70.6 passer rating. Arizona routinely forced Rattler to settle for underneath throws, spending most of the game in a shell coverage that limited the Saints’ opportunities to take shots downfield with their speedy receivers. New Orleans had only one play of 20-plus yards Sunday Defensively, New Orleans largely kept the Cardinals in check. The Saints sacked Murray five times and mostly limited his gamebreaking running ability The Arizona quarterback completed better than 70% of his passes but only threw for 163 yards.
The big plays hurt, though. New Orleans took a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter when running back Alvin Kamara followed a seam in the Arizona defense to the end zone on an 18-yard touchdown run. The lead did not last long, though.
On the second play of the ensuing drive, Murray unleashed a deep heave down the right sideline for receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. who beat solid coverage by KoolAid McKinstry to haul in a 45-yard pass. That explosive play set up an eventual touchdown pass from Murray to Harrison Jr Arizona’s final score was entirely set up by running back Trey Benson, who tiptoed around a diving Justin Reid in the backfield and then found nobody on the edge Benson reeled off a 52-yard run that pushed Arizona to the Saints’ 30. The other four plays on that drive netted minus-3 yards, but Benson’s gain was enough to set up a 50-yard field goal.
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson, center celebrates breaking up a pass intended for Saints tight end Juwan Johnson during the second
CARDINALS20, SAINTS
THREEAND OUT: JEFF DUNCAN’S TOPTHREE TAKEAWAySFROMSAINTS’ SEASON OPENER
THEY DIDN’T BOW DOWN
1
The Saints were six-point underdogs and played much of the game without injured starters Chase young, Taliese Fuagaand TrevorPenning,but they showedadmirable grit and made agame of itdown thestretch. TheSaints led for four minutes in thesecond quarter and were forced to playcatch-up for mostof thegame,but theybattled until the end. It wasn’t good enough to getKellen Moore awin in his head coaching debut, but there were some positivedevelopments for the Saints in defeat.
2
SPENCER RATTLER WASSOLID
The box score might not showit, but Spencer Rattler was solid in hisdebutasthe starting quarterback. He completed 27 of 46 passes for 214 yards. His passer efficiency rating was a meager 70.4, largely because of hisrelatively low 58.7 completion percentageand alackofbig plays Most importantly, Rattler commanded the offense with poise and avoided negativeplays. He did not throwan interception and was sacked just once.
ANALYSIS
3
TOOMUCHYELLOWFEVER
For the most part, the Saintsperformed fairly well in Game 1.The lone exception wastheir offensiveexecution.The Saintswerepenalized 13 times for 89 yards, with eight of thepenalties occurringonoffense.you expect the openertobealittle sloppy, but that’sway too many infractions, especially for an offense that lacks the big-play firepower to overcome it. Many of the penaltieswereprocedural mistakes by theoffense. This is an areathat will need to be addressed immediately going forward.
Mooreshows growingpains in coaching debut
First-year coachmade curiouscalls during Saints opener
BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer
At halftime of his firstgame as coach of the New Orleans Saints, Kellen Moore gave an answerthat left him open to ridicule. The Saints had curiously not used any of their timeouts before the break. And by failing to do so, New Orleans was left with just 28 secondson the clock after the Arizona Cardinals’ four-anda-half-minute touchdown drive. It was an eyebrow-raising decision, one that wasimmediately questioned Moore’sinitial answerdidn’tsmooth over matters, either
“Wewere justtryingto saveour timeouts as muchaswecould,” Moore told CBS. “They did agood jobofbleeding the clock and putting (themselves) in afavorable position. We didn’t get enough yards to playitout right there at the end of the half.”
Save our timeouts? For what?
It was acomment thatperhaps Moore wanted back, because when he met with reporters after the game, thefirst-yearcoach avoided using the phrase altogether when asked about the matter again.
Moore, the second time around, said he and his staff discussed the possibility but were content to letthe situation “play out” because the Cardinals also had their timeouts, and the Saintswere set to receive the ball again tostart the second half.
Moore may have better laid out his thought process, but the choiceitself still left alot to be desired in what ultimately turned out to be aone-score game.
Sunday’s20-13 loss to the Cardinals camedown to awild, last-second sequence that saw the Saints’ potential game-tying rally come just short of the end zone. It waseasytoimagine ascenarioin which thedramatics weren’tneeded if the Saints, for instance, had better clock management in thefirst half. Or if NewOrleans hadcut downonthe glaring 13 penalties thatwere almost afranchise record for aseason opener Those reasons alone aren’twhy the Saints lost Moore’sdebut. But the margins matterinthe NFL, andMoore demonstrated noticeablegrowing pains in his first outing as ahead coach “We’re going to trustwhatKellen does,” quarterback SpencerRattler said, adding, “There’sriskand reward to that (scenario). We trust in whatKellen is going to do. We knew we had the ball coming out (of halftime). …We trustinwhat coach is calling.” Moore shook his head when asked if having ayoung quarterback like Rat-
Continued from page1C
penalties (13) as points, which wasthe case Sunday Blake Grupe can’tmiss 38-yard field goals. They can’tlet everytight endthey face this season have his way like Arizona’sTrey McBride (six catches, 61 yards) did.
