Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth Ziegler Foundation and the Zeigler 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 and this is the first NASA funded cybersecurity clinic, LSU launches a cybersecurity clinic to help Louisiana small businesses fight hackers.

There is a range of temperature that all crops need, and increasingly that range is moving.

Intense heat may be affecting the foods we eat.

Traditionally, we've seen a decrease in COVID infection.

Is COVID 19 the new flu?

So we again, we try to tell the stories of their lives and sort of what led them through to become the greats that they became.

Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum celebrates a decade and new inductees.

Hi, everyone.

I'm crossing here.

Karen Loblaw is on assignment in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

She'll be reporting from in the field.

We start tonight's news with political developments.

Former President Donald Trump was in Louisiana this week to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign.

He headed to Cafe du Monde in Jackson Square before heading to Metairie, where a supporter held a fundraising event at his home.

The event cost 23,000 per person or couple.

This included a photo op with the former president.

It costs 3000 for a VIP guests reception.

The goal was to fundraise at least 1.75 million.

And now to other news making headlines across the state.

The Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles announced that they have retained Nortonlifelock to offer one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for Louisiana residents impacted by the recent move at data breach.

U.S.

Senator John Kennedy is calling on Congress to cap the price of insulin at $35 per month.

Kennedy introduced a bill aimed at making insulin more affordable to all who needed even the uninsured in Louisiana.

More than 14% of the adult population has been diagnosed with diabetes, and more than 30% of adult Louisianians are pre-diabetic.

Making sports headlines around the state, LSU Baseball has the distinction of sending two players to the major leagues with the highest signing bonuses and MLB history.

Right hander Paul Schemes.

The first pick in the Major League draft joined the Pittsburgh Pirates with a $9.2 million signing bonus, and outfielder Dylan Cruz is getting a 9 million signing bonus from the Washington Nationals.

And finally, the Golden Band from Tiger Land has a new band director.

Dr. Simon Holloway, Go associate director of Bands will serve as the next director.

He joined the LSU faculty in 2020 following a national search and has been heavily involved with the Tiger Band for the past three years.

And cybersecurity is becoming a global issue here in Louisiana, officials are encouraging residents to be alert.

Karen Loblaw has more.

Take a look.

So I'm here at LSU campus, the site of the university's new cybersecurity clinic.

Now in development, it will be the nation's first university based cybersecurity clinic.

And this is a topic that is top of mind for many given the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles.

Recent data breach exposed thousands of personal records.

Now the state is responding by offering free credit monitoring services to select individuals.

But all of this really comes full circle back to the fact that both our personal and our professional data is at risk, and small businesses, well, they are very vulnerable, which is why the LSU cybersecurity clinic is here.

They're going to step in and they're here to help.

Alami McCleary is a senior training at the LSU Cybersecurity Clinic.

It's the nation's first ever university based program aimed at helping small businesses fight hackers.

I'm a student.

I'm still in college and having the opportunity to work with small businesses and having hands on.

It's something that means a lot to me.

Olayemi is part of a team of LSU students who will provide free cybersecurity services that help Louisiana small businesses prevent and deal with cyber attacks.

So let's say you have you say you're setting up a whole system and you secure it, but how are you going to know if it's vulnerable or not?

So you have to get somebody to try to mimic the hacking line and do the real world stuff and trying to get into the system.

If is able to do that, you write a report and train your people and tell you like, Hey, these are the cracks I found in your system.

Try to fix them.

Now, this is the first NSF funded cybersecurity clinic, and the goal is to prototype this initiative and hopefully it's going to be adopted in other universities across the entire country.

LSU received a $1.5 million award from the National Security Agency to establish the LSU Cybersecurity Clinic.

The NSA chose LSU from a field of more than 400 eligible higher education institutions across the U.S.

In the spring of 2024, the cybersecurity clinic will start working with small businesses across Louisiana.

Companies can apply through Louisiana, small business and development centers.

So the goal with the clinic is we're going to have real clients that will come to us for face aid kind of treatment where, you know, if they have any cybersecurity security issue, whether it's ideally supposed to be proactive treatment.

But again, it could also be a reactive issue.

Hacking data is big business and certain kinds of attacks, including social media account hijacking, ransomware, where malware and phishing emails commonly target small businesses.

According to the latest statistics.

A cyberattack can cost a small business upwards of $25,000.

Small businesses don't really have the budget to hire full time cybersecurity experts.

So this is kind of like a win win for both parties.

Students will learn how to analyze malicious software and reverse engineer it, essentially learning the hacker language to neutralize an attack and prevent future ones.

Is there a predominant or our typical way that hackers seem to be practicing their craft?

So ransomware is it's kind of a special malware that is installed on a machine.

