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.

How effective will Louisiana's criminal justice system be after the special crime session?

As the Ukraine Russia war rages on?

Hear from a former LSU basketball player about the plight of his homeland.

And a restaurant in New Orleans providing meals and place of the summer EDT program.

And it's the 40th anniversary of the Louisiana World's Fair.

Will share memories and musings.

You ready?

I'm ready.

Let's do this.

Let's do it.

Hi, everyone.

I'm passing here and I'm on the block.

Much more on those top stories in a moment.

On this week's edition of Louisiana, the State we're In.

But first, during the recent special crime session, lawmakers passed a slew of tough on crime bills.

While most of the bills passed quickly through the legislature, some researchers and criminal justice organizations worry that reconstruction of our system may not have the intended effect on crime reduction.

Here's analysis of that special session.

The special crime session began with the governor promising to pass as much of the call list as he could in a two week session.

I would do everything within my power to improve the safety of our communities through both legislative and executive action.

Today, we continue that process.

The result was a brief special session totaling nine working days, ending six days ahead of schedule.

Lawmakers passed a slew of tough on crime bills, most aligning with campaign promises Governor Landrieu announced a year ago, including tougher sentencing for crimes like carjacking.

Restricting parole eligibility and allowing teens as young as 17 to be tried as adults.

The latest laws are a complete overhaul of Louisiana's criminal justice system, which was revamped just seven years ago under the previous administration.

But what are the key differences in a new system and how do they compare to the reforms made in 2017?

Governor Edwards and I want to be clear with a very bipartisan group of supporters like he got the legislature passed what is known as the Justice Reinvestment Act.

The result was a bipartisan ten bill package focused on three main objectives reducing Louisiana's prison population and costs, reinvesting the savings into recidivism and reentry programs, and expanding research based sentencing.

The initiative most notably reduced the number of incarcerated nonviolent offenders, eliminating Louisiana's notorious title of incarceration capital.

It was a well-researched and, you know, pretty long study before they got to the point of passing the legislation.

And they didn't pass everything that was proposed.

Slight upticks in crime during the pandemic make it difficult to determine just how effective the initiative was.

According to the Crime and Justice Institute.

The prison population declined 24% between 2016 and 2017.

A legislative audit report puts savings at $153 million.

But Governor Landry says the dip in the prison population created more crime instead of reducing it.

As attorney general, I warned that the goal of the criminal justice reform should not be about letting people out of jail.

It should be about how to keep people from going to jail.

And those warnings went unheeded.

The crime bills Landrieu passed prioritize harsher consequences and longer jail times, something Alanna Odom's, the executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, criticizes for not aligning with research.

No, unfortunately, the reforms that were pushed forward in the Special Crimes session of 2024 were completely bereft of any data or analysis.

As a matter of fact, most of them, at least all of them that I know were based on anecdote and based on an ideology of punitive, a punitive effect of the criminal legal system whereby if you punish people more severely, you deter crime, which is a very false kind of equation.

The Crime and Justice Institute pulled data from other states that implemented similar legislation to the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in 2017.

They found that Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina saw notable declines in their overall prison population and an increase in violent offenders being incarcerated.

There was about two years of research that went into the 2017 reforms that really backed up this idea that you you don't need to incarcerate people who've committed low level, nonviolent offenses for longer.

That's actually not something that's very helpful.

There isn't a way to know exactly how Landrieu's new justice system will affect crime rates or taxpayer dollars.

The Crime and Statistics Institute speculates that if incarceration levels return to 2016 rates, the state could expect to pay $270 million more each year.

But according to the Public Affairs and Research Council, we can't make that determination quite yet because we don't know exactly how many people will end up in our jails and prisons.

There are some fiscal notes that were in the estimate of millions of dollars per piece of legislation over a multi-year period.

But so many of the bills involve sentencing.

That hasn't happened yet that it's hard to determine.

Most of the agenda items have already been signed into law by the governor.

Scott Payton, the Louisiana director of Write on Crime, a conservative group focused on crime reduction, says he hopes some of the bills can be revisited at a later time.

I don't think any any of the lawmakers have ill intentions.

I think they're doing what they honestly believe is the best.

But that decision has to be informed on that.

It has to be informed by research.

And if you're conservative, this is how we we manage every aspect of government.

We look at what the facts are and we move according to that data from hashtags to headlines.

Here is what's trending this week.

So Super Tuesday came and went.

Waiting out the 2024 presidential candidates, we look like we're left with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and, of course, Democratic frontrunner President Joe Biden.

They both have the votes thus far to face off in the general election.

We also lost a few contenders.

Yes, we did.

So the last major Republican candidate was Nikki Haley.

She's the one that bowed out and she did not endorse Trump, which is notable.