And
finally,Moorecan’t makethe rookie mistake of mismanagingthe clocklike he did late in the first half Throwall of that together,and it’s easy to see why the Saints lost aseasonopener forthe firsttime since 2018. The Saints entered Sunday with the longest activewinning streak in season openers in the NFL But that streak ended, while another one continued: This was theSaints’ fifth consecutive loss. Their last win was Dec. 8against the New York Giants, agame sealed nine monthsago by aBryan Bresee blocked field goal. Bresee blocked another field Sunday that gave the Saints achance late. The
tler factored into his decision to play it conservatively near the end of the first half. Instead,the coach said he was “really close” to calling atimeout andwould havealso called one if Alvin Kamara’srun had gainedmore yards before thehalf. Rattler said Kamara wouldhavelikelyneeded25-30yards to trigger atimeout. The running back gained 6, and the Saints let the clock expire,down 17-10. On the broadcast, CBS’ broadcast crew started to openly question Moore’schoice once running back James Conner gained afirst down with 1:52 left.Ifthe next two plays —a 4-yard gain anda4-yard touchdown unfolded exactly the same, theSaints could havegotten the ball with roughly 1:30 left andatimeout still available to try and drive down the fieldifMoore hadcalled timeouts.
“Wecan playthe rewind game alot; Iget that aspect of it,”Moore said. “... We had plentyoffootball ahead.”
Moore seemed to be much more bothered bythe Saints’ 13 penalties —their most in an opener since 1983. He called them adiscipline issue, onethatstarted withhim.Ofthe 13 flags,sevenwere against the offense. Six of the seven
Saintsrespondedbydriving to the Cardinals’ 18-yard line, but Spencer Rattler’spass on thegame’sfinal play fell incomplete. “I felt like we gave ourselves a chance,”Moore said. “Ultimately,it’s not good enough. Ultimately,weare here to win football games. We’ve got to compete and clean things up. Ilovethe effort. Ilove the energy.I love how the guys in the locker room played. We’ve justgot to play better and clean it up.”
The Saints’ opportunity at the end of thegame will be remembered the most. But the opportunity they did NOT get in thefirst half shouldn’tbe overlooked. Late in thefirst half, the Cardinals drove deep intoSaints’ territory with two minutes left. It was pretty clear they would score (which they did).Moore decided not to use histimeouts (he had three of them) to give the Saints achance to score before thehalf. It was aquestionable decision, especially considering the Saintshad won the coin toss to start thegame and deferred. One of the mainreasonsteams defer is to try to getanextra pos-
wereprocedural penalties,such as an illegal shift or afalse start.
Kamara saidhethought thetempo theSaints stressed contributed to the problem.Moore’soffense pushes the pace, but in hurrying up, Kamara said theurgency requires acertain amount of focus. Three of theSaints’ penalties came in no-huddle situations.
“I’ll admit:Some of thosetimes, I wantedtoget in thehuddle becauseI was like, ‘Man Idon’tfeel like we’re goingtobeable to getset correctlyor get lined up correctly,’”Kamarasaid. “Therewerea couple timeswhere we’re going tempo and guys are running from left to right,trying to figure out where to line up.
“And youknow, to getwhere you want to go,we’ve got to be preciseon every single play,every single snap.” Moore’semphasis on tempo, however,can alsobeseen as abright spot for thecoach’sdebut. The style fueled New Orleans’ near-comeback at the end of the game, and the offense’sbest moments Sunday came whenitput theCardinals on theirheels. Rattler went 13 of 16 for 115 yards when using tempo.
session at the end of the first half, knowingtheyalso will getthe ball to start the second half.Instead,the Saints took over with just 23 seconds left (as opposed to having aminuteplus if they hadused their timeouts) and ran the clock to go to halftime trailing 17-10.
“Wewere just trying to save our timeouts as much as we could,” Moore told CBSathalftime. “They did agood job of bleeding theclock out and putting(themselves) in afavorable position.Wedidn’tget enough yards there to play it out right there at the end of thehalf.”
None of us know what the Saints would have done with an extra minuteorsotoclose out the half. Maybe theygodown and at least get afield goal. Maybe they score atouchdown. Or maybe thedrive would have just fizzled out.But you would have liked to have seen theSaints get achance there, especially after seeing how well Rattler ran the2-minute drill late in the game. Rattler showed promise after winning thestartingjob in training camp. He’sstill seeking his first win as a
In someways, Moore’sfirst season will be about establishinganidentity forthe Saints. And on thatfront, it wasencouraging Sunday that his team played with adistinct style and fought to the end.
But as afirst-timehead coach, Moore surely understands that every choice —every non-choice —ispicked apart. He wasalsoquestioned, forinstance, on whyhekicked afield goal on fourthand-goal from 2:46 left when trailing 20-10.
There, Moore said he would have felt more comfortable going foritifthe Saints wereatthe 2- or 3-yard lineinstead of the5.Instead,hechose to cut it to aone-score game.
The decision wasupfor debate: ESPN’s analytical modelrecommended it as a“go” situation, finding atouchdownwould have boosted the Saints’ win probability to 6% instead of 4.3% with afield goal try
“The storyfor us is youcan’t beat yourself,” Moore said. The story’sending might depend on how wellMoore learns on the job.
