Baton Rouge police said they are preparing warrants to arrest two additional suspects in connection with last week’s hazing death of Southern University junior engineering student Caleb Wilson, 20.
Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr said during a Friday news confer-
ence that the two suspects are expected to turn themselves in.
“Additional warrants can’t be ruled out,” Morse told reporters, noting it remains an “active, ongoing” investigation involving his department and the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office with cooperation from Southern University Late Thursday, former Southern University student Caleb McCray 23, surrendered to Baton Rouge police. McCray’s attorney said in a statement Friday his client is innocent McCray marked the first arrest tied to the fatal Omega Psi Phi fra-
ternity hazing ritual Morse said occurred Feb. 27 in a warehouse at 3412 Woodcrest Drive. McCray was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail Thursday night on one count each of manslaughter and hazing. McCray made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon, where his bond was set at $100,000, his attorney said.
“I maintain my client’s innocence and urge the public to withhold rushing to judgment until all the evidence is heard,” attorney Phillip Robinson said.
ä See HAZING, page 4A
Inmate challenges nitrogen gas usage
BY ANDREA GALLO Staff writer
Some La. leaders back closing U.S. Department of Education
Move could have impact on federal funds for state
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
As President Donald Trump seeks to shut down the U.S. Department of Education, some of Louisiana’s top education officials say they are eager to bid the agency adieu.
Echoing Republicans who have long opposed the Cabinet-level federal agency’s existence, Louisiana education leaders see the department as inefficient and an example of federal overreach, arguing that school policies should be left to states and local communities.
“I have always suggested that the department should not exist,” Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said in an interview Thursday “I trust people in Louisiana to make decisions based on the educational needs of the state of Louisiana.”
Hoffman recently filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the plan to use nitrogen hypoxia to execute him on March 18 constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S Constitution. Louisiana Middle District Chief Judge Shelly Dick, an appointee of
Jessie Hoffman Jr., who is scheduled to become the first person Louisiana puts to death using nitrogen gas, testified in federal court on Friday to ask that the state find another way Hoffman, 46, has spent the majority of his life on death row over the 1996 abduction, rape and execution-style killing of Mary “Molly” Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish. He appeared in court in Baton Rouge on Friday in an orange jumpsuit one hand shackled and surrounded by security guards.
former President Barack Obama, is presiding over Hoffman’s challenge. The state, including Gov Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill, have argued that putting Hoffman to death is necessary to bring justice in his case.
Hoffman’s attorneys argue that the state is making Hoffman a test case for the new execution method, which
ä See INMATE, page 4A
After repeatedly calling for the Education Department’s elimination, reports this week said Trump is preparing to issue an executive order instructing his newly confirmed education secretary Linda McMahon, to shut down the agency In an interview Friday, McMahon said Trump “certainly intends” to sign an order, but did not say when.
Abolishing the department and shifting some of its functions to other agencies could reduce federal oversight and regulation of schools.
That scenario would be cheered by some of
Hackman, wife died of natural causes a week apart, authorities say
Experts believe actor was impaired due to Alzheimer’s disease
BY MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and LISA BAUMANN Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, authorities revealed
Friday
Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference.
“Mr Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”
Authorities didn’t suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last
known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday Hackman’s pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said.
Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. “It’s quite possible he was not aware
ä See HACKMAN, page 5A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE
Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley says he has always suggested the U.S Department of Education should not exist.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa attend the Golden Globe Awards in 2003.
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Baton Rouge Chief of Police Thomas Morse Jr speaks to the media alongside District Attorney Hillar Moore during a news conference Friday regarding the hazing death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson.
BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS
Clashes in Syria
kill more than 200 BEIRUT Fighters siding with Syria’s new government stormed several villages near the country’s coast, killing dozens of men in response to recent attacks on government security forces by loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad, a war monitor said The village assaults erupted Thursday and continued Friday
Ongoing clashes between the two sides have marked the worst violence since Assad’s government was toppled in early December by insurgent groups led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir alSham. The new government has pledged to unite Syria after 14 years of civil war
More than 200 people have been killed since the fighting broke out, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In addition to around 140 killed in apparent revenge attacks in the villages, the dead include at least 50 members of Syria’s government forces and 45 fighters loyal to Assad. The civil war that has been raging in Syria since March 2011 has left more than half a million people dead and millions displaced.
The most recent clashes began when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh on Thursday and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
S.C. man executed by firing squad
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man convicted of murder was executed by firing squad Friday the first U.S. prisoner to die by that method in 15 years
Three volunteer prison employees used rifles to carry out the execution of Brad Sigmon, 67, who was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. Sigmon killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a botched plot to kidnap their daughter He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself.
Sigmon’s lawyers said he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive,” and he feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital into his veins would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.
The details of South Carolina’s lethal injection method are kept secret in South Carolina, and Sigmon unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to pause his execution because of that.
On Friday Sigmon wore a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head and a white target with a red bull’s-eye over his chest.
The armed prison employees stood 15 feet from where he sat in the state’s death chamber — the same distance as the backboard is from the free-throw line on a basketball court. Visible in the same small room was the state’s unused electric chair The gurney used to carry out lethal injections had been rolled away
The volunteers all fired at the same time through openings in a wall.
U.S. military’s mini shuttle returns to Earth CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The U.S. military’s classified mini space shuttle returned to Earth on Friday after circling the world for 434 days. The space plane blasted into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in December 2023 on a secret mission. Launched by SpaceX, the X-37B vehicle carried no people, just military experiments. Its predawn touchdown at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California was not announced until hours after the fact. Photos showed the white-and-black space plane parked on the runway in darkness.
It’s the seventh flight of one of these test vehicles Space Force officials said the mission successfully demonstrated the ability to change orbits by using atmospheric drag to slow down, saving fuel.
It’s “an exciting new chapter in the X-37B program,” program director Lt. Col. Blaine Stewart said in a statement.
PHOTO PROVIDED By PARIS POLICE PREFECTURE
The disposal efforts for a huge, unexploded World War II-era bomb in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, caused transportation chaos Friday including the suspension of highspeed rail links with London and Brussels and the closure of a vital road artery in the French capital.
WWII bomb disposal causes chaos in Paris
Removal operations disrupt transportation
BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press
PARIS The disposal of what Paris police called an “excessively dangerous” unexploded World War II bomb caused hours of transportation chaos Friday on rail and road networks in the French capital including the suspension of high-speed train links with London and Brussels.
Having moved the bomb into a hole, disposal experts managed to unscrew and then destroy its fuse, “like you see in the movies,” said Christophe Pezron, who heads the Paris police laboratory that includes bomb disposal services He said that the half-ton British-made bomb could have caused major damage had it exploded after workers inadvertently dug it up with an earthmover
But the police operation that made the bomb safe before it was then taken away triggered major disruption for hundreds of thousands of rail travelers and motorists.
The bomb was dug up near train tracks north of Paris, forcing a shutdown of the rail network serving Gare du Nord, France’s busiest station. A portion of the A1 highway — a major road artery into northern Paris and sections of the capital’s always-busy beltway were also closed while police disposal officers worked.
“We’re delighted and relieved that all this has come to an end,” Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot was able to finally declare Friday afternoon — 12 hours after the bomb-disposal police were first called — as roads reopened and rail services were progressively being restored.
The minister said that almost 500 trains had been canceled, impacting around 600,000 people at Gare du Nord that
serves not only Paris’ northern suburbs and northern France, but also international destinations in the U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany
“All of the northern part of our country was paralyzed,” Tabarot said.
Eurostar, the operator of high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel that joins England with the European continent, said that normal traffic would resume Saturday between Paris and Brussels and Paris and London, after Friday’s full day of cancellations. Hundreds of commuter, regional and high-speed train services between Paris and its suburbs and towns and cities in northern France were also canceled.
Gabrielle Cotton, a tourist from the U.S. state of Missouri, was traveling by train from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Paris, but got no further than Brussels.
“I heard the girl next to me — her parents called her and said that there was a World War II bomb found in the train station,” she said. “They told us we had to get off in Brussels.”
Retired Parisian Michel Garrot also found himself stranded with his wife in the Belgian capital.
“There’s no solution. We’re going to call the hotel and stay one more day And change our train ticket,” he said.
At Eurostar’s hub in London, St. Pancras International station, passengers scrambled for alternatives. Fridays are invariably busy with thousands of weekend travelers. Paris-bound passengers were advised to try taking trains to Lille in northern France, or fly Bride-to-be Charlotte Liddell had a bachelorette party — her own — to get to in Paris and wanted to join friends already in the French capital.
“It’s the hen do without the hen!” she said. “We’re very upset, but it’s so out of our control.”
Eurostar said that it “sincerely apologizes for the disruption and understands the inconvenience this may cause.”
States sue over mass firings of federal probationary workers
Maryland, 19 other states file lawsuit against Trump administration
BY BRIAN WITTE Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland and 19 other states are suing multiple federal agencies, contending President Donald Trump’s administration has illegally fired thousands of federal probationary workers.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is leading the coalition of attorneys general in the federal lawsuit that was filed late Thursday in Maryland, where the state estimates about 10% of households receive wages from the federal government.
“The draconian actions of the Trump-Vance Administration could lead to tens of thousands of jobs lost, hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted, and the cratering of tens of millions of dollars in income here in Maryland,” Gov Wes Moore, a Democrat, said Friday in support of the complaint.
already have applied for unemployment benefits, Brown’s office said.
The lawsuit also contended that the layoffs will hurt state finances due to lost tax revenue.
“President Trump’s unlawful mass firings of federal workers are a blatant attack on the civil service, throwing thousands of hardworking families into financial turmoil,” Brown, a Democrat, said in a news release. “Instead of following the law and notifying states, his administration blindsided Maryland, forcing us to deal with the devastating economic fallout and social consequences.”
Brown followed up on Friday by moving for a temporary restraining order in federal court in Maryland seeking to stop any more firings of federal probationary employees and to reinstate those who have already been dismissed.
The mass firings will cause irreparable burdens and expenses on the states, the lawsuit said, because states will have to support recently unemployed workers and review and adjudicate claims of unemployment assistance. More than 800 fired federal workers in Maryland
Trump, a Republican, has said he’s targeting fraud, waste and abuse in a bloated federal government. The president and his adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have fired both new and career workers, telling agency leaders to plan for “largescale reductions in force.” The purge has spawned a number of lawsuits as unions and attorneys general have challenged DOGE’s authority Attempts to contact the White House and Justice Department for comment were unsuccessful.
Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. While federal agencies claimed the employees were fired for unsatisfactory performance or conduct, the lawsuit said the firings were part of the administration’s attempt to restructure and downsize the entire government
That means the administration was required to follow federal laws and regulations that govern large-scale federal reductions in force, the lawsuit said.
Texas reports nearly 200 measles cases
New Mexico cases hit 30
BY DEVI SHASTRI Associated Press
A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled to 30.
Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January
Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far
Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation’s first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.
New Mexico health officials had been reporting for weeks a steady number of cases in Lea County — which borders the epicenter of Texas’ outbreak. But on Friday, state health officials provided The Associated Press a week-by-week count that shows cases have steadily increased from 14 cases in the week of Feb. 9 to 30 this week.
A spokesperson for the health department said more cases are expected and that many of the cases reported Friday weren’t identified until after peo-
ple’s illnesses had run their course. The department has said it hasn’t been able to prove a clear connection to the Texas outbreak, though on Feb. 14, it said a link is “suspected.”
On Thursday, New Mexico health officials confirmed an unvaccinated adult who died without seeking medical care tested positive for measles. The state medical investigator has not announced the official cause of death, but the state health department said Friday it is “measles-related.”
The CDC said Friday it has also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey New York City Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. But the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks make up for most of the nation’s case count.
The rise in measles cases has been a major test for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of childhood vaccines Recently he has stopped short of recommending people get the vaccine, and has promoted unproven treatments for the virus, like cod liver oil. Kennedy dismissed the Texas outbreak as “not unusual,” though most local doctors in the West Texas region told The Associated Press that they have never seen a case of measles in their careers until this outbreak.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.
Matt Caldwell, left, a Lubbock Fire Department official, administers a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to Clair May, 61, on Feb 26 at the Lubbock Health Department in Lubbock,Texas.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Move comes after pausing military aid, intel sharing with Ukraine
BY AAMER MADHANI and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday
he is “strongly considering” levying new sanctions and tariffs on Russia for its war against Ukraine, floating the possibility of new pressure on Moscow just days after he ordered a pause on U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said he was considering the action “based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.”
He added that the prospective sanctions could remain in place until the two sides come to a ceasefire and peace settlement.
The sanctions threat came
as Trump faces criticism for increasing pressure on Ukraine to reach a deal while playing down or even denying Russia’s responsibility for starting the war with its invasion three years ago
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” Trump added in his post.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that the U.S. has kept its sanctions in place on Russia and “will not hesitate to go all in should it provide leverage in peace negotiations.”
Joe Biden’s administration over the course of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine imposed thousands of sanctions on Russian firms, people and ships as well as a price cap on Russian oil, among other actions.
Bessent called Biden’s sanctions on Russian energy “egregiously weak” and “stemming from worries about upward pressure on U.S. energy prices.”
“Per President Trump’s guidance, sanctions will be used explicitly and aggres-
sively for immediate maximum impact,” Bessent said. “They will be carefully monitored to ensure that they are achieving specific objectives.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters Friday there is still a “heck of a lot” of room to put further pressure on the Russian economy through sanctions.
“President Trump is adamant that we need to get everybody to the table, and we could do that with carrots, and we could do that with sticks,” Hassett said.
Russia launched overnight attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities with dozens of missiles and drones, officials said Friday, hobbling the country’s ability to deliver heat and light to its citizens and to power weapons factories vital to its defenses.
The barrage — which also pounded residences and wounded at least 10 people — came days after the U.S
suspended military aid and intelligence to Ukraine to pressure it into accepting a peace deal being pushed by the Trump administration.
Without U.S. intelligence, Ukraine’s ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is significantly diminished.
But Trump, in an exchange with reporters, shrugged off the notion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of the intelligence pause to inflict more pain on Ukraine.
“I think he’s doing what anybody else would,” Trump said of Putin.
And Trump again questioned whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is committed to getting a peace agreement to end the conflict. “It may be easier dealing with Russia, which is surprising, because they have all the cards, and they’re bombing the hell out of them right now,” Trump said.
BY JON GAMBRELL and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
President Donald Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the agreement he withdrew America from in his first term in office.
Iranian state media immediately picked up on Trump’s acknowledgment, given in excerpts from a Fox Business Channel interview aired on Friday, though there was no confirmation from Khamenei’s office that any letter had been received. The interview airs in full on Sunday It remained unclear how the 85-year-old supreme leader would react, given that former President Barack Obama had kept his letters to Khamenei secret ahead of the start of negotiations that led to Tehran’s 2015 deal with world powers.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office later on Friday, Trump did not mention the letter directly but made a veiled reference, saying, “We have a situation
with Iran that, something’s going to happen very soon Very, very soon.”
“Hopefully we can have a peace deal,” Trump said. “I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness. I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other But the other will solve the problem.”
He’s suggested that the alternative to a negotiated resolution would be the U.S. threatening to intervene military in Iran.
Trump’s overture comes as both Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weaponsgrade levels — something only sought by atomicarmed nations. In the interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump said, “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.’” He said he’d
Al Green censured for disrupting Trump’s speech
But past addresses have history of outbursts
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — The Repub-
lican majority in the U.S. House on Thursday censured Democratic Rep. Al Green, a New Orleans native who represents parts of Houston, for interrupting President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress and the nation.
Green is only the 28th member censured in the 236year history of the House. But he is the third, all Democrats, chastised since 2023, when the Republicans regained control of the House Now, the right-wing Republican House Freedom Caucus is looking to oust Green from his committee assignments as further punishment.
During the Tuesday night speech, Trump said that the nation had overwhelmingly elected him. Trump did win a majority of the electoral and popular votes. But he only polled 1.5% more votes than former Vice President Kamala Harris out of the 152.3 million cast. Green jumped up, shook the cane he uses to help him walk and shouted: “You have no mandate.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, ordered Green to sit down and Green refused. Johnson had Green removed from the chamber No Republicans opposed the resolution to censure Green — including all four GOP members in Louisiana’s congressional delegation — in the 224-198 vote. Ten Democrats joined the Republicans. Both Democratic members in the state’s delegation supported Green by voting against the resolution. A censured member is supposed to stand contritely in front of the podium while the Speaker of the House reads aloud a resolution describing the chamber’s displeasure But Democratic members joined Green in the well and sang “We Shall Overcome” while Johnson banged his gavel to regain order so he could read the resolution. He gave up and recessed the session for a while Several hours later, after the House reconvened, Green read aloud the resolution censuring him. “I rise a proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed and unafraid,” he said. Green’s family moved from New Orleans to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where he graduated from Choctawhatchee High School in the 1960s. Green attended Florida A&M University and Tuskegee Institute of Tech-
nology in Alabama In 1974, he received a law degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston. Green, 77, opened a law firm in Houston and became president of the Houston chapter of the NAACP He has been involved in local politics, serving in a variety of roles over the decades Green joined the House in 2005 to represent Houston’s southwestern neighborhoods.
A history of disruptions Disruptions like Green’s have become common in the past decade or so.
In 2011, when Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry, a Republican, was in Congress, he quietly held up a sign “Drilling = Jobs” during Democratic President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.
Last year and the year before, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, interrupted Democratic President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speeches.
She yelled out that the president was a liar in 2023 when he detailed steps he had taken to protect Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance for the poor Greene continually disrupted Biden in 2024 when he spoke about efforts to pass a bipartisan immigration bill over the objections of Trump and far right Republicans.
She was not censured.
The Congressional Black Caucus filed a resolution in September to censure
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, RLafayette, after he posted on social media that Haitian immigrants, who had moved to the U.S legally, ate pets, practiced voodoo, joined cults and should be returned to the island nation. Higgins later removed the post, but the majority Republican House never voted on the censure motion. When Trump announced
he wanted to address a joint session of Congress and the nation Tuesday night, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, asked House Democrats to show dignity and restraint.
Many Democratic members, however, held up signs criticizing actions Trump and his efficiency czar Elon Musk have taken, such as pell-mell firings of employ-
ees with a goal of reducing the federal workforce. Others booed. None of the Democrats stood in support of any of the points Trump made in the campaign-style speech. Johnson complained on ABC-TV the next morning that Democrats didn’t show Trump proper respect and didn’t even stand when guests invited by Republicans were introduced.
