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 a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

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

Thank you.

The feds are scaling back protection for endangered species.

But can Louisiana pick up the slack?

And could AI be the key to helping pregnant women when every minute matters?

Plus, a new report shows positive signs about Louisiana's population.

And Dolly Parton's legacy lives on in Louisiana, one book at a time.

Let's get started.

I█m ready.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen, and I'm Johnny Atkinson and much more on those top stories in a moment on this week's edition of Louisiana, the State We're In.

But first, it is official.

Space-X is coming to Louisiana.

The company plans to build a $100 billion launch facility about 45 miles southwest of Lafayette.

Today is nothing short of a transformational moment.

I want to I want you to understand that today is like an inflection point in time in Louisiana's history.

The site will include five launch pads, a mission control center, and support buildings.

Space-X says the company will create around 3000 permanent jobs in hopes of fast track construction to launch the first rocket in 2029.

The Trump administration is removing key restrictions aimed at protecting the habitats of endangered species.

I talked to experts to see what these changes could mean.

The Endangered Species Act is a U.S.

federal law that protects plants and animals from extinction.

We have approximately 420 animal species that are considered rare in the state, and about 550 plant species.

Nicole Lorenz is with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and she works to protect rare and at risk animals and plants.

We have a ton of species that are what we consider species of greatest conservation need.

They do include the federally threatened endangered species, but most of these species are rare that are, their species in decline.

The Trump administration has recently made changes to the Endangered Species Act, which they refer to as common sense reforms designed to reduce economic burdens, eliminate unnecessary regulations and accelerate project approvals.

So we know through ecological principles that animals exist in places that support them, and so that habitat is absolutely crucial to the future survival of species.

Erik Johnson is an Assistant Professor at LSU in the LSU AG Center, and he explained what some of the changes made recently in key places could do to endangered species living in Louisiana.

This new interpretation removes the protection of habitat for endangered species and it literally, guts the Endangered Species Act only prevents intentional take, which is the shooting or the collection of an endangered species.

The, this excluded industries from being subject to the rules.

And so basically, it's just it's all those protections are gone.

Andy Nyman is a prominent Wetland Wildlife Ecologist and an LSU professor.

His career focuses on protecting Louisiana's fragile coastlines and the wildlife dependent on them.

You don't have to hunt it to kill it.

You can just turn this habitat into a subdivision.

A lot of our rare, threatened, endangered species require very specialized habitats, or soils are food in order to survive.

The Endangered Species Act was officially signed into law back in 1973 by Richard Nixon.

It was then passed by Congress with a near unanimous bipartisan support.

You know, there had been concern about animals going extinct, you know, for decades.

It changed things a lot.

It gave us the ability to help some species recover.

The Endangered Species Act has been considered one of the most powerful environmental laws in the world, has been credited with saving 99% of the species placed under its protection.

The act made it a federal crime for anyone to take or pursue any endangered species.

It also mandated the protection of geographic areas essential to a species survival, and federal protections were not just for mammals and birds.

Protection was also extended to plants, insects, and crustaceans.

And it's been an incredibly successful, regulation to help bring species back.

It's one of the most successful environmental laws that our country has ever passed.

In July, three major regulatory revisions were made to the Endangered Species Act.

One is the definition of harm.

And the word harm has always been interpreted to mean habitat protection.

Literally, guts the Endangered Species Act only prevent intentional take, which is the shooting or the collection of an endangered species.

Also, critical habitats are not determined only by danger to an animal species, but will have lower requirements to determine the benefits of conservation.

They're still enforcing the Endangered Species Act.

It's just going to have a much narrower, scope.

And newly listed threatened species that were automatically given blanket protections now must be approved before new restrictions will take effect.

Now, with this new change, each species it gets added to the list is going to have its own, process of getting certain kinds of protections.

And the Endangered Species Committee will now exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from ESA restrictions.

So we've set up a system whereby companies, individual businesses, in order to be competitive, are going to have to totally ignore any expenses associated with that.

