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 an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

State officials are looking for ways to streamline Louisiana's tax structure.

But some lawmakers have questions.

Louisiana struggles with childhood obesity, but now there's a new program hoping to teach kids how to make healthier choices.

That's right.

We're taking you on a tour along the Northeast Louisiana music Trail and New Orleans is gearing up for the Super Bowl in February, and they're looking for thousands of volunteers.

If you're ready, let's get started.

Let's do it.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Dorothea Wilson, and I'm Victor.

How?

Much more on those top stories in a moment.

On this week's edition of Louisiana, the state we're In.

But first, flash flooding and emergency rescues are underway as the remains of Hurricane Helene.

Battered Georgia and the Carolinas.

Yeah.

That's right.

Now, Helene made landfall as a devastating category four storm.

Late Thursday night along Florida's Big Bend.

This is new video showing major damage in the town of Stephen Hatch, Florida.

Storm surge picked up homes and slammed them into trees in Georgia.

Fox weather meteorologist Bob Van Dylan jumped into action to rescue a woman.

She was trapped in her car in rising floodwaters.

Van Dylan says she was calling 911, but they were dealing with other emergencies and crews couldn't get there in time.

So he waded through the water and pulled her to safety.

Of course, we're just getting our first look at the amount of damage caused by Helene, as we'll see more in the days to come.

Meanwhile, here at home, Governor Jeff Landry is expected to announce more details about his plan to rework Louisiana's tax structure next week.

One of the ideas being proposed would merge Louisiana's tax brackets into one flat rate, but some experts say that could increase the tax burden on lower income families.

In a legislative committee meeting late last week, Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson presented a tax reform plan that Governor Landry hopes to have approved in a special session.

I think if you have a competitive tax structure, Louisiana will grow.

I think the population will grow.

Secretary Nelson says part of the problem with Louisiana's current tax structure is that it's simply outdated, complex and not competitive with other states.

I was we unfortunately, are located right next to Texas, right down the street from Florida.

Tennessee is not too far away.

All three of those states have no income tax.

I think it's difficult to compete because even when you have, you know, even a 3.5% or 3% personal income tax rate, it's tough to compete with zero.

Nelson says part of their goal is to make smart tax cuts without drastic revenue shortfalls.

He believes a single flat rate could be a possible solution.

General in tax policy, the the broader the base of the tax, the lower the rates.

It's just better policy because everybody will pay something and it will be lower.

Today, people who earn up to $12,500 pay 1.85% in income tax.

Others who earn between 12,500 and $50,000 pay 3.5% and earners above 50,000 pay 4.25.

Secretary Nelson is proposing to combine three rates into one flat rate of around 3.5%, when property and sales tax are added in.

Some experts say lower income households ultimately pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than wealthier households.

I spoke with Doctor Steven Procopio from Pas to get his thoughts on the flat rate as a solution.

He says provided that we get more data, it could benefit everyone.

But there are still some concerns.

And so that would be simpler.

and part of that is also would give everyone a tax cut.

And some of the concern with that is by moving away from a graduated system, it would end up increasing taxes and being more regressive on those with lower income.

Much of the concern lies in the idea that many lower income families may see increased taxes, causing more financial challenges in the home.

As I understand it and what's been presented so far, they are aware of this issue, and the way they're dealing with it is by tripling the standard deduction you take.

So we go from $4500 to $12,500.

So any income under $12,500 for an individual is not even taxed.

and so that is a larger proportion of income for people who are poorer than for people that richer.

So that will help counteract, in theory, to offset some of the potential cuts.

Nelson has proposed.

Taxing services, particularly online services that historically have not been taxed.

That could include newer digital services like Netflix or Hulu, as well as certain luxury services.

So we have that's not even a thing that existed 30 years ago.

Not really.

So a lot of that escapes taxation right now.

It seems like most lawmakers agree that Louisiana's tax structure needs work, but they want more details to ensure any changes wouldn't worsen the state's projected budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.

Now, on to what's trending.

Here's what's happening this week.

LSU gymnastics picked up another superstar.

Reigning national champs are getting better, right?

