LRN PM Newscall November 6

LSU is ranked second and not first in the first college football playoff rankings for 2019. Jeff Palermo has the story…

Cut 1 (30) “…I’m Jeff Palermo.”

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Eddie Rispone is hoping President Trump’s visit to Monroe tonight will put him in the Governor’s mansion. But a recent study indicates Trump may not be pushing voters as much as one would think. Kevin Barnhart has the story.

cut  2 (31) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart.”    

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To the surprise of some LSU fans, the Tigers are not number one in the first college football playoff ranking for the 2019 season. The selection committee ranked Ohio State ahead of LSU and Alabama is third. Tiger Rag Editor Ron Higgins says he’s not surprised with the Buckeyes getting the top spot…

Cut 3 (12)   “…and defense” 

Higgins says it’s probably better for LSU that they are ranked second behind Ohio State….

Cut 4 (12) “…about that.”

Penn State is ranked fourth in the first college football playoff rankings, the defending national champion Clemson Tigers are fifth. So two teams from the SEC and Big 10 are in the top four, but Higgins says that will change

Cut 5 (08) “…   self out” 

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A study of the gubernatorial primary results show President Trump’s October rally in Lake Charles may have only had a slight boost at the ballot box.  LSU political researcher Dr. Michael Henderson says Trump may have only moved the needle in the Lake Charles region by about 2%, which resulted in an additional 2,000 GOP votes.

Cut 6 (11) “…avoid a runoff.”

Henderson says there is no evidence that the impeachment inquiry galvanized Republicans to oppose the Democrat Governor.

Cut 7 (11) “…remained pretty steady.”

Henderson says the question remains as to whether the continued tethering of Trump’s and Rispone’s parallels will result in Republican voters viewing the race through a partisan lens.

Cut 8 (08) “…all about partisanship.”

Trump continues to focus on the Governor’s race with an appearance in Monroe tonight and he’ll be in Bossier City on November 14th.

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Public school report cards are out and the state’s overall performance score is up slightly, but more work needs to be done to improve struggling schools.

16 percent of schools scored an A, 32 percent a B, 29 percent a C, 14 percent a D, and nine percent a failing grade. Superintendent of Education John White compares that to last year.

Cut 9 (08)  “schools.”

The total number of school systems that earned an A rating jumped from four last year to nine this year.

By state metrics, overall quality is up, but a new federal rating metric, the Every Student Succeeds Act, has identified hundreds of problematic schools.

Cut 10 (11) “years.”

571 schools were identified under ESSA as having achieved low marks for two consecutive years in achievement for certain disadvantaged groups within the school.

White touts the work done to address problematic schools. He says 36 percent of those schools identified under ESSA have seen a three-point grade increase, compared to only 29 of schools overall.

Cut 11 (07) “…state.”

All 571 schools identified under ESSA must submit an action plan on how to address their overall problematic performance or their problematic performance with certain populations.

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Renown Pointe Coupee Parish Pulitzer-nominated author, and former UL Lafayette Writer-in-Residence Ernest Gaines passed away yesterday at 86.

Gaines was born on a plantation into a rural sharecropping family during the Great Depression, and told Jim Engster during an interview in 2008 that it wasn’t an easy upbringing…

Cut  12 (11) “…that way.” 

Gaines would eventually move to California in his teens because African Americans did not have a high school at that time in Pointe Coupee. Gaines returned home in the 80s after living in San Francisco.

Cut 13 (11) “…changed”

Gaines studied Literature at San Franciso State University before serving in the Army for two years.

Gaines found mass critical acclaim with his works The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman and A Lesson Before Dying, but saw a lot of himself in a protagonist from his 1963 short story, The Sky is Gray.

Cut 14 (07) “…everything.”

Much of Gaines’ work focuses on the experience of African Americans living in the Jim Crow south.