Morse said Friday Wilson’s death was the “direct result” of being punched “while pledging” to join Omega Psi Phi.
The police chief said McCray’s arrest and additional anticipated arrests in the case are the result of “around the clock” work by law enforcement that included questioning more than a dozen people. Dennis Shields, president of Southern University, said at the Friday news conference Omega Psi Phi was ordered to “cease all activities” at the university.
In addition, the university suspended all campus club and Greek life recruiting through the academic year, Shields said University officials are conducting an internal investigation of Wilson’s death, and Shields made clear student groups face the “prospect of discipline,” and it’s possible some students could be expelled. Wilson, a Kenner native and former trumpet player for Southern’s famed Human Jukebox marching band, died Feb. 27 after he was punched in the chest while pledging for the fraternity The hazing ritual took place inside the Woodcrest Drive warehouse just south
INMATE
Continued from page 1A
only Alabama has tried, executing four people with it.
Louisiana added nitrogen hypoxia to a menu of legalized execution methods last year in a bill supported by Landry, aiming to activate a long-dormant execution chamber
It’s been 15 years since the state executed any deathrow prisoner, as Louisiana officials have struggled to procure drugs for execution by lethal injection. The last to be executed, Gerald Bordelon, volunteered.
A jury in St. Tammany Parish convicted Hoffman and sentenced him to die He is currently the only one among Louisiana’s 56 deathrow prisoners with an execution date.
His attorneys argue that nitrogen hypoxia is especially problematic as a method of execution on Hoffman because he is a practicing Buddhist and uses Buddhist breathing and meditation exercises to help manage his PTSD They contend that if he’s forced to inhale nitrogen gas to end his life, he will not be able to use those techniques.
Hoffman testified that he struggles in closed-in and confined spaces and worries that having a mask strapped over his face will trigger his anxiety. He said those fears stretch back to a childhood in New Orleans when his mother once locked him in a pantry while she went to work He described having panic attacks during one medical transport from prison.
“The idea of having a mask over my face,” he said, “I fear it’s gong to trigger.” Hoffman largely stayed composed and stoic throughout the hearing.
Hoffman’s lawyers have also argued to be allowed to witness the execution to en-
of Greenwell Springs Road.
The pledges were brought to the building and forced to change into gray sweatsuits. With Wilson and eight other hopefuls lined up according to height, McCray and the two other suspects took turns punching them in the chest using a pair of black boxing gloves, according to McCray’s arrest warrant affidavit.
All the pledges absorbed four punches from fraternity members imposing the rite of passage, authorities said. Each punch represented one of the fraternity’s “four cardinal principles”: manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift.
Investigators were told neither Omega Psi members nor pledges were allowed to bring cellphones inside the warehouse during the pledging ritual, a source close to the investigation said.
According to the arrest affidavit, McCray delivered the final blow before Wilson collapsed to the floor and began having a seizure Fraternity members did not call 911 after Wilson experienced the medical episode and waited to bring him to a hospital, sources said. An autopsy report mentioned in the arrest affidavit revealed a small bruise to the right side of Wilson’s chest.
Wilson’s full autopsy report is not yet complete, Baton Rouge
sure it happens legally Not being there would deprive Hoffman of constitutional rights, they argue.
Louisiana Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott confirmed in his testimony Friday that he does not plan to allow any of Hoffman’s attorneys to witness the execution Attorneys are not “required witnesses” to executions under state law
Westcott said he has three available spots at his discretion to witness the execution, and that they have been requested by law enforcement and representatives for the governor and attorney general.
In his testimony on Friday morning, Hoffman said he became a practicing Buddhist around 2002, after he lost his grandmother He said he has leaned on Buddhist teachings to help him improve his life, including when he was recently served with an execution warrant.
“Feb. 20, I was served a death warrant and immediately afterward, I was moved to a different location, in isolation, away from what I was used to,” he said. He credited his spiritual practice for carrying him through mentally
“Everything I needed to cope and deal with what I was dealing with in that moment was inside me,” he said. “It allows me every day to be a better version of myself.”
The state’s execution protocol, unsealed in court on Thursday spells out that inmates with an execution date are to be transferred to the “Execution Building” about a month before. There all of his meals, telephone calls, movements and “mood changes” are logged every 15 minutes.
Seth Smith, chief of operations for DOC, testified in more detail than the state has previously released about how long they’ve been
Coroner’s Office chief of investigations Shane Tindall said Friday afternoon. The cause and manner of his death remain undetermined pending additional tests, Tindall said.
Morse said Wilson was taken to Baton Rouge General Hospital by a group of friends. Police were called there at about 2:40 a.m. on Feb. 27, he said. Before leaving the hospital, the friends said they had been playing basketball with Wilson at a Baton Rouge park, the police chief said.
In Louisiana, hazing can be a felony under the Max Gruver Act, passed in 2018 and named after an LSU Phi Delta Theta fraternity member who died in a hazing incident in 2017. Louisiana’s anti-hazing law prohibits hazing regardless of whether the targeted person voluntarily allowed it. Violators face a $1,000 fine and six months behind bars.
If the person being hazed dies or is seriously injured, penalties increase to a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. The increased penalties also apply if hazing involves coerced alcohol consumption that leaves the victim’s blood alcohol concentration at or above 0.30%.
A manslaughter conviction can lead to up to 40 years in prison.
The Woodcrest Drive warehouse is being leased by Todd Smith,
planning their nitrogen gas process; changes to the death chamber at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola to prepare for it; and visits to Alabama to learn from them. Darrel Vannoy, Angola’s warden, said the state would have needed too much extra equipment and supplies to perform executions by electrocution.
The only U.S state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas in the modern era, Alabama has done it four times Louisiana’s new protocol for nitrogen gas executions mirrors Alabama’s, and in key places follows it word for word.
Smith agreed in his testimony that Louisiana’s protocol largely matches that of Alabama, saying it was the only state they studied and that no medical personnel were involved in crafting Louisiana’s nitrogen gas protocols.
Though Landry announced last month that Louisiana had developed a protocol for using nitrogen gas, Smith testified that the state began obtaining gas in July 2024.
He said Louisiana corrections officials had long struggled to obtain drugs for use in capital punishment via lethal injection, and that the state signed an agreement with the well-known pharmaceutical company Pfizer in 2018 that said they would not use their drugs in executions.
Other pharmaceutical makers also made it clear that if Louisiana used their drugs for executions, they would pull the usage of their medications from the state for other reasons, including to take care of inmates who are not on death row
Smith said DOC staffers made visits to Alabama in March 2024 and again last July to learn from their process and figure out how to retrofit Angola’s execution chamber for gas. The second trip happened
owner of California Hardwood Floors. Smith is a member of the graduate chapter of Omega Psi Phi, and he told WAFB that his son is a current member Southern University Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton, who is the 18th Judicial District Attorney in West Baton Rouge, said Friday in an interview he is pushing for the Omega fraternity to be removed from the university “They’ve forfeited their right to be on our college’s campus. So my vote is to expel them, and I mean indefinitely,” said Clayton, himself a member of the fraternity In 2005, Omega Psi Phi was kicked off Southern’s Baton Rouge campus, archives from The Advocate | The Times-Picayune show
The university ordered a threeyear expulsion, after university officials found “overwhelming evidence” a fraternity pledge was severely beaten, with injuries that led to internal bleeding.
More recently, Omega Psi Phi was kicked off LSU’s campus in 2016 after university officials found the fraternity responsible for complicity, endangerment and hazing violations of the student code of conduct. LSU found the fraternity “engaged in hazing activities.” They included sleep deprivation, personal servitude, 5 a.m. workouts, skipping class
after Louisiana’s initial attempt at setting up its execution chamber for nitrogen hypoxia had “more room for human error” and Smith asked for changes, he said. He said the state added two exhaust fans to the execution chamber, along with permanently mounted oxygen monitors.
During a recent training on the new execution protocol on Feb. 14, Smith said, they used “a small female” in place of the condemned.
He also said that he tested out the mask, which is the type of respirator often used by painters and sandblasters. He said he wanted to test the 70 liter per minute flow rate, though he tested it using “breathing quality air” from a can, rather than the “ultrahigh purity” nitrogen that the state has obtained for executions.
and more.
Omega Psi Phi has since returned to LSU’s campus. The Louisiana Legislature sought to tighten laws around hazing after Gruver’s death in 2017. He was forced to drink excessively during a fraternity ritual called “Bible Study.”
Meanwhile, Wilson’s family last week thanked the community for its “unwavering” support.
The former Southern student’s father, Corey Wilson, has worked 35 years as a deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The elder Wilson also worked security details for Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson. Caleb Wilson’s mother is a student at Southern University’s New Orleans campus.
Last week in a statement on behalf of the family released by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Wilson’s family said, “We are committed to seeking the truth about the circumstances surrounding Caleb’s passing and ensuring that no other family has to endure such a tragedy.”
East Baton Rouge Parish MayorPresident Sid Edwards joined law enforcement officials at Friday’s news conference.
Edwards encouraged young people to “make better decisions,” adding “we’ve got to do better Baton Rouge.”
Other testimony at the hearing focused on why Louisiana has not opted to carry out executions by firing squad or physician-assisted suicide, neither of which are currently legal means of execution in state law
Medical experts faced off about whether those other methods would provide Hoffman with a more humane death. His spiritual adviser, the Rev Reimoku Gregory Smith, testified that a peaceful death is an important component of Buddhism.
Dr Philip Bickler, the chief of neuro-anesthesia at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco Medical Center, testified that a death by nitrogen gas “seems like a cruel experiment” and would feel similar to drowning.
“What this represents is forced asphyxiation,” he testified “You’re able to breathe, but you don’t have the feeling your breathing is effective.”
But Dr Joseph Antognini, another anesthesiologist and clinical researcher from California, testified on behalf of the state.
Antognini reviewed the state’s execution protocol and also helped back Alabama’s nitrogen gas protocol. He said he inspected Louisiana’s nitrogen hypoxia system March 1. Antognini testified that inmates should rapidly lose consciousness when they breathe nitrogen gas. “I do not believe the inmate would have suffering or pain,” he said. Dick did not rule on the matter Friday
EDUCATION
Louisiana’s Republican leaders, who often clashed with the Education Department when it was controlled by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Last year, the state sued to block an agency rule that barred discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, saying it conflicted with Louisiana laws and values.
Ronnie Morris, president of Louisiana’s state board of education, said he would welcome the department’s demise.
“The idea is to reduce the bureaucracy and give the states more control,” he said Friday But some education advocates say that federal oversight is an essential safeguard for students who have often been underserved by public schools including low-income students, students of color and those with disabilities.
“The idea of closing the Department of Education without a plan to support students is really a devastating idea,” said Halley Potter, director of pre-K-12 education policy at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. “I would expect that it would worsen student outcomes and move us in the wrong direction.”
The U.S. Education Department, which was created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter in 1979, has limited power over what’s taught in schools, as those decisions are left to states and local school boards. Most funding comes from local sources as well.
Still, dismantling the agency, which has more than
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she was deceased,” Jarrell said.
Dr Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer’s disease and unable to deal with his wife’s death in the last week of his life.
“You are talking about very severe Alzheimer’s disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care of him until she passed away,” Baden said Their bodies were found a little over a week later Hackman was found in the home’s entryway His death was tied to heart disease with Alzheimer’s disease contributing.
Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Authorities linked her death to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings. Thyroid medication pills prescribed to Arakawa were found nearby and weren’t listed as contributing to her death, Jarrell said. Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in
4,000 employees, could have a big impact on Louisiana schools. The department doles out billions of dollars in federal aid to schools and colleges annually, including about $18 billion to support students from low-income families and $15 billion for special education, and it manages some $1.5 trillion in federal student loans. It also tracks education data and enforces laws that protect students, such as Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination at schools and colleges.
The department and many of its functions were established by federal law and would require congressional action to change If lawmakers agreed to shut down the department, McMahon said its essential operations could be assigned to other agencies.
Department of Health and Human Services could take over enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA, which requires public schools to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Louisiana relies heavily on federal education dollars.
The state received about $2.3 billion from federal sources for K-12 schools in 2021-22, the most recent year available. That represents about 19.5% of its school funding — one of the highest rates in the U.S., where about 14% of public education funding flows from the federal government. Much of the money comes through Title I, a program that supports schools with large shares of students from low-income families.
“The states that have the highest percentage of federal funding, a lot of which is coming from Title I, they
homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of hantavirus in New Mexico this year
While hantavirus is found throughout the world, most cases in the U.S. have been found in western states. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection.
Jarrell said it was not known how quickly Arakawa died
One of the couple’s three dogs also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived. Authorities initially misidentified the breed.
Dogs do not get sick from hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian with the New Mexico Health Department. The sheriff considers this an open investigation until they receive results of the dog’s necropsy and finish checking into data from personal cellphones retrieved from the home.
When Hackman and Arakawa were found, the bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe’s especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet Dr Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist in Virginia, said that when two bodies are found at the same time the usual assumption would
are largely red states,” Potter said “And Louisiana is high up on that list.” The Education Department’s control of federal funds is its main source of power It can set conditions for schools to receive the money or threaten to withhold it from schools or universities that violate federal laws.
For instance, under the Biden administration, the department put new restrictions on funding for charter schools. In 2022, when Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry was the state attorney general, he joined other states in challenging the regulations.
Under the current Trump administration, the department cut $600 million in grants to teacher-training programs, including several in Louisiana, saying they promoted “divisive ideologies” related to race. On Friday, the department and other federal agencies said they would cancel $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University because they said the school failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus.
If the department is dismantled, school funding could come with fewer restrictions. Some conservative groups have called for converting programs like Title I, which requires the funding to go to hiring teachers and counselors or other approved ways to support low-income students, into block grants that let states decide how to spend the money Advocates like Potter said such a change would risk diverting funds from schools that need them most.
“Without any kinds of guardrails and accountability,” she said, “it could
be that they died at the same time. But Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease added a complicating factor: He apparently was unable to seek help after his wife died.
“They died several days apart: One dying of a viral infection, the hantavirus, which can kill quite quickly And the other death occurring from heart disease. And that too can be a relatively sudden death,” Weedn said. “Their (the authorities’) explanation, I thought, was quite clear and plausible. I believe they really discovered what truly happened in this case.”
Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Superman” from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.
Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood’s social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and his wife were investors in local businesses.
be misspent on things that aren’t related to instruction and aren’t directly helping the students it’s designed to help.”
Pointing to students’ recent reading improvements, Brumley said Louisiana knows better than federal bureaucrats what support students needs.
“We’ve proven we have the ability to make good decisions on behalf of kids and families and communities,” he said. “I think that given additional flexibility and fewer strings, we can do more of that.”
The Education Department is also the chief enforcer of federal education laws including IDEA and Title IX.
States sometimes bristle at the oversight.
Last year, Louisiana and 25 other Republican-led states took the department to court after it issued a rule saying that Title IX also bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity Brumley advised
schools to disregard the federal rule, saying it conflicted with a state law banning transgender students from participating in women’s sports.
“That really infringed on the sovereignty of the state,” he said Thursday
The department’s Office for Civil Rights also investigates complaints filed by students, parents and advocates.
The office has dozens of open investigations into Louisiana schools and colleges based on complaints of discrimination against students based on their race, sex, national origin or disability, according to the office’s public database.
In 2023, the office launched an investigation into the Jefferson Parish school system following a complaint that the district’s decision to close several schools disproportionately affected Black and Latino students and students with disabilities. The district said it was cooperating with the Educa-
tion Department, and said the allegations lacked merit. The complaint system “is a way to get districts to make sure no federal rights are being violated and, if they are, to make sure they’re remedied,” said Lauren Winkler, a senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the legal advocacy group that filed the complaint.
At her confirmation hearing last month, McMahon said the Office for Civil Rights could be moved to the Justice Department.
Critics say the move would shift the complaint system to the courts, which would slow down the process.
“Federal civil rights law is a difficult area to litigate,” Winkler said.
But Louisiana officials say that, whatever form federal oversight takes, the state will take care of its students.
“I think we’re going to fight for the needs and best interests of all our students,” said Morris, the state board of education president.
HACKMAN
Reward offered for info on suspect
Wanted BR man may have died
BY QUINN COFFMAN and MATT BRUCE Staff writers
U.S. marshals are offering a $25,000 reward for information proving the death of a Baton Rouge man wanted for nearly a decade in connection with a killing in Gardere.
Letheel White, 47, has been sought by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office since 2016 on counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder Authorities say he shot two women at point-blank range, killing one, in a January 2016 incident outside an apartment complex.
The search to find White has spanned years, covered several states and included dozens of tips and interviews, according to Joshua Reich, chief deputy in the U.S. Marshals Service office in Baton Rouge. Now, a handful of anonymous tips over the past two years suggest that White might have died, Reich said. In response, the original $25,000 reward offered for locating White has been expanded
to include the discovery of his remains.
“I urge anyone with information that can help us find Mr White or his remains and close this investigation to come forward and help us bring closure to the victims and their families,” said William Travis Brown Jr U.S. marshal for the Middle District of Louisiana.
According to the Marshals Service, it is rare for rewards to be offered in exchange for evidence of a fugitive’s death, but it does occur when the agency is interested in closing a case. The agency put White on its 15 most wanted fugitives list in December 2023. It said White’s case is rare because it has been open so long, while most fugitives are found within a few days.
KICK BACK AND RELAX
Mary Smith relaxes while looking at some flowers at the Botanic Gardens at Independence Park in Baton Rouge on Thursday
Impact
founder accused of payroll lockout
New board alleges Chakesha Scott is refusing access to records
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
The new leaders of embattled Impact Charter School in Baker are accusing the school’s founder, Chakesha Scott, of denying them
access to payroll and other records, saying her obstruction led to a six-day delay in employees getting paid.
“If Ms Scott’s actions continue, the employees cannot get paid, the teachers may become unemployed and students will not be able to attend the school,” according to the lawsuit brought by the school’s new leadership arising from the travails of the school of about 400 students located north of Baton Rouge. Scott’s exile from the school she
founded almost 11 years ago began Feb. 24 when the fresh state-appointed board of directors moved quickly to freeze out Scott and her husband, Eric, the school’s principal, placing both on paid leave.
The dramatic developments unfolded after she was accused in a state audit report Feb. 10 of using the school to enrich herself and her family In the lawsuit, filed a week after she was placed on leave, the new board claims Scott has “knowingly and intentionally” refused access
to current payroll records, preventing employees from getting paid. Moreover, the suit claims Scott has continued to “delete data and information from related school financial accounts as she still has access to these accounts.” The board is seeking to remove Scott as an authorized user from all school accounts.
State District Judge Ronald Johnson immediately denied the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary
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Proposed power substation worries Livingston residents
Neighbors don’t want to look at it
BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff
elec-
tricity and are more than 10 feet tall. There are substations near Juban and Harrells Ferry roads. The area is also becoming a hotbed for development, as the proposed substation would be just down the road from where the controversial Deer Run subdivision will be built. Clifton Brown, who lives near the proposed substation site, said he and his neighbors aren’t happy that it would be built so close to them. He said the longtime residents are concerned about the effect on property values, and they simply don’t want to have to look at it.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Levee board nominating panels under scrutiny
Landry adviser wants to upend reform
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
A top adviser to Gov. Jeff Landry
is leading a push to upend a key post-Katrina reform at the New Orleans area’s levee authorities, drawing sharp criticism from government watchdogs who say he risks seriously harming the region’s vital flood protections.
After the New Orleans area’s levees crumbled during the storm 20 years ago, a constitutional amendment that voters overwhelmingly approved reformed the region’s flood control agencies Among other changes, it created an independent committee to nominate members to the regional levee boards. Those agencies are responsible for maintaining and operating the
levees and pumps that protect the city from storm surge flooding.
Now, Shane Guidry, who is not elected or appointed to any official office and serves as an adviser to the governor in an informal capacity, is recommending to lawmakers that they do away with the nominating committees. He did not specify how the nominating process would be restructured, but Landry has already reformed other state boards to give the governor more power over them.
Following the Katrina reforms two agencies have been charged with overseeing flood protections in the New Orleans area, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East and -West.
“We have sat for a year watching how our boards operate. We’re watching for checks and balances on how money is being spent.
We’re finding that’s not happening,” Guidry said “A lot of this
is happening because people get nominated to the board through a process we don’t agree with.”
He referred to members of the current nominating committees as “scammers who are just out for themselves, and we’re going to put a stop to it.”
He stressed repeatedly that he and the governor are seeking to ferret out “waste, fraud and abuse,” echoing language used by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. But Guidry provided no evidence of any waste or wrongdoing.
Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, said that he had not seen draft legislation yet, but confirmed that the Governor’s Office had approached him about introducing a bill that would reform the nominating process for positions on levee boards statewide.
Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for the governor, said she could not offer any additional details
NEW ORLEANS
on the plans. The nominating committee is intended to be an independent panel that ensures that the levee authorities’ boards includes people with expertise in hydrology and engineering required to oversee the maintenance of the region’s flood control infrastructure.
In an article about the post-Katrina flood protection reforms for the New England Journal of Public Policy, Ruthie Frierson, a former real estate agent who started Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, wrote that the nominating committee was seen as crucial for boosting the public’s confidence in the levee boards.
“I think we should avoid experimenting with lives, property, and our region’s future by reducing the independent local oversight that brought focus, integrity, and competence to flood protection,” she told The Times-Picayune last
Stunt driver arrested after 133-mph chase
Stop sticks needed on twin span bridge
BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer
A Lockport stunt driver was arrested in New Orleans after a Mardi Gras “street takeover” event on Chef Menteur Highway rife with vehicle doughnuts and burnouts, according to Louisiana State Police troopers.
Brody Gautreaux, 26, allegedly led troopers on a 133-mph chase across the Interstate 10 Twin Span bridge to Slidell, where spike strips felled his Cadillac CT4 sedan. Multiple vehicles and pedestri-
SUBSTATION
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Brown wants utility DEMCO to reconsider the location and build the substation in a different part of the city
FOUNDER
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restraining order against Scott, instead scheduling a hearing for March 17.
Ron Haley, an attorney who has represented Scott in the past, said he is not sure who will represent her in this case, but said Scott has not been obstructing the new school leaders. Rather, he said, they have brought their problems on themselves by failing to listen to his advice to place one person in control of school finances.
“If they wanted to take control of the school accounts, there was a way to do that,” Haley said Transition and blame
It is the fourth lawsuit so far in this fast-moving educational saga and the first where Scott is the defendant Her husband, her daughter and her mother are also named as defendants, as well as anyone connected with the Friends of Impact Charter, the school’s private philanthropic foundation Chakesha Scott also leads. Scott is blaming the new management for the payroll problems. In a Feb. 28 message to supporters, she pointed to attempts “to seize the school’s bank accounts,” thereby delaying employees getting paid. She also raised concerns about changing
ans had blocked the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Press Drive at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to court documents, leading New Orleans police to request assistance from State Police Troop NOLA officers.
“People have been hurt doing these exhibition stunts, and (they) create a danger to the public,” the NOPD said in a police report
Illegal stunt driving events surged across New Orleans in 2022, leading to public safety concerns and stiffer penalties, including charges of aggravated obstruction of a highway which carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in jail.
Police said Gautreaux’s distinc-
“We’re not against growth in Livingston Parish. We understand it’s coming,” he said. Livingston Parish is the largest parish served by DEMCO, by member rate, according to the company Anne Hawes, manager of public relations for DEMCO, said the substation would improve power
of door locks, making new digital account passwords, disabling security cameras, replacing school vendors and threats to staff
The new management was finally able on Wednesday to cut paychecks for staff. An attorney representing the school did not address an Advocate reporter’s questions Friday about how the school managed to make payroll or whether the problem has been fixed for good, saying “all other matters are being taken care of in the appropriate jurisdiction, including the courts.”
Asked the same questions, Impact’s School Board President Torrence Williams issued a statement defending the actions of the new board.
“Every decision that has been made since the new board was installed has been about doing what’s best for children,” Williams said.
As of Friday afternoon, the school was still frozen out of its account with Neighbors Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge.
“The status of this account has not changed,” said Neighbors spokesperson Brett Reynolds.
“The credit union has received conflicting statements about who is currently authorized on the account. Due to this dispute, we have temporarily frozen the account and until we receive clarification from the court.”
Impact Charter is now led by veteran educator Michelle Clayton
tive white Cadillac, with a switched license plate, was among the vehicles to flee the scene. NOPD Lt.
Troy Pichon and Troop NOLA Capt Rodney Hyatt pursued Gautreaux in a marked Chevy Tahoe with lights and sirens blazing as he entered Interstate 10 traveling east to Slidell, the police report said.
The chase across the twin span bridge maxed out the Tahoe’s top speed as it chased Gautreaux, who allegedly switched off his taillights “in an attempt to disappear and lose troopers in the dark,” the report states. Hyatt ordered spike strips placed at the end of the bridge, the report states.
Those strips deflated the Cadillac’s front left tire, Gautreaux lost
quality and reliability for customers. The location was proposed due to its proximity to the transmission line and would support growth in the parish.
“The transmission line has been there for decades and has a higher voltage,” she said about any potential safety concerns.
serving as its interim superintendent. Clayton spent two years as deputy superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and four years as superintendent of another charter school, University View Academy, before retiring in 2022
Clayton said in a statement she has signed a six-month contract to help Impact Charter finish this school year and ready itself for next year
“I knew that there weren’t many people who were equipped to address the unique issues in this situation,” Clayton said. “I wanted to lend my skill set to help the teachers continue to educate students at Impact Charter.”
Court setbacks
Chakesha Scott’s life changed dramatically after the Feb. 10 release of a 173-page state audit that accused her of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the charter school and a related private foundation to pay for personal travel, a car lease, an in-ground swimming pool at her house and more.
The report, prepared by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, also found evidence of a potential kickback scheme with a school contractor and questioned Scott’s decision to divert more than $1.5 million to Friends of Impact Charter School. It is supposed to support the 4815 Lavey Lane school financially, but auditors claim it never has.
control of the car, and officers “deployed a vehicle intervention stop technique,” the report states.
Gautreaux was arrested and booked into Orleans Justice Center on aggravated flight from an officer, obstruction of justice, aggravated obstruction of a highway of commerce, reckless operation of a vehicle, a switched license plate, and having his vehicle lights off. The aggravated obstruction of a highway count carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence upon a conviction.
On Wednesday, Orleans Parish Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman set Gautreaux’s bail at $55,000. Gautreaux remained jailed Friday
The total area for the project would be a little over 13 acres, according to the preliminary plat file. This was the first scheduled public hearing on the preliminary plan, and the item will still appear before the commission multiple times, so the specifics of the proposal could change.
Scott sued the state on Feb. 7, trying to block state officials from releasing the audit publicly but lost on Feb. 18 on procedural grounds.
Citing the findings in the audit, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, on Feb. 21 removed Impact’s previous board of directors and replaced them.
Scott immediately filed a second suit, this time in federal court, seeking to reverse the state board of education’s decision. The parties are filing court papers, but no court date has been set.
Four parents of students at Impact filed a similar suit in state court, but State District Judge Don Johnson — brother of State District Judge Ronald Johnson ruled against them on Thursday Kathleen Wilson, attorney for the parents, claimed the state education board on Feb 21 violated the state’s open meetings law, thereby denying her clients due process and a say in who oversees the school Wilson said several Impact parents were confused by the wording of the meeting agenda, and they didn’t realize the board was ready to act that same day to oust the Impact board and appoint a new one.
After a hearing, Judge Don Johnson sided with the state education board, saying that the education panel complied with state open meetings law Wilson said her clients are planning to appeal
week, noting that 94% of New Orleanians voted in favor of the constitutional amendment that created the regional levee authority in 2006.
Good-government groups also expressed opposition to scrapping the nominating committees.
The head of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), Steven Procopio, said he believes the nominating committee should stay in place.
“Eliminating the levee board nominating committee would be a serious mistake,” he said. “If we allow direct political appointments, we’re putting Louisiana’s flood protection system and the people who rely on it at risk.”
Barry Erwin, who runs the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL), echoed Procopio’s concerns So did Becky Mowbray, the president and CEO of the nonprofit Bureau of Governmental Research.
BLOTTER
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block of Mission Drive. Ra’Janee was pronounced dead at the scene. De’Jonte was transported to a hospital, where he later died Police later identified Burton as a suspect in the shootings. U.S. marshals apprehended him on Feb. 21 in Concordia Parish, and he later was extradited to Baton Rouge.
Police: Man wanted on rape, child sex trafficking Authorities are searching for a man accused of rape and child sex trafficking who allegedly fled Indiana for Tangipahoa Parish after Christmas last year the Hammond Police Department said. Hammond police, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office and U.S. marshals released a photo of Antonio Raemone Lewis Jr on social media Friday Officials said they hope that the public can help authorities take him into custody Police said Lewis fled the Fort Wayne, Indiana, area after Dec. 25 last year and relocated to Hammond in early 2025 Lewis has been known to live at a Hinson Road address in Hammond and work at a fast-food restaurant and as a delivery driver in the area, police said.
On Feb. 18, investigators tracked Lewis’ whereabouts to Hinson Road, but he fled with the help of several family members before he could be apprehended. Lewis was previously convicted of a federal firearm charge and is considered armed and dangerous, police said.
Anyone with information on Lewis’ whereabouts can contact the Hammond Police Department at (985) 277-5701. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
Three booked on suspicion of DWI
Three people were booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison between noon Thursday and noon Friday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated Those booked and the counts against them:
n Michael Braud, 70, Baton Rouge, operating while intoxicated, third offense; reckless operation of a vehicle.
n William Kemp, 50, Slaughter, operating a vehicle while intoxicated; operating a vehicle under suspension; reckless operation of a vehicle; insurance required.
n Catrina Nelson, 41, Baton Rouge, operating while intoxicated, fourth offense; hit and run; resisting a police officer with force or violence; simple obstruction of a highway of commerce; reckless operation of a vehicle; driver’s license suspended/revoked; insurance required.
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“He’s not hitting on any databases, he’s not showing up anything new on social media, he’s not hitting anything new in law enforcement he’s not on any lease agreements,” Reich said in January 2024. “He’s a ghost. Fugitives on the most wanted list “tend to be career criminals with histories of violence who pose a significant threat to public safety,” according to a re-
lease from the agency Those fugitives generally are considered the “worst of the worst” and can include killers, sex offenders, major drug kingpins, organized crime figures and individuals wanted for high-profile financial crimes, the release said. White is accused of killing 28-year-old Kourtney Thomas and wounding another woman during a Jan. 9, 2016, drug deal that turned violent, according to authorities. According to a warrant for White’s arrest, the surviving woman had known White for at
least 10 years when she called him the night of the shooting to buy drugs. The woman drove to the Gardere neighborhood with Thomas in the back seat and they picked up White, who took them to the Broussard Plaza Apartments in the 8600 block of Coy Avenue. White got out of the car and told the women he was going into the apartment complex to get their drugs. When he returned moments later, he opened a passenger door and shot both women multiple times at point-blank range, investigators said.
Thomas died at the scene. The other woman was severely injured with gunshot wounds to the face and shoulder, according to authorities. White fled the scene and has remained on the run ever since. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs approximately 215 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. According to the release, White should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information regarding White’s whereabouts or the location of his remains is urged to contact the U.S. mar-
shals 24-hour tip line at (877) WANTED2.
Email Quinn Coffman at quinn.coffman@theadvocate. com.
Johnson, Louis Providence #2 Baptist Church in Ethel, at 11 a.m
Kinchen, Fannie
Landaiche,
Obituaries
Leon
Anthony Leon Alesce passed away peacefully at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital on the evening of Sunday, March 2, 2025. A lifelong resident of Baton Rouge, Leon was born August 31, 1946, to Anthony "Tony" and Auwiece Alesce. After attending Baton Rouge High, he served in the Army Reserves and ran Leon's Pool Hall in Southdowns. He and his father were long-time business owners of Alesce's Gulf on Perkins and Highland and later Alesce's Service Center. He loved being outdoors and through the years enjoyed fast cars, dirt bikes, fishing, boating, family vacations, yard work, watching sports, and helping friends and neighbors. Leon is survived by his wife of 42 years Irene Smith Alesce; daughter Allison Irene Alesce; brotherin-law Randolph Smith and his wife Ruth; niece Lauren and her husband Evan Evans; nephew Randolph and his wife Megan Smith; and many cousins. Leon was preceded in death by his parents Anthony and Auwiece Alesce. We loveyou and will miss your special morning greetings that were always the start of our day.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend the visitation on Sunday, March 9, 2025, from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. at Resthaven Funeral Home, 11817 Jefferson Highwayin Baton Rouge. Aprivate burial will follow on Monday, March 10, 2025, at Resthaven Gardens of Memory. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to your favorite charity.
Family and friends may sign the online guestbook or leave apersonal note to the family at www.resthav enbatonrouge.com
Cox Bergeron, Patricia Ann Patricia Ann Cox Bergeron, age 81, was calledto her eternal home on February 8, 2025. Patriciawas born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana and was aresident of Kentwood Louisiana. Daughter of Mary Emma Slocum Cox & Albert Lawrence Cox Sr. Granddaughter of David Warren Slocum &May Ivy Slocum. Brothers, Albert L. Cox Jr., Robert H. Cox, James W. Cox,Marvin M.
Mary Emma Slocum Cox & Albert Lawrence Cox Sr. GranddaughterofDavid WarrenSlocum &May Ivy Slocum. Brothers, AlbertL Cox Jr., Robert H. Cox, James W. Cox, Marvin M. Cox, GlenT.Cox.Patriciais preceded in death by her husband, John Barry Bergeron, anative resident of Fordoche, Louisiana. Acelebration of life service will be held at New Life Worship Center, 806 Hospital Rd., New Roads, La.70760 on March 22, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.
Monroe Wayne
Wayne Guy was born July 23, 1943 and calledhome by his HeavenlyFather March 3, 2025. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Brenda Robertson Guy ason Brandon Guy and his wife Carrieand a daughter Shayne Guy, DDS (formerly Clouatre). He has five grandchildren, Gage, Caden, and Brooks Clouatre,and Addison and Andrew Guy. He is also survived by his brother, Keith Guy, and his wife Phyllis, brothers-in -law David Robertson and his wife,Rheba, and Douglas Robertson, along with numerous nieces and nephews. Wayne was precededindeath by hisparents Monroe C. Guy and Geraldine Johnson Guy. Wayne graduatedfrom Istrouma High School and Louisiana State University. Wayne and Brenda worked side by side for 28 years (from 1979 to 2007) as owners of DeltaProcess Equipmentand DeltaEnvironmental Products located in Denham Springs, LA Both businesseswere related to the sale and repair of EngineeredProducts for the Chemical, Petrochemical, and Wastewater treatment industries. Wayne was consideredanexpert in rotating equipment. Back in the day,Wayne was awell-known local musician. His instrument was primarily the keyboards, but he could also play the guitar. Many times, he entertained friends and family with a mean rendition of Lucille! Wayne lovedtoplay golf, but of late, his favorite pastime was spending time with hiskids, grandkids, and good friends.
Wayne and Brenda are members of Jefferson Baptist Church. Services will be held Monday, March 10th at Jefferson Baptist Church, 9135 Jefferson Hwy,Baton Rouge, LA, 70809. Visitation with family to begin at 1:00 PM with afuneral service to follow at 3:00 PM Special thanks to the nursing staff at OLOL 9th floor Critical Care ICU. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Baton Rouge Food Bank.