Olympic gymnast Hasna Rivera announced on Instagram she's committed to LSU.

Rivera was the youngest member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, along with Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles that won a gold medal in Paris.

She's announced she'll be headed to Baton Rouge and a couple of years after she graduated high school.

I know, Victor, speaking of LSU, people are still talking about the showdown between two Heisman winning former Tigers.

What a showdown.

It was a fantastic ball game between these two, just the fifth time in NFL history.

Two former Tiger quarterbacks face one another.

It was the first since 1981.

Burrow had a great game.

He threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns.

But it was all about Jayden Daniels, who stole the show 21 of 23 for a 91% completion percentage.

That's an NFL rookie record.

And yes, Washington beat Cincy 38 to 33.

Wow.

It was quite a game indeed.

Hey, when it comes to conference realignment in college football, the greenway from Tulane University, they're rolling.

Nowhere.

Tulane this week committed to sticking with the American Athletic Conference in this age of conference jumping.

The newly revamped Pac 12 hope to pick up Tulane, Memphis, South Florida and Texas San Antonio as they work to rebuild out west.

Athletic directors from all four schools rejected the move, deciding to stay with the 15 member AC.

Wow.

Talk about committed, right?

A lot of them.

Yes.

Montana.

Yes for sure.

All right.

Well taking a break from sports.

This is blowing up online today.

Pop superstar Lana Del Rey brought her entourage to Louisiana this week to tie the knot with swamp tour guide Jeremy Dufresne.

She and the 49 year old met in the Grammys.

Or the 49 year old from those islands met on an airborne tour several years ago.

They held their ceremony along the bayou while Dufresne runs his swamp tours.

The performers close friend, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, the dynamic duo were at the wedding, and football fans want to know why Travis Kelsey hasn't scored a touchdown yet.

The season he's hanging out in South Louisiana during the season, going to weddings.

There you go.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, congratulations to those two.

Now September is National childhood obesity awareness Month.

And unfortunately, Louisiana has the third highest rate of childhood obesity in the United States.

A new statewide initiative recently launched to help educate kids on how to live a healthier lifestyle.

Karen Nobles shows us more about the Grow Healthy campaign.

Before I make it on screen, make your heart sing.

These fourth graders are making their hearts sing as the teacher leads them in a movement activity from the Grow Healthy program.

It's a statewide initiative aimed at reducing childhood obesity and improving nutrition.

We do moving.

Bingo.

So now we're doing full bingo.

But then also, we do my plate.

Scientist at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center developed Grow Healthy based on decades of research.

Really what makes this special is that Pennington Biomedical has learned so much from Louisiana and over the last 35 years, and, you know, it's not often that you find an evidence based resource that has been tested on your community or where you're from.

And we know so much about how the environment that we live in impacts our health.

So this evidence being that it so much of it is Louisiana based, it really has the opportunity to really work for people in a different way, and that their community maybe has already experienced this or some of the different barriers or challenges we face here in Louisiana may have been addressed in that original research, and the intervention may have been tailored in that way.

Fourth graders, through P.E.

classes at Progress Elementary, are exercising their minds and bodies through learning activities supplemented with activity books and take home newsletters.

The goal is for the entire household to develop a healthier lifestyle.

I give the kids a variety of things.

We don't just do P.E., we don't just focus on P.E.. We focus on health and AP.

Though our theme this year is easy to P.E.

and great health.

So grow health is just only enhance all we're doing making making the food and the terminology more relevant and allowing them to be to measure what they're doing.

The rate of Louisiana youth with obesity is nearly 22%, five percentage points higher than the national average.

Grow healthy aims to reduce that statistic through school and community outreach.

Over 1 in 5 of our children and adolescents are already considered having obesity, so their height and weight ratio is above what is considered to be healthy for their age.

and then also if you look at severe obesity.

So these are kids that are even at a higher level.

And these are kids that may start actually developing type two diabetes and asthma.

And some of the cardiovascular health problems that come with obesity, that's more like 7 or 8% of our children.

And that's higher.

Often than the national average.

