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LAFAYETTE PARISH

School Board approves $14M for Comeaux

Rainy day fund tapped to pay for academy construction BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

STAFF PHOTOS BY BRAD BOWIE

VIPs perform the cutting of the boudin to kick off Festivals Acadiens et Créoles on Friday at Girard Park in Lafayette.

New features, music lineup and tips for fest weekend BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer

Festivals Acadiens et Créoles will return to Girard Park this weekend with a lineup featuring some of the biggest names in Cajun and Creole music, a revived stage and a new partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. Here’s what you need to know before heading out.

What’s new? This year, a team from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will attend the festival to experience and document the music, food, art and language that organizers say make Cajun and Creole culture unique. Festivals Acadiens et Créoles was selected by the Smithsonian as one of 34 folklife events nationwide to participate in its Festival of Festivals initiative, which highlights festivals that serve as spaces for cultural exchange, civic engagement and dialogue. Rebecca Fenton, a curator with the

Attendees sample boudin as Festivals Acadiens kicks off on Friday. Smithsonian center, explained the institution’s approach to this year’s collaboration. “This year, we are going out and partnering with, collaborating with festivals and events all across the country to work

together, co-present and help them enhance and expand their activities in their communities all over the U.S.,” Fenton said.

ä See FEST, page 4A

The Lafayette Parish School Board voted 6-2 Thursday to pull $14 million from the district’s rainy day fund to begin construction on the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Academy, with plans to replenish the money through a future bond issue. Superintendent Francis Touchet said the district plans to repay the money through a future bond issuance after backing away from an effort to borrow $46 million this year because of high borrowing costs. He promised the board that the money would be returned in four or ﬁve months, even if they have to look elsewhere in the budget. The district submitted an application to the State Bond Commission over the summer but later withdrew it from consideration. State Bond Commission staff had also raised concerns about the district’s 2025 audit, which included a rare “disclaimer of opinion” because of irregularities in the district’s ﬁnancial reporting. The $14 million transfer from the district’s Economic Stabilization Fund, commonly known as its rainy day fund, will have to be repaid by June 30 of next year, according to comments at Thursday’s meeting. “This board gave me a deadline of 2028 to get this done, and this is what we have to do to meet that,” Touchet said. Board members Roddy Bergeron and Jeremy Hidalgo voted in favor of moving ahead with the project but warned that restoring the

ä See BOARD, page 5A

Judge orders second motel to shut down

HURRICANE

‘Kind of eerie’

Beach towns go quiet as storm nears BY MARTHA SANCHEZ

BY DEAN BOUDREAUX

Staff writer

A day after a Lafayette judge ordered the Express Inn closed for five years, a second Evangeline Thruway motel has been ordered to cease operations amid years of police calls and reported criminal activity. Lafayette City Court Judge Roya Boustany signed a final judgment Oct. 9 ordering the Plantation Motor Inn, at 2810 N.E. Evangeline Thruway, to cease operations for five years

STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK

The Plantation Inn motel on Evangeline Thruway has been ordered to ä See MOTEL, page 4A cease operations due to criminal activity.

WEATHER HIGH 85 LOW 62 PAGE 6A

ISAIAS

The surging winds and growing waves that began battering the Florida Panhandle and Alabama Gulf Coast on Friday forced thousands across the region to retreat into homes and shelters as they waited, on edge, for Hurricane Isaias. Tropical storm conditions reached the coastline Friday afternoon, trans-

Business ......................3B Deaths .........................2B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................2B Living............................9C Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles 11C-13C Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C

forming dozens of popular beach towns into a strange, uneasy quiet. A few surfers braved the rising waves, but the streets were empty except for a handful of cars and television reporters. “It’s kind of eerie,” said Nic Allegretto, the mayor in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which would normally be bustling on a Friday afternoon. “The majority of

ä See EERIE, page 5A

102ND YEAR, NO. 102

2A l Saturday, October 10, 2026 l theadvocate.com l The Acadiana Advocate

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FROM WIRE REPORTS

Thieves steal 30,000 bottles of wine in Italy ROME — Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of some of Italy’s most prized wines worth an estimated $5.8 million from a winery in Tuscany, in what the producer described Friday as the country’s largest wine theft on record. The theft targeted Marchesi Antinori’s facility near Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, where a group of at least seven thieves on Saturday night made off with bottles of some of Italy’s most sought-after wines, including Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso. The theft was discovered Monday, but the company made it public on Friday to avoid interfering with the investigation. Chief Executive Renzo Cotarella said the thieves disabled the winery’s alarm system and surveillance cameras before entering with two large trucks. Using the company’s forklifts, they loaded the vehicles with wine and ﬂed during the night. “It is certainly a very wellprepared gang,” Cotarella said, adding that it may be the same group that has targeted other Italian wineries in recent months. “A theft of this size and value has never occurred in Italy.” The stolen bottles were all from the 2023 vintage and are typically sold at a retail price of between $168 and $560 each. They included about 10,000 bottles of Solaia, one of Antinori’s ﬂagship wines, from what Cotarella described as an exceptional year.

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U.S. to buy diesel from Russia

will deliver an additional 3 ministration to target the top im- diately respond to questions about Trump’s deal with Russia who was paying for the diesel from million tons “within a short period porters of Russian oil and gas. Russia and when the fuel being supSen. Richard Blumenthal, Dof time” after that, he wrote. Putin marks sharp Trump’s shocking announcement Conn., who co-sponsored the Rus- plied under the agreement would after he signed a sweeping sian sanctions law, slammed it as a become available. It also did not reversal of U.S. policy comes Russia sanctions law last month “poorly concealed attempt to miti- clarify whether subsequent supahead of midterms that aimed at clamping down on gate the havoc caused by Trump’s plies of Russian diesel set to come

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE and COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he has struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Trump said on social media on Friday that he struck the deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in which he was expected to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia. Instead, Trump announced that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”

Russia’s oil and gas revenues that fuel its war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners,” according to a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington. Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were meeting with Ukrainian ofﬁcials in Miami to discuss a proposal to try to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. And that is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” Zelenskyy said. Trump’s move casts doubt on the likelihood of the White House imposing sanctions on Russia this month, given that a bipartisan law passed by Congress directs the ad-

illegal war in Iran.” “The President’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel is an embarrassment and makes us complicit in Putin’s war against Ukraine,” he said in a statement. Trump, in his announcement, did not address the sanctions or Russia’s war but said, “Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority.” Trump said later as he left the White House for a campaign rally that he was thankful for the deal. “I want to thank President Putin. To be honest with you, we have massive amounts of oil coming into our country, and it’s diesel, which is what we want. So, thank you,” Trump said. He did not answer shouted questions about the criticism from Zelenskyy. The White House did not imme-

U.S. hits International Criminal Court with sweeping sanctions BY MATTHEW LEE and MOLLY QUELL Associated Press

Trump taps Zacharia as new press secretary WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Friday that Katie Zacharia, a communications adviser for his media company, will succeed Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. Trump revealed his selection of Zacharia on his Truth Social platform, where he often makes political and official announcements. Zacharia is a conservative commentator for Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the social media site. In naming Zacharia, Trump described her as “a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning.” Zacharia briefly worked as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year and has been a commentator for Fox News and Newsmax. Trump said Zacharia had been involved in his presidential campaigns, notably in swing states. A request for comment left with Zacharia was not immediately answered. A LinkedIn profile noted that she earned a law degree from Pepperdine University. Leavitt announced her departure Aug. 12 and left the position Aug. 27.

Missionary held in Haiti over abuse allegations PORT-AU-PRINCE,Haiti — A U.S. missionary accused of running an illegal orphanage in Haiti has been detained over allegations of child abuse, Haitian police told The Associated Press on Friday. Arold Jean, a spokesperson for the Cap-Haitien police department, said U.S. authorities arrested Thomas Osbeck there on Wednesday. He did not identify the U.S. agency involved. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney. An Associated Press journalist was barred from visiting Osbeck in jail on Friday. Jean said Osbeck did not have the required paperwork to operate an orphanage in Cap-Haitien, where Haitian authorities found at least 12 minors. He said he expects Osbeck to be extradited to the United States. Osbeck was detained nearly two weeks after U.S. authorities charged Maylon Foshee, 23, of Mansﬁeld, Louisiana, with sexually abusing minors during mission trips to Haiti. Authorities said Foshee traveled to Haiti numerous times between 2023 and 2026 while working with a ministry in the coastal city of Gonaives and allegedly sexually abused several minors under his care, including those who lived with him or received ﬁnancial support from him.

next month would be supplied prior to Election Day on Nov. 3. Gas prices globally have surged as the war in Iran upends the energy sector. While diesel future prices dipped on the news on Friday, the national average for a gallon of diesel in the U.S. remained high at $6.28, according to AAA, after hitting a record $6.52 on Sept. 22. A statement from Putin, released by the Kremlin on Friday, said that during their call he and Trump dedicated “significant attention to the prospects of resolving the Ukrainian crisis” and also discussed “the situation around Iran and various aspects of bilateral relations.” Russia “confirmed its readiness to supply oil and oil products to the American and global markets,” Putin said. “I am confident that this will have a positive impact on the entire global economy.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY ARIS MARIOTA

People gather Friday outside shopping mall after an earthquake in Panama City.

2 major quakes, multiple aftershocks rock Panama

BY ALMA SOLÍS, MEGAN JANETSKY and JUAN ZAMORANO Associated Press

PANAMA CITY — Two powerful 7.7 and 6.6 magnitude earthquakes and a series of aftershocks struck Panama Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings near the epicenter and prompting evacuations across the country, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The earlier quake, felt as far away as neighboring Colombia, was centered about 6 miles southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, the USGS said. It struck at a depth of 6 miles. The USGS initially reported the first quake as magnitude 8, then revised it to 7.6 and later to 7.7. Visibly shaken residents of Panama City gathered outside as they waited for news of the quake’s impact on Friday. “We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we’re OK, though we’re very scared,” Rosendo Domínguez, 60,

who is from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated Press by phone. “Everyone is outside, scared.” Multiple aftershocks continued to rattle Panama, including several measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded more than 45 aftershocks, though many were too weak to be felt. Images of crumbling buildings and deep ﬁssures slicing through roads added to fears across a region battered by a series of devastating earthquakes in recent months. Two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes roiled Venezuela’s La Guaira state in June, killing more than 6,500 people and leaving 17,000 homeless. In August, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia killed at least 289 people. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino called for calm on Friday, writing on X: “What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder.” Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Ser-

vice said on the Telemetro Reporta news channel that damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos. He said there were no reports of damage in the capital, which is known for its hundreds of skyscrapers. Smith said several injuries have been reported, including one person struck by debris from a partially collapsed structure in the city of Penonomé, around 93 miles from the capital. He confirmed a partial collapse and cracks at the cathedral in the district’s main square, as well as damage in the governor’s ofﬁce building and the Dos Continentes hotel. No casualties were immediately reported. Local news outlets also reported that the Church of San Atanasio, a colonialstyle Catholic church in Panama’s Los Santos province, had collapsed. The church was declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938. Elsewhere, including in Veraguas province, large fissures ran along roadways.

Vance expresses doubts about plan to stream Fort Hood shooter’s execution BY JULIE CARR SMYTH and MICHELLE L. PRICE

Associated Press

HEBRON, Ky. — Vice President JD Vance cast doubt Friday on whether the Pentagon will livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan in December but told reporters that if it is livestreamed, “I’m not going to be watching it.” The Republican vice president said, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” when

asked about the plans that the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. But Vance then tried to set aside the controversy over the shocking plans for a public execution and said Hasan’s crimes should not be forgotten. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting spree at the military base in 2009. “So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy

who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said. “Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he added. Vance is a convert to the Catholic Church, which has long opposed capital punishment. Earlier Friday morning, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the U.S. government’s decision to livestream Hasan’s execution.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions Friday, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay, a former judge at the ICC and other international courts. Trump has coveted that prize for himself. “We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate against us,” Rubio said in a video address posted to social media. “The United States and the American people are not subject to

the jurisdiction of this fake ICC.” The sanctions cut the court off from U.S.-based ﬁnancial services, technology companies and even using U.S. dollars. They set a six-month timeline for U.S. companies and individuals that have business with the court to wind that business down. The ICC denounced the step as an attack on the rule of law and the foundations of international order, themes that Rubio had appeared to embrace only two days ago in a speech in front of the Acropolis in Athens. “It is an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the court from doing what it was created to do,” the court said in a statement. “It is an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law.”

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Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize Saudis say 3 killed

in Houthi-claimed attacks on airport

Jurist honored for her work in international justice

BY SALLY ABOU ALJOUD and CARA ANNA

BY STEFANIE DAZIO, JAMEY KEATEN and KOSTYA MANENKOV

Associated Press

OSLO, Norway — Navi Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for efforts that the award committee said promoted international law as it comes under attack. Her win is sure to be seen as a high-profile rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have both rejected the findings of the U.N. commission she led on Gaza. The leaders also have been highly critical of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Pillay has worked at both. Hours after the award was announced in Norway, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel. On the 125th anniversary of the prize’s inception, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought “to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conﬂicts nonviolently. Peace requires justice,” committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said. Judges “guard the thin red line between order and cha-

DPA PHOTO BY DANIEL KARMANN

South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, speaks Friday at the Nuremberg Forum in Nuremberg, Germany, following the announcement that she had been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. os,” and the world needs jurists “of courage, vision and determination, qualities that Navi Pillay demonstrates in her work on the bench.” In places such as Israel and in apartheid-era South Africa, she and peers took on some of the world’s most painful and sensitive legal issues and most vulnerable populations. Pillay, 85, received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, where the trials of Nazi war criminals helped lay the foundations of international law. She was in the same room where the trials were held when the prize was announced. She said efforts to weaken international criminal justice “endanger the progress painstakingly made since Nuremberg, and they risk returning us to a world in which power, rather than law, determines whose suffering matters.” Pillay chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which was created by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council. The commission a year ago concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza

with a speciﬁc intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza was among Pillay’s first comments Friday after hearing she had won. “What’s happening there is genocide,” she said to applause. The commission also found that the Israeli president, prime minister and former defense minister “have incited the commission of genocide.” Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the commission since it was established in 2021, has strenuously denied the accusations. Pillay has repeatedly rebuffed critics who accused her of antisemitism or turning a blind eye to the Hamas attacks in Israel. Under her leadership, the commission also issued reports accusing Hamas of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. In an interview with The Associated Press last year, she recalled how she worked closely with some Jewish lawyers in the ﬁght against apartheid in her native South Africa and was invited to Israel as the U.N. rights chief from 2008 to 2014.

Officials: FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash plane into Tel Aviv airport BY ERIN CUNNINGHAM Associated Press

JERUSALEM — The ax-wielding co-pilot who attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv last month intended to seize control of the airplane and fly it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said Friday. The suspect, an Omani national, did so “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties,” the UAE’s top prosecutor said in a statement carried by the state news agency WAM. Most of the 174 passengers on the flight were from Israel. The statement said the co-pilot “drew inspiration” from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States

and used two previous flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to “familiarize himself with the ﬂight route and the airport.” It said none of FlyDubai’s security or professional checks had indicated that the pilot, who was identitifed by The Associated Press as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, harbored extremist views or plans to carry out an attack. Hammami “admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others,” the statement said, adding that he “provided a detailed confession outlining his motives and the stages of planning and execution” in the presence of his lawyer. It also suggested he was radicalized at a mosque in Australia while attending the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017.

The update from the public prosecutor Friday was the most comprehensive since the UAE took over the investigation shortly after the incident on Sept. 30. FlyDubai is a governmentowned airline. The crisis unfolded suddenly in the skies above Jordan and Saudi Arabia, when Hammami attacked the captain, Smit Machchhar, with a crash ax in the cockpit. Bloodied and beaten, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, alerting passengers and crew to the assault. Passengers detained Hammami and helped steady the aircraft, which had plunged roughly 14,000 to 16,000 feet in less than a minute. Two reserve pilots then guided the plane to an emergency landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.

Growing up under the harsh system of segregation influenced Pillay’s interest in human rights and the law. Starting with Mandela’s presidency, South Africa’s government has openly compared the situation faced by non-White people during apartheid to the Palestinians’ plight. “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” Mandela said soon after apartheid ended. The Nobel announcement came at another critical time for Gaza, just two days after the anniversary of the Hamas-led 2023 attack that killed about 1,200 people and sparked the war. Over 74,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with their territory devastated. Saturday marks a year since a fragile ceaseﬁre took effect, while Israeli strikes continue. Netanyahu wrote on X that the Nobel committee “has lost its moral compass” by awarding its highest honor to “a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state.”

BEIRUT — An airline pilot was among three Saudi citizens killed in attacks targeting Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and a Saudia airlines plane, the kingdom’s civil aviation authority said Friday. Several people “of different nationalities” were wounded. Thursday’s attacks were the deadliest in Saudi Arabia since the kingdom and allied forces in neighboring Yemen launched a major military offensive against Yemen’s Iranbacked Houthi rebels last weekend. The attacks also marked a significant escalation on the latest front in the Iran war, which has kept oil prices and financial markets volatile. U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that the situation in Yemen remained “highly fluid,” with civilians bearing the brunt of escalating violence in a country already facing dire humanitarian conditions and food insecurity. By Friday afternoon, at least 124 flights to and from Riyadh had been canceled after hundreds more were canceled a day earlier, according to flighttracking site FlightAware. Air India, FlyDubai, Lufthansa Group and Pakistan International Airlines were among the airlines that suspended flights to and from Riyadh and other Saudi airports for the next few days due to the situation in the Middle East. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has expanded its guidance on

Saudi airspace, noting the Houthis’ ability to strike targets deeper inside the kingdom, including Riyadh, and a “greater focus on aviation infrastructure.” The latest guidance adds that “recurrent missile and drone attacks, together with the activation of airdefense systems, create an increased risk of misidentification of civil aircraft, as well as risks associated with missile and drone overflights, interception activity and falling debris.” The first attack on Thursday targeted airport facilities, while the second struck the aircraft, the Saudi statement said. It did not identify those responsible, though the Houthis claimed to have targeted the airport with a ballistic missile. Among the dead was Capt. Hamoud Ali Alkalthami, the Saudia Group said in a statement. It appeared to be the first confirmed attack on the Saudi national carrier since the new offensive began. A separate Saudia Group statement said one of its aircraft was damaged while it was on the ground, with no passengers on board. The aviation statement also said the injuries to Saudi citizens and people of other nationalities “ranged from minor to serious.” The Saudia Group statement later said operational activities at the airport had returned to normal. Meanwhile, the Saudiled coalition fighting the Houthis said it had destroyed three rocket launch platforms used by the rebels to threaten regional security.

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FBI arrests suspect in hacking of bureau’s jobs portal by ShinyHunters BY ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

The FBI has arrested an accused co-conspirator of a criminal hacking group that said last month that it had breached the bureau’s jobs portal and obtained sensitive and personal data on nearly all employees of the law enforcement agency, Director Kash Patel said Friday. The arrest was the latest targeting ShinyHunters, the group that claimed responsibility for the hack, as the FBI continues a global investigation into the breach of its network, which Patel said “occurred on a platform managed by a thirdparty vendor.” “We will continue to work closely with our partners

to disrupt what’s left of the ShinyHunters group and their associates, no matter where they operate,” Patel said in a statement. The identity of the person arrested was not immediately clear, nor what charges they might face. In a message taking responsibility for the hack and announcing the collection of sensitive information, ShinyHunters said it had taken action over false allegations contained in an FBI public advisory from May that described the organization as a “cyber criminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches and extortion.” That advisory characterized ShinyHunters as “threat actors” who often “use their real or exaggerat-

ed claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims,” commonly harass or threaten people and “may falsely claim to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs or videos of victims, which frequently do not exist.” Experts said that although the data that appeared to be compromised was the type of personal information that is routinely accessed during a breach, the hack nonetheless had alarming national security implications given that it could expose agents and their families to extortion, swatting and other harassment and because the identities of spouses were also said to have been obtained.

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FEST

Continued from page 1A Organizers described the Smithsonian’s involvement as signiﬁcant recognition for a festival that has celebrated Cajun and Creole culture for more than ﬁve decades. This year’s festival will also relaunch its original stage, Scène ’76, near the pond at Girard Park. The stage is a nod to the festival’s early years after it moved from Blackham Coliseum to Girard Park in 1976. The return of Scène ’76 is tied to the festival’s partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. The stage will highlight South Louisiana’s musical traditions and their connections with other American musical styles through collaborations between regional musicians and guest performers, including Haitian American cellist Leyla McCalla and Indigenous fiddler Nokosee Fields.

Logistics What to bring: Make sure to wear comfortable shoes that you can dance in and don’t mind getting dirty. Bring sunglasses, a hat and sunscreen if you plan to hang around the open-air stages during the afternoon. What not to bring: Beverage and drink stations are cashless, so no need to stop at the ATM. Just bring your phone for tap-to-pay or a credit or debit card. Parking: Parking directly near the park can be tight; local attendees often use nearby spaces around the Oil Center, hospital areas or designated event parking options.

Sunday, with a slightly cooler Saturday at 85. If you plan to stick around for the evening sets, you’ll get a great break from the heat — temperatures will drop into the low 60s at night. It’s looking like perfect festival weather; just make sure to pack some sunscreen for the afternoon and a light jacket if you stay out late.

Music lineup

FRIDAY Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les RôThe weather dailleurs • Ruben Moreno’s Zydeco Here is a quick look at how the Re-Evolution SATURDAY weather is shaping up for the fesJimmy Breaux and Friends • tival weekend. The daytime highs are going to TMonde • Bonsoir, Catin with stay quite warm, peaking around special guest Eric Adcock • Ced88 to 89 degrees on Friday and ric Watson et Bijou Créole • The

MOTEL

Continued from page 1A

unless released sooner under state law. The judgment followed an adversarial hearing Oct. 8. Boustany had issued a preliminary injunction Sept. 30 after finding probable cause that the property was a public nuisance under state law. The Plantation Motor Inn generated 2,073 calls for service and 247 police reports from 2023 through Aug. 17, 2026, according to LPD data cited in the release. Reported activity included a November 2023 homicide, drug-related crimes involving substances including fentanyl, prostitution-related activity and the seizure of 13 firearms. Authorities also seized narcotics with an estimated street value exceeding $114,000. Both managers were arrested on drug-related charges, including charges involving PCP, according to the release. Stacey Richard, a manager of the motel for the past 14 years with a five-year break, disputed the drug figures and the arrests. She said she has never seen residents with enough money to purchase that quantity. “I don’t do drugs,” she said. “Never did a drug in my life.” The judgment permanently prohibits the property’s owners, employees, agents and others acting with them from allowing certain criminal activity on the premises, including violent crime, illegal weapons activity and the illegal manufacture, sale or distribution of controlled dangerous substances or drug paraphernalia. The property must close for five years unless released sooner under the law. Violations of the injunction or knowingly using the property in violation of the abatement order could constitute contempt of court. An appeal would not delay enforcement.

45 days to leave The judgment sets different timelines for current residents depending on their rental arrangements. Long-term tenants living at the motel when the judgment was signed have 45 days to vacate. Residents who prepaid for stays of fewer than 45 days may remain until their contracts expire. The owner cannot enter into new rental contracts or allow new residents on the property.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY BRAD KEMP

Robby Dardeau, right, dances with his daughter Peyton during the 2025 Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. Holiday Playgirls • Leon Chavis & the Zydeco Flames • Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys • Mike Dopsie & Zydeco Entourage • C-4 — Savoy Family / Magnolia Sisters • Les Amis du Teche • Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie • Roddie Romero • Travis Matte • Johnnie Allan • Chris Ardoin & NuStep Zydeko • Robert Jardell & Pure Cajun: Wayne Singleton ft. The Urban Kreyol Band • Corey Ledet Zydeco • Four Horses • Lafayette Rhythm Devils • Balfa Toujours Dustin Dale Gaspard • Bogue Chitto — Thor Ahlgren • Nokosee Fields • Nathan Williams Sr. and Nathan Williams Jr. • Naylan Williams • The Revelers • Luke Huval • Chas Justus Trey Boudreaux • Megan Constantin —

what it is,” she said. “When I came back and I got to know the people, it’s all like a family,” she said. Richard said many calls to police come from short-stay guests reporting disturbances she described as minor and unfounded. She acknowledged a shooting in the back lot about three years ago, which she said stemmed from a drug deal and did not involve residents. “I’m not gonna say it’s perfect here. It’s not perfect,” she said. She said she saw the closure coming. “I knew it would come soon,” she said. She said police long complained about the crime and calls. But she said closing the motel will not fix the problems. “It’s not gonna make life here better, ‘cause they gotta move somewhere else,” she said. At the front desk of the motel, a man was told the news for the first time by Richard. He said 45 days is not enough time to find a house. He said he has lived at the motel for nine to 10 years. “If we could find a house that easily, we wouldn’t be staying here,” he said. Asked how many residents are long term, he said, “Pretty much all of us.” Richard said a Marshal’s Office deputy served papers on the owner, Elvis Ling, one morning while he was out of town. She said he went to court the next morning. ’This was our home’ She said LCG inspectors Residents interviewed visited last week and found Friday described the motel chipped paint and rooms as a last resort, and several down for maintenance. She said they have lived there said the owner added camfor years. eras and lighting and asked Charles Pollinge said he police for more patrols. has lived at the motel for 10 years, maybe longer. He said Express Inn also closed he pays $45 a night, which he On Oct. 8, Boustany orcalled the cheapest rate in dered the Express Inn, at town. He said management 1314 N.E. Evangeline Thrulet him pay late when he was way, to cease operations for sick and could not work. five years unless released “This was our home, man,” sooner under the law. Pollinge said. “Where we gonThe Express Inn generatna go? What we gonna do?” ed 1,902 calls for service and Pollinge said a worker told 294 police reports from Janhim about 10 minutes before uary 2023 through Aug. 17, the interview that long-term 2026. Authorities reported residents have 45 days to recovering 17 firearms and leave. about $114,658 worth of narPollinge said he was sleep- cotics in connection with the ing on a sidewalk before he property during that period. An LCG inspection conmoved in. He said he cooks on a hot plate in his room ducted Aug. 26 found exand keeps it up himself. He tensive violations involving said the motel is “not the the occupied hotel building, best environment” but said common areas and a fireit kept him off the street. damaged second building. Residents and Richard The inspection identified described a tight-knit com- concerns involving strucmunity. tural integrity, stairs and Richard said outsiders see railings, doors, sanitation, only the police. “They see plumbing, electrical syscops here. They don’t know tems, exits and fire detection

The judgment also directs Lafayette Consolidated Government, through its city attorney, to negotiate in good faith with the owner during the 45 days after the judgment to seek a way to return the property to commerce. Jamie Boudreaux, chief communications officer for Lafayette Consolidated Government, said the 45 days are a window for the owners to negotiate with the city-parish over whether the motel can stay in business. Those talks start next week, she said, once LCG receives a list of occupants and their family types. The owners could convert the property to transitional or long-term housing, Boudreaux said. Either option would require significant capital investment, she said. Month-to-month residents can stay through the 45 days “as of now,” Boudreaux said. If the talks fail, she said, residents “will have to be relocated.” Boudreaux said the injunction aims to reduce drug crime and illegal activity. She said the problem is not a recent spike and that Lafayette Police Chief Paul Trouard compiled three years of data. LCG and the Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing are working to connect residents affected by the motel closures with alternative housing and assistance, according to the release.