The administration believes the changes to the Endangered Species Act will provide clearer rules for landowners and projects, and will leave more room for development and less regulatory burdens.

But with these changes, many areas around Louisiana will be more open to logging, mining and oil and gas drilling.

We're going to continue to provide, information on our at risk species and continue to, do research and conserve the species and resources of the state as we always have.

Let's take a look at what's going on this week in the world of sports.

Sports correspondent Victor Howell joins us now with more.

Victor, we█re ready for football season.

One word is going on football because it has officially kicked off.

Everybody's been waiting for it.

The time has now come.

Christmas in August arrived Thursday night with the start of the 2026 college football season.

There were three games in the state of Louisiana involving four state teams.

And that's the key part of this intro, because it's the fourth team that made history on Thursday night.

Louisiana Christian, formerly Louisiana College, is a small NAIA school in the heart of Pineville, Louisiana.

And in the last ten years, they've had only three winning football season.

This year, though, they're an older team and they enter the season receiving votes in the national NAIA rankings.

They made the short drive to Natchitoches Thursday night to face Northwestern State head coach Blaine McCorkle.

Entering his third season, the demons going for their second straight season opening win, they were at home welcoming the Wildcats.

McCorkle says he likes what he has on his team.

He likes the experience and the depth.

Well, lots of points early on.

It's 2014 Demons when quarterback Abram Johnson hits Jimmy Duncan 59 yards for the score, northwestern State 27-14, but mistakes an issue for the Demons.

Pass interference in the end zone.

The Wildcats would take advantage.

They would score the short touchdown.

The team has also had two redzone fumbles.

Maybe.

Maybe the play of the game.

27-21 Demons.

Johnson's pass picked off by Ernest Mitchell.

He takes it the distance.

And that gave Louisiana Christian the lead.

Now it's 35-30 Wildcats on the road.

When Bryce Perkins finds Amarius Davis and he's going to go 52 yards after a Demon defender loses a shoe, and that puts this to bed for the second time ever.

An NAIA school defeats a scholarship Division one program as the Wildcats get the historic win, 42-37.

They are partying in Pineville.

In Hammond last night, the 19th ranked Southeastern Lions opened their season at home for the first time since 2019, hosting Houston Christian.

Believe it or not, first game of the season.

It's a conference game.

Lions get the score early by Calvin Smith, but the last time the Lions played a game, it was at home in the playoffs.

Remember mistakes.

It happened again Thursday night.

A blocked kick here.

Turnovers, penalties just too many mistakes for the Lions and Houston Christian would make them pay.

Carter Stewart finds Jamal Hall 66 yards.

He's gone.

It's 31-14 Huskies.

Way too many miscues for southeastern to overcome.

It was a long night for Frank Cell phone company.

The Lions take the home loss 34 to 28.

Now let's go down the bayou to John L Guidry Stadium down in Thibodaux, where the Colonels open up their season at home.

Second year for head coach Tommy Wright.

Becky.

It took the Colonel five minutes to get things going midway through the first.

Ian rotary outstanding senior quarterback hit Jordan Smith.

He did the rest 59 yards later in the first quarter.

Rotary is going to look for Greg Donaldson.

Donaldson and Donaldson says I'll see your 59 yarder and I'll take this 74 yards.

Rodrigue threw for 264 and three touchdowns.

The Colonels racked up over 500 yards of offense for the easy win over Mississippi Valley, 44 to 10.

And if we have highlights here on Louisiana, the state win.

And you know that means it is time for Game Notes.

Game Notes season kicks off season two Saturday morning.

We'll have our preview show.

This is all season long.

And then Monday evenings we'll have our recap show.

Three more college games this weekend in the state.

It's here.

Let's go.

Football season is ready to go.

I'm excited to watch you again.

We're looking forward to.

All right.

Thank you so much, Victor.

Well, when something goes wrong during childbirth, every minute matters.