Email Matthew Paras at matt. paras@theadvocate.com
starter,though, after going 0-6 as a starter last season. But you can’tput this loss on him
“Weshot ourselves in the foot too much today,” Rattler said. “Wecut those penalties in half,I think we win this game.”
The road gets tougher forthe Saints. After the 49ers come to town next Sunday,New Orleans travels to play the Seattle Seahawks and the Buffalo Bills.
The Saints won’tbefavored in any of those three games. They weren’t favored Sunday either.But they almoststole one.
“Wehave to figure out away to win,” said defensive end Cam Jordan. “There are no excuses in this game. It’s agame of inches. Each and every finite detail meansthat much more.
Ifeel terrible that we lost, because we had achance. That’sall we want is a chance, an opportunity.”
They had one Sunday.Agolden one. It’s too bad they couldn’tmake the mostofit.
Email RodWalkerat rwalker@theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Saints head coach Kellen Moore watches aplayagainst the Arizona Cardinals during the second halfoftheir game Sunday at the Caesars Superdome. Moore made some eyebrow-raising decisions during Sunday’sgame.
Bengals defense leads way in win over Browns
By The Associated Press
In Cleveland, Ohio, DJ Turner and Jordan Battle came up with two huge interceptions in the second half as Cincinnati held on for a 17-16 victory on Sunday.
“It was great We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Turner said. “All the outside noise we don’t care about. We’ve known the entire time what the defense can do.”
The Bengals playing their first game under new defensive coordinator Al Golden — got the huge plays on a day when the offense had only 7 yards in the second half with five of their six possessions resulting in a three-and-out.
“We found a way to win. Like somebody said earlier, we didn’t win any of these games last year,” said quarterback Joe Burrow, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.
The 113 passing yards were the third fewest of Burrow’s six-year career The Browns outgained the Bengals 327-141 and had the ball for nearly 36 minutes, but it wasn’t enough.
JAGUARS 26, PANTHERS 10: In Jacksonville, Florida, new Jaguars coach Liam Coen tried to stay out of the limelight in the postgame locker room. Team owner Shad Khan wouldn’t let him.
Khan presented Coen with a game ball following his first win as an NFL head coach.
Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown pass, Travis Etienne ran for 143 yards and Jacksonville beat the Carolina Panthers 26-10 to deliver the franchise’s new regime an emphatic debut victory
Brian Thomas Jr also ran for a score for Jacksonville, which controlled both lines of scrimmage and kept Lawrence upright all afternoon. Jacksonville’s revamped defense contributed as much as Lawrence and the offense. Newcomers Jourdan Lewis and Eric Murray made several big plays, with Lewis’ pass breakup leading to a first-half interception for Foye Oluokun COMMANDERS 21, GAINTS 6: In Landover, Maryland, the Commanders held New York to three points total on two trips inside the 5-yard line, and Deebo Samuel scored in his Washington debut, a 21-6 win over the Giants. Jayden Daniels threw for 233 yards and a touchdown.
Russell Wilson went 17 of 37 for 168 yards.
Abdul Carter the Penn State star New York took with the third pick in this year’s draft, had a half-sack
down passes, including a go-ahead 25-yarder with 59 seconds remaining, and Tampa Bay recovered after losing the lead on a marathon drive by Atlanta.
Egbuka, the first-round pick, had four catches for 67 yards.
Michael Penix Jr., who capped an 18-play drive by scoring on a 4-yard run for a 20-17 lead with 2:17 remaining, moved the Falcons into field goal position in the final minute. Younghoe Koo was wide right on the 44-yarder, and his attempt wasn’t close.
Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 17 of 32 passes for 167 yards with three touchdowns.
Penix, entering his first full season as Atlanta’s starter, completed 27 of 42 passes for 298 yards with one touchdown.
After getting outscored 99-40 in the first half of NFC North games last season, the Packers got points on their opening three possessions Sunday to take a 17-3 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Love went 16 of 22 for 188 yards with touchdown passes of 15 yards to Tucker Kraft and 17 yards to Jayden Reed. Josh Jacobs added a three-yard score in the fourth quarter, giving him a touchdown in a franchise-record nine straight games.
in his debut He also blocked a punt in the third quarter, although the ball still made it well into New York territory and the Giants immediately went three-and-out and punted back.
After going an incredible 20 for 23 on fourth down last season, the Commanders didn’t go for it at all Sunday If they avoided turnovers and wild swings in field position, it was clear New York would struggled to score.
STEELERS 34, JETS 32: In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdown passes — two in a 50-second span in the second half — and Chris Boswell kicked a go-ahead 60-yard field goal with 1:03 remaining to lead Pittsburgh to a victory over the New York Jets.
With New York leading 3-0, Rodgers jogged onto the field for the first time with the Steelers and the Jets fans who once cheered him greeted him with a loud chorus of boos.
The Jets had a chance to drive for a potential winning field goal when they got the ball back with 56 seconds remaining. On fourth-and-3, Justin Fields connected with Garrett Wilson for what could’ve been a first down but Jalen Ramsey slammed hard into the Jets receiver, who couldn’t hold onto the ball.
Fields finished 16 of 22 for 218 yards with a TD pass to Wilson, and also ran for 48 yards on 12 carries.