Now.

She outlasted almost everybody else.

I mean, big names like Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence.

But she was very popular with moderates and college age conservatives.

So she did ask Trump to appeal to this group.

That's right.

And we also lost Democratic candidate Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota.

So did you experience anxiety and panic when you tried to log on to Facebook or Instagram?

I, for one, did.

On Tuesday, Matta had a wide spread outage.

I kept I kept trying to reset my password on Instagram.

You're like, you.

I honestly at this point I was scrolling and it wasn't like it wasn't refreshing.

So I just kind of accepted that I wasn't going to be able to log into anything.

And we just had another outage.

So I think we all need to just stop using our phones, but only way to avoid this.

It wasn't refreshing.

Yes, panic.

Okay.

In the sports world, social media has been buzzing about this.

So Iowa NCAA basketball player Caitlin Clark, she broke a scoring record set by LSU's Pete Maravich back in the late sixties.

Now, the reason why this is a little bit controversial is because she had the benefit of playing more games and also some three pointers that helped her achieve that goal.

A lot of debate in social media now, but still very exciting.

Absolutely an accomplishment worth cheering for.

All right.

And here's some interesting news now.

Louisiana is one of 15 states to opt out of the summer electronic transfer program.

It's a federal benefit available to help states supply food for kids when school's out of session.

But the owner of Tubes Meadery in New Orleans say the cancellation would lead to increased food insecurity in her community.

Here's what she's doing to help.

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Vilsack announced the historic expansion of the summer pandemic AB Program.

The summer AB program is a federal benefit designed to feed underprivileged children during the summer months, when free or reduced lunches from schools aren't available, children are eligible for this program if they're eligible to receive free or reduced price meals during the school year or if they are under age six and live in a snap household that is about 34 million American children.

The program was expanded in 2024 to include an extra $40 per child, along with SNAP benefits already in use in Louisiana.

The program won't be accessible for children this year.

The state rejected about $71 million in federal money, leaving more than 500,000 kids without the benefit.

Few got $200 a month in SNAP benefits and you had two kids.

You would get an extra $40 per month per child.

So you might get $280 for the summer.

So this is money that would be automatically added to your benefit card during those summer months to again offset some but not all of the cost of extra costs that families incur when kids are out of school for the summer.

John Mueller is the executive director of Invest in Louisiana, formerly known as the Louisiana Budget Project.

He says the IB program would not have cost the state a significant amount of money or some additional administrative costs that would come with having this program during the summer months.

The state would have been responsible for about half of that, so a little bit over $3 million.

It cost the state 3.5 million to be exact.

This cost was one of the reasons Governor Landrieu chose to opt out of the program.

Additionally, DCF US wrote that opting out of the program will boost self-sufficiency for affected families, saying, quote, Every child deserves a safe home first and foremost, and families deserve a pathway to self-sufficiency.

This is our primary mission.

There has been a summer meal program that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has in place in most states for years, and what that summer feeding program is designed, it's they do they give out prepared meals that are handed out at specific sites, at specific time of day.

So that way and it's better than nothing.

And it's certainly something that families should take advantage of.

But Mohler says all families may not have the transportation needed to access these programs.

While government agencies are still providing food assistance programs like SNAP, local businesses are opting to fill the gaps left by the cancellation.

Rage was my initial reaction.

It's kids.

We're not asking for anything more than just like humanity.

Children need to eat.

And for the fact that Jeff Landry's comment was families need to be more self-sufficient, it's enraging, it's inhumane, it's cruel.

Amanda Toups is the owner of Toups Meadery in New Orleans.

Her reaction to the Ebeid decision is prompting her to respond with action.

While Shut down will be a community center.

From 3 to 5 will come through the front doors and we'll be able to give you all the meals that we possibly can.

Also be registering voters once a week here to tubes is in the beginning stages of organizing her relief plan.

The goal is to first assess the need in her community, who needs assistance and where are they located.

Do you have an estimate of, I guess, how many families might be coming here needing help?

Yeah, it's a lot.

And I think that I mean, just from putting it out there on social and as I said to them a lot, I said, listen, this is private too.

Here's my email.

You can do me.

You don't have to put your business out on the Internet.

Like if you're struggling with food, just email me.

And so you can imagine the emails that I've already gotten, too.

But I think it'll be hundreds daily that of meals that will definitely need to go out.

Tubes is finalizing her menu and resources and donations.

So far, local food banks like Second Harvest have stepped in to help her.

My understanding of it now is especially that the kids will be home alone during the day.

A lot of times moms don't want them cooking on the stove.

I don't blame them.

So I'm really trying to understand is it cold meals, like a sandwich box that we need to get together?

And then Isaac and I are thinking another cold me that they can pop in the microwave.

