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.

Job cuts at the National Weather Service could leave Louisiana less prepared for severe weather.

The founder of the Imagination Movers is helping college students break into the music industry, and two generations of optometrists help struggling families get access to eye care.

And Victor Howell takes us to Baton Rouge, where thousands of bowlers are taking part in the U.S.

Bowling Congress Championships.

You ready?

Yep.

Let's get started.

Let's do it.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Karen Lichtblau and I'm Dorothea Wilson.

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

But first, President Donald Trump's decision to eliminate jobs at the National Weather Service could have major consequences for Louisiana.

Experts warn the cuts could not only impact severe weather alerts, but could also affect a range of industries.

And this state.

The Trump administration, along with its government efficiency department, is undertaking a comprehensive effort to reduce federal spending.

This initiative involves budget reductions and staff layoffs affecting several agencies, with the recent focus on the national Weather Service and its parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Many experts, including state climatologist Jay Grimes, warn that cuts to the National Weather Service could potentially do more harm than good.

Well, so the cuts that are going to impact NOAA as a whole are certainly going to be impactful in Louisiana, because we are dependent on NOAA for data, for services, for a variety of aspects that aren't just about weather.

Of course, the National Weather Service getting a lot of the attention.

But Noah provides services for this state that includes fisheries and other activities, including our ports.

So this is a big, big deal when you start talking about going into an agency that may be looking at anywhere from 2010 to 20%, a reduction in force, over 800 employees have been laid off to date, with many of them being new, are on probation.

This news was particularly disheartening for Jake Lamb Bright, the recently appointed meteorologist and recent graduate of atmospheric science from the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Jake has started his career as a meteorologist at a local news station in Alexandria.

It's pretty disheartening, especially knowing a lot of friends of mine that I went to school with or connections have connections and lose their jobs.

And not just with National Weather Service too, but it seems like in other fields, meteorology is starting to shrink as well.

So, it's disheartening to see that another branch of meteorology, another avenue for a lot of people, is starting to become smaller and smaller.

Jake notes that the National Weather Service provides crucial data that local meteorologists use to create their forecasts, ensuring consistency and accuracy in the information they deliver across the state.

The National Weather Service, on a typical day, would launch two weather balloons from each forecast office across the country.

And those weather balloons give us real time atmosphere data, so we're observing what's actually happening in the atmosphere.

That data is then taken that observed data that's currently going on.

It's fed into our computer models and therefore makes them more accurate as a result of these cuts.

We've already seen at least 1 or 2 weather service offices have to stop launching weather balloons altogether.

So if more offices had to jump on board with that, that would be a problem without getting that real time data.

Our models become less accurate and every meteorologist forecast becomes less accurate as a result.

So far, the National Weather Service offices in Louisiana located in Shreveport, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, New Orleans, have been spared.

However, that's not to say we won't be affected by cuts in other offices across the state.

Let's talk about some other aspects of the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center.

That is a big one for every coastal state, including the Bayou State.

Who's going to pick up that heavy load?

Were the National Weather Service to go away or be reduced in terms of its ability to provide services so greatly that it basically was, handicapped by a shortage of manpower.

We're talking about an agency that's already shorthanded and has lots of openings now and then.

As of last week, they lost another couple hundred employees where they could be down 5 to 10% of their current staffing.

And by the time this potential Dodge impact is finished, those numbers could come down even further.

Also, within Noah and the National Weather Service, we're talking about a reduction of as much as 20% of their staffing for their national environmental centers for modeling.

So the impact here could be dire unless we rethink the process.

Now, given the cuts already in place and potentially more to come, how will the national weather Service respond?

What does this mean for citizens and businesses that depend on data from the National Weather Service?

This includes airlines assessing whether conditions prior to taking off and landing the shipping industry, and even pest control services.

Grimes is convinced that the substantial reductions will indeed impact their response capabilities.

And careful consideration should be given when deciding on future plans and cuts.

So the weather service is in the process of redefining their roles and generating a more efficient, footprint.

That's fine.

No, there's no doubt that probably every government agency can undergo some efficiency review.

