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The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Louisiana voters made their voices heard and rejected four constitutional amendments.

We'll look at what's next.

From bridges to drinking water.

Louisiana is struggling with outdated infrastructure.

I'll show you where the state ranks.

And our first young hero turned a challenging childhood into a passion for community service.

And a new book highlights designer Henry Bendel's rise from small town life to high fashion.

You ready?

Yeah.

Let's get started.

Let's do it.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Karen LeBlanc and I'm Dorothea Wilson.

Much more on those top stories in a moment on this week's edition of Louisiana, The State We're In.

But first, Governor Jeff Landry and his supporters are regrouping after voters rejected four constitutional amendments.

The proposals faced strong opposition from both Democrats and some Republicans.

I spoke with experts to see what drove voter turnout and whether the amendments could resurface.

Louisiana voters decisively rejected four constitutional amendments, marking one of the first significant political defeats for governor.

Geoff Landry and the Republican Supermajorities in the legislature.

So there's really a couple aspects to what happened with the amendment vote on Saturday night.

The first is looking at it purely from a demographic standpoint.

And that was all the way back to the first day of early voting.

I was noticing unusually high Democratic turnout, and that unusually high turnout sustained itself throughout the week of early voting and the absentee voting that came afterwards.

But what was kind of a bit of a surprise to me was I saw even stronger Democratic turnout on election night.

So there were two halves of the coin that combined to defeat the amendment.

around 66% of voters rejected all of the amendments.

In an election that could have major political implications for the remainder of Landry's term.

The Louisiana legislature may experience heightened opposition following the failure to win approval for his most ambitious policy initiative at the polls.

Maria Harman, leader of the Say No to Them All campaign with Step Up Louisiana, says this victory is only the beginning.

I can really see this, tradition emerging again in, in, in a very critical and positive way.

I'm also glad that we were able to, transcend, you know, racial backgrounds, social, economic backgrounds where faith leaders, united, generally together to see.

Because whenever you look at our state budget, it is a moral document.

It is a moral document.

So to see, leaders, stand up on moral clarity and actually educating the masses and saying, no, this is bad policy, and we have to use our voices and exercise our rights and our power.

On March 29th.

And that's what happened.

And it was so impactful.

And, it was many resources that came together as well that I think benefited the greater community.

Landry's focus for the election.

Amendment two sought to reduce the highest income tax rate the state could impose and limit annual growth in the state budget.

Additionally, it would have made introducing new tax breaks more difficult.

However, Barry Erwin from leaders for a Better Louisiana says parts of the proposal could have benefited the state.

Well, I think there were some positive things in there.

I mean, there clearly were the legislature passed it overwhelmingly.

I mean, I think there were things like doubling the size of the rainy day fund, making it bigger, cutting on taxes, income taxes for senior citizens, doing some things with the teacher pay part.

I mean, I think all of those things were favorable things.

But I think on the flip side, what you got was, you know, information about, well, it is getting rid of some education funds that have been there for a long time.

There was concern about churches that perhaps they were going to be taxed when I actually don't think they were.

However, former state Representative Woody Jenkins claims the contrary.

He argues that the amendments were ambitious and confusing for many, and that faith based institutions could have faced significant consequences.

He also says some things in the amendment's language were misleading.

So you can have many, many things in one bill.

But here in Louisiana, the Louisiana Constitution says that each bill has to have only one object.

So you can't throw everything in the kitchen sink.

And also that's a good thing for people to understand.

So it's really important that you focus in on one thing at a time in a constitutional amendment.

Now we had also people felt they were being deceived.

If you follow the teachers, they were being told that they were getting a permanent pay raise.

Well, no, it was not a pay raise actually, or it was promoted as well.

It keeps a homestead exemption.

Well, we have the homestead exemption, you know, and it says we keep religious exemption.

Well actually it was tremendously narrowing the religious exemption and eliminating the exemption for nonprofit organizations.

There were many things about it that people felt and I thought were deceiving in the way it was being described.

Jenkins says the public has voiced their opinion, and Governor Landry should respect the will of the voters.

There has to be better policy decisions.

There has to be better leadership.

And I think what you do in a situation like this, you say, we made some mistakes.

The people have spoken.

As long as there's an honest election, the people are always right when they get to vote because it's their government, right?

So I think that should be the message.

From hashtags to headlines.

Here's what's trending this week.

All right.

Louisiana is known for its musical talent.

Right.

