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Tag: Louisiana

  • Florida or LSU? Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin’s coaching decision will be revealed after the Egg Bowl

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    OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin will announce his next move — likely Florida or LSU — after the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.

    Athletic director Keith Carter released a statement Friday saying a decision on Kiffin’s future is expected Nov. 29, the day after the fifth-ranked Rebels play their in-state rival.

    It could be an agonizing wait for the Tigers, the Gators and the Rebels, although most outsiders believe Kiffin staying in Oxford for a seventh season is a long shot.

    “Coach Kiffin and I have had many pointed and positive conversations regarding his future at Ole Miss, including meeting (Friday) with Chancellor (Glenn) Boyce,” Carter said. “While we discuss next steps, we know we cannot lose sight of what is most important — our … team is poised to finish the regular season in historic fashion.”

    Carter said Kiffin remains focused, and the announcement timeline ensures the Rebels’ players and coaches “can concentrate fully on next Friday’s game.”

    “This team is on the cusp of an unprecedented season, and it’s imperative they feel the support of the Ole Miss family in the week ahead,” he said.

    Behind Kiffin’s next landing spot, the second-biggest question is whether Kiffin would stick around — or be allowed to stay — to coach Ole Miss through a potential College Football Playoff berth.

    The Rebels’ current standing in the CFP rankings has them poised to host a first-round game if they beat the Bulldogs. The selection committee, however, would be working within its guidelines if it factored the disruption of a coaching change into a team’s final seeding.

    Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference, No. 6 CFP) does not play this weekend. The bye allowed Kiffin to meet with Florida and LSU officials.

    The Gators fired Billy Napier in mid-October and set their sights on Kiffin. LSU fired Brian Kelly a week later, creating a tug-of-war over a 50-year-old coach who is considered one of the top offensive minds in the game.

    Kiffin’s family members took scouting trips to Gainesville and Baton Rouge, and he met with administrators and fundraisers on several occasions. He even reportedly sat down with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who publicly slammed former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward for giving Kelly a 10-year contract worth about $100 million in 2022.

    Will he stay at the place he called “utopia” and turned into a perennial winner with his ex-wife and kids nearby? Will he move back to Florida, where his father became one of the most respected defensive coordinators in NFL history? Or will he land at LSU, where three of its last four coaches won national championships.

    Kiffin politely declined to talk about job openings this week. He sidestepped several questions about ongoing overtures from Florida, LSU and Ole Miss.

    “I’m going to stay on what I’ve done for six years, which isn’t talking about other jobs and that situation,” said Kiffin, who denied reports Tuesday that Ole Miss had given him an ultimatum. “I love it here, and it’s been amazing. And we’re in the season — the greatest run in the history of Ole Miss at this point (and) having never been at this point.

    “So I think it’s really exciting. … I’m just living in the moment — it’s amazing — and our players are, too. I see their joy about practice, season, where they’re at and have so much on the line. It’s just awesome to be a part of.”

    ___

    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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  • Louisiana dad says “it’s disturbing” after deepfake images of his daughter allegedly shared

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    A Louisiana dad spoke out after explicit deepfake images of his 13-year-old daughter and others were allegedly shared, saying, “It’s disturbing. Those pictures are horrible. They’re extremely explicit, and they look real. You cannot tell the difference.”

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  • Louisiana inmate threw chemical substance at police officer in daring prison escape, officials say

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    An inmate in Louisiana was recaptured overnight Friday, two days after he allegedly threw a chemical substance at a police officer’s face in a daring prison escape.

    Cecil Michael Stratton, 46, escaped from the Berwick Police Department jail on Wednesday while “jailers were securing inmates during lockdown procedures,” the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Thursday.

    The sheriff’s department said a “brief struggle” broke out between Stratton and the officers and a chemical substance was allegedly thrown into the officer’s face. This allowed Stratton and another inmate, 22-year-old Brandon Brunet, to escape. 

    Officials said Brunet was recaptured a short time after the daring escape.

    Stratton, who the sheriff’s department said was known to have violent tendencies and had previously escaped from a prison in North Louisiana, evaded police until he was recaptured overnight, in Morgan City, officials said.

    The sheriff’s department said in a statement Saturday morning that Stratton was arrested after the Morgan City Police Department received a complaint that he was seen inside a residence in Morgan City. Eventually, Stratton was located lying on the ground in a boat at a business in Morgan City and taken into custody overnight Friday.

    “The teamwork between agencies and the relentless man-hours invested into locating and apprehending Cecil Stratton have paid off,” St. Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell said in a statement. “I would like to thank the men and women of all the agencies involved for the teamwork they have displayed over the past three days.”

    Stratton and Brunet are facing charges of disarming a police officer, battery on a police officer, aggravated battery, aggravated escape and unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure. Bail for Brunet was set at $500,000.

    The sheriff’s department said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges are expected.

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  • Naturalized US citizens thought they were safe. Trump’s immigration policies are shaking that belief

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    NEW YORK (AP) — When he first came to the United States after escaping civil war in Sierra Leone and spending almost a decade in a refugee camp, Dauda Sesay had no idea he could become a citizen. But he was told that if he followed the rules and stayed out of trouble, after some years he could apply. As a U.S. citizen, he would have protection.

    It’s what made him decide to apply: the premise — and the promise — that when he became a naturalized American citizen, it would create a bond between him and his new home. He would have rights as well as responsibilities, like voting, that, as he was making a commitment to the country, the country was making one to him.

    “When I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance, I did believe that moment the promise that I belonged,” said Sesay, 48, who first arrived in Louisiana more than 15 years ago and now works as an advocate for refugees and their integration into American society.

    But in recent months, as President Donald Trump reshapes immigration and the country’s relationship with immigrants, that belief has been shaken for Sesay and other naturalized citizens. There’s now fear that the push to drastically increase deportations and shift who can claim America as home, through things like trying to end birthright citizenship, is having a ripple effect.

    Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.


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    What they thought was the bedrock protection of naturalization now feels more like quicksand.

    Illinois State Police stand guard as people including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

    Illinois State Police stand guard as people including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

    What happens if they leave?

    Some are worried that if they leave the country, they will have difficulties when trying to return, fearful because of accounts of naturalized citizens being questioned or detained by U.S. border agents. They wonder: Do they need to lock down their phones to protect their privacy? Others are hesitant about moving around within the country, after stories like that of a U.S. citizen accused of being here illegally and detained even after his mother produced his birth certificate.

    There has been no evidence of an uptick in denaturalizations so far in this Trump administration. Yet that hasn’t assuaged some. Sesay said he doesn’t travel domestically anymore without his passport, despite having a REAL ID with its federally mandated, stringent identity requirements.

    Immigration enforcement roundups, often conducted by masked, unidentifiable federal agents in places including Chicago and New York City, have at times included American citizens in their dragnets. One U.S. citizen who says he was detained by immigration agents twice has filed a federal lawsuit.

    Adding to the worries, the Justice Department issued a memo this summer saying it would ramp up efforts to denaturalize immigrants who’ve committed crimes or are deemed to present a national security risk. At one point during the summer, Trump threatened the citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, who naturalized as a young adult.