Kelley, Doris Ann
Doris Ann Powers Kelley, 86, of Galvez, passed away on Tuesday,March 4, 2025, surroundedbyfamily at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Gonzales. Doris was born in French Settlement, LA on April2,1938. She graduated fromFrench Settlement High School and attended Spencer Draughn Business College in Baton Rouge. She married Hardy "H J" Kelleyon July 12, 1956. They resided in Galvez for the entire 53 years of their marriage. Doris workedfor Shell Chemical Company for over twenty-five years, retiring in 1995. Adedicated memberofSt. Mark Catholic Church, she was most at peace participating in acts of reverence and devotion. She was a voracious reader, loved flower gardening, was a fantastic cook, and enjoyed herweeklycard games with friends. Doris is survivedbyher children, Lynette Anderson, Dara (Gary) Gautreau and Eric (Becky) Kelley; five grandchildren, Joshua Holton, Melanie (Brian) Foster, Brad Bercegeay, Britni (Tyler) Hardy, and Jeffrey Kelley; eight great-grand-
(Gary) Gautreau and Eric (Becky) Kelley; fivegrandchildren, Joshua Holton, Melanie (Brian) Foster, Brad Bercegeay, Britni (Tyler) Hardy, and Jeffrey Kelley; eight great-grandchildren; as well as sisters Gwen (Mark) Rabalais and Sue (David) Gerald.She is preceded in deathbyher husband HJ; daughter, Tina Davis; sons-in-law, Tommy Davis and Harold Anderson; parents, Eugene and Dorothy Powers; motherand father-in-law Bella and Walter Kelley; brothers, Eugene Powers, Jr. and Jimmy Powers, and sister Janet Guitreau. Doris will be memorialized witha Catholic Mass at St.Mark Catholic Church in Gonzales on Monday, March 10, 2025. Visitationwill be from 10 am until Mass of Christian Burial at 12 pm followed by theburial at Serenity Oaks Memorial Park, Prairieville, La. Pallbearers will be Joshua Holton, Hazen Foster, Gary Gautreau, Brian Foster, Brad Bercegeay, and Tyler Hardy. In lieuofflowers, the family appreciates your prayers and donations to Catholic Relief Services.
Fannie Hollins Kinchen was called to eternal rest on 2/24/2025 at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital. She was aresident of Baton Rouge, La and agraduateof McKinley Senior High School; Class of 1978. She was aloving wife, mother, grandmother and aunt She is survived by 1daughter, Shawnda Butler, 3 sons, Gerald Jr., Markell, and Tyquezz Kinchen, 1 son-in-law Demetrius Butler, and 1grandsonJosiah Richardson, 8sisters, 3 brothers and ahost of relatives and friends. Viewing Friday, March 7,2025 4pm-7pm Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church 1204 St.Joseph St. Baton Rouge, La 70802 Religious Services Saturday, March 8,2025 9am viewing until 10am religious services at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church 185 Eddie Robinson Sr Dr. Baton Rouge, La 70802. Officiated by pastor Henry Brown.
Lorio, Narcille
Couvillion 'Cille'
Narcille CouvillionLorio, 88 years old,ofAlbuquerque, New Mexico peacefully passed away of Alzheimer's Disease on February 18, 2025. .She was born in Simmesport LA but lived and worked most of her life in Baton Rouge. She is survived by three children, JudithLorio White, John F. Lorio, and AnitaLorio Schreiber, as well as many nieces and nephews. For complete details, please see https://www.fr enchfunerals.com/obituari es/narcille-lorio
McCullough Sr., Harold L.
Harold L. McCullough Sr., born on December 13, 1934, in Newnan, Georgia, passed away peacefully on February 27, 2025, in Walker, Louisiana. Harold lived alife rich in service, dedication, and lovefor his family and community.
Aproud veteran, Harold served honorably in both the U.S. AirForce and the U.S. Marines, showcasing a commitment to his country that defined asignificant portion of his life. His military service instilled in him asense of duty and responsibilitythat he carried into all facets of his life.
How to place an Obituary Notice
In his community, Harold was known as a charter member of Revival Temple and thelast surviving member of the original board for thechurch. His deep faithand activeparticipation in church activities were testaments to his character and the values he held dear.
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cation, and lovefor his family and community.
Aproud veteran, Harold served honorably in both the U.S. AirForce and the U.S. Marines, showcasing a commitment to his country that defined asignificant portion of his life. His militaryservice instilled in him asense of duty and responsibility thathecarried into all facets of his life.
In his community, Harold was known as a charter member of Revival Temple and thelast surviving member of the original board for thechurch. His deep faithand activeparticipation in church activities were testamentstohis character and the values he held dear Harold is survived by his wife, Linda W. McCullough, and his loving children Shannon and Steve Bernard, Harold "Bogie" Jr. and Traci McCullough, Glenn and Vicky McCullough, and Craig and Brittany McCullough. He was a cherished brother to Eunice Schouest and an adored grandfather to 13 grandchildren, as well as a proud great-grandfather to ahost of great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Catherine "Cat"Maddux McCullough, with whom he shared many memories and experiences that shaped his life. Harold's impact on his family and community will be feltfor generations to come. His life will be celebrated with avisitationatRevival Temple Church, located at 28521 Walker South Rd, Walker, LA,onMarch 8, 2025, from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM,followed by afuneral service commencing at 1:00 PM. The burial will take place at Revival Temple Cemetery with Military Honors. Arrangements with Church Funeral Services.
Willie Ed Veals, anative of Woodville, MS and aresident of Baton Rouge, LA departed this life surrounded by family at 6:04 p.m. Sunday, March 2, 2025 at Our Lady of the LakeRegional Medical Center. He is survived by three caring and devoted children, Monica (Curtis) Washington, Darius (Leicha) Veals both of Baton Rouge, LA and Kenyatta (Marcus) McKie of Ft. Lauderdale, FL; five sisters, Myrtis Jackson and Mona Swanier both of Woodville, MS, Rubye Baker, Valdosta, GA, Augustine Neal, Los Angeles, CA and Velma Henry, Waldorf, MD; two brothers Elder Walter Veals, Memphis, TN and Marvin (Laurie) Veals, Colorado Springs, CO; nine grandchildren, and ahost of nieces, nephews, cousins, family, and friends. Relatives and friendsare invited to join the family for the visitation on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. at Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church 736 North 35thSt. Baton Rouge, LA 70802. Funeral services will begin immediately following the viewing.Interment at Winnfield Memorial Park. Family and friends may sign theonline guestbook or leave condolences at https://www.winnfield funeralhome-batonrouge .com/
rounded by family at 6:04
p.m. Sunday, March 2, 2025 at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. He is survived by three caring and devoted children Monica (Curtis) Washington, Darius(Leicha) Veals both of Baton Rouge, LA and Kenyatta (Marcus) McKie of Ft. Lauderdale, FL; five sisters, Myrtis Jackson and MonaSwanier both of Woodville, MS, Rubye Baker, Valdosta, GA, AugustineNeal, Los Angeles, CA and Velma Henry, Waldorf, MD; two brothers Elder Walter Veals, Memphis, TN and Marvin (Laurie) Veals, Colorado Springs, CO; nine grandchildren,and ahost of nieces, nephews, cousins, family, and friends. Relatives and friends are invited to join the family for the visitation on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. at Mt.
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Harold is survived by his wife, Linda W. McCullough, and his loving children, Shannon and Steve Bernard, Harold "Bogie" Jr. and Traci McCullough, Glenn and Vicky McCullough, and Craig and Brittany McCullough. He was a cherished brother to Eu-
Kinchen,Fannie Hollins
Veals, Willie Ed
Young, Gaynell
First Baptist Church in Zachary at 11 a.m.
Alesce,
BUSINESS
BRIEFS FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
SBA to relocate offices in so-called ‘sanctuary cities’
The Small Business Administration said it will relocate six of its regional offices in so-called “sanctuary cities,” part of a broader Trump administration effort to crack down on cities that it deems have immigrant-friendly policies. In a statement Thursday, SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and Seattle will be relocated to “less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”
No details were given about where the offices might be moving to.
There’s no legal definition for sanctuary city policies, but they generally limit cooperation by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of sanctuary laws.
Affordable housing projects thrown into limbo
The Trump administration has stalled at least $60 million in funding intended largely for affordable housing developments nationwide throwing hundreds of projects into a precarious limbo, according to information and documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The move is part of a flurry of funding freezes, staffing cuts and contract cancellations by the Trump administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, changes that have instilled widespread uncertainty in the affordable housing industry
The some $60 million is intended to go to small community development nonprofits in small grants. The money is often used as seed funding for affordable housing projects, turning a concept into a viable development and consequently drawing in more public and private investment.
Congress chose three nonprofits to distribute the grants, but HUD said in letters that it was canceling contracts with two of the organizations which together were to distribute the $60 million That’s pushed millions in funding already promised to small nonprofits, or yet to be awarded, into the twilight zone.
“Many of those organizations have already committed funds to pay workers, such as HVAC technicians, local contractors, homeownership counselors,” said Shaun Donovan, CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, one of the two groups whose contract was canceled. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation is the other group whose contract was canceled.
Trump tells crypto leaders he’s committed
President Donald Trump said Friday he’s committed to making the U.S. a world leader in cryptocurrencies as industry leaders heaped praise on him for reversing what they said had been unfair attacks on digital assets by the previous administration.
“I thought it was very important that we stay in the front of this one,” Trump said at the first-ever White House “Crypto Summit.”
A former crypto-skeptic, Trump has warmly embraced an industry that’s shown him significant love in return and spent heavily to help him win last year’s election.
The summit included crypto company executives, cabinet officials and lawmakers, many of whom took turns raving about Trump’s leadership on digital assets The emboldened industry said it was unfairly treated by the Biden administration and helped Trump and other Republicans score wins in the last election.
Friday’s summit was the latest in a series of actions the new Trump administration has taken to try and boost the crypto industry Notably, that’s included the Securities and Exchange Commission dropping several enforcement actions against large crypto companies.
U.S. adds 151,000 jobs in February
Unemployment rises slightly to 4.1%
BY PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON U.S employers
added solid 151,000 jobs last month, but the outlook is cloudy as President Donald Trump threatens a trade war, purges the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants
The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring was up from a revised 125,000 in January Economists had expected 160,000 new jobs last month.
The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1% as the number of jobless Americans rose by 203,000.
Employment rose in health care, finance and transportation
and warehousing The federal government shed 10,000 jobs, the most since June 2022, though economists don’t expect Trump’s federal layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report. Restaurants and bars cut nearly 28,000 jobs last month on top of a loss of almost 30,000 in January
“The labor market continues to hold up, but we’re still a far cry from where we were a year or two years ago,” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo.
House expects hiring to slow and unemployment to creep higher as Trump continues to cut spending on programs and reduce the federal workforce, while imposing tariffs on America’s trading partners.
The spending cuts “are likely to spill over into the private sec-
tor, hitting contractors and nonprofits, and we still have a trade war that is picking up,” House said. “There are multiple battles for the labor market to fight off, multiple shocks it’s having to work through in the months ahead.”
The economy’s unexpectedly strong recovery from the pandemic recession of 2020 set loose an inflationary surge that peaked in June 2022 when prices came in 9.1% higher than they’d been a year earlier In response, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. The economy remained sturdy despite the higher borrowing costs, defying expectations of a recession, thanks to strong consumer spending, big productivity gains at businesses and an
influx of immigrants who eased labor shortages.
The American job market has remained remarkably resilient, but it has cooled from the redhot hiring of 2021-23. Employers added a decent average of 168,000 jobs a month last year But that was down from 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022 and a record 603,000 in 2021 as the economy rebounded from COVID-19 lockdowns.
Inflation came down dropping to 2.4% in September — allowing the Fed to reverse course and cut rates three times in 2024. The rate-cutting was expected to continue this year but progress on inflation has stalled since summer, and the Fed has held off.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month down from a 0.4% increase in January
Golf industry wants to ‘spring forward’ once and for all
year-round standard time would hurt business
BY MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press
OMAHA,Neb Looking forward to more evening sunlight thanks to daylight saving time this weekend?
Many in the golf industry like the time change, too, and they are pushing to make that annual switch permanent
The move is intended to encourage more evening golf and to stave off efforts to establish permanent standard time, which would leave less time for an evening on the links. And it is those late-afternoon players who tend to buy food and drinks in the clubhouse.
“We would lose 100 tee times a day if daylight saving time goes away,” said Connor Farrell, general manager of Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Nebraska. “Switching to permanent standard time would cost us $500,000 a year.”
Golf has deep roots in the history of daylight saving time, which begins for most states at 2 a.m. Sunday when clocks “spring forward” by one hour Some credit goes to William Willett, a British builder and avid golfer who in 1905 published a pamphlet advocating for moving clocks ahead in April and returning them back to their regular settings in September The U.S. adopted a version of that during World War I and again in World War II.
Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 that set up the biannual time change, and lobbying efforts by the golf industry are largely credited for Congress expanding daylight saving time by a month in the mid-1980s But for as long as it has been around, the constant clock adjusting has drawn the ire of Americans weary of losing an hour of sleep in the spring only to be faced with the early onset of darkness in the fall. That exhaustion has led to hundreds of bills introduced in nearly every state over the years to halt the practice.
The National Conference of State Legis-
latures reports that in the last six years, 20 states have passed measures calling for a switch to year-round daylight saving time, many at the cajoling of golf industry lobbyists. But while states could switch to permanent standard time — as Arizona and Hawaii have done Congress would need to change the law to allow permanent daylight saving time. That hindrance along with arguments that permanent standard time would improve sleep quality and foster safer morning commutes — has seen more states consider opting out of daylight saving time Lawmak-
ers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills this year to make standard time permanent.
The National Golf Course Owners Association, which has about 4,000 members, recently polled stakeholders on the matter
The vast majority favored either permanent daylight saving time or the status quo of changing the clocks, said CEO Jay Karen. Only about 6% backed a change to permanent standard time.
“If standard time was to be made permanent, thousands of courses would be harmed by that,” Karen said.
Wall Street careens through to end of week
Fed chief’s comments help ease worries
BY STAN CHOE Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wall Street rose on Friday, but only after careening through another wild day It was a fitting ending to a brutal week of scary swings dominated by worries about the U.S. economy and uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs. The S&P 500 climbed after storming back from an earlier loss that had reached 1.3% It was coming off a punishing stretch where it swung more than 1%, up or down, for six straight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite
both rose. The wild week, which was the worst for the S&P 500 since September, left the index a little more than 6% below its alltime high set last month.
The head of the Federal Reserve helped ease the market’s worries on Friday afternoon after saying he thinks the economy looks stable at the moment, and he doesn’t feel pressure to cut interest rates in order to prop it up.
Traders in recent weeks had been building bets the Fed would have to cut its main rate more than three times this year following a stream of weaker-thanexpected reports on the economy.
But Jerome Powell pushed back on speculation he and other Fed officials could feel pressure to act soon.
“The costs of being cautious are very, very low” right now, Pow-
ell said about holding steady on interest rates. “The economy is fine. It doesn’t need us to do anything really We can wait, and we should wait.”
A highly anticipated jobs report released Friday morning may have given him leeway to do just that. The U.S. Labor Department said employers added 151,000 more jobs last month than they cut. That was slightly below economists’ expectations, but it was an acceleration from January’s hiring. Recent, discouraging surveys had shown souring confidence for U.S businesses and households because of uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs, and economists were waiting to see if Friday’s report would show if that was translating into real pain for the economy and job
market.
“To sum it up: Today’s print wasn’t as bad as feared,” according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multi sector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Some economists, though, also warned the jobs data included concerning details underneath the surface that could imply trouble ahead. The number of people working part-time who would rather be full-time rose 10% in February from January, for example.
“The market might breathe a sigh of relief that the labor market was still looking healthy, but a deeper dive shows that spring could be a more challenging season,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By MARGERy BECK Golfers line up to take some practice shots on the driving range of the Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Neb., on Monday afternoon before hitting the links.
OPINION
ANOTHER VIEW
How conservative are Louisiana’s congressional Republicans?
Where do Louisiana’s members of Congress rank on the ideological spectrum?
To answer that question, take a look at the congressional ratings produced by GovTrack, a nonpartisan government transparency web site that ranked members by ideology based on legislative activity during the two-year term that ended Jan. 3, 2025 A score of 1.0 is all the way to the right and a zero score is all the way to the left.
There are other rating systems available, often produced by interest groups. In any case, expect some members of Congress to question the efficacy of any rating methodology that produces scores they don’t like
During the 2023-2025 term, Louisiana’s two Republican senators rated well to the right of the Senate’s center Bill Cassidy was the 39th most conservative senator with a score of 0.76. John Kennedy was the 34th most conservative senator with a score of 0.79.
Cassidy’s tone and temperament are widely regarded as moderate, while Kennedy is nationally known for his folksy, but pointedly conservative, aphorisms. Despite style differences their ideological ratings were similar only three-onehundredths of a point apart. Cassidy faces reelection in 2026. For context, let’s compare Louisiana’s senators to others. Vice President JD Vance, when he was Ohio’s senator, was the 30th most conservative member, scoring 0.82. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when he was Florida’s senator, was the 16th most conservative, scoring 0.89. Both ranked to the right of Kennedy and Cassidy Left of Louisiana’s senators was Mitt Romney the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who represented Utah; he was the 46th most conservative senator, scoring 0.69. Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the 44th most conservative, scoring 0.70.
The most conservative senator in America? Florida’s Rick Scott, scoring 1.00. The most progressive senator? You guessed it — Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, who scored zero Though Sanders is an independent, he caucuses with Senate Democrats Now-Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota scored 0.85 This placed him near the center of the Republican Senate caucus, with 23 members to his right and 26 to his left That gives Thune room to maneuver Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer scored 0.33, ranking closer to his party’s center than its left flank. Only 17 Democrats were to his right, while 31 were to his left Any attempt to topple Schumer as his party’s Senate leader would likely come from his left.
On the House side, Louisiana’s most conservative member during the 2023-25 term was U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins. A Republican from the state’s southwestern district, he was the 17th most conservative member of all 435, scoring 0.83. Two other Louisiana House members during the last term, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow a Republican from Louisiana’s northeastern district, and former U.S. Rep Garret Graves of Baton Rouge, who didn’t seek reelection in 2024, had conservative records, but much less so than Higgins. Letlow was the 164th most conservative, scoring 0.62, and Graves was the 189st most conservative, scoring 0.57. The most liberal member of the state’s congressional delegation was its only Democrat, U.S Rep. Troy Carter from New Orleans He was the 371st most conservative House member and the 64th most liberal.
Louisiana now has a second Democrat in the U.S House, Cleo Fields. He was elected in November, too late to be included in rankings for the last Congress.
It’s difficult to determine comparable ideological ratings for the two most prominent Louisiana Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise That’s because top House leaders don’t always participate in the legislative process the same way that other members do, especially as it relates to bill introductions and floor votes Consequently, it would not be fair to compare their ratings to those of other members. However before Johnson became speaker, he was the 59th most conservative House member in the 2021-2023 term, scoring 0.69 Scalise, elected to the top leadership in 2014, has also maintained a conservative record.