And then the hackers will try to get ransom out of it.

So do an encrypted file system.

And then in return, they will ask you to give them some bitcoins, and then you know, they will give you the decryption key.

So this is one of the, I think, most predominant way of, you know, they've been attacked, especially with small businesses for students.

Cybersecurity means job security.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts cybersecurity jobs will grow 31% through 2029.

That's seven times faster than the national average job growth rate.

I think that this is a great opportunity for Louisiana to grow.

For LSU to be put on the map, I think we're doing great things with cybersecurity here, with the students, with the faculty and just with the program in general.

So I think that this is going to be really good for everybody.

Louisiana climatologists are recording record breaking summer temperatures this year.

Extreme heat causes increased rainfall and storm activity, but it can also affect us in unexpected ways.

Agriculture is one of them.

Brandon Breaux, owner and operator of Cockeyed Farms in Folsom, says he's losing money shielding his produce from the heat.

Sickly elderberry here.

Oh, no, because of the heat.

So it takes me three days to eat the blueberries one time because we don't spray anything at all.

And so we use landscape fabric out here.

And just by stepping on the landscape fabric, you can feel the intense heat of magnifying what's already here.

And so it also with that extreme heat, it dries out the soil that much more.

Brandon Breaux is the owner and operator of Cockeyed farms in Folsom, Louisiana.

He grows blueberries, elderberries, and produces honey.

But lately, farming has been difficult, with no end in sight to the extreme heat gripping much of the nation.

These type of heat waves will happen roughly every 2 to 5 years.

Unbearable summer conditions continue to turn deadly.

Louisiana has recorded some of the hottest temperatures on record.

June was an average of 84 degrees and the first week of July was the hottest week on record for the entire world.

These temperatures are the perfect cocktail for severe weather, but they can also affect the foods we eat.

Breaux is living proof.

So what we'll do is we'll cut them down to the ground.

And in the C one season, they'll grow 6 to 8 feet tall.

Okay.

Yeah.

This is definitely not 6 to 8 feet tall.

Oh, are you?

I'm six foot tall.

So like I said, they're so they're they're nowhere near your height now.

So they're supposed to be up here and they'll they'll get upwards.

They'll.

They'll get upwards of 15 feet tall.

In the wild.

Rose running into three major issues with his produce.

The extreme heat is drying out the soil.

Ponds surrounding his farm are drying out, pushing animals to look for other sources of hydration, which are usually his products.

And finally, he has to use more products on his crops to keep them from burning.

Which is a hit to his bottom line.

Is there an estimate of how much more you're spending now because of maybe the heat this summer versus previous summers?

At least 25%.

And that's significant.

Where we're hitting electric bills of over $500, which we've got spray foam insulation in our attic, which got added after already the bad insulation, and that's in here.

So between our shop and what we've added, it's it's significant.

ROSE Farming woes are not an isolated event.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that heat stress can stunt plant development, lead to catastrophic losses and strain the economy.

In a study they conducted, extreme heat waves were linked to inflated prices of cherries and pistachios in 2015.

There is a range of temperature that all crops need.

And increasingly, that range is moving, which means that it leaves farmers and farmers kind of high and dry when local conditions change.

Peter Gerard works with Climate Central, an advocacy group that studies the weather.

He says Burrows farm is becoming more common.

Different crops can grow in different places, but one of the things you see are these USDA ranges of temperatures, and particularly the frost line migrating northward.

So areas particularly where you grow fruit trees, which actually rely on some chilling times and some cold temperatures.

They're no longer experiencing these ideal conditions in the south.

But does that mean they'll never be able to go back to normal?

What does that what does that mean for farmers?

It means the temperatures, at least in a practical period of time, will never go back to normal.

They will continue to get hotter for at least the near foreseeable future.

And for farmers who need those temperatures to produce crops, it leaves them with few choices.

But Gerard also said it doesn't have to stay this way.

There are some things people can do.

We simply need to take steps to reduce carbon pollution.

When we do that, when we stop contributing more pollution to this blanket that surrounds and chokes the earth, temperatures will stop rising.

Things will start to settle and we'll be able to start adapting and controlling these events.

And we won't experience the kinds of rates of change we're seeing right now.

Rowe sees the obstacles stacking up with the weather, but he chooses to adapt.

He says he'll find a better way to irrigate.

He'll put up fencing for the animals.

He'll find a way through this because it's not just a farm for him.

It's a passion.

I keep saying it's a gift from God.

You know, having a family farm, having the support of my wife and my kids.

You know, it's it's.

It's something to smile about.

I mean, it's continuing to serve my community from when I was in the military.

And now we're doing it as a family.

So I can't can't do anything but smile.

Despite extreme temperatures, bro still had a good season.

