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Louisiana leaders react to Charlie Kirk’s shooting death

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Louisiana leaders react to Charlie Kirk’s shooting death


National radio host and podcaster Charlie Kirk speaks at an April 9, 2024, rally he hosted in Omaha, Nebraska. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

Election officials from Louisiana are reacting to the death of ultra-conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot Wednesday afternoon during an event at a Utah university. 

Videos circulating on social media show Kirk seated under an open tent at an outdoor amphitheater venue on the Utah Valley University campus as he was fielding questions from a large crowd. The audience scattered after hearing a popping sound. Kirk appeared to recoil from an impact and began bleeding from his neck. Witnesses said he was answering a question about gang violence and shootings when he was shot.    

Police in Utah have said they have a person of interest in custody but did not indicate it was the shooting suspect.

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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called Kirk “a patriot in every sense of the word” in a social media post. The governor said he and first lady Sharon Landry were praying for Kirk, his wife Erika and their two children, along with the Turning Point USA organization that Kirk founded and led.

“It is important to recognize that the very idea of a representative republic is to allow for the free exchange of ideas that can be debated in a peaceful setting, so that we don’t have to fight it out in the street,” Landry said in a post on the platform X.

The governor also encouraged Kirk’s supporters to fly an American flag in his honor.

“He stood for the principles that made this country great: liberty, freedom, and prosperity, which are all of the things that the Left hates,” Landry added. 

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Shreveport, described Kirk as a “close friend and confidant” and said his death was “utterly devastating” in a statement.

“He will be sorely missed by so many,” Johnson said. “Every political leader must loudly and clearly decry this violence. Our prayers go out to his wife and young children. May he rest in peace.” 

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said in an X post that he was “sad and digusted” to learn of Kirk’s death.

“Political violence is NEVER acceptable,” Scalise wrote. “The perpetrator of this horrific act must be held accountable … It’s past time for the incendiary rhetoric to come to an end, and we must see universal condemnation of this gruesome act.”

Eight years ago, Scalise barely survived a politically motivated mass shooting at a Virginia park where he and other GOP lawmakers were practicing for the annual congressional baseball game. Shooter James Hodgkinson also wounded a Capitol security officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist before being killed by return fire.

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, called Kirk a “courageous conservative” and said “his senseless death makes me sick,” in an X post.

“His legacy will live on through every freedom-loving American who watched his show, listened to his speeches, or attended one of Turning Point USA’s events,” Kennedy wrote.

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U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, shared a brief prayer on Facebook and shared a post President Donald Trump made to his Truth Social platform that said “No one had or understood the Heart of the Youth in the United States better than Charlie.”

Without mentioning Kirk by name, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, offered his own prayer on social media: “May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shield us, strengthen us, and forever defeat the evil that threatens our anointed Nation under God.”

In her own X post, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Start, asked for prayers for Kirk’s family “as they begin this unimaginable walk.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also said she was praying for Kirk. 

The videos circulating are both shocking and disturbing, which seem entirely inadequate to describe this horrible event,” she said in a statement. “Political violence has no place in our society.” 

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Democratic officials from Louisiana also shared their reaction to Kirk’s death.

“Violence is never the answer — not in politics, not in life,” U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans said in an X post. “We can disagree without dehumanizing, and we can debate without destruction. My prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his family.”

“The tragic death of Charlie Kirk is a reminder of the painful moment our country is living through,” U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields said on X. “No matter our political differences, violence is unacceptable and has no place at all in our democracy. My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie Kirk’s family, especially his wife and children, as they mourn this loss.”

The event where Kirk was fatally shot was typical of his many visits to college campuses where he fields questions from students, including those who challenge his conservative viewpoints.

The Turning Point USA chapter at Louisiana State University had planned to host Kirk for an Oct. 27 event on campus. In response to questions from The Reveille student newspaper, the LSU chapter provided a statement from its national office that confirmed Kirk’s death and asked for prayers for his family.

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Derek Babcock, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, praised Kirk as “a bold truth-teller, a courageous leader, and a patriot who never shied away from defending the values that built this nation.” He also called on younger party members to carry on Kirk’s legacy.