And we've we've seen increases over time, not only in overall obesity, but in the number of kids that are hitting that severe obesity status.

The Grow Healthy Toolkit for schools also teaches healthy eating habits, working in tandem with nutritious food choices served up in the school cafeteria.

We're not using the food pyramid anymore, so a lot of us grew up learning about that.

So the USDA moved to at my plate model instead of the pyramid.

So it's an actual plate, and it shows you the portions of different food groups you should be serving yourself.

So half of your plate should be fruits and vegetables, a quarter of your plate should be lean protein.

So that could be lean meat or beans other protein sources.

And then a quarter of the plate should be a whole grain.

And then also you want to have some type of dairy serving.

But that needs to be a lower fat dairy serving.

So for kids skim milk is a great option there.

In its first year, grow Healthy is partnering with fourth grade classrooms in Caddo and East Baton Rouge parishes.

The program plans to include students through eighth grade statewide.

I've learned that you have to move around and keep healthy, eat, healthy to stay strong.

And what have you learned about eating healthy?

Well, you, you have to make sure that you keep, eating your limit, like, unhealthy food and eat mostly healthy food every day and move around.

When you go outside, you to do one every day.

It did know it.

Make your heart healthy.

Grow healthy is also launching a research initiative partnering with Louisiana families to study health, physical education, nutrition, sleep habits, and other factors affect children's health and development.

These comprehensive program packages, we have a lot of training, so training for our early childhood educators, helping them create environments that really foster healthy habits at the earliest ages.

And then for individuals, we hope to soon have a variety of mobile applications that would include things like meal plan support, exercise, recommendations and activities.

But really just creating a resource that our community can trust as science fact and evidence base, kind of working through all the different myths that are out there around health and wellness and just being a reliable source, you can trust.

Starting at the end of October with three nights of Taylor Swift, New Orleans is getting ready for a huge string of events in the Superdome, ending with the Super Bowl a little over four months from now, organizers are looking for a few thousand volunteers to make sure the Big Easy is ready.

When the top two teams in the NFL and their fans descend on South Louisiana.

Earlier this week, I visited with Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and president and CEO of the Super Bowl Host Committee, to get a status report on preparations and how you can be a part of the excitement.

So here we are now, four and a half months from the big event.

Let's talk football terms.

Where are we at the start of the fourth quarter?

Are we the midway point or have we had to have we had the two minute warning?

We're at the two minute warning as far as fundraising is concerned.

so we are well along.

And that's the first thing that we start and started two and a half years ago was the fundraising, portion of the host committee duties, because you have to raise the money to pay for all the obligations that you committed in the bid.

And so, the that piece of it is coming together nicely, but we're in the last where the last few minutes of that, we're in the fourth quarter as far as everything else is concerned.

It's the start of the fourth quarter.

And so there's a lot to get done in between now and February.

And things are going to be moving quite rapidly.

starting, the next couple of weeks since you mentioned fundraising for all the things we love about the state of Louisiana, our state, this city is not known for being a plethora of fortune 500 companies, big companies.

It's not New York, LA, Dallas, Houston, you know, Chicago.

But what does that say to the ability for your organization and for those who give money in the fundraising to keep bringing this event back, when we're not necessarily known as a hub of major financial institutions, we're not.

In fact, we sit at the bottom of the list as far as the number of fortune 500 companies in the state, and the metropolitan area, fortune 1000 is the same way.

We're we're we're bidding against cities like Los Angeles and and Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, major hubs, for, fortune 500 companies and fortune 1000 companies.

So it takes an organization like the Sports Foundation who is year here year round to make sure that we are keeping the expenses as low as possible, but delivering something better than other cities can.

And that's where the experience, and knowledge of our staff and our board of directors and, and the resources that we have here, mental resources, the minds that we have here, to do things and a way, the Louisiana way, that we still beat the other cities, but our our expenses are not as high.

I love that's a great phrase on the Louisiana way, because when you talk to people in the media, fans who have been there always say this was the place they wanted to keep coming back.

And I know for years it was here a lot more frequently.

2013 I was just telling you before we started talking here, it's hard to believe it was 2013, the last one that was here.