You can check out more on his farm by watching PBS's Harvest of the Month.

The pandemic was officially declared over last year, but that doesn't mean the virus was eradicated.

Nationally, the US is recording more than 5000 COVID hospitalizations per week.

Experts at Baton Rouge General Hospital gave me a small update.

So we're about a year out from the pandemic officially ending.

What's our status in Louisiana with COVID?

So we've traditionally we've seen a decrease in COVID infection.

However, probably over the past three weeks from late June to now, we've seen a slow rise in our number of COVID patients.

And that rise.

I mean, is there anything that you can attribute it to?

I would probably related to summer travel people getting together.

We recently had the 4th of July, which probably caused larger groups of people to to come together than we probably typically do in the earlier weeks prior to this.

And although we're seeing a rise in the number of patients that are testing positive, we're still not seeing volumes near what we saw when we were in the pandemic of COVID.

We're seeing about 5000 patients per week being admitted into hospitals.

And that number, when you think about it, 5000 seems like a lot.

But when you compare it to what we were seeing in 2020 and 2021, 5000 sounds like a victory.

I would agree with that.

And I certainly would think that the patients that we are admitting are much less sick than they were previously in 2020 or 2021.

So about how many patients are you seeing currently at our hospital?

We in the emergency department at Baton Rouge General, we test about 30 to 40 patients daily.

About 2 to 4 of those patients test positive.

Most, if not all of them, go home.

It are at our urgent care facilities.

However, we have seen an increase in the number of positive cases in the community.

I think that speaks also to the less the decreased severity of the virus allowing patients to go to an urgent care for help as opposed to the emergency medical center or the hospital.

So it's not a ton of people being hospitalized.

Is there anybody hospitalized at the moment?

We actually have one patient hospitalized.

And although they're here with a COVID diagnosis, their admission was something else.

Wow.

Okay.

So it's not even directly linked to the COVID illness.

That's correct.

Okay.

And so whenever you're seeing these patients coming in, what type of virus do they have?

There's so many different strains of COVID.

Sure.

So still, the current is the primary variant that we're seeing from about 2022 of December to now.

Their symptoms usually are that of the common cold, runny nose, maybe some shortness of breath with exertion, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea is what we typically see.

This particular strain has been with us since 2020 to of December, but probably a variant of the kind since probably early 2020 to January to March.

Prior to that, we had the Delta variant, which was less transmissible, but the disease itself was a lot more severe this time around.

This time around, the current is more transmissible than Delta, but the disease severity is much less.

Is it fair to say now that the COVID 19 virus is similar to the flu?

Absolutely.

I think as with the flu, we are used to seeing that certainly do in our flu seasons.

I think with COVID, we're going to be used to seeing it.

It's no longer a pandemic.

We're endemic.

So it's here to stay.

But it's certainly not the bear, the virus, the monster that we thought it was back in 20 2021.

Right.

And sometimes I do see some people with masks.

It's very occasional, but I still see it.

That's not something that's necessary anymore.

I wouldn't say that it's a necessity.

It's personal choice.

It may help somewhat with transmissibility, but data doesn't exactly support that here.

Currently, the CDC recommends that if you test positive for COVID, you quarantine for about five days and then you wear when you go back into public, you wear a mask for additional five days.

Okay.

So really a personal choice.

I mean, I know that this has been hammered into the public awareness for years and years and years, But for the people that are still afraid to get sick, what can they do?

Especially since on a tends to be a little it's milder than previous variants of the virus.

I mean, think it's the same precautions you would take with the common cold washing your hands, staying away from friends or family that you may have been exposed to the virus.

Certainly, if you have high risk for severe illness, which is the same as that of the flu, patients that have medical comorbidities, respiratory, respiratory issues, cancer, immunocompromised state or the extreme of age, our young in our old population.

But right now, I don't think anybody should limit themselves from normal activities daily living.

I think it's important to get out of your house, although the heat is certainly here and something that we're dealing with in Louisiana, but really no restrictions.

All right.

So is there anything else people should know about the virus and its current status?

Not decide.

Not at this time.

That's good news.

I remember at one point everybody thought we would be stuck with this forever.

And we've come such a long way.

Well, thank you so much for coming and speaking with us.

Certainly.

Thanks for having me.

And Karen Loblaw is at the 10th anniversary of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Let's hear from her now.

I'm in downtown Natchitoches at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and History Museum.

And this is a big weekend.

Come on in and I'll show you why.

Welcome to our Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum.

What a great time for us to be here because you just updated your exhibit with memorabilia from the 2023 Sports Hall of Fame inductee.

Rex, this is an amazing opportunity for people to get an up close look at some of the personal effects and belongings of these these greats.

