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.

Louisiana is suing other states over access to medicine used in abortions.

There's an election fast approaching.

We'll break down amendments on the upcoming November ballot and cleaning up Louisiana bayous.

One vote at a time.

Plus, classmates reunite at one of Louisiana's segregation era Rosenwald schools.

We've made it to the weekend.

Let's get started.

Let's get to it.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen, and I'm Victor Howell.

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

But first, Louisiana is heading back to court in its fight over abortion pills.

The state is challenging other states that allow the drugs to be prescribed remotely and shipped by mail.

The case could have national implications.

Louisiana chooses life.

We will not allow activist states, activist providers or distributors profiting from killing babies to threaten Louisiana's sovereignty.

Louisiana is taking its abortion fight across state lines, and it's bringing two other states with it.

Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas are asking the U.S.

Supreme Court to weigh in on a legal fight that grew out of the court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022.

The decision returned the question of abortion regulation to the states and led to a patchwork of very different laws across the country.

But immediately after that issue was settled, certain pro-abortion states swiftly moved to circumvent the Supreme Court and the Constitution.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Merle says California, New York and Massachusetts then turn to what are known as abortion shield laws.

The lawsuit challenges shield laws in those three states that limit how they can cooperate with out-of-state investigations involving abortion providers, policies that restrict cooperation with out-of-state law enforcement.

Limit extradition and prevent the enforcement of certain out-of-state judgments and subpoenas, and harbor providers who prescribe and mail illegal abortion drugs into pro-life states.

And Louisiana has already tested those limits in 2025.

Louisiana authorities charged a New York doctor accused of prescribing and mailing abortion medication to a woman when Louisiana sought to have the doctor extradited.

New York refused.

I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers.

And I will uphold not only our Constitution, but the laws of our land.

And I will not be signing an expedition order that came from the governor of Louisiana.

Not now, not ever.

And now New York is pushing back again, this time against Louisiana's challenge to its shield law.

New York has always been a safe haven for reproductive freedom.

It was true before Roe.

It has been true since Dobbs.

And it will remain true long after this frivolous lawsuit inevitably fails.

Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out of state extremists.

And we will not be intimidated by this outrageous lawsuit.

New York isn't the only state pushing back.

I reached out to California Attorney General Rob office for a response.

The office says it is reviewing the motion and plans to respond in court.

Bonta has also said he will fight efforts to punish California doctors for providing reproductive health care that is lawful in the state.

And Massachusetts is making a similar argument.

In an email response to my questions, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office said its shield law protects the privacy of patients and providers.

Lift Louisiana, a reproductive rights advocacy organization, says this fight could have real consequences for doctors providing abortion care through telehealth and for patients who rely on it.

Right now, people in Louisiana can actually, have a telehealth appointment with a provider in one of the states that has a shield law, and that provider can provide them with medication abortion.

So if the Supreme Court were to side with Louisiana, then we would imagine that that almost all, if not all of those providers would stop providing telehealth abortion medication to people in banned states like Louisiana.

We know from the data that the majority of people that are seeking abortion care in Louisiana are are obtaining that abortion care through medication abortion, because to travel outside of Louisiana to seek abortion care in in a clinic setting, you're traveling thousands of miles.

And this fight doesn't stop with the Shield Law challenge.

Merle's office is also pursuing a separate federal lawsuit against 30 individuals and organizations accused of advertising, prescribing, dispensing and shipping abortion medication into Louisiana and other states.

That case seeks damages and civil penalties in Louisiana alone.

Their actions have resulted in the hospitalization of women and the deaths of thousands of unborn babies.

These are not health care providers.

They are illegal drug traffickers.

In the Dobbs decision, they were very clear that they were leaving this decision back, back to the States.

It would be, you know, novel and kind of unprecedented for Scotus to then come in and say, well, actually, we said that the states could do it themselves, but we're actually just going to side and say Louisiana's law prevails over what California's law is or New York's law is.

