Louisiana

Merry Christmas: good luck with right gift

Published

1 year ago

December 22, 2024

Merry Christmas: good luck with right gift

Ho, Ho, Ho oh no, it’s time to get that last-minute gift for your favorite hunter and fisher.

It’s a challenge, if only because most of these folks are particular about the things they use to pursue game and fish — “persnickety” was the way old folks described this trait decades ago.

What it means is unless you know — and really know — your outdoors recipient then don’t presume the guy or gal at the local or big-box store will know anything more about them than you do.

What it means is don’t buy fishing line, or lures, or shotgun shells, or bullets, or rods, or reels, or firearms cases, or those silly T-shirts with a stunned-looking bass and “Fish Fear Me” written underneath.

That T-shirt thing only makes your favorite angler the target for his sharp-tongued fishing buddies, who will tell him the thing he feared most was being afraid to tell his gift-giver that the T-shirt was going to be a target for barbed comments. Oh, he’d wear it for you, but not around his buddies.

So, what’s left?

Size matters, and it’s important when trying to make a gift of the just-right hunting jacket, warm boots, cooling fishing shirts and shorts, warm gloves and hats.

And don’t buy that tackle box because it “looks big,” unless you were with your fishing-frenzied, Christmas-present target and he or she admired it with piscatorial lust in their eye.

That leaves us with gift cards. Sure you can go shopping and make a reasonably good guess about hunting things and fishing things, and here’s where you find prices and buy a gift card for that amount.

It’ll send them to a store where they can get the just-right fit, the just-right style, the just-right camo pattern, the perfect handle, weight and length for a fishing rod, and things like the fishing line, lures and boxes they want.

What’s best is you’ll send them to a Christmas-night rest with all kinds of sugared thoughts that will turn into dreams of that hopefully marked-down shopping spree.

Merry Christmas!

Under the tree

An important bill awaits President Biden’s signature to take hold for our country’s anglers, and another is moving forward after passing a committee vote.

ACE — America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act — passed a U.S. Senate vote last week and sits on the president’s desk.

This act continues the National Fish Habitat Partnership, a voluntary, non-regulatory, and locally driven program that has funded more than 1,300 on-the-ground aquatic habitat improvement projects throughout the country.

“The $230 billion sportfishing industry and America’s 57.7 million recreational anglers applaud Congress’ efforts to advance fish habitat restoration and conservation,” American Sportfishing Association spokesman Mike Leonard said.

Included in its many pages is reauthorization of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and a provision that traditional tackle will not be banned by the Environmental Protection Agency for five years.

The second bill, EXPLORE — Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences — had the backing of more than a dozen hunting and recreational organizations. This new bill is designed to expand recreation opportunities, improving infrastructure and removing barriers to allow more access to federal lands for hiking, camping, fishing and hunting.

Striped bass

Yes, Louisiana waters, mostly from the Mississippi River east into the Pontchartrain Basin and to the Pearl River, has an annual fall-winter run of sea-run striped bass.

Now, Wildlife and Fisheries wants fishermen taking to those waters to help collect striped bass samples.

More than 20 years ago, a mid-fall trip to the Mississippi River produced three striped bass among the largemouth, spotted and white bass and redfish caught near Fort Jackson.

This project is one of four main items currently listed on the agency’s website.

To get details, description of this species and instructions, go to the LDWF website: wlf.louisiana.gov

Expertise needed

The Committee on National Statistics has a call-out for nominations for “experts” to review the standards and evaluate the survey and data standards of the Marine Recreational Information Program, the long-debated federal fisheries data collections and reporting plan.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has formed the committee and has a Dec. 31 deadline for nominations. Google this organization for details.

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Louisiana

Louisiana’s health secretary wants AI on the phones and the website

Published

5 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Louisiana residents may see changes in calling the state health department or using its website if it turns to artificial intelligence to save money.

The department is examining how it can implement AI over the next few years to make residents’ experiences more efficient and reduce spending, Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein said at an AI symposium at LSU.

The first and largest deployment, should the department proceed with it, would be in its call centers. Running the two centers costs over $40 million a year. Greenstein said using AI to answer calls could reduce costs by up to 25%.

That would save the state $10 million a year while still preserving an option to talk to a human employee.

When the department was seeking information about an AI call option, Greenstein said, there was an overwhelming response from possible providers.

Greenstein, who has worked in both the public and private sectors, said he also is interested in using AI to help residents maneuver the department’s website. It houses information on an array of topics from SNAP benefits and Medicaid to oyster harvesting.

“Navigating our web properties becomes challenging if you’re looking for very specific information,” Greenstein said in an interview after the symposium on Friday. “So having chatbots to help people navigate our system is something we’re also considering.”

The department must respect the sensitive clinical information it deals with, Greenstein said, while keeping up with technological advances.

He said he is interested in creating protections in collaborations with health care professionals to codify patients’ rights to privacy.

Some rights would include a consent requirement if patient information was to be run through an AI database. Another would be a notification of changes, especially if a process is losing human interaction entirely.