So maybe red beans and rice with sausage in it and then some food on the side.

But Toups isn't the only person working to close the gap.

Representative Jason Hughes is filing legislation that would force the state to accept federal summer heat dollars House Bill 18.

Would appropriate money needed to keep the program established next summer.

While Toups is hard at work creating a menu and securing resources, she's not afraid.

She's confident if anyone can take care of the New Orleans community, it's her and her restaurant.

Former LSU basketball player and native Ukranian Roman Ruby Cinco is traveling throughout Louisiana to raise awareness about the Russia Ukraine war.

Roman played LSU basketball in the early 1990 for coach Dale Brown after defecting from the Ukraine.

The LSU graduate forward's a professional basketball career before returning to his native homeland to help with wartime efforts.

As the debate in Congress continues over a foreign aid package to support Ukraine, Wellman aims to combat apathy in Congress and the court of public opinion over a country and a conflict that might seem a world away but carries not so distant consequences.

The gorgeous Roman, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy speaking schedule around Louisiana to meet us here in Alexandria at a hotel.

But I thought this would be a great location.

It's pretty it's historic.

And yeah, thank you so much for hosting me.

Yes, I agree.

This is a beautiful building.

I already took some pictures of it.

Well, I thought we do our interview in the conference room.

That would be great.

Beautiful trip coordinator for Roman.

You came of age in Louisiana.

You played LSU basketball in the early nineties for Coach Dale Brown.

You graduated from LSU.

You're a Southern boy and Ukranian native, which gives you a very unique perspective on things.

You're here in Louisiana right now.

Why?

So let me also qualify my answer, because my first 17 years of my life I spent in the Soviet Union.

So even though when I defected from the Soviet Union, I was from Ukraine, but at the time it was not a free Ukraine.

It was still one of those republics of the Soviet Union.

And the reason I defected back in 1991 is because I did not want to live under a oppressive regime.

I wanted to have a freedom of choice.

Where where do I go?

It so happened that Coach Brown saw some talent in me and he used the scholarship that he had available to them to to him.

When Shaquille O'Neal decided to leave earlier for the draft in 1992, he offered it to me once to shoot Patrick Kiko, who puts it up good, who can't go back to that on his the assists.

And so I'm not a typical Ukrainian.

I would say I'm a Ukrainian American or Ukrainian Southern American, something like that.

So in 2008 I decided to move back to Ukraine and I've been living there since then.

And so I witnessed firsthand whatever started happening when Putin came to power and in 2008 invaded Georgia, This was the first harbinger of what's to come.

The United States at the time did not take a strong stance and then people like Putin, you should understand, they're just probing you.

It's like a bully on the playground.

You know, first they're going to pull your hair, then they're going to throw a rocket.

You.

Then they're going to punch you in the knee.

The PBS documentary 20 Days of Mariupol is very difficult to watch.

It's very graphic and very bleak and troubling.

But also it's Shakespeare.

Pull in.

Help us understand what we saw.

How widespread is that?

Is that an isolated small area of Ukraine or is that experience widespread?

My heart breaks when I watch footage like that.

And what was it widespread?

Yes, Yes, I think it was widespread anywhere when a Russian soldiers foot still stood on the Ukrainian soil, atrocities like that happened.

Our weapon supplies were drying up gradually and it wasn't affecting us up until recently.

But if, you know, maybe last two weeks or three weeks, we had to remove our troops from of DPKO.

We held of DPKO since the beginning of the invasion back in 2014.

What I'm hearing, the reason this was done is to protect our soldiers, because we did not have the ample ammunition.

We did not have enough shells to keep defending the position.

It would result in a lot of casualties.

So we are either going to be losing people or losing territories unless we get support immediately.

Right now in Congress, they're debating a foreign aid package.

The Senate approved a foreign aid package which had some 60 billion, I believe, for Ukraine.

The House has not voted on it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is asking for them to go back to the drawing board, which further delays the approval of aid to Ukraine.

What do you want to see happen?

What is your message to to Congress?

Every day that we delayed approving this aid?

More people die, more soldiers die.

And then the thing is, besides that, the Ukrainian resolve that I'm talking about, that that is based on faith in their eventual victory.

And the victory does not mean that we're going to invade Russia and go all the way to Moscow and overthrow Putin.

Victory for us is to inflict enough pain for Russia in order for this war to become unsustainable for them.

And that means getting some longer, longer range missiles, attack arms, and that includes getting some airplanes, which we've been talking for a few years already.

And that and that includes getting the entire aircraft systems and the missiles for them and also the ammunition for Howitzers.

Those are the key things that we would need to get.

And this eight aid package that is stuck in Congress is supposed to pay for the very thing that I'm talking about.