    The atmosphere makes some worried to speak about it publicly, for fear of drawing negative attention to themselves. Requests for comment through several community organizations and other connections found no takers willing to go on the record other than Sesay.

    In New Mexico, state Sen. Cindy Nava says she’s familiar with the fear, having grown up undocumented before getting DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protected people brought to the U.S. as children from being deported — and gaining citizenship through her marriage. But she hadn’t expected to see so much fear among naturalized citizens.

    “I had never seen those folks be afraid … now the folks that I know that were not afraid before, now they are uncertain of what their status holds in terms of a safety net for them,” Nava said.

    What citizenship has meant, and who was included, has expanded and contracted over the course of American history, said Stephen Kantrowitz, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said while the word “citizen” is in the original Constitution, it is not defined.

    “When the Constitution is written, nobody knows what citizenship means,” he said. “It’s a term of art, it comes out of the French revolutionary tradition. It sort of suggests an equality of the members of a political community, and it has some implications for the right to be a member of that political community. But it is … so undefined.”

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)

    American immigration and its obstacles

    The first naturalization law passed in 1790 by the new country’s Congress said citizenship was for any “free white person” of good character. Those of African descent or nativity were added as a specific category to federal immigration law after the ravages of the Civil War in the 19th century, which was also when the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to establish birthright citizenship.

    In the last years of the 19th century and into the 20th century, laws were put on the books limiting immigration and, by extension, naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1924 effectively barred people from Asia because they were ineligible for naturalization, being neither white nor Black. That didn’t change until 1952, when an immigration law removed racial restrictions on who could be naturalized. The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act replaced the previous immigration system with one that portioned out visas equally among nations.

    American history also includes times when those who had citizenship had it taken away, like after the 1923 Supreme Court ruling in U.S. vs. Bhagat Singh Thind. That ruling said that Indians couldn’t be naturalized because they did not qualify as white and led to several dozen denaturalizations. At other times, it was ignored, as in World War II, when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps.

    “Political power will sometimes simply decide that a group of people, or a person or a family isn’t entitled to citizenship,” Kantrowitz said.

    In this moment, Sesay says, it feels like betrayal.

    “The United States of America — that’s what I took that oath of allegiance, that’s what I make commitment to,” Sesay said. “Now, inside my home country, and I’m seeing a shift. … Honestly, that is not the America I believe in when I put my hand over my heart.”

    ___

    This story has been corrected to reflect that Dauda Sesay is 48 years old, not 44.

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  • Federal Oversight of Special Education in New Orleans Could Soon End

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    A decade of court oversight of special education services in New Orleans public schools, the result of a legal settlement, will most likely cease by the end of the year, the judge presiding over the legal settlement said Wednesday.

    The decision, if it comes to pass, would come at the request of the Louisiana Department of Education and the Orleans Parish School Board, which have been subjected to intensive monitoring under a consent decree since 2015. The agreement settled a 2010 class-action lawsuit that alleged the city’s charter schools discriminated against special education students in their application processes and did not provide them appropriate educational services, as federal law requires.

    The case was brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of parents and guardians of special-needs students in New Orleans schools. Though problems with special education continue to be identified at some New Orleans charter schools, the consent decree was intended to address systemic issues — whether the state and district are catching those issues and implementing plans to correct them — not individual students’ experiences, said U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey.

    For the past eight years, an independent monitor assigned by the court has found the defendants — the Department of Education and OPSB — in substantial compliance with all provisions outlined in consent decree. Citing those findings, the state and school board earlier this year formally requested an end to the agreement.

    The plaintiffs oppose terminating the settlement, arguing that the state and NOLA Public Schools district have not created sufficient monitoring, oversight or complaint systems. Their opposition hinges on a 2024 report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor that found faults in the state’s monitoring of special education programs — most districts self-reported their compliance with federal rules dictating education plans, without on-site monitoring. (However, some of those problems resulted from the fact that much of the state’s monitoring capacity has been directed toward New Orleans schools, possibly as a result of the consent decree, according to the audit report.) The audit also noted that the agency reduced the number of workers dedicated to special education between 2012 and 2019.

    Lauren Winkler, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said her team has asked the district to make it easier for parents to bring issues about schools forward to the central office through creating an open complaint system on their website. That was never implemented.

    “(There are) really simple solutions that are not super costly,” Winkler said. “We tried to meet with them to agree to some and they just wouldn’t.”

    Winkler said noncompliance still exists in the schools. More people contacted the SPLC about their negative experiences with New Orleans schools’ special education programs ahead of this week’s hearing.

    “If we didn’t have any parents coming forward with issues, we’d maybe have a different position,” Winkler said. “With the breadth of issues in the amount of people that came to us, as we’ve been preparing for this, I think that’s indicative of the systemic issues that are still here.”

    But in a court filing last week, Zainey wrote that the court anticipates ending federal oversight by the end of the year.

    “The consent judgement was a temporary measure and was never meant to be a permanent fixture of the school system,” Zainey said in court. “Things have been much improved from how they used to be in Orleans Parish.”

    Zainey invited parents to share their experiences with the court and representatives from the LDOE and Orleans Parish School Board during informal hearings on Nov. 12 and 13. Most parents asked the court to continue the federal monitoring of New Orleans schools, but it’s unclear whether their statements will change Zainey’s plans. Zainey encouraged the state’s ombudsman, who connects families with resources and informs them of their rights in relation to special education, to connect with parents following their statements.

    But most of the parents speaking at the informal hearing were those who had already tried, and were still trying, to seek recourse through communication with district or state officials.

    Grace Thompson spoke in front of the judge Wednesday morning about her son’s experience at Audubon Gentilly. According to Thompson, her son was supposed to receive speech therapy and a one-on-one aide to help in class, but never received them. Thompson said she’s tried to seek help through the district’s accountability office, which, she said, has offered little guidance and has been “slow” and “inconsistent” in its communications.

    “I’ve literally been calling them for the last year and a half,” Thompson told the judge. “They know who I am.”

    Steve Corbett, CEO of Audubon Schools, said Audubon Gentilly has provided students with all necessary services and has been found fully compliant with federal special education law. The most recent state special education monitoring report found “no unresolved areas of noncompliance” at the school.

    Other parents also spoke of slow communication with the district and the schools their children attend. They said their children weren’t receiving the services outlined in their individualized education plans, that their learning has regressed, that schools were slow in performing evaluations and reevaluations, and that oversight was only afforded to children with parents that could be there to actively fight for them.

    District Superintendent Fateama Fulmore and state representatives were present at the hearing. In response to hearing parent concerns, Fulmore said she appreciated the opportunity to hear from them directly and that her team will follow up.

    “We have an obligation to every child in this system to get this right,” Fulmore said. “We are doing better.”

    Lyric Lee, a former student at Morris Jeff Community School who had an IEP and graduated last year, said she learned at a young age how to advocate for herself, her brother and other students who have special needs. She said the consent decree should continue.

