Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Jimmy Swaggart news and copperheads

It has been a busy week in the news cycle for the Shreveport-Bossier area. If you need a refresher on what you missed, here are the top five stories from the Shreveport Times.
If parents are unable to watch their children during summer break, they may be in search of daycares, babysitters or other forms of childcare. What if these childcare options are scarce? Can you leave children at home alone while they're on summer break?
There is no federal age minimum for when kids can be left at home alone, however, a few states have established a legal age, while others have not.
Check out Louisiana.
During summer months, snakes become more active, as they come out to bask in the sun, find food and seek cool areas in order to avoid overheating.
This means that copperheads, a venomous species of pit viper that's native to North America, are more active during this time of year.
These snakes can be found in Louisiana across a wide range of habitats and may bite if they feel provoked.
Louisiana Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart is clinging to life in a Baton Rouge hospital following a heart attack he suffered Sunday, his family said.
Swaggart, 90, has led Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for decades with an international outreach headquartered in Baton Rouge.
The Times obtained food safety inspection information for the week of May 25-31, 2025, from the Louisiana Department of Health.
The top three addresses with the most critical violations in Caddo Parish are listed, along with an explanation of the finding. All restaurants on the list had at least three critical violations.
Check out the restaurants with critical violations.
If you prefer to listen to music or other kinds of media while driving, and you find that your car's stereo isn't working, you may consider popping in earbuds or putting on headphones.
In Louisiana, it is illegal to drive while wearing headphones. More specifically.
Check out why it is illegal.
More: Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Boardwalk closures and summer temperatures
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Jimmy Swaggart news and copperheads

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Associated Press

2 hours ago

• Associated Press

What to know about activist Mahmoud Khalil and his release from immigration detention

A Palestinian activist who participated in protests against Israel has been freed from federal immigration detention after 104 days. Mahmoud Khalil, who became a symbol of President Donald Trump 's clampdown on campus protests, left a federal facility in Louisiana on Friday. The former Columbia University graduate student is expected to head to New York to reunite with his U.S. citizen wife and infant son, born while Khalil was detained. Here's a look at what has happened so far in Khalil's legal battle: The arrest Federal immigration agents detained Khalil on March 8, the first arrest under Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was then taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, a remote part of Louisiana thousands of miles from his attorneys and his wife. The 30-year-old international affairs student had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn to protest the war. The university brought police in to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil was not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn't among those arrested in connection with the demonstrations. But images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, made him an object of scorn among those who saw the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The legal fight Khalil wasn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. However, the government has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the U.S. for expressing views the administration considers to be antisemitic and 'pro-Hamas,' referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Khalil's lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, arguing that the Trump administration was trying to deport him for an activity protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified Khalil's deportation by citing a rarely used statute that gives him power to deport those who pose 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.' The initial ruling Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans ruled in April that the government's contention was enough to satisfy requirements for Khalil's deportation. Comans said the government had 'established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.' Federal judges in New York and New Jersey had previously ordered the U.S. government not to deport Khalil while his case played out in court. Khalil remained detained for several weeks, with his lawyers arguing that he was being prevented from exercising his free speech and due process rights despite no obvious reason for his continued detention. Release granted Khalil was released after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be 'highly, highly unusual' for the government to continue detaining a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence. 'Petitioner is not a flight risk, and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,' he said. 'Period, full stop.' During an hourlong hearing conducted by phone, the New Jersey-based judge said the government had 'clearly not met' the standards for detention. Speaking Friday outside the detention facility, Khalil said, 'Justice prevailed, but it's very long overdue. This shouldn't have taken three months.' Legal fight continues The government filed notice Friday evening that it's appealing Khalil's release. The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on the social platform X that the same day Farbiarz ordered Khalil's release, an immigration judge in Louisiana denied Khalil bond and 'ordered him removed.' That decision was made by Comans, who is in a court in the same detention facility from which Khalil was released. 'An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained,' the post said. Farbiarz ruled that the government can't deport Khalil based on its claims that his presence could undermine foreign policy. But he gave the administration leeway to pursue a potential deportation based on allegations that Khalil lied on his green card application, an accusation Khalil disputes. Khalil had to surrender his passport and can't travel internationally, but he will get his green card back and be given official documents permitting limited travel within the U.S., including New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress. Khalil said Friday that no one should be detained for protesting Israel's war in Gaza. He said his time in the Jena, Louisiana, detention facility had shown him 'a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and liberty and justice.' In a statement after the judge's ruling, Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she could finally 'breathe a sigh of relief' after her husband's three months in detention. The judge's decision came after several other scholars targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri.

