Procrastinators might be able to find that last-minute Christmas gift on sale this year, Brooke Thorington explains.
Cut 1 (30) “…I’m Brooke Thorington.”
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We started this work week with three straight days of over 50 COVID death. Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter warns that may not be letting up in the near future…
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Despite being unable to hold tonight’s annual bonfires on the levee due to COVID restrictions, the Louisiana River Parishes Tourist Commission enlisted a 50-foot bonfire alligator in hopes it will become a tourist attraction. Executive Director Buddy Boe says the gator goes by the name of Saint.
Saint is a smaller version of the 78-foot alligator bonfire that was constructed last year and made headlines. Boe says Saint is a reminder of the bonfire custom that was extinguished this year due to high positivity rates of COVID.
The bonfires are constructed by locals and lit on Christmas Eve to guide Papa Noel, also known as Santa to children’s homes along the river. Boe says Saint the alligator will serve as a landmark this year to guide Saint Nick.
Saint is located near the visitor’s center in LaPlace and Boe encourages tourists to visit and take photos with the alligator.
https://lariverparishes.com/bonfirecountry/
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This year’s last-minute Christmas Eve shopping could be easier on your wallet than in the past. LSU Marketing Professor Dan Rice says procrastinators might actually find bargains today because foot traffic was down as much as 90 percent for some stores.
This year more retailers began Black Friday deals before and after the day after Thanksgiving to entice shoppers and in hopes of making up for lost sales earlier in the pandemic. Rice says overall this holiday season sales are up and down. He says online sales were thru the roof this year, as for stores….
The types of items in demand changed from in years past, Rice says athletic stores, bicycle shops, and home improvement stores are doing well. Other holiday staples however are not.
Rice says for many small retailers holiday sales will decide their fate after a rough year adapting to the pandemic.
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Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter warns the data shows we are most likely in the middle of the most dangerous part of the pandemic, even as vaccines have trickled into the state.
The Department of Health reported 68 new COVID fatalities yesterday, three days in a row that we’ve had over 50 COVID deaths reported in Louisiana…
Our total number of deaths as of this morning is 7,226
Kanter is asking people who’ve still made Christmas plans outside their household to cancel them. He says any large gathering statistically will have one infectious person…
Every parish is still in the red for COVID test positivity rates.
But Kanter says we won’t be in this mess for too much longer. He says over ten thousand people have been confirmed vaccinated, with the real number likely a good bit higher.
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64-year-old Terry Bowden is the new football coach at ULM. The former Auburn coach has a big task in front of him as he takes over a program that failed to win a game in 2020 at a school that has the smallest athletic budget among FBS schools. But Bowden says he’s ready for the challenge…
Bowden has a history of building winning programs. He coached at Auburn from 1993 to 1998 and won 45 games. His last head coaching was at Akron from 2012 and 2018. He says when took over the Zips football program it was in bad shape..
The 2020 season was a disaster for the Warhawks who saw numerous players leave and their season kept getting interrupted by COVID cases. Several players have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal and Bowden says his task is to re-recruit the players on the current roster…