






Jessie Hoffman Jr. sentenced to death for 1996 rape, murder
It is the first execution in Louisiana since 2010



Nitrogen gas used for first time in death chamber at Angola
Jessie Hoffman Jr. sentenced to death for 1996 rape, murder
It is the first execution in Louisiana since 2010
Nitrogen gas used for first time in death chamber at Angola
BY JAMES FINN and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers
Louisiana executed a man convicted of murder with nitrogen gas on Tuesday evening — the state’s first execution in 15 years and its first using the largely untested method — after a raging legal battle that ended with a gas mask strapped over his face in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola death chamber
State officials pronounced Jessie Hoffman Jr dead at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday at Angola. He inhaled pure nitrogen gas through a mask strapped to his face for 19 minutes while pinned to a gurney, officials said, until oxygen deprivation caused him to die. Officials acknowledged that Hoffman showed “convulsive activity” as he died and that he moved and shook. Hoffman was on death row for the 1996 abduction, rape and execution-style slaying of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish.
Hoffman declined to give a final statement or to eat a final meal at Angola, state officials said in a briefing after the execution. As Hoffman was executed, most of his body was covered
ä See EXECUTES, page 8A
6:50 p.m. Tuesday
on death row and director of Louisiana InterFaith against Executions. “For how we know deep in the marrow of our bones that we are all better than the worst thing that we’ve ever done.”
BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer
Around 50 friends, family members and supporters of Jessie Hoffman Jr gathered outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on a warm and breezy Tuesday evening to pray for him and commemorate his life as the state put him to death.
“Jessie will always be remembered as a reason for why we do this work,” said Alison McCrary, spiritual adviser
Hoffman’s younger sister, Florence Ruffin, was among those who joined the vigil. After visiting her brother for the final time at Angola, she staggered out of the prison, falling into the arms of a friend who waited for her at the vigil site.
Ruffin carried a brown paper sack full of candy, the last gift from her brother
“Jessie Hoffman,” it read on the outside in thick marker “8 Blowpops. 2 Skittles.”
As the vigil began, she sat under an oak tree with the paper bag at her side.
She rolled it up, placed it like a pillow beneath her head and laid back on the grass. Those at the vigil showed support for Hoffman and his family as well as the victim in his case, Mary “Molly” Elliott, and her family Hoffman was convicted in the abduction, rape and murder of Elliott in 1996.
Anti-death penalty advocates and representatives from many faiths — including Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism gave speeches to the vigil crowd, calling for an end to executions in Louisiana and wishing Hoffman peace at the moment of death.
“May this flame remind us that no life
BY JAMES FINN Staff writer
“This is not the New Orleans we grew up in,” Thomas said. “It’s becoming the town of the haves and have-nots. This city deserves renewal. We need a comeback, and nobody understands that better than me.”
Mayor LaToya Cantrell this fall Thomas presents the most formidable opposition yet to Helena Moreno, his council colleague who announced her own mayoral bid in December, has amassed a nearly million-dollar war chest and has thus far faced few opponents with robust political resumes.
Veteran N.O. council member targets high cost of living ä See THOMAS, page 7A Oliver Thomas
His long-anticipated announcement injects a fresh dose of competition into the contest to succeed
Oliver Thomas, a political veteran who overcame a corruption scandal to win a third term on the New Orleans City Council four years ago and has since touted increased investment and diminished crime in his district, is running for mayor Thomas in a prepared video Tuesday said he was jumping in the race to confront the high cost of living and lack of economic opportunity bemoaned by many New Orleanians. And he said he was running to better involve residents in the decisions made by their elected leaders.
“Thomas’ entry intensifies the
Mexico City lawmakers ban violent bullfighting
MEXICO CITY Mexico City lawmakers on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to ban violent bullfighting, triggering outrage from aficionados and celebration from animal rights advocates
The legislation, approved by a 61-1 vote, prohibits the killing of bulls and the use of sharp objects that could injure the animals. It also sets time limits on how long bulls could be in the ring, all part of an initiative dubbed “bullfighting without violence.”
The decision sparked angry protests from bullfighting supporters and matadors, some of whom tried to breach a police barricade at the local Congress. Some carried signs that read “Being a fan of la fiesta brava (bullfighting) is not a crime, it’s a point of pride.”
Meanwhile, animal rights protesters and lawmakers pushing the bill celebrated, walking out onto the steps of Congress surrounded by police in riot gear, pumping their fists and carrying stuffed bull dolls.
Harvard waives tuition for some families
CAMBRIDGE,Mass.— Dreaming of going to Harvard University?
Well, the university has made things a little easier with an announcement Monday that students whose families make up to $200,000 won’t pay tuition. The university said the plan goes into effect for the 2025-26 academic year and is aimed at making Harvard more affordable, especially for middle income students. Those students could also get additional financial aid to cover other expenses.
“Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth,” Harvard University President Alan Garber said in a statement.
“By bringing people of outstanding promise together to learn with and from one another, we truly realize the tremendous potential of the University.”
Garber said students whose families make less than $100,000 will pay nothing, meaning their tuition as well as other expenses like food and housing will be covered.
Tuition is $56,500, but rises to $82,866 with food, housing and other expenses.
12 killed in plane crash, including musician
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A small commercial plane crash off the coast of Honduras killed 12 people, including a well-known Garifuna musician, authorities said.
The Lanhsa Airlines flight crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff Monday night from the island of Roatan en route to the mainland city of La Ceiba. It carried 17 passengers and crew, five of whom were rescued and hospitalized.
Police reported that the plane failed to reach full altitude and sank quickly after impact. Local fishermen rescued the survivors.
Among the victims was Aurelio Martínez Suazo, a former member of Congress and member of the Garifuna ethnic group, which is of mixed African and Indigenous heritage. Martínez Suazo also held U.S. citizenship.
Files related to JFK assassination released DALLAS Previously classified documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released Tuesday following an order by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office.
The documents were posted on the website of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The vast majority of the National Archives’ collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination have previously been released Trump told reporters Monday that has administration will be releasing 80,000 files, though it’s not clear how many of those are among the millions of pages of records that have already been made public.
BY WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH Gaza Strip — Israel launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday that killed more than 400 Palestinians, local health officials said, shattering a ceasefire in place since January as it vowed to force Hamas to release more hostages and relinquish control of the territory
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to free half of the remaining hostages as a precondition for extending the ceasefire Israel’s deadliest bombardment of the territory in the 17-month war killed mostly women and children, according to the Gaza
Health Ministry
Netanyahu said the attack was “only the beginning” and that Israel would press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims — destroying Hamas and freeing all hostages held by the militant group.
All further ceasefire negotiations will take place “under fire,” he said in a statement aired on national television. The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.
The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate eastern Gaza and head toward the center of the territory, indicating that Israel could soon launch renewed ground operations. The new campaign comes as aid groups warn supplies are running out two weeks after Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel and other goods to Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.
The pre-dawn barrage across Gaza struck homes and shelters and set a tent camp ablaze as families slept or prepared the “sohour,” the meal Muslims eat before they start the daily fast in the holy month of Ramadan. In Gaza City, Omar Greygaa said that after the strikes, he ran out to help survivors in a nearby stricken building.
“In every room I found the dead.
I finish in one place and go to an-
other, and I find more dead,” he said.
“I don’t know if we’re in a state of war or truce.”
The attack could signal the full resumption of a war that has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza. It also raised concerns about the fate of the roughly two dozen hostages held by Hamas who are believed to still be alive.
A senior Hamas official said Netanyahu’s decision to return to war amounts to a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages. Izzat al-Risheq accused Netanyahu of launching the strikes to save his farright governing coalition
There were no reports of any attacks by Hamas several hours after the bombardment.
But Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired rockets toward Israel for the first time since the ceasefire began. The volley set off sirens in Israel’s southern Negev desert but was intercepted before it reached the country’s territory, the military said.
BY KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES and ELDAR ERMIC Associated Press
KOCANI,North Macedonia Municipal workers in Kocani dug graves Tuesday for the dozens of young people killed in a nightclub fire as protests were held in cities across North Macedonia.
Authorities said the nightclub blaze in the eastern town early Sunday was caused by indoor use of pyrotechnics and numerous safety violations at the venue, killing 59 people and injuring more than 150 during a live concert. The fire has sparked outrage over alleged bribery and corruption linked to the safety violations at the nightclub.
Crews used excavators to dig rows of graves in Kocani as the town awaits the burial of young residents whose remains are still being processed for identification
“It’s very bad, very bad. I have been crying for three days,” resident Dragi Ignjatov said. “Children of our friends are gone. It can’t be worse than this, for Macedonia and for our city.”
Late Tuesday, rallies were held in solidarity with the victims’ families, with thousands gathering in the capital, Skopje, holding up candles and cellphone flashlights during the nighttime event
Pensioner Zoran Jovanovski said he hoped the tragedy would trigger reforms to fight corruption “The solution is very hard. There needs to be a change in mentality a different way to run this country,” he said
Government officials appealed for calm after some demonstrations a day earlier had turned violent. Protesters in Kocani overturned a van, hurled rocks at a municipal building, and smashed a cafeteria believed to have shared owner-
ship with the nightclub.
Investigations have so far revealed that the club was operating at least double its 250-person capacity without proper licensing. Officials say the numerous safety violations included no emergency exits insufficient fire equipment the use of flammable cladding and no sprinkler system. Many victims were trampled as panicked concertgoers rushed toward a single exit.
Neighboring Serbia and Bulgaria, which immediately offered assistance following the tragedy, were observing a day of national mourning Tuesday in solidarity with North Macedonia. Medical specialists from the Czech Republic, Serbia and Israel have arrived to support treatment efforts for the injured, Health Ministry officials said. The European Union is helping transport burn victims to nearby countries.
Around 50 patients are being treated in mostly neighboring and nearby countries, the majority of them with serious burns.
BY AAMER MADHANI, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a lengthy call Tuesday to an immediate pause in strikes against energy and infrastructure targets in the Ukraine war, but the Russian leader stopped short of backing a broader 30-day pause in fighting that the U.S. administration is pressing for.
The White House described it as the first step in a “movement to peace” that it hopes will include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and eventually a full and lasting end to the fighting. There was no indication that Putin has backed away from his previous conditions, fiercely opposed by Kiev, to consider a broader ceasefire. Russia wants Ukraine to renounce any prospect of joining the NATO military alliance, sharply cut its army, and protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow’s orbit, among other concessions. In fact, Putin during the call reiterated his demand for an end to foreign military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Shortly after the call ended, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv followed by explosions in the city Local officials urged people to seek shelter Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that Ukraine is open to any proposals that lead to a sustainable and just peace but stressed the need for full transparency in discussions.
“We need to understand what the conversation is about,” Zelenskyy said. “What are the details? And hopefully, we will be fully informed, and our partners will discuss everything with us.” He added: “There are two sides in this war Russia and Ukraine. Trying to negotiate without Ukraine, in my view, will not be productive.”
BY MARCIA DUNN AP aerospace writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday, hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end.
It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring. The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles by the
time of splashdown.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. “What a ride,” replied Hague, the capsule’s commander
The two astronauts’ plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work” and turning “Butch and Suni” into household names. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away Williams became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to main-
tain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA’s decisions from the start.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it’s abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families. Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother and relatives.
Join us forthe 3rdAnnual Family Health Expo,hostedbyWest JeffersonMedical Center’s Family Birth Place! Meethealthcareprofessionals and take advantage of free health screenings,vaccines, and blood donations.Learn about carseat safety,enjoy kid-friendly activitieslikegamesand firetruck fun, and relax with light refreshments. This free event also offersdoor prizes and celebrates health and wellness forthe whole family.Let’s make this your healthiest year yet—becausefamily is everything! For moreinformation, pleasevisit wjmc.org/expo Saturday,March 22, 10 am-2 pm Mel OttMultipurposeCenter 2301 Belle ChasseHwy,Gretna LCMChealth.org
BY JOSHUA GOODMAN and GISELA SALOMON Associated Press
MIAMI Franco Caraballo called his wife Friday night, crying and panicked. Hours earlier, the 26-year-old barber and dozens of other Venezuelan migrants at a federal detention facility in Texas were dressed in white clothes, handcuffed and taken onto a plane. He had no idea where he was going.
Twenty-four hours later, Caraballo’s name disappeared from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator
On Monday, his wife, Johanny Sánchez, learned Caraballo was among more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants flown over the weekend to El Salvador where they are in a maximum-security prison after being accused by the Trump administration of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Sánchez insists her husband isn’t a gang member. She struggles even to find logic in the accusation.
Flights by U.S. immigration authorities set off a fran-
tic scramble among terrified families after hundreds of immigrants vanished from ICE’s online locator Some turned up at that massive El Salvador prison, where visitors, recreation and education are not allowed. The U.S. has paid El Salvador’s government $6 million to hold immigrants, many of them Venezuelan, whose government rarely accepts deportees from the U.S. But many families have no idea where to find their loved ones. El Salvador has no online database to look up inmates, and families there often struggle to get information.
“I don’t know anything about my son,” said Xiomara Vizcaya, a 46-year-old Venezuelan.
Ali David Navas Vizcaya had been in U.S. detention since early 2024, when he was stopped at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing where he had an appointment to talk to immigration officers He called her late Friday and said he thought he was being deported to Venezuela or Mexico.
“He told me, ‘Finally, we’re going to be together, and this nightmare is going to be over,’” Vizcaya said in tele-
phone interview from her home in the northern Venezuela city of Barquisimeto.
His name is no longer in ICE’s system. She said he has no criminal record and suspects he may have been mistakenly identified as a Tren de Aragua member because of several tattoos.
“He left for the American dream, to be able to help me financially, but he never had the chance to get out” of prison, she said.
Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2013, when its oil-dependent economy collapsed. Most initially went to other Latin American countries but more headed to the U.S. after COVID-19 restrictions lifted during the Biden administration.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced he had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the U.S. to deport noncitizens without any legal recourse including rights to appear before an immigration or federal court judge.
Many conservatives have cheered the deportations and the Trump administration for taking a hard stance on immigration.
Woman who had sought protection in Colo. churches detained, advocates say
BY COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press
DENVER
BY SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press
NEW DELHI Authorities
imposed an indefinite curfew in parts of a western Indian city on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes were sparked by Hindu nationalist groups who want to demolish the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim Mughal ruler
Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city broke out on Monday during a protest led by Hindu nationalist groups demanding the de-
molition of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim Mughal ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years. Lawmaker Chandrashekhar Bawankule said at least 34 police personnel and five other people were injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence. Senior police office Ravinder Singal said at least 50 people have been arrested so far Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s top elected official, said the violence began after “rumors were spread that things containing religious content were burnt” by the protesters, referring to the Quran. Aurangzeb’s tomb is
in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city, some 310 miles from Nagpur The city was earlier called Aurangabad, after the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb is a loathed figure among India’s Hindu nationalists, who accuse him of persecuting Hindus during his rule in the 17th century, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated. As tensions between Hindus and Muslims have mounted under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scorn for Aurangzeb has grown. Modi has made references to Aurangzeb in the past, accusing him of persecuting Hindus.
ist. Johnston, who defended Denver’s so-called sanctuary city policies in Congress earlier this month, called on people to demand that ICE release Vizguerra and give her due process rights.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston blasted the Trump administration for the reported arrest of Vizguerra, an immigration and labor activ-
— A woman who gained prominence after she took refuge in churches in Colorado to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration has been detained, immigration advocates said Tuesday U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether Jeanette Vizguerra had been taken into custody Vizguerra, a mother of four, was arrested at a Denver-area Target store where she worked on Monday, said Jordan Garcia of the American Friends Service Committee, who has been in contact with Vizguerra’s lawyer and family Vizguerra has been trying to gain a visa given to crime victims that allows them to remain in the United States since she left sanctuary in churches in 2020, Garcia said.
“This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents,” he said in a statement
Topbusinessleaders,investors,innovativestartup founders,and industry expertsacrosstechnology, healthcare,education,and beyond willconvene at this year’s NewOrleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) to discussthe stateofentrepreneurship andemergingopportunities.Through panels, discussions, andnetworking, attendees will gaininsightsfromthose shapingthe region’s economic landscape. Nowinits 14th year,NOEWremains theGulf South’sleadingevent for business,innovation, andculture.The 2025 eventwilltakeplace from March24toMarch 29,withfreeregistration availableatwww.noew.org. Attendeescan accessthe NOEW Summit andRSVPfor partnerledand NOEW in Your Neighborhood (NIYN) events,which areavailable on afirst-come,firstserved basis. This year’s flagshipevent,the NOEW Summit,will take placeonMarch 27 and28atLoyolaUniversity. Previously produced by localstartup accelerator, TheIdeaVillage,NOEWisenteringanew chapter in 2025 througha partnershipwithLoyola’s Center for Entrepreneurshipand Community Development(CECD)atthe CollegeofBusiness. This collaborationmarks thefirsttimeLoyola willserve as aco-producer,helping to expand theevent’s reachand deepen itstiestothe local entrepreneurialcommunity
“Loyola is playingacentral role in NOEW in 2025 transforming ourcampusintoahub for innovation andentrepreneurship,”saidSam McCabe,assistant directorofthe CECD at Loyola.“Loyola is focusedon empowering students to create meaningful change, andhosting an eventthatbringstogetherinnovators, culturebearers,and leadersworking to shapethe Gulf Southalignsperfectly with that commitment.” NOEW invitesinvestors lookingfor theirnext venture, business leadersseeking to connectand exchange ideas, entrepreneurs readytoscale andanyoneinthe GreaterNew Orleansbusiness community whoisready to supportand shapethe city’s economicfuture.
Some of thekey NOEW Summit sessions willinclude:
Starting Again: LessonsLearned &The AI-DrivenFuture: Matt Wisdom,founder of TurboSquid,and ChrisMeaux,founder of WAITR, willshare lessonsfromtheir first companies, how they areapproachingentrepreneurshipdifferently andhow AI is reshapingthe startup landscape. TheFutureofNew Orleans’ Brand: Lisa LaCour,Founder andCEO of TheVault Collective, willleadadiscussionwithWaltLeger,President of NewOrleans &Co.,Jon Atkinson,CEO of TheIdea Village, andJeff Schwartz, Director of Economic Developmentfor theCityofNew Orleans. Together they willexplore howtoalign NewOrleans’ global brandand rich culturewithinnovationtodrive the city’s next phaseofgrowth.
StartupNOIRNOLA: Adedicated summit celebratingBlack entrepreneursand investors, with alineupfocused on funding, scalingand breaking barrierstogrowth. Universities as Catalysts forInnovation in Louisiana: Josh FleigofLA.IO willmoderate a conversation with Dr.Xavier Cole from Loyola,Greg Trahan from LSUand Tará LopezfromSoutheastern to discusshow thestate’s universities arefueling economic growth in theGulfSouth On Friday,March 28,the NOEW Summit will featureThe Idea Village’sannualcelebrated IDEApitch competitionatthe CollegeofBusiness at Loyola University.Thisannualpitch competition features VILLAGEx alumni poised forbreakout successand thelaunchofthe Momentum Fund anew TheIdeaVillage affiliated investment fund designed to help accelerate themomentumofour region’s topcompanies.Thisisachancetosee the localstartup communityinactioninalivelypitch andpanel discussion that highlights up-and-coming companies. TheNOEWSummitwillconcludewith My BlackCountry:Songs andStories –Alice Randall, DuskyWatersand TeenaMay Hosted by Arthel Neville, this eventwillfeature thenew MY BLACKCOUNTRY memoir andalbum by awardwinningauthorand songwriter AliceRandall,with guestperformances from DuskyWaters, TeenaMay, GraceGibson, LeylaMcCalla andspecial guests This eventispresented in partnershipwithLoyola’s CollegeofMusic andMedia andthe NewOrleans Book Festival “NOEWhas always been aboutpushing bigideas forward,” said Atkinson.“The2025Summitbuilds on that legacy with alineupthatspeakstothe future of business,the creative economyand theroleNew Orleansplays in shapingboth.” Throughout theweek, majorinstitutionsand business organizations—includingthe Albert Lepage Center forEntrepreneurshipand Innovation at Tulane University,The BeachatUNO,GNO,Inc TheIdeaVillage,NieuxSociety,TulaneUniversity Innovation Institute, andXavier University—will host programmingalongside localcommunity organizations, making NOEW atruly collaborative efforttoadvance entrepreneurship in theGulfSouth. This citywide collaborationkicks off on March 24 with NOEW In Your Neighborhood (NIYN) aseriesofmorethan35partner-drivenevents spanningworkshops,networkingsessions, panels andpitch competitions.NIYNconnectsfounders, investors, andbusinessleaderswhile showcasing theinnovationand resilience that define New Orleans’ entrepreneurialecosystem.The week will culminatewiththe Tulane University Book Festival reinforcingthe intersection of business,culture,and thoughtleadership. Visitwww.noew.orgfor afullscheduleofevents registration information andmoredetails about NOEW 2025
Finally, there’s atreatment to conquer neck, back and leg pain without dangerous medications,injections or painfulsurgery.
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-Orthopedic Technology Review
•“Vertebral axial (spinal) decompression was successfulin71% of the778 cases” -Journal of Neurological Research
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BY CHRIS MEGERIAN, LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON In an extraordinary display of conflict between the executive and judiciary branches, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected calls for impeaching judges shortly after President Donald Trump demanded the removal of one who ruled against his deportation plans.
The rebuke from the Supreme Court’s leader demonstrated how controversy over recent flights of Venezuelan immigrants has inflamed tensions over the judiciary’s role, with a legal case challenging Trump’s actions now threatening to spiral into a clash of constitutional powers.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judi-
cial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The rare statement came just hours after a social media post from Trump, who described U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg as an unelected “troublemaker and agitator.” Boasberg had issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from an 18th century law
“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL
IMMIGRATIONMAYHAVEBEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,”
Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced
to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
Although Trump has routinely criticized judges, especially as they limit his efforts to expand presidential power, his latest post escalated his conflict with a judiciary that’s been one of the few restraints on his aggressive agenda. Impeachment is a rare step that is usually taken only in cases of grave ethical or criminal misconduct.
The relationship between Roberts and Trump has shifted through the years. Roberts emphasized judicial independence during Trump’s first term, taking issue with the president’s description of a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge” in 2018.
Before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Roberts warned against threats to the judiciary and called for even unpopular court decisions to be respected.
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON The disman-
tling of the U.S. Agency for International Development by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution, a federal judge ruled Tuesday as he indefinitely blocked DOGE from making further cuts to the agency The order requires the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those put on administrative leave, though it appears to stop short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency In one of the first DOGE
lawsuits against Musk himself, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland rejected the Trump administration’s position that Musk is merely President Donald Trump’s adviser Musk’s public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has “firm control over DOGE,” the judge found pointing to an online post where Musk said he had “fed USAID into the wood chipper.”
The judge acknowledged that it’s likely that USAID is no longer capable of performing some of its statutorily required functions.
“Taken together, these facts support the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated,” Chuang wrote in the preliminary in-
junction.
The lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their attorneys said the ruling “effectively halts or reverses” many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency The administration has said that DOGE is searching for and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, consistent with the campaign message that helped Trump win the 2024 election The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Instantshade
Enjoy
competition, particularly with council member Moreno,” said Ed Chervenak, a political scientist at the University of New Orleans who runs UNO’s Survey Research Center “He will tout his expertise in government in dealing with improving infrastructure and delivering services. The question people will ask is has he delivered tangible results in District E that he can scale citywide?”
It also culminates a redemptive arc Thomas has traced since 2007, when he publicly apologized to voters, resigned his council seat and pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from a bribery scandal that had engulfed City Hall. Before that affair, his political connections, lengthy experience and everyman persona lent Thomas the aura of a mayor-in-waiting.
Voters in 2021 decided he had earned a second chance and sent him back to the council, this time for its District E seat, representing New Orleans East and the Lower 9th Ward. Long résumé
Thomas grew up in the Lower 9th Ward, one of five children of a laborer and a telephone operator After earning a business studies degree from the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico, he took jobs on the East Coast before returning to New Orleans to work first as a substitute teacher, and later with a private firm that ran the city’s housing developments.
He broke into politics in earnest in 1986 when Ken Carter, one of the city’s first Black tax assessors whom Thomas had helped elect, called to urge him to meet with then-District B council member Jim Singleton, a leader in the powerful Uptown-based Black Organization for Leadership Development. Impressed, Singleton hired Thomas a legislative aide.
Thomas later won the District B seat when Singleton moved on to secure an atlarge seat. In 1998, Thomas won an at-large council post when Singleton launched a failed bid for mayor
He held that role until 2007, when he admitted in federal court to taking bribes from Stan “Pampy” Barré in exchange for helping Barré keep a lucrative deal to manage city-owned parking lots. Thomas directly acknowledged that history in his campaign announcement.
“People keep telling me the reasons I shouldn’t run for mayor,” Thomas said Tuesday “Some people say it’s my past. I’ve owned it. I’ve taken responsibility, and I’ve learned immeasurably from it.”
After returning from three years in federal custody Thomas began hosting a morning show on WBOKFM in the 2010s and has con-
tinued in that role on-and-off since then.
He ousted incumbent District E member Cyndi Nguyen four years ago with 57%
of the district vote.
Thomas’ campaign announcement also wasted no time jabbing at Moreno and other council colleagues,
criticizing what he said was infighting on the panel on which he serves, which has frequently clashed with Cantrell during her second term. At times, Thomas has been a dissenting voice against Moreno and other members.
“The City Council’s in turmoil,” he said. “Nobody’s working together Too much finger-pointing.”
Moreno said Tuesday the election will provide city residents “with an important choice” on who to trust.
Her campaign later noted Thomas’ entry and threw a punch of its own, saying “we know some will run to maintain the status quo — to protect the systems that benefit them, but fail our people.”
Race takes shape
Thomas has hired Breithaupt and campaign manager Ethan Ashley so far He took in by far the most money last year of any other candidates in the field besides Moreno, with $192,000
raised and $205,000 on-hand at year’s end, according to state records. He has touted steep drops in violent crime in New Orleans East and the city as a whole. Thomas in his announcement also highlighted the transformation underway at the old Six Flags site in New Orleans East, which has sat in disrepair since Hurricane Katrina. A campaign platform he released Tuesday focuses on fixing city services and infrastructure, expanding economic opportunity and investing in education and public safety, among other priorities.
Moreno, Thomas and other candidates will confront a thick layer of disillusionment New Orleanians harbor toward the city’s political class. At the same time, analysts say Thomas and Moreno will each benefit from the visibility that comes from having already held citywide offices.
Hunting,fishing,boating,critters,andscience Yes, thereisaconnection. Find outmoreatthe LouisianaSportsman Show,presented by Shell, March28– 31 in LaPlace.
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with a thick blanket, though witnesses said his hands were visible with his index finger and thumb pointing toward each other — a sacred hand gesture in Buddhism.
His spiritual adviser, a Buddhist, knelt near him while chanting as Hoffman died. Media witnesses said they entered the death chamber at 6:17 p.m., that gas began to flow to Hoffman at 6:21 p.m. and that he started twitching. His hands clenched and his head jerked as the gas flowed, they said, and his breathing grew increasingly shallow His last visible breath appeared at 6:37 p.m and the curtains were closed to the death chamber shortly after When the curtains reopened at 6:50 p.m., the warden pronounced Hoffman dead.
Lawyers for Hoffman, the only one of Louisiana’s 56 death row prisoners who advocates acknowledged had exhausted his appeals, had filed a flurry of last-minute legal challenges in an attempt to spare his life.
“Jessie no longer bore any resemblance to the 18-year-old who killed Molly Elliott,” said one of his attorneys, Cecelia Kappel, in a statement following Hoffman’s death. “The State was able to execute him by pushing out a new protocol and setting execution dates to prevent careful judicial review and shrouding the process in secrecy.”
Judges in state and federal court struck Hoffman’s petitions down in a blizzard of orders Tuesday, including one from the U.S Supreme Court. They cleared the way for the first execution of its kind in the United States outside of Alabama, where officials have put four people to death via nitrogen gas hypoxia in the past 14 months.
Andy Elliott, the husband of the victim in Hoffman’s case, called the execution “bittersweet news” in a statement Tuesday night.
