Support for Louisiana.

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 Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana.

Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you, Louisiana handling the crawfish shortage with a sense of humor, an artist uses wood to chronicle Louisiana's beautiful history and a New Iberia teacher rewarded for exemplary creativity.

Let's get started.

Hi, everyone.

I'm crossing here.

Carolina law is out this evening.

Much more on those top stories in a moment on this week's edition of S.W.A.T..

But first, the special crime session ended Thursday, six days ahead of schedule.

The Republican dominated legislature pushed through a slew of tough on crime bills that now await the governor's signature.

We're going to list some of those bills for you, starting with a bill that would expand the death penalty to include other methods like the electric chair and nitrogen gas.

A bill that would treat 17 year olds charged with a crime as adults.

The permit was carry a bill that would nix government permits and firearm training, allowing all people 18 and older to carry firearms.

And a bill that would heighten the charges for crimes like carjacking.

Those convicted could face 2 to 5 years behind bars and 20 to 30 years if the incident becomes violent.

Any bills that didn't make it through the session can be picked up in the regular session that begins March 11th.

We'll be bringing you more coverage of these bills in the weeks to come.

Well, Governor Jeff Landry is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture for federal assistance for Louisiana's crawfish industry.

The recent drought and record heat have sent crawfish prices soaring and produce smaller crawfish.

Although the crawfish crisis is no joking matter.

Well, Louisiana is able to take a lighthearted approach to crawfish season with a crawfish pardon and a positive attitude, hoping for better days ahead.

PBS's Carolyn Bland traveled to the crawfish capital of the World Breaux Bridge to talk with crawfish farmers about the challenges with the harvest.

Now, as a power vested in me as lieutenant governor, the great state of Louisiana.

I do hereby pardon Sam and collect the crawfish may live his life and happiness in Louisiana.

Sherman is one lucky crawfish spared from the boiling pot with an official pardon at the eighth annual pardoning of the Crawfish and Breaux Bridge.

Crawfish capital of the world.

Louisiana recognizes that a turkey shouldn't be the only animal to get a second chance.

And.

Whereas, the Tuesday after Mardi Gras is officially known as the pardoning of the crawfish in Louisiana.

And.

WHEREAS, Sherman, the crawfish has been selected from the other brave crawfish who will meet their fate with courage and sacrifice and will serve in trouble, free from being served in any boiling dish and shall be free from water any hotter than what is found in the beautiful swamps and bayous of Louisiana.

Sherman The crawfish gets his name from the mayor of Henderson.

Sherman collects a cottage farmer who traded in his notes for politics.

I'm still fishing part time, but what I wanted to do is fish all my life crawfish, and you will never get rich.

So it got to a point that it was getting tougher and tougher.

It wasn't reliable anymore.

When the imports came in.

That pretty much adopted.

My wife said, We can make a living just fishing anymore.

So that's why I asked him to get into politics.

I didn't join.

Crawfish season is off to a late start.

Delayed by drought, extreme heat and then a freeze.

Bury as the official person to pardon the crawfish that the last seven years this year.

Can we afford to pardon a crawfish given the way the crawfish season is shaping up?

It's getting better.

It really is getting better.

Very.

Toups is the owner of Crawfish Haven and Mrs. Rose's bed and breakfast.

And Kaplan.

He found Sherborne looking for the largest crawfish he could find, which is not an easy task.

With his nets pulling in smaller and fewer bed bugs, is this one of the most challenging crawfish season you've seen since you've been in business?

By far, by far the most the most challenging.

We've had some droughts in the early eighties that kind of set us back a little bit.

But right now, way, bad way, this is the worst.

Louisiana saw the crawfish crisis coming in late November with the release of the LSU Drought Impact Report, which projected a $139.8 million hit to the crawfish industry due to issues with water availability and high salinity levels.

Governor Jeff Landry in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, underscores that Louisiana leads the nation in crawfish production, supplying 100 million to £120 million a year and contributing more than 425 million to the state economy.