“So on the AI side, because we’re in kind of the new frontier, what I suspect is that we’ll proceed extra cautiously where the robot takes the place of decision-making for the human,” Greenstein said. “But we’ll have more kind of slack in the system to experiment on the administrative task side.”

Greenstein critiqued other states’ restrictions on AI and said he did not see issues with Louisiana’s implementation yet.

“We are not seeing something that I’m deeply concerned about thus far,” he said. “And within state government, we’ve been taking a cautious but forceful approach forward in analyzing the opportunities but not making any decisions without having a proper amount of security concerns addressed or just thoughtful analysis.”

Gov. Jeff Landry released an executive order in October mandating governmental AI use to be “responsible, ethical, beneficial and trustworthy.”

The order restricts the state government’s use of AI platforms from “free software, especially those created and operated by nation states like the Communist Chinese Party.” He specifically named China’s DeepSeek AI model.

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Louisiana

UPDATE: Plane found in swamp near Cleco lake, RPSO says

Published

18 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

UPDATE: Plane found in swamp near Cleco lake, RPSO says

BOYCE, La. (KALB) – UPDATE: Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed that officials have located a plane along the west side of Cleco Lake (AKA Lake Rodemacher) at around 5 p.m. on March 22.

RPSO said search and rescue teams have been unable to reach the plane so far as it is in a dense and swampy area of the forest.

No details on the type of plane nor the number of passengers were available from authorities at this time.

RPSO said the National Transportation Safety Board should be on scene by Monday and that all further information will go through them.

The following agencies are all involved in the search at this time:

RPSO
Louisiana State Police
Pineville Fire and Rescue
Alexandria Fire Department
Rapides Fire District-2
Cotile Volunteer Fire
Flatwoods Volunteer Fire
Pafford Ambulance Service
Louisiana State Forestry Service
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

PRIOR REPORT:

News Channel 5 was on scene near Boyce at around 3 p.m. after residents reported a possible plane crash around Cotile Lake on Sunday, March 22.

Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office released details of the search so far.

Red Store Hill Road (Rapides)(KALB)

RPSO said they received reports of a possible plane crash at around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.

They, alongside Cotile Volunteer Fire Department, Flatwoods Volunteer Fire Department, Taylor Hill Volunteer Fire Department and Louisiana State Police have begun searching the area.

As of 4 p.m., RPSO said they have not found a plane.

RPSO said the Federal Aviation Authority and National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.

More details to come.

This is a developing story.

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Louisiana

Tulane Track & Field Boasts Pair of Winners on Final Day of Louisiana Classics

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Tulane Track & Field Boasts Pair of Winners on Final Day of Louisiana Classics

Tulane closed its opening event of the outdoor track and field season Saturday at Home Bank Soccer and Track Complex with 16 top-10 finishers. Highlighting the Green Wave’s success in the Louisiana Classics were Cara Salsberry and Nahema Dumonteil Cabanas, who each picked up wins Saurday in the hammer throw and 400 meter hurdles, respectively.

TU Field Events Do Well

Salsberry entered the program’s all-time top 10 Friday in the discus, and she followed up with an even better day on Saturday. She opened the day for Tulane with the hammer throw, boasting a mark of 57.97m to win the event and place second in program history. She now trails only the program record of 58.27m, set by Jacqueline Esmay in 2018. Not to be outdone, Dumonteil Cabanas earned a win on the track for the Wave in the 400 meter hurdles. She ran a 1:00.81 to top the field and rank ninth all-time in program history.

They were two of Tulane’s 16 total top-10 finishes across all events. In the field competitions, Dumonteil Cabanas shined again with a personal best of 1.62m in the high jump to place fourth. Camille Cummings notched a pole vault mark of 3.15m to finish sixth, and Sofie Groeninger was also sixth in the long jump with a mark of 5.56m.

Wave Track Leads the Way

Tulane shined brightest on the track. For the women, Eliza Brand and Morgan Matthews each finished in the top 10 of the 1,500m. Brand was second with a time of 4:40.66, and Matthews placed sixth with her clip of 4:48.08. In the men’s 1,500m, the Wave accrued a quartet of top-10 placements. Samuel Cohen and Paul James Pam each ran personal bests to place second and third, respectively. Cohen posted a mark of 4:00.23 with Pam at 4:00.37. Roman Schrader was right behind with a 4:01.39 in fourth, and Jalen St. Fort finished seventh with a clip of 4:02.72, a new personal best.

In the women’s 400 meters, Marissa Gordon recorded a personal best of 56.59 to finish seventh. Zaria Parker was eighth in the 100 meters with her time of 11.76, and Brand secured her second top 10 of the day in the 800 meters with a clip of 2:19.26 to place sixth.

Tulane’s last two top-10 finishes were in a pair of women’s relay races. In the 4×100 meters, the team of Bella Carroll, Parker, Cosette Fleury, and Brianna Brand ran a 47.51 to finish fourth. In the 4×400 meters, Caroll, Groeninger, Parker, and Bryanna Fears placed sixth with a mark of 3:57.09.

With the outdoor season now underway, Tulane returns to action next weekend with a trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Raleigh Relays. The three-day event is hosted by North Carolina State and begins on Thursday, March 26, and runs through Saturday, March 28.

Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics

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