“There is relief that this long nightmare is finally over but also renewed grief for Molly and sadness for Mr Hoffman’s family, whose nightmare began when mine did and who’ve also had to go through nearly 30 years of this gut-wrenching process through no fault of their own,” Elliott said. Hoffman’s wife, Illona, said
Tuesday evening that he was failed by multiple systems. As a child, he was not kept safe and given the guidance he deserved, she said. And as an adult, another system chose vengeance over justice in his death
“The past few weeks have been incredibly hard, filled with an unimaginable weight that no one should have to carry,” she said in a statement. “Yet through it all, Jessie remained grounded and calm. He faced everything with a strength and grace that most could never understand.”
Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution protocols formed a template for Louisiana officials who recently crafted their own revised death penalty procedure “We followed the protocol of Alabama,” Louisiana corrections Secretary Gary Westcott said He called Hoffman’s execution by nitrogen gas “flawless.”
That execution method — a
source of deep controversy and criticism from religious activists and death penalty opponents, who contest that it is inhumane and experimental — emerged amid some states’ struggles to obtain drugs for lethal injections from pharmaceutical companies who became wary of being affiliated with capital punishment.
Hoffman’s execution culminated a political sea-change in Louisiana that ushered in a slew of more punitive criminal justice policies at the behest of Republican Gov Jeff Landry. Landry, an ardent death penalty supporter, former law enforcement officer and rising star in national conservative politics, took office early last year and swiftly exacted his will over the state Legislature to make nitrogen gas hypoxia and electrocution approved execution methods in the state. Landry and his political allies argue that executions fulfill con-
tracts that the government strikes with victims’ relatives once courts hand up capital convictions. For 15 years, he said the state was not fulfilling those contracts as Louisiana’s death chamber sat unused.
Anti-death penalty advocates and some religious activists counter that Louisiana has long sentenced men to die only to later alter their sentences after uncovering legal system errors. Victims’ families have varied views on what constitutes justice, and carrying out executions in their names overlooks the complexity of those views, they argue.
Landry did not witness Hoffman’s execution, a spokesperson said, though members of his staff were present at Angola on Tuesday evening.
“If you commit heinous acts of violence in this State, it will cost you your life,” Landry said in a statement after Hoffman’s death. Louisiana Attorney General Liz
Murrill, a Republican, was at Angola but did not witness the execution.
Among the challenges to Hoffman’s execution that emerged Tuesday was a plea from a family member of Hoffman’s victim.
Kate Murphy, a sister-in-law to Elliott, asked in a letter dated Monday for a pardon hearing for Hoffman.
“I want my opportunity to speak as a victim’s family member in the clemency process before Jessie is executed and am distraught that my voice cannot be heard,” Murphy wrote. “Executing Jessie Hoffman is not justice in my name, it is the opposite.”
Andy Elliott said last week that he was torn about the execution after spending nearly 30 years waiting for finality in the case. He said he wanted the case to come to a close but that he’d become
indifferent toward the choice between the death penalty and life in prison without parole
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections did not make Hoffman available for interviews ahead of his execution and has declined interview requests from The Times-Picayune | The Advocate.
Hoffman was unsuccessful before four separate courts Tuesday in seeking a reprieve. State and federal judges rejected his arguments that the execution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, that it violated state protections for religious freedom and that Hoffman was wrongly sentenced by an all-White jury biased by racial stereotypes. Hoffman’s lawyers also lost a bid to have a federal judge order that the execution be videotaped and livestreamed.
Shortly before the state was expected to put him to death, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision not to intervene in Hoffman’s case.
Hoffman had argued to them that breathing nitrogen gas would violate his Buddhist beliefs.
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed with the majority decision and said they would grant a stay for Hoffman.
Justice Neil Gorsuch also wrote a dissent, saying he would issue a stay Gorsuch argued that both the federal district and appeals courts in Hoffman’s case should have considered his claim about the execution method violating his faith under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
Within the walls of Angola, the sprawling state prison complex located deep within rural West Feliciana Parish, the mood among prisoners and staff — particularly
those who live and work in proximity to death row grew increasingly dour as Hoffman’s execution neared, according to multiple people familiar with the prison who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount private discussions with officials.
Darrel Vannoy, the warden of the prison, said that his staff had acted professionally in carrying out Hoffman’s execution.
“They showed Mr Hoffman dignity and respect, and I am proud of them,” he said.
Inmates on death row were “kind of quiet and solemn today,” Vannoy added.
The Angola death chamber where Hoffman was executed is located within a unit that’s home to some of the prison’s most wellbehaved inmates.
Called Camp F, that unit is located near the death row building where the condemned men are housed.
Both buildings are located in the northwest swath of the massive prison complex, people familiar with the prison layout said. Camp F houses predominantly older prisoners who are considered low-security risks and have shown themselves to be well-behaved
Under new execution protocols developed by corrections officials, Hoffman was moved from death row to an isolated cell within Camp F several days before his execution date.
He testified in a recent court hearing that the move was difficult for him because he was placed in isolation and away from what he was used to. Hoffman would have taken about 50 steps from that temporary holding cell to the death chamber in the moments before his execution, said one of the people familiar with the prison layout.
Hoffman was put to death at dusk on a clear-skied Louisiana spring day Yellow and blue wildflowers dotted the rolling green hills abutting the Tunica Trace, a winding, two-lane road that juts
20 miles northwest from the village of St. Francisville and comes to an abrupt end at the prison gates.
Hoffman’s family visited him in the hours leading up to his death, including his wife.
Signs of heavier-than-normal security were everywhere at Angola on Tuesday. Reporters arriving at the prison were screened twice by state law enforcement officers at a pair of vehicle checkpoints along the road leading to the prison gates.
A few hundred feet before the gates, a group of anti-death penalty advocates held a vigil and protested the execution, hugging, crying and speaking quietly Staff writers Meghan Friedmann, Andrea Gallo, Haley Miller and Jillian Kramer contributed to this report.
James Finn covers politics for The Times-Picayune | Nola.com. Email him at jfinn@theadvocate.com.
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
N.O. airport to get nonstop flight to Florida
Breeze Airways announced its 12th nonstop route out of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
Breeze Airways will launch a new direct flight to Tampa, Florida, starting June 1 for $39 per ticket.
Flights will operate four times a week on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Breeze Airways will join Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines in offering nonstop flights from the New Orleans airport to the Tampa International Airport, near the popular beaches of Clearwater and St. Petersburg.
The airline was founded in 2021 by former JetBlue CEO David Neeleman as a low-cost, convenient option for domestic travel It serves 70 U.S. cities across 31 states.
The new route comes shortly after Spirit Airlines announced a new international route from New Orleans to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, starting May 8. In its release, the airport said New Orleans has one of the largest Honduran populations outside of Honduras.
Google to spend $32B on cybersecurity firm
Google has struck a deal to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion in what would be the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition at the same time it’s facing a potential breakup of its internet empire.
The proposed takeover announced Tuesday is part of Google’s aggressive expansion into cloud computing during an artificial intelligence boom The frenzy is driving demand for data centers that provide the computing power for AI technology and intensifying the competition in that space among Google and two other tech powerhouses, Microsoft and Amazon. If the all-cash transaction is approved by regulators, Wiz will join Google Cloud — an increasingly important part of its business separate from the search and advertising operations that account for most of the $350 billion annual revenue at Google’s parent company Alphabet. With the advent of AI, however, the cloud division has become a rising star at Google. Annual revenue in the division was $26.3 billion in 2022, and soared 64% to $43.2 billion last year Wiz, a five-year-old startup founded by four longtime friends who met in the Israeli army when they were still teenagers, is on track for an estimated $1 billion in revenue this year After getting its start in Israel in 2020, Wiz now oversees an operation that makes security tools protecting the information stored in data centers from its current headquarters in New York.
Director accused of swindling Netflix
A Hollywood writer-director was arrested Tuesday on charges that he swindled $11 million from Netflix for a sci-fi show that never aired, instead steering the cash toward cryptocurrency investments and a series of lavish purchases that included a fleet of Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari.
Carl Erik Rinsch perhaps best known for directing the film “47 Ronin” has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering over what federal prosecutors allege was a scheme to defraud the streaming giant.
Prosecutors said Netflix had initially paid about $44 million to purchase an unfinished show called “White Horse” from Rinsch, but eventually doled out another $11 million after he said he needed the additional cash to complete the show Rather than using the extra money to wrap up production, Rinsch quietly transferred the money to a personal brokerage account, where he made a series of failed investments that lost about half of the $11 million in two months, according to prosecutors.
Big Tech resumes slide
BY STAN CHOE Associated Press
NEWYORK Wall Street swung back down on Tuesday, and its former superstars once again led the way
The S&P 500 dropped for its latest swerve in a scary ride, where it tumbled by 10% from its record and then rallied for two straight days
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite also sank. Tesla was one of the heaviest weights on the market after falling 5.3% The electric-vehicle maker’s stock has been struggling on wor-
ries that it will lose sales because of anger at its CEO, Elon Musk, who has been leading efforts to cut spending by the U.S. government.
EV rivals, meanwhile, continue to chip away at its business.
The drop for Big Tech continues a trend that’s taken hold in the market’s recent sell-off: Stocks whose momentum had earlier seemed unstoppable have since dropped sharply following criticism they had simply grown too expensive.
Chief among them have been stocks that zoomed higher in the frenzy around AI technology Nvidia fell 3.3% as it hosted an event known as “AI Woodstock.” Super Micro Computer which makes servers, lost 9.6%. Palantir Technologies, which offers an AI platform for
customers, sank 4%
They’ve been among the biggest losers as Wall Street retrenches amid uncertainty about what President Donald Trump’s trade war will do to the economy Trump’s announcements on tariffs and other policies have created worries that U.S. households and businesses could hold back on their spending, which would hurt the economy
It all makes things more complicated for the Federal Reserve, which is beginning its latest meeting on interest-rate policy and will make its announcement on Wednesday
The Fed could lower its main interest rate, which would make it easier for U.S. businesses and households to borrow That in turn could boost the economy But lower
interest rates can also push inflation upward, and U.S. consumers have already begun bracing for higher inflation because of tariffs.
Virtually everyone on Wall Street expects the Fed to hold its main interest rate steady on Wednesday, as it waits for clues about how conditions play out. The job market, for the moment at least, appears relatively stable after the economy closed last year running at a solid rate. More attention will be on the forecasts the Fed will publish after the meeting, showing where officials expect interest rates, inflation and the economy to head in upcoming years. For now, traders on Wall Street are largely expecting the Fed to deliver two or three cuts to rates by the end of 2025.
ByD has announced system it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps
BY ELAINE KURTENBACH AP business writer
BANGKOK — China’s energy and auto giant
BYD has announced an ultra fast EV charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps. BYD, China’s largest EV maker, said Monday that its flash-chargers can provide a full charge for its latest EVs within five to eight minutes, similar to the amount of time needed to fill a fuel tank. It plans to build more than 4,000 of the new charging stations across China Charging times and limited ranges have been a major factor constraining the switch from gas and diesel vehicles to EVs, though Chinese drivers have embraced that change,
with sales of battery powered and hybrid vehicles jumping 40% last year BYD, which stands for “build your dreams,” began pre-sales of its Han L and Tang L models, which are upgraded versions of earlier models.
The Chinese company started out making batteries and has been refining its battery and energy storage technology while building an auto empire that is expanding outside China. It says its 1 megawatt flash chargers can provide power for nearly 250 miles in five minutes.
Ultra-high voltage and a large current are required to maximize charging speeds, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu said in a statement.
“To completely solve users’ anxiety over charging, our pursuit is to make the charging time for EVs as short as the refueling time for fuel vehicles,” Wang said.
The company also said that its flash-charging system relies on silicon carbide power chips with voltage levels of up to 1,500V that it developed on its own. Its Blade lithium-iron
phosphate battery is perhaps the world’s safest and most efficient EV battery, with Tesla opting to use it in some of its EVs, industry analyst Michael Dunne said in a recent report. BYD reported it made just over 4.3 million “new energy vehicles” last year up 41% from a year earlier, including 1.8 million battery electric vehicles and 2.5 million plug in hybrids. The price of its shares traded on China’s smaller market in Shenzhen has surged nearly 50% in the past six months.
While BYD’s fanciest, latest premium models are expected to sell for up to about $40,000, it also makes much less expensive EVs including the Seagull, which sells for around $12,000 in China.
BYD barely nudged ahead of Tesla in production of battery-powered EVs in 2024, making 1,777,965 compared with Tesla’s 1,773,443. In early January, Tesla said its sales dropped in 2024, a first in more than a dozen years, as rivals such as BMW, Volkswagen and BYD gained market shares with competitive EVs
BY SARAH PARVINI AP technology writer
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang kicked off the company’s artificial intelligence developer conference on Tuesday by telling a crowd of thousands that AI is going through “an inflection point.”
At GTC 2025 — dubbed the “Super Bowl of AI” Huang focused his keynote on the company’s advancements in AI and his predictions for how the industry will move over the next few years. Demand for GPUs from the top four cloud service providers is surging, he said, adding that he expects Nvidia’s data center infrastructure revenue to hit $1 trillion by 2028. Huang’s highly anticipated announcement revealed more details around Nvidia’s next-generation graphics architectures: Blackwell
Ultra and Vera Rubin named for the famous astronomer Blackwell Ultra is slated for the second half of 2025, while its successor, the Rubin AI chip, is expected to launch in late 2026. Rubin Ultra will take the stage in 2027. In a talk that lasted over two hours, Huang outlined the “extraordinary progress” that AI has made. In 10 years, he said, AI graduated from perception and “computer vision” to generative AI, and now to agentic AI or AI that has the ability to reason.
“AI understands the context, understands what we’re asking. Understands the meaning of our request,” he said. “It now generates answers. Fundamentally changed how computing is done.”
The next wave of AI, he said, is already happening: robotics. Robotics fueled by so-called “physical AI” can understand
concepts like friction and inertia cause and effect, and object permanence, he said.
“Each one of these phases, each one of these waves, opens up new market opportunities for all of us,” Huang said. The key to that physical AI, and many of Huang’s other announcements, was the concept of using synthetic data generation AI or computer-created data — for model training. AI needs digital experiences to learn from, he said, and it learns at speeds that make using humans in the training loops obsolete.
“There’s only so much data and so much human demonstration we can perform,” he said. “This is the big breakthrough in the last couple of years: reinforcement learning.”
Nvidia’s tech, he said, can help with that type of learning for AI
as it attacks or tries to engage in solving a problem, step by step.
To that end, Huang announced Isaac GR00T N1, an open-source foundation model designed to assist in developing humanoid robots. Isaac GR00T N1 would be paired with an updated Cosmos AI model to help develop simulated training data for robots. Huang introduced the Cosmos series of AI models, which can generate cost-efficient photo-realistic video that can then be used to train robots and other automated services, at CES earlier this year
The open-source model, which works with Nvidia’s Omniverse a physics simulation tool to create more realistic video, promises to be much cheaper than traditional forms of gathering training, such as having cars record road experiences or having people teach robots repetitive tasks.
is beyond redemption, no soul beyond grace and no person beyond love,” said Lauren Sapp, deputy director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, as she lit a candle at an altar table. “As we hold this space, may peace enter the heart of Jessie Hoffman and may light guide his path home.”
McCrary, who worked with Hoffman as a paralegal on his case 20 years ago, said he was one of the most reflective people she ever met.
“He has a level of depth that is rarely found in people, McCrary said. “And I wish the world could see, and those in power could see, Jessie is not the same person he was when he was 18 years old.”
Charles Keith, impact and communities liaison for Death Penalty Action, traveled from Canton, Ohio, to attend the vigil.
His brother was formerly on death row in Ohio but was taken off and granted life without parole. He now travels to executions across
the country to advocate for the anti-death penalty movement.
“How does killing somebody solve anything?” Keith said. “It does not deter crime. You just destroyed that family.”
In addition to hearing speeches, those holding vigil meditated, prayed and took turns ringing a large bell brought by Death Penalty Action to pay tribute to Hoffman and others who have been executed
At 7:07 p.m., the vigil leaders announced to the crowd that Hoffman had “gone home.” The attendees sat in silence, some crying, others staring ahead.
Hoffman was the first person Louisiana put to death using nitrogen gas, which the state legalized last year as an execution method. His execution was the first in 15 years in the state
Michael Cahoon, an organizer with The Promise of Justice Initiative, criticized nitrogen gas as being experimental. He also decried the practice of the death penalty as perpetuating cycles of violence.
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BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
Three members of a board overseeing New Orleans-area flood protection have resigned in protest over controversial changes being pursued by an adviser to Gov Jeff Landry, who critics say risks weakening reforms put in place following Hurricane Katrina. The resignations, effective Monday, leave the board at risk of being paralyzed as storm season approaches. In order to act, the board needs a five-member quorum. With the three members’ resignations, the board is left with only six members. At the same time, their departures may allow Landry’s admin-
Mayor challenged council’s ordinance
BY BEN MYERS Staff writer
The New Orleans City Council’s ban on Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s travel is on ice after Cantrell on Tuesday challenged the ban in court and a judge granted her request to block it.
Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Marissa Hutabarat granted Cantrell’s request for a temporary restraining order stopping the travel ban, which barred the mayor and other city employees from nonessential travel. A different judge, Sidney Cates, will decide on March 28 whether the ban should continue to be frozen while Cantrell’s case against it plays out in court.
The council imposed a ban on all nonessential travel following Cantrell’s decision to back out of a settlement that would have delivered millions of dollars to New Orleans schools.
Details of sports reporter’s death revealed
BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer
Adan Manzano, the Kansas City sports reporter who was found dead in his Kenner hotel room while in town to cover the Super Bowl, died of asphyxiation while lying face down on a pillow after suffering from the combined toxic effects of alcohol and Xanax, authorities said Tuesday Kenner police announced that Danette Colbert, the last person seen with Manzano at his hotel room, will face a second-degree murder charge in his death
The new charge comes more than a month after police first booked Colbert with robbery and fraud for allegedly using Manzano’s debit card after his death. The murder warrant was based on a combination of all the evidence investigators have obtained thus far, said Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley, who acknowledged the case against Colbert is circumstantial.
istration to replace them with board members less likely to oppose changes being sought, which include giving the governor more power over board appointments. The agency, officially known as the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, oversees a complex system of levees and pumps rebuilt in the wake of Katrina on the New Orleans area’s east bank. The letter was signed jointly by board members Roy Arrigo,
Thomas Fierke and William Settoon. It is addressed not to Roy Carubba, the president of the board, but to Shane Guidry, Landry’s informal adviser in New Orleans, who is not on the levee authority’s board but has been overseeing reforms at the agency It alleges the agency’s new leadership had diminished “morale, readiness and focus on flood protection.” Guidry thanked the departing
board members for their service. He also stressed that, under his guidance, the agency was “moving in a better direction to make sure that all flood control assets are maintained properly, which they haven’t been, and working properly, which they haven’t been,” though neither Guidry nor Carubba has provided any evidence that the city’s flood control infrastructure is faulty
in
cut
Tree
large trees that are dead or dying — or potentially
Each one cut down in
BY BOB WARREN Staff writer
Slidell’s Greenwood Cemetery is the final resting place of a who’s who of the city’s historic names: Salmen Fritchie Canulette.
This week, an archaeologist might walk among them as part of a tree removal effort that started Monday at the historic cemetery in Olde Towne Slidell.
Because old cemeteries have old graves, tombstones and, perhaps, a mystery or two beneath the surface, the Nature Conservancy, which is overseeing the tree work, knows it must be extra careful. Thus the archaeologist will be on standby
“There are a lot of unmarked graves out there,” said John Case, a Slidell historian who leads walking tours of the cemetery, which dates to the 1880s.
Any tree taken down will be replaced with two trees, said Amanda Takacs, the Nature Conservancy’s community forest conservation coordinator
BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer
BY MICHELLE HUNTER Staff writer
Ray Mitchell Jr last spoke with his wife around noon Friday during a lunch break from his job digging a tunnel underneath a Kenner home to perform some plumbing repairs.
Despite the days spent in muddy trenches — this one 6 feet deep — Mitchell, 42, never expressed any nervousness, Renada Banks said.
“He loved his job. He loved the people he worked with,” said Banks, 44, Mitchell’s wife.
But, instead of hearing from Mitchell at the end of the work day, Banks said she received a call from a police officer notifying her that her husband had died when the tunnel he was excavating collapsed.
“I can’t sleep at night knowing my husband died this way,” Banks said Monday “All I can imagine is how he suffocated.”
Sudden collapse
According to authorities, Mitchell was part of a three-man crew digging a trench deep under the concrete slab of a house in the 3200 block of Kentucky Street to perform repairs to underground pipes for Peterson Plumbing.
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Takacs said the conservancy is working at the cemetery and a few other sites in Slidell, including Possum Hollow Park and Ducksworth Park, to remove and replace storm-damaged trees.
The conservancy is working in partnership with the city, which identified the trees that must come out.
The city also chose what type of trees will be used as replacements. Takacs said the conservancy will plant 72 trees, including live oaks, maples, sycamores and dahoon holly trees.
Removing the damaged trees will help protect the graves, Takacs said, and replacing them with additional trees will add to the canopy Takacs watched Monday as crews from Tree Masters, based in New Orleans, began removing trees in the cemetery after carefully staging their equipment
“Our concern here is making sure we’re not disturbing any graves,” said Amanda Kirwan, an arborist with Trees Masters.
And that’s where the archaeologist likely will come in at some point, especially when the process moves to grinding away the stumps into the ground. Any finding of human remains will halt the work, she said.
Case warns that the work should come with a large dose of caution.
“It’s such an old place,” he said.
Marisa Frischhertz, a city Parks and Recreation Department employee who directs the Keep Slidell Beautiful program, said the group wants to bring in an expert to help restore of the gravesites, many of which have been battered by time.
“Some of them don’t have any family left,” she said of the people buried there. “We don’t want them to be forgotten.”
Frischhertz said the trees being removed were carefully selected by the city
“Trust me, I’m the biggest tree hugger there is,” she said “Some of them are in really bad shape.”
Case, who has extensively researched many of the graves in Greenwood, said he’s glad to see more interest in improving it
“I have a love of history And I have a love of cemeteries,” he said. “A place like that, it’s almost a museum.”
Continued from page 1B
The mayor’s petition on Tuesday said the ordinance is “an unlawful and unconstitutional power grab,” and her administration later said in a statement that the council “once again exceed(ed) the authority granted to them.” Council President JP Morrell criticized Hutabarat for allowing Cantrell to use the courts to stymie an ordinance she doesn’t like. Though the council voted unanimously on the ban, Cantrell should
The majority of houses in Jefferson Parish are built on concrete slabs, which means the plumbing is typically installed in the ground before the slab is poured. When repairs are needed, plumbers have to tunnel under the slab to reach the problem.
Mitchell was under the house with one person standing at the entrance of the tunnel to monitor things and a third in a truck that was sucking the dirt and mud from the trench, according to Kenner Police Deputy Chief Mark McCormick.
Mitchell was about 20 feet from the side of the residence when the tunnel collapsed about 3:45 p.m Mitchell’s co-workers immediately set to work trying to free him.
The Kenner Fire Department joined the rescue efforts, which took more than an hour of digging, according to Chief Terence Morris. Mitchell’s body was recovered about 5:15 p.m., and he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy performed Monday determined Mitchell died of traumatic asphyxia, according to the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office.
A representative from Peterson Plumbing declined to comment when reached by telephone Monday Banks said she’s spoken to officials from the company but still has many unanswered questions about what happened.
“How did he end up in that hole with mud on him? Did he fall? Did something break?” she asked.
Big heart
Mitchell was born and raised in Hammond He attended Hammond High School and played football, Banks said.
The couple has known each other for about 12 years. They’ve been married for seven.
“He had a big heart He was a loving person,” Banks said.
While quiet and reserved around most, Banks had a huge personality that blossomed among family and friends.
He was a music lover who enjoyed traveling. Houston was one of his favorite destinations, Banks said.
Mitchell loved spending time with his family. While the couple had no children, Mitchell leaves behind his mother, father and three sisters, according to Banks. His relatives are devastated, she said.
Mitchell had been tunneling for Peterson for a total of five years and was good at his job, Banks said But the uncertainty surrounding his death has been troubling.
“Since last Friday, I’ve been just like a zombie,” she said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed Tuesday that the federal agency is investigating the incident The probe will take about six months.
“I just need to know what happened to my husband and why,” Banks said.
The Nature Conservancy’s
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Carubba and Guidry also strongly rebutted the departing board members’ allegations that morale at the agency had diminished. Guidry said he’d met with 75 levee authority employees in January, and “they expressed their satisfaction and gratitude” for the changes being carried out by Carubba and the agency’s chief of police, Joshua Rondeno. Carubba stressed that “morale is as high as it’s ever been.”
Arrigo, one of the resigning board members, said he felt that the board had been distracted by political infighting and was no longer focused on flood protection.
“Why am I resigning? I’m concerned that we’re painting a picture to the public that you’ve got these nine independent people providing oversight on their flood protection, and it just isn’t so,” he said in an interview Tuesday
In the resignation letter the departing board members also emphasized their belief that the agency should “adhere to the statutory requirements for the regional director and the current postKatrina driven nominating protocol,” a direct rebuttal to changes at the levee authority that Guidry and Carubba have been advocating for
After Landry appointed Carubba to lead the levee authority’s board, Carubba sought to assign duties that have previously been carried out by the regional director to Rondeno, the police chief. The regional director is required by law to have either engineering or professional experience that Rondeno does not have.
The role of the agency’s police force has become a point of tension since Carubba took over The board president has emphasized at board meetings that the governor had given him a mandate that included expanding the role of the agency’s cops.
Other board members have maintained that the sole focus of the levee authority should be flood protection.
Continued from page 1B
The deficit stems from inflated revenue projections that caused schools to budget for more money than was available.
In November, the School Board asked then-superintendent Avis Williams to craft a plan to address the shortfall, but she stepped down from her post and the task was passed to Fulmore.
“Our board has remained committed to resolve, and our team has continued to focus on a solution for our schools,” Fulmore told the board Tuesday “So my objective today is to address the $25 million of the financial over-projection that impacts the district level funding allocation for our schools.”
The board also moved to waive a requirement that schools replenish any funds pulled from the systemwide reserves. Instead, the proposal calls for the reserves to be refilled with $20 million in settlement funds from the city, as well as other sources that could include investment income and savings.
The board’s proposal assumes the city will be forced to pay the settlement money
But questions remain over how the district will address the second half of the deficit.
The district previously projected it would have $39 million to distribute to schools this spring, but now officials say the available amount is closer to $15 million.
Nyesha Veal, chief financial officer for the district, said after the audit is finalized on April 30 the district can decide how to handle that $25 million shortfall Veal said that the Charter School Finance Committee, a newly formed group of finance
Guidry has also said that he plans to support legislation that would scrap the levee authority’s nominating committee, the body tasked with putting forward potential board members for the approval of the governor and Legislature. Sen. Patrick Connick, RMarrero, previously said he plans to introduce a bill that would change the nominating process during the upcoming legislative session.
That committee was a central pillar of post-Katrina reforms to the New Orleans-area levee boards, designed to give oversight on the nominating process to engineers and good-government groups rather than politicians. Guidry has characterized the committee as unelected and unaccountable.
Connick said Tuesday that he was focused on gathering information about the board, its history and its operations. “There’s a lot going on and we’ve got to sort it out,” he said. “The ultimate goal is levee protection.”
But those who supported the post-Katrina reforms strongly oppose scrapping the nominating committee, which they say is designed to insulate the levee authority from politics.
Rebecca Mowbray, the president and CEO of the New Orleans-based Bureau of Governmental Research, expressed concern that the levee board was understaffed with hurricane season approaching.
“Moreover, the unsubstantiated accusations about the region’s flood control infrastructure need to stop,” she added. “If there’s a problem, the public (and SLFPAE taxpayers) needs to know what it is.”
Ruthie Frierson, who founded Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, a group that advocated for levee board reform after Katrina, expressed concern about members of the board resigning because “they feel they cannot fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to focus on flood protection.”