RAIDERS 20, PATRIOTS 13: In Foxborough, Massachusetts Geno Smith finished with 362 yards and a touchdown in his Raiders debut
while rookie Ashton Jeanty rushed for his first TD and Las Vegas rallied to beat the Patriots in their season-opener
Smith tossed a 36-yard pass to Dont’e Thornton that helped the Raiders run the clock under two minutes and put the game away
Tight end Brock Bowers had five catches for 103 yards before leaving with a knee injury Jakobi Meyers added eight catches for 97 yards. Maxx Crosby and Malcolm Koonce also added sacks to help give Pete Carroll his first victory as the Raiders’ coach.
New England was just 4 of 14 on third down in coach Mike Vrabel’s debut. The Patriots rushed 18 times for only 60 yards.
COLTS 33, DOLPHINS 8: In Indianapolis, Indiana, quarterback Daniel Jones ran for two scores, threw for another and led the Colts to a rout of the Miami Dolphins for their first 1-0 start since 2013.
Jones completed 22 of 29 throws for 272 yards — including a careerhigh 197 yards in the first half scored twice on 1-yard runs, made all the right calls at the line of scrimmage and had no turnovers while taking only one sack.
Tua Tagovailoa went 14 of 23 for 114 yards with two interceptions and lost a fumble on one of his three sacks. The Dolphins ran for 78 yards, and Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for eight catches and 70 yards.
Michael Pittman Jr had eight catches for 60 yards and a score, and Jonathan Taylor ran 18 times for 71 yards for the Colts
BUCCANEERS 23, FALCONS 20: In Atlanta, Georgia, the Buccaneers’ Emeka Egbuka caught two touch-
RAMS 14, TEXANS 9: In Inglewood, California, Matthew Stafford threw for 245 yards and a touchdown while becoming the 10th quarterback in NFL history with 60,000 yards in the air, and Braden Fiske recovered a fumble forced by Nate Landman with 1:43 to play in the Los Angeles Rams’ victory over the Houston Texans.
Puka Nacua had 10 catches for 130 yards for the Rams, who went ahead on Davis Allen’s TD catch on the opening drive of the third quarter Neither team scored again in a choppy season opener
C.J. Stroud passed for 188 yards with several sharp throws in his first pro game in his native Southern California despite playing behind a struggling offensive line.
But the Texans couldn’t score in the second half after Ka’imi Fairbairn made three field goals in the first half, and they were whistled for 11 penalties for 80 yards.
Davante Adams had four catches for 51 yards in the star receiver’s debut with the Rams, while Kyren Williams rushed for 66 yards and a touchdown.
PACKERS 27, LIONS 13: In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Jordan Love threw a pair of touchdown passes and Micah Parsons produced a sack in his Green Bay debut as the Packers delivered an exceptional defensive performance in a victory over the Detroit Lions.
Opening a season at home for the first time since 2018, the Packers beat the two-time defending NFC North champions after going 1-5 in divisional games last year The Packers won their 13th consecutive home opener, giving them the longest such streak since the Miami Dolphins also won 13 straight from 1976-88.
SCOREBOARD
49ERS 17, SEAHAWKS 13: In Seattle, Washington, third-string tight end Jake Tonges caught a deflected pass for a touchdown with 1:34 remaining, and the San Francisco 49ers rallied for a season-opening win over the Seattle Seahawks. Sam Darnold moved the Seahawks into position to win his debut with the franchise, hitting Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 40 yards to the San Francisco 14. But on second down from the 9, Nick Bosa stripsacked Darnold to put the game away Brock Purdy went 26 of 35 for 277 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, improving to 4-0 as a starter at Lumen Field. Darnold went 16 of 23 for 150 yards, with Smith-Njigba by far his favorite target. He had nine catches for 124 yards.
Christian McCaffrey was productive for the Niners with nine catches for 73 yards and 22 carries for 69 yards. Ricky Pearsall had four receptions for 108 yards to lead San Francisco’s thin receiving corps.
BRONCOS 20, TITANS 12: In Denver Colorado, Bo Nix overcame three turnovers and the Denver Broncos spoiled top overall draft pick Cam Ward’s debut with a victory over the Tennessee Titans, winning despite a sloppy offensive performance and two key special-teams blunders. Nix threw a touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton to go with his two interceptions and lost fumble, and rookie running back R.J. Harvey’s 50-yard scamper set up J.K. Dobbins’ 19-yard TD burst up the middle that made it 20-12 midway through the fourth quarter Denver’s stingy defense held Ward to 12-of-28 passing for 112 yards with no touchdowns. Ward didn’t have an interception, but fumbled the ball away in the final minute. The Titans managed just 134 yards on 55 plays and went 2 for 14 on third down. Ward was sacked six times. Tennessee had three chances to tie it in the final five minutes but came up empty each time.
RushTok Backlash
Whysororitiesaren’tletting prospectspost
BY SAFIYAH RIDDLE
Press/ReportFor America
Associated
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. Kylan Darnell became an overnight celebrity in the TikTokniche thatdocuments the glitzy,ritualistic recruitment process for sororities. Asa 21-yearold rising senior fouryears later, she’s taking more of hersorority life offline.
Darnellhas untilnow been the embodiment of RushTok, aweeklongmarathonthathas teensat schools around the country meticulously documenting their efforts to landa cherished spot in asorority during the colorful, girly and enigmatic recruitment process known as rush week
Reactions to the content that once catapulted her to fame —depicting her life as aZetaTau Alpha member at theUniversityofAlabama —had become so negative that it was affecting her mental health,she said.