Well, the next generation of superstars are on the rise.

Yes they are.

And three singers with Louisiana ties are being highlighted on American Idol right now.

Okay, now, that was Monroe native Clara Ray performing a country take on the song radioactive.

The 22 year old wowed the judges with her raspy voice and her cover, and her humble personality.

And LSU student Baylee Littrell also took the American Idol stage.

He performed an original song called Hey Jesus that he wrote in honor of his late grandmother.

Latrell spent a lot of time with her when his dad, Backstreet Boys star Brian Littrell, was on tour.

How cool.

Backstreet boy yeah, that's my era.

And LSU biology major John Foster greeted the idol host with coolers.

Get this full of boudin.

And before he hit the stage.

Now that is the way to wow the judges during his audition, foster sang don't rock the Jukebox by Alan Jackson.

He says he plans to go to medical school to focus on cancer treatment.

He hopes to become a singing oncologist.

We are definitely a breeding ground for musical talent.

What about a rock?

An American idol?

All right, well, we know that Louisiana has the best food, and soon the state's restaurant scene will get some major publicity.

The Michelin Guide announced that it will begin ranking and recognizing restaurants across the state.

That's right.

And anonymous inspectors have already been checking out restaurants to see which ones will get iconic Michelin stars and will be included in the new guide Well some music to food Louisiana is definitely making its mark on the world stage.

That's right.

And I am here for it all.

Now speaking of people making their mark in Louisiana, our first 2025 young hero had a difficult childhood, but used those challenges as motivation to succeed and to help others.

Jessica Anderson's passion for service comes from a life changing encounter early in her life.

Take a look at her inspiring story.

I would just like to say the push past to paint the paint is only temporary, but eventually the success and the growth you get, it'll last forever.

Meet Jessica Anderson, one of this year's young heroes.

She received her nomination from Assistant Principal Kim Thibodeaux and was selected from a pool of 1800 students at Southside High School in Youngsville, Louisiana.

I actually had the privilege of teaching her when she was a freshman.

She was in my art class and I knew she was special.

I think it was week one.

Kim says it was Jessica's willingness to serve that set her apart.

I think what she does is she puts others before herself, and she did that from day one as well.

She would come to me after school, and if you remember and you, you would say, Mr. Thibodeaux do you have anything I can help you with?

I'm here for like an extra, you know, our all.

And after hearing Jessica's personal story, Kim knew that the world needed to hear it.

It was really important to me that that information got out and that people knew how special she was.

Its Jess buddy Jessica was born and raised in Haiti and faced significant challenges early in her life.

After her biological mother died when she was just two years old, her father, unable to adequately support both her and her sister, made the difficult decision to seek assistance.

He placed his children in the care of a young missionary woman who had recently moved to Haiti.

I just knew that God had, you know, chosen us to be a family.

And so I said yes.

And, we lived together in Haiti for almost 11 years before we came to the States.

The three of them quickly formed a close knit family, giving Jessica the best of both worlds.

She now had her new adoptive mother, Megan Boudreaux, alongside her sister Nica, and her father, who still resides on the island.

However, their lives took an unexpected turn when Megan, Jessica, and Nika faced a sudden upheaval.

What was meant to be a brief trip to the States extended into what feels like an eternity.

We never knew that we weren't going back to Haiti, so she didn't, you know, pack up Haiti and pack up her room and say bye to her friends.

She literally packed to carry on.

We were coming for a visit for a week, and then it turned into four years.

And so to forever, you know?

Yeah, forever.

The day after Jessica and her family arrived in the United States from Haiti, Covid 19 brought the world to a standstill, preventing their return.

Once the world started to reopen, travel bans and advisories were then implemented due to extreme violence and harsh living conditions, rendering Haiti an unsafe travel destination.

As a result, Jessica faced yet another setback.

It started showing in my schoolwork, so I would say that was probably the hardest part of transition.

She felt isolated because of Covid 19 and missed her home in Haiti.

However, after weeks of exploration, a change took place.

She started to embrace life in Louisiana.

I mean, million word rejection.

Oh, was that.

So it's like it's a book club.

We go, we log on our books and we talk about what we're reading or other people are reading with.

We give book suggestions and then, deadline is actually April 27th, but if we read a million words, we get a t shirt from a district.

And how close are you to a million words?

She said I was like 75,000, I think.

I keep forgetting to log in.

So she she's always chasing an old.

And then I'm on principal's advisory council, which is a council.

And we're basically, like, the voice of the school.

We actually engineered the no tardy party.

So you had no authorities or no skips.

You got invited to this, and there's, like, nachos and games, and then I'm part of Beta Club, National Honor society.

Yes.

And then I am school ambassador, and then I'm part of mayor presidents youth advisory council.

Now, Jessica is involved in multiple athletic clubs, but the most surprising one is powerlifting.

I think piloting for sure this year has taught me to push past the pain, to lift even low is hurting and then being able to see how far we got.

And she's gotten pretty far just this past weekend.

Jessica placed seventh overall in a powerlifting competition in New Orleans.

This small but mighty young hero says she'll be back next year and is hoping for the gold.

In the meantime, she'll be busy preparing for her future after high school, I hope to go to Tulane University and study biomedical research.

Jessica plans to join forces with the Red cross and travel to Third world countries to research problems in the area and find solutions, starting with Haiti.

I am Jessica Anderson and I am a young hero.

Now, Karen, Jessica is a phenomenal young woman.

And it was such a pleasure meeting her.

And I want to say, Jessica, happy birthday to you.

We love you.

And thank you for all you do for Louisiana.

Very inspiring.

Yeah.

LPB Louisiana Young Heroes program is presented with the generous support of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library.

The Gail and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, and Fishman Haygood, Along with the title sponsor, Community Coffee and with additional support from the U.S. Army Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, Demco and McDonald's.

A new report highlights the state of Louisiana's infrastructure.

Now while some areas show progress, critical challenges remain, from crumbling roads and bridges to aging water systems.

I sat down with a civil engineering expert to see how these issues impact the everyday lives of Louisianans.

The 2025 infrastructure report card is out.

It's released by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

And it shows that Louisiana has room for improvement.

So here to talk about Louisiana's scores and infrastructure is Norma Jean Mutti.

She is emeritus professor at the University of New Orleans College of Engineering and the 2017 president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Thank you, first of all, for meeting us here on campus at Uno.

Let's start with the basics.

What is an infrastructure report card?

every four years we put together a report card.

We don't generate any of the data.

We use data that's available.

the, the grades went up, the overall, GPA for the country in all 18 categories went up to for the first time ever since 1998, a C. So a lot of the, the, current funding that got us to AC yay, this, this go round in 2025 on the the national report card.

It's coming from the the, bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs, act.

So, we really made a very, very large investment in our country's infrastructure, and it's making a difference because you see it in the grades.

What's wrong with Louisiana's roads?

on average, our bridges are older, our roads are older.

And because we have not been as diligent as we should have been when it comes to maintaining them, if there's if you could maintain anything in good condition, it's not as expensive.

But if you let things go because you're putting money in other places, well, where it gets into a certain condition where you really almost have to replace things.

So what I'm hearing is, part of the reason for Louisiana's poor grades and roads and bridges is deferred maintenance or or just really a lack of maintenance, lack of maintenance.

So lack of funding.

I want to focus on bridges.

Not only did the, infrastructure report card look at the condition of Louisiana's bridges, but so did the National Transportation Safety Board.

And they issued a report recently, that, identified six vulnerable bridges in Louisiana due to high Mississippi River traffic, high possibility of collision, hence high possibility of collapse.

we actually have eight that NTSB, identified.

So one is in Lake Charles, and then the other seven are along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

We always think about the Crescent City, connection as being one bridge.

It's two bridges, the older one and the newer one.

And all eight of these bridges are, they were designed and constructed before 1996.

So there were there guidelines in place there, specs in place that require this, this, assessment be done for new bridges since 1991.

Then you'll have to figure out what you can do to what can you put in place to to to decrease that vulnerability, to get it below the threshold.

I'm going to call up some of the other interesting findings.

It also says that there are 44 high hazard dams.

So, so our dams on average are about in their 60s.

So, so that means that half of them are older than that.

Now a high hazard dam doesn't have anything to do with its condition.

It has everything to do with do people live down below the dam?

So that if the dam has a problem, if it fails, it is a safety issue, which is one of the ways we grade.

We develop our grades, $9 billion in total drinking water need was also part of the report findings.

When we say drinking water need, what does that mean?

Are we drinking polluted water?

So we are we're actually cleaning a whole lot of water.

It leaks out the pipes before it gets to us.

So at many, many places, it's 30, 40, sometimes even 50%, because it's old systems, leaky pipes, deferred maintenance.