“The enemies of truth may have silenced his voice, but they cannot extinguish the fire he lit in your hearts,” Babcock said in a statement. “In this dark hour, I urge you to rise up, carry forward the torch of faith and freedom, and show this nation that Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be buried with him. It will live on in you.”

This is a developing story.



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How to watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati in Starkville Regional

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How to watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati in Starkville Regional


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For the second day in a row, Louisiana baseball has its back against the wall in the NCAA Tournament Starkville Regional.

The No. 25 Ragin’ Cajuns (40-24) secured their 40th win of the season and kept their postseason dreams alive by beating Lipscomb 10-4 in an elimination game on Saturday, May 30. Now, the pressure is back on for seventh-year coach Matt Deggs and his squad as they face No. 24 Cincinnati (38-21) in another win-or-go-home matchup on Sunday, May 31 in Starkville, Mississippi.

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Against the Bisons, UL used four pitchers, and in total has used seven of its arms so far in tournament play. One of the Cajuns’ fresh arms heading into the matchup against the Bearcats is senior Andrew Herrmann. The lefty made his latest appearance during the Cajuns’ Sun Belt Conference tournament run on May 24.

While the Cajuns come into the match with some momentum, Cincinnati enters the match with a chip on its shoulder after losing its first game of the tournament on Saturday against regional host Mississippi State.

Watch Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati on ESPN+

What channel is Louisiana baseball vs Cincinnati on?

TV: None

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Livestream: ESPN+

Radio: Varsity Network, 96.5 FM

Louisiana vs. Cincinnati will be available live on ESPN+ streaming for the first game of Day 3 of the Starkville Regional. Jack Kizer and Jack DeLongchamps will provide commentary from Dudy Noble Field.

What time does Louisiana baseball play Cincinnati?

Date: Sunday, May 31

Time: 2 p.m. CT

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Location: Dude Noble Field, Starkville, Mississippi

The Louisiana vs. Cincinnati game starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Mississippi.

Starkville Regionals schedule

Friday, May 29

  • Game 1: Mississippi State 10, Lipscomb 1
  • Game 2: Cincinnati 12, Louisiana 2

Saturday, May 30

  • Game 3: Lipscomb 4, Louisiana, 10
  • Game 4: Mississippi State vs Cincinnati, 8 p.m. CT

Sunday, May 31

  • Game 5: Louisiana vs Cincinnati, 2 p.m. CT
  • Game 6: Winner G5 vs Mississippi State, 7 p.m. CT

Monday, June 1

  • Game 7: If necessary, TBD

Shannon Belt covers high school sports and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow her high school and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ShannonBelt3. Got questions regarding HS/UL athletics? Send them to Shannon Belt at sbelt@gannett.com.



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Louisiana Gov. signs Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act

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Louisiana Gov. signs Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act


BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act has been signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry.

This comes after HB 636, authored by Rep. Vanessa LaFleur (D-Baton Rouge), was signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on May 19.

The measure redefines hazing, mandates annual prevention training, and strengthens penalties for student organizations involved in hazing.

The legislation is named after a Southern University student who was killed in 2025 after being punched in the chest with boxing gloves during an unsanctioned, off-campus fraternity hazing ritual.

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The law will go into effect on August 1.

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As Seas Rise, Louisiana Faces a Choice: Plan for Movement or Let Crisis Decide – Inside Climate News

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As Seas Rise, Louisiana Faces a Choice: Plan for Movement or Let Crisis Decide – Inside Climate News


The shoreline of Louisiana has never been still or fixed, though recent generations have treated it as such.

Since the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago, around when people arrived in what is now the United States, sea levels have repeatedly reshaped aspects of the Gulf Coast. But today, human-caused warming is accelerating that ancient process, pushing Louisiana’s dynamic shoreline into conflict with cities, roads, ports and levees built to contain and stabilize nature.

A new study in Nature Sustainability argues that this history is a guide to what comes next. Coastal Louisiana, the authors write, is ground zero for coastal climate adaptation: a place where rising seas and sinking land are already reshaping where people live, and where planning for movement could offer more agency than crisis-driven displacement.