Would you have other cities that are building multi-billion dollar stadiums and trying to put in bids, yet it keeps coming back to New Orleans, which says a lot about what your staff's able to do.

And I guess to your phrase, the Louisiana way of knowing, yeah, there's a reason why we want the Saints to play a major role in that.

Sure.

So with the Saints and Mrs. Benson, actually making the pitch for us that we wrote it all and produced the ad, all the videos, and it was a 15 minute pitch.

to convince the the other 31 owners to bring a Super Bowl, to New Orleans.

And she made that pitch for us back in 2018.

She did a great job to rehearse 50 or 100 times.

And, you know, it was a big deal.

And, and, and for for Mrs. Benson and for us, to work together on that.

And, and since then, we've been planning and fundraising.

And how are we going to do things differently than we've done, in the past?

How is the event grown?

since 2013?

What are the expectations?

Much more does it cost?

What's our fundraising plan?

Everything that goes along with it.

we've been working on system 15 minute pitch seven years ago for a game that's four and a half months away.

It's amazing to see that that that journey and that road to finally get here.

So as you mentioned earlier, you're in the fourth quarter final two minutes of a fundraiser, but you're really in the fourth quarter for everything else.

And I know one of those is volunteers and state wide appeal.

A lot of people may not think I can't afford a ticket.

I'm never going to get to go to the Super Bowl.

But this is a great way to be involved.

Get to New Orleans and say that you were a part of it.

So from the volunteer standpoint, since this is seen statewide, what's the call to action for you to get people who are interested or maybe say, I never knew I could do that.

Right.

Another aspect that we're doing a little bit differently this time around, it is, and Chevron as our sponsor for our volunteer program, we're, we're calling it the Chevron Ambassador Program.

So they truly are ambassadors for Louisiana and for New Orleans.

and they'll be, we have over 5000 in our database right now.

We are seeking 7000, in our database to be able to, deploy, at, down all throughout downtown, all, at the out the airports around the region, not just a I know I was in the National airport, but the smaller airports in the region, hotels, and special events that we have, to be ambassadors for those visitors who are here.

And it's not just telling them, you know, where to find the convention center or where to find the French Quarter.

But it's also getting them interested in the history of Super Bowl in New Orleans and maybe the history of New Orleans and Louisiana in general.

You know, those when you talk about history, Louisiana, Louisiana's full of history.

New Orleans is full of history.

So, and 55 years of hosting the Super Bowl, those two go hand in hand.

New Orleans is a city known for tourists.

Mardi Gras, the food, the French Quarter, everything that's involved there.

but when a Super Bowl comes and I go back to 2013, do you often see the biggest lift may be in tourism because of the media coverage?

Oh, I didn't know that about that city.

I don't know about those restaurants, but these tours, it was that.

Does that seem to be the most immediate boost when a Super Bowl comes and goes?

I think it is.

It's it's what we noticed the most, because we have put such an effort towards that.

and again, it's not just a great in Orleans area.

It's, it's the whole state of Louisiana.

And so, that's the reason why we have a statewide media, committee that's, that's put forth.

And that messaging is so important.

But we follow all those messages, we follow the impact of it.

we follow, you can search now for, the word Super Bowl in New Orleans together, and you come up with all the articles, and every time it was mentioned on television and the value associated with that, it's in the billions.

and again, that type of media coverage and public relations, you can't put a price on.

There's an economic impact associated with Super Bowl.

It's extremely high.

but the media value and the PR value is even higher.

Like we said now through the end of October, they're still looking for several thousand volunteers to help with Super Bowl week.

If you're interested in volunteering, you can sign up at their website on your screen.

It's Nola Super bowl.com/volunteer.

Oh, what a great opportunity.

I really want to sign up for that.

A lot of fun to be down there.

Absolutely no 2024 is the year of music in Louisiana, and groups across the state are marking Louisiana's rich musical history.

The Northeast Louisiana music trail honors the region's history making artist and venues, with a series of markers winding through 12 parishes.

Karen takes us on a tour.