Yahoo

4 hours ago

• Yahoo

‘Justice prevailed': Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil speaks after release from ICE detention

Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil has walked out of an immigration detention center in rural Louisiana where he was locked up for more than three months for his campus activism against Israel's war in Gaza. A federal judge ordered his release hours earlier on Friday and rebuked President Donald Trump's administration for its 'highly, highly unusual' decision to hold him there, with no evidence Khalil committed any crime, and after the judge's determination that his detention and threat of removal from the country over First Amendment-protected speech is unconstitutional. 'Justice prevailed, but it's long overdue,' said Khalil, wearing a keffiyeh wrapped around his shoulders. 'This should not have taken three months. I leave some incredible men — more than 1,000 people, behind me — in a place where they should not have been.' The Trump administration 'are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here,' he said. Khalil is now returning to New York, where he looks forward to embracing his wife and son, who was born while he was in custody. The judge's order is the latest in a string of high-profile losses for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration in its campaign against international student activists arrested and threatened with removal from the country over their pro-Palestinian activism. During a bail hearing on Friday, New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Khalil poses no danger to the community and is not a flight risk. 'Period, full stop,' he said. Following the order, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that only an immigration judge, not a federal district judge, 'has the authority' to decide whether he can be released, despite a series of federal court rulings granting the release of student activists the administration has sought to remove from the country while their legal challenges continue. Lawyers for the Trump administration appealed the order for his release on Friday night. Yet the immigration judge presiding over Khalil's case, Jamee Comans, determined on Friday that Khalil could be deported based on the government's allegations against him. 'On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released,' Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. 'This is yet another example of how out-of-control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security.' Khalil was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was then sent to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, roughly 1,300 miles away from their home in New York. Following his arrest, Khalil was accused of 'antisemitic activities' for his role in campus-wide demonstrations against Israel's war, allegations Khalil and his legal team have resoundingly rejected. Officials concede that Khalil did not commit any crime, but Rubio has sought to justify Khalil's arrest by invoking a rarely used law claiming that Khalil's presence in the United States undermines foreign policy interests of preventing antisemitism. Khalil and his attorneys and critics have argued that the administration has broadly sought to conflate criticism of Israel's war with antisemitism, dovetailing with the president's threats to college campuses and an anti-immigration agenda. 'After more than three months we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,' Noor Abdalla, Khalil's wife, said in a statement. 'We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians,' she added. 'But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.' On June 11, Judge Farbiarz ruled that the administration had unconstitutionally wielded the law against Khalil, whose 'career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled,' the judge wrote. The government has 'little or no interest in applying the relevant underlying statutes in what is likely an unconstitutional way,' Farbiarz added. The judge said the government could not detain and deport him on those spurious legal grounds. Khalil and his legal team argue his arrest and detention — and attempted removal from the country, which is currently blocked by court order — are retaliatory violations of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process of law, among other claims. His arrest sparked international outrage over the Trump administration's attempts to crush campus dissent. Rubio has said he 'proudly' revoked hundreds of student visas over campus activism, leading to several high-profile arrests of international scholars. Khalil, who is Palestinian, grew up in a refugee camp in Syria. He entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 to pursue a master's degree in public administration, which he completed last year. He missed his graduation ceremony last month. 'As someone who fled persecution in Syria for my political beliefs, for who I am, I never imagined myself to be in immigration detention, here in the United States,' Khalil wrote in a sworn declaration in court filings. Khalil's wife gave birth to their son in April. They met for the first and only time before an immigration court hearing last month. 'Instead of holding my wife's hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,' Khalil wrote in court filings. 'I listened to her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 other men slept around me. When I heard my son's first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep.'

Yahoo

7 hours ago

• Yahoo

Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Jimmy Swaggart news and copperheads

It has been a busy week in the news cycle for the Shreveport-Bossier area. If you need a refresher on what you missed, here are the top five stories from the Shreveport Times. If parents are unable to watch their children during summer break, they may be in search of daycares, babysitters or other forms of childcare. What if these childcare options are scarce? Can you leave children at home alone while they're on summer break? There is no federal age minimum for when kids can be left at home alone, however, a few states have established a legal age, while others have not. Check out Louisiana. During summer months, snakes become more active, as they come out to bask in the sun, find food and seek cool areas in order to avoid overheating. This means that copperheads, a venomous species of pit viper that's native to North America, are more active during this time of year. These snakes can be found in Louisiana across a wide range of habitats and may bite if they feel provoked. Louisiana Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart is clinging to life in a Baton Rouge hospital following a heart attack he suffered Sunday, his family said. Swaggart, 90, has led Jimmy Swaggart Ministries for decades with an international outreach headquartered in Baton Rouge. The Times obtained food safety inspection information for the week of May 25-31, 2025, from the Louisiana Department of Health. The top three addresses with the most critical violations in Caddo Parish are listed, along with an explanation of the finding. All restaurants on the list had at least three critical violations. Check out the restaurants with critical violations. If you prefer to listen to music or other kinds of media while driving, and you find that your car's stereo isn't working, you may consider popping in earbuds or putting on headphones. In Louisiana, it is illegal to drive while wearing headphones. More specifically. Check out why it is illegal. More: Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Boardwalk closures and summer temperatures This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Top 5 stories from the Shreveport Times this week: Jimmy Swaggart news and copperheads