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T u e s d ay, s e p T e m b e r 16, 2025
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After-hours clubs draw scrutiny Officials eye uptick in violence at Baton Rouge locations
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
Charlotte Buccola, center, and her eighth grade classmates work out a logic problem on their computers in an ‘Engineering Essentials’ class at Harry M. Hurst Middle School in Destrehan on Wednesday.
CLOSING THE GENDER GAP
La. girls fell behind in math during COVID, but progress is being made
Two people have been killed outside “afterhours” nightclubs in Baton Rouge over the past year. Now, city-parish leaders, police and residents living near these venues are asking if keeping the party going is putting more revelers in danger. East Baton Rouge Parish alcohol ordinances keep licensed bars and clubs from staying open later than 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday, or midnight on Sundays. But when that time passes, patrons congregate at after-hours clubs, which can’t legally serve alcohol or encourage patrons to bring their own. “We’re still in conversations about how we manage after-hours clubs to ensure that we protect our constituents,” District 5 Metro Council member Darryl Hurst told The Advocate on Friday. “No. 1 is, it’s just a noise ordinance, because a lot of these are close to residences. People invest in these communities where they live, work and play; they want peace,” Hurst said. “No. 2 is the crime, and it’s not about what happens in the business, it’s about the inability to control what happens in the parking lots and in the streets.” The establishments caught Hurst’s attention after the shooting death of 25-year-old Prenesha Wagner in June. Wagner had only recently arrived outside the
ä See CLUBS, page 5A
BY PATRICK WALL, ANNIE MA and SHARON LURYE
Staff and Associated Press writers DESTREHAN — During a recent group project in her eighth grade engineering class, Charlotte Buccola took charge. Standing between the two boys on her team, she silently arranged sticky notes on a wall as the group tried, without speaking, to design a system for making hot chocolate. As the students at Harry Hurst Middle School practiced the engineering design process and the critical skill of collaboration, the girls seemed to excel. They worked efficiently and cooperatively, offering their peers support. “Your drawings are really good,” Charlotte told another girl when they were comparing designs. “Well done.” Efforts to close the gap between boys and girls in STEM classes are picking up after losing steam nationwide during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools have extensive work ahead of them to make up the ground girls lost, in both interest and performance. In the years leading up to the pandemic, the gender gap had nearly closed. But within a few years, girls lost all the ground they had gained in
U.S. again targets boat from Venezuela Trump says vessel carrying drugs
Teacher Lindsay Maxie, from left, watches eighth grade students Kamryn Patterson, Charlotte Buccola and Kourtnee Hart work on a logic problem.
BY AAMER MADHANI and REGINA GARCIA CANO
math test scores over the previous decade, according to an Associated Press analysis. While boys’ scores also suffered during COVID-19, they have recovered faster than girls, widening the gender gap. In Louisiana, girls now slightly trail boys in math, after outperforming them before the pandemic. As learning went online, special programs to engage girls lapsed, and schools were slow to restart them. Zoom school also emphasized rote learning, a technique based on repetition that some experts believe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel. “The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike. “These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests.” The strike was carried out nearly two weeks after another military strike on what the Trump
may favor boys, instead of teaching students to solve problems in different ways, which may benefit girls. Lindsay Maxie, who teaches the engineering class at Hurst Middle School in a suburb outside New Orleans, said that small-group, handson projects allow her female students to shine. “Being able to collaborate with other students really impacts their learning,” she said. “And that was something that kind of went away
ä See GENDER, page 5A
Associated Press
ä See BOAT, page 7A
La. eyes share of $50B fund for rural health cuts under the same law that created any state after Kentucky. Financial future of the fund. Louisiana has around 50 rural The fund was created in response to whose financial health hinges a backlash over Medicaid cuts in the small-town hospitals in hospitals on securing a share of it. One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law state hinges on program States now face a tight deadline: ap- in July. About 1 in 3 people in Louisiana
plications are due in early November, leaving only a few weeks to design detailed proposals. Federal officials will Staff writer have less than two months to review The White House announced Monday and distribute the money before the that applications are open for the new end of the year. Louisiana has a large number of Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion initiative over five years small-town hospitals walking a finanthat federal officials said will “make cial tightrope to stay afloat. Demorural America healthy again.” cratic senators flagged 33 hospitals in The money comes as Medicaid, a the state as at risk of closure in a letter lifeline for rural hospitals, faces deep earlier this year, the highest number in
BY EMILY WOODRUFF
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 69 PAGE 6B
uses Medicaid, one of the highest rates in the nation. Louisiana is the only state in the Deep South that expanded Medicaid, meaning a larger share of its population depends on it, and rural providers tend to see more patients with Medicaid. Officials say the new fund could help stabilize access to emergency rooms, recruit nurses and doctors to rural
STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
As possible federal budget cuts loom, rural health care facilities like Hood Memorial Hospital in Amite face growing ä See RURAL, page 7A uncertainty.
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