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.

Scientists are undertaking a major research project to map the future of the Mississippi River and Louisiana's coastline.

And state health officials are warning pet owners to take precautions after a dog is tested positive for rabies.

Plus, we talk with a Louisiana native who just became a world champion in disc golf, and a Louisiana professor climbs his way to the top of some of the world's tallest peaks.

Let's get started.

Let's get to it.

Hi everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen, and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

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

But first, the Mississippi River Delta is constantly changing, and what's happening to the river could help shape the future of our coast.

Scientists are now tracking where the river's water and sediment go, and what that could mean for south Louisiana.

We're out here on the Mississippi River with a team of researchers heading into the Delta.

They're about to collect samples to better understand our coast.

Out here, the river doesn't just meet the Gulf.

It spreads out, branching into the bird's foot before it reaches the sea.

And with every mile it travels, the Mississippi is carrying sand, silt and clay, the sediment that helped build South Louisiana.

Today, this river is also a source of drinking water for about a million people, and one of the world's most important shipping channels.

But the river we see today isn't the same one that built this land.

A century of levees and other changes have altered how the lower Mississippi moves.

And now scientists are getting on the water to better understand what happens next.

The Delta Project brings together researchers from 14 institutions.

Meet Allison is a Tulane geologist and one of the two scientists leading the project.

What we've discovered is that it's an incredibly leaky pipe, right?

And while we track sediment as well as that water leaves, it leaves behind a lot of its sediment.

So we we make measurements also at the Gulf interface, and we see as much as half or more of the sediment between where it leaves the river and where it emerges into the Gulf of Mexico is gone.

We headed out on the boat with the research team as they began collecting water samples.

Their work spans the lower Mississippi, with data being collected at around 200 sites.

We go to a new site.

We use a device called an acoustic Doppler current profiler.

We do a couple of transects across one of these exits, and that tells us how much water is leading the channel.

Then we take a number of samples at various depths in the water column.

We take them back to the lab, and that tells us the total amount of sediment that's that's passing that point in the exit from above.

You can see some of that sediment helping build new land in the bird's foot, but not all of it stays here, where much of the sediment from the river is actually going, is not piling up sediment as fast as we would have thought.

Instead, it's moving further offshore and disappearing from the system, so it's not contributing to land building.

And sediment isn't the only thing moving through the delta.

When flows drop, saltwater from the gulf can move upstream along the deepest part of the river.

Researchers call it a salt wedge.

When the river gets super low, the salt water from the gulf starts making its way up along the deepest part of the river.

So far, we've seen a really nice saltwater wedge, though show up on our ABC profile, which is basically like the velocity of the river.

And so you can see like really well, where the salt water is moving super slow at the bottom and then where the fresh water is at the top.

When that salt water pushes farther upstream, it can threaten drinking water supplies in 2023.

Projections showed the wedge could reach New Orleans close enough to trigger a federal emergency declaration.

We slightly tweak our our effort to focus on tracking where the salt comes in and where the salt is going, because that's a whole nother set of models that are going to be used to predict at a certain discharge how how fast the salt wedge moves upstream.

Because, as you know, that becomes in more extreme conditions, that becomes a salt water emergency for drinking water supplies.

And that's why the research matters beyond what they're seeing today.

The data will feed models designed to predict how the bird's foot could change through 2100.

We need to be able to predict how fast it's changing, with enough confidence to be able to advise government stakeholders how it might change and how they can react to it.

We have panels of local citizens.

We call this co-production the idea that we don't just take science after it's done to them.

They help us decide what science we want to do.

They help us trial ideas and solutions that might make the situation better down here.

The five year project is backed by $22 million from the National Academies of Sciences, engineering and medicine.

Some of the modeling is expected to be complete early next year, giving researchers a better idea of how the delta could change.

I would just say that the the foot is worth saving.

It may be super threatened, and it's one of these things that a lot of people have written off.

But as you can see behind me, these are incredibly valuable wetland areas and they're worth saving.

