House Speaker Mike Johnson has drawn four challengers in his District Four race, including two Democrats. Andre Champagne reports.
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A former mayor of New Orleans is remembering a civil rights giant who passed away yesterday. Andrew Greenstein reports.
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A 16-year-old is facing an attempted second-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting a 14-year-old along a Lake Charles Mardi Gras parade route Tuesday night. Jeff Palermo has the story.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson has drawn four challengers in his District Four race – two Republicans and two Democrats. One of those Democrats is Conrad Cable, a fifth-generation farmer from, appropriately, Farmerville. Cable says Johnson and his fellow Republicans have enacted policies that have decimated Louisiana farmers.
The other Democrat on the District Four primary ballot is Matt Gromlich (GROM-lick) of Greenwood. He comes from a different background – he’s a long-time educator, currently teaching at LSU-Shreveport. As such, education issues are among his top priorities should voters send him to Washington.
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While Cable and Gromlich differ in backgrounds, they’re on the same page when it comes to their criticism of the speaker and his role in shaping the current national political discourse. Cable says this country is on fire, and Johnson is largely to blame.
Gromlich accuses Johnson of prioritizing Republican donors and special interests and ignoring the people of the Fourth District who he represents.
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Johnson’s two Republican challengers are Mike Nichols of Pitkin and Joshua Morott (muh-ROT), who lists his home as Benton, Arkansas, but claims to be a resident of Louisiana, as required by law in order to be elected to the U.S. House.
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Remembrances are pouring on for another civil rights giant. Dr. Norman C. Francis passed away yesterday morning at the age of 94. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu was a lifelong friend of Dr. Francis; he says while he could have been a world-class lawyer, potentially on a path to the U.S. Supreme Court, he chose a career in academia, serving as president of Xavier University for almost a half-century.
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Landrieu says Francis’ actions were transformative in the fight for civil rights in the South in the 1960s.
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Landrieu notes that during the latter part of Francis’ presidency at Xavier, he was also instrumental in the recovery effort following Hurricane Katrina, serving as chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
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Landrieu says with Francis’ passing, everyone will need to step up and fill his shoes, especially these days when the leadership that he showed is needed more than ever.
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A 16-year-old is facing an attempted second-degree murder charge after allegedly shooting another teenager during a Mardi Gras Parade in Lake Charles Tuesday night. Deputies say a 14-year-old suffered a single gunshot wound to his arm and was treated at a hospital. Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Stitch Guillory says thankfully, no one else was injured.
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Guillory says deputies found the gun yesterday; it had been stolen from a bar on Common Street. He says there’s a photo on social media of the 16-year-old suspect holding the gun.
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The 16-year-old is also charged with reckless discharge of a firearm at a parade and illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile. Guillory says another 12 people were arrested on weapons and disorderly charges, as eight guns were confiscated along the parade route. The sheriff says holding parades on the night of Fat Tuesday may no longer be a good idea.
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“The Fighting Tiger,” a documentary released on the SEC Network, highlights legendary gymnastics coach D-D Breaux and how she built LSU’s program from the ground up. The documentary spotlights Breaux’s passion for gymnastics, which dates all the way back to when she received a balance beam for Christmas as a kid.
The documentary shows how Breaux fought to keep the gymnastics program alive after several athletic directors threatened to cut the program. One of the most dramatic moments in the film comes when Breaux wrote a letter to LSU Athletic Director Joe Dean, requesting better resources to work with. Breaux says she will never forget the assistant athletic director’s response.
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LSU gymnastics finally started to get the support it needed when Skip Bertman became athletic director in 2001. Breaux says Bertman supported her when no one else did on campus.
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LSU women’s basketball’s 79-72 loss to South Carolina last Saturday marked the fourth time this season the Tigers failed to close out a game in the fourth quarter. Cory Diaz of the USA Today Network says the inability to come out on top late comes from LSU’s lack of killer instincts.
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The seventh-ranked Lady Tigers look to get back in the win column tonight when they take on 17th-ranked Ole Miss in Oxford at 8 p.m. LSU looks to avenge last year’s loss to Ole Miss on senior night, and Diaz could see it coming down to the wire.
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Diaz believes LSU will win the remainder of its regular-season games. If the Tigers do win out, Diaz says it would likely set up a rematch with South Carolina in the SEC Tournament.
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