So this is no longer just a fight over an abortion law.

It's a fight over which states law applies when those states collide.

Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas say they should be able to enforce their abortion restrictions.

California, New York and Massachusetts say they have the right to protect providers and patients under their own laws.

Now the fight moves forward, and the Supreme Court could eventually be asked to draw that line.

Early voting starts next week ahead of the November 3rd elections.

Along with key races, voters across Louisiana will weigh in on ten constitutional amendments.

I sat down with Barry Erwin from leaders for a Better Louisiana to break down what's at stake.

Joining me now is Barry Erwin, chief policy officer for leaders for a Better Louisiana.

Thank you so much for joining me, Barry.

Great to be here.

Well, we are here to talk about the five amendments surrounding property taxes.

Let's start off with amendment one, which deals with surviving spouses of disabled veterans.

If this passes.

What would change for them?

Well, it actually would help them.

We already have an exemption on the books for spouses of disabled veterans.

It's a property tax exemption that really helps them out.

You know, with their disabled spouse.

There's a little catch to it, though.

If a veteran passes away, the spouse gets to keep that exemption on their house, on their property, but they have to stay in that house.

They can't move.

What this would allow is that in circumstances where maybe the spouse has to downsize or whatever, they could move that exemption from their house, that the existing house to another house one time so they could make one move and still keep that exemption that they've been having.

So they wouldn't have to say in that house.

No, they wouldn't be forced to if their costs go up or some issue like that, but they could only do it one time and they couldn't move to a place that's more expensive and get a bigger tax break.

Correct.

Let's talk about amendment to a little bit complicated.

It would create changes to millage rates.

What would those changes be.

And could this impact homeowners.

Yeah this one's complicated.

I'll have to tell you.

Basically, the Constitution requires local governments to pass tax millage to reduce those millage as property values go up.

So for instance, you pass a millage, it brings in a certain amount of money.

But is property values go up which they tend to do.

That would increase your taxes.

Well the Constitution says you really have to roll those backs so that the government's not bringing in more money than it originally asked for.

But there's an exception is there's so many times are that says, you know, if there's an emergency or a local government has some need or it's inflation or cost overruns, they can go back to that higher millage with a two thirds vote of that local governing authority.

The catch is they have to exercise that ability once every four years, basically between tax reassessments or they lose it.

I think the argument is that that creates an incentive for some local governments to kind of inflate taxes or keep them higher because they don't want to lose a taxing authority that voters gave them.

So this kind of takes that use it or lose it piece out of the equation.

So this is an important one for homeowners to pay attention.

It is.

And it's one that hopefully in many areas where some local governments are using this incentive to kind of keep taxes high, it would actually keep them lower, especially if they don't really need them.

Interesting.

So amendments six and nine deal with property tax breaks for seniors.

What are the difference between those two amendments and what would change.

Well I'm going to start with number nine.

We have something called the special assessment for property taxes.

Everybody has a homestead exemption.

We know about that.

This is called a special assessment just for seniors 65 years and older.

And basically what that means is if you're a senior citizen and you have income, household income of $100,000 or less, your property taxes can be frozen.

So just like what we were talking about, where they might automatically go up because your property values increase.

This would freeze them so your taxes wouldn't go up for that type of a purpose.

But it's $100,000 income threshold.

And this would raise that to $150,000.

So basically that means we've got about 36% of our households in Louisiana that qualify for this.

This would add to that.

So it would be a tax break that would be extended probably to more senior citizens.

Okay.

And then amendment six, number six starts with that same premise of the special assessment.

That's who's eligible for this.

But what this would do was add an extra a very lucrative actually, property tax exemption on every three years for people as they age.

So at 65, again, we all have the homestead exemption.

It's 65.

If this passes it would increase by 60,000.

So you'd have $75,000 homestead exemption and then another $60,000 exemption.

It would increase every three years by $60,000 until it hit a threshold when you turn 80 of like $300,000.