“The citizens of Southeast Louisiana should be concerned about the lack of independent oversight and responsibility for flood protection,” she said.
leaders from Willow School, Crescent City Schools, InspireNOLA, KIPP New Orleans, SciHigh and Algiers Charter, met last week with PFM Consulting Group, which was hired last year to look into the financial crisis.
PFM discussed data from the city, issues with the tool the district used to project tax revenue — findings Veal said the consulting group would soon present to the board. Board member Nolan Marshall asked Veal that any report from the finance team include an explanation of the processes for revenue projections used in past years, what went wrong and what the district can do to avoid the situation moving forward.
On Tuesday, some board members expressed caution about using reserve funds to address the deficit. Board member Carlos Zervigon said the board was able to open schools after Hurricane Katrina by using money in the fund balance to pay teachers.
“I don’t want us to be cavalier about this,” he said. “I want us to take this really seriously, think about how we build it back up and understand what we’re doing.”
But board member Olin Parker said it was a good use of the reserve money
“Fund balances exist to respond to emergencies,” Parker said, “and I think we have one in front of us.”
He said he would support looking into using leftover reserves to address the second half of the deficit.
Board President Katie Baudouin thanked school leaders for their patience as the school district addressed the error
“On day one, this board committed to filling this hole and we’re fulfilling that promise,” Baudouin said.
have vetoed it and faced the possibility of an override instead of running to a judge, he said.
“The precedent set today, which is awful, is that a mayor can completely circumvent the legislative process and just run to the courts to get around it,” Morrell said. The council, too, has used the courts to challenge City Hall moves it disagrees with, including last month when it joined the Orleans Parish School Board’s lawsuit against the Cantrell administration over fees the city charges the board for the property tax it collects on the board’s behalf. The council, along with the board,
asked a judge to order Cantrell to uphold her end of a settlement resolving that case. A hearing in that case is set for Wednesday morning.
The same week the council joined that suit, Morrell introduced the council ban on employee travel, saying that the city shouldn’t pay for travel expenses if it can’t afford to pay the board. Cantrell’s frequent travel to conferences and cultural events, including to several international destinations, has been a hot-button issue in her second term.
Less than two weeks after the ban passed, Cantrell announced
she would attend the Yale Mayor’s College Conference in Washington, D.C., earning a rebuke from Morrell, who urged administration officials not to reimburse Cantrell or any other city employees traveling with her Representing Cantrell in her lawsuit against the council are three attorneys from local law firm Phelps Dunbar, as well as another lawyer, Charles Rice, the former Entergy New Orleans CEO who recently won a judgment against the council after it refused to sign off on his contract in a different case. Rice said he is familiar with the council and mayor’s legal battles.
“I assume that’s why I was brought in,” he said.
LOTTERY MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025
PICK 3: 2-3-4 PICK 4: 6-2-5-6
Continued from page 1B
“Circumstantial cases are tough, but there is certainly a place for them,” he said.
On Tuesday, Conley also revealed police had arrested a second suspect in the case. Rickey White is accused of being involved in the fraudulent use of Mazano’s debit card
“There was some correspondence and information where they (White and Colbert) were going back and forth, so we think they were working hand in hand, in concert with this,” Conley said.
Manzano, who worked for a Kansas City affiliate of Telemundo, was discovered dead in his room at the Comfort Suites in Kenner on the afternoon of Feb. 5 after co-workers reported that he’d missed a meeting, authorities said. Surveillance video showed Colbert with Mazano in the New Orleans French Quarter, where authorities suspect they met, and at Mazano’s hotel just before dawn on Feb. 5, police said.
She was seen leaving his room about 6 a.m. His body was discovered later that afternoon.
Colbert was booked two days later with simple robbery, computer fraud, bank fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, purse snatching and access device fraud after police say she used Manzano’s debit card at a store
His cellphone was also recovered at her Slidell apartment, police said A preliminary autopsy determined that Manzano had the drug Xanax, a depressant, in his system. But the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office held off on identifying a cause of death until they could complete more thorough toxicology testing, authorities said.
On Tuesday, Jefferson Parish Coroner Dr Gerry Cvitanovich said that in addition to Xanax, brand name for the drug alprazolam, Manzano had alcohol in his system. Manzano’s blood alcohol was 0.232%, almost three times the 0.08% legal limit.
Manzano had 25 nanograms per milliliter of Xanax in his system. While not an overdose level, Cvitanovich said that both the drug and the alcohol are central nervous system depressants which, combined with Manzano’s facedown position in the pillow, led to his death
Manzano’s manner of death is undetermined A person’s manner of death can be classified as a homicide, suicide, accidental, natural or undetermined, Cvitanovich explained.
“Given the uncertain circumstances of this case and the additional collection of circumstances, we felt the most appropriate manner of death was undetermined,” he said.
While Manzano did not have a prescription for Xanax, nor was any of the drug found in his hotel room, investigators did find the drug during a search of Colbert’s Slidell residence, police said previously Colbert previously been accused of targeting men she meets out in the French Quarter and drugging them to steal money, credit cards and other property authorities said State Police Troop Nola and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office have joined the investigation into Colbert’s alleged activities in New Orleans at the request of local authorities. In New Orleans, authorities are investigating her suspected involvement in the Dec 15 death John Jenkins. The 55-year-old from Maryland was found dead at his French Quarter hotel of cocaine and ethanol toxicity, authorities said. Colbert has not been booked in that death.
“I can tell you we don’t want Ms. Colbert to see the light of day again,” Conley said.
Age, Goldie Allen, Derrick Copley, Steven Davis, John Deslatte Brown, Melanie Dupree, Van Ferran, Calvin Gannuch, Melissa
Highstreet, Gerard
Landry, Susan Ledbetter, Toni
Goldie Byous Age died peacefully at home on March 12, 2025, at 83. She worked in retail for Service Merchandise Marshalls and retired from Walmart after twenty years. Goldie excelled in arts and crafts and was famous for her gumbo She is survived by her children: Cynthia (Ronald) Bullock Huey (Brendetta) Age Jr., Nicole Age and Monique (Mario) Romero Jr.; eleven grand‐children; and twelve greatgrandchildren Goldie also leaves her brother, Bossie (Janet) Byous Jr., sister Leola Byous brother-in-law Victor Age, sister-in-law Sallie Age, and many other relatives and friends Pre‐ceding her in death are her spouse, Huey Anthony Age Sr., her parents, Bossie and Irene Byous, brother Jessie Byous, and sisters Mary Byous Dorothy Smith Ethel Youngblood, Doris Landry, Clara Byous and Irene Byous. Family and friends are invited to at‐tend the Celebration of Life Service on Friday, March 21, 2025, for 1:30 p.m. at The Boyd Family Funeral Home, 5001 Chef Menteur Hwy., New Orleans, LA 70126. Visitation will begin at 12:30 p.m Minister Huey A Age Jr officiating Inter‐ment will follow at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 4000 Nor‐man Mayer Ave New Or‐leans, LA Guestbook On‐line: www anewtraditionbe gins.com (504)282-0600 Linear Brooks Boyd and Donavin D. Boyd Own‐ers/Funeral Directors.
Brooks, Siblings Frederick Allen, Maxine Webster, and Nathalie Allen, Daughter, Kema Collins, and ahost of uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends.
Family and friendsare invited to attend the funeral service at Kenner Calvary Baptist Church, 929 S. Sibley St., Metairie, Louisiana 70003, Pastor Rev. Dr. James E. Turner, on Saturday March 22, 2025 at 10 AM. Services entrusted to Jones Memorial Funeral Home, 811 Paul Maillard Rd, Luling, Louisiana 70070, Interment at Providence Memorial ParkCemetery, 8200 Airline Dr, Metairie, LA 70003.
Robinson Jr., Clyde Rosales,Antoinette Saltaformaggio, Dominic
Trainor, Peggy
Wehrer Sr., John Whitfield, Evelyn Wilkins, Leatrice Wise, Robert E Jefferson
Garden of Memories
Wehrer Sr., John New Orleans
Boyd Family
Age, Goldie
Price Jr., Lawrence
Ricks, Malcolm
Trainor, Peggy Whitfield, Evelyn Charbonnet
Davis, John Lumas, Sylvia Raines Sr., John Greenwood
Moorman, William Powell, Olga
Jacob Schoen
Copley, Steven Lake Lawn Metairie
Ferran, Calvin Wise, Robert River Parish
HC Alexander
Rosales,Antoinette Saltaformaggio, Dominic
Treasures Life
West Bank
Davis Mortuary
Robinson Jr., Clyde Mothe
Landry, Susan
O'Brien, Frances
Obituaries
Age, Goldie Byous
Anyone whomet herwas unlikely to forget her.
Melanie worked in public service for more than 27 years, as an adult probation officer in Travis County, Texas. She is survived by her husband of nearly 25 years and best friend, Nathaniel Brown; herparents, Herman andKaren Deslatte; hermother-inlaw Elba Collier; her sisters Yvette Deslatte and Melinda Deslatte; and numerous family members who cannot imagine holidays andGrand Isle trips without her.
Acelebration of life event will be held Saturday, March22, 2025, in Austin for family and friends in Texas.
Lerille, Red Lumas, Sylvia Lynott, John Moorman, William O'Brien, Frances Powell, Olga Price Jr., Lawrence Raines Sr., John Ricks, Malcolm Dupree,
Derrick Ricky Allen, August 10, 1958Disappeared December 26, 2024 -Pronounced Dead February 11, 2025. Derrick Allen, better known as "Ricky and Rick Boy" was born in New Orleans, La. to thelate Loretta Brooks-Allen and Nathaniel Allen Sr. on August 10, 1958. Ricky had been sadly missed by family and friends since December 26, 2024. His body was found, and he was pronounced dead on February 11, 2025, at the age of 66.
Ricky was educated in the Jefferson Parish public school system attending Benjamin Banneker, Ralph J. Bunch, East Jefferson High, and received adiploma from Bonnnabel High School.
Ricky earned vocational certificates as atruck driver, electrical technician from Bayou Tech, and automobile technician from Jefferson Vocational. Ricky worked in several different positions at Branton Insulation, Econo Rent a Car, Avondale Shipyard, Dan Kelly Warehouse, and Precision Air. The last job that Ricky worked was with "Porter" as alandscaper. Ricky was an athlete and loved participating in and watching sportsonTV (especially basketballand football), dancing, playing boardgames (such as Dominos), drinking, smoking, socializing, and hanging out with his friends, relatives, and associates. Ricky was kindhearted compassionate, and would share his belongings with others. He accepted Christ as his savior, was baptized at an early age, and attended several churches, but considered Kenner Calvary Baptist church his church home and Pastor Robinson, then Pastor Turner as his church leaders. His favorite bible verse was Philippians 4:13.
Ricky leaves to cherish his memories his children (and grandchildren): Erica Carey Kadence (Martae' Brignac and Jevine Antione Carey Jr.), Kewanda Johnson (Terrell Johnson), Airel Lewis (E'Yonna Lewis and Kynslee Lewis), Lonnie Allen Sr. (Joseph Lee La'car Allen, Serenity, Zella Mea Allen, and Lonnie Allen Jr), Derick Allen Junior, Eric, (Boss Man) Collins, and Derick (Peanut)Collins.
He also left to cherish his memories, Seven siblings: Shelia Allen Holmes (Clifton), Regina Allen, Celestine Allen-Carter, Nathaniel Allen (Carolyn), Renard Allen (Katrina), Stacy Allen, Darren Allen (Melissa) and ahost of otherrelatives and friends. Ricky was preceded in death by his parents, LorettaB.and Nathaniel Allen, grandparents, Claudia W. and Charles Brooks, Siblings Frederick Allen, Maxine Webster, and Nathalie Allen, Daughter, Kema Collins, and ahost of uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends. Family and friendsare
Steven W Copley died peacefully on March 16, 2025, in New Orleans Louisiana He was born on January 17, 1954, the first of two children of Delores (Holland) and William Cop‐ley He was preceded in death by his father his sis‐ter Jane Copley Kelsey, and his brother-in-law Todd Kelsey. He is survived by his wife, Jamie Greenheck, mother Dee, aunt Joan Ford, aunt Nita Copley, niece Andrea Kelsey Leefers, her spouse Alex, great niece Aria Leefers nephew Will Kelsey and his spouse Lauren, sister-inlaw Jennifer Greenheck, brother-in-law Greg Green‐heck and his spouse Michael Ducote, and nu‐merous cousins Steve was a 1972 graduate of Alton High School in Alton, Illi‐nois. In 1976 he graduated from the University of Illi‐nois Springfield. He gradu‐ated from Loyola Univer‐sity Law School in 1985 with honors and as a mem‐ber of the Board of Editors of the Loyola Law Review He began his practice at Gordon, Arata, in New Or‐leans where he worked all his professional life Over the years he was listed as a Best Lawyer in Louisiana in Litigation, ranked in the highly regarded Chambers, USA and named a Louisiana Super Lawyer Steve was a magnificent lawyer, known not only for his courtroom victories, but for his mentorship of other lawyers “He was not only a great lawyer,” one of his partners said, “he was a great law partner, a dear friend who was al‐ways available for sound advice and guidance When Steve came into the office everyone’s day seemed a little brighter.” Steve excelled at wood‐working, crafting every‐thing from furniture to a mahogany and pine Mckenzie boat that he de‐livered across the Conti‐nental Divide to a friend in Colorado He was a de‐voted and lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals In his later years, he wrote a children’s book Jamie’s Garden, and penned many hilarious stories that he compiled with favorite recipes for family and friends Steve loved the outdoors. As a kid, he ran the pastures and fields of Godfrey, Illinois, hunting rabbits and the odd covey of quail with his loyal bea‐gle harvesting squirrels in the hardwoods, and fishing the local ponds all the while mostly staying out of trouble. As an adult he fished and hunted around the world Friends who were with him on his trips knew they were in for a day they would likely never forget And even if the day were forgettable, Steve s reconstructed version of the day with his agile story telling would make it mem‐orable His presence en‐hanced every experience shared around campfires on the bays, marshes, fields, and wherever and however he joined in con‐versation—from emails and texts to three-hour lunches, from Cocodrie to South Texas from Moss Hollow to North Dakota, from Galatoire’s restaurant to Argentina and Africa Steve’s greatest posses‐sions were his friends Whether he was with them or talking about them, his deep affection for them was always present. And people meeting him knew in an instant they wanted to know him better Every‐one men, women and chil‐dren, were drawn into the ambit of his warmth and good humor Steve spent twenty years challenged with cancer and its after‐math effects He was un‐able to swallow and had difficulty speaking Even so, he was a great commu‐nicator with the written word and always an enthu‐siastic listener He dealt with his illness the way he dealt with his life, grateful for large and small things and accepting his diagno‐sis, all the while radiating enjoyment and love of friends. Throughout the ‐
as stener He with his illness the way he dealt with his life, grateful for large and small things and accepting his diagno‐sis, all the while radiating enjoyment and love of friends Throughout the good times and the diffi‐cult ones Steve was blessed with the great love of his life Jamie, and they shared thirty happy years together She was his dear‐est friend and graced his life with her good humor and patience Together they embraced their life in their beloved New Orleans, opening their home to friends and relatives for good times and delicious meals In 2008, Steve and Jamie purchased land in Lone Rock Wisconsin where they built a home in the beautiful woods near the farm where Jamie grew up. It was there that they built a new life together, a life filled with years of ap‐preciation for nature and friends Steve loved Wis‐consin and he loved being with Jamie there. Goodbye, dear friend We will re‐member you always, but especially on bitter cold winters, bright spring days, warm summer dawns, and when the leaves fall in autumn The sadness of your loved ones over your leaving is an‐other side of their deep love for you. A memorial celebration will be held at 2:00 this Saturday, March 22, at the New Orleans Country Club Arrange‐ments by Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home, 3827 Canal St. New Orleans LA 70119. Condolences may be left at www schoenfh com.
John Davis, age 77, a beloved father, brother, grandfather and friend was called peacefully to his heavenly home by God surrounded by family on Tuesday, March 4 2025
John was born on Decem‐ber 7 1947 to the late Robert, Sr. and Mildred Davis He leaves to cherish his memories, his former wife, Elaine H. Davis, and their children Kim (Charles Jr.) Livingston, and Ter‐rence (Katie) Davis; his companion, Lisa Smith; grandchildren Taylor M Allen and Kennedy T Davis; siblings Eric (Lenette) Jupiter of Houston, TX, Robert (Shirldene) Davis Jr. of Greensboro, NC, and his twin Johnetter Hall He also survived by his nephews, Derek Batiste, Michael (Jonique) Hall Darin (Mallory) Carter, Robert III (Ilyasah) Davis; niece, Shirlene Parker; two sisters-in-law Carol H Carter and Mary H (Nathan) Carter; two brothers-in-law, Andrew J (Barbara) Hogan, and Calvin L. (Sheila) Hogan; goddaughter, Terrolyn P Carter, and a host of other relatives and friends Fam‐ily and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life Service honoring the life of John Davis at The City of Love Church 8601 Palmetto St., New Or‐leans LA 70118 on Friday March 21, 2025 at 11:00 am Visitation at 10:00 am Bishop Lester Love, Offici‐ating. Interment: Private Please sign the online guestbook at www cha rbonnetfuneralhome.com Charbonnet Labat Glapion, Directors (504) 581-4411.
Family andfriends in Louisiana are invited to attend avisitation on Tuesday, March25, 2025, at 10 a.m. at St. Joan of Arc Church, 529 W. 5th Street in LaPlace. Afuneral mass will follow at 11:30 a.m. A reception in honor of Melanie will be held at the Knights of ColumbusHall, 346 Fir St. in LaPlace, from 1p.m. to 4p.m.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts or donations honoringMelanie can be made to the American Cancer Society or Austin Wildlife Rescue.
and host of other relatives and friends The family would like to invite family and friends to a public visitation on Friday March 21, 2025 at Our Lady of Prompt Succor 146 4th St., Westwego, LA 70094 from 9:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m A Mass of Christian Burial will follow. Rite of Commit‐tal (Burial) St. John The Baptist Catholic Church Cemetery 2349 LA-18 Edgard, LA 70049. Arrange‐ments of his final care en‐trusted with Treasures of Life Funeral Services 315 E Airline Hwy., Gramercy, LA 70052. “When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a Treasure
March 19, 2025
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three children. His professional accomplishments were many, though he was humble about them. He had along and active career in the home building and apartment building and management industry.His life's work was transformative to the development and growth of the New Orleans metropolitan area beginning in the 1950s. Calvin got his start in the industry as aroofer in his father's business, eventually taking over Max Ferran &Son. He was a progressive visionary and one of the pioneers in the development of singlefamily homes and multifamily apartments in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, primarily in the Lakeview and Veterans Boulevard areas.
He was amember of the local chapter of the National Association of Homebuilders since 1960, served as president of the local Home Builders Association in 1964, and was elected to alife membership to the board of directors of the National Association of Homebuilders in 1977. He served as the NAHB Louisiana National Representative in 1968. He was also amember of the board of directors of the Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans, and was elected presidentin 1975.
Mayor DeLesseps Morrison appointed him to the New Orleans Board of Zoning Adjustments in 1960. In 1972, Mayor Moon Landrieu appointed him chairman and he served in that role until 1979. He was also on the advisory board of Delgado Community College and the board of directors of the Better Business Bureau.
Too young for overseas combat during World War II, Calvin found away to serve by joining the Louisiana National Guard and achieved the rank of operations sergeant before his honorable discharge.
His business acumen, work ethic and respect for everyone he met influenced the lives and careers of his children and grandchildren. He also knew how to have agood time. Through homebuilding, he met many lifelong friends with whom he and Frances traveled the world.
An avid and skilled fisherman, Calvin held many state records and Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo-winning catches for multiple Gulf pelagic fish, but his greatest catches were those that fed the family at holidays, including boiled crabs, fried trout and grilled redfish.
Calvin, known to his grandkids as Paw, was happiest spending timeat the familyfishing camp in Cheniere Caminada, sharing his love of fishing and watching sunsets. At home in New Orleans, Calvin made custom fishing rods for everyone and he and Frances gathered their family and friends around abanquet-sized cypress table. Together they hosted many dinner parties and memorable nights filled with joy and laughter. His faith was important to him and he was a60year parishioner at St. Francis Xavier Church.
Calvin was an incredible person who had ajoy for life and astrong will that sustained him. His easy going temperament never wavered, and he carried himself in acalm, gracious and selfless manner up until his death.
Calvin is survived by his daughters, Sheila Ferran and Anne Hardie (Fred); grandchildren Charles Hardie (Jamie), Jason Hardie (Kerri), Jeanne Ferran Waggoner (Trent), Max Ferran (Megan), Calvin Hardie and Claire Cardona Sofhauser (Austen); step-grandchildren Elizabeth and Haas Ferran; and 14 greatgrandchildren, with one on the way. He was preceded in death by his parents and wife; son, Rene Ferran (Rebecca); grandson, Nicholas Ferran; his sister, Joyce Merilh; and numerous cousins. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral service in the chapel of Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in New Orleans, on Friday, March 21, 2025, at 1:00PM. Avisitation will be held at the funeral home beginning at 11:00AM. The interment will follow the chapel service in Metairie Cemetery.
To view and sign the online guest book, please visit lakelawnmetairie.com
Gannuch, Melissa Michelle Baudin
Melissa Michelle Baudin Gannuch, bornMay 14, 1972, and aresident of Baton Rouge,passed away peacefully with family by her side on March 14, 2025, at the age of 52. She is preceded in death by her maternal grandparents Herbert Forsyth, Sr. and RoesmaryCatoire Forsyth, and paternal grandparents Bernard M. Baudin, Sr. and Dolores Esler Baudin. She is survivedbyher loving husband of 26 years, Craig Gannuch, her three belovedchildren, Justin, Ella, and Andrew Gannuch, parents Bernard M. Baudin, Jr. and Katherine Forsyth Baudin, sisters Lori Baudin Smith (Jon), Christine Baudin Hernandez (Christopher), Elizabeth Baudin Gaudet (Nathan), and ten nieces and nephews that she adored Melissa was bornin Metairie, Louisiana, and residedinBaton Rouge for the last 26 years. She graduated from St. Mary's Dominican High School, class of 1990, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of NewOrleans, in 1994, and while working full-time, earned aMaster of Business Administration from the University of New Orleans, in 1998. She began hercareerinNew Orleans with NationalFruit Flavor Company and Productivity Point International. She movedtoBaton Rouge in 1998 and worked as aTrust Development Officer with HiberniaNational Bank beforebeginning a careerinstate government in 2005. Melissa served in the Administrative Services Division under three Attorneys General over nineteenyears, holding the roles of BudgetAnalyst and Deputy Undersecretary. She left the Attorney General'sOffice in 2024 to join Governor Jeff Landry's Office as Director of Administration and Finance, a position she held untilher passing. She loved allof her roles, the peopleshe met and workedalongside, and serving the people of Louisiana, making lasting friendships and memories along the way. Melissa faced each day with unbridled enthusiasm and full hope. She greeted everyone she metwith a warm, bright smile that reflectedthe innerpeace in her heart. Melissa lived by faith,believing thatthe way to His kingdom was built on choosing kindness and compassion at every opportunity.
Avisitation will be held on Friday, March 21, 2025 at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 2025 Stuart Avenue,Baton Rouge,LA 70808, at 9:30 AM,followed by afuneral mass at 11:00 AM. Inurnment at alater date.
The family wishesto thank the staffs at Mary Bird Perkins CancerCenter, Woman'sHospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baton Rouge General Hospital, and ClarityHospice for their exceptionaland kind care. In lieu of flowers,please consider adonation to National Shrine of Blessed FrancisXavier Seelos at Seelos.org, the Sister Dulce Foundation at cypressspringsprayercent er.org.
Salvatore (Melissa)
Mortillaro. Grandfather of Anders and Molly Mortillaro. Son of the late John Holman Highstreet,Jr and Joyce Adam Highstreet.Brother of Vivian Highstreet Faessler (Chuck), John A. Highstreet (Lynn) and David A. Highstreet (Marcelle), who cherished the guidance and love he provided. Amass to celebrate Jerry's life will be held on Friday 3/21 at St. Clement of Rome Church. Visitation will be at 10am with Services at 11am. In lieuof flowers, the family requests that donations be made to theStClement of Rome Building Fund
Jerry's legacy of love, kindness, and dedication will live on in the heartsof those who were fortunate enough to know him. Jerry will be deeply missed but never forgotten.
Landry, Susan Elaine Stumpf
Susan Elaine Stumpf Landry, born on February 13, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, passed away peacefully of natural causes, at the age of 85, surrounded by family on January 28, 2025. A lifelong resident of Gretna, Susan was known for her strong will, fierce intelligence up‐roarious sense of humor, and intense love for her family and friends Susan was the daughter of Dr John F. and Amy Lynch Stumpf. Susan and her sib‐lings - Jack, Harry and Shelby - lost their father when she was a senior in high school Susan, as the big sister assumed the re‐sponsibility of helping her mother care for the family As a young girl, Susan at‐tended St Joseph, Holy Name of Mary and Ursuline Academy grammar schools. Her attendance at Ur‐suline required her to take the Gretna Ferry to get to school in the third and fourth grades and pre‐pared her to skip the fifth grade Sue graduated from St. Mary’s Dominican High School and Louisiana State University, where she was an active member of Phi Mu’s Alpha Eta Chapter Sue met her future hus‐band, Patrick J Landry while she was in high school They married a month after Pat’s gradua‐tion from LSU at which time he became a commis‐sioned officer in the United States Air Force. The new‐lyweds moved to Sacra‐mento California, and lived at McClellan Air Force Base. Their first son, Mark was born at Sacramento General Hospital Sue came back to New Orleans to give birth to Scott a year later Sue and Pat soon re‐turned to Sacramento with an infant and a toddler in tow The young family spent three years in Sacra‐mento before returning to Gretna, where Blake was born. Sue nurtured Mark, Scott, and Blake and em‐phasized education from their elementary school days through their law school and medical school tenures, respectively SuSu loved sports and was an ardent LSU Saints and Peli‐cans fan until the end of her days. She was not just a sports spectator. She played tennis for many years with her friends at Timberlane Country Club After she retired from ten‐nis inspired by her beloved sister-in-law, Jerri Stumpf, SuSu avidly turned to the less physically de‐manding but more men‐tally engaging pursuit of contract bridge. She be‐came a Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League. She played at the New Orleans Bridge Club with friends twice a week for decades until 2020 Thereafter, she became a daily online bridge player SuSu could regularly be heard shouting with joy when she won matches against opponents from across the world. Susan loved family get togethers and relished her husband, children grandchildren great-grandchild and sib‐lings She was the beloved: Wife of 64 years of Patrick J Landry; Mother of Mark C Landry (Elizabeth) Dr Scott P. Landry (Natalie), Dr. Blake C Landry (Stephanie); Grandmother of Patrick T. Landry (Bethany), Hill S Landry, John C. Landry, Elizabeth C Landry, Aimee C. Landry, Allie J Landry Sarah K Scott (Chase); GreatGrandmother of Emma E Scott; Sister of John F (Jack) Stumpf, Jr (Jerri), Harry C Stumpf (Cindy) and Shelby Stumpf Key (Scott); Aunt and GreatAunt to many; Cousin to many. Sue was blessed by a lifetime of close friends, surviving and deceased Susan was predeceased by her parents, Dr John F. and Amy Lynch Stumpf and her grandparents, Archibald C.
Aunt to many; n to many Sue was blessed by a lifetime of close friends surviving and deceased. Susan was predeceased by her parents, Dr John F. and Amy Lynch Stumpf, and her grandparents, Archibald C and Norma Rouprich Stumpf, and William H and Theresa Hock Lynch. The Landry and Stumpf Fami‐lies are deeply grateful for the Doctors, Nurses and Staff of the West Jefferson Medical Center Critical Care Unit for their tireless care of Susan Their pro‐fessionalism, dedication and compassion were evi‐dent every moment. The Landry and Stumpf Fami‐lies also honor and salute the Police and EMS Officers of the Gretna Police De‐partment for their expert and swift actions that gave Susan the precious gift of extra time with us. A pri‐vate service for Susan s family was held at West‐lawn Memorial Park Ceme‐tery, Gretna, Louisiana Susan was a supporter of Jesuit High School and the American Heart Associa‐tion.
Toni Wilson Ledbetter, 85, passed away on March 15, 2025, in Covington, Louisiana.
