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An animal getting into a Cleco power substation in Bayou Vista was the culprit that caused over 7,900 customers in the area to lose power Wednesday evening, Cleco Spokeswoman Jennifer Cahill said.

A total of 7,970 customers lost power beginning at 7:37 p.m., and power was restored by 8:08 p.m., Cahill said.

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans, along with partner Ochsner Health System, announced that they have agreed to a long-term partnership for the naming rights to the teams’ official training facilities. Now officially known as the Ochsner Sports Performance Center, it is the only facility in all of North American sports that houses both an NFL training and an NBA training base of operations.
“This is a very special announcement for us,” said Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson. “Ochsner has been a great partner for a long time, and to see the growth they’ve undergone in recent years has been nothing short of remarkable. We look forward to a long continued partnership together.”
“The naming signals a commitment from Ochsner, the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans to use the Ochsner Sports Performance Center to improve health and wellness across the state,” said Warner Thomas, Ochsner Health System president and CEO. “While the Ochsner Sports Performance Center has been a hub for both basketball-and-football-themed community outreach programs and events annually including initiatives sponsored by both the Saints and Pelicans youth programs and community relations outreach programs, together the partners plan to do more. Dedicated events meant to provide education along with health screenings for the community will be geared toward not only catching diseases like cancer early, but also helping people more effectively manage chronic disease.”
The Ochsner Sports Performance Center is just the latest venture between the Saints, Pelicans and Ochsner Health System. Ochsner has been a corporate partner of both the Saints and Pelicans for nearly 10 years, and Tom and Gayle Benson have a long history as ardent supporters of Ochsner and the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center.
Saints and Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha stated, “Ochsner’s innovative, forward-thinking, patient-first medical teams and facilities are unsurpassed, and their focus on not only treating, but also preventing injuries will translate into a very beneficial partnership. In addition, Ochsner’s community commitment is so closely aligned to that of both the Saints and the Pelicans that this makes Ochsner the perfect partner to further our collective goals and programs.”
The Ochsner Sports Performance Center sits on a 19.5-acre campus on Airline Drive in Metairie. The main football facility of The Ochsner Sports Performance Center totals 77,504 square feet which includes locker rooms, physical therapy and treatment areas, doctor offices, a multi-media studio, an organizational museum and operations and administrative offices.
In addition, there is a 75,000square-foot modernized indoor practice facility, which soars to 78 feet and allows the Saints to maintain regular practice schedules throughout the year. The indoor practice facility is also home to a 20,000-square-foot workout gym, a modern full-service cafeteria, as well as an auxiliary nutritional station that adjoins the player gym.
The outdoor football practice fields at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center, where the Saints will hold training camp this summer, amasses four acres of maintained grass practice fields used through the football season, while an additional 53,000-square-feet of AstroTurf serves as a general practice and mixed-use area.
On the basketball side, the Pelicans relocated to the Ochsner Performance Center practice facility prior to the start of the 2013-14 season. The $16 million, 50,000-square-foot practice facility houses a 39,000-square-foot practice area that features two full-sized basketball courts, offices for coaches and basketball operations staff and a team theatre for film review and game planning. The building also includes a 12,000-square-foot area where the Pelicans’ locker room, players’ lounge, the latest in physical therapy and medical treatment technologies, a cafeteria, barber shop, equipment room, meeting rooms, and a multi-media studio are located.

