“You’ve got a lead in the third quarter now; now there’s no more Division I vs. NAIA. Now it’s just two football programs going to war in the second half, and that’s what we got in; and it was a lot of fun,” McLaughlin said.

LCU outscored the Demons 28-10 in the second half to pull off the stunning victory. It’s the first time the Wildcats have defeated a D-1 school. McLaughlin says the national exposure the school has received has been amazing.

“Getting people around the nation to look at our lil’ ol’ college here, about a little special thing we feel like we’ve got going here, you can’t put a price on that; you can’t put words on that,” McLaughlin noted.

McLaughlin also played football at LCU and the reaction from the school’s alumni has been fantastic.

“Our old LCU chat was firing up again for the first time in a year or two. That makes you proud, because the product that we’re putting on the field is the glue that brings so many of these connections back together,” McLaughlin explained.

McLaughlin says they can’t celebrate too much, because they have to prepare for their home and conference opener against Langston on September.

Meanwhile the Demons are now 1-24 under third year coach Blane McCorkle. Northwestern is at Louisiana Tech next Saturday.

“Initially it’s cargo and logistics getting to and from oil rigs as well as, really, any oil and gas or energy site across the Gulf Coast,” Ledet said.

Ledet says the airport’s high volume of air traffic provides a real-world setting for evaluating how emerging aircraft can operate safely alongside established helicopters and fixed-wing planes.

“Figure out how do we at DOTD and the FAA partner to develop a safe policy so that it can be incorporated, not only obviously at home in Terrebonne, but across the state and across the U.S.,” Ledet noted.

Ledet says Louisiana was chosen because of its strong connection with the energy industry. He says the aircraft that will be used is electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and autonomous heavy-cargo drones.

“You can get to and from a rig for relatively cheap and bring cargo; and so, it’s actually reducing the cost of bringing cargo to and from places,” Ledet explained.

“In 48 hours, the SEC, allegedly, was able to go in and to basically ruin 100 kids’ lives, okay? But yet, for six years, they haven’t been able to fix college football,” Landry said.

The lawsuit includes LSU football commits Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris and former Tiger Jack Pyburn. All three signed NFL contracts but are considering returning to college to play for LSU. Landry said it is unfair to punish the athletes for choosing to sign pro contracts when they thought their eligibility had expired.

“There are a lot of kids out there that were told, ‘Hey, you have to leave,’ right? Only to find out that ‘No! We didn’t have to leave!” You could have stayed for the fifth year; and then they institute a five-year rule,” Landry explained.

The preliminary injunction hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday, just two days before LSU’s season opener against Clemson. The lawsuit is just one of more than a dozen across the country in which players have been granted eligibility. Landry said this chaos could have been avoided if Congress approved the Protect College Sports Act.

“Don’t hate the players, just hate the game. And guess what? Those that are hating the game right now, I don’t blame them. Go call your senators. It just goes to show you the dysfunction of the United States Senate; we can’t even fix something like college sports,” Landry noted.

“We wanted to go to this event in Bay St. Louis called ‘Dolly Should!,’ but none of us were able to go, so we just decided we were going to dress up as Dolly and go out in the French Quarter on the day of The Bosom Buddies Parade,” Post recalled.

Post says when the krewe opened up membership for the first time in 2022, it got 178 members right away. Today, the Krewe of Dolly boasts a membership of 712, and Post says the organization works with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide books to children in New Orleans.

“We were honestly hoping that the whole State of Louisiana would eventually open up for Imagination Library because if you do that, Dolly puts you on her list to come down there,” Post said.

Post says she and others were all set to meet Dolly at one of her shows in Las Vegas, but the show was cancelled because of her health. As for the future of the Krewe of Dolly, Post says as the old saying goes, the show must go on.

“We plan to continue marching; we’re going to continue with the Imagination Library, of course. We’re hoping to get even more funding and even more kids signed up in memory of her,” Post noted.

The Krewe of Dolly will do a celebration of life second line in memory of Dolly Parton on September 5th – “9/5” as in “9 to 5.” Additional details will be forthcoming on the krewe’s website, thekreweofdolly.org.

“He kind of came into office saying he was going to be on a fast track. He embraced the comparisons to Huey P. Long,” Alford said.

By the end of the year, Landry could surpass Edwin Edwards, who issued 441 executive orders during his four terms in office.

Alford says Landry has used executive orders to reshape state government — creating new boards and commissions, merging departments and streamlining permitting. He’s also used them to advance his education agenda.

“The first one that he ever signed struck down a graduation appeals process for students who failed standardized tests. This year, he signed another one that cut $168 million from the Minimum Foundation Program, which funds public education,” Alford noted.

