Governor Landry will be in Abbeville this morning, where he’s expected to announce that SpaceX will be building a spaceport in Vermilion Parish. Andrew Greenstein reports.
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A celebration of life ceremony for legendary LSU baseball coach and athletic director Skip Bertman will be held in the PMAC tonight. Kace Kieschnick has more.
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The Louisiana High School Athletic Association is pleased to see the number of officials who are working multiple sports is growing. Jeff Palermo has the story.
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Governor Landry will be in Abbeville this morning, where he’s expected to announce that SpaceX will be building a spaceport in coastal Vermilion Parish. Parish President Chad Vallo this is a monumental day for his parish.
The Pecan Island area is a haven for hunting and fishing, and outdoor enthusiasts are concerned about what the spaceport will mean for them. But Vallo says he’s confident that the net for Vermilion Parish will be overwhelmingly positive, just as a similar project in Brownsville, Texas, has been.
Cut 5 (07) “…community as well.”
Vermilion Parish was hit hard by Hurricane Rita in 2005, and Vallo says SpaceX’s arrival should lead to better protections to avoid a repeat occurrence.
The news conference is scheduled to start at 11 a-m. No word on whether SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will be in attendance.
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LSU’s celebration of Skip Bertman’s life will be held in the PMAC tonight at 7 p-m. The event honoring the Louisiana legend who passed away at the age of 88 earlier this month is open to the public. Doors open at 6 p-m, with general admission seating around the upper bowl available. Doug Thompson, one of Bertman’s national champion pitchers, says it is a great opportunity to celebrate an icon.
The ceremony will also be broadcast on ESPN-plus and the SEC Network. Thompson says LSU fans are known for showing up for their teams, and he hopes that the PMAC is bursting at the seams with Tiger fans honoring Bertman.
Cut 8 (08) “…we’re so unique.”
A private ceremony will be held with former players, staff and family members. Thompson says grieving Bertman’s passing has been hard, but it is important to come together to celebrate him because the relationships he formed and lives he touched were what he was most proud of.
Governor Jeff Landry ordered flags around the state to be flown at half-mast in Bertman’s honor.
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The Louisiana High School Athletic Association is seeing more multi-sport officials. Director of Officials Lee Sanders says there are about four-thousand officials, and 926 of them work multiple sports, which is a 10-percent increase from last year and a 22-percent increase from 2024.
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Each multi-sport official will receive a commemorative flipping coin as a token of appreciation. This year’s design celebrates Louisiana’s unique cultural heritage.
Sanders says they are also working to recruit and train the next generation of multi-sport officials, and a lot of skills needed to officiate a particular sport can work for another sport as well.
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Sanders says officials who work multiple sports have to dedicate the time, but it’s worth it.
The start of the fall sports season is right around the corner. Sanders says they’ve increased the volleyball officials by four percent, there’s a two-percent increase in football refs, and they’re always looking to add more.
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Willis Knighton Health in Bossier City is the first facility in the region to offer a new treatment for thumb arthritis. It’s called the TOUCH CMC 1 Prosthesis, and it’s being performed by hand and wrist surgery specialist Dr. Diego Miranda. He says whereas traditional treatments require complete removal of the trapezium (tra-PEE-zee-um) bone, this new procedure keeps it intact.
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The joint surfaces are replaced with a dual-mobility ball-and-socket implant. Dr. Miranda says like the traditional procedure, this is an outpatient procedure, and the recovery time is three weeks.
Miranda says he started offering this new procedure earlier this summer, and the demand for it among patients suffering from thumb arthritis is growing.
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The Saints will close out the preseason against the Cowboys on Friday. New Orleans will carry three kickers on the roster after signing two-time All-Pro Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson. Head coach Kellen Moore says the veteran will join the competition between Charlie Smyth and Tannar Hudson.
New Orleans traded former LSU linebacker Deion Jones to the 49ers for running back Zamir White. Jones just signed with the Saints earlier this month, but New Orleans needs depth in the running back room as injuries pile up. Alvin Kamara will be sidelined for a month, Devin Neal reinjured his hamstring and Ty Chandler could be facing a severe knee injury. Moore says White is an experienced back who fits into the scheme well.
LSU earned a commitment from former Saints undrafted free agent Zxavian Harris as he returns to college football for a fifth season. Moore’s brother, Kirby, is the head coach at Washington State, and he says the slew of lawsuits giving players new eligibility puts coaches in a bind.
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