Ann Savoy • Joel Savoy • Jourdan Thibodeaux Kelli Jones • Kyle Huval • Corey Ledet — Kristi Guillory • Paul Daigle — Cameron Fontenot Josh Elkins • Jamie Lynn Fontenot • Angelle Aces • Randall Jackson — Jane & John Vidrine SUNDAY Blake Miller & the Old-Fashioned Aces • Luke Huval Band ft. Terry Huval & Jambalaya • Williams Family Zydeco Tradition Chere Elise • Horace Trahan & the Ossun Express • Carrier Family Celebration • Wayne Toups & Friends • Rusty Metoyer & the Zydeco Krush • Cameron Dupuy & the Cajun Troubadours • Pine Leaf Bays • Alphonse Ardoin & the Zydeco Kingz • Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers • BeauSo-

and suppression systems, among other issues. The property also had two fires in March. The Express Inn judgment prohibits the property from being used or occupied during the five-year abatement period. It also prohibits the owners, employees, agents and others acting with them from allowing specified criminal activity on the

leil Lost Bayou Ramblers • Cuval • Jesse Lege & the Bayou Aces — Has Beans • Mason Trail & Zydeco Rhythm — Creole String Beans • Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys Celjun • Cedric Watson & Corey Harris • Louis Michot • Corey Ledet • Layla, McCalla Roddie Romero • Sonny Landreth • Michael Doucet • Grant Dermody • Michael Juan Nunez Jairus Daigle • Dewayne Simmons Desi Richard • Zydeco Izreal: Lauren Richard • John DePriest • Dirk Powell • The Louisiana • Decima Project • Tony Davoren • Justin Leger • Jacques Boudreaux • Jeffery Broussard • Renee Reed • Megan Constantin • Kelli Jones • Emmanuel LeBlanc • Kristi Guillory Sheryl Cormier Trio • Gina Forsyth.

premises. An appeal would not delay enforcement. LCG has scheduled a Nov. 4 administrative hearing to address property-compliance concerns at the Express Inn. Broader effort to address blighted properties The closures are part of LCG’s broader effort to address dangerous and blighted properties, according to

the release. When the Boulet administration took office, the city-parish had a backlog of about 1,200 dilapidated, dangerous, blighted and abandoned property cases, some dating to 2016. LCG now averages about 40 Administrative Adjudication Bureau cases twice a month and says it is closing more cases than are being opened.

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The Acadiana Advocate l theadvocate.com l Saturday, October 10, 2026 l 5A

EERIE

Continued from page 1A our citizens have taken this very seriously.” Hurricane Isaias surged toward the Gulf Coast with growing intensity on Friday, scrambling forecasters’ earlier predictions. The National Hurricane Center expected Isaias to strike near Navarre, Florida, on Friday evening as a Category 3 storm with winds near 115 mph. The agency previously predicted the storm would make landfall in Alabama as a Category 1 hurricane. The intensifying forecast for the Atlantic’s ﬁrst hurricane this year was troubling news for the Florida Panhandle, which could now face up to 9 feet of storm surge from the Alabama state line to Grayton Beach. But the eastward shift was a small sign of hope for the Alabama Gulf Coast, which had been bracing for a direct hit as recently as Thursday. Forecasters said the warm Gulf water had helped Isaias rapidly intensify over the past 24 hours. Wind shear that had been expected to weaken it on approach did not materialize, as earlier predicted. By Friday afternoon, much of the Gulf Coast was already experiencing rain, strong winds and rising water. Still, leaders expressed confidence in the region’s planning. “Everybody’s working together,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Friday. “We have the resources that we need in place to be able to respond, to be able to help people in need and to be able to rapidly get things back to normal, from power restoration to the economy.” A state of emergency was issued by both DeSantis and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, and many low-lying and vulnerable communities along the immediate coastline were under evacuation orders. Officials around the region have spent the past week pleading with residents of those areas to leave and ready-

BOARD

Continued from page 1A money to the fund must be a priority. “If the funds are not reimbursed we have an issue,” Bergeron said. The board’s decision to use reserve funds comes as it moves forward with plans to turn the former Ovey Comeaux High School, which closed at the end of the last school year, into a workforce academy. The project will bring together the W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center and the E.J. Sam Accelerated Academy, which are currently located in District 4 in north Lafayette. The vote passed 6-2, with board members Amy Trahan, who represents District 4, and Josh Edmond, who represents District 3, voting against it. Both represent parts of north Lafayette. Trahan questioned why LPSS could not renovate the existing career center in her district to serve more students rather than move the programs to the former Comeaux campus. “There’s nothing I would say against having a career center at Comeaux High, it’s the way it came about,” Tra-

Waves wash against an eroded stretch of sand as sightseers gather near the pier in Pensacola Beach, Fla., on Friday. ing boats, high-water vehicles and thousands of linemen. Forecasters said the storm’s worst fury would hit Florida Panhandle cities east of the eyewall but stressed that the Alabama and Mississippi coasts were not in the clear. Several feet of storm surge is still possible from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Alabama coast. Coastal ﬂooding from Isaias even blocked parts of Lakeshore Drive in New Orleans on Friday. The National Weather Service in Mobile said the storm could also send high winds across southern Alabama that might lead to downed trees and power outages,

“It’s time to put the negativity aside and say that this is something everyone agrees can be a great thing. Workforce development is a job of this board, so let’s do the right thing and make a bigger impact in our community. Everyone doesn’t agree on the location, but expanding career training is the greatest thing we can give our kids at this point in time.” KATE BAILEY LABUE, Lafayette Parish School Board member han said. “When we look at taking so much money out of the rainy day fund for a project that’s not a necessity because you currently have a career center in District 4 that’s functioning right now — those funds could have been directed to the current career center to improve conditions.” The W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center has long served Lafayette Parish students at its current location on 18th Street. Trahan said residents in her district support the center and

and much of the Gulf Coast is also at risk for tornadoes. By Friday afternoon, most businesses across the region were closed. Even many Wafﬂe House locations, which are known for staying open no matter the weather, were shuttered around the Panhandle. But at least one saloon — McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida — remained open. Business was steady, though not crowded. Colten Wright, a commissioner in neighboring Santa Rosa County, said local authorities had done their best over the past several days to prepare residents for the

questioned why the board was not investing in existing facilities. Board member Kate Bailey Labue, who represents District 7 and the site of the new career academy, defended the decision to build at the former Comeaux campus. She said the current career center does not have enough space to meet students’ needs and will remain open while the new center is built. “It’s time to put the negativity aside and say that this is something everyone agrees can be a great thing,” Labue said. “Workforce development is a job of this board, so let’s do the right thing and make a bigger impact in our community. Everyone doesn’t agree on the location, but expanding career training is the greatest thing we can give our kids at this point in time.” Public comments at Thursday’s meeting opposed using the Economic Stabilization Fund for the Comeaux project. Sarah Bennett told board members, “This is not an emergency, it’s planned construction.” The board also voted to transfer $10.3 million from the Economic Stabilization Fund to fund a $2,000 teacher stipend in November.

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storm, including by issuing an evacuation order for the barrier island of Navarre Beach. But he said reactions among residents were mixed. “You see some that have made no preparations and still have Halloween decorations in their front yard,” Wright said as he readied to hunker down at home for the evening. “And then you see others that were boarded up two days ago.” The western Florida Panhandle has managed to avoid catastrophic hurricanes in recent years, and the last signiﬁcant storm to strike the Alabama Gulf Coast was Hurricane Sally in 2020. But Isaias

The move follows a state executive order from Gov. Jeff Landry requiring school districts to pay the stipend using their allocation of state Minimum Foundation Program funds, creating a

will make landfall on the near-anniversary of Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that wreaked catastrophic damage near Panama City Beach on Oct. 10, 2018. Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson, whose deputies patrol the stretch of Florida’s Scenic Highway 30A just next door to Panama City, said many locals have vivid memories of Michael’s devastation that have spurred them to action this time around. “It made people very aware of what can happen,” he said. Photojournalist David Grunfeld and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

budget gap. The board also approved JB Mouton as construction manager at risk for the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Innovation Academy project. Members approved al-

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locating $22 million from other funding sources for construction projects across the district, including a new $5 million stadium and track at Lafayette High School.

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6A l Saturday, October 10, 2026 l theadvocate.com l The Acadiana Advocate

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TODAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

A sun-and-cloud mix

Mostly sunny and warm

A couple of afternoon showers

A t-storm around in the a.m.

A stray afternoon thunderstorm

Partly sunny, showers around

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

85° 62°

LOW

HIGH

89° 63°

LOW

90° 70°

Beaumont 88/65 Port Arthur 88/67

Baton Rouge 84/59

Lake Charles 89/63

New Orleans 82/63 Houma 86/59

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

Hattiesburg 75/56

Alexandria 88/60

Lafayette 85/62

10s

20s

30s

40s

50s

LOW

HIGH

LOW

91° 68°

YESTERDAY

TODAY

READING 63 MAIN POLLUTANT Particulates

MAIN POLLUTANT Ozone

Lafayette through 5 p.m. Friday

Jackson 74/58 Many 88/60

HIGH

91° 69°

TEMPERATURE

Longview 88/63

-0s

LOW

Monroe 86/60

Shreveport 89/62

-10s

HIGH

89° 70°

We continue to watch Isaias as it makes its way across Alabama. Locally, expect a partly sunny morning to give way to a mostly sunny afternoon. Temperatures today will rise to the upper 80s to low 90s. Winds will be out of the north at about 5 mph. The air is dry, dew points are low and humidity hardly noticeable. Because of the warm, dry and gusty winds, a Red Flag Warning has been issued for parts of SW Louisiana, so avoid burning anything outdoors. Expect sunny skies and higher temperatures tomorrow.

60s

70s

80s

90s 100s 110s

High/low Normal high/low Last year’s high/low Record high Record low

Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today NEW

OCT 10

City

Austin Boston Dallas Fairbanks Honolulu Las Vegas Louisville Miami Nashville

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

89°/65° 84°/63° 89°/67° 94° in 1941 39° in 1921

TODAY’S TIDES Lake Pontchartrain (Tchefuncte River) Shell Beach South Point, Marsh Island Cypremort Point Grand Isle (Barataria Pass) Mississippi River (Southwest Pass) Wine Island

24-hour total Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date

HIGH

12:10a 3:00a 3:46a 5:16a 9:56p 9:26p 11:04p

7:07 a.m. 6:43 p.m. 7:04 a.m. 6:33 p.m.

FIRST

OCT 18

92 64 90 45 89 90 73 91 69

TODAY Lo

66 49 68 31 74 67 61 81 62

FULL

LAST

OCT 25

s pc s c sh pc r sh r

NOV 1

91 65 90 42 86 71 69 92 71

MODERATE

PRECIPITATION

SUN. Lo

70 54 72 33 72 60 59 80 58

s pc s c s t r t r

FT.

LOW

0.00” 0.87” 1.27” 47.03” 49.97”

FT.

HIGH

0.6 2:17a 0.6 1.6 11:04a 0.8 2.0 8:43a 0.7 1.5 12:29a 1.1 1.3 7:21a 0.5 1.7 5:27a 0.7 1.6 8:23a 0.7

FT.

SOURCE: LOUISIANA DEQ AND AIRNOW.GOV

LOW

FT.

8:19a 0.7 6:01p 0.3 --- ----- --5:28p 2.4 9:36p 1.7 8:10p 1.6 12:21p 0.5 --- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times. Major periods begin at the times shown and last for 1.5 to 2 hours. The minor periods are shorter. MAJOR MINOR MAJOR MINOR

Today 11:23a 5:11a 11:45p 5:34p Sunday 12:32p 5:57a ---- 6:20p Monday 12:35a 6:47a 12:59p 7:11p Tuesday 1:28a 7:40a 1:52p 8:05p Wednesday 2:23a 8:35a 2:48p 9:01p Thursday 3:19a 9:31a 3:44p 9:57p Friday 4:14a 10:27a 4:39p 10:52p

City

New Orleans Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego Tampa

TODAY

82 91 74 93 72 69 81 77 89

63 75 60 71 57 66 59 69 78

pc t pc t pc r pc c t

GOOD

87 87 66 90 66 80 86 72 85

SUN. Lo

67 72 63 69 60 62 67 65 73

MISSISSIPPI Memphis Vidalia-Natchez Red River Landing Baton Rouge Donaldsonville Reserve New Orleans OHIO Cairo COMITE Near Olive AMITE Near Darlington Denham Springs Port Vincent TICKFAW Montpelier Holden ATCHAFALAYA Simmesport Melville Krotz Springs Butte La Rose Bayou Sorrel Morgan City

s t r t r t s r t

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.

FLOOD STAGE

34 48 48 35 27 22 17

FRI. 24-HOUR STAGE CHANGE

6.70 23.20 25.90 12.10 7.60 6.61 5.30

+3.16 -1.13 -0.80 -0.30 +0.10 +0.25 +0.51

25.46

+0.98

-1.68

-0.17

18 29 8

-1.28 9.86 3.40

-0.04 -0.09 +0.07

13 15

1.51 0.75

-0.08 -0.10

47 34 29 20 12 6

11.05 7.63 5.93 5.49 4.00 2.97

-0.19 -0.10 -0.35 -0.08 +0.20 -0.05

data as of 7 a.m. Friday

Trump establishes committee to investigate Lisa Cook Move is latest effort to fire Fed governor

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP economics writer

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump opened another chapter in his effort to ﬁre Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Friday by establishing a “committee of inquiry” to investigate allegations that she made false statements in mortgage applications. The inquiry will include a hearing at the White House Nov. 5, Trump said in a written memo, that Cook “shall” attend to answer questions from the committee. The hearing wouldn’t be public but a transcript would be published, the memo said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO BY MARK SCHIEFELBEIN

Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook leaves the Supreme Court on Jan. 21 in Washington. Trump’s extraordinary demand that Cook testify before the committee will likely renew concerns about threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence. The president has repeatedly called for the central bank to cut its key interest rate, but just last month, the

Fed raised it instead, led by Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom Trump appointed earlier this year. Trump’s attempts to fire Cook from the Fed’s sevenmember board of governors represent the first time in the central bank’s 113-year history that a president has

sought to remove a Fed governor. Cook was appointed by former President Joe Biden and is the first Black woman on the Fed’s board. Trump’s attacks on her followed other efforts to oust or indict Black officials, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law,” Trump wrote in the memorandum. Cook’s attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norman Eisen, said they were considering having Cook appear at the Nov. 5 hearing and respond to the charges. “We have engaged with the White House to evaluate whether the process

proposed has a possibility of being a genuine one and not simply a box checking exercise,” Lowell and Eisen said in a statement. “Governor Cook welcomes the opportunity to present the facts so she can clear her name and demonstrate there is no legal basis to fire her.” The “committee of inquiry” will be composed of Kevin Hassett, the president’s top economic adviser, who has frequently echoed Trump’s criticisms of the Fed; Keith Sonderling, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, whom the president has also appointed to lead the Labor Department, and Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, whom Trump appointed in November 2025. Trump initially tried to fire Cook in August 2025 after

alleging she had committed mortgage fraud by declaring two different properties to be her “primary” residence in mortgage applications in 2021. Mortgages on primary homes can often receive a lower interest rate or other beneﬁcial terms. Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. Lowell and Eisen have previously said Cook committed an “inadvertent error” and did refer to one of the properties as a vacation home in other documents. “An inadvertent error is not fraud, as the President and a third of his cabinet should know because they reportedly did the same thing,” Lowell and Eisen said in August. The Federal Reserve declined to comment on Trump’s announcement.

authorities release Russian strikes across Ukraine kill 3 U.K. 2 Latvian men on bail BY HANNA ARHIROVA and KATIE MARIE DAVIES

Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian strikes killed three people and wounded at least eight across Ukraine, ofﬁcials said Friday, as Ukraine struggles to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 50 people over the past three days. One man was killed and five people were wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region in the morning hours, said Mykhailo Semikin, the head of the regional military administration. He said the attacks hit residential areas and that a child was among the wounded. Another man was killed in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, Svitlana Onyshchuk, head of the regional military administration, reported.

A woman was also killed in a Russian attack on warehouse facilities in the district of Bucha in the Kyiv region, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Telegram. Her body was found while clearing rubble and ﬁghting a ﬁre at the site, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration, said Friday. Three people were wounded there. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 41/ 2 years since Moscow’s fullscale invasion. Elsewhere, a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s eastern Belgorod region killed two people Friday, the area’s regional emergency headquarters said. Regional Gov. Alexander Shuvayev said that 12 people had been wounded in Ukrainian strikes. Russian attacks have killed

dozens of civilians across Ukraine over the past three days using a mix of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. On Thursday, a Russian guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people. A day earlier, a Russian missile strike killed 22 people, including ﬁve children, in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky. Around 100 people attended the funerals Friday for members of the Ivanchenko family, who died during the attack. Oleksandr, a 39-year-old railway worker, his wife, Yulia, 37, and their two children, Iryna, 13, and Maksym, 8, were among those killed when a missile struck their apartment building. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Moscow will likely escalate daily attacks as winter approaches, putting

pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for winter and hitting the infrastructure keeping its war-battered economy aﬂoat. Recent Russian targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports. The Ukrainian leader held a meeting with military ofﬁcials and government members on Friday focusing on Ukraine’s energy and air defense needs. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of damage to the power grid and electricity transmission facilities,” he wrote on Telegram. “Repairs are going on around the clock.” Zelenskyy appealed on Thursday for additional defense support from NATO countries, saying in an online post: “It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine’s defense.”

after arrest on RAF base

By The Associated Press LONDON — Two Latvian men who were arrested inside the perimeter of a British air force base that houses U.S. and NATO intelligence personnel have been released on bail, U.K. counterterrorism police said Friday. The base, RAF Molesworth, located 70 miles north of London, is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is home to the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center, which provides information to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, as well as intelligence personnel from the U.S. Africa Command. Ofﬁcers from the Ministry of Defense Police and Cambridgeshire Constabulary began investigating

the incident at about 10 p.m. Wednesday after an abandoned vehicle was found near the edge of the base. Police later found a small hole in the perimeter fence, and the suspects, both U.K. residents, were arrested at about 2 a.m. Thursday. “Our investigation continues and we are working closely with colleagues from the Ministry of Defense Police and Cambridgeshire Constabulary on this,” Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in a statement. “A key line of enquiry remains to identify any potential motivation behind why the men were at that location, and this includes whether it may be connected to any criminal activity.”

METRO

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

S at u r d ay, O c t O b e r 10, 2026

1bN

Higgins faces tough questions

scribed as hostility toward Black Congressman talks race, inflation, term limits at town hall men, citing a 2024 post on X in

BY JOEL THOMPSON

The event at The Hub, formerly Northgate Mall, was Higgins’ Staff writer third town hall in Acadiana this U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins defend- election cycle. Previous events in ed his record Thursday as attend- Crowley and New Iberia included ees at a Lafayette town hall ques- tense exchanges with attendees, tioned him about past remarks and some questioners were evenconcerning Black Americans. The tually removed from the New Ibecongressman also fielded ques- ria meeting. Higgins, R-Lafayette, opened tions about Social Security, inﬂation, fuel prices and congressional Thursday’s event by cautioning attendees against disrupting the term limits.

discussion. “I wear a band that says ‘redemption,’ not ‘perfection,’ ” Higgins said. “It’s not right to disrupt this type of beautiful engagement.” But attendees soon raised questions about controversial remarks Higgins has made during his time in public ofﬁce. One questioner challenged Higgins over what the person de-

which Higgins criticized Haitian immigrants in Springﬁeld, Ohio. The post, which was later deleted, described Haitians as “wild” and referred to voodoo, gangs and the country as the “nastiest” in the Western Hemisphere. The House later censured Higgins over the post. Higgins rejected the suggestion that he was racist.

ä See HIGGINS, page 2B

‘Once in a lifetime’ George Rodrigue original painting discovered in Shreveport home to be auctioned in New Orleans

STAFF PHOTO BY BRAD BOWIE

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins hosts a town hall at the Northgate Mall in Lafayette on Thursday.

Two men arrested in teen’s death Police suspect herbal pills had controlled substance BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer

Louisiana State Police detectives arrested two men in connection with an investigation into the death of a 17-year-old Turkey Creek boy who investigators said purchased herbal supplement pills suspected of containing an illegal drug from a Ville Platte business. Taylon Hebert was found dead at his residence on Sept. 18, according to Louisiana State Police. On Sept. 19, detectives with the State Police Criminal Investigations Division’s Breaux Bridge Field Office were asked by the Turkey Creek Police Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding Hebert’s death. The preliminary investigation revealed that Hebert purchased over-the-counter herbal supplement pills from Tobacco Tavern in Ville Platte the day before his death. The pills were suspected of containing a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance, State Police said. On Sept. 19, agents with the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and deputies with the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office seized similar pills from the business. Detectives later executed a search

ä See ARRESTED, page 2B

PROVIDED PHOTO BY CINDY WILKINSON

An original George Rodrigue painting, created for the 1981 Festival Acadiens, will soon be auctioned in New Orleans after nearly 50 years. BY MOLLY TERRELL

Staff writer

An original George Rodrigue painting, found almost 50 years after it was painted for the 1981 Festivals Acadiens in Lafayette, will soon go up for auction in New Orleans. Cindy Wilkinson, owner of Estate Pros LLC in Shreveport and a certiﬁed appraiser since 1996, said the discovery of Rodrigue’s painting was a “once in a lifetime” ﬁnd for her. The painting by a renowned Louisi-

ana artist, internationally known for his iconic blue dogs, was quietly sitting above a ﬁreplace in a Shreveport home. Wilkinson discovered the painting while meeting with the attorney and administrator of the estate of the late Margaret Shehee Cole to prepare for an estate sale. After reviewing hundreds of records and searching the image, she discovered that it was the original art used for the poster design for Festivals Acadiens, a festival that grew from Lafayette’s celebration of Cajun music, food,

crafts and culture, and continues today as Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. According to Rodrigue’s widow, Wendy Rodrigue Magnus, Rodrigue was really good friends with Jimmy Domengeaux, who founded the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana and started the Festivals Acadiens in the 1970s, which is how he ended up agreeing to design the poster for the 1981 festival, his ﬁrst festival poster design.

ä See RODRIGUE, page 2B

One of La.’s oldest World War II veterans dies at 105 Man exemplified ‘strength, service and patriotism’

Jeff Landry said Friday. “Saddened to hear the news of Mr. Elmo Sholes’ passing. He lived 105 years full of strength, service, and patriotism,” Landry said in a statement posted to social media. Staff report It was not immediately clear Elmo Sholes, one of the oldest what his cause of death was. “We are grateful for his serWorld War II veterans in Louisiana, died at the age of 105, Gov. vice to our nation. Our thoughts

are with his family, his church family and the Morganza community,” the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs said. Born on Dec. 26, 1920, Sholes served in the Philippines and Paciﬁc Islands during the war. He retired as a corporal, according to the Veterans Affairs ofﬁce. Sholes, a Morganza resident, was a community leader within

the Church of God in Christ, serving the church for 65 years as a pastor, elder and eventually superintendent. Sholes was honored by Landry last year with a World War II commemorative coin. The governor also declared May 13, 2025, “Elmo Sholes Day” in the veteran’s home parish of Pointe Coupee.

Children taken into custody after raid Two Opelousas residents arrested

BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writer

Two Opelousas residents were arrested Thursday after narcotics detectives found two young children in a bedroom that authorities said was wired and zip-tied shut, according to the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce. Nickolas Brett Bolejack, 25, and Kimberly Ann Bolejack, 36, each face charges including second-degree cruelty to juveniles, cruelty to juveniles involving minor injuries, false imprisonment, illegal use of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of minors, cruelty to animals, drug paraphernalia and criminal neglect of family. The Sheriff’s Ofﬁce said its Narcotics Division received information Oct. 8 about suspected narcotics at a

ä See RAID, page 2B

2B ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

HIGGINS

Continued from page 1B “There’s not a point in my life in which you could categorize me as a racist,” he said. “It’s hurtful that you would say those things about me. You obviously never met my family and you obviously weren’t at my wedding. I am an imperfect man driven by perfect intention.” Another attendee raised questions about videos Higgins made while working for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Ofﬁce that helped bring him to public attention. In the videos, Higgins referred to Black suspects as “animals,” language that has drawn accusations of racism. Higgins said he used the term to condemn behavior, not people. “My intention was to separate that behavior from how humans should act,” he said. “If I terrorize my fellow man, that is animalistic behavior. Children of God are not supposed to act like that.”