So this is a really big tax exemption for seniors.

The catch is it's not automatic.

It's it's passes.

Local governments will have to choose to offer it to voters to see if they opt into it.

And I think the thinking is some might do that.

And in those parishes, if it were to do that in pass, that would be a very big, lucrative tax exemption for senior citizens.

That's one for them to pay attention to.

Amendment ten is interesting because it would give tax breaks to those who rehabilitate blighted property.

And we know that's an issue specifically in Baton Rouge.

The mayor has been on a crusade with that.

So talk to me a little bit more about that.

Yeah, it's a it's a problem all over the state.

And local governments continually are looking for ways to deal with blighted property.

So this is kind of a new approach to using tax exemptions.

Again, basically what this would do is say if a person bought a blighted property or even a developer bought a blighted property and rehabilitated it, put it back into service in commerce, that they could get a tax break of up to 75% of the assessed value.

So that's a pretty good tax break.

So the idea is to do that.

The thing that's interesting about it is that if a developer, say does that and wants to redevelop this house and then sell it, the developer doesn't keep the tax exemption.

It goes to the new homeowners.

So it's kind of an incentive for maybe a young family or whatever that to get into home ownership and also remove the blighted property, you know, off the rolls or take it and put it back into commerce as good property.

So it's an interesting approach.

And, you know, governments, again, are looking for ways to do things with bladder property.

And this might be one that they take advantage of.

That does sound interesting.

So if all the amendments were to pass, what are the impacts to taxpayers and local governments if all of these property tax amendments were to pass?

You know, the biggest thing is that when you look at just about all of them, they are extending tax breaks that we have now.

So really for property owners, homeowners, for the most part, it's all different circumstances, blighted properties, senior citizens, whatever.

But for those people that would be affected, it would improve the tax break for them.

For local governments, it would probably mean a loss of revenues to some degree.

But it's a balancing act.

And and we'll see what happens and what voters say.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for coming in and explaining these complicated issues.

Glad to do it.

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

Victor.

What's happening?

I know we're in October, but it's like Christmas for sports fans.

Hockey is underway.

Football midstream.

Basketball is getting started.

Baseball in the playoffs.

It's a little bit of everything, but we're in Louisiana.

So let's start with some football, right?

As I'm sure folks in North Louisiana.

No, it's a simple 36 miles between the campuses of Louisiana Tech and UL Monroe.

These two schools were once in the South End Conference together before leaving in different directions, and they haven't played football against each other since 2000, but that comes to an end.

Saturday night tech has now joined Ulm in the Sun Belt Conference, and they'll square off in Monroe to kick off the inaugural Radiance Technologies Eye 20 showdown.

I think it's it's going to be a championship field.

It's going to be a championship environment.

Again, it's something that I think this northeast Louisiana region is going to thrive off of, year in and year out.

The Showdown rivalry series will be a year long all sports event between these two schools, with a trophy being presented to the winner at the end of the year.

Just one more thing added to reignite a rivalry that has been quiet for the last two decades.

Kick off at 7:00 in Monroe around the state this weekend.

It's an early morning kick in Baton Rouge for a top 25 matchup between LSU and Mississippi State, and at noon, they will kick off in Natchitoches between Northwestern State and McNeese and one of the other highlighted games this weekend in Louisiana.

It's in Lafayette at 4:00, when the raging Cajuns host defending division champ Troy to stay alive in the race for the title this season.

Don't forget, we'll get preview of all the action and get you ready for week seven Saturday morning right here on Game Notes on LP.

I hope to see you there.

Well, after a disappointing three game homestand that ended up with three losses.

The New Orleans Saints are back on the road getting set to face the New York Giants.

The last game a clunker getting blown out by Atlanta in front of a national audience on Monday night.

We don't often hear from team owner Gayle Benson much, but we did this week at the New Orleans Quarterback Club, and she let everyone know she sees what's happening with a 1 in 4 start and she's not happy.