And many times things get a little stale.

And here's the momentum, the energy to make those changes.

But it needs to be done in an orchestrated way without reducing the efficiency of the national Weather Service.

This slash and burn approach is going to have an impact on how the National Weather Service responds to the country.

From hashtags to headlines.

Here's what's trending this week.

All right.

A new report finds that some Louisiana restaurants are still mislabeling seafood.

Can you believe.

Wow, Karen, this is shocking.

Now, the report was released by Seed Consulting.

The company ran genetic tests on shrimp from 24 restaurants in the New Orleans area, and all of the products were labeled as Gulf or authentic Louisiana shrimp.

Testing showed three of the restaurants were serving imported shrimp.

Dorothy, this is not even new news.

A recently enacted state law requires Louisiana restaurants to clearly state the country of origin for their shrimp and crawfish.

Now, businesses that mislabel the products can face thousands of dollars in fines.

Now on to some more positive news.

And LSU baseball player is stepping up to make some children's wishes come true.

First baseman Jarrett Jones is partnering with the Make a Wish Foundation.

So for every home run the Tigers make the season, he will donate $800 to the group.

Now the money will help give children that are suffering from illnesses at least once in a lifetime experiences vacations of their dreams, and I'm very familiar with that organization.

They do amazing work.

All right, well, traditionally we think of Valentine's Day as the day to show our love.

But in Louisiana, love was in the air on Fat Tuesday.

Get this.

Costume designer and stylist Christina Solace was watching the Zulu parade in New Orleans with some friends.

Now her boyfriend to Ray Henry brought her a coconut.

One of the parade's most coveted, most desired throws.

And.

And when split whipped it over, she realized it was even more special.

It had.

Get this.

Will you marry me?

Painted on this side.

Okay, Henry.

Thumbs up.

Way to go with your A game.

That's right.

Thumbs up to you.

Now on to some more good news.

Access to medical care can be a challenge for many people in Louisiana, particularly eye care.

A Baton Rouge optometrist is on a mission to make sure everyone gets the help they need, and he isn't alone.

Take a look.

Imagine missing out on the beautiful, vibrant colors of a Baton Rouge spring.

All because everything is a bit too blurry.

This is a common experience for many in the region, particularly children.

The situation is even more difficult in communities like Old South Baton Rouge, where poverty is more prevalent than in other parts of East Baton Rouge Parish.

Health care professionals indicate the area lacks crucial health care services.

With eye care being a significant concern.

I recently read a study actually where that show that for every 1% of people in a community that was 25 years or older with a bachelor's degree, there was an increase in eye care health professionals of about 4.7%.

Conversely, for every community that had a 1%, unemployment rate, there was a decrease in, eye health, professionals by 2.7%.

Wow.

So, yeah.

So, so to that point, though, what we started doing at Doctor Smith's Eye Care is that we start doing a lot of volunteer work.

Now, this is where Doctor Smith comes in.

With more than 25 years of experience as a board certified optometrist.

He used strategically positioned his office in the center of Old South Baton Rouge.

Committed to addressing eye health care disparities in the community.

The reason why I got into the profession to begin with is to help people, and that's the bottom line.

Doctor Smith has observed how poor vision can adversely affect students in the classroom, leading to both underperformance and misbehavior.

As a result, he's made it his personal mission to address the issue by working in his community and collaborating with an organization called Love Heals.

Love heals is an organization that offers free health care to individuals in underserved communities.

It's an important, thing that they do.

And they but not only eye care, you know, dental, mental health, just things like that that they provide to the, community.

Yeah.

And like I say, we've been doing it for, for years along with some other, other people that, that started out doing it like, doctor Okuma, who has a practice on the, north side of town at around Southern University.

Now, the good news, his love and commitment to the community are already influencing the next generation.

His daughter, Doctor Kennedy Smith, has committed to continuing the mission of providing eye health care to underserved populations, and has recently embarked on her own career as an optometrist.

Together, they represent only two of the 250 optometrists in the state, with less than 2% identifying as African American.

I'm seeing the the big transitions, that we've, that we've made, just, to make the advancements, you know, in this profession and, it's honestly just inspiring just to watch my dad because he has made some great diagnoses and really has impacted many people's lives.

Well, which is, you know, in turn inspired me to want to do the same thing for sure.

The young Doctor Smith smiled as she discussed opening avenues to help an even younger generation of children see the world more clearly before they enter the classroom.

She then shared her plans for a bright and successful future.

So my idea for the future is to definitely continue to expand.

You know, we're over here on this side of average, but I would love to expand back over there, you know, by the Leo Butler Center.

I would also love to be a mobile unit, honestly.

Yeah.

Just so that we can get out there and reach more people.

Unfortunately, you know, we don't have a bus or the equipment for it right now, but it's definitely anything I had and think it happened for sure.

But I definitely just continue to, to reach out to the community, serving the underserved, because that's really all we're here to do is like, provide the service to people.

And, you know, and I'm honestly a happy to do it alongside my dad.

And, you know, I can't wait to continue it.

Parents with young kids are probably familiar with the Imagination Movers, but did you know they got their start right here in Louisiana?

I sat down with one of the group's founders, who is now mentoring college students to help them break into the music business.

I am joined by Scott Durbin.

He is one of the founders of the famed Imagination Movers.

They are a children's musical group, and they had a show on the Disney Channel for five years.

People of a certain age are big fans of the imagination.

We still perform today.

Scott is a busy man.

He also leads the music business program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

He's a busy professor and adding to his responsibilities.

He is now a mentor with the Grammy You Mentorship program.

Thank you for having me in your office.

So fun.

But it is it's so eclectic.

It actually, you know, people will pass by and they'll stop in just to see Eddie the monster here or some of the stuff on the wall.

And it always provides a smile.

So let's first of all begin by explaining what is the Grammy You mentorship program.

So the Grammy you is the Recording Academy's membership program for aspiring creatives, as well as music business professionals aged 18 to 29.

Grammy you mentorship mentee program is where they will look to pair up somebody in the industry with, an aspiring music business, individual or creative, so that they can learn a little bit more about the industry as well as network, so that it might lead them to the next big thing.

You know, in music, I think it's important, for artists and professionals in the industry to give back.

And I think that is part and parcel of why I am part, you know, I'm doing the Grammy you is really to share my experiences, to inform, really the future.

Game changers, in the industry.

And so I think it's an important part, as someone who has experience with touring, with recording, with songwriting, to really kind of create best practices and share those so that it can inspire and motivate, you know, the next generation.

You are currently paired with a mentee.

Tell me about that relationship.

So the program runs from November to May, and generally we meet, about four or more times.

I work with a student who's from Tulane University.

He's interested in the music industry, but his background is economics, which is great because as a music business professor, my forte is not necessarily in music production or something like that, but it's all in the numbers.

It's all in rights management, revenue streams, all of that.

And so it's a nice little simpatico relationship that I can share some of my wisdom as he ask questions.

And all that music business experience comes from your success, in part with Imagination Movers.

Tell us about Imagination Movers.

It had about a five year run on the Disney Channel.

You know, I brought the idea to, my friends, basically, we lived in, you know, maybe a one, one mile radius in Lakeview in New Orleans.

80% of it was basically our original vision done in an attic after the kids went to bed.

And we were kind of brainstorming ideas of what it would be.

And we've been just fortunate enough to to really have a career on that wonderful show.

You can still watch it today.

And we've been able to, you know, tour domestically, internationally, and still create content and create music.

So there were a lot of lessons learned in the creation of that program.

Very successful, but not only lessons learned as an actor, as a songwriter, as a musician.

What are some of those takeaways that you share with your students?

I think for for me, one of the important aspects is I want to take what I've experienced, both good and bad, and allow it to educate and inform my students so that they can maneuver around some of the obstacles that I had to face with some of the information that I could share with them.

So things like owning your masters or owning your, compositions, those kinds of things are the wisdom that I like to impart to our students, and that is learned firsthand through my experience with Disney and and even post Disney with Razor and Thai Concord music.

And even now with The Orchard, which is our distribution company under the Sony umbrella.

So breaking into the business, so to speak, you had a relationship with LP.

In fact, some of the Imagination Movers original music videos appeared on Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

That that's part of your origin story.

We have nothing but amazing things to say about LPB.

LPB was an early champion of the Imagination Movers.

I think they understood, you know, that we wanted to that we had a mission statement.

And that was to encourage creativity in kids, model problem solving, foster independence, and promote self-esteem.

They showed our our music videos as interstitials, and we can't, thank them enough for being so instrumental.

And really, our regional rise, apparently, you know, who also played a role is any of the month.

That is correct.

This you know, it's so funny because you do a show and Eddie the Monster was a reoccurring character on our show.

And they were going to throw this away.

And I was like, no way, no way, we can't do that.

And so I had the perfect, perfect idea for him to be, and it was right here, kind of, watching everybody and putting a smile on their face, if all be it with three teeth.

So he definitely makes me smile.

Yes.

Imagination movers still performs.

Where can we find you?

We're going to be going.

To do a small tour.

And then we'll come back and we'll have some shows planned, including 18 and over shows from our own G audience that probably saw a lot of those LPB videos, when they were like 4 or 5.

And now they're like college students who I'm teaching in my class, so it's crazy.

Thank you so much for what you do for cultivating young musicians and young artists in the music business, and for inviting us here today in your office.

My pleasure, my pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

Baton Rouge is rolling into the spotlight as it hosts this year's U.S.

Bowling Congress Open Championship.

That's right.

In the event attracts thousands of top bowlers from around the globe.

Sports correspondent Victor Howell takes us to the Baton Rouge River center.

For more, take a look.

20 hours a day, 150 days straight to be nonstop bowling action behind us here in the U.S. bowling Congress is back in Baton Rouge for the night.

It's good to see you.

Thank you.

Welcome back to Baton Rouge.

Well, thank you for having us.

It's it's great to have you all back here.

How exciting it is to be back.

Oh it's tremendous.

It's been, 13 years since the Open Championships.

Competitors have made their way to Baton Rouge.

Which, you know, you say 13 years seems like a short time, but so many new bowlers are in the sport.

So many new bowlers are experiencing the open championships.

We're gonna have so many new people coming to this area to experience, the excitement not only of the tournament, but of this great area.

13 years since you were here, 2012, the last time in Baton Rouge.

And when you look at the numbers that you've that you were telling us earlier that are coming here, it's the largest since the last time you were in Baton Rouge, correct?

That is correct.

Baton Rouge has had tremendous drawing power for our tournament.

When we were here in 2005, we eclipsed 13,000 teams.

In 2012, nearly 11,800.

And we're just underneath that right now, 11,600 plus and still more registering.

So, we have a chance to get to the 2012 number as well.

But the bowlers have come out for Baton Rouge.

They've come out for the build.

They've come out for obviously, the great culture here as well.

They've really enjoyed coming to Louisiana to compete.

And it's shows a lot.

When you talk about the feedback, certainly the culture on out the food, what what is it that you think wants to bring everybody back and from your experience as well?

That makes Baton Rouge such a welcoming home to everybody.

Well, obviously there's a lot of great things to do in this area, and it's an area the bowlers don't get to go to very often.

We do spend a lot of time on the West Coast for the Open Championships, so the chance to be in a more central location definitely is, a great thing for a lot of folks in the Midwest and on the East Coast, in the South, they get the opportunity to drive to the tournament, which usually isn't the case when they're heading to Reno or Las Vegas.

But with that, you know, one of the big parts of the Open Championships experience is not just the bowling, obviously, that's very important to a lot of competitors.

But taking in the rest of the trip and the.

Scenic spots and enjoy all that.

Baton Rouge has proved time and time again that they have a lot to do here.

And, the bowlers have, definitely shown that by the numbers we're seeing this year, certainly at a central location.

But you're an hour from New Orleans, you're an hour from the I if they want to go do those sorts of tours and, and see so much of South Louisiana, so many people might think of bowling as birthday parties, a Friday night with friends with with drinks and pizza.