The most progressive full-voting member of the entire House was U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat. Her score was 0.01 The most conservative was U.S Rep Randy Weber, a Texas Republican. He scored 1.00. Keep in mind, these ideological measures don’t yet include activities from the current Congress, which started Jan 3. As Senate and House members confront the flood of new issues, who knows where their ratings go from here It’ll be worth watching.
Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst, pollster and writer based in Louisiana. He publishes LunchtimePolitics.com, a nationwide newsletter on polls and public opinion.
Time for all good citizens to speak up
In response to the blitzkrieg assault on democracy in our country, today:
First they came for transgender people, and I did not speak out because I was not transgender
Then they came for immigrants of color, including Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants who were in the U.S. legally or who were in process of coming legally, and I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant of color
Then they came for inspectors general, and I did not speak out because I was not an inspector general.
Then they came for USAID workers, who helped ordinary people around the world in famines, war zones and natural disasters, and I did not speak out because I was not a USAID worker Then they came for DEI workers, and I did not speak out because I was not a DEI worker
Then they came for all federal workers, and I did not speak out because I was not a federal worker
Then they came for doctors and scientists who wanted to follow best medical and scientific practice, and I did not speak out because I was not a doctor or a scientist.
Then they came for soldiers and intelligence officers who pledged loyalty to the Constitution, and I did not speak out because I was not a soldier or an intelligence officer
Then they came for law professors who challenged governors and presidents, and I did not speak out because I was not a law professor
Then they came for Democratic and Republican leaders with courage to respect the Constitution because I was not a political leader
Then, they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.
LOU IRWIN New Orleans
Hegseth not showing the strength U.S. needs
When President Donald Trump appointed Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense, he told us Hegseth would show the strength of the United States rather than weakness. So what did Hegseth do on the first trip abroad in his new position?
Before any negotiating takes place, he gave Russian President Vladimir Putin what he wants.
The secretary said, “It is unrealistic to think Ukraine will regain the territory Russia has taken by force.”
He said Ukraine will never be al-
lowed to join NATO.
He said that no U.S. troops will go to Ukraine to protect what is left after Russia has taken what it already has. What cards does America have left to play? I thought Hegseth was going to be a strong defense chief. Instead, he rolled over Maybe he will ask Putin to rub his belly and tell him “what a good boy you are.” Hegseth is not ready for prime time.
WAYNE EVANS Carencro
Pope’s example on immigration should be echoed
The newspaper recently reported that Pope Francis, citing the Book of Exodus and Jesus’ own birth and early childhood as an immigrant in a foreign country (Egypt), called out the U.S. government’s mass deportation as the unfolding of a “major crisis.”
This paper reported that the Pope said that anyone schooled in Christianity “cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some immigrants with criminality ”
Pope Francis counseled: “What is built on the basis of force and not on truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly.”
By these words, Pope Francis extends to the leaders of Protestant faith and other Christian faiths an open invitation, grounded in the Bible and Jesus, to follow with an equally strong statement against the morally corrupt inhumanity ongoing in this country
CHARLES A. BOGGS Long Beach, Mississippi
Don’t underestimate the importance of U.S. soft power
In her 1961 autobiography, Eleanor Roosevelt lamented the failure of the U.S. to exercise “soft power” in the Middle East to counter the food and medical help being provided, and the influence gained there, by the Soviet Union. Powerful countries have competed for control or influence over the Middle East since the Silk Road started in the 2nd century BCE. Their efforts intensified with the building of the Suez Canal by the French and the discovery of oil.
After World War I, Britain and France created, out of thin air, the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, eventually granting them autonomy while retaining considerable influence.
After World War II, the greatly diminished European powers retreated from the region, leaving the United States to fill the vacuum. Since then, the U.S. has continued the fight for control and influence in the Middle East through military power as well as aid (USAID). Lebanon, Syria and Jordan rely heavily on U.S. assistance.
President Donald Trump’s determination to “take” Gaza has infuriated the governments of all the countries in the region, with the obvious exception of Israel, of course.
Trump said he is “above” using the threat of withdrawing aid from Middle Eastern governments if they oppose his Gaza adventure, but I think everyone knows how much we can trust his word.
Americans should keep all this in mind, considering China’s growing influence in the Middle East as well as sub-Saharan Africa.
If Trump continues his attempts to bully other countries with American economic and military power these nations, including some that we consider our allies, may seek alignments elsewhere. Having rank amateurs run the national government can be effective in reducing its size. But it also introduces a significant degree of incompetence, which can endanger America’s position in the world.
WAYNE PARKER Baton Rouge
Ron Faucheux
GOING OUT IN STYLE
BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer
first perfect 10 of the season by Aleah Finnegan on balance beam, the No. 2-ranked Tigers set an all-time program team score in a statement-making 198.575-197.175 victory over No. 10 Georgia before a roaring packed house at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center
BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer
When LSU won the national championship in 2023, the lineup was best known for its power The Tigers had eight hitters with at least 10 home runs that season, including four with more than 15.
LSU improved to 10-2 overall and 6-1 in the Southeastern Conference, pulling into a first-place tie in the league standings with No. 1 Oklahoma with one regular-season meet to go for each.
LSU wraps up the regular season next Friday at Auburn while Oklahoma is at Georgia. If LSU wins, the Tigers will clinch at least a share of the SEC regular-season championship with Oklahoma, LSU’s first since 2018. A huge group of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year seniors bid farewell to their home floor: fourth-year seniors
Morrow, LSU set marks in victory
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
GREENVILLE, S.C. — The LSU women’s basketball team found itself in an interesting position when its Southeastern Conference Tournament opener tipped off Friday A quarterfinal win over Florida likely couldn’t help the No. 3-seeded Tigers, and a loss wouldn’t really hurt them. Coach Kim Mulkey acknowledged that reality Sunday when she detailed the reasons why she decided to shut down Flau’jae Johnson (shin) for LSU’s first postseason action. Her priority, she said, is the NCAA Tournament. And because they beat the No. 11 Gators 101-87 on Friday,
BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
Near the end of a disappointing 8-4 regular season, coach Brian Kelly vowed that LSU would be “very aggressive” in the transfer portal.
The team’s actions over the next month backed up his statement. LSU signed 16 transfers, giving it one of the country’s top portal classes and setting up a push for the College Football Playoff. Since then, LSU players have been training as they prepare for the upcoming season. Their work in the weight room has given the coaches an initial understanding of what kind of athletes are on the roster, and now they have their first chance to see what this team might be capable of in 2025. LSU begins spring football Saturday It will practice 15 times over the next five weeks, concluding with some kind of event April 12 in Tiger Stadium. Kelly said there will be “live action,” but he is considering changing the format of the spring game. Between now and then, LSU will get a sense of a roster with plenty of new pieces Here are the top position battles to monitor and the three biggest questions entering spring practice.
Key competitions
OFFENSIVE LINE: LSU has to replace four starters, and it did not bring back much experience. Only two returning players, redshirt sophomores DJ Chester and Paul Mubenga, have started at least five games. Needing instant help, LSU signed Virginia Tech transfer Braelin Moore and Northwestern transfer Josh Thompson.
PHOTO By PATRICK DENNIS
PHOTO
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
5
with one count of felony strangulation, according to online records from the Oregon Judicial Department.
The Oregonian, citing a probable cause affidavit filed in the Lane County Circuit Court, reported Thursday that Parks was accused of strangling a woman for 30-60 seconds in mid-December after he ordered her to delete a video titled “A Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Girlfriend” and she refused. Parks told The Oregonian that he is innocent. He was released from jail Wednesday on conditional release, records show Parks, a native of Reserve, played at East St. John High before going onto a college career at Arizona and UTSA, where he played for now-LSU running backs coach Frank Wilson.
Raiders land QB Smith after trade with Seahawks
LSU’s Carter worth celebrating in lost season for Tigers
BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer
Vyctorius Miller, like the rest of his team, was desperate to end a seven-game losing streak.
“That whole entire game I’m just praying,” the LSU men’s basketball freshman said. “We went down some crazy number.” LSU trailed by as many as 13 in the second half at Oklahoma on Feb. 15, but the Tigers were down five with 35 seconds left.
Miller’s prayers were answered in the form of Cam Carter “Cam just took over,” he said.
Carter converted a fourpoint play after a pull-up 3-pointer and finished an and-one at the hoop after a full-court trap led to a turnover His seven-point flurry was responsible for LSU winning 82-79.
The senior’s heroics were memorable but led to only the second of three Southeastern Conference wins for LSU (14-16, 3-14 SEC).
The third season under coach Matt McMahon has been underwhelming, a drop-off after going 17-16 overall and 9-9 in the conference last season, albeit in a much weaker SEC.
Also true during this down season is that Carter is an individual success story that fans will have one last chance to see in the final regularseason game against No 22 Texas A&M at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Senior tribute ceremonies start at 2:45 p.m The Donaldsonville native transferred from Kansas State for two reasons He felt called to come back home to help reshape a basketball program 50 minutes from his hometown.
Carter also arrived to develop. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard wanted a situation and coaching staff that align with his desires to reach the NBA. That was part of McMahon’s pitch.
“When we recruited him, we talked about becoming a more efficient offensive player by improving shot selection and his 3-point percentage while
LSU guard Cam Carter, a Donaldsonville native who transferred from Kansas State, has averaged 16.8 points per game this season.
JOHNSON
lowering his turnover rate,” McMahon said “I think Cam is really bought into doing those things, and it’s why he’s having the best season of his career, through the hard work and time investment he’s put into getting better.”
At Kansas State, Carter averaged 14.6 points on 39.1% shooting and 30.9% from the 3-point line. He also averaged 2.6 assists and 3.0 turnovers in 35.5 minutes per game.
This season, Carter is averaging 16.8 points, shooting 43.6% from the field and 40.4% from 3-point range to go along with 2.6 assists and 2.3 turnovers in 33.2 minutes. In the SEC, he’s eighth in scoring, seventh in 3-point shooting and sixth in freethrow percentage (86.1%).
The growth is a testament to his work. His 3-point percentages ballooned to the 40% mark because he focused on balance and making his shooting form as repeatable as possible.
Carter’s statistical improvement is more eyeopening because of the surrounding talent.
The Tigers, who were 14th in the SEC preseason poll, lost their second-best player and returning leader Jalen Reed for the season after he tore his ACL in the eighth game. The highest-scoring returner Tyrell Ward (9.1 points) stepped away from the program to focus on mental health.
In conference play, Carter was the lone player who is averaging double-digits — Jordan Sears is second at 9.5 points.
Carter’s shooting efficiency is remarkable for someone who was atop every opponent’s scouting report. He still had signature performances such as a career-high 29 points against Oklahoma and 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting against No. 1 Auburn.
Despite a disappointing season for LSU, fans can appreciate the local star’s productivity in his last home game Saturday
Horns advance
Booker scores 19 as No. 1 Texas holds on to defeat Ole Miss in
By The Associated Press
GREENVILLE,S.C.— All-America forward
Madison Booker scored 19 points, and No. 1 Texas held on to beat Ole Miss 7063 on Friday night in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
Kyla Oldacre scored 12 points and Shay Holle added 11 for Texas (30-2), which stretched its winning streak to 14 games.
The Longhorns, the tournament’s No. 2 seed after losing a coin flip to South Carolina, will play No. 9 LSU in Saturday’s semifinals.
Getting there was tougher than expected.
Texas led by 15 early in the third quarter when Ole Miss went more than eight minutes without a field goal, missing 13 straight shots. But the Longhorns could not pull away and Kirsten Deans began to get hot from beyond the arc, helping the Rebels get within two with 41/2 minutes left.
No. 5 SOUTH CAROLINA 84, VANDERBILT 63:
In Greenville, South Carolina, Chloe Kitts had 25 points and 10 rebounds and the Gamecocks held off a secondhalf rally in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 15 off the bench and Sania Feagin added 13 points for South Carolina (28-3), which will face No. 10 Oklahoma, a 69-65 winner over 12th-ranked Kentucky in Saturday’s semifinals.
Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, the top seed, appeared plenty motivated to win a third straight SEC Tournament title.
No. 10 OKLAHOMA 69, No 12 KENTUCKY 65:
In Greenville, South Carolina, Raegan Beers had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Payton Verhulst added 16 points and the Sooners battled back from a 10-point second-half deficit to advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals.
Sahara Williams chipped in with 13 points for Oklahoma, which has won nine straight.
Georgia Amoore scored 29 points and Clara Strack added 12 points and 16 rebounds to lead Kentucky (22-7)
Other Top 25 games
No.2 USC 84,INDIANA 79: In Indianapolis, JuJu Watkins scored 31 points and Kiki
Iriafen added 21 and each grabbed 10 rebounds, leading the Trojans in the
SEC quarterfinals
Big Ten quarterfinals.
The Trojans (27-2) have now won all three games they’ve played in Indiana this season and will take an eight-game winning streak into Saturday’s semifinal against fifth-seeded Michigan (229).
No 4 UCLA 85, NEBRASKA 74: In Indianapolis, Lauren Betts finished with 28 points 13 rebounds and seven blocks and Gabriela Jaquez added a seasonhigh 23 points and nine rebounds as the Bruins reached the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Kiki Rice had 14 points and nine assists to help the Bruins (28-2) rebound from last weekend’s loss to crosstown rival Southern California.
No. 6 NOTRE DAME 73, CALIFORNIA 64: In Greensboro, North Carolina, Hannah Hidalgo scored 25 points and the Irish took over down the stretch in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
Olivia Miles added 14 points and six assists for the second-seeded Fighting Irish (26-4), the tournament’s reigning champion.
No. 8 TCU 69, COLORADO 62: In Kansas City, Missouri, LSU transfer Hailey Van Lith made five 3-pointers and scored 24 points, Sedona Prince added 18 points before fouling out, and the Horned Frogs held on in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Donovyn Hunter also scored 13 points for the top-seeded Horned Frogs (29-3), who blew most of a 12-point fourth-quarter lead before holding on to win their eighth straight overall.
No. 14 NORTH CAROLINA 60, No. 22 FLORIDA STATE 56: In Greensboro, North Carolina, Alyssa Ustby scored 12 points and grabbed 18 rebounds and freshman Lanie Grant made two free throws with 7.3 seconds left to lift the Tar Heels the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.
No. 16 WEST VIRGINIA 73, No. 20 KANSAS STATE 69: In Kansas City, Missouri, JJ Quinerly made a critical steal to set up her game-winning basket and scored 24 points to lift the Moutaineers in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament. The Wildcats attempted a sideline inbounds lob into the key when Quinerly soared in to intercept the ball with a minute to go She then drove into the lane for a floater that put West Virginia on top 71-69 with 44.2 seconds left.
Geno Smith is heading to the Las Vegas Raiders, a person with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press on Friday The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the teams haven’t announced the deal, said the Raiders are sending the Seattle Seahawks a third-round pick for Smith.
The 34-year-old, two-time Pro Bowl quarterback reunites with new Raiders coach Pete Carroll in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the Seahawks will seek a new starter Smith threw for 4,320 yards and 21 touchdowns with 15 interceptions last season. Las Vegas released Gardner Minshew during the offseason.
BRCC men advance in junior college regional Courtney McCarthy poured in 30 points and Kai Phillips added 23 more Thursday as Baton Rouge Community College defeated Mississippi Gulf Coast 80-68 in the first round of the NJCAA Region 23 men’s basketball tournament at Dantzler Arena in Perkinston, Mississippi.
With the win, No. 9-seeded BRCC advances to the second round of the tournament, taking on No. 1 Jones College at 7 p.m. Monday in Ellisville, Mississippi.
BRCC led by four at halftime then pulled away to start the second half, taking advantage of a cold shooting stretch by the No. 8-seeded Bulldogs in the first 10 minutes after halftime with a 22-9 run. Awak Machar added 13 points for the Bears.
Lowry builds a two-shot lead at PGA Tour’s Bay Hill ORLANDO, Fla. — Shane Lowry loves the grind of a strong test and it’s showing at Bay Hill. He had six birdies Friday in slightly tamer conditions for a 5-under 67, giving him a two-shot lead going into the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
It wasn’t as cold as the day before. The wind was minimal. Bay Hill still had some bite.
Lowry, playing alongside good friend Rory McIlroy, holed a 35foot birdie putt on the 13th and closed with an 18-foot birdie to lead by two over Clark.
Corey Conners (70) and Collin Morikawa (68) were three shots behind, followed by McIlroy (70) and Jason Day, who has reunited with longtime coach Colin Swatton and posted a 64 for the lowest score of the tournament.
Texas Tech assistant new basketball coach at SFA NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Texas Tech assistant coach Matt Braeuer was named Friday as the head coach at Stephen F. Austin. Braeuer will finish the current season with the ninth-ranked Red Raiders before joining the Lumberjacks.
Tony Jasick was 6-6 as interim head coach for Stephen F. Austin (14-17, 7-13 Southland), which has completed its season after not qualifying for the conference tournament.
Kyle Keller had a 171-95 record and was in his ninth season as head coach when fired Jan. 22 with SFA off to a 1-7 start in conference play SFA went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18, his second season, and won Southland regular-season titles in 2019-20 and 2021-22.
TOP 25 WOMEN’S ROUNDUP
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By DAVID yEAZELL
Booker shoots over Ole Miss guard Sira Thienou during
nal game on Friday in Greenville, S.C.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL
BY WILL GRAVES AP national writer
BRADENTON, Fla.
— There are times when Paul Skenes, the 22-year-old, can’t escape Paul Skenes, baseball’s Next Big Thing. It happens randomly and without warning The reigning National League Rookie of the Year ran into former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman at the Super Bowl last month. The retired three-time Super Bowl champion told Skenes he was a fan. Caught maybe more than a little off guard, Skenes quickly replied: “Same.”
A few days later, Skenes was minding his own business in the BradentonSarasota airport after arriving for his second spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates when he caught a glimpse of his mustachioed face staring back at him It wasn’t a mirror. It was one of the countless ads in the area featuring the flamethrowing right-hander who turned every one of his first 23 major-league appearances (24 if you count the 2024 AllStar Game, which he started) into appointment viewing. Throw in the former LSU star’s upcoming cover appearance on the popular video game franchise MLB The Show and his recent guest spot on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, and at times it can seem like he’s everywhere even if he believes he’s not.
