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Shutdown’s impact looms on state’s horizon Much of Louisiana hasn’t seen effects just yet, but as stalemate continues, consequences will broaden
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ISABEL MATEOS
A ranch worker drives cattle to a corral for inspection for New World screwworm at a ranch in Cintalapa, Chiapas, Mexico, on July 23.
‘A devastating pest’ Louisiana cattle industry keeps eye on flesh-eating parasite known as screwworm
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL | Staff writer In an old coal-mining town in northern Texas, around 130 miles from Dallas/Fort Worth, Greg Buenger raises beef cattle on his ranch. But Buenger, also a Texas Farm Bureau District 3 state director and retired veterinarian, has his eyes elsewhere at the moment, far from the northern flatlands. His focus is on the Texas-Mexico border, where a series of cases involving the New World screwworm have been documented. The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warmblooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters animals’ skin, causing severe damage and lesions that can be fatal. Infected animals are a serious threat to herds. The parasite is typically found in South America and the Caribbean, but since it escaped containment in Panama in 2023, it has been steadily moving northward. The most recent case was found in a cow near the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, 70 miles from the border with Texas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it a “devastating pest” and said in June that it poses a threat to “our livestock industry, our economy and our food
ä See PEST, page 6A
Alfredo Chavez, a cattle rancher and livestock technician, shows a New World screwworm larva removed from a cow at his ranch in Cintalapa, Chiapas, Mexico, July 23. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ISABEL MATEOS
The Cochliomyia hominivorax fly’s larvae can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. PROVIDED PHOTO
La. colleges are paying athletes, but records are secret ‘Revenue sharing’ arrangements raise concerns
BY JOSEPH CRANNEY | Staff writer College athletes at public universities across Louisiana are expected to receive at least $20.7 million in compensation this year, records and interviews show, after a landmark NCAA settlement in June allowed them to begin collecting paychecks directly from their schools. LSU has earmarked $18 million in direct payments to its athletes, a senior athletic administrator said, 90%
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of which will go to football and men’s basketball players. Among Louisiana’s remaining public schools, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and McNeese State have said they’ll pay players more than $2.7 million, according to payroll records and athletic officials for those schools. The payments are a turning point in college sports. Dunne College athletes have been allowed to earn money through endorsements since 2021, which led to windfalls for brand-forward Louisiana athletes like LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne. Endorsements are still permitted and will
likely remain the primary breadwinners for many college athletes, though they’re subject to new NCAA regulations. The House v. NCAA settlement in June, however, permits college athletes for the first time to also be paid directly by their universities, effectively in salaries. The changes mean that powerhouse programs that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars a year through conference royalties, TV deals and ticket sales must share a chunk of the money with their top players — up to an NCAA-set cap of
ä See ATHLETES, page 5A
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writer In his day job as president of Woodward Interests, Bill Hoffman hasn’t much noticed the federal government shutdown. His New Orleans real estate development firm is still planning projects, like the redevelopment of the former Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City, and operating as usual with no disruptions to supply chains or services. As a volunteer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, however, Hoffman has seen the effects up close. He’s worked with the nonprofit organization’s leadership to identify new funding sources at a time when more people around New Orleans need food assistance and federal support is drying up. He fears it’s about to get a lot worse. Thousands of federal workers in the state have been furloughed or are working without a paycheck. Loans and other federal funding sources are no longer flowing. And beginning Nov. 1, food stamps benefits — which help put food on the table for nearly 19% of Louisianans and more than 1 in 5 people in New Orleans — are set to run out. The severity of that potential Landry loss in food support prompted Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday to is- ä Louisiana sue an emergency order aimed at Politics: helping him replace that federal funding with state dollars. But Shutdown Second Harvest worries that food adding banks and other service agencies, another layer still reeling from federal budget of stress to cuts earlier this year, will contin- state. PAGE 12A ue to see a strain. “We’re already seeing more federal workers coming to us, and that number is going to grow,” said Hoffman, who also serves as Second Harvest board chair. “We will start to see this ripple out into the broader economy and will all start to feel it.” Until now, the federal government shutdown, which enters its fifth week Wednesday, has mostly been a problem for the nation’s federal employees, who have been furloughed or, in the case of air traffic controllers and other essential employees, forced to work without pay. States like Virginia or Maryland, which have high numbers of federal workers, feel it acutely.
ä See SHUTDOWN, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Second Harvest board Chair Bill Hoffman gets boxes ready to be filled with food at Second Harvest Food Bank in Harahan on Wednesday.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................2B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................3B Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 118