Born on September 6, 1939, in Jackson, Tennessee, Toni spent her early years in Tennessee, attending Jacksonand Tullahoma HighSchools. She pursued higher education at Belmont University before earning her Bachelor of Science from the University of Montevallo in Alabama.
Toni dedicated her career to teaching science to junior high students, shaping young minds at Livaudais Junior High in Terrytown, Louisiana, and Riverchase Middle School in Birmingham, Alabama. Even after retiring, her passion for educationremained strong, leading her to continue as asubstitute teacher at Lake Harbor Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana and lead school classes as a docent at theNew Orleans Museum of Art Beyond the classroom, Toni and her husband Allan Ledbetter—her devoted partner forover 69 years—shared alove for travel that took them across most of Europe, Asia, China, and North Africa. Their adventures in life together created cherished memories that will live on withtheir family.
Toni is survived by her beloved husband Allan; their children Andy Ledbetter, KristiCredeur, and Jill Marshall; grandchildren Kirstin, Chase, Kalin, Channing,Kingsley, Colin, and Caroline; greatgrandchildren Hudson, Parker, Reese, Bryson, Siren, Asher, Juniper, Everett, Dawson, Leland, Milo,and Ryder; and her best friend and sister Susan Wilson Douglas. Toni also leaves behind numerous cousins, nieces and nephews who will remember her fondly. She was preceded in deathby her parentsBob and Louise Wilson of Tullahoma, Tennessee.
Acelebration for Toni Wilson Ledbetter will be held on March 20, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church Covington's Fellowship Hall, 16333 LA Hwy. 1085, Covington, Louisiana. FriendsofToni and Allanare invited to join thefamily in honoring her memory. In lieu of flowers, the family requests acontribution to the Musical Arts Society of NewOrleans in her name.
Reverend Cedric Sonnier, Pastor, St. Mary, Mother of the Church, will be the Celebrantofthe Mass. Homilist will be The Most ReverendJ.Douglas Deshotel, DD, Bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. The Most Reverend Michael Jarrell, Bishop Emeritus, will be in attendance. Reverend Louis Richard, Reverend Jude Halphen, ReverendSteve LeBlanc and Reverend Donald Bernard will serve as Concelebrants. Interment will be held in Holy Mary Mother of God Cemetery in Lafayette. The family requests that visitation be observed on Friday, March 21, 2025 from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Martin &Castille's DOWNTOWN Location. There will be no public visitation on Saturday.
He leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Emma Davis Lerille; his brother, Gary Lerille; his son, Mark Lerille andwife, Jacquie Ring Lerille andtheir children, Brady Lerille and wife, Olivia LeBlanc Lerille, Emily Lerille and Olivia Lerille; his daughter, Kackie Lerille; his daughter, Christine "Tine" Lerille McGill and husband, Geoffrey McGill and their children Tatum McGill and Adison McGill; his son, Stanley Lerille and wife, Annie Lerille and their children, Ainsley Lerille, Davis Lerille, Cooper Citron, Christopher Citron and Liam Lerille; and six nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Lloyd J. Lerille and Mabel Parr Lerille.
Born in New Orleans, raised in Harvey, Louisiana Red graduated from Holy Cross High School in New Orleans. He arrived in Lafayette, Louisianaon September 9, 1959 after being honorably discharged from the Navy. Red described the momentthat he stepped off the TransTexas DC-3, "I stepped off into alittle pieceof Heaven." Red was aman who set many goals for himself and because of ALL the wonderful people he met in his life he achieved those goals.
Red received numerous prestigious awards throughouthis life, although recognition was never his motivation,he humbly accepted the Lafayette Civic Cup, ULL Outstanding Alumni Award, ULL Honorary Business Doctorate, and the HFA Hall of Fame Award, to name afew.Inaddition to being apioneer in the fitness industry andanicon for the Acadiana area, he was equally alegend in the rebuildingofantiques airplanes. Over the years he was featured in many aviation magazines for the show quality restoration he mastered on his planes winning the Grand Champion AAA and Bronze Lindy at Oshkosh. Red also had a host of other passions including collecting sports cars, motorcycles and bicycles. He loved his toys and enjoyed conversing with other enthusiasts about them. Another hobby that he enjoyed was the building of model train layouts- his attention to detail was impeccable. Everything that Red did was first class-he never settled for less than his best.
Red was afaithful servant, loved his church, his family, RED'S, his current and past employees, his members and his community. Red leaves this world a better place, never to be
and past employees, his members and his community. Red leaves this world a better place, never to be forgotten Three simple letters, one simple wordRED! Memorial contributions in Red's name may be made to the Carmelite Monastery, 1250 Carmel Dr, Lafayette, LA 70501, Hospice of Acadiana, 2600 Johnston Street, Suite 200 Lafayette, LA. 70506 https:/ /hospiceacadiana.com/,
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Lynott, John John Anthony Lynottof New Orleans passed peacefully at his home on February 23, 2025. He is survived by his loving wife of 61 years, Winifred (Dee) Lynott, son Patrick Joseph Lynott (Melissa), Michael John Lynott and the late John A. Lynott II. Also survived by sisters, Eleanor Davis, Kathleen Walker and Sheila Goodworth (John). Predeceased by siblings Gerard J. Lynott, Jr. and Mary Lynott Norman. John was born in Pittsburgh, PA on January 31, 1936, to Gerard J. Lynott and Martha Eleanor Beattie Lynott. He graduated from Mount Lebanon High School in 1954 and thereafter joined the Navy and was honorably discharged in 1958 as Radar Man Class A. He receiveda bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton, Ohio. In 1963, he met and married his loving wife, Dee Subsequentlyheearned his MBA in economics, graduating with honorsin 1967. John worked for The Mead Corporation in Dayton, Ohio as Money Manager before accepting aposition in NewOrleans with McDermott Incorporated in 1973. He had alengthy career in finance, from his first position as Cash Manager, retiring as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In his position, he often traveled the world in various capacities where he made many lifelong friends. After leaving McDermott, he served on several boards. He was also an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed working on his farm in Poplarville, MS. He and Dee never left New Orleans choosing to live in the French Quarter for many years John was known not only for his determination and dedication in his profession but also for his humor and respect of others, no matter their positionin life. We also wish to thank the assistance and care provided by Brandi, Ingrid and Denise and also Libby of Passages Hospice. Thosewishing to honor John's memory are asked to do so by paying it forward and demonstrating an act of kindness.
Aprivate Celebrationof Life will be held at alater date.
Moorman, William Edward
William Edward Moor‐man, age 77, of Poncha‐toula LA passed away Fri‐day, March 14, 2025. He was born October 5, 1947 in New Orleans, La., to the late William E. Moorman Sr., and Lena L Moorman William was a machinist for 54 years and was pas‐sionate about his work, family and friends. He loved spending time with friends and family tinker‐ing on metal and wood projects listening to music, watching westerns, and learning about history When his wife, Toni, fell ill, he took care of her self‐lessly, for 15 years until her passing. He will be missed by all. He is pre‐ceded in death by his par‐ents and wife Toni Marie Moorman He is survived by brothers, Rodney Moor‐man and Michael (Judy) Moorman; children William A. (Liz) Moorman, Connie (Eric) Jacobs, and Tiffany (Steven) Neill; niece, Kristy (Jared) Barcia; nephew, Rodney Moorman; and special friends, Nancy Ford and Tatiana Badely Family and friends are in‐vited to attend a visitation at 9:00 am on Friday, March 21, 2025, at Greenwood Fu‐neral Home, 5200 Canal Blvd. New Orleans LA 70124, with a mass at 11:00 am. Interment will follow at Greenwood Cemetery For condolences, visit www greenwoodfh com.
O’Brien, Frances Euvino
Frances Euvino O’Brien entered into eternal rest on Sunday, March 16, 2025 at the age of 93 at Touro Hospital in New Orleans Louisiana She was born to the late Leah Cheramie Eu‐vino and Joseph Euvino She was the beloved wife of the late Edward “Eddie John O’Brien, Sr. for 56 years She is survived by her three children who dearly loved, respected admired and adored her, Vicki P O’Brien, Edward “Eddie” J O’Brien, Jr. and Patti Jo O’Brien (Ken The‐riot) Her greatest joys were her grandson, Edward “Doogie” J O’Brien, III and her granddaughter Frances Isabella O’Brien (Orlando Ortiz) She is the sister of JoAnn Green (the late Paul Green, Sr.) Frances is preceded in death by her siblings, Joseph “Bubba” Euvino (Loucille), Rosemary Rink (John) Donald “Dooley Euvino (Barbara) and Deanna Williams (Lawrence); her mother-inlaw, Mary O’Brien; her fa‐ther-in-law William O’Brien and her brothers-in-law, William B. O’Brien (Marie) and Charles O’Brien (Alyce). Frances is also sur‐vived by many nieces, nephews great nieces and great nephews whom she loved dearly. Frances was the Office Manager for over 50 years for Doctors Agamy Kistler, Orestano Konrad, Grant, Murphy and Shanableh. She was a de‐voted woman to her Catholic Faith proving this by being a lifetime Parish‐ioner of Immaculate Con‐ception Catholic Church serving her church com‐munity as a Lector, Ladies Altar Society Member, Money Counter and KC Council 4222 Ladies Auxil‐iary Member. In the KC Ladies Auxiliary, she served as President and various other Offices and Committee positions. She was also a member and volunteer of West Jefferson General Hospital Ladies Auxiliary and a Member of the Italian American Soci‐ety where she always served to the best of her ability. Frances loved bak‐ing She was famous for baking all types of Italian Cookies and Angel Food Cakes She was an avid and loving LSU Football Fan holding season tickets for well over 60 years. She also loved traveling, taking a ride and shopping (She loved Uncle Clearance) Frances always gave her all to her family church and to all community services and hobbies. The family would like to thank her guardian angel, Theia Ann Creppel (Tutti) for her un‐failing love dedication and care. We would also like to thank her many other caretakers, espe‐cially Peggy Creppel and Newanda Joshua The fam‐ily would also like to thank Touro Hospital for their kindness and compassion Family and friends are in‐vited to attend the Visita‐tion at Immaculate Con‐ception Catholic Church, 4401 7th Street, Marrero, Louisiana on Friday, March 21, 2025 beginning at 9:30 a.m The Rosary will be re‐cited at 10:30 a.m Eulogies and Words of Remem‐brance will begin at 12 noon followed by a Funeral Mass at 12:30 p.m A Pri‐vate Interment will be held at a later date Mothe Fu‐neral Home is assisting the family during this difficult time. The family invites you to share your thoughts, fond memories, and condolences online at www mothefunerals com.
dent of New Orleans Olga was the loving wife for 59 years of the late Morris “Moe” Powell Jr Everyone who knew her, knew she had a special needs daugh‐ter Annie, who she loved and cared for She was a priority in Olga’s life Olga enjoyed visits from her grandchildren and always had wonderful meals pre‐pared when they arrived She loved taking them shopping for new clothes or whatever they wanted Olga was involved in the Westbank Women’s Aglow and at one time held the office of president. She also worked as a recep‐tionist in a dentist office in Gretna for many years She resided in Oklahoma her last year of life near grand‐children and great-grand‐children Her beautiful smile and infectious laugh brought joy to everyone around her She was pre‐ceded in death by her par‐ents Olga Stromeyer Falati and Joseph Falati Sr. She is the sister of the late Joseph (the late Mary Lou) Falati Jr Lois Ann Meyers Richard (Connie) Falati, and Regina “Jeannie (David) Falgoust. She is sis‐ter-in-law to Mildred Anne (the late Weldon “Wimpy”) Brechtel and the late Glen‐non “Silky” (Connie) Pow‐ell Olga was the mother of Caroline (Brent) Coussens of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Morris Powell III of New Orleans the late Mark Powell, Ann Powell of New Orleans, and Patricia (Jay) Hymel of Frisco, Texas She was Mawmaw to: Jonathan (Janne) Coussens Stephanie (Caleb) Huene, Catherine (Austin) Mc‐Carter, Nicholas Hymel and eight great-grandchildren: Chloe, Joshua, Taylor, Cora, Cooper, Carson, Lucy, and James A private family memorial will be held at Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans.
Lawrence Price, Jr passed away on March 12 2025, at the age of 69 Lawrence is survived by Sakeya Price, Keyarra Price Kaleb Murphy-Price and Kayden Murphy-Price Also survived by a host of other relatives and friends Preceded in death by his father Lawrence Price, Sr. mother Cora Snow Price, wife Margot Price and daughter Kyanna Price Brown. Family and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life Service on Friday, March 21, 2025, for 12:00 p.m at Ray Av‐enue B C., 4712 Ray Av‐enue, New Orleans, LA 70126. Visitation will begin at 11:00 a.m Pastor Robert Brown, officiating Inter‐ment will follow at Mount Olivet Cemetery 4000 Nor‐man Mayer Ave., New Or‐leans LA 70122. Guestbook Online: www anewtraditi onbegins com (504) 2820600. Linear Brooks Boyd and Donavin D. Boyd Own‐ers/Funeral Directors.
Labat Glapion Funeral Home 1615 St Philip Street, New Orleans, LA 70116 on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 10 am Inter‐ment Mount Olivet Ceme‐tery. Visitation 9 am in the chapel. Mr. Raines entered eternal rest on Tuesday March 11, 2025. Please sign online guestbook at www charbonnetfuneralhome. com Face mask and social distancing encouraged Charbonnet Labat Glapion Directors (504)581 4411.
In Loving Memory of Malcolm Lynn Ricks: Mal‐colm Lynn Ricks, born De‐cember 16, 1954, in Vicks‐burg, Mississippi, passed away peacefully at the age of 70 on March 10, 2025, in Kenner, Louisiana. A de‐voted husband, father grandfather, and greatgrandfather Lynn's kind‐ness and generosity touched many lives. Lynn dedicated his life to mis‐sion work traveling the world to help others, and serving the Lord with un‐wavering faith He at‐tended Mississippi College, New Orleans Baptist Theo‐logical Seminary, and grad‐uated with a Bachelor’s de‐gree in Theology from Word of Faith College in 1987. Ordained as a Baptist minister, he spent his life sharing the love of Christ He was preceded in death by his wife Ann Ricks; his great-granddaughter, Ara‐bella Marie Perrilloux; and his parents, Ann and George Ricks. Lynn is sur‐vived by his wife, Noris Fuentes Ricks; daughters Jennifer Snowden (Ste phen) and Jessica Pistorius (Ross); sons, Jonathan Fuentes (Gabriella) and Kevin Davadi; grandchil‐dren, Donavan, Lauren, Alexandria and Ross Jr ; great-grandchildren, Matthew Michael, and Mason; his brother, Kenneth Ricks (Dianna), whom he grew up with; sister; Betty Hultz, as well as other biological siblings, extended family members, and friends A Funeral Service will be held to honor Lynn’s life on Fri‐day March 21, 2025, for 9:30 a.m. at The Boyd Fam‐ily Funeral Home 5001 Chef Menteur, Hwy, New Or‐leans LA 70126. Visitation will begin at 8:30 a.m Josue Gomez will be lead‐ing worship, David Ziegler will be officiating in Eng‐lish, Carlos Davadi will be officiating in Spanish In‐terment will follow at Lake Lawn Park Cemetery, Metairie, LA 70124. Guest‐book Online: www anewtra ditionbegins.com (504)2820600. Linear Brooks Boyd and Donavin D. Boyd Own‐ers/Funeral Directors.
v Rose Robinson Son of the late Clyde (Barbara) Robin‐son, Sr. and Rosemary Noel Anderson Brother of Regi‐nald Robinson, Equine Robinson Matthew Robin‐son, Charles Webber, Bernadette Broussard, Ger‐maine Weatherspoon Tal‐wanga Weatherspoon, Sha‐cole Robinson and Tara Robinson Uncle of the late Reginald Robinson Jr Nephew of the late Frank Robinson Thomas Robin‐son, Martha (Herman) Beasley and Harold Rapp also survived by a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends Relatives and friends of the family are in‐vited to attend the Cele‐bration of Life at Davis Mortuary Service 6820 Westbank Expressway Marrero, LA on Thursday March 20, 2025, at 10:00 a.m Visitation will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the abovenamed parlor Interment: Will Be Private Arrange‐ments by Davis Mortuary Service, 230 Monroe St Gretna, LA. To view and sign the guestbook please go to davismortuaryser‐vice.com. Face Masks Are Recommended
Rosales, Antoinette Noel
Antoinette Noel Rosales passed away March 13, 2025, at the age of 69. She is survived by her loving son Mark Rosales and her siblings, Sonny, John, and Shirley Gassiot and Kitty Isemann. She is preceded in death by her husband, Juan “John” Rosales and her parents, Francis and Juanita Lala. Antoinette was a loyal and integral part of Nephrology Associ‐ates for over 40 years. She spent many years volun‐teering after she retired She spent her time with the St. Charles United Methodist Church - Food Distribution Center, St Charles Parish Hospital and tending to the St Joseph Altar and her parish, St. Charles Bor‐romeo Catholic Church She will be remembered as a loving mother and friend Funeral services will be held on Friday, March 21, 2025, at St Charles Bor‐romeo Catholic Church 13396 River Rd Destrehan Visitation will begin at 11AM with Mass of Christ‐ian Burial to follow at 12PM. Burial to take place in the church cemetery In lieu of flowers, please con‐sidering donating St Charles United Methodist Church - Food Distribution Center https://www stc harlesumc com/give
Saltaformaggio, Dominic 'Mr. Nick'
Dominic “Mr Nick Saltaformaggio passed away peacefully at his home, surrounded by his family on Monday March 10, 2025, at the age of 87 He was born in New Or‐leans, Louisiana, on Febru‐ary 20, 1938, to the late Joseph and Josie Arcuri Saltaformaggio. He is pre‐ceded in death by his par‐ents and his siblings, Mary Geraci, Vincent Saltafor‐maggio, and Joseph Saltaformaggio, Jr. He is survived by his beloved wife of 66 ½ years Elva “Susie” Saltaformaggio, and his four sons: Dominic Jr. (Sharon), Louis, Joseph, and Tony (Sandy) Saltafor‐maggio and his sister Pa‐tricia Groetsch. He was a proud grandfather to Robert (Marcy), Katie (Evan), Tony, Jr. (Erica) Dr Brendan (Meghan), Christ‐ian Joey Jr Julian (Gi‐mena), Gino, Trinity, Nico, Maggie Luca and Bella as well as step-grandchildren Lanny, Kacie, and Dreux LaFrance. His legacy con‐tinues through his 13 great-grandchildren and 6 step-great-grandchildren He is also survived by his cherished friends Elise Saltaformaggio, Cynthia Martin, Kathy Ebhardt, Lori Saltaformaggio, and brother-in-law Allen Richard and Richard and Charlotte Loehn of Johns Creek, Georgia, along with a host of nieces, nephews and friends A proud 1956 graduate of Holy Cross High School, Dominic went on to own and operate S&A Food Store in Bucktown. He was a devoted LSU fan and a man of deep Catholic faith Above all, he took the greatest pride in his family and will be fondly remem‐bered as a loving husband father, and grandfather A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, March 21, 2025, at Holy Family Catholic Church, 155 Holy Family Ln. Luling, at 12 p.m. with visitation beginning at 10 a.m Burial will take place at a later date In lieu of flowers, the family re‐quests that donations be made in his memory to Holy Family Catholic Church in Luling, LA.
2025 at the age of 61. He was a native of New Orleans LA and a resident of West‐wego, LA. Clyde was a for‐mer employee with D&D Construction as a welder Beloved father of Nyla Rose Robinson. Son of the late Clyde (Barbara) Robin‐son, Sr and Rosemary Noel Anderson Brother of Regi‐nald Robinson, Equine Robinson, Matthew Robin‐son, Charles Webber, Bernadette Broussard, Ger‐maine Weatherspoon, Tal‐wanga Weatherspoon Sha‐cole Robinson and Tara Robinson. Uncle of the late Reginald Robinson, Jr. Nephew of the late Frank Robinson, Thomas Robin‐son, Martha (Herman) 8:30 a.m at
JEROME
As part of their mission, Louisiana’s higher education institutions have routinely identified talented individuals from marginalized communities and given them a shot at a better life and a reason to lend their skills to a state that desperately needs them
Yet now, the Trump administration has cast a pall over what was once considered an incontrovertible benefit of having top-notch colleges and universities in your state. Last week the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced it was investigating Tulane University and 44 other institutions nationwide for alleged violations of Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in educational programs that receive federal funding.
Tulane, Duke, Yale and Notre Dame are among the institutions being scrutinized for working with a nonprofit called the Ph.D Project, the goal of which is to increase racial diversity among faculty at business schools
It’s all part of the Trump administration’s concerted effort to root out all initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion in government and the broader society
Even for those who may agree that it’s time we find a new yardstick to evaluate who is most in need of a leg up, moves like this one come across as extraordinarily petty So much so that we’re left to wonder what’s really at play here.
Tulane has proven that it is committed to the welfare of all its students and our state It offers several generous scholarships and other benefits, without regard to race, for Louisiana residents. It and other Louisiana universities give back to our communities in a multitude of ways.
In February, the U.S. Department of Education sent a memo to schools, calling racial preferences in admissions, hiring, scholarships or other decisions “illegal and morally reprehensible.”
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has cut off federal funding to several teachertraining programs aimed at attracting more people of color to the profession, including some in Louisiana that benefited Tulane, Xavier and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette It has threatened to pull grants from universities it says aren’t doing enough to combat antisemitism. It is investigating schools it says use race in scholarship decisions.
Facing the loss of $320 million in annual federal funding, Tulane’s leaders have attempted to respond. The school’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has become the Office of Academic Excellence and Opportunity. And the university is looking at other ways it can comply with federal guidance We hope it’s enough to take the target off its back, but we have our doubts. All of this is looking less and less like a meaningful attempt to articulate a future framework for our educational institutions to assess merit and more and more like a push to keep a Big Brother lens on higher ed institutions that government officials perceive as a threat The real threat, though, may be lurking in our halls of power, not in our ivory towers.
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The Advocate | The Times-Picayune require a street address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.
Your Feb. 23 editorial entitled “Lack of consequences for misbehaving prosecutors undermines justice system” included the following acknowledgment: “We know that there are many aggressive, hard-working and fair prosecutors in Louisiana’s courtrooms. And that, by and large, they are careful to make sure that their Brady obligations are met when working a case against a defendant.”
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement. Louisiana’s elected district attorneys work hard to make sure their assistants are sensitive to and compliant with a prosecutor’s ethical obligation to disclose information to the defense.
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board’s website has statistics that catalog not only how many lawyers were disciplined in any given year, but also how many complaints were filed and what those complaints alleged. A review of the LADB statistics puts in context the frequency of complaints that allege not only prosecutor misconduct, but criminal defense counsel misconduct as well.
For the 10-year period from 2015
Four days a week, the newspaper features a section in the editorial pages dedicated to reader opinions. These reader submissions are listed under the heading “Your Views.” But if you are in the majority of state voters who identify as Republican or hold conservative viewpoints, you are now well aware that letters selected for publication regularly short-change and detract from your views. After regularly noting these imbalances in reader letters dealing with politics, I decided to quantify my concerns by actually calculating the extent of contrast in whose viewpoints get published. For the four days of the week beginning
through 2024, the statistics show that 24,373 complaints were lodged against lawyers in general. Only 65 of those complaints, a mere .00267% of the total filed, claimed misconduct allegedly committed by a prosecutor During that same period, the disciplinary system fielded 801 ineffective assistance of counsel complaints against criminal defense lawyers, which is 12 times more than those lodged against prosecutors.
While my colleagues across the state and I are sensitive about any instance of prosecutor misconduct, the disciplinary statistics support the conclusion that legitimate instances of such misconduct complaints are rare. That is particularly true when compared to complaints against criminal defense lawyers or lawyers whose practices focus on civil cases. The title of your editorial might be viewed as more balanced if it had spoken to misbehaving “lawyers” rather than prosecutors.
HILLAR MOORE district attorney, East Baton Rouge Parish
with Monday, Feb. 24 to Thursday, Feb. 27, I took a ruler to each day’s politically oriented reader letters from my newspaper subscription and actually measured how much space was dedicated to anticonservative stances to those favoring pro-conservative viewpoints. The results were shocking: I calculated 242 square inches of space dedicated to letters denigrating conservative viewpoints versus 54 square inches dedicated to proconservative letter writers during that same time. What more needs to be said?
PATRICK GROSSIE Lafayette
Columnist gave history lesson Trump needs to heed
I am writing to reply to Phyliss Lear’s letter headlined, “Fight to charge N.Y doctor for abortion misses point.” I believe Lear misses the point. For starters, Lear refers to men three times as “sperm donors.” That says a lot. Lear states, “This is the glaring hole in today’s abortion laws: The sperm donors are never prosecuted for the abortion of the children they conceive.”
It is not a crime to impregnate someone, for conception to occur Rape and statutory rape are crimes. Many people, including myself, believe that under such circumstances, a woman absolutely has the right to choose.
However, men have no rights. No man can legally force a woman to become pregnant or have an abortion. Therefore, if it is a woman’s body and a woman’s choice, then a man cannot be held responsible for that choice, especially if it results in an abortion. By the way, there isn’t a single place in this country where deadbeat dad and child support laws do not exist. Well, in case Lear forgot, sperm donors do not get the right to abort our lifelong responsibility on a whim with a one-time fee and or procedure and nor should “sperm recipients.” CLAY DOREMUS Baton Rouge
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I applaud Cal Thomas on his Feb. 21 column, “History teaches there is no substitute for victory.” Strongly agreeing with Thomas is a once in-a-millennium event for me, and it is with pleasure that I read the historical facts of Neville Chamberlain conceding the Czech Republic to Hitler in their 1938 meeting in Munich, for the purpose of bringing “peace for our time.”
We know the subsequent consequences of World War II.
Writing about the Trump position on ceding Ukraine to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Thomas cautions, “What happened in 1938
when an evil monster was allowed to have his way launching the Holocaust, perhaps it needs another reminder Accommodating evil never ends well.”
Sage advice, yet sadly doubtful that President Donald Trump and his policymakers are seeking wisdom over misdirected ideology Yes, history does teach us important facts, but who in the current administration cares about either facts or history? But then, perhaps, accommodating Putin at the peril of the U.S. is the goal.
DAVID ELIZARDI Metairie
Boy oh boy, are Louisiana’s students, teachers and schools lucky to have Superintendent Cade Brumley leading education in our state? Results speak for themselves, and he has repeated successes moving from DeSoto to Jefferson parishes to now leading the entire state, and he’s homegrown to boot! Congrats to Brumley and the newspaper for the timely and positive “On The Record” interview JOHN K ROBERTS III Gretna
Oliver Thomas is hoping that enough voters have watched him work for communities across New Orleans that they’ll boost him into the mayor’s office.
He has made a good name for himself. He has a high profile. He has made a personal and political comeback Now he wants to lead a city-wide comeback, officially announcing his mayoral candidacy on Tuesday
The political climate is different now than it was when Thomas worked for City Council member Jim Singleton, when he represented City Council District B in the 1990s and when he represented the city as an at-large council member in 2002 and again in 2006. He won with 88% of the vote the first time. He won with 78% of the vote the second time. After working a number of jobs and being involved in community activities and issues, Thomas rose from the political dead to return to the council, beating incumbent Cyndi Nguyen with nearly 57% of the vote in a December 2021 runoff.
“That was redemption,” said Franklin Avenue Baptist Church Senior Pastor Fred J. Luter Jr “But running citywide for mayor is different.”
The Thomas comeback effort reminds pollster Silas Lee of Marion Barry’s comeback after a drug conviction and federal prison time. After serving three terms as mayor of Washington, D.C., Barry didn’t run for reelection A sociology professor at Xavier University, Lee did polling for Barry and voters said they wanted him back He won a city council district seat then ran for another mayoral term and won As for Thomas’ candidacy to become the city’s 52nd mayor, many thought he would have been mayor already. They thought Thomas could’ve run for, and won, a bid to be the city’s 50th mayor Anthony Bean, a Thomas high school friend, watched him develop from a young man into his early political life “We knew he was the next mayor,” he told me “It was ordained.” But Thomas screwed up. In 2007, a prominent businessman wore a wire at a Houston airport, capturing a conversation about a bribe offered to Thomas a few years earlier. He wanted Thomas to make sure that
an existing city contract would continue. Thomas went for it, collecting $15,000. The recorded conversation was enough for Thomas to resign his council seat and plead guilty before a trial. “I was so upset,” Bean recalled. “We knew he was going to be our the next mayor I was really disappointed. That really teed me off.” Thomas served federal prison time, including a couple of years in Atlanta then about 10 months in Oakdale, south of Alexandria and north of Lake Charles and Lafayette. It was a time of reflection for Thomas, especially when he spent 23 hours a day in a cell alone. He had disappointed himself and others. Bean wasn’t the only one who was surprised. So was Luter, one of Thomas’s eighth grade friends, and thousands of others. What Thomas did hurt Luter a trusted middle school and high school friend and a Thomas spiritual adviser who helped him get through a difficult journey
As Thomas prepared to exit, Bean, the artistic director and producer at Anthony Bean Community Theater, suggested that Thomas tell his story in the theater Together they developed a two-act play, “Reflections.” Thomas played himself. It was cathartic, entertaining and informative. It made audiences consider why mistakes are made and the importance of forgiveness
and redemption.
“Everywhere I go, I’m encouraged,” Thomas said in an interview a few days ago. “I understand the importance of the task at hand.” He said he’s grown his civility, maturity and institutional knowledge. He said the community needs to be at the table more often. As voters consider the possibility of Mayor OT Thomas said, “I hold myself to an extremely high standard. I’ve learned from every mistake that I’ve made before. My vow is to never repeat the same mistakes and to be the best official, the best representative, that I can be for the people of this city.” Bean and Luter have forgiven Thomas and moved on. They want Thomas to make his case without the baggage of the past. They believe that he’ll never commit the same mistake again. They realize some voters like and respect him but will have trouble dismissing his indiscretion.
“It’s going to be a tough time,” said Bean. “But he can do it.”
“He did his time. He got out. He asked for forgiveness,” added Luter “Forgiveness and redemption play a vital role.”
Whether Thomas is successful is likely to be determined by voters who can forgive and offer redemption.
Email Will Sutton at wsutton@ theadvocate.com.
President Donald Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have outraged the Beltway by dismissing top generals, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown. This is being called an “unprecedented purge” and a step toward the politicization of the military At the very least, though, these moves send a message that change is coming to an ossified Pentagon, and if they are followed up with reforms to how we promote and evaluate our generals, they will be a step toward a more effective and — to use one of Hegseth’s favorite words — lethal military Worries about the politicization of the military are rich after years of the civilian leadership pushing DEI on the ranks and insisting that climate change is a national-security threat. Here comes Secretary Hegseth saying that the military needs to be about “its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” and he’s the dangerous ideologue? General Brown is an honorable man, but he’s the one who used his position as a political soapbox. After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, Brown released a video that began, “As the commander of Pacific Air Forces, and a senior leader in our Air Force, and an African American, many of you may be wondering what I’m thinking about the current events surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd.” In all likelihood, not very many people were wondering what an Air Force general was thinking about a hot-button political and social issue, and even if they had been, Brown should have told them it wasn’t his role to pronounce on such matters. Whatever else you think about the Pacific Air Forces command, it has never been considered the conscience of the nation. Brown also signed on to a 2022 memo that encapsulated the attitude that
Hegseth, rightly, is attempting to eradicate. It set out goals for the Air Force officer applicant pool “by race, ethnicity, and gender,” and ordered that the so-called commissioning sources establish “a diversity and inclusion outreach plan” for achieving these goals. The deeper issue with our top generals is that they are the creatures of a system geared toward bureaucratic conformity and a flavorless competence; they tend to be highly replaceable cogs who know what it takes to get promoted but not what it means to be distinctive. Originality and strategic thinking are not valued, or even are treated as liabilities. Personal peccadilloes are mercilessly punished, while minor matters, like losing wars, don’t rate.
“Relief of generals has become so rare,” Thomas Ricks wrote in an essay in The Atlantic years ago, “that a private who loses his rifle is now punished more than a general who loses his part of a war.” Ricks lamented “a perverse incentive system that drives leaders toward a risk-averse middle.”
What we need is a new George C. Marshall, who, before the U.S entry into
World War II, relentlessly fired officers he found unsuitable for the impending struggle and replaced them with the most impressive talent available.
This is the real question about the Hegseth firings: Do they betoken truly fundamental change, including a rethinking of the Goldwater-Nichols Act that created unnecessarily large headquarters staffs and generals who are good at many things, but the masters of none?
Military expert John Noonan suggests a new, highly rigorous paradigm for selecting commanders based on Navy SEAL training. To wit: “hundreds of officers apply for a school that selects only a few dozen to compete in realistic war games, problem-solving exercises, physical competitions, and technical challenges, and only 10 or so are rewarded with a prized command billet.”
“War is too important to be left to the generals,” the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau famously said. Even so, our top generals need to be better Rich Lowry is on X, @RichLowry
Why don’t we have a word for someone you’ve barely met, but nonetheless think of as a friend? The internet created the need for such a word, but as far as I’m aware, has yet to meet it. I realized this the other day when Kevin Drum — the liberal blogger formerly known as Calpundit died.
I met Kevin just once, on a long-ago trip to Los Angeles, where I found him to be that rarest of birds: the person who is basically the same off the internet as on it. Both in person and online, he was possessed of a mild manner overlaying a keen intellect, fierce independence and ruthless honesty He was as impatient with the nonsense of his own side as he was with the excesses of his opponents, and did not hesitate to point any of that out, even when it was costly to do so.
But mostly I knew him through our arguments, because we didn’t agree on much. Kevin was a joy to argue with: He always fought fair and smart. His weapons were charts and logic, not ad hominem and snappy retorts. When I read of his passing, after a long battle with multiple myeloma, I felt as if I’d lost an old buddy
Though we both initially supported the Iraq War, Kevin was the first to realize his folly — to his credit, before the invasion started. At the time I was irritated at his defection, but even then I grudgingly accepted it, because he argued from the likely outcome, not moral high dudgeon at his opponents. Of course, events subsequently proved him absolutely correct, as was to happen often.
Yet occasionally we became allies, because his intellectual integrity prevented him from going along with his own team’s weak arguments, or staying politely silent while it launched into wild error The first time I can remember this happening was in 2004, when “60 Minutes” ran a piece on some documents that purported to prove President George W. Bush had gone AWOL during his Vietnam-era Texas Air National Guard service, but that strongly appeared to have been forged, a fact that CBS missed due to inadequate vetting. Kevin was forthright in listing the reasons to believe CBS had been hoaxed, while others on the left were equivocating, or making far-fetched arguments about how a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard could have produced, on 1970s typewriters, a document that looked very like what you’d get if you just opened Microsoft Word and started typing. Years later, when people tried to revive the allegations, he patiently laid out all the reasons to believe the documents were fakes.
It was the first evidence of his unusual integrity; it would not be the last. After Kevin died, Ben Dreyfuss, a writer who worked with him at the liberal political magazine Mother Jones, told a story on Substack that captures a lot of what made Kevin so quietly extraordinary Apparently over his years at Mother Jones, Kevin had repeatedly been offered raises, and repeatedly asked that the money instead be used to pay the journalism fellows more, or improve their benefits. Men of such caliber are rare, and I’m afraid that pundits of his stripe are practically extinct.
Blogging was more like an all-night dormroom bull session, and it rewarded very different traits: the ability to write frequently and at length, and a desire to be argued with.
Conversations raged for days or even weeks between blogs and within them. Commenters made counterarguments they expected to be answered by the blogger The effect was to create multiple overlapping communities, which were both broad and deep. Bloggers themselves often became friends, but they were also cultivating the commenters’ bonds among themselves, and with the blogger who gave them a forum.
It’s just as hard to curate a good comment section, and keep it from descending into pointless name-calling, as it is to write a good blog in the first place. It’s enormous work, weeding out the spam and the trolls and the people who can’t argue in good faith, and the only reward is a (relatively) small group of people who wouldn’t have known each other if you hadn’t brought them together, and who revel in arguments that can run for years.
Kevin had one of the most vibrant and longest-lived comment sections on the internet, and reading through the comments on the final post to his blog, I was struck by how many people were grieving the loss, not just of Kevin, but of the fellowship he’d created. How much he did, for so many people, and how much we have all lost, now that he is gone.
Megan McArdle in on X, @asymmetricinfo.
Whitfield, Evelyn Holmes
Evelyn Holmes Whit‐
Wise, Robert Warren 'Bobby'
Peggy Boudreaux Trainor passed away on March 9, 2025, at the age of 86. Survived by her children John B. Trainor, Jr., Colleen Hornung (Brian) Amy Trainor (Katherine Dumal), grandchildren Tiffany Gomez (Dustin), Olivia Rit‐ter (Nicholas), Jacob Wind‐stein, Maddie Drake (Sarah), Logan (fiancée Madeleine) and Justin Hor‐nung (Kaylee), Nolan and Margaret Dumal-Trainor great grandchildren Sebas‐tian Christian, Lincoln and Hailyn Gomez, Ellie, Otis and Waylon Drake aunt TC Navarre and a host of nieces, nephews and cousins Preceded in death by her husband, John B Trainor and her parents Mary and Nolan Boudreaux. Peggy was born in Napoleonville, LA and grew up in the Carrollton neigh‐borhood of New Orleans, attending Mater Dolorosa School and St. Joseph High School where she formed friendships that lasted her lifetime After an early ca‐reer in banking she and John started John B Trainor & Associates where she worked until retire‐ment. Peggy was devoted to her faith, family and friends and was always ready for a good time. Her infectious laugh filled the room Lovingly known as Lil’ Peg and Mimi, she was The Gift” to her family who will miss her greatly and remember her fondly The family would like to thank the staff and resi‐dents of St Francis Villa where Peggy enjoyed the last four years of her life and the Ochsner NSCC Unit staff who provided com‐passionate care in her final days. Family and friends are invited to attend a Fu‐neral Mass on Friday March 21, 2025, at Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church for 12:00 noon Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m In‐urnment to follow at Lake Lawn Cemetery, New Or‐leans, LA Online guest‐book: www anewtraditi onbegins com (504) 2820600. Donavin D. Boyd and Linear Brooks Boyd Own‐ers/Funeral Directors.
John Jude Wehrer, Sr passed away in Harvest AL on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at the age of 83. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Frances Ann Wehrer He will be missed by his sons, John J Wehrer, Jr. (Vickie) and Kevin M Wehrer (Joan) as well as 5 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren John dedicated his entire career to sales, providing innovative solutions for the petrochemical industry Beyond his professional life, he had a deep passion for amateur radio and was an active member of both the Jefferson Amateur Radio Club and the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club, known by his call sign, KA5CSI. A lifelong car enthusiast he found joy in owning, working on, and racing cars. He was an ac‐tive member of the Sports Car Club of America for many years, competing in both drag racing and track racing His love for motor‐sports extended to watch‐ing NASCAR, a pastime he truly enjoyed. In addition to his love for cars, he gave his time generously as a volunteer at the Huntsville Botanical Garden He also had a passion for travel al‐ways seeking new experi‐ences and places to ex‐plore He will be remem‐bered for his enthusiasm dedication, and the many lives he touched through his work, hobbies, and vol‐unteer efforts. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Services at Garden of Memories Fu‐neral Home & Cemetery, 4900 Airline Drive Metairie LA 70001 on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Visitation will begin at 9:30 am with a service starting at 11:00 am followed by burial To order flowers or offer con‐dolences please visit www gardenofmemorie smetairie com.
Whitfield, Evelyn Holmes
Evelyn Holmes Whit‐field, age 93, departed this Earthly Life on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at Chateau De Notre Dame Community Care Center. She was the daughter of the late Rosa Holmes Douglas and Rod‐ney Holmes. Evelyn was a member of Fellowship Mis‐sionary Baptist Church where she was a faithful member until her health began to fail, serving on the Deaconess Board, as a Sunday School Tracher, an international missionary and more. Her Christian journey also included serv‐ing as a member and for‐mer president of the Tried Stone Benevolent Society of First Pilgrim Baptist Church for over 60 years She was an educator in the Orleans Parish public school system and after re‐tirement she taught in a variety of Adult Education programs She earned her BS degree in education form Dillard University and her Master’s plus 30 from Xavier and Nicholls State University. Evelyn joined the daughters of Elks in 1950, initiated at Crescent City Temple #185, She was a current member of Greater New Orleans CYW Temple #185, the Emma V Kelly PDR Council, the Louisiana State Associa‐tion Daughters of Elks and the National Grand Temple of IBPOEW Evelyn was elected and appointed to many notable positions recognized and received awards for her meritorious service throughout her years as a daughter of Elks. She was proceeded in death by her two brothers Randy Birkshire and Rudolph Holmes I, one sis‐ter, Mary Saul, one sisterin-law, Gwendolyn Holmes, two nephews Michael Saul and Rudolph Holmes II and one niece-in-law, Terrilyn Norris Holmes. Evelyn is survived by her niece Deanne Davidson (El‐dridge) three nephews Ronald Saul (Leslye), Olton Holmes (Thuy) and Glenn Holmes along with a host of great nieces, nephews, cousin’s other relatives and friends. Relatives and friends of the family are all invited to attend her Cele‐
field, age 93, departed this Earthly Life on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at Chateau De Notre Dame Community Care Center She was the daughter of the late Rosa Holmes Douglas and Rod‐ney Holmes Evelyn was a member of Fellowship Mis‐sionary Baptist Church where she was a faithful member until her health began to fail, serving on the Deaconess Board, as a Sunday School Tracher, an international missionary and more Her Christian journey also included serv‐ing as a member and for‐mer president of the Tried Stone Benevolent Society of First Pilgrim Baptist Church for over 60 years. She was an educator in the Orleans Parish public school system and after re‐tirement she taught in a variety of Adult Education programs. She earned her BS degree in education form Dillard University and her Master’s plus 30 from Xavier and Nicholls State University Evelyn joined the daughters of Elks in 1950, initiated at Crescent City Temple #185, She was a current member of Greater New Orleans CYW Temple #185, the Emma V Kelly PDR Council, the Louisiana State Associa‐tion Daughters of Elks and the National Grand Temple of IBPOEW Evelyn was elected and appointed to many notable positions, recognized and received awards for her meritorious service throughout her years as a daughter of Elks She was proceeded in death by her two brothers, Randy Birkshire and Rudolph Holmes I, one sis‐ter, Mary Saul one sisterin-law, Gwendolyn Holmes, two nephews, Michael Saul and Rudolph Holmes II and one niece-in-law, Terrilyn Norris Holmes Evelyn is survived by her niece, Deanne Davidson (El‐dridge), three nephews, Ronald Saul (Leslye) Olton Holmes (Thuy) and Glenn Holmes along with a host of great nieces, nephews, cousin’s other relatives and friends Relatives and friends of the family are all invited to attend her Cele‐bration of Life Service on Wednesday, March 19 2025, 10:00AM, at Fellow‐ship Missionary Baptist Church, 2805 General Tay‐lor St, NOLA. Visitation will be held from 9:00AM until the hour of service. Inter‐ment: Resthaven Memorial Park, New Orleans, LA Please visit www pfsnewo rleans com to Sign Guest‐book and/or Order Flowers Services Entrusted to: Pro‐fessional Funeral Services “Celebrating Life” 1449 N Claiborne Ave. New Or‐leans, LA 70116. 504-9487447.
Leatrice Barback Wilkins of Metairie passed away peacefully on Sunday, March 9 2025 at the age of 93 in Covington, LA She was born in New Orleans to the late Lester A. Bar‐back and Louisa Wertz Bar‐back on December 9, 1931 Preceded in death by her beloved husband of 48 years, Donald J. Wilkins, Sr. her grandson, Paul A Wilkins, Jr., her brother, Lester L. Barback and sis‐ter-in-law, Isabella Bar‐back. She is survived by her children, Donald J Wilkins, Jr. (Kimberly) Melissa W Kelly (Jim), Paul A Wilkins, Sr. (Holly), Den‐nis J Wilkins (Sheri) and Melanie W Schultz (Den‐nis) and her grandchildren Haskell Wilkins (Keri), Nicholas Wilkins (Paige) Emily W Willard (Trent) Lauren S Futch (Justin) Michael Kelly (Chynna), Daniel Grant Schultz (Heather), Benjamin Wilkins (Brooke), Danielle W Trosclair (Travis) Meghan K. Marino (Taylor), Rebekah W. Springer (Jake), Destiny W. Cooper, Collin Wilkins, Audrey Wilkins, Matthew Wilkins and 21 great grandchil‐dren. She will be remem‐bered for her love of family and living life to the fullest. Leatrice enjoyed the com‐pany of friends and family She was a devote catholic and had a special devotion
Wilkins, Leatrice Barback
Leatrice Barback Wilkins of Metairie, passed away peacefully on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the age of 93 in Covington, LA She was born in New Orleans to the late Lester A Bar‐back and Louisa Wertz Bar‐back on December 9, 1931. Preceded in death by her beloved husband of 48 years, Donald J Wilkins, Sr her grandson, Paul A. Wilkins, Jr., her brother, Lester L Barback and sis‐ter-in-law, Isabella Bar‐back She is survived by her children, Donald J. Wilkins, Jr. (Kimberly) Melissa W Kelly (Jim), Paul A. Wilkins Sr (Holly), Den‐nis J. Wilkins (Sheri) and Melanie W. Schultz (Den‐nis) and her grandchildren Haskell Wilkins (Keri), Nicholas Wilkins (Paige) Emily W. Willard (Trent) Lauren S. Futch (Justin), Michael Kelly (Chynna), Daniel Grant Schultz (Heather), Benjamin Wilkins (Brooke) Danielle W. Trosclair (Travis), Meghan K Marino (Taylor), Rebekah W Springer (Jake), Destiny W Cooper, Collin Wilkins Audrey Wilkins, Matthew Wilkins and 21 great grandchil‐dren She will be remem‐bered for her love of family and living life to the fullest. Leatrice enjoyed the com‐pany of friends and family She was a devote catholic and had a special devotion to the Blessed Mother The family would like to thank the staff at Forest Manor nursing home for the care given over the last few months. Family and friends are invited to visitation Fri‐day March 21, 2025 at St Catherine of Siena Church from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm followed by a funeral mass at 12:00 Interment will be private at Lake Lawn Mau‐soleum. In lieu of flowers, the family ask for masses.
Robert "Bobby" Warren Wise, knowntoall as Bobby, passed away peacefully in Metairie on March 10, 2025, at theage of 86. He was born on October 5, 1938, in New Orleans to Edward Warren Wise and Elizabeth Grussaute Wise. Bobby graduated from John McDonogh HighSchool before proudly serving in the U.S. Army and National Guard. After his service, he attended Delgado Community College, where he earned aCertificate of Technical Studies. He then began alongand respected career as apipefitter, dedicatingover 60 years to the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 60 Union. In 1989, Bobby became aco-owner of Anita's Grill, abeloved New Orleans restaurantestablishment founded in 1949. When he wasn't workingat the restaurant, he cherished his weekly golf outings with friends, always appreciatingthe camaraderie on the course and enjoying acold beer after a long game. He could often be found at the Fair Grounds, placing bets as he loved betting on horse races. At the track, Bobby typically carried ahorse racing form in his back jean pocket and apack of spearmint guminhis front pocket. On most Saturday nights, Bobby and his wife Lou would dine at their favorite local spots, with Tony Angello's Italian Restaurant being their top choice. Bobby would dis-
Robert "Bobby" Warren Wise, knowntoall as Bobby, passed away peacefully in Metairie on March 10, 2025, at theage of 86. He was born on October 5, 1938, in New Orleans to Edward Warren Wise and Elizabeth Grussaute Wise. Bobby graduated from John McDonogh HighSchool before proudly serving in the U.S. Army and National Guard. After his service, he attended Delgado Community College, where he earned aCertificate of Technical Studies. He then began alongand respected career as apipefitter, dedicatingover 60 years to the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 60 Union. In 1989, Bobby became aco-owner of Anita's Grill, abeloved New Orleans restaurantestablishment founded in 1949. When he wasn't workingat the restaurant, he cherished his weekly golf outings with friends, always appreciatingthe camaraderie on the course and enjoying acold beer after a long game. He could often be found at the Fair Grounds, placing bets as he loved betting on horse races. At the track, Bobby typically carried ahorse racing form in his back jean pocket and apack of spearmint guminhis front pocket. On most Saturday nights, Bobby and his wife Lou would dine at their favorite local spots, with Tony Angello's Italian Restaurant being their top choice. Bobby would discreetly slip Dale atwenty to secure seating at their favorite table. Bobby was a courageous fighter throughouthis life. In 2013, he overcame pancreatic cancer, abattle few win, demonstratinghis strength and determination. In 2017, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which he lived with for seven years. Most recently, Bobby suffered afall that resulted in afractured pelvis, requiring surgery and amonth of rehabilitation. Despite these unfortunate events, Bobby never stopped askinghis wife, "What can Idofor you?" He wasa selfless man. Bobby is survived by his loving wife of 53 years, Louise "Lou" Pagart Wise, his devoted daughter, Rhonda Maestri (Jon), his cherished grandchildren, Zack and Allie anda handful of extended family who meant so much to him. He was preceded in death by his parents, Edward and Elizabeth,and three sisters: JoyceNettle, Fay Jeffries and Joan Giarrusso. Bobby will be remembered for his mild disposition, smile, hard work and generosity. His presence will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him. The family wouldlike to thankthe following: Bobby's Anita's Grill family (especially Arnold, Sean andDwana), Ochsner Rehabilitation (especially Ms. Judy), Peristyle Residences and his sitter, Ms. Sandra. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Visitation at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70124 on Monday, March24, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. Interment
Godchaux aims to shore up Saints’ leaky run defense
BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer
Davon Godchaux sees himself
as a versatile interior defensive linemen, but when asked to describe his game at his introductory news conference, he likely hit on exactly why the New Orleans Saints traded for him. “I’m just a dominant run player,” Godchaux, a Plaquemine native, said. New Orleans sent a seventhround pick to the New England Patriots to acquire Godchaux because he brings that trait to a unit that finished with one of the NFL’s worst run defenses a year ago. The Saints allowed 141.4 yards rushing per game and 4.92 yards per carry last season, with only the Carolina Panthers faring worse in either category Rather than blowing up their defensive interior, the Saints chose to add the 6-foot-3, 330-pound Godchaux to the existing group.
Godchaux, a former LSU standout, spent the past four seasons anchoring a Patriots defense that posted two top-five finishes in run defense.
Three of those seasons were spent under future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick.
His 67 tackles ranked fourth among NFL defensive tackles last season, and his 50 run stops — defined as a tackle that resulted in a successful play for the defense — ranked ninth among all defensive linemen, according to NFL Pro. Godchaux has never put up gaudy pass rushing stats, but he’s still an excellent run defender as he nears his ninth professional season.
“Whatever it takes, if I’ve got to take the double team up on that play so someone else can come free and make a play, I’ll do it,” he said.
“It’s all about team defense. I’m excited about that I’m excited to join this group.”
He’ll be an important part of the Saints’ attempt to turn their run defense around, but he was quick to point out he will not be alone in that.
“It takes 11,” he said. “It takes the safeties to come down, it takes the linebackers to be in great fits. It takes everybody And that’s what I learned playing in New England, playing with Bill Belichick. It’s a team defense.”
As he explained, Godchaux clasped his two large hands together
“It’s nice to have a group come
BY ROD WALKER Staff writer
The Pelicans’ injury-filled season took yet another hit Monday night.
Trey Murphy, who was having the best season of his NBA career, is out for the year after being diagnosed with a torn labrum and partial tear of the rotator cuff in his right shoulder An MRI confirmed the injury late Tuesday night, the team announced.
Murphy’s injury occurred in the first minute of Monday’s 127-81 home loss
to the Detroit Pistons. Murphy was attempting to get to a loose ball on the play He went to the locker room with 11:11 remaining in the first quarter, but didn’t return.
Murphy, in his fourth NBA season, was averaging a career-high in points (21.6), rebounds (5.2) and assists (3.6). Last week, he moved into ninth place on the franchise’s all-time scoring list, surpassing former teammate Jonas Valanciunas.
It’s the latest injury for the Pelicans, who dropped to 18-51 after Monday’s loss. The 46-point loss tied the record for worst
regular season loss in franchise history
“To start the game with Trey going down, it kind of just rocked us from there,” coach Wille Green said. “We kind of felt sorry for ourselves a bit. You can’t do that. But it shook our guys up, especially with all we’ve been through this season.”
And the Pelicans have been through a lot. It’s the third season-ending injury for the Pelicans. Two starters from the season-opener, Dejounte Murray and Herb Jones, also suffered season-ending injuries. Murray suffered a torn Achilles against the Boston Celtics in late January A week later, Jones suffered a torn labrum in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers Zion Williamson played his 29th game Monday
BY AARON BEARD AP basketball writer
A hobbled Cooper Flagg was determined to celebrate top-ranked Duke’s latest Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title by snipping a piece of the net, even after missing two straight games.
So he crossed a sea of scattered confetti and began climbing a ladder, with fans, teammates and media members closely watching as he took the first step up on his sprained left ankle. “Be careful, brotha!” a voice implored amid the din. “Be careful, up and down.”
BY REED DARCEY Staff writer
LSU football mixed a few team
drills into its sixth spring practice on Tuesday, giving a few of its returners a chance to compete against some of its transfers.
Not all newcomers have joined the Tigers yet. As it starts its third week of spring practice, LSU is still waiting to add a key transfer offensive lineman into
As Flagg descended with keepsake in hand, he bypassed the ladder’s lowest step and touched down on that same left foot, offering a momentary awkward gait.
“Just don’t hurt yourself getting off the ladder, please,” another voice said.
Sure, it was a small — and maybe a little nervously tense moment, but it captured a slice of the gaze that has been locked on Flagg all season. The biggest star in the NCAA Tournament is a freshman who didn’t turn 18 until nearly two months into
the mix, as well as the bulk of its top-10 freshman class.
Here’s what stood out from a full session open to the media.
Trey’Dez Green
On Tuesday, sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green was Garrett Nussmeier’s favorite target.
Green secured two difficult grabs while LSU rehearsed redzone offense, showcasing the size and athleticism he flashed last season. The 6-foot-7 sophomore also won all three of his reps in a one-on-one drill against defensive backs, revealing an improved ability to create separation on his routes even against more nimble defenders.
the season and went on to be an unanimous Associated Press first-team All-American.
Yet his presumed lone March Madness run as a potential No. 1 overall NBA draft pick begins with him nursing that ankle injury and the East Region’s top seed facing a bit of late-season tumult, only magnifying the attention on Flagg’s every step, dribble or potential grimace.
“Man, Cooper’s handled every single thing that’s been thrown at him with grace,” graduate guard Sion James said after Duke’s home finale against Wake
When the season kicks off on Aug. 30, the Tigers can use Green in the red zone like they did Tuesday
The former Zachary High School star lined up in the slot on a 7-on-7 rep, then ran a fade route into the end zone. Once Green earned a step on his defender Nussmeier dropped a perfectly thrown pass over his shoulder and into his outstretched hands.
Earlier, in full team work, Nussmeier found Green in the back corner of the end zone. Rising sophomore safety Dashawn Spears had good coverage, but Green used his length and
Former LSU star becomes the youngest since 2014 to start season on mound
By The Associated Press
Pittsburgh right-hander
Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year award winner will be the youngest pitcher in 11 years to start a season opener when he takes the mound for the Pirates next week.
Skenes, a former LSU star, will be 22 years and 302 days old on March 27 when Pittsburgh plays at Miami. José Fernández of the Marlins was 21 years and 243 days old when he opened the 2014 season. In its annual announcement of the opening day starters, most of which had been already informally confirmed by their clubs during spring training, Major League Baseball also revealed Tuesday that Skenes will be the fastest first overall draft pick to make an opening day start
Skenes was drafted by the Pirates in 2023. Mike Moore was the first selection by Seattle in 1981 and started opening day for the Mariners in 1984, and Stephen Strasburg was the top pick by Washington in 2009 and made his first opening day start for the Nationals in 2012.