So we have ten inductees this year and we have two writers coming in.

So we have a Patrick, we have Pat Casey's this year, of course, Eli Manning, probably one of our best known inductees this year.

His father, Archie, is already inducted and Peyton was inducted in 2019.

So we have his Newman jacket in his helmet from his Ole Miss days.

So it'll be exciting to meet him.

We have Ron Washington, the watch baseball coach and manager.

And I love it because we got bobbleheads from him.

The exhibit is not just about items on display.

It's about telling their stories because so we again, we try to tell the stories of their lives and sort of what led them through to become the greats that they became.

So I'm curious.

Tell me the process of trying to collect and curate all this is a process.

We get the list of names from the Hall of Fame, who the sportswriters induct, everybody.

And as soon as we get that list, and usually September or October of the year before we start getting contact information and start calling and emailing and reaching out.

It is quite a several months process.

So what strikes me as we walk through, yes, there are sports memorabilia items, but there's some poignant personal effects, too, right?

Correct.

Like I said, we want to we want to tell their stories and what got them to this induction.

And one of the ones for this year that is very touching is Walter Imahara.

Again, he's our first weightlifter.

But when he was a child, his family was called to had to go to the Japanese internment camps.

That was the end document that was posted that they had to report to the internment camp.

And he remembers that time of being in that camp.

And then eventually he wound up serving in the armed forces, as you can see, by his uniform.

So, again, it's not just items in the case.

It's items that we can talk about.

Okay.

Your love of the memorabilia has arrived with one of our inductees.

This is.

You may remember him.

He was the pitcher for the al Qaeda baseball team, a major leaguer.

And what you got for us And I got some cool stuff.

They wanted me to mail it and I was like, I can't do that.

This is like a signed by my World Series team.

This is the first college World Series at LSU.

So this is pretty cool.

This is the Braves World Series champions Ring.

That was just two years ago.

And just some neat stuff and some jerseys.

And we got an Emmy award in here, which is not a big deal, but sort of a big deal.

I don't know.

I think that's a big deal.

Like you, I just went to LSU, took some broadcasting classes, and when my career was over, I did some of that.

So it's been neat to see my career and how much the state of Louisiana has meant to me.

I've never been to Natchitoches before, so just being downtown, seeing the river, knowing what a big deal this is certainly a big deal for me, but just people in this town and around the state.

I'm so excited for the weekend.

So I got to ask you, having curated this exhibit as well as the museum, do you have a memorabilia item on your wish list?

Well, I mentioned how the championship rings a lot and we have not had a Super Bowl ring.

That would be something great to have.

Now, we've had some Olympic medals.

We have like Venus Lacey's gold medal for basketball.

And the gold medals are always great, too.

But yes, a super Bowl ring would be great.

And this is just one of the many events and activities leading up to Louisiana's biggest night in sports, which you can watch live streaming or LCD talk sports like sports at 7 p.m. Saturday night with the inductees here, their stories enjoy.

Thank you, Karen.

And finally, we're pleased to announce a new episode of our digital series Ritual.

New Orleans Culture Beer Tank Ball explores the history of music along the Texas-Mexico border.

Let's take a look.

The ritual of history retelling is an ancient practice.

A people's way of marking the passage of time.

And as everyone from the bards of Bronze Age, Greece and pre-Christian Europe to the griots of West Africa have known music is the perfect way to bring collective memories to life.

For far longer than it's been written down, history has been a tale told in song.

In Mexico, the musical genre of corridos falls squarely into this tradition.

The ballads that sing the praises of culture, heroes past and present.

The word corrido comes from the Spanish word career, meaning to one or two flow like a boat on a river.

These songs move to streams of time.

They remember those long gone and iconic figures for more recent generations into the fold in the American South.

The performance of corridos among those with Mexican heritage is a reminder that the past is woven from many threads.

These songs bear witness to the multifaceted, not to mention multilingual nature of Southern identity.

Today, I'm going to explore the ritual of singing history and learn how communities along the Texas-Mexico border use corridos to reclaim their stories and take pride in their past.

I'm Terry Jhonattan Ball.

And this is a ritual.

You can head over to YouTube and search PBS's Ritual to watch that episode.

And just before we go, I have another announcement.

OPB is going to be exploring the changing landscape of cannabis in Louisiana with the first of our Louisiana Spotlight Shorts High Times.

The 30 minute program seeks to clear up some of the confusion surrounding current laws regarding cannabis and hemp.

And it's also hosted by me and it premieres tonight at 8 p.m..

So make sure you tune in.

And that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPD anytime, wherever you are with our Lpv 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, Twitter and Instagram.

For everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm crossing here.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together.

Together.

Together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth Ziegler Foundation and the Zeigler 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 and.