After spending the day out here, you can see how complicated this river really is.

It's building land in one place while sediment disappears offshore.

And where it goes could help determine what happens to Louisiana's coast.

A rare case of rabies is putting a spotlight on pet safety.

Louisiana Department of Health says a pet dog in Acadiana tested positive.

It's the first confirmed canine rabies case in the state since 2014.

I talked to Louisiana Animal Control to see what pet owners need to watch out for, a disease that many people thought was largely confined to Louisiana's wildlife is now back in the headlines.

State health officials have confirmed that a dog in the Acadiana region tested positive for rabies.

This is the first confirmed case in a pet since 2014, and only the fifth in the past 20 years.

All animals are legally in East Baton Rouge Parish are supposed to be vaccinated against rabies.

It is a serious virus.

It is a concern.

Holly Danielson works with Companion Animal Alliance, an animal shelter in the East Baton Rouge Parish.

It's an open intake shelter, accepting every lost stray or abandoned animal.

But they are very careful overseeing each animals health.

As long as pet owners keep their pets vaccinated against rabies and are mindful of interactions with wildlife.

There is relatively little concern.

Officials say the finding does not represent a new disease or a statewide outbreak.

Rabies has remained present in Louisiana wildlife, recording an average of about six rabies positive animals each year since the year 2000.

Rabies is something that you won't know if your dog has it until they have symptoms, and once they have symptoms, it's too late.

So it's very important to stay up to date on rabies vaccines.

The vaccine was developed in 1885 and was first tested on a nine year old boy after he was severely mauled by a rabid dog.

Unlike most vaccines, it can be administered after exposure to stop the rabies from reaching the brain.

The treatment was a success, and the breakthrough revolutionized modern medicine.

Her future vaccines like polio, measles and mumps the virus remains 100% fatal once the clinical symptoms appear like fever, headache, muscle aches and fatigue.

But modern medicine has made rabies 100% preventable.

If an exposed person is treated promptly, rabies is serious.

It is, you know, almost always fatal.

And if anybody comes in contact with a wild animal or any animal that they think could have been infected with rabies, they should contact medical professional.

Today, rabies is dealt with through a highly effective combination of widespread animal vaccinations to block transmission of the disease.

When we have an animal that's a bit in someone, a dog that's bitten, someone in the passes, we send it down to the state lab down at LSU, and they examined the brain to to tell you if it's infected with rabies or not.

There is no cure or effective post-exposure treatment for animals showing clinical signs of rabies.

So humane euthanasia is a standard practice.

We could cause all the time with the bat colonies and people's homes or addicts and stuff like that.

In the evening time, if you look up, you can usually see bats flying around.

The new Louisiana case does not mean rabies is spreading among the human population.

Simple routine pet vaccination has made rabies very rare in pets, is mainly present in wildlife, especially in bats, raccoons, and skunks.

It attacks the central nervous system, leading to death or severe injury once the signs appear.

The message from health officials today is caution, not panic.

Rabies is still rare and domestic animals, but reporting possible exposures and keeping pets vaccinated is important and can quickly save lives.

There were bitten then.

Obviously we want to check vaccination status.

If it is current and it was secured, it could be an in-home observation that if it was loose, even if it is current, it has to go to the shelter for the ten day quarantine period.

In this parish, you have to have it.

Any animal over three months.

We say dogs, cats and ferrets over three months of age need to be rabies vaccinated.

For Louisiana families, rabies can feel like a distant threat, something associated with wild animals.

But state health officials are warning pet owners to take the disease seriously, especially now since the new rabies case hit Louisiana.

Keep your dog vaccinated and keep your dog put up.

Don't let them run.

That's the best thing to avoid any problems with animals.

Anyone who is bitten or scratched, or whose broken skin, eyes, or mouth comes into contact with an animal saliva should immediately wash the area with soap and water and immediately seek medical advice.

I keep him on every appointment.

Keep him up updated on every vaccine.

Part of our job is to educate.