    “I’ve learned when people are not kept on a watch, they feel like they don’t have to do it, and they’ll do everything possible to make sure they don’t have to,” Lee said.

    This story was originally published by Verite News and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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  • Family of student expelled after confronting teen over deepfake nude image plans lawsuit

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    Family of student expelled after confronting teen over deepfake nude image plans lawsuit – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    A Louisiana family plans to file a federal lawsuit against their school district in a case involving a deepfake pornographic image. CBS News national reporter Kati Weis has the details.

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  • Brickbat: Jailhouse Rot

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    The Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office fired Danny C. Taylor, a deputy who worked in the Caddo Correctional Center. Officials said Taylor told one inmate to walk into another inmate’s cell and beat him up. Security video showed Taylor watching the attack without trying to stop it. Taylor now faces one count of second-degree battery and one count of malfeasance in office.

    The post Brickbat: Jailhouse Rot appeared first on Reason.com.

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  • What to know about Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s intervention in LSU football

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    Gov. Jeff Landry is being applauded by some for taking a stand against bloated contracts in college sports and derided by others for political grandstanding that could make it harder for Louisiana State University to land a new football coach.This much is clear: The governor has been a vocal force in a sports shakeup that has consumed LSU recently.Video above: LSU interim coach Frank Wilson focused on ‘this moment’ in the wake of Brian Kelly’s firingThe university lost its football coach and athletic director last week amid criticism from Landry, a smooth-talking Cajun populist and staunch ally of President Donald Trump.The episode is just the latest example of Landry being hands on with LSU since taking office last year. He once revived the team’s tradition of bringing a live tiger onto the football field, publicly called for the school to discipline professors who criticized Trump in class and complained about LSU women’s basketball players not being on court to stand for the national anthem, though the team did not change its pre-game routine.Here’s what to know:What did Landry say?LSU football coach Brian Kelly was fired in the fourth season of a 10-year, $100 million deal, the day after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M on Oct. 25.The day of Kelly’s firing, Landry said he hosted a meeting in the governor’s mansion on the evening of Oct. 26 “to discuss the legalities of the contract.” Landry has said he is concerned his state will be on the hook to pay for Kelly’s buyout, which is about $54 million.John Carmouche, chair of the LSU’s Board of Supervisors’ Athletic Committee, told the AP that the meeting at the governor’s mansion occurred after Kelly had already been fired by athletic director Scott Woodward.While the governor’s concerns are valid, negotiations with Kelly are ongoing and private donors and nonprofits have typically picked up the bill for sports-related buyouts at the university, Carmouche added.Days after Kelly’s firing, Landry told reporters at a Wednesday press conference that LSU’s athletic director would not be selecting the next football coach.“Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it,” said Landry. He also criticized Woodward’s prior tenure at Texas A&M, where he served as the school’s athletic director.The next day, LSU cut ties with Woodward.In a Thursday statement, Woodward said that “others can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as Director of Athletics, but I will not.”Board chairman Scott Ballard framed Woodward’s departure as the result of “a mutual agreement after conversations” between Woodward and the LSU board. Nine of 18 Board of Supervisors members have been appointed by Landry since taking office in January 2024 and the governor will be able to appoint four more in 2026.Carmouche, who, like Ballard, was appointed to the LSU board by Landry, denied that the governor’s remarks had any influence on Woodward’s departure.“We’re all independent people,” Carmouche said.What’s next for LSU footballIn a Friday press conference, LSU interim athletic director Verge Ausberry, flanked by Ballard and Carmouche, sought to reassure the public that the school’s athletic department “is not broken.”A search committee comprised of Ausberry, Carmouche, Ballard and several others is on the hunt for a new coach. The university board is scheduled to vote on a new president Tuesday, having been without one since June.Landry has denied that he will be picking the next coach, but said he wants the new contract to be structured differently than Kelly’s.“We’re going to put metrics on it, because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill,” Landry told reporters.What others are saying“The Louisiana governor and the LSU board has damaged the reputation of our university,” political pundit James Carville, a Democrat, told the AP. Carville has said he plans to burn his LSU diploma and football gear and is mulling a defamation lawsuit against Landry on Woodward’s behalf.Carville hosted a welcome party for Woodward, a former political consultant and lobbyist, when he was hired by LSU in 2019. Under Woodward, LSU won six national championships in various sports, including football.Former Louisiana Board of Regents Chair Richard Lipsey, who founded the influential Tiger Athletic Foundation and recommended Woodward’s hiring, said that Landry’s comments about Woodward revealed that he “wanted more control over LSU” and “wants to run the athletics department.”Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment.Ed Orgeron, the former LSU football coach who led the team to a national title in 2019, said that it’s not unusual for a Louisiana governor to take an active interest in the university’s football program. Landry’s predecessor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, hosted dinners for the university’s freshmen recruiting class and showed up at practice to throw passes with LSU receivers.Current Louisiana Board of Regents Chair Misti Cordell, a Landry appointee, said that the governor’s comments sparked constructive public discussion about the need for greater guardrails to protect public universities amid ballooning costs in college sports: “He said what a lot of people were thinking.”Rep. Dixon Wallace McMakin, an LSU graduate who serves as the football team’s announcer, said that Louisiana governors have regularly sought to influence the Tigers dating back a century to the days of firebrand populist Huey Long and are sensitive to poor performance on the gridiron.“It affects everybody and a governor feels it from all of his voters around the state,” said McMakin, a Republican. “Our standard is excellence, and anything less than excellence we will not stand for in the state of Louisiana.”Wilbert Pryor, who has served on the Louisiana Board of Regents for nearly a decade, said Landry’s perceived influence over the LSU athletics program would complicate the hiring process for a new coach reluctant to have the governor looking over his shoulder.“I don’t remember any governor in my lifetime making decisions on college football,” Pryor said. “You’d think he would have other things to garner his attention.”

    BATON ROUGE, La. —

    Gov. Jeff Landry is being applauded by some for taking a stand against bloated contracts in college sports and derided by others for political grandstanding that could make it harder for Louisiana State University to land a new football coach.

    This much is clear: The governor has been a vocal force in a sports shakeup that has consumed LSU recently.

    Video above: LSU interim coach Frank Wilson focused on ‘this moment’ in the wake of Brian Kelly’s firing

    The university lost its football coach and athletic director last week amid criticism from Landry, a smooth-talking Cajun populist and staunch ally of President Donald Trump.

    The episode is just the latest example of Landry being hands on with LSU since taking office last year. He once revived the team’s tradition of bringing a live tiger onto the football field, publicly called for the school to discipline professors who criticized Trump in class and complained about LSU women’s basketball players not being on court to stand for the national anthem, though the team did not change its pre-game routine.

    Here’s what to know:

    What did Landry say?

    LSU football coach Brian Kelly was fired in the fourth season of a 10-year, $100 million deal, the day after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M on Oct. 25.

    The day of Kelly’s firing, Landry said he hosted a meeting in the governor’s mansion on the evening of Oct. 26 “to discuss the legalities of the contract.” Landry has said he is concerned his state will be on the hook to pay for Kelly’s buyout, which is about $54 million.