Economic concerns Higgins also ﬁelded questions about Social Security, saying the program was

ARRESTED

Continued from page 1B warrant at Tobacco Tavern with assistance from the two agencies, seizing additional pills suspected of containing a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance and other evidence. Detectives obtained arrest warrants for Tobacco Tavern owner Musa Saleh Salem, 34, and employee Ghaleb Mohammed Mousa, 29, both of New Iberia, on charges of distributing a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance.

RAID

Continued from page 1B residence on South Union Street in Opelousas. When detectives arrived, they saw a bedroom window covered in what appeared to be fecal material and two children younger than 5 who were naked and visible from outside the home,

RODRIGUE

Continued from page 1B Magnus said several thousand posters were made, and Rodrigue donated them to the festival, and the proceeds went to the festival costs. He designed another poster for the festival in 1983. The painting included his signature style of cutting the tree off and including less of the sky, which she said was meant to invite the viewer into the painting with the subjects as if you were under the tree with them. According to Magnus, subjects of Rodrigue’s paintings were never shaded as if under trees either; they were always bright compared to the landscape. “George never painted his figures in shadow because he said that his figures are not lit by the sunlight,” Magnus said. “They glow from the inside out with spirit of the Cajun culture.” The 1981 painting occupies a significant place in the chronology of Rodrigue’s work because he became known in Louisiana for his festival designs, but two years later he painted “Watchdog,” now recognized as the first painting in what would become the Blue Dog series, according to Wilkinson.

Value of the painting Jacques Rodrigue, Ro-

lll

not declining or failing. He pointed to his support for the Social Security Fairness Act, which he said was an example of his willingness to work across party lines. “I was the loudest Republican voice for passing the Social Security Fairness Act,” Higgins said. “It was the only time I attended a signing at the Biden White House, which you can imagine I wasn’t very welcome in most of the time.” On affordability, Higgins said the current inﬂationary trend was driven primarily by spending increases. “You should think of the Treasury notes in your wallet like owning stock in a company,” he said. “If you print a million dollars, the value of your company doesn’t increase, the value of your dollar decreases.” Higgins also discussed the possible suspension of the federal fuel tax, which has hit many local farmers hard. The congressman pointed to a bill he co-sponsored that would suspend most of the federal fuel tax until Dec. 31. However, the bill was killed in the House Ways and Means committee. He said he expected relief from high fuel prices as

the conflict with Iran comes to an end, linking energy prices to inflation. “The inflationary trend is directly attached to energy product which is because of the Iran conflict,” Higgins said. “The corrective measures we’re taking over there right now, there’s an end to that.”

Mousa was arrested Sept. 24 and booked into the Evangeline Parish Jail. Salem was arrested the following day and booked into the same jail. State Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Ville Platte, issued a statement about the investigation, saying sellers who knowingly provide dangerous, illegal products to young people are putting profit ahead of children’s lives. “Parents must understand the danger, talk with their children and stay vigilant,” Cloud said. “If you know of anyone selling these products, report them immedi-

ately to the ATC and local law enforcement.” State police encouraged the public to report suspicious activity that could threaten community safety. Reports can be made by calling the Louisiana State Police Suspicious Activity Hotline at (800) 434-8007, using the See Send smartphone app or submitting a report through the LA-SAFE website at http://la-safe.org. The investigation remains active, according to State Police.

according to the agency. Detectives found that the bedroom door had been secured with zip ties and wire, preventing the children from leaving the room, the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce said. A search warrant led to the seizure of narcotics residue and drug paraphernalia. The Sheriff’s Office’s Juvenile Division and the Louisiana Department

of Children and Family Services responded. Four children at the home and three others who were at area schools were placed in DCFS custody, authorities said. All seven children are younger than 12. The case remains under investigation.

drigue’s son and executive director of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, said the foundation has been cataloging Rodrigue’s work and is up to about 3,500 paintings so far, but there are many paintings that have no record of where they ended up, like the 1981 canvas. “It’s always exciting when a piece that we aren’t sure about shows up,” Jacques said. He said he was familiar with Shreveport collector Virginia Shehee, and that his father was likely close enough friends with her that he didn’t keep a record of the painting after coming to a deal with her. Jacques said about 40 of Rodrigue’s paintings come back into circulation every year, sold through the gallery or public auctions like this one. George Rodrigue’s circa 1981 original oil painting will be offered by Neal Auction Company Nov. 1920, and according to Marney Robinson, the director of ﬁne art for the company, the auction estimates that this painting will go for $40,000-$60,000. “It’s a fantastic early

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THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2026 PICK 3: 1-7-0 PICK 4: 0-5-9-1 PICK 5: 0-7-7-2-4

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Obituaries

Henry, Shirley Randolph

Gaspard White, Karen Marie

Ancona, Charles Wayne

Term limits Higgins also answered a question about imposing term limits on members of Congress. He said a constitutional amendment would be required, citing a 1995 Supreme Court decision that rejected state-imposed term limits for members of Congress. He questioned whether term limits would be effective but said he was open to discussing the issue. “The founders would say we’ve had term limits for 250 years called elections,” Higgins said. “We have term limits on the state level. It’s debatable whether they’ve been effective or beneﬁcial. I support debating it, but I ultimately defer to the anointed status of our Constitution.” Higgins is seeking a sixth term in the U.S. House and faces five challengers in the Nov. 3 election. Early voting begins Oct. 20.

Email Kristin Askelson at kaskelson@theadvocate. com.

Email Kristin Askelson at kaskelson@ theadvocate.com.

painting ﬁlled with Louisiana symbolism and is a classic case on how he depicts his home state,” Robinson said. The catalog and bidding information will be available on nealauction.com closer to the time of the auction, Robinson said. Contact Neal Auction Company at (504) 8995329.

Charles Wayne Ancona died peacefully on October 5, 2026, surrounded by his loving family. Known for his easy smile and gift for making everyone feel welcomed, Charles carried his warmth and jovial spirit with him throughout his life. A native of Baton Rouge, he graduated from Istrouma High School in 1958. Drawn by both adventure and a sense of duty, Charles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Electronics Technician (Radio) Petty Officer Third Class. At the U.S. Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, Washington, he earned a Commendation for Outstanding Service and, later, the Good Conduct Medal. Charles enrolled at LSU under the G.I. Bill at the ripe age of 27. A chance meeting at Don's Seafood in 1968 changed the course of his life when he met Susan Ducote from Port Allen, who would become his beloved wife. They married two years later and soon welcomed their daughter and son. With his easygoing charm, Charles found his calling in a career in sales. For 12 years, he thrived as General Sales Manager of Woodfin-Smith Pontiac in Baton Rouge. In 1984, Charles and Susan turned his lifelong dream of business ownership into reality when they purchased Acadian Pontiac Buick in New Iberia. Charles eventually transitioned to a career as a health insurance broker, spending more than 25 years working at The Insurance Center in New Iberia. A lifelong outdoorsman, Charles was seldom seen during hunting season without a rifle or duck call in hand and his son, Jason, by his side. His appreciation for nature was also captured by his camera, and he became an accomplished amateur wildlife photographer. In retirement, "Paw Charles" spent his time golfing and photographing his four wiggling grandchildren.

A memorial mass will be celebrated at Holy Cross, 415 Robley Dr., Lafayette, LA at 11:00 am on October 12, 2026, for Karen Marie Gaspard White, 74, who peacefully passed away on Tuesday, October 7, 2026, surrounded by family, after a long illness. Reverend Andrew Schumacher will conduct the services. Karen, a resident of Lafayette, was the daughter of the late Merk and Louetta Gaspard. She was born on June 27, 1952, the oldest of six children. She is survived by her children, Candyce Gagnard Perret (Hunter) and Donald James Gagnard, Jr. (Jenny); grandchildren, Remington Wagner Gagnard, Paxton Perret, Pierce Perret, Luke Gagnard, Preiss Perret and Bella Gagnard; three sisters, Cheryll Guillory, Kelly Ducote (Chris), Valerie Bonnette (Mark) and two brothers, Faron Gaspard and preceded by Michael Gaspard; godmother, Gerry Foster and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. For 35 years, she loved and excelled at teaching high school students English and Math. One of her great joys after retiring was when she would encounter one of her students from many years past, who would approach her to say that she had a significant impact on their lives, even at that early age. This happened on a regular basis. Her time on this earth is over but as stated in 2 Timothy 4:7, she can truly say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Her family and friends who loved her dearly will certainly attest to that. Donations in memory of Karen Gaspard White may be contributed to Miles Perret Cancer Services. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on 2026-10 -12 at Holy Cross Catholic Church , 415 Robley Drive .

He is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Susan Ducote Ancona; his children, Jennifer Ancona Semko of Great Falls, Virginia, and her husband William, Jason Wayne Ancona; his four grandchildren, Cade Broussard, Sarah, Grace and Caroline Semko; his sister, Patricia Gerald and her husband Ronnie.

Shirley Randolph Henry passed away on Sunday, October 4, 2026, in Baton Rouge, LA at age 85. Shirley is survived by Michael Henry (Mike), her loving husband of 62 years, daughter, Susan Christine Quick and husband Andrew, two granddaughters, Olivia and Alexandra Quick, brother Clyde Randolph and sister-in-law Lucille, sister-in-law Patty Randolph and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Albert and Grace Randolph, her brother Don Randolph, her sister Janet Bates and brother-in-law Ralph Bates. Shirley grew up in Glenmora, LA. She received an English degree from Northwestern State University and a Master's Degree in Library Science from Louisiana State University. She was a retired high school English teacher and librarian with over 40 years of service. She was a member of St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church in Gonzales, LA. She was a devoted mother, wife and grandmother who encouraged her daughter and grandchildren to succeed in all of life's pursuits. Shirley was a generous, funny and caring person who laughed easily and shared her time and patience with her loved ones. As a final act of generosity, she donated her body for medical education and research. Shirley loved running, reading, playing with her cat CC, and drinking wine on the porch with Mike. She will be deeply missed by all those who knew her. A private celebration of life will be held at a later date.

How to place an Obituary Notice EMAIL:

obits@theadvocate.com OR CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION:

225-388-0289

He is preceded in death by his parents, Charlie Ancona and Ada Lejueune; his siblings, Beverly Horn, Joyce Lasseigne, Debbie Ancona. A visitation will be held from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM and a funeral service at 10:00 AM on 2026-10-07 at Frioux Funeral Home, 316 Youngsville Hwy. in Lafayette, LA.

How to place a Memorial Ad An “In Memory Of” ad, is a way to pay tribute to your loved one. This remembrance is often printed on the anniversary of a loved one’s death. The deadline is two days prior to the day you want your ad to appear. TO PLACE A MEMORIAL AD GO TO:

obituaries.theacadianaadvocate.com,

click submit an obituary and select create a memoriam.

Email Molly Terrell at molly.terrell@ theadvocate.com.

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OpenAI fires 3 in dispute over AI risks

LONDON — OpenAI said on Friday that it fired three safety researchers for a “breach of trust,” defending the dismissals after the trio accused the company of putting its corporate interests before safety as the reason for removing them. The ChatGPT maker said in a post on X that it “parted ways” with the researchers after an investigation found “they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information.” The statement comes after the three researchers, Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni, posted a letter to OpenAI’s various safety oversight groups detailing the circumstances around their firings and their concerns about AI. The researchers said they feared that the “internal and external communications” about their dismissals have chilled the company’s culture that encouraged speaking freely and disagreeing openly about safety concerns. They urged OpenAI to stick to its promise to allow third-party safety monitors inside the company and preserve the ability to monitor rapidly advancing frontier AI models that could pose unknown risks. The firings, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, are the latest sign of turmoil inside leading AI companies over the safety of the technology, highlighted by a series of incidents involving rogue AI agents. OpenAI disputed the researchers’ version of events, saying the firings “were not about safety concerns or speaking out.” It was not more specific about why they were fired, but said: “We cannot do the work in front of us without a high degree of trust.”

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Ram trucks hit with another recall

Federal safety officials say the tire pressure monitoring systems on more than 16,000 Ram trucks could have been damaged during assembly, prompting a recall. The recall covers 2026 Ram trucks produced by Stellantis NV, which began notifying dealers of the issue this week. Sensors notify drivers when tire pressure drops significantly, and federal regulators say broken tire pressure monitors could lead to flats and increase the likelihood of a crash. Stellantis spokesperson Frank Matyok in an email said the automaker is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the issue. Stellantis will pay for 2026 Ram 1500 trucks to be inspected and for the replacement of any damaged sensors.

30-YR T-BONDS 5.6 -0.01 -0.11%

Wall Street finishes week with gains

Treasury yields ﬂipped up and lied 11.6% and helped lift the U.S. business to have a signal that can Oil prices continue to down in the bond market following stock market despite the swings in penetrate walls and connect cusyo-yo due to war their own sharp moves earlier in the oil and bond markets. The in- tomers inside buildings who may

BY STAN CHOE

AP business writer NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market ﬁnished its record-setting week with gains on Friday, even as other ﬁnancial markets remained indecisive. The strength came as oil prices continued to yo-yo because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal. The price for a barrel of Brent crude bounced between $102.50 and $105 before settling at $104.72, up 0.4%.

the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eventually climbed to 5.24% from 5.22% late Thursday. It recently touched its highest level since 2002 because of worries about high inﬂation, the U.S. government’s massive debt load, signals that the U.S. economy is continuing to grow and other factors. High yields threaten to slow the economy by making borrowing money more expensive for everyone, and the average 30-year ﬁxedrate mortgage has already leapt to its highest level in nearly three years. On Wall Street, Humana ral-

surer said it received encouraging data about its quality ratings versus its competitors for Medicare Advantage plans. Companies that own cell towers were also at the front of the market, including leaps of 15.6% for Crown Castle and 9.3% for American Tower. They rallied after SpaceX announced a purchase that could help it become a major mobile carrier in the United States. It still needs to get approval from U.S. regulators, but SpaceX said the purchase of low-band spectrum would allow its Starlink Mobile

EU and China strike interim trade deal

HONG KONG — The top trade envoys for China and the European Union agreed Friday on a broad initial deal following two days of talks aimed at calming escalating tensions over trade imbalances, the EU trade commissioner said. Neither side provided clear details on the preliminary deal, but European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic said it includes lower tariffs for some European goods to China as well as measures to stabilize rare earth supply chains. The EU trade envoy said the deal could cut up to 50% of Chinese electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle imports to the EU and could lower tariffs on products beneﬁting “almost every” EU nation. The deal would require approval from leaders across the 27-nation EU. He said that “by this step we are actually preventing several millions of car exports from China to the European Union.” The two sides were seeking to resolve key factors behind China’s growing trade surplus, which hit $410 billion last year. China’s Commerce Ministry posted online that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao expressed concerns about the EU’s recent restrictive measures. He said that China is not the root of the EU’s problems but a partner in solving them.

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not be able to access its satellites. SpaceX’s stock added 1.2%. The threat of another big competitor sent stocks lower across the wireless industry, including drops of 13.3% for T-Mobile US, 9.8% for AT&T and 8.7% for Verizon. Delta Air Lines erased an early loss and eked out a tiny gain of less than 0.1% after reporting profit and revenue for the summer that was slightly weaker than analysts expected. CEO Ed Bastian said demand remains strong and customers want to ﬂy, but the airline is also having to absorb a $6 billion increase in fuel costs this year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY OCTAVIO JONES

An American flag flaps in the wind generated by the effects of Hurricane Isaias on an empty beach on Friday in Mon Louis Island, Ala.

Hurricane Isaias’ effects in Gulf of Mexico could nudge fuel prices higher Loss of power to refineries could slow oil processing

BY MATTHEW BROWN and JOSH KELETY Associated Press

Hurricane Isaias is forecast to miss the oil industry’s biggest hubs along the Gulf Coast but could still nudge fuel prices higher if it triggers power outages that shut down refineries for processing crude, according to industry experts. An extended shutdown of refineries would put a crimp in fuel supplies that already have taken a hit from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s war against Ukraine. Chevron’s facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Vertex Energy’s refinery in Mobile, Alabama, which constitute 2.4% of the nation’s refining capacity, are at risk of flooding and power outages, said Andrew Lipow, a Houston-based oil analyst. Any problems could take the facilities offline at a time when diesel supplies are already low. Isaias strengthened into a major hurricane Friday as it barreled toward the Gulf Coast,

where final preparations were underway for potentially life-threatening storm surges and high winds. If the storm moves through quickly and its impacts are minimal, refineries would continue to run at reduced capacity and prices for gasoline and diesel could rise just a few cents, said Carl Larry with the energy analysis firm Enverus. But if refineries such as Chevron’s shut down completely, it could take them weeks to recover and that could cause fuel prices to jump more significantly, Larry said. “Major issues, like a power shutdown, and the prices will spike immediately. It’s possible a dollar,” he said. “Those diesel prices that already are above $6 could start approaching $7.” Other experts said even if the refineries that turn oil into fuel for consumers take a hit, the gas price impacts should be minimal. “We’re talking about potentially under a million barrels a day, probably somewhere in the ballpark of 500,000 barrels a day, of refining capacity,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “That may have a small impact on gas prices, primarily in the Gulf Coast, but I don’t think it rises to a criteria that would impact gas prices nationally.”

As refineries on the coast braced for the storm, it already had caused temporary shutdowns of offshore oil wells that pump about 15% of U.S. crude. As of Friday, personnel from 129 production platforms — about a third of the facilities in the Gulf of Mexico — were evacuated, according to the federal Marine Minerals Administration. More than two-thirds of Gulf oil production was shut down as a precaution, equal to almost 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, the agency said. Chevron, BP and Shell were among companies that reported evacuating personnel and shutting platforms. The storm’s impact on oil and gas prices so far is dwarfed by the effect of the conflict in the Middle East. And once the storm passes, workers will be able to return to platforms in the Gulf and quickly resume operations, barring significant damage. “I would expect that the shut-in oil production will probably return pretty quickly within just a couple of days,” De Haan said. Prices for Brent crude, the international standard, were above $104 a barrel Friday. That price has varied between $96 and nearly $110 over the past month driven by uncertainty over the war with Iran.

Survey: Americans 75 and older are wealthiest group BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

AP economics writer

WASHINGTON — Bolstered by steady gains in the stock market, families headed by someone aged 75 or older are now America’s wealthiest, while the youngest families saw their wealth decline in the past three years, a government report released Friday said. The finding from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances underscores how robust stock market gains have made wealthier American families even richer since the survey, conducted every three years, was last completed in 2022. The median net

worth of the richest one-tenth of American families soared 31% to $3.6 million from 2022 to 2025, the survey found. The median is the midpoint between the richest and poorest families. For the oldest families aged 75 and over, median net worth jumped to nearly $505,000, up from just over $367,000 in 2022. Three years ago, families aged 65 to 74 were the richest. All the ﬁgures are adjusted for inﬂation. Average wealth for the oldest age group rose 10% to $1.96 million. The higher average, compared with the median, reflects the fact that wealthier Americans pulled up the average relative to

the median. Those aged 35 and below reported median net worth of $33,000, a drop of 23% from 2022. Overall, the survey found broad gains in income, even after adjusting for inﬂation, which slightly reduced income inequality compared with three years earlier. Higherincome families actually saw their incomes drop, likely because of declines in business income, which the Fed said can be volatile. Median family incomes rose about 7% from 2021 to 2024, the Fed said, to about $82,000. The survey measures incomes in the year prior to the periods covered by the report. The middle one-ﬁfth

of families saw the biggest income gain, while the top ﬁfth reported lower incomes. Even so, the proportion of Americans struggling with high debt payments and falling behind on their payments jumped, a sign of the toll that sharply higher inﬂation and higher interest rates have taken on lower-income Americans. In 2025, nearly 20% of U.S. families said they had been late on a loan payment in the previous year, up sharply from 12.2% in 2022. And the proportion of families dedicating 40% or more of their incomes to debt payments jumped to 8.6%, the highest in at least 12 years, the report showed.

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OPINION T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M/opinions

ANOTHER VIEW

Georgia governor race on my mind Of the 36 gubernatorial races this year, Georgia is the one to watch. It has everything: swing state politics, close polls, piles of money, historical implications — and, naturally, Donald Trump hovering over it all. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited, leaving the field to Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, 56, a former mayor of Atlanta, and Republican businessman Rick Jackson, 72, a billionaire in the healthcare services industry. If Bottoms wins, she’ll be the nation’s first Black woman governor. Tort reform was Jackson’s entry into politics. He funded an effort to overhaul Georgia’s medical malpractice laws and pushed Ron for changes to the state’s foster care system. Faucheux He’s also been a generous donor to Republican candidates and causes. Jackson is the founder and CEO of Jackson Healthcare, a company that has received nearly $1 billion in state contracts since the pandemic. His advisory board includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Georgia U.S. Rep. Tom Price. When he entered the governor’s race, Jackson proposed freezing property taxes and cutting the state income tax in half. On DEI, he says he supports “diversity” and “inclusion” but rejects the “equity” piece, calling it communism. Then there’s the money. Jackson spent $108 million — most of it his own — getting through the Republican primary and runoff. Ultimately, he defeated GOP Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was endorsed by both Trump and Kemp. Jackson has reserved another $102 million in advertising for the general election. Cheap, he’s not. Bottoms has served as a magistrate judge, Atlanta city council member and director of the county’s recreation authority. In 2018, she squeaked into the mayor’s office by less than a percentage point. In 2022, Joe Biden appointed her to replace former Louisiana U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Bottoms has had her share of reported ethics controversies, including a taxpayer-funded mailer that went partly outside her council district as well as improperly reported campaign contributions. As mayor, Bottoms refused to cooperate with ICE and would not pick up people held on immigration violations. She also tangled with both the Trump and Kemp administrations over pandemic policies. She was reportedly one of four shortlist prospects to become Biden’s running mate in 2020. Her gubernatorial platform focuses on flood mitigation and water infrastructure. She has called for a statewide pause on new data center construction, a position Jackson has attacked by pointing to her alleged support for data center tax breaks in 2018 and 2019. Jackson says he’ll only support data centers if they win local approval and comply with all EPA standards. Bottoms has gone after Jackson for promising to be “Donald Trump’s favorite governor.” Jackson’s response: “I don’t owe anybody anything.” He says he’ll stand up for Georgians. Jackson’s most powerful ad shows he wasn’t a pampered rich kid. The stark ad recounts a childhood marked by abandonment and abuse, housing projects and five foster homes. He later became a shoeshine boy and ticket scalper before starting his own company, which grew over time and created thousands of jobs. His slogan: “Winning against all odds … he’s running for governor to do the same for you.” Bottoms’ biographical ad takes a different route. It introduces voters to a fifth-generation Georgian who is the daughter of R&B singer Major Lance and a former local and federal official. Her campaign ads frequently connect Jackson to Trump. Her campaign has spent about $6 million so far and reserved another $8 million in general-election airtime. Of course, she also benefits from independent expenditures and support from outside groups such as the Democratic Governors Association. For Bottoms, voter turnout is essential, especially among Black voters statewide and suburban women around Atlanta. The Senate race is part of that equation. Georgia’s Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has a clear lead over his Republican opponent, so Democrats hope Ossoff’s campaign will pull voters to the polls to vote for him and Bottoms. The most recent polls, at press time, give Jackson an average lead of about two points. Election handicappers call the race a toss-up, although analyst Nate Silver sees it leaning toward Bottoms. Georgia should be on the minds of every election watcher between now and Nov. 3.

YOUR VIEWS

Amendments and charter questions need early coverage

A simple plan for voting? Just use common sense. In his recent letter to your paper, Josh Mayer tried to “put things in perspective” with a simple guide on how to vote this November. (“Dissatisfied with current events? Time for a change,” Sept. 29.) Here is a different simple guide. If you are angry about gas prices, remember where they were a few years ago and why they were high. The party in power shut down drilling, refineries and pipelines, and they put many out of work. Today, we’ve shut down potential nuclear destruction from fanatics calling for our death for over 47 years. Do you want to vote for the party that these fanatics are hoping will return to Congress? If you are not horrified by thugs and criminals invited into our country, maybe you should vote for the people who allowed this to occur. If you want to return to open borders and chaos, then you know who to vote for.

If you welcome people who have no desire to assimilate or to accept and respect our culture, who wave their country’s flag as they protest our laws and country, who take your tax dollars, who fill our emergency rooms, schools, public housing and government programs with no thought or means of giving back or being productive, then vote for the party that brought this here. If you want your daughters competing in sports with biological males because you are confused about what a woman is, vote for those just as confused as you. If you prefer the party with the “big tent” because they welcome anyone, crazy ideas and all, then remember the circus also has a big tent. It, too, is filled with clowns. Don’t let “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and the lunatics of the Democratic Socialists of America get in the way of common sense.

In past elections, the newspaper seemed to wait until very close to Election Day to publish endorsements, and even to explain the various amendments and questions on the ballot. Because so many citizens are now voting early either in person or by absentee ballot, I wish you would provide earlier coverage of the amendment and charter questions we’re being asked to vote on, explain the issues and publish any recommendations close to when early voting starts, so voters have time to consider and decide as informed voters. Absentee ballots are already being mailed. Especially when ballots contain a large number of amendments and changes to be considered, as is the case this time, early coverage would be much more helpful than recommendations only days before Election Day. Thank you for all the help you give to inform us voters.

JAMES BELLINA Gretna

CAROLYN PERRY New Orleans

President Trump’s words raise concern in two California cities On Oct. 5, the president of the United States said the following words while speaking at a rally, with respect to Iran: “They could take out a city,” he said. “Let them take — let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” I will abstain from explaining how those words make me feel personally, even though my adult son and daughter both live in Los Angeles. I want this newspaper’s readers to think about the ease and carelessness with which the president of the United States spoke of the total annihilation of two major U.S. cities with a combined metropolitan population of 16 million people. This ease of reckoning, this carelessness as to the consideration of

Is the NFL trying to squash our Who Dat spirit?

consequences, should be read as the overt threat that it is surely intended to be: President Donald Trump is inviting the country we, the United States of America, are at war with to nuke Los Angeles and San Diego. A madman is in charge of the nuclear codes. This is a five-alarm fire. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy is asking Jack Smith if he believes in the Easter Bunny or is holding up meme signs for the Eric Schmitt Show. It is past time for serious members of the House of Representatives to impeach Trump and for the Senate to vote to remove him from office, before it’s too late.

This year we are celebrating 60 years of agonizing over bad calls against the Saints at the most crucial times. We have seen bad calls going against the Saints in the Detroit Lions and Las Vegas Raiders games, and of course there was the classic “no call” in the Rams playoff game. It makes fans wonder why the NFL and its leadership have something against New Orleans, owner Gayle Benson and the millions of fans across the world who cheer for da Black and Gold. Is it because we are nonconforming and free-spirited and they, the NFL, are trying to rein in our spirit by slowing our momentum in games, or what?

JAMES TAYLOR Baton Rouge

SANDRA MARKS Slidell

Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana.

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T H E AC A D I A N A A DVO C AT E

T H E A DVO C AT E . C O M

S AT U R DAY, O C TO B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 6

GAMEDAY

Through pain and perseverance, LSU freshman Deuce Geralds has found joy putting quarterbacks ‘in the ground’

DIGGING DEEP T

BY JON BLAU Staff writer

here was a bounce in Deuce Geralds’ step Tuesday as he walked out of the LSU football facility and explained why he’s adopted a “gravedigger” persona. The symbolism clicked for the freshman defensive tackle during his astounding run of five sacks in his first five games. One of the 18-year-old’s favorite musical artists, NBA YoungBoy, raps about being a “grave digga.” “That’s what I do,” said Geralds, who has celebrated takedowns with stabs of his imaginary shovel. “I put quarterbacks in the ground.” He’s been doing it for years, finishing his Georgia high school career with a state-record 54 sacks. He just never celebrated them. He was a craftsman who poured untold hours into his pass-rush moves without considering how he’d move after his deed was done. Now he does. He’s joyfully celebrating sacks. He’s smiling wider than his father, Daverin, has seen in a long time. And it means much more than a freshman coming into his own. ä See LSU, page 2C

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LSU GAMEDAY LSU

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Continued from page 1C

LSU at Kentucky 6 p.m. Saturday, Kroger Field, Lexington, Ky. TV: ESPN | Line: LSU by 8½ Radio: WDGL-FM, 98.1; WWL-AM, 870; WWL-FM, 105.3; KLWB-FM, 103.7

TEAM SCHEDULES Kentucky

LSU Date Opponent 9.5 Clemson 9.12 La. Tech 9.19 at Ole Miss 9.26 Texas A&M 10.3 McNeese 10.10 at Kentucky 10.17 Mississippi State 10.24 at Auburn 11.7 Alabama 11.14 Texas 11.21 at Tennessee 11.28 at Arkansas

Time/TV W, 51-10 W, 45-14 L, 32-24 W, 35-6 W, 63-14 6 p.m./ESPN 11 a.m./TBD 11 .a.m/TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD

Date 9.5 9.12 9.19 9.26 10.3 10.10 10.17 10.24 11.7 11.14 11.21 11.28

Opponent Time/TV Youngstown State W, 45-13 Alabama L, 45-17 at Texas A&M W, 31-21 South Alabama W, 45-21 at South Carolina W, 35-34 (OT) LSU 6 p.m./ESPN at Oklahoma 6:30 p.m./SECN Vanderbilt TBD at Tennessee TBD Florida TBD at Missouri TBD Louisville TBD

DEPTH CHARTS LSU

Kentucky OFFENSE

OFFENSE

WIDE RECEIVER

6 WINSTON WATKINS 83 Corey Barber

WIDE RECEIVER

3 EUGENE WILSON 1 Jayce Brown

WIDE RECEIVER

4 JACKSON HARRIS 88 Malik Elzy

LEFT TACKLE

77 JORDAN SEATON 65 Sean Thompkins

LEFT GUARD

50 WILLIAM SATTERWHITE -or-67 Bo Bordelon

CENTER

61 BRAELIN MOORE 50 William Satterwhite

RIGHT GUARD

55 ALIOU BAH 70 Devin Harper

RIGHT TACKLE

75 WESTON DAVIS 69 Darrin Strey

TIGHT END

44 ZACH GRACE 12 Malachi Thomas

QUARTERBACK

10 SAM LEAVITT 11 Landen Clark

RUNNING BACK

13 DILIN JONES 22 Harlem Berry

WIDE RECEIVER

19 KENNY DARBY 83 Prince Jean

6-1 6-1

180 187

Fr. Fr.

6-4 6-2

208 184

Sr. So.

6-3 6-2

208 185

So. Sr.

6-6 6-5

325 328

Sr. Jr.

6-6 6-2

32 9 Sr. 329 Sr.

6-3 6-4

30 8 Sr. 310 Jr.

6-3 6-2

329 329

Sr. Sr.

6-8 6-6

329 329

Sr. Sr.

6-4 6-6

249 270

Jr. Sr.

6-2 r 6-4

211 217

Sr. Sr.

6-1 5-10

227 204

Sr. Jr.

90 MI’QUISE HUMPHREY-GRACE 6-4

271

Sr.

8 Lorenzo Cowan

205

Jr.

5-10 5-11

182 183

So. Fr.

5-11 5-11

190 175

Jr. Sr.

6-2 6-2

202 217

Jr. Jr.

7 DJ MILLER 6 Shane Carr

6-5 6-5

307 308

Jr. Jr.

53 LANCE HEARD 67 Mark Robinson

6-3 6-6

293 305

So. Sr.

6-2 6-3

301 293

Sr. So.

6-5 6-4

327 312

Sr. So.

6-6 6-7

315 314

So. Fr.

6-2 6-3

236 242

Jr. Jr.

6-2 6-0

216 195

Jr. So.

5-11 211 5-1 0 193

So. Sr.

WIDE RECEIVER

4 NIC ANDERSON 5 Ja’Kayden Ferguson

WIDE RECEIVER

LEFT TACKLE

LEFT GUARD

73 OLAUS ALINEN 57 Jordan Knox

CENTER

72 COLETON PRICE 75 Hayes Johnson

RIGHT GUARD

77 Tegra Tshabola 57 Jordan Knox

RIGHT TACKLE

71 MALACHI WOOD 73 Olaus Alinen

TIGHT END

81 WILLIE RODRIGUEZ 87 Henry Boyer

QUARTERBACK

3 KENNY MINCHEY 10 Callum Withe

RUNNING BACK

1 CJ BAXTER 26 Jason Patterson

DEFENSE

DEFENSIVE END 1 PRINCEWILL UMANMIELEN 55 Lamar Brown

6-4 6-5

244 285

Sr. Fr.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE 90 STEPHIYLAN GREEN 88 Richard Anderson 96 Dominick McKinley

6-3 6-3 6-6

296 339 297

Jr. Fr. Jr.

6-1 6-3

279 286

Fr. Jr.

6-5 6-3

246 252

Jr. Jr.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE 99 DEUCE GERALDS 47 Malik Blocton

DEFENSIVE END 29 JORDAN ROSS 97 Dylan Carpenter

LINEBACKER 42 DAVHON KEYS 35 Zach Weeks

6-0 6-3

227 228

Jr. Fr.

LINEBACKER 6 TJ DOTTERY 24 Tylen Singleton

6-2 6-1

225 227

Sr. So.

STAR 2 TY BENEFIELD 31 CJ Jimcoily

6-4

290

Sr.

6-3

278

Jr.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE 94 TAVION GADSON

6-5

303

Sr.

93 Kalen Edwards

6-4

335

So.

DEFENSIVE END 15 CEDRIC WORKS

6-4

247

So.

-or- 2 SAM GREENE

6-2

251

Sr.

LINEBACKER 22 GRANT GODFREY

6-3

240

Sr.

9 Alex Afari

6-2

227

Sr.

LINEBACKER 0 ELIJAH BARNES

6-1

244

So.

25 Tavion Wallace

6-1

241

So.

6-4 6-1

189 162

So. So.

5-11 6-0

164 188

Jr. Jr.

20 TERHYON NICHOLS

5-11

194

Jr.

6-1 6-2

175 213

Fr. Sr.

27 Isaiah McMillian

6-1

176

Fr.

5 JORDAN CASTELL

6-2

211

Sr.

6-0 6-1

206 175

Jr. Fr.

10 Dyllon Williams

6-2

191

So.

SAFETY 0 TAMARCUS COOLEY 28 Jhase Thomas

91 JADEN WILLIAMS 6 Ahmad Breaux

Sr. So.

SAFETY 28 Jhase Thomas 13 Faheem Delane

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

208 218

CORNERBACK 11 PJ WOODLAND 8 Ja’Keem Jackson

SPECIAL TEAMS

NICKEL 3 AARON GATES

6-0

199

Sr.

24 Jaden Smith

6-3

205

So.

CORNERBACK 12 HASAAN SYKES

6-0

192

Jr.

30 Grant Grayton

6-3

194

So.

CORNERBACK

SAFETY

SAFETY 14 TY BRYANT

6-0

196

Sr.

13 Cyrus Reyes

6-1

192

Jr.

KICKER 80 SCOTT STARZYK

175

So.

6-5 6-1

208 211

Jr. Fr.

6-3 6-1

213 224

So. Fr.

LONG SNAPPER

5-10

193

Sr.

KICK RETURNER

5-11 5-11

190 175

Jr. Sr.

PUNT RETURNER

LONG SNAPPER 43 SILAS HALL 39 Mack Mulhern

KICK RETURNER 22 Harlem Berry

PUNT RETURNER 3 EUGENE WILSON 1 Jayce Brown

KICKER 88 ADAM ZOUAGUI

5-11

191

Sr.

6-1

201

Sr.

6-3

237

Jr.

6-2

184

So.

6-0

181

So.

PUNTER 48 THOMAS O’HARA 47 SPENCER RADNOTI 5 JA’KAYDEN FERGUSON 12 BROCK COFFMAN

Lane Kiffin was 3-1 against Kentucky while at Ole Miss, but every margin was within seven points.

It’s hard for Deuce to remember his mom sometimes. That’s why he enjoys living in Baton Rouge again, surrounded by dozens of family members who have Colbie stories. He leaned back in a chair in an LSU football meeting room as he considered whether to tell one. He decided not to, because it might not be ﬁt for print. What he can say is that it’s a story about how his mother didn’t take “bull(crap)” from anyone. “Excuse my language,” Deuce said. “After hearing some stories about her, I can see where I got some of my, like, ferocity from.” Colbie was a competitor, playing for a statewinning basketball team at Southern Lab. She transferred to Scotlandville as a junior, which is how she met Daverin, a football player and future valedictorian. They were just friends initially, and Colbie had many. She was a “sounding board,” Daverin said, whenever someone had a problem. Their mutual issue became schoolmates who nagged them, “Why y’all don’t date each other?” When they ﬁnally did, they fell in love fast — faster than Daverin, a freshman offensive lineman at Ole Miss, and Colbie, a pre-nursing student at Southern, would have preferred. Daverin II, aka Deuce, was on the way. “It was just very uncomfortable,” Daverin said. “But we really took our time with it and decided that this is a gift from God. We wanted to embrace it, do our very best to give him the best life and just raise him in love.” Colbie was a young but dedicated mother. She’d bring Deuce everywhere, including his dad’s football games in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was handed over to be cradled by Daverin and his teammates. He was brought into football facilities as a babbling toddler, running free through locker rooms. Deuce looked up to the very big men in his life, including his grandfather, David Geralds, who played for the Houston Oilers during the Earl Campbell era. Deuce, on his own, took an interest in football legends. David would think his grandson was popping in a movie, but it’d be highlights of the “Minister of Defense” Reggie White, Vikings maniac John Randle and Bucs bad boy Warren Sapp. “We would talk about versatility, being explosive, shedding blocks,” David said. “He was a guy that really was into details and technique.” He was set on a football path. He was self-motivated. His resolve would just be tested. Colbie made Deuce breakfast on that fateful day in 2016. Daverin told both he loved them as he beat them out the door to make his 30-minute commute to Roswell, Georgia, for his job as a software engineer at General Motors. He talked with Colbie during those drives. She wasn’t feeling well, just like the day prior when she visited the doctor but was sent home with nothing more than iron tablets. Daverin wanted her to get to urgent care or an emergency room. Colbie answered, “I don’t think I can make it

Will Stein is in his first season as the Kentucky coach after serving as the Oregon offensive coordinator.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Deuce Geralds and Billette Geralds pose for a photo.

over there.” Daverin, concerned, turned his car around. Then he was startled. His son screamed, “She’s falling out, Dad!” “It tore me up just to know he was out there, trying to save his mom at 8 years old, waiting for somebody to come help,” Daverin said. “That probably changed him, which caused him to maybe be a little more serious of a kid at that age.” Deuce took seriously what his father told him at the hospital. Daverin couldn’t fathom why God allowed this. “But baby boy,” he said, “just know I got you.” The pain they were feeling now, Daverin added, “God’s gonna use that pain to help heal somebody else.”

‘Bonus’ mom In serving others, Deuce and Daverin found purpose. They continued their charity work, buying stacks of cheeseburgers from McDonald’s and handing them out to people experiencing homelessness. They collected winter coats and Thanksgiving turkeys. Deuce has offered counsel to others who have lost loved ones, including a cousin whose mother died from cancer ﬁve years ago. “It’s OK to think about it. Don’t try to just put it off and not think about it. But use it as fuel to keep going,” Deuce told his cousin. “If she was here, she’d be pushing you to keep going. So you gotta start pushing yourself.” Deuce understood that in his own case, he had no one to lean on but his father. He didn’t even want to do that. “I fed off my dad’s energy, his will to work hard every day,” Deuce said. “I’d try to take the most off his plate as I could and make sure I was on my grind and working just as hard.” They dealt with grief by staying busy. Daverin was up at 5 a.m., driving Deuce to and from football and school in Gwinnett County. They adopted a “gotta go to work” mentality before Deuce’s “bonus” mom brought those exact words into their lexicon. Billette Long, now Billette Geralds, is the daughter of Billy Long, a strength coach who worked on a Southern football staff with defensive line coach David Geralds. Billy’s mantra, “Gotta go to work,” was popularized when he linked up with the St. Louis Rams and the “Greatest Show on Turf” squad that won a Super Bowl in 1999. “The mailman,” Billy shouted, prompting a

STAFF PREDICTIONS LSU 31, KENTUCKY 21 This one is simple: Quarterback Sam Leavitt and the LSU offense have to take care of the ball versus a Kentucky squad that ranks top 50 nationally in rushing and has a veteran passer in Kenny Minchey, who has 11 touchdowns to just one interception. If the Tigers don’t hand the Wildcats extra opportunities and allow the home team to control the ball, a more talented LSU squad should win. Emphasis on “should.”

REED DARCEY

COACHES

PROVIDED PHOTO

Deuce Geralds is held by his mother Colbie Geralds in an undated photo. Colbie died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 28.

Colbie’s influence

JON BLAU

SPECIAL TEAMS

5-9

PUNTER 90 GRANT CHADWICK 99 Hayden Craig

6-3

6-3 6-3

CORNERBACK 5 DJ PICKETT 21 Michael Turner

DEFENSIVE END

Geralds grew up way too fast on June 29, 2016. His mother Colbie passed out in the driver’s seat before she could drive 8-year-old Deuce to summer camp. He sprung out of the car, knocking on neighbors’ doors in search of help. They tried CPR. She never regained consciousness. A pulmonary embolism, an undiagnosed blood clot, took the 28-year-old mother. Their young family was only months into their new life in Georgia after moving from Baton Rouge. Deuce had told family members, “Next time I come back to Baton Rouge, I’ll be at LSU.” He had a dream, which father and son were left to chase. “I could tell by the joy that he has when he’s on the ﬁeld, that’s really the only time he’s free again,” Daverin said, “and he’s not that young kid that tried to save his mom but wasn’t able to do it.” Hours upon hours of work that’s been invested into Deuce’s most reliable outlet has unleashed a 6-foot-1, 285-pound defensive tackle on blockers who are years older and should be stronger than him. They have proven no match. He’s just 2.5 sacks short of LSU’s freshman record less than halfway through his freshman year. His burdens unleashed, he is celebrating his successes. Because this is what he does. He puts quarterbacks in the ground. Now, more gleefully than ever.

LSU 30, KENTUCKY 20 The Kentucky offense is more dangerous than it was last season, but it has the worst third-down conversion rate in the country (25%). The LSU defense is built to take advantage. Princewill Umanmielen, Deuce Geralds and the rest of the defensive front need to win their one-on-one matchups and push the Wildcats behind the chains, forcing them into some long third-down tries. That’s how the Tigers win on the road.

SCOTT RABALAIS

LSU 31, KENTUCKY 23 The Tigers are statistically superior to the Wildcats in virtually every category. That includes points off turnovers (31-30), even if just slightly. Points off turnovers will decide this game. Sam Leavitt has thrown at least one interception in every contest, but LSU cannot afford to set the Wildcats up for short scoring drives off turnovers to set off a hostile crowd. Simply put, if the Tigers play the cleaner game, they win.

KOKI RILEY

LSU 28, KENTUCKY 17 Kentucky is a promising program with an exciting young coach and a surprisingly deep war chest of financial resources. But unranked teams are just 6-70 against ranked teams across college football this year, and LSU has a clear talent advantage on at least one side of the ball, probably both. I expect defensive coordinator Blake Baker to have his way against former LSU and current Kentucky offensive coordinator Joe Sloan.

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mob of players to respond each time, “… gotta go to work!” “The coaches … gotta go to work!” “D-Line … gotta go to work!” “O-Line … gotta go to work!” Billette grew up taking attendance for her dad’s teams. She became an assistant strength coach at Southern in 2010, but she’d lose her athletes’ attention when Daverin, the Ole Miss alum, came into her weight room and started his SEC-level routine. “I’m gonna take me a break and they could just do whatever Olympic press you’re doing right now, because it does look better than my workout,” Billette said with a laugh. Billette, who also moved to Georgia, reached out to Daverin when Colbie died, just to offer support. They wouldn’t reconnect for another eight or nine months. “I just said, ‘Lord, if I can take a load off of him, if I can just be there to support him and Deuce, just let me do the best that I can possibly do,’ ” said Billette, who dated and then married Daverin. They went to work as a blended family. She loved on Deuce as she could, happy to play football and buy him all the chicken wings he could ever want. Most people just assumed Billette was Deuce’s biological mom, and they were floored when they learned she wasn’t. She’s missed only one of Deuce’s sporting events since she’s been in his life because she was in a wedding. “It just shows you the type of person she is and the type of kid he is,” Daverin said. On the field, Deuce was supported in every way. He’s had his own D-line trainer, Marcus Howard, since sixth grade, shuttling among field drills, sand pits and weight rooms. Howard brought Geralds around current pros, including Charles Harris, a 2017 NFL first-round draft pick out of Missouri, when he was in middle school. He vividly remembers Geralds locked onto Harris’ every move, like he was convinced he could outperform him. “When I’m surrounded by other great players, I feel like I need to rise — and not even meet them, I want to beat them,” Geralds said. “I don’t care about age difference, where they’re at. I’ll either try to do it just as hard or even harder every single time.” He’s not just been ahead of the curve but placed himself beyond it. Geralds started attending Alabama football camps in seventh grade. That was Billette’s idea. Her favorite celebrities are Beyonce and Nick Saban. She just wrote down Collins Hill for the school because that’s eventually where he’d be. His first camp, Saban had his eyes on Deuce during 1-on-1 drills but he didn’t say anything to him. “That’s fine,” Billette said. “We’re gonna be on his mind.”

Baton Rouge return In no time, Deuce would be on a lot of coaches’ minds. As a ninth grader, he was pulled to Saban’s ofﬁce before a camp and handed a scholarship offer. Daverin’s alma mater, Ole Miss, was in hot pursuit with Lane Kifﬁn visiting Collins Hill

on a day it was closed because of snowy roads. There was one other car in the parking lot that day. LSU defensive line coach Bo Davis rolled down his window and asked Kiffin, “What’s up, dawg?” “He’s just a dynamic player that makes plays,” Kiffin said. “Obviously, the height’s not what a lot of people want. I just love who he is and how relentless that he is.” It wasn’t guaranteed Deuce would end up with the Tigers. There was ample turnover with the school’s D-Line coaches, including Davis bouncing to the Saints in 2025. Billette believes LSU and NFL alum Kyle Williams were instrumental in rebuilding a connection. Williams didn’t last either, but Kiffin became the LSU coach. He promised Geralds, a defensive tackle who still cherishes a periodic carry on offense, chances to run the ball. “I feel like I could have won a national championship anywhere I went. I was confident in myself regardless,” Geralds said. “But I feel like the place I wanted to really do it at is LSU.” The boy who departed Baton Rouge telling family members he’d return an LSU football player grew up sentimental but also exceptionally practical. It’s fair to say his life was altered by the loss of his mother. His maturation accelerated. His seriousness intensified. But he won’t exaggerate the point and say he plays for Colbie. He’s self-motivated. He plays because he loves it. He wanted to be a Tiger, but he had to balance emotion with logic. There is a reason Daverin and Billette have a succession plan for their businesses in case anything happens. Deuce, who will turn 19 this month, would inherit everything. He’s wise beyond his years. He’ll overhear Billette grumbling about an employee, and Deuce will bluntly say, “Let that person go. Just let them go, don’t even waste time.” Deuce was the only son Billette needed, but it was Deuce who told his father and bonus mom to have kids because he wanted siblings. He now has Dallas and Dakota. Denver is slated to enter the mix in January. “I said a few siblings,” Deuce told Billette, “and you just keep going.” He’s a strong, independent person, but there’s a strength in numbers Deuce feels in Baton Rouge. He had 50 family members at his first spring game in Tiger Stadium. David likes to sit at home and watch the games, replaying Deuce’s sacks during commercial breaks. The way he explodes out of a stance, the fast hands he uses to swat away blockers, it’s a beautiful thing. So are the celebrations he’s pulled out after sacks. Grandad doesn’t think it has to be seen as grave digging. It’s just Deuce saying, in his own way, he’s going to work. “He could have done it with a jackhammer, but he did it with a shovel,” David said. “It’s still going to work.” Back to work, doing exactly what he feels like he’s meant to do. “I’m just so happy for him,” David said, “that he was able to find peace out there on that field. Something to give him genuine joy.”

OFFENSIVE LEADERS LSU

Kentucky

PASSING

Player

Cmp-Att-Pct Yards TD Int

Sam Leavitt

92-139-66.2

1221

RUSHING

Player

Att

Dilin Jones Sam Leavitt Harlem Berry Stacy Gage Landen Clark Husan Longstreet

Net

94 45 27 21 19 5

Avg TD

426 220 196 166 94 35

4.5 4.9 7.3 7.9 4.9 7.0

5 6 1 2 4 0

RECEIVING Player

Rec Yards Avg TD

Winston Watkins Jackson Harris Trey’Dez Green Eugene Wilson Corey Barber Jr. Jayce Brown Phillip Wright Tre’ Brown Dilin Jones

23 15 14 19 8 8 3 3 11

354 317 222 210 98 89 70 50 48

15.4 21.1 15.9 11.1 12.3 11.1 23.3 16.7 4.4

2 2 1 0 2 0 1 0 0

PASSING

Player

Cmp-Att-Pct Yards TD Int

Kenny Minchey

Att

Net

Avg TD

68 45 20 5 5 2

361 355 126 37 17 14

5.3 7.9 6.3 7.4 5.7 7.0

CJ Baxter Jason Patterson Jovante Barnes Martels Carter Jr. Mikkel Skinner Jordan Colbert

6 3 1 0 0 0

RECEIVING Player

Rec Yards Avg TD

Kenny Darby Willie Rodriguez Nic Anderson Henry Boyer DJ Miller Mikkel Skinner CJ Baxter

25 22 9 8 5 7 7

322 194 120 116 96 91 62

12.9 8.8 13.3 14.5 19.2 13.0 8.9

3 1 1 3 0 1 0

KICKING

XPM XPA FGM FGA

Scott Starzyk

1148

RUSHING

Player

KICKING Player

97-142-68.3

Player

XPM XPA FGM FGA

Adam Zouagui

DEFENSIVE LEADERS TACKLES

Player

TJ Dottery Whit Weeks Princewill Umanmielen Ty Beneﬁeld Davhon Keys Deuce Geralds PJ Woodland Jhase Thomas DJ Pickett Jordan Ross Tamarcus Cooley Faheem Delane Tylen Singleton Dylan Carpenter Zach Weeks Malik Blocton

Tot Solo Ast Loss Sk 30 23 22 21 15 14 13 13 13 12 11 9 8 8 8 8

11 10 10 8 7 10 7 7 12 5 7 2 5 5 2 2

19 13 12 13 8 4 6 6 1 7 4 7 3 3 6 6

1 2.5 10 1 1 5 0 1 0 4.5 1 1 2 1.5 0 1

0 0 8 1 0 5 0 0 0 1.5 1 0 0 1 0 0.5

INTERCEPTIONS

Player

Tamarcus Cooley DJ Pickett

Tot Yards Avg TD BU 2 1

21 32

10.5 32.0

0 0

2 0

TACKLES

Player

Grant Godfrey Jordan Castell Ty Bryant Bo Barnes Hasaan Sykes Sam Greene Tavion Gadson M. Humphrey-Grace Terhyon Nichols Isaiah McMillian Alex Afari Jr. Jaden Williams Cyrus Reyes Lorenzo Cowan CJ Works Jaden Smith

Player

Tot Solo Ast Loss Sk 42 42 38 25 18 17 14 14 13 13 11 9 9 8 7 7

17 16 16 11 12 10 4 6 5 7 6 5 3 5 6 5

25 26 22 14 6 7 10 8 8 6 5 4 6 3 1 2

3 2 0.5 0 1 0.5 2.5 3 0.5 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

2 0 0.5 0 0 0 1.5 2.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

INTERCEPTIONS

Tot Yards Avg TD BU

Jordan Castell Antwan Smith

2 1

0 31

0.0 31.0

0 0

TEAM STATS OFFENSE PER GAME Yards gained: 547.8

OFFENSE PER GAME Yards gained: 416.8

Plays: 83.0

Plays: 65.0

PASS 310.2

RUSH 237.6

PASS 36.0

RUSH 47.0

Turnovers: 1.60

PASS 229.6

RUSH 187.2

PASS 28.8

RUSH 36.2

Turnovers: 1.00

INTERCEPTIONS 1.40

FUMBLES 0.20

INTERCEPTIONS 0.20

FUMBLES 0.80

DEFENSE PER GAME Yards allowed: 220.6

DEFENSE PER GAME Yards allowed: 376.6

PASS 162.2

PASS 232.4

RUSH 58.4

Turnovers forced: 1.60 FUMBLES 0.40

INTERCEPTIONS 1.20

SCORING PER GAME SCORED ALLOWED

RUSH 144.2

Turnovers forced: 2.00

INTERCEPTIONS 1.20

FUMBLES 0.80

SCORING PER GAME

SCORED ALLOWED

43.6 34.6

22.8

19.8

26.8

15.2 2026

2025

LSU defensive tackle Deuce Geralds, right, and defensive end Princewill Umanmielen celebrate after sacking McNeese quarterback Jake Strong during the first half on Oct. 3 at Tiger Stadium.

