October 2020

Cassidy has financing advantage in Louisiana US Senate race

BATON ROUGE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s chief Democratic challenger matched his fundraising prowess in the latest quarter, but Louisiana’s Republican incumbent still has millions more in the bank for the final days of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 election as early voting is underway.

Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins jumped into the Senate race late in July, giving the Democratic contender only a few months to launch a campaign, build name recognition and draw in donor cash to challenge Cassidy’s bid to win reelection to a second term.

Black man’s family views graphic video of in-custody death

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Family members viewed long-secret body-camera video this week of a Black man who died in Louisiana State Police custody, their attorney calling it damning footage that shows troopers choking and beating the man, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns and dragging him face-down across the pavement.

Twitter CEO says it was wrong to block links to Biden story

(AP) - Twitter was wrong to block weblinks to an political story, CEO Jack Dorsey said on Friday, as the company responded to criticism over its handling of the story that had prompted cries of censorship from the right.

“Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix,” he tweeted. “Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that.”

Dorsey was weighing in after an executive at the social media company announced changes late Thursday to its policy on hacked content following an onslaught of criticism.

WHO study finds remdesivir didn’t help COVID-19 patients

GENEVA (AP) — A large study led by the World Health Organization suggests that the antiviral drug remdesivir did not help hospitalized COVID-19 patients, in contrast to an earlier study that made the medicine a standard of care in the United States and many other countries.

The results announced Friday do not negate the previous ones, and the WHO study was not as rigorous as the earlier one led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. But they add to concerns about how much value the pricey drug gives because none of the studies have found it can improve survival.

US retail sales grow for fifth month in a row

NEW YORK (AP) — Retail sales rose strongly in September, the fifth straight month of growth, as Americans spent more on clothing, cars and sporting goods.

U.S. retail sales jumped 1.9 percent last month, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday. That’s more than double what was economists were expected. And it’s up from the 0.6 percent increase in August.

“Americans raced to the stores in September,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Sal Guatieri, in a note to investors, adding that they were “buying just about everything in sight, especially clothing.”

No. 17 SMU beats Tulane 37-34 in OT to improve to 5-0

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Brandon Crossley ended the first overtime possession with an interception and Chris Naggar made a 34-yard field goal to give No. 17 SMU a 37-34 victory over Tulane on Friday night.

Crossley intercepted Tulane freshman Michael Pratt’s pass to put the Mustangs (5-0, 3-0 American Athletic) into position to win with the field goal.

The Green Wave rallied to force overtime on Merek Glover’s 27-yard field goal with 1:30 left.

Houston Open to allow limited number of golf spectators

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Open will allow limited spectators next month at Memorial Park, the first domestic PGA Tour event to have fans since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf for three months on March 13. The tour said 2,000 tickets will go on sale Wednesday through the tournament’s website.

The Houston Open is Nov. 5-8, one week before the Masters. Dustin Johnson, who tested positive for the coronavirus had to withdraw from the elite CJ Cup at Shadow Creek this week, and Brooks Koepka are among those planning to play.

Rays-Yankees get most viewers during Division Series

NEW YORK (AP) — The Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees drew the five-most watched games of the Division Series, boosted by prime-time start times.

Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win in Game 5 on Oct. 9 was the mostwatched game of the round, averaging 3,723,000 viewers on TBS, the network said Friday.

Among the other three series, the most-viewed game was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-5 win over San Diego in Game 2, which averaged 1,655,000 viewers on FS1.

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Linda Blair: From possession to philanthropy

Linda Blair was born Jan. 22, 1959, in St. Louis. Blair began appearing in commercials at age 5. She continued to do commercials despite developing a love for horses and a desire to grow up and be a veterinarian. By the time she was 12, she had appeared on the soap opera Hidden Faces (1968-69) as well as the films The Way We Live Now (1970) and The Sporting Club (1971). Blair told her mother she was ready to retire from child acting to focus on her animal dreams; however, her mother told her she had a few jobs to finish before that could happen.