    John Carmouche, chair of the LSU’s Board of Supervisors’ Athletic Committee, told the AP that the meeting at the governor’s mansion occurred after Kelly had already been fired by athletic director Scott Woodward.

    While the governor’s concerns are valid, negotiations with Kelly are ongoing and private donors and nonprofits have typically picked up the bill for sports-related buyouts at the university, Carmouche added.

    Days after Kelly’s firing, Landry told reporters at a Wednesday press conference that LSU’s athletic director would not be selecting the next football coach.

    Gerald Herbert

    LSU running back Harlem Berry (22) celebrates his touchdown against Texas A&M in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025 in Baton Rouge, La.

    “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it,” said Landry. He also criticized Woodward’s prior tenure at Texas A&M, where he served as the school’s athletic director.

    The next day, LSU cut ties with Woodward.

    In a Thursday statement, Woodward said that “others can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as Director of Athletics, but I will not.”

    Board chairman Scott Ballard framed Woodward’s departure as the result of “a mutual agreement after conversations” between Woodward and the LSU board. Nine of 18 Board of Supervisors members have been appointed by Landry since taking office in January 2024 and the governor will be able to appoint four more in 2026.

    Carmouche, who, like Ballard, was appointed to the LSU board by Landry, denied that the governor’s remarks had any influence on Woodward’s departure.

    “We’re all independent people,” Carmouche said.

    What’s next for LSU football

    In a Friday press conference, LSU interim athletic director Verge Ausberry, flanked by Ballard and Carmouche, sought to reassure the public that the school’s athletic department “is not broken.”

    A search committee comprised of Ausberry, Carmouche, Ballard and several others is on the hunt for a new coach. The university board is scheduled to vote on a new president Tuesday, having been without one since June.

    Landry has denied that he will be picking the next coach, but said he wants the new contract to be structured differently than Kelly’s.

    “We’re going to put metrics on it, because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill,” Landry told reporters.

    What others are saying

    “The Louisiana governor and the LSU board has damaged the reputation of our university,” political pundit James Carville, a Democrat, told the AP. Carville has said he plans to burn his LSU diploma and football gear and is mulling a defamation lawsuit against Landry on Woodward’s behalf.

    Carville hosted a welcome party for Woodward, a former political consultant and lobbyist, when he was hired by LSU in 2019. Under Woodward, LSU won six national championships in various sports, including football.

    Former Louisiana Board of Regents Chair Richard Lipsey, who founded the influential Tiger Athletic Foundation and recommended Woodward’s hiring, said that Landry’s comments about Woodward revealed that he “wanted more control over LSU” and “wants to run the athletics department.”

    Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

    Ed Orgeron, the former LSU football coach who led the team to a national title in 2019, said that it’s not unusual for a Louisiana governor to take an active interest in the university’s football program. Landry’s predecessor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, hosted dinners for the university’s freshmen recruiting class and showed up at practice to throw passes with LSU receivers.

    Current Louisiana Board of Regents Chair Misti Cordell, a Landry appointee, said that the governor’s comments sparked constructive public discussion about the need for greater guardrails to protect public universities amid ballooning costs in college sports: “He said what a lot of people were thinking.”

    Rep. Dixon Wallace McMakin, an LSU graduate who serves as the football team’s announcer, said that Louisiana governors have regularly sought to influence the Tigers dating back a century to the days of firebrand populist Huey Long and are sensitive to poor performance on the gridiron.

    “It affects everybody and a governor feels it from all of his voters around the state,” said McMakin, a Republican. “Our standard is excellence, and anything less than excellence we will not stand for in the state of Louisiana.”

    Wilbert Pryor, who has served on the Louisiana Board of Regents for nearly a decade, said Landry’s perceived influence over the LSU athletics program would complicate the hiring process for a new coach reluctant to have the governor looking over his shoulder.

    “I don’t remember any governor in my lifetime making decisions on college football,” Pryor said. “You’d think he would have other things to garner his attention.”

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  • Two girls injured after being thrown from ferris wheel at Louisiana festival

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    Two young girls were injured after they were thrown from a Ferris wheel at a Louisiana festival Saturday.

    The two girls, around the age of 11, fell off the ride at the Harvest Festival in New Roads just before noon Saturday, Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux said.

    Both were taken to the Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge for their injuries. Though the extent of injuries were not disclosed, they are expected to survive.

    After the incident, all the rides at the Harvest Festival were temporarily shut down.

    The Louisiana State Fire Marshals inspected the rides, and all were reopened except the Ferris wheel, which remains shuttered.

    Video of the incident suggests that a mechanical failure in the part holding the children in their seats may be to blame, the sheriff said.

    The fire marshals are conducting an investigation into the incident.

    The festival, which runs from Friday to Sunday, is to celebrate agriculture and community and includes food, live music and rides, according to its website.

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    Marlene Lenthang and John Filippelli | NBC News

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  • Mississippi Woman Kills Escaped Monkey Fearing for Her Children’s Safety

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    One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi roadway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.

    Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.

    Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned about diseases that the escaped monkeys carried so she fired her gun.

    “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”

    The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.

    The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.

    A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities have said most of the 21 monkeys were killed. The sheriff’s department has said animal experts from Tulane examined the trailer and had determined three monkeys had escaped.

    The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the state capital, Jackson.

    Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.

    Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.

    The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.

    About 10 years ago, three Rhesus macaques in the breeding colony of what was then known as the Tulane National Primate Research Center were euthanized after a “biosecurity breach,” federal inspectors wrote in a 2015 report. The breach involved at least one staff member failing to adhere to biosafety and infection control procedures, it said.

    The facility made changes in its procedures and retrained staff after that happened, according to the report from the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

    Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • News We Love: Dog training programs aim to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

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    IT’S A PROGRAM TRULY GIVING PUPS A NEW LEASH ON LIFE AS THEY WALK THE CORRIDORS OF LOUISIANA PRISON. YEAH. THE PARTNERSHIP, A COLLABORATION WITH THE SPCA, THE DOG SCHOOL AND THE LOUISIANA CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE. AND THIS WHOLE THING OPENS THE DOOR TO MORE PETS FINDING FOREVER HOMES WHILE GIVING INMATES A GREATER PURPOSE. FROM BEHIND THE GLASS TO BEHIND BARS. THESE ARE DOGS PULLED FROM KILL SHELTERS. THESE ARE INMATES THAT HAVE DONE HEINOUS CRIMES. BOTH ARE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT OR DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT, BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A UNIQUE PLACE FOR SECOND CHANCES. IT’S IT’S TOTALLY LIFE CHANGING FOR MY INMATE TRAINERS. A NEW LEASH ON LIFE FOR BOTH THE INMATES AT CIW AND SAINT GABRIEL. AND THESE DOGS FROM THE LOUISIANA SPCA THAT HAVE BEEN OFTEN OVERLOOKED. THE TRAINING PROGRAM, SPEARHEADED BY BROOKE DUFOUR, PITS THE TWO TOGETHER, HELPING THESE SHELTER PETS FIND FOREVER HOMES. AND IN RETURN GIVES THESE WOMEN PURPOSE. WE TAKE ABOUT 5 TO 6 DOGS. THEY’RE TAKEN FROM OUR FACILITY TO THE ACTUAL INSTITUTION, AND FROM THERE THEY’RE PAIRED WITH THEIR HANDLER, OR THEY’RE INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL. THE HANDLERS TRAIN THE PUPS. EVERYTHING FROM POTTY TRAINING, DOOR TRAINING, KENNEL TRAINING, REALLY WHATEVER MANNERS THEY NEED TO GET ADOPTED. IF WE HAVE DOGS THAT ARE ROCK STARS, LIKE THEY’RE JUST LEARNING EVERYTHING, THEN WE TRY TO MAKE THEM SERVICE DOGS. AND AFTER THE SIX WEEKS ARE UP, THE DOGS GRADUATE. FETCHING THAT DIPLOMA AND HOPEFULLY A FOREVER FAMILY. I THINK IT’S A REWARDING EXPERIENCE. IT’S ALL ENCOMPASSING BUT ALSO A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. AND IT’S AT THE HEART OF OUR MISSION AS WELL. A MISSION THAT’S ALSO UNLEASHING HEARTS, LEAVING EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH VALUABLE SKILLS FOR A STABLE FUTURE. RANDI RANDI WDSU NEWS. SO FAR, 18 DOGS HAVE GRADUATED SINCE THAT PROGRAM STARTED JUST ABOUT A YEAR AGO, WITH FIVE MORE SET TO JOIN THE RAN

    Louisiana dog training programs aims to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

    The New Leash on Life program is giving inmates and shelter dogs a second chance at success

    Updated: 12:52 PM EDT Nov 1, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons. The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute. “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program. For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted. “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs. “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore. By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose. So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons.

    The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute.

    “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program.

    For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted.

    “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”

    If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs.

    “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore.

    By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose.

    So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.

    For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

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  • SNAP Has Provided Grocery Help for 60-Plus Years; Here’s How It Works

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    Originally known as the food stamp program, it has existed since 1964, serving low-income people, many of whom have jobs but don’t make enough money to cover all the basic costs of living.

    Public attention has focused on the program since President Donald Trump’s administration announced last week that it would freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1 in the midst of a monthlong federal government shutdown. The administration argued it wasn’t allowed to use a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it to help keep the program going. But on Friday, two federal judges ruled in separate challenges that the federal government must continue to fund SNAP, at least partially, using contingency funds. However, the federal government is expected to appeal, and the process to restart SNAP payments would likely take one to two weeks.

    Here’s a look at how SNAP works.

    There are income limits based on family size, expenses and whether households include someone who is elderly or has a disability.

    Most SNAP participants are families with children, and more than 1 in 3 include older adults or someone with a disability.

    Nearly 2 in 5 recipients are households where someone is employed.

    Most participants have incomes below the poverty line, which is about $32,000 for a family of four, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, says nearly 16 million children received SNAP benefits in 2023.

    People who are not in the country legally, and many immigrants who do have legal status, are not eligible. Many college students aren’t either, and some states have barred people with certain drug convictions.

    Under a provision of Trump’s big tax and policy law that also takes effect Nov. 1, people who do not have disabilities, are between ages 18 and 64 and who do not have children under age 14 can receive benefits for only three months every three years if they’re not working. Otherwise, they must work, volunteer or participate in a work training program at least 80 hours a month.


    How much do beneficiaries receive?

    On average, the monthly benefit per household participating in SNAP over the past few years has been about $350, and the average benefit per person is about $190.

    The benefit amount varies based on a family’s income and expenses. The designated amount is based on the concept that households should allocate 30% of their remaining income after essential expenses to food.

    Families can receive higher amounts if they pay child support, have monthly medical expenses exceeding $35 or pay a higher portion of their income on housing.

    The cost of benefits and half the cost of running the program is paid by the federal government using tax dollars.

    States pay the rest of the administrative costs and run the program.

    People apply for SNAP through a state or county social service agency or through a nonprofit that helps people with applications. In some states, SNAP is known by another, state-specific name. For instance, it’s FoodShare in Wisconsin and CalFresh in California.

    The benefits are delivered through electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, cards that work essentially like a bank debit card. Besides SNAP, it’s where money is loaded for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program, which provides cash assistance for low-income families with children, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

    The card is swiped or inserted in a store’s card reader at checkout, and the cardholder enters their PIN to pay for food. The cost of the food is deducted from the person’s SNAP account balance.

    SNAP benefits can only be used for food at participating stores — mostly groceries, supermarkets, discount retail stores, convenience stores and farmers markets. It also covers plants and seeds bought to grow your own food. However, hot foods — like restaurant meals — are not covered.

    Most, but not all, food stores participate. The USDA provides a link on its website to a SNAP retail locator, allowing people to enter an address to get the closest retailers to them.

    Items commonly found in a grocery and other participating stores that can’t be bought with SNAP benefits include pet food, household supplies like toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning products, and toiletries like toothpaste, shampoo and cosmetics. Vitamins, medicines, alcohol and tobacco products are also excluded.

    Sales tax is not charged on items bought with SNAP benefits.


    Are there any restrictions?

    There aren’t additional restrictions today on which foods can be purchased with SNAP money.

    But the federal government is allowing states to apply to limit which foods can be purchased with SNAP starting in 2026.

    All of them will bar buying soft drinks, most say no to candy, and some block energy drinks.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward Resigns, 4 Days After the Firing of Football Coach Brian Kelly

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    LSU athletic director Scott Woodward resigned under pressure from the post he’s held for six years on Thursday night, four days after the firing of football coach Brian Kelly and a day after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said Woodward would not hire Kelly’s replacement.

    Woodward, a Baton Rouge native and LSU graduate, was hired as athletic director at his alma mater in April 2019. Since then, LSU has won national championships in football, baseball (twice), women’s basketball and gymnastics.

    “We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard said. “He had a lot of success at LSU.

    “Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.”

    Verge Ausberry, LSU’s executive deputy athletic director, will replace Woodward on an interim basis and lead the search for a football coach, the university announced.

    In an open letter to LSU fans, Woodward said, “Our University will always hold a special place in my heart and I will never be too far from LSU.”

    “Others can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as Director of Athletics, but I will not,” Woodward said. “Rather, I will focus on the absolute joy that LSU Athletics brings to our state’s residents and to the Baton Rouge community.”

    When Woodward was hired in 2019, James Carville, a political pundit who graduated from LSU, taught there and was named to the university’s Manship School of Mass Communication’s Hall of Fame, hosted a welcome party for him at his house in New Orleans.

    In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday night, Carville, a Democrat, expressed disgust at the circumstances surrounding Woodward’s sudden departure.

    “The Louisiana governor and the LSU board has damaged the reputation of our university,” Carville said. “Landry’s IQ is the equivalent of the temperature of dishwater.

    “The LSU board is weak and pathetic,” Carville added. “This is not about my politics. It’s about my university.”