Three natives of Japan got the nods for their openers, the most in MLB history Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers were the starters for the grand opener in Tokyo earlier Tuesday, a 4-1 win for Yamamoto and the Dodgers. Yusei Kikuchi will also start for the Los Angeles Angels on March 27 against the Chicago White Sox. Seven other Japanese-born players have previously started season openers: Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideo Nomo.
Two teams have yet to declare their opening day starter: Arizo-
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes delivers during the first inning of a spring training game against the Baltimore Orioles on March 1 in Sarasota, Fla.
na and Cleveland. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he’s deciding between newcomer Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen for the road game against the Cubs. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has yet to commit, but all signs point to Tanner Bibee, who pitched in a Cactus League exhibition game on Monday that lines up his rest schedule to be ready for the March 27 game against Kansas City With the Cubs and Dodgers
getting a head start, the 28 other teams will open on March 27. Four of the opening day starters will make their debuts with a new team: Garrett Crochet with Boston, Clay Holmes with the New York Mets, Luis Severino with the Athletics and Kikuchi with the Angels.
The others are Carlos Rodón (New York Yankees), Freddy Peralta (Milwaukee), José Berríos (Toronto), Zach Elfin (Baltimore), Nathan Eovaldi (Texas), MacK-
enzie Gore (Washington), Zach Wheeler (Philadelphia), Cole Ragans (Kansas City), Framber Valdez (Houston), Hunter Greene (Cincinnati), Logan Webb (San Francisco), Michael King (San Diego), Chris Sale (Atlanta), Sean Burke (Chicago White Sox), Sandy Alcantara (Miami), Sonny Gray (St. Louis), Pablo López (Minnesota), Tarik Skubal (Detroit), Logan Gilbert (Seattle), Shane McClanahan (Tampa Bay) and Kyle Freeland (Colorado).
Miami QB projected as No. 1 overall pick in NFL draft
BY JEFF DUNCAN Staff writer
The Saints were one of Cam Ward’s favorite teams while growing up in West Columbia, Texas.
So, it was exciting for the AllAmerican quarterback from Miami to meet with Saints officials at the NFL scouting combine last month in Indianapolis. “I loved watching Drew Brees and (receiver Marques) Colston out there,” Ward said Monday night before receiving the Manning Award at a ceremony at the Caesars Superdome “It would be a dream of mine to play for them, if I get a chance someday. But that’s not really my focus right now.” Ward is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the April 24-26 NFL draft.
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together like this, all from different backgrounds to come together and play as one,” Godchaux said. “Team ball. If we can do that, we can stop anybody. I’m a firm believer in that.” He may fit into new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley’s defensive machinery as a nose tackle — which felt like his obvious placement, as the Saints did not have a nose tackle before the trade. But while Godchaux played nose tackle in New England, he played all along the defensive interior The Patriots sometimes asked him to play a four- or fivetechnique, which aligned him either directly in front of the of-
The Saints currently have the No. 9 selection in the first round, so it would likely require a trade for New Orleans to acquire him.
The Saints have not selected a quarterback in the first round of the draft since taking Archie Manning with the second overall pick in 1971.
Derek Carr is entering the third year of a four-year, $150 million contract he signed with the Saints in 2023.
The Saints recently restructured the deal to create space on the team’s 2025 salary cap.
While the Saints and new coach Kellen Moore are not expected to select a quarterback in the first round, it was notable that they scheduled one of their 45 formal meetings with Ward, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year
“It was a great meeting,” Ward said. “If you get a chance to go play for a Super Bowl-winning coach like coach Moore. He knows how to dial up the playbook.
“The biggest thing I took away
fensive tackle or over the tackle’s outside shoulder
So, while he’s comfortable doing what he described as the “dirty work” — playing up the gut and taking on double teams to free others behind him to make a play — he also said he can add more.
Being able to help in multiple roles is something that he said was drilled into him during his college football days at LSU. “When I was there, coach (Ed) Orgeron always told me, ‘The more you can do. Stay versatile. Play with your left hand down, play with your right hand down.’
I thank him for that today because now you see in this day and age in this league, they ask you to play multiple positions.”
Email Luke Johnson at ljohnson@theadvocate.com.
Mulkey buys all student tickets for games LSU hosts
The NCAA Tournament can get expensive, especially for someone on a college budget. To help solve this issue, LSU women’s coach Kim Mulkey has purchased every student ticket for the entirety of the Tigers playing at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center during the national tournament.
“I am pleased to be able to purchase the student tickets for these games in the PMAC,” Mulkey’s announcement read. “All we need is for you to show up, be loud and help propel us to victory!”
Mulkey urged students to claim their free seats as soon as possible. Mulkey also said one of her motives to pay for the tickets is because of some older fans electing to stay home from Saturday’s late start. The No. 3 Tigers play No. 14 San Diego State at 9:15 p.m. Saturday
Versatile offensive lineman
Young returning to Saints
Landon Young is returning to the Saints on a one-year deal, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.
Young a sixth-round pick out of Kentucky in the 2021 NFL Draft, has appeared in 56 games with 12 starts for the Saints.
After playing exclusively as a tackle his first three seasons, Young added some additional flexibility in 2024, lining up at both left and right guard as needed.The only offensive line position Young has not played during his first four years with the team is center
According to Pro Football Focus, 96.4% of Young’s offensive snaps last season came at guard.
The 6-foot-7, 321-pound Young will turn 28 years old in August.
Broome and Flagg lead AP All-America team
One is a fifth-year senior who began his career at a mid-major, the other a first-year wunderkind recruited by everyone. The first is a now leading a program on the rise, while the other is the unmistakable star for a traditional power Johni Broome of Auburn and Cooper Flagg of Duke do have something in common, though: The forwards were unanimous first-team picks for The Associated Press men’s college basketball AllAmerica teams released Tuesday They were joined on the first team by Alabama star Mark Sears and Purdue’s Braden Smith.
Only Broome, a third-team pick a year ago, and Flagg were among the first five on the ballots of all 61 national media members who vote for the weekly AP Top 25.
hires Harper as new women’s coach
Kellie Harper was hired as the women’s basketball coach at Missouri, where the former coach of SEC-rival Tennessee will have the job of rebuilding a once-proud program that has not been to the NCAA Tournament in six years.
Harper grew up in Sparta, Tennessee, and played under Pat Summitt with the Volunteers, helping them to win three consecutive national championships.
She began her coaching career in the SEC as an assistant at Auburn in 2000 before replacing Holly Warlick at her alma mater in 2019.
Harper led the Vols to the NCAA Tournament each of the four seasons it was held, including back-toback Sweet 16 trips in 2022 and ‘23. She was fired after last season.
Brandon Graham’s career in Philadelphia began with criticisms that he was a first-round bust, and his career ended with him being one of the most beloved Eagles players and lineman of his generation.
Graham retired Tuesday following a 15-year career in Philly that was highlighted by his role in the defensive play that helped deliver the Eagles their first Super Bowl title earlier this year “I gave everything I had, everything I had in this,” Graham said. “I don’t have no regrets.” Graham, who turns 37 in April, proceeded to thank the organization, all of his coaches, his teammates and his family during an emotional news conference announcing and commemorating his decision.
BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer
Throughout the offseason last year, Chris Hilton said he believed he could have a breakout season. He felt healthy after injuries stalled the first three years of his career and he was getting first-team reps.
Everything finally pointed up for the LSU wide receiver — until he suffered another injury this time to his ankle.
“God doesn’t operate on the same clock as you, and that’s one of the things that I had to learn. I learned it the hard way Spring ball and fall camp, I went from here” Hilton said, raising his hand, “in a split second, back at the bottom.”
Hilton missed seven games, and even once he returned, it took another month for him to contribute But in the last two games, Hilton showed the difference he could make with his speed.
He opened up the deep passing attack, something LSU is trying to build on going into the 2025 season.
“When we’re not hitting deep balls and things like that, it allows defenses to play us in a way that almost handcuffs us,” quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said “Having Chris rolling at the end of the year, you saw what we were able to do in the vertical game.”
Could the solution be simple?
Though it was a small sample size, Hilton caught six passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns combined against Oklahoma and Baylor
Four of his receptions went for more than 40 yards. During those two games, Nussmeier completed 58% (7 of 12) of his 20-plus-yard passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus. The difference was his speed, and LSU added more potential deep threats.
Kentucky transfer Barion Brown clocked a 10.49 in the 100 meters and won back-toback Tennessee state titles in the 100 and 200 meters. Oklahoma transfer Nic Anderson doesn’t have the same straight-line speed, but he averaged 21 yards per catch in 2023. Even Florida
State transfer Destyn Hill was known for his speed in high school.
“That’s where I think (offensive coordinator Joe) Sloan feels real comfortable that he’s got those vertical threats to go out,” coach Brian Kelly said. “We didn’t have them at times last year and now they’re healthy and part of our offensive structure.”
In theory, LSU has one part of the equation Nussmeier is willing and able to throw deep, but he only completed 36% (31 of 86) of his throws more than 20 yards downfield last season for 982 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions, according to PFF
His completion percentage on those passes ranked 10th among SEC quarterbacks who started the majority of their team’s games.
“Completions,” Kelly said when asked what he’s looking for in the vertical passing game. “And completions happen with both the quarterback and the receiver being on the same page.”
It was a stark difference from the year before, when Jayden Daniels turned into the best deep-ball passer in college football.
He carved up defenses while throwing to Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas, completing 63.6% (35 of 55)
of his throws more than 20 yards downfield, per PFF for 1,347 yards, 22 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Daniels led the country at 11.7 yards per attempt. By comparison, Nussmeier averaged 7.7 in his first year as a starter, which tied for 12th in the SEC with Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia.
Nussmeier was the only quarterback in the country who threw for more than 4,000 yards and averaged less than 8 yards per attempt.
“I think there’s many different things that could have been that issue,” Nussmeier said. “Obviously, I’m always trying to get better at it and work on my accuracy I think it’s just more of a chemistry thing and getting our timing down.”
Without Hilton, LSU lacked deep threats. Two of its starters, Kyren Lacy and CJ Daniels, were possession types who rarely separated downfield. LSU struggled in the deep passing game for most of SEC play, going a combined 11 of 46 on 20-plus-yard passes against Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Florida and Vanderbilt. Nussmeier was 4 of 18 on those throws for 120 yards and one touchdown during LSU’s three-game losing streak.
Former Western Kentucky quarterback TJ Finley, who is vying for the starting job at Tulane, is playing for his fifth team in six seasons.
BY GUERRY SMITH
Contributing writer
Sizing up Tulane’s threeway quarterback competition on Day 1 of spring practice, the most notable difference is exactly that size. Ponchatoula graduate TJ Finley, playing for his fifth school in six years, towers over everyone at 6-foot-7, 246 pounds.
Ball State transfer Cadin Semonza, a 5-11, 196-pound junior is considerably shorter
Illinois transfer Donovan Leary, a 6-2, 215 pound junior, is smack dab in the middle.
One of them will be the Green Wave’s starter against Northwestern on Aug. 30 after a wide-open battle in which physical stature and experience take a back seat to production, as was the case last year when unheralded Darian Mensah beat out Ty Thompson and Kai Horton. The job is theirs for the taking because Mensah transferred to Duke, Horton left for Washington and Thompson was moved to tight end.
“I told them the guy that earns it will win the job,” coach Jon Sumrall said after watching all of them perform Tuesday morning at a level he termed “light years ahead” of their predecessors at the same point last spring. “I don’t make the decision on who’s the starter They do by how they prepare and play and perform.”
Finley, whose career has taken him from LSU to Auburn to Texas State to Western Kentucky and finally to Tulane, has the edge in experience. He threw 414 passes in 2023 at Texas State
and won the starting job at pass-happy Western Kentucky last year before an injury in Week 3 sidelined him for the season.
His first career start came for LSU in October of 2020.
Sumrall knew about him before then recalling optionoriented former Ponchatoula coach Hank Tierney (now at Shaw) visiting Ole Miss in 2018 for a couple of days to get pointers on the passing game so he could tailor his offense to Finley’s talents.
“TJ is getting ready for his social security in college football,” Sumrall said. “There’s no substitute for the amount of football he’s played, and he really has arm talent He can throw it a mile.”
Finley understood nothing was guaranteed when he chose Tulane, but he said it would have been no different anywhere else. He loves offensive coordinator Joe Craddock’s scheme. Returning to Louisiana was a bonus.
“It’s been amazing being back home, being able to be around my family,” he said.
“That’s meant everything to me, and putting out for my city and my state and Tulane is going to mean the world.”
Semonza beat the naysayers last year completing 64.6% of his passes with 25 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions for 2-10 Ball State.
He looked for a new landing spot after coach Mike Neu was fired and chose Tulane where Neu worked with Sumrall in 2012 and 2013 as assistants to Curtis Johnson.
Semonza said the Wave’s offense resembled Ball State’s, adding Mensah’s rise a year ago was a huge selling point.
“I know I will have the opportunity to showcase myself, and at the end of the day the best guy’s going to play,” he said “I’ve always been told I’m too short, I can never play at the Division I level. I’m making a little bit of a jump to a better conference over here, but I’ve done it before. I’m excited.” The metaphorical chip on his shoulder is almost visible.
“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t feel good about (his chances),” he said. “I’m the ultimate competitor first off, and then I feel like when I step on the field I’m the most accurate quarterback. Despite my arm talent and my size, I can make any throw on the field.”
Leary is eager for action after a frustrating three years at Illinois, where he redshirted as a freshman in 2022, did not play in 2023 and threw five passes a year ago—all in the opener against Eastern Illinois. Sumrall and Craddock convinced him he would get a fair shot in an offense he loved on his official visit to Tulane.
The early relationship among the threesome has been healthy, a point Sumrall stressed repeatedly as essential. In his words, it is about competing with each other rather than against each other Leary cited a perfect example.
“When I first came in we had an early-morning meeting and my car wasn’t here yet,” he said. “I said, ‘Coach, I don’t have a car,’ and TJ right away was, hey, I’ll come pick you up. We were so eager to get to know each other We have a great room.”
BY CHARLIE GOLDSMITH Associated Press
CINCINNATI Cincinnati Bengals
wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins signed four-year extensions on Tuesday that keep them in Cincinnati for their primes along with quarterback Joe Burrow
The two star playmakers highlighted how much expectations have changed within the Bengals’ organization over the last five years, which have included four straight winning seasons, five playoff victories and an appearance in the Super Bowl.
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strength to secure the catch anyway
Remember, Green was playing basketball a month ago. He appeared in six LSU games from Jan. 25Feb. 12, then stepped away from the team to prioritize academics, said coach Matt McMahon Now Green’s focus is back on football. And it looks like he hasn’t missed a beat.
Play-by-play
The offense got off to a strong start in the 11-on11 work that concluded Tuesday practice. But the defense forced a few incompletions and created a turnover, stopping both the Tigers’ first-team and second-team offenses short of the red zone.
Sophomore corner PJ Woodland broke up a Nussmeier pass intended for receiver Aaron Anderson
“I want to win a championship, and we can definitely win it here,”
Higgins said during a joint press conference shortly after the signings became official. “The money isn’t the big factor It’s being with the guys for another four years and trying to win that championship.”
With Burrow, a former LSU standout, under contract through the 2029 season, two solid starting offensive tackles and a standout young running back in Chase Brown, the Bengals should continue to have one of the best offenses in the NFL.
The final steps toward keeping
near the sideline. Pressure up the middle then forced the LSU quarterback to roll outside the pocket and throw an incomplete pass out of bounds.
Once the second-team units rotated onto the field, redshirt freshman cornerback Michael Turner made the play of the day
Backup quarterback Michael Van Buren, a Mississippi State transfer, tried to complete a deep vertical shot to receiver Barion Brown, a Kentucky transfer
But Turner matched Brown’s speed, turned his head to find the ball and leapt for a difficult interception, securing the catch as he hit the ground.
Other observations
In a one-on-one rep on Tuesday, five-star freshman cornerback DJ Pickett flashed the talent that made him one of the pillars of LSU’s most recent freshman class. Brown — the transfer
this core on offense together was finalizing the contracts with Higgins and Chase also a former LSU star Chase’s $161 million contract makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, and Higgins’ $115 million deal will make him one of the league’s top 10 highest-paid receivers.
“Now that this is concluded, the next step for us is a championship with these guys,” coach Zac Taylor said. “I think that’s a big reason why they wanted to be here; why they wanted to come back — they know there’s more for us to accomplish as
wideout known for his speed tried to fool Pickett with a double move. But the early enrollee stuck with him, flipped his hips, tracked the ball and broke up an accurate pass all without interfering.
Pickett ran with LSU’s second-team defense on Tuesday
The starting unit looked a little bit different than it did in the Tigers’ last practice. Delane took one of the outside corner spots in place of Florida transfer Ja’Keem Jackson.
The two edge rushers were Florida State transfer Patrick Payton and Nebraska transfer Jimari Butler On Saturday sophomore Gabriel Reliford and Florida transfer Jack Pyburn manned those positions. Expect LSU to keep fiddling with its depth chart as spring practice continues
The only notable player absent from Tuesday’s session was sophomore defensive end Dylan Carpenter
a team, a lot more wins to be had, a lot more great moments.”
The Bengals haven’t had a losing season since they drafted Chase with the fifth overall pick in 2021.
Last season, he became the first player in NFL history with at least 100 receptions (127), 1,700 yards receiving (1,708) and 17 touchdown receptions in a season Despite having one of the league’s most prolific offenses in 2024, the Bengals were 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
Chase said on Tuesday that he
wouldn’t have had the season that he did without Higgins playing alongside him. As Chase negotiated his deal, he made sure that their shared agent, Rocky Arceneaux, knew how much it was a priority for Higgins to stay in Cincinnati
“Signing us together that’s the whole goal, for us to push this team and each other as far as we can go,” Chase said. “The one goal is to be the best in the AFC first. That’ll give us the easiest chance to get to the Super Bowl. If we get that first, that will give us the chance to get the next step.”
BY JEFF WALLNER Associated Press
DAYTON,Ohio Amarr Knox’s layup with a second left lifted Alabama State to its first NCAA Tournament win Tuesday night, 70-68 over Saint Francis (Pennsylvania) in a matchup of No. 16 seeds in the First Four Knox scored 16 points to help the Hornets earn a date with No. 1 overall seed Auburn on Thursday in a South Region game at Lexing-
ton, Kentucky.
Saint Francis, which lost its season opener at Dayton, made an unlikely return to the same arena as the 19th team to enter the NCAA Tournament with a losing record
Those teams are now 0-19.
Juan Cranford, playing in his hometown, led Saint Francis with 18 points.
Valentino Pinedo had 17 for the
Red Flash (16-18), who led by as many as nine.
Alabama State (20-15) was making its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance.
Saint Francis shot 59% and went 6 of 12 from 3-point range to take a 39-34 lead into halftime.
Micah Octave’s steal and dunk put Alabama State ahead by four with 1:36 left. But the Red Flashes tied the score at 68 on Chris Moncrief’s 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining.
BY JOHN MARSHALL AP sportswriter
Florida had a dominating team in 2005-06, winning 33 games on its way to the program’s first national championship. The Gators returned nearly everyone the following season and did it again, becoming the seventh team to win consecutive national titles
Their three-peat bid fell short the next year The key players from the title teams were all gone and the Gators didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament, proving just how difficult it is to win three straight national championships
“It’s just hard to win in general,” said former Florida coach Billy Donovan, now the head coach of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. “I’ve always said this: If you played the NCAA Tournament over after it finished, you’d have a different national champion every year, for the most part.”
Heading into this year’s NCAA Tournament, one team has a chance at the first three-peat in more than 50 years: UConn. Dan Hurley led the Huskies to their fifth national championship in 2023, retooled the roster and added No. 6 last season, becoming the first team since Donovan’s Gators to go back to back.
The ride to a third straight title has been a bumpy one.
The Huskies opened the season No. 3 in the preseason AP Top 25, but went 0 for 3 at the Maui Invitational and have spent most of the season fighting injuries and inconsistencies, entering the bracket 23-10.
UConn may not be as dominant now as it was when winning NCAA Tournament games by an average of 20 points per game the past two seasons, but this is March and the Huskies have shown they can tame the madness.
“Early in the year, it (three-peating) was something that was talked about around here,” said Hurley, whose team opens the NCAA Tournament against Oklahoma in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday “With the way that we played to this point, it is not something we
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Forest. “People have been saying all kinds of stuff about about him, really good and really bad. He’s taken it all in stride.”
Only now he’ll have to thrive amid the biggest spotlight of the sport in the NCAA Tournament, where college stars can become even bigger names amid the upsets and buzzer-beaters that captivate the country every spring
Bumpy times
The 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward gets his shot, one stuffed full of storylines.
First there’s the injury, when he rolled his ankle after coming down on a rebound and crashed to the court in last Thursday’s ACC quarterfinal against Georgia Tech. He hobbled to the bench and pounded a chair in frustration before heading to the bowels of the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he had X-rays and was briefly spotted by TV cameras in
“It’s just hard to win in general. I’ve always said this: If you played the NCAA Tournament over after it finished, you’d have a different national champion every year, for the most part.”
BILLy DONOVAN, former Florida coach, now coach of the Chicago Bulls
are talking about (now).”
Should the Huskies pull it off, they’ll join rare company
John Wooden’s UCLA teams of the 1960s and ‘70s set the standard for college basketball excellence, winning at a rate not seen before or since.
The Bruins won consecutive titles in 1964-65 and set a mark that may never be broken, seven straight from 1967-73. UCLA had a massive advantage with those teams, first with Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), then with Bill Walton, two of the greatest centers in basketball history
“We set records that still stand billto this day,” Walton said in a 2024 interview with The Associated Press, a few months before he died in May. “He did not talk about winning and losing. He talked about effort and purpose, and we
a wheelchair before walking out on his own power — no boot, no crutches — to rejoin his team after halftime.
He hasn’t played since, though coach Jon Scheyer expressed optimism that Flagg could be ready for Friday’s home-state opener against the American-Mount St Mary’s winner about a half-hour from the Duke campus.
There was also the Blue Devils losing versatile defender Maliq Brown to a shoulder injury only moments before Flagg was hurt.
And Scheyer has had to shake up staff duties with assistant and defensive coordinator Jai Lucas leaving after the regular season to get the jump on his tenure as Miami’s new head coach.
“Cooper’s got an opportunity here to do some real hero stuff,” said ACC Network analyst Luke Hancock, the Final Four most outstanding player for Louisville’s later-vacated NCAA title run in 2013.
“You can come back from injury and you find a way to lead the team with Jai Lucas leaving and Maliq Brown being hurt.
“If Cooper Flagg wins the na-
tried with everything we had to get to acknowledge that we were doing something right.”
Florida and Duke in 1991-92 were the only teams to have a chance at joining UCLA in winning at least three straight titles. Since Florida’s back to back, no reigning champion had even made it to the title game the next season until UConn.
Part of it is continuity. College players have limited eligibility, so it’s rare for coaches to have the same rosters coming back. Injuries also can crush a team’s chances, or a bad matchup in the lose-andgo-home NCAA Tournament can quickly halt a second deep March run.
More potholes have been added over the past two decades.
The one-and-done rule, implemented in 2005, allowed players to leave for the NBA after a single
tional championship, it’s going to be, ‘Look what he did coming out of the wheelchair in the ACC Tournament,’ just kind of adding to the story.”
And what a story it’s already been.
Meeting the moment
Flagg has lived up to the lofty expectations, which began years ago in the form of growing whispers about a hoops prodigy back in his home state of Maine. He was was the undeniable star of a team that swept the ACC outright regularseason and tournament titles for the first time since 2006, and now enters the NCAAs having spent the past two weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll.
There have been plenty of highlights along the way A strong showing to beat eventual No. 1 overall NCAA seed Auburn and fellow unanimous first-team AP All-American Johni Broome in December An ACC freshman single-game record 42 points against Notre Dame A highlight-reel transition dunk against Pittsburgh in which he all but stuffed 7-foot
college season, often stripping teams of their best players.
The transfer portal and NIL deals have made it even more difficult The ability to transfer from a school without having to sit out a year has created a revolving door of rosters, forcing coaches to overhaul their teams nearly every year NIL opportunities have turned into karats to lure players out of high school or from other programs.
“The hardest part to me in the college piece would be college was a place where you could kind of build a program, because you had players that basically stayed for a period of time, and I think people could identify with those teams,” Donovan said. “But now between the NIL and the transfer portal, you basically have a new team almost every year, and it’s almost like free agency.”
Hurley has been one of the best at navigating this new world of college basketball. Keeping it going has proven to be difficult this season, but UConn still has a chance at the three-peat with the NCAA Tournament starting this week.
defender Guillermo Diaz Graham into the basket while being fouled.
And of course, dominating the first meeting against rival North Carolina, then overcoming firsthalf foul trouble to do it again after halftime in Round 2.
Flagg leads Duke in five major categories: scoring (18.9), rebounding (7.5), assists (4.1), blocks (1.3) and steals (1.5). He’s a versatile threat, sideline to sideline and baseline to baseline, with gamechanging ability as a scorer and playmaker that had him frequently flirting with a triple-double that ultimately has eluded him.
So far anyway
“Being around this level of coaches and coaching, skill development every single day just helped me immensely,” Flagg said after his possible Cameron Indoor Stadium finale.
“I feel like I’ve just gotten so much better all around.”
Thriving in an older game
Flagg’s story has taken shape amid a time of rapid change in college sports, notably with the transfer portal allowing more player
BY ERIC OLSON
OMAHA, Neb The Omaha Mavericks knew it was just a matter of time until they broke through to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid. This was the vision when the school announced 14 years ago that it would move from Division II to Division I, but circumstances seemed less than ideal for the breakthrough to happen this season.
Frankie Fidler who was on track to become the program’s career scoring leader, had transferred to Michigan State, the Mavs were picked eighth in the nine-team Summit League and they were 4-9 following a 32-point loss at Iowa State. Then came the turning point. Assistant coach Kyan Brown was walking through the locker room before the next game and didn’t like the players’ body language. He needed to find a way to motivate them.
“So I put this huge trash can in the corner of our locker room,” Brown wrote in a “Meet the Mavs” essay on the school website. “I just hauled off and kicked the crap out of it and started yelling at it. Four guys next to it got scared, and four guys across the room jumped up and started yelling at it, too. It sounds bizarre, but it worked. Something snapped within our guys.” A meme was born.
The Mavs went out and beat Cal Poly 86-82, and a bash-thetrash can postgame celebration has followed every victory since. Coaches, players, the school mascot and invited guests such as pro wrestlers have taken turns kicking, jumping on and otherwise beating up the trash can.
For one game, fans were invited to bring their own five-gallon-orsmaller trash can and have it filled up with popcorn for $5 at a concession stand. In the celebration following the Mavs’ regularseason title-clinching win, Omaha chancellor Joanne Li holding a championship belt, popped out of a trash can placed at midcourt
movement in what amounts to de facto free agency There’s still a final crop of players in their fifth year of eligibility secured by competing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with Auburn’s Broome checking the box on both categories after starting his career at mid-major Morehead State. Add that together, and coaches across the country are putting a premium on dipping into the portal to add veteran talent over high school recruits who might transfer elsewhere anyway
Yet amid an older game, there’s still an allure to seeing the best freshmen take on the spectacle of March Madness, particularly at marquee-brand bluebloods like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas or North Carolina.
And Flagg is as prepared as anyone could be.
“Incredible, he’s been incredible all year long,” Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell said after the ACC title-game win. “Put the play aside. Your team kind of follows the personality and the attitude of the best player And he’s been so selfless.”
BY CHRISTOPHER DABE Staff writer
Credit Brother Martin for being the first team to beat Holy Cross in baseball this season.
Ryan Darrah and Egan
Prather homered as Cole Navarro struck out seven for Brother Martin in a 7-1 victory Tuesday that marked the end of a 17-0 start to the season for Holy Cross.
Brother Martin (15-5, 3-0 District 9-5A) scored three runs in the first inning, creating plenty of excitement from the visiting crowd along the first-base side at Holy Cross.