“This year it wasjustlikeawhole different level of hate,” Darnell said.
Citing aneed to protect prospects from harassment, many sororities have made similar moves, issuing
Participation often requires an eye-opening price tag
Afterspending sometimes tens of thousands of dollarsonoutfits, makeup and plane tickets, each of this week’s2,600 recruits paid$550 to participate. It’s non-refundable if theydon’tget picked. If accepted,they’ll payanaverage $8,400 asemester to live in the sorority house, or $4,100 if they live elsewhere, according to the Alabama Panhellenic Association.
adefacto banagainst talking to the press or posting on social mediaduring rushweek at Alabama, wherealmost 13,000 students participateinthe nation’slargest oncampus Greek life.
Acenturies-old tradition
Across thecountry,rushistypicallya 10-day eventwhere “prospective new members” try out sororitiesthrough rounds of activities prescribing astrict slate of outfits andetiquette. In the lead-up, girls often submit “social resumes” and letters of recommendation from sorority alums.
The pressure can be so intense that an industry of consultants now helps girls navigate the often mysterious criteria for landing a desiredsorority.Some charge up to $10,000 for months of services thatcan begin in high school.
Throughout rush, many events are invite-only.Atany point, girls canget adreaded call informing them they’ve been dropped —that asororityisnolonger interested in lettingthem join.Matchesare finally made on bidday as prospects rank topchoices and sororities makeoffers.
MorganCadenhead,now 20, gained suchanaudience on
ä
Tips on redirecting lovedone’s ‘dementiastare’
What is meant by the “dementia stare”?
The dementia stare is acommon symptom of dementia characterized by ablank, unfocused gaze, often directed into space or at afixed point, with alack of engagement with the surroundings.
Known as glassy or gazed eyes, the vacant stare can be a result of cognitive impairment, sensory overload, or difficulty processing visual information. Additionally,itcan be away for affected individuals with dementia to try and communicate needs or express emotions when verbal communication is impaired.
Common causes of staring behavior include:
n Confusion and trouble interpreting their environment.
n Toomuch activity,noise or crowds overwhelming an individual with dementia.
n Anonverbal meansofcommunication, particularly in cases when verbal communication is hampered.
n Changes in eyesight which find it challenging to focus and comprehend visual information.
n Fixing on familiar individuals or objects to set off a recollection or sense of identification.
n Hallucinations whereby they stare at itemsorpeople they believe to be nonexistent.
n Sundowning, which is evening anxiety and restlessness associated with dementia.
n Possible illness.
Staring behavior in individuals with dementia may vary The disease has somephases when one finds moreofitthan others. Knowing the individual’shistory and dementia type helps loved ones and caregivers better grasp and handle this behavior
Older individuals may stare silently due to natural cognitive slowing down, visual or hearing restrictions, and emotional circumstances like loneliness or confusion. Aging may cause cognitive issues with processing speed and attentiveness. Prolonged silences could result from the need for moretimetounderstand the material and answer Problems with vision or hearing can also lead to staring. Seniors whofind it difficult to see or hear should fix their gaze to makesense of their surroundings or individuals. This can offset sensory shortcomings. loneliness, confusion and hopelessness, which may affect the behavior of an aged person. Loneliness and social isolation might lead to cognitive decline and alack of social interaction. Those with dementia may seem blank, trying to grasp their surroundings or conversations.
If an individual with dementia is staring, it is essential to stay calm and provide reassurance. Engage them with a friendly tone or questions to understand their feelings or thoughts. Redirecting their attention gently with an activity or movement can also be
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOSByBRyNN ANDERSON
Sororityrecruits line the sidewalk of sorority rowatthe University of AlabamaonAug.14inTuscaloosa, Ala.
Idealconditionsfor accurate bloodpressurereadings
Dear Doctors: Ihave read that for an accurate blood pressure reading, you should firstsit in a comfortable chair with no talking or distractions for at least five minutes. But my doctors all slap on acuff, ask questions the whole time, then exclaimthat Ihave high blood pressure. Ihave to ask forat least five minutes of quiet beforeareading. How do we convince doctors to change?
Dear reader: Adoctor’soffice is an artificialenvironment. Many people have fought throughtraffic,and perhaps for aparking space,before they even reach the door. Then, in the waiting room, they are left to manage the anxiety that can often accompanya medical visit. In our opinion,the blood pressure readings taken when someone first sits down in
SORORITY
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RushTok despite being dropped that shecoveredmost of her tuition with income from social media. Then came the social cost as shewas slammed online for criticizing Greek life. Now the marketing major —featured on Lifetime’s“SororityMom’sGuide to Rush!” —said she’s lookingfor offline work.
Azealous TikTok following Afixation with rush was renewed whensororities resumed in-person recruiting after the pandemic.
