Louisiana
LOOK: LSU Tigers Host No. 1 Prospect in America, Louisiana Native Jahkeem Stewart
![LOOK: LSU Tigers Host No. 1 Prospect in America, Louisiana Native Jahkeem Stewart LOOK: LSU Tigers Host No. 1 Prospect in America, Louisiana Native Jahkeem Stewart](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1536,h_864,x_0,y_271/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/lsu_country/01j3s8e9350nty25mpq1.jpg)
The No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 Recruiting Class resides down the rode from Brian Kelly and the LSU football staff with the program ramping up its push for Jahkeem Stewart.
The prized defensive lineman plays his high school ball at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans (La.) where the Bayou Bengals have certainly dipped their toes in over the years.
From Leonard Fournette to Tyrann Mathieu, there have been several LSU greats that have come from the impressive Catholic League high school.
Now, LSU has their sights set on the next great recruit out of St. Augustine in coveted prospect Jahkeem Stewart.
The No. 1 overall player in the country, Stewart is a physical specimen of a defensive lineman who has programs across America salivating at his ceiling.
With a myriad of programs in his ear, LSU defensive lineman Bo Davis and the Tigers have made sure to get in on the action as well.
On Friday, Stewart took an unofficial visit to Baton Rouge for LSU’s annual Bayou Splash recruiting event.
Stewart posted an update following the event that provided him an opportunity to have one-on-one time with LSU head coach Brian Kelly:
Stewart was accompanied by the top prospects in America with both the 2025 and 2026 classes well-represented.
For the program-changing prospect, he’s seen both USC and Ohio State turn up the heat, but LSU is making sure to work their magic in this one as they remain in constant contact.
It’s been an eye-opening offseason for Stewart as his recruitment picks up with several programs looking to separate themselves from the pack.
The 6-foot-5, 270-pound sophomore, who is prepping for his junior year with the Purple Knights, has taken the nation by storm with his stature and physical traits.
He looks and plays above his years, which also has recruiting experts and analysts believing there could be a chance he reclassifies into the 2025 cycle.
Stewart has teased the idea of graduating high school a year early, and with LSU lacking depth for the future at defensive line, it makes their push for Stewart that much more important.
Whether he reclassifies or not, he’s at the top LSU’s recruiting board in the 2026 cycle with Davis and Co. beginning to form a close relationship.
Now, he has another unofficial visit to LSU in the rearview mirror after taking the trip over to Baton Rouge to check in with the program.
It was a beneficial visit for the Tigers after Stewart met with Kelly, spoke with LSU recruiting guru Frank Wilson and had the opportunity to develop relationships with the top prospects both committed to the Tigers as well as players on their radar.
The Bayou Bengals will continue keeping their foot on the gas for the generational talent out of The Boot.
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Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and LSU Tigers On SI: @LSUTigersSI for all coverage surrounding the LSU program.
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Louisiana
New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
![New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/bd/6bd06606-6641-11ef-9476-5fdcaf6f67fb/66d0d37fe840c.image.jpg?crop=1270%2C667%2C0%2C481&resize=1200%2C630&order=crop%2Cresize)
New Orleans
Franziska Wagner has been hired as chief financial officer of the Louisiana Bar Foundation.
Wagner has worked as an accountant and auditor for clients in the government, nonprofit and construction sectors.
She earned a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master’s in accounting from the University of New Orleans.
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Terrance Payne has been named director of building trades training at the New Orleans Career Center.
Payne was one of the inaugural trainers in the building trades program.
The Career Center recently hired 14 new staffers, a move that brings the number of employees to 42, double what the organization had two years ago. There are now more than 600 trainees in the program’s five industry sectors: health care, building trades, digital media/IT, engineering/manufacturing and culinary arts.
The new hires are: Shanitra Charles, instructor, pre-nursing; Myles Ford, instructor, pharmacy technician; Diana Kennedy, instructor, pre-nursing; Wynn Martin, success coach; Tony McKarry, instructor, building trades; Bria Hays-Mackey, bookkeeper; MacKenzie Rosenberg, success coach; Maria Schneider, program coordinator; Cedric Singleton, instructor, building trades; Taralyn Stephens, instructor, culinary; Lee Stevenson, instructor, building trades; Aaron Washington, trainee support coordinator; and Anastasia Williams-Smith, program coordinator.
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Darian Shorts and Justin Vlosich have joined the staff of Gambel Communications.
Shorts is a communications strategist. Previously, she worked for The PR Alliance.
She earned a bachelor’s in political communication and a master’s in mass communication, both from LSU.
Vlosich is a communications coordinator. He previously worked for the New Orleans Pelicans, Louisiana SPCA and the New Orleans Saints.
He earned a bachelor’s in marketing from the University of New Orleans.
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Joe DiTommaso has been promoted to vice president of commercial lending for OnPath Credit Union.
DiTommaso joined OnPath in 2022 as northshore market president. Before that, he worked for Gulf Coast Bank, Chase and Hibernia National Bank/Capital One.
He served as a Marine for five years and received awards for his involvement in the support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Baton Rouge
Bailey Richard has been hired as director of marketing, communication and compliance for Off The Hook Restaurants.
Richard has held senior marketing positions for other businesses and has a track record of strategic planning and grassroots marketing.
Off the Hook, which was founded in 2012, has five quick-service seafood restaurants in Baton Rouge, Gonzales, Hammond, Thibodaux and Houma.
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Reis Alsberry has been hired as director of intellectual property and commercialization for Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Alsberry was commercialization manager for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Before that, he held patent management positions at Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Old Dominion University.
He earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Old Dominion, a bachelor’s in civil engineering from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law.
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Amos Davis has been named chief operating officer for Emergent Method.
Davis has nearly two decades of policy, legal and operational experience. He spent the past several years as global senior counsel for Uber; before that, he was a lead adviser for several Coca-Cola Co. brands, including Minute Maid.
He earned a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia, a master’s from Emory University and a law degree from Emory University School of Law.
Louisiana
Louisiana man dies in motorcycle crash in Boone County, Ark.
BOONE COUNTY, Ark. — A man from Carencro, Louisiana has died after a crash between a motorcycle and a pickup truck in Burlington, Arkansas on Tuesday, August 27.
At 2:15 p.m., 62-year-old Richard Zaunbrecher was driving a 2002 Yamaha Road Star motorcycle north on U.S. Highway 65 in Burlington behind a 2020 Ford F-150 in the inside lane.
Springfield man sentenced to 28 years for murdering his wife in 2022
According to the Arkansas State Police, the motorcycle did not obey flashing traffic control signals and change lanes, causing the motorcycle to rear-end the Ford. The crash forced Zaunbrecher off the vehicle and he landed in the inside lane of U.S. 65.
Zaunbrecher was transported to the North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison, Arkansas, where he later died from his injuries.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR – OzarksFirst.com.
Louisiana
Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator
![Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator](https://lailluminator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ICU-COVID.jpg)
Programs for medically vulnerable children, seniors and people with disabilities could be eliminated next year as a result of Louisiana’s looming budget deficit, officials with Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration said Friday.
Louisiana Health Secretary Michael Harrington laid out services he might be forced to cut if the governor and lawmakers reduce the state health care budget by $105.1 million to deal with a financial gap in the next fiscal year. He’s been told to expect a large cut as the state tries to figure out how it will cope with an automatic tax reductions scheduled for mid-2025.
Harrington said that $105.1 million cut to state health care services would balloon to an overall loss of $332.4 million with resulting federal funding reductions. The state would no longer be able to put up the money needed to draw down more dollars from the federal government for health care services.
Given the size of the cut the state health department anticipates, Harrington said there are few options for absorbing the budget reduction that don’t involve eliminating programs considered crucial for seniors, children or people with disabilities.
“Any of these kinds of cuts is going to naturally impact the most vulnerable,” Harrington said at a Louisiana House budget hearing Friday. “That’s what we [the health department] do. We take care of seniors and children.”
More than 90% of Louisiana’s $19.9 billion health care budget is spent on Medicaid programs, which pays for health care for people who are pregnant, low-income or disabled, according to Harrington. The bulk of that money, 71%, comes from the federal government, but the state is required to contribute funds in order to receive the federal support.
If forced to make a $105.1 million reduction, Harrington said the Landry administration would eliminate pediatric day care centers ($26.4 million) for families with medically fragile children. Money for a program that helps children with behavioral challenges, called the coordinated system of care, would also be reduced by $5.9 million.
The state would also scrap its Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly ($20.4 million), known as PACE, that assists older people so they can continue to live at home instead of going into nursing homes. Money for daytime supervision for seniors and adults with disabilities who cannot take care of themselves would also be lost ($9.1 million).
Transportation reimbursements for people with disabilities would also be scrapped ($1.8 million). Funding for medical residents who train to be doctors in Louisiana would also be reduced ($23.1 million).
Caregivers who help adults with disabilities and intellectual challenges would also see their reimbursement rates lowered again. Most of these rates have only been raised in the past couple of years after program directors long complained they weren’t able to hire staff at the low wages the state previously provided.
The state budget deficit plan also calls for reducing supplemental payments to hospitals for treating Medicaid patients by $69.4 million and eliminating an expected increase in funding for nursing homes that would have cost $67.8 million.
Republicans and Democratic lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee said they would be unwilling to make such cuts.
Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, described the plan as inhumane, and Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, said families would be unable to care for their loved ones without these programs.
“These are people that depend on us for their life,” Bagley said.
Other legislators questioned whether health officials under Landry, a Republican, had looked deep enough at its nearly $20 billion budget to find alternative ways to save money. Many of the programs put on the chopping block were also proposed for elimination when Landry’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, faced a budget deficit eight years ago.
Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, said the health department has never fully accounted for the hundreds of thousands of people removed from Medicaid following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the program has significantly fewer people in it, the health agency should have some spare money in its budget that could be used to keep these programs whole, he said.
Bacala also alleged the health department ended fiscal year 2023-24 in June with $75 million in leftover state funding, which means some of that money should be available to cover the $105.1 million cut.
“You continue to say we need more money to cover 300,000 less people [in the Medicaid program],” Bacala said.
Louisiana is facing a budget deficit of $587 million next year largely because of a planned cut to the state sales tax from 4.45% to 4%. State lawmakers could avoid major budget reductions if they voted to keep the sales tax rate at the current level, but legislative leaders have said the conservative anti-tax Louisiana House of Representatives is unlikely to do so.
Lawmakers are more likely to look at expanding the sales tax to new items and services as well as eliminating other tax exemptions to make up some of the revenue. Louisiana Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson has proposed a tax on streaming services such as Netflix as well as services like auto detailing for the first time.
If the Legislature chooses to keep a 2% tax on business utilities that is supposed to expire July 1, 2025, it would also generate $220 million and lessen the deficit. Moving $320 million the state generates through a vehicle sales tax from transportation projects into health care services, higher education and other programs could also help close the budget gap.
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