As an owner.

The responsibility does start with me.

I will not make excuses and I will not accept this level of performance as our standard.

The Saints of the Giants kick off Sunday, then the team's head overseas for the first game played in Paris.

That's where the Saints will face the Pittsburgh Steelers next weekend.

Paris gives us pastries, wine, wonderful romance.

We give them the Saints and Steelers.

Yuck.

Finally, we had college basketball this week in Baton Rouge.

Pre-season action, if you will, with LSU hosting UCF Tigers.

Played six players in this ball game.

Had ten on the bench.

Michael Ruzek with the deep three here.

Had 15 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks in the game.

Donovan Dent had 21 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds.

Look at that block.

That's one of his three blocks games tied at 81 late in the ballgame LSU has the ball dent with the layup to make it 8381.

The Tigers then steal the inbounds and add another hoop.

And they win it 85 to 81.

And we will start seeing the men and the women in action in about two weeks to get the regular season started.

All right.

Thank you Victor.

Well, hundreds of abandoned and sunken boats are creating safety and environmental hazards in Terrebonne Parish.

Bayous.

Well, now a cleanup effort is pulling those vessels out of the water, making waterways safer for fishermen and voters.

Take a look behind me.

Crews are removing an old boat, one of 232 abandoned vessels identified across four Terrebonne Parish waterways.

So this removal effort is happening over several months across the parish.

It's been work that's been happening for several months already, and there's still months to be completed out in Chauvin.

Crews are tackling a problem that's hard to ignore.

Abandoned boats left to rot in Louisiana's bayous.

We got to take care of our bodies.

We got to clean them up, and we got to maintain them because they are who we are down here and what makes it special.

But the problem goes beyond the boats left behind.

In 2021, Hurricane Ida hit the region, making the problem even more dire.

After Ida, some boat sank.

Some owners left the area for good, leaving their vessels behind.

It's not just a boating issue, it's a housing issue.

Some of these boats are sold.

Their sold for a buck, two bucks, ten bucks and people use them when housing is not a solution that's in their their area.

And then especially in areas like Louisiana where you have storms that when a boat isn't properly maintained or is on the verge of not being properly maintained and a storm comes through, it just exacerbates the problem that's happening.

Terrebonne parish was one of ten locations selected for a boat U.S.

Foundation grant program funded by NOAA.

The parish matched its $1 million award with another million dollars locally, putting $2 million toward the cleanup to date.

Officials say about 100 vessels have been removed, with another 30 targeted.

We put out a call for applications in 2024, and we received over 100 applications, totaling more than $200 million in funding requests.

In just two months, the demand for funding reflects the scale of the challenge and the cost of removing even one boat.

The foundation estimates about $25,000 on average to remove a 25ft vessel.

Each individual removal effort is its own unique challenge, which is why this is such important work.

It's a challenging work.

This takes people with specialized skills, specialized equipment, heavy equipment, years of experience to know what to do when when you're removing these boats because things can change in a minute.

This isn't just an isolated issue in Terrebonne Parish.

It's a problem across Louisiana and the country.

The mass production of recreational boats with fiberglass hulls has made it cheaper to own a boat, but it's also made them more difficult to get rid of.

There is no affordable, sustainable disposal options for fiberglass.

I don't large scale, so there's different communities doing different things, but for the most part a fiberglass boat has to go to the landfill.

But unfortunately we're just not there yet to find a circular economy or a second life for fiberglass.

But there's many people working on this issue.

Abandoned boats can also pose environmental hazards as they break down.

There's plastics.

There's potentially cleaning materials, there's cushions.

So all of this ends up breaking down in the environment over time.

This leads to microplastics, microfiber, but also leaching of chemicals from different containers.

Even after the vessel is removed, the challenge isn't over.

Terrebonne parish officials say keeping the bayous clear will require continued effort.

Goal is absolutely to get to a point where there's none, but that's that's a very lofty goal.