The two-a-day football practices that coaches once used to toughen up their teams and cram for the start of the season are going the way of tear-away jerseys and the wishbone formation.
As part of its efforts to increase safety, the NCAA approved a plan this year that prevents teams from holding multiple practices with contact in a single day.
The move has forced plenty of schools to alter their practice calendar, with many teams opening their preseason as early as this week. Officials don’t mind if it causes a few logistical headaches as long as it reduces the head injuries that had become all too common this time of year.
According to the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute, 58 percent of the football practice concussions that occur over the course of a year happen during the preseason. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, says August also is a peak month for catastrophic injuries resulting from conditioning rather than contact, such as heatstroke and cardiac arrest.
“There was just something about that month really stood out,” Hainline said. “We couldn’t say with statistical certainty if this was because of the two-a-days, but there was enough consensus in the room and enough preliminary data that it looked like it was because of the two-a-days.”
Some coaches believe the benefits could go beyond reducing concussions.
“I don’t think you’re going to have the number of injuries that you had, especially the soft tissue injuries — hamstring pulls, quad pulls, groin pulls,” Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz said.
Teams still can hold two practices on a given day, but one of those practices can only be a “walkthrough” that includes no contact, helmets, pads or conditioning activities. Three hours of recovery are required between a practice and a walkthrough, though meetings can be held during that period.
“It just makes all the sense in the world,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Most programs were trending away from two-a-day practices long before this decision.
More than three-quarters of the 89 Football Bowl Subdivision teams that responded to an Associated Press survey on the subject said they conducted multiple practices on certain days last year. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, teams made sure one of those workouts had limited or no contact.
Those teams won’t have to change their approach too much.
Hainline said he didn’t know exactly how many programs were still holding multiple contact workouts on certain days before the NCAA ruling, but he said it was more common in the Division II ranks than among FBS schools.
Coaches say that because players are on campus working out all year, there’s no need to work them quite as hard once preseason practices begin.
“Back in the day, we used two-a-days to get in shape,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. “You weren’t there all summer. You didn’t come until the second half. They didn’t train from January until June like they do now.”
Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick, a member of the Division I football oversight committee, agrees that times have changed. As an example, he cites the grueling workouts Paul “Bear” Bryant held at Texas A&M during the 1950s, which were chronicled in the book and ESPN movie “Junction Boys.”
“There ain’t no ‘Junction Boys’ anymore because the players are in tip-top shape when we start football practice,” Hamrick said.
Even so, some players say they’ll miss the grind.
“Going through a two-a-day is tough, and that’s a big part of football,” Kansas State offensive lineman Dalton Risner said. “That builds you for the season. I wish that could go back to what we used to do.”
While two-a-days already were going out of fashion, this new rule is still forcing teams to adapt in other respects.
Although the NCAA is preventing multiple full-scale workouts on the same day, teams are still permitted to hold 29 total preseason practice sessions, the same as before. That creates a dilemma for coaches trying to hold that many practices without the benefit of two-a-days. Chris Ash of Rutgers is concerned that increasing the length of training camp conflicts with new NCAA rules about time demands placed on athletes and could end up increasing the overall amount of contact practices.
“We’ve got to manage five weeks of training camp very carefully,” Ash said.
Division I schools received a blanket waiver for this season allowing them to start practice one week earlier than usual. Nearly two-thirds of the FBS programs that responded to the AP survey are starting practice in July rather than in August, as is customary.
Those early starting dates led to scheduling complications for some programs. Hamrick said Marshall will still have nearly two weeks remaining in its current summer school session when it starts practice Friday.
“If I were to take the full 29 days of practice, we would have to go back into summer school, and our players would not have a chance ever to get home after summer school and summer program,” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said.
That raises the question of whether the NCAA should continue allowing 29 practice sessions. Further complicating the matter, the oversight committee would like to find a way to have every FBS team have 14 weeks to play 12 regular-season games.
“Do we need 29 practices? Probably not,” North Carolina coach Larry Fedora asked. “We can get away with less than that.”
—AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard, Schuyler Dixon, Stephen Hawkins and John Zenor, and AP freelance writer Paul Ladewski contributed to this report.

November 20, 1933- July 24, 2017

Robert S. “Bob” Robertson Sr., 83, native of Burlington, North Carolina, and a longtime resident of Morgan City, Louisiana, passed away on Monday, July 24, 2017, at Gulfport Memorial Hospital surrounded by family and friends.

Bob was born Nov. 20, 1933, in Burlington, North Carolina, the son of John Robertson and Mary Stuart Robertson.

Bob was an attorney and city Judge of Morgan City, Louisiana. He served proudly in the United States Marine Corps as a 1st Lieutenant. He graduated from Elon College in North Carolina and then went on to Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. He enjoyed traveling, Rotary
Club, singing and going to casinos.

Bob is survived by his three children, Beth Robertson Felterman and husband Jody, Becky Robertson Kinchen and husband Ronnie, and Robby Robertson and wife Kenia; and six grandchildren, Parker Felterman, Luke Felterman, Natalie Kinchen, Samantha Kinchen, Patrick Robertson and Christopher Robertson.

Bob was preceded in death by his father, John Robertson; mother, Mary Stuart Robertson; and brother, Vernell Robertson.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 27, 2017, at Twin City Funeral Home with a visitation being held from 8 a.m. until the time of the service. Entombment with Military Honors will take place in the Morgan City Cemetery following the funeral service, with Military Honors being rendered by the East St. Mary Veterans Funeral Squad.