Social media becameflooded with “outfit of theday”and “get ready with me”videosshowing sorority members andrecruits in well-lit rooms, sometimes flaunting exorbitantly priced designer wear or pieces purchased on Amazon, always preciselycurated. Alabama’sGreek life got attention before, when itstraditionally White sororities racially integrated, accepting their first Black members in 2013. Targeted by protests following allegations of racial discrimination,the universityagreedwiththe Justice Department in 2016 to encourage diversity.Today,Black students outside of traditionally Black sororities and fraternities represent 2% of the total Greek membership, the university website says. Meanwhile, online attentionto rush has led to books, apolarizing
By The Associated Press
Today is Monday,Sept. 8, the 251st day of 2025. There are 114 days left in the year
Todayinhistory
On Sept. 8, 1974, one month after taking office, President Gerald R. Ford granted a“full, free, and absolute pardon” to former President Richard Nixon forany crimes committedduring Nixon’spresidency
Also on this date: In 1504, Michelangelo’stowering marble statue of David was unveiled to the public in Florence, Italy
In 1565, aSpanish expedition established the firstpermanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Florida In 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam tothe British, whorenamed it New York. In 1900, Galveston, Texas, was struck by ahurricane that killed an estimated 8,000 people; it remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history In 1935, Sen. Huey P. Long, D-La., was fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building In 1941, the 900-daySiege of Leningrad by German forces began during World WarII.
In 1951, apeace treaty with Japan was signed by 49 nations in San Francisco. In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first Black tennis player to win the U.S. National Championships, now known as the U.S Open.
STARE
Continued from page7C
helpful.
Dr.Elizabeth Ko
Dr.Eve Glazier
ASK THE DOCTORS
an exam room,often while being quizzedabout theirmedical history,are likely to reflect that person’sblood pressureunder stress. That is why, in ourown offices, we don’tmakedecisions about blood pressuremedication based solely on asingle office value. Youare correct about theoptimalconditionsneeded to obtain an accurate blood pressure reading. In fact, they are used in the
clinical studies used to arrive at standardized blood pressure ranges. As you mentioned in your letter,this includes sittingupright in acomfortable chair that supportsthe back. The arm needs to be supported at heart level with bothfeet flat on the ground. There should be aquiet resting period of at least five minutes before the test. Andbecause blood pressure fluctuates, multiple measurements,several minutes apart, are needed for an accurateresult. Additional factors that affect blood pressureinclude time of day,temperature and exercise. Blood pressure is typically highest in themorning and lowest at night.Blood vessels constrict in acold room, which can elevate blood pressure. Heat can do the opposite. The effect of exercise,
in which blood pressure rises as theheart works to send oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, continues foratleast 30 minutes after the exertion ends. Caffeine and tobacco raise blood pressure. So can certain medications, including over-the-counter pain relievers. Being dehydrated can cause blood pressure to dip. It is also important to use the correct cuff size. Acuffthat’stoo large can cause afalse low reading, while acuffthat’stoo small can give results that are too high. Somepeople routinely have elevated readings in amedical setting, aresponse knownaswhite coat hypertension. In those cases, we advise bringing adetailed log of at-home values to share with thephysician.That information reflectsa pool of data collected
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
documentaryand the reality television series, widening the appeal of sororities in theSouthinparticular,accordingtoLorie Stefaneli, aNew York City-based consultant who flies to Tuscaloosa each year for rush.
Stefanelicoachesgirls from around the country,and about a
TODAYINHISTORY
In 1964, public schools in Prince EdwardCounty,Virginia, reopened after being closed for fiveyears byofficials attempting to prevent court-ordered racial desegregation. In 1986, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” began the first of 25 seasons in national syndication. In 2016, California and federal regulators fined Wells Fargo a combined $185 million, alleging thebank’s employees illegally opened millions of unauthorized accounts fortheircustomersin order to meet aggressive sales goals.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II, who spent more than seven decades on the British throne, died at age96; her then 73-yearold son became King Charles III.
Today’sBirthdays: Former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., is 87. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is 84. Civil rightsactivist Ruby Bridges is 71. Author Terry Tempest Williams is 70. Basketball Hall of Famer Maurice Cheeks is 69. Actor Heather Thomas is 68. Singer AimeeMannis65. Actor ThomasKretschmann is 63. Alternative country singer Neko Case is 55. TV personality BrookeBurke is 54. Actor Martin Freeman is 54.Actor David Arquette is 54. TV-radio personalityKennedy is 53. ActorLarenz Tate is 50.Singersongwriter Pink is 46. Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 44. RapperWiz Khalifais38. MLB pitcherGerrit Cole is 35. Actor Gaten Matarazzo (TV:“Stranger Things”)is23.
third of her clientsenroll at Alabama. She saysmany aredrawn by thevibrant depictions of sisterhood,showing femalefriendships that can ensure girls feel seen and supported.
“That’s thereason why alot of them want to go to Alabama, is becausetheysee it on TikTok,” Ste-
ELECTRONICS
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substandard headphones (named by 62%ofrespondents), followed by bright screens displaying inappropriatecontent (41%), and electronic toys with sound control problems(38%).
But whyare noisy electronics such aproblem? Howcan you know if your electronics are aproblem? Andwhat can you do if you’re confronted with anoisyseatmate? The solutionsare simple,but following the expertadvice isn’t. Whythere’s aproblem
Del Zotto isn’tthe only onewho has noticed an issue withloud electronics. Nick Leighton, host of the etiquette podcast “Were You Raised By Wolves?,”collects what he calls “etiquettecrime reports” from his listeners. And he’s noticed an uptick in reportsabout noisy headphones and other gadgets.
