SHREVEPORT (AP) — Teacher Angela Hall always starts the day gathering her preschool students in a circle in their Shreveport, Louisiana, classroom. The kids giggle. They share. And they look for who’s missing.

“Braylon, he’s not here,” she recalled one of her students saying Monday.

Braylon Snow, who just turned 5, was one of seven siblings who were fatally shot Sunday by their father in an attack that also killed their cousin. The shooting rattled classrooms in Shreveport where teachers like Hall on Monday came face-to-face with distraught parents and a messy stew of emotions.

In Hall’s classroom at Johnnie L. Cochran Head Start, it’s likely students noticed Braylon’s absence immediately. Each day, Hall instructs her students to look around for friends who aren’t there.

“When they come back tomorrow, we can tell them, ‘Hey, we missed you, we’re glad you’re back’” she tells them.

But Hall wasn’t ready to tell the students that the boy she described as a “cool little dude” wasn’t returning. She kept circle-time moving. Numb and heartbroken, she lasted until noon and then went home.

“I’m no good to my babies right now because I just feel like I need to be in a moment of silence and just pray,” she said.

Preschool comes to an end

At Head Start, preparation’s for next month’s graduation ceremony have been in full swing. Hall, an organist and pianist at her local Baptist church, wrote a song for the ceremony.

Students, who dress in caps and gowns for the festivities, have been busy learning the words, excited about the prospect of starting kindergarten in the fall. Hall was working hard to make sure they were ready.

Just last Thursday, she pulled Braylon’s mother aside during morning drop-off, boasting that Braylon was writing his first and last name. Braylon also was getting so independent, squirting syrup for his pancakes onto his plate by himself. He didn’t even need a reminder to wash his hands.

“Braylon doesn’t give me any problems,” she told his mother.

Braylon greeted Hall — known to her students as “Mrs. Hall” — each day with a small wave.

As the year progressed, she nudged more gap-toothed smiles from him. He loved his time on the playground — playing chase, tag and even partaking in “a little wrassling.” She laughed as she remembered it.

“He was for the majority of the time kind of a quiet little soul in the classroom,” she said. “When he did get a little extra energy or something, it was just a joy to see him smile and laugh.”

News of the shooting emerges

But then came Sunday. After church, she went to her mother’s house. It was then that she stumbled across an article about the shooting.

The number of victims was so high she struggled to comprehend it. Then she learned Braylon was among the victims. She also knew one of his brothers. He had been a Head Start student at the school last year.

“I just broke down and just started crying,” she said.

The same thing happened Monday morning at drop off when she locked eyes with a parent. Neither could say anything; the preschoolers were all around them.

“I just immediately broke down,” she said. So too did the parent and a teacher’s aide.

She is relying on her faith now. She prays for the dead, for the families and also for the teachers.

“And I’m just praying for all the educators that were connected to these children because it’s tough because my parents’ babies, they become my babies. And I treat them like they’re my own. So I’m just really praying that he sustains us all during this time.

“Just give us that strength.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury found Wednesday that entertainment giant Live Nation, which hosts tens of thousands of concerts a year, and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big venues.

The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by dozens of states, won’t immediately bring relief for concertgoers who have long complained about high ticket prices. But it could cost Live Nation hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps force the company to sell some of its concert venues when the judge hands out penalties later.

Among other things, the jury found Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive practices led to people in 22 states paying an extra $1.72 per ticket, which the judge could order the companies to pay back.

A jury in New York deliberated for four days before reaching its decision. State attorneys general who sued Live Nation said the verdict could potentially lead to lower ticket prices for music fans.

Live Nation said in a statement that the verdict “is not the last word on this matter.”

The company predicted that once a remedy phase of the litigation is completed before the judge and all appeals are resolved, the outcome likely won’t be much different from what the federal government achieved with a settlement it reached with the company just after the trial began.

That deal included a cap on service fees at some amphitheaters, plus some new ticket-selling options for promoters and venues — potentially allowing, but not requiring, them to open doors to Ticketmaster competitors such as SeatGeek or AXS.

The trial was a backstage pass

The trial gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the U.S. and beyond.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino testified, answering questions about matters including the company’s Taylor Swift ticket debacle in 2022. Rapino blamed a cyberattack.

Jurors also got to see a Live Nation employee’s internal messages to another employee declaring some prices “outrageous,” calling customers “so stupid” and boasting that the company was “robbing them blind, baby.” The employee, Benjamin Baker, who has since been promoted to a position as a ticketing executive, apologetically testified that the messages were “very immature and unacceptable.”