26.4

23.0

2026

2025

CONVERSION SUCCESS

Third down

Fourth down 20.0%

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY MATTHEW HINTON

48.1%

Fail

24.5%

51.9% 80.0% Convert

Fail

Convert

Fourth down

36.3%

75.5%

Fail

63.7% Convert

Fail

Convert

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE State Saturday’s games

Tulane (2-2) at Army (2-2), 11 a.m. Southern (2-4) at Prairie View (2-4), 3 p.m. UL (4-1) at Louisiana Tech (2-2), 6:30 p.m. Southeastern Louisiana (3-2) at UTRGV (2-3), 7 p.m.

Top 25

SOUTH

Jacksonville St. 27, Kennesaw St. 26 FIU 22, New Mexico St. 3

Thursday’s games SOUTH

Liberty 35, Sam Houston St. 3 W. Kentucky 34, Missouri St. 13

SOUTHWEST

Friday’s games

UTSA 31, South Florida 24 South Alabama 56, Arkansas St. 49

Saturday’s games

Columbia (2-1) at Marist (3-2), n

No. 8 BYU (4-0) vs. Iowa St. (3-2), n No. 20 Iowa (4-1) at Washington (3-2), n No. 1 Texas (4-0) vs. Oklahoma (2-2) at Dallas, 2:30 p.m. No. 2 Georgia (5-0) at No. 6 Alabama (5-0), 6:30 p.m. No. 3 Notre Dame (5-0) vs. Stanford (2-3), 2:30 p.m. No. 5 Ohio St. (4-1) vs. Maryland (2-3), 3:15 p.m. No. 7 Indiana (5-0) at Nebraska (5-0), 11 a.m. No. 9 Ole Miss (3-1) at Vanderbilt (3-2), 2:30 p.m. No. 10 LSU (4-1) at Kentucky (4-1), 6 p.m. No. 12 Utah (4-0) vs. Kansas (2-2), 9:15 p.m. No. 13 Oregon (3-1) vs. No. 21 UCLA (4-0), 2:30 p.m. No. 14 Missouri (4-1) vs. Texas A&M (3-2), 11 a.m. No. 15 Tennessee (4-1) at Arkansas (2-3), 3:15 p.m. No. 16 Florida (4-1) vs. South Carolina (2-3), 11:45 a.m. No. 18 Oklahoma St. (3-1) vs. UCF (3-2), 11 a.m. No. 19 Southern Cal (5-1) at Penn St. (3-2), 6:30 p.m. No. 22 Houston (4-1) at Kansas St. (3-1), 2:30 p.m. No. 23 Boise St. (4-1) at Fresno St. (4-1), 9:30 p.m. No. 25 Pittsburgh (5-0) vs. North Carolina (2-2), 11 a.m.

Nation Tuesday’s games SOUTH Troy 55, Southern Miss 34

Wednesday’s games

Friday’s games EAST SOUTH

Florida A&M 28, Alabama St. 27 Florida St. (3-2) at Louisville (2-3), n

FAR WEST

Wyoming (2-3) at San Jose St. (3-2), n Iowa (4-1) at Washington (3-2), n Washington St. (1-4) at Utah St. (1-4), n Iowa St. (3-2) at BYU (4-0), n

Saturday’s games EAST

North Carolina (2-2) at Pittsburgh (5-0), 11 a.m. Dartmouth (1-2) at Yale (2-1), 11 a.m. Tulane (2-2) at Army (2-2), 11 a.m. Bryant (4-1) at Brown (1-2), 11 a.m. Stonehill (1-4) at Sacred Heart (2-3), 11 a.m. Robert Morris (3-2) at Morgan St. (4-1), 11 a.m. Arizona (4-1) at West Virginia (3-2), 11 a.m. Princeton (2-1) at Wagner (1-4), 11 a.m. Bucknell (1-4) at Georgetown (0-4), 11:30 a.m. LIU Brooklyn (1-5) at Duquesne (1-3), noon Harvard (3-0) at Cornell (2-1), noon American International (0-0) at CCSU (1-3), noon Howard (2-3) at Penn (1-2), noon Franklin Pierce (0-1) at Delaware St. (3-3), noon

Miami (Ohio) (2-3) at UMass (4-1), 1 p.m. Richmond (5-1) at Fordham (1-5), 2:30 p.m. Tulsa (3-2) at Navy (1-3), 2:30 p.m. UConn (2-3) at Temple (2-3), 2:45 p.m. Stony Brook (3-2) at Towson (0-6), 3 p.m. Coastal Carolina (1-4) at Marshall (3-2), 6 p.m. Southern Cal (5-1) at Penn St. (3-2), 6:30 p.m.

SOUTH

Wake Forest (4-1) at NC State (3-2), 11 a.m. SC State (5-1) at Charleston Southern (2-3), 11 a.m. ETSU (4-2) at The Citadel (2-3), 11 a.m. New Hampshire (2-4) at NC A&T (1-5), 11 a.m. Davidson (2-4) at Presbyterian (2-3), 11 a.m. South Carolina (2-3) at Florida (4-1), 11:45 a.m. Rice (1-4) at East Carolina (2-2), noon William & Mary (2-4) at NC Central (2-4), noon Old Dominion (1-4) at Appalachian St. (3-1), noon Samford (1-4) at Chattanooga (3-3), noon Wofford (3-3) at Elon (4-2), 1 p.m. Va. Lynchburg (0-3) at Norfolk St. (3-3), 1 p.m. Northeastern St. (0-2) at West Florida (3-2), 1 p.m. Arkansas Baptist (0-1) at Alcorn St. (3-3), 2 p.m. W. Carolina (3-3) at Mercer (4-2), 2 p.m. E. Illinois (1-4) at Gardner-Webb (2-4), 2:30 p.m. Duke (4-0) at Georgia Tech (1-3), 2:30 p.m. UT Martin (1-4) at Tennessee St. (1-4), 2:30 p.m. Furman (2-4) at Tennessee Tech (4-1), 2:30 p.m. Jackson St. (5-0) at Grambling St. (3-2), 4 p.m. West Georgia (1-4) at E. Kentucky (1-4), 5 p.m. Tarleton St. (5-0) at Austin Peay (5-1), 6 p.m. UAB (3-2) at Memphis (4-1), 6 p.m. Bethune-Cookman (3-2) at Alabama A&M (4-2), 6 p.m. James Madison (5-0) at Georgia Southern (2-3), 6:30 p.m. Syracuse (2-2) at Virginia (3-2), 6:30 p.m. Georgia (5-0) at Alabama (5-0), 6:30 p.m.

MIDWEST

2 0

Sacramento St. (1-4) at Bowling Green (1-4), 11 a.m. Texas A&M (3-2) at Missouri (4-1), 11 a.m. Morehead St. (1-4) at Dayton (3-1), 11 a.m.

Ball St. (1-4) at Northwestern (3-1), 11:30 a.m. San Diego (2-3) at Butler (4-1), noon Youngstown St. (4-2) at Indiana St. (2-4), noon S. Illinois (3-3) at South Dakota (4-2), 1 p.m. Drake (2-3) at Valparaiso (2-3), 1 p.m. SE Missouri (2-3) at Lindenwood (Mo.) (1-3), 1 p.m. Stetson (1-4) at St. Thomas (Minn.) (4-2), 1 p.m. E. Michigan (3-3) at Akron (1-4), 2:30 p.m. Stanford (2-3) at Notre Dame (5-0), 2:30 p.m. Illinois (2-3) at Michigan St. (2-3), 2:30 p.m. Kent St. (2-3) at W. Michigan (3-2), 2:30 p.m. Buffalo (2-3) at Toledo (4-1), 2:30 p.m. Cent. Michigan (3-2) at Ohio (3-2), 2:30 p.m. North Dakota (5-1) at N. Iowa (2-2), 4 p.m. Air Force (3-1) at N. Illinois (0-4), 6:30 p.m. Minnesota (4-1) at Purdue (2-3), 7 p.m.

SOUTHWEST

MVSU (2-4) at Texas Southern (1-4), 2 p.m. Charlotte (0-5) at North Texas (3-2), 2:30 p.m. Incarnate Word (2-3) at Lamar (4-1), 3 p.m. Tennessee (4-1) at Arkansas (2-3), 3:15 p.m. Nevada (1-3) at UTEP (1-4), 6 p.m. Cent. Arkansas (2-3) at Abilene Christian (2-4), 7 p.m.

FAR WEST

Idaho (1-4) at Weber St. (3-3), 2 p.m. Virginia Tech (4-1) at California (2-3), 2:30 p.m. UCLA (4-0) at Oregon (3-1), 2:30 p.m. Utah Tech (0-6) at Portland St. (1-4), 3 p.m. Montana (5-1) at N. Arizona (4-2), 4 p.m. Cal Poly (3-3) at Idaho St. (4-1), 5 p.m. San Diego St. (2-3) at Oregon St. (3-2), 5 p.m. N. Dakota St. (5-0) at UNLV (3-2), 6 p.m. N. Colorado (2-4) at E. Washington (1-5), 6 p.m. Hawaii (1-4) at Arizona St. (2-2), 9:30 p.m. Boise St. (4-1) at Fresno St. (4-1), 9:30 p.m.

4C l Saturday, Octobber 10, 2026 l theadvocate.com l The Acadiana Advocate

THE NATION lll

THINGS TO WATCH IN WEEK 6 Who, what and where to keep an eye on in this week’s games around the nation

GEORGIA, ALABAMA SET FOR SHOWDOWN

No. 2 Georgia heads to No. 6 Alabama for a highly anticipated Southeastern Conference game on Saturday. Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton is coming off what coach Kirby Smart called Stockton’s most complete performance of the season, throwing for 295 yards and three touchdowns against Vanderbilt. Georgia has outscored its opponents by a combined 190 points this season. Alabama’s defense fared well against Stockton last year, holding him to fewer than 160 passing yards in both outings. Georgia’s defense has forced 10 turnovers through five games. The Bulldogs’ plus-6 turnover margin is the second-best in the SEC behind Alabama.

TEXAS CAN’T OVERLOOK UNRANKED OU

Coach Steve Sarkisian and Texas are going into their Red River rivalry game with Oklahoma ranked No. 1, but both teams have sputtering offenses. Sooners QB John Mateer, who threw three interceptions against Texas last year, has struggled, and they have only 37 points total their past three games. Texas quarterback Arch Manning has been inconsistent and under pressure since a big fourth-quarter comeback to beat then-No. 1 Ohio State in Week 2. OU has struggled in pass protection this season. The Sooners gave up five sacks to the Longhorns last year and edge rusher Collin Simmons had 2½. Simmons had a school record 5½ sacks against Tennessee.

NITTANY LIONS SEEK IDENTITY AHEAD OF USC

After cruising through nonconference play, Penn State (3-1, 0-2 Big Ten) has stumbled mightily in their first two conference games. The poor start coupled with conservative coaching calls in both losses have riled a loyal fan base. Penn State must establish some semblance of a rhythm and find an identity. Scoring just four touchdowns while allowing 58 points and giving up 533 rushing yards to two middling Big Ten teams isn’t it. Another reality is the piecemeal roster, as it’s taking time for the team to build chemistry. USC (5-1, 0-1) will try to extend Penn State’s losing skid on Saturday.

— Associated Press

Can’t count out UK despite LSU edge Early in LSU’s 1958 national championship season, the Tigers fended off an unheralded, pass-happy team from Abilene, Texas, called Hardin-Simmons. The score was 20-6, a relief to then-coach Paul Dietzel. “This is a good one to get behind you,” Dietzel said. “It’s always tough trying to convince anyone Hardin-Simmons has a good team.” Nearly 70 years later, a similar task faces LSU on Saturday night against the Kentucky Wildcats. Unlike its blueblood men’s basketball program, Kentucky football has never been part of Southeastern Scott Conference aristocracy. Rabalais Kentucky’s last of two SEC championships came 50 years ago. The Wildcats have never sniffed the College Football Playoff. And unlike some of the heavyweights on LSU’s schedule this year — Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, even downin-the-mouth Clemson — Kentucky is traditionally a middleweight at best. The statistics don’t bode well for the Wildcats, either. Instead, they add up to a mismatch. I scoured 21 major statistical categories (the things I stay up late at night to do for you people) and found LSU had an advantage in 17 of them. Often huge advantages. Like the fact LSU is ranked second nationally in total defense and third in total offense, while Kentucky is ranked 92nd and 53rd in those respective categories. Or that the Wildcats are dead last among 138 FBS teams in third-down offense (a 24.5% conversion rate) while LSU is ninth in third-down defense (26.1%) and 12th in third-down conversions itself (51.9%). Kentucky’s statistical edges are few, though one, turnover margin, potentially looms large in this matchup (more on that later). College football, of course, is played on a field, not a stat sheet. But emotion, swagger and momentum also count for an awful lot. That underdog spirit. Kentucky football has always had that by the bucket full. And that has made its smallish, 61,000-seat Kroger Field often seem like a pit that big favorites like No. 10-ranked LSU (-8.5 per ESPN on Thursday night) have a difficult time extricating themselves from. It’s happened many, many times for LSU over the years. Like in 1986, when quarterback Tommy Hodson got hit so hard he bit through his tongue and needed ingame stitches to complete a 25-16 win that kept the Tigers on pace for their first SEC championship since 1970. Or how about the time in 2001 LSU had to overcome not one but two Kentucky safeties to win 29-25 on Rohan Davey’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Michael Clayton with just 13 seconds left. It was a win LSU needed to stay on track for its first trip to the SEC championship game, where it knocked No. 2 Tennessee out of the national championship game. Don’t even get me started on the Bluegrass Miracle in 2002. “We’re fighters,” first-year Kentucky coach and longtime UK fan Will Stein said this week (he rushed the field in 2007 when Kentucky beat No. 1 LSU 43-37 in three overtimes). “We play really hard. “We’ve got a lot of growth to do. But we

1. TEXAS Record: 4-0, 1-0 SEC Previous ranking: 1 Last week: off This week: vs. Oklahoma in Dallas, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC) 2. ALABAMA Record: 5-0, 3-0 Previous ranking: 3 Last week: beat Mississippi State 56-23 This week: vs. Georgia, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC) 3. GEORGIA Record: 5-0, 3-0 Previous ranking: 2 Last week: beat Vanderbilt 38-14 This week: at Alabama, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC) 4. OLE MISS Record: 3-1, 1-1 Previous ranking: 5 Last week: off This week: at Vanderbilt, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) 5. LSU Record: 4-1, 1-1 Previous ranking: 6 Last week: beat McNeese State 63-14 This week: at Kentucky, 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) 6. MISSOURI Record: 4-1, 1-1 Previous ranking: 10 Last week: beat Florida 45-17 This week: vs.Texas A&M, 11 a.m. Saturday (ABC) 7. FLORIDA Record: 4-1, 2-1 Previous ranking: 4 Last week: lost to Missouri 45-17 This week: vs. South Carolina, 11:45 a.m. Saturday (SEC Network) 8. MISSISSIPPI STATE Record: 4-1, 2-1 Previous ranking: 8 Last week: lost to Alabama 56-23 This week: off 9. TENNESSEE Record: 4-1, 1-1 Previous ranking: 7 Last week: beat Auburn 24-14 This week: at Arkansas, 3:15 p.m. Saturday (SEC Network)

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY SAM CRAFT

Kentucky quarterback Kenny Minchey looks to pass against Texas A&M on Sept. 19 in College Station, Texas. The Wildcats beat the Aggies 31-21. have the right mindset and makeup.” Stein has the Wildcats off to a 4-1 start, just like LSU under Lane Kiffin, records that both include lopsided wins over preseason top 10 Texas A&M (Kentucky won 31-21 in College Station, LSU won 35-6 in Tiger Stadium). Kentucky is also coming off its largest road comeback ever, coming off the mat down 17-0 at South Carolina to win 35-34 in overtime. Yes, you can say Texas A&M isn’t any good this season. You can certainly say South Carolina coach Shane Beamer is on the road to buyout city, a firing that seems nearly inevitable. But you can’t say the Wildcats don’t believe. They may not do anything statistically great or anything to overwhelm you. They just find a way. LSU linebacker TJ Dottery at least sounded this week as though the Wildcats have the Tigers’ attention. “Great team,” he said. “I have much respect for them, how they try to run the ball and assert their dominance.” Kentucky’s success starts with turnovers. That’s how the South Carolina game turned for UK, when the Gamecocks fumbled at their 33 leading to the Wildcats’

first touchdown. That’s something LSU must avoid at all costs. If the Tigers play mistake free or at least win the turnover battle, they will beat Kentucky. That puts the focus on LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt more than ever. Leavitt said Tuesday his sore hamstring that’s bothered him the past two games is 100% A-OK going into this one. Kiffin’s rather dubious SEC availability reports seem to back him up; Leavitt’s name hasn’t been on there once this week. But Leavitt seems addicted to turnovers, throwing seven interceptions in five games, at least one per Saturday. He’s got to be more protective of the football, more like UK’s Kenny Minchey, who isn’t as talented as Leavitt but has an enviable 11-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. I think LSU will win Saturday night. The Tigers may even be helped by the weather if rain from what’s left of Hurricane Isaias pours on Kroger Field to take some of the feistiness out of UK fans. But LSU shouldn’t expect it to be easy. As soft as a trip to bluegrass country sounds, history shows it’s usually more like a bed of nails. And one that you are always glad is behind you.

TV HIGHLIGHTS 11 a.m. Texas A&M at Missouri ABC 11 a.m. Tulane at Army CBSSN 11 a.m. Wake Forest at NC State CW 11 a.m. North Carolina at Pittsburgh ESPN 11 a.m. UCF at Oklahoma St. ESPN2 11 a.m. Dartmouth at Yale ESPNU 11 a.m. Indiana at Nebraska FOX 11 a.m. Arizona at West Virginia TNT 11:30 a.m. Ball St. at Northwestern BTN 11:45 a.m. South Carolina at Florida SECN 2:30 p.m. Texas vs. Oklahoma ABC 2:30 p.m. Virginia Tech at California ACCN

SEC RATINGS BY KOKI RILEY

2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:45 p.m. 3:15 p.m. 3:15 p.m. 5 p.m. 6 p.m.

UCLA at Oregon CBS Tulsa at Navy CBSSN Ole Miss at Vanderbilt ESPN Duke at Georgia Tech ESPN2 Houston at Kansas St. FOX Illinois at Michigan St. FS1 Stanford at Notre Dame NBC UConn at Temple ESPNU Maryland at Ohio St. BTN Tennessee at Arkansas SECN San Diego St. at Oregon St. USA N. Dakota St. at UNLV CW

6 p.m. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 9:15 p.m. 9:30 p.m. 9:30 p.m.

LSU at Kentucky ESPN UAB at Memphis ESPN2 Nevada at UTEP FS1 Georgia at Alabama ABC Syracuse at Virginia ACCN Air Force at N. Illinois CBSSN J. Madison at Ga. Southern ESPNU Southern Cal at Penn St. NBC Minnesota at Purdue BTN Kansas at Utah ESPN Boise St. at Fresno St. CW Hawaii at Arizona St. FS1

10. KENTUCKY Record: 4-1, 2-1 Previous ranking: 9 Last week: beat South Carolina 35-34 in OT This week: vs. LSU, 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) 11. AUBURN Record: 3-2, 1-2 Previous ranking: 11 Last week: lost to Tennessee 24-14 This week: off 12. OKLAHOMA Record: 2-2, 0-1 Previous ranking: 12 Last week: off This week: vs.Texas in Dallas, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC) 13. TEXAS A&M Record: 3-2, 1-2 Previous ranking: 14 Last week: beat Arkansas 34-7 This week: at Missouri, 11 a.m. Saturday (ABC) 14. SOUTH CAROLINA Record: 2-3, 0-3 Previous ranking: 14 Last week: lost to Kentucky 35-34 in OT This week: at Florida, 11:45 a.m. Saturday (SEC Network) 15. VANDERBILT Record: 3-2, 0-2 Previous ranking: 13 Last week: lost to Georgia 38-14 This week: vs. Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) 16. ARKANSAS Record: 2-3, 0-2 Previous ranking: 16 Last week: lost to Texas A&M 34-7 This week: vs.Tennessee, 3:15 p.m. Saturday (SEC Network)

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S at u r d ay, O c t O b e r 10, 2026

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U L A T L O U I S I A N A T E C H • 6 : 3 0 P. M . S A T U R D A Y • E S P N +

‘RIVALRY RENEWED’

STAFF PHOTO BY BRAD KEMP

UL running back JJ Garner tries to break the tackle of Arkansas State defensive tackle Ryan Reese last Saturday at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. Garner is expected to get more carries the rest of the year after a season-ending injury to Darrell Smith.

Cajuns look to snap eight-game skid to Louisiana Tech in Bulldogs’ Sun Belt debut BY KEVIN FOOTE

MORE ON PAGE 7C

Staff writer

It sure seems like UL coach Michael Desormeaux has been around the Ragin’ Cajuns long enough to have played against Louisiana Tech. After all, Desormeaux was the quarterback for four seasons in Lafayette from 2005-08 and has been on the UL coaching staff in different capacities since 2016. And yet after the Cajuns lost a 24-20

Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston when Louisiana Tech makes its Sun Belt debut. “I personally haven’t really gotten to be n Sun Belt Conference power rankings a part of this series because unfortunaten Cajuns statistics, schedule ly it was gone for too long,” Desormeaux n Kevin Foote’s game prediction said. “The reality is that it means a lot to a lot of people. I thought we need to play heartbreaker in Ruston in 2004, the two every year home and away. It just didn’t teams didn’t play again until 2014 for make sense not to. Naturally, they joined the conference and it’s a guarantee now.” only two seasons. The Bulldogs (2-2, 0-0) own an eightThe 86th game in the rivalry is ﬁnally going to happen at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at game winning streak going back 30 years

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO BY PHIL SANDLIN

Former Bears, Saints coach ‘Iron Mike’ Ditka dies at 86 BY JIM LITKE

CHICAGO — Mike Ditka, who personiﬁed the toughness and grit of Chicago in a Hall of Fame career as a player and coach of the Bears and the leader of arguably the most dominant team in NFL history, has died. He was 86. Ditka’s family announced his death on Friday in a statement. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” the family said. “While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family. Mike will be missed be-

ä See CAJUNS, page 7C

As Brees enters Ring of Honor, who’s next?

Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is carried off the field by Steve McMichael, left, and William Perry after the Bears defeated the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX on Jan. 26, 1986, at the Superdome in New Orleans.

