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 Zigler Foundation and the Zigler 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 He's a talented man, but he's going to have a big learning curve with a big job.

House Speaker Mike Johnson's meteoric rise.

Right now, we█re trying to spray about hundred thousand acres a week.

The buzz about increasing mosquito populations.

We call our festival a celebration of the readers writers and books, a visit to a storied event.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Karen LeBlanc Kara St. Cyr is out this week, but you will see her stories in this broadcast.

Well, early voting starts Friday, November 3rd, and runs through November 11th in advance of general Election Day on November 18.

As voters prepare to go to the polls, Governor elect Jeff Landry is busy putting together his transition team with more announcements of appointments.

The list is filled with some familiar names, including former 2019 gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone and Republican donor and businessman Lane Grigsby.

Well, also this week, southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond hosted a very special guest whose name appears on the new Campus Media Center.

Robin Roberts, anchor of ABC's Good Morning America and a Southeastern graduate, attended the groundbreaking for a $40 million renovation of the D Vickers Hall that includes the new Robin Roberts broadcast Media Center.

Roberts donated money for the center's construction, which includes three broadcast media studios, a newsroom, a film studio and a multi-media studio.

Everyone that I work with at ABC and everybody that I worked at ESPN all had different paths.

Everyone had a different journey and you have to figure out yours.

Success leaves clues.

So if someone is doing something that you admire, reach out to them, read about them, but personalize it.

What's going to work for you?

Don't want to be the next whomever.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah.

Me, you, you.

Mike Johnson is the first speaker of the U.S. House, elected from the state of Louisiana and the first Southerner to hold the position since 1999.

Though some say his career was largely under the radar, Johnson ascended the political ranks quickly, becoming a favorite of former President Donald Trump and gathering the votes of other high ranking officials.

Kara St. Cyr talks with political analyst about Johnson's meteoric rise to power.

So Mike Johnson was voted speaker of the House in a historical move for Louisiana, because not only is he the first speaker that's from Louisiana, but he's also the first Southern speaker that we've had since 1999.

But how does somebody that's largely unknown ascend the political ranks like this?

Whenever you're running against people like Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan, who are more well known politicians?

Timing is everything in politics.

And if Steve Scalise had waited until Mike Johnson became a candidate, he might have been the one.

But as it turned out, Johnson's timing was impeccable.

The Republicans were worn out and they basically decided they had to settle on somebody and Mike Johnson kind of fit the bill as a guy who could navigate the treacherous waters between the arch conservatives, of which he is one.

And the more moderate conservatives who are in the Republican delegation.

And he comes across as a reasonable fellow.

He's a nice man.

He speaks well.

He's a smart guy and he's a good ambassador, or not only for Louisiana, but for his alma mater, LSU.

He's the first LSU person to rise of this kind of prominence in politics since Hubert Humphrey, who was vice president of the United States.

So it is a meteoric rise.

He wasn't even on the scene ten years ago in the state legislature, served in the state House for two years.

He's been in the U.S. House for a less than seven years, and he is the number one guy in the U.S. House of Representatives.

as conservative in Louisiana, we know him as an arch conservative, and that he is and he voices the conservative message extremely well, as well as anybody in politics now.

And he's got the platform to do it.

Unlike John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy are two U.S. senators who are former Democrats.

He's been true to his thoughts from day one.

So we know who Mike Johnson is and he is a person who on social issues has been, some would say outside of the mainstream of America, but maybe inside the mainstream in Louisiana.

After all, this is a state that Donald Trump won by 400,000 votes twice.

And he is a person who is very close to the former president who, if he runs, is quite likely to win our state again.

So Johnson's conservative politics on social issues may not play well in places like Los Angeles and New York City, but they play very well in places like Baton Rouge and Bunkie.

And so he is popular in Louisiana.

He won his congressional seat this last time without even an opponent.

And I think he's solid in places like the South.

And because of that, he has enough mojo to mount the successful run for the US House of Representatives.

But three or four other people had to fail before he got his shot.

And the fact that there was an exhaustion factor, I think certainly helped him.

How is his ascension to the House Speaker position going to affect us here in Louisiana?

I don't think it hurts Louisiana to have a House speaker.

It should help.

The question is how much and his politics are in sync with the governor elect.

It would seem that on the issues, they are very much in line.

So I would think it would help Louisiana.

And because of that, our state should be thankful that we have somebody in power.

And as of now, Scalise is still the number two person in the majority in the United States House.

Louisiana politicians that are holding these top positions.

Now, that's that's the first time it's ever happened from one state.

And as I've said a few times, Louisiana has 1.4% of the national population.

But we we generate far more than 1.4% of the national news.

And in this case, we have inordinate power on Capitol Hill.

So I think it will help us with him occupying this position.

Do you see the divisiveness clearing up any time soon?

I don't.

But I do see him as somebody who will talk to the other side.

And he is a nice person.

There's there's not a lot of baggage with him.

He doesn't come in with a boulder on his shoulder.

He's a nice person.

He's articulate, and he is convincing for his cause.

But his cause to some is not acceptable in American politics now.

And it plays well in some parts of our state and our country, but doesn't play as well in others.

And most people who are on the other side and the other side has almost as many seats as he does.

They're not in accord with that.

So there's bound to be a collision.

And the question is whether he can handle that.

And he has very little experience.

He's never been a committee chair and he's the least experienced speaker as far as House experience we've had since 1883.

So he's a relative newbie, he's a talented man, but he's going to have a big learning curve with a big job.

Johnson has defied the odds to get the job, and now he has to defy more odds to keep the job.

And it will be fascinating to see how it plays out because he's got to navigate a tough, tough sea of challenges as he looks forward.

And I'm not sure anybody could do this job effectively, but he wanted the job.

He got it.

And we'll see if he can hold it.

And if he can, he will go down as one of the most able politicians our state and perhaps our country has ever produced, because it will be a extremely treacherous voyage for Mike Johnson.

A recent cold front should bring some relief from the swarms of mosquitoes that have descended on homes and backyards around the state.

Louisiana is experiencing a proliferation of the mosquito population, which defies the conventional wisdom that when the temperatures dip, the mosquitoes disappear.

This year, the weather has not followed the rules and as a result, insects are acting out of character.

Here's the buzz about this insect and the normal with the Peace brand about 80 to 90 homes a day right now we go going at about 230 a day, trying to keep up with the demand of everybody calling for getting relief in the East Baton Rouge, mosquito abatement and rodent control is unseasonably busy battling mosquitoes, buzzing around homes and backyards and breeding in dark, damp areas.

And along open water.

So different mosquitoes love different types of weather.

So in the summertime we have different breeds and mosquitoes.

So no mosquitoes that we deal with right now.

They enjoy the cooler weather, but they don't come out at the mouth that they coming out right now.

But we see these seasonal patterns like this.

But this time around, it's about the mosquitoes are about twice as abundant as we typically see now.

Dr. Kevin Calliouette is the director and medical on entomologist at the Saint Tammany Parish.

Mosquito Abatement.

What is going on with our mosquito population?

It is proliferating.

It is.

But with this cold front, it should be plunging pretty soon, everybody.

What we think happened is the the record low rainfall and very hot and dry summer created a situation where we didn't have very much water, particularly in the coastal marshes of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas Basins.

In October, a tropical storm system with easterly wind gas dumped rain flooding marshes on the New Orleans north shore and around Lake Maurepas the second largest lake in Louisiana.

This created an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes, and it's creating a breeding site on side of the lake itself with mosquito borne breeding.

We're getting hundreds of thousands a night.

Now, what type of mosquito are we talking about?

Because there are many different.

Right?

So right now we're dealing with a mosquito called a vixen and another one called a Niagara Pampas The Niagara Pampas is a big is a giant dark looking.

It almost looks black to the naked eye.

And the vixen is a little light.

BROWN And in East Baton Rouge, Parish homeowners can call mosquito abatement to request a free inspection around the home and the spraying of insecticide.

These house calls are part of a mosquito fighting arsenal, attacking the proliferating pest during the day and night from the ground up.

This is one of two airplanes that we have in mosquito control.

Control here.

Right now, we're trying to spray about 20,000 acres a week.

We have two pilots.

All the conditions have to be favorable to go up to spray.

We have a helicopter on the way as well.

So in your mosquito fighting arsenal, you have two planes by helicopter, right?

Nice spray trucks and a drone.

And the whole day crew we have right now in our day crew, we have about 15 inspect the ones that's going out this way to 230 some homes that we spray.

Louisiana has 60 different species of mosquitoes that breed at different times of the year and under different conditions.

So mosquitoes take advantage of when the conditions are just right for them.

We need to think of it that way.

This summer, we had some record heat and you think, Oh, it's warmer.

We understand it must be more mosquitoes when when it's hot.

But it was so hot that it was actually too hot for the mosquitoes this summer.

Those temperatures are are not good for mosquitoes.

Actually lowers their lifecycle, their lifespan.

And so we saw that all of a sudden, once once the temperatures got a little bit more moderate, the mosquitoes were active again, their optimal temperature range is probably between 68 degrees and and 85 degrees.

Insecticide resistance is an ongoing issue with many species of mosquitoes.

And we go out and spray we bring mosquitoes back in the lab and we test them.

So we have traps that we go around the pairs and we collect all these different mosquitoes and we test them for resistance.

In the fields.

We enter the insectary a mosquito lab where workers test different insecticides to see which ones work best.

This is where we house our mosquitoes.

So we have a population of Culex effectuated the mosquitoes here.

And what we do here is we raise the mosquitoes here so we can have a when we do a case test, we can test mosquitoes that are 100% unceceptable to chemical homeowners can do their part to control the mosquito population by inspecting their homes to eliminate places with standing water and dark, damp spaces.

So both temperatures and the amount of sunlight in a day are triggers for mosquitoes to do what we call estivate which is just when an insect goes dormant essentially over the winter.

Food insecurity is growing with inflation and increased housing cost.

While the Department of Labor recorded a slowing rate of increase for grocery items this summer.

The price of food is still high for the average consumer.

A nonprofit food pantry in New Orleans, Common Ground Relief says the pressure is making it harder to keep food available for struggling residents in their community.

Kara St Cyr has more.

The Common Ground Collective was founded back in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, and it was really founded to provide relief for residents, whether that be food or, you know, fighting for environmental justice.

But lately, the big issue that people have been having is locating food that's affordable.

So have you guys seen an increase in people needing food?

I really noticed is that people are traveling from a lot farther away to access our services.

Really?

Whenever you say further away, are they coming from different wards?

Where are they coming from?

We're actually recently been having people come from as far as the West Bank, which has quite a long way to travel.

When would you say you first started to notice an increase in people needing your services earlier this year and especially into the summer, earlier this year and especially into the summer?

Do you knows how many families are using your services at all?

When we first started our new Barrier Free pantry, the average number of families that were coming through would be somewhere between 20 and maximum up to 40.

Right now we're seeing sometimes over 50 families and even up to 70.

Wow.

Up to 70.

What type of strain does that put on the common ground collected since our free pantry wasn't originally designed to accommodate that many people?

We've had to really work very hard to make sure that we're honoring people's efforts to get here and to fairly distribute the resources that we have with the people.

Wow.

So is it more expensive for you guys to find food to give away, or are you guys struggling with resources?

It is more expensive than ever.

So not only have we seen an increase in the number of people who are coming, but actually we're feeling the strain from the other side as well.

We're even getting the same exact food from last year is costing hundreds more for the organization.

Wow.

So that's really just talking about.

All right, same amount of food.

So say it's green beans or something like that.

The price of that is increased so much that you're having to pay even more just for the same amount of food.

Right.

And that's not accounting for all the new people that are coming in.

Correct.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then as far as getting resources, I will say that we have had a wonderful amount of community support because I think a lot of people recognize in the greater Light collective how important food justice is.

So like Louisiana, just recovery has helped us.

We have partnered with Food Rescue and we've also partnered with basically anyone we can in order to increase the amount of access that we're able to give to folks.

So on the environmental side, this has been a really interesting year.

Louisiana has been hit with wildfires, which I mean, that never really happens where a hurricane state.

Has that created any type of strain for the Common Ground Collective and is that bringing more people to this nonprofit?

The general answer is yes.

There has been an increase and support to to rise to the occasion and that there has been a lot of community effort to come together to address the issues at the scale of the crisis.

So common ground we have been we've had our part in helping distribute water for the salt wedge, and we're going to do some revegetation and by use of age after the fires.

And so that's our role, right?

But at the end of the day, right, we can't create change on the same scale as, say, like the Army Corps of Engineers deciding or not deciding to go through with a heavy engineering project that could have very huge impacts on not only just our community, but statewide.

Honestly, a lot of it through organizations similar or parallel to ours who are focused on creating a no barrier option yet, I don't see the markers that I'm looking for in order to really confidently say that food security would would improve over the next couple of years.

Well, I don't want to leave you on such a bleak.

Oh, I guess is there anything that you're looking forward to next year whenever it comes to Common Ground Collective?

I would say that I am very hopeful about the different organizations who are all working towards towards an equitable future.

And I very much believe that in the work that we're doing and the impact that it's having, and I very much believe that like the more people that we can get involved in this to create that cultural change, like the closer and closer we come to creating that new, like equitable and hopeful future The biggest book reading in the state takes place once a year at the Louisiana Book Festival, a gathering of authors and readers.

The daylong event held in and around the Louisiana State Capital is listed as one of the nation's top ten literary events.

The festival encourages Louisiana fans to explore and engage with the state's vibrant and thriving literary scene.

Here's a look at this storied event.

From prose to poetry to printmaking.

The Louisiana Book Festival plays matchmaker between authors and readers, with more than 200 writers and presenters turning out for author talks, book signings, book launches and honorary recognitions, including the Louisiana Writer Award, which goes to New Orleans native and LSU creative writing assistant Professor Maurice Carlos Ruffin for his books and short stories.

Where I'm from, New Orleans is one of the most interesting places in the world the music, the people, the food, architecture.

There's always stories being told.

People have such a Joie De Vivre so it's kind of easy.

It's almost like, you know, free money to to write stories about people who have such a vibrant spirit.

I want readers to feel a sense of entertainment and joy.

When you read my work and as a 24th award winner.

Maurice joins the ranks of other Louisiana literary greats, including Ernest J. Gaines, the first recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award by the Louisiana Center for the Book and the State Library System.

Host of the annual event we call our Festival a celebration of the readers, writers and books.

And we place readers first because it's a really reader focused festival.

Our focus is on Louisiana authors and books set in Louisiana or about Louisiana.

We know that Louisiana readers don't just read.

The Louisiana writers are about Louisiana, so we have people coming from all over the country in the book signing tent.

Haley Arceneaux autographed her latest book, Wild Ride The 2003 LPB Young Heroes Award winner chronicles her travels in space as an ambassador for St Jude Children's Hospital.

I came out with the adult version of Wild Ride last year and recently just came out with the Young Readers Edition.

Haley, at age 29, joined inspiration for the first all civilian Orbital Space Mission, which launched on September 15th, 2021, making Haley the youngest American to orbit the earth.

The first pediatric cancer survivor in space and the first astronaut with a prosthetic body part.

The book is about my life story, and it goes through being diagnosed with cancer as a ten year old and going through cancer treatment.

Really, that life changing experience and the purpose that it gave me so much that I wanted to work with other kids with cancer at the same hospital where I was treated at St Jude.

What do you want readers to get out of your books?

One of the biggest messages that I have is the importance of holding on to hope.

I really wanted this message of saying yes to opportunities that could change your life, even opportunities that scare you.

From music to mysteries, biographies to fan fiction.

There's a story that speaks to almost any interest.

The name of the book is The Hidden History of Louisiana's Jazz Age.

I am a musician and I hadn't played my horn in a long time.

I heard Allen Toussaint album The Bright Mississippi the day after he died in 2016.

Started finding, researching about musicians, finding these interesting stories.

And after about three years, I had half a book writing a page turner that finds a publisher and a fan base is no easy feat.

Writers often put pen to page wondering if their work will connect with an audience, which is why the Louisiana Book Festival aims to introduce readers to new authors and genres.

I got this book called Under the Influence.

It is a book inside the world of Raising chickens in Your own backyard.

I do not have chickens, but I find them super fascinating and they are a big part of Louisiana rural culture.

So I'm excited to read this and I'm hoping to pick up a book by one of the Louisiana poet laureates as well, and poet laureates were present, including Louisiana poet laureate Mona Lisa Saloy who recently finished her two year post as Louisiana's literary ambassador.

It's a thrill and it's a learning experience every time I come and learn something new.

There are great books that I know about.

I learn about new authors, great books, and I go home with way too many.

But writing in or about a state populated with fascinating people, peculiar customs quirks and evocative landscapes makes Louisiana the ideal antidote to writer's block.

Perhaps that's why the state is fertile ground for so many literary works.

Louisiana has a wonderful and horrific history.

It's got horrific history of slavery.

It's a gumbo of cultures, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Haitian And all of these things come together to make a wonderful place where you can write about almost anything.

Mike Rubin and his wife, Ian co-write thrillers.

Their latest book is A White Hot Plan.

It's about a disgraced New Orleans homicide detective who stumbles across a terrorist plot to bomb the French Quarter.

The book festival venues stretched from the state library to the state capital, where several sports writers debuted books about Louisiana legends.

I asked him, I said, So how many people are benefiting today from what Dale Brown did?

And the answer was 500,000.

Glenn Guilbeau gave a talk about his new book, Everything Matters in Baseball The Skip Bertman Story.

He won five national championships as LSU's baseball coach in the 1990s, and then he became athletic director.

And it's all about the days at the old Alex Box and in Omaha, where he became famous and among the many Louisiana stories told here at the festival.

You'll find LPB█s own book.

Why Louisiana and Mississippi or Anyplace Else.

It's the companion book to the very popular documentary by the same name, ranked as one of the top ten book festivals in the country.

The Louisiana Book Festival celebrated its 19th year, bringing together readers of all ages and authors at all levels, from emerging writers to award winners.

And that's our show for this week.

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

You can watch LPB 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 here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc 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 Zigler Foundation and the Zigler 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 y