LRN PM Newscall October 21

Children’s advocates are sounding the alarm with no end in sight to the federal government shutdown. Andrew Greenstein reports.

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Two disappointing losses on the road for the LSU football team, and Coach Brian Kelly finds himself on the hot seat in his fourth season in Tiger Town. Jeff Palermo has the story…

Cut 2 (32) “…I’m Jeff Palermo.”

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Children’s advocates in Louisiana are sounding the alarm amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. Susan East Nelson, the executive director of the Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families, says if the shutdown goes on much longer – and there’s no end in sight – some 800-thousand SNAP recipients might not get their benefits come November 1st.

Cut 3 (10) “…the state level.”

Nelson says the timing of all this couldn’t be any worse.

Cut 4 (13) “…meals at school.”

SNAP recipients make up almost 20-percent of Louisiana’s population. Nelson says if they don’t get those benefits on the first of the month, they will have to scramble just to put food on the table.

Cut 5 (10) “…fill the gap.”

Nelson says food pantries currently don’t even come close to having enough food for all SNAP recipients. She says for every meal they provide, SNAP provides about nine.

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The LSU football team’s 5-2 record has the Tigers coach Brian Kelly on the hot seat as the Bayou Bengals have under performed this season. Tiger Rag Editor Glenn Guilbeau says he could see athletics director Scott Woodward firing Kelly after this season, if LSU goes 8-4 or 7-3, even though the buyout would be 53-million dollars…

Cut 6 (05) “…for football.”

When LSU moved on from Ed Orgeron in 2021, the buyout was close to 18-million dollars. Les Miles received 11-million dollars from LSU when he was let go in 2016.

LSU will not only have to spend 53-million dollars to buyout Kelly from his six remaining years left on his contract, but they’ll also have to pay tens of millions more dollars for a new coaching staff and overhauling the roster through the transfer portal. Guilbeau says it’s a lot of money, which is why the LSU athletic department is hoping Kelly can still produce a respectable season…

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This was supposed to be Kelly’s best team at LSU, but Guilbeau says the coaching staff has yet to produce a championship contender…

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20th ranked LSU hosts 3rd ranked Texas A&M this Saturday night.

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This was expected to be the smallest cotton crop in Louisiana recorded history and it has turned out to be even smaller than expected. LSU AgCenter Cotton Specialist Shelly Pate Kerns says low prices and concerns about severe storms or drought damaging the crop scared many farmers away from planting cotton…

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And Kerns says as expected, the price cotton farmers are getting for their crop remains low…

Cut 10 (11) “…per pound.”

But Kerns says it’s not all bad news. She says the yields have been excellent…

Cut 11 (09) “…good looking cotton.”

The LSU Ag Center says cotton yields averaged just over one-thousand pounds per acre last year and this year’s crop should meet or exceed that number.

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Four people are dead in a pair of house fires in Louisiana over the weekend. Ken Pastorick with the State Fire Marshal’s Office says one happened Saturday morning in Hessmer, in Avoyelles Parish.

Cut 12 (04) “…ten-year-old boy.”

(The fire killed a 58-year-old man, a 47-year-old woman and a ten-year-old boy.) The other fire happened late Sunday night in Houma, in which a 70-year-old man was killed, while his brother suffered serious injuries. Pastorick says the causes of these fires are unknown at this time.

Cut 13 (08)  “…of these fires.”

Pastorick says these fires underscore the sheer importance of always having working smoke detectors in your home.

Cut 14 (06) “…at this time.”