He's asking the Federal Government to expand the Emergency livestock assistance Program to include drought as a cause of loss for crawfish.

All those fishermen have been spending a lot of money not making a nickel.

They're not coming out ahead and getting in debt.

So I'm hoping it starts pretty soon that it can be all the expansion and actually come up with a little bit of profit That's still yet to be seen.

It typically crawfish harvest starts as early as December and is in full swing by February.

Add to the delayed start and short supplies, crawfish farmers are battling foreign imports, impersonating Louisiana Crawdads.

How big of a threat are these imports to to the crawfish you just heard?

We need to have a first, second, third offense for mislabeling because they'll take imports and put it in a package and call it Boudreau's crawfish.

And you don't know that it's imported.

We need to find them.

We need inspected for bacteria.

And I want to explore whether legally we can put a fee on there for inspecting all the imported seafood that comes into the state.

I think if we make it a safety issue, we can legally add that fee and inspect all the seafood and they'll get tired of getting it rejected and go take that junk elsewhere.

And more challenges await crawfish farmers as they stocked their fields in May and June to prepare for 2025.

Limited supplies of brood stocks and higher prices could produce less harvestable acres next season.

Or you could still dine out to go.

But now it's just the supplies not there.

It is coming in more and more each day.

We're seeing that by prices dropping and the market price is dropping a little bit more every week.

So the supply is coming in.

It's growing.

It may be slow, but we just have to have a little bit of patience.

As for Sherborne, he's living his best life at Lake Foss Point State Park in Saint Martinville.

Meanwhile, crawfish farmers hope to harvest more Sherborne sized crawdads and time to feed the demand, although prices may vary.

And for more on crawfish, be sure to watch the Louisiana Harvest of the Month broadcast special featuring the crops, crawfish and rice on Wednesday, March 6th at 7 p.m.. Well, from hashtags to headlines, here's what's trending this week, starting with this story.

A baby pig rescued from a rowdy group of parade goers who tossed it in the air like a football during Mardi Gras was pardoned this week by Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Nungesser declared that Earle, Piglet Long, that is his name, would never be thrown like a football again or become part of someone's jambalaya or boudin.

He was pardoned in a small ceremony in front of the Capitol held by his new adoptive mother.

Representative Lauren van Trawler Earl will live out the rest of his days on Cantrell, a small farm sanctuary in a piece.

I'm glad he got a happy ending after such a traumatic start.

Just some background information on the little guy who was thrown out by three adults not far from a parade route.

When someone noticed scooped him up and got him to the Humane Society.

Now, it's not uncommon to catch stuffed animals during a mardi Gras parade, but live animals.

That doesn't happen.

It's not supposed to.

And moving on.

Speaking of Mardi Gras, a crew in New Orleans is pledging to make Carnival more sustainable.

And they plan to do that, starting with their throws.

The crew of Firet is making it a goal to only throw biodegradable beads instead of plastic ones starting in 2025.

So according to a press release from the group, they plan to remove 2 million plastic beads from the ecosystem.

Now, Mardi Gras is known to be an environmental hazard.

Most plastic beads are made with a component that can be toxic for the environment.

Also, the holiday created more than £2.5 million of waste in 2023.

So the crew for Red says they'll focus on more sustainable items that people can cherish instead.

Now, moving on to some exciting news on April eight this year, we're in for a real treat.

North America will experience a total solar eclipse, a rare event where the moon completely covers the sun, casting a shadow over parts of the continent.

The path of totality where observers can witness the full eclipse will stretch across Mexico, the United States and Canada, offering a spectacular view of the corona.

Major cities along this path, including Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo, promising an unforgettable celestial spectacle for millions.

And that's super cool, right?

So just make sure to grab some eclipse glasses to watch it safely.

They were all a teacher was a natural fit for Christine Beard.

She comes from a legacy of educators who inspired her to be creative in the classroom.

After eight years as a sixth grade math teacher in New Iberia, she decided to revamp her curriculum with what she calls transformations.