Now, new A.I.

technology being tested in Louisiana could help doctors spot danger before it becomes a crisis.

All women that have a baby have some bleeding after delivery.

Postpartum hemorrhage is when there is an excessive amount of bleeding more than what is expected.

It's dangerous because it can lead to a lot of other complications.

It could cause the need for a blood transfusion.

A hysterectomy, which is associated with many of the complications.

It's also very traumatic for the patient.

For most families, welcoming a new baby is one of life's happiest moments.

A first cry, a first breath, a mom holding her baby for the first time.

But sometimes childbirth can quickly turn into an emergency.

At Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, Dr.

Alison Rodriguez is the medical monitor for a clinical trial testing a new kind of technology.

The Oli Monitor, a wearable device being studied for changes that could signal a hemorrhage before it happens.

40% of women who experience a postpartum hemorrhage have no risk factors at all.

So there's really not a good way to predict who is going to hemorrhage and who's not going to hemorrhage.

Right now, doctors use an assessment to determine how likely a patient is to experience one.

Patients can be classified as low, medium, or high risk.

For patients at the highest level, doctors can prepare in advance, including alerting, anesthesia and having necessary equipment ready.

But not every woman who experiences a hemorrhage is identified in advance.

That's where Oli comes in.

Woman's Hospital is one of only five hospitals in the country participating in this clinical trial.

The Oli Monitor is a noninvasive monitor that's placed on the pregnant belly, during labor.

It measures changes in the shape of the maternal abdomen during labor.

All of this data is fed into, a computer device that's attached to the Oli Monitor, and that data is, kind of processed and cleaned and put into an algorithm.

So when there's low risk patients who you wouldn't think would hemorrhage, this may give us some information that they may be at a higher risk than we think.

And we can do some things during labor to better prepare for that.

That earlier warning could give doctors more time to prepare and respond quickly if bleeding begins.

We may place a second I.V.

in anticipation of someone needing blood.

We always have hemorrhage carts prepared and available on the unit.

We may bring that cart into the room.

This technology was developed in Australia, where Oli CEO Tara Croft says maternal monitoring is long overdue for an upgrade.

Mums who give birth today, are monitored with exactly the same technology that monitored their grandmas when they gave birth in the 1960s.

There really hasn't been any innovation in the space in generations.

And so what we're doing with our Oli Monitor is really trying to slingshot the technology, forward from analog to AI.

And what we're doing is we use a what, a comfortable wearable sensor.

It's much like a smartwatch that you everybody's used to using these days.

And we monitor lots of really important information from both mum and baby We were founded by Doctor Sarah McDonald, and she had a particularly traumatic childbirth experience.

And during that experience, she was explaining to the obstetrician, this doesn't feel okay.

This doesn't feel okay.

And the obstetrician was consulting the monitor, that same monitor, I explained, that was brought to market in the 1960s.

And the monitor suggested that everything was fine and it was not.

And she left that experience absolutely determined to show her obstetrician what she could feel in data.

And that was the birth of our Oli Monitor.

And the need for better tools is significant in Louisiana.

The risk or occurrence of postpartum hemorrhage in the US is around 5%.

Louisiana, it's around 12%.

And so that is significant.

Maternal health is a space where there really hasn't been innovation in generations.

It's been under-researched and underfunded for a long time.

And sadly, alongside that, we have increasing rates of maternal morbidity and mortality.

And that's really devastating.

And moms deserve better.

If this gets FDA approval, how significant would it be for women across the country?

It would be really significant because it would offer, a unique way to predict if someone is going to hemorrhage.

The promise is simple see the warning signs before crisis begins.

But first, Oli has to clear the FDA.

The company says that review could take about a year.

If approved, the technology could eventually make its way into delivery rooms across the country.

Louisiana is growing again after years of population loss.

So what's driving this turnaround?

I sat down with the CEO of Leaders for a Better Louisiana to find out why.

Joining me now as Adam Knapp CEO for leaders for a Better Louisiana Adam thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Well this new report shows that Louisiana's population grew for the first time since 2017 by about 16,000 people.