It's a big part of our job to educate and check the people from the animals and the animals, from the people.

And for all you pet owners out there.

Make sure to get your annual vaccination from a licensed veterinarian.

And remember to act quickly after any possible animal exposure.

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

Sports.

And Victor joins us now with much more.

Victor, what's going on this week in Louisiana?

A lot of football news.

We're in football season.

Everybody really loves football season.

But some disturbing news that could affect some of the major colleges here in the state of Louisiana.

A concerning report this week from the most recent state Board of Regents budget meeting has put the state of college football in this state in the eye of a financial storm.

The main issue the status of three major institutions and their standing in Division one.

So here's what happened.

Wilbert Pryor, who is a regent member, suggested that you all Lafayette, U. L Monroe and Louisiana Tech, who are all members of the University of Louisiana system, should drop down from the Sun Belt Conference in the FBS to the lower FCS, which includes schools like McNeese and southeastern.

He cites operating budgets that combined total over $47 million in debt as the reason, saying, look, that's just not sustainable.

He also added he doesn't think the public would be able to tell the difference if all three schools actually dropped down a level.

Well, the board has hired an outside company to do a deep dive sustainability assessment, expected to be done by the end of the year before they decide to make a decision.

Now, along those lines, LSU reported it expects to operate at a $26 million deficit this year, according to LSU system president Wade Roos.

That's down from $44 million last year.

So stay tuned.

There could be some big changes taking place.

Hey, let's talk some basketball now where a sold out exhibition game will be played next week in Lake Charles.

LSU head coach Will Wade is bringing his Tigers to face McNeese on October 8th.

It's a fundraiser.

All proceeds will stay with the Cowboys program.

Of course, the Cowboys gave way to opportunity after he was fired from LSU the first time around, and he took the Cowboys to back to back NCAA tournaments and the school's first ever tourney win.

It's his way of saying, thanks to a school and a community that gave him a second chance.

It is a very unique experience and going to be exciting for everybody, and it's certainly fitting that it's here in Lake Charles.

Because this is the community.

These are the people that that gave not only will his second chance, but gave me my first and second chance of being a head coach.

So we want to make sure that everybody gets to see a great game and know that we're both extremely grateful for the opportunities that Lake Charles has given us.

And finally, in the WNBA, congrats to former LSU lady Tiger Angel Reese, who was named the WNBA Defensive Player of the year.

Reese, who plays for the Atlanta Dream, set multiple league records this season, including most rebounds in a single game that was 26, most rebounds in a season with 500, and a single season record of 32 double doubles.

Atlanta will face the New York Liberty and the WNBA play off semifinals.

So we are getting ready for a lot of basketball and of course, football.

I know the weather might be iffy this weekend, but a lot of homecomings Southern and Grambling and Family Weekend at LSU is a lot of going on.

I hope that weather holds off.

So two wins.

LSU is homecoming Ellis Ellis, whose family weekend is this weekend with McNeese.

I'll have to check to see if they got another game with that one because I actually don't know.

But we know southern.

It's been a full week of activities for some.

It has been with the parade and all the stuff they have going on, and then their big game tonight and they've got to get a win at home.

So let's go Tigers.

I like your purple suit.

Thank you very much.

It's a Reynolds due back by nine.

So let's wrap things up all the time.

All right.

Thank you Victor.

Well, meanwhile, Louisiana has another world champion athlete.

But this time it's not football or baseball.

We're talking disc golf.

Baton Rouge native Silas Schultz is the new world champion.

I caught up with Silas to talk about his journey to the top.

Joining me now is Silas Schultz, the 2026 World Disc Golf Champion.

Silas, thank you so much for joining us.

We know you're from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

How does it feel to now be a world champion?

It feels awesome.

It feels really cool.

Yeah.

It's something I've been working for for a long time just to get a win on the Disc Golf Pro Tour, and then to get the World Championships as my first win is, like, kind of beyond special.

So I'm excited about it.

