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NOLA-area pastor indicted; turmoil over St. George start date; LSU professor elected president of Sociological Society

Map of City of St. George
Map created by Garrett Hazelwood using Datawrapper
/
Data provided by City of St. George
Boundaries of the City of St. George, as drawn in 2018. After a recent decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court, St. George was officially incorporated and became Louisiana's fifth largest city.

Earlier this month, a federal jury convicted a New Orleans-area pastor of stealing over $340,000 from his congregation to fund his gambling and personal expenses. Dale Sanders, 56, was found guilty of a 25-count indictment charging him with wire fraud, access device fraud and obstruction of a federal investigation.

James Finn, Federal Courts reporter for The Times-Picayune/The Advocate, joins us with more.

Governance in East Baton Rouge Parish saw a contentious political debate last week after the parish attorney asked the court to let the parish intervene in a lawsuit to set a date of incorporation for the new city of St. George. Some officials argue the city began in 2019, with others saying it wasn’t official until the state Supreme Court got involved in 2024.

Baton Rouge metro reporter and Report for America corps member Alex Cox explains why this decision could leave both municipalities on the hook for multiple millions of dollars.

Back in June, LSU professor Tim Slack was elected president of the Rural Sociological Society, one of the nation’s leading organizations dedicated to researching rural communities and environments.

Tim Slack joins us for more on what his election means for LSU, and his biggest priorities as leader.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Karen Henderson is an award-winning journalist whose stories have aired nationally on NPR.
Alana Schreiber is the managing producer for the live daily news program, Louisiana Considered. She comes to WWNO from KUNC in Northern Colorado, where she worked as a radio producer for the daily news magazine, Colorado Edition. She has previously interned for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul.