Southeast Louisiana is under a tropical storm warning and flash flood watches are also posted as forecasters are anticipating a tropical storm will hit either southeast Louisiana or Missisippi early Wednesday morning. The National Hurricane Center anticipates Tropical Storm Gordon will form in the eastern Gulf of Mexico later today.

On this Labor Day, there are just over two-million people working in Louisiana, nearly 28-thousand more than last year. Chief Economist for the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Doctor Ali Bustamante, says for those looking for work, the health care industry seeks qualified workers…
cut 4 (12) “….home health care services”
Manufacturing continues to be a growing sector in the economy as there are 48-hundred more manufacturing jobs than a year ago.

The LSU Tigers are 1-0 after an impressive performance in Dallas as the Bayou Bengals beat Miami 33-17. Senior running back Nick Brossette rushed for a career-high 125 yards and two touchdowns and new starting quarterback Joe Burrow played mistake free football, while also throwing for 140 yards. Coach Ed Orgeron says Burrow played great, despite some heavy pressure from the Hurricane defense…
cut 28 (12) “….all camp”
LSU will now get ready to host Southeastern Louisiana in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night.

The Louisiana Department of Education has a new grading system to check year to year academic growth progress of students and it’s already beginning to show interesting results. Assistant Superintendent Jessica Baghian (Bahg-e-ON) says they noticed a difference in English scores and Math scores.
Cut 12 (09) “…in math”
Baghian says the state needs to continue to work on closing the achievement gap between the general population and black students.

Ten years ago today, Hurricane Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie and left 1.5 million Louisiana utility customers in the dark. Former Entergy spokesperson Jeff Holeman appeared on Talk Louisiana and says utility crew workers from 26 states and Canada came to restore power lines…
Cut 5 (12) “…unaffected.”
Some Entergy customers were without power for three weeks.

LSU is a slight underdog heading into Sunday’s season opener against eighth ranked Miami. The Tigers have several question marks on offense, but LSU sideline reporter Gordy Rush says the Tigers have the personnel to be good on offense…
cut 20 (15) “….the right”
Kick-off on Sunday is at 6:30.

Attorney General Jeff Landry signs a legal brief that has signatures featuring 15 other Republican leaders that asks the US Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court’s ruling that said it’s unlawful for a Michigan woman to be fired from a funeral home, because she’s transgender. Solicitor General Liz Murrell says the Louisiana A-G is arguing federal labor laws do not cover transgender individuals, so the courts shouldn’t be re-writing legislation…
cut 15 (11) “…rewrite the law”
But Louisiana Trans Advocates Board Chair Dylan Waguespack says Landry is sending a message that trans people are not worthy to protect from discrimination.

Tallulah Mayor Paxton Branch has passed away. The Monroe News-Star reports Branch had heart surgery earlier this week in Jackson. No other details of his death are known. Branch was re-elected this year, but Tallulah residents had just started a recall petition against him. One major complaint is the lack of clean drinking water.

State Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson is concerned Louisiana will see less federal transportation dollars in the future, because the state budget has become so tight, it will be difficult for Louisiana to put up the matching dollars. Wilson says the state legislature had a chance to generate more revenue for Louisiana highway projects by raising the gasoline tax in 2017, but it didn’t happen
cut 10 (07) “…very difficult”
At the time, several lawmakers said residents opposed seeing the state gasoline tax go up from the current 20-cents per gallon.

Another company who was seeking to supply the state with new voting machines is asking Louisiana to do the selection process all over again. Hart InterCivic says in a letter to the state that the original bid process was flawed and lacked transparency. The Office of State Procurement has halted contract negotiations so they can review the process.

It’s the opening weekend of the college football season and The Ragin’ Cajuns are upping their sustainability on game days. UL Lafayette has removed all of the trash bins at Cajun Field, and replaced them with options for either organic composting, or bins for recycling. It’s part of the school’s ongoing sustainability efforts that started in 2014 when the Cajuns set a target of zero waste at all school events. Office of Sustainability Director Gretchen Vanicor says the program’s popularity became obvious when the volunteers began to flood in after it was announced.
Cut 14 (11) “…to volunteer”
The Cajuns game tonight is at 6:00 as they host F-C-S powerhouse Grambling State.

Also at six o’ clock, Louisiana Tech is at South Alabama. The Bulldogs have not had much success in season openers on the road as they’ve won only one away game to open a season since 2000

Ten years ago today, Hurricane Gustav roared through Louisiana knocking power out for one-point-five million utility customers. Houma, Baton Rouge and even central Louisiana received extensive wind damage. Former Entergy spokesperson Jeff Holeman appeared on Talk Louisiana and said the recovery was slow at first, because of the lack of power and frustration levels were high…
cut 4 (10) “…serious time”
48 deaths in Louisiana were blamed on Gustav.

A St. James Parish employee faces aggravated cruelty to animal charges after he allegedly fatally shot his neighbor’s dog when he walked on his property and it happened in front of kids waiting at a bus stop. 54-year-old Brian Lambert was taken into custody and Jeff Dorson with the Humane Society of Louisiana hopes he gets a severe punishment…
cut 8 (08) “….all values”

For the first time in several years, LSU will start the season on Sunday against Miami with unproven running backs. But LSU sideline reporter Gordy Rush says the Tigers will still look to run the ball and he expects good things from Nick Brosette and the other backs…
Cut 19 (21) “ come Sunday night”
Brossette rushed for just 96 yards last season. Kick-off is at 6:30.

One college football game in the state today and that’s in Lafayette where the Ragin Cajuns start the Billy Napier era by hosting Grambling State. It’s the first time the two schools meet on the football field.

In high school football last night, Haynesville defeated North Webster 28-19, Ruston rocked Neville 41-7, Alexandria nipped Ferriday 15-14, Sulphur outscored Carencro 54-42 and Acadiana beat Kaplan 27-20.