AP sportswriter

over the Cajuns (4-1, 1-0), who last won 37-31 in Ruston in 1996. “It’s a rivalry renewed, so we know the stakes and what a better way to do it on the road at their place,” UL redshirt junior tight end Caden Jensen said. The primary thing the Cajuns must do to end the losing streak is figure out a Tech defense that has produced 39 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and five

yond measure and remembered forever.” Ditka coached the New Orleans Saints from 1997-99. Nicknamed “Iron Mike” as a player, Ditka helped revolutionize the tight end position and in 1988 was the ﬁrst to play at the spot to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He then moved to the sideline and later took over as Chicago’s coach. His 1985 team featured one of the game’s most dominant defenses ever. It also had enough outsized personalities to record a rap video, “The Super Bowl Shufﬂe,” and back up their boasting in the championship game three months later. He was arguably the NFL’s most recognizable — and imitated — personality during his time as Chicago’s coach with his thick

but neatly groomed mustache and sweater vest with “BEARS” emblazoned across the chest. The iconic look is still mimicked by fans at Bears games decades later. That along with his ﬁery, red-faced sideline tantrums inspired the popular “Da Bears” skit on “Saturday Night Live” during the 1980s. After retiring as a coach, Ditka became a restaurateur, pitchman and TV personality, as well as a forceful advocate for improved medical and retirement benefits for former players. Ditka was tough and gruff, the quintessential Chicago Bear. He did everything from order off the menu to knock defensive backs on their butts with a growl. His adopted hometown reveled in every

ä See DITKA, page 6C

The greatest player in Saints history will take his rightful place in the Caesars Superdome rafters Sunday afternoon. In what had to be the easiest decision the organization has ever made, Brees will be inducted into the Saints’ Ring of Honor during Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. If the Saints really want to give Brees what he deserves, they eventually will erect a statue of him outside the Dome, too. But that’s a column for another day. For now, let’s Rod talk about who Walker should be the next Saints great to gain a spot in the Ring of Honor. The Ring of Honor commemorates former players, administrators and individuals with signiﬁcant contributions to the franchise. It’s a far more exclusive club than the Saints Hall of Fame. The team Hall of Fame will have 63 members after Terron Armstead and Mark Ingram go in next month. The Ring of Honor will have just nine people after No. 9 goes in Sunday. Brees will join Rickey Jackson, Archie Manning, Willie Roaf, Morten Andersen, Tom Benson, Will Smith, Sam Mills and Jahri Evans. So who should be next? Here is my list of some other Saints who deserve a spot.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY CHUCK COOK

Saints quarterback Drew Brees celebrates after throwing his sixth touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 13, 2009, in the Superdome. ä Vikings at Saints. NOON SUNDAY, FOX

Jim Mora Mora already should be up there. The Saints never finished above .500 in the franchise’s first 19 years of existence. In Year 20, Mora was hired and things began to change. He guided them to a 12-3 record in his second season, the first time they had ever reached double digits in wins. They made their first playoff appearance that season and went on to make the playoffs in

ä See WALKER, page 6C

6C ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS ä College football TV. PAGE 4C

On TV

AUTO RACING 8 a.m. Formula 1: Qualifying APPLETV noon NASCAR Cup Series: Practice TRUTV 3 p.m. NASCAR: Blue Cross NC 250 CW WOMEN’S COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL 6 p.m. Wisconsin at Nebraska FOX GOLF noon Korn Ferry Tour Championship GOLF 3 p.m. PGA Tour Champions Tour GOLF 10 p.m. PGA: Baycurrent Classic GOLF

HORSE RACING 11 a.m. America’s Day at the Races FS1 2:30 p.m. America’s Day at the Races FS2 MLB 7 p.m. Chicago White Sox at Cleveland TBS NBA PRESEASON 7 p.m. Philadelphia at Boston NBATV 9:30 p.m. San Antonio at Phoenix ESPN2

IN BRIEF

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NHL Philadelphia at Boston Toronto at Colorado MEN’S SOCCER 9 a.m. Bournemouth at Chelsea 9 a.m. Brentford FC at Aston Villa 11:30 a.m. Tottenham at Man United WOMEN’S SOCCER 1:30 p.m. U.S. vs. Spain TENNIS 11 p.m. Beijing Final noon 6 p.m.

NHLN NHLN NBCSN USA NBC TBS TENNIS

Olave good to go vs. Vikings BY LUKE JOHNSON and MATTHEW PARAS

Staff writer

After an interesting week of injury intrigue, Chris Olave will play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. That didn’t feel like a given at various points throughout the week. Olave did not participate in the New Orleans Saints’ walk-through practice Wednesday, less than 48 hours after he limped off the ﬁeld late in a blowout loss to the Atlanta Notebook Falcons. Saints coach Kellen Moore said multiple times that Olave’s absence was for a rest day and was not related to an injury. Then Olave showed up on Thursday’s injury report with a foot injury, which brought about a whole new line of questions that Moore addressed after Olave was a full participant in practice Friday. “He had a little thing come up in practice (Thursday). He got stepped on,” Moore said. Olave said the hit he took late in Monday’s loss to the Falcons left him only sore on Tuesday morning. He and the training staff made a

DITKA

Continued from page 5C minute. Revered as “Da Coach,” Ditka was the ringmaster of the 1985 Bears, one of the most dominant and perhaps the zaniest Super Bowl-winning team in league history. “When I got to Chicago in the summer of 1985, Mike Ditka and the Chicago Bears were king,” former President Barack Obama wrote on X. “Coach Ditka set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant, and fun — and the city loved him for it. I’m thinking of the Ditka family and Bears fans everywhere on the passing of a legend.” Ditka was enshrined in the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame and the Bears said during a ceremony in 2013 that his “No. 89” jersey will be the last one retired by the team. “Player. Coach. Legend,” the Bears wrote in a tribute on social media. “Mike Ditka embodied the spirit of Chicago and will be deeply missed.” Ditka was the first person enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, who had won Super Bowls as a player, assistant coach and head coach. Tom Flores, inducted in 2021, is the only other person to accomplish the feat. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Ditka “epitomized football over so many years” during his career. “He brought intensity, authenticity and an unmistakable personality to everything he did,” Goodell said in a statement. “As a Hall of Fame player, Super Bowlwinning coach with his beloved and iconic Bears, and as a broadcaster, Mike served as an ambassador for the game and inspired generations of fans. Through his

“mutual” decision to give him a rest day on Wednesday since New Orleans held a walk-through practice. “They did a good job looking out for me, to be honest,” Olave said. “I appreciate them for that.” The foot injury he suffered in Thursday’s practice left him with a bruised foot, but Olave he was feeling ﬁne by Friday afternoon. Olave has caught at least eight passes in each of the Saints’ four games this season, and he has eclipsed 100 yards in three of the four games. Olave is on pace to record 149 receptions and more than 2,000 yards receiving this season.

Brown (thigh), linebacker Jaylan Ford (ankle), cornerback Lorenzo Styles (calf) and defensive tackle Christen Miller (illness). The Saints will be without linebacker Kaden Elliss (calf), defensive end Anfernee Jennings (knee) and rookie guard Jeremiah Wright (concussion). Elliss and Jennings will miss their second straight contest, while Wright suffered his injury Thursday. The Saints must decide whether to activate Ford and Styles from injured reserve. The two suffered injuries in the preseason that have kept them out for at least the ﬁrst four weeks. Both players were full participants throughout practice this week. Kamara’s injury is different than the knee ailment that he dealt with against the Falcons. Moore said Kamara questionable Wednesday that Kamara told the Saints running back Alvin Ka- team he was experiencing “back mara is questionable for Sunday’s soreness.” The running back has only 25 game against the Vikings after the 31-year-old was limited the last two carries for 74 yards and two touchdays with a back injury. downs this season. Kamara was one of six players the Saints listed as questionable Dikta memories Friday, joining safety Julian BlackMoore has coached the Saints for mon (shoulder), wide receiver Barion more than a year. He’s been in the

league for even longer. So he laughed when asked whether he could ever imagine trading an entire draft class for one player. “Probably not these days,” Moore said. The Saints’ all-in trade for Ricky Williams still has a lasting impact 27 years later and was again remembered Friday upon news that former Saints coach Mike Ditka died. Ditka, who coached the Saints from 1997-99, was responsible for the trade that saw New Orleans send eight total draft picks — its entire 1999 class, plus two future ﬁrstround and a second-round selection — to the Washington Redskins so they could draft the Texas running back with the ﬁfth overall pick. Moore shared his memories of Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end best known for coaching the 1985 Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl victory, on Friday. “Special combination of player and coach,” Moore said. “Impact on this game is so prominent. My parents are from (the) Chicago area so obviously kind of grew up with a lot of awareness to the Bears. And just a really, really special person that means a lot to the NFL community.”

work with the Gridiron Greats As- ‘Da coach’ sistance Fund, Mike was a champion for taking care of those who Soon after his playing days, helped build our game. We extend Ditka became “Da Coach” of the our deepest condolences to Diana Bears and the Ditka family.” Ditka moved to the sideline in 1973 as an assistant to the revered ‘Iron Mike’ Tom Landry and stayed with the Ditka got his “Iron Mike” nick- Cowboys for eight years, includname during his western Pennsyl- ing winning the Super Bowl during the 1977 season, before returnvania upbringing. He was born in Carnegie, Penn- ing to a hero’s welcome in Chicago sylvania, the son of a welder who as head coach in 1982. Ditka’s return to the Bears lastchanged the family name from Dyczko. He grew up in nearby ed 10 tumultuous years, including Aliquippa — which also later pro- five straight NFC Central titles, duced fellow Pro Football Hall the Super Bowl win, a DUI convicof Famers Ty Law and Darrelle tion, a heart attack, a long-running Revis — close to the coal-mining feud with defensive coordinator and steel-manufacturing plants Buddy Ryan and, finally, a new that dotted the western part of nickname — “Da Coach.” the state, a big, talented, threeTo Hall of Fame linebacker Mike sport athlete and All-American Singletary, the seeds of what was to at Pitt whose bruising style made come were planted in Ditka’s first his first nickname, “Iron Mike,” a meeting with the team. He laid out good fit. his vision, saying Chicago would be “When our players see Mike Dit- in the Super Bowl in three years ka’s name, I want them to under- — and many of the players in the stand how he competed,” current room would not be around for it. Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi “When I first heard him when he said in a statement. “He gave ev- walked in the room, to me coach erything he had and expected the Ditka had the opportunity to be the same from the guys beside him. greatest coach of all time because That’s Pitt. he had the fire,” Singletary said at “He showed us that tough people the Bears’ 100th anniversary celefind a way through tough times bration in June 2019. “I don’t know and taught us to fight for the how George Halas coached. But I names on the front and back of can imagine that the fire and intenour jerseys.” sity and passion that coach Ditka Selected fifth overall by flinty exuded that first day set the tone Chicago owner George Halas in for exactly what he said: ‘Three the 1961 draft, Ditka went on to years from now, we’re going to be Rookie of the Year honors, mul- in the Super Bowl.’ And that was tiple Pro Bowl trips and the 1963 1982. In ‘85, we were there and it NFL championship. He and Balti- was because of that vision.” more’s John Mackey changed the tight end position and offensive Colorful bunch schemes forever. He was a batThe public beefs with Ryan tering ram of a blocker, but Ditka mirrored the behind-the-scenes was just as likely to catch a short battles that Ditka waged trying to pass and pinball through an entire contain a team bristling with outsecondary or outrace a lone safety sized personalities. on a deep touchdown throw. “It was more than a team,” Ditka He left Chicago in 1966, playing once said. “It was a team of characbriefly for Philadelphia and Dal- ters that had character that played las. for a crazy man, who let him be

crazy and had fun doing it and don’t apologize for it ever. I wouldn’t want to be one of these suits walking around on the sideline today. “I have no desire to be that. I was what I was and they were what they were and, damn, it was fun.” It wasn’t until two dozen players recorded “The Super Bowl Shufﬂe” — an audacious rap-styled video released three months ahead of the 1986 title game — that the rest of the football world wondered whether Ditka was losing his grip. His players never did. “We call him ‘Sybil’ after that girl in the movie,” quarterback Jim McMahon once said. “You know, the one that had all those personalities. Mike will be calm one minute, then throw a clipboard the next. People don’t understand that, but we do.” The Bears demolished the New England Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl, but Ditka often said he regretted having McMahon and defensive tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry run for touchdowns instead of Walter Payton, Chicago’s loyal and long-suffering running back. Ryan departed for a head coaching job in Philadelphia soon after. While the Bears continued to be a contender for most of the next ﬁve years, a 5-11 season prompted Ditka’s departure in 1992.

WALKER

Continued from page 5C four of Mora’s ﬁrst seven seasons. Saints fans no longer had to wear paper bags over their heads.

Jim Finks The former general manager spent only seven seasons in New Orleans, but Finks hired Mora and was named the NFL’s executive of the year in 1987 after that 12-win season. His work in New Orleans, along with his time as general manager of the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears, earned him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Sean Payton The winningest coach in franchise history raised the bar in New Orleans. Payton is to coaches what Brees is to players in Saints’

lore. Anyone who ever coaches the Saints will be measured against the standard Payton set. Because of what the Saints did in the PaytonBrees era, the expectations around here are different. All the wins and the Super Bowl are enough, but also throw in the fact that Payton arrived here and helped breathe life into a city that was going through a very difﬁcult time.

Mickey Loomis While Finks took the Saints out of their dark days, the franchise under Loomis reached new heights. His 20-plus years include nine playoff trips, seven division titles and the franchise’s only Super Bowl title. Hiring Payton changed the franchise. The past few years haven’t been great, but that shouldn’t overshadow the entire body of work.

Pat Swilling, Vaughan Johnson OK, so I’m cheating a little bit here with a 2-for-1 special. But all four members of the

Tenure in New Orleans After a ﬁve-year absence, he returned to coaching with the Saints, but failed to revive the franchise. His tenure with the team might be best remembered for the trade before the 1999 NFL Draft when he dealt a package of eight draft picks — including each one the Saints had that year and two of its ﬁrst three selections in 2000 — to Washington to move up from 12th overall to No. 5 so New Orleans could select running back Ricky Williams. After a miserable 1999 season ended with a 3-13 record — Ditka’s worst as either a player or coach — he left the sideline for good.

Dome Patrol should be in the ring. Jackson and Mills, both Pro Football Hall of Famers, are already up there. But the Dome Patrol was so iconic and respected around the entire NFL that all four members deserve a spot. Before Brees came along, the Dome Patrol was what the Saints were known for. So add Swilling and Johnson.

Cam Jordan The defensive end is in Year 16. Nobody in team history has played more games in a Saints uniform than Jordan. He checks all the boxes, which is why he’s on my Mount Rushmore of Saints players. Longevity. Productivity. Durability. His work in the community. He’s done it all. He’s one sack away from passing the great Lawrence Taylor and moving to No. 15 on the all-time sacks list. His place in the Ring of Honor is a nobrainer, much like the guy who’s getting his spot Sunday. Email Rod Walker at rwalker@theadvocate.com.

Eagles stars Barkley, Smith ruled out of London game

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles running back Saquon Barkley and receiver DeVonta Smith have been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London because of hamstring injuries. Barkley hurt his right hamstring early in last week’s 24-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams and didn’t practice all week. Smith also didn’t practice this week and will miss his second straight game. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was added to the injury report Friday with a calf issue though he was a full participant at practice and the team later released veteran QB Andy Dalton. Dalton’s exit means Tanner McKee and rookie Cole Payton will back up Hurts.

Knicks focus on upcoming season over negotiations

NEW YORK — The New York Knicks are focused on their NBA title defense now and will worry about contract negotiations later. That means Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart will have to wait on extensions they hoped would get done before the season. The Knicks said Friday that won’t happen, perhaps setting up an uncomfortable situation with some of their most important players. “As an organization, our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season and delivering another year for our fans to be proud of. As a result, we will not be negotiating contract extensions until later in the season and will remain solely focused on preparing for the start of the season,” according to a statement from a team spokesman.

Alabama guard Holloway begins 5-game suspension

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama guard Aden Holloway will miss three exhibition games and two regularseason games during a five-game suspension following his arrest on a drug charge, coach Nate Oats said Thursday. Holloway was arrested March 16, days before the NCAA Tournament, after authorities said they found 2.1 pounds of marijuana in his Tuscaloosa apartment. He was charged with first-degree marijuana possession and failure to affix a tax stamp. Alabama suspended him indefinitely and removed him from campus pending a student conduct investigation. He missed the Crimson Tide’s run to the Sweet 16. The charges were dismissed after he completed a pretrial diversion program.

Djokovic falls to Hurkacz in Shanghai Masters

SHANGHAI — Novak Djokovic went from triumph in Beijing to a shock in Shanghai after a straight-sets loss to Hubert Hurkacz on Friday. The 24-time Grand Slam winner was beaten 6-4, 6-3 in a secondround match that lasted 87 minutes. Earlier at the Shanghai Masters, U.S. Open runner-up Ben Shelton celebrated his 24th birthday by advancing with a victory against Daniel Altmaier and top-seeded Alexander Zverev also progressed. But Djokovic’s exit was the big story, coming after his victory in the China Open earlier this week, his 102nd career title. Hurkacz certainly has form in Shanghai, having been champion in 2023.

Mertens to face Qinwen in China Open semifinals

BEIJING — Elise Mertens beat Iga Swiatek 7-6 (0), 6-3 on Friday to book her place in the semifinals of the China Open. Mertens’ run has now seen her beat three Grand Slam winners in Beijing, following victories against Jelena Ostapenko and Coco Gauff. She took 1 hour and 50 minutes to see off six-time Grand Slam winner and No.8 seed Swiatek in straight sets. “Sometimes you just grow into a tournament,” said Mertens, who is through to her first WTA 1000 singles semifinal since 2021. Mertens next faces Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen after she put out No.6 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-6 (8). Zheng was a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Open as a qualifier.

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GAMEDAY TEAM STATS

OFFENSE PER GAME Yards gained: 378.8 PASS 179.2

RUSH 199.6

PASS 23.8

RUSH 43.0

Turnovers: 1.40 INTERCEPTIONS 0.60

FUMBLES 0.80

DEFENSE PER GAME Yards allowed: 267.2 PASS 175.8

RUSH 91.4

Turnovers forced: 2.00 INTERCEPTIONS 1.20

FUMBLES 0.80

SCORING PER GAME 29.2

26.0

19.4

SCORED ALLOWED

2026

2025

LEADERS PASSING Lunch Winfield 75.45%, 844 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs Daniel Beale 62.50%, 52 yards, INT RUSHING Lunch Winfield 69 carries, 364 yards, 5.3 avg, 7 TDs Anthony Reagan 39 carries, 160 yards, 4.1 avg, 2 TDs RECEIVING Russell Babineaux 14 catches, 116 yards, 8.3 avg, TD Caden Jensen 10 catches, 110 yards, 11.0 avg Brock Chappell 9 catches, 119 yards, 11.1 avg DEFENSE Brent Gordon 31 tackles, 5.5 for loss

SCHEDULE SEPTEMBER 5 Lamar W, 38-7 12 at USC L, 49-30 19 UAB W, 21-14 26 at Charlotte W, 34-7 OCTOBER 3 Arkansas State W, 23-20 10 at La. Tech 6:30 p.m./ESPN+ 17 Troy 4 p.m./ESPN+ 24 at Southern Miss TBD NOVEMBER 7 South Alabama TBD 12 at UL-Monroe 8 p.m./ESPN 21 Coastal Carolina TBD 28 at Georgia State TBD

PREDICTION LOUISIANA TECH 31, UL 26: The Cajuns have lost eight straight games against Louisiana Tech since last beating the Bulldogs 37-31 in 1996. Jake Delhomme never lost to Tech, but the historic rivalry has faded since then. It gets rejuvenated starting Saturday with the Bulldogs making their Sun Belt debut. One of UL’s greatest wins over Tech came 50 years ago at Cajun Field with the Cajuns overcoming a double-digit halftime deficit to win 31-26. With a 47-32-6 all-time lead in the series, Tech hopes to slow down UL’s 4-1 momentum. The Cajuns lost running back Darrell Smith for the season in last Saturday’s win, but top target Shelton Sampson should be a bigger threat against the Bulldogs. That could be critical, especially if the running game is slowed by Tech’s aggressive defense. Kevin Foote

SUN BELT STANDINGS Conf. W L JMU 2 0 Ga. State 1 0 Ga. Southern 1 0 App State 0 0 Marshall 0 1 Coastal Ca. 0 1 ODU 0 2

UL South Ala. Troy La. Tech Ark. State So. Miss. UL-Monroe

UL at LOUISIANA TECH

6:30 p.m. Saturday, Ruston TV: ESPN+ | Radio: KPEL-FM, 103.3 Line: Louisiana Tech by 3 (Over/Under: 47½)

Tech, UL battle behind JMU

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Plays: 66.8

29.2

The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● 7C

Conf. W L 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1

East PF 91 42 31 0 17 24 30

Games PA W L PF PA 37 5 0 224 66 10 4 1 197 95 24 2 3 124 119 0 3 1 139 89 45 3 2 111 175 31 1 4 124 125 88 1 4 99 162

West

Saturday’s Games

Games PF PA 23 20 52 35 55 34 0 0 20 23 34 55 35 52

W 4 3 3 2 2 1 0

L 1 2 2 2 3 4 5

PF PA 146 97 177 158 140 120 144 116 120 117 132 173 120 223

Old Dominion at Appalachian St., noon Coastal Carolina at Marshall, 6 p.m. JMU at Georgia Southern, 6:30 p.m. UL at Louisiana Tech, 6:30 p.m.

It’s already been a busy week for the Sun Belt Conference with two of three nationally televised games already played. Troy rolled past Southern Miss 55-24 on Tuesday before South Alabama found a way to win at Arkansas State 56-49 on Thursday. The next nationally televised game will be undefeated James Madison traveling to Georgia Southern at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU. While the Dukes never have won a game in Statesboro, Georgia, in six tries, new coach Billy Napier has won there with the Ragin’ Cajuns and will try to keep James Madison’s grip on the Sun Belt East race. Georgia State remains the talk of the league after demolishing Old Dominion 42-10 last week and now has a bye week to prepare for a showdown with James Madison next Saturday. Here are this week’s Sun Belt rankings.

1. James Madison Record: 5-0, 2-0 Sun Belt Last week: Defeated Marshall 4517 This week: at Georgia Southern, 6:30 p.m. ESPNU Extra points: The Dukes’ opening Sun Belt win over Old Dominion isn’t looking as impressive, but the Dukes also demolished Marshall. JMU was up 38-14 in the second and posted 573 total yards. So far the Dukes have been more dominant in the league race than last season.

STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

Louisiana Tech quarterback Blake Baker is expected to start Saturday’s game against the UL Ragin’ Cajuns in Ruston.

5. Georgia State

Record: 4-1, 1-0 Last week: Defeated Old Dominion, 42-10 This week: Open date Extra points: The Panthers combined for only four wins the previous two seasons, but they’re 4-1 this season. And Georgia State is demolishing opponents. Quarter2. Louisiana Tech back Cameran Brown was 14-of20 passing for 284 yards with six Record: 2-2, 0-0 touchdowns last week against Old Last week: Defeated Army 31-29 This week: vs. UL, 6:30 p.m. ESPN+ Dominion. The Panthers get a bye Extra points: The long-awaited Sun week before taking on the James Belt debut for the Bulldogs is Madison juggernaut. here. Louisiana Tech has played a schedule that makes it tough to 6. Appalachian State get a good read on it, but all signs Record: 3-1, 0-0 point to the Bulldogs being a top Last week: Open date contender for the West crown. This week: vs. Old Dominion, noon In last week’s win, Tech ran for ESPN+ 244 yards and gave up 270 on the Extra points: Several potential Sun ground to Army, but Army leads Belt contenders are off to disapthe nation in rushing. Tech also pointing starts. The Mountaineers threw for 259 yards. seem to be ready to replace teams like this week’s opponent Old Do3. UL minion in the Sun Belt pecking orRecord: 4-1, 1-0 der. The Monarchs are already 0-2 Last week: Defeated Arkansas in the league, and this is a great State, 23-20 opportunity for App State to put This week: at Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion away. The Moun6:30 p.m. ESPN+ taineers have been far more efﬁExtra points: The Cajuns defense cient on offense this season. lost another of its top performers last week after safety Collin Jacob 7. Marshall broke his arm. UL came through Record: 3-2, 0-1 by scoring on all four second-half Last week: Lost at James Madison, drives to beat Arkansas State. 45-17 Running back Darrell Smith was This week: vs. Coastal Carolina, also lost for the season last week, 6 p.m. ESPN+ so UL must prove it can run the Extra points: It’s hard to be overly ball effectively against Tech’s ag- critical of any team that loses to gressive 3-3 stack defense. That James Madison, but the Thunderapproach doesn’t appear to match ing Herd trailed 38-14 in the secup well with UL’s efﬁcient passing ond quarter. Quarterback Carlos game. Something’s got to give. Del Rio-Wilson was productive as usual with 221 yards passing 4. Troy and one score, but the Dukes outRecord: 3-2, 1-0 gained Marshall 310-135 on the Last game: Defeated Southern ground. The Herd won’t likely Miss 55-34 on Tuesday face another team as good as JMU Next game: at UL, 4 p.m. Oct. 17 in league play, so the opportunity Extra points: Tuesday’s road win to make a run still exists. over Southern Miss was alarming. There were 63 first downs 8. South Alabama and 1,174 total yards in the game. Record: 4-2, 2-0 The Golden Eagles passed for 391 Last game: Defeated Arkansas yards and the Trojans rushed for State on Thursday 56-49 437. It’s hard to know how well Next game: at Marshall, 6:30 p.m. the two offenses played because Oct. 20 the defenses were so poor. The Extra points: Since last weekend, bottom line is the two-time West the Jaguars have beaten ULchampion Trojans are still unbeat- Monroe 52-35 and then Arkansas State 56-49 with their backup en in Sun Belt play.