“Airlinesthatencourageyou to bringyourown device certainly makeiteasier to commit etiquette crimes,” he says. It’s true.A few years ago, some U.S.airlinesbegan to remove seatback entertainment devices, particularly on someshort-haul flights. Today, it’shard to find a passenger without atablet, phone, laptop and aheadset.
Well, sometimes the headset is optional.
The result is acacophony on every flight. Youhear beeps, pings, moviesoundtracksand that really irritating sound thelanguage learning appDuolingo makes when you answeraquestioncorrectly.Itisthe world’smost annoying sound.
over time, and we find it to be a morereliable index than asingle office-based reading. Blood pressure is an important metricofhealth. We believe making medical decisions based on asinglereading is unwise. And though we don’thaveananswer abouthow to encouragesystemic change,weapplaud your approach of advocating foryourself. Patients feeling rushed are within their rightstorequest thesame environmental conditions in whichblood pressure standards were created Sendyour questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.
$58,000 it costs her annually to attend Alabamafrom out-of-state. Rush can be fun andhelp girls build confidence, but it’s also an “emotional rollercoaster,”especially for girls who feel they need to reveal themselvestoamassive audience, Stefanelisaid. Sheanswers phone calls at allhours of the night during rush week.
“I’m literally atherapist, I’m talking these girls downfrom a ledge,” she said.
Numerous incoming freshmen told The Associated Press this week that they were expressly prohibited from speaking with the media or even posting aboutrush at Alabama. Darnellsaidthe most selective “Old Row” houses will automatically drop prospects who do.
“Now alot of girls just come to the university to be influencers,” she said. “Itkind of gets in theway of sisterhood.”
Some incoming freshmen —including Darnell’s19-year-old sister Izzy,with avast social media followingofher own—havechosen to post anyway, satisfyinga demand that can reach millions of viewswithin days.
faneli said. Stop posting—orelse
If they gain enough followers to become social influencers, RushTokparticipants can earn ad revenue and brand deals. Darnell’s postsbrought her financial independence, morethan covering the
plane is listen to music or watch a movie without headphones. That’s aclear breach, not only of in-flight etiquette, but of airline rules. And there are no exemptions foryoung children who haven’tfigured out howtouse headphones. If they can’tuse headphones, give them a toy.Aquiet toy
In terms of acceptable headphones, experts say anything with more than75% sound containment is good, butyou should aim for at least 90%.
Theleast leak-prone headsets are the Sony Pulse Explore Truly Wireless and the Moondrop Blessing 3, both in-ear headsets with perfect ratings. Oh, and if someonesitsnexttoyou withapairof HiFiMan Arya Stealth Magnets, you’regoing to hear everything. It’s the leakiest headset on the market. Youcan find afull list of modelsonRtings.com, aconsumer electronics site. What should youdo?
Izzy Darnell —who wouldn’t share herchoices forsorority ahead of Saturday’sbid day said heroldersister’s acumenhas equipped her to navigate criticism andpotentially predatorybusiness deals. But she worries about how othergirls might handlethe fame and money “I just fear what some girls will do because they think they have to,” Izzy Darnell said.
headset certainly qualifies. Don’t jab the flight attendant “call” button; instead, walk over to the galley when you can and ask. The crew members maybeable to move you to adifferent seat.
Thomas Plante, apsychology professor at SantaClaraUniversity,says it comes down to respect. “Be mindful that the world doesn’trevolve around youand your needs,” he says.
OK,it’seasiersaidthandone Iwas on arecent flight from Dublin to Istanbul when apassenger behind me started playing a kids’ TV show at full volume—no headset. It wasaclear violation of the in-flight rules they deliver before takeoff. But then, the offending passenger wasatoddler Iprobably made every mistake in the book. Istarted by giving a disapproving look to the child. The kid couldn’ttakehis eyes off the episode of “Bobthe Builder.”Next, Igave Mom the evil eye. Nothing.
suggest exercisessuch as short-term memory exercises, cognitiverehabilitation exercises, exercises for dementia patients, and mental exercises for mild cognitive impairment
All thenoise creates more stress forpassengers, which provokes more in-flight conflicts between passengers and crew members. So much for friendly skies.
Dana Territo is an Alzheimer’s advocate and author of “What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’s Disease.” She hosts “The Memory Whisperer.”Email her at thememorywhisperer@gmail com.
But forevery etiquette crime, there is aconsequence. Del Zotto didn’twanttospend sevenhours listening tohis neighbor’sheadset. So he lent him his extra headset
“He was very grateful,” he remembers.
AremyheadphonesOK?