If Skenes is being honest, he’s still getting used to the outsized attention he’s commanded since making his debut in May Yet, it also beats the alternative. If his now fully-bearded mug isn’t plastered throughout Florida’s Sunshine Coast this time next year, he’ll know why “If I start sucking, my photo is not going to be (there),” he said.
A fresh ‘face’
Skenes understands in a way that belies his age that none of the trappings of his already remarkable success will stick if he doesn’t
find a way to build on one of the most remarkable rookie years in a generation.
He finds himself at the confluence of the game and the culture at large. From a fastball that regularly hits triple digits to a “splinker” borne out of experimentation, he has the kind of “stuff” that sends baseball purists scrambling for superlatives. He couples it with a mix of swagger and savvy that could, in theory make him Major League Baseball’s first Gen Z crossover star
It’s a lot to take in for someone who was a late bloomer by baseball standards, not truly coming into his own until his sophomore year at Air Force, where the former catcher developed so rapidly on the mound he made the difficult but necessary decision to transfer to LSU.
AP PHOTO By STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH
Ask Skenes whether he wants to be the “face” of the game and he deflects He’s been doing this as a pro less than two years. That kind of honor, for the moment anyway, is reserved for the Shohei Ohtanis, Aaron Judges and Mike Trouts of the world.
Those guys have earned the right. He hasn’t. Not yet anyway
Besides, “that stuff takes energy frankly,” Skenes said flatly
Leading from front
While Skenes became an instant sensation from the moment he was called up, Pittsburgh faded in late summer to a 76-86 finish
There is a sense of urgency pulsing throughout Pirates City this spring Perhaps because the clock is already ticking on the Skenes Era. Technically he is under team control through 2029. If Skenes sticks around that long, he seems destined for a megadeal from deeperpocketed franchises such as the Dodgers or Yankees.
Skenes would prefer not to talk about his future. There’s too much at stake in the present. He thinks the 2024 Pirates were “an underperforming team,” not unlike the one he was on as a freshman at Air Force.
The following season, he was named a co-captain, and the Falcons improved, though he stressed he needed a lot of “grace” from his teammates as he found his way He’s drawing on that experience to try and take a more visible, vocal role on a mostly young team that’s still learning how to win.
He doesn’t plan to force things, optimistic that it will happen organically, though he was quick to add he’s “not going to be the guy who is (cursing) other guys.”
He’s focused on example setting. This is the same player, after all, who wears suits to the ballpark on the days he pitches. He firmly but gently reminds Pirates
prospect and good friend/
workout partner Bubba Chandler that a given rep doesn’t count if Chandler didn’t execute it perfectly
“That’s what elite people do,” the 22-year-old Chandler said.
Name recognition
The spotlight figures to get brighter, both in Pittsburgh and beyond for someone Chandler called “the biggest freaking name in sports right now.”
Skenes just shook his head when that moniker was passed along.
“I really try as much as I can to try and insulate myself from all that,” he said.
“You can’t completely avoid it. But I try to insulate myself as much as I can from it to where I don’t have that perception.”
He is willing to do what he can to promote the game up to a point. Yet there’s a line he is intent on holding. The kid who grew up an Angels fan in Southern California learned about more than just baseball while watching Trout and Ohtani. Both are all-time greats who also have fiercely guarded their privacy, lending them an air of mystique. Baseball appears to be in the midst of a resurgence.
Skenes understands his popularity is a small part of it. Just don’t expect him to start flooding social media he doesn’t even have an active TikTok account, although he’s easy to find on MLB’s feed — or popping up on your favorite podcast regularly Baseball’s Next Big Thing is more intent on chasing greatness instead.
Fame is “cool.” It’s also not the point.
“All we want to do is play the same game we’ve played since we were 3 or 4 years old,” he said. “And all this other stuff comes with it, you kind of have to be built up to do that. Everybody chooses how to do it in their own way That’s very much how I am.”
LSU sweeps doubleheader in two different fashions
BY JIM KLEINPETER Contributing writer
After having its offense stifled in the first game, No 4 LSU softball exploded for a season-high in runs with an 18-4 victory against South Alabama in the LSU Round Robin on Friday at Tiger Park.
LSU won the first game against South Alabama 2-0 on a two-hit shutout by Sydney Berzon. The LSU pitching staff has nine shutouts this season.
The Tigers (21-1) scored all 18 runs on 11 hits and 10 walks through the first three innings of the second game after getting just five hits in the first game. Tori Edwards hit her team-leading eighth home run, a two-run shot, in an eight-run second inning. McKenzie Redoutey had a two-run double and Maci Bergeron a two-run single to highlight the attack.
“The coolest part was the way the offense answered,” LSU coach Beth Torina said “Between games, Bryce (Neal) called on them to do some things, a little different approach. It was awesome to see them answer the way they did.”
Danieca Coffey, Jalia Lassiter and Avery Hodge had two hits apiece. Coffey reached base seven consecutive times on Friday with four hits and three walks in the two games, before breaking the streak with a sacrifice fly
“We weren’t hunting pitches in the first game, just seeing a pitch and thinking we could hit it,” Coffey said. “That’s not our goal. That was the conversation after the first game.”
Left-hander Jayden Heavener (5-1) went three innings before giving way to Ashley Vallejo for the final two. Heavener allowed three hits and two runners
TIGERS
Continued from page 1C
Box Stadium. It was the most homers LSU had hit in a game since Game 1 of the Tigers’ super regional win over Kentucky in 2023. Ironically, none of the homers came from Jones. Senior Josh Pearson got the derby started with a solo homer his first of the year — in the third inning that gave the Tigers a 1-0 advantage.
Pearson’s shot was followed by a walk, a runscoring double from sophomore Jake Brown and a single from senior Luis Hernandez before redshirt junior Tanner Reaves came to the plate.
Reaves, who has earned more playing time against right-handed pitching recently, blasted his first ca-
to reach base in each inning but worked around it with six strikeouts.
Katie Schuler hit a threerun homer off Vallejo in the fifth for South Alabama (11-12).
In the opener, Berzon struck out nine batters and didn’t allow a runner past second base while retiring 15 consecutive hitters in one stretch. The Tigers stranded 11 runners but got stellar defensive play, especially from Hodge at shortstop.
Hodge made multiple highlight-reel plays, twice short-hopping grounders while charging in and easily making throws. She also displayed a strong arm after fielding two grounders in the hole while moving to her right and throwing out the batters.
“As the season has been going on, I’ve been growing within my own process,” Berzon said. “It’s kind of come together What was effective, we were able to mix everything, through the zone, out the zone.
“(Avery) is an absolute
reer homer with the Tigers, a three-run shot that handed them a 5-0 lead.
LSU’s next three runs all came via the solo homer
Junior Daniel Dickinson blasted his team-leading fifth bomb of the year in the fourth inning before sophomore Steven Milam hit his third of the season two batters later Senior Luis Hernandez blasted his first LSU (14-1) homer into left field the next inning to give the Tigers an 8-1 lead. The final homer came from freshman John Pearson, who came in off the bench and demolished his first career home run in the sixth inning. His threerun shot handed LSU a 13-1 lead and put the 10-run rule into effect.
Dickinson, Milam, Hernandez and Reaves all finished with multiple hits for the Tigers.
blessing to have behind me, as many groundballs as I get. She had such an outstanding game truly amazing.”
LSU worked South Alabama pitcher Sydney Scapin for eight walks but needed aggressiveness base running to scrape together two runs. Sierra Daniel and Maddox McKee walked to start the second inning, and one out later, Coffey singled up the middle with the ball deflecting into right field off second baseman Caitlyn Gavin’s glove. Daniel scored and McKee beat the throw to third from the outfield. McKee continued home on third baseman Olivia Branstetter’s throwing error to second when she tried to get Coffey out while advancing.
LSU loaded the bases in the first inning and the sixth inning, but Scapin pitched around the jams with five popups and a fielder’s choice. Berzon had a no-hitter going until Presley Lively’s leadoff single to center field with two outs in the sixth.
Starting on the mound for LSU was left-hander Kade Anderson. He went six innings his longest outing of the year — and allowed just one run and four hits. He struck out a season-high 11 batters and didn’t walk anybody His command was on point, but he also mixed in more curveballs than he had in his last start against Kansas State. The only run he allowed to North Alabama (3-9) was a solo homer in the fifth inning. Freshman right-hander Mavrick Rizy came in for Anderson and allowed a run on a single and a walk to close out the win. LSU faces North Alabama for the second game of the series on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium. First pitch was moved from 6 p.m. to noon and will be available to stream on SEC Network+.
PHOTO By APRIL BUFFINGTON
LSU pitcher Sydney Berzon winds up against South Alabama on Friday at Tiger park. Berzon registered a shutout.
THE VARSITY ZONE
Division I nonselect
nal game Friday in Central. Conrad scored a game-high 23 points to help the Wildcats rally from a four-point
and
Turning the tables
BY ROBIN FAMBROUGH Staff writer
Jace Conrad made sure the second half was the better half for second-seeded Central on Friday night.
The junior guard scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second half to help power the Wildcats to a 61-49 come-from-behind victory over No. 7 East Ascension in a Division I nonselect quarterfinal game in Central.
“We’ve been in these situations before,” Conrad said. “This was a lot like the game we played at Catholic.
“We just had to push through. You got take it game game by game play by play.” With the win, Central (244) advances to the LHSAA boys basketball tournament that begins Monday in Lake Charles. It is the school’s first state tourney berth since 1994
The Wildcats face another local rival, No. 3 Denham Springs (28-3), in a their semifinal set for Thursday at Burton Coliseum.
Kedrick Franklin added 12 for the Wildcats LSU football commitment
Brysten Martinez led East Ascension (26-5) with 13 points.
“The ball would not go in for us in the first half,” said Central coach Scott Osborne, whose team trailed 27-23 at halftime. “To only be down by four in that situation was a good thing.
“We were trying to do too much. We just had to settle down ”
The Spartans opened the scoring with a 3-pointer by D’Ron McZeal and built a 10-2 lead in the first quarter. Martinez contributed two baskets to the early surge. Central pulled to within three points a couple of times, but East Ascension took a 16-11 lead into the second quarter
Martinez provided a highlight in the second quarter
The 6-foot-7 junior made a steal and then drove length of the court for a dunk to make it 18-11 with 7:12 left in the half.
Central closed the gap to two points a little more
than three minutes later on a putback by Scott Smith to make it 21-19 at the 3:57 mark. East Ascension pushed the lead back out to six and led 27-23 at halftime.
East Ascension pushed its lead back out to six at 34-28 on McZeal’s second 3-pointer of the night in the third quarter
Central did not take the lead until Collin Verrett sank a 3-pointer to make it 34-33 with 2:34 left. The Wildcats outscored the Spartans 15-3 over the final five minutes of the period to take control of the game.
Conrad opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from the wing that made it a 46-37 game. The Wildcats never looked back.
“Central came out with a lot energy in the second half,” EAHS coach Troy Green said “They executed and we were not able to do that at the most inopportune times.
“Congrats to Central I’m still so proud of my kids and the year we had. We made progress.”
John Curtis able to hold off furious Catholic rally
BY WILLIAM WEATHERS
Contributing writer
Catholic High put one final charge into John Curtis and came up empty at a second trip to the state tournament in three years.
Xavier Brown’s 3-pointer with 1:12 to play snapped a tied game and Zaveon Shepherd added a pair of free throws with 18.8 seconds to go, lifting the seventh-seeded Patriots to a 55-51 win over the No. 2 Bears in Friday’s Division I select quarterfinal at Catholic.
“We had a tough schedule that prepared us for environments and for games like this,” John Curtis coach Biko Paris said.
John Curtis (24-6) advances to its first state tournament in Division I and faces St Thomas More a 53-50 winner over Huntington, in next week’s state tournament at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
Catholic (27-5) rallied from a 49-35 deficit with 6:05 remaining with a 13-0 run that was capped by Matthew Trahan’s steal and layup. The Bears tied the game at 51-51 on Mikai Lacy’s 3-pointer with 1:38 remaining. The Bears who shot 24% (16 of 42), didn’t score again Brown’s 3-pointer gave Curtis the lead for good, followed by two free throws from Shepherd, who led all scorers with 23 points.
“As a coach I’ll take the shot that kid made,” Catholic coach Derrick Jones said of Brown’s go-ahead basket. “It actually wasn’t a great shot in transition, and he just made a big-time shot. It was enough separation for them to hold on and win the game.
I’m proud of the way our kids competed all year They kept battling.”
Lacy scored seven of his team-high 11 points during Catholic furious stretch that wiped out their biggest deficit over a 41/2-minute span. Tate McCurry, hounded by Curtis’ defense throughout, scored back-to-back baskets — his first two of the game — with a 3-pointer and three-point play at the four-minute mark.
Don’t believe lightning can strike twice in the same place? Or what goes around comes around?
The possibilities exist on the final day of the LHSAA girls basketball tournament. Four Baton Rouge area teams will play for titles Saturday at the University Center in Hammond. You have to go back 19 years to find a season like this. Class 4A Glen Oaks, 3A Capitol, 1A Christian and Class B Holden won four of the seven possible titles in 2006 in Hammond.
The parameters are different with 10 total titles now post select/nonselect split, but Baton Rouge girls basketball is good again. Whether Saturday’s trophy haul validates that point remains to be seen.
Let’s break down the storylines:
NO 2 CEDAR CREEK (29-3) VS NO 1 SOUTHERN LAB (20-5): The Division IV select matchup opens the action at noon. It’s hard to imagine a more dominant effort than the Kittens’ 68-16 win over Ouachita Christian in the semifinals. It was coach Quianna Chaney’s 100th win at her alma mater
Another victory would give Southern Lab two sets of back-to-back titles with a runner-up finish sandwiched in between.
This success rivals the era when Chaney and current Grambling coach Courtney Simmons were
star guards. Now Chaney is coaching two star guards of her own, senior Shaila Forman and junior Asia Patin. The duo took center stage for the first time with a 60-42 title-game win over Cedar Creek in 2022.
NO 5 MADISON PREP (20-12) VS NO 2 VANDEBILT CATHOLIC (18-7): At 2 p.m., this game is where star-crossed storylines converge. The teams met in a Nov 21 season opener in Houma that Vandebilt Catholic won 51-41. That was roughly nine months after the two teams were supposed to play in a Division II semifinal. Vandebilt self-reported a rules violation the week of the tournament, putting the Chargers in the final via forfeit. Madison Prep lost 43-38 to Lafayette Christian (now in Division III) in the title game.
The Chargers won a 2A title in 2017 and have three runner-up finishes. Vandebilt, a semifinalist in 2023, beat Parkview Baptist in the semifinals.
NO 4 HUNTINGTON (19-6) VS NO 3 WOODLAWN (26-6): The Panthers upset Huntington as a Cinderella in the semifinals a year ago and finished as
the runner-up to traditional power John Curtis. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Woodlawn beat Huntington earlier this season and looks to beat the Raiders three times in a row, counting that 2024 semifinal. A revenge factor exists.
UL signee Amijah Price is the best-known player for the Panthers, but junior Aaliyah Gaddis a transfer from Family Christian — took a star turn in the semifinals.
NO 3 ZACHARY (25-4) VS NO 1 PARKWAY (27-2): Zachary makes its first title-game appearance since 1984, while Parkway looks to win its third straight title. The Broncos advanced to the tourney after back-to-back quarterfinal losses the previous two seasons.
Dakota Howard is the star player for Parkway, following in the footsteps of LSU’s Mikaylah Williams and Chloe Larry (Tennessee Tech).
Zachary has the guard duo of Ava Raymond and Tiarra McPipe, who took turns powering the team to wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Zachary coach Tami McClure is seeking her third title. McClure coached St. Michael to 4A titles in 2008 and 2009.
Email Robin Fambrough at rfambrough@ theadvocate.com
No. 1 Wossman has Albany’s number again in state final
BY MIKE GEGENHEIMER
Contributing writer
On this day, David could not overcome Goliath.
No. 7 Albany’s underdog run at the Division II girls nonselect basketball state championship — a run that saw the Hornets upset the No. 2 and 3 teams in the bracket on their way to the final — ended, once again, at the hands of the now fourtime reigning champion No. 1 Wossman 62-25 Friday night.
This is the fourth consecutive season Albany’s season ended at the state tournament to Wossman.
The Hornets also lost last season in the semifinal, in the 2023 final and the 2022 semifinal.
But even in the wake of defeat, Albany chooses to look on the bright side.
“We made it here when no one thought (we would),” first-year Albany coach Rebecca Buisson said. “These girls took the challenge. Everyone doubted them. We just ran into a fantastic Wossman team.”
For a few bright seconds it
“We made it here when no one thought (we would). These girls took the challenge. Everyone doubted them. We just ran into a fantastic Wossman team.”
REBECCA
BUISSON,Albany coach
appeared as if Albany may have a puncher’s chance at the reigning champions when they took a 2-0 lead on a layup by Kaidence Ponder A small feat, but one no other team, including Wossman’s semifinal opponent Iowa, achieved in the postseason.
But the advantage was brief, lasting for all of 19 seconds, before Wossman’s smothering full-court press and cutting offense overwhelmed the Hornets. From 1:46 left in the first quarter to 1:04 left in the third Albany did not hit a field goal, going 0 for 16.
By then Wossman climbed to a 41-14 lead.
Albany regained some composure in the fourth quarter going 5 for 10 from the field, but by then it was too late to start a comeback.
“It was a great experience,” Ponder said. “I wish
it would’ve went a different way, but things happen We played our hearts out. Wossman is a great team, you’ve got to give them that. We made it here when no one thought we’d make it here.” Ponder paced the Hornets with 14 points and five rebounds. Rene Harris battled around the post for five points and eight rebounds as the Wossman defense keyed on her for most of the night. Morgan Crain also provided six points. Wossman’s Ramiah Augurson was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player with 20 points and four steals.
Albany shot 9 of 36 from the field compared to 25 for 58 for Wossman.
“We did something that nobody thought was possible,” Buisson said. “We’re walking away with some hardware.”
Robin Fambrough
STAFF PHOTO By ROBIN FAMBROUGH
Central’s Jace Conrad, left, dribbles against
Ascension’s Lathan Dumas during their
Southern men don’t want to share in SWAC
BY CHARLES SALZER Contributing writer
The Southern men’s basketball team has been at the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings all season, a perch that has made the Jaguars a target for teams looking to put a feather in their caps.