CAJUNS

Continued from page 5C interceptions in four games. “They’re unique as far as they run a 3-3 ... basically three-deep safeties with a rover down the middle,” Jensen said. “We know it’s going to be box heavy, and we know we have the opportunity to spread out the ball, especially on third down. They play a lot of man, so the emphasis is we’ve got to win our one-on-ones. “It’s going to be a physical game, but we’ve got to out-physical them. We have to stay true to our rules and we can’t beat ourselves.” The Cajuns are paced by quarterback Lunch Winﬁeld, who has completed 75.4% of his passes for

844 yards and two scores while rushing for 364 yards and seven touchdowns. UL’s expected No. 1 receiver Shelton Sampson hasn’t caught a pass yet, although he did play in last week’s win. “I want Shelton to be a part of the offense, butI don’t want him (Winﬁeld) to feel like he’s got to force throws and do things because we’re trying to get this guy the ball,” Desormeaux said. “Let it happen naturally.” Then there’s the running back situation. Darrell Smith was lost for the season last week, so UL is now down to three primary backs in Anthony Reagan (39-160, 2 TDs), JJ Garner (27-154, 2 TDs) and Steven Blanco (36-124, 3 TDs). That could mean more explosive runs by Garner thanks to more op-

SUN BELT POWER RANKINGS

Sun Belt East race. Coastal was thwarted by two lost fumbles but did get a 73-yard punt return for a score in last week’s loss to Georgia Southern. Quarterback Deuce Bailey continued to provide a spark with 228 yards and two scores passing, in addition to 58 yards rushing, but Coastal still trailed by two touchdowns midway through the fourth.

quarterback. Jared Hollins threw for 321 yards and three scores on 14-of-19 passing to beat the Warhawks, then threw just 10 passes in Thursday’s road win. Thanks to two interceptions and a 100-yard kickoff return, South Alabama found a way to win on the road de- 12. Old Dominion spite getting outgained 516-372. Record: 1-4, 0-2 Few are looking at the Jaguars as Last week: Lost at Georgia State, the team to beat in the West, but 42-10 the Jags certainly look dangerous. This week: at Appalachian State, noon ESPN+ 9. Arkansas State Extra points: The benefit of the doubt is gone for Old Dominion. Record: 2-4, 0-2 Last game: Lost to South Alabama The Monarchs aren’t just getting beat, they’re not even competing on Thursday 56-49 Next game: at Southern Miss, these days. Georgia State out6 p.m. Oct. 17 gained the Monarchs 470-146. LosExtra points: The frustration must ing quarterback Colston Joseph to be at an all-time high for the Red Wisconsin was a blow, but no one Wolves, who lost at UL 23-20 on the could have foreseen this big of a final play of the game last week- drop off. ODU punted nine times end. Then on Thursday, Arkansas against Georgia State last week State outgained South Alabama by and mustered only 11 first downs. 144 yards only to lose. The good news is transfer quarterback Trey 13. Southern Miss Owens is really picking up steam, Record: 1-4, 0-1 going 32-of-43 passing with 418 Last game: Lost at Troy on Tuesday yards and four touchdowns in 55-34 Thursday’s loss. The Red Wolves Next game: vs. Arkansas State, may be in a spoiler’s role now, but 6 p.m. Oct. 17 they still look dangerous. Extra points: Quarterback Landry Lyddy has given the Golden 10. Georgia Southern Eagles something to hang their hat on with 391 yards passing on Record: 2-3, 1-0 Last week: Defeated Coastal Caro- Tuesday, but the defense didn’t even give Southern Miss a fightlina, 31-24 This week: vs. James Madison, ing chance at Troy. The Trojans 6:30 p.m. ESPNU rushed for 437 yards and posted Extra points: The good news is the 662 total yards. It’s turning into a Eagles won their Sun Belt opener long season for the Golden Eagles. over Coastal Carolina. The bad news is league favorite James 14. UL-Monroe Madison is up next, although the Record: 0-5, 0-1 Dukes are 0-6 in Statesboro. The Last week: Lost to South Alabama, offense displayed definite strides 52-35 last week with 407 total yards beThis week: Open date. hind quarterback Max Johnson Extra points: If nothing else, the ofgoing 18-of-29 passing for 233 fense has been transformed since yards and three scores. last year’s OT loss at UL in the season finale. It wasn’t that long ago 11. Coastal Carolina the Warhawks leaned almost exRecord: 1-4, 0-1 clusively on the running game with Last week: Lost at Georgia South- Ahmad Hardy. These days, quarern, 31-24 terback Aiden Armenta is throwThis week: at Marshall, 6 p.m. ing the ball with great success. ESPN+ In the loss to South Alabama, he Extra points: This is a golden op- threw for 355 yards and two scores portunity for the Chanticleers to on 24-of-41 passing. The defense is prove they can be a factor in the the Warhawks big problem.

portunities. “He’s made huge progress since last year,” Desormeaux said of the redshirt freshman. “JJ’s got a chance to be pretty special. That’s what we’re trying to get him to see. I think a game like that (seven carries for 78 yards last week) where he comes in and he’s a spark and he creates explosive runs can build his conﬁdence.” The other huge challenge for UL will be slowing down the Tech offense without two of its top three defenders. Linebacker Conor McPherson is out for the season and safety Collin Jacob is out 4-6 weeks. The Bulldogs are expected to start quarterback Blake Baker (21-36-1, 360 yds, 4 TDs), and he’s got a top receiver in Jalen Mickens (21-342, 2 TDs) and a big tight end in Eli Finley (18-211, 2 TDs).

“They really challenge you to be disciplined and have your eyes in the right place,” defensive coordinator Jim Salgado said. “If not, you’ll end up giving up an explosive play, and you don’t want to give any freebies away.” Redshirt junior Kerry Wilson and redshirt freshman Steven Ranel may be counted on heavily to thwart the Bulldogs’ attack. “Kerry is very mature,” Salgado said. “He’s come a long way from year one to year three. He’s very smart and knows what to do. “Steven (Ranel) had a good fall since he left camp. He’s improving and getting himself ready. If he’s got to go in the game, he’ll be able to run the game plan.” Email Kevin Foote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

8C ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

lll

SCOREBOARD Prep volleyball

Episcopal 26

Pro basketball

Area volleyball results

Odds

WNBA Playoff Glance (x-if necessary) Semiﬁnals

St. Thomas More def. Lafayette Renaissance, 3-0 Barbe def. Acadiana, 3-0 Lafayette def. New Iberia, 3-0 Teurlings def. Acadiana Renaissance, 3-09 Beau Chene def. Westgate, 3-0 Carencro def. Cecilia, 3-2 Lafayette Christian def. Marksville, 3-0 Acadiana Christian def. Sacred Heart-GC, 3-1 ESA def. Notre Dame, 3-1 Teurlings def. Catholic-NI, 3-1 Acadiana Renaissance def. Delcambre, 3-0 Lafayette Renaissance def. St. Martinville, 3-0 Church Point def. North Vermilion, 3-0 Eunice def. Port Barre, 3-0 Elton def. Northwest, 3-0 Westlake def. Rayne, 3-1 Beau Chene def. Southside, 3-1 David Thibodaux def. Westgate, 3-0 Acadiana Christian def. Delcambre, 3-0 Northside Christian def. Ascension Episcopal, 3-0 Pineville def. Opelousas, 3-0 Lafayette 25-25-25, New Iberia 14-6-19 LAF: Avery Larpenteur 10 aces, 5 kills, 15 assists, 7 digs; Adeline Bobo 8 kills, 6 aces, 10 digs; Alex Beairsto 8 kills, 8 digs.

Monday’s Schedule

Carencro at Teurlings, Westgate at Cecilia, Lafayette Renaissance at David Thibodaux, Northside at Abbeville, Opelousas at Crowley, Marksville at Eunice, St. Martinville at Rayne, Houma at Catholic-NI, Loreauville at Berwick, Lafayette Christian at Beau Chene, Welsh at Notre Dame, Church Point at Opelousas Catholic, Eunice at North Vermilion, Elton at Northwest, North Central at Opelousas, DeQuincy at St. Edmund, Ascension Episcopal at Acadiana Christian.

Prep football Baton Rouge Episcopal 21, Donaldsonville 0 Beau Chene 41, Livonia 0 Broadmoor 14, McKinley 6 Brusly 54, Tara 0 Carver 50, McMain 0 Central Lafourche 39, H.L. Bourgeois 7 Central Private 46, Ben Franklin 18 Country Day 63, Houma Christian 7 Covenant Christian Academy 40, Fisher 15 Destrehan 32, Thibodaux 20 Dutchtown 44, Live Oak 18 E.D. White 42, South Terrebonne 0 East Ascension 43, Prairieville 21 East Beauregard 44, DeQuincy 20 Easton 29, Higgins 6 Ehret 21, Belle Chasse 10 Eunice 49, Ville Platte 6 Hahnville 49, Terrebonne 0 Hannan 40, Franklinton 26 Haughton 41, St. Frederick Catholic 0 Haynesville 54, Glenbrook 36 Huntington 33, C.E. Byrd 28 Independence 53, Northlake Christian 0 JS Clark Leadership Academy 22, Opelousas Catholic 0 Jennings 36, DeRidder 31 Jesuit 24, Chalmette 7 Karr 40, John Curtis Christian 28 Kentwood 50, Varnado 0 Lafayette Renaissance 51, Northside 14 Lake Charles College Prep 67, LaGrange 0 Lakeshore 41, Erath 34 Landry/Walker 55, Thomas Jefferson 12 Leesville 49, RHS 6 Lutcher 56, Berwick 7 Mansﬁeld 42, Lakeside 15 McDonogh #35 34, Abramson 13 Newman 48, Morris Jeff 0 North Webster 22, Bossier 0 Northwest 45, Mamou 21 Ponchatoula 40, Fontainebleau 21 Pope John Paul 49, Loranger 7 Rayville 66, Madison 6 Riverside Academy 49, St. Martin’s 0 Rosepine 54, Pickering 0 Salmen 28, Pearl River 21 Shreveport Northwood 58, B.T. Washington 26 Slaughter 30, Springﬁeld 14 Slidell 42, Hammond 7 South Beauregard 28, Washington-Marion 6 South Lafourche 44, Ellender 7 South Plaquemines 33, Reed 6 St. Amant 42, Walker 14 St. Augustine 48, Holy Cross 0 St. Charles Catholic 28, St. James 20 St. John 43, North Iberville 40 Sterlington 66, Loyola Prep 46 Sumner 18, Albany 8 Teurlings Catholic 49, Acadiana Renaissance Charter 14 Vandebilt Catholic 50, Patterson 0 Vermilion Catholic 25, Central Catholic 13 West Jefferson 39, East Jefferson 35 Westminster Christian (LAF) 27, Ascension

Sports Betting Line NFL

(Best-of-5)

Golden State 2, Las Vegas 0

Sunday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at JAX 1½ 7½ (42½) Phila at PITT 2½ 2½ (43½) Ind Houston 3½ 7½ (38) at TEN at NE 8½ 3½ (44½) Las Vegas at NY JETS 2½ 2½ (39½) Cleveland at WASH 2½ 4 (41½) NY Giants Chicago 3 1½ (45½) at G.B. Minnesota 1½ 2½ (41½) at N.O. Cincinnati 5½ 7 (43½) at MIAMI Denver 2½ 3½ (42½) at CHRGRS Detroit 8½ 5½ (54½) at ARIZONA at SEATTLE 3½ 3 (46½) San Fran at ATLANTA 4½ 3½ (43½) Baltimore

Monday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at LA RAMS 3 3½ (54½) Buffalo

College Football Friday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG at LOUISVILLE 7½ 3½ (60½)Florida State at UTAH STATE 1½ 3½ (43½) Washington State at SAN JOSE STATE 6 4½ (42½) Wyoming at WASHINGTON1½ 2½ (40½) Iowa at BYU 14½ 11½ (46½) Iowa State

Saturday

FAVORITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG Indiana 8½ 7½ (48½) at NBRSKA at B. GREEN 6½ 8½ (44½) Sac State at MISSOURI 1½ 3½ (49½) Texas A&M Arizona 3½ 3 (61½) at W. VA at PITTS 4½ 3½ (47½) N. Carolina at OKLAH ST 9½ 10½ (53½) UCF at ARMY 6½ 3½ (48½) Tulane Wake Forest 2½ 3½ (58½) at NC STATE at NWESTRN 34½ 35½ (52½) Ball State at FLORIDA 14½ 12½ (58½) S. Carolina at APP ST 5½ 9½ (47½) Old Dom Miami (OH) 2½ 3½ (45½) at UMASS at OHIO 3½ 3 (46½) C. Michigan E. Michigan 5½ 5½ (52½) at AKRON Virginia Tech 11½ 10 (53½) at CAL at KANSAS ST 1½ 2½ (55½) Houston Illinois 2½ 2½ (48½) at MSU at W. MICH 13½ 13½ (43½) Kent State Duke 5½ 6½ (43½) at GA TECH at N TEXAS 24½ 28½ (57½) Charlotte at OREGON 12½ 10½ (58½) UCLA Ole Miss 10½ 9½ (54½) at VANDER at TOLEDO 17½ 19½ (55½) Buffalo at NAVY 3½ 2½ (48½) Tulsa at N.D. 35½ 39½ (54½) Stanford Texas 6½ 7½ (39½) at OKLAH at TEMPLE 3 3½ (54½) UConn at E. CAR 9½ 9½ (47½) Rice Tennessee 14½ 13½ (51½) at ARKAN at OHIO ST 37½ 33½ (56½) Maryland at OREGN ST 14½ 15½ (53½) San Dego St Ndsue 1½ 3 (48½) at UNLV LSU 10½ 8½ (50½) at KNTCKY Nevada 9½ 9½ (49½) at UTEP at MEMPHIS 16½ 14½ (53½) UAB at MARSHALL 2½ 3½ (59½) C. Carolina at VIRGINIA 6½ 9½ (50½) Syracuse Air Force 12½ 7 (46½) at N. ILL at ALABAMA 2½ 1½ (51½) Georgia at LA TECH 1½ 3 (47½) Louisiana at PENN ST PK 1½ (54½) USC J. Madison 10 7½ (51½) at GA SO Minnesota 5½ 2½ (50½) at PURDUE at UTAH 13½ 15½ (51½) Kansas Boise State 10½ 6½ (48½) at FRESNO at ASU 17½ 20½ (50½) Hawaii

MLB

NHL

Saturday

FAVORITE LINE at BOSTON -138 at NEW JERSY -288 Edmonton -156 at FLORIDA -141 at COLORADO -211 at ST. LOUIS -134 Carolina -238 at OTTAWA -171 at BUFFALO -111 at MONTREAL -223 Dallas -156 Tampa Bay -171 Anaheim -128 at VEGAS -168

Sunday, October 4: Golden State 71, Las Vegas 60 Wednesday, October 7: Golden State 83, Las Vegas 81 Friday, October 9: Golden State at Las Vegas, n x-Sunday, October 11: Golden State at Las Vegas, TBA x-Wednesday, October 14: Las Vegas at Golden State, TBA

Atlanta 2, New York 0

Sunday, October 4: Atlanta 92, New York 82 Wednesday, October 7: Atlanta 101, New York 98, OT Friday, October 9: Atlanta at New York, n x-Sunday, October 11: Atlanta at New York, TBA x-Wednesday, October 14: New York at Atlanta, TBA

Pro football NFL Glance AMERICAN CONFERENCE East Buffalo New England N.Y. Jets Miami

W L T Pct PF 3 1 0 .750 127 2 2 0 .500 65 1 3 0 .250 76 0 4 0 .000 46

PA 107 77 84 101

Jacksonville Indianapolis Tennessee Houston

W 3 2 0 0

L 1 2 4 4

Pct PF .750 104 .500 102 .000 55 .000 84

PA 53 104 83 109

Cleveland Baltimore Pittsburgh Cincinnati

W 3 3 2 2

L T Pct PF 1 0 .750 81 1 0 .750 116 2 0 .500 77 2 0 .500 97

PA 95 96 87 85

W L T Pct PF 4 0 0 1.000 118 3 1 0 .750 115 2 2 0 .500 74 0 4 0 .000 67

PA 77 84 94 106

N.Y. Giants Philadelphia Dallas Washington

W 3 2 2 1

Pct PF .750 82 .500 75 .400 138 .250 88

PA 79 93 136 122

Carolina Atlanta New Orleans Tampa Bay

W L T Pct PF 2 2 0 .500 121 2 2 0 .500 96 1 3 0 .250 105 1 4 0 .200 100

PA 109 92 128 112

South

North

West

Kansas City Las Vegas Denver L.A. Chargers

T 0 0 0 0

NATIONAL CONFERENCE East

South

North

Minnesota Chicago Detroit Green Bay

West

San Francisco Seattle L.A. Rams Arizona

L 1 2 3 3

T 0 0 0 0

UNDERDOG Chi White Sox

LINE +115

UNDERDOG LINE Philadelphia +113 Vancouver +228 at SAN JOSE +127 Minnesota +116 Toronto +170 Columbus +110 at CHICAGO +189 Nashville +139 Utah -110 Detroit +179 at PITTSBURGH +127 at N.Y ISLANDERS +140 at CALGARY +105 Los Angeles +137

Late Thursday Cleveland 9, Chicago White Sox 5

Tampa Bay 0 7 17 0 — 24 Dallas 7 3 0 6 — 16 First Quarter Dal_Ja.Williams 1 run (Aubrey kick), 10:51. Second Quarter TB_Irving 5 pass from Daniels (McLaughlin kick), 14:49. Dal_FG Aubrey 41, :21. Third Quarter TB_Egbuka 14 run (McLaughlin kick), 14:00. TB_Irving 1 run (McLaughlin kick), 7:31. TB_FG McLaughlin 41, 2:58. Fourth Quarter Dal_Pickens 18 pass from Prescott (pass failed), 5:26.

A_92,351.

TB Dal First downs 24 20 Total Net Yards 419 366 Rushes-yards 39-241 13-50 Passing 178 316 Punt Returns 1-12 1-10 Kickoff Returns 3-61 5-127 Interceptions Ret. 2-1 0-0 Comp-Att-Int 19-25-0 24-42-2 Sacked-Yards Lost 1-11 0-0 Punts 4-40.75 3-45.333 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1 Penalties-Yards 14-92 7-57 Time of Possession 39:21 20:39 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING_Tampa Bay, Irving 21-165, Daniels 7-23, Gainwell 4-18, Tucker 5-18, Egbuka 1-14, Godwin 1-3. Dallas, J.Williams 12-45, Luepke 1-5. PASSING_Tampa Bay, Daniels 19-25-0-189. Dallas, Prescott 24-42-2-316. RECEIVING_Tampa Bay, Egbuka 6-38, Godwin 3-37, Otton 3-25, Gainwell 3-10, Irving 2-10, T.Johnson 1-64, Durham 1-5. Dallas, Pickens 9-130, Flournoy 3-90, Ferguson 3-19, Turpin 2-22, Mingo 2-20, J.Williams 2-17, Lamb 2-9, Schoonmaker 1-9. MISSED FIELD GOALS_None.

Major League Baseball MLB Postseason Glance DIVISION SERIES (Best-of-5) x-if necessary

American League

(TBS, TruTV, HBO Max)

Chicago White Sox 2, Cleveland 2

Saturday, Oct. 3: Chicago White Sox 3, Cleveland 0 Monday, Oct. 5: Chicago White Sox 4, Cleveland 3 Wednesday, Oct. 7: Cleveland 9, Chicago White Sox 3 Thursday, Oct. 8: Cleveland 9, Chicago White Sox 5 Saturday, Oct. 10: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland, 7:10 p.m. (TBS/TruTV/HBO Max)

Tampa Bay 3, N.Y. Yankees 0

Saturday, Oct. 3: Tampa Bay 1, N.Y. Yankees 0 Monday, Oct. 5: Tampa Bay 5, N.Y. Yankees 2 Wednesday, Oct. 7: Tampa Bay 4, N.Y. Yankees 3

National League (FOX, FS1)

T Pct PF 0 1.000 86 0 .750 112 0 .500 119 0 .500 73

PA 51 65 127 105

L.A. Dodgers 3, Atlanta 1

W L T Pct PF 4 0 0 1.000 122 3 1 0 .750 105 2 2 0 .500 85 1 3 0 .250 87

PA 64 73 83 117

Saturday, Oct. 3: Milwaukee 3, San Diego 2 Sunday, Oct. 4: Milwaukee 4, San Diego 3 Tuesday, Oct. 6: San Diego 4, Milwaukee 3 Wednesday, Oct. 7: Milwaukee 3, San Diego 1

W 4 3 2 2

L 0 1 2 2

Thursday’s Games

Saturday

American League FAVORITE LINE at CLEV -139

Late Thursday Tampa Bay 24, Dallas 16

Tampa Bay 24, Dallas 16

Sunday’s Games

Philadelphia vs Jacksonville at London, GBR, 8:30 a.m. Chicago at Green Bay, noon Cincinnati at Miami, noon Cleveland at N.Y. Jets, noon Houston at Tennessee, noon Indianapolis at Pittsburgh, noon Las Vegas at New England, noon Minnesota at New Orleans, noon N.Y. Giants at Washington, noon Denver at L.A. Chargers, 3:05 p.m. Detroit at Arizona, 3:25 p.m. San Francisco at Seattle, 3:25 p.m. Baltimore at Atlanta, 7:20 p.m. Open: Kansas City, Carolina

Monday’s Games

Buffalo at L.A. Rams, 7:15 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 3: L.A. Dodgers 5, Atlanta 3 Sunday, Oct. 4: Atlanta 3, L.A. Dodgers 2 Tuesday, Oct. 6: L.A. Dodgers 3, Atlanta 1 Wednesday, Oct. 7: L.A. Dodgers 4, Atlanta 1

Milwaukee 3, San Diego 1

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best-of-7)

National League Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Milwaukee

Sunday, Oct. 11: Game: 1 Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 7 p.m. (Fox/Fox One/Fox Deportes) Monday, Oct. 12: Game 2: Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 4 p.m. (Fox/FS1/Fox One/ Fox Deportes) Wednesday, Oct. 14: Game 3: Milwaukee at Los Angeles Dodgers, 7 p.m. (FS1/Fox One/ Fox Deportes) Thursday, Oct. 15: Game 4: Milwaukee at Los Angeles Dodgers, 8 p.m. (FS1/Fox One/Fox Deportes) x-Friday, Oct. 16: Game 5: Milwaukee at Los Angeles Dodgers, 8 p.m. (FS1/Fox One/Fox Deportes) x-Sunday, Oct. 18: Game 6: Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 7 p.m. (FS1/Fox One/ Fox Deportes) x-Monday, Oct. 19: Game 7: Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 7 p.m. (Fox/FS1/Fox

Cleveland

Chicago

ab r h bi ab r h bi Kwan cf-lf 3 2 1 0 Meidroth 2b 4 2 1 0 Ramírez 3b 5 2 2 3 Grichuk lf 2 0 0 0 DeLauter rf 4 0 1 1 Peters ph-lf 3 0 1 0 Adell dh 4 0 1 2 Vargas 3b 2 2 1 1 Lowe 1b 4 0 2 0 Murakami 1b 3 0 1 1 Martínez lf 3 1 0 0 Pham dh 0 0 0 0 Halpin cf 1 0 0 0 Antonacci ph-dh2 0 1 2 Bazzana 2b 4 1 1 1 Doyle cf 3 0 1 1 Genao 2b 1 0 0 0 Benintendi ph 1 0 0 0 Hedges c 1 0 0 0 Teel c 4 0 0 0 Bailey ph-c 3 2 2 2 B.Mntgmry rf 5 0 0 0 Rocchio ss 2 1 0 0 C.Mntgmry ss 4 1 2 0 Totals 35 9 10 9 Totals 33 5 8 5 Cleveland 000 036 000 — 9 Chicago 002 020 001 — 5 DP_Cleveland 0, Chicago 1. LOB_Cleveland 7, Chicago 12. 2B_Bazzana (2), Meidroth (2). HR_Bailey (1), Ramírez (1), Vargas (1). SB_Murakami (1), Vargas (1), Martínez (1), Adell (0), DeLauter (0). SF_Antonacci (1), Doyle (1). IP H R ER BB SO Cleveland Messick 2 1⁄3 2 2 2 4 5 Armstrong 1 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 2 1 Bibee H,1 ⁄3 0 2 2 2 1 1 Herrin BS,0-1 ⁄3 1 0 0 1 0 Sabrowski W,1-1 1 1 0 0 0 1 Gaddis 1 1⁄3 1 0 0 0 1 C.Smith 1 2 1 1 1 1 Williams 1 1 0 0 0 1 Chicago 2 H.Smith ⁄3 0 0 0 3 0 Fedde 3 2⁄3 3 2 2 1 1 2 Hicks BS,0-1 ⁄3 1 1 1 0 1 1 Kay L,0-1 BS,0-1 ⁄3 1 2 2 0 0 Taylor 0 4 4 4 2 0 Hudson 1 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 Davis 2 1 0 0 1 1 Sabrowski pitched to 3 batters in the 6th, C.Smith pitched to 2 batters in the 9th, Taylor pitched to 6 batters in the 6th. HBP_Herrin (Antonacci), Kay (Martínez). ABS Challenge_Smith (Ball-Confirmed); Armstrong (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Bibee (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Kwan (StrikeOverturned to Ball); Hudson (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Antonacci (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Gaddis (Ball-Confirmed); Williams (Ball-Confirmed). Umpires_Home, Jansen Visconti; First, Vic Carapazza; Second, Tom Hanahan; Third, Cory Blaser; Right, Todd Tichenor; Left, Gabe Morales. T_3:39. A_39,920 (40,241).

Transactions FOOTBALL National Football League DENVER BRONCOS — Signed WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey to the active roster. Placed WR Pat Bryant on injured reserve. Signed DB Ugo Amadi to the practice squad. MIAMI DOLPHINS — Claimed RB Kaytron Allen off waivers from Washington. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Activated S Brenden Schooler from the NFI list. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES — Released QB Andy Dalton. Signed C Jake Majors and RB Carson Steele to the active roster. Placed DT Uar Bernard on the practice squad injured list. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Released DL Ogbo Okoronkwo.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League LOS ANGELES KINGS — Recalled F Jared Wright from Ontario (AHL). MINNESOTA WILD — Recalled F Rieger Lorenz from Iowa (AHL). Assigned F Tyler Pitlick to Iowa. Placed F Nick Foligno on injured reserve. Recalled D Matt Kiersted from Iowa. Placed G Filip Gustavsson on long-term injured reserve. NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Loaned F Stefan Noesen to Utica (AHL). PITTSBURGH PENGUINS — Placed D Ilya Solovyov on waivers. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING — Assigned F Dominic James to Syracuse (AHL). TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS — Recalled F Miles Wood from Toronto (AHL). UTAH MAMMOTH — Placed D William Trudeau on injured reserve.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer D.C. UNITED — Recalled G Jordan Farr from his loan with Loudoun United FC (USL Championship). FC CINCINNATI — Signed midﬁelder José Martínez to a contract through the 2026 Major League Soccer season, with an option through June 2027.