But when you're talking about the numbers that are coming here, I think I heard you say there's more than $7 million on the line.

This is a real experience for these bowlers to come get some real money while they're here.

Absolutely.

The prize fund at the Open Championships typically, north of $7 million.

That also depends on the amount of entries we have.

So the fact that we have more entries probably going to bump that number up a little bit by the time we get to the end of July.

But 55,000 bowlers, traveling from all across the United States, some even traveling overseas to come here to compete, certainly speaks to the competitive aspect of it.

But with that being said, with a national event, a lot of people think, hey, nationals, you know, I'm not good enough to compete in nationals.

That's not the case.

55,000 bowlers, coming to compete.

But we have three different average base divisions.

So there's a lot of peer to peer competition taking place.

So if you're a first time bowler, you're not competing with, you know, the players who have been bowling for years and years, those great players that you see on, telecasts and stuff like that, you get to compete against bowlers of a similar skill set.

I know there's economic impact.

That's baton Rouge officials there estimating well over $150 million over the next five months.

Just because this USBc event is here in Baton Rouge, it is open to the public.

So you can come any time it starts at, oh, what, 7 or 6 in the morning goes till three.

Is that correct?

For the hours?

The actual bowling will start at 7 a.m..

So that's the first squad of the day.

We have five squads throughout the course of the day.

The last one starts at 11:30 p.m., so, the odds are, that will be closer to 2:30 a.m. 3 a.m. when bowlers are, the last bowlers are are finishing up for the day.

Our staff is probably here closer to 23 hours a day.

Bowlers are making their way across, the lanes here, though, for, you know, 21, 22 hours a day.

And this is open where we're standing here at public seating throughout.

For those who have never seen this or they want to see bowling, I say, let's go see, this is about why would you invite them out here to see some of the activities on the USB?

C that's a great question.

This tournament, obviously, we've talked about what it brings to the community, what it brings to the area, people coming from all over, you know, showing that support.

We're going to see you're going to see the bowlers in the community.

The bowlers are going to be you're going to get very familiar seeing bowling jerseys.

They'll travel and teams will be dressed the same.

You'll see that out at restaurants, at bars, at the casino.

So I think, you know, showing that support here will be great just to see the competition, understand what it's all about.

But, you're going to be seeing those bowlers a lot across town.

So it's a great way to kind of introduce yourself to what's happening here and what you'll be seeing, across the board.

You're bringing a lot to town.

But before I let you go, you're also leaving a lot when you leave here.

When this is done.

I know there's a lot you use to set up 54 lanes plus, but a lot of these sources are going to be left here in Baton Rouge.

Tell us about what you're going to do with that.

Took two plus months to come together to basically take a blank convention space floor to 54 competition lanes, seating, vendor row and all that great stuff that makes the tournament work.

But at the end of it, we've got to take all this out.

We got return the River center as it was.

So, when we're finished, we're going to return it 100% blank, space right here.

But all the salvageable materials that we have from the build will go to the local habitat for humanity so they can be, placed back into the community.

That's something we've done 2005, 2012, and also in 2017 when the women's championships was here.

So that's very important to USBc as well, to be able to give back to the community that, hosted us for five, six plus months.

Look for the shirts, look for the members.

They will be here 55,000 strong for the next five months.

I hope it goes well.

Congratulations.

Welcome back to Baton Rouge and good luck with that event.

Well, thank you so much.

All right.

I have never been able to master the sport of bowling.

It always goes in the gutter.

And by the way, with those long, gorgeous nails, pretty hard to bowl.

You know what?

Honestly, when I have bowled, they don't get in the way.

You know, when I don't have them, that's when I can't function properly.

But it takes a special person to bowl, I'll tell you that.

Yeah.

I'm just mainly a birthday party bowler.

Okay.

I love it.

All right, well, that is our show for this week.

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

That's right.

And 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 and Instagram for everyone that Louisiana Public Broadcasting I'm Karen Lichtblau and I'm Dorothea Wilson.

Until next time.

That's the state where it.

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 Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.