It’s a coveted spot that has provided challenges that Southern has met at times. There also have been games like Thursday’s contest at the F.G. Clark Activity Center, when the Jaguars came up short 66-65 against Alabama State. Despite the loss, Southern (1911, 14-3) already has clinched at least a share of the SWAC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament. Jaguars coach Kevin Johnson said the team still needs
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Moore will play center, Kelly told The Advocate, which means Chester will slide to guard after starting at center last season. Thompson could play tackle or guard, but Kelly suggested that, ideally someone else will assert himself at tackle.
“We’re, quite frankly, looking for one of the younger players to emerge at the tackle position,” Kelly said.
Redshirt sophomore Tyree Adams enters the spring with the edge at left tackle after starting twice last season. On the other side, it’s a big offseason for redshirt freshman Weston Davis, the highest-rated offensive lineman in LSU’s 2024 class
The battle at guard could be intense. Chester, Mubenga, Thompson, redshirt freshman Coen Echols and redshirt junior Bo Bordelon all will be in the mix. Early enrollees Carius Curne, Solomon Thomas and Tyler Miller also could push for time. Kelly said Curne has the physicality to play early
CORNERBACK, SAFETY: Ashton
Stamps has started 16 straight games at cornerback dating back to the 2023 season, but he will have to fight for a spot. That’s because LSU signed five-star prospect DJ Pickett, Virginia Tech transfer Mansoor Delane and Florida transfer Ja’Keem Jackson. Delane could play safety, but Kelly said he’s at cornerback right now. At safety, LSU brought in NC State transfer Tamarcus Cooley, who played nickel last season. Regardless of where he fits, someone else needs to step up Senior Jardin Gilbert, junior Javien Toviano and sophomore Dashawn Spears will compete to start.
WIDE RECEIVER: LSU has plenty of options. It brought back redshirt junior Aaron Anderson, redshirt senior Chris Hilton and senior Zavion Thomas, among others It also signed Oklahoma transfer Nic Anderson and Kentucky transfer Barion Brown. All five could have a role. It’s a matter of figuring out how they fit into the offense.
Questions to answer
CAN GARRETT NUSSMEIER CUT DOWN ON MISTAKESAND CONSISTENTLYTHROW DEEP?
In his first year as a starter,
to stay focused on its remaining goals for the season.
“We have a conference regularseason title, but now it’s about being better because that was only a part of our goal,” Johnson said.
“The next part is the most difficult part and in order to be ready for that, when you get an opportunity, you have to improve. Its unfortunate that we didn’t do that (against Alabama State).”
Southern gets one more chance to show improvement when it hosts Alabama A&M (10-20, 6-11) on Saturday in the regular-season finale at 5:30 p.m. The Jaguars won the first meeting 81-68 in Huntsville, Alabama, on Feb. 8. Joe Manning led Southern with
22 points in that game, and the Jaguars held the Bulldogs to 39% shooting from the field.
If recent trends are an indicator, Alabama A&M may improve on its shooting numbers. During Southern’s two-game trip to Florida last week, Bethune-Cookman shot 57% in the first half of a 70-69 win while Florida A&M connected on 64% in the second half before falling 73-70 to the Jaguars.
Alabama State shot 50% in the first half Thursday and burned the nets from 3-point range, where it made 10 of 22 shots.
“Everybody plays Southern tough,” Johnson said. “Teams will play down to competition at times, but when they play us its like the Super Bowl. That’s what we expect every time out, and it won’t be any different (Saturday) with A&M.”
NEW LSU D-LINE COACH TO MAKE $700K
LSU finalized a three-year contract with new defensive line coach Kyle Williams that will put him among the highest-paid defensive line coaches in college football, according to a copy of the deal obtained Friday by The Advocate through a public-records request.
Williams will make $700,000 this year his first as a college defensive line coach. His salary then increases over the next two years of the deal He will earn $775,000 next year and $850,000 in the final year of the contract, which ends after the 2027 season.
Williams replaced Bo Davis, who was set to earn $1.35 million this year before he left for the same job with the New Orleans Saints. Davis was the highest-paid defensive line coach in the country
With his initial salary,Williams will make the same amount as LSU edge rushers coach Kevin Peoples this year He would have tied Peoples and Louisville defensive line coach Mark Hagen as the 13th-highest paid defensive line coach in the country and seventh-highest paid in the SEC last year, according to a study by Football Scoop.
Similar to LSU’s other assistants,Williams can make up to $125,000 in postseason incentives if LSU wins an SEC and national championship. He also received a $25,000 relocation incentive.
Nussmeier finished fifth nationally with 4,052 yards passing and threw 29 touchdowns, making him one of the top returning quarterbacks in the country He did some impressive things, but he needs to improve in two key areas to meet the early Heisman expectations. Let’s start with the interceptions. Nussmeier threw 12 last season, tied for the most in the SEC with Carson Beck of Georgia and Quinn Ewers of Texas. He had six turnovers combined in LSU’s losses to Texas A&M and Alabama. If there was a positive sign, Nussmeier had only one pick in the last four games.
As for throwing deep, Nussmeier tossed nine touchdowns and 982 yards on passes of more than 20 yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus. But he completed only 36% (31 of 86) of those throws, which ranked 10th in the SEC among quarterbacks who started the majority of their games Nussmeier ranked 12th in the SEC at 7.7 yards per attempt. By comparison, Jayden Daniels averaged 11.7 the year before.
Part of the issue was LSU’s receivers. Until Hilton got healthy at the end of the year, LSU did not have a vertical threat, letting defenses squat on underneath and intermediate routes. The speed that LSU added in the transfer portal should help stretch the field.
HOW WILL LSU TRY TO FIX THE RUN GAME?
In the first year without Daniels, LSU rushed for 116.4 yards per game, down from 204.5 the year before. The Tigers tried to add
With title in hand, Southern women look to close strong
BY CHARLES SALZER Contributing writer
The Southern women’s basketball team had plenty to celebrate after Thursday’s game against Alabama State, a 61-38 win that earned the Jaguars no worse than a share of the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season title.
Things got better a short time later Not long after the Alabama State game ended, the Jaguars got an assist from conference rival Grambling. The Tigers finished off a 77-65 win over Alabama A&M, the only team that had a chance to tie Southern, and the Jaguars ended their night as outright regular-season champions.
“I’m just happy for the young ladies,” Southern coach Carlos Funchess said. “All the hard work from June 3 until now has been going toward this regular-season championship.”
With Thursday’s results in the books, Southern (17-13, 15-2) knows it will play Wednesday as the No. 1 seed in the SWAC Tournament. Before that happens, Southern will host Alabama A&M in a game that lost some of its luster when the Bulldogs lost to Grambling.
Had A&M won, the Bulldogs (209, 13-4) would have been playing for a share of the SWAC title as well as
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Finnegan, Alexis Jeffrey, KJ Johnson, Tori Tatum and Kathryn Weilbacher; fifth-year seniors Sierra Ballard, Haleigh Bryant, Olivia Dunne and Chase Brock; and sixthyear senior Alyona Shchennikova.
From the outset the Tigers appeared poised to challenge last week’s season-high 198.125 in the Podium Challenge at the Raising Cane’s River Center against George Washington. LSU got three 9.95s on vault to share first place from Finnegan, Amari Drayton and Kailin Chio. Overall, the Tigers posted a season-high 49.600 on vault to lead Georgia (49.275 on uneven bars) by more than threetenths.
LSU posted another season high as it went to bars for the second rotation, a 49.625. Konnor McClain flirted with a perfect 10 herself and won the event with a 9.975, helping boost the Tigers to a commanding 99.225-98.475 lead at the meet’s halfway point.
The Tigers were just getting started. LSU went to balance beam and got 9.95s from Chio and Bryant, tying their season highs. It was all setting the stage for Finnegan, who anchored the event with a 10.0 score, the eighth of her career and second on beam.
the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Instead, A&M only can gain a measure of payback for its 50-44 home loss to Southern on Feb. 8.
Southern is looking for its ninth straight win when the teams play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the F.G. Clark Activity Center Southern broke open Thursday’s game against Alabama State in the third quarter The Hornets opened with a 3-pointer to pull within 29-23 Southern responded by scoring 21 straight points.
Soniyah Reed made four 3-pointers and 7 of 14 shots from the field on her way to a game-high 19 points. The Jaguars forced 23 turnovers and held the Hornets to 26.2% shooting.
Aniya Gourdine, who injured her right shoulder against BethuneCookman, had 14 points and seven rebounds against Alabama State.
“I didn’t know if she would be able to play, but (Thursday) in the shoot-around she was bouncing,” Funchess said of Gourdine. “She looked like herself and showed no ill effects.”
Gourdine is expected to be in the starting lineup against Alabama A&M.
The score by the 2024 Olympian gave LSU a season-high 49.675 on beam and put the Tigers within reach of the all-time program record of 198.475 set in February 2024 against Arkansas with a 148.900 score going to floor A 9.975 from Chio tied Georgia anchor Lily Smith on floor and put the school record within reach. Finnegan tied the all-time mark with a 9.875 despite stepping out of bounds on her second tumbling pass, then Bryant put the Tigers over the top with a 9.975 to tie Chio and Smith for first place in the event. It was the 100th career individual title for Bryant, the third most in program history behind Ashleigh Clare-Kearney Thigpen (114) and April Burkholder (108). It was also a banner night for the freshman Chio, who won the all-around with a personal-best 39.800 to edge out Bryant (39.750) and Finnegan (39.725). Chio now has 19 individual titles this season, including five all-around victories. LSU honored its seniors on the floor after the meet, with Bryant, Finnegan and others wiping away tears as they were joined by their families and coaches.
Now they go in pursuit of the SEC regular-season crown, a repeat SEC championship meet title March 22 in Birmingham, Alabama, and a repeat NCAA championship.
Wilson Alexander
variety to their run schemes and lean on an experienced offensive line without a dual-threat quarterback, but they finished 107th in the FBS and last in the SEC in yards rushing per game. Was the problem execution, personnel or play-calling? Most likely a combination of the three. Now, something has to change It would give the offense balance and make a difference in the red zone, where LSU scored touchdowns only 56.6% of the time.
WILL TRANSFERS HELP THE DEFENSE IMPROVE?
Baker inherited one of the worst defenses in school history, and the unitgotbetterunderaremadecoachingstaff.LSUallowed24.3pointsper game,downfrom28theyearbefore. It was more disruptive and better at making red-zone stops. Still, LSU was far from where it needed to be. The Tigers allowed 224.3 yards passing per game, and they got shredded by dual-threat quarterbacks multiple times. In three SEC losses, LSU gave up 666 yards and 13 TDs on the ground. New players could make a difference. Most of the seven defensive transfers are expected to have key roles, and Pickett could make an early impact There are plenty of questions to answer within the defense. Will a young interior line hold up? Can the secondary improve, especially in man coverage? Are three new defensive ends able to replace the pass rush? LSU will begin to find out soon.
LSU
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Her points — a program record for an SEC Tournament game helped LSU build a 53-34 halftime lead and finish with the most points it’s ever scored in the conference tournament. Associate head coach Bob Starkey served as LSU’s de-facto head coach on Friday, according to the SEC Network broadcast, because Mulkey spent time away from the team this week after she experienced a death in her family Mulkey joined the Tigers for the game but deferred most decisions to Starkey LSU didn’t miss a beat on offense.
The Tigers converted 51% of their field-goal attempts and received offensive boosts from a balanced group of contributors. Morrow led the way, but guards Kailyn Gilbert, Mjracle Sheppard and Shayeann Day-Wilson combined to chip in 29 points on 9-of-23 shooting.
That production helped LSU overcome the absence of Johnson — who watched from the sideline with a walking boot on her right foot — and a cold shooting start for Mikaylah Williams, who missed her first six field-goal tries.
It also helped that the Tigers forced the Gators into 19 turnovers, then turned those giveaways into 25 points at the other end.
In the first half, LSU missed seven of its first eight shots. Then it started turning defense into offense, finding Morrow open around the rim and running halfcourt sets through Williams. The Tigers converted more than 60%
of their field-goal attempts across the last 18 minutes of the half, and Morrow began flirting with a hyper-efficient double-double — the 101st of her career Williams finished with 16 points and eight assists.
Florida shaved nine points off LSU’s lead over the first three minutes of the third quarter. Starkey countered by calling a timeout and drawing up a baseline jumper for Morrow, who calmly drained the shot that kept the Tigers in control.
The Gators pieced together a 28-pointthirdquarter,butLSUfound enough offense to begin the fourth up 78-62. Morrow scored another six points in that period, helping the Tigers glide into the semifinals for the third consecutive season.
Florida earned itself a matchup with LSU because it upset No. 6-seeded Alabama 63-61 in the second round on Thursday. When the Tigers and Gators met in the regular season on Jan. 19, LSU picked up a 17-point road win. The Tigers are now 4-3 in the SEC Tournament under Mulkey In each of her previous three seasons as coach, they advanced one round further in the bracket than they did the year prior Because LSU lost to South Carolina in the championship game last season, its next step is winning the title — something it hasn’t done since 2003. Before the Tigers can check that box, they must defeat Texas in a semifinal clash that’s set to begin at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2. The No. 2 Longhorns defeated LSU 6558 on Feb. 16 in Austin, Texas. Email Reed Darcey at reed. darcey@theadvocate.com.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Southern guard Joe Manning, right, defends against Prairie View guard John-Paul Ricks on Feb. 15 at the F.G. Clark Activity Center Manning had 22 points when Southern faced Saturday’s opponent Alabama A&M earlier this season.
Terry Robinson
FAITH MATTERS
‘Old-fashioned’ revival coming to Livingston Parish
The Great Commission of Matthew 28 essentially urges believers to go tell others about Jesus.
That’s the primary purpose of the “old-fashioned” Go Tell America crusade set for 7 p.m. March 16-19 at Denham Springs High School’s Yellow Jacket Stadium, 1000 N. Range Ave., Denham Springs.
Go Tell America is a series of evangelistic revivals focusing on the “unchurched” and conducted by evangelist Rick Gage, of Georgia-based Go Tell Ministries. “What we have been hearing from pastors that have been lifers in our area say this is the biggest thing we’ve had since the Bill Graham crusade back in the ’90s,” said Richard Blue, co-chairman of the host Go Tell Livingston committee and president of the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association. “We’re asking churches to go out and find the people in their own communities, their neighbors, their friends and invite them. And do their best not only to invite them but bring them with them to the crusade.”
The Livingston committee, which now comprises an interdenominational group of more than 35 churches, started planning for the crusade 13 months ago. The Go Tell America crusades target rural areas
Gage will be the main speaker He was a running backs coach at Texas Tech and Liberty University before devoting his life to full-time evangelistic ministry in 1986.
“This guy is dynamite,” Blue said of Gage “He is a tremendous preacher and has the hand of God and the spirit of God on his life.”
A mass community choir will open the crusade on Sunday, along with Christian recording artist Charles Billingsley He is the former lead vocalist for the music group NewSong.
“If we’d rent a building, he’d blow the top off the roof because he’s a dynamic, outstanding musician,” Blue said.
Other guests will be Alan Robertson, of the “Duck Dynasty” TV fame; and Adrian Despres, a former chaplain at the University of South Carolina.
On Wednesday, the crusade will focus on the youth with a pizza party
“We’re doing some things with your school-age children, hoping that we can develop a relationship and they come
ä See MATTERS, page
What remains
St. Joseph’s Cemetery is a ‘microcosm of Baton Rouge’s history’ that many know nothing about
BY SERENA PUANG Staff writer
What do a 19th century French-born painter, a three-term Baton Rouge mayor and the former owner of the building that became Baton Rouge’s old post of-
fice have in common?
They were all Catholic, and they’re all buried at St Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery on Main Street.
The cemetery was established behind the cathedral (originally named Our Lady of Sorrows) at what is now North Street in 1792. But due to space constraints and a problem with Spanish Town livestock wandering and disrupting the graves creating an overpowering odor, the cemetery was relocated in 1825 to what was then outside of the city but is now Main Street.
Two hundred years later, St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery is celebrating its bicentennial with events throughout the year to raise money for tomb restorations. With the help of an expert, they have identified 10 historically significant and/or architecturally unique projects for restoration.
“We need to educate the next generation about what’s happening there,” said Gail Gaiennié, who is the current vice president of the board of trustees.
“The reason that the Petitjean tomb was on that list was because it’s architecturally unique,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for about 15 years. I’ve restored literally hundreds of cemetery properties,
The theme of the event is “Tell Me A Story” and focuses on honoring the stories of people buried in the cemetery The money raised will go to restoring the Petitjean tomb, a noted spot in the cemetery Cemetery preservationist and owner of Oak & Laurel Cemetery Preservation, Emily Ford was consulted to identify priority projects for restoration.
CBS’ Jan Crawford, Kim Mulkey to share insights at LSU event
Jan Crawford and Kim Mulkey in 2023 at the CBS Studio in Washington, D.C.
BY JAN RISHER Staff writer
Jan Crawford, CBS News chief legal correspondent, will be in Baton Rouge speaking at LSU Law School and at a free, ticketed public event called “Inside the Courtroom!” with LSU basketball’s Kim Mulkey The event is set for 5 p.m. March 11 in the Cox Auditorium on LSU’s
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gail Gaiennié, Karen Rowley and Erick Swenson, right to left, carefully inspect a tomb for information during a tour of St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery on Feb 20.
The sun begins to set on gravestones at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery.
Blue
Gage
By The Associated Press
Today is Saturday, March 8, the 67th day of 2025. There are 298 days left in the year
Today in history
On March 8, 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines arrived to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang.
On this date:
In 1917, protests against food rationing broke out in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) triggering eight days of rioting that resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the end of the Russian monarchy
In 1948, the Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down religious education classes during school hours in Champaign, Illinois, public schools, saying the program violated separation of church and state.
In 1971, in the first of three fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Frazier defeated Ali by unanimous decision in what was billed as “The Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in New York
In 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Orlando, Florida, President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”
In 2008, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists.
In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, setting off a massive and ultimately unsuccessful search.