    Landry on Wednesday was hosting a news conference about government matters not concerning LSU when he was asked about the LSU coaching situation and asserted that Woodward would not be involved in the selection of the next coach.

    Under Woodward, the football program bought out former coach Ed Orgeron for about $17 million in 2021, and it now must pay Kelly’s buyout of about $53 million, which is among the largest in the history of college sports.

    Texas A&M’s $77 million buyout of former coach Jimbo Fisher, who was fired in 2023, is the largest.

    Woodward was Texas A&M’s athletic director when Fisher was hired to coach the Aggies in December 2017. But Woodward already had been at LSU for two years when A&M, in 2021, gave Fisher a contract extension that effectively doubled the cost of his buyout.

    Still, Landry assigned blame for Fisher’s buyout to Woodward.

    “This is a pattern,” Landry said. “Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability. … We are not doing that again.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Judge’s Order Blocking Removal of Man From US Wasn’t Received Until After He Was Deported, DHS Says

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Immigration authorities did not receive word of a court order blocking the removal of a man living in Alabama until after he had been deported to Laos, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, dismissing claims that officials violated the order.

    Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, was deported on Friday, according to his attorneys, a day after a federal judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep him in the country so that he could present what the judge called a “substantial claim of U.S. citizenship.”

    Souvannarath was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but has lived most of his life in the U.S. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the judge’s order keeping him in the country “was not served” to ICE until after Souvannarath had been deported.

    “To the media’s chagrin, there was no mistake,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

    DHS and ICE did not respond to questions from The Associated Press seeking additional details on the timeline and how officials receive federal court orders.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Souvannarath, asked U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick to order his immediate return to the U.S., calling the deportation “unlawful.”

    “ICE has acted in direct opposition to a federal court order, which should disturb everyone,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana.

    The deportation comes as Trump administration officials have repeatedly clashed with the courts over their attempts to deport large numbers of immigrants. There have been previous cases of U.S. citizens being deported, including U.S.-born children.

    Souvannarath most recently lived in Arab, Alabama. Court records show he was granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. before his first birthday. His father, a native of Laos, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Souvannarath claims his citizenship derives from that status.

    Souvannarath was taken into ICE custody in June following an annual check-in with immigration authorities. Two of his five children were with him when he was detained, his wife told the AP.

    McLaughlin said Souvannarath “lost his green card” and was ordered to be deported in 2006 following convictions for “heinous crimes” — assault and unlawful possession of a firearm — and “had no right to be in this country.” It was not clear why Souvannarath was not previously taken into ICE custody.

    In 2004, Souvannarath was convicted of unlawful firearm possession and assault against his then-girlfriend in King County, Washington. He had also been convicted of a misdemeanor assault against the same woman several years before, court records show.

    “20 years later, he tried a Hail Mary attempt to remain in our country by claiming he was a U.S. citizen,” McLaughlin wrote in her statement. “I know its shocking to the media — but criminal illegal aliens lie all the time.”

    Souvannarath’s wife, Beatrice, described him as a hard worker and loving father who stayed out of trouble since his run-ins with the law two decades ago. He’s mostly worked installing air conditioners and heaters, she said. “He doesn’t even drink,” she said.

    His wife said she received word last week that he was being deported and, days later, that he was in custody in Laos, a country he had not previously visited.

    Representing himself in court, Souvannarath filed an emergency motion seeking to halt his deportation. The judge, appointed by President Barack Obama, cited the “irreparable harm that would be caused by immediate deportation” in issuing a temporary restraining order pausing the deportation for 14 days.

    Before his deportation, Souvannarath had been detained at a newly opened ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

    __ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle, Washington.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • What to Know as Federal Food Help and Preschool Aid Will Run Dry Saturday if Shutdown Persists

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    The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries. A halt to SNAP benefits would leave a gaping hole in the country’s safety net. Vulnerable families could see federal money dry up soon for some other programs, as well.

    Aid for mothers to care for their newborns through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, could run out the following week.

    Here’s a look at what would happen.

    Tuesday’s legal filing from attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, plus three governors, focuses on a federal contingency fund with roughly $5 billion in it – enough to pay for the benefits for more than half a month.

    President Donald Trump’s Department of Agriculture said in September that its plan for a shutdown included using the money to keep SNAP running. But in a memo last week, it said that it couldn’t legally use that money for such a purpose.

    The Democratic officials contend the administration is legally required to keep benefits going as long as it has funding.

    The agency said debit cards beneficiaries use as part of SNAP to buy groceries will not be reloaded as of Nov. 1.

    With their own coalition, 19 Republican state attorneys general sent Democratic U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a letter Tuesday urging passage of a “clean continuing resolution” to keep funding SNAP benefits.


    SNAP benefits could leave millions without money for food

    Most SNAP participants are families with children, more than 1 in 3 include older adults or someone with a disability, and close to 2 in 5 are households where someone is employed. Most have incomes that put them below the poverty line, about $32,000 in income for a family of four, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    The average monthly benefit is $187 per person.

    People who receive the benefits say that without the aid, they’ll be forced to choose between buying food and paying other bills. Food banks are preparing for a spike in demand that they’ll have to navigate with decreased federal aid themselves.

    The debit cards are recharged in slightly different ways in each state. Not everyone receives their benefits on the first day of the month, though many beneficiaries get them early in the month.

    States expect retailers will be able to accept cards with balances on them, even if they’re not replenished.


    Some states seeking to fill void of SNAP benefit cuts

    State governments controlled by both Democrats and Republicans are scrambling to help recipients, though several say they don’t have the technical ability to fund the regular benefits.

    Officials in Louisiana, Vermont and Virginia have pledged to provide some type of backup food aid for recipients even while the shutdown stalls the federal program, though state-level details haven’t been announced.

    More funding for food banks and pantries is planned in states including New Hampshire, Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Connecticut and New York.

    The USDA advised Friday that states won’t be reimbursed for funding the benefits.


    Early childhood education

    More than 130 Head Start preschool programs won’t receive their annual federal grants on Nov. 1 if the government remains shut down, according to the National Head Start Association.

    Centers are scrambling to assess how long they can stay open, since nearly all their funding comes from federal taxpayers. Head Start provides education and child care for the nation’s neediest preschoolers. When a center is closed, families may have to miss work or school.

    With new grants on hold, a half dozen Head Start programs have already missed federal disbursements they were expecting Oct. 1 but have stayed open with fast-dwindling reserves or with help from local governments. All told, more than 65,000 seats at Head Start programs across the country could be affected.


    Food aid for mothers and young children

    Another food aid program supporting millions of low-income mothers and young children already received an infusion to keep the program open through the end of October, but even that money is set to run out early next month.

    The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents purchase nutritious staples such as fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and infant formula.

    The program, known as WIC, was at risk of running out of money in October because of the government shutdown, which occurred right before it was scheduled to receive its annual appropriation. The Trump administration reassigned $300 million in unspent tariff proceeds from the Department of Agriculture to keep the program afloat. But it was only enough for a few weeks.

    Now, states say they could run out of WIC money as early as Nov. 8.

    Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Kevin Federline says his sons with Britney Spears are the reason for his new memoir

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Federline says concern for his two sons with Britney Spears long kept him from telling his story, and those same concerns are the reason he’s telling it now that they’re men.

    In a memoir to be released Tuesday, “You Thought You Knew,” Federline documents his difficult years as husband, ex-husband, and co-parent with Spears, who wrote her own memoir in 2023.

    Federline’s includes some salacious stories and some potentially disturbing details about her behavior that have already made headlines.

    “I want my children to be able to move forward in their lives and know that the actual truth of everything is out there,” Federline, 47, told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview, backed by palm trees in Hawaii, where he now lives with wife Victoria Prince and their two daughters. “That’s a very, very big part of this for me. And it’s really important that I share my story, so they don’t have to.”

    He and Spears’ son Preston is now 20 and his brother Jayden is 19. They have little relationship with their mother.

    Federline was a 26-year-old backup dancer for other major pop acts when he coupled with Spears in 2004. Their courtship, two-year marriage and divorce took them through one of the most intense celebrity media frenzies in modern history. Federline was ruthlessly roasted as a loser hanger-on, especially after he released his own deeply mocked hip-hop album.

    Britney Spears, center right, and her husband Kevin Federline are interviewed by Rachel from the Tyra Banks show as Tyra Banks, right, looks on while they arrive for the LG Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri Post Grammy Party at a private residence, Feb. 8, 2006, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    “I wasn’t just famous — I was infamous,” he writes in the book, which will be released on the new audiobook first platform Listenin.

    He told the AP he long considered writing the book, but recently got serious about it.

    “I picked it up and put it down quite a lot over probably a five-year period,” he said. “I think that it’s a very good description of me, who I am, the father I’ve become, the husband I am, the ex-husband I am.”

    Key revelations from Kevin Federline about Britney Spears

    — Federline describes the night he and Spears first connected at a Hollywood nightclub, and how they hooked up hours later in a hotel bungalow: “Britney turned around, slipped off her underwear and started kissing me, tearing at my clothes with both hands. We stumbled toward the bed while I struggled to kick my pants off my ankles. This. Is. Happening. OK, sorry. Calm down, that’s as detailed as I’m going to get.”

    — He writes that a “San Andreas-level seismic shift in my reality” followed a few hours later when he left the hotel with Spears and dozens of paparazzi cars followed them.

    — He describes the night before their wedding, when Spears called her ex Justin Timberlake, seeking closure: “She never really got over him. She might’ve loved me, but there was something there with Justin that she couldn’t let go of.”

    Justin Timberlake, right, greets Kevin Federline as they arrive at the JT-TV launch party in Los Angeles, Feb. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

    Justin Timberlake, right, greets Kevin Federline as they arrive at the JT-TV launch party in Los Angeles, Feb. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

    — Federline said seeing Spears drinking while pregnant “tripped the silent alarms in my head.” He later was outraged when he saw her doing cocaine when the boys were still breastfeeding, saying “are you seriously going to go home after this and feed them like you don’t have a body full of drugs?”

    — He writes that Preston told him Spears mercilessly mocked him and once punched him in the face.

    — He says the boys began refusing to visit her when they were 13 and 14, and later told him stories that “shook me to the core.” “They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep — ‘Oh, you’re awake?’ — with a knife in her hand.”

    Spears’ response to Federline’s book

    Spears responded with a statement on her social media accounts. She said Federline has engaged in “constant gaslighting.”

    “Trust me, those white lies in that book, they are going straight to the bank and I’m the only one who genuinely gets hurt here.” She said, adding that “if you really know me, you won’t pay attention to the tabloids of my mental health and drinking.”

    She also addressed her relationship with her sons:

    “I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys. Relationships with teenage boys is complex. I have felt demoralized by this situation and have always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life. Sadly, they have always witnessed the lack of respect shown by (their) own father for me.”

    An attorney for Spears did not respond to a request for comment.

    Federline’s life, and thoughts about Spears’ life

    Federline writes about growing up in Fresno, California, and finding “my therapy and my purpose” through dance.

    Kevin Federline, wearing a white button down shift, performs in the center of a stage with his arm raised during a concert. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    Kevin Federline performs during a concert at the House of Blues Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

    He reminisces about his first big tour, with Pink, and working with Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child and Michael Jackson. He details wrestling with John Cena in the WWE and appearing in a self-mocking Super Bowl commercial.

    Federline says Preston and Jayden are living on their own as young adults, and have both been working on making music that makes him proud.

    He weighs in on Spears’ dissolved court conservatorship, saying it was necessary but hurt most of the people involved. He said the fans who fought to free her left an unfortunate legacy.

    “The Free Britney movement may have started from a good place, but it vilified everyone around her so intensely that now it’s nearly impossible for anyone to step in,” he writes.

    He says in the book that he wrote it in part as a public plea for her to get more help.

    “I’ve lost hope that things will ever fully turn around,” he writes, “but I still hope that Britney can find peace.”

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  • Louisiana Jury Awards More Than $40 Million to Family of Man Who Died in Privately-Run Jail

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury found a private company running a Louisiana jail liable for the 2015 death of a man who died of head injuries he received while in custody, and awarded the family more than $40 million in damages.

    Attorneys representing Erie Moore Sr.’s family say they believe the verdict handed down this week in the Western District of Louisiana is among the highest ever jury awards for an in-custody death in the U.S.

    “For the past 10 years, my sisters and I have been tormented knowing he is not resting easy,” said his son, Erie Moore Jr. “This trial has shined light where there was darkness. It has brought our family truth, justice, and peace.”

    Moore was a 57-year-old mill worker father of three with no criminal history who was arrested on Oct. 12, 2015, for disturbing the peace at a doughnut shop in Monroe, Louisiana.

    Moore became “agitated and noncompliant” while being taken into custody at Richwood Correctional Center, according to court filings. His attorney, Max Schoening, says Moore was “mentally unwell” at the time he was taken into custody.

    Schoening says guards pepper-sprayed him at least eight times during the 36 hours he was in jail.

    Court records, including footage from jail security cameras submitted as evidence and viewed by The Associated Press, show Moore being brought down forcefully by several guards. Other footage shows the guards picking up Moore by his legs and handcuffed hands when one of the guards stumbled, and Moore’s head lands on the ground.

    Moore was then brought to a secluded area of the jail without security cameras. He was kept there, out of sight, for nearly two hours, during which no one called for medical attention, court records show.

    “The jury found the guards continued to use excessive force against Mr. Moore in the camera-less area,” Schoening said. “When sheriffs from another law enforcement agency arrived to pick him up to transport him to another jail they found him unconscious and completely unresponsive.”

    When Moore eventually arrived at the hospital hours he was already in a coma and died about a month later, court records show. The Ouachita Parish coroner ruled Moore’s death a homicide due to the head injuries.

    A federal jury found three guards liable for negligence, battery and excessive force. The jury also found LaSalle Management Co., which runs Richwood Correctional Center, liable for causing the death of Moore due to the negligence of at least one of its guards.