Live Nation Entertainment owns, operates, controls booking for or has an equity interest in hundreds of venues. Its subsidiary Ticketmaster is widely considered to be the world’s largest ticket-seller for live events.

The verdict could cost Live Nation and Ticketmaster hundreds of millions of dollars, based on the jury’s estimate that customers paid an extra $1.72 per ticket. The companies could also be assessed penalties. In addition, sanctions could result in court orders that they divest themselves of some entities, including venues such as amphitheaters that they own.

In its statement, Live Nation said the jury’s award of $1.72 per ticket applied to “a limited number of tickets” sold at 257 venues and representing about 20% of total tickets sold. The company estimated the aggregate single damages figure would be below $150 million, though it would be trebled.

The civil case, initially led by the U.S. government, accused Live Nation of using its reach to smother competition — by blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers, for example.

Live Nation denies it is a monopoly

Live Nation insisted it is not a monopoly, saying that artists, sports teams and venues decide prices and ticketing practices. A company lawyer said its size was simply a function of excellence and effort.

“Success is not against the antitrust laws in the United States,” attorney David Marriott said in his summation.

Ticketmaster was established in 1976 and merged with Live Nation in 2010. The company now controls of 86% of the market for concerts and 73% of the overall market when sports events are included, according to an attorney for the states, Jeffrey Kessler.

Ticketmaster has long drawn ire from fans and some artists. Grunge rock titans Pearl Jam battled the business in the 1990s, even filing an anti-monopoly complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, which declined to bring a case then.

Decades later, the Justice Department, joined by dozens of states, brought the current lawsuit during Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Days into the trial, Republican President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was settling its claims against Live Nation.

A handful of the states joined the settlement. But more than 30 pressed ahead with the trial, saying the federal government hadn’t gotten enough concessions.

Attorneys hail verdict

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a release after the verdict that Live Nation’s “illegal, anti-competitive practices” had driven up ticket prices and made it harder for fans to see their favorite acts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the verdict “a landmark victory.”

After the victory, Kessler would not say specifically what the states will seek in the next phase of the litigation, which was expected to involve another lengthy legal proceeding before penalties are decided.

But he celebrated the moment.

“It’s a great day for consumers,” he said.

ATLANTA (AP) — A long-lasting weather pattern is poised to blast hot air like a furnace across the eastern United States, with the unusual heat wave threatening to shatter record high temperatures on Wednesday in big cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The heat is unusual for April, not only because it’s scorching much of the nation so early in the year but also for its duration. The near-record temperatures are expected to last into this weekend, forecasters say.

The potentially dangerous heat comes after severe storms tore through Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday and Tuesday. There’s a possibility of more storms on Wednesday.

While it’s not unprecedented to see high temperatures climb toward 90 degrees (32 Celsius) on an April day, the length of such an April heat wave is rarely seen, experts say.

“That’s borderline unprecedented as far as the duration of it this time of year,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at the forecasting firm AccuWeather.com.

Feerick said that starting Wednesday “we’re going to have records challenged from basically Georgia all the way up through the New York City area and back towards the Ohio Valley.”

The National Weather Service is projecting a high temperature around 86 degrees (30 Celsius) for Central Park in New York City on Wednesday. The record high for the date is 87, which has stood since 1941.

Even hotter weather is expected in Philadelphia, where Wednesday’s high is expected to be 92 degrees (33 C). Other likely hot spots include Washington, D.C., which could see a high of 94 (34 C); and Atlanta, where the high is projected to be 88 (31 C).

“It’s really some very impressive heat for the middle of April, for sure,” Feerick said.

“The good thing about this is that the humidity is not summertime levels,” he added. That means it won’t feel as hot as a sizzling July day.

However, the early-season heat can be more stressful on people’s bodies since they haven’t had a chance to acclimate.

“It’s kind of one of those things where it’s a little more stressful to the body because you’re not used to it the first time around,” Feerick said.

Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S., the weather service warns. Infants and young children; older adults, people with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to heat-related injuries and death.

A strong ridge of high pressure fueling moisture into the southern plains was responsible for bringing the unusual heat to the eastern U.S., the weather service said.

Though Wednesday is a day when many records could fall, the heat wave will continue through Friday in many areas, forecasters said.

“Widespread lower to even middle 90s are expected Friday across the lower elevations of the Carolinas, which could set additional daily records and perhaps come close to some monthly records,” the agency’s Weather Prediction Center wrote in a memo.

The heat wave should finally be breaking down by Sunday as a strong cold front moves toward the Eastern Seaboard, and then it should be “pleasantly cooler” by Monday with the front heading out to sea, the weather service said.