“We have got to remember that when people first came to North America 20,000 years ago, there had already been a lot of climate change,” said Jesse Keenan, a co-author of the paper and professor of sustainable real estate and urban planning at Tulane University. “There’s been a lot of sea level rise in the region, and Indigenous populations have always moved with that shoreline.”

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In geologic time, he added, “New Orleans has been there for just a blip. We’ve got to get it out of our heads that this is terra firma.”

The physical stakes are still stark. Southern Louisiana is facing a convergence of rising seas, wetland erosion, stronger storms and land subsidence, much of it worsened by decades of oil and gas canals cut through the coast. The state contains what theIPCC has identified as the world’s most exposed coastal zone, where the shoreline is projected to move more than 30 miles inland of New Orleans.

By comparing today’s warming trajectory with the last interglacial period roughly 125,000 years ago, when global temperatures were similar and seas were much higher, the new study estimates that the region could eventually face three to seven meters of sea-level rise and lose as much as three-quarters of its remaining coastal wetlands.

Keenan emphasizes that the point is not to forecast a sudden disappearance, but to widen the planning lens: if the coast is already moving, Louisiana has a chance to decide how people, infrastructure and economies move with it.

The danger is assuming everyone has the same ability to act on that choice. Social mobility, he said, depends on financial mobility— which means adaptation cannot simply tell people to move to safer ground. It has to move opportunity, too: jobs, industries, schools and affordable housing beyond the form of voluntary buyouts, a common managed-retreat tool in which governments purchase flood-prone homes and return the land to open space.

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“Outmigration is often framed as tragedy or failure, but in some cases it signals agency,” said Brianna Castro, a co-author of the paper, who highlights that this is a chance to plan around choices people are already making. 

Nearly all of Louisiana’s coastal zone has lost residents since 2000, and since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, about a quarter of Orleans Parish’s population has left the area, while more than half of rural Cameron Parish has relocated. 

“If you build jobs and you build homes, specifically affordable homes, [on] safer ground, people will come,” said Castro, who is a professor of urban sustainability at Yale University’s School of the Environment.

The opportunity, she argues, is to make those moves possible before crisis forces them on harsher terms—with schools, housing and work in places where communities can carry culture forward rather than be scattered by disaster. New Orleans at its core, she said, is not confined to its current footprint.

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“We’re not going to ‘lose’ New Orleans,” she said. “New Orleans has an incredibly rich local culture, and that will carry across the lake.” What must change, she argued, is the assumption that a moving coast can be met with immovable systems.
That idea resonates beyond Louisiana. Vivek Shandas, a professor of earth, environment and society at Portland State University who was not involved in the study, said the paper widens the frame from emergency response to long-term adaptation.

“We’ve been resettling for hundreds of thousands of years as a species,” Shandas said. “I think we’ve gotten really complacent with thinking that once we’ve set up a place and invested in it that it has to be like that forever. But the Earth is a very dynamic and incredibly fluid system.”

For that reason, he said, Louisiana is a “bellwether” for the rest of the country—a place where planners, policymakers and communities can study what adaptation strategies work before the same pressures intensify elsewhere.

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“It’s super important for people to recognize that what we’re ultimately calling for in this paper is a public, private, and civic engagement with adaptation policy, planning and practice,” said Keenan. 

The study points to immediate action projects, including reviving the canceled Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion—a $3-billion coastal restoration project designed to reconnect the Mississippi River with the Barataria Basin, the rapidly disappearing wetland area on the west bank of the river south of New Orleans—and advancing the Breton diversion on the other side of the Mississippi River. 

Unlike dredging, which moves sediment once and deposits it in place, river diversions are designed to restore a more continuous flow of sediment into wetlands, mimicking the processes that built the delta over thousands of years. Dredged material can create land, Keenan said, but it does not sustain the same root systems and ecological processes as a living riverine system.

“We’ve got a big challenge here, but this isn’t about the challenge. This is about the opportunity,” he said. “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. There is so much economic opportunity to engage with people and to build things. Data centers won’t give people more jobs, but adapting to climate change just might.” 

About This Story

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