ELSIE’S PLATE & PIE EARNS MICHELIN RECOGNITION 1B LSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON PREVIEW 1C
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“We just don’t have the dollars, the manpower, the food, to give that much food out at one time, at a time that was already at an all-time low.” PAT R. VAN BURKLEO, executive director of Feeding Louisiana
SNAP shutdown strains Louisiana food banks
After court rulings, administration says it will fund half of program
Board set to select president for LSU Field narrowed to three finalists
BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer
benefits is still being worked out. Meanwhile, the Health Department suggested in a statement that SNAP recipients not receiving benefits should go to local food banks. But that could prove problematic as the food banks already are receiving less money and fewer foodstuffs from previous budget cuts, said Pat R. Van Burkleo, the executive director of Feeding Louisiana, the Baton Rouge-based trade association for the state’s local food banks.
LSU is set to pick its 29th president Tuesday from a field of three: a Louisiana university president with a business background and two out-of-state candidates with lengthy academic records at large research institutions. The LSU Board of Supervisors is to choose among Wade Rousse, the president of McNeese State University, who some close to the search say has the inside track; James Dalton, the executive vice president and provost of the University of Alabama; and Dr. Robert Robbins, a former president of the University of Arizona. The three men have presented different visions of LSU’s future. Rousse has emphasized his significant business background, saying he aims to court companies to help fund research and institute metrics for success across the system. “This leader needs to be very politically savvy,” he told the LSU Presidential Search Committee last week. Dalton touted his “student-centric” approach, advocating for more support services to increase student graduation and success rates. “If we’re going to admit a student to LSU, we’ve got to do everything that we can to make sure that they’ve got a path out of here with a degree in their hand and a line on a job,” he said. Robbins said doubling LSU research funding was an “achievable goal,” saying he was able to achieve that during his time in Arizona. “You’ve got to have a leader that expects excellence, expects to be successful, expects for this place to grow,” he said. The next president will replace William F. Tate IV, who left earlier this year for Rutgers University. He touted his expansion of
ä See SNAP, page 7A
ä See LSU, page 7A
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
A worker carries a box of food supplies at the East Baton Rouge Parish Council on Aging for a drive-thru giveaway on Monday. BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Louisiana food banks have seen an influx in demand as federal funding for food stamps expired due to the federal government shutdown, which has gone on 34 days with no end in sight Monday. Louisiana started using state money Saturday, when federal dollars stopped, to provide some benefits to the elderly, disabled people and children. But that has not covered all of the nearly 800,000
people in the state who use the program — about 53,164 people considered ablebodied adults will not receive state-funded assistance, the state Department of Health said. And state officials are looking to the feds to renew the program soon. The Trump administration, after rulings from two federal courts, announced Monday it would start providing funds for about half the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food stamps for about 42 million Americans. But just when, how and who will receive
Judge recused from Brooks rape case
Judge voids LNG buildout permit Ruling cites failure to study climate risks
wrote about DisDefendant’s text Carver trict Judge Gail Horne Ray, he suggested she and messages trigger where his family were friends and decision indicated “she knows to help
BY JOSIE ABUGOV
Staff writer
A first-of-its-kind ruling by a Louisiana judge has interrupted the state’s rapid buildout of its LNG industry, raising questions over whether regulators will have to look more closely at the facilities’ environmental impacts before granting permits. The recent decision struck down a key permit for a liquefied natural gas plant over failing to consider the impacts of climate change, effectively halting construction for the multibilliondollar project in Cameron Parish. Environmental and community groups applauded the decision as an incremental win in
BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
PROVIDED IMAGE
A rendering shows the proposed Commonwealth LNG export facility in Cameron Parish. A Louisiana judge has invalidated a coastal use permit that the Louisiana energy department had ä See LNG, page 4A granted to Commonwealth LNG.
WEATHER HIGH 74 LOW 50 PAGE 6B
The judge who, for nearly three years, has presided over criminal proceedings for the driver in the Madison Brooks rape case has been recused by another judge on the 19th Judicial District bench. In his order Monday, District Judge Brad Myers cited a number of text messages defendant Casen John
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us.” Prosecutors from the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office moved to have Ray removed from Carver’s case in September after he opted for a bench trial, meaning the judge would decide his guilt or innocence from the bench instead of a jury. Myers listened to arguments from prosecutors and Carver’s attorneys during a
ä See JUDGE, page 4A
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