“This is a senior-laden group that has been in some big games before,” Brother Martin coach Jeff Lupo said. “To be able to strike early and put up a crooked number kind of took some of the pressure off. Then when you got Navarro on the mound and he’s locked in the way he’s been locked in, made those runs hold up. So very proud of him.” Darrah, who went 4 for 4 with singles in his three other at-bats, hit two-strike
“This is a senior-laden group that has been in some big games before. To be able to strike early and put up a crooked number kind of took some of the pressure off. Then when you got Navarro on the mound and he’s locked in the way he’s been locked in, made those runs hold up.”
JEFF LUPO, Brother Martin coach
curveball for a solo home run with one out in the first inning.
Reece Rousel singled in the next run after Holy Cross (17-1, 2-1) misplayed a grounder and failed to turn a double play that would have ended the inning. Another run scored on a balk.
“Any time you give a real good team extra opportunities, not only did they get the run, they stole the momentum early in that inning,” Holy Cross coach Kal Bonura said. “We tried to find all game, a way to get it back but that’s hard to do against somebody of the caliber of Navarro.
Playing form behind in the first inning on, that’s hard to do against a good arm like that.”
Brother Martin scored three more runs in the
fourth. Brady McCluskey hit a two-RBI double. Navarro followed with a sacrifice fly for a 6-0 lead. Prather homered in the seventh.
Holy Cross scored its only run in the sixth when Chris Sercovich singled, went to third when Dom Pellegin doubled off the blue fence in left field and came home when Will Andrade singled with two outs.
Navarro, a UNO signee, allowed a single in the first and not much else until Holy Cross scored its only run in the sixth. He pitched the entire game. Brother Martin and Holy Cross will play a second game that is set for 5 p.m. Thursday at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.
Contact Christopher Dabe at cdabe@theadvocate.
BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer
the team after six games to focus on academics.
BY SPENCER URQUHART Staff writer
Mount Carmel is familiar with extra innings after a 13-inning district win last week over John Curtis and found themselves playing extras again Tuesday against Chapelle. Chapelle had a three-run lead heading into the sixth inning, but Mount Carmel rallied for four unanswered runs in a 7-6 win at Muss Bertolino that went eight innings. The Cubs tied the game with two runs in the seventh and delivered a game-winning hit in the eighth.
Mount Carmel had two basesrunners reach base when they were hit by a pitch and an error to set up a bases-loaded RBI opportunity for sophomore Emri Roussel. Roussel singled to center to end the game.
“The entire game, I was telling them to just to be calm,” Mount Carmel coach Curtis Matthews said.
“Chapelle is a good hitting team We didn’t panic, and the girls did very good at being calm, so that was pretty much the message the whole
game.”
Roussel’s walk-off single saw Mount Carmel junior Hayden Traub score the winning run. Roussel had a throwing error in the sixth inning but made up for it with her bat going gone 3 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored.
“I felt like I had to come back from my throwing error,” Roussel said. “Our team has really been fighting this year We’ve been really good in the last couple innings.”
Mount Carmel had 15 hits with Chapelle not far behind with 14. The Cubs scored first after sophomore Paige Reuther had an RBI double that scored junior Avery Killian Killian, a Florida commitment, blasted a solo home run to left field to give Mount Carmel the lead back in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Saige Vichot followed up Killian’s home run with an RBI double to put the Cubs up by two. Chapelle then scored five straight runs, and shortstop Kamryn DiMaggio led the team with three hits Mount Carmel starting pitcher Re-
uther was pulled in favor of Vichot after four innings, who pitched the rest of the way
“Paige (Reuther) has been the big dog on the mound,” Matthews said. “We felt like (Chapelle) was seeing her well today, so we decided to go with a change and have a different style of pitching to try and throw them off.”
Another Killian RBI in the bottom of the sixth cut Chapelle’s lead to 6-4, and a double by senior Brooklyn Butler tied the game in the seventh. Chapelle had multiple errors, two of which were costly in the closing innings.
“I’m proud of my young team to go up against a great Mount Carmel lineup and go toe-to-toe with them,” Chapelle coach Scott O’Brien said. “We have to lay down bunts, and we can’t have the errors. Two of the errors led to two runs.”
Mount Carmel (10-2, 4-0) will look to remain undefeated against District 9-5A opponents on Wednesday at Edna Karr
Chapelle (7-3, 1-1) will also face Karr next on the road Thursday
Minutes after the LSU men’s basketball season closed with a 29-point loss to Mississippi State in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, Matt McMahon shared what he’ll remember most from this team.
That isn’t the best recipe to win in the transfer portal era of college athletics. On KenPom’s experience rating, LSU was the fourth lowest in the SEC.
The third-year coach recalled the program’s “upward trajectory.” He harkened back to this season’s 11-2 start in nonconference play
He closed his answer with the present: the growth into a winning program halted in this year’s conference play as it slowly proved to be one of the worst teams in the SEC.
“Whether it’s just unable to get the job done at the level required, combination with the injuries, the overwhelming level of talent and quality of teams in the SEC, just weren’t able to produce the type of results we wanted to in league play,” McMahon said at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The faults of this LSU (14-18, 3-15 SEC) team are numerous but explainable.
The team’s downward spiral into being the doormat of one of the best conferences in college basketball history was cemented because of the roster’s inexperience and talent shortage.
Inexperience
McMahon gave nine players at least 10 minutes in LSU’s 31-point home defeat to unranked Texas on Feb. 1. Five were freshmen, including redshirt Corey Chest and two-sport athlete Trey’Dez Green who left
The dependence on firstyear players corresponded with the season-ending ACL injury of junior big Jalen Reed on Dec. 3 and the absence of junior wing Tyrell Ward, who averaged nine points per game last year, never played after stepping away from the program to prioritize his mental health.
Freshmen replaced juniors.
Although Robert Miller became a top-three player for LSU at the end of the season, he didn’t make an impact often. Vyctorius Miller had a promising start but faltered in conference play as the 6-5, 185-pound guard faced more physicality
Chest’s relentless motor and athleticism allowed him to have games such as his 12-point and 18-rebound performance against then-No. 4 Alabama. However, he lost his starting job as his erratic decision-making was eventually exploited by SEC big men who were more savvy and had more detailed scouting reports.
Miller and Chest also were injured in conference play, sporadically missing seven and six games, respectively Curtis Givens struggled throughout. However, the team had no choice but to give minutes to the second of its two point guards who shot 26.9% overall.
Insufficient talent
Once McMahon’s roster was irreparably altered without Reed and Ward, he
elevated people into bigger roles and needed starters to play even better to match the ability in their conference. Givens, who played 21 minutes per game and started 12 times, was needed as an outside threat. He wasn’t ready for that role although he shot 118 3-pointers.
Of the 72 players who attempted at least 70 3-pointers in the SEC, he shot the lowest percentage at 24.6%, according to the metrics site BarTorvik.
Fifth-year senior Jordan Sears, a UT-Martin transfer, also underperformed after shooting 43% last season.
Sears shot 37.8% overall and 31.7% from 3-point range on 186 attempts. Of players in the SEC to attempt at least 150 3-point attempts, he had the worst 3-point numbers on BarTorvik.
Fifth-year senior Dji Bailey was arguably the team’s second most reliable producer after leading scorer Cam Carter — as a “glue guy” who defended four positions and was usually guarding the opponent’s best scorer However he also was a poor 3-point shooter (25.7%). The Tigers lacked good playmakers as evidenced by their high turnover rate. The Tigers were 329th in opponents’ rate at getting steals against them, according to KenPom. In the front court, LSU replaced Reed with Daimion Collins. While the redshirt junior performed admirably at times, his poor rebounding, especially on defense, was dire. Despite being an all-world leaper at 6-9, his slender frame was outmuscled frequently and he averaged only 4.3 rebounds.
TBY IAN McNULTY | Staff writer
here’s red sauce downstairs, while upstairs in the lounge the acts sometimes go a bit blue. You’re drinking affordable Italian wine with dinner and then maybe a nice cocktail above.
This is the new Italian restaurant Pulcinella!, and its sister concept, the Original Nite Cap, holding down one corner of St. Bernard Avenue.
There’s an old school essence to Italian supper and a show that I love, and also a high coziness factor all around. But the restaurant is not the red-checkered tablecloth type, nor is the lounge about Rat Pack-style crooners.
Thursday to Monday, 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (restaurant); 6 p.m.-till (bar)
Old school, young energy Between our local Creole-Italian classics and more upscale renditions of Italian cuisine, Pulcinella! lands in middle. It’s a trattoria, with a straightforward menu, reasonable prices and generous portions that often verge on family style, giving a solid second meal of leftovers. Were it older, you’d be looking around for dusty clusters of plastic grapes and Chianti bottle candleholders. But Pul-
cinella! feels simultaneously homey and more modern; it’s an old-school template enlivened with younger energy There’s a long bar for dining or just drinks An alcove in the corner feels like your nonna added a few more chairs to the dining room table for a Sunday supper All around there are references to the namesake Pulcinella character (from the commedia dell’arte tradition), glowing from illuminated panels and dancing across the menu. All over the place, in nearly constant motion, is the woman with the brilliant hair, Bella Blue, the burlesque performer, teacher and impresario. She’s a co-owner of the restaurant and bar along with her husband Andrew Principe and business ä See PULCINELLA, page 2D
BY CHELSEA SHANNON Staff writer
partner J.D. Solomon. Principe is also a partner at the French Quarter restaurant Palm & Pine, which is where the couple first met during one of Blue’s burlesque brunch shows. Sometimes romance really does unfold like song lyrics.
Pulcinella! shares some of Palm & Pine’s spirit of inclusive welcome. Since opening late last year, the restaurant has drawn a clientele that feels as diverse as any place in the city.
On Mondays, it seems at least half the diners are people from other restaurants and bars, out for supper together on their night off. Maybe it has something to do with the half-price wine bottle specials on Mondays too.
The perfect Pulcinella! meal
To line up the perfect meal here, start with a cocktail, maybe the Harlequin (mezcal and tequila softened by carrot, blood orange and dill) or the Handsome Gentleman (pecan bourbon, amaro and bitters). The bar gives zero-proof drinks equal billing. Get the meatball, a baseball-sized orb strung with herbs, draped with ricotta in a sauce that’s a little sweet, a bit chunky. The butter-crisp focaccia will start disappearing fast, but try to save some for the next course.
That’s the oyster artichoke soup (you’re splitting all of this, so get two spoons). This is the most New Orleansy dish on the menu but done differently than what has become the local standard. Ripples of oil and cream swirl over the surface around reefs of fried oysters that burst with the oyster juice still within. The soup is creamy and rich but tastes light with fennel and lemon flavors bouncing off the brine.
For the main act, pair the bucatini with the smoked pork steak
The pasta is all’amatriciana, amplified by both thick bacon chunks and nduja, the soft Calabrian sausage that seems to melt its meaty red pepper spice into
Many
the sauce. Don’t try to fin-
ish this, because you’ll want some for tomorrow, and the pork steak commands your attention at its side.
It has a smokiness and texture halfway to barbecue, but there’s still a crisp edge. The contrast of luxurious slow-rendered fat and fresh herbs and peppers slices over the top make this platter-sized dish a joy to unpack. Creamed broccoli rabe rounds it out.
You can tell there’s a chef’s hand at play (that’s Matty Hayes), though this isn’t overly-showy Italian food. After all, the show is upstairs.
Time for a Nite Cap
ers. One night, to a crowd of some early bird diners from downstairs, burlesque enthusiasts and a bartender’s mom, they put on a show that’s fun and funny, racy not raunchy There’s howling, purring and lots of smiles and laughter
Through the course of one evening here, I watched Blue work the dining room, work the soundboard, work the mic as emcee for
You’ll go outside to find a separate entrance and a steep staircase up to the Original Nite Cap, which is the resurrection of a bar of the same name from the 1960s, the crew tells me. The schedule of
as a shock, leading people to putoff or even go without care. Simply put —without dental insurance, there may be an importantgap in your healthcare coverage.
When
shows includes comedy and live music, DJs, karaoke and dance (some have a cover, others are free admission).
Blue headlines a weekly Friday night show, called Whiskey & Rhinestones Burlesque, starting at 7 p.m., and invites a changing cast of other perform-
When great Hermes descended from Olympus during Carnival, he traveled to his favorite city, New Orleans, for a gala ball in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, followed, the next day, by a stunning street parade. “With his traditional panoply of beauty, mystery, and awe, Hermes has chosen to illustrate a tableau depicting ‘Visions of Jeanne d’Arc,’” stated the ball program. Calling her “Maiden of Orléans” (France), Hermes celebrated Sainte Jeanne d’Arc, “as a symbol of freedom, independence, feminine heroics, spiritual purity, and moral strength.” In our city her golden bronze statue, originally cast by French sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet in the late 1800s, can be found in the Place de France on Decatur Street in the Vieux Carré. The annual Joan of Arc Parade helps kick off Carnival on Jan. 6, her unofficial birthday Among other aspects of her life, she spearheaded the coronation of Charles VII of France in the Hundred Years War.
Contact: nnolan@theadvocate.com
Royalty was given special Hermes attention with the reign of the king that bears the Greek god’s name, and that of his queen, Miss Margaret Sinclair Smith daughter of Mr and Mrs. Randall Alan Smith (also, Dr Diane Mary Sinclair). Miss Smith’s royal forebear was Miss Lauren Michelle Perlis, a debutante of the 2024-25 season, who was present at the recent ball Maids to her majesty Margaret were Misses Madeleine Antonia Chapman, Sally Jane Conroy, Phylis Mary Grace Gagliano, Julie Simone Gelé,Alisia Shortanova Houghtaling, Elizabeth Brinkmann Maniscalco and Margaret Anne Mentz. The latter two were also recent debutantes Additional maids were Misses Jane Elizabeth Newman McCall Carlie Schlosser, Catherine Jean Sherling, Elizabeth Valentino Richardson and Conley Boothe Wilson Misses Samantha Hanlon Midkiff and Gibson Louise Bass were Bearer of the Flowers and of the Scepter
The court was completed with ladies-in-waiting Isabelle Mae Brickman, Lillian Margaret Bucher, Emily Ashurst Clark, Lucille Anne Harper, Juliette Aimée Hasney, Nora Grace Henderson, Lisette Michele Louapre, Julia Marie Lupo, Charlotte Rush Miller, Cecilia Capritto Smith, Jordan Tinsley Stumpf and Carter Elizabeth Wood, and pages Rory Blake Conroy,William Hunter Grace, Thomas Jude Lupo, Luke Joseph Muscarello, James Frederick Newman,Theodore Bruce Newman and George Baudier Wood After a Champagne reception, the ball followed with a splendid program and lovely sights. One of them was the chance to admire the queen’s gown created by Suzanne Perron St. Paul which was made of gold chevron lace, gold metallic tulle, ivory silk satin and a rich encrustation of jewels. A MacDuggal evening gown outfitted her mother Joining the royal mother in prominent seats were the queen’s grandmother Ms Charlene Sinclair as well as Ms. Carra Sinclair, and Mmes. Kent Troop, Nathaniel Wallace and Cayman Sinclair Sisters Fiona and Willow May sat nearby as did Lauren May, and Mmes. Rosalie Chisesi, Barat McQueen, Joseph Caruso, Mark Cusimano and Jacques Horguettes All had responded to the beautiful invitation designed by Manuel Ponce depicting Joan of Arc and a shield with a sword that inspired the handsome krewe favor.
The Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra played at the ball. From there, John Parker‘s Traditional Jazz Trio led a second line to the Supper Dance, where guests enjoyed a fine dinner of salad, a short rib-shrimp “duet,” and opera cake. Mardi Gras Production’s decorations included tables with red and gold linens, as well as gold trees with crystals and hanging candles. To ignite the dance floor, The Great Grand Finale took over The royals, Hermes and queen Margaret, drew a host of compliments and congratulations For each one, the appreciation of reigning during Hermes’ annual visit will become an Olympian-size memory
Luke
James
Hunter
The Knights of Babylon commanded Carnival attention with a glittering parade followed by a masked ball in the New Orleans Marriott. “Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) inspired the theme and paid homage to the author, the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and, at age 41, the “youngest one to date.” The above 1902 “Stories,” a classic of children’s literature, acquired the name because Kipling told the book’s first three chapters as bedtime stories to daughter Josephine. They had to be told “just so.”
In a royal setting worthy of literary praise, Miss Hadley Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Mr and Mrs. Cameron Mary Sr , ruled with his majesty Sargon. She formed a stunning picture in a royal gown by D&D Creations.
Eight maids of the royal court also caught the spotlight: Misses Amelia Rivé Mary,Abigail Eleanor Spera, Lillian Clare Brown, Elizabeth Claire Henry,Abigail Elizabeth Brown, Jane Burke-Hennessy Edwards, Reese Riddell King and Cameron Crawford Metzinger
Completing the court were princesses Jean-Eliza Susan Barone, Caroline Marie Cali,Ani Eliza Carpenter, Marigny Starr Wilklow and Maya Parker Sinclair; ladies-inwaiting Gwendolyn Marie Loustalot,Viviana Louise Menichini, Kathleen Olivia Bird, Swayze Lee Astugue, Isabelle Grace Blomquist and Ainsley Andree Leonard; and pages William Cooper Sanderson and Cy Rosario Cali, who were thrilled to ride with Sargon during the parade.
On that note, inside the ball program — which featured Kipling on the cover with a host of animals small drawings of all the parade’s floats were included. On the back page, and with a reference to the 1939 establishment of the Jester’s Club (of Babylon), all the themes and queens were listed. Last year, the royal honor befell Miss Caroline Margaret Berger “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” themed that elaborate excitement. Special guests at the 2025 ball, and wearing the gold India Stewart-krewe favor pin of a butterfly, were the queen’s mother, Mrs. Cameron Mary Sr., as well as Mses. Julie Jacob Lee Anne Sciambra and Sarah Elizabeth Seal, and Mmes. Jack Jacob, John Brown Sr., John Ohle II, Drew Jardine, Larry Jones, James Orth, Nicholas Persich, Eric Powers, Donald Solanas,Aaron Falk, Michael Seal,Amit Chawla, Charles Mary Jr Frank Guidry and Gamon Manne. All delighted in the tableau music provided by the Carnaval! Orchestra under the direction of B.J. Perez III. After the gala ball, the Knights scripted another chapter This was the rollicking supper dance (that concluded in the wee hours of the next day) when The Wise Guys delivered some “sagacious” sounds for dancing. As she recalled her royal role, and the sharing of it with Sargon, queen Hadley expressed what an honor it was to be the Knights of Babylon monarch. “I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time,” she continued, as she thought about “the most magical night” of her life and a “just so” story that will be told, in her memory countless times.
Dear Miss Manners: My partner and I lived abroad for 12 years and have recently moved back to his hometown. He has a job, I am working as a temp, and we are struggling to find housing, so we have been staying with his parents. I am incredibly grateful to them; we have been living with them for two months now, and may stay another two months (the housing crisis is that bad). But I am also finding it difficult to live with them. I knew it would be challenging not to have my own space and to live by someone else’s rules, but I also feel judged, and I hate their jokes. They have feedback and comments about absolutely everything. I prefer to shower in the evening, after work; they tell me it is “bizarre,” that showering wakes you up and is a terrible thing to do just
before bed
I have very long hair, and my mother-in-law has asked me several times if I would “consider” cutting it. When I said no, she pointedly said, “It is very long, you know.”
I am a vegetarian, and I never bring it up. Still, they will often ask if I am “tempted” by whatever meat dish they are having. And then there are the constant jokes about my nationality They will bring that up several times a day asking me “what people do in my country of origin” (I left 16 years ago). Or they will just drop random words in the language of my birth into the conversation and laugh. It makes it hard to fit in and feel accepted. My partner says to just ignore it, and he never intervenes it is not something he would do. My friends agree it’s difficult, but to “think of the free rent.” What do
you think?
Gentle reader: Although Miss Manners does not want you to end up on the street — and she does understand that your partner’s parents are doing you an enormous favor — asking what she thinks, rather than how to fix your problem, strikes her as far too passive.
Etiquette is not a barter system. Just as one rudeness does not justify another, your hosts’ good deed of letting you live with them does not justify the ongoing rudeness you describe.
The unpleasant duty of asking them to please stop commenting on your country of origin, your hair and your choice of food should fall on your partner, whose duty it is not only to do so tactfully, but to insist the discomfort with their behavior is his own, not yours.
Motivating him to do this convincingly is your task.
Send questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com.
By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, March 19, the 78th day of 2025. There are 287 days left in the year
Today in history:
On March 19, 2003, in a televised address, President George W Bush announced that coalition forces had begun an invasion of Iraq. (Bush would declare victory just over five weeks later in his “Mission Accomplished” speech.)
On this date: In 1931, Nevada Gov Fred B. Balzar signed a measure that made the state the first to legalize gambling.
Franklin near Japan In 1953, the 25th Academy Awards ceremony was the first to be televised; “The Greatest Show on Earth” would win the Oscar for Best Picture. In 1965, archeologist E. Lee Spence discovered the wreckage of the SS Georgiana, a Confederate ship that had sunk near Charleston, South Carolina, exactly 102 years earlier In 1966, Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) became the first team to start five Black players in the NCAA basketball tournament’s championship game; they
organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary In 1995, 17 months after announcing his retirement from basketball, Michael Jordan returned to play in the NBA with his former team, the Chicago Bulls. (He would go on to win three more NBA championships alongside the three he and the Bulls had already won.) Today’s birthdays: Actor Ursula Andress is 89. Singer Ruth Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) is 79. Actor Glenn Close is 78. Actor Bruce Willis is 70. NFL coach Andy Reid is 67. Actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take a break, release yourself from responsibilities and give yourself a chance to rejuvenate Allow yourself some "me time," and it will put a positive spin on your outlook.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Surround yourself with people who complement your skills. Knowing your attributes and applying your energy to what you are good at will show your ability to lead the way.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Stay focused on finishing what you start. The less interference, the better; sit in an isolated corner and do your thing. Put the bulldozer away and let your subtleness prevail.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Live and learn. Research will help you decipher what's best and put you in a leadership position. Take charge, but refrain from making others feel deflated by your choices.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Don't fear change; embrace new beginnings and enjoy asking questions and keeping up with all the latest technology. Interactions will bring you closer to the people that can help you get ahead.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Be a good listener, figure out what's best for you and rule out any proposal that doesn't fit your lifestyle or direction. Change is only worthwhile if it helps you reach your goal.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Count your pennies and rule out purchases you cannot
afford. Going into debt for the wrong reasons will lead to stress. Focus on cost-efficient changes at home. Call in an expert if needed.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) A chipper attitude will draw attention and interest regarding your achievements. Now is not the time to hesitate; it's the time to engage, get things done and take a bow.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) Strut your stuff, put your best foot forward and make your initiative known. A social or networking event will give you the platform to recruit the best of the best.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec 21) Emotions will be close to the surface. It's time to be upfront. Show where your loyalty lies and take responsibility for the opportunities you desire. Build the future that excites you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Mix business with pleasure, and you'll gain ground. How you make others feel will determine who helps you. Don't deny yourself the chance to take the road less traveled.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) You know the rules and have the power to bring about change. Put a plan in place and share what you want to do with the people who matter to you. Focus on financial growth.
The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2025 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication
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
BY PHILLIP ALDER
Edwin Schlossberg, the founder of ESI Design and the constructor of the first hands-on learning environment in the United States at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, said, “True interactivity is not about clicking on icons or downloading files; it’s about encouraging communication.”
True bridge is not about making meaningless bids and playing uninformative cards; it is about communicating with your partner and sometimes about breaking the opponents’ communication. In this deal, South is in three no-trump after East overcalled in hearts. West leads the heart 10. How should declarer plan the play?
Some Souths would have made a negative double over one heart to show the four-card spade suit. But with a limited hand worth only one bid, two solid heart stoppersandfourweakspades,Ilikeone no-trump. (If South had doubled, North would have rebid two hearts, a gameforcing cue-bid, South would have rebid two or three no-trump, and the final contract would have been the same.)
Southstartedwithseventoptricks:two spades, two hearts and three diamonds He had to establish two club winners.
Thinking no further, the original declarer took the first trick and played a club from his hand. West was not napping. He rose with his king and led his remaining heart. Whether South won or lost this trick, when he played a second club, East took the trick and cashed
Each Wuzzle is
Previous answers:
InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be
toDAY’s
Average
Time
Can
YEstERDAY’s
dIrectIons: make a 2- to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition.
ken ken
InstructIons: 1 Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 thorugh 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner. HErE is a
Puzzle Answer
SUBDIVISION WRIT AMOUNT: $28,129.40 Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The
Parish of Orleans GH 10 GRAHAM, ARCE‐NEAUX & ALLEN, LLC 504-522-8256 The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $89.83
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 2622-24 PALMYRA STREET THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE, LLC VERSUS AN‐DRAS JANOS TOTH C I V I L D
R I S H O F O R L E A N S Case No: 2022-10828 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 2622-24 PALMYRA ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70119 LOT 18 SQUARE 583, FIRST MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1381741 WRIT AMOUNT: $383,625.00
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
GH 4 DEAN MORRIS LLC 318-388-1440 ASHLEY E. MORRIS
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $87.71
UATED IN THE PARISH OF
CityofKenner, BuildingDAuditorium,1610 Rev. Richard Wilson Drive, Kenner,Louisiana,atwhichtimethe bids will be publicly read.
There will be apre-bid meeting on Wednesday,March 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM C.S.T at Cityof Kenner Building D Auditorium, 1610 Rev. Richard Wilson Drive, Kenner, LA 70062. All interested bidders are encourage to attend.
All bids mustbeinaccordancewith theContract Documents (which include, but are not limited to,all documents,sections, terms, provisions,and anyrequirementsprovided forinthis bid) on file with G.E.C., Inc 3501 North Causeway Blvd., Suite 210, Metairie, LA 70002, theDesign Consulting Professionals (also referenced as “Design Professional”) forthis project.
Allquestions concerning this Project or about themeaning or intent of the Contract Documents shall be submitted in writingtothe CityofKenner at FINcontracts@kenner.la.us, not the design professional.
Copies of Contract Documents forreview or foruse in preparing bids maybeobtained fromG.E.C., Inc.offices at 3501 North Causeway Blvd.,Suite210, Metairie,LA70002 or 8282 Goodwood Blvd.,BatonRouge, LA 70806 (Phone225612-4172) upon deposit of $150.00 foreach set of documents
Bidders mayalso obtain copies of Contract Documents for reviewand may also submitbids electronically by visiting www.centralauctionhouse.com.
Advertisement: CITYOFKENNER
The Advocate
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 1200 FARRAGUT STREET, THIS CITY IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: KIRALY INVESTMENTS, LLC VERSUS RKRT REAL ES‐TATE IN‐VESTORS, LLC AND ROBERT TILL‐MAN
/s/ElizabethHerring Wednesday,March 12, 2025 ChiefFinancialOfficer Wednesday,March 19, 2025 Wednesday,March 26, 2025
INVITATION TO BID SealedBid No. 25-6884
Sealed BidNo. 25-6884
LEANS, STATE OF LOUISIANA, IN SOUTH NEW OR‐LEANS SUBDIVI‐SION, IN THE REAR OF THE TRACT OF LAND KNOWN AS THE UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVATION, LOCATED IN BLACK 4, BOUNDED BY FARRAGUT, DEARMAS AND SOCRATES STREETS, AND THE LINE OF THE LAND FOR‐MERLY OWNED BY G COHN DESIGNATED AS LOTS 1 AND 2 WHICH LOTS ADJOIN EACH OTHER AND MEASURE EACH 25 FEET FTONT ON FARRAGUT STREET BY A DEPTH OF 118 FEET BE‐TWEEN EQUAL AND PARALLEL LINES; LOT 1 FORMS THE CORNER OF FAR‐RAGUT AND DEARMAS STREETS. WRIT AMOUNT: $208,886.81
03/12/2025 SANITARY SEWER EVALUATION SERVICESASNEEDED
The City of Kenner (also referenced as “Kenner”and
“Owner”) will receive sealed bids for: Sanitary Sewer EvaluationServices
Bidders mayalsoobtain copies of thebid documents and submit bidselectronically by visiting www.centralauctionhouse.com.