Why is that so significant?

Well, we think about this from the state's economic performance.

First of all, the state, if you look back over the last ten years, in general has been one of the slowest growing states in the US South.

And when you think about job performance and population performance, we see the most directly connected.

And so to see a change in population, feels like it also signals a, you know, connection to the change in the overall performance of the economy.

Which is something we really are really interested in.

The other big part of it is the ability to continue to grow, to meet the job demand of the state.

If you look across what happens in other states that that are, seeing strong economic performances, they really also need population growth to support that, you need to make sure there's both people being trained in your state, but also people moving to your state and staying in your state, to be able to meet the job demand.

We usually hear people leaving Louisiana.

So what was interesting about this report is that it showed that people are saying, yeah, it's interesting that the thing that we assume is going to happen is that more people are going to start moving into the state, and that's going to help us, solve for a population change, right, to see the state growing.

But it's also if you just lose fewer people, and continue to, you know, see what you've already seen in terms of people moving in, or slightly improve it then, then you're going to also see growth.

Was there a particular age group that you guys are seeing that's moving to the state?

So in the in the numbers again, all these things are hard to build connections across because they're there.

Many of these are different data sets.

But it looks like 25 to 34 year olds, were the largest category of people moving in.

it looks like that one has, as of overall of age groups has been the most helpful in terms of highest number of folks moving in.

That's interesting.

So and I'm sure cost of living right has to play a factor into this.

I'm sure you have people from California and New York.

These higher are the states where everything costs more coming to Louisiana.

Is that what you guys are saying as well?

It is.

It's interesting is the numbers aren't huge.

I don't want to oversell that.

We're seeing this huge population shift from high cost states like California in New York, but it is in the smaller numbers of folks that are moving in from states.

New York and California showed up as two of the examples of places that folks are moving from.

We still lose a lot of people, to Texas and other neighboring states.

And so it is it is part of the balance of what's happening here.

But it does look like we can compete in our competing on cost in those states that have high cost, also that the state's economy has been improving and overall economic development outcomes.

And so when we think about what could happen next, we hope that that we'll see is that that outmigration number holds.

The pattern has been on of being lower than it traditionally is.

Fewer people moving out.

But also starting to see more of an in-migration, if only in that construction sector that we're seeing just a huge amount of activity in right now.

Building a lot of facilities, like in north Louisiana, in southwest Louisiana and the Baton Rouge area.

That that can drive, that near term, probably in the next few years can drive some of the, the population growth.

So to keep up this momentum, you think more business opportunities, definitely more businesses coming to the state.

The state announced a what they kind of deemed a record number of economic development projects last year.

And so the the performance of what has been occurring has been occurring.

Looks like it is both distributed across almost every metro region that they're seeing.

A significant amount of project announcements, that can, you know, drive this.

It is yet to be seen.

Right.

This is also, in the wake of changes in our overall, domestic economy in the US, too.

We've seen high tariffs changing the kind of the global environment for investment, some some helping us, some hurting us.

In terms of the economy, as well as changes in population policy from an international, immigration standpoint.

And that could affect some of the numbers that we've seen that have been helping.

Louisiana might not be helping as much as they, could be hurting us in the future.

And so it's it's going to be on those balance that we'll see how that shifts over the next year.

The good news is this one one year of numbers looks pretty good for Louisiana.

Should we be overly cautious about the numbers though?

I would be, I think, when you've only seen this in a very short time frame, that the numbers have shifted to what you opened up talking about, that our outmigration numbers, you know, look like they have reversed course.

Well, they they just did that for one year, in a period of time where they've been, we've been much higher rates of outmigration going back to 2017.

And, you know, and just see that number turn and, and now, look like it's kind of moving in the right direction until you see a few years of that, you don't want to necessarily assume that's the norm Well, before we let you go, is there anything else you want to add on this topic?