The worst thing youcan do on a
So what if you’re seated next to apassenger who is violating several in-flight noise ordinances? Experts agree that you should give your seatmate the benefit of the doubt. Often, they don’teven know that their headphones are leaking noise. Staycalm. Youmight feel like lashingout at the headphone scofflaw, but don’t, says Jodi RR Smith, who runs Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting. An escalation on the plane can be aserious issue for you and your seatmate, leading to an emergency landing and you being led off the plane in handcuffs. So pleasethink before you start browbeating the passenger seated next to you. “Remember,”she says, “somepeopleare just oblivious.” Readthe cabin. Find theright moment to approach the offending headphone-wearer. It might not be theperson making all the noise, notes etiquette expert Rosalinda Randall. “For example, if you think the parent looks approachable, discreetlyrequest they provide little Johnny with earbuds,” she says. Appeal to ahigher authority If the passenger refusestoaddress the problem, etiquette experts recommendthatyou privatelyask a flight attendant to intervene. After all, most airlineshaverulesabout playing loud music, and aleaky
This went on fora while. Ifelt my blood pressure rising slowly Kidsmay love watching “Bob the Builder,” but to adults, it’spure fingernails on chalkboard. Finally Icouldn’ttakeitany longer.I swiveled around and asked Mom if she could please find apair of headphones forher snowflake. OK, Ididn’tuse the words “snowflake” —but the “please” sounded about as sincere as the parking lot guys at Disney World when they take your $30and say, “Havea magical day!” She complied. But Iwas ashamed of my behavior.Ishould have taken afew extra breaths before getting all bitchy with her.And I’m only saying this because Iknow that when it comes to noisy electronics, it’seasy to overheat. Don’t let that be you.
Christopher Elliott is an author,consumeradvocate, and journalist.Hefounded Elliott Advocacy,a nonprofit organizationthat helpssolve consumerproblems. He publishesElliott Confidential, atravel newsletter,and the Elliott Report, anewssiteabout customer service. If you need helpwithaconsumer problem, you canreach him here or email himatchris@elliott.org.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByBRyNN ANDERSON
Sorority recruits talk with former sorority members near sorority rowatthe University of Alabama on Aug. 14 in
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Do your part, volunteer, ask questionsand make suggestions, andyou canmakeadifference. Apositive change in where or how you work is apparent.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Achange to your environment will giveyou theboost you need to followyourheart. Traveling, reconnecting with people from your past and reorganizing your time will change your mindset
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Be carefulhow youuse your energy. Offersuggestions, but don'twaste time elsewhere whenachieving your goalsisyour focus. Review your relationships, set clear boundaries and strive for balance and equality.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Be wary of hype and peopletrying to manipulate situations to fit their needs. Now is not the timetobereckless; question everything, and don't be afraid to do your ownthing.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) An aggressiveoffer will require duediligence. Don't take on someone else's problem. Set abudget and be willing to walk away fromabidding war or amanipulative pitch.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Address domestic issues and sharedexpenses, and seek out innovative possibilities that could makeyour life easier. Home improvements thatserveyourneeds will improve your mindset.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March20) Achange of scenerywill offer insight into new possibilities. Network, be open to suggestions and prepare to find the most cost-effective andefficient way to accomplishtasks.
ARIES(March 21-April19) You'll be challenged by people eager to compete with you. Aunique approach will makeitdifficult for competitors to oustyou from your position.
TAURUS(April 20-May20) Pay attention to detail, and it will help you avoid situations that lack rules or regulations. Take care of personal business and keep up to date withwhat's trending.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Participating in events or organizationsthatinterestyou will require restraint. Sticking close to home and tending to unfinished business will lead to the best outcome.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Letyourintuition take the lead, and you'll avoid mistakes.Choose personal growth over costlyphysical changesthatmay soothe your ego but deplete your assets.
LEO (July23-Aug. 22) The more youdo for yourself, the better off you'll be. Ask for proof of qualifications, references and costs. Be sure to geteverything in writing.
Celebrity Cipher cryptograms arecreatedfrom quotationsbyfamous people, past and present. Each letter in thecipherstands foranother TODAy'SCLUE: HEQUALS M
zodIAC
CeLebrItY CIpher
For better or For WorSe
And erneSt
beetLe bAILeY
Mother GooSe And GrIMM
LAGoon
Sudoku
InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases fromMonday to Sunday.
Saturday’s Puzzle Answer
THewiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS
CurTiS
Bridge
BY PHILLIP ALDER
Josh Billings said, “As ageneral rule, if youwant to get at the truth, hear both sides and believe neither.
Thenwhat do you do? Take half of each? Weird! Bridge is full of “truisms,” but there always seem to be exceptions to these adages. However, this deal features one with aremarkable record of reliability What is it?
South is in three no-trump. West leads the diamond king. Whatshould happen, assuming West keeps plugging away at diamonds?
North’s takeout double was very light. South’s three no-trump promised 13-15 points with diamonds held and, in principle, denied afour-card major; it wasa realistic choice.
AfterSouthduckedthefirsttworounds of diamonds, West could have shifted to clubs to defeat thecontract.But that was hardlyobvious.Itwasnormaltocontinue with thediamond four, his lowest being asuit-preference signal for clubs. After declarer discarded aclub from the dummy,what should East have thrown?
At the table,East pitched aheart. Now South ran the heart 10 andcashed her four heart winners.
What should East have thrown this time? East broke akey rule for asecond
EachWuzzle is awordriddle whichcreates adisguised word, phrase,name, place, saying, etc. For example:NOONGOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON
Previous answers:
word game
InstRuctIons: 1. Words mustbeoffour or moreletters. 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 arenot allowed.
toDAY’sWoRD APPRoVAL: uh-PROOV-ul:Acceptance.
Averagemark 14 words
Can you find 17 or more words in APPROVAL?
sAtuRDAY’s WoRD —oVERVIEWs
Iregard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