She decorates her classroom six times a year to bring the students an immersive lesson they'll remember forever.

Byard was recognized for her exemplary creativity.

For the $25,000 award from the Milken Family Foundation.

Take a look.

For Christine Biard, mathematics always came easily.

While other kids her age were watching television or playing outside, Biard was in her room solving for X in combining light terms.

The subject of math was a mystery she'd always wanted to solve.

But as time progressed, it became a passion she wanted to share.

And what better way to bring her joy of learning to others than to teach?

Our final expression is eight X plus 8.5 Y plus 3xy plus four.

I've been in schools my whole life, like not only going to school, but when I would have time off, I would go to my mom schools.

So my mom taught in Iberia Parish for 34 years.

I believe.

And then my two aunts also were teachers at other schools in Iberia Parish.

So any time I had off, I was spending at a school helping anyone I could.

So teaching is kind of like it's in your blood.

It really is.

My mom was teaching at Hopkins Street Elementary when she was pregnant for me.

Fired.

Combined her family's history of education and with her passion for arithmetic to become a teacher herself.

She's been teaching sixth grade at Johnston Hopkins Elementary in New Iberia for ten years now.

And each day is like the first and exciting challenge of bringing students into a complicated lesson, pushing their limits beyond what they thought was possible.

I remember this one student few years ago.

She walked in my classroom and probably the first week said, I hate math.

And I said, okay.

I looked across classrooms and said, Challenge accepted.

And maybe four weeks, five weeks later, she comes up to me, she goes, misfired.

I don't hate math anymore.

I actually like math.

And I love that I was able to make that change in that child Fired was able to do that in part because of her creativity.

Teaching children complex information is a challenge, and Bayard finds that kids respond better if you make their experience memorable and immersive.

So she started thinking, How can I better engage my students?

So a couple of years ago, we got a new curriculum, and in the curriculum there were certain math problems that I thought were very creative.

For instance, there was one where we got to build our own virtual race car on our Chromebooks.

And so I decided I was going to decorate the classroom and we put out tablecloths with like yellow stripes down the middle like a road.

I dressed up in a racecar driver suit.

We had the checkered flag is across the classroom.

And when the kids walked in, they were just amazed.

These changes were called her transformations.

The name pretty much sums it up.

She transformed herself in the classroom to fit a certain theme a few times a year, and eventually it became a tradition that kids look forward to.

Even the ones that weren't in her class.

The little kids will stop me in the hallway because we're a pre-K to sixth school.

I can't wait to be in sixth grade math.

I'm like, Don't worry, I'll still be here.

So how do you do your transformations?

So I keep everything pretty organized.

I have these at home.

It's a container full of supplies for one transformation.

So if I'm going to be doing a lesson on space, I have alien headbands for all the students.

I have my astronaut suit and the background stars, planet, everything in one box.

So that when I have that transformation, I bring it to school.

These.

These are the planets.

These are the planets.

the little lanterns.

Okay, Plenty of stars.

And I just hang everything up, and it transforms this entire classroom into outer space.

Viad's only done this for two years, but her impact was monumental.

Inspiring teachers all over the U.S..

The Milken Educator Award goes to Christine.

Why are so Fired?

Was recognized for the Milken Educator Award.

It's a $25,000 check only gifted to the nation's best teachers.

Fired was starstruck.

My students, my baby said, I know you're sixth graders.

You don't want to be called babies, but you are my babies.

You all keep me going every day.

And I couldn't do this without you guys.

I love you guys.

In the case of Christine Boehner, which I thought was very, very interesting, is that here is an incredibly talented young person who was in the retail sale industry law.

Milken, the founder of the Milk and Family Foundation, that gifts the award, says Biard, was a shoo in.

It's so remarkable to think about how she can positively impact thousands of young people's lives.

And it only happened because she made that decision to go into teaching.

One of the things that I'm trying to achieve also is to inspire the young people at these assemblies to consider teaching as a career, to consider the adventure of teaching.

