Entergy is proud Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and Greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred B. and Ruth B, 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 and There is definitely something unusual happening right now.

Climate experts react to the strike by a powerhouse tornado.

We have great crew bases.

We have a great support network here.

Some firsts for Hollywood South as it solidifies its footing.

Yeah, I think a hero is someone who makes the most out of a bad situation.

Introducing you to our first young hero of 20, 22.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr, Andre has the night off tonight.

Many in the New Orleans area woke up to destroyed homes and damaged neighborhoods on Wednesday morning after a tornado touched down, leaving one man dead.

Most of the damage was confined to the Arab Saint Bernard, Saint Tammany and New Orleans east area.

The National Weather Service confirmed that the tornado, an Arab, was an EF three with winds of 160 miles per hour.

The path was reported to be 11 miles long.

New Orleans East hasn't seen a tornado since 2017.

Governor John Bel Edwards took a tour of the areas hit hardest.

He asked everyone with damage to report it to damage dot L.A. dot gov.

It's not clear how much assistance can be given at this time.

We'll have much more on that tornado strike in just a moment from Andre.

And now two news making headlines across the state.

Vice President Kamala Harris made her visit this week to the town of Sunset in Saint Landry Parish and talked up the plan of the bipartisan infrastructure law to expand broadband access to everyone, every household in America should be able to access and afford a separate those two point access and afford because you need both You need to lay down the fiber, but you also need to be able to pay for and afford it.

So these both are priorities for our administration.

A 33 year old Baton Rouge man could spend most of the rest of his life behind bars after skimming and almost pulling off a plan to make him rich.

A federal jury convicted Elliot Sterling of funneling financial aid meant for students and small business loans into his own personal bank accounts.

Evidence found he got almost one and a half million dollars in student aid loans associated with 180.

Baton Rouge community college students.

People living in FEMA mobile homes following the hurricanes of 2020 will soon have to start paying rent.

About 1750 such mobile homes are in use.

FEMA extended deadlines.

But now that time is up.

And it means households displaced by Hurricane Laura will pay rent starting April 1st.

And Hurricane Delta May 1st.

More than a half year after Hurricane Ida pummeled southeast Louisiana and especially Grand Isle.

The Grand Isle School has reopened The school teachers, students from kindergarten through high school on return day 64.

The school's 135 students were in attendance when food or culture is being rated.

That's a place where Louisiana can hang its hat.

And once again, more culinary kudos for New Orleans.

This year's best cities for brunch.

Has the Crescent City ranked number two behind New York and ahead of Chicago.

And when you throw in cocktails, then New Orleans is number one for brunch quality.

A historic Louisiana state featured in this newscast in 2019 has sold for two and a half million dollars Mason national dates back to the 1700s.

The 75 acre property and plan to be parish includes four houses.

Among other structures historically research gardens furnishings and objects accurate to the period.

The sellers Dr. Jack and Pat Holden from Baton Rouge bought the properties back in 1974 and restored them.

The New owners Sam and Dori Lee from the West Coast plan on making it a living museum with an educational component to tornadoes touched down in metro New Orleans Tuesday night, causing a trail of destruction and one death.

It appears the winds from the much larger twister were stronger than any hurricane to ever hit the area.

It's doubtful anyone in Saint Bernard Parish would argue.

Andre Mauro has a recap and checks in with state climatologist Barry Kime about it.

Recordings of the massive tornado from viewers who watched it began to pop up all over YouTube and social media and local TV.

This video from Preston KRON and WGN TV.

And this is right now.

Right now.

It's okay.

Oh, my God.

She's it's passing You're passing.

You're passing you through your through.

You're through it.

Are you okay?

You're safe.

You're okay.

Okay.

You're going to have a couple on the phone with a friend who was directly in the tornado's path.

Staying with her.

They could see it being miles away, being in the middle of it.

The friend saw only chaos.

And then veteran meteorologist Margaret or from WDSU TV was on live as it unfolded Folks, this is something I hoped I would never see.

A tornado of.

This type is rare in south Louisiana, an EF three capable of producing winds from 158 to 206 miles per hour and in minutes, leaving stunned families reacting in the aftermath houses demolished.

Their world turned upside down for many again as it happened.

State climatologist Barry Kime was driving from Baton Rouge to New Orleans for meetings with weather researchers.

But to see something like this in New Orleans and the type did, did that.

Did that signal anything to you?

Well, it it is certainly unusual for South Louisiana to get a tornado like this.

Louisiana is getting more and more tornadoes, however, up in the northern portion of the state by a whole corridor along I-20 from from Dallas all the way across over to Atlanta.

That's that seems to be developing almost like the new tornado alley and you know, the center of gravity is sort of shifting from the Great Plains more into into the southeastern United States.

But do they generally stay north of us here down down in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and so on?

So getting a tornado of this magnitude is certainly unusual, although it does happen.

We had one just a few years ago that ripped its way across New Orleans, over New Orleans East.

So it's certainly not unprecedented, but it is not a common occurrence for sure.

Is it possibly a sign that, well, there are more of these that could be to come and this is more of what you might expect as something that could become more of the norm.

This certainly could be a sign of climate change.

I mean, we really don't know the answer to that.

No and no single event really tells you very much about climate change.

However, you know, the unusual couple of years we've had in south Louisiana has really been crazy.

And it's certainly raising some suspicions about what may be happening between the heavy rainfall, also through a tornado.

And here like this and the crazy hurricane seasons we've had over the last two seasons.

It's a real head scratcher.

I mean, the big question is, is this just dumb luck or is this something meaningful You know, I would say we don't quite know the answer to that quite yet, but we're certainly watching it and we'll see how the weather continues to behave and and see what kind of patterns continue to develop.

But there is definitely something unusual happening right now.

Good to see you and thanks.

Likewise.

Hey, take care of yourself.

We'll see you soon.

All right.

Help for people who suffered losses from tornadoes is now another item on a long list for Senator Bill Cassidy and other state leaders in Washington.

This week, Cassidy announced $3 billion in hurricane relief from Housing and Urban Development is on the way to Louisiana.

An additional 450 million of that will go to Hurricane Laura victims and another 1.27 billion for those impacted by Hurricane Ida.

At his weekly briefing, Andre Mauro asked him if any relief was coming from gas prices, oil and even oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Everyone in Louisiana knows probably more than any other state of that kind of linkage between energy, the economy of a family and of our country, geopolitics and our climate.

And so we've engaged directly with the administration, with with high ranking officials within the administration.

How can we move forward?

We in Louisiana are concerned about climate.

We're the ones losing all our coastline.

But we also recognize that you can produce oil and gas and offset the carbon in a way which creates jobs for Americans which lowers the price of the pump, and it gives us more gas to ship overseas.

Your direct question, have there been conversations?

Absolutely.

I had two different conversations.

With high ranking officials last week, and then my staff had another staff level conversation.

I'm also speaking with senators, both Democratic and Republican, about how we can get this moving.

We've got to help Russia become free of Russian, assuming Europe become free of Russian energy.

We've got to help lower the price at the pump for us here.

And I want to put more folks in Louisiana in good paying jobs, working in the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere.

That's the goal of our policy.

We're pursuing it vigorously.

On my website, Cassidy, Dodd, Senator Dodd, Geof, backslash reset is our guidelines that would govern this issue, taking care of those four things in the nexus.

And also describing what we call operation warp speed, the ability to harmonize different regulations.

You still take care of the environment, but you're able to permit and produce faster both for our sake in the United States as well as overseas.

As regards feeling good, the administration is talking to us.

They understand they've got to increase production.

They want to they want to take care of the climate.

So do I.

And we've given a starting point for these discussions.

The fact that after I spoke to the high ranking official, five different top level staff called my office for further conversation tells me, well, that's just a good sign Now, if you ask me that question a week and two and three, Andre, hopefully my answer continues to be even stronger.

Better sign, better sign and better sign.

Not a guarantee, but our world, our country in Europe have got to get off of Russian energy.

We have a plan to do so.

I'm hoping the administration will work with us Well, Louisiana is one of the world's top destinations for motion picture and television production, but most of that is based in New Orleans and some in Baton Rouge.

Both are seeing growth now, and Shreveport is also getting back into the act.

Andre Moore updates the latest on Hollywood, South Disney, plus his national treasure television series is filming in Baton Rouge, and directors are looking for fully vaccinated and boosted extras in the area.

The Caballero Casting Company is hiring people of all ages to work in some of the capital city's most historic spots.

The company says adult extras are paid $126 for a 12 hour shift.

And minors 80.

But the TV series, which is an expansion of the film franchise, isn't just shooting on location in Baton Rouge.

It's set in Baton Rouge.

As the storyline goes.

The capital city is where a lost Pan-American treasure is thought to be buried.

Emerging actress Lisette Alexis stars along with Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta Jones, who brings big star power.

She's running around Baton Rouge right now.

They're filming at multiple locations throughout the city to go to downtown last week, a week before and throughout the city.

You're seeing these trucks all over the place in the parking lot.

They're over at Celtic on stages They'll be here through June filming.

How did they choose?

Baton Rouge is the place where there's some treasure buried.

It's just a great place.

You know, Louisiana is just a great place to work.

To, to do business.

We've created an incentive program that's reliable, that's well known throughout the entire world.

And we have great crew bases we have a great support network here.

All of that pitch from Louisiana Entertainment executive director Chris Delly is true.

But still, it's a big deal for Baton Rouge and possibly a first.

Okay, so they're going way back.

Hush hush, sweet Charlotte.

Hush hush.

They were in Louisiana and near Baton Rouge, where they refer to Baton Rouge Yes.

Miss Jane Pittman referred to Baton Rouge, but not anything quite like this.

Not anything that's going to feature Baton Rouge as a character.

And over the course of eight, eight episodes, I anytime you spend a considerable amount of time in an area, whether it's, you know, a four month production cycle or four scripted episodic, you might get ten, 11 months out of the year spent in a community.

You become part of that community.

And so shows like NCIS New Orleans, which was until today, has been the longest running series that we've had with seven seasons here.

They've become part of the community.

Baton Rouge and especially New Orleans are rebounding from college setbacks with film and TV projects happening or in the works.

Expansion is the talk around the Big Easy.

New Orleans native Anthony Mackie, Marvel's newest captain, America bought 20 acres in New Orleans East with plans for a new film studio.

Off the iTunes Service Road and Reed Boulevard, Mayor Latoya Cantrell tweeted.

New Orleans East is making a comeback.

Bam!

Any time anyone talks and is considering building in the state of Louisiana as a great thing for us because it proves that this industry has set down some roots, has provided greater opportunities for further investment today and tomorrow.

Which brings us to Shreveport.

It Drew Mouton is the director of economic development and has assembled a team ready to make things happen.

Knowing that Shreveport has this history of at one point being the single most active non California film location in the country, that's sort of 2006, seven, eight, nine, ten.

And that area area has a lot of the industry has a lot of emotional resonance for the community, but it had died off.

So we sat down and really said, is this an industry where we should be playing?

Should should we invest into this?

And does it make sense And came up with a couple of reasons, maybe three strong reasons why Shreveport can compete in that space.

And then we started putting the pieces in place to try to rebuild it again.

Mouton says there are three things going for the city.

You can make a movie here that looks like it's anywhere.

We've doubled for New York for a shoot out, even though the country, all kinds of different things have blown up.

The White House up here, you know, it has that it's been called the nation's backlot It's got some it's got this thing that that I think of as production efficiency.

But one of the one of the sort of tricky benefits of living in this 136 square mile town, which is about the size of Cincinnati or Detroit, but has about 30% 25% of population means that you can really get anywhere in about 5 minutes.

And so the production crews would tell us, you know, there's a magic thing that happens here.

We can set up, we can shoot, we can break down, we can move in, set up and shoot, and then we can do this three times a day.

And there are very few places where we can get that much production in a given day.

And then the third thing was that we had some assets up here that are really interesting.

We have one of only two purpose built studios in the state.

The others are conversions.

We have one of the largest wave tanks up here, and we have this history of doing really big production work for S.W.A.T..

I'm on very more of a student at Drive Academy is taking hardship and turning it into a passion core.

And Gray is in the process of creating her own skincare line.

As just a senior in high school.

She's SGA president and a young entrepreneur with a bright future ahead of her.

But her journey to get here was a difficult one.

Tonight I'm introducing you to our first LP, Louisiana Young Hero of 2022, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.

What makes a hero?

It's a bird and Superman.

For Superman, it was his superhuman strength and ability to fly a dimly lighted, mysteriously secret that came hidden headquarters of America's number one crime fighter.

Batman.

For Batman, it's his genius number.

But for coin gray a senior at Thrive Academy, the answer is more complex.

A hero is someone who makes the most out of a bad situation and instead of doing negative, that goes into the situation they go forth with if to bring hope to other people.

Gray's journey to heroism was a difficult one.

At a young age, she was bounced from house to house, from parent to parent.

Both homes weren't suitable for children.

It's been really difficult for me.

I've been from home to home and recently, since last May, I was homeless for six months until my birthday.

So it's been it's been a rough, rough 18 years for most of her.

Life.

Gray was abused physically and mentally by family members.

The abuse at one point was so bad that she ran away from home.

It was a decision I wanted to make at the time, but ultimately it wasn't up to me because I wasn't 18.

So I had to go back and live with my mother.

The next thing I ended up with, we didn't have a home after that.

On the outside, it was clear something wasn't right.

Just physical appearance.

Walking around shoulder slumped, walking around, hit, looking to the ground.

When you speak to her, she wouldn't look you in the eye and she wouldn't protect her voice.

So that kind of let me know that she didn't really see herself as valuable.

She didn't think her voice mattered.

She didn't think she deserved to be hurt.

So just those were my interpretations from just the physicality.

And then when we began to speak, she was really for it with Sherry.

Kadir Ellis is a teacher at Thrive Academy, where Grae goes to school.

The two bonded over time, and Ellis learned about Gray's home life.

She reached out to me and mentioned about her not being able to go home or not being comfortable going home and basically acts like, what can I do?

And so I made some phone calls and reached out to some of our counselors here.

And then they took it from there.

And next thing I know, you know, two weeks later, she's a different person.

That's when the real transformation began.

Gray was officially moved out of her abusive home in place with a foster mother, Connie, or she started to come out of her shell and ran for SGA president.

She joined afterschool clubs and developed an interest in graphic design It's actually in the moment kind of thing where I just was like, Okay, I'll see if I can do it.

And I did.

So if another one of the situations where I didn't expect for something good to happen in D, so that's always been good.

Things have been found in the CEO of Nabi Lotus Cosmetics.

Let's hear it up for Corrine.

But most importantly, she became a young entrepreneur through the organization.

Gray created her own skincare line called Nabi Lotus.

The name stands for Rebirth and Beauty.

It's taken me a while because over the years I realize it's something I wanted to do, but I never really think I never really thought I could make it into something feasible to fail.

So the first one I call it the Butterfly Wharf or the lobby was through this project.

Gray conquered her fear of public speaking She inspired her classmates to take a leap of faith.

But more importantly, she gained confidence in herself.

Shoulders that look you in the eye When she speaks, she speaks with more confidence.

And it wasn't it wasn't a drastic change.

It was minimal at first.

But it kind of grew over time.

Gray's newfound strength is inspiring.

That's why when nominations began for LP's Louisiana Young Heroes.

She was a no brainer.

I feel very excited because I usually I usually set my expectations way lower.

So that's why I was such a star, because I think there's so many more people doing so much more things by actually giving nominated for it and actually getting it.

It made me realize that what I do is something big.

The things I do aren't just minimal It actually is five people.

It's been a long journey and not an easy one.

But by Gray's definition, a hero overcomes adversity, makes the best of a bad situation, and spreads positivity.

In 20, 22, she has surely done that.

Do you think you're a hero?

Before I vote, like I could never get the title of a hero because I never felt like I've done anything big enough to be a hero.

So now I see.

And I think I am Gray has been accepted into college already.

She'll be attending University of Louisiana at Lafayette, majoring in graphic design leaves.

Louisiana Young Heroes program is being presented this year with generous support of Amara health care, a tossed Louisiana East Boundaries Parish Library the US Army, Baton Rouge recruiting battalion Demko and Hotel Indigo.

You can find more information at LPB/HEROES.

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 catch 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, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

For everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting on crossings here.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B 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