So you've got to clean a whole lot more water to get the water to the customer.

And you don't, there there's also an affordability issue.

One of the report findings tagged Louisiana Superfund sites calling attention to 28 Superfund sites in Louisiana.

What is the issue there?

So Superfund sites, that's another category.

So hazardous waste.

So when you have hazardous waste sites that are a a cause of concern from a public health standpoint, they require cleanup mitigation and cleanup.

And Louisiana has quite a number of Superfund sites.

The good news is there was funding for it.

And we're starting to see a lot of those sites being cleaned up.

So I believe hazardous waste went up a great since the last four, the last report four years ago.

we will eagerly await the next Alpha Structure report card to see if we can go from C average to B, or maybe even B plus.

What do you think?

I don't know, I'd just be happy if we get a C plus B in the right direction.

All right.

Well thank you so much for joining us here today on the campus of the University of New Orleans, to share your insight and your expertise on the state of the state's infrastructure.

It's been my pleasure.

One of the most influential retailers of the 20th century hails from Lafayette, Louisiana.

Henry Bendel parlayed his Louisiana roots to become the namesake of luxury department stores.

I opened the book on Henry Bendel with author Tim Alice, also a Lafayette native who wrote a biography, Chronicles, calling Wendell's trajectory from the Bayou State to the echelons of French culture.

In a small Lafayette cemetery, a sculpture of an angel watching over a woman clutching a wreath that says mother inspires all for its fluid artistry.

Lafayette native Henri Bendel commissioned the sculpture from France to honor his parents gravesites.

It's one of the few remaining vestiges in the hometown of this fashion legend, who founded Bechdel's Department Store in New York City in 1895.

Influencing the course of fashion.

I was really struck by how loyal he was to his Louisiana roots and to his family.

Tim Alice grew up in the Lafayette neighborhood, Bendel Gardens, named after the famous retailer.

Tim was unaware of Henry Mendel's pioneering contributions to fashion until he wrote the retailer's life story in Henri Bendel and the worlds he fashioned.

I met up with the author at the Lafayette Museum, also known as the Mouton House, which pays homage to Henri Bendel.

A portrait of the fashion designer hangs next to a wedding dress Henri designed for his niece.

He grew up in a very, enterprising Jewish merchant family.

His parents had immigrated his father from Austria and his mother from Prussia, they ran 5 or 6 businesses here on Washington Street.

They had the dry goods, they had the funeral parlor, they had an opera house, a little performance space above one of their stores.

And, they even sold, horses and mules.

I mean, and this was a lot about Henry's mother, who was very, very, a very, very hardworking, enterprising woman.

the merchandizing manager really comes from his mother.

Henri Bendel was a fashion designer, a milliner and a tastemaker.

He made fashion accessible while introducing customers to French couture in his department store.

He was the first to bring Coco Chanel dresses to America in the early 19 teens.

And, he also was a very enterprising businessman, and he he was pioneering with clearance sales, branding, opening satellite stores, as in Newport and Palm Beach.

He had a syndicated column in the 1920s and 30s, and this allowed him to reach, women all across America who might never have the, the, the means to come to New York and shop in his stores.

But he was giving them fashion advice about hemlines and colorways and bridal wear and swimwear and hats.

Henri Bendel was unconventional for his time.

A gay man and a small town Southerner who lived his life unapologetically.

Henry spent most of his life with male companions, including two at the same time, which was very unorthodox in that era.

But of course, all of this had to be very discreet.

he was both, an innovator, but very old fashioned.

And I think that he was, more than anything, the duality of being a great businessman, but also an artist at the same time.

I He could run the store with an iron fist, but he could design a hat, or he could go in just a window or greet customers, wrap a package.

Bendel Department Store had a 123 year run.

It remained open after Henry's death in 1936 under several subsequent ownerships until its last owner.

L brands, owner of Victoria's Secret, closed all Bindle department stores in 2019. he was born three years after the end of the Civil War and to become the great Henry Bendel, that Cole Porter wrote music, lyrics about your Bendel bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet.

You're Mickey Mouse.

I mean, what are the chances of that?

And I just hope that people see in his tale, a kind of empowerment to dream big.

Because Henry definitely dreamed big.

that's our show for this week, remember?

You can watch anything.

LPB any time, wherever you are with our LPB app.

That's right.

And you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Karen LeBlanc and I'm Dorothea Wilson.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.