PIECE OR POR‐TION OF GROUND TO‐GETHER WITH ALL OF THE IMPROVEMENTS THEREON, AND ALL OF THE RIGHTS, WAYS, PRIVILEGES SERVITUDES, APPURTE‐NANCES AND ADVANTAGES THEREUNTO BE‐LONGING OR IN ANYWISE AP‐PERTAINING SIT‐UATED IN THE PARISH OF OR‐LEANS, STATE OF LOUISIANA, IN SOUTH NEW OR‐LEANS SUBDIVI‐SION, IN THE REAR OF THE TRACT OF LAND KNOWN AS THE UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVATION, LOCATED IN BLACK 4, BOUNDED BY FARRAGUT, DEARMAS AND SOCRATES STREETS, AND THE LINE OF THE LAND FOR‐MERLY OWNED BY G COHN, DESIGNATED AS LOTS 1 AND 2, WHICH LOTS ADJOIN EACH OTHER AND MEASURE EACH 25 FEET FTONT ON FARRAGUT STREET BY A DEPTH OF 118 FEET BE‐TWEEN EQUAL AND PARALLEL LINES; LOT 1 FORMS THE CORNER OF FAR‐RAGUT AND DEARMAS STREETS.
Sealed bids will be received until April 10th, 2025 9:45 a.m by the City of Kennerinthe Finance Department located at: 1610 ReverendRichard Wilson Drive
WRIT AMOUNT:
$208,886.81
Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH
Case No: 2024-10069
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit:
A CERTAIN PIECE OR POR‐TION OF GROUND, TO‐GETHER WITH ALL OF THE IMPROVEMENTS THEREON, AND ALL OF THE RIGHTS, WAYS, PRIVILEGES, SERVITUDES, APPURTE‐NANCES AND ADVANTAGES THEREUNTO BE‐LONGING OR IN ANYWISE AP‐PERTAINING SIT‐UATED IN THE PARISH OF OR‐LEANS, STATE OF LOUISIANA, IN SOUTH NEW OR‐LEANS SUBDIVI‐SION IN THE REAR OF THE TRACT OF LAND KNOWN AS THE UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVATION, LOCATED IN BLACK 4, BOUNDED BY FARRAGUT, DEARMAS AND SOCRATES STREETS, AND THE LINE OF THE LAND FOR‐MERLY OWNED BY G COHN, DESIGNATED AS LOTS 1 AND 2, WHICH LOTS ADJOIN EACH OTHER AND MEASURE EACH 25 FEET FTONT ON FARRAGUT STREET, BY A DEPTH OF 118 FEET BE‐TWEEN EQUAL AND PARALLEL LINES; LOT 1 FORMS THE CORNER OF FAR‐RAGUT AND DEARMAS STREETS. WRIT AMOUNT: $208,886.81
BuildingD Kenner,Louisiana 70062
All interestedpartiesare invited to attend theBid Opening on thesameday
WRIT AMOUNT: $208,886.81
Seized
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or
The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans GH 20 THE SILVER‐STEIN LAW FIRM, APLC 504 362 3692 IRL R. SILVERSTEIN The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $118.42
JACKSON C
Case No: 2022-8563
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit:
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND, BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐
A CERTAIN LOT OF GROUND, to‐gether with all the buildings and improve‐ments thereon, and all of the rights, ways servi‐tudes, appurte‐nances and ad‐vantages there‐unto belonging or in anywise apper‐taining, situated in the Fifth Dis‐trict of the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, in that part thereof known as English Turn Subdivision, Phase 6, Section 1, all in accordance with a plan of subdivision pre‐pared by Krebs LaSalle, LeMieux Consul‐tants, Inc., dated May 4, 1998 revised June 16, 1998 and lastly re‐vised August 10, 1998, is regis‐tered in Conveyance In‐strument No 165573, Orleans Parish, LA and according to
Case No: 2022-8563 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: A CERTAIN LOT OF GROUND, to‐gether with all the buildings and improve‐ments thereon, and all of the rights, ways, servi‐tudes, appurte‐nances and ad‐vantages there‐unto belonging or in anywise apper‐taining situated in the Fifth Dis‐trict of the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, in that part thereof known as English Turn Subdivision Phase 6, Section 1, all in accordance with a plan of subdivision pre‐pared by Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consul‐tants, Inc dated May 4, 1998 revised June 16, 1998 and lastly re‐vised August 10, 1998, is regis‐tered in Conveyance In‐strument No 165573, Orleans Parish LA and according to said Lot 33 bounded by Pinehurst Drive, English Turn Parkway, English Turn Drive and 120' Drainage Servi‐tude; subject to re‐strictions, servi‐tudes, rights of‐way and out‐standing min‐eral rights of
of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: A CERTAIN LOT OF GROUND, to‐gether with all the buildings and improve‐ments thereon, and all of the rights, ways, servi‐tudes, appurte‐nances and ad‐vantages there‐unto belonging or in anywise apper‐taining situated in the Fifth Dis‐trict of the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, in that part thereof known as English Turn Subdivision Phase 6, Section 1, all in accordance with a plan of subdivision pre‐pared by Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consul‐tants, Inc dated May 4, 1998 revised June 16, 1998 and lastly re‐vised August 10, 1998, is regis‐tered in Conveyance In‐strument No 165573, Orleans Parish LA and according to said Lot 33 bounded by Pinehurst Drive, English Turn Parkway, English Turn Drive and 120' Drainage Servi‐tude; subject to re‐strictions, servi‐tudes, rights of‐way and out‐standing min‐eral rights of record affecting the property. WRIT AMOUNT: $241,687.78
of the ComprehensiveZoning Ordinance, the conditional use will expire, and this Ordinance will be null and void.
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 5, 2024
JP MORRELL
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 6, 2024
APPROVED: DECEMBER 10,2024
LATOYACANTRELL
MAYOR RETURNED BY THE MAYOR ONDECEMBER11, 2024 AT 12:40 P.M.
AISHA R. COLLIER ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL
ROLL CALL VOTE:
YEAS: Giarrusso, Green, Harris, King, Morrell -5
NAYS: 0
ABSENT:Moreno, Thomas -2
RECUSED: 0
ORDINANCE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS CITY HALL: November 21, 2024
CALENDAR NO. 34,919
NO. 30174 MAYOR COUNCIL SERIES
BY:COUNCILMEMBER GREEN(BY REQUEST)
AN ORDINANCE to authorizethe Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into Amendment No. 1tothe Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) between the Mosquito,Termite, &Rodent Control Boardand The University of SouthernMississippi (“USM”or“University”) to extend the CEA’s term for four (4) years, to increase the CEA’s compensation, and to modify certain terms and conditions, as morefully set forth in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “1” and made apart hereof; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto.
WHEREAS, pursuant to the authority contained in Article 7, Section (14)(C) ofthe Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and statutory authority supplemental thereto, the State of Louisiana and its political subdivisions,including the City of New Orleans (“City”), may enter into agreements with each other or with any public or private corporation or individual; and WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 9-314 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, the City may enter into agreements with any public orprivate association, corporation, or individual for activities in support of economic growth or other public purposes;and WHEREAS, USM is apublic university in the State of Mississippi, located at 118 College Drive #5116, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406; and WHEREAS, the City and USM desiretoenter into the attached Amendment No. 1tothe CEA relative to the valued public purpose of creating astrong, comprehensive, multi-sectoral Gulf South regional network that combats the effects of inadequate staffing, gaps in mosquito surveillance, and controls corecompetencies within Mosquito Control AbatementDistricts; and WHEREAS, the City and USM desiretoenter into this Amendment No. 1 that will extend the term of the CEA for four (4) years,increase the CEA’s compensation, and modify certain terms and conditions,and to set forth certain other matters in connection therewith; NOW, THEREFORE SECTION 1. THE COUNCIL OFTHE CITY OF NEWORLEANS HEREBY ORDAINS, That the Mayor,onbehalf of the City and the Mosquito, Termite, &Rodent Control Board, is hereby authorized to enter into Amendment No. 1toits CEA with The University of SouthernMississippi (“USM”), relative to the valued public purpose of creating astrong, comprehensive, multisectoral Gulf South regional network that combats the effects of inadequate staffing, gaps in mosquito surveillance, and controls corecompetencies within Mosquito Control Abatement Districts, to extend the CEA’s term for four (4) years, to increase the CEA’s compensation, and to modify certain terms and conditions, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “A”.
SECTION2.That said Amendment No. 1is attached hereto as Exhibit “A” and incorporated and made apart hereof.
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 5, 2024
JP MORRELL
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR ONDECEMBER6,2024
APPROVED: DECEMBER 10,2024
LATOYACANTRELL
MAYOR RETURNED BY THE MAYOR ONDECEMBER11, 2024 AT 12:40 P.M.
AISHA R. COLLIER
ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL
ROLL CALL VOTE: YEAS: Giarrusso, Green, King, Morrell, Thomas -5
NAYS: 0 ABSENT:Harris, Moreno -2
RECUSED: 0
ORDINANCE
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
CITY HALL: November 21, 2024
CALENDAR NO. 34,920 NO. 30175 MAYOR COUNCIL SERIES BY:COUNCILMEMBER GREEN (BY REQUEST) AN ORDINANCE to authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into Amendment No. 1tothe Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) between the Mosquito,Termite, &Rodent Control Boardand The National Environmental Health Association (“NEHA”) to extend the CEA’s term for four (4) years, to increase theCEA’s compensation, and to modify certain terms and conditions, as morefully set forth in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “A” and made apart hereof; and otherwisetoprovide withrespect thereto. WHEREAS, pursuant to the authority contained in Article 7, Section (14)(C) ofthe Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and statutory authority supplemental thereto, the State of Louisiana and its political subdivisions,including the City of New Orleans(“City”), may enter into agreements with each other or with any public or private corporation or individual; and WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 9-314 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, the City may enter into agreements with any public orprivate association, corporation, or individual for activities in support of economic growth or other public purposes;and WHEREAS, NEHA is anon-profitcorporation domiciled in Glendale, California with aprincipal place of business located at 720 SColorado Blvd, Suite 105A, Denver,CO80246; and WHEREAS, the City and NEHA desiretoenter into the attached Amendment No. 1tothe CEA relative to the valued public purpose of creating astrong, comprehensive, multi-sectoral Gulf South regional network that
that will extend the term of the CEA for four (4) years, increase the CEA’s compensation, and modify certain terms and conditions, and to set forth certain other matters in connection therewith; NOW,THEREFORE
SECTION 1. THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS HEREBY
ORDAINS, That the Mayor,onbehalf of the City and the Mosquito, Termite, & Rodent Control Board,is hereby authorized to enter into Amendment No. 1toits CEA with The National Environmental Health Association (“NEHA”), relative to the valued public purpose of creating astrong, comprehensive, multi-sectoral Gulf South regional network that combats the effects of inadequate staffing, gaps in mosquito surveillance, and controls core competencies within Mosquito Control Abatement Districts, to extend the CEA’s term for four (4) years, to increase the CEA’s compensation, and to modify certain terms and conditions, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit A”.SECTION 2. That said Amendment No. 1isattached heretoasExhibit A” and incorporated and made apart hereof
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 5, 2024
JP MORRELL
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 6, 2024
APPROVED: DECEMBER 10, 2024
LATOYACANTRELL
MAYOR
RETURNED BY THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 11, 2024 AT 12:40 P.M.
AISHA R. COLLIER
ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL
ROLL CALL VOTE:
YEAS: Giarrusso, Green, King, Morrell, Thomas -5
NAYS: 0
ABSENT:Harris, Moreno -2
RECUSED: 0
**Copies of the attachment may be seen in full in the Clerk of Council’s Office, 1300 Perdido Street, Room 1E09, City Hall.
ORDINANCE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS CITY HALL: November 21, 2024
CALENDAR NO. 34,921 NO. 30176 MAYOR COUNCIL SERIES
BY:COUNCILMEMBERS HARRIS (BY REQUEST) AND KING
ANORDINANCE to authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into Amendment No. 2toa previously executed Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) between the City of New Orleans (the “City”), and Foundation For Louisiana (“FFL”), relative to improving positive youth development for the children and youth of the City by increasing the volume, the content quality,and impact of services and programs, to modify the provisions thereof and extend the term thereof for an additional 1year,as more fully set forth in the Amendment No. 2form attached hereto as Exhibit A” and made apart hereof; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto.
WHEREAS, pursuant to the authority contained in Article 7, Section 14(C) of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and statutory authority supplemental thereto, the State of Louisiana and its political subdivisions, including the City,may enter into cooperative endeavors with each other, or with any public or private corporation or individual; and further pursuant to Section 9-314 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, the City may enter into cooperative endeavors with any public or private association, corporation, or individual for activities in support of economic growth and other public purposes; and WHEREAS, the City and FFL desiretomodify the provisions of the previously executed CEA relative to improving positive youth development forthe children and youth of the City by increasing the volume, the content quality,and impact of services and programs, to modify the provisions thereof and to extend the term thereof to December 31, 2024, as well as increase the maximum amount; and WHEREAS, the City and FFL desiretoenter into this Amendment No. 2 toprovide for an extension of the initial agreement and to increase the maximum amount of funding to $305,000 and to set forth certain other matters in connection therewith; NOW THEREFORE
SECTION I. THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS HEREBY ORDAINS, That the Mayor,onbehalf of the City of New Orleans, is hereby authorized to enter into Amendment No. 2, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “A”, to the previously executed Cooperative Endeavor Agreement between the City of New Orleans and Foundation For Louisiana to modify the provisions of the previously executed CEA relative to the valued public purpose of improving positive youth development for the children and youth of the City by increasing the volume, the content quality,and impact of services and programs in the City of New Orleans and to extend the term thereof to December 31, 2024.
SECTION 2. That said Amendment No. 2tothe cooperative endeavor agreement is attached to this ordinance as “Exhibit A” and incorporated andmade apart hereof.
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 5, 2024
JP MORRELL
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 6, 2024
APPROVED: DECEMBER 10, 2024
LATOYACANTRELL
MAYOR
RETURNED BY THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 11, 2024 AT 12:40 P.M.
AISHA R. COLLIER
ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL
ROLL CALL VOTE:
YEAS: Giarrusso,Green, King, Morrell, Thomas -5
NAYS: 0
ABSENT:Harris, Moreno -2
RECUSED: 0
ORDINANCE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
CITY HALL: November 21, 2024
CALENDAR NO. 34,922 NO. 30177 MAYOR COUNCIL SERIES
BY:COUNCILMEMBER GREEN (BY REQUEST)
AN ORDINANCE to authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into aCooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) with National Park Service (Jean Lafitte National Park &Preserve (NPS) Police to provide mutual law enforcement assistance within the boundaries of Jean Lafitte National Park &Preserve with a five (5) year term, as morefully set forth in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “1” and made apart hereof; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto.
WHEREAS, pursuant to the authority contained in Article 7, Section (14)(C) ofthe Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and statutory authority supplemental thereto, the State of Louisiana and its political subdivisions, including the City of New Orleans (“City”), may enter into cooperative endeavors with each other or with any public or private corporation or individual; and WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 9-314 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, the City may enter into cooperative endeavors with any public or private association, corporation, or individual for activities in support of economic growth or other public purposes; and WHEREAS, the City and National Park Service (Jean Laffite National Park &Preserve, desiretoenter the attached CEA relative to the valued public purpose of providing law enforcement aid and protection in accordance with its authority set forth herein; and WHEREAS, National Park Service (Jean Lafitte National Park &Preserve) is afederal agency,authorized to do business in both New Orleans and State of Louisiana, whose principal address is 419 Decatur Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130; NOW THEREFORE SECTION 1. THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS HEREBY
ORDAINS, That the Mayor,onbehalf of the City of New Orleans, is hereby authorized to enter into acooperative endeavor agreement, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “1” with National Park Service (Jean Lafitte National Park &Preserve to provide mutual law enforcement aid within the boundaries of the university with a(5) five-year term.
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
DECEMBER 5, 2024
JP MORRELL VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 6, 2024
APPROVED: DECEMBER 10, 2024
LATOYACANTRELL
MAYOR RETURNED BY THE MAYOR ON DECEMBER 11, 2024 AT 12:40 P.M.
AISHA R. COLLIER
ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL
ROLL CALL VOTE:
YEAS: Giarrusso, King, Morrell, Thomas -4
NAYS: 0
ABSENT:Harris, Moreno -2
RECUSED: Green –1
**Copies of the attachment may be seen in full in the Clerk of Council’s Office,
private association, corporation, or individual for activities in support of economic growth and other public purposes; and WHEREAS, the District is apolitical subdivision of the State as defined in Article VI, Section 44(2) of the Constitution of Louisiana, created by Acts 2005, No. 487 of the Louisiana Legislatureand established in La. R.S. 33:9039.61 through 33:9039.76, as amended by Acts 2011, No. 400 and 2022, No. 354 of the Louisiana Legislature; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of New Orleans adopted Ordinance No. 29237 M.C.S. effective on November 1, 2022, authorizing the City of New Orleans to enter into the CEA with the BioDistrict; and WHEREAS, Article IV,Section 8ofthe CEA sets forth the procedureby which the Director of Finance and all other appropriate City departments will transfer monies in an amount and in the manner required in the CEA to the BioDistrict; and WHEREAS, the BioDistrict will help fulfill the valuable public purpose and mission of the City through its Office of Economic Development to encourage inclusive economic growth and economic mobility by creating new jobs, revitalizing neighborhoods, investing in people and in priority industries, and creating systems to thrive; NOW THEREFORE SECTION I. THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS HEREBY ORDAINS That, in accordance with Article IV,Section 8ofthe Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (“CEA”) effective November 1, 2022 between the City of New Orleans and the BioDistrict New Orleans (the “District”), the budget of the District for 2025, attached hereto as Exhibit Aand made a part hereof, be and hereby is approved. The Director of Finance and all other appropriate City departments areauthorized and directed to transfer monies in an amount and in the manner required by the CEA relative to the budget approved herein.
ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS DECEMBER 5, 2024 JP MORRELL VICE
AISHA R. COLLIER
ASSISTANT CLERK OF COUNCIL ROLL CALL VOTE: YEAS: Giarrusso, Green, Harris, King, Morrell -5
NAYS: 0
ABSENT:Moreno, Thomas -2
RECUSED: 0 **Copies of the attachment may be seen in full in the Clerk of Council’s Office, 1300 Perdido Street, Room 1E09, City Hall. ORDINANCE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS CITY HALL: November 21, 2024 CALENDAR NO. 34,933 NO. 30180
the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission; to appropriate funds to the Chief Administrative Office, the Department of Parks and Parkways, the Department of Property Management, the Department of Public Works, the Department of Sanitation, the Mosquito, Termite and Rodent Control Board, the New Orleans Fire Department,the New Orleans Police Department, the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission, and the Office of Resilience and Sustainability; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto.
Annotation: (This matter was introduced 12/5/24).
CAL. NO. 34,945 -BY: COUNCILMEMBERS GIARRUSSO, MORENO, GREEN AND THOMAS (BY REQUEST) -AnOrdinance to amend and reordain Ordinance No.29,737 M.C.S., entitled “An Ordinance Providing a Capital Budget for the Year 2024” in accordance with the provisions of Sections 3-117 and 4-206(1)(f) of the HomeRule Charter of the
of New Orleans; and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. Annotation: (This matter was introduced 12/5/24).
CAL. NO. 34,946 -BY: COUNCILMEMBERS GIARRUSSO, MORENO, GREEN AND THOMAS (BY REQUEST) -AnOrdinance to amend Ordinance No. 29735 M.C.S., as amended, entitled “An
CAL.
LOUISA ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70126 LOT: 9 SQUARE: 1693-1816 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1422741 WRIT AMOUNT: $2,210.00 Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a
VERSUS MAR‐TYNETTA TAY‐LOR
Case No: 2024-8611
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1600 MONROE ST NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70118 SQUARE 206, LOT X SEVENTH DIS‐TRICT WRIT AMOUNT: $57,071.55
Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH
The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans
BT 34 TREVATHAN LAW FIRM, APLC 225-334-9222 ALLISON BEASLEY
The N.O.
Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $89.39
SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL
Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit:
Susan
5380 LAUREL ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115 LOT Y-2; SQUARE NO. 133 SIXTH MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN 1263494 WRIT AMOUNT: $273,636.50
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
GH 8 JACKSON & MCPHERSON LLC 504-581-9444 CRIS JACKSON
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025
FEB 12-MAR 192T $89.83
PUBLIC NOTICE
SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 7140 W RENAISSANCE CT, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, IN THE MATTER ENTITLED: ROCKET MORT‐GAGE, LLC F/K/A QUICKEN LOANS, LLC F/K/A QUICKEN LOANS INC VERSUS DAVID RICHARD‐SON AND MARY RICHARDSON C I
Case No: 2024-6649
sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans GH 3 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 504-658-4346 ANNA T. LEE The N.O. Advocate
BY
JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 627 WHITNEY AV, THIS CITY IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: U S BANK
Case No: 2024-9554
LINDA DAVIS, MELVIN PIER RE NANCY DAVIS, LEON MELANCON MELISSA DAVIS, SHANDRELL MELANCON, JOSEPH MELANCON AND PAUL MELAN‐CON
Case No: 2023-4824
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $93.10 PUBLIC NOTICE
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1323 PAULINE ST NEW ORLEANS LA 70117 LOTS: 6 AND 7, SQUARE: 532 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1409476 WRIT AMOUNT: $210,375.00
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH
SIXTH MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:1370447 WRIT AMOUNT: $255,000.00 Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans
RB 20 GRAHAM, ARCE‐NEAUX & ALLEN, LLC 504-522-8256 FOERSTNER GRAHAM MEYER
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $90.36
DUGUE
SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 1609 MARAIS STREET, THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVIC‐ING, LLC VERSUS THE OPENED SUCCESSION OF JOSEPH VINING AND CHERYL ANN MCCOY C I V
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit:
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 627 WHITNEY AV NEW ORLEANS, LA 70114 LOT X - SQUARE 110 FIFTH MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN/CIN: 705551 WRIT AMOUNT: $14,419.70
The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans GH 28 STEWART ROB‐BINS & BROWN & ALTAZAN LLC 225-231-9998 WILLIAM S. ROBBINS
FEB 12-MAR 192T $91.95
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 5700 VICKSBURG, THIS CITY IN THE MATTER ENTI‐TLED: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS VERSUS SUC‐CESSION OF LEON S MUSAC‐CHIA AND SUCCESSION OF FLORENCE DORN MUSACCHIA C
Case No: 2024-2642 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 6013 WILDAIR DR NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70122 LOT 15 - SQUARE 10 3RD MUNICIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1316354 WRIT AMOUNT: $121,887.65
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $88.77
Case No: 2024-7284
NOTICE
E A N S Case No: 2024-10004
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 1609 MARAIS ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70116 LOT: 5 OR 21, SQUARE: 500 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 919932 WRIT AMOUNT: $79,650.70
7140 W RENAIS‐SANCE CT NEW ORLEANS, LA 70128 LOT 12 - SQUARE 11 3RD MUNICIPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN: 1232218 LAKE CARAMEL SUBDIVISION WRIT AMOUNT: $128,770.12
Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans
RB 18 LAW OFFICES OF HERSCHEL C. ADCOCK, JR. LLC (225) 756-0373 COREY J. GIROIR
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans RB 31 THE LAW OF‐FICES OF HER‐SCHEL C. AD‐COCK, JR., L.L.C (225) 756-0373 COREY J. GIROIR
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $99.89
SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNICIPAL NUMBER 5827 TCHOUPI‐TOULAS ST, THIS CITY IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: FI‐DELITY BANK VERSUS MELODY BONAL SOLELY AS THE ADMINISTRA‐TRIX OF THE SUCCESION OF ANTHONY BONAL, JR , DE‐CEASED
Case No: 2022-5477 By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 5827 TCHOUPI‐TOULAS ST NEW ORLEANS, LA 70115 LOT B - SQUARE 8 SIXTH MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:1370447 WRIT AMOUNT: $255,000.00 Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication PUBLIC NOTICE
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $92.48
By virtue of a Writ of Fieri Fa‐cias directed to me by the Hon‐orable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Or‐leans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue in the First Dis‐trict of the City on March 20, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: 5700 VICKSBURG ST NEW OR‐LEANS, LA 70124 SQUARE 396, LOTS 20,21. AND 22 SECOND MUNIC‐IPAL DISTRICT ACQ MIN:1424435 WRIT AMOUNT: $550,420.00
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks. FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
BT 2 CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 504-658-4346 CHARMAINE L MARCHAND
The N.O.
Advocate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025
FEB 12-MAR 192T $90.36
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans RB 27 NEWMAN, MATHIS BRADY & SPEDALE, APLC 504-837-9040
WAYNE A. MAIO‐RANA
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $89.30
ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff Parish of Orleans BT 10 LAW OFFICES OF HERSCHEL C. ADCOCK, JR. LLC (225) 756-0373 COREY GIROIR
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 2/12/2025 & 3/19/2025 FEB 12-MAR 192T $99.36 PUBLIC NOTICE
JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT CERTAIN PORTION OF GROUND BEAR‐ING MUNCIPAL NUMBER 2813 N ROCHEBLAVE ST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, IN THE MATTER EN‐TITLED: RE‐VERSE MORT‐GAGE SOLU‐TIONS INC VER‐SUS ALTON LAN‐DRUM AND LORRAINE WASHINGTON LANDRUM A/K/A LORRAINE W LANDRUM A/K/A LORRAINE LAN‐DRUM
Case No: 2021-6829
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24,
Case No: 2021-6829
By virtue of a Writ of Seizure and Sale di‐rected to me by the Honorable Judges of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, in the above entitled cause, I will pro‐ceed to sell by public auction, on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 2813 N. ROCHEBLAVE ST. LOT E, SQUARE NO. 1318 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQUIRED MIN 1183064 WRIT AMOUNT: $81,358.19
PUBLIC NOTICE - -SALE BY SHERIFF JUDICIAL ADVERTISE‐MENT THAT PORTION OF GROUND BEARING MU‐NICIPAL NO 4950 ST ROCH AVENUE THIS CITY, IN THE MATTER ENTITLED: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON FKA THE BANK OF NEW YORK AS TRUSTEE FOR THE CERTIFICATE HOLDERS OF CWABS INC , ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2004-2 VERSUS WEBB SIMMONS JR AND ATHENA
ceed to sell by public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 4950 ST ROCH AVENUE LOTS 13, 14 AND 15, SQUARE 56, THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT, GENTILLY TER‐RACE ACQ MIN: 747973 WRIT AMOUNT: $112,152.48
Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication
LOT E, SQUARE NO. 1318 THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT ACQUIRED MIN 1183064 WRIT AMOUNT: $81,358.19
Seized in the above suit, TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
ccc10k.com/training-calendar
BD 18 THE LAW OF‐FICES OF HER‐SCHEL C. AD‐COCK JR L.L.C. (225) 756-0373 COREY J. GIROIR
The N.O. Advo‐cate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $91.42
Seized i above TERMS The pu at the of adjudication to make a de‐po ce ch th within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Check, Check Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
BD 18 THE LAW OF FICES OF HER SCHEL C. A COCK, JR., L.L. (225) 756-0373 COREY J. GIROIR
The N.O.
public auction on the ground floor of the Civil District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon, the following described prop‐erty to wit: 4950 ST ROCH AVENUE LOTS 13, 14 AND 15, SQUARE 56, THIRD MUNICI‐PAL DISTRICT, GENTILLY TER‐RACE ACQ MIN: 747973 WRIT AMOUNT: $112,152.48
Seized in the above suit TERMS - CASH The purchaser at the moment of adjudication to make a de‐posit of ten per‐cent of the pur‐chase price, and the balance within thirty days thereafter Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash, Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING. Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans GH 6 DEAN MORRIS, LLC 318-388-1440 CANDACE A COURTEAU The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $93.54
District Court Building, 421 Loyola Avenue, in the First Dis‐trict of the City on April 24, 2025, at 12:00 o'clock noon the following described prop‐erty to wit: the balance within thirty days thereafter
Note: The pay‐ment must be Cash Cashier's Check, Certified Check or Money Order. No Per‐sonal Checks FACE MASKS AND TEMPERA‐TURECHECKS ARE REQUIRED UPON ENTERING BUILDING.
Susan Hutson Sheriff, Parish of Orleans
GH 6 DEAN MORRIS, LLC 318-388-1440 CANDACE A COURTEAU
The N.O. Advocate Date (s): 3/19/2025 & 4/23/2025 mar 19-apr 23-2t $93.54