    No one has been criminally charged in Moore’s death, Schoening added.

    The jury ordered LaSalle and Richwood to pay $23.25 million in punitive damages and $19.5 million in compensation to Moore’s three adult children.

    “This is the largest compensatory damage award I have ever heard of,” said Jay Aronson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of “Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do about It.”

    The city of Monroe contracted the Richwood Correctional Center facility for its jail from 2001 to 2019. LaSalle, which is part of the same business enterprise as Richwood Correctional Center, operates detention facilities across Louisiana and Texas, court filings show.

    The Richwood Correctional Center now serves as a federal immigration detention site. Last year, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency stated that LaSalle is an “important part of ICE’s detention system.”

    LaSalle did not respond to requests for comment sent to its attorneys or a spokesperson. The City of Monroe declined to comment.

    “Erie Moore Sr.’s life was a gift to his family and community. LaSalle Management Co. ended it with utter indifference,” Schoening said. “It is a testament to his children’s love, courage, and resilience that, in the face of enormous obstacles, they obtained justice for their father and a historic victory for civil rights in this country.”

    Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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  • Louisiana man accused of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack pleads not guilty

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    A Louisiana man accused of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel faced a judge on Wednesday. CBS News national reporter Kati Weis has the latest.

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  • Man living in Louisiana connected to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, U.S. says

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    Federal prosecutors accused a man in Louisiana of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, then traveling to the U.S. on a fraudulent visa, according to newly unsealed court documents. 

    Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, 33, was allegedly part of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a paramilitary group that has fought alongside Hamas and participated in the 2023 attack, according to the documents. 

    Al-Muhtadi was charged with providing, attempting to provide or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and the fraud and misuse of a visa or other documents. The charges were brought in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. 

    Al-Muhtadi allegedly coordinated a “group of armed fighters” to cross into Israel after hearing about Hamas’ attack, according to the court documents. He told one man to “bring the rifles” and another to “get ready.” He also sent messages asking for ammunition and a bulletproof vest for another man. 

    Al-Muhtadi’s phone pinged a cell tower near Kibbutz Kfar Aza at about 10:01 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, the documents said, a few hours after the attack began. Kibbutz Kfar Aza is just a few miles from Gaza’s border. Sixty people were killed there, and 19 were kidnapped, the court documents said. More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 250 taken hostage during the attack. The documents do not accuse al-Muhtadi of any killings or specific crimes.  

    Al-Muhtadi allegedly coordinated a “group of armed fighters” to cross into Israel within hours of hearing about Hamas’ attack, according to the court documents. He told one man to “bring the rifles” and another to “get ready.” He also sent messages asking for ammunition and a bulletproof vest for another man. 

    Al-Muhtadi allegedly submitted a U.S. visa application in June 2024, the court documents said. In the application, he said that he was not a member or representative of a terror organization, that he had no specialized skills or training, including firearm usage, and had never engaged in terrorist activities. 

    He met with a U.S. Embassy consular official in August and entered the United States through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Sept. 12, 2024, according to the documents. He lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for several months, the documents said. Photos shared by al-Muhtadi on social media show him posing with a gun in his Tulsa apartment. 

    Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi loads a gun at his home in Oklahoma.

    United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana


    In early 2025, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents located al-Muhtadi living in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked in a local restaurant.

    A person with al-Muhtadi’s name and birth date was being held at the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center near Lafayette, according to online records. He was booked into the facility on Thursday. He made his initial court appearance on Friday, according to court records. Online records did not make it clear if he had a lawyer. 

    Federal prosecutors have previously charged six senior Hamas leaders with the deaths of at least 43 American citizens on Oct. 7. Those charged included former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in October 2024. 

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  • Louisiana Sports Bettor Turns $50 Into $574,925 on Six-Leg Parlay

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    Posted on: October 18, 2025, 01:53h. 

    Last updated on: October 18, 2025, 01:53h.

    • A bettor in Louisiana won $574,925 on a $50 bet
    • The six-leg parlay was made with Caesars Sportsbook

    A sports bettor in Louisiana had himself a Thursday when his six-leg “Super Parlay” hit for almost $575K.

    Caesars Sportsbook Louisiana sports betting
    Caesars New Orleans is pictured. A sports bettor in Louisiana using the Caesars Sportsbook hit a $50 six-leg parlay that won $574,925. Parlays are typically very profitable for sportsbooks, with this win being one major exception. (Image: Shutterstock)

    Caesars Sportsbook shared the news on Friday morning that a bettor in Louisiana turned $50 into $574,925 on a six-leg parlay.

    Caesars Sportsbook Louisiana sports betting
    (Image: X)

    The ticket slip had four players competing in the MLB American and National League Championship Series’ going yard — Max Muncy (+500), Teoscar Hernandez (+475), Randy Arozarena (+525), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (+390).

    When all hit homers, the bettor still needed touchdowns from Jonnu Smith (+340) and Tee Higgins (+215) during Thursday Night Football. Smith and Higgins came through, each scoring TDs before the first half concluded.

    Caesars Sportsbook says the six-leg parlay’s odds were around 11,498 to 1, meaning the bettor turned every $1 bet on the ticket into nearly $11,498.

    “Pretty remarkable win,” said a Caesars Sportsbook spokesperson.

    Remote Bet Had Remote Odds

    In relaying the news to Casino.org, a Caesars Sportsbook rep said the bettor made the wager remotely via the online sportsbook’s mobile app. A “Super Parlay,” as Caesars Sportsbook billed the bet, is when the ticket combines multiple same-game parlays, same-game parlays to a traditional parlay, or same-game parlays to a straight wager selection.

    Caesars Entertainment manages three casinos in Louisiana — Caesars New Orleans, Horseshoe Lake Charles, and Horseshoe Bossier City. Each Caesars property in the Bayou State has a Caesars Sportsbook.

    Sportsbooks typically enjoy it when customers build parlays, as the combining of bets compounds the book’s edge over the bettor. The lengthier odds come with larger payouts, which attract bettors to keep trying them despite rarely winning.

    Small wagers with the possibility of a big payout are seen as a form of fun entertainment. Some say it’s akin to playing the lottery — a low probability of winning but the slim chance of winning big keeps players coming back.

    A parlay elevates the sportsbook’s “vig,” or commission/fee implemented into the odds, that ensures the book will make a profit regardless of the outcome of the game. Vig, which stands for “vigorish,” or the book’s “juice,” is compounded as a bettor assembles a parlay. 

    Louisiana Sports Betting

    Oddsmakers in Louisiana continue to see growth in both handle and revenue. Mobile sportsbooks have grown their net win from $209.2 million in the 2023 fiscal year to more than $443.4 million in the 2025 fiscal campaign.  

    Online bets have grown from $2.2 billion in 2023 to over $3.7 billion last year.

    Basketball — not football — is the most bet sport in Louisiana. Oddsmakers won $41.6 million last year on hoops, and $27.2 million on football. Revenue from parlays totaled $296.7 million, accounting for a staggering 67% of the Louisiana sports betting revenue in the 2025 fiscal year.

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    Devin O’Connor

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