You think of Louisiana, people don't really think of disc golf.

So can you just talk a little bit more about that and how you got into that sport?

Yeah, I mean, disc golf is obviously a niche sport, and it's not super huge in Louisiana or in Baton Rouge.

But I think the scene that we have in Baton Rouge and and in Louisiana too, is, is a very rich scene.

It's it's very much like a family there.

And so very, very encouraging.

For me on the road, I'm the only person from Louisiana represented on the disc Golf Pro Tour.

And it's just it's a it was a cool community to get plugged into when I was young.

My dad got me into it when I was really young.

So I started playing when I was like six years old.

My older brother, Thunder, he was ten, and my dad just brought us out.

Somebody had introduced him, so we played a lot at Highland Park.

They've had, of course, there for a very, very long time.

And so, I was homeschooled and it was just my like outlet for athletics, I guess.

And I've just been playing almost my whole life.

What does it take to become a world champion?

How much practice?

How much effort did you put in?

It feels like it took my entire life of work.

Like, practicing as a child and competing in large scale junior events and amateur events, you know, around 14 and 15.

And then I started playing on the pro tour, kind of like right out of high school.

And so, I mean, it's it's been four years of like touring the country and somewhat internationally too.

And a lot, a lot of of failures and hard work and some success.

And it just started trending in the right direction before the World Championships.

And it all just kind of culminated, at the right time.

I want to talk about the championship.

Can you walk me through those last few holes?

It was looking pretty bleak.

Down the stretch I was I was back six shots with nine holes left against Reiners Ballades from Latvia.

Who was a player that, like, no one had really heard of.

He was having an incredible weekend and I was having an incredible weekend.

And then, just at the last, I end up getting a few strokes on the 17th and then we both birdied the 18th, but I have like a 55ft putt that I have to make to force a playoff.

So he's got he's got me completely on the ropes.

We're tied and he's under the basket for birdie.

So I have to just dig deep and make the biggest part of my life.

And so, I hadn't been even putting particularly well that day, but it was like everything on the line, it has to go in and was able to to knock it down.

And then we went into a sudden death playoff on the exact same hole that we had just played, the 18th, and he ended up throwing it out of bounds, and I threw it in bounds and was able to play for par and take it home.

So I mean, it was a fight the entire way.

I was back three shots going into the round, back six shots after nine holes.

And then, just just kept believing and had faith and pushed the whole time and was able to just scratch out a dub when it really looked like it wasn't.

It wasn't possible.

Well, that's pretty amazing.

Congrats.

So what comes next for you now that you've won the championship?

I took a week off the week afterwards and didn't compete, and then was able to go home and have a little bit of a celebration with some of my family and the disc golf community in Baton Rouge.

And then, now I'm on back out on the road competing again.

So we played the Green Mountain Championships in Vermont last week.

That was my first tournament back and played pretty good.

And then we have another tournament in Massachusetts that we're playing this week.

And then I have after this, two more events and and then the season's done and I'll, I'll probably play some some smaller local events.

And you know, Louisiana, Mississippi area.

But, we're almost we're almost drawing to a close.

But it's, it's been a lot of, you know, like media and different, you know, obligations and opportunities since then being the champions of, that part's been fun.

But right now, we're kind of back to the grind and the same old, same old competing every week.

Silas, before we let you go.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yeah, I would just say, shout out to my family in Baton Rouge.

Shout out to the community back over there.

All the people that, you know, encouraged me and send me messages while I was playing and showed up to our our meet and greet celebration at Highland Park.

Shout out to my sponsors, Armory from Texas and MVP.

Those those guys have believed in me for I mean, years and, this year especially so big thanks to them.

And then, just thank you guys for having me.

Thank you so much.

And congratulations again.

And thank you for representing the great state of Louisiana.

Thank you guys.

Shout out to all of them.

Shout out to Louisiana.

I mean this is this is unbelievable.

Well, for most of us a trip to the mountains is a nice vacation.