Beau Chene makes history with blowout win BY MIKE COPPAGE

Contributing writer

Beau Chene made history in the District 5-4A opener at home against Livonia on Thursday. The Gators, off to a 6-0 start for the ﬁrst time, demolished Livonia 41-0 without injured starting quarterback Braydon Marks, getting three touchdowns from star running back-turned-QB Christian Wheeler and intercepting four passes. “It’s exciting,” Gators coach Buck Harris said. “Awesome ... awesome. It’s in the history books.” Wheeler rushed for 132 yards

on 20 carries with two scores and threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Tyrese Henry, who finished with 100 yards on four carries and a rushing TD. “A lot of guys stepped up and did things not normally at their position but filled in and got the job done,” said Harris, who played on the last BCHS team that went 5-0 under coach Charles Hargroder, now the defensive coordinator. Livonia (2-3, 0-1) turned the ball over on downs on its ﬁrst two possessions, with Joe Green getting a sack to halt the Wildcats’ second drive. After an incomplete pass, Henry ran for 32 yards and

Wheeler followed with a 36-yard scamper for the Gators’ first score. “It’s really great,” Wheeler said of dedicating another win to teammate Santiago Solis, who died last month. “Playing with a family and brotherhood. We’ve all come together since our freshman year.” Livonia’s next four possessions were ended by interceptions. Cayson Woods had the first pick. Tyreon Henry then intercepted LHS quarterback Chandler Aguillard and returned it 60 yards to paydirt, with Wheeler finding Woods on a two-point conversion. Malyq Mayfield and Kaden Orville also got in on the chain of turnovers.

New RB helps spark Teurlings win BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

It’s not like playing running back was a new experience for Teurlings Catholic’s E.J. Granger. After all, he had played it in freshman and junior varsity ball. And the starting linebacker also got a handful of a carries the week before. So when coach Michael Courville asked him to start at running back in Thursday’s District 4-4A opener against Acadiana Renaissance, Granger did much more than not ﬂinch. He performed like he had done it his whole life to lead the Rebels to a 49-14 victory over the Eagles at Teurlings Stadium. “I told him, it’s whatever,” Granger said when told he would move to offense. “Wherever they need me. I’ll play wherever they need, whether it’s on offense or on defense.

“He gave me the ball. He trusted me to run the ball, and I handled business.” Granger had runs of 9 and 17 yards to ignite the Rebels’ ﬁrst drive that ended with a James Benoit 2-yard run. He then scored on back-toback touchdown runs of 26 and 3 yards for a 21-7 Rebels cushion with 10:40 left in the second quarter. Granger ﬁnished with 115 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries. “We just felt good about our running back depth,” Courville said. “He’s been a starting linebacker all season. I just felt like we needed a spark. We’ve been kind of banged up at running back, and he had a phenomenal night. “We knew he was capable of that. He’s a hard runner and tough.” Senior quarterback DJ Kelly also had a night to remember. In just his third start after being declared

eligible two weeks ago, Kelly led the Rebels offense on seven consecutive touchdown runs to open the game. During that process, Kelly was 11-of-14 passing for 181 yards and also ran it 10 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. “Me and the new quarterback, we played in middle school together,” Granger said. “We won the championship right here in middle school. He was always my quarterback. We always had a big connection, so it’s going to be like that the rest of the year.” Kelly certainly displayed his potential in Thursday’s performance. “He showed tonight that he’s comfortable,” Courville said. “He feels better. He threw the ball great, and then he really uses his legs in big moments. I’m really proud of how he played.”

“The defense has really turned it up this year, and the offense capitalized,” Harris said. A 13-yard Wheeler run gave the Gators a 28-0 halftime lead after Livonia missed a 40-yard field goal with one second left. In the third quarter, Cameron Simmons blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown by Kendrick Chavis. “I mean, the guys have just been rolling,” Harris said. “We’re feeling good, confident. Hopefully we’ll get some guys back injurywise for next week (against Cecilia).” Marks, the senior quarterback, won’t be one of those cleared next

week, although Phillips hopes to have him back before the regular season ends. Aguillard completed 17 of 40 passes for 175 yards, connecting with his brother C.J. on eight passes for 100 yards. The Wildcats had little success running the ball. Cameron Johnson rushed for 23 yards on seven carries. Aguillard was held to minus-12 yards on six carries. A hyped-up Harris was prepared to go without sleep after the historic win, which was also his ﬁrst district victory as coach. “I’m going to break down the ﬁlm and get ready for tomorrow,” he said.

YEARS

11 teams. 6 conferences. 1 state.

TODAY•10AM & 10:30AM and also streaming at www.lpb.org/gamenotes

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LIVING

T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M

Terry Robinson FAITH MATTERS

BR church celebrates Armenian faith, culture with event The doors of St. Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church in Baton Rouge will swing open on Sunday for more than a worship service. The church, 6208 Florida Blvd., welcomes the community from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 11 for its Feast of the Holy Translators to celebrate Armenian faith, culture, food and traditions. “The purpose of the festival is to introduce the Armenian community to Kaltakdjian the locals and also to non-Armenians and to let them know that we are here in Baton Rouge and Louisiana,” said Vasken Kaltakdjian, chairman of the church’s governing parish council. “We’re going to have our church doors open for everyone who would like to come in, visit and look at the church.” Considered one of the most beloved celebrations in the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Feast of the Holy Translators commemorates the special group of ﬁfth-century scholars and church leaders who gave the Armenian people their alphabet and translated the Holy Scriptures. Kaltakdjian, 67, said the festival will feature cultural exhibits, music and tours with clergy and historians. “There’s not necessarily going to be a service,” Kaltakdjian said. “The clergy is going to explain what our Armenian church is, where we come from and what’s the history behind it — and why the day is dedicated to the Feast of the Holy Translators.” For Kaltakdjian, such celebrations are important for keeping the church and heritage alive for future generations. He is a native of Damascus, Syria, who has resided in Baton Rouge for 48 years. “Every celebration in our church means a lot,” he said. “It gives us life, it gives us hope, and it gives us a lot of love. That’s what we pass along to our children and our family.” One way heritage is passed along is through traditional Armenian cuisine, including shish kebab, dolma, lahmajoun and baklava. Kaltakdjian knows more than a little about Armenian food. His family immigrated to the United States in 1978. His father, Serop Kaltakdjian, opened the original Serop’s sandwich shop in Baton Rouge.

S at u r d ay, O c t O b e r 10, 2026

9cN

VIEW FOR A GOOD MEAL

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK

Diners enjoy the rooftop patio for an early dinner at Tsunami in downtown Baton Rouge.

As October gives way to more temperate climes, consider dining outdoors around BR Staff report

ous lunch and dinner options like sandwiches, soups, salads and shareable boards. The sleeper hit has the unimaginative name “Protein Plate,” — don’t let the name discourage. It hits the spot. The market in the front of the restaurant includes grab-and-go meals, wine and gifts.

Barracuda Taco Stand

n 2504 Government St.

This New Orleans-born taco stand seats diners outside with shady spots equipped with fans to cool off over modern Mexican fare. Chicken, pork, beef, crispy fish, mushroom and broccoli tacos are the main attraction here, but don’t sleep on the bowls, packed with beans, pickled onions, rice, cabbage, cotija cheese, cilantro and a protein of choice. Don’t forget the happy hour nachos, margaritas, tacos and beer, which is every weekday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Bin 77

n 10111 Perkins Rowe, Studio 160

Located in Perkins Rowe, Bin 77 is a wine bar and restaurant with an enjoyable patio that often hosts live music. Bin 77 received the “Award of Excellence” from Wine Spectator in 2025 — a recognition that requires restaurants to offer at least 90 wine selections, feature an assortment of quality producers and match the wines to the menu in price and style. Some of our favorite items on the menu are the chicken club sandwich, baked brie,

Brasserie Byronz

n 515 Mouton Street

This “Frenchie-American” spot offers dishes like chicken paillard, crawﬁsh and grits, pot roast bourguignon and steak haché. Plus, PROVIDED PHOTO FROM INSTAGRAM it has a wonderfully shaded patio BLDG 5’s menu has a selection of that doesn’t get a lot of street noise. boards, often including limited-time It also serves sandwiches, burgers, salads, sides, appetizers and desspecials, like the chef’s board for sert — and has a great bar.

two, pictured.

parmesan chive trufﬂe fries and lobster ravioli. One perk for the patio: It doesn’t get a lot of street noise and offers a lot of shade.

The Chimes

n 3357 Highland Road

This is a Baton Rouge icon. The Chimes is the stuff of LSU legend. It’s a taproom/restaurant serving seafood platters, po-boys, sandwiches, burgers and more. A cultn 2805 Kalurah St. favorite dish is the spinach and arThe eatery, marketplace, patio tichoke dip appetizer that’s served and bar have a rustic and laid-back with fried bowtie pasta chips to interior with attention to detail in ä See OUTDOORS, page 10C every corner. Diners enjoy vari-

BLDG 5

ä See MATTERS, page 10C

Food Bank debuts mobile grocery store to serve areas in need Kyra Muse, nutrition services manager at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and program director for Groceries on the Geaux, speaks at the launch on Sept. 28. STAFF PHOTO BY JOY HOLDEN

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Kyra Muse was three weeks into her job as the nutrition services manager at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank when she was assigned as the program director for a mobile grocery store project. She said she felt overwhelmed with the large task, but she put her whole effort into it. Now, that project has come to life with the introduction of the food bank’s “Groceries on the

Geaux” initiative, a 22-foot truck that will expand grocery store access in the city by providing fresh and affordable food. On Sept. 28, food bank employees, leadership and board members gathered to celebrate the launch of the mobile store. “This mobile market will travel into communities throughout our service area, particularly communities where access to fresh food is limited,” said Liz Pfifer, president and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank who has been with the

nonprofit for 11 months. “Inside, our neighbors will have something that is extremely important to us: choice.” To start, Groceries on the Geaux will debut in Modeste in Ascension Parish this month, but it will eventually serve all 11 parishes in the Greater Baton Rouge area, including Livingston and West Feliciana parishes. The goal is to bring affordable and nutritious food — fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy

ä See GROCERIES, page 10C

10C ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Salon customer feels excluded by language

FILE PHOTO

A sprawling oak tree anchors the patio courtyard of SoLou on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge.

OUTDOORS

Continued from page 9C dip. The outdoor dining upstairs offers views all the way to the Mississippi and the state capitol.

Cocha

n 445 N. 6th St.

The outdoor dining options are tables along the sidewalk in front of the downtown restaurant — but it’s an enjoyable spot with great service. Cocha prides itself on its locally sourced ingredients and globally inspired menu. The restaurant offers vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options. Highlights on the menu include roasted vegetable lasagna, slow-roasted pork and Venezuelan Corn Cake. If you’re up for trying something bold, order the grilled Spanish octopus, which features grilled chorizo bilbao, white bean puree, olives, celery, lemon, arugula, white beans, ﬁngerling potatoes and Calabrian chili vinaigrette.

Court to Table

n 7477 Burbank Drive, Studio B

Cool weather complements pickleball any day, particularly when there’s a table of smoked brisket, loaded cheese fries and mozzarella sticks to celebrate a good game. Court to Table opened its Baton Rouge location in June 2025, bringing a big menu that can cure many cravings — think pizza, tacos, burgers, soups, salads and shareables such as spinach and artichoke dip. It’s a great spot to eat and enjoy the outdoors, even if you’re not playing pickleball.

Curbside Burgers

n 4158 Government St.

What once started as a food truck, Curbside Burgers is now a popular spot in Mid City that serves creative burger creations. Try the “Big Brett Burger” with pork belly preserves, blue cheese sauce and fried onion strings or the “K.G.B.” with

GROCERIES

Continued from page 9C products, frozen proteins, shelf-stable foods and cooking essentials at discounted prices — closer to communities with limited access to full-service grocery stores. The truck has refrigerated sections for proteins and dairy and metal shelving for dry goods, canned goods and fruit. “A primary goal of the program is to increase food access,” Muse said. “We’ll partner with local organizations, our own pantry partners, community centers, parks and other trusted community locations to establish reoccurring market sites.”

MATTERS

Continued from page 9C The younger Kaltakdjian continues to operate Serop’s, upholding the family recipes of Greek and Lebanese food, along with highquality service. “I inherited it from my father and from my uncles,” Kaltakdjian said.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY JACK BARLOW

Curbside’s John Denver burger is a delightful combination of Hatch chiles, bacon, two patties and lots of cheese. praline bacon, a fried egg and sharp cheddar cheese. The outdoor courtyard at Curbside includes a pergola system, televisions, extra seating and sun shades.

DiGiulio Brothers Italian Cafe

is satisfying, too. There are over 50 beers on tap, the popular Chelsea’s grilled cheese and spicy tomato soup and a fantastic barbecue pork sandwich on the menu. Every Thursday night, enjoy $8 classic martinis.

Miss Manners is not sugDear Miss Manners: I have been going to a nail salon gesting a “gotcha” moment twice a month for two where you go on the attack, years. The owner trying to prove that and staff are all these employees Vietnamese. My are berating their manicurist gives customers. But a wonderful manifew polite phrases pedis, and I have no in their language complaints about would serve to warn Judith the service. the manicurists that Martin their conversations At some point MISS during each apmay not be private. MANNERS Or you could simpointment, and sometimes several ply acknowledge times while I am there, that people can talk among the owner and some emthemselves, without eavesployees will have a condroppers assuming ill will. Dear Miss Manners: My versation in Vietnamese. husband and I have been This happens in front of godparents to the lovely me and other customers. daughter of very good They sometimes laugh afterward, especially after friends. She is about to turn 18. someone leaves the salon. For her entire life, we I believe they are making comments about their cus- have been attentive. We have attended baptisms, tomers. communions, school perI understand they may feel comfortable in their formances and graduanative language. Unfortions. We have faithfully given birthday and Christtunately, this is not the ﬁrst salon where I have mas gifts. encountered this. I feel so Never once have we reawkward when it happens, ceived any recognition or a but I’m really uncomfortthank-you note. I am wondering how to able bringing it up. gently cut the cord. I do What is the best way to not want to be mean, and handle this? Do I need to change salons? If I were to my wish is not to comment say something, what would on her manners. I am lookyou suggest? Can I express ing for a phrase that we how awkward this feels? I can include with the ﬁnal would like to remain a cus- gift. Something along the lines of, “Now that you are tomer there. Gentle reader: Learn how to an adult, you don’t need us anymore.” speak Vietnamese.

Pedro’s Tacos & Tequila Bar Feel the cool fall breeze

FROM STAFF REPORTS

n 7655 Andrea Drive

Enjoy a margarita and live music at Pedro’s off Siegen Lane. Some of our favorite menu items include the beef quesadilla, taco soup, chile relleno and carne asada. The restaurant also serves several vegetarian options.

SoLou

n 2112 Perkins Palm Ave.

On one of the prettiest patios in Baton Rouge, diners can enjoy Louisiana comn 3109 Perkins Road fort food with a twist, along The rooftop patio at this with craft cocktails. Some of Tex-Mex restaurant is a cozy the signature dishes are the sight, especially when dark shrimp corn dogs, crabmeat falls and the string lights illu- cheesecake and tabletopminate the space. The menu roasted s’mores. Brunch is features tacos, salads, chips served every day until 3 p.m. and dips, fajitas and recently, the viral soft serve margaritas in flavors of espresso n 100 Lafayette St. martini, cinnaswirl, lemon blueberry and more. Located at the top of the Shaw Center of the Arts, Tsunami Sushi can be hard to find on the first visit, but n 3808 Government St. the view of the Mississippi The open-air, dog-friendly River from the 4,000-squarepatio with lush greenery is foot terrace is worth it. The enough of a reason to visit restaurant is known for its Mid City Beer Garden, but specialty rolls and terraceit’s a good thing that the food side cocktail service.

Luna Cocina

Tsunami

Mid City Beer Garden

CF Industries out of Donaldsonville partnered with Mitsui & Co and JERA to provide a $1.797 million donation from Blue Point Number One, which has made the grocery truck possible. The money will cover costs associated with operating the mobile market for three years. Jackie McCreary, the community relations manager for CF Industries and one of Feeding Louisiana’s Hunger Action Ambassador for 2026, attended the launch with representatives from Blue Point Number One. “We believe that being a good neighbor means investing in the places where our employees live and work at CF Industries,” said McCreary, who was integral in the grant process. “Our

mission is to provide clean energy to feed and fuel the world sustainably. Feeding the world is about supporting communities and helping ensure that local families have access to nutritious food.” “Groceries on the Geaux” will be a certiﬁed SNAP retailer and accept cash, credit or debit as well. “There’s been an enormous amount of work behind what you see here today: months of work, months of lots of meetings, planning, logistics, operations, communications, coordination and countless details to bring us to where we are today,” Pﬁfer said in her closing remarks.

The roots of Louisiana’s Armenian community date back to the mid-1970s, when Armenians from Syria and Lebanon started settling in the area. St. Garabed draws members from south Louisiana to Shreveport and Mississippi. St. Garabed members leased other churches before purchasing its own building about 25 years ago. “Being a small community,

we cannot afford to have a full-time clergy. Therefore, we have once-a-month services, and our clergy is usually visiting priests,” Kaltakdjian said. The diocese in New York provides priests from cities such as New York, Dallas, Boston and Chicago.

Email Joy Holden at joy. holden@theadvocate.com.

Contact Terry Robinson at terryrobinson622@gmail. com.

Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners. com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail. com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

RELIGION BRIEFS

n 2903 Perkins Road

while sipping a glass of red wine under the stars at this Italian restaurant. It’s like something out of “Lady and the Tramp.” The outdoor patio area was renovated in September 2025 to add mahogany French doors, red umbrellas and greenery. The doors can be propped open on days with beautiful weather, and the sunroom area also has air conditioning units and TVs.

Do you have any thoughtful phrases that will let the relationship disengage? Gentle reader: The phrase you are seeking exists, but you would be better not to express it. Allow Miss Manners to explain. You want to — but quite rightly know you cannot — say, “You are a rude little girl and you should have acknowledged all those birthday and holiday gifts. Well, here’s the last one you will get from us. Good riddance.” So instead, you are looking for something that ends the obligation without being mean or critical. Any announcement that does that will, by its very lack of information, imply things you do not mean. A curt “goodbye” is alarming, and if you soften it by talking about not seeing her as much, it will sound like you are feeling neglected and self-pitying. Would it not be far easier to cross her birthday off your calendar and go on about your business?

Unitarian Church to host QUUeer Fête

The Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge, 8470 Goodwood Blvd., will host two events Friday-Saturday, Oct. 16-17, as part of its third annual QUUeer Fête weekend. The Rev. Sean Neil-Barron will present “Queer Encounters and the Practice of Flirtatious Hope” from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16. The QF+ event will explore the ways queer and trans people have found and Barron built connections with one another and what those experiences can reveal about belonging and the sacred. Admission is free, and a reception will follow. QUUeer Fête will run from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. The familyfriendly and alcohol-free

event will feature music by New Orleans singer-songwriter Joy Clark and The Gais Do-Do Band, along with spoken word, community resources and food. Tickets begin at $15, with children 12 and under free, and are available at www. unitarianbr.org/QF.

Chabad offers Kabbalah course Chabad at LSU & Greater Baton Rouge will offer “Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of You,” a six-part course led by Rabbi Peretz Kazen, beginning Oct. 19 and continuing through Nov. 23. The course will explore kabbalistic ideas including the soul, reincarnation, soulmates, dreams, names, human psychology and other concepts from Jewish mysticism. No previous knowledge of Kabbalah or Hebrew is required, and the course is open to the public. In-person classes will be held from 11 a.m. to

12:30 p.m. Mondays at the Main Library at Goodwood in Baton Rouge, with an online Zoom option from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Registration is $109, including a full-color textbook, with limited scholarships available upon request. For information or registration, call (225) 2677048 or visit ChabadBR. com/JLI.

Installation at St. Luke Baptist St. Luke Baptist Church, 240 Van Buren St., Baton Rouge, will hold a special installation service for the Rev. Gerald Boatner at 11 a.m. Sunday. Boatner The guest speaker will be the Rev. Henry J. Brown, pastor of First Emmanuel and Star of Bethlehem Baptist churches.

TODAY IN HISTORY By The Associated Press Today is Saturday, Oct. 10, the 283rd day of 2026. There are 82 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, resigned his ofﬁce and pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion. President Richard Nixon later tapped congressman Gerald Ford to replace Agnew. Nixon resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal and Ford succeeded him. Also on this date: In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Maryland, with an inaugural class of 50 students. In 1911, Chinese revolutionaries launched an uprising that led to the collapse of the Qing (or Manchu) Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. In 1935, the George Gershwin opera “Porgy and Bess,” featuring an all-Black cast, opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 124 performances. In 1964, the Summer Olympics began in Tokyo,

the ﬁrst Summer Games to be telecast around the world. In 1966, the Beach Boys’ single “Good Vibrations,” written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, was released by Capitol Records. In 2001, a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. jets stepped up bombing of the Afghan capital of Kabul while President George W. Bush unveiled a list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. In 2014, Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Pakistani girl, and Kailash Satyarthi, a 60-year-old Indian man, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for risking their lives for the right of children to receive an education and to live free from abuse. In 2018, Michael, the ﬁrst Category 5 hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in 26 years, barreled onto the Florida Panhandle with 160 mph winds, causing widespread devastation and billions of dollars in losses. In 2023, Israel continued to rapidly mass troops and tanks near the Gaza Strip as part of a rapidly expanding counteroffensive against Hamas militants who had stormed into

Israel three days earlier, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Today’s birthdays: Actor Peter Coyote is 85. Entertainer Ben Vereen is 80. Actor Charles Dance is 80. Author Nora Roberts is 76. Rock singer David Lee Roth is 72. Country singer Tanya Tucker is 68. Actor Julia Sweeney is 67. Actor Bradley Whitford is 67. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is 59. Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre is 57. Actor/ TV host Mario Lopez is 53. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 52. Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger is 52. Singersongwriter Mýa is 47. Actor Dan Stevens is 44. NBA player Josh Giddey is 24. Actor Thomas Kuc is 24.

HOME-DELIVERED

EVERY DAY

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zodIAC LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Distance yourself from people using pressure tactics to entice you into something dubious. Be adamant regarding what you will and won't do, and turn your focus on more productive pastimes. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Sit back and observe. Refuse to let anyone goad you into a debate or push you into something you don't want to do. Focus inward on how you can look and do your best. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Get out, mingle and entertain, and you'll connect with someone of interest. Put more thought into investments, staying fit and making your living space more accommodating. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Stick close to those you know and trust. Don't engage in costly ventures or let temptation set in and overindulgence take over. Gather information and verify facts. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) When one door closes, another opens. Put a plan and a budget in place, and attend events that offer insight into new possibilities and friendships. Avoid health or financial risks. PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Staying on top of what's possible and budgeting for what you want will save you from making a hasty decision that can put you in debt or harm's way. Take time to rest. ARIES (March 21-April 19) Be true to yourself. Follow your dreams, and take responsibility for how your life unfolds. Choose to mix business with

pleasure by selecting a path that makes you feel alive. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Avoid letting stubbornness get in your way. Look at situations, assess how you feel and distance yourself from what disturbs you. Arguing with someone who will never agree with you is a waste of time. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Get ready to take flight. Whether it's a small change or a big one, embrace life with gusto and enjoy the ride. Fill your day with people and projects that make you feel good about life. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Emotional havoc will be present. Don't assume anything. When in doubt, ask direct questions, show concern and be honest with those you are dealing with. Don't jeopardize your reputation. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Keep life simple, stick to the truth and be a good influence for others. Domestic problems will arise if compromise isn't made. Try to see both sides of whatever situation you face. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Reach out with a kind word or gesture. How you treat others will set standards and boundaries with those you encounter. A job offer won't fulfill your needs. Get what you want in writing before you commit. The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

For better or For WorSe WonderWord

peAnUtS

SALLY Forth

beetLe bAILeY CeLebrItY CIpher Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

TODAy'S CLUE: X EQUALS O

Mother GooSe And GrIMM

SherMAn’S LAGoon FAMILY CIrCUS

dooneSbUrY

12C ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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Sudoku InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday. Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

BaBY BLueS

BLondie

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The Acadiana Advocate ● theadvocate.com ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● 13C

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Bridge BY PHILLIP ALDER David Letterman said, “Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.” There are other cities like that. In colorful Cairo, no one seemed to stop for a red light unless either other cars were crossing the junction or a police officer was standing there. Bridge defense signals are often only suggestions to partner, but sometimes are strict guidelines. In this deal, how should East and West play to defeat four spades after West leads a low heart in answer to his partner’s lead-directing double? North’s four-heart response was a Texas transfer. It guaranteed at least a six-card spade suit and either gameonly or slam-going values. Yes, here North would have done better to respond three no-trump, but that might have backfired. When playing third hand high, East is supposed to put up the bottom of touching honors first — but not when he has ace-king-doubleton. Then, he takes the first trick with the ace and cashes the king, high-low with a doubleton. And if he can get West back on lead, East can receive a heart ruff to defeat the contract. But which minor should East lead at trick three? West must give East a suit-preference signal. If West’s entry is in the lowerranking of the other two side suits, he

garfield

Pearls Before swiNe

hagar the horriBle

plays his lowest heart at trick two. Here, though, because his entry is in the higherranking side suit, West drops his highest heart, the jack. Then East will know to shift to a diamond at trick three. West will take that trick and give his partner a heart ruff for down one. Signal as clearly as possible. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

wuzzles Each Wuzzle is a word riddle which creates a disguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD = GOOD AFTERNOON

PiCKles

Previous answers:

mallard fillmore

word game InsTRucTIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 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 are not allowed.

ToDAY’s WoRD — WALLABIEs: WAHL-uh-bees: Small or medium-sized kangaroos.

Bizarro

marmaduKe

Average mark 37 words Time limit 60 minutes Can you find 50 or more words in WALLABIES? YEsTERDAY’s WoRD — GARRIson gain gnar grain grin groan groin argon arson ragi rain rang

rani raring rigor ring roan roar roaring rosin inro iron sang

sari sarin sarong sign sing snag soar soaring sonar song organ

osar noir nori

loCKhorNs hidato Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

today’s thought “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11

Jesus can give us joy that the world cannot give us. — G.E. Dean

14C ● Saturday, October 10, 2026 ● theadvocate.com ● The Acadiana Advocate

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