This is our most recent marker, actually, so it's good that we're here today.

this is for Doug Duffy.

As it says.

this is our 17th marker on the trail.

Doug Duffy is a blues musician and living legend, honored with a marker along the Northeast Louisiana music trail at the site of his future grave in West Monroe.

How does Doug Dubby feel about being honored?

in a in a graveyard?

Well, it was by request.

He requested it.

this is where his mother is buried and where he will be.

The singer, songwriter and recording artist is alive and well and regularly performs with his band, bad.

He's known as Louisiana's ambassador of the blues.

He's a member of the National Blues Hall of Fame.

He's played Jazz Fest probably 30 times to member of the Louisiana music Hall of Fame and the people he's worked with that he's written songs for, played with like Parliament-Funkadelic, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Marcia Ball, you know, a lot of a lot of, people that we all recognize here in Louisiana.

Enoch Doyle Jeter founded the Northeast Louisiana music trail, which winds through 12 parishes and honors all genres of singer songwriters, composers, and musicians, past and present, with ties to Northeast Louisiana.

I've been wanting to do this for 40 some years.

and the Mississippi Blues Trail came about in full force 25 years ago.

And I was thinking, if we could only do something like this on a smaller scale in northeast Louisiana to celebrate our musicians from this area.

in music venues, each marker has a photo and a brief history of the honoree.

We're taking you on an abbreviated tour of the music trail, hitting the highlights and not necessarily in numerical order.

Number three is Webb Pierce.

Webb Pierce is kind of one of our claims to fame around here, if you will.

at one time during the 50s, Webb Pierce was outselling Elvis Presley, but he had like 13 number one hits, 42 top tens albums, all kind of awards.

And, he was kind of a character.

His, he's in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

slinger Webb Pierce played in the Louisiana Hayride, a widely popular Saturday night radio show which went on the air in 1925.

On in Shreveport, featuring live gospel, hillbilly, country music and comedy acts.

So I went out there and stole the show from all of them, and they said, hey, you better come back next Saturday night.

And that's where it started.

Louisiana Hayride was a star maker, and Webb Pierce was one of its proteges at the West Monroe Convention Center.

A marker memorializes the Twin City Jamboree, a Saturday Night Live show that drew thousands.

Was the Twin City Jamboree, kind of like a competitor to the Louisiana Hayride?

No, that's a great question.

Actually, it was at the same time.

So you had people passing through here that played on the hayride.

but not really a competitor, actually.

It was just our version, if you will, of the Louisiana Hayride.

But the same musicians were moving back and forth.

There's no telling how many musicians that were on the hayride or actually on this marker.

My guest is probably a good 25, 30%.

so it wasn't a competition as much as a, it was its own thing.

Jean Stewart, nicknamed the Country Rebel, played at the Twin City Jamboree in high school.

The 86 year old country and rockabilly musician lives in Rossville, where a marker stands in his honor.

I think it's a blessing.

It really is for musicians, to have something like that to, to, to to honor the musicians that are in this area that really need to be honored.

and it's one of the better things has come out of northeast Louisiana in a long time.

Gene still performs live, often in the Twin City legacy Jamboree show, with a playlist that includes his 1972 hit song rabbit.

In Velvet.

It will be.

It was playing on the jukeboxes, and I found the the 45 RPM in a record store, and I took it home, played it, and, I thought, well, I'll just try that Saturday night we were playing, Dale House, Louisiana at that time.

so I did it and, and the people kept calling us back to do it again.

I think that we sang it about three times that first night.

Shortly thereafter, I went to Memphis and recorded on a 4 to 5 r.p.m.

start, selling them and taking them around to radio stations.

So it became a regional hit.

But still in all, the songs have been good to us and we still have to do it.

It just about every show.

And Gene Stewart, you are still performing, so I'm assuming that's part of your set.

A absolutely.

It is part as part of the show Under My Skin will be in a.

Be sure to tune in next week for part two of the Northeast Louisiana music trail.

Now that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can catch anything, all things LPB anytime, wherever you are with the LPB app.

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Dorothea Wilson and on 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 lights.

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 an 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.