I think it's really exciting for communities across the state, though, that are that are feeling pessimistic over the, you know, maybe that people keep, you know, leaving the state and not enough people keep coming into the state.

It is a slight hint of optimism that there's a there's some hope that that possibly is changing.

That's a good thing.

And I think when we go around the state meeting with our members and meeting with community leaders, it has been a it has been a concern for many years.

And so this is something that hopefully is a bright spot and a possible, you know, moment for a shift in all of our regions of the state.

We'll take a little bit of optimism.

Thank you so much for joining us, Adam.

That's right.

Thank you.

Messages of love and support are pouring in from around the world, for Dolly Parton.

The musical icon who passed away this week was a light and inspiration for so many.

And Louisiana played a big role in many facets of her life.

Dolly Parton's impact and inspiration to others goes far beyond her music.

Her decades long career was rooted in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, but Louisiana was never far from her heart.

Dolly was the fourth of 12 children.

By the age of ten, she was performing on local radio and TV shows.

In March of 1959, at age 13, she recorded her first single at Gold Band Records in Lake Charles.

Oh puppy love, puppy love they call it puppy love In interviews, Dolly said she and her grandmother took a 30 hour bus ride from Tennessee to Louisiana to cut that single.

While it never made it big on the music charts, it did serve as a launchpad for her historic music career.

Now then, let's join the beautiful little lady that I always look forward to her song each week.

This is one of her own numbers and a real pretty one called Coat of Many Colors.

Miss Dolly Parton, thank you.

By the mid 1970s, Dolly was a household name and crossover star with hits like Jolene, 9 to 5 and the song that launched her solo career.

I Will Always Love You, which hit number one twice in 1974 and 1982, then performed by Whitney Houston and became one of the biggest selling singles in music history.

And I will always love you At the Steel Magnolias movie debut, Parton said she felt at home in Louisiana.

We had a great time while we were down here.

I feel real close to home down here.

Do you like Louisiana?

Oh, I love it.

I have a lot of friends here.

Did you have an easy time working here?

I had a great time.

And I'll come back again if I have a chance.

Natchitoches still celebrates the movie with a self-guided tour of iconic locations seen in the movie.

Like Saint Augustine's Church, the American Cemetery, and the Steel Magnolias house, which is now a bed and breakfast.

Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey Then in 1988, Dolly brought her variety show to New Orleans, sharing the stage with Louisiana icons like Doctor John, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Pete Fountain.

Come on everybody, take a trip me.

Down to Mississippi down in New Orleans!

Hey.

Dolly also served as the celebrity Grand Marshal for the crew of Endymion, and she performed in the Superdome at the Endymion Extravaganza.

In 1995, Parton launched her Imagination Library to honor her father, who never learned to read.

The program ships free books to children around the United States from birth through the age of five.

2023, the city of Louisiana made the decision to partner with the Imagination Library in a very major way by creating the Imagination Library of Louisiana.

We have 45,000 children in Louisiana receiving books, and it's in most of the 64 parishes.

At LPB, we pride ourselves on putting educational resources into the hands and hearts of children absolutely free every single day.

And so putting a book in the hands of children, that's just a natural extension of our mission.

Parton's father told her the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing she'd ever done.

Today, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 200 million free books to kids worldwide.

In New Orleans, The Crew of Dolly, gets glammed up and parades down the streets in partnership with the Imagination Library to support literacy initiatives across the state.

And after Hurricane Katrina, Dolly Parton held relief concerts and played two sold out shows in Saint Mary Parish to raise money for relief efforts.

And in her 12th and final headlining tour, she made a stop at the Smoothie King Center in 2016.

It's safe to say Dolly made a huge impression on Louisiana, and the state was never far from her heart.

And I will always love you, oh will always love you.

Back through the years, I go wondering once again, back to the seasons of my youth.

I recall a box of rags that someone gave us and the way my mama put the rags to use.

There were rags of many colors, but every piece was small and I didn't have a coat and it was 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 a 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.