Today’s birthdays: Author John McPhee is 94. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 81. Actormusician Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 80. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 72. Singer Gary Numan is 67. TV journalist Lester Holt is 66. Actor Aidan Quinn is 66. Actor Camryn Manheim is 64. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr is 49. Actor James Van Der Beek is 48. Songwriterproducer Benny Blanco is 37. Tennis player Petra Kvitová is 35. Actor Montana Jordan is 22. Actor Kit Connor is 21.
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there to hear the Gospel of Christ,” Blue said.
Blue stressed that the event underscores the focus on engaging with the 51% of individuals in Livingston Parish who classify themselves as “nones,” or those with no religious affiliation of any kind.
“That’s telling us that even in our own churches we have not done a good job,” said Blue, the former longtime pastor of Walker Baptist Church. “Our job is to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and hope to penetrate the unchurched community.
Simply telling people and leading them to salvation in Jesus is not enough. Blue said the church has fallen short in discipleship training.
“Discipleship is followthrough,” he said. “It is a commitment of our lives that we’re going to live our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.” For more information, go to www.gotell-lp.com.
Contact Terry Robinson at terryrobinson622@gmail.com
UpStage Theatre looks back to go forward
BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
It’s May 1968, when the sun is settling in for a hot summer in Texas.
But the temperature isn’t the only thing generating heat in a Texas “Whites only” diner, where five Black women work in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.
The kitchen is hot and tempers begin to flare as the waitresses discuss what’s happened in the past year when UpStage Theatre opens Don Wilson Glenn’s drama “American Menu” on March 9 on its stage at 1713 Wooddale Blvd., Baton Rouge.
“This happens a few months after Martin Luther King Jr has been assassinated,” said director Ava Brewster Turner, who also is the theater’s president and founding artistic director “One of the women in the diner witnesses a young Black boy being killed, and she’s rattled by it.”
She tells her co-workers about it, sparking an ongoing conversation about what’s happening in the
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and I haven’t really seen something like the Petitjean tomb before.”
She said that it had a unique design, most likely due to the structure being built by the family or a close friend. The tomb, which holds four people from the Petitjean family, is the focus of the cemetery’s anniversary celebration — it features a distinctive curved roof and oven-vault design. Unfortunately, the tomb is in bad shape, which contributed to its selection.
Who’s buried in the cemetery?
There are over 3,000 “residents” buried at St. Joseph’s, and maybe more than the board of trustees is aware of since some of the graves were not marked. The people buried there represent various backgrounds and lived through key moments of Baton Rouge history
“The only qualification really was that you had to be Catholic,” said Karen Rowley, former president of the board of trustees.
Some of the people buried there are early residents who built Baton Rouge. Among them are Leon Jastremski, a confederate soldier and three-term former mayor of the city (he had all his accomplishments engraved on his tombstone); brothers Victor Lange and Robert Lange, who were among the first cohort of Black city legislators elected during Reconstruction; and many more During the Civil War, Confederate and Union soldiers alike were buried in the cemetery
According to Rowley, it’s one of the first cemeteries in the city which allowed people of different races to be buried next to each other and not in segregated plots. Despite the rich history the cemetery is not well known.
“A lot of people don’t realize the cemetery’s there, including a lot of my fellow parishioners,” said Rowley “Cemeteries are a microcosm of Baton Rouge’s history — more than 300 years of history It’s a wide ranging history, and the people who are buried there represent all different strata of society, from the leaders and the wealthier people, to the ordinary working people, people who were probably enslaved (and) soldiers who fought. It’s part of how this city was built, how this area was built.”
Restorations needed
Over the years of hurricane seasons, many of the graves have
United States in that time.
“So, during the entire play, we hear conversations from these Black women about life about Texas, about segregation, about their families and how they’re having to deal with what has transpired — and how what this woman has witnessed has affected her fellow
co-workers and friends,” Turner said. “She saw how that young boy was treated and what they did to him, and it’s a very volatile time especially in the heart of Texas, where it’s hot, it’s in the summertime and these ladies are working in the kitchen talking about life. They’re facing realities of life on
‘AMERICAN MENU’
Performances will be at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 9, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 15 and 3 p.m. March 16 l UpStage Theatre, 1713 Wooddale Blvd., Baton Rouge l Tickets are $27.Visit upstagetheatre.biz
the cusp of change.” Glenn premiered his play at the 2018 International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Playing the characters in this Baton Rouge production are Kyla Bates as Johnnie Mae, Elizabeth Ervin as Buella Camrie Bynum as Martha, Caleigh Lester as Na and Brittanica Hawkins as Mary “This will be the first time we’ve staged this production, and it also kicks off our 23rd season,” Turner said. “We are storytellers at UpStage Theatre, and this is a wonderful story that we are going to share.”
Email Robin Miller at romiller@ theadvocate.com.
fallen into disrepair Some graves are cracked or damaged. Others have sunk into the ground altogether Unlike other cemeteries that might get funding from the cathedral diocese or church that they’re associated with, St. Joseph’s is maintained only by the families who have loved ones buried there.
“In a lot of cases, the families have either died out or they’ve moved away,” Rowley said. “It’s not what we have today.”
These days, she said, part of the cost of burying a loved one is the cost of perpetual care and ongoing maintenance. That wasn’t part of the mindset of people when the cemetery was founded. They assumed the families would take care of the graves.
That isn’t entirely untrue today
Many of the people involved with the maintenance of the cemetery have family buried there. Board vice president Gaiennié pays her respects to her great grandfather, Andrew Jackson (not the U.S. president), one of the first people buried in the cemetery Goldie Domingue-Baker, who is on the committee for the soiree to raise money for tomb restorations this year, has her grandfather buried there. He was a general contractor and worked on several buildings including Immaculate Conception, a Catholic church in Scotlandville near Southern Uni-
versity’s campus.
The board also helps people who want to find and/or restore their family’s tombs to do so.
Tomb restoration isn’t just about preserving the structures that are there; it’s also about preventing further damage, according to Ford, the cemetery preservationist. Over the years, some of the tombs have been repaired with modern cement, which can be problematic because it creates a watertight seal that prevents moisture from naturally escaping — leading to structural decay
“If we preserve the buildings of the past to understand historic culture, cemeteries are as significant, if not more so, as artifacts of that culture,” Ford said.
Ford noted that part of this is understanding how culture has shifted regarding death. Until 1963, the Catholic Church didn’t allow for cremation at all. People believed that human bodies had to be resurrected on Judgement Day whole. These days, a majority of Americans choose cremation, but Louisiana still has one of the lowest cremation rates in the country, and according to Ford cremation rates are even lower among Black Louisianans than White Louisianans.
“We have a moral obligation to care for bodies of the dead, memories of the dead, based on what they understood to be sacred at the
time,” she said.
St. Joseph’s today
The St. Joseph’s Cemetery is very full at the present day. It’s not an active cemetery, only accepting up to five burials a year and only if the person already has ancestors buried there. Some of the remains have been moved to other cemeteries in the city or beyond to reunite them with their families, leaving behind unique remembrances like a structure in the shape of a doll house that was built for a child who passed away before she could receive a dollhouse for Christmas. Some people in the city might still have ancestors buried there but may never know it.
Of the 10 projects identified by Ford in 2023 for restoration, the Josephine de Lupre Bertrand Ledger Stone has been completed, and work on the Ann Hicky Obelisk, potentially the tallest monument in the cemetery at one time, is underway
The soiree next month will kick off a series of events aimed at spreading awareness of the cemetery and the stories behind the people buried there. In October they’ll be hosting a scavenger hunt. With the restoration work, hopefully the cemetery’s “residents” can rest in peace for another 200 years.
Email Serena Puang at serena. puang@theadvocate.com.
PROVIDED PHOTO By UPSTAGE THEATRE
From left, Brittanica Hawkins, Kyla Bates, Camrie Bynum and Elizabeth Ervin play Black workers in a Whites-only Texas diner in UpStage Theatre ‘American Menu.’The play revolves around the lives and conversations during the civil rights era.
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Teen daughter acting up after breakup
Dear Harriette: I think my daughter might be suffering from a broken heart. I’m speculating, but a few weeks ago, she and her boyfriend broke up; he’s a rising star on his high school football team, and you know how that goes. Anyway, she’s been rude and moody, and she actually ended up pushing her mom during a heated argument. Unfortunately I wasn’t there for this as we co-parent, but when her mom told me this, I was shocked. She’s never behaved like this before, and I think it may be because she’s hurting. What should I say to her about this? What if I’m wrong and it’s not about the breakup? What then? — Tough Teen Dear Tough Teen: Spending time
Harriette Cole SENSE AND SENSITIVITy
with your daughter should be your goal. Do your best to be in touch with her through texts and calls, and carve out time for the two of you to be in each other’s company Get her to talk to you if you can. Don’t ask too many questions, as that will likely make her shut down. By being close to her, you may be able to get her to relax a bit. Between spending time with her and talking to her mom, do your best to put together the pieces to see what her mental state is. You may also try telling her stories of your life at her age, especially if you had a breakup. Ask her if you can support her in any way, and listen to see how she responds. Dear Harriette: For a few months,
I have been dating a guy who is very kind and mostly attentive. When we first met, he said that his life was great except for the fact that he didn’t have any money It turns out that was a literal statement. He hasn’t had a job in more than a year, though somehow he is able to keep an apartment and take care of himself. He does not have money to take me on dates or to do anything. As I have listened to him talk about his life, I hear him saying that he doesn’t value money He has broken up with women because they valued it too much — but he is living at the opposite extreme. His phone has been cut off at least three times this year I am growing frustrated by his reality, but I really like him. Am I fooling myself? This is a grown man, and
while he says he is looking for work, I don’t see the fruits of that effort. Why am I holding on? — No Hope Dear No Hope: It sounds like this man’s life is complicated and stressful right now He may need a friend more than anything. Because you do genuinely like him, if you believe you can be a friend to him without risking romantic entanglement at a time when he is not up for that level of engagement, continue to talk to him. See what type of person he is, how he handles his business and how responsible he is. These are real concerns. Right now he is living in crisis mode, even if he does not show it outwardly Having a longterm relationship with him will require him to get on the other side of this critical moment so that you can see how he lives. I want to be clear here: I am not saying that you cannot have a relationship with someone who has lost his job or is experiencing hard times. I am saying that to build a life with someone successfully usually requires getting to know them, spending time with them and discovering how your lives intersect and complement each other This is hard to do when someone is in the depths of crisis. You need time to determine if this relationship is worth saving. Allow that time if you think he is worth it. Send questions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.
Dear Miss Manners: I was in my office when I got an urge to go to the bathroom. I hate to do this at work, because I work in a converted town house where the bathrooms are just one toilet and one sink, like in a house. But I had no choice. I was sitting in there when I heard my boss outside the door: “Kaitlin, are you in there?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?
“Mr Warren is on the phone.”
(Well, obviously I couldn’t talk to a client from THAT position. Imagine if I’d had to get up to check my desk calendar!)
“Please ask the gentleman to call back.”
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into the office of the student newspaper, hoping that they may let me do something.”
That decision changed the trajectory of her life.
“I started writing for the Crimson White, and I just was hooked. I just loved it,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that I could go to these places, ask people questions find out information before anybody, and then tell people about it, and that was a job.”
While Crawford was in school and working at the student newspaper, it won the award for the top college newspaper in the country, and she got the opportunity for an internship at the Chicago Tribune.
“I left the day of graduation to go to Chicago, a city I’d never been to in my life, and I ended up working there in Chicago for seven years,” she said. “Then the Tribune sent me to Washington after I went to law school and pledged to cover the Supreme Court.” Crawford has been covering the court since 1994.
“How long are you going to be in there?”
“Hard to say.”
Then a colleague walked by and started talking to our boss, still standing outside the door It was like a staff meeting, except that I had other business to do. I just prayed they did not hear anything. What should I do?
Gentle reader: Find a more observant and discreet boss.
Barring that, Miss Manners suggests that weeks from now, when everyone has forgotten about this particular incident, you bring it up in a meeting:
With 31 years of experience in the nation’s capital, she describes these days as a deluge of news while “the fire hydrant is on full blast.”
Crawford says part of her current challenge as a legal reporter is trying to make sense of more than 70 executive orders, all of which are being challenged in court.
“Some of the challenges are completely bogus. Others may go somewhere — and it’s hard for me to keep all that straight,” she said. “So, of course, how can you expect viewers to? You know, there’s another lawsuit and here’s another lawsuit, and what is this? It’s challenging, but I think the main thing that we have to do as journalists now is just to cover the news and cover it fairly.”
Crawford says she thinks a lot about how she’s “standing in the shoes of people from Alabama or Louisiana” who don’t get to go hear a Supreme Court argument
“And my job is to tell them what happened that’s how I view what journalism is,”
“Just a quick reminder Since we are in fairly close quarters around here, I would suggest that if we are indisposed and in the bathroom, we not engage in business.”
Dear Miss Manners: Can you please publish a few short words on presenting a proper toast?
Among millennials and Gen Z, the word “cheers” has become both a noun and a verb: I have heard “Let’s cheers to this” and “Can we do a cheers?” Watching young people do this, e.g. on reality TV, is cringeworthy
In celebration, “cheers” should be an exclamation: “I’d like to propose a toast: Here’s to teaching young people manners and etiquette.” Then everyone raises
she said. “We’re telling people what happened who can’t be there. We’re standing in their shoes.”
Dean Kim Bissell, of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, says having someone like Crawford speak on campus is a great opportunity for students and the community “Jan brings an invaluable perspective that our students rarely have the opportunity to hear and learn from,” Bissell said. “Her insights into the intersec-
a glass and exclaims, “Cheers!”
Gentle reader: While she is always up for a good grammatical fight, Miss Manners still considers this a pretty minor infraction.
If you take off the “s,” “cheers” becomes “cheer,” which is both a noun and a verb. She suggests that you pretend not to hear the “s” (or the “a” in “a cheers”) to spare yourself the cringe. That young people are engaging in any formalities and celebrating one another is praiseworthy To that, she will propose her own preferred toast: the Italian “Cin cin.”
Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www missmanners.com.
tion of law, journalism and the highest court in the land will undoubtedly provide our audience with a unique and enriching experience.”
Crawford says that her Alabama roots run deep and she remains a huge fan of the Crimson Tide, but her “respect for Coach Mulkey and LSU as an institution across the board” led her to make the trip to Baton Rouge. She and Mulkey realized they had a lot in common.
“You know we’re both divorced, single moms. We
Rev. Leo D. Cyrus Jr.’s retirement celebration
Join for a day of service on March 22 followed by the Culminating Worship Experience on March 23 at New Hope Baptist Church, 5856 Greenwell Springs Road, Baton Rouge. This special service will honor the Rev Leo D. Cyrus Sr with uplifting music, heartfelt testimonies and an opportunity for the community to express gratitude for his nearly five decades of service.
both love basketball. My daughter plays basketball. We both love sports. It goes from the South After that interview, we stayed in touch, started talking, and we just hit it off,” Crawford said “Obviously her career and what she’s done for the sport of women’s basketball speaks for itself.”
Mulkey says she is honored to be a part of the event, as well.
“I encourage everyone to come,” Mulkey said. “It will be fun.”
Crawford contributes regularly to the “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Mornings,” and “Face the Nation,” as well as CBS News Radio and CBSNews.com. Tickets for the March 11 event are still available for the event at eventbrite. com/e/inside-the-courtrooma-conversation-with-cbsnews-jan-crawford-tickets1245409777169?aff=oddtdtc reator
Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take the plunge, follow your heart and finish what you start. It's a great day to combine your imagination with determination. Recognizing and implementing changes necessary for happiness will pay off.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Stay on target regardless of what others try to persuade you to do. Stick to basics, simplify your routine and make time for the people and pastimes that bring you joy.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Observe, and you'll figure out how you can help those you love. Discreet and kind gestures will be appreciated, bringing you closer to those you care about most.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Too much of anything will get you in trouble. Take a moment to evaluate situations and aim for balance, integrity and stability. Make what you contribute count.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Concentrate on getting things done. Talk is cheap and won't amount to anything if you don't follow through. It's how you play the game that counts. Honor and action are key.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Make changes for the right reasons. Trying to impress someone by tagging along or being their gofer won't satisfy your soul. Take the path that encourages you to do what's meaningful to you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Changing your environment will spark your imagination and fill your head with thoughts and
plans. Don't deny yourself the chance to gain ground and to use your skills in new and exciting ways.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Put your emotions aside and avoid situations filled with drama, volatility and disappointment. It's time to use your charm, intelligence and connections to your advantage.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Redefine what you want to do next. Consider what brings you joy and how to implement more of it into your everyday routine. Find ways to use your time effectively.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) Make costefficient changes at home that will ease stress and improve your living arrangements. Opportunity knocks, but it's up to you to open the door. Set rules and boundaries within meaningful relationships.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Personal investments determine your lifestyle. Selling off what's no longer necessary to make your dreams come true will positively impact your attitude and health.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Spend time organizing and clearing space to pursue what truly matters to you. Following your heart will help you redefine how you build your future.
Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.
TODAy'S CLUE: V EQUALS D
CeLebrItY CIpher
For better or For WorSe
And erneSt
SALLY Forth
beetLe bAILeY
Mother GooSe And GrIMM
SherMAn’S LAGoon
bIG
Sudoku
InstructIons: Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer
nea CroSSwordS La TimeS CroSSword
THe wiZard oF id
BLondie
BaBY BLueS
Hi and LoiS
CurTiS
BY PHILLIP ALDER Bridge
Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese general and strategist, wrote, “To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” At the bridge table, sometimes your judgment of the opponents’ skill will influence your play — as in this deal.
South is in four hearts. West leads the diamond 10. East takes the first two tricks in the suit, then shifts to the club six.Declarerwinsontheboardandplays a trump to his king. West takes the trick and returns a diamond. How should South continue?
North’s transfer bid followed by three no-trump showed five hearts and game values.
South starts with three top losers and onlyninewinners(onespade,fourhearts and four clubs). He seems to need the spade finesse to work. However, after West’s diamond lead at trick five, if hearts are splitting 3-2, declarer could discard a spade from the dummy, ruff in his hand, cash his last trump, cross to dummy with a club, draw trumps and claim. Note, though, that this fails here because West gains a second trump trick.
If West is a beginner, South must guess what to do. But if East and West are experts, West cannot have the spade king. If he did, he would have dropped the diamond nine at trick two as a suit-
preference signal and East would have shifted to spades, subduing the contract.