As for buyer, the $25,000 will cut out a chunk of her expenses school supplies, decorations, costumes.

She won't have to worry about this for a long time.

People keep asking me how I'm going to spend it.

I haven't really thought of anything right now.

It's just been focused on continuing what I'm doing, making sure that my kids at home can be successful in everything they do, and my kids at school can be successful in everything they do.

But for now, she says she'll continue her transformations and keep creating those immersive learning experience as her kids love.

Louisiana has not executed any death row inmate since 2010, despite being one of the states where the penalty is legal.

Now that Jeff Landry has taken over the governor's chair, conversations about the death penalty and how it's performed are resurfacing.

House Bill number six moved through committee and into the debate for early Thursday morning.

Cecelia Kappel, a death row lawyer best known for filing clemency applications for several inmates last year, tells us what the bill means and how it could potentially affect her clients.

First, I just want to say thank you so much for agreeing to sit down with us.

I know for you you are a death row lawyer and the death penalty has really come back into public conversation, especially after last year.

Before we get into that, I want to start with asking the question.

Louisiana is one of the states where the death penalty is still legal, but we haven't executed anyone since 2010.

Why is that?

Well, for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, we have an 84% reversal rate of death sentences.

That means that 84% of the time somebody that is sentenced to death has either their sentence or conviction reversed.

And since the time that I have been doing this work, which is 15 years, we've seen 36 people removed off of death row because their conviction or sentence was unconstitutional.

There's also been trouble getting the drugs used for lethal injection, and that's because the manufacturers of these drugs fundamentally object to the use of their medicines to kill someone.

And so we've seen departments of corrections around the country resorting to black market drugs, compounded drugs from sketchy pharmacies and other tactics to try to kill people.

The death penalty came back into public conversation because 51 out of the 57 inmates at the time applied for clemency applications.

And I know that you were one of the lawyers representing some of the inmates that were on death row.

What was the result of that?

Were any of those inmates ever granted clemency?

Not a single one.

And I credit that to Governor Landry's interference with the process, which we assert was improper and prevented the pardon board from hearing the merits of these cases.

So not a single hearing on the merits occurred.

And I'll note that the one person on death row that did not file clemency had his conviction reversed just a few months ago or last month in January.

So Governor Landry had said from the beginning, during his campaign years and while he was working on that process, that he would try to bring executions back in Louisiana, even though technically they've never been illegal.

He wanted to start executions again.

And now we're kind of seeing the beginning of that with House Bill six.

Can you explain what this bill would do and how that would potentially affect some of your clients?

Yes, Governor Landry told us he was going to do this.

He's been telling us since at least 2018 when he was attorney general.

In fact, he posted his proposed legislation back then almost six years ago.

So we've known that he was going to do this.

This should come as a surprise to no one.

What this bill does is it adds new and unconstitutional methods of execution electric chair, which we stopped using in 1990 because it was causing horrific botches and horrible pain and nitrogen and suffocation, which has been used one single time in Alabama and the nation and the country, the probably the world would agree that that was a botched execution.

And so this bill is not about whether we are for or against the death penalty.

It doesn't abolish or reinstitute the death penalty or impose a moratorium.

What it's about is how far would we go as a state to kill a man?

How does Louisiana's House Bill six compare to other states outside of Alabama?

I believe around six states that authorize the use of gas to execute individuals, only to authorize the nitrogen method.

And only one has use it on one person.

Kenny Smith, who struggled to breathe and vomited and aspirated his vomit.

And it was a pretty horrible situation for everyone watching.

So that's the concern, is that nitrogen gas is going to it'll be a botched execution.

Somebody could suffer in the process.

Absolutely.

And I think that it's hard for a lot of us to imagine being electrocuted.

It's just such a foreign thing.

But I think we all as human beings can imagine being suffocated and what that feeling would be like and count the minutes, you know, for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, how that would feel.

And then ultimately die.

So as a death row attorney, what does this mean?