Not every executive order has involved major policy. Landry issued one this week commemorating the life of Dolly Parton.

Alford says the governor’s frequent use of executive orders has largely gone unquestioned and unchallenged.

“We haven’t had any landmark legal decisions challenging  his use of executive orders, and I think it’s going to continue to keep this pace,” Alford observed.

“It now allows for organizations to be lifetime banned if they are found responsible for a hazing death on a college campus,” Reed said.

Reed says the board also approved changes to its Uniform Policy on Power-Based Violence to crack down on incidents in which modern technology is used to bully others.

“Now if you have sexualized, deepfake AI images, those are now, by law, Power-Based Violence incidents and will be reported as such,” Reed explained.

Reed says under the new policy, schools will now be required to be more transparent in disclosing hazing incidents, so that parents can have a better understanding of the organization that their kids are looking to participate in.

“The public disclosure will require us to now have the hazing incidents by organization, by campus, and the status of those investigations, on a website,” Reed noted.

“By operational law, or derivatives of the NCAA, they are the NCAA. So if the NCAA is prohibited from taking any punitive actions against these young players, then the SEC rules are too,” Clayton explained.

Clayton says the SEC cannot retroactively create a rule to circumvent the ruling of a state court. He says the players who signed pro contracts had no other choice at the time and are now being barred from the same fifth year the NCAA has given to every athlete moving forward.

“You can’t deprive these young athletes who would’ve stayed in college, but for you not having this rule in effect. It’s now in effect; they have a right to take advantage of it,” Clayton noted.

The temporary restraining order allowing players to enter the transfer portal and participate in team activities expires tomorrow, and a hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday. Clayton says he expects the plaintiffs to be successful in receiving an injunction.

“I think we have a strong case to put forth as to why these young folks ought to have their opportunity to enhance their education and better themselves and play ball on a collegiate level,” Clayton said.

“This is a student success and a student completion issue. That means we have to be engaged, and we’re so happy the legislature is supporting the work,” Reed said.

A recent study found that 23% of college students nationwide, which is almost 4 million, experience food insecurity. Reed says half of the $1 million allocation from the state legislature will help colleges address barriers to food access.

“So if a campus doesn’t have refrigeration or freezers or lockers so students can go after hours and access food, we want to make sure the first $500,000 is used for that,” Reed noted.

Louisiana was one of the first states to establish a Hunger-Free Campus program. The $1 million investment is a significant expansion. Reed says House Appropriations Chairman Jack McFarland committed to increasing the funding after speaking with a college student who needs food assistance.

“And so we had a conversation about the impact that that student had on him, and he said, ‘We need to do more. We’ve got to help more students. I was not aware of this,'” Reed recalled.

“We reached back out to some of our donors, and they were willing to put up some more money towards that reward; they’re pretty serious about us figuring out who shot this,” Guillory explained.

The biggest chunk of that $20,000 reward money comes from the Center of Biological Diversity, which is offering $13,000. Corporal Guillory says others have chipped in.

“The Humane World of Animals, they put up originally $2,500 and they’ve put up another $1,000; so on this one, they were up to $3,500,” Guillory noted.

The rest of the reward money consists of $2,500 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and $1,000 from Louisiana Operation Game Thief. Guillory says investigators believe that the bald eagle was deliberately shot.

“Could they have been hunting? There’s always a possibility of that. But as far as a mistake in identity, no; I’m going to say it was an intentional act,” Guillory stated.

Killing a bald eagle is a federal crime, and those who kill bald eagles face one year in jail, a $5,000 fine plus $5,000 in restitution.

“We had a special arrangement of “9 to 5″ done in the key that she wanted to sing it; and, of course, we practiced it with the band, rehearsed it and actually recorded it on a cassette tape and we sent it to her,” Brent said.

Brent says given Dolly’s hectic schedule, she was unable to rehearse with the band, but it didn’t matter – at halftime of the Demons’ 24-8 win over the school then known as Southwest Missouri State, Dolly and the band nailed the performance.

“She practiced in the car on the way to the performance. It was the only time she had a chance to practice; we never got to rehearse with her before the game. She literally popped out of the car and started singing “9 to 5.” That’s what a wonderful artist and talent she was,” Brent recalled.

Brent says he wanted to show Dolly his appreciation for what he did for his band and the Northwestern State community, but she had beaten him to the punch.

“On Monday morning when I got to my office, there was a huge floral arrangement waiting from Dolly before I could even send her a “thank you.” She had already sent flowers to the band thanking us for letting her perform withus,” Brent explained.

Dolly’s time in Natchitoches was not her first time in Louisiana. She recorded her very first single, “Puppy Love,” in Lake Charles back in 1959 at the tender age of 13.