The future looks bleak without the United States support, without the weapons that they're supplying us with, we cannot last much longer.

So when when you live in Ukraine, yes, you are able to freely travel to Louisiana.

How is that possible?

Well, by law, right now, we have martial law in the country.

So males 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country.

Now, I came with the signature from Ministry of International Affairs, allowing me to go to Ukraine and participate in this advocacy campaign here in Louisiana.

I have to ask on a personal level, are you fearful that you're going to be targeted by Putin for coming to this day?

Well, you always you always are fearful.

But I mean, look, what about those soldiers who are sitting in the trenches, Right.

I mean, I'm not newly experiencing the level of risk that they are.

I mean, and unfortunately, I'm not a soldier.

How much longer can Ukraine hold on without the US assistance?

Well, they're not holding on already.

So the U.S. assistance was supposed to be decided or we were hoping it would be decided last November.

And so when you say how, how long will it last, it's basically like somebody cut our veins and we're not going to die right away.

But we are we're in the path of dying.

The only question is how fast, right?

That That was fascinating.

Great interview, Karen.

Thank you.

And you can actually watch the extended interview with Roman on his YouTube channel.

40 years ago, the World's Fair opened in Louisiana, becoming a favorite pastime during its run as the state's temporary theme park.

Countless Louisianians hold memories and scrapbooks full of photos chronicling the 1984 World's Fair as part of their family lore.

The Louisiana State Archives has compiled these souvenirs, memories and musings into an exhibit open to the public.

And I'm taking you on a walk down memory lane.

Join us for a once in a lifetime family adventure here in New Orleans.

It's waiting for you until November 11.

The 1984 World's Fair.

Pages of my childhood scrapbook hold memories of the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair, capturing exciting innovations and possibilities of the future.

When the World's Fair opened May 12, 1984, it was if a major amusement park came to town for an extended stay.

Welcome to the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, a six months spectacular of sight and sound education and entertainment.

A monorail, a gondola called Mart and the Sky Transpo offered thrilling rides over the Mississippi River and along its banks, offering a revitalized view of a once blighted area of New Orleans.

The World's Fair transformed the warehouse district into an international other land of cultures, countries plus musical acts and roaming mascots.

The red metal and people like me say no.

In 1985.

The World's Fair closed November 11th after a six month run.

Bankrupt its assets seized, sold off, and much of it stored in the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge.

State Archivist curated boxes of memorabilia into an exhibit commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair.

This has been so much fun to see the things that we've found and then all of the things that the lenders were able to provide to add to this experience.

You know, you start seeing the photos and the hairstyles and the clothing styles and and you sort of get transported back to that time.

Displays of more than 200 items souvenirs, documents, photos and costumes are organized according to six neighborhoods of the World's Fair and three pavilions.

Absolutely.

The star of the World's Fair.

This is similar to fair.

He got his name from a time saver contest.

Almost 20,000 entries for his name.

This was a singular standout.

Seymour or the period.

Fair.

Very clever.

He's also the very first official mascot of an expo, though we're the last in the US to have a fair.

International fairs have since borrowed this tradition, with many of them with an official mascot.

I remember these swimsuits.

Yes, I wanted one of those.

So one show This one.

Yes.

Very popular.

And so this swimsuit was worn by the synchronized swimmers called Aqua Belles.

And the first musical number that was produced at the aqua came a large 3500 seat arena for outdoor arena for swimming and diving entertainment.

A gondola car from Maat serves as a reminder of the adrenaline rush soaring over the Mississippi River.

You were over 300 feet in the air, traversing over 2000 feet across the mighty Mississippi.

The exhibit also tells the origin story of the World's Fair.

We're anchoring our exhibit with the History of World Expositions beginning in the mid 19th century, early 1851, we have the first World Expo in London.

Everyone wanted to bring the intersection of art and innovation to their city.

The story of the Louisiana World's Fair actually begins in 1884, when the World Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition was held in New Orleans.

Now, fast forward to the 1970s and an idea begins percolating in New Orleans for a new convention center.

Some saw a World's Fair as an opportunity to get this convention center built.

Now, 1984 marked the centennial of this Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, which incidentally lay the foundation for what is now known as Ottoman Park in New Orleans.

The 1984 World's Fair was America's last fair.

7.3 million people visited.

Far below projected attendance, contributing to its financial loss.

Although the Fair wasn't a moneymaker, it was a memory maker for countless Louisianians.

Now, I think that it's hard to put a price on that because, yeah, the legacy is is long lasting.

And I think the good memories outweigh the bad for a lot of people.

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through December 13th.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, be any time, wherever you are with our Help 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 Karen LeBlanc.

And I'm Garrison Fisher.

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, produce 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.