But for one professor at UL is a passion that's taken him from some of the world's highest peaks.

This week, I'm introducing you to Linus Wilson, who trades his classroom for the rugged mountain terrain.

He's a professor of finance at the Moody College of Business at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, where he's been teaching for nearly 20 years.

And in his spare time, the professors of fearless, high altitude climber surviving high walls of ice and rock.

Doctor Linus Wilson has climbed major high altitude peaks across four different continents.

He also made history this summer by becoming the first known Louisiana resident to climb to the highest point in all 50 states.

I didn't know that I was going to be the first Louisiana resident to summit the 50 state high points, and I just thought that was pretty cool, that some sort of kind of outdoor achievement like that was so rare.

Wilson was first a cross-country runner running long distances around Washington, D.C.

he graduated summa cum laude at Georgetown University, finishing sixth in a class of more than 800 students.

Then he got his master's degree and doctorate from the University of Oxford.

He'd been teaching finance for 20 years.

How are you financially?

Well, I'm just a poor teacher, so, you know, it's a bad career move to go into education.

Minus Wilson's journey into mountaineering was kind of accidental.

While sailing and navigating a trip across the Pacific Ocean.

It's the first day it had a blue sky.

Wilson started listening to dramatic narratives about mountain climbers, which brought on a fascination with high altitude environments.

I would say that I don't seek out risk.

I'm very risk averse and I try to manage risk.

But, you know, I also feel like, you know, sometimes you have an opportunity.

You may not get that opportunity again.

So when Covid 19 struck, Wilson left his sailboat stranded overseas and he shifted his focus inland to explore road trips around the United States.

I kind of conceived the idea of 2023 for me as kind of a goal, but I got really serious about it in 2024.

Standing on that peak then inspired him to look into the high pointing community, and he committed to conquering the highest elevation in all 50 states.

Trust me, I've summited a ton of mountains and no one has ever admired me for it, right?

Except myself.

Mountain climbing is the only hobby where you lose your breath, you risk your life, and you call it a vacation.

I was kind of interested in the idea, and I started work on the paper about the difficulty of the state high points and and that dissociation between that and what are the most summited highlands.

Keeping true to his day job at UVA Lafayette's College of Business.

Doctor Wilson actually used financial data modeling to calculate his odds.

We all know that knowledge is going to be harder because it's colder.

You're walking on snow and ice the whole time.

Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, and it's a 28 to 30 day expedition that requires a self-contained ecosystem burning 5000 to 10,000 calories a day in the freezing temperatures.

The the problem with Mount McKinley, or Denali is that there is not a lot of support on that mountain.

Food and sleep are very difficult.

And that frozen environment?

I had over 200 pounds of beer on the gnarly, which I had to either bury in the snow or which I would have to retrieve at the end or carry up the mountain.

Climbers rarely stopped for lunch because sitting still can mean freezing.

Instead, Linus consumed high fat and high sugar snacks kept in an inside pocket so they won't freeze solid.

I was shooting for 30 days of food.

I ended up with 28 days of food 5000 calories a day because you burn more calories in the cold, and also because of the activity levels and not all of Wilson's climb.

For as physically demanding as Denali.

He and his daughter Sophie also summited Louisiana's highest peak, Driscoll Mountain, at a humble 535ft of elevation.

We made it to the top of Driscoll Mountain, signed in the sign in sheet.

We found it like a one way trip of a mile.

So Doctor Linus Wilson achieved historic milestones across three entirely different fields mountaineering, global sailing, and academic financial research.

And he is now the first known Louisiana resident to stand atop the highest natural point in all 50 U.S.

states.

Do you have future goals now?

I plan to climb, so I did in 2023, in December, and I turned it around because I beat, literally cold feet.

Mountain climbing requires strong arms and legs, lots of patience and lots of bravery.

It's the only sport where being able to walk away injury free is the ultimate reward.

Well, that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch LPB anytime wherever you are with our LBB app, and you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs that you come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Jonny Atkinson.

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 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.