It's going to be a continuing maintenance issue that we're going to deal with.

That work also matters for boaters and commercial fishermen navigating the parishes and narrow bayous.

Abandoned vessels can shift and block passage, creating additional hazards on the water.

First and foremost, it's a safety issue.

So anything that we can do to make our bayou safer for boaters, for commercial fishermen, is paramount for Terrebonne Parish and communities across Louisiana.

Removing abandoned boats is about more than clearing the waterways.

It's about protecting the bayous that support local commerce and help define life in South Louisiana.

In rural to Soto Parish, the Longstreet Rosenwald School still stands as a testament to the community's mission to educate its children.

The school was one of thousands built during segregation to educate African American children.

LA 64 Karen LeBlanc spoke to former students.

Welcome to the school.

They.

Former students gathered at the Long Street Rosenwald School for an impromptu class reunion.

Sharing stories about a school that shaped generations during segregation.

Before our cameras rolled, Pastor Joseph Pipkin led his former classmates in prayer.

The Rosenwald, through thank God for Mr.

Rosenwald, he donated two.

And he got greater and greater.

I finished you I like to another long lost Logansport.

Roland Wall and Logan's boy losing high school.

I graduated from there.

Longstreet Rosenwald School opened during the era of racial segregation as part of a partnership between educator Booker T Washington of the Tuskegee Institute and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Together, they helped build nearly 5000 Rosenwald schools across the South between 1912 and 1932, creating opportunities for African American children in rural communities.

Students attended Longstreet through the eighth grade and remember it as the center of community life.

Drizzle taught at the Longstreet Rosenwald School from 1946 until 1950.

It was an elementary school, and they went to school here until they got to the eighth grade.

They were well mannered, well behaved.

And most of that started at home on Saturdays.

They met here and played ball just like it was a school day.

And the good part about it?

Y'all might call it bad, but they didn't even have a gymnasium.

They played basketball on the ground.

The basketball court was outlined on the ground, and I was blessed to work with the boys and the girls along with the coaches.

And we had winning activities over here.

Rosenwald schools were never simply gifts.

Communities had to raise matching funds.

Some solves, often through bake sales, church collections, and donations from families who had little to spare.

That sacrifice made these schools more than classrooms.

They became centers of pride, identity and hope.

Queenie Rogers attended school here and says her father, a farmer, helped harvest and haul the lumber to build the school.

When I went to school at six years old, walking through the woods, crossing the creeks and branches and.

Come, and that's when school was out, we go back home and do what ever need to do or have to do.

This school is one of the few well-preserved restored Rosenwald schools you taught here.

What does it mean to you to be able to still come back to this place where you taught?

It's almost impossible to explain it because it has.

I have pleasant memories.

So at age 94, I'm glad to sit here and look at you and share this with you, because it's phenomenal and it's not to be forgotten.

Today, the Longstreet Rosenwald School serves as a community center and an extension of the Traveler's Rest Baptist Church, established in 1878 and today led by Pastor Pipkin.

Why is this school so important to the community?

It did to me, but educated us our mind.

But it helped us morally.

They will tell you a little.

Review you a if you got Allah.

So it was a mall and education and always tell them that to change.

Educating the mind and mighty dictating the heart.

You complete your incomplete.

By 1928, one third of rural black schoolchildren in the South attended a Rosenwald school.

The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation says.

Of the nearly 400 Louisiana Rosenwald schools constructed, only 20 original schools remain.

Well, before we say goodbye, we have a big winner to announce in our power on raffle.

That's right.

Douglas vast.

Just want a whole house generator from friends of LPB and optimize generator people.

A big thank you to everyone who supported the raffle and made it a huge success.

If.

Douglas.

Congratulations.

Congrats again.

Well, that is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch LPB anytime with our LPB 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 again, when you have a moment, please like us on Facebook on X and on Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Victor Howell.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together, we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum.

Located in Jennings City Hall, the museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.