Louisiana volunteers removed 566 tons of litter during Love The Boot Week 2026. Kace Kieschnick reports.
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Is it possible that gasoline prices have peaked? Here’s Joe Gallinaro.
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Love the Boot Week 2026 was the largest litter removal effort in state history. Over 28-thousand volunteers logged over 77-thousand hours cleaning up litter across the state. Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser says the program’s success is a sign of culture change in the Bayou State.
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Volunteers picked up a record 566 tons of litter, planted trees and plants, and refurbished gardens across Louisiana. Nungesser says the program this year was a 480-percent increase over events last year.
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In September, Nungesser and Keep Louisiana Beautiful will also launch Love Our Waterways, a Louisiana waterway and shoreline cleanup effort. He says efforts to beautify the Bayou State and protect wildlife won’t stop now that Love the Boot Week is over.
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Is it possible that gasoline prices have peaked? Over the last week, the average price of regular unleaded in Louisiana has dropped 13 cents to $3.89 a gallon. Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy-dot-com, says this is due to the optimism in talks between the U.S. and Iran in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
De Haan says whether a deal with Iran is reached will have a profound effect on whether gas prices will continue that downward trend.
De Haan says diesel prices are also coming back down.
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Many New Orleans residents, including Mayor Helena Moreno, have vocally challenged the viral Tulane study that stated that people should move out before the city is submerged by the end of the next century. Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans Executive Director Jessica Dandridge-Smith says the study was offensive and premature.
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Dandridge-Smith says the study used is abrasive and may not be accurate. She argues researchers did not account for the existing flood mitigation infrastructure in the city or the ongoing innovation throughout the Louisiana coast, and the study’s publication hinders progress.
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Dandridge-Smith, like many others in the Crescent City, says she has no plans of leaving anytime soon. She says headlines like these do not scare the New Orleans community but instead inspire them to prepare for whatever the future holds.
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The Senate Friday afternoon gave final legislative passage to the new congressional map, sending it to Governor Landry’s desk. The new map effectively eliminates one majority Black district, likely resulting in Louisiana electing five Republicans and one Democrat in November. ULM Political Science professor Pearson Cross says this was as predictable an outcome as could ever be.
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Cross says in light of the Supreme Court decision that ruled the state’s current congressional map an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, it’s as if Republicans in the legislature had to speak in code when debating the new map.
Cross says once Governor Landry signs the new map, the plaintiffs in the case that led to this last-minute re-draw will likely file another legal challenge, but he does not expect it to go anywhere – at least not before November.