This bill passing it, it passed.

What does this mean for you?

What does this mean for your clients?

it means a lot of lawsuits.

There's going to be a lot of litigation.

I think things are going to be tied up and the fact that the legislature has authorized electrocution is just it's surprising to me because in 1990, the legislature overwhelmingly voted to replace electrocution with lethal injection because it was cruel and unusual and they wanted to move forward away from that barbaric method.

You know, we've heard a lot about the families of the victims and in the past several weeks and there's been a lot of vocal families of victims.

And the families of the victims in these cases should always be listened to.

Their voices should always be heard.

But not only those victims that are in favor of the death penalty, there are victims that are against the execution of the person that was convicted of killing their loved one.

And those voices are important, too.

And I have been really disappointed to see our legislators basically say there's real victims and they're fake victims.

And the real victims are the ones that want executions.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Thursday morning, lawmakers heard testimony from both those in support of and those opposed to the bill.

Those in opposition testified that the bill would violate protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

While proponents argue that the bill would fulfill contractual obligations to the families of victims, House Bill six will head to the governor's desk for his signature.

Folk artist Henry Watson travels the back roads of Louisiana and a search of old and abandoned buildings that could be lost to history.

He sounds just the wood and uses it as the canvas to chronicle Louisiana's heritage.

LP These Karen LeBlanc takes us to St Francisville to watch the artist at work creating hand-carved art collected worldwide.

If these old cypress boards could speak, what would they say?

Folk artist Henry Watson gives them a voice sculpting their stories with a mallet and chisel.

I'm trying to save that bygone era of not just washing away and not have any history of it.

I putting into honey you would wear you could still look at it every day.

Henry searches the back roads of Louisiana for old buildings on the verge of being lost to history and salvages the wood to turn into canvases for his 3D artwork.

So I start with a blank board like this, and I start just imagining what was there.

And I love you.

See that?

I love the trees because the trees was a very important part of life.

So most of all of the historical homes and building is all built on these huge oak trees, all these huge population trees.

And these trees we have moss hanging down and dripped there from them.

And all of that captivated me.

You know, those days of old and when I get this wood from these old buildings, the first thing I started thinking about is what would fit the boat and how I could tell that story.

The self-taught artist began carving cypress wood in high school in his hometown of Livonia.

Today, his works are on display around the world, chronicling Louisiana's landscapes building and people making him a sort of cultural ambassador.

His painting of the pope sits in the Vatican.

This piece is his last remaining work sold at the 1984 World's Fair.

Henry also connects with thousands of travelers to Louisiana, arriving on riverboat cruises that stop at his new road studio.

I've been traveling and being with this for over 40 years, so you've got to know with 40 years of history and traveling, this site at some point is going to meet this side.

And when that happens, this man is going to be retired.

So it's almost like how many licks it takes to get to the finish.

So the mallet is going to retire, but are you going to retire?

Henry draws inspiration from Louisiana landscapes, history and heritage.

As we walk the grounds of Butler, Greenwood Plantation Bed and Breakfast, a place he retreats to from time to time to work in solitude, he talks about his muses, thinking about how things would have been 100 years ago.

I get inspired by just looking at the trees and the home itself and even the plants and things that surround it.

I mean, I'll tell the story.

My job as the Woodcarver is to capture those memories and those stories.

Look at this.

This is Louisiana at its finest.

Wow.

And a lot of it on the property all over this place is just great with it here on the grounds of this early 19th century plantation under the canopy of ancient moss draped oaks.

Henry hears the landscape, whispering more stories to tell.

Etched in the wood of Louisiana's official state tree.

Somewhere tucked away is a little cabin, an old barn wood that would continue to tell the story of South Louisiana.

Everybody's becoming where they grew up, where they come from.

But when I put it in his Honey, your world is going to live on forever.

And that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything else any time, wherever you are with our PBS app.

You can catch OPB 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 X and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm crossing